AUCKLAND, SATURDAY, DEC. 20, 1851.

New Zealander, Volume 7, Issue 593, 20 December 1851, Page 2

AUCKLAND, SATURDAY, DEC. 20, 1851.

The Foreign Intelligence brought by the late arrivals, especially that from France, possesses more than ordinary importance. Its details, however, -would occupy a space which we cannot command for them, and perhaps would be interesting to only a comparative few of our readers. It may suffice therefore that we give the leading points in a condensed form. The engrossing topic for some time in France had been the Revision of the Constitution of 1848. Thrown off as that Constitution was amidst the heat and turmoil of the Revolution, it might have been: expected that its practical working would manifest a necessity for a more complete adaptation of its scheme to the condition ot the country; and it contained within ltselt a provision for its re-consideration and improvement, should such be found requisite- \ in the third year of its existence. In Jun<^ last, in compliance with what was known to ' be the desire of vast numbers of the people, a Committee of the Assembly was appointed to deliberate on the subject ; and their Report, drawn up by M. De ToCQUEville and admitted on all hands to be a document of singular ability, was m duo time presented. This Report (which was adopted by a majority of nine to six ot the Committee) recommended a total revision, at the same time declaring, (and here all the members were unanimous) that it a legal majority in the Assembly should not a<n-ee to the revision, the existing Constitution should be strictly and universally obeyed, and the Assembly should be determined to compel obedience to it. The recommendation in favour of revision was supported by petitions having not less than one million and a half of signatures, In July, the question came under discussion in the Assembly, ana* was debated for a week When the division was taken, tz<k members were present —an immense proportion of an Assembly consisting when it is completed of 750 members, but of only 736 at thai time, as there were 14 vacancies. The result was curious. When the lists were counted, it appeared that 44t> had voted for the proposed revision, and 278 against it. There was therefore an actuaf majority of 168 in favour of revision. But the Constitution required that tne majority should be three-fourths of the Assembly, or 543 votes: of this number die

