Foreing Memoranda.

Colonist, Issue 25, 15 January 1858, Page 3

Forcing Memoranda.

(From the Home News of October 10.} The Constitutionml announces that the French Government has taken certain measures to encourage the production of cotton in its West Indian possessions. A.rumour is already current at Paris respecting a separate treaty between France and Russia, concluded, or prepared for conclusion, at Stuttgardt. ; We extract the following paragraph from the New York Herald, a paper not remarkable for its sympathy with English interests: —"A few radical refugees from Ireland have lately called a meeting in this'city, and issued an address to the British subjects in this country, sympathising with the rebellious Sepoys of India. . But these escaped rebels from Ireland entirely mistake . - the feelings of the American people, arid do not at all understand the true condition.of the public mind in Great Britain. A, portion of the British Press has begun to recognise, in a philosophical and true spirit, the causes which lie at the root of the dis- . asters in India; and now that they have acknowledged them there is reason to hope that they will apply their energies to bring about the remedy." The Parma Gf-azette announces that a subscriptjton has been, opened at Parma for a monument to Correggio'. Three cargoes of slaves have been landed in Cuba within a week. Two slave-ships have been burnt after their successful trips had enriched the owners. M. Valche\ a French merchant, long established at Delhi,, and who with difficulty escaped the massacre in that city, lately arrived in Paris. Prince Napoleon has obtained permission to travel in the East—he is actually f lpar~ tant pour la Syrie." Count Buol is so ill that it has been reported he will retire from office; but he is now sojourning at Carsibad with a view to a restoration of his health. The Prince Imperial of France draws pay as a grenadier of. the Guard, and his name is called at muster; but he does not serve, being absent' on leave with his family.' It appears from a report by General Desvaux that many artesian wells have been successfully sunk in the deserts of Algeria, and that abundant fountains have resulted. The Arabs are wild with gratitude, and are forming settlements , round the welcome founts. The vintage of France has begun, and the accounts from all parts are very favourable. ■."•.. M. Vergne, a lieutenant in the French navy, has invented a fluted screw-propeller, which has been found on trial to produce a - much greater speed than the ordinary screw. It is said that the French Eastern Railway and the Baden Company have agreed to connect their lines by an iron bridge across the Rhine. The Austrian Government intend to make such improvements in the port of Venice that large merchant vessels shall be able to get up to the city. Accounts, from Milan state that Marshal Radetsky is still residing at-his villa near that city, and is in tolerable health, being able to be wheeled in a chair about the fine garden attached to his residence. The Correctional Tribunal of, Paris -has decreed the seizure and entire suppression of the ' Mysteries dv Peuple,' by Eugene Sue, a serial commenced so long ago as 1849, and long since circulating throughout Europe by hundreds of thousands of copies. Baron de la Chastre, the assignee of the copyright, is sentenced to a year's imprisonment and a fine of 6000 francs—a sentence which, considering that the work had circulated with impunity for many years during the author's lifetime, is in the highest degree iniquitious. The publisher is sentenced to two months' imprisonment and a fine of 2000 francs, and the printer to one month's imprisonment and a fine of 1000 francs. The Prince of Montenegro seems perfectly indifferent to public opinion, and.acts as arbitrarily as if he had half a million of bayonets at his command. Not long since he condemned a member of the noble family of Zuza to death for some political offence, and a circumstance took place when the man was put to death that deserves mention. As a dog belonging to the deceased could not be induced to quit the place of execution, the inhuman executioner tied it to the dead body. After a few days had elapsed the poor dog became so hungry that it began to devour the body of its former master. v ; At the recent Chantilly races the chief attraction was the race . for the Emperor's plate of 10,000 francs. There were nineteen horses entered, of which seven started. The prize was "won '¥y an English horse, belonging to Mr. Parr. ' Saunterer,' also an English horse, the property of.Mr. Jackson, was second, and received 1000 francs. A letter from the Ardeche announces that fresh inundations have destroyed all the works constructed since the inundation of 1856 to present a repetition of such a calamity. In the valley of the Archede all the proprietors of dwelling houses and mills situated near the river have been forced to abandon them, happy to escape with their lives, the water having risen three feet higher than during the last flood. Nothing can be more miserable than the appearance of the country. The bed of the river for, two leagues in length is filled with trees torn up by the roots, and the fields which escaped the last inundation are now covered with water. The passage of the railwaytrains between Narbonne and Beziers is again interrupted. Free navigation has been fully acknow- s ledged for the Danube, as it has been for the Rhine. There will have been coined at the Paris / Mint in the year 1857 not less than ; 600,000,000f. in gold.

