LATEST EUROPEAN NEWS.

Wellington Independent, Volume XVII, Issue 1824, 31 January 1863, Page 3

LATEST EUROPEAN NEWS.

(From the Home News, 261h Nov. The Exhibition.— The International Exhibition, the marvel and glory of the year 1862, closed on Saturday, the Ist November, followed by a fortnight's permission to the public to make purchases. In taking leave of v structure which, ug!y as it was, had many virtues in the way of space and Jiccommodation, and in looking for the last time upon a bazaar representing the skill and industry of the civilised world, it is impossible not to feel a sensation of real and almost poignant regret. We ahull, probably iv our time, never witness a scene so crowdde

with images which the mind gamer* up amongst J its noblest acquisitions, or suggestive of reflections so elevating and ennobling. The grand lesson of the past which this Exhibition has read to us is that of the vast advance that has been made in every department of arts and manufactures since 1851 ; and the grand lesson it inculcates upon the future is the responsibility of emulating the past. The final impression left upon us is that, measuring by experience all the reasonable probabilities of a progress built on such a foundation, our next ten years will transcend the Exhibition of 1862 in a still greater degree than the Exhibition of 1862 transcended its predecessor. The Distress in Lancashire.—Subscriptions to the relief of Lancashire distress are coining in liberally, the London average, for example, having risen to about £6000 a day. Manchester, too, excited by reproaches cast on her tardiness, has held a great meeting, organised a canvass from house to house, and brought her subscription at once to £90,000. All over the country, house to house canvassing has commenced, and there is little doubt that by Christmas the subscription will have reached a million sterling. A great addition will probably be made in December, a meeting having been called for the 2nd, at which every Lancashire man of wealth or note is expected to attend, and do what in him lies to auswer the accusation that Lancashire has failed in its duty. This accusation has been made by the Rev. C. Kingsley in a letter to the 'Times' couched in language of the plainest kind. He affirms that Wessex has frequently raised rates far higher than wealthy Lancashire, and accuses the wealthy men in that county of coaxing England into subscriptions, in order to save their own luxuiies. His letter has produced scores of replies, but there is a great deficiency of broad facts in them all. So far as we can make out by assiduous study or returns, says the • Spectator ' the average rate paid in Lancashire is not 3s. in the pound, though local rates, as at Stockport, have risen as high as 7s 6d. The 'Times' affirms that there is £8,000,000 of rateable property in Lancashire and that a rate of Is 4d. for the quarter would produce £40.000 a week ; but the ' Times' does not attempt to define how much of this property is paralysed, neither do any of the Lancashire apologists, though they materially lighten the charge agaiust the employers of labor. Mr Gladstone has made a speech at a recent meeting at St. Martin's in the fields in defence of the wealthy men in Lancashire, who, he says, aie doing, on the whole, all tbat lies in their power. The ' London Review,' in arguing that the difficulty of supporting half a million paupers by the ordinary machinery of poor-rates is insuperable, says : — " It is, indeed, surprising tbat that machinery has not already broken down ; as it is, the paupers actually in receipt of relief in distressed uuions have increased from about 60,000 at this time last year to over 240,000, and it may confidently be asserted that a pressure so sudden and severe is unprecedented. If we add to the 240,000 in respect of parochial relief half as many again receiving aid from the local committees, and remember that the weekly increase to the number of the distressed is now 13,000, we may well be appalled at the crisis. It is idle to think tbat such a burden can be borne by broken shopkeepers and erabarrased manufacturers. The truth is, that the parochial system of relief is only applicable in ordinary times and for periods where the variation of pressure are slight; a time of acute distress at once Jays V>are iis injustice and its defects. Some who do not hesitate to confess that the poorTates cannot be raised to meet the emergency, may still blame the men of Lancashire for backwardness in subscribing to relief funds. With receipt to one class, it is certain that such blame is undeserved, and it is probably little merited by any. The picture of the manufacturer with a large balance at his bankers, and enjoying a store of other available resources, is for the most part purely imaginary ; a few may be found to reali.se it, but a great mass of manufactures are self-made men, whose whole capital is engaged in the occupation, and who are, indeed, often working on borrowed capital. No man con imagine that the men who are so coustantly cited as beginning a few years since with nothing, and now worth their tens of thousands, are men of ready money; their wealth consists o£ mills aud machinery, and they now find its value rapidly decaying. Their capital brings in no income, and is becoming worthless; and, on the other hand, they have obligations to meet which they cinnot avoid. In spite, however, of the pressure upon themselves, there is overwelming evidence that the manufacturers, as a class, are behaving nobly. Even if their names were not found on the sub-scription-lists, they might still be doing their duty, for, as Mr Gladson well said at St. Mar-tiu'sin-the-Fields, that is not the place where they should be found. They have, however, subscribed, and they have done much more ; the greater number of they have takeu their own workmen in charge, and by weekly payments, by daily bread, and by supplies of clothing, have prevented them from becoming a burden to their impoverished neighbours. MISCELLANEOUS. " It is seldom," says the Times, that the Gazette contains so pleasant an announcement as that which has just been published — that her Mpjesty has given her consent to the contract of manage between the Prince of Wales and the Princess Alexandra of Denmark. To see the Prinne of Wales united at an early age to a Princess of beauty, "taste, and amiability, and to know that the union was not prompted by political motives, but by mutual affection, must be gratifying to those who hope, not only for his sake, but for the sake of the country, that his course will be that of a high-minded selfrespecting, cobstitutional prince — of one who wishes to fit himself for the momentuous duties of an English king. A generation has now sprung up which remembers little of the earlier part of the Queen's reign, and to which the feelings called up by the presence of a young gitl suddenly placed in a high and conspicuous station will be new. But the change which took place in the daily life of the Princess Victoria of Kent on that morning when Lord Melbourne and his colleagues waited on her with the news that she had succeeded to the first throne in the world will be hardly greater than that which awaits the young princess who is shortly to come to these shore as a bride. Although of royal birth, and in every way a fitting consort for the prince, she is just emerging from girlhood, and has, of course, passed her life up to this time in the bosom of her family. The Princess of Wales will come at an early age of 18 in a land of foreigners, and have to take the highest place in a society which is strange to her, and which continentals believe to be far move cold and exacting than it really is. From the simple life of her father's house she must come to bear a part in the ceremonial of a great aod stately monarchy, and sit near a throne which, in a laud of free speech, is only protected from censure by the blamelessness of those who occupy iv In such circumstances we known tbat all the feelings of respect and affectiou which are never wanting in the heart of a manly nation will be evoked by the arrival of the priucess among us. It will he a return of the same impulses which 25 years ago made the young Queen Victoria the favourite of the nation, ami raised loyalty to a height that was thought unattainable in a material and revolutionary age."

