ENGLISH EXTRACTS. [From the Melbourne Argus, April 1.]

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume VI, Issue 497, 8 May 1850, Page 2

ENGLISH EXTRACTS. [From the Melbourne Argus, April I.]

By yesterday's arrivals we are in possession of complete files of English newspapers to the 29th December, inclusive. The following summary, which we have hastily compiled, will be found to include the principal intelligence :—: — Parliament was to meet for the despatch of business on the 29th January. It was not known whether the session would be opened by her Majesty or by royal commission. It was reported that a Protectionist amend- 1 ment would be moved upon the address in the House of Commons. Humour says, that the Bight Hon. Fox Maule is intended eventually to fill the office of Colonial Secretary, should the retirement of Earl Grey be the result of the mismanagement with which the department has been charged, while under the presidency of the noble Earl. It is also understood that Mr. Maule will resign his office of Caledonian Railway Director, as incompatible with his new duties and dignity. Among the signs of the times may be mentioned a fusion into one body of the two so*

cieties, hitherto maintained by the Protec- ! tionist party —the Agricultural Protection So- I ciety in Bond- street, and the National Society for the Protection of British Industry. The leaders of both have met, and have formed themselves into a single association, entitled the National Association for the Protection of Industry and Capital. The fact that the cause will not bear two societies, although their spheres of action were independent of each other, is significant. The Queen and Prince Albert had contributed £500 to the fund for the promotion of female emigration to the Australian colonies, projected by the Hon. Sidney Herbert. It was rumoured in the court circles that his Royal Highness Prince Albert was appointed to the Rangersbip of Bushy Park, vacant by the demise of her late Majesty the Queen Dowager.

The Chief Justiceship. —Lord Denman's resignation of the Chief Justiceship of the Queen's Bench, tendered some days since, in consequence of continued ill health, to the Premier, has been reluctantly accepted by the Cabinet, and- Lord Campbell, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, has received the important appointment. The noble and learned lord will, it is understood, take his seat on the first day of next term. No arrangement has yet been come to with respect to the vacancy in the Cabinet caused by Lord Campbells promotion, but rumour attributes to ministers an intention of recommending to the Sovereign that the Master of the Mint (the Right Hon. Richard Lalor Shiel) shall be called to her Majesty's Councils. —Times, Dec. 24. *- The Times states that at the next meeting of the Privy Council, the order authorising transportation to the Cape would be revoked. [This is the same Order in Council which authorised the attempt to send convicts to Port Phillip.—Ed. A.] The next batch of convicts was to be sent to Swan River. The govfrnment had yielded to the strong expression of public opinion lately conveyed through the press, and ordered a new expedition to be immediately fitted out to go in search of Sir John Franklin and his companions. Au expedition in search of Sir John Franklin, promoted and set on foot by private enterprise, was spoken of. The veteran Sir John Ross was to have the.command. The Law Times announces that, during the ensuing session of Parliament, the Stamp Laws will undergo revisionand consolidation. A- new Audit Bill was to be intioducedinto Parliament by the representative railway directors, excluding the objectionable finality in the 6th clause. It was rumoured that the Income Tax was about to be extended to Ireland. The Limerick Chronicle states that Colonel Rawdon, M. P. for Armagh city, is reported for the office of Secretary-at-War. A National Currency Reform Association was about to be formed iv London under the auspices of several influential antagonists of the gold money system. It was reported that ibe Right Hon. Rich' ard Lalor Shell, the Master of the Mint, was to be called to her Majesty's councils. Lord A. Lennox, third son of the Duke of Richmond, had been elected member for Shoreham, without opposition. , It was stated that a Lord of the Treasury and the Assistant Secretary to the Treasury, Sir Charles Trevelyan, were about to be appointed'members of a committee, for the purpose of further revising the public departments, with the view of effecting reforms or reductions. The contemplated reduction in the army was expected to be to the extent of 10,000 men, but the manner in which it was proposed to. effect it had not transpired. Rear Admiral the Honorable Sir Fleetwood Broughton Reynolds Pellew, G.C.8., K.C.H., is to receive the appointment of Commander-in Chief of the India and China Squadrons, vacant by the death of Sir F. Collier. Captain Hindmarsb, late Governor of South Australia, and Sir James Clark Ross, the North and South Pole Navigator, have had " good service pensions" conferred upon them. The United Service Gazette says theie is not the slightest foundation in the statement that the Admiralty had communicated to Rear-Admiral Sir Charles Napier, " that the board would be under the disagreeable necessity of suspending him, if he should again write so freely respecting the acts or qualifications of his superiors." The British Army Despatch states, that Sir Gabriel Wood has bequeathed £7000 for the erection and endowment of a hospital at Greenock for shipwrecked and distressed mariners. Sir Robert Peel had addressed a letter to his tenants, warning them not to be deluded into hoping for a return of protection, and pointing out that good farmers at home were more to be feared by bad farmers than the foreign grower. He offers to give up twenty

