NEWS OF THE WEEK.

ALL parties in America are eagerly watching for two docu- ments—the proclamation Mr. Lincoln will issue on 1st January and the Message of Mr. Seymour, the new Governor of New York. The rumours about these papers are endless, but the most trustworthy seems to point to these two conclusions. Mr. Lincoln will adhere to his proclamation, but will except the Border States from its operation, in order to keep himself -still more strictly within the limits of his power as Com- mander-in-Chief in time of war. Mr. Seymour, on the other hand, will deprecate the proclamation, advise an armistice, and hint at a convention, to restore the -Union without the New England States. This last idea has been circulating or some time, and is popular in Pennsylvania ; but the West is not likely to consent to a measure which, while breaking up the -Union, will cut off their best outlet, and deprive the Union of its maritime power.

The Cabinet crisis at Washington ended in a general re- uppointment of the menaced officials. At a secret meeting of the senators belonging to the Republican party, it was re- solved by a majority of 13 to 11 that a change ought to be made in the Cabinet. Messrs. Seward and Chase accordingly placed their resignations in the hands of the President. He summoned the remonstrating senators and required them one by one to state their grounds of objection. The senators hesi- tated, and generally deprecated hostility to the secretaries ; whereupon the President reappointed them, and they returned to their work. Considerable dissatisfaction still exists in the country; but the parties are divided, the Democrats wishing to remove Mr. Stanton and General Halleck, suspected of urging the proclamation; and the Republicans asking the removal of Messrs. Seward and Chase, suspected of resisting it. The "irrepressible negro" is at the bottom even of a Cabinet crisis.

The Paris correspondent of the Herald amuses the Spectator of manufacturing French correspondence. The account of the Rouen distress furnished by "A Freeman" is, he says, "literally translated from one published in the Revue des Deux Mondes by M. Forcade." There is not a word of truth in the state- ment. The letter was in the hands of our printers early on the 2nd, before any copy of the Revue could possibly have reached London. Our correspondent explains apparent agree- ment between M. Forcade's figures and his own,—the result simply of their quoting the same official documents. It would be a musimpler answer to any such charge to print his name, o 1 the few on which the most bigoted Bona- partist has dared to cast a slur ; but the Herald's friends among French mouchards will readily explain why we abstain from that course.

Parliament meets on Thursday, the 5th February, and its first serious business will be to vote the " appanage ' usually bestowed upon a Prince of Wales after his marriage. The amount is not yet rumoured, and must depend on the amount of revenue accruing from the Duchy of Cornwall--a subject on which contradictory statements are always in circulation. The marriage will take place in March, and it is announced that the Prince, aided by one of his sisters and sub- sequently by his wife, will hold the next drawin&-rooras. Does this mean that the Queen withdraws from le cere- monial part of public life ? Her subjects will hear of such a resolution with a regret which no respect for the Prince of Wales can diminish.

For the first time since the framing of the Reform Bill, a Liberal has been elected for East Kent. The close of the poll showed Sir Edward Dering 88, or 74 in advance of his oppo- nent, the numbers being, accordinc,° to the Liberal return. Dering, 2,775; Knatchbull, 2,687; according to the Conservative return, Dering, 2,770; Knatchbull, 2,696. Sir Edward Dering is taunted with chameleon-like politics because, like Lord Derby, lie has changed his views in mature life,—but, unlike Lord Derby, has moved away from the stereotyped politics of the landowner to principles of more comprehensive spirit. Oa the hustings Sir Norton Knatchbull declared for "No compromise" on Church-rates, denied that the Government should be called the Government of Lord Palmerston, since it is the Govern- ment of Her Majesty the Queen ; but still promised a con- ditional support to Lord Palmerston "so long as he was able to control the restless spirit" of his colleagues. East Kent having a free choice between a supporter of Lord Palmerston as a Liberal, and of Lord Palmerston as the representative of the Conservatives, chose the former. The choice is signi- ficant.

