ItlistEllantous.

Lord John Russell, it seems, still assumes, and is allowed, the post of " leader of the Opposion ": he has issued the following ex-official circular summons to the Opposition Members-

" January 1843.

" Lord John Russell presents his compliments to —, and takes the liberty of informing him that questions of importance affecting the state of the country will be brought forward at the commencement of the session, which opens on Thursday 2d February."

Sir Robert Peel gave the first Cabinet dinner this season on Wednes- day, at his residence in Whitehall Gardens.

Amid all his public avocations, the Premier has found time to main- tain a controversy with the currency-men of Birmingham, repre- sented by the Chamber of Commerce of that town ; who publish the cor- respondence. It is carried on by memorials and letters in the name of the Chamber on the one side, and in letters from Sir Robert Peel, addressed to Mr. G. F. Muntz, M.P., and Mr. Richard Spooner. It began at the close of July last, with resolutions passed by the Chamber, and trans- mitted to the Minister, calling his attention to the depressed state of trade and the condition of the people ; and the Chamber soon hint that the establishment of a new paper-currency issued by the Government is the only remedy. Sir Robert at first seems to hold back from con- troversy; but the legislator of 1819 cannot resist the opening made for palpable hits, and he is soon in full tilt. The Chamber are voluminous in their essays : Sir Robert's replies are briefer, but comprehensive, frank, and very neat—aiming at essential points ; except that he is betrayed into a subordinate controversy as to what were the opinions of Locke, whom he recommends the Chamber to study. Sir Robert's last letter is dated 12th December 1842. In consenting to the pub- lication of the correspondence, he requests his antagonists to append to it a definition of the sense in which the word " pound" will be used in their inconvertible paper—what it will represent, to what it will be equivalent, and what it will imply ? The Chamber comply, with more good faith than success, by describing the peculiar kind of paper-currency which they recommend—issued by Government alone, a legal tender, receivable in payment of taxes, and limited to 20,000,000/., about the amount which they consider requisite for purposes of trade.

Major-General Sir Thomas Downman, C.B. and K.C.H., has been appointed Director-General of the Royal Artillery, in the room of the late Major-General Drummond.

The Colonel of the unfortunate Forty-fourth Regiment, General Browne, died at Weymouth on Thursday week, at the age of seventy- nine, having passed sixty-two years in the Army. He was present at the assault of Montevideo, and was wounded at Walcheren.

Our readers will be glad to learn that the health of Viscount Mel- bourne is quite reestablished, and that it is confidently stated by his friends be will forthwith resume his attention to public business. It has, however, been thought advisable, in order to perfect his recovery, that his Lordship should have the benefit of a few more weeks' country air before he resumes his attendance in the House of Lords.--Aforning Chronicle.

Woburn Abbey, the Duke of Bedford's seat, has been the scene of splendid festivities. The Duke of Sussex and Mr. Everett have been among the guests. The play of The Follies of a Night has been per- formed with great éclat ; Lord John Russell having written the prologue, and epilogue.

The Duke of Norfolk, whose health has for some time been bad, was stopped in town on his way to Windsor Castle, on Thursday, by serious indisposition ; and he was at once joined by the Dutchess. Admiral Sir George Cockburn, G.C.B , one of the Lords of the Ad- miralty, is labouring under severe indisposition, arising from having broken a blood-vessel in the neck, late on Thursday night. The answer to iuquiries last evening, at Sir George's official residence, was that his medical attendants did not consider him out of danger.

Lord Brougham has arrived in Paris from his château at Cannes ; and the Standard says that in a few days he will be in town. Mr. Charles Dickens has written a letter to the Editor of the Times to correct some misrepresentations by the writer of an article in the Edinburgh Review on his American Notes; the chief point being this- " He asserts, 'that if be be rightly informed, I went to America as a kind of missionary in the cause of international copyright.' 1 deny it wholly. He is wrongly informed; and reports, without inquiry, a piece of information which 1 could only characterize by using one of the shortest add strongest words in the language. Upon my honour the assertion is destitute of any par- ticle, aspect, or colouring of truth." The Globe describes a horsewhipping inflicted on Mr. John Abel ' Smith, M.P., in Belgrave Square, on Thursday morning, by Mr. Forbes M'Neil, of Finsbury Circus. The refusal of a challenge sent to Mr. Smith is said to be the reason for the unseemly proceeding.

The " hurricane" of Friday was felt all round the islands ; and, in fact, it appears to have extended, with remarkable violence over great part at least of Western Europe. The disasters at sea have been innumerable ; and in very many instances vessels have gone down with all on board. The coasts are strewed with wrecks.

