The Sun.
London, England, 1869-06-05 00:00:00

AFFAIRS IN NEW ZEALAND.

At the opening of the Wellington Provincial Council,
on March 18, the Superintendent, Dr. Featherston, made
a speech on the native rebellion. He expressed the opinion
that never before had the colony been placed in such a
critical position. " Without discussing the wisdom of
the policy of confiscation adopted in 1863, or whether it
would not have been infinitely more prudent to have
substituted for it the principle of cession, it will be
admitted that confiscation necessarily implied the power
to hold and occupy the lands. !Has the colony ever had, or
has it now, this power ? No sooner had it adopted a
policy which could only be carried out and maintained
by force, and long before the confiscated lands were fully
occupied and settled, than it insists upon the Imperial
Government withdrawing all its troops by whom these
lands had been conquered without making any provision
to supply their place, or rather in the full knowledge that
the troops could not and would not be replaced by any
adequate local force. The colony challenges a large portion
of the native race, almost invites them into rebellion,
and at the same time disarms itself— strips itself of all
means of defence—places itself at the mercy of a half-
civilised people, keenly smarting under the loss of their
lands. The course thus pursued appears still more unin-
telligible when it is remembered that the colony might have
retained for an indefinite period three or four thousand
troops, whose very presence would in all probability have pre-
vented any fresh outbreak, at an infinitely less expense than
the present colonial force costs. My own opinion is, that if
this island is to be rescued from almost utter destruction,
there must be an almost entire reversal of the past policy,
and an immediate application for the Imperial troops
on the terms offered by the Imperial authorities. The
retention by them of the 18th Regiment in the colony
is a sufficient proof that such an appeal would not be made
in vain."

Mr. J. Cowen, M.P. for Newcastle-on-Tyne, -writes

, -
to say that the statement of a local journal that he intends
to resign his seat is incorrect. Mr. Cowen says, "I have
no intention whatever of resigning my seat."

Pending the discussion on the new Bankruptcy
Bill, and in compliance with the request of the Liverpool
Law Society, the Lord Chancellor has appointed Mr.
Registrar Thring to succeed the late Mr. Commissioner
Perry.

THE CLOSE OF THE HORSE SHOW.—The Horse
Show at the Agricultural. Hall, Islington, has been
brought to a close. The success of the exhibition has been
of a very marked character, about 80,000 persons having
been admitted to the show

THE OPENING OF THE SUEZ CANAL.—Le Nord
states that, in order to make known most widely the
benefits of the Suez Canal, the Viceroy of Egypt intends
to address invitations, to be present at the inauguration,
to the principal French, English, German, Belgian,
Ttalian. Spanish, &c., journals, and to provide for the
conveyance, lodging, and all the expenses of their repre-
sentatives. After the Ltes they will make a journey into
Upper Egypt ; and Le .N.ord estimates the expenses of two
hundred journalists thus exployed at more than £40,000,
the sum which his Highness destines to this purpose.
STATE PURCHASE OF THE TELEGRAPHS.
The uncertainty concerning the intentions of the Govern-
ment as to the carrying out of the arrangement effected by
the bill of last session for the acquisition by the State of
the telegraphs of this country, is likely soon to be set at
rest, as Mr. Ward Hunt intends on Monday next to ask the
Chancellor of the Exchequer "what progress has been
made in settling with the various telegraph and railway
companies for the purchase of their interests in telegraphic
lines, and whether he intends to introduce a bill this
Session to provide ways and means for carrying out the
measure of last session upon the subject."

THE AGRICULTURAL HALL, ISLINGTON. - The
directors of this spacious hall have let the whole of the
area for the summer season, for the purpose of velocipe-
dian practice. The hall will be newly floored, expressly
for the occasion. The promoters have fixed the entrance
fee at a low rate, and velocipedes can be hired at a reason=
able charge. Among the advantages to persons who are
limited as to spare time will be that, whatever the weather,
they will always be under cover, and that the Hall
will be open as early as seven o'clock in the morning.
The promoters intend to devote certain days during
the summer to athletic contests and feats of physical
endurance.

