NEWS OF THE WEEK.

Ati DE PERSIGNY has lost the game. The French .1/1. elections terminated on Monday in the return of all the mine Opposition candidates for Paris by a majority of two to one. Eight of them are Republicans, more or less moderate, and the odd one is M. Thiers. In the provinces the allied parties were less successful, but they have carried Marseilles, where MM. Berryer, and Marie were both elected, Lyons, Bordeaux—though not the candidate they desired— and twenty seats in the provinces, exclusive of those occupied by mere Tiltramontanes. M. Dufaure, moreover, will be seated, as M. Ravin, of the Sgc/e, has also been elected for La Manche, and will vacate his seat in favour of the great Orleanist. Twenty-five more elections have, it is reported, been declared void, the candidates refusing to take the Imperial oath. The result is felt all over Europe as a great shock to the Imperial system, and a fatal blow to M. de Persigny, whose imprudent dictation almost compelled the people of Paris to take up the quarrel. Paris talks of nothing .else, and it is reported that the Emperor, who understands his epoch, intends to receive the blow as a lesson, and make large concessions, including some form of Ministerial respon- sibility. He is much more likely to turn the thoughts of his people towards a new war for an idea.

Sir Charles Trevelyan's budget has arrived. The speech, which was written, and read out sitting, shows a most pros- perous state of affairs. The total revenue for the year ending -30th April, 1863, was 45,105,700/., or nearly double the revenue of 1848, and 1,276,228/. more than the receipts of 1861.-62. The expenditure was 44,168,775/., showing a sur- plus of 936,925/. The receipts for next year are estimated at 45,306,200/., which is probably much under the truth, and the expenditure at 44,490,4251., leaving a surplus of 815,7751. With this sum Sir C. Trevelyan takes one per cent, off the income-tax, and reduces the duty on iron to one per cent., on beer to 1-1-d. per gallon, and on wine to 2s. per gallon—reductions which, in all, will consume about 365,0001. The remaining surplus will be retained, mid though 3,000,000/. out of the balances has been sent to Sir C. Wood to operate on the home debt, and 3,000,000/. more will be sent, still the balances exceed fifteen and a half millions. Sir C. Trevelyan, however, declares that the great increase in the balances is not the result of pros- perity, but of some heavy remanets from the last loan, and a great accumulation of trust funds. The budget has been warmly received, and is most satisfactory, though Sir C. Trevelyan would have been wiser to adhere to his original plan of reducing all duties to five per cent. It is not the rate of the income-tax, but its existence at all, which annoys the natives. Another terrible accident. The five o'clock express from Brighton to London arrived on Friday evening very late at Croydon. It was pushed on quickly to make up for lost time, and near Streatham ran off the rails, the engine-boiler burst, four persons were killed and nearly thirty severely wounded. Most of the passengers were Guardsmen returning from practice at Eastbourne, and the scene when the carriages stopped is described as most striking. The unwounded men formed as if on parade, piled arms, and rendered the most effective assistance to the officers of the company. The inquest on the accident has not terminated, and as yet no reasonable explanation has been offered, though there is little doubt that its causes were the defective state of the engine and a tremendous rate of speed. What with excursion trains, and the right of the South-Eastern to precedence over half its line—a right which always tempts engine-drivers to "catch up time," the Brighton Railway pays as much for accidents as some lines of twice its length.

Brazil has suspended relations with Great Britain. On the 5th. May M. Moreira, Brazilian Minister, informed Earl Russell that the mode of reprisals adopted by the British Government wounded the susceptibilities of the Brazilian nation, and de- manded an expression of regret. Earl Russell, in reply, de- clined to reopen any part of the question, but affirmed that the reprisals were not caused "by any feeling unfriendly to the Emperor of Brazil, nor by any designs of aggression upon His Imperial Majesty's territory." M. Moreira considered that this letter aggravated the offence, and being "unable to re- main under the stroke of unredressed injury," demanded his passports. The proceedings adopted towards Brazil appear to us needlessly harsh, but no Government can be expected to apologize for acts which it deliberately affirms to be right. The diplomatic breach is to be regretted, but it will hardly continue long, as the Emperor has acted rather with a view to the national dignity than to any possibility of war with a country like Great Britain.

