intended for peace, and for the promotion of that very
civilisation, the offspring of public discussion, of the
friction of parties, and of the popular control on the
government and the state. The Queen has no power
to levy troops, nor has she any at her command, but
such as offer their voluntary services. Her government
can take no measure for the prosecution of the war
which it has not beforehand to explain in parliament.
Her armies and fleets can make no movements, nor even
prepare for any, without their being publicly announced
in the papers. No mistake, however trifling, can occur,
no want or weakness exist, which is not at once
denounced, and even sometimes exaggerated with a kind
of morbid satisfaction. The Queen's ambassador can
enter into no negociations without the government
having to defend him by entering into all the arguments
which that negociator, in order to be successful, ought
to be able to shut up in the innermost recesses of his
heart. Nay, at the most critical position, when war
and diplomatic relations may be at their height, an
adverse vote in parliament may at a moment deprive the
Queen of the whole of her confidential servants.
Gentlemen, our constitutional government is undergoing
a heavy trial, and we shall not get successfully through
it unless the country will grant its confidence—patriotic,
intelligent, and self-denying confidence—to her
Majesty's government. Gentlemen, I propose to you to
drink the health of Viscount Palmerston and her
Majesty's ministers." The toast was drunk with loud
cheers; and Lord Palmerston, after acknowledging the
support received by the government from parliament
and the country, concluded by saying:—"We should
be unworthy of that confidence and support if we
were not determined to exert our best energies, and
to direct the best energies of the country, towards
obtaining that victorious result of the conflict in which we
are engaged, which alone can be consistent, I will not
say with the honour and glory, but with the safety of
the British nation."

An extraordinary demonstration against the Sunday
Trading Bill took place in Hyde Park on Sunday, the
24th. A few days before placards had been displayed
throughout the metropolis inviting the working classes
and others to attend in Hyde Park on Sunday afternoon,
to see "how the aristocracy observed the Sabbath."
In obedience to this call, several thousand persons had
assembled in the park between two and three o'clock
yesterday. A great number of policemen were
distributed throughout the park, but did not interfere with
the free movement of the persons assembled, the vast
majority of whom appeared to be of the better class of
artisans, accompanied in numberless instances by
their wives and families. The equestrian ride in
Rotten-row was totally deserted, but soon after three
o'clock a variety of carriages began to make their
appearance in the Drive running along the right
bank of the Serpentine. The vast crowd at once took
up a position on each side of the road, extending from
the Achilles statue to Serpentine-bridge, and as each
carriage passed along indulged in loud hissing and
groaning, accompanied by deafening cries of "Go to
church;" "Why do you allow your servants to work
on Sunday?" "Shame on you!" "Down with the
Sabbatarians!" "Away with the Sunday Bill!"  In
the majority of instances the occupants of the carriage
did not venture to return down the Ride, but went
home evidently astonished, and, probably, impressed
with what they had seen and heard. The crowd
remained until nearly eight o'clock. A great number of
the members of the legislature were present looking on.

NARRATIVE OF LAW AND CRIME.

The police reports almost every day contain cases of
crimes and outrages committed by Ticket-of-Leave Men.
At Bow-street a young man named Thomas Jones, a
returned convict on "ticket-of-leave," was charged with
using indecent language to a police constable. The
officer stated that, after himself and other officers had
quelled a disturbance in Drury-lane, the prisoner
followed him for the purpose of abusing him, and he never
heard more shocking language used in the public streets
in his life.—Mr. Jardine said the language must have
been bad indeed to shock a policeman. It formed a
striking contrast, no doubt, to the sentiments expressed
by the prisoner in his interviews with the chaplain of
the prison from which he had obtained his ticket-of-leave.
On these occasions, it appeared, the adoption of a
hypocritical tone and a canting expression of the countenance
(which the worst of them were capable of assuming best
when it served their purpose to do so) sufficed to obtain
their discharge before the expiration of half the term of
the original sentence, with the further advantage of a
written character, enabling them to impose upon the
public. He had not presided there any day for some
time past without having to dispose of some charge
against a "ticket-of-leave" man. The neighbourhood
is infested with them. They stand at the corners of
streets at midnight, and pouncing suddenly upon the
lonely passenger, half-strangle and rob him before even
an alarm can be given. His worship then committed
the prisoner to seven days' imprisonment.——A few days
afterwards, at the Middlesex sessions, John Fitzgerald,
another "ticket-of-leave" man, was found guilty of
having stolen a watch. In 1850 the prisoner was sentenced
to ten years' transportation for a similar robbery.
The assistant judge sentenced him to six years' penal
servitude. On the occurrence of another "ticket-of-
leave" case at the same sessions, the assistant judge
made the following observations: He said he was one of
the first to denounce this ticket-of-leave system when it
was proposed, and he, in turn, was attacked and
denounced for doing so; but the results proved that he
was right in the view he took. No system could be
devised more calculated to demoralise the whole kingdom,
and it was really fearful to contemplate what the
consequences of its operation would be even five years hence.
When these men were discharged from gaol they had
money given to them, and had the fare paid to convey
them back to their old haunts and their old associates,
with a post-office order for a further sum on their arrival.
One of the first that came before him after the system
was in practice received £8 or £10 on being discharged;
he was sent back to where he had been a notorious thief,
the worst part of St. Giles's, and two days after his
arrival he was detected picking pockets himself, and
teaching a boy how to do the same thing. The evil
consequences of the measure were becoming more apparent
every day. A session or two back he tried a case of a
serious and brutal assault committed by a gang of three
liberated convicts and prostitutes for the purpose of
robbing. If the system was to continue it was much to
be lamented that instead of giving these men large sums
on their discharge, and sending them back to the scene
of their former career of crime, the money was not set
aside for some institution, where the really penitent and
deserving could be admitted, reformed, and ultimately
sent out to some foreign settlement, where they might
become good and useful men, the want of some such
institution being exemplified in a remarkable manner in
the case under notice.

The two recent cases of Practical Joking in the Army
have been disposed of by the Commander-in-Chief. The
misconduct of Ensigns Sanders and Neville, of the 30th
Regiment, to an Ensign of the 50th, at the Provisional
Battalion at Fermoy, has elicited a letter from General
Yorke to Lord Seaton, commanding the forces in Ireland,
in which he says: "There being two lieutenancies
in the 30th Regiment about to be filled up, I am directed
by the General Commanding to state, that, adverting to
the gross misconduct of Ensigns Sanders and Neville of
that regiment in the case which was brought under his
notice in March last, Lord Hardinge could not think of
recommending those officers to her Majesty for promotion
on this occasion, and they will accordingly be passed
over by the next officers." He adds that until the
conduct of Ensigns Sanders and Neville has been favourably
reported upon for at least two successive quarters, they
need not look for any promotion; but as it is not just
that the other Ensigns junior to them should suffer for
their misconduct, these will successively pass over them
whenever vacant lieutenancies may be filled up in the
regiment till the period of probation as above laid down