NEWS OF TITE

SAID PASHA, Viceroy of Egypt, died gn Sunday, Jan. 18. He was the fourth son of Mehemet Ali, by a Circassian girl, but retained few of his father's qualities. „Heavy, slothful, and sensual, a spendthrift, and a Son vivant, lie succeeded Abbass Pasha under circumstances no Egyptian dared to investigate ; lived the prey of French speculatewend flied:regretted only by shareholders in the Suez •catiee,1:: He- was :himself the largest contributor to that work, which he undertook in order to secure French support; hut fortunately for Egypt and Europe, -Said- had some sense of -dignity left, and refused to make his ilfebta to.the -Canal Company. State liabilities.

" He is succeeded by Ismail Pasha, eldest male of the blood of Mehemet Ali, and the ablest man the family has produced. He has imbibed the idea' perfectly accurate, that the wonder- fiil:fertilitY of Egypt, if properly worked, ought to make its owner rich Without foreed labour. He has governed his estates on that principle„and has succeeded, among other things, in trebling their produce of cotton. In his reply to a deputation of Vonsuls to congratulatp. him on his accession, he expressed )is reiolve to.content-himseltwith a fixed civil list, to devote revenue to Jig-eh:althea improvement, and to abolish the system of forced labour. The French Consul very unwisely fitted the cap by exclaiming that his Government had always opposed forced labour. . The Viceroy drily explained that he had not alluded to the Suez Canal. but it is clear that undat:, taking is doomed. Without the Pasha's authority, labour - Of that kind is unprocurable, from the simple fact that no wages repay the peasant for neglecting his own plot of ground. • The last act of Said Pasha was perhaps the worst of his reign. Fiance Wants negroes, to be employed in Mexico, and asked him for some from Darfour. He actually ordered it negro regiment to the coast, and there, at night, had it ship- ped on board the French steamer La Reine. A brief state- ment of facts in the Times irritated the French Government into a defence of the very weakest kind. The negroes, says • the Moamar, were "lent" by Said Pasha and are to garrison Vera Cruz. France has thousands of Pasha, willing to do soldiers' work in the tropics, and can only want negroes for labour. In any case, the French Government has purchased the soldiers of a foreign Government to do its work against their own will. If that'be not slavery, what does the word 'mean ?

• On Monday evening, Mr. Forster brought a matter of much -public concern before the Bradford Chamber of Commerce. The Italian Government has just concluded a treaty of com- merce with France which will give a great stimulus to the • trade between those countries. England has, we believe, /what she has w&4rved by her hearty support of the free Italian, Government, a positive promise of being put on an equal footing with France in respect of the tariff. We sincerely hope that this engagement will be pressed, and pressed in good time, so that we may not again be kept in suspense, as we were after the conclusion of the Belgian treaty with France. Nor should our Government abandon so completely as it has done the initiative in pressing commercial reforms on Foreign Governments. The trade of the country is capable of indefinite exten- sion, if the absurd and futile obstructions which dimivish the revenue in countries like Austria, Russia, Spain, and Portugal, quite as much as they diminish the commerce itself, are repealed. Our treaty with France has already doubled our exports to that country, which was never protected, to the absolutely imbecile degree of Spain, for instance. Our woollen manufacturers are now hampered by re- strictions in sending goods to Spain which do not 'even affect to benefit any one, either consumer, producer, or revenue collector. Conditions as to the number of threads, as to the proportion between wool and cotton, and a dozen other such trivialities, are enforced by heavy fines which can have no earthly purpose but to encourage a system of bribes. It is not too much to say that, looking to the rapid expansion of our commerce with France, and the paralysis of all commerce with countries like Austria, Spain, and Portugal, we might very easily increase our whole export trade 50 per cent. by the extension to a very few other countries of the policy of the French Treaty. The English Government shows little of the activity and vigilance in the matter which might fairly be expected from the Government of a commercial people.

The latest intelligence from America (9th January) infoftiis us that the attack on Vicksburg terminated in an almost disastrous failure. It was a gallant affair, but an unwise one, General Sherman attacking before the gunboats had arrived; and after two attacks retreating down the river with a loss of 5,000 men. Mr. Davis, in a speech to the Legislature of Mississippi, on the 26th of December, declared Vicksburg all-important, and announced his own ability to hold it He believed success ultimately certain, though the war had attained gigantic proportions.

