NEWS OF TIIE WEEK.

THE American Congress assembled on the 6th inst., and re- ceived the President's Message, 'which we have analyzed in another place. His message is the formal annual one, and touches therefore on such matters as Indian rights and the utility of national banks, of local or temporary interest, as well as on the war. It was received in Congress with loud cheers, apparently on account of the paragraph which advises that body to use its power of amending the Constitution by the insertion of a clause prohibiting slavery. This power exists, though burdened with a proviso that three-fourths of all State Legislatures must accept the innovation.

Dr. Pusey bas been exerting himself in the Times with much learning to show that the Fifth General Council condemned Origen for his heresy about everlasting punishments. Yesterday " Angli- canus " made a final and most powerful reply. He granted, for • the sake of argument, Dr. Pusey's case, and asked what was the Fifth Council that we should care about it? It was not acknow- ledged by the Church of England, except so far as its decisions were expressed in the words of Scripture. It was got together by a defeated theological party, through the influence they exerted over a worldly emperor and an infamous empress. The Pope Vigilius rather than sanction it got under the altar of a church on the other side of the Bosphorus, and clung to the wooden legs till he brought the altar down upon his head. An honest Arch- bishop of Carthage was deposed, plundered, and exiled, because he did not concur with the leading party, and his secretary, forced on , the diocese by bloodshed, represented it at this Council. The Governor of Africa sent the other four bishops of the African Church from the refuse of his hierarchy, "including one who had six years before been convicted of the most scandalous crime at Constantinople." When Vigilius at last sanctioned the Council he could not get it accepted by the Western Church, and only , after a century of severe struggle did the chief churches of Italy accept it. And this is the sort of body that Dr. Pusey wishes us t1.7e

di

acknowledge as divinely guided! Why we should even prefer a

d of Convocation. On the 10th inst. it was reported that Sherman's ad- vance had reached the outskirts of Savannah, but we can scarcely rely on this as yet. General Foster, starting from Beau- fort (South Carolina), had endeavoured to break the Charleston and Savannah railway, to prevent the despatch of troops to Savannah, but had apparently not succeeded. In Tennessee Thomas and Hood were still facing each other at Nashville, and Hood had suc- ceeded in planting batteries to blockade the Tennessee River about fourteen miles below Nashville, which the Federal gunboats had been unable to destroy.

Mr. Cobden has had a correspondence with the Liverpool Financial Reform Association, the principle of whose recommenda- tions for reforming our system of taxes we have discussed at length elsewhere. Mr. Cobden treats its proposal to abolish all Customs duties with a great deal too much deference and respect. He must know how insane it is in his heart, but he wiU approve almost any campaign, however wild, against expenditure. The Liverpool gentlemen say that when a deputation from their body went to confer with the Anti-Corn Law League at Manchester, the depu- ties were asked, "How far do you go?" "For the total abolition of Customs and Excise duties," said Liverpool. "So do we,'' re- plied Manchester,—which was an enthusiastic but childish dialogue. "The Liverpool Financial Reform Association" is a long and digni- fied title for an association expressly formed to cry for the moon:

There is no end to Dean Close and his sillinesses. The other day the proprietor of a circus opened his show in Carlisle, and succeeding in attracting the people, generously offered one night's receipts to the Cumberland Infirmary. The commi,ttee, under the guidance of Dean Close, actually refused the money as wages of iniquity, though the Dean has been taking tithe from the just and the unjust all his life. This week he has been in court in another capacity. One Mr. T. Reynolds, formerly a tailor, now Secretary of the Anti-Tobacco Society, was charged with threatening Mr. C. E. lanes with a prosecution for tobacco smoking unless he paid the rewards fixed by the railway bylaw to the informer. It was held that he had not threatened, but only suggested, and it was stated in court that an offensive handbill which Reynolds issued ' to smokers was written by a clergyman understood to be the Dean. The tract contains this passage :—" The victims of tobacco have an extensive claim on the sympathy of those who have escaped its pernicious agency. 'The night cometh when no man can work.'—Jesus Christ." So the Dean, who will not allow the sick and the maimed to receive aid from publicans and sinners, will use the name of Christ to stir up people against an indulgence which is just as noxious and as beneficial as tea, and in precisely the same way. It was the Mayor of Carlisle, it will be remembered, a great supporter of the Dean, who refused to. honour Shakespeare as a mere "stage-actor."

