support and those resources which usually belong to a more mature age and to longer experience. I place my firm reliance upon the wisdom of Parliament, and upon the loyalty and affection of my people. I esteem it also a peculiar advantage that I succeed to a sovereign whose constant regard for the rights and liberties of his subjects, and whose desire to promote the amelioration of the laws and institutions of the country, have rendered his name the object of general attachment and veneration. Educated in England, under the tender and enlightened care of a most affectionate mother, I have learned from my infancy to respect and love the constitution of my native country. It will be my unceasing study to maintain the Reformed religion as by law established, securing at the same time to all the full enjoyment of religious liberty; and I shall steadily protect the rights, and promote to the utmost of my power the happiness and welfare, of all classes of my subjects." Her Majesty was also pleased to take and subscribe the oath relating to the security of the Church of Scotland. The Queen styled herself simply "Victoria," and not, as had been anticipated, "Alexandrina Victoria," a variation which led next day to certain alterations in the written rolls of the House of Lords and the printed form of oath used by members of the House of Commons.

In

21.-Proclamation of the Queen. Her Majesty left Kensington between 9 and 10 A. M. for St. James's Palace, where she was received by members of the Royal family, Cabinet Ministers, and officers of the household. a short time she made her appearance at the window of an ante-room adjoining the audience chamber, and was received with deafening cheers. Her Majesty was observed to look fatigued and pale, but acknowledged the cheers which greeted her with ease and dignity. She was dressed in deep mourning, with white tippet, white cuffs, and a border of white lace under a small black bonnet, which was placed far back on her head, exhibiting her fair hair in front, parted over the forehead. Her Majesty was accompanied to the window by Lord Melbourne, Prime Minister, and Lord Lansdowne, President of the Council. In the courtyard beneath the window of the presence chamber was Garter King-at-arms, with heralds, pursuivants, and other officials in their robes of state. proclamation read was uniform in phraseology with the declaration signed at yesterday's Privy Council. When Garter King-at-arms had ceased reading, the band played the National Anthem, and the Park and Tower guns pealed out a jubilant chorus. The City dignitaries then formed themselves into order of procession, and marched off to proclaim the Queen at various points within their jurisdiction.

The

22.-A royal message laid on the table of both Houses of Parliament, stating that it was inexpedient, in the judgment of her Majesty, that any new measure should be recommended

for their adoption beyond such as might be requisite for carrying on the public service from the close of the present session to the meeting of the new Parliament. The debate which ensued was characterised by an entire unanimity as to the merits of the late King, though there was a wide difference of opinion regarding the policy of Ministers. When the Commons rose to-day, 521 members had taken the oath of allegiance to the Queen.

23. At the close of a discussion to-night on the order of public business, Lord Lyndhurst took occasion to censure Ministers for their carelessness and incapacity. "During a session," he said, "which wanted only a few days of five months' duration, only two Acts of distinct and special legislation had been passed-the PostOffice Contracts and the Scottish Sedition Bills -while there was at the present date no fewer than seventy-five public bills depending in the other House. So far as the foreign policy of Ministers was concerned, it elicited the pity of their friends and excited the scorn and derision of their enemies."-Lord Melbourne endeavoured to defend his Ministry from what he described as "the bitter and vehement" attack of the learned ex-Chancellor. In the Commons, Lord John Russell, when speaking of the Reform Act, said, "Her Majesty's Ministers, while they consider it a final measure (see July 3d, 1849), do not intend that it should remain a barren Act upon the Statute-book, but that it should be followed up in such a manner as would ennoble, invigorate, and enlarge the institutions of the country.'

24.-Explosion at the Blaina Iron Works, Monmouthshire, resulting in the death of twelve workmen, about a third of the entire number employed in the workings. The calamity was thought to have been occasioned by one of the labourers venturing into an unsafe passage with a lighted candle.

Mr. Montefiore (afterwards Sir Moses) chosen Sheriff of London; the first Jew elected to that office in England.

27.-Lord Langdale, Master of the Rolls, makes a decree on an information by the Attorney-General against the University and Corporation of Cambridge and others, relative to the mismanagement of Hobson's Workhouse and the misappropriation of the funds, especially of the sum bequeathed by John Bowtell for apprenticing poor boys. His lordship declared that the purposes for which the workhouse was used ought not to be continued, and that certain salaries which had been paid ought to cease. He referred it to the Master to take into account and settle a scheme for the future management of the charity.

Ernest Augustus, Duke of Cumberland, and since the death of William IV. King of Hanover, enters his kingdom. favourably received by the people.

He was

29.-The Times, looked upon as the organ of the Tory party, writes with great bitterness

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 le veut.

The

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 47,240,000/. and the expenditure at 46,631,4157. Customs he considered likely to produce 21,100,000/., and the Excise 13,800,000l. The amount of tea cleared for home consumption in 1836 was 49,844,000 lbs. and the duty 3,886,000/.

Considerable political excitement throughcut 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 proposition 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 offered 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."

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.

Chapel of St. George, Windsor. Chief mourner, the Duke of Sussex. The Dowager-Queen Adelaide was present in the royal closet.

13. Her Majesty and the Duchess of Kent leave Kensington, and take up their residence in Buckingham Palace.

14. The Peers refuse permission to the Duke of Sussex to present a Quaker petition against capital punishment, on the plea that their lordships were described as "Peers of the United Kingdom," instead of "Lords Spiritual and Temporal."

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. Her 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.

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 civil and political equality to which, by recent statute, they are fully entitled; and her Majesty 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 gratitude 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 swing. ing 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 Norwood. 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 Reformer. The Inquisition, who put him into prison, was Conservative. So, in the same way, with respect to every part of history, we find that in all times and in all countries there have been Reformers and Conservatives. 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.”

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 at 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.

Angust 5.-Died at her residence in Piccadilly, Harriet, Duchess of St. Albans, aged sixty-six. 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 sworn 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.

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 !'"

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 Par liament 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

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.

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 Asia— arrives 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.

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.