NEWS OF THE WEEK. [From the Spectator, December 9.]

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume V, Issue 393, 9 May 1849, Page 4

NEWS OF THE WEEK. [From the Spectator, December 9.]

Ferdinand of Aus'ria abdicated ! — the Pope fled ! Monarchs pass, states fall and rise, with a rapidity that mocks recording. If portents are to be trusted, the Government of Austria has fairly superseded the revolution by heading it. Putting all things together, we discern a great combined movement, conducted by the leading statesmen of the empire. The Emperor Ferdinand has abdicated in favour of his nephew, " Francis Joseph the First." The new Emperor is a very young man — only in his nineteenth year ; he is popular, and held to be of great promise. The house of Hapsburg has been remarkable for its power of producing examples of the most opposite intellect,, and after Ferdinand we may look for a favourable change. Count Stadion and his colleagues, the new Ministers, bad already issued a manifesto, which of itself might have marked the new sera in Austrian histOTy. If the statesmen who have subscribed to it adhere to their purpose, they may possibly achieve the reconsolidation of the empire. They proclaim their resolve to vindicate, vi et armis, that authority in the Executive without which no government can exist ; and so far they are justified by common sense and sound policy. Bat they still more wisely disclaim all reactionary intention ; reading their declaration by the plain meaning of the words, we understand that, instead of endeavouring to recall the past and re-establish the Austria of 1815, they seek to develope a new Austria, suited to the altered state of Europe. This is to be effected by organising a true representation of the people, on the basis of free institutions and local selfgovernment, with a vigorous central administration. Such a constitution of the empire would be the very opposite of that which existed down lo 1848 : that was a centralized bureaucracy, ruling over provinces kept in a state of subjection, separation, and mutual ignorance ; the new plan is a popular machinery of government and a federalized consolidation. How far such a consolidation may be practical with such diversity of races, we cannot say ; but the plan is the only one which offers any hope of again setting the house of Hapshurg on a stable throne. Francis Joseph's inaugural proclamation is in harmony with the ministerial programme. It really looks as if Austria's foremost statesman understood the true function of the royal classes in the Europe of the nineteenth century, and could appreciate the capabilities of a limited Monarchy.

The Pope and his Cardinals are dispersed in flight. As the veteran Lambruschini escaped in the uniform of a dragoon, Pius evaded in the less appropriate guise of a servant to the Bavarian Ambassador, and crossing the frontier, threw himself on the hospitality of Naples. His ulterior proceedings are not yet known. Pius appears to have withdrawn from no motives of pusillanimity — not a trait of his race — but because his presence might have implied a sanction to proceedings which he did not like and could not prevent, and might have occasioned further contest and bloodshed. The Ministry dictated by the populace was in its composition and policy too far advanced towards democracy for his real concurrence ; his flight is a negation : we do not yet construe it into a treacherous sympathy with Naples, or her ally the Austria of Metternich and Nugent — we do not suppose that he has gone, as Ferdinand the First went, to Laybach, for armed auxiliaries to subjugate his people. The Roman Ministry, abandoned by its sovereign, si ill professes allegiance ; but some further changes are expected, to separate the temporal from the spiritual power — in other words finally to depose the Pope from the secular throne of Rome. The King of Naples has received the Pontiff with worshipful homage ; gfad enough, no doubt, to have secured so sacred a presence near his own precarious throne. But whether the opportunity will be seized by Ferdinand the Second to effect a counter-revolutionary alliance with the Pope at its head, or by the Pope to obtain a recruit for the Italian League, end so to effect a bettor understanding between the peoples and princes, of Italy, time must show. The displacement of the Sovereign Pontiff introduces a new element of doubt in Italian affairs, and wholly cuts off intelligible conjecture. The election which is to occupy the French people to-morrow is preceded by a competition for public patronage, among the candid dates and their friends, not at all dignified or re-assuring. Every event is seized as the occasion for advertising the rival professions. The flight of the Pope, for instance, enables M. Cavaignac to conciliate the priests and; the national vanity, by offering a bodywguard and a squadron -of steamers 'to the «rr&nt Pontiff; whilst M. Louis Napoleon -Bonaparte, excluded from the facilities of office, declares that he would not hive 4tme what may be thought

