was likely to be inade in the character of the constituencies by such increase.'

23.-Earl Cowley having obtained special leave of absence from the embassy at Paris, defends himself in the House of Lords from charges brought against him by Lord Normanby, of treating as private communications which had passed between the Foreign Minister and the French Ambassador on the subject of the annexation of Savoy, at a time when the interference of Britain might have been more effective than it afterwards was.

Close of the voting in Savoy and Nice on the question of annexation to France. In Savoy, 130,533 voted in favour, and 235 against; in Nice the votes were 25,743 for annexation, and 160 against it.

Baron Bruck, Finance Minister of Austria, commits suicide. A deficiency in the national accounts had previously been discovered of 1,700,000l.

Insurrection in Spain, leading to a renunciation of the claim to the throne put forward on behalf of the Count of Montemolin, eldest son of the late Don Carlos. This renunciation was afterwards annulled at Cologne.

27.-Captain Speke and Mr. Grant embark in the steam-frigate Forte at Portsmouth, on their expedition to explore the source of the Nile in Central Africa. After some delay at the Cape and Mozambique, they arrived at Zanzibar on the 15th August, and commenced their journey across the continent early in October.

The third reading of the Church Rates Abolition Bill carried in the House of Commons by 235 to 226.

29.-The Liverpool Sailors' Home, the foundation-stone of which was laid by Prince Albert in 1846, destroyed by fire. The whole of the inmates, about 120 in number, escaped; but the flames spread with such rapidity that the retreat of many was cut off, and they were rescued through the window by ladders. Two men rendering assistance fell into and were consumed in the burning ruins.

May 1.-The Pope appeals to his "beloved children of every nation for the loan of 50,000,000 francs.

3.-After a debate carried on in a languid manner for six nights, and protracted over a period of two months, the Government Reform Bill was read a second time without a division, and ordered to be committed on the 4th of June.

4.-Died, in Belgrave-square, aged 72, Dr. Thomas Musgrave, Archbishop of York.

5.-Garibaldi sails from Genoa with a body of 2,000 men, whom he had induced to volunteer to assist the Sicilians in the insurrection against Francis II. At Talamona he issued a proclamation :-"Italy and Victor Emmanuel!'that was our battle-cry when we crossed the Ticino; it will resound into the very depths of Ætna. As the prophetic battle-cry re-echoes

from the hills of Italy to the Tarpeian Mount, the tottering throne of tyranny will fall to pieces, and the whole country will rise like one man.' The Piedmontese official Gazette said the Government disapproved of the expedition, and attempted to prevent its departure. On the 9th of October, when the insurrection had accomplished its design, the King in an address to the people of Southern Italy said :-"The people were fighting for liberty in Sicily when a brave warrior devoted to Italy and me— General Garibaldi-sprang to their assistance. They were Italians. I would not, I ought not, to restrain them."--On the 10th of May Garibaldi effected a landing at Marsala, and assumed the title of Dictator of Sicily "in the name of Victor Emmanuel of Italy." On the 27th he attacked Palermo in the most daring manner, and drove the Neapolitan troops into the citadel, which they afterwards evacuated during an armistice.

7.-In the course of a debate raised by Mr. Horsman as to the connexion of Mr. Walter, M.P., with the Times, Lord Palmerston said :— "My right hon. friend has stated that he did not know what the influence was which drew Mr. Delane, one of the editors or managers of the Times, to me; and if by that statement he means to imply a wish on my part to exercise any influence over the line of conduct which is pursued in the case of that journal, I can only say in answer to this charge, in the words of Mrs. Malaprop, that I should be but too glad to plead guilty to the soft impeachment, and to know that the insinuation which it involves was really founded on fact. (A laugh.). If there are influences which, as the right hon. gentleman says, have fortunately led Mr. Delane to me, they are none other than the influences of society. My right hon. friend has observed, in that glowing address which he has just delivered to us, that the contributors to the press are the favourites and the ornaments of the social circles into which they enter. In that opinion he is, it seems to me, perfectly correct. The gentlemen to whom he refers are, generally speaking, persons of great attainments and information. It is, then, but natural that their society should be agreeable. My acquaintance with Mr. Delane is exactly of that character. I have had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Delane frequently in society, and he has occasionally done me the honour to mix in society under my roof. That society was, I may add, composed of persons of all shades of politics-(cheers)-of various pursuits; and I need hardly say I feel proud when persons so honour me without undertaking any other engagement than that which Mr. Delane always makes good-of making themselves agreeable during the time of their stay."

