months for refusing to pay a church rate of 5. 6d. An unknown individual paid the rate and costs.

13.-Severe storm on the north-east coast. The Syria was broken to pieces near Sunderland pier, and four of her crew drowned. In the Irish Sea the fury of the gale was also severely felt. The City of Bristol steamship, trading between Waterford and Bristol, foundered off Warnes Head, with twenty-nine persons on board. Only two were saved.

Contest for the High Stewardship of Cambridge University. On this, the third and last day of polling, the numbers stood, Lord Lyndhurst, 973; Lord Lyttelton, 488.

Great Britain recognises the independence of Texas by entering into a treaty with that State.

19.-Burnes writes from Cabul to a friend at Bombay: "What a year has been the past! -not to me, I mean, but to our affairs in the East. Further submission to what was going on, and our days of supremacy in the East were numbered. As it is we have brought upon ourselves some additional half-million of annual expenditure, and ere 1840 ends I predict that our frontiers and those of Russia will touch

that is, the states depending upon either of us will-and that is the same thing." A month later: "Everything past and present has been cast into the shade by the expedition which the Russians have now pushed into Central Asia. I have known it for eight weeks past, and had numerous and authentic reports concerning their waggons, matériel, &c., all of which are on a grand scale, giving rise to serious apprehensions that their plans are not confined to the chastisement of the petty Khan of Khiva; indeed our policy at Herat is already out of joint, and we have reason to know that Russia looks from Khiva to that city. Her attack on Khiva is justified by all the laws of nations, and in a country like England, where slave-dealing is so odiously detested, ought to find favour in men's eyes rather than blame. Yet the time chosen wears a bad appearance, if it at once does not lead to the inference that Russia has put forth her forces merely to counteract our policy. The latter is my opinion; and by our advance on Cabul we have thus hastened the great crisis. England and Russia will divide Asia between them, and the two empires will enlarge like circles in the water till they are lost in nothing; and future generations will search for both of us in these regions as we now seek for the remains of Alexander and his Greeks."

21. This afternoon, at ten minutes before 2 o'clock, the Queen was safely delivered of a daughter-the Princess Royal.

27. The anxiety which had been for some time felt as to the safety of the President steamship, was allayed this morning by her safe arrival at Liverpool. She had left New York on the 2d, but was compelled by a severe head

wind to put back again, and started a second time on the 9th.

27.-In one of the adjourned debates which took place in the French Chamber on the Address, M. Thiers thus sought to justify his warlike policy :-"I wished to arm in order to obtain a modification of the treaty. I resolved on obtaining it, and I should have obtained it; and if I had not, I declare now, that I would have gone to war, for the honour and interest of my country demanded it. When I saw that the treaty was being hastily executed, I wrote as follows to M. Guizot: We are arming, constantly arming; and when France shall be ready, if an arrangement does not take place, we shall have war. (Great sensation.) I do not hesitate in adopting an extreme course when I see that the honour of my country is about to be compromised.' (Approbation.) Yes, gentlemen, I would have demanded the modification of the treaty. I would have demanded it when France was ready for action; and if it had been then refused, although, as a statesman, I know perfectly well how terrible the word war is for a country, I would have cried War, war!' and I should have found an echo in France. ('Bravo! bravo!' from the Left, and great agitation in the Chamber.) Let me be kept from power; let me be banished for ever; but let it not be said that, as a French Minister, I would have ever permitted language insulting to the honour of France. Yes, gentlemen, whenever Europe, the whole of Europe, should say to us, 'If you do not choose such or such a thing, we will do it without you, and in spite of you,' I would cry 'War.' Let us be what our fathers were; and let us never descend from the rank to which

they raised us."-General Bugeaud said: "An Austrian general, M. de Lassy, had published a book in favour of a war of detail, of cordons, and of petty manoeuvres. This was

the kind of war that Europe waged against the French Revolution, which gave it breathingtime, and at last success. In the first campaign, the French were in general beaten. (Loud interruption.) It was useful to state these things; for crowds believed that it was merely necessary to sing the 'Marseillaise' in order to rout all the armies of Europe. It was necessary to dissipate such illusions, and to show that the French Revolutionary armies were always beaten till they learned discipline."-M. Odilon Barrot here exclaimed, "that enthusiasm and exaltation were a force."-General Bugeaud replied, that he had infinite respect for the Marseillaise," but he thought it unable to secure victory. In action it was better not to sing, and the most formidable troops were silent ones. If the enemy had concentrated 100,000 troops in the first campaign of the Revolution, they would have marched to Paris. (Murmurs.) He knew the strength of France, which lay in the arms of its twenty-four millions of peasants and eight millions of artisans-men, fortunately, who never spilled any ink. "Europe knew this, and Europe will not

treat us with disdain."-M. Berryer spoke for war in support of M. Thiers, and M. Lamartine for peace in support of M. Guizot. After one of the most stormy discussions which had taken place during the King's reign, the Address, with some modifications, was carried by 247 to 161 votes.

