41,,* The Editors cannot undertake to return Manuscript in ail case.

NEWS OF THE WEEK.

fpliE Volunteer Review of Easter Monday was marked by an I exceptional catastrophe. The weather,—which was so bad that the Volunteer Brigadiers dismissed their men, who were only recalled by peremptory orders from the Duke of Cambridge,— destroyed the training brig Ferret, 8 guns, which had at the time some 86 boys on board. Early in the morning, about 4.20, she was dashed against the pier, and received such injuries that it was necessary to haul up the lads upon the pier, a feat happily accomplished without loss of life. The sea continued to strike the brig against the granite with tremendous force, and by 10.30 had crushed her to atoms, her timbers being, it is said, broken up into pieces scarcely larger than firewood. So excited did the spectators become by the spectacle of the wreck, though there was no one on board, that dozens rushed into the water, and two at least were saved with the greatest difficulty, the waves carrying them off like boards.

There is certainly some advantage in having a Royal Commander-in-Chief. Only "an exalted personage" could have exercised the decided will which saved the Volunteer gathering at Dover from being an utter failure. Thanks to his energy and the spirit of the troops, a very creditable success was achieved. Military critics indeed find grave fault with the manoeuvres; and it was certainly obvious even to a non-military spectator that the front line of the attacking force, as it was formed at the foot of the ramparts, exposed to the guns of the Castle and to a raking fire from the defending army, must have been annihilated in five minutes. The sham fight was probably as unlike as possible to the real thing, yet the movement of masses of men even in counterfeit of advance and retreat, the quick volleys of musketry, and the artillery duel between the Castle on the one side and the fleet and field guns on the other, gave one an idea of what the "powder-fever" may be. Altogether, the spectacle was a fine one, and, what is not often the case, could be seen to perfection.

The House of Commons re-assembled on Thursday, and Sir R. Collier moved for a Special Commission to inquire into corrupt Practices at Norwich, which had been reported by Baron Martin as extensively prevalent. He particularly wanted to find out, he and, where the money came from. Mr. Read opposed him, alleging that the corrupt were very few ; but Mr. Hardy terminated the debate by declaring that whenever a judge reported corruption as extensively prevalent he thought a commission ought to issue. It will, therefore, be held, as will one at Bridgwater, where also the judge condemned the borough. Mr. Hardy's speech was a great public service, for it established a precedent which will make it the interest of decent electors to punish bribers. They will regard them as men who are endangering the existence of the borough.

The important interview between Shere Ali, the Ameer of Afghanistan, and Lord Mayo came off at Umballa on the 28th and 29th ult., each ruler visiting the other, and the Ameer paying the first visit. Umballa had been selected because it was the most northerly point touched by the Viceroy on his way to Simla, and he did not therefore advance a mile out of his way to meet the Ameer, who, on his side, has come 500 miles from his territory. On the return visit the Viceroy presented the Ameer with his own sword, and declared that the British Government would always prove his friend. We have endeavoured to explain the significance of the meeting elsewhere, but may mention here that the Russian journals declare, quite truly, that Afghanistan is, during this alliance, a protected state. It is not only protected, but subsidized, the Government having promised the Ameer 110,000 a month, and paid it for some months.

The Protestant shrieks are beginning in Ireland. Dr. Alexander, the Bishop of Derry,—an able man, in favour of whose elevation to the Episcopal Bench we said our word heartily, and from whom we vainly hoped for sense and moderation at least,—characterized Mr. Gladstone's Bill at Londonderry last week as "written unreason, written tyranny, and bearing the stamp of falsehood." Ile called its treatment of the curates,—which is very equitable,—as "the very atrocity of tyranny." He asserted that a voice was rising in England which would some day "call to solemn account the statesmen who perpetrate this wrong and this insult to the Reformed Church and the Protestant religion." And lie denominated the Liberal majority "the brute majority." It is of no more use to reason with a man in this condition of mind than to cast pearls where we are told not to east them ; and we, for our parts, do not believe that any set of men who are so evidently incapable of calm Teason and judicial opinion as this, will be severely, though they may be solemnly, judged, for outbursts so silly and mischievous. lint if ever the voice of which Dr. Alexander speaks does call the statesmen who are passing this measure to solemn judgment, it will call the Irish Bishops who are BO violently resisting it to a judgment quite as soleinu,—and the Bishop of Derry, with all his groat intellectual gifts, will hardly be one of those to be beaten with the fewest stripes.