The State of Missouri will, it appears, be the first to accept the President's offer of compensation for slaves. The Senate has passed a resolution approving the proposal, without a dis- sentient voice, and the lower House has selected a Radical emancipationist for Speaker by a majority of twenty-four. The Governor is an avowed friend to the proclamation, and in all probability Slavery will end this session in Missouri. A bill providing the required compensation is passing through Congress, and from its terms it would seem that the" instant and immediate" plan has been preferred. There are 87,422 slaves in Missouri, and if the war accomplish no more, it will have been worth its cost.

It is rumoured in many quarters that the Parliamentary campaign will not commence in earnest until after the mar- riage of the Prince of Wales, whose -" dotation" will be almost the first subject presented to the consideration of the Houses. The debate on the address is likely enough to be stormy ; but politicians will scarcely press on a change which would embarrass all the arrangements of the Court, and inter- rupt a time of festivity looked forward to by the whole nation.

On Wednesday night, Mr. Milner Gibson addressed his con- stituents at Ashton-under-Lyne in one of those characteristic speeches of his, in which you find generous sympathies curiously embedded in the soft clay of material interests. His demonstration that the war in America really took its origin in Slavery by the express confession of all the leadine. seceding States, would- have been superfluous, if the. ext;ordihary and obstinate inventiveness of the opposite party had not ren- dered it necessary to recall patent facts. His reference to the declaration of the Confederate Bishops, that the "abolition of Slavery is hateful, infidel, and pestilent," was received by his audience with derisive laughter; and a cry, generally libel- lous, we hope—" That's like parsons! "—while Mr. Milner Gibson's own declaration of strong sympathy with the anti. Slavery cause was most enthusiastically received. But his demonstration of the wickedness of the proposed intervention in America was curiously characteristic. After speaking of the enormously increased importation of wheat, flour, ham, bacon, and eggs, he asked, if we had intervened and brought ourselves into collision with the United States "where would have been the flour, ham, bacon, and eggs ? " Justice and freedom, ham, bacon, and eggs, were all on the side of strict neutrality.

At the annual meeting of the Bible Society in Edinburgh, on Tuesday last, the Duke of Argyll made a theological speech singularly liberal and thoughtful, without betraying any of that indifference to theology for which politicians usually get credit. He avowed his belief that, to connect Slavery with revelation, and Abolitionist opinions with infidelity, as both Confederate and English politicians are now doing, is an infi- nitely heavier blow to faith in the Divine government than any speculations about the errors in the Pentateuch. The Bible is not a code of laws, but "a system of spiritual truths and moral principles underlying every possibility of individual, social, and political improvement." Nay, more,—the Bible is infinitely broader and more various than any dogmatic sys- tem which can be deduced from it. It views spiritual truths from a great number of different points of view while dog- matic systems all attempt to petrify them in one aspect. Therefore, the Duke of Argyll held that the true remedy for error of any kind was, not greater restraint, but further liberty and deeper discussion ;—a thoroughly wise conclusion, which we could wish more Scotchmen shared.

Mr. Beresford Hope has always been strongly Confederate; but his address ,at Maidstone, on Tuesday, helps to explain how the English language becomes degraded in democracies, and still more degraded in slave-democracies, by that central insolence of thought, that fanaticism of unchecked domination, which homogeneous masses of vulgar vanity always produce. Mr. Hope, it is true, is not exempt from English criticism ; but he has contracted apparently that shrieking magni- loquence which we have criticized in another column partly from his Confederate friends or Yankee foes, or more, perhaps, from the mere arrogance which a long course of contempt for a lower race has engendered. He spoke of Mr. Lincoln as hav- ing committed a sin which Heaven might pardon, but earth would never forgive, in accepting the Presidency; and then compared him to Belshazzar, Sardanapalas, and the successors of Charlemagne. Intemperate "tall talk" and a deep under- lying sympathy with the insolence of a ruling caste were the characteristics of the speech,—which was much interrupted by Maidstone folk, who were shocked at the insobriety of his language.

