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

11."(\; 'kL El GLISII OPERA, COVENT suspended works upon the different railways had ,111. DEN, ui tder the sole Manag•e i ment of Miss Louisa been resumed," adding, " that it was fair to con !a..trurcisoetit;in'ttivitztr•ceaw,reiclespstvii,tri.la-; Fyne and 31r.. W. I elude they would now be pushed forward formed that this nest _!_. for the first ENGLIE ,H presented an en'tire'ly new and originstl - with vigour" under the auspices of the re or- 20, when wi,lll-)A p o: 4lfZ s e l n i titled SATANELLA ; or, TIM Opera. by 3tr. NS . 7 A ganised Government. Speaking of the :railways POWER OF 01 L c ° 2 . , Itt . ctor—Mr. Alfred Mellon. A ft er which the 14 ational Anthem. i &e., now advancing t o w ar d s com pl e ti on i n th e Commence at Seven, Southern Hemisphere, the Report gives the most 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 Hobson'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 least of 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 nounced by the report as "now in progress," and the site selected for the terminus is especially com 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 Ry.."4.:,..nin. Sr —l ' - '" linv;n" 1 "" " I. "'n recovered 1 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 1 electric telegraphs. ROYAL PRINCESS'S THEATRE, Under th e Management of Mr. Charles Kean. TIIIS HVENIN a 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-171111El: NEXT BIRTHDAY. THEATF.,E-ROYAL, HAYMARKET. Lessee, Mr. J. B. Buekstone. EVEYING will be performed a new Comedy, T 'IF. TI DE. OF TIME. Messrs. Buekstone, Chippendale &e. ; Mesdaracss Reynolds and Poynter. A new Spanish Ballet, THE INFLUENCE OF GRACE. in which 1-r ea Nena will appear. THE TODDLES. Sir Wm. Don, Bart. And A DAZGHTER TO MARRY. Commence at 7. I tOYA L LYCEUM THEATRE.I nager, Mr. Edmund Falconer, Will be Opened fa" the season on CHRISTMAS EVE, Fri day, Dec. 21, wheu yin be produced a new Burlesque, written expressly for the Lyceum Company by Robert B. Brough, and entitled THE SJEGE OF TROY. The new and gor geous scenery by Mr, William Callcott. The principal cha racters by Mrs. Keele , y, Miss Julia St. George, Mrs. Weston, Miss Portman, Miss T. ilbot, Miss Kate Saxon, Miss E. Romer, Sze. ; Mr. Emery, Mr. Charles Young, Mr. Ellerton, Mr. .1. Rogsrs, Mr. Barrett, .&,c. ; Miss Rosana Wright, Miss M. Charles, Miss Harriet Dalton, and a numerous Corps de Bal let 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 ; Itarlaquin, Mr. John Lauri • Pantaloon, Mr. Henry Lauri ' • Columbine, Miss Jenny Limit The Performanees will commence on Friday, Monday, and Tuesday with the Comedietta of TOO MUCH FOR GOOD NA.TU RE. A Morning Performance of the Burlesque and Pantomime on iroxing-day, to commence at two o'elocky precisel ; doors open ~at half-past one. Recta ced Prices—Dress Boxes, 4s. ; Upper. Boxes, 3s. ; Pit, 2s. ; Sta. Us, 55.% Gallery,, ls. Box-cA%ce open from Di to 5 daily. Doors open at half-past 6, to cox imence at 7 every evening. ROY AL STRAND THEATRE. L essee and Directress, Miss Swanborough. THIS Ei 'ENISG, THE RULE OF THREE. After which THE MAID AND THE MAGPIE. THE LII'I'LE SAVAGE. And THE . .00NNIE FISII WIFE. Commence at 7 o'clock. ASTLEY'S ROYAL AMPHITHEATRE, Westminster-road. Solo LessCe Mr. William Cooke. THIS EVENING, and four following nights, the great Eastern Spectacle of THE REVOLT IN INDIA ; or, The Fugitives and their Polthful 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 Xing of the Pumpkins, unprece dented for comicality and splendour. Dress Circle, 3s. ; Boxes, 2s. ; Pit, is, ; Galleries, 6d. Stage Manager, Mr. R. Phillips. CANTERBURY HALL, Westminster-road.— Proprietor -C. MORTON. The public is most respectfully informed that the Fort ARTS GALwasy, in connection with 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 Pietism's, 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 Music 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 E7,I9'ERTAINMENT commences as usual at Seven o'clock. In addition to the lima' 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.-SUN 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. Wilzß, S.W. ; light, with fine sunshiny weather—rain in the evening. Heavy rain in the night. Dec. 20. 51- --highest since noon yesterday. 41-1 owest this morning and during the night. 46—ads day at noon. BAROMETER-29.66---rising. •tt'.~sn Sm , th-Wpatorly • 1;04,+ " 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 politicans 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. Tho Whigs arc out of office ; but they are doubly fettered : they want to get into office, and they dare not make 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, at 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 Whig 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 seri ously in advance of Lord JOHN RUSSELL'S last rating suffrages, according to the plan on which the rate-book is made up. When we turn to the painphlet adverted to, from which we had expected some special help on the question—how we are to extend the suffrage--we find, on the contrary, an answer only to the ques tion—How shall we divide those who possess the franchise ?