But Sir Joseph Napier perhaps may claim to belong to this last group. This worthy but fanatical person made a speech last week in Dublin, in which he described the Irish Church Bill as "bristling with iniquity." Mr. Gladstone "began with the property of the Church ; so they did at the French Revolution. They would soon raise a cry for the abbey lands and for the confiscated lands." "lie would call these things by their right name and he would say this conduct was perfidious in Great Britain,—gross and perfidious,—the Irish people were the victims of a set of political brigands," &c. The measure had "all the recklessness of the robber, and the meanness of the thief." "lie owed all he enjoyed," he said finally, "to the Protestants of Ireland." Evidently. What a pity he does not owe them a little political sanity. Only he would never enjoy that.

In Dublin this week steps have been taken for a great Diocesan Conference, to consider the prospects of the Irish Church. The preliminary meeting was presided over by the Archbishop of Dublin, and was by him exhorted to moderate and charitable

language. Unfortunately, he had himself set a different example, by speaking of the Government as protting the Irish Church, as seizing it by the throat with one hand, that it might be unable to speak, and robbing it with the other. The former metaphor is intended as an attack upon the Government for refusing to call together the old Convocation of the Irish Church, an assembly in which there would have been clergy only, without laity, and, therefore, no real representation, as his Grace himself discovered, for he went on to remark that good had come out of the refusal' by securing the co-operation of the laity,—as if that were not the very object of the Government. The delegates for the Conference consisted of 290 clergy of Dublin and Kildare, and as many laymen. Each ten delegates were to elect one member of the Conference, so that there would be twentynine clergy and twenty-nine laity elected. 'rho Conference will assemble next week. At the general meeting the speaking was alternately temperate and violent. The Archbishop himself declared that this was no step towards the election of such a

"Church Body " as is mentioned in Mr. Gladstone's Bill. He entirely repudiated any preparation for the success of that Bill. The organization was made solely to resist it. Several of the speakers showed tolerable self-restraint. The Hon. Mr. Plunlest, however, was very fiery, threatening rebellion, in no ambiguous language, if it were to pass.

At Navan, in the diocese of Meath, the Church meeting was far more sensible and moderate than anywhere else, thanks apparently to Lord Dunsany, ])r. Brady, and the Rev. Mr. Treuch. These speakers were all opposed to the policy of no-surrender, and some of them heartily in favour of disestabliehment and disendowment ; and they seem to have been listened to. The Bishop of Meath was low and despondent, but not violent. He treated the result as melancholy, but inevitable.

The Elections in Hungary have terminated in the victory of the Deak or Liberal party, which will have a great majority, but have brought to light a very noteworthy feeling in the country. The large proprietors were all on Desk's side, and the peasants on that of the Reds, and it is asserted that promises of great agrarian change were frequently made by the latter. The large proprietors still own the woods and the uncultivated land, and it is probably these which the extreme party has promised to divide, that LS, if it has made any such promises at all. It is curious to note how the land question, or rather the maintenance of great properties, is coming to the front in every country except France, England, and Austria. In Spain, Italy, Hungary, Russia, "more land" is everywhere the cry of the peasantry, and it is about the land only that Socialist doctrines really take hold of the people. But for emigration this would yet be the first social question of Europe.

The Cuban insurgents have forwarded a letter to President Grant begging him to recognize the independence of the island. They say (March 1) they have control over two-thirds of the island and a majority of its population, that General Dulce has ordered his soldiers to refuse quarter, and that they are only doing what the mother country has already done. The House of Representatives has backed this request, and the Naval Department has strengthened its West India squadron as if it expected hostile action from Spain. It is still doubtful if the American Government will divest itself so completely of all moral ground for complaining of the recognition of the South as a belligerent, but as far as Congress is concerned the irony of the situation is already complete. If the House is right, France and England were still more right, for they did not go nearly so far.

