the Felicidade. This was a Brazilian schooner, captured by H. M.'s cruiser the Wasp, in the Bight of Benin, near Lagos, on the 27th of February. She had no slaves on board, but was fitted up for the trade, and had a much greater quantity of provisions than was necessary for her crew of twenty-eight men. The schooner was therefore taken possession of, and her crew placed under arrest. Two days afterwards the Wasp captured another Brazilian schooner, named the Echo, with 430 slaves on board, and a crew of the same number as the Felicidade. The one vessel was commanded by Antonio Cerquiera, and the other by Francisco Serva. The crews were divided among the three vessels, and the Felicidade given in charge of Mr. Palmer, with seven British seamen and two Kroomen, to take to the nearest port, for the purpose of getting her condemned. "Sobrino da Costa, a black slave, who acted as barber, saw and heard what took place or the morning of the 2d. "Majaval, the cook, came to the hatchway where the prisoners were confined, and called down three times, 'Get ready to kill the English sailors.' I saw Alves and Francisco get ready their knives, and heard them say, 'Let us rise.' They said to me, 'Get ready, or we will kill you as well.' I answered, 'Leave these things alone, or we shall be taken by the English cruisers.' They then threatened to kill both Ribiero and myself unless we went with them. I said, 'If this is the case, when you go I will go too.' They put their knives in their belts, and dropped their shirts over so as to hide them. Serva himself then came and called them up, and they all went on deck." Cerquiera saw them first attack the quartermaster, who endeavoured to defend himself with a handspike, but was utterly overpowered and stabbed to death. Palmer, who had been bathing in a boat astern, was run through by Majaval, and thrown overboard. The English sentry was also thrown over, but hung by the fore sheet till Joaquim cut his fingers off, when he dropped down and disappeared. The two Kroomen, horrified at what was going on, jumped overboard and were drowned. After they had slain or thrown over the whole of the British on board, Servia gave orders to lower the peak of the mainsail as a signal to his brother-in-law on board the Echo to rise and do the same there. The signal was not answered, and Serva bore up to the Echo to inform the prisoners there that the English were all killed. He also fired two shots into her, but sailed away without making any serious attempt to recapture the vessel. Three days afterwards the Felicidade was captured by her Majesty's ship Star, when Cerquiera gave information of the tragedy that had taken place on board. Ten of those most prominently concerned were put in irons and conveyed to England for trial. The Felicidade, after this her second capture, was sent to Sierra Leone for adjudication, under the command of Lieut. Wilson. On her voyage thither she was capsized by a sudden squall, but her gallant commander and a few of the crew, after enduring

the most horrible sufferings on a feeble raft for twenty days, managed to reach land.

4. In the course of a discussion as to the best method of appointing railway committees Mr. Bernal said that he would be willing to transfer the private business of the House to a judge or judges. Sir Robert Peel replied sharply, that if the House so transferred its powers he should be ashamed to enter it. A young member, he said, would do more to raise his reputation by actively discharging his duties on a committee than by making a smart speech in a party debate.

5. A steam-boiler explodes at Blackwall, on the premises of Joseph Samuda, engineer, killing three men on the spot, and scalding and wounding others so severely that they died in a short time. One of the bodies and a portion of the boiler were found in the Plaistow marshes, on the opposite side of the Lea, about 150 yards from the engine works. The boiler was an old low-pressure one, which had only that morning been attached to the engine, and put to a highpressure use. Seeing it work very slowly, Lowe, the foreman, caused a pole with a nail driven into the end to be so placed under the lever of the safety-valve as almost entirely to prevent its action, and thereby creating an enormous pressure of steam. At the coroner's inquest the jury returned a verdict of manslaughter against Lowe, but he was acquitted

on trial.

