GENERAL SUMMARY.

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume 12, Issue 977, 12 September 1868, Page 3

GENERAL SUMMARY.

The Australian mails due in London on the 13th July, were not delivered till the!6tb.

The* Queen is at Osborne, and in good health. She proceeds to Germany in August.

The state concert and public breakfast in Buckingham Palace proved a great success.

The Duke of Edinburgh has been feted at Crystal Palace. There were 30,000 persons present.

Sir Robert Napier has been raised to the peerage, under the title of Baron Napier of Magdala, with a pension of £2000 per annum. He will get the appointment of Commander-in-chief of the forces in India, worth £30,000 per annum.

The approaching general election is causing great excitement.

In response to a requisition, the Lord Mayor of London called a meeting of citizens to be held in Guildhall, in order that an expression of opinion might be come to upon Mr. Gladstone's Suspensory Bill. Nine speakers were heard, after which a general row ensued, during which the Lord Mayor was struck twice. The meeting separated in confusion, and no motion put.

The Conservatives of Edinburgh have invited Lord Stanley to stand for the representation of that city.

The graduates of the University of London wilL support Mr. Lowe.

Parliament is rapidly preparing for a dissolution.

A Bill has passed the House of Commons, framed to make provision for the appointment of members of the Legislative Council of New Zealand, and to remove doubts as to the legality of previous appointments.

A Bill has also passed, defining the powers of the General Assembly of New Zealand, in particular giving that body power to abolish any province in the Colony or alter the boundaries of such province.

The Government intend granting a medal to the Imperial troops - engaged in the late New Zealand war.

Lord Shaftesbury has introduced a Bill into the House of Lords, regulating clerical vestments.

The amendment made by the House of Lords in the Scotch Reform Bill, has been accepted by the House of Commons.

An important meeting of gentlemen interested in the colonies has been held at Willis's rooms for the purpose of forming a colonial Society in London, the main objects of which' shall be to extend a knowledge of the colonies, and to strengthen the connection and good feeling subsisting between the mother country and her off-shoots.

It is denied that Sir James Ferguson has accepted the governorship of South Australia or Tasmania.

An extraordinary fire has occurred in Yorkshire. It occurred at Cleveland hills, and was occasioned by sparks from passing railway engines. It extended over 24 square miles of country. The moors burned uninterruptedly for five days ; sheep and other animals have been burnt to a large extent, and thousands of young grouse and other birds destroyed.

Professor Grote has been elected President of the London University College, in room of the late Lord Brougham.

The new Foreign Office has been inaugurated by a grand dinner given by Lord Stanley.

A complimentary address from a large number of gentlemen connected with the West Indies, has been presented to Mr. Eyre.

King Cole, one of the Australian aboriginal cricketers, has died of inflammation of the lungs. Newmarket meeting, July stakes,' two-year-olds— Ryshworth Ist, Abstinence 2nd, Devere 3rd.

Newcastle summer meeting, Northumberland plate— Fortunio Ist, Tynedale 2nd, Farnkarn 3rd.

Arrangements for the marriage of the Crown Prince of Denmark are completed.

The Pope has issued a bill summoning a universal council for December 1870, to celebrate the anniversary of his 25th year of office, the longest time a Pope has ever reigned.

Wilkinson, late manager of the Joint Stock Discount Company, who was sentenced to five years' penal servitude for fradulently appropriating money, has been released by order of the Home Secretary, the proceedings against him having been the result of a mistake.

The Government has definitively arranged to take over the whole of the telegraph lines at twenty years' purchase.

The heat during the last few days has been intense ; many deaths, in Consequence, have occurred from sunstroke. In New York, there have been three hundred deaths from sunstroke.

The French army has been considerably reduced by six months furlough having been granted to as many as possible.

There have been fresh insurrectionary movements in Spain.

Immense storehouses and their contents, at Dunkirk, have been burned. The loss is estimated at twenty millions francs.

Obituary.— Lord 0. Dunferinline, Dr. Ramsbottom, Mr. Archibald Campbell, Dean Kirwan, Mons. Pauline, Lannayrae, and Vienet, Viscount Labin, Mr. Robert Vaughan, Archdeacon Dodgson, Lord Cranwortij.