27.-Commodore Napier enters into a Convention, in terms of which Mehemet Ali consents to evacuate Syria, restore the Turkish fleet, and receive Egypt as an hereditary fief of the Porte.

30.-The Belle Poule frigate, commanded by the Prince de Joinville, arrives off Cherbourg, with the remains of the Emperor Napoleon.

December 2.-A youth, named William Jones ("the boy Jones"), gains access to Buckingham Palace, and continues secreted there several days. His presence was first detected by Mrs. Lilley, the nurse of the Princess Royal, who summoned some attendants, and had the intruder drawn from his hiding-place under the sofa. He gave various accounts of the manner in which he obtained admission, as well as his object, but the Privy Council did not think there was much cause for alarm. He was therefore sentenced to three months' imprisonment as a rogue and vagabond.

- Admiral Stopford disallows the Convention concluded between Mehemet Ali and Commodore Napier: "I am very sorry," he writes, "to find that Commodore Napier should have entered into a Convention with your Highness for the evacuation of Syria by the Egyptian troops, which he had no authority to do, and which I cannot approve or ratify. I hope this hasty and unauthorized convention will not occasion any embarrassment to your Highness. It was no doubt done from an amicable motive, though under a limited view of the state of affairs in Syria." In another letter dated at sea, off Cyprus, on the 6th, Admiral Stopford transmitted to the Pasha the official authority from the British Government on which he had acted.

5.-M. Guizot declares his policy to be the maintenance of peace with the present force of 500,000 men, as opposed to the warlike demands of M. Thiers for 900,000,

6.-Prosecution of Hetherington in the Court of Queen's Bench for issuing a blasphemous publication, entitled "Haslam's Letters to the Clergy of all Denominations." Verdict, guilty. Sentence deferred.

13. The Portuguese Council of State determine to resist the demands made by Spain regarding the navigation of the Douro.

15.-Remains of the Emperor Napoleon lid with great pomp in the tomb at the Invalides, Paris. In the present state of parties in France some disturbance was feared, but all passed off in comparative quiet.

16. The Court of Session give judgment in the Strathbogie case. Two sets of defences were lodged, the one for the majority of the clerical members, the seven ministers whose suspension had been declared illegal; the other for the minority of four clergymen who, according to the decisions of the Church Court, formed the legal Presbytery. The judgment of the Court was, that the Presbytery proceed forthwith to admit and receive Mr. Edwards as presented to Marnock. Lord Fullerton was in favour of delay, but was overruled by the Lord President, and Lords Gillies and Mackenzie.

17.-John Green, a "ganger," or superintendent of labourers, on the Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway, murdered by two Irishmen at Crosshill. One of them struck Green on the head with a long iron poker, while the other repeatedly jumped upon the body. The outrage had its origin in jealousy between the English and Irish workmen on the line.

25.-Loss of life in Francis-street Roman Catholic Chapel, Dublin, during a panic caused by the spread of a false report that the building was falling.

29.-Admiral Elliot resigns command of the fleet in Chinese waters.

A majority of the Strathbogie Presbytery resolve to induct Mr. Edwards to the parish in conformity with the peremptory orders of the Court of Session.

31.-The Court of Directors of the East India Company counsel the Supreme Government on the British position in Affghanistan :"We pronounce our decided opinion that for many years to come the restored monarchy will have need of a British force in order to main. tain peace in its own territory, and prevent aggression from without. We must add, that to attempt to accomplish this by a small force, or by the mere influence of British Residents, will, in our opinion, be most unwise and frivolous, and that we should prefer the entire abandonment of the country, and a frank confession of complete failure, to any such policy... To whatever quarter we direct our attention, we behold the restored monarchy menaced by dangers which cannot possibly be encountered by the military means at the disposal of the minister of the Court of Shah Soojah; and we again desire you seriously to consider which of the two alternatives (a speedy retreat from Affghanistan, or a considerable increase in the military force of that country), you may find it your duty to adopt. We are convinced that you have no middle course to pursue with safety or with honour."

1841.

