_ NEWS OF THE WEEK.

A. NEW contest has arisen out of the Montalembert case: the Emperor has stolen a inarCh .iipong the convicted patriot, by par- doning him ; but Montalembert retaliates by declining to be pardoned. This is a contest in which power must win : the Count cannot force the Janissaries to take him to prison ; and it is possible that the pardon may bar his appeal. Even the at- _tempt4:lenfency may soften the moral effect of the sentence ; -but the whole proceeding is, per se, injurious to the Emperor, his Crown and dignity. The trial indeed has been a small affair, calculated to have large results of the kind not intended. All the arrangements of a French court for suppressing reports of the proceedings have proved inadequate to put down the natural genius and utterancy of the French people. A Ber- ryer cannot have a padlock put upon his lips ; and when a Berryer has spoken, the French people must hear him. Accord- ingly, reports of his speech, with its stinging antithesis, its cogent innuendos, and cutting omissions, has found its way, first by piecemeal, and ultimately as a whole, into English papers, and no doubt by this time into numbers of French families through- out the whole realm. An attempt was made to cut off the supply of English reports for French consumption by a general seizure of English papers at the agents and reading-rooms; and our own was sacrificed on Sunday last amid the general host of our eonteinpotary literature. By this act the Government confesses that it dares not let the country know what it does, nor what neighbours think of it. And now, when all has been done,— when the Count de Montalembert has been tried before a police tribunal for a pamphlet in praise of England, and has been con- demned to a paltry punishment, the Emperor releases him by a paltry act of calculating magnanimity, probably under the ex- pectation that the sentence of the court will frighten some, while the generosity will stifle the individual and exceptional Mon- talembert. If it is a pardon, pure and simple, obviously it leaves the subject of this new infliction perfectly free ; the pardon only compensating the sentence, and not the outrage of arrest and trial, which still remains the debt of the Emperor to his brilliant creditor. Perhaps the pardon was accompanied by some whis- pered, implied, or unseen conditions, which account for the re- jection. For example is Montalembert free to leave the fron- tiers of France, in order to receive the public dinners here in lieu of the subscription that he has so properly declined ?

Mr. William Hudson Guernsey has been arrested and accused of purloining that despatch by Sir John Young to Mr. Labou- ebere which found its way into the columns of the Daily News, and so surprised the world by its publication. Mr. Guernsey was a private friend of a permanent servant in the Foreign Office, lie had held some employment in the Turkish Contin- gent, and was known as a hanger-on somewhat discontentedly looking for more employment. Not obtaining satisfaction, he is accused of using the opportunities, afforded by admission into the office and isis friendship with the Su„b-Librarian, to steal one [WiTH MONTHLY SUPPLEMENT.] copy of Sir John Young's despatch ; and he certainly did send Rich a copy, under an official envelope, with his own personal voucher, to the Daily News.

Our readers cannot have forgotten so soon the manner in which many Liberal papers fastened upon this disclosure of so confidential a document, to assail Lord Derby's Government mad Sir Edward Lytton in particular. The explanations which emanated from the Colonial Office were treated as weak inven- tions, and were assailed with witticisms intended to convey very grave charges. Luckily the actual culprit has been traced, and the offence is proved to have been an act of personal treachery —a mere offence against the police laws ; and thus party purpose has been frustrated.

Another publication has taken place in the Ionian Islands, where, through the Senate, extracts of a despatch by Sir Edward Lytton, Secretary of State for the Colonies, have been given to the public. The effect is more distinctly to mark the limit of Mr. Gladstone's mission ; which is simply to ascertain whether the state of the relations between the Ionian Islands and the protect- ing state, Great Britain, cannot be improved ; leaving the poli- tical position of the island under the settlement of 1815 in stain quo. Mr. Gladstone may obtain useful_information ; but we strongly suspect that it will tend far moreto corroborate 'Sir John's suggestion, than to satisfy the smaller requirements Of the Government. Evidently the Ionians want to be quit of us, and we want nothing of the Ionian. Islands, but just the one station which Sir John Young pointed out, and which we are not likely to relinquish, even if we should give any reluctant Corflotes the opportunity of exchanging places with any mem- bers of the British party who may reside in other islands.

The Prince Regent a Prussia has auto-photographed hiMself and his official attidutle in a somewhat cloudy sipecch, ivhielr ren- ders his position "as clear as mud." Vague, circumlocutory, and metaphorical as his expressions are, it is quite possible to gather what his purpose is. He intends to usc the power which he receives from his royal brother, and from the circumstances of his authority, to keep in check extreme parties on both sides,— both the Kreuz party with its Absolutist sympathies, and the thorough-going Liberal party with its Commonwealth tendencies. The Prince stands up for the Crown, and for the greatness of Prussia through her army, and is for defying any who would break with the past. In fact he looks forward to an eternal Prussia, with an eternal "Frederick William" at its head—a prospect which phy- siology itself is likely enough to disappoint. But he confesses in this speech that several improvements are demanded—reinforce- ments of the Army for one ; railway extension, more liberal grants for education, &c.; and he undertakes to maintain the Evangelical Union against the orthodox tendencies of some Lu- therans and the encroachments of the Papistical party. For all these arduous missions, the Prince, as most men do, needs monek ; and he confesses that the Government has been kept short of caeh because it did not make concessions in modifying taxes proposed at former meetings of the Chamber. Here therefore, the Prince admits the true ground of Ministerial responsibility ; and if the Prussian section of the Anglo-Saxon family can understand all that is involved in this admitted holding of "the purse-strings," Prince William may be allowed to retain his prized partnership with the past, but the Prussians will learn how to use the lever of self-government.

