NARRATIVE OF LITERATURE AND ART. His THE opening of the new year has been signalised by a discussion (arising out of the death of Mr. Tytlex the historian) which illustrates the position of literature in England with relation to the State. pension falls, and is not renewable; the State having compromised all such claims upon it, fifteen years ago, by that new and magnificent arrangement of the Civil List which secured the yearly disposal of twelve hundred a-year, as its total and entire recognition of all such services. But even this superb economy does not satisfy everybody. It has given opportunity to an ardent enemy of protection (a convert, and over zealous, as converts generally are) to protest that all protection, by way of pensions or otherwise, is as mischievous in literature as in commerce, and that the let-alone system is best for both. In other words, that the Government of a country, which is encouraged on all occasions to recognise services done to the State by professors of arms, law, divinity, and diplomacy, should be forbidden to acknowledge, in any manner, services done to the State by distinguished efforts in art, literature, and science. It is highly fitting and appropriate that the Mr. Jenkins who proposes this should have taken the same occasion of contrasting professional "authors of the middling and lower order," as a public nuisance, with cravings "after literary fame in men of rank and fortune," as a symptom of social progress. The real truth is that, manifold as are the shortcomings of our Government in questions not directly affecting the markets or prices current, it labours under no opprobrium so great as its exaggerated appreciation of the military services, and its neglect of great scientific, literary, and moral services. The most common of the abilities are the most rewarded, while the most rare benefactors of the human race are left to such nobility as they can bestow upon themselves. No rank was conferred on Jenner; and the highest rank assignable by custom to the most exalted literary genius, is the honour of a baronetcy. We take nothing to do from a parcel of sinecure clerks in Chancery, and compensate them with tens of thousands a year. But so abundant and dog-cheap are worthy labourers in literature, or so few and easily rewarded, that an annual pension-fund to the amount of twelve hundred pounds satisfies them all; to say nothing of royal writingmasters, dancing-masters, and retired coachmen, flung into the same list! How long-how long? The publications of the first month of the new year have been more than ordinarily numerous, but of comparatively trifling importance. To a great extent, they have been reprints of new editions, or of books originally published in America. Mr. Murray has thus reissued the leading works of Washington Irving, with some new biographies, in the library form which they had lately received from a New York publisher; Mr. Bentley has reprinted some volumes of travels and geographical science; and Mr. John Chapman has published a new work by Emerson on Representative Men. But decidedly the most welcome and valuable of our literary visitors from the other side of the Atlantic has been Mr. Ticknor's History of Spanish Literature. The author of this book was well known to Southey, and, as well in his love for Spanish and Portuguese literature, as in the character of his mind and tastes, bears some resemblance to our distinguished countryman. His style is not so well knit, but it is ample and forcible; and in this book, which appears to have been the labour of a life, a want is supplied which scholars and men of letters have heretofore distinctly felt. The subject is taken in three periods: the first conducting the language and literature from their origin to the end of Ferdinand and Isabella; the second, descriptive of the course and fate of Spanish literature under the house of Austria; and the third, of its destinies under the Bourbons. Under these divisions, there are also sub-divisions of the authors treated of, into the various classes of chronicles, ballads, the drama, and so forth,-excepting always where in one great name is included an entire literary epoch, as in those of Alphonso the Wise, Cervantes, and Lope de Vega, when the works of that writer form a section in themselves. curious facts discovered by Mr. Dyce two are worth mention. The first is that the poet, who was the son of a shoemaker at Canterbury, received his education at the king's school in that city; where it seems probable that by early indications of learning and genius he obtained the patronage of Chief Baron Manwood, and was thus enabled to proceed to Benet College in Cambridge, where he took his bachelor's degree when he was twenty. Mr. Dyce's second curious discovery is, that after he bad produced "blaspheming Tamburlaine" upon the boards of a London theatre, when he was four and twenty, he was enabled to take his master's degree. This would