demands, even although such demands be erroneous
and inexpedient. A more substantial sop was
afterwards attempted. The seats left vacant by the
too-flagrant constituencies of St. Alban's and
Sudbury, ministers proposed to give to agricultural
districts. This attempt faded; for they were beaten
by a goodly majority.

It has been long foreseen that, for the
forthcoming general election, there would be an
unprecedented dearth of party cries, and Mr. Spooner
determined to do his part in supplying at least
one watchword, which has been potent for ages,
—"No Popery!" Under pretence of opposing
the Government Grant to the Catholic College
of Maynooth, he revivified the old allegations and
denunciations against Popery which were current
in the early days of Catholic Emancipation. The
ministers threw this as another sop to their
discontented supporters. They befriended Mr. Spooner's
motion; which was not, boldly, to rescind the grant,
but to appoint a committee to inquire into the
expediency of its continuance. Little was to be gained or
lost by the motion (which eventually fell still-born),
except a motto to go to the hustings with:—which
is something; for the silence of the Cabinet as to
its future intentions, leaves its supporters scarcely
a word to say to their constituents.

To this reserve the doctrine of "compromise" is
the key. No goading, no putting to the question; no
sort of categorical torture has, as yet, extracted from
any member of the Cabinet the avowal that he
abandons Protection. At length, however, only a
few hours before this sheet is printed, Lord Derby—
challenged by the Duke of Newcastle, and hard pressed
by Lord Granville—ventured to say in the House of
Peers, that although he thought relief of the pressure
upon the agriculturists in the form of a modified tax
on foreign corn might be "desirable;" yet such a
measure is not "necessary;" and that, moreover, its
re-imposition is not probable; because an extensive
majority in the country is manifestly against it. A
clearer and more practical commentary on the doctrine
of compromises could not have been framed.

The parts played in the afterpiece of the month
were too numerous and insignificant to demand much
notice. Considering the imminent danger of invasion:
keeping in view what Lord Palmerston told us; namely,
that Louis Napoleon can step on shore at any point
between the Land's End and the North Foreland, on
any evening he pleases, it was wisely decided, when
the Militia Bill passed through committee, that the
measure should not come into operation until next
year. If a militia be our palladium, 1853 is, then,
safe enough; but how is 1852 to hold its own? Yet we
go on calmly debating all manner of domestic
questions; buying and selling; marrying and giving in
marriage; and doing nothing preventive beyond
appointing a committee of Peers to receive the secret of
Captain Warner's tremendous recipe for making long
ranges and explosive compounds.

The booksellers, for instance, have brought their
trade discussion to a close, as deliberately as if they
had never heard of a militia bill or of a French army.
Lord Campbell, and his co-arbitrators, have decided,
against the Publishers' Association, that a retail
bookseller has a right to dispose of his own property in
new books to his customers at any price he pleases
—a right of which no peculiarity in the art of
bookselling affords any pretence for depriving him.

Neither have fears of invasion diverted public attention
from certain unpleasant colonial prospects. While
Australian gold is filling our pockets, it is formally
stripping us of means to cover our backs. Six-
sevenths of the wool which clothes the British
population is of Australian growth; and, as Australian
labourers prefer digging for gold to clipping sheep;
however great the cry for it, there will, this season, be
very little wool. Means are being devised to send out
armies of shearers, and soldiers are to be dispatched
to see that they stick to their sheep. No expedient
however accompanies these warriors to prevent them
from becoming bad shepherds, and from doing a little
digging on their own private accounts.—War still
rages in the Cape colony, with the additional horror
of extreme cruelty to British prisoners inflicted by
the Caffres; and by this time the fire of our Indian
troops has been opened upon the Burmese. Colonial
and Indian affairs therefore do not look very
promising, and are well calculated to divert the
attention of the timid from a French invasion.

England is not the only nation that casts furtive
glances towards Paris. The cautious and wily
approaches which Louis Napoleon has been making
towards the apex of his ambition—the establishment
of an hereditary crown—all leading gradually up to
the grand distribution of eagles to the army, and the
imposing promulgation of the oath of allegiance, have
not been overlooked by the Northern Powers. It
appears that the visits of the Emperor of Russia
to Vienna and to Berlin, were not made simply to
arrange the differences existing between those courts,
but to confer respecting the designs of Louis
Napoleon. The result was the formal diplomatic
note, we previously adverted to, from the Czar to the
Prince President, forbidding him to revive his dynastic
claims. Prince Napoleon's expedient for consolidating
his position has therefore entirely failed: nor has his
position been improved internally by the refusal of
such influential politicians as Arago and Changarnier
to take the oath of allegiance to him, so extensively
administered on the 10th.

NARRATIVE OF PARLIAMENT AND
POLITICS.

IN THE HOUSE OF LORDS on Tuesday, April 27th, Lord
TORRINGTON presented a petition from the merchants
and traders of London and Westminster, complaining
of the Treasury minute with respect to the sale of
Coffee mixed with Chicory, and entered into a statement
of the reasons which rendered the rescinding of
that minute desirable. He concluded by moving that
the petition be laid on the table.—The Duke of MONTROSE
supported the motion.—The Earl of DERBY
admitted the importance of the petition, and expressed
his dissent from the doctrine laid down on the subject
by the late Chancellor of the Exchequer. Though
there might be some difficulty in rescinding the treasury
minute complained of, the present government would
give their best endeavours to prevent the spurious
mixture of deleterious articles with coffee. The petition
was then ordered to lie on the table. The St. Alban's
disfranchisement bill was read a third time and passed.

On Thursday the 29th, Earl GRANVILLE drew the
attention of the house to some Honours paid to General
Rosas on his landing at Plymouth, and asked Lord
Malmesbury whether instructions had been given to
that effect.—Lord MALMESBURY replied, that no
instructions from the Foreign office, nor, to the best of
his belief, from the Admiralty, had been sent down for
the reception of General Rosas with official honours;
he supposed, therefore, that the authorities at Plymouth
had been actuated by a desire to show hospitality to a
distinguished refugee. Whatever the private character
of General Rosas might be, his misfortunes, and the
kindness which he had shown to British merchants,
entitled him to be treated with delicacy.

The Earl of SHAFTESBURY brought forward his
motion on the Sanitary State of London, and after
entering very fully into the statistics of the subject, and
demonstrating the miseries which a large portion of the
population suffered under the existing system, entreated
the house to pass a resolution to the effect that the