The Lyttelton Times.

Lyttelton Times, Volume VI, Issue 377, 18 June 1856, Page 6

The Lyttelton Times.

Wednesday, June 18,

The Zingari brings no later news of importance from England. Intelligence had been received at Melbourne up to the Ist of March from the United: States, extracts from which will be found in this day's publication, the purport of which increases the anxiety all must feel respecting the dispute now existing between England and America. It would appear that the rulers of the latter country are determined at any rate to push the quarrel to the very verge of war, if they have-not resolved to declare war. The last accounts from England represented Lord Palmerston as prepared for the contest, "but anxious to avoid such a catastrophe. Rumours, as. would be expected, fly thickly around us. One is that America bad already declared war against England, while another affirms that Russia had withdrawn her Plenipotentiaries from the Conference being held in Paris, determined to try the ispue of another campaign, calculating upon Yankee help. Whether these rumours are the foreshadowing of coming events, or popular corollaries deduced from the information now to hand, time will prove.

In the General Assembly, hitherto, the greater portion of the session has been spent ill the gathering up of the individual opinions of the members of the House of Representatives, and in the direct struggle for power participated in by the simply ambitious, and by those committed to a particular line of policy. the carrying out of which depended upon the holders gaining an ascendancy in the public councils. Parties have been formed and broken iip, again formed only to disappear; the different combinations.justifying Mr. Sewell's remark, that politics as well as poverty " makes us acquainted with strange|,bed-fellows. " The composition of one of the administrations will surprise rnqst of our readers. We find the history of these events so temperately and fully related in the Nelson Examiner, of the 7th of June, that we have extracted the whole of the article, and shall only supply here the names of the several Executive .officers' and the positions they have held. The first Ministry was formed as follows :

H. Sewell, Esq.. Colonial Secretary. '

Hon. F. Whitaker, Attorney-General-.

F. Dillon Bell, Esq., Colonial Treasurer

Hon. H. I. Tancred, having a seat in the Executive Council, but holding no office.

These gentlemen were ousted by a vote of ihe'i house on the 3rd of May/ The S. Cross, the organ of the majority, says: — '• It was the ' instructions ' to the Superintendents, together with the expressed intention of curtailing the Provincial expenditures, that brought about the unexpected combination of parties by which the Sewell ministry was overthrown. We, who are far from being- ultra-provincialists, are obliged to admit that to the provinces, it was a cEse of extreme danger and emergency. It was time to come to the rescue, to shelve lesser differences for a while, and to join for the purpose of common defence. DivCampbell—not from personal or party motives, but as the Superintendent of a Province, took the lead, by proposing the amendment to the reply, and carried it after a debate of two days' duration. "

The ** Fox" administration succeeded, composed of the following gentlemen—

William Fox, Esq., Attorney-General. John Hall, Esq., Colonial Secretary. Charles Brown, Esq., Colonial Treasurer. :Wiliiam Crush Dalby, Esq., holding a getit in the Council without office.

Dr. Richardson represented the ministry jn Lhe Legislative Council.

This "combination" shared the fate of the preceding one, and singularly enough by a similar majority of" one. The third ministry, which was in office when the " Zingari " left Auckland, and which was to some extent a recast of the first " combination," consisted ef the following gentlemen — C. W. Richmond, Esq., Colonial Secretary* Hon. F. Whittaker, Esq., AttorneyGeneral. H. Sewell, Esq., Colonial Treasurer. E. W. Stafford, Esq., and F. L. Campbell, Esq., having seats in the Council, but holding no office. There seemed some probability of this last ministry obtaining the confidence of the House, unless new elements of discord were introduced. • ■'-: , Themewspapers that have reached us.from the roth°er provinces are mostly filled with the proceedings of the General Assembly, and we find little local matters for exI tract. The gold fields in the Massacre Bay district of the Nelson province, continues to ibe worked, while report states that platina and even rubies have been discovered in another district, the Motueka. From Taranaki the news is still of war. The reported movements of the Whanganui natives northwards will be found in another column.