FOREIGN NEWS.

New Zealand Colonist and Port Nicholson Advertiser, Volume I, Issue 86, 26 May 1843, Page 2

FOREIGN NEWS.

France.- —The French have got another grievance in the shape of a vessel boarded off 1 the African coast. On Saturday it was said to be a case of most intolerable tyranny. The National of Sunday favours us with the captain’s report; and we really can find no grievance in it, except the palpable absurdities with which the thing is prefaced. It now turns out that the British brig. Cygnet, fired with ball ahead of the French vessel to stop it, the captain not being ready to do so; that theii he was boarded by two officers, who went down to the cabin, and spoke to the crew and passengers, instead of searching the vessel, letting her immediately after go on her way. The following is the account given by Captain Brice, of the Aigle “ He arrived before Gallinas in March, and could not trade, the English having invaded the country. They (the English) burned factories, and every thing; bought 172 negroes to transport to the Gambia; pillaged the habitations of the Portuguese ex-governor, and shot his daughter! No canoes of natives appeared, the English being in the habit of firing at all. Captain Brice left Whyda July the 6th, with a full cargo of palm oil. He was trying to double "Cape Formosa when he was boarded by an English cruizer. He hoisted the French flag, when a cannon shot was fired at him. He drew on his sails, when a second cannon sho't almost hit his vessel. He stopped and was soon boarded by two Englishmen out of uniform, who, instead of searching the ship, went down into the cabin, and began to converse With the crew and passengers. Having thus kept -me two hours and a half (says he), they left me at liberty to proceed. One of the English officers was drunk. The cruizer was the Cygnet .” The French journals also publish a reply of Lieut. Wilson, of the Cygnet , to the protest of the French captain. He says he had learnt that several vessels had taken up slaves at Whyda, the most notorious slave-depot, and he felt it his duty to search every vessel that came from thence. He had 'fired a shot to make the vessel stop, and wait for him, as the night was approaching. He suspected the vessel to be Spanish or Portuguese. This is the mountain, to which the National acts midwife, and which turns out to be a mouse.— Weekly Chronicle. The Moniteur Algerien of the 26th publishes a long account of the operations of the month, which have been already published, and which evidently shows that the defection of what were called the friendly tribes becomes more and more pronounced every day, and that only a favourable opportunity is wanted for their rising simultaneously in arms against the French.

Spain.—Our accounts from Madrid are of the 27th ult. The .political chief, who had marched from Murcia at the head of a small detachment of troops against the smugglers who attacked the saltworks of La Rosa, was unable to proceed beyond Jumilla, for want of a sufficient force. He there waited the arrival of a battalion of infantry from Alicante, to act on the offensive. The captain-general had joined him in Jumilla to direct the military operations. No fewer than 500 armed men, 300 of whom were mounted, took part in the last attack. They carried the works, crying “Viva Isabel 11.-!” The government appeared to attach considerable importance to this affair, -and a council of ministers was tb be held in the evening of the 27th, at the palace of Buena Vista, to devise efficient means of repression. The minister of war had already forwarded the most rigorous orders to all. the captains'-general of the districts adjoining the works. The band of “ the twelve apostles” had been driven out of the province of Toledo by the Queen’s troops. • It was believed that General Rodil had signed the dismissal of General Zurbano, on account of his brutal conduct to M. Lefevre, the French manufacturer, at Gerona. The most serious question likely to agitate the new Cortes is, whether the young Queen is to enter upon the difficult task of governing and choosing ministers at the early age appointed by the constitution, or whether it may not be thought advisable to extend the regency. Any attempt of this kind will meet with fierce opposition, not, only from the moderados, but from the original, partisans of a triple regency. ' Portugal.—The Lisbon mail of the. 26th September brings a more favourable account of financial affairs in Portugal; the government having, offers of loans, in anticipation of the taxes, for the full sum required to cover th.e* deficiencies in the treasury. Next year they. will be .better able to judge how far the revenue* will go towards the future charges of the state; and they must then adopt some permanent means for equalising them. Servia.—Our private correspondence from: Vienna, dated the Ist instant, announces the:

receipt of letters from Semlin to the 22nd ult. The cause of Prince Michael was considered as lost. The small body of men who still continued to acknowledge his authority had been completely dispersed. The name of Czerny Georges had recovered its ancient popularity throughout Servia. It is now said that it was the Princess Lubizca who governed the country, whilst she herself was the slave of favourites and priests. The reigning sovereign is the son of Czerny Georges, who was put to death by order of Prince Milosch, who sent his head to Constantinople; and this act will never be | forgiven by the people of Servia. j The new Prince of Servia calls himself Alex- \ ander Georgewolset Czerny. He has published j a proclamation with this signature, which means , to imply that he is henceforth merely the descendant of Czerny George, and not a Russian officer.

The Servian Revolution. —Romance of Real Life. —Milosch (the father of the re-cently-deposed Prince Michael, the sovereign prince of the Servians, until the late revolution effected his downfal, and raised Prince Alexander Petrowitsch in his stead) spent his youth in “ herding the famed swine” of Servia, which attain their perfection in consequence of the abundant fodder of acorns which the boundless

forests of the interior afford. This was the man who, little more than a quarter of a century afterwards, was to be the prince of the Servians —not a swineherd among them ! The only visit Milosch made to the Frank towns was when he hired himself as a drover, with a large herd of cattle going to Zara! He was born in Dobriaja, in 1780, and is, therefore, at present, about 62 years of age. He was forced to abdicate, early in 1838, in favour of his son Michael, the late prince of the Servians, and chiefly through the machinations of Jefrem Obrenowitsch, his own brother. It might almost be imagined that he is a descendant of the “ shepherd kings”—the founder of a new royal race (though that race seems, at present, doomed to be a short one), viz., the “swineherd princes.” Ever since the accession of the late sovereign, Michael, the country has been in a most unsettled state; and the last accounts are, that the senators and chief men, in the presence of the imperial commissioners, Chekib Effendi, and Kiamil, pacha of Belgrade, had held a general assembly, when more than 12,000 Servians were present, and at which the downfal of Prince Michael and his family was unanimously resolved on, the Obrenowitsch family having enjoyed no popularity among the people. China. —A private letter from China, of a late date, says, that, as soon as peace was thoroughly established,-the Chinese flocked on board the English ships in great numbers, and were most anxious in their enquiries for woollen clothing—as much as 51. being freely given for a pea-jacket. This statement is very important, as it has been doubted whether the Chinese are likely to be consumers of woollens. An English newspaper has been lately established in Hong Kong called the Hong Kong Gazette , and conducted by a gentleman until recently residing in London. It is intended soon to commence one in the Chinese language. Indeed, the Gazette sometimes contains extracts in that strange arid extraordinary language. .The Chinese are represented as very anxious- and persevering in their efforts to learn English, as well as to know all relating to this country. The Chinese High Commissoner arrived at Canton-pa the evening of the 10th January; His Excellency did. -not land until the next morning, when he immediately visited the Controller of Maritime Customs, for the purpose of examining the books of the office. He refused to see the Hong merchants.