cases of emergency to be made apparent to such authorities." Sir Robert Peel, in reply, refused to allow of any other extension than that provided for in the Bill.

14. The Government defeated in committee on the Sugar Duties Bill. An amendment on the first clause, proposed by Mr. Miles, lowering the duties on both British and foreign grown sugar not the produce of slave labour, was carried by a majority of 20 in a House of 462. This vote was rescinded three nights afterwards by a majority of 22 in a House of 488.

- Opening Private Letters at the Post-Office. -Mr. T. Duncombe presents a petition from M. Mazzini and three others, complaining that during the past month a number of their letters passing through the General Post-Office, written for no political purpose, and containing no treasonable or libellous matter, had been regu. larly detained and opened. Sir James Graham replied, that the Secretary of State had been invested by Parliament with the power, in certain cases, of issuing warrants directing letters to be opened. With respect to three of the petitioners, their statements were false; but so far as one of them was concerned, he had considered it his duty to issue such a warrant, but it was not at present in force. The powers he alluded to had been conferred by Parliament, and he hoped that Parliament would not withdraw its confidence from the Government in this respect. He declined to give any information as to which of the petitioners he referred to, or how long the warrant had remained in force.

15.-Died at Boulogne-sur-Mer, whither he had retired for the benefit of his health, Thomas Campbell, author of "The Pleasures of Hope."

- Thomas Carlyle writes to the Times:-" I have had the honour to know M. Mazzini for a series of years; and whatever I may think of his practical insight and skill in worldly affairs, I can with great freedom testify to all men that he, if I have ever seen one such, is a man of genius and virtue, a man of sterling veracity, humanity, and nobleness of mind. ... Whether the extraneous Austrian Emperor and miserable old chimera of a Pope shall maintain themselves in Italy, or be obliged to decamp from Italy, is not a question in the least vital to Englishmen. But it is a question vital to us that sealed letters in an English post-office be, as we all fancied they were, respected as things sacred; that opening of men's letters, a practice near of kin to picking men's pockets, and to other still viler and far fataler forms of scoundrelism, be not resorted to in England, except in cases of the very last extremity. When some new Gunpowder Plot may be in *the wind, some double-dyed high-treason, or imminent national wreck not avoidable otherwise, then let us open letters: not till then."

24. In the course of a debate on Post Office espionage, Mr. Shiel charged Sir James

Graham, an English Secretary, with acting an un-English part in so far as he did, by a clandestine and surreptitious instrumentality, lend himself to the procuration of evidence for foreign powers against unfortunate exiles, and obtained by such means the revelation of secrets by which their property and their lives might be sacrificed. In this matter public opinion is against the Government. In all parts of the country there was but one feeling with respect to it, and that was a feeling of indignation at the establishment of such an inquisition.

25.-On a division, Mr. Villiers' annual motion against the Corn-Laws defeated by a majority of 328 to 124.

On

July 1. The Running Rein case heard in the Court of Exchequer. This action, which excited considerable interest in the sporting world, arose out of the late Derby race at Epsom, in which the above horse, belonging to the plaintiff, Mr. Wood, had come in first. It was alleged, however, that Running Rein had not been truly described, that he was above the age which qualified him to run for the Derby, and that he ought not therefore to be deemed the winner of the race. Colonel Peel, the owner of Orlando, the second horse, claimed the stakes on the ground that Running Rein was not the horse represented, and Mr. Wood therefore raised the present action against the Colonel. Mr. Cockburn, who conducted the plaintiff's case, gave the pedigree of Running Rein, and what was said to be his true history, from his possession by Mr. Goodman as a foal to his purchase by Mr. Wood. the conclusion of the evidence for the plaintiff, the Solicitor-General denounced the case as a gross and scandalous fraud on his part. The horse was not Running Rein at all, but a colt by Gladiator out of a dam belonging originally to Sir Charles Ibbotson, and had the name of Running Rein imposed on it. It was originally called Maccabeus, and entered for certain stakes under that designation. His allegations, however, were not against Mr. Wood, but against Mr. Goodman, who had entered into a conspiracy with other persons to run horses above the proper age. On the second day of the trial, Baron Alderson ordered the production of the horse, but the plaintiff then declared it had been taken away without his knowledge, and he was not able therefore to produce it. Mr. Cockburn afterwards stated, on behalf of his client, that he was now convinced he had been deceived, and gave up the case. Mr. Baron Alderson, in directing the jury to return a verdict for the defendant, said, "Since the opening of this case a most atrocious fraud has been proved to have been practised; and I have seen with great regret gentlemen associating with persons much below themselves in station. If gentlemen would associate with gentlemen and race with gentlemen, we should have no such practices; ||

but if gentlemen will condescend to race with blackguards, they must expect to be cheated." Verdict for the defendant.

