LATEST ENGLISH NEWS.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume II, Issue 98, 8 July 1846, Page 3

LATEST ENGLISH NEWS.

The Bandicoot arrived last night from Hobart Town, which she left on the 23d June ; her cargo consists chiefly of flour. The price of wheat in the Hobart Town market was from ss. 3d. to ss. 6d. a bushel, flour first quality, £14 per ton. The latest English dates received at Hobart Town were to the 11th February, by the drequipa. By the kindness of Mr. Moore we have been furnished with papers of the latest dates, from which we have made the following extracts of English news: — We regret we have only room for the following extract from Sir R. Peel's financial statement in the House of Commons, Jan. 27. Sir Robert Peel then announced that he pro* posed to reduce the duties on butter from 1/. to 10s. the cwt., upon cheese from 10s. to 55., upon hops from 4/. 10s. to 21. ss. upon cured fish from 2s. tols.. upon cider and perry from ten guineas to five guineas a tun. Every thing which enters the category of animal or vegetable food should be at once admitted duty free. The duties on bacon, salt and fresh beef, pork, and potatoes, will of course, at once be repealed under this head, and also the import duty on live animals. From the superior quality of the English meat, Sir Robert expressed his opinion that the agriculturalists need not be afraid of foreign competition. The corn Jaws next came to be dealt with. He proposed at once to reduce the import duty on foreign wheat as follows: Wheu the price of corn in this country should be under 48si, a duty of 10s ; when above 485., and under 495. 9s. duty ; above 495. and under 505., Bs. duty ; above 50s. and under 515., 7s. duty ; above 31s. and under 525., 6s. duty; above 525. and under 535., ss. duty; and when the price reached 535. a permanent duty of 4s. There would be,therefore, now levied on wheat, instead of a duty of 16s. f a duty of 4s. The duty on barley, oats, beans, peas, and rye, to be reduced correspondingly m amount so as to preserve the same relation with regard to wheat as they do at present, and in three years, or on the Ist of February, 1849, protection to cease, and oats, barley, and wheat to be subject only to that nominal rate of duty it is proposed to apply immediately to maize and buck-wheat. -Immediately after the passing of the act, all grain, the produce of the British colonies, to be admitted at a nominal duty. By way of compensation to the agricultural interest for these reductions, he proposed the consolidation of the present Highway Boards. At present there wereno less than 16,000 different local authorities for the administration of the Highway Rates. At present there is an act of parliament permitting the voluntary union ot parishes for the purpose of forming themselves into a district authority for the superintendence of roads. He proposed to make this compulsory, which would reduce the local authorities trom 16,000 to 600. He would 1 compel the guard- j ians to appoint a competent surveyor to under- | take the management of the highways, in a J district in the north, in which this plan has been carried out,the roads had been improved, and the expense had been dimished from 6d. in the pound rate to 2§d. in the pound. Sir R. Peel had stated in the House of Commons his intention of applying for a vote of large sums of money for Hong kong and the

