LATER ENGLISH NEWS.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume II, Issue 57, 30 May 1874, Page 11

LATER ENGLISH NEWS.

By the arrival of the City of Adelaide at Auckland, wo have English news to the 22nd of April. The following are the principal items.

ENGLISH NEWS.

April 22. The Grand-Duke Alexis is the only member of the Imperial family who will accompany the Czar on his visit to Polan I.

In the House of Lords, the Marquis of Salisbury, Secretary of State for India, said that the harvest in India promised to be abundant, and that the present provisions against famine were undoubtedly ample. In the House of Commons Mr Smollett moved that the suddenness of the late dissolution of Parliament was deserving of the censure of the House, and characterised the act as a coup d'etat by which the last Government sought unconstitutionally to retain power. He declared that Mr Gladstone had resorted to a stratagem which was ungenerous to Ma friends, insolent to his opponents, and barely honest to the nation. Mr Gladstone stigmatised the assertion that the dissolution was secretly planned as untrue, absurd, and impossible, and challenged a repetition of the word " trickster " applied to him. Upon the refusal of Mr Smollett to repeat it, he charged him with lack of decency and manliness, and defended the act of dissolution, which he declared would have been more inconvenient had it been postponed. Upon concluding his speech, Mr Gladstone left the House, and the motion was negatived without a division. Much excitement was mani cUed during and at the close of the debate. A prospectus has been issued in London containing proposals for the formation of a company to take over Hall's Australian steam ship I line. The proposed capital is £600,000, in 30,000 shares of £20 each. The seven promoters take one share each, four of whom, iucluding Hall, stipulate for a salary of £1,000 a yeir. A break-out [lock-out ?] of 15,000 minerß is expected in Cornwall. The amount; of bullion withdrawn from the Bank England since the last balance day is £114,000; the amount of bullion gone into the bank £20,000.

The expectation of another rise of the Thames, and overflow, caused thousands of people to throng its banks, ail fill the bri Ijjj*

which cross it. The water rose an immense height, but no damage was done. Placards are posted up in the agricultural districts of England, cautioning intending immigrants to the United States, on the authority of Consul Archibald, of New York, that 40,000 persons are ready to return to England. The steamer Atrato, after repairing and passing inspection, left on Easter Monday with 400 emigrants for Canterbury and Otago. Several of the emigrants who left the first time refused to proceed in her, and returned to their homes, after enjoying the trip for several days, aud free rations. A terrible explosion has occurred in the mine of the Duke of Enficld. It caused the death of 53 persons, and injured 20 others. Joseph Arch is to arrange an extensive emigration of farm laborers from England to America. The -steamship Faraday has begun te load'with the new Atlantic cable, which will be laid direct to the United States. Two railway accidents have occurred inland, resulting in the death and injury of 20 persons. Gladstone, in reviewing the Budget, said he regarded the removal of a penny from the Income Tax as an important step toward* the abolition of taxes. A Bill'abolishing sugar duties has finally passed the House of Commons. A special meeting of the committee relative to the Agricultural Laborers' Union granted £1,000 for tho relief of the locked-out laborers, 4,000 of whom are now on the Union funds. A London letter says that in the Eastern counties of England there is a bitter conflict between the farmers and the laborers : the latter have joined the Union. In Warwickshire they demanded an extra Is. a week ; this was refused the laborers, consequently they struck on one or two farms. The farmers generally retalliated by locking out all the Union men, and declaripg that henceforth they will employ only nonunionists. The landlords supported the farmers, and threaten to eject those who do not hold aloof from relation with unionists. The Parliamentary vote to defray expenses of the Ashantee expe- | dition amounts to £900,000. A new movement is on foot in London for a Parliament of working men ; an organisation is formed, and committee appointed. A Bill has been introduced into Parliament, at the instigation of the Early Closing Association for closing all shops at 8 p.m. Mr Kenealy has been excluded from the mess of Oxford Circuit for wart of etiquette in the Tichborne case. This deprives him of professional status, no junior bein^ allowed to engage with him. In a letter to the Press, Kenealy indignantly denies the charges made against him, and says bo dissents from the verdict of the jury. He believes the claimant still to be Tichborne, and that the real Arthur Orton will bo in England before 12 monihs, and acknowledged &{ such, and the defendant released.

The report of the Eastern Extension Australia and China Telegraph Company shows the year's profits to be £156,975. A dividend equal to 6£- per cent, was declared, and £39,9.50 carried to the reserve fund.

The British steamship Queen Elizabeth, from Calcutta for England, became a wreck at Punta Arenas, in Spain. Twenty-three lives ■weie lost, including H. J. Allardice, missionary of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, wife, and three childien.