8.—The Government proposal to repeal the Excise duty on paper carried by a majority of 9 in a house of 429.

9. In the Central Criminal Court the Rev. Mr. Hatch is successful in his attempt to

procure a conviction for perjury against the girl Plummer, II years of age, who had charged him with indecent conduct to her in his own house, and for which he was now undergoing confinement in Newgate. In the first case the mouth of Mrs. Hatch, a most essential witness on her husband's behalf, was necessarily closed; but now, in the way the prosecution was laid, she was put into the witness-box, and gave evidence showing it to be impossible that Mr. Hatch could have committed the offence charged against him without her cognisance. In this she was corroborated by other visitors at the house. Baron Channell summed up the evidence in an address of eight hours' duration. The jury were absent two hours, and delivered their verdict as follows:-" We find the prisoner, Mary Eugenia Plummer, guilty; and while we recommend her to the utmost extent of mercy, we venture at the same time to express a hope that your Lordship, if you have the power to do so, will direct that any imprisonment to which she may be subjected may be accompanied by a proper course of training and education, of which she has hitherto been deprived, and probably would still be deprived, at home." The verdict was received with applause. After a suitable admonition, she was sentenced to three weeks' imprisonment, and then to be sent to a reformatory for two years.

11.--Sir C. Wood explains that the recall of Sir C. Trevelyan from Madras was rendered necessary by his having published a protest against the financial measures of Mr. Wilson, the Finance Minister.

12.-Died, aged 55, Sir Charles Barry, R. A., architect of the new Houses of Parliament.

15.-George William Pullinger, late chief cashier of the Union Bank of London, tried before Mr. Baron Channell at the Central Criminal Court, for defrauding that bank to the extent of over 260,000l. The whole of the large payments into the Bank of England passing through his hands, Pullinger found that he virtually possessed the entire control of these funds, inasmuch as the pass-book forming the only check remained in his hands till it was consigned to the ledger-keeper. Emboldened by his success in altering this pass-book for trifling amounts, he persevered in his crime to meet alleged losses on the Stock Exchange, and ended by appropriating the almost incredible amount above mentioned. The fraud was detected on the 19th April, when the prisoner was accidentally absent. He was now sentenced to fourteen years' penal servitude on the first indictment, and six years on the second.

Discussion in the House of Lords on the resignation by Sir C. Trevelyan of the post of Governor of Madras.

Meeting in St. Martin's Hall to protest against the conduct of the Lords in threatening to reject the clause of the Budget relating to the repeal of the paper duty. Mr. Bright was the chief speaker.

16. At the meeting of the National Republican Convention at Chicago, Abraham Lincoln was selected as candidate for the Presidency of the United States.

18.-At Sandown Fort, Isle of Wight, Sergeant Whitworth, R. A., murders his wife and six children by cutting their throats with a razor, and then attempts to commit suicide with the same weapon. Whitworth was tried at the Winchester Assizes, but was found to be in a state of mind not capable of understanding or pleading to the indictment.

