the last election contest at Hull, when the defendant described the plaintiff as a person who had been expelled from the Star Club some years since for refusing to pay the sum of 10. 8.; and further that he (Oliveira) had threatened to kick Butler out of his house. Verdict for the plaintiff, damages 100%.

10.-Re-assembling of Parliament, pursuant to the adjournment of 31st December last. Lord John Russell made a statement of the measures intended to be brought forward during the session, which included national defences, surrender of clergy reserves in Canada, a pilotage bill, and Jewish disabilities.

11.-Judgment given in the Rolls Court against Mr. George Hudson in the suit at the instance of the York and North Midland Railway. The defendant was ordered to account for all the shares appropriated by him, as well as for those alleged to have been presented to persons of influence in Parliament, to facilitate the passing of the Company's bills.

12. Three soldiers, belonging to the 7th Royal Fusiliers, perish in the snow on Dartmoor, when on their way to Dartmoor Prison.

14. The Lord Chancellor explains the intention of the Government with respect to Law Reform, and lays on the table a bill for the registration of assurances in England. The measures in contemplation were: (1) a bill of relief to suitors in Chancery; (2) three bills in regard to lunacy; and (3) a bill abolishing second and third class certificates in cases of insolvency.

15. The Liverpool and Dublin steamer Queen Victoria strikes upon the rocks of Howth during a snowstorm, and sinks almost instantly with between sixty and seventy of the crew and passengers. About an equal number were saved. From an inquiry made into the cause of the disaster, it appeared to have been owing mainly to the negligence of the captain and mates, who went down with the vessel. Though unable to see the light through the storm, they neither slackened speed nor took soundings.

16.-Convocation meets: the Upper House in the Bounty Office, the Lower in the Jerusalem Chamber. The Queen's answer to the Address agreed on at last meeting was read, and various petitions received relating to the status and discipline of the clergy. The Lower House was chiefly occupied with a debate as to its right to sit, and the powers necessary to vest in a committee appointed to meet during the recess. The Archbishop of Canterbury brought the proceedings to a close in the afternoon.

17. Mr. Kinnaird proposes, but afterwards withdraws, a motion for an address to the Queen on the subject of the persecution of Protestants in Tuscany. Pointed reference having been made to the Madiai case in the course of the debate, Mr. Lucas replied that they had both been engaged in a system of proselytism at the instigation of foreign emissaries. At this moment, he said, acts of

persecution were going on against Roman Catholics in Protestant countries quite as deserving of our interference as the case of the Madiais, and he intended to bring some of them before the House.

17. The Queen's Advocate applies to the Prerogative Court for delivery from the registry of the will and codicils of the late Napoleon Buonaparte, who died at the island of St. Helena, 5th May, 1821, leaving property within the jurisdiction of the court not exceeding 600!. The learned judge, in compliance with the wish of her Majesty's Government, granted the request, though not in the precise terms of the application.

The Earl of Cardigan urges the Government to abolish the office of Lord Lieutenant of Ireland. In answer to an address presented at his first levee by the Corporation of Dublin, the new Lord Lieutenant, the Earl of St. Germans, said :-" I am persuaded that the abolition of Lord Lieutenant would be productive of much practical inconvenience, and of little countervailing practical advantage; I am, moreover, persuaded that the maintenance of this office is desired by the great body of the Irish people; and I therefore think that its abolition would be highly inexpedient."

18.-Joseph Libeny, a Hungarian, attempts to assassinate the Emperor of Austria, on the ramparts of Vienna, by stabbing him in the neck, He was immediately seized, tried, and executed.

