gottign anti Colonial.
FRANCE.—The political news from Paris is not important this week ; the most stirring fact being the accession of the Archbishop of Paris to
the opponents of the Government scheme of "secondary instruction." The Archbishop and four of his suffragans have signed a memorial on the subject, conveying censure on the King, and the Ministers who support it. The Archbishop has hitherto kept aloof from the agitation, and his joining it occasions some uneasiness.
In Committee on the Secret Service Money Bill, M. Guizot had announced that Mr. Pritchard, the English Consul at Tahiti, had been recalled by the British Government.
The correspondent of the Times accounts for the diversion of atten- tion from public affairs-
" Politics are for the moment suspended in public regard by the new and all- absorbing pursuit—the Polka—a dance recently imported from Bohemia, and which embraces in its qualities the intimacy of the waltz with the vivacity of the Irish jig. You may conceive how completely is 'the Polka' the rage from the (I am assured) fact, that the lady of a celebrated ex-Minister, desiring to figure in it at a soirée dansante, monopolized the professor par excellence of that specialite for three hours on Wednesday morning last, at 200 francs the hour. This is an unfortunate diversion for the war-party ; whose subscriptions for the sword of honour for Admiral Dupetit Thouars will be put hors de combat by this fascinating novelty."
SPAIN.—The last revolution in Spain is expiring : Madrid advices to the 7th instant announce that Bonet, the leader of the insurrection at Alicant, had made a sortie; the townspeople surrendered the place to the Queen's troops. Bonet fled.
Queen Isabella, accompanied by her sister and her Ministers, left Madrid on the 6th, for Aranjuez, where she is to meet the Queen- mother. Among the preparations for the reception of Queen Christina in the capital, was the erasure of all inscriptions relating to the revolu- tion of September.
A conspiracy is said to have been discovered at Madrid, the object of which was to place some fulminating-powder and other combustibles in the road through which the Queen-mother and her daughters would make their entry into the capital. Several arrests have taken place, and a depot of arms and ammunition has been discovered.
The expedition against Morocco, if ever really intended, has been abandoned.
PORTUGAL.—According to the letters of the 7th instant, the little re. volution is in a state of ludicrous stagnation. Count Bomfim was besieged in Almeida with 400 men : five generals surrounded the town with rather a numerous force ; but they were nnprovided with guns ; and the facetious chroniclers say that the besieged and besiegers could only spit at each other ! Bomfim had magniloquently declared that he would rather perish in the ruins of Almeida than surrender ; but a battering-train, on its way from Lisbon, was expected to alter his tone.
ITALY.—The last letters from Italy are full of accounts of' the armed bands which have of late reappeared in the Appennines and in the low- country on the coast of the Adriatic; and it is said that all the troops the Pope has at his disposal at Bologna are not sufficient to prevent the nightly depredations to which that city is exposed. The Duke of Modena, who is greatly alarmed by the reports circulated of an expe- dition prepared by the emigrants, has demanded assistance from Austria.
UNITED STATES.—The Hibernia steamer, which left Halifax on the 3d instant, arrived at Liverpool on Wednesday morning, with intelli- gence from New York to the 29th February. The political news is of small moment. In the Senate, a resolution, requesting the President to give notice to Great Britain for the termination of the convention for the joint occupancy of Oregon, was still under debate. A bill had passed Congress, returning to General Jackson 1,000 dollars, the sum that he was fined for illegally proclaiming martial-law during the last war with England. Interest was allowed, making the whole sum 2,700 dollars ; which had been duly remitted to the General.
Mr. Nicholas Biddle, the well-known financier and President of the *United States Bank, had died at Andalusia, some say of what is called a broken heart. He was descended from a family that emigrated with William Penn ; and his father took a leading part in Pennsylvania as a Revolutionary Whig, during the war of Independence. He leaves a widow and several children.
But the most startling event was the terrible accident on board the monster-steamer Princeton, at Washington. Captain Stockton, the commander, had invited about four hundred ladies and gentlemen to take a pleasure-excursion down the Potomac, and see fired the enor- mous gun that carried ball weighing 230 pounds. Among the company were, the President, all the members of the Cabinet except Mr. Spencer, several Senators and Members of Congress, and a large circle of the Captain's private friends. The gun was fired, and sent its ball some two miles ; the company feasted, and all was hilarity and admira- tion. On the return home, at the request of Mr. Gilmer, Secretary of the Navy, the gun was let off for the third time. The request was fatal. The gun was fired, the breech exploded, and five persons were killed on the spot—Mr. A. P. Upshur, Secretary of State, Mr. Gilmer, Mr. Virgil Maxey, of Maryland, Commodore Kennon, Chief of the Bureau of Construction, and Mr. Gardner, of New York. Henry, a Black ser- vant of Mr. Tyler, died of his wounds in ten minutes after. Captain Stockton, and about a dozen of the seamen, were much hurt. The President had just left the place to attend some ladies into the cabin. The daughter of Senator Woodbury was standing so near to the wounded gentlemen, that her dress was spattered with blood. A piece of the gun went through the hat of one gentleman. Mrs. Gilmer wit- nessed her husband's death ; and ladies related to Mr. Upshur, Com- modore Kennon, and Mr. Gardner, were on board, but were kept in ignorance of the fatal result until the return to Washington.
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