NEWS OF THE WEEK.

TIIE North Pole has been sold by private transfer. The "International Financial Society" have purehased all the rights and territories of the Hudson's Bay Company for 1,500,000/., being at the rate of 300/. for every share worth 200/, the price to be paid on the 1st July. The bargain is creditable to the well-known astuteness of Mr. Edward Ellice, so long the dictator of the selling association, but if its legality is not questionable it ought to be. Who ever heard of a kingdom sold by private arrangement? The Hudson's Bay Company hold sovereign rights over vast territories, and, one would imagine, could ° no more sell them than the Queen could sell her prerogative. Imagine the East India Company selling India, or, to come nearer home, the Hudson's Bay ,Company selling their " rights " to the French Cre'dit Mobilise! The transfer ought, at least, to be discussed in Parliament.

The debate on the Kensington job came off as expected on Monday. It opened characteristically with a complaint from Mr. Osborne that he had been duped into giving up his night, and was throughout an odd affair. Lord Palmerston made the proposal which was technically only for the site, but defended the whola scheme as the cheapest and most con- venient obtainable. He was strongly supported by Mr. Glad- stone, who for the night, threw economy to the winds, and told the louse that as the land could only be used for the furtherance of objects connected with science and art, the Tote for the site really bound them to the plan. The motion was only opposed by Mr. Gregory, who rather bored the House with long extracts of private letters from Mr. Mallet against the stability of the existing building, and on a division the vote for the site was carried by 267 to 135. The vote for buying Captain Fowkes's ugly shed, at about seven times the value of the materials—which are all Messrs. Kelk and Lucas have a right to, and which are worth about 12,000/. minus the cost of removal—has still to be taken. There may be resistance still, but the House is evidently, from the paucity of speakers, afraid of the whole question.

The Commander-in-Chief, pressed by the contempt with which his memorandum on the Lilley case was regarded, has -consented to a Court-Martial on Captain Crawley. That officer will not, however, be tried on the charge of causing the -death of Serjeant-Major Lilley by illegal and cruel confine- ment, but for having stated that the cruelty was ordered by Lieutenant Fitzsimons, which statement that officer flatly denies. So strew,b is public feeling in the matter, that the Duke of Cambridge rose in his place on Monday night to defend himself, stating, as he has since explained in a letter to the Times, that he had only been aware of all the facts con- nected with the affair for the past ten days, and alleging that the Commander- in-Chief in India was, in matters of discipline, by usage independent. Colonel Crawley is, however, to be tried in India, where Sir Hugh Rose, who, after knowing all the facts, warmly praised the Colonel to the Horse Guards, is in supreme command. It is stated that the most important of the witnesses are already in England—a fact which further diminishes the chance of a full and rigid investigation. The affair, however, will not be forgotten by the people. A Colonel Wall was hung in 1802 for illegally flogging a ser- jeant in 1782 so as to cause death. So vivid was the popular recollection of his crime even then, that the crowd gave "three successive shouts of exultation."

We publish in another column an interesting account of this year's " Commemoration " at Oxford. The festival—for that is what it has become—was a grand success, broken only by the bad weather, one comic and one unpleasant incident. The Princess, on her visit to the Horticultural Gardens, was regularly mobbed by the students, who behaved as badly as the ladies at M. Hall's concert the other day, and the recep- tion odes broke down. They were not so bad themselves, but one unlucky poet forgot his own verses, and after flounder- ing for ten minutes turned to the Princess with a line, apropos of nothing, about "the loving trustfulness of those eyes," whereat the Princess blushed, the Dons giggled, and the gal- leries roared. If the name of "Trustful--" does not stick to the shy versemaker be will be luckier than he deserves.