per cent, on a year's rent, the amount to be laid out on improvements; and the letter has been made public, no doubt, with a view to induce other landlords to follow this example, and at the same time to throw a damper on Protectionist reaction. A Royal Commission for enquiring into the best mode of carrying out the Exhibition of Industry of all Nations in 1851 was about to be issued, and is to consist of heads of parties and interests, members of the present and late administrations, representatives of agriculture, art, science, mechanics, and manufactures. It was proposed, in addition, to nominate any number of local commissioners desirable to represent all interests both at home and abroad. The great Art Exposition of 1851 has taken a more decided shape, by the formation of a contract with Messrs. Munday, the contractors, by which they take as a speculation, the whole risk of the buildings and prizes on themselves, in consideration of the profits. The half-yearly general meeting of the South Australian Company was held on the 28th Dec, when there appeared ihe sum of £10,000 chargeable as a balance against the Company on account of their mining operations, which the chairman said he considered they had a good change of recovering. Mr. Miller, a shareholder, objected to the adoption of the report, and said that whaling, cattle raising, and sheep-breeding, all of which were fortunate speculations in the hands of private individuals, had turned out unfortunately for the Company, and now they had engaged in mining operations, which it was admitted on all hands was the most hazardous of all. Eventually the report was adopted unanimously, and a resolution declaring the inexpediency of employing any more of the capital of the Company in mining operations was rejected by a large majority. The Belfast papers state that the curates from KiJlaloe diocese are emigrating to India and Australia. The inauguration of Queen's College, Belfast, took place on the 29th December. The Lord Primate was not present, owing to illhealth, but his Grace had offered £1000 for the purpose of founding a chair of divinity for students of the Church of England. The Very Rev. Dr. Cullen, President of the Irish College in the Holy City, has been appointed successor to the late Archbishop Crolly iv the Roman Catholic Primacy of Ireland. Among the deaths we observe the Archduke Ferdinand d'Este ; Admiral Lord Colville, of Colcross ; Sir Thomas Gibson Carmichael, Bart. ; Bishop Coleridge, late of Barbadoes ; Archdeacon Jennings, of Norfolk ; Dean Kirwan, President of Galway College ; and P. F. Tytler, the historian of Scotland. The London correspondent of the Liverpool Albion (December 24th) says : — "From the enormous amount of political talk uttered this week, it is possible to extract only one idea as to any definite course of action by any party during the coming session ; and that is from Cobden's Bradford speech, viz., an immediate assault on the Colonial Office. It has been repeatedly intimated here that a colonial leform league was in course of pre--" paration, based upon the principles of co-op-eration between Peelites and extreme Liberals, as propounded at the Greenwich dinner at the close of last session ; and from Cobden's hint and. other causes, to be presently glanced at, it would seem that this confederacy is now all but ripe for action. The letter of Mr. Godley to Mr. Gladstone, dated the 12th instant, but published in the Chronicle only the day before yesterday, and republished in the Spectator of this evening 'by request,' was long in preparation, was carefully revised by the heads of the Consertive section of the party, and is, virtually, their pronunciamento. Mr. Godley, now somewhat of an invalid, on his way to New Zealand, in which, like the Wakefields, he is deeply interested, was, like the Wakefields also, a large contributor to the Spectator on colonial politics ; but the Chronicle being the organ of the Gladstone and Adderley sect, was chosen for their manifesto, Mr. Cooke, the editor, furnishing the necessary commentary ; whereas the Spectator is the representative of the Molesworth branch, oir William priming Mr. Rintoul to sport the "We " in connexion with certain lucubrations on that head. What part, if any, Roebuck at present takes in the concoction of the plans, or will take in the working of them out, is known only to the initiated. Just now he is understood to be deep in practical farming on a small property of his in Hampshire, alternating the tedium of sub-soiling and clodcrushing by writing the History of the Whigs — a strange subject, you will say, seeing what Macaulay is pbout ; but John Arthur is not the man to yield the monopoly of an idea to nil the Thos. Babingtons in the creation. If he does not join the Cobden section in this business, (and he is said to think somewhat small beerisbly of the unadorned one's philo-