Came on for hearing in the Court of Queen's Bench, before Lord Denman and a jury, the case of Kinder v. Lord Ashburton, Baring, and Mildmay, being a claim by the plaintiff for an alleged conspiracy to inflict injury on him with respect to the Parris estate of 8,000,000 acres, purchased by both parties in Mexico. The bargain having turned out bad for the house of Baring, the plaintiff alleged that to get quit of it, they bribed the authorities of Mexico to pass a law preventing aliens holding estates in that country. The Barings denied all knowledge of bribery, though they admitted their agents may have done so on their own responsibility. Verdict for the defendants.

2.-Mr. Duncombe moves for a Select Committee to inquire into the department of the Post Office usually called the Secret Office, together with the duties of the persons employed there, and the authority under which those duties were discharged. Sir James Graham admitted that the question, whatever it had been before, was now a question between the people and the Government. "I am glad, therefore, that I can at once indulge my own private feelings and my sense of public duty by consenting to be a party to a most searching inquiry into the state of the law, and the practice of the law from the earliest period down to the latest moment. I think there must be inquiry, but that inquiry must not be carried on by a Select Committee, but by a Secret Committee." A committee of this kind was appointed at the close of the debate, four members being selected from the ministerial and five from the opposition side of the House. Mr. Duncombe being in the position of accuser was omitted in conformity with the rule of the House.

— Mr. Wallace defeated by a large majority in his motion for a Select Committee to inquire into the conduct of the Lord Justice Clerk in brow beating the jury and counsel in a case heard at the last Glasgow circuit, where, in defiance of the wish of the jury, a charge of rape was departed from on his lordship insisting that the evidence was insufficient.

At Ensham, Oxfordshire, a man burnt during confinement in the cage, where he had been placed for stabbing two people in a drunken quarrel. The cage accidentally caught fire, and before the key could be procured the prisoner was so severely burnt that he died in a few hours.

3.-Funeral of Thomas Campbell, in Westminster Abbey. The procession passed from Jerusalem Chamber to Poet's Corner.

6. A declaration made by Fletcher that, to the best of his knowledge, Barber had no guilty knowledge of the recent will-forgeries,

submitted to the Home Secretary. (See April 10.)

8.-Waverley Dress Ball at Willis's Rooms, London, in aid of the funds of the Scott monument. The ball-room was crowded with the rank and fashion of the metropolis. On Tolbecque's band striking up the "March of the English Volunteers," the procession formed by the Marchioness of Londonderry's monstre quadrille of Scott characters left the tea-room, and began its progress along the left centre of the Salon de Danse to the raised benches where the Royal Family and lady patronesses were seated. Dancing was prolonged till 5 o'clock the following morning, there being no less than twenty-six sets danced in the principal ballIn the supper-room Scotch reels and country-dances were kept up with spirit.

room.

-The case of Dyce Sombre again before the Court of Chancery, Sir Thomas Wilde pleading that the commission of lunacy ought to be superseded on the ground that the singularities founded upon in his client's conduct was but the result of his Indian birth and upbringing. The Lord Chancellor dismissed the petition, as he considered the lunacy of Mr. Sombre had been proved by the highest authorities. During the progress of the case the Nabob of Surat and his suite visited the court.

12.-The Royal Commission of Fine Arts select six artists to execute works for the decoration of the new Houses of Parliament.

13. At the assizes held at Tullamore, Peter Dolan was tried for shooting Lord Norbury on the 1st January, 1839. The prisoner was a tenant on the estate, and a notice of ejectment had been served on him along with others before the murder. The jury returned a verdict of Not guilty.

22. Fatal occurrence at the steamboat pier, Blackfriars-bridge. The pier and steps leading to it were unusually crowded by parties anxious to witness a boat-race on the opposite side, when the main timbers supporting the stage gave way, and about twenty spectators were upset into the river. Five were taken out drowned, and the rest saved with difficulty.

In the case of two men, named Crane and Conway, tried at Limerick for riot, the jury not being able to agree, were locked up in the usual way. At midnight they intimated that they had agreed upon a verdict, and Judge Ball came into court. When the foreman was asked to hand down the issue paper, he, with much hesitation, passed to the judge a handful of small pieces of paper, varying in size from a shilling to a fourpenny piece. Judge Ball: "What is the meaning of this?" Foreman :

66

My lord, this is the issue-paper. The fact is, the jury quarrelled among themselves, and tore it up in this manner. I did all I could to save it, but without effect." The judge deemed it his duty to receive the pieces, which recorded a verdict of Guilty, with a recommenda

(73)

tion to mercy, but he intimated that he could pay no attention to the recommendation of a jury which had conducted itself in such a disgraceful manner.

