15 FEBRUARY 1845, Page 7

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Fitatans—On Tuesday, AL Duchatel introduced the Secret-service-money Bill; ■ and distinctly stated that Ministers would take the vote as one of confidence,- decisive of their continuance in office.

On the same day, Marshal Scutt, at the earnest remest of M. Villemainl with- drew the bill for granting a pension of 15,000 francs a year to that Ex-Minister of • Public Instruction and his family.

M. De St. Priest proposed, in tire Chamber of Deputies, that, after the Lat • January 1846, the postage on letters in France should be fixed at the uniform. rates of four or six sons, according to two rates of distance. The Chamber voted on the entire plan on Saturday; when there appeared 170 on each side, and the President declared the propo.sition rejected. Two armed iron steamers, the Australie of 160-tense power, and the Pin min of 70, are fitting out at Bordeaux, for Oceania; and the transport corvette about to be launched at Rochefort, is to be equipped for a three-years voyage circumnavigation. A desperado named Funnier, the chief of a band called les escarpes (night murderers)lately brought to justice in Paris, was guillotined on Saturday last

CHANNEL ISLANDS.—The decision of the Court Of Queens Bench in .sir: Carus Wilson's case has excited great interest in Jersey. The States met, and, after a stormy debate with closed doors, resolved that the writ of habeas carpi*. should be obeyed under protest. Mr. Wilson left Jersey on Friday.

[Mr. Carus Wilson was brought, uP in the Court of Queen's Bench on Thurs- day, and the case was ordered to stand over till the 22d April; Mr. Kelly having abandoned it, and Mr. Roebuck, the new counsel, being unprepared to proceed. In the mean time, Mr. Wilson, rather against his will, was discharged on his own recognizances.] In Guernsey, a new dispute has arisen. Sir William Collings, a Jurat, has brought an action against Sir William Napier for a letter which is characterized as "intemperate"; but the Lieutenant Governor refuses to plead before the Royal Court.

SPAIN.—The debates in the Chamber of Deputies on the bill for penally sup- pressing the slave-trade, were interrupted, on the 3d instant, by a strange incident. At a ball recently given by General Narvaez, plate was missed; and a watch was set. At the next ball, one of the guests was seen secreting some valuable article& This person, who turned out to be Senor Quintanilla y Montoya, a person of gad' family and fortune and the Deputy fur Seville, was immediately taken mt.. custody and searched, and the plate was found upon his person. A secret sitting of the Chamber a-as accordingly held on the 3d, at which the whole of the facts_ ofthe case were set forth; and a letter was read from Senor Quintartilla himself,, in which, while he admitted unaccountably having the plate in his possession, he. said that he was utterly incapable of taking it from the unworthy motives attri- buted to him. A long discussion ensued, in which some of Senor Quintanilla's. friends endeavoured to make out the whole afthir was the effect of mental aliens, lion, or a morbid itch for appropriation: but the Chamber took a different view of the ease, and, by a majority of 105 to 18, it decreed that Senor Quiutanilla y Montoya should be forthwith expelled. It has been stated in Madrid, that. the British Government have given satisfac- tion for the insult offered to the Spanish flag at Gibraltar, where a small armed- vessel was fired at, by superseding the officer m command of the battery.

TURKEY. —A letter dated at Constantinople on the 15th of January recites a hatti-sherif addressed by the Sultan to the Grand Vizier, calling upon the Minis- ters to take steps for some reforms fbr the " amelioration " of the empire; which. are thus alluded to. " To attain this end, it is indispensable that they shotild, commence with the destruction of ignorance, that reproach of society, which re- ligion and reason equally condemn. In order to diffuse light, and to dissipate the darkness of ignorance and to spread the sciences, you must first found schools in all parts of the empire where they shall be considered necessary, and take all proper measures for the development of public instruction. I have also the in- tention of establishing in Constaritinopie a vast hospital, in which the poor and the sick of all classes of my subjects May find an asylum and proper care. Let my Ministers then take the necessary measures, and point out the useful esta- blishments which are most needed in all parts of the empire. Let them from time to time address to me reports on these diffieent subjects; and, with the aid of Divine Providence, all the necessary reforms will be easily executed." UNITED SravEs.—The mail-steamer Cambria. which left Boston on the 2d instant, and Halifax on the 4th, arrived at Liverpool on 'Thursday morning. The political news is not unimportant. The House of Representatives had adopted, by 120 to 98, a "joint resolution " for the annexation of Texas; but its fate in the Senate was doubtful. A bill was under the consideration of the House to establish a territorial government in Oregon—not such provisional regulation as the British have for that territory, but a real government, with an electoral ma- chinery. Some of the speakers in support of the project were very bold in defy- ing war with Great Britain; which they spoke of as more probable on this ques- tion than on that of Texas. The bill providing for the election of President and Vice-President on an uniform day throughout the Union had received the

at Naples; an appointment considered to indicate a secret understanding between President Tyler and his successor.

