Cardinal President, Vice-President, and twentyfour members. 15. Numerous railways opened throughout Prussia. 23.-Conference, lasting, it was said, till midnight, between Sir Robert Peel and the Chancellor of the Exchequer at the residence of the former, Whitehall Gardens, on the subject of the present commercial panic. Twelve per cent. was charged to-day by the Bank for loans on the security of Consols and Exchequer Bills, while the discount on good bills ranged from 10 to 12 per cent. It was even rumoured that the Bank itself was borrowing at from 7 to 7 per cent. 24.-Denouncing of Irish landlords from the altar. At Strokestown, priest M'Dermott was reported to have said during the Sunday service: "There is Major Mahon, absent from you all this winter, not looking after your wants or distress, but amusing himself; and he returns and finds his property all safe, his place unmolested; and the return he makes to you is the burning and destroying of your houses, and leaving your poor to starve on the road." On the following Sunday, the 31st, he added: "Major Mahon is worse than Cromwell, and yet he lives." A respectable person (said Lord Farnham, when referring to the case in the House of Lords on the 6th December), on coming out of the chapel, remarked, "If the Major lives a month after this, he is immortal!" He did not live forty-eight hours. Numerous other instances of altar denunciation were known to have been practised by priests at this time. 25 (Monday).—The First Lord of the Treasary and the Chancellor of the Exchequer authorize the suspension of the Banking Act of 1844 "Her Majesty's Government," they write, "have seen with the deepest regret the pressure which has existed for some weeks upon the commercial interests of the country, and that this pressure has been aggravated by a want of that confidence which is necessary for carrying on the ordinary dealings of trade. On the same day the Court of Directors passed a formal resolution according to the different recommendations contained in the Ministerial letter; the minimum rate of discount on bills not having more than ninety-five days to run to be 8 per cent. # 26. Settlement of the Roman Catholic rarchy in England. The Times writes: The title of Vicar Apostolic is to cease, and the bishops are to be in future named after tir respective sees. The further division of England into sees preparatory to an increase the number of bishops is still under the consideration of his Holiness. There will also be one or two archbishoprics created." 27.—Birmingham Corn Exchange opened. 28.-William Davison, solicitor, of Bloomslary-square, commits suicide by throwing himlf from the Whispering-gallery of St. Paul's Cathedral. 28.-The Swiss Cantons make an ineffectual attempt to settle their differences at a conference. 29.-Rajah Brooke presented with the freedom of the City of London. The commercial failures this month were again of uncommon frequency and magnitude, particularly in the corn trade: Barton, Irlam, and Higginson, 1,000,000l.; Barclay, Brothers, & Co. 450,000l.; Scott, Bell, & Co. 240,000/.; D. & A. Denny, Glasgow, 300,000l. The following banks were also forced to suspend payment: The Royal Bank of Liverpool; Knapp, Old Abingdon; Newcastle Union Joint-Stock Bank; Scholes and Co., Manchester; North and South Wales Bank; Brodie, Salisbury, and Shaftesbury. The funds fell to 79; Exchequer Bills fluctuated from 6s. to 355. discount. The rate at the Bank ranged from 8 to 12 per cent.; and out-of-doors accommodation could scarcely be obtained at any price. The failures during the crisis were thus localized-London, 85; Liverpool, 54; Manchester, 33; Glasgow, 32; other provincial districts of England, 30; other provincial districts of Scotland, 3; Ireland, 8; foreign, 89. Numerous outrages in Ireland during this month, contrasting unfavourably with the calls made upon the Prime Minister by various Poor Law Unions for food to supply the wants of the starving peasantry. Thefts of farm produce were also frequent. The November 1.-The question of the protectorate of the Holy Places at Jerusalem opened by the removal from the sanctuary claimed by the Latins of a silver star suspended to mark the site of the Saviour's birth. Greeks being charged with the offence, M. de Lavalette, the French representative at Constantinople, took up the case with eagerness on behalf of the Western Church, and obtained from the Porte the appointment of a mixed commission to inquire into the respective rights of the Greeks and Latins. 2.-Count Bresson, the French ambassador at Naples, commits suicide. 3.-King Charles Albert of Sardinia leaves Turin for Genoa, where he receives an enthusiastic welcome from the National Party. 4.-The Swiss Diet resolve that the decree of the 20th July against the Sonderbund must be enforced, and charge the General-in-Chief of the Federal troops with its execution. The East India Company give their customary parting banquet to the Earl of Dal. housie, the new Governor-General. 4. Mr. James Stephen retires from the post of Under Secretary for the Colonies. Died at Leipsic, aged 38, Dr. Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, musical composer. 5.-Died at the archiepiscopal palace, Bishopthorpe, in the 91st year of his age, the Honourable Edward Harcourt, D. C.L., Archbishop of York. He was succeeded by Dr. Musgrave, Bishop of Hereford. 