Correspondence.

first in rank were first in excess . People and king vied m debauchery , and the sottish king joined and encouraged the freethinkers and blasphemers of his court . The idolatrous priests loved . and shared in the sins of the people ; nay , they seem to have set themselves to intercept those on either side of Jordan , who would go to worship at Jerusalem , laying wait to murder them . Corruption had spread throughout the whole land : even the jilaees once sacred through God ' s revelations , or other mercies ,

to their forefathers—Bethel , Gilgal , Gilead , luizpah , Shoehornwere especial scenes of corruption or of sin . Every holy memory was effaced by present corruption . Could things be worse ? There was one aggravation more . Remonstrance was useless ; the knowledge of God was wilfully rejected ; the people hated rebuke ; tile more they were called , the more they refused ; they forbade their prophets to prophesy ; and their false prophets hated God greatly . All attempts to heal all this disease only showed its incurableness .

" Such was the condition of the people among whom Hosea had to prophesy for some seventy years . They themselves were not sensible of their decay , moral or political . They set themselves , in despite of the Prophet's warning , to prop up their strength by aid of the two heathen nations , Egypt or Assyria . In Assyria they chiefly trusted , and Assyria , he had to denounce to them , should carry them captive ; stragglers at least from them fled to Egypt , and in Egypt they should be a derision , and should find their

grave . This captivity he had to foretell as imminent , certain , irreversible . Once only , in the commencement of his prophecy , does he give any . hope that the temporal punishment might be averted through repentance . This , too , he follows up by renewing the declaration of God expressed in the name of his daughter , - ' I will not have mercy . ' He gives them , in God's Name , a distant promise of a spiritual restoration in Christ , and forewarns them that it is distant . But , that they might not look for any temporal restoration , he tells them , on the one hand , in peremptory terms , of their dispersion ; on the other , ho tells them of their spiritual restoration without any intervening shadows of temporal deliverance . "

Captain C . S . Forbes , K . N ., is preparing for publication The Campaign of Garibaldi in Hie Two Sicilies ; a Personal ffdrraiiiie . Matthew Davenport Hill , Recorder of Birmingham , in his new book , Our Exemplars , Melt and Poor , relates the following anecdotes of the present amiable King of Portugal : — " The king , who at the outbreak of the pestilence was onltwent oldfelt it

y y years , to be his duty to remain at his capital , and to do all he could towards mitigating the calamity . To effect this object , ho did not confine himself to presiding over councils , or to discussing means of alleviation in his cabinet ; he went himself among the sick . We were told that lie would continually visit the hospitals both by day and night , coming in a hired street-carriage , with a single companion , that he might prevent any preparations for his reception ,

and ascertain for himself in what manner the patients were triated . On one occasion , it is said , he found a medical man feeling the pulse of his patient with his glove on , hoping thereby to escape contagion . We may imagine the king's indignant reproof to the timorous doctor . At another time , the spectacle was more gratifying . He was just entering a ward when he heard a physician trying to re-assure a patient , who was in a drooping state , with kind and soothing words . Don Pedro remained outside until the

doctor had ceased speaking , when lie entered , extending his hand towards him . The physician , recognizing his sovereign , attempted to go upon his knee , and kiss the hand thus held out . ' No , ' said the king , ' you have behaved like a brother to that poor sick man , and I am proud to shake hands with you . ' " If the King of

Portugal is not a Ereemason , most assuredly he ought to be ; for his conduct , as related in the foregoing extract , was truly Masonic However much we may admire the bravery of ouv own troops , and that of our allies , the French , as lovers of literature , science , and art , we feel bound to express our sorrow at the modern Vandalism shown in the recent sack of the Emperor of China ' s palace at Pekin , as detailed in a letter from the camp , dated October 20 th ,

and published in the North China Herald . The following is the portion of the letter to which we refer : — "The summer palace is about five miles by a circuitous road north-west of tho camp , outside the earthwork . A description of it is given in Staunton's account of Lord Macartney ' s embassy , and other works on China , but no pen can describe correctly the scena that has taken place there within the two last daysIndiscriminate loot has been

