The Week.

Wednesday night , Mr . W . Ewart presiding . Mr . Sala , Mr . G Thompson , Dr . Watts , ancl Mr . Ayrton , M . P ., were the principal speakers . Mr . Thompson and Mr . Ayrton denounced in energetic language the aggressions of the House of Lords , ancl urged upon the Commons the duty of losing no time in vindicating its privileges by the repeal of the paper duty . FOREIGN INTELLIGENCE . — Another Royal speech has been delivered . King Otho of Greece is the speaker . His Majesty

opened the Greek Chambers in person on the 27 th ult ., and congratulated the senators and deputies upon the attachment to Conservative principles displayed ( luring the recent elections . Warsaw at the present moment exhibits a most extraordinary spectacle . The heart of the whole city is deeply agitated , yet outwardly the utmost tranquillity prevails . The Poles are resolved to afford no pretext for harsh measures to the Russian Government . Five hundred citizens and town militiamen alternately patrol the city

by night to preserve order ; but the feeling of the people is manifested by the honours they have paid to the slain and the universal display of mourning , A judicial inquiry , conducted by a committee of Poles and Russians , is being impartially carried on . General Mayendorff has arrived in Warsaw , bearing the Emperor ' s reply to the address of the Polish citizans . The Emperor has granted a separate Council of State to Poland , has confirmed in its functions the municipality of Warsaw , and ordered that all official acts shall

be executed in the name of the Emperor as King of Poland . A very curions occurrence is reported from Cracow . The Bank of Poland , it is said , had in its keeping Russian bonda belonging to the Government , which it did not consider itself bound to pay in specie . The Government demanded the amount in cash , and being met with a refusal the bank was surrounded by soldiers , who entered the premises ancl helped themselves to the amount required out of the metallic reserve . Several comitats of Hungary have entered

energetic protests against the sending of any representative hy the Diet to the Council of the Empire . The dissatisfaction growing all through Hungary is stated to have been increased by the Imperial decree convoking a Servian national congress . The Portuguese Government have submitted to the Cortes a project of law for the reorganisation of brotherhoods and sisterhoods of charity . The Ministers are said to entertain contrasting and discordant opinions upon religious questions , and a Ministerial change is talked of . The French Budget for 1862 has been laid before the Corps Legislatif . The estimated expenditure amounts to nearly

80 , 000 , 000 sterling , of which sum the receipts fall short by nearly half a million . On the total estimates there is an increase over that of 1861 of 38 , 000 , 000 francs , the excess in the War Department alone amounting to 26 , 000 , 000 francs , or upwards of 1 , 000 , 000 sterling . The Pairie of Wednesday announces the arrest of Auguste Blanqui and another in Paris , on a charge of belonging to a secret political society . Both parties are stated to have come from London . The Spanish Ministry , we learn by telegram ,

have pronounced in favour of the temporal power of the Pope , ancl reject , as unworthy of consideration , the proposition of dividing Rome between the Pope and Victor Emmanuel . This decision will render little service to the cause of his Holiness , ancl the Emperor Napoleon and Victor Emmanuel will work their policy out regardless of Spain . It is stated that , by the intervention of the Emperor of the French , the town of Messina is to be saved the effusion of blood ancl the siht of a prolonged struggle . The

g Sardinian Government have consented to offer to the Messina and Civitella del Tronto garrisons terms substantially the same as those upon which Gaeta capitulated . A steamer has been despatched to Messina , bearing the orders from Francis II . to General Fergola , to accept the conditions , and a similar message will be conveyed to Civitella del Tronto . Nothing could be more gratifying to Europe in general than the friendly intervention which prevents

as needless and profitless a contest as the annals of warfare could record . Later intelligence has been received of the surrender of Messina . The Paris papers publish telegraphic announcements from Beyrout , which state that the Christians of Damascus are again undergoing insults and provocations from the Mussulmans . Consular reports , it is said , confirm the fears that the Christians are in serious danger . INDIA AND CHINA . —The Bombay mail brings sad intelligence of the fearful

progress of the famine . In the North-west Provinces , it is said , people are dying at the rate of 400 or 500 a clay . In Travancore also ' the distress is frightful , ancl mothers are selling their children as slaves for sixpence each to get mere food for the preservation of life . Great efforts are being made by the European and native residents at Calcutta and Bombay and all the great cities , to mitigate the sufferings to which some millions of the people are exposed . As showers of rain had fallen in the

