Foreign Intelligence

Nelson Examiner and New Zealand Chronicle, Volume XXI, Issue 30, 9 April 1862, Page 3

Foreign Intelligence

FRANCE. A Paris letter in the Independence of Brussels says :—: — " The financial question now occupies most attention. It seems certain that the basis of an income tax is under consideration, and, if I may believe a report, I have heard, it has been decided in (he Council of Ministers to propose the repeal ol the law of 1807 fixing the maximum rate of interest. The belief is general that M. Fould will propose in the budget a reduction of at least 50,000 men in the effective force of the army. Another report is also generally received, that henceforth no warning will be given to any important journal until the matter shall have been submitted to the Council of Ministers." The Paris correspondent of the Times asserts that the question of the French occupation of Rome has been formally debated in a Cabinet Council, and that most of the Ministers advocated a withdrawal of the French troops ; but that the Emperor Napoleon ultimately closed the discussion by declaring that "matters should stand as they are until further orders." The Moniteur publishes a correspondence from Vera Cruz, the 20th December, which states that there is reason to think that the orderly and quiet part of the population would favourably receive any measure .which, respecting their independence and not wounding their self-respect, would tend to settle Mexican affairs in a durable manner, and restore order and security. The Paris correspondent of the Daily News says : Among the rumours of new measures in prospect it was stated the;, the usury laws of 1807 were likely to be relaxed, ana that an old suggestion of M. F. de Lasteyrie, to levy the inhabited house duty upon empty apartments, and thereby stimulate proprietors to lower rents, was under consideration. The Tuileries. — The cost of the repairs now going on at the Tuilcries is estimated at £1,600,000 sterling. They will not be finished for three years, and it is quite settled that the court will live at the Elysee next winter, as the Tuileries will not be then habitable. Before it is done with, according to the Emperor's present idea, the interior will be like the Irishman's mended coat, in which not a ehred of the original material was left. SPAIN. The Official Gazette, of January 22, announces that Queen Isabella 11. is enceinte. According to' the new creuty entered into between Spain and Morocco, the Spanish troops are to be withdrawn from Tetuan and the Moorish territory, when the payment of three millions of douroa (five francs twenty-five cents each) Bhall have been made ; the remaining ten millions to be secured by one-half the Customs' revenue of the empire being placed at the disposal of the Queen of Spain, who will appoint commissioners to receive them. The Sumter, having been ordered to leave Cadiz within six hours, quitted that port and proceed to Gibraltar. The Corriere della Marclia of Ancona announces that the Bishop of Fossombrone is shortly to be tried at the assizes of Pessaro for contempt of the government in a letter addressed by him to the Minister of Grace and Justice. POLAND. The Monde states it has received a communication from Warsaw, announcing that the Government has adopted another measure against the clergy. It has suspended the payment by the public treasury of the interest of the funds bequeathed to the churches and the clergy. "This attack on private property," says the letter, " is altogether unjustifiable, and has excited great indignation among the population. The arrests in the streets of Warsaw continue every day, under the smallest pretext. On January 13, two young boys were in a sledge with their tutor. A police officer remarked that their cloaks were fastened with frogs, and had them arrested and taken to prison. A simple denunciation is sufficient to condemn the most peaceable inhabitants. The authorities are no longer satisfied with making war against clothing and signs of mourning. The Director of the Interior, M. Krusenstein, has just ordered that all functionaries shall cut off their moustaches. M. Krusenstein no doubt thinks to inarch in the steps of Peter the Great, who sacrificed to civilization all the beards of Russia, and believed he had transformed his people by obliging them to Bhave. MEXICO. The papers publish a telegram from Cadiz, dated the 25th January, containing news from Vera Cruz to the 26th December, according to which General Gaseett was collecting Customs duties for the benefit of the three Powers ; General Serrano had given a splendid reception to the Admiral of the French squadron and General Prim, on their arrival at Havannah ; General Prim and the French Admiral were to leave Havannah for Vera Cruz on the 3rd instant. It was rumoured that the Mexican Government would propose a conciliatory arrangement. The Mexican Chambers were closed, and the President had been left with authority to take any extraordinary measures which might be necessary. The Constitutional states that General Almonte, a Mexican, is now in Belgium, conducting negotiations for placing the Archduke Maximillian on the throne of Mexico. General Almonte (adds the Constitutionnel) will accompany the French expedition to Mexico. MONTENEGRO. A letter from Cattara, in the Gazette dv Danube, says— A band of 2,000 insurgents from Banjuni, Piva, and Gacko, accompanied by some Montenegrins, passed the river, on the 3rd, near Rosierero, two leagues from Trebingen, and attacked the Turkish village of Gee. In spite of the resistance of the inhabitants, they sacked the houses and carried off all the cattle, which were kept in great numbers there. As a set-off, Mahmoud Bay, at the head of 1,500 men, made an incursion to Sesma and brought away fortyfive oxen and 414 sheep belonging to the Montenegrins. DENMARK. The King of Denmark, on the 14th January, gave a private audience to M. Dotezac and Lord Paget, the French and English envoys. This interview is attributed to the attitude which the German Governments are about to assume in consequence of the last despatches exchanged between the Cabinet of Copenhagen and those of Berlin and Vienna. Armaments are in the meantime going on with feverish activity, as if on the eve of a war ; and, if credit may be attached to the Flyveposten, the idea is in contemplation of occupying, on the Ist March, the lines of Denmark, near Schleswig, with a corps of 10,000 men. Canadian Weathek. — During the march of some of the newly-arrived troops on Canadian soil, recently, the cold became bo intense as to freeze the moustachios of the travellers to their coat collars and comforters, l'endering every jolt of the sleigh intolerable, and every turn of the head "nearly pulling their faces off." The Trent Affaie.— A capital mot is just now circulating in the clubs. The Emperor Louis Napoleon, in conversation with the Duke of Buccleuch on the subject of the Trent affair, is reported to have said, " Ah ! I wish it had happened to me. We should know how to treat them. You are too re* •pectablo/'*-- Court Journal.