SIIOEBURYNESS EXPERIMENTS.--Various experi-
ments were made on Friday at Shoeburyness. The first
series upon an iron and asphalte concrete backing for iron
shields, proposed by Colonel Inglis, the results obtained
not being adequate to an accurate determination of
its value. A new Firth's steel shell, of the same exter-
nal form as the service 9-inch Palliser chilled shell,
but carrying a very much larger bursting charge,
and hardened only in the head, for penetration of armour,
the body of the shell being of more tenacious metal, so as
to permit of its passing unbroken completely through the
target before bursting. The hit took place near the
joint of the armour face-plates ; but the result, so far as
can be stated under this circumstance, appeared
to be highly satisfactory. The effect of the
burst was exceedingly severe ; it took place
as designed, completely in the rear. The large
armour - plate, 12ft. by Bft., designed to cover
entire the face of an iron shield—the rolling of which
t Sir J. Brown and Co.'s works at Sheffield we recorded
some months ago—was fired at with the 7-inch rifled
gun for proof. The plate was perforated with a 91b.
charge ; the passage of the projectile, according to this
ordinary test for 5-inch thick plates, should have been
restrained by the plate. The shot-hole was perfectly
round, and there was no starring or cracks of any kind.
CAPTURING WHALES BY ELECTRICITY. —A good
deal used to be talked about applying explosive bombs in
the whale fishery, but actual trials have shewn the plan to
be a failure. The explosion of a bomb, if attached to the
harpoon, simply destroys the flesh in its neighbourhood,
and hence also the hold on the fish, which is often thus
lost and uselessly killed. From various causes, amongst
which are, no doubt, the general use of gas for
lighting and the discovery of petroleum, the whale
fishery has rather languished of late Years, and
it probably requires a stimulus such as would
be afforded by diminishing its well-known dangers.
Whether this object would be obtained by a curious pro-
posal submitted to the Society of Civil and Mechanical
Engineers, by Mr. H. J. Rogers, only actual trial could
show ; but we understand that the project is partly
brought forward by Practical whale fishers. A gal-
vanic battery is placed in the whaling boat with a
powerful induction coil in communication. From
the terminals of the battery two insulated wires
pass as conductors, through a line of the size
ordinarily used to the harpoon, which is made with two
heads, separated from each other, each insulated wire
passing through the harpoon to the points where they
terminate. Ihe handle of the harpoon is of course
insulated. In this harpoon the circuit would be
complete when it struck the whale. According
to another plan, one insulated wire passes from one
terminal through the rope to the end of a harpoon
having one point only, the other insulated wire hanging
in the water, and acting as a means for the return
current. The experiments have been tried on eels and
other small fish without perforating the skin. The two
wires from the poles of the battery being simply directed
in close proximity to each other towards the fish, or one
wire at the head and the other at the tail, and the effect
has been to produce rigidity and complete temporary
paralysis, the eel and other fish appearing perfectly life-
less during, and even after, the period of contact, —The
Zkyintcr. 4

THE EARL OF SHREWSBURY ON THE

ROUSE OF LORDS.

At the recent dinner of the North Staffordshire Consti-
tutional Association, the Earl of Shrewsbury, in
responding to the toast of "The House of Lords," said
that House ought to be recognised more by the Liberal
papers as a part of the Constitution. The Queen
was recognised as one part, the House of Commons
as another, but as to the House of Lords, the Times coolly
advised that that assembly should sit down, and do as
they were bid by the House of Commons. It would be
wrong for the House of Lords to put itself in strong,
determined, and repeated opposition to the opinion of
the country; but he maintained that on the question
of the Irish Church the opinion of the country had not
been sufficiently expressed. The divisions on the ques-
tion in the House of Commons had not shewn that a
majority of English members were in favour of the bill,
but they had shewn that the Irish and Welsh members
were opposed to that Church. He held that the bill was
a different article to what it was represented to the
country that it would be. He thought that it was the
duty of members of the Upper house to deal carefully
with the bill.

