ENGLISH NEWS. [From the Australian.]

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume III, Issue 163, 20 February 1847, Page 4

ENGLISH NEWS. [From the Australian.]

The Morning Herald states, that the potato blight is as great a mystery as ever ; it has baffled all the enquiries of human science and the calculations of human experience. Last year it was attributed to the wet summer. We have now had the driest of dry summers, and lo ! the disease is more destructive than before. In all parts of the country, in all possible soils, the disease seems to run riot. In all situations, all climates, under every possible mode of treatment, it is equally dominant. Last year it was supposed to be a rot — this year it is said to be a blight. All our knowledge of the subject is a mere blank. The consequences, however, are most manifest. In spite of the new Corn Laws, grain is almost up at "starvation prices" — God knows what would have become of the country, if the Protectionists had had their way. The marriage of the Duke de Montpensier with the Infanta of Spain, continued to be much and bitterly commented upon throughout Europe. Lord Elgin has been appointed GovernorGeneral of the Canada?. The oak trees this year present thick clusters of acorns, which have the appearance of decay or rot in the kernel. It was said that Parliament would reassemble in November. The Standard of the 24th September states, that the Grand Jury, in the case of Capt. Richardson for forgery, had declared, before Mr. Baron Platt, in the Central Criminal Court, " not found." The prisoner was, however, detained, until such time as his prosocutors should agree as to what course they were to pursue, or until the Grand Jury were discharged. Ireland is said to be on the very verge of famine. To meet the pressing demands for food Government had sent large supplies of Indian corn and biscuit to Ireland — the actual want of food, not the means of purchasing it, being the immediate evil to be grappled with,

Dr. Pusey, whose health was very indifferent, had been, with his family, sojourning for some weeks at Tenby. He was unable to appear at church or in public. Eight out of the twelve hundred electors of Stockport had signed a requisition to Mr. Cobden, begging him to continue representing them hi Parliament. The sum subscribed for the equestrian statue of the Duke of Wellington in the City, was £11,619 : 11 : 11, the expenses of committee meetings, collections, &c, did not exceed £1,120 : 14 : 11, and the money paid to Sir Francis Chantrey and his executors was .£10,487 : 17 — yet the metal was given by Government. Sir Henry Pottinger has been appointed Governor of the Cape of Good Hope. The Cobden Fund was stated at Manchester to amount to £74,000. It was said that the London collection was going on favourably, and it was expected would reach £15,000 ; the collection in Manchester itself amounted to £28,000. British and American Oregon had been divided by the Pope into eight dioceses, with an Archbishop of the whole district.

Remarkable Phenomenon. — The sea, at a short distance from the coast here, has presented some remarkable appearances during the present week. On Tuesday last, about four o'clock in the afternoon, about low water, the sea, for about thirty yards from the shore, and along the coast from the Cove to the bay of Nigg, appeared of a purple colour, and continued to darken as the afternoon advanced. Our informant, who, with a large number of fishermen, observed the appearance, thinking it might arise from any reflection of the sky, went out in a boat, and examined the water. To his astonishment he found the boat actually in a sea of purple, and the water of a glutinous nature, containing so much colouring matter, that it actually died red whatever object it touched. No effluvia could be perceived arising from the water. As the tide rose, the coloured water packed closer in shore, and continued to become darker and darker. Next afternoon, the same appearances were observed to occur, but not to such an extent. We wish some of our scientific friends would afford us a clue to the cause of this phenomenon. Nothing of the kind seems ever to have been observed in this quarter before, although, perhaps, in other places such appearances may I have been witnessed. We may state that, on Monday, the fishermen between this and the Cove, observed the sea, at about 70 or 80 yards from the shore, breaking out in dark spots, which may be supposed to have multiplied and magnified till they presented the appearance above mentioned. — Aberdeen Herald — From, the Daily News of September 22. By the late earthquake in Tuscany more than 8,000 persons have been reduced to beggary. The Grand Duke has issued a decree, announcing that the houses destroyed are to be reconstructed withont any additional tax on the country. The inhabitants of the different villages destroyed are to be exempt from all taxation until 1848. The port of Leghorn is to furnish building materials free of duty to all who need them. At Canton, the ill feeling engendered by the July riots has by no means subsided. The Chinese have been somewhat frightened by the chastisement they received from the English, but are still demanding reparation. They insist that Canton City is not within the limits of the Port of Canton, and that the English have no right to enter it ; and, strange to say, our Consul somewhat sides with them. The British merchants have appealed from his judgment lo that of the Foreign Secretary. The Chinese of Canton have issued two manifestoes on the subject, in which they protest against the presence of foreigners, and threaten if after twenty days from their date (14th September) the Chinese packetboats have not ceased to ply between Hongkong (to which place they wish to confine the British) and their city, they will burn them, and utterly exterminate and destroy their owners. " Then," say they, " shall prosperity have a happy return." As regards the Chinese (they say more than twenty) killed in the riots, they demand the sacrifice of European lives. Identification of the parties concerned is sought at the hands of a native magistrate, of whom they speak in the following complimentary terms: — If Pwan-a-fa is so bold as to venture still to aim at his own private gains, and screen the Fankwai (foreigners), and refuses to point them out directly, then will we eat his flesh, and make a mat of his skin, and gladden the hearts of all people before we have done with this matter." The news from the Punjaub is not satisfactory, and another outbreak may be expected after Christmas. Gholab Singh, our created King of Cashmere, has refused, at the desire of the British, to surrender certain forts, or reduce his army ; which latter he is strongly increasing. His son is known to be intriguing with Akhbar Khan, and charges his father with treachery to the Khalsa of Lahore,