actual majority fell short by 97 : had 49 members "who voted against the revision voted in favour of it, the proposition would have been carried : but as the votes stood it ivas rejected, the conventional authority of the 278 arming their vote with power to triumph over the decision of the M:6. The Constitution, so far declared permanent, is admitted by all reasonable men to have some very serious faults, amongst which two are especially obvious. It vests a co-ordinate power in the hands of the President and the Legislative Assembly, so that the President caunot dissolve the Assembly, and the Assembly cannot depose the President : in the event therefore of a collision between the Executive and the Legislature, as both are equal in legal authority, " theoretically, a dead-lock vodld ensue, — practically, violence would decide." Again, the official existence of these two powers must cease almost simultaneously. On, the second Sunday in May next, the President's term of office will expire, and within ten days afterwards that of the Assembly will terminate also. M. De Tocqueville's .Report pointedly suggested the evils that might spring out of the crisis of this simultaneous extinction of rule, particularly in a country where power is so centralized. But, whatever weight these defects in theory may have with the more thoughtful, the real question at issue was, — Who shall be the, next President? The ! popular voice calls for the re-election of Louis Napoleon; but the Constitution forbids his re-election : hence the demand for a revision of the Constitution. Several other candidates were named, amongst whom were General CavAIGNAC, M. CarJffOT, LEDRU ROLLIN, M. LAMARTINE, General Changarnier, M. Thiers, the Prince de J oin VILLE, and " the illustrious stone-mason" of the department of the Creuse, citizen Nadaud. It seemed very unlikely that any of these would obtain the required million of votes ; and the prevalent expectation was that, despite the Constitution, Louis Napoleon would be reelected. What then ? The law and lawmakers — the sovereign people of the Republic — will be arrayed in hostility : that is, there will be a civil war. lew were sanguine enough to anticipate that May 1852 will pass over without troubles. "In short," says the French correspondent of the Britannia, " things are so bad in every respect that even the boldest and most hopeful despair. Ah yes ! France, as Mr. Israeli said, is trembling on the very brink of ruin, and before this time next year she may have rolled into the abyss."... " The French nation," says the Times, il is not only bewildered in a maze, through which it advances without progress, but this labyrinth is now enclosed without an exit." The Assembly had resolved upon a vacation, to commence on the 10th of August, and extend to the 4th of November. Twenty-five members had been appointed as a Committee of Permanence, charged to "watch over passing events, and to summon the Assembly should occasion arise. On the re-assembling of the Legislature, the "Revision question may be re-considered and pacifically adjusted, but very little hope of this issue was entertained. The recess was expected to be a season of active agitation, in which Bonapartists, Orleanists, Legitimists, and Red Republicans would all strive to imbue the masses with the views of their respective political creeds. So far as Paris was concerned, however, party strife had been apparently laid aside during the week of our latest accounts, in the enjoyment of a series of return fetes to which the Prefect of the Seine and the Municipal Council had invited the Lord Mayor and Corporation of London, the Commissioners of the Great Exhibition, the Presidents and Secretaries of the leading scientific Societies, and a large number of the nobility and of the best known patrons of science and art. The guests had left London on the Ist of August, and were during the succeeding week in the midst of the splendid festivities prepared for their reception, — the only drawback being that by some mischance the great company was divided at Boulogne, and some arrived without their baggage, and, as we are informed by the Times" (which of late takes every opportunity of laughing at the London Corporation), some of the Aldermen " were forced to appear in apparel inadequate to their rank, their offices, and, as it also appears, their natural dimensions," there being especially noticeable one "great man of the City, the peculiar dimonsious of whose person defied all extempore casing." These deficiencies were supplied, however, and all was going merry as a marriage bell. A dinner at the Hotel do Ville, (which was magnificently fitted up for the occasion), was the first day's entertainment ; next day, a concert ; then Versailles and its waterworks ; then, a Ball for which eight thousand invitations had been issued : then, a sham fight in the Champs de Mars ; then the Opera,— all appeared in the programme of the hospitalities provided by Paris for its English guests. Amidst such scenes, if the Revision question was not forgotten by politicians it was, at least for the season, little spoken of by the pleasure-loving Parisians. The accounts from Italy show no evidences of a nearer approach to the blessings of order, security, and good government. In the Papal states assassinations were frequent, and the stiletto aimed its blows not only at French soldiers, but at elevated victims. Signor Evangelisti, Chancellor of the Consulta, was one of the murdered. Financial embarrassments were reported, the Roman budget showing the deficiency of about two millions of scudi, to cover which it was proposed to levy an income and property tax. The most important topic, however, was the relations between His Holiness and the French Republic, concerning which various rumours had been afloat, generally tending to the opinion that the French army was likely to be rei called from Rome, and that the Roman Government would fall back upon the protection of Austrian or Neapolitan auxiliaries. A political conference held by the POPE at Castel Gardolfo, his country residence, with his fast friend and obedient son the King of Naples, and Geneau, the French General, was regarded as portentous of serious results, though what these might prove to be could be only conjectured.

