NEWS OF TFIE WEEK.

FDR all that has been heard of her this week Denmark might have been submerged as well as conquered. The single fact which has arrived is that the negotiations will be carried on at Vienna, and direct between Denmark and the two invaders, without assistance from Europe. Nothing is officially known of the terms suggested, but one rumour affirms that Herr von Bismark will be contented with personal union if King Christian will only declare himself an absolute Sovereign ; a second asserts that the basis of the peace will be the cession of the Duchies pure and simple to Austria and Prussia, and a third, supported by a diplomatic note from the Austrian Foreign Office, suggests that Schleswig may be united to Holstein without entering the Confederation. There are objections not yet removed to all three,—to the first because Prussia wants profit as well as victory, to the second because Holstein cannot be ceded to anybody without the consent of the Diet, and to the third because Germany intends that both sides of the harbour of Kiel should be in the Confederation.

The task of dividing the spoil already perplexes the German confederates. Prussia wants the Duchies, and Austria is unwilling she should have them ; the Diet wishes to add them to the list of small States, while the German Liberals will hear of nothing except the elevation of the Duke of Augustenburg. The " Tur- ners," as they are called, have held a meeting at Kiel, and resolved that he ought to be supported by the bayonet, while the discontent between Hanover and Prussia has risen to such a height that on the 22nd inst. the Hanoverians in Rendsburg attacked the Prussian outposts, and compelled them to remain under arms all night. Prince Charles has accordingly demanded and received sole charge of the fortress, General Hake on the part of the Diet protesting but submitting to force majeure.

The murderer of Mr. Briggs has been discovered, though not by the acuteness of the police, and turns out to be a Franz Muller, a working gunsmith of Cologne, who emigrated to Eng- land nearly two years ago, and has since lived as a journeyman tailor. His motive was to obtain possession of Mr. Briggs' watch, he having lost one in a broil. The clue was given to the police-by a cabman, whose attention had been attracted by the description of the hat left in the carriage. He had bought the hat for Muller, and the murderer before departing for America, which he did on Thursday night, had given the cabman's child the box which had held the chain purchased from Nr. Death. Other evidence described elsewhere was found at his lodgings, and on Tuesday an inspector of police, with Mr. Death and the cabman, started by the mail steamer for New York, where they expect to arrive four days before the Victoria, the sailing vessel in which Muller had taken his passage.

Another colonial war. Rumours of a very ugly kind have been received at Cape Town pointing to another Kaffir invasion, Krell and his tribe being disturbed in mind by some prophet or other. The rumours are so far believed that troops have been sent to the frontier, but they are not yet certain. Meanwhile the Colonial Office, not having enough upon its hands, has annexed a tract of territory called No Man's Land, to the great satisfaction of the colonists, who as they do not support the army decidedly approve of increase to their possessions.

The news fron the United States this day week was somewhat

startling. On the 7th July the Conned rates under Ewell again invaded Maryland, and on the 9th ha I defeated General Wallace's troops hastily got together on the lUonocacy River, and isolated General Sigel on Maryland heights, opposite Harper's Ferry. The Confederates were said to number 23,000. There seems, however, to be no disposition in the North to weaken General Grant. General Hunter, with some 10,000 or 12,000 men, was in the rear of the Confederate force, making his way east from Parkersburg, and the levies in Pennsylvania and Maryland will be quite enough to protect the States against further inroads. Balti- more is commanded by the gunboats. There is no further news from General Grant, who was preparing to bombard Petersburg. In Georgia the Federal General Sherman had again had a great success. He had occupied Marietta and Kenesaw Mountain, and only the Chattahoochie and about eight miles of country separated the invading army from Atlanta, the capital of the State.

The most serious news from the North is perhaps the state- ment,—which needs confirmation,—that Governor Seymour of New York had seized the moment of the Confederate invasion to quarrel with the Federal Government. There is a dispute between General Dix and the State authorities about the suppression of the World newspaper for publishing a forged proclamation of Mr. Lincoln's. Governor Seymour has, it is said, called out 75,000 State militia, in view of this emergency, and prohibited them from leaving the State even at the order of the Central Government. If this be true Governor Seymour must, we should think, be a traitor in collusion with the Confederates. It is very doubtful, however, if, even with the aid of the New York mob, he would exercise any influence as Governor in the State after being guilty of such treason.

