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An assemblage of unusual interest took place on Wednesday, at the Trafalgar Hotel, Greenwich, to welcome Mr. J. R. Godley on his return from founding the Canterbury Settlement in New Zealand, after an ab- sence of nearly four years. The dinner-party numbered about sixty gen- tlemen of various politics, including Members of both Houses of Par- liament; the bond of union, for the evening, being personal regard for Mr. Godley, or sympathy with the far distant colonizing enterprise from which be has just come back. The main feature of the proceedings was the speech of the honoured guest, describing the progress and present state of the colony. From a capital report of it in the Morning Chronicle we shall make large extracts, as we have not touched upon the subject for many months. After making his personal acknowledgments with great feeling, Mr. Godley said— "I have heard a good deal in this country about the settlement's being a failure, and I think it worth while to show that such is not the case; not for the sake of those who founded it, for to them personally it signifies very little whether they be considered to have failed or not, but, in the first place, for the sake of the colony, which ought not to be discredited, and in the second, lest future enterprises of a noble and disinterested kind should be damaged by the supposed precedent of our want of success. The best way in which I can meet assertions of failure is by giving you a very short and simple account of the actual condition of the colony, with a statement of what has-been done there : and if any one should think I am likely to mis- state, or to over-colour, I can only say I made statements to the same effect six months ago, in the presence of two hundred people, at Canterbury, and they who knew best whether I told the truth, sanctioned what I said by their unanimous approval. ' I am happy, too, to see here several gentlemen whose friendship I was so fortunate as to acquire in New Zealand, and be- fore whom I could hardly venture upon any great exaggeration, even if I were so disposed. In the first place, then, there arrived from England during my stay in the colony twenty-two ships, bringing about 3400 immi- grants, well-selected, with the proportion of the sexes duly preserved, and, generally speaking, of good character and industrious habits. I calculate that from three to four hundred people came to us from neighbouring colo- nies; and that the gold-fever and other causes have deprived us tempo- rarily of about five hundred. The present population, therefore, may be set down at 3300 Europeans; and they are, take them for all in all, as good materials, morally and physically, as any colony was ever composed of. Of the site of the colony there can be but one opinion' namely, that it was not only the bi st, accessible to us in any part of the world, but that, by peculiar good fortune, it was the most advantageous though the last selected site for a settlement in New Zealand." A short description would make that clear. " The capital of our settlement is the town of Christchurch ; the sea-port, Lyttelton, is eight miles from it. These towns form the centre of a district comprising 150 miles of Coast; of which the natural boundaries are, to the West (what we call) thesnowy range,' to the North the Kaikora mountains, and to the South the Wai- tangi river, and which varies in width from seventy to forty miles. I call these its natural boundaries, because such is their impracticable nature, that in all probability, for an indefinite time to come, they will not be crossed by a road accessible to commerce. Of this district, thus shut in, Lyttelton is (with the exception of the inlets of Banks's Peninsula, alsoin our settle- ment, but lying quite out of the way) not only the best and most accessible, but the only harbour. The district consists of low hale and level prairies. It is not of uniform fertility, but the whole of it is admirably adapted for carrying stock. We calculate it to contain five or six millions of acres available for pasturage, which in the natural state will carry at a very low computation two million sheep. These will produce seven million pounds wool, worth at present prices, say, 500,000/. Add 100,000/. for fallow, hides , and farm produce, and you have on the whole, produce to the amount of 600,0001., necessarily exported from Lyttelton; and you will have on the other hand the supplies which the producing population will require, drawn either from the same placet so far as they are sea-borne, or from the agri- cultural district surrounding Christchurch. And this prospective trade, very much larger as it is than the whole export trade of Van Diemen's Land before the gold-discoveries—larger than the whole export trade of the Cape—equal, if my memory be correct, to the export trade of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick put together—is not, humanly speaking, problematical or uncertain. It must come. The land wants nothing to be done M it : there are sheep enough on it already to stock it fully, even if there were no further imports, in eight or nine years ; and the rest follows as a matter of course." By the necessary course of things, the Canterbury settlement must become one of the richest colonies, and its port one of the most flourishing places of commerce in the South Seas. At this moment it possesses 100,000 sheep, which will yield exportable produce value 25,00W. ; to which must be added a large sum for cheese, now selling at 14d. per poundat Melbourne : thus the ex- ports, in the third year from the foundation of the colony, will be at the rate of 8/. per head of the population, or three times as much as the proporthai of exports to population in the United Kingdom. The importation of stock, the price of which has been so much enhanced, rapidly proceeds. As re- gards aericulture, " no body of colonists ever set to work with so little de- lay and so much success to provide food from their own soil." Last season, the people of Canterbury raised potatoes enough for their own consumption ; and after next harvest they will cease to import the main articles of subsist- ence. " This is a true picture of the state of the colony as regards its in. dustry and its commerce. I ask you, does it look like failure ? And now let any fair-minded man just take up any number of the Lyttelton Times— let him observe, in the first place, its tone and style, in the second, the number of its advertisements, then the varied record that it exhibits of the sayings and doings of the colony : let him at the same time remember that that colony was only two years old, and contained little more than 3000 people, and then let him say whether it is possible to come to any other conclusion than that the community of which it is the organ must be not only advancing and flourishing in a material point of view, but also intelli- gent, moral, and civilized in a very high degree. Where will you find a rural parish in this country, of equal population—ay-, though such a parish, by being placed in the midst of an old and rich country, would have immense advantages over a colony—that could produce a newspaper like this I hold in my hand ?" It would be beside the question to ask how mueh of all this has been done by the Canterbury Association. But he would tell them what it had done. "In the first place, its agent explored and selected the site which up to that time had been utterly neglected and almost unknown, it set on foot a sur- vey, which, Captain Stokes told me, was unparalleled for excellence lathe Southern hemisphere ; it organized, with vast labour, one of the best bodies of colonists that ever left these shores ; it conveyed those colonists, with comfort and security, to New Zealand; it provided for them accommodation so ample, that the hardships ordinarily suffered by newly-arrived immi- grants have been unknown ; it secured for them a cheap and secure title-to their land, and made such arrangements for giving them possession, that within two months the whole of the first body were actually in occupation' - and it has effectually represented the interests of the colony in this country, especially as regards the acquisition of constitutional rights."

