Extracts from Spectator, 23 March. BRITISH MINISTRY-AFRICAN BLOCKADEGORHAM CASE-FRANCE GERMANY.

fear of the anti-slavery party, for that party has much diminished in power, and moreover is on the whole against the armed suppression of the slavetrade. The motive can scarcely be that species of mauvaise honte which makes men ashamed to do right after a long pursuit of error; since the error -the wrongdoing-is not only culpable but ridicu lous. It can hardly be conviction; for it is a libel on human nature to suppose that any intellect can be really convinced by such arguments as those used on the ministerial side. It is possible to imagine that personal eccentricities may come into play, and that Lord John Russell may persevere because, as usual, his insight leads him to see no further into the game than the next move, so that one reason is as good as another; that Lord Palmerston may be actuated by his constitutional love of being in hot water, and Lord Grey by the delight to do just what everybody thinks wrong or impossible.

The dispute in the Church about the induction of Mr. Gorham threatens to occasion unpleasant if not serious consequences.

MR. HUTT's motion in the House of Commons, to abandon the slave-trade treaties which stand in the way of recalling the African blockade squadron, was decided, not on its own merits, but on a wholly irrelevant issue advanced by Lord John Russell; who forced members to convert it into a vote of confidence. It did not matter, therefore, that the debate was conducted with uncommon ability on the side of abandonment. Mr. Hutt presented a case full in its facts, clear in its order, and forcible in its plainness. Mr. Gladstone, by natural disposition and habit of mind inclined to anti-slavery sympathies, is yet too strictly logical to resist the force of the facts and the results of the repeated experiments; and his speech was a masterly reflex of the arguments that had convinced himself he showed how the treaties which we force on other countries are imperfectly or but Mr. Locke King has moved a resolution directed colorably fulfilled by them, while we compel our- against primogeniture—ostensibly in the case of selves to set a useless example; how our motives persons dying intestate, but virtually against the are distrusted; how the trade and its miseries in-custom in general. The motion failed, of course; crease under our intervention; how impracticable but it occasioned the utterance of doctrines that as is the attempt to keep up a criminal police for the yet sound strangely in the House of Commons, felons of all the world. Ministers had the usual though they may perchance become more familiar. string of pretexts ready: they completely set aside the actual results, and relied on the presumptions of what would be or would not be in the case of abandonment; they picked out little tidbits of evidence to their taste; they complained that Mr. Hutt had no "substitute" for the blockade. But they needed argument only for the sake of appearances; since Lord John had planned to beat Mr. Hutt, not by discussion, but by the main force of party influence. Lord John had called a previous meeting of ministerial members, and told them that unless they enabled him to beat Mr. Hutt he should resign. Two of those members have reported what passed at the meeting; which was by no means blindly submissive, some of the party contumaciously pleading reason and conscience, and But it is doubtful whether the contest will stop a few going so far as to say that they must follow where it does. The Bishop of Exeter positively conviction! But Mr. Charles Lushington avows refuses to induct Mr. Gorham; and even if the that he was overcome by the fear of a protectionist Archbishop of Canterbury should perform that government, and therefore had determined to absent duty by proxy, Bishop Philpotts is not the man himself from the division; at the same time feeling to be passive with an odious clerk in his diocese; that Lord John had seriously skaken his own in-nor, we suspect, is Mr. Gorham the clerk to lie in fluence by this arbitrary party dictation on a subject unobtrusive quietude. The Church Unions of the that is not a party question. Nor did ministers country are stirring themselves to seize the juncture trust solely to that compulsion after personally for obtaining, either a legislative reversal of the helping to spread a rumor that the debate would be adjourned, they brought it to an unexpected division. And the majority obtained by these arts, 232 to 145-not very considerable for the majority of a cabinet over a private member with no party at his back-is treated as a great ministerial triumph. It is not easy to conjecture the motive to all this perverse and exceptional exercise of energy. The abandonment of the squadron would have swelled Sir Charles Wood's surplus, and would have enabled him to repeal some odious tax. The perseverance can scarcely be ascribed to the

When it was alluded to in Parliament, this week, Lord John Russell said that the decision has caused "general satisfaction." Among a certain party, he should have said-nicknamed "Low Church;" for those nicknamed " 'High Church" are in great dudgeon; and while a considerable number in other classes view the agitation. with a boding indifference, a still larger is moved by a feeling no higher than curiosity, if not amusement. This would be a more correct description of the public feeling than Lord John's.

late decision, or a restoration of legislative power to the church in matters of doctrine and discipline.

