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against Ministers :-"It will be observed that the anticipations of certain Irish Roman Catholics respecting the success of their warfare against the Protestant Church and State, under the auspices of these not untried Ministers, into whose hands the all but infant and helpless Queen has been compelled by her unhappy condition to deliver up herself and her indignant people, are to be taken for nothing and as worth nothing but the chimeras of a band of visionary traitors. When they boast that her Majesty will in the end turn Papist, or that she will marry a Papist, or in any manner follow the footsteps of the Coburg family, whom these incendiaries describe as Papists, it is clear enough that the circulators of such insane slanders have carefully concealed from the dupes who listen to them that the legal consequence of such lapse into Popery would be an immediate forfeiture of the British Crown."

30.-Forty bills, public and private, received her Majesty's royal assent to-day, being the first passed in her reign. The ceremony led to some trifling mistakes in consequence of the officials of the House having been so long accustomed to say "his Majesty" and "le Roi

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The Budget introduced to the House of Commons by the Hon. Spring Rice, Chancellor of the Exchequer. The gross income for the ensuing year he estimated at 47,240,000l. and the expenditure at 46,631,4157. Customs he considered likely to produce 21,100,000/., and the Excise 13,8000,000l. The amount of tea cleared for home consumption in 1836 was 49,844,000 lbs, and the duty 3,886,000!.

Pillory abolished by statute.

Considerable political excitement through out the country during the past ten days consequent upon the preparations for a general election to the first Parliament of the young Queen. Lord John Russell writes to the electors of Stroud: "I have endeavoured to strengthen our institutions by reforming them; to obtain complete and full liberty for every religious opinion; to give to Ireland the franchises of Great Britain. But in so doing, I have been cautious not so to innovate as to admit any principle by which our ancient institutions might themselves be endangered; not so to define religious liberty as to weaken the Established Church; not so to provide for the wants and wishes of the people of Ireland as to break or disturb the unity of the Empire. In this spirit I must always oppose any propostion for the adoption of an elective House of Lords, or of the voluntary principle in religion." To the electors of Tamworth, Sir Robert Peel wrote: "In cordial concurrence with that powerful Conservative party with which I am proud to boast of my connexion, looking rather to the defence of great principles than to the mere temporary interests of party, I have given a zealous support to a weak and

inefficient Government, whenever it has of fered an opposition, however lukewarm and hesitating, to projects of further change in the system of representation or in the balance of the constituted authorities of the State." Sir F. Burdett retired from Westminster at this time in favour of Sir George Murray, Tory, and mention is made that Maidstone was to be contested by Mr. Disraeli, the younger.

July 3.-A Bill for carrying on the government of the country in case of a demise of the Crown when the next heir was not in England, read a second time in the House of Lords. It provided that the great officers of state, the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Chief Justice of the King's Bench, and an indefinite number of persons to be named by the heir-presumptive, should carry on the government in the event of the Queen's death.

4.-Grand Junction Railway, from Liverpool to Birmingham, opened.

5.-The King of Hanover issues a proclamation calling in question the Constitution of 1833. The Constitution, he affirmed, was neither in form or substance binding on him, and he was not satisfied that it gave any guarantee for the permanent prosperity of his subjects. Writing to the Duke of Buckingham, he says: "I had a most difficult card to play, and until I could see my way plainly I could not act true to my principles.. Radicalism has been here all the order of the day, and all the lower class appointed to office were more or less imbued with these laudable principles.. But I have cut the wings of this democracy."

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8. The Earl of Durham having been consulted by the Reformers of his own county on the approaching elections, writes to Mr. Russell Bowlby: "I wish to rally as large a portion of the British people as possible around the existing institutions of the country-the Throne, Lords, Commons, and the Established Church. I do not wish to make new institutions, but to preserve and strengthen the old. It has been my ruling principle throughout my political life to endeavour to bring all classesespecially the middle and lower-within the pale of the true, not the spurious, constitution. I have ever wished to give the latter an interest in the preservation of privileges which exclusion would render obnoxious to them; to make them feel that whilst the Crown enjoyed its prerogatives, and the upper classes their honours, they also were invested with privileges most valuable to them; and, moreover, that all, separately and collectively, rested on the common basis of national utility." A Durham Ministry was spoken of at this time, and several candidates for the new Parliament avowed themselves to be supporters of his lordship's policy.

