ENGLISH NEWS.

Nelson Examiner and New Zealand Chronicle, Volume X, Issue 495, 30 August 1851, Page 120

ENGLISH NEWS.

I The piara, which arrived from London on Monday inst after a, long passage of J nearly. five months, has brought English papers to the 29th of' March. ■ • The political state of the country, we i find continues to be exceedingly troubled. The Russell Ministry, a 9 our readers are aware, vrai re-instated, after having resigned in consequence of its defeats in February, but as no new, element of strength had been -imparted to it, so does it continue to find itself in a minority in the House of Com- | mons. On the 1 lth of March, on a motion by Lord Duncan to reform the Woods and Forests, Ministers were beaten by a majority of 1, and several questions are looming in the distance, such as the inquiry into the conduct of Lord Torrington in Ceylon, upon which Lord John has staked the existence of bis resuscitated Cabinet, which threaten the final break-up of the Ministry at no distant day. The only circumstance which keeps Lord John in power for a single hour is the un willingness of all parties to see a dissolution of Parliament at a time when the public is heated with religious fervour. And another consideration which has perhaps some weight is, that a general election would spoil the Great Exhibition. Some excitement has been produced in the public mind by the presentation of a petition to the House of Commons by the Hon. Craven Berkeley, in which he complains of his step-daughter, Miss. Talbot, at present a minor, having been placed by her relatives (her father was the brother of the Earl of Shrewsbury) fn a convent, with a view to her becoming a nun, and where she is deprived of communication with her' stepfather, and ' half r sister. The young lady, who is a ward in Chancery, on becoming of age is entitled to property amounting to £80,000, and the whole of this immense sum, by the law of the Romish Church, will go to enrich that church should the young lady take the veil. Mr. Berkeley craves the intercession of the Legislature on the young lady's behalf. On the 27th of March, Lord Jocelyn moved for a Committee of the House of Commons to inquire into the existing steam communication with India, and to consider the subject of the extension of a line or lines to Australia. After some discussion this was agreed to, and on the motion of Mr. Aglionby, the words " and New Zealand " were added. There was no news of any importance from the Continent. An extraordinary disclosure of a series of poisonings has been made on the trial of a female named Sarah Chesham, at Chelsmford. This woman had been long suspected of the inhuman practice of poisoning, and was tried for taking the life of two of her children in the spring of 1847, and, a short time afterwards, was again placed in peril on a charge of a like nature, but on both occasions was acquitted. The last charge against her was for the murder of her husband, whom she had destroyed by giving rice saturated with arsenic, which she administered at intervals in small quantities. By these means, the sufferer was consumed by slow tortures, extending over six months, leaving him at last with so little of the arsenic in his body that its presence was scarcely to .be discovered by tbe most searching chymical tests. On this last occasion the woman was found guilty, and sentenced to be executed. A movement has been made by members of the Wesleyan body in England to get a reform of the abuses which they complain of as having sprung up in that chuich. At a meeting held in furtherance of this object, on the 12th of March, in St. Martin's Hall, London, it was stated by tbe chairman, Mr. Josiah Child, that there were in the London district 41 reform chapels, 78 local preachers, 5 local preachers on trial, 151 leaders, 166. classes, 198 prayer leaders, 2,298 members, and 5 tract societies and sunday schools. The meeting was numerously attended, and it was stated that their principles were fast spreading through the country.

The Norfolk, for Auckland, New Plymouth, and. Nelson, left London a few days previous to tbe sailing of the Clara, and had therefoxe the chief part of the mail — tbe letters brought by the Clara for this place being very few. .The Labuan, advertised for Canterbury, Nelson, and New Plymouth, was to sail on the Bth of April, and the Simlah, for Auckland, Wellington, New Plymouth, and Otdgo, on tbe 15th of April. The Thames was also advertised to sail on the same day for Auckland and other ports in New Zealand, and the Dominion, for Canterbury, on the Bth of May.