Sir James South, the Astronomer Royal, takes observations with Lord Rosse's monster I telescope. "The night," he writes, was, think, the finest I ever saw in Ireland. Many nebula were observed by Lord Rosse, Dr. Robinson, and myself. Most of them were for the first time since their creation seen by us in groups or clusters of stars, while some, at least to my eyes, showed no such grouping, The most popularly known nebulæ observed this night were the ring nebulæ in the Canes Venatici, or the fifty-first of Messier's catalogue, which was resolved into stars with a magnify. ing power of 548."

7.-Stormy debates in the French Chamber of Peers regarding the Secret Service Money Bill.

8.-Explosion of two powder magazines at Algiers, killing forty-three workmen, ten artillerymen, and thirty-one pontonniers.

9.-Conclusion of the war in Scinde. Sir Charles Napier writes to the Govenor-Gene ral: "I have to report to you the conclusion of the war against the mountain and desert tribes, who, driven from their last refuge, the stronghold of Truckee, have this day laid down their arms. The fort of Deyrah is destroyed and Islam Boogtie, the only chief not a pri soner, is said to be a lonely fugitive in the Ketrau country, far in the north, and ruled by a chief whose daughter Islam married."

10.-Affray at Kororarika, New Zealand, between British and Natives. The chief, Honi

Heki, cut down the flag-staff, and then took the field. Most of the settlers were driven out of the district, and sought refuge at Auckland.

12.-Trial of John Tawell, the Quaker, for the Salt Hill murder. The court was crowded to excess, and Aylesbury presented more the appearance of a general election than of the ordinary sitting of assizes. On the forenoon

of the third day the jury returned a verdict of Guilty, and Baron Parke sentenced the prisoner to be executed in front of the County Hall, Aylesbury. The children of the murdered woman, Sarah Hart, of which the prisoner was the reputed father, and his acknowledged wife, were all present in court.

At the annual meeting of the Literary Fund, it is announced that the Queen had granted the institution the honour of describing itself as the "Royal Corporation of the Literary Fund."

13. Mr. Cobden's motion for a committee to inquire into the cause and extent of the alleged agricultural distress, lost by a majority of 213 against 121 votes.

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Professor Daniell dies suddenly of apoplexy, when attending a meeting of the Council of the Royal Society in Somerset House.

14.-At the inquest held on the body of Mr. Cardwell, solicitor, who was presumed to have fallen a victim to homoeopathic treatment, the jury attached a declaration to their verdict, "That the afflicted gentleman had been cruelly exposed to a system of starvation while in a state of the most extreme debility during about ten days previous to his death, he having Curing that long time been allowed nothing bat cold water by the advice of his medical

attendant."

17. Mr. Miles' motion for an application of a portion of the surplus revenue to the relief of the agricultural interest, rejected by majority of 213 to 78 votes. Towards the close of the debate, Mr. Disraeli (who spoke inmediately before Sir Robert Peel), at the close of a speech fuller even than usual of ats against agricultural members who now pported the Premier, said: "Protection pears to be in about the same state that Protestantism was in 1828. The country will aw its moral. For my part, if we are to Live free trade, I, who honour genius, prefer at sach measures should be proposed by the bon. member for Stockport, rather than by one ho by skilful Parliamentary manoeuvres has ampered with the generous confidence of a peat people and a great party. For myself,

care not what will be the result. Dissolve if you like the Parliament you have betrayed, and appeal to the people, who I believe mistrust you. For me there remains this, at least-the opportunity of expressing thus publicly my belief that a Conservative Government is an organized hypocrisy."-Sir Robert Peel said he would enter into no personal controversy with Mr. Disraeli. When the Tariff was proposed in

1842, that gentleman said "the conduct pur sued by the right honourable baronet was in exact, permanent, and perfect consistency with the principles of free-trade laid down by Mr. Pitt." Sir Robert held the panegyric and the attack in the same estimation; but he could not help being struck by the fact that they both proceeded from the same man.

