English and Foreign News.

Daily Southern Cross, Volume VII, Issue 471, 2 January 1852, Page 4

English and Foreign News.

From the commencement to the close of • the Session of Parliament, the were in the House of Lords, 95" sittings, occupying 218 hours, and 42 minutes. The sittings in the Commons, 13d, and the hours consumed 886 hours and a half. On Thursday (August 28th) her Majesty •will reach 'Edinburgh', on the way to Balmoral, ;froin the -Meadow Bank Stations to Holyrbbd. ' ' The Queen's reception is to be • without public demonstration, and during her stay the palace is to be perfectly quiet. Her Majesty stays only one night at Holyrgod, and proceeds northward, avoiding all opportunities of display.

The Census returns are now so far perfect atf to show that ih.e majority of females over males in Great and its dependent isles is 38 3,^22, "after including the army and, navy, and all merchant seamen, at home and abroad. The general increase is less in the decade just perfected, than in any previous ten years; 14, 18, 15, 14, are the, percentages of the last four decades, andl3 tHe per centage of that just accomplished. In London, the increase is 21 males, and 22 females In every hundred of each sex. " The dbm,mittee appointed to investigate the charges brought by the Finance Committee against the establishments of the Army and Naval .departments of the country havo furnished a report, leaving with a few insignificant exceptions, every item as it is; so that all the charges and insinuations against general officers and colonels of regiments, army agents, half-pay, brevets, promotions, purchase of horses, aristocratical influence, &c, are disposed of by a committee eager to inquire and ,to fix blame, but perfectly honest, and forced to approve in almost every, case. r The Exhibition is to close on the 11th of October, and to all the applications of the exhibitors, to allow them to sell their goods ■in the building, a determined negative on the part of the Commissioners has been the only reply j but public sales elsewhere will be unobjectionable, and some of the foreign dealers are anxious to realise. Immediately after the 15th, 'the proprietors will be requested to remove their goods, as the Conim'ssioners must pay rent to the contractors for every day they hold the building after the 16th. Prince Edward of Saxe Weimar is about to be united- to Lady Augusta Gordon Lennox, the second daughter of the Duke of Richmond. A curious case of assult was tried a the Chester assizes on the 15th, Mr. Wilbraham 'Spencer Tollemache, ihe younger brother of an-M.P., and himself a magistrate, having quitted the army/ resides at Dorfield House. Riding thence on the 11th April he met a police-officer in charge of a vagrant, heard his report, and with a reprimand discharged the prisoner from his custody, and proceeded to Mr. Latham's farm yard, where seeing a Mr. Hulse, Mr. Tollemache alighted, walked up to him and horsewipped him, and beat him severely, without any apparent provocation. Ifc seemed that Mr: Hulse, who was a little laird, the owner of a small cottage and farm, had fallen in love with Mrs. Tollemache's sister, and absolutely persecuted her with odious attentions. Finding no other remedy. Mr. Tollemaehe gave him personal chastisement, which the judge said was wrong in law ; the Jury thought so too, giving a verdict of one farthing damages for Hulse, and praying the judge not to certify for costs, so that Hulse might have the pleasure of paying his friend and solicitor Mr. Jones, whose case the action really was.

Frafce. A plot had been discovered at Lyons, having for its object the destroying or changing the government of the Republic. Twentyseven of the conspirators had been apprehended and tried by court martial, of whom six were acquitted, six sentenced to be transported to Noukohiva, one of the Marquezas ; and the remainder sentenced to various terms of imprisonment. The story of the plot may be 'told in a very few words : — Aiphonse Gent, its informing spirit, a man of dissolute habits and broken means, and a sort of epitome of all the qualities which are antecedently supposed in a conspirator, was despatched by the heads of the Republican party in Paris, to organize a system of regular communication with the South-Eastern departments, the stronghold of their opinions. No sooner had he reached his destination than he appears to have been greatly struck T>y the facilities for armed insurrection which were afforded by the proximity of the Genevan refugees ; through the fierce discontent of the peasantry,,' and through the general vagueness 61 the popular ideas as to r the distinction between violent and constitutional opposition. Crossing into Switzerland,- he communicated a scheme for a general rising to the numerous band of exiles who are sheltered there under the patronage of M. James I Fazy. From them, however, he received no encouragement ; few of them, (with the exception of the well-known Sergeant Boichot) believing him serious. Gent, therefore, resolved to conduct the revolt on his own account ; and, retracing his steps to France, commenced his preparations on an immense' scale, and with extraordinary ardour. In a short time congresses of Red Republican deputies had been held in all the large towns ; men were regularly drilled, stocks of powder and muskets had been collected, the Socialist journals assumed a peculiar tone' of gloomy exultation, .and, what was most important, a fixed anticipation of a coming crisis was'dfeseminated through the whole district. All this time Gent was in active correspondence with the leaders of the opposition in Paris, as well as with the Committee of Refugees in [ England. The language of hi? letters is not absolutely inconsistent with the supposition of their complicity in his project; j but a fair construction would refer his allusion to an agitation within the. limits of legality, and not to any armed outbreak. Indeed, common sense and prudence would have forbidden their entrusting Gent with the leadership in so desparate an undertak,ing. Besides being an underling, he seems to have teen as cowardly in execution as he was audacious in conception. It was his faintheartedness which ultimately ruined the plot. The moment of rising was adjourned from day, to day, and at last the local authorities, whose suspicions had long been roused, obtained clear intelligence of Gent's' designs, and the means of identifying

