losses the amount in some years being more than equal to the whole capital received-and now the sum due to depositors amounted to 348,0967. The investments were found, in most instances, to "have no market value whatever."

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8.-Seizure of the Confederate Commissioners, Messrs. Slidell and Mason, on board the Trent, West India mail steamer. 'Shortly after noon," writes Commander Williams, a steamer having the appearance of a man-ofwar, but not showing colours, was observed ahead and hove to; we immediately hoisted our ensign at the peak, but it was not responded to until, on nearing her, at 1.15 P. M., she fired a round shot from her pivot-gun across our bows, and showed American colours. Our engines were immediately slowed, and we were still approaching her when she discharged a shell from her pivot-gun immediately across our bows, exploding half a cable's length ahead of us. We then stopped, when an officer with an armed guard of marines boarded us, and demanded a list of the passengers, which demand being refused, the officer said he had orders to arrest Messrs. Mason, Slidell, McFarland, and Eustis, and that he had sure information of their being passengers in the Trent. Declining to satisfy him whether such persons were on board or not, Mr. Slidell stepped forward, and announced that the four persons he had named were then standing before him, under British protection, and that if they were taken on board the San Jacinto, they must be taken vi et armis. The commander of the Trent and myself at the same time protested against this illegal act-this act of piracy carried out by brute force, as we had no means of resisting the aggression, the San Jacinto being at the time on our port-beam, about 200 yards off, her ship's company at quarters, ports open, and tampions out. Sufficient time being given for such necessaries as they might require being sent to them, these gentlemen were forcibly taken out of the ship; and then a further demand was made that the commander of the Trent should go on board the San Jacinto, but as he expressed his determination not to go, unless forcibly compelled likewise, this latter demand was not carried into execution. 3.40 we parted company, and proceeded on our way to St. Thomas." An additional formal affidavit was made by Commander Williams at the Admiralty, on the 27th, after the Trent reached Southampton. The excitement in the public mind at this wanton aggression on an unarmed vessel being very great, a Cabinet Council discussed the question on the 28th, and on the 30th Earl Russell wrote to Lord Lyons, the British Minister, at Washington, "that intelligence of a very grave nature had reached her Majesty's Government." After describing the nature of the outrage, the Foreign Secretary instructed Lord Lyons that her Majesty's Government trust that when this matter shall have been brought under the consideration of

At

the Government of the United States, that Government will, of its own accord, offer to the British Government such redress as alone would satisfy the British nation,-namely, the liberation of the four gentlemen, and their delivery to your Lordship, in order that they may again be placed under British protection, with a suitable apology for the aggression which has been committed." Another despatch instructed Lord Lyons that in the event of Mr. Seward asking for delay, "in order that this grave and painful matter should be deliberately considered, you will consent to a delay not exceeding seven days. If at the end of that time no answer is given, or if any other answer is given, except that of a compliance with the demands of her Majesty's Government, your Lordship is to leave Washington with all the members of your Legation, bringing with you the archives of the Legation, and to repair immediately to London." Remonstrances and advice were also sent to the American Government by the Courts of France, Austria, and Prussia. Earl Russell's despatch was received by Lord Lyons between eleven and twelve P.M. on the 18th of December. On the afternoon of the following day he waited upon Mr. Seward, who was reported to have received the communication seriously, but without any manifestation of dissatisfaction. He asked till the following day to consider the matter, and consult with the President. On the 26th he forwarded a despatch to Lord Lyons reviewing the transaction, and arguing the question at issue on the five following grounds:

(1) Were the persons named and their supposed despatches contraband of war? (2) Might Captain Wilkes lawfully stop and search the Trent for these contraband persons and despatches? (3) Did he exercise that right in a lawful and proper manner? (4) Having found the contraband persons on board, and in presumed possession of the contraband despatches, had he a right to capture the persons? (5) Did he exercise that right of capture in the manner observed and recognised by the law of nations? These questions he answered in the affirmative so far as America was concerned, but admitted two special difficulties which beset his side of the case-the want, namely, of specific instruction by the commander of the San Jacinto from his Government, and his permitting the Trent itself to proceed on her voyage after he had satisfied himself that she He conwas carrying contraband of war.

