died out one by one, and the gazing multitudes retired,
the stillness and darkness of the night contrasted
strikingly with the bustle and splendour of this remarkable
day. No disturbance whatever occurred. An attempt
was made on the same night to set fire to the Quirinal.
One of the French sentries on duty, having observed
some persons busy about the iron grating which communicates
with the wood cellars of the palace, advanced to
challenge them, upon which they took to flight, leaving
some faggots and flasks of turpentine behind them, other
materials of the same nature having already been thrown
down into the cellars below. There would have been
probably no fear of a conflagration taking place, had fire
been actually set to the wood cellars, as the solid stone
arches of which the palace foundations are constructed
would effectually resist the fury of the flames. On the
same night, at about eleven, a momentary alarm was
created in the city by the report of a grenade, which
exploded in the Vicolo dello Sdrucciolo, a lane behind
the Chigi Palace, breaking all the windows in the
neighbourhood, but injuring no individual. On the day
following, the Pope was engaged in receiving a variety of
deputations. Rome was illuminated three nights in
succession. The Swiss guards at the gates of the Vatican
received strict orders to subject all persons seeking
admission to a severe scrutiny. Other precautions have
been taken to insure the safety of his Holiness, the
kitchen department forming an especial point of surveillance.
A new cook has been appointed, and all communication
with outer persons and objects has been carefully
cut off by bars, gratings, and a ruota or wheel, through
which the viands are revolved into the Papal kitchen.
On Thursday, the 18th, his Holiness was to go through
the ceremony of giving the Papal benediction to the
French army. General Baraguay d'Hilliers was to leave
Rome for France on the 25th.

The advices from Athens represent the adjustment of
the claims of this country on the Greek Government as
still in progress. All the claims, it is said, will be
recognised except that of M. Pacifico's, which are
objected to as exorbitant. This, to some extent, has been
admitted by Mr. Wyse; and, if any indemnity is granted
to M. Pacifico, it is expected to be a small one. The
interruption to trade occasioned by the blockade of the ports
is said to have reduced the country to great distress.

There are accounts from Egypt to the 6th. The
Pacha, who had been residing at his new palace
in the Desert, had returned to Cairo. The proximity
of his residence has drawn his attention to the
Improvement of the Overland Route; and he has said
that means must he adopted to reduce the period of
travelling between the ships in the Mediterranean and Red
Sea to 60 or 65 hours, instead of 80 or 85 hours. He
has sent a small landing steamer to ply in Suez harbour;
and he is causing the work of Macadamising the Desert
road to be proceeded with vigorously. An agreement
has been made with contractors to enlarge the station-
houses on the Desert, so as to admit of the necessary
stabling accommodation for eight or ten relays of horses,
instead of four or five, by which means fifty or sixty
persons will be moved across in one train, instead of, as
at present, half that number. Mules again are to be
substituted for baggage camels in the transport of the
Indian luggage and cargoes, with the view to a reduction
of the time consumed in this operation between
Suez and Cairo, from 36 to 24 hours. It is easy to
perceive the benefits which will be derived from these
measures.

The intelligence which this month has produced from
the AMERICAN CONTINENT is more varied than startling.
The United States journals are copiously occupied with
reports of the trial at Boston of Professor Webster for the
Murder of Dr. Parkman. It lasted twelve days. The
annals of crime present few more remarkable cases. On
the 23rd of November last, Dr. Parkman, a professor in
the college at Boston, disappeared unaccountably. After
some days rewards were advertised for his discovery, and
suspicion began to be directed to one of his fellow-professors,
Dr. Webster, and a search was made in the
college buildings. The janitor was directed to break
through a partition-wall into a vault which communicated
with a privy belonging to Dr. Webster's apartments.
In a hole which had been made in that wall
there were found the thorax and thigh of a human
being, with some pieces of flesh. In the furnace of his
laboratory other fragments were found in a partially
consumed state; and among them the remains of a set
of artificial teeth attached to a human jaw. Other
fragments were found in a box concealed under a heap
of tan bark; a dirk-knife was also found. Dr. Webster
was then arrested. On the trial one of the coroners
of the county gave an account of Dr. Webster's
appearance and conduct after his arrest: he said, "I saw
Professor Webster in the gaol, and found him lying
on his face, apparently in very great distress. Dr.
Gay, who was with me, endeavoured to soothe his
feelings, and requested him to get up. The doctor said
he was unable to get up. He was agitated, and trembled
more than any man I ever saw before, and exclaimed,
'What will become of my poor family?' He was then
assisted up stairs, for he was nearly helpless. Somebody
offered him water, but he was so agitated he could not
drink—he passed the glass from him, and spilt some on
his clothes." The dentist who made Dr. Parkman's
artificial teeth proved those found in the college to have
been his. Another witness recognised the dirk-knife
as the property of Dr. Webster, and said that fresh oil
and whiting were on it, as if an attempt had been made
to clean it. A number of witnesses, examined respecting
the pecuniary transactions of the parties, proved that
Dr. Webster was considerably indebted to Parkman, who
had been pressing for payment. Dr. Parkman's brother
gave an account of an interview with Dr. Webster, who
had called upon him while the search for Dr. Parkman
was going on, to state that he had seen the deceased on
the Friday, the day of his disappearance, by appointment,
and had paid him money. But such accounts were
given, by bankers and others, of Webster's circumstances
and recent pecuniary transactions, as made it next to
impossible that this assertion could be true.

For the defence a number of witnesses were examined
as to the prisoner's character, and to shake the evidence
for the prosecution. The jury, after three hours'
deliberation, found him guilty; and the judge pronounced
sentence of death. "The effect of the sentence," says
the New York Herald, "on the prisoner was overwhelming.
He sank to his seat, and for a few moments wept
in agony. The scene was one of awful solemnity."

A remarkable but not sufficiently authenticated story,
which did not come out on the trial, is mentioned in the
American papers. Dr. Webster was seen by a medical
student in the act of perpetrating the murder. The
young man, it is said, was returning to the lecture-room
for his over-shoes, and found the door locked. He then
went down through the basement into the lower laboratory,
and passed upstairs to enter the lecture-room by
Dr. Webster's private door. As he got into the upper
laboratory, he saw Dr. Webster standing over the corpse
of Parkman. Either by entreaty or threats, the student
was induced to take a solemn oath not to divulge what
he had seen, and the next day he left for Boston. A
short time since he was taken with brain fever, and in
his delirium raved about the mysterious murder. He
called for a clergyman, and asked him if he was bound
to keep such an oath as he described. The result was,
that he divulged all to the minister, who came to Boston
and informed the government, but it was too late to use
the evidence. The name of the medical student is said to
be Hodges. He belongs to Bridgewater, and is the son
of a minister.

No event of grave political import is recorded in the
month's advices from the States except the Death of Mr.
Calhoun one of the greatest of the American Statesmen.
He died at Washington on the morning of Sunday the
31st of March. During the funeral solemnities the offices
of all the public departments were closed, and, as well
as the President's Mansion, hung with black. His remains
were deposited in the cemetery of Congress. He
was of Irish extraction, and was born in North Carolina,
in 1782. In 1811 he was admitted to the bar of
South Carolina, and became a member of the Legislature
of that State, and then of Congress, where he soon
distinguished himself. He became Secretary at War in
1817, and Vice-President in 1825. He entered the Senate