A terrible conflagration occurred on the eve. ning of the 20th November in the warehouses of Messrs Charles Price and Co, turpentine, resin, and pitch manufacturers, Wiliam-street, Blackfiiars. Shortly before 5 o'clock an explosion took place in the south-west angle of the premises, and in a few minutes the buildings were in a blaze. It was feared that the fire would extend to the works of the City Gas Company, but this calamity was happily prevented. The flames shot up to an immense . height aud were visible so far off as Paddington. The fire engines of course were at once sent for, and among others several of the newlybuilt steam fire-engines were quickly ou the spot. Their efficiency wis soon seen. Of course they could not at once contend witn the tuns of oil that were stored up in that inflammable magazine; for while cask after cask exploded the oil ran down the wharf in red lava streams, liteiallj set the Thames on fire, aud burnt up several barges that could not be got out of the way. The fire was subdued about 8 o'clock, after an immense amount of property was destroyed. No cause of the fire has been traced, but it is supposed that spontaneous combustion bad taken place. The narrow escape of the City Gas Works naturally suggests the consideration of the propriety of having such an establishment in the midst of a crowded city. Right and left of the works are warehouses and wharves in which materials of the most com* bustible nature are either stored or constantly being dealt with. Should these take fire at any time, and the flames extend to the gasometers, results of the most fearful kind would be most certain to follow. This time a fortunate breeze drove the fire away from the works.