LATE ENGLISH NEWS.

Wellington Independent, Volume II, Issue 127, 30 December 1846, Page 5

LATE ENGLISH NEWS.

The Banner of Ulster, a paper generally well informed on military affairs, contains the following :—" We have heard, from a quarter .likely to be wall infoimed on the subject, that the Duke of Wellington is not averse to a clause beiog introduced into the Mutiny Act for J 847, abolishing corporal punishment in all the regiments and depdts serving in Great Britain and Ireland for one year ;" hut that the troops serving in the colonies are pot to get the benefits of this experiment. It is said that a stop will be put to 'drumming out/ and that notoriously bad characters, instead of being turned }00>e to increase the multitude of [thievei and vagabonds throughout the empire,- will be transported. . The late Fire at the Dublin Kot'al Ex-change.-—A great portion of the eastern side of • the roof , and' fanlight above the lecture -room of. the Mechanics/ Institution, has been

! destroyed, and that part of the roof which covered ! the staircase leading to the board-room has alio been removed. The damage 4 done has been estimated at £1500 or £2000, but we cannot undertake to say with any degree of accuracy what the real amount of the injury has been. We have meni tidned what parts of this fine old classic structure havebeen ruined, but it is a more pleasing duty to enumerate what partsjhave not been touched by the fire. The board-room and'outer room are safe; the floor and more than two-thirds of the roof of the lecture-room have, as far as we could ascertain, sustained little injury, the room where the mechanics meet, its roof, and the fan-light over tbe western staircase, have also been uninjured. The interior of the building on Tuesday morning (before the removal ofthe rubbish and the drying up of the water enabled the spectator to estimate the actual extent of damage done) bore some resemblance the ruins of Pompeii; and the statues of Lucas,, Grattan, and Dtummond, disfigured and covered with dust, ashes, and water, appeared as if they had been dug out of the burning pile. The police were very active in extinguishing the fire ; indeed upon all such distressing and dangerous occasions they spare neither time nor trouble in discharging their onerous duties. Col. Browne was on the spot. We understand that the fire was not totally put out till eight o'clock, a. m. The Lord Mayor Alderman O'Brien. M.P., and several other members of the corporation, were at the Royal Exchange on Tuesday, 1 inspecting the premises and rendering every suggestion and assistance in their power to have the rubbish removed, and to ascertain the amount of injury done to the property. The premises were insured in the Royal Exchange and National Insurance Office for j£J,soo.—Dublin Paper. '/_. Beacon for the Goodwin Sands,-— The newly constructed beacon for these sands, manufactured by Robinson and Bramah, Lower Belgrave place, Piralico, is now completed, and is in course of removal to its intended site, in order toils being immediately fixed.

Thirty-nine gentlemen have been Gazetted as Cornets or Ensigns in the army during the preceding mouth, thirty of whom have purchased, their commissions, vary* ing in price from £450 to £840 each, and amounting in the aggregate to the sum of £14,530.

S9th Foot.—Alexander M'Lean Fraser, gent., to be Ensign, without purchase, vice Blackburn,promo.ed in the 6 h Foot : August 7.