The affair of Mr. Hoar, the Commissioner from Massachusetts, who bad been ex- pelled from South Carolina, whither he had gone to inquire into the detention of some Blacks who were citizens of his own State, continued to attract attention. The Legislature of South Carolina had passed an act to provide for the punish- ment of persons disturbing the peace of the State; and another act, amending the act relative to free Coloured persons, so as to prohibit the operation of the habeas

in their behalf. In the Legislature of Maryland a resolution had been in- aced declaring Mr. Hoar's mission to be " an unjustifiable interference with the domestic concerns of that State, and an evidence of an unfriendly feeling towards the institutions of the Southern portion of the confederacy." They were referred to the Committee on Federal Relations, and will most probably be adopted. The Governor of Massachusetts, in a special message, has laid all the

s in Mr. Hoar's case before the Legislature of that State. The matter

been referred to a Committee.

It is reported that " Pennsylvania will almost certainly be unable to pay her February interest."

The New York Herald makes this alarmist statement. "The recent move- ments in the commercial world, both in Europe and America—the fall in the price

of cotton, the vacillations in the position of the banks, and the currents and counter-currents in operation—present every indication to the philosopher and the statesman that a storm is approaching in the commercial world: partial, perhaps, it may be, but springing from the same causes and producing similar results as the great revulsions of 1837, 1839, and 1841." The causes for the anticipated troubles are made out thus. In 1842, a number of English and Frenchapeculators exported a great deal of specie into the United States; which gave a powerful impulse to trade, and raised lances considerably. The American merchants threw themselves into the vortex of speculation, and a vast importation of foreign goods took place. The surplus revenue gave an additional stimulus to the renewed ac- tivity. "liming the last nine months a reaction has commenced": the price of cotton has fallen; a balance of twenty or thirty millions of dollars is due to foreign countries; and there will be a great pressure on the money-market.

Mr.xico.—Intelligence direct from Vera Cruz, of the 31st December, repre- sents Santa Anna as marching, with an army daily lessened by desertion, on that town; which was prepared to resist his entrance; Paredes following in his rear. Accounts had been received in New Orleans, professing to have reports of Santa Anna's movements to the 9th January; and according to them, he had had a des- perate engagement with Paredes, had been defeated, captured, and shot: but they obtain little belief.

CAPE OF GOOD HOPE.—Accounts from Cape Town to the 20th December represent the Boers at Natal as again growing contumacious. The Volksraed had refused to take the oath of allegiance; and the Anglo-Dutch settlers once more threatened to move into the interior. Smellekamp, the former supercargo of the Dutch ship Brasilia, is suspected to be at the bottom of the new revolt. Major Smith still commanded the troops at Natal.

Tearer.—Intelligence has been received from Tahiti, by way of Valparaiso, to the 15th September. The French Admiral Hamelin had arrived at Valparaiso, on board the Virginie, and was about to sail to Tahiti, it was said, with presents for Queen Pomare and probably with the intention of restoring her. The Natives at Tahiti still continued their resistance, and had reduced the people at Papeite to oreat straits for nrovisione, which were abundant elsewhere. The French had escalated report; that the officers of the British war-ship Thalia were getting up protests among the Natives, to be sent to England. The Oceanic Francaise, the local Government journal, gives a long account of a fete given by a Tahitian chief in Papeite, at which the writer declares that the British Consul, Mr. Miller, was present The correspondent of the iforning Chronicle, however, states that Mr. Killer was not present.

SOUTH Atisramra.—The accounts from Adelaide, to the 6th October, bring intelligence of the massacre of an over-land party by the Natives. The victims, it is understood, to the number of fifteen out of a company of twenty, were MTH dared while asleep.; and their flocks were dispersed in different directions. Des- patches on the subject had been received from Captain Sturt; who had set out on an exploring expedition up the Murray, and then Westward to the North of Lake Torrens. lie and his companions were quite safe; and he proposed to proceed to investigate the matter on the spot where the catastrophe is alleged to have taken place. The circumstances related by some Natives who had come into town agreed in every substantial particular with those asserted by Captain Sttut. The Governor had sent off a force to join the Captain, and, if necessary, to protect him and his followers in making the proposed inquiry.

