The Spanish Assembly elect a government of Republicans and Radicals under the presidency of Señor Figueras.

King Amadeus and the Queen with their children leave Madrid for Lisbon, escorted by a guard of honour as far as the frontier.

13. The Lord Chancellor introduces a measure for the establishment of a Supreme Court of Judicature and a Court of Appeal. The Lord Chief Justice, he explained, was to preside over the High Court, composed of four divisions, representing respectively the Court of Queen's Bench, the Court of Chancery, the Court of Common Pleas, and the Court of Exchequer.

Each of these subordinate Courts was to have, in a general way, jurisdiction in all cases; and there would, therefore, be commenced a fusion of Law and Equity. The House of Lords was to cease from its judicial functions in English appeals, which were to be transferred to the Court of Appeal, consisting exclusively of Judges under the presidency of the Lord Chancellor. But the existing_procedure was still to apply to appeals from Scotland and Ireland; and Lord Selborne abstained from touching the subject of ecclesiastical jurisdiction, this being, as he observed, sui generis, and interfering with it at present would only diminish the prospect of passing any measure whatever.

Mr. Gladstone submits to the Commons his scheme for dealing with Irish University Education. He proposed to separate Trinity College, Dublin, from the Dublin University, and the Theological Faculty from Trinity College, Dublin. The precedent of England was to be followed in drawing a distinction, not merely theoretical, between the University and the College or Colleges in union with it; and the Theological Faculty was to be handed over to the Representative Body of the disestablished Irish Church, with a fund to be administered in trust to the purposes for which the Faculty had hitherto existed. The newly constituted Dublin University was to be a teaching as well as an examining body, though, on account of the unduly sensitive state of the Irish mind, neither theology, modern history, nor moral and metaphysical philosophy were to have a recognized place in the curriculum. The

Governing Body of the University would contain twenty-eight ordinary members, to be nominated in the first place by Parliament; but it was hoped that in ten years' time the University itself would be in a fit state to take its share in appointing its own governors. The University funds were to come in different proportions from the revenues of Trinity College, Dublin, from the Consolidated Fund, from the fees of students, and from the surplus of Irish ecclesiastical property. Trinity College, the Colleges at Cork and Belfast, and, if the rulers of those voluntary bodies thought fit, Magee College, and the so-called Roman Catholic University, would at once become members of the new University, which might hereafter be made still more comprehensive. The scheme was favourably received at first, but latterly gave rise to much hostile criticism both in and out of the House.

He

17.-Monsignor Mermillod expelled from Swiss territory by the Federal Council. afterwards explained that the Holy See had appointed him to the office of Apostolic Vicariat because the Catholics had no longer a spiritual head, and because the form was one always used by the Holy See whenever there was a conflict of jurisdiction and it was desired to pave the way to an agreement. Monsignor Mermillod further declared that the Apostolic Vicariat was in no way identical with the erection of a diocesan see. Secondly, that the measure was temporary and provisional. Thirdly, that it attempted nothing against the rights of the State. Fourthly, that far from closing the pending negotiations between Church and State in Switzerland, it left the door open to every attempt at a treatment of the matters in dispute. The Bishop further added, that there were only three practical solutions of the problem of the relations of Church and State-viz., complete liberty, as in England and America; an agreement in the nature of a Concordat; or oppression. M. Mermillod was afterwards arrested and removed to Ferney.

18.-Joseph Xavier de Lizardi, of Lancaster Gate, examined at the Mansion House on a charge of obtaining 12,000l. by false pretences from Messrs. Glyn, Mills, Currie and Co., in so far as he had handed over as part security a bill of lading for 1,300 quarters of wheat sold some

days previously to another firm. Lizardi afterwards absconded.

18-Explosion at Talke Colliery, causing the death of twenty workmen, all engaged in the seam where the accident occurred.

