LATEST ENGLISH NEWS.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume V, Issue 357, 3 January 1849, Page 4

LATEST ENGLISH NEWS.

*„, The following account of the apprehension -of Messrs. M.eagher, O'Donoghue, and Leyne^ is from the reporter of the Times (Aug. 15). • 'Thurles, 6 a.m., Sunday. — Last night be--tween* 11 and 12 o'clock, Mr. F. H.Mea- • gher, 'Mr. P. O'Donoghue, and Mr. M. Con--nor Leyne,' we're arrested near the railway on the road between Rathcannon and Holy Cross. The arrest was effected by constable P. Madden and the police patrol from Rathcannon, whither tho prisoners were at once conveyed. On being searched there, neither arms' nor papers were found on their persons, so that they seem to have anticipated the probability of being taken. This morning, soon after three o'clock, they arrived in Thur es, where they were safely lodged in the police barracks, while their escort proceeded to rouse Mr. Bracken, sub-inspector fof police for this district. Mr. Bracken had the prisoners taken to his house, where they had tea, and washed and shaved. In the mean time some constables were sent back to the spot where the arrest was made, in the hope that Doheny, who was believed to be in that neighbourhood, might also be seized. Messengers were also s/;ns to Mr. Gore Jones and Mr. Fiumaurice.the resident magistrates, and to General Macdonald. With the utmost secrecy the necessary steps were taken for removing the prisoners at once by special train to Dublin. Mr. Bracken, and a couple of policemen behind him, walked quietly down to the station with Mr. Leyne, while, Mr. Gore Jones, in an equally unostentations way, escorted ;the other two „ prisoners. Some slight delay .took place in getting the engine ready,, and during the interval the three captured Confederates walked about the platform, and appeared tolerably, .self-possessed. Mr. Meagher, I thought, looked a little sorrowful, but when spoken to his manner became perfectly cheerful, aud it is quite clear that the report of his labouring under fever was without foundation. O'Donoghue is a very different looking person from Mr. Meagher, .and combines in his face all the truculence j and ferocity of expression that on» might look for in the leader of an insurrectionary movement. His features are enormously , large and coarse, conveying an idea of savage obstinacy, such as would admirably suit the top of a Parisian barricade.or some other scene of sanguinary and relentless slaughter ; he wears no whiskers, and the sallow complexion of his face is rendered more repulsive by the puckered seams and harsh lines which extend over it. The last of the prisoners, Mr. Arthur Leyne, is quite a young man, and there is nothing remarkable in ,his .appearance, but an expression of silly enthusiasm. He is the son of a stipendiary -magistrate. At twenty minutes before seven o'clock the train started for Dublin, the departure of the prisoners being at the time scarcely known in Thurles, aud "the whole being conducted in the quiete*t\manner possible. General Macdonald sent Captain Mackenzie, one of his staff, up to town in charge of the prisoners. In the same carriage also sat Sub-Inspector Bracken, Mr. Fitzmaurice, resident magistrate, your reporter, a«d a single armed constable, who was in charge of, the four men by whom the arrest was made,. O'Donoghue amused himself during the journey by " chaffing" the policeman, who sat next him, and who, under the circumstances, looked rmch more modest and abashed than he probably did in the e>:eecuuon of his duty some hours before. * Dublin, Sunday Morning.— On the arrival of the train the prisoners were at once conducted to the Royal Barracks under an escort of twenty of the Thurles constabulary. Captain Mackenzie having seen them safely deposited in the Royal Barracks, proceeded with despatches from General Macdonald to the Vice-regal Lodge. I am requested by Mr. Meagher to state that he never acceded to the terms of surrender proposed on liis .behalf by the Rey.' Mrl Mackey, and that the nature of the proposal made by him must have been mistaken by that gentleman. He never wished,, he said, to', b" argain for' his ov/n life, and bad 1 been greatly annoyed at what had appeared in the Dublin Evening Mail on that subject. Mr. Meagher told me that he had heard j>f . Mr. O'Brien's arrest on Sunday eve-

ning. It will .be seen by this that bis companions have had early intelligence of all that hns been taking place, and that they have, therefore, less credit for looking confident and self-possessed than poor Smith O'Brien.

Lieutenant Waghorn. — Amongst the sums voted on Friday nigbt last was £1500 for WaghornV services in ascertaining the practicability of the route to Alexandria via Trieste, for the conveyance of the India mails. The only fault to be found with this vote is its inadequacy for the remuneration of the gallant lieutenant, whose transport of the government despatches across the Alps and through the Austrian dominions in the bitter winter of '46-7 is one of the most remarkaable incidents in a life already conspicuous for unprecedeir.ed feats of md vidual daring, perseverance, and ingenuity.' Though ostensibly given for services in connexion with the Trieste route, it is virtually a reward, and a most shabby one, for his organization and completion of the overland route, for whose value to the public hardly any sum could be an extravagant equivalent. And this suggests the present as a fitting opportunity to say, that the subscription which figured so imposingly in the papers a couple of years ago, under the title of the " Waghorn Testimonial," never, reached the pocket of its object iti anything like its apparent substantiality. - The railway panic and commercial distress set in before' it was collected, and many who put down their names for £100 were, when called upon to pay, themselves in need. Of the expenses incurred in testing the Trieste route, part has been defrayed by the East India Company, and part by the t Civil Con'ingencies. Why the present small remuneration of Waghorn 's individual labours has been so long delayed it is difficult to say; but at all events the time now is well, chosen, for it must be remembered that to him it is chiefly owing that steam to Australia was so impressed both on the late and present administration, that Earl Grey has at length officially recognized the subject in a mode whose announcement last week afforded such satisfaction to all in any way interested in our vast and prospering possessions in the Pacific. — London Correspondent of Liverpool Albion, August 14.

