English and Foreign.

Lyttelton Times, Volume VII, Issue 476, 27 May 1857, Page 5

English and Foreign.

' LATER ENGLISH HEWS.

By the arrival of the Dart, we have English news to the ,16th of February; brought to Australia by th& Gtte&t Britain. The Dart has not brought the maij, but we have been permitted to extract from Sydney journals brought by private haiidj for which kindness <wp ate indebted to"'a merchmt of this town. * • The following letter of' the correspondent of the f E/mpire' summarises the English news brought by the Great Britain. A new Congress at Paris, harmg gone through the fosm of meeting, to consider what was t*> be done about the Russian claims, some acres of land' were made over to that power, and she gave up the Isle of Serpents, and the town which would have to secure her a position on the Danube. So now our ships are coming home from the. Black Sea, and the Austrians are preparing *to leave the Principalities, and 'Bussia and Great Britain are subsiding into that mutual politeness and mutual dislike and distrust of one another which will break out into hostilities immediately that a chsnWT presents itself to the Northern Power for avenging itself. I mean to say that there is no fear of our throwing- the first stone ; unsatisfied as w« are. we are too wise and too everything else but cowardly, to rush wantonly into a frfeh war: but the Russians have more to vecoirer and mote to tolerate tlian we have, and when they caii affront us without" the certainty of farther humiliation, they will do so. c But tou m&y consider that Europe is in a state of tranquillity, and there is a- prospect of a termination to t>»6*e local troubles which threaten to brenk its peace. In proof of this the funds art rising. Switzerland and Prussia hare come to a sfrsttfM

understanding j&nd the citizens of the " plucky little republic" have returned to their peaceful pursuits, now tlwt their fatherland >is no longer threatened with invasion, As for Bomba, ho is in greater danger than ever ; but until matters have come to the worst,, they will not mend. He lives in his place at Naples, surrounded by feis soldiers—his Swiss troops in particular; mean while all »itvta of enormities are perpetrated in. his dnmin o s. The train, is laid, the match is lighted^iind we wait for an explosion. The priest, Yorger-j who assassinated the ArcLbishop of P.iiis, was executed after clinging to life with all the tenacity of a > miscreant afraid to die himself, but ready enough ,ta send another into eternity; and, strange to say, another priest, an Italian this, time, has attempted 'to murder another Bishop, an Italian likewise. i - The Queen's Speech, which you will receive with £ this, w^ist not delivered in .person., Nobody in reality attaches any importance, to thosu productions, but they serve to, (confirm facts and speculation, Parliament was soon, at work, and the subjects that were uppermost with the public were those that were first di^ussed by our legislators. I allude tnore^ particularly to the income tax, and our tiqket-of-leave system. Of course shots were exchanged by contending parties. The,.' Opposition blazed away ,as soon as it possibly could at the Government for its sins of commission and omission, and Ministers and their subordinate^ were ready to defend and justify. The Peace party has a fine field now for the exercise of ,its abilities; and as the Conservatives, many of them, condemn what has been done in the fighting way ; and the Peelites, almost a distinct set, are more for 'anything than Whiggery, I don't see how Lord Paliaerston can hold his ground with his present forces. It may be startling to say so, but a fusion is anticipated between the Conservatives and the Peelites with, as it were, the tacit consent of the Cobdenites. It is probable that Disraeli and Gladstone will coalesce. And why not ? Ante; cedsnts after sIU. go for nothing now«a-days, whether they ought to do so or not; and if men who have been standing up for opposite niea-sures-and principles unite for,one purpose, the gyeat question is .what is, their aim ? >v 4nckis it such'as the country should approve?,, ,T,o be sure we may well look wjth- suspicion upon men who advocate one .line of policy one day and another tuejiext. But ,we may attribute wrong motives to people—and I r suppose they have an undoubted vigSt to alter their minds and their tactics. Politicians,, however, are generally ' speaking more adventurers than patriots, more for themselves than the common .good, and it behoves us to watch them narrowly and not, a« they do. according to circumstances as they transpire. If this talk-ed-of fusion will bring to ud new blood, jand grol blood, and liberal blood, be it ever so little, why so much the Jbetter. Thebe are day* of progression, Jand even the Conservatives are findingtit out Wh^re there are evils- reformation must reach them: it \s only-a question of time, ami John. Bull will not be1 hurried. ■ What we are doing with Persia and with £hhta it is really difficult to- guess: what -we ) mean to do, and what we shall do, it is impos ; i »ible. to say ;,but this is certain, we are going ahead _in, both, quarters, and England is therefore anything but at peace with the world. -England,"-ntyertheless, jogs on aa though nothing uncommon were transpiring. The truth ia, nothing that is so .far off, and po cqmparatiyely easy of performance as—say the subduing of -Persia and China, can interrupt the practical ,mind and. business habits of John Bull He knows what he can do, if not what he can't, and a game at ninepins going on at the back of ! the " Pig "and Whistle"—so that he be not dis- ' turbed by the noi^e thereof—concerns him. no 'I Jiiore than does what he hears from the present 1 war in tbe East. Alarmists, however, will have • it, that tbe slaying of insignificant enemies, like the puuy Persians .and the cat-like Chinamen* jnay^ome to something seiious—and &o it may! Euisiar muy break th<» peace again by. sidinf with the, former ; but depend upon it she wont. . -Oirotying, -which now, includes burtfkrv, highway lobbery, and other offences against the ,per,on. is still much talUd about. Tho inhabitaijth of JTotting Hill discuss httle else. Tbe , oMier fky the pojiw tnade up their minds lhac thc_ people of this district should not have th.-?r houses pntered and cleared of valuables wry. -night, as has been the ca&e for manths pa^t, mv\ acconliujvly laid in wait for •ome, ot the midnight marauders who noto-