The New York Times publishes an account of the expenses of living in New York, which scarcely justifies its claim to be considered the most expensive city in the world. The writer calculates that a mechanic, with his wife and three children, cannot live decently on less than 64s. a week in curreney, equivalent at the existing exchange to 42s. a week in gold, which seems high ; but then he allows 151b. of meat a week, 2s. gd. for butter, 9s. for rent, and 7s. for clothing, all in gold. We doubt if a mechanic in London who gave himself equal allowances in those respects could live for much less. It appears also, from a table of prices, that the best meat is 14d. a pound currency, and turkey 10d., cheese 11d., sugar 7d., and butter 2s., from all which one-third must be deducted to reduce the figures to gold. With the partial exception of butter, the prices are little higher than in London. It is stated, however, that mechanics, unless they belong to very limited trades, do not earn the necessary 17 dollars a week, and that distress in New York is very great. Taxation and protection together have doubled prices, while wages have not risen above 60 per cent., and there is less work to do.

Sir John Lawrence's peerage, which we described last week, has been gazetted.

The Spanish Constitution has been laid before the Cones, but its particulars have been very badly summarized. Apparently it provides for an hereditary king with a suspensive veto, a small Senate elected for 12 years by the Provincial Councils, and an Assembly chosen by universal suffrage for 3 years, establishes a state church but allows toleration, and guarantees the liberty of the press. Moreover, it allows the Cortes to propose alterations, though they must be followed by a dissolution. Apparently this draft establishes constitutional monarchy, but we note a curious omission. Are ministers to have seats in the Chamber or not? If not, the

King, possessed of a suspensive veto and absolute right of choosing and dismissing Ministers, will be stronger than the President of the Union.

It is asserted that the English Bishops will not vote in the House of Lords on the Irish Church Bill,—the only dissentients from this course being, according to the rumour, the Bishop of Gloucester and Bristol (Dr: Ellicott), the Bishop of Lichfield (Dr. Selwyn), and the Bishop of Peterborough (Dr. Magee). Of course it is very desirable that the English prelates should not excite any unnecessary prejudice against the English Church, by a reactionary policy on this question, but we confess it seems to put the political functions of the Bishops in great jeopardy. Aa it is they never speak on politics proper, and if they are not to vote, for a nearly opposite reason, on great ecclesiastical measures, what use are they in the House of Lords? If we might make the violent hypothesis that we were Bishops, and had a strong view either way on this great question, we confess that the present editors would feel their inducement very strong to repudiate abdication at such a crisis, as Dr. Ellicott, Dr. Selwyn, and Dr. Magee,— we fear all of them on the wrong side,—are said to intend doing.

Three elections in the place of unseated members have come off this week, and the Liberals have lost a seat in Dumfriesshire, where Sir Sydney Waterlow has been narrowly defeated by Major Walker by a majority of 36,—Major Walker polling 1,117 votes, and the Liberal caulidate 1,081. At Hereford the result was unchanged, two Liberals, Colonel Clive and Mr. Hoskyns, being returned by much increased majorities over Sir R. Baggallay and Mr. Arbuthnot. At Preston also the result was unchanged, the Conservative candidates, Mr. Hornby and Mr. Fielden, being returned by increased majorities over Mr. Potter and Mr. John Morley. The only way to make political agents and parties feel the danger of intimidation or bribery is that proposed originally by Mr. Disraeli,—to seat the candidate highest on the poll against whom no such illegal practice is proved, if he has gained a fixed proportion of votes. If you make bribery or intimidation lead to the triumph of the enemy, it will soon become unpopular.

Lord Stanley delivered yesterday a striking address to the Glasgow students, as their Lord Rector, on the intellectual advantages of the "temperate zone of life," equally removed from poverty and luxury,—taking as his peg, of course, that the Scotch Universities are so much attended by comparatively or even absolutely poor men. He was vigorous against the idle classes. "In joro conscientim, he thought a scrupulous and high-minded man would always feel that to pass out of the world in the world's debt, to have consumed mach and produced nothing, to have sat down, as it were, at the feast, and gone away without paying the reckoning, was not, to put it in the mildest way, a satisfactory transaction." Lord Stanley attacked the position which Mr. Froude virtually endorsed at St. Andrew's, that professional teaching ought to go on simultaneously with general culture. He thought the latter must precede the former, and he took the side of culture against one-sided enthusiasms, remarking that even cultivated apathy,and you might get the apathy without the culture,—had done far less mischief in the world than blind earnestness. He wished for zeal, but not the 'zeal of ignorance.' Lord Stanley is clearly right, and will win Mr. Matthew Arnold's hearty approval ; but he might have said something against what we may call the zealous apathy which culture is apt to produce, the zeal in enforcing Talleyrand's "Paine de zae," or Lord Melbourne's 'Can't you let it alone ?' which is getting to be a mannerism with the cultivated.

