... General Gilmore, the Commander of the Federal forces off Charleston, has threatened to shell the city—not the forts, which he has been poanding away at for a long time, but the houses of the inhabitants. It is very barbarotu aod cruel measure, and one from which, in a military sense, there is nothing to be gained. It would not have much, if any effect weakening the position of the Confederate ...

... There seems now to be a growing impression that the Bteam rams which are building in the Mersey the Clyde are to be delaiued by the Government. in assumed that these vessels are being con-truc'ed for the service the Confederates ; and though there is proof that that in so, the assumption is, all probability, correct. The fact that the builders in the Merxey are the same as those who produced ...

... Or all the puzzling phenomena people are read, in}.', and writing, and arguing, and pondering about, there are none so curious as those which are involved in the action of the human mind. Tl.e connection between thought and action, even when «e know that they are connected, is often not only unexplained, but inexplicable. Giveu any particular act, and the motives from which it may have sprung ...

... If there not much of present interest In the American telegrams, they contain indications a lively, or perhaps, we should say, deadly future. Prom Charleston General Gilkorb reports the capture Fort Wagner and Battery Gregg ; but Sumter, which has been demolished we can t remember how many times, still holds out, and the Federals, in an attempt to storm it, have been severely repulsed. The ...

... The news we have lately received from the other side of the Atlantic consist of items which have generally to be merely recorded, rather than commented on. They relate chiefly to operations which are in progress, and the end of which cannot be foreseen, or of anticipations which may be well founded or delusive ; but with our means of information, and at thi* distance, mast wait for the result ...

... Owe of the trials at the Perth Circuit Court, which was reported in our columns yesterday, presented a circumstance of singular a character that it cannot be suffered to pass over without remark. We do not recollect any case presenting similar features, that it is, and probably 1 will remain, unique in its character. We shall have to speak of it with very great caution, because the thoughts ...

... A contribution to a history of the manners and customs of the English people in the nineteenth century is furniaheJ a case, which, on Tuesday last, came before the bench of Magistrates sitting Castle Hedingham. woman name! Emma Smith, and a man named Samuel Stammers, were brought up, charged with causing the death of an old man who was known in the neighbourhood as Dummy. The deceased ...

... [T exceedingly well worn observation that war tends to make the men who are engaged in t ferocious, and it equally familiar remark that of all contests civil wars are in that respect the most demoralizing. The chivalrous courtesy which is accorded to alien foe is likely to ienied to a rebel, and contests between those who have been fellow subjects, a worse than mere warlike brutality is ...

... The prosperity and contentmeut of our Australian colonies must be matters of the deepest interest to the people of this country. Many of us have relatives and friends there, for whose welfare we are anxious ; but, apart from that, looking at the matter from a merely commercial point of view, at the Antipodes we have very valuable markets for the products of our industry, and the most promising ...

... It often happens that most important points are decided incidentally without any direct reference the controversies with which they are connected. When that occurs, such decisions are generally to be relied upon in proportion to their independence of partisan views and feelings. They are then generally the results of the action of reason, uuinfluenced by those passions which arise out ...

... a kind of Shibboleth of constitutional Reformers. Therein lies the distinction between them aud the red-hot Revolutionists. The latter would dig a mine, and blow all existing things iuto universal smash, and set to work again with the wreck of old materials, ant} what they conld gather of new, on a spick and span fresh plan. The former would mend a turret here, and a gable there, and a ...

... Our daily contemporary, in his zeal to help the Federals, and to damage the Confederate*, Saturday made such a muddle of international law, that it may be necessary for those who have not paid close attention to the subject to clear up the confusion. Our contemporary starts by endeavouring to show that the Alabama and Florida are pirates. He has become thoroughly Federal, and so little ...