It appears that the bill introduced for the removal of the prohibitions on raw cotton and coarse cotton fabrics had passed the Chamber of Deputies, but had been thrown out by the Senate. Advices have been received from California to the 15th of December. At the mines there was nothing new. The rainy season caused a suspension of labour on the rivers, but increased it in another way by supplying water for washing soil that had been previously heaped up. Fresh discoveries of quartz veins and other deposits were made with undiminished frequency, and were sufficient to show that the room for employment is inexhaustible. In some places, it is mentioned, the quartz increases in richness with its depth, and in one instance several pounds weight, that showed no gold, yielded on being tested 2 dollars to the pound. The account of the extraordinary discovery made by some Mexicans at a spot called Bear Valley, whence they obtained 200,000 dollars in ten days, is fully confirmed. The profits of agriculture in California during the past year had been very great. Outrages by the Indians still caused much excitement. But many murders committed by other persons were charged upon them. It appears that the total of Californian gold received at the mints of New Orleans and Philadelphia during 1851 had amounted to 11,000,000. This, with a moderate estimate for the sums retained at San Francisco, and the direct exports thence to England, China, Australia, the Sandwich Islands, the Pacific coast, and other places, would indicate that the aggregate yield for the year must have exceeded 15,000,000l., which has been the highest amount generally anticipated. NARRATIVE OF LITERATURE AND ART. ONE of the busiest months of the publishing year has supplied us with a larger proportion than usual of volumes likely to find a permanent place in libraries. The fifth and sixth volumes of Lord Mahon's History have been followed by four volumes of the Grenville Papers and the Rockingham Memoirs, respectively comprising the principal correspondence of Lord Temple, Mr. George Grenville, and the Marquis of Rockingham, with their friends and contemporaries, and throwing light on the track of Lord Mahon's narrative. There has been published also, in three octavo volumes, Lady Theresa Lewis's Lives of the Contemporaries of Lord Clarendon, including biographies of the great Chancellor's friends Lords Falkland, Capell, and Hertford, who with him adhered to the Royal Standard after Charles had planted it at Edgehill; and containing also a descriptive and quasi-biographical catalogue of all the Vandyke portraits painted for Lord Clarendon's gallery. The Life and Letters of Barthold George Niebuhr is a yet more important biographical work; comprising, in two volumes, all the most valuable of the letters included in the celebrated German publication by the great historian's sister; and contributing much matter of equal value from original sources. Nor greatly inferior to these in interest are the two large octavos which contain the Life and Letters of Joseph Story, the celebrated lawyer and jurist of America, which have been carefully edited by his son. The latter work is a contribution from the United States. So is the Life of General Washington, compiled in two duodecimos by the Rev. Mr. Upham from letters and memorials indited by the great father of the Republic himself. So (in as far as relates to the gettingup, as well as authorship, of the volumes) are the two handsome octavos published by Messrs. Longman on Nicaragua, its people, its scenery, its monuments, and, describing that proposed great Interoceanic Canal in which the author of the book, Mr. Squier, the late Commissioner of the United States in those distant scenes, has so notably interested himself. And so, we may say (though the collecting, reprinting, and editorship may be held to constitute an original book), are the Traits of American Humour by Native Authors, collected by Mr. Haliburton, and published in three amusing volumes. Returning now to the more direct contributions of English writers or translators, we have to mention, among the more prominent publications of the month, two octavo volumes with the title of Protestantism Contrasted with Romanism, of which the object is to put in close apposition, on successive dogmas and doctrines of Christianity, the acknowledged and authentic teaching of each religion. Mr. Caird has also republished his letters on English