LATE ENGLISH NEWS.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume I, Issue 41, 19 July 1845, Page 4

LATE ENGLISH NEWS.

Her Majesty returned from Brighton on the "21st February, and held a levee on the sth of March at St. James's. Another was to be held * on Wednesday the 12>th.

Retired Navy List. — We have heard, from a source generally well-informed, that it is the intention of Government to make a retired list 1 for the Navy in all its grades — after each officer "has reached his 60th year. Her Majesty in Council has appointed Sir M. Montefiore (a Jew) to the office of High Sheriff • of Kent. Several additions to* the naval accommodation of Portsmouth are in progress towards completion. A new steam basin, four new slips, and a mast and paint-house, all of the largest size. Devonport dock-yard is to be fortified. The •works will consist of heavy batteries for red hot shot, and cost upwards of £18,000. A new test has been proposed for the university of Oxford, by which the candidate binds himself to read the thirty-nine articles in the sense in which he believes they were originally 1 put forth, and are at the same time explained to him. Query — Suppose the candidate's belief and the explanation are at variance, how then ' will he be bound ? Earl Grey, who had been for some time in a most precarious state of health, is now fast re1 covering. A case of poisoning, from the administration * of an ounce of tartaric acid instead of tarlrate of soda, has led to a recommendation that in future druggists' bottles should be labelled in English. The amount of gold coin and bullion in the issue department of the Bank of England, on i the 10th January, amounted to £1 2,493,444 ; of silver bullion, £1,593,51 1. In the banking department, of gold and silver coin, £714,566. On the 21st of February, notice was given by the Post-office authorities, that an additional postage of 4d. per half ounce over the present charge on letters, and 2(1. on every newspaper, will commence on the first of March. This charge will apply to all letters and newspapers to and from Australia, Bourbon, Cape of Good Hope, China, Hongkong,- Java, Madagascar, Mauritius, New Zealand, Sumatra, and Van Diemen's Land. We have, however, reason to believe (says the Hobart Town Advertiser) that this increase of postage only applies to letters and papers by the overland mail. In Ireland " things" were tolerably quiet ; but Repeal, it was said, had not given up the ghost. O'Connell has declared that the new Secretary, Sir T. FreemantJe, " is a very nice man for a small tea-party." ■- Despite the opposition of Mr. Shunk, the new governor of Pennsylvania, the legislature of that place had (to its credit be it recorded) voted the payment of " the debt," so severely, so sarcastically, and so eloquently commented upon by the late Rev. Sidney Smith. To the number of the illustrious dead his name is now added — living only, it would seem, until he saw the v Pennsylvanian " repudiators" roused to a sense of honesty. Despatches were announced in the Times of March Ist, as having been sent off for the Governor of New South Wales. The Queen contemplated paying a visit to Ireland in July. The King of Prussia was about to give his ■subjects a constitution. % The fearful crime of infant murder was rabidly on the increase in England ; and also the <srime of murder by poison. The Repeal movement was still vigorously going forward. At the weekly meeting held in the Conciliation Hall on the 10th February, the rent for the week amounted to £514 Is. lOd. ' The Criminal Law Commissioners had been directed to draw up a report, preparatory to abolishing the existing laws against "Roman Catholics.

United States. — There have been several arrivals this week ; that furnishing the latest dates being the arrival of the Sea, which left New York on the 10th January. The House of Representatives opened the debates on therschemes for the annexation of Texas, on the 3d. There were four projects before *Hn_T-TrmßP t—<-^ t — <-^p £ pl-y of^the Committee on Foreign Affairs, reported l)y Hr. C. J. Ingersole, which recites > the- rejected treaty, and makes it the basis of annexation ; that introduced by Mr. Weller, which simply declares Texas to 1 be annexed, and pledges the public lands for the payment of its debt, without assuming the debt, leaves the question of boun--dary open, and makes no reference to slavery ; that of Mr., Douglas, which is based upon the treaty of 1803 and the Missouri compromise, construed to give part of the territory to the United States ; and a fourth, making the State one-half free and one-half slaveholding. The had as yet presented no striking feature. India. — News from India to the end of February hascome to hand. Every thing is quiet. SirC. "Napier had been amusing himself by thrashing •■some predatory tribes who were vassals to the Khan of Khelat, a native prince whose territory is on the border of Scinde. * -When complaints were made to the Khan of the conduct of some of these chiefs, he replied they were too strong for him, upon which Napier said he would just .go through the Khelat territory and punish them himself, which he did in a very short time. —