The disorder in the clerical government is reviving intra-ecclesiastical demands for church reform; so that every day the question is becoming more complicated. Indeed, there seems to be no alternative, but prompt settlement of the question that occasions the dispute, or disruption of the establishment. Yet the premier, fortified by his notion of " general satisfaction," says that he is not prepared to do anything, at least for the present.

try which is fed by the smuggled slave-trade? Is the reason for not adopting that course, of transferring the blockade to the American in lieu of the African coast, simply this-that it would be effectual?

FOREIGN MISCELLANY.

THE case of Connelly versus Connelly, decided in the Arches Court by Sir Herbert Jenner Fust, was a suit for the restitution of conjugal rights, promoted by the Reverend Pierce Connelly, of Albury, Surrey, against his wife, Mrs. Cornelia Augusta Connelly, of Hastings. Mr. Connelly was a clergyman of the Episcopal church, in America; he was married to his wife at Philadelphia, in 1831; and there were five children born to him. In 1836, Mr. and Mrs. Connelly visited Rome; became converted to the Roman faith; and resolved to separate and "enter into religion." Mr. Connelly took Roman orders, and Mrs. Connelly took vows of chastity, and became Superioress of a religious community of women, which she founded at Derby ; and has since removed to Hastings. In December, 1847, Mrs. Connelly also took the vows of poverty resought his wife's company, and on her refusal, and obedience. In January, 1848, Mr. Connelly

A great nation, universally unsettled, and handed | interfere with trade-with the "pounds, shillings, over to little men-that is the condition of France and pence" of British merchants; with the indus in her tribulation; a condition never more forcibly illustrated than by the conduct of the government in the new ministerial crisis. The success of the socialist candidates imposed some change upon the president; and after talking of the largest, even including his own resignation, he has changed one minister; having taken into the government M. Baroche, noted as the prosecutor of the July insurgents. It is a government of reaction in the shape of prosecutions; whereof plentiful earnest is given in the prosecution of newspapers. The small and malignant agitation of the government is contrasted with the self-possessed quiescence of the revolutionaries, the socialists; who gave their name to the whole anti-government party. The fact is, that in the absence of earnest opinions, the socialists take a lead solely by the weight and influence of a monopoly in that line. Socialism cannot be enacted off-hand, and it is therefore in the stage of abstract opinion; but it animates men with a comparatively consistent doctrine and an unselfish activity, and thus it commands the esteem of others, who are glad to fight under so respectable a banner against the political scepticism in which the official corruption of Parisian coteries has flowered. Meanwhile, incidents occur which show the precarious state of public tranquillity. Under cover of the dominant public opinion, a curé instructs his congregation that the poor have a right to seize the property of the rich. The majority of the assembly connives at the conduct of a journal which publishes an accusatory list of the voters on the socialist side. And ministers keep up their little prosecutions, like a provisional government of parish-beadles attempting to rule a nation in smothered anarchy !

commenced this suit.

In defence, Mrs. Connelly alleged her separation under the rules of the Romish church. A man and wife may after marriage consummated separate for the purpose of entering holy orders and making profession, provided the Pope do, on petition, by rescript approve of the separation; and when the into orders and the wife's profession, then the separation is consummated by the husband's entry Pope's rescript has all the force of a judicial sentence, so far that it debars the parties perpetually thence "ab omni usu ejusdem," and ordains that thenceforth "alter alterum repetere non potest."

