12 DECEMBER 1846, Page 6

gortign antb (colonial.

Sreine—A Ministerial crisis in the Spanish capital began and WAS over in twenty-four hours. Sefior Pacheco, Fiscal to the Supreme Tribunal of Justice, eader of the Conservative Opposition, asked leave of absence from his official &idea, in order to attend to his election; the request is usually accounted a form to be complied with of course, but it was now refused; whereupon he tendered his resignation. The resignation was accepted by Senor Isturiz; but when the Queen was asked to sign it, she refused, and declared that she thought that gentleman exceedingly ill used. The con- sequence was that all the Cabinet resigned, on the 29th of November. Gn the following day, the Queen commissioned the Marquis de Viluma to form a Ministry. The Marquis having failed in his efforts to do so, her Majesty sanctioned the resignation of Seiler Pacheco, and the Ministers resumed office.

The causes assigned for the resignation of the Isturitz Ministry are Va- rious. Some impute it simply to the professed reason, the Queen's treat- ment of Pacheco's resignation. By others it is attributed to the deter- mined refusal of Sefior Mon to renew the salt-contract in favour of Sefior Salamanca, the well-known capitalist and political opponent of the Finance Minister. A third cause is assigned, though it did not seem generally to be considered as sufficient: according to the story, the Queen insisted that Sefior Armero should make an ample apology to the Infante Don Eurique for his alleged disrespectful conduct to his Royal Highness last year, at Madrid, Cadiz, and, through his subalterns, in Galicia; and that to this Armero returned a most decided negative. Within two hours after Ministers had resigned, a dreadful conflagration broke out in the offices of the Marine, Grace and Justice, and War Depart- meut, which are in the same edifice. The fire was discovered at midnight, raged all night with fury, and, in spite of a deluge of rain, was not got under until nearly eleven o'clock next day. It is said that the archives and documents connected with the public accounts are all, or the -most valuable part, consumed. The coincidence has provoked sinister erbeeevite tins. The edifice was once noted as the residence of Godoy, Prince of the Peace; and it was considered fire-proof: Queen Christina's influence over the King is said to be now complete. He is surrounded by her spies, and cannot move a step or receive a visit unknown to her.

A curious document has been brought to light during the past week, in the shape of a letter from Don Francisco de Assiz, written while rather fearing than hoping for his present elevation. It is addressed to his cousin the Count de Montemolin whom it is clearly its object to induce to " sacri- fin" himself for the good of his country.

" I have," he says," been told, that under existing circumstances the attention of the Court of the Tuileries is turned to the marriage with my cousin. I think that, by turning their views on you, a great step has been taken towards the reconciliation which you must ardently desire, as a Christian and as a prince. I know that to arrive at so fortunate a result heavy sacrifices will be required of you. Neither as a man nor a prince would I advise you to consent to things which should tarnish your name; but I cannot avoid observing to you, that on no account ought you to allow opportunities to escape which once lost never occur

*On When proposals are made to you, reply, that you have no other irleh than the good of your country; that you,would sacrifice your dearest affections to it; and that you only wish that your name may not in any way suffer by it.. . . . If you resist—if you seek to get all—you will lose all; and there would be nothing strange in those who now support you, seeing your obstinacy, turning their views on me who come next after you. What shall I do then? Renounce my turn, and give up the field to a stranger? I shall never act in this way: so long as my cousin, to whom I am attached, (who, I admit has supe- rior rights to myself,) shall stand before me, I shall remain quiet, as I have hither- to done; but when his marriage is become impossible, for the reason I state, I think my conscience (I speak not of my interest, for there is nothing enticing in a throne) calls on me not to expose Spam to a fresh conflict Do not add new difficulties to those which unfortunately already exist: be advised by en- lightened and virtuous persons; and, if necessary, resign yourself to a dear sacri- fice, it is true, but absolutely necessary."

All doubt as to the recantation of the Infante Don Enrique has been re- moved by the publication of a document in the Madrid Gazette of the 29th, as follows.

