NEWS OF TIIE WEEK,

TEIE British Government has given Denmark up to its invaders The expected explanat:on was made on Monday evening by Earl Russell in the Lords and Lord Palmerston in the Commons, the substance of the two speeches being nearly identical. We have analyzed them in another place, and it will suffice to say here that while both Ministers admitted that Denmark had been wronged, and that might was overriding right, both had advised Her Majesty not to interfere. Both concluded with a menace, Earl Russell affirming that if the war changed its character Parliament would be consulted, and Lord Palmerston declaring that if Copen. bagen were bombarded and the King taken prisoner Government would " reconsider " its determination to do nothing. Both Houses received the speeches in a limp, spiritless way, as if not hostile or friendly, but only cowed and passive. Only once was there any sign of excitement, on Lord Palmerston alluding to King Christian's imprisonment, when the House half laughed, half hooted at him. Altogether the scene was one disheartening enough to those who remember that the Ministry which now tells England she is powerless, asks nearly thirty millions for armaments on pretence of making her powerful.

The explanation has been received throughout the country with a feeling compounded of humiliation and relief. The feeling that we ought to assist Denmark is universal, but there is a general dread of the difficulty of the task, and a much more general fear of losses in trade, in shipping, and in income-tax. The latter apprehension seems to influence men to such an extent as to suggest the existence of fatty degeneracy in the tissues of opinion. Society is so rich, and so comfortable, and so contented that it is afraid to do right, lest its courage should involve exertion or expense. The fit will pass, as such fits always do in England, but meanwhile this country has forfeited abroad the little respect she retained after the Crimean disaster. The next Englishman who gets into a dis- pute with a German will probably not be fined, as at present, but flogged as a political nuisance whom no one is strong enough to protect.

On Monday night Mr. Disraeli is to bring forward his vote of censure on the Government. The wording will be found elsewhere, but it regrets the failure of the Ministerial policy of maintaining the integrity of the Danish kingdom, and con,doles with Her Majesty on the loss of influence and the diminution of "secu- rities for peace" which have been the result. Mr. King- lake is to propose as an amendment a direct expression of satisfaction that "at this conjuncture" Her Majesty has not been advised to interfere in the struggle. It is well known that the mass of the Tory party are even more pacific than the Liberals, and Mr. Kinglake hopes, we suppose, to catch some of their votes by giving a more ostentatiously pacific tone to his amendment. It seems highly probable that in some form or other the vote of censure will be defeated, though scarcely any one doubts that it is deserved. But Mr. Kinglake must count on a perfect appetite for humiliation if he thinks • the Liberals will prefer to avow satisfaction at a course of which the best that can be said is, that it is mean but safe.

The Tory meeting on Tuesday at the Marquis of Salisbury's, at which Mr. Disraeli's resolution was read and agreed upon, was by no means one of high hope. Lord Derby was depressed and ashamed of his line ; the mass of the members were at least as much so, and when addressed by Mr. Kerr in favour of giving assistance to Denmark simply in -Red away. There was a sort of feeling in the meeting which Mr. Disraeli half expra -sal on Monday night, that both Lord Palmerston and Lord Derby are playing rather a shabby trick in stealing a leaf out of the Manchester School's book, without leaving Mr. Cobden and Mr. Bright to wear the laurels. If Mr. Cobden were made Prima Minister, Mr. Bright Secretary for War, and Mr. Forster tine Minister for Foreign Affairs, everybody would feel that the only party which is acting fairly up ta its principles in the matter had reaped its reward.

• Lord Hartington explained on Thursday night the true position of the recruiting difficulty. There has been, he says, a falling off in the number of men enlisted for the past three years, but that was because they were not wanted. This year the army will need about 21,000 men, of whom 5,000 will be provided by re-enlist- ments, and despite the hay harvest the men are coming in at a rate which will give 18,366 men this year, or more than is re- quired. The Marquis,—who by the way does the Parliamentary part of his work excellently, answering a dozn questions a night with ease and simplicity,—deprecated any change in the Ten Years' Act till it had been tested, and had either failed or seemed likely to fail. The answer satisfied the House, but it is before a pressure occurs that the reform which may ultimately be required should be thought out.

