ENGLISH NEWS.

Lyttelton Times, Volume II, Issue 66, 10 April 1852, Page 2

ENGLISH NEWS.

It is reported that Prince Albert is so much encouraged by his success in carrying out the scheme of the Great Exhibition, "that he now intends to take up a project for the regeneration of Ireland. We wish him all prosperity in his bold attempt. His ambition is a high one, aud if he succeeds in solving the knotty problem of Ireland's miseries, he will attain a glory which the greatest politicians in England' have toiled for m vain through a long series of years.

Accident to the Dkmebaka Steam-Ship. —It is with great regret that we announce the occurrence of an accident to this splendid vessel, constructed by Messrs. Patterson and Co., of Bristol, for the service of the West India Mai! Steam Packet Company. Ingoing down the river from Cumberland-basin, on Monday morning, her bow unfortunately struck on a bank of hard gravelly soil, a few hundred yards below the spot, known as the "Hound Point," on the Gloucestershire side of the Avon, and, the tide ebbing strongly at.the time, her stem was carried round to the opposite bank, where it grounded so firmly as to preclude all hope of remedying the disaster. The accident was owing to the indiscretion of the pilot, who

towed the " Demerara" too fast, her grfMt; length rendering it difficult for her to folloyy the windings of the river. A great crowd of ■ people gave their assistance throughout both day and night to get her off; which they succeeded in doing with the returning tide." She was then anchored on a soft bank of mud, where it was thought she might lie, when the tide ebbed, until the damage she had sustained was sufficiently repaired to enable her to be brought hack to the harbour. The returning tide, however, broke her away from her moorings, and canted the hull across the river again. On getting her up to the l>asin it was generally thought that she must be condemned,, as useless aud broken up. The vesseP'was i«4 sured for a sum very little short of £50,000, aud any question as to the amount of damage will, as we understand, have to be settled between Mr. Patterson and the underwriters. With the exception of the ''Great Britain," the " Demerara" was the largest steam-ship afloat: her length of keel is 276 feet; length between the perpendiculars, 282 feet; length over all, 216 feet —'about 6 feet shorter than the " Great Britain." Discipline and Management of Convicts.— Lieutenant Colonel J ebb's report on the discipline and management of convict prisons, for the \ear 1850, has been printed by order of Parliament. It appears that the total number of convicts "accommodated" on the 31st. of December, 1850, was b',128. Of these, 2,209 were in separate confinement; 2,6*89 employed on public works; 654 iv invalid depots . and 516 in the juvenile prison at Parkhurst^'" The total accommodation for convict prisoners on the 3 Ist December was 6,481 ; and on that day there was only 356 " vacancies." The total number of convicts remaining in the convict prisons, on the Ist January, 1850, was 5,929, and the number received during the year was 2.694, making 8,623. The number disposed of during the year was 2,495, which leaves, as above stated, 6,128 in custody on the last day of the year. The number transported during the year was 2,092, viz., 1,386 to VaX*^ Diemen's Laud, with tickets of leave : 384 to Western Australia (for public works) ; 938 to Norfolk Island, as beiiur incorrigible; and 284 to the public works at Bermuda. The nurnlytr "' removed" was 27, viz.,- 14 to lunatic asylums, and 13 to the Philanthropic Society's Farm School. The pardons granted during the year were 247, of which ! 1 were free, 20 conditional, 150 on medical grounds, and 111 on expiration of a moiety of their sentence, under an old rule. The escapements were 13, and the deaths 116. The average expense of maintenance in the prisons for separate confinement was as follows:—Millbank, £24 19s. 7d. per head ; Pentoiiville, £25 9s. ; Portland, £23 15s. Bd. ; Hulks, £22 4s. iOd. The earnings of prisoners in Miilhank have been £2 15s. sd. per head ; Pentonville, £3 19s. 1 Id.; Portland, £io 195.; and the Hulks, £8. 6s. lOd. -The average cost of each prisoner per annum in England and Wales is £21 13s. 3d., or about Bs. 9d. per week. The number of convicts detained in Great Britain during the last 12 years has increased from 3.523 in 1839 to 6,191 in 1851. The-number of male convicts sentenced to transportation in Ireland in the twelve years from 1839 to 1850 was 12,966, and of "these 7,2! 1 were sent out oi the country. We extract from the Illustrated London News two extraordinary philosophical discoveries, the latter of which, if found to answer,, will be of the greatest interest to stock-owners in these colonies : "Two results of-a highly interesting character, one of them being also very important in a social and commercial point of view, have been achieved, and, within the last few d^~s made known, by Signor Gobiui, Professor "of Natural History at the University of J.odi^in Italy. The first is an illustration of hi# theory of the formation of mountains, some curiouS experiments respecting which he. has lately' made before tin astonished circle of private friends. Ho melts some substances, known only to himself, in a vessel, and allows the liquid to cool. At first it presents an even surface, but a portion continues to ooze'up from beneath, and gradually, elevations are formed, until, at length ranges aud chains of hills are formed, exactly corresponding in shape, with those which are found on the earth. Even to the stratification the resemblance is. complete, and M. Gobiui can produce on a small scale the phenomena of volcanos and earthquakes. He contends, therefore, that the inequalities on the