General Willisen the unpopular Prussian Ambassador, is, it is said, to be recalled from Turin, and Count Usedom sub- stituted in his place, to the great satisfaction of the Italian people. It has been discovered at Turin that it is not this man, but his brother, who made the Italian campaign of 1848-9 with Radetzky, and afterwards wrote on it in a spirit very disagreeable to the Italians. The younger brother, now Prussian Ambassador at Turin, and very recently a special emissary of His Prussian Majesty's to the Elector of Hesse- Cassel, is in the Conservative world of Berlin held a Liberal, though a crotchetty one. He is chiefly known for introducing into the military riding-schools of Prussia a mechanical horse for the instruction of recruits. This creature was made so restive by his elaborate internal machinery, that the recruits preferred the wickedest living animal to General Willisen's hobby. He was vicious to the life, though there was no life in his vice —and it was, no doubt, the insight displayed in dealing with this animal, and in contriving his mechanical springs of vice, which induced His Majesty to despatch him to . deal with the Elector of Hesse. At the Court of Turin a know- ledge of real animal life would, at least, be requisite.

The Federal Government has discovered a new series of dangerous frauds. They were committed by the "recruiting brokers," in collusion with the colonels of some regiments, and possibly with the New York "disbursing office," and the modus operandi seems to have been in this wise :—The recruits were sent in squads to live at the "beer saloons," the proprietor receiving his money from the disbursing office. He never could get it, so sold his claim to a recruiting broker, who multiplied the bill by as much as he dared, presented it, and was paid. One colonel presented a heavy bill at Wash- ington, swore to its correctness, and produced a host of sub- vouchers, the whole of which he had forged. Other colonels compelled the contractors to pay them 21d. on every ration - The latest intelligence from America indicates that the Army of the Potomac is going into winter quarters on the banks of the Rappahannock. The interest of the war is there- fore transferred for the moment to Tennessee and Northern Mississippi, where General Grant is supposed to be very perilously situated. No accurate details seem to be known ; but the Northern impression is that General Grant is sur- rounded, has only a fortnight's provisions, and must cut his way from Jackson to Memphis, or run the risk of an attack from superior numbers. The North, however, is a little dis- posed to take misfortune for granted. General Rosencrantz is at Nashville with a considerable force, and may advance to his superior's assistance, and a very large section of the force believed to surround Grant is composed of Morgan's guerillas, men brave enough, but almost useless in an attack on a protected position. It is asserted that the railroad in Grant's rear, by which he communicates with his base, has been torn up ; but up to 27th December this statement was disbelieved in New -York.

The Government has published a memorandum announcing their policy with respect to the Ionian Islands. The paper -was delivered to the Provisional Government, and contains a distinct promise to surrender the islands to Greece' if the Senate and representatives of the islands concur; if the Powers who signed the Treaty of 1815 will accede ; if the Greek Assembly maintains constitutional monarchy, if they should Choose a sovereign "against whom no well-founded objection could be raised," and if they should relinquish all aggressive 4esigns against Turkey,—conditions enough in all conscience, 'mid some of them, particularly the last, not a little hard. The paper only confirms rumours current for some weeks; but it is remarkable for two reasons. It is the first official announcement of the Ministerial plan, and it is the first in • which England has ever avowed her true predilection for constitutional monarchy. Efforts are still making to induce King Ferdinand to accept the vacant throne, and the influence of King Leopold has, it is said, been brought to bear.

A very curious rumour is flying through Parisian political salons. It is said that the Emperor has never changed his mind upon the Italian question, that he hates the Papacy poli- tically as heartily as he does personally, and that his apparent change of purpose has been devised to cripple the priests during the forthcoming elections. Even the establishment of La France is attributed to the same plan, that paper slowly disorganizing the union between the parti pr'etre and all other malcontents. This would be worthy of one who, as Emperor, ntill conspires; but it is, we fear, dictated too much by the Yingering hopes of those who cannot believe that, even under Ilapoleon, evil will ultimately triumph.

Lord Palmerston has been giving prizes to labourers at Rom- aey. Some of them were sensible, being prizes for sowing, mowing, ploughing, and other measurable feats; but one of 3/. was bestowed on a couple for having made a provision before they married. The Premier is no theologian, but obviously he has heard of the text, "Unto him that hath shall be given." We wonder whether the honoured couple consider the three sovereigns full compensation for the youth which they lost in acquiring permission to love each other.

