clearness and ability, draws attention to the Memorandum lately issued by the cabinets of Vienna and Berlin to their envoys at the Germanic Diet, contending that the ambition and aggressive policy of Russia, which he fully exposed, required more vigorous measures of oppression than a mere return to the status quo in any future arrangements with that Power. Lord Clarendon in reply expressed his disbelief that Austria had any intention of concluding peace with Russia on the terms suggested by Lord Lyndhurst, which he fully declared would be unacceptable to England and France. Nothing but some result sufficient to fetter and cripple the enemy would be considered satisfactory.-The Earl of Derby maintained that the Memorandum bound Austria and Prussia to accept peace whenever Russia consented to evacuate the Principalities; but the peace of Europe must be secured from Russian ambition; some of the past conquests of Russia must be wrested from her grasp; the Black Sea must not remain a Russian lake, nor the Danube a Russian river. -The Earl of Aberdeen remarked that the war from the beginning had been defensive-to preserve Turkey from encroachment; but that contingencies might require the invasion of Russia. The Western Powers were not bound to accede to any Austrian propositions for peace. denied that Europe had suffered much real peril from the ambition of Russia, instancing that, even towards Turkey, Russia since the Treaty of Adrianople had interfered only for the purpose of protecting the Porte from a rebellious vassal. War should be waged merely for the sake of peace, though not less vigorously on that account, and should be terminated at the first moment that peace became possible on a just and honourable basis. He 20. Mrs. Hudson Kirby burnt on the stage of Plymouth theatre while taking her part in an amateur performance given by the officers of the garrison. Collision between the Olympus, from Liverpool, and the Trade Wind, from New York, in lat. 41° 50′ and long. 57° 2'. Both vessels went down within an hour and a half after the occurrence, a few only of each of the crews being saved in the boats. 21. Sir William Clay's Church-rates Abolition Bill lost by a majority of 27 in a House of 391. Circular Memorandum issued from the Horse Guards giving the army generally permission to keep the upper lip unshaven, as the practice had been found beneficial by the army in the East. But " a clear space of two inches must be left between the corner of the mouth and the whisker, where whiskers are grown. The chin, the under lip, and at least two inches of the upper part of the throat must be clean shaven, so that no hair can be seen above the stock in that place." 22. In the House of Lords a debate on a breach of privilege was originated by the Marquis of Clanricarde, who complained that certain returns respecting the commissariat, ordered on the motion of Earl Grey on the 8th April, included a document of later date, containing various strictures on the noble Earl's speech, by Sir C. Treveleyan, a Government official. After a prolonged discussion the papers were withdrawn for the purpose of substituting an amended return. 22.-On bringing up the Report on the Oxford University Bill, in the Commons, Mr. Heywood's clause to abolish the Matriculation Oath was carried against Government, by 252 to 161. A second clause, for abolishing the oath on taking degrees, was rejected by 205 to 196. 23. The Russians retire from the siege of Silistria, and retreat across the Danube, pursued by the Turks. In this siege of thirtynine days the Russians were reported to have lost 12,000 men, Schilders, their chief engineer, being among the killed, and many other generals of distinction. Between 40,000 and 50,000 projectiles were thrown among the gallant defenders of the fortress. Its successful defence was mainly due to the bravery of the Governor, Moussa Pasha (killed by a shell in the last days of the siege), to Gruch, a scientific Prussian officer, and to two British offcers, Captain Butler and Lieutenant Nasmyth, who, being accidentally in the place when the Russians sat down before it, remained to share its dangers. Butler died of fever and exhaustion two hours before the Russian retreat was discovered. 24. In the Court of Common Pleas, a Somersetshire magistrate, named Cridland, was sentenced to pay 1,000l. damages for writing offensive letters to his wife, from whom he was divorced. 26.