sophic yeast), they will be over-ridd n by the Peelites ; for though both have one object in common, they may have two ways of setting about its attainment. For instance, Cobden, we will say, would propose an amendment on tbe address at once, the success of which would be tbe immediate expulsion of the family government, no matter who might take their places. But this would not exactly suit the Conservative Reformers, for they couldn't well come in without Peel, ami that right hon. respectable Sphinx wont take any part in the contemplated move, though the meaning of the answer he gave to the invitation is much less easily discoverable than the whereabouts of Sir John Franklin. The Liberals are, to a certain extent, foiled already, for instead of Molesworth being chairman, as was intended, that post is to be occupied by a Conservative of hereditary commercial eminence in the City. It may be apprehension arising from this latter cause that has impelled Cobden so suddenly to cry out in bis present fashion for colonial reform, above all other reforms, though at the recent London Tavern meeting be provoked a good deal of odium, among the financial retrenchers and the political progressives by something like an intimation that there was little or no use agitating for or about anything till Mr. James Taylor, of Birmingham, should announce the arrival of the electoral millennium, in the übiquitous prevalence of the 40s. franchise — the real territorial constitution." The Weekly Chronicle, which has, from some cause with which we are unacquainted, come to he regarded as a semi-official authority, in matters of state, denies that any intention has been entertained, by the government, of giving way to the annexation movement, and the consequent abandonment of the Canadas. The Sunday Times reports that the Earl of Elgin will shortly retire from the Government of Canada. In Canada, the annexation, movement is said to be steadily advancing. The Indian troubles at Lake Superior have gone no further. Accounts from Singapore state that Sir J. Brooke is desirous of resigning the Government of Labuan if he can retain his consular and commission posts. The state of affairs in France is beginning to assume a very monarchical and anti-repub-lican aspect. Felicitations from crowned heads were pouringin upon the President from his staunch support of " order." The Emperor of Austria had sent his portrait, richly framed, with an autograph letter complimenting the President on the important services he has rendered to the cause of order and society. The Pope had also sent the President a letter thanking him for having freed the Holy dominions from the oppression of an anarchical and anti-christian faction. — The freedom of the press in France seems to retrograde as the government recedes towaids the ancient trder of things. The Re/orme, one of the ablest of the Paris journals, and a most important agent in the revolution which placed Louis Napoleon in the President's chair, has been seized for copying from the Northern Star the address of M. Ledru Rollin, and his companions in exile, to the democrats of Great Britain. — The abolition of the passport system in France had not been carried into effect up to the latest advices, and it was understood that although the principle had been adopted in the cabinet, it would only be acted upon, subject to variations according to to the frontier. — The Prince de Joinville, the youngest sou of Louis Philippe, the ex King of the French, it is said, will be a candidate for the office of President of the French Republic, at the next election. A noble Irish Earl, whose family have been seated in Munster for two centuries, is now living in a small house in the outskirts of an English watering-place, while grass grows in the courts of his splendid ancestral mansion. The Archduke John, the Reichsverwesa of the German empire ceased to control the affairs of the German central power on the 20th December, having on that day transferred the powers of his office into the hands of the Prussian Plenipotentiaries, in accordance with the treaty of the 30th September. This was considered as the final death gasp of the German revolutionary party. Haynau, the brutal commander of the Austrian forces in the Hungarian insurrection, was turning philanthropist, and had founded an institution at Pestb, for the relief of the imperial soldiers, and " misguided" Hungarians wounded during the late war. We should have thought, judging from all accounts, that there was small blame to M. Haynau if there were many of the latter left to reliiv?. — A formidable rebellion against the Austrian government had broken out in Servia. The legislature of Bavaria had resolved by a majority of 91 against 40, to give emancipation to the Jews. The Roman Catholic priests voted in the minority.

Exhibition of the Works of Art and Industry of all Nations.^— Con tracts

have been entered into between the Society of Arts and Messrs. James and George MunJay (contiactors for public works) for carrying out the project of bis Royal Highness Prince Albert, President of the Society of Arts, to establish an exhibition of the works of art and industry of all nations in 1851. By the terms of the indenture, which was signed on the 7th uK, the Messrs. Mundny undertake to carry out this unprecedented exhibition solely on their own responsibility, and to indemnify the Society of Arts from all the expenses and liabilities connected with the execution of the design, They agree to furnish £20,000 to be appropriated as prizes to the most deserving exhibitors, and to erect a capacious building calculated to cost £50,000 alone, and the site of which will be provided by her Majesty's Commissioners of Woods and Forests. If the receipts fiom subscriptions towards the object of the exhibition and from the charges of admission to the public prove sufficient, all the funds advanced by the contractors to be repaid with interest, at the rate of 5 per cent., and if a surplus ren.ain, the Messrs. Munday will receive two-thirds of it. Thus the aggregate sum required to set the exhibition fairly afloat will not be less than £80,000. That is to say, £20,000 directly to be distributed in prizes ; £50,000 the cost of the erection of a suitable building for the reception of the objects of exhibition; and finally, £10,000, more or less, for other preliminary and auxiliary out-goings connected with the due working of the scheme. ,