Superintendent's signature; but even this crime. - great as it was,, was not without precedent, it had "been committed even in Mr. Stafford's reign, and he was rather surprised to hear so lriuch said about it hy an.honorable member, who was commonly paid to liave carried up the draft of the Nelson ' Trust Fund in his pocket"; a bill that contained 'ho provision for the re-election, of trustees" wlien their term of office .had expired. There was no doubt a very great difference in the two blunders, and the mbst remarkable difference was, that the • present Superintendent would never be clever enough to take advantage of his own blunder to iwtabl^'h .himself permanently in the position he holds without again going through that trouble- ' some affair called an election. i . The Provincial Solicitor said in most respects he concurred with the reply made by Dr. Monro, with"the exception of the wordingof that part ' which treats.of the transmission of the bills to Auckland; The Superintendent did his best with ' the opportunities offered fit sending the despatches •to Auckland. .No doubt the Province had been put to great inconvenience through the bills in question, but. opportunities such as they were ' were embraced, and every endeavour was used in sending the bills to their destination. MriTSBAN could not but acknowledge that Dr. Monro, in animadverting o*n the Superintendent's address, especially that part of it relating to the ' lapsed bills, had been pleased to magnify the difficulties of our position. Yet, in his progress, he repeatedly asserted great belief in sundry circumstances. Now it would appear that, if the hon; member had faith sufficiently large, he would say "to the difficulties of lapsed bills be removed and it ' would be done. In listening to Dr. Monro's able" arid lucid address; he could not but follow his arguments step by step with considerable approbation. In soin&iisancea;mdeed;he (Dr. Monro} . had employed tha^yery'-reasomng which himself (Mx. Ebatt) wouldhave endeavoured to express, perhaps more imperfectly. His approval, however, was soon brought to a stand, when^he hon. gentieman discovered so marvellously, that a mere copy of a bill and an original were identically the same; This was assuredly quite a discovery. Well', be it so; But what does this prove ? It only proves what has been well shown by various members of the Council, that the rejection of the said bills at Auckland involved ho principle. _ It 'appears tolerably manifest, that something besides • the strict routine of public duty occasioned the expensive delay in regard to important measures to which this'province has most strangely been ' subjected. It was certainly too much, for the intentions of the settlement to be frustrated by official authority, exerted without not only the gravest reason, but any reason at all deserving anything 'hut the unmistakable censure of, not only the Council, but the Nelson Province at large. Was it to be endured that any one, however his office' .might exalt him, should have it in his power—he would not say under what feelings towards authorities here—to cast us into most troublesome and costly confusion ? He hoped the public of this place would not lose sight of the vexation and ir- . Regularities thus occasioned. What were the facts ? Of ten or twelve bilk despatched to Auckland at one time, all copies of the same character, some are approved and the remainder rejected. Pre- ' tences as to the more provincial character of one ■ set might be formed, and the higher value df ano- • iher set; but this might easily have been adjusted by a right official spirit over the water. Well ' might Dr. Monfd Ultimate that some mystery in- " volved these transactions; for like most perplexities of that kindrthey were more suited to darkmess than light. At least it wquld be a task, to pervade them by reason and faithfulness. . The 1 disappointment, injury and vexation caused by his Excellency's refusal to ratify the bills would lie hoped teach this settlement a lesson of great service to all. If high personages at Auckland> were disposed to trifle, they would find to their cost some day that the people here were of ario- . tlier humour. Of the pecuniary loss, and various ; 'other kinds of loss, experienced by tliis province from the ignoring captiously, or, by high and mighty officialty, very, important measures he would not speak; but the worst evil of the case was,.not simply the.disgust^occasipned by official folly at a distance; >but -the troublfcsouie disgrace • and annoyance by which the settlement is subjected by parties who might easily have prevented such wrong. Sir, said the lion- member, the bills sent, it would appear, were a literal embodiment of everything