23. Capt. Warner sinks the John O' Gaunt off Brighton, in an experiment with his new and secret invention for destroying ships at

sea.

A smoke seemed suddenly to envelope the vessel, her mainmast shot up perpendicularly from her deck, no noise save that of the rending of timber was heard, and on the smoke and spray clearing away_the_smitten ship heeled over to port and sank. Between 30,000 and 40,000 people were present on the beach. Lord Ingestre, Capt. Dickenson, and Capt. Henderson signed a document, stating that the operations were "under our management and control; that the explosion did not take place by combustible matter on board or alongside the ship, but was caused by Capt. Warner, who was on board the steamer Sir William Wallace, at the distance of 300 yards; and that it took place in consequence of a signal made by us from the shore; and that the time at which such was to be made could not have been known to Capt. Warner. We further declare our belief that Capt. Warner had never been on board the vessel since it left Gravesend."

24. Sir Robert and Lady Sale, with their widowed daughter, Mrs. Sturt, and child, and various officers of the Indian army, arrive at Lyme-Regis, and receive a welcome reception. 26.-Lord Heytesbury enters Dublin as Lord-Lieutenant in room of Lord De Grey.

27. Died at Manchester, in his seventye'ghth year, John Dalton, chemist and philosopher.

31. Sir Robert Peel, at the request of Lord Ingestre, consents to the publication of all the correspondence between the Government and Capt. Warner relative to his longrange and explosive shells.

August 1.-Dr. Wolffe writes from Bokhara: "To all the Monarchs of Europe.-I set out for Bokhara to ransom the lives of two officers, Stoddart and Conolly, but both of them were murdered many months previous to my departure, and I do not know whether or not this blood of mine shall be spilt. I do not supplicate for my own safety; but, Monarchs, two hundred thousand Persian slaves, many of them people of high talents, sigh in the kingdom of Bokhara. Endeavour to effect their liberation, and I shall rejoice in the grave that my blood has been thus the cause of the ransom of so many human beings. I am too much agitated, and watched besides, to write more.

The Vicar of Liskeard temporarily suspended for omitting to read portions of the Burial Service over the body of a parishioner. The vicar pleaded that he was led to believe the man died in a state of intoxication; but the Bishop of Exeter decided that, even if this

were so, the officiating clergyman had no right to condemn the dead by omitting any portion of the service.

Lord Sandon brought up the report of the Secret Committee appointed to inquire into the law and practice of opening private letters in the Post Office. It contained a complete history of the origin' and exercise of the power vested by statute in the Secretary of State, and showed the instances in which it had been employed by the members of different cabinets. If the result of the inquiry (it is reported) had been such as to impress your Committee with a conviction of the importance of the frequent use of this power in the ordinary administration of affairs, they would have been prepared to recommend some legislative measures for its regulation and control; and it might not be difficult to devise regulations which would materially diminish the obligations to its exercise, as, for example, that no criminal warrant should be issued except on a written information on oath; that a formal record should be preserved in the Secretary of State's Office of the grounds on which every warrant had been issued, of the time during which it remained in force, of the number of letters opened under it, and of the results obtained. It is, however, on the other hand, to be considered whether any legislative measure of this kind might not have an indirect effect in giving an additional sanction to the power in question, and thereby possibly extending its use. As the report showed that the annual average of warrants had rather decreased than increased in recent years, public excitement on the subject greatly subsided, and no immediate action was taken.“

A small boat, overladen with Grissell and Peto's labourers, upset in the Severn at Diglis, and twelve drowned.

6. This morning, at ten minutes before eight o'clock, the Queen was safely delivered of a Prince at Windsor Castle.

Tangier bombarded by three ships of the line, under the command of the Prince de Joinville. The batteries were dismantled in about two hours.

