ENGLISH NEWS.

Wellington Independent, Volume VI, Issue 550, 18 January 1851, Page 3

ENGLISH NEWS.

NEWS OF THE WEEK. {From the Spectator, September 9.) Holvkood Palace was fitted up, people observe, to afford the Queen two nights' lodging; for her stay was no longer, and she quitted Edinburgh without either drawing room or levee. In the course of her sojourn, the successor of Elizabeth visited the apartmenls of Mary Queen of Scots, preserving a strict incognito, for the better because more free: - contemplation. What thoughts might rush across.the royal brain ?—the ill-fatfof the thoughtless woman, wandering among fanatics and rude soldiers, whose coarseness merged in fanaticism ; theliated-husband, the imbecile progeny —link, between the Victoria of the nineteenth and the glorious Elizabeth of the sixteenth century ! Many a material for, a royal sermon—eren the apocryphal stain of blood, vrho§__ imputed indelibility provoked the English bagman's indig-j nation on behalf of his forbidden " deter-1 gent elixir." No detergent elixir can cleanse the blot from that page of bigotry and cruelty; but a healthy faith can draw flowers of consolation even from the ground fertilized with blood. .Before the royal lady had rapt herself from the eyes of the loyal Edinburgh ers, Prince 'Albert was seen iv his duty as sesthetical commissioner-general, laying the first stone of the new Scottish National Gallery on the Mound, and delivering one of his neat oral compositions—which always contain some sterling thought—on the independent condition of the useful arts in Scotland at this day as compared with the time of the Union, and the growing influence of the fine arts. And so from art in Modern Athens to nptture ftt Balmoral.

Of the highly heterogeneous home news, this week,, the most important fact is the formal announcement of the two commissions to inquire, respectively, into tho conditions, studies,,and practice of. the two great Universities of England. The selection of inquisitors inclines to the mild; and the appearance of a Bishop at the head of each ought to pacify alarmists as much as the button at the point of the swordlike foil. The worst of it is, that the fashion of the day is to manage all these matters':- the public want faith in'the investigation; regarding the commission as something to furnish a.war-; rant for Lord John Russell's preconceived intention—some project which flashed' upon his mind instantaneously, and is to realise a fractional existence after some ten years of debating and postponing " at this late period of the session." Cambridge is still in search of the man lor her vacant seat. The erudite body, ought to be represented by living erudition, but men distinguished for the humanities hang back; Macaulay forswears the field where his gifted an 1 graceful tongue has tasted the bitter salt of subservience ; Herschel will not descend from the stars to the Commons—though he might bring such salutary influences from the wide and high world in which he has lived; Walpole, whose career exhibits a faculty of rising from the common ground of party politics to a higher region, will not involve himself in a new election; and so the choice, of Alma Mater seems at present to hover between certain able banisters.

The death of Charles Wvnn causes a personal regret: one cannot' see a name disappear from the records of the day, which has been familiar ever since those records were .known, without a sigh of farewell, nor miss without regret even that voice which forbade the Speakership to the learning so diligently- accumulated for the office, and so liberally dispensed for the public service.

In Joseph Bailey, too, Hereford, regrets a respectable representative. _ Several personal incidents revive atlention to the unsettled state of the English Church. The l.ev_rend . Eyre Stewart Bathurst, Rector of Kibworth, is araon« recent seceders to the Church of Rome'; and the abandonment of £1500 a year is some earnest of his sincerity. Another seceder is Viscount Feilding, eldest son of the Earl of Denbigh. His house has ! some traditional associations with Rome, which migbt'always have kept its sons in mind of the Eternal City; but in a letter to the Times, Lord Feilding avows his reason—that in tbo Church of England, he misses that " living definite authority, conclusive and infallible," which is claimed, " and exercised," by the Church of Rome. Lojd Lyttelton's absence from . the Gorham meeting at St. Martin's Hall, in July, has been renarked, and conjecturally ascribed to a growing distrust in the Church of England. In a published letter this week, Lord Lyttelton shows that it had no such motive. He objects to public discassion on doctrinal details when the disputants have not settled the terms on which are to discuss. . Dissatisfied with the j state of the Church, he sees no fit expe- j client for amending it, short of "restoring to the Church the power of uttering her own voice as an organized and independent body." Many cnnst feel this who will not yet admit the conviction: events will drive them into some course more definite than that which is now the fashion.