21. Came on for hearing, before a Commission under the Church Discipline Act, at Doctors' Commons, the charges of immorality preferred against the Rev. F. S. Monckton, perpetual curate of St. Peter's, West Hackney. The principal witnesses were Mr. and Mrs. Williams, of the parish National Schools, and a discharged servant. They spoke as to drunkenness, indecent conversation, and undue familiarity with servants in the house. On the third of these heads the Commission found that the conduct of Mr. Monckton with regard to the female residents in his family was degrading to him as a clergyman of the Church of England, and had produced great scandal in the Church. They considered that on this head there were sufficient grounds for further proceedings against Mr. Monckton. ite was afterwards suspended for twelve months.

28. With reference to the persecution alleged to have been endured by Dr. Kalley in Madeira, Mr. Addington, of the Foreign Office, is instructed to reply to the Lord Provost of Edinburgh that "Lord Aberdeen considers that that gentleman had been led by an erroneous conception of the terms of the treaty of 1842, and of the Portuguese Charter, to assume a position in which her Majesty's Government cannot uphold him, inasmuch as he appears to suppose that he is borne out in opening his private dwelling-house for the celebration of public worship, and in preaching in the Portuguese language to Portuguese subjects against the Roman Catholic religion.'

John Tawell executed at Aylesbury for the Salt Hill murder. In the course of the preceding night he wrote out a confession of his guilt, and of a previous unsuccessful attempt referred to at the trial. He lived, it appeared, in perpetual dread of his connexion with Sarah Hart becoming known to his wife, and saw no other way of relieving his apprehension than by destroying her. On the scaffold he wore his usual dress of a member of

the Society of Friends. His sufferings were very protracted.

31.-Another murder, tending to keep up a most unhealthy excitement in the metropolis, committed in George-street, St. Giles's; James Connor having stabbed his paramour, Ann Tape, or Brothers, in a bedroom they had engaged for the night.

April 1.-Mr. Shiel's motion expressing the regret of the House that the contents of letters passing through the Post Office here had been communicated to foreign Governments, and

led to executions at Bologna, negatived by 52 to 38 votes.

1. Intimation made in Hood's Magazine that the poet who " sang the Song of the Shirt" is seriously unwell. "He has taken leave of his friends," it was said, "forgiven his enemies (if any such he have), and turned his face to the wall.'"

2.-Died, aged 82, Admiral Sir C. P. Dur ham, a naval veteran who had seen much service, and was one of two officers saved when the Royal George went down at Spithead, Aug. 29, 1782.

3. Sir Robert Peel introduces his bill for improving the condition of the Roman Catholic College of Maynooth. He proposed to give sufficient accommodation for 500 pupils, with suitable rooms to the president and professors, to have the repairs of the college executed as in other public buildings by the Board of Works, and to give a grant of 30,000l. a year not subject to an annual vote. "We do not think," he said, "that there is any violation of conscientious scruples involved in our proposition. We believe that it is perfectly compatible to hold steadfast the profession of our faith without wavering, and at the same time to improve the education and elevate the character of those who, do what you will, must be the spiritual guides and religious instructors of millions of your fellow-countrymen." The proposal gave risk to great excitement among the extreme Protestants, and the debate on the second reading lasted over six nights. Mr. Smythe having taunted Ministers with formerly declaring that concession had reached its utmost limits, Sir James Graham expressed his regret at ever having used such an expression. If I have given offence to Ireland," he said, "I deeply regret it, and I can only say from the very depth of my heart, that my actions have been better than my words."

"

Ordinance published at Madrid restoring confiscated ecclesiastical property to the Church.

5.-Sarah Freeman sentenced to be executed at Taunton for the series of crimes known as the Shapwick murders, involving the destruction by arsenic of her husband, her illegitimate son, her mother, and her brother.

6.-A rate-collector murdered by "Molly Maguires," at Ballyrahan, near Strokestown. Though one of the assassins was seized on the spot, the coroner's jury returned a verdict of "Wilful murder against some persons unknown," as no one would venture to identify the prisoner.