passed, as to such measures, by the : Council, and were duly arid unmistakably transmitted by the Superintendent, as exact documents. The transmission of them by our proper provincial authority, unless glaringly erroneous, ns sufficient guarantee that they were genuine or authentic copies—enough for apprdval or a superior's, signature; surely tHat was plenty for the great ends of business, untrammeled by quibbles or wayward petulance. Duplicate originals, copies or whatever else you might call them, they were enough for straitforward business men to act upon. If any slight omission—;any mistake as to forms however useful—any defect from evident oversight did occur; a sincere discharge of auch honest official duty -.&> the country is entitled to .expect even in Auckland, could soon have set it right. Time enough there was for all the ends of prudent vigilance, if nothing urifah" or unworthy had interferedl He (Mr; Ebau) found it a task ■to restrain his indignation at the line of policy pursued by his Excellency's officials. There was no candour, no care to. save time,or expense; on the contrary the transaction affecting, the lapsed bills was cooly done; and was evidently—say what hon. members might—leveled at the present Superintendent and his officers in, no friendly or accommodating spirit., The people's eyes could hot be closed against this ldwand ungenerous mode of acting—a mode which every well-ordered mind would spurn. With, regard to his Honor the Superintendent, lie could see no blame attaching to either him or his advisers. ,It would be very hard for men, situated as they were to have done better. Under these impressions he should heartily support the motion in their favour; Mr. Elliott rose and defended the Colonial Secretary and the general Government froiri the charge that the general Government sought, in any manner to thwart the legislature of the last session of the Council, and animadverted strongly on the practice indulged in by one or two lion, members of imputing base and unworthy motives to their political opponents for every act .opposed to their own wishes. He then proceeded to argue that the blame of so many of the bills of last session having been lost rested wholly with the Superintendent'and His Executive, \vho have put a corirftnrctidf} Upon"" the Colonial Secretary's letter of Marcli.3l, 1857; conveying instructions to the Superintendents of provinces with regard to' the transmission of bills reserved for the assent of the Governor, which that document does not bear, and which no person could attach to it unless he has come to a foregone conclusion to screen the Superintendent and iiia Executive at whatever sacrifice of justice and truth, and throw all the blame upon the general Government. , The Provincial Secretary said he had a few remarks to make on the present question; but before commencing them' he would disclaim any participation in the ideas of the hon. members opposite, who attributed to the Colonial Secretary some deliberate and malicious iuterition to damage the present Superintendent in the course pursued with regard to the lapsed bills. But such supposition was a hallucination of the hon. member opposite, whose vivid imagination must have conjured up all this notion of a conspiracy. For his part he would not believe any gentlemen here or, elsewhere would enter into such miserable.intrigues for such objects. To what point had the question now been brought by the Council'? He believed .that the discussion, as to the Constitution Act, had fully established this one fact: that its meaning was very obscure and doubtful as to the mode in which Bills should bo sent up to the Governor; That at least was proved, and the same result apparently had been produced in the minds of the Superintendent and his advisers. It could not be as Mr. Elliott argued — that the meaning of the actwas-pa'tent to every one of the least common sense, for Mr. Stafford himself it appeared had not perceived it, but had sent up.his last reserved bill only in copy, not in.original. With respect to the letter of instructions, he could not say whether ho (the Provincial Secretary) might or might hot have understood it as Dr. Monro and his supporters understood it, had he read it before his attention had Keen drawn to the different constructions put upon it. !Rut it must be allowed .thatth^re^as no very great i*HJojTof stupidity or incapacity.; in .interpreting it. aa the l^oyincial Government,|i*4: q!pne. ; At.all events, $%• could I 'it "not- ruvoT been written in'this way;