On Tuesday Mr. Berkeley had what Lord Palmerston called his "annual benefit" on the ballot. He made, as usual, an amusing speech, full of instances of intimidation. In one case, he said, in the contest between Sir E. Bering and. Sir N. Kuatclibull for East Kent, a man who voted for the latter was turned out of his cottage, and by the advice of his solicitor called, with a witness, on the landlord to complain of being turned out for political motives. But the landlord, being up to the situation, denied this, and explained that lie had a very great objection to Roman noses and predilection for snub noses ; that this tenant had. a nose "like a reaping- hook," and that he could bear it no longer. Lord Palmerston replied to Mr. Berkeley, reiterating the old arguments, and stating that at the suggestion of Mr. Bright the Reform Club had put an end to balloting for members, and entrusted the task of selection to a select committee, "imparting to the club the character of a nomination borough." The truth of the case, no doubt, is that Mr. Berkeley's grievances exist, and might, perhaps, be diminished by the ballot ; but that secret voting would introduce far worse evils than it could remove, lower- ing the standard of political duty, the sense of political re- sponsibility, and es the notion that political con- viction is not a faith to be professed, but a private preference to be concealed.

M. de Persigny has been circulating a political dialogue in the rural districts. In it Jacques Bonsens gives his reasons for voting for the Empire, which are summed up in these two sentences :—" I rise when I wish ; I go to bed when I think proper; I work ten hours if I choose to do so ; I drink a glass when I am in heart, and the Government has no objection whatever. I am simply of the same school. as my donkey. I know when the fodder is good, and When my withers are wrung." M. de Persigny understands only half his trade. The Venetian motto was, it is true, pane a casa ; but then it was also ginstizia a palazzo. M. de Persigny promises bread to the cottage, but when justice also comes to the palace where will M. de Persigny be ?

The Mansion. House banquet on Wednesday appears to have reconciled the Ministers and the City authorities, the Lord Mayor refraining with the greatest delicacy from any allusion to his recent triumph. The Duke of Somerset told us the lamentable fact that the present tendency of naval architecture is to make ships more and more ugly in form ; while Lord Pahnerston cheered the assembly by saying that "on all those great questions on which the issues of peace and war depend, whether in the far West or in the distant East, there sexists between the Governments of England and France the most frank and honourable. concert." -He trusted that. there were no clouds "which might not vanish into thin air ;" but he did not disguise from his audience that "there were questions of great importance pending." Lord Palmerston subsequently proposed with more than usual unction the health of the Lord Mayor, and accompanied it with a panegyric on the admirable administration of the municipality which he so lately en- deavoured to deprive of its separate police.

On Tuesday Mr. Bright took the chair at a crowded meet- ing of the Emancipation Society at the London Tavern. His speech, which was less striking than usual, was chiefly devoted to the cotton question, and directed to prove that the South, under free labour, would produce far more cotton than it ever could have done under slave labour. His argument was that while 10,000 square miles at most—a mere garden- plot in that vast continent, about as large as two of our largest counties—had been devoted to the growth of cotton, the Cotton States themselves were at least sixty times as big as that, being about as large as twelve times England and Wales. Yet the supply of cotton here had, before the war, fallen far short of the demand. Hence their difficulty was not want of land, but want of labour and capital, the slave labour only increasing at the rate of about two and a half per cent. per annum. Mr. Bright inferred that if once the South were under free labour, not only would all the present slaves stay there, but all the free men of colour would flock there, and with them numberless labourers from Germany, England, and Ireland, increasing the supply of labour, and, therefore, of cotton, very much more rapidly than at the rate of two and a half per cent. The argument seems good, but at present visionary. It is no use considering what might happen in a case that seems less and less probable day by day.

The French Opposition has gained another triumph in the elections, M. Gueroult having been returned for the doubtful circumscription of Paris by 17,495 votes to 11,016, the latter including 3,000 given by the old soldiers in the Invalides. This is the more remarkable, as M. Gueroult is a bitter enemy of the Papacy and of the Mexican expedition. Four other dis- tricts—Aisne, Charente, Seine-et-Oise, and Seine Inferieure —have also returned Liberals, and it is noted that in Ver- sailles, where so large a body of troops is stationed, the Government is defeated. There are still two elections to be held for Paris, as M. Fevre and M. Havin will elect to sit for Lyons and La Manche, leaving their seats clear for Dufaure and Odilon Barret. The Emperor has as yet made no sign as to the influence of the elections on his mind, but it is re- garded as certain that the reign of M. de Persigny is over.