-Fire at Olney, Buckinghamshire, commencing in a tradesman's shop in the Highstreet, and burning about sixty houses and a large amount of agricultural produce. During a debate on Lord Aberdeen's motion for the production of a despatch in reference to the Treaty of Adrianople, the Marquis of Clanricarde declared that the noble Earl had shown himself the constant supporter of arbitrary power in every nation of Europe, a partisan of Russia, and an opponent of every national effort to obtain constitutional liberties wherever undertaken. He was, in a word, the evil genius of the present Government. 27. Mr. Collier, carries a resolution, pledging the House to a modification of the law of partnership, so as to permit persons to embark in commercial enterprise with limited liability. Spain declared in a state of siege, O'Donnell having taken the field with 2,000 cavalry of the garrison of Madrid. 29.-The Duke of Newcastle urges upon Lord Raglan the necessity of making an immediate attack upon Sebastopol :-"I have, on the part of her Majesty's Government, to instruct your lordship to concert measures for the siege of Sebastopol, unless with the information in your possession, but at present unknown in this country, you should be decidedly of opinion that it could not be undertaken with a reasonable prospect of success. The confidence with which her Majesty placed under your command the gallant army now in Turkey is unabated; and if, upon mature reflection, you should consider that the united strength of the two armies is insufficient for this undertaking, you are not to be precluded from the exercise of the discretion originally vested in you, though her Majesty's Government will learn with regret that an attack from which such important consequences are anticipated must be any longer delayed. The difficulties of the siege of Sebastopol appear to her Majesty's Government to be more likely to increase than diminish by delay." The draft of this despatch was read over to the Cabinet, and assented to without discussion. 29.-Quarrel, leading to a court-martial, between Lieutenant Greer and Lieutenant Perry, of the 46th Regiment, stationed at Windsor Barracks. In his written defence Perry said, that being alone in the world, and in the possession of only limited means, he determined to be a 66 'quiet man," and thus became an object of reproach and ridicule. This night Greer forced Perry to toss and gamble, and, having lost, cursed him. When Perry got up to leave the room Greer dragged him back by the coat, seized him under the arms, jammed him against the wall, and then struck him on the chest and stomach. Unable to bear this any longer, Perry snatched up a candlestick and struck Greer until he relaxed his grasp. The cross charges of assault and unbecoming conduct occupied the military tribunals many weeks. The verdict laid before the Commander-in-Chief recommended that Lieutenant Perry be dismissed from the service, and Greer severely reprimanded; but this being thought contrary to evidence, her Majesty was pleased not to confirm the sentence. A Horse-Guards' memorandum of the 2d of September explained the course which Lord Hardinge thought proper to take in bringing the questions relating to the discipline of the 46th to an issue. The Oxford University Bill read a third time in the Commons, with the addition of a supplementary clause abolishing Test oaths on taking the B.A. degree. July 2.- Attempted abduction of Miss Eleanor Arbuthnot, by Mr. John Carden, of Barnane, Clonmel. She was seized when returning from church in a covered car, and in the company of several lady friends, who were fortunately able to offer such resistance as prevented the abductor carrying out his design. The screams of the terrified women brought speedy assistance, and Carden, with his party of six assistants, fled with precipitate haste. They were overtaken by the mounted police near Farna Castle, and immediately committed to prison. In Carden's carriage, which was overturned in a ditch, there was found a sixbarrel revolver, bottles of chloroform, salts, cords, disguises, and 3157. in gold and notes. At the trial at Clonmel Assizes, on July 28th, the jury, so far as the chief prisoner was concerned, returned a verdict of Not guilty of the felony, but Guilty of an attempt to commit it. Judge Ball sentenced him to two years' imprisonment with hard labour. On being placed a second time at the bar for assaulting Smethwick, a shepherd, who had interfered to protect Miss Arbuthnot, the jury returned a verdict of Not guilty. 3. The Centenary Festival of the Society of Arts celebrated by a banquet in the Crystal Palace. 7.