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The fourth centenary of the invention of printing celebrated by a festival at Mayence, extending over three days. Thorwaldsen's statue of Guttenberg was unveiled with great ceremony on the occasion. A banquet at Edinburgh, in honour of the event, was presided over by the poet Campbell.

15. The forces of the Queen of Spain encounter the Carlists near Valencia, and gain an important victory. Don Carlos, who had ventured incautiously near the city walls, retired to the village of Brunol, and latterly to the mountains.

17.-Parliament prorogued by the Queen in person. The Royal Speech for the occasion was prepared with unusual care, and delivered in a style which disarmed criticism. "It will be my care," her Majesty said, "to strengthen our institutions, civil and ecclesiastical, by discreet improvement wherever improvement is required, and to do all in my power to compose and allay animosity and discord." The Queen read the Speech deliberately, with a small but sweet voice heard over all the House. Her demeanour was described at the time as being characterised by a natural grace and modest self-possession. This being the first visit of the Queen to Parliament, an unusual amount of enthusiasm was shown. Every spot from which a view of the pageant could be obtained was densely crowded, and deafening cheers greeted the youthful sovereign at every step. Majesty was dressed in a white satin robe, decorated with jewels and gold, the Garter on her arm, and a mantle of crimson velvet over her shoulders. In the Gazette of the same evening appeared a proclamation dissolving this Parliament (the third of William IV.). Writs for the election of members to serve in the new House were despatched the same evening. They were made returnable on the 11th September.

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18.-A letter designed, it was said, to influence the Irish elections, sent by Lord John Russell to the Earl of Mulgrave, expressing "her Majesty's entire approbation of your past conduct, and her desire that you should continue to be guided by the same principles on which you have hitherto acted. The Queen willingly recognises in her Irish subjects a spirit of loyalty and devotion towards her person and government. Her Majesty is desirous to see

them in the full enjoyment of that civii and political equality to which, by recent statute, they are fully entitled; and her Majesty is persuaded that when invidious distinctions are altogether obliterated, her throne will be still more secure and her people more truly united."

18. The Marquis and Marchioness of Londonderry urge their Durham tenantry to vote for the Conservative candidate (H. T. Liddell) at the ensuing election. "We assure all those who answer to the solemn appeal that we make to them who step forward with heart and soul in the Conservative cause to rescue the country from Radical domination-that the sense of the obligation to us personally will be for ever registered in our memories; and that the grati tude of ourselves and our family, to those who live around us and upon our property, will be in proportion to this important demand we make upon them to prove their fidelity and their attachment to our sentiments and confidence in our opinions. We send these our recommendations to our esteemed friend, the Honourable Henry Liddell, to make every use of he shall think fit; and we have begged him especially to report to us those who answer zealously our call, and those who are unmindful and indifferent to our earnest wishes. (Signed) VANE LONDONDERRY; FRANCES ANN VANE

LONDONDERRY."

24. An extraordinary and fatal parachute descent was made by Robert Cocking, painter, from Mr. Green's balloon, which rose in Vauxhall Gardens about 8 o'clock. Over Kennington Common Mr. Green said the balloon was stationary for a time, and Cocking, then swinging in his basket below, wished to know their altitude. "About 1,000 feet," Mr. Green replied. "Very well; let me know when we arrive at about 1,500 feet, and at every additional 500 feet, until we arrive at 5,000 feet, for that is the altitude at which I wish to descend." This was done, and the parachute severed, when the balloon shot up with the velocity of a rocket. The parachute, unable to resist the pressure of the atmosphere, collapsed round the poor inventor, and came thundering to the earth. The fall was seen by several people in the neighbourhood of Nor. wood. The unfortunate man died almost instantly from the injuries he received on reaching the ground. Mr. Green and a companion made a descent at Maidstone about 9 o'clock.

25.-First experiment with the electric telegraph between Euston Square and Camden Town stations, the North-Western Company having sanctioned the laying down of wires between those places immediately upon the taking out of the patent by Messrs. Wheatstone and Cook. Besides these two operators, Mr. Fox and Mr. R. Stephenson were present to witness the infant triumphs of this wonderful invention.

