GENERAL SUMMARY.

Southland Times, Volume III, Issue 219, 21 February 1866, Page 2

GENERAL SUMMARY.

I/O-Doif, Dec. 26The Australian October mails arrived London on the 15th and 22nd December. Parliament meets on the sth February. The Queen is to preside with unusual ceremony. The robes of state, instead of being worn, are to be laid on the throne, and the speech will be read by the Lord Chancellor. The betrothal of the Princess Helena to the brother of the Duke of Augustenburg has been sanctioned by Her Majesty. Court receptions have been held by the Prince and Princess of Wales. The King of the Belgians died on the 10th of December. His son, Leopold 11., now reigns. A Reform Bill is to be introduced lowering the franchise. Manhood suffrage is strongly advocated. Great changes in the Ministry and general policy are anticipated, causing much speculation and alarm. The- leading journals continue to deprecate the late action of Sir Charles Darling and his advisers, as most unconstitutional. Sir John Eomily, Master of -the Eolls. and Sir Francis Baring, have been raised to the Peerage. Advices from Jamaica confirm the accounts of the gravity of the late crisis. Both Houses of Parliament there have formally thanked Governor Eyre for saving the colony, while the Baptists and extreme radicals in England. describe the poor dear blacks as helpless martyrs, al- . though they intended murdering all the white population, outnumbering the latter by eight to one. Sir Henry Storks has been appointed Governor of Jamaica, pending a commission of inquiry. The rebellion has been effectually suppressed. The Lancashire cotton famine has virtually ended. The Belief Committee hold a large money surplus. The trial of the Fenian prisoners at Dublin and Cork caused great excitement. Kossa has been sentenced to penal servitude for life; Luby and O'Leary to twenty years, and fifteen others to from' five to ten years imprisonment. Stephens, the head centre, escaped to France ; his extradition was demanded by the British Government, but refused. The Channel fleet has been ordered to winter in Ireland. AH officers' leave of absence is prohibited. The Eenian excitement in America is dying out. President O'Mahoney and the sham senate are at loggerheads. The latter repudiates O'Mahoney's bonds for 68,000 dollars. •President Johnston's message is decidedly pacific. : The cattle dise_se has increased frightfully. The transmission of live cattle ia to be stopped, and fairs suspended. The farmers have already lost a million sterling, and should the disease continue at the present rate they will lose four millions of money next year. Severe storms have prevailed on the English and Irish Coasts. The life-boats saved 420 lives. Eormad, alias Southey, has boen sentenced to death for the murder of his wife and children. Captain Corbett, who sold the Shenandoah to Captain Waddell, has been tried, and acquitted. Mrs. Longworth Yelverton's action against the Satnrday Review, for .63,000 damages, has been lost. Mr. John Stuart Mill, M.P., has . accepted the rectorship of St. Andrews's.Mr. E. O'Moriarity, of Sydney,.harbeen elected a member of the Civil Engineers' Institute, of England. A fight for the Championship, between* Mace and Goss, has been settled to come off. The Shenandoah, owing to tempestuous weather, has put back to Liverpool. o_ityaey. — Sir Charles Eastlake, Captain Fowke, Hon. Mrs. W. Wodehouse, Miss Talbot, Lady A. G. Halliburton, Dr. Barth (African explorer), . Mr. Prescott, Sir E. M. Bromley, Sir ' John Easthope, and Sir Charles Sullivan.-