ENGLISH NEWS.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume III, Issue 135, 14 November 1846, Page 3

ENGLISH NEWS.

Royal Artillery. —lt was anticipated that Major Hope's company, first on the roster for foreign service, would have proceeded to Hongkong, but it is not probable they will embark for that quarter of the world, as it is intended to send out a full company to Australia, in addition to the half company or large detachment already at New Zealand, and the whole of the artillery force in that rising and important colony will be placed under the command of a field officer. Major Hope's company, being the first for foreign service, is expected to proceed to Australia. —Times. A fresh batch of 3d. silver pieces has been lately issued, and no more copper pennypieces will be coined, being considered superseded by the said silver pieces. There is a flourishing and zealous Society in London, " for improving the condition of the poor." At the second annual meeting on the 22d May, Lord Ashley in the chair, the report stated, that the houses built by the Society in the Baggnigge-wells road, were all let to respectable poor men, who pay their rents, and that similar houses were about to be erected in St. Giles. Prince Albert sent £100 and a letter. A piece has been produced at the Palais Royal Theatre, in Paris, the title of which is " Les Pommes de Terre MaladesJ" (the sick potatoes). The piece, it is said, is nightly attracting large laughing crowds! A deal of land is selling on the side of railroads in the United Kingdom, id small building allotments of an acre and less, which, fetches high prices. The objection to a railroad passing through an estate no longer exists. It is by all, but a few noblemen and gentlemen, now considered an advantage; and when estates are advertised, it is stated, as attractive, that a certain railroad passes near it or through it. Par,t of the Oatlands Estate, the favourite estate of the late Duke of York, has been sold in small portions. Twenty thousand is the average number of letters delivered every day in Manchester. Two magnificent gold swords have been manufactured by Messrs. Garrard & Co., of Panton Street, Hay market, by order of the East India Company, for presentation to Chintamum Ras Appa Sahib Sangleclar, as a testimony of respect for his high character, and in acknowledgement of bis unswerving fidelity and attachment to the British Government ; and to General Avitabile, in grateful ►recognition of the eminent services rendered by him whilst Governor of Peshawar, in cooperation with the British troops, during the military operations in Afghanistan.

River Thames Highway. —The Thames has become the leading highway of personal communication between the City and the West End. There are no fewer than eleven steam-boats, at one penny the trip, engaged in the traffic between London and Westminster bridges alone, making 32 trips in an hour, or 320 trips, per diem, which, taking 40 as the average number of passengers each journey, will make a daily total of 15,000, whilst the return number may be estimated at the same amount. The time occupied between the above points varies from a quarter to half an hour, being a much shorter time than it can be effected by an omnibus.

The * Milk Trade with London. — A striking illustration of the creative effect of railways upon the trading resources of a district is mauifestitfg itself along the course of the Eastern Counties line. The neighbourhoods of Romford, Brentwood, &c, places the inhabitants of which would probably, not many years ago, have laughed at the idea of sending their milk to the metropolis, now carry on a very considerable and daily increasing trade in that article. Persons in traversing the line can hardly fail to have seen, at the stations referred to, a number of huge canister-shaped tin vessels, used for the purpose of transit ; and these having a van specially appropriated to them, the milk reaches London in prime condition. At Chelmsford, one extensive grazier at least is preparing to enter into the same trade ; and we would not be at all surprised to find parties at Colchester, and other towus upon the line,- following the example, as there is very little difference in the expense of conveyance, as far as the railway is concerned, for long or short distances. This promises a complete revolution, not only in the price, but the composition and quality,' of the above extensive article of consumption. When each railroad from the grazing districts into London shall have become " a milky ,way," there will no longer be the temptation, which at present exists, to resort to artificial ingredients : and people — even milk men, will be content to leave the manufacture of their commodity to the proper artificers — the cows.

Literary Auctioneer. — 'Here, gentlemen, is Paradise Lost,' cried a Yankee "auctioneer, ' one of the greatest books in the creation, that tells who ate forbidden fruit, "and how the world came to be in' such ar pickled " *

Two hammers,_one of two-and-a-half tons weigbtj.and the other of half a toa, in a smithy at Manchester, are raised by steam. The heaviest has a fall of four feet. At a very diminished fall it makes forty blows a minute, vrhen the force is equal only to the cracking of a nut without injuring the kernel. Its £orce is twenty tons at the full fall.