"Exposition addressed to her Majesty the Queen by his Royal Highness the Infante Don Enrique. "Brussels, Nov. 19. "Senora—Anxious, on one side, that my conduct should be free from all ap- pearance of obscurity, and desirous, on the other, of affording to your Majesty, on this your Saint's-day, a proof of respect and adhesion, of patriotism, and of pro- found attachment to the constitutional will of your Majesty, and to the decision of the legitimate representatives of the nation, I have determined, of my own un- biassed will, free from every influence, and yielding only to the suggestions of my conscience, to annul, in a solemn manner, my protest signed at Ghent the 9th of September last, in order that at no period whatever it shall have any force or pro- duce the slightest effect.

"I trust that your Majesty will benignly deign to accept these my loyal senti- ments, and to receive the respectful homage of the adhesion and fidelity of year Majesty's affi3ctionate and obedient cousin; who kisses the Royal feet of your Majesty, ENRIQUE MARIA: . According to the Ministerial papers of Madrid, the bait by which Don Enrique was induced to withdraw his protest against the Montpensier marriage was the promise of a high command in the Spanish navy and the kandof a Neapolitan princess.

. Penerucian.—The Lisbon mail of the 1st instant announces no decisive change. Both parties were much as they were. Their respective head- nuarters, Lisbon and Oporto, were both " tranquiL" Both sides were losing by defection; but in that respect the balance seems to be against the insur- gents; Mousinho de Albuquerque, late Minister of Marine, had joined them; but they were losing more by desertions of officers and men in the Saldanha had remained three weeks before Santarem—a strongly-forti- fied place—without doing anything except receiving deserters; but the Viscond.e de Setubal had crossed the Tagus, and had succeeded in effecting a junction with the Duke. And there was a great scarcity of provisions in the town, which contained 8,000 inhabitants; so that its surrender was accounted certain.

A Mignelite general, named Mamlonnell, is said to have collected a force of 8,000 well-armed men at Braga, and to have declared for Don Miguel amidst general rejoicings.

The British squadron remained in the Tagus.

Much sensation had been caused at Lisbon by the sudden departure of the Duke de Palmella, whom the Queen had advised to leave the king-

dom, and by a letter which he had written to the Junta of Oporto. He took refuge on board the British fleet; and his letter is said to have been written with the privity of Admiral Parker and Mr. Southern. He tells the Junta, that having been ordered by the Queen to quit the country, he had a request to make of their Excellencies—which was to liberate the Duke de Terceira. He added, that at the same time they might insist on the Duke de Terceira's leaving the country until such period as the cause may be decided. He concludes by suggesting that this step would tend to gain the sympathy of the British Government "for the cause which the Junta has so nobly defended." That such an epistle should have been lanotioned by British officials is incredible.

Irsi.v.—Accounts from the Papal States mention that the Government hasjust taken a measure of great importance to agriculture. In many dis- tricts the rice-fields have failed: this has been proved, through experiments made by a distinguished economist at Cervetri, to result from a defective mode of culture. The Pope has therefore ordained that the whole of the valley between Ostia and Porto d'Anzo, about three hundred kilometres in extent, and the property of the state, is to be appropriated to the culture of rice on an extensive scale. One half of the crop is to be sold, for the state, the other half to be given to the poor. This decree has had a won- fferful effect; and the works were immediately commenced for conveying the waters of the Nemi, which are to irrigate the plantations established in the valley.

Fe.exce.—There was a grand review of 25,000 men, in the Champs de Mare, on Saturday, to entertain the Bey of Timis, who has been the lion of the week. On the Friday evening, M. Guizot had a concert for the Bey, at which the Duke de Nemours, the Duke de Montpensier, Lord and Lady 'Cowley, Lord and Lady W. Hervey, and Senor Martinez de la Rosa assisted.

According to the Paris correspondent of the Times, no application is in- tended to be made to the Bank of England for temporary assistance, There remain in reserve 20,000 shares of the Bank of France, the value or

which is vested in Government securities; and this reserve it has been de- termined to sell rather than seek external aid.

The amount of food on hand still furnishes matter for apprehension. Notwithstanding the extensive importations which have taken place, it is affirmed that the stock of grain and flour on hand is deficient by twenty- five days' consumption of the required amount There must therefore he further importations, and consequently a larger drain of money. Riots ex- cited by existing or apprehended scarcity still continue in various parts of France, and the undiminished premium upon the middle and lower classes is proved by continued drain upon the savings-banks.