10. The Lord Lieutenant of Ireland issues a circular to lieutenants of counties, urging them to take instant steps for the repression of outrages within their respective districts. 12.-Application of chloroform. Professor Simpson, Edinburgh, brings before the public his application of a new anesthetic agent, as a substitute for sulphuric ether in surgery and midwifery. "I have," he writes, through 66 the great kindness of Professor Miller and Dr. Duncan, had an opportunity of trying the effects of the inhalation of chloroform to-day in three cases of operations in the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh. A great collection of professional gentlemen and students witnessed the results, and among the number was Professor Dumas of Paris, the chemist who first ascertained and established the chemical composition of chloroform. Case 1, a boy, four or five years old, with necrosis of one of the bones of the fore-arm. On holding a handkerchief on which some chloroform had been sprinkled to his face, he became frightened, and wrestled to be away. He was held gently, however, and obliged to inhale. After a few inspirations he ceased to cry or move, and fell into a sound snoring sleep. A deep incision was now made down into the diseased bone, and by the use of the forceps nearly the whole of the radius, in the state of sequestrum, was extracted. During this operation, and the subsequent examination of the wound of the finger, not the slightest evidence of the suffering of pain was given. He still slept on soundly, and was carried back to his ward in that state. Half an hour afterwards he was found in bed like a child newly awakened from a refreshing sleep, with a clear merry eye and placid expression of countenance, wholly unlike what is found to obtain after ordinary etherization. He stated that he had never felt any pain, and felt none now. On being shown his wounded arm he looked much surprised, but neither cried nor otherwise expressed the slightest alarm." The other two cases were equally successful. 13. Friburg attacked and captured by General Dufour, commander of the forces under the Diet. 15. The new Council of State opened at Rome with much ceremony. 17. Came on for hearing in the Court of Queen's Bench the case of John Chadwick, involving the question of the legality of marriage with a deceased wife's sister. The de(226) fendant had been indicted at Liverpool assizes for bigamy in marrying a person named Eliza Bostock, his former wife, Ann Fisher, being alive. This Ann Fisher was the sister of Hannah Fisher, the prisoner's first wife, who was dead so that, if it should be held by the judges that the second marriage was good, notwithstanding the consanguinity, the third marriage to Eliza Bostock would constitute the crime of bigamy; if not, the third marriage would be good. The jury returning a special verdict, the prisoner was discharged, and the record removed into the Court of Queen's Bench by writ of error. It was now most fully and ably argued by Sir Fitzroy Kelly, Mr. Peacock, and Mr. Campbell Foster for the Crown; and by Mr. Aspland for the defendant in error. The Court delivered judgment, declaring the marriage with the sister of the deceased wife to be null and void. 18.-Lord Robertson issues an interlocutor prohibiting Mr. Macdonald from exercising the function of professor of Hebrew in Edinburgh University, to which he had been appointed by the Town Council, for the reasons that he refused to sign the Confession of Faith and was not a member of the Established Church of Scotland. The interdict was craved by the Senatus Academicus of the University and a minority of the Town Council. - The new Parliament commences its sittings for the purpose of swearing in members. Sir C. S. Lefevre unanimously elected Speaker. On the 19th he proceeded to the bar of the House of Lords, and claimed all the undoubted rights and privileges belonging to the Commons. 20. Came on for hearing in the Arches Court the case of Geils v. Geils, originally a suit for the restitution of conjugal rights, but now merged into a plea on the part of the defendant for a judicial separation on the ground of cruelty and adultery. (See April 23, 1848. Circular issued by the Colonial Secretary, commanding colonial governors to address prelates of the Roman Catholic Church by the title to which their rank in their own Church would appear to give them a just claim. “As Parliament by a recent Act (Charitable Be quests) formally recognised the rank of the Irish Roman Catholic prelates, by giving them precedence immediately after the prelates of the Established Church of the same degrees, the Roman Catholic archbishops and bishops taking rank immediately after the prelates of the Established Church respectively, it has now appeared to her Majesty's Government that it is their duty to conform to the rule thus laid down by the Legislature." 