... THE festival service on behalf of the Sons of the Clergy which took place last week under the dome of St. Paul's may justly be regarded as showing in the most favourable light what is the present position of music in the English Church. Looking at the dignity of the occasion, at the place where the service was held, and at the celebrity of the choirs which took part in it, we are bound to ...

... TIHE UNIVERSITY BILL. MR. FAWCETT'S bill for the alteration of those provisions in the Act of Uniformity by which persons who are not members of the Church of England are excluded from the fellowships and master- ships of colleges at Oxford and Cambridge appears to have a fair chance of passing-at all events through the House of Commons -as the second reading has been carried by a considerable ...

... NA TIONAL GO VERNMENTS AND COMPOSITE I EMPIRES. IT is only fair to acknowledge, in reading the Emperor of Austria's speech to the Reichsrath, the hardness of the problem which he now finds himself called upon to solve. H-e is the inheritor of an empire formed in the middle ages, to a certain extent as it now exists, upon principles precisely the reverse of those which the spirit of nationality ...

... THE FREAKS OF BUMBLEDOM. To 1le EDITOR of th7e PALL MALL GAZETTE. SIR,-I attended on Thursday last the Exhibition of Portraits at the South Kensington Gallery, and on Friday I attended the private view of the pictures exhibited at the Royal Academy. At both those places I observed that the parties who contract for keeping the roadway in order have repeated the mcauvcaise ?? of which they were ...

... MR. GOLDWIN SMITH ON AMERICA. To the EDITOR of the PALL MALL GAZETTE. SIR,-The letter of the Times correspondent in America yesterday, instead of giving any American news, was filled, through the whole of its two columns, with an attack on a paper relating to America, contributed by me to Mr. Macmillan's Essays on Reform. I will not go into the general questions on which my views and my ...

... THE NEXT STAGE OF REFORM. The Daily News admits that Lord Derby's description of the bill as expansive is just The personal rating franchise will be elastic in the hands of electioneering agents. The agent will get his forms of application for compounder householders for a penny each at the post-office by tens and hundreds; he will pick his men, and enfranchise submissive or venal voters, in ...

... THE X, P.AkB ooK COLUMXN. MARRIjED nq THE r;;tLr. -The bulk of the appli- cants for matrimony at F Fleet were doubtless of the lower orders. Iaboures l'nom the country, me- chanics, and small tradespeople ?? every description, constituted a large proportion of the parson's patrons.- Sailors, too, were amongst tisarr most steady'supporters; and when the ships of the royal navy came into port, ...

... . To To EDnrroio--r,-In reference to Chlildrers's Con- certs at the Crystal-palace, I can fully endorse all the Sanday-school Teacher had to say upon the subject, witlh the exception of live hoars upon the platform. We have to be on the orchestra by about half-past twoE ani are off again by five, or a few minutes after. Th e hildren who attend the Tonic Tol-fa association concerts have ...

... Oils X07-,RM BILL-The Morninra Poqt hmg af SCLJ l aving made such progress with the , °airL Bill as justifies the belief that he may | ' efrTnh. its fijal stages, Mr. Disraeli has now ia- t;¢ic for the better representation of the ,sur.d a d And it must be admitted that no time ci bJ mo'nre opportune. It is true the Scotch i to egre very much about parliamentary re- ?? rc is good reason for ...

... OFFICIAL STATEMENT IN THE FRENCH CHAMBERS. In Morday's sitting of the legislative body the Marquis do Vouslier made the following communication:- ' Gentlemeu,-Tue London Conference has terminated its labours, having signed, on the 11th intt., a treaty de- termining'in a decisive manner the internsationat position of the Duchy of Luxemburg. The French Government had for some time past been pre ...

... TEfl CONDZMkVD FENIANS -PREPAYA- - TIONS FORP.XECUTION. - The Freeman's Journal of Thursday says:- We regret to Fay that the opinion gains ground throughout the city that the sentence of General Thomas Barke will not be commuted, and that the law will be permitted to take its course. The warrant for the execution on Wednesday, the 29th irst, has been delivered to the governor of KU- mainham ...

... SHIPWRECK AND LOSS OF SIX LrVES. DREADFUCL SFFEIlNGS Oi ,THE ISJIYOES. [From the Scotsmnc.] A tale of unusual suffering at sea is unfolded by the ar- rival at Arbroath of the Blyth brig Ancient Promise Captain B. B. Stannard, from Mtmel, with a cargo of flax for an Arbroath firmn. The Aucient Promise has brought with her Captain Currie, master of the brig Ocesn Queen, of Blyth, which vessel ...