CURRENT EVENTS.

Wellington Independent, Volume XVI, Issue 1614, 3 September 1861, Page 4

CURRENT EVENTS.

[From the European Times, June 36.]

Above the contentions of rival politicians, more importaut than whether the Liberals shall go out and the Tories come in, is the question of the weather, and it is gratifying to find from all quarters— throughout Englaud, Ireland, and Scotland, and from most parts of the Continent, that the growing crops are in a healthy and forward state. The weather is all that can be desired, and seems likely to continue so. From Ireland, the poorest couutry, and the first to feel the effects of an unfavorable harvest, the prospects aro excellent. Potatoes, especially, promise to be unusually good, aud, in the present state of affairs ou the Americau continent, this is a great and unmixed blessing. As poverty is usually the parent of crime, the physical improvement whioh has been going on in Ireland for years past ha 3 led to a vast moral improvement, as reoent statistics show. It appears, from a statement recently issued by the Government, that the prisons are comparatively empty. During the last eight years the convict class, which would otherwise have been sent out ofthe country, have been retained at home and their punishment has been expiated in the home prisons. In 1854 the number of couvicts was 3933, but during the present year the uumber has fallen to 1492.

Indeed, there appears to he a marked improvement throughout the empire in the character ofthe criminal population. Tho ticket-of- leave system, as it was called, was introduced into the three kingdoms, mainly because our colonists < at the Antipodes refused any longer to reoeive our criminals, Transportation to New South Wales and Tasmania has been discontinued some time, and the only place iv that part of the world to which we now send criminals is Western Australia, A recent Parliamentary blue book shows that this distriot is very prosperous, that crime is rare, and that since it became a penal sottlerneut many ticket-of-leave men have become affluent colonists. Mining operations and agriculture form the wealth of the colony. A large demand has arisen in India for a supply of timber that Western Australia produces which is impervious to the white ant, and moro penal labour, it is shown, could be employed in the colony with advantage. Last year we sent the Western Australians three hundred convicts ; but they could, it appears, do with a thousand more, and, as the ticket-of-leave system is very unpopular at home, we have no doubt that this request will be complied with. Generally speaking, wheu a penal settlement becomes prosperous, the inhabitants clamour for a suspension of

this kind of labor. Not so, however the Western Australians, who are less sentimental than there well-to-do neighbours. They desire to rise and rise rapidly, and we may as woll aid them in the attempt. By doing this we serve, them and ourselves, and above all, we serve the convicts, who avo thus afforded an opportunity of retrieving their character in a distant laud, where few are acquainted with their antecedents.

There can be little doubt that Lord Palmerston's Government is declining in popularity, and that the Conservative party are rapidly rising in numbers aud importance — as far as tbe House of Commons is concerned. How Car the general feeling of the country is in the same direction time will show; but as regards the existing House, the Government is doomed, unless it dissolves in the spring. The Church-rate quostion saw some of the Ministers voting one way, some another, Mr. Gladstone, for instance, voted this year, as he did last year, against the Bill j the new Secretary to the Treasury, Mr. F. Peel, voted with Mr. Gladstone; but, with the exception of the Chancellor of the Exchequer, the leading Cabinet Ministers supported Sir John Trelawny. The result was undoubtedly regarded as a Ministerial defeat, and was so received by a very full house. An eye-witness thus desoribea the scene : — "The effect of the excitement was enhanced by the contrast besween the hurly-buily which accompanied the tellers, and the breathless silence in which the Speaker's address to the House was listened to ; and when he wound up by declating that his voice was with ' the noes,' the pent-up feelings of | the Opposition broke down all barriers, I and ihey poured out ofthe House almost wild with their triumph, which had come so opportunely to bear out the assurance given them by Lord Derby, in St. James'I square, on Monday, that they had only to will the overthrow of the Government ! aud succeed."

An account comes to us by way of Ireland of this meeting at Lord Derby's when upwards of two hundred members, who follow the Opposition leader, were present. His lordship was more than usually joyous and encouraging — said, in substance, what the proceeding passage conveys, that they could upset the Government at any time ; but he did not desire this, as Conservatism was becoming strouger every clay, and he wished to hold back, with a view of returning to power on a long lease. There were two parties in the Cabiuet — one, led by Lord Palmerston, who were sound and Conservative ; the othor revolutionary and destructive, the leaders of which his lordship did not specify, but he had, no doubt in his eye at the time Lord John Russell and Mr. Gladstone. Whenever* the policy ofthe latter was in the ascendant, they must oppose ; when the former they must support it. This was Lord Derby's advice, and the exultation of his purty is great accordingly. Even with regard to tho four seats taken from Sudbury and St Alban's, it is believed at the Carlton that they will aU go to swell the Conservative majority,— that Birkeuhead will returner. Laird, that South Lancashire will reject Mr. Gladstone, that the West Riding will return another Conservative member, aud Middlesex another, supposing the Government to proceed with the Bill, which, in the face of the existing state of things it would be something like madness for them to do.

The conduct of the Speaker iv giving the casting vote on the third reading of the Church-rate Bill to the Opposition has been a good deal canvassed, inasmuch as he iujured the Government which cjeated him. But we have no doubt Evelyn Denison voted as he would have done had he been a private member of Parliament. A Loudon letter says — "It was a common remark that the Speaker had never appeared to suoh advantage, and much surprise was expressed at the singular felicity and measurement of his language, on an occasion when his speech must bave been extern • pore." This is paying the Speaker a poor compliment, and considering that he has passed thirty of the best years of his life in the House of Commons, and been constantly listeuing during the whole of thit time to the best speeches, of the age, it ought not to be a matter of surprise. that he was able on the instant to deliver a few sentences on an ordinary subject in a fluent and intelligible 1 manner. But the truth is that the nfesent Speaker has been regarded as a faiV ure. He has not hitherto been up tothe .•: mark, and his friends, therefore, were' the more agreoably surprised that he came out of this affair creditably, For him it appears to have been considered " perilous sport."