Agriculture in 1850-51 which were written for publication in the Times. Mr. E. Pococke has given us a disquisition on India in Greece, of which the design is to refer the sources of Hellenic faith and civilisation to the East. Mr. Worsaae, an intelligent Danish antiquarian, has written an Account of the Danes and Norwegians in England, Scotland, and Ireland, vindi cating the fair fame of his countrymen in the doubtful transaction of their English invasion, which Mr. Murray publishes in an excellent translation. The Hakluyt Society have added to their valuable and interesting stores a translated volume of Notes upon Russia at the opening of the sixteenth century, by the German ambassador Herberstein. And another curious translation has been made of a series of tales illustrative of the political morality of the East, written by a Sicilian Arab of the twelfth century, first brought into notice by Amari, and now published in English with the title of Solwan, or the Waters of Comfort. General literature has had several agreeable additions. Mr. Broderip has collected another volume of his delightful anecdotes and illustrations of natural history, under the title of Note Book of a Naturalist. To Miss Mitford we are indebted for three volumes of Recollections of a Literary Life, which relate however (and they are none the worse for this) more to books than persons. To the Hon. Henry J. Coke we owe thanks for A Ride over the Rocky Mountains to Oregon and California; to Mr. R. H. Mason for Pictures of Life in Mexico, half-fact, half-fiction, but meant to express life as actually existing there; to the Rev. H. Formby for a pleasing collection of words and music under the title of the Young Singer's Book of Songs; and to sundry publishers for sundry additions to illustrated, fanciful, and children's literature, of which the single volumes best worth mention are a new translation of Andersen's Danish Fairy Tales and Legends; a collection of illustrated nursery lays, called Child's-Play, by E. V. B.; a little story on the Pathway of the Faun, by Mrs. T. K. Hervey; another entitled Mary Gray, by the author of the Discipline of Life;' and two little volumes which are meant as imitations of old books, written and printed after the manner of some centuries ago, with the respective titles of Queen Philippa's Golden Booke, and the Household of Sir Thomas More. 6 Our list for the month will be tolerably complete when we have added some works of fiction, and two books suggested by a leading topic of the day, which latter we will mention first. Captain Addison has translated and annotated a Swiss baron's treatise (the Baron P. E. Maurice) On National Defence in England, and Colonel Chesney has published Observations on the Past and Present State of Fire Arms, and on the probable effects in war of the new musket. Of the principal novels of the month the names are the Two Families, Emily Howard, the Delameres of Delamere Court, Allerton and Drew, and Darien, the last by poor Eliot Warburton. Mr. Lemon has published a volume of his papers and poems from periodicals, with the title of Prose and Verse; and Mr. Wilkie Collins has written a Christmas story called Mr. Wray's Cash-Box. We may close with a mention of the appearance of the first part of Dr. Smith's Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography, which will convey a welcome intimation to all who possess the other classical dictionaries issued by the same scholar. COMMERCIAL RECORD. BANKRUPTS. From the Gazette of Dec. 30th, 1851. E. H. FIRMINGER and P. BEARE, Lime-street, merchants.-C. W. ELLIOTT, Aylesbury, grocer.-J.KIRBY, Buckingham, miller.-J. BARRELL, Billericay, Essex, grocer.-J. FURNISS, Almondbury, Yorkshire, woollencloth-manufacturer.-J. FORSTER, Liverpool, filter-merchant.-G. I. HIGGINSON, Hutton Sessay, Yorkshire, cattle-dealer.C. L. R. WILKINSON and E. BOND, Manchester, calico-printers. -R. PEEL, Blackburn, ironmonger.-R. DARLINGTON, Wigan, scrivener. Jan. 2nd, 1852. J. A. EDWARDS, Toxteth Park, Liverpool, boarding-house-keeper.-H. COURTIS, Newport, Monmouthshire, grocer.-J. ALLOTT, Sandal Magna, Yorkshire, banker. - T. HALL, Hull, innkeeper.-R. THORMAN, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, engine-builder. Jan. 6th. E. H. PALMER, Brentford, brewer.-H. R. SABINE, Poppin's-court, Fleet-street, card-maker.-P. SUMMERS, Tabernacle-walk, fancy printer.-R. TROWER, College-street, Chelsea, builder.-J. COLES, Buckingham, dealer in corn.