best when he violently tapped the red box on the table. I know from old experience that when one first enters the House these exhibitions are rather alarming, and I believe that some of the younger members were much frightened, but I advise them not to be terrified. I tell them that the right honourable baronet will not eat them up, will not even resign; the very worst thing he will tell them to do will be to rescind a vote." In reply, Sir Robert said he believed Mr. Disraeli's own calmness to be simulated, and his bitterness entirely sincere.

21.-James Delarue, of Whittlebury-street, Euston-square, murdered by Henry Hocker, in the footpath leading from Chalk Farm to Belsize Park, Hampstead. Police-constable Boldock said: "After the body was discovered, Sergeant Fletcher went for the stretcher, and I was left alone. In about a quarter of an hour a man came up and joined me. him singing first, and then he said, 'Halloo, policeman. I said, 'I have a serious case here.' 'What is that,' he said. I answered,

I heard

I think it is a person who has cut his throat.' He then said, It is a nasty job, policeman,' and he stooped down and felt the deceased's pulse." This was the murderer Hocker, led back by some mysterious influence to the scene where the death struggle had taken place about half an hour previous. A letter, proved to be in Hocker's handwriting, was found on the body of the murdered man. It was signed "Caroline," and purported to be from a person seduced by Delarue, under the name of Cooper. She begged him to keep an appointment at the time and place the murder was committed. The watch, rings, and other property belonging to the deceased were found in the possession of Hocker, and all his attempts to account honestly for these articles, or to account for his presence anywhere else than at the scene of the murder, broke down. At the close of his trial at the Central Criminal Court, on the 11th of April, Hocker read two statements, giving what he called the true account of the murder, but in which the persons, places, and occurrences were altogether imaginary. He was executed on the 28th of April.

22.-Died at his house in Green-street, Mayfair, aged seventy-six years, the Rev. Sydney Smith. The personal estate was sworn under 80,000!.

March 2.-Uprising of the Spanish pirates on board the Felicidade. This was a Brazilian schooner, captured by H. M.'s cruiser, the Wasp, in the Bight of Benin, near Lagos, on the 27th of February. She had no slaves on board, but was fitted up for the trade, and had a much greater quantity of provisions than was necessary for her crew of twenty-eight men. The schooner was therefore taken possession of, and her crew placed under arrest. days afterwards the Wasp captured another Brazilian schooner, named the Echo, with 430

Two

slaves on board, and a crew of the same number as the Felicidade. The one vessel was commanded by Antonio Cerquiera, and the other by Francisco Serva. The crews were divided among the three vessels, and the Felicidade given in charge of Mr. Palmer, with seven British seamen and two Kroomen, to take to the nearest port, for the purpose of getting her condemned. Sobrino da Costa, a black slave, who acted as barber, saw and heard what took place on the morning of the 2d. "Majaval, the cook, came to the hatchway where the prisoners were confined, and called down three times, 'Get ready to kill the English sailors.' I saw Alves and Francisco get ready their knives, and heard them say, Let us rise.' They said to me, 'Get ready, or we will kill you as well.' I answered, 'Leave these things alone, or we shall be taken by the English cruisers.' They then threatened to kill both Ribiero and myself unless we went with them. I said, 'If this is the case, when you go I will go too.' They put their knives in their belts, and dropped their shirts over so as to hide them. Serva himself then came and called them up, and they all went on deck." Cerquiera saw them first attack the quartermaster, who endeavoured to defend himself with a handspike, but was utterly overpowered and stabbed to death. Palmer, who had been bathing in a boat astern, was run through by Majaval, and thrown overboard. The English sentry was also thrown over, but hung by the fore sheet till Joaquim cut his fingers off, when he dropped down and disappeared. The two Kroomen, horrified at what was going on, jumped overboard, and were drowned. they had slain or thrown over the whole of the British on board, Serva gave orders to lower the peak of the mainsail as a signal to his brother-in-law on board the Echo to rise and do the same there. The signal was not answered, and Serva bore up to the Echo to inform the prisoners there that the English were all killed. He also fired two shots into her, but sailed away without making any serious attempt to recapture the vessel. Three days afterwards the Felicidade was captured by her Majesty's ship Star, when Cerquiera gave information of the tragedy that had taken place on board. Ten of those most prominently concerned were put in irons, and conveyed to England for trial. The Felicidade after this, her second capture, was sent to Sierra Leone for adjudication, under the command of Lieut. Wilson. On her voyage thither she was capsized by a sudden squall, but her gallant com. mander, and a few of the crew, after enduring the most horrible sufferings on a feeble raft for twenty days, managed to reach land.

