The New Zealander.

New Zealander, Volume 5, Issue 378, 28 November 1849, Page 2

The New Zealander.

He just ami fear not: Let all the ends lliou aims't at, be thy Country's, "JPhv Goo's, and Truth's.

W~E D N ETS" AY, ~N 0 V~E M B E R 28, 1 8 49.

By the Thames we have English news to the \ 19th of July. The Parliamentary intelligence most im- ' portant at this side of the world, is the with- \ drawal of the Australian Colonies Bill. _ Lord John Russell announced in his place in the House of Commons, on the 18th of July, that it would not he proceeded with that session. At the same hour at which this was notified, a conversation on the subject was going forward in the Upper House. Lord Stanley stated that if the Bill were restricted to the mere separation of the colony of Port Phillip from the colony of New South Wales, no objection would be offered to it in either House, but if carried to a greater extent, it would be opposed in both. Earl Grey described the measure as— not one for the establishment of new constitutions in the Australasian colonies, hut as the extension of the constitution already established in New So uth Wales to our other colonies in its vicinity ; i making provision also that the colonial legislatures might (subject, however, to the controlling power of Parliament) make alterations in their own constitutions Lord Monteagle inquired whether it was intended to introduce a clause entirely changing the present mode and rate of selling land in the colonies. Lord Grey, in reply, expressed his conviction of the vital importance of maintaining the principle of the Land Sales Act. But if a federal legislature should be brought into operation, that legislature, acting on behalf of all the colonies, ought to be at liberty to amend that Act. After some observations by Lord Stanley on the impossibility of passwe; such a Bill that session with due deliberation, the subject dropped, without any intimation from Lord Grey of the decision to withdraw it, which, the, Premier was just then declaring in the Commons. With reference to the petition from Wellington, praying for the immediate introduction of representative Government in the southern settlements of New Zealand (which had been presented by Sir William Molesworth previous to his great speech on Colonial Administration, on the 26th June), Mr. Stafford had given notice that, on the motion for the second reading of the Australian Colonies Bill, he would move as an amendment that, in the opinion of the House, any Bill for the Constitutional Government of the Australasian colonies should contain a provision for immediately extending representative iastitutions to New Zealand. This notice, of course, fell to the ground with the ! measure with which it was proposed to connect it. Mr. Aglionby had introduced a " Bill to facilitate the execution of Conveyances and other Instruments by or on behalf of the New Zealand Company in New Zealand." A full account of this proposition will be found in another column. The debate on Mr. D' lsraeli's motion for a Committee on the State of the Nation was rejected by a majority of 140, the numbers being, for it, 156; against it, 296. The New Zealander of the 1 Oth instant contained a copious abstract of the first night's discussion on this important question ; we have partly in type a similar abstract of the second night's, hut are compelled to postpone it. Both will repay perusal, as presenting an epitome of the views entertained by the leading statesmen on different sides respecting the national condition and prospects. On the 12th of July, Mr. Labouchere, in a long speech, explained a series of airangements which he proposed to introduce for the amendment of laws relating to Pilotage and the Mercantile Marine. He would remit, in whole or