Debate in the House of Commons on our relations with France, and the language used by the Secretary of the Board of Control to his constituents at Halifax, regarding that Power. "There is no doubt," said Mr. Disraeli, "that there is a considerable prejudice in this country against the present ruler of France, because he has terminated what we esteem a parliamentary constitution, and has abrogated the liberty of the press. It is unnecessary for me to say, that it is not probable I shall ever say or do anything which should tend to depreciate the influence or to diminish the power of Parliament or the press. (Hear, hear.) My greatest honour is to be a member of this House, in which all my thoughts and feelings are concentrated; and as for the press, I am myself a gentleman of the press, and have no other scutcheon. (Cheers.)" Passing on to the peculiar position of France with reference to the change of rulers, and expressing a hearty sympathy with the fallen dynasty, Mr. Disraeli alluded to the discretion and moderation which should be exercised by the responsible advisers of her Majesty when speaking of neighbouring friendly Powers. "Some people are uncharitable enough to suppose that the present Government have neither a principle nor a party; but, in Heaven's name, why are they a Ministry if they have not got discretion? (Hear.) That was the great point upon which the Cabinet was established. Vast experience, administrative adroitness-safe men who never would blunder. These were the men who not

only took the government without a principle and without a party, but to whom the country ought to be grateful for taking it under such circumstances. Mr. Disraeli afterwards addressed himself to the President of the Board of Control. "I know the right honourable gentleman is in the habit of saying very offensive things without meaning it; I know he has outraged the feelings of many individuals without the slightest intention of doing so; and, therefore, in reference to his peculiar organization, I can only say that it is a very awkward accomplishment. As regards the First Lord of the Admiralty, he has had a great deal of experience, to be sure, but then he has been a long time in Opposition; and something might be said for him in the way of excuse on that account, if, indeed, so great a personage could condescend to an excuse. (Laughter.) The right hon. baronet might say, or some one might say for him, that he had been a good many years without attending a Cabinet Council; that no new Council had been summoned before he went to his constituents; that he was called upon unexpectedly, and without previous arrangement and understanding with his colleagues; that it was a strange thing he should have made such a business of it, but still these things would happen sometimes. (Cheers and laughter.) But what is the position of the President of the Board of Control? He was hardly out of office before he was in again. (A laugh.) He had been in office for five or six years, and a hardish time he had of it, no doubt (a laugh); but, nevertheless, he agreed again to lend his gravity to the councils of his royal mistress. (Laughter.) He was properly anxious that the people of this country should have none but discreet men to administer their affairs, and, therefore, without making any stipulations as to the policy or principles of the Government, he became a Minister again, and attended twenty Cabinet Councils before he went down to make the Halifax demonstration. (Cheers and laughter.) And yet, with this renovated sense of responsibility-knowing how much depended on everything said by a Minister under these circumstances the right hon. gentleman, fresh from Cabinet Councils, knowing all the questions at issue, goes to his constituents, and describes the ruler of the French in language which I have more than once referred to, and will not now repeat.' Pointing out the peculiar necessity for a cordial alliance with France at this time, on account of the threatening aspect of the Eastern question, Mr. Disraeli took occasion to comment on the anomalous position occupied in the Ministry by Lord John Russell. "We understood from the first that the noble lord had accepted office as Secretary of State provisionally; but people were surprised at this; and then there came forth a paragraph, in which they were authorized to state that this was a mistake; that the noble lord was not to hold office as Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, but was to have some office where there was

