South Australian Register (Adelaide, SA : 1839 - 1900), Saturday 3 October 1840, page 2


ENGLISH NEWS.

By the Martin Luther so have Scotch papers to the 2nd of June, but they contain no news of importance. The following are a few extracts:—

The projected treaty of commerce with France is dis-cussed with some earnestness in the city, especially the proposed reduction of the duty on French wines. Some parties consider the treaty would place us between the

horns of a dillemma, and, setting aside the immediate loss of £300,000 per year consequent on the reduction, as ad-mitted on Friday by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, begin to reflect as to our position with other foreign nations, as for instance, Portugal, Spain, Sicily, or the Bhenish provinces of Germany. Using a phrase woich has become common among commercial men since the discussion on the Sicilian monopoly, they say either there is a treaty with those other countries that pats them on the same foot-ing "as the most favoured nations," or there is not. If there be such a treaty and the duty on the wines from these countries is brought to the level of the reduced duties on French wines, a loss it is calculated would ensue to the revenue of about £1,120,000 per annum. As the basis of this calculation, 3s 6d per gallon is taken as the average rate of reduction, on the authority of the French papers, and the annual consumption is estimated at about 3,400,000 gallons, exclusive of Cape wine. If, on the other hand, there be no such treaty, it is argued we shall commit such an injustice to other nations by sacrificing their interests to France alone, that we shall encourage them to raise the import duties on our manufacturers, thus bettering the market for our foreign competitors, especially fror France to oblige whom the treaty in question would be made.—. Times. FRENCH COMMUNICATION WITH AMERICA.—In the Chamber of Deputies on Saturday, M. Thiers, who seems to regard the improvement in our mode of communication with America with no little jealousy, brought in a bill to carry out a project of transatlantic stream navigation, from Havre, Bordeaux, and Marseilles. The Havre packets will, it is proposed, communicate with New York, and will be the only series which will be left in the hands of private speculators. The company is, however, to be assisted by an annual allowance, of 12,000,000 fancs from the government. The Bordeaux and Marseilles lines are to be undertaken at the expense of the state. Marseilles is to communicate with Mexico by touching ri Martini-que; and Bordeaux with Mexico and New Orleans direct. Sixteen steamers, of from 220 to 450 horse power, are to be constructed at the public expense; for which pur-pose a vote of 25 millions of francs is proposed, payable in the next three years. What will Lord Minto and his parisites say to this large addition to the war steamers of France, so contructed as to admit of their receiving the formidable Paixhaus' gun, and other descriptions of armament as occasion may arise! This is, however, only one of many indications which France has lately given of her ambition to erect herself into a first-rate naval power. And what measures are in progress in this country to meet the exertions of other nations to compete with Great Britain, on what has hitherto been considered her "own element?" Absolutely none; although the demand upon our peace establishment of ships is such as scarcely to leave us a disposable man of war for any sudden emergency that may arise; and far too few to afford the protection so imperatively demanded by our commerce in various part parts of the world.—Standard. ARCHIMEDEAN STEAM SCREW.—The gentlemen inter- ested in this great and novel principle in steam navigation invited their friends to accompany them on Wednesday from Blackwall to Gravesend, on board their beautiful vessel the Archimedes, in order that they might have an opportunity of witnessing the success of Mr Smith's in-vention. The Archimedes started in the finest style con-ceivable towards Gravesend, but with the tide and wind against her. From the position of the propeller the vessel causes but little sell. The fact is, she causes more than a sailing vessel would do going at the same speed, the only trifling disturbance of the water being at the bow. The action of the steamer was throughout most perfect, and called forth expressions of admiration from every one on board. The advantages she pos-sesses over the ordinary vessels of the same class, the paddle-wheels of which, from their situation, never acquire the necessary resistance, and one or the other of which, in an agitated sea, is constantly out of the water altogether, needs no illustration. The screw at the stern, being ever under water, throws not away its labours, nor is it exposed to external injury, like the great unsightly paddle-wheels of the common steam vessels. In a naval action the screw is not by any possibility to be got at by the enemy, whereas the old fashioned exposed paddle might be knocked to atoms the very first