LATE ENGLISH NEWS.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume IV, Issue 293, 20 May 1848, Page 3

LATE ENGLISH NEWS.

Her Majesty and the Royal Family were in the enjoyment of- good health, but we regret to learn that the cholera had again made its appearance in England, which, together with the influenza, had carried off many of the half starved labourers, and other families, but many of the higher classes had also suffered. The Lord Chancellors of England and Ireland were both dangerously ill, and the continued indisposition of the Lord Chancellor of England has given rise to various speculations in political circles ; and it is generally surmised, that after so serious an illness — even in the event of such a result as every body hopes for — his Lordship will decline to resume the exercise of his arduous official duties. In that case, the prevailing opinion is, that Mr. Baron Kolfe will succeed to the woolsack. A Treasury warrant appears in the London Gazette of Tuesday, Nov. 30th, fixing the postage of newspapers, &c,, to and from the United Kingdom and the British Colonies, at one halfpenny each. Periodical works, not of daily publication, and not allowed to pass as newspapers, the rates are to be; — for every such publication not exceeding two ounces in weight. Id. ; not exceeding three ounces, 6d.; not exceeding four ounces, Bd. ; and for every additional onnce 2d., up to sixteen ounces, which is the limit. Commercial lists, courses of exchange, prices current, &c, are to be charged Id. each. These new regulations were to come into operation, early in January,

Military and Naval. — Ninety-sixth Regiment. — A rumour has been pretty generally circulated that orders have been received here for the immediate removal of this regiment en route to India. It is incorrect. — Hobart Town Courier, April 8.

Commander Wilmot. — This young officer has received much praise for the promptitude and presence of mind he evinced in putting an end to a mutiny on board the Superb, lying at Malta. The men had been smoking, and having spat upon the floor, the commander, in the absence of the captain, prohibited smoking. The men revolted, but ten or twelve were put in irons and the prohibition enforced. — Ibid.

The Command of the Madras Akmy. — Lieut.-Gen. Sir Geo. Henry Frederick Berkeley, K. C. 8., has obtained one of tht Indian prizes, the command of the Madra* array. It is a lucrative command (about £70,000 a year), and one which, from it* magnitude, calls all an officer's energies, and capabilities into play. Sir George Berkeley will not have less 'than 70,000 men under his control. — United Service Gazette. We are glad to announce the appointment of Vice- Admiral the Earl of Dundonald to the command in chief of the West India Station. The deaths of General Bethune, of Blebo, and of the Honorable Lindsay P. Burrel, of Stoke, are announced to-day. A Portsmouth letter in the Times of thi* morning, announces the death of Rear-Admi-ral Sir T. Usher, C.B M K.C.H., of the Irish Station, and the death of Vice- Admiral of tht Red, W. Granger, at Exeter, on the 3rd in* t.

The official Gazette of Parma, of the 29th ultimo, publishes the proclamation of the new Sovereign of that duchy, dated Modena the 26th, in which he promises to reign with justice, and to endeavour to procure his subjects leal, not ephemeral advantages. He next declares that he will introduce no change in the institutions established by the Archduchess Maria Louisa, whose footsteps he will follow in every respect. By a decree of the same date the Duke ordered his Ministers to forward to him, to Modeoa, all the acts of their administration. The Queen of the Belgians arrived in Paris at ten o'clock on Tuesday night, and immediately after followed her illustrious relatives to Dreux, to be present at the interment of the Princess Adelaide. The promise made to Abd-el-Kader by the Duke d'Aumale that he should be sent to Egypt, seems to have placed the Government in an awkward position. The Emir was still in the Lazaretto at Toulon, whence he had written a letter to the King. The speech of the Queen of Portugal has arrived, but like other Royal speeches there is very little in it. Her Majesty tells the Cortes : — " After the violent political troubles which for the last two years had shaken the country, your re-union in this place is a secure proof that Divine Providence deigns still to think of the brave and faithful nation. " Public and private calamities, a necessary effect of civil wars, have for a long period afflicted all classes of the State, and have injured or ruined establishments of every kind. 1 confide in your wisdom and patriotism that you will at once occupy yourselves with the necessary steps for ameliorating such evils. ** I have much satisfaction in announcing that the Most High has deigned to favour my family, and blessed me with two Princes — the Infantes Dom Ferdenando and Dom Augusto." Another office-buying scandal has just been exposed at Paris. M. Morney and M. Emile Girardin *ere on the point of a duel, arising out of a literary difference. The quarrel, however, has been peacefully arranged. The Archbishop of Canterbury will not consecrate Dr. Hampden. Three bishops are to form a coma.ission for the purpose on the 30th instant, at Whitehall. Mrs. Westenra, of Shararopie, has received a Rockite notice, with a view, no doubt, to frighten this excellent lady out of the country. — King's County Chronicle. Eight baronies in the counties of, Galway, Cavan, and Fermanagh have been proclaimed. Edmond Fitzgerald Ryan, Esq., and 'Gerald Fitzgerald, Esq., are appointed to grant licenses to cany arms within the proclaimed districts in the county of Galway. Benjamin Holmes, Esq., has obtained a similar appointment for Fermanagh and Cavan ; and William Caldvvell, Esq., for Clare and Limerick. His Excellency the Lord Lieutenant has appointed Sir Nicholas Fitzsimon, Kt., inspector general of prisons, in the room of Major Coltenham, deceased. The magisterial chair in the head office of police, to be vacated by Sir Nicholas, will, it is said, be filled by our late Lord Mayor, Mr. Staunton. The Times of this morning attempts to laugh down the Duke of Wellington's warn- j ings. The attempt is as unsuccessful as discreditable. Letters from Glasgow, received this afternoon, speak of rumoured failures in that city, but it is added, "it is hoped the parties may be able to make some arrangements with che banks." Saturday, New Year's Day, was kept as a general holiday, and with great gaiety in Edinburgh.

