ENGLISH EXTRACTS.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume IV, Issue 326, 13 September 1848, Page 4

ENGLISH EXTRACTS.

A committee, whose members inclufte the Archbishop of Canterbury, Lord Stanley, Sir Robert Peel, the members of the present Government, &c, has been formed to receive subscriptions and take the requisite measures to found a testimonial in honour of the preservation of peace and order in the metropolis on the occasion of the Chartist Demonstration on the I Oth inst. A free hospital, or public baths and washhouses for the poor, are suggested as the most fitting " memorial of public order." It is understood that on the return of her Majesty's three-decker Hibernia, from the Mediterranean, after her term of service as flag-ship of Sir W. Parker, she will replace the old Dreadnought, off- Greenwich, as the Seamen's Hospital Ship.

The Chartist Meeting in Edinburgh. —The Chartist demonstration, held on the Calton Hill, on Monday evening, proved a total failure. There .might have been 600 to 700 persons on the hill; but, owing to the weather, the meeting adjourned to the hall in Adam-square, where after the assemblage had been kept waiting for a considerable time for the committee, a memorial to the Queen, praying her Majesty to dissolve the present Parliament, was ultimately adopted. Delegates were then appointed to represent the Scotch Chartists in the great " National Assembly," to be held in this metropolis on the Ist of May. The Venetian Gazette of the 13th, publishes a decree of the Republic, accepting the offer of the formation of a female butalion, who will be employed in tending the wounded, and all those military employments that may be effected without public display. A deputation of Israelites, headed by the Grand Rabbi of Par!s, presented last week a patriotic offering of 1275 francs to the Provisional Government. On Friday (last week) a deputation ,of Socialists from England, with Mr. Owen at their h ad, waited on the French Provisional Government, to congratulate the Republic, and to offer their suggestions for the organisation of labour. At the fete in Paris, on Thursday, in the ranks of a legion of the National Guards of the Banlieu, a woman marched, wearing a red cap and a tri-coloured scarf. By her floated a flag, on which were the words —''Mere de seize enfans ; blessde le 24 Fdvrier j. our la defense de In liberte*." Austria has called upon the people of Hungary to take upon themselves one-fourth of the national debt, the interest of which will require an annual quota of about 10,000,000 florins. The Madrid journals and letters of the 20th instant, which have reached us, are chiefly filled with details of the ceremonies observed during the holy week. The capital remained perfectly tranquil, but alaiming accounts had been received from Catalonia of Carlist movements. The garrisons on the French frontiers were in consequence about to be reinforoed. Mr. Bulwer, the English Ambassador at Madrid, having at the instance of Lord Palmerston addressed a note of remonst>ance and advice to the Spanish Government, it is understood that the latter had taken the very unusual course of sending back Mr. Bulwer's note ; and it is further understood that they have thought fit -to cause a letter to be addressed to her' Majesty Queen Victoria, demanding Mr. Bulwer's recall. i

The late John Jacob Astor. —Before the removal of the body of the deceased from the house of his son, in Lafayelte-street, New York, the coffin was placed in the hall, and the doors thrown open ; v/hen thousands rushed in, until the place was crowded almost to suffocation. The coffin was covered with rich black velvet, and bound with bullion fringe, over which was a velvet pall of beautiful workmanship ; over the face a glass had been set in, that all might have a look upon the remains of the richest raau in the country. Mr. Astor has bequeathed by will 400,000 dollars, for erecting suitable buildings, and establishing a library in New York, for free general use. To the poor of Waldorf, by establishing an institution for the sick and disabled, or for the improvement of the young, 50,000 dollars. The German Society, 20,000 dollars ; Institution for the Blind, 5000 dollars ; Half Orphan Asylum, 5000 dollars; Lying-in Asylum, 2000 dollars. The personal estate of Mr. Astor is worth from seven to nine millions of dollars, and his real estate perhaps as much more; so that the aggregate is less than twenty millions, or half the sum stated in the accounts of his death.