Italy claimed our notice last last week,. for the many signs of internal agitation which pervade the whole peninsula, from the Alps to the toe of the boot. Coaiiderable importance has been given to a speech which King Victor Emmanuel is said to have addressed to some of the principal officeri of his army, say- ing, " Gentlemen, let us be prepared, for it may happen that next spring we shall again have to smell gunpowder." In this country, the expression has been taken to betray the fact that Sardinia is braving Austria : it seems to be forgotten that the preparations of Austria which menace the independence of Bar- dinia,—inerease of fortifications and of armies in the Lombardo- Venetian kingdom on the frontiers of Pied mont,—have been in- creasing, and have not been checked by any remonstrance from

the Western powers. the Other band, It is a fact, not to be

kept out of sit, that„frona, whatsoever commercial motives, Russia has now eababliihed herself as a friend mut tenant on, the -territory of King "Fletori Etnmanuel—a, most peseerful fiend, a Most valuable tenant,—to whose friendship we have abandoned our ,generous ally of the Crimea!

he Indian telegraph reports diverse marchings and counter7 macchings,-which the peculiar orthography of the telegraph ren- darsiekceedingly obscure ; and even if we could make out the movements it would be difficult to gather any net result, except in one case. Tantia Topee, again defeated by Colonel Michel, has nianaged to escape, and to cross the Nerbtidda—so far de- feating the aims of those who intended to keep him to the north of it ; and he has entered the Sindwarra country, a mountain irtiet of 'land some 160 miles north of Nagpore. The great ob- 'Vet was to keep him from entering the Deccan ; but it is re- , ported that he had sent in a message, inquiring what terms would be given to him if he surrendered. This offer is most likely to be met in a handsome spirit ; for the rebel has shown a good deal of gallantry, and it is of the greatest military import- ance to put an. end to his stratagems.

The discontent of Sir Jung Bahadoor appears to assume more importance as the reports become more specific. He is said to have conceived a dislike to the Resident at the court of Nepaul, ,Colonel Ramsay ; a gentleman who early in the mutiny put him- self rather prominently forward, by recommending certain move- ments of the Nepaulese commander ; movements which Lord Canning was compelled alternately to disavow and adopt. It is now understood that Jung Balaadoor finds the proceedings of Colonel Ramsay, who will not allow himself to be forgotten, in- convenient and disagreeable. If the objection turns upon any policy which Colonel Ramsay enforces, the question must lie be- tween Jung Bahadoor and Lord Canning ; if the objection is personal, surety there ought to be no difficulty in recalling the Resident.

Lord Derby shrinks from the responsibility of adopting the quasi Britiah colony of Sarawak. After having encouraged Sir James Brooke, after having supported him in giving a British character to the territory which was intrusted to him as Rajah by the native Sovereign, the British Government has retracted ; and, leaving the settlement to its fate, has declined to include that amongst the list of British colonies. It was at one time supposed, from various collateral circumstances, that the Rajah had secured the patronage of Lord Palmerston, by whose friends Sir James was surrounded. The inconsistency, such as it is, is no more chargeable against the present than the late Government. What Lord Derby is answerable for is, sustaining his negative po- tition by strange arguments about colonies being burdens on the mother country, the necessity of reducing their number, and the policy of falling in with the rule of abnegation proper to declining states. If we need an outpost in the Levant, undoubtedly we should have derived considerable advantage from an additional outpost in the Indian Archipelago, where our commerce is increas- ing amid barbarian enemies and doubtful allies.

The traits of London life presented in the current news of the week would be congenial food for the satirist. The Bishop of London has collected an immense congregation by the first of the special services at St. Paul's ; a large half of the congregation remaining outside to enjoy its disgust at the regulations which disappointed it of admission, and to hallow the Sunday evening by the groanings of English resentment against "the authori- ties." The Sunday thus celebrated by the orthodox Prelate divided the seven days in which our new Marriage Court was absorbed by the squabbles of the Reverend Mr. Marchmont and his bride ; a tale of the commonest and coarsest conjugal bicker- ing terminated by the verdict of a London jury, which pro- nounces marital harshness towards an irritating wife to be such " cruelty" as justifies separation. This is an entirely new view of the marriage state as determined by public opinion.

Mr. Charles Pearson, surrounded by Mayors, Members, mid other distinguished persons, convenes a great meeting to have another talk about the underground railway which is to relieve the street traffic of London city ; these periodical eclogues be- tween the railway lover and his Chorus usually ending in talk. Almost on the same day, the Saloon Omnibus Company holds its meeting to consider how it should carry on the fight against the General Omnibus Company ; the war between the two adding to the obstruction and confusion of the streets, and cynically con- trasting the present of our thoroughfares with the orderly future pictured by a Charles Pearson.

Mr. Guernsey, the habitué of the Foreign Office, appears at the Police Court to answer the charge of purloining the Ionian de- spatch, the entertainment at Bow Street being in itself a satire

on 'the mixed society which club nd its ha ).-%, • am*tiniieets.' a Ira'romurmurth

U e. miak a wi ne ld ig

ingl comment on the Thaelorray anc11-Tates- affair ; and Z. Thaokeray is still assailed by. strictures because Mr. Yates ha, not made the apology which might bring the dispute to a close; Mr. Thackeray, of course; being ttnnhIe to assume the initistin since the Club has taken the matter into its own hands.

There is a report that her Majeisty's Theatre will be Opened next seasim under a, combinationl'of'llond Street powers; while the rising of the new AdelPhi Theatre is a great fact ; the nes building, it is said, affording some approach- towards the pre_ Visioh for that luxury without which the London public will not go to the theatre. Even its amusement, like its Divine Senices, its journeyings, and, its club-life; must be convenient, or it will have none of it.