27. At an election dinner at Stroud, Lord John Russell thus referred to the term "Conservative," which the Tories were now using in

place of the old name :-"If they are really and truly Conservatives as regards the general institutions of the country, no name is deserving of more adherents, or would meet with more general approval; but with them it is a mere change of name, a mere alias to persons who do not like to be known under their former designation, and who under the name of Conservatives mean to be conservative only of every abuse of everything that is rotten-of everything that is corrupt. If that, then, is the name that pleases them,-if they say that the distinction of Whig and Tory should no longer be kept up-I am ready, in opposition to their name of Conservative, to take the name of Reformer, and to stand by that opposition. (Cheers.) And in looking back to history, taking their sense of the denomination of Conservative, I think one may be as proud of the name of Reformer as they can be of the name of Conservative.

What was

Luther? Luther was a Reformer. Leo the Tenth, who opposed the Reformation, was a Conservative. What was Galileo? Galileo, who made great discoveries in science, was a Keformer. The Inquisition, who put him into prison, was Conservative. The Christians who suffered martyrdom in Rome were Reformers. The Emperor who put these Christians to death, Nero, was a Conservative." The term here commented on was thought to have been first applied to a political party by Mr. Croker in an article in the Quarterly Review for Jan. 1830. "We despise," he wrote, "and abominate the details of partisan warfare, but we are now, as we always have been, decidedly and conscientiously attached to what is called the Tory, and which might with more propriety be called the Conservative, party." Reviewing Dumont's "Mirabeau " in July, 1832, Macaulay described "Conservative" as a new cant word.

29. In the elections up to this date, the Whig and Tory gains and losses were nearly balanced. In the City of London Mr. Grote was elected (by a majority of 6 over Mr. Palmer) along with Wood, Crawford, and Pattison. Mr. Disraeli was successful at Maidstone (along with Mr. Wyndham Lewis) by 688 votes against Colonel Thompson's 529. Mr. Lewis was unseated on petition, and Mr. Fector, Tory, elected after a contest. Roebuck and his colleague Palmer were defeated by two Tories at Bath, Sir James Graham in Cumberland, and Hume in Middlesex. The latter afterwards found a seat at Kilkenny, rendered vacant by the election of O'Connell for Dublin. The West Riding of Yorkshire was carried after a keen contest by two Whig candidates, Lord Morpeth and Sir George Strickland.

August 1.-Died at Edinburgh, aged 61, William Geikie, designer of popular etchings. 5. Died at her residence in Piccadilly, Harriet, Duchess of St. Albans, aged sixty

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Her father, Matthew Mellon, held a commission in the East India Company's service, but died shortly before she was born.

Her mother married a second time, and afterwards went on the stage, taking young Harriet with her for juvenile characters. She continued on the stage, meeting with great favour, till her marriage with Mr. Coutts, the banker, in 1815. He died in 1822, at the advanced age of eighty-seven, leaving her universal legatee, with a share in the business of the banking-house. The personalty was under 600,000l. In 1827 she married William, Duke of St. Albans, then in the twenty-seventh year of his age, and on her death bequeathed to his Grace 10,000l. per annum, Sir Francis Burdett's house in Piccadilly, and an estate at Highgate.

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7. A meeting held at the "King's Head," Poultry, in aid of the Paisley weavers, 14,000 of whom had been out of employ for four months.

At a dinner in the Town Hall, Tamworth, held to celebrate the return of Tory candidates, Sir Robert Peel warned his hearers that they had now a duty to perform to the Constitution. "It might be disagreeable, and indeed inconvenient, to them to attend to the registration of voters which annually took place throughout the country. All this might be revolting to them; but they might depend upon it that it was better they should take that trouble than that they should allow the Constitution to become the victim of false friends, or that they should be trampled under the hoof of a ruthless Democracy. The advice which had been given to some persons was, Agitate, agitate, agitate!' The advice which he would give to them would be this : Register, register, register!""

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12.-General Espartero enters Madrid at the head of the Royal troops, but is coldly received.

14.-Lord Durham writes to the Sunderland electors :-"Be assured of this, that in all circumstances at all hazards-be the personal consequences what they may-I will ever respond to your call. Whenever my aid to the cause of Reform and liberal principles is required, it shall be freely and cordially given."