-J. COGLE, Limington, Somersetshire, miller.-T. HITCHENS, St. Thomasthe-Apostle, Devonshire, timber-merchant.-T. ROBINSON, Hull, broker.-H. BROWN, Liverpool, ship-chandler. Jan. 9th. R. and R. BILLING, Reading, brick-makers.-F. F. COBB, Canterbury, grocer.-S. MASON, Newcastle-under-Lyne, draper. -J. WILLIAMS, Bristol, shipowner. D. BOOBBYER, Tavistock, ironmonger.-G. MILNES, Scarborough, cloth-merchant.-J. B. TAYLOR, Liverpool, commission-agent.-R. W. OGILVIE, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, ship-broker. Jan. 13th. W. Moss, jun., Stock, Essex, miller.-A. MARKWICK, Martin's-lane, Cannon-street, manufacturer.-H. STANLEY, Gerrard-street, Soho, scrivener.-E. WICKINS, Faversham, linendraper.-R. P. WESTON, Wellington, surgeon.-I. GARDINER, Bristol, saddler.-G. MOON, Borrowby, Yorkshire, corn-miller. -J. P. T. LAZARUS, Stewart-street, Spitalfields, merchant.J. COOPER, Liverpool, butcher.-J. S. ORFORD and W. KIRKHAM, Manchester, paper-hangers. Jan. 16th. F. F. WOODS, Pelham-place, Brompton, builder.J. BRISTOW, Lewes, tea-dealer.--W. HOUSTON, St. James's-terrace, Harrow-road, builder. W. DALTON, Charlotte-street, Pimlico, grocer.-J. INGRAM, Southampton, seedsman.-T. U. ANDERSON, Wellington, Shropshire, mercer.-J. VARLEY, Manchester, chemist. Jan. 20th. F. R. HEWLETT, Leyton, Essex, cowkeeper.-G. COLLIER, Landport, Hampshire, draper.-G. MARSH, Churchstreet, Minories, carpenter.-R. YOUNGMAN, Waterbeach, Cambridgeshire, miller.-J. AMERY, Chelmsford, hotel-keeper. J. POTTER, Birmingham, mill-manufacturer.-W. HAYWOOD, Birmingham, grocer.-J. KETTON, Middlesborough, Yorkshire, grocer.-J. O'DONNELL, Sheffield, grocer.-M. A. KEEL, Liverpool, coffee-house-keeper.-R. II. BELL and E. BELL, South Shields, paper-manufacturers. Jan. 23rd. W. D. PRITCHARD and D. PRITCHARD, High-street, Marylebone, coach-smiths.-J. G. MARSH, Church-street, Minories, carpenter.-T. HARRIS and J. BURLS, Hampstead-road, brewers.-G. POTTER, Grosvenor-basin, Pimlico, lime-burner.G. FLINT, Lombard-street, hosier.-F. LONG, Vere-street, Oxford-street, importer of foreign lace.-T. FOOTMAN, Wolverhampton, huckster.-J. HURLEY, Birmingham, linen-draper.R. S. JAMES, Leeds, ironmonger.-W. BELSHAW, Manchester, joiner.-J. H. GILLAN, Liverpool, commission-merchant. Jan. 27th. W. A. COGAR, Newgate-street, boot and shoedealer.-G. GULL and F. D. WILSON, Old Broad-street, City, Russia brokers.-J. BOXALL, Brighton, coachmaker.-H. E. WOLLASTON, Wandsworth-road, merchant.-F. WINCK, Margate, tailor.-W. PLATTS, Crawford-street, Marylebone, draper. -L. J. NERINCKX, Great Portland-street, laceman.-W. ROCK, Surrey-place, Surrey, printer. -H. GLADWIN, Nottingham, draper.-E. TINSLEY, Cradley Heath, Staffordshire, cooper.-W. WOOD, Bristol, provision-merchant.-W. LOUGHER, T. LOUGHER, and D. LOUGHER, Plymouth, iron-founders.-C. BACON, Walton, Somersetshire, tailor. J. COPLAND, Barnstaple, Devonshire, draper.-H. POUND, Plymouth, builder.E. WALKER, Huddersfield, Yorkshire, woolstapler.-S. BICKERTON, Liverpool, butcher.-W. J. FOULKES, Birkenhead, druggist. -G. HOPKINSON, Liverpool, coach-builder. -J. J. RAYNER, Manchester, tailor. GROCERY-LATEST Cocoa, per cwt. in bond. Ord. to good red Trinidad, 25s. 6d. to 428.; Bahia, 26s. 6d. to 48s. Coffee, per cwt. in bond.-Good ord., native Ceylon, 38s. 6d. to 728.; Mocha, 70s. to 85s.; St. Domingo, 37s. to 40s.; Sumatra, 33s. to 358. Rice, per cwt.-Bengal mid. to fine white, 89. 6d. to 11s. 6d.; Madras, 7s. 6d. to 9s. berland, 50s. to 60s.; Irish, 468. to 67s.; Westphalia, 488. to 50s. Mutton, per 8 lbs., 3s. 4d. to 4s. 4d. Pork, per 8lbs., 3s. to 3s. 6.; American, new, per barrel, 468. to 55s. Potatoes, per ton.-Kent and Essex Ware, 43s. to 769.; Kent and Essex Middling, 25s. to 40s. WHOLESALE PRICES. 15s. to 178. Sugar, per cwt.-Jamaica, 26s. 6d. to 36s. 6d.; Mauritius, brown, 248. 6d. to 28s.; Brazil, 14s. to 22s. Tea, per lb. in bond. Ord. Congou, Sid. to 18. 