mighty. In accord with the experience of mankind the Committee proclaims the impotence of a material remedy, and sees no other except religion, which men have so long strenuously laboured to extirpate from the hearts of their fellow-creatures. Our ancestors knew and believed that prayer and faith were the very fundamental bases of society. There is no society without religion, no religion without a worship, no worship without the Sabbath. The repose of the seventh day is the sign and symbol of alliance between God and man. Its nonobservance was a public profession of atheism, a public defiance thrown to the Creator. Modern philosophers have substituted the dignity of matter for the old religion of Clovis and Jean d'Arc. England and the United States are perhaps indebted for their prosperity to their close observance of the first law of God. Christians of every persuasion observe the Sabbath, and the Jews still more strictly. The project prepared by the Committee offered guarantees to all, with the exception, perhaps, of those who professed no religion. ("They constitute the majority," cried a Member on the Left.) They were numerous, he knew, but the Committee thought that the liberty of believing could be reconciled with that of not believing. The non-observance of the Sabbath was an attempt against equality-the only true equalityequality in the eyes of God. It affected particularly the dignity of the poor and the labourer. He (M. Montalembert) and his friends had

been often charged with indifference for the education of the people. Now, in his opinion, the greatest obstacle to that education was the sacrilegious labour on Sunday. To deprive the people of repose on that day was to deprive them of their rights and duties, and to suppress the day of the Lord was to suppress education. He cited again Great Britain and the United States in support of his opinion, and ascribed to their respect for that day the prosperity, tranquillity, and grandeur they enjoyed. In London, where the population amounted to two millions and a half, order was maintained by three battalions of infantry and a few squadrons of cavalry, while in Paris the presence of an entire army was required. M. de Montalembert next described the demoralising effects of the nonobservance of the Sabbath. He attributed to it the extraordinary increase of cabarets, which, according to returns submitted to the Committee appointed to institute an inquiry into the best mode of levying the duty on liquors, amounted to 332,000 in France. It was full time to remedy the evil, and it behoved the Assembly to oppose to the right to labour, invented by the Socialists, the right to repose, and minister both to the material and moral improvement of the labouring classes.

M. Montalembert then read the different articles of the project, but the question was not disposed of this year, nor did anything else occur before its close of sufficient importance to require notice in our pages.

sidered this appoinment as a remarkable honour and as a great personal reward; but at this moment, after a suspension of diplomatic relations, equally deplored by both Governments, but now happily terminated in a manner honourable for both parties, it is singularly flattering for me to be charged with the renewal of the relations whose intimacy I firmly trust may never again be changed.

Your Majesty may have confidence in my sincere and persevering efforts to enlarge and consolidate those feelings of friendship which ought never to have been interrupted between two countries which, under critical circumstances, entertained and still hold such warm sympathy and such community of interests."

The Queen replied—

"I receive with great satisfaction the letters which accredit you to my Government as Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary of my august ally the Queen of Great Britain, and this act is doubly acceptable to me from the consideration that it completes and happily terminates the state of interruption of the diplomatic relations between the two countries which has prevailed an interruption which we all have deplored with equal sincerity, and which, fortunately, has not in the least impaired the mutual esteem and the ancient connections which fraternally united both nations."

On the 5th of August the Spanish Chambers were dissolved, and a new Cortes summoned to assemble on the 31st of October. At the same time a circular was addressed by the Minister of the Interior, San Luis, to the governors of the provinces, in which,

amongst other flattering professions of candour and confidence, he said

Far from the Government is the idea of forming a Congress in which unanimity should be secured by the exclusion of their adversaries. The only desire of the Government is that the real expression of public opinion should emanate from the electoral urns. Its sincerity, good faith, the legitimate and even personal pride of its members, are interested in seeing all those who have a claim to the Government of the country ascend the tribune, and share with them that glory. The Government will see with pleasure, represented in the new Congress, all the legal parties, who, under the ægis of the throne of our Queen, Isabella II., and the Constitution of the State, frankly and honestly proclaim a clear and regular system of government. As for those who found their system on the ruin of those two great and sacred principles, or hoist a doubtful banner without any known motto, who usurp the respectable appellation of a political party to gratify an unjustifiable vanity, and promote the triumph of personal ambition, they are no doubt entitled to the liberty due to all, but the Government does not believe that their presence in the legislative body can be useful to the nation."

The result of the elections was almost exclusively in favour of the Moderado party, and gave a great triumph to the Government. Of the Progressistas or Liberals hardly more than twelve were returned.

On the 31st of October the new Cortes were opened by the Queen in person, who read a speech of more than ordinary length, of

which the following were the only important passages:—

"I am happy to announce to you that our diplomatic relations with Great Britain have been fortunately renewed in a becoming and honourable manner for both countries.

"Our intercourse with the other Powers continues on the same footing of good understanding and friendly feeling.

"The expedition which I sent to the Pontifical State to co-operate with those of the other Catholic Powers in the great object of restoring the temporal authority of the Holy See, has fortunately returned after attaining that end. Our troops left in Italy durable recollections of their brilliant conduct and discipline. They have drawn on themselves the blessings of the Church, and the warmest testimonies of gratitude on the part of the provinces they occupied.

"In the interior, public order, the first necessity of nations, has not been an instant disturbed. Thanks to it, the sources of wealth and prosperity our country contains have developed themselves and spontaneously augmented under the vigilant protection of the Administration. In the meantime, old feuds are being forgotten, past dissensions disappear, the country avails itself without danger of the services of all its children, and I have witnessed the establishment and consolidation of a policy the most congenial to my heart the policy of oblivion, tolerance, and real liberty.

"Thanks to domestic peace, considerable reforms have been effected in the important branches of the administration belonging to the Departments of the Interior and Commerce, as respects the im

provement of the roads and internal communications, the carriage of the mails, telegraphs, lighthouses, public health, and charitable and penitentiary institutions. The Government has not been less zealous in its endeavours to remove the obstacles which oppose the complete development of agriculture, industry, and com

merce.

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In the Department of Public Instruction a reform has been introduced for the sake of giving an impulse to certain branches of science calculated to exercise a powerful influence over the development of the national wealth. Various schools, moreover, have been opened, although the general expenditures of public instruction have been reduced.

"The produce of the public revenue progressively increases, and it is to be hoped that the measures adopted for that object will maintain that progression.

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My Government will immediately submit to your examina tion and approbation the account of the public expenditure and the general estimates for next year, carefully adapted to the real wants of the country and the present situation of the Administration. To those documents will be added, agreeably to the prescriptions of the new law of accounts, the project relative to the supplementary and extraordinary credits granted last Session. A definitive project for the adjustment of the public debt will also be presented to you. In the course of the Legislature, several other laws claimed by the necessities of the State, and, amongst others, a Bill for regulating the fueros of the Basque Provinces, will likewise be submitted to your appreciation."

PORTUGAL.-The Session of the Portuguese Cortes was opened on the 2nd of January by the Queen in person, who delivered the following speech :

"Worthy Peers of the Realm, and Gentlemen Deputies of the Portuguese Nation,—

"Public tranquility, to the consolidation of which your loyal cooperation successfully contributed, has not been disturbed since the last Session of the Legislature. We should thank Divine Providence for having spared these realms the evils with which other nations have been afflicted.

"My relations with foreign Powers are every day rendered closer. An agreement has been entered into between my Government and that of His Majesty the King of Denmark that the Portuguese flag shall be considered in the passage of the Sound as that of the most favoured nation, the same being practised in the ports of Portugal with regard to the Danish flag.

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In conformity with the principles of a just reciprocity, my Government has obtained for Portuguese produce imported into the Russian ports under our national flag an exemption from the payment of 50 per cent. formerly paid over and above the duties established in the general custom-house tariff, as also the extinction of the differential tonnage hitherto paid in that empire by Portuguese vessels.

In conformity with the authorization conceded by the law of the 28th of June, 1849, and taking into consideration the reclamations of some foreign Powers, my Government has extended its provisions to the Swedish, Dutch, and Belgian flags visiting Portuguese ports.

"The ultramarine provinces continue to enjoy tranquillity. In Angola a new colony of Portuguese emigrants from Brazil has been established, which gives the most flattering hopes of prosperity.

"I grieve, however, to announce to you that our establishment at Macao has been the scene of two attempts against the sovereignty of my Crown and the law of nations, and my Government has already taken the necessary steps to secure the integrity of the establishment, the sovereignty of the Crown, and the dignity of the national decorum; it has likewise claimed the satisfaction due, which I trust will meet with attention and lead to a just reparation.

"My Government will give you an account of the use it has made of the different authorizations which you had confided to it, and of the different operations effected by it to improve credit and meet the public expenses.

"It will present to you the budget of the receipts and expenses of the State, and various projects tending to improve some branches of the public service, and some laws which experience has shown to be imperfect.

"Worthy Peers of the Realm, and Gentlemen Deputies of the Nation,