-The Oxford University Bill passes through Committee in the Lords, with a clause, moved by Viscount Canning, exempting Fellowships in respect of certain preferences. It was read a third time and passed on the 13th, and received the royal assent on the 7th August. 12. The Emperor Napoleon reviews the French troops at Boulogne, previous to their embarkation in British ships of war for the Baltic. 13.-Lord Granville enters into a personal explanation in the House of Lords, with respect to a charge made against him of introducing the Russian Count Pahlen into a London club. The Count (he said), an old friend of his father's, and of many eminent statesmen in this country, had arrived in London on no political mission, but solely with the view of settling his own private affairs. In such circumstances he signed, as he had frequently done before, the printed form recommending a foreigner to the Travellers' Club. He did not believe such conduct illegal or unpatriotic ; on the contrary, he thought that civility towards an individual stranger with whose country we were at war was just one of those mitigations of the old barbarous rights of war which modern civilization had introduced. 17. The House of Commons agree to a vote of 17,300l. to defray the expense of the new office of Secretary of State for War. Insurrection in Madrid, ending in the flight of the Ministry, and the appointment of a Junta to restore the municipality of 1843. 19.-After ten sittings, a coroner's jury returned a verdict that a child named Richardson had died in consequence of an operation for lithotomy unskilfully performed by surgeons at the Royal Free Hospital, Gray's-inn-lane. 66 -- Lord Raglan informs the Duke of New. castle that he intended to attack Sebastopol, more in deference to the views of the British Government, and to the known acquiescence of the Emperor Napoleon in these views, than to any information in the possession of the naval and military authorities either as to the extent of the enemy's forces or their state of preparation. The fact must not be concealed that neither the English nor the French admirals have been able to obtain any intelligence on which they can rely with respect to the army which the Russians may destine for operations in the field, or to the number of men allotted for the defence of Sebastopol; and Marshal St. Arnaud and myself are equally deficient in information upon these all-important questions, and there would seem to be no chance of our acquiring it." In replying to this despatch, the Duke wrote:-"I cannot help seeing, through the calm and noble tone of your announcement of the decision to attack Sebastopol, that it has been taken in order to meet the views and desires of the Government, and not in entire accordance with your own opinion. I wrote to the Queen the moment I received your despatch, and in answer she said: 'The very important news which he conveyed to her in it of the decision of the generals and admirals to attack Sebastopol have filled the Queen with mixed feelings of satisfaction and anxiety. May the Almighty protect her army and her fleet, and bless this great undertaking with success!'"' 21.-Cholera breaks out among the troops at Varna, sixteen French soldiers dying out of twenty-five attacked. It increased with such rapidity that fatigue parties were almost constantly engaged in the melancholy duty of burying the dead. The troops in consequence were much dispirited. Regiments were reduced to 300 or 400 sickly men, and letters sent home were full of prayers that, at whatever risk, they might be led against the enemy rather than die the inglorious death so fast decimating their ranks. By August the brigade of Guards the flower of the army-was so exhausted and beaten that they had to make two marches to get over the ten miles of ground In this lying between Alladyn and Varna. brigade alone there were upwards of 600 attacked by cholera. The Light Division lost 112 men, and Sir De Lacy Evans about 100. Among the French the mortality was still more frightful. Nearly 3,000 were reported to have perished under General d'Espinasse during an expedition to Kostendji, one of the worst regions in the pestilential Dobrudscha. 22.-Lord Clarendon writes to Lord Westmoreland at Vienna :-" After making such great efforts and sacrifices, and engaged as they are in a just cause, the Allied Powers will not stop in their course without the certainty that they will not again be called upon after a short interval to recommence the war.... The privileged frontier of Russia in the Black Sea has enabled her to establish in those waters a naval power which, in the absence of any counterbalancing force, is a standing menace to the Ottoman empire. The uncontrolled possession by Russia of the principal mouth of the Danube has created obstacles to the navigation of that great river which seriously affect the general commerce of Europe. Finally, the stipulation of the Treaty of Kutschuk-Kainardji relative to the protection of the Christians has become by a wrongful interpretation the principal cause of the present struggle. Upon these points the status quo ante bellum must undergo important modifications." 