The Sun. — London, England, 1858-12-20 00:00:00

ROYAL ENGLISH OPERA, COVENT 1 GARDEN, under the sole Management of Miss Louisa Pyne and Mr. W. Ilarrison.—The public are respectfully in formed that this new and el , gant Theatre will be OPENED for the first ENGLISH 01'El:A SEASON THIS EVENING Dec. 20, when will be presented an entirely new and original Opera, by Mr. W. llalie, entitled SATANELLA ; or, THE POWER OF LOVE. Conductor—Mr. Alfred Mellon. After which tin; National Anthem. Commence at Seven, • ROYAL PRINCESS'S THEATRE. Under the Management of Mr. Charles Kean. TII IS EVENING will be presented Shakspere's Tragedy of MACBETH. Macbeth, Mr. C. Kean ; Lady Macbeth, Mrs. C. Kean. . • .... . • Preceded by a new Farce, in one act, entitled THIRTY-THREE NEXT BIRTHDAY, THEATRE -ROYAL, HAYMARKET. Lessee, Mr. J. B. Buckstone. T ETENING will be performed a new Comedy, TUE TEID OF TIME. Messrs. Buckstone, Chippendale &c. ; Mesdamei Reynolds and Poynter. A new Spanish Ballet, THE INFLUENCE OF GRACE. in which PereaNena will appear. THE TQODLES. Sir Wm. Don, Bart. And A DAUGHTER TO MARRY. Commence at 7. R OYAL LYCEUM THEATRE. Manager, Mr. Edmund Falconer, Will be Opened for the season on CHRISTMAS EVE, Fri day? Dec. 24, when will be produced a new Burlesque, written expressly for the Lyceum Company by Robert B. Brough, and entitled THE SIEGE OF TROY. The new and gor geous scenery by Mr. William Callcott. The principal cha racters by Mrs. Keeley, Miss Julia St. George, Mrs. Weston, Mhss.Portman, Miss Talbot, Miss Kate Saxon, Miss E. Romer, &c. ; Mr. Emery, Mr. Charles Young, Mr. Ellerton, Mr. .f. Rogers, Mr. Barrett, /to. ; Misd Itasina Wright, Miss 31. Charles, Miss Harriet Dalton, and a numerous Corps de Bal let will also appear. After the Burlesque a new Comic Pantomime, replete with new tricks and mechanical devices, entitled HARLEQUIN TOY HORSE ; or, The Cremorne Fete. Clown, Mr Charles Lauri ; Ifarlaquin; Mr. John Lauri ; Pantaloon-, Mr. Henry Lauri • Columbine, 31158 Jenny Lauri. The 'Performanees will commence on Friclay,"3londay, and Tuesday with the Comedietta of TOO MUCH FOR GOOD NATURE. A Morning Performance of the Burlesque and Pantomime on Boxing-day, to commence at two o'clocky preoisel ; doors open at half-past one. Reduced Prices—Dress Boxes, 4s. ; Upper Boxes, 3s. ; Pit, 2s. • Stalls, ss. ; Gallery, ls. Box-office upen from 11 to 5 daily. Doors open at half-past 6, to commence at 7 every evening. - ROYAL STRAND THEATRE , Lessee and Directress, Miss Swanborough. THIS EVENING, THE RULE OF THREE. After which TILE MAID AND THE MAGPIE. THE LITTLE SAVAGE. And THE BONNIE FISH WIFE. Commence at 7 o'clock. ASTLEY'S ROYAL AMPHITHEATRE, Westminster-road. Sole Lessee, Mr. William Cooke. • THIS EVENING, and four following nights, the great Eastern Spectacle of THE REVOLT IN INDIA; tr, The Fugitives and their Faithful Steed. After which SCENES IN THE ARENA, introducing Mr. W. Cooke, and his beautiful horses, Mr. Runnels, Madame Blanche, Miss Emily Cooke, Madame Fleurette, and the finest troupe of equestrians in the kingdom. To conclude with the Farce of SHOOTING THE MOON. A famous, magnificent, and matchless Christmas Panto mime on Boxing-night, entitled HARLEQUIN BARON MUNCHAUSEN - ; or, The King of the Pumpkins, unprece dented for comicality and splendour. Dress Circle, 3s. ; Boxes, 2s. ; Pit, ls, ; Galleries, 6d. Stage Manager, Mr. R. Phillips. C ANTERBURY HALL, Westminster-road.-- Proprietor -C. MORTON. The public is most respectfully - informed that the FM ARTB G A LLERY, in connection witk the above Hall, IS NOW OPEN DAT AND NIGHT, from 11 o'clock' a.m. until 12 o'clock p.m. The New Gallery contains an extensive Collec tion of - Pictures, by Ancient and Modern Masters • and is also devoted to Art productions generally. The Proprietor feels he may confidently assert that, viewed altogether, the exist ing 3lusie Hall, the New Fine Arts Gallery, and the recently added Ante-Hall, will present an attraction which, whether as regards the architectural beauty of the structures them- , selves, or the varied and hitherto unattempted combinations `within, will be found to be wholly without parallel in the 'Kingdom. . The MUSICAL ENTERTAINMENT commences as usual at -Seven o'clock. ', In addition to the usual entertainment, the SAUVLET FAMILY, of Amsterdam, Eight in number, whose varied instrumental performances have created so marked a sensa tion in the principal cities and towns of the Continent, will perform every Evening at Nine and Eleven o'clock. THE WEATHER.-SVN OFFICE, DEC. 19. THERMOMETER, IN THE SHADE. 52—highest since noon yesterday. 49—lowest this morning and during the night. 49—this day at noon. BAROMETER-29.50. WIND, S.W. ; light, with fine sunshiny weather—rain in -the evening. Heavy rain in the night. Dec. 20. si—highest since noon yesterdriy. 41—lowest this morning and during the night. 46- 7 -this day at noon. BAEOMETER-29.66—r1sing. WIND, South-Westerly; light.and fine. THE SUN. MONDAY, DECEMBER 20,.1858. --T tincnt. The customary gauge has been applied to the engineering enterprise of Englishmen during the past twelvemonth. It will be found upon exami nation to have yielded results in se v eral particulars more than usually satisfactory. The annual test to which allusion is here made :is, of course, no other than the Report of the . 'Comcil sub-. mitted at the close of each session- to the Institu tion of Civil Engineers. This resume for 1858, however, reveals at the outset a very striking pecu liarity, namely, the distinguishing fact that in the United kingdom itself there has not been any gene ral resumption of works either of public utility or of private enterprise. One probable' reason for . this- being .the circumstance of a considerable proportiz-oa of the professional engagements leaning Ott: 11tu!...1 ,- 3.ltitt'tti engt?cers into .foeeign countries, and into British Colonial possessions. It is never theless euricins, at the same time; to note that, sav ing in the construction of branch lines, but compa ratively little progress has been made in the exten sion of .the xailway system upon the European Con- A magnificent project has certainly, it must be admitted, taken another step in advance, in the empire of Austria, towards its ulti mate real;sation. The Lombardo-Venetian Company having within the last few months united the majo rity of the principal lines—thereby tending to hasten the formation eventually of that grand and symmetrical chain of trunk railways, extending continuon.ly over a distance of very nearly two thousand miles altogether ! A comprehensive system, at the very lowest computation of nearly 1,900 miles of railway—connecting Italy with Austria, Hungary, and Southern Germany, " ex tending in an unbroken line from Vienna to Milan, and from the Bavarian frontier to Florence." Con siderable progress has been simultaneously made in the development of the railway system in Spain and Portugal, in llussiq, Turkey, and Piedmont. Conspicuous among the more recently conceived de signs being one, by the way, which proposes to carry a line from Nice to the railway at Voltri and thence to Genoa, along the Cornice-road bordering the l ' Mediterranean. The V ictor Emmanuel line i ' avinc , in the meant ime been com p leted t o the foot of the mountains, and the Cyclopean labour of timeip og the Alps actually 0014menced- So that the engi neers, combining scientifically the achi eve!nen' 4 8 of HANNIBAL and NAPOLEON, appear to be bent at tmee upon " turning the Alps" and cutting their way through them—employing pick and shovel, in , lieu of vinegar, in the latter herculean enterprise. it Together with the account 'of the progress made in the European system of railways, we find in the report of the council, submitted on the 14th inst. to the Insititution of Civil Engineers, satisfactory allusions to the advance made in the same direc tion, on the one hand immediately at home, and on the other at the opposite extremities of thelarth, even at our very antipodes. Referring to the rail roads in Hindostan, the report says, as encou ragingly as sententiously, that—" In India the 7- 1 .