ENGLISH NEWS.

Lyttelton Times, Volume II, Issue 76, 19 June 1852, Page 2

ENGLISH NEWS.

We are in possession, in a roundabout way, of European news to the 10th February, of a very disconnected nature. The " Wanderer," on her passage from Sydney to Melbourne, spoke the " Roman Emperor," out 90 days from London to Sydney, and obtained from the Captain London papers of the 19th, 20th, and 21st of January, and IQth of February, extracts of which we copy from the Melbourne Argus of the 17th, and "Herald of the 19th May. It will be seen that the news is nearly a month later than our previous advices, but the want of connexion deprives it of particular interest: — Her Majesty Queen Victoria and the royal family were in the enjoyment of excellent health, and were sojourning at Windsor. The Whig ministry remained in statu quo, but it was generally believed they could not hold together much longei'. Cabinet councils were being held frequently, and were well attended, but the result of sucli grave deliberations was not allowed to transpire. Parliament was opened with all due formality on the 6th February, but we are unable to give the Queen's speech for the reason already stated. On the 9th Lord John Russel moved the promised Reform Bill, urging the circumstances of the tranquillity of the country as rendering the present session peculiarly fitted for the consideration of the subject. He denied that it was merely oh the spur of the moment, when pressed last year, that he resolved to propose a measure of Parliamentary reform. In 1848, while opposing Mr. Hume's motion, he stated that the period was probably approaching when it would be well to consider whether some extension of the suffrage was not necessary. The question was discussed in the cabinet in 1849 and 1850, but on both occasions there were reasons sufficient for its postponement. But while admitting the necessity for the extension of the suffrage, he held the claim untimely which asserted the right of every individual to the franchise. He then drew an historical retrospect of all the measures of reform proposed from that of Mr. Pitt, in 1871, down to the bill of 1232, the main provisions of which, so far as they limited the franchise in counties and boroughs he called attention to, and urged that if the counties and large town only returned members, it would be impossible to say that we had a fair system of representation. Where representation depended solely on numbers, as in the United States, it had been found necessary to arm the Executive, in the person of the President, with powers far beyond those held by the Sovereign of this country, viz., to appoint his ministry without any reference to the opinions of Congress. It would be unwise, and destroy the balance of the constitution, if in this country the representation were confined to the counties and large towns. He saw no reason, nor was it intended to proceed arbitrarily to absolute disfranchisement in the case of small boroughs. It was only proposed to disfranchise those boroughs when there was proof of corruption, to be ascertained by means of a commission, similar to that appointed in the St. Alban's case. It would be for the house to consider whether the hiatus in the representation occasioned by the disfranchisement of boroughs under such circumstances should not be filled up as he now proposed in the case of Sudbury and St. Alban's, by giving the vacant seats to populous and growing towns like Birkenhead and Barnsley. Holding that parliament was correct in 1831 in placing the right of voting on household suffrage, at a £10 qualification, he thought the time had now come when it might safely be lowered. He proposed to substitute a rated value of £5 in boroughs for the existing £]0 franchise. In point of"numbers he calculated that the proportion of occupiers betweeH £5 and £10 as .compared with those of £10 and upwards, was about 6 to 10 the proposed change, therefore, would add materially to the number of voters in boroughs. He proposed to maintain the distinetiou 'between the county! »nd the borough franchise, established by the Reform Act. The 40s. freehold franchise would not be disturbed, but with regard to the occupation franchise, he thought the same qualification which entitled a man"to sit on juries might safely be taken as that which should give the right to vote for members of Parliament; and accordingly he to reduce the occupation franchise in counties from £50 to £20 rated value; and with regard to copyhold tenures and long leaseholds, the