The state of New Zealand, when the last mail left, was any- thing but cheerful. The colonists were still without a Ministry. The Ilaories who surrendered their land at Tauranga had changed their minds, fortified a pah, and threatened death to the surveyor if he crossed the boundary. The escaped Maories near Auckland have also fortified themselves, and were supplied with provisions, said rumour (of course false, but instructive), by Sir George Grey himself. In Taranaki the tribe of W. King were holding back more peaceful tribes from making overtures to Government by threats,—and Sir George Grey, without any responsible advisers, was supposed to be meditating another rose-water letter to the natives offering them anything for peace. The settlers were discuss- ing seriously the advantage of throwing off the English protection. It would be very costly, they said, to pay out of their own revenues double the sum for a force just half as well disciplined as the Eng- lish force,—but not so costly as having better troops with money help from England, if these troops are never to do what is wanted. For our own parts we think they are right. Unless Sir George Grey is recalled, and active steps taken to prosecute the war and carry out the principle of the military settlements, our restraints will do them far more harm than our aid will do them good, —and we shall lose a colony and abandon a cause. Mr. Chichester Fortescue bowed last week at Maldon that he saw the danger. We wish we could think equally well of Mr. Cardwell.

Also at Maldon last week, Mr. Charles Buxton made an admirable speech on the new Court of Final Appeal. He dreaded, he said, lest the Conservatives should really succeed in their attempt to strike at the liberty of thought among clergymen. The true result of the proposed measure would be, he held, to prevent thought, "to deaden the faith which they sought to preserve." "If they put down all false thought, they would inevitably put down all true thought along with it. There was no alternative. If they gathered up the tares, they would inevitably root up the wheat as well." Of course it must be so. The effect of a stringent law of heresy would be that every clergyman honestly thinking out a theological question would be compelled to ask himself, "Where may this lead me?" If he saw that it might lead him into contravening the new law he would, if a cowardly man, stop thinking ; if a brave man, think on with even morbid fear of being " influenced " by his position,—and in either case probably before long cease to think freely in the Churah. Those who loved their freedom would leave it, and those who did not would lower the Church type of. conscience and intellect. Either way we should reap pure loss and an emasculated clergy.

The Quen of Spain has been beaten in the St. Domingo affair.

After three distinct attempts to form a Ministry, all of which broke down, she has recalled Narvaez, and apparently submitted to terms. No allusion is made to St. Domingo in her speech from the throne which was delivered on the 22nd inst., but it appears to be understood that the war will be abandoned,and Dominica allowed to govern itself, though possibly without a formal renunciation of Spanish pretensions. The acquisition casts too much, and it is said that even when it is abandoned the Treasury will be in such straits that the Emperor Napoleon is alarmed, fearing disturbances in Madrid. The French party at all events, which always exists in the capital, were in favour of giving up the enterprise. It is just possible, though not probable, that we may hear of an attempt to sell the Spanish claim.

It is stated, apparently on good authority, that Herr von Bis- mark has addressed a circular note to Saxony, Bavaria, Wurtem- berg, and Brunswick, the States which voted against the evacuation of the Duchies. In it he states that should the majority of the Diet attempt to exert pressure on any member of the Confederation Prussia would consider herself released from Federal ties, and that she will not in any case allow her policy to be regulated by a deci- sion of the Diet. The meaning of this is that Prussia, if opposed, . will act even against German States not as a member of the Federa- tion, but as a great European Power, i. e., will pursue the " separa- tist " policy so often mentioned in Viennese journals. The signifi- cance of this threat is the greater, because the Diet had already decided that the occupation should cease, and menace was no longer immediately required.

A dreadful accident occurred yesterday week upon the North Kent line. A ballast train of 120 tons was, it appears, moving from Charlton to Blackheath, when the greasy state of the rails forced it to stop in the tunnel. The breaksman to relieve the engine unhooked six of the trucks and left them in the tunnel, and the rest went on to Blackheath. The signaller there seeing them come in telegraphed "All clear" to Charlton, and an express train from Maidstone was consequently allowed to enter the tunnel at full speed. The trucks were smashed up like empty barrels, and five platelayers in them killed on the spot, while about fourteen of the passengers in the express were injured, most of them severely. The tunnel, which is nearly a mile long, filled of course with smoke and steam, and the screams of the wounded, the groans of the dying, the total darkness, the suffocating vapours, and the belief which existed for some minutes that the next train would come crashing in before it could be stopped, all made up a scene of horror unusual even on railway lines.