The resting-place allotted to the re- 1 mains of Louis Phillippe carries out to the last the adventurous character of his: career': he is interred in a little chapel i at Weybridge, in the grounds of Miss ; Taylor,, a lady of wealth and Romanist■ tenets, who has immortalized her name by being, as it were, the landlady of] Louis Phillippe's mortal lodging : for the j epitaph, singular in its suggestive turn, proclaims that his remains lie there " until they shall be transferred to his, country and to the midst of the ancestral ashes,"—the wanderings ofthe French Ulysses ceasing not even at the tomb 1 It is said that Louis Napoleon would be willing enough to welcome home the the Monarch under whose reign returned to France the ashes of the President's illustrious uncle ; only the said President I apprehends, just now, the imputation of Royalist, sympathies. No doubt, Louis Philippe can wait to cross the AugloGallican Lethe. Meanwhile, the indefatigable " nephew of my uncle" has set out on another tour to conciliate his countrymen. Speculative politicians. are watching with interest the assembling of the Coun-cils-General, as it is said that they are prepared to take a new ground in giving distinct expression to the national sentiments on the practical conduct of public affairs. This growth of the municipal faculty in France would not be more new than hopeful. One fears that the genius of the people, though " republican," is not democratic, but tending too much to the military or hierarchical—that love of rank and power which is willing to purchase with obedience to those above, the luxury of commanding those below —-for true working in co-equality. But.- you never know till you try ;" and experience may havo brought the French iv matters of

local, polity to the point so-long sinc-V tamed by the Anglo-Saxon family. %id even; liy the 13asqu_,famiiy. '-x'-y;>'■*'■

There is still some- movement ni* the wide and various regions over whicli England has extended lie. Colonial action. While our separated colonies, the Lniled States/are struggling,' -aot hope, lessly, with the great questions that -obstruct their final tled boundaries like that of Texas'," and unsettled social questions like that o slavery, in which theSenat. has just'conceded a measure to facilitate the capture of fugitives,— our conquered provinces of India send us reports of new border : wars, waged by the jealous Afreedees, ;: riew plots for escape and retaliation- among the captured Sikii chiefs, new -squabbles of the Napier iribe in the niltninistrati'ou. But concerning our veritable Colonies, the two striking facts are in direct contrast; .while the Canterbury colonists-are., preparing their departure to unite England with a new and close bond to her youngest colony of New. Zealand, we learn that Dr. Lang is agitating the last colony projected on the map of Earl Gret's brain, " Victoria,** olim the Port Phillip district of New South Wales, to establish a league for the separation of the Australian Colonies from England. - It is remarkable that both movements,originate in strong dissatisfaction created ny the rule of (he Colonial Office in Loudon. Ere.ry party in New South Wales has had occasion to be disgusted and" oflended; and not only were important interests connected with emigration, with the moral improvement of. New South Wales, and with its religious regimen, which Dr. Lang came over expressly to advocate, superciliously disregarded, but he was treated with personal slight. He, an able, strong, proud, and irascible man, left the letter which we published in November 1849, proclaiming his.wrongs; and now we have the sequel in action. Attempts made to disparage him/and tp fetter him by tampering with his personal difficulties, refute tbe declaration that he is not formidable. The object of tip agitation is at least premature, but wlio can limit its influence or r«sults ?