nothing to do somewhere in the neighbourhood of Waterloo-bridge. (A laugh.) In fact, the only place the description met was that of the toll-gatherer of that unfortunate bridge. (Roars of laughter.) Well, Sir, that paragraph was not satisfactory. The noble lord, whatever the opinions of some of us may be, is rather a favourite of the people of England (hear, hear), and they did not consider that exactly the treatment to which a man of his position was entitled. (Cheers.) There was then another paragraph, in which it was stated ‘on authority' that all the other paragraphs were erroneous, that the noble lord was going to resign the office of Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, but was certainly to continue leader of the House, and that he was to have a room allowed him in the office of the Secretary of State. (Laughter.) But the climax was reached when a fourth and rather an angry paragraph, written, it seemed, with some feeling of per sonal indignation, appeared, in which it was stated that nothing could be more erroneous or premature than the announcements that the noble lord was going to remain in the Foreign Office-that he was not to continue leader of the House of Commons-that he was to have a room in the Foreign Office-a small room, I think it said-but that he was to be allowed two clerks. (Much laughter.) Sir, I confess I must protest against this system of shutting up great men in small rooms (renewed laughter), and of binding to the triumphal chariotwheels of administrative ability all the fame and genius of the Whig party. (Cheers.) I think I have a right to ask the noble lord frankly, Are you Secretary of State, or are you not?' (Loud cheers.) Appealing from the great Liberal and Whig parties to the Radicals, "Where," asked Mr. Disraeli, "are the Radicals? Is there a man in the House who declares himself to be a Radical? Not one. He would be afraid of being caught and. turned into a Conservative Minister. . . . We have now got a Ministry of 'progress,' and every one stands still. (Cheers.) We never hear the word 'reform' now; it is no longer a Ministry of Reform, it is a Ministry of Progress, every member of which resolves to do nothing. (Laughter.) All difficult questions are suspended. (Hear, hear.) All questions which cannot be agreed upon are open ques tions. Now, I don't want to be unreasonable, but I think there ought to be some limit to this system of open questions. (Cheers.) It is a system which has hitherto prevailed only partially in this country, and which never has prevailed with any advantage to it. Let us, at least, fix on some limits to it. Let Parliamentary reform, let the ballot, be open questions if you please; let every institution in Church and State be open questions; but, at least, let your answer to me to-night prove that, among your open questions, you are not going to make one of the peace of Europe. (Cheers.)"-Sir James Graham, in reply, taunted Mr. Disraeli, not only with decorating the tomb of Welling

ton with a branch plucked from the funeral wreath of a French marshal, but with describing other friendly Powers, in presence of representatives of their own nation, as our scandalous and discomfited allies." "He says the press is his escutcheon. I must say the leaders in the Morning Chronicle are also his supporters, and his Standard-bearer is to be found in the evening press. (Laughter.)" Reminding him of the dislike of the people of this country to misquotations as well as to coalitions, the member for Carlisle denied that, even in the heat of a contested election, he had used the words attributed to him by Mr. Disraeli. "I must be allowed,” he said, in concluding, "to state that, although willing and anxious to maintain the most friendly relations with France, and though desirous that not one word should fall from me to excite their enmity, still if I am not, either on the hustings or in this House, to say that which my heart dictates, and my mind and conscience dictate, then certainly I am not fit to be a Minister, or to sit in the House of Commons. (Hear, hear.) I am still a member of a free community, a community that dares to defend the truth, and loves the truth, and is still the guardian of this happy country-which, after all, is the last refuge of the liberties of Europe. (Cheers.)"

21. John Williams, a native of Boston, United States, tried before the High Court of Justiciary, Edinburgh, for the murder, on the highway, of Andrew Mather, toll-keeper at Cleekhinion, Berwickshire. The daughters of the murdered man found the prisoner sleeping beside the body of his victim, and under the plaid which Mather had worn when attacked. Williams was found guilty, and executed at Greenlaw.

23. Mr. Spooner's motion for withdrawing the grant to Maynooth negatived after a debate by 192 votes to 162.

24. Accident in the Ealing cutting of the Great Western Railway, resulting in the death of one of the directors of the Company, Mr. Gibbs, of Clifton, and the serious injury of another, Dr. Pritchard Smith.

27.-Termination of the Caffre War by the submission of the powerful Gaika chief Sandilla. The conditions granted by General Cathcart extended the Royal mercy and pardon to the rebel chief and his people, but declared that the Gaika tribes cannot be permitted to retain the Amatolas and their other frontier lands, which are forfeited to the Government.

