The New=Zealander.

New Zealander, Volume 8, Issue 636, 19 May 1852, Page 2

The New=Zealander.

Be just and fear not Let all the ends, thou aim'st .it, be thy Country's, Tliy God's, and Tiutli'b.

AUCKLAND, WEDNESDAY, MAY 19, 18:32.

By the arrival of tlio Raven, which reached our port on Monday morning 1 , we arc placed in possession of a. great number of colonial journals. Our Sydney files are to the 6th instant, and include English* news to the 14th of January, received via the Cape of Good Hope, together with important, and we regret to say discouraging, intelligence from the Cape itself. Yv'c set aside some other matters to which wo had proposed devoting a portion of our present issue, in order to lay before our readers as much as possible of the news thus, come to hand. A very impressive illustration of the feverish state of European politics, and of the anxious watchfulness with which the British Government judged it necessary to guard against the worst, is presented in the fact that extensive military preparations were in active progress under the immediate direction of the Duke of Wellington. The vast importance of the considerations thus suggested induces us to introduce here the whole of the limited, but significant, information on the subject in the papers before us. A correspondent of the Daily JSews, January $th, states the following movements :—: — Dcrcscca ron the Alltropolts. — The Dolce of Wei- , lingtoa has been for some time past in almost daily communication with Sir John F. Burgoyne, inspectorgeneral of fortifications, and their deliberations have, it is said, been directed to, the best means of protecting the metropolis in case of invasion. It is understood the result has been that several military camps are likely to be formed round London, and eligible situations will be SpJectcd, paiticularly on the Kent and Essex banks of the Thames, ai d on the banks of the Medtvav, with the ultimate view of rendering them permanently foi ti/ied camps. Orders have already been given to place Sheprnebs in a proper state of defence, and to have ample supplies of ammunition and warlike stores kept in a constant state of readiness at the fortifications already constructed at that naval port. Seniority lists of non - commissioned officers of the Royal Artillery hare been called for, to be sent in to the Adjutant-General's office within the last few days, preparatory, it is said, to an augmentation of that branch of the service. It was at first contemplated to add .three battalions to the twelve battalions already formed, but it is now understood that the augmentation will be made by adding two companies to each of the twelve bittalions. Thin arrangement will add twenty-four companies, or about 2100 men, equal in number {of non-commissioned officers and men to three additional battalions of the strength of the present battalions but saving the expense of the staff which would have been required for new battalions. It is also stated that the line regiments will Lave an addition of 10,000 made to them over the number in the ebtimates of last year. The Royal Marines are also to bo increased both in the Royal Marine Artillery and Divisional Companies' departments, and recruits enlisted for every branch of the land forces are ordered to be sent to the head quarters or depots of their regiments with the least possible delay, that they may be at once instructed in a knowledge of their profession. The Portsmouth Times and Naval Gazette thus reports the fortification of the coast: — A battery of 100 guns of heavy metal is ordered to be constructed at the ]S T ab Light, off Bembridge, near Spilhead, as well as a battery (temporary) at Lumps, also off Spithead, on the Portsmouth shore, and also for 100 heavy guns, with the least possible delay. A new fort at Jirowndown, opposite Ryde (Isle of Wight), on the Gosport shore, is in course of constrction by two companies of Royal Sappers ar.d Miners stationed at Fort Moncton, every dispatch being used to complete the works in two months. There is no occasion to exaggerate these facts into an evidence that war imminently impended. It is notorious that the Duke of Wellington has long considered the defences of the coast, and still more, those of the metropolis, as insufficient, especially if France should attempt by a coup de main to surprise and occupy London. His celebrated letter to Sir John Burgoyne, now for some years before the country, abundantly proved that, in his Grace's judgment — that is in the judgment of the man who, of all living men, is incomparably the most competent to form a right opinion on the question — the danger is far from chimerical. If it existed before that letter was written, it must obviously be greater now, when the recent acts of Louis Napoleon have so entirely set at defiance all the auguries formed as to his character and course, as that no step on his part, however wildly and recklessly ambitious, could excite much wonder. We learn that the Absolutist Governments of Europe, decidedly as they sympathise in his usurpation, yet are themselves with evident solicitude increasing their military strength. Under such circumstances, it would be the veriest insanity for England to remain unprepared for an attack which may come upon her in the most unexpected hour, or for a general European struggle, in which, if it should take place, she must however reluctantly, inevitably bear her share. The measures therefore, though only precautionary, are just and necessary precautions; probably not at all the less necessary because Lord Palmerston's interferences in Foreign Affairs, (and interfere with them he assuredly will wherever he is), will proceed from an coo instead of an in Foreign Minister. The Russell Cabinet still dragged on its existence, although rumours of its dissolution were daily prevalent. A Cabinet Council had been held on the Bth of Jan., after which there seemed little doubt that no cttange would take place before the meeting of Parliament, — fixed for the 3rd of February. The Revenue Returns for the Quarter and the year ending January 6th, presented i most satisfactory results. A decrease of £700,000 on the Quarter as compared with the corresponding Quarter of 1851 was fully accounted for by the remission of the win-dow-tax, while the house-tax substituted for it in part had not yet been received into the Exchequer. For the year, the surplus of income over expenditure amounted to three millions and a half sterling... The Board of Trade Returns to Dec. 5, showed the value of exports for the first eleven months of 1851 to have been £63,313,272, being an increase of £2,913,747 over the like period of 1850 The state of business was generally good at the last accounts, but the trade combinations — especially that of the " Amalgamated Society" against the Master Engineers — continued to produce embarrassing results. The large employers in this department had hold meetings in London and Lancashire at which it had been resolved to resist every attempt at dictation on the part of the men, and in consequence many thousands had been thrown out of work. There were alarming accounts of the spread of Ribbon ism in the North of Ireland. Several additional, murders and

