FOREIGN NEWS.

New Zealand Colonist and Port Nicholson Advertiser, Volume I, Issue 44, 30 December 1842, Page 3

FOREIGN NEWS.

(From the Atlas July 30). The crown prince of Hanover was betrothed on the 20th July with the Princess Mary of Saxe Altenburg. She is said to be at once graceful and amiable. The greater part of the town of Bar Sur Aube, in France, has been reduced to ashes. There is said to be some misapprehension as to the intention of the Governor-General of India to order the evacuation of Afghanistan, and that no alarm need be entertained on that head. v The French Minister of War has suspended for this year the usual leaves of absence Tb military officers as well as to privates. IFhis is an old trick of Marshal Soult to satisfy the war party, at the expense of making very unhappy the officers and privates in question. But it is, nevertheless, to be observed that the marshal reserves to himself the right of acceding to individual applications for furloughs; so that this shallow ruse it is not difficult to understand or explain. On the news of the sudden death of the Duke of Orleans reaching Kircliberg, where the eldest and exiled branch of the house of Bourbon is residing, a solemn mass for the repose of the soul of the Duke of Orleans was celebrated in the presence of the Duke and Duchess d’Angoukme and of the Princess Louisa Maria Theresa, sister of the Duke of Bordeaux. The royal duchess, the unfortunate daughter of Louis XVI., was deeply affected. The Duke of Bordeaux was at Toplitz when the account of the Duke of Orleans’ decease came to his ears. The prince immediately wrote a very touching letter of condolence to the King of the French, who is his godfather; and on the 28th of July he writes as follows to the .Marquis de Pastoret, one of his adherents in misfortune. The date is the anniversary of the accident which nearly proved so fatal to the Duke of Bordeaux last year, when his thigh was broken by a fall from his horse : —" At the news of the sad event, which you mention in : your last letter, my first impulse was to pray, and to order prayers for him who had been. its unfortunate victim. I was more favourably dealt with last year, and I am the more grateful to Providence since I hope that my life has been preserved in order to render it some day useful to my country. Events, whatever may be their course, will always find me ready to devote myself to France, and to sacrifice every thing for her." According to the directions of the Queen of the Belgians, a funeral service of great pomp has been celebrated at Brussels for the repose of the soul of her late brother, the Duke of Orleans. Several members of the diplomatic body were present, and the crowd of distinguished persons was so great that, although the Church of St. Jacques de Caudenberg is a large one, many hundreds who were desirous of paying this last tribute of respect to the memory of the Duke, were unable to do so. His Majesty the King of Holland has been making a visit to the northern parts of his dominions, and has been received with respect and even enthusiasm. The codes which regulate the courts of law in the kingdom of the Netherlands are about to be applied to the courts of justice in the Dutch East India possessions.

The King of Denmark, after having consulted the four assemblies of the provincial states, has issued an order for the reform of prison discipline. Solitary imprisonment is to be applied to all prisoners condemned for a less period than eight years ; but where it is evident to the director of the prison that the health of any individual is really injured by the measure, he may be allowed to labour in a prison workshop, where from eight to ten other persons shall be allowed to be present, but where the most absolute silence is still to be preserved. The bread and water diet is to be abolished, and suitable food to be supplied. The maximum of the period of imprisonment in the Danish gaols is at present twenty-five years. Henceforth it is to be reduced to ten for the Danes and to fifteen for foreigners. But why, we ask, is this distinction to be made ? We know we shall be told that it is the same in France. Is this, however, any reason ? The King of Denmark is an enlightened and popular prince, and we are not without hope that he will set the example of placing foreign debtors on the same footing as his native subjects. It is a relic of barbarism to punish the luckless and unfortunate foreigner with greater severity than his more fortunate co-merchants, or co-traders of the country in which he resides. The Porte and the Bey of Tunis are still in a state bordering on collision. A Turkish frigate arrived on July 21, at Tunis, under the

%atftrt of an' English corvette, having on board an athhaasador from the Porte with the ultiInatum Qi'ike Grand Seighor. The* chief conditions are, that the Bey, in his quality of Pacha, of the btt&ffian Portey is immediately to put in execution the treaties with the foreign powers frjiioh at present are in force in the Turkish empire; He is to suppress all monopolies of ttade, and to reduce the force of the regular troops from their present number of 20,000, to 1,500. As this number, it is said, is quite sufficient to maintain order in the interior, the Grand Seignor engages to send succours of his own troops in case any. foreign attack should take place. Finally, the Bey is to draw up each year an exact state of his expenses and his receipts under the control of an oukil of the Porte, in order that the surplus over the expenses may be transmitted to Constantinople. As might he expected, the Bey refused to submit to such hard terms, and the ambassador returned as he went. o—