by the Chairman. The association had placed upon the
whole of the extensive district held in trust for them,
comprising considerably more than 2,000,000 acres, the
price of £3 an acre. This price, much higher than in
our other colonies, arose from the distribution of certain
proportions of it. One-sixth, or l0s., was to go to the
New Zealand Company as the actual price of the land;
another sixth was to be applied to the general expenses
of the association in this country and in the colony; one-
third, or £1, was to be applied to promote emigration,
in order to meet the demand for labour; and the
remaining £1 was to be devoted to the leading and
cardinal feature of the undertaking—the provision, from
the very beginning of the colony, of religious and
educational establishments. An unexpected incident varied
the proceedings with a little opposition. Mr. Sidney,
the well-known writer on colonisation, rose in
the body of the meeting, and entered a general protest
against the Wakefield principles of colonisation—adopted
by the founders of the Canterbury settlement, and
avowed by the Bishop of Norwich and other speakers.
There was some desire to hear Mr. Sidney, he was had
up to the platform, and there finished his speech. This
debating episode called forth the mover of the next
resolution, the Bishop of Oxford, in a vivacious reply.
Resolutions in furtherance of the Canterbury scheme
were passed unanimously.

At present there is a great amount of Emigration from
Ireland, chiefly of the middle class. The numbers of
people who crowd the quays of Galway, securing passages
across the Atlantic, are described by the Galway
Vindicator, as exhibiting in their appearance "a degree of
comfort and independence hitherto unknown among
emigrants." Four hundred emigrants, chiefly of this
class, sailed from that port in one week; and four more
vessels, for different parts of America, were rapidly filling
with passengers. The same state of things exists in
Limerick. Since January last, upwards of 5000 persons
had left that city to take shipping at Liverpool, besides
the multitude sailing directly from the Shannon for
America.

NARRATIVE OF FOREIGN EVENTS

EUROPEAN history would have consigned the present month to oblivion but for his Holiness the Pope.
April would have shared the collapse into which public affairs have been gradually subsiding from the
throes of 1848, had not Pio Nono—after nearly a year of procrastination, protestation, and negotiation—
actually entered Rome; which he did on the 12th.

In other parts of the Continent little of political or social interest has actually occurred, although no
one can look on the condition of our nearest neighbour, France, without apprehension. Trade and
manufactures are reviving, in consequence of a healthy return from credit and bills to ready-money dealing,
but the wide-spread distress of the agricultural population, and the equally expansive dissemination of
Socialist principles, offer no hopeful prospect, even for an early future. The vivacity with which large
sections of the people change from one opinion to another, is an element in their political condition
which defies calculation and baffles the subtlest foresight. Reason and principle are less their guides
than accident and passion. Of this our present Narrative presents two examples:—In one case the
President regained, in a day, some of his lost popularity by showing a prompt sympathy with the survivors of
a fearful catastrophe; and in the other, a sentimental appeal to the passions of the Paris constituency will
perhaps be effectual in rescuing one of its seats in the Assembly from being occupied by a Socialist. In
opposition to M. Eugene Sue, the novelist—stood, on the side of order, a candidate of respectability
and talent. But, this advocate of mere moderation made no way against his opponent; and would
inevitably have lost the election, had not his friends made a dash for something more dazzling. They
snatched a new candidate from comparative obscurity—a man who, at the barricades of February,
having had one son killed by his side, went home for another, with whom he finished the fight.
This gentleman was received with acclamation; and solely on account of his single act of Romanesque
hardihood—not on the ground of senatorial fitness—may succeed; happily, but accidentally, on the
side of order.

"German unity" is being attempted in the parliament of Erfurt with that slow elaboration of details for
which Germans are celebrated. While the upper and lower houses are nibbling at the minutiæ of the
revised Imperial Constitution, Prussia and Austria are, by a succession of comprehensive intrigues, making
the measure more and more difficult of attainment.

The calm current of events on the shores of the tideless Mediterranean, which has recently been ruffled
by the Græco-Britannic "difficulty," promises to resume its tranquil flow. French mediation is said to have
smoothed the way for adjustment, but M. Pacifico's bill is to be very severely taxed before it is paid.
On the opposite shore, the shrewd Pacha of Egypt—foreseeing, perhaps, the remote possibility of the junction
of the Red Sea with the Gulph of Gaza by means of a ship canal, and the consequent diversion of the
great Indian transit from the heart of his dominions—has projected several improvements in the route
from Alexandria to Suez.

The Indian Mail announces to us the appearance of a new Morning Newspaper in the capital of the
Celestial Empire. Its advent took place on the first day of the new year. It is called the Pekin Monitor,
and, though a government organ, is not, like the Pekin Gazette, wholly filled with imperial mandates.
The first number contains a significant sign of the times, in a stringent antidote to the Californian gold
fever, which—as has been already learned by the influx of Chinese into St. Francisco—raged hotly
in the "Middle Kingdom." It is an ordinance of the Emperor Toa-Kouang forbidding emigration either
to California or Costa Rica.

"Vive la Républic Démocratique et Sociale!"
This cry has gained utterance from a larger number of
voices, and over a greater extent of France, than it
obtained even in the time of the National Workshops.
The recent elections for Paris, so decidedly favouring
the socialist cause, contributed to this; and the flame
has been fanned by the excitement of a new election.
M. Vidal having been returned for two places, Paris
and the lower Rhine, and he elected to sit for the latter.
Symptoms of commotion induced the government to a
despotic measure:—On Sunday the 1st, there was a
General Expulsion from Paris of Vagrants; that is to
say, unemployed workmen—native and foreign, returned
convicts and mendicants. All the preliminary measures for
the execution of this order had been taken by the police
with the closest secrecy, and they performed their
mission with a skill and completeness which only such a
political police as that of Paris can manage. The