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UNITED Stmts.—The Hibernia, royal mail-steamer, arrived at Li- verpool on Sunday, with accounts from New York to the 15th June. The most important intelligence is, that the Oregon dispute had been amicably settled • the President having accepted the convention submitted by Mr. Pakenham on behalf of the British Government.
On the 10th June, the President communicated the terms offered by the British Government to the Senate ; but as the debate which followed was conducted with closed doors, little beyond the result is known. The discussion lasted till the evening of the 12th ; when, by a majority of 38 to 12, the Senate advised the President to accept the terms offered ; and the President lost no time in acting on the advice. At the departure of the Hibernia, the conditions were only guessed at by parties out of doors, no official announcement having been made on the subject. By a reference, however, to the proceedings which took ,place in the House of Commons-on Monday, our-readers will find the leading provisions of the convention, in the full report of Sir Robert Peel's speech.
The news that the question had been amicably settled, was immediately transmitted by the magnetid telegraph to New York; where it had a very favourable influence on all descriptions of business. The vessels in the harbour hoisted their flags, and there was a general exchange of congra- tulations throughout the city.
The Select Committee appointed, upon the motion of Mr. Ingersoll, to investigate the conduct of Mr. Webster, had made its report, and entirely exculpated him.
By the last accounts from the Rio Grande, General Taylor remained at Matamoras. Of his intentions nothing was known with certainty; but the belief was that the city of Monterey, in the department of New Leon, would be the next object of attack and capture. Volunteers were offering them- selves freely in the Southern and South-western States. Among them are the " Press Guards" of Philadelphia; a company of sixty journeymen printers, under the command of a correspondent of one of the leading papers. The second son of Daniel Webster is enrolling a company of Vo- lunteers in Boston. Robert Tyler, the son of the late President of the United States, has formed a company of "Irish Repealers " for the same service.
The war expenses, it is stated, cost the Government half a million of dollars a day.
Cariana..—The Provincial Parliament was prorogued on the 9th June to the 18th July. The' speech of the Governor-General was complimen- tary, especially to the " loyalty " of the Members and their countrymen. The several branches of the Legislature, he says, have worked well to- gether. He alludes but obscurely to the Free-trade measures at home; exhorting the Canadians to meet an unfavourable aspect of affairs by re- newed exertions to develop the resources of their noble province. On the day of the prorogation, Mr. Duggan moved a resolution, in the House of Assembly, denouncing some statements made in the House of Commons by Mr. Roebuck on the 15th May, ridiculing the patriotism of the Solicitor-General for Canada, and stating that the Orangemen and pe- culating Irishmen were the parties who threatened England with the an- nexation of Canada to the United States. Mr. Duggan's resolution de- scribed the strictures as "a gross act of injustice, and an unmitigated libel upon the colonists; all classes of whom, without distinction of party, creed, or country, are most devotedly attached to their Sovereign, and to British institutions, and are prepared to maintain British connexion with their fortunes and their lives." After some discussion, however, the resolution was withdrawn.
NEWFOUNDLAND.—Intelligence has arrived this week of the destruction by fire of the greater part of the chief town, St. John's. This great disaster, of which the following particulars are collected from various sources, oc- curred on Tuesday morning the 9th June. The fire broke out in a house, the lower part of which was occupied by a cabinet- maker; and the flames rapidly spread along a street composed of wooden buildings, eventually sweeping away two-thirds of the town, and every commercial establish- ment except that of Messrs. Newman and Company. The Morning Courier gives this summary--" The fire commenced at about half-past eight in the morning, and about seven in the evening the work of destruction may be said to have been completed; so that in ten hours and a half our town was almost totally destroyed, and the moon rose in cloudless splendour, throwing her mild light on a houseless ulation, who stood viewing with intense anguish the smoking rains of their
stations."
Three men are reported to have been burnt to death. The Court-house, the old Protestant Church, the Customhouse, the Gaol, the Ordnance Store, and the Catholic Convent, were destroyed. Several vessels caught fire, but none were se- riously damaged in their hulls. Some merchants saved a portion of their stock by putting it on ar•d ship. It is supposed that a twentieth part of the goods and property in shops and stores was saved. The origin of this calamity is imputed to carelessness; and there was a great want of water. The extent of the burnt district is two whole streets, each a mile long, besides detached buildings and the extensive stores on the wharfs. Only three bakeries and one smiths shop are left. Every printing-house was burnt down. Twelve thousand persons are houseless. The total loss is estimated at a million sterling. A public meeting was immediately held to devise measures for the relief of the destitute. It was ascertained that there were 4,000 bags of bread and 3,000 barrels of flour in the hands of the merchants. Resolutions were passed requesting the Governor to call together the Legislature, for providing assistance for the destitute, for collecting provisions, and for pre- venting the removal of food from the town. A Committee afterwards waited upon the Governor with the resolutions • and received his assurance that the Legislature should be convened, and all other fitting arrangements made. All the remaining public edifices have been placed at the disposal of a committee of relief, composed of the clergy and merchants. Bread and flour are supplied at a fixed rate to applicants. All outgoing vessels are searched to see that no provisions are sent away.
CAPE or GOOD HOPE.—By the arrivals from the colony this week, numerous details of the new Kafir war are supplied. We select a few.
On the 15th April, a division oft roops, under Lieutenant-Colonel Somerset and Lieutenant-Colonel Richardson, marched from the Deba river, towards Burn's Hill, a Missionary station or village situated in front of the gorges of the Amatola mountains, into the ravines and wooded parts of which the Kafirs bad withdrawn all or the greater number of their forces, stated at 2,000 men, armed with mus- kets. In a series of desultory actions, the enemy seem to to have been checked or repulsed wherever the troops could reach them, or when the guns could be brought to bear upon them. Having captured a herd of cattle, 1,800 in number, Colonel Somerset retired down the bill about sunset, and formed a camp on the flat under the Amatola. On the afternoon and evening of the 16th, considerable bodies of Kafirs attacked an encampment left at Burn's Hill under charge of Major Gibson; whom they succeeded in encompassing, obliged to retreat, and eventually despoiled of some oxen belonging to the baggage waggons. The whole British force, reunited, made various movements for the next few days, followed and harassed by the Kafirs : on the 18th there was a fight, in which the British loss was one officer wounded, two men killed, and three wounded. The loss sustained by Major Gibson's force, when obliged to fall back on Burn's Hill, was, one man killed and one wounded: during the previous attack on his camp four men were killed and four wounded; and daring the repeated conflicts with the whole of Sandilla's forces among the ravines and woods of the Amatola, on the whole of the 16th, three men were killed and six wounded. The Kafir loss is not stated. Some minor encounters had taken place subsequently, at Post Victoria and other places; the Kafirs driving off large bodies of cattle. In an engagement at Block Drift on the 19th April, it is stated that 200 Kafue were -killed. The English lost six killed and four wounded; among the latter was Lieutenant Cochrane, who could not recover. The colony seems to be seriously threatened by the marauders • and the utmost alarm prevailed in every part. The savages had shot two or three mail-carriers, set fire to dwellings, and thrown the population of the whole frontier into the utmost confusion. The Le- gislative Council bad been summoned to compel by law the citizens to serve sa soldiers for the defence of the colony. Martial law was proclaimed on the 21st of April.
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