Sir Herbert Jenner Fust rejected this allegation, on two grounds. That which was here pleaded as tantamount to a sentence does not "annul" the marriage; it did not entitle the parties to live separate and apart from each other, in the way in which sentences of separation are considered in that court. "Indeed, it appeared that they had resided together in the same house for a considerable period after But it is not sufficient that vow had been taken." to say that the law of Rome has decided so and

Germany is moving with signs of new dangers -not yet very urgent, but vast in magnitude. Prussia, getting her own Federal Parliament at Erfurt, testifies anger at the withdrawal of Hanover, by the intentionally offensive withdrawal of her own representative at the Hanoverian court. Wurtemburg's king openly denounces the ambitions of Frederick William, as contemplating a Sonder-So unless the law of Rome has been adopted in this country. In marriage, the lex loci contractûs bund; and joins the real Sonderbund formed by decides the status of parties; but the rights and Bavaria, Wurtemburg, and Saxony; to which obligations of the parties only so far as the lex loci Austria has just given adhesion. The Emperor have been adopted by us. Among the rights of of Russia has accredited a diplomatic agent to the marriage here, is the right of living in company; Federal Assembly at Frankfort; who suspends allow parties to set aside voluntarily. Parties and this right the Ecclesiastical Courts will not the delivery of his credentials until the Assembly coming to this country and residing here are subject shall have explained to him its views on certain to its matrimonial regulations and municipal laws. points; so undisguised is the mode in which Russia It would be no answer to a person suing Mr. Conarrogates the right to interfere in German politics! nelly for debts contracted by his wife, to plead that she is professed in religion and head of a religious community; nor any answer to a suit (which the peculiar circumstances render very unlikely) for separation. divorce by a reason of adultery, to plead this foreign

There is one mode in which blockade by naval forces might be more effectual-by blockading the coasts of Brazil and Cuba for breach of treaty stipulations, in the way Lord Palmerston has blockThe allegation having been rejected, Mrs. Conaded the Piræus on behalf of Mr. Finlay and Donnelly's counsel gave notice of appeal. David Pacifico. Can we be told why that course THE Queen has bestowed a pension of 1007. a is not adopted? Is it not because that would year on Mrs. Bessy Moore, wife of the poet, Thomas

Moore, "in consideration of the literary merits of | been put in a state of sound repair, for continued her husband, and his infirm state of health.' preservation.

BY J. M. W.

"Go and see our cousins in the country, Mary! why, what put that into your head?" asked John Wood of his sister, as they were sitting together one evening, talking over plans for a short summer holiday.

From Sharpe's Magazine. Mr. and Miss Wood were very unpretending OUR COUSINS IN THE COUNTRY. A SKETCH. people, and preferred saving some of their money to spending it all; but they spent judiciously also; and thought it a good outlay of money to enjoy their yearly holiday, and lay in a stock of health and pleasant recollections. They lived plainly, not in the house of their employer, but in lodgings at Chelsea. They had two comfortable bed-rooms, and a pretty sitting-room facing the river; these were furnished with some of the dear old furniture which had made their old home in the borough so comfortable, and which their parents had been able to rescue from the wreck of their little capital. The house in which they lodged belonged to a funny little old maid, who was very much attached to them, and took a great interest in all they said and did.

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Why, I don't know what first put the idea into my head, John; but I found it there just now." "But who knows whether they would be glad to see us? I dare say they care nothing about us. They never saw us.

On the evening of their introduction to the reader, John and Mary had received an intimation from Mr. Broad, their employer, that they were at liberty to begin their holiday on the following Friday. This was Monday, and they had not yet settled where they would go. They always made a point of going into the country, to spend their holiday; though Miss Carol, their landlady, thought it "a great shame they did not stay and see some of the fine London sights," of which they were deplorably ignorant; and " go to the theatre, or a concert every evening." She thought "that would be making more of a holiday of it, than going into the country, where there was not a living creature to be seen-nothing but cows and haystacks." Miss Carol was a stanch Londoner.

After the pause which we mentioned above, and which we have made use of to impart to the reader this information concerning them, the brother and sister looked up at each other.