24. The House of Commons agree to a vote of 3,000,000l. for carrying on the war. 28.-The Bribery Bill passes the House of Commons. It was read a third time in the House of Lords on the 7th August, the Commons accepting the amendments made there, on condition that the measure was restricted in operation to one year instead of two. 29.-The King of Denmark proclaims a new constitution for the united monarchy. August 1.-Came on for trial at the Kilkenny Assizes, before Mr. Justice Ball and a jury, the great Mountgarret case, involving a peerage and estates of the value of 10,000%. per annum. The plaintiff was Mr. Pierce Somerset Butler, the eldest son of Colonel the Hon. Pierce Butler, fourth son of Edmund, eleventh Viscount Mountgarret; and the defendant was the son of the Hon. Henry Butler, the third son of the said Edmund, being the son of Henry Butler by Anne, daughter of John Harrison, Esq. This lady, the plaintiff asserted, Henry had married while he had another wife still living; that, consequently, this marriage was a nullity, and the issue-of whom the defendant was the eldest son—illegitimate from which it followed that the plaintiff, and not the defendant, became heir to the viscounty and family estates on the death of the three elder brothers without lawful issue, his own father being dead. It appeared that Somerset Butler, the second, Henry Butler, the third, and Pierce' Butler, the fourth son of Edmund, predeceased the eldest son Edmund, who had been advanced to the dignity of Earl of Kilkenny, limited to him and his issue, whereby, at his death without children, the earldom lapsed, and the viscounty only passed to his collateral heirs; and that the defendant, presuming his legitimacy, had assumed the title, and entered into possession of the estates, from which the plaintiff now sought to eject him. The fact of the legal marriage of Henry Butler with Amanda Colebrooke, prior to his marriage with Anne Harrison, was the fact really to be decided by this trial.-On the fourth day of trial the jury returned a verdict for the plaintiff, with 6d. damages. The defendant obtained a new trial, when the jury gave a verdict reinstating him in his property. 4.-Experiment off Portsmouth with the new Lancaster gun. The target was one of the Needle rocks. The first and second shots failed; the third, fourth, and fifth took a very high flight, went far above the rocks over the lofty hill on which the lighthouse stands, and damaged that structure on bursting. The terrified inhabitants soon made signals of distress, and the firing was discontinued. 4. At the Appleby Assizes, John Atkinson, organist, was sentenced to nine months' imprisonment for carrying off (with her own consent) Ann Jane Ward, a pupil in Miss Bishop's boarding-school, twelve years of age, and heiress of 10,000l. A marriage ceremony had been gone through at Gretna Green. 6. - At Kuruk - Derè, General Guyon (Kurshid Pasha) attacks a force of 20,000 Russians approaching Kars; but, after a loose irregular combat of four hours' duration, the Turks retreated in confusion, leaving 1,200 killed on the field, 1,800 wounded, and 15 pieces of cannon. Above 2,000 were taken prisoners. Long before the fight became general, there was scarcely one superior officer to be seen on the field. 9.-During a severe thunderstorm at Ipswich, St. Mary's National School was set on fire by lightning, and three of the children killed. Nearly the whole of the pupils in the boys' department were thrown down and injured. 10.-Fire at Varna, destroying large quantities of the military stores gathered there by the allied armies. 12.-Parliament prorogued by the Queen in person. His Highness the Maharajah Dhuleep Singh occupied a seat on the woolsack. 15. At the Fête Napoléon intimation is made that the Emperor had set apart 8,000,000 francs to carry out the will of Napoleon I. 16. The Rev. Thomas Robinson, a beneficed clergyman of the Isle of Wight, commits suicide by throwing himself from the summit of Shakspeare's Cliff. The fortress of Bomarsund, occupied by 2,235 men, surrenders to the allied fleet in the Baltic, after a severe cannonade. The news of this first success in the war was received with great enthusiasm throughout Britain and France, on the 19th. 17.