WEDNESDAY, JULY 26, 1871.

Wellington Independent, Volume XXVI, Issue XXVI, 26 July 1871, Page 2

WEDNESDAY, JULY 26, 1871.

This news by the Nebraska, so far as New Zealand, is concerned is very encouraging. The rise in wool reported by the Suez mail is confirmed, and further explanations are given cf the effect on the market arising from American competition. The items relating, to our other staple exports, our securities, and investment companies, are all equally encouraging. It is impossible to read of the brightening prospects of New Zealand, the prestige she now holds in the metropolis of the world, and the distinguished honors }:aid to her representative (the Hon. Mr Yogel) in the City, in political circles, and in ''the West End," without a feeling of thankfulness that the gloomy views of her financial position, and the hideous caricatures drawn of her future prospects and her public men, by opposition journals, have been so utterly belied, and th:A the policy on which the colony has now entered has not only stood the severest test of the money market, but has received the approbation of the ablest and most advanced statesmen in the world. If, as Mr Stafford delicately hinted at Timnru, tho appearance of our representative is so much against him that lie earnestly wished for tho sake of New Zea T and Mr Yogel " would go no further than Washington ;" how great must be the triumph of the policy he has expounded to the leading capitalists and statesmen of England, since with this drawback, whatever it may mean, he has succeeded beyond the most sanguine expectations, and has besides had more social honors paid him than have ever before been accorded to a colonial rcpresenta tive ! The more objectionable the man, the more successful must he the Minister, and the sounder and the wiser the policy of which he is the exponent. But leaving the news affecting New Zealand, which we refer to elsewhere, it is impossible to read of tho horrors now enacting in Paris without mingied feelings of disgust and pity and alarm. Tho brief reign of the Communists is over, but it has ended in desolation and ashes. Its partisans began by being patriots, and ended by being incendiaries, and murderers, and (worse still!) murderesses! Old men and beautiful young women caught in the very act of pouring petroleum into the cellars of houses — was ever anything so revolting? The last stand these Communists — these robbers, blasphemers, and murderers — made was in the Cemetery of Pere la Chaise. There perished the Commune, and there let us hope, for humanity's sake, it lies bun'od for ever. The Communist rebellion was evidently not a rebellion of Parisians, but a rebellion of labor ngainst capital. The Communists were cosmopolitans — enemies of the propertied classes — not because it was wrong to hold property, but because it was wrong they did not hold it! for on the dead bodies of these proletariats wore found jewels and coins, and other indications of suddenly acquired wealth. But it must be remembered that they were not all canaille. They numbered in their ranks men of letters, men of rank, scholars, soldiers, and tradesmen ; but the same devilish spirit of mischief seems to have assimilated them for the time being, and incited them to revolt ngainst religion, agamst order, against all that is holy and honorable in humanity. Their brief and terrible history reminds us of the narrative of the swine demoniacally possessed. The world has never seen before a national suicide — '93 was nothing to it ; '30 a mere baga telle, and the atrocities which ushered in the second Empire might have been enacted over and over again, without attracting any notice in the last and terrible days of this "abomination of desolation." There is peace now : but it is a peace made by the sword, and maintained by the sword. Paris is still divided — one party republican, another monarchical. The other towns are all evidently monarchcial,for Paris is no longer France. The Commune met with but a feeble support in the great towns of Franco, and with a faint responsive echo in the

populous cities of England. But the future of France cannot yet be predicted. It is as uncertain as the policy of the Executive, of which Thiers is the head. The provinces henceforth will be more potential in shaping its destiny, and present indications would lead us to infer that they favor the accession of the Orleanists. The priests support the latter, but their influence seems rather a source of weakness than an accession of strength, Recent horrible disclosures have stirred up a bitter feeling against them. Skeletons of young Women, in attitudes of agony, have been found in crypts of churches in Paris, priests have been arrested, and public indignation has been aroused against them. The Orleans Princes are at Versailles waiting the course of events. France is drifting like a ship at sea which will not answer the helm, whose crew is mutinous, and whose officers are incapable. What may be the next act in the dreadful tragedy, we can only conjecture. We may not seek too confidently to predict.