ENGLISH NEWS.

Wellington Independent, Volume I, Issue 14, 17 May 1845, Page 3

ENGLISH NEWS.

On the 16th September, the East and West Indian and. American Mail 3 all reached London via Southampton Railway. The number of letters issued for deliveiy was unprecedented, being upwards of 285,000. — Mr. Pritchard is not to be sent back to Tahiti, but is to be or has been, appointed Consul to the Navigator's Islands, a group considerably to the westward. —A land-slip has occured at the back of the Isle of Wight, at Atherfield, where upwards of an acre of land has slipped into the sea. No one was hurt, but a cottage and its inhabitants had a narrow escape, the slip having extended to within a yard of the spot where the house stood; the cottagers were astonished when awakened by the noise, to find themselves on the verge, of a precepeice.—The thirty-one railway acts passed in Parliament last session, will require a capital of £11,761,700. — V '~

All Saints' church, Grovernor-street, Liverpool, recently a place of worship belonging to the Establishment, has been sold for £3,000 for the purpose of being converted into a Roman Catholic chapel. —The shares in the New River Water Company for supp'yiug London, were originally £100 each; they now sell, whenever they are sold, which is of rare occurence, for £25,000 each. — Sir J. Ramsden has left £20,000 towards improving the town of Huddersfield. —Some days since an immense quantity of the new coined half-farthings were issued from the Mint, and numbers of the "speculative gentry were employed in the various public thoroughfares, disposing of the coin at the rate of four a penny; they were eagerly purchased by the curious, and many of the speculators made a rich harvest of the new half-farthings. —Sir W. Massey Stanley, Bart., while at his shooting quarters in Scotland, in company with Lord Cosmo Russell and Mr. John Stanley, killed 2,583 head of grouse, 95 ptarmigan, 22 black cocks, 58 hares, and 10 snipes, total, 2718 head. On the first day of the season, Sir William killed with his own gun, in 11 hours, 232 grouse.

Gallant Conduct op a British Officee.—On the 12th of August, lat. 15 S. lon. 11. 30 E., when off Fish Bay, Mr. John F. Tottenham, mate of H. M. S. Hyacinth was sent in a four-oard gig, with one spare hand, to communicate with tha Portuguese governor. . The weather having become thick, he missed the port, and being unacquainted with the coast, anchored for the night. On the following morning, he pulled again to the southward, and, about noon discovering a suspicious-looking brig without colours, slip and make sail, he gave chase. There being but little wind, and the vessel entangled with the land, he was enabled to get within musket shot of her, and fired wide over her to induce her to show her colours. This, however, was disregarded r and the officer observing them trim up a port and run a gun out, pulled in her wake. Some of the brig's crew immediately commenced firing musketry, whilst the others got the gun on the poop and pointed it at the boat. Mr. Tottenham upon this fired fs fast as the spare hand could load foi him, and with such coolness and precision (as was afterwards proved) that almost every bullet expended was traced to the gun-caniage or its immediate vicinity. Four of the crew having been wounded, to avoid being boarded they ruu the brig on shore and abandoned her—to the number of eighteen—leaving one man behind, who soon after died of. his wounds. Mr. Tottenham immediately took possession of the brig, which proved to be a fine vessel of 120 tons, and fully equipped for carrying 1,000 slaves. Her decks were strewed with muskets, swords and bayonets, a barrel of gunpowder, and a quantify of ball cartridges, besides two four pounders, loaded. In the coarse of the afternoon she was discovered from the masthead of the Hyacinth, which stood in and hove her off. The astonishment of Captain Scott and bis crew at finding so large a vessel captured by this four-oared gig, may be easily conceived,