We hazard that presumption in spite of what we observe
in Ceylon. That colony has received a full ratification of the Tor- rington regime, in Lord Grey's unqualified approval of the Go- vernor, his policy and conduct. The colonists and Lord Grey, it seems, are diametrically opposed in their opinions as to the Go- vernment of the island ; but as Lord Grey rules in Downing Street, Ceylon must endure its Governor for a time. A more deliberate survey of the intelligence that arrived from India last Saturday has exhibited it in very unfavourable colours. Something awkward was seen even through the haze of the of- ficial despatches ; but the private accounts concur in exposing a curious run of military mistakes. General Cureton, Colonel Have- lock, several other officers, and many men, were sacrificed in fruitless movements, into which the British commanders suffered themselves to be led by the devices of the Sikhs. General Thack- well had succeeded in somewhat retrieving the credit of British arms, by effecting and sustaining a movement in advance ; but it is not yet clear that he had so far succeeded as to have forced upon the enemy a change of plans. The New Zealand Company's settlement of Wellington has lost its leader, Colonel William Wakefield ; taken away by a premature death. The close of his colonizing career recalls the better promise of its commencement nine years ago, when Colonel Wakefield succeeded in winning for that remarkable band of emigrants whose precursor he was, the most friendly position among the rude tribes scattered over a region at that time nearly unappropriated by man. The Colonial Office in Downing Street interposed: the settlers became entangled in disputes about their lands, or agitated with anxiety respecting the movements of Black statesmen like Heki; and the Governor has but now re- ported his success in the endeavour to repair the consequences of blunders committed by his predecessors in obedience to the ma- lignant spirit of their instructions from home. Something has at last been done to retrieve the position of the colony ; and in harmony with that improved spirit, the obsequies of Colonel Wakefield were honoured by the holders of the same official authority formerly exerted to crush the interests that the living man had served so faithfully. Accounts from the Western coast of Africa give ever-strength- ening confirmation to the opinion that the blockade must be abandoned : the slave-traders display increasing activity, and snatch multiplied successes in spite of the squadron. There is an expense which Mr. Cobden may strike off with scarcely a regret ; except a groan from the heart of good Lord Denman—who as- suredly is "no judge "—and an official tear over abandoned treaties from the tender eye of Viscount Palmerston.
California is not yet exhausted of its gold : new "diggings" are discovered, more of the glittering sand ; and the explorers grovel on the ground in a growing paroxysm of avarice. The hordes on the road had not arrived at the date of the last ad- vices; but eighty ships in the ports of the Union were under sailing orders for San Francisco.