On Monday Lord Ebury moved in the House of Lords for a commission to alter the English Burial Service, so as to ease the clerical consciences which cannot conscientiously express even a ray of hope for the salvation of those whom they are burying. The motion was not carried, but was received by all the speakers, including the Bishops who spoke, with modified approbation. It was agreed on all hands, lay and clerical, that something must be done to quiet the scruples of men who are quite sure that the person interred is cut off entirely from Christ. The only rock of offence is the sentence in which the priest prays that all present may be raised up, "from the death of sin to the life of righteousness," that after death they may "rest in Christ, as our hope is this our brother doth," which hope, it seems, conscientious clergymen cannot feel in certain cases of fearful crime. The Archbishop of Canterbury, the Bishop of London, the Bishop of St. David's, Lord Grey, and Lord Westbury, all concurred that clergymen should not be asked to admit such a hope, though it can imply nothing beyond the conviction that all things are possible with God. If the " conscientious " English clergyman had had to bury the thief on the Cross, he would clearly have refused to express over his body the hope which Christ had already fulfilled.

Friday night was marked, too late for our last issue, by the best, if not the ablest debate of the Session. Mr. Gregory, member for county Galway, moving nominally for some papers, reviewed British policy in Turkey in a most able speech, demanding that Government should cease to protect the bar- barous Ottoman caste against their Christian subjects. Lord Palmerston was too ill to attend, and as the Foreign Secretary, the Secretary at War, and the First Lord of the Admiralty, are all in the Peers, and the House is rather tired of the drops of information which the Ministers in the Upper House trickle through their funnels, the Under Secretaries, in the Lower, the duty of reply fell to the Chancellor of the Exchequer. He enemy of Servia in England was the head of Her Majesty's Government.

Dr. Pusey has found another opportunity for gratifying his rabid theological tastes. It is understood that among the names suggested by the Prince of Wales for the honorary degree of D.C.L. at the coming Commemoration was that of Professor Kingsley. This name has, however, been with- drawn, on account of the determined opposition offered in the Hebdomadal Board by Dr. Pusey, Dr. Mansel, and others of the bigoted section. Their ground for opposition was, it is said, the heretical and immoral character of Mr. Kingsley's works, more especially of " Hypatia," a work which, though it necessarily describes the external aspect of a slowly rotting society, is in tone and object the highest of all Mr. Kingsley's writings. Did the Hebdomadal Board make their selections as members of the Council of the Index P The Chancellor of the Exchequer is somewhat too candid for a party leader. On Thursday, when Mr. Laird moved the names of his Holyhead Harbour Committee, Mr. Gladstone incautiously said that he retainedall his former objections to the appointment of the Committee, and that those objections were in no way removed by its constitution, which he regarded as "anything but impartial." On Thursday night Mr. Tolle- mache, one of the Committee so impugned, took up the state- ment, and declared his own entire impartiality, while Mr. H. Herbert made the remark the subject of a vehement personal attack on Mr. Gladstone, and Mr. Disraeli pertinently observed that though the Government was not obliged to agree to the constitution of a committee which they thought bad, at least they should not in the same breath agree to the names offered and express their disapprobation of these names. Mr. Hennessy rose to order, Mr. Bright came generously to the rescue of Mr. Gladstone, and the Speaker decided that Mr. Gladstone, who, while utterly denying the personality of his remark, adhered to its meaning, was in order in so doing. The incident is only important as indicating the sort of im- prudence which may wreck Mr. Gladstone as a party leader. He has too little of the reticence of a "king of men," and with a genius far beyond that of his chief, will be long before he gains the self-contained power of Lord Palmerston.

The race for the "Grand Prize," which came off at Paris on Sunday last, attracted an unusual concourse of sportsmen from England as well as France. Some of the best English horses were entered, among them Lord Clifden, Ranger, and Saccharometer. Ranger won ; the French favourite, La Toucques, running second, and Lord Clifden only fifth. The Emperor was present, and was warmly cheered by the English.

