ENGLISH NEWS. (From the Hobart Town Courier, April 29.)

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume IV, Issue 296, 31 May 1848, Page 2

ENGLISH NEWS. (From the Hobart Town Courier, April 29.)

The Court left Windsor Castle on the 11th January, and took up its residence in the pleasant retreat of Claremont. There the royal party remained for a week, and had since been domiciled at Windsor Castle. The Archbishop of Canterbury was in a very precarious state of health. In the absence of Parliamentary topics there were plenty of subjects engaging public attention. The national defences were the cause of much dissension and discussion. The authorities were really at work. Five companies of 17(5 men each were to be added to the existing companies of the Sappers and and Miners. A considerable saving would be effected to the public by a plan under con- | sideration for employing the out-pensioners in I the recruiting department at additional pay, in lieu of maintaining a staff of non-commissioned officers from each regiment. A squadron of armed steam-vessels, to consist of twelve of

various sizes and power were ordered to keep ready for service at Portsmouth. Great additions were making to the Artillery force, and there was no doubt a militia would be organized. Several meetings had been held in the metropolis and in the provinces, all in condemnation of what was considered an unnecessary alarm. At Birmingham, Mr. Joseph Stnrge called a meeting to reciprocate " on one side* vows of perpetual friendship and brotherhood with the people of France. To await the leisure of Mr. Cobden, the demonstration was delayed. In a letter declining the invitation, Mr. Cobden strongly advocates the extension of friendship and confidence to the French people. Sir William Molesworth had also published a remonstrance against the reasonable views of the Spectator in its practical advocacy of speedy and efficient defence. That journal observes — " That there is in France a chronic desire to attack England ; on the only occasion of. actual dispute between the two nation's, that desire ripened at once to intention ; there are the means ; " England has "no .means , of repulsion by land." Lord EHesniere, in a second letter to^the .Tenet, dwells upon the palpable necessity for 7 the improving these defences. A ' Queen's Officer," another write£ on the same subject, considers, th,at_"Sidmouth, Dawlish, Exmoutb, Brighton/ Hastings, St. Leonard's, with many other places, would be much exposed to sudden attacks, unless scientifically secured." The policy of Lord Palmerston, although there is nothing in it to provoke war, was considered too uncertain to secure peace. Fresh from abortive intervention in Portugal, adopted only after France had resolved to interfere, he proceeds to Switzerland, and declares that all intervention is political crime. He advises at Rome, threatens at Naples, and directs everywhere. In Greece he is bullying the Minister, and instructing Sir Edward Lyons to interfere in matters of a most purely internal nature. He would defeat and humiliate Guizot in 1848, as he did Thiers in 1840, and cares as little for national consequences now as he did then, so that his personal triumph is secured. He was creating all over Europe, not an anti* English, but an anti- Palmerston policy, and important parties in every country were, for various reasons, forming into one against the Foreign Minister of England. It would seem that the noble lord was courting hatred and distrust abroad as a preparation against the threatened impeachment at home. We have been favoured with the Overland Singapore Free Press, and the Straits Times Extra, of the 11th 1 an& i2lb "March. Tlie following additional failures are announced as having taken place in England :—Cotesworth, Powell, and Prior, £350,000 ; J. Anderson and Co., Glasgow, *£200,000 ; M'Phail, Glasgow, £30,000; W. and A. Taylor, Glasgow, £43,000; Gilmour and Kerr, Glasgow,£Bo,ooo; J. Waddle, Glasgow, €30,000; John Lacy, Glasgow, £14,000 ; Cargill Headlam and Co., Newcastle; Coates and Hilliard, American, £40,000 ; J. \on Haber, Frankfort, £250,000 ; Durand, Mackenzie and Co., £30,000 ; Maintz, Offenback, £100,000 ; King and Co., Shaftbury. The Earl of Powis, accompanied by Lord Clive, and the Hon. Robert Herbert Clive, were shooting in the preserves adjacent to Powis Castle, on the 14th January ; a pheasant suddenly rose, at which the latter gentleman fired ; the contents of the gun unfortunately struck the Earl, who was standing on an eminence a short distance off, and lodged themselves in his thigh. His Lordship was immediately conveyed to the Castle, where, notwithstanding all that surgery and care could do, he died on the 17th. His Lordship's son, the Hon. Robert H. Clive, who discharged., the fatal shot, is about 21 years of age, afid^Twe need" scarcely state, has been plunged into grief of the most poignant character. His Lordship's name became more familiar with the public by his ' contest with the 1 Prince Consort Tor the' Chancellorship of Cambridge University. It was believed that the vacant Garter (in cbuseqtt^nce of the death of Earl Powis), will be confined upon the Duke of Norfolk. A rumour was circulated that Louis Phillipe intended to abdicate in favour of his grandson the Count de Paris. Dr. Lee was consecrated on the 23rd in the Chapel Royal, Whitehall. Mr. Gutteridge placed a protest in the hands of the Archbishop. His Grace thrust the document into the fire. It seemed certain that Dr. Lee and not Dr. Hampden, would sit in the House of Lords. Sir St. John Mildraay destroyed himself on the 23rd January, with a pistol. The Earl of Moray died in bis 77th year of influenza. At five o'clock on the Morning of the 22nd a fire broke out in the centre of the Burlington Arcade. The houses from 10 to 17 and from 55 to 64 were all more or less injured. The Arcade presented a terrific scene

vrhen nearly all its affrighted inmates were running from place to place in little more than nakedness. Dr. Hampden's election to the see of Hereford was confirmed at the Church of St. Mary de Arcubus (St. Mary of the Arches), Bow Church, on the 1 1 th of January. It had heen announced that the consecration of the new Bishop was to take place at Whitehall on the 29th January. The enthronisation of the new Archhishop of York took place at York Minster on the 13th January. Not less than 5,000 persons were present. ; A suspicion was abroad that the famous "Father" Tom Magoire" died of poison. His brother and his brother's wife, who were his inmates at the time of his death, died mysteriously within a few days of his decease. At a meeting of the free Presbytery of Edinburgh on the 1 8te January, Dr. Candlish intimated his final determination to resign his connection with the college as Professor of theology, and to confine hihsllf to his ministry. , ' The Hon. Mr. Bonham, the new Governor of llongkong f arrived at Singapore on the 10th- March. , r ' ." "