seem to indicate that a writer of stage plays at that period could hardly have seemed so contemptible a person to a University Don as he is generally supposed to have been. The other most interesting book of the month is the commencement of Southey's Life and Correspondence, by his son. A new Life of Calvin has also been published by Mr. Dyer, with information from original sources; a book upon The London Prisons, by Mr. Dixon, contains useful and curious information; and Yankee land has suggested another book of travels and of shrewd womanly observation under the title of Hesperos. In the way of fiction there is nothing worth placing upon record; but our summary may close with the mention of a tragedy on the subject of Galileo Galilei, by a writer not hitherto known in poetry, which is marked by unusual evidences of philosophic thought as well as high poetic feeling. some success. If it is a true portraiture of American fashionable society and manners, then the Americans have no reason to complain of Mrs. Trollope and other English writers as unfair caricaturists. Mrs. Mowatt, the American actress, has produced a five-act comedy at the Olympic Theatre, called Fashion, The most important English book has been a long-or Life at New York. It is well acted, and has had promised edition of Marlowe's Works, by the Rev. Alexander Dyce, with a text thoroughly revised from a comparison of the former editions, and a new life. To none of the early English dramatists was such a service so emphatically due. The modern edition it displaces is one of the worst conceivable; yet this rude great writer will always possess an interest superior (with but one exception) to the most refined of his cotemporaries or successors, because in him we find first those forms of fancy, and that intense beauty and fitness of language, which were transfused into the later poets. Excepting for this his writings would hardly have survived their general violence and extravagance; but this has made them a vital portion of English literature, and connected them with even the history of our language. Among the Mr. Mitchell has resumed his performances of French operas at the St. James's Theatre, with a good company, comprising Chollet, Nathan, Mdlle. Charton, Mdlle. Guichard, and Mdlle. Cotti. Halévy's latest work, Le Val d'Andorre, and Herold's Zampa, have been extremely well got up and performed, and received with much favour. The only musical performances are the Wednesday Concerts at Exeter Hall, where a great variety of popular music is very well performed. They consequently draw crowded houses. COMMERCIAL RECORD. BANKRUPTS. From the Gazette of Jan. 1. EDWARD BELL, Lambeth-walk, grocer.-JOSEPH FISHER, Cleeve, Somersetshire, money-scrivener.-WILLIAM PEARSON, Maryport, Cumberland, iron-founder. -ZACCHEUS STAFFORD, Nottingham, innkeeper.-JOHN WILLIAMS, Newport, Monmouthshire, auctioneer. Jan. 4. JOHN DIXON, Liverpool, grocer.-WILLIAM PAULING, Holyhead,hotel-keeper.-HENRY EDWARD TUCK, New Cavendishstreet, milliner. Jan. 8. WILLIAM BEDFORD, Fen Drayton, Cambridgeshire, farmer.-ELIAS COCKER, Manchester, cotton manufacturer.— EDWARD EFFER, Totnes, Devonshire, victualler. — EDWARD FARRAR, Guildford-street, apothecary. Jan. 11. WILLIAM CORNISH, Bristol, cabinet-maker.-WILLIAM DOBBS, Wolverhampton, Staffordshire, brassfounder.- JOHN FREEMAN, Millbank, Worcestershire, horse-dealer. — HENRY JAMES HINXMAN, Bury, Lancashire, apothecary.-JOHN MAT THEWS and JOHN MARTIN, Chichester-place, King's-cross, drapers.-JOHN HEAD, Melcombe Regis, Dorsetshire, grocer.— JOHN STUCKES, Exeter, innkeeper.-GEORGE TROTTER, Gloucester, coachmaker. Jan. 15. VINCENT COOKE, Worcester, cabinet-maker.-WILLIAM DRABBES, Askern, Yorkshire, innkeeper.-WILLIAM LEE, King's Mills-wharf, Rotherhithe, barge-builder.-JOHN MORRISH, Tiverton, Devonshire, cooper.-JOHN MICKLESTON, Jun., Shrewsbury, grocer.-JOHN CHARLES NORTH, Stamford, coal-dealer. GEORGE OLNEY, Liverpool, passenger broker. JONATHAN PAYNE, Milton-street, Dorset-square, livery stable-keeper.— BENJAMIN RAWLINGS, Queen's-row, Pimlico, linen-draper.HENRY SUTCLIFFE and JOSEPH WILLIAM HARRIS, Rochdale, cotton-spinners.-JOHN EDWARD TODHUNTER, Darlington, Durham, bookseller. Jan. 18. EDWARD BRATTAN, Northwich, Cheshire, cabinet- Mark Lane, Jan. 28. The Corn Market during the greater part of the month has been dull and depressed, and the prices both of English and foreign wheat have experienced a decline. The arrivals from the country have been very moderate, but quite sufficient to meet the small demand from the millers, whose trade has been much interfered with by the large importatious of foreign flour. The London averages last announced are as follows:Wheat, per quarter, 44s. 1d. Jan. 25. JOHANN CHRISTIAN BREMER, Mark-lane, City, mer- Barley, 278. 7d. chant.-BENJAMIN HEWITT, Burton-upon-Trent, licensed vic- Oats, 17s. 3d. tualler.-PETER MANN, Leeds, corn-factor.-GEORGE RENNIE, Beans, 268. Liverpool, merchant.