28.-St. George's Church, Doncaster, destroyed by fire. The destruction of this fine specimen of ecclesiastical architecture excited a wide-spread regret, and meetings of the local gentry and clergy were at once held to take steps for rebuilding the church in something like its original splendour. The oldest part of the edifice destroyed was said to date back to 1070 A. D., and the nave and the tower to the reign of Henry III.

March 2.-Prince Menschikoff, accredited to Constantinople as Russian Ambassador and Plenipotentiary, visits the Grand Vizier, but refuses to call upon the Foreign Minister, Fuad Effendi, on the ground that the Russian Minister at Constantinople had accused him of breach of faith. In consequence of this insult Fuad Effendi resigned office, and was succeeded by Rifaat Pasha. Lord Stratford de Redcliffe, who reached Constantinople soon after, wrote to Lord Clarendon, that at an interview with the Grand Vizier and Minister for Foreign Affairs they had informed him, "That since the arrival of Prince Menschikoff the language held by the Russian Embassy to them had been a mixture of angry complaints and friendly assurances, accompanied with positive requisitions as to the Holy Places in Palestine, indications of some ulterior views, and a general tone of resistance, at times bordering on intimidation."

Misgovernment of Turkey. The Times writes: "We have already intimated that the time is fast approaching when the maintenance of the Ottoman empire in its present form will be found to be impracticable, acknowledged to be undesirable; but whatever political vicissitudes the Christian and Sclavonic provinces of Turkey may witness, they can pass under no form of government more barbarous and oppressive than that which has so long overwhelmed them. We profess, therefore, to feel no anxiety for the maintenance of the Ottoman empire, which bears the stamp of a tyrannical past, a worthless present, and an extinct future.

4.-Accident near the Dixenfold station of the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway. While the express train was proceeding at the rate of between forty and fifty miles an hour, one of the driving wheels of the engine broke, causing it to fall across the line. Three of the carriages following were hurled off the rails and smashed to pieces, and the passengers injured in the most frightful manner. Three of them, with the engine-driver, were killed on the spot; and two others died after lingering for some days.

Second reading of the Canada Clergy Reserves Bill, in the House of Commons, carried by a majority of 83.

8. The jubilee of the British and Foreign Bible Society celebrated in Exeter Hall, under the presidency of the Earl of Shaftesbury. Since its commencement the Society had instituted 8,000 branches, and circulated 43,000,000 copies of the Scriptures.

Gervinus, author of an "Introduction to the History of the Nineteenth Century," condemned to four months' imprisonment by the High Court of Mannheim for exciting sedition in that work. This sentence was afterwards cancelled as too lenient, and a new trial ordered for inciting to high treason.

11.-Died, aged 66, M. J. B. Orfila, French themist and physician.

11. Second reading of the Jewish Disabilities Bill, in the House of Commons, carried by 263 votes to 212, on Sir F. Thesiger's amendment to discuss it that day six months.

12. Another explosion in the Risca Vale Colliery, near Newport, and loss of ten lives.

13. Disturbances at Yeadon, near Leeds, between the Wesleyans and Reformed Methodists: one of the latter shot.

14.-Abraham Sewell, a maniac, aged 38, living at West Auckland, Durham, murders his mother, aged 82, by beating her when in bed with a poker and rolling-pin, and inflicts serious injury upon his father, while attempting to protect the old woman.

Died at Vienna, aged 67, the Austrian Field Marshal Haynau.

17. Santa Anna elected President of the Mexican Republic.

19. Fire in the Prince of Wales' Tower, Windsor Castle. The state apartments, with their priceless furniture, were for some time placed in the greatest jeopardy, but the exertions of the firemen and assistants, headed by Prince Albert, confined the fire to the room in which it originated, and two storeys of bedrooms above.

25.-Explosion in the Arley Coal Mine, Wigan. On the officers of the pit effecting a descent into the works, they found the strong doors dividing the up-cast from the down-cast shaft blown to atoms, and among the fragments fifteen of the workmen dead. A little further on twenty men and boys were found alive, then two others, and near the extremity of the workings various groups of suffocated miners were discovered. Fifty-eight perished in all.