19.-Dr. Duggan, Bishop of Clonfert, acquitted on the charge of inciting certain Galway electors to attack Captain Trench. This being the third acquittal in connection with the Galway election, the remaining prosecutions were abandoned.

Army Estimates for the current year issued, showing the net charge to be 13,231,400/., and the total number of men 128,968.

The four hundredth anniversary of the birthday of Copernicus celebrated at Thorn in

Prussia.

20.--The Earl of Rosebery moves, but withdraws after debate, a motion for the appointment of a Royal Commission to inquire into the alleged scarcity and deterioration of English horses. Earl Granville suggested a Select Committee as the proper tribunal for making the necessary inquiries, a suggestion afterwards carried into effect.

On the subject of the Athanasian Creed, the Lower House of Convocation of the North66 That inasmuch as Holy ern Province, agree Scriptures, in divers places, doth promise life to them that believe, and declare the condemnation of them that believe not, so doth the Church, in sundry clauses of this confession, declare the necessity of holding fast the Christian faith, and the great peril of rejecting the same. Nevertheless, the Church doth not therein pronounce judgment upon particular persons, the Great Judge of all being alone able to discern who they are who in this matter are guilty before Him. Moreover, the warnings contained in this creed are not otherwise to be understood than as the like warnings set forth in Holy Scripture."

20. Her Majesty visits the Empress Eugénie at Chiselhurst for the first time since the death of the Emperor.

21. The Duc de Broglie reads to the Assembly the report of the Committee of Thirty. The document described the labours of the Commission, its relations with the Government, and the principal alternatives which have excited discussions. It dealt successively with the relations of the existing powers, Ministerial responsibility, the Second Chamber, electoral reforms, and the transmission of powers, and explained the patriotic reasons which induced the vote of the Commission. The report concluded with the projet de loi, and article 4, adopted at the last sitting of the Commission, in the following terms:-"1. The National Assembly will not separate until it has made provision respecting the organization and the mode of transmission of Legislative and Execut.ve powers. 2. Respecting the creation and

The report of the Emma Silver Mining Company (Limited) states that there have been paid to the shareholders thirteen monthly dividends, amounting to 193,532/., while, on finally making up the accounts to the end of Decem-ber, it turns out that the funds available amounted only to 185,658., leaving a deficiency of 7,874. This result was attributed chiefly to the disastrous flooding of the mine in June, and the litigation consequent on the hostile action of the Illinois Tunnel Company.

23.-Died, aged 81, the Rev. Dr. Thomas Barclay, Principal of the University of Glasgow. He was succeeded by Dr. John Caird. 24. Mr. Cardwell introduces the Army Estimates for 1873-4.

The Japanese Government annuls the edict against the Christian religion, and liberates all Christians imprisoned under it since 1870.

Died at St. Leonards-on-the-Sea, aged 70, the Rev. Thomas Guthrie, D.D., Free Church clergyman, and editor of the "Sunday Magazine."

Discussing the new frontier line to the north of Affghanistan at a meeting of the Royal Geographical Society, Sir Henry Rawlinson and Lord Lawrence highly approved of fixing the line of the Oxus, and were agreed that, although invasion from the Attrak valley by way of Persia might be possible enough, on the side of Badakshan it was quite impracticable. Lord Lawrence said it would be "insanity" on the part of Russia to think of the attempt. Sir Henry explained how the doubt had arisen as to whether Badakshan, geographically and politically, had always in reality been subject to Affghanistan. Russia had always believed, or professed to believe, in maps whose falsity has been proved to demonstration. They were based partly on forgeries by a German klaproth, who described, and circumstantially mapped out, a country he had never travelled, partly on charts done in squares by a Chinese expedition; and, as it happened, the particular squares comprising the country in dispute had been turned sideways in fitting them together. Thus a mountain range that actually runs from east to west had been represented as running from north to south.