Garotte robberies have become less frequent, but the crimes of the week are heavy. At Wigan, a collier has been mur- dered, apparently for a few shillings, and then thrown into the furnace he was employed to tend. Three men have been charged with killing or frying to kill their wives' one with rape, followed by murder; three with murders of boon com- panions; and a man and his wife in Norfolk, with poisoning the husband's mother. The wife is proved to have said, as idle gazed at the body, "What could an old thing like that want to live for ?" Captain Robert Taylor, of the Jane, has jtee, apprehended at Cardiff, on a charge, which, if true, is Almost worse than murder. Allen Litchen, a man on board, delivered to the men, and the quartermaster usually took ten per cent. upon the gross receipts. The Government has ap- pointed a commission of inquiry, which has discovered that not one bill in fifty is free either from overcharge or forgery. Such a state of affairs can be paralleled only in Russia. In England army contractors have very often not had clean hands, but then it is not the colonel who takes a per-centage on the plunder. The worst of it all is that the Americans ap- pear to receive all these revelations without the slightest inclination to hang anybody. had his fingers frost-bitten while holding the wheel. The Captain ordered the carpenter to chop the man's fingers off with a mallet and chisel, and then lashed his arms to the pump- handles, thus making him work with the stumps. We trust the story will prove untrue, for even so shocking a perjury is less shocking than the fact.

The Times complains that mankind are using up the world too fast. Incessant cultivation, it is alleged, is stripping earth of its coat of mould, which cannot be replaced except by a return to the primeval forest. There are facts in existence a little inconsistent with that very alarming statement. The plain round Benares has certainly been cultured for three thousand years, and is as rich as ever. The country round_ Damascus was a garden in the beginning of history, and is a garden now. No forest has ever renewed the soil of Northern Italy, nor is the glorious fertility of Asia Minor artificial- Districts have, it is true, perished, but it has always been from human folly, the cutting down of the trees till the rain ceased, and the wells sank, as is now occurring in some parts of Upper India. When we conquered the Punjaub the vast province did not contain one tree, and in thirty years would have become, like the Babylonian desert, and from the same cause, a sterile plain.

A Canadian surgeon writes to a friend an account of the battle of Fredericksburg differing from any hitherto received.. He says the men behaved disgracefully, straggled in hundreds, and could not in many instances be brought to go under fire. It was a perfect "carnival of cowardice." The story is wholly inconsistent with the fact that the latest returns bring the number of wounded up to 12,000, but it can be explained without accusing the writer of anything but over-hastiness. The section of a battle seen by any one officer must always be small, and General Burnside himself states that one regiment behaved discreditably. If the writer saw that and the final retreat, the scene would leave on the mind of a raw hand just the impression he has recorded.

Captain Osborn is raising men for his Chinese fleet in England. A fine body of short-service men-of-war's men have been engaged, and are to receive high wages; "blood money" to the extent of 500/. for two limbs ; pensions to widows and children, and prize-money. The latter will not, however, be paid until discharge, and then in England. The laws and customs of the English Navy are to be obeyed except in the matter of flogging, for which discharge is sub- stituted. These are the men who, Mr. Layard says, are to become, to all intents and purposes, Chinese, and who are, we strongly suspect, entitled to reckon their work in China as " service time."

A telegram has been received in London from Turin an- nouncing that 220 battalions of the mobilized National Guard are to be in readiness by the 20th inst. The statement has not been confirmed or explained, and remains wholly unintelligible. We presume, as Italy is not going to declare war either on Austria or France, that some order has been issued to employ the municipal guards in the suppression of brigandage. All is quiet in Italy, and the King at the reception on New Year's-day spoke hopefully of the chance of obtaining Rome before 1864. All he asked of his people, he said, was confidence, for the army was in magnificent order,—which seems true.

The Corporation of Berlin has sent in an address to the King of a kind unprecedented in Prussia. They beseech him to "tread those paths which lead out of dissension into reconciliation and peace," and trust "the hopes which the enemies of Prussia found on the continuance of domestic strife will be shattered against the high wisdom and justice of His Majesty." This language is considered in Prussia very bold, and the King has replied that "the present position of affairs in Prussia, which has been styled a conflict, has arisen from a confusion in the public mind." "The world is mad," said the madman, "but I am too sane to be deceived."