The Journal du Loiret contains the following account of a narrow escape sustained in the Val d'Orleans from a new inundation-

" On Sunday the whole of our valley was again a prey to fresh apprehensions. At four in the afternoon the Loire had risen two metres, and by midnight it was half a metre higher. In the afternoon the workmen on the embankment at San- dillon were all absent to receive their pay; but in consequence of the increase of the river, the alarm was beaten to hasten their return. The works were resumed, and continued till one in the morning. At one time the water had risen so high that not more than half a metre of the breach was left uncovered. Here, how- ever, it stopped, and on Monday morning began to fall."

An omission of the Paris papers of Thursday sennight strikingly MIA-. tmted the working of the laws of September. In an article on the an- nexation of Cracow, the Times of the previous Monday referred the con-. duct of the French Government, by a very pointed allusion, to the d 'root influence of King Louis Philippe; and at the same time expressed a belief, that this allusion would not find a place in the columns of the Fren.olt journals. It was omitted. The National says— •

" We dare not give the article of the Times. The Times, which fears nothing, throws oat an unworthy accusation, and its calumny penetrates with hews, dible audacity even to the centre of those inviolable regions covered in France by tpeeerstrliple ramparts of the Charter, the laws of September, and the Court el' Others of the Opposition prints also confess that they dare not quote! the article.

On this the Times observes—" The French public in general will the-. fore, as we set out by saying, remain ignorant of the precise nature of tte for this simple reason, that the liberty of the press, for suspending whielel the unhappy Charles the Tenth lost the crown of France, exists not hi' that country." It has been announced in the Correctional Tribunal of Paris, that Vett proceedings against the editors of the three Polish journals published ha' Paris, namely, Le Trots-Mel, La Nation Polonaise, and La Democratie Po- lonaise, have been indefinitely adjourned.

AUSTELL—A letter from Cracow, written on the 25th November, anir published in the Times, complains bitterly of the tyrannical treat,ment which the citizens endure at the hands of the Austrian military. Sentineli are insolent and overbearing, attacking passengers in the streets for such' offences as smoking. The letter closes thus—

"Iran assure you that the last hopes of the inhabitants of Cracow are fixed upon Lord Palmerston. It is certain that Austria holds her new poslossion with a trembling and unsteady hand; that no arrangemeets are to be made respecting, its government until it is known how England will brook the insult which hale been cast upon her. Austria is, indeed, in no condition to go to war about Cra- cow. Her finances are in a desperate state; her troops wretchedly equipped and, badly officered; besides, manyregiments are not to be depended upon. I believe the mere rumour of a certain old Commodore having received orders to hoist his pen- nant in the Adriatic, would send the Austrian troops to Podgorze more rapidly; than they have ever yet executed the march.

"The loss which England will sustain in the way of trade' if the occupation ia permitted, will be by no means inconsiderable • the principal articles imported by Cracow, cotton goods and bard-ware, being chiefly of English origin."

Some manceuvering with railway shares by the Austrian Government has been recorded, but not very intelligibly. It is explained by a private correspondent of our own in Germany- " The panic occasioned at Vienna by the occupation of Cracow has hastened the promulgation of a new financial scheme. A project had been adopted by the Austrian Ministers for relieving the railway share-market, by giving a fixed valuta to the shares that were held by private speculators: by this means these useful undertakings would at once be encouraged, and those who had embarked capital in them would be saved from the ruin with which the present crisis threatened them. The commissioners for the redemption of the national debt have bees empowered to purchase, at their ascertainable value, such shares as may be offeretl, on account of the Crown. The Crown reserves the right of letting them agait pass into private hands, or of executing the projected roads, at its pleasure. In consequence of the publication of this decision, the price of Austrian railroad shares rose immediately at Vienna, Berlin, and Frankfort. It was thee proved, that much of the present tightness in the money market is not owing to any scarcity of money, but to want of confidence.

