SUMMARY OF HOME NEWS.

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume 1, Issue 26, 20 March 1858, Page 3

SUMMARY OF HOME NEWS.

Dates by the "City of Sydney" are to the 16th December.

The convocation of Parliament has seldom been attended by so many striking circumstances as those which marked the opening of the present session, on the third of December. The fact of a sanguinary campaign against races under our own rule in the East, solicits the most earnest attention of the Imperial Legislature ; and there is an universal agitation at home for a new arrangement of the representation, and a fresh distribution of electoral privileges. If we add to these the alarms that prevail in monetary circles, the investigation which has already been determined upon into the present commercial and banking system* and the great task which lies before the Legislature in the settlement of the future government of India, it will be admitted that few sessions have opened with so heavy a responsibility.

The question to which the curiosity of all readers will be directed is that which immediately concerns the interests of India. They will find that, much as the people of this country are engrossed by the daily crash of failures, both at home and abroad, and by domestic politics, India continues to occupy the largest share of public attention. Parliament has been called together ostensibly, and indeed, really, for the purpose of obtaining an Act of Indemnity for the recent suspension of the Bank Charter Act ; but it is clear, even from the debates which have already taken place, that the suppression of the mutiny and the reestablishment of our power in the East are the uppermost subjects of all men's minds. Numerous allusions have been made to India in the midst of speeches upon currency and capital, and attempts, direct and indirect, have been made to draw from ministers some hint or explanation of their intentions. It was hardly to be expected that in the short interval which has elapsed since the outbreak of the Bengal army, the Executive could have had time to come to a final decision upon the momentous interests involved in the re-modelling of the government of India. It would, indeed, be surprising if a vast power which has occupied more than a hundred years in building up, could have been taken to pieces and reconstructed under a different form in a few weeks. The difficulties which have all along been obvious to others, have become practically developed in the deliberations of the Cabinet, and ministers have found it necessary to postpone until February the announcement of their views on the subject. It would be idle, to prophesy what those views are likely to be. A division of opinion exists in the Ministry, but it may be assumed that the principle of a double government will be ultimately abandoned. Little information has been elicited in either, House upon any Indian question. Ministers are pledged to spare the life of - Jthe, King of Delhi. It appears that he . could not have been taken unless such a promise liad been, given, a statement which -Requires* explanation. No resolution has ■4 ieen^OipeHo^esipepting grants of cbmperi-

sation to persons who- have- suffered from the mutiny. The policy .of transporting the rebels has. occupied attention, and government are prepared to carry it into effect to a certain extent. The fate of the Calcutta memorial has been sealed by Lord Palmerston who has sent it back, to be transmitted through the official channel of the Governor-General. By the time it finds its way again to England, its matter will be stale, and its prayer idle.

Lord John Russell has brought forward the Jew question in the shape of a bill to substitute one oath for the three now taken on admission to Parliament. This one oath is the same as that proposed by Lord Palmerston in the Bill of last session, with the addition of the words "on the true faith of a Christian," introduced to satisfy the feelings of those who wished it. By a separate clause Jews are to be exempted from repeating these words. In this .new form the question is to be renewed in February, when the second reading of the Bill is to take place.

The Bill of Indemnity having been passed, and all pressing business having been concluded, the short session terminated on the 12th December, and both houses -were adjourned to the 4th of February.

Our foreign news is a blank. Europe, as the Queen's speech tells us, is in a state of universal repose, and scarcely a breath of movement agitates the surface. France contributes only a single item to the current chronicle — the refusal of two independent members of the Corps Legislatif to subscribe the oath to the present Government. The panic in Hamburg of course, occupies attention, and sundry London shops, that are in the habit of turning all such incidents to account, announce sales of "soft goods" at a "ruinous reduction" in consequence ; but notwithstanding the alarm created on the Continent, and attempted to be disseminated here, confidence is slowly returning, and it is believed that the worst is over. From Spain we learn that the Queen has given birth to a son, and that the fact, notwithstanding all royal arrangements in such cases made and provided, is pretended to be doubted by certain political parties in Madrid. The case of two English engineers who have

been kept in prison for five months by the King of Naples, and subjected to gross illtreatment, on a charge of complicity in a late conspiracy against the Government, has been brought, in an interrogatory form, before the Partiament. The facts of severity alleged against King Bomba are substantially established, yet nothing, it appears, can be done to obtain redress.

An attempt — not to launch the "Great Eastern," bnt to move her nearer the water, had failed. No apprehensions of ultimate failure were entertained.

The marriage of the Princess Royal had been announced for the 24th January.

General Havelock had received from the Queen the honor of knighthood and from the British Parliament a pension of £1000 a year. The gallant chief, unhappily, was then numbered amongst the dead.