The Dutch Governor- General has declared the Town of Macassar a free port for ships and goods of all nations. The new regulation to commence on the Ist Jan., 1847. The Singapore Free Press of Sept. 3, has a candid and sensible article in favour of the steam route from Singapore through the Straits of Sunda, touching in Western Australia, South Australia, Port Phillip, and terminating the voyage at Sydney. In consequence of the assistance rendered by the Tamongong, of Singapore, in the suppression of piracy, the Indian Government had honored his Highness with the public presentation of a sword, which was received with very marked satisfaction. The revenue receipts of the colony of Singapore for 1845-6 amounted in Company's rupees to £530,040 15s. 7d., being £276,492 15s. lOd. in excess of colonial expenditure. Wheat is so scarce in Singapore that the bakers have given notice to their customers that no more bread will be delivered until the arrival of wheat or flour. Advices from India, via Singapore, are to the 27th September. Sir J. T. Cochrane, after chastising the Sultan of Borneo, and supressing the piracies of that vast island, at least for the present, had gone on with his squadron to China. The British squadron consisted of the following ships: — the Iris, 26 guns, Ringdove, 16 guns, Royalist, 10 guns, S/iteful, steamer, 4 guns, Phlegethon, H.E.I.C. steamer, 4 guns. It was much regretted that he had not "fallen foul" of the Sooloo pirates in his way. The Sooloo people having long been known as remorseless and daring pirates, whose proceedings receive little, if any check from/the Spaniards, to whom they are, indeed, a constant source of dread and loss by their descents on the least protected ports of the Phillipines. It is supposed the British Admiral will, by-and-by, exercise his quasi-ju-dicial functions upon -the Sooloo Sultan and his savage hordes. The American Commodore Biddell sailed from Chusan in June last, with a large eighty-gun ship and a frigate bound for Japan ; — with authority it is said to form a commercial treaty with the Japanese Government if he can. The Americans will thus anticipate the auival of the French Admiral with a small French fleet bound for those islands, and having the same commercial object in view. Sir John Davis' effoits on behalf of the British Government and people will therefore be latest of the three in that new mysterious and hitherto forbidden field of commercial enterprise. An expedition, which promises the most important results both to science and commerce is at this moment fitting out for the purpose of navigating some of the most important unexplored rivers in South America. It is to be under the command of Lord Ranelagh. Several noblemen andgentlem :n have already volunteered to acompany his lordship, and the enterprising and scientific band, it is said, will sail as soon as the necesarry asrangements shall be completed.

The River Plate. — Falraoutli, Sept. 22. — The Russian brig Bustruys, Captain Schildwach, arrived off the port this afternoon, a£ ter a remarkably quick passage from the River Plate, having quitted Montevideo so recently as the 28th July. The master conld furnish no further information than that matters still continued in an unsettled state, and there was little prospect entertained of a speedy adjustment of differences between the opposing factions, who remained in the field without any decisive movements on either side. Mr. Hood, the British Commissioner, had gone up to Buenos Ayres three weeks before the sailing of the Bustruys, and had not returned when she left nor had any result of his mission to Rosas transpired. — Times, September 24. Intelligence has been received that a very disastrous affair has occurred in the River Plate, accompanied with the loss of a British ship, and the capture of the British colours by the forces of Rosas. No details, however, have arrived, and it is to be hoped that there is some exaggeration or mistake.