LATE ENGLISH NEWS.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume I, Issue 43, 2 August 1845, Page 3

LATE ENGLISH NEWS.

Visit op the Queen to France. — The Paris Commerce says :—": — " We have reason to believe, from a certain source of information, that the Queen of England will visit France in the [ month of April next. Her intention is not to ' come so far as Paris. She reckons upon stopping at one of the royal palaces, where, as we are assured, preparations are already being made for her reception." Galignani's Messenger of Friday says : — " We question very much the accuracy of the announcement made by the Commerce." Mr. Hutt has given notice to ask leave to bring in a bill for extending the provisions of the Canada Corn Act to our Australian colonies. The Paris Moniteur announces the formal recognition of the provisional government of Mexico by King Louis Phillippe, who received M. Garo in the character of its representative on Wednesday. The French government has ordered reinforcements of troops to be despatched to the Swiss frontier. It was reported in Paris that the Austrian government had resolved to interfere. Lord Brougham is preparing a life of Voltaire. He is writing it in English and in French, and the work is to be brought out in the two languages, simultaneously in London and in Paris.

The Late Robbery at Messrs. Rogers's. — Information is said to have been received in London, from France, announcing that two men are in the custody of the French police, in whose possession were found four notes for a thousand pounds each that had been stolen from Messrs. Rogers's bank. The new arctic expedition under the command of Sir John Franklin is appointed to sail about the first week in May. The intended route is through Barrow Straits, between Cape Walker and Bankes' Land, and thence to the continent of America to the westward of Woollaston Land. They will still be able to take two years* provisions, though the steam apparatus and coals will not admit of their taking three years' complete, as on former arctic voyages. Freemasonry. — The differences which have existed for some time among the members of the higher degrees of masonry in Ireland have been brought to a satisfactory termination, a complete union being effected through the especial intervention of the Duke of Leinster. This is the most important event in the masonic annals since the union of the grand lodges of York and England was effected by their Royal Highnesses the late Dukes of Kent and Sussex. Canonry in St. Paul's Cathedral. — The Rev. Mr. Tyler, rector of St. Giles's, has been appointed to the canonry of St. Paul's, vacant by the death of the Rev. Sidney Smith. The Rev. Sidney Smith. — We regret to announce the death of the Rev. Sidney Smith, who, after an illness of some weeks' duration, expired at his residence in Green-street, shortly before 1 1 o'clock on Saturday evening. — Dr. Holland and Mr. Hibberts (sons-in-law of the deceased) were both in attendance on their lamented relative at the time of his death. Mr. Smith had attained his 74th year. By his death a canonry in St. Paul's Cathedral becomes vacant. Mr. Smith was partly educated in Edinburgh, where he resided for some time, in. company with Lord Brougham, Lord Jeffrey, the late Sir James Macintosh, and others. In conjunction with the above eminent men, he commenced the Edinburgh Review, which was under his editorship for a short period, and to which he contributed during the most part of his life. During the early period of his life Mr. Smith was not in very affluent circumstances, and for all the advancement he obtained was indebted, in a great measure, to his own industry. Most people will recollect his own joke of his residing in Edinburgh, and " cultivating literature on a little oatmeal." Mr. Smith's literary labours were principally bestowed upon the Edinburgh Review, his only published work of any note being " Peter Plimley's letters." Mr. Smith's loss will be especially felt by the whig party, to which he was always attached, and to the interests of which he contributed in no small degree. The rev. gentleman gave the following description of himself some time ago in' a letter to a correspondent of the New York American :—: — "T am seventy-four years old ; andj being a canon of St. Paul's, in London,' and rector of a parish in the country, my time is equally divided between town and country. lam living amidst the best society in the metropolis, and at ease in my circumstances, in tolerable health, a mild whig, a tolerating churchman, and much gi-

