NEWS OF THE WEEK.

MECISTE11S have &cupied the public eye and mind to an extent which perhaps they scarcely hoped. If they appear at a public

dinner, they are received with a welcome which must be strange- ly unexpected in its heartiness. They stand before us at once as penitents and as persons of the _best intentions. The public always patronizes penitents, and ingeniously entertains all good intentions ; so that Ministers at present, as in the case of Lord Stanley with the Fishmongers in their festive hall, are almost in the position of public pets. Lord Stanley delivered not an ill- composed article on the formation of the Indian Council ; ex- plaining, with much truth, how Ministers had.: sought to fill up the ranks irrespectively of party policy, passing compliments on the dear departed Company, and promising for himself modest but upon the whole admirable behaviour in the future. We trust he will make good the tone as well as the exact expressions of his speech. -We shall see.

In other parts Ministers have made themselves doubly felt by their absences, and even their silences. At the Hertfordshire dinner the Marquis of Salisbury was positively emphatic when he came to the future, for, shaking his head like Lord Burleigh, he announced that he should say " nothing " ; and we doubt whether he ever uttered anything so impressive. Another Mi- nister produced a still deeper impression upon the Hertfordshire gathering—Sir Edward Lytton, who stopped away. Of course it was remarked that Mr. Disraeli stopped away from the Buck- inghamshire dinner ; Sir Edward Lytton stops away from Hert- fordshire; and the designs of men acting with this consistency must be deep ! Such is the popular inference.

Their marked reserve, coupled with certain facts which have gradually oozed out, have given an impulse to the " quotations "

in the Reform Bill stock for next year ; and all kinds of pro- jectors are beginning to operate upon the market, by bringing forward bills of various forms. It is becoming a serious question how far Ministers will be able to overcome, not only the ante- cedents of their own party, but the repugnances of some among their own colleagues ; but it seems very probable that they will refuse to forfeit the opportunity which is before them of keeping the lead in the market. Mr. Adderley, Vice-President of the Committee of Council for Education, has boldly declared that the co-called Liberals have no tenant right in the Estate of Reform— Mr. Adderley belonging decidedly to the flower of the neo-Con- servative party.

Meanwhile the newest hoax has exploded. The Morning Post announced on Saturday that Lord Derby had called Lord John Russell to his aid, and made the statement in terms which conjur- ed up the picture of Lord John moving the Ministerial Bill ! The Pally News gives this-report a flat contradiction, and retaliates for tne outrage on Lord John with a tirade on Lord Palmerston ; a Performance of the fight between the Liberal lion and tiger highlY edifying to the Conservative wolf!

,n With the opening month a crisis of some iralmtallt* i8

'Jr for Prussia. All holies of King Frederick William the Fourth's recovery appear to have been abandoned. The Court IlArreu Korrniat SUPPLEMENT.] has at last become totally unable to conceal the fact that he is imbecile, and that his imbecility is rapidly growing into confirm- ed insanity. There is, therefore, the necessity for 'some step ; the more so since the Prince of Prussia, who has acted as deputy for the King in the performance of various royal-ministerial

duties, declines to accept a renewal of this office. It is out of the question to entrust it to any other person ; there is' therefore, a necessity either for a Regency, or for abdication.' There has evidently been a wish in Prussia that the King should abdicate ;

but while he has resolutely declined to do so, it seems probable that the day for his joining in such a measunn has past,—that he

