EVENTS OF THE WEEK.

Otago Witness, Issue 40, 21 February 1852, Page 4

EVENTS OF THE WEEK.

(From the Some News.)

The Americans have, in the interval between our last and present journal, filled a large space in the public eye. Not only has Mr. M'Cormick carried off the great gold medal for a reaping machine, and thus beaten all our farmers and agricultural machinists ; not only has Commodore Stevens wreathed his brow and bannered his schooner-yacht with the greenest of laurel, by beating out of time and distance our best yachts and ablest seamen ; not only has Mr. Hobbs picked the locks of the unrivalled Chubb and the incomparable Brarnah ; — but American enterprise has demonstrated the practicability of the route across the Isthmus between the oceans, by travelling from California to New York across Lake Nicaragua and down its river, and have

actually a6complish'ed that which England has so long talked about, again beating us in a tender ' point. But all this perfect suc6esshas lia'd its' balance in disappointment and disgrace. The long threatened expedition to Cuba, the piratical invasion of that island during a time of profound peace between the- Republic and the Spanish Government, has been suffered to form its army, to embark its forces, without the intervention of the ruling powers, and to effect a landing oirthe soii of a Spanish colony. The pretext was the' general cover :fVr acts of rapacity and violence— liberty. Thte liberating army was formed for what ? — To aid the natives 1 against; the Spaniards in ari insurrection" which has been quite peddling in itself and' speedily suppressed. One American writer ascribes its origin t6 the Abolitionists of Erigland, and their macb3nati6ns ; but we suspect the ablest and most certain Abolitionists would be 1 those who overcame the Gbvernment, and in the name of liberty try to re-esta"blish slavery. Our period has been fruitful of the seeds of great events, though none are absolutely perfected. The day before it was made known that the Americans had accomplished their transit of the Isthmus of Panama, the Times had startled the world with the announcement of a communication between England and Calcutta, occupying no more than a week ! And though the greatness of the prophecy was somewhat diminished by the time fixed for ita fulfilment—fourteen years— yet the possibility of doing so much in the year 1855, is enough to wonder on till the fulness of time arrives. Another ancient* route is not unlikely to be opened by way of Syria ; the route by Trieste makes rapid progress, promising still speedier communication by its rivalry with the Marseilles route, and it appears even to have stirred up to greater exertion and new efforts the Peninsular and Oriental Company. Nothing has yet been accomplished for the Cape route or specifically Australia ; but the screw steamer is supposed to be the knight for whom the great Australian adventure is reserved, and the discovery of vast fields of gold in the Blue Mountains, the border of the Bathurst district, is not unlikely to supply the only stimulant to English and Colonial daring. California is the beacon-light to warn and save. The prosperity and success of the example may be secur- • ed while the sin and sorrow of that El Dorado of the age may be averted. We hope that the gold fever extending for good in Australia, and promising the abolition of the convict system, and the attendance of free labour from all parts of Europe, population and commerce and wealth in its train, may be so tempered that the equalization of the sexes, the improvement of morals, and the refinement of manners, may wait on the discovery of gold as a useful superfluity, where nature spreads around the certainty of, the sweeter rewards of patient industry ; the fever fit is not so hot as in the case of California, and the good sense of the colonists must keep it cool.

The London Times, that delicate barometer of political pressure, points to " change." Its indignation at the Admiralty's conduct with respect to steam communication with Australia is as warmly^ expressed as if it were a colonial journal declaring for independence. While the Admiralty is shilly- . shallying with this great question, Earl Grey is em broiling himself in a dispute about the payment of postage on soldiers' letters. In sorrow, not in anger, we must say, that unless there is a speedy change in the English ministry, in English tactics and in the spirit of the local Executive, the loss of these colonies to the mother country will be a matter of certainty, requiring little skill in calculation to fix its ultimate date. Such a result should be avoided if possible : for assuredly the interests of the colony, as well as of the parent state, would be much better promoted by a continuance of the union on strictly mutual terms, than by a severance of the connection, while the colony is passing through a crisis, for it will be many years before our social and political affairs shall have acquired stability, after having been so completely stricken. — Geelohg Advertiser and Intelligencer.

Rare Books. — No work is considered too costly" for the British Museum Library, provided the price be not excessive. The art of printing has its history like the history of every other art. The history of printing is the history of civil and religious freedom. When Providence determined that mental darkness should be removed, man was made the worker out of his own emancipation, by the inspiration of the discovery of printing. This was a second creation of light. If we give to the history of printing the importance it really possesses, and regards great libraries like that of the British Museum as the depositories of the evidences of its miraculous progress and effects— then a fragment of a Donatus, a Caxton, an early edition of a Bible, a first edition of a classic, or the first productions of the printing press in the United States, Mexico, California, Australia, New Zealand, or the Sandwich Islands, cease to be curiosities, and take their deservedlyprominent place in the history of civilisation.—* " North British Review. A schoolmaster being called upon for a toast, gave- " The fair pupils of America — may they add virtue to beauty, subtract envy from friendship, multiply amiable accomplishments by sweetness of temper, and divide them by sociability and economy, and reduce scandal to its lowest denomination.