Mr. Goschen was, on Tuesday, elected for the City without opposition, and took his seat the same evening. Ile made a very good speech to the electors, courageously trusting that this would be "the first and last time on which the obscurity of his name would be used as a taunt against the cause he represented." He professed his purpose to support heartily the foreign policy of Lord Palmerston, and the financial policy of Mr. Gladstone, and to bring to the discussion of financial matters all the resources of that "technical and practical knowledge" of currency, economy, and finance, of which he is well known to have no ordinary command. On the ballot and extension of the suffrage he was evidently inclined to hedge. His radicalism, he said, was by no means of the democratic, type, and though it might be folly to open the floodgates to the non-electors, it might be the best wisdom to widen the channel. He wished for the ballot only for those who thought it would be ,a protection to them, not as a democratic measure. It was a pity, perhaps, that Mr. Goschen did not take ground against this worn-out Liberal formula. Few Englishmen now believe that the ballot would really improve the tone of Eng- lish politics,—the characteristic principle of its operation re- quiring that those who avail themselves of its protecting shade, though they may continue to be voters, should cease to be politicians.

Mr. j. A. Smith, on Monday, called the 'attention of the House of Commons to the Royal Victoria Orphan Asylum an institution established for the orphan daughters of soldiers. The chaplain of this institution seems to have been a kind of Mr. Brockkhurst, and had one girl of sixteen flogged with a birch rod. Another was locked up for two days, and on the I evidently did not like it at all, possibly agreeing at heart with evening of the second day was found burnt to death. . Mr. Gregory, and managed to leave the impression that Mr. girls had been sent to London alone to be mesmerized; ti_ Grant Duff was in the right when he affirmed that the only girls wandered about without superintendence, and the general management was so bad that the majority of the Ladies' Committee demanded the removal of the chaplain and lady superintendent, and when this was refused resigned. Sir John Pakington, member of the Executive Committee, endorsed most of these statements, but explained that no such abuses could occur in future. The Committee however, have retained the practice of corporal punishment to the extent of three blows on the hand with a cane—a most objectionable practice. It is a mere device to compensate for want of force of character, and ruinous to true discipline. Girls who cannot be governed without flogging are better left to their own wills, which cannot injure their morale more than the flogging does.

The great Breadalbane property and the Earldom are dis- puted by a new claimant. The present Earl is a collateral,. who descends from the second son of Captain James Campbell,. heir-in-tail under the somewhat unusual patent. The claimant,. Lieutenant Campbell, of the 19th Bengal Cavalry, descends from the sixth son, but alleges that the other was illegiti- mate, being the son of a woman not only not married to Captain j. Campbell, but the wife at the time of another man. The evidence prima fade supports this allegation, but the suit will be a long and a formidable one.

Important news is hourly expected from Vicksburg. The- position, so far as we now know it, was this. General Grant, after taking possession of the Jackson and Vicksburg Railway and destroying Jackson, had advanced on Vicksburg, in con- junction, probably, with Sherman's force from Milliken's Bend on the Yazoo River, and had, it is said, occupied the heights round Vicksburg, and taken possession of for- midable entrenchments. General J. Johnston, who com- manded but a very small force, had been repulsed._ and left in his rear, and it was not impossible. that Vicksburg would surrender. It could not sustain any- long siege. The general in command there, General Pem- berton, is, of course, bitterly inveighed against as incompetent. by the Southern papers.

Mr. Somes was defeated on Wednesday, in a tolerably full House, in his crusade against Sunday beer, by a majority of 175,-278 to 103. The best speech on his"side of the ques- tion was made by Mr. Lawson, the member for Carlisle, who argued it entirely as a question of police, and utterly repu- diated the ground that you have a right to prohibit lawful pleasures because they are often abused. He gave up, how- ever, so much of his case as to admit that it might be neces- sary to keep the public-houses open for two hours on Sunday, for those of the working classes who prefer fresh-drawn to stale beer, and to concede that the excursionists are to be entitled to beer as bond fide travellers. He urged the second reading on the strong evidence which the Monday police-courts show of the disadvantage of open public-houses on Sunday, and also—perhaps rather inconsist- ently—on the wish of large bodies of the working classes to shut themselves out from temptation. Sir George Grey replied on the police question, that since the last relaxation of the Sunday public-house law, drunkenness has diminished instead_ of increased, both in London and Liverpool, and probably in the country at large. He urged that to open public-houses for two hours on Sunday would be utterly inconsistent with the principle of Mr. Somes's measure, and that the working of the Scotch Act does not prove anything, since the Scotch drink chiefly spirits, which will keep from the Saturday—not beer, whieh will not. Mr. Somes refused to limit his Bill, even to a permissive law, insisting on the right of Parliament to coerce all parts of the country into Sabbatarian teetotalism, and the result was the large majority against him recorded above.

