EUROPEAN NEWS. [From the Sydney and Adelaide Papers.]

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume VIII, Issue 716, 12 June 1852, Page 3

EUROPEAN NEWS. [From the Sydney and Adelaide Papers.]

The various States of Switzerland have sub- , scribed 295,912f. as a loan, without interest, for , the construction of electric telegraphs. The ' sura required is 500,000f. The Constantinople journals announce the death, on the 14th ult., of the- fourth Sultana, mother of Fatima Sultana, and she was buried next day in the Mosque of YeniDjami. The Preussische Zeitung states,' on- official information, that the bravest- and mn<*t influential chief of the Circassians under Schamil, Haschid Murat, had- surrendered without conditions to the Russian force in the fortress of Wnosapnaia, and has been conveyed to Teflis; - >-„^ The Borsenhalle states, thatrlately numerous conflicts have taken place in the streets of Copenhagen, between the hussars of the Guards and the troops drawn from the Duchy of Schleswig, and many have, been wounded on both sides. Letters' from Corfu report the garrison very healthy. The shooting season had set in, with promise of good sport, and the^number of woodcocks was incredibly large, while Albania offered wild boar hunting to the officers. Madame Schroeder-Devrient, now Baroness Yon Beck, the celebrated "prima "donna of the Dresden opera, who was charged with being implicated in the last insurrection in that city, - has^ been pardoned by the King of- Saxony, on condition of her paying the costs of the proceedings commenced against her. A prisoner in La Roquette.'named Guillemot, was recently condemned to ten years' hard labour for having assaulted the gaolers. As a precaution against his violence, soldiers were sent for. On opening the door, they wer,e assailed by a volley of panes :of glass, which Guillemot had taken out in the night from the