25.-Opposition to Mr. Gladstone's Irish University Bill. At a meeting of the Senate of Dublin University, Sir Joseph Napier expressed an opinion that the governing scheme was one of the most astounding academic constitutions which it could ever have entered into the head of a man to devise. Mr. Gladstone's

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That the distinguished

description of the University, as in a state of absolute servitude and bondage, from which he was anxious to deliver it, was rather a caricature to excite a laugh than a statement to form the basis of legislation. Dr. Hart proposed the adoption of a petition complaining that the proposal to substitute for the two existing Universities a single central body with a monopoly of granting degrees would lower the standard of Academic attainments, and declaring that the evil would be aggravated by the affiliation of small provincial schools or colleges. The Roman Catholic prelates also held meetings to oppose the scheme, joining in a declaration :- That, viewing with alarm the widespread ruin caused by godless systems of education, and adhering to the declarations of the Holy See, we reiterate the condemnation of mixed education as fraught with danger to that divine faith which is to be prized above all earthly things. proposer of this measure, proclaiming as he does in his opening speech that the condition of Roman Catholics in Ireland in regard to university education is 'miserably bad,' dalously bad,' and professing to redress this admitted grievance, brings forward a measure singularly inconsistent with his professions, because, instead of redressing, it perpetuates that grievance, upholding two out of three of the Queen's Colleges, and planting in the metropolis two other great teaching institutions the same in principle with the Queen's Colleges. That, as the legal owners of the Catholic University, and at the same time acting on behalf of the Catholic people of Ireland, for whose advantage and by whose generosity it has been established, in the exercise of that right of ownership, we will not consent to the affiliation of the Catholic University to the new University, unless the proposed scheme be largely modified; and we have the same objection to the affiliation of other Catholic Colleges in Ireland."

scan

Died, aged 81, Henry Lester Horn, the oldest midshipman in the Navy, having been present with the fleet at Corunna in 1809, and again on a perilous service in Quiberon Bay. His father, Lieutenant James Horn, when stationed at Gravesend, in charge of the pressgang, during the Mutiny at the Nore, performed the hazardous service of carrying a despatch from the Lords of the Admiralty to the admiral, which resulted in the termination of the mutiny, and the re-opening of the navigation of the Thames. For this he received a silver salver from the merchants of the City of London.

26. Died, aged 69, Sir William Fry

March 1.-Collision in the Irish Channel soon after midnight between the sailing vessel Chacabuco from San Franc'sco to Liverpool, and the steamer Torch from Liverpool to Dublin. The captain, pilot, and twenty-two of the crew went down with the sailing ship.

Discovery of extensive forgeries of bills on City houses, discounted by the Bank of England; and a reward issued for the apprehension of Frederick Albert Warren, one of the Bidwell gang.

3. Mr. Gladstone's motion for the second reading of the Irish University Bill met with an amendment by Mr. Bourke, expressing regret that the Government had not stated the names of the twenty-eight members of the governing body. In anticipation of this objection, the Prime Minister remarked that it would be the wish of the Government to select men of the greatest weight to serve on the governing body without reference to their political opinions or to the course they might have taken with regard to the bill, but it would be impossible to ask such men to undertake the duty until the bill had made some way in Committee. If, indeed, they were willing to serve before they knew what shape the bill would take, they would not be fit for the position. That the refusal of the Government to take this course should be made the subject of a vote of censure was a fact worthy of commemoration in parliamentary history. Debate adjourned.

Died, Dr. Robert Buchanan, M.A., late Professor of Logic in Glasgow University.

4. Mr. Plimsoll moves for a Royal Commission to inquire into the condition of, and certain practices connected with, the commercial marine of the United Kingdom, mentioning in connection with his proposal that there had perished at sea in 1868, 2,488 men; 1869, 2,821; 1870, 3,411; 1871, 2,206; making a total of 11,016, or an average of 2,754 lives per annum. Mr. Fortescue, on the part of the Government, assented to the appointment of a

Royal Commission, but suggested such a change in the language of the motion as would point the attention of the Commission to the various causes of shipwreck, with the view of suggesting remedies.

