The New-Zealander.

New Zealander, Volume 4, Issue 286, 24 February 1849, Page 3

The New-Zealander.

Be just and fear not: Let all the ends thou aitns't at, be thy Country's, Thy God's, and Truth's.

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 24, J849.

The arrival of the Colonist has put us in possession of our back numbers of Sydney and other colonial journals; and — thanks to the considerate kindness of our London friends, — of an immense batch of metropolitan and provincial papers. If our English allies, would only indorse those papers, — "Per First Ship," — we should be, periodically, fed with fresh and stirring news, instead of gorged with stale and comparatively passS intelligence, left to be accumulated for those monthly pests, the Post Office Packets, the dullest and most provoking droggers that ever tortured the colonial patience. During the long interval that elapsed between the arrivals of the Cheerful and Deborah, and which continued under eclipse, pending the passage of the Colonist, we find that much interesting information had been received in New South Wales. Another outbreak, beneath the dignity of rebellion, although probably not much less harassing to the well disposed, had occurred in Ireland •. — the counties of Waterford, and Tipperary, and the neighbourhood of Carrick upon Suir, being, in especial, the centre of the rebel operations. These were principally confined to the stoppage of the mails, the burning of some lone Police barracks, — the lijting of cattle and sheep, — the stripping of barns, — and a bit of safe and easy murder upon the defenceless or the unresisting. Numbers of respectable families were flowing into Kilkenny, — the war of repeal having assumed the unmistakeable character of a war of rapine. The Times hints most significantly of the manner in which this war must eventually be conducted. — The Drum-head Court, and the Provost Marshal ! Cholera, with stealthy pace, was drawing nearer and nearer, as the following extracts unhappily prove. The Cholera at Woolwich, October B.— The Cholera tins made its appearance here, and three fatal cases hi»ve occurred on hoard the convict ship, moored oppo* site the Royal Arsenal, the whole of the snffereis being convicts. Jhe first case took place on Friday, and the convict died after about seven hours illness. Of the cases on Saturday, two died, one after about seven hours illness, and the other in about two hours after he had gone to the ship, having been taken ill when at work in the Royal Arsenal, Two cases were reported as having occurred to day ; but up to the afternoon, they had fortunately not proved fatal, A medical officer arrived, and inspected the convict hospital ship to day, and afterwards had a meeting and consultation with the medical practitioners in Woolwich. The whole of the cases that have as yet occurred, have taketi place among the convicts at the Royal Arsenal, and none have been reported ijl from that cause on board the Wanior convict ship, opposite the Dockyard 1 The convicts on board the Justitia, at the Royal Arsenal, have been permitted to have tobacco and pipes to smoke, and tea or cocoa is to be substituted for their usual allowance of gruel ; tea and cocoa have also been allowed to the convicts on board the Warrior, opposite the Royal Dockyard, The Times "of the 9th October says •■ — By information received in town yesterday, we learn that other cases considered to be of decided Asiatic cholera had appeared at Edinburgh. On board the Justitia hulk, lying off Woolwich, two cases of Asiatic cholera had occu'red on Saturday, and two yesterday, of which three had proved fatal. Other scattered cases have been reported ; but two decided cases were reported in the metropolis several weeks ago, and in the state of the weather during the past week, which would favour the propogation ot the ordinary English cholera, the re ported cases must be received with caution. The accumulation of business in the House of Commons, and the snail's pace at which it has been so long procrastinated, had caused a Committee to be appointed to investigate the subject, in order to simplify and facilitate the transaction of public measures. M. Guizqt was examined as to the practice of the French Chambers ; and Mr. E. Curtis of New York, and Mr. J. Randall, a counsel practising in the Federal Courts of the United States, touching the customs of the American Congress. The inquiry resulted in a series of recommendations which it is to be hoped will not only cause something like business to be done, but tend to elevate the oratory of the British Senate to some degree of its former dignity. The Earl of Carlisle, the father of Lord