The animus that reigns over such projects as the Canterbury settlement—the most finished specimen ofthe whole class —is the motive to supersede the bad influence of the Colonial Office by doing the work too wellto undergo suppression. J The tolony take the pick of-Eughsh so- ' ciety as it exists, including the-hierarch-ical machinery of tbe established Church. The colonists are of one faith, because, meeting on that point of agreement, they avoid many sources of discord in a young and small community. The singular good order, and the provision for mental improvement among "the" voyageis, are an earnest ofthe spirit which must reign over the settlement. Its principles are, cultures, order, free-, dom, and It is for that reason, unquestionably; that the new colony. is! distinguished from others by the large, proportion of actual settlers among the purchasers of land: hence a higher order of its social body, less of absentee, proprietary, with many attendant advantages. The apprehension of some few, imperfectly acquainted with the strict practical, objects of the plan, and moved perhaps by seeing certain highminded religionists engaged in its promotion—the fear that , it may combine a retrograding High . Church spirit with some undefiiiable , "Church ofthe Future"—is a figment: - the new eolo*ny is devised on. strictly practical grounds of regimen, _ and is neither retrograde nor speculative. .

The tallow market was firm at 375. to 375. and 3d. for old, and 375. 9d. for new, on the spot. The Ftjkds, September 9.—Consuls for money opened at 96J, and left off at 96J to J ;'for 15th October, 96_. Property was destroyed by fire in Montreal, on the 24th August, to the amount of £100,000. A revolution had taken place in (he republic of Eucador, and General Elzalde was compelled to tako refuge on board a British man-of-war then in the port of Guayaquil. He afterwards landed,, and marched with a small force on Guayaquil. Cherbourg had been the scene of a most imposing display in consequence of a naval review by the President of the_ Republic. Eight line-of-battle ships, including two of enormous size and power with a proportionate fleet of steamers and frigates for discharging the light . duties of the squadrou, wero roanoeuv ering with admirable skill and effect almost within sight of the harbours, and within gun-shot of the Channel possessions of Great Britain. A crowd of titled and professional excursionists left England to criticise; among whom were the Earls of Wilton--and Cardigan, Sir C. Napier,,. Captain Chads, &c. The Times of the 10th September records two instances of liberality .whioh. would do credit to tho most munificent period ofthe local history of even Bristol's. merchant-princes. A gentleman named - Eaton has contributed £0000 for tho pur. pose Of- enlarging the Hospital in that city. Mr. -G. "Thomas had also given £1000 for the same purpose.

provoments valued for tho purpose of adding to the rent. " That whenever, in Ulster or elsewhere tenant-right custom has prevailed, the value of such right, according to the local custom, shall bo considered in all respects as an improvement made by the tenant, and bo allowed for accordingly in valuing the rent. "That it be an instruction to tho League to take into consideration, at the •.earliest possible period, the condition of farm-labourers, and suggest some mea-,-suro for their permanent protection and improvement, in connexion wilh the arrangement of the question between .landlord and tenant." Mr. John O'Connell has resumed the -weekly meetings of the Repeal Association; stating that for the first time since his father's death, the Association meets freo from debt. Mr. John Pike, land-agent for Mr. Robert Cassidy, of Monastereven, in .King's County, was murdered on Tuesday morning. While lie was walking to Pursoustown (orßirr), with onoHolligtuid a tenant on tho estate h_ managed, two men attacked him with pistols. Having long expected to be so attacked, he was armed with two pistols aud a _ wordcane; he used all his weapons successively fired both pistols and drew his swordcane, but in vain : he was shot down, and Jjis skull dashed in with the butt-end of a pistol. His companion, Holligand.sawall -the fight, und describes it, but was, as he says, afraid to help; and at last, being threatened himsolf, he fled to Birr. The populace, as in Mr. Mauloverer's case, are in evidont complicity wilh the criminals ; who of course havo escaped. Mr. J Pike had been fired at beforo, but ho wns brave and resolute. On this occasion he was about to evict some conspiring rentrefusers.