The report of the fall of Puebla has been fully confirmed. Despatches from General Forey state that General Ortega surrendered the city on 17th May, with 200 general officers and 18,000 men. The Emperor, in a letter to his General acknowledging the achievement (June 12), declares that his object is not "to make success a triumph for any party whatever," but to "regenerate Mexico to a new life," that "it may admit it owes to France its peace and its prosperity." Sanguine Parisians hope that the Emperor once in Mexico will retire, but it is difficult to see how he can make a treaty without setting up a new Government, a work of considerable difficulty and time. It seems understood that he will demand at least Sonora and Lower California as his recompense, so that France, like England and America, may have its gold- bearing region ; and it is stated that the French are already in possession of Guaymas, a statement requiring confirma- tion.

• Mr. Jules Danvers, in his annual sketch of the position of Indian railways, of which he is Government Director, reports that 2,528 miles are now open for passengers and goods. The great triangular railway connecting Madras with Bombay, Bombay with Delhi, and Delhi with Calcutta, will be com- plete in about twelve months more. The amount already raised for these works is forty-eight millions and a quarter, which large sum is in the hands of only 31,400 persons, an average of 1,5001. each. The shares are evidently used for permanent investments almost exclusively.

The House of Lords has affirmed the legitimacy of the Earl of Dundonald. It would, and it will, perhaps, surprise our readers that it should have been questioned, inasmuch as his parents were unquestionably married after his birth, and by the law of Scotland marriage legitimates prior-born children. The incidents of marriage are, however, determined by the law, vet of the husband's birthplace, but of ininicile at - the date of the ceremony ; its forms are governed 'by Marl w of the place where it is celebrated. The late Earl, alte- a Scotch Peer and a Seotchman by birth, was domiciled England at the time of the second marriage, and, therefore,. notwithstanding that it was celebrated in Scotland, it is in effect an English marriage. It consequently became neces- sary for the Earl to establish the original secret marriage of his parents. Probably few people would think that the testimony of the Dowager Countess on this head was at all shaken by the monstrous evidence given by the secretary of her late husband, and tendered by the filial piety of one of her younger sons. The corroboration, however, which it received from the discovery that the paper on which the contract was written by the Earl bore the watermark of the year in which it purported to bear date, is as interesting as conclusive.

Mr. M. D. Conway denies that Mr. Vallandigham "has been careful to keep out of those sections of the country where his appeals to the passions of men might lead to turbulence.' Mr. Vallandigham, he says, spoke to districts such as the southern portions of Indiana, Illinois, and Ohio, which were- settled from the South, and in which, therefore, disloyalty abounds. Secret societies have been organized hostile to Government, deserters have been screened, and officers re- sisted with arms in the attempt to arrest them—all very good reasons for bringing Mr. Vallandigham to trial, and executing his sentence but no reasons at all for seizing an unarmed man by soldiers, trying him before an illegal court,, and condemning him to a punishment unknown to the law. Better have arrested him under a Secretary's order, and trusted to a bill of indemnity, than trusted to so ruinous a precedent.

The final despatch, in which Earl Russell directs Mr. Eliot, Chargé d'Affaires in Brazil, to demand his passports, has been published. It bears date June 6, and shows that if the British Government were a little overbearing, it has great grievances to complain of, one in particular being of the most monstrous character. "Some thousands of negroes" captured in slave ships have been decreed by the mixed Commission at Rio to be entitled to freedom. They are "still held in bondage contrary to law, and in violation of treaty engage- ments," and six despatches addressed by the British Govern- ment to that of Brazil on the subject have "remained un- noticed or without satisfactory answers." A final despatch on 12th February only elicited the reply that the Brazilian Government was studying the question, in "order to proceed with such discretion and prudence as the case required," the " case " requiring nothing at all except non-interference. If Earl Russell had on this ground coerced the Brazilian Govern- ment instead of seizing a smaller opportunity, he would have had the support of the whole country.

The latest intelligence from America is of some political interest. A great meeting of the Democrats was held on the 3rd June, and addressed by Mr. Fernando Wood in a speech bitterly condemning the origin, the progress, and the continu- ance of the war. Resolutions were passed demanding an armistice, and the call of a convention in the North, and another in the South, to decide how the sections should be reconciled, or, though this is not openly expressed, separated. The meeting is variously estimated at from 10,000 to 50,000, but as it took place under cover the former must be nearer the truth. New York is not the North, but immediately after Mr. Wood is said to have had an audience of the Presi- dent, in which he urged Mr. Lincoln to propose a cessation of hostilities. The President asked him what reason he had to believe the South favourable to propositions of peace, a ques- tion which suggests hesitation in the President's mind. These stories, however, always appear more important than they are. Nobody doubts that almost every Northerner would con- sent to peace on condition of reunion ; the point is when he- will begin to consent to the prospect of separation. The Presi- dent would consent to an armistice intended to enable the South to come in readily enough, but the real question is, if he will grant one to enable the South to keep out. The evi- dence as yet is all the other way.

