LATEST ENGLISH NEWS. [From the Melbourne Argus, May 17.]

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume VIII, Issue 715, 9 June 1852, Page 2

LATEST ENGLISH NEWS. [From the Melbourne Argus, May 17.]

We have receiyed a copy of the Times of the 20th January, and one of the Daily News of February 10th. For these papers we are indebted to Captain Boggis, of the Wanderer, from Sydney. He spoke the Roman Emperor, bound for Sydney, off Cape Howe, then ninety days from London ; and obtained the papers from her. We give below every item of interest that we can find in these isolated journals ; but the connection of events in Europe, it is, of course, impossible to draw from them ; and, doubtless, the complete series will reach us by way of Sydney. -Despatches from the Governor of Van Diemen's Land were received at the Colonial Office on the 19th January. The Court was at Windsor on the 9th Feb., and the Royal Family were all well. An attempt has been made on the life of the Queen of Spain. She was stabhed by an ecclesiastic. The wound seems to have been dangerous, as the latest news was this :—": — " Feb. 3—l3 — I have just met one who comes from the Queen's chamber. This afternoon the news is bad. The peritoneum has been pierced by - three inches of the poignard. Notwithstanding the bulletins, she has been much agitated the whole night, and only slept a little through opium. People go so far as to dread a sad issue within five or six days. On the sth, the Queen's state was considered satisfactory. On the 7th, the criuiinal who made the attempt to murder the Queen was executed." Louis Napoleon seems secure in his seat. He has sent the Duke of Bassano as envoy to the Court of Belgium. The correspondent of the Daily News say :—: — " I am able to assure you on good authority, that one of the demands which M. de Bassano is charged to make from the Belgian Government is the removal of the monumental lion from the field of Waterloo, .and thejiemolition of the pyramidal mound of triumph which it crowns. The application now made by Louis Napoleon for the demolition of the trophy makes one recall his laconic declaration before the Court of Peers, when tried for the seditious attempt at Boulogne. He then said . ' I represent as principle the sovereignty of the people, as system the empire, and as action the retrieval of Waterloo.' The two first points have been carried, and it is certain that no means will be neglected to achieve the last. It is a ' fixed idea' with the President, and ' you may rest assured that he will prosecute it with the dogged tenacity of purpose which marks his character. Meanwhile, it is true that the Prince ridicules the preparations for national defence against invasion which are talked of in England ; and I understand that he mentioned, the other day, at his dinner table, as an instance of the crotchets which prevailed in some heads across the Channel on this subject, that an English gentleman had showed him a plan which he had formed for. the fortification of his own mansion -, as a precaution against piratical incursions of the French in case of war. But nothing would be less conclusive' than to infer the pacific intentions of Louis Napoleon from such ridicule ; since it is well known that - he treated with disdainful mockery the surmises of a coup d'etat at the moment when the project which he scornfully disavowed was malured in his head, and he was only waiting for an apt juncture to strike the long meditated blow." - -

The Money Market. — To-morrow is the account day in Consols, and preparations for the" settlement weje going forward to-day. Other transactions were few. The rate of continuations to the March accountwas from about 1 '16 to £. Consols opened at 96£ to f for money and to-morrow, improved to 96% to £, and reverted at the close to the opening quotation. The Submarine Telegraph Company inaugurated its establishment in the City with intelligence from "Madrid, but the only news which possessed any great interest was the arrival of nearly half- a million of specie in the two steamers from New York and the West Indies. The official report of the day's transactions is : Three per Cent. Consols. 96£, f , -f ; ditto for Account, 96^ A f A, A. Three per cent. Reduced, 97£, £, I-. New Three- and- a- Quarter per Cent., 98-f, hh h !•' - Bank Stock ' 21 7. East India Stock, 258. The unfunded securities were dealt in at Saturday's prices, the official record stating the transactions as follows : — Exchequer Bills of the several descriptions, 645. 61s. prem; India Bonds, £1,000/ 725. prera. — Daily News> February 10. . . '