cluded:"I have not forgotten that, if the safety of this Union required the detention of the captured persons, it would be the right and duty of this Government to detain them; but the effectual check and waning proportions of the existing insurrection, as well as the comparative unimportance of the captured persons themselves, when dispassionately weighed, happily forbid me from resorting to defence. It would tell little for our claims to the character of a just and magnanimous people, if we should so far consent to be guided

that

by the law of retaliation as to lift up buried injuries from their graves, to oppose against what national consistency and the national conscience compel us to regard as a claim intrinsically right. Putting behind me all suggestions of this kind, I prefer to express my satisfaction that by the adjustment of the present case upon principles confessed by Americans, and yet, as I trust, mutually satisfactory to both of the nations concerned, a question is finally and rightfully settled between them which, heretofore exhausting not only all forms of peaceful discussion, but also the arbitrament of war itself, for more than half a century alienated the two countries from each other, and perplexed with fears and apprehensions all other nations." Lord Lyons forwarded Mr. Seward's despatch on the 27th December, the important document reaching London on the 9th January. In acknowledging its receipt the following day, Earl Russell wrote, that he did not think it necessary at that time to discuss the question under the five heads suggested by Mr. Seward (this was done in a later despatch, of date January 23), but he remarked drily, that in the meantime it will be desirable that the commanders of the United States cruisers should be instructed not to repeat acts for which the British Government will have to ask for redress, and which the United States Government cannot undertake to justify. The Confederate Commissioners were placed on board a British war-ship, and arrived in this country with their secretaries, on the 29th of January. Congress passed a vote of thanks to Captain Wilkes for his seizure, and he was otherwise honoured at various public meetings in the States.

12. At a dinner at Fishmongers' Hall, Mr. Yancey, a Commissioner from the Confederate States, thus eulogized the South: "Why should there not be peace? Simply because the North will not admit that to be a fact, which old England, followed by the first Powers of Europe, has recognised, and which the Confederate Government and armies have repeatedly demonstrated to be a stern and bloody factthe fact that we are a belligerent Power. There can be no basis for negotiations or for peace proposals, or consultations, so long as the Confederates are deemed to be and are treated as rebels. But when our adversary shall become sufficiently calm to treat us as a belligerent Power, the morning of peace will dawn in the horizon. When that hour shall arrive, I think I may say the Confederate Government will be inflexible upon one point only-its honour and its independence. For the great interests of peace and humanity it will yield much that is material or of secondary importance."

14.-M. Achille Fould appointed by the Emperor Napoleon to the office of Minister of Finance.

18.-President Davis presents his first Message to the Confederate Congress, in which he reviewed the events of the year, and congratulated the South on the victories obtained at Bethel, Bull's Run, Manassas, Springfield, Lexington, Leesburg, and Belmont. "If we husband our means,' he said, "and make a judicious use of our resources, it would be difficult to fix a limit to the period during which we could conduct a war against the adversary whom we now encounter. The very effort which he makes to isolate and invade us must exhaust his means, whilst they serve to complete and diversify the production of our industrial system. The reconstruction which he seeks to effect by arms becomes daily more and more palpably impossible. Not only do the causes which induced us to separate still exist in full force, but they have been strengthened; and whatever doubt may have lingered in the minds of any must have been completely dispelled by subsequent events."

21. The Molloy tragedy in Dublin, a waiter of that name making a murderous attack on his wife, and cutting the throats of two children, while in a state of great mental irritation, brought on, it was believed, by severe distress.

22. Died at Lancing, Sussex, aged 64, Thomas Slingsby Duncombe, Radical M. P. for Finsbury.

Died at Sorrèze, in the department of the Tarn, aged 58, Father Henry Dominic Lacordaire, a distinguished Dominican preacher and political reformer.

24.-Fall of an old house in the Highstreet of Edinburgh. About ten minutes past one o'clock this (Sunday) morning, when all the inmates were in bed, suddenly, and without any previous warning, the ancient tenement collapsed and fell in shapeless ruins upon its own base, some of the outer walls falling into the street, and others choking up the close at its side. Upwards of eighty persons were buried in the ruins. Amid great dangers from falling fragments the work of rescue was almost instantly commenced, and carried on eagerly over Sunday. About fifty were got out alive, some of them severely injured, and the remaining great company of sufferers were found to have been killed by falling beams and stones, or suffocated in the rubbish. Of those rescued, a considerable number were children. On the rebuilding of the premises a memorial tablet was inserted in the front, illustrating a touching incident in the disaster-the rescue of a boy who was heard

26.-The Italian Minister leaves Madrid in consequence of the refusal of the Spanish Government to restore the Neapolitan archives.