Mr. Godley: minutely described the state of the roads • showing that the colony, notwithstanding the want of a dray-road to the port, is more tra- versable and accessible than any settlement an NewZealand Respecting ecclesiastical and educational institutions, he also went into details. From these we learn, that there are four elurches in the settlement, two day-schools, one at Lyttelton and the other at Christchurch, and One grammar school, also at the latter town. One of the churches is open every day, the other on alternate days; and the grammar school is attended by about twenty boys of the upper and middle classes. "Now this may ap- pear not to be much, and 1 fully admit that it is not as much as was in- tended ; but, on the other hand, I maintain that it is as much as there is an effective demand for. I must again remind you, that the population is smaller, and collectively far poorer, than that of many villages in England. Now, apply this fact to the question of education. Over-estimating, as we always did, the probable extent of our colonization, we thought and spoke a great deal about a college. But a college, in the English sense of the word, for 3000 or 4000 poor and hard-working people, would be out of place. It would die for want of students. I doubt whether there are half a dozen people at Canterbury who would keep their sons at a college conducted on the cheapest possible scale. Unfortunately, in new countries, there is such a demand for men and money, that very few are content, on the one hand, to pay the sum which would keep their sons as gentlemen at college, and on the other, to sacrifice those sons' services, just at the age a-hen they are be- ginning to be useful on a station or a farm. The true criticism would be— not that we have not a college, and many other things of the same sort, now —but that we so positively announced that we should have them : and to that i criticm there is no answer, except that we were over-sanguine. We thought we should make, all of a sudden, a colony large and wealthy enough to demand these things, and that we should have means available to supply the demand : and we have neither.

"Upon the ecclesiastical endowments there is, in candour, something more to be said. The Committee made, in my opinion, a very serious mistake when they invested the whole of their ecclesiastical funds in wild land. There are many objections to this ; but the chief is, that, as all practical co- lonists know, wild land in a new country cannot be relied upon for produ- cing an annual income. No doubt, in process of time the ecclesiastical lands in Canterbury, which have been very carefully selected, will become ex- tremely valuable; but they bring in very little now. The Association has engaged to support the clergymen and schoolmasters now regularly employed by it for five years; and if there be not sufficient funds of a public nature to discharge this obligation, it will, I doubt not, be met by individuals. But after that time the support of the Church will depend on the rents of the Church-lands; and thetas, in my opinion, far too precarious a source of in- come to be properly relied upon. "I have now said nearly all that I have to say about the state of the eo- bony. I do not wish to depict it as a Utopia, either physically or soti but I say that, taking it as a new country, and comparing it with othern w countries, it is, on the whole, the best and most desirable I havetieWor heard of. It is always a misforture to be obliged to emigrate„..but if Inwere obliged to emigrate myself I would go to Canterbury, and it Plate to which I should always recommend any one in whom I had an interest to go if compelled to leave .England." , Upon politics, Mr. Godley vindicated his own conduct in opposing the constitution proposed by Sir George Grey, which was ultimately repudiated and laid aside; and he testified to the joy and thankfulness with whieh the constitution of Sir John l'akington bad been received in every part of New Zealand. In conclusion, he followed up the ideas suggested by this fact with great eloquence and earnestness. "Nay I earnestly and solemnly im- press upon you the one great fundamental maxim of sound Colonial policy :

