LATEST ENGLISH NEWS.

The greatest scarcity of money prevailed in consequence principally of the continued drain of specie to pay for provisions ; and the Bank of England had raised the rate of interest to five per cent. A very lengthy document, purporting to be a plan for promoting emigration from Ireland, had been issued, signed by a large number of influential persons connected with that country. The plan proposed is, that an " Irish Roman Catholic colony" shall be formed in Upper Canada ; that the agency for the management of the emigration shall be a public company, which'shall have power to lend money to th° District Councils and other bodies, to be expended in public works, and that the funds shall be provided by an income tax on Ireland. The scheme does not appear to have met with any official support. The commercial circulars received by the Josephine are to the middle of April. We regret to state that the ".tallow fraud," recently exposed- has been more extensive than was at first supposed. Tallow would appear to have a downward tendency. We copy the following from Mess. Goad & Rigge's circular :—: — London, 12th April, 1847. Dear Sir, — Our last respects was dated the 31st ultimo, and should reach you per John Fleming. . Since then our tallow market has presented a very dull appearance, and prices of all kinds have shown a further declension, arising principally from the present position of our money markets, which has caused holders generally to evince an anxiety to realize. At public auction on the 9th instant, 42 casks of New South Waleswere offered, part of which consisted of good mutton and beef tallow ; for the former 495., and for the latter 48s. 6d., would have been accepted, but buyers could not be found at those rates. Our respects of the 31st October last, per Bermondsey, would guard you against late high prices ruling for any length of time, and we repeat, we do not think it will be safe for you at any time to calculate upon realising more than 425. for good mutton, and 40s. for good beef tallow. We regret to have to acquaint you with a scandalous system of fraud now being practised <on your side. By the Rajah, Ferguson, from Sydney, no less than 60 puncheon casks, marked M in circle, have been found to contain nothing bat earth and cinder ashes, with the e^epj&PLn^of a t^n tube in each containing from Bto lOlbs. tallow. To avoid detection a hole was bored in the head of the cask, against which the said tube was placed, so that any person putting in a sampling iron would obtain tallow, and thus be misled. We hear the Penyard Park has 20 of the same mark, and which will, no doubt, turn out equally vile. We trust every publicity will be giveu to the fact, as well as that the guilty parties will ere this have been detected, in order to prevent them continuing such serious malpractices. Some sales of New South Wales salted hides of light weights have been made at 2|d. to 2jd. per lb. for good quality. The best heavy we fear will soon be down to 3d. or under, as the market is much depressed and prices declining. Of wool we have no particular news. The June sales were not expected to exhibit any decrease. Messrs Hughes and Ronald say — Liverpool, 33 Dale-street, April 1. For the first three weeks of the month the wool trade was extremely depressed, indeed at no period have we known so little doing in foreign ; and but for the. very low state of stocks, we might have expected to have seen prices- lower. During the last ten days there has been rather more confidence, but in the general way not much has been done, the kinds most in request being very scarce. A sale of Eait India took place on the 18th ult., but Owing to the announcement on that morning of 1000 bales of this- description to be offered at auction, on the 6th May, (the greater part of which has to arrive) there was little spirit in the biddings, and part was withdrawn. A few sales of United States have been made at about former rates, also of Australian, and at a little advance for fair conditioned parcels, which are scarce. Rather more has been done in Spanish, principally of the better kinds. There has been more done in Buenos Ayres and Entre Rios, both the coars it and finer qualities, and during the last few days some large sales of Peruvian have been made of washed and unwashed. In other low wools there is little to report. In oils there was a complaint of want of business. Cocoa-nut was in demand both in London and Liverpool. Common South Sea was from £27 to £30 per tun. British caught sperm was worth £92 to £93. Whalefins were scarce, and South Sea were worth £190 to £195 per tun.— S. M. Herald.