The Prussians have lost no time in seizing their opportunity. At 2 a.m. on the morning of the 26th, before the armistice had expired, the Prussian batteries opened fire on Alsen, the 64th and 24th Regiments crossed the Sound, the few Danes who garrisoned the island were driven to their ships, and 2,403 persons, principally, we imagine, civilians, were taken prisoners. Batteries are in con- struction at Middelfarht to protect the invasion of Fun en, the Pomeranian division of 24,000 men has been ordered to the scene of action, and it is understood that Funen will be immediately occupied, and of course ravaged. To meet this attack from 110,030 men the Danes have collected about 40,000, half of them raw recruits, and all badly armed, and a fleet which cannot enter the Sound in the teeth of the Prussian rifled guns. The Austrian fleet shows a desire to enter the Baltic, while the Prussians are expect- ing two largo steamers, iron clads as they say, built in America. They calculate that, the Danish fleet once destroyed, they may enter Zealand, and terminate the war by fulfilling Lord Palmerston's prophecy.

The extent of German ambition is, however, most fully revealed in Jutland. When the Conference broke up the envoys assured Earl Russell that Germany sought no permanent conquests in Denmark, but the words had hardly been uttered when the Prus- sians announced that they should occupy all Jutland, levy its revenues like a regular government, and apply them to the main- tenance of the invading army. Turkish pashas, says Mr. Layard, in his book on Nineveh, first demand fowls from the villagers, and then compensation for the damage done to their teeth in eat- ing them. The Prussians recur openly and officially to the practice of making war support war,—a precedent which the next time French horses are stabled in the churches of Berlin will not be forgotten. The act is in reality, though not in form, a breach of the promise made to Earl Russell, and those who believe that Jutland will ever be restored really deserve to be befooled by the Courts which are now laughing at the English imbeciles who think that Kings can in politics speak truth.

The protocols laid on the table of the House of Commons on Monday night by Lord Palmerston are very curious reading. They show much finesse in the German diplomatists, who, while they never make a single concession in fact, always manage to be using the language of concession or compromise. They show a great simplicity, rustic straightforwardness, and even want of tact, in the Danish plenipotentiaries, who, as one of them observed towards the • conclusion of the Conference, suffered considerably from conceding at once and without providing foittaVe.ffe# of that process called the " higgling of the inarkke.011 they aitende..i. to concede, and thus giving an air of obstitiaA:t94heir subseqlvelAt't.,epseity. On all points, of course, the Dandi.114d.lii:ve way, raid is; gelfithex gave way with a good grace, but too64;4.4. :They ga4e*.u.p4t1.1t, right to maintain the bleckade during the stispinsion of arms with: out any real equivalent. And on the main question of all, that of the cession of territory, they complied at once with the terms pro- posed to them by the neutral Powers,--namely, to give up Holstein and South Schleswig to the Schlei absolutely, and to concede Lauen- burg as an equivalent for the mixed Danish and German district of Middle Schleswig. That, however, was not listened to by the Ger- man Powers, who had the advantage of a "Mr. Jorkin,s "in Baron von Beast, who always refused on the part of the Confederation any apparent little concession which Prussia and Austria pretended their willingness to make. The " conciliatory " spirit of the Germans was chiefly shown in this, that while basing their demands on the duty of protecting the Germans in Schleswig, they yet maintained their absolute right to dispose of the purely Danish district from Apenrade northwards, and would only hear of re- ceiving Lauenburg in exchange for that portion of Schleswig ; that is, they demanded compensation for not robbing Denmark of a district where German rule will be a far worse tyranny than the Danish rule has ever been in South Schleswig.

General Grant has crossed the James River with his whole army only 24 hours too late to surprise Petersburg, which is the connecting link between Richmond and the South and about 25 miles south of the capital. On the 15th June General Smith assaulted and carried the outer line of works before Petersburg, taking 13 cannon and 300 or 400 prisoners. Had the rest of the Federal army come up on the same day Petersburg would have been taken, but General Hancock did not come up till the 16th, and in the meantime a large part of General Lee's army had been marched into the town. On the 17th and 18th June the whole of Grant's army was before Petersburg, and probably the greater part of Lee's inside it. Grant assailed it,—three times says the Times corre- spondent,—on the 18th of June without success, and lost 8,000 men killed and wounded in the operation. General Hunter, who had had the daring to advance down the Shenandoah Valley as far as Lynchburg, far from all help and supplies, had been repulsed, say the Confederate papers, on the 18th June, and a Confederate force had been detached by General Lee to look after him. He is probably in some peril. In Georgia, before Atlanta, Sherman seems to be making slow but steady progress.