face of the globe are the result of certain materials,- first reduced by the application of heat to a liquid state, and then allowed gradually to consolidate. The other discovery, as stated, is of a more practically useful character. The professor has succeeded to a most surprising extent in preserving animal matter from decay, without, resorting to any known pn cess for that purpose. Specimens are shown by him of portions of the human body, which, without any alteration in their natural appearance, have been exposed to the action of the atmosphere of six and seven years: and he states that at a trifling cost he ■ cau keep meat for any lenth of time in such a /-way that it can be eaten quite fresh. The importance of such a discovery, if on a practical investigation it is found to answer, will be more readily understood when it is remembered that the flocks of slice)) in Australia are boiled down, their flesh being otherwise almost valueless, and that'ln South America vast herds of cattle are annually slaughtered for the sake of their hides alone.

The sensation created in England by M. Kossuth is fully justified by his speeches reported in the English papers. Speaking in his native language his oratory would be of the highest order, but, speaking in the language of a. country which he never before visited, it is perhaps unequalled. We have extracted from the Spectator the following- account of his speech delivered at a banquet given by the Mayor of Southampton.

M. -Kossuth commenced with an historical explanation of the constitution of his country ; of the " Parliament,''and of those quasi-muni-cipalities the "county meetings," which by their peculiar constitution and powers offered the strongest bulwark in Hungary against the encroachments of the house of Hapsburir. The house of Hapsburg ruled not by conquest, hut by the free choice of the Hungarian ''nation— not without conditions, but upon the basis of treaties, pacifications, and coronations, which hound it to rule Hungary by her own laws and institutions. 'The chief feature of those treaties was, th. t the monarch should reign in Hunyarv by the same lineal succession as in the dominions of the house of Austria—that the Austrian dynasty was recognized, and should remain Kings of Hungary; and thereupon the King took on himself'a sacred duty to respect and conserve the Hungarian constitution, and to rule ami govern Hungary by its own public institutions according to its own ancient laws. And that was the duty of the King. He swore to God, he swore to the eternal God, that he hoped He would so bless him as he should keep that word. 'This was a resume of the facts so far. Well, out of thirteen kings—out of the thirteen kings we had of this house and dynasty, no one who knows anything of history can charge me with exaggeration when 3 say that their rule was one of continual perjury. M Kossuth spoke very earnestly and with emotion, drooping- his voice so that tile close of the sentence was not audible at the end of the table; and some person asked, " a rule of what ?" lie exclaimed, "Of perjury, gentlemen—that is the word—perjury." Cheers for some moments followed his emphatic delivery of the word. I am a piain common man ; I call things as they are." Continuing his sketch, he told us how the house of Hapsburg had, before the late struggle with Hungary, reduced every one of the states over which it had ruled to the condition of so many Imperial Provinces, under its absolute sway. In Hungary itself, also, by violence, intrigue, the fomentation of unfortunate discords, and'through the constitution of " the House of Lords," which consisted chiefly of Government nominees, the national party at last saw plainly that three or four thousand nobles were an insufficient safeguard for the national institutions. They resolved, therefore, to give these institutions to the people, that fifteen millions might be united in defence of what four hundred thousand has proved too weak to conserve; and that policy has animated the whole of the struggles of Hungary against the house of Hapsburg since the year 1825. The measures brought "forward in 'Parliament in pursuance of the policy, for the commutation of the onerous feudal burden of the robot at a fair valuation to be paid by the Slate, for the improvement and unprivileged distribution upon all taxation, for the improvement of judicial administration, and for the strengthening of municipal and local government against the centralizing depotism of the reigning house—

were rapidly told ; and the rejection of all those measures by the House of Lords, or by the Austrian Government.