22. The Swiss Federal army defeat the Leaguers of the Sonderbund near Lucerne, and enter the town without resistance. The Catholic cantons were afterwards occupied till were at 23. The new Parliament opened by the Queen in person. "The prospects of trade" (it was stated in the Royal Speech) one period aggravated by so general a feeling of distrust and alarm that her Majesty, for the purpose of restoring confidence, authorized Ministers to recommend to the Directors of the Bank of England a course of proceeding suited to such an emergency. This course might have led to an infringement of the law; but her Majesty has great satisfaction in being able to inform you that the law has not been infringed--that the alarm has subsided-and that the pressure on the Bank and the commercial interest has been mitigated. . . Her Majesty feels it to be her duty to the peaceable and well-disposed subjects to ask the assistance of Parliament in taking further precautions against the perpetration of crime in certain counties in Ireland. Her Majesty recommends to the consideration of Parliament the laws which regulate the navigation of the United Kingdom, with a view to consider whether any change can be adopted which will, without danger to our maritime strength, promote the commercial and colonial interests of the empire." On this occasion the Queen's speech was for the first time transmitted to the chief towns in the kingdom by the electric telegraph. The speed was at the rate of 55 letters per minute, or 430 words an hour. The Address was agreed to in each House without a division, though Lord Stanley and Lord George Bentinck made severe criticisms on the policy of the Government. The First Lord of the Treasury and the Chancellor of the Exchequer write to the Directors of the Bank of England, that in consequence of the gradual revival of confidence among commercial classes it is not necessary to continue any longer in force their letter of 25th Oct. 24.-Darmstadt letters describe the postmortem examination of the Countess of Goerlitz, murdered by strangulation, it was presumed, though the attempt made to burn the body gave rise to other rumours concerning the means employed. (See March 11, 1850.) 25.-The murders and outrages committed in Ireland continue to be of the most frightful character. Major Mahon was shot dead four Les from Strokestown, when returning from a meeting of the Roscommon Board of Guardians. See Oct. 24.) A policeman engaged in making inquiries was afterwards shot near the same place. Heazleton, a bailiff, was stabbed near Pomeroy, Tyrone. Farmer Flynn was stabbed returning from the fair of Newtonhamilton, Armagh Walsh, steward to O'Callaghan, of Ballynahinch, was shot on the highway near Scariff. Devitt was murdered at Nenagh while endeavouring to help a family whose house had been invaded by a band of ruffians. Hassard, treasurer to the grand jury of Fer managh, was shot entering his own avenue. A woman was shot near Murroe when attempting to shield her husband from assassins. Ralph Hill, sub-agent to David Fitzgerald, was shot on the lands of Rathure, after distraining corn belonging to one of the tenants. O'Donnell, of Kilcash, sub-agent to the Marquis of Ormonde, was shot dead. About the close of the month the Rev. John Lloyd, vicar of Aughrim, was shot as he was riding home after preaching a sermon in the parish church. 26. The Chancellor of the Exchequer moves for leave to bring in a bill to extend the time for the purchase of land and the com.. pletion of works by railway companies. In considering the monetary and commercial crisis of the time, he said he was impressed with the belief that the pressure had been partly caused by the great demand made on the capital of the country for the completion of railways. The average amounts expended on railways had risen from 1,470,000l. in 1841 to 14,000,000/. in 1845, and in the following year the sum rose at once up to 9,800,000l. in the first half, and 26,175,000l. in the second half. During the first half of the present year the sum withdrawn from the ordinary channels of circulation for railways was 25,700,000l. The Earl of Arundel and Surrey addresses the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Tuam (Dr. M'Hale) on the injury and scandal inflicted on the Church by priestly denunciations at the altar. The Archbishop replied, that the imputed offences rested mainly on vague charges put forth by bitter calumniators of the Church, and without seeking to extenuate indiscretion in some cases, he pleaded that in the peculiar circumstances of Ireland the clergy there should not be judged by an English standard. Following St. Gregory, he wrote that "the modes and topics of address suited to one may not be applicable to another," but admit of a "judicious and seasonable variety;" and, denying that "denunciations by name are the practice in Ireland," he likened mere general denunciations against "the violators of justice and humanity to "the practice of the ancient fathers, who denounced the cruelties and persecutions of the Pagans and heretics against their flocks." In another letter addressed to the Prime Minister, the Archbishop defended the clergy, and spoke of the outrages as the natural result of the injustice with which the people were treated, coercion being invariably resorted to in preference to a just and ameliorating policy. 28.-Valais, the last canton of the separate League, surrenders on the same terms as the others. 29.