To Shakespeare.

TO SHAKESPEARE .

TU 0-SIS 0 N . By yon hills with morning spread , Lifting up the tufted head , By those golden waves of corn , Which the laughing fields adorn , By the fragrant breath of flowers , Stealing from the woodbine bowers , Bthis thought-inspiring shade

y , By the gleamings of the glade , By the babbling of the brook , Winding slow in many a crook , By the rustling of the trees , « - By the humming of the bees , By the woodlark , by the thrush Wildly warbling from the bush ,

. By the fairy's shadowy tread O'er the cowslip's dewy head , — Father , monarch of the stage , Glory of Eliza ' s age , Shakespeare ! deign to lend thy face , This romantic nook to grace , Where untaught nature sports alone , Since thou and nature are hut one .

The Week.

THE WEEK .

THE COTOT . —Her Majesty and family continue at Windsor . It is officially announced that the Queen will , in the course of April , hold two " courts " at Buckingham Palace . On the 6 th of April her Majesty will receive the principal members of the diplomatic body , and on the 13 th " a limited number of distinguished persons will have an opportunity of paying their respects" to the sovereign . The Prince and Princess of Wales ,

visited the Adelphi Theatre on Tuesday . GENEEAII HOME NEWS . —After being for a long time above the average the mortality of London has at last fallen below that line . The deaihs registered last week amounted to 1 , 397 ; the corrected average is 1 , 449 ; the actual return is , therefore , less than the calculated number by 52 . The children born

during the week were 1 , 897 ; the average number would be 2 , 063 . Garibaldi is expected to arrive in London on the 16 th of April , and preparations are being made to give him what our American friends would call a public reception . A gentleman , who has been in close communication with Garibaldi , declares the " only object" of the General in visiting this country is " to thank in person the generous hearts who have

done him so much good in his hours of distress and sorrow . We have it on the same authority that he is not coming to England "to create any difference , especially with the Emperor of the French , with whom and his friends he desires to be on terms of the greatest friendship . " Sir Rowland Hill has addressed a letter of thanks to the Lords of the Treasury for the flattering notice tliey have taken of his

services in awarding him his full salary as a retiring allowance . At the same time he takes objection to a passage in their minute intimating that he was not the first to suggest an uniform rate of penny postage , and claims for himself the sole and exclusive credit of having made the suggestion . To show that Mr . AVallace , formerly member for Greenock , had not

made the suggestion before him , he quotes from the last speech Mr . Wallace made on postage reform before the publication of his pamphlet , in which he advocates a minimum charge of 3 d ., and an additional penny for every 50 miles . The Bishop of Ely was consecrated on Tuesday in AA estminster Abbey . The officiating bishops were the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Bishops of AVorcester and St . David ' s . The Dean of A \ estnainster also took part in the ceremony . The annual Easter

Review of the Volunteers took place on Farley-heath , Guildford , on Monday . There were from 15 , 000 to 18 , 000 troops on the ground on this occasion ; and cold as the weather was , the spectators , of whom the majority came from London , formed an immense crowd . Punctual to the time appointed , the several regiments appeared at the railway station in the morning

and were conveyed to the scene of action . The scene was an animated one where it could be seen , but the review , the ground , the railway accommodation , were all inferior to the former manoeuvriugs at Brighton . Unfortunately towards the close of the proceedings heavy rain fell , which , under any circumstances , would have marred the pleasure of the

proceedings . On Tuesday the whole of the troops now in garrison at Chatham were reviewed by bis Royal Highness the Duke of Cambridge . The troops performed the various evolutions with great precision and rapidity , and at the close of the review his Royal Highness expressed to General Eyre the satisfaction he felt in witnessing this creditable display of the drill and discipline

of the garrison . A dinner of the Conservative party took place at Exeter on Tuesday , at which the Earl of Devon , Lord Churston , Sir Stafford Northcote , and several other Conservative members of Parliament connected with the district were present . The immediate object was to forward the candidateship of Lord Courtney as member of Parliament for the county , and in the

course of it Sir Stafford Northcote delivered a speech on the policy of the present Government , which was one of the most searching expositions of their weakness and inconsistency to which they have yet been subjected . A meeting of licensing magistrates was held on Saturday at the Sessions House , Clerkenwell-green , to determine on the applications for new licences in the northern suburbs . The cases were very varied in character , and were dealt with accordingly ; but it may be said

that , as a rule , the magistrates were very chary of increasing the number of public-houses already in existence , and required a very substantial case to he made out before the application was granted . That the applicants had spent large sums in fitting up their houses was not allowed to weigh at all as a reason for granting a licence , and several eases were refused . A singular fraud on the Government , and one whose long impunity seems

to discredit the vigilance ot the military authorities at Woolwich , has lately been discoveted there . Serjeant Saunders was was entrusted with the duty of attesting recruits before the magistrates there , for which his legal fee was los . Gd . each . It now turns ont that a great many of the attestation papers , on which he was paid , were forged , and this had been

done so often , that the amount out of which the Government has been defrauded is about £ 1 , 000 . Saunders was placed under close arrest , but he managed to escape aud has not since been heard of . Another non-commissioned officer is under arrest fur complicity with the fraud . On Tuesday night , a fellow , named Richard Parker , residing at the village

of Fiskerton , near Newark , quarrelled with his father , an old man , who was so alarmed at his son's violence , that he sought refuge in a stable . Parker took clown a double-barrelled gun , and on his mother moving towards the stable to give an alarm , he deliberately fired at her . Old Mr . Parker , on hearing the report of a gun , emerged from his hiding-place to ascertain

what had occurred , when he , too , was shot down by the inhuman ruffian . The old man and his wife were dangerously wounded , ¦ and it was reported at Newark that they were both dead . The son is in custody . A painful story reaches us from Canterbury . A young man , named Horton , appears to have quarrelled with his sweetheart , a domestic servant , named Esther Cullen . On Sunday night he called upon the girl , during the absence of her master and mistress at church , and ,