8.-Numerous meetings held throughout England and Scotland this week in opposition to the projected increase of the Maynooth endowment. At a great gathering in the Waterloo-room, Edinburgh, to-day, Dr. Candlish said: "I believe, so sure as I believe God's Word to be true, a judgment must overake this nation if we homologate this great

sin. Let every true-hearted man who trembles at the thought of anti-Christian error prevailing against the truth-let all who look forward to the destruction of Antichrist by the breathing of the Lord's mouth and the brightness of His coming-let it be the duty of all such men to stand on the watch-tower, to give Israel no rest neither day nor night, until as one man this nation rises and demands to be delivered from the plague and from the sin and from the death which this proceeding of Government will assuredly entail upon us."-At another gathering in Covent Garden Theatre on the 14th, Dr. Croly described the Catholic Emancipation Act as "that unhappy, harsh, illjudged, fatal measure. A popular king (George IV.) had died soon after putting his signature to it, the House of Peers was degraded to pass the Reform Bill, and the Houses of Parliament consumed by fire.-At a meeting in Surrey Chapel, Sir Culling Eardley Smith spoke of the measure as calculated to offend the majesty of Heaven and bring down judg ments on the nation.-One meeting of English Roman Catholics (presided over by the Earl of Arundel and Surrey) was held at Freemasons' Tavern in support of the Bill.

10.-In explaining the absence from the House of one or two subordinate members of Government, Sir Robert Peel announces that Maynooth is not an open but a Government question.

11. In the adjourned debate on the May nooth Grant, Mr. Disraeli launched another philippic at the Premier:-"I know the right honourable gentleman who introduced the bill told us that upon this subject there were three courses open to us. I never heard the right honourable gentleman bring forward a measure without making the same confession. In a certain sense, and looking to his own position, he is right. There is the course the right honourable gentleman has left. There is the course which the right honourable gentleman is following, and there is usually the course which the right honourable gentleman ought to pursue Perhaps, Sir, I ought to say that there is a fourth course, because it is possible for the House of Commons to adopt one of these courses indi cated by the right honourable gentleman, and then, having voted for it, to rescind it. That is the fourth course, and in future I trust the right honourable gentleman will not forget it. He also tells us he always looks back to precedents: he comes with a great measure, and he always has a small precedent. He traces the steam-engine always back to the tea-kettle. His precedents are generally tea-kettle precedents. If you are to have a popular government, if you are to have a parliamentary administration, the conditions antecedent are that you should have a government which declares the principles on which its policy is founded, and then you can have on them the wholesome check of a constitutional opposition. What have we got instead? Some

thing has risen up in this country as potent in the political world as it has been in the landed world of Ireland. We have a great parLamentary middleman. It is well known what a middleman is; he is a man who bamboozles one party and plunders the other, till, having obtained a position to which he is not entitled, he cries out, "Let us have no party questions, but fixity of tenure." I want to have a commission issued to inquire into the tenure by which Downing-street is held. Whatever may be the minor motives and impulses which Limate different sections of opinion, there is, at least, one common ground of co-operation. There is one animating principle which may inspire us all. Let us in the House re-echo that which I believe to be the sovereign senti

ent of this country; let us tell persons in high places that cunning is not caution, and that habitual perfidy is not high policy_of State. On that ground we may all join. Let us bring to this House that which it has for so long a time past been without-the legitimate influence and salutary check of a constitutional opposition. That is what the country requires -what the country looks for. Let us do it at once in the only way in which it can be done, by dethroning this dynasty of deception, by putting an end to the intolerable yoke of parliamentary imposture.-Mr. Macaulay took occasion to point out the inconsistency of those who supported the small grant but objected to the present addition-who were quite willing to subsidize what they considered error, provided only it was subsidized in a mean and shabby manner. Objections of that kind came with very bad grace from members for Universities. "When I consider how munificently 1 the colleges of Cambridge and Oxford are i endowed, and with what pomp religion and learning are there surrounded; when I call to

