The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1855-07-03 00:00:00

FOREIGN INTELLIGENCE.

RUSSlA.—lntelligence has been received of a severe loss by
-fire on the 4th instant at the Neva Stearine Works, St. Peters-
burg. Insurances exist in English offices for £16,200.—viz.,
in the Northern, £7,400; Royal, £3,3C0; Monarch, £3,300;
Anchor, £2,200; also in three offices at St. Petersburg, and at
Hamburg and Amsterdam. It is estimated that the loss will
be nearly total.—On the 16th an Imperial ukase appeared at
St. Petersburg requiring the formation of a rifle corps from
the miners employed in the Altai.—Accounts received at
Odessa from the Sea of Azoff state that the quantity of wheat
destroyed by the Allied squadron at Taganrog was about
12,000 quarters, and that at Marioupol the total of grain of all
kinds destroyed was about 68,000 to 78,000 quarters.—The
cholera has broken out at Warsaw, in consequence of which
the Governor has issued a proclamation permitting smoking
in the streets, which was hitherto prohibited.
FRANCE.—There was a review by the Emperor, on Wed-
nesday, in the Place Caroussel, of troops going to the Crimea.
It is said that reinforcements to the extent of 50,000 men
will be sent out shortly.—Prince Napoleon Pierre Bonaparte,
who landed at Marseilles on the 25th from Corsica, has ar-
rived in Paris.—The King of Portugal took his departure from
Toulon for Civita Vecchia in the night of the 25th in the hn-
venial yacht the Reine Hortense.—The Empress arrived at
Pan in perfect health, on Tuesday.—Matters are fast mending
with respect to the Paris Exhibition. On Sunday last the
Panorama building was thrown open to the public. It is
beautifully arranged, the walls being adorned with Gobelin
and D'Aubusson tapestries, while the central part displays the
china of Sevres, and the beautifully executed work of Chris-
tophe and others, with the crown diamonds under a canopy.
Around this building gardens are being laid out, where the
visitor may sit and refresh himself. The Queen of the South
—the great Mexican jewel of fabulous value—has been placed
in the nave of the palace : it is elegantly arranged in a light
ease. Along the southern line of the northern gallery the
stalls of the French jewellers are being rapidly filled; already
there are diamonds, some exquisitely set, worth millions of
francs. In short, every day the Exhibition approaches com-
pletion by rapid strides, and the number of visitors increases.
CANADA.—The Toronto correspondent of the Guardian
says :—Canada has, I think,been placed in rather an embarrass-
ing position by the receipt of despatches from Sir G. Grey and
Mr. Frederick Peel, appealing to us on the ground of our
loyalty, patriotism. &c., and requesting that a million of acres
of land be transferred to Her Majesty for the purpose of giving
land-bounties to German volunteers for the Crimea. Lord
Panmure thinks it would prove a great advantage to us " as a
means of ultimately supplying the colony with a class of Ger-
man emigrants of a very valuable character." Our own ex-
perience, however, goes to prove that retired soldiers are the
very worst and most helpless class of settlers for a new country.
Then, again, the land asked for lies between the Georgian Bay
and the Ottawa, and is at present only inhabited by wandering
hordes of Indians, and here and there an adventurous white
trader. It is not at present worth sixpence an acre, and there
is very little prospect of its being worth more for ten or fifteen
years, as Canada is not at all advancing in that direction.
There are no roads, no settlements; it is a savage wilderness
in the most dreary sense of the expression, and the unhappy
soldiers would, I imagine, spend the residue of their lives in
vain efforts to discover where their fifty acre farms were situa-
ted, if they were mad enough to go in search of them. The
idea of the proposed settlements seems to us so impracticable,
and even ridiculous, that with every desire to show our patri-
otism and affectionate sympathy with our mother country, we
feel generally called upon not to sanction it. At present,
therefore, no Parliamentary action will be taken on these
despatches. They are to be made the subject of future con-
sideration, and as several members of our Government are
going to England immediately, they will probably induce the
imperial authorities to change their views upon the whole
matter.

NEW ZEALAND.--Letters give a flourishing account of
the young colony of Canterbury. The exports of agricultural
and pastoral produce are estimated for this year at £40,000
i.e., £lO per head of the population. The customs' revenue
alone produced last year upwards of £9,000 ; it is estimated
for this year at £12,000—i.e., £3 per head. The only want
that appears to be felt is that of labour, to supply which the
provincial government has sent an emigration agent to this'
country, and three ships have been chartered for the convey-
ance of Canterbury emigrants, two of which have already
sailed. The provincial government has also contracted to
bring 200 labourers from Melbourne, and it is expected that a
large additional supply may be procured from the Australian
Colonies, where the labour market is now comparatively over-
stocked. Besides this expenditure on emigration, the pro-
vince has appropriated £lO,OOO to the completion of the toe
road from the port to the plains, which has been so long
talked of. It is contemplated to build four new churches this
year ; and a system of education has been established, to be
carried on at the public expense. It is not surprising that,
under these circumstances, the letters to which we have
referred breathe a spirit of sanguine confidence in the future
progress of the settlement.