in part, the existing Light dues which are maintained by tolls on shipping ; and would modify or abolish the compulsory requirement to employ a licensed pilot. On the ground that the present qualifications of our merchant captains and mates are low in themselves, and low in comparison with the professional acquirements of the mercantile marine of other countries, he would add to the Board of Trade a Department of Mercantile Marine, which should direct the examination of masters and mates of vessels, and grant certificates, which should be liable to forfeiture on the misconduct of the holders. The general coudition of merchant seamen next claimed his attention, — a condition not satisfactory, as appeared from the fact that 14,000 seamen had deserted from British ships in the course of a year. The substance of his recommendations was that there should be enforced proper sanitary regulations and a fair scale of dietary when afloat ; that, on shore, the agency of " crimps" should be superseded by the appointment of a shipping officer at every port, through whom contracts between mariners and their employers should be made ; and that the Marine Department should be empowered to abolish the present system of registration, uniting the office of registry to its other functions. .... After a snort discussion, leave was given to bring in Bills founded on these propositions. The Times eulogizes the plan as "calculated to create a national benefit of the most extensive and permanent character." Mr. Gladstone moved for a Committee to inquire into the legality of the powers claimed by the Hudson's Bay Company, under three distinct titles, — first, the charter granted by Charles 11. in 1670, which applies to certain territories within the entrance of Hudson's Bay Straits ; secondly, a license of exclusive trading applicable to the rest of its territories ; and, thirdly, the recent grant of Vancouver's Island. The object of the motion was to secure an enquiry not into the policy of the rights claimed by the Company, nor into any alleged abuse of their powers, but into " simply and drily their legality." The motion having been acquiesced in by the Government and the Company itself, was agreed to. Mr. Osborne raised a discussion on the Irish Church, by moving for a committee to consider the present slate of its temporalities. In a long speech he dwelt on the effect of the Church Establishment in keeping up discontent, and taunted the Government with now shrinking from acting out the declarations respecting the necessity of a sweeping reform which they individually had loudly made when they were not in office. He would not propose the abolition of the Church of Ireland, or an interference with existing rights.-, but he would devise a plan by which the territorial system should be abolished, and a congrega- j tional substituted. He would amongst other j retrenchments, reduce the number of Irish Bishoprics to 5, with £2,000 a year, each, leaving one Archbishop with a salary of £4,000 per annum, and would apply the sums thus saved to general education. Sir George Grey, though he would not defend the Irish Church, opposed the motion ; he thought the social state of Ireland rendered it unadvisable to entertain the question then. He was not prepared for a total subversion of the Established Church in Ireland, nor did he think that any modification of it could be successfully approached, until theie was some reasonable prospect of being able to deal fairly with the Church of the majority of the Irish people, by placing the Roman Catholic Church on a different footing to that it now occupied. .The motion was negatived by a majority of 170 over 103. Mr. D'Eyncourt's Bill for shortening the duration of Parliaments, was, on the motion for the second reading, thrown out by a majority of 1 32 over 57 .... A similar fate was the lot of a motion by Mr. Henley, for a reduction of 10 per cent on public salaries, in all departments of government. After a debate— in the course of which Lord John Russell urged that the salaries of the great officers are lower now than in 1780, and Mr. Cobden objected to the reduction of small salaries, while he would more largely cut down those of high functionaries, especially of ambassadors, — the motion was negatived by 149 votes against 1 02. Mr. T. S. Duncombe (who, after his long illness, had resumed his place amidst manifestations of very kind feeling in the House,) brought forward a Bill intended to prevent accidents in Mines and Collieries, by a stricter system of inspection, and other arrangements. So many objections were urged however, to the details, while all approved of the principle of the measure, that it was withdrawn. We shall return to some parts of the proceedings in Parliament which, though not very important, will be found not uninteresting, when we have space to explain their objects, —(as, without some such explanation, the mere enumeration of the titles of Bills of which few readers here can have heard a word, would be obviously useless). The next arrival will not improbably bring an account of the prorogation, which was expected to take place about the 2nd or 3rd of August. The Revenue Returns for the July quarter i presented the-at first sight startling—result of a decrease, as compared with the corresponding quarter of 1848, of £468,546, which if we also allow for a merely accidental increase of £25,000, showed an actual

decrease of nearly half a million sterling in the Total Ordinary Revenue. Clever financiers, however, have always at haid some plausible means of accounting for a falling off in the public income. Thus we are now told of the reduction of duties on sugar and corn, the postponement of the hop duty, and the diminution in malt duties consequent on the inferior quality of the last barley ciop for brewing purposes. Moreover, there is an encouraging improvement in the Stamps and Post Office, indicating general progress. The Daily News says, " a surer index of the state of the country are the reports from our manufacturing districts and great commercial emporiums. During the first six months of 1849, both imports and exports have been large, the latter unusually so. The demand for all leading articles of home consumption has been good, and prices have been unusually steady. The economical condition of the country is righting itself, and will continue to improve if Government and the Legislature only leave trade to take its own. way." It should be added that, on the year, the Revenue exhibits an increase of ,£726,483, so that John Bull feels small apprehension of national bankruptcy. The accounts of the spread of cholera in London are serious — not so much from the actual number it had seized in so vast a population, as from the steadiness with which its prevalence had increased foi several weeks. Its progress was traced in the Registrar's returns for the six weeks ending July 14, in which the numbers of fatal cases were successively 22, 42,49, 124, 152, and 339. The disease had also appeared in a malignant form in Liverpool, Bristol, Southampton, and other provincial towns. A new vacancy had occurred in the representation of the City of London by the death of Mr. Pattison, who was one of the victims., of cholera. The only candidate in the field was Sir James Duke (the Lord Mayor), bu,t others were spoken of. Should Sir James be elected, Bolton, for which he ia at present member, would be vacant, and it was stated that the Hon. Captain Pelham, brother of Lord Yarborough, would offer himself there. We regret to learn that a despatch had been received at the Admiralty from Sir John Richardson, dated Great Bear Lake, September 16, 1848, without any news of Sir Johj* Franklin. The expedition had traversed the coast from the Mackenzie and Coppermine Rivers ; but the Esquimaux all declared^ that no white man had been seen.

