defunct Administration; nor let us forget, either, that
their successors may find it worth while to imitate,
as it will be no very arduous labour to surpass, what
they have done, or rather showed the disposition to
do, in regard to the Arts, and their recognition by the
state. The speech in which Mr. Disraeli described the
proposed scheme of a great Industrial University, and
incidentally touched on the civilising and ennobling
influences of art upon a nation, was one of his most
pleasing efforts; and the readiness with which the
house of commons voted without a division the
money asked for, showed a faith in the good sense of
their constituencies highly creditable to the honourable
members, and likely to have results of a more
important and extended nature. The details of the
particular plan are of course open to all kinds of
criticism, but its basis is excellent. The daily
increasing facilities of rapid intercourse, and the
character and tendencies of modern legislation, are
gradually placing all countries very nearly on a level,
in so far as the raw material of industry is
concerned; and the ground of competition in future
will be much more in the larger field of invention
and intellect, than in the narrower one of mere
industry. As the late Chancellor of the Exchequer
remarked in his very able speech, the
intellectual element in the art of production must be
more studied and cultivated than heretofore. In
other words, to carry on an equal struggle with other
countries, we must organise a system of industrial
education such as prevails in almost every European
country but our own; we must provide, for our
industrial population, facilities for instruction in
science and the arts, with special relation to the
work in which they are engaged; and we must do
it without loss of time. When the foundation-
stone of the new museums shall be laid, we shall
have realised the first practical benefits of the Great
Exhibition.

Already we have realised the first practical results
of the exhibition extraordinary in the Frail W. B.
case. It used to be a saying of Sydney Smith, that
it required but the name of a notorious jobber
to be uttered in the house of commons to get a
host of vouchers on the spot for his faultless moral
integrity. In exactly this spirit a select committee
of that house has just reported that an elaborately
organised system of very gross bribery was going
on at the last Derby election; that the man caught
by the police in the very fact of administering
the bribes was acting on the instructions
contained in a letter from Major Beresford, found
upon his person at the time; but that, nevertheless,
there is not sufficient evidence to satisfy their
minds that the scheme of the bribery, or the arrangement
and object of the instructions contained in
his own letter, were known to, and concurred in,
by the Right Honourable William Beresford. The
equivocal circumstances confessed, the obvious inference
is denied; and the committee are fain to believe
that the "good and safe man," whom Mr. Beresford
wanted, and of whom he was so extremely anxious
to conceal the whence he came and the whither
he was going, he thought in his innocence to be
only wanted for the purpose of circumventing underhand
practices on the part of his opponents. The
only parallel to a suggestion so extraordinary that
strikes one at the moment, is the fact of Parson
Adams being found in Mrs. Slipslop's bedchamber
without any but the most virtuous intentions. So
he said on the discovery taking place, and such
turned out to be the fact. No one dreams of doubting
the good Abraham's word on that point; and in
the exact proportion of the likeness of the Right
Honorable William Beresford to Parson Abraham
Adams will it be felt that the suggestion of the
committee on the Derby election case is a just and
reasonable one.

The events which from time to time now break
the despotic dullness of the continent are not of
a kind to excite wonder, however extravagant they
may be. In the presence of the marvel of the
French Empire all other marvels are eclipsed; and
men only wonder that they can wonder no more.
There has been a coup d'état in Spain, but nobody
attends to it; though the fact that it is the civil power
that attempted, and the military that successfully
resisted it, may be found hereafter to be really worth
attention. The king of Prussia has had a visit, for
the first time since the Great Frederic arose, from
his imperial neighbour of Austria; and, though this
is supposed to argue a more cordial union than heretofore
against the designs of a more dangerous neighbour,
it passes with little remark. Nicholas remains
quiet, but is supposed not to favour with any particular
cordiality the pretensions of the third Napoleon.
The third Napoleon himself, worse off than ever
for advisers and never so sorely needing them, has
tried in vain to get assistance from the Republican
party; but the Cavaignacs continue as hostile and
unmanageable as the Changarniers. Everything on
the continent, in short, portends that things cannot
long remain as they are, yet no one seems to have
any great interest or anxiety to speculate on the
new forms and combinations they are likely to
assume.

NARRATIVE OF PARLIAMENT AND
POLITICS.

ON Thursday, Dec. 2, the Marquis of CLANRICARDE
laid before the house the resolution on the Commercial
Policy of the Country which he had intended to move,
but which he wished to waive in favour of one suggested
by Lord Derby.—The Earl of DERBY expressed his
satisfaction of the course pursued by Lord Clanricarde,
and cordially hoped that from that moment the controversy
as to the relative merits of protection or free-trade
might be set at rest, and that no attempt might be made
to disturb the system recently adopted.—The Marquis
of CLANRICARDE then adopted Lord Derby's resolution,
and gave notice that he would bring it forward on
Monday next; adding that, under the circumstances, he
did not think it likely any discussion would arise on his
motion. The following are the terms of the resolution:—

"That this house, thankfully acknowledging the
general prosperity, and deeply sensible of the evils
attending frequent changes in the financial policy of
the country, adheres to the commercial system recently
established, and would view with regret any attempt to
disturb its operations or impede its progress."

On Monday, the 6th, the Marquis of CLANRICARDE
moved the resolution on the Commercial Policy of the
Country which he had adopted at the suggestion of
Lord Derby. He thought that some such resolution
was necessary, partly from the peculiar position in
which the house was placed after what had taken
place in the lower house, and partly because, apart from
other considerations, it was desirable that their
lordships should express an opinion on the policy of free-
trade. For himself, he should have been better pleased
if the government would have come to the same
resolution as that adopted by the House of Commons; and
he could not at all understand why that course had not
been followed; but, as an unanimous vote was not to be
expected in that case, he had thought it right to accept
the present resolution as the best that was to be obtained
under all the circumstances.—The Earl of ABERDEEN
thought that in a body so constituted as the House of
Lords, which was not liable to change like the House of
Commons, and which had already on several occasions
expressed its adhesion to a free-trade policy, any such