The New=Zealander.

New Zealander, Volume 8, Issue 625, 10 April 1852, Page 2

The New=Zealander.

Be just and fear not : Let all tne endb thoa anns't at, be thy Country*, Thy God's, and 1 ruth's.

AUCKLAND, SATURDAY, APRIL 10, 1852.

The engrossing importance of the details of the new French .Revolution so largely engaged our attention and space in our last number as almost wholly to exclude other matters. We now return to our English files for the purpose of gleaning and condensing such parts of their general contents as may be likely to interest our readers. The Queen and the Royal Family, after a sojourn of some weeks at Osborne, had returned to Windsor Castle, where the festivities of Christmas and the New Year were to be held. It had been difinitively arranged that the Duke of Cambridge was to be Inspector Weneral of Cavalry. His Royal Highness was to assume the duties of the situation on the first of the present month. Oar readers generally will be gratified to know that the appointment of Colonel Wynyard as Lieutenant-Governor of the Province of New Ulster had been confirmed by Her Majesty. " More than rumours" had prevailed of a serious schism in the Cabinet, in which, as usual, Lord Grey had a principal share. The Daily News* gave a long account of the cause of disagreement, ot which the substance was as follows. Lord Palmerston's freedom of speech in his cordial replies to the addresses from the admirers of Kossuth, had given great offence to the Carlton Club, and to Baron Brunow, the Russian Ambassador, who had formally complained to Her Majesty both in Court and in Council. Earl Grey, always jealous of Lord Palmerston, had sympathised with the fault-finders so strongly as to declare that he could no longer sit in the same Cabinet with a Foreign Secretary who had been so imprudent. The French Revolution, however, appeared to have diverted the attention of the noble Lords from their personal quarrels ; — at least so the Morning Chronicle intimates in the following paragraph : '• Onp consequence of the coup d'etat (Louia Napoleon's) must indeed be mentioned, though the statement of it appears very like a bathos. The English Whig 1 Ministry — on the point of falling tq pieces through the revived disagreements of the Palmerston and Grey factions — has perhaps been saved by the events at Paris from a forced resignation, which we t-houtd otherwise, in all probability, have had to announce in the course of yesterday afternoon. Our patriotic Whig stutesmeri will find a bond of union, and a reason for holding place, in ths events which have occurred in Paris."

Protection and Parliamentary Reform continued to be the topics most discussed by home politicians ; ana sundry articles and pamphlets were patriotically written, sundry orations patriotically delivered, and sundry dinners patriotically eaten, on each side of these questions respectively. The most note-worthy movement was a Reform Conference held at Manchester, at which a number of delegates from Lancashire, Yorkshire, and other parts of the country, and some twelve or fourteen members of Parliament (including* Mr. Cobden and Mr. Bright) were present. The provisions of Lord John Russell's promised plan had not transpired, but it was resolved that no scheme could be acceptable to the delegates and those whom they represented unless it went so far as to embrace the following points : — an extension of the franchise to all who have held for six months property rated to the relief of the poor at the annual value of forty shillings ; — the grouping of neighbouring boroughs, so as that no constituency should consist of less than five thousand electors ;— vote by ballot ; — the abolition of a property qualification for a seat in the House of Commons ; — and a limitation of the duration of Parliaments to a period not exceeding three years. A Deputation was appointed to wait on Lord John Russell for the purpose of pressing upon him the importance of granting "a large and comprehensive measure of reform ; ' but, as we learn from a later paper, the Premier refused to receive the Deputation, on the ground that "it appears to him that there would be great inconvenience in receiving deputations from particular districts, on a subject of this nature in which the whole country is interested," — a sly hit, some thought, at his noble colleague of the Foreign Office for receiving deputations from particular districts on the affairs of Kossuth and Hungary. It is not difficult to infer from the general tone of the press, that the friends of did not put any very implicit confidence in Lord John's disposition to make his measure what they would consider " large and comprehensive ;" and much of the Session woula probably be occupied in debating the subject. However it may be with regard to Parliamentary reform, a sweeping reform of the Board of Customs seemed me* itable and not distant. Lord John Russell had been waited on by a large Deputation appointed by a great meeting of merchants to present a statement charging the Commissioners with inefficiency, inaccessibility to remonstrances and , remonstrants, and in short, with accumulated acts of mai-adminstration, — some of which it would scarcely be possible to resolve into the comparatively venial fault of incompetency, — and asking for a renewed investigation into their conduct by a Select Committee in Parliament. The Deputation included Lord John's three Colleagues in the representation of the city, and a number of the heads of the most wealthy and influential mercantile firms. His Lordship promised his best consideration to their statements,— a promise which

