ENGLISH EXTRACTS.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume IX, Issue 900, 18 March 1854, Page 3

ENGLISH EXTRACTS.

The Bail of Dartmouth died on the 22nd November, at his seat, Patshull, Staffordshire ; and, on the same day, the Countess of Newburgh, at Hassop Hall, Derbyshire. The Earl of Derby was suffering from a severe attack of the gout. The new Bishops of Natal and Graham's Town were consecrated in St. Mary's Lambeth, on the 30th November. Dr. John William Colenso for the former, and Dr. John Armstrong for the latter see. Mrs. Chisholm was in Edinburgh, and was the guest of Mr. R. Chambers. Money to-day was in good demand in Lom-bard-street and else-where, at five per cent, and upwards. The market may be said to fully maintain the more stfing-ent appearance lately noticed ; but, so far as first-class paper is concerned, there ie no further change in rates, dis* count being, of course, obtainable on this class of bills, at five per cent, at the Bank of England, which is understood to be at present receiving numerous applications. Inferior and long dated paper, however, is only negociable at high rates. — Express, December 1 . Despatches from the Governor-General of Australia were received at the Colonial Office November 27th ; also despatches from the Governor of New Zealand. The Australian and other joint stock bank shares were very quiet. Sir Edward Parry had been appointed Governor of Greenwich Hospital. The Queen has signified her gracious intention to bestow the vacant Garter upon the Earl of Carlisle. The long expected fusion had taken place between the two houses of Bourbon. The Due de Nemours had visited the Count de Chambord, and recognised the royalty of the elder house.

Why Russia -wants thb Principalities. — Only sixty years ago the most western point of the Russian empire was still 200 miles from the Austrian frontier ; at present the Russian and Austrian frontiers are conterminous for a distance of five hundred miles ; and if Russia be allowed to complete her long-cherished designs upon the Danubian Principalities, that extent will be doubled, and for a distance of a thousand miles, or more than one-third of its entire circumference, will Russia clasp in one giant embrace an empire of magnitude nearly equal to that enormous territory of Poland which the last half century has seen absorbed within her vast dominions. Hitherto Russia has possessed only the swampy delta of the Danube, and her frontier is conterminous with that of Turkey in Europe for about eighty miles ; but, if the contemplated annexation takes place, it will extend along the shores of that river for nearly five hundred miles to the little town of Orsova; and her acquisitions from Turkey since the treaty of Kainardji in 1774, wi1l comprise a greater extent of territory than all that remains in Europe of the ill-fated empire from which they have been successively wrested. — Oliphant's Russian Shores of the Black Sea.

A Royal Dream.' — Last January, a curious story was circulated respecting a dream which had rather annoyed an illustrious personage, because it foretold " a cold spring, a wet summer, a fine autumn, and a dead queen." This excited some anxiety in the minds of many a superstitious loyalist ; but the feeling may perhaps at the present moment be allayed, in case you think it prudent to notice the demise of the Portuguese sovereign.

Cardinal Wiseman. — The Morning Chronicle says that the Cardinal's health is said to have suffered considerably from the severity of his labours in England since the establishment the papal hierarchy *, and a growing opinion is we understand prevalent in Roman Catholic circles, that the Pope will employ him in some high diplomatic pott at Rome, instead of sending him back to superintend the affairs of the Roman Catholic Church in England.

The late M. FRAxgois Arago. — France has just lost one of her greatest scientific men, M. Francois Arago, perpetual secretary to the Academy of Sciences, member of the Board of Longitude, and grand officer of the Legion of Honor, died on Sunday, at Paris, of the disease from which he has so long been a sufferer. M. Arago was born at Estagel, in the south of France, on the 26th February, 1786. At an early age he was placed by his father at a public school at Toulouse, from which he removed to become a candidate for a scholarship at the Polytechnic School of Paris. Having passed the required examination with honour — his answer to the first question at once deciding the trial — he entered upon his studies, and rapidly rose to distinction. He left the Polytechnic to join the staff of the Observatory at Paris, where he was destined to acquire so much renown. Shortly after this appointment he received the honorable 01 der to proceed with M. Biot to Spain, there to measure an arc of the meridian. We cannot here enumerate the brilliant achievements by which Arago subsequently built up his world-wide reputation. His determination of the diameter of the pla« nets, afterwards adopted by Laplace, the discovery of colored polarisation, and that of magnitude by lotation, which gained him the Copley medal of the Royal Society, are only specimens. His contributions to scientific literature were voluminous. As a politician he often occupied a conspicuous position. Arago was earnest, <iraple-minded, and consistent, and when a ycuth, he avowed his republican principles by refusing to sul scribe to the constitution of the empire; when gray-headed, he chose to renounce his hardly-earned position at the Observatory, rather than take the new oath to Louis Bonaparte after the events of December,