The Danish Rigsraad or Parliament for the monarchy, including Schleswig, met on the 25th June. The speech from the throne was read by Bishop Monrad, and contained only one noteworthy sentence, an expression of trust that "God might increase the sympathy felt for Denmark in a certain quarter to energetic assistance." The message created little impression, and the Danes, though ready for battle, soem dispirited and nearly hopeless. There is a want of heat in these people, of true revolutionary fervour, which, while it makes them one of the best and happiest of nations, leaves them without resource in overwhelming crises. Frenchmen in the same position would have by this time carried a levy en masse, and set up a reign of terror, very objectionable, but very effective in uniting all exertions, and Englishmen would be passing their lives in drill. The Danes obey every call, and fight for every position, however hopeless, but there is no rush in them.

M. Behic, French Minister of Commerce, is trying to emulate Sir Boyle Roche, and make wine-dealersrut a pint into a pint bottle. Some Bordeaux houses, he says, have bottles blown "of which the bottoms enter into the interior," and so cheat their customers of 20 per cent. of wine. This he calls very justly "a dishonourable practice." M. Behic can stop it very easily if he likes, and so could the British Parliament, which by the way is just in the mood to _attend to the price of its liquors. It is not possible to make bottles uniform, but it is possible toprohibit the making of bottles without a figure upon them stating their contents in ounces. The public , will then know what they are buying, and one sentence on a rich Ig

respectable" wine-dealer for using false measures will soon reform the trade. The honest dealers who are ruined by this rascally form of competition would see to the prosecutions with gusto.

Mr. Gladstone has partly given way as to pensions to colonial governors. In reply to Mr. Cochrane on Tuesday night he pro- mised to consider the question thoroughly and impartially during the recess, and tell him next session how far Government would be justified in going. Why does he not apply the principle of com-

pulsory deferred annuities to all officials, and so get rid of the dead- weight altogether. If a colonial governor or an English tide- waiter is paid his market price he can buy a pension, and if he is not he ought to be. Then the Treasury would know what it parted from.

Captain Winslow, of the Kearsage, has asked for the extradition of the men belonging to the Alabama's crew rescued by the French pilot-boats. M. Bonfils, commercial agent to the Alabama, calmly tells him in reply to ask the French Government, but "is not aware of any law of war which would prevent a soldier from escap- ing from a field of battle after a defeat, even should he have already been made prisoner, and he does not see why a sailor should not do the same by swimming." So clear is the right of rescue, that its counterpart, the right to put prisoners to death if dangerous to the capturing army, has in theory been always acknowledged.

The House of Commons on Tuesday held a debate on horses, which the Times, with a keen appreciation of its readers' intelli- gence, printed in leaded type. Mr. P. Wyndham moved that the grant of 4,0001. a year now made for "Queen's Plates" should be discontinued. The money was given to encourage a good breed of horses, but was now spent on two-year olds. Mr. Newdegate - thought characteristically that railways had spoiled the breed of horses, but General Peel, who like his chief knows a good deal about horses, and has paid for his knowledge, denied that horses had deteriorated. Thoroughbreds were regaining their old size and power, but he was willing if the tax on racehorses, which produces 7,0001. a year, were taken off, to give up the Queen's plates, which is, consideringthat carriers' horses have justbeen taxed, though sensible, not a very generous proposition. Lord Palmerston said he would consider the proposal with the "Master of the Horse," an official discovered for the first time since the feudal ages to be of some use. Admiral Rous in an amusing letter agrees altogether with General Peel, but would like to see the thirty-six 100/. plates lumped together into two big prizes for two long races for four and five-year olds.

Mr. Bass has got his Bill for compelling organ-grinders to move on, safely through committee. An additional clause has even been added to allow magistrates to inflict three days' imprisonment in lieu of fine. Mr. R. W. Crawford, who being accustomed to tom- toms enjoys hurdy-gurdies, thereupon asked who was to maintain the monkeys, to which Mr. C. Bentinck, thinking obvioirsly that poor relations have claims, suggested that they should be kept by the metropolitan members. Mr. Ayrton believed the music was ap- preciated by servants, and wastoldthat anything which kept servant- girls' heads inside the windows was beneficial, and did not make the very obvious retort that even scullerymaids were entitled to enjoy a little air. In spite of the chaff, however, the members who are aware that "street music" is nothing but an excuse for levying' black mail stuck to the point, and carried the clauses against Government by majorities varying from 114 to 35.