yen to talking, laughing, and noise. I dine with the rich in London, and physic the poor in the country ; passing from the sauces of Dives to the sores of Lazarus. I am, upon the whole, a happy man, have found the world an entertaining world, and am heartily thankful to Providence for the part allotted me in it." New Zealand. — We cannot help entertaining a hope, however improbahle such a result may appear, that much national advantage may accrue from the discussions, although painful for the time, which are taking place between the New Zealand Company and the Government. The usual faults have probably been committed on both sides, and by bringing those faults prominently forward, a better system with' regard to colonization generally may at last be matured. — Standard, March 17. Nineteen individuals, teu of whom are resident in Glasgow, have subscribed towards the building of the projected college, in- connexion" with the Scots Free Church, the magnificent sum of £19,000! The Americans, not to be outdone by Julien, have got up a national Polka of their own. It is called, " The glorious, original, and never-to-be-svnashed - bowie - knifc-and-high- pressure-bi-ler-busting-frec-and • enlightened - nigger- whip-ping-democratic-Columbian-Polk." In the Mark-lane Report of 24th February, English old wheat is quoted at from 425. to 545., according to quality, and new the same. Foreign (duty free), from 425. to 565. ; Australian, from 565. to 5Ss. It thus appears that not only has Australian wheat attracted sufficient notice to be quoted, but that it is actually saleable at 45., or 7\ per cent., higher than the best wheats of either England or the world, either new wheats or old. This is good news for Van Diemen's Land, South Australia, and Swan River. It might also have been good news for New Zealand, but thanks to the Home and Local Governments, who have so trifled with the natives, both in the north and in the south, as to render the pursuits of steady industry impossible ; the rich valleys of New Zealand are about as productive of grain now as they were when Captain Cook visited the country. The well-known quaker, John Tawell, formerly of Sydney, had been tried, found guilty, and was to be executed on Tuesday, the 26th of March. He was lying in Aylesbury gaol. Since the condemnation of the prisoner, who, it appears, fully expected an acquittal, the wretched" man frequently gave vent to violent paroxysms of grief, contrasting his former happy condition" with his then present doom. The expense of the prosecution of this individual had cost the country £400, and that for the defence £700. In deference to the wishes oE the members of the Society of Friends, Tawell was not to be executed in the garb of a Quaker. Since ho was locked up in the condemned cell, he maintained the most obstinate silence, with reference to the commission of the awful crime, — neither admitting nor denying his guilt. As to the fact of his guilt, a doubt did not exist on the mind of any party. It was hardly possible to describe the excitement which the trial created in Aylesbury and the neighbourhood. The unhappy man had been visited by several of the members of the society he" claimed to be an unworthy member — both by quakers and quakeresses. The trial occupied nearly three days : it commenced shortly after 9 o'clock on Wednesday morning, the 12th, and ended on Friday, shortly after noon. When the foreman pronounced the word " guilty," the prisoner was unmoved; and when asked by the Clerk of the Crown if he had anything to s,ay why the sentence of death should not be passed upon him, he made no reply. The usual proclamation was therefore made for silence, • and the Judge (Mr. Baron Parke) passed the awful sentence upon the culprit. The result of the trial appeared to give general satisfaction to the inhabitants of Birkhamstead, at which place it was made known about two o'clock on Friday afternoon. Two gentlemen from the prisoner's solicitor arrived at the King's Arms in that town, express from Aylesbury, about that hour, and immediately proceeded to the residence of the unhappy Mrs. Tawell, to whom it was communicated, in the presence" of the prisoner's brother and Miss Cutforth, — an interesting young lady about 17, a daughter of Mrs. Tawell, by her former husband. On hearing the shocking news — so opposite to what she anxiously looked forward to with much, confidence, she fainted away, and it was found necessary to call medical assistance to her aid. Her sufferings throughout the day were most intense ; but on Saturday she appeared more calm, and was a little better.