One of the worst that has occurred is that of another East India- man on the coast of Boulogne. The Conqueror, a fine vessel of 800 tons, belonging to Mr. Richard Green, of the firm of Wigram and Green, bound from Calcutta to London, and commanded by Captain Duggan, after beating about in the Channel during the heavy gale on Friday night, was driven on shore about half-past ten o'clock, off Lionel, a small town on the French coast, six miles distant from Herlimont, (where the Reliance struck,) and almost immediately went to pieces ; and every soul on board was lost—seventy-eight persons, except Henry Abchurch, a boy, one of the cuddy-servants. The crew consisted of about forty-five seamen, exclusively of officers. There were sixteen *assengers on board—Mrs. Thompson and four children ; Mrs. J. Jenkins and four children ; Mrs. Johnstone, Miss Turton, Mr. Marshall, Lieutenant Marshall, Captain Milner, Master Blake, and Master Reeves. Major Johnstone died on the 19th October, at sea. Nine men of of the Ninety-first Regiment were on their way home from St. Helen's, as invalids. The Conqueror had arrived at Table Bay the 8th November ; and it sailed again on the 13th. As the vessel was passing up the Channel on the Thursday before the wreck, with a fair wind, the following letter was thrown into another vessel, which has since arrived in the Downs—

Off Torbay, Thursday. 12th January.

"Dear Father and Mother—With much pleasure I send my kind love to you, hoping that it will find you in good health. We have been very unlucky Ow our voyage home, and have lost several hands since we left India. Two young men were drowned before we left Calcutta, and four have died since. Dear mother, send to Kate and let her know that the ship has arrived. I hope I shall find you in good health. Give my kindest remembrance to all inquiring friends. I expect you will see me about Monday or Tuesday, if all goes well. Send to Mrs. Brown, and let her know her son is well, and hopes she is the same, as well as his brothers and sisters. So no more at present, from your affectionate son, GEORGE HARCOURT." "Me. Harcourt, Mill Wall, Poplar." Mrs. Thompson, the wife of a solicitor at Calcutta, had intended to land at Weymouth, t'ut was persuaded not to incur the inconvenience of going on shore in an open boat. Miss Turton, only eighteen years of age, was under the care of Mrs. Thompson ; and was the daughter of the eminent lawyer who accompanied Lord Durham to Canada.

About the same time and near the same spot, a Swedish vessel was wrecked, and all hands perished ; also an English fruit-vessel, with the whole of her crew. Three other vessels were wrecked, and the crew of one of them were drowned.

The American packet Samarang, of six hundred tons burden, was lost on the Goodwin Sands, in the night. Mr. Bearse, the master, and the crew, were saved by the Duke of York Ramsgate cutter, which put out to their assistance.

Several vessels were stranded at Plymouth and Devonport ; among them the Seawitch, with a cargo valued at 35,000L The Royal Adelaide, 120, which parted with one of her chain-cables and drove some distance, was brought up in safety. Few instances of loss were more unmerited than that of the Percy steamer, which left North Shields on Thursday night, to look out for vessels in distress. She was overtaken by the storm in the morning, pitched among the rocks, and became a total wreck. All the crew, however, saved themselves, except a boy who could not swim.

One of the most painful narratives, though not the most fatal, is that of the wreck of the ship Vernon, on the North Burbo bank, opposite to New Brighton : it is told by the Liverpool Albion- " The ill-fated vessel left this port for Glasgow on Friday morning, with a cargo of sugar, cotton, lead, and potash. After experiencirg dreadful weather the entire day, she lost her sails off the Ormshead. She then drifted about until she struck on the above bank, at four o'clock a.m. The crew immediately took to the rigging. The captain had been previously disabled by the jib-boom striking him on the left arm ; he, however, held on till eight o'clock a.m., and MSS then washed out of the rigging. Subsequently the mate and the cook were also washed out. The remaining poor fellows, five in number, held on, the sea washing over them, till they were rescued by the magazines' life-boat. They were all nearly in a lifeless condition. They were brought to the house of Mr. Roberts, at the magazines ; and attended by Dr. Dunlevy, who was on the spot waiting for them, and who, after the most persevering exertions for several hours, finally succeeded in restoring them all. They were in a most deplorable state, and greatly cut ani bruised. One poor fellow, when he lost all power of holding with his hands and arms, seized a rope between his teeth and held it with a death-like grasp, swinging backwards and forwards with the wiled. When the lifeboat just neared the vessel, he dropped backwards into the sea, but was caught with a boat-hook. There was scarcely a hope of his recovery for many hours; and then he became quite maniacal, fancying he was still in the shrouds, and kept cheering on his companions to 'hold on, they would soon be rescued.' The captain's name was Maclean ; the mate's, Dun- can Macdonald: they have each left a wife and family in Glasgow. The bodies of the captain and cook were found on Saturday, brought to town, and placed in the dead-house."

