yard, bakery, and Nelson's ship the Victory. On arriving in London with his suite he took up his residence in Mivart's Hotel, and visited most of the places of interest in and around the metropolis. He dined with her Majesty on the 11th, and afterwards with the Oriental Steam Navigation Company, and the East India Company.

6.-Meeting of Lord John Russell's supporters, at his residence, Chesham-place. It was unanimously resolved to oppose the Irish Coercion Bill in its future stages; and support was also promised to his lordship's motion for the admission of slave-grown sugar into this country at the same amount of duty as was levied on free-trade sugar.

8.-Lecomte guillotined at the Barrier St. Jacques, for attempting to assassinate King Louis Philippe. Although the time of the execution was understood to have been kept secret, about 4,000 people were present.

On the motion that the Irish Coercion Bill be read a second time, Sir W. Somerville proposed as an amendment that it be read a second time that day six months.-Lord George Bentinck said he and his friends had declared before the Easter holidays that they would support the measure if the Government pressed it forward with sincerity and earnestness, but he also said that if, on the contrary, they allowed other measures of less importance to take precedence of it, he could not think them sincere in their support of so unconstitutional a measure, which nothing but the most urgent necessity could justify. They had allowed six weeks to elapse before they took any steps to advance its progress, and when it stood for the second reading they did not care to make a House on a Government night. From this it must be admitted that they had shown no great desire or earnestness to carry the bill. On these grounds his party were now determined to oppose the measure. "We have been told by the right hon. gentleman at the head of the Government that he would not consent to be a minister on sufferance. Why, Sir, the right hon. gentleman must be deaf to all that is passing around him if he does not find out very soon that he is in that position. Do we not find him appealing from one side of the House to the other? Is he not supported sometimes by the hon. gentlemen opposite, and sometimes by the hon. gentlemen around him? His main supporters are his paid janissaries, and some seventy other auxillaries, who, while they support him, express disgust at his conduct. When we remember Sir Robert Peel's conduct in 1825, in 1827, and 1829, though by long sitting on the stool of repentance we might forgive him, the country will not twice forgive such crimes in the same man. It is time that atonement should be made to the insulted country, to an insulted parliament, and to the betrayed constituency of the empire."

9.-Fire at St. John's, Newfoundland, laying

waste a large part of the city, and consuming property valued at 1,000,000/. Several lives were also lost.

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12. In the course of the adjourned debate on the Coercion Bill, Sir Robert Peel replied to the personal charge of having hunted Mr. Canning to death. The whole of the charge, he said, directed against him of having stated in 1829 that he told Lord Liverpool in 1828 he had changed his opinion on Catholic Emancipation, was wholly without foundation. the 15th the charge was renewed by Mr. Disraeli, who contrasted the speech of Sir Robert as reported in the "Mirror of Parliament," and as reported in "Hansard." In the latter, which was stated to have been revised by Mr. Secretary Peel, the words referring to the statement made to Lord Liverpool were omitted. He was not surprised that his noble friend, Lord George Bentinck, felt so deeply as he did with reference to Mr. Canning. "When would they see another Mr. Canning, -a man who ruled that House as a high-bred steed? The temper of the House was not now as spirited as it was then, and he was not therefore surprised that the vulture ruled where once the eagle reigned. The right hon. gentleman had said that Ireland was his greatest difficulty. He must be reminded of that by his present position. He must feel that it was Nemesis who regulated that division, and who was about to stamp with the seal of parliamentary reprobation the catastrophe of a sinister career.

- Decided in the Court of Exchequer the case of Walstob v. Spottiswoode, establishing the liability of provisional committees not only to pay all the expenses incurred in connexion with bubble-schemes, but to return the deposits.

With a view to the speedy and satisfactory settlement of the Oregon boundary question, President Polk, acting on the advice of the Senate, accepts the convention submitted by Mr. Pakenham on behalf of the British Government; the United States to possess up to 49° N. latitude, leaving to England the navigation of the Columbia.

13. On her voyage to America, the Great Britain screw steamer runs this day 330 knots, being an average of nearly sixteen statute miles per hour.

14. Re-election of Mr. Macaulay for Edinburgh, on the occasion of his accepting the office of Paymaster-General in the new Cabinet. At four o'clock the poll stood: Macaulay, 1,735; Sir C. E. Smith, 832.

