LATEST INTELLIGENCE.

Otago Witness, Issue 537, 15 March 1862, Page 4

LATEST INTELLIGENCE.

(fkom the times.) FRANCE. Paris, Dec. 13. The "Presse " of this evening publishes a despatch from Washington, asserting that there was great popular agitation in favor of resistanceagainst any demands on- the part of England in respect to the Trent affair. According to the same despatch, the French naval division from the Antilles would proceed to Charleston, before which the English squadron was lying at anchor. The Palrie of this evening states, that General Scott will reach new York on the 24th inst., and adds " General Scott's mission thus appears to have been arranged so as to allow him time to fulfil it before the ultimatum of England is remjttpd to the Fedpral Government, and perhaps to mpdify the nature of tlijs. stop pn the part pf England, The Pay* asserts, on the contrary, that the ultimatum will be of an absolute character. AMERICA. The following additional items of American news arc from the San Francisco journals :—: — DEPARTUUK OF SIABON AND BLIDEIX. Providence, Jan. 2. The British steam gunboat Rinaldo left.at five p.m., with Messrs. Mason and Slidell and suite on oard. The following fuller particulars are extracted from our files of Melbourne and other papers to hand per " Aldinga." The Melbourne "Herald," of March 7th, says :—: — The "Thomas Brown," from Mauritius, arrived on Thursday with news from England to 26th December, ■;,<■>■ - •

ZThe intelligence is of-the greatest importance, including as it docs the. news of the death of the Prince Concert, from typhoid fever, and of the p.ob.u.::iiy of wir with tho FoJora! States of North AmeriiM.

Prom the Mauritius papers the following intelligence is obtained : —

Foneuvi, ok Pihxce Albert.— No vulgar pomp or vain p.vrade was to be lavished upon one who, by the highest intcHectu.il gifts of mind, cultivated, to the highest degree, by unbounded amiability, by a h )ve o f iX \\ things great and beputiful. and by the constant practice of the truest domestic virtues, had ennobled the Court to which he was called, and won the supreme affection of the whole nation. A prince like this, a man like this, did not stand in need of a torch-light funeral, or of those mediajval pageantries so loved and courted by other inonnrchs ; he knew that he bad left behind him an example of domestic virtue and the fulfilment of duty, the memory of which will live in tho hearts of all, which could not be increased by anything that the pomp of funerals could bestow. Ali was simple as became his calm and philosophic mind. There was no ostentatious lying in state ; ji short and becoming procession from the Castle of Windsor to St. George's Ch: pel, the booming of the minute guns, nnd all was over as far as the mere mortal remains of the much-loved Prince Albert was concerned. On the coffin a modest inscription pointed out the nation's loss in these few plain words : —

Depositum Illustrissinii et celsissimi Alberti Priucipis Consurtis, Ducis Saxoniac, De Saxe Coburg ct Gotlria Principis. Nobilissimi Ordinis Periscelidis Equitis, Augustissirnaj et potentissima? Victoria Kegina Conjugis percarissimi, Obiit die 14 Decembris, ISGI. anno retatis suae43.

A guard of honor of the grenadiers, of which tlie Prince was Colonel, mounted guard at Windsor Custle ; the short line from the castle to St. George's Chapel was kept by the Scots Pu iliers, and a few Life Guards escorted the hearse. The chief mourners were, the Prince of Wales, supported by Prince Arthur ; His ltoval Highness the Duke of Saxe Coburg and Gotha, the Duke of Cambridge, the Crown Prince of Prussia, the Duke de Brabant and tho Count of Flanders, the Duke de Nemours, Prince Louis of Hesse, Prince Edward of Saxe Weimar, the Prince of Leiningen, Count Gleichen, and the Maharajah Dhuleep Singh. All the Ministers, &c, were present, with the foreign ambassadors and the representatives of foreign courts. It is consoling in the highest degree to witness the sympathy of the whole continent on this melancholy occasion. Her Majesty, like her mother the Duchess of Kent, intends to have a private mausoleum of her own erected, and when this is completed, the remains of the Prince Consort will be placed there ; at present the coffin will remain on the bier outside the iron gates which close the royal vault. .Her Majesty and familyleft Windsor for Osborne on the 19th (Thursday last), and on the 20th an Order in Council was published to omit the name of the Prince Consort from the Book of Common Prayer and the usual Church services.

It is most gratifying to mark with what unanimous and unfeigned sympathy the sad event was marked not only by the Emperor and the Court, but by the whole French nation ; every paper of every shade of political feeling, even those so generally hostile to England, forgot for the time their hostility, and all united to express their sympathy and regret at the great loss the Queen of England had experienced. The telegraphic despatch announcing the Prince Consort's death reached Paris early in the morning of Sunday, 15tli, when the Emperor and Empress immediately sent a, telegraphic message to Windsor full of condolence to the Queen ; and during the day the Emperor sent one of his aides-de-camp to Windsor with an autograph letter, and on the following day the Empress Eugenic sent one of her gentlemen in waiting with her autograph letter to the Queen. Without waiting for any formal announcement, the Emperor, through the Atoniteur, ordered the Court to go into mourning for twenty-one days ; all festivities and receptions have been suspended at the Tuileries, and the national flag was hoisted half-mast high until after the funeral on Monday last. Such sympathy, at such a moment, is indeed gratifying,*and will be rightly appreciated by the people ofEngland