Dr. Lankester, Coroner during the last twelve months for Middlesex, stated that he had held 200 inquests on infants killed by suffocation while at the breast. The Registrar-General reported 250 such cases last year, the great majority of which are undoubtedly murders. Of the first seventy-two inquests Dr. Lankester held, twelve were on children murdered by desertion ; but he has either reduced the number by careful inquiry, or mothers have resorted to more artistic means. He feared that opinion was unsound on the matter, and that among certain classes infanticide was hardly considered murder—a pleasant statement with which to check our gratulations over increasing "civilization !"

The county magistrates assembled for the Epiphany Sessions are taking up the question of prison discipline. In Hampshire, the Earl of Carnarvon on Monday made a regu- lar speech condemning the growing lenity introduced into our gaols. The system had been one of steady relaxation in punishment. Labour in Winchester gaol meant only half what it was intended to mean, which was very little ; the diet had been gradually improved; out of 300 prisoners 59 had been placed on extra diet, the dress and lodging were far better than those of labourers, and he found, on a recent visit, that convicts had been accommodated with footstools. The library was full of entertaining books and works of fiction, and communication was so unrestricted that it was nearly impossible to maintain discipline. He moved for a committee of inquiry, which was appointed by 22 to 20. The Warwickshire magistrates have also petitioned for a severer discipline, much of which, however, the Visiting Justices could secure for themselves.

The Conservatives of South Devon have formed a new Conservative Association, which met to dine last Thursday week at Newton Abbot, under the Presidency of Lord Courtenay. Mr. Disraeli, who was in the neighbourhood, withheld his presence, and Sir Stafford Northcote had to play the great part. He was grateful for the progress of Con- servatism since the Reform Bill, grateful to the Conserva- tives that we do not now live either under a despotism or a republic, grateful that we have still a House of Lords, a representative House of Commons, and a pure and established Protestant Church, and especially grateful for Wednesday division lists. After dinner it is easy to be grateful to any one, and still easier to be grateful to ourselves; so that we do not much wonder that in Sir Stafford Northcote's mind the subject and object of gratitude seemed to mingle. But Sir Stafford Northcote forgot, in his profuse gratitude, the condi- tion sine qua non of all this Conservative life and progress— the Reformers and the Reform Bill. Conservatism is tole- rated and cherished now, because its selfish spirit was so signally and fearfully defeated then; we only need another long spell of its actual rule to reduce it to a like plight.

The latest report of the Lancashire distress shows a sub- stantial, though not yet very large improvement. The re- turns include a report of the condition of 529,395 operatives, or more than a million people, as each operative supports one other person. Of these, 245,718 (nearly half) are out of all work, 163,929 on short time, and 119,748 in full work. Calculating that each operative has, on the average, one other mouth to feed, this shows that for the operatives wholly out of work there are 491,436 persons dependent on public charity ; among those on short work who can now only sup- port one, instead of two, there are 163,929 also so dependent; in all 655,365 persons now wholly dependent on public aid. Still the report is much improved. The report for the last week in November was much less complete, and that showed that, among 490,000 operatives embraced in the investiga- tion, there was a weekly loss of wages of 164,000/. Now, in a much completerreturn of 529,000 work-people, the weekly loss is only 168,000/. The decrease last week in the number re- ceiving parochial relief was 3,911. It is generally admitted in Manchester that the supplies of cotton are enough to give an average half-time work for the present year.

Fewer and fewer men who have had a University training now care to enter the priesthood of the Church of England. More than half the new ordinations of the diocese of Lichfield, and nearly half those of Winchester, were ordinations of "literates," as they are called, that is, of non-University men. The explanation commonly accepted is, that University men see better paid careers before them, and will not enter a Church whose wealth bears daily a less and less proportion to the wealth of the general society in which the Church is encamped. No doubt the extremely bad provision for the great mass of the lower clergy is a great reason for this indisposition, but by no means, we imagine, the chief reason. The main reason we take to be, that the University man finds it less and less possible to accept the metaphysical theology of the Articles; that he feels in a generally false position in being expected to defend much that he only half believes, and not a little that he does not believe at all; that he is too honest to use intellectual violence with himself for the sake of interest,

and generally too secular-minded to go very deep for the sake of truth. In great measure, it is the fault of our foolii.hly complicated formulas,—in great measure, too, the indifferent- ism of a sincerely secular age.

