ENGLISH EXTRACTS.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume VIII, Issue 678, 31 January 1852, Page 3

ENGLISH EXTRACTS.

At length, and for the fourth time, have the Admiralty called for tenders, to be sent in by the 4th December, for the conveyance of mails to Australia by screw propeller vessels, every two months bv way of the Cane of

Good Hope. In addition to this, are tender! for the monthly delivery of mails to the West Coast of Africa, now delivered by the Cape steamers to their very serious hindrance. Earl Grey arrived in town, on the 12th, from Lord Minto’s seat at Hcwick, and will remain until he proceeds to Scotland to attend upon her Majesty on her return from the north. His lordship was at the Colonial Office yesterday up to a late hour in the evening.

It is rumoured that Mr. Jostice Perrin is about to retire, upon a promise of promotion for two of his sons in their respective professions. The vacant Justiceship of the Queen’s Bench ;s to be filled by the elevation, of Mr. Hatcbell, and the Attorney Generalship thus vacated is to be assumed by the Right Hon. •R. Wilson Greene, Q.C., Mr. Hughes continuing to hold his present office of Solicitor General.

Something like the stones crying out is being illustrated in Germany. What Mr, Gladstone has done -as to Naples, The overflowing of. the Rhine is doing with regard to Baden. In the great federal fortress of Rastadt there were at least fifty or sixty prisoners. When the waters rose around the castle the garrison were taken off in boats ; but every one of the captives was left to perish ! This was in the Grand Duchy of Baden. Captain Campbell, of the barque Levenside, has obtained £2OO damages against Captain Vesey, at St. Helena. The Great St, Leger Stakes, at Doncaster, were run for on the 17th September, and won by Mr. Nichol’s Newminster, beating Sir John Hawley’s Aphrodite, Sir R. Bulkeley’s Hookem Snivy, and Mr. Olivet’s Sir Rowland Trenchard.

Dr. Achilli has intimated, at one of the meetings of the Evangelical Alliance, that he intends to prosecute Dr. Newman for libel at the commencement of next term. The Northern Star says : —“ Mr. Feargus O’Connor, M.P., in a state of embarrassment, has left foi the continent. His land allotment scheme is to be wound np immediately.” It is an extraordinary fact, stated on authority, that there are at the present time more of an Irish population in the United States of America than there is in Ireland itself. Assistant-Surgeon Duffers, of the Niger screw steam-sloop, has been drowned on the coast of Africa by the upsetting of a boat. Comfrander Heath, of the same vessel, was taken out of the water exhausted. On the 27th of August, Mr. Salmond, of Waterfoot, Cumberland, and his son, Mr. Charles Salmond, accompanied by six guides, attempted an ascent of Mount Blanc. They reached within 200 yards of the highest peak, where they encountered a severe snowstorm, which drove them back, and they accomplished the descent with difficulty and some danger. Beyond the daily increasing feelings of discontent which are plainly observable throughout Germany, Austria, and Italy, there is very little European political news this week. There can be no doubt that Kossuth and his companions at Kutayah will be liberated at the time specified. The Austrians are endeavouring to raise a new loan by subscription, and have magnanimously excluded the English from any participation in the speculation. Very considerate this I Kossuth and His Companions.— The United States steam frigate Mississippi, the largest steam frigate in the American navy, while on her way to Constantinople to receive Louis Kossuth, the Hungarian chieftain, and convey' him to America, ran on shore on the night of the 21st /Xugust, on the point of St. James’ Castle in Smyrna Bay, close to the lighthouse. The Eiucine happened to be passing at the time, and with three other vessels attempted to tow her off, but they were unable to accomplish it. Such was the force with which the Mississippi bad I run ashore that some portion of her keel was i literally high and dry. It is probable that if | not yet off, and if she has experienced rough | weather, she has been in the utmost danger nf beiu- T wrecked, To her off at all it was believed that everything would have to be taken cut of her. It is probable that this sad disaster will alter the present destiny of Kossuth, and instead of being taken direct from Turkey to the United States, his wishes will be gratified by visiting England first. It is highly probable now that Kossuth will embark at the Dardanelles on board the Peninsular and Oriental Company’s steamer Tagus, which calls there on the 20th of this mouth, aud if so Kossuth, his family, and his distinguished fellow-captives, will arrive in Southampton Water about the sth of October. Gold in the Greenland Mountains. —We read in a letter from Copenhagen of the 20th ult. :—“ It having been stated that the chain of mountains which runs across the whole extent of Greenland is composed of formations similar to those ot the Ural Mountains, and that consequently there is reason to suppose that it contains mines of the precious

metals, M. Godefroi, member of the Chamber or Commerce of Copenhagen, and Sir Walter Trevelyan, an English mineralogist, well known for his geological explorations in the Fence islands, have sent to Greenland a commission of Danish, English, and Norwegian mineralogists, charged to make soundings in ‘he mountains of that country, and in the surrounding land, in order to ascertain whether any indications of the precious metal exist, This committee, accompanied by 60 experienced English and Swedish miners, left Copenhagen on Monday last in a vessel for the port of Godthab, in the south of Greenland."

France. —Paris, Thursday Evening. —Although great efforts were made to-day to prop up the money market, and there wej;e further discounts to the amount of 150,000 francs, the rentes have fallen. Closing price of five per cents., 92 10 ; lower for the end of the month, The exchange on London is high. 25 12|. There are buyers of short paper. The Ministers had held two Cabinet Councils, at which the President of the Republic presided, to discuss the Cuban affairs, and it was unanimously resolved to take, if necessary, efficient measures, either with or without the concurrence of England, to protect the rights of the Queen of Spain. —Nearly all the general councils have declared in favour of the revision of the Constitution, It seems pretty clear that the Prince de Joinville will be a candidate for the presidency next year, if he meets with sufficient encouragement. Nearly two hundred persons have been arrested in Paris, of whom one hundred and fifty v?ere Germans. This has tended to make the government unpopular, as these arrests are supposed to have taken place at the instigation of Austria-

Spain.—The Government of Spain has given pressing orders to fit out with all possible haste the four steamers of 350-power, constructed in the Ferrollandat Cadiz, which are to be placed at the disposal of the governor of the Pbillippine Islands. It is reported in court circles atMadrid that Queen Isabella 11. has made avow that if she should be safely delivered of a healthy child, she would not go to a ball for a year, and will wear a religious dress for six months. The infant child of the Duchess ofMontpensier was baptized on the 29th August, when she received no less than 25 names, among which were those of Marie Amelia,