Alexandria Gazette

LATER FROM EUROPE.

The steamship Caledonia, from Liverpool on the 4th inst., reached Boston on Friday morning. She brought out twenty-five passengers to Halifax, forty-eight to Boston from Liverpool, and eighteen from Halifax to Boston.

By this arrival we have dates five days later than were received by the Great Western, but there appears to have been no material change in political or commercial affairs, nor any change worthy of notice in the London money market.—The following paragraphs, extracted from Willmer & Smith's Liverpool Times of the 4th instant, present a summary of the English intelligence:

"The interval of five days since the sailing of the Great Western has presented nothing striking as regards the United States, except the debate in the House of Commons on Tuesday night, the 2d of May arising out of Mr. Hume's motion for a vote of thanks to Lord Ashburton, in connexion with the treaty of Washington. The motion brought up the ablest men on both sides of the House, but the subject has been worn threadbare, by previous discussion, and its novelty, has passed away. There were some able speeches and clever party skirmishing. Sir Robert Peel was more than usually brief and quiescent. He was, perhaps, purposely so, from a wish not to repeat himself, after his slashing reply on a former occasion to Lord Palmerston, and had this been the feeling of others the debate would have been less protracted. But, though brief, he was effective, and his allusion to the speedy settlement of the Oregon question was as favorably received by the House as it will be by the country. Lords Palmerston and Russell on the Opposition, and Lord Stanley on the Ministerial side, were the leading orators. The speech of the first-named nobleman, which terminated the discussion, was bitter and sarcastic, mixed, as it was towards the close, with domestic politics, that added to its pungency. [On a division of the House the motion of Mr. Hume was carried by yeas 236, nays 97.]

"The most important Parliamentary movement which has been taken for years is the Government Education scheme: a praiseworthy measure in the abstract, but so tinged with Episcopalianism that it has roused the ire and called into action the jealousies of all other sects in the country. Accordingly, the Dissenters and Roman Catholics have been making a demonstration of strength against it in every quarter of the land, and petitions, with upwards of two millions of signatures, were presented to the House of Commons against it on Monday evening. The Government has been obliged to bend before the storm, and some modifications have been made in the original draught of the bill, but not enough to satisfy the sectaries, who still maintain that in the bill, as it stands, the Church of England has advantages inimical to their interests. The probability is—so fierce is the opposition—that the measure will be withdrawn, and with it all chance, during the present generation at least, of the State providing a sound moral and religious education for the children of the poor.

"A Parliamentary paper has been published containing the official correspondence between Sir Charles Bagot and Lord Stanley relative to the Canada Flour bill. With the exception of the official notes between the Colonial Secretary and the ex-Governor of Canada, the documents (consisting of a petition in favor of the measure from the Board of Trade, at Quebec, and a statement embracing similar views, emanating from the Canadian House of Assembly) possess little interest for the American reader, as they have already been published in Canada. The publication of these documents is intended to show that the expenses of transport will render the measure itself, practically speaking, by no means injurious to the agricultural party in this country; in other words, that it will be comparatively worthless. The Government is certainly in a very unhappy position. It cannot dispense with the support of the landed aristocracy, and to propitiate them all other interests must be sacrificed." The truth is that, except in seasons of scarcity, it will be impossible for Canada to compete with home grown wheat, on account of the expense of bringing it here.

"The free trade party, nothing daunted, are making converts to their views of the farmers, and many of the most talented members of the 'League' have been visiting districts purely agricultural in order to convince the tillers of the soil that their interests are identified with the abolition of all fiscal restrictions on trade. In order to show how obnoxious this free trade movement is to the Government, it is only necessary to mention that, since the closing of Covent Garden Theatre, the Lord Chamberlain has intimated to the shareholders that if they let that house to the 'League' to hold free trade meetings in, it will be visited with the forfeiture of their patent. To the other great house, Drury Lane, where, during Lent, the 'League' have been holding weekly meetings, a similar intimation was given some time back.

"Apropos of theatricals, things were never known to be at so low an ebb. Bunn kept Covent Garden open until his treasury was exhausted, and, with the exception of the Italian Opera, there is not a theatre in London paying expenses. In the provinces the same depression exists—the best proof of the poverty of the middle classes.

"The aspect of affairs in the manufacturing districts presents nothing worthy of remark since the sailing of the Great Western. The ships sailing to the United States are going out empty, or in ballast. Neither goods nor passengers are offering, and freights were hardly ever known to be so low. The last three packets (the 19th ult., the 25th ultimo, and the 1st instant) have only taken out in rough freight and dead weight, conjointly, about £560. America is certainly not the market to which the English manufacturers are now sending their goods, as the splendid liners and transient ships sailing daily from Liverpool 'full of emptiness' painfully demonstrate.

"There is every prospect of a very early and very abundant harvest this year. From the mildness of the winter the wheat was more forward at the beginning of April than it usually is at the end of that month, and the abundant rains and occasional genial weather which we have since had, have caused it to advance, notwithstanding a few checks from frosty nights. There is a prospect of great abundance of every kind of produce, except, perhaps, of fruit, the blossoms of the fruit trees having suffered very much from the April frosts, which has done almost as much damage to the plum and pear blossom in the north of England, and to the apple blossom in the south, as they have to the apricots and vines in France. With this single exception, every thing looks well."

The Queen of England and the infant Princess were "doing remarkably well"

The Duke of Wellington completed his 74th year on the 1st instant, and gave a Levee on the occasion.

A great Anti Corn Law Conference was advertised to be held in London on the 9th May, to which deputies had already been appointed from all parts of "the Three Kingdoms."

The affairs of Ireland are assuming a highly interesting and important character. The excitement on the subject of Repeal runs exceedingly high, and added to the disaffection of the tenantry in other respects, bids fair to blow up the flame of Revolution in good earnest. The late Repeal riots at Clones, in the county of Monaghan, which were suppressed only by the interference of the military, have been followed by demonstrations in other places which look like any thing but peace and quietness. The doctrine of Repeal is now openly denounced as Treason by a portion of the conservative press, and the strong action of the government is invoked for its suppression. Where these things will end, God only knows.