Boulogne, like Marseilles, goes in very heartily for the complete repeal of all restrictive navigation laws. Its Chamber of Commerce demands the right of registering as French vessels all vessels built in foreign countries, the sup- pression of maritime conscription, and of all charges result- ing from it on the merchant navy, the lowering of tonnage dues, and the simplification of all custom-house operations. The demands of the Chamber go far beyond the Napoleonic idea of free trade, which excepts from the area of that science all postulates embarrassing to the duration of his dynasty, and therefore, of course, to the convenience of his navy.

The Record has discovered a new immorality in the system of Sunday Excursion trains,—that the Railway Companies gain by them, and donut arrange them merely for the benefit of the working classes. The Bishops think them " temptations to spend the Lord's-day in dissipation," but the Record dives into the conscience of the directors, and pronounces them sinful because the companies profit by the traffic. If, then, the directors asked no fare at all, that is, if they did not present any obstruction to the excursionists, but made a present of the journey, their consciences were free. Here is a curious ethical contradiction—the Bishops measuring the sin by the amount of obstruction removed, and the Record by the amount of that railway gain which depends on the obstruction retained. The Bishops apparently think the sin lies in the reduction of fares, and the Record in the existence of fares at all. We take the truth to be, that, if it is not wrong in a working man to spend Sunday in Brighton, it is not wrong in a railway company to furnish him the means of going, and, if so, cer- tainly not wrong to gain by his going. The farmer gains by the growth of his corn on a Sunday, as Providence not on■y permits, but causes that growth. We cannot see the force of the new objection, which appears to belong to ascetic ethics.

Mr. Pope Hennessy continues his petty attacks on the Italian commerce with no more scrupulousness than he has recently shown. That the British Italian trade is not so pros- perous this year as last is perfectly true,—but the decline in our exports to Italy is nothing like the decline in the British exports to Prussia, for example, whom he will not accuse of being governed by a revolutionary power. Of course as our cottons arc very dear, Italy takes less of' them, and the fact, though true, is scarcely significant. In the meantime, the portion of Italy to which our export trade has largely in- creased, even this year, is the part relieved from Papal super- vision, the Romagna. What is, however, anything but credit- able to Mr. Pope Hennessy is, that while be tries to throw discredit on Mr. Bonham's report of the increase of South

Italian trade, by printing the following return, First 3 months of

1861. 1862.

Tonnage. Tonnage.

Sicilian vessels cleared from ports of the. United Kingdom 8,065 2,941

he does not give the confirmation of Mr. Bonham's statement which we find in the much more valuable return of the whole eleven months, though it must have been before him.

Vessels entered inwards and cleared outwards with cargoes from and to Eleven months ended 30th November. 1860. 1861.

Tonnage. Tonnage. 1862. Tonnage.

Sardinia. Entered 29,567 .. 41,825 ... 53,975

Cleared 165,728 ... 222,643 ... 276,216 Two denies. Entered 63,369 ... 65,607 ... 66,449

17

Cleared 99,313 ... 96,624 ... 125,107 Mr. Hennessy will scarcely assert that this indicates a falling off in commercial activity. The same return for Austria is of a very opposite character.

The following is the latest state of the English and principal Foreign funds :—Consols are 93 931 for Money, and 931 931 for Account. The New Threes and Reduced are 93 94. Exchequer Bills have risen to 12s. and 17s. prem.; and India Spar Cents., 108/ 1081. Old Turkish .6 per Cents. are 85 85f ; ditto, 1858, 71 711; ditto, 1862, 68 68+. Egyptian, 2nd issue, 9443 951. Greek, 161. Mexican, 32. Moorish, 971. Peruvian New Loan, 891 891. Por- tuguese ditto, 471. Russian ditto, 95/ 961. Spanish Passive, 241 24; and ditto, Certificates, 91 91. Consolid6s are 40 401.