"The price of other securities has, however' not been raised by the measure; and a tendency is observable downwards in all foreign funds, that must be as- cribed to the unexpected and singular political events of the last two moralise Were it not for the well-known deshe of the people of England to preserve peace. in Europe, the panic would be for greater than it is; for England is the only power that could now attempt to go to war without endangering the security of its throne."

The Prase gives this extract of a letter from Cracow dated the 234 November—" Five Polish women have just been arrested. In Gallia& the peaeontry are more closely watched than ever. An ordinance front the Austrian Government forbids every peasant to leave his dwelling after sunset, to hold any communication with his neighbours or to attend any assemblage. The whole country, in fact, is militarily occupied, like et place in a state of siege."

SWEDEN.—The King of Sweden has had a narrow escape from assessium. tion. A young man, dirty and ill-dressed, presented himself at the Palace at Stockholm, on the 26th November, and with violent gesticulation de- mended an audience of the King. The King's Chamberlain on duty, Colo- nel Peyron, having refused his request, the man threatened the Colonel with a pistol; but the Chamberlain turned aside the weapon and got posses- sion of it. The assassin then fired another pistol at Count Von Rom, the Governor of the Palace' who had hastened with some men from the guard- house to arrest him. However, ho was seized without having wounded any one, and was immediately examined in the Police-office.

His name is Platen, and he was Quartermaster in the regiment of Dela- carlia-' he had been for a year in the Lunatic Asylum of Danviken, from which he was discharged as cured on the 20th of May 1845: he was them sent back to his relations, and had only-been two days in Stockholm. Clu being searched, he was found to have a large knife, a watch with a mete/ case, some printed placards In bad Swedish, white were-to proveshatide

proper name was the Duke of Bourbon, a bundle of papers but not a penny in money. On being questioned, he stated that it was his intention to de- mand the punishment of those who in the year 1844 had placed him in the Lunatic Asylum at Danviken. Being asked why he went armed, he said that a Duke of Bourbon never went unarmed. In less than an hour he seemed to have forgotten everything that had passed in the forenoon. The physicians pronounced him insane; and he was again sent back to the Lunatic Asylum.

Dawirs.an.—The States have rejected a motion for the abolition of sla- very in the Danish West India Colonies; but have agreed to an amendment, proposed by the Minister of Justice, for an inquiry into the state of the slaves, with a view to the adoption of any measures that may be deemed necessary'.

Gazzett—IOng Otho opened the Chambers at Athens on the 19th No- vember, with a right royal say-nothing speech. Coletti was dangerously M, with inflammation of the kidneys; and was advised by his physicians, as the only means of recovery, to retire altogether from political life.

WEST INDIES.—The Tay steamer brings news from Jamaica to the 8th of November. Meetings were held to consider the measures necessary in consequence of the passing of the Sugar-duties Act. At the St. George's meeting it was proposed to form a West India League, in imitation of the Anti-Corn-law League, to obtain compensation to the planters for the re- duction of the Sugar-duties. Complaints are made that Coolies are very costly labourers. Out of the 5,000 whose introduction was voted by the Assembly, only 1,200 had been applied for; consequently it was supposed that there would be no further annual grant for Coolie immigration.

In British Guiana, some excitement had been occasioned by a discovery that the Venezuelans had been enticing away the recently-imported Coo- lies. Being under no legal obligation to remain in the colony, it was not easy to prevent their departure. The question was under the considera- tion of the Government. The colony was suffering under two visitations: one a "mud flat" on the Arabian coast; and on the East coast an alarm- ing encroachment of the sea. In Trinidad, there had been much sickness among the Madeira immi- grants. The Governor had laid before the Legislative Council a circular despatch, dated 29th August, from the Secretary of State, stating the in- tentions of Government to facilitate in every possible way immigration from Africa to these colonies, and expressing a hope of being able to carry out some early and advantageous improvements in present arrangements. Naw ZEALAND.—Letters have been received from Wellington, by way of Valparaiso, up to the 4th August. 'rhe Governor, with all the dispos- able force at his command, was attacking the insurgent Natives in their strong-holds. The oil-fisheries had been very prosperous; there being suf- ficient produce to load three ships for England. Business was brisk, and the markets were well supplied from Sydney.