- Election riot at Blackburn, dispersed by the military after several houses had been broken into and wrecked.

29.-Meeting at Newcastle to memorialize Government on the Turkish question. Lord John Russell promised in reply that the utmost vigilance would be shown, as the independence of Turkey could not be subverted without serious injury to British commerce.

31. The correspondence of Lord Nelson with Lady Hamilton, and of the Queen of Naples with Lady Hamilton, amounting in all to about 600 letters, sold at Sotheby and Wilkinson's. The naval hero's last letter, written on board the Victory, before going into action at Trafalgar, was bought for the British Museum at 231. The entire collection brought 5017.

65. 6d.

Lady Franklin's vessel, the Isabel screwsteamer, sails from Woolwich in search of the missing explorers.

April 1.-Wreck of the London and Aberdeen steamer Duke of Sutherland, at the en

trance of Aberdeen harbour, and loss of sixteen of the passengers and crew. While trying to avoid the risk caused by a south gale the vessel struck upon the dangerous rocks beyond the pier-head, and in about ten minutes commenced to break up under a violent sea. A few of the crew launched the life-boat; but they had not pulled many yards from the wreck when she was upset, and those who had sought refuge in her were only saved by the exertions of people on shore. A coble put off to the wreck, but also upset, and six out of the seven men who manned her were drowned. A few were got off the steamer by rocket lines. Those washed off and drowned were two ladies (cabin passengers), three steerage passengers, the commander, Captain Howland, who attempted to reach the shore by the rocket line, and ten of the crew.

1.-Manchester made a city by Royal Charter. 4.--The merchants, bankers, and traders of London having presented an address to the Emperor of the French, expressive of their desire for the continuance of cordiality and goodwill between this country and France, Lord Campbell called the attention of the House of Lords to the occurrence, as a transgression of that rule which authorized the carrying on of intercourse between independent nations by ambassadors only, or some other official appointed by Government. He wished to know whether the deputation which was said to have waited on the Emperor had been sanctioned by the Government of her Majesty. The Earl of Clarendon said that sanction had not been given or asked, but the Address itself, though unnecessary, was at the same time unobjectionable.

Lord John Russell explains the intentions of the Government with respect to National Education, and obtains leave to introduce a bill on the subject. He showed what had been done with respect to the education of the poorer classes since public day-schools were established, examined the voluntary and secular system, deciding against each, and gave an outline of the Government measure, which embraced an extension of the present system, and a plan for dealing with educational charities. Of secular education he said: "The people of this country act on a right instinct when they openly declare that there shall be religious training, which shall comprise all the great doctrines of Christianity. Therefore neither I nor the present Government can be a party to any plan proposing a secular mode of teaching."

Lord Stratford de Redcliffe arrives at Constantinople to-day, and the French Ambassador, M. de la Cour, on the 5th.

6.-Captain McClure and the search crew of the Investigator discovered by Lieutenant Pim, and relieved by Captain Kellett, of the Herald, then lying at Dealy Island.

7. At ten minutes past one o'clock this afternoon the Queen was safely delivered of a son-Prince Leopold.

8. Mr. Gladstone, Chancellor of the Exchequer, brings forward his resolutions on the National Debt. His plan consisted of three parts: First, the liquidation of certain minor stocks amounting to 9,500,000l.; second, a change in the issue of Exchequer Bonds; and third, a voluntary commutation of the Three per Cent. Consols and the Three per Cent. Reduced, making together a capital of nearly 500,000,000/., thereby laying the foundation of a permanent irredeemable Two and a Half per Cent. Stock, which was the ultimate aim of the Government, and the key to the resolutions he submitted to the House. These resolutions, after considerable discussion, were agreed to.