other settlements at China, and for the colony of New Zealand. . Lord Littleton succeeds Mr. Hope in the Colonial office,' Lord Linco'n goes as Secretary to Ireland, and is succeeded as Chief Commissioner of Land Revenues by Lord Canning, late UnderSecretary for Foreign Affairs. Mr. Brewster is Solicitor-General for Ireland. Capt. Rous had been appointed Junior Lord of the Admiralty, in the place of Captain the Hon. W. Gordon resigned. Lord Ashley has been raised to the peerage, and succeeds Lord Lincoln in the woods and forests. The debate on Sir R. Peel's measures was still sroing on when the Arequipa left (Feb. 11.) — There was no doubt he would carry them in the Lower House. It was even said that the agricultural interest would prefer the immediate abrogation of the Corn Laws to a lower scale of duties fora limited time, as by that means they could sooner come to an arrangement with their landlords, which must take place sooner or later. It was, however, by no means certain what the House of Lords would do. The opposition there was of the strongest description. Several peera who had entrusted their proxies to the Duke of Wellington had withdrawn them, but on farther consideration, almost all of them were returned. The merchants of London had signed a resolution of their determination to support Sir R. Peel, but the manufacturers had"been taken bysurprise at finding that the removal of protection is* to be so general a measure. France has declared that in the event of a quarrel with America she will remain neutral. The deposits on railroads have reached £14,422,000, exclusive of the Trish and Scotch, and of the corporate companies, which^ have given bonds for the amount, these last being at least £1,000,000 more. At Sheerness sixty-three additional guns^te placed in battery. A squadron of six powerful 50 gun frigates is fast preparing for commission ; they are the Worcetter and Cornwall at Sheerness, the Portland and Cornwall at Plymouth, and Java and Alfred at Portsmouth. A new 12 gun brig, the Contest, built by the celebrated Mr. White, of Cowes, is to be launched in February. Several other vesse's are fitting out, and being repaired as fast as possible. The advance ships have been undocked, new ones laid down, and those in progress ordered to be proceeded VCib as fast as possible. Powerful batteries are in course of erection at Liverpool, and an engineer has been sent down to fix the most eligible situation for block ships oi floating batteries. The 24th regt. is under ordeis for New South Wales; it is V.*, hays an addition of 200 men. Louis Buonaparte. Count St. Loo ex King of Holland, is dying at Florence. A request to the French government from the dying Count, that his son, a prisoner at Ham, should be allowed to visit him has been refused, as well as a request to the same purport from his son, his only remaining child, with a promise to return to his prison whenever the government may require it. Wordsworth the poet is dead.

The Army. — The letters- which we lately published of the Secretary of State for the Home Department and of the Secretary at War leave no doubt of the intantion of the Government as to the enrolment of the militia for immediate service It must be understood that the militia will not on this occasion be raised, as incorrectly reported a short time since, by beat of drum, but according to the old system of ballot — a process which no one above the age of 21 need flatter h mself that he can avoid ; therefore the sooner the establishment of militia clubs for providing subtitutes is begun the better. It appears that of the number at first enrolled in a single district — say Sussex — one-third will be called on for duty for three years, when they will be discharged (each man having the option of volunteering into the line), and will not again j be required for at least six years. It is understood by those connected with the militia that Government have not determined upon enrolling that body from any fear of war, but with the view of affording the Canadas, New Zealand, and other portions of the colonies additional military force. The attendance of those enrolled will consequently be continually required at the barracks for the abovementioned period. The barracks, of course, in which the army on home service are now stationed, will be occupied by the militia troops. With reference to a report that the Irish militia will be sent to England, and the English to Ireland, attention may be solicited to the letters issued from the Home and War-offices, in which the words '* militia of Great Britain " are mentioned, and not Great Britain and Ireland ; but, as regards the latter, any orders on the subject must be issued Iby the Lord Lieutenant, who, it would appear, has not as yet adopted any such course. The vacant adjutancies, alluded to in the letter of Sir James Graham, will be principally filled up by half-pay officers. There are altogether, including those of England, Wales, Scotland, and Ireland, 129 regiments, exclusive of private bodies. — Times, Dec. 27.

Anecdotes qr the London Press.— The spirited proprietor of The Morning Herald, during the present year, has cleared as much money by railway and other advertisements, as amounts to the sum he paid about two years ago for the purchase of the paper — £28,000 1 believe. He is evidently no churl ; for he has, of bis owu free will, advanced the salaries of alh the. members of bis reporting corps — some of the first fellows in London — one hundred guineas each annually. This among seventeen or twenty gentlemen will make about £2,000^ j&ich be absolutely pays