Highland Relief. — A meeting of the Glasgow section of the Central Board for managing the Highland Relief Fond was held at Glasgow on Friday, April 19 : Sir James Campbell in the chair. The Secretary stated

that the amount of the subscription raised in Glasgow, or transmitted to it, was £60,229. Extracts were read from Dr. Boyter's reports on the state of the Highlands. The accounts on the whole were favourable, indicating mitigated distress and active industry. The agents of the Duke of Argyll were arranging a plan for sending a large number of families to Canada. The artisans, &c, of Portsmouth Dockyard, have this week been organised into twelve companies of Infantry and ten companies of Artillery : r each company consisting of eightyfive men, making a total of 1870 men. The Infantry corps is under the command of the master shipwright, with the rank of Lieutenant Colonel ; to each company will be attached a captain, two lieutenants, two sergeants, and two corporals ; the captains will be constituted of the foremen and clerks, the subalterns of the junior officers and clerks, and the sergeants of the leading and single station men. Of the Artillery companies, six compauies .are for land and four companies for afloat service, the latter to he called the Boat Brigade ; the whole under the command of the master-attendant, with the rank of Lieu-tenant-Colonel. These companies have also the same complement of officers attached to them as to the Infantry companies. The captains, of the Boat Brigade companies are the foremen afloat, the boatswain of the yard, the master roperaaker, and the master rigger. The men of both corps are to have canvass dresses for fatigue duty ; and it is understood that it is intended they shall wear a uniform on show occasions. — Hampshire Telegraph,

Chance Legislation. — The passing of bills is growing to be the best sport in the world. Bellamy's is becoming a kind of bet-ting-booth, and Members make up books to record bets on the chances not only of divisions, but of the things that will pass the Three Estates. And it is surprising what things will pass. The drawers of bills seem to lose what faculties they have for syntax as soon as they approach that dread class of composition. In the case of the Poor- RemovalAct of last session, it is found that the grammatical lorce of the enactment is so different from its intention, that in fact the actual law is a totally unexpected result. It is also an entity as yet unknown : people don't know exactly what it is — opinions vary ; they have only ascertained that there is a law, and that it is not the one that was passed. The progress of discovery, however, — as in the case of M. Leverrier*s planet, — has been of such cheering rapidity, that probably the actual nature of the law will be established by scientific inquirers even before it is repealed. The Commons have had a trial at the work of discovery ; and now the Peers are to take a turn, each with its Select Committee. There is something very amusing in this spectacle of the two Houses picking up one of their most recent enactments and puzzling their wits to find out what it is. They don't know — they never do. They bet upon it, and no one thinks it a dishonorable infraction of the rule that you must not bet upon that of which you are certain, or that which you can biing about. The last people to be certain about it are the legislators. As soon as they have made a law and put it forth, they wait till it reaches the Judges, to learn from them what the law is. Like the parturient mother, they cry, with curious interest, "Is it a boy or a girl ?" — having a secret dread that it is neither, but something very shocking or very ridiculous. When it has lasted for a few months, like this Poor-Removal Act, it becomes an antiquity. Your legislators take up an Act of last session much in the same way that they would take up the most mysterious curiosity on the table at the Marquis of Northampton's soiree. They appoint a Select Committee of Cockletops, to discover what it is. They touch it, at first with a gingerly apprehension, as you handle a packet by the post, that may contain an infernal machine. , Emboldened by impunity they turn it over and over with growing curiosity, frowning over it as penetratingly , as if it were the fossil of an extinct species, or an unknown implement from an Etruscan tomb. And you may make them believe anything, those Committees — that " the first sod " of a bubble railway is a " praetorium," or that a poor removal act is " Niobe's tear." Credulity is the child of ignorance ; and of course a member can Le made to believe anything of an Act of Parliament. — Spectator.