Burns Festival at Alloway, designed for the double purpose of honouring the memory of the poet and welcoming his sons to the land which their father's genius had consecrated. A procession of about a mile in length, composed of mason lodges, trade incorporations, and deputations from municipal bodies, marched from Ayr to Alloway, where a huge banqueting pavilion was erected in a field adjoining the monument. The banquet was presided over by the Earl of Eglinton, and placed near, in seats of honour, were Robert, the eldest son of the poet, Colonel Burns, the second, and Major Burns, the youngest of the family; also Mrs. Begg, sister, her two daughters, Mrs. Thomson (the Jessie Lewars of the bard), and various other friends

and relations. The company comprised almost all that was famous in Scotland for law or literature, science or art. The croupier, Professor Wilson, in a speech of great length and eloquence, welcomed the family to their father's land. "There is but one soul," he said, "in this our great national festival. To swell the multitudes that from morning light continued flocking towards old Ayr, till at midday they gathered into one mighty mass in front of Burns's monument, came enthusiastic crowds from countless villages and towns, from our metropolis, and from the great city of the West, along with the sons of the soil dwelling all round the breezy uplands of Kyle, and in regions that stretch away to the stormy mountains of Morven." Appropriate toasts followed from Sir John M'Neile, Col. Mure of Caldwell, Mr. Aytoun, Mr. H. Bell, the Lord Justice General, and others. The early part of the day was favourable for the outdoor display, but towards evening, at the close of the banquet, the rain began to fall heavily, and the return to Ayr was made in a somewhat unceremonious

manner.

7.-William Saville executed in Nottingham for the murder of his wife and three children by cutting their throats with a razor. When the drop fell, a sudden rush of the crowd took place down a narrow avenue known as Garner's Hill. Some of the foremost stumbled and fell, and before anything like order could be restored twelve people were killed, and thirty more or less injured.

Sir Robert Sale entertained at the London Tavern by the Hon. East India Company. Sir Wm. Nott was also to have been present, but was prevented by indisposition. Lady Sale and Mrs. Sturt were among the ladies in the gallery.

10. Act abolishing imprisonment for debt comes into operation, and many debtors detained in metropolitan prisons for sums under 20. liberated.

15. The French attack Mogadore. Prince de Joinville writes to the Minister of Marine :"After having destroyed the town and its batteries, we took possession of the island and of the ports. Sixty-eight men were killed or wounded."

17.-A Tartar soldier exhibits various feats in horsemanship and sword exercise in Hyde Park, near the barracks.

21.-Demonstration at Edinburgh on occasion of laying the foundation-stone of the monument to be erected in the Calton buryingground to the memory of the political martyrs of 1793-4. The ceremony was performed by Mr. Hume, M.P., who delivered an appropriate address. A dinner and soirée in honour of the event took place in the evening.

James Cockburn Belaney tried at the Central Criminal Court for murdering his wife by administering prussic acid. The post-mortem

examination showed death to have resulted from this poison, and it was established in evidence that the prisoner was seen to have a quantity of it in his possession a few minutes before his wife's death. The jury returned a verdict of Not guilty.

22.-A poor needlewoman, in a fit of desperation, commits suicide by throwing herself into a secluded part of the Surrey Canal. She had been in the habit, along with her sisters, of making shirts at rates varying from 1d. to 3d. each, but during the past week had been without work at even these rates, and for two days had not tasted food.

24.-The quarriers at Gehard, Kerry, having discovered a cave adjoining the works, enter to explore it, and no less than seven fall victims to the noxious vapours with which it was filled.

28. The foundation-stone of the Durham Memorial, on Penshaw Hill, laid with masonic honours by the Earl of Zetland, Grand Master.

September 3.-The Bank of England robbed of 8,000/. in gold through the aid of one of the clerks, named Burgess, and a confederate, named Elder, who falsely personated Mr. Oxenford, the owner of Consols to that amount. The parties were subsequently traced by detective Forrester to the United States. Elder committed suicide, and Burgess, after a severe chase, was brought back to this country, and sentenced to transportation for life. Most of the money was recovered.

4. This morning was appointed for the delivery of the judgment of the House of Lords on the writ of error in the case of O'Connell and others v. the Queen. Eleven questions had been referred to the judges, and upon nine of these they were agreed. Upon the third and eleventh Mr. Justice Parke and Mr. Justice Coleman dissented from the opinion of their brethren. The indictment consisted of a number of counts: some of them were found bad and some good; and if the judgment delivered by the Irish Court had been confined to the latter, it would have been unexceptionable. But the judgment was general, and therefore tacitly assumed that all the counts were good. The Lord Chancellor now moved that the judgment of the Court below be sustained. Lord Campbell moved that it be reversed. On a division, confined exclusively to law lords, the Lord Chancellor announced that the judgment of the House was that the sentence of the Court below should be reversed. O'Connell and the other prisoners were therefore at once liberated. On the order being handed to him on Friday afternoon, O'Connell read it aloud to his friends, and then returned it to his solicitor, who at once repaired to the governor and handed him the release. The news of the liberation caused the utmost excitement throughout Ireland, and demonstrations and addresses occupied the mind of the

people for weeks together. The governor instantly communicated to the whole of the prisoners the welcome fact that they were now at liberty, and free to return to their homes. O'Connell repaired to his residence in Merionsquare, and addressed a large assembly from the balcony. On the 7th a great procession took place in Dublin to celebrate the liberation, and the Agitator and his fellow-prisoners took formal leave of the gaol. "When the account,' he says, came to me of the decision in our favour, though the attorneys rushed into my presence, and one of them did me the honour of embracing me, still notwithstanding that kiss and the words which accompanied it, and with the full knowledge that it was so, or the attorneys would not be there, yet for a full half-hour afterwards I did not believe it."