Rev. Isaac Dodgson, Perpetual Curate of Lanercost, Cumber- land, and the Rev. Simcox Lea, of Trinity Parsonage, Stepney, have both written to the Times to protest against being numbered amongst the Oxford declarants, their names having been attached to the declaration without authority. This throws a delightful ambiguity over the whole transaction. To how many men of the eleven thousand does the same remark apply? Our able contem- porary the Globe suggests that the pious individuals who drew up the declaration reasoned thus with regard to clergymen who had not answered their circular :—" All pious clergymen wish to sign the declaration : the Rev. Isaac Dodgson is a pious clergy- man : therefore the Rev. Isaac Dodgson wishes to sign the Oxford Declaration," and accordingly appended his name. Or perhaps the committee think that the little book of Oxford declarants will be the authority as regards the clergy men of the present day from which the Book of Life will be ultimately compiled, and kindly give the benefit of the doubt where there is one. If so, we may look for some considerable corrections.

At seven p m. yesterday evening we received the following telegram from Stafford :—" To the Editor of the Spectator, —A foreigner fully answering the description of Muller, on his way to Liverpool for America, is in custody here charged with the murder of Mr. Briggs. When spoken to about the murder he cried. Is dejected. Refuses refreshment. Sir Richard Mayne has been telegraphed to."—We do not know the writer, and this may be simply one of the hundred hoaxes perpetrated on the police. It is, however, just possible that it may be true —peoplenot- paying cash for hoaxes usually—and we consequently publish it.

The Sheffield Daily Telegraph states that Isaac Watson, a servant with Mrs. Harrison, Driffield Wold, was summoned before two clergymen and a lay magistrate at Driffield charged with not attending church on Sunday, being directed by his mistress to do so, and ordered by the magistrates to attend some place of worship and pay expenses, fls. 6d. The only law under which, as we imagine, such a step would be defended, is one that fines a servant for refusing to obey any reasonable order of his master that would be a part of his service under the contract. Can an act which is performed for a man's own benefit, and certainly not for that of his employer, be included in that class? We shall have servants summoned next for the neglect of spiritual exercises imposed by employers, or fined 9s. 6d. for a mental state inconsistent with the injunctions of their master or mistress.

The Leeds Intelligencer narrates a case of persecution almost in- credible in the present day, though it would have been far from

remarkable twenty or thirty years since. In the village of Harden, two miles from Bingley, it is said that Messrs. Samuel Watmuff and Co., mohair spinners and manufacturers, have given about seventy of their bands their choice between leaving the Church school and Church service or losing their employment. Mr. Watmuff is an Independent, and till lately the Independents and Methodists ruled alone in Harden. Since then a Church school has risen into considerable popularity, and this appears to be the method adopted to put it down. We suppose a manufacturer has as much strict right to limit his choice of workmen to members of his own denomination as to limit his visiting acquaintances in like manner, but we should hope a manufacturing establishment which declined recruits from outside the Independent body, would soon find itself more independent in religion than in means.

The great Wimbledon Prize Meeting of 1864 ends this day with the distribution of prizes and the review of the Volunteers by the Commander-in-Chief. The shooting has not, on the whole, come up to the standard which many recent trials have led us to look for now when crack marksmen meet. It is said, however, that the mirage on the common consequent on the great heat has been very baffling, and more than sufficient to account for this slight falling off. With all allowances and deductions, where else in the world can such shooting be found? There have been two new features in the shooting,—" the Coming Man," and the " Owl Shoot- ing." The former,—a dummy figure of a man, which appears for ten seconds and then disappears behind the butt,—is a most useful device, testing rapidity and accuracy of firing combined as no former trial has done. The owl shooting is in our opinion a dangerous and bad joke, and we hope to see it discontinued next year. However willing volunteer markers may be to risk their lives, the Council have no right to allow firing after dark on any pretext. The gulf between small-bore marksmen and the rank and file who shoot with the rack rifle for the Queen's Prize becomes more marked every year. To us proficiency in the small-bore shooting, depending as it now does almost entirely upon mere out- lay, seems of the least possible value, while it is scarcely possible to over-rate the importance of good shooting with the common service weapon. The Camp has been wonderfully harmonious and successful, and may be looked upon now as an established and most popular institution.