- _ di z v'e,,,Etk.ti =Pr. /Eii g' 4 ~~. suspended works upon the different railways had - - been resumed," adding, " that it was fair to con clude they would now be - pushed forward with vigour" under the auspices of the re•or ganised Government. Speaking of tLe :railways I &c., now advancing towards completion in the 1 Southern Hemisphere, the Report gives the moss satisfactory particulars of the progress made in the engineering works latterly constructed in the Colony of Victoria. There, it says, " undertakings of considerable magnitude had been designed, some were in progress, and a few were completed. The, most prominent of these were macadamised roads, railways, water-works, shipping wharfs, piers, and slips for heaving ships out of the water. The: rail way from Yarra Yarra Bridge to Sandhurst, with a deep water pier in Robson's Bay, for ships of 500 tons burden, was completed, and in full activity ; although as costly, mile for mile, as the London and Greenwich railway, it yielded a profit on the capital of 10 per cent. per annum. From this line a branch had been opened to St. Kilda, which was found to be of great convenience to the suburban and residential traffic, and a prolongation was about to be made to the Sandhurst railway. The Geelong railway had been opened to Williams town, and had only been delayed from reaching Melbourne by the non-completion of the Govern• ment line to Williamstown. The Government lines, required to maintain the intercourse - with the distant parts of the Colony, were in progress, large contracts having already been let. The Yan Yean waterworks, for supplying the town of Melbourne, were finished ; the water was collected in artificial reservoirs, and was conveyed through a. system of pipes, 40 miles in length, to the town. As the town was not subdrained, the disposal of the waste water was even now a serious question, there being only four feet tide in the Yarra-Yarra River, - which drained into Hobson's. Bay, an almost tideless lake. At some future, and probably not very dis tant period, this would render the question of dealing with the sewerage as difficult as that of London. The deep water piers and slips at Wil liamstown were in an advanced state of completion and would be useful auxiliaries to the commercial marine resorting to Hobsons Bay. The system of macadamised roads, leading to Maryborough, Sandhurst, Castlemaine, B allarat, and other impor tant places, had been completed, in many cases under very difficult circumstances, but were now so efficient, that travelling was almost as rapid and as convenient as on the English roads before the introduction of railways." So much for engineer. ing enterprises at our antipodes.. Now for one at leastof immediate interest to the metropolis-the Victoria Station, Grosvenor Basin. Pimlico! The engineering works connected with this, including among them a railway bridge across the river Thames, - -a. bridge consisting -of four _ arched spans of wrought iron, of 175 feet each, are an nouneed by the report as "now in progress," and the - site selected for the terminus is especially come► mended as one in various ways combining a variety of peculiar advantages. Due reference is of course made by the Report to the magnificent but unfortunate enterprise of the Sub-Atlantic Cable—the history of its marvellous success and lamentable failure constituting the most remarkable item of that important section of the report relating to the engineering labours of 1858 in communication with the extension of elec tric telegraphs. One most encouraging fact re corded in this section, however, we would here especially particularise, namely, the suc cessful " fishing up" of no less than 228 miles of cable laid down between Candia and Alexandria. It should be borne in mind, moreover, that this is no solitary incident of that kind—the cable lost in 1845, and-a fragment of that lost in 1856 off. Cape Spartivento, Sardinia, having both been recovered ! Altogether this remarkable engineering report for 1858 is one of the most inspiriting and memorable ever submitted:to the institution of Civil Engineers. It affords a brilliant illustration of the mercantile enterprise and mechanical genius of Englishmen, in an age the scientific chiefs of which include among them a BRUNEL, a LOCKE, a STEPHENSON, and a WHEATSTONE—and the scientific achievements of which comprise the twin systems, of railroads and electric telegraphs. • . - " The- Franchise, what shall we do with it ?" is the title of a small pamphlet of rather consider able pretensions, just published by Mr. RIDGWAY.. The subject is a taking one, and heartily glad would all the parties practically occupied in manufacturing Reform Bills be, could any one point out to them a solution of the proposed problem. " What to do with the Franchise," in. general , terms, every one knows. All grades of politieans reply, "It must be extended." The only question is, " How to extend it?" That question has hitherto received but a very partial answer. The Conservatives are necessarily silent. They are in office and cannot speak till her MAJESTY has spoken; and doubtless they are very thankful for such a .constitutional excuse for taciturnity. ;The Whigs are out off-office ; but they are doubly fettered : they want to get into office, and they dare not riLtk.a a bidding, which their clever antagonists would be sure to outbid ; while they are also deterred by their own disincli nation to hazard one inch more than the interests of Whiggism imperatively require. Indeed, 't present, the Whigs are the most silent of all the parties. We have heard nothing from them, un less we must suppose the standstill programme of Mr. LOWE and the Times, with the Conservative warnings of the Whir, Lord Chief Justice, to be Whig deliverances. The Birmingham Reform Bill maker is the only one who has approached to any thing definite—and his rate-book suffrage may be a thoroughly democratic one, or one not s eri ouslv in advance of Lord JOIIN RUSSELL'S last rating suffrages, according to the plan on which the rate-book is made up. When we turn to the pamphlet adverted to, from which we had expected some special help on the question—how we are to extcnd the suffrage—we find, on the contrary, an answer only to the ques tion—How shall we divide those who possess the franchise ?--that is, in what kind of constituencies shall they be arranged. Our author prefers the more liberal view of every question. Manhood suffrage and the ballot will, he thinks, be more satisfactory ; but his plan will apply, he says, to any suffrage, provided it be, as he assumes that it must, made equal for all kinds of constituencies. If so, why, he asks, retain any longer the useless division of borough and county electors ; since the vote of a man possessing the same franchise is as good in the county as in the borough P We should say better. The ten-pound householder in the county is, as the rule, a decidedly superior man to the possessor of the same franchise in the borough. His chief proposals are two—first, having abo lished the distinction between boroughs and COUR ties, to take the counties as the basis of rearrange ment, and to divide and arrange them so that each member shall represent about forty thousand of the population, and that each constituency should return not more than six or seven members. This would require that Lancashire should have ten such divisions, Middlesex and York, nine, returning five or six members each ; while Northampton and Rutland, Cumberland and Westmoreland, must be THE SUN, LONDON, MONDAY EVENING, DECEMBER 20, 1858. LATEST NEWS. The following telegraphic despatches have been received at Mr. Reuter's office : MADRID, SATURDAY. The POrtuguese Government has firmly refused to communicate to the Chamber of Deputies certain documents asked • for concerning the Charles-et- Georges affair. According to advices received from Lisbon, the Municipal Council has been dissolved. SUNDAY. The Count of Paris arrived on the 17th inst. at Seville. CONSTANTINOPLE, DEC. 18. Several shipwrecks have taken place on the coast of Dobroudscha. ST, PETERSBURG SATURDAY. Mr. Murray, the English Ambassador in Persia, accompanied by his physician, Dr. Dixon, and the secretary of the embassy, Mr. Bastell, arrived at Tiflis, on the 27th November, from Essessan (qy. Teheran), FRANCE. PARIS, SUNDAY. On the morning of. New Year's Day the Emperor will receive the diplomatic corps and the consti tuted bodies. On the 2d the Emperor and Empress will receive, at half-past nine in the evening, the ladies of the diplomatic corps, and such ladies as have been already presented to their Majesties. The ladies may be accompanied by their husbands. Gentlemen must be in full uniform or spurt cos tume, and the ladies in court dresses. The Grand. Duke Constantineleft Nice on Thurs day evening, and arrived at Toulon on Friday. From Toulon his Imperial Highness was to proceed to Marseilles, and thence' to • Fontainebleau, where he is to sleep to-morrow night, and to which place Count de Kisseleff, the Russian Ambassador, pro ceeds. The Grand Duke will arrive in Paris on Monday at about ,goon, and it is said that he will only remain in the capital until Wednesday or Thursday. Two of the Paris journals, the Constitutionnel and the Pays, publish long articles on the project, which is at- present under consideration, for en larging Paris, by carrying back the octroi limits to the fortifications. Both journals are strongly in favour of the proposed measure, and adduce argu ments to prove that the realisation of the project will not only be unattended with any injury or incon venience, but will be productive of much positive good. The Constitutionnel gives a sketch of the suc cessive changes effected in Paris, from which we glean that it has been enlarged not fewer thannine times, and that its superficies, which was scarcely 40 acres in the time of Julhts Cmsar, had become 8,505 in the reign of Louis XVI, and will reach the vast extent of 18,625 acres, should the plan, now spoken of, be. carried fully into execution. The great amount of the population in the various com munes of the banlieue, our contemporary declares, is an evident proof that Paris, properly so called, is not large for its inhabitants and that the Govern ment is by that 'eery circumstance warned that: the time has arrived, to provide more• ample aecomj modation for the constantly . increasing influx of 1 settlers from the_departments. 4 - .Bouits.E, Dec. 18.—The market has been very flat, with little -business doing, and there has been a slight fall in all securities. Threes have been done at 73f. 35c., and are now at 73f. 20c. ; Mobi lier varied from 987 f. 50c. t0 , 980f. ; Orleans, 1,395 f. to 1,392 f. 50c.; Northern, 1,006 f. 25c. to 1,003 f. 75c. ; Lyons, 882 f. 50c. to 880 f. ; Southern, 590 f. to 585 f. ; and Austrian, 642 f. 50c. to 640 f. The following were the last quotations :- 41 per Cents...... 96 75 Credit Foncier 62 50 Do. end month .. Bel an 4i -- 3 per Ceitts • 73 10 Predmontese (5) Do. end end month.... 73 20 Roman 93 Bank Shares , Credit Tilobilier .. '975 Spanish Threes . I . -- Do. Account, ..... 976 ,Home Debt RAILWAYS. Cash. Account. Orleans - .ITorthein . New ditto , 845 .. 845 Lyons and liediterranean . 880 .. 881 25 Now ditto Geneva 620 -- . . Midi Southern - Western -607 .50 .. 605 —:- Eattern • " • Grand Central — .. . Sardinian ...6 .. • ' 421 25 .. .417 50 Austrian ,; 635 - ‘ Eichan.ge on London, at sight, paper, 25f. 12ic._ ; money, 25f. 10c. ; three months, paper, 24t. 971 c..; money, 24f. 95c. .. 622 50 PRUSSIA. The 'Minister of the Interior in Prussia .ha'B addressed to the Governors of Provinces a circular which is of considerable importance to the news paper press. The . late Cabinet arrogated to itself the right of suspending or withdrawing, without the intervention of a .court of law, the licences printers of newspape rs , w ith ou t . whi c h granted to they dare not print anything. : The circular in question makes known . that the Government .pro poses to have the matter regulated by a law, and that in the meantime it directs local authorities not to exercise that power without first consulting it. Arrests have been made in the matter of the epergne which the city of Cologne gave the Princess Frederick William on her marriage. Better still, the whole of the precious metal, or very nearly the whole, has been recovered, although melted down,. So that the costly workmanship'of the piece is . loSt. It was stolen during the night of but Was somehoW not missed till, several days later. - The persons in custody are a servant of the palace, aged dB, father of a family ; and a silversmith. a man of bad character, who has been before convicted. RUSSIA. The following letter has been received from Warsaw, dated December 12 :—" I have before me the plan prepared by the committee for reforming the relations between the nobility and the peasants in the kingdom of Poland. Prince Gortschakoff will leave at the end of this month for St. Petersburg, in order to submit it far the. Imperial sanction. Contrary to what exists in Russia, the persons of the Polish peasants arc five ; consequently the com mittee appointed to define the relations between the nobility and the peasants had only to occupy themselves with the territorial relations, that is, with the best means of replacing the co,. ree by an aereable rent. The fol'owing is a sketch of the plan proposed by the committee. The corm° will be replaced by a lease granted by the proprietor to the peasant, the latter paying a reserved rent for his land. The contract is not rcrocablc by either of the con tracting parties. until a lease is accepted by the peasant for the land lie cultivates he will be sub ject to the eorree as at present. Each holding is to consist of three acres at least, and the buildings and farming implements on the land are to become the property of the peasant. The amount of rent may be regulated by the proprietor with the commune, or with each peasant individually, but in no case is the commune liable for the rent—each peasant is answerable for his own share. The plan next re gulates the term of servitude, and the changes to be made in the cultivation of the soil, as well as the right of sellingor subletting the holding,which will `depend upon' the consent of the proprietor. The land so let can never be repurchased by the proprietor on any pretence, or by anybody in trust for him. Thetenant cannot acquire any other land without the conseutof his - landlord. The plan fixes a maximum and a minimum of land to be acquired by the tenant, which extends from three acres to sixty acres. The Belgian Chamber of Representatives has been for two days occupied with the discussion on the proposition for reducing the postage, to an uni form rate of 10c. The Minister of Finance warmly opposed the amendment, on the ground that the state of the Treasury would not permit the reduc tion. The discussion has been again adjourned. The Unione of Turin has the following' from Lombardy :—" On the 11th a curious demonstration took place at Pavia, when a large number of citizens and students paraded the principal streets for four or five days, each with the stump of a clay pipe in his mouth, the bowl being empty and turned downwards, meaning thereby that the procession represented the funeral of the pipe, all those who had taken part in it pledging themselves to for swear tobacco." The elections for the Chamber of Deputies in Bavaria are now nearly terminated. ' Out of 55 nominations already known, 29 belong to the Mo derate Opposition, and only 6 can be considered altogether Ministerial. united to make up the, requisite number. His second proposal, and, as he deems it, the most important, is that each voter• should vote for but one 'member. His chief reason for these suggestions, especially the latter, ;As, that " a House of Commons so con- stituted ?must of neeessity completely and thoroughly represent the nation which elected it." We fail, 1 however, to perceive how it must do so. It would, as. -we think, puzzle the acutest electioneering agent —a very COPPOCK himself, could he rise from the dead—to drill his voters to the required duty, while chance voting would assuredly give a chance result. It is easy to see, for instance, that one very popular member, out of the six, might be returned by an immense majority, while the whole remain ing five might actually be returned by small num bers for each, the total votes for them not equalling these for the one popular member. We