In the Times money article of Jan. 20 we find the following :—: — The English and Australian Copper Company hav;e announced that -they have arranged to place a branch of .their* establishment at Melbourne. (Port Phillip) for the purpose of smelting or amalgamating the gold produce of that Colony. The Company, although primarily established for smelting copper, are empowered by 'their constitution to extend their .operations to all other metals. From this it is evjdent, that the news of the discovery of the Victoria Diggings had reached England. The dividend declared to day at the meeting of the Union Bank of Australia was at the rate of six per cent per annum, with a bonus of 10s. per share, and the report and accounts were unanimously adopted. In the course of the proceedings reference wa's made to the late intelligence of the gold discoveries and to the exertions used for the promotion of emigration. An anticipation was expressed that the movement commenced among the merchants since the arrival of a deputation frtfrn Australia would eventually provide the requisite supply of labour. "With regard to the position of the bank, it was- represented as extremely satisfactory, not a single;bad debt being in existence, while " the general prospects also continued of an encouraging character. In answer to a question, it was announced* by the chairman that of the item under the head of assets, £554,287, the amount invested in Government stock was £1 10,000. Before the business was . finally concluded, a vote of £500 was passed for the benefit of the widow of Mr. Odkden, the late local director of the Launceston branch as a recognition of the value of his services, he having in fact been one of the original founders of the bank. The report says : — The directors now proceed to submit the statement of accounts, the result of which enables them to declare the usual dividend at the rate of 6 per cent per annum on the entire paid up capital of the bank, together with.a bonus of 10s. per share on the 32,000 paid up shares, and, a like proportion of bonus on the £2 10s. per share paid upon'B,ooo shares of the third series, payable in London free of income tax, on Tuesday, the 3rd of February, and in the colonies, with the addition of 7d. in the pound, as soon as the inspector shall fix the receipt of advice :—: —

The letters from Glasgow to-day give no ' further information regarding the stoppage of Messrs M'Ewan and Co., but they state the liabilities at £100,000, which is rather less than the sum originally mentioned. Parliament was sitting on the 10th Feb. The following is a summary of the proceedings of the previous eveving :—: — In the House of Lords, the Common Law Amendment Bill was read a second time. Earl Granville stated that Lord Palmerston had sent no reply to the remonstrances of certain foreign powers^ as to the political refugees residing in this country ; but he believed, had that noble Lord remained in office, he would have given a similar reply to that which he (Earl Granville) had forwarded. . In the House of Commons, the Marquis of Blandford gave notice of a bill of redivision of parishes, with a view to the better apportionment of ecclesiastical duty. ;Lord,J. Russell, -as to the recall of Sir H. u Smith, intimated that the same rule of submitting for her Majesty's approval every despatch - from the Colonial-Office, did not apply as in the •case of the Foreign-office." The despatch recalling Sir H. Smith had been submitted to aid received the sanction of the whole of the cabinet. * ' Sir F. Bai-ing said, he would not object to lay on the table all the correspondence which had taken place with the Admiralty on the subject of the loss of the Amazon. Lord John Russell in moving the promised Reform Bill, urged the circumstances of the tranquillity of the country as rendering the present session peculiarly fitted to the consideration of the subject. He denied that it was merely on the spur of the moment, when pressed last year, that he resolved to propose a measure of parliamentary reform. In 1 848, while opposing Mr. Hume's motion, he 'stated that the period was probably approaching -'when it would be well to consider whether some extension of the suffrage was not necessary. The question was discussed in the cabinet in 1549 and 1850, but on both occasions there were reasons sufficient for its postponement, But while admitting the necessity for an extension of the suffrage, he held the claim untimely which asserted the right of every individual to the franchise. He then drew an historical retrospect of all the measures of reform proposed from that of Mr. Pitt, in 1871, down to the bill of 1852, the main provisions of' which, so far as they limited the franchise in counties and boroughs he called attention to, and urged, that if ' the counties