Conspiracy in Moscow. —The Hamburgh Borsenhalle, of the 19th December, just received, states that intelligence had reached the Polish frontier on the 15tb, to the effect that a widely ramified conspiracy, which had its centre in Moscow, and the aim of which was to overthrow the present Russian dynasty, had just been brought to light. Parties in St. Petersburgh were at the head of the conspiracy, of which it was stated several members of the senate were cognisant. From intercepted papers it appears that on the next celebration of the (Russian) New Year's Day, an attempt was to have been made on the person of the Emperor. The discovery has caused the more anxiety to tha Government from the fact that all the conspirators, who have as yet been discovered, belong to the upper rank, and to the national proprietary body. The Poles seem not to" have forgotten the disastrous results which have always followed their mixing themselves up with any political movement; on this account it was that the Government lately reduced to a much smaller number the army corps which have for some time past garrisoned Poland, and it is thought that the recent withdrawal of the guard corps from that country has been caused by apprehensions of the conspiracy just discovered. A very peremptory ukase has made its appearance, requiring all Russian subjects who are at present in foreign countries to return as qnick as possible to their homes, and threatening to confiscate the property of all those who fail to comply with this injunction. —Plymouth Paper, Dec. 29. The Manchester Guardian publishes an account of the defalcations of the late Mr. Haworth, actuary of the Rochdale Savings' Bank. The "system" had been going on for ten or twelve years. The deficiencies at present ascertained amount to £35,000. As many as 16,000 depositors are affected directly or indirectly. Among the sums deposited are the sick funds of St. James', St. Clement's, St. Stephen's, and the parish church of Rochdale; besides the funds of many benefit societies. Mr. Haworth was a member of the Society of Friends ; was very extensively employed as an agent; frequently on account of his supposed probity, he was chosen as an arbitrator ; and he was held in such estimation that a general desire was expressed by his fellow-townsmen to honour his remains with a public funeral. It is said that the Government have intimated to the trustees and managers of the Bank, that they must be responsible for the defalcations, and the depositors be held harmless. .

A Smuggler's Trick. —It was stark calm ; and as the fog cleared up a little I «aw I was in the very jaws of a ship of war, and I almost gave up all for lost. However, at they were lowering their jolly boat to board me, I sculled off to them, all alone in my little punt, and asked the people of the ship if they knowed what was good for measles ! I could hear them laugh from stem to stern. A big fat man, they called the doctor, told me to keep my patients warm, and to give them hot drinks. It was enough ; they did not come near the Peggy Ann that time. — Gesner's Nova Scotia.

The Britannia Bridge. — Successful Floating of the Second Great Tube. — The operation of floating the second great tube of the bridge was on Monday last successfully accomplished. There were eight pontoons ready to do duty, six of wood and two of iron, their maximum floating power

being 3,200 tons, each capable of sustaining 400 tons, containing 19,000 cubic feet of water, and of displacing a like volume wben submerged. The tackle, in the shape of cables and hawsers, was extended over the Strait, and was two miles in length, attached to the different capstans and on the pontoons, where the strain was enormous. The hawsers, by means of which, as it were in leading strings, the tube was guided, reached from the pontoons to the Anglesea shore, kept afloat on the surface of the stream by innumerable barrel-buoys. Each pontoon is 110 feet long, 25 feet wide, and 11 feet deep. The two iron ones are of wrought plates, closely riveted together. There are large valves at the bottom of each pontoon, by which the water was admitted for sinking them the moment that the tube touched the shelves. The depths of their sides and flat bottoms gave them all requisite buoyancy with a comparatively small draught of water. By capstans fitted on their decks, acting in concert with those on shore, the haulage of the tube was effected. Precisely at eleven o'clock, Mr. Stephenson, Captain Claxton, Mr. Edwin Clark, Mr. Brunei, Mr. Bidder, and Mr. Wild, scaled the ladders that led to the top of the stupendous tube, and gave the note of preparation to the assistants who had charge of the pontoons and capstans, amid the cheers of the surrounding multitudes who thronged the towers and the adjacent heights. Not the slightest accident occurred. A slight hitch occurred' in placing the Anglesea end of the tube in the recesses of the tower, owing to the tube being somewhat broader than the others at the end, but after a little coaxing, it was finally locked in to repose upon its temporary shelves. The entire operation occupied about an hour. It will be three weeks before the tube is lifted, but it is thought that the successful process of floating may have the effect of causing the highway to be completed by February, a month earlier than was expected. Should the first line of tube be completed by March of 1850, the works will then have been nearly four years in progress. Telford's Menai Suspension Bridge was eight years in building : the weight of its iron work, compared with that of Britannia Bridge, being as 644 to 10,000 tons, or in the ratio of one to fifteen. — Atlas, December 8.