7d.; Souchong, com. to fine, 1s. to 2s. 2d.; ord. to fine Hyson, 1s. 2d. to 3s.; Imperial, 1s. 3d. to 2s. Published at the Office, No. 16, Wellington Street North, Strand, Printed by BRADBURY & EVANS, Whitefriars, London, Monthly Supplement to "HOUSEHOLD WORDS,” Conducted by CHARLES DICKENS. A GREAT many years ago Mr. Isaac Bickerstaff expressed a strong wish, for the good of the nation, that clever politicians having nothing particular to do could be induced to take pleasure in feeding ducks. "I look upon an able statesman out of business," he remarked, "like a huge whale that will endeavour to overturn the ship unless he has an empty cask to play with." Having no better diversion to occupy him, Lord Palmerston has overturned the ship. It was quite unexpected. Indeed, nothing that is expected is to be looked for now a-days. At the very moment when the ministerial evening journal was complacently stating it as a "fair ground of congratulation," that on the momentous question of national defences no greater difference existed between public men possessed of official responsibility or official experience, "than the difference between Lord John Russell and Lord Palmerston as to calling out the local or regular Militia," this very difference was exploding in the House of Commons, blowing up Lord John, putting Lord Derby in his place, and making Mr. Disraeli right honourable and her Majesty's Chancellor of the Exchequer. In what "the difference" really consisted that led to this remarkable result is not the least surprising part of the affair. Some few weeks ago Lord John Russell turned out Lord Palmerston for his too friendly disposition to M. Bonaparte, and it is Lord Palmerston who now turns out Lord John Russell for his want of vigour in arming against M. Bonaparte. It is one of those transactions where nobody knows what any body means, and in which, when "explanation" once begins, all hope of ever knowing anything is utterly extinguished. The only thing placed beyond any matter of doubt is, that a protection ministry is again in office; and that to what Mr. Disraeli calls "the men of metal and large-acred squires, the Pakingtons, Mileses, and Henleys, the stout heart of Mr. Buck, and the pleasant presence of Walter Long," the government of England is confided for the present. Our Narrative will duly inform the curious inquirer to what an extraordinary jumble of business in arrear these men of stout metal, and comely presence, will be asked to address themselves with as little delay as may be. Never did so many things hang on hand which people's minds are more or less made up to get settled and put out of hand. It is clear that we must have proper and efficient Defences. Every one feels an instinct of alarm on this point, more unerring than the clearest demonstrations by which reason might attempt to prove it. It is not less clear that we must be rid of our Chancery Abuses. The Queen denounced them in her speech, and her subjects are literally dying of them. It may be less clear, but is hardly less desirable, that we should have our Parliament Reformed. Its abuses and dilapida tions are confessed by all parties, and what Lord John was doing to cobble them up has at least served to [PRICE 2d. make it quite manifest that they cannot much longer be left as they are. Then there is the Income Tax, all unsettled, which the new Chancellor of the Exchequer so particularly objects to in its present form. Also there is Education; everybody crying out we must have it, nobody agreeing in what way. Also there is Sanitary Reform, about which what is done bears such infinitely inverse ratio to what has been talked about, that our very sewers continue still undrained, and our most crowded streets in poll ating contact with the dead. Nor may the list be even closed (though our present enumeration may) with what remains of troublesome arrears in the war with the Caffres, the constitutions of New Zealand and the Cape, and the convict disputes in Australia and Sydney. Without naming even the name of that most unquiet portion of her Majesty's dominions which has been the stumbling-block of every administration for the last half-century, and is not in the least likely to be less obstructive now, it is sufficiently manifest that her Majesty's new advisers have not succeeded to the quiet repose of a sinecure, and that it is amid marked signs and portents of perplexity and change their predecessors have passed away. Years after the present generation shall have passed away too, it is possible that these pages of ours may be sought by some antiquary, curious to learn in what state of the world it was that the last rump of veritable old Whiggery disappeared from the public scene, never again, in all human probability, to revisit it in that unadulterated form. He will then learn that the whole world appeared to be agitated just at that moment as with the throes of far more wonderful births than those of a new British Colonial Minister