and large towns only returned members, it would be impossible to say that we had a fair system of representation. Where -representation depended solely on numbers, as in the United States, it had been found necessary to arm the Executive, in the person of the President, with powers far beyond those held by the Sovereign of this country, viz., to appoint his ministry without any reference to the opinions of Congress. It would be unwise, and destroy the balance of the constitution, if in this country the representation were confined to the counties and large towns. v He saw no reason, nor was it intended to proceed arbitrarily to absolute disfranchisement in the case of small boroughs. Tt was oniy,proposed to disfranchise those boroughs when .there was proof of corruption, to be ascertained by means of a commission, similar ,to that appointed in the St. Albans case. It s. would be ior the house to consider whether the hiatus in the representation occasioned by the disfranchisement of boroughs under such circumstances should not be filled up as he now proposed in the case of Sudbury and Saint Albans, by giving the vacant seats to'popu'lous and growing towns like Birkenhead and Barnsley. Holding that parliament was correct in 1831 in placing the right of voting on household suffrage, at a £10 qualification, he thought the time had now come when it might safely be lowered. He proposed to substitute a rated value of £5 in boroughs for.the existing £10 franchise. In point of numbers he calculated that the proportion of occupiers between £5' and £10 as compared with those of £10 and upwards, was about 6to 10. The proposed change, therefore, would add materially to the number of voters in boroughs. He proposed to maintain the distinction between the county and the borough franchise, established by the Reform Act. The 40s. freehold franchise would not be disturbed, but with regard to the occupation franchise, he thought the same qualification which entitled a man to sit on juries might safely be taken as that which should give the right to vote for members of Parliament ; and accordingly he proposed to reduce the occupation franchise in counties from £50 to £20 rated value; and with regard to copyhold tenures and long leaseholds, the qualification was to be reduced from £10 to £5. Besides these it was proposed to give a new right of voting indiscriminately to persons re-iding either in counties or boroughs — those residing without the limits of the borough to vote for the county, and those within, for the borough that was, the right of all persons to vote who paid direct taxes in the shape of assessed or income tax, to the amount of ,-lOs. a year. Such new qualification, however, was not to extend to persons who paid merely for licenses. This would obviate the objection frequently and reasonably urged, that while persons holding freehold or leasehold property, and even mere occupying tenants had the right of voting, a large class of educated men possessing property and every qualification for the exercise of the franchise had tiot that right. With regard to the small boroughs he thought on principle they should be maintained. We did not find, although there was now an outcry aga ; nst them, that Mr. Pitt, Mr. Fox, or any other statesman- who -had- propounded, or Supported, plans of parliamentary reform had ever suggested the total destruction of the small boroughs. It was a mistake to suppose that all these boroughs were in'ected with corruption more than some of the larger constituencies. In many of them elections were conducted with purity ; but as with regard to some it was said with truth that the influence of property controlled the elections, and. as it was desirable that" 1 that reproach should be removed, he proposed where such influence prevailed to extend the constituency by adding neighbouring towns in, the same or the adjoining county. In bringing forward the Reform Act he had stated that no electoral borough under that Act would have less than 300 voters, and while that was the case generally, it appeared that 14 had less than that number, about 33 more had less,than 400, and several others less than 500. He proposed to abide by that standard of 500, and to add places in the neighbourhood to those which had less, in order to make up that number. The number of boroughs to which this principle would apply in England and Wales would be 67. These small boroughs (except' some few in Yorkshire) being in the southern and western counties were principally in" agricultural ' districts, and the places it was proposed to add to them being of the same character of course the balance of interests established by the Reform Bill would be preserved, the object being, not to interfere with those' interests, but to leave them as they were. Last "year he had intimated that he attached no value to the property qualification of members, and that he was willing to see it abolished, and, acting on that opinion, a clause would be introduced into the bill repealing all the Acts from Anne downwardsreferring to that subject, so that in future the English and Irish members would, in this respect, be placed on a footing of equality with those of Scotland. Another subject he proposed to deal with" in the bill — after the necessary resolution of the house on the subject should be passed— was the oaths taken by members. He saw no advantage in maintainin"- invidious distinctions between the oaths of Protestants and Roman Catholics, nor in callin"- upon members to abjure James 11. and his descendants. In the new form of oath he proposed the words "on the true faith of a Christian " should be omitted — words which had never been introduced to confine the right of sitting in Parliament to Christians,, but for a totally different purpose. The oath he would suggest was a simple one, which all members could take alike, merely binding them to allegiance to the throne, and fidelity/, to the succession. There would be one other clause m the bill in regard to members accepting offices under the Crown. At present, not only when the member first accepted office, 'but when he changed office his seat became vacant. He did nut propose to alter the law as regarded members accepting office for the first time, but he thought that when a member who held one office merely changed to another under the same administration, there should be no necessity for a re-election ; and to this extent he proposed to effect an alteration. With regard to Ireland it vat not proposed to make any alteration in lespect. to the county franchise. But with regard to the city and borough' fran-