The

21.--After a long debate in a crowded House the Lords reject the bill repealing the paper. duty by a majority of 193 to 104 votes. principal speeches in opposition were delivered by Lord Monteagle, who moved the rejection of the resolution, the Earl of Derby, and by Lord Lyndhurst, who completed his eightyeighth year on the day of debate, and who showed from the Journals of the House, and the conferences which had taken place with the other branch of the Legislature, that it was no unusual thing for their Lordships to exercise their constitutional veto upon bills repealing as well as on bills proposing taxes. He found precedents for the step in 1689, when a poll bill was thrown out; in 1709, when an alteration in the malt duties was made; in 1790, when a bill for removing stamps was rejected; in 1805, when a bill abolishing Custom-house fees was rejected; and again in 1808, when a bill repealing certain duties on coal, and altering others, was thrown out without even a complaint being raised. "I may be told," concluded the venerable peer, "there is a surplus. That is a perilous matter into which I do not choose to enter. It forms no part of the programme which I have marked out for myself. I leave that to my noble friend opposite (Lord Monteagle), who, I have no doubt, will sufficiently clear up that portion of the subject. The question comes to this: if your Lordships are satisfied, as you must be, that you have not only the power but the constitutional right to reject this bill; and if you are satisfied that there is an actual deficiency-that next year there must be an enormous deficiency-and that the present state of Europe is such as to create continual anxiety; then I ask your Lordships, Will you consent to give up, not for the present year only, but permanently, a sum of nearly a million and a half? (Cheers.) That is the proposition I put to your Lordships, and I am satisfied what your answer will be. As I said I would confine myself to this question of privilege, I will only further observe that the illusions-perhaps I may say the delusionscreated by the introduction of the Budget seem to have passed away; and we have learnt that, although brilliant eloquence has charms, yet, like other seductions, it is not without its dangers. The same schemes may bear the impress of genius, of imprudence, of rashness. Satis eloquentia, sapientiæ parum, is not an irreconcilable combination. If my noble friend

will move the amendment of which he has given notice, I shall give him, for the reasons I have stated, my cordial support.'

22.-Wreck of the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Company's ship Malabar in the harbour of Point de Galle, Ceylon. Lord Elgin and Baron Gros were on board with their suites, and among the many precious things lost were papers and credentials bearing upon the Treaty of Tien-tsin, which they were going out as Ambassadors Extraordinary to compel the Chinese Government to ratify. The vessel in a sudden gale was swept from her temporary moorings and drifted on a reef close at hand, where her bottom was stove in. The passengers and crew, with a portion of the luggage and cargo, were saved: portions of the latter were afterwards recovered by divers.

Epsom Races. The Derby won by Thormanby; the Oaks by Butterfly.

25.-Lord Palmerston obtains the appointment of a committee to ascertain and report on the practice of each House with regard to the several descriptions of bills imposing or repealing taxes.

-

The Home Secretary announces that the Crown had resolved to grant the prayer of the petition submitted by Convocation, for permission to revise the 29th Canon, prohibiting any parent from being godfather to his own child.

28. So calamitous were the storms of the early summer that on this day alone 143 wrecks took place off the English coast, 36 of them being completely beaten to pieces. One fleet of Yarmouth fishing-boats was entirely swamped and every person on board drowned; they numbered 186, and left among them 72 widows and 172 children. Subscriptions on their behalf were collected to the amount of 10,000/.

66

At the annual meeting of the Royal Geographical Society, the Founder's gold medal was presented to Lady Franklin and Sir Leopold M'Clintock: to the former as a testimony of the services rendered to science by her late gallant husband, and also as a token of respect and admiration for the devotedness with which she has pursued those inquiries which have resulted in clearing up the fate of the crews of the Erebus and Terror, and at the same time in making important contributions to our geographical knowledge of the Arctic regions;' to the latter "in acknowledgment of the very great and valuable services he had performed-services appreciated not only throughout this country, but throughout all Europe and America." Lady Franklin, in acknowledging the honour, claimed for her husband the crowning discovery of the NorthWest Passage which cost himself and his companions their lives.

