ENGLISH EXTRACTS.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume VI, Issue 501, 22 May 1850, Page 3

ENGLISH EXTRACTS.

Mr. Sidney Herbert had received subscriptions to the amount of £12,000, for the plan of assisting the distressed needlewomen of London to emigrate. We are glad to see The Times cautioning the projectors of this scheme that they must only send out women likely to be useful to the colonies, and also expressing an opinion that it would be desirable to expend half the poor-rates in relieving the poor by emigration. Trade continued good. The revenue returns were favourable. Consols were at 97, and it appeared to be the general impression that they would be at par before summer time.

Affairs of Nicaragua. — We announced a few weeks since that Rear- Admiral Hornby, C.8., commander in chief in the Pacific, had been ordered to proceed from Valparaiso with all the men-of-war he could collect, to Nicaragua, and place his squadron at the disposal of the British charge d'affairs, for the protection of British interests against the designs and encroachments of the Yankees in that quarter. We have now also reason to believe that ViceAdmiral Lord Dundonald, commander in chief in the West Indies, will also assemble all the ships he can get together at that station, and proceed to the Mosquito shore with the same view. — United Service Gazette,

On the Continent all was quiet. After two years of rebellion and anarchy, all parties, except a very small minority of socialists, were anxious to have settled governments. Mr. G. J. Crawford had been gazetted a Judge for South Australia. Mr. Cooper therefore is to be the Chief Justice.

State of Trade. — Manchester, Monday, Dec. 31. — Notwithstanding the Christmas holidays the amount of business done today has been above the average of former years. There has been an advance on yarns and heavy fabrics, which are more firmly held and higher rates are being obtaired. Several spinners to-day refuse to operate except at higher rates. On some lighter goods, figured, twilled, and printed cloths, remunerative prices are obtained, and the manufacturers hold heavy orders. These descriptions of goods were greatly depressed in 1847. The fears generally felt a few weeks ago of the continued high price of the raw material are again revived from the state of the Liverpool cotton market. The price of middling Orleans at this date was in 1843, sjd.; 1844, 4d.; 1845, 4d.; 1846, 6fd.; 1847, 4§d.; 1848, 4d.; while to-day it is 6|d.; It is reported this afternoon that on counting the stock of cotton in Liverpool (which is done at the close of each year) the brokers find 88,000 bales more than their accounts of receipts and sales had led them to expect. If this be correct, it will be a seasonable addition to the light estimate of the stock on hand.

State of the Trade. — Birmingham, Saturday, December 29. — The Birmingham Journal of this morning takes the following cheering view of the prospects of the iron trade : — "Tbe abundance of money, the scanty stocks in the hands of dealers and consumers, tbe probable large spring shipments which are expected to be made to the United States and to the Continent, the improvement of trade generally, together with the iron which the India and other large projected railways may require, all combine to justify the most sanguine expectations of such a revival in the iron trade as once more to afford remuneration to those who have a large property at stake in this branch of our manu'actures."

The Lads for California. — To Chancery Lawyers, Attorneys of Landed Gentlemen, Stewards of Estates, and Treasurers of Companies and Institutions, desirous of a change, Mr. Punch warmly recommends emigration to California, not less for their own benefit than for that of others. They may be assured of finding Californian diggings even more lucrative than home pickings. It must be recollected that they possess peculiar facilities for separating the precious metal from its accompanying impurities. For this purpose they will require neither sieve nor cradle ; they will need only to pass the auriferous earth through their hands, aud assuredly all the gold in it will stick to their fingers. The Lays of Modern Babylon. — Feargus O'Connor has been laying down his life again. At the meeting of the National Conference in Dublin, he is reported to have said ;—"; — " But sooner than throw an apple of discord amongst them he would lay down his life." We are told that the Prime Minister of England has 120 livings in his gift, but these are nothing to the number that our friend Feargus has, considering he gives away a fresh life every time he speaks in public. Feargus's political life must be one of considerable vexation, since he is always talking about a-laying it. If Macaulay ever writes the " Lays of Modern Babylon," we hope be will not forget the countless lays upon which Feargus O'Connor has lavished the labour of innumerable lives. — Punch.