The most sweeping loss of life occurred on the coast of the county of Down, in Dundrum Bay, among the shipping-craft which belong to Newcastle, the well-known watering-place, and Annalong, a little fish- ing village near Kilkeel. The Newry Telegraph has the following ac- count from Annalong- " On Friday forenoon, several boats, said to contain been 100 and 200 per- sons, proceeded to the fishing-station, a few miles from land. Suddenly, and before preparation for the storm could be 'made, a tremendous gale from the W.N.W. was upon them. A few of the boats withstood the shock. The remainder were instantly swamped or overturned ; and, although many were rescued by the almost superhuman exertions of their gallant companions, of those on board the capsized boats no fewer than seventeen perished. The per- sons on the shore, observing the perilous situation of their friends and acquaint- ances on the deep, manned a boat and hastened to attempt a rescue. They had scarcely r.sched the scene of the calamity when their boat also went dowii, and every individual on board perished. Of the persons drowned ten were married men, all, we believe, with families ; others were the only or main sup- port of widowed mothers. In one or two instances large families have been de- prived of the brother on whose earnings they depended for maintenance. The neighbourhood is one scene of misery: In almost every cottage there is lamen- tation for the loss of one dear to its Inmates. There has been no such visita- tion here since the 10th of January 1814, when forty fishermen were lost at Annalong; on which occasion, as several of our readers will remember, the late Captain Chesney distinguished himself by saving the lives of many at the imminent risk of his own. " At Newcastle the loss of life has been even greater than at Annalong. There forty-seven fishermen perished, many of them with families, and several with widowed mothers or aunts entirely depending for support on those who have been so suddenly called away. Another East India trader, the Jessie Logan, of 850 tons burden, is among the disastrous list of vessels lost. She belonged to Mr. Logan, a Liverpool merchant— On Monday last, the vessel being on her homeward voyage, was beating op Channel, and apparently making for Tintagell or Bade Bays, on the Cornish coast, for which the N. W. wind would have been favourable but for its extreme violence ; but at length she became unmanageable, and was driven aground off Boacastle, about seventeen mites from Launceston. Blue lights and other signals of distress were made ; but such was the fury of the gale and the violence of the surf, that none would venture to her assistance, and at length she drifted on the rocks, and soon became a total wreck. She bad evidently been abandoned by the crew and passengers ; but, from the long-boat having been washed on shore, it is feared they have all perished, as no information has been obtained respecting them. She was a North American built vessel, termed in commercial parlance a Quebecker. Portions of the cargo, consisting of rum, sugar, spices, and general East India produce, were continually washed ashore, but no despatches or papers of any kind are known to have been recovered. By Wednesday it was reported in the City that forty vessels were known to have been lost during the late gales ; and we since see an account of the loss of twenty more On land, the fatal casualties do not appear to have been numerous ; though trees, tiles, chimney-pots, nod even roofs were torn from their sites. Liverpool probably witnessed some of the greatest violence of the wind, and several hundreds of families sat up all night, fearing for the safety of their dwellings. A strange accident happened in the Lon- don road of that town- " About half-past one o'clock, a stack of three chimnies fell upon the roof of the house of John Pace, an industrious journeyman organ-pipe-maker, and carried it through two floors into the cellar below. On the first floor, the occu- pant of the house, his wife, and a child, were in bed; and two children, who' had been brought from an upper apartment, on account of the roaring of the wind, were in the same room. All these were carried below with the falling ruins, and buried under the rubbish. The exterior of the house, with the ex- ception of the roof and chimnies, remained intact, so that no person looking at it could have supposed that so horrible a catastrophe had occurred. About four o'clock, as Inspector Morley of the Police was going his rounds, he heard when in the vicinity a moaning, and set himself to work to ascertain the cause. He soon discovered it, raised the alarm, and, with the assistance of Mr. C. B. Greatreux, surgeon, and other persons who were attracted to the spot, and rendered the moat active and useful service, broke upon the door. The awful misfortune that bad befallen the inmates of the house was then ex- posed to view. It being evident that some persons were alive under the rub- bish, the party immediately proceeded to remove it; and by half-past six the whole family were taken out alive, and found to have sustained only trifling injuries." The storm severely visited Bristol and its neighbourhood ; and the- Gothic windows of St. Michael's church, in the clock-tower, were torn out of the framework. At the West of England Stay Factory, the entire stack of chimnies was blown down, and, falling on the roof, dashed it in, and the whole mass forced its way through the ceiling of a room in which upwards of fifty girls were at work ; but, luckily, though hor- ribly alarmed, no one was seriously hurt. Much damage was done on the coast of France, and many persons were killed by lightning. The Journal de Coutances states that a whirlwind of extraordinary violence passed over part of the town on the 11th instant, and did considerable damage, taking away stones, slates, and tiles, and stripping several houses. A letter from Bourges, of the 13th, mentions that for five days a tempest had been raging in the neighbourhood, and had committed some ravages. From Brussels we learn that the wind blew with such violence on Friday morning that the railroad-train, which left Antwerp at half-past ten o'clock, was obliged to stop several times between Mechlin and Vilverde. The cover of the baggage-waggon was blown off and thrown under the wheels of the last carriage. The train was stopped in time to prevent much damage ; but the stoker was thrown into a ditch and severely hurt.

