The Evening Post. TUESDAY, DECEMBER 26, 1865. ARRIVAL OF THE ENGLISH MAIL.

Evening Post, Issue 275, 26 December 1865, Page 2

The Evening Post. TUESDAY, DECEMBER 26, 1865. ARRIVAL OF THE ENGLISH MAIL.

¦ • ¦ The s.s. Otago, Captain Randall, from Melbourne via Otago and Canterbury, arrived this morning at half-past six o'clock, with the English Mail. The P. and O. Co's steamer Madras, Captain Farquhar, arrived at the Sound on the 11th instant, having left Galle on' the 24th November. The delay of the Mail is attributed to the incompetency of the vessels of the P. and O. line to keep contract time. The principal item of news from England is the death of Lord Palmerston, at the advanced age of 81. The announcement of this distinguished statesman's death caused a general feeling of regret throughout the United Kingdom, I arl Russell is now Premier of England. The following extracts are from the Home News : — The Rev. Henry Lascelles, LL.B., of Trinity-hall, Cambridge, vicar of Preston-next-Wingham, near Sandwich, has been nominated to the bishopric of DunedinIt will include the provinces of Otago and Southland. Tne cattle disease has not been checked, its ravages are very great, and no one has as yet discovered how to deal with it. The Irish treason appears to have been more ..successfully treated than our other afflictions. A large number of Fenians are in captivity ; there is no rising to deliver them $ the American brethren send money, some of which we intercept, and bluster , which does bo harm, but no frigates with "the green flag glittering o'er them" appear in Irish waters— on the contrarj, Mr. Scward sends us hints as to the Fenians, and is frightfully abused by the American press for doing so. The ships Alexandra, Captain Small, and I

Epsom, Captain Vaux, were loading at London, for Wellington, when the mail left. The cholera has been very severe in Madrid for some days past. A wild panic appears to hare prevailed there. Over sixty thousand people have fled from the city. The President of America has recently signed a irreat number af individual pardons, and a system is smd to hare been adopted by which the applications are disposed of with groat despatch. It is reported that Mr. Johnson now only withholds pardons from persons against whom serious special charges are pending. The extreme clemency he has has shown has resulted inconrerting a number of the most prominent leaders of the rebellion into vigorous and useful friends of the national government, and their assistance in the work of reconstruction is generally recognised as valuable. There are no further derelopments in relation to the trial of Mr. Davis. Tlie Foreign Minister has a piece of bußiness on his hands, and it may or may not be troublesome. The Americans hare sent in their claim for compensation for the damages done, during their war, to the property of their citizens by vessels of British origin, as the Alabama and Shenandoah. Jbarl Russell has replied that we did all we could to prevent the fitting out of vessels, and therefore we are blameless, and he refuses all compensation. The American envoy proposes an appeal to arbitration. This Earl Russell also refuses, declaring that there can be no question in the case, and that «ur Government are the guardians of their own honor. He offers to submit such cases as the two powers can agree upon as subjects for discussion to a Commission, to be named by the two Governments, and Mr Adams has undertaken to submit this proposition to his chief, but does not seem to think that it will be accepted, and almost hints that Earl Russell knew this. That is where the dispute stands at present, and where Lord Clarendon will have to take it up. Except the Yankee organ here, which is Mr. Bright's organ also, the whole of the English press is on the side of Earl Russell, and even the exception goes only ' to the length of saying that we ought not to hare rejected arbitration. After a month's recruiting in the province of Vellutri, the Pope has succeeded in raising only 230 soldiers. There are four other prorinccs, which, if they furnish the same proportion, will gire him an army of less than 1000 men. A wide-spread conspiracy is said to have been discovered in two of the chief cities of Siberia, Omsk and Irkousk, and a great many arrests have in consequence taken place, not only in the disaffected districts, but in St. Petersburg, the movement having apparently been directed from the capital.