LATEST INTELLIGENCE. MALTA. 21st October.

Daily Southern Cross, Volume XV, Issue 1200, 28 December 1858, Page 1 (Supplement)

LATEST INTELLIGENCE. MALTA. 21st October.

Telegram from London announces that the money securities remained unchanged. Consols for money, 98£ to 98£. New South Wales 5 per cent debentures, 10U£ to 101. At a meeting of the Geelong Railway Company, the London shareholders passed resolutions condemning the conduct of directors for keeping back interest, and claiming the payment of capital. Alpacas are being shipped for the colonies.

We ar,e politely favoured with the following private telegram received on Saturday evening from a passenger by the Columbian : — "New contract via Mauritius and Suez, to commence in February. Government intend running the Panama line. Money easy. Trade good. .Exports moderate Wool rising. Hides dull. Tallow quiet.' Brandy down*"

A Dinner was given at the London Tavern on Sept. 24, by the directors of the Intercolonial Royal Mail Steam Racket Company, to the Hon. James B. Fitzgerald, of Canterbury, New Zear land. The Hon. ,Bobert Fulke Greville, the chairman of the' company, presided..

The Atlantic Teieghaph. — We are not s demonstrative race. We take our successes and our failures with, equal gravity. Our cousins across the Atlantic have picked up more of the quick, expressive southern element, and they beat us in the display of public feeling. In the first apparent success of the Electric Cable they went mad with delight and self applause. Though we had contributed equal science and most of the capital, they forgot us altogether. No sooner does the wire give uncertain signs than they discover we have had the management of it, and that all will be right as soon as the American instruments can be conveyed to Trinity Bay. If any faith, however, is to be put in a startling despatch received at Halifax from New York, our instruments are more efficacious than theirs. At this end of the cable we have neither given way to extravagant joy, nor fallen out of temper with our partners in the scheme, because for the present things wern't as we expected. Yet there is a profound sense' of disappointment, or at least of that deferred hope which makes the heart sick, at this sad hitch. For the present, and as regards this particular cable, vie feel as people do about a tree languishing from some inscrutable disease, or a child that pines away it cannot tell why. What is the matter with it ? Where is the pain ? What part is hurt? Answer there iß none. In a small room on the Irish coast a bit of copper wire is fixed on the table or the wall, and knowing men are coaxing it to tell them what has happened a thousand miles off in the mid abyss of the ocean. Its vitality expires, its pulsation grows weaker , it responds more and more feebiy to the tortures of science, and the very means used to rouse it from its stupor draw on its constitution. In the r urgency the operators cut off their own hopes, and it is now suspected that they have done themselves no small part of the mischief that they deplore. What is this but the old story of the genius, maliciously true, keeping the very letter of his bond, doing superhuman service, but gone for ever if a word or a movement be omitted ? There is too much reason to fear that the affair is reduced to a post-mortem examination. Unless the above rumour be true, the Atlantic cable is dead. There is a length of wire, but how long no man can say. It is, indeed, almost the greatest wonder of the age, and, fairly considered, beats even the Atlantic telegraph itself, should that ever be an existent fact, that our men of science can stand at one end of a' fine copper wire and ask it how long it is. "Answer, wire, are you 10 miles long, or 270, or 560, or 1000, or even 2000 ? What is the nature of your fracture or your injury r" Witchcraft itself cannot beat such divination. It ii even some comfort to reflect that, though for the present science does us no goad, yet it gains by our failures, and, though we do not yet obtain what we want, we know more. — 'Times.'— [A report on the cable has been drawn up by Mr. Henley, the electrical engineer, and published by the directors. Mr. Henley states that the result of his experiments leads him to the conclusion that the cable has been seriously injured about 300 i miles from Valencia, He expresses an opinion that the fault existed in the cable beiore it was submerged, and that it should have been tested in water during its manufacture. He has put his large magnetic machine in operation with a view to transmit messages to Newfoundland, but he will not know whether they have been received until intelligence comes from the colony by the ordinary route. He does not believe that the defect will be found near the shore, but he recommends that 15 miles of the cable should be taken up and tested. Any attempt to raise the cable in the deep soundings would, in his judgment, cause its destruction. Finally, Mr. Henley does not despair of making the cable workable, provided that it does not get worse. Samuel E. Phillips, late electrician's assistant to the Atlantic Telegraph Company, we observe, controverts* most of Mr. Henley's conclusions.] — Home News, October 16.