—that le, 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 geed in the county as in the borough ? 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 coun 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 se'Ven members. This would require that Lancashire should have tea such divisips, Middlesex and York, nine, returning five or sii anembers each ; while Northampton and Rutland, Cumberland and Westmoreland, must be •.• , '....*: - -I, , 44,- . - . c • ''• *4•"•rip t t• r - "......-:, "..•'.'4 :' - ......1,:--, '. ' . ••:-. .. ' - 11 /1 / 40 - - - .0 '244,,;,./ jr. ,l , + ~ , :,7,4- . F • A v ... ~ ,,e . .7,1„..14..r . . - 5!, - 11 C. ' iy4L-e.1..,-.?,'• • i,, ,___4ll,ll ,',••••le.lt - •' .-4,,,, ,, 4414 .• • . 1, ,,, , . " . 4,,woubi.• . n''. • ;,. v.,-,... ,- ',-,•• -, • -... _ , .., ' 'I- , •_ THE SUN. MONDAY. DECEMBER 20, 1858. 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 several particulars more than usually satisfactory. The annual test to which allusion is here made is, of course, no other than the Report of the Council 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 proportion of the professional engagements leading our more eminent engineers into foreign countries, and into British Colonial possessions. It is never theless curious, 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 railway 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 realisation. 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 continuously 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 Russia, 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 Mediterranean. The Victor Emmanuel line having in the meantime been completed to the foot of the mountains, and the Cyclopean labour of tunnelling the Alps actually commenced. So that the engi neers, combining scientifically the achievements of HANNIBAL and NAPOLEON, appear to be bent at once upon " turning the Alps" and cutting their 'ay through them—employing pick and shovel, in li eu of vinegar, in the latter herculean enterprise. tinent. E 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 lusititution 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 the earth, even at our very antipodes. Referring to the rail roads in llindostan, the report says, as encou ragingly as sententiously, that—" In India the THE SUN, LONDON, MONDAY EVENING, DECEMBER 20, 1838 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 ins. 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, his physician, D r . Di xon , an d t h e accompanied by 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 court cot tume, and the ladies in court dresses. The Grand Duke Constantinelßft Nive on ThArs 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 noon, 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 than nine times, and that its superficies, which was scarcely 40 acres in the time of Julius Caesar, 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 inivelitants and that the Govern ment is by that very circumstance warned that the time has arrived to provide more ample accom modation for the constantly increasing influx of settlers from the departments. BOURSE, 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- Her varied from 987 f. 50c. to 980 f . .; 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 : 4f per Cents. 96 75 Do. end montk -- -- 3 per Cents 73 10 Do. end month 73 20 Bank Shares Credit Mobilier Do. Account 97i Credit Foncier 62 50 Belgian 4i — Piedmontese (5) Roman 93 Austrian Spanish Threes Home Debt 43 50 RAILWAYS. Cash. Account. Orleans Northern . lOO5 • . 10 02 50 New ditto 845 .845 Lyons and Mediterranean...:• • • 880 ' 881 25 New ditto Geneva 620 " .. 622 50 Midi — -- Southern Western 607 50 .. 60.5 Eastern ' 695 697 50 Grand Central — Sardinian .. Austrian ° Exchanr , e on London, at sight, pap er , 25f. 121 c. ; money, 25f. 10c. ; three months, paper, 244. 