shot. An example was also given of the facility with which the vessel puts about. No play whatever was required for the purpose. The move-ment was effected as it were upon a pivot. Two emi-nent Parsee ship-builders were among the guests, and they seemed to take a deep interest in all that passed. —London Paper. A hearty laugh has been raised in the city at the ex-pense of the Chancellor of the Exchequer, who, finding such a difficulty in levying 5 per cent on the duties on spirits, was obliged to give up such a plan in dispair, and resort to a fixed duty of 4d. per gallon. The difficulty here lies in comprehending what there is in the peculiar nature of a duty on spirits that it should make a case by itself and not come within the general rule. The Chan-cellor of the Exchequer's reason for adopting this course, that he has done it to avoid increasing the differential duties between different parts, is considered so far from satisfactory, that he is thought, while trying to avoid one sort of inequality, to have produced another, and to levy an equal duty on articles of unequal value, as for instance on rums and brandies. Again, the difference made between wine and spirits has caused great surprise. The capitalist who operates in sherries is to pay his 5 per cent.; but if he prefers brandies, he will pay less than 1¾. The accounting for such discrepancies by a professed adherence to rigid justice is regarded as ludicrous in the extreme.— Times. MURDER OF LORD WILLIAM RUSSEL.—The excitement regarding this murder still continues. The examination of the valet yesterday (May 23,) at Bow-street, caused a considerable sensation. The examination lasted from ten in the morning till five at night. The evidence was confined to the state of the room, the loss of the property, and the surgeon's examination. Many of the points left in doubt at the coroner's inquest have been cleared up, and a strong case on circumstantial evidence has been made out against Courvisier. It is expected he will be committed immediately after bearing the evidence of the police.— Glasgow Argus. EMIGRATION.—Several handloom weavers took their departure from Wigton on Tuesday, on their way to Bel-gium. Their departure, in point of numbers, may seem quite unimportant but, their qualifications as fitters up, together with the mass or information, books, patterns of cloth, &c., which they have taken with then, may at no distant day cause our corn law advocates to wince for their impolicy in checking the advancement of the cotton trade in this country.—Bolton Press. The Eco de l' Orient of the 25th April, publishes a letter from Tabris, dated the 22th of March, stating that the Ambassador of Russia in Teheran had officially an- nounced the taking of Khiva by the Russian expedition. 15,000 Persians, who had been reduced to slavery by the Khiviana, had been restored to liberty by General Rer-owski, and would soon be sent back to their country and families. The Ambassador of Russia was preparing to have Teheran for Shiraz, and was to return by Kureistan. The French Ambassador continued at Teheran, and the officers by whom he was accompanied remained at Tabris with the famous Hussein Khan. CORN AND MEDICINE IN EGYPT.—The Alexandria advices of the [?], state that the Egyptian government has fixed the duties on the exportation of corn as follows:— 20 piastres for wheat, being 50 per cent of its prime cost; 50 piastres for barley, which is 60 per cent of the price; 15 piastres for maize, which is mroe then 100 per cent of its original costs. According to the same authority Mehemet Ali has ordered most of the native medical practitioners to be stationed in the interior, and the European ones alone to remain at Alexandrian and on the coast, the motives alleged being to prevent rivalry between the two classes. SLIDE OF EARTH IN CANADA.—On the morning of the 4th, a large tract of land of several hundred acres, near Three Rivers, Lower Canada, slid off into the river. There were upon it two houses, several barns, forty horses, cows, and other domestic animals, and five hundred sugar maple trees. The land went of gradually, and the inhabitants (including the men employed in making sugar, who took the alarm as soon as they saw the trees moving) made their escape.—New York paper. FIRES IN GERMANY.—The town of Raja, one of the most flourishing of the Bans, situated upon the Danube, at the junction of the Francies Canal with that river, was almost totally destroyed by fire on the 1st of May. Raja was one of those places whose rapid growth testified the rapidity increasing prosperity of Lower Hungary. It counted 16,000 inhabitants and 2,000 houses, of which 1,700 are aonsumed. The number of fires is very re-markable, and is probably occasioned by the dryness of the shingle roofs, which are so common in Germany, and which, warping in the sun's heat, catch flying sparks with case. Thus the tows of Indenburg in Styria, [?] in the Grand Duchy of Bodes, [?], near Berlin, and [?], on the Rhone mountain, have within a few days all been damaged by fire.