The military news from America is, as usual, undramatic. The telegram says that General Lee's army has disappeared, and that General Hooker has again crossed the Rappahannock, both very doubtful statements; Grant was still attacking Vicksburg "with siege guns," and General Banks had failed in an meat on Port Hudson, in which he lost 2,500 men. He "was still besieging the place, but the North was not _AI h peful of success. This war s•eems destined to revive the d belief in the utility of fortifications. A letter from Chancellorsville reveals the fact that General Lee fou.ght that battle with "incredibly few" troops—one sign among many of the coming exhaustion of men in the South.

Yesterday week, too late for our last impression, Colonel Dunne introduced a discussion on the state of Ireland, which was absolutely English in its temperateness and rationality of tone. He repeated the now well-known statistics which we gave some weeks ago in these columns, proving how heavily the agriculture and general wealth of Ireland have suffered during the last three years of deficient harvests, complained bitterly of the unequal weight of taxation which she bears, and moved for a committee to inquire into the condition of the country and the effects of the present tax- ation upon it. The Chancellor of the Exchequer showed in a very able reply that though the evil is real enough, it does not in any way arise from either exceptional taxation or the undue limitation of Government expenditure to Great Britain. The sum, he said, voted for civil services for Ireland, specifically and exclusively, is. 1,551,000/. while for England and Wales the same votes amount only at most to 2,300,000/., a ratio of 2 to 3, while the ratio of the populations is about 11 to 4. Again, the special votes for Scotland are only 361,0001., while its popu- lation is more than half that of Ireland. Then as to taxa- tion; in England, said Mr. Gladstone, the Customs revenue amounts to 18s. 7d. per head, in Ireland to 7s. 11d. per head ; excise in England to 13s. 6d. per head, in Ireland to 9s. 10d. ; in England stamps average 7s. 6d. per head, in Ireland is. 10+d. ; land and assessed taxes in England are 2s. 11d. per head, in Ireland, 9d. ; in England income-tax is 9s. lid., in Ireland 2s. 61d. per head. This shows an average in England of V. lie. 71-d. per head, and in Ireland of 1/. 28.10d., so that each man in England pays twice and a half times as much on the average as each in Ireland; and the difference would be much greater if the excise taxation, which is, per- haps, a less hardship, because falling chiefly on what is by Da means a very wholesome luxury, were deducted. No doubt the wealth per head is also much less in Ireland, but the comparison does not certainly seem to show any oppressive scale of relative taxation.

Mrs. Norton writes a clever letter to the Times complaining of the criticisms on her novel, "Lost and Saved," and espe- cially of the charge of impropriety brought against the book. She denies that she has spoken out too plainly, and points to the plots of various operas, and the existence of the ballet, as far more suggestive than anything she has written. Mrs. Norton, we think mistakes the meaning of all her critics, and certainly of the one who commented on her book in the Spectator. She was not to blame for her plain speech. There is no conceivable plainness which may not be perfectly justifiable when used in its proper place, and for an adequate end. But the whole system of English education is based on the assumption, often incorrect, more often well-founded, that girls are to know nothing of intrigue, or vice, or even some natural facts. Girls read novels, novels like Mrs. Norton's particularly, and it is therefore the duty of reviewers to point out any novel which transgresses the conventional but most expedient rule. There is nothing in Mrs. Norton's book which might not have been written with the most perfect propriety in an "Essay against Seduction," but the account of Milly Nesdale's intrigues is too close to the life for a young lady's story.

