ENGLISH NEWS.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume I, Issue 47, 30 August 1845, Page 3

ENGLISH NEWS.

The Ifteresa, from London the Ist April, arrived at Hobart Town on Thursday, the 3d July, making her passage out in 91 days. — From the Hobart Town papers we glean the following news :—: — The Queen and Prince Albert were in good health, and were to leave Windsor on the 28th MaTch for Gosport, thence to the Isle of Wight. Her Majesty, it is said, contemplates

giving a magnificent fete at Buckingham Palace in the course of the season. The Queen of Spain has recently presented to Queen Victoria a beautiful Andalusian horse. The King of Hanover has recently addressed autograph letters to their Royal Hignesses ' the Duchess of Gloucester and the Duke of Cambridge, as well as to several intimate personal friends of His Majesty in England, communicating the gratifying fact of the intei resting condition of Her Royal Highness the , Crown Princess, which at no distant period promises an heir in direct succession to the Throne of Hanover. The Dean of Westminster is to be the new Bishop of Ely. The new requisition of the University authorities of Oxford to censure Tract XC. has received 656 signatures, and will be sent in next term. It is, however, stated that the ; Vice- Chancellor will not move in the matter unless the signatures reach 1,000. Ministers and M.P.s generally were absent 1 from London during the Easter recess. The last winter was the severest and most [ protracted that has been known for many i years. When the Theresa sailed, in the bei ginning of April, the weather continued unu- ! sually cold, and threatened " to linger in the ; lap of May." The Portland Vase has, fortunately, been i restored almost to its pristine beauty. The injury it sustained is scarcely perceptible. The Chancellor of the Exchequer stated, in a debate in the House of Commons on the , window-tax, that he could not consent to re1 linquish it. i The Bill for relieving the Jews from the disabilities under which they laboured having ■. passed the House of Lords has been sent i down to the Commons. MissLinwood, whose exhibition in Leicester ; Square was, doubtless, known to many of our i readers, and whose worsted work seemed to ; rival the finest productions of the pencil, rei cently died at Leicester, in the 90th year of her age. The Government in New Brunswick and Canada has been compelled to give way to i large majorities in both Houses of Assembly, i The news of the intended annexation of . Texas with America had reached England. The subject seems to create considerable anxiety. A correspondent of the Morning . Chronicle states :—": — " It is positively affirmed that Mr. Polk will proaeed to annex Texas , by treaty, and not by the joint resolutions, • there being some doubt as to whether the . latter mode would not be an infraction of the ! Constitution of the United States. If there i be a difficulty with Mexico, an extra Session of Congress will probably be convened. The Mexican Minister has stated his intention of , leaving, and thus of breaking off all diploi matic intercourse for the present with the United States. Should war be declared, a blockade of Vera Cruz and other Mexican . ports will cut off European trade with Mexico. It is feared that this might lead to difficulties in Europe, as the war will be then viewed in a different light."

Colonial Bishoprics. — The next see to be erected by the committee, to whom has been entrusted the appropriation of the colonial bishoprics' fund, will be that of Ceylon. The Rev. J. Chapman, M.A., formerly fellow o£ King's College, Cambridge, rector of Dunstan Wallett, Essex, will be the first bishop of the new diocese. — Colonial Gazette. The Necrology for March contains notices of the death of several eminent persons. Amongst them are :—: — Sir Thomas Potter, of Manchester, in the 71st year of his age. Philip John Miles, the wealthy and wellknown Bristol merchant. General Darling, the Lieutenant-Governor of Tobago, in the 63d year of his age. Mr. Alexander Blackwood, the eminent publisher of Edinburgh. General Sir Charles Wall, X.C.8., at the advanced age of 81. He was Colonel of the 33d Regiment. Rear-Adrairal Richard Poulden, in his 80th year. Regina Maria Roche, the authoress of the Children of the Abbey and other well-known works. General Sir Thomas Saumarez, at Guernsey, on the 4th March.

France. — The latest intelligence states that M. Guizot was summoning his supporters for an anticipated division on the subject of the Belgian Treaty of Commerce. The Paris papers anticipate an early crisis in the affairs of the Swiss Confederation. The " free corps," instead of dissolving, are ready to turn out at a moment's notice.

Colonial Government. — There are endless disputes between the ' office' and those colonies wheie a local legislature exists. But these are nothing compared with those that arise between it and h ' Crown colony/ that is blessed with, a Governor and Council without any check from popular representatives. The

