English Ertracts.

New Zealander, Volume 3, Issue 179, 16 February 1848, Page 3

English Ertracts.

The New Parliamhnt. — The hope held out, then, in the Ministerial journali of last month, ot a clear Gjvernment majority of 6<) is utterly frustrated. There is no Government niajonty of sixteen even ; — no no, nor ot six. There is simply a house equally divided; befoie which the Alinister will have to place his measures, in entire uncertainty as to their reception. Nothing like this has ever been seen since the passing of the Reform Bill ; except perhaps the brief experiment of Sir Roberc Peel in March, 1835; which experiment, as our readers will recollect, quickly tailed; though Sirllobeit had then, what Lord Jolta Russell lus not now, — a body of 300 attached and earnest supporters, who could be summoned, diy by day, to each txpected division; and who fought, as long as there wss a chance lei' , as if the cause had been sole'y theii own. The pn sent predicament is one which w partly foresaw, and agrtiiiat which we cautioned the Government, to long since as last spring. We judged it, then, to hi impossible for the Ministry to get a working taajority by a dissolution; and we suggested, therefore, the use of the plea of Irish di&trebs, to postpone. the election until 1818. Our advice, honestly oflered, was ihsre -arded, and Ministers hare now got into the yery difficulty of which we warned them. Not that we a, prehend any sudden change- No oiliei party i» dfsnous "f undertaking the Government ; consequently Ministers will be ordcicd " to continue ;" tit least/lir the jnet>ent. But a Government without a working majority in the lloust" of Commons, ei-ists only by sufferance. It his no lease of power, — it has uot even a year's agreement. It is littie more than a weekly tenant; suffered to continue, but wholly on( condition of " good behaviour ! ' The Correspondent of the H.rald says, Her Majesiy's government will be gratified to h^ar, that the repealers ot the union, at whose hands, it suffered so uuteiially during the recent electi ins, are like y to demolish each other long before they perform <i similar operation on the obnoxious measu c. In point of numbers, the Conservative section ot the I ish representation is the stiongesr, the Repeal next, and the Whig the weakest ; but as to moral weigut, parliamentary, or any other influence generally attached to a party, the present gang of M. P.'s will exhibit a degree ot feebleness, in clue time, far lower than the memorable tail which wagged in the first refoim parliament at the rear of the late Mi. O'Conneli. — Moini«» Heinld. What is the character of tli e new parliament which circumstances have given us ? With the exception of some noisy and insignificant men, who will exercise no influence over the deliberations of the House, we expect that the addition which arc made to our legislatuie will have the effect of bunging it more completely into harmony wi h the times, it is now geneially felt, that in political affairs a nation cannot propose to iUelf a ceitain task, and when that has been accomplished to s<iy to ittelf tlut its work his been done. On the contraiy, out of the circumstances of every age, irregulaiities and abuses will inevitibly arise, and create the necessity for fresh reforms. Consequently) in all free states, the tendency of reformation or impiovement is the normal state of the national exist mice, not an occasional impulse originating with particular individuals, or growing out of particular events. This truth may be regarded as a recent discovery in political science. But in proportion as it exercises its legitimate influence over the public mind, will the probability of all revolutionary or violent movements be diminished ; because when it isunircrsallj understood that greivaiice3, abuses, and impeife< turns, are the growth of every age, and that the process ot removing them must be as regular and gradual as their growth, men will not be siezed with sudden fits of impatience inciting them to aim at reforming their institutions all at once, which would be as full of peril as it wonld be fruitless. In the new house, Ministers would find themselves in the midst of more vital and powerful influences than any Ministry in this country ever had to contend with before, and the result will inevitably be the popularising of the government. lhe distance between the nation and office has been diminished, not by the descent of statesmen towards the people, but the elevation of the people towards their statesmen. The presence, consequently, of the community will be more distinctly felt in the House of Commons, so that all measures debigned unquestionably to promote the public good, will be allowed to posses an importance in that liouss which has never hitherto been accorded to them. There will, therefore, be less rhetorical display, and moie attention to business, because most members have acquired the conviction that the country will be better satisfied by having its moral and mateiial interests promoted, than by having its ears tingled with high-sounding declamation, however skilfully constructed. — Atlas. Duration' or the Last Fourtken British Parliaments. — First, dissolved June 29, 1802 ; 2nd, began Nov. 15, 1802, dissolved Oct. 21, 186 ; 3rd, began Dec. 15, 180G, dissolved April 29, 1807 ; 4th, began June 12, 1807, dissolved Sept. 29, 1812 ; sth, began Nov. 22, 1812, dissolved June 10, 1818 ; 6th, began Jan. 14, 1819, disssolved Feb, 29, 1820; 7th, began April 21, IS2O, dissolved June 2, 1826; Bth, began Nov. 14, 1826, dissolved July 4, 184!) ; 9th, began Oct. 26, 1830, dissolved April 23, 1831 ; 10th, began June 14, 1831, dissolved Dec. 3, 1832; 11th, began Jan. 19, 1833, dissolved Dec. 30, 1834 , 12th, began Feb. 12, 1835, dissolved July 17, 1837 ; 13th, began Nov. 15, 1837, dissolved June 23, 1841 ; 14ih, began Augmt 11, 184J, dissolved July 23, 1847, During the above period we have had 15 Preniers, viz. : —Mr. Addington, appointed March 7, 1801 ; Mr. Pitt, May 12, 180 L; Lord Grenviile, Jan. 8, 1806; Duke ofa Portland, March sj, 1807 5 Mr. Perceval, June 23, 1810 ; Earl of Liverpool, June 8, 1812; Mr. Canning, April 11, 1827; Viscount Goderich, August 10, 1827 ; Duke of Wellington, Jan. 11, 1828; Earl Grey, Nov. 22, 1830; Lord Melbouine, July 16, 1831 ; Sir R. Peel, Dec. 10, 1834 ; Lord Melbourne, April 18, 1835; Sir R. Ptel, Aug. 30, IS4I ; Lord John Russell, June 29, 1816".