(From the Home News, Oct. 16 J We may congratulate our readers on the fact that Government has at last taken a step in the right direction, towards the establishment of a postal service be. tween this country and Australia: The contract has. been awarded to the Peninsular and Oriental' Company, whose character and resources jnstify the expectationthat its conditions will be strictly carried out. So far, therefore, as the present arrangements extend, ,we may look forward to the remits with confidence, The time stipulated for is 65 days: between Southampton and I Sydney ; the subsidy' is understood to be about the same as that which was granted to the European and. Australian Company ; and the new service will commen ce from Southampton on the 12th of March, and from Sydney from the 15th of February, 1859. All details will be found in another column, | Government have announced their intention of making an early call for tenders for a monthly steam communication with Australia, via Panama, in addition to the service via Suez. This service will be very valuable to the commercial interests both of the colonies and the mother country, but we doubt itsjefficiencj for postal purposes. With the exception of New Zealand, the' route to all the other points— Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide, and Tasmania— is much longer by Panama than by Suez, which is an essential element in the consideration of a postal service. Objections have been taken to the time allowed for the voyage from Southampton to Sydney, it being alleged that the distance could be accomplished in five or six days less ; and it has been supposed that this long term has been granted with an ultimate view to endeavour to equalise the two lines, when they are brought to work alternately. We do not place much stress upon these objections, but we think that the Panama route is not judiciously chosen for the purpose* of postal communication, so far as the bulk of the colonial population is concerned.

Coloniali Appointments. — The Queen has been pleased to direct that letters patent be issued under the Great Seal for reconstituting the Bishopric of New Zealand, and for appointing the Right Ber. George Augustus Selwyn, D.D., to be Bishop of the said See, and Metropolitan of New Zealand ; for erecting the Bishopric of Wellington, and for appointing the Venerable Charles John Abraham, Archdeacon of Waimate, to be Bishop of the said See ; for erecting the Bishopric of Waiapu, and for appointing the Venerable William Williams, Archdeacon of Waiapu, to be Bishop of the said See ; for erecting the Bishopric of Nelson, and for appointing the Rev. Edmund Hobhouse, M.A., to be Bishop of the said See ; and for placing under the jurisdiction of the Metropolitan of New Zealand the See of Christchurch r.orrunder the jurisdiction of the Metropolitan of Australia. — Home News, October 16. Postal Communication Between New, Zealand and Australia. — We have already had to congratulate our New Zealand readers on the establishmentfof steam postal service between New Zealand, and Australia in connection with the overland English paail, *nd so far bare,

the arrangements been completed that some of the vessels have already departed. We now see that a prospectus is issued of the Intercolonial Mail Steam Packet Company [limited], with a proposed capital of £125,000, in £10 shares. This company is formed to carry out a contract entered into by Messrs. Pearson, Coleman, and Co. with the Admiralty for an exclusive monthly mail service between Sydney and the principal ports of New Zealand for a term of 10 years. The subsidy granted by Government on the employment of four vessels is £24,000 a year for the first four years of the contract, and £22,000 a year for the remaining six years ; but it is intimated thatyi considerable extension of the service, upon advantag eous conditions, is under consideration. Messrs. Pearson, Coleman,, and Co. subscribe for £40,000 of the capital upon precisely the same terms as those offered to the public. — Ibid.