Themany English admirers of the most thoughtful, and perhaps the most original of modern sculptors, will be glad to hear that Mr. Story's chisel has not been idle lately. His chief finished work has been a statue of Judith. Its concep- tion—a remarkable deviation from the common look of flushed exultation and vindictive triumph which Italian artists give —is that of an appeal to Heaven to vindicate the justice of the great deed done. There is no faltering of purpose in the gaze strained upwards, no looseness in the grasp of the sword, but the consciousness of an untold sacri- fice, the sense of a gulf between the present and the past, the dilatation of a mind that is pleading with the invisible world, are unmistakeably graven on brow and attitude. A smaller statue of Hero looking for Leander, torch in hand, is almost faultless in its representation of anxious doubtful search. The timid, beautiful girl, overmastered for the moment by one sentiment, will probably reappear in a hundred imitations, and become a household form. Mr. Story is at present engaged on a statue of Saul, the clay model of which has just been com- pleted. Here there was no artistic tradition—like the Moses of Michael Angelo—to suggest or warn. The Jewish King is seated, but sits as if he might start up in a moment; his brows are- bent as if in thought ; his hands play with a sword; his face is working with the disquietude of the evil spirit within, or with the thought of royalty at stake, the deathless type of kingship at feud with prophecy ; he is tyrant—Eastern tyrant, perhaps—but over all heroic. The Emancipation Society is doing its work well, in spite of the sneers of the Times, which brands as absolutely without men of mark and influence an association headed by the name of ottrmost eminent thinker and economist, Mr. John Stuart Mill, and comprehending many not unworthy of association with him. Yesterday week, a deputation waited on Mr. Adams to assure him of the widespread sympathy which exists in this country—especially in the working classes— with the anti-Slavery policy of Mr. Lincoln's Government.. Mr. Adams expressed, in reply, the great anxiety of Mr.. Lincoln to avoid a servile war as the justification of the. caution with which he had acted. A far more important popular demonstration took place on Saturday at Liverpool, in the Clarendon Rooms, to consider the same subject. Mr.. Spence, the well-known "S." of the 2tmes, was heard fairly on the Confederate side ; but the meeting adopted the resolution that the Federal Government was entitled, in its- present emancipation policy, "to the generous sympathy of Englishmen, with only two dissentient votes. It is- certain that the masses of the people all over England— including especially the districts suffering most heavily from the war—are nearly as unanimous in sympathizing with the North as is the opinion of the wealthier classes in favour of the Slave States.

A rather ignorant and very hasty criticism has been passed upon the address, received this week from the New Zealand House of Representatives, in reply to the proposal of the Duke of Newcastle to put native affairs under the authority of the colonial legislature and then throw on the colonists the chief expense of the military system required to deal with the Maoris. The truth is that no proposal could be more unjustly timed. The military conduct of the recent war in New Zealand was disgrace- ful beyond the disgrace of ordinary blundering. The campaign was in no way controlled or even influenced by any appointee of the responsible Government, but was mismanaged by men appointed from home, and irremovable in the islands. It has- taxed the whole colony Si. a head,—has demanded the services of all the grown-up males of the province of Taranaki, and yet was so concluded as to leave the natives far more dictatorial, presumptuous, and self-confident than ever. Taranaki is still in a state of siege, and the war threatens to break out again at any moment. In such circumstances, it is certainly not unreasonable for the settlers to decline to assume for the first time a military responsibility which is the net result of the absolute incompetence of the administration of Colonel Gold and his colleagues.

Mr. Seymour, the Liberal candidate, was elected on Tues- day, for Totnes, by a majority of 8; the numbers being—for Mr. Seymour, 165; for Mr. Dent, 157.

The Morning Post affirms that the Admiralty have completely beaten the French Ministry of Marine in the construction cl- an iron-clad fleet. They have now ready, or in course of construction, the Warrior and Black Prince, of 6,000 tons, the Resistance and the Defence of 3,668 tons, the Achilles and two unnamed, of, say 4,500 tons the Agamemnon, Minotaur, and Northumberland, to exceed in tonnage any- thing yet constructed, six wooden ships, plated, of 4,000 tons, the Royal Sovereign, 5-turreted ship, of 3,765 tons, the Prince Albert, 6-turreted ship, of 2,529 tons, a 2-shield ship, of 1,395 tons' and large gunboats, making twenty-four fight- ing ships of the first class. The French have six frigates, an iron gunboat, an iron battery, and a number of plated gunboats of smaller size. The comparison is not very per- fect, as there is no evidence as to the time when all the British ironsides will be afloat, but it seems evident we shall not be taken. at disadvantage.