Mr. Ayrton on Thursday did the public a service. The House was talking in its easy colloquial way over the expenses of the South Kensington Museum, and Sir G. Bowyer trying to get a chair which he said had been stolen from the Duke of Tuscany,— potentate who ran away with the silver door-handles of the national palace,—restored to him, when Mr. Ayrton asked whether the nation paid officials to blacken their faces and act Mumbo Jumbo before visitors. He informed his amused listeners that one official at least had been compelled to join in that discreditable piece of folly out of fear of Mr. Coles, who got up the mummery. The sufferer had the consolation that according to the printed re- port the Prince and Princess were greatly delighted,—but making the nation pay for performances considered low in a casino is a novelty even in these days, when with war at hand all over the world the House of Commons is only really interested in races, barrel-organs, and Mr. Ferrand's diatribes.

The Democrats have postponed their Convocation at Chicago till August, their policy being to avail themselves of any change in the military events which may furnish them with a popular rival to Mr. Lincoln.

The black troops behaved so well in the assault on the outer works of Petersburg, that General Smith issued a special order to thank them for their gallantry. He told them he was proud of their courage, that they could not be surpassed as soldiers, and that he thought them the equals of the very best white troops. They captured six out of the thirteen cannon taken on the heights. The annual meeting of the Working Men's Club and Institute Union is to be held on Wednesday next, July 6, Lord Brougham in the chair. The report will show what substantial good the Union does, and also, we are sorry to say, how very poor it still is. Fifty-four Clubs and Institutes have been established during the year, and the average of the number of members in each is about 232. The Secretary has attended 109 meetings during the last year, and the society is compelled to remunerate his energy chiefly with acts of mental gratitude. The institute is doing real good, but it stands sadly in need of funds.

The Social Science Association this year is to compensate York for the loss of the assizes. It holds its meeting in that city on the 29th September, as usual under the presidency of Lord Brougham. The Archbishop of York is to be one of the Vice- Presidents, and Sir James Wilde, the Judge of the Court of Probate and Divorce, presides over the department of jurispru- dence. There are many good subjects for special discussion.

Mr. Hunt's motion to-disagree with the amendment of the Lords dispensing with the supervision of ticket-of-leave men was carried triumphantly against the Government, as we ventured to hope, in the House of Commons on Thursday night. The motion was carried by a majority of 45,-129 to 84, and a committee appointed to confer with the Lords on the subject. Sir George Grey, of -course reiterated his so-called arguments against the amendment, which had the very natural effect of swelling the majority.

• A letter in the Daily News of yesterday, which by its ability, its style, and its initials may be easily identified as Mr. John Stuart Mill's, contends with unanswerable force that it ought not to be made a matter of accusation against the Government, that though unable to interfere by arms in Poland and Denmark they have j■et used their moral influence by reiterated protest and even warm denunciations against the injustice perpetrated. That they have freely used this moral force is a sign that they appreciate the moral power of official opinion ; it is a first step" to the practice of bringing international and political wrongs under a moral police by a demonstration of disinterested disapproval." That violent Tories have called some of Lord Russell's and Lord Palmerston's strong language about "iniquitous aggression" mischievous meddling we are aware,—but we have scarcely thought such folly worth an answer. What we do think a subject for grave accusation against the Government is the misleading encouragement they have given to Denmark to hope for something more than moral sympathy, and the idle menaces, like that which concluded Lord Palmerston's speech on Monday night, that under certain contingencies, which to him at the time seemed very improbable, and which he hoped thus to render more improbable, the British Government would probably be induced to take up arms. How much of this there has been in the recent negotiations we have had occasion to show in a separate article. It is not for using just language, however strong, that we blame -our Ministers, but for filling both friends and enemies with vain expectations, which paralyze our influence with the one, make us quite legitimately the sport of the other, and diminish everywhere the significance and weight of English representations.

A letter in the Times informs the public of a new "work of mercy" undertaken by a sisterhood of Anglican ladies in the City road. They have opened a "lying-in ward" for fallen women, and a laundry to give that class employment, and placed a cradle in the porch of their house for babies deserted by their mothers. This effort they believe will tend to diminish the practice of child-murder, which is nearly as common in London as in China. It is a bold attempt to meet a great evil, but we fear it will fail. It is illegitimate babies who are smothered, and the effect of foundling hospitals is simply to increase their number till the crime recommences as before. It would be simpler and more moral to aid the mother, but then it would not be so striking.

The coroner's jury empanelled to inquire into the causes of the Egham accident have brought in a verdict of manslaughter-against the driver and fireman of the following train. The danger signals were all right, but the men either did not see them, or would not attend to them, and ran on.