TURKEY. ""We are still, 1 ' says the Constantinople correspondent of the 'Times,' " continuing in the right direction, in spite of the certainty of the loan, which evil prophets prognosticated as the limits of the economical era, and in spite of the endeavours of the defeated Powers to entangle the Sultan in the^net' of their fatal charms. Economy has quite become the fashion since it was decreed by the Imperial fiat and since the example was enforced in the highest sphere"". Besides the General Controller of the Palace, a. controller has been appointed for the household of each of the five Sultanas, who are to check all extravagance for the future. The Economical Council is still busy with its Herculean task of getting rid of useless jewels and trinkets, and of disentangling the intricate arithmetical problem which has grown up through a long file of unpaid bills. 1 ' Lord Stratford de Redcllffe visited the Grand Vizier at the Porte on the 22nd September. "The noble lord," says the 'Journal de Constantinople,' "was received at the entrance of the department with all the honours observed on such occasions. Much cordiality ■was manifested on both sides, and we have leason to believe that the speeches exchanged between the ambassador and the Grand Vizier were characterised throughout by the same friendly spirits and sentiments of good will. It appears that Lord Redcliffe explained to his Highness the circumstances which led to his resignation as representative of the Queen at the Sultan's Court, and also the object and character of his present visit. He concluded by asking that his Majesty might be solicited to appoint a day on which he (the ambassador) could have the honour of presenting the letter of his sovereign in an imperial audience. The Grand Vizier, in reply, expressed himself in terms of great feeling. He said, with a lively emotion, how happy he and his colleagues, without exception, were to see the return of |Lord Stratford to the seat of the Ottoman Government, although his stay was to be short. His highness dwelt upon the eminent services which his Excellency had rendered to the empire in the course of his long diplomatic relations with the Sublime Porte, and expressed the desire of the government of his imperial majesty that the friendly sentiments which gave rise to these services might be manifested elsewhere. The Grand Vizier accepted readily the agreeable mission of asking an audience of his imperial majesty, and he believed he could already assure his Excellency that his Majesty would grant it with a deal of pleasure." Lord Stratford de Redcliffe was received by the Sultan on the 26th SeptJ It is understood that the object of Lord Stratford's mission was to offer an indemnity on the part of the English Government, for the bombardment of Jeddah. There is a report that " the Montenegrins have actually hoisted their flag in the territory called the Sutorina, on the coast of the Adriatic, which the frontier commission has not alloted-to them. Prince Danilo is said to have raised a force of 2000 men. Great excitement prevails in Servia. The national enthusiasm has been awakened , and it is reportedthat the old popular assembly has been restored, in spite of a protest from the government.

PRANCE. It appears, according to the « Pays,' that government { has determined that works similar in character to those , of Cherbourg and Brest' shall be simultaneously executed in all the French ports on the Atlantic. Estimates hare been prepared and credits fixed for placing all these ports in a respectable state of defence. Two ships of war, the Donauvrerth and Austerlitz, have arrived from Toulon in the Tagus, to support a demand of the French ambassador at Lisbon for compensation for the seizure 'of the French slaver, Charles Georges. A Portuguese court of justice has pronounced the seizure lawful because the Charles Georges, a merchantman of Nantt s, was in reality transporting slarei contrary to the provisions of the international treaty. Th« French government says that it was merely aiding in the laudable scheme of populating the French West Indian colonies with " free blacks." This scheme the French government has tardily promised to renounce. But it seems that one of the points now insisted upon is that the Charles Georges was seized by the Portuguese before this promise had been given. It is reported that Portugal is countenanced by England. So far the aspect of the affair would seem to be very •erious. But we now hear that both France^ and Portugal have agreed to refer the dispute for arbitration to a third power.

RUSSIA. The St. Peterburg journals announce what they call a, •• decisive defeat" of Scharayl in the Caucasus. According to them, on the 2nd of August, & large detachment of his forces attacked a Russian column in the gorge of Acho, but was repulsed with considerable loss ; whereupon Schamyl, with a part of his troops, resolved to make a diversion at Wladikansas. He marched there, and found a column of Russians, under General Mischanko. The Russian general manoeuvred in such a way as to entice him into the place, and then, dividing his force into two columns, he attacked him both on the right and left, and at last routed him. with a loss of 370 men killed, capturing, besides, 84 horses, 424 muskets, 280 swords, 445 pistols, and 14 tents— one of the latter Schamyl's own. It was on the 11th of Aug. that this engagement took place, and it is said that the Russian loss w,as only 14 killed and 16 wounded. The Russian Steam Navigation Company is making several more arrangements of the Villafranca sort. In addition to a depot in Algeria others in Egypt and Barbary are mentioned, besides one in Greece.

ITALY. The Great Russian Steam Navigation Company, it is stated, took possession, on the 20th September, of the establishment at Villdfranca, granted to them by the Sardinian government. The circumstances connected 'with this occupation have been regarded with suspicion in to many., quarters that Count Carour has deemed it necessary to address a circular on the subject to the representatives of Piedmont at foreign courts. There has not been a cession of the port of Villafranca, he explains, but merely a concession, ■which may at any time be revoked, of certain buildings in the port. He .cites, what is much to the point, the precedent of a similar concession to the United States in the Gulf of Spezia. We may observe that a report is circulated in Vienna to the effect that the Sardinian minister's explanation hat not altogether satisfied the Cabinet of St. James's. The report ifl very possibly without foundation.