The City is spending liberally on the preparations for the reception of the Prince and Princess of Wales. The new erections alone have been insured in the Royal for 50,0001. for six weeks.

The Royal Address proroguing the Prussian Parliament (dated 26th May) reached London on Saturday. In its complete form it is a most abrupt, not to say insolent, docu- ment. The King declares that it is "not the fault of his Ministers that their budget has not been agreed to," declares that the House in seeking to make him change his Ministers "seeks to establish an unconstitutional supremacy," Dad rejects the demand. " My Ministers," he says, "possess my confide and' a ce ; their official acts have been done with my consent; thank them for their care to oppose the unconstitutional mpt of the House to extend its power." His Majesty dds that "it is, and remains his exclusive Royal right to decide upon peace and war," and winds up his indiscreet outburst by declaring that he "shall succeed in frustrating the criminal attempts made to loosen the bond" between King and people. There is no mistaking language like this. The King asserts that all power resides in himself, and that the only business of the Chamber is to assent to his views.

The prorogation has been followed up by an ordonnanc,e empowering the Administration to prohibit temporarily or altogether, after two warnings, any newspapers exhibiting "tendencies dangerous to the welfare of the State," or, in other words, terminating the independence of the Press. The prohibition may he enforced before the warning, if the ease is urgent, and is extended to foreign journals. This Act, though nominally based on Act 63 of the Con- stitution, which provides for putting the Press under restric- tion in times of emergency, is really a return to despotic government, and will, it is said, be followed up by His Majesty's departure for Carlsbad. In that event, the Crown Prince becomes Stadtholder, or should he, as expected, decline, Prince Charles, the chief of the reactionaries, will become head of the executive. Six of the Berlin journals intend to bring the ordonnance before the Courts, and it remains to be seen whether, if the Judges pronounce the decree illegal, the King will resort to military force. As yet, there is no sign that the patience of the Prussian people is or can be exhausted, or that they have any idea that action means something beyond a professor's protest. German fire, however, though slow to kindle, is also hard to put out.

Dr. Candlish cannot adequately express his wrath against the Apocryphal books of the Old Testament, or against the Queen for lending them her sanction by quoting from their rages. On the monument near Balmoral erected to the memory of the Prince Consort the Queen has inscribed these words, taken from the Wisdom of Solomon (c. iv. v. 13 and 14)—" He being made perfect in a short time, fulfilled a long time, for his soul pleased the Lord, therefore hastened He to take him away from among the wicked." Dr. Candlish begins by calling this inscription Popish, and ends by calling it Rationalistic. The purpose of it is, he says, to put the Apocrypha on a level with the Bible. "There is not one single reference in that passage," says Dr. Candlish, in his fury, "to a blessed immortality." No doubt the writer held annihilation to be the Lord's way of showing His love for souls that had specially " pleased " Him, and had attained in a short time to the maturity of perfection. Dr. Candlish and Scotland are "insulted" by having this "wretched scrap of the Apocrypha, "—this " offence to the Bible," —" in the flaming fore front" of this monument, and he wishes to memorialize for its removal. Dr. Candlish would probably have never worried himself about the matter, had the Queen expressed the same noble thought in the stately language of Ben Jouson :— " It is not growing like a tree In bulk doth make man better be, Or standing long an oak, three hundred year,

To fall a log, at last, dry, bald, and sere.

A lily of a day

Is fairer far in May, Although it fall and die that night, It was the plant and flower of light.

In small proportions we just beauties see, And in short measures life may perfect be."

But because she chose to draw from a source nearer to the Bible than Ben Jenson, and more thoroughly saturated with its spirit,—she intends to insult it. Dr. Candlish holds, we suppose, that to refer to a book which suggests the Bible must involve the same sort of insult to the Bible, that it would do to take the advice of a poor relation instead of the head of the family. Perhaps the poor relations may sometimes have as much of the higher family gifts as the heir himself. The "Wisdom of Solomon" is, at least, as full of divine wisdom as Proverbs or Ecclesiastes.

