Late English News. [From the Sydney Atlas, Jan. 24.]

New Zealander, Volume 1, Issue 38, 21 February 1846, Page 3

Late English News. [From the Sydney Atlas, Jan. 24.]

On Thursday, 22nd instant, we were gratified by the arrival of three ships from England, viz. : the General Hewitt , (full of passengers, ) after a splendid run of 90 days, including a stoppage of four daysatSantaCniz — the GoldeaSpring, which left England in September — and the Midlothian, Post Office Packet, which left on the 4th October, all with full cargoes. We have received English papers up to the 18th of October, but they really do not contain anything to interest the general readet ; the all-absorbing- topic in our father-land appeals to be rail-roads. The wool sales have beer^well attended and appear to have maintained fair prices. Some of the papers speak of a decline from Id. to 2d per lb., but we have not been able to discover it. A few of the most interesting extracts will be found bHow :—: — Her Majesty and Prince Albert were in goo I health. The ensuing spring will.piobably bring an addition to the scions of Brilish'Royalty, which seem indeed to be springing up " like olive plants round about the table." The meeting of Parliament >was prorogued to the 27th of November. » Mr. Johnson has been elected Lord Mayor of London. William Chaplin, Esq., and J. Lawrie, Esq., are the nqw Sheriffs. Among the deaths we notice the names of Earl Spencer, the Marquis of "Ely, Admiral Sir C. Rowley, Sir J. Mordaunt, Mi. Justice Storey (of the United States), and. the Bishop of Bath and Wells (Dr. Law). The Bishop of Oxford, (Dr. Bagot) was to be translated to the vacant see. The long expected ■ conversion of Mr. Newman to the Church of Rome had taken place : he was accompanied by three clerg) men and two laymen. Oxford, Oct. '9,—The veiy Rev. Ambrose St- John, M.A.,<student of Christ Church, has resigned his* studentship, and conformed to the Roman Catholic Church. A new rang! of Warehouses have been erected by the London Dock Company for the sole accommodation of the tea trade, at an expense of upwards of £180,000. They are of vast extent and are capable of stowing and working 120,000 chestsof tea. The whole aie completely lire-proof. The news from Ireland has acquired a new and most alarming interest. Very serious fears are entertained with respect to the disease by which the potato crop is affected. The partial failure of that crop in England has already produced oonsideiuble distress; but as happily potatoes are not the principal food of the peasantry, a shortness of the produce is here not the dreadful calamity which it would be amongst a people absolutely dependent on thepotatoe crop for subsistence. A failuie iuEngland may bring with it gt eat privations, especially to such of the labouring class as are led to depend more upon allotments than upon money wages; but in Ireland it would be famine, witn horrors which the imagination shrink from contenplating. A letter from Ardee county of Lonth, quoted by a Dublin correspondent, gives the following account :-— "I am sorry to inform you that this calamity as still making fearful strides, and the state of the potato crop, at present is*calclilated to cause 'the most serious alarm fn districts which a fortnight ago were thought to be exempt from it. The greatest panic prevails at present. The ravages committed in a single week, nay, a single day are surprising. The only theme which occupied the different persons which came to our market on Tuesday last was the fearful state of the potato crop. Iknow one gentleman who fin chased for his men a ton of oatmeal to have read) as a substitute He declared to me it was pitiful to see the poor people actually crying aho at their crop — their all." The Cork Southern Repoi ter says :— " We admit with inexpresssible reluctance the constant proofs which we receive of the wide extent to which the potato disease has reached. We are unwilling to believe that famine is likely to afflict us, and would turn aside, if possible, from a prospect so terrific. Like manners at sea, whose onjy refuge is a plank, we would cling to the last hope, and conceal even from ourselves the danger by which we arc sui rounded. But it is now as impossible as it would be criminal to suppress the sad fact, that the pestilence has spread fai and wide, and has invaded our and the neighbouring counties, which we fondly hoped were wholly safe." Further accounts from all parts of Ireland* fully bear out the distressing particulars.