29. In the Sardinian Chamber of Deputies, after the adoption of the Treaty of Cession, Signor Ratazzi rose to demand explanations of Count Cavour, who in reply expressed his regret at having been compelled to say very

delicate things, but the responsibility attached to his remarks upon the question must rest with Signor Ratazzi. Count Cavour further said: "We have no guarantees from France in favour of the annexed provinces of Italy, as we have not asked for any. We have considered the declarations of France that she would ensure a policy of non-intervention on the part of the foreign Powers to be sufficient. France has not exercised the least pressure respecting the autonomy of Tuscany : she has limited herself to simple non-official diplomatic conversations, in which we have declared the Το autonomy of Tuscany must disappear. this France has not made the least objection." 29.-Speaking at Manchester on the rejection of the Paper Duties Bill, Mr. Bright reminded his hearers that there was no dissolution for the House of Lords. "If a peer dies, there is no measurable instant of time between the death of him who dies to-day and him who votes to-morrow. The spirit does not pass from the body into space with greater rapidity, or with a more unseen motion, than passes the legislative power from the dead peer to the living one, The only things that do not die are the prejudices, the alarms, the selfinterests, the determination to combine for the interest of their body, which necessarily, in all countries and in all ages, have acted upon irresponsible powers like that which our House of Lords is now assuming to become. taxes, are drawn from the capital of the country, from the skill of its population, from the toil of all those who work, as no other people in the world perhaps do work; and I say that we shall have reason for ever to be ashamed of ourselves that our children will have to be ashamed that they come from us-if we do not now resist every attempt to take from the House of Commons that which the Constitution has given to them, and which we find to be essential to our security and our freedomnamely, the absolute, the irreversible, and uncontrolled management of the taxation and the finances of this great kingdom."

:

Our

June 4.-President Buchanan writes to the Queen, inviting the Prince of Wales to visit Washington "To Her Majesty Queen Victoria. I have learned from the public journals that the Prince of Wales is about to visit your Majesty's North American dominions. Should it be the intention of his Royal Highness to extend his visit to the United States, I need not say how happy I should be to give him a cordial welcome to Washington. You may be well assured that everywhere in this country he will be greeted by the American people in such a manner as cannot fail to prove gratifying to your Majesty. In this they will manifest their deep sense of your domestic virtues, as well as their convictions of your merits as a wise, patriotic, and constitutional Sovereign. Your Majesty's most obedient Servant, JAMES BUCHANAN.' -"Queen Victoria to President Buchanan. My Good Friend,

EE 2

I have been much gratified at the feelings which prompted you to write to me, inviting the Prince of Wales to come to Washington. He intends to return from Canada through the United States, and it will give him great pleasure to have an opportunity of testifying to you in person that these feelings are fully reciprocated by him. He will thus be able, at the same time, to mark the respect which he entertains for the chief magistrate of a great and friendly state and kindred nation. The Prince of Wales will drop all royal state on leaving my dominions, and travel under the name of Lord Renfrew, as he has done when travelling on the continent of Europe. The Prince Consort wishes to be kindly remembered to you. I remain your very good friend, VICTORIA R."

9.-The Channel Fleet anchors off St. Margaret's Hope, Frith of Forth, and is for several days a source of great attraction to the inhabitants of Edinburgh and the east country. The fleet afterwards came round to the Clyde, and lay several days off Greenock.

In accordance with an address from the House of Commons, the ancient form of proclamation "for the encouragement of piety" was revised and issued to-day by the Queen.

11. The Refreshment Houses and Wine Duties Bill read a third time in the Commons, and passed.

After another debate protracted over six nights, Lord John Russell intimates that Government intend to withdraw their Reform Bill this session. The resolution to abandon the measure appeared to be hastened by the support given to Mr. Mackinnon's motion for delaying legislation on the subject till the result of the census was seen. Mr. Disraeli censured the Government for the delay and waste of time which had arisen from differences with their own supporters.

13. Inquiry at Norwich into the charge preferred against the Rev. Canon Dalton, priest, and three other lay Roman Catholics, of abducting William H. Vansittart, a youth of sixteen, son of the M. P. for Windsor.