is in fact no longer capable of knowing what he is at, and there- fore if he were removed from the throne now it would be, not ab- dication, but dethronement. The court party still desired. to keep round him, for substantial reasons' a certain investiture Of royal authority ; and it was proposed that the Prince of Prussia, though no longer accepting a renewed deputyship, should. become " co-Regent " with the Queen. The Prince has declined that plan also ; and the Cabinet of Ministers has been compelled to fall back upon the more regular expedient of a Regency pure and simple. But still a formidable difficulty is kept alive by the 'inacy of the Court, aided by the King's Consort. The revenues of the Crown in Prussia have even.to this day been derived from what may be called the private property of the Crown, which is said to yield one million and a half annually, and is under the abso- lute control or the Sovereign in person. This the persons imme- diately around King Frederick William loyally propose, to keep for him, leaving to the Regent, the vice Sovereign, the hand- seine allowance of 30,000/. a year, besides his military salaries and his personally acquired property ! The Prince appears to demand a sufficient allowance for his royal position from the Crown property, and it seems to be still a question how far the powers of the State, independent of the King, can enforce the Prince's just, reasonable, and needful claim. Some suppose that the Parliament will not be called upon to interfere in ratifying the Regency. But should the Court party drive Prince William too far, he may surprise the sycophants of the palace by falling back upon constitutional courses, rallying the Chambers,—not unwilling, to support him,—and make the difficulty created by the Court the opportunity for settling the Crown revenues of Prussia upon a more constitutional basis. We are, however, an- ticipating _what may happen ; the stage at which we have at pre- sent arrived is this : that the Ministers, with the acquiescence of the Courti have determined to make Prince William the Regent, and that this last difficulty is still in the agonies of a negotia- tion, firm on one side, obstinate on the other—fearless on the part of the Prince, reckless on the other side. For if the Prince has nothing to lose by adhesion to sound policy, the Camarilla wishes to keep everything, and has nothing to gain by an appeal to public opinion.

The summary of the Paris convention for the reorganization of the Danubian Principalities has been published, and it brings to view a newly created State of a very remarkable kind. The provinces, "re-united," are placed, severally, each under the management of a Hospodar with an elective assembly, jointly under the management of a Central Commission composed of six- teen persons—four elected by each Hospodar, four by each As- sembly. The elective franchise is tested by a high standard of property. The defence of the federated State, or federated States—we hardly know which Metternich would have called it or them—appears to be invariably placed in the hands of the trustee least likely to vindicate the right. The immunities of the Principalities are placed in the hands of the Suzerain, the Porte—precisely the Power that might encroach ; the local insti- tutions are placed in the hands of the Central Commission—the very power through whom any ambitious Hospodar or party would seek to override local institutions. It was said sometime since that although France had sided against England on the subject of union, the Emperor had yielded at the Osborn meeting ; but with this treaty before us, we discover that it is Russia who -is victorious, the Ronman party which is satisfied, England do- -tented. The federated state is endowed with a new flag specially

designed by the Conference at Paris, and on it in lieu of the quondam crescent, there is a stripe of blue ; the import of which the Plenipotentiaries are said fumly to have abstained from ex- plaining. It is said also that they abstained from settling another point. The Hospodar is to be elected by his own sub- jects; but his investiture is reserved to the Sultan. Will the Sultan be bound to invest ? Or will he have the option of re- fusal? The Plenipotentiaries say nothing. They have de- liberately left the question undetermined ; a question, be it re- membered, precisely similar to those disputes on investiture which occasioned so much war and bloodshed in Europe during the middle ages. Thus diplomacy is doing its work.

Another federation is proposed to our Foreign Office,—that of the British Provinces in North America. Three Canadian officials, headed by Mr. Cartier, the Premier, have come over as a deputa- tion to consult our Government on that topic, and also, if possi- ble, to obtain a guarantee for a railway plan which would place the whole of the British provinces within the scope of a railway journey. The provinces have already contributed largely to the same end,—many millions sterling, and millions of acres of land ; and there are strong grounds for the present claim ; while it is supposed that the plan of federation has already been regarded here as a good method of overruling the jealousies of individual colonists. No doubt the Cartier Macdonald party also regard it as a good mode of recovering their own position with renewed ascendancy.