The very great depression which was observed in the barometer on Friday is exhibited in the following table, given by the Liverpool Albion—

STATE OP TUE BAROMETER AT LIVERPOOL AND HOLYHEAD.

At 3 o'olack p.m. At 8 o'clock a.m. At 8 o'clock a.m. Thursday. 14th Jan. Friday, 13th Jau. Saturday, 14th Jau.

Liverpool 28 9228.05 28.78

Holyhead 28.55 27.58 28.44 At Manchester the barometer stood at 6 p.m. on Thursday, at 29'71 inches ; at 11 p.m., 29.05 inches ; at 8 a.m. on Friday, 28.15 ; at 2 p.m., 28'02.

In alluding to the Spanish question, in the Bureaux of the French. Chamber of Deputies, on Wednesday, M. Duchatel declared that the relations between France and Spain continued on a becoming and friendly footing. The debate on Thursday, turned upon the right of search and the abrogation or maintenance of the treaties of 1831 and 1833 ; and the discussion was conducted with much heat. It is succinctly summed up by the Times- " M. Guizot and M. Duchatel nobly stood forward in defence of the treaties of 1831 and of 1833, and declared that they would execute them so long as the slave-trade should continue to exist, and that in furtherance of that resolve, they would renew the licences whenever they should expire. M. Cunha Gri- daine and Tests (Ministers of Commerce and of Public Works) were lest explicit, evincing a tendency to 'trim,' as our correspondence has it ; but M. Lacave Laplagne, actually Minister of Finance, (as he had been in the Minis- try of Count Mold,) stated, that on entering into the present Cabinet, he rad- 'misted ' that the treaty of 1841 should not be ratified, and added, that he, for• Booth, should not be sorry to see a paragraph introduced into the address ex- pressing a desire for the abrogation of tbe treaties of 1831 and 1833!

" M. Dupio, who was elected almost by unanimity a member of the committee, declared himself against the right of search, and was of opinion that a para- graph ought to be added to the address analogue to the arrangement on the subject concluded by Great Britain with the United State. Although eight out of nine of the members of the Committee on the address arc Ministerial, five of those nine have declared themselves against the maintenance of the treaties of 1831 and of 1833; so that we may expect that a paragraph in that sense will form part of the address."

Spanish affairs occupied much attention in Paris. The following paragraph, published in the Univers, was generally received as correct in most particulars, although apparently at variance with the declara- tion of M. Duchatel- " The explanations demanded by our Government from the Spanish Cabinet were much talked of last evening in the best-informed political circles. it was openly stated, that not only had the Spanish Government refused to make any reparation, but that its reply to the injunctions of France was couched in the moat offensive terms. The Ambassador of England, Lord Cowley, who does in Paris the business of Spain as well as that of his own country, alarmed by the violence of that despatch, and dreading the fracas which it was calculated to produce in and out of the Chambers, forbade M. Hernandez to present it to our Government ; undertaking, no doubt, to cause its tenour to be modified by the Regent, or to modify it himself. It is no longer M. Guizot, it is Lord Cowley that acta as mediator between France and the Duke of Victory." M. Lepelletier d'Aulnay, a Conservative, but not the Ministerial can- didate, was on Friday elected one of the four Vice-Presidents of the Chamber of Deputies, in place of General Jacqueminot, by 178 votes : M.Vivien, the Thiess candidate, having only 115. Ministers withdrew their own candidate to give M. Lepelletier d'Aulnay the better chance.

The sugar question was discussed in the bureaux on Tuesday, for the ninth time since 1832. M. Martin, many of whose constituents in the department du Nord are beet-sugar-growers, is adverse to the abolition of the home monopoly ; and the general impression is that it will not be carried into effect.

Some of the papers speak of the retirement of M. Lacave Laplague as a thing prearranged on his entering office, in anticipation of the time when he might be obliged to oppose Ministers on the treaties of 1831 and 1833.