971 c. ; money, 24f. 95c. His united to make up the requisite number. second proposal, and, as he deems it, the mos important, is that each voter should vote for bu me member. His chief reason for these suggestions, especially the latter, is, that " a House of Commons so 'con stituted must of necessity completely and thoroughly represent the nation which elected it." We fail, 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 ,uppose 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 thi; plan of 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, tin-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, in 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 bnsiness 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 themselves 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 Basing 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 Sage Weimar. An extra special train arrived at Windsor at half past two o 111/111 uospurt, vira l the luggage, horses, 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 Malmesburn who arrived in town on Saturday, from visiting the Earl and Countess of Hard wicke, at Wimpole, and the Marquis and Marchioness of Salisbury, at Hatfield, left Whitehall-gardens in the even ing to join the Countess of Malmesbury 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. ridge's Hotel, for Sermicotts, near Chichester. Lord and Lady Olivia Ossulston have left Cla ridge's Hotel, for ChiHingham Castle, near Alnwick. Lord and Lady Worsley are at present in Rome, Count and Countess de Flahault 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 a few days since from Drayton Manor, Staffordshire, and intend to go to Nice until the meeting •f Parliament. Sir John and Lady 'Shelley have returned to Maresfield Park from a tower of visits. Mr. Alison, attache to her Majesty's Embassy a tie Ottoman Porte, has arrived at the Brunswick 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 Reeves, and Signor Radia. Mdlle. Victoire Balfe, the daughter of the most popular of English composers, is engaged at the San Carl• at Naples, as prima 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 on the 27th of this month. Rumour asserts that Miss Amy Sedgwick will probably succeed Mr. Charles Kean as the lessee of the . Princess's Theatre. In the meanwhile, itis understood that she will appear at the Haymarket shortly after Christ mas, in a new comedy by Mr. J. Palgrave 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 Atheneum) till the glass box for the reception of this and other expected antiquities from the East and Carthage is completed, and the noble front of the 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 and sup port to a movement which was making great—and he hoped its friends 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. Ini pr2ssed with 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 con derable extent in the borough of Ipswich, (Applause.) PRUSSIA. The Minister of the Interior in Prussia has 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 w ithdrawing, without the intervention of a court of law, the licences granted to printers of newspapers, without which they dare not print anything. The circular in question makes known that the Government pro poses to have the matter regated 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 th e 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 the 4th, b u t was somehow not missed till several days later. The persons in custody are a, ser van t o f th e pa l ace, aged and a s ilversmith, a man o f 68, father of a family ; bad character, who has been before convicted. RUSSIA. The following letter has been received from Warsaly, dated December 12 :—" I have before m e 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 for the Imperial sanction. Contrary to what exists in Russia, the persons of the Polish peasants are free; 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 come by an acreable rent. The following is a sketch of the plan proposed by the committee. The corvee will be replaced by a leasegranted, by the.proprietor to the peasant, the latter payin g a reserved rent for his land. The contract is not revocable by either of the con tracting parties. Until a lease is accepted by the peasant for the land he cultivates he will be sub ject to the corvee 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 selling or 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. The tenant cannot acquire any other land without the consent of 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 dumber 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. CO CHIN 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 Siameseand the Annamites, 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, who 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 delighted at possessing such rare objects, and gave us a very friendly reception. He shook us by the 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 through one of the man darins. When the king entered the reception-room or rather into the shed which was used for that purpose, every one threw themselves flat on the ground ; 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 not 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 was 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 college in 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 