January 3.-Thunderstorm in the Metropolis and neighbourhood. Spitalfields Church and Streatham Church were seriously damaged.

3.-Fire at Dundee, originating from a stove in a passage betwixt the Steeple and South churches. The East Church, or Cathedral, a remarkable and much-admired building, and also the South and Cross churches, were destroyed.

4.-Wreck of the Liverpool and Dublin packet Thames, off St. Ives; 56 lives lost, including the captain.

7.-Commodore Bremer opens fire from his squadron on the Bogue Forts, Canton River, and reduces two, over which he plants the British flag.

Death at Lambeth Palace, caused by workmen heating a pan of charcoal in the room they were repairing.

8.- Alexander M'Rae sentenced to death by the High Court of Justiciary, Edinburgh, for a capital offence committed on the body of Marjory M'Intosh, near Docgarroch Loch, on the Caledonian Canal,

11. Samuel Scott, the American diver, accidentally hangs himself when performing his rope-trick on Waterloo Bridge, preparatory to leaping into the river.

Mehemet Ali consents to give up Syria, and receive from the Sultan the hereditary government of Egypt. He restored the fleet on the 14th.

15.-Died at Tarbes, his native place, aged 86, Bertrand Barère de Vieuzac, a prominent member of the "Committee of Public Safety," and one of the most unscrupulous and bloodthirsty agents of the Revolution.

16.-Inundation at Brentford, caused by the bursting of the banks and locks of the Grand Junction Canal. At Shrewton and Maddington, on the same day, there was a considerable destruction of property by floods, from the sudden melting of snow in the neighbourhood.

18.-O'Connell visits the Orange district of Ulster in the course of his Repeal agitation, and meets with numerous evidences of unpopularity.

19. The Court of Queen's Bench issue a writ prohibiting the Chancellor of the University of Oxford (the Duke of Wellington) from proceeding in a suit which had been instituted in the Chancellor's Court against a tradesman of Oxford, for bringing an action against a member of the University.

20.-The Emperor of China issues an edict: "Whereas Keshen has reported to us the measures he has taken in reference to the circumstances of the English foreigners; that as these rebellious foreigners are without reason, and refuse to listen to our commands, a dreadful example of severity ought to be made in their regard. If the rebellious foreigners dare to approach our inner shores, let them be immediately exterminated." Keshen, in detailing to the Emperor the various encroachments of the barbarians, writes: "Your slave is vexed to death thinking of these things, even till he loathes his food, and till sleep has forsaken his

eyelids, forasmuch as he does not shrink from the heavy guilt he is incurring in taking all these facts, the result of his diligent inquiries, and annoying with them the ears of Heaven's son." Keshen was soon after degraded, and delivered over to the Board of Punishment. 20.-Charles Elliot, H. M. Plenipotentiary, announces the conclusion of preliminary arrangeThe ments for a treaty of peace with China. island of Hong Kong to be ceded to England, an indemnity of six million dollars to be paid, and the trade of Canton to be opened up. The Emperor disavowed the Treaty, and hostilities were resumed early in February.

21.-Great Radical meeting on Holbeck Heath, Leeds, designed to bring about a coalition with the Chartists. Resolutions in favour of universal suffrage were almost unanimously carried; but the speakers differed widely from each other on the remaining "points" of the charter.

The "moderate" section of the Strathbogie Presbytery meet at Marnoch to induct Mr. Edwards into the ministry of that parish. The circumstances connected with this ordination occasioned much discussion. A protest against the proceedings was read amid great excitement, and at its conclusion the audience set up a loud shout of approval. A portion, representing, it was said, the parishioners of Marnoch, then withdrew, but the number left in the church was still very considerable, and the shouting, cheering, and hissing continued in a manner which made the carrying out of the business of the court an impossibility. An attempt was made to prevent the moderator from entering the pulpit, and pieces of wood nails, iron bolts, &c. were plentifully thrown among the members of Presbytery. This continued for about an hour and a half, when the fury of the audience gave signs of having expended itself. Words of warning and remonstrance were then offered by two or three known sympathisers with the non-intrusion movement, and the latter part of the ordination services was conducted in the midst of comparative order and quiet.

23.-Died in Bethlehem Hospital, aged 69 years, James Hatfield, who was tried at the Old Bailey, in September 1802, for firing a loaded pistol at his Majesty King George III., and acquitted on the ground of insanity.