A per

son in disguise, but described as one Father Euguine, had obtained in a clandestine manner an interview with the lad in the rectory grounds of Rockheath, where he had been sent for safety, and advised him "to cut and run" to Canon Dalton's.

16.-Interview at Baden between the Emperor Napoleon and the German sovereigns.

The Grenadier Guards celebrate their bicentenary by a banquet in the hall of St. James's Palace, presided over by Prince Albert. The Scots Fusiliers made a similar celebration in Willis's Rooms on the 19th. The non-commissioned officers and privates of these regiments celebrated the event by a festival at the Crystal Palace, provided at the expense of the officers of the regiments.

common

17.-The Great Eastern leaves the Needles

on her first voyage across the Atlantic, and reaches New York after a successful run of ten days and a half. She was received with great enthusiasm in her passage up the river, and was afterwards visited by thousands when in harbour, where she lay till the middle of August. The return run from New York to Halifax was accomplished in forty-six hours, a shorter time than it had ever been performed in before. Throughout the whole voyage her speed averaged fourteen knots an hour.

19. The Church Rates Abolition Bill thrown out in the House of Lords on a second reading by a majority of 128 to 31.

21.-Massacre of Maronite Christians by Druses at Deir-el-Kammar. The number of slain was put down at from 1,100 to 1,200. "I travelled," writes Lord Dufferin, over most of the open country before the war was over, and came to Deir-el-Kammar a few days after the massacre. Almost every house was burnt, and the street crowded with dead bodies, most of them stripped and mutilated in every possible way. My road led through some of the streets my horse could not even pass, for the bodies were literally piled up. Most of those I examined had many wounds, and in each case was the right hand either entirely or nearly cut off; the poor wretch, in default of weapons, having instinctively raised his arm to parry the blow aimed at him. I saw little children, of not more than three or four years old, stretched on the ground, and old men with grey beards. Beyrout itself was threatened by the infuriated and victorious Druses, and the presence of an English pleasure-yacht in the harbour, with a single gun, is supposed to have had more effect in averting the danger than all the troops of the Turkish Pasha, whose conduct, in fact, showed that he connived at the massacre. On the 9th of July similar outrages began at Damascus. A mob, consisting of the lowest order of Moslem fanatics, assembled in the streets, and instead of being dispersed by the Turkish troops, of whom there were 700 in the town, under the command of Ahmed Pasha, they were allowed to increase until they began a general attack upon the houses in the Christian quarters, and committed many murders. The soldiers sent to quell the disturbance joined the mob, and next day the work of destruction was renewed with greater violence. The Consulates of France, Austria, Russia, Holland, Belgium, and Greece were destroyed, and their inmates took refuge in the house of Abd-el-Kader, who behaved nobly on the occasion, and sheltered about 1,500 Christians from the fury of the assailants. For this conduct he afterwards received the thanks of the British Government.

23.-Volunteer review in Hyde-park. The Queen, with Prince Albert, several members of the Royal Family, and the King of the Belgians, arrived on the ground at four o'clock, and drove along to the extreme left of the

line of volunteers on the Bayswater-road, and thence along the whole front to the extreme right at Albert Gate. The Queen and suite then took up their station in the Royal Stand, erected about the centre of Park-lane, when the whole of the assembled volunteers, numbering 21,000 men, commenced to march past in companies. This accomplished, and the corps in their original position, the line advanced in battalion columns and cheered her Majesty, by signal, with vociferous earnestness. Of the great force thus assembled, 15,000 belonged to the metropolis, and 6,000 to the provinces. Woolwich sent no fewer than 1,800 men; Manchester, about 2,000; the City of London, 1,800; and the Inns of Court, 450. Her Majesty left at six o'clock, and by eight the immense gathering was clear out of the park without accident.