•way to benefit his corps. Such a liberal tct has had a most beneficial effect on the other papers. Sir John Easthope and James Duncan, the eminent bookseller of Paternoster Row, who are the principal proprietors of the old constitutional Whig paper, lhe Morning Chronicle, and which has been famous for the super-excellence of its Parliamentary reports, have just made a similar advance to their shorthand-writers. The Times, it is expec.ed, will come out even more liberally ; but as usual with the * leading journal,' everything is kept close until the proper time for development. A new ultra-liberal morning paper is to be started almost immediately, backed by £300,000. Charles Dickens is to be the editor. Charles Buller — a first-rate writer — M.P. for Liskeard, and, I believe, the correspondent of a Scotch paper, and Douglas Jerrold, known to all the world, are already engaged. The rumour is, that Mr. Hudson, of railway celebrity, and M. P. for Sunderland, is the primum mobile. This may be doubted, for Mr. Hudson has stated in a letter to a friend, that his time is so much occupied with railways, that he cannot enter upon any newspaper negociations. Be this as it may, newspaper literary talent, like tallow in the market, is * looking up.' It may not be improper to state, that s nee the appearance of divers ' thunderers' in the Times, striking at worthless or questicnahle railway schemes, several meetings of solicitors, &c. have been held. At these assemblies, resolutions were passed, having for their object the transfer of their advertisements from the columns of the Times to other journals. It need scarcely be added that the paper referred to will not care a straw for such a line of proceeding.

Progress of Manufactures in Spain. — It is a singular circumstance that the consumption of linen in Spain still continues to he much greater than in England, France, and Belgium put together, and that, notwithstanding the consumption is so great, there were, until lately, only two manufactories in Spain where a coarse kind of linen cloth was made. An enterprising lady, Madame Laurens by name, a native of Spain, but educated in a manufacturing town in France, determined on attempting to improve the manufacture of linen and accordingly established some time ago a linen factory at Aviles, a small seaport town on the Northern coast. There, notwithstanding the very discouraging difficulties she encountered, she succeeded ; and at the exhibition of National Industry, held last summer at Madrid, presented several specimens of linen of Spanish manufacture, for which the first prizes were awarded to her. The Spanish Government, desirous of encouraging her in her efforts, have given to herself and heirs in perpetuity a building (formerly a monastery), with the adjacent grounds, close to Aviles, with permission to convert it into a linen factory. Madame Latrrens immediately afterwards visited the manufacturing districts in Belgium and England, for the purpose of in> specting and importing into Spain all the improvements recently made in the linen manufacture ; and it is very much to the credit of our manufacturers that, in every instance, they have afforded her, without demur, all the iuformation she desired to obtain.

The Mandarin and the English Ladt — Nothing astonishes the Chinaman who visits our merchants at Hnng-kong so much as the deference which is paid by oo« countrymen to their ladies, and the position which th© Utter are permitted to hold in society. The very servants express their disgust at seeing our ladies sit at table with their lords, and wonder how men can so forget their dignity. A young English merchant recently took his wife with him to Hong-kong, where the couple were visited by a wealthy mandarin. The latter regarded the lady attentively, and seemed to dwell with delight on all her movements. When she at length left the apartment, he said to her husband, in his imperfect English, " What you give for that wiley wife yours ?" " Oh," replied the husband, laughing at the singular error of his visitor, ' 2000 dollars.' This our merchant thought would appear in the Chinese rather a high figure, but he v/as mistaken. " Well," said the mandarin, taking out his book with an air of business, " suppose you give her to me. I give you 5000 dollars." It is difficult to say whether the young merchant was more amazed or amused, but the grave air of the Chinaman convinced him he was in earnest, and he was therefore compelled to refuse the offer with as much placidity as he could assume. Tha mandarin was, however, pressing, and went as high as 7000 dollars. The merchant, who had no previous notion of the commodity wLich he had taken out with him, was compelled at length to declare that Englishmen never sold their wives after they once came into tbeir possession, an assertion which the Chinaman wa* slow to believe. The merchant afUrward* hid a be»rly laugh with hi* young wife, and told her he had jnst discovered Ber fall value as the mandarin had offered him 7000 dollars for ht r.