With such a case as this before us we can scarcely consider a sentence passed by Baron Bramwell on the 17th inst. too severe, Robert Burge was on that day found guilty at Taunton of laying a piece of timber across the rats of the West Somerset Railway. The judge said it was clear the man could have had no object ex- cept a mischievous propensity, but sentenced him to penal servi- tude for five years,—a heavy penalty, yet hardly too great for a crime which involves murder committed for the sake of excite- ment.

The long-expected Bull of the Pope against modern civilization, w,hich was prepared but not issued two years ago, appeared on the 18th inst. It has not yet reached England,, but it is under- stood to condemn eighty separate and distinct propositions, among them the one which affirms that temporal power is unnecessary to the Papacy. The Bishops are ordered to ban and confute all such errors, and the Papacy may therefore be considered to have de- clared internecine war against progress,—which being, as the Pope says, irreligious, will advance notwithstanding the Bull.

The Committee of Finance of the Austrian Reichsrath have arrived at the conclusion that the real deficit on the year is 7,700,000/. They adhere nevertheless to the Protectionist system, which the Hungarians, it is said, are eager to shake off. The latter have to pay excessive prices for all goods manufactured in the German provinces of the Emperor, one among the many causes of their profound irritation.

A bazaar was recently held in Liverpool for the benefit of the Confederate prisoners in the United States. The merchants there being Tories, and having made fortunes by the war, blockade-run- ning, and the rise in cotton, are very Southern, and contributed 17,000/., which was entrusted to Lord Wharncliffe to distribute. Lord Wharncliffe accordingly requested permission through Mr. Adams to bestow the money as intended, but only elicited from Mr. Seward a sarcastic and rather ill-tempered refusal. 'Ile American people, he says, will not regard the money thus ostenta- tiously offered as "too generous an equivalent for the devastation and desolation. which civil war promoted and projected by British subjects has.spread throughout the States." He even affects to doubt if the Confederates have become debased enough to accept such funds, and thinks they will rejoice at being saved "by their considerate and loyal Government from so grave an insult." He winds up of course by calling the rebellion "unnatural and hap- less." He forgets that the rebels had one overwhelming tempta- tion. They ceased to be represented abroad by Mr. Seward.

The libel case of "Travers v. Wilde," in which Miss Travers charged Sir W. Wilde, of Dublin, with rape, and Lady Wilde charged her with extorting the "wages of disgrace," ended in a verdict for the plaintiff, with one farthing damages and costs. This implies that in the opinion of the jury Lady Wilde had been guilty of a libel, but that the plaintiff had very nearly deserved it. From the line of evidence we imagine that had Sir W. Wilde him- self appeared in the box the plaintiff would not have received even so little, but this he omitted to do, though his own point-blank 'denial of the charges against him, could he have made it, would have told heavily in his favour.

The final decree for the transfer of the capital of Italy from Turin to Florence was signed on the 10th inst. The army is being quietly reduced by about 90,000 men, who are sent to their homes on furlough, but can be recalled at a fortnight's notice. General Bixio attacked this policy, and declared that it would be for the good of Italy if Venice cost her a hundred thousand lives. A deputy affirmed that even Cavour had declared Venetia worth 50,000, whereupon General La Remora replied that he at least knew Cavour, "and on the morrow of the battle of Magenta, when he visited the field with me, I saw his eyes full of tears." Cavour in this, as in everything else, was a true Italian, one of the race which will hurt no living thing unless it is in their path, who will spend an army for an adequate object, but regret honestly and heartily every individual wound.

The London Gazette of Tuesday contains the names of the gentlemen appointed to the Middle-Class School Commission. They are Lord Taunton, Lord Stanley, Lord Lyttelton, Dean Hook, the Rev. F. Temple, the Rev. A. W. Thorold, and Messrs. T. D. Acland, M.P., E. Baines, M.P., W. E. Forster, M.P., P. Erle, Q.C., and J. Storrar, M.D. The list is a good one, though we regret to see that it has been arranged so as to exclude any advocate for State aid to middle-class education. The Commissioners are to inquire into the state of all schools not included in the Public School inquiry, and all endowments which are applied, or ought to be applied, to education. We cannot congratulate the Commis- sion on the task before them, some of which will be like examining competitive poets, but the evidence they collect will do good, and probably reveal a state of affairs as respects endowments which will make the country stare.

