WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 2, 1850.

New Zealander, Volume 6, Issue 466, 2 October 1850, Page 2

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 2, 1850.

We insert to-day a number of extracts from the recently received Californian papers; having, however, many more — not devoid of interest — marked for future insertion, if our columns should not be occupied by matter of more pressing urgency. These miscellaneous extracts, given in the ipsissima verbu of the local journalists, may furnish to the reflective reader materials for forming a correct estimate of the state and prospect of affairs there, which he will not fail to avail himself of. We need scarcely add, however, that we shall ourselves return to the subject, with the view of giving a careful resume of the intelligence — which, as will be learned sufficiently from late accounts, npt only in our columns, but from other qnarters, pourtrays in increasingly striking and impressive colours, the delusive (if not ruinous) character of much of originally flattering Californian adventure. We have also in hand notes of Pitcaiin's Island, which we hope to find room for in our next number. They are from the pen of a well known gentleman, and will — we think we may predict — be found amongst the most interesting notices of that very interesting island, which have yet been laid before the public.

We now expect, on the satisfactory ground of experience, to receive our latest intelligence from Europe by the way of California. The papers before us, however, do little more than tantalize us, — showing that what they call " Foreign News " was abundantly in their hands, but that, naturally enough, their editors paid little attention to matters which had small interest for them, however much they may have for us. We and many others should very much like to see English papers to the middle of June, if it were only to ascertain the final decisions on the Australian Colonies Bill, which almost certainly were then determined. But our San Francisco contemporaries have more immediate concerns to attend to, aud we cannot blame them for minding their own business. A summary of the European news thus supplied would be absurd, for the whole is but a meagre enough summary. It may be quoted without trespassing too largely on our space. The Weekly Alta California of August 1, says — The latest dates from Europe were brought by the Canada which left Liverpool on the Ist June. In France the Electoral Law was the topic of discussion in the Legislative Assembly. A very excited state of feeling prevailed during the debate, one duel had been lought and various personal collisions taken place. Louis Napoleon, it is said, does not approve of its provisions. It would appear from all the accounts received from the French seaports, that though there is every hope the peace of Enrope will not be disturbed, the government think it right to be prepared for all emergencies. Levies of men are ordered. The King of Prussia narrowly escaped asuassination while at the Potbdam Railroad station in company with the Queen, about the middle of May. A man in the uniform of a sergeant of artillery fired a pistol at him. The ball struck the lower part of the King's fore arm, traversed the flesh between the skin and bone and passed out within an inch of the elbow, without injuring a nerve or artery. A misstep in getting into his carriage caused the King to stagger at the instant the pistol was discharged, to which may be attributed the escape. The man, it is stated, had been luni for a length of time. In England there was but little stirring. Lord John Russell had obtained leave to bring into the new Parliament his bill rejected by the Lords at the last session to admit Baron Rothschild to his seat for the city of London. The Russian ambassador had been recallfd. Prom other quarters of Europe we can glean nothing of interest to our readers. The Daily Alta California, of August 7, had the following later, but unsatisfactory summary :— The Hibernia had arrived with one week's later dates. In England there was nothing new except an attempt to stop all mail travelling and close the post offices on the Sabbath. In France bills for the suppression of the clubs ; to legalize the transportation of political offenders ; to grant pensions to infirm ouvriers, were passed. The bill to grant pensions to the families of those killed in February and June was rejected. Thieri was on a visit to Louis Phillippe in England; In Italy and Germany there wa3 nothing of marked interest. Possibly some of our readers, — we hope, however, very few of them, — may be interested by this short paragraph, which we take from the Pacific News of August 7. At Suffolk, England, on the sth June, at Mildenhall, Bendigo and Paddock had a prize fight for the Championship of England. Bendigo was declared winner, alter ghting forty-nine rounds in fifty nine minutes.