Dwellings for Workpeople. — At the new port of Birkenbead, which is becoming a great town, a practical experiment is in progress, highly interesting to the working classes. The town is planned on a liberal and foreseeing view so as to avoid the sources of discomfort and ill health which affect those cities that grow up by hap-hazard — with well an anged streets, public grounds, and a complete system of drainage. To the place have been brought large flocks of workpeople, for whem it has been necessary to provide dwellings ; and in doing this for their workmen the Birkenhead Dock Company have seized the opportunity of dealing with the matter in so complete a way as to make a model for others to follow. They have taken into account the cost, the profit to the owner, the comfort to the inmates, and the general comfort of the neighbours. They have found it a better economy to build large houses rather than cottages ; they have adopted a plan proposed by Mr. Charles Evans Lang, of London ; and the buildings are now in progress. The ground which they are to occupy lies between two of eight streets that meet in a circus, and may be described as a triangle, across which, from street to street, houses are erected in rows, with alleys between ; there is a school house at the apex of the triangle, and in the centre of the circus a handsome church. Each resembles what, in Scotland is called a " land," — a pile four stories high, each comprising several distinct houses, each house having a public staircase commuuicating with the several " flats "or stories ; each flat divided into two separate dwelling places. Each dwelling coutains a " living-room," two bed-rooms, and a " yard." The living-room is capacious, and well arranged for ventilation and comfort ; on one side are the entrance door and the door into the yard ; on the next side, near to the entrance are the doors into the two bed-rooms ; on the third side, opposite to the bed-room doors, is the window ; and on the fourth side is the fire-place; nearly the half of the room towards this fourth side is left without any door or other opening, so that the hearth is removed from direct draughts. In this room there is a gaspipe, for light. The " yard " is a sort of sculler, but comprising the sink, coal hole,' dust hole, &c. ; in short all the " domestic offices," packed into a very close space, but fitted with conveniences not always found even in the houses of the middle classes. Up the whole height of the building is a shaft, with which pipes from eacli yard communicate ; at the top is a cistern with a preparation for keeping it full to the extent of one thousand gallons of water ; from which, independently of individual use, a stream can be at pleasure made to run down the shaft, carrying away the ejicienda into the sewer, into which the shaft runs below. There is in that respect the most complete means of securing tidiness, decency, and health. The independent run of water will be a guard against many of the evils even of individual negligence ; but it is inconceivable that with such conveniences the humble tenants should not acquire the 'better habits and await an opportunity. At the tup of the building is an " airing flat," in which all the families whose dwellings open into the common staircase w«H have a right to dry their clothes- There is, we believe, some mean* ot regulating the temperature cf the whole pile ot buildings ; at all pvcuts, there are appliances to secure thorough ventillation, and tue whole structure is fire-proof. The external of these dwellings for the poor is handsome, and even imposing ; in a style so ornate as quite to relieve them from the aspect of alms-houses ; to which, indeed, they bear no sort of resemblance. Now it is calculated that this kind of house property will " pay," even as a com* rnercial speculation ; with all this convenience, salubrity, and comfort lor the tenant, and let to him at the rent which he usually pays ; the landlord, too, settling all rates and other charges, so that the tenant will pay for the whole house, its gas-light, water, taxes, rates, and all, one fixed weekly charge — with all these unwonted comforts and facilities, the tenant paying no more rent than he is used to jay for bad lodgings eleswhere, the landlord will yet reap a profit of 8 or 10 per cent, on the capital invested. In the present instance that is not the whole advantage derived by the landlords and the Company ; for they will find great immediate convenience in the concentration of their workpeople, and great benefit may be expected by all who have a stake in the town from the improved salubrity and high character which these far-seeing plans must secure for it. The experiment may prove to the speculative builder, that he could provide for the humbler classes a very superior kind of accommodation at a profit to ; himself; it may teach those classes what they should obtain for their money. .

Hatti. — The Feuille dv Commerce of Port-au-Prince contains an official notification of the -transfer "of the seat of Government from Port-au-Prince to Ctpe Haitien.