d the long streets of palaces, the towers and oriels, the venerable cloisters, the trim gardens, the organs, the altar-pieces, the Semn light of the stained windows, the libraries, the museums, the galleries of painting and sculpture; when I call to mind also the physical comforts which are provided both for structors and pupils; when I reflect that the ry sizars and servitors are far better lodged and fed than those students who are to be a years hence the priests and bishops of the 1sh people; when I think of the spacious

stately mansions of the heads of houses, the commodious chambers of the fellows scholars, of the refectories, the combinaroom, the bowling-greens, the stabling; 4 the state and luxury of the great feast-days, of the piles of old plate on the tables, of the Sary steam of the kitchens, of the multitude of grouse and capons which turn at once on the spits, of the oceans of excellent ale in the batteries; and when I remember from whom ad this splendour and plenty is derived; when I remember what was the faith of Edward the Third and of Henry the Sixth, of Margaret of Anjou and Margaret of Richmond, of William

of Wykeham and William of Waynefleet, of Archbishop Chicheley and Cardinal Wolsey: when I remember what we have taken from the Roman Catholics-King's College, New College, Christ Church, my own Trinity; and when I look at the miserable Dotheboys Hall which we have given them in exchange, I feel, I must own, less proud than I could wish of being a Protestant and a Cambridge man." Mr. Macaulay also taunted Ministers with their inconsistent policy towards Ireland. "Can we wonder that, from one end of the country to the other, everything should be ferment and uproar, that petitions should night after night whiten all our benches like a snowstorm? Can we wonder that the people out of doors should be exasperated by seeing the very men who, when we were in office, voted against the old grant to Maynooth, now pushed and pulled into the House by your whippers-in to vote for an increased grant? The natural consequence follows. All those fierce spirits whom you hallooed on to harass us, now turn round and begin to worry you. The Orangeman raises his war-whoop; Exeter Hall sets up its bray; Mr. M'Neile shudders to see more costly cheer than ever provided for the priests of Baal at the table of the Queen; and the Protestant operatives of Dublin call for impeachment in exceedingly bad English. But what did you expect? Did you think, when to serve your turn you called the devil up, that it was as easy to lay him as to raise him? Did you think when you went on, session after session, thwarting and reviling those whom you knew to be in the right, and flattering all the worst passions of those whom you knew to be in the wrong, that the day of reckoning would never come? It has come; and there you sit, doing penance for the disingenuousness of years. If it be not so, stand up manfully and clear your fame before the House and the country. Show us that some steady principle has guided your conduct with respect to Irish affairs. Explain to us why, after having goaded Ireland to madness for the purpose of ingratiating yourself with the English, you are now setting England on fire for the purpose of ingratiating your. selves with the Irish. Give us some reason which shall prove that the policy which you are following as Ministers is entitled to support, and which shall not equally prove you to have been the most factious and unprincipled Opposition that ever this country saw.'

11. Dr. Wolffe arrives at Southampton, after his researches in the East to clear up the fate of the Bokhara victims.

12.-The Emperor of China permits the erection of Christian churches within his dominions on condition that no attempt shall be made to convert his subjects.

13. The Duke of Newcastle issues a manifesto from Clumber against the "sinful endowment of the rebellious Popish seminary." Petitions were to be instantly forwarded if the people wished "to save their cherished

14.-An amusing turn was given to the Maynooth debate in the Commons to-night. Mr. Fox Maule had quoted from a book written by Mr. Grant, of the Morning Advertiser, a passage conveying the impression that the College was at present in excellent order, and required no repairs. Mr. Serjeant Murphy now produced another book by the same writer, and read a series of extracts purporting to be a description of certain members of the House-how they looked, dressed, and spoke. Of Colonel Sibthorp it was recorded, that rather than submit to be shaved "he would see Tories, Constitution and all, scattered to the winds;" and the member for Perthshire himself (Mr. Fox Maule) was described as a man of exceedingly graceful proportions and very retiring manners." The fun was renewed the next night by Colonel Sibthorp gravely assuring Sir Robert Peel (whom he described as somewhat of a Mahomedan) that he would not only be shaved, but submit to have his head shaved off, rather than forget that he was a Protestant-" born a Protestant, educated a Protestant, and by the blessing of God I will die a Protestant."