Deaths'. — The Attorney General to Her Majesty the Queen Dowager, and Her Majesty the Queen's Serjeant-at-Law, William Taddy, Esq. —Major- General Sir Thomas Corsellis, K.C.B. — Professor Daniels, of King's College, very suddenly, after delivering a lecture. — Sir J. Gurney, Baron of the Exchequer. — General Pritchard. And, though last, not least, at Accrington, Mr. Wombwell's large Elephant, " Chuney," deeply regretted by his keeper ! It was found very difficult to obtain seamen for ships now fitting out for the navy. A story was afloat that some man had attempted, with an air-gun, on Constitution-hill, ~ to shoot Prince Albert. It was not believed. Jewish Civil Disabilities. — In the House of Lords, on Monday, the Lord Chancellor mo-

*ved the second reading of a bill for the relief of persons of the Jewish religion elected to municipal offices ; explaining the nature and objects 1 of the measure. 'The bill was intended to get rid of some anomalies, some inconsistencies, he might say some - absurdities in the existing law. A Jew may already hold very important responsible offices : r Sir Moses Montefiore is a Magistrate for the - Cinque Ports, and for the counties of Kent and Middlesex ; Mr David Salomons is a magistrate • for Surrey and Kent, and other Jewish gentle*men were in the Commission of the Peace; Mr. ' Salomons is Deputy-Lieutenant of a county, and one of the Messrs. Rothschild is Deputy-Lieu-tenant of another county. Not only are Jews eligible to the office of high sheriff, but, if elec- ' ted, a Jew is bound to serve : the office of Sheriff is regarded in London as a steppingstone to the post of Alderman : if you compel a man to accept a burdensome office, it is most unjust to exclude him from the customary re- ' ward ; and the manner in which the exclusion has been effected in the case of Mr. Salomons was still more objectionable. He had served the office of sheriff, and was elected to the Court oi Aldermen ; but the Court refused to tender him the oaths ; requiring him first to sign tfie declaration that he would do nothing detrimental to the Protestant religion, " on the true faith of a Christian" ; which, of course, he could not do. The Court of Queen's Bench was of opinion, that, if he had taken the oaths, he might have been duly admitted and installed in his office : and that if he had subsequently neglected to sign the declaration, he would have been protected by the annual Act of Indemnity. By reversing the order of procedure, however, and making the declaration anterior to the oaths, the Court of Aldermen were enabled to exclude whom they pleased from the bench of Aldermen, or tr admit those whom they favoured ; virtually obtaining - a hold over the election for which there was no warrant in law. At this moment there pre Aldermen of the Jewish religion in Birmingham, Portsmouth, Southampton, and other places. The compulsion of signing a declaration has been abolished in the case of Quakers, Independents, Moravians, and Separatists : the act of abjuration (the 10th of George the First) was repealed by a temporary act — temporary because supposed to have been rendered unnecessary by the annual Indemnity Act ; but setting an example which he now proposed to follow. In other countries — France, Belgium, Holland, and the - United States — Jews have been admitted to the high offices, with no inconvenient result. A less liberal policy prevails in the Austrian States and in Germany ; but there also they are beginning to relax in their rigour. Prussia has set the example to the German states. There, persons of the' Jewish religion are admitted to the schools and the universities, where they read lectures and take degrees. The most admirable conse- ■. quenees have resulted from this proceeding; for some of the most learned men in those universities — those who have most distinguished them- I selves in -literature and science, are among such persons. Lord Lyndhurst stated that he had referred some old acts of Parliament on the subject to the Criminal Law Commissioners — such as ought no longer to disgrace the statute-book. Among others, there is one act passed in the reign of Edward the First, and entitled Be Judaismo, where the inhabitants of the particular parts of cities which were termed "the Jewries" are required to wear on their outer garments a badge indicating the religion tney belong to. The measure was met with hearty concui-rence by the Marquis of Lansdowne, Lord Brougham, and Lord Campbell. The Bishop of London, and Lord Colchester, did not oppose the bill ; but declared their determination to oppose any ulterior measure for admitting Jews to Parliament. The bill for removing the municipal and corporate disabilities of the Jews, was read a second time in the House of Lords on Monday, the 10th March, and on the Friday following it wasreadathird time and passed. — Voice o/Jocob.