1852. To the credit of the Government, it consented to forego the exaction. During the hrief administration of the Provisional Government in 1 848, Arago enjoyed an opoortunity of assisting to apply the principles for which he had contended during life. As Minister of Marine, he succeeded in obtaining the 'adhesion of the whole of that important service to* the republic. At his death M. Arago was perpetual Secretary to the Academy of Sciences, a member of the Bureau dcs Longitudes, and a grand officer of the Legion of Honor. — Leeds Mercury, Oct. 8. Accounts from Madrid of the 27th ult., speak in the same discouraging manner of Spanish affairs. A private despatch of the 29th anuounces that the Minster of finance has presented the bu Iget in the Cortes, and, as usual, demands, previous to a discussion on it, which may never take place, the authorisation to collect the taxes. This has been the trick of Spanish Ministers for years, ami no one more lhau the present head of the Cabinet is suited for such tactics. Tne ordinary practice is to prorogue the sittings or dissolve the Cortes when there is a chance of exposure of the misdeeds of Ministers or of the dilapidation of the finances. In the present instance a dissolution is not unlikely. The conflict between the Ministry and the Senate has increased in animosity, and, what is mere, the Senate shows no disposition to yield. You will have seen that the commission named by it to decide on the measures which the Government intend presenting to Parliament includes two Ministerialists to five of the Opposhion.while the votes obtained by the different candidates shew a total of 72 Opposition, and only 65 Ministerial. The Government organ affects to make light of that result, but it is only affectation. The immediate cause of the conflict has beeu already noticed. The Government demanded from the Senate the withdrawal of the bill on the railroads, in order that the Ministerial bill should have the preference. The demand was, without opposition on the part of the Cabinet, submitted, to a special commission ; and the check just sustained by the Cabinet has been in the nomiuatiou of that commission. The question, however, is regarded by the Senate less iv a financial than a political point of view, and it is made use of as a powerful means of attack against the Government. The discussion will of course open on the report of the commission. Should the Minister have a majority, which, under actual circumstances, is not so certain, the political situation will not be very different from what it now is. Should be be defeated, I anticipate the closing of the Cortes, if not their dissolution : and should so desperate a step as a dissolution be attempted, I do not say that serious disturbances will not follow. The conduct ofjrtbe most exalted personages has long disgusted he; ' the Spanish people, and it is to be feared thauus;>jj patience has reached that extreme point where danger begins. — Times Correspondent. There are symptoms of an approaching termination of the strike that has so long disturbed the industry of the couutry. These symptoms are exhibited by the workmen themselves, who, in most instances, are beginning to give way before the firmness of their employers. The colliers of Wigan, have, for the most part, returned to their work ; the weavers and spinners are gradually retreating from the pressure they have brought upon themselves: and the most inveterate of all the insurgents, the people engaged in the cottou business, have expressed themselves willing to return to the mills, if the masters will open the mills to receive them. But the masters are rich and powerful, and seem resolved to test this reluctant virtue of repentance a little longer. In this extremity the men have laid their case before the Home Secretary. It would have been quite as useful to have memorialised the town clerk or the nearest magistrate. The Home Secretary does not possess the power of regulating wages ; so the case must rest where it is, between the men and the masters. — Home News.

London like Jerusalem. — In Naples a pamphlet, supposed to be published under the sanction or permission of the Government, contains the following passage :—": — " The world will never have peace until all the Sovereigns united shall be able to destroy this plundering people (England), and wipe them away from the nations of the carth — until the English people are dispersed like the Hebrews — until London, like Jerusalem, shall be in ruins and ashes ; then. Europe will be safe. Let us console ourselves in God, France will do it — the time approaches. — Globe,

The New Yacht j?or the Queen. — This yacht is to surpass, in point of speed, anything afloat. It is to he constructed of iron, and on the paddle principle, as the screw would interfere Botnewhdt with her Majesty's convenience, to which, as in some measure influencing her Majesty, may be added the unpleasant effects felt nt the after-part of the ship, of the vibration caused by the action of the propeller, and which mechanical skill has not yet quite surmounted. The new vessel is 10 be 300 feet in length, 37 feet beam, and about 1700 tons burden.

Yankee Story. — An Englishman was bragging of the speed on English railroads to a Yankee traveller seated at his side in one of the cars of a " fast train," in England. The engine bell was rung as the train neared a station. It suggested to the Yankee an opportunity of " taking down his companion a peg or two." " What's that noise ?" innocently inquired the Yaukee. "We are approaching a town," said the Englishman ; " they have to commence ringing about ten miles before they get to a station, or else the train would run by it before the bell could be beard ! Wonderful, isn't it ? I suppose they haven't invented bells in America yet ?" " Why, yes," replied the Yankee, "we've got bells, but can't use them on our railroads. We run so 'tarnal fast that the train always keeps a head of the sound. No- use whatever ; the sound never reaches the village till after the train gets by." " Indeed !" exclaimed the Englishman. " Fact," said the Yankee ; " Had to give up bells. Tjjen we tried steam whistles — but they wouLln't^answer either. I was on a locomotive when the whistle was tried. We were going at a tremendous rate — hurricanes were nowhere, and I had to hold my hair on. We saw a two-horse waggon crossing the track about five miles ahead, and the engineer let the whistle on, screeching like a trooper. It screamed awfully, but it wasn't no use. The next thing I knew, I was picking mysell out of a pond by the roadside, amid the

fragments of the locomotire, dead horses, broken j waggon, and dead engineer Vying beside me. Just then the whistle came along, mixed up with tome frigbtlul oaths that -I had heard the engineer use when he first saw the horses. ?*oor •fellow ! he was dead before his -voice got to him. 'After that we tried lights, supposing these would 'travel faster than sound. We got some so powerful that the chickens woke up all along the •road when we came by, supposing it to be raorn*ing. 'But the locomotive kept ahead of it stfll, and was in the darkness, with the lights close on 'behindit. The inhabitants petitioned against it ; 'they couldn't sleep with so much light in the night time. we had to station electric 'telegraphs along the road, with signal men to 'telegraph when the train was in sight ; and I ♦have beard that some of the fast trains beat the 'lightinig "15 minutes every 40 miles. But I - can't say as that is true ; the rest I know to be -so." — New York' Tribune..