in a respectable chairman of Quarter Sessions, and a new British Chancellor of the Exchequer in a clever writer of romance. That was the very month, Mr. Dryasdust will ascertain, when, with no perceptible effect upon the business or enjoyments of the people, the sudden overflow of a huge reservoir swept away in one night the entire capital and enterprise of a flourishing manufacturing settlement in a Yorkshire valley. The better part of a million of money was lost, and more than a hundred lives; and there was an inquiry, and no one was found greatly to blame, and the mills were again built, and the reservoir again filled from the streams of the valley, and all was expected to go on as before. In that month too came news from the coast of Africa, that, at a sacrifice of near a hundred lives and an incalculable sum of money, the clever ex-minister who upset his colleagues because they had turned him out of Downing-street for snubbing and exasperating all the Foreign Powers, had managed, by way of counterpoise to those old allies he had affronted, to raise up a new ally for the English people in the person of one of the prodigious African princes who live in reed huts on pestilential swamps, and VOL. III. с POLITICS. gurating the Victoria Tower, by making it the royal entrance to the houses of Parliament. The crowds in the streets were uncommonly large, and the attendance in the interior of the House of Lords was also greater than ordinary. After the customary formalities, her Majesty read the following speech: "MY LORDS AND GENTLEMEN : are bribed into treaties against the slave-trade by rum and glass buttons. The name of the sovereign NARRATIVE OF PARLIAMENT AND was King Akitoye the First. It was also in this same month that the press of France was effectually gagged and suppressed by the edict of an absolute dictator; in person, on Tuesday, the 3rd inst. Unusual interest THE Session of Parliament was opened by the Queen and what, just twenty years before, had lost a throne was attached to the ceremony from the circumstance to the rightful and long-descended king who attempted that her Majesty had announced her intention of inauit, was now effected without an effort at resistance by a mere unprincipled adventurer, whose only claim of title to the power he had seized was his avowed contempt and disregard for enlightenment, literature, education, respectability, and the safe retention and enjoyment whether of private or public rights. Such at the time being the ruling influence in this great country, peradventure Mr. Dryasdust will make his friends smile by adding that he finds this also to have been the precise time selected by that very government of France to prefer its claim, as sovereign protector of Christianity in the East, to the exclusive possession of the Holy Sepulchre. L'is audience will doubtless get grave again, however, as the worthy man informs them of another sign and portent of the same memorable month, in the fact of a monk-assassin suddenly starting up, as though to confront with the ghastly form of a Clement or Ravaillac a modern resuscitation of crimes in rulers as lamentable as those which in more barbarous days received barbarous expiation. He will read of an attempt, well-nigh successful, to stab to the heart a young queen and mother, surrounded by her nobles and officers of state; the assassin coolly avowing before his judges that he had lifted his knife to wash out the opprobrium of humanity, by avenging the stupid ignorance of those who thought it fidelity to endure the faithlessness and perjury of kings and queens. He will discover also that this was the month, when, with another kind of retribution, the jade Fortune at last fairly deserted the man who for many years, and in defiance of the joint efforts of two of the greatest countries in the world, had exerted an absolute and most cruel despotism over some of the noblest provinces of Spanish South America. As surely as the Whigs were retreating from the scene, and leaving free trade to the mercies of Lord Stanley, so surely will Mr. Dryasdust find that the dictator of Buenos Ayres was also disappearing from power, and leaving at least a more hopeful legacy to the prospects of free trade than those of the departing Whig premier, by ridding commerce and civilisation of the incubus which in his own person for so many years had shut up the magnificent resources of one of the grandest "silent highways" of the