OUR SUPERINTENDENT AND HIS PROMISES.

Auckland Examiner, Volume 1, Issue 27, 18 June 1857, Page 2

OUR SUPERINTENDENT AND HIS PROMISES.

The word. men have had their defenders, and, no donbt, their admirers, By whom Nero’s tomb was decked with flowers history saith not ; but he «ho High o'er biasing Rome lowered like a flend Could find people to believe in him, and also to sound hl Quarterly Reviewer of certain “ New Biographies ofMontingne,” sav S -“ We have been lately told that Tiberius has been slandered by. Tacitus, that the world was never better off than under Caracalla; and that Henry VIII was a vietim of domestic infelicities.” Not orlv have Tiberius, Caracalla, and other rare scoundrels of ages past found bold defenders, but even the crimes of more modern criminals have either been explained altogether away, or treated as “ crimes made venial by the occasion” Yes, to vitalize crime is now quite the rage. 1 could support, this statement by many historic and very notable examples; but a couple must suffice. One example is Robespierre, the pure, “sea-green incorruptible ” who for more than a year kept the guillotine hard at work, and taken “ for all in all” was the fairest, specimen of a pragmatical democrat of the bloody minded, down-with-everybody-bnt-ourselves,school that modern societv furnishes. , . ~ , Reasoning A priori, it wonld seem logically, because morally out of the question, that “the sea-green incorruptible” man of blood, who. for many a weary month, fed the guillotine at the rate of some dozen heads a-day, wonld find a scribbler thick-headed or brazen-faced enough to fill a volume with seasons for thinking him one of the most tender-hearted, long-headed, and highminded, persons that ever existed. Yet precisely such book has been written; and written too by no less distinguished a person thsn James Bointcrre O’Brien, the champion of physical force Chartism and pmk of moral force Democracy. By him Maximilian Robespierre was placed in the calendar of political saints, as is John Williamson (my other example of modern tenderdess for political criminals) by some of our physical force Chartists and moral force Democrats. According to James Bointerre O’Brien *• the sea. green incorruptible,” if unchecked in his work of blood, would have raised France to an almost inconceivable pitch of glory. According to Chartist and other whole pig Democrats “ the blood-red incorruptible,” if nu--1 efieekui in fits werit of can tqrtion, wtfl make Auckland

quite a match for Athens ancient or modern, and to Auckland whole pig- patriots open a career more glorious than that run by Pericles, Themistocles, Alcibiades, Marathon Miltiades, or even Thermopoltean Leonidas.

Dealing with facts as well as principles upon the the whole pig plan, they praise John Williamson because he is devoted to the interests and inflamed by the passions of a party: because he does not keep the promises he made at the hustings ; because through him whole pig Democrats may avenge themselves upon nurse-proud aristocrats ; because these whole pig patriots are politicians of the Jack Cade breed who have a natural distaste for educated government and terrible dread of Hugh Carleton. A la lanterns was the cry of their French prototypes during the never-to-be-forgotten-or-forgiven years 1792-93, and unless our rulers have a care, may, at some no very distant date, be a popular cry in Auckland for the political struggle our partizan politicians amuse themselves by carrying on must soon have an end. But with end will come change such as will leave us at the mercy of political Jack Cades, or change such as will at once and for ever deliver those ultra-patriotic gentry into wise keeping. Fiom an elaborat , well-conceived artich| n thejife and works of Sismondi given in an almost-forgotten number of the Quarterly Review, I find Napoleon 1., saying to Sismondi, the historian, “ Two elements must concur in navigation, and two also are required to direct the vessel of the state. For the same reason there is no possibility of governing in a pure democracy, except by combining it with aristocracy ; one is opposed to the other, and you direct the vessel by contrary impulses.” Sismondi agreed that “ aristocracy is a necessary element for the preservation of human liberty ;” and thought it is as necessary that all the elements of permanence should bo represented in the Legislature as the transitory interests of the actual moment. Of course these sentiments will please whole pig defenders of John Williamson much as jalap pleases children. Being backbone, or rather whole pig, democrats, they interpret liberty to mean a state of things m which they have all their own way. But the thing which is differs from the thing which will be. Auckland eitizens who have a stake in the province, and a character as well os a stake, must soon see the absolnte necessity of upsetting the Williauisonian political gocart with its “ tag-rag and hobtaii—a strange masquerade !” Meanwhile let no one be imposed upon by the jargon of party, or the various defences set up for our tried and found-wanting Superintendent. Satan duly elected. Auckland's Superintendent would find scribblers quite eager enough to draw their pens in his behalf. If the Devil proved himself a decided favorer of the cheap and nasty system of conducting affairs, partizan scribblers would say —Behold how careful is His Honor the infernal Superintendent of public money ! Huzza for Satan ! If he promised one kind of politics, and paid another, they would jeopardise their roaring throats by crying’ aloud that he was a devilish clever Superintendent, who, all for the good of the province, kept not one of the promises he had made, and never stood upon trifles while dealing with opponents of his government. Odium Boliticus is as blind and furious as odium theologicum. Prove the politics of John Williamson mean, false, vulgar, and personally vindictive —no matter ! —his scribbling friends possessed by odium politicum, as in olden time a certain tombs-haunting madman was by a legioAof devils, will contend that to “sarveout” progress-men he is morally bound; that not to keep faith with such vile political heretics is politically just; that being the people’s Superintendent, for their sweet ssk'e, he should be be content to perpetrate any scoundrelism, play off any trick, tell any lie, forge any fault, and officially declare— Truth’s a jest—all things show it; I thought so onoo, but now I know it, PUBLICOLA.