4. After a two hours' speech from M. Thiers, the Assembly votes the preamble of the Duc de Broglie's bill by 475 to 199 votes. "I am," said M. Thiers, "the President of the Republic, and I promised you to restore intact the powers entrusted to me. (Bravos from the Left). I shall not allow it to be interfered with by any interest; but it is an incontestable and undeniable fact that what has been entrusted to me was the Conservative Republic. There are very respectable men who prefer the monarchy to the Republic, but if we speak as honest men, it must be confessed that it would be very difficult at present to establish a monarchy. (A cry from the Right of 'difficult, thanks to you!') Gentlemen, let us have political as we have religious toleration. Political toleration does not mean the abandonment of Faith, just as religious toleration is not apostasy. It is a respect for the opinion of others; it is admitting that a man may serve another form of government to ours without being a bad citizen. Monarchy is impossible, and the definitive and immediate Republic is wanted."

Our

President Grant enters on his second term of office with a message to Congress, declaring that his efforts "will be directed to the reestablishment of good feeling between the different sections of our common country, the restoration of the currency to a fixed value compared with the standard value of gold, possibly to a par with it; the construction of cheap routes, the maintenance of friendly relations with all our neighbours, as well as with distant nations, the re-establishment of our commerce, and the recovery of our share of the carrying trade on the ocean, the encouragement of manufacturing industries, the elevation of labour, and the civilization of the aborigines under the benign influence of educationeither this, or war to extermination. superiority in strength and the advantages we derive from civilization should make us lenient towards the Indian; the wrong already inflicted leaves a balance to his credit, and the question to be considered is, 'Cannot the Indian be made a useful member of society by proper teaching and treatment!' For the future, while I hold office, the subject of the acquisition of territory must have the support of the American people before I recommend it. I do not share the apprehension that there is a danger of governments becoming weakened or destroyed by extension. As commerce, education, and the rapid transit of thought and matter by telegraph and steam have changed everything; I rather think that the Great Maker is preparing the world to become one nation, speaking one language-a consummation which will render armies and navies no

longer necessary.

I will encourage and sup

port any recommendations of Congress tending towards such ends."

4. Sir James Fergusson, Bart., gazetted to be Governor and Commander-in-Chief of New Zealand and its dependencies.

In his evidence before the Select Committee on Endowed Schools, Lord Lyttelton said he held that no man ought after his death to be able to direct the application of his property; "It should be left to the commonwealth to deal with it after a certain time, and so all restrictions in section 19 should be removed. Nothing is more sacred than a trust, but it ought not to be perpetual. The time will come when it will be held to be a superstition that a dying man may direct what is to be done with his property.'

Replying to remonstrances forwarded to him from the Mess of the Northern Circuit, regarding a supposed slight on the AttorneyGeneral of the County Palatine, who had been passed over in the case of the Queen v. Cotton, Sir John Coleridge writes :- "There either is a right in Mr. Aspinall or there is not; and although it is for the Treasury and not for me to decide, I certainly think that the Treasury have decided rightly in the negative, If then, as I think, there is no right, I am unable to perceive upon what ground the Mess of the Northern Circuit should apply to the AttorneyGeneral that any particular gentleman should represent him in any particular case. It would

be highly inconvenient if in any instance where the choice of the Attorney-General was disapproved of by the Mess he should be applied to by resolution to alter his choice, and direct a gentleman indicated to him by such resolution to be instructed to represent him. very earnest wish to avoid offence, I must decline to be a party to any such proceeding."