indiscreet in that, mission,, and avowt adesirt to uphold not only the Pope's person but hit authority. Indeed, the rival advertiser is quite cut out by L. N. B. whose "commhr voyageurs" are obtaining testimonials from all quarters, as plentiful as those for a popula* quack medicine. A number of officers, who view with jealousy the promotion of Cavaignac, Lamoriciere, and their African companions, have published 1 a testimonial forL.N^B; as if he wfere the rightful successor of hi* uncle. The sailors ars pronouncing in hit. favour, and addresses pour into his hands. He himself has raked up the pamphlet th*t he wrote at Ham — on industrial home colo*. nies, if we remember rightly — to show his solicitude for the working classes and' his Socialist sympathies. The press, both of Parit, and London, puffs the rivals incessantly. M* de Lamartine seems to be almost forgotten, and the signs, at least on the surface, run strongly in favour of Louis -Napoleon. Hfs special organ, the Constitutionnel, can findV little- to allege for him except hia uncle's^ victories and his own- presumed sense or telfr possession ; nay, the absence of brilliant qualities is spoken of as if it the better fitted him, to select the Ministers who will practically conduct the Government ; the Thiers journal thus virtually recognising the negative functions of Royalty as the proper functions for the French President. Lord Grey's proffered loan of half a million to jthe West Indies is not received with blind gratitude. In Jamaica, the share is ac« cepted with terms of thankfulness; but the Downing-street suggestions about water-tanks &c.,are passed over, and the Legislature hints that the cash should be devoted to establish some kind of bank to facilitate the payment of wages. In Trinidad the Governor and the Attorney-General unite in setting aside the Minister's suggested public works — tram-ways, water pipes, and all — as proposed by a person ignorant of local wants ; they also correct his proposal to expend the money in the immigration of " free" labourers, by offering a well-digested plan, which would, place the immigrant under contract, with other conditions tending to compel him to be industrious. Lord Harris and Mr. Warner know what Trinidad needs, which Lord Grey does not ; and they do not scruple to expose both his ignorance and his idle projects. Even pliant Sir Charles Grey, in Jamaica, virtually disowns his chief's opinions, by intimating.his own modest deference for the local knowledge of his antagonists but his duty of obedience to orders. The appointment of Mr. Henry Barkly to the Governorship of British Guiana will be regarded as indicating that Lord Grey has at last judiciously resolved to be guided, not by his own crotchets, but by "the well-understood wishes of the colonists :" it would not !e quite safe to disappoint such an expectation. Public events are flat, and the whole interest of the home news for the week descends into the department of accidents and offences, excited by the melodramatic murders at Wymondham and the wholesale suffocation of poor Irish in the Londonderry steamer. Some Irish writers, we see, are crowing over the evidence of ferocity in " the Saxon" afforded by the Norfolk murders. No one ever de-nied-fierce passions to the Saxon : the peculiarity in the Irish Celt is, not the, ferocity of the criminal, so much as the frequent want of motive, the submission of the victim, and the constant sympathy of Celtic society with the murderer rather than the murdered. No such traits are observable in the murders at Stanfield Hall. The excess of authority lies in the attack on the women, especially the unoffending maid servant : but the motive is obvious enough. The^real tragedy of the Irish emigrants is made matter of insinuation against the master and crew of- the steamboat " mostly Scotchmen ;" its real moral is, that the coasting steamers ought not .to be/allowed to carry such numbers of human passengers. In bad weather it would not he safe if the decks -were crowded with obstructive members, or if the hatches were left open ; and the coasting steamers have neither accommodation for a multitude below, nor authority to keep order. Many, perhaps, of these miserable people ought not to have been emigrants at all — and would not have been so if Government had due' control over emigration *, but the immediate. want is, better control over the passenger- traffic of the coasting steamers. The practice of ira* porting beggars into England, at the Ittirert fare, is in itself a nuisance and a. /public mischief. ' . • ' ' 1