A boy three years and a half old murdered in the playground at Leeds by an idiot youth named Jeffgate.

16. The Gravesend steamboat Medway, with about 150 passengers on board, takes fire in the Thames off Northfleet. One person was drowned and another burnt.

Died, aged 68, William Daniell, R. A.

18. An extraordinary session of the Parliament of Lower Canada opened by the Earl of Gosford, Governor-in-chief. M. Papineau, Speaker of the Lower House, led the opposition to the Government proposals regarding the application of the revenues of the province.

19. The elections being now over, it is found that the Liberals replaced by Tories amounted to 66, and the Tories replaced by

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The first session of the twenty-fifth Congress of the United States opened with a message from the new President, Martin Van Buren. The document dealt mainly with one subject, the financial embarrassment of the country, for the consideration of which Congress had been especially convened three months earlier than usual.

Died at his cottage, near Durham,_aged 98, Count Barowloski, the well-known Polish dwarf. His height was under thirty-six inches, but his body was of the most perfect symmetry, and his mind cultivated to an extraordinary degree by travel and study.

8.-Died at Geneva, aged 75, Sir S. Egerton Brydges, critic and genealogist.

9.-Collision at the Kenyon Junction of the Liverpool and Manchester railway, causing the death of one woman and an infant, and injury to several passengers.

News received of the mutiny and murders on board the British ship Fanny Captain M'Kay. A mixed crew of Manilla men and Lascars fell upon the Europeans, murdered the commander and other officers, and plundered the ship, which they afterwards sunk.

13. Letter received by the Geographical Society from Captain Back, R. N., describing the obstacles which prevented his carrying out the mission of discovery on the N. W. shore of the Hudson Bay territories, on which he had

started in H. M. ship Terror in June 1836, and from which he was now returning.

14.-Fire at an india-rubber and shell shop in the Strand. Three inmates on the second floor-Mr. Harris, his child, and servant-lost their lives.

19.-Musical festival at Birmingham, extending over four days, and remarkable, among many similar displays, for Mendelssohn's playing of one of Bach's preludes and fugues. The great composer's own oratorio of St. Paul” was performed on the second day of the festival, and Handel's "Messiah" on the third.

20.-Captain Alexander Burnes-" Bokhara Burnes," as he was known in London society, from his travels in Central Asiaarrives at Cabul as head of the commercial mission sent thither by the Governor-General, Lord Auckland. He was received with great honour by Akhbar Khan, and conducted to the court of his father Dost Mahomed. At a conference on the 24th, the Ameer said: "Instead of renewing the conflict with Runjeet Singh, it would be a source of real gratification to me if the British Government would counsel me how to act-none of our other neighbours can avail me; and in return I would pledge myself to forward its commercial and political views." Burnes thereupon assured him, that the British Government would exert itself to secure peace between the Punjaub and Affghanistan; and added, that although he could not hold out any promise of interference for the restoration of Peshawur, which had been won and preserved by the sword, he believed that the Maharajah intended to make some change in its management, but that it sprang from bimself and not from the British Government.

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October 3.-The old royal stud, bequeathed to the Fitz-Clarence family by the late King, sold at the Hampton Court paddocks. Total realized, 15,692 guineas.

4.-The Queen leaves Windsor for Brighton, where she met with a reception of surpassing splendour, and was presented with an address.

5.-Died at Aremberg, aged 54, Hortense Eugénie de Beauharnais, ex-Queen of Holland, mother of Prince Louis Napoleon.

8.-Died, in his 72d year, Samuel Wesley, musician, son of Charles Wesley and nephew of the founder of Methodism.

13.-The French in Algeria. To-day General Dameremont attacks Constantina, the stronghold of Achmet Bey and the capital of ancient Numidia, which is carried by assault after a desperate resistance.