Morpeth, died on the 7th of October. Lord Morpeth's succession to the title causes a vacant seat for the western division of the County of York. " Sir Charles Edward Grey, Governor of Jamaica, had a serious fall from a mule, in the banning of September. The accident, it was feared, would terminate fatally. His Excellency had fractured a rib, dislocated the spine, and sustained several severe bruises. Yellow fevei had, moreover, supervened, and at the date of the depaiture of the Royal Mail steam packet Thames, the life of Sir Charles was despaired of. A diabolical system of poisoning, which had long been going on, has lately been detected in Essex. A female monster named May, was recently executed at Chelmstord, for administering arsenic to her brother-in-law, in order that she might obtain the burial money to which, as a member of a " Death Club," the unfortunate man was entitled. The interest evinced by a Mrs. Southgate in the fate of this wretch, led to a suspicion that she herself had disposed of a former husband in a like mannerThe body of the man was disinterred, examined, and the woman Southgate, committed for triaL Her capture led to further suspicions,' and children and husbands, who had quietly disap - peared, are supposed to have perished by tht* hands of their mothers and wives. Many apprehensions have since taken place, and more are likely to occur. The Emigration and Colonisation movements gain strength and bulk at every turn. Societies, with Honourables and Right Honourables at their heads ; and Clubs, with labourers and artisans at theirs, start up in all directionsPenury and privation at home outweigh the ridiculous apprehensions whicb so long rendered emigration and transportation, in the working man's imagination, nearly synonimous terms. They are now making voluntary arrangements to accomplish an end from, which, not long since, they involuntarily shrank. The London " Shipping Gazette," of the 14th September, gives a precis of the organization of the The Westminster Working Man's Emigration Club, to consist of an unlimited number of Members ; — subscribers to pay ninepence per week per share, and one shilling entrance ; the election for members for emigration to take place quarterly, and tobe decided by lot. This motion was carried by acclamation. According to returns of the trades unions, it was stated that, of two hundred thousand working men in London, onethird were in employment ; one-third only in paitial employment, pawning their clothes, and partly dependent on charily; and the remaining THIRD WHOLLY RELYING ON CHARITY !! Allusion was then made to the rate of wages in these colonies, and to the small proportion of human beings to the soil and the stock upon it — contrasting these, and the advantages to be derived from properly organized emigration clubs, with the vicious and visionary prospects held out by the Chartists and their land scheme. A new system of Emigration for Naval and! Military Officers was promulgated from Downing Street on the 18th of August. The best features are an allowance of nearly double the former remission money. The worst, persistence in the twenty shillings an acre delusion, with an extra tyrannic power, accorded lo> governors, to affix a higher value to spots which, in the plenitude of their wisdom, they may be pleased to designate " special country lots." What a niqnstrous door is here thrown open to favouritism and corruption ! The ignorance, arrogance, and oppressions of the Colonial Office must, ere long, insure its overthrow. A. mighty spring-tide of emigration impends ; yet the dogs in the Downing street manger, instead of seeking to impart life and energy to that national movement, are striving all in theii. power to render it abortive. Whom the Gods doom, they first depi ive of reason, and so it is likely to fare with the Greys, Glenelgs, and all the other ephemeral occupants of this ill conditionsd political caravanserai. On the continent, affairs are anything but tranquil. In Paris, the Red Republicans, were suspected of poisoning the minds of the soldiery, and another insurrection was looked j upon as more than probable. General Cavaignac having publicly vaunted the pride he felt in being the son of such a sire, as the Conventionist Cavaignac, that worthy's career has been ripped up, and acts of atrocity, scarcely to be paralleled by those of the English monster, Kirk, laid to his charge. Like that miscreant, he is said to have "supped full of horror -." — to have shed blood in torrents, and to have dishonoured a daughter on. a promise of safety for her father — a promise which, like Kirk, he laughed to scorn. These ! the Genet al publicly and indignantly disclaims. People, however, tell him, they can read as well as he, and will draw their own conclusions from the ample historical premises at their command. The General would have done wisely had he recollected that the closed mouth catches no flies. In Frankfort there had been a furious battle of barricades. The democratic and the aristocratic party in the senate, being so nicely balanced, that a fierce dispute occurred about the truce with Denmark. The former were for war, the latter for peace. The former ap* pealed to the passions of the peoplo, the latter [Cominued in Supplement. J

[Continued from the third page-] to the arms of the Austrian and Prussian soldiery, who, after considerable slaughter on both sides, compelled the burghers to retreat. It is to be feared that the battles of the German sovereigns and their subjects have but commenced. A Prince Lychnowski and General Aueiswaldt were ruthlessly butchered by the populace •- with a savagery that makes the blood run chill. In such a way that New Zealand, in its worst state of cannibalism, never equalled. Their flesh was hewn from their bones with scythes ; and every species of lingering torture inflicted. In Sydney, a public meeting to petition the Queen and Parliament, for an extension of the electoral franchise, took place in the City Theatre on the 22nd ultimo. This meeting appears to have been the offspring of the Political Association. Messrs. Macarthur, Bland, and Martin, were invited, but declined to attend. The latter gentleman has been furiously assailed, because, with more honesty than tact, he wrote the meeting the truth ; — to wit, that the extension they aimed at would, if granted, throw the power of election into the hands of the Sydney mob. That he, Mr. Martin conceived such a consummation most devoutly not to be wished, as he considered the Sydney mob to be, par excellence , the greatest set of scoundrels in existence. We perfectly coincide in Mr. Martin's view of the matter. Except the omission of leaseholders, which saould be amended, the amount and basis of the suffrage is ample and liberal. The constitution of New South Wales was, to our own knowledge, delayed, because Lord John Russell, (in 1840), had determined upon a £10 household qualification, until it was demonstrated to his lordship, that such a decision would place the colony at the mercy of its riff raff. Lord John, convinced of that fact, withdrew his bill, which Loul Stanley, in an amended shape, afterwards passed into Lw. Before the citizens of Sydney aspire to an extension of the franchise, let them set to work to purge their city council of the scum that renders Australian Corporations a scorn and a reproach. We commend our readers to an attentive perusal of the evidence given, by our umwhile fellow- colonist, Dr. Martin, before a committee of the House of Lords, in reference to the capabilities of New Zealand. That extract we copy from the Brighton Herald of the 12th of August, where it is quoted, in a letter to the Editor, in advocacy of the superiority of this colony.