Sir R. Mayne has abolished "sandwiches." The poor men who walk about with advertising boards have been ordered summarily to give up their trade, and most of the 700 so employed must during winter go to the workhouse. The decree seems excessively hard. Surely a man has a right to carry a parcel if he likes, and if a parcel, why not a board ? and if a board, why not a board with letters on it? Suppose the men wear stiff canvas cloaks with the advertisements printed on them, w4 Sir R. Mayne prohibit that, or does he intend to regulate the fashions ? The poor " sandwiches " might justifiably have been kept moving, but to prohibit them altogether is a bit of unreasonable tyranny towards both them and their employers. It is an odd fancy for a man like Sir R. Mayne to be Czar of the Streets.

The Rev. J. Gibson, of Abbotehall, N.B., obviously thinks himself a much better Christian than his Master. He attended on Wednesday a meeting at Kirkcaldy called to put down goods trains on Sunday, and, other opponents being scarce, made an onslaught on the English Press, declaring that if they called Sabbatarians Pharisees, Sabbatarians might call them the "viler sect of the Saddueees." He liked neither, but of the two he thought the Sadducees much the worst. His Master apparently did not, for it is remarkable that throughout the Gospels they alone among Jews are left uncondemned. Mr. Gibson must be a very stupid poison, or he would not when trying to raise a laugh against editors have missed the point that Scribes and Pharisees are always condemned together.

An incident, said to be without precedent, has occurred at bereen, Cork. A priest, the Rev. Daniel Collins, has been in effigy by a Roman Catholic population. It appears t 'b- eret t Sir

Collins, who gained a great reputation during the famine for his untiring exertions on behalf of the people of Skibbereen, had de- nounced the Fenian.a from the altar, and aided the. magistrates in punishing the administration of unlawful oaths. So the good folks whom he had fed burnt him in effigy as a traitor. The incident will probably serve to convince the Irish Catholic Bishops that it is their interest to put down treason, lest it should per- chance put down them instead of the Britisfi Government. They are already alarmed, and talk loudly of the " Mazzinian element" in Ireland. If they intend to be loyal, as we believe Rome warned them to be years since, they will greatly simplify the work of " regenerating" Ireland.

The Times seems to take a positive pleasure in displaying its ignorance of the facts of the war in Georgia. It has once asserted that Sherman was besieged in Atlanta, contrary to the fact ; it has asserted that Sherman, besieged in Atlanta, and unable to retreat upon Chattanooga, began a retreat upon the Atlantic, in the face of the fact that when he began his offensive campaign no Confederate army capable of keeping the field was within a hundred miles of his army 1 The Times has again said this week, "We know that his (Sherman's) apparent rashness is excused by the fact that Sher- man was unable to retreat on the way by which he came." Now, what really took place ? Hood crossed the Chattahoochee and moved north upon Sherman's communications, that is, upon the way by which Sherman came. Leaving a garrison in Atlanta, Sherman moved out after Hood along the way by which he invaded Georgia, and to such purpose that Hood, after reeling back from -a dash at Allatoona and holding Dalton for a moment, found himself obliged to leave the way by which Sherman had come quite clear, and make his own way across country to Gadsden. Sherman, who could not retreat or advance as he pleased, according to the Times, actually followed on the track of Hood as far as Gaylesville. There he halted till he saw Hood committed to the project of invading Tennessee, when he resolved to invade Georgia, for while the defence of the vital points in Tennessee was provided for, Georgia was uncovered from the mountains to the sea by the eccentric march of Hood. It is beneath the dignity of the Times and the place it occupies to try to save the Confederates by falsely de- preciating their foes.

Mr. Fessenden's report is, on the whole, more favourable to the Northern finance than was expected. With regard to the past year ended 30th June, 1863, the receipts have been far above the -estimates, and the estimates for the current year ended 30th June, 1864, show—if we reckon five dollars to the pound sterling, which is of course now not true, but may be fairly assumed at least as a measure of the power of the country to bear taxation- -that the North will raise this year 80 millions sterling by tale- tion alone and without loans. For the year ended 30th June, 1863, the account shows :— REVENUE WITHOUT LOI•NS.

Estimates. Actual.

