Political Extracts.

Anglo-Maori Warder, Volume 1, Issue 8, 13 June 1848, Page 3

Political Extracts.

SUMMARY OF EUROPEAN NEWS. (From the Monthly Times, January 24.) The news from Spain by the present mail is inordinarily replete with interest. Worn by domestic disgust and cares of sovereignity. Queen Isabella (to the alleged grief of Louia PhilLippej has been afflicted with great mental and physical suffering. Her Majesty, we learn from late advices from Madrid, looks Laggard in her youth and ha-* lately been sobject to severe fits of convulsions. Some ascribe these afflictions to a scorbutic affection, and others to herpain' ful bondage. Be the cause what it may, the effect has been the revival of the Ckateiux en Enspagnc touching the heartless concoction of the Montpeusier marriage, and the chances of the Infanta's succession to rthe Spanish throne. Christina, who is supposed to be the potent Queen in this wily game of che&s, remain* by the side of her devoted daughter, with fond maternity, aiding her counsel!', and, with feminine delicacy, shooting wolves at a royal battue! Urged, it is affirmed, by pei£on*l pique : Salamanca is accused of malversation—of irregutaily funding arreaisof pay due to the Royal Household; of aiding a railway in which he was a principal shareholder; and of corruptly winning at a breach of contract by which a protege pocketed large sums. In his defence he admits irregularity, hue denies corruption; insisting that what he did was for the public advantage, and averring tbat whereas be was richwheu he entered office, he haves it poor Espartero has arrived at Madrid, and been received with frantic enthusiasm. The pubiic attention has again been drawn toSwit zerland by the production of the diplomatic correspondence of Swiss affairs for tbe use of the French legislature. The difference between tbe French and English ministers in this. M. Guizot insists upon tbe sovereignity of the several Cantons sb a fundamental basis of the settlement ia 1815 ; intimates that if thai sovereignity be violated, Switzerland forfeits her rights under the treatise of 181 & establishing her neutrality and territorial inviolability: and hints at something which France and the two powera that act with her will do—as though Switzerland were to be coerced. Lord Palmorston insists that the neutrality and inviolability of Switoerlaad protect the Coufederatioa from

