FOREIGN NEWS.

New Zealand Colonist and Port Nicholson Advertiser, Volume I, Issue 61, 28 February 1843, Page 3

FOREIGN NEWS.

. Three members of the House of Representatives at Washington have addressed a letter to the President of the United States, praying his excellency to solicit from the British Government the liberation of upwards of a huudred American citizens, now suffering in' Van Diemen’s Land the penalties of joining in the rebellion' in Canada. To this letter the Secretary of State has returned an answer to the effect that the President will loose no time in complying therewith, and that Mr. Webster would himself urge Lord Ashburton - to press the subject upon the consideration of the British Government.

The Gazette de France has the following paragraph on the subject of a new infernal machine :—“ M. de Molene, Juge d’lnstruction, and M. Mongis, substitute of the Procureur du Roi, were on Thursday summoned to Join-' ville, near St. Maur, by a mtysterious circumstance, relative to which it is to be hoped that the official journals will give some explanation. It appears that the preceding morning a dreadful explosion took place on the bridge Of Joinville, from an infernal machine which was placed there, filled with balls and other projectiles, by none of which, fortunately, was any person wounded. These magistrates have not been able to discover either the object or the authors of this machine, of which the shattered remains alone were left.”

The Diario di Roma gives an account of a grand fete, which took place on the arrival ot the steam-boats built for the Pope in England. The cardinals, public functionaries, and a great concourse of personages of distinction of many nations, were assembled; and, in their presence, notwithstanding the extreme lowness of the waters of the Tiber, the steamers made their way through all its sinuosities, and passed by the banks and other obstacles —a task which it would have been impossible at this time toaccomplish by the old system of towing. A passage, which hitherto, required several days, may now be performed in four hours. This will, it adds, also be the means of preserving thousands from catching the fever caused by being so long in the malaria, and be at the same time a scource of great prosperity.,

A letter from Ancona, 18th ultimo, gives accounts' of the fete on the occasion of the visit of the Pope, who made his entrance into that tqwn on. the 15th, an event which has not occurred at’ Ancona within the last three centuries. It was triumphal. The populace took the horses froih the carriage of his Holiness and drew him to the Church of Santo Agostino, where he pronounced a benediction on the people. In the evening there were grand fireworks let off in Piazza Grand, and, in one of the halls of the Town-house, took place the ceremony of kissing the forehead of the Pope*S white mule. His Holiness was seated on a throne, liis foot resting oh a red velvet cushion, and the mule was richly caparisoned in the same colour with a cross of gold over the back. All persons who entered left their hats and gloves in an outer room, and knelt down three times before approaching' the steps. The Austrian Government paid a handsome ccmpliment to Gregory XVI., in sending its steam-vessel the Mahmoudi to Ancona, and placing it entirely at his command during his stay. The Pope availed himself of this attention, and in return bestowed his benediction on the steamer, conferring upon it his own name. This being done, his standard was hoisted at.the masthead,' and he took an excursion in’ it. In the morning on the 1 7th, his Holiness. set out for Rome.