need not suppose all kinds of intermediate cases ; but unless we have entirely miscalculated the working of the scheme, it would be exceedingly likely to give the majority of members to the minority of voters. This is notoriously the case now, but it should be remembered that it is quite possible, even though the intention were the reverse. Mr. BUCHANAN was shown by some of the American journals to have been returned by a minority of the,electors through the system of double election a result surely not contemplated by the framers of the constitution. We need not remark, just now, on the plan o equal electoral divisions, or, what amounts to the same thing, divisions with representatives in pro portion to their population. Both boroughs of any standing, and counties, would, we apprehend, con tend earnestly for their electoral individuality. It would be small consolation to the bodies which, hitherto, have fought so many earnest party or ;political battles, to be aborbed, like Indian _Fakirs, into the Deity of a perfect representative system, and to lose their consciousness of separate exist ence. Any division, to be acceptable, must, we are persuaded, retain substantially the ancient land marks. What we most strongly object to is any bou doir scheme for representing minorities. The idea is, at least, un-English. We are accustomed from years of reason to bow to majorities. Our practical minds comprehend the necessity, so difficult a thing for Frenchmen, of submitting to the majority till we have convinced it. We do this in every municipal constituency, in every parish vestry, ix every busi ness board, in every social club or society, and a large portion, at -least, of our Christian churches do it in their ecclesiastical manage ment. It is, we believe, the only sound prin ciple. If a minority be large, and have a thorough lgood cause, it is their business to enlighten the majority, and thus take their place by the best of all means—the diffusion of know ledge, and the spread of right convictions. If the minority is small, though the task is longer, yet it must be performed. The House of Commons is not the only lecture room for political instructors; and the minority too small to obtain a footing there, must avail them s elves of the press, the platform, and the hustings, till they can return their men. We have seen nothing yet which exalts the proposal of minority members above a dilettante fancy. THE RETURN OF THE COURT TO WINDSOR Her Majesty, his Royal Highness the Prince Consort, with the Royal children and suite, left Osborne for Windsor Castle this morning at ten o'clock, and travelled by the South-Western and Great Western lines of railway, leaving Gosport soon after eleven o'clock, and arriving at Rasing. • stoke at half-past twelve; thence they proceeded on the Great Western line to Reading, arriving at Slough at 20 minutes past one, and Windsor at 25 minutes past one o'clock, where her Majesty was received by• a guard of honour, composed of the Grenadier Guards, under the com mand of his Serene Highness Prince Edward of Saxe Weimar. An extra special train arrived at Windsor at half past two o'clock, from Gospoit, with the luggage, horsed, and carriages belonging to the Royal establishment. The Countess de Lavradio has been confined to her residence, Gloucester-place, since • Tuesday last, by slight indisposition. The Duke of Devonshire is passing the season at his seat, Holkar Hall, in Westmoreland, where his Grace is entertaining a select circle of visitors. The Earl and Countess of. Derby's -party at Knowsley has been broken up in consequence _of the lamented death of the Countess of Wilton. The hospita lities at Knowsley during the. approaching festive season have also been abandoned. The Earl of 3falmesbury, who arrived in town on Saturday, from visiting the Earl and Countess of Hard at Wimpole, and 4he Marc'Vis and Marchioness of Salisbury, at Hatfield, left Whitehall-kardmis in the even ing to join the Countess of .MalmeAbluy at Heron Court, near Christchurch. • " The Earl and Countess of Yarborough are shortly expected in town, from Brighton. The Earl of Shelburne left Lansdowne House on Friday, for Bowood. • The Countess Dowager of Meath has left Cla riage's Hotel, for Sennicotta, near Chichester. . Lord and Lady Olivia Ossulston have left Cla. ridge's Hotel, for Chillingham Castle, near Alnwiek. Lord and Lady Worsley are at present in Rome. Count and Countess de Flalw.ult and • Miss Elphinstone de Flahault have left Coventry House on a visit to the Marquis of Lansdowne, at Bowood. The Hon. Mrs. Keith Falconer has left Farrance's Hotel, Belgravia, for Brighton. Sir Robert and Lady Emily Peel arrived in town feW days since from, Drayton Manor, Staaordshire, and intend to go to Nice until the meeting of Pcrliament. Sir John and Lad Shelley haw returned to Maresfield Park from s. tour of visit'. Mr. Alison, atta(*.he to her Majesty's Embassy at the Ottoman Porte, has anived at thellrunswiek Hotel. On Saturday the marriage of Miss Fanny Martin, daughter of Sir Samuel Martin, Knt., and one of the Barons of her Majesty's Court of Exchequer, and grand daughter of the Chief Baron, with Edward M`Naughton, son of Sir E. M‘Naughton, was solemnised in the presence of a distinguished circle at St. Peter's-church Eaton square, Pimlico. With regard to the operas which are to happen at Drury-lane, rumour mentions among other artists who may take part in them, Madame Viardot, Mr. Sims Peeves, and Signor Badiali. Victoire Balfe, the daughter of the most popular of English composers, is engaged at the San Carle at Naples, as prinut donna. Mr. Edmund Glover, of Glasgow, long known in connection with theatricals there, has just built a fine theatre at Greenock, which is to be opened ou the 27th of this month.. Rumour asserts that Miss Amy Sedgwick will probably succeod Mr. Charles Kean as the lessee of the Princess's Theatre. In -the meanwhile, it is understood that she will appear at the Haymarket shortly after Christ mas, in a new comedy by Mi. .1. Pal rave Simpson. We regret to announce the somewhat sudden death of Mr. Frederick Neale, the stage manager of the Pavilion Theatre, which took place on Saturday last, at his house, Green-terrace, Whitechapel, after a brief illness. Mr. Neale's name has now for twenty years past been prom - nently before the public at the East-end of London in connection with theatricals as a manager, The colossal lion has arrived at the British Museum. It is still in its case in the court-yard, and will so remain (says the Athewenat) till the glass bo,t, for the reception of this and other expected antiquities front the East and Carthage is completed, and the noble front of t he Museum turned into the likeness of a tinker's street in Whitechapel. THE ATTORNEY-GENERAL ON THE TEMPERANCE MOVEMENT.—Sir Fitzroy Kelly, M.P., the Attorney - General, presided on Friday evening at the temperance meeting, held in the Corn Exchange, Ipswich. In address ing the meeting, Sir Fitzroy said it was with great satis faction that he appeared to give his countenance andup port to a movement which was making great—and he hoped its Mends would shortly be enabled to say, com pletely successful—progress among many classes of the people. The movement was one in which he could not but feel that the well-being, the happiness, and the best and dearest interests, both temporal and eternal, of our fellow-creatures were involved. His friend, the late Mr. Baron Alderson, had declared his conviction, after many years' experience at the bar and on the bench, that four-fifths of . the crimes committed in England might be traced to intemperance ; and he (Sir F. Kelly) was sure that if this degrading vice could be removed from society a state of things would follow in which an amount of innocence, virtue, and general happiness would prevail such as no man would be sanguine enough to foretell. Im pressed'witli-this belief, he had felt it a sacred duty, amidst many other. occupations which left him little time to attend to such meetings, however important their objects might be, to lend the temperance movement what little aid he could. - He was not aware to what extent the movement had succeeded in the county of