vowed vengeance. Suspicion fell on him from an anonymous
letter which accompanied one of the packets; he
was arrested; and then a number of circumstances fixing
guilt upon him came out. Eventually, he avowed
himself as the assassin.

The Portuguese Cortes were opened on the 2nd inst.
by the Queen in person, on which occasion her Majesty
delivered a speech, presenting on the whole a favourable
view of the affairs of the nation. The last and most
interesting paragraph is as follows: "I most especially
recommend you to go hand in hand with my Government
in studying the real situation of the country, and
adopting the measures required to establish upon a
solid basis the definite organisation of the national
finances." In the mean time commercial and monetary
affairs continue in the same depressed state at Lisbon as
before. All the civil, military, and naval departmental
officers are in arrears of pay from four to ten and twenty
months.

Considerable agitation has been excited at Berlin,
owing to the probable success of the extreme Conservative
party in persuading the King not to swear fidelity
to the Constitution, and a ministerial crisis was expected.
The King, however, has intimated his willingness to
take the oath to the Constitution, but with modifications
which were to be proposed to the Chambers.

The Plenipotentiaries forming the Council ad interim
for managing the affairs of the German Federation have
met at Frankfort.

The Journal of St. Petersburg of the 6th instant
contains the official sentences passed on twenty-one Russian
subjects, arrested some months since, as members of a
conspiracy against the Emperor's person. They are
chiefly officers in the Guard, or civil officers of rank.
Three of the number, Timkovski, Luvof, and Plestscheief,
belong to the old nobility of the empire, and the
last is a name taking precedence in history of that of
the Romanoffs. But Kaschkine, son of a conspirator
exiled to Siberia after the revolt of Pestel and Releife
in 1825, seems to have played the most remarkable part
in this transaction. Confronted with the Emperor, who
promised him a full pardon if he would betray his
accomplices, Kaschkine indignantly refused; and added,
that he had not been inspired with the idea of revenging
the condemnation of his father, which was accounted
one of the glories of his house, but by the conviction
that neither Nicholas nor his family were fitted to make
his country's happiness. Twenty of the conspirators
were condemned with him to death; and their sentences
were commuted into hard labour in the Siberian mines,
by the Emperor.

A letter from Presburg, dated the 30th of December,
gives the following information respecting the families
of Kossuth, Guyon, and others of the late Hungarian
leaders:—A paragraph has gone the round of the
German papers, giving the world to understand that the
mother and children of Kossuth have been set at liberty;
that upon their leaving their prison at Pesth they came
to Vienna, in order to provide themselves with a passport
to Turkey. The only word of truth in this story is
that this "noble old mother," with her three
grandchildren, left their prison at Pesth, but it was to enter a
new jail at Presburg: and such a jail! When these
helpless beings were consigned to the hospital of the
Schloss-berg, the cholera and typhus fever were both
raging there, and "Death, busiest from couch to couch,
tended the sick." The cholera and typhus have done
their work, and death is not so busy now among the
patients; the grandmother and the three little Kossuths
are still there, thank God, all well. The children of
Guyon are also there, behind that tall black wall, pierced
with little square holes, that runs round the top of the
conical hill overhanging the town. You are not to
understand that, because they are in a prison-hospital,
they are in a ward mixed with either the crowd of sick
or criminals. Their apartments are such as, separated
from such a neighbourhood, and unhaunted by such
terrible associations, would probably content their modest
wants. The children have a tutor appointed by the
Government. An attempt was made latterly to induce
Madame Kossuth, by the offer of liberty and a
commodious residence elsewhere, to leave the children, with
what success may be imagined. If she had been their
mother, instead of their father's mother, the proposition
could not have been rejected with greater scorn. Where
the wife is remains to this moment a profound secret.
The children consist of two little boys and a girl. The
youngest boy is a charming little fellow, full of infantine
malice. He says to the Austrian officers, "Wait: I will
draw you papa's picture;" and then he scribbles one of
those naive ovals which pass current with such artists
for symbols of the human head divine, with a lot of
scratches at one end for the beard. Sometimes he
pretends to smuggle something in as he passes the sentinel,
who cries out, "Show me what you have in your hand,
sirrah!" The little fist, after some sham reluctance,
expands, and shows—nothing ! Then off he bounds in
ecstacies of laughter. One can never look up at those
dismal walls without thinking of the "noble old mother"
and that pretty little fellow singing in his stony cage.
Nor are these the only family at Presburg struck by the
Hungarian calamity. There are some struck indeed far
deeper. There is the widow of General Leiningen;
there is the widow of General Damjanich, free, indeed,
both to carry their sorrows and destitution whither they
please. These helpless women, after the execution of
their husbands, were not only despoiled of all property
in land inherited in their own right, which is contrary
to the Hungarian law, but not even suffered to retain a
fraction of the personal property of their husbands.
Nay, even their wardrobes were sacked, and their
dresses and trinkets snatched from them. It does credit
to the citizens of Arad that they would not bid for
those articles of female apparel when put up to public
auction; for that they deserve the blessing of Damjanich.
The dresses were knocked down without civil competition
cheap to Austrian officers. Leiningen was an
accomplished scholar as well as soldier, and had composed
a history of the war. This manuscript, secreted with
jealous care by his widow, who valued it more than her
jewels, did not escape the narrow search to which her
effects were exposed, and was also torn from her
possession.

Accounts from Stockholm state that the festivities of
Christmas Day were interrupted by a large fire, which
threatened to reduce the town of Drottnigholm to ashes.
There was great difficulty in obtaining water, in
consequence of the river being frozen over. The King and
the Crown Prince, with several officers, instantly set out
from Stockholm, and were among the first on the spot;
and by their presence and encouragement greatly
stimulated the efforts of the firemen and others, and the
conflagration was subdued after destroying several buildings
belonging to the Castle.

Letters from Constantinople of the 31st ult. announce
that diplomatic relations have been officially renewed
between Russia and Turkey, the difference relative to
the refugees of Widdin having been completely adjusted.
The exchange of the protocol took place on that day
between M. Titoff and the Minister for Foreign Affairs.
The last-mentioned accounts add that the Poles
implicated in the late Hungarian insurrection are to be
confined in the town of Koniah, in Asia Minor. Neither
the Porte nor any foreign power can, for the future,
protect political delinquents flying from Russia or
Austria into Turkey. No person, however, furnished
with an English or French passport can be seized by the
Russian or Austrian authorities whilst in the Ottoman
territory, unless the crime he is charged with be fully
proved before the ambassador, consul, or agent of the
government whose passport he holds.

Great excitement has been occasioned by a publication
of official documents from Honduras, announcing that
Tigre Island, and other islands alleged to belong to the
republic of Honduras, had been taken possession of by
Mr. Chatfield, the agent of Great Britain, and the
commanders of her Britannic Majesty's steamers Gorgon
and Plumper. One account informs us that the flag of
Honduras had been hauled down; and another, that the