Mr. Villiers's Bill to facilitate the execution of public works in the cotton district passed its second reading on Thursday amidst general approval. It permits Government to lend a sum not greater than two years' rateable value of the towns to be benefited at three and a half per cent. Any Board having authority to borrow may commence works, if approved by the official engineer. The results of the Bill are considered in another column, but we may mention here that most speakers familiar with Lancashire thought it would produce .much less effect than Mr. Villiers at first anticipated. Mr. Cobden, in particular, pointed out that its operation was en- tirely dependent upon the aid of the local authorities, and thought that no single scheme would be sufficient to save the people. The Guardians, the Boards, and the Emigration Commissioners must all unite and all be assisted.

The Queen has sent a very cordial reply to the touching address of the poor ballast-heavers, which we recorded last week. She, of course, feels profoundly how much • their simple and unsolicited expressions of gratitude for the late Prince Consort's great services to them are worth, and of all the testimonies to his goodness she has received "no one has been more gratifying to her, and no one more in harmony with her feelings, than the simple and unpretending tribute from these honest, hardworking men." She more than com- plies with their request by presenting them with two engrav- ings of the Prince Consort—one in uniform and one in ordi- nary dress,—and one also of herself, "as the Queen would wish, in the remembrance of these grateful men, to be asso- ciated with the memory of her great and good husband."

The day after the debate on the Education Vote, the Vice- President of the Council produced his blue-book, containing such inspectors' reports as he thought calculated to support his own views at the Council Office. The line which Mr. Lowe took last week in defending the exclusion of such reports as contained argumentative statement instead of fact is scarcely borne out, as Mr. Forster, the member for Brad- ford, observed on Monday night, by the reports actually printed. On looking through them, we find several of the reports exceedingly argumentative—on the official side.

It is stated that Count Sponneck, a Danish financier, is to be Administrator of Greece, but there is still a hitch remain- ing. The Ionian Parliament has to vote the annexation of the islands to the kingdom, and that annexation is the con- dition of the Prince William's acceptance of the throne. It is just possible that the local Parliament may not approve the act of patriotic suicide to which it is invited, or insist on con- ditions as to the number of its representatives which the Greeks will decline to accept. Its conduct has not been hitherto such as to inspire much confidence in either its wisdom or honesty.

The Times revives the story that Calcutta will shortly cease to be the capital of India. There is no objection to its removal, except that the consent of the Ganges has not yet been ob- tained, that there is in India no other impregnable city, and that it will cost five millions to remove the official establish- ments. Bengal is the only " province " which pays, and as the river system of Bengal converges on Calcutta, it will remain the metropolis in spite of Sir Charles Wood's petty hatred of the only community independent enough to criticize his acts.

Mr. Franklin Lushington, some time one of the English members of the Supreme Court of the Ionian Islands, has published a very able pamphlet against the arbitrary act of Sir Henry Storks in superseding, or rather, perhaps, allowing to be superseded, the two Ionian judges, Sir Georgie Marcoran and Sir Anastasius Xydias, without any reason assigned, and against the imputations on those gentle- men conveyed in the speech of the Duke of Newcastle in answer to Lord Chelmsford in the debate of 17th April last. Mr. Lushington makes out a very strong case against the act. He shows that the Senate of the Ionian Islands, which consists of but five members, appointed one of its own body to one of the vacancies thus created, and him, a man who had never been a judge in the lower courts at all, who had abandoned the legal profession twelve years ago, and who had since been actively engaged in politics— the crime for which, as the English Minister hinted, the Ionian judges were (virtually) dismissed. It will be lamen- table if nearly the last act of our English Administration should be one of disgraceful and unwonted deference to the jobbing propensities of the Ionian Senate.

Consols are at 91* 92 for money, and 92*- 92+ for the account. The 5 per Cent. India Loan is 108 1081; and the 51 per Cent. Enfaced Paper, 115. Turkish 6 per Cents., 1862, are 71+ 71i ; ditto, Consolides, 501 50i. Mexican, 371 371. Greek, 381 381. Spanish Passive, 341 35k; ditto, Certificates, 12+ 121. Egyptian, 100 1001. The Confederate Loan is 2 to 1 clis. The much- talked-of Egyptian Trading Company closes its share-list to-day.. It is started by the International Financial Company, and some other large concerns, to establish trading stations in Egypt and Soudan, and its President is Halim Pasha. Trade in these regions frequently yields very large profits, and there is a steady demand for loans from the cultivators on landed security at very usurious rates. The nominal capital of 2,000,0001. is too much for the work, but the company only call up a tenth of that sum.