The Moniteur believes, but does not assert, that the -French army has captured Puebla. A short trustworthy statement of the number of men in the expedition, the number in hospital, and the number convalescent, would be much more important intelligence.

Pasquin is talking again in Rome, as he has been 'any time these three hundred years. His last speech is that the Italian war cost three ducats (ducati), and the Mexican war will cost a Napoleon. .

The Manchester Chamber of Commerce, under cover of a formal address to the Governor of Queensland, took up the subject of cotton from that colony. The secretary, to the local Government, , Mr. Herbert, explained that Queensland could grow cotton, that the produce was 4001b. (dnte) to the acre, that an English hand could undertake five acres, and that at is. a lb. he would clear £100 a year. The local legislature gave every facility, and even offered a bounty, and all that was wanted was labour. Sir Charles Nicholson suggested that recourse should be had to Asiatic labour, and coolies imported from India and China. That always seems feasible to English- men, but it is an exceedingly dangerous course. The white emigrants are the life-blood of a colony, and the introduction of dark emigrants always ends in discrediting labour among the whites. Cotton pays in Texas when cultivated by white labour exceedingly welL The French Government has just published a letter addressed by the Emperor, on the 3rd July, to General Forey, then about to assume the command in Mexico. In it Generat Forey is directed to consider everything in Mexico pro- visional till the Mexicans have expressed their will, to show the greatest deference to religion, to arm all auxiliaries who may offer themselves and when he has reached Mexico to organize a Provisional Government of "the principal persons who shall have embraced the French cause. This Govern- ment will submit to the people the question of their regime, the Emperor preferring the monarchical, and then an As- sembly will be summoned. The reasons for all this exertion are openly stated to be the danger lest the 'United States should absorb the Antilles, take possession of the Gulf of Mexico and thence dominate over Southern America. His Majesty goes to plant the "beneficent influence of France in the centre of America," and, to restore the prestige and strength of the Latin race, on that continent. The object of this publication just now seems to be to meet an expected resist- ance in the Legislature, which will, it is said, remonstrate against the Mexican expenditure.

France has taken a place called Obok, close to the Strait of Babel Mandeb, and means to make it a coaling station. The steamers of the new company running from Marseilles to Cochin China are to call there, and a garrison has been landed of 200 marines. This is the third place selected for a Red Sea harbour within the last two years, and will probably prove worst of the three. We beg to remind the Foreign Office that the island of Socotra, the only place it would be really inconvenient for us to see occupied, is still a British possession, and that a lighthouse or two might be advisable as an assertion of that fact. Otherwise we may have the same trouble as in the case of the Wicobars, which belong either to us, to the savages, or to the Danes, and nobody can tell which. They would make an admirable penal settlement.

A meeting was held at the Mansion House, Dublin, on Tuesday, to urge the restoration of the Galway subsidy. The meeting was well attended, including Lord Clamicarde, Lord Gough, Lord Clancarty, and a number of Irish members, and the speeches expressed the determination of the Irish to worry Lord Pahnerston into conceding the point. The speakers contend that they had a promise, an argument long since dis- posed of.; but Mr. Vance stated the true feeling. The vote fer the packet service, he said, was 991,0001. all for the benefit of England, yet Ireland was refused her miserable 78,000/. The simple fact that Irish letters are carried to India America, and Australia in the steamers which carry English letters, was altogether ignored, and money for packets treated not as payment for work done, but as a gratuity to certain companies. Let the Galway Company do its work better than any other, and then it may begin, if refused equal advantages, to complain. Suppose Wales were to raise the same cry, and then , Scotland, or Cornwall? Cannot Mr. Gladstone devise it scheme for knocking all these subsidies alike on the head ? Suppose ocean postage reduced to a penny, and given to the companies ? Surely freight at a penny the half ounce, Le., 294/. the ton, would pay for any conceivable voyage; The Prussian Chamber intend, it is said, to commence its session with a spirited address to the King. The majority pro- pose to inform him that "his Ministers have carried on the ad- ministration against the constitution and without a budget." The "supreme right of the representatives of the people has been attacked. "A "small minority of the people, encouraged by the Ministers, have carried the worst calumnies against the Chamber to the throne." "Abuses of power are taking place as in the sad years-which preceded the Regency;" and though the King promised to maintain the constitution, the "Ministry have violated. it" Brave words ; but' the point for Prussia isrwhat the.. Ohamher. intends to. do. %ppm the King receives the address, declines to reply, and gemf on, astbefsre) levying taxes under old laws and expending them without an authorization. How is the Chamber to meet that action unless it prevails on the people either to refuse the taxes or to d ecline the conscription ?

