Latest English News.

Colonist, Issue 63, 28 May 1858, Page 3

Latest English News.

We are, indebted to the courtesy of Captain Smith, of the Active, for a copy of the Melbourne Argus of the sth instant. The chief items of English news contained in the paper before us were published in this journal on the ]Bth inst; but as everything connected with Home and Indian affairs possesses unusual interest at the present time, we copy the subjoined more detailed account from the paper referred to :—

Some important news is acknowledged by the Sydney papers as having been received by telegraph message from England, by Avay of Malta. The Herald announces the defeat of the Palmer-.! ston Ministry, on the motion for the second reading ' of the Conspiracy to Assassinate Bill, and the Empire furnishes the numbers on the division. j By a majority of 19 the House of Commons has ! refused to enact any laws more stringent than those j on the statute book foi- the protection of the Imperial usurper who sits on the throne of Franco This decision will prove to be the expression of a j strong national sentiment. The English people j have looked with no favor on the career of unscrupulous ambition in which Louis Napoleon has trodden ruthlessly upon all the obligations of oath and honor; and though condemning plots and schemes of assassination, could not be otherwise than reluctant to sen?, their laws and traditions of national hospitality, and the historical sanctity of the Bzitish soil as the refuge of the political exile, invaded, to serve the purposes of one who has performed no action and exhibited no trait of character that commends itself to the respect or admiration of Englishmen. As a protest against the usurpation of Napoleon, and as the expression of a determination to permit no variation from old national policy for the purpose of preserving his throne from the effects of the enmity of the people whose liberties he has betrayed, the vote of the House of Commons is one so remarkable and significant as necessarily to create a profound sensation throughout Europe. It is the more noteworthy because the bill Lord Palmerston asked the House to pass, and the arguments by which he advocated it, were specious and plausible. He proposed the creation of no new crime, but the elevation of the crime of conspiracy to assassinate from the rank of a misdenjeanor to that of a felony. The effect of this simple change, however, would have been to take out of the hands of the constitutional authorities of England the exclusive right of dealing with and punishing crimes committed on British soil, and to compel the surrender of the accused person, to be dealt with by foreign tribunals. It seemed the more probable that the measure, as Lord Palmerston presented it, would be agreed to, because the hatred, of secret murderous plots is a feature of English national character. No approval has been expressed of the dastardly attempt made upon the life of the Emperor; but this feeling has happily not overruled those unerring political instincts which have so often aided us as a people in maintaining in their integrity the great principles of our Constitution, even amid circumstances calculated to obscure the clearness of (fur perceptions. The intelligence by the mail now about due, will be looked for with anxious expectation. The possible effect of the vote of Parliament on the fortunes of the Palmerst'ou Ministry, and, yet more, its probable effect on the relations between England and France, are problems much more momentous thau any we have lately been left to speculate upon. The following is the telegraphic message received in Sydney as it appeared in the Empire: — Some important items bl\ English intelligence, later than the mail, have -been received by telegraph via Malta. Lord Palmerston was defeated in the House of Commons on tho Alien Bill, 10th February, by the following division:— For the bill 215 Against it."... 234 Majority '.'. 19 The public excitement'was naturally very great, but it was thought that Ministers would remain in office on the ground of duty to the nation at so critical a juncture. The news of the death of Sir Charles Fitzroy, late Governor-General of Australia, is confirmed. His Excellency's health had been declining for some time past, and, on the, recommendation of his physicians, he had been residing on the shores of the Mediterranean, wliere he died on the 16th February, of dropsy.