26.-Parliament opened by the Queen in person. The Royal Speech made reference to the pacification of the Levant, the disturbances in China, and the differences between Spain and Portugal as to the passage of the Douro. Measures were promised relating to the improvement of the administration of justice, and for amending the laws relating to the poor. The Address was agreed to without a division after a languid debate, having reference chiefly to affairs in the Levant.

29.--Mr. Serjeant Talfourd obtains leave to re-introduce the Copyright Bill of last year.

February 1.-Captain Elliot and Commodore Bremer issue a proclamation to the inhabitants of Hong Kong, informing them that the city had become part of the dominion of the Queen of England, and that natives residing in the island must consider themselves as her subjects.

Lord Shaftesbury presents the report of a Committee recommending that the case of the Earl of Cardigan, removed by a writ of certiorari from the Central Criminal Court, be taken up by the Peers on the 16th; the House to be fitted up for the trial, and the judges summoned to attend.

2.-Lord Stanley re-introduces his Registration (Ireland) Bill. A rival Government measure was brought forward by Lord Morpeth on the 4th.

— The Antarctic expedition under the command of Captain Ross reaches latitude 78° 4′ south, being the farthest point attained by it, and nearly four degrees beyond that accomplished by any previous navigator.

5.-The Duke of Wellington taken suddenly ill in the House of Lords, and conveyed to Apsley House.

6. Mr. Justice Littledale takes his leave of the Bar in the Court of Queen's Bench.

9.-Lord John Russell's Bill for discharging the present Poor Law Commissioners read a second time; Mr. Disraeli's amendment for delay being rejected by 201 to 54 votes.

10.-Christening of the Princess Royal in Buckingham Palace.

- Lord Sydenham assumes the government of the now united provinces of Upper and Lower Canada.

12. The Commons vote a pension of 2,000l. per annum to Lord Keane and his two next heirs.

13. A banquet, attended by several Cabinet Ministers, and many members of Parliament, given by the New Zealand Company, to Lord John Russell.

14.-The Buffalo Advertiser publishes a long circumstantial account of the destruction of Niagara Falls. "At half-past seven a wide space of the frontal bastion near to Goat Island fell down, but what was actually taking place could only be surmised, as the great confluence of water hid the immediate stage of operations from sight. At half-past eight the Middle Tower and all the adjoining groundwork had disappeared. The tower sank into the gulf like a subsiding wave. Goat Island followed next. On the British side, the wall of loose friable rock was gored and ploughed away until the Table Rock, so much resorted to by visitors, fell down in fragments, the spiral staircase toppled, and for a while it was expected

that the hotel, would follow. It still stands, though in a perilous posture, all the furniture having been removed.'

16.-The Earl of Cardigan tried in the House of Lords for shooting at Captain Tuckett, with intent to do him bodily harm. The case broke down on a formal objection raised by the prisoner's counsel, Sir William Follett. The prosecution, he said, had failed in proving a material part of their case, inasmuch as no evidence had been given that Captain Harvey Garnett Phipps Tuckett was the person alleged to have been on Wimbledon Common on the 12th September last, and whose card only bore the name Captain Harvey Tuckett. The peers present returned a verdict of "Not guilty," with the exception of the Duke of Cleveland, who added, "Not guilty, legally." Ministers defeated by a majority of 31 in a House of 223, on Mr. Cresswell's motion for a committee on the Danish claims.

19. Collision in the Irish Channel between the American emigrant ship Governor Fenner, and the steamer Nottingham, trading between Dublin and Liverpool. The former sank almost immediately, with passengers and crew to the number of 124. Only the master and mate were saved.

Wynyard Park, the seat of the Marquis of Londonderry, destroyed by fire, supposed to have originated in a flue in the chapel forming the west wing of the premises, and first seen about midnight. There were only two servants in the house at the time, the Marquis and Marchioness being abroad with their attendants. The whole of the building, and by far the greater part of the rich furnishings, were destroyed.

22. Decision in Exchequer on the longpending question regarding the validity of the charter of the city of Manchester. The question was raised in a suit Rutter v. Chapman, tried in 1839, before Mr. Baron Maule, at Liverpool, when the learned judge directed the jury to find for the validity, subject to a bill of exceptions for argument in Exchequer. The Attorney-General conducted the case for the Liberals, and Mr. Cresswell that of the Tory opponents of the corporation. The original judgment in favour of the charter was now confirmed on all points, and costs allowed. The other Privy Council charters affected by this decision were Birmingham, Bolton, and Devonport.

