Abbé Barilla have been condemned to the galleys for
life; M. Carlo Poërio, formerly a member of the Cabinet,
to 24 years' imprisonment, and the others to shorter
terms of imprisonment. All the prisoners are deputies,
or in the higher ranks of society. The King has
respited the sentences of those condemned to death,
and commuted their punishment to imprisonment in
the galleys for life.

A letter from Rome, dated the 31st of January, gives
an account of an Exploit of Banditti, which looks more
like romance than reality, though its truth seems
authenticated. "On the 25th of this month, the
theatrical corps of Forlini-Popoli was playing the 'Death
of Caesar.' Forlini-Popoli is a small town of about
4000 inhabitants, enclosed by a high wall, entered by
two gates, and scarcely three miles from the town of
Forli, of which it is a kind of suburb. By eight in the
evening, the hour when the theatres open in Italy, all
movement has disappeared from the streets, windows
are closed, and the inhabitants have retired to their
homes, the coffeehouses, or theatres. This absence of
activity in the streets, which every one remarks at
Rome, is still more complete in small towns. It may
then be understood how, at Forlini-Popoli, and
particularly on an evening when the theatre was open, the
streets should be so deserted as to make possible the
occurrence now to be related. The first act of the piece
had terminated, and the curtain had just fallen, when
suddenly it rose and disclosed—instead of the actors, who
had disappeared—ten brigands of the band Del Passatore,
who, armed with muskets and carbines, levelled them
so as to command the entire range of the pit and boxes.
At the same moment, another party, consisting of thirty
brigands, made their appearance on the floor of the
house, the issues of which were guarded, and, armed
with sabres and pistols, menaced the spectators. A
moment of stupor, during which no one dared move, elapsed,
when the chief of the brigands advanced to the foot-lights,
and, exhibiting the keys of the two gates of the town,
said, "Gentlemen, you see by these that you are
entirely in our power: any resistance on your part would
lead to disasters which I should be the first to deplore,
but which it depends on you to avert. Listen, then, to
what I have to say. I am about to call out the names of
several among you: as I pronounce a name, let him
who bears it step forth from his box and repair to his
house, in company with one or two of my friends who
will assist him to bring hither all his hoards, and that
without defrauding us of a porpetto." This said, the
orator displayed a paper, and commenced reading the
fatal roll. Submission was inevitable. A dozen
carbineers formed the sole police of Forlini-Popoli. Six of
these were in the theatre, and had been gagged by the
brigands. The six others, surprised in their guard-house,
had ventured a vain resistance. The Burgomaster was
the first victim. Some time was, of course, required
for this operation, which did not terminate before a
quarter to twelve. It was, probably, to shorten the
agony of the pit and boxes that two brigands went from
spectator to spectator, collecting hatfuls of watches,
purses, chains, rings, and even umbrellas. When the
harvest was gathered, and the booty had been heaped
up on the stage, the brigands allowed the curtain to fall,
and quietly withdrew, carrying all with them. The
money thus obtained amounted to 7000 Roman piastres,
or about 40,000 francs, and the bijoux, objects of art,
&c, to double that sum. The next day an Austrian
detachment set out in pursuit of the band, which,
probably, had dispersed by that time in the mountains, or
passed the Tuscan frontier. Their number is supposed
to have been about three or four hundred. It is
probable that they were in league with some of the
inhabitants. However this may be, private houses and
public treasuries all have been plundered, with the
exception of the Monte de Piete, the fastening of which
resisted all the attempts made to break it."

In Germany, congresses and conferences continue
among the diplomatists of the various powers, but little
is known of their result.

Both France and England have protested against the
demand of Austria for the admission of the whole of her
possessions into the Germanic Confederation. The two
Powers have, it is said, communicated notes to the
Cabinet of St. Petersburg, with a view to bring it over
to their opinion.

Baron Manteuffel suddenly left Dresden on the 18th,
the day on which the sitting of the conferences was
resumed, for Berlin, where he had an immediate
audience of the King, and intended to return on the
19th to Dresden.

M. Hassenpflug, the Hessian minister, is in the greatest
perplexity from want of money. A project for a loan
has been abandoned, as none of the Frankfort bankers
would negociate it.

The Diet of the kingdom of Hanover was opened on
the 12th inst., with a message from the King, which is
chiefly occupied with the part taken by Hanover in the
late events in Germany.

The intelligence from New York, which is up to the
13th inst., is unimportant.—In the Senate the California
Land Title Bill was ordered to be engrossed. General
Cass has been re-elected to the Senate by the
Legislature of Michigan. In the House of Representatives
Mr. Gilbert gave notice of a bill to establish a Branch
Mint in California.—The Naval Committee of the Senate
had put their veto upon the extension of any new steam
lines of communication across the Atlantic under the
patronage of Government, for the present session.

By the accounts from California, it appears that the
aggregate amount of shipments of gold-dust, together
with the quantity in private hands, shows that the
yield of the mines for 1850 was not less than between
nine and ten millions sterling.

NARRATIVE OF LITERATURE AND ART.

THE past month will be memorable, in the annals of Art, as that in which the first artist of the stage, the
last of that generation of great actors which includes the names of Siddons, Kemble, Kean, Young, and Miss
O'Neill, bade adieu to the scene of his triumphs. It was an occasion never likely to pass from the remembrance
of those who witnessed or took part in it. And now Mr. Macready will live hereafter in dramatic
history not simply as the most complete intellectual actor of his time, but as the man who singly supported
the higher drama of England at a time when all other support seemed to have passed from it. What we
agree to call our national stage was never at so low or hopeless an ebb as when he opened Covent Garden
fifteen years ago; but yet, with scant sympathy at first, he steadily, bravely, and completely worked out
his design of applying to the pure text of our noblest dramas the ablest acting and the most perfect
accessories. Has any playgoer of that day forgotten the extraordinary excitement that at last attended every
announcement of a new Shaksperian revival? And does any one suppose that that civilising influence
passed wholly away with Mr. Macready's departure from Drury Lane, who has since visited Mr. Phelps's
well conducted theatre, and seen the quiet, intelligent, apprehensive enjoyment of its crowded pit of young
men, tradesmen, artisans and their wives, not a few of them comparing their printed copy of the Shakesperian