FOREIGN NEWS.

Lyttelton Times, Volume II, Issue 73, 29 May 1852, Page 2

FOREIGN NEWS.

FRANCE. The Debats has the following remarks on the retirement of Lord Palmerston : "The fall of Lord Palmerston changes the aspect and the diplomatic combinations of Europe. It was on him—on the English patron of all the European revolutionists—that the just resentment and mistrust of the great continental Powers fell. It was on account of him that Austria, Prussia, and Russia lately addressed to the English ; Cabinet very strong notes on the subject of the revolutionary refugees in London, and that Austria gave notice j of police regulations which were very annoying to English subjects travelling in her States. All the foreign policy of the regular Governments of the continent bore the imprint of the wellrnented feelings with which Lord Palmerston inspired them. He more and more isolated England in Europe. He has fallen. Neither his successor, Lord Granville, nor the head of the.English Cabinet, Lord John Eussell, inspires European Governments with similar sentiments. As men, they have not the ssme intermeddling and irritating character ; as Ministers, they have not the same antecedents. They are, it is well known, as we and our friends are, Constitutionalists and Liberals ; but they have not undertaken and contracted the habit of everywhere encouraging and supporting revolutions. The Governments of the continent, while thinking and governing differently from them, may still live in good, tranquil, and even intimate relation with them, and they may themselves, while remaining constitutional and liberal Ministers, withdraw England from the isolation and from the bad position abroad into which Lord Palmerston has thrown her. Will they do so ? The question may appear strange, but it is, nevertheless, one that must really be put. The policy pursued towards Europe by Lord Palmerston has not been the only cause of his fall ; there is evidently a second, a more immediate, and perhaps more decisive one—his policy towards France. In declaring himself the admirer of the coup d'etat of December 2, Lord Palmerston placed himself in open contradiction with the "more reserved attitude of his colleagues, with the constitutional sentiments of his country, and also in hidden contradiction with himself. It is difficult to support at the same time revolutionists in Europe and in France a Government which announces its resolution to oppose the Socialists and the demagogues—to support M. Kossuth in the morning, and Louis Napoleon in the evening. He could not be permitted to compromise and embroil his own Cabinet, on the Continent with the Conservatives, and° in England with the Liberals. The feelings of the great continental Powers towards Louis Napoleon, and what is now passing in France, appear to be favourable ; whether they explain themselves or not on the cmip d'6tat itself, they show themselves, it is said, disposed to encourage the President in his struggle against Socialism and demagogy.. They will benefit by his triumph, having themselves the ssime struggle to support. What will Lord John Russell do ? He has separated himself from Lord Palmerston, whom he considered foo favourable, in Europe to the revolutionists, in France to a Government struggling with demagogy. Which of these two lines of policy will he himself adopt ? Will

he be more anti-revolutionary than liberal, or more liberal than anti-revolutionary ? Will he return to more intimate relations with the great Powers of the continent, in order that England may not remain isolated, or will he separate himself from these Powers because he finds them better disposed than he is himself towards what is taking place in Fiance, and towards the present policy of the President? We by no means pretend to know how the English Cab>i net will solve this question, we confine oi^ selves to mooting it. The solution is very jMportant for France. When the present French Government had in Lord Palmerston an approver and a support, it might assume between England and the great continental Powers an intermediate and balanced position inclining towards one or the other according as it met with feelings more or less favourable, or as its own interest might dictate. Now, if Lord John Russell again places England on good terms with the continental Powers, and remains at the same time less well-disposed for the new regime in France than Lord Palmerston was, will not the French Government have less latitude for its policy, and will it not find itself under the necessity of taking, either in common with all the great European Powers, or singly and on its own account, a more determined and fixed line of conduct ? Will this be a mischief or will it be an advantage ? We shall not discuss the point—we merely state facts and situations. To see things as they are is, in politics as in everything else, the first rule of good sense, and the best chance of good conduct and of success.'