Experiments in CoLONizATioN.In the recent debate on Colonization, Mr. Hutt said—" I was a member of the Commission whichplanted the experimental colony of South Australia. I shall always remember with deep gratification, that in co-operation with one of the most valuable philosophical writers of our age

and country — I mean Colonel Torrens — and generally in suboidmation to his superior intelligence, I asri&ted at the foundation of that important and remarkable colony. I entrent the attention of the House to these facts. We send a population of 15,0 J0 peisons to South Australia — at tint time a wilderness, not only uninhabited', but positively unexplored. The presence of the population gnve to the wilderness such a valae, that we were enabled to sell 123,000 acres of (Vowa land for a sum which exceeded by £85,01)0 the whole cost of the emigration. SUKling as this stitement may be, it is not all. We raised on the secuuty of the futuie revenue of the colony, a further sum of XjBj,OoOX j 8j,O0O for the purposes of the outfit and government ot the olony. The loan was effected wholly independent of the Government, but it was afterwards assumed by the Treasury, on condition of its ultimate repayment out of the colonial levenues. That condition is now being fulfilled. By a recent order of the Treasury, the interest of the loan is no longer borne by the Consolidated Fund ; it is paid out of the growing surplus of the revenue of South Australia. And thus you have the spectacle — one perfectly unexampled in the history of the world — of a colonial dependency which has noc only defrayed all the cost of conveying its popul ition across the globe, bui which is actually replacing all the charges of ita ongin.il outfit and early Government. Now such has been the icsult of a first experiment in an untried field of improvement, amid all the emliarrHSsments, the difficulties, and the errors whioh are incidental to such undertakings. It would be comparatively easy now to plant another South Australia, to lay open, without cost to the parent state, in one of its distant dependencies a new and a happier ccuntiy for those whom the inscrutable dispensations of Piovid nee have visited with suffeiing and privation* here. Are we not to have recourse to this expedient ?"

The Provision Contract.— The naval contract is announced for 5,000 tierces of beef, and 11,000 tiercel of pork ; but it is worthy of remark that this contract's is not limited, as heretofore, to beef and pork cured m the United Kingdom, but admits contracts from nil parts of the globe. This is the fiist time that the provision contract has been extended beyond the Uuited •^Kingdom, and the alteration has been lendered indispensible from the failure of the potato crop in Ireland, 'and its consequences upon the supply and price of the description ot cured meat required, especially pork. The truth is, that the breed of pigs has almost ceased in most parts ot the country ; and even if the potato should in future be cultivated on anything l.kc as great a scale as heretofore, it would leqmre severa. years to produce such a supply ot pigs as had exited up to the last year- — Dublin Me i cant tie Adverttsei.

