LATEST ENGLISH INTELLIGENCE.

Nelson Examiner and New Zealand Chronicle, Volume V, Issue 227, 11 July 1846, Page 76

LATEST ENGLISH INTELLIGENCE.

[From the Australia^, June 4.]

By the Rifleman, which left the Downs the 24th of January, but 'brings us news to the 10th of February, we learn what time, being pressing, requires us to put in the shortest sentences. The Corn Law sliding scale is not abandoned,, but is modified. It is, however, to come to an end in three years. The first year, it will vary from 4s. to 10s. But Jhe scale is such as to render it probable that seldom imQre.than 4s. duty will be paid, that is ;to say, 6d. ,per bushel. The duties are annulled on the importation of live stock, butchers' meat, potatoes, and all other vegetables, and on apples! Also, on Indian .corn or maize, and on buckwheat (a grain used, we believe, for fattening live stock,, but chiefly in sowing for .green food). The duty on butter and cheese is not taken off, only reduced.

A loan is proposed to the .owners of land, to enable them to improve their lands. Taxes hitherto home by the land (county expenditure and the law of settlement) are to be charged on the general revenue. No fresh tax is proposed. The Premier is of opinion that the increase of, trade will repay all deficiencies arising from his repeal or diminution of the present duties on com and other articles. The stanch old Tories ar,e in a great rage, and threaten a dissolution of Parliament. Large sums were being voted for the employment of the people of Ireland in the erection of public works, and the exclusive taxes on the land were to be taken off, as in England. On the night of the 27th January, when the Premier divulged his new tariff, the House of Commons was crammed with members; and the spare seats with peers, among whom was Prince Albert and die Duke of Cambridge. M. Guizot has now a great majority in the Chamber of Paris, and peace is not likely to be disturbed between France and England. In Algeria, the French are suffering reverses. Abd el Kader, who lately was represented as a fugitive, attacked one of his pursuers, General Yussuf, and defeated him. The latter had travelled eighty leagues in pursuit. And General Levassier, with 2,500 men, who had gone out to make a razzia (that is, sack, kill, j burn, and destroy the Arab people as well as soldiers), had all perished in a snow storm. The French seem inclined to relinquish their expedition against Madagascar. The bad news from Algeria seems to have brought them to their senses.

The Americans seem fully bent on keeping Oregon, and yet say, there will be no war! "What astonished England was, that the venerable ex-President Quincy Adams became an advocate for the annexation; and yet seemed to think there would be no war ! The London press deprecates war, but is evidently bent on taking it as an alternative, rather than cede Oregon. Its great coolness on this subject is indicative of determination. And it seems to utter the calm determination of the nation. A paper of the 24th of January describes another agrarian assassination at Tramore, in Tipperary, and Limerick as being in a state resembling anarchy, by armed parties attacking peaceable families in open day, and, after robbing them, treating them with great barbarity. To the town of Thersk, in Ireland, there are railway roads from most parts of the Kingdom* Farm produce, therefore, can either be sent to or from that town quickly and cheaply. Yet potatoes were selling there the first week in February, at from 2s. to 2s. 2d. per bushel (less than a halfpenny per pound). Comparing this fact with the known smallness of the stocks of potatoes in other parts of Ireland, great surprise was created. Mr. Dickens' daily morning paper has made its appearance. The opinion is, that it will not pay. A tunnel, two miles long, is about being proposed to Parliament by a company, commencing at Hampstead and terminating at the site of the Fleet-prison, where it is to emerge on the level of that site. No houses need be purchased until the tunnel approaches the surface so near Fleet-market as to render the foundation of the houses above dangerous. Its greatest depth will be about ninety feet below the surface.

The mail to London from Egypt had again reached London by Trieste several days before that via Marseilles. The French letters by this mail were sent to Paris from London before the mail had arrived at Marseilles. The news of the late victories in India had reached England by this mail. Violent quarrels in the Cabinet of Spain, respecting the Queen's proposed marriage, had taken place, but had not broken it up. - General Parides had proceeded against the new Mexican Government, with the intention of dissolving it. This was the Spanish General who chiefly caused the deposal of Santa Anna. The new Government had, it seems, become too corrupt and imbecile for endurance. The opinion of the Spectator (7th February) is, that as the first allegation of the Times that the repeal of the Corn Laws would be moved very early in the session by Sir R. Peel in the Commons, and the Duke in the Lords, was believed in preference to the denial of the Standard, it had caused the waiving by the Senate of the Oregon question for a period till more news should arrive. The arrival in America of the news that repeal (or all but the rerepeal) was certain, would cause the American Legislatures to sheath their swords, and cushion the Oregon affair in some way or another, because that though Jonathan is a great hero on occasion, he is a still greater Free-trader, and loves the shop even better than military glory.

And the latest news from America was gradually getting mo*e peaceable; the wardeljrium seemed to be abating. The railways had been submitted to a Select Committee of fiftqta members. On the sth of February, in the Lords, it was recommended that the payment of a deposit of one-tenth of the capital on Irish railways should be suspended; that before the reading a railway bill the first time, five per cent, of the capital must ihave been deposited by the 6th February ; and that before the third reading, another five per cent, must have been deposited. And that petitions for a railway bill should be received after the 23d February. There is before the House of Lords a bill .progressing with rapidity, called the "Irish Drainage Bill." No doubt it contains a loan to Irish landholders for the purpose of draining their estates. A bill was also introduced on the Ist February to build small piers and harbours in Ireland, to encourage its fisheries, at the rate of at least £10,000 a-year. Another bill was in progress to spend in Ireland £100,000 in Fever Hospitals. Another to authorize the guardians of the Irish poor-houses to grant relief to out-door paupers under limitations. A bill was about to be introduced to take off the remaining restrictions on the religion of the Roman Catholics. Friars, monks, &c, will soon be seen in the streets of the towns of England, as in Paris, Madrid, and Lisbon, after this bill has passed. Religious houses, however, are to be registered, and visited by certain authorities. No bills relating to Ecclesiastical Courts will be introduced in the present session. Courts of Requests, to adjudicate all sums of £20 and under, are to be constituted throughout England. There are a great many converts to Sir R. Peel's Corn Law measure. Among the rest, one of its nrost stanch opposers in former days, Sir Thomas Lethbridge. The father of Sir Robert Peel always opposed the Corn Laws. But his son well knew that if he opposed them, he .would never be Prime Minister, and be the associates of dukes and earls, nor his children intermarry with theirs, as they have done. He has now accomplished his great object, and can afford to adopt his father's principles. The Queen and Prince Albert intended in February to visit the Haymarket Theatre.