English Extracts.

New Zealander, Volume 2, Issue 102, 15 May 1847, Page 3

English Extracts.

Thames — On Saturday, Mr. Richard Mitchell, the chief mate of the ship Eltsa, from Barbadoes, appeared before Mr. Bullauiinc, to answer a charge of assaulting James Pouiara, a New Zealand hoy, whose history is a very extraordinary one. The case was opened by Mr. Hnule, from the firm of Beddome and Co., solicitors, who said the boy was 15 yeais old, and grandson of the celebrated New Zealand chief Potnate. His father was killed and eaten in a native fight, and his mother died when he was very young. He reached Sydney in au English ship, after i a variety of adventures, and was educated by his guardiaus. He arrived in England last March, and was taken great notice of by some of the leading persons in this country, and was introduced to Royalty itself in Buckingham Palace. His protector was Mr. Caleb Angus, a merchant and shipowner in the city. The lad expressed a wish to go to hta, and was placed aboard the Caleb Angus, a ship named after his protector, the captain being instructed to take very great care of him, and see that he was properly attended and provided for. The Caleb Angus was wrecked at Barbadoes, and Pomara nanowly escapi-d with his life, and was thrown ashore with nothing but his shirt and trowsers on. The lad after visiting Grenada and St. Vincent, where he was taken into the seivice of the harbour muster, and after undergoing many hardships and adventures, which had more the appearance of a romance than the occurrences of actual life, was shipped on board the Eliza for England. The lad was exposed to much ill-usage on board the Eliza, ( was frequently assaulted, and his unprotected sate created no sympathy, as it ought to have been done. The lad was then introduced into the witnesses' box. He was attired ii> a midshipman's uniform, purchased for him by Mr. Angus, and his intelligent open countenance piepossesscd every one in his favour. The particular assault complained of was committed while at sea. The lad, who suffered much from rheumatism and pain, was treated very roughly, and one day he was directed by the mate to take a marling spike on to the main yard. The lad was directed 10 wait a minute by the man on the yard, and the mate called him down again, and alter abusing the lad, said he would give him a rope's end, and gave him a severe flogging with the bight ol a thick rope. Ihe lad threatened to complain to the master of the ship, on which the mate said he would prevent him doing that, and after striking him with his fists about the head and face, kicked him severely. Pomara said he would make the mate suffer for h.s ill treatment when he reached England, and the mate beat him again, and caused the blood to How from his nose and mouth. Pomara was disabled for some time afterwards. The lad's statement having been confirmed by a seaman, Mr. Peiham after cross-exami-ning the witnesses, addressed the magistrate lor the defendant, and submitted that the boy wa-» insolent, and that the punishment was not excessive. Mr. Ballauime said the law did not give any power to mates of ships to correct any oue, and he considered the defendant had been guilty of a very cruel and attrocious assault on a friendless lad- It was not surprising that mutinies were sometimes heard ot, when such cruelties as those complained of were practised. He fined the mate £5 which was instantly paid. 'I he lad Poinura will return to his native land with Mr. E\re,the new Lieutenant Governor ol New Zealand.— Timvi, Nov. 2U.

THE MAGNETIC TELEGRAP& What imagination can contemplate that mysterious agency of man's invention without being awed into reverence before Him who made man so wonderfully and fearfully, in endowing him with a capacity to work out such fearful and wonderful things ? As much as any one have wo familiarised our imagination with the prospective progiesbihilily of the human mind. As san* guinely as any one have we believed in great things to Be achieved in the geometric series of human progression. Hut the magnetic telegraph arises, like ail extra mundane column, toindicatc and end the furthest reach of finite mind. Our imagination d.ire not look beyond this monument of human genius for new conquests, or for a continuation of the linked series oi its progression. Nay, we cannot even reach this in our conceptions, without a feeling of awe as if treading within the tearful jurisdiction of Omnipotence. Weaie not dealing in fancy ; they are stretching these ligthning Hues over continents already. They are trailing them over the | coral beds of seas ; down, down, among the black slieI letonsof Phcuidian argosies ; shipwrecked onaColum- [ bus voyage to Britain, and of all others that for three thousand years have jrone down unrecorded in the English Channel and the Straits of Dover. Paris and London, will soon be brought within the same whispering-gal-lery, and the ■• natural enmity" between the two nations be lost for ever, in the unbroken current of friendly intercom se, in the local identity which these messagewires shall work, for them. On, on, they are stretching the lighning trains of thought; onward to the extremest the lightning trains of thought; onward to the extremest hide ; over seas and deserts that have swallowed up armies and navies ; knitting the ends of the earth together, and its inhabitants too, in the network of consentaneous sympathies, bringing the distant and half-explored continents of humanity, with all their tribes, tongues, colours, and conditions, withm the converse of an hour. Think of that a moment ! Compressing the solid globe, of 24,000 miles in circumference, into a social circle of a dozen furlongs girth ! If Christianity keeps pace with commerce, willthcre not be a glorious brotherhood, a nice family circle of mankind, by the time these literary lightnings shall be mounted and running to and fro over the whole earth I But who are doing all this ? Who else, to be sure, but that wonderful Anglo-Saxon race, which is diffusing itself, and its genius over the world— that wonderful race which thrives better abroad than at home—conforms to any climate or condition,— whose language is fast absoibing or displacing the spiritless tongues and dialect of the heathen world, in which millions of young Pagans in the far-off ocean isles, — From Greenland's icy mountains To India's coral strands, and thence to the Yellow Sea, North and South American Indians, Polynesians, Australians, Hottentots, Egyptians, Hindoos, and .Japanese, are now learning their fii st lessons in civilization and Chri&tiamty. if JJntish ami American Christians shall do their duty, the boy is at school who will live to see half the habitable surface of the globe covered with the Anglo Saxon race, and half the human family speaking the English language. The railway engines that shall thunder through the heart of Asia, Africa, and fiom Hudson's Hay to Patagonia, will speak and teach that language, and so will the mounted lightnings and wire badges of thought, which shall be erected for the converse of the worlds extremes. — Ehhu Burritt,