English and foreign Items.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume 15, Issue 761, 14 February 1870, Page 3

English and foreign Items.

GENERAL SUMMARY. [Home News, 3rd Dec] Unless Government acts promptly and with energy in Ireland, we may have at no distant date to announce something like rebellion. The agitation which has been taking place in that island, and producing murders, treason-meetings, and a harvest of seditious publications, has culminated. The Fenians of Tipperury county, where there was a vacant seat, have actually elected as M.P. a Fenian cooviefc, o'Donovan-~Ross», now in one of the English gaols. This, however, though an act of stupid insolence, is only a sign of the state of feeling : the election is void, and the next candidate —a very unsatisfactory one —will take his seat. It is the widespread revolutionary action that has to be dealt with, and all the organs of public opinion have now aroused fco demand interference on the part of the Executive. What precise form that interference will have to take has to be determined, and it may have to be modified by events, but when we say that there are five weekly Fenian papers in Dublin and several provincial ones, which constantly preach treason, and are read by the class that reads no other journal, we say that repression in this direction should be the first step. But more must be done than the shutting up of some wretched newspaper offices. The fact is that there is no criminal law in Ireland. It is impossible to arrest an assassin, and therefore we need not go on to complain that there is no convicting him—but may mention that in one case of a savage attempt at murder, in which the guilt was clearly brought home to the accused, the jury, whether from sympathy with him, or from fear for their own lives, refused to find the only verdict possible to honest men. It is not our bu iness to point out machinery by which this state of things might be remedied, and by which the population that screens the murderer and emourages the Fenian ui'gufc be made to feel the exceeding inconvenience of those courses, we have only to record that a strong appeal is now being made to the Government to take the matter in hand, and some think that a Government ought not to hive waited for such au appeal. The Fenians have carried another point, and have forced those who are interested in the land question to abstain from meeting for the dimension of that subject, or if a meeting is attempted, it is broken in upon and dispersed, with cries that nothing 6hall be listened to until the convicts are released, ihis in the teeth of the explicit declaration by t e First Minister that they shall not be set at liberty. It is manifest that a sharp and summary remedy must be applied. vt. hile we await to hear what it is to be, our eyes turn to France, where parties' have now met for the great struggle When we last .wrote, Pari* was preparing for the new elections that had been rendered necessary by the double return ol four of the fiercest Oppositionists. These were held, and Paris again manifested her hatred of the Emperor by electing M. de ii-chefort, who has become a notoriety aimply by libelling JNapoieon, Eugenie, and the young Prince. He got 18,000 votes. Emmanuel Arago, and the Hebrew Ureinieux, determined JKepublicans, were also chosen, and a similar result would nave occurred in the fourth case, but the victorious candidate did not happen to get a sufficient number of the votes (a tourth), so this contest must come over again. Then the Left, as it is called, which numbers all the ablest members of the Opposition, published an important manifesto, in which they set forth their intention to destroy personal government. They did not intend, they said, to use physical foive unless it were first applied against themselves, they would revise the law of elections, depriving the Emperor of the power of forming and remodelling the Circumscriptions, ihe, authorities were not to interfere in the elections. They would reform the municipal arrangements, do away with military law, which at once threatened liberty and peace, and would make the nation its own guard, and give it alone the right of declaring hostilities. Eights oi printing and publishing must be conceded, ana public meeliugs be allowed. In a word, the country was to be governed by itself and for itself. This document was not very numerously signed, but it was supposed to be approved by large numbers who did not deem it needful to append their names. We thsn waited to hear what the Emperor would be prepared to concede "on account" of demands to grant which, of course, was impossible, il he intended to remain Emperor at all. lhe Legislature met on the isyth Nov., and ids Majesty in person delivered Ins speech, it has found no favor anywhere; for it lacks straightforwardness and explicit nes?, unless these can be discovered in the withholding of nearly ail that has been claimed. Iho Emperor began by saying that it was not easy to establish in France the regular and peaceable exercise of liberty. But lie would answer for order, and it was for the Chamber to save liberty. Me then announced some reforms, by no means uniin- , ortant, but having nothing, exc.pt in one instance, to do with the programme of the other side. It was to be conceded that the Mayors of France should be selected only from out of the municipal councils, instead of at tlie absolute will of the fcstate. The other po.nts are of no interest, really though tney are desirable mollifications of existing systems. But France did not return such an Opposition as that which now sits in the Chamber to hear promises that savings banks should be improved,!