25.-After a debate protracted over three nights, Lord Morpeth's Irish Registration Bill is read a second time by the narrow majority of 299 to 294 votes. Lord Stanley led the Opposition. There were 23 "pairs" in the division, and 13 absentees; one seat (King's County)

was vacant.

27.-Fall of two houses adjoining the Dis patch office, in Fleet-street. The tenants being warned of their danger, no life was lost, nor was there any casualty of the slightest nature.

March 2.-In answer to Lord Dalhousie, Lord Aberdeen states that though his bill of last year had been well received by nearly onehalf of the Church of Scotland, yet, as it had been furiously condemned by the other, and opposed also by the Government, he had resolved to abandon it, and had no other measure to propose,-a resolution in which he was confirmed by recent proceedings of the dominant party in the Church.

3.-Commenced at the Central Criminal Court the trial of the two Wallaces, charged as accessaries in the wilful destruction of the ship Dryad, on her voyage from Liverpool to Santa Cruz, in October 1839, for the purpose of defrauding certain assurance companies and others. In summing up, the Lord Chief Justice said the jury must be satisfied that the captain wilfully cast the ship away with the intention of defrauding the underwriters; second, that the goods insured never had been shipped; and lastly, that a concerted scheme was prepared in London, to which the prisoners were consenting parties, and by whose aid it was carried out. They were each found guilty, and sentenced to transportation for life.

Died, aged 77, Claude Perrin Victor, Duke of Belluno; created Marshal of France on the field of Friedland.

4. A gravedigger buried in St. Bride's churchyard, by the falling in of the grave in which he was working.

5.-Mr. Macaulay brings forward the Army Estimates, amounting for the year to 6,158,000l.

Rev. Dr. Gordon, Edinburgh, writes to the Duke of Argyll, that the Non-intrusion Committee had no instructions from the General Assembly even to propose the abolition of patronage, as one way of settling the present difficulties of the Church of Scotland, far less to press it as the only way of putting an end to the present unhappy collision between the civil and ecclesiastical courts.

15.-Meeting of the Vice-Chancellor and heads of houses at Oxford, to censure No. XC. of "Tracts for the Times." It was resolved"That modes of interpretation such as are suggested in the said tract, evading rather than explaining the sense of the Thirty-nine Articles, and reconciling subscription to them with the adoption of errors which they were designed to counteract, defeat the object, and are inconsistent with the due observance, of the statutes of the University." The following day the Rev. J. H. Newman addressed a letter to the ViceChancellor, acknowledging himself to be the author of Tract XC., and stating that his opinion remained unchanged of the truth and honesty of the principle therein maintained, and of the necessity of putting it forth. "I am sincerely sorry for the trouble and anxiety I have given to the members of the Board, and I beg to return my thanks to them for an act which, even though founded on misapprehen

sion, may be made as profitable to myself as it is religiously and charitably intended."

15. The boy Jones enters Buckingham Palace for the third time, but is seized almost immediately by a constable on duty. Instead of sending him to prison again, the police magistrate before whom he was brought induced his parents to let him be placed on board one of her Majesty's ships.

18. Her Majesty's forces, after reducing the Chinese forts, and forcing their way to Canton, take possession of the Britisk factory. On the 20th a truce was agreed upon between Captain Elliot and the Imperial Commissioner Yang.

21. The Rev. Mr. Guthrie, a prominent Non-intrusion agitator, addresses various meetings at Dublin on the Church of Scotland. "I will cheerfully go," he said, "where my fathers went before, to the dark dungeon; I will even go, like James Guthrie, to the Grass-market, and lay my head on the block; but I will sooner suffer this right hand to be cut off than lay it on the head of an Edwards of Marnoch."

22.-The Rolls Court order a commission to examine certain aged witnesses at the Court of Hanover, regarding the royal jewels bequeathed to the House of Hanover by Queen Charlotte.

28.-Robbery of plate and various articles of vertu at Windsor Castle, supposed to have been committed by a person in the employ of the Inspector-General of Palaces.

29.-A meeting having been called at Deptford on the subject of a repeal of the Corn Laws, a body of Chartists, as was their custom, took up a prominent position in the hall, and endeavoured in various ways to interrupt the proceedings. Acting upon the advice of the lecturer, Mr. Sydney Smith, the audience turned upon the Chartists, and after a short struggle succeeded in ejecting the whole of them.-At Leeds the Chartists were more successful in their opposition, the Mayor there being forced to retire from the platform with his friends.

31. The Jews' Declaration (Oath) Bill read a third time in the House of Commons by 108 to 31 votes. It was thrown out in the Upper House on the 11th June by 98 to 64