their author and his co-eonspirators. All were immediately arrested, and the rigours of the state of seige were forthwith doubled, through all the departments implicated. There was a strong- impression in England that the accused had not received a fair trial. From the result .of the recent elections of the presidents and secretaries of the Coun-cils-General of the different departments, it, would appear that the party of order was in the ascendant in all; the Democratic party , was beatan everywhere, and was not able v to nominate one of its candidates. To this extant the result, looking upon the question as one of order, is as favourable to the Conservative party as could be desired. Looking at the question, however, as between the Bonapartists and the Monarchists., the result is considered unfavourable to the prospect of Louis Napoleon's re-election. The Orleanists, who follow the leadership of M. Thiers, in opposing the President, and the Ultra-Legitimists, have carried^more of their candidatas this session than they did last ; year. j

Egypt and Turkey. From the 'Straits Times' of September 30, we (^Sydney Herald') extract the following: By yesterday's steamer from Alexandria we hear that warlike preparations were still going forward there, in case of its being necessary to resist the Turks, the question be- ' tween the Pacha and the Sultan being as far as ever from a settlement. The Pacha has an army of 40,000 men under arms. The Growler had returned to Constantinople with the Pacha's final answer, in charge of Mr. Doria, one of the Attaches of the British Embassy at Constantinople. — Malta Mail, August 22. By the rßanshee, from Alexandria, we learn that two regiments of Albanians had arrived there by steam vessels from Constantinople. The appearance of so powerful a military body excited'the suspicions of the authorities, who considered" that, under existing circumstances, it would not be advisable, to permit their landing: Furthermore, the plea of their visit was not sufficiently plausible to admit so numerous a troop of | soldiers into their town j 1 -whatever may bo I their intentions, measures had been taken for meeting anything like hostility. Consequently the guns of the fort were put in readiness, and, as they had stated themselves to be journeying on a pilgrimage to Mecca, they were allowed to disembark, and having assembled in the great square, and resigned their arms, they were readily conducted under a strong escort to the gates of the city, with full permission to proceed on their pilgrimage to the shrine of the Prophet and pray for a more successful attempt on the wary government of Alexandria. It appears that at Constantinople matters are in a somewhat awkward condition. The orders of Sir Stratford Canning to Mr. Murray in Alexandria, although important, have not been complied with; our ambassador has been under the necessity of communicating to the Ottoman minister the answer received from the British Consul in Egypt, to the effect that, according ' to his instructions, direct from Lord. Palmerston, he is. under the necessity of supporting the interests of the Pacha of Egypt. If, in this instance, Lord Palmerston should not coincide with the opinions and instructions of Sir Stratford Canning, as Lord -Aberdeen did on a former occasion, by recalling his orders to Mr. Fonblanque, the cpnsequences must be very alarming. ~Malta Times, August 6. We learn by the f Singapore Times' that the once dreaded Moolraj has gone to his last long home. He expired on the morning of the 11th August, off Purbutpoor, below Calcutta. - , ~

Chinja., We ('Sydney Herald')lhaye files of the 'Friend of China' to the 4th October :— The rebellion in the South of China had not subsided, but the reports of its progress were of a very meagre character. It was, however, confidently asserted that Kwei-lin-fu, the capital of Kwang-si, was in the possession of the rebels ; and that Tien-teh, their leader, was gathering forces in" order to fall upon Fuhsan, a post a short distance from Canton. From the same authority we learn that an attempt had been made to assassinate the Emperor Yihchtu, which was frustrated by one of his Majesty's attendants, who lost his arm in warding off the blow. Eighteen high mandarins were implicated in the matter, and, together with the whole of their families, were immediately decapitated. Suspicion had also fallen on some of the Emperor's uncles, on generals, Court eunuchs, and on Keying and Muhchangah. The following nioreeau we take from the ' Hongkong Gazette :' — " The health of the troops in garrison is but indifferent. Yesterday the number of, sick amounted to 127, viz., of the 59th Kegimeht, 93 ; of the Ceylon Kifles, 17; and of the Ordnance, 17 ; — the prevailing diseases among the Europeans being ague and bowel complaints. The former is doubtless induced by weakness after summer fever; the latter we fear from the. bad quality of the bread reported as again being supplied by the Commissariat contractor, all the good flour obtainable, by Chinese, having been exported from the colony to meet the sudden demand for bread stuffs in New South Wales." The state of the Tea Market is described as follows in the general market report of the ' Overland Friend of China,' Sept. 29 :— Teas. — Canton : v As anticipated, after the mail left prices generally became easier, and we have to report large operations, the total settlements of the month amounting to 270 chops. The total quantity of tea- shipped from Canton, from Ist July to date, is 13,707,870 pounds against 12,005,361 for

same period in 1850, and 18,352,751 pounds in 1849.

"Tea. — Shanghae, (From the North China Herald.) Sales of Congou since Ist July, are stated at 295 chops, , and the remaining stock of 80 chops : quality chiefly low, and held for 11 £ to VL\ Taels per picul. Souchongs : about 6000" chests have been sold, and 8000 chests remain ; prices may be quoted at from 12^ to 16 Taels per picul. Flowery Pekoes, of which about 4000 remain, are held for Taels 22 to 25 per picul. The total quantity of tea shipped from Shanghae, from Ist July to date of this report, 9,549,154 pounds, against 4,974,953 pounds to the same period in 1850, and .2,657,331 pounds in 1849.