The New-Zealander.

New Zealander, Volume 8, Issue 604, 28 January 1852, Page 2

The New-Zealander.

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

AUCKLAND, WEDNESDAY, JAN. 28, 1852. By the John Wesley missionary brig, which reached our port on Sunday, we have our English files from the 11th to the 20th of September. The papers for about a month previously are, however, still Wanting 1 , having probably been sent by the Maori to the Southern Settlements; and we have to contend, as in many former instances, against the difficulty of endeavouring to understand statements referring to past occurrences of which we have received no account. We must only thread our way as we can through these mazes. The Queen and the Royal Family were at Balmoral, enjoying a retirement into which it would seem the Court Newsman was permitted to intrude but seldom. We only hear that Her Majesty was in good health, and passed her days in excursions on horse-back, in visiting cottages and schools, and in taking drawings of the surrounding scenery ; — and on the Sundays, with the Koyal circle, attending Divine worship at the (Presbyterian) parish church of Oaithie, — but the Hon. and Rev. Gerald Wellesley, domestic chaplain to the Queen, had loft Apsley House to be in attendance on Her Majesty at Balmoral Prince Albert occupied much of his time in deer-stalking, in which he is reported to have had "singular success." The Queen was not this year present at the Braemar Highland Gathering, in consequence of the recent decease of the Duke of Saxe Cobourg Kohary; but she sent a donation ; and a portion of her small Court went in the royal carriages to witness the festival In connection with her visit to Holyrood, Her Majesty had conferred a pension of £300 per annum on Professor Wilson. On no living literary man could the Royal favour be more worthily bestowed ; and — so far as Her Majety's Ministers had to do with the act— I

il is creditable and gratifying, considering how unsparingly the " crutch" of old Christopher North has many a time and oft belaboured Whigs, Whiglings, et hoc genus omne The " Queen, it was expected, would return to Edinburgh on the 7th of October. The Mayor of Liverpool had received official notification of Her Majesty's intention to visit that city on the Bth of that month. London, though deserted by the Court, and by nearly all the leading members of the government, was densely crowded, owing to the scarcely diminished attractions of the Great Exhibition, which still drew its tens of thousands of visitors daily. New contributions even yet continued to arrive from foreign countries. Amongst the latest from America was a magnificent tea service of pure California gold, intended as a testimonial from the citizens of New York to Mr. Collins, the founder of the American steam-packet line.... The future destiny of the Crystal Palace, and the appropriation of the surplus fund remained undetermined, and, of course, were variously speculated on. Parliament had been formally prorogued from the 4th of September to the 4th of November. Politics were in a comparatively quiescent state. Mr. D'JLsraeli and Mr. Hume had addressed their constituents on " things in general," but only in the hackneyed strain. ! Humours were confidently circulated that before the commencement of the Session several changes would take place in the Cabinet, one of which would be the retirement of Lord John Russell from the Premiership. The Spectator observes, — " Mention is made of one Minister about to resign on account of gi owing years and infirmities, and another on account of sickness from prolonged over-exertion, and of some great unknown, enjoying the confidence of the mercantile community, to replace one of the secedeis, who, it is delicately insinuated, is no great loss. But both the retiring and coining statesmen are so faintly adumbrated that their nulividualties cannot be recognized. The only infeience to be drawn from such vague ordcles is, that some of our present rulers bear uneasily the companionship in which they find themselves, and take this roundabout method of hinting to their fellows that they had better make room for more acceptable successors." Several official appointments had been announced. Lieutenant-Colonel Reid was Gazetted as Governor of Malta; — Mr. James Hudson, Minister at Rio Janeiro, was to be British Representative at Florence, in the room of the late Mr. Sheil; and Mr. Henry Southern, ex Minister of Buenos Ayres, was to succeed Mr. Hudson. It was also stated that Lord .Oranworth and Vice- Chancellor Knight Bruce had been appointed Judges of Appeal, the latter with a seat in the House of Lords. The Duke of Norfolk had renounced the Roman Catholic communion. This conversion of the Premier Duke to Protestantism would, it was confidently alleged, be followed by other notable secessions from the Church of Rome. The intelligence of the Australian Gold Discovery did not, so far as we can judge from the papers before us, produce that electrical sensation in England which many had anticipated. Some of the journalists contented themselves with extracting paragraphs from the New South Wales papers, without bestowing more than a few connecting lines of original matter on the subject ; and others were philosophizing in a very calm and dispassionate tone on the injury the discovery might possibly do to the 1 agricultural and pastoral interests, and to the morals of Australia. The Times referred to it most in connection with the question of Steam Communication ; except in one article in which rather inconsiderate views arc advanced as to the propriety of the Crown's taking actual possession of the Gold Field by an armed British force. But the language of the writer perhaps seems to convey more of a recommendation of actual interference than it was really meant to express. At the dates to which we refer, however, the most startling accounts had not arrived ; and it is likely that the Press paid a much, livelier attention to the matter when the large shipments reached London, and especially when " the wonder of the world"— the hundred weight lump of gold— was before the eyes of commercial and scientific men. The Admiralty had advertised for tenders for steam communication with Sydney, via the Cape of Good Hope, once in every two months, by steamers either of wood or iron, capable of performing the voyage at the rate of 8§- miles an hour, — the tenders to be received on the 4th of December. Extracts from the Times in our other columns will show both the particulars of this project, and the indignation with which its glaring and even insulting inadequacy, as compaied with the importance and necessities of the service required, was regarded in commercial circles. Agitation in the Church of England was waxing stronger, and spreading more widely. A letter in which the Archbishop of Canterbury had recognised the validity of the ordination of " Pastors wanting the imposition of Episcopal hands" — (obtained from his Grace, by the by, in a manner which curiously illustrates the unscrupulous tactics of the un- Protestantizing pa r ty) — had excited a fierce outbreak of Tractarian fury. On the other hand, there seemed a rapidly growing disposition in the Evangelical section of the Church to press for a reform in the Liturgy. The Admiralty had published details of the " Arctic Searching Expedition," which loft the fate of Sir John Franklin and his brave cempanions, in the estimation of many,still doubtful, if not worse, — although they included particulars from which the more sanguine derived ground of renewed hope. There had been found to the Northward of Port Innis, Wellington Channel, fragments of clothing, preserved meat tins, and scraps of paper (one of these bearing the name of McDonald, Medical Officer of the Expedition) confirming the traces found previously at Cape Hiley by Captain Ommaney ; and slso the graves of three seamen belonging to the Erebus and 2 error, the date of the latest death being the 3rd of April, 1846. The Expedition under Captains Penny and Austin having made the most anxious search along the coast of Wellington Channel without discovering any further traces, Captain Austin was about to attempt the search of Jones's Sound. Captain Penny returned

