GENERAL SUMMARY.

West Coast Times, Issue 2851, 23 May 1878, Page 2

GENERAL SUMMARY.

London, April 12. Her Majesty, who left Windsor for Osborne on the sth instant, is in eood health. b

The following changes have taken place in the Government consequent on the resignation of Lord Derby : — The Marquis of Salisbury becomes Foreign Secretary ; Mr Gathorne Hardy, who will receive a peerage as Lord StapK hurst, Secretary for India ; Colonel Stanley, brother and heir to Lord Derby, goes to the War Office ; Sir Selwyn Ibbetson taking the Secretaryship of the Treasury : and Sir M. Ridley becoming Under-Secretary for the Home Department. The Hon. Edward Stanhope, Secretary to the Board of Trade, becomes Under-Secretary for India. Lord George Hamilton has been appointed VicePresident of the Council, Lord Sandon taking the Board of trade on Sir C. B. Adderley's retirement with a peerage. Mr J. Talbot has been appointed Secretary to the Board of Trade.

In a discussion on the Hastings Bill on 21st March, Mr Parnell submitted a clause empowering an offender whose capital sentence was commuted to penal servitude for life, to have the opt-on of accepting the death penalty. The proposal was negatived, Mr Hardy pointing out that it would be practically legalising suicide.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer made his Budget speech on Thursday, the 4th ir.st. Having glanced at the estimates of receipt and expenditure in the pist year, he showed that the excess of revenue waß £860,000. He passed to the vote of six millions, observing that £3,500,000 had been already expended, leaving a deficit on the past financial year of £2,440,000. The estimated ordinary expenditure for the year was £91,019,676, and the revenue £79,460,000. The existing deficit and that for this year he proposed to meet by putting 2d in the £ additional on the income tax, 4d per lb. on tobacco, and raising the dog tax from 5s to 7s 6d. A discussion followed, in which Mr Gladstone, Mr Mundella, Mr Dodson, Mr Hubbard, Mr Childers, and others engased. The Budget was generally approved, and the resolution for the increased duty on tobacco wad carried by 204 to 24.

An assistant Under-Secretary of State for Scotch business is to be appointed.

Mr Allcourt, Conservative, was returned for Manchester by 2,600 votes against 2,154 given to Sir Francis Lycett, Liberal.

The Comus, the first of sis ateel corvettes for the navy, was launched at Glasgow on the 3rd ins. She is a very powerful vessel. The revenue returns for the year ending 31st March amounted to £79,763,299, an increase of £1,198,263 on the previous year, and exceeding the Chancellor's estimate by £6,107,299. The only falling off was in excise receipts, £272,000. The revenue shows an increase of £1,082,746 on the March quarter of 1877,

There was a very distinguished gathering at the annual dinner of the Civil Engineers' Institution on the 30th. Amongst "the speakers were Sir C. Adderley, Mr Gladstone, Mr Lowe, Earl Granville, and the Prince Imperial, who returned thanks for the visitors, and acknowledged the great hospitality he and the Empress had received in England. He said that his father had always prided himself upon being a member of the Civil Engineers' Institution.

At a sale on the 6th, at Onristie and Manson's, of pictures of the late Mr Munro, an intimate friend and executor of Turner, nine of the latter's paintings fetched 41,560 guineas, and 12 watercolour drawings by him 16,095 guineas. The Admiralty Court has accorded £2000 to the captain and crew of the FitzLawrence steamer for the salvage of the Cleopatra.

A plan for the construction of underground railways in Paris has been approved of. A subvention of about 106 millions of francs will be given.

The St. Petersburg Cabinet are stated to be favorably considering a gigantic scheme laid before them by an American engineer for making a canal.

The herring fishery on the east coast of Scotland is likely to prove a total failure owing to the unsettled relations between England and Russia. The results among the fishing population of Wick and other towns are likely to be very deplorable.

Some very successful experiments have been made at Malta in rendering nugatory the effects of the Whitehead torpedo.