15.-Major Rawlinson encounters the Russian agent Vickovich journeying with presents to the camp of Mahomed Shah, at Herat. "I tracked them," he writes, "for some distance along the high road, and then found that they had turned off to a gorge in the hills. Then at length I came upon the group, seated at breakfast by the side of a clear sparkling rivulet. The officer, for such he evidently was, was a young man of slight make, very fair complexion, with bright eyes, and a look of great animation. He rose and bowed to me as I rode up, but said nothing. I addressed him in French-the general language of communication between Europeans in the East, but he shook his head. I then spoke English, and he answered in Russian. When I tried Persian, be seemed not to understand a word; at length he expressed himself hesitatingly in Turcoman, or Uzbeg Turkish. I knew just sufficient of this language to carry on a simple conversation, but not enough to be inquisitive.

This was

evidently what my friend wanted, for when he found I was not strong enough in Jaghatai to proceed very rapidly, he rattled on with his rough Turkish as glibly as possible. All I could find out was that he was a bona fide Russian officer carrying presents from the Emperor to Mahomed Shah. More he would not admit; so, after smoking another pipe with him, I remounted, and reached the royal camp beyond Nishapoor before dark. I had an immediate audience of the Shah, and in the course of common conversation, mentioning to his Majesty my adventure of the morning, he replied, "Bringing presents to me! Why, I have nothing to do with him; he is sent direct from the Emperor to Dost Mahomed of Cabul, and I am merely asked to help him on his journey.'" Major Rawlinson at once returned to Teheran to acquaint Mr. M'Neill with the communication which was going on between St. Petersburg and Cabul.

17. Sir F. B. Head writes from Toronto to Sir J. Colborne, Lower Canada :-" In reference to that part of your letter of the 10th instant (this moment received) in which you state that you have made arrangements for assembling troops at certain points to aid the civil authorities, and to encourage the loyal, which will compel you to withdraw from Upper Canada as many companies of the 24th as I can spare you, to show a good front at this crisis, I have pleasure in being able to inform you, that excepting the small detachment at Bytown, I consider that this province can dispense with as many of the troops as you may deem it desirable to require." About a month later Sir Francis was in danger of being made a prisoner in his own capital.

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Lord Durham referred to the late defeat which his party had sustained in his own county. "Having been abroad for a considerable time,' he said, "I am not prepared to trace all the small and minor causes which have led to that temporary eclipse of your former Liberal ascendency; suffice it to say that it has happened, and that if I live it shall never happen again.' Lord Durham expressed himself as favourable to the ballot, if no other means could be devised of protecting the voter.

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17. Died at Weimar, aged 59, Johann Nepomuk Hummel, composer and pianoforte player.

23.-Meeting of the Six Counties at St. Charles, Lower Canada, to protest against the threats of the English Parliament to annihilate the fundamental laws of the colony.

25.-Heard in the Court of Common Pleas the case of libel raised by Mr. Easthope, M. P. one of the proprietors of the Morning Chronicle, against C. M. Westmacott, of the Age. The libel was contained in a placard issued for electioneering purposes, and insinuating that the plaintiff had failed to repay money borrowed from a friend. A verdict for 40/. damage was given against the defendant.

26.-Meeting at Manchester to promote a system of national education.

27.-Don Carlos arrives at Durango in his flight to the north side of the Ebro.

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29. From Cabul, Burnes writes to Captain Jacob:-"With war come intrigues, and I have had the good fortune to find out all the doings of the Czar and his emissaries here, where they have sent letters and presents. After proving this, I plainly asked the Governor-General if such things were to be allowed, and I got a reply a week ago altering all my instructions, giving me power to go on to Herat, and anywhere, indeed, I could do good. The first exercise of this authority has beer. to despatch a messenger to Candahar, to tell them to discontinue their intercourse with Persia and Russia, on pain of displeasure; and not before it was time, for a son of the chief of the city, with presents for the Russian ambassador, is ready to set out for Teheran." Next day: "Here a hundred things are passing of the highest interest. Dost Mahomed Khan has fallen into all our views, and in so doing has either thought for himself or followed my counsel, but for doing the former I give him every credit, and things now stand so that I think we are on the threshold of a negotiation with King Runjeet, the basis of which will be his withdrawal from Peshawur, and a Barukzye receiving it as tributary from Lahore, the chief of Cabul sending his son to ask pardon. What say you to this, after all that has been urged by Dost Mahomed Khan's putting forth extravagant pretensions? Runjeet will accede to the plan, I am certain. I have on behalf of Government agreed to stand as mediator with the parties, and Dost Mahomed has cut asunder

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