ENGLISH NEWS.

New Zealander, Volume 2, Issue 98, 17 April 1847, Page 3

ENGLISH NEWS.

By the arrival of the Bcrmondsey, the Sultana, and the Angelina, at Sydney, we have English intelligence to the 28th Nov., brought by the John Wesley. Although the Louita Campbell put us in possession of news to the sth Dec, yet as she did not bring our usual files of English and other papers, we wore, till now, unable to present our readers with European intelligence to any extent. The Queen and Royal Family were well. The Illustrated London News of the 7th Nov., contains an engraving of the Five Sovereign pieces about to be struck, • the new coin will be about the size of a Crown piece. The papers teem with distressing accounts from Ireland. Several of the Counties were in awful commotion ; while the inhabitants of others seemed to be recovering from distress, by the Government introduction of food, and labour afforded on the public works. W e observe with pleasure that Down is not amongst the names on the list of distressed counties.

It is said that the Pope intends to substitute imprisonment for life for the punishment of death, which ho wishes lo abolish totally. A royal ordonnaoce had been published in the Paris Moniteur, conferring 41 crosses of the Legion of Honour on the officers, soldiers, and seamen who were wounded at Otaheite in five encounters that topic place with the natives, between the 19th March and the 30th May last. Governor Bruat's auxiliary, Regent Parnifja, was also knighted, and medals of honour were granted to eight other native chieftains who fought for the French " Protcctorat." It was understood that Parliament would bo further prorogued from the 1 2th to the 1 9th January, then to meet for the despatch of business. An agitation in favour of a reduction of (he duty on* tea is beginning to be of importance, but the revenue being ncnily jf 5,000,000, is one which the Ministry will be loth to meddle with. Several communications with the Ministry respecting stoam between England and Sydney hud taken place ; the objection is the expense, whioh the Ministers do not Iccl inclined to incur, unless the colony show some anxiety on the subject by voting a sum in aid. The report of the Committee of the Legislative Council of New South Wales proposing to pay 4?0,OOO a-year, for three years, will probably have the desired effect. Attempt to Destroy Lord Rosse's Telescope. —On Friday evening, three respectably dressed individuals, applied for permission to view the moon through Lord llosse's telescope. On it being granted, they ascended the platform, mid at the moment when tho instrument was depressed on a level with the horizon, one of them advanced to the extreme and cast a stone, which he must have concealed for tho purpose, at the speculum. It happily did not take cflcct, and in the effort he fell, and fractured his right leg. They were immediately arrested. They state themselves to be from Cheltenham ; and the one who threw the stone expresses his regret at not having destroyed ihe telescope, as he considers it " a blasphemy for man to scrutinize too closely tho works of the Creator," and affirms that "the right hand of the Lord will yet be employed to dash to pieces the cnQiwy,"— Evening paper. A bricklayer, named Bragg, killed his wife and child, and then destroyed his own life, at Bltham, near Folkestone. A Court-martial was held on hoard Her Maje«ty'» ship Victory, at Portsmouth, on the I Oth October, to try Lieut. 11. A. Story, Senior Lieutonant of Her Majesty's steam-frigate Retribution, on a charge of having, on the 13ih of August last, confined one of the crew of that ship in the coal-bunker, without an order from his Captain for so doing, the man having died while so confined, from the effects of breathing carbonic acid gas. The facts of the cue having been proved, Lieut, storey, in his defence, baid that he was actuated by tho best motives in ordering the man into the coal-bunker ; as, had he reported him to the Captain, his oflenco would have exposed him to a much more severe punishment, nnd that had the man remained on the platform as ordered, instead of descending lower, he would not have experienced any effects from the gas. No person 1 could feel more regret at the death of the man than himself, lie called a number of witnesses, officers, petty officers, seamen, and marines, belonging to tho lietribution, who all bore testimony to his humanity, and his uniformly kind treatment of the ship'b company. Tho Court was then cleared to consider tho sentence ; and, after an hour had elapsed, they found-— That Lieutenant Stoiey had been guilty of punishing tho man without first reporting to-lho-Oftplithr; "Iwrln consequence of its being customary for first Lieutenants in that and other steam ships to place men in the coalbunkers for punishment, without so reporting them, the Court fully acquitted Lieutenant Storey of any blame connected with the death of the deceased. The fig harvest, says u Madrid journal, has this year hceu very abundant in Spain. In one village of the province of Huelvas, the produce it estimated at 24,000 duros .£(4,800.) Prince Mettcrnich has been offered J22o,OOOferhU grapes at Johannisbcrg this year. The offer being much below the value, was declined. The ancient and noble abbey of Disientis, ia the Camon of the Orisons, was burnt down on the night of the 28th October. Its" magnificent church, its treasure, and its rich and splendid library, were completely destroyed. The friar who discharged the factious of cook per'nhcd in tho flames. The abbey of Disscutis, founded in the seventh century by Sigcbert a Scotch Benedictine, had been burnt, in 1700. Preservation op Timber.— A correspondent of a daily contemporary writes as follows from Sheernesi under date of Monday :— "Sir W . Burnett, M.D., Director General of the Navy Medical Department, paid hit annual official visit on Saturday. The learned officer was then witness to the failure of his far-famed solution, so far as its properties for preserving timber while immersed in water arc concerned, by the following interesting experiment. About 18 months ago, a series of small logs of ash, elm, pine, teak, kourie, or New Zealand fir, beech, and oak, after having been duly immersed in his solution, were deposited at neap tide at the mouth of the harbour, with another scries of the same kinds of wood in its natural state. On being taken up and laid out for inspection on Saturday, externally Sir William's series exhibited the smoothest surface, but on being split open, with certain exceptions, like the scries which had not been immersed in hit solution, they exhibited one living mass of pholades, the generic name, we believe, of the worm in question cti< cased, were not broken in their testacious coverings. The Malabar teak in both cases was riddled like a sieve, 60 were the ash, the elm, and the beech ; tho pine was in rather better condition ; tho oak was not much affected; the kaurie was as perfect as when first laid down with the exception of one single worm, who had found his way into one of the extremities of the log, which hndnot been immersed in the solution. The exterior of all the kinds of wood was considerably injured by a-smal-ler insect, particularly so were the pine and teak. As has been itated, the exterior of Sir William's scries was not so much decayed, but as to the interior, wo saw little difference from that of the other; indeed, this the distinguished officer himself admitted. Somo of tho worms inhabiting the interior were eight or nine inches long, while few were shorter than two inches. All were about the circumference of a medium sized quill, and each possessed a testaceous covering and cell for itself. Deriving its sustenance through the pinhead opening in the exterior of the wood, it keeps the smaller extremity constantly there, while with the other, gradually enlarging, it bores for itself with its treble-shelled proboscw a cavity, in many instances sufficiently largo to admit the little finger."— Bell's fFeutcly Messenger, An Old Defaulter. — Mr. O'Connell has been posted again as a defaulter in the city of Dublin. Tho twelvemonth'a bill ho gave for Repeal, has become due, and has been sent back marked "No effects." This is not the first by many which has been dishonoured in a similar way. The honourable gentleman toifcbeen endeavouring to renew tho bill ; but his credit is so shaken that he has great diflioulty in inducing people to accept anything.— Punch,