27. Richard Reeve, a dissipated youth of 18 years of age, found guilty at the Central Criminal Court, of murdering his step-sister, aged 10, by hanging her in a cellar of their house in Drury-court. Being strongly recommended to mercy on account of his youth and the bad example set at home, the capital sentence was afterwards commuted to penal servitude for life.

28.-George Inkpen found guilty of murdering his sweetheart, Margaret Edmunds, in so far as he had aided and abetted her in the act of self-destruction by consenting to bind himself to her, that both might commit suicide together in the Surrey Canal. When they reached the banks of the canal, the young woman, who was alleged to be in a desponding state of mind, asked him if he had got a handkerchief with which they could tie themselves together, but when it was produced she thought it would not be long enough to go round them both. She then took from her pocket a piece of tape, and the prisoner took from his a boot-lace, with which they bound themselves tightly. Placing her arms on his neck, they flung themselves together into the canal. They turned over in the water two or three times, when either the lace or tape broke, and they were separated. The woman sunk at once, but the man rose to the surface, and reached the opposite bank of the canal, up which, though somewhat tipsy, he managed to crawl. reply to questions now put by the judge, the jury said they believed the statement of the prisoner to be in every respect true, and that he had not been actuated in the slightest degree by malice. Sentence of death was passed, but not carried out.

In

December 2.- Great fire at Antwerp, destroying the Entrepôt and Belgian sugar refinery. Two firemen and eight assistants were killed by the falling in of the roof of the first-mentioned building.

President Lincoln opens the 37th Congress of the United States. The appropriations asked for the service of the ensuing fiscal year were computed for a force of 500,000 men. The disaster of Bull's Run was but the natural consequence of the premature advance of our brave but undisciplined troops which the impatience of the country demanded. The betrayal, also, of our movements by traitors in our midst enabled the rebels to choose and intrench their position, and, by a reinforcement in great strength at the moment of victory, to snatch it from our grasp." The President

then referred to a method of blockades adopted at certain of the Southern ports, which created much indignation throughout Europe :-" One method of blockading the ports of the insurgent States and interdicting communication, as well as to prevent the egress of privateers which sought to depredate on our commerce, has been that of sinking in the channels vessels laden with stone. The first movement in this direction was on the North Carolina coast, where there are numerous inlets to Albemarle and Pamlico Sounds and other interior waters, which afforded facilities for eluding the blockade, and also to the privateers. For this purpose a class of small vessels were purchased in Baltimore, some of which have been placed in Ocracoke Inlet. Another and larger description of vessels were bought in the Eastern market, most of them such as were formerly employed in the whale-fisheries. These were sent to obstruct the channels of Charleston harbour and of Savannah river; and this, if effectually done, will prove the most economical and satisfactory method of interdicting commerce at those points."

3. Died, in Park-square, Regent's Park, aged 83, Sir Peter Laurie, for many years connected with the magistracy of the City of London.

4. The Londonderry monument inaugu rated at Seaham ; the Duke of Cleveland, Mr. Disraeli, and Mr. Mowbray making speeches at the luncheon which followed in the Town Hall.

The United States Government refuse to join the allied European Powers in the attempt to restore order in Mexico.

The

6. Came on for trial at the Chester Assizes the case of Jemima Morgan, or Thompson, a young woman of loose character, charged with murdering George Henry Davies, with whom she had been living for some weeks. almost unprecedented circumstance that the unwilling survivor of two voluntary suicides should be tried for the murder of her less fortunate companion gave considerable interest to this case. On the 27th October last, while in a state of great depression, she agreed to commit suicide with Davies, and each procured for the other a quantity of laudanum which they had contrived to introduce into their lodgings. The prisoner alarmed the other inmates shortly after the dose had been par taken of, and they were both conveyed to the infirmary. She rallied so far as to be able to appear at the police-court next day, but Davies gradually sunk, and expired the following morning. The jury acquitted the prisoner.