Euterpe was again in the ascendant on Thuisday evening, — the public rehearsals of the Vocal Class continuing to present a source of undiminished attraction to our citizens, and inducing them to throng the Hall of the Mechanics' Institute, obedient to the voice of that chaimer. "VVe could heartily wish her god-dess-ship a worthier temple : — one where the concoid of sweet sounds might he letained in liquid lingerings, not broken or absorbed in the unresponsive deadness of such a many crannied fane — for, upon the construction of the edifice, much, very much, of the success of the performers, both vocal and instrumental depends. Were we to judge of the musical inclinings of the good people of Auckland, by the indifference they manifest to the hebdomadal performance of the best music that the piovmce affords, we should pionounce them to be insensible to the influences of that soul subduing ait. But, considering the eagerness with which they continue to flock to Mr. Outhwaite's periodical rehearsals, it is plain that theic is melody in their hearts. We confess we are puzzled to divine the cause of indifference in the one case, and of eagciness in the othei. Music, in our humble opinion, cannot be too generally or too extensively cultivated, since the experience of Europe, especially within the last twenty years, has (to quote the woids of an intelligent writer) conclusively demonstrated that "as civilization advances, music as a science, gains new advocates ; and the day is evidently fast approaching when few will decry music on the ground that its ciFects ate nieiely sensual. It is addressed to the ear, indeed ; but all the influences which we leceive fiom without aie conveyed through the medium of the senses ; and the tones ol music often speak a language to the soul licher in meaning than words could expiess. Nothing is merely .sensual which makes a lasting impression upon us; and those who deny to music such a powei, have not heiud its sublimest stidins, or have not the capacity to appreciate them."

Making due allowance for catacouslical defects, and remembering that our performeis are amateurs, — men snatching a moment of indulgence from the every day toils of life, — we cannot but consider that they and their indefatigable conductor have attained a degree of meiit highly creditable to themselves, and deserving the encouragement of the community they so sedulously strive to please. Many of them possess excellent voices, which require but practice, and self confidence, most materially to improve. Their blemishes are especially those of the amateur ; — a lack of fhe, energy, expression : — a want of abandonment of the individual in the joyousness of the ait. They should give a musical impersonation, not a mere musical recital. The one is a glowing, glorious picture — the other but a cold chalky outline. Enthusiastic extravagancies will cany an audience by storm : — passionless warblings, however correct, however pleasing, will but imbue the listener with a portion of the singer's frigidity. If it be essential to success that " every musical production ought to be expressive of feelings, and through them, of ideas," it must be doubly necessary that the peifoimer should convey those feelings and ideas, by delivering them in the sense and with the spirit in which they were conceived. We have no desire to be esteemed " nothing if not critical ;" nor do we pen these few remarks with any invidious feeling. We can perceive that the want of a little powder causes a hang-fire, in what might otherwise be rendered a very superior performance ; we trust, theiefore, that the hint will be taken, in the same kindly spirit in which it is given. Mrs. Ireland made her debut upon this occasion. By an unfortunate mistake, the music of the Overture — Der Ficischutz — had been mislaid, and the lady had to draw upon, memory in performance of that to Fra Diavolo, — not the fairest manner of making a first appearance, although it elicited a cordial encore. Der Freisehutz, meanwhile, had turned up, and Mrs. Ireland played it in a manner which sufficed to shew that she and the instrument, (the pianoforte) were no strangers.

Cattle Sale. — The sale of cattle, per Emma, on Thursday, was an exceedingly dull one. — Mr. Joseph could hardly ohtain even a nominal price by auction, and only realized an average of nine and forty shillings by subsequent private sale. Yesterday the horse stock by the Emma, sold so well that those by the Colonist were brought to the hammer on the spur of the moment. The average exceeded seventeen pounds.