-Sir George Grey introduces a bill for the repression of crime in Ireland. In the course of his speech he laid before the House a statement as to the four classes of crimes which during the last four months had so materially increased in certain counties of Ire land. The number of homicides, which in the six months ending Oct. 1846 was 68, had risen for the six months ending Oct. 1847 to 96. For the corresponding period the number of attempts on life by firing at the person had risen from 55 to 126; robberies of arms from 207 to 530; and the firing of dwellings from 51 to 116. During the last month the total number of these four classes of offences amounted to 195 over all Ireland. The counties of Clare, Limerick, and Tipperary furnished 139-the amount of crime in these counties being 71 per cent. of the whole of Ireland, while the population was only 13 per cent. Sir George proposed to give power to the Lord Lieutenant to proclaim districts; to increase the number of the police-officers by draughts from Dublin; to prohibit the carrying of arms, except in special cases for the protection of the person; and in the districts where murders were committed to have the power of calling out all males between sixteen and sixty to assist in capturing the assassins. 30. The Chancellor of the Exchequer moves for the appointment of a Select Committee to inquire into the causes of the recent commercial distress, and as to the extent it was affected by the law regulating the issue of banknotes payable on demand. After a debate of three nights the House assented to the proposal. The Lords also nominated a committee on the same subject. In reply to Mr. Urquhart, Lord Palmerston states that her Majesty's Government were ready, in conjunction with the other Powers, to offer friendly offices for the purpose of adjusting differences in Switzerland, but Great Britain would not be a party to any forcible interference. December 1.-T. Carlyle enriches Fraser of this month with thirty-five unpublished letters of Oliver Cromwell placed at his disposal with extraordinary precaution and some mystery by an unknown correspondent, who at the opening of the correspondence possessed, but subsequently destroyed, the originals. 3.-Oxford Convocation resolves, by a majority of 52 to 10, to petition against the admission of Jews into Parliament. A proposal to petition against the elevation of Dr. Hampden to the see of Hereford was thrown out by the veto of the Vice-Chancellor. 5. Six British residents attacked and slaughtered at Hwang-chu-Kee, a village four miles above Canton, whither they had gone in a small boat. The bodies were afterwards recovered, and four of the ringleaders executed. 6. Mr. Salomons elected Alderman for the ward of Cordwainers, being the first Jew who held this dignity in the City of London. The Bishop of St. Asaph presents a petition to the House of Lords complaining of the annual importation into Ireland of the Papal bull "In Coena Domini." Lord Beaumont recommended the establishment of diplomatic relations with Rome as a means of removing anomalies like that complained of. 7. Mr. Feargus O'Connor's motion, "to inquire and report on the means by which the dissolution of the Parliament of Ireland was effected, on the effects of that measure on Ire land, and the probable consequences of continuing the legislative union," rejected by 255 votes to 23. 8.-Lord John Russell writes to the Bishops of London, Winchester, and other protesters against the appointment of Dr. Hampden to the see of Hereford: "I observe that your lordships do not state any want of confidence on your part in the soundness of Dr. Hamp den's doctrine. Your lordships refer me to a decree of the University of Oxford passed eleven years ago, and founded upon lectures delivered fifteen years ago. Since the date of that decree Dr. Hampden has acted as Regius Professor of Divinity. The Univer sity of Oxford, and many bishops, as I am told, have required certificates of attendance on his lectures before they proceeded to ordain candidates who had received their education at Oxford. He has likewise preached sermons for which he has been honoured with the approbation of several prelates of our Church. Several months before I named Dr. Hampden to the Queen for the see of Hereford, I signified my intention to the Archbishop of Canterbury, and did not receive from him any discouragement. In these cir cumstances it appears to me that, should I withdraw my recommendation of Dr. Hamp den, which has been sanctioned by the Queen, I should virtually assent to the doctrine that a decree of the University of Oxford is a perpetual bar of exclusion against a clergyman of eminent learning and irreproachable life, and that, in fact, the supremacy which is now by law vested in the Crown is to be transferred to a majority of the members of one of the Universities: nor should it be forgotten that many of the most prominent of that majority have since joined the communion of the Church of Rome. I deeply regret the feeling which is said to be common among the clergy on this subject. But I cannot sacrifice the reputation of Dr. Hampden, the rights of the Crown, and what I believe to be the true interests of the Church, to a feeling which I believe to be founded on misapprehension and fomented by prejudice." In answer to another remonstrance from "certain lay members of the Church of England," Lord John Russell writes: "The consequences with which I am threatened I am prepared to encounter, as I believe the appointment will tend to strengthen the Protestant character of our Church, so seriously threatened of late by many defections to the Church of Rome. Among the chief of these defections are to be found the leading promoters of the movement against Dr. Hampden eleven years ago in the University of Oxford. I had hoped the conduct of Dr. Hampden 25 Regius Professor of Divinity, and head of a theological Board at Oxford, had effaced the memory of that unworthy proceeding." Similar sentiments were expressed by the Bishop of Norwich (Dr. Stanley). The Bishop of Exeter condemned the appointment, and defended the proceedings of the remonstrant prelates. Dr. Hampden defended himself in a pamphlet addressed to Lord John Russell. 