ENGLISH NEWS.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume II, Issue 76, 21 March 1846, Page 4

ENGLISH NEWS.

The Queen and Royal Family were well. Early in the spring it was said an increase to their number might be expected. Mr. 'Johnson has been elected Lord Mayor of London. William Chaplin, Esq., and J. Lawrie, Esq., are the new Sheriffs. Among the deaths we notice the names of the Marquis of Ely, Admiral Sir C. Rowley, Sir J. Mordaunt, Mr. Justice Storey (of the United States), and the Bishop of Bath and Wells (Dr. Law). The Bishop of Oxford, (Dr. Bagot) was to be translated to the vacant see. Mr. Masterman, the wealthy and eminent city banker, is dead, leaviug funded and personal propel ty, independent of his real estates, to the amount of nearly £160,000. By his will, he has bequeathed to each of his six children a legacy of £15,000, and a legacy to his sister, Mrs. Oxley, and his nephew, Henry Oxley. The residue of his personal estate he leaves to his two sons, John and Thomas, whom he has appointed executors of his will. The long expected conversion of Mi. Newman to the Church of Rome had taken place : he was accompanied by three clergymen and two laymen. Oxford, Oct. 9. — The very Rev. Ambrose St. John, M.A., student of Christ Church, has resigned his studentship, and conformed to the Roman Catholic Church. According to the gossip, Goveinment have a world of work on hand. The potatoe disease claims the first attention. It is the subject of deliberation in the Cabinet Council. A Royal Commission in Ireland, is inquiring, and will make a report on the actual state of the crop ; having meanwhile recommended measures for retarding the progress of the rot. Dr. Buckland calls it a "gangrene," and takes a very gloomy view of the matter ; describing the taint as being wide spread in extent, and most noxious to the consumer. Next come the railway deposits, about the payment of which to the Accountant-General so great a fuss has been made ; on this head we are told that Government have authorised the AccountantGeneral to receive public securities in lieu of money ; an announcement which has relieved a panic as easily allayed as raised. It is further said that Government mean to revise early next session, the whole subject of railway legislation. Then there are i umours of divers warlike preparations in various parts of the British Isles. The Duke of Wellington has been at Brighton — of course to look at its capabilities for fortification : so that there is a remote prospect, at least, of a real naval engagement being added to the attractions of that favourite watering place ! They talk also of fortifications at Berwick, at Woolwich, at Kingston in Canada, and elsewhere. These rumours may be nothing but breath — the mere echo of the popular feeling that while France will be so very minacious, something ought to be done to prepare for the worst. Not that

England would readily be driven into a war ; but the English people have a feeling that if something is very much talked about it will be put in practice, — a principle in the British character on which pertinacious advertisers mainly calculate. Possibly, indeed, it may be thought as well to give a tardy practical response to that feeling, and put our coasts in a state to obstruct war and defend individuals from a sudden aggression. But politicians go beyond rumours in their presumptions, and it is taken for granted that the corn laws will be repealed ! — perhaps, it is supposed, the repeal will ostensibly be only temporary, but virtually it will be final. The free-traders are all exultation : at Manchester, Mr, Cobden rsckons up the signs of the times : at Southwark, Sir William Molesworth. Following up Lord Ashley's cavalier abandonment of the corn-laws, and Mr. Bickham Escott's utter condemnation, the Times makes its appearance as an unqualified and total repealer ; and the Morning Chronicle takes pains to remove the untoward fixed duty out of Lord John Russell's way. According to the Whig journal, such a measure would have been most advisable at one time as a break to the sudden change, and it would have prevented the present difficulty ; but to adopt it now, would be to deny the emergency, which demands entire relief ; and after absolute freedom, it would be neither politic nor advantageous to impose even a moderate fixed duty. The Whig journalist evidently guesses that Lord John will not stand by his favourite measure — a fixed duty on corn ranging somewhere between Bs. and 10s. All eyes, then, are watching every act of the minister, to gather some sign for the future. — Spectator. Potatoes and railway deposits, corn laws and fortifications, occasion a vast activity of talk this week — immense agitation at the surface, without any very trustworthy signs of tangible results; although, as the saying is, there must be "something in it" all. There was in England, what there had not been for many years, a scarcity of labour. Men could not be obtained in sufficient numbers to secure the harvest with that rapidity which was necessary, and in the hop districts so much were they distressed, that they sent into the manufacturing towns to procure women and children to pick the hops. A new rangft of warehouses have been erected by thjf London Dock Company for the sole accommodation of the tea trade, at an expense of upwards of £180,000. They are of vast extent and are capable uf stowing and working 120,000 chests of tea. The whole are completely fire-proof.