15. Private White, of the 7th Hussars, flogged at Hounslow Barracks. He had been sentenced to 150 lashes for striking his sergeant across the chest with a poker, and the whole number was administered by two farriers, in presence of the men, and under the inspection of Dr. Warren, the surgeon of the regiment. At the conclusion White was able to walk to the hospital with a little assist

ance, but he got worse there, and expired on the 11th July. A regimental post-mortem examination was made, and a certificate signed that death resulted from inflammation of the pleura, and was in no way connected with the corporal punishment to which he had been subjected. The coroner (Mr. Wakley) and Mr. Erasmus Wilson took a different view of the matter; the latter giving it as his opinion that, so far as appearances went, White might still have been alive but for the severe corporal punishment he had endured. The coroner's jury returned a verdict to this effect, and urged upon the people the necessity of petitioning Parliament to put a stop to the cruel practice. White's comrades erected a stone in Helston churchyard as "a testimonial of their deep commiseration of his fate, and out of respect to his memory.'

16.-Sir Robert Peel writes to the artist Haydon :-"I am sorry to hear of your continued embarrassments. From a limited fund which I have at my disposal, I send, as a contribution for your relief from these embarrassments, the sum of 50/." It was on this day Haydon recorded in his journal Sat from two to five o'clock staring at my picture like an idiot, my brain pressed down by anxiety, and the anxious looks of my family, whom I have been compelled to inform of my condition. have written to Sir Robert Peel, to—, &c. &c. Who answered first? Tormented by Disraeli; harassed by public business; up came a letter from Sir Robert Peel."

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17.-Rowland Hill entertained at Blackwall, and presented with 13,000l. as a national testimonial for his services in suggesting and carrying into execution the system of uniform penny postage.

18.-Formal opening of the North British Railway from Edinburgh to Berwick.

19. Cardinal Jean Marie Mastai elected Pope, by the conclave of the Sacred College, and occupies the chair of St. Peter under the title of Pius IX.

Sir Robert Peel enters into a long personal explanation with reference to the charges brought against him by Lord George Bentinck and Mr. Disraeli. Regarding the first count in the indictment, that, though he had vigorously opposed Catholic Emancipation in 1827, he had yet written a letter to Lord Liverpool in 1825, stating that he had changed his opinion on the Catholic question, and that the time was come for a settlement, Sir Robert denied that he had ever made any such intimation by letter or otherwise, and produced letters from Lord Liverpool of the date in question, utterly irreconcilable with the idea that such communication had been made. As regarded the discrepancy in the reports of his speech, he showed that the "Mirror of Parliament,' founded on by Mr. Disraeli, was not an independent authority, but a transcript of the Times, which on the point in question differed from all the other morning papers. "If the

honourable gentleman, twenty years after the death of Mr. Canning, is parading those feelings of affection for his memory, for the purpose of wounding a political opponent, he is desecrating feelings which are in themselves entitled to esteem and respect; and so far from succeeding in his purpose of inflicting a blow on me, my firm belief is that he is rallying round me a degree of public sympathy, and bringing upon himself nothing but indignation at the time, and the circumstances and the motives which have led to this charge being made."

22.-B. R. Haydon commits suicide by firing a pistol into his head, and then cutting his throat. Repeated disappointment to his ambition as an artist, a continued course of what appeared to him obstinate misconception and prejudice on the part of the public, and the irritating pressure of pecuniary embarrassments, all combined to embitter his later years, and tended to produce that disorder of the intellect which some unsuspected and slight disappointment seemed to urge beyond the limits of selfrestraint. A diary which he had kept for many years was written up to the last minute of his life, the closing entry being "June 22.-God forgive me. Amen. Finis. B. R. Haydon. Stretch me no longer on this rough world!” Letters to his wife, family, and friends were also left in his studio, where the fatal deed was committed. The coroner's jury returned a verdict that the unfortunate artist had died from wounds inflicted by himself, but that he was in an unsound state of mind at the time. They found the body lying before the painter's colossal picture, "Alfred the Great and the First British Jury," on which he appeared to have been engaged during the forenoon.

25.-The third reading of the Corn Importation Bill carried in the House of Lords without a division. The Customs Duties Bill, a companion measure, was also passed without a division. The royal assent was given next day. Ministers defeated in the House of Commons, on the Irish Coercion Bill, by a majority of 73-292 against 219.

