LATEST ENGLISH INTELLIGENCE.

Nelson Examiner and New Zealand Chronicle, Volume IV, Issue 170, 7 June 1845, Page 53

LATEST ENGLISH INTELLIGENCE.

Meeting of the Bishops. — The Times publishes the following important notice from a correspondent: — "The Archbishop of Canterbury has announced bj| intention to summon a meeting of the Bench of Bishops, in consequence of the unhappy schism which at present agitates the Church of England, in order to deliberate and determine upon the rubrical observances to be enforced throughout the various dioceses of England over which his Grace has jurisdiction. It was originally intended that the meeting of the prelates should be held at Lambeth Palace, in the approaching Ember Week, previous to the ordinations ; but the melancholy death of the mother of the Bishop of London has caused the postponement of the contemplated meeting. As yet, it is therefore undetermined whether the assemblage of the Bench of Bishops shall take place about the period of the annual convocation of St. Paul's, or whether the synod shall take place at the commencement of the ensuing month of January. The issuing of the recent pastoral letter of the Bishop of Exeter has caused fresh excitement among the laity, and a new source of embarrassment to the Church ; it is, therefore, not at all improbable that an early day will be determined upon by their lordships, so that the feverish controversies relative to the gown and surplice, and the weekly offertory, may be finally disposed of. In connexion with the above subject, meetings of the rural deans of the various archdeaconries are now being assembled, and minutes of their proceedings will be forwarded to their respective bishops, in which will be explicitly stated the manner and form of celebrating Divine service in the different parochial churches, as well as the compliance with the rubric by the clergy in their deanery. It is enrrently reported with some degree of authority, that his Grace the Archbishop of Canterbury will, at the deliberations of the Episcopal Bench, propose a conciliatory course to be pursued relative to the observance of the rubric, so that a due regard may be paid to the scruples of the laity relative to innovations in the Church service which may give offence to the congregation. In this measure, it is also said, his Grace of York fully concurs."

New French Conquests. — The Constitutionnel has a long and rather temperate article upon the reported addition to the French Protectorate in the Pacific, of the Wallis Islands — an acquisition which it truly contends will either involve France in a serious misunderstanding with this country, or produce only a repetition of the disavowals and " humiliation " which formed the sequel of the Tahiti conquest. All these evils, adds the Constitutionnel, are the more imminent, as the Wallis Islands, lying nearer to Australia and New Zealand than Tahiti does, the interests of Great Britain are more nearly involved, and the opposition, both of the English Government and the missionaries will be more violent. It is, moreover, suggested that the islands in question are included in Mr. Pritchard's consulate, and that the French authorities will therefore find themselves once more in presence ot that formidable personage. — Times, December 16.

United States. — Policy op the Whigs towards Texas. — At a meeting held subsequently to the election of Mr. Polk, Mr. Webster used the following language : — " la the correspondence with regard to the admission of Texas, that project was advocated mainly in order to support what were called the peculiax institutions of this country. It was almost too much to read the comments of Europe upon this ground of argument. An honest man could hardly listen to the proposition that, when morals, religion, civilization, everything respected, were opposed to the maintenance of slavery, America should come forward and declare it necessary to the support of her institutions. This was a question that could not be permanently decided against us to-day or tomorrow. If we could not avert it now by choice of President or Vice- President, we must do it by choice of . members of Congress, and by sending our young, strong,

and active men, to oppose the admission of Texas£shdth^erj^tttatfbn of slavery. ' He should shrink from no, service to oppose it wherever and whenever he might."

The Duke of Norfolk was about to present fifty acres of land to the people of Sheffield for public pleasure grounds. We learn from Copenhagen that the King has issued an ordinance modifying the application of corporeal punishment as far as the army is concerned. His Majesty abolishes altogether the punishment of the stick, which was both cruel and brutalizing, and substitutes for it a few blows on the back with the flat part of the sword, rather by way of degradation than otherwise, or in certain cases a certain number of stripes with a rod, never to exceed 25.

The possibility of connecting the Danube with the Black Sea, by means of a canal along the Turkish territory, has been finally announced by the well-known engineer Birago. The cost is estimated at 1 ,500,000 florins.

A rumour of some distressing circumstance in the highest circle having transpired, was creating considerable sensation in the various clubs, but nothing of its nature had transpired, so as to find its way into the pnblic prints of the metropolis.

The state of the wheat market was as follows :—": — " Owing to the frost, an advance has taken place, and the average price of wheat per quarter, of 60lbs. to the bushel, was 475."

Reform in the Church. — A petition, which has been signed by influential names, praying for a reform in the Church, has been prepared for presentation to the Archbishop of Canterbury. Amongst the signatures are the Duke of Sutherland, the Earls of Denbigh and Gainsborough, Viscount Sandon, M.P., Viscount Morpeth, Lord Calthorpe, Lord Rayleigh, Lord Teignmouth, Lord Bloomfield, Lord Franci3 Egerton, M.P., LordH. Cholmondeley, Lord Ashley, M.P., Lord Robert Grosvenor, M.P., Lord Howard, M.P., Hon. W. Cowper, M.P., Hon. Mr. Ashley, Sir Thomas Baring, Sir Harry Verney, Mr. J. C. Colquhoun, M.P., Mr. R. M. Milnes, M.P.

A new gaol, for poachers only, is to be built at Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, at an expense of £47,000.

Mr. Stone, the eminent banker, obtained a divorce from his wife in the Consistory Court, on the ground of adultery with Lord Sussex Lennox. Mrs. Stone put in counter allegations, but failed.

The extensive distillery of Messrs. Smith, Whitechapel, London, who have been in the habit of paying to Government between £300,000 and £400,000 annually, is now under seizure for infractions of the laws of excise.

The Bucks Herald, which is the Duke of Buckingham's organ, describes the agricultural peasant of the present day as being nothing more than " a miserable serf, who looks up to Young England for charitable condescension, to the preserves for food, to the Tom and Jerry shops for drink, to the blazing wheat-ricks for warmth, and to the hulks for a support during life."