Loss of the Avenger. — The Pacha, which took out the Indian mail instead of the Erin, has returned from Malta. She brings news of the total loss of her Majesty's steamfrigate Avenger, on the Sorelle Rock, near Galatia, on the 20th of December. Three officers, a surgeon, and five of the crew only are saved. The Avenger is a steamer of the first-class, of 1444 tons and 650 horse-power. She was built by Sir W. Symons, at Devonpoit, in 1845, and was put into commission for the Mediterranean station on the 20th of last November. We subjoin a list of her officers ; — Captain C. E. Napier (son of the Admiral) ; Lieutenants Hugh M. Kinsman, Frederick Marryat (son of Captain Marryat), Francis Rooke, Master William Archer, Second Lieutenant of Marine Artillery, H. S. Baynes ; Surgeon James H. Steele : Paymaster and Purser Valentine A. Haile ; Assist-ant-Surgeon Bernard Delaney ; Second Master William Betts ; Clerk Henry J.S. Walker. Fall of Abd-el-Kader. — The Moniteur of the Ist publishes despatches from the Duke d'Auti.ale, the Governor-General of Algeria, and from General Lamorciere, giving details of the surrender of Abd-el-Kader to the French, and of the events which immediately preceded it. * The illustrous Emir was overpowered — not beaten,' says a Paris letter. His last was, perhaps, the most bril-

liant of all his achievements, and, like the last efforts of Napoleon in the vicinity of Paris, would of itself immortalize him. With a handful of faithful and devoted adherents, he, in the nights of the 11th and 12th ult., attacked the Moorish camps, and routed the immense army they contained, but overpowered by numbers, and hemmed in on all sides, by hourly increasing masses of Moors, he was gradually pushed back on the frontier of Algeria. The weather had been frightful, which impeded military operations. On the 21st of December the fords of the Moulonia became practicable, and the baggage and the families of his brave companions proceeded towards the plains of Triffa, the resolve of Abd-el-Kader having been to see them in safety in the French territory, and then cut his way through the Moors with such of his adherents as should dare to follow him. "He threw himself into the country of the Beni Sausson," says the Duke d'Aumale, " and sought to again take the road to the south, which the Emperor oi Morocco left free ; but surrounded on that side by our cavalry, he trusted to the generosity of France, and surrendered on condition of being sent to Jean dAcre or Alexandria." " I am assured, nevertheless," resumes a correspondent, " that the Emir is expected in Paris. This would be a departure from the terms of his surrender. Let us hope that a triumph so comparatively pitiful as the parading of the hero Prince, before the Parisian populace, will not be allowed at the expense of French honour or French generosity, but that he will be conveyed to Egypt."