PATHETI IGNATIUS" ON LIBERTY.

" Father Ignatius " delivered a lecture on Friday eve-
ning, in Barnsbury Hall, Upper-street, Islington, on the
subject of " Liberty." The charge for admittance was
ls. ; reserved seats, 2s. The Hall, capable of seating about
200 persons, was not more than half full. There were
scarcely half-a-dozen men present.
The proceedings opened with a somewhatlengthy extem-
pore prayer, offered up by Mr. Lyne, with his back to
the audience. There was a crucifix on the table. The
lecturer chose for the foundation of his lecture the words
of St. John—" The truth shall make you free; if the Son
make you free, ye shall be free indeed."

Mr. LYNE, in his opening remarks, said that Europe
had been in convulsion for the last century, all for liberty;
but for the most part, amongst the mob, the cry was, not
for true liberty,but for robbery, license, and desecration. The
speaker took France for example. Whilst the loudest cry
was being made in France for liberty, there was blood
flowing in torrents round the guillotine. The cry for
liberty in Spain and Italy ought to be a warning to Eng-
land. For 200 years England had been spared this, and
he (Mr. Lyne) hoped God would prevent this cry being
raised in this country. There was one sad cry being
raised, " Down with the rich ! " " Down with the aristo-
cracy !" which only meant " Down with parents ! " and
"Down with masters ! " as though riches in themselves
was sin. The Sunday League placarded the walls with
bills respecting the desecration of the Sabbath. This was
one kind of liberty, shewing that this liberty meant
nothing but going against God. But of all places, Isling-
ton—the most Protestant place --needed liberty to be
preached to it. Referring to the sparseness of the audience,
the speaker said one would have thought people would have
come either out of curiosity or otherwise, for in all other
places there were full audiences; but had prejudice kept
people away in Islington ? This reign of Protestant
tyranny was on its last legs. Still, keeping
in his eye France as an example, the lecturer
said of liberty what the French had said, that Chris-
tianity was a thing of the past, and the Church must be
bundled out of the country. This was the liberty of the
mob—this was their fraternity and equality. But when
they had carried out all they wished---when they had sent
off the King—then the president of their own making
changed his presidential chair into that of a despotic
throne ; the dead old Church, as they called it, sprang
forth into fresh life. And (continued the speaker) let
them try their game in Italy and Spain—let them kill their
monks and nuns—then, after a few years, back must come
the monks and nuns, and back will come the Catholic
Church. The Church of France never knew better times
than during the last century, when persecution did its
worst. "Liberty and the Monks!" was the cry of one of the
best writers in France. Let things be as they would—
yet as it , in the beginning so it would be again. 1

PARLIAMENTARY AND MUNICIPAL
ELECTIONS COMMITTEE.