A Novelty at Court. — Though the drawing-room is now a week old, yet there was one circumstance so singular and so remarkable — so significant of the times — that it will well bear to be the subject of gossip between us now. It is no less a fact than the Turkish Minister actually bringing his wife to Court, not shrouded and veiled up to the eyes, to screen her from the profane gaze of " dogs of Christians," and hurried secretly into the presence of a female sovereign, but hanging on the arm of her Ottoman lord, and threading her way through the diplomatic crowd in a Court dress, not distinguishable from any

other lady, though the Minister, of course, appeared in his national costume. Just fancy the old Tories of Constantinople hearing of this dreadful innovation — there' t. an end of the constitution of Turkey at once ; and a pretty account the Princess will give, when she gets back among the secluded inhabitants of the harem, of the privileges she has enjoyed. Talk of the suppression of the Janissaries, the emancipation of the ladies will produce ten times greater results ; and there's many a respectable old Turk will be made miserable by the clamorous demands of his harem for the same liberty as that enjoyed by the wife of the representative of the Sultan. But while this is all very pleasant, as far as the Turkish ladies are concerned, we all know that Ottoman gentlemen are allowed four wives by law, and all who can afford it generally avail themselves of their privilege. What is to be done then with wives Nos. 2, 3, and 4, should they claim to come to Court; or what would her Majesty do if a Tuikish Ambassador should bring his four Ambassadresses all at once ? Some such difficulty seems to have presented itself to the minds of the Court and diplomatic authorities, for the Princess Cullimaki was not presented with the forms and ceremonies usual on the introduction of the wife of a foreign Minister. The first symptom of emancipation of the fair sex of Turkey is, however, too valuable to be discouraged by a reigning Queen, and there is no doubt means will be devised to smooth all difficulties. — The Cheltenham Looker-on.

Novel Project. — Mr. Richard Bothwell of Southport has projected an enterprise which many persons think is likely to prove successful and advantageous to the inhabitants of this community. Mr. Roth well proposes to run steam locomotives along the level shore or sands (without rails) from this place to Southport, drawing trains with passengers, Bee, and his belief is, that, with engines properly constructed, a very high rate of speed may be obtained. — Liverpool Jllbion.

Railways in Cuba. — A railway, fortyfive miles in length, was constructed across the most fertile part of the beautiful island of Cuba, so early as 1838, and has since been in constant use. It is difficult to convey any adequate impression of the effects produced on the mind of the traveller as he is carried over this* natural garden, in a way so little to be expected, amid such scenery. Emerging from the Tacon suburbs of the Havannah, he traverses fields of pine-apples, bordered by the hedgerows bending under the burden of the ripe orange, and sprinkled at intervals with the banana, the plantain, and the Cocoa-tree. Th a se are alternated with sugar plantations and tobacco. Through this sceue, redolent of the Tropics, and calling up the historic recollections of Columbus and his adventurous companions, he is whirled at the rate of twenty miles an hour, by machines bearing the name of a Manchester manufacturer, impelled by fuel from Lancashire, and worked by an engineer from Newcastle-on-Tyne ! The swarthy African, as the strange apparition passes him, pauses from his toil, and gazes at it with a wonder which time and custom can hardly abate. — Edinburgh Revieu:

Scott and Moore. — I must tell you one of his (Moore's) stories, because, as Sir Waller Scott is the hero of it, I know it will not be unacceptable to you. When George IV went to Ireland, one of the " pisinty," delighted with his affability to the crowd on landing, said to the toll-keeper as the K'ng passed through, " Och now ! and his Majesty, God bless him, never paid the turnpike, an' how's that ?" " Oh ! kings never does ; we lets 'em go free," was the answer. " Then there's the dirty money for ye," says Pat. " It shall never be said that the King came here, and found nobody to pay the turnpike for him." Moore, on his visit to Abbotsford, told this story to Sir Walter, when they were comparing notes as to the two royal visits. " Now, Mr. Moore," replied Scott, " there ye have just the advantage of us ; there was no want of enthusiasm here ; the Scotch folk would have done any-* thing for his Majesty, but— pay the turnpike." — The Ingoldsby Legendi.