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made, apparently at variance with the course which Ministers heretofore have pursued, and subjecting them to the charge or taunt of inconsistency, upon the whole it is advantageous for the country and for the genuine character of public men, that the proposal of measures of that kind, under such circumstances, should entail that which is supposed to be a fitting punishment; namely, expulsion from office. therefore do not complain of it: anything is preferable to attempting to maintain ourselves in office without a full measure of the confidence of this House. (Cheers.) As I said before, Sir, in reference to our proposing these measures, I have no wish to rob any person of the credit which is justly due to him for them. But I may say, that neither the gentlemen sitting on the benches opposite, nor myself, nor the gentlemen sitting around me I say that neither of us are the parties who are strictly entitled to the merit. There has been a combination of parties, and that combination of parties, together with the influence of the Government, has led to the ultimate success of the measures. But, Sir, there is a name which ought to be associated with their success. It is not the name of the noble lord the member for the City of London, neither is it my name. Sir, the name which ought to be, and which will be, associated with the success of these measures, is the name of a man who, acting, I believe, from pure and disinterested motives, has advocated their cause with untiring energy, and by appeals to reason enforced by an eloquence the more to be desired because it was unaffected and unadorned-the name which ought to be, and will be, associated with the success of these measures, is the name of Richard Cobden. (Loud cheers.) Without scruple, Sir, I attribute the success of these measures to him." In concluding his address, the right honourable baronet said: "I shall leave office, I fear, with a name severely censured by many honourable gentlemen, who, on public principle, deeply regret the severance of party-ties, not from any interested or personal motives, but because they believe fidelity to party-engagements-the existence and maintenance of a great party-to constitute a powerful instrument of government; I shall surrender power severely censured, I fear, by many hon. gentlemen, who, from no interested motives, have adhered to the principle of Protection as important to the welfare and interest of the country. I shall leave a name execrated by every monopolist, who, from less honourable motives, maintains Protection for his own individual benefit; but it may be that I shall leave a name sometimes remembered with expressions of goodwill in those places which are the abode of men whose lot it is to labour and to earn their daily bread by the sweat of their brow-a name remembered with expressions of goodwill when they shall recreate their exhausted strength with abundant and untaxed food, the sweeter because it is no longer leavened with a sense of injustice."

29.-Meetings of the Liberal party, held at the residence of Lord John Russell, and at Brookes's Club.

July 1.-Publication of the Report of the Select Committee of the House of Lords, appointed to take into consideration the best means of enforcing one uniform system of management on railroads, and to secure the due fulfilment of the provisions of the Acts of Parliament under which the companies had obtained their power. After describing the deficiencies of the present system, the Committee recommended the creation of a department in the Executive for considering and controlling the entire railway system of the country.

2. The Anti-Corn-law League formally dissolved, with the exception of a Committee, nominated to call the members together in the event of any sudden and unforeseen emergency demanding exertion. 10,000l. voted to Mr. Wilson for his services as chairman.

3.-Lord John Russell issues his address to the electors of the City of London. He trusted that "the measures of commercial freedom which still remain to be accomplished will not occasion the renewal of angry conflict. The Government of this country ought to behold with an impartial eye the various portions of the community engaged in agriculture, in manufacture, and in commerce. The feeling that any of them is treated with injustice provokes ill-will, disturbs legislation, and directs attention from many useful and necessary reforms. Great social improvements are quired public education is lamentably imperfect; the treatment of criminals is a problem yet undecided; the sanitary condition of our towns and villages has been grossly neglected. The administration of our colonies demands the most earnest and deliberate attention. Our recent discussions have laid bare the misery, the discontent, and outrages in Ireland. They are too clearly authenticated to be denied -too extensive to be treated by any but the most comprehensive measures.'

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4. Sir Robert Peel to Lord Hardinge in India :-"You will see that we are out-defeated by a combination of Whigs and Protectionists. A much less emphatic hint would have sufficed for me. I would not have held office by sufferance for a week. Were I to write a quire of paper, I could not recount to you what has passed with half so much detail and accuracy as the public papers will recount it. There are no secrets. We have fallen in the face of day, and with our front to the enemy. There is nothing I would not have done to insure the carrying of the measures I had proposed this session. I pique myself on never having proposed anything which I have not carried. But the moment their success was insured, and I had the satisfaction of seeing two drowsy Masters in Chancery mumble out at the table of the House of Commons that the

Lords had passed the Corn and Customs Bills, I was satisfied.'

6. Died, Chief Justice Sir N. C. Tindal, aged 69.

9. During a severe thunderstorm, the East Wheal Rose silver and lead mine, near Truro, was flooded, and thirty-nine of the workmen drowned, being the whole of those in the lower levels. The water gathered from the surrounding hills in huge masses, and poured down the shaft till the workings were flooded to above the 50-fathom level.