" Let duplicate, originals of the bills be sent up, one i for the general, government, one to be returned to I the province." Theae words were simple enough and would have, rendered, misconstruction absolutely impossible. Well, this was thehenious offence for which the Council were called upon entirely to pass a vote of censure upon trie Executive. . Was this reasonable ? And here he would say that he was in a position to consider the matter best as an advocate, for he could be in no way himself affected by the proposed censure, not having been a member, of-the Executive Government when. the presumed mistake took place, .not haying heard anything about it till.soms time afterwards: He therefore could apeak of it as unconcernedly and impurtially as any hon.. member not connected with the Government. Whst was then the measure of this offence? It must first'be borne in mind that it was only fair in judging to sep'-irats the act of.omission or whatever it was, in sending the bills, from the consequences of that act. It had been most clearly shown by his friend the Provincial Solicitor, tint every thing possible had been done by Government to remedy the omission as soon as the wish of the general government was made clearly apparent. Trie consequences were altogether beyond the control ofv the government. The late Superintendent had done precisely the same thing—no evil consequences followed, and had inter-provincial steam communication existed still, no evil consequences would have followed the.present Superintendent's act which they Were asked t to' censure! Therefore they should consider the act by itself apart from its consequences, in coming to $ decision. But after all what were those consequences ? The. niost reliable report Government had from Collingwood, received.within these few days, said that storekeepers and others frequently complained that unsuccessful diggers Had rer ■ fused 12 shillings a-day as wages for labour. Would hon. members timn have wished that 14, 15, or 20 shillings a-day had been expended by Government in employing these diggers—in making a road perhaps which would have been already almost deserted ? If Wages like,, that are.tp 'Jje' paid by, Government to retain immigrants, were^tiheae the very best class of im : migrants that the money'should be expanded on ? . At all events the money Would still be to spend, arid to much more advantage. The Education Loan Bill had been deferred with others — and the lo^al committee kept some months out of the money, to be advanced for building schools out of the Trust Funds. This he really believed was the greatest evil that had accrued to the province. . Hon members unaccustomed to offices might consider the mistake of the Executive (supposing one to have occurred) a very grest one; but what was it to some he could name, evidence of which was lying at that moment before their eyes ? Look at the proclamation of trie boundary of the colony of New Zealand, as it Bret issued. They wou'd see that it was made,to extend (in the peculiar English adopted) between 34 degrees north, to 50. or (50 degrees south, that is to say, about half of China Proper was taken - possession of by the Queen, whose illustrious largelettered autograph was affixed to this strange docu - ment. One hundred an! fifty.million pigtails about at oncedec'ared subjects of Britain, and deprived of their allegiance! Well, what notice was taken of that? A serious vote ot censure passed upon the Colonial Office by Parliament pi any oilier body ? .No; alter a few years a new proclamation fol'owed, with "a whereas it is expedient to correct the boundaries of the colony of New Zaa'and, &c." Again, they might all recollect how Sir George Grey's legulatious, giving cheap land, were fixed under an authority from the Secretary of State (Sir John, Pakington) in a despatch in which he said, "In my despatch, No. 35, I have given you such ample powers to deal with this question, that >? ou can a:ter what regulations you pleasa," or words equally compreherisiva and decided. Dispatch No; 35 arrived, and not.the slightest allusion to the matter was found in it. There was a serious mistake indeed. And upon it Msssrs. Sewell and Wakefield applied to and obtained from the Supreme Court an injunction to prevent the sale of land Under Sir G. Grey's regulation, which injunction wa-i disregarded.' Now these were samples of mistakes occurring riot in new offices like our little ones in Nelson, committed not by nsw Superintendents unused to official business, but in the highest tip-top offices of the empire that colonies can be'connected with, and by ministers of whdm Macaulaybsomewhere says, " Each new minister on comingi.into office is surrounded by experienced, public'■'•tiien-r*-the depositaries of official tradition." Beside, these immense blunders,. those attributed to the Provincial Executive, fade into insignificance —the latter anyone might have made. His hon. friend himself (Dr.. Monro), who was within an ace of being Superintendent, and as to whbrrihe would' say there was lib.failn"in.the province who could fill that office more worthily, with greater credit to himself and satisfaction to. the public-^-might have committed j such a mistake ■ himself, for had not the late .Superintendent done the same hing, and everyone knew he was not-deficient in capacity, arid was a master of official nature and the mysteries of red tape, so tHat he derogated nothing.from his hon. friend's character or capacity in this-'supposition—he. imputed to him only this imperfecticta-th'at He was a hum?n being, and therefore,fallible"; arid it appeared from the letter itself of the Colonial Secretary, that similar if not the same mistake, had most probably been committed by the Superintendents of other provinces. Yet who ever heard of th'ejr.Couticils passing votes of cerisu're upon them?. He believed this Council would not consider it advisable to do so with .respect to an act which was only conceived to be a niistake, which lie believed had not produced any serious evils', and which at any rate was a trifle compared to others which had been made before in relation to this colony, and which had never been censured by any one. They might reject the reply proposed by Mr. Parker, which had been quizzed as a very " milk and water one," but that he presumed was precisely what it^asintended, ar*d be in accordance with the custom which was foo ishly followed by the Council. He thought it after all was very vaporlike sky blue, but they might adopt Dr. Monro's reply, which was very much better written, provided they left out the clause containing a censure upon tHe old executive; Mr. Saundebs replied. . . The Provincial Solicitor said he did not believe in what had fallen from his honourable friend opposite, that duplicity had been practised in the matter of the bills thori under discussion. He did not believe any serious harm had been done. If we draw co'niparisons between this Province, arid Wellington, lie thought the inhabitants of the latter had quite . sufficient of their present members. .He agreed witH tHe address of Dr. Murifd with.tHe exception of ; the paragraph in question1 censuring the present Superintendent arid his go 7 vernment. The honourable member extended and illustrated his remarks with various omisions that had been- made in the home-offices by men of the greatest intelligence: Mr. Parker proposed to withdraw the reply then before the House in his name provided the lion, member opposite withdrew the objectionable part in his (Dr. Munro's) reply, viz., censuring his Honor and his. Council. Dr. Munro rose to reply—He thought the House should bear with Hint, a few minutes whilst he tried to explain. He did riot impute any wilful rieglect to; call for the" celisure of the House. , He thought it to be the duty of this Council to point out these errors. He thought the Executive had made a blunder, and that when they entered upqn office there was a great flourish of trumpets. He concluded by saying that if any'hon. member would point out to hhn what should be substituted; he would accede to it. THe Chairman put the question to the House when the following division took place. For Dr. Monro's amendment, 6; against it, 16. The house then resumed, and the Reply agreed to. Mr. Adams moved that the Reply be adopted and fonvarded to the Superintendent. After the various notices of motion, standing on the paper for that day, had been proceeded with, the council adjourned at half-past ten. Want of space precludes our noticing the proceedings of Wednesday arid Thursday. The Waste Lands Bill is. reserved for this evening. The Inroads op Idleness.—lt is no more possible for an idle man to keep together a certain stock of knowledge than it is possible to keep together a stock of ica exposed to the meridian sun. Every day destroys a,fact, a re ation, or an influence; and the only method of .preserving the bulk, and value of the pile is by constantly adding to iL—Sydney Smith. Extraordinary Hay Crop.—Although the crops on an average are by no means equal to those of last year (says the Dathursl Free Press) we hear of isolated instances of a very extraordinary yield; Mr. Walker, of the Hen arid Chickens; has just- completed a harvest of oaten liay from five acres of land, the yield of which, he says, is put down by experienced judges at twentyfive ton's." When standing, the oats in many places were seven! feet high; arid so thick on the ground that two men who were employed to cut it. at a high rate per acre xould hardly get over half an acre per. day. If the yield be, as estimated, ; fi.ve tonsi per acre, it exceeds anything we have heard of either in the colony or eluewhere.'