peas to the fund•for general purposes. Much more, • indeed, Ras apukcii of as th e probable result of his ' great wealth and charitable disposition; but to , the land, hall, and mon e y only wae ho di.tlnetly ) pledged. There were two conditions annexed to his offer, viz., that the public meeting should give evidence of a desire to provide homes for worn-out members of the theatrical profession, and elect four trustees to receive a conveyance of the land; this done, the laud was to be con veyed immediately and unconditionally. The meeting responded 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 have 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 provisional com mittee declined to accct as a performance of the promise made by Mr. Dodd ; and subsequently several other drafts containing conditions equally numerous and equally absurd, were received. At length the executive committee, digusted with this paltering, called a special meeting, to lav the facts before it. Mr. Macphail attended, and made the same speech he had delivered at several previous meetings, but convinced no body that he had spoke to the purpose. The result of the special meeting was a call upon Mr. Dodd to complete an unqualified conveyance of the land on or before Tuesday, the 14th inst., and an 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 aid or 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 Saturday, 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 but himself. In consequence of Mr. Dodd's default several other 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.”— Observer. LOG OF THE PRINCE 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 ; north-west. " 6.—Cour se' N. 67 E. ; 74 miles ; lat. 40 45, long 68 ; barometer, 30.3; thermometer, 51—moderate and fine. " 62 3.5 E. ; 2711 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 ; barometer, 29.80; thermometer, 47. " 9.—At 4 45 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 mile,s: 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. 51 53, 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.-- I N. 87 E. ; 263 miles ; lat. 52 56, long. 11 57 ; ba rometer, 29.7 ; thermometer, 50.—At 4 p.m., sounded in GO fathoms sand ; at 5 p.m. stopped ; sounded in 55 fathoms, light bearing S.S.E. ; lay to for tho night. " Sun obscure during the entire passage; strong wind from the W,N,W." THE NEW POLITICAL WORK. The Derby. Ministry t A Series qf Cabinet Pie lutes. By Mark Rochester. Routiedge 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 Aay, 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. IV 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 evidentsincerity 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 winninsly, 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 Disraeli and Bulwer—are unque3tionably 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," will have their me mories refreshed by a perusal of these pagei ; 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 Rot to the majority , of our readers. It is a hippy 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 satigfactmy 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 I 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. "Hm 1" 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 1" Saith the 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 him jealous." "A fortnight later, and the 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 are duly chro nicled. The success of The Crisis, with its frarteen editions in a fortnight,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 memo rable witticisms that adorned them, and the cruel sarcasm thatenvenomed them, arc the theme of per haps the happiest pages in the volume. With what admirable discrimination are those witticisms selected, and with what a cunning dexterity are they strung together by the friendly hand of the skilful biographer. mn. DISRAELI AND SIR ROBERT PEEL "During the course of the year in which 'Coningsby' made its brilliant appearance, the author of Coningsby' began those audacious attacks upon Sir Robert Peel, which may be certainly said to have prepared the way for his ultimate downfall from 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 m os t p rac ti se d among living debaters, one whose perfect mastery of all the arts of discussion 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, must 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,—here the stab of a sneer,—here tho 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 exclaimed bitterly, in the parliameutark 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 ridiculous, as laughter-moving as a caricature by Gillray or'by Rowlandson. ' The right hon. gentleman had caught the Whigs bathing, and had run 