News from the United States, to (he Ist July, had been received by the steam -ship Columbus, which reached San Francisco on the evening of the 6th of August, having made the passage from Panama in twenty days, notwithstanding a continuance of unfavourable winds. The intelligence possesses considerable and varied interest, as will be seen from the following notes which we compile from the reports in .the Calif ornian papers. The question of the admission of California amongst the States of the Union on its own anti-slavery terms, was still the engrossing .theme in Congress, and seemed as far from amicable settlement as ever. Proposition after proposition was made ; compromise after compromise was suggested ;— bat still no satisfactory result was arrived at. The latest scheme for cutting this Gordian knot was the following brought forward in the Senate by Mr. Soule, on the 25 of June :—: — Mr. Soule moved his substitute for that portion of the bill relating to the State of California. The substitute proposed the President shall issue his proclama* tion, declaring that California be admitted into the Union as soon as he shall receive evidence that she has in Convention assented to certain conditions, amongst which are her relinquishment of the public domain, and the restriction of her Southern limits to the Missouri line. It also provides that revenues collected in the ports of California," unexpected at the time of this proclamation, shall be paid over to the State of California. Also, that the country Sonth between 36° 30' North in Mexico, and between the Pacific and Sierra Nevada, shall be organised into a Territory, to be called South California, and that the same shall be admitted to the Union as a State, when ready, able and willing, with or without slavery, as her people may desire and make known in their Constitution. Mr. Soule, it would appear from the reports, occupied two daySi- in advocating his plan ; and Mr. Weester nearly another day (the 27th) in opposing it. So the matter stood. We apprehend that as the controversy was prolonged, more private anc[ personal feelings and aims were becoming closely involved in it, and that the San Francisco Evening Picayune, of August 7th, appoaches very near the truth when it says, — " At this distance from the scene of intellectual throes and forensic combat, we have had the opportu-* nity to trace the various effects of the political sagacity that has been employed, to their motive causes, — the several torrents of eloquence that have rolled and broken at our feet, to their personal sources. It -seems that the several parties which have been combined in the support of some common views in regard to a specific interest of their own, and their representative leaders, upon whom those views may be made ultimately to terminate, have put down California as a sort of political dividend, out of which each was to secure the greatest possible quotient of political capital. The semblance of disinterested patriotism exhibited by men having the strongest hold upon the affections of the people, loses much of its guise by the time it reaches this longitude ; and behind its brilliant transparency, we see the wire work of party playing around the image of personal aggrandizement. We can see, from this line of observation, that the struggle and grappling of the minds in the Senate, have more reference to the prospective resu ts of the conventions to be holden in Philadelphia and Baltimore in 1851, than to that which has grown out of the convention in Monterey in 1849 ; and it is quite possible that the present and public emergencies conuectcd with the latter may be held in abeyance to the future and private aspirations that are concentrated in the decisions of the former." A frightful disaster had occurred on Lake Erie on the 16th of June. The steamer G. T. Griffiths, having on board 326 passengers, was burned to the water's edge, and it was believed that only twenty-five escaped, all the rest having either perished in the flames or been drowned by their jumping overboard, — preferring a watery grave to death oy fire. Amongst the affecting incidents of this terrible occurrence, we are told " The poor emigrants were crowded forward, and literally pushed overboard by those retreating from the flames. Some had presence of mind enough to throw overboard their chests and swim upon them ; but nearly all were lost." About one hundred and forty bodies had been found. Amongst them were a man — no doubt a father — with his young child clasped in his arms, and a family of five or six emigrants — man, woman, and children — '• with their arms closely locked together, evidently having left the boat and sunk in that condition." A mother, with four daughters, just arrived from England, (their name not known, but the head of the family being said to live in Cleveland, within 20 miles of which the catastrophe took place), were amongst the lost. The boat was " literally covered with the bodies of the burned." New York and the Eastern States had been visited by a dreadful " Tornado and Thunder Storm" on the 25th of June. Trees had been uprooted, houses levelled, vessels in the harbour of New York dismasted and thrown down, and destruction effected which, in the city of Walpole alone, was estimated at 100,000 dollars. Under the heading of " Another War Panic," we find this scrap of prophetic news, taken from the Philadelphia Ledger. The hit in the last sentence is obviously aimed at the recent course of the British Government towards feeble but time-honoured and classaically cherished Greece ; — a course for which the British " Lion" ought to be more ashamed of himself than for anything he has done for years, — (we will not say then for anything he has left undone, there being a stern account to be made up on that point, — as the annals of Tahiti, not to advett to other cases, could abundantly testify) :- The letter writers at Washington have a new excitement, and predict that the President will recommend the war measure — of issuing letters of* marque and reprisal against Portugal. It is likewise suggested by the same authority, that the President may authorize the seizure of the Island oi Cuba. The United States

have something to do than to follow the example of England and play high sheriff upon the seas, by pouncing down summarily upon every small power which lias not the strength to resist this mode of compelling payment.

Mechanic's Institute. — The Lecture by the Rev. JosEni H. Fletcher, which had been postponed on account of the great severity of the weather on the evening for which it had originally been fixed, was delivered in the Hall of the Institute on Monday evening, to a numerous, highly respectable* and veiy attentive audience. The Lecturer eloquently discoursed on the vitally' important objects which should be had in view in conducting the education of the rising generation : the varied instrumentalities by which those objects might most efficiently be secured : and the responsibilities connected with the great undertaking. In the course of his observations, he introduced many practical suggestions to parents and teachers, which we trust will not be forgotten or disregarded ; and, although he, perhaps judiciously, abstained from entering upon any detailed examination of the vexed question — (passing strange it is, that it should be a vexed question in any professedly Christian community !) whether public education ought to be essentially religious, or may be merely secular in its character, he in a few striking sentences, impressively exhibited the fallacy of any system which does not rest upon a scriptural basis, or which would exe'ude the Bible from its course of instruction. The same great principle was indirectly maintained throughout the lecture by the continued reference to education as an influence powerfully bearing upon the interests of an immortal being, — and theiefore of a being who, (hflPivever unwise it may be to disturb the opening mind of a child with questions of controversial theology), cannot be too soon indoctrinated with those sound truths which are the only sure foundation on which character can be so built as to give reasonable promise of future stability and usefulness. The Lecture altogether abounded in matter worthy of after and serious consideration, and was highly creditable to the abilities of the Rev. Gentleman, as well as (so far as we have learned) most gratifying to his audience.