LORD ABERDEEN'S BILL.—A public meeting of the in-habitants of Edinburg favourable to the principle of Lord Aberdeen's bill for healing the differences of the Church of Scotland, was held on Friday in the Assembly Rooms, Sir Robert Abercromby, of Birkinbog Bart., in the chair. The audience was numerous and highly respectable, com- pletely filling the large Hall. The first resolution, ap-proving of the principle of Lord Aberdeen's bill, was moved by J. Shank More, Esq., seconded by Robert Bruce, Esq., Sheriff of Argyllshire; the second, thanking the Earl of Aberdeen for his patriotic conduct in bringing forward the measure, was moved by J. Campell, Esq., Of Carbrook, seconded by Dr. Easton, of Courance Hill; and the third, that petitions be presented to both Houses of Parliament, praying that the same may pass into a law, was moved by G. Ross, Esq., advocate, seconded by J. Learmouth, Esq., of Dean. On the motion of Norman Lockhart, Esq., it was agreed that the petition to the Lords be intrusted to the Duke of Buccleuch, and that to the Commons to Sir Robert Peel. The meeting then broke up.—Ibid. Malta papers, the Mediterranea, the Portafaglio, and the Times, to the 7th inst., along with a letter from our private correspondent of that day's date, have reached us this morning, and brings news of some interest from Naples. The King of the Two Sicilies, having admitted the principle upon which the demands of the British government are founded, has offered to submit the ques-tion of the amount of compensation to be paid to England to the French government; which offer has been accepted by the British minister, on the express condition that the matter be definitively settled in three weeks. The em-bargoes on both sides have been withdrawn. On the arrival of the Hydra at Malta from Naples, on the 29th, the Governor having official information that the King had directed an embargo to be laid on British vessels in the Sicilian harbours, issued a similar direction in regard to such Neapolitan ships as were in port at Malta. On the ensuing day, however, when it became known that the embargo on British ships had been revoked, his Excel- lency issued a minute removing that on Neapolitan vessels. Several new reprisals, however, are enumerated by our correspondent as having been made by her Majes-ty's ships Tyne and Jaseur. The determination of the King of Naples was made known to Captain Austin, of the Bellerophon, by two messengers, one English and the other French, sent by the respective ministers of Naples in the steamp-boat Maria Christina, which stood out in the offing, with a British flag flying at her mast-head, as a signal of truce. Captain Austin thereupon sent the Hydra into the port, where she fired a royal salute. No fresh case of plague had occurred on board the Acheron. The two persons originally infected, the steward and a boy, have died. The assistant-surgeon of the ship, Mr Macnish, exhibited some alarming symptoms, but it is believed has not taken the disease. The vessel and pas-sengers which would otherwise have been in practique on the 20th, have now to perform an additional quarantine. The officers and crew have been landed at the Lazaretto, but they and the passengers, with the exception already referred to, are perfectly free from indisposition. Sir Robert Stopford has directed the release of all the Nea-politan vessels which have been sent into Malta, four in number, one with a neutral freight. The Hydra steamer was to leave Malta for Smyroa on the day on which our advices came away. Admiral Lalande and the French squadron were at Smyrna on the 30th. Admiral Rosamel was expected there daily, to take the chief command of the French fleet, which would then consist of 13 ships of the line, two corvettes, five brigs, and two steamers.— Standars. The King of Naples having taken off the embargo from English vessels lying at Naples, the forts of the city fired a Royal salute, which was answered by the Hydra. The news of the cessation of hostilities produced such an effect on the people, that the whole city gave itself up to rejoicings and thanksgiving. In the late cruize of that noble vessel (the Hydra), a cruize of 26 days, during which her steam never stopped, she acquired a tremen-dous reputation. She struck terror in the stoutest Nea-politan heart. The Neapolitans called her "The robber of the sea," "The deamon of the deep," and every name that a distracted imagination could invent. Among the pleasing events which happened to her, we relate one

—the being cheered by a large party of English ladies in a Tuscan steamer.—Malta Times.