A deputation went up to Lord Palmerston yesterday week from the wise " Society for the Obtaining the Cessation of Hostilities in America," which was accompanied by Mr. Spence, the Con- federate agent, who gravely assured Lord Palmerston that " the voice of Europe could not fail to have its influence." Lord Palmerston agreed, but thought the influence would not be in the right direction, and quoted,— "They who in quarrels interpose,

Will often wipe a bloody nose r

not, he said, that he was afraid of that calamity, but he thought in- terference would only increase the determination of the North. We think he is right, and would recommend "The Society for Obtaining the Cessation of Hostilities in America" to reconstitute itself into a 4‘ Society for Removing the Causes of Hostility in America,"— .not perhaps an easier, but at least a more philanthropic task.

The first stone in the Thames Embankment was laid on Wednes- day, and is expected that the work is to be finished by 9th March, 1868, when, according to Mr. Cowper, it will present a magnificent promenade by the river, having as the principal object at one end St. Paul's, and at the other the Palace of West- shinster.

Sir Charles Wood has brought in a Bill allowing surgeons from the Queen's army to volunteer into the Bengal medical service. This is, in fact, to abolish the competition for these appointments, as the surgeons' appointments at home are given direct. The com- petitive system has broken down, surgeons will not apply, and there are fifty vacancies already in Bengal alone. The Lancet says the profession will be very indignant at the change, but we fear their wrath is dictated by a motive other than a fondness for competition. They believed that the break-down of the service would compel the Government to offer higher pay, which has been

refused with somewhat remarkable obstinacy. It is, we believe, fair enough in the higher grades, but too low for the first few years. A man who has any chance at all in England will not go to India for 4001. a year and no particular prospects. He is just as well educated as a civilian, whose average pay from first to last is just 2,000 a year.

Lord Palmerston has recovered a little from the effects of his victory on Friday fortnight. Mr. Osborne on Monday raised another debate on our relations with Brazil, and the Premier did not tell him, as he did Mr. Fitzgerald on a previous night, that he was an ignoramus. On the contrary, he blamed Mr. Osborne for "provoking an angry discussion," and thought he should best perform his duty by abstaining from details ; " which would lead me to say things which the honourable member would again con- demn;" and he carefully abstained therefore from saying anything except that negotiations were going on through Portugal. Lord Palmerston's friends will trust that this pleasing improvement may continue, and that by next session he will have so completely recovered as to be aware that a habit of snubbing without reason all who may differ with him does not add either to his popularity or the dignity of debate. Mr. Gladstone, too, needs the same lesson, his remark about the " confusion of ideas always remark- able in Mr. Lygon at that hour of the evening" being slightly too American or colonial.

Mr. Maguire on Tuesday brought up the old question of the foreign duty on rags, which he said exposed English paper manu- facturers who had to pay it to an unjust competition with foreigners who had not. Mr. Gladstone disputed his statements as to the decay of the general trade, but it seems clear that a section of it is in great distress, that the manufacture of miliboards is disappearing from England, and that rags free of duty would be a great relief. The truth of the whole matter is that the Foreign Office when arranging commercial treaties always forgets these things,—what should Mr. Hammond know about millboards 2—and there is no commercial earfiapper kept on the establishment. There ought to be, for diplomatists will never attend to any office but their own.

An exceedingly rich goldfield has been discovered at Wake- marina, within thirty-five miles of Nelson, New Zealand. It is stated that several claims yield 18 On. per week per man, say 721., and two diggers took out in two hours 15 lbs. of gold, say 7201. That story looks very apocryphal, but it is certain that the field is very rich, that the gold lies near the surface, that there will be a rush to Nelson from all parts of Australia, and that wages, provi- sions, and clothing are rising with unprecedented rapidity.

We publish a curious letter from our "Yankee" correspon- dent, expressing a bitterness against England in the matter of the Alabama which seems to be generally felt in New York. We need not say we do not agree with him. The owner of the Deer- hound at the utmost only helped a prisoner of war to escape,—an offence, if it Was one, against Captain Winslow, not against interne. tional law. As to surrendering Captain Semmes, would our cor- respondent in the same position have done it ?

Lord Francis Douglas contributes to the Times a curious piece of evidence as to the conduct of German officials to English travellers. In travelling from Dresden to Prague, at Bodenbach he was asked for his passport by an official, who quietly tore it " into about a dozen pieces" before his eyes. No explanation was given either by the official or the bureau, but at the bureau they tried ineffectually to paste it together again, and gave up the bits. The Germans in his carriage advised him to lodge a complaint, but Lord Francis says he has done nothing but lodge complaints ever since he arrived. These German gentlemen are evidently so often conscious of their nation's iniquities that they break out into rage against any individual of a nation that has spoken or thought of them as they deserved.