world. Such being the portents of change and revolution amid which our Whig ministers depart, it will be hardly less manifest to the reader who glances through our pages, that it is amid omens prosperous and adverse which require not less wary watch ing, that the new ministers are entering the coveted mansions of Downing street. The importations of foreign corn have diminished; prices have advanced; the cattle fairs are prosperous; the greatest croakers make special exception of barley and oats; and finally there has been a meeting in Manchester, not only to show Lord Derby that vitality has in no respect departed from what was once the Anti-Corn-Law League, but to warn him in a friendly way that, before embarking on any enterprise of restoring that monopoly to which all the signs of the times are so notably adverse, he would do well to consider its probable effects on the position and interests of his order. "The period has arrived when, according to usage, I can again avail myself of your advice and assistance in the preparation and adoption of measures which the welfare of the country may require. I continue to maintain the most friendly relations with foreign powers. The complicated affairs of the duchies of Holstein and Schleswig have continued to engage my attention. I have every reason to expect that the treaty between Germany and Denmark, which was concluded at Berlin in the year before last, will, in a short time, be fully and unfortunately broke out on the eastern frontier of the completely executed. I regret that the war which Cape of Good Hope, more than a year ago, still continues. Papers will be laid before you containing full information as to the progress of the war, and the measures which have been taken for bringing it to a termination. While I have observed with sincere satisfaction the tranquillity which has prevailed throughout the greater portion of Ireland, it is with much regret have to inform you that certain parts of the counties of Armagh, Monaghan, and Louth, have been serious description. The powers of the existing law marked by the commission of outrages of the most have been promptly exerted for the detection of the offenders, and for the repression of a system of crime and violence fatal to the best interests of the country. My attention will continue to be directed to this important object. that "GENTLEMEN OF THE HOUSE OF COMMONS: "I have ordered estimates of the expenses of the I rely with conficurrent year to be laid before you. vision for the public service. Where any increase has dence on your loyalty and zeal to make adequate probeen made in the estimates of the present over the past year, such explanations will be given as will, I trust, satisfy you that such increase is consistent with a steady adherence to a pacific policy, and with the dictates of a wise economy. "MY LORDS AND GENTLEMEN : its various departments has continued to receive my "The improvement in the administration of justice in anxious attention, and in furtherance of that object I have directed bills to be prepared, founded upon the reports made to me by the respective commissioners appointed to inquire into the practice and proceedings of the superior courts of law and equity. As nothing tends more to the peace, prosperity, and contentment of a country than the speedy and impartial administration of justice, I earnestly recommend these measures to your deliberate attention. The act of 1848, for suspending the operation of a previous act conferring representative institutions on New Zealand, will expire early in the next year. I am happy to believe that there is longer exists to the enjoyment of representative instino necessity for its renewal, and that no obstacle any tutions by New Zealand. The form of these institutions will, however, require your consideration, and the additional information which has been obtained since the passing of the acts in question will, I trust, enable you to arrive at a decision beneficial to that important colony. It gives me great satisfaction to be able to state to you that the large reductions of taxes which have taken place of late years have not been attended with a proportionate diminution of the national income. The revenue of the past year has been fully adequate to the demands of the public service, while the reduction of taxation has tended greatly to the relief and comfort of my subjects. I acknowledge with thankfulness to Almighty God, that