With a

5. Speaking at Croydon on the occasion of presenting a portrait to Mr. Locke King, M. P. for East Surrey, Mr. Gladstone praised the guest of the evening as combining political independence with that regard to party ties without which political progress was impossible. "We are in the middle," he said, "of an adjourned debate, and that adjourned debate is upon a vote of censure. What is it about? It may seem strange to some that all this row should exist about an Irish University Bill; but somehow or other an Irish question is very commonly found to be a suitable and convenient subject for a row, and as to this Irish question in particular, it seems to have acquired a peculiar aptitude for this purpose, arising out of the joint operation of two circumstancesfirstly, that it is rooted in a real necessity for legislation; and, secondly, that this legislation has been pressed upon the Government for, I think, three, if not four, of the successive years of its existence with such eagerness and urgency, and our plea that we were otherwise occupied has been so scornfully rejected by some, that it

has only been by an appeal to the confidence of the House of Commons-by what is called staking our existence on the issue-that we have been able to secure for ourselves the opportunity of dealing with it at all, and presenting to that House the views which we might conscientiously entertain. Well, we have done that, and in the midst of the din of the battle I am not going to anticipate the issue. To-day a measure may be upon the crest of the wave, and to-morrow it may be in the trough; but the same measure which was one day on the crest of the wave and the next day in the trough, may on the third day be on the crest of the wave again." In subsequent observations the right hon. gentleman said that "when the hour of dissolution-not of Parliament, but of the Cabinet-should come, it would find him and his colleagues not unwilling victims. But we will not," he added, "abandon our positions unnecessarily."

5.-Died, at Glasgow, aged 103 years, Miss Ann Wallace, a lineal descendant of the Scottish patriot, registered in the Barony parish as born in July, 1770.

6.-Debate resumed on Irish University Bill, Mr. Horsman, Mr. Hardy, and Dr. Playfair objecting to the measure, the latter also protesting against the exclusion of mental science and modern history as a sacrifice of free inquiry to ecclesiastical dictation, which could only end in making the students bigots or infidels. Mr. Fortescue and Mr. Lowe replied, the latter creating some amusement by declaring that the " gagging clauses"

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were

not of the essence of the bill," and might be amended or removed in Committee.

--

- A deputation of Irish members wait upon Mr. Gladstone to inform him that they felt bound by every sense of honour to support denominational and religious education as against secularisation. They added that the Roman Catholic body, though vastly in the majority, did not demand endowments, but that if any class were to be endowed they claimed a proportionate endowment. If, therefore, the Government did not see their way to making such alterations in the University Education Bill as would meet the objections of their constituents, the Irish members belonging to the Liberal party would be bound to vote against the bill. This would pain them much, but they were inflexible in their determination. Mr. Gladstone replied that the Government must be considered as much masters of their own position as the Irish members were of their own actions, but that if they would put their views into writing he would submit them to his colleagues in the Cabinet.

Died, aged 50, Robert W. Thomson, C. E., inventor of locomotive traction steamengines.

9.--Pastoral by Cardinal Cullen read in Irish Roman Catholic churches, in which Mr. Gladstone's bill was described as richly endowing "non-Catholic and godless colleges to those who for centuries have enjoyed the great public endowments for higher education in Ireland, and then, without giving one farthing to Catholics, it invites them to compete in their poverty, produced by penal laws and confiscations, with others who, as the Prime Minister states, are left in possession of enormous wealth. The New University scheme only increases the number of Queen's Colleges, so often and so solemnly condemned by the Catholic Church and by all Ireland, and gives a new impulse to that sort of teaching which separates education from religion and its holy influences, and banishes God, the author of all good, from our schools."

Died, at Addlestone, Surrey, aged 81, Charles Knight, an early labourer in the field of cheap literature, and a writer of various historical works of standard excellence.

10.-An application having been made to the Exchequer by Earl Stanhope on behalf of the Society of Antiquaries, that examination should be made at the public cost of the tumuli on the plains of Troy, Mr. Lowe replies:"The question is, are excavations undertaken for the purpose of illustrating the 'Iliad' a proper object for the expenditure of public money? I am sorry to say that in my judgment they are not. It is a new head of expense. It has no practical object, but aims at satisfying the curiosity of those who believe that the narative of Homer was a true history,