NEWS OF THE WEEK.
. The Italians are menaced with a difficulty of a kind new to their recent history. A party around the King is urging him strongly to suspend Parliamentary Government and assume ' a dictatorship. It seems that the King person- ally dislikes Baron Ricasoli, whom, however, Parliament strongly supports, and he frets like George the Third at the Grenvilles. Persons around the Court still more strongly dislike the Baron, and they urge the King, who, like most genial natures, is greatly at the mercy of his companions, to ally himself with the mass, override Parliament, and make Ratazzi his Minister. There is little fear, we believe, of the success of the plot. The Garibaldians are true to their motto, freedom as well as unity, and the King, though he frets, will notin the end stretch out his hand against the statute he has done so much to preserve. Still his irritation is an embarrassment, more especially as it stops all strong men from entering a Cabinet which may be assailed from the palace as well as from Vienna.
The second reading of the bill permitting men to marry their wives' sisters was carried on Wednesday by a vote of 144 to 133. The debate was a brisk one, but wandered from the real point, Mr. Collier asserting that any man had natu- rally a right to marry any woman, and Lord R. Cecil re- torting that thqt sentence would justify polygamy.. The answer was about as good as the argument, the fact being THE political lull has continued throughout the week. The Lord Chancellor has brought forward the solitary Government Bill, but it has attracted little comment, and almost as little interest. A dull Sort of conviction that it will never be i)assea seems to anticipate discussion, and lawyers nibble away at the details, assured that they will have ample time far digesting the heavy meal. Mr. Bright has censured Government for menacing the Federal States, though he admits their demand to have been just, and the tone in which it was made, most raoderate. He made, however, no motion, and Lord Palmerf3ton's answer that his opinions were singular, and lie himself singular in his opinions, was accepted by the laughing House as if it had been an argu- ment. For the rest, Parliament has been unbearably dull. A great many questions have been asked, but the reporters wisely cut down the answers into paragraphs of five lines, which readers of debates skip with unerring instinct. Mo- tions have been offered on Irish marriages, the forgery of trade marks, and one or two other subjects of high im- portance and no interest ; but the tone of the Houses is lan- guid, Ministers answer questions with lazy brevity, even per- sonalities are scarce, and if the Members bore one another as Zuni& as they weary their readers, they must long for some healthy excitement, though it came in the shape of a Par- liamentary crisis. that close intermarriage stands condemned by the deteriora- tion of race it involves, and polygamy by the fact that, as the sexes are equal in number, the man who takes two wives steals one. As usual, the opponents of the bill quoted Le- viticus, which allows polygamy, and, as usual, absurd asser- tions were made as to the fancy of wives for seeing their sisters stepmothers to their children. The real point, that the mass of the people do not regard the prohibition as Divine, and that consequently such marriages are frequent, was scarcely alluded to. Of course, with so small a majority, the bill will not pass.
Mr. Gladstone will introduce his budget before Easter, which this year falls on the 10th of April.
German affairs are still simmering. The Prussian Cham- ber has resolved by a vote of 241 to 58 that Government ought to re-establish in Hesse the constitution of 1831, and Count Bernstorff approves of the resolution. This, in fact, is to take up the gauntlet which Austria flung down in 1852, when she upset the constitution which it is now proposed to restore. The Austrians are bitterly angry, and it is difficult to perceive how either party can recede without leaving to the other an unquestioned leadership in the affairs of the Con- federation. The King is of course irresolute, but urged by We people of Germany, aware that Italy and Hungary are both, perforce, his allies, and certain that one great victory wchild place the imperial crown firmly upon his brow, he may be daring enough to compel Austria to commence the attack. Such a contest, should it begin, must involve the whole future oaurope. kb Our special correspondent.in America gives us two facts of great interest: the first, that the advance so long expected cannot take place before March or after May ; and the second, that New Yorkers are learning to doubt the perfection of their institutions—the most hopeful sign we have seen. On the other hand, the House of Representatives has passed the bill making State notes a legal tender, and unless the Senate rejects it as a whole, the issue of assignats has by this time commenced. The war itself makes little progress. General Burnside's expedition has sailed again for Roanoke, but its. real object, we are told, is rather to open a Southern port, and so prevent remonstrances on the blockade, than effect any military end. The Northerners are therefore once more compelled to exhibit the steady patience which, for the past six months, they have undoubtedly shown in action, and which contrasts strangely enough with the impatience mani- fested in their talk. The suspense is rendered a little more endurable by the capture of a fort—Fort Henry—which commands the Tennessee, and the fall of which leaves State open to invasion. It seems to have been X little affair, the gun-boats working up in the teetli' batteries. The Vrenc •Bishops alone among Frenchmen still ven- ture to resist the State, and this week the Emperor has levelled two sharp strokes at their heads. He has forbidden them to attend the Council called by the Pope to canonize the Japanese martyrs, and he has promised to raise the al- lowances of the parochial clergy. Of course, both edict and promise are arranged according to form. The prohibition is said by the ifonitewr to be consequent on the fact that the letter of invitation was not first submitted to Government, according to old concordats, and the promise is in form sug- gested first by the Senate. It is included in the Address, is accompanied by an assurance that it will delight the Em- peror—the reporter being M. Troplong—and was • ed with loud approbation. it is the cures, not the bishop , o guide the peasants and govern the peasants' wives, and the stroke, as the latter will find, separates the former further from Borne. The Mexican intervention has advanced a step. On the 10th of January the envoys of the three Powers, assembled at Vera Cruz, issued an address to the Mexican people. They deny that they have any concealed projects of con- quest, restoration, or intervention, but they add," The three nations we represent, whese first interest seems to be to obtain reparation, are actuated by a higher motive, and one of a more general and more advantageous scope. They come to offer a friendly hand to a people whom they behold, with sorrow, wearing out their strength and exhausting their vitality under the violent impulsion of civil wars and per- petual convulsions It is you, you exclusively, without any foreign intervention, whom it behoves to con- stitute yourselves in a solid and durable manner." Why can diplomatists never be honest ? All this is said while it has been settled in France that Mexico shall be a monarchy with a Hapsburg Archduke for king, and French reinforcements are on their way to help in the work which "Mexicans ex- clusively" are to perform.