66

5.-Parliament prorogued by Commission. Sir Robert Peel intimated that the outrage on Mr. Pritchard at Tahiti has been arranged amicably.

11. Her Majesty enters the Firth of Tay, and lands at Dundee, on the occasion of her second visit to Scotland. She takes up her residence at Blair Athol, which is placed at her disposal by Lord Glenlyon. Prince Albert repeatedly engaged in deer-stalking through the forest of Glen Tilt.

Died at Haslar Hospital, in his fiftysixth year, Capt. Basil Hall, R.N.

Enthusiastic reception of Sir William Nott on entering Caermarthen, his native place.

16.

Disturbance at Funchal, Madeira, through an attempt on the part of the authorities to put down Dr. Kalley, a Protestant preacher, recently liberated from prison.

27. At the Meeting of the British Association at York, Professor Sedgwick comments with some severity on the critical remarks read by the Dean of York on Dr. Buckland's Bridgewater Treatise, and afterwards published in a pamphlet form under the title, 'The Bible defended against the British Association." "We have nothing to de," said the Professor,

66

66

as members of the Association, with morals, or religion, or political truths, in which the elements of human passion are so liable to be mingled. Every one who brings a statement of facts to this meeting asserts his willingness to bide the test of observation and experiment, and when a paper is brought here which deals not with facts, but with theories and cosmogonies, we reject it altogether as in its nature unfit for our notice. Its discussion is permitted now (but will, I trust, never be permitted again) out of regard to certain opinions and feelings in which we participate with the Dean of York, and which not one of us would resign but with life itself. At the same time we are willing to show on all proper occasions (though this be a very improper one) that we are not afraid of facing any of the difficulties with which the speculative part of our subject may be surrounded."

At

28. Colliery explosion at Haswell, between Durham and Sunderland. Ninety-five lives were lost, being the whole employed in the pit at the time, except three men and a boy, who were at the foot of the shaft. They also would have suffered had not the course of the explosive current been intercepted by some loaded wagons standing in a rolley-way. that moment the approaching flame had the appearance of forked lightning, and they saw it strike the wagons and kill the horse yoked to the team. A mass of rubbish and foul air then rushed over them, and shot up the shaft, giving the first indication to those employed at the pit mouth of the fearful calamity which had happened below. The working was in the Hutton seam, about 150 fathoms deep, and immediately adjoined another and larger pit. A searching inquiry took place as to the immediate cause of the disaster, but no certain information was ever obtained. At the inquest on the bodies the jury returned a verdict of "Accidental Death."

October 1.-The iron steamer Windsor Castle, which had left Granton for Dundee with about two hundred passengers, to witness the Queen's embarkation, strikes on the Carr rocks on her return voyage, and is run ashore near Crail. The accident fortunately took place before nightfall, or the loss of life might have been considerable, as there was only one small boat on board and one oar.

6. The King of the French lands at Portsmouth on a visit to Queen Victoria. He was received by the naval authorities, and had an address presented to him by the Mayor and Corporation before landing. "I have not forgotten," he said, in answer, "the many kindnesses I have received from your country men during my residence among you many years since. At that period I was frequently pained at the existence of differences and feuds between our countries. I assure you, gentlemen, I shall endeavour at all times to prevent a repetition of those feelings and conduct, believing, as I do most sincerely, that the happiness and prosperity of a nation depend quite as much on the peace of those nations by which she is surrounded as on quiet within her own dominions." Prince Albert and the Duke of Wellington arrived early in the forenoon, and accompanied the illustrious visitor to Windsor, where he was received by the Queen and ministers of state about two o'clock. On the 9th the King was installed a Knight of the Garter. He was to have left Portsmouth on the 12th, but the untoward state of the weather and a fire at the New Cross Station somewhat arrested his progress, and he departed by way of Dover and Calais to Eu the following day.

11.-Lord Ellenborough arrives at Portsmouth on his return from India.

14. Mr. Hampton, the aëronaut, in endeavouring to make a descent near Dublin, lights