-THOMAS SMURWAITE, Scarborough, York-Peas, 30s. 10d. shire, wine merchant.-JOHN WEBSTER, Southgate, Middlesex, dealer in mining shares. Jan. 29. JOHN BAKER, Cheltenham, boot and shoe manufacturer.-SAMUEL BANFILL, Edward-street, St. Marylebone, cabinet maker.-THOMAS DON, Swinton Iron Works, West Riding of Yorkshire.-TIMOTHY HARVEY, Newark-upon-Trent, Nottinghamshire, miller.-RICHARD LEACH, Newmarket, Suffolk, tailor. -JAMES HENRY MILLS, Hove, Sussex, broker.-THOMAS MAT THEW PEACOCK, Lower-marsh, Lambeth; High-street, Poplar; and Deptford, boot and shoe maker.-HENRY GEORGE RIDEOUT, Nottingham, glove manufacturer.-HENRY ROSE, Manchester and Salford, common brewer.-GEORGE FLETCHER SHARPLES, Manchester, hosier.-HENRY STRATTON, Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, trader. BANKRUPTCIES ANNULLED. Jan. 18. GEORGE TEAGLE WINTER, Brick-lane, St. Luke's, builder.-JOSEPH FOX, North-street, Bethnal-green, and Victoria-grove, Victoria-park, timber merchant.-Francis Teale, Leyton, Essex, brewer. Jan. 24. THOMAS WICKENDEN, Harp-lane, Tower-street, City, wine merchant. Bacon, per cwt. Flour, Town made, delivered, per 280 lbs., 388. to 408. "American, per barrel, of 196 lbs., 228. to 25s. PROVISIONS-LATEST WHOLESALE PRICES. Waterford Eggs, English, per 100, 8s. to 428. to 478; Limerick, 438. 10s.; French, 6s. to 8s. to 458.; American, 268. to Hams, per cwt.-York, cut and dry, 60s. to 748.; Westphalia, 62s. to 64s.; Irish, prime small, 70s. to 728. 348. Beef, per 8 lbs., mid. to prime, 2s. 10d. to 38. 4d. Butter, per cwt., Carlow, first, 728. to 848.; Waterford, 56s. Cheese, per cwt., Dutch Edam, 40s. to 46s.; Gouda Grass, GROCERY-LATEST Rice, per cwt.--Good mid. white Bengal, 11s. to 11s. 6d.; Carolina, 22s. to 26s. Mutton, per 8 lbs., mid, to prime, 3s. to 3s. 6d. Potatoes, per ton.-Yorkshire Prince Regents, 115s. to 120s.; Common Whites,60s. to 70s.; French Whites, 80s. to 90s. Pork, per 8 lbs., 2s. 8d. to 4s. 2d. Veal, per 8 lbs., 3s. to 4s. WHOLESALE PRICES. yellow, 39s. to 418. 6d.; British West India, mid., 37s. to 39s. 6d.; Mauritius brown, 30s. to 36s. 6d.; Grocery lumps, 50s. to 52s. Tea, per lb. (duty 2s. 1d.),Congou, 18. 2d. to 18. 4d.; Com. Congou, 10 d. to 103d.; Canton young Hyson, Sid.; finer kinds, 18. 6d. to 1s. 9d THE STOCK AND SHARE MARKETS. City, Jan. 28. There has been a good deal of fluctuation in the Stock Market during the month, and the transactions during the first fortnight were on a very extensive scale. The New Year opened with Consols at 96 to for the 16th January, but the price speedily rose, marking 97 on the 4th; and notwithstanding a slight re-action which then occurred, the upward movement continued till the 9th, when Consols reached 972. After this some weakness became apparent, which was farther increased by the an- Candles, per 12 lbs., 4s. 6d. to 5s.; Coals, per ton, 16s. 9d. to 23s. nouncement of a new Russian loan for five millions and a half sterling, and on the 16th the price had fallen to 96. By the 20th it had reached 97, and again receded, and to-day is quoted 96 to 1. Of late the business has been on a very quiet scale. OILS. Pale Seal, per ton, 391. to 391. 10s. Olive, Gallipoli, 491. to 50%. Published at the Office, No. 16, Wellington Street North, Strand; and Printed by BRADBURY & EVANS, Whitefriars, London. Monthly Supplement to "HOUSEHOLD WORDS," Conducted by CHARLES DICKENS. THE Great Protectionist Gun has gone off in parliament without any effect much more notable than the bringing down of Mr. Gladstone. The aim of the thing was a motion to relieve the land of alleged peculiar burdens; and the "cunning man" thought it so modest of Mr. Disraeli to ask for protection in that way, that he voted for granting it, in order to prevent any more being asked for. To concede a part, he argued, was the way to avoid all necessity of conceding any more; which was as if old Thomas Aquinas had come back to prove to us, that the effectual way to exclude the big end of the wedge was to make no scruple of admitting the little end. Nevertheless Mr. Disraeli's modesty, though rewarded by a somewhat larger minority than usual, has not increased his popularity with his own party; which is manifestly a house divided against itself, for all purposes but those of faction. The farmers now hear one batch of their friends clamouring for protection, as a dear defunct who must be revived; while the other sensibly advertises its readiness to be content with compensation for the departed. The choice is whether they will wait for the chance of a dead spouse re-appearing, or "relieve their burdens" of grief by asking another spouse to take her place; and the public has cause to be equally on its guard against both. Its interest does not lie with the choice of either. It is not possible that the beloved of the farmers should have charms for any but themselves for though they quarrel mightily about their own interests, they never combine without a most astonishing