In consequence of the recent extensive lease forgeries, a large public meeting has been held to urge the Government to introduce a general system of legislation for all dealings with houses and land throughout the country. Mr Wm. Thos. Charley, M.P., was chosen yesterday Common Serjeant for the city of London. There were 17 candidates, including, amongst several members of Parliament, Mr Burke, Under-Secre-tary for the Foreign Office. Questions have been asked in Parliament on several occasions relative to the execution of the Tanua native on board the Beagle. The invariable reply is that the Admirality is waiting for further ininformation.

The Spanish Foreign Minister has an* nounced in the Cortes that, from communications with the British Government, he hopes a satisfactory re-arrangement of the wine duties will soon be made.

Mr Anthony Trollope, at a lecture at the Working Men's Club on the 30th nit* upon the native races of South Africa, stated that they had progressed under our rule, but South Africa could never be a colony for white men in the same sense as Canada and Australia.

Canadian militia officers are offering tneir services in large numbers to the British Government.

On the 4th inst., Mr Lowther stated ia the House of Commons, that important evidence had been obtained against some of the parties arrested. A serious riot occurred at the Liverpool Sailors' Home on the 2nd. Owing to the dulness of trade many black sailors are ia port, and cannot get employment. As a number of whites were being shipped, the blacks 20U strong attacked them, and the riot was only ended by the arrival of a large body of police. Many of the seamen were severely injured. Out of fifteen elections in France on the Ist inst., fourteen Republicans were elected. A fresh ballot is necessary in the other instance. An article contributed by Prince Jerome

Napoleon to the Revue des Deux Mondes has created much sensation. It attributes the isolation ot France in 1870-71 to clericalism, and asserts that, had it not been for the rapid advance of the Prussians and the persistent refusal of the Emperor, prompted by the clerical party, to evacuate Rome, both Austria and Italy had consented to aid France.

The Nicaraguan Government have accepted the conditions imposed by Germany for the insult offered to the German consul. A German was sent to San Juan to enforce them.

The Emperor of Germany haa replied to the Pope's anno i;:icement of his accession in a very corteous note, expressing his will:r>>jness tn entertain friendly relations with tin Vatican.

The Pojf is -tated to have entrusted Cardinal Cn!len with negotiations with the English Government respecting the establishment of the hierarchy in Scotland, Cardinal Mam \n« having exhibited too ultramontane tendencies. Cardinal Manning has returned to Fnjiland. A telegram from Rome, in the Standard of the 9th inst., says the Pope has stated that the action of England in the preaent crisis will be ths mean 9of saving Europe from Russian barbarism. The Vatican will favor any alliance of Latin Europe with England as a barrier against slavism. A commission of cardinals, appointed to investigate the Peter's Pence Fund, report that large sums have disappeared, leaving no trace. The administration is in the utmost confusion, and there is no means of knowing how much has been received or how much spent, for many years past. His Holiness has provided a remedy for all this in future.

The American Senate has rejected the proposed reduction in salaries of American Ministers and Consuls abroad.

The United States Government have ordered their war vessels to seize American merchantmen engaged in the coolie trade. The House of Lords was crowded in every part when Lord Beaconsfield moved a vote of thanks to the Queen for calling out reserves. Lords Derby, Selborne, Carnarvon, Hougbton, Kimberley, and Salisbury, and the Duke of Argyle took part in the debate. In the Home of Cammons a similar motion was moved by Sir Stafford Northcote. He was followed by Mr Gladstone, Sir W. Lawaon, Sir G. Campbell, Sir H. D Woolf, Mr Hardy, Mr E. Jenkins, Sir G. Bowyer, Lord Hartington, Sir C. Dilke, and others.

Mr Bourke said in the House of Commons that the statement that Prince Gortschakoff had positively required the Bessarabian question to be discussed at the conference, was made to Sir Henry Elliott by the Roumanian agent at Vienna.