The accounts from Ireland have for som e time presented such afflictive pictures of almost unmitigated distress and despondency, that it is quite cheering to observe the more hopeful tone by which the latest intelligence from that country is characterised. The prospects of the harvest were spoken of in the most glowing terms. We are told that " nothing could excel the luxuriance of the corn and grten crops"; that " new potatoes were already becoming plentiful, with the flavour which they possessed before the blight ;" and that, although there was still a great amount of destitution, especially in the western districts, yet, " much less was said about it, for hope had come to the aid of the suffering people, and all other classes were influenced by the prospects of plenty." «' I noticed last week," says the Dublin correspondent of the Morning Chronicle, "the check given to emigration by the prospects of the harvest, and the hopes entertained of the * recovery' of the potato. I have since, learned that some demand for farms is springing up j and that landlords who consent to grant leases at reduced rents have no difficulty in finding tenants, even in districts where tracts of land had been neglected or abandoned last spring. 1 * The Queen's long-expected visit had been finally determined on, as was announced in an official communication from Sir George Grey to the Lord Lieutenant. Her Majesty was to embark in the Royal yacht immediately after the prorogation of Parliament ; to visit in the first instance the Cove of Cork ; thence to proceed along the Irish coast to Dublin, where she would remain a few days as the guest of Lord Clarendon, and then go on northward to Belfast, whence she was to cross to Scotland. The despatch stated that « the distress still unfortunately prevalent in that country precluded the Queen from visiting Dublin in state, as any large expenditure on mere ceremony would be ill-timed and inconvenient to her subjects ; but Her Majesty did not wish to let another year pass without visiting a part of her dominions with which she had for so long a time been anxious to become acquainted," Though, however, the visit was not to be strictly one of State, it was understood that the Queen would, during her stay in Dublin hold a levee and drawing-room, also a public review of the troops in the garrison, thus, says the Dublin Packet, " affording a large number of her subjects an opportunity of proving theix loyal attachment to the throne and person of Her Majesty." There can be little doubt that that attachment was enthusiastically manifested on the occasion, and the Queen was received with the proverbial " ten thousand welcomes of the country ; for those who know the lush people best, know that— when an oppressive sense of injustice on the one hand, or the inflammatory arts of designing agitators on the other,— do not wrap them from their natural

disposition, and throw them into a false position — they are, almost instinctively, a devotedly loyal people. An important letter (which we shall give in full in a future number) had been addressed by the Lord Lieutenant to the Lord Mayor of London, expressing " the satisfaction, he might almost say the delight," with which he (Lord Clarendon) heard the plan for the purchase and improvement of waste lands in Ireland by the Corporation of London, — a scheme which he regarded as " likely to be productive of the happiest results to Ireland, and, through Ireland, to the United Kingdom." His Excellency concluded by promising that " the assistance of every official person should be freely given, and that no effort of his own should be wanting in furtherance of the project." Still, according to the old course of Irish history — surgit amari aliquid — some drawback is to be added to these encouraging statements. Another of those foolish and criminal — halfpolitical half-religious, party collisions by which the country has so often been disgraced and cursed, had taken place in the county Down. The Orangemen had, according to their usage, been celebrating the anniversary of the battle of Aughrim. On their return from Tullymore Park, the seat of the Earl of Roden, the Ribbonmen attacked them near Castlewellan, with fire-arms, pikes, scythes, and other deadly weapons. A terrible fight ensued, in which five lives were lost, and several persons were dangerously wounded. The occurrence was stated by Sir George Grey in the House of Commons, but it appeared that the Government had not made up their minds to renew the Processions Law which expired in 1845