Some attention has been drawn to a recent dispute between the King of Prussia and a young litterateur ; and the strange affair is thus told by the Times— "It seems that a young man, named George Herwegh, a native of Zurich in Switzerland, and consequently by birth a citizen of a republic, has acquired a good deal of celebrity in Germany as the author of certain political lyrics, which the interference of the police and the enthusiastic exaggeration of Liberal sentiments have raised into notice. This young gentleman had, we believe, been connected with the Leipsic Universal Gazette, although he re- sided at Berlin, and he was about to undertake the management of an Oppo- sition paper at Konigsberg. Both these journals are particularly obnoxious to the Prussian Government, as indeed they are the chief organs of the Democratic party; and they have since both been prohibited. In Berlin itself, no political journal of credit appears except the Stoats Zeitung, for every word of which the Government is responsible. Mr. Herwegh having thus attracted some attention as a poet and as a journalist, the King of Prussia the other day sent for him to the Palace. The conversation, as we are informed, (although no re- porter of the Times was present upon ;he occasion,) was on the part of his Majesty designed partly to conciliate, partly to intimidate the poet—half deprecatory, and half commanding. We have no doubt that it was kind, lively, affable, and a little high-flown. The effect of the Royal exhortation on the Democrat is variously reported; but it is said that a crowd of patriotic students awaited his return to his lodgings, to learn the result of the con- ference. The sequel will show that this result was not quite satisfactory. As the matter stood, however, Mr. Herwegh was allowed to acquire importance at

i

the King's expense. Within a very short time of this interview he proceeded to Konigsberg, to enter upon his functions as editor of the Opposition paper before-mentioned. But either the King or the Cabinet had by this time found out what sort of person they had to deal with, and therefore they added one imprudence to another by prohibiting the journal altogether. It is true, that the notice which his Majesty bad condescended to take of the editor would have insured to it a very extensive circulation. Upon ascertaining that this check had been put upon his literary labours, Mr. Herwegh sat down to write a letter to his Majesty, which we now lay before the public. It is not the least extraordinary part of this strange production, that after having been intended for the King's private meditation, •unter vice augen,' this epistle should have been after much discussion published in Germany. Mr. Herwegh states ex- pressly, that it was intended to be strictly private : it may be so, but in that case it is unlucky that he showed it. The public are slow to believe that men are in earnest as to a secrecy which they are themselves the first to violate; and will generally presume that the author's friends were guilty in this case of a gentle violence, a welcome treachery, which is sure to be pardoned. Be that as it may, one cannot read it without regret. The King has been be- trayed into placing himself in a false position. He is in the situation of a King who has exposed himself to receive a challenge; a situation out of which there is no honourable and dignified escape. The letter is as follows- .• Konigsberg. Dec. 1842. "'Your Majesty—" We will be honourable enemies " were the words which Prussia's Monarch lately addressed to me ; and these words give me a right, nay, impose on me the duty, with the same openness and sincerity with which I expressed my confidence in your Majesty, now to lay my complaint, my bitter complaint, before your throne, without affecting a devotion which I know not, or feelings which I do not and never shall experience. " We will be honourable enemies "; and on the same day on which your Majesty gra- ciously uttered these words, your Ministers were pleased to prohibit the circu- lation of a journal which I am about to edite, of which not one syllable has yet appeared under my redaction, and the circulation of which was permitted two months ago, before I undertook the editorship—to prohibit it solely on account of my name. That this name can sound so ill in the ears of your Majesty, I cannot, will not believe, after the expressions you used to me a few days ago. Your Majesty is, doubtless, uninformed of this transaction ; and the aim of this letter is to make you acquainted with this simple fact, in order that your Ma• jesty may further decide what is right. I do not ask for the revocation of the prohibition; for I know that my limited comprehension of the duties and ad- vantages of subservience, my consciousness of a new sera, must be for ever at variance with the antiquated views and government routine of most German Ministers; whose right of opposition I should readily admit, would they but generally take notice of what is passing around them—passing in the depths of human nature, instead of fighting with a little froth and wind that play upon its surface. If these Ministers were capable of discovering the elements of a new religion, and not merely of scenting out petulance, mischievousness, and licentiousness—in short, if these Ministers, over and above the accident of their birth, and of their often valuable administrative and political talents, also pos- seseed the talent and the good-will to enter into an honourable contest with their enemies, instead of first superciliously ignoring them, and then, withoat knowing them, treating them with reckless harshness, and thus deceiving priuc and people, while they talk of tranquillizing the public mind, which, in foci and practice, is not effected, and which never can be effected by external com- pulsory means '— (" The author seems here to have forgotten what he intended 'ministers ca- pable of discovering the elements of a new religion ' to do ; and his sentence has lost, in clouds of parentheses, all consciousness of its latter end. He con- tinues—] " 'But there are men who are not to be frightened, (and I count myself among them); men who will cry out their souls till right and justice be done in the world, with so much the greater confidence as even the enemies of pro- gress no longer possess, the courage to use violence, because they see how dan- gerous are martyrs, and how, for one man whom they succeed in crushing, twenty spring, full-armed, out of the earth. " do not ask for the revocation of the prohibition, however painful it is to see the child of one's muse threatened in its mother's womb—to live as an in- dividual in eternal collision with a whole principle of state. I do not ask for a recall of the prohibition; for 1 am no author by profession, and seek to obtain no material advantages from that which I say, because I must say it. But even the material prosperity and the circulation of a journal are not put an end to by a prohibition. Prohibited books fly through the air; and what the people desires to read it will read, in spite of all prohibitions. Your Majesty prohibited my poems a year and a quarter ago; and 1 am at this moment so fortunate as to be correcting the fifth edition. Your Majesty's Ministers have ordered their confiscation as dangerous books; and I have convinced myself through my whole journey that these books are in everybody's hands. I do not ask for the recall of the prohibition, for I can ask nothing in a country which I intend to quit. I am by the necessity of my nature a Republican, and at this moment citizen of a republic. I can no longer, without wantonly con- demning myself to everlasting hypocrisy, live iu states where even the censor- ship has ceased to be a truth, as is sufficiently proved by the confiscation of books which had already passed through the Censor's hands. But my heart was oppressed by the necessity of addressing to your Majesty these last, honest, though perhaps vehement words. They are directed, not against princes, but against their servants; they are strictly between ourselves; but they are not only mine—they are the words of thousands ; they are uttered in the full and sacred zeal and confidence of my soul to your Majesty, and your Majesty will estimate and respect them accordingly. " With the profoundest respect, your Majesty's most devoted,