After

5. A steam-boiler explodes at Blackwall, on the premises of Joseph Samuda, engineer, killing three men on the spot, and scalding and wounding others so severely that they died in a short time. One of the bodies and a portion of the boiler was

found in the Plaistow marshes, on the opposite side of the Lea, about 150 yards from the engine works. The boiler was an old lowpressure one, which had only that morning been attached to the engine, and put to a highpressure use. Seeing it work very slowly, Lowe, the foreman, caused a pole with a nail driven into the end to be so placed under the lever of the safety-valves as almost entirely to prevent its action, and thereby creating an enormous pressure of steam. At the coroner's

inquest the jury returned a verdict of manslaughter against Lowe, but he was acquitted on trial.

5.-Sir James South, the Astronomer Royal, takes observations with Lord Rosse's monster telescope. "The night," he writes, "was, I think, the finest I ever saw in Ireland. Many nebula were observed by Lord Rosse, Dr. Robinson, and myself. Most of them were for the first time since their creation seen by us in groups or clusters of stars, while some, at least to my eyes, showed no such grouping. The most popularly known nebule observed this night were the ring nebula in the Canes Venatici, or the fifty-first of Messier's catalogue, which was resolved into stars with a magnifying power of 548."

9. Conclusion of the war in Scinde. Sir Charles Napier writes to the Governor-General :-"I have to report to you the conclusion of the war against the mountain and desert tribes, who, driven from their last refuge, the stronghold of Truckee, have this day laid down their arms. The fort of Deyrah is destroyed, and Islam Boogtie, the only chief not a prisoner, is said to be a lonely fugitive in the Ketrau country, far in the north, and ruled by a chief whose daughter Islam married."

12.-Trial of John Tawell, the Quaker, for the Salt Hill murder. The court was crowded

to excess, and Aylesbury presented more the appearance of a general election than of the On the forenoon ordinary sitting of assizes.

of the third day the jury returned a verdict of Guilty, and Baron Parke sentenced the prisoner to be executed in front of the County Hall, Aylesbury. The children of the murdered woman, Sarah Hart, of which the prisoner was the reputed father, and his acknowledged wife, were all present in court.

13. Mr. Cobden's motion for a Committee to inquire into the cause and extent of the alleged agricultural distress lost by a majority of 213 against 121.

Professor Daniell dies suddenly of apoplexy when attending a meeting of the Council of the Royal Society in Somerset House.

14. At the inquest held on the body of Mr. Cordwell, solicitor, who was presumed to have fallen a victim to homoeopathic treatment, the jury attached a declaration to their verdict, "that the afflicted gentleman had been cruelly exposed to a system of starvation while in a

state of the most extreme debility, during about ten days previous to his death, he having during that long time been allowed nothing but cold water by the advice of his medical attendant."

21. Came on for hearing, before a Commission under the Church Discipline Act, at Doctors' Commons, the charges of immorality preferred against the Rev. F. S. Monckton, perpetual curate of St. Peter's, West Hackney. The principal witnesses were Mr. and Mrs. Williams, of the Parish National Schools, and a discharged servant. They spoke as to drunkenness, indecent conversation, and undue familiarity with servants in the house. On the third of these heads the Commission found that the conduct of Mr. Monckton with regard to the female residents in his family, was degrading to him as a clergyman of the Church of England, and had produced great scandal in the Church. They considered that on this head there were sufficient grounds for further proceedings against Mr. Monckton. He was afterwards suspended for twelve months.

28. With reference to the persecution alleged to have been endured by Dr. Kalley in Madeira, Mr. Addington of the Foreign Office is instructed to reply to the Lord Provost of Edinburgh that " Lord Aberdeen considers that that gentleman has been led by an erroneous conception of the terms of the treaty of 1842, and of the Portuguese Charter, to assume a position in which her Majesty's Government cannot uphold him, inasmuch as he appears to suppose that he is borne out in opening his private dwelling-house for the celebration of public worship, and in preaching in the Portuguese language to Portuguese subjects against the Roman Catholic religion."

John Tawell executed at Aylesbury for the Salt Hill murder. In the course of the preceding night he wrote out a confession of his guilt, and of a previous unsuccessful attempt referred to at the trial. He lived, it appeared,

in perpetual dread of his connexion with Sarah Hart becoming known to his wife, and saw no other way of relieving his apprehension than by destroying her. On the scaf

fold he wore his usual dress of a member of the Society of Friends. His sufferings were very protracted.

31. Another murder, tending to keep up a most unhealthy excitement in the metropolis, committed in George-street, St. Giles's, James Connor having stabbed his paramour, Ann Tape, or Brothers, in a bedroom they had engaged for the night.