and that there should be regulation of infant labor. The Emperor was applauded —there were numbers present whose business it was to do this —but the speech has been received with the utmost coldness. Its immediate result was to send down the; funds a little, but that is usual, as secret meanings are always to be detected in royal speeches in France. That it did not send up the funds, as an address assuring a nation of what it desired would have done, was perhaps condemnation enough. But the Parliamentary result is this. M. Jules Favre has demanded to interpellate the Government on the delay in assembling the Legislature, on the interferences of the Prefects at the general election, on the June disturbances, and on the mining riots and their sanguinary repression. Also, be asked for a bill declaring that henceforth constituent powers should belong solely to the Legislative Body. The Minister of the Interior, M. Forcade de la Roquette, op posed this latter demand as unconstitutional, but it was arranged that a day for the debate should be immediately fixed, and tor this France and Europe are now looking, as come what may of it, there must now be a battle of principles. The Empress has returned from the East just in time to witness the collision of the thunderclouds. At home we are happily peaceful enough. In the early part of the month the Queen once more showed herself aniong her subjects, and went in procession to inaugurate the new Blackfriars bridge and the Hoiboru i Viaduct. The day was fine, and the peo pie came out in their millions. The whole line of theltmg progress, i'rom the Paddington Eailwav-ttation through the Park, to the south side of the bridge, and then up Holborn and back to the rail, swa"med with life. The Queen looked well, aud was well received, at some points enthusiastically, and appeared to be delighted. jSTo unuleasant 'occurrence of any kind marred the success of the day. Her Majesty caused Mr Gladstone to declare at the Guildhall banquet that no words could do justice to her sense of her "magnificent reception." Since that lime two court incidents have occurred. Cumberland-lodge. at Windsor, has been all but burnt to the ground, by accident; and the Princess of Wales has been confined of another princess, her fifth* child. To the gratification of the nation, to whom this ami;ble lady isdeservedly endeared, all is going on as well as possibl . The Prince of Wales has taken his place in Grand-lodge as a Grand Past Master, and has expressed his great satisfaction at being enrolled in the noble order. But for his being so young in Masonry, he would have been made Grand Master, in lieu of the Earl of Zetland, who now re area and will be succeeded by Earl de Grey. We have a pleasing account of the very kind reception of the Duke of Edinburgh by the Mikado, in Japan, who had a personal interview with the I)uke, aud accepted a diamond box from him. The Crown Princess of Prussia has never ceased to regard herself, or to be regarded as a daughter of .England, and we have ail been pleased to hear that she has visited Cannes, where she, with her children, ha* been walking about and paying the kindestand most unconventional visits —notably one to an English artist, Mr Munro, the .sculptor, whom the Princess called upon because he was too ill to visit hex*, just as lhe Queen desired to do iii the- case of the late Mr Peabody. ihe warmheartedness of the royal family of England is not the least of its claims to popularity. Three Alpine tourists have perished from cold on the Great St. Bernard. A young clergyman in Philadcipnia recently made himself a brilliant momentary reputation by preaching two of JJr Channing's sermons as his own. A gentleman recently arrived in Cork on the 18th day from his leaving fcian Fran ciseo. He had come by the Pacific Railway, stooped eight hours at jtfew York, and then came on by the Canard boat to Queenstown. Mr rfpurgeon has been laid aside from his public labors by an attack of sma.'l-pox. A contemporary says:—-"The sunnier the better, for his is valuable work, and ho has much before him yet." He has now nearly recovered. A private letter received at Melbourne from Aden, under date the 7th jS'ovetnber, says: —"The Great Eastern on her return will embark a cable to join Ceylon with Penan 3 and Singapore, and finally to unite China aud Australia, but it will be some little time before we get down to your part of the world—say two years and a half, or so." The Lords of the Admiralty having brought under the notice of Majesty the Queen that great inconvenience; lias been frequently occasioned by the Union Jack, which is the distinguishing flag oi the Admiral of the Fleet, being carried in boats and other vessels by Governors ol Colonies, military authorities, diplomatic o iicers, and consular agents when embarked, her Majesty lias been pleased to order that the military branch shall U3e a Uuion Jack with the Iloyal initials surrounded by a garland on a blue shield and surmounted by a crown in the centre; that the Union Jack to be used by diplomatic servants, ministers plenipotentiary, charges d'affaires, etc., shall bear Uieiioyai Arms iu liu centre on a white shield; while consuls and consular agents, &c, sh ill be limited to the use of the blue en- : ign, with the Koyal Arms in the fly of the flag.. The Governor's of her Majesty's dominions in foreign parts, and Governors jof all ranks and denominations administering the Governments of British colonies and dependencies, arc authorized to fly the Union Jack with the arms or badgi of the Colony emblazoned in the centre.