Suffolk, but he rejoiced to hear, from time to time, that the principles of temperance were advancing, and were supported and practised to a eon derable extent in the borough. of Ipswich. (Applause.) COCHIN CHINA. The Univers remarks on the various mistakes which are made in the public journals relative to the different countries of Cochin China, and then says :—" There is a King of Cambodia, and his capital is Battambang. Sai-Gon is the principal city of Lower Cochin China, formerly named Ciampa, and also called Annamite Cambodia. Has the Go vernor of Sai-Gon revolted as is alleged, and made common cause with the King of Cambodia ? That is possible. Lower Cochin China has always been one of the most agitated parts of the Annamite empire. Sai-Gon, under. Minh-Mang, the great grandfather of Tu-Duc, sustained a very long siege. It would not, therefore, be very surprising that a serious insurrec tion should have broken out in that province. As to Cambodia, properly so called, it is neither a pro vince of the empire of Annam nor an independent State. • The chief of this country, placed between the Siamese and the Annamitss, pays tribute to both. Nevertheless, he is rather a dependant on Siam than, on Annam. His States long served as the field of battle for those formidable neighbours, itho are almost always at war, and Cambodia, notwithstanding its extraordinary fertility, is poor and thinly populated. The Journals which speak in the most serious terms of the Court of his Cambodian Majesty, will allow us to give them some details relative to that court, which we extract from a letter from 'Mgr. Michie, vicar apostolic of Cambodia. He says---' Four days after our arrival the King of Battambang expressed a wish to see us and we- paid him a visit. The only present we could give him was a bottle of eau de Cologne, a penknife and a pair of scissors. These were doubtless very paltry presents to make to a king, but he was never• theless delightedat possessing such rare objects, and. me us a very friendly reception. He shook us by.flie hand, a salutation which rather inspired me with fear, as his nails were about an inch long. and crooked at the points. As all his clothing con sisted of a loose shirt, and as he was afraid of the coolness of the night, he asked us for a pair of shoes and stockings. I also gave his Majesty my waist coat, which he requested throne one of the man darins. When the eking, entered the reception-room or rather . into the shed which was used for that purpose, every one threw themselves flat on the gee oun d ; for our parts we saluted him in the French fashion. In order to give us a high proof of his esteem, he made us sit down in a line with him, and declared that all he possessed was at our service. Some days after, finding that we were mot very eager in soliciting his royal favours, re re proached' us for our backwardness, and sent us some rice cake. These details show that the im portance of Cambodia has been overrated. Never theless the intervention of the Cambodians may be useful to us, and it will even be of great importance if, as is believed, the Governor of Sai-Gon has come to an understanding with the court of Battambang to take the field against the Emperor of Annam. Although Sai-Gon was dismantled 20 years ago, it is still a military position of undoubted value, and it would be very advantageous for us to find allies there." :THE .ROYAL DRAMATIC COLLEGE. Our readers will remember that a public meeting , wax held at the Princess's Theatre on the 21st of July last to receive an offer of five acres of freehold land on, which to build houses for aged and infirm members of the theatrical profession—a dramatic collegoin fact. - Mr, Henry Dodd, by whom the land was offered, was represented on that occasion as - a gentleman of large property and a truly bene! volent heart, so kind, indeed that he desired never to be 'known as the ,generous donor whose praises were to be chronicled throughout the land, and whO had only been induced to give his name by the repeated requests of the provisional -committee which had been formed to organise the proceedings and to obtain funds to erect the houses and provide pensions for the occu pants. Mr. DOdd, it was further stated, had also promised to build a hall, to form the centre .of the intended dwellings, and to add one hundred gui neas to the fund for general purposes. Much more, indeed, was spoken of as the probable result of his great wealth and charitable disposition but to the land, hall,_and money .only was he distinctly , -pledged. There were two conditions annexed to his offer, viz . ., that the public meeting should give evidence of a desire to. provide homesfOr worn-out members of the theatrical profession, and elect four trustees to receive a conveyance of the . land ; this done, the land was to be con veyed immediately and unconditionally. The meeting respo'nded to Mr..Dodd's demand 'in a manner which must have been very delightful, even if he was only enjoying a joke at the expense of " the poor player." For three months the committee patiently await ed the deed of conveyance, and not until. the middle of October did any expression of anxiety on their; part receive other answer than that the benevolent gentleman had a way, of his own as well as a Will, and that he must be . allowed, to ride his hobby after his own manner. At length a draft was pro-: duced of such a preposterous length that it might ,leave been supposed a number of ingenious lawyers had been trying how many conditions it was possible to cram into one deed of gift for five acres of land. This deed and its conditions the proyisional corn mittee declined to. accept as a performance of the promise made by Mr. Dodd; and subsequently several odicr drafts containing conditions equally numerous and equally absurd, were received. At length the executive committee, diSgusted with this paltering, called a special meeting, to lay the facts before it. Mr. Macphail attended, and made' the same speech he had 'delivered at Several previous meetings, but convinced no body' that ho had spoke to the purpose. The result of the special meeting was a call upon Mr. Dodd fo complete an unqualified conveyance of LI I land on or before -Tuetday, the I^th inst.,.and a" intimation that in the event of. his not doing so; a public meeting should be called to receive a state ment of the facts, and to authorise proceedings to be taken to establish the college without his aidor assistance. To this many members of the com mittee objected, thinking that he had taken quite time enough, and several of them offered liberal amounts towards the purchase of land. The ma jority, however, yielded to the desire that he shoUld , be allowed the option of compliance before a public. meeting was called on the subject. At a meeting of the committee, held on Saturaay, two long letters were read, one from Mr. Dodd, containing many excuses for not having transferred the land, and refusing to do so without conditions ; the other from Mr. Macphail, attempting to prove that nobody was able to arrive at a proper conclu sion lnit lumself. In consequence of Mr. Dodd's default several otter offers of land have been re- ceived. The " poor player" need have no fear that the haven of rest held out to him will be any longer " Like to the baseless fabric of a dream"-- Obse?•rer. LOG OF THE 1 1 BIXCE ALBERT. GALWAY, DEC. 17. The steamship Prince Albert arrived in this har bour to-day at: noon. She left New York on the 4th inst., reached St. John's, Newfoundland, on the 9th, sailed for Galway on the 10th at 9.30 p.m., and arrived at the entrance of Galway Bay, off the Arran islands, on the 16th, at 5 o'clock p.m., making the voyage in about 5 days 17 hours mean time. The Prince Albert brings 180 passengers, and mails from Newfoundland. _ The following is an abstract of the log of the Prince Albert. It is certified by her commander, Captain Waters:— "Sunday, Dec. 5, at 9 a.m., left Sandy Hook; course, E. ; distance, 199 miles; nort h -west. " 6.—Course N.'67 E. ; 74 miles ; lat. 40 45, long 68 ; barometer, 30.3; thermometer, 51—moderate and fine. " 62 35 E. ; 271} miles ; lat. 42 48, long. 62 40 ; barometer, 29.93 ; thermometer, 49. " 8.