13. The most of the new ministers took the oaths and their seat after re-election. Among those present, were Lord John Russell, First Lord of the Treasury; Sir George Grey, Home Secretary; Lord Palmerston, Foreign Secretary; and Mr. C. Wood, Chancellor of the Exchequer. A new writ was issued for the election of a member for the borough of St. Ives, in room of Mr. M. Praed, deceased.

16.-Lieut. Hawkey, the surviving principal in the Gosport duel, having surrendered to take his trial, was arraigned before Mr. Baron Platt for the wilful murder of Capt. Seaton. The learned judge summed up adversely to the accused on the law of the case, but favourably with regard to the evidence showing provocation. The jury returned a verdict of Not guilty. Lieut. Hawkey was afterwards restored to his commission.

20.-Lord John Russell introduces the new Sugar Duties Bill. Instead of the old prohibiting duty of 635., and a protecting duty of 235. 4d., he proposed that there should be upon all foreign Muscovado sugar a duty of 21s. per cwt., and that that duty should gradually diminish from 215. in 1847, to 15s. 6d. in 1851, and that from July of the latter year the smaller duty of 145. should apply to all Muscovado sugar.

27.-Split in the Repeal Association-the Young Ireland party attaching themselves to Smith O'Brien, and the old to O'Connell. In one of the many scenes of confusion which took place during the proceedings, Mr. Meagher indignantly repudiated the notion that the sword should not be resorted to in extreme cases. Smith O'Brien's party left the hall. The Liberator himself appeared at the next weekly meeting, and besought true Repealers not to be led away by physical-force enthusiasts, and also to give the present Government a fair trial, for he knew they had many good measures in preparation.

Discussion in the House of Commons on Lord George Bentinck's amendment to the Government resolutions on the Sugar Duties-"That in the present state of the sugar cultivation in the British East and West Indian possessions, the proposed reduction of duty upon foreign slave-grown sugar is alike unjust and impolitic, as tending to check the advance of production by British free-labour, and to give

a great additional stimulus to slave-labour." On a division the amendment was rejected by 265 to 135 votes.

29.-Another attempt made to assassinate the King of the French by Joseph Henri, who fired while his Majesty was bowing on the balcony of the Tuileries to the multitude who assembled to commemorate the anniversary of the Revolution of 1830. Henri was arrested instantly and conveyed to prison. He was sentenced to hard labour for life.

30. Prince Albert visits Liverpool, and opens the dock bearing his Royal Highness's Next day he fulfilled the main purpose of his journey, by laying the foundation stone of the Sailors' Home.

name.

August 1.-Serious storm of hail, rain, and thunder in the metropolis. At Buckingham Palace the glass in the picture gallery was totally destroyed, and the apartment flooded with water. 7,000 panes of glass were broken in the New Houses of Parliament; 300 at the Police-Office, Scotland Yard, and no fewer than 10,000 at Burford's Panorama. The Surrey Theatre was so flooded that the evening performance could not be gone on with. The storm spread from London over a considerable breadth of country, but the damage done was trifling compared with that sustained by the metropolis.

6.-The Prussian town of Elbing having congratulated Sir Robert Peel on the successful issue of the Free-trade struggle, the right hon. baronet wrote in reply: The social condition of that country which maintains with the greatest rigour the protective system will be opposed to the state of another which has adopted liberal principles, and the conviction of the value of such principles will not obtain unless by the encouragement of the freedom of exchange amongst all the nations of the world; the well-being of each individual will be increased, the will of Providence will be fulfilled -that Providence which has given to every country a sun, a climate, and a soil, each dif fering one from the other, not for the purpose of rendering them severally independent of each other, but, on the contrary, in order that they may feel their reciprocal dependence by the exchange of their respective products, thus causing them to enjoy the common blessings of Providence. It is thus that we find in commerce the means of advancing civilization, of appeasing jealousy and national prejudice, and of bringing about a universal peace, either from national interest or from Christian duty."

7.-Dr. Bowring's motion to abolish flogging in the army rejected by 90 votes to 37. Previous to the commencement of the discussion, Lord John Russell intimated that the Commander-in-Chief was about to issue an order prohibiting courts-martial from causing a greater number of lashes than fifty to be inflicted.

7.-Mr. Labouchere announces the intention of Government to introduce an Irish Arms Bill, to continue in effect till the 1st May. The measure excited considerable hostility, and was withdrawn on the 17th.

