February. The highest
expectations of entertainment were cherished from the set-to then
expected to take place between Lord John Russell and Lord Palmerston,
the dismissed Foreign Secretary. It will be piquant to see these former
allies converted into antagonists, and cutting and slashing at each
other with all the greater effect from the intimate knowledge of each as
to the concerns of the other. As a ready and efficient public debater
Lord Palmerston is the superior of the two.

All possibility of trouble between the United States and England on
account of the brig Express firing into the steamer Prometheus at San
Juan de Niacaragua, has been prevented by a manly apology made by the
new British Minister for Foreign Affairs, Lord Granville. The act is as
creditable to his lordship, as it is grateful to all who would not have
the friendly relations between the two countries disturbed.

It is authoritatively stated that the new reform bill, which will be
brought forward shortly after the opening of Parliament, will not so
much extend the suffrage as vary the present apportionment of
representatives. The boroughs, which are notoriously small, are to be
enlarged by copious annexations, but there will be no new boroughs, nor
will the large towns, such as Manchester and Liverpool, get any more
representatives than they have now. If this be the nature of the bill,
it cannot give satisfaction to either the Radicals or the Tories, nor
extricate the Cabinet from its present difficulties. The cabinet has
been further weakened by the resignation of Lord de Broughton--better
known as Sir John Cam Hobhouse--as President of the Board of Control for
the affairs of India, and of Lord Normanby as Minister at Paris. It is
surmised that Lord Normanby retires to take his chance for coming into
power again as a member of a new cabinet, with his friend, Lord
Palmerston, at its head--not an improbable thing, by the way. He is
succeeded at Paris by Lord Cowley. The troubles at the Cape of Good Hope
still continue, with no advantage gained on the British side. The
Caffres seem even harder to beat than was our own Florida Indians. The
Government is loudly blamed for not acting more promptly in despatching
forces to that colony; and the opinion is expressed that the Duke of
Wellington, the Commander-in-Chief of the Army, has, by great age, lost
the energy of his powers and character. In his younger days, it is said,
he would either have had the