11. The Lord Chancellor moves the second reading of a bill for altering the punishment of transportation. He thought they should only leave as subjects for transportation those who were now liable for fourteen years and upwards, including cases of receiving stolen goods, outrages, assaults on the person, attempts to do grievous bodily harm, housebreaking, burglary, and cattle-stealing. For the remaining class, he thought that those who would have been transported for seven years should henceforth be kept in penal servitude for four, and so on in proportion up to fifteen, for which term he proposed ten years' penal servitude. In the House of Commons, Mr. Keating objected to the ticket-of-leave clauses; but the bill ultimately passed the Commons as it came from the Lords.

12.-Mr. Butt moves the presentation of an address to the Queen, praying that the orders given for the gradual abolition of Kilmainham Hospital may be cancelled. The motion was opposed by the Secretary of War, chiefly on the ground that the pensioners preferred out-door relief; but on a division the House authorized the address by a majority of 198 to 131.

The foundation-stone of the first Model Lodging-house, erected by the Society for Improving the Dwellings of the Working Classes, laid in New-street, Golden-square, by the Duke of Cambridge.

14. Mr. Milner Gibson's resolution for abolishing the advertisement-duty carried against Government by 200 to 169. The resolutions proposed at the same time relative to the stamp and paper duties were negatived by considerable majorities.

Seizure of gunpowder and war rockets in a house in Rotherhithe, reported by the Times to be in possession of M. Kossuth. In the debate which took place in Parliament on the subject next evening, the exile's friends denied that he was in any way mixed up in the transaction.

15. The Jewish Disabilities Bill read a third time in the House of Commons: majority, 288 to 230.

18. The Chancellor of the Exchequer, in a speech of five hours' duration, introduces the financial scheme of the Government. The main

features were the extension of the legacy-duty, gradual reduction of the Income-tax, equalization of spirit duties, abolition of soap-duty, universal penny receipt stamp, reduction of duty on cabs and hackney-coaches, and the equalization of assessed taxes. The resolutions moved in terms of the Budget showed that 123 articles at present paying duty would be set free altogether, and in the case of 133 the present duties were to be reduced. The total relief he estimated at 5,384,000l. On the subject of the Income-tax-the colossal engine of financeMr. Gladstone said :-"If the Committee have followed me, they will see that we stand on the principle that the Income-tax ought to be marked as a temporary measure; that the public feeling that relief should be given to intelligence and skill, as compared with property, ought to be met, and may be met; that the Income-tax in its operation ought to be mitigated by every rational means compatible with its integrity; and, above all, that it should be associated in the last terms of its existence, as it was in its first, with those remissions of indirect taxation which have so greatly redounded to the profit of this country, and have set so admirable an example-an example that has already in some quarters proved contagious -to the other nations of the earth. I may be permitted to add, that while we have sought to do justice, by the changes we propose in taxation, to intelligence and skill as compared with property-while we have sought to do justice to the great labour community of England by furthering their relief from indirect taxation-we have not been guided by any desire to put one class against another; we have felt we should best maintain our own honour, that we should best meet the views of Parliament, and best promote the interests of the country, by declining to draw any invidious distinction between class and class-by adopting it to ourselves as a sacred aim to diffuse and distribute the burdens if we must, and the benefits if we can, with equal and impartial hand; and we have the consolation of believing, that by proposals such as these we contribute as far as in us lies, not only to develop the material resources of the country, but to knit the various parts of this great nation yet more closely than ever to that throne and to those institutions under which it is our happiness to live."

22.-A body of peasantry, under the direc tions of the Jesuits, attempt to seize Friburg, but are driven into the College, and surrender to the Civic Guards after the loss of a few lives.

25. In a debate on Lord Derby's amend ment on the Canada Clergy Reserves Bill, the Bishop of Oxford took occasion to read an extract from Burke, illustrative of the statement that the Americans became untractable whenever they saw the least attempt to wrest freedom from them by force, or shuffle it from them by chicane.-The Earl of Derby would not admit that by this amendment they attempted either to wrest by force" or "shuffle