LATE ENGLISH NEWS. [From the Australian.]

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume III, Issue 170, 17 March 1847, Page 3

LATE ENGLISH NEWS. [From the Australian.]

The Queen and the Royal Family were in good health, and were residing at Windsor. Tuesday, November 3, being the 69th anniversary of the birth of her Royal Highness tl.e Princess Sophia, the event was signalised in the usual manner. The London Oificial Gazette of the 30th October contains her Majesty's Order in Council that Parliament, which stood prorogued to the 4th November, was further prorogued to the 12th January, but not for the despatch of business. It was not very probable that it would meet before the usual time for that purpose, namely, in February. This further piorogation we stated as most probable would be the case, in our journal of the 30i.1i January last. Very great loss ami damage, and destruction of property had been caused by unparalleled inundations in France. Oificial documents deflated that the loss at Rounne alone, of houses, occasioned by the late inundations, amounts to 200, and this number was being daily augmented; and rfot less than 2000 persons were without food or raiment. It was stated in a letter from Cosne, dated 24th Oc- ; (ober, that the small town of St. Firmin, containing about 600 souls had been eugulphed, I and that the whole population had perished ! The little commune of Epercieu-St.-Paul, near Feurs, had lost forty-two houses out of ninety-onp. Upwards of forty important domains had been ravaged between Monfroud and Feurs, on the two banks of the Loire. At Vauchette, all the inhabitants of the lower grounds were forced to fly, and scarcely had they escaped when their houses were inundated. The water was declared to be, in general, three 9 feet higher than the great flood in November, 1790. The Archduke Joseph died in October last. The jubilee of his administration was to have been celebrated with great splendour; but it was supj osed that on that day his remains would be consigned to the grave. She l imes of the 2nd Noven.ber in an article upi on :he Archduke's death remarks :—: — " Amongst the aged Princes and servants of the House of Austria who are now rapidly dropping irom the places they have filled so long, and for the most part so unproritably, this Arciiduke Joseph, the late Palatine, afforded a pleasing, if not a brilliant, exception to the aveia^e ot imperial incapacity and obstructiveness. He has died respected and beloved by the nation he governed for half a century, for he united to the wonted simplicity and good nature of his .'amily a sincere and enlightened regard for the interests of Hungary." We understand that Messrs. Waghorn, Mark Boyd, and S. Browning, had an interview with Loid Palmerston in October, concerning the continuation of steam to the Australasian Colonres.

London, Oct, 26. — The wool market is in raiher a dull state, and prices are barely supported. The imports of wool into London last week were 681 bales; of which, 292 were from Germany, 375 from Turkey, and 14 from Holland. In accounts received from Leipsic, dated the 16th instant, it is stated that the sale of English fabrics had been moderate, and that further orders were expected.

London, Nov. 2. — The imports of wool into London last week were 1839 bales, of which 971 were from Sydney, 406 from Russia, 1 70 from Germany ;56 from the Cape of Good iiope, 204 from Spain, and the rest from South Australia, &c. News from the Brazils to the end of September had been received in London. Tne following is from the Chronicle of the 4th September. Mr. Hood was at Monte Video, making preparations for his depaiture, his mission having beeu concluded, and it was reported satisfactorily so at Buenos Ayres ; some slight difficulties are said to have occurred at Monte Video, but there was every prospect of an arrangement taking place. The English Admiral and squadron were at Monte Video, and the sailors of the squadron on shore, in charge of the outposts, under command of Captain Fitzgerald, of the Vernon. Her Majesty's steamer Devastation had sailed from ihe River P.'ate for the coast of Africa. The Gorgon was under orders for England, with invalids. The Royal marriages between the Catholic Queen of Spain, Senora Donna Isabella 11., of Bourbon, and his Serene Highness Don Francisco de Assis Maria de Bourbon ; and of the Duke de Montpensier and the Infante Luisa Fernanda, the Queen's sister, were solemnised in the Royal Palace, Madrid, on the 10th October. The Duke and Duchess de Monpensier, after the usual festivities, arrived at Paris on the 20th of the same month. A great Free trade meeting took place at Birmiagham, on Tueiday evening, Nov. 3.

There were between 4,000 and 5,000 persons present. The object was to memorialize the Government to pass an. order in council for the abolition of the present duty on corn. A deputation, on the morning of the 3id November, waited, by appointment, upon Lord John Russell, in Downing-street, for the purpose of presenting a memorial to the Lords of the Treasury., praying their Lordships to open the ports for the admission of corn duty free. Before the deputation retit ed the noble Lord stated that, "If I deem, the measure necessary, if I see a probability that prices are about to rise I will not, in that case, hesitate to advise my colleagues to order the immediate opening of the ports." Among the Obituary of eminent persons we find the names of Sir B ook Taylor, on the 15th October, aged 70 years ; Sir Ed. George Thomas Turner, on the 10th Oct., aged 57 ; Benjamin Dealtry, Esq., on the 12th October; Laily Liverpool, on the 18th. October, aged 69 ; the' Honorable Harriof Grimston, on the 18th October, aged 70; Rear-Admiral Walpole Browne, on tho 15th October, at an advanced age.

The Expected Brevet. — It is now confidently believed that the general military brevet, so long spoken of, will come out on the 9th November, the anniversary of th 9 birthday of his royal highness the Princ? of Wales, and will be on a very extensive scale. With regard to the Royal Artillery, it is expected that eleven colonels will be removed from the corps to the rank of Major-General, the retired list being now very low, embracing onlysix officers.

The Great Britain. — It is stated that Mr. Mackintosh, the contractor and army accoutrement maker, has undertaken to float and bring off the Great Britain from her position in Dundrum Bay. His plan and offers were accepted, in preference to several ingenious competitors, by the committee of the proprietary of that ill-fated vessel.

Extraordinary Storm. — The Journal dcs Debats publishes the following letter, dated Munich, 20th iust. :—": — " On Friday afternoon last, between three and four o'clock, a terrific storm, accompanied by lightning, burst on the village of Schlehdorff, situated at three leagues distance from our capital, and in less than two hours it completely destroyed that large and handsome village, of which uo trace remains. The greater number of the houses where broken to pieces by the tempest, and the remainder were set on fire by the lightning and totally consumed. The flames communicated to the neighbouring forest, which continued burning for four days. During this disaster the thermometer marked at Munich 54 degrees Reaumur, and suffocating, heat was experienced, an extraordinary fact in the month of October. The sky was of an ashy hue."

Extraordinary activity at Sheerness Dockyard. — An Admiralty order has been received at her Majesty's dockyard, Sheerness, for the following ships-of war to be brought forward for commissioning with all possible expedition, viz. : — The Waterloo, 120 guns ; the H owe, 120 guns; the Asia, 84 guns ; the Ganges, 84 guns ; and Monarch, 84 guns ; the Hawke, 72 guns ; Achilles. 72 guns ; Russell, 72 guns ; and Hercules, 72 guns. The folio wiug frigates are also nearly completed : — The Cornwall, 50 guns; Conquestador, 50 guns ; and Chichesler, 50 guns. Many merely want but a few stores to complete them, when they are to be immediately put into commission and sent upon foreign service. The artisans and mechanics have been compelled for some time pasc to stop in. the usual hours allowed for iheir meals, and to work until quite dark, so as to complete the orders of the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty for foreign equipment.