Sir John Franklin had been gazetted to the command of the North Polar expedition. -The Erebus and Terror had been fitted with screw propellers for that service, and 'Commander Owen Stanley had been appointed second in command. ! Lord Eliot's succession to the Earldom of St. Germains will oblige him to vacate the post of Chief Secretary for Ireland, always filled by acoaimoner; which must therefore cause some shifting in the ministry. Mr. Sydney Herbert, the Secretary to the Admiralty, chiefly known for his liberal leanings, is named for the- Irish office; But what will be done with Lord Eliot himself ? His being a Peer does not exclude him from all places in the Government ; and he is much too creditable a person to be spared with advantage. Why not take the opportunity to make some more general move ? Any would be beneficial that transferred Baron Stanley from the Colonial Office ; though it might indeed be difficult to know what to do with Mm. However, he answers so ill as " agent in parliament for the Colonial Office and Exeter Hall," that it might almost be predicted of him that he must do better in any other department — as Trade, Exichequer, Woolsack, Foreign Office, or even the Home Office ; only that, now he is so well .known, his intrusion in any other sphere would raise an uproar : in the Foreign Office, throughout Europe — what wars ! in the Home Office, throughout the United Kingdom — what revolutions! The colonies are not only used to it, but they are proverbially powerless, and must put up even with a Stanley. What then could he done with him ? The question, we admit, is a poser. But perhaps, as men sometimes unexpectedly excel in posts for which they seem peculiarly the -least suited, it might be a safe experiment to send Lord Stanley where it -would eeem most dangerous for him to be. He might be made, for example, Governor-General of Canada. The very words, indeed, sound like rebellion, independence, separation, annexation, and Heaven knows what. But as a despei-ate measure, it might answer. Or, to rush to a greater extreme, send him out as Governor to -New .Zealand : let the man who, of all others, has done most harm to New Zealand, expiate his sins by setting that disjointed world to rights ; let him who caused the disease be the cure, as you give to the viperbitten viper- broth. — Spectator.

The Pacific. — The recent disclosures made by the Constitutionnel, in an article relative to Admiral Dv Petit Thouars, has shown us that the desire of the French to acquire possessions in the Pacific has not been confined to the Polynesian group of Islands, but that they purposed uniting the large and valuable Island of Netv Caledonia to the French territories in those seas, together with the New Hebrides, and other islands adjacent. Indeed, as they have already sent a Bishop and some Catholic clergy to New Caledonia, there is but little doubt that their intentions are still directed to that point. When it is considered how near these islands are to our valuable possessions in Australia, in either of which an enemy's frigate or two with a steamer could enter within twenty-four hours, for they are all nearly wholly defenceless, it becomes a matter of moment that these continued aggressions of the French in the Pacific Ocean, and their movements, should be closely watched, and yet we have only at this time, we believe, a sloop of war or two on the Australian coasts, and one small steamer (the Salamander) at Tahiti, or amongst the Polynesian Islands ; whilst the French have two heavy frigates, and three or four of a smaller class, with one or two steamers and several corvettes. — United Service Gazette. The RosendaJe, from Liverpool, February 28, had arrived at Melbourne. The only news of importance is, that Mr. Duncombe's motion for further enquiry into the system of opening letters at the Post Office was negatived ; and the death of the celebrated Reverend Sidney Smith.

The Church. — The Rev. Dr. Pasey, Regius Professer of Hebrew and Canon of Christ Church, has published a statement of his intention to decline taking the te&t>about to be proposed to the Oxford Convocation on Feb. 13tk. Other members of the University, holding Fellowships, have, it is understood, come to a similar resolution. Thus the question will be brought to a direct issue, viz., — Whether or not Convocation will vote for the expulsion of the individuals in question; such being the penalty proposed to be annexed to the third refusal of the proposed test. Sir Edward Knatchbull, Paymaster of the Forces, had accepted the Chiltern Hundreds, and it was understood that he was to be elevated to the peerage. It appears that the rumour of the death of the Emperor of Russia was premature ; further accounts, had been received, by which it was stated that the Imperial Autocrat had recovered from his sickness. The address in answer to her Majesty's speech was moved in the House of Lords by the Marquis Camden, and seconded by Lord Glenlyon ; and, in the House of Commons, it was moved by Mr. Chart eris, and seconded by Mr. T. Baring. Dr. Bowring had given notice in the House of Commons for a Committee to inquire into the mode of keeping colonial accounts.

'We received yesterday, by what conveyance we cannot tell, a Morning Chronicle of the 26th February, five days later than any paper we had previously received. — The first battle of the session was to be fought on the night of the 25th, when Lord John Russell intended to move the following resolution : — " That the plan proposed by her Majesty's Government, in reference to the sugar daties, professes to keep up a distinction between foreign free-labour and foreign slave-labour sugar, which is impracticable and illusory ; aggravates the evil of the protection given to the colonists at the expense of the consumer ; and tends so greatly to impair the revenue, as to render the removal of the Income and Property-tax, at the end of three years, extremely uncertain and improbable." — Sydney Morning Herald.