.. GEORG E HERWEGH.'

" The sequel is, that Mr. George Herwegh has been sentenced to perpetual banishment from the Prusdan dominions ; and if he continues his correspond- ence with the King, it must be from a distance."

M. Herwegh has found an asylum in Zurich ; where the students gave him a cordial welcome.

The Morning Chronicle describes a new Anti-British German paper- " A new weekly paper has just been established iu the South of Germany under the title of Des Zollvereinsblati, (the Customs-Union Journal,) with the avowed object of preaching a commercial warfare against England. It is edited by the well-known German-American List, who has been for some time en- gaged in stirring up a hostile spirit against this country through the medium of the German press ; and the new periodical is published by the celebrated Baron Cotta, the wealthy proprietor of the Augsburg Gazette; and all the re- sources of the publisher, it seems, are to be put in force to push the political bantling into as wide a circulation as possible. • • • The object which Mr. List ostensibly proposes to himself is nothing less than the establishment of a commercial union between the nations of Europe and America ; a union from which England is to be carefully excluded, but which between the nations forming the said union is to encourage the most active international commerce. This, we say, is Mr. List's ' ostensible' object ; but it is one which he is far tco shrewd to look upon as practicable. His real object is to excite in Ger- many a strong desire for the establishment of a. more hostile tariff than at pre- sent exists against the products of British industry, and thus to secure to the manufacturers of Southern and Western Germany a more complete monopoly of the home-market than they yet possess."

The Frankfort Journal of the 9th instant states, that the Emperor of Russia, by an ukase dated the 14th December, has modified the Russian Tariff, so as to facilitate the importation of linen, cotton, and woollen cloths and silk-mercery. The Suabian Mercury of the 13th instant states that the Emperor of Russia had addressed a note to the other Great Powers, in which he formally declared himself ready to act in concert with them in arrais- ging the affairs of Servia.

The Morning Chronicle had a paper yesterday which tended to con- firm our surmise that Russia did not really feel that interest in re- versing the late Servian revolution which she affected. Alexander Georgiwicz, the present ruler and son of Czeruy George, resided for many years in Russia, has been a Russian pensioner, and his " sole merit consists in being a stanch partisan of Russia." This view is strengthened by the quiescence of Russia on the one hand, and on the other by the uneasiness which Austria displays. " We learn upon good authority," says the Chronicle, " that since the late troubles in Servia, the Austrian Government has been occupied in concentrating two armies on its frontiers, the one in Transylvania, the other in Sirmia." The Augsburg Gazette of the 14th instant announces, that on the afternoon of the 2d, M. Bibesco had been elected Hospodar of Wal- lachia by the General Asssembly of the States. The new functionary is said to be in the interest of Russia; but it must not be forgotten that that is an extremely general assertion with the Continental papers.

From Barcelona, the latest date is the 13th instant. The Constitu- tional of the 7th published the following peremptory order by General Seoane- " Barcelona, 5th January. " The Captain-General of the Second District and General-in-Chief of the Army of Catalonia informs the Constitutional Ayuntamiento, that he has re- ceived a list, comprising the names of only seven persons, who have come to pay their quota of the contribution of 6,000,000 seals. This result proves two things,—first, the constant practice of the city to despise and refuse to execute, since 1834, the decrees issued by the Cortes and the Government; second, the bad grace with which the Ayuntamiento enforces the execution of the said de- crees. Faithful to my mission, I order you to publish, early tomorrow morning, a bando, directing that, within a delay of five days, each tax-payer shall deposite his quota of the contribution in the municipal chest. Should this order not be obeyed within the given time, a number of soldiers shall be billeted on each defaulter, whom he shall be compelled to provide for, at an expense progres- sively increasing in proportion to the delay; and if that measure should prove inefficient, I will recur to others more energetic, and will take steps against the members of the Municipality themselves, should they continue to evince ill- will and persevere in their passive resistance."