Lord Clarendon made a short statement on Monday night, in answer to the statements made in the Cavour correspon- dence. His Lordship acknowledged the truth of much contained in the letters. He had denounced both the Papal and the Neapolitan Governments, and had not concealed that "the English object was to free Italy from foreign occupation '." and had said that, in his opinion, "if Austria invaded Piedmont for the purpose of suppressing freedom, then Count Cavour would have a practical proof of the feeling of England on the subject." He did not, however, encourage Count Cavour in the smallest degree to make war on Austria, or even make any statement about sending the fleet to Spezzia. The truth seems to be, that the Italian, accustomed to deal with diplomatists who make promises in a remark, and menace by innuendo, thought Lord Clarendon one of the class and took exaggerated expressions and private opinions for England's promises. The Emperor also is said to be greatly irritated at the production of these letters, and the friends of Cavour are warmly remonstrating.
Accidents, like crimes, seem to breed each other. The catastrophe at Hartley colliery has been followed by another, less protracted, and therefore less horrible, but still terribly disastrous to human life. On Wednesday, out twelve o'clock, an explosion occurred in the Cethin coal-mine, near Merthyr Tydvil, belonging to Mr. Crawshay, which, appa- rently in an instant, destroyed every soul in the pit—fifty men in all. Its cause is entirely unknown, and probably will remain so, as there are no survivors ; but the occurrence will. quicken the determination created by the Hartley acci- dent to improve the system of inspection.
The Australians are terribly hurt at some assaults in the English press. They scout the idea of repudiation, and affirm that they are unfairly attacked for their demo- cratic opinions. Their Legislatures, they say, contain rich men as well as poor ; their Ministries are not changed merely for the sake of change ; and their action against the Chinese is dictated by self-preservation. On the latter point, moreover, Mr. Buchanan, who describes himself as the most democratic member of the Victoria Legislature, almost threatens rebellion. The Colonies, he declares, would sooner separate than endure .interference. The colonists are, we believe, in the right with regard to the charge of democracy, but they must learn to conduct a discussion in a more placable spirit. They have sustained no wrong either from Parliament or the Administration, and can surely answer political lectures by arguments more logical than threats of revolt. Their time has not arrived for threatening a PoWer which could seal up the -Australian continent for a couple of years, without adding a vessel to the squadrons already em- ployed on the Pacific and the South American coast. Eng- land will never again, we hope, resist the clear wish of a colony large enough and free enough to express one, but her course, whatever it be, is not to be turned aside by causeless and useless menaces.
The rumoured discovery of a gold-field in Southern India has been confirmed, but its extent and richness have yet to be ascertained. The discoverer is Mr. Le Souef, an Austra- lian, who had heard reports of gold in Dharwar, and spent a month in "prospecting" there. He discovered gold-bearing quartz reefs at Dhonee, and returned to Bombay,whence he will start again to ascertain whether the rocks are indeed as rich as he believes—rich, that is, as those of Australia. The gold may and will benefit India, but one is inclined to pity the Government of Bombay. A mai for an Indian gold-field would simply crumble the Indian system of administration- to pieces.
A gipsy woman has been accused before the magistrate at Wandsworth on a most mysterious charge. She told a servant her fortune, and the girl's mistress, a lady apparently in a respectable position, wished to see her. She went in, and according to the evidence of the servants, Mrs. King complained of her husband. The gipsy promised to give her something to do her good, and brought a powder which she said would kill her husband in a month. Mrs. King promised her 10s., but did not give it ; and Mr. King, seeing the woman, gave her over to the police. The woman, on her arrest, told the same story, and was detained that the powder might be analyzed. The story is a strange one, and is not, made less strange by a letter published in the Times. The writer says that the gipsies know of a drug which once brought in contact with living flesh, begins to throw out filaments which choke up the passages, and in about three weeks cause death, while, as the filaments decom- pose, no trace of the poison is left. He suggests that this drug the gipsy name of which is " drei," they have given to Mrs. King. Even a suspicion of the existence of a poison of this kind, known to people who will commit a murder for 10s., demands the strictest inquiry ; but there is something in the story too weird and unlikely for London.
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If we may assume that the contractors for the refreshment room of the Great Exhibition are good practical judges of the relative intensity of English appetite for different solids and liquids, the orders of Messrs. Morrish and Sanders for dining and lunching utensils afford a curious piece of statis- tical information. They have ordered, we are told, Dinner prates 20,000
Large dishes 2,000 Soup plates 3,000 Soup tureens 500 Tumblers 20,000
Wine glasses -
35,000 Coffee cups 10,000 Tea cups 5,000 Napkins 9,000
From which it would appear that nearly twice as many simultaneous wine drinkers as drinkers of "tumbler" liquids are expected ; that among Exhibition seers coffee is twice as popular as tea, and more than three times as popular as soup ; and that '70 per cent. of the regular diners wish for the luxury of napkins.
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