zeal against everybody else's. Their leader in the House of Lords is now conducting a powerful opposition against equal law for Orangemen and Catholics in Ireland; and no less than eight times did their representatives, in the House of Commons, divide the other night against amendment of the Irish franchise. From the sense of labouring with injustice, when really strong and sincere, a certain sympathy with its victims of every kind would seem to be inseparable. But the cry for protection is based on no such feeling. Selfishness is the largest ingredient in it. Nor is it confined to farmers. The Bishop of London is now clamouring for protection against Mr. Gorham and the Privy Council, in precisely the spirit with which farmer Lennox cries out to be protected against Mr. Cobden and Mr. Bright. His grace is alarmed, forsooth, and feels his conscience heavily burdened, by the fact of such questions as are now in issue between Mr. Gorham and Doctor Philpotts, being referred to a lay tribunal, for whose orthodoxy there is no guarantee. What the judgment is likely to be, he knows not: but whatever it may be, the constitution of the judges forbids orthodox reliance on their wisdom. In other words, Doctor Blomfield desires to see the church of England released from the civil bonds which separate her, more than any other peculiarity in her institutions, from alliance with the Church of Rome. He will have nobody but archbishops, bishops, deans, and professors of divinity, sit in judgment upon her; and for that purpose has submitted a bill for the enactment of such a court of appeal, vice the privy council deposed, to the house of which he is a member. It is to be hoped that their lordships, mindful of the great event which gives Doctor Blomfield his seat among them, will know how to deal with it. It is in effect an attempt, very thinly veiled, to assail the doctrine of the Royal Supremacy. What the Bishop of London means by orthodoxy is evasion of the troublesome fetters of the State. It is precisely the feeling which actuates the reverend brawlers against the Government on the subject of education. One of their bigots, a Doctor of Divinity, went so far the other day at a meeting in Willis's Rooms, as to call down a curse on all who were engaged in promoting a particular branch of the system of education sanctioned by the Government Council. Three bishops (Philpotts, of course, was one), five peers, four archdeacons, and numerous dignitaries of the Church, stood upon the platform beside the reverend impre cator; but not a voice was lifted in protest or rebuke. All present were in fact committed to the same horrible doctrines. They proceed, as a matter of course, from the pretensions to infallibility now common with large sections of English churchmen, and which are in fact the origin of such proposed enactments as those of the Bishop of London. The men who hold these doctrines stigmatise as infidels all who would dispute the Church's claims to a monopoly of education. They denounce, as worse than ignorance, all education not directly emanating from the Church, and exclusively controlled by it. They carry out, in their thoughts and practice, an intolerance even more awful than the intolerance with which the great Roman satirist charges the Jews, to whom he imputes a bigotry so unfeeling, narrow, and extreme in its bitterness, that out of their own sect they would not point the way to the traveller, nor show the thirsty the desired spring. And all this is going on in a country where the proportion of children at school to the population is one in thirteen, and in which one half of the population cannot write their names! Earnest men, however, begin to see the terrible danger that threatens us in this direction, and are making strenuous efforts to avert it. Nor, it might have seemed to a stranger present in the House of Commons when Mr. Fox lately introduced the subject, are the chances of success for such efforts by any means remote. Mr. Fox asked leave to bring in a bill, giving at the same time a general view of the educational scheme intended to be embodied in it; and the mixed conciliatory and comprehensive character of this scheme seems to have come before the house so much in the nature of a surprise, that nobody upon the instant was prepared to threaten opposition. The effect was curious. Never till then had such a reception с been given to a Radical speech on Education. The Church-party did not disallow, the Minister even spoke in approval, and the advocates of secular instruction were fain to express by silence at once their hopes and their fears. But the latter have most reason to predominate, notwithstanding apparent signs to the contrary. Supposing even the cursing priests silenced and defeated, it would, we fear, be building a tower on sand to expect that all other conflicting parties in this country are prepared suddenly to unite in the assertion that differences of creed shall no