Northwest Provinces it is hoped the spring corn will be saved , ancl that the worst is known . The income tax is still borne with a bad spirit in Bombay , and the commissioners were encountering great trouble in collecting it . The electric telegraph has been perverted

The Week.

to assist in fraudulent speculations in opium , the profits from which , it is said , are to be counted by lacs of rupees . The Bombay Chamber of Commerce are taking means to expose and check the evil . The Sikkimites have proposed terms of peace , which Lord Canniag has accepted . Colonel Brasyer asserts positively that Nana Sahib is still alive in the Nepaul hills , watching his opportunity . To this circumstance the colonel ascribes the disturbed state of the frontier , the only exception to the universal tranquillity

of India . In China there has been an imperial victory over the rebels , which was neutralised by the defeat at another place of Sangkolinsin , the Tartar general . Lord Elgin had left Canton for Manilla . Affairs were quiet in Japan ; ancl Prussia , which had been embroiled in a quarrel with that empire , had concluded a treaty . AMERICA . — Recent advices state that at Baltimore disturbances , were anticipated which might have compromised the safety of the-President-elect . Baltimore contains a strong party of Secessionists

, many of whom not long ago contemplated the capture of Washington itself before Mr . Lincoln's installation : ancl with their passions roused to the highest pitch , especially by the thoroughly Republican speech which that gentleman had just delivered in Philadelphia , it is considered likely that a formidable street fight might have taken place ( encounters which are frequent enough in Baltimore ) , or that something still more desperate might have been

attempted . It was therefore deemed desirable that Mr . Lincoln should be attended by a military escort , —so that no doubt he exercised a wise discretion in hurrying on to Washington without waiting to complete the appointed programme . Mr . Lincoln was soon busily engaged after his arrival at Washington . What with visiting Congress , the judges of the Supreme Court , and other functionaries ; receiving deputations from various parts of the country ; and considering the appointments to the new Cabinet

, his hands were full of work . The office which has given him the most trouble was the Secretaryship of the Treasury , the friends of the two most prominent men—Mr . Cameron , of Philadelphia , and Mr . Chase , of Ohio—being equally numerous and influential . As Mr . Cameron has committed himself to Crittenden ' s scheme of compromise , and as Mr . Chase , ou the other hand , is an inflexible free-soiler , the President ' s choice between these two competitorswould go far to indicate the policy of his Administration .

Public Amusements.

PUBLIC AMUSEMENTS .

ROYAL ENGLISH OPERA . The regular season terminated on Saturday evening with a repetition of " Le Domino Noir , " the admirable performance of which by Miss Louisa Pyne and the leading members of the Royal English Opera company has latterly proved so attractive as to induce the management to give six extra representations . Mr . Harrison will take his Benefit on Tuesday next , and Miss Louisa Pyne on the following Thursday .

HAYMARKET THEATRE . The distressing , but in these days not unfamiliar , spectacle of "A Duke in Difficulties" has furnished Mr . Tom Taylor with a name ancl a subject for a new play , which is performed by Mr . Bnckstone ' s company with great zeal and spirit . A little tale of German originpublished some in Blackwood ' s Magazine

, years ago , under the title of " A Duke's Dilemmas , " is probably the source from -yhich the dramatist has derived his story , the scene of which is laid hi the palace of Kleinstadt , on the Bavarian frontier , during the reign of Louis the Well-beloved . This comedy , like everything that comes from Mr . Taylor's pen , is well written . The characters are vigorously conceived , and most effectively contrasted ; and the dialogue is radiant with fun , and flashes with those brilliant

antitheses and gay sallies of wit in which Mr . Taylor is such a master . Yet notwithstanding all tins wealth of intellect the play is tedious in representation . The story , at best but ill-adapted for dramatic purposes , is needlessly complicated with insignificant circumstances , and is spun out to so unconscionable a length that not all the humour 'fancy , and sentiment of the dialogue can avail to prevent , a sense of weariness . To mitigate this evil as much as possible the comedy should be carefully curtailed ; and to compress it within two acts would be a great improvement .

To Correspondents.

TO CORRESPONDENTS .

R . E . X . —Next week . BRUTUS . —We have no record of the event alluded to . G . B . —It is a disputed point . The autograph in the British Museum is Shakspere , if our memory serves us ri ght . P . M . —The brother mentioned ceased to have any connection with the FREEMASONS MAGAZINE in June , 1857 . S . S . —A vulgar error .