The Indian officials continue to report progress in the repres- sion of the mutiny, though we are still without information as to the recovery of something like a loyal, or at least an acqui- escent feeling towards the British among the natives at large. Two or three occurrences illustrate the indeterminate state of affairs. An eminent Hindoo, Dukhena Runjun Mookerja, pub- lishes a letter intended to show that the disturbances have had no religious origin, and that the cruelties which have been prac- tised are diametrically opposed to the spirit of the Brahminical tenets. He denies that the Hindoos regard with any disfavour the presence of Christian missionaries, whom he depicts as having attracted the affection and confidence of the people, both by the purity of their lives, and by their readiness to console and to ad- vise "whether the ailment be of body or of mind." They are also looked to as the dispensers of improved education, and they act as useful intermediaries between a despotic government and an un- represented people. Dukhena Mookerja is not, however, of opin- ion that India will be included in Christendom, though he ad- mits the possibility of some such change being effected "centuries hence." He terminates his letter by the reflection that, "there are very few, even among the Brahmins, who comprehend their ancient faith." Be the origin of the mutiny what it may, the paroxysm has not yet been put down,—witness the fresh revolt of two regiments at Mooltan.. And together with the news of that revolt we have the announcement that arms have been re- stored to three regiments of the disbanded Bengal Army And this step is taken while Sir John Lawrence, Colonel Ed- wardes and Colonel Chamberlayne, are considering the reorgani- zation of the Bengal Army ; and a Horse Guards commission is performing the same duty at home. Lord Stanley avows the deep sense of responsibility under which he labours at having to restore peace to an empire, and to reorganize the Bengal Army. Certainly the prime thing needed for the official rulers of India is to coordinate their own ideas.

So far as we can judge from the look of the thing on paper, Lord Elgin deserves at least the G.C.B. which has been given to him in acknowledgment of the Chinese treaty ; for we have this week a summary of the document, the text itself being delayed in conformity with the usage until the complete ratification which renders the treaty law. Should we find ourselves in pos- session of the means for enforcing the stipulations of the treaty, whether with a Chinese cooperation or without it, we shall enjoy a very well secured access to the ter:it:ales and trade of the Chi- nese empire,—with a permanent ambassador at Pekin,—a Con- sul in every open port,--the right of British subjects criminally accused to be tried by their own law,—settled regulations with trade, customs duties, local dues, weights, measures,—the right to hold land, and to employ boats or servants without official interference,—and the right to travel over the whole country under a British passport. Similar rights, it is to be presumed, will be accorded to any other nations who seek the same privi- leges. By degrees, therefore, the Central Flowery land is likely to be a field freely traversed by the most stirring races of the world ; and it is to be hoped the Central Flowery people will learn to accommodate themselves to such a result.

The State of the revenue for the year and quarter is suffi- ciently expressed in the grand totals : there is an abstraction on

the of 8,000,000/., with a corresponding abstraction on the

qu through reduction of taxes ; but allowing for that reduc- tion, Uwe is an increase, through increased trade and consump- tion,, of 2,000,000/. on the year, and 1,880,000/. on the quarter.

While the Bank of England still hesitates to adopt the inevita- ble reduction of discount to 21 per cent, the public is under such

a pressure of accumulated money, that it seems indisposed te follow the old habit of waiting for the Bank initiative, and has evinced what is now a novel activity in purchasing and invest- ing. There are several reasons for this tendency. The Bears

must be under very slight hope of seriously influencing the market for some time ; and those who desire to buy, probably think that they had better do so before prices advance still higitex.

Trading men are even complaining that money is "so cheap." Those who have it accumulated on hand dislike to see it idle; those who thought of restricting their purchases to Consols and land discover that at the present prices the returns per cent bear no proportion to any intelligent well considered commercial enter-

prise. People are beginning to think that trade is not such a very bad thing after all. There are various enterprises about the world quite certain to return a profit for somebody. There are connecting projects, for example, in the railway systems of Cana- da, and even of the United States, which merit every confidence. The Atlantic Cable itself, much as it has been abused since the jubilee, is likely to be resumed again with increased confidence. No doubt this favourable turn has been in some degree promoted by the moral effect produced upon the market through the activities of the great capitalists, and a congress of Rothschilds has attract- ed much attention. With suoh treasures accumulated in every part of the continent, it is obvious that if a coup d'etat on a great scale were in preparation, at this particular moment it could be done very cheaply.