in' this instance we may-believe ihealitwhat it expressed ; for no Minister could; -if he would, trifle on such a subject as this with the commercial community of London. It is mentioned in a later paper thai, the Commissioners of Customs had tendered I their resignations, but that Lord John Russell had refused to accept them until he had. inquired into the conduct of the Board. The Corporation of London was preparing for itself a Municipal Reform Bill to be submitted to Parliament. It extends the municipal franchise to every male person, of age, and not under legal incapacity, who shall occupy in the city or its libertfes, for a year and a day before the Ist of Sept., any house, warehouse, counting-house, office, chambers, or shop, and shall be rated to the city police-rate at £10 per annum, and shall " bear lot" in the city. A general meeting of the proprietors of the New Zealand Company had been held on the 28th of November. A report of the proceedings will be found in another column. Some of the statements made by the Chairman are not very intelligible ; but we are accustomed to the attempts of the Directors to mystify the true position of their affairs. Two points are clear, however ; first, that the Company have persuaded their creditors — Baron Goldsmid and the Union Bank of Australia — to give them -a - long day for the payment of the £25,000 bor- 1 rowed for the foundation of the Canterbury Sett'ement; and, next, that they intend if they can to screw out of the land fund of the co ony the sum to which, as Mr, A«honby expressed it, " they are entitled under their vet of Par- ' liament." Shylock's nature is unchanged : it is for the colonists to curb him of his cruel will. We find in the Sew Zealand Journal of December 13, the following corroboration of. the rumour that Dr Jackson had pronounced a sinceie Nulo Episcopal i wiih respect to the Canterbury See. It appears that up to that date the name of his successor had not been announced. "A paragraph has been recontly going the round of the press, to the effect that Dr. Rowley, of Bridgnortb, sailed for Canterbury last May. that he had been appointed Bishop of Lyttplton, nnd that he would be con* secrated iv Sydney. We beliere there is no truth in this statement. Dr. Rowley has not yet been able to complete his arrangements, and does not proceed to tho . Settlement until the spring; he will be- Dean of Canterbury. No one has yet been appointed Bishop instead of Dr. Jackson, but. as stated at the Colonists' Meeting of the 19th Nor., tbe appointment will be tilled up as speedily as possible. We ate very glad to perceive tbat the re-publication from the Lyttelton Times of Dr.* Jackson's letter to Mr. Urittan, in which such a high character is given of the capabilities, &c, of the Canterbury Settlement, has reassured many wko were afraid that it was something connected with NewZealand itself that prevented the Bishop Designate returning, A Blue Boole on New Zealand had just been issued, containing papers laid before Parliament last August. It presented " very little new or interesting," — that is, in the opinion of . the New Zealand Journal. A paragraph in the London Evening Mail of Dec. 22, gives what professes to be a summary of the population, revenue, &c, of the colony, compiled from this book; but there is evidently some great mistake, as many of the figures are glaringly wrong. We may group together three or four notices of law cases, which possess some public interest. In the Court of Exchequer, in the action brought to recover penalties from Alderman Salomons for having voted in the IJouse of Commons without having taken the oa,th of abjuration required by the statute, it had been agreed on both sides, under the direction of Mr. Justice Martin, to take a special verdict embodying the admitted facts, and leaving the real question at issue, — viz., whether according to the. statutes bearing on the case, taken collectively, a Jew has, or has not, a legal right to sit and vote— r to be argued before the Court above, and determined by the Judg<s....'...ln the proceedings in the Queen s Bench taken by Dr. Achilli against Messrs. Burns and Lambert as the publishers of a libel contained in a Lecture by Dr. Newman which charged the grossest immoralities on Dr. Achilli, Dr. Newman had, by consent, been substituted as defendant, he being the avowed author of the alleged libel. An application on his part for an enlargement of the rule nisi, that he might have more time to obtain evidence from Italy aiid Greece to enable him to show cause against the rule, had been refused by the Court. Dr.' Newman had afterwards published in the Morning Chronicle a letter declaring that he "believed heartily" what he liad alleged, and had "never wavered in his belief of it ;" and the Roman correspondent of the Daily News reported that there was great activity amongst the Priests, Jesuits, and Inquisitors at Rome in collecting affidavits and documents to support the accusations against Dr. Achilli's character. In the Court of Queen's Bench, Mr. , John Kaye, Proprietor of a paper called the Wesley an limes, had been sentenced to four months imprisonment for a series of libels on the Rev. W. H. Clarkson, a Wesleyan Minister, which appeared in that journal The judgment of the Court of Exchequer had at length' been pronounced on the question, (raised by the Crown under the Stamp Act), whether fiickens's Household Narrative of Current Events, which is published monthly in connection. with, Dickensoris household Words, arid contains a summary of events during that period, is a newspaper within the meaning of the Act, and liable to stamp, duty accordingly. The Court, by a majority of, three (Barons Martin, Platt, and Pollock) to one (Baron Parke) decided for the exemption of the publication, being of opinion that no publication could be deemed a newspaper under the statute, unless published at intervals of twenty-six days or less, notwithstanding that it gave the. news,, occurrences, and events of the day. '.the judgment therefore was against the .Crown, and in favour of Messrs. Braiibury and Evans, the publishers. " . » "We observe with" pleasure that active preparations were in progress for sending out another expedition in search of Sir John Franklin and his brave companions. In addition to the* screw steamers Intrepid and Pioneer employed in the recent expedition, the Phoshicc, a screw steamer ot 260 horse power, was' ordered to "be fitted up at Deptford tor service in' the Polar, Seas. The report of. the " Arctic Committee 1 ' appointed by the Admiralty to consider the reports of Captains Austin and Penny, * and generally to enquire into the evidence -

connected with the late expedition, had just been published. We shall copy in a future number some of the principal passages from this interesting document. It recommends that the head-quarters of the new expedition should be ileechey Island at the mouth of Wellington Strait, and that the whole exertions of the expedition should be directed to examining the upper part of the Strait (now called Victoria Channel.)