Me. Pips His Diary. — Monday, October 22. — Up, and to Church, together with ray "Wife, to see Pall Harley married this morning to Dick Baker ; on both Sides mighty genteel People, and their Guests, all except ourselves, such as they do call Carriage Company. Pall, in a dress of White Satin, and Orange Flowers in her Hair, very pretty and demure, and Dick, wearing a sky blue Coat, Crimson Velvet waistcoat, Yellow Moleskin Trousers, and Japanned Boots, with Lavender Kid Gloves, and a Carbuncle in his shirt front, a great Buck. Dick, and every man of us, with great white Favours at our breast, mighty conspicuous and, methought, absurd, the Things serving neither Use nor Ornament, But to see how grand were old fat Mr. Harley and Mr. Baker, and how more grand were their fat Wives, and how fine and serious they looked and bow high they carried their Noses! and when the Ring was put on Pall's Finger (Dick having fumbled for it in the wrong Pocket), her Mother did weep, and, falling for support on Mr. Harley, nigh overthrew him. But the pretty modest bridesmaids did most of all take me ; which, my wife observing, I saw did trouble her. The Ceremony over, and the Fees paid, and the Bride kissed by some of the old Gentlemen, we to old Harleys to breakfast, where what Wiggyns do call a Grand Spread, very fine both for Show and Meats, every Dish ornamented with Flowers and Giracracks, the cold Chickens trimmed with Ribands, and the Bride cake, haying upon it Wax Cupids and Turtle Doves, was pretty. So down we sat, Dick stiff and sheepish, and Pall also, shamefaced, and trying to hide her Blushes with a nosegay. Pall's mother in Tears, and her Father solemn, and the Bridesmaids mostly bashfnl, but a little black one that sate by me very merry, and I did by-and-bye pull Crackers with her, till my Wife suddtnly thrust a pin into my Arm, to the Qu ck. The Company first sileut, till a Friend of the young Pair, who did say that he had known them both from Babies, did propose their Health in a pretty pathetic but confused Speech, and, breaking down in the Midst of a Sentence, conclude, by wishing them long Life and Happiness, with great Applause. Then the Bride-Groom to return thanks, but, perplexed with his Pronouns, obliged to stop short too, but, he said, overcome by his Feelings. The Champagne flowing, we soon merrier, especially an old uncle of Dick's, who began to make Jokes, which did trouble the Bride a»d Bride-Groom. But they presently with much crying and kissing, and shaking of Hands, away in a Coach and- Four, amid the Cheering of the Crowd in the Street and the Boys shouting to behold the fine Equipage; and Servants and old Women looking on from the opposite Windtws.

We eating and drinking with great delight till late in the Afternoon, but at last broke up, the Multitude saluting us each as we stepped into the Street, and the Policeman and Beadle that were guarding the Door in great State touching their Hats. A grand Marriage Breakfast do give a brave Treat to the Mob, in show, and to the Company in eating and drinking, and is great Fun to all but those most concerned. But to think what a Fuss is made about most Marriages, and how little reason for it is shown by most People's married Life ! — Punch.

Ordnance Conchology ; or, the Economy of Shells. — " When Vulcan forged the bolts of Jove" thunder was cheap. What a pity our ordnance department has no Vulcan. The amount that thunder costs us per peal — that is, broadside— is awful. The Times quotes from a Blue Book the value of a single shell at 1 Is. 3|d. That sum does not include the charge — either of gunpowder or carriage — for delivery. In such a shell there is an egg that an agricultural labourer and his family could live upon for a week. At the siege of Gibraltar, it is said, the besieged could distinguish between the missiles pitched upon them^ and would cry, "Here's a shot," or " here comes a shell." When John Bull sees a shell fired now, he will be -disposed to cry, "There goes lls. g|d!" It must take an immense amount of damages to the enemy in an action to answer the expense of such projectiles, many of which must, necessarily, missing their mark, make a hole in nothing but a guinea. — Ib.