tranquillity, good order, and willing obedience to the laws continue to prevail generally throughout the country. It appears to me that it is a fitting time for calmly considering whether it may not be advisable to make such amendments in the act of the late reign relating to the representation of the commons in parliament, as may be deemed calculated to carry into more complete effect the principles upon which that law is founded. I have the fullest confidence that in any such consideration you will firmly adhere to the acknowledged principles of the constitution, by which the prerogatives of the crown, the authority of both houses of parliament, and the rights and liberties of the people, are equally secured." parliament, but to the feelings and convictions of the mass of the people as our safest defence, but the act which had passed last year was not a dead letter. He concurred with the Earl of Derby in the tribute he had paid to the character and talents of the late Secretary for Foreign Affairs, and he regretted deeply that circumstances had deprived her Majesty's government of the benefit of his counsels. He entirely joined in repudiating the tone of the public press with reference to France. He confided in the amicable assurances received from foreign powers, but thought that something should be done to place the country in a state of greater security. As to the emigration from Ireland, it was a voluntary effort, which had only fulfilled his The Earl of ALBEMARLE moved the Address; and it anticipations, and was carried on without expense to was seconded by Lord LEIGH.-The Earl of DERBY the country, and in a manner most honourable to the said that the subjects treated of in the royal speech were Irish character. He believed that Ireland would multifarious, and inconsequentially strung together. improve greatly under the process, but the security of He lamented the absence of all allusion to the condition life and property there must first be established. The of the agricultural interest. He then referred to the noble earl defended, or rather apologised for, his colonial subject of papal aggression, which her Majesty's govern- policy in New Zealand. He vindicated, also, the ment had legislated for superficially and not substantially. financial relaxations of recent years; and, with reference He maintained that the act of last session had been to the contemplated measure on the representation, he ostentatiously set at defiance, and he invited the govern- assured the house that the existing balance of political ment to say whether they were satisfied with it. On power among classes would not be disturbed.-Lord the subject of friendly relations with foreign powers, he BROUGHAM expressed his concurrence in what had been expressed a conviction that there must have been some said by the Earl of Derby and Earl Grey as to the tone of serious cause which had induced her Majesty to dispense the press of this country in discussing the internal affairs with the services of one of the most able servants of the of France, and the character and conduct of the Prince crown. He was not bound by any official reserve from President.-The Earl of HARROWBY stated his impresspeaking openly on the subject of the relations of this sion that the public press had faithfully expressed the country with France. It was not for them to canvass opinion of the country with reference to French affairs, the morality or the acts of the French government, since and as an individual peer he could not omit that opporit had been backed by the will of the people. He firmly tunity of saying that the newspapers had a perfect right believed that the Prince President was fully disposed to to discuss openly and fearlessly the political and social maintain friendly relations with this country, but if condition of their nearest neighbours, as they did the anything was likely to destroy that disposition, it was state of Austria, Russia, or any other continental power. the unjustifiable tone assumed towards him by a large-The Earl of MALMESBURY closed the debate by portion of the public press. He proceeded to point out adopting the same views on that subject as had been the dangers and uncertainties of the state of public expressed by the Earl of Derby. affairs in France, and the necessity of adopting such measures of defence as might make invasion impossible. He promised his co-operation, and that of those who acted with