April 3.-Sir Robert Peel introduces his bill for improving the condition of the Roman Catholic College of Maynooth. He proposed to

give sufficient accommodation for 500 pupils, to give suitable rooms to the president and professors, to have the repairs of the college executed as in other public buildings by the

G 2

Board of Works, and to give a grant of 30,000l. a year not subject to an annual vote. "We do not think," he said, "that there is any violation of conscientious scruples involved in our proposition. We believe that it is perfectly compatible to hold stedfast the profession of our faith without wavering, and at the same time to improve the education and elevate the character of those who, do what you will, must be the spiritual guides and religious instructors of millions of your fellow-countrymen. The proposal gave rise to great excitement among the extreme Protestants, and the debate on the second reading lasted over the extraordinary period of six nights. Mr. Smythe having taunted ministers with formerly declaring that concession had reached its utmost limits, Sir James Graham expressed his regret at ever having used such an expression. "If I have given offence to Ireland," he said, "I deeply regret it, and I can only say from the very depth of my heart that my actions have been better than my words."

5. Sarah Freeman sentenced to be executed at Taunton for the series of crimes known as the Shapwick murders, involving the destruction by arsenic of her husband, her illegitimate son, her mother, and her brother.

8.-Great meeting in the Waterloo-room, Edinburgh, to speak and petition against the proposed grant to Maynooth. "It is not,"

said Dr. Candlish, “ very long till a general election will put the power in the hands of the constituencies and the people at large.

It is

not long to agitate till that time arrives, and I venture to say that if we take the measures now we may make it plain and palpable that agitation! agitation! will be our sole watchword until the next general election shall decide and determine whether this sin about to be perpetrated is to be repented of by the nation or no, or rather whether it is to become a national sin or no. I entertain a most gloomy and awful view of what must be the destiny of this nation if it becomes involved in the support of Antichrist. I believe that, so sure as I believe God's Word to be true, a judgment must overtake this nation if we homologate this great sin. Let every true-hearted man who trembles at the thought of anti-Christian error prevailing against the truth-let all who look forward to the destruction of Antichrist by the breathing of the Lord's mouth and the brightness of His coming-let it be the duty of all such men to stand on the watch-tower-to give Israel no rest neither day nor night-until as one man this nation rises and demands to be delivered from the plague, and from the sin, and from the death which this proceeding of Government will assuredly entail upon us.'

11. In the adjourned debate on the Maynooth Grant, Mr. Disraeli launched another philippic at the Premier:-"I know the right honourable gentleman who introduced the bill told us that upon this subject there

were three courses open to us. I never heard the right honourable gentleman bring forward a measure without making the same confession. In a certain sense, and looking to his own position, he is right. There is the course the right honourable gentleman has left. There is the course which the right honourable gentleman is following; and there is usually the course which the right honourable gentleman ought to pursue. Perhaps, Sir, I ought to say that there is a fourth course, because it is possible for the House of Commons to adopt one of these courses indicated by the right honourable gentleman, and then having voted for it to rescind it. That is the fourth course, and in future I trust the right honourable gentleman will not forget it. He also tells us he always looks back to precedents: he comes with a great measure, and he always has a small precedent. He traces the steam-engine always back to the tea kettle. His precedents are generally tea-kettle precedents."- Mr. Macaulay also taunted ministers with their inconsistent policy towards Ireland. "Can we

wonder that, from one end of the country to the other, everything should be ferment and uproar, that petitions should night after night whiten all our benches like a snow-storm? Can we wonder that the people out of doors should be exasperated by seeing the very men who, when we were in office, voted against the old grant to Maynooth, now pushed and pulled into the House by your whippers-in to vote for an increased grant? The natural consequence follows. All those fierce spirits whom you hallooed on to harass us, now turn round and begin to worry you. The Orangeman raises his war-whoop; Exeter Hall sets up its bray; Mr. Macneile shudders to see more costly cheer than ever provided for the priests of Baal at the table of the Queen ; and the Protestant operatives of Dublin call for impeachment in exceedingly bad English. But what did you expect? Did you think when to serve your turn you called the devil up, that it was as easy to lay him as to raise him? Did you think when you went on, session after session, thwarting and reviling those whom you knew to be in the right, and flattering all the worst passions of those whom you knew to be in the wrong, that the day of reckoning would never come? It has come; and there you sit doing penance for the disingenuousness of years. If it be not so, stand up manfully and clear your fame before the House and the country. Show us that some steady principle has guided your conduct with respect to Irish affairs. Explain to us why, after having goaded Ireland to madness for the purpose of ingratiating yourself with the English, you are now setting England on fire for the purpose of ingratiating yourselves with the Irish. Give us some reason which shall prove that the policy which you are following as ministers is entitled to support, and which shall not equally prove you to have been the most factious and unprincipled opposition that ever this country saw.

