The Week.

THE WEEK .

THE COTTET . —The Queen and younger members of the Royal Family have returned to Windsor . His Royal Highness Prince Arthur visited his Royal mother on Tuesday , and afterwards returned to Greenwich . The Prince and Princess of Wales have also returned to town from St . Leonard's . IJIPEEIAIJ PAELIAMEJJT . —In the HOUSE OE LOBDS on Thursday , ISth inst ., the Earl of Powis advocated the necessity

of the establishment of a museum and library for patents ; and the Earl of Romney c .-. lled attention to the state of the law affecting the removal of clerks of the peace . Earl Granville said fche former subject was under the consideration of the Government . ISTo business of interest was transacted onFriday or Monday , beyond throwing out a private bill for making an arcade

befcweenRegent-street and Conduit-street . On Tuesday a discussion took place on the question of secondary punishments , in which Lords Salisbury , Granville , Carnarvon , Wodchouse , and Grey took part . Lord Salisbury was inaudible in the gallery , and we cannot , therefore , sfcate the purport of his remarks , but the other speakers , with the exception of Lord Wodchouse , while

differing in some respects as to fche form whieh punishment for serious offences should assume , appeared to assent to the principle that it is wise to hold out to the prisoner , as an inducement to good behaviour , theprospeefcof a remission of his sentence . In the HOUSE OF COMMOXS on Thursday , ISth insfc ., after explanations hy the Attorney-General as to the course of

proceeding of fche Government when an English merchant vessel was captured by an American ship of war in the harbour of a neutral State ; and by Mr . Layard , respecting the offer of Portugal to mediate between this country and Brazil ; Sir G . Grey moved for leave to bring in a bill to amend the Penal Servitude Acts . He referred to the alarm which was felt in the

eastern colonies of Australia at fche prospect of Western Australia becoming a penal settlement , and which feeling he censured as unreasonable . He protested against the rights of the inhabitants on the east of the continent to dictate to Her Majesty the course which should he pursued with regard to a colony that was hundreds of miles from them , and where what was proposed to be done was entirely with the assent of the

inhabitants . The right hon . gentleman also canvassed at some length the various recommendations contained in the Royal Commissioners' Report , which hacl been carried out to a certain extent , and upon which the main provisions of the bill were founded . A debate ensued , which lasted to a late hour , and leave was given to bring in the bill . On Friday , Mr .

Layard , in reply to several questions , stated thafc no official information hacl been received of the burning of the British ship , Martaian , by the Alabama ; that no communication had been addressed to the Government with a view to the recognition of an empire in Mexico , —a subject on which the Government had hitherto declined to express an opinion ; and that

negotiations were still in progress with foreign nations , with the view of securing a reduction of their export duties upon rags . —In answer to a question from Mr . ! Newclegate , Lord Palmerston said no authoritative information hacl been received of the intention of the Austrians and Prussians to invade Jutland ; hut , if such an invasion should take place , it would

be an aggravation of thafc " violent outrage "—the occupation of Schleswig . He declined , however , to say what policy the Government would adopt in the event of the allied army entering Jutland . —Sir John Hay moved that an address be presented to the Queen praying that Her Majesty would be pleased to nominate Wakefield as the assize town for the West Riding . Sir George Grey opposed the motion , urging that tho matter

should be left in the hands of the Privy Council ; and , after a long discussion , the House divided , when Sir John Hay's motion was rejected by a majority of 19 . —In reply to a question from Mr . Haliburfcon relative to the capture of a ship under the Confederate flag hy a Federal vessel of war , within the harbour of Pankbar , in TSova Scotia , Mr . Layard stated that Mr . Seward had expressed

his regret at the occurrence , and promised reparation . — Mr . Kinglake called attention to the circumstance that on the day the treaty of London was signed Baron Bvunnow , who signed the instrument on behalf of Russia , addressed a note to the Danish Minister afc Sfc . James ' s . That note , he urged , was in effect a secret article annexed to the treaty , ancl

amounted to a revival of the protocol of Warsaw , which embodies a reservation to fche effect that , if fche succession of fche Glueksburg dynasty shoald not take effect , or their male line should fail , the rights of tho Emperor of Russia , as chief of the IIolsfcein-Gottorp branch , would remain in full force . Mr . Layard denied that the note was a secret article appended to

the treaty , but he declined to discuss the question as to whether it revived the protocol of Warsaw , which was signed in 1851 . — Several bills were advanced a stage . On Monday , Mr . Layard . in reply to a question from Sir James Ogilvy , slated thafc Her Majesty ' s Government had been requested to use their best efforts to induce Denmark to abstain from seizing German ships

at sea , but they had declined to do anything in the way of influencing that country in its efforts to resist what Her Majesty's Government believed to be an unwarrantable aggression . The hon . gentleman added that no information of a blockade of the German ports had reached the Foreign Oflice . —On the motion for going into Committee of Supply on the Navy Estimates , Mr . Disraeli bitterly assailed the foreign policy of the

Government . Lord Palmerston , upon whose frequent absence from the House he pointedly commented , had , he said , succeeded in establishing a name which bore terror to no country but his own . He complained that the House was left without information of what the Government were doing , and insisted more especially on the early production of the Danish correspondence .

To the Government he said ifc might be a matter of indifference that " they were the derision of every Court in Europe , but the House did not desire to become the laughing-stock of our constituents . " Mr . Gladstone reminded the House of the inconvience of producing papers bearing upon questions respecting which negoeiations were pending , and insisted that there was

no ground for the charge that the Government courted secrecy . One point urged by Mr . Disraeli was that no information had been given of the evacuation of Jutland by the Germans ; ancl to this part of the right hon . gentleman's speech the Chancellor of the Exchequer replied by stating thafc the Foreign Office was still in ignorance of that movement . After some

remarks from Lord Robert Cecil , Mr . Bernal Osborne moved the . postponement ofthe consideration of fche navy estimates for three weeks , on the ground that before voting the necessary supplies the House ought to know the exact state of our relations with the belligerent powers . Sir F . Smith concurred in this view of the matter , while Mr . Roebuck declared that , with regard to its

foreign policy , the Government was not entitled to the confidence of the country . Mr . Gladstone protested against Mr , Bernal Osborne ' s motion as an attempt to take the Government by surprise , and affirmed that if clue notice were given , Ministers would be prepared to defend the policy they had pursued . Mr . Disraeli also deprecated a division on a motion of

which no notice had been given , and at a time when Lord Palmerston was absent from his place . Mr . Clay declared , on behalf of Mr . B . Osborne , that the motion was not intended as