27.-A French tailor named Dherang commits suicide in Hyde-park, by wounding himself in two places with a pistol, and then cutting his throat. He had two or three days before consummated a career of great cruelty towards his wife by murdering her, and then locking up the body in their lodgings in Oxford-street. On now breaking into the room, the body of the poor woman was found stretched on the floor in a pool of blood. The head was cut off and placed in a cupboard, and an attempt had also been made to separate the limbs. The witnesses at the inquest concurred in describing the suicide as in some respects a maniac.

28.-Lord W. G. Osborne, son of the Duke of Leeds, examined in the Cambridge Insolvent Court, and sentenced to six months' imprisonment for irregular business transactions with Jew clothes-dealers and dog-fanciers.

29. Mysterious child-murder at Road, Wilts. On this evening the household of Mr. S. S. Kent, a sub-inspector of factories in the district, consisted of himself, his wife, three daughters-Mary Anne, aged 29; Elizabeth, 27; Constance, 16-a son, William Saville, 15; all children by a former marriage: a daughter, Mary Amelia, 5 years; Francis Saville, 3 years and 10 months; and a daughter about 2 years old; children of the present Mrs. Kent: together with three servants-nursemaid, cook, and housemaid. Next morning the nurse gave the alarm that Francis Saville was missing from the cot in her room. She had missed him as early as five o'clock, but said that for two hours she was under the belief that he had been taken into Mrs. Kent's own room, as he was ailing a little. Ordering a thorough search to be made about the premises, Mr. Kent set off to Trowbridge to inform the police. Before his return, the body of the child was found thrown down a privy, wrapped in a blanket taken from the nursery, and its throat cut in the most shocking manner. The examining surgeon thought it must have been dead at least tive hours. As the doors and windows had all been carefully closed at night, and no marks of forcible entrance could be found anywhere,

suspicion was mainly directed to the parties sleeping in the house. The nursemaid, Elizabeth Gough, naturally came in for a heavy share, and she was twice taken before the Wiltshire magistrates for examination; but her answers being on all occasions consistent with known facts, and as no single suspicious act could be proved to involve her in any way, she was discharged. Mr. Kent himself lay for some time under general suspicion on account of his hurried departure to Trowbridge, to get rid, as was alleged, of the evidences of crime. In the absence of a culprit, public excitement rose to an extraordinary height, and latterly took the turn of accusing Constance Kent of having murdered her half-brother through petty jealousy. Whicher, an experienced London detective, was sent down to assist the local police; and he, having obtained a warrant, took Constance into custody as the murderess. The ground of arrest was that one of the young lady's night-dresses was missing. It appeared by the young lady's list that she had three of these articles. The housemaid deposed, that when, on the Monday after the murder, she collected the family linen to be sent to the washerwoman, she received from Miss Constance that which she had worn the week before; it was soiled exactly as such an article worn for a week would be; she put it in the basket, placing other clothes of bulk on the top of all; the other two night-dresses of Miss Constance, which had been brought home from the wash, the servant aired for use. The servant said that, when she had packed the clothes-basket, Miss Constance came and asked her to get a glass of water, and followed her as she did so to the top of the back stair; she was not gone a minute, and when she returned, her young mistress, standing where she had left her, drank the water and retired. The clothes-basket had no appearance of having been touched. The basket was delivered by the cook to the laundress and her daughter the same morning. According to the statement of the laundress, when she opened the clothesbasket at her own house, Miss Constance's dress was missing; nor could it afterwards be found. The supposition was, that either during the absence of the maid for the glass of water, or in the interval between the packing by the housemaid and the delivery by the cook, Miss Constance had opened the basket and taken away the dress. It was not, however, suggested that there had been any suspicious conduct on the young lady's part, nor was there any conceivable motive why she should wish to abstract this dress, since it was believed that there were no marks whatever upon it; nor did her accusers attempt to account for their own failure to discover any trace of the garment: concealment, or destruction by fire, seemed almost impossible, as the house was then in possession of the police, who were investigating the case with eager jealousy. The murder continued shrouded in mystery for five years, when a confession was made by the