home, arriving by the Lady Franklin at Woolwich on the 19th of September : but he was anxious to return to the search immediately if the Admiralty would send out a powerful steamer for the purpose. The following, which we take from the Edinburgh Advertiser, is at least curious :—: — - " We cannot leave this subject without noting a remarkable ciicumstanpp. On the 17th of Febiuaiy List, a Clairvoyant, whoso revelations are givpn in Dr. Gio gon's late work, stated that Captain Austin was at that inonipnt in longitude 95 (.leg, 45 mm. west — which corresponds exactly with the actual position of the plnco where he is now found i« have passed the winter ! According 1 to her statement. Sir John Kranklin was at the samp time in longitude 101 dt'g. 45 mm. — or about four bundled miles to the westward ; he had been previously met and lelieved, and a third ship was (hen frozen up along with his two. Can it be possible that such indeed has been the Actual position of the vessels —the seaichers and the lost,— that Captain Austin has for the last twelve months been within 400 miles of poor Fiankhn, yet that the lost ones are fatill unrecovejed and our ships leturning from a bootless expedition!" Several calamitous railway accidents are recorded. The most disastrous was at the Biccster station of the Buckinghamshire .Railway, where an excursion train was overturned, and five persons were killed, besides a considerable number seriously injured There had also been several colliery accidents. One had frightful results: at the Werva Pit, near Aberdale, while fourteen colliers was descending, the chain broke, and the miners were all killed. And, we have to add, there had been accounts of several melancholy accidents at sea. Of those the most distressing was a collision, in the Straits of Malacca, between the Peninsular and Oriental Company's steam-ship Paslia and the corresponding steam-ship Erin. The Pasha went down in twenty-five fathoms, dragging her boats with her, and sixteen lives and property valued at GOO,OOO dollars was ascertained to have been lost. Amongst the recent deaths were, the Earl of Donoughmore, once celebrated as the gallant Colonel Hutchinson, who was connected with the escape of Lavalette, in the year 1815, shortly after the restoration of the Bourbons: — Lord John Hay, C.8., late Superintendent of the Devonport Dock Yard : — Lord Eiverston, heir presumptive to the Earldom of Westmeath :— Mr. W. Busfield, M.P.,for Bradford: — Colonel John Ross, late Commandant of the Garrison at St. Helena: — Major-General Sir H.Watson, 0.8., Colonel of the 15th Foot : — and the Rev. J. J. Freeman. Home Secretary of the London Missionary Society.