it is to let your Colonies alone—not chiefly because your interference -will probably be of an injudicious kind in this or that particular matter, still less because it will be costly and troublesome to yourselves, but because it tends to spoil, to corrupt, and to degrade them—because they will never

auiythiri: or be fit for anything great, .so long as their chief political busineea is tq conc;Nin of you, to fight with you, and to lean upon you ; 00 long as they consider yee.2 as responsible for their welfare, and can look to you for assistance in their cliilkulties. I protest quite as much against subsidies and subscriptions as agaiwit Tetott and restraints ; indeed more, for the poison is more subtile and the chuticz of resistance less. I want you neither to subsidize their treasuries, nor to support their eteriT, nor to do their police-duty with your soldiers; because they ought to do these Things for themselves, and by your doing it all you contribute to making them effeminate, degenerate, and helpless. Do not be afraid to leave them to tliempalves; throw them into the water and they will swim. Depend upon it, the greatest boon you can bestow upon colonies is what Burke calls 'a wise and salutary neglect.' To this rule the Canterbury colony is no excep- tion, It is fortunate for it that the Association's career has been brief as well as effective ; now it must go alone. It has been called into existence, it has been given its opportunities, it has been started on its way ; henceforth it must work out its own destinies. The Canterbury Association has done its work, and passed away. Its memory may be unhonoured, its members reviled; they care not : they have done their work—a great and heroic work ; they have raised to themselves a noble monument—they have laid the foun- dations of a great and happy people."

Lord Lyttelton, the Chairman of the Canterbury Association, gave a manly expression to some fine sentiments. Whatever faults or errors the Association may have committed, he said, they had been committed not in pursuance of the principles upon which the scheme was founded, but through the misapprehension or neglect of those principles. He believed the success of the scheme in its essential feature, if not realized, was only deferred. He could never regret the part he had taken in the pro- motion of the settlement.

The other speakers were Lord Wharncliffe the Chairman, Lord Mont- eagle, Sir John Pakington, Sir Walter James, Mr. Adderley, Mr. Chol- mondely, a colonist and magistrate of Canterbury, and Mr. Chapman, formerly Judge of the Supreme Court in New Zealand, more recently Colonial Secretary for Van Diemen's Land. Mr. Chapman bore witness to the fidelity of Mr. Godley's representation from his own ample ex- perience. One of the illustrative facts he mentioned is curious—that New Cerdand possesses more writers, literary and scientific, than any other British colony !

Mr. Barkly, the new Governor of Jamaica, was entertained on Wed- nesday, at the Thatched House Tavern, by several gentlemen connected with the property and commerce of Jamaica. Mr. Thomas Hankey ju- nior presided ; and the Duke of Newcastle was present. In his speech* responding to the toast of "Her Majesty's Ministers," the Duke con- firmed the report that Mr. Barkly will be knighted—" an honour well deserved by his successful administration in Guiana." Mr. Barkly spoke hopefully of Jamaica. From some personal knowledge of that island, he felt sure that if dissension were suppressed, the colony would be pros- perous and contented. It is ridiculous to say that Jamaica will be ruined by it mere change of fiscal policy on the part of the Mother-country. But she has a right to complain of the violation of treaties for the sup- pression of the slave-trade,—a violation perpetrated almost within sight of her shores. He would do all he could to reconcile conflicting interests ; and he expressed himself as sanguine of success. It is understood that the merchants of London connected with Guiana will present an address of approbation to Mr. Barkly before his departure.

• There is no regular report of the speeches at the Jamaica dinner; only a de- scriptive paragraph.

The Ballot Society had a meeting last week at the Freemasons' Ta- vern; Mr. Henry Berkeley in the chair. A committee to collect sub- scriptions and carry out a vigorous agitation was appointed. Mr. Cobden and other noted Liberals were present, with a tenant-farmer, Mr. Cosens, of Barnham in Sussex ; who said that an appeal to the agricul- tural constituencies on behalf of the ballot would now meet with a wel- come response from the farmers.

A public meeting on behalf of "the Establishment for Gentlewomen during Illness" was held on Wednesday, at the house of the institution, No. I Upper Harley Street. This establishment performs the functions of a hospital for ladies of limited incomes, and affords help to those who would decline that of a common hospital. It has been in existence three years, and experiment has proved its necessity and its success. A lady superintends the institution, and a matron the patients, gratuitously. At the meeting, the Bishop of London presided; among the speakers were, the Bishop of Oxford, Sir William Page Wood, the Reverend Mr. Au- riol, and the Reverend Mr. Gamier ; among the audience, Mrs. Sidney Herbert, Lady Cranworth, and Lady Monteagle.

At a Wardmote, held on Tuesday, Mr. Cockerell was elected Common Councilman for Castle Baynard.