His Royal Highness Prince Alfred has for some months been staying with his tutor, Lieut. J. C. Cowell, R.E., at Alverbank (the residence of the late Right Hon. J. W. Oroker), near Gosport. pursuing the pre- | paratory studies ior the naval service under the instruction of the Rev. W. R. Jolley. His royal highness underwent a special examination before the Rev. Thos, Maine, Professor at the Royal Naval College, Portsmouth, in the presence of Admiral Sir George Seymour, X.C.8.; Rear- Admiral the Hon. G. Grey, and Captain R. S. Hewlett, of H.M.S. Excellent, Capt.-Superinten-dent of the Royal Naval College. The examination lasted for four days, and comprisedjthe subjects ofJarithmetic, algebra, plane trigonometry, Euclid, sacred history and history of England, geography, Latin, French, German, and English dictation. His royal highness having been declared to have passed satisfactorily in all these several branches has been appointed a naval cadet, and joined H.M.S. Euryalus, Capt. J. W. Tarleton, C.8., on the 31st of August. After a leave of absence for two months his royal highness will rejoin the frigate for permanent ssrvice, and will mess and live with the midshipmen on board. Her Majesty has been pleased to appoint Lieut. Cowell, R.E., Governor to the Prince, who will accompany him in his voyage. His royal highness, as we notice elsewhere, has made a journey to Potsdam to visit his sister, the Princess Erederick William, before he goes to sea. He is then, for a short time, to join her Majesty at Balmoral. — Home News. On September 13 Mr. J. G. Norris, the gentleman who arrived recently in this country from Toronto, charged with a petition to her Majesty, from a considerable number of the principal inhabitants of that city and other towns in the two provinces, received tha answer of her Majesty through Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton, the Secretary of State for the Colonies. The petition, of which Mr. Norris vms the bearer, stared that a Crystal Palace, similar in design, but of smaller dimensions, to those of London and Paris, for an exhibition of the products of Canadian industry and skill, is in course of erection in Toronto, and will be completed about the Ist of October ; and that, as her Majesty had been graciousjjy pleased to honour the'inauguration of similar undertakings in England and elsewhere with her royal presence, the memorialists prayed that she would confer a mark of favour and distinction on her subjects in Canada by giving authority to the Prince of Wales, or some other member of the royal family, to proceed to Toronto to represent her on the opening of a Crystal Palace in the most important dependency of | her empire. It is understood that the letter which Mr. j Norris has just received from Sir Edward Lytton is to the effect that, as the time in which the petition should receive an answer would not permit of, his consulting the local government on the subject of it, there has been & departure from usage in the mode of its transmission, and having regard to the number and importance of the signatures attached to it, he had consideied it his duty to present it to her Majesty, who had been pleased to . receive it graciously. He adds that, under the necessity I of declining the request of the petitioners, the Queen j appreciates the loyalty to the Crown and the attach- 1 ment to her person and family which prompted the wishes of the petitioners ; and he concludes with an expression of hope on the part of her Majesty that the forthcoming exhibition at Toronto will produce important and useful results to Canada.— Home News. The Federal Experiment in Canada.— The unfortunate state of affairs in our great Transatlantic colony leads us to regard with much favour, though we confess with more favour than hope, the proposition thrown out by the governor-general in his speech proroguing the Canadian Parliament, of a Federal union between the American colonies. These settlements have arrived at a point of development which seems to render such an union, for the sake of their commercial and material interests, highly desirable. They will before long be united by a chain of railways; they have all easy access to the great arterial communication of the St. Lawrence ; they are all, except Lower Canada, thoroughly English in people, language, laws, and institutions ; they are not divided by any great natural feature ; and they have many, and those increasing, interests in common. Their geographical position is so commanding, and the necessity of opposing the progress of the United States by a progress equally well conceived and energetic so pressing, that it seems impossible to conceive a measure in principle less liable to objection. It will, however, have to contend with the same narrow and local selfishness on which the award of the Crown with regard to the future capital of Canada seems to have made shipwreck, and we are not without apprehension that the colonies may be found unwilling to concur in a measure which is equally for the benefit of all, exactly because it is equal, and therefore no one gains any advantage above his neighbour. , There is also another difficulty which encounters us on the very threshold of the question. It is quite clear that the Federal Constitution of the United States of America forms a precedent which cannot possibly be followed in its principle or details by the British colonies so long as they remain, however nominally, patt of the dominions of the Imperial Crown. The principle of the American Federation is, that each is a sovereign state, which consents to delegate to a central authority a portion of its sovereign power, leaving the remainder, which is not so delegated, absolute and intact in its own hands. This is not the position of the colonies, each of which^ instead of being an isolated sovereign state, is an integral part of the British Empire. They cannot delegate their sovereign authority to a central government, because they do not possess the sovereign authority to delegate The only alternative would be to adopt a course exactly the contrary of that which the United States have adopted, and instead of taking for their motto "E pluribus unum," to invert it by saying "Ex uno plura." — Times. The East of the Future.— These two great events of 1858— the inauguration of a new government for India, and the opening of the vast empire of China to European enterprise — will communicate an extraordinary interest to our future dealings in the East. It can hardly, perhaps, be said that there is much connection between them, for, although China is actually conterminous along certain frontiers with British India, and its government was once at war with that of Nepaul, the contract between the authorities of Calcutta and Pekin has been but insignificant ; nor can we take upon ourselves to assert that our relations with China were ever directly affected by our position in Hindostan. Still, under the new order of things the case maybe different, and, with India and China both opened'effectually to British enterprise, we may witness, perhaps, simultaneous changes in these vast and ancient communities of the East. Of the two scenes we should be disposed to conjecture that India would prove the more important. From our new engagements with China we have little to anticipate beyond freedom of trade — more or less sincerely maintained. We shall procure, we hope, cheaper teas — no small benefit, considering the primary necessity of the article, and more advantageous markets for our manufactures. As for political influence, it is acknowledged on all hands that we desire no territory except for genuine purposes of trade, while it would be difficult to find a population less generally impressible than that of the Celestial Empire. There is no mysteiy about the Chinese like that which •hrouds the institutions of Japau. They are a race of average intelligence, steeped in traditions of remote antiquity, but driven by excessive numbers to forego