`The Parliamentary and Municipal Elections Committee,
under the presidency of the Marquis of Hartington, pro-
ceeded to take evidence on Friday in reference to the mariner
in which elections were conducted in Wales in the years
1857, 1865, and 1868. The Rev. Mr. Jones, a Dissenting
minister, and President of the Theological College at Bala,
Merionethshire, did not hesitate to say that the agricultural
labourers in the district were compelled to vote against
their convictions as their landlords wished. The majority
of the labouring classes in Wales were Dissenters and
Liberals, and it had happened that in one instance a con-
gregation in Montgomeryshire had notice to quit their
chapel, and in another instance with which he was familar
the chapel had been sold. So great was the Tory influence
that a year ago a meeting of Dissenting ministers and
deacons had been held, and a petition praying for the
adoption of the Ballot prepared for presentation to Par-
liament. Pressed closely by the Conservative members on
the committee, the witness admitted that it was not an
uncommon thing in Wales for chapels to be used for poll-
tical purposes, but he did not know that Dissenting
ministers were in the habit of making political allusions
in their sermons. It had been told to tenants
who had been evicted that it was because
they had voted against their Tory landlords. The report
that a minister had said in one of his sermons that the
Tory candidate for Denbighshire ought to be crucified,
was not precisely correct. The speaker was a " raw "
student, and the occasion was an address. From Wales
the committee passed on to Ireland, Mr. Spate,
a magistrate, of Limerick, detailing that in the
years 1852 and 1858 great violence prevailed at the
elections. In 1859 and 1865 the witness was himself a par-
liamentary candidate in the Conservative interest, but
was defeated, owing to priestly influence and to intimida-
tion. At the last election in Limerick the landlords did
not actively interfere. At every election at which
he had assisted it was the opinion of the wit.
ness that the Conservative voters went to the
poll in bodily fear, and returned in a condition
even worse. The windows of his own house had always
to be closed during elections, and his family had to live
entirely in the back rooms. The priests not only organised
mobs, but made a practice of distributing orders for drink.
Several of these orders, signed by a priest, put in circula-
tion at the election in 1865, were produced by witness.
They authorised certain publicans to supply to the per-
sons named in them drink to the amount of £5, which
drink was eventually received by the mobs of idle persons
who were got together. The Roman Catholic Bishop
was very active at the last election. The description
given by the witness of Limerick elections was exceedingly
lively On some occasions houses were entered and
the furniture thrown into the streets pell-mell.
Once a doctor's surgery was entirely emptied of
its drugs, which were pitched into the Shannon—a fact
which Mr. Bright thought might be taken as accounting
for the unhealthy condition of the fish in that stream.
When the witness was a candidate, his friends, who had
secured a gallery of the Court-house to themselves were
pelted with bottles, stones, and pieces of furniture
by the Liberal party below, the missiles being returned
with interest by the Conservatives above. Voters
from the country districts had to be brought into the city
under large armed escorts. A thousand pounds were
sometimes spent in whisky, and the elections generally
were simply a "mischievous farce."

A woman, named Mary Oldfield, 79 years of age,
has just died at Lower Hall, near Huddersfield. A sum
of 2105 is. 11d. in silver and copper has been found in her
house; yet the old woman had for several years been in
receipt of 4s. per week parish relief.

There is no other spoken language so cheap and
expressive by telegraph as the English. The same amount
of information can be transmitted in fewer English words
than French, German, Italian, or any other European
language.

WILLS AND BEQUESTS. -Among the wills
and bequests in the Illustrated News this week are
those of Lord Strangford, Sir Edward Cunard,
and Mr. Samuel Scott, the banker. Lord Strang-
ford's personalty in England was sworn under
£3,000, Sir Edward Cunard's personalty was sworn
under £300,000. He has made a liberal provision
for his daughters, and leaves the residue of his property
between his three sons, leaving to his eldest son, now Sir
Bache Cunard, Bart., a moiety, and to his other sons,
Edward and Gordon, the remainder equally between them.
Mr. Scutt's personalty was sworn under £1,400,000.
ESCAPE AND RECAPTURE OF A. 'CONVICT AT
CHATHAM.. —The other evening, shortly before the time

for the convicts employed on the extension works at
Chatham Dockyard leaving their work, one of the number,
a convict named Peter Crane, under sentence of seven
years' penal servitude, succeeded in effecting his escape.
The convict was employed in a gang with several other
convicts, and seizing his opportunity he succeeded in
eluding the vigilance of the keepers, and making his
escape. On the circumstance being reported at the prison
a number of convict warders and others were clespatclied
to search the neighbourhood, in order to effect his cap-
ture. After a minute search over the extension works,
the prisoner was ultimately discovered concealed in a
disused sawpit by police-constable Collins, and conveyed
back to the convict prison, St. Mary's, where he will re-
ceive the punishment awarded to convicts attempting
their escaue.