19.-Closed at half-past 3 this morning the debate on the second reading of the Maynooth Endowment Bill. Majority for Ministers, 147; the numbers being 323 to 176. Conservatives in favour of the Bill, 158; Liberals, 165. Against-Conservatives, 145; Liberals, 31. There were 64 Conservatives and 84 Liberals absent in the division.

21. At the weekly meeting of the Repeal Association O'Connell brings up a report from what he called the Parliamentary Committee, recommending it as essentially necessary for the alleviation of the misery of the people of Ireland that the Legislature should impose an absentee-tax of 10 per cent. on all landlords who were absent six months in the year, and had incomes exceeding 200l. per annum, such tax to be spent on some useful purpose within the estate where it was raised. He also said that now for the first time in his life he had an opportunity of praising Sir James Graham, and he did so most cordially on account of his manly speech concerning the Maynooth Endowment. He held out both hands to him with forgiveness for the past, and thought he should be placed on a pedestal with "Justice to Ireland" inscribed on its base. He had expressed his sorrow for having used the expression that concession had reached its limits, and no man was either a Christian or a gentleman who would not forgive, after the symptoms of repentance manifested by the Home Secretary. (See April 3.)

22.-The Queen visits the Great Britain steamship off Blackwall. Her Majesty expressed herself much gratified with the sight of the magnificent ship, and wished Captain

Hoskin every success in his voyage across the Atlantic.

23. On the motion for going into committee on the Maynooth College Bill, Mr. Ward submits an amendment for making provision for the purposes of the bill out of the funds of the Church presently established in Ireland. Mr. Macaulay delivered an elaborate speech to-night against the Irish Church, which he described as the most indefensible of all our national institutions, having failed in either instructing or converting the great body of the Irish people, as well as in securing the peace and security of civil society. He warned Ministers against making concession when it was too late-when it would be regarded, not as a great national act of justice, but as a confession of national weakness. "You will make it in such a way and at such a time that there will be but too much reason to doubt whether more mischief has been done by your long refusal, or by your tardy and enforced compli The debate was continued over a second night, when the amendment was nega tived by 322 to 148 votes.

ance.

New constitution promulgated for Spain, less liberal in its provisions than that of 1837.

25.-The Fine Arts Commission issue their fourth report regarding the decoration of the new Houses of Parliament. They point out certain portions of the building which they conceive might be properly adorned with insulated statues. These are St. Stephen's Porch and St. Stephen's Hall, in the former of which six insulated marble statues might be conveniently placed, and sixteen in the latter. In Appendix No. 2, relating to the selection of persons for the niches in the House of Lords, the committee state that no scheme was preferable to that suggested by Prince Albert, for filling them up with effigies of the principal barons who had signed the Magna Charta.

Sir Robert Peel introduces his measure for regulating banking in Scotland and Ireland. 30.-Crowded meeting at Exeter Hall to hear the statement of Dr. Wolffe relative to his Bokhara mission.

Mr. Macaulay writes to the Lord Provost of Edinburgh regarding his vote on the May nooth Endowment Bill: "I have no apologies or retraction to make. I have done what I believed, and believe, to be right. I have opposed myself manfully to a great popular delusion. I shall continue to do so. I knew from the first what the penalty was, and I shall cheerfully pay it."

May 1.-Hungerford Suspension Bridge opened to the public. There was no ceremony on the occasion, but it was very largely frequented by passengers till the evening, 36,000 people passing from one side of the Thames to the other. The entire cost was about 120,000!