The Cape has been visited by a calamity unprecedented in its annals, though not in those of Canada and British Burmah. A severe drought had burnt up everything, and the heat was still rising, when on the 9th of February fires broke out in several places, and in a few hours covered a district 400 miles in length, and from fifteen to fifty in breadth, destroying all houses, trees, crops, cattle, and apparently natives, a few Europeans only escaping by a rush for the nearest river. All cotustries covered with forest and exposed to extreme heat appear liable to these visitations, which have, for example, been repeatedly recorded in the Delta of the Irrawaddy, one of the wettest places in the world.

The Special Committee ordered to inquire into the Postal Contracts made with Messrs. Inman and Messrs. Canard for carrying the mails from Queenstown to America have sent in their report. They find that we are to pay /105,000 a year for ten years for a tri-weekly service, and shall probably lose about /30,000 a year on the postage. They also find that the American Government pays about half as much to the same persons, and that we, therefore, are really helping to pay American expenses. They therefore recommend that the contract should be disapproved by the House .of Commons, unless the contractors will shorten the term. We suppose they are right in principle, as these contracts allow of endless jobbery ; but nothing short of a contract will secure absolute regularity, and we doubt if the public is prepared to dispense with that.

The Bill for the abolition of imprisonment for debt has been brought in by the Attorney-General, and, speaking broadly, does abolish it in all cases except four ; when the debtor intends to fly, when he has been guilty of fraud, when the debt is really a fine inflicted by a competent court, and when the debtor has the means of paying his debts but will not do so. The principle of the reform has been so long accepted that it is scarcely necessary to defend it, but it is said that one inconvenience will be found to attend its working, a great diminution of the credit now granted to the very poor, and particularly to the agricultural labourers, who, for example, cannot by possibility pay ready money for clothes. We doubt, however, if this will be found a serious evil. The butcher, baker, and linendraper of a village do not rely on imprisonment to collect their bills ; but on their own power of refusing further supplies, or, in the last resort, on their customers, furniture. The tallymen only will be ruined by the law, and they dellerve little consideration, half their trade being based on a scheme for selling goods to one party,—the wife or daughter,—and arresting another,—the husband.

The Budget is fixed for next Thursday, and all manner of speculations appear in the daily papers, most of them written apparently with a distinct intention of destroying all hope of a pleasant statement. The writers assume that the income-tax will -come off, apportion the Abyssinian expenditure just as they like, question if the natural increment of the revenue will continue, and wind up by hinting at a deficit. They are either frightening themselves with shadows, or helping the Chancellor of the Exchequer to prepare a dramatic surprise. The revenue of the year ending 30th March was half a million leas than Mr. Hunt anticipated. Next year, supposing all taxation the same, there will be a surplus of £2,500,000 at least from reductions, and there ought to be the usual increment of a million in revenue, making £3,500,000, even if nothing can be done in the way of improving the stamp returns. Mr. Lowe may waste that surplus if he likes by paying the whole Abyssinian bill of £5,000,000 in one year, but he is not bound to do it, and we do not see why he should. The people would profit twice as much by the extinction of the taxes on locomotion.