NATIONAL DISINTEGRATION. [Coacluded/l The following is in the spirit of a trua colonist: —"I think that most erroneous impressions prevail as to the disposition of the colonies to come begging to the mother country. It is my belief that there is a very strong repugnance to anything of the kind. And it is one of the offensive aspects of the discussion of such affairs to find prosperous and self-supporting colonies like Victoria, which boasts that it has scarcely ever cost the mother country a shilling, roughly classed with other other less-favored communities, and thought and spoken of as if we were all a pack of paupers together, hanging on to the skirts of a wealthy parent. Tne virtue of self-reliance is "one of vhe first lessons learnt by the individual colonists, and an aggregation of men drilled in such habits is not likely to sink readily into the whine of mendicancy ; on the contrary, there is an extreme sensitiveness in avoiding such aid. When the subject of the presents distributed by Prince Alfred came up for consideration, there was a perfect outcry in the Australian colonies that not one penny should be drawn from the British taxpayer. When a charge for the portion of the military expenditure was thrown upon Victoria at a period of a high range of prices consequent on the gold discoveries, we paid our troops so lavishly that the remonstrances came from ihe Home authorities, intimating that the high rates paid were producing dissatisfaction among other regiments. Whatever the desire of the colonies to apply to the mother country for assistance, the whole amount in money is very small. I have not the means at hand of showexactly what it is. But one of the best informed men on the subject lately assured me that he had been going through the estimates of such expenditure, and that excluding mere garrisons held for strictly Imperial purposes, he was astonished to find how small a sum the colonies really cost." Dealing with the question of loyalty, an attribute which even Earl Granville will not impugn, he remarks: —" To <>ne other point of danger beyond those I have already indicated I would allude before I have done. It will be observed how thoroughly unanimous are all authorities as to the devoted loyalty which has characterised our colonies. All testimony points to the hearty and honest nature of the affec;iou they have borne to the mother country, and to the loving spirit in which they have sympathised with her greatness, clung to her history, aud participated in her trials. But iu proportion to the warmth of their affection may be its recoil. There is probably no such Litter hatred as that resulting from rejected attachment. And if this off-hand dealing with now faithful and loving dependencies goes on, it will be wise to think of the influences upon the future. A deep sense of wrong leaves its trace in nations long after the particular actors in the transaction are no more. We may probably still detect a flavor of the tea duties in the Alabama controversy; and we the Norths and Georges of the nineteenth ceuturv in driving poor New Zealand smarting and groaning from the Empire, may, perhaps, be leaving to the diplomatic relations of our successors no trifling admixture of the ferocity of slighted love. Men who have bad an active share in the earlier years of these fine young giants, which are so certain some day to play a conspicuous part in the world's history, are naturally and most properly proud of their work. It is mortifying enough to find, after all their care, that England doubts whether these rising nations are worth having at all;' and this mortification will render them excessively sensitive in the di« rection I have just indicated." "la conclusion, he makes the following deductions :--» "It may be right, or it may be wrong, for Groat Britain to scatter to the winds that splendid colonial empire upon which the sun never sets. But if we decide upon so vast a change, we ought to set about it in a cautious and instructed spirit, dealing with such affairs as becomes their magnitude, and, with due' deliberation and a statesmanlike forethought, accepting this as a weil-weighed modification of national policy. We certainly ought