. allowed . The public reception hall , the state and private bedrooms , ante-rooms , boudoirs , and every other apartment has been ransacked ; articles of vertu , of native and foreign workmanship , taken , or broken if too large to be carried away ; ornamental lattice work , screens , jade stone ornaments , jars , clocks , watches , and other

pieces of mechanism , curtains and furniture— -none have escaped from destruction . There were extensive wardrobes of every article of dress ; coats richly embroidered in silk and gold thread , in the Imperial Dragon pattern ; boots , head-dresses , fans , & o , in fact , rooms all but filled with them . Store rooms of manufactured silk in rolls , such as may be bought in Canton , at twenty to thirty dollars per piece . By a calculation made in the rooms , there must have been 70 , 000 or 80 , 000 pieces . Hundreds were thrown down and

trampled on , and the floor covered thickly with them ; men were throwing them at each other , and all taking up as many as they could carry . They were used instead of rope to secure the loading of carts filled with them . Throughout the French camp were hundreds of pieces , some heaped up , others used to make tents or beds and coverlids . In the afternoon , yesterday , a party of French went through the apartments with sticks , breaking everything that remained—mirrors , screens , panels , & c .

Owen Meredith has a book in tho press , entitled SerbsM Pesme ; or , National- Songs of Servia . A new work , entitled Health , Husbandry , and Handicraft , is in the press , from the pen of that female literary veteran , Miss Harriet Martineau .

To the intelligent Craftsman , who well knows the necessity of lleligion and Science going liand-in-hancl together , we present the following passage from Professor Philips ' s new book , Life on , the Farth : its Origin and Succession : — " It may be thought that , while professing to keep to the old ancl safe method of reasoning on known causes and ascertained effects , we deviate from this principle in regard to the origin of life , and introduce an unknown cause for

phenomena not understood , by calling to our aid an act of' creation . ' Be it so ; let the word stand for a confession of our ignorance of the way in which tho governing mind has in this case acted upon matter . "We are equally ignorant in every other instance , which brings us face to face with the idea of forces not manifested in acts . We see the stream of life flowing onward in a determined covu-se , in harmony with the recognised forces of nature , and yielding a , great amount of enjoyment and a wonderful diversity of beautiful

and instructive phenomena , in which mind speaics to mi ' rK .. jJiL through many long periods has been manifested in a countless host of varying structures , all circumscribed by one general plan , each appointed to a definite place , and limited to an appointed duration .

On the wivole the earth lias been thus , more ancl more , covered by the associated life of plants and animals , filling all habitable space with beings capable of enjoying their own existence or ministering to the enjoyment of others ; till , finally , after long preparation , a being was created capable of the wonderful power of measuring and weighing all the world of matter and space which surrounds him , of treasuring up the past history of all the forms of life , and of considering his own relation to the whole . When he surveys this

vast and co-ordinated system , and inquires into its history and origin , can he be at a loss to decide whether it be a work of Divine thought and wisdom , or the fortunate offspring of a few atoms of matter , warmed by the anima muudi , a spark of electricity , or an accidental ray of sunshine ?" Mr . James Blackwood has in preparation a book entitled , Arminius ; or , the History of the German People , and their Lecjcd

and Constitutional Customs , from the dags of Julius Ccesar to the days of Charlemagne . By the late Thomas Smith , F . S . A . The national monument , to bo erected in Trafalgar-square , to the memory of the Lite Sir John Franklin , and for which Parliament voted £ 2000 , is to be executed by Mr . Noble .

Mr . J . Phillip's painting of "The Marriage of the Princess Koyal" is about to be engraved , Her Majesty having lent it to a London printseller for that purpose . Two very generous donations have been made to the funds of the Koyal Dramatic College . Bro . Benjamin Webster , the Chairman of the Council , has received a letter from Clarkson Stanfield , Esq .,

the celebrated painter , inclosing his cheque for the liberal sum at £ 125 in aid of the Koyal Dramatic College . A similar letter , inclosing the like munificent sum ( £ 125 ) , has also been received from an equally celebrated painter , David Roberts , Esq . The aggregate sum ( i £ 250 ) is intended as a gift to be applied to the erection of one of the "Residences" of the College . The donors

request that their contributions may be accepted ' ' as a token of their grateful recollection of the theatrical profession , " for to that they owe their first steps in the art in which they have since attained such eminent distinction .