all armed intervention, to long as tbe republic cmnm its no aggretßion on foreign, states, internal changes notwithstanding. The flaw of M, Guizot's position is, that however the Swiss may break through the arrangement of 1815 internally, tbe treaty of that period reserves no right aod furnishes no means of external Intervention. In Lord Palmerstou's position the defect seems to be. that whereas he hag expressly recognised the sovereignity of tbe individual cantons, his tone tends to encourage encroachment, tbey might proceed to acts that would render ihera liable to need a protection which he woald not be likely to afford them. Italy continues in a disturbed condition. Austria, it is said, desires to crass the States of the Church, but the Sovereign Pontiff will not listen to the overture. The movement in Lombardy is gaining ground Letters from Milan repres- nts that city as being in a state of the greatest exasperation. There appears to be no doubt that the king of Sardinia is making large military preparations. He has called under urmß the military contiogent of 1848; he baa ordered that the soldiers who have completed their time uf service in February are not to be dismissed, and that all officers and soldiers absent on leave are to be recalled. The additional force called out will amount to 25.000 men. Letters from Rome of the 10th January announce that the Pontifical Cabinet was composed as follows:—Cardinal Ferietti, President of the Council and Minister for Foreign Affairs; Monsignor Amici, Minister of the Interior ; Cardinal Mezzofanti, of Public Instruction j Monsigneur Robeiti. of Justice; Monsignor Morichini, of Finance; Cardinal Riario, of Commerce, Agricu ture, and Fine Arts ; Cardinal Massimo, of Public Works; Monsignor Ruscin, of War; Monsignor Savelli, of Police. We have advices from the United States up 'o the 3rd January, but bringing no political news of moment. In Congress, bills have been reported for ad. ding ten regiments of regulars ti the army, and authorising the service of 20,0(10 additional volunteers. Tbe accounts from the seat of war confirm a previous report that Generals Worth and Pillow and Colonel Duncan had been arrested by order of General Scott. General Worth had expressed his disapproval of the terms agreed to by General Scott for the capitulation of Peabla; and had subsequently issued a circular to his division, to which the Commander-in Chief objected. The Mexican Congress was still in a stale of inactivity at Queretaro. They held to their decision aga-ustall negnciationwith tbe United States as long as their armies occupied the country. General Bus* tamente has been appointed General in Chief of the Army of Reserve, and Commandant General of the State. Paredea still held to his design of plicing a foreign prince on the tluone of Mexico; In furtherance of this object, he has opened relations with Jaranta, a guerilla chief. Where Santa Anna was is not mentioned. The new British minister, Mr. Doyle, had arrived in the city of Mexico, under the escort or a squadron of American cavalry. Lord Palmerston had protested against the forcihly levying of taxes npon the English residents in Mexico to sup. port thewarwifh the United States. The JVeto Ymtt Courier antt Inquirer mentions the actual commencement of the works for throwing a railway bridge over •he falls of Niagara; and the contractor has undertaken to cross on horseback by the middle of June. The bridge is to be of iron cord, aided by a wooden frame-work; and is to be secured by wrought iron anchors built inlo the solid rook 100 feet below the surface. Although we have given precedence to the " Foreign Intelligence," it must not be surmised that our domestic newß by this mail is wholly destitute of interest. Two or three topics have engaged a considerable share of public attention at home. The schism in the Church in resp ct to the elevation of D'. Hampden to the See of Hereford, and of the Rev. Mr. JLee to that of Manchester, has hern kept alive by sninewltat riotous ceremonies tit t»e confirmation of these runt reverend divines. The confirmation of the forinvr touk place at How Church, Chejpside, nnder protest of his various opponents, and the latter at Si. James' 6, Piccadilly' despite a frottstofa Mr. Gutteridge, a Surgeon of Birmingham! '"ln Ireland matters are assuming a somewhat serious aspect. This is greatly attributed to the active ope-a-turns of the Arms Bills, and the highly judicious manner in which the Special Commission for the speedy conviction of offende s has been crnducted. The Commission has concluded ita onerous laonurs in Limerick, and is now engrged in the County Clare. The sentences passed have bpfn marked with grfat discrimination, and have eliri-ed the public admiration here, as well as in the sister kingdom. Notwithstanding this state of aff.irs, there is no question that crime is still extremely pievaleut in the £mera'd Is'e. " If Dante," observes a weekly contemporary, " could reappear, and thought fit to write an epic satire against any class of men in the United Kingdom, he could find abundant means for it in IrelandPriestly denunciations from the altar, deliberate planning? of murder, which are deliberately executed, fraud aod falsehood wherever they can be maJe the meaue of cheat : ng charity, and rubbing the destitute, and lastly the most disgraceful neglect of those whom poverty and illness have struck to the earth, would, in succession, figure in its pages, and snow the as.'oalshed worid something to balsnce the horrors which he has already depicted and condemned." That there is considerable truth in this picture is borne out by the fact that unusually heavy sentences have been passed at several of the quarter sessions in Ireland, by the assistant banisters, iu Killarney fourteen were sentenced to transportation, and in Galway the large number of forty-seven to transportation for life. Serious larcenies were the chief crimes of Galway. The attempt to bring to a successful issue a tteaty of peace between Old and Young Ireland has proved abortive. Mr. Smith O'Brien, as the accredited leader of the juvenile party, has'turned a deaf ear to all solicitation, and manfully refuses to re-herd with the jabbers of Conciliation Hall, except upon the hard condition of the present association being scattered to the winds, and the n hole fabric being remo. delled according to the principles of the Irish Confederation. We have given, in our Iri-h intelligence, the pith of a speech delivered by the Lord Lieutenant at the inauscration dinner of the Lord Mayor, and it remains further to be chronicled, with reipect to Irish affairs, that Mr. John O'Coanell has been invited to a public banquet in P.iris, by Count Montalembert and a body of Roman Catholics, in earnest of their respect of his own intrinsic merits aud tbe memory of his father, the Arch-Agitato-. The nhy and the wherefore of this special invitation his been di-cussed by the public journals, and the Times thinks it gieu buffoonery to doa the son with the dignity due aione to the sire. Most indubitably the mantla of the oue has not dropped upon the shoulder of the other, John beariug about the degree of cumpanaon to Daniel as " Hyperion to a Satyr." Our commercial intelligence is more favourable than fur months past. Wo have no London failures to announce, and those :n the provinces are uf minor importance. '1 be elfecu

of the English commercial panic ara now, however, heen felt throughout the continent and in America, Several more faiiutes have occurred, the most important one being a Mr. J. C. Pill, of St. Petersburg!!, a German merchant, whose liabilities are said to be nearly £400,000. It is ciirrentiv reported and believed in this citv that Mr. J. Abel Smith and Mr. T. C. Smith will retire Iron, the emipent firm of Messrs. Mai«niac, Jardian.and Co., and that Mr. Andrew Jar.line and Mr. Matheson, M.P., will join the huii-e, taking in a large capital. We are sorry lu sin that much uneasiness prevails in Glasgow and Manchester, where the trade is likely lo sutler still farther from failures on the continent, and where revival of trade generally is not so satisfactory as could *be wished. In the official Navy List the name of Lord William Pagel,a captain in ISI6, is struck out throughout the work, by order of the Lords of the Admiralily. We have great pleasure in announcing that Lord Auckland has. in the most Ddttereng terms, offered the naval command of the North Americau and West Indian Stations to the Karl of Duudonald. The veli'ran admiral bus accepted the command, and will thus, in the evening of his days, enjoy an honour 100 long deferred, to which his unrivalled exploits have so jUbtly entitled him.