The Ayuntamiento replied, that it would not discuss the charges adduced against it in the General's despatch, which it was far from ad- mitting; and merely announced that it has complied with his order, and issued a bando requiring proprietors of land and house-property to pay 40 per cent on the income of such property by the 10th. The order had created a ferment in the place ; and the payers came forward very slowly, only twenty-seven appearing on the 8th. Private letters from Barcelona, of the 13th, announce that the Cap- tain-General had extended to the 16th the period for the payment of the extraordinary contribution.

The Memorial Bordelais of the 15th publishes the official return of the casualties at Barcelona during the bombardment; from which it appears that seven men and a woman were killed, and nineteen men and six women wounded.

The Britannia mail-steamer, which left Boston on the 1st, Halifax on the 3d instant, arrived at Liverpool on Sunday night ; having en- countered very rough weather on the passage. It brings intelligence from New York to the 31st of December.

The political news is not of great importance. The President had been called upon by the Senate to state whether Lord Ashburton opened, or attempted to open, a negotiation on the subject of the United States assuming the State debts ; and also to give such information, not incompatible with the public interest, as he was in possession of through Lord Ashburton or otherwise as to the present state of the Oregon ques- tion. To the first question the President replied, that Lord Ashburton did not at any time allude to the State debts, or make any suggestion in relation to them. In reference to the Oregon territory, he stated that he had no communication to snake at present ; but added, that he had taken the necessary steps to promote a good understanding on the sub- ject with the Government of Great Britain. There was no marked change in the state of money matters. A fair extent of business had been done in exchanges for the Britannia ; prices were not, however, firm : the rate on London was 54 to 6 premium; on Paris, 5.43 to 5.45.

The affair of the Somers brig was under investigation by a Naval Court of Inquiry consisting of three of the oldest Commodores in the Navy, Stewart, Dallas, and Jones, and the Honourable Ogden Hoffman, the Judge-Advocate.

The latest date from Quebec and Montreal, in Canada, is 26th Decem- ber. The reports respecting Sir Charles Bagot's health are fluctuating and contradictory. It is said that on the 15th he was in so much danger that be was not expected to recover. The Montreal Gazette of the 22d speaks thus of' the information about him-

" Hitherto, it has been most unsatisfactory ; every letter we have received only pointing more distinctly than its predecessor to the probability of a speedy and fatal termination to his Excellency's illness. Today, however, we have better and more cheering news to communicate. On private authority, which we think worthy of the highest credit, we are enabled to announce that a fa- vourable change has taken place in the state of his Excellency's health; and though, from the character of the complicated diseases with which be has been afflicted, it is not likely that he will be soon restored to his ordinary condition, yet that no immediate danger is now apprehended."

This is strengthened by the following paragraph from the Kingston Chronicle of the 21st, which may be regarded as the latest statement on the subject in the newspapers-

" It is with feelings of heartfelt pleasure we announce to our readers that the health of his Excellency the Governor-General has much improved for the last two days: the disease seems to have taken a favourable turn, and there are now good hopes of his ultimate recovery."

The Quebec Gazette mentions a report that the Government would speedily remove to Montreal or Quebec. The Montreal Times im- proves the arguments offered by the state of the Governor-General's health to plead for his removal from Kingston.

Addresses had been forwarded to Sir Charles Bagot from a number of places in Lower Canada, expressing a grateful approval of his policy and regret at his illness; among other places, from the citizens of Que- bec, from the St. Jean-Baptiste Society of that place, from the counties of Portneuf and Saguenay, the District Councils of Berthier, St. Hyacinthe, and Kamoaraska, and the parish of St. Nicholas in the dis- trict of Dorchester. Prayers had been offered for the restoration of his health in a number of Roman Catholic parish-churches throughout the country, and by the Presbyterians of Montreal.

The attempt to revive the Constitutional Association of Toronto, as an Ultra-British organ of opposition to the Governor-General, had proved a complete failure.

The Montreal Minerve, referring to a paragraph in the Quebec Gazette of the 19th, relating to Mr. Papineau, states that he intends to return to the United States next spring. This we have understood for some time past to have been his intention ; the medical education, at Paris, of one of his sons, being to be completed at that time.—Quebec Gazette.

In the outward voyage of the Britannia, the commander, Captain Hewitt, had a very narrow escape. During the worst of a heavy gale, a sea struck the vessel, and he was washed overboard ; but, *sizing a rope, he was most mitaculonsly saved.