The Society for the Preservation of Infant Life held a meeting at the Freemasons' Tavern on Wednesday, and passed resolutions advising the repeal of the present law of affiliation, and the establishment of a hospital in which pregnant women might be confined without questions asked, and maintained as long as the child requires suckling, or "maternal support," as the worthy movers phrase it. Dr. Lankester, the coroner, was in the chair, but the speakers were little known to the public. The plans sug- gested seem calculated to keep many illegitimate children alive at the price of rapidly increasing the manufacture. To increase the legal allowance would often be most just to one class of mothers, but then it would remove a strong fear from

another class which ought also to be taken into account. A lighter but certain penalty would check infanticide most rapidly, the mothers relying on the excessive reluctance of juries to convict on the capital charge.

The King of the Belgians, whose health seems for his age to be comparatively excellent, is on a visit to the Emperor Napoleon at Vichy, and it seems to be understood that his journey has some political end. According to one account, his object is to recement the British alliance with France; according to another, he has been requested to give his advice on the succession to the Mexican throne, his son-in-law being childless. As the adviser of the Coburg family, and the only King in Europe since the death of Frederick of Denmark who is sincerely Liberal, the old monarch possesses an influence which Napoleon is precisely the man to feeL It is to be remarked that the demi-official papers of Paris are inces- santly talking about the Emperor's " perfect health," and that His Majesty seems to avoid work very studiously.

Mr. T. P. Cooke, the well-known actor in nautical parts, left a fortune of 25,0001., out of which 2,0001. is bequeathed to the Royal Dramatic College, the interest to form an annual prize for the best drama on a nautical or national subject.

Sir Charles Wood produced his India budget on Thursday night in one of his baldest and most disjointed speeches. Most of the statements are as obscure as if they had been drawn up in the Calcutta Treasury, where they used to make mistakes of a million or so in adding up the figures, but one statement is intelligible enough. In the year ending 30th April, 1859, the deficit was 14,000,000/. ; in 1860 it was 10,000,000/.; in 1862 it was 50,000/. ; in 1863 the surplus was 1,870,0001.; in 1863-64 it was 257,0001.; and on 30th April, 1865, it is expected to be 823,000,0001. Nothing can be more satisfactory than that statement, and nothing worse than the way Sir Charles Wood put it. lie really almost deserved Mr. Grant Duff's very unusual outburst. In the opening of his speech (vide Times of Friday, page 6, col. 5) he stated distinctly that "in the year ending 30th April last the sur- plus was 257,0001.," while immediately after (Times, same page, col. 6) he states that there is a surplus of 800,0001. What is the use of a speech like that ? Sir Charles Wood continued to pour out an array of " facts," the most remarkable of which were that India was remarkably prosperous, and that there was extra- ordinary distress from the price of grain, which has about doubled, each member connected with India uttered his pet little crotchet, and then the House, which had been nearly empty all through, dis- persed. The whole scene was thoroughly discreditable to the House of Commons, which pretends to control the Indian Secretary, and will not oven compel the production of the budget in decent time.

Mr. Gilpin has proposed a Bill to authorize the Metropolitan Board of Works to provide for the houseless poor by levying a rate of athird of a farthing in the pound for that especial object. We presume they will be housed in asylums for that special purpose, according to the plan approved by the committee of inquiry, and detailed in our columns a fortnight since. It is calculated that the expense will be about 4,0001. a year ; but this is a mistake, as the asylums once open will be filled by a class who now will not, in their hope- lessness of decent treatment from guardians, sleep out without complaining. Even, however, if the cost proves three times as great the houseless poor of London will be lodged at a cost equal to one farthing in the pound on the rates, or one twentieth part of a single first-class English income. If the House rejects the proposal, it will deserve Mr. Osborne's savage nickname, the " Rich Man's Club."

