The Sun.
London, England, 1840-04-16 00:00:00

NEVI ZEALAND.

A public meeting was summoned by the Lord Mayor
yesterday, in conformity with a requisition, to adopt
petitions on the subject of New Zealand. The meet-
ing was first to have been held et the,.Maroien Homo,
but subsequently *as removed to the Guildhall. there
*ere present A. Chapman, M.P. ; B. Hawes, M.P. ;
Geo. Palmer, M.P. ; Hutt, M.P. ; Aglionby,
H. G. Ward, ALP. ; Hon. F. Baring, ALP: ; Hon.
F. Tollemache, ; Robinson, Bsq, of
Lloyd's ; Count Arrivabane, Commissioner for the
Belgian Government ;‘,Rev. Mr. Dennis, Prebendary of
Exeter ; Joseph Somes, Charles Enderby, G. F.
Young, M. Smith, J. W. Buckle, Capt. Drew, Capt.
Nelson, Lord Petre, Hon. Howard, Sir William
Aloleswortli, &c., &c.
The LORD MAYOR, on taking the chair, said, the
requisition which had been presented to him to call
this meeting was one of the proudest ever signed—it
was the requisition of 120 of the first merchants in the
first city of the world, and he should not be deserving
of the confidence which his fellow-citizens had reposed
in him bad he declined to afford the use of the Hall
for this meeting.—(Hear, hear.) In the first place,
then, he would call on the Secretary to read the requi-
sition.

The requisition was then read as follows
TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE THE LORD MAYOR

OF LONDON.

London, 25th March, 1840.
We, the undersigned 'Merchants, Bankers, Shipowners, and
Inhabitants of the City of London, do hereby respectfully re-
quest that your Lordship will be pleased to CONVENE a
PUBLIC MEETING, for the purpose of humbly petitioning
her Majesty and both Houses of Parliament to adopt prompt
and efficient measures for preserving from invasion or
abandonment the long-established Sovereignty of the British
Crown in the Islands of NEW ZEALAND, at present en-
dangered by foreign pretensions and by acts of the Executive
Government ; also for stopping the course of lawless emigra-
tion and settlement, which has not only proved deeply injurious
to the native people of the country. but threatens their speedy
extermination ; and lastly, for establishing the most beneficial
system of colonization, and the protection and restraints of
British law, under a distinct colonial government, in place of
the state of anarchy which now prevails among both races, and
all classes of her Majesty's subjects, and others inhabiting or
resorting to New Zealand, as a distant dependency of the terri-
tory of New South Wales.
C. H. and G. Enderby
Ellice, Kinnear, and Co.

Haviside and Co.
Lyall Brothers and Co.
John Locke and Co.
Cruikshank, Melville, and Co.
John Boulcott and Co.
Cattley and Stephenson
Benjamin Woolmer
Richard and Robert Oliverson
Rawson, Norton, and Co.
Melhuish, Gray, and Co.
George Hathorn and Co.
Churchill and Sim
Edward H. Chapman
Francis Whiting
Forster and Smith
Gould, Dowie, and Co.
Henry and Calvert Toulmin
William P. Lett and Bushby
George Nicholas
T. Daplyn
Ross and Ash
John Loche and Co.
J. V. and G. Thomson
N. Griffith
M. Wilkin
George Armstrong
James Cook
A. Grant
Hankey and Co.
Barnett, Hoares, and Co.
Jones, Loyd, and Co.
Willis, Percival, and Co.
Ladhroke and Co.
Smith, Payne, and Smiths
Williams, Deacon, and Co.
Glyn, Halifax, Mills, and Co.
Barnard, Dimsdale, and Co.
Robarts, Curtis, and Co.
\Vhitmore,Wells,and Whitmor
John Masterman
Price, Marryatt, and Co.
Matthew Wood, Alderman
John Lainson, ditto
John Johnson, ditto
James Harmer, ditto
William Evans, Sheriff
Thomas Wood, Alderman
William Venables, ditto
Thomas Kelly, ditto
John Key, ditto
John Cowan, ditto
Matthew Prime Lucas, ditto
John Humphery, ditto
J. White, ditto
A. Brown, ditto
Thomas Johnson, ditto
William Magnay, ditto

Magniac, Smith, and Co.
Baring, Brothers, and Co.
Thompson and Forman
Reid, Irving, and Co.
Green, Wigrams, and Greens
fluddart and Co.

Garry and Curtis
Hibbert and Co.

Davidson, Barkly, and Co.
Gledstanes, Kerr, and Co.

Joseph Somes
George Lyall
Buckles,Bagster, and Buckle

Frederick Iluth and Co.
William Burnie and Co.

Pelly, Simpson, and Co.
Walkers, Parker, and Co.
Craw shay and Co.
Durant and Co.

Samuel Dobree and Sons

Curling, Young, and Co.
Young, Bovc son, and Co.'
Biggs, Thurburn, Acraman,

and Co.
John Pirie and Co.

Robertßenjaminßrown and Co.

Robert BrODks

John Gore and Co.

Donaldson, Lambert, and Co.
Arthur Willis, Sons, and Co.

Robinson, Brooking,andGarland
Gregson and Co.;
Cockerell and Co.

Evans, Foster, and Langton

John Chapman and Co.-
Rickards, Little, and Co.

Alannindand Anderdon
H. D. and James Blyth
G. F. Dickson and Co.

worth, Powell, and Pryor

Joseph R. Templeman
Powles Brothers and Co.