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 a great Parliamentary middleman.' It was impossible even for his devoted partisans and personal adherents to listen and preserve a grave countenance. One while Sir Robert was earnestly recommended, by the implacable and relentless wit, to stick to quotation; because,' said the arch foe, he (the Premier) never q uo t e d any passage that had not previously received the meed of Parliamentary approbation.' Another time, the house was entreated to dethrone a dynasty of deception, by putting an end to this intolerable yoke of official despotism and Parliamentary imposture.' The speeches of Sir Robert Peel, as reported in Hansard,' were sum mar il y characterised as Dreary pages of interminable talk, full of predictions falsified, pledges broken, calculations that had gone wrong, and budgets that had blown up i and all this not relieved by a single original thought, a single generous impulse, a single happy expression.' " 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 !' No marvel that the great Minister winced under this deadly ridicule, and at last suc cumbed. No wonder the house learnt at length to 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, hi every sentence had the point o f an epigram, Disraeli has magnanimously compensated since the death of his great antagonist, by a generous tri bute to his 0 - nil" expressed in the language of admiration. Yet; as Wilmot says iti tho comedy,— "Gad, if t Were a `statesman,' I'd rather, instead, Have the epitaph living—the epigram dead.' Howbeit, those passages. in the Political Biography of Lord George Bentinck (hereafter to be mentioned), those passaged 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 peculiaritYt 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 magnanimous appreciation of his Parliamentary antagonists. Witnes 4 taus, not merely his panegyric on Sir Robert Peel, here especially referred to, but his noble eulogium 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." - 7 A.ner giving these passages, it is hardly necessary to comment upon the merits of Mark Rochester '• 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 example, is a specimen of the humour that not unfrequently enlivens a description, and an evi dence, moreover, of the shrewd sense that cha racterises Mr. Rochester's political predilections:-- THE 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 tumul ts of neither October, nor of July, but those of February , when the hero of the hour, in place of Camille Desmouliu 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 of 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 ; so noisy and yet so . dull, and, to a stranger who knew nothing at all about its inner, meaning, 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 theta 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 wreaths of immortelles , were lit up, as evening close d in ; with a plentiful sprinkling des lampions; the little oil globules familiar to the frequenters of Vauxhall. Yet the next morning, and for many days afterwards, there 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-point 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, hese in, England ; it is the old British oak-tree, the growth, not of a night, but of centuries—nourished with the dews of perpetual Reform, flourishing in the free air and light of Liberalism,rootedt wide and deep, in the stubborn and primeval soil of Con servatism. As Sir Walter Scott sings of. the. Highland pine, through the lips of the boatmen of Roderick Dhu '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.' It is the stalwart produce of ages, growing with the growthand strengthening with the strength of generation after generation; scarred here and there, it is true, by the stows . 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 successive catastrophe, through every variety of vicissitude. And, under the blessing of Heaven. for the one reason already particularized—because, while bathed all this while in the light and air of Liberty, it has been rooted continuallY among the iron and da3dal granite of that stubborn soil Of Conservatism. Striking fresh roots abroad every now and then as ocoasionseemed to require, roots riving asunderthe 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, par ticipating in the guidance of the destinies of the British: empire, a Cecil, a Walpole, and a Peel—respresentatives of the races of the three great Sir Roberts who, each in turn, at different epochs in our history, were pre-eminent among the chiefs, either of the Opposition or of the Government, under three illustrious female sovereigns. A brother ofthe late (and great) Sir Robert Peel—a collateral relative of the famous Sir Robert Walpole—the seventh in direct succes sion from the celebrated Sir Robert Cecil, first