The Sun.
London, England, 1847-11-15 00:00:00

his capacious intellect, he could not by possibility ,
have devised a state machinery more wonderfully
adapted to the government of an empire than that
which radiates in influence and operation from the
seclusion of Downing-street to the extremities of the
two hemispheres. It is by the perpetual balance of
this machinery that so many and such different in-
terests are simultaneously preserved ; and that the
manifold operations of the Executive can be performed
together without clash or disarrangement—from the
stamping of a letter at the Post-office to the signing
of an international treaty, from the appointment of
the guardian of an old tenement in Stratford-upon-
Avon to the nomination of a viceroy over the vast
but thinly populated tracks of Australia. By this
distribution of authority among the various members
of the Cabinet the affairs of our colonial possessions
are preserved in recollection through all the troubles
of a monetary panic and all the anxieties of a conti-

nental estrangement.
Notwithstanding the impression which i 4 preva-
lent to the contrary, it is certain that New Zealand
has been entirely, if not permanently tranquillized,
and the majesty of the law vindicated by the decision
of the British forces. The insurgent disposition lat-
terly manifested by the natives has, moreover, been
principally quelled by the stringent measures of justice
adopted by Captain LATE, of the 58th Regiment. It
would appear, from the intelligence recently received
by the Castor, that the circumstance which immedi-
ately aroused the insubordination of the aborigines,
was the accidental death of a native, caused by a
pistol-shot discharged by a midshipman of H. M. S
Calliope. That the bullet was fired unintentionally
through the brain of the native is rendered more than
probable from the fact of the shot being regarded as a
casualty by Governor GREY himself—his Excellency
being scarcely the man to put a garbled construction
upon any occurrence. The New Zealanders were,
nevertheless, incapable of distinguishing the causes of
a catastrophe which resulted in- the destruction of one
of Chemselvei; and the consequence was that, by way
of revenging the victim of the reefer, six of the na-
tives assaulted a farmhouse situated in a secluded part
of Wanganui, wounded the proprietor, Mr. GitriL-
LAN, and afterwards murdered" his wife and her three
children. The manner in which this atrocious out-
rage was perpetrated upon an unoffending civilian is
another of the diabolical tokens of the brutality
of an .uncivitized . race. . It, would seem that on
the 18th of April Mr. GILFILLAN had just returned
from! the adjacent town of Petre (distant about five
miles from his residence), arid was giving directions
in his stock-yard, when he .observed six natives de-
scending a neighbouring acclivity. Without suspect-
ing their intentions, this gentleman fell into conversa-
tion with the natives, and was gossipping and
" jesting" with them while they walked together, to
and fro, in front of the farmhouse. While talking in
this unsuspicious manner Mr. GILTILLAN received a
terrible blow on the back of his neck, and although
bewildered by the suddenness of the attack; the seve-
rity of the ironed, and the number of his assailants,
he managed tia_escapt into his dwelling and to barri-
cade the doorway. Besides himself, there were at this
moment in his residence his wife, five children, a
waiting woman, and an infant. Yielding to the soli-
citations of his wife, and convinced that his own
destruction was alone desired by the marauders, the
unfortunate man lowered himself from a window and
crawled, with considerable difficulty, through his
garden and among the long fern by which it was
surrounded. On the following morning a police-
man proceeded to the farmhouse, when he discovered
three of the children and their mother murdered. An
inquest was immediately held upon the bodies ; four
of the assassins were identified, were examined before
a court-martial (martial law having been already
proclaimed throughout Wanganui), and before the
evening of the 24th of the same April the murderers
were executed. Such are the particulars of this dia-
bolical crime ; and such was the summary punishment
inflicted upon the natives by the judicious severity of
Captain LATE, of the 58th Regiment. By way of re-
taliating upon this officer for the execution of their
companions, the natives attempted, by a combined as.-
sault, to annihilate the troops stationed under his
command, but were driven back in all directions, and
were ultimately compelled to disperse on the arrival
of additional assistance under Captain GREY. As a
conclusive testimony of the pacification of the country
since these disturbances, we may mention the condi-
tional release from confinement of the once formidable
TE RAUPERAIIA. Instead of endangering the quie-
tude of the country, he is now residing in the nor-
thern quarter of the island in a state of peaceful
obscurity.
Throughout the occurrences we have here described
are manifested the advisability of promptitude and
decision in the scenes of such extravagant turbulence
as have hitherto been witnessed in New Zealand.
Without the promptitude and decision of Captain
LATE, that colony might have been still ravaged by
intestine dissensions, and the hands of the aborigines
still imbrued, with impunity, in the heart's blood of
the unoffending colonists. Through the instrumen-
tality of that officer, however, the rigorous justice of
the Government has been proclaimed, and tranquillity
restored to the insensate population.

A letter from Trieste of the 80th ult. states that,
according to accounts received from the south of
Russia up to October 20, the cholera did not appear
to be making any progress. In the north-west, in
the direction of Odessa, it had stopped at Kre-
mentschuk on the Dnieper, and at Perekop, at the
entrance of the Crimea, where the mortality had
not been great. At Taganrog it was believed to
have entirely ceased, and a Te Deum was sung; but
it revived, though with less intensity. Odessa and
its environs were perfectly healthy. The Turkish
Government had.established a quarantine of 10 days
for all arrivals from such ports of the Black Sea as
were attacked by the cholera. The principalities of
the Danube were in a healthy state, except that the
epidemic disease in cattle still prevailed in Walachia,
and is spreading—so as to induce the Government
of Moldavia to establish a sanitary cordon along the
Pruth. The disease disappeared from Moldavia nine
months ago. The letters from Saint Petersburgh
expressed apprehensions of the cholera, as it had
already made its appearance in the go vernment of
Novogorod.

Intelligence from Eastern Caucasus up to the Ist
October has reached us, by way of Constantinople.
At the beginning of September Prince WoaoNzory,
desirous of repairing the check which he sustained
before Ghuerguebil, invested Salty, a village of two
hundred houses, situated in a formidable natural posi-
tion, and defended by numerous works constructed
by the mountaineers. The village was defended by
the bravest Murides, who were specially chosen by
CHAMYL. They acted with the most heroic bravery,
notwithstanding they suffered cruelly from scarcity
of food and water; but after forty days' bombard-
ment, the Russians succeeded in obtaining pos-
session of a high tower which commanded the place.
Seven times was this tower captured and re-cap-
tured ; and an eighth attempt was likely to ter-
minate in favour of the mountaineers, when a
battery of artillery opened suddenly on them,
and caused great ravages in their ranks. Ne-
vertheless, they rushed on the guns and stabbed
the gunners. They were even nearly possessing
themselves of the cannon, when several battalions of
Grenadiers drove them way. On the 26th of Sep-
tember another important position was captured by
the Russians. The intrepid soldiers of CiLtain, made
a sortie, in which they inflicted heavy loss on their as-
sailants ; but, seeing they could not maintain their
position, with walls dismantled in all parts, they
escaped in the night among the rocks by passages
known to them alone. The next day the Russians
took possession of the village, which presented only a
heap of ruins and dead bodies. The capture of Salty
cost them two thousand men, and a great number of
officers of all ranks killed or wounded. Among the
severely wounded was Prince ARGOUTNISKI DOLGO-
ROUKI, who commanded in chief, in the absence of
Prince WoxioNzorr, confined to his tent by sickness.
The loss of the mountaineers was considerable, though
less in proportion to their numbers.
A letter from Berne of the Bth says—

" To support the invitations contained in the pro-
clamation, addressed by the Military Council of the
League to the canton of Tesino, more than words
were necessary ; and accordingly a division cf the
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