Newman, Hunt, and Co.
Brandram, Brothers and Co.
Venables,Wilsen, and Tyler
Wm. and George Borrodaile

Al' Gregor- Laiid
R. and R. Thornton and West

Bowles and Gardiner

Phillips and Tiplady
Gardener, Urquhart;and Co.
D. B. Chapman
Duncan, Dunbar, and Sons
M'Ghie, Page, and Smith
William Holloway

The LORD MAYOR then stated that he had received
several letters from distinguished persons regretting that
they had been prevented from attending. He had now
only to call upon the meeting to hear with patience and
impartiality whatever was said on the subject.
Mr. G. PALMER, M.P., then came forward to move
the first resolution. In the first place, however, he
said he must declare, in reference to a letter which bad
appeared that morning in the Times, that he was not—
neither did he think it creditable that any person should
be—actuated by any underhand motive in adopting
this proceeding. The object of the meeting was

to call upon the Government to extend that
protection to every individual in New Zealand,
which was most happily enjoyed in this country.—
(Cheers.) The resolution he had: to propose was,—
" That it is of high national importance to maintain in-
violate the rights of the British Crown in New Zea-
land."—(Cheers.) It was the duty of the Government
to provide regulations for the conduct of settlers—and
also protection for the natives.—(Hear, hear.) In
whatever point of view the island was regarded, its
importance must be evident—whether as regarded its
vast vegetable and mineral resources—or its great com-
mercial capacities—or the good qualities of its natives—
who, from natural energies, had been described as des-
tined, to become the Britons of the other hemisphere—
( Hear, hear)—and were far superior to all the natives
of the neighbouring islands of the surrounding ocean.—
( Hear.) They would be exceedingly grateful for such
protection, as it was in the power of the Government to
afford them ; and he had once fallen in with a chief of
the island who had evinced great intelligence, and ex-
pressed a desire that " King George " would establish
his sovereignty over the country, and why should not
Queen Victoria do so ?—(Cheers.) Such a measure
could not but be productive of the greatest benefits,
RS it would tend fully to draw out the immense re-
sources of an island 400 or 459 miles in length.
The Hon. F. BARING seconded the resolution.

A person in the body of the Hall here begged per-
mission to address a few observations on the resolution.
The Lord Mayor having given him permission he as-
cended the platform and gave his name,
RICHARD Spun. He said he should not have ven-
tured to occupy their attention if he did not feel that
the present question deeply affected the interests of the
working classes of the country—that great body to
which he belonged.—(Hear, hear.) He was asto-
nished to find that a meeting which so deeply affected
the interests of that body should have been called at
mid-day, when none of the working classes could attend

for the purpose of expressing their sentiments upon it.
The requisition was signed by capitalists, traders,
bankers, merchants, and others, and his Lordship had
brie perfectly right in calling a meeting under such cir-
cumstances ; but if the requisition had been signed by
an equal number of the working classes he doubted
very much whether the Lord Mayor would have paid
any attention to it.—(Cries of " Question.") The
Hon. Mover of the resolution had called the present
Government " benign," and recommended that they
should take possession of New Zealand. He begged
to deny most emphatically that they were " benign."
He had felt in his own person, as a working man, the
iron hand of their tyranny.--(Cries of " Question,"
" Off," and much uproar.)
The Loan MAvoit rose to order. If a person who
obtruded himself upon the meeting deviated from the.
subject matter before thorn, he must interrupt him
Mr. SPUR resumed. He should bow to the deci-
sion of the Chair, at the same time ho did not think he

had deviated one iota from the question. The ques-
tion was whether a Government, which the Honourable
Mover had termed " benign," should take possession of
these islands.—(Cries of " No, no," and " Off.") He
repeated that was the question, and he would not be
driven from his position by taunts, cheers, or hisses.
The question was one of deep interest to the working
classes of the country, and the parties most deeply in-
terested were not present to plead their own cause or
express their opinions. He had ;cad through the whole
of the book called the Bible, and because he believed
in that book he was opposed to the resolution. That
book told him that the Almighty had given the earth
to the whole family of man in common, and he denied
that any man had a right to go into a foreign country
and plant the standard of his country there, and claim
it as his own.—( Hear, and cries o " Question.") If
the population of a country was too great and that men
chose to expatriatethemselves to other lands they had
a right to make laws to govern themselves. Why had
somantybegoGnoeveoruntatteontNae
tw Zealandhome
e ti.aslaatelby ? Not
eaign be-
cause
one—
not because they had prosperity, felicity, and
domestic comfort, and all those things which
he was destined to enjoy by the Supreme Dis-
poser of events. No, but because they were in want
and misery, and degradation ; because poverty stared
them in the face on one side, and the Union bastiles—
those unconstitutional prisons—on the other.—(Cries
of" Order, question, chair," and great confusion.)
The LORD M Avon again called the speaker to order.
Mr. Sena thought it unfair that:he should not be
allowed to argue the question. He was about to argue
that those who had escaped the fangs of the Go-
vernment at home, where they were not represented,
had a right to make laws for themselves ehowhere. It
was argued that the Government had a right to follow
them out there, and inflict their class legislation on them
once more.—(Uproar, and cries of " Off off.") The
importance
idnse dw inviolatethhaat
that
It,theheire._ri
Bg(hritiitsei
saohrf,Ctahrnoedwßenirl iehteiasr(lsit,
norC o
followedrwignh,
tbbut
by
resolution said it was of high rational to
maintaintaan
he
heo sraeaiisnl
cries of " Question.) lie contended that no man nor
no nation had a right to take that which did not be-
long to him.—(Cries of-4. Brava.")- -The Government