francs salary. The severest penalty applied to a deputy
is fifteen days' exclusion. Another decree has been
published, whereby the retirement of judges of the
Court of Cassation is enforced at the age of seventy-five,
on the ground of presumed infirmity, and of all inferior
judges at the age of seventy; the power of the Court of
Cassation to suspend judges for specified misconduct is
also enlarged by empowering that court to dismiss them
on the same ground. The measure will give the government
a great deal of patronage; and there can be no
doubt that the new judges will all be men thoroughly to
be depended upon, either to uphold confiscation or to
condemn political prisoners.

A decree has been published imposing severe restrictions
upon the sale of materials for printing. Entries
are to be made of the names and addresses of purchasers,
and copies of this register sent to the Prefect of Police.
No private press, however small, can be possessed
without authorisation. Printers' licenses are in future
to be conferred by the Minister of Police.

The Exchange of Hamburg, on the 10th instant,
presented the spectacle of the Execution of a Bankrupt.
At noon, when the tide of business was at the highest,
two drummers in the civic uniform came up and rolled
their drums for ten minutes. Workmen were seen
over the principal gateway of the building elevating a
black board, on which was painted in white letters the
name of a merchant of the city who had lately
suspended payment and absconded with all his assets.
When the name had been fairly set up, a bell, called
the "schand-glocke," or shame bell, only rung on
such occasions, was sounded for two hours from a tower
of the Bourse. This penalty of disgrace, called the
"execution of a fraudulent bankrupt," is ordained
by a law which can be traced to the 14th century,
when the Hanseatic League was at the height of its
greatness.

The voyage of the Emperor of Austria from Venice
to Trieste on the 4th inst., was attended with the loss of
a fine steamer, the Marianna, with all hands on board.
The morning was so stormy that the most experienced
pilots protested against putting to sea, but their counsel
was overruled by the military men forming the
Emperor's suite. The consequence was, that the vessel
on board of which the Emperor was, was separated
from the other vessels, and next day reached Rovigno
with difficulty. Of the Marianna nothing was ever
seen again, but some fragments washed ashore, it
appearing that she had gone to pieces near the mouth
of the Po. Sixty-six persons perished, among whom
were several military officers, engineers, and soldiers.

The accounts from nearly every part of Germany
speak of great distress through dearth of provisions. In
Lithuania, bands of from thirty to forty individuals
overrun the country, and carry off by force whatever
cereals they can find on the farms. In Upper Silesia,
and more particularly in the circle of Rybniker, sickness
and death have so increased, that the clergy are unequal
to the duties of visitation and burial imposed upon
them. It is feared that the hunger-fever of 1847 and
1848 will be renewed. The people of the Thuringian
Forest are emigrating in despair; and in the Oberland
of Weimar a whole parish, with priest and schoolmaster,
has left the country. The same thing has been repeated
in the duchy of Gotha. The government has bought
the village, and is taking down the houses. In the
Odenwald, in Hesse, the pressure is so great that the
government has sent troops thither, fearing an
insurrection. Not long ago, Prussia was the granary from
which the Low Countries, France, and England, drew
supplies; and, to-day, France is exporting corn to
Prussia by sea and land. The Emperor of Russia has
ordered the free admission into his dominions of low-
priced flour and meal. At Berlin, on the 2nd instant,
the Minister of Finance announced that the duties of
entry on importation of corn, flour, and vegetables, are
suspended for all the States of the Zollverein till the
31st of August. At Cassel, where the price of bread is
fixed by the police, the bakers found their business a
losing concern, in consequence of the high price of corn,
and were in some cases unable, by reason of the existing
scarcity, to furnish the usual quantity of bread; some
of them, too, seeing their stock diminish too rapidly,
providently desired to eke it out. An order, however,
has been issued, to the effect that every baker shall
bake daily such quantity of bread as the police may
prescribe, and sell it at the price fixed by the police.
Disobedience is to be punished in every case with a fine
of £ 3, or a fortnight's imprisonment, and repeated
infraction with expulsion from guild.

The "Prague Gazette" of the 13th contains a proclamation
by Count Clam-Gallas, which shows that the
population of Bohemia is still in a state far from tranquil.
Secret societies, the commandant says, yet exist in great
numbers; and unlawful and unauthorised writings,
such as revolutionary proclamations, addresses, and
comments upon public affairs, circulate, chiefly in
manuscript, among the people. The public is reminded that
the mere possession of such documents is a crime
punishable by the courts-martial with imprisonment
and hard labour for a year. The Vienna courts-martial
were still sitting, and, in the week ending March 15,
had sentenced twenty persons, convicted of petty
offences deemed political, to various imprisonments of
from seven days to four months, diversified with blows
with a rod, blows with a stick, fasts, and irons.

The chambers have just been opened in Wurtemberg,
Nassau, and Oldenburg. The chief business in all these
assemblies is to revise the constitutions, with a view to
cancelling all clauses that guarantee popular rights, or
enable the popular will in any way to influence affairs
of state. The governments of the three States named
have strong majorities, as everywhere else in Germany.

Accounts from Athens state that a secret republican
society, with ramifications extending to Constantinople,
had been discovered. In the night of the 12th of
February, the police, supported by the gendarmerie,
surrounded the houses of some Polish refugees resident
at Athens, and of Messrs. Negris and Bouyoneli, Greek
citizens, known to be on terms of friendship with them.
All the parties were arrested and their papers seized.
Military measures of the most stringent character were
taken to overawe the population. General Milbitz, and
fourteen other Polish refugees, were ordered to quit the
Greek territory in 24 hours. They embarked at the
Piræus, some for Sardinia and others for Alexandria.
The subject having been brought forward by the
opposition in the Chamber of Deputies, the ministry
promised to produce documents, showing the necessity of
the measure, and M. Provellegio, Minister of Justice,
distinctly denied that the measure had been adopted on
the demand of any foreign power.

By accounts from St. Petersburg, it appears that the
perennial war with the Circassians continues to rage
with violence. Bulletins from the army of the Caucasus
state, that on the 10th and 18th of January different
columns, which had been directed upon the valley of the
lesser Tchetchina, encountered bodies of mountaineers,
of whom they slew great numbers, and set fire to their
villages. The Russian loss in these various combats
was 49 killed and 233 wounded. Among the former
was Major-General Kroukowski, who was struck by a
ball while investing a village at the head of his cavalry.
A hotter contest took place in Doghestan. A column
was sent out on the 14th of January, which, after
destroying the village of Mischkil on the 17th, on the
18th invested Schellagi, rendered almost impregnable
by the fortifications which the mountaineers had raised
there. After a fierce struggle the place was taken and
burnt, but the Russians lost first 130 men killed and 341
wounded; among the latter were two colonels. All the
inhabitants perished. Incidents such as these have
filled the bulletins of the Russian army of the Caucasus
for these last six years. Once in twelve months the
Russian forces advance some distance into the territory
of the indomitable mountaineers, according to a plan
prepared in the military chancery at Tiflis, destroying
the villages, lighting up the primitive forests by
incendiarism, and seizing upon the herds of the natives.
These operations are, however, of brief duration, and
may be renewed for many years without procuring the