longer be allowed to act as a prohihition against knowledge. Substantially this is the principle of Mr. Fox's proposal; and though, to save us all, such a principle must be carried into practice sooner or later, there is small chance of the right beginning being made, till the Government are bold enough and strong enough to take some steps in advance of the people. Who can doubt but that the religious cry, if not the religious curse, will again be raised if needful, to sustain the monstrous charge of infidelity against men whose only error (if it be one) is to think religion too vital an element in education to be marred or excluded by sectarian dispute? Such is the vicious circle in which ignorance moves, that only to a people uneducated could the arguments used to keep them so be addressed with any chance of acceptance. Secular education is described and believed to be exclusive of religion, while all its efforts are shaped to give practical force to religion. Does anyone believe that what at present passes for religious education, at Sunday-schools and the like, is deserving of the name of education at all? Does anyone doubt that in proportion as spelling is taught, religion is not taught, when the Bible is used for a spelling-book? We shall have to look these truths in the face before long, and to confess that children will not know religion less by knowing other things as well, but that the capacity of better comprehending and acting upon its truths will be strengthened by general knowledge. At present it is called encouraging infidelity to inculcate such doctrines; but in what other way could religious teaching be made universal, but by giving free scope to the efforts of every religious sect? What is now proposed to be tried would meddle with no existing plan by which, in any small or great degree, education is already extended to the people. All that it asks to do is to educate such waifs and strays as neither Churchmen nor Dissenters can draw within their several folds. Nay more, it would make religion compulsorily a part of education, simply reserving to the parent a liberty of providing the religious instructor. It would compel certificates of attendance on the instructors so appointed. It would use the official machinery already established, apply no compulsion where voluntary efforts are found to operate successfully, confirm all Government aid as at present given to rival or contending sects, and simply secure (by a local rate) what every other means may have failed to provide for the remaining portion of the people. But its merits foredoom it against all favourable fortune but such as it may derive from discussion. Free and frank discussion alone can help us in the matter. The more discussion there is, and the bolder it is, the more it will be made obvious that knowledge and religion can have no exclusive or separate interests; seeing that the knowledge which indisposes a man to religion is as likely to be false knowledge, as the religion which indisposes a man to knowledge is certainly false religion. The representative of Oxford bigotry made a serious mistake in pointing to the celebrated tenth of April as an answer to all this, and proof of a well educated people. Admitting that numbers of the working men behaved well on that occasion, what is to be said of the numberless others whose ignorance and violence made such a demonstration necessary? What is to be said of a multitude so duped and ignorant as to have pinned their political faith on such an apostle as Mr. Feargus O'Connor? It would be difficult to conceive so unanswerable an argument for the necessity of a more general system of education, than is supplied by the influence of such a person over the tens of thousands he has deceived and misled. Most opportunely occurred the case of O'Connor v. Bradshaw, for a comment on Sir Robert Inglis's remark. It has been made manifest by this case, that, by a scheme entirely illusory which was to secure small freehold tenements to working men, backed by a tissue of pretences now proved to have been utterly false, Mr. Feargus O'Connor got possession of more than a hundred thousand pounds of the hard earnings of the poor; and that by the very means which placed this money in his power, these being illegal, he was released from all subsequent accountability for it. In fact the money became absolutely his own, if it had been his pleasure so to consider it; and though, after he got it, he wrote to his "dear children" to tell them he would not rob them, his deluded and dear children have never since had any profit from their dependence on his word. The most part of seventy thousand industrious and honest, but easily gulled working men, are still trembling for their little earnings, so foolishly committed to such hands, on the faith of an amount of braggadocio quite incredible and monstrous. "I say that there never was such a day for England and the world," he wrote to these