An extraordinary case of libel was tried on the 16th inst. at Salisbury. One Cooper, solicitor, of Salisbury, some fifty years of age, in 1854 seduced Susan Rhoades, daughter of a tradesman in the town, under promise of marriage. She had a child, but he re- fused to keep his promise, and settled 99/. a year on her instead. He paid this for one quarter, but then compelled the poor woman to bring an action every quarter, and recently sent a circular to the magistrates of Salisbury affirming that she had given birth to another child pot his. There was no foundation of any kind for the libel, and the jury gave a verdict for 1,0001., chiefly, it would seem, as a punishment for his utter heartlessness.

The scientific men are emulating the clergymen, and getting up a declaration to themselves. A Mr. Herbert M'Leod, who dates from " Royal College of Chymistry, Oxford Street," has just issued a declaration to his scientific friends for signature, which is exceedingly incoherent in style and curiously hypothetical in sub- stance. It begins by stating that it is impossible for God's Word written in the book of Nature and God's Word written in Holy Scripture to contradict each other, but omits to assert with the Oxford Declaration (what, however, it obviously assumes) that every word ascertained to belong to the Bible is God's word. It then goes on to assert a confidence, which very fewscientific men can feel, that eventually on scientific subjects the two different authorities will lea found to agree minutely. And at the conclusion this rambling docu- ment breaks into general exhortation to the world not to believe in any seeming difference; " rather leave the two side by side, till it shall please God to allow us to see the manner in which they may be reconciled." In other words, science having decided that (practically, at least) all our light proceeds from luminous suns or reflecting moons, and the first chapter of Genesis asserting that light was created some days before the sun, moon, and stars, we are to " make believe very much" that the two statements will one day be reconciled, and the Bible proved to have implied, with- out disclosing, truth, which was uniformly misunderstood until we learned it from other sources. But this, if it proved anything, would prove not that scientific truth is part of revelation, but that there was no error about it in the mind of the revealer,—and this is, we fear, the secret terror which these foolish efforts are meant to lay to rest. They are more than half-attempts not to vindicate the revelation, but the Inspirer of Revelation, from the imputations of their own fancies. Sir David Brewster's name is the only one of much scientific note,—and that not the highest note,—signed to the declaration.

The New Zealand Loan Bill has at length passed the House of Commons, after drawing forth a variety of almost malicious im- putations on the motives of our colonists in that island, both in the House and out of it. The war, it is said, is a mere war to extort land and to make the fortune of the contractors. The lives of the settlers were never in any danger—(though numbers of them, by the way, were murdered),—and the war was a wanton act intended to inaugurate a policy of extermination. These are in effect the charges uttered by grave politicians such as Mr. A. Mills, Mr. W. Martin, in the House of Commons, and the Times newspaper. In reply Mr. Cardwell and Mr. Chichester Fortescuo have really borne earnest as well as honest testimony to the abso- lute inevitability of the war, and the excellent conduct of the settlers. So far from the policy being one of extermination for the natives, we observe that in Taranaki (in the neighbourhood of the worst and cruelest Maori tribes, and where the murders have been most horrible and wanton) a native policeman called Creed has just been so strongly sustained by the magistrate in the discharge of his duty to an English settler, that the latter was imprisoned for two months with hard labour for an assault of no aggravated kind upon the former. The reason given for the severity of the punishment was expressly the necessity at the present crisis of upholding an equal justice between the two races.

On Saturday last Consols closed at 90i for money, and 90i 91 for account. Yesterday they left off at 90/ for transfer, and 901 for time.

The stock of hnllion in the Bank of England has fallen to 13,171,561/.

Yesterday and on Saturday week the leading Foreign Securities left off at the following prices :—

Greek Do. Coupons ..

•

Friday, July 15.

• 251 .. Friday, Ju'y 2Z

241 -ea

Mexican

291 ..

29 Spanish Passive • • ..

211 281 Do. Certificates ..

101 10 Turkish 6 per Cents., 1868..

• •

72 72 1802..

691 611 „ Consolides..

• •

511 801

Subjoined are the closing prices of the leading British Railways yesterday and on Friday week

Caledonian ..

Great Eastern ..

Great Northern ..

Great Western.. ..

Lancashire and Yorkshire London and Brighton London and North-Western London mid South-Western London, Chatham, and Dover Midland North-Eastern, Berwick ..

Do. York .. West Midland, Oxford

0.•

Frlday, July 16. 125 51 140 72 1191 107

lie

981 40 1081

1881

98 45 Friday, July 22. 125 481 140 701 1181 106 1101 991 45 1371 1071 94 45

I