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Nay, but, John, you remember what father always used to say- Blood is thicker than water.' -He always thought of going back to the old place,' as he called it, if he lived and did well.'" The brother and sister were silent for a time: for they thought of that dear father and mother who no longer lived; and who while they lived had not done well, in the worldly meaning of the phrase. No;-old Mr. and Mrs. Wood, excellent, honest people as they were, had not prospered in the world. They had fallen a little behind the time. When they married, they opened a respectable haberdasher's shop in the borough, which they conducted in a quiet, respectable way, as shops used to be conducted thirty years ago. They managed it themselves; and they brought up their two children, John and Mary, to take a part in the business. They had no new-fangled notions, as they called all innovations, good and bad; they were steady, unambitious, plodding people, who spent little money, and made little, also. Their children were much like themselves; and, though born and bred in London, had not only a shrewd North-country look, Well, Mary! what are you thinking of now?" but a slight North-country accent in pronouncing "I was thinking, John," replied his sister, some words. These peculiarities they gained from while a tear glistened in her eye-"I was thinking, their parents, together with other things more val- how much mother longed to see her relations, duruable-viz., sincere piety, strong affection for each ing the last year of her life. If she were alive other, habits of industry, and a sturdy spirit of innow, John! We are able to afford journeys, now. dependence. They had both been to the best day-Things always come too late." schools in the neighborhood; and though Mary could not play on the piano, she could write a sensible letter, and understand some of the best English classics;-though John could not dance, or make Latin verses, which his father did not think necessary for a haberdasher, he was no mean geometrician, and was extremely fond of philosophy and history. With these accomplishments, good health, good temper, and good principles, they were not badly armed for the battle of life; into the midst of which they were suddenly thrown, when their father, after several profitless years of trade, sold his business to pay his creditors, and after obtaining good situations for his son and daughter, turned shopman himself, in the very establishment where he had been master for twenty-five years. This reverse in their circumstances wrought a gradual but rapid change in the honest, simple, old couple. They did not complain; but within five years they both died. John and Mary were then left alone in the world; and they clung the closer together on that account. They had risen by degrees to be the head man and the head woman in the large and fashionable west-end shop where their father had first placed them. They received very good sal-them that they did not have their wish." aries, and were esteemed and respected by their employer, who allowed them a fortnight's holiday every year, during the dead season, when, as "there is nobody in London," there is very little to do in the way of selling ribbons and laces.

"Nay, Mary, we must not say, or think that. Things may seem to us to come too late; but God knows best; and we may therefore be sure they always come at the right time. If we look long enough, and sharp enough, we shall see that, very often, if not always. Even in this case of poor dear mother's going down into the North, after so long an absence ;-remember how she used to talk of the persons and places that were so dear to her in her girlhood. Why, no persons and places could be so perfectly good and beautiful as her memory and imagination painted them. What a golden land, what a happy valley was Lonsdale, as it was in her recollection! How good, and brave, and handsome, were all her brothers, and sisters, and cousins! Now, Mary, I verily believe that father and mother enjoyed the memory of old times, old friends, and old places, with a letter from the dear North once in a year or two, more than they would have enjoyed an actual visit. In reality all would be changed; they would not have recognized their dearest friends. In memory, everything and everybody was unchanged, and the brightness of youth dwelt with them to the last. It was better for

"Well, John, you have a way of making out that all evil is good in disguise. "So it is, Mary; only we are not clever enough to see through the disguise always.' "You are right, dearest, I dare say. But still

I cannot help wishing that father and mother were alive again, now; and that we could take them down to Hillbeck."

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They are better off where they are, Mary. But I think your notion of our going down to Hillbeck, and looking up our relations, is not a bad one. We are pretty well versed in their names and localities, thanks to poor father and mother's affectionate reminiscences. We shall find some of them out, I dare say. I dare say, too, they will be glad to see us; for all the letters father and mother had from that part, especially from uncle Ralph Wood, have been hearty and friendly. We want nothing of them; they may be better off than we, but we go among them independent, as far as the pocket is concerned; and so we shall give them no trouble, if they are not disposed to fraternize with their long-lost London relations."

"O! John I am sure they will be glad to see us. All the North-country people are kind and hospitable, mother used to say; and I am sure father was right when he said 'Blood is thicker than water;' I feel that myself. I quite long to see what sort of cousins we have got. I wonder what has become of little Leonard, that was such a pretty baby when mother came away from Hillbeck to be married. He was her eldest brother's first child, you know; and uncle Henry Thornton must have had at least a dozen children since. There must be a great cargo of our cousins in Lonsdale-Woods, and Thorntons, and Grays!"