Earl of Salisbury, himself a younger son of the yet more celebrated Sir William Cecil, better known in our annals as Lord Burghley, the Lord High Treasurer—carry us back, by the mere force of association, from the days of our own gradious sovereign, through the later years of Anne, to the chivalrous age of our great Elizabeth.' But.we must refer our readers for further infor mation to the book itself. They will there find an amazing store of infcrination, illustrated with an abundance of anecdotes, and interspersed with many, a judicious comment. We are glad to find 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 Go vernment, when he details to us his comprehensive and liberal measures of Reform for the coming session. Time will prove. Among the conjectures as to the real authorship of this well-timed pub lication—for Mark Rochester is evidently a pseudo nym—the Morning Herald fixes it upon an hon• and learned member of the Legislature, famous as contributor to Blackwood'e Magazine. THE NAVY. The Stanch, Sinbad, and Hope, having shipped s large quantity of war stores at Chatham, have taken their departure from that port for the various naval establishments. Lord Lovaine, M.P., the lay Lord of the Board of Admiralty, visited Portsmouth Dockyard on Saturday. Her Majesty's screw frigate Curacoa, 31, Capt. Thomas H. Mason, arrived at Spithead on Satur day from the Mediterranean. The screw steam sloop Racer, 11, Commander T. A. Pakenham, from Gibraltar 7th inst., arrived in Plymouth Sound on Friday. Fine weather pre vailed until Tuesday, when she experienced a very heavy gale from south-east in the entrance to the Channel. She left at Gibraltar the Curacoa, the Vulture, and the Lapwing. The Curacoa was to leave for England on the 9th. The Racer was ordered to Gibraltar in consequence of the assassi nation of the British Consul at Tetuan. The screw steam ship De'sperate, 8, Commander R. G. Craigie, from Malta Nov. 24 and Gibraltar on the 6th inst., arrived at Plymouth Sound on Fri day afternoon. She left at Malta the Marlborough, Hibernia, Conqueror, Princess Royal, Centurion, Recruit, Osprey, Coquette, Boxer, and the United States' steam frigate Wabash. She passed the 'Cu racoa on Friday, at 10 a.m., in the Channel. Steam was got up on Friday on board the Rue' sell, 60, Captain Henry A. Storey, in Hamoaze, but her departure for Falmouth was deferred by instruo' tions from Port-Admiral Sir B. Reynolds. The command of her tender, the gun-boat Hind, has been transferred from Lieut. Wm. Hambly to Lieut. Francis Osburn. The screw steam-frigate Liffey, 51, Capt. U. W. Preedy, C.B, steamed from Hamoaze outside the Breakwater on Friday t .and then returned to Ply mouth Sound, where she saluted the flag of the Commander-in-Chief. In March next, the Royal Adelaide, 104, is tube made guard-ship of ordinary, in place of the Royal William, 120, which is to be fitted for the reception of a screw propeller. It is reported at Plymouth that the Channel fleet will remain during Christmas at Queenstown, and then repair to Lisbon. The President of the United States has sent to Mr. John Gill, master mariner, of Plymouth, $ handsome medal, in remembrance of his praise worthy conduct in April, 1854, in rescuing during a storm in the Atlantic, 74 passengers, men, women, and children, from the dismasted ship Black Hawk, of New York from Liverpool, with 730 passengers, the remainder of whom were saved by other vessels. On Friday evening the gunboat Leveret, from Woolwich (tender to the Arrogant), Lieutenant in command Annesley T. Denham, put into Sheer ness, in consequence of the sudden indisposition of Lieutenant Denham. On Saturday morning, Lieut. Denham having obtained medical attendance, she was getting ready to proceed out of harbour, when the new screw steam-frigate Forte, which was being towed down to the basin buoy by the steam tug-vessels African and Monkey, fouled the Leveret while she was at her moorings, sprung the Leveret's foremast, and did other damage. The Forte 1 0 ordered to be docked, and the Leveret remains at Sheerness to have the damage done to her by the Forte repaired. The Cossack, 20 guns, screw corvette, has been completed for the third-class steam reserve at Sheerness. The gunboat Ruby (tender to the Cornwallis) , Lieutenant in command Robert J. Stotherd, on Saturday last got on shore on Grain-spit, near the Round Tower, where she was left by the tide hig h and dry. 11/ 1 aver; Pie( to lc stead chap in tb are r Terre mere J anu b e f, C'aPit On 41 th Th 4 dun of l ml lation villta: an is °6-1 are t bein g to 39 and I Poi kost \Je lls the , 1 411Xio tt le kept th e I dig vi-ere J o sho w trio t b RII 3ank u p er indi a Ditto Chiii, Dii ,Oren P D, till reru Di vs Alum Dl. Sa n: Spaa, - Di. Turf Di Di Di bat( Di Lea; fad COu Cre /‘el Itle: 7fre Mai Ili: tir e fro: