The Week.

war , and the vast improvements in every direction that have been effected , are fully worth the immense outlay they have cost . No reforms in the constitution are promised , though his Majesty takes credit for having taken the initiative whenever any useful reform hasbeen proposed , and for having maintained intact the fundamental bases of the constitution , which he says have assured to the state ten years of order and prosperity . The French Chambers are open , hut as yet arc only engaged in

the constitution of their bureaux . Count de Morny's announcement , that he will not permit the reading of written harangues , will undoubtedly both accelerate and enliven the progress of the debates . The Count de Morny referred to the fact , that the English Parliament , " whose experience and practical spirit are undeniable , " prohibits the reading of written disquisitions ; and emphatically declared that he would not have long essays read out to a deserted Chamber . The Moniteur has

published the bill for the optional conversion of the Fourand-a-half per cent . Rents , which it declares to be not an expedient contrived to meet the temporary wants of the Treasury , hut a measure conceived in the interest of public prosperity . In replying to the address of the new Papal Nuncio , who had his first audience on Thursday , the Emperor Napoleon said that " he should always seek to ally the duties of a Sovereign with his devotion to the Holy See . The Emperor Alexander has

removed some of the restrictions yet imposed on the Jews of his empire . Henceforth Jewish merchants will be permitted to reside in any part of Russia ; and Jews who have obtained academical degrees are to be admissible to the public service . According to accounts from Rome , the Pope has declared that he will not send a nuncio to St . Petersburg until the Emperor Alexander shall have liberated the Polish priests now imprisoned at Warsaw , add shall have recalled those banished to Siberia . A telegram ( arriving from Milan ) states that Monsignor

Ciuffa , President of the Civil Tribunal at Rome , has been assassinated . The assassin , a person named Farroni , has been arrested . From the same source we receive a report that the Pope has been attacked with illness . The Danish Chambers were opened on Saturday . The King in his speech , which was read by the President of the Council , stated that the uegoeiations in reference to the constitutional affairs of Holsteinwere bein g continued , and expressed a hope that the interest which foreign

powers had in the maintenance of the independence of Denmark would lead to a satisfactory solution of the question . He also stated that the credits for the current year would be exclusively contributed by the kingdom and by Schleswig . This exemption of Holstem from compulsory taxation removed one of the principal impediments in the way of a satisfactory arrangement with the Federal Diet . The King also announced his intention to grant to Schleswig provincial estates , to be established on a

popular basis , as soon as the issue of the conflict with the Federal Diet shall ensure it against foreign intervention . The insurgents in the Herzegovina having definitively rejected the amnesty offered them by Omar Pacha , Dervisch Pasha had commenced active operations against them , and advanced on Polizza , from which the insurgents withdrew , having first set fire to the houses . A letter from Berlin states that the Catholic clergy of the province of Posen have been stirring up

so strong a Polish agitation that the Prussian Minister at Rome has been charged to solicit the intervention of the Pope , who , it is added , is to send a special Nuncio to Berlin for the purpose of obtaining information on the subject . In Posen , the strongest feeling prevails against the Germanising efforts of the Prussian Government . The Polish members , as a hody , declined to attend the coronation of the King at Konigsberg ; and the antagonism of national feeling seems to grow stronger every dav .

AMERICA . —The principal intelligence brought from New York by the Asia , is the announcement that General Burnside's expedition had actually sailed from Hampton Roads . Its destination was not publicly known in the North , but in the South it was thought to be intended for an attack on Norfolk . Mr . Cameron , the Federal secretary of war , had resigned his office , in which he had been succeeded by Mr . Staunton . Mr . Cameron was to proceed as Envoy to St . Petersburg , whence

Mr . Cassius M . Clay was to return for the purpose of assuming a command in the Federal army . Secretary Seward , in his report to Congress respecting the consular service , stated that , in consequence of the attempts to introduce arms from England into tbe South by way of the West Indies and the British American provinces , and of the intercourse carried on by the rebels with Europe through Canada , paid consuls had been

The Week.

appointed at Bristol , Cardiff , St . John's , Prince Edward ' s Island , Quebec , and Gaspe Basin . In each house of Confess there had been a singular display of petty spitefidness , in consequence of the surrender of the Confederate Commissioners . The Senate had rejected a motion to take into consideration the bill appropriating the sum of £ 200 to compensate the owners of the British ship Perthshire , for her illegal detention by a Federal cruiser , Senator Hale observing that " England

ought to satisfied with what America has already done—at least for the present . " In the House of Representatives Mr . Lovejoy , saying " It is enough for us to have been humbugged , dishonoured , and disgraced by England , " opposed the passage of the bill granting funds to defray the expense of conveying American goods to the Great Exhibition in London . Lord Russel ' s reply to Mr . Seward ' s recent dissertation on international law appears in the Gazette , of Tuesday . Tbe

noble Earl combats the theory that the persons taken out of the Trent , and their despatches , were contraband of war , and points out that , it the doctrine laid down by the Federal Secretary of State were to be acted upon , any packet ship conveying a Southern agent from Dover to Calais , or from Calais to Dover , would be liable to seizure ; while a Confederate war vessel would be equally justified in capturing a Cnnard steamer which might have despatches from Mr . Adams to Mr . Seward on board . He declares that England could never submit to the seizure of a merchant ship under circumstances similar to those

of the Trent case , and that the gravity of the offence would not be diminished by taking the prize into port for adjudication before a regular legal tribunal . Lord Russell aludes to Mr . Seward's assertion that if Messrs . Slideil and Mason had been worth keeping , they would never have been restored , and remarks that " Great Britain could not have submitted to the perpetration of that wrong , however flourishing might have heen the insurrection im the South . " A despatch from Lord

Lyons , stating the substance of a conversation with Mr . Seward on the subject of the destruction of the Southern harbours , also appears iu the Gazette . Mr . Seward informed His Excellency that the measures which had been adopted were intended to assist the blockade , and that the obstructions would be removed when the war was ended . At the same time , he was not prepared to admit that the permanent destruction of an enemy's ports was unjustifiable as an operation in war .

Messrs . Mason and Sliddell , with their secretaries , arrived at Southampton onAVednesday morning , in the AVest India steamer La Plata . Their original destination was Halifax , but owing to stress of weather the Hindldo made for St . Thomas , where the Confederate Commissioners arrived in time to obtain a passage onboard the La Plata . ' —The Mexican Commanderin-Chief had apprised the French and English Ministers that he would attack any force proceeding out of Vera Crux , From this we infer that for the present the Mexicans will not interfere with the occupation of Vera Cruz by the Spaniards .

To Correspondents.

TO CORRESPONDENTS .

Miss F . is thanked . We are glad to find we have so many lady correspondents . NON MASON . —We dare not answer such a question . MILITARY . —Military lodges are always held at the head-quarters of the regiments . SENEX . —AA e agree with you , it is quite time to revise the

numbers of the various lodges . It is ridiculous to go on creating lodges with high numbers whilst there are something like three hundred vacancies . A period should be fixed for revising all the numbers , and in the meantime new charters might be issued without numbers until the revisal . OLD MORTAIITT . —The communication has been consigned to the waste paper basketwhere any further communications on

, the same subject are likely to go . H . G . H . —Still on sale at Bro . Spencer's . S . S . —The Grand Organist is we believe in Australia . We do not know who is likely to be his successor . J . W . —Had better ask the Grand Master himself . We are not in the noble lord's confidence .

J . B . N . —The question regarding the Royal Arch shall receive due attention .