The late Duchess or Parma. —The Conservateur has the following on the death of the Archduchess Maria Louisa: —" The death of the Archduchess Maria Louisa, Duchess of Parma, will have, according to all probability, important consequences for the affairs of Italy, although that Princess had personally no political importance. We explained in one of our recent numbers thestratagetic value of the position of Pontremoli —it is the key of the passage between the states of the King of Sardinia and those of the Grand Duke of Tuscany. In 1815 Austria employed all its efforts to have the possession of Pontremoli awarded to it. The Congress of Vienna refused that; it would not consent that Austria, already so powerful in Italy, should, by establishing herself in a military manner in that position, keep in perpetual check the kingdom of Sardinia and the Grand Duchy of Tuscany, and thereby, in fact, reduce both of them to the state of simple vassals. The Congress even refused to award Pontremoli to the Duchy of Modena, or to that of Lucca, from the fact that Austria had a right of reversion on those two Duchies. In virtue of the decision of the Congress, Pontremoli and its territory were therefore awarded to the Grand Duke of Tuscany, although geographically separated from the states of that Prince, and surrounded by those of the Duchy of Lucca. We have already had occasion to make known how, in virtue of subsequent arrangements between Austria, Tuscany, Lucca, and Modena, Pontremoli was to be incorporated in the latter duchy, when Lucca should pass to Tuscany, and how the Duke of Modena hastened to demand this incorporation when recently the Duke of Lucca ceded his principality to the Grand Duke of Tuscany. Our readers know the extreme repugnance which was manifested by the inhabitants of Pontremoli at the idea of becoming the subjects of the Duke of Modena. All Italy echoed their protests. One might have feared at one moment that the people hastening from the neighbouring states, to preserve them from the lot which threatened them, a war would break out on that almost imperceptible point of the Peninsula, which war would have soon extended to all its surface. It is that which causes the destiny of that little district to have now so much importance, and it is that which makes the death of the Duchess of Parma matter of general interest for Italy. According to the opinion of the King of Sardinia, who was chosen as arbitrator in the difference relative to Pontremoli, which arose between Tuscany and Modena, the possession of Pontremoli ought to be awarded to the Prince who is called to the heritage of the Duchess of Parma, that is to the Duke of Lucca. The Grand Duke of Tuscany and the Duke of Modena have already adhered to the proposition of the King of Sardinia; it only remains to obtain the adhesion of the Duke of Lucca and of Austria. The Duke of Lucca cannot make any difficulties, since he gains by the arrangement. Austria, it is true, may desire to oppose both, in the hope of one day possessing Pontremoli, if it should remain awarded to the Duchy of Modena, on account of the right of reversion which it has to that Duchy. But it is permitted to us to hope that its spirit of wisdom will induce it not to sacrifice to this distant and uncertain hope a combination which must contribute to assure the tranquillity of Italy. The influence of Austria will still remain sufficiently great in Italy, greater even than

the Congress of Vienna desired. As to the inhabitants of Pontremoli, they will no doubt regret to exchange the domination of the Grand Duke of Tuscany for that of the Duke of Lucca, or, to speak more correctly, of the Duke of Parma, but they will have some consolation in thinking that they escape that of the Duke of Modena." The Milan Gazette of the 26th ultimo, officially announces the evacuation by the Austrians of the town of Ferrara on the 23rd. The Porta Po alone will have an Austrian guard, on account of the necessary communication of the garrison of that river.

ME3frco. — The West India mail steamer Severn, with a million of dollars, reached Southampton on Sunday. Her chief news was from Mexico, and is contained in the following general order from the American head quarters :—: — Head Quarters of the Army, Mexico, November 25. — Under instructions from the goTernment at home, requiring that this army shall, as soon as practicable, begin to raise, within the country it occupies, the means, in whole or in great part, of maintaining the expenses of the occupation until the federal government of Mexico shall submit to terms of peace which the United States may honourably accept, it is ordered that no uncoined bullion, bars or ingots, either of gold or silver, shall be shipped from any port of Mexico, until the further orders of the government at home shall be made known on the subject, so as to give time for the said government to fix the rate of export duty on such bullion, and perhaps a smaller duty on gold and silver coins. As the beginning of the change of system intimated above, all rents for houses or quarters occupied by officers or troops of the army, in any city or village of Mexico, will cease as soon as contracts may permit, and absolutely from and after the end of this month, wherever this order shall be received in time ; and in future, necessary quarters, both for officers and troops, where the public buildings are insufficient, will first be demanded, as required, of the civil authorities of the several places occupied by the troops, so as to equalize the inconvenience imposed upon the inhabitants, and diminish the same as much as possible. If the authorities fail to put the troops promptly in possession of such quarters, then the commanding officer, in every such case, following out the same principle of giving the least distress practicable to the unoffending inhabitants, will cause the necessary buildings to be occupied. Subsistence, forage, and other necessaries for the army, will be purchased and paid for as heretofore. — (Signed) — By command of Major General Scott. — H. L. Scott, A.A.A.G. General Paterson left Jalapa on the 25th November, having previously hung two teamsters for killing a boy under twelve years of age. He caused also to be executed two Mexican officers, who were taken prisoners, commanding guerillas ; they were afterwards buried with great pomp and ceremony by the people of Jalapa, which greatly displeased the general ; and the Alcalde was immediately sent for, who stated that the funeral had been spontaneous with the people, and that he had not the power to interfere. A body of from 2000 to 3000 irregulars, or volunteers, had arrived at Vera Cruz, to reinforce the American army ; but they had been guilty, since their arrival, of abominable excesses of all kinds. The discipline of the army itself was bad. The Americans had experienced a loss in their steam navy of a war-steamer, on the island of Lobos. It was reported at that city, on the departure of the Severn, that the Governor, General Wilson, bad issued orders for the suppression of the liberty of the press, the latter having published articles which were not in accordance with the views of the American Government.