ENGLISH EXTRACTS.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume V, Issue 396, 19 May 1849, Page 4

ENGLISH EXTRACTS.

The Indian Mail. —The Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company have made an offer to her Majesty's Government to transmit the mails of the beginning of the month direct from Southampton to Bombay, at a charge less by £50,000 a-year than that which they now cost the Government and the India Company, with the abominable breach from Malta to England. Within the last ten years the overland mails have cost the India Company above three quarters of a million sterling. Her Majesty's Government have paid the other quartern and tbe outlay has been a million in all.—^Bombay Times, November 16.

ImpoutantDiscovery. —Under this head a correspondent of the Southern Reporter has the following^ —" Within the list three days I have been informed, on Indubitable authority, that some of the talented and scientific gentlemen connected with the Royal Irish Fisheries Company have discovered that the celebrated fishing banks of Newfoundland actually extend across the Atlatitic to within 100 miles of Ireland! and the quantity of fish on tbe said banks is more than sufficient to supply the markets of the whole world," — Observer, Nov. 27.

West Indies. — The Yellow Fever. — The Royal mail steam ship Great Western, Captain William dark, arrived at Southampton on Friday morning, at half-past nine o'clock, from the West Indies, with the usual mails, in charge of Lieutenant Thomas Cull, R.N., admiralty agent. At Barbadoes the yellow fever was raging amongst the troops ; one-third of the artillery had died, and a great part of the 66th regiment. At Deraerara the crops were fine. No sickness prevalent. At Jamaica the yellow fever raged amongst the troops, and Captain Merity, of the Ist West India regiment, had fallen a victim to it. Sickness prevailed at St. Lucia. The Governor's lady, Mrs. Darling, died of yellow fever. — Bell's Life in London, Dec. 24.

What is a Pound? — M. Thiers reminds one of tbe golden days when Peel was in his glory, propounding the great question, "What is a pound ?" His brilliant essay on the Credit Fancier delivered last Tuesday will ever remain a text on the currency question. He pointed out with -clearness and with wit, that it was in fact impossible to add either to the property or the currency of a nation by merely multiplying the symbols of wealth. Property is a definite quantity of the gifts of heaven, and of tbe works ol man. Money is the token of its possession. The currency in whatever form, whether gold, silver, or paper, is an instrument of spontaneous growth which adapts itself to the uses of society, and rises and falls in amount according to the level of the national wants. There is nothing arbitrary and artificial, nothing within the immediate reach of legislative enactments, except the mere form of the institution. Proj erty and currency are matters of lact, as much so as the breadth and quality of the soil, the climate, tbe number and character of the population, and the national resources. It would, indeed,

be quite as possible to double the population of a country by a circulation of counters standing for men, as to double its wealth by a circulation of pecuniary counters. If the counters be convertible they will be presented for payment ; if not they will be thrown into the fire. But poverty, and that cupidity which is still more hungry than want, inspire all sorts of hallucinations on this captivating topic. An indefinite multiplication of tokens, a mortgage on everything moveable or immoveable, a loan borrowed from the future to be repaid five years hence, or at the Greek Kalent's, are only some of the brood of tiosel knaveries ever rising to this earth Irom the Limbo of Fools. — Times.

Parisian Items. — Paris, Friday Evening. — I have little to communicate, but it is satisfactory. The President of the Republic has again declared his determination to conciliate parties if possible, and to grant an amnesty the moment it can be done with safety. He gives on Sunday a dinner of conciliation to the late Ministers, and his new cabinet will meet them. Genera! Changarnier has unlimited powers as regards the troops in Paris for the maintenance of order. The General guarantees it. The peace feeling, as regards foreign states, will be strictly maintained. Messengers have already been sent off to announce this to all the Courts. The British ambassador has assuied the President of the continued good will of the British Government. General Cavaignac has been requested by Louis Buonaparte to allow his name to be set down as Vice-President of the Republic. He has not refused, and hopes are entertained that he will accept. The lunds have imp'oved nearly one per cent , for it is now believed that confidence will revive. At any rate, everybody has a conviction that fimeutes in Paris will be rendered impossible. The above informaiion may be relied upon. The Council of Ministers sat to-day, and came to a decision on the principal parts of their programme for Tuesday next in the National Assembly. — Correspondent of the Liveri 00l Albion, Dec. 25.

The Butler Divorce Case. — Intense interest has been excited in New York by the proceedings in the Court of Common Pleas, in relation to Mr. and Mrs. Butler (Fanny Kemble). Pierce Butler sues for a divorce against his wife on the ground that she has deserted him. Mrs. Butler replies that so far from deserting her husband, he had allowed her a separate maintenance, which fact alone inferred a desire on his part that they should not live together ; also, that by his conduct, and his preventing her from seeing her children, &c, she has been compelled to leave him, although reluctantly. The proceedings occupied five days, and the judges will probably take a month or more before they decide. The object of Mr. Butler is to obtain a divorce at once, which Mrs. Butler, in the event of her reply succeeding, will not only prevent, but take the whole case before a jury, and sue for alimony. Although the pleadings show much incompatibility of temper, and anything rather than amiable treatment on the part of the husband, yet not a shade of impropriety, in the coujugal sense of the word, in any way attaches to the lady. Indeed nothing is even alluded to by the counsel for the liliellant more than incompatibility of disposition. Public opinion is in favor of Mrs. Butler. — Atlas, Dec, 23.