-Fire on the premises of Messrs. Cubitt, builders, Pimlico. The workshops were nearly all destroyed, and their contents greatly injured. 26.-Gathering of Literary and Scientific Institutions at Worsley Hall, the seat of the Earl of Ellesmere, for the purpose of securing a friendly reunion, and of aiding a fund to purchase a library for the Institutional Association of Yorkshire and Lancashire. 28.-Renewed disturbances at Madrid in consequence of the departure of the Queen mother. 29. A combined English and French squadron make an unsuccessful attack on the fortified Russian town of Petropaulovski, in Kamschatka. The commander of the English division (Admiral Price) committed suicide in his cabin during the engagement. 30.-Archdeacon Robert Wilberforce resigns his preferment in the Established Church "not being any longer able to subscribe to the Supremacy of the Crown." He had previously published a book on the doctrine of "The Real Presence in the Eucharist." September 4.-Laying of the submarine telegraph between Holyhead and Balscadden Bay, Ireland. 5.-Visit of Prince Albert to the Emperor of the French at Boulogne. 8.-Died, aged 72, Cardinal Angelo Mai, Oriental and Biblical scholar. 14. The allied forces land in the Crimea. The troops, consisting of 24,000 English, 22,000 French, and 8,000 Turks, sailed from Varna on the 5th, and arrived at daybreak this morning at the place of disembarkation, near Old Fort. Before nightfall all the infantry and part of the artillery were landed. On the 15th the swell on the shore considerably impeded operations, but some progress was made through the exertions of the fleet under the command of Rear Admiral Sir Edmund Lyons. Before leaving Varna a series of instructions was issued to our troops by Lord Raglan, providing for all contingencies likely to happen before landing. Owing to the shifting, through accident or some other cause, of a buoy laid down on the night of the 13th, to mark the common landing-place, the English troops were separated a little from the French, and landed on the narrow strip of beach which divided the Lake of Kamishlu from the sea. 15. Attempt to upset a train conveying a party of Orangemen from Londonderry to Enniskillen. Large stones were laid along the line at various places, and on the train coming up one of the engines was thrown down the embankment, and the other came into collision with the carriages. One driver was killed, and two others injured. The Orangemen attributed the outrage to the malevolence of the Roman Catholics, who in turn denied the accusation, and offered 100l. reward to discover the perpetrators. The coroner's jury returned a verdict of wilful murder against six persons, all workmen on the line, believing that the outrage had originated in a dispute with their employers. 18. The Rev. Hugh Pollard Willoughby, Rector of Burthorpe, Gloucestershire, attempts to shoot Mr. Giffard, barrister, in the Central Criminal Court. The ball fell out of the pistol, and the powder inflicted only a slight wound. When tried for the offence, the jury returned a verdict of Not guilty, on the ground of insanity. wreck, but by some strange terror the unfortunate persons on board could not avail themselves of the means of safety within their reach. At daybreak next morning not a vestige of the ill-fated vessel was to be seen where she was wrecked; but a mass of broken masts and timber entangled in torn ropes and sails lay along the shore. By this disaster sixty-two soldiers of the 27th, eleven women, all the children, twenty-six in number, and eighteen of the crew perished. The few who were saved leapt over the side and trusted to the mercy of the waves. And 20.-Battle of the Alma. General Bosquet's division crossed the river near the mouth about 11.30; the Turkish battalion passing at the same time close to the bar and within musket range of the beach. This movement was unopposed. With inconceivable rapidity the Zouaves swarmed up the cliff, and it was not till they formed on the height and deployed from behind a mound there that the Russian batteries opened upon them. Waiting the development of the French attack, Lord Raglan caused our infantry for a time to lie down and remain quite passive; but, wearying of this inactivity, and anticipating a little in a military point of view the crisis of action, he gave orders for our whole line to advance. Up rose those serried masses," writes the Times' correspondent, "and, passing through