"Yes. They must have spread very much in the course of thirty years; for it is just thirty years since father and mother left that part. We cannot expect to find many of their contemporaries alive; and the younger folks may not take much interest So you must not let your warm heart be chilled. Mary, if they do not receive us with open

in us.

arms.

"Then it is settled that we go down to the North?"

"Yes, dear, I should like it as well as you. The country is very beautiful thereabouts. I will find out, to-morrow, the way we must go.' "The town nearest to Hillbeck is Kirby Lonsdale, I know."

"Yes, we have heard that often enough in our childish days. Do you remember our playing at going to Kirby Lonsdale, when you were so high, and I overset you into a pail of water?"

pared for their refreshment on the way; that she was sorely divided between hei terror of the engine, and her attachment to the travellers. She firmly believed that nothing short of a miracle would bring them safely to the end of their journey. John did what he could to relieve her mind by promising to send her a line by that day's post, from some station near the end of their journey.

And now we must beg our readers to imagine this long journey accomplished. They have just been put out of the train, with their small quantity of luggage, at the Burton and Holme Station. Mary is sitting on her box on the little platform; while John has gone to make inquiries about the ways and means of going on to Kirby Lonsdale. Mary is a little tired with sitting all day; and has got a slight headache with the incessant noise. She looks round, and sees green trees and fields on each side of the line, and some dark blue hills in the distance; the noisy train has gone on out of sight, and the fresh evening breeze is springing up after the hot day. The bright sun is shining, and is still high above the horizon-everything is so still and happy-looking that Mary smiles to herself. and begins to feel quite recovered. The headache has actually gone in a few moments, and she is gazing eagerly towards those dark blue hills, and wondering whether she shall ever be on the top of one of them.

A quiet, observant young man, who has been pacing up and down the platform, and is waiting for the next up train, observed Mary, among other things, and thought there was a pleasant, soft brightness in the face of that intelligent-looking London girl. While he was observing her, John returned hastily.-" Now, Mary, I've got something to take us on to Kirby. Here! there is no porter, give me the box, and you take the carpetbag.'

As Mary was about to do so, the stranger stepped forward and said, "Allow me to carry that."

Mary yielded it willingly, for she was very tired. The stranger helped John to seat her comfortably on the front seat of the car, and explained to John how he was to ride on the back seat, so as not to be thrown off. He then called their driver by name, and charged him to point out Morecombe bay when they came in sight of it, and to tell the travellers the names of all the remarkable points in the drive. He told John he was They went on laughing and chatting; and pres- he was obliged to run up to Lancaster that evening, ently, Mary invited Miss Carol to supper with them, or he would have had great pleasure in driving and told her of their holiday scheme. Miss Carol them himself, as he was going back to Kirby; he had no relations herself, and so thought them valu- had plenty of room in his White chapel, which would able possessions which should be looked after and have been rather more comfortable than the car for never lost. But she did not like the idea of her the lady.' Just then the up train was heard apyoung friends going two hundred miles from Lon-proaching, and he ran off, wishing them a pleasant don. It seemed like going beyond the confines of drive to Kirby. civilization. It was not quite clear to her that the inhabitants of those remote parts did not dye their bodies with woad, clothe themselves in skins of beasts, and conduct themselves, in all respects, like genuine ancient Britons. She did not think it quite safe to go unarmed among them.

The important Friday came at last. It was a beautiful day at the end of August. I shall not give any particulars of the journey from Euston Square to the Burton and Holme Station, on the Lancaster and Carlisle line. I may just state, as an indication of character, that Miss Carol accompanied her young friends to the large bustling terminus, in order to see them off, and to put into their hands a basket of provisions, which she had pre

John liked the look and manners of that young fellow, and thought that, if all the people in the north were as kindly and honest-looking, they should not repent their adventure. John thought this, and said it too. Mary thought it, but did not say it.

Descriptions of scenery are generally anything but descriptive, therefore I shall not attempt to give an account of the eight miles' drive between the Burton Station and Kirby Lonsdale. I can only say that it is very beautiful. The three points of greatest interest to strangers are the blue distant hills before alluded to-the outworks of the lakedistrict; Morecombe bay, which is two or three miles off, and the view of Lonsdale or the valley of the Lune, which is one of the richest and most