window in his cell. One of the soldiers received the edge of a piece of glass in his- face. Smarting with the pain, and giving way to his rage, he raised his musket, and shot the prisoner dead upon the spot. i Accounts from Madrid state that the long quarrel between Genera's Pavia and Narvaez has terminated in a challenge from the former to the latter. Generals Mazzaredo, Aspiroz, Concha, and O'Do'nnell acted as seconds. Mutual explanations were given, and the affair put an end to. ! The Emperor of Russia fully intends, it is said, to pass a part of the winter at Venice. r I A company is forming at Stockholm for lighting the town with gas. ~ A Swedish translation is now publishing of Hallara's Europe during the Middle Ages. . Two Austrian officers, who insulted^a lady in the streets of Altona, have been dismissed the service. The GiornJ di Roma of t the 20th pubhshes a series of regulations for the introduction of post- % age stamps. The royal infanta of Spain was christened on the 21st., and received the names of Isabella Maria Christina Dominica, &c. Lady AugustaTennox, lately married, has received "from the Grand Duke of Weimar the title of Countess of Donberg. A street" organ player, at Vienna, died're'cently, and left a fortune of about £500. M' A. Normand, of Havre has just placed on the stocks a clipper vessel- of 600 tons, intended for the Brazil trade. This^ is the first attempt of a French builder to construct a clipper. - , _ The appetite for oysters in Paris is not a whit less keen than in London. Last week, one day's sale at the halle aux Mitres reached 396,000. The necessaries of life throughout Austria have risen nearly fifty per cent., from the combined causes of bad government "and the depreciation of the currency. The Gazette de France, in -its summary of Foreign news, states that the Parliament of the lonian Isles has been dissolved by the Lord Mayor. The Russian Government are taking contracts for iron in the English markets for the con-truction of the railway bridge over the Vistula and other royal bridges. The Bavarian Chambers have granted about four millions and a half to be appropriated in four years in the construction of railways at the public charge. The Czar is looking well to the army. The St. Petersburgh Journal contains the promotion of 40 officers to the grades of general, and 13 to that of Lieutenant- General. At Hamburgh, it has been agreed that the ship duty upon all vessels unloading in the port, should be reduced to eight shillings and four shillings per 6000 lbs, the sum now levied in lhe Altona port. The Madrid Gazette publishes a royal decree ordering the construction, at the public expense, of a railroad between Aranjuez and Almanza. The Pope has granted the permission of using " fat " in culinary operations on fast days during the year.J.Bs2. The time of Lent is ex-cep-^ed. ~^bs> On the lstiultimo there were three hundred and twenty-two .beet-root sugar manufactories in operation in France, or twenty-three .more than at * the corresponding period in 1850. M. de Moray, Napoleon's right-hand man, was a refugee in Edinburgh ; and the Neios of that city states thai he took leave without paying his debts. According to the Vienna papers, the Turkish fleet is to be reduced, and Austria intends purchasing of the Porte two war steamers. Galignini contradicts the report that the Marquis of Normanby is about to be replaced by Sir Henry Bulwer, as British ambassador in Paris. The Staats Courant announces that a convention has been concluded between the Netherlands and Austria for the 'transport of the India mail via Trieste. A number of humorous drawings, sketched by the pencil of Schiller, and accompanied by descriptions in his owg hand, have been found in the possession of a Swabian family. Letters from the Polish frontiers state that, in consequence of the late events in France, a large army of Cossacks and artillery was concentrated on the borders of the Grand Duchy of Posen. Colonel May, who commanded the Hungarian artillery at Koraorn, "committed suicide in prison, by rolling himself up in his sheets and then setting fire to the ends. He died in great agony. Victor Hugo,' when arrested by the Belgian police, at Brussels, where he concealed himself under the false name of Ganvin (Jacques,) declared that he had been obliged to fly with a false passport from Paris, as member of the comite de resistance, appointed in the meeting of the Mountain, on Dec. 2nd. We are very glad to notice, in the letter of the tans correspondent of the Calcutta Morning Chronicle, dated January 9lh, the following postcript : — " P.S. — 25 more of the crew and passengers of fhe Amazon, steamer,' (which was burnt off the English Channel,) who wen> considered lost, have arrived at Brest." This l v ir, cumstance encourages a hope that others reported to have perished, may have survived.— Adelaide Morning Chronicle. _ j A new glass manufactory has been established at Venice, in which the peculiar processes which once rendered the glass of that city SO| celebrated, are to be revived and combined with: the improvements suggested in modern science. 1 There are two hundred Workmen at present employed. _ . A letter from Leghorn, of the 22nd, in the Piedmontese Gazette, slates that the court-mar-tial of that town had condemned thirty- nine persons to death for having belonged to a secret society, the object of 'which was the establishment of a Republic. The punishment of -death has, however, been commuted into" various periods of imprisonment. A few days since, two brothers residing in a commune near Perigeux (Dordogne,) having quarrelled, one of them stabbed the other with, a knife ; after which, horrified at what he had. done, he blew out his own bra,ins with a pistol.* His brother's wound turns out to be less serious

than was at first exp&ted, and' hopes are eiitertaiued of his recovery. ' ' It appeals from' an Observation -lately made, that the Pont Neuf is the- bridge w-bich has the greatest circulation of all the bridges in Paris, the number of foot passengers bejg'g 90,000 in the twenty-four hours, and of horses 15,000. Great .sensation has been caused at Vienna by the intelligence that Don Juan, infante of Spain, second son of Don Carlos, has run away from his wife with an English Governess. The wife is sister of the Duke of Modena.