unhappy men, on the eve of opening one of the land company's settlements, "as the first of May will be"-(a pity it was not the first of April!) "At twelve o'clock on that day, your brethren will be each put in possession of his estate for ever; and your feelings will be the best answer to my accusers, and the opponents of this plan, when you sit down in your own house, from which no tyrant can hunt you. And when you are located, you and your children, and your children's children (if I shall ever live to see my great-grand-children), shall ever be the chief object of my every care and thought; and I won't rob you, neglect you, or diminish your store of happiness; but I will work the harder to assist the needy, as I would sorrow greatly if any lost the nest I built for him and his family." Could a more lamentable exhibition of the absolute need of education be given, than that such rubbish as this should have imposed on seventy thousand men, with prudence to save money but without knowledge to make proper use of it? Could ignorance be conceived more bigotted than that which welcomed a braggart for a god, and "worshipped this dull fool." But he promised them social and political emancipation; and said he would not rob them (an odd notion to have entered his head); and, appealing to two of the strongest motives that actuate the uneducated and educated alike, the passion for gambling, and the desire for possession of land, ultimately succeeded in obtaining absolute control over more than a hundred thousand pounds. To not a farthing of this money, it was proved at the recent trial, has any other person than Mr. O'Connor any legal claim. So completely is it in his power, that (as the Chief Baron lucidly explained the law), supposing he became a bankrupt, his creditors might seize it in satisfaction of their demands, and, if he bequeathed it conscientiously for the uses of his subscribers, his heir-at-law might refuse to carry his intention into effect on the score of the illegality of the transaction. The bursting of the bubble (and that the "Earth has bubbles" this land-scheme sadly demonstrates !) of course took place as soon as the attempt was made to float it; the nests which Mr. O'Connor had built for his children were flung open to the storm; and by a worse tyrant than he had promised to protect them from, even by Want and Hunger, starving husbands and families were hunted from their "estates for ever." At this time twenty thousand subscribers to the scheme had paid their shares in full, and were entitled to stand the ballot for allotments; yet it was proved before the House of Commons, that, supposing the claims to have been allowed, such had been the measures taken to secure the subscribers' titles and realise the promised advantages that the whole number could not have been located in a less period than about two hundred years! For asserting upon this condition of facts that the wretched victims of the bubble had been swindled out of their money, the member for Nottingham prosecuted the editor of the Nottingham Journal; and a sapient jury decided that the editor was justified in his assertion, but that nevertheless the member's character stood unimpeached as regarded personal honesty! Perhaps the saving clause was thrown in as a sop to the house which the worthy member adorns; but if so, it was quite uncalled for. A debate was going on there, almost concurrently with the trial, of which the object was to disqualify members bankrupt and insolvent, in worldly goods, from continuing to retain their seats; but not a word was whispered in the debate of the necessity or expediency of disqualifying members who were simply bankrupt in reputation and character. Silently it was confessed that against these there was no remedy; and in our judgment it was therefore the most manly course to let the other also sit unquestioned. In truth the remedy lies not with the house against either. All that with propriety it can do in the matter would be to waive its privileges against the just claims of a creditor. The retention of any right barring the free operation and enforcement of the laws, is a scandal to a house of law-makers. But everything else is the affair of the constituencies. If it is the pleasure of any electoral body to prefer a man of broken fortunes but honourable life to a man in the possession of enormous wealth obtained by questionable means, it is quite right that it should be at liberty to do so. The opposite course is of the more frequent occurrence, but neither against that should any legislative bar be placed. They are questions affecting solely the electoral functions, and to them they should be referred. The dispute of Mr. Horsman with the premier, which so agitated the nerves of the house during these discussions, is now hardly worth allusion. In the heat of supporting a cause which has been far from successful to the extent of its deservings, and with which bishops and all