GENERAL SUMMARY.

Wellington Independent, Volume XVII, Issue 1835, 26 February 1863, Page 3

GENERAL SUMMARY.

London, Dec 2 9.

Her Majesty's health continues to improve. The. remains of the late Prince Consort was transferred to the Royal Mausoleum at Frogmore, after its consecration on 17th Deeeniberl

The marriage of the Prince of Wales, in March, is to be celebrated with great magnificence by order of the Queen.

The Princess Alice is expected to be confined in April.

Prince Alfred is about to leave' for Australia in the screw corvette Racoon.

The distress in Lancashire and Cheshire has reached its maximum. The loss of wages per week is estimated at £550,pp0, or £8,000,000 sterling per annuir. £l3O,OQoVwas collected in one hour at a public meeting in Manchester, and £30,000 at a county meeting in Cheshire Subscriptions continue to flow in from all quarters, and New York contributes 200,000 dollars, besides a ship-load of provisions, A Royal Commission has been appointed to inquire into the operations of the laws relating to transportation and penal servitude, and of the manner in which sentences under such laws relating to transportation and penal servitude are to be carried out. It is urged that the treatment of convicts is too indulgent. This has reference to the numerbuscasesof garotting recently by ticket-of-leave men; Transportation to such colonies as may wish for the continuance of such labour is being urged upon Government.

It is proposed to make the Falkland Islands a penal colony, and transportation to Queens* land, or the newly-discovered territory in Northern Australia, is also prominently discussed. On Christmas Day, a conferen ce was held of co-operative delegates at Rochdale, to consider the feasibility of forming a company of colonists to proceed to Queensland, for the purpose of cultivating cotton-

The English Government have notified to Greece that it will not "allow Prince Alfred to accept the throne. King Ferdiuand, of Portugal, also refuses to accept the sovereignty. The cession o[ the lonian Islands to Greece has been officially announced to the Provisional Government by the Euglish Ministers. Another heavy gale has caused several wrecks on the east coast.

A terrific colliery explosion near Barnsley, Yorkshire. Sixty meu have been killed. The Metropolitan underground railway was to be opened on the 7th of January. The Edinburgh Court of Session has given judgment in the Yelvertou marriage case in favor of Mrs Lorgworth Yelverton,

Tbe championship of the Thames is to be contested in April between Chambers and Everson, of Greenwich.

The great six-mile race between Deerfoot and Mills, the Euglish champion, was won by the latter.

The Great Eastern is again declared seaworthy.

Queensland cotton has been sold in England — price 4s. 6d. to ss. per lb. Obituary.— James Sheridan Knowles, Sir Graham Hammond (admiral of the Fleet), Miss Pardoe, Lord Morrison, Eail of Gifford, Mr Deedes, M.P. ; Admiral Sullivan, Sir Michael Bruce, and Sir Duncan M'Dougall.