19.-Closed at half-past 3 this morning the debate on the second reading of the Maynooth Endowment Bill. Majority for Ministers, 147.

21. At the weekly meeting of the Repeal Association O'Connell brings up a report from what he called the Parliamentary Committee, recommending it as essentially necessary for the alleviation of the misery of the people of Ireland that the Legislature should impose an absentee-tax of 10 per cent. on all landlords who were absent six months in the year, and had incomes exceeding 200l. per annum, such tax to be spent on some useful purpose within the estate where it was raised. He also said that now for the first time in his life he had an opportunity of praising Sir James Graham, and he did so most cordially on account of his manly speech concerning the Maynooth Endowment. He held out both hands to him with forgiveness for the past, and thought he should be placed on a pedestal with “ 'Justice to Ireland" inscribed on its base. He had expressed his sorrow for having used the expression that concession had reached its limits, and no man was either a Christian or a gentleman who would not forgive, after the symptoms of repentance manifested by the Home Secretary.

22.-The Queen visits the Great Britain steamship off Blackwall. Her Majesty expressed herself as much gratified with the sight of the magnificent ship, and wished Captain Hoskin every success in his voyage across the Atlantic.

23.-Mr. Ward introduces his motion for placing the support of Maynooth upon the funds already applicable to ecclesiastical purposes in Ireland. After a debate of two nights it is rejected by 322 votes against 148.

25. The Fine Arts Commission issue their fourth report regarding the decoration of the new Houses of Parliament. They point out certain portions of the building which they conceive might be properly adorned with insulated statues. These are St. Stephen's Porch and St. Stephen's Hall, in the former of which six insulated marble statues might be conveniently placed, and sixteen in the latter. In Appendix No. 2, relating to the selection of persons for the niches in the House of Lords, the Committee state that no scheme was preferable to that suggested by Prince Albert, for filling them up with effigies of the principal barons who had signed the Magna Charta.

30. A crowded meeting at Exeter Hall to hear the statement of Dr. Wolffe relative to his Bokhara mission..

Mr. Macaulay writes to the Lord Provost of Edinburgh regarding his vote on the Maynooth Endowment Bill:-"I have no apologies or retraction to make. I have done what I believed and believe to be right. I have opposed myself manfully to a great popular delusion. I shall continue to do so. I knew

from the first what the penalty was, and I shall cheerfully pay it.'

May 1.-Hungerford Suspension Bridge opened to the public. There was no ceremony on the occasion, but it was very largely frequented by passengers till the evening; 25,000 people were supposed to have passed from one side of the Thames to the other. The entire cost was about 120,000/

2. Came on for trial in the Court of Exchequer the Excise case, Regina v. Smith, in which the defendant, an extensive distiller in Whitechapel, was charged with making use of a concealed pipe for the conveyance of spirits between the distillery and rectifying house. After a trial of eight days the Jury found for the Crown, but expressed an opinion that no evidence had been adduced to show that the pipe referred to, and the existence of which could not be denied, had been fraudulently used by the defendant. The case was ultimately compromised, the Government accepting 10,000l. and an obligation that the premises would be instantly altered in accordance with the Excise requirements.

Yarmouth Suspension Bridge gives way under the pressure of a crowd congregated to see a professional clown drawn down the river in a tub by four geese. He commenced his feat with the flood-tide at the drawbridge, and had entered the North River, when a tremendous rush took place to the Suspension Bridge to see the clown pass underneath. By the time he had reached Bessey's Wharf, not far from the bridge, one or two of the rods were observed to give way, and an instant alarm was raised. But it was too late. The chains snapped asunder, and quick as thought the entire mass of human beings, estimated at from 300 to 500, were swept into the river below. Daring efforts were made by spectators of every rank to bring sufferers ashore, but the calamity was so unlooked for and overwhelming in its magnitude, that on reckoning the loss the fearful total amounted to seventy-nine, mostly women and children, either drowned in the river, or received deadly injuries from the falling balustrades. At the inquiry following the calamity, Mr. Walker, engineer, who had been sent down by the Home Office, stated that the suspending chains were of bad construction, imperfectly welded, and of an inferior quality of iron. It was also ascertained that the bridge had been widened without any increase of the suspending power. Referring to the observation that so many people had frequently been on the bridge before, he said, "When a bridge has been frequently loaded to the utmost which it will bear, it becomes weaker and weaker each time, and it may ultimately give way, although at first it was sufficiently strong to resist the weight put upon it." The engineer, Mr. Brunel, thus calculated the strength: the section of the chain at the centre of the span is 296 square