The principal journals are becoming a little more animated. Several of them give one or two leaders daily, and occasionally the shadow of something like an independent opinion is faintly delineated. The aunouncemeut that M. Emile de Girardin intends to resume the editorship of La Presse, so soon as the "regime existant" shall have been accomplished, has been read with satisfaction. M. Armand Bertin has resumed his pen on the Journal dcs Debats, and, though he writes very guardedly, no expression has escaped him which can give any colour to the report of his "adhesion" to the preseut Government, which report, I may venture to add, is wholly unfounded. The article of the new constitution which is to regulate the limits of the freedom of the press is anticipated with painful curiosity by all whom that important question most immediately interests. General expectation is not raised very high, however, and the celebrated passage of Beaumarchais, in the speech of Figaro, is quoted continually as a motto likely to be applicable to the condition of the " independentjournalist," under the military depotism which M. Troplong is attempting to mould into a constitution:— "Pourvu que je ne parle en mes ecrits ni de rautorite, ni dv culte, ni de la politique, ni de la morale, ni dcs gens en place, ni dcs corps en credit, ni de l'Opeva, ni dcs autres spectacles, ni de personne gui tienne a quelque chose, je puis tout impvimev librement, sous (.'inspection de deux ou trois censeurs." — Times, Jan 1.

CHINA

It is with great regret that we notify the parti il destruction by fire of Victoria, the capital of Hongkong, On the night of the 28th of December, a gentleman walking towards the West Point observer! flames issuing from a shop in the circular range, about 150 yards from the wharves of Messrs. Gibb, Living-ton,, and Co., and near the large building on the sea front known as Aqui's Theatre. The alarm was immediately given, and for nearly an hour the wooden houses, extending both east and west along the sea front of the Bazaar, were exposed , : to the'flames. At length a fire engine was^i-, brought into action, and several companies of the 59th Regiment and the Ceylon Itiflesgave their assistance. The Friend of China gives the following melancholy details of what en-,, sued:— . -f| The engines would not work, and there was an evident want of some master spirit to direct what would or what should not be done. The only military engine got down into the bazaar wanted suction pipes, those of ten feet long being entirely useless by reason of its being impossible to screw them on ; they belonged to some other engine, in fact. The soldiers under arms exhibited admirable discipline, but it was all of the passive kind, the sergeants would not direct their men without the orders of their superior officers, and they waited the orders of those above them, and so, taken altogether, the soldiers of the garrison were more

than useless, for they kept civilians from volunteering their aid. Block after block went down. On the opposite side of the Queen s Road, skipping over the broken Culvert on Lot No. 5, it crossed the long steps at the end of Goughstreet, and took the carpenter's large yard (formerly the Ooolee's depot) the whole of the houses on Lot 9a, and then the London Missionary Society's Hospital, promising, if it ciUght the next range, to run up the whole of Tatoingshan. It was here there occurred the mosl fearful catastrophe that it has been our lot to record for many a day. LieutenantColonel Richard Tomkyns, R.A., Lieutenant Lugg, R.A., Lieutenant Wilson, R.E., and several gunners and bombardiers had gone in to plant bags of gunpowder for blowing up the three three-storied houses on Lot No. 71. The bugle had duly sounded the retreat, and the explosions occurred, but horrible to relate, Colonel Tompkyns, 'Lieutenant Lugg, Lieutenant Wilson, a bombardier and a gunner of the artillery, were in the houses at the time. The first-named was dragged out fearfully mutilated, and soon afterwards expired. Lieutenant Lugg is supposed to be beneath the ruins. Lieutenant Wilson is blind of one if not both eyes, and in great jeopardy, and the other two are also dreadfully injured. The fire may be said to have stopped here ; although the houses throughout the whole length of the road to Circular Buildings West are much scorched and damaged. A correspondent, writing. on the 16th Jan., informs us that even up to that date it had been found impossible to form a correct estimate of the fearful loss of life. He states that 458 dwelling-houses, one Chinese Christian chapel, one hospital, a theatre, two markets, and four English taverns were destroyed. In a general order the Commander of the troops makes the following allusion to the melancholy accident:— "The Major General has to add his own sympathy and sorrow to that of every individual ""officer, non-commissioned officer, and private soldier in China, on the occasion of the sad ea&mity, which caused the deaths of Lieut.CoumerToinkyns and Lieut. Lugg, of the Royal Artillery; he has some consolation however in stating,"that from the Medical Report made to him this morning, it appears that Lieut. Wilson, of the Royal Engineers, and Bombardier Whitford and Gunner Miles, of the Royal Artillery, who were severely injured by the same explosion of gunpowder, are progressing towards recovery."— Sydney Morning Herald, April 21.