Gold from California. — The arrival in London of forty- two tons of gold quartz from California, has excited much interest. The specimens are of various degrees of richness. There are a few small jjkoice specimens, the great hulk of which consists o"f gold. The picked specimens *ai c Tjalued at the rate of £7,000 per ton. The 'great cost of freight will, it is supposed, be compensated for by the superior mode of crushing in this, country. — European Times, January 14. The Parma Gazette publishes a decree which enacts that all offences of sedition, high treason, tampering with the fidelity of the troops, distributing' revolutionary publications, &c, shall be punished with death, 'jjylinor offences of the kind are to be punished by imprisonment or the galleys. \ , The Board of trade returns for the month ending December 5, show the aggregate" value of our exports during the first eleven months of 1851 to have , been £63,314,272 against £60,400,525 in the like period of 1850, being an increase of £2,913,747. There is a falling off in the expoits of cotton and woollen manufactures, but the returns considered altogether are deemed satisfactory as regards the prosperity of the country. A gentleman, who was walking in Marseilles, met a workman and his l wife, having a beautiful little child with them, and uttered a cry of admiration. The father and mother accused him of uttering a charm, and it was with difficulty he escaped being arrested. The Galway Mercury furnishes a list of seventeen families alleged to have been evicted in the neighbourhood of Meelick, on" (he property of the Marquis of Clanricarde. In the same town land, it is added, there is an equal number of families ' in course of eviction.' According to this statement," one hundred and seventy persons are likeiy to be thrown for support upon the poor rates. The Tuam Herald announces, that the relieving officer of that union has reported to the board of guardians, that notice has been served upon him of the eviction of twenty- three families, each averaging from four to five persons/off the estate of Mr. St. George, of the electoral division of Killrush and Headford. "It is no wonder," says the Herald, "that the peasant looks with a longing wish to tread the soil of freedom in America." The returns of the census for the union of Dundalk show a fearful decline of the population between the years 1841 and 1851, the result being as follows :—ln: — In 1841, the numbers were -65,5 19; in 1851, 53,716, being a falling off of neatly 12,000 souls., At a meeting of Limerick magistrates, it was unanimously resolved to "memorialise the Lord Lieutenant for the further, reduction^ of the police force, of that coxmtf? ■» consequence- of the continued tranquillity of the district. The Military Commission instituted by the President of the Republic to inquire into the facts connected with the insurrection of the 3rd and 4th ultimo, continue their labours, under the direction of Colonel Bertrand, at the Palace of Justice. The proceedings are conducted nearly after the same forms as those ordered by General Cavaignac, with the approbation of the Assembly against the. parties implicated in the sanguinary insurrection of the month of June, 1848. It was the same Colonel Bertrand then only Chef-de-Batallion, whjo then directed the numerous commissions whose decisions resulted in the transportation, without' trial, or' more than 11,000 persons. Transportation to Cayenne or Algiers will now also, in conformity with the decrees of the President of the Republic, be the fate of the liberated convicts proved to lTave broken ban, or those belonging to secret societies. Such of the accused as do not come under either description, and against whom, nevertheless proof is established of participation in the affair of the 4th ultimo, on account of which they have been arrested, will be handed over to the courts martial of Paris, which have not yet begun to act, and will _not probably, until next week, or, at- the latest, about' the 20th or 25th instant. A conspiracy has been discovered, the object of which was to let loose the convicts at the hulk:* of Rochfort.

Austria. — A Vienna correspondent, under date of the 26th December, states that the recent change of our Minister of Foreign Affairs had caused a great and favourable impression at Vienna. The Cologne Gazette, in a telegraphic despatch from Vienna, under date of December 25, states that the Minister of Finance, Yon Krauss, had resigned. It is said that the Minister of Commerce, Yon Beaumgartner would replace him. By an imperial decree, issued at Vienna, the last day of - the year, the Constitution of 4th March* is -formally abrogated, as "being unsuitable and impracticable." The old political demonstrations are to be employed in the different provinces. Lieutenant Pym,by the advice of the Russian geographers, lias abandoned his project of crossing Siberia in search of Sir John Franklin.

Turkey. -'-Advices from Constantinople, of 14th December, state that the Sultan had issued' a firman in favour of his subjects who professed the reformed Christian creed, which will secure to them the freedom of meeting, and the registry of births and marriages. The Kolner Zeitung had been fined fifty thalers by the Prussian Government for publishing translations of EHhu Burntt's "Olive Leaves for the People." Dr. Guslav Freund, Vienna correspondent to the Weiser Zeitund, had been condemned by a court-martial to three years' imprisonment. The editors of all the journals in Hungary are now obliged to \ send in to the authorities accurate lists of their subscribers. These examples will show the downtrodden state of the press of Europe.