murderous assaults were reported, and tlio authorities were devising further coercive steps to check the progress of agrarian outrage. A Joint Stock Company -was about to be formed in Dublin, with a capital of £500,000 for the proposed steam communication between the West of England and America. The Committee included the names of the Lord Mayor, the Lord Mayor Elect, the Governor of the Bank of England, the Governor of the Hibernian Bank, and others of great influence. Letters from New York stated that the project was taken up there with lively interest, and it was anticipated that a mail contract would easily be obtained from the Washington Government. We copy a distressing narrative of the destruction by fire of the new and splendid Royal Mail Steamer Amazon, which took place on the morning of the 3rd of January, about 60 miles to west of the Scilly Islands. This dreadful catastrophe involved the loss of one hundred and forty lives. The extracts in our other columns will give our roaders a good general view of the state of affairs in France at the latest dates. Louis Napoleon had been inauguratedvrith. a theatrical pomp and show which even at an avowed coronation would have appeared exaggerated. He seemed anxious also to give as much as possible of the prestige of" religion to his inauguration; and indeed the various religious bodies appeared very willing to tender their homage to " the rising sun." The diplomatic corps was presented to the< President by the Pope's Nuncio. The Archbishop of Paris, as representative of the Roman Catholic Church, addressed him in terms of congratulation on " the high mission God had conferred upon him," and, at the entrance to Notre Dame held forth to him " the relic of the true cross," which Louis Napoleon kissed with as perfect an appearance of veneration as his Uncle could, and doubtless would, have assumed under similar circumstances. The two Consistories of the Reformed Church, the Consistory of the Confession of Augsburg, and the Central Israelite Consistory also afforded their congratulations. The coinage had been remodelled, the efn'gy of Louis Napoleon being now on one side, but the title of the President of the Republic omitted. The imperial eagle was restored to the French banners and Legions of Honour, and the device of " Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity" abolished. The word "Royal" has been restored to the names of streets which formerly bore it. It needs little sagacity to perceive whither such changes as these point. Moreover the National Guard has been dissolved, and the " Trees of Liberty," in Paris and in the departments, cut down, and the timber given to the poor. Meanwhile the President was pursuing his course of flattering and rewarding his friends, and persecuting not only his known opponents, but all whom he suspected of not being on his side. Edicts of banishments had been issued, conceived in a spirit of vindictive tyranny. The President had announced the plan of a " Constitution," but — even did it give the people more power than it pretends to grant — it would be the folly of idiocy to attach any more notion of stability to a Constitution under the control of Louis Napoleon than to a child's house of cards. His personal safety had already been endangered. As he was coming out of the Elysee, a sentry fired at him. The man was at once tried by a court martial and shot forthwith. But there are other arms and other weapons than his in France, and few lives are, to human view, more environed with peril than Louis Napoleon's. There is no particular intelligence of individually important facts from the other European countries, but a multitude of small yet significant indications show their universally unsettled state, and leave on the mind that vague, but impressive feeling 1 of foreboding which would exclude surprise at any convulsions which may shake the nations. We have given precedence to the most important intelligence in the latest received papers ; but our files contain a variety of news from various parts of the world possessing claims to notice which we shall duly to attend in future numbers.