Csirs.s.—The Times has now its " own correspondent" regularly established at the town of Victoria in Hong-kong; and that writer makes some very in- teresting but by no means encouraging remarks on the state and prospects of trade. It is to be feared, he says, that much delusion has existed in England on the subject. " Although, ultimately, a new market may be found for English manufactures by the opening of additional ports, and the removal of many re- strictions and charges, yet, in fact, China had previously, through Canton, taken all our goods for which there was any demand. Before we can hope for any im- portant increase of that demand, there must be time to create among the Chinese a greater desire for our manufactures—a new order of wants; and until this is effected, this prudent people, who have but little superfluous to dispose of, will hardly expend that little upon goods which they neither appreciate nor admire, simply because they are offered for sale at five ports on the coast instead of one." " It may be well for our mercantile community at home to pause before they take it for granted that there are 300,000,000 people all ready to receive what we are ready to part with. Let them add two other considerations,—first, to introduce new goods, our merchants must be prepared to take moreChinese products in barter; for, if the Chinese enter into a cash trade for opium, we may be assured they will do so for no other product. China is most unfortunately deficient in exports; and the only obvious means, therefore, of suddenly enlarging the market, 118 to take more tea: and towards this consummation, howeveir devoutly desired, the first step must be a reduction of the duty on tea at home from 220 per cent, the present rate, to something like cent per cent, or la. per pound instead of 2s. nd. Otherwise, increased imports of tea beyond the craw:option only lead to a fall in the price, which does not leave a sufficient margin for the profit of the importer, or indeed secure him from ruinous loss Inch as no prudent merchant would risk. The second point referred to consists in the facility with which, in piece-goods and in other important articles of commerc, the Americans can undersell us: in lead they have nearly driven the English out of the market; in cotton goods and `domestics,' they sell at a rate which will scarcely remunerate the English manufacturer. Trade is at present, and has hitherto been, heavy in everything but opium." The tea-trade has opened inauspiciously. It has been the custom at Canton for the first sales of each sea- son to regulate prices: while the merchants were a limited body, they settled prices deliberately; under the new order of things, brokers have risen up, with no interest beyond their commission; they have not scrupled to purchase teas at any price; prices have therefore begun at a high rate, sales have been checked, some of the finest qualities alone having been sold, and the great mass of the tea left in the hands of the native merchants, to their great disgust. " They cannot,

or will not, understand the new order of Lings, and the necessity for departing from the custom which insisted that the upset price of the first sales should re- gulate the remainder. The tea-men at Canton have lately issued a truly emus-

hig remonstrance on this subject, addressed to the foreign merchants—' How could we know' exclaims the Wooe merchant of the central flowery land, that all you

honourable merchants should change your former way, and become crafty, capri- cious, merely choosing a few teas of chops of the most superior Woo-mng teas, and forthwith desisting, (from purchasing,) causing people to feel the most anxious and painful suspense—the misery of those who look to the corner of the wall and sigh after painted prunes.' However unpalatable the task, the Chinese tea-men, we apprehend, will have to learn that the old custom must be changed, and that much greater reductions than have ever entered into their calculations must be made before they can sell this year's products. The large stock which was re- ceived in England last year, to make way for the exchange of our goods on an in- creased scale, has led to a proportionate diminution of the prices of tea at home; and at the present rate of prices at Canton, no one can purchase without almost certainty ofloss."

According to the Rime de Paris, the followin" are the heads of the treaty con- cluded by M. De Lagrone° with the Chinese Commissioners at Macao, on the

24th October last. 1. France is to be placed on a footing of equality with the most favoured nations as respects customs-duties. 2. She is never to be sub-

Ected to the payment of any periodical tribute to the Sovereign of the Celestial Empire. 8. She may establish a factory at Canton, on the plan of those possessed by the English, Dutch, Danes, Swedes, and Spaniards. 4. She will be permitted to trade at Tehang-Tcheou; reserving the right of the Crown of Spain, which en- joys a privilege in that city. 5. She may establish factories at Iliamen, Tchao-

, and Ningpo. 6. Finally, she will have the right of trading in every place that may hereafter be opened to the most favoured nations." The cause of the disputes between Governor Davis at Hong-kong and his sub- jects was an edict for the registration of all the inhabitants, with a vim' to the deportation of bad characters. The Chinese shopkeepers and workmen all ab- stained from business, and there was some rioting among the Natives. In a no- tification, Mr. Davis intimated suspicions that the Chinese had been instigated by British subjects; which caused much irritation among his countrymen. Eventually,. the unpopular edict was withdrawn.

A private letter, dated at Batavia on the 25th October, and published in the Han&lsblad of the 8th instant, states that dreadful ravages had been caused by inundation in the North of China and in the environs of Canton. Thou- sands and thousands of the inhabitants have perished, and the damage done is incalculable. The Mandarins do their utmost to conceal the particulars, fearing- that if it come to the knowledge of the Emperor they may be made responsible for the giving way of the dikes. In the provinces on the shore of the Yellow Sea, the population, amounting to sixteen or seventeen millions, have lost almost all' they possessed. The survivors, with their families, have dispersed over China as beggars. The high price of rice is an additional cause of distress.

INDIA.—Colonel Outran, the late Political Agent at lOwlapore, had been sent to aid in pacifying the disturbed state of Sawunt Warree. Lieutenant-Colonel George Weyland Moseley, C.B., of the Second Regiment of Bengal European Infantry, had been tried at Sukkur, on various charges; the gist of which was, that a mutiny had broken out in his regiment, and that he had not only failed to report it but had resorted to falsehood to conceal it. He was sentenced to be cashiered. This sentence was generally approved; although the fate of an officer of thirty-nine years standing was universally compassionated.