p.ot to moult away these polonies, one jby. one, as feathers which we have bepome to ° spiritless and decrepit to reiaip" f HE CASE OF NEW ZEALAND. [From the Times.] A free people can always afford to /consider its policy, and it is one special advantage of constitutional Government that it enables the nation to retreat with honor from a false position. The question of our future relations with the colony of New Zealand is, therefore, perfectly open, and there is nothing to prevent Lord Gran yjille's decision being hereafter reversed by the country. Since the case is argent, and Parliament is not sitting, Lord Carnarvon was justified in appealing with this object to public opinion, and Mr Edward Wilson, whose letter we publish to-day. has at Jeast an equal claim to be heard. As an Australian colonist of high character and great experience, he is well qualified to represent the prevailing colonial sentiment, while he assures us that he has no private interest in New Zealand to bias his judgment. Unfortunately, he devotes himself less to a defence of his opinion that we ought to assist the Colony of New Zealand against the "national disintegration" which he supposes to be a favorite idea at the Colonial Office. The resuit of this argument, however, isone which no one is likely to gainsay:— ft It may be right or it may be wrong for Great Britain .to scatter to the winds that splendid Colonial Empire upon which the sun never sets. But if we decide upon so vast a change we ought to set about it in a cautious and instructed spirit, dealing with such affairs as becomes their magnitude, and with due deliberation and a statesmanlike forethought, accepting this as a well-weighed modification of national policy. We certainly ought not to moult away tl?ese colonies one by one, a* feathers which we have become too spiritless and decrepit to retain." This principle being fully conceded on all sides we may dismiss for the present the reasoning by which Mr Wilson supports it, and confine our attention to his practical application of it. Here we are met with a considerable diffi pulty. Mr Wilson is shocked beyond measure at " the treatment to which New Zealand is being subjected," and can hardly find words to express his contempt for Lord Granville's way of looking at the matter; but he does not tell us what course he would adopt ff he were charged with the same responsibility. In default of this, Mr Wilson's counsels are worth much less fhon Lord Carnarvon's; but his protest against leaving New Zealand to shift for itself deserves consideration, on ground independent of its rather impotent conclusion. The first, though not the most important point to be settled is, whether the mother country or the colony is mainly to blame for the present state of things in New Zealand. On this point Mr Wilson lays down the law with a confidence which is almost startling : —" It is asserted, and I believe with perfect truth, by those best acquainted with all the details of this dreary business, that the British Government is mainly responsible for an imbroglio out of which no human being can at present see his way." Now, with every desire to spare the feelings of our countrymen in New Zealand, who are just now in great difficulty, we must take leave to join issue on this statement as wholly destitute of foundation. The British Ciovernment may fairly be held responsible for having erected New Zealand into a colony, for having assumed rights of sovereignty over the natives without the means of executing all the duties of sovereignty, and for having given the colony a representative Constitution, subsequently completed by concession of full power over native affairs. These errors, if errors they were, have all been committed at the instance and the supposed interest of the settlers, who alone were to reap the benefit expected from them. There is something absurd on the face of it in assuming that Great Britain contracted indefinite liabilities without $e smallest chance of profit, and was \jound to keep troops in New Zealand $1 the Maoris should be subdued, refining no control whatever over the Relations of the Colonists with the Xfitfils ?ft*. ftfe WK 9i fte nx^tt^r

'will appear more hopelessly untenable' upon the most cursory review of recent events. Mr Wilson is silent upon all that has passed during the last five years, and, for aught that appears in his letter, the 18th Regiment is now to he withdrawn without notice, at a most critical juncture, by the mere flat of Lord Granville. What are the facts ? Not to go still further back, Mr Cardwell found, on taking office in 1864, that whereas the Imperial force in New Zealand had not exceeded 1,262 men in 1860, it been raised to more than 10,000, besides colonial troops and friendly natives. In other words, not very much less than onetenth of the British army, exclusive of those stationed in India, was employed to defend a population of some 60,000 in the Northern Island of New Zealand —being one six-hundredth part of the whole population of of the empire, and much below that of many London parishes against a few thousand Maoris. This enormous force was almost exclusively paid out of the Imperial Exchequer, yet the colonial ministers claimed the direction of its operations, as