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From a return issued by order of the House of Commons, it appears that the total amount of subscriptions by persons who have subscribed 2,000l. and upwards to any railway subscription contract deposited in the BillOffice during the present session is 121,255, 374. Os. 8d. Mr. Hudson is represented as subscribing 818, 540/. for twenty-three lines in which he was concerned.

10. The Times publishes a list of the new railways authorized to be constructed in the present session, and showing that they involved an expenditure of 129,229,7677.

15.-Inauguration of the Scott Monument, Edinburgh. The spectacle was designed on a scale of unusual splendour, but the unpropitious state of the weather curtailed the ceremonial part of the proceedings. The procession, consisting of about 600 Freemasons, the Lord Provost and magistrates of Edinburgh, with deputations from numerous other incorporated bodies, passed from Lothian-road to the monument in Princes-street. Lord Glenlyon, the Grand Master, at the close of a short address, said his final duty was to hand over this monument, duly finished, to the care of the committee, and to the Lord Provost and magistrates of Edinburgh, as a testimony to the memory of the great novelist and minstrel, in whom Scotland has been so highly honoured. There was a banquet in the evening, presided over by Lord Provost Black.

The Lord Chancellor causes intimation to be sent to Mr. O'Connell that if he wished to resume the office of a magistrate he was prepared to give the necessary instructions for replacing him on the Commission.

The offer

was accepted "with respectful gratitude." Fourteen other magistrates, who had been removed for attending or countenancing Repeal meetings, were restored at the same time.

16.-John Smith, cook, excited, as he admitted, by jealousy, murders Susan Tolliday, servant, in the kitchen of the Guildhall Coffee House, by stabbing her with a knife. He was tried at the Central Criminal Court on the 22nd, and sentenced to death, but afterwards had his sentence commuted.

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17. Lord John Russell introduces ministerial measure relating to the relief and employment of the Irish poor. It gave power to the Lord Lieutenant to summon a meeting of the magistrates of any county or barony in which scarcity of employment was represented to exist, and empowered and required that meeting to order the execution of public works of the kind most needed in the locality, and of an extent proportionate to the deficiency of employment. The expense of the works so determined on was to be defrayed, in the first place,

by a loan from the Treasury, to bear interest at three and a half per cent. and to be repaid in ten years. After the magistrates had deter

mined on the nature and extent of the works to be erected, the operations were to be carried on under the superintendence of officers of the Government Board of Works. In cases where the locality in need of assistance was so poor as to be unable to bear the interest and repayment of a loan, grants might be given, and the sum of 50,000l. was proposed to be voted during the present year to meet such cases.

17.-Died, Sir Charles Wetherell, aged 76.1 19. The Evangelical Alliance commences its labours in Freemasons Hall, Great Queenstreet, London. The condition of membership was agreement in what were understood to be "Evangelical" views in regard to questions of Christian doctrine.

21.-The Berwick branch of the North of England Joint-Stock Bank robbed of 1,000l. in Bank of England notes, 1,443. in Scotch notes, 3617. 10s. in gold, and 17. in silver. The greater part of the money was discovered secreted in and about the manager's house adjoining the bank, and his wife, Mrs. Thompson, was apprehended on suspicion of being concerned in the robbery. She was tried before the Recorder on October 26th, when the jury returned a verdict of Not guilty.

26. Mendelssohn's "Elijah" performed for the first time at the Birmingham Festival. "Never," says the Times, "was there a more complete triumph-never a more thorough and speedy recognition of a great work of art.

Elijah' is not only the chef-a'œuvre of Mendelssohn, but altogether one of the most extraordinary achievements of human intelligence."

27.-Capt. William Richardson, Chairman of the Tenbury, Worcester, and Ludlow Railway Company, brought up at the Mansionhouse, charged with forging a cheque for 5,000l. on Coutts and Co. A cheque for a small amount, signed by the prisoner as chairman, and two other directors, had been altered to the larger, and the amount paid over in five notes. These were alleged to have been cashed by or for the prisoner at the Bank of England. He was committed for trial, but at the ensuing sessions of the Central Criminal Court the grand jury ignored the bill.

28.-Parliament prorogued by Commission. The Lord Chancellor read the Royal Speech.

The Queen of Spain announces her intention of marrying her cousin, François d'Assis, Duke of Cadiz.

29.-Colonel Thornton, late of the East India Company's service, commits suicide by suspending himself to the grating of a policecell, to which he had been conveyed on the charge of passing forged 57. notes among the jewellers of Oxford-street. At a trial which took place at Guildhall next month, it turned (111)