A third suit has been brought before the Master of the Rolls against Mr. George Hudson, by the North Midland Railway Company. The object of the suit was to recover large sums of money which it was alleged Mr. Hud- son had misappropriated in his character of chairman. He had bought iron at 61. 10.9., and sold it to the Company at 12/. per ton ; and had procured an invoice representing that he had paid 12/. per ton for the iron. In many ways, it was also alleged, be had appropriated the money of the Company to his own use, and had not accounted to the Company. In defence it was contended, that he had not bought the iron as a chairman but as a con- trac,tor. Mr. Hudson had no objection to fair inquiry. To this the Master of the R01111 demurred, and an account was ordered to be taken. He thought there was no necessity to oppress the defendant with so many suits; and he should reserve the question as to costs.

Disputes about cab-fares continue to occupy mush of the time of the Ma- gistrates. Sonic of the patsengers, in their resolution to carry out the new law strictly, have been tee close-fisted and have refused to pay the legal fare : these cases end by the passenger has tag to pay a pretty little bill at the Police Court—summons, expenses, extra fare to the court, cabman's time, and perhaps the cost of measuring the distance in dispute.

Mr. Henry, the Bow Street Magistrate, his dealt what seems, from the current report of the case, rather hard measure to Thomas Phillips, a cab- man. Mr. Bond complained that Phillips wanted 58. for a job, including time and distance, which the passenger estimated at 4s. Mr. Bond said the distance travelled was within three miles • the cabman said, including three- quarters of a mile that he had to go to the gentleman's house from Ins stand, the distance was four miles and a half. Mr. Henry said, the official book of fares had not yet appeared, unfortunately; but, if the parties were disposed to have the ground immured, it could be done on payment of 58. each into court. The complainant agreed to this proposal ; but the cabman said he had not got 5s, in his pocket, for it was his first job that day. Mr. Henry— "Then, as you cannot pay the 5s. deposit, I shall take Mr. Bond's statement as evidence of the fact, and convict you of the overcharge; for which you must pay the penalty of 40s. or go to prison for a month." Mr. Bond, who appeared rather startled at the suddenness and severity of the decision, said he did not think the matter would have taken this turn : the cabman was very civil throughout ine transaction, and he hoped that the penalty would not be imposed. Mr. Henry refused to listen to this appeal. The object of the act in enabling passengers to go at once to the Police Courts was not to dispense with the penalties, but to save the complainants the trouble of ap- plying for summonses. The cabman was committed to gaol in default of paying the fine, and his horse and cab were sent to the Green-yard.

There has been more riotous behaviour in the neighbourhood of Gray's Inn Lane, azising from the ill feeling between the Irish and the Italian re- fugees. Sunday evening was apparently to have been a stirring one with the Irish : hundreds flocked to Gray's Inn Lane from divers quarters ; but the Police were ready for them, and prevented any general outburst. Seve- ral Irish were arrested. In one instance two Irishmen threw stones at an Italian who passed, and then fiercely resisted the entry of the Police into their house : the door was barricaded, missiles were hurled from the win- dows, and even scalding water ; but at length the door was forced, and the rioters were seized. The enmity between the Irish and Italians is said to have originated in the circumstances under which an Italian who had been sent to watch the refugees had been harboured by the Irish priests ; which the refugees resented. The Italians hate Pio Nono, as a political foe ; the Irish reverence him, as the head of the Church.

On Monday a number of the Irish rioters were brought before Mr. Corrie, the Clerkenwell Magistrate. Fines were inflicted in every case : the two men who assaulted the Italian and then resisted the Police were fined for each offence. The other prisoners had thrown brickbats and unslaked lime at the officers. Inspector Reed said he could not yet rightly understand what the Irish were quarrelling with the Italians about. Mr. Carrie said he would do all he could to end the quarrel, and trusted it would soon die away.

James East has been committed for trial for a daring robbery in the house of Mr. Rodda, at Stoke Newington. In the evening the prisoner entered the house by a side entrance, and, reaching the principal sleeping-room, broke open a cash-box and several trunks; he extracted the most valuable contents, which he tied up in a sheet, intending of course to remove them if an op- portunity offered. Fortunately, when he was endeavouring to make his exit he was met by a brother of Mr. Rodda ; who, being a more powerful man, overpowered him, and handed him over to a Policemau. On searching the prisoner, two nooses were found on him, such as are used by garotte thieves. Policeman Kemp proved a former conviction of burglary against the pri- soner; who was also identified as the leader of a gang of scoundrels long a terror about London.

Mary Stuart, a poor mad woman, has been breaking Lord Palmerston's windows, because the footman would not introduce her to his master. Her insanity takes the form of a belief that she is the last descendant of the Stuarts ; and she complains that though her ancestors occupied a throne, she has only succeeded to a workhouse or a lunatic asylum. The Bow Street Magistrate sent her to St. Martin's Workhouse.