-67 N., 16 E. ; 261 miles ; lat. 43 36, long 56 58 ; bargmeter, 2 9.80 ; thermometer, 47. " 9.—At 445 p.m., stopped off St. John's, and fired guns for pilot ; none came—remained all night. " 10.—At 9 30 p.m. left St. John's. " 11.—N. 77 E. ; 146 miles; lat. 48 3, long. 49 1 ; baro meter, 29.15 ; thermometer, 43. " 12.—N. 73 E.; 288 miles: lat. 49 27, long. 42 1 ; baro meter, 29.15 ; thermometer, 43. " 13.—N. 71 E. ; 285 miles ; lat. 50 30, long. 35 01; ba rometer, 29.10 ; thermometer, 44. " 14.—N. 74 E. ; 299 miles; lat. 6153, long. 27 20 ; ba rometer, 29.16 ; thermometer, 49. " 15.—N. 77 E. ; 293 miles ; lat. 53 4, long. 19 32 ; baro meter, 29.10 ; thermometer, 49. " 16.—N. 87 E ; 263 miles ; lat. 52 56, lon g . 11 57 ; ba rometei, 29.7 ; thermometer, 50.—At 4 p.m. : sounded in 60 Tallioms sand ; at 5 p.m. stopped ; sounded in 55 fathoms, light bearing S.S.E. ; lay to for the night. " Sun obscure during the entire passage; strong wind from the W.N.W." THE NEW POLITICAL WORK. The Derby Ministry : A Series of Cabinet Pic tures. By Mark Rochester. Routledge and Co. Few Cabinets afford a better series of " studies" for the painter, or one more qualified to attract the inquiring gaze of the people at large than the Cabinet of Lord Derby. Opinions may differ re- specting them politically, but as subjects of per sonal interest the Ministry certainly comprises in its number some among the most popular men of the generation. The Stanleys, father and son, are individually objects of very general interest, and to a certain extent of very cordial admiration. The authors of "Pelham" and Vivian Grey" have each in his time attracted no small share of the popular attention, and now, to the surprise of the matter-of-fact cavillers at the business capabilities of literary men, side by side at the same council board they have in no small degree enhanced the brilliancy of their former reputation. Such men, as we have said, regarded individually, are happy subjects for the artist's hand, and a felicitous delineator they have met with in the person of Mark Rochester, one gifted with the hand and eye of the true artist, one who can detect in a glance and portray in a sentence the peculiarities of a character or the tendency of a career. It is, moreover, no mere outline portraiture that he pre sents us with—the men themselves pass in review before us, each distinct and lifelike, an individual and an individuality. For example, how vivid and actual is the following description of the Premier in the House of Lords. " LORD DERBY IN THE HOUSE OF LORDS. "Nothing is more strikingly characteristic at once of the whole genius and temperament of Lord Derby, than his manner in the House of Peers upon the night of some great discussion—upon the occasion, let us say, of one of his important Ministerial statements. Every one is in expec tation. The building is comparatively crowded—the Lords in unusual attendance, the Commons clustered below the bar, strangers grouped upon the steps of the throne ? or to the right and left upon the floor, of the house behind the Woolsack. Although the Premier is seated, in the midst of his colleagues, upon the front Treasury bench, he among them' all is at once readily distinguishable. You recognise him at once by the watchful glance—that frequent look of vivid and vigilant observation. If you mark him keenly before he rises, moreover, you fail not to note the nervous anxiety betrayed in his every lineament, in the compression of the firm liP: and the knitting of the broad forehead. NV hen at length, amid the breathless silence of the assem bly, he has gained his feet, how, through the clear and unstudied exordium, he rapidly, yet by imperceptible gra dations, wins upon the sympathy of his audience by his evident sincerity and. earnestness. , Later on, when he has passed the outskirts of his argument, and has fairly warmed to his theme, all the more genial qualities of his mind become apparent, shining out winningly, delightfully, playfully, with an air of exhilaration. It is a vivacity with him ' ever young'i in its easy animation. Yet, suddenly in the midst of this, if he is desirous at any moment of re verting to a more serious tone, of recalling himself and his hearers to a mood of gravity befitting some impressive and emphatic declaration—his look,.his voice, his bearing are instantaneously invested with the dignity of the senator and the statesman. The management of his harmonious voice, above all, is throughout marked in every turn and inflection by an almost perfect art, and a nearly matchless dexterity ; more especially, as we have heard it inimitably described, when—upon occasion—it is so managed that the cadence falls like the running bullet in a loaded bludgeon.' And, peculiarly noticeable in all these orations of the Pre mier, from the first syllable uttered to the ringing close of the peroration, the language is always so pure and idiomatic, so wonderfully terse and translucent I" The sketch of the Prime Minister has of course the place of honour in the volume, and-is one •of the best of the series. But . the two literary biographies —those of Disraeliand Bulwer—are unquestionably the most interesting—the most elaborate in details, the most graphic in description. The various masterpieces of the two novelist statesmen are se parately analysed and with much critical discrimi nation. We doubt, in fact, if any single work of the slightest importance, written by either, is not here set down and commented upon. The admirers of " Vivian Grey " and " Venetia," of " Pel ham" and " Devereux,f, will have their me mories refreshed by a perusal •of these pages •, while the later and the yet more valuable achievements of their authors " Coningsby" and " The Caxtons," receive their due meed of unstinted admiration. The following anec dote is new to ourselves, and we doubt not to the majority of our readers. It is a happy specimen of Mark Rochester's style, and an evidence that his materials are not second-hand : FIRST NIGHT OF " THE LADY OF LYONS." " It so happened That upon the night rendered memor able in dramatic history by the first appearance of The Lady of Lyons' (anonymously), Buiwer was detained in the House of Commons by a discussion upon the ballot, a debate in which he himself ,took part that evening, by the delivery of one of the most effective speeches through which he had, as yet, won the applause of Parliament. " Hurrying from the house, while there are yet ringing, in his ears the cordial cheers which greeted the peroration of that successful harangue, he encounters in the doorway of St. Stephen's—sauntering in, fresh from the playhouse, Whither Buiwer himself is wending his way, in search_ of - tidings as to the fate of the new play—another member,. also a brother dramatist. Question and answer exchanged -(the latter eminently satisfactory as to the prospective triumph of the piece, upon the last scene of which the cur tain had not yet fallen)—quoth the informant, the friendly M.P., who was also a playwright, addressing himself to the unsuspected and unrevealing author of The Lady of Lyons,' and speaking of the new drama with a constitutionally flushed visage and a genial air of super cilious patronage—" Hm ! Yes; it's very well indeed —for that sort of thing." On to the theatre goes the orator-dramatist, arriving immediately before the com pletion of his second triumph that evening, precisely at the same moment when Claude makes his appearance upon the stage as one of the heroic ,colonels in the army of Napo leon. The fifth act terminates triumphantly, and the cur tain descends amidst a general storm of acclamation. The author is called for vociferously ; but no author presents himself to the eager audience to receive the ovation and bow his acknowledgments. • " Hra I" says' Buiwer, pro bably shrugging his shoulders at the moment, with a plea sant recollection enough of his House of Commons acquaint ance, "Yes : it's very well indeed—for that sort of thing I!' Saiththe Countess of Blessington—from whose box he has just hurried, in the hope of being (as the divisionlist showed him to have been the next morning) in time for the division—" It is the first time I have ever seen Win jealous." A fortnight