qualification was to be reduced from £10 to £5. Besides these it was proposed to give a new right of voting indiscriminately to persons residing- either in counties or boroughs—those residing without the limits of the borough to vote for the county, and those within, for the borough—that was, the right of all persons to vote who paid direct taxes in the shape of assessed or income tax, to the amount of 40s a year. Such new qualification, however, was not to extend to persons who paid merely for licenses. This would obviate the objection frequently and reasonably urged, that while persons holding freehold or leasehold property, and even mere occupying tenants had the right of voting, a large class of educated men possessing property and every qualification for the exercise of the franchise had not that right. With regard to the small boroughs he thought on principle they should be maintained. „ He did not find, although there was now an outcry against them, that Mr. Pitt, Mr. Fox, or any other statesman who had propounded or supported plans of parliamentary reform had ever suggested the total destruction of the small boroughs. It was a mistake to suppose that all these boroughs were infected with corruption more than some of the larger constituences. In many of them elections were conducted with purity ; but as with regard to some it was said with truth that the influence of property controlled the elections, and, as it was desirable that that reproach should be removed, he proposed where such influence prevailed to extend the constituency by adding neighbouring towns in the same or adjoining county. In bringing forward the Reform Act he had stated that no electoral borough under that Act would have less than 300 voters, and while that was the case generally, it appeared that 14 had less than that number, about 33 more had less than 400, and several others less that 500. He proposed to abide by the standard of 500, and to add places in the neighbourhood to those which had less, in order to make up that number. Ihe number of boroughs to which this principle would apply in England and Wales would be 67. These small boroughs (except some few in Yorkshire) being in the southern and western counties were principally in the agricultural districts, and the places it was proposed to add to them being of the same character of course the balance of interests established by the Reform Bill would be preserved, the object being, not to interfere with thpse interests, but to leave them as they were. Last year he had intimated that he attached no value to the property qualification of members, and that he was willing to see it abolished, and, acting on that opinion, a clause would be introduced into the bill repealing all the Acts from Anne downwards referring to that subject, so that .in future the English and Irish members would, in this respect, be placed on a footing of equality with those of Scotland. Another subject he proposed to deal with in the bill—after the necessary resolution of the house on the subject should be passed—was the oaths taken by members. He saw no advantage in maintaining invidious distinctions between the oaths of Protestants and Roman Catholics, nor in calling upon members to abjure James 11. and his descendants. In the new form of oath he proposed the words « on the true faith of a Christian" should be omitted—words which had never been introduced to confine the right of sitting in Parliament to Christians, but for a totally different purpose. The oath he would suggest was a simple one, which all members could take alike, merely binding them to allegiance to the throne, and fidelity to the succession. There would be one other clause in the bill in regard to members accepting offices under the Crown. At present, not only when the member accepted office, but when he changed office, his seat became vacant. He did not propose to alter the law as regarded members accepting office for the first time, but he thought that when a member who held one office merely changed to another under the same administration, there should be no necessity for a re-election; and to this extent he proposed to effect an alteration. With regard to Ireland it was not proposed to make any alteration in respect to the county franchise. _ But with regard to the city and borough franchise, the qualification would be reduced trom £8 to £o, it having been found that the A 8 franchise greatly restricted the number of voters in Ireland. The very small number on the lists of some of the boroughs had disposed Government to reconsider the question placed before the House when the Irish Bill was before

it, —viz., whether, with regard to some of those boroughs, it was not advisable to add the neighbouring towns, and thereby secure larger and more independent constituences. The question of the franchise settled, Parliament would be in a position to consider one from which it was not alien, viz., the education of the people. In another session he trusted they would be prepared to concur in a a general measure on that subject.

After a spirited discussion, leave was granted to bring in the bill. 'vh& An ultra Protestant meeting had beeir held in Dublin, at which a memorial was adopted for presentation to the Queen, praying her Majesty to " dismiss from her councils all popishly affected persons, and to call thereto able and true protestants."

The Reform agitation continued, and a mon-" T ster meeting on the subject had been held at Manchester. Meetings had also been held to petition the House of Commons to annul the Maynooth Endowment Act.

Feargus O'Connor, the noted chartist, was brought before the Bow Street Magistrate, recently, for creating a row in the Lyceum Theatre. He was sentenced to seven days' imprisonment in the House of Correction. Some time after Mr. O'Connor's removal to the cell, Mr. G. W. M. Reynolds entered the court' and, in making an applicatian to the Magistrate, said that for a considerable time it had been painfully obvious to the friends of Mr. O'Connor that his mind was affected to such a degree that he was not master of his own conduct ; and with every deference to the Court, he begged to submit the propriety, under such •circumstances, of a commutation of the sentence. Mr. Henry, the magistrate, would not agree to this request, and Feargus went to prison.