This Church-rate affair, whioh is the Parliamentary event of the week, will, in all probability, be the last political struggle of tire Session. So thinks the letter we have quoted, himself a Government official, and, therefore, likely to know the prevailing belief. He says — "Yesterday's scene forms an exciting wind-up of the Session— for so people are already calling Wednesday's discussion. It was to be the thunder-storm that was to clear tbe Parliamentary atmosphere : and now the pairs are multiplying from tens to hundreds, and everybody, but the men in office, is planning the quickest possibleescape from the stifle, and glare and fog of London, to the coldness, and greenery, and sunshiny enjoyableness of the couutry," There is much business still before Parliament, but it will be wound up, or withdrawn, or disposed of in one way or other, without delay. There will be morning, and afternoon,

and evening sittings— sittings on Saturday, and pressure brought to hear on everybody and everything that will secure the desired end. It is understood that Government will be compelled to accept j Si»- Richard Bethell's Bankruptcy Bill, iv > order to>' give the business of the Sessiou | gome appearance of success. With tho; exception of tho Budget it is the only measure of which they can boast, and I disfigured and mutilated as it has been in the Upper Chamber, the angry Attor-ney-General will, it is said, be obliged to take it as it is. In this respect the Government will not humour Sir Richard, who is said to be very much out of temper at what has occurred. But if what we have heard be correct, the AttorneyGeneral has to blame himself for much of the injury which his pet project has sustained, for he had privately dared the Lords to " trample on his coat," and they have taken him at his word. There is a rumour that Lord CampbeU will be speedily superseded as Chairman of tbe House of Lords by Lord Chief Justice Cockburn. If this rumour prove correct, the ohange will be evidently made to keep Sir Richard Bethell in temper by placing him*at the head of the Court of Queen's Bench as Lord Cockburn's successor. It would appear that to give a roan the appointment of Attorney-General is equivalent to a Chief-Justiceship aud a peerage — for two of the personages here named have atained those distinctions, and a third is pressing on. It would fare better with the public if the Chairman ofthe Peers was stationary, like the Speaker of the Commons, as far as expense is concerned, for these frequent changes are so many additional charges on the Consolidated Fund.

One of those brutal exhibitions, a prize fight, which excited so much interest in the spring of last year, and which was defended 'iv the House of Commons by the present Home Secretary, has been repeated this week. The affair of last yeati 1 " derived all its interest from one of the belligerents being an American, the other an Englishman, and, as the former was a giant in height, muscle, and strength, the national pride was a little flattered by our countryman, who was comparatively small in physique, having done so well under the circumstances. In this week's contest bolh the fighters are natives, while the disparity as regards size was even more marked than in the case of Heenan, and Sayers. Hurst, who was nearly battered to death, and whose life is said to be iv danger from the excess of his punishment, was a bnlkier and heavier man than Heenan, nnd Mace, his adversary, is.said to be even slighter than Sayers. Success, however, iv these encounters, is not with the strong but with the active— with the man who combines ordinary muscular power with quickness aud precision. Tbe bulky, awkward Hurst was led from the ground blind, reeling, mangled, and almost senseless, while bis light and nimble antagonist hardily exhibited a scratch. There is only one virtue in this otherwise disgusting business eutitled to respect, and that is tho bravery with which the man who suffered most endured his punishment. He was " game" to the last, and we. see it stated that while his face appoared as if it had been cut with a razor, and the blows of tho victor fell on him "like the souud from a blow given upon raw meat," he would not yield — would not say "enough." But this is poor atonement for an exhibition more worthy of cannibals than Christians.

The Emperor of the French has acknowledged the new Kingdom of Italy, and a telegram from Turin intimates that Ricasoli, Cavour's successor, is satisfied °with the terms of the recognition. It was previously hinted that these terms had been objected to. It now appears that, the Mazzinians believed that the death of Cavour was favourable to their project of establishing a Republic, but that the general sympathy for the departed statesman exceeded their calculations and disorganised their plans. Austria is also suspected of plotting against the new Italian Kingdom, but in ull cases of this kiud extremes are certain to meet, aud, meetiug, often consolidate the purpose to which they are opposed. Iv this sense, the acknowledgment of the new Italian nation by France and England leaves no room for doubt or uncertainty about the future. The rumour is revived that the price of this recognition has been settled between the Emperor and Victor Emmanuel, and, rememberiug Nioe and Savoy, with the equivocations arising out of that transaction, the rumour may prove a faot. One of the members of a^York- 1 shire borough mentions this week that! orders have beeu forwarded from the Admiralty to hasten the completion of the new gunboats, which are to be put into commission. The writer believes that this warlike move may arise from a new turu of the position between Prussia and Denmark, and that our Government is at present the reverse of friendly with tho leading Protestant power on the Continent, is it not quite as likely that these preparations may refer to another and nearer quarter — France p Witb that that country wo are, it appears, hardly more friendly than with Prussia, aud this is confirmed by the following passage, from the letter, whioh must be takeu for what it is worth :— " We are firmly wedded to the rumour that^Cavour had promised the Emperor of the Frenoh the island of Sardinia for Rome, as, iv spite of tha caution of the Emperor of the Frenoh, the cypher, letters and correspondence have been sent and made out. As to corresponding in cyphers, it is a weak invention. Our Foreign-office,! though it frequently changes the fashion

of this communication, never permits a dispatoh to pass across the water, except in tbe hands and custody of ono of the highest Foreign-office officials. No ordinary Foreign-office courier is thonght elevated in rank aud responsibility enough for this trust.