A very great demonstration has just been made by the clergy and dissenting ministers both of France and England against the Confederate attempt to found a new State on the basis of slavery. A French memorial, signed by seven hundred and fifty pasteurs, was received in England in March last, entreating the Christian Ministers of "all evangelical denominations" in England to use their influence against this heavy blow to the cause of Christian civilization, and asking for "a just and peaceful manifestation of sympathy with the coloured race." A reply drawn up at the desire of a meeting presided over by the Rev. Baptist Noel stating that the subscribers wish "by all means to discourage those who are seeking to found an empire on the degradation of the coloured race" has been already signed by at least three thousand seven hundred English and Scotch dissentino, ministers, whose names fill twenty columns of the Manchester Examiner and Times. These would constitute, at least, one quarter of the whole number of dissenting preachers in the country,— and, considering the short time that has e]apsed, may fairly be taken to indicate that the voice of the dissenters is still firm in condemnation of slavery.

The intelligence of the week from Poland is small, but, on the whole, favourable to the insurgents. It appears certain, in spite of Russian denials, that the insurrection covers the three " Ruthenian " provinces, Volhynia, Podolia, and the Ukraine, in which no less than 15,000 men are already in arms. The tract of country is enormous, nearly twice Congress- Poland, and will require at least fifty thousand troops to keep it in order, more especially as the peasants do not join either side. The districts round Warsaw, moreover, which the insurgents have hitherto avoided, are now full of small bands, and the Government has been compelled, by its loss of men, to concentrate the troops round the great cities. The insurgents gain no striking successes, but they keep up an incessant warfare, in which the Russians are always defeated.

The memorandum issued by the Commander-in-Chief on the Lilley case has been published. It is a very feeble decision. His Royal Highness considers Colonel Crawley's language "exceedingly injudicious," and his rejoinder to Mr. Smales's defence "exceedingly vindictive, and likely to raise a spirit of resistance among his officers." The Duke of Cambridge, moreover, "regards the confinement of the non- commissioned officers with extreme displeasure," affirms that there was "no charge " against them, or "any shadow of evidence ; " believes that Sir Hugh Rose was misinformed of the circumstances of the case, " or he would not have attri- buted the death of Seijeant-Major Lilley to excess," and yet retains Colonel Crawley in command "on trial." A regiment is distinctly told that its commanding officer arrested non- commissioned officers "without a shadow of evidence ; " that he is "injudicious," "vindictive," and under his superiors' extreme displeasure ; and then it is ordered to respect and obey him. The case led to a rather animated discussion last night in the House of Commons. The Under-Secretary of State for War admitted that gross illegalities had been com- mitted, but doubted whether it would be possible to fix the responsibility on any particular individual. It was intended, the noble marquis added, to grant a pension to the relatives of the unfortunate serjeant-major, in compensation of the injustice of which he had been the victim. The statement did not appear to give much satisfaction to the House, and all the speakers agreed in demanding further strict inquiry.

Mr. Bagwell, on Thursday night, moved a resolution that Ireland ought not to be excluded from the Volunteer system, and placed Lord Palmerston somewhat in a dilemma. The truth is that Irishmen, though loyal to the Crown, are not loyal to each other, and all the Ribbonmen and other organ- ized gangs of ruffians would seize the opportunity to obtain arms and drill. The Premier could not well say that, so he justified the anomaly on the ground of the religious differences which in Ireland produced such "exuberant pugnacity." The House endorsed the excuse by a majority of 156 to 45; but the whole affair is most unsatisfactory. It is impossible to think of a Volunteer system in Ireland without dismay, yet as the Volunteers are now on the estimates, there is a real injustice done. Is it impossible to relax the prohibition, but make entry exceedingly expensive ?

No change has taken place in the quotations, for Consols are 92 92/ for Money and Account. The New Threes and Reduced Annuities are at 91f 911. Indian 5 per Cent. Loan at 108; and the 5 per Cent. Enlaced Paper at 1O61. Turkish 6 per Cents., 1862, are 711 72; ditto, Consolides, 51 511. Greek, 34 341. Spanish Passive, 34i 341; ditto, Certificates, 111 121. Italian, 721 731. Portuguese, 49. Mexican, 34f 31; and the Conf. Loan, 2i to 2 dis. A company called the Copenhagen Company has been started to acquire certain concessions recently arranged by the King of Denmark and the Municipality of Copenhagen for the encouragement of metropolitan railways. The concessions give an exclusive right for 40 years, and interest at 7 per cent. during con- struction. The Share List closes on the 10th inst.