The German Federal Diet has rejected the plan for esta- blishing a chamber of popular representatives, which with the Diet should possess large legislative power. Germany would, on that scheme, have become a true federation with a central legislature of two houses. The Prussian representa- tive fought for the scheme, and the Austrian one was favour- able to a central authority, but it was thrown out by the lesser powers.

The Duke of Saxe-Coburg seems still und.ecided whether or not to accept the throne of Greece, and has been all the week at Brussels conferring with King Leopold. Ile wants, it would seem, more territory, and to retain his own principality for some years, governing it through a Regent—probably Prince Alfred. His object in this is not so much Coburg as to retain his chance of the throne of the German Empire, long since promised him by the National-verein. Greece implies, to a Coburg, Byzantium; and by a strange irony of fate, a German stands hesitating whether to accept the offer of the Western or Eastern Empire of Rome, the crowns of both being still in the clouds. Greece remains passive in the matter, but will probably accept Duke Ernst as soon as anybody, save Prince Alfred.

A Berlin telegram mentions signs of a coming insurrection in Poland. The people are assembling in several places in the forests. The report is possible, but unlikely, for this reason. The conscription is being carried out, and the young were disposed to resist, but the Secret Committee of Warsaw, who control all revolutionary movements, ordered that it should be obeyed. It is improbable that the Committee, if insurrection were imminent, would have deprived itself of a large section of its executive force. The country people may be resisting the levy of their own accord, but without a carefully organized plan any movement must fail. The leaders of resistance seem from all accounts to believe that, if the people will wait a few months, the Russian troops, already hesitating, will refuse to fire.

The managers of the Underground Railway are puzzled by the magnitude of their own prosperity. The public decidedly approves the new means of locomotion between the city and Paddington,the omnibuses have been taken off, and the railway cannot carry its passengers. The speed has been accelerated, the intervals shortened from half an hour to four minutes, and the trains lengthened; but still hundreds are turned away. Last week the line carried 225,000 passengers ; and they will be compelled to appoint a double staff, and run their goods- trains all night. This sudden demand, quite unexpected by the proprietors, has disordered several arrangements, but they will be shortly corrected, and the result, it is evident, will be an immense extension of the Underground Railways. The first new line wanted is one from North to South London, using, if possible, the useless tunnel under the Thames.

The new constitution proposed for Sweden has been laid by the King before the Diet. It substitutes for the four Houses, of Peers, Clergy, Burgesses,and Peasants, an Upper and Lower House, both elective. The members of the Upper House will be chosen for seven years, in the proportion of 1 to every 30,000 inhabitants ; but the person elected must be worth £4,000, equivalent to at least £20,000 in England. The members of the Lower House will be elected for three years; each district of 40,000 members sending one, or, in some cases, two members. The suffrage for both houses is restricted to persons possessing 50/. freehold, or farming property worth 300/., or having an income of 40/. a year. This constitution is Liberal, though the suffrage is high, and the proposal is well received. The difficulty is the necessity of insuring a concur- rence of all four orders, but with the burghers, the peasants, and the clergy all favourable, the King c.anmanage the nobles. The reform once carried, Norway, the King believes, will not be unwilling to consent to a mach more intimate union.

Consols are 924- 921 for Money, and 921 921 for the Account The New Threes and Reduced are 924.924.. Exchequer Bills, 4s: to 7s. prem. Long Annuities, 153; and India 5'per Cents., 1083 1081. Old-Turkish 6 per Cents. are 854. 86 ; ditto, 1858; 704. 71; ditto, 1862, 663 67. Egyptian, 963974.. Greek, 16/ 163. Mexican, 32+. Moorish, 97. Peruvian New Loan, 87874. Portuguese Loan, 464.464.. Russian ditto, 954. 96; and Spanish ditto, 241, New companies are numerous, banks, hotels, and breweries being appa- rently the favourites.