1 chise, the qualification would be reduced from £8 to £5, it having been found that the £8 franchise greatly restricted the number of voters in Ireland. The very small number on the lists of some of the boroughs had disposed Government to reconsider the question placed before the House when the Irish Bill was before it,— .viz., whether, with regard to some of those boroughs, it was -not advisable to add the neighbouring towns, and thereby secure larger and more independent constituencies. This question of the franchise settled, Parliament would be in a position to consider one from which it was not ali^n, viz., the education of the people. In another session he. trusted they would- be prepared to concur in a general measure, on that subject. After a spirited discussion, leave was granted to bring in the bill. A terrific catastrophe had taken place at Holmfirth, in Lancashiie. from the bursting of an immense reseiroir. The .particulars are not before us, but a leader in the Daily News has this paragraph :—": — " Whatever the cause, this Holmfirth disaster — this destruction not merely of a whole town, but the uprooting by bursting, roaring, impetuous .irresistible-floods, of a whole district — this sweeping away of great factories, carrying off and down the inundation huge pieces of machinery, as if they were but 'the branches of trees, or the 'hurdles from a sheepfold — ibis floating upwards of eighty human beings into eternity — lias certainly not produced one-half the consternation of the Amazon disaster ; thongh it wants but few of its tragic mournful incidents ; and has terrible features of its own of even deeper interest. The surrounding towns of Manchester, Huddersfield, and Sheffield, have to be sure, hurried to see the terrible scene ; for to them Holmfirth and the valley in which it stood, was a daily reality, a a seat of congenial industry and activity ; there lived their neighbours, their friends, their acquaintances, their business connexions; curiosity, too, took hundreds on Sunday to the afflicted spot, as if on a railway excursion to Alton Towers or Castle Howard. But here at a distance, wheie the very name of Holmfirth — despite its great productive capacity and energy — was comparatively unknown, the newspaper accounts of the catastrophe have not made a deep impression.