The last number of the Colonial Gazette contains a document which adds to the information that we borrowed last week concerning the mismanagement of Captain Hobson, the Governor of New Zealand : it is a letter addressed to Lord Stanley, and delivered open to Captain Hobson for transmission, by Mr. Dudley Sinclair, a settler at Auck- land, and son of Sir George Sinclair, the late Member for Caithness. He makes a series of charges against the Governor, which it would take more room than we can spare to enumerate in detail. Officers of the Government had been allowed to, make unfair selections of land, for their own benefit. The surveys had been improperly conducted, at enormous expense. Mr. Vernon Smith, in a letter to Mr. Somes, having stated that at least 50 per cent of the proceeds of land-sales should be applied towards the introduction of emigrants, the Govern- ment at Auckland had received 40,0001. for lands purchased on the faith of that assurance; but all the money has been applied to other purposes. The Government expenditure has been most extrava- gant: the Government had received in two years nearly 130,000/.

and spent nearly the whole, and bad already saddled the colony, with a debt of 68,0001. In New Zealand, the estimated annual ex- penditure is 56,000/. ; in South Australia, with a population of 15,000, double that of New Zealand the estimated annual expenditure for 1842 was 34,0001. One striking ingredient in the New Zea- land expenditure is the lavish nature of the salaries and appoint- ments : for instance, in South Australia the Governor's salary is 8001., his "establishment" costs 3001.; in New Zealand, the Governor's salary is 1,2001., " establishment " 1,2791. ; in South Australia, six- teen of the principal departments cost 13,000/.; in New Zealand 26,0001., A " Registrar of Deeds" was appointed at Auckland : he had no deeds to register. Mr. Sinclair demands the recall of Captain Hobson, and mentions that a large proportion of the inhabitants of his own pet and forced settlement of Auckland had petitioned to the same effect. From introductory remarks which precede Mr. Dudley Sinclair's let- ter, we learn that one object of the profuse expenditure was to draw settlers to Auckland : some had arrived, to the gross number of 2,000; but as there had been no emigration direct to Auckland, this number had been obtained principally by uncolonizing, to that extent, the other set- tlements in the islands ; which themselves, as the seat of the greatest commercial activity and customs-receipts, furnished the bulk of the very money that Governor Hobson spent at Auckland to their injury. Still, Auckland does not succeed ; and, after abusing and injuring the Colonizing Company, the Governor applies to them for assistance! The New Zealand Company of course decline. It is anticipated that some Parliamentary aid will be rendered necessary by the Governor's waste- ful expenditure.

The following extract of a private letter from Nelson, in New Zea- land, dated 9th June 1842, by a settler for whose trustworthiness we can vouch implicitly, gives a favourable view of that settlement, if it were unimpeded and uninjured by its Governmeut !—

" We are doing here almost without a Government: we never hear of it, except in some police case, or something of the sort : there have been four un- fortunate sailors in the gaol for the last three months, and that's all. Officials with large salaries will be looked at very slyly whenever they arrive. We re- quire about 100 to make our 2,000, and so entitle us to a corporation: we shall have them early in spring. " We have a very good set of settlers ; the generality very liberal, and malty- with active inclinations to ameliorate the state of society, and to remove those stupid distinctions of classes which render the community so factitious in Europe. Among them there is a more than usual proportion of well-informed talent. With respect to the place, I consider the climate delightful; the scenery is beautiful ; and I believe the country will turn out productive both as grazing and arable: it abounds in coal and limestone ; and we have a very fair specimen,just opened, of a sandstone quarry : that there are minerals, I think is most likely, and it is the opinion of several geologists. Que voulez- vous de plus f —notbing.but to be left perfectly alone, and receive a fair increase of population monthly, in due proportion between capitalists and labourers. The cordial cooperation of Government in settling the titles would tend to advance us still more rapidly ; otherwise we do not want its aid. " Many are talking of farming: I hope it will not be all talk, and that we shall have some produce in the forthcoming season. I want to see some of our own food in the market ; instead of which, we are almost beginning to manufacture. I saw a better chair for sale today, made in the colony, than any which have emne to it for sale. There are all sorts of wood for furniture, and shortly that will become an occupation cf profit : the freight is so high and risk so great on furniture, that the making it on the spot repays in spite of the price of wages."

We yesterday received a letter from Colonel Edward Nicolls, nar- rating the kidnapping and sale into slavery of a British subject on the coast of Africa ; but the letter is of a length which makes it impossible for us to give it insertion so late in the week. William Thomas, a Liberated African, served under Colonel Nicolls at Fernando Po, with much credit ; and on the breaking up of the establishment on that island in 1834, he was sent to Sierra Leone, in the South quarter of which colony be settled as a trader. He was seized by the agent of a slave-dealer, Pedro Blanco, and sold to a slave-trader, who conveyed him to Cuba, and disposed of him to a planter. He encountered a British subject, who advised him to apply to the British Consul: he did so, and was liberated; and he lately worked his way here in one of the West India mail-steamers. Applying at the office of the Anti- Slavery Society for relief, he met Colonel Nicolls, whom he recognized as his old commanding-officer.