To the Editor of the New Zealand Spectator.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume V, Issue 353, 20 December 1848, Page 3

To the Editor of the New Zealand Spectator.

Wellington, 19 th December, 1848. Sir, — The tenor of your paper of Saturday last would lead the public to the belief that the meeting of Wednesday evening originated in a party. That meeting, Sir, was the result of a conviction on the part of two individuals, whose names are subscjibed to this note, that some fatal error was about to be committed, which would place the social institutions of these islands in jeopardy for more than one generation. To this statement those individuals subscribe their names, and remain, Sir, Yours, &c, respectfully, John Wallace, W. B, Bhodes,

of the Communists and Socialists, whose cause, has, they feel, been perilled by his placing on ! record the cold, calm pretensions of those 1 classes to plunder such of their fellow-citizens 1 • as possess property. The following is a translation of the vote of censure adopted on Tuesday by the Assembly after the protracted sitting and extraordinary discussion on M. Proudhon's proposition for -a tax on revenue :—: — 11 The National Assembly, considering the' proposition of the Citizen f roudhon is an odious attack ou the piinciples of public morality ; that it is a flagrant violation of the right of properly, which is the basis of social order ; that it encourages delation, and appeals to (he vilest passions ; considering further, that the outline of it has communicated the revolution of February, iv wishing to render it an accomplice of the theories which he has developed in the tribune, passes to the order of the day." On Wednesday, in the National Assembly, the bill introduced by M. Goudchaux, by which a tax is levied upon all moitgages, and upon the sale of real property, gave rise to an animated debate. The Financial' Committee had given in a report condemning the principle of the tax; and M. Thiers, in his report on M. Proudhon's celebrated motion, had declared that ths tax was a vicious one, and a dangerous innovation upon the rights of property. M. Goudchaux had alluded ou the previous day, in rather bitter terms to the opposition to which this measure had been subjected, and the discussion consequently took a more personal turn on Wednesday than might have been expecied from the nature of the affair. The debaie was commenced by M. Thiers, who attacked the measure with great severity, as being unjust, and calculated to do more injury to public rredit than could be compensated by the 20,000,000 which the Minister of Fiuance expected to derive from it. M. Goudchaux defended the measure on the ground of necessity, and asked, 11 was it the monarchy that ought to come Jorward to give the Republic lessons in finance, where it had left behind it so enormous a debt?" This allusion to the men who had been connected with the former Government brought M. Berryer to the tribune to complain of sugli invidious distinctions being made in the Assembly, when all were actuated by a firm desire to serve their country. The animated manner in which the honorable representative expressed himself drew down the loud approbation of the Assembly. The honorable gentleman then spoke strongly against the bill, and called on the House to reject it altogether. On a division of the first article, the Government had a majority of thirty-nine, the numbers being 378 to 33J. At the sitting of Thursday, M. Blanchard read the report of the Committee appointed to inquire into the events of May and June. This document inculpates certain members of the late Provisional Government, some of whom, " irom a mistaken notion of the state of the nation," and others " from seditious motives," had produced an extraordinary agitation in the country, " with a view to disorganising it." " Emissaries had befn sent to foment sedition in_tJTe_j3ro^iac < fi^^uM^hfc

.and retaken twice by each patty in the coursd of rbe dkiy, and they would have remained: iri possession of Charles Albert, if Marshal R»uletzsky/w'bo seems- to have calculated evetyt thing, likera consummate general, had not di.rected, at five: in the afternoon, 20,000' freslh men from Verona on the flank of the 1 Piedmontese. THis additional forte" dacioVd efiel day, and the Piedmontese, exhausted with fatigue and hard fighting in the broiling sun' from 5 in the morning, broke up and entered l Villa Franca at nine at night. They were not followed by the Austrians, but the latter at once crossed the* Mincio with a grtat mass 1 of troops, and secured the heights of Volta, overlooking the position of Goito, to which the King and his beaten army retired on Wednesday night by the road of Roverbello. A battle was decided at Goito at an early hour on Thursday morning, at which it appears the Piedmonfese were again overpowered by superior forces. The King had intimated his intention, in case of defeat, of placing the river Oglio, nearly as wide as the Mincio, and running parallel with it, between him and the enemy, and of retreating in case of need to Cremona. Charles Albert appears to have carried that intention paifdjpnto effect, as a brigade had been sent to Ado'laf on the Chieso, a small river that joins the Oglio, to secure the passage. The Mincio, both banks, was in possession of the Austrians, and a train of heavy artillery had already been directed to Peschiera, to commence the bombardment of that place, the only remnant of Sardinian ascendancy. The Times reports that its Paris correspondence of Thursday evening states that the affairs of King Charles Albert are in a worse condition than had been anticipated. His j Majesty had demanded, an armistice of Marshal Radetzsky, who consented, but on terms which the King would not accept — namely, the surrender of all the fortresses of Piedmont, including or rather specially naming, Allessandria. The King having declined those terms, issued a proclamation to his troops, in which he expresses his resolve to fall, with his sons, at the head of the army, rather than submit to conditions so humiliating. " The result will show that he is popular and beloved by his subjects," say our {Times) private letters, " but it is far from certain that even with the aid of a rising en masse he can regain the ground he has lost, or preserve that left to him." The Piedmontese Gazette of the 29th announces that the Chamber of Deputies had on the preceding day adopted the following resolution investing the King with absolute power in consequence of the necessity to defend the country in the most prompt and efficacious manner :—": — " Resolved, that the King's Government be invested during the present wai of independence with all the legislative and executive powers. It may enact laws by simple Royal decrees (the Constitutional Institutions being preserved), and accomplish every act for the defence of the country,"