With vastly inferior forces at his command, he has gained every point: he has got rid of his most formidable rival, Changarnier; he has convinced, apparently, the middle classes that the only hope of peace and stability lies in his possession of power; and the Assembly have been driven into acts of opposition which can bear no other interpretation than that of a factious struggle for power. The position of the President is considerably strengthened by the late occurrences. GERMANY. The Dresden Free Conference is still in session, and matters seem as impracticable as the Genius of Mysticism could desire. Enough has transpired to show that the minor Powers have not been alarmed without good reason. The cordial understanding between Austria and Prussia is displayed perhaps too ostentatiously to be altogether sincere; but there can be no doubt that the two governments have combined to aggrandize themselves at the expense of the others. It seems to be determined that the new Executive Committee will be composed of eleven votes, of which Austria and Prussia are each to have two. The Committee of the old Confederation consisted of seventeen votes, of which those Powers had one each, and even then it was complained that their influence was excessive. It is admitted on all hands that any approach to a nearer union is impracticable at present; that the Dresden Conference is quite as incapable of improvising a German Nation, as was that assembly of pedants and pettifoggers that called itself the Frankfort Parliament.----Hostilities have ceased in Schleswig-Holstein, the stadtholderate of which have yielded their functions to the commissioners of the Confederation.----The first trial by jury at Vienna, took place, under the new Austrian Constitution, on the 15th of January. LITERATURE, SCIENCE, ART, PERSONAL MOVEMENTS, ETC. UNITED STATES. The literary incidents of the month have not been very noteworthy. JAMES, the English novelist, has been lecturing at Albany to large and interested audiences. He has bought a residence at Stockbridge, Mass., where he will reside, in the immediate neighborhood of Longfellow, the Sedgwicks, and other literary celebrities. A series of valuable lectures upon Art have been delivered before the Artists of New York, in pursuance of a very excellent plan adopted by their Association. The first of the series was delivered by HENRY JAMES, Esq., and was an excellent critical exposition of the nature and characteristics of Art. He was followed by GEORGE W. CURTIS, Esq., in a fine sketch of the condition and prospects of Art on the Continent. The leading idea of his lecture was that Art never promised more abundant results than now.