DISCOVSHT OF A GOLD DIGGING IN SkYE. —This is a startling announcement to make, says the Inverness Courier, but we do so on the authority of the following note from a gentleman on whose veracity we place perfect reliance :—" } January 30, 1852.—The people of Skye are in the greatest state of excitement at present, a gold mine having been discovered on the banks of the river Stenschol, in Waternish. A travelling tinker of the name of Stewart has converted some of the g*M into rings ! I have not seen any of it myself, but from the description given by those who have seen the metal, I have no doubt that it is gold. This statement is quite correct, and you may insert it. Samples of the metal have been sent to Edinburgh." In our number of the 29th May, we gave a brief account of the loss of the steamer " Amazon ;" we have now received the following more detailed account of'the dreadful event:— The Royal Mail steam-ship " Amazon," Captain Symonds, with passengers and mails for the West Indies, steamed from Southampton, on Friday, the 2nd January, at 3 p.m. At noon, on Saturday, she was about 150 miles from Southampton, proceeding steadily on her voyage, and nothing occurred till a quarter to one on Saturday morning, the vessel then about 98 miles north-west of Ushant, when the fireman reported a fire in the engine-room to Mr. Tieweeks, the officer of the watch, whoimmediately sent the quarter-master to the captain, who instantly came on deck and examined the state of the fire, and ordered all hands on deck to the fire-engine. The flames soon burst out from the engine-room, and ignited the hay, &c, for live stock, a portion of which was immediately thrown overboard in a blaze. The Captain immediately ordered the ship to be put before the wind, and the engines to be stopped ; but so great ahold had the fire obtained that the engineers and firemen were unable to remain below, or to get at the engines to stop them. M this time, which was less than half an ifcur > from the discovery of the fire, it had obtained such a mastery as to baffle the exeftions of the officers and crew, the flames ascending and cutting off all communication, and the- !J#ss<a still under steam. Efforts were made to launch the best life boat, but the flames prevented their getting at her; they then went to the second lite boat, just abaft the sponson, and succeeded m lowering her, into which two passengers and 14 of the crew rushed and towed alongside for about live minutes ; but the ship was going so fast through the water, and the flames increasing so rapidly that they Avith extreme difficulty cleared themselves of the wreck. At the same tune two or three more boats were launched from the larboard side, but were swamped.

Two boats hanging to the davits on either side,' were crowded with passengers, and in the hurry of lowering them the falls.fouled, and the boats hung on end, and the people were washed out of them Besides the life boat, the stern boat got clear of the ship, in which were four of the crew and one passenger. They were taken into the life boat, and the dingy immediately swamped. At this time another boat was seen, supposed to be the gig, riding like the life boat he<9tffio sea, but was not seen afterwavds by those in the life boat. It was blowing strong from the westward and a heavy sea running. About 4 a.m., those in the boat saw a barque, of about 300 tons register, under double reefed maintopsail, close reefed foretopsail, and whole foresail, on a. wind which was about west and "* by south. She was within hail of the boat, and also of the steamer ; and those on board hailed and shouted, but the barque passed on between the boat and the *' Amazon," to windward of the latter, but to leeward of the boat. The life boat did all that was possible in looking out for the other boats or any of the passengers or crew who might have been in the water, but she was obliged to be kept head to sea, which was runuing heavy; one sea broke on board, and partially iilled her. The steamer was at this time in a complete blaze fore and aft, and about 5#30 a.m., her magazine blew up, and in less than a quarter of an hour the vessel went down broadside on. At daylight there was a heavy fall of rain, which lessened the sea, and the boat, which had then drifted about three miles from where the "Amazon, went down, after searching for any portion of the wreck, and finding no vessel in sight, was put before the wind, and continued pulling towards the eastward, with five oars aside, till noon, when they descried a vessel about three miles to windward, on the starboard tack, standing to the southward ; they hoisted signals and pulled towards her, and the brig perceiving them bore down. She proved to be the " Marsden," of London, from Cardiff, for South Carolina; and from Captain Evans, his officers, and crew, the boat's crew from the •' Amazon," received every kindness and attention, and after a sharp look-out from the masthead for any other boats, or vestige of the wreck*-the brig bore up for Plymouth. Orifrof the firemen saved accounts for the origin of the fire from the overheating of the cranks and other portions of the machinery, which it was found necessary to play upon with water frequently; but at the time the fire was discovered, a period of six or seven hours had elapsed without its being cooled. He imagines that the great heat of the same and the boilers ignited the felt and wood casing around the steam chest, and thus spread.