10. In answer to Sir R. Inglis, Lord Palmerston states that Lord Minto had not been sent to Rome in any official capacity. Resigning his seat at Stockport to-day, Mr. Cobden defended the effect of free trade on the commerce of the country, and argued strongly in favour of greater economy being observed in the naval and military service. The remarks he made being misapprehended in some quarters, Mr. Cobden took another opportunity of explaining his views on these points at the nomination of a Free Trade candidate for South Lancashire at Newton-in-theWillows on the 20th. 13.-The Irish Coercion Bill read a third time in the House of Commons. It was taken to the House of Lords immediately afterwards. 14. Mr. Horsman's motion, censuring the Ecclesiastical Commissioners for not carrying out the provisions of the Act of Parliament regarding episcopal incomes, defeated by a majority of 130 to 65. 16.-Thomas Sale and George M'Coy, coopers, tried at the Central Criminal Court for the murder of Mr. Bellchambers on the morning of the 11th October last. They were found guilty, partly on evidence furnished by MCoy when in prison, and sentenced to be executed. Some doubt arising as to the actual participation of M'Coy in the murder, although there could be none as to subsequent guilty knowledge, his sentence was commuted to transportation for life. Sale was executed on the 10th of January. 17.-Lord John Russell's resolution in favour of the admission of Jews into Parliament tarried by a majority of 253 to 186. Mr. Disraeli spoke on the first evening of debate, pressing the claims of the Jew on the ground of his near affinity to the Christian. So far, he said, as religion could be a sanction of conduct or a security for public morality, they had in the religion of the Jew the best nction in the world, except that given by the faith of the Christian. A bill founded on the resolutions was introduced and read a first time on the 20th, when Colonel Sibthorp gravely objected to the measure on the ground that Jews were not likely to take their share of legislative work on Fridays or Saturdays. East India Company, and others, charged with having fraudulently obtained and sold for money a cadetship in the East India Company's service. In order to procure a cadetship for his son, Mr. Wotherspoon, W.S. Edinburgh, remitted 1,100l. to a Mrs. Stewart in London. Through one Trotter, she obtained an introduction to Captain Charretie, and through him she reached Sir William Young, a director. Trotter received 50/. for his aid; the balance of Wotherspoon's remittance was paid to Charretie, who gave Mrs. Stewart a note from Sir William, stating that he would have much pleasure in making the appointment in November. The appointment was then made, and the young man went out to Madras. The suspicions of the Court of Directors being excited regarding various recent appointments to cadetships, a strict inquiry took place, and the result was the present trial. Against Captain Charretie the jury returned a general verdict of guilty; but against Sir William Young the verdict was guilty on the second count only, charging a conspiracy to obtain the appointment by sale. Died at Parma, aged 56, Maria Louisa, Archduchess of Parma, widow of the Emperor Napoleon Buonaparte. After his death the Archduchess married first the Count de Niepperg, and then the Count de Bourbelles, who survived her, and died in obscurity at Versailles in 1856. 20. Her Majesty's steam-frigate Avenger wrecked on the Sorelle rocks, on the north coast of Africa. She had on board 270 persons, including crew and supernumeraries, all of whom were drowned, with the exception of a lieutenant and four men. The frigate, commanded by a stepson of Admiral Napier, appeared to have been carried out of her course by a current. Parliament adjourns its sittings till Feb. 3. 21.-In conformity with an intimation given by Prince Metternich to other Powers, Austria begins to increase her army in Lombardy: Parma was occupied to-day, and Modena and Reggio on the 22d. General Radetzky's army, 60,000 strong, was also known to be moving in large masses towards the frontier of the Italian States. 23.-Abd-el-Kader surrenders to General Lamoricière, on condition of being sent to Alexandria or St. Jean d'Acre. In defiance of this stipulation the Emir was sent with his family and attendants to France, and detained a prisoner, first at Toulon, and then in the Château d'Amboise. Owing to differences with his party on the Jew bill and other measures, Lord George Bentinck, in a letter to Mr. Bankes, intimates his resignation of the Protectionist leadership which had been formerly temporarily assumed by him, "waiting till the country should have the opportunity of sending to Parliament other men, better fitted by ability and talents, and better |