NavalPkipakati o ns. — The accounts from all the naval ai senate of the kingdom agree in stating that unusual activity prevails at present in the n'tiing out vessels of war of every description, > und we have heard within the last tew dajs that a peiemptory notice has been sent round by the Lords of the Admiralty to the different manufactures of steamboat machinery who are working for the government, informing them that the machines which they have in hand for government must be ready at the precise time fixed, and that, if they are not, the full penalties fur the breach of contract w ill be enforced against them. This activity i» preparing the means for defensive waifaie is accompanied m ith equal activity in'fortif) ing the naval stations of the empire, so as to render them safe against any sudden attack. — Oytiplingall these circumstances with the sudden movements of the squadrons in the Pacific Ocean mid the Indian Seas, it is difficult to resist the conclusion that the government considers war a possible event, and that it is placing itself in a position to meet an> difficulties which may aiise on either side of the Atlantic. — Liverpool Times. The Great Britain steamer returned safely to Liverpoolon the 13thofSeptember,having made tiie home w at d passage in 13| days. From some defect in the steam power, she did not realize the speed expected of her, but all parties speak in high terms of admiration of her easy sailing qualities. The extensive premises of Sir Charles Price and Co , oil and colour mei chants, Blackfriars, va» destroyed by fire on the 16th of September. One life only was lost. At Mortonhumpsted, in Devonshire, fifty dwelling houses and a vast amount of property were destroyed by fire on the 13th of September. Sir William Molesworth Ims been returned for Southwaik by a very large majority. A statute of Cromw ell is to have no place with those of the other crowned heads in the new bouses of Parliament. Si»ven men employed in breaking up rockets in a shed in the ro)al arsenal at Woolwich, weie suffocated on the 17th of September, by a mass of the rockets having accidentally taken fire. The harvest was likely to be more favourable in Kngland than at one time was expected. There is, however, we are sorry to find, an almost universal failure of the potato crop in Great Britain, as well as on the Continent, ho great is the injury sustained by this plant on wet lands, that the crop is totally destro>ed.

Awful!— The Philadelphia Spirit of the Times states, that a strange scene occured in one of the courts of that city on Tuesday, September 26. A good-looking Irishman Mas in the dock. His wife, a pretty English woman, was sitting on a settee near the clei k's desk. He keeps a small grocery and liquor shop in St Mary's street, and she attends to it. Bolu love to • drink.' All at once, about two oVloek in the afternoon, the court was electrified by what appeared to be the sudden discharge of a pistol, and at the »arne momeut the English woman alluded to gave a slight shriek, clapped her hand* to her breast and fell back, while a torrent apparently of blood, was gushing forth from her bosom. A cry of honor ran through the court-roo;n. The officers gathered around her. AH believed that an awful suicide had been o6mmi'Ued in the very presence of the law, mid a shudder pervaded every frame: the woman vis lifted up and examined. To the consternation of all, it appeared that she had secreted a bottle of porter in her bosom, and that the heat liad occasioned the cork to fly out from its imprisonment. She had thrust her fingers into the bottle in vain. The red stream still poured out. No wonder it had been mistaken, not for a torrent of beer, but for a torrent of blood.

Freemasons in Germany. — Themovement •which agitates now the religious world in Germany extends largely into the masonic lodges.— They are divided into the eleclic system, and such as intend to bring the Royal cralt more into unison with the moral and etiii.- tenets of Christianity. The lodges of Berlin mid Frankfort— very im puriant in the system of German Freemasonry — ate for the latter course; but tliose of Berlin have ■jiotyetmadeanypositivedeclaration to that effect. Prince Frederick of Prussia (heir to the tin one) is Jhe Grand Mastei of the Prubsian Masons. — His circular to all the lodges recommending the brothers to join and strenuously to co-operate with the societies fo> Ihe improvement of the working 1 classes, has a very favorable impression, and has been attended with the best results. In Austria Freemasonry is still prohibited. — Globe.