MENT IN DECEMBER.

The assembling of parliament in December was rendered necessary by the
terrible monetary panic which, originating in New York, extended to the
continent of Europe, and the British Isles. The rate of discount was
raised by the Bank of England to 10 per cent. That corporation applied
to the government to relax the restrictions of the Bank Act of 1844.
This was adopted by the government, and the convention of parliament on
the 3rd of December was mainly to pass an act of indemnity.

Commercial law reform, Jewish disabilities, church questions, and the
Indian mutiny, occupied the attention of the house until the close of
1857.

THE COURT.

On the 14th of April her majesty was safely delivered of a princess, her
fifth daughter, and ninth child. The infant was baptized on the 16th of
June. She was called Beatrice Mary Victoria Feodore. The sponsors were
the Princess Royal, the Duchess of Kent, and Prince Frederick William of
Prussia.

On the 5th of May, his Royal Highness Prince Albert opened the great
exhibition of Art Treasures in Manchester.

On the 26th of June Prince Albert received the title of Prince Consort.

The 6th of August was signalized by a visit to the queen on the part of
the Emperor and Empress of the French. The visit was paid at Osborne,
and was generally believed to have been a political one, having for its
object some agreement between the governments of England and France
in reference to their general policy, which had for some time been so
divergent.

Two ambassadors from Siam arrived in November, and attracted great
notice.

The great event of the years 1857-8 to her majesty and the court was the
marriage of the Princess Royal of England with the heir-presumptive to
the Prussian throne. "A treaty" for this purpose was concluded between
her majesty and the King of Prussia, which was signed at London on the
18th of January, 1857. The ratifications were exchanged in London on
18th of January, 1858. The solemnization of the marriage subsequently
took place in the chapel of St. James' Palace, exciting deep and
universal interest among the people.

ART EXHIBITION IN MANCHESTER.

The exhibition in the Hyde Park Crystal Palace in 1851 suggested various
other enterprises of a similar kind. Those of Paris and Dublin were
especially brilliant. In Manchester, however, a plan was devised by
which the glories of all those exhibitions were surpassed. The scheme
was to gat