,The Ixdtan Army. — The discussions which have oflate occurred on the merits of a peace or war policy /or India, have causedjnore than ordinary attention to be b,estovred on the state of the armies of India, as to their s'rength, efficiency, and expense, compaied to that in which they formeily existed, and to the oon.dition of the Exchequer. From these it appears that within the List ten years we have added about. t'2o,O jO,. 000, or about one fourth, to our d<*bt, and been living regularly at the rate of from i,750,000 to £2,003,000 steiling above our income, — no year exhibiting a balance less unfavourable than the smaller of those just named. Our gross an.i annual income is believed at present to be about X^jjOOOjOOO. The totit amount of our military charges exceeds £14,000,01)0 a-year The armies of India, exclusive of Queen's troops? mustered 168,477 just before the Afghan war began : they went on increasing at the rate of about 10,000 ajear till in 1844 they mustered 25 J, 0.50 men — 18,553 men, and nearly 700 European officers, being added to its strength. From this date to the time when the rf cent|reductions bcrnn, 25,000 more had been ranked — making a total addition of about IIJ, OOO men, or something above the entire Royal army of England. Including Queen's troops, we had on our muster roll on the Ist of January, 1847, considerably above 300, 000 men. The Bombay army alone has betwivt the dates we mention been augmented by above 40,000 men. Of the total augmentation, 24,000, maintained, at the cost of above £1,000,000 ater i )g annually, have been specially raised for service in Scinde— -18,0 10 continue up to the present moment to be quartered in that countiy — 24,000 were required tor it neaily the whole of the present \ear. 'Ihe total reduction at present proposed to be effected falls somewhat under 40,000 or all arms, leaving 1 on the muster ioll above 70,000 men in the highest state of e fficiency, more than we could boast of from 1831 to 1838, when we had the vast armies of Scinde, Gwalior, and the Punjaub—all since extinguished— to watch. So utterly senseless is the clamour at home in reference to the unwise diminution of our defence, that at no time in our history was our army ever so strong, or io little likely to be called on to take the field, as in the beginning of 1847. The want of European officers is being remedied in the only way within the power of the Company, not so greatly in debt. Hie native regiments have been reduced in Sep«ys by a fifth, and have, of course, in proportion to the number of native soldiers on the muster roll, become by this much stronger in European officers, an extra captain having been lately added, and, as already stated, gonae 700 officers in all since 1837 The reasonable part of it is, the vast majority of the armies is well satisfied with, all this ; did they entertain the views ascribed to them, by their professed advocates aud admirers, they would, indeed deserve more than the censuies their severest critics have bestowed on them. Nearly every one of the statements just made maybe verified by official documents within the la^t tlncc months laid en me befoie our re.uleis. 'ihe iiiuish army in India at present could c pc with any force in the world in courage, discipline, or strength, without more aid from England than is usually aecoided. The only giouinls it has tor apprehension of seventy or injustice aie those which arise f i om new and expensive wars ciipphng the treasuiy to an extent ulnch might compel reduction, eveu weic this accompanied by ihe abandon* rcent of those of our territories the revenues ot which are unable to meet the chaiges they oc asioned us. This lests with Cannon-row, not LeaduiilulLsU'eet. The Court of Directors would give us peace and plenty, would her Majesty's Ministers but allow them . — Bombay Times.

The Swearer Reproved. — Not long ago, as I was on my way from Newaik to Jersey city, in the ears, I observed a young lady sitting opposite to me, who seemed very much annoyed by the conversation of a young naval official, which was intcimiiigltd with oaths. She at length (having sat as long as she could without reproving him) said, " b-ir, can you converse in the Hebrew tongue ?" He replied that he could expecting, no doubt, to hold some conversation with her on that dialect. She then politely told him, that if he wished Jo swear any moie, he would gicatly oblige herself, and probably the rest of the passenger*., if he would doit in thdtf'lbngunge. The young man w,is silent during the remfl&iuler of the passive.— New York Gtcune) .

Potato l Water.— The water in which potatoes aie boiled, sprinkled over grain or punts, romph-tely destroys all insects m every stago oi existence, l'jom lbs giub to ihe maggot.

