* * *

Affairs in FRANCE are still unsettled. The Government goes steadily
forward in the enactment of laws restraining the Press, forbidding free
discussion among the people, diminishing popular rights and preparing
the way, by all the means in their power, for another revolution. The
most explicit provisions of the Constitution have been set aside and the
government of the Republic is really more despotic than was that of
Louis Philippe at any time during his reign. A warm debate occurred in
the Assembly on the bill for restricting the liberty of the press. It
commenced on the 8th of July and gave occasion to a violent scene. M.
Rouher, the Minister of Justice, spoke of the Revolution of February as
a "disastrous catastrophe," which elicited loud demands from the
opposition that he should be called to order. The President refused to
call him to order and M. Girardin threatened to resign saying, that he
would not sit in an assembly where such language was permitted. He did
not resign, however, but his friends contented themselves with handing
in a protest the next day which the President refused to receive. The
debate then proceeded and an amendment was passed, 313 to 281, declaring
that all leading articles in journals should be signed by the writers.
On the 15th an amendment was adopted that papers publishing a
_feuilleton_ should pay an additional tax of one centime beyond the
ordinary stamp duty. On the 16th the bill was finally passed by a vote
of 390 to 265.

* * * * *

From PORTUGAL we learn that Mr. CLAY, having failed to secure from the
Portuguese government a compliance with the demands he was instructed to
make, asked for his passports and withdrew. The difficulty engages the
attention of the Portuguese Minister at Washington, and the Department
of State, and it is supposed that it will be amicably settled. No
details of the negotiations in progress have been made public, but it is
understood that no doubt exists as to the result.

* * * * *

In GERMANY the event of the month which excites most interest in this
country, is the death of NEANDER. Our preceding pages contain a notice
of his life, writings, and character, which renders any further mention
here unnecessary.----At Berlin the Academy of Sciences has been holding
a sitting, according to its statutes, in honor of the memory of
Leibnitz. In the course of the oration delive