kinds of quarrelsome and explo sive matter have been inextricably mixed up, Mr. Horsman may be excused for a hard word now and then; but the charge of meanness and duplicity applied to such a man as the premier, refutes itself. His very faults disprove it more emphatically than his virtues. The question in dispute is not whether certain amendments which Lord John Russell promised to make in the Ecclesiastical Commission Bill, so as to adapt it to the recommendations of the house of commons committee, were not so made by him as directly to evade or contradict those recommendations; but whether the promise was general or specific-whether it was for alterations in consequence of the committee, or for alterations to meet the views of the committee --and whether there was any intention deliberately to mislead before those amendments were printed, by inducing Mr. Horsman to suppose that they were what he expected them to be. It is certain that Mr. Horsman ought to have possessed himself of what the amendments really were before he consented to the printing; and, that not having done so, he leaves the entire question as a misunderstanding. Such it clearly would appear to have been. It is quite possible that more than was meant might have been said on one side, and more than was meant understood or inferred on the other. NARRATIVE OF PARLIAMENT AND POLITICS. PARLIAMENT was opened by Commission on the 31st of January. The Commissioners were the Lord Chancellor, the Marquis of Lansdowne, the Marquis of Breadalbane, the Earl of Minto, and the Bishop of London. The Royal Speech was as follows: "My Lords and Gentlemen-We are commanded by her Majesty to assure you that her Majesty has great satisfaction in again having recourse to the advice and assistance of her Parliament. "The decease of her Majesty Queen Adelaide has caused her Majesty deep affliction. The extensive charity and exemplary virtues of her late Majesty will always render her memory dear to the nation. "Her Majesty happily continues in peace and amity with Foreign Powers. "In the course of the autumn, differences of a serious character arose between the governments of Austria and Russia on the one hand, and the Sullime Porte on the other, in regard to the treatment of a considerable number of persons who, after the termination of the civil war in Hungary, had taken refuge in the Turkish territory. Explanations which took place between the Turkish and Imperial governments have fortunately removed any danger to the peace of Europe which might have arisen out of these differences. Her Majesty, having been appealed to on this occasion by the Sultan, united her efforts with those of the government of France, to which a similar appeal had been made, in order to assist, by the employment of her good offices, in effecting an amicable settlement of those differences in a manner consistent with the dignity and independence of the Porte. "Her Majesty has been engaged in communications with Foreign States upon the measures which might be rendered necessary by the relaxation of the restrictions formerly imposed by the Navigation-laws of this country. The Governments of the United States of America and of Sweden have promptly taken steps to secure to British ships in the ports of their respective countries advantages similar to those which their own ships now enjoy in British ports. With regard to those Foreign States whose navigation-laws have hitherto been of a restrictive character, her Majesty has received from nearly all of them assurances which induce her to hope that our example will speedily lead to a great and general diminu tion of those obstacles which previously existed to a free intercourse by sea between the nations of the world. "In the summer and autumn of the past year, the United Kingdom was again visited by the ravages of the cholera; but Almighty God, in His mercy, was pleased to arrest the progress of mortality, and to stay this fearful pestilence. Her Majesty is persuaded that we shall best evince our gratitude by vigilant precautions against the more obvious causes of sickness, and an enlightened consideration for those who are most exposed to its attacks. "Her Majesty, in her late visit to Ireland, derived the highest gratification from the loyalty and attachment manifested by all classes of her subjects. Although the effects of former years of scarcity are painfully felt in that part of the United Kingdom, they are mitigated by the present abundance of food and the tranquillity which prevails. "Her Majesty has great satisfaction in congratulating you on the improved condition of commerce and manufactures. It is with regret that her Majesty has observed the complaints which in many parts of the kingdom have proceeded from the owners and occupiers of land. Her Majesty greatly laments that any portion of her subjects should be suffering distress; but it is a source of sincere gratification to her Majesty to witness the in |