We copy from the Colonial Gazette the following graphic description of what is by courtesy, styled the Goverrffeffcef N&wkZeakind* -^fcwsforee and truth of this sketch is the more evident to the settlers of Port Nicholson who saw the thing in uniform, after it had so grossly insulted them on its first landing, making ineffectual struggles to recover the cocked hat and feathers which had fallen ingloriously into the water from " that which seemed to be its head," — on its return from Barrett's Hotel to the North Star. — Ed. N. Z. S. i

The Uniform op a Government. — It is not enough to say that the British settlers in New Zealand have no government — they have a thing in a uniform, sent out and supported by the British Government, incessantly busy in defeating every attempt to establish order and good government. Wherever this thing comes it unsettles, does mischief, and creates irritation. It visited Rauparaha and Rangihaiata, to assure them of immunity for their murders at the Wairau. Jt went to the Bay of .Islands to relieve. Johnny Heki of any apprehensions of punishment for his repeated robberies he might .entertain. It went to Nelson to insult the gentlemen who civilly came to pay their respects to the Governor ; to New Plymouth, to injure and insult the collective settlers at the same' t time. It was instructed by the Honie Govern-

ment to accelerate the settlement of the land claims : it has used every exertion to retard and render settlement impossible. It was sent out to execute the law : it has absolved the aborigines from every bond of law. It was sent out to repair the financial dilapidation of Shortland : it has thrown the colonial finances into wilder confusion. It is difficult to say what line of policy ought now to be adopted in New Zealand. If the British Government had never interfered, and if other governments had stood aloof, men's necessities would already have led to the establishment of a make-shift government. But the successive hunglings of Shortland and Fitzßoy have awakened fierce passions, and created obstacles almost insurmountable. Perhaps the best thing that could be done would be to send out a good governor with a carte blanche, and a pledge that he would not be interfered with for five or ten years. But where is the man ?—? — Colonial Gazette, Feb. 1. [From the Colonial Gazette.} New Zealand : Loud Stanley, — The business of the House of Commons is to be interrupted on Tuesday by a monster debate — not about New Zealand, but about Lord Stanley. Lord Stanley has listened for four long years to representations about the waste of property and danger of human life incurred by the misgovernment of New Zealand, without being once moved to do more than write a letter or two. A personal imputation, dropped incidentally in the heat of debate, rouses him to set the Commons of England together by the ears. Even in this seeming display of sensitiveness there is gross and palpable affectation. The charge of which Lord Stanley complains is no new charge — it was made in the twelfth Report of the New Zealand Company ; a vain attempt was made to explain it away in the apologetic memorial of the Colonial-office to the Committee of the House of Commons on New Zealand ; it has been repeated and debated in speeches and newspapers — after nearly a year's silence, what has made Lord Stanley so suddenly impatient under this imputation ? Mr. W. G. Hope let the cat out of the bag last night. A petition on the subject of the mismanagement of New Zealand is in the course ! of signature in the City, to which names of high 1 mercantile standing are being attached, and Lord Stanley must be whitewashed before this overwhelming testimony to his misgovernmeut reaches the House. Lord Stanley dare not abide so severe a blow. What immediate success may attend so characteristic a manoeuvre it is impossible to conjecture, but of this Lord Stanley may be cer- , tain : — The friends of New Zealand colonization have struggled on for six long years under every discouragement, andthey are prepared to struggle on for twice as many more, until they obtain redress. They will not submit even though (which is not very likely) his lordship should vanquish the New Zealand Company in the single combat (by proxy) to which he has challenged it. The wasted time and broken hopes of many an honest English family — the blood of Arthur Wakefjeld and his brave companions — call from the ground for justice on the Minister who has been the cause of all. He may rest assured that there will come a day of reckoning. — " Cain, Cain ! where is thy brother ?" [From the Morning Chronicle.'] A stronger case for parliamentary inquiry and interference than that raised by the present state of New Zealand, and the unliquidated claims of the Company on the Government, could not well be. Without going in any detail into the contents of the enormous blue book laid on the table of the house by the committee of last session, it may suffice to state the unhappily notorious fact, that the most just, humane, rational, and promising scheme of colonization attempted in modern times has, since the protection of the British Crown was spread over it, been nothing but a catalogue of disastersr That colony, which of all others has had the benefit of the maturest knowledge and most careful management in ita original establishment, is at present the most distressed dependency of the empire. Our most hopeful and hest^onsidered experiment in cqlonizing bids fair to turn out our most pitiful failure. The judicious combination of the thi'ee elements of a thriving, self-supporting colony — land, labour, and capital — with rare natural advantages for their union, and much of the best practical intellect of the country to superintend their working, has come at last to bankruptcy and half-crown assignats. particularly, the question so interesting to philanthropy and Christianity, whether the introduction of European civilization cm be made compatible with the moral and social improvement of a race of aborigines seems about to be answered in the negative. Successful rebellion and .unpunished murder constitute the staple of our latest news of the natives of the model colony ; and all the recent accounts show that feelings are taking root in the minds of the settlers which presage an eventual war of reprisals and extermination. < That the experiment was tried under highly favourable circumstances, as regards the natural capabilities of the site chosen, and, at the outset, with every prospect of success, is matter of notoriety. Of the fitness of the New Zealand islands, in point of soil, climate, and geographical position, to become the seat, now of a thriv- ■