later, and Ihe authorship of "The Lady of Lyons" was formally acknowledged upon the playbills." • • But the biographer does not forget that his sub-_ jects are politicians as well as literary men, and their labours in the political world arc duly chro: nicicd. The success of The Crisis, with its fourteen editions in a fort night,is as conspicuous in Sir Edward Lytton's career as the triumph of " The Lady of Lyons ;" while in the record of Mr Disraeli, his speeches in the House of Commons, the memb rable witticisms that adorned them, and the cruel sarcasm that envenomed them, are the theme of iier4 . haps the happiest pages in the volume., With what admirable di2criminntien are thoze witticisme ueleeted, and with what a ; cunning dexterity urn they strung together by tly; friendly band of the I skilful biographer, } MR. DISRAELI AND SIR ROBERT PEEL. "During the course of the year in which Coningsby' made its brilliant appearance, the author of Cokkingsby' I began those audacious attacks upon Sir Robert Peel, which may be certainly said to have prepared the way for his ultimate downfall front the command of what was, nevertheless, in truth, at first, one of the most powerful and, without doubt, at last, one -of the most popular of all our modern administrations. The daring onslaught thus made by Disraeli upon that authoritative leader of the house,—that chief of a strong, apparently' impregnable Government, then the most practised among living debaters, one whose perfect mastery of all the arts of diseussiOn was such, that his assailant has since written of him emphatically, he played upon the House of Commons like an old fiddle'—the defiant, single-handed, unflinching onslaught thus adventured upon by Disraeli, in 1844, nm,st ever remain upon record as one of the most surprising in cidents in the annals of the British Parliament. - The missiles hurled by the - assailant; with an aim that seldom, if ever, missed, were each as slight apparently, but as potent as a pebble. of the Terebinthine valley. A deadly irony, - a barbed sarcasm, a withering ridicule —hero the stab of a sneer,--here the thrust of a taunt,--here the blow of an imputation. In a single sentence Disraeli sometimes struck to the right and to the left, at the domineering leader of the Commons, Sir Robert Peel, and at the despotic leader of the Lords, the Duke of Wellington. Another place,' he exclaiined bitterly, in the parliameuttny phrase signifying the House of Peers—' another place may be drilled into a guard-room, and the House of Commons may be degraded into a vestry.' The principal, almost the exclusive object upon which, with a view to its demolition, he plied all the keen and polished weapons of his satirical armoury, session after session, was the overshadowing reputation of the one dominant statesman on the Treasury bench in the popular assembly, one until then unassailed, and by many deemed unassailable. Several of the gibes then directed against Sir Robert are as famous, as r idiculous, as laughter - moving a s a caricature by Gillrav or by Rowlandson. The right hon. gentleman h;td caught the Whigs bathing, and had rum away with their clothes.' The great Minister's solemn array of argu ments he coolly degraded into so many fallacies based upon teakettle precedents.' Peel himself was flagrantly dubbed great Parliamentary middleman.' It was impossible even for his devoted partisans and personal adherents to listen and preserve a grave , countenance. One while Sir R o b er t was earnestly recommended, by the implacable and relentless to stick to quotation ; because,' said the a r c h foe, ' he (the Premier) never quoted any passage that had not previously received the mead of Parliamentary approbation. Another time the house was entreated to dethrope a dynasty of deception, by putting an end to this intolerlble yoke of official despotism and Parliamentary imposture.' The speeches of Sir Robert Peel, as reported - in Hansard,' were summarily characterised as ' Dreary pages of interminable talk, lull , of predictions falsified, pledges broken, calculktions that had gone wrong, and budgets that had blown up ; and all this not relieved by a single original thought, a single generous impulse, a single happy expreision.' " The political tactics of his Government were epitomised wth a subtle and exquisite wit, as ' A system so matter of-fact, yet so fallacious—taking in everybody, though every body knew he was deceived ; a system so mechanical yet so Machiavelian, that he could hardly say what it was except a sort of humdrumhocuspocus,:in which the order of the day was moved to take in a nation INo marvel that the great Minister winced under this deadly ridicule, and at last suc cumbed. No wonder the house learnt at leng,th tei recog nise- in the ex-member for Maidstone •the most brilliant satirist and one of the most gifted and daring 'debaters within the walls of the legislature. For the acerbity of these attacks, in which every sentence had the point of gra an epim, Disraeli has magnanimously compensated since the death of his great antagonist, by a generous tri bute to his genius, expressed in the language of admiration. Yet, as Wilmot says in the comedy,— "Crul, if I were a statesman,' I'd rather, instead, Have the epitaph living—the epigram dead.' How beit, those passages in, the Political Biography of Lord George Bentinck (hereafter to be mentioned), those passages in which the character of Sir Robert Peel is discriminated, are scarcely less admirable in truth than the portions of the same work relating to the gallant-hearted and chivalrous leader of the Protectionists. If there be one peculiarity, however, more conspicuous than another in the tempera ment of the present Chancellor of the Exchequer, it is that of his possessing a generous capacity for the magnanimo us appreciation of his Parliamentary antagonists. Witness his, not merely his panegyric on Sir Robert Peel, here especially referred to, but his noble euloo ' ium on Lord Pal ; merston in one of the chapters of 'Tancred; and his graceful but earnest encomium on Mr. Hume in the earlier pages of his latest composition." Atter giving these passages, it is hardly necessary to comment upon the merits of Mark Rochester 's style. Its graphic powers have been abundantly evidenced in the above quotations, yet we might add to the list with no unsparing hand. Here, for t y example, is a specimen of the humour that not unfrequently enlivens a description, and an evi• dente, moreover, of the shrewd sense that cha racterises Mr. Rochester's political predilectione3:-- THIS TREE OF LIBERTY. " Any one who will call to mind, vividly, the earlier in cidents of the French revolution—the revolution, we mean, not of 1789, nor yet of 1830, but that of 1848—the tumults of neither October, nor of July, but those of FebruarYt when the hero of the hour, in place of Camille Desmoul ins the crack-brained, or of Armand Carrel the transcendental , was another and a far more glorious and chivalric dreamer of dreams, Alphonse de Lamartine--may remember a cer tain queer, little, fantastic ceremonial that was then for some time a matter of rather frequent recurrence. This was nothing more than the planting *l' a small shrub, generally a sapling of the most hopeless -delicacy of consti tution, somewhere in the middle of a place, or on one of the quays of the Seine, or at the crossing of two of the great boulevards. Had our dear old friend Mr. Evelyn , been among the number of our own contemporaries, in stead of living as he did in the days of the dismal Puritans and the Merry Monarch, he must infallibly, if only as the author of Sylva.' have very carefully (after the fashion of Captain Cuttle) made a note of it in: his diary, whenever he came across one of those extraordinary exhibitions of popular zeal in the cultivation of the science of horticulture. It was so mystical a proceeding from first to last ; se noisy and yet so dull, and, to a stranger who knew nothing at all about its inner meaninv, so utterly incom" prehensible. " A multitude of citizens took part in each performance , either actively or as spectators, all of them in a high state of excitement, most of them joining in the choral refrain of