The information that Rome was altogether in the possession of the French invaders excites no surprise, as at the date of the last intelligence which reached us, the cause of the patriot people was so desperate that further resistance would have been insanity rather than heroism. Nobly did the comparatively feeble tan d of the friends of liberty struggle agiinst the force, strong in everything but justice and honour, that was arrayed against their rights ; and the cession of their city, when all hope of retaining it had been destroyed, has cast no stain on the ancient glories of the Roman name. The voice of the civilized world will declare that there was more true dignity connected with their fall than with the triumph of their oppressors. The final conflict took place on the night of the 29th of June, when a breach on the left flank of bastion 8 having been rendered practicable by the French artillery, so as to command the Saint Pancrazio Gate, t( orders for the assault," writes General Oudinot, " were instantly given, and four columns, each of them <jompanies of the elite, were selected for the operation." In this assault it is stated that only about 12 Frenchmen were killed, while 400 Romans were slaughtered by the bayonet, and 125 (including 18 officers) were taken prisoners. Under these circumstances, Garibaldi informed the Triumvirate that he could not undertake to preserve the first line of defence any longer, or maintain the second line beyond the evening of the following day. The Municipality accordingly opened a communication with Oudinot, sending delegates to head quarters to obtain conditions, which, however, he absolutely refused. The English, Prussian, and other Consuls in Rome remonstrated against the injury done to innocent women and children and neutral residents, and urged in the name of humanity and civilization that General Oudinot would save from destruction the monumental city ; but he replied that his instructions left him no option.' 1 ' — His final declaration, on the Ist of July, was that lie was determined to enter Rome unfettered by any conditions whatever, and that he would allow onJy until three o'clock on the afternoon of the 2nd for the opening of the gates and principal military points to his troops. The delegates fchen saw the impossibility of protracting the negotiation, and the demand was, under the pressure of inexorable necessity, complied with. On the afternoon of the 3rd, the French troops took possession of the city. They marched in " in perfect order," encountering no other opposition than the — not loud, but deep and burning — execrations of the people on whose liberty they were trampling. Immediately after his entrance, Oudinot issued a Proclamation decreeing that all the powers of the State should be vested in the Military authorities : that the Constituent Assembly had ceased to exist : that all publications not authorised by the Military authorities were forbidden : and that General Rostolin was appointed Governor of Rome, and General Sauvant, Commandant of the city. Since that date, the Civic Guard has been dissolved, the clubs suppressed, and other rigorous measures adopted. Some excuse for this severity is alleged to be found in the hatred of theßomans to their conquerors, which showed itself not

• M. Mery, a French poet, has written a bombasic letter claiming '• eternal honoui" for his countrymen became " the point of attack chosen againgt them was exactly that which most exposed the lives of the soldiers, and least endangered the sacred itones of the c ity." Let this vindication avail for what it is worth. A limple question would be— Why were they firing on any quarter of Rome?; To have shown no regard whatever f° r the precioui monuments of art would^liave been> according to this rhapsodical gentleman's own iliowipg "to do what even the Goths and Huns did not do."

merely in hooting and hissing the troops, and crowing in insulting imitation of the Gralli cock whenever they saw them, but, we regret to add, in frequent assassinations of the French soldiers ; and also in a resolution passed hy the National Assemhly, just before its dissolution, declaring that so soon as fifteen members of that body could find a free spot in which to hold their sittings, they would again establish themselves as the legal organ of the Ro man Republic G arabaldi, with a number of his followers who had escaped fjoms Rome, was "ravaging the Campagna ;" and a division o French troops which had been despatched to pursue him, had not up to the 7th of July, been able to overtake him. It seemed quite uncertain what use the French would make of their success. Colonel Niel had been sent to Gaeta, to present the keys of the city to the Pope, who returned an autograph letter, dated the sth, in which he congratulates Oudinot, expresses a hope that Divine Providence will remove the difficulties still existing, and adds that he unceasingly prays for the General, the Army, the French Government, and the French nation." It remains to be seen Avhether — now that they are masters of the Castle of St. Angelo — they will really restore his Holiness, and, if they do, what terms they will dictate.

Ijgjg 1 * The Band of H. M. 58th Regiment, by the per mission of Lieut. Col. Wynyard, will resume it Performance in the Grounds in front of the old Government House, on tomorrow^ evening, from four till six o'clock.

PROGRAMME. Grand Overture Op " Haydn" ...Auber. Melange .•• Op " I Lombardi " Verd» Aria Op "La Donna del Lago'' Roisini Duetto.. Op " Nel E^ilaa di Provenza" . . Mercadaute Waltz The Garland Koenig Quadrille The Swiss Jullien Polka The Drum Jullien Song Savourncen Deeluh Campbell Song The Admiral Wallace