We observe, by a correspondence in the Morning Star, that the rival issues of Mr. Leland's humorous little work, Hans Breitmann's Ballads, by Messrs. Tritbner and J. C. 'Rotten, which we noticed last week, were made under very different circumstances. Mr. Triibner, who, as we then noted, was the first to introduce this German-Yankee hero to English readers, is the only publisher authorized by Mr. Leland, and publishes from Mr. Leland's own MSS. Mr. Hotten's issues appear without the author's sanction, and, we believe, against his wish, and have consequently been incomplete, Mr. Hotten having access only to such of the ballads as have been previously published in America. Mr. Hotten defends his competition on the ground that nothing but an imperfect copyright, which is no real copyright, can be conferred by the Present system of arrangement between English publishers and American authors,—that the small payments which are all that ean be prudently made in such cases are, in effect, only for "advance sheets,"—and that it is contrary to public interest, and !Ten to authors' interests, to respect as a genuine copyright what is but a poor makeshift for it. But if copyright is a " right " at all in any other than a legal sense, it must derive from the author's moral right to sell his own work on his own terms, and anyone who admits this is clearly morally bound not to interfere with the author's own disposition of it. If Mr. Hotten had applied,—as very possibly he (lid,—to Mr. Leland, offering to pay for this imPerfect copyright, and had been accepted, he would certainly not have thought Mr. Triibner fair in issuing an imperfect rival edition from American sources, and still less in marking as " complete " an edition necessarily incomplete. The London theatrical critics are not apt to be too severe,—indeed, usually they are ridiculously panegyrical,—but they certainly have not done justice to Mr. Robertson's Dreams at the Gaiety Theatre, which, though by no means equal to Caste, is far superior to Home, which was much bepraised. The second and fourth acts are full of lively dialogue and quiet character-painting. No doubt, the sentimental acts, which concern the young German musician's real life, and not his ' dream ' of marrying an English Duke's granddaughter, are poor, and a trifle spoony. But take it all in all, few better pieces have been acted within the last few years. Mr. Alfred Wigan is always good, though here he has not a part which measures his great powers. Miss Madge Robertson acted the hard part of her character, the pleasure in trifling with her music-master, the rebellion against her aristocratic lover's orders, admirably, though she failed in the pathos. Nothing could be better than the manner in which she declared her intention to 'scratch herself ' for the running, when her lover become dictatorial; and Mr. Clayton did the part of that thick-headed, proud lover with very great skill. But why, at a theatre so piquant° in its decorations, so Parisian in its dramatic taste, so well appointed in every other respect as the Gaiety, do they insist on those idiotic burlesques ? No Parisian audience could smile at seeing a girl dressed up as a Norman Count pun, on one leg, about liking the wine, but not liking the quizzin' (cuisine). Probably they would howl.

Sheward, the self-accused Norwich murderer, WAS found guilty on Tuesday, after two days' trial, of the murder of his first wife in 1851, and the verdict has been violently attacked by the press. It must be admitted that the confirmatory circumstantial evidence chiefly amounted to this,—that there was no single circumstance inconsistent with his self-accusation, except the conjecture of the medical men at the time that the limbs and flesh brought to them for examination belonged to a much younger woman than the first Mrs. Sheward, who was 54 at the date of the murder. As Sheward himself retracted before the trial the confession which he had made to the police officer to whom he gave himself up, and which he soberly confirmed the next day, it is asserted that the evidence is inadequate. No doubt it mita almost entirely on the double confession ; but then no attempt was made to show that the man was, or has been since his apprehension, subject to any illusion 011 any other topic whatever, and this could surely have been shown, had it been due to a morbid state of his own fancy. His story was quite coherent, that a visit to the house where he first met his first wife had stirred his remorse so deeply that he could endure his secret no longer, and no attempt was made to show that he had misstated any fact in assigning this reason. There seems no fair ground for a pardon, but it is not likely that Sheward will suffer the extreme penalty of death.

On Thursday last, owing, as some think, to a drain of gold to the United States, the Directors advanced their rate of interest from 8 to 4 per cent. The step was a matter of surprise throughout the City, but some such movement was confessedly necessary to check the outflow of gold. The Consol Market became flat in consequence, and closed yesterday at 921 to 93 for the present account. Foreign Bonds were firm at the commencement of the week ; but, on the decision of the Bank Directors becoming known, a weaker tone prevailed. There has been a moderate business passing in British Railway Shares; but prices closed with flatness Yesterday, owing to a preponderance of sales. There has been a steady inquiry for accommodation, in connection with the payments falling due on the 4th of the month, and the advanced rates have been well supported in the open market.

Yesterday and on Thursday week Foreign Bonds loft off at the annexed quotations :— Yesterday and on Thursday week the loading British Railway Shares left off at the annexed quotations :