well as of the measures which rendered military operations necessary. At the beginning of 1865, after strong representations from the Home Government, a new Ministry avowed a new policy, of which the cardinal principle was the simultaneous though gradual withdrawal of Imperial interference and of Imperial assistance. This proposition w r as not made till it had been distinctly intimated that a contribution of <£4o a-head would be required from the colony for any Imperial troops which might re main there; and, owing to repeated solicitations from the colony, the last regiment has not even yet been finally recalled. Again and again have we been assured not only that New Zealand did not want British troops, aud would not pay for them, but that she would not have them at a gift; again and again has their departure been delayed for some reason or another upon requisitions from the Colonial Government. At last, the policy of self-reliance is abandoned during a great emergency, and Mr F>>x with the sanction of the G>vernor and Legislature, prevails on General Chute to cOvintermand provisionally the departure of t*he 18th Regiment. Unless, however, Lord Granville's last des patch should be accepted as decisive, two commissioners will shortly reach London, instructed to plead for a second British regiment for service in the colony, as well as to organise an additional colonial force. Such is the present state of affairs, and we confess ourselves wholly unable to understand upon what conceivable pretence the British Government can be held re-; sponsible for creating it. Whether, under the circumstances, action should be limited by our responsibility, is a totally different question, and one in which Mr Wilson's testimony is of some value. He maintains, from personal knowledge of New Zealand, that it is one of those dependencies which cannot bear the burden of their own defence. But it remains to be shown that New Zealand is su helpless as Mr Wilson represents. According to him, " the settlers are usually struggling people, with bills to meet and families to feed, and with as little natural aptitude for deserting their homes and modes of livelihood to fight the Maoris as the tenant farmers of our rural districts, or the small traders of our towns." All this may be true, though settlers are usually supposed to be made of hardier j stuff than average fathers of families, but it does not prove what Mr Wilson infers from it. The English farmer or shopkeeper, not feeling it his vocation to light, pays willingly to hire men who can fight for him, and not only so, but even bears with little grumbling the interest on a debt in curred to. defend his grandfather. Thi is just what Mr Wilson considers it " extreme cruelty" to expect of the colonist. "To tell men so situated to tax themselves still further is a wanton insult/ 5 But, though he thinks it a wanton insult that men should be heavily taxed for self-defence, he ridi cules the penny wisdom that would spare the British taxpayer the cost of defending his fellow-subjects in New Zealand, over and above the cost of his own defence, and the maintenance of nearly a million paupers at home. To a> QU.r colonics justice, we believe

t,hat most of them would disavow this part of Mr Wilson's plea on their behalf, strangely inconsistent as it is with his vigorous protest against the notion that our colonies have any ten dency or desire to " hang hungrily on the skirts of a wealthy parent." The present demand of New Zealand does not directly involve any Imperial subsidy, and it is a great pity that Mr Wilson should advocate if upon so unsound a footing. The real force of the demand consists in the argument that by merely lending the Colony a couple of regiments not absolutely needed elsewhere we might rescue it from a great peril with little sacrifice to ourselves. The real force of Lord Granville's reply consists in the probability that, by so doing, we should be helping to perpetuate a policy condemned by this country, and preparing the way for a fresh ad misericordiam appeal. Upon the alternative proposed b} Lord Carnarvon we reserve our opinion till the New Zealand Commissioners shall have stated their case. No one who knows public feeling in England would detect in it any want of sympathy with the sufferings of a colony* or think it prudent to reinforce this motive with such considerations as are urged in the latter half of Mr Wilson's letter. The disintegration of our Empire is a subject into which we decline to enter with him. It is not within the region of practical statesmanship. It is introduced by |Mr Wilson himself in a spirit which savors of menace, and the discussion of it in such a spirit could only prejudice the claims of New Zealand.