Various minor &colons are raising several of the British Colonies
into notice. Father Gavazzi—a trained oratorical bravo of the Roman Catholic Church who has deserted to the enemy—appears in Quebec to issue from the pulpit of peace studied imputations of Ribandism against the Roman Catholics of that Anglo-Gallican colony; breeds a riot, and writes home a letter boasting of his prowess in defending the pulpit with a bench which has served him as an oratory and then as a club ; the "drum ecclesiastic" becoming his citadel. Probably this Irish-Italian-Protestant- Catholic ferment will subside as lightly as it has been raised.
The possibility indicated by the American correspondence, that there may be a new war of disputed boundary between the 'United States and Mexico, brings the Cuban question once more into ac- tive interest, and rather increases than otherwise the solicitude that Jamaica should be quieted. The disputes of a small commu- nity, which treats past wrongs as the pretext for avoiding the duties of self-support--which possesses a popular chamber of le- gislation, protecting the emoluments of its own members under the pretext of retrenchment—offers a problem difficult for the prac- tical statesman to solve ; and we await with some interest the ex- planation which Lord John Russell has promised of a Ministerial plan to set Jamaica in order.
Our accounts from Van Diemen's Land will not be pleasant to Lord Grey's ears ; for they do not confirm his presumption that a public opinion has been latent in that colony, desiring continuance and revival of transportation. The announcement in the Queen's Speech, that transportation would cease, has been hailed with a joy that Governor Dennison did not attempt to damp ; and the Council was almost unanimous in welcoming the intelligence.
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