' An article in the limes of August 2, throws some light upon the question, and as it oxcited attention as being apparently wellinformed, and gives a clearer abstract of the whole case than wo had seen elsewhere, we transfer it in full to our columns. Fro'n this it would appear that the Government at Paris .had distinctly informed the Pope that " as the French army cannot be withdrawn from Rome without discredit and a total surrender of its position in Italy to Austria, so neither can it remain there j without taking stops to secure to the people of Rome some of the advantages of a better Government." The Pope, it was believed, declared that if France interfered with his Government he would " quit his dominions and retire once more to the Neapolitan territory," — a threat intended to tell, through the French clergy and their adherents, on the contemplated re-election of President Bonaparte. Troubles evidently environed His Holiness, with which he could but feebly grapple, and which could not but be increased by the success of Sir Frederick Thesiger in rendering the Ecclesiastical Titles Bills so much more of a really effective measure than at one time it was likely to prove. Meanwhile Naples, its King, and its Government had been exhibited to the eyes of England and the civilized world in an aspect which excited universal loathing and horror. It was by the unexpectedly hand of Mr. Gladstone that this revelation was made. His pamphlet. — entitled " Two Letters to the Earl of Aberdeen on the State Prosecutions of the Neapolitan Government, by the Right. Hon. W. E. Gladstone, M.P." — had produced an extraordinary sensation, as exhibiting, from a quarter the trustworthiness of which could not be doubted, a system of iniquity, cruelty, lawlessness, and corruption on the part of the Neapolitan Government, which, on less conclusive evidence could scarcely bo credited. We have in our English files two or three Reviews of this remarkable pamphlet, with extracts of its most striking passages, some of which we shall take an early opportunity of laying before our readers. We observe no news from the other countiies of Europe of sufficient importance to require attention in this general summary, in which we have not room, even if we had inclination, to retail the narratives of petty intrigues and the manifestations of jealous feeling and unsettled opinion which make up most of the intelligence from Spain, Portugal, and Germany. The eyes of political watchers are now fixed, if not exclusively yet most intently, on the affairs of France. Napoleon, (we mean the great Napoleon, not Napoleon U Petit as the President of the Republic is sometimoso called), once said " A Revolution in France is sure to be followed by a revolution in Europe," and history affords no small corroboration of the saying. Whether the events of May next will be so ordered as to avert another French Revolution, is a problem the solution of which may well be a matter of anxious anticipation.

Mr. William Fox, ca?- Agent of the New Zealand Company, has made it one of his first concerns on his return homo to publish a book entitled " The bix Colonies of New Zealand," avowedly intended to enlighten British ignorance respecting the affairs of this colony. "On returning home," he says " after nearly nine years residence in the colony, I find the ignorance of the many, who know nothing about it, only exceeded by the misapprehensions of the few, who know a little. Under these circumstances, it seems a duty incumbent on me not to keep backthe"rcsults of my experience.'' A really good, honest, and trust-worthy volume on New Zealand would undoubtedly be just now a valuable acquisition to intending emigrants at home, and could not fail to be productive of benefit to our colonial interests. We have not seen Mr. Fox's book ; — so far as we are aware, no copy of it has yet reached this neighbourhood ; — but we have seen quotations from it which abundantly satisfy us that it is not entitled to these or any similar laudatory epithets. Amongst the extracts which has reached us, is that portion in which ho professes to describe Auckland and its people. We unhesitatingly say that the passage teems with misrepresentations, and breathes throughout a spirit of bitterness towards this town and settlement which it is a duty to expose. We shall on an early day copy the passage, and offer some comments upon it. Indeed we only delay doing so, in order to collect and arrange a few statistics which will set in the light of truth the illnatured misstatements of which it is made up.

Proposed Lunatic Asylum. — The subscribers to this much-needed project of benevolence, and the friends of humanity generally, will be gratified to hear that the building is about to be commenced forthwith. i?ome delay necessarily occuned, h'rst in collecting the subscriptions so as to enable the Committee to guarantee the amount of £300 which they had undertaken to provide towards the cost of the work, and then in selecting a site at which a sufficient supply of water would be certain, and in preparing and considering the plans for the erection. During the present week, inconsequence of a communication from the Government to the effect that the building would be set about at once if the committee were satisfied as to the site, a considerable number of the members personally inspected the locality in the Hospital Grounds, at which water had been bored for and found in abundance, and agreed to signify their approbation of the choice. We anticipate therefore that those who feel interested in the object will almost immediately see the work in actual progress.

Epsom West Ward.— On Wednesday evening last, the representative of this Ward, Mr. Alderman Powditch, was entertained by his constituents at a Dinner, in the Half-way House, Epsom-road. About thirty of the Burgesses sat down to dinner, the chair being occupied by Mr. J. C. Hill, one of the Wai dens of the Hundred, and the vicechair by Mr. Joseph Crisp. During the evening the usual loyal toasts,and others appropriate to the occasion, were given,— .Alderman Powdilch responding to that of " The Mayor and Corporation," in a speech which has been furnished us, together with a full report of the evening's proceedings, but at too late an hour for publication jn our pre&ent number.