him, for such a purpose. He then, in a warning one, and from the example of France, vindicated the necessity of maintaining the territorial aristocracy of England-the best guarantee of constitutional government, and the surest conservators of a wellfounded liberty. The noble earl then adverted to the question of the disastrous war at the Cape, which had been attended by many blunders. Turning to the subject of Ireland, he expressed his surprise that the government should have taken credit for the tranquillity of the south and west, which sprang from an emigration so vast as to be called the exodus of the Irish people. In the north, their administration of justice for the purpose of suppressing outrage had experienced a double failure. From Ireland the noble earl turned to the subject of the new constitution for New Zealand, and having disposed of that topic, he reminded their lordships that the financial prosperity of the country was founded on the unpopular income-tax, and that the past year was one of serious commercial losses, and low commercial profits. In conclusion, he expressed his conviction that there were not 500 reasonable men who considered a new reform bill necessary. The essential utility of the House of Commons was, that it appropriately represented all classes, that the large communities did not overpower the small, and he trusted that it was not intended to destroy the permanent influence of the land by increasing the already large democratic powers possessed by the great towns. If such was the principle of the new bill, he regarded it as a step in a dangerous direction, and would give it such opposition as lay in his power to offer.-Earl GREY went over several of the topics adverted to by Lord Derby. With reference to the state of agriculture, he thought that there was every reason to regard it hopefully; and those who conceived that the present policy should be reversed, ought, once for all, to bring their views forward for discussion, but first they ought to settle with their supporters whether it was a duty for protection or revenue that they wanted. As to papal aggression, he had never looked to acts of On Thursday the 5th, the Duke of WELLINGTON took occasion to express his Approval of Sir Harry Smith's conduct while in command at the Cape:-"I approve entirely," said the Duke, "of the conduct of the troops in all their operations. I am fully sensible of the difficulties under which they laboured, and of the gallantry with which they overcame all those difficulties, and of the great success which attended their exertions. My firm belief is that everything has been done by the commanding general, by the forces, and by his officers, in order to carry into exccution the instructions of her Majesty's government. I have had the honour of holding the command of her Majesty's armies in India, and of superintending the conduct of different military operations in the same part of the world under three separate governors-general. I am proud to say that I have observed no serious error in the conduct of these late operations. Certainly Sir Harry Smith has committed some errors, as others have done before him. These operations by the Caffres are carried on by the occupation of extensive regions, which, in some places are called jungle, in others bush; but which in reality are thickset wood-the thickest that can be found anywhere. The Caffres having established themselves in these fastnesses with the plunder on which they exist, their assailants suffer great losses. The Caffres move away more or less with great activity and celerity, sometimes saving, sometimes losing their plunder; but they always evacuate their fastnesses. Our troops do not, cannot, occupy those fastnesses. They would be useless to them, and, in point of fact, the troops could not live in them. Well, the enemy moves off," and is attacked again, and the same operation is renewed time after time. The consequence of this, to my certain knowledge is, that under the three last governors some of these fastnesses have been attacked no less than three or four times over. On every occasion this is accompanied with great loss to the assailants. There is, however, a remedy for this state of evil. When a fastness is stormed it should be totally destroyed after its capture. I have had some experience in this kind of warfare, and I know that the only mode of subduing an enemy of this description by opening roads into his |