ENGLISH NEWS.

Lyttelton Times, Volume II, Issue 73, 29 May 1852, Page 2

ENGLISH NEWS.

At a meeting of intending colonists, held at the offices of the CanterburyAssoci3tion,Dec3l, it was announced that letters had been received from this settlement to the 2nd September. Lord Lyttelton said, —" The period was now approaching for the reassembling of Parliament, when there must, of course, necessarily be some important legislation about New Zealand, because the present acts of Parliament, which regulated the condition of political affairs there, expired in 1853, and therefore the Government would have to consider what permanent provisions should be made for the constitution of the colony. Of couse it would be premature to vaticinate what the proposition of the Government would be; but the society would endeavour to secure measures which would throw as much as possible the weight of government upon the local management on the spot. That was what the society proposed to do, and he presumed that the Government proposition would tend to the same end; but he feared that they would not go far enough in that respect. He was sure any one who would take the trouble to peruse the Lyttelton Times, and to see the excellent business speeches made at the meetings there, would have no doubt that the colonists were quite fit to receive any amount of self-government that might be intrusted to them. (Cheers.)

Lord Palmerston has but just gone out, and Lord Gran ville just come in. The last of these events is still wrapped in a degree of mystery which we cannot expect to see cleared up, if at all, before the meeting of Parliament. The explanations attempted by the paper which was chosen as the sole vehicle of the announcement are awkward and unsatisfactory. The dismissed Minister was not, we are assured with amusing earnestness, pushed out by the Greys. He fell a victim to an undue enthusiasm for Louis Napoleon's coup d'etat —an enthusiasm wnieh no respect for the opinions of his colleagues could restrain within sober limits. Whilst Lord John Russell, through some anonymous organ of communication, was assuming on behalf of the British Government an attitude of distance and displeasure—whilst Lord Normanby, detected in a correspondence with Cavaignac, was in a still more uncomfortable posture—Lord Palmerston was pouring into the gratified ear of Count Walewski assurances of his extravagant approbation and unbounded delight. Odd—:is not it? • A curious peep into the domestic doings of the "happy family!" But the truth is that it signifies very little what may have been the immediate pretext, or the proximate cause of quarrel. The only explanation that has been offered assumes, in the same breath that it denies, the existence of a disunion and discord within the Cabinet quite incompatible with anything like harmonious cooperation. Lord Palmerston's dismissal, indeed, turn it which way,you will, amounts to a full, though tardy, confession of the justice of the attack which all the resources of the Government were employed to parry eighteen months ago. He has become an object of distrust and dislike, his assailants then urged, to the whole circle of foreign Powers; he was at issue with his colleagues—at issue with the interests and feelings of the nation—at issue with everything and everybody with whom it was in his power to quarrel. Will Lord John Russell now deny that this is true ? And will he be believed if he does? We think not.

Old as he is, Lord Palmrston is fond of power, The emoluments of office he cannot without inconvenience resign. He has a large, though not an influential following. There is nothing against him, probably, in black and white. In expelling him the Government has cashiered, without any exception perhaps, its ablest man. No trilling difference of opinion will be accepted as a sufficient reason for mating so formidable an enemy, or dismissing a colleague possessed, as his keenest antagonists will admit, of such great and varied qualifications, His forty years' experience—his thorough, acquaintance with the business of his department and the diplomatic history of Europe—his tact and adr dress in debate—his extraordinary power (however rarely exerted) of sustained intellectual effort—a " pluck," which often degenerated into insolence, but which was favourably shown in the prompt protection he uniformly afforded to British subjects in every quarter of the globe .-„— his popularity with t^e mob-r-^he well-earned

and well-rewarded attachment of his friends and adherents —these things made him in some respects a capable, and in many a powerful, Minister. The very policy which he affected —one of complete isolation—was one which had it charms for the insular pride and shyness of our countrymen, who are apt to forget that the only isolation which can be either safe or convenient is the isolation of supremacy. His successor is a rising man of small experience, who has as yet reached no higher position than that of a fluent and sensible speaker, and an industrious and popular man of business. Besides, he is in the House of Lords. Hence it is reasonably augured that Lord John means to be his own Foreign Secretary; and the curiosity of the public fastens principally upon the Under Secretaryship resigned by Lord Stanley of Alderley and the two places vacated by Lord Granville. Who will be Vice-President of the Board of Trade ? Who will be Paymaster of the Forces?. .On the answer to these questions hang, in no small degree, the future fortunes of her Majesty's Government.— Guardian.