The Arctic Searching Expedition. — A decisive step towards the renewed search for Sir John Franklin and his companions has at length been taken.by the appointment of Sir Edward Belcher to the command of the Arctic Expedition. It is understood that the nominations have included Capt. Kellett as the second in command, and Captain M'Cliniock and Lieut. Shenard Osborn, late of the Pioneer, to one of the steam tenders. The speculating mania seems to have taken the " Mining Company"' form just now. In the papers before us we find prospectuses of the following companies : — Central Australian Gold Mining Company ; Victoria Gpld Mining Company ; Australian Mutual Gold Mining Association ; Australian Gold Diggings Company ; Australian Freehold Gold Mine; Melbourne Gold and General Mining Association; and se\eral Californian Companies. All these look - like bubbles,- and some of them are evidently so. i A woman named Cosgrave, wife of the headconstable at Loughrea, in Ireland, murdered her two infant children, and then attempted suicide, but was prevented. Her husband is insune since the occurrence. The strike of the Manchester engineers still { continued. Twenty thousand men were out of ; employment in consequence. Notice is given, that all goods which the owners have neglected to remove from the i building of the Exhibition in Hyde Park, and j which are found remaining there after the 31tt ' of January, will be disposed of as Her Majesty's Commissioners see fit, and if sold, the proceeds will be carried to the general funds of the Exhibition. An English architect, Mr. Clark, is occupied in building a winter haven at Pesth. It is to made large enough for 10S0 vessels. A ballast train on the Metz Railway has been precipitated oven an embankment. Two persons were killed on the spot, one so much ■ injured that he died shortly after, and another had his collar bone, broken. • M. Demetrius Perrouka, who played a distinguished part in Greek affairs, has been assassinated in his bed at Argos. His body was covered with wounds. The authors of the crime are not known. A supplement to the Corfu Gazette of the 22nd ultimo, has a notification from the Lord High Commissioner, containing a decree of Her Britannic Majesty, by which ths lonian Parliament is dissolved. ' | Karasinski who has been condemned to 20 ( years hard labour in Siberia for a political offence, has had his sentence commuted on the intercession of the Prince of Warsaw, but he is to remain all his life in that country. The Protestant Bishopric of Jerusalem, founded ten years since, under the protection of England and' of Prusyfr/ having become vacant, will now be filled by a pre ate chosen by the King of Prussia, M. " Valentiner; a Schleswig ecclesiastic. The Danish authorities at Schleswig arrested a few days ago M.. Lesser, -Inspector-General of roads "in Holstein, on the charge of having served in the ranks of the insurgents in IS4B and 1849. The Austrian Lloyds Company, at Trieste, have sent to England to buy five new steamers for their service. Baron Brack, the enlightened ex-minister of Commerce, is the chief director of this company. Dr/ Edward Banks, Syndicus f and Secretary to the Senate of Hamburgh, frequently employed by that 'city in important diplomatic missions, has died in Switzerland, where he was travelling for the restoration of his health. The net receipts of the railway- throughout the kingdom of Prussia during the first months of the current year amounted to 33,44 1,284f., being 2,402,742f. more than in the same period in 1850. The Augslurgh Gazette states that the greatest efforts are being made by the Government of Bavaria to induce M. Liebig to leave the university in which he has so long taught, and accept the highest chair of chemistry in that of Munich. The deficiency of the harvest in Saxony ren-

dering it necessary to import large quantities of corn from Silesia, special trains have been established, which bring upwards of 2000 bushels daily to Dresden. According to the last advices from Persia, anarchy, plundering, and murdering, exist at Teheran, in consequence of the fall of the first minister, Murgatajhi Khan, who is replaced by his brother, the minister of war. The Krutz Zeitung pointedly asserts that the King" of Naples has been required to act as umpire in the differences about the demarcation of the confines of'Holstein and Schleswig. A Legitimist Congress is to be held at Wiesbaden this month, and the Count de Chambord has already made preparations for leaving Froh'sdorff to be present at it.

Liabilities. £ s. d. Bills payable, and sundry balances 96,201 1 fi Reserve fund (10 per cent) 86,672 13 10 Profit and loss 72,454 14 6 159,127 8 4 Paid up capital "..820,000 0 0 £1,075,328 9 10 Assets. Bra ich accounts, balance 446,022 8 0 Bill receivable «0,849 13 10 Government stock, and loans on security 554,287 16 0 Opea policies, &c > 3,622 2 10 Cash 10,546 9 2 £1,075,328 9 10 Statement of Profits. Balance of undivided piofit at June, 1851 ........ 70,179 15 4, To which are now to be added'profits ' of the past half-year, ending at the branches June 30, and at the London office, December 3l, lßol.. 48,083 5 9 Deduct one-tenth for re- - serve fund 4.8C8 6 7 43,274 19 2 £113,454 14 6 Deduct dividend and bonus paid at Midsummer, 1851 41,000 0 0 Balance of undivided profit at this date £72,454 14 6 Reserve Funu. At June, 1851, as per statement 81,864 7 3 Add to December, 1851, as above 4,808 6 7 £86,672 13 10

UNION BANK OF AUSTRALIA. - London, December 31, 1851.