8.-Eruption of Mount Vesuvius, destroying Torre del Greco, a city of 20,000 inhabitants, built on the slopes of the mountain towards the sea. About three o'clock in the afternoon

a large opening was made in the ground above the town, and about half a mile below the crater of 1774. The first one was thrown up beneath some houses, which were blown up

into the air. Some other ones were found, near the same place and on the top of the mountain. At two o'clock next morning the great crater burst out with tremendous noise, throwing stones and ashes to a great height. Streams of lava next began to descend the sides of the mountain, and, uniting together flowed down in one vast glowing river on the city. The mountain continued in a state of agitation during this month.

9.-Died in Dublin, aged 53 years, John O'Donovan, an Irish antiquarian of rare insight and accomplishments.

On

14.-Death of the Prince Consort. This sad and unexpected national calamity was announced in an Extraordinary Gazette in the following terms :--" Whitehall, Dec. 15. Saturday night, the 14th inst., at ten minutes before eleven o'clock, his Royal Highness the Prince Consort departed this life at Windsor Castle, to the inexpressible grief of her Majesty and of all the Royal Family. The Queen, his Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, their Royal Highnesses the Princess Alice and the Princess Helena, and their Serene Highnesses the Prince and Princess of Leiningen, were all present when his Royal Highness expired. The death of this illustrious Prince will be deeply mourned by all her Majesty's faithful and attached subjects, as an irreparable loss to her Majesty, the Royal Family, and the nation." The calamity was made known to the inhabitants of the metropolis about midnight, by the tolling of the great bell of St. Paul's; and early on Sunday morning the telegraph spread the intelligence in time sufficient to permit reference being made to the calamity in most of the churches throughout the kingdom. The bulletins issued on the day of the Prince's decease, showing the progress of the fever under which he suffered, were :-"9 A. M. His Royal Highness the Prince Consort has had a quieter night, and there is some mitigation of the severity of the symptoms."-“ 10.40 A. M. There is a slight change for the better in the Prince this morning.' 4.30 P. M. His Royal Highness the Prince Consort is in a most critical state." -"Midnight. His Royal Highness the Prince Consort became rapidly weaker during the evening, and expired, without suffer

ing, at ten minutes, before eleven o'clock." About four o'clock in the afternoon, it will be seen, a relapse took place, and the Prince, who, from the time of his severe seizure on Friday, had been sustained by stimulants, began gradually to sink. When the slight improvement took place in the morning, it was agreed by the medical men that if the patient could be carried over one more night, his life would, in all probability, be saved. But the sudden failure of vital power which occurred in the afternoon frustrated these hopes. Congestion of the lungs, the result of complete exhaustion, set in; the Prince's breathing became continually shorter and feebler, and he expired without pain. He was sensible, and knew the Queen to the last. "Of the devotion and strength of mind," writes the Times, "shown by the Princess Alice all through these trying scenes, it is impossible to speak too highly. Her Royal Highness has indeed felt that it was her place to be a comfort and support to her mother in this affliction, and to her dutiful care we may perhaps owe it, that the Queen has borne her loss with exemplary resignation, and a composure which, under so sudden and so terrible a bereavement, could not have been anticipated." After the death of the Prince, the Queen, when the first passionate burst of grief was over, called her children around her, and, with a coolness, which gave proof of great natural energy, addressed them in solemn and affectionate terms. Her Majesty declared to her family that, though she felt crushed by the loss of one who had been her companion through life, she knew how much was expected of her, and she accordingly called on her children to give her their assistance, in order that she might do her duty to them and to the country.-The concern for her Majesty's health, felt by all classes, was manifested by the interest taken in the daily bulletins. On Sunday, at noon, it was announced :-"The Queen, although overwhelmed with grief, bears her bereavement with coolness, and has not suffered in health." On the 18th it was intimated :"The Queen had several hours of undisturbed sleep last night, and is calmer this morning." Addresses of condolence were forwarded from all parts of the kingdom; but the sudden and terrible blow produced a commotion of feelings which almost forbade the use of the ordinary language of respect and sorrow.

16.-Commission opened by the Court of Chancery, before Mr. Commissioner Warren, QC., to inquire into the sanity of William Frederick Windham, Esq., of Fellbrig Hall, Norfolk. The Court sat till the 30th of January, thirty-four of the intervening days being occupied by the examination of about 150 witnesses, many of whom spoke to the habits of wild prodigality and debauchery indulged in by the subject of inquiry. The jury found that he was of sound mind, and capable of managing himself and his affairs.

