ENGLISH EXTRACTS.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume IX, Issue 786, 12 February 1853, Page 3

ENGLISH EXTRACTS.

A memorial for the restoration of the palace of Holyrood to her Majesty's use has been despatched by the lord provost, magistrates and council, to the Treasury and the Board of Works. The Hanoverian army has received orders to wear mourning fur six days for the Duke of Wellington. It is rumoured that Admiral Moorsom is to succeed Mr. Glynn as chairman of the London and North Western Railway Company. M. de Gasparis, astronomer royal at Naples, has just discovered another new planet of great magnitude. The Right Rev. P. Torry, D.D., Bishop of St. Andrew's, Dunkeld and Dumblane, died on the 3rd October, at the episcopal residence at Peterhead, in the-ninetieth year of his age. The extent of the potatce disease in England and Scotland is as great as it has been in any previous season — 1846, perhaps, excepted. The forced sales made earlier in the season in Ireland have been followed by comparative scarcity and an advance in price. The town of Crieff was lately visited with a shock of earthquake. It was accompanied with a loud rumbling noise like distant thunder, The t)emor of the earth lasted but a short time. In reviewing the state of the shipping trade at the principal ports, the Times says that the stimulus given to emigration by the gold discoveries reached its height during July, August, and September. . Colonel Jebb, the Chairman of the Directors of Convict Prisons had published an address embodying the rules of prison discipline, etc, with a view to counteract an impression which was getting abroad among the ill-disposed, that it was a good thing to be transported to the Australian gold fields. Colonel Jebb says, with reference to the penal condition of Van Diemen's Land : — ' It is in the experience of all who are practically acquainted with the details of discipline, and have opportunities of knowing the feeling of convicts regarding the imprisonment and other restrictions to which they are subjected, that a sentence of transportation, as now carried out, is in a more Bevere form than it ever was in former years. A ticket- of -leave is essentially a third period of probation, and any advantages it confers may be forfeited ,by misconduct or non-compliance with such rules as the Governor may impose/ A painful sensation was caused in the City by the suicide of Mr. E. N. Winstanley, of the well known establishment of Winstanley & Sons, wholesale chemists and druggists, No. 7, Poultry. The Mails for Australia. — In. consequence of the heavy gales in the Channel from the S.S.W. the contract mail screw steam ship Melbourne ; which was to have sailed from Plymouth with the Australian and Cape of

Good Hope mails, on Sunday last, had not arrived at that port on Tuesday night, having been coropelic-d by the violence of the storm to bear up for the Downs on the 3rd instant, with lons of main ami mizen topg.nll.int ma'-ts. Notice has been issued, hy command of the Post-master-General, announcing that letters, Ac, will be forwarded to Plymouth for conveyance to the Cape and Australia, by the Melbourne until further notice. A passenger by the Melbourne writes thus to the Times on the 12th Oct.:— "Sir— ln the Times of yesterday there appeared a statement of the circumstances which had occurred during the late tempestuous weather to retard the progress of the Melbourne, packet ship for Australia ; a very melancholy incident, however, has been, by some mischance, omitted. During the gale one of the assistant engineers, a young man in charge of the engines, was by a sudden lurch of the vessel thrown against the machi-t nery, and had the dreadful misfortune to have his right hand cut off at the wrist. He was landed at Deal and thence taken to the hospital at Canterbury, where it is believed he is doing well.

Metrological Reform. —The following notice, which was posted in the bullion office of the Bank of England, on the Bth October, intimates, that by the adoption of the decimal plan, a more simple and accurate mode of weighing will be introduced in that department. Bank of England. —Notice is hereby given, that on and after the Ist of November, 1852, the present mode of. weighing in the bullion office of the Bank of England, by pounds, ounces, pennyweights, and grains, will be discontinued, and the only weights in use in that office will be of the denomination of the troy ounces and its decimal parts. At Lytham, a watering-place about twelve miles from Preston, a melancholy accident had occurred, A life-boat was upset, and out of eleven who were in her in the time, eight were drowned. Another life-boat was upset in the Menai Straits ; fortunately timely assistance saved those who were in her. Both these boats are descibed as •• Beeching's Prize Life Boats." The Bank of Portugal has issued a protest against the Government decree of the 30th of August last, by which certain securities pledged to that establishment, and amounting to £240,000, have been seized for the purpose, as it is understood, of giving a guarantee to the projected railway. They characterize the act as " a flagitious injustice, committed in contempt of the most solemn stipulations agreed to by the Government and the Bank ;" and they give notice that they will never recognize the right either of Government or of any third party to the securities thus obtained. They accordingly "warn any individual, corporation, or company, national or foreign," to whom such securities may be offered; and, in order that no one may plead ignorance, they specify in full the numbers and amounts of the inscriptions, bonds, or policies of which they consist. Accounts were received from the various outports, detailing numerous casualties to shipping, unfortunately involving a serious loss of liie. The galejjs described by the seamen who were caught in it as most terrific in its violence and disastrous in its effects. A meeting was held in Southampton", for the purpose of promoting the extension of raggedschools in the neighbourhood. Lord Henry Cholmondeley. M.P., took the chair and was supported by Archdeacon Wigram. Dr. Wilson, Rev. T. Adkins, and many other of the resident clergy.Mr. Joseph Payne, barrister-at-law, attended as a deputation from the London society, and delivered an eloquent address, showing the advantages which have followed the establishment of ragged schools in various parts of the kingdom. A collection was made at the close of the meeting, towards completing the purchase of a site for the operations of the South- • ampton Society, upon which it is intended to erect spacious schools for 500 girls and boys. In the Times of the Bth October, is a letter from Lord Ingestre, recommending the appropriation of funds now collecting for the purpose of perpetuating the memory of the Duke of Wellington, to the improvement of the dwellings of the large towns in the shape of drainage, ventilation, &c, urging as an argument the many instances of "gentlefolks, often widows and daughters of deceased officers, suffering from causes such as I have mentioned," and suggesting that if houses were erected for the accommodation of these, and a fund instituted to contribute to their support, much real misery would be relieved. The Times has a long article of severe comment on this epistle of the forward young nobleman, ridiculing the proposition to " commemorate the loss of our hero by sewers, and waft his name to glory on the wings of an improved ventilation," denouncing it as a libel on the Duke of Wellington to insinuate that he at any rate belonged to the "silver fork school of philanthropy;" and contending that the true dignity and honor of a monument is to be ornamental without being vseful."

Emigration. —Her Majesty's ship Hercules, Commander Baynton, is to embark a sergeant, corpora], drummer, and 17 privates of the Royal Marines, who are to be selected from men of good character, fitted for the service on which the Hercules is to be employed —that of conveying emigrants to Austra//a.lt is uncertain whether this ship will; as or/ginally intended, proceed to the East India Doc is, as it is doubtful whether the entrance is sufficiently large to admit her ' If this difficulty should be verified, she may then either be fitted for the emigrants at moorings in the Thames, which would involve the additional expense of taking the artificers to and from the ship ; or she may be fitted at one of the public establishments at the expense of the Australian Land and emigration Commissioners. It is thought, also, she will obtain her cargo of timber from Swan River. Hands are entering for her daily, and she is progressing fast in her rigging and general fittings. The riggers ofjthe yard are working on her. —London Times, September 20.