POSTSCRIPT.
The style and title assumed by the new Lord Chancellor is "Baron Chelmsford, of Chelmsferd, in the county of R.tex." It was at this town that Mr. Frederick Thesiger gained his earliest fame as a pleader, so the local journal says.
Mr. Hayter's promotion to the dignity of a Baronet has been officially notified : he is now "Sir William Goodenough Ilayter, of South-hill Park, in the county of Berks." The Queen has appointed Lord Howden a Knight Grand Cross of the Civil Division of the Bath ; and Mr. Percy William Doyle late Minister to Mexico, and Lieutenant Colonel Lamm, Under-Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, to be Companions of the Order Civil Division. Mr. J. D. Dickinson has succeeded Sir James Mel;rill as Secretary to the Board of Directors of the East India Company.
The Italian Conference continued its sittings yesterday. Many letters approving of the objects of the delegates were read, some from Members of both Houses. The speakers were in high spirits at the success of their movement. A resolution was passed inviting the friends of constitu- tional government in England and in other countries to cooperate with the Italian National League.
Through the intivention of his friends and the Paris bar, M. Hubbard, one of the lawyers recently arrested in Paris, has been set at liberty. When the grounds of his arrest were "carefully examined," M. Chaix d'Est-Ange found "there was nothing serious in them." M. Mallard, another lawyer, appears to be detained in custody because Ledru-Rollin, whose agent he is, addressed a business letter to him. The police inter- cepted the letter, and, thinking it "not so harmless as it looked," put M. Maillard in prison. He is still there.
SATURDAY.
Two more members of the Derby Government were reelected yester- day, without opposition : Mr. Sotheron Esteourt, the President of the Poor-law Board, for North Wilts; and Mr. Cairns, the Solicitor-General, for Belfast.
The proceedings at Devizes, the capital of North Wilts, were marked by no unusual incident. Few persons were present. Mr. Estcourt was proposed by Mr. Heneage of Compton Bassett, and seconded by Mr. Col- borne of Chippenham. Mr. Esteourt's speech contained some amusing passages. In one he gave a nave account how he became a member of the Government.
"On Wednesday of last week I received a visit from an old friend, a Member of the House of Commons, well known to be in the confidence -of Lord Derby. He said, I come to you with a message' Lord Derby desires me to ask you to accept the office of President of the Poor-law Board.' I replied, My dear friend, it is out of the question : it is not in my line- I don't wish for it ,- there are others who will do it quite as well, and who will be gratified and pleased by it : my part has been always to fill an independent niche in the House of Commons, and I cannot easily adopt new habits." Well,' he said, don't give me that answer without consideration. Ought you not to look on this as a call of duty ? If you and other men who boast of your independence are not ready to come forward when you receive a legitimate invitation, what right has any man upon whose shoulders lies the great burden of forming a new Government to call upon others to assist him ? ' I turned this over in my mind, and at the appointed hour I waited on my Lord Derby. He repeated in very flattering terms the offer he had sent to make to me. I begged him to take a night to think it over, and tosee if he could not amend his choice. I put to him the reasons which appeared to me to render it desirable that he should think twice on the matter and I particularly urged on him that in Parliament my pride had always been to be independent of party, and that it was impossib:e for me at my period of life to change what had been ha- bitual to me. Lord Derby's answer was, ' IISVO you nothing else to urge in the way of objection than this ? " No." Then,' he said, you are the man for me. I offer this office to you ; and the only reason why I do so is because, looking around, I think you will discharge the duties of it at least as well as any person I could name.' I, of course, imme- diately put myself in his hands ; and so it happens that your old friend, the country squire, appears before you today with right honourable' tacked to his name. I mention this for one reason only ; it itibecause I think it highly creditable to Lord Derby.. I think that every one whom I have now the honour of addressing will be of the same opinion—that it is of a piece with that manly, straightforward, and honourable conduct which has always dis- tinguished Lord Derby." (Cheers.) He claimed some credit for having anticipated Lord Derby in the profes- sion of Liberal opinions. "I know, my friends, twelve months ago, when on the hustings in your market-place I had occasion to address a much larger assembly than is now before me, expressing, as I did, sentiments which I then sincerely held, and which I still continue to hold without change, the course I took was thought by many of my if friends to smack somewhat of a Radical spirit. [A voice—" No harm If it did."] I know that what I then said with regard to Reform was thought to indicate a rather more ad- vanced stage of Liberalism than you had before given me credit for. But now, are not pretty nearly the same sentiments held by that nobleman who is at the head of the Conservative party ? I say, the reason of it is this, that, though we are opposed to organic changes, we are desirous of improv- ing, so far as our understandings can go, those institutions which we find
' existing."
Some one expressed a wish that the country squire should have taken office "under a Minister not on sufferance." "I beg to know what Ministry there is in the world that exists on any other tenure. Every Ministry is dependent on Parliament. A vote of the House of Commons may at any moment bring about its defeat. Have we not within the last fortnight seen the most signal instance of the manner in which a majority of 200 can be converted into a minority of 19? Where is the Minister that may not at any moment be turned out ? [A voice—" I am afraid we shall be deprived of your services befare long."] I am much obliged to you for your good wishes."
A public meeting held in Newcastle has congratulated Mr. Bright upon the part he took in the late Ministerial defeat. In acknowledging the compliment, Mr. Bright says-
" I congratulate you and the country on the downfall of the very worst Ministry that I have known. The Ministry which has succeeded to it may be deemed a transition Ministry ; to be followed, I trust, by one more en- titled to the confidence of the great Liberal party in the country, a party which includes a vast majority of the nation.',
Mr. Disraeli has begun to exercise his functions as leader of his party in the House of Commons : he has issued a circular requesting the Con- servatives to be in their places on the 12th instant. The fuller despatches of the Overland mail arrived this afternoon. They give a favourable view of the state of affairs in India and confirm the telegraphic summaries.
The Pere, which arrived at Southampton yesterday from Alexandria with the heavy portion of the Indian mails, also brought a number of the officers wounded at Lucknow and Camnpore, and some ladies who shared the perils of the famous siege of the former place. Among them were Mrs. Wilson and Miss Wilson, the wife and daughter of the gallant Brigadier who fell at the head of the Sixty-fourth Regiment in Windham's fatal ac- tions; Captain Grant of the 9th Lancers, Lieutenants Charlton, Harmer, and Clery, of the 34th Regiment; Lieutenant Knight, of the 90th Light Infantry ; Captain Cornwall, 93d Highlanders; Lieutenant Gilry, 88th Regiment ; Captain the Honourable L. B. Mills and Ensign Travers, of the 2d battalion Rifle Brigade ; Captain Anderson, 26th Regiment N.I., and Captain Saunders, of the 70th Regiment.
The New York Tribune states that "Mr. Charles Mathews, comedian, was married in this city, on Sunday evening last, [the 14th February,] to Mrs. Lizzie Weston Davenport, lately the wife of Mr. A. H. Davenport, of Wallack's Theatre. We believe that the decree of court divorcing Mr. and Mrs. Davenport was pronounced on Saturday of last week."
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