At t'tie climax of this Parliamentary struggle came the news of the French Revolution, and that Vienna had risen up in revolt. The measures before rejected were now speedily assented to by the House of Lords; and a deputation headed by the Archduke Palatine went to Vienna to obtain the sanction of the King to these laws. The agitation in Vienna was great, and the King hesitated to grant Hungary these rights. " I went up to the Imperial Palace ; and I told them there, that if the deputation was kept long waiting I would not guarantee on myself what the consequences would be, or that the movement that was taking place would not reach Hungary, if we were discomfited and disappointed in our just expectations ; and I therefore entreated them to do us justice. They promised they would do so if only Vienna was quiet, but that they did not wish it to appear that the house of Hapsburg was compelled by its fears to be just and generous. This was one of the moments in which I in my own humble person was a. strange example of the various changes of human life. Myself, an humble unpretending son of modest Hungary, was in the condition that I had the existence of (he house of Hapsburg aud all its crowns here in my hand. (M. Kossuth here stretched out his arm with clenched fist across the table. Tremendous cheering.) I told them, 'Be just to my fatherland, and I will give you peace aud tranquility in Vienna.' 'They promised me to be just, and I gave them peace aud tranquility in Vienna in twenty-four hours. And before the Eternal God, who will make responsible to Him my soul—before history, the independent judge of men and events —I have a right to say the house of Hapsburg has to thank its existence to me."

Pursuing his rapid' narrative, M. Kossuth recalled the reluctant yielding of the sanction, and the contemporaneous plottingsof the Archduchess Sophia with Metternich to get rid of that sanction ; the revolt of the Serbs—stirred up by those secret plotters ; the King's denunciation of Jellachich and the Serbs for their damnable treason, the marching of the Serbs against the King; the change of the fortunes of the house of Hapsburg by the winning of the battle of Novarta, [against Charles- Albert] the reversal of Hapsburg policy towards Jellachich, and the placing of him over Hungary as the King's " alter ego"—but by an unconstitutional document; the marching of Jellachich against Pcsth, his defeat of Kossuth's generals, and his retreat, in breach of his plighted word and of (he truce granted to him by Kossuth, towards Vienna to unite with Windisehgratz in the destructive assault upon that capital for the King. But even when the Emporor of Austria had by a scratch of his pen blotted out Hungary from the list of nations, and incorporated it with his empiie, to be ruled without law and at his own pleasure—even then, Kossuth did not proclaim final rupture with the house of Hapsburg. " When I got true and exact intelligence that the Russian intervention we had no help in the world—from nobody— no, not one—" [Here, overcome by irrepressible emotion, the voice of M. Kossuth faltered ; he burst into tears, and for sonic moments was incapable of proceeding ; while a. burst of sympathy broke from the company. As soon as he had recovered he proceeded, still agitated.] "Then I considered matters in my conscience, and I came to the resolution, that either my nation must submit to the deadly stroke aimed at her life, or, if we were not cowards enough, not base enough to accept this suicide, it would not be amiss to put as the reward of our struggles— out fatal struggles—that which should have the merit of being worthy the sacrifice of the people ; and if we had to contest with two great empires—if we had no one to help us, if we had no friend, and to contest in our struggles for the liberties of Europe, because now the Hungarian question rose Europe-high, it assumed the dignity of an European question, —if it. was our fate to struggle for the liberties of Europe, as once we had struggled for her Christianity, aud if God should bless ns. I proposed as a reward the independence of Hungary : and it was accepted. That is the statement, the brief—no, mv rhe brief, but the true statement, of the relations between Hungary and Austria. What was the result. ? How we fell—let me not speak about ii—[After a pans-] — That is a matter of too deep a sorrow to dwell on. So much I can say, thai, though forsaken

by the whole world, I am to-day confident we would have been a match for the combined forces of these two dcspotical empires, but that it was my fault, and my debility, that I, the Governor of Hungary, who had the lead of this great cause, had not faculties enough to match Russian diplomacy, which knew how to introduce treason into our camp : but had I been capable even to imagine all these intrigues, we should not have fallen. As it is, you know the house of Hapsburg, as a dynasty, is gone; it exists no more—it merely vegetates. The Emperor can only act by the. whim and will of his master the Czar. If only the Czar would no; threaten every portion of the world where the prayers for liberty rise up from the riathm to Almighty God—if the people of England would only decide that the Russian should not put his foot on the nations of Europe—if England would but. only say ' stop,' and nothing more-the boast of Paskievitch, that he would put his foot on the neck of Hungary, would never be realized; and Hungary, I am sure, would have knowledge enough, truth enough, and courage enough, to dispose of its own domestic matters, as it is the sovereign right of every nation of the world, and to put down any aggression on her liberties." "".

"That is the case for my country," said M. Kossuth. "My intention was to show you the past of my country was worthy of your generous sympathies, because it has struggled in a fair cause; it has struggled valiantly for its national existence, which, once lost, there is no resurrection more for the people. I wish to secure for her your generous sympathy for this plain exposition of facts. The principal involved is one which you honour: the cau.se has been honoured in my undeserving person."