NARRATIVE OF FOREIGN EVENTS.

THE Proclaimation of the French Empire took place
on the 2nd. inst. On the previous day the Corps
Legislatif announced the definitive result of the
"Plebiscité" to be as follows:—

Jerome Bonaparte, the ex-King of Wurtemburg, is
now heir presumptive to the imperial throne. The
Moniteur contains a decree of the Emperor, dated the
18th inst., to the following effect:—

"In case of our leaving no direct heir, legitimate or adopted,
our well-beloved uncle, Jerome Napoleon Bonaparte, and his
descendants, direct and legitimate, the issue of his marriage
with the Princess Catherine of Wurtemburg, from male to male,
by order of primogeniture, to the perpetual exclusion of the
females, are appointed to succeed us."

There has been a fresh persecution at Florence
similar to that of the Madiai. Some time ago, Guarducci,
a banker's clerk, was arrested, with Count Guicciardino
and others, and sentenced to one year's imprisonment
for reading the Bible. Mr. Sheil, then our minister
at Florence, interfered, and the sentence was commuted
into banishment for that period. Guarducci went to
Piedmont; and the year having elapsed, he returned
to his family, and resumed his old employment in
the same banking-house at Florence. On the 21st
November, the Police entered his house at three in
the morning, and found there a copy of Diodati's Bible.
Guarducci was arrested instantly; and alarm is felt
for his fate, as capital punishment for religious offences
is now the law of Tuscany.

There has been a ministerial crisis at Madrid, arising
apparently from court intrigues of no interest out of
Spain. An unsuccessful combination against the
ministers of Bravo Murillo led in the first instance to
the exile of General Narvaez, who was sent on a
pretended mission to Vienna. But Bravo Murillo
and his Cabinet have since been forced to resign, and
a new ministry is not yet formed.

The law against the freedom of the press in Belgium
has been passed by the Chamber of Representatives
after a strenuous opposition. The chamber has voted
a grant to ministers of 6,000,000 francs for the
military defence of the country.

The Emperor of Austria has paid a visit to the King
of Prussia at Berlin, for the first time in the history of
the two nations. He has been received with great
splendour and festivity.

Five persons, condemned to death on political charges,
have been executed at Mantua with atrocious cruelty.
They were all respectable in station. Their judges were
Benedek, well known in the Gallician massacres, Bolga,
a nephew of him who was spared by the Milanese in
1848, and Rossi, both accuser and judge. Even the
officer who signed the sentence of death had been spared
by the Venetians in 1848. They were tried before a
secret tribunal; and were tortured during the trial,
with the stick, in the vain hope that they would confess.
They were hanged in a new and peculiar manner, partly
supported by the waist and feet,—a mode inflicting
great and protracted punishment; so that the fifth man
was an hour and a quarter witnessing the death-
struggles of his friends.

The accounts from New York are to the 12th instant.
Both houses of Congress met on the 6th, when the
President's valedictory message was read—a paper of
great length, entering minutely into all the foreign and
domestic relations of the United States. The excitement
at Havana in relation to the Crescent City has entirely
subsided. The Governor (Captain-General) having been
quite satisfied with Purser Smith's affidavit and
explanation, had agreed to admit him in future, and the
Crescent City, to the port of Havana without molestation.
There is much anxiety and alarm felt in New
York on account of the increase of crime. Four young
men had been sentenced to death for wilful murder, and
two others were awaiting sentence for the same crime.
A telegraphic despatch from New Orleans announced
the arrival at that port of advices from Mexico, which
are very important, as they announce the progress of a
formidable revolution in Tamaulipas. The city of
Victoria, which is the capital of that state, had been
captured by the insurgents, who were advancing on
Tampico. There had been a battle in the state of Sonora,
in which the government troops under Blanco had been
defeated. The state of Aguas Calientes has pronounced
in favour of the revolt of Guadalajara. At Mazatlan two
vessels of war have joined the insurgents, and at Orizaba
the garrison and town were expected to surrender.

A remarkable case, respecting the liberties of slaves in
passing through a free State, has been decided at New
York. It appears that a Mr. Lemmon, transporting
eight slaves from Virginia to Texas, touched at New
York to take ship thence to New Orleans, in October.
When he arrived in New York Bay, he went ashore to
make arrangements for the transhipment of his slaves
and other property; but by some means he was induced
to land them, and then he received notice that they
would be claimed. The case was heard before Judge
Payne, on a writ of habeas corpus obtained by Lemmon.
Judgment was delivered on the 13th of November.
The slaves, through a coloured man named Louis
Napoleon, claimed their liberty, on the ground that the
act of landing them in New York set them free. Mr.
Lemmon claimed the slaves, on the ground that they
were still the property of his wife; that he had not
intended them to reside in New York, but was passing
from Virginia to Texas, and had been compelled to
touch land. Judge Payne cited the act under which
the case came. Down to 1841, the law was, that a
slave passing through or travelling from New York
State remained a slave, providing his stay in the State
was less than nine months. But that law had been