Bikth o* a French Prince. — The Princess of Joinville was on Nov. sth safely delivered of a Prince, who has received the title oi Duke de Penthievre.

PoiarExpedition. — Accounts have been received by the Admhalty of the Polar expedition under Sir John Franklin up to the 17th of August, when they were on the north I coast of Greenland, above Gilbert's Sound. [ They would probably winter near this spot, or at the Arctic islands, the wintering place of Parry amongst the Esquimaux, as the state of the ice and the advancing season would prevent much further progress Wing made. We learn that' the new steamer Ecuador, for the Pacific Steam Navigation Company, has just been launched from the building yard of Ford and M'Gregor, of Glasgow. She is stated to be 180 feet in length, and to have engines of 200-horse power, and is represented to be a beautiful mould of a vessel. We further learn that she will be reaily for sea early in December, when she will proceed to the Pacific, for the purpose of conveying her Majesty's mails to and from Panama to Lima. Arrangements are made for another steamer to follow her wi'h as little delay as possible, so that the company, as now organised, have been prompt in fulfilling the engagements lately entered into with our Government. The communication will then be complete from Panama to Peru and Chilli, and all that will then remain is to carry it out to the Australasian group. The merchants connected with west coast of America are much gratified at this long-looked-for result, for which they are chiefly indebted to the indefatigable and persevering exertions of Mr. Wheelwright, the original projector of the Pacific Company.

A Rival to Father Mathew. — A letter from Osnabruck, in Hanover, of the 9th December, says — " Father Mathew, of Ireland, the apostle of temperance, has found an emulator in M. Marc Christian Frederick Seling, a Lutheran minister of our town. This venerable man has just returned from a tour through the provinces of Hildesheim, in the fifty towns of which he has received pledges from about 20,000 persons, of both sexes and all ages, to abstain entirely from drinking spirituous liquors. During the two years and a half that M. Seling has been engaged in •this good work, he has procured for the different temperance societies in Germany 82,582 members, of whom 25,141 are men, 27,770 women, and 29,741 young persons of both sexes, of from 12 to 16 years of age." Editors of the Railway Press. — It may be mentioned as a striking illustration of the intense interest now felt by all classes in railway matters, that many distinguished literary men are permanently connected with the railway press, not so much from pecuniary considerations, as fiom the enthusiasm with which they enter into raiiway questions. There are names of high distinction in the literary world who have abjured general literature altogether, ir. order that they may apply themselves exclusively to railway matters. The editors of two London railway papers were for several years stated contributors to the wittiest and cleverest periodical of the day. Another editor of a railway journal is well known as the author of some of the most beautiful poetical compositions of modern times. Two of the editors of the metropolitan railway press enjoy a high reputation as. novelists, and are the acknowledged authors of several orthodox three-volumed works of fiction. It is a curious fact, that they, one* and all, declare, that they feel a much greater pleasure in writing on the sober facts connected with railways, than they ever d : d when roaming in the realms of imagination. — (Railway World.)

The Overland Route via Trieste — Lieutenant Waghorn has published a letter in the Times, in which he satisfactorily demonstrates how much preerable is the route from Alexandria to Trieste instead of Marseilles. "At this moment," he says, " we have steam on land, sea, and river, all the way to Bruch- ; sal, near Carlsruke, and before the French get their lines completed, I have no doubt we shall hare one to Trieste. This is not all ; for steamers to go rapidly, the Adriatic is far better than the Mediterranean. The Adriatic is an inland sea, covered with numerous islands along its east coast ; and in adverse weather a steamer would go, on the average, two miles per hour faster than a steamer in the Mediterranean, particularly in the stormy Gulf of Lyons. We can now get mails in ninety hours between Trieste and London, which is the average to or from Marseilles ; the gain is by the Colonge and Ostend Railway, and Manheim Railway, to Bruchsal, near Carlsruhe, while through France there is not one mile of railway available ; by-and-by, forty-five hours will be the average, when a railway is completed to Dwino or Trieste. From Trieste to Alexandria one of lier Majesty/s best steamers will average five days ; no-steamer can average it from Marseilles in less than seven days. Now, here is a positive gain, against all denial, of two days on the sea passage to Alexandria. 1 ' Lieutenant Wag-

horn adds, that the despatches brought via Trieste were delivered in London seventyeight hours and a-half before the letters from Alexandria via Marseilles. With regard to the opinion that Venice is a better point- on the line of communication than Trieste, Lieutenant Waghorn at once settles the question by the simple statement that Venice is no port for large steamers, as it cannot be approached on dark nights.