The intelligence from the Cape of Good Hope is to the 28th of February. "We have characterised it as important and discouraging. A brief narrative 6T its principal parts will show that it is both. On the 6th of February, Sir, Harry Smith issued a proclamation calling on the Burgher force from the various districts to assemble on the Bth of March for the protection of the Frontier, as he intended to march with the whole of the regular troops into the Kaffir country against the rebel Gaikas and Hottentots. On the 12th an armistice for three days was agreed to, after the termination of which (on the 15th) a proclamation appeared directing that hostilities be renewed with all energy and activity. It was not known to what extent the Burghers would obey the call for tho Bth of March, but, in the interval, while Sir Harry was waiting for their gathering and for the expected arrival of troops from England, two events occurred to disarrange his scheme. The first, that he was himself recalled, or at least suspended in a portion of his command ; the second, the loss of H. M. Steamer Birkmhead, which was wrecked within a few hours sail of Simon's Bay, having on board a reinforcement of 400 officers and men, with upwards of 100 other persons, the greater part of whom wo lament to gay perished in this most calamitous disaster. Some ambiguity hangs over the arrangement, made respecting the Cape Government, it not appearing very clearly whether Sir Harry Smith was actually recalled, or whether a division of the authority was to be effected. The new ruler was MajorGeneral George Cathcart (son of Lord Cathcart, and late Deputy-Lieutenant of the Tower) ; and it had be'en officially announced at home that he had been appointed " Governor of the Cape of Good Hope in the room of Sir Harry Smith." Some of the papers stated, however, that he was especially charged with the administration of civil affairs, and that Lord Grey's intention in the appointment was to enable Sir

H. Smith to devote all his energies to the war. This again was contradicted, by other writers; while at the Capo the understanding* plainly was that Sir TI. Smith was literally recalled, Referring to it in this point of view, the South African says, The announcement of this event before the arrival of his successor, annihilates his authority, without which it is impossible to command an army. With the regular forces under his command, the effect of bis rtcall being known will be bigbly injurious, though discipline will still preserve order and keep the soldiers to their standards. But with the irregular or volunteer bands ie will be utteily ruinous. Under such a cloud it would be unsafe lo hazard any movement like that announced for the 8.11 March, which requires the prompt obedience and simultaneous action of distant columns, confronting on all sides a watchful and desperate enemy. To announce the disgiace of a Commander-in-Chief, in the presence of his enemy, while his successor was weeks or months distant from the scene of action, was a proceeding worthy of Earl Grey. He is the most consistent man in mischief that ever ruined a country. In this state of things, and amidst the distractions of a political character which were rending the colony, the loss of the Birhenhcacl came as a calamity which, in the words of the same journal, " filled the cup of bitterness to the brim " The account of this afflictive event will be found in another column. The loss of life was frightful : the Sydney Herald mentions that as the Queenstoum (which brought the intelligence from the Cape) was leaving Table i3ay, a schooner arrived which had picked up two boats having about a hundred passengers from the wreck; this still leaves the probability, we fear the certainty, that few if any less than four hundred were lost. General Cathcart was daily expected; but we find little of hopeful anticipation expressed with regard to his arrival. The last reports of the Kaffir hostilities were contradictory; but it was believed that Dr. Davidson and several soldiers of the 43rd Regiment, forming part of an escort conveying supplies to Colonel Eyre's camp, were killed in a skirmish about the 18th of February. Political excitement seemed still to increase. " Mr. Secretary Montague's Legislature" had been generally repudiated ; and at a largo meeting of farmers at Swellendam, on the 23rd of February, a Petition to the Queen was adopted, praying Her Majesty to " grant them the Constitution direct, instead of having it formally passed through the present Legislative Council/ and to remove Mr. Montague. The state of public feeling may be partly inferred from the following conclusion of an article in the South African : — But the colonists — how are they to act 1 Without organization they can do nothing. To this one point of organization, therefore, all their efforts must be directed. They must once more demand the Constitution, which is their right by Letters Patent. They can now prove by facts, which even Lord Grey will feel it delicate to deny, that the local Government has managed so to constitute the present Legislative Council, that it would not if it could, and cannot if it would settle this question — that it has become simply a key to the Evchequer, out of which the official and unofficial members can help one another in carrying on their war against public opinion and public rights, for any length of time to come. Let them, at the public meeting to be held in the Town Hall on Monday, pass the Draft Ordinances, with the blanks to be filled up, and request their confirmation by Act of Parliament — with an intimation that this is the last petition which idpect for tliemsehei, will ■permit them to present on this subject. Ibis mail probability will be successful.