the Marseillaise. There were dances about the tree when it was planted ; civic processions marched four abreast round it as though it had been some triumphal monument ; its branches fluttered with tri-coloured streamers, were hung with wreatbs of immortelles, were lit up, as evening closed in, with a plentiful sprinkling des tampions, the little oil globules familiar to the frequenters of Vauxhall. Yet the next morning, and for many days afterwards, th ere stood the poor little sapling in the midst of an universal solitude ; an object of momentary curiosity, perhaps, every now, and then, to some vagrant dog; an occasional standing - p oint for the cocoa-seller, where he pitched his little tin temple and clattered his little tin bell to allure the more thirsty of the foot passengers. There it stood, the miserable shadow of its recent splendour, shivering and withering, draggled and woe-begone, looking for all the world like something as nearly as possible midway between the spectral shade of a Christmas tree and the ghost of a Maypole. "It was the Tree of Liberty. More than that, it was a standing evidence that trees of liberty are not to be transplanted. " One we ourselves have also, here in E n g land ; it i* the old British oak-tree, the growth, not of a night, but of centuries—nourished with the dews of perpetual Reforrai, flourishing in the free air and light of -Liberalism, rooted, wide and deep, in the stubborn and primeval soil of Con t As Sir Walter Scott sings of the Highlae a pine, through the lips of the boatmen of Roderick Phu ;--"' 'Mooed in the rifted rock, Proof to the tempest's shock, Firmer he roots him the ruder it blow : Heaven send it happy dew, Earth lend it sap anew, • Gaily to burgeon and broadly to grow.' His the stalwart produce of ages, growing with the growth , and strengthening with the strength of generation afte r generation ;;scarred here and there, it is true, by the stor ms that have passed over it, shaken by the thunder, seared bY the lightning, but loftier and grander, and more vigorous through all the lapse of time, through each suc cesoive catastrophe, through every variety of vicissitude. mo d, under the blessing of Heaven, for the one reason alrese7 particularized—because, while bkthed all this while in the light and air of Liberty, it has been rooted continually f among the iron and diedal granite of that stubborn soil 0, Conservatisni. Striking fresh roots abroad now au' then, as occasion seemed to require, asunderrots the rocky obstructions they penetrated, and taking a yet firmer grip than ever of their ample and solid foundations." Here again is another out of the multitude of curious facts, that startle the reader into surprised attention:— THE THREE SIR ROBERTS. " Colleagues of a self-made statesman like Mr. Disraeli; there are seated together in this distinguished Cabinet, Fe l: ticipating in the guidance of the destinies of t he Bntist, empire, a CeciVa Walpole, and a Peel—respresentatives the races of the, three great Sir Roberts who, each in turn' at different epochs in our history, were pre-eminent araonfc the chiefs, either of the Opposition or of th e Government, under three illustrious female sovereigns. A brother oft late ( - and great) Sir Robert Peel--a collateral relative dal° famous Sir Robert Walpole-:the seventh in direct succes' sion from the celebrated Sir Robert Cecil, first Earl of Salisbury,himself a younger con of the yet more celebrated Sir William Cecil, better known in our annals as Lord - Bufghley the Lord High Treasurer—carry us back , bl the mere force of association, , from the days of our own gracious sovereign, through the, later years of Anne, to the chivalrous age of our great Eliiabeth. But we must refer our readers for further infor' mation to - the book itself., They will there find 9- 11 amazing store of inksmation, illustrated with 1 01 abundance of anecdotes, and interspersed with Many a judicious comment. We are glad to fina Mark Rochester, with all his •interest in the Mini' stry, is a true Reformer. Gladly would we be . lieve he is speaking as the mouthpiece of the o° - ternment, when he details to us his comprehensW and. liberal measures of Reform _for the coming session. Time will prove, Among "the conjecture' as to,the real authorship of this well-timed Pu b " lication—for Mark Rochester is evidently a pseudo' nym—the Morning Herald fixes it upon an hon' and learned member of the Legislature, famou s as A contributor to Blackwood's Magazine. • THE NAVY. •• • • • The:Stanch, &jihad, and Hope, having shipped large quantity of war stores at Chatham, have take n , their departure fromthat port for the various nava' establishments. Lord Lovaine, M.P., the lay Lord of the Board o f Admiralty, visited Portsmouth Dockyard O n Saturday. -Her Majesty's crew 'frigate _Curacoa, 31, CuP S " Thomas `H. Mason, arrived at -Spithead on Sat° . day from the Mediterranean. • • - The screw steam sloop Racer, 11, Commander I'. A. Pakenham, from Gibraltar 7th inst., arrived 111 1:1Tmcynth Fridriy 'inc.l weather railed until To ssdwy, . - ?t - hen :the esperieneed a ve,Q, heart r.to solith-st the ~ , i ltrance to tn . Clatiiha. She left at Gib sitar the.Curacoa, tl' e o Vulture, and the Lapwing. The Curacoa ,was t 4 leave for England on :the 9th. The Racer ordered to Gibraltar in consequence of the a.ssao" nation of the British Consul at Tetuan. -The screw steam ship lksperate, 8, Commander R. G. Craigic, from Malta Nov. 24 and Gibralto on the 6th inst., arrived at Plymouth Sound on Fri" day afternoon. She left at Malta the Marlborough , Hibernia, Conqueror, Princess Royal, Centuriool Recruit, Osprey, Coquette, Boxer, and the Unit States' steam frigate Wabash. She passed the O r raeoa on Friday, at 10 a.m - ., in the. Channel. - Steam was got up on Friday on board the WI sell, 60, Captain Henry A. Storey, in Hamoaze, her departure for Falmouth was deferred by instr uct ° tions froux Fort-Admiral Sir B. lleynoicig. 111 4 command of her tender, the gun-boat Hind, lit' n been transferred front Lieut. Win. Hambly to Lieut. Francis Osburn. The screw steam-frigate Liffey, 51, Capt. G. 18'. le Preedy, C. 8.. steamed from Hamoazo outside t. l Breakwater on Friday, and then returned to iv niouth Sound, whole she saluted the flag of th s Comma!) der-in-Chief. In March next, the Royal Adelaide, 104, is to l l made guard-ship of ordinary, in place of the lt o : 0 „ William, 120, which is to be fitted for the recept l°- of a screw propeller. It is reported at Plymouth that the Channel tic c d will remain during Christmas at Queenstown , then repair to Lisbon. to he President' of the United States has s ent Mr. John Gill, master mariner, of Plymoutb! c . handsome medal, in remembrance of his prta,;e• worthy conduct in April, 1854, in rescuing durlierit a storm in the Atlantic, 74 passengers, men, woi''.);, and children, from the dismasted ship Black 11 0 0 , of New York from Liverpool, with 730 passengeL4, the remainder of whom were saved by other res se o On 'Friday,. evening the gunboat Leveret, To Woolwich (tender to the Arrogant), Lieute na Lr command Annesley,,T. Denham, put into Sw - of ness, in consequence of the sudden indispositi o , ll o o, Lieutenant Denham. On Saturdayinorning, I ' l oo Denham having obtained medical a tt e ndaneeolie° was getting ready to proceed out of harbour, 1 %, 0 0 the new screw steam-frigate Forte, which 0 0 being towed down to the basin buoy by the st7ercs tug-vessels African and Monkey, fouled the Le' e tlo while she was at her moorings, sprung the Levc i l ,., foremast, and did other damage. The F°r l : ordered to be docked, and the LeYeret rerattill'oe Sheerness to have the 'damage done to her by Forte repaired. bee i l The Cossack, 20 guns, screw corvette, has e beat completed for the third-class steam reservSheerness. • The gunboat Ruby (tender to the CortiO j a oe Lieutenant in command Robert J. Stoth er - .Saturday last got on shore on Grain - spit ,ne _.. '" gh Round Tower,-where she was left by the tide. and dry. 1 Q distri, be en trad e , wools had ax( 2 r a Price; to 10 , stead: Shan• culla an i 98i are anxi itia inenl th e d 4 ;p clip the The Ind Tru sho• dee] trie Ban 3 p e INT(4N Lon Ind Intl Diti Con Ex,