European

Nelson Examiner and New Zealand Chronicle, Volume XVI, Issue 15, 20 May 1857, Page 3

European

A somewhat singular decision is attributed to the Government by the new liberal metropolitan paper, the Morning Star. The Chancellor of the Exchequer will make a start by frankly giviug up the additional 9d. of income tax; but he will produce an army estimate of a navy estimate of £6, 000,000, and, it is presumed, an ordnance estimate and other requirements for special military purposes, making in the whole nearly : and he will then say that the money must be found, and that the Government will prefer to obtain it through the medium of direct rather than indirect taxation . That is to say, the Government will ask for the reimposition of that very 9d. of additional income tax which they had just abandoned ; but the difference will be that they will not avail themselves of a legal technicality to get it, but will leave the responsibility entirely with the House of Commons itself. The unfortunate shareholders of the late British Bank are being compelled to pay the penalty of their confidence or their negligence, and the screw is being put upon many a poor partner in the bank in a way that must elicit sympathy from the most wrathful depositor. But the principle involved is a sound one, and individual suffering is no argument against it. The Bank partners took money in trust, on condition of being allowed to play their own game with that money. Had they won, we should have heard of nothing but "judicious enterprise" — having lost, they must take the laser's fate in this world. Limited liability affords a security against such fatalities for the future. Happy England, where law affords so much fair play to all persons, and for whose worst children the sentence is public, and its execution humane. According to information which may be relied upon, Milano, who attempted to assassinate King Ferdinand of Naples, was subjected to the most hideous tortures, by way of preliminaries to his execution. The strapado, the being hung head downwards over fire, tormented with alternately cold and boiling water, brutal scourging, are among the methods by which it was sought to bring the man to conviction of the wrong he had done to the " most adorable of kings." 1 The sentiment which the revolting narrative excites is singularly unfavourable to the sovereign's escaping the next attempt ; but indignation at cruelty must not lead us into vindication of crime. The Court Journal believes that the following arrangements may be considered as settled : — Her Majesty and the royal family will stay at Windsor Castle until after the 1 Oth of February, the anniversary of her Majesty's marriage. About the middle of that month the Queen will arrive at Buckingham Palace, and will remain there until after her accouchement, which is expected to take place in March. After her Majesty's recovery there will be a short trip to Osborne. On the return of heir Majesty to town a series of brilliant Court receptions will be held. During the time when the state of the Queen's health will confine her to Buckingham Palace, it is expected that his Royal Highness Prince Albert will hold at least two levees for her Majesty. The Court of Directors of "the East India Company have given their sanction to the construction of the submarine telegraph along the Persian Gulf. The portion of the line between England and the East Indies will be constructed by the East India Company, under the superintendence of Sir Willi&m , O'Sbaughnessy, while that passing through Euphrates Valley will be laid down by the company bearing that name, and the remainder — namely, between Corfu and Antioch — is to be completed by the Mediterranean Company with the assistance of Mr. Brete. Early on the morning of Tuesday, the royal mail steamship Tyne, when coming in from the Brazils, stranded on the coast of Dorsetshire, but as she was an iron vessel she held together, and the mails and all the passengers were safely landed. Some of the baggage, and a small part of the cargo have also been saved ; but there appears to be very little hope of saving the vessel, whose estimated value is £80,000, Robsqh, the Crystal Palace Forger. — This unhappy man has sunk into a state of liicntal imbecility, the consequence of the contrast between his present wretched position and the life of gaiety to which he had become accustomed. Deprived of the glittering gewgaws of metropolitan luxury and self-iudul-gence, Robson's mind does not appear to have been sufficiently robust to withstand the shock to which his own folly and want of principle have exposed him. Bedlam is expected to be his future destination for life. The Count de Chambord (Henry V. of France) wrote from Venice on Christmas Day a letter of regard and condolence on the death of Count de Salvandy, and acknowledging the constant efforts of the deceased " to prepare the way for that desired reconciliation which has since been happily accomplished, and which France is now right in regarding as one of the firmest guarantees of the future." Here the fusion is officially spoken of as a fait accompli ; but, as the Presse remarks, they must be clever builders who could construct a solid vessel by the fusion of two wrecks. Altogether this letter is considered the most important manifesto ever issued by the heir of the elder branch of the Bourbons, for he not only recognises the fusion, but more distinctly than ever before indicates his position as a pretender. About a year ago a firman was issued forbidding the sale of white slaves io Turkey. This firman was owing entirely to the strong representations made by the foreign ambassadors. Redschid Pasha has now resolved, by his own will and without any pressure from without, to forbid the importation and sale of black slaves likewise. Knowing the ideas which public opinion in Europe attaches to slavery, he makes this concession to it, in spite of the difficulties which he must expect in carrying out a measure which, perhaps, more than the prohibition of the sale of fair Circassians, must lead to a complete change in the domestic habits of the country. Polygamy, that nightmare of -Europeans,* is gradually disappearing from Turkey ; with the exception ot a few gentlemen of the last generation, this expensive luxury has been given up by the majority.