riously infest' that quarter of the metropolis. You must know, that it was no uncomniou «ir» cumstance fon Jones of Somerset Housie to" twit his next-door neighbour on either side, Brown ju»d Robinson (stock-brokers), with his " not hating had Mi dwelling broken.into. "* And after this boast finding all his plate gone .the next morning, much to the inward delight of Messrs. B. -and JR., who had heard a noise between twelve and one, but did not disturb themslevfls,' having, nothing":to Jlose. , So, whqn the aforesaid members of the force had properly secreted themselves, and waited the natural time for the .appearance of the thieves, certain of that numerous, growing, ai»l m>.v alarming fraternity issued from the surrounding darki ness, just as though they h.-ri !>wn supernu* I raoravies paid to do it at a. theatre, and proceeded to .climb, over a wall, all in the regular way, and as they were wont to do at Notting 'Hill. Then .three-constables ia plain clothes, and three ditt6 in uniform, with as many, rattlesj truncheons, and lanterns, to the cry of " tip, Bobbies, and at 'em!" made a rush for the nocturnal invaders. Pierce was the encounter. " Down with .the, police!*',,was strongly;expressed by means of an iron "jemmy," and a peeler " took the measure of a man" on a bed of early tqlips.i Bur six to two are long odds 1, .Burglars too "have other odds against them,! The result was a capture of the entire body of the common, enemy, who, with the help1 of, additional troops of policemen, were marched off to the station-house. But while the battle lasted marvellous were the escapes of all who were within pistol-shot. Every house-holder having a. revolver, and being quite on the qw vive, fijed it, and how. it'was that nobody was riddled ■ is a riddle. One policeman in plain clothes was all hat, floored by, the *" Hfe-preserv<»r " of a gallant- ratepayer: aud the hat of Ko. 74 was perforated by No. 9 in his night-shirt. The regular briclt-work of a line,of hvek gardens | has indentations "thick as blackberries.," in I evidence of what was meant by all the popping that transpired, and tioket-oweave men are invited' to inspect /them by daylight, i The double minder—the latest on the tapis -—isi peculiarly shocking-, which, as murders go, is something remarkable. It runs in this manner., .4- Woman-whose Jhusband is away for a night or so, not being at her lodgings when a , relative seeks her there, gives jri^e to suspicion j that all is not as it' should be, and upon entering her apartments it is discovered that her two children, We had their throats cut. The woman 1 '(pretends that thieves,must have entered the house in the night and killed her little ones. Investigation takes a place and , her evidence is shaken^ .husband returns and testifies in confirmation of his wife's representations, that his money i and, his clothes' have been stolen. There are inquiries and remands, and at last when,'the wife is again brought up before the magistrate^-and the husband has been swearing har# and in contradictory manner, the woman putsforth a written statement, whose contents, •he says, she,has not power to utter. The magistrate peruses the document, turns' palp, and, .amid breathless silence, reads a declaration that it was the husband who deliberately murdered the children and nothing had been stolen. The spectators utter an exclamation of mjng/ed astonwhment and horror. The accused falls backwards, and when order is restored the ease is remanded, the man declaring his innocence. Subsequently, the character of the male prisoner turns out to be bad, he is suspected of having poisoned his own mother, upon, whose remains there is a post-mortem examination; the female is proved to have been in a madhouse, and amid all this conflicting evidence nothing is certain but that a couple of innocent babes have been butchered. Columns oT the daily papers, you will observe, have been occupied with reports of the examinations of this man and woman. Their trial has to come off. '