Customs £14,512,000 £20,463,000 Lands 87,000 117,000 Internal Revenue 15,518,000 21,948,000 Miscellaneous 1,328,000 9,502,000 Direct Tax

95,000

£31,445,000 £52,125,000

In other words, the North raised without loans .a revenue of 21 millions sterling more than was estimated at the beginning of the year. Part of this is due no doubt to an increase of revenue duties, though Mr. Fessenden admits that they have recently done more to decrease importation than to increase revenue, and partly to the "miscellaneous" revenue, which was swelled much beyond what can be expected again. But still the increase of yield in " internal revenue," which includes income-tax, was very great. In the same year Mr. Fessenden raised by loans 123,613,000/., also above the estimate by 5,000,000/. sterling, so that the total revenue raised in the year was upwards of 175 millions sterling. The expenditure was also much below the estimate, which shows how vague hitherto

have been the estimates formed a year beforehand. In the year ended last June the expenditure was as follows :— Civil Service

£551,000 Pensions and Indians 1,503,000 War 138,158,000 Navy 17,146,000 Interest on Debt 10,737,000

.£168,095,000

TI result of the year therefore was roughly (say) that two-

sevenths of the revenue were raised by taxation and five-sevenths by loans, and that there remained a surplus over expenditure of seven millions sterling.

For the current year Mr. Fessenden estimates upon the basis of the first quarter expired in September. He believes the receipts from taxation will be 72,000,0001. without his proposed changes in legislation, from which he hopes to gain 10,000,000/. more, or in all 82,000,0001, while he estimates his year's expenditure at 179,146,0001., leaving some 100,000,0001. to be provicki by loans. He hopes therefore to raise some four-ninths of the current year's revenue by taxation and five-ninths by loans.

Mr. Fessenden tells us that the total amount of the currency proper, that is, notes that do not bear interest, is 400,000,000 dollars, with a reserve of 50 millions more which may be issued at special times,—say in all 90 millions sterling. There are besides some interest-bearing notes some 210,000,000 dollars (or say 42,000,0000, some of which he thinks are partially used as currency, but this can scarcely be so to any great extent. The paper currency of the North may perhaps be said to amount to a hundred millions sterling in nominal value.

The report of the Secretary to the Navy is also one of great interest. He dwells at length on the difficulty of adequately blockading Wilmington or the mouths of Cape Fear River, the two mouths being forty miles apart, and the water shoaly, which will prevent its capture, he says, until the army can co-operate with the navy. Fifty steamers have been employed in this blockade, and Mr. Welles says they have captured 65 vessels, valued at 13,000,000 dollars, or 2,600,0001., during the year. The whole navy consists of 671 ships of 510,396 tons, and carrying 4,610 guns, of which 71 are iron-clads. Since March, 1861, 141 steamers and 62 iron-clads have been constructed. The actual increase in the last year, deducting losses, has been 83 vessels, carrying 167 guns, and having a total tonnage of 42,429 tons ; the deducted loss during the year has been 26 vessels, holding 146 guns, and con- taining A tonnage of 13,084 tons. Since March, 1861, the ton- nage of the navy has been very nearly doubled, the number of guns has been increased more than one-third, and 62 out of the 71 iron-clads constructed, in other words, all the real power of the navy, has been since added. The largest iron-clads are 4,000-ton vessels with 14 guns each.

Although several parcels of gold have been withdrawn for transmission to Alexandria, the return of the Bank of Eng- land is favourable, the stock of bullion having increased by 185,049/. The amount now held is 14,307,7601. The reserve is 9,740,330/., or 146,334/. in excess of the previous week. The bullion held by the Bank of France rather exceeds 14,560,0001., being about 500,000/. more than the supply held last week. The -Directors have therefore Induced their minimum rate of discount to 44 per cent.

On Saturday last Consols left off at 891 -1 for money ; and at 891 for account. Yesterday the closing prices were :—For delivery, 891 j; for time, 891 ft.

Yesterday and on Friday week the leading Foreign Securii,:t.a left off at the following prices :-

Friday, Dec. 16.

Friday, Dec. 23.

Greek .•

••

••

••

221

••

231 Do. Coupons ..

Mexican .•

291

29/ Spanish Passive ..

••

811

821 Do. Certificates

••

••

14}

141 Turkish Spar Cents., 1858..

••

70

701 „ 1882.,

721

721

„ Consolides,• .•

••

471

48

The following were the closing prices of the leading British Railways yesterday and on Friday week :—

Friday, Dec. 16. Friday, Dec. I.

Caledonian .. ,

1811 131/ Great Eastern ..

481 48} Great Northern ..

1a51 1851 Great Western.. ..

7 701 West Midland, Oxford -.

581 59 Lancashire and Yorkshire

••

1161 1161 London and Brighton ..

106 105 London and North-Western

••

1201 191 London and South-Western

••

971 971 London, Chatham, and Dover • •

381 39 Midland .. •

••1

139 189/ North-Eastern, Berwick • •

••

••

114 114} Do. York ..

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1041 1431