paid the
highest. The Queen makes visits to the Exhibition, even on the shilling
days.

In Parliament the Ecclesiastical Titles Bill advances slowly through the
House of Commons, opposed most pertinaciously at every step by a small
band of members, mostly Irish Catholics, who take every occasion to
embarrass its progress by calls for a division, and motions for
adjournment. As it is not made a question between the great parties, the
majorities in its favor are very large; at the final vote the majority
can not well be less than ten to one. The Ministers are alternately
victorious and beaten on subordinate questions, but there seems a tacit
understanding on the part of the Opposition, that no measure of
sufficient importance to force them to resign shall be pressed against
them; and on the part of the Ministers, that they will not abandon the
conduct of affairs on account of minor checks. The motion for a vote of
censure on Lord Torrington, as Governor of Ceylon, the last important
measure to be brought forward, was lost, by a majority of 80, so that
the position of the Ministers is assured for the remainder of the
session. The bill to appoint visitors to inspect female convents and
religious houses has been rejected.

The decision of the Courts, made last year, adverse to copyrights of
foreigners, has been reversed. The decision now is, that a foreigner who
publishes a book originally in Great Britain, whether it be written
there or abroad, is entitled to a copyright. This decision is not
absolutely final, as an appeal is open to the House of Lords. At a
meeting of publishers interested in cheap reprints it was resolved to
bring the matter before the Lords, with a view to a final decision of
the question. A subscription was entered into to defray the expenses of
the procedure.

A Protectionist meeting and dinner was held at Tamworth, the residence
of the late Sir Robert Peel. It was looked upon as a wanton insult to
the memory of the great Free Trade statesman, and was attacked by a mob
and dispersed.

THACKERAY, the most brilliant writer of the day, Dickens, in our
judgment, not excepted, is delivering a course of lectures on the
English Humorists. The lectures are received with great favor by an
audience fit and not few. The first was upon Swift, and was a striking
portraiture of that able, unscrupulous, and baffled clerical adventurer.
The second lecture was upon Congreve, the most worthless, and Addison,
the