Governor is appointed at home, on account of his family connections, or parliamentary influence ; whether he is fit for the post is quite a secondary consideration, and pretty much a matter of chance. He is at a great distance from the controlling power, and is left for long periods to act on his own discretion, which often turns out to he the reverse of what the world calls by that name. If the inhabitants remonstrate he falls back on his 'instructions;' they may be grievously injured, but they cannot resist, for he has the authority of the Crown, and Englishmen will suffer much before they openly rebel against the lepresentative of their Sovereign. If they appeal to the ' office,' the Governor is always right und the people wrong; if they get their case carried into Parliament, though the Government confess themselves entirely ignorant of facts well known to everybody else, and make a most lame and wretched defence, there are plenty of gentlemen ready to testify to the many virtues and amiable qualities of the Governor ; the settlers are being ruined and the colony destroyed certainly, but then the Governor is such an honorable, such an excellent, such an amiable man I This evidence to character is Very worthless in such cases ; it is no defence at all. Both parties are right, but they see the man under two very different aspects. His friends have met him on terms of equality, and know him only in the intercoure of social life, as the pleasant companion of the dinner-table, or the club ; and to the qualities they have proved they bear testimony. But the complainants have seen him only the man in office, a superior in rank, holding power that he has used to their injnry and ruin, deaf to all remonstrances, careless of all reproof. What is his amiability or any other of his social qualities to them ? They do not dine, or vote, or hunt in his company, and to them he is a mischievous blunderer aud no more. We are far too indulgent to well-intentioned incapacity in places of trust. To those whose fortunes are wrecked by such a man's mismanagement, it is no answer to allege the ' amiable' character of the instrument of mischief. Where vigorous action is required incapacity is a crime, for which those who select such damagers of the community are responsible. — English paper.

[From the Morning Chronicle, Feb. I.] We gave utterance the other day to the feelings of grave apprehension which were raised in us by the news from New Zealand. Matter for grave reflection is indeed forced on us by the deplorable policy which is compromising the fortune of what, three or four years ago, bid fair to be the most steadily and rapidly prosperous of" our new colonies. We cannot look without grief on the position of those enterprising settlers who, far from home and friends, are involved in suffering and danger by the misconduct of the Government which should have protected them. But they at whose expense Captain Fitzroy thinks to abuse his powers, are less to be pitied than the nnhappy objects of his injudicious kindness. The English in New Zealand will suffer fearfully now ; but they will right themselves in j the longrun. Not so the poor natives, whose wild passions and ignorance Captain Fitzroy is fomenting into outrage that must bring down fearful repression on their heads. Some check there must be to lawless violence, on the one hand, and contemptible concessions on the other. And whenever the necessity for placing that check shall arrive, Captain Fitzroy will need to have a considerable force, and to make a sanguinary use of it, in order to obtain that control which a wiser man would have acquired by firmness, without resorting to severity. It is melancholy to think of the fate which appears to be in reserve for this unhappy Polynesian race, whose natural capacities seemed to promise them at least an easy euthanasia in an amalgamation with the European settlers. While the barbarous aggressions of the French threaten to exterminate the inhabitants of Tahiti, good. intentions, executed by incapacity, are preparing, with as much certainty, the destruction ot the aborigines of New Zealand. But it is impossible to continue very long grave in the face of the doings of Captain Fitzroy. He is the Grimaldi of governors. There is a charming simplicity in his contrivances, a direct matter-of-course blundering, which it is impossible to look on without losing one's gravity. Above all things, he shines in political economy and fiscal management. We lately treated our readers with his speculations on currency, and his notable device of two-shilling assignats. We shall now show them how Captain Fitzroy proposes to collect customs' duties in New Zealand. i The settlements recently formed in various parts of New Zealand, have naturally had the effect of drawing away the whaling ships from 1 the Bay of Islands, which was formerly their: sole place of resort. The chiefs in that parts of New Zealand consequently found a great falling off in the demand for pigs, potatoes, and other commodities for the use of the seamen ; and they no longer get offers of money

for their land. These evils roused the anger of a chief, called by the Europeans Johnny Hackey. At the head of a small body of his followers, he entered the little town of Russell, where they ate the Europeans' dinners, plundered their property, and then gratified their savage insolence by pulling the women's clothes over their heads, and committing other indecencies. He then proceeded to cut down the flag-staff, and declared, evidently with great truth, that the chiefs had been deceived when they were induced to sign the treaty of Waitangi, ceding their country to Great Britain. And this he justified, we are told, every now and then, by insisting that another chief had been allowed to commit the massacre at Wairau in the south, and why should he not kill Europeans at his end of the island ? Captain Fitzroy, in the greatest possible alarm, sends off to Sydney for troops, gets a couple hundred soldiers, and moves off towards | the abode of the refractory natives. Being assured of their submission, he sends back the troops, and goes to an assembly of the chiefs, whom he harangues in a long speech. Johnny Hackey doe* ftot find it convenient to attend ; but sends Captain Fitzroy a note, in which he tells him that he mustn't mind what he done; that it was his way ; that perhaps he shouldn't do it again ; that the flag-staff was made of his own wood, and had not been paid for ; but that he would give the captain another pole. This is taken as an apology for all his robberies and outrages. But as the captain's dignity requires some satisfaction, he fines oilier chiefs, who had had nothing to do with he disturbance. The fine is one of ten guns, which are laid at the captain's feet, and then graciously returned by him ; and there, for the present, is an end of the farce of the meeting. But Captain Fitzroy determines, by a great concession, to show his sense of justice to the natives. They had, it appears, got it into their heads that the falling off of the trade of the Bay of Islands was owing to the establishment of a custom-house at Russell. So Captain Fitzroy, evidently supposing that the removing a custom-house concerns only the place where it has been established, abolishes all customs 1 Suites at the Bay of Islands ! What can be the excuse for an act such as this ? Does Captain Fitzroy perpetrate this injustice to the other settlements, and play at ducks and drakes with his revenue, with or without a knowledge of the consequences of his proceedings ? Is he reckless enough to do these things with his eyes open ? Or, Is he such a born idiot as not to see what his proceeding must result in 1