Page:The Annals of Our Time - Volume 1.djvu/275

JULY citizens; the Magyars stand alone in the world against the conspiracy of the sovereigns and nations which surround them. The Emperor of Russia besets us through the Principalities, and everywhere, even in Servia, we detect his hand and his gold. In the north the armed band of Sclaves are endeavouring to join the rebels of Croatia, and are preparing to march against us. In Vienna the courtiers and states men are calculating the advent of the day when they shall be able again to rivet the chains on their old slaves the Magyars, an undisciplined and rebellious race. O my fellow citizens, it is thus that tyrants have ever designated free- men. You are alone, I repeat. Are you ready and willing to fight?”

11.—Mr. George Thompson’s motion for a Select Committee to inquire into the grievances alleged to have been inflicted on the Rajah of Sarawak rejected by 77 to 8 votes.

— In answer to a deputation composed of peers and members of Parliament, Sir George Grey intimates that Government intend to exercise such powers as the law afforded for suppressing the Irish Confederate clubs.

— The Sicilians elect the Duke of Genoa as King, an act protested against by the King of Naples.

— Mr. O’Brien, accompanied by a number of leading Confederates, “ reviews ” the military clubs at Cork.

13.—Lord Robertson, one of the Lords Or dinary of the Court of Session, pronounces a decision in favour of the able-bodied poor being entitled to parochial relief. ““What is it to the unemployed,” he said, “‘to the unemployed craving for work, that he has legs and arms, and thews and sinews, if he cannot get whereon to employ his strength, and thereby to gain that support which he is anxious to secure by his own industry ? Surely the law of no Chris tian country can enact such a tardy and per haps useless relief as that the party must be come sick from actual want before he is offered that which, timeously administered, would save him from sickness altogether.”

— Lord John Russell submits to the Commons the details of a bill for the more effectual sup pression of bribery and other corrupt practices at elections.

15.—Re-interment in the Chapel Royal, Holyrood, of the remains of Mary of Gueldres, Queen of James II, discovered in the sacristy when removing Trinity College Church.

— The Moniteur publishes a decree of the National Assembly, authorizing the Treasury of the Republic to borrow 150,000,000f. from the Bank of France, on the guarantee of half the amount from the sinking fund, and the rest by a deed of sale of the State forests to that amount. The Moniteur also publishes another decree. of the National Assembly, authorizing the Minister of Finance to convert the amount of the deposits in the savings’ banks into Rentes, hearing five per cent. interest for every eighty francs deposited in the savings’ banks.

17.—Conflagration at Pera (Constantinople), destroying 3,000 houses.

18.—In consequence of the violent language of the Repeal political clubs in Ireland, the Lord Lieutenant issues a proclamation having special reference to treasonable proceedings in Dublin, Waterford, Cork, and Drogheda. “ Matters,” writes the Times correspondent, “are now evidently approaching a crisis, and either in Dublin or the country there will soon be civil war, if the Confederation is not now at once and for ever suppressed. On the publi cation of the Lord Lieutenant's proclamation the council of the Confederates met, and de cided, by a majority of one, that only a passive resistance should be offered to the step taken for disarming the clubs. It is ascertained that considerable quantities of arms have been carried out of Dublin to evade the search which the authorities will make, and that the weapons which remain in the city have been carefully concealed.”

20.—The bill compelling proprietors of land in Scotland to grant sites for churches thrown out in the House of Commons, on the third reading, by a majority of 98 to 50.

— The Corrupt Practices at Elections Bill read a second time, Colonel Sibthorp protest ing against the Ministry as the most incom petent and deceitful that had ever conducted public affairs.

21.—Lord John Russell announces the in tention to introduce a bill for the suspension of the Habeas Corpus Act in Ireland.

22.—The rebel Nation writes: “ It is a death struggle now between the murderer and his victim. Strike! Rise, men of Ireland, since Providence so wills it. Rise in your cities and in your fields, on your hills, in your valleys, by your dark mountain-passes, by your rivers and lakes and ocean-washed shores. Rise as a nation!” On the same day the Irish Felon writes: ‘“In the case of Ireland now there is but one fact to deal with, and one question to be considered. The fact is this, that there are at present in occupation of our country some 40,000 armed men in the livery and service of England ; and the question is, how best and soonest to kill and capture these 40,000 men.”

— General Ospré forces the Sardinian lines at Rivoli, and two days afterwards attacks them at different points in the country between the Adige and Mincio. The conflict was kept up with varying success for four days, when the Austrians were largely reinforced by troops withdrawn from the Venetian garrisons, and Charles-Albert commenced a retreat across the Mincio. They were intercepted at Volta, but bravely fought their way through, and found refuge in Milan on the 3d of August.

— Lord John Russell introduces a bill em- powering the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland to apprehend and detain, until the 1st day of March next, such persons as he shall suspect of conspiring against her Majesty’s person and Rh