17.-William Beamish tried at Warwick Assizes for poisoning his wife. He attempted to avert the suspicion attached to him by pretending to have found in his wife's dress a letter addressed to "Jane Stokes," in which she admitted having taken the arsenic herself, and hoped that no one would be blamed for it. He was found guilty, and shortly before his execution made a formal confession of the crime, as also of forging the letter.

The Spanish portion of the allied expedition to Mexico lands at Vera Cruz, and afterwards occupied the fortress of St. John d'Ulloa.

18. Henry Wells Young, a solicitor in good practice, sentenced to twenty years' penal servitude for defrauding the Bank of England by uttering forged documents to sell and transfer stock, amounting in the aggregate to 5,6667. The prisoner had been employed as the legal adviser of the persons in whose name the money stood in Consols, and thus became acquainted with the handwriting of the parties and the particulars of their estate.

20. At the Stafford Assizes, Brandrick, Jones, and Maddox, with four others, were tried for the murder of John Bagott at Bilston, on the 29th September. The victim in this case was a tailor and draper of eccentric habits, who was known to keep a considerable sum of money secreted about his house, and on the night in question was noticed to have been carried home drunk. The premises were broken into and plundered, and Bagott was found with his head lying over the fender, suffocated or "burked" by the application of a sooty hand to the mouth. Four men of loose character were apprehended on suspicion, but the discovery of a portion of the missing property in the hands of the three mentioned above led to the apprehension of the actual perpetrators of the crime. Brandrick, a determined criminal, was executed; but the lives of the other two were spared.

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Earl Russell writes to Lord Lyons at Washington, urging him to remonstrate with the United States Government regarding the sinking of vessels in Charleston harbour :"Even as a scheme of embittered and sanguinary war, such a measure is not justifiable. It is a plot against the commerce of nations and the free intercourse of the Southern States of America with the civilized world. It is a project worthy only of times of barbarism."

22. This being the first Sunday after the promulgation of the news of the Prince Consort's death, the services in most of the churches throughout the kingdom made special reference

to that calamity. Mr. Garden, the sub-dean, officiated at the Chapel Royal, at Whitehall, which was draped in black throughout; Dean Trench, at Westminster; and Dean Milman, at St. Paul's. Dean Milman embodied the feelings of all classes of her Majesty's subjects in a sermon of touching simplicity and beauty: "From the highest to the lowest," he said, "it was felt that a great example had been removed from among us-an example of the highest and the humblest duties equally fulfilled-of the household and every-day virtues of the husband and father, practised in a quiet and unostentatious way, without effort or aid, as it were, by the spontaneous workings of a true and generous nature. To be not only blameless, but more than blameless, in those relations was not too common in such high positions. But his duties to the Queen's subjects, as well as to the Queen-his duties to the great English family dispersed throughout all the world, as well as to the young family within the chambers of the Palace, were discharged with calm thought and silent assiduity. No waste of time in frivolous amusement, in vain pomp and glory, but usefulness in its highest sense: schemes of benevolence promoted; plans for the education of the people suggested and fostered with prudent and far-seeing counsel, and with profound personal interest; great movements for the improvements of all branches of national industry, if not set on foot, maintained with a steady and persevering impulse-in short, notwithstanding foreign birth and education, a full and perfect identification of himself with English interests, English character, English social advancement. these things had sunk gradually, if not slowly, into the national mind. He was ours, not merely by adoption, but as it were by a second

nature.

All

The

23. - Proclamation made at Jassy and Bucharest, that the Danubian Principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia were now united into one state, under the title of Roumania. first meeting of the united elective assembly was held early in February following, when Prince Alexander John Couza declared that Roumania should for ever continue an independent State.

Funeral of the Prince Consort, in St. George's Chapel, Windsor. The ceremony, though sufficiently stately, was almost private, only the Princes, a few of the highest dignitaries of the realm, and the Royal household, being included in the cortége. Throughout the kingdom, the people marked their sense of their Sovereign's grief by a general abstinence from business, the shops being closed in London and most of the provincial towns, the churches draped in black, and the "decent mourning" ordered by the Lord Chamberlain almost universal.

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In view of the threatened Federal aggression on British territory in America, troops are despatched to-day to strengthen the Canadian garrisons on the frontier-line.