A Remarkable Epitaph. — " I visited Greenwood Cemetery a few days ago," says Mrs. Childs, "and found many new monuments ; one of which particularly interested me, from the cheerful simplicity of its epitaph. The body of a mother and child rested beneath the marble, and oil it was inscribed the words — 'Is it well with thee? Is it well with the child ? And she answered — It is well. 2nd Kings, iv. 26.' This gives pleasant indication of real faith in immortality ; like the Moravians, who never inscribe on their tombs the day when a man was born, and when he died, but simply, ' the day he came hither, and the day he went home.'" A facetious traveller describes the difference of society in the metropolis, when compared, to a provincial town, in the following language : "In the country, if you have a leg of mutton for dinner, everybody wishes to know if you have caper sauce with it ; whereas, in London, you may have an elephant for lunch, and no one cares a pin about it.

The Power of Facts. — There is an immense power in facts. The long contemplation, and, for a time, the barren contemplation, of one simple fact, has often led to the sublimest discoveries. The fall of an apple elicited the theory of graviiation ; the ascent of a soap-bubble the laws of colour and light. It is so in the history of nations : the bare sight of the blood-stained dagger, or of its bleeding victim, has overthrown dynasties. Such is the power of a picture or of a ballad. It is a fact boldly exhibited and appealing to the hearts of men. Wherever there is public opinion — wherever there is common sense and common feeling, a fact is sure to have its weight. It is a battering ram, which, though it be only one instrument, yet by many successive blows will break through the thickest and hardest prejudice or stupidity. It is the continual drop which wears the stones. So, we say, if there be a great and distressing body of facts with some great mystery of iniquity, or error, or misfortune connected with it, tell it, and tell it, and tell it again. Tell it in a thousand forms. Tell it with perpetual variPty of circumstance, and novelty of view. Tell it of this locality, and tell it of that. Tell it of twenty years back, and tell it of now. Tell it of the mass, and tell it of individuals. Give sums total, and particular instances. Give names and places. Make the fact familiar, and yet vast; detailed, and yet marvellous. Do all this with a laborious and painful accuracy which cannot be gainsaid. Be a very slave to the truth. Before a generation is past, the fact will speak for itself, and find a cure. You will have endued a mere fact with life and energy. An undeniable statement, which admits oi being comprehended in ten words, and which was once the ineffectual subject of whole libraries, will at last have more power than ten million men. — Times.

Specie of the World. — The entire specie of the world is estimated, by Jacobs, at 1,900,000,000 dollars. In Europe there is supposed to be 1,000,000,000; and Mr. Merrill, of Union, Pennsylvania, says that, according to the best authorities, the paper ci.culation of Europe is fourteen times the specie currency. — Philadelphia Saturday Courier. The Record recently contained an advertisement, calling the attention of " Christian capitalists" to a scheme for the extension of evangelical truth, requiring an outlay irom £2,000 to £5,000, and insuring 15 to 20 per cent, interest on the sum expended !

A Railway Panic. — The Boulogne News emphatically calls upon the public to refrain from railway speculation, on ihe ground that many schemes will be unfinished for want of the necessary iron. To say the truth, we do not anticipate a stoppage from want of iron, though we expect there will, some day or other, be a rightful smash for want of " tin." — Punch. The man who will live above his present circumstances, is in danger of living, in a little time, much beneath them, or, as the Italian proverb runs, " That the man who lives by hope, will die by hunger."