We perceive it stated that of the 500 orphans now educated at the Duke of York's School, Chelsea, about three-fourths enter the Army, though all are taught trades. Since Colonel Yorke was placed at the head of this school and abolished flogging the education of the boys appears to have become really excellent, and their physi- cal training is-scarcely equalled in England. The Army authori-

ties regret that the school is too small, but why not admit boys who are not soldiers' sons, on condition that they do go into the army ? Nothing would tempt parents more.

The Oxford Tests Abolition Bill passed through Committee on Wednesday without alteration, so that as it then stood it would admit even Dissenters, not only to the M.A. degree, but to a seat in the University Convocation, without any sort of sub- scription. It will be strongly opposed on its third reading, which stood for last night, and we fear that it will find Mr. Gladstone and Sir George Grey now among the ranks of its opponents.

Yesterday week the judgment of the Upper House of Convocation on "Essays and Reviews" was accepted also by the Lower House after a very warm debate by a majority of 20,-39 to 19. The Dean of Westminster made a very able and Canon Wordsworth a praise- worthy speech against the judgment, the only defect about the latter being that, having proved satisfactorily that Convocation ought not to revive its judicial functions, he voted for the exercise of those judi- cial functions for reasons which he did not explain. The Dean of Westminster's speech was masterly. He said he had four great objections to the censure,—that it was ambiguous, that it was undiscriminating, that it was unjust, and that it was nugatory. It was ambiguous because it did not state what doctrines the condemned book had contravened. It was undiscriminating, for it treated a book by various authors and of the most various merits as if it were simple and uniform. It was unfair, because the book was singled out for condemnation from among numbers of books by clerical authors which had appeared during the last twenty years, which were equally worthy (or unworthy) of con- demnation,—amongst which Dr. Stanley mentioned his own life of Dr. Arnold. It was nugatory, because the very object of the cen- sure was to condemn those whom the highest court had acquitted. The most eccentric feature in the debate, however, came after the division. Canon Wordsworth, who had voted for condemning Dr. Williams and his brother essayists unheard, moved, after the censure, that the Upper House should take into consideration his petition to be heard in his own defence. The reverend Canon is in favour of hanging a man first and hearing his innocence proved afterwards. Of course this tardy scruple of conscience was negatived.

A curious trial is coming off at the Lincoln assizes. A married woman of the name of Martha Howell had fallen, it appears, so desperately in love with a young woman of the name of Johnson, living at Gainsborough, that after various fits of wild jealousy and violence caused by Miss Johnson's preference for other companions, she loaded a pistol and gave her her choice between returning to her old friendship or dying on the spot, after which Martha Howell intended to destroy herself. She put too much powder into the pistol, which jerked it upwards, so that though the pistol went off Mies Johnson escaped, but of the intention to kill there can be no doubt. Howell is said to be quite composed and clear in her mind, and to have expressed frequently her regret that she did not succeed, and her perfect willingness to be hanged if she had. Women's enthusiasm for each other is often of a vehement, frothy, and hysterical kind ; but the "your love or your life " sort of passion was, we thought, reserved for another relation.

On Saturday last Consols closed officially at 891 90 for money, and 89i 90 for account ; yesterday they left off at 90 to 00* for transfer, and 90* 1 for time. In the open market the lowest price for the best short paper is the same as at the Bank, viz., 6 per cent.

The following were the closing prices of the leading Foreign Securities yesterday and on Friday week :—

Friday, Juno 24. Friday, July L

Greek 23251 ... Do. Coupons .. .. .. .. .. 101 11

Mexican .. .. .. .. .. .. 421 .. 41

Spanish Passive .. .. .. .. .. 281 .. 29 Do. Certificates .. 10 Turkish 6 per Cents., 1858.. .. .. .. — .. 701

, 1862.. .. .. .. 70 .. 08 x. d.

Consofides_ .. .. .. .. 47i .. 43

Annexed is a table showing the latest official quotations of the chief British Railways yesterday and on Friday week : —

Friday. July 1. . 120 481 1354

68

1161 , 102 114 x. n. 98 421 .. 198 Do 95 42

Friday, June 24.

Caledonian .. .. .. .. 117 • Greet Eastern .. ..

Great Northern .. .. .. 131

Great Western.. .. .. .. GS Lancashire and Yorkshire ..

London and Brighton .. .. 1121 102 London and North-Western .. 111 London and South-Western . • 97 Loudon, Chatham, and Dover .. .. 41 ..

Midland .. .. .. ..

North-Easteru, Berwick .. • • no Do. York ..

1801 • 92 West Midland, Oxford -.

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