prejudices, and practice all resources of diligence and j thrift for the sake of a bare sustenance.- In 'India tHe prospect is widely different, for there we are the actual lords of the "country, and the ground has been' cleared by an earthquake for a new administration. India must needs take its character from our rule, and that rule will express a more positive policy than before. The Queen cannot govern as the Company did, on the simple terms of cheapness and non-intervention. We must give the Hindoos better laws, more economical justice, and more extended education. We must reestablish them in the conviction that we ate the best rulers they can have, and proved that we are their best friends also. The influence of European energy and capital will Be applied to the vast but undeveloped resources of Hindostan, and it will be strange indeed if an acute and tractable race cannot discover its best interests in seconding the policy of a powerful and beneficent Government. — Times. The Qtjeen op Spain in a Coal Pit.— The Uspana contains an account of the Queen having visited the coal mines in the neighbourhood of San Juan. Her majesty expressed a desire to descend into the principal pit, which is upwards of 350 feet, and tq go further in the pit than any one had ever been. The President of the Council, Marshal O'Donnell, recommended her Majesty not to make the descent, as it might be attended with some danger, but the queen persisted. The minister and General Lemery then went down to receive the queen, and her Majesty, accompanied by the king, and attended by the director, and by the engineer, Mr. Smith, afterwards descended. When the queen got to the bottom, she cried to her suite that they might follow her without fear. The queen then went along the principal gallery of the pit, which goes on an incline upwards of 300 yards — great part of this under the sea. Arrired at the very extremity, the queen formed her initials on a large block of coal, by means of drops from a tallow candle. The director declared that no female had ever had the courage to go so far, and he requested and obtained permission to place a stone on the spot to commemorate the remembrance of the visit. When the queen ascended to the orifice, the miners who were assembled cheered enthusiastically. Messrs. Marion, the French stationers are now carrying on a business in the production of photographic visiting cards. The visitor who calls in your absence leaves not only his name, but his portrait. These portraits are brought within the compass of' a circle that J might go upon a finger ring, but telling under the I microscope like a vigorous portrait by Titian. We have seen a picture of the Leviathan alias Great Eastern, executed on a speck which was in itself almost invisible, the picture being discoverable only by the microscope ; but in the case of these of these cards, the picture, from the powerful machinery of a Herbert Watkins, is a great work of art ; and the visitor munificently distributes portraits of himself by a great I master. We have before us a likeness of John Millais, I which he himself could not excel in execution. How I splendid a thing would it have been if Shakspeare could ! have left these records among his friends.