5. The elevation of Mr. W. F. Mackenzie to the office of a Lord of the Treasury having excited considerable discussion from its coincidence with a change of vote on the Maynooth question, he this day made the following explanation on the hustings at Peebles when seeking re-election: "I always voted against the small grant because I thought it was too small (great laughter, hissing, and hooting), but I over and over again declared, and my friends knew my opinion, that if a larger grant had been proposed I would have voted for it. (Cries of oh! and laughter.) I assure you it is true. I voted against the small grant because I thought it did mischief. I voted for the larger grant, not because I was certain it would do better, but because I think the experiment ought to be tried."

7. The Court of Directors issue instructions to the Governor-General of India regarding the principles which would guide them in the construction of railways there, applications for making which on an extensive scale had been received from private parties. They conceived that "remuneration for railroads in India must for the present be drawn chiefly from the conveyance of merchandise and not from passengers. It cannot admit of question that wherever railroad communications can be advantageously introduced and maintained, it is eminently deserving of encouragement and co-operation from the Government. The peculiar difficulties to which the Court drew the attention of the Governor-General were,-periodical rains and inundations; the action of violent winds and the influence of a vertical sun; the ravages of insects and vermin; the destructive effects of spontaneous vegetation; the unprotected state of the country through which the railway would pass; and the difficulty and expense of securing the services of competent and trustworthy engineers. The Court proposed to depute to India three skilful engineers to suggest some feasible line of moderate length as an experiment for railroad communication in India.

8.-Opening of the Free-trade Bazaar in Covent Garden Theatre. The whole area of the pit and stage was boarded over and transformed into a "Norman Gothic Hall" filled to overflowing with the products of manufacturing industry. The grandeur of the exhibition and the excellence of the arrangements were universally admitted. About 100,000 people visited the bazaar during the seventeen days it was open, and the large sum of 25,046/. was received for the funds of the League. The stalls

were attended to by 400 ladies, the wives and daughters of leading Free-traders.

9.-Sir James Graham introduces the Government bill to endow three new colleges in Ireland for the advancement of learning.

In the United Secession Synod, Edinburgh, Dr. Heugh's motion, declining to open up the Atonement controversy again, was carried by 243 against 118 who voted for Dr. Hay's amendment, asking discussion on the ground that recent decisions in the Synod had given rise to much dissatisfaction and dissension.

19. Sir John Franklin sets out with the ships Erebus and Terror on his last Arctic Exploring Expedition. He passed his first winter in a harbour at the entrance of Wellington Channel, after which date no letters were received from Sir John, his officers, or crew. His official instructions were: "To push to the westward without loss of time in the latitude of about 744°, till you have reached the longitude of that portion of land on which Cape Walker is situated, or about 98° west. From that point we desire that every effort be used to endeavour to penetrate to the southward and westward, in a course as direct towards Behring's Straits as the position and extent of the ice, or the existence of land at present unknown, may admit. We direct you to this particular part of the Polar Sea as affording the best prospect of accomplishing the passage to the Pacific."

20. Fatal duel on the shore near Gosport between Mr. Seaton, late of the 11th Hussars, and Lieut. Hawkey, of the Royal Marines. They had quarrelled and insulted each other at an entertainment in the King's Rooms, Southsea Reach, some days before. They fired at fifteen paces; in the second round Mr. Seaton fell, mortally wounded in the abdomen. Lieut. Hawkey instantly fled with his second.

26. Fire in Raggett's Hotel, Dover-street, Piccadilly. It broke out about midnight, and consumed nearly the whole building. The house being unusually full, the greatest confusion ensued when the inmates suddenly found the flames filling the passages and staircases. The fire originated in the bedroom occupied by Miss King, of Bristol. "Between 12 and 1 o'clock on Tuesday morning," she said, "I went into an adjoining room to obtain some water to make liquorice tea. On returning to my bedroom I heard a crackling noise, and instantly perceived a large mass of flame issuing from the door." She did not leave the candle in her bedroom, and could not say how the fire originated. Mrs. Round, the wife of the member for Maldon, Mr. Raggett, sen. the proprietor, Miss Raggett, and a nurse in the service of the Earl of Huntingdon, were either suffocated in their rooms or killed by throwing themselves from the house. Much valuable property in jewellery and furniture was destroyed,