i Steam ip Australia. — It is with ,the greatest pleasure ,we announce the speedy prospect of the voyage to Australia being shortened by one-half. On the 27th August last we gaye an outline of a project for extending to Sydney the line of steam communication which already exists from England to Singapore, and it now appears that an arrangement has .been effected between the Government and the "India and Australia Mail Steam-packet Company" for its accomplishment. Mails, passengers, and packages, will be conveyed to Singapore, as at present, by the Peninsular and Oriental Company, and the vessels of the Australian Company will carry them on to Sydney. From England to Singapore the distance is 42 days, and from Singapore to Sydney 22 days, and thus the entire communication will occupy scarcely more than two months. The advantages of this measure to India, China, r and the commerce of the Eastern archipelago, can hardly be too highly estimated, while in its bearings' at the present time on the mutual prosperity of England and Australia, it is likely to prove more important, ai\d more in harmony with ! public opinion; than any other step which could have been devised. — Times, Aug. 4. | It seemed to be fully expected that the cholera would reach Great Britain. At the concert given by Mdle. Jenny Lind for the bemfit of the Hospital for Consumption and Diseases of the Chest, the sum received amounted to£l76G: 15s. The concert having been .entirely free of all ordinary charges, nearly the whole of the sum obtained will be appropriated to the charity. General Cavaignac is to be married very shortly, the lady of his choice being the daughter of M. Dubouchet,; a rich gas manufacturer of Paris. "- , Assassination in Paris continues to be frequent. A grenadier of the 59ih was stabbed in the back at noon while crossing the Pont d'Arcole, and a garde mobile who had lain down under a thicket near Courbevoie to repose was found dead the next morning with seven knife wounds in his body. The proposal to seize and confiscate the property of the late King's children has been rejected by the Assembly. M. Thiers resisted the doctiine of forfeiture with great courage and ability. Before he ascended the throne in 1830, Louis Philippe, with a prudence which recent events have justified, made over his private, pioperty to, his children, as he had a full and perfect rjgbt to do ; and without shaking their legal .system to is very base and falling back to barbarism, it was quite impossible, he contended, to sanction the proposed confiscation. ,He desired, to see the Republic firmly "and peaceably established : .but he did hot°wish to see it dishonoured by 'such an iniquitous act, ; the stain of which would never be got rid of.

The news received fr,om Italy is exceedingly, favourable to the, Austrians. t Radetzki, after having defeated the Piedrapntesjß.on the Mincio, forced the fortress Peschiera to capitulate, and pursued the Piedmontese army which jWas flying before him to Milan, and where it endeavoured to reorganize itself ;, but even there the. ltalians were compelled to capitulate, and Charles Albert, the Champion of Italy, surrendered Milan to the Austrians. The Austrians have likewise occupied Modena, and are now in full march upon the Papal territories. Genoi has constituted herself a Republic independent of Charles Albert, whom she declares to be a traitor to the country.

Dreadful Hurricane on the East Coast of Scotland. — Aberdeen, Saturday evening, August 20. —Last night about 1000 boats, each manned by five fishermen, left the various ports of the east coast of Scotland, betwixt Stonehaven and . Fraserburgh, for the herring fishery. When at the offing, at about an average distance of ten miles, and the nets down, the wind,, which had, continued, during the day at south and south-west,,sud-denly chopped out to the south east with rain. About 12 o'clock it blew a<gale r ,the lain falling in tonents, and the night Was ,so dark that none of the land lights could be seen. As soon as the gale came, some of the -fisher-; men began to haul their nets, but the sea ran so high that most of the fleet. had to run for the shore to save life. At-Frascrburgh, the boats being to leeward, of Kinnaird's-head, which forms the entrance to the Murray frith, I were less exposed than the boats to the southI ward, and managed to get a landing without ! loss of life ; but at Peterhead, which is the easternmost point of the coast, and altogether exposed to an easterly gale, 70 out of the 400 boats that were fishing there are missing, and there is too much *eason to fear that most, if not all of them, are wrecked or synk. At daybreak this morning the scene that presented itself along the shore- between the Buchauness lighthouse and the entrance to the south harbour was of the most appalling description. The whole coast for a mile and a half was strewed with wrecks and the dead bodies of fishermen. Twenty three corpses were carried into Peterhead before nine o'clock, and at the time the latest accounts left, others were being constantly thrown ashore among the wrecks oh the sands or the rocks. Forty boats were wrecked within the circuit of half a mile, and so suddenly and awful was the catastrophe, that no means of succouring or saving the distressed and perishing fishermen could be xdevised. How many boats may have foundered at sea, or gone to pieces among the precipitous cliffs of Buchan, no one at present tan tell. One tiling appears certain, that the lowest possible estimate of the loss of life and property by this gale exceeds that pcoduced by any other hurricane hitherto recorded in the annals of the east coast of Scotland. It is calculated that along the coast not fewer than 100 lives are lost, and when it is considered that for the most part the deceased fishermen have left wives and families, it will be felt that the widowhood and orphanage of our seaport towns have received in one short night an unparalleled augmentation. In recording these melancholy facts, the inquiry presents itself, " How does it happen that the boats engaged in the fisheries on the east coast of Scotland are constantly exposed to such terrible calamities, while the boats ] engaged on the east coast of England gener- J ally weather the storm ?" The answer is j simply this — the boats on the English coast are decked, while those on the Scotch coast j are open. The former are in every respect fitted out for the deep sea fishery, and admi- j rably adapted to withstand a gale ; the latter, although manned by hardy and most adventurous fishermen, are adapted only for fine weather, constructed solely with the view of prosecuting one object — the herring fishery ; and while this system prevails here, r such terrible calamities as these we have just recorded miy be expected to recur. . ' ,