a fearful shower of round case-shot and shell, they dashed into the Alma, and floundered through the waters, which were literally torn into foam by the deadly hail. At the other side of the river were a number of vineyards occupied by Russian riflemen. Three of the staff were here shot down; but, led by Lord Raglan in person, they advanced, cheering on the men. now came the turning-point of the battle, in which Lord Raglan, by his sagacity and military skill, probably secured the victory at a smaller sacrifice than would have been otherwise the case. He dashed over the bridge followed by his staff. From the road over it, under the Russian guns, he saw the state of the action. The British line, which he had ordered to advance, was struggling through the river and up the heights in masses, firm indeed, but mowed down by the murderous fire of the batteries, and by grape, round-shot, shell, canister, caseshot, and musketry, from some of the guns in the central battery, and from an immense and compact mass of Russian infantry. Then commenced one of the most bloody and determined struggles in the annals of war. The 2d Division, led by Sir De Lacy Evans, in the most dashing manner crossed the stream on the right. The 7th Fusiliers, led by Colonel Yea, were swept down by fifties. The 55th, 30th, and 95th, led by Brigadier Pennefather (who was in the thickest of the fight, cheering on his men), again and again were checked, indeed, but never drew back in their onward progress, which was marked by a fierce roll of Minié musketry; and Brigadier Adams, with the 41st, 47th, and 49th, bravely charged up Sir At It the hill, and aided them in the battle. George Brown, conspicuous on a grey horse, rode in front of his Light Division, urging them with voice and gesture. The 7th, diminished by one-half, fell back to reform their columns lost for the time; the 23d, with eight officers dead and four wounded, were still rushing to the front, aided by the 15th, 33d, 77th, and 88th. Down went Sir George in a cloud of dust in front of the battery. He was soon up, and shouted, 23rd, I'm all right. Be sure I'll remember this day,' and led them on again; but in the shock produced by the fall of their chief the gallant regiment suffered terribly, while paralysed for the moment. Meantime, the Guards on the right of the Light Division and the brigade of the Highlanders were storming the heights on the left. Their line was almost as regular as though they were in Hyde-park. Suddenly a tornado of round and grape rushed through from the terrible battery, and a roar of musketry from behind it thinned their front ranks by dozens. It was evident that our troops were just able to contend with the Russians, favoured as they were by a great position. this very time an immense mass of Russian infantry were seen moving down towards the battery. They halted. It was the crisis of the day. Sharp, angular, and solid, they looked as if they were cut out of the solid rock. was beyond all doubt that, if our infantry, harrassed and thinned as they were, got into the battery, they would have to encounter a formidable fire, which they were but ill calculated to bear. Lord Raglan saw the difficulties of the situation. He asked if it would be possible to get a couple of guns to bear on these masses. The reply was 'Yes;' and an artillery officer brought up two guns to fire on the Russian squares. The first shot missed, but the next, and the next, and the next, cut through the ranks so cleanly, and so keenly, that a clear lane could be seen for a moment through the square. After a few rounds the columns of the square became broken, wavered to and fro, broke, and fled over the brow of the hill, leaving behind them six or seven distinct lines of dead, lying as close as possible to each other, marking the passage of the fatal messengers. This act relieved our infantry of a great incubus, and they continued their magnificent and fearful progress. The Duke of Cambridge encouraged his men by voice and example, and proved himself worthy of his proud command and of the royal race from whence he comes. 'Highlanders,' said Sir C. Campbell, ere they came to the charge, 'I am going to ask a favour of you: it is, that you will act so as to justify me in asking permission of the Queen for you to wear a bonnet! Don't pull a trigger till you're within a yard of the Russians!' They charged and well they obeyed their chieftain's wish. Sir Colin had his horse shot under him; but he was up immediately and at the head of his men, shouting, We'll hae naen but Highland bonnets here!' but the Guards |