Donkkys. There are various localities in the vicinity of London where donkeys flourish ; they have peculiar districts, likehops and sausages. In the suburban ruralitif s of Primroie Hill, many fine studs may be met with : at Blackhfath they form a staple means of peregrination, at Gravesend they delight the poor deluded people who fancy they are at the seaside, and hear them to shrimp the watercress—devouring localities. Still more distant, at the convivial Margate, they bake in the sun, and on the chalk cliff* above the Fort, until they become as tawny as the slippers of their riders : and at Ramsgate, the pdjacent bay of Pcgwell, — promising and hunger implying name,— owes much of its commeic :il importance to the means of transport they afford. But it ii at UampFtead Heath alone, that they are seen in their glory. What matters it if the saddles be old and time worn— an expanse of c»hco bound with gay tnpe, conceals the blemishes and improves | the appearance. So have we seen the tail coat, when ' nomewhat seedy as to the lapels, converted into the i dress-garment by a silk facing. If they are idly inoliniul, are there not hoys to run behind, and provoke ; activity by a pointed stick ? originating the offensive j but widely known comparison between donkeys tnd J lollipops, inasmuch as the more they were licked, the faster they went. Did a donkey from Hampsttad ever get tired '?— did it ever break its knees ?— was it ever blind ?•— did it ever run away ?— did it ever shuffle off any other coil than the mesh of string, tape, tin, , j.ick-chain, and old thongs that formed hU bridle ? I leaver.

A case came under notice at the Bary County Court — £100 was left to be divided ainonggt nine children, and an action was brought to recover the respective amounts— il was obtained with * cost of 4O«. Under the old law it would have been thrown into Chancery The electric current travels along the wires of a railway telegraph at the lightning-speed of 288,000 milei in * second of time ! A gentleman was speaking the other i day of the kindness of his friends in visiting him, an old aunt, in particular, visited him twice o-year, and s'ayed six months each time. "My ♦" said a Printer to bii sweet-heart, " permit me 2 in^r-> you ;" when the termagant immediately made a at him, stnd planted her IEST between his eves, which pot hii head in pie. " This conduct," said the galled typo, looking If at her. "is without a j|." " What a traveller you have become 1" exclaimed an Englishman on meetlasj another at Comtantinople. •• To tell you the truth," was the frank reply, " I am obliged to run about tht ■world to keep a-head of my character, the moment it overtakes rat I am ruined, but I don't care who knows me to long as lam incognito. The quinquennial oensui of Paris has just been published — the population ■was 1,053,197, m., 543,492 males, and 510,405 females. The restless fancy of a man, says Hertz Ben Pinchai in the Jewish Chronicle, has gone so far at to deny to Harvey the credit of being the first discoverer of the circulation of the blood, and to assert that King Solomon was well acquainted with it. Twenty. eight of the principal builders of the metropolis, including Messrs. Thomas and William Cubitt, Mr. Kelk, 'Mr. Jackson, and Mr. Burton, have acceded to the prayer' of a memorial presented to them by a large body of the carpentevs and joiners in their employ, to be allowed to leave work on Saturdays at four instead of half-past five. A curious research which has been made by a Doctor at Paris, shows that in the twenty years which have elapsed s nee 1826, thirty-three medical students have died in consequence of punctures sustained during dissections at which they had assisted. There are in the United States, 834 ConTents, 98 of which weie founded during the past year. A correspondent of the Dublin Freeman is very angry at an English newspaper for calling Mr. Balfe the composer, who, it seems is Irish, an Englishman, and the editor of the Freeman denounces the mistake as a sample of the "impudent pretension of England to a monopoly of talent." Mr. Bowden, member of Congress from Alabama, addreiiing some of his constituents the other day near Montgomery, in speaking of Mr. Polk, termed him 'the last of the Romans." "Well," said a countryman standing by, " I'm darnation glad to hear that the breed il so well nigh run out." At a late meeting of & London Antiquarian Society, one of the members produced for the general inspection the heel bone of Edward IV., pilfered from his coffin. F.-om a table in the New York Herald, we find that the population of New Orleans, in 1800 was 9000, it is now 100,000 : in 181,0, the population of Cincinnati, was 750, it is now 93,000. In its current number the Revues dcs Deux Mondes, accounts for the official corruption in France, by the Jong duration of the peace—" calm and prosperity enervating the mind 1" The Morning Po»t in describing the Queen's return from Cambridge, says—" The royal party halted for a few seconds at Bishop Stortford, to take in water." Many rail at the numerous livings possessed by one Clergyman, but does it not hold that the more sin he-cures the better ? Within the last year, more than one thousand two hundred tailors landed at New York from England. Four thousand pine applet ex Agnes, from New Providence, in the West Indies, were sold by Keeling and Hunt, of Monument Yard, London. They were put up in lots of twenty, selling from 10s. to 30s. the lot. The total number of persons taken into custody in London, in 1846, for all sorts of offences, was 62,834, of whom 42,269 were males, and 20,565 females.