The Trade ofEngland. — IntheThames the clear autumnal sun of Monday morning shone on a scene that no other time or place pei haps could parallel. About two hundied merchantmen, averaging fully 300 tons each, richly laden, crowding the Pool, newly arrived from eveiy point of the compass, from regions near and remote. The Custom-house officers were at their wits-end. Rough hasty captains of the sea crowded around them, tendering reports which they had not hands enough to receive, much less to " write them in their books." Next day, the consequences of the plethora were felt in every counting-house in the city. The daily report of imports and shipping published by the Custom-house, and usually delivered early in the morning, was not distributed till past mid-day. Yet all this crowding and obstruction were to the equable current of British trade, no more than an occasional crowding of carnages in the Poultry about 4 p.m., is to the average of street-pas-sengers in London. The docks and the river held their usual quota of vessels before the new comers arrived ; and the daily arrivals since have not fallen below the customary amount. The ontports experienced a similar spring-tide of arrivals about the same time. But accidents of this kind, although unimportant in relation to movements of commerce — or rather because they are unimportant — place in a striking point of view the extent to which our country is dependent upon trade. The gallant fleet that arrived on Monday with all its freights is but a drop in the ocean of English commerce ; yet how many families have been maintained by the labour expended in preparing the cargoes for which it has brought returns ! How many wives and children are dependant on the mere carpenters and sailors who fit out and navigate the vessels I How many wealthy families would have shrunken in their countenances, had He who " Holds the winds in the hollow of his hand" let them loose to submerge this pacific armada ] How many families well to do in the world must have been stinted in their little daily luxuries, had its cargoes been engulphed in the ocean l And what would be the consequences of any permanent obstruction to the commerce of which it forms so small a part ; What are the consequences of those permanent obstructions that do exist in the form of restrictive laws? Who shall measure that forbidden commerce, number that absent marine, count the families unemployed andunfed

New Zealand Wood. — A parcel of wood arrived at the port ofLondon a short time since from New Zealand, stated to he the produce of that colony, which the importers termed New Zealand dye-wood, and which they required to he delivered duty free under that head, being intended to be used for dyers' purposes in this country, and not applicable to any other use or purpose. This description of wood was detained in the first instance by the revenue officers as not being of the same description as the usual kinds of wood imported for dyers' use, and admitted duty free as dye-wood, and therefore liable to duty as hewn timber ; but it being found, on a subsequent inquiry by the authorities, that the wood in question is, as stated by the importers — a highly respectable house — inapplicable for any other purpose than for dyers' use, the Customs Board have ordered it to be delivered free of duty, as requested. It is understood that there will be a considerable quantity of this wood brought over to this country from the colony of New Zealand if it should be found fully to answer the required purpose. If such should prove to be the case, it will, no doubt, be an important item in the consideration of the relative value of the various productions of the place. The average number of British shipwrecks in a year is 600 - the value of property destroyed about two and a half millions sterling ; and the number of lives lost 1560. The edition of the Nautical Almanack for 1845 having been exhausted early in the present year, copies were selling at twelve times the usual price ; the Admiralty ordered a reprint. The volume contains 616 large octavo pages, of which 572 are filled with numerals, and the rest small print. Messrs. Clowes, of London, were entrusted with the task, the Admiralty leaving the whole responsibility of correctness in their hands during the progress of the work, only reserving to themselves its careful revisal previous to publication. The order was given on the 4th of February, and on the 24th, only seventeen working days, having intervened, complete copies were sent to the binder. Only thirty-three errata were required by the authorities, and most of these were of a trivial character. It may be imagined by some, that probably the type of the first edition was to some extent left standing. This is far from the fact, however, the first edition having been printed/owr years previously, and no further need of it was ever thought of. The London Times, with its supplement of eight pages, has frequently of late given circulation to upwards of 1700 advertisements a day.

Improvements in Chronometers. — As soon as the method adopted by Harrison (for which he received the premium of £20,000), proved to be a correct and easy mode by which the sailor could ascertain the longitude at sea, the British Government offered premiums for the improvement of marine timekeepers, and annual prizes to the makers of three chronometers that performed during the year of trial at Greenwich Observatory with the least variation. This encouragement soon caused British skill to present for trial chronometers, which, whether regarded as timekeepers, or specimens of mechanism, far exceeding anything that had been produced. Year after year the number of chronometer manufacturers continued to increase, and England became the manufactory of timekeepers for the whole world. The Government finding that the livalry of the various makers was a sufficient guarantee for future improvement, withdrew the annual prizes, but continued to purchase, at liberal prices, such chronometers as were found to perform with the least variation of rate during the time of trial, at the Royal observatory, Greenwich, where a limited number from each maker is yearly received. The result of the yearly trial has just been published under the authority of the Astronomer Royal. By it we learn that the first and second honours have been obtained by Mr. Porthouse, of Northampton-square, for the superior performance of his chronometer over those of the other makers with which he competed, amounting to 150. Supposing a ship with one of these chronometers on board had been traversing the ocean out of sight of land during the trial year, the error in her po>ition would have been about 500 yards. Comparing this error with the errors of the ships in Lord Anson's squadron, — the Centurion, for example, which amounted to 540 miles, and it will appear to what a high state of perfection the chronometer is now brought, and the certainty with which the longitude is given by it at sea.