It will be seen by our report of the proceedings of the Common Council on Saturday, that the attempt to bring that Body into a position of antagonism to the immediate j>rogrcss of the proposed Lunatic Asylum has signally failed. "VVe need not say that, in common with many others, we are gratified by this result. Had the motion been carried — although it is scarcely probable that at the present stage and under existing circnnistaaces the undertaking would have been stopped — yet the Government, the Committee, and the Subsribers on the one hand, and the Corporation on the other, would have been brought into an apparent, if not a real collision, which, especially in a work of charity like the erection of an Hospital, would have been painful in itself, and certainly not reputable to the community. The view of the case taken by most of the Common Councillors is obvious from the fact that Alderman O'Neill's decisive amendment was adopted by a majority of nearly three to one. This vote relieves us from the necessity, which otherwise we might have felt laid upon us, of scrutinizing in some detail the Report, its antecedents, and the arguments advanced in its support. We sincerely hope that no occasion may again arise for touching jarring strings in connection with t an object on which harmony of feeling and 1 action is so eminently desirable. It is therefore in the very reverse of a controversial spirit that we would once more invite our readers to consider how the case really stood with regard to the site of the Asylum, — which has been the matter of contention, and about which, after all the explanations that have been offered, misconceptions seem still to exist in some minds. The simple fact is that, all along— at least since the Meeting of the Subscribers at which the Deputation to the Governor-in-Chief reported his Excellency's statements on the subject — it has been a settled point that the Building was to be erected in the Hospital Grounds. In April last at a General Meeting of the Contributors, called by public advertisement, His Excellency's choice of this locality was in the most explicit manner stated by the Deputation. It was then unanimously resolved — '' That this Meeting of Subscribers receives and approves of the Report now read, and directs the Committee to take immediate steps for acting in accordance with it." The duty of the Committee has since simply been to execute to the best of their ability the " limited service" thus enjoined upon them. They had indeed a choice as to the site in one sense ; but it was only in a very definite and restricted sense. It amounted merely to the approbation of one spot rather than another within the allotted space of the Hospital Grounds. Many of the differences of opinion which have been expressed on the subject may be traced to forg-etfulness of this distinction, and a consequent confounding of a circumscribed with an uncircumseribed right of choice. It was in this limited acceptation, we apprehend, that the term " site" was used, in the communication from the Government to the Corporation referred to in the Report laid before the Common Council ; and some of the observations made on Saturday were irrelevant just because the Speakers put an enlarged construction upon the term which it was not intended to bear. When therefore the Southern Cross somewhat invidously singles out an individual member of the Committee as having said that the Governor would not sanction the Asylum's being built at all if it were not to be built in the Government Domain, our contemporary only, after all, ascribes to that gentleman the statement of an arrangement which had virtually been made by the Committee collectively, and virtually acquiesced in by the Subscribers at the General Meeting to which we have referred. We must remark, however, that it is unfair to impute this arrangement to mere arbitrary self-will on the part of His Excellency. There was reason for it in the

economy of the public; funds which would be secured by placing- the Asylum within reach of the medical and other attendance provided for the Hospital ; and, we repeat, it was only by making- it a part (though detached) of the General Hospital establishment that it could legally be maintained from the existing Hospital endowments, or from those additional endowments which Sir George Grey promised should be given, if necessary, for the support of the whole Institution. Whatever might be the opinion of the Committee, or of any of its members, on the abstract advantages of some site beyond the prescribed boundaries, it in point of fact was not open to them to say that the Asylum should be there. We dwell upon this view of the case because without a clear understanding of it, no correct judgment can be formed upon its merits. The Building will, we anticipate, be proceeded with forthwith ; — let us hope with the good wishes even of those who, however valid they may consider the objections urged against the site, yet will scarcely deny that — balancing one consideration fairly against another— the benefits which, under the blessings of Divine Providence, the Institution is likely to confer upon some of the most deeply afflicted sufferers within the wide range of suffering humanity, will far outweigh any and every evil that can reasonably be apprehended from its location.