ing and prosperous agricultural colony, and ultimately of a powerful commercial and maritime state, there have never been two opinions. Nor are we aware that either the faithfulness or the capacity of the New Zealand Company, in the discharge of the high public trust committed to them, has ever been seriously impeached. In regard to the very interesting question of the possible peaceful amalgamation of an aboriginal race with European settlers, the circumstances of the experiment were singularly favourable. All accounts agree in representing the natives of New Zealand as a superior and easily improvable race, with the ordinary vices of barbarians, but receptive of the influences of civilization far more readily than any other of the savage tribes with whom, whether in America, Africa, or Australasia, colonization has placed us in contact. Nor has there been any lack of disposition on the part of the Company to consult the rights and interests of this people. A special provision for their permanent welfare was a prime ingredient of the Company's plan. As a guarantee that the aborigines of New Zealand should not share the usual fate of rude tribes brought suddenly into collision with the wealth and power of civilization, it was provided in the original scheme of the colony, that one-tenth of all land purchased of the natives should be set aside in perpetuity as an inalienable provision lor the native chiefs and their families, in the hope that such reserves, intermingled with the possessions of a thriving and growing community, would attain a value sufficient to protect the original occupants of the soil from future destitution and degradation. The interests of the natives were thus made identical with those of the settlers. A share was expressly assured to them in the new value which their previously unimproved and worthless soil was about to receive from the application of British industry and capital. Such were the outlines of the best-considered enterprise of colonization that Englishmen ever attempted. It is surely a question worth all Englishmen asking — Why has this enterprise failed ? J- 1 Meanwhile the colony is going to wreck and ruin ; property is without security, and industry without hope. Of the ten thousand settlers on Cook's Straits, all holding under the Company, not one is in legal possession of an inch of ground. Many have returned home in despair ; others have re-emigrated to Van Diemen's Land, New South Wales, and Valparaiso. The natives, emboldened by the timid and almost obsequious favoritism of the local government, have grown greedy, aggressive, and insubordinate ; advance the most exorbitant claims to compensation for land which they never in any intelligible sense possessed ; keep the settlers in a perpetual fever of alarm and irritation, and dictate custom-house law to the Governor. Of the state of feeling becoming prevalent between the two races it is needless to say one word. It is now for Parliament to determine, whether the most rational and hopeful enterprise in colonization that the British people ever undertook shall be irretrievably ruined ; whether the only honest attempt that the annals of colonization record, to provide for the welfare of an aboriginal race, shall turn out a dismal failure ; whether some ten thousand of industrious and energetic Englishmen, after bravely grappling with all the natural difficulties of founding a new England, shall be abandoned to the tender mercies of a government that wriggles oufcof bankruptcy by help of half-cro^passignats, slars over a barbarous murder without inquiry, and surrenders at discretion to rebellion ; whether a definite contract made by theßritishCrown with a body .of its subjects., for a specific consideration had and received,, shall be treated as waste paper ; and whether there is such a thing as responsibility for a series of blunders, almost rising into the gravity of crimes, such as it were difficult to match even from the voluminous records of colonial mal-administration.