LATE ENGLISH NEWS.

New Zealander, Volume 2, Issue 90, 20 February 1847, Page 3

LATE ENGLISH NEWS.

The Elora has brought English intelligence up to the Bth October. We have quoted an article from the Times, upon the condition in which millions of our fellow subjects are placed by a second failure of the crops, especially the potato, in Ireland ; and it appears the calamity has extended over other parts of the British dominions, and the Continent. Much as we grieve for the lamentable amount of misery and distress which has overtaken so many of our countrymen by this repeated visitation, yet we cannot help observing the hand of an all-wise Disposer of events in the threatened famine, and we doubt not but that good will come out of this apparent evil, and many happy results arise out of the gloom which overhangs a portion of the United Kingdom. The Government have been engaged in devising plans for the alleviation of the misery which existed ; sums of money have been granted from the British Treasury to meet the emergency of the case j and plans were supposed to bo in contemplation for compelling the Irish landlords to contribute to the wants of their tenantry. We trust that more comprehensive and permanent remedies will not bo overlooked. We believe that under the present administration emigration will be fostered ; and there never was a period in British history when the subject demanded the attention of our statesmen more than it docs at the present time. A most astounding communication was made by Sir James Graham, on the 1 1 th of February, 1845, in the House of Commons, when moving for leave to bring in a" Bill to Amend the laws of parochial settlement. The right hon. gentleman said, "It might startle the House to hear that one-tenth of the whole population of the kingdom received relief from the poor-rates ; and to give some idea of the relief afforded, he would just state that since the year 1815, no less a sum had been collected as poor-rates, than two hundred millions, one fourth of the capital of the national debt.'* When such was the case in the most palmy days of Britain's prosperity,— when out of the immense -mass of human beings, dwelling in the bosom of the most opulent nation of the world, one tenth were dependant upon parochial relief for subsistence, how must it now be with unhappy Ireland, where the soil itself has become diseased, and refuses to bring forth, with its wonted productiveness, that food which above all others has long been the staple nutritious subsistence of her line people ? The subject of emigration, systematically pursued, has been frequently urged upon British rulers, as the best means of carrying off England's redundant population, and, at the same time, increasing her own Colonial influence and prosperity. But there seems to have, hitherto, existed a most unaccountable apathy as regards this question — and something of a more than ordinary character was required to awaken our rulers to a necessity of encouraging emigration. The time has arrived when the hand of Providence has given the alarm. Men will not be permitted by their Cheator to horde together in masses, and circumscribe them' selves within the narrow limits of a few patrimonial acres, while the broad expanse of uncultivated wastes lies untrodden and tin tilled by improving man. No, it is contrary to the design of our Author, who intends, by the dispersion of the human family, that His knowledge shall " cover the earth, ' as the waters cover the great deep."- The Ministry will now, we doubt not, turn their attention to vigorous plans for extensive emigration ; and New Zealand, which has long been neglected, but which has lately been brought into notice, by the recommendation of Governor Grey, as a field of great promise, will, we trust, shortly become the point to which tl\e course of many British emigrant ships will be directed.

The Avoca, from Sydney, has brought the English October mail, and we hive further intelligence to the middle of that. month. A Special Court of the Proprietors of the New Zealand Company was held in October, at the Company's House, Broad Street Buildings, when Mr. Aglionby, M. P . was in the chair. The Secretary read the Report authoring the Directors to take up £100,000, from the Consolidated Fund, with a series of resolutions adopting -it, whicjb were agreed to

by the proprietors. So the Company have become possessed of the loan granted thera» by Bpecial Actof Parliament, at the last Session,; the money may enable them to clear oft'Bome of their liabilities— but their former acts and deeds are now so well known to the public, and, by bitter experience, to their own settlers, that their usefulness as a colonising body is for ever destroyed — and we conceive that this very loan will-hurry on their speedy annihilation. Pursuant to an order in Council, the Archbishop of Canterbury' had issued a form of prayer to Almighty God for relief from the dearth and scarcity existing 'in parts of the United' Kingdom, owing to the failure of some of the crops of last year. In the obituary, wo observe the names of Thomas Chukson, Lord Templetown, Lord Waldegrave, and Lord Mount Sandford. The Earl of Elgin and Kincardine has been, appointed Cnptain-General and Governor-in-Chief of Her Majesty's provinces of Canada, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia, and of Prince Ed waul's Island,' and Governor-Ge-neral of all Her Majesty's provinces on the continent of North Ameiica, Major-General Sir John Harvey had entered upon his duties as Lieut.-Governor of Nova Scotia. Public meetings are being held all over England, to petition Parliament for the abolition of Ecclesiastical Courts. The statue of O'Conncl, by Ilogan, eight feet high, had arrived in Dublin from" Home. The 37th Regiment is under orders to proceed to Van Dicmen's Land, to relieve the 9Gth, expected to relieve the 18th in China. It is openly stated, that the Duke of "Wellington made known to Lord John Russell that ho must look out for a new Commander-in-Chiof if tho Ministry agreed to the demand of the whole nation for tho abolition of flogging in thoarmy; and such was tho ter~ ror of the threat of the great Captain, that Lord John succumbed. The noble high spirit of the Queen is said, to have been roused at this, and to havo loudly declared her wish '• that the House of Commons would agrco to Dr. Bowring's motion, for there was no want of Com « manders in Chief " > But Lord John quailed; yet ho acceded to tho Duke but shabbily, for in the course of his speech it escaped him that he did not quite liko the Horse Guards retaining the power of torluio. He did not attempt to answer Captain Layard's remark, ''what is to prevent the drill of farriers at flogging a stuffed sack from giving each lash an interval of ono minute I so that the torture of fifty lashes will bo near an hour's duration ?" - The Committee of the Testimonial to Mr. Cobden, having decided on presenting him with one bank note , for, the sum of £100,000, the Directors of the Bank of England have caused a New Plate to bo engraved, ia which tho circumstance is recited : they have also caused another of ono thousand pounds to bo engraved, bearing tho same words, with the addition that it was engraved for tho purpose of striking ofF ono hundred notes in payment of the one bank note presented by his grateful country to Richard Cobden. The surplus, which is calculated at about j6200,000, is to be expended in the erection of obelisks in London, Dublin, Edinburgh, Manchester, Leeds, Sheffield, and Birmingham, ■commemorating Mr. Cobden's services. The New Pope. — The German papers relate numerous instances of the Christian humility of the new Pope. " IJis cook (says one of theso journals) one day served for his dinner seven different dishes. Pius IX sent for him, and told him that when Cardinal he never had more than, three, and that he would not now change his habit. His Holiness lias reduced almost all tho expenses of his household. Four thousand Roman scudi, which were annually spent in rare plants, have been cut off from the budget, and half of; the horses of the pontifical stables havo beou sold."