The Examiner. Thursday, September 24, 1857. "PUBLIC GOOD." WHAT A PROVINCIAL LAW OFFICER SHOULD BE, AND WHAT A PROVINCIAL LAW OFFICER IS.

Auckland Examiner, Volume 1, Issue 41, 24 September 1857, Page 2

The Examiner. Thursday, September 24, 1857. "PUBLIC GOOD." WHAT A PROVINCIAL LAW OFFICER SHOULD BE, AND WHAT A PROVINCIAL LAW OFFICER IS.

In all states where a corrupt clique rule, government is carried on less tor the benefit of the governed than for the advantage of those who govern. Men morally unsound should never be politically relied upon. Such men prefer the crooked to the straight course, and disport themselves in corruption as naturally as ducks do in water. Their instinct is for the dishonest. Education qualifies that instinct but never rootsit out. The man of bad heart is almost always the man of weak head, —hence the phrase ascribed to Coleridge : — After all a knave is but a fool with a circumbendibus. That rulers who debauch the morals, confuse the mind, obstruct the progress, and pocket the cash of those they legally bamboozle, are what Coleridge defines every knave to be is proved by all we know of history. Even honest men sometimes govern as if they were corrupt. Perhaps England never had an honester statesman than the second William Pitt, whose pro-Bourbon feelings hurried him into the most expensive and desolating, and unjust wars. Bat though the honesty of a yyler is not always perfect guarantee that he will rule in a spirit either wise'or benevolent, tlpn honesty no better guarantee for good government can be imagined, These remarks apply specially, and with peculiar force, to this Province, We see t> strange laxity of political principle. Opr great men are, with some admirable exceptions, little great men, whose sense of honor seems lost in Tf/o or I ism, whoso sense of right ami wrong may be epitomized in a couple of sentences — That in right which promotes my personal interests. That is wrong which dyes not promote my personal interests, The robber captain in Sil Blas held that all men were thieves, the only difference being as regards the mode in which men went about thieving. The little great men we point our shafts at, are not so candid as that robber Captain —but they act upon his principle. These are not the men to advance either our material or iporal interests, 'l'hey are our bane. The Province is rich in all the elements of prosperity except one.

To supply that one is our object. But there are stones of stumbling and rocks of offence which must be removed, or progress forward will be hard work. No one can deny that the functions of a Provincial Law Officer are important. Whatever appertains to the administration of law is important because law, which ought to be justice, ought also to be the true measure of onr advancement in real civilization. It follows that the Law Officer of this Province should be the “ soul of honor,” altogether uninfluenced by party passions, and if not quite, like the Israelite of oldy without guile, at least without such qualities as' render confidence, either in his intentions or his acts, a thing impossible. Law is a sacred thing. Here it is doubly sacred because the expression of popular will. Law prostituted for party purposes ceases to be sacred ; its holiness vanishes, and in its place we have the unholiest of shams. Then anarchy reigns. Life ceases to be respected, property becomes prey for the spoiler, confidence of man in man gives up the ghost, and might usurps the place of right. Need more to be said in way of proof that laws should be pure, and that they who interpret as well as enforce them should be men singled out from the herd of men because of their high qualities ? We think not. —-We think enough has been said to convince the most exacting on such matters that our chief law administrators should be conspicuous alike for talent and integrity. One of these assuredly is the Provincial Law Officer who, like the oft-pressed into service Caesar’s wife, should not only be” pure but above suspicion. Such a man ought to be Provincial Law Officer. Now comes the home question —What sort of man is Provincial Ijaw Officer ? Dr. Channing held that politics “however they make the intellect active, sagacious, and inventive, within a certain sphere, generally extinguish its thirst for universal truth, paralyse sentiment and imagination, corrupt the simplicity of the mind, destroy that confidence in human virtue which lies at the foundation of all philanthropy and generous sacrifices, and end in cold and prudent selfishness.” We know not the politician to whom these words of Df- Channing better apply chan to Lawyer Merriman whose mental powers are considerable, but whose political acts are not such as to inspire respect for his principles or confidence m his judgment. The part he took in the Suburbs Election “farce” will be long remembered if there is truth in the saying that “ men’s vices are written in marble.” As Chairman of the Committee to inquire and report with regard to the famous petition of Mr. David Graham he begged to draw Provincial Councillor's attention “ to the large number of voters objected to by both parties for want of qualification,” aud then went on as follows :— “ The course, adopted by the (Petition) Committee has precluded them from investigating any r of these cases, or to charges of bribery which were made (without any statement of evidence) by the Counsel on both sides ; but as the Committee assume that the objections to voters were not made without grounds, they think it right to direct the attention of the Council to the facts, hoping that steps may be taken to ascertain whether in a district said to contain only 360 voters, so large a number of names stand upon the Roll for fictitious qualifications.” Those who heard our Provincial Law Officer speak in sense so clear and decided against “ fictitious qualifications,” little expected to see him a few weeks after bounce into a Court appointed to revise the Roll as leader of a batch of lawyers hired to prevent the names of “ fictitiously qualified” voters being exposed, more especially as in the interval though no “ fictitiously qualified” voters were struck off, a vast number had, by his own political party, been put on. Such conduct does not square with our old-fashioned notions of honesty. Upon tke principle of any thing for a fee, or any thing for place and party, it is of course, intelligible ; but a Provincial Law Officer should disdain to profit by ehieane, and on no account sell the province to serve his party, or do violence to his own conscience for a mess of pottage, A Provincial Law Officer one day pronouncing against the Electoral Roll ‘ ‘ fictitious qualifications” and another day resisting an inquiry into them, reminds one of that accommodating lawyer who engaged for both sides of the same case. So well did he argue for his client the plaintiff, that every body thought he had won ; but presently beginning his argil’ inent for the defendant, and reminded that he was pleading dead against what he had pleaded before, said with cucumber coolness— Ah, yes; but however wrong I was then, 1 know I am quite right now. On the 19th of February we find our Provincial Law Adviser proposing a compromise to NJesst’s. Daldy apd Graham, Then all anxiety to make things pleasant he, with vehement protestations pf cerity and excellent intention, offered to resign his seat for the Suburbs if Messrs,

Daldy and Graham would do :>o likewise. | If, said he, these gentlemen and myself \ resign, the Council will be relieved from the difficulty in zohich it now finds itself. Well, not long after Messrs. Daldy and Graham who declined to resign upon his invitation, did resign expressly on the ground ihat by so _ doing they would relieve members of Council from the difficulty in which events had placed them. It seems, however, that our Provincial Law Officer had no desire to throw oil upon the troubled waters, and no notion that things should be made pleasant by relieving Provincial Council members from the difficulty in which they found themselves, for straightway he advised that two writs should be issued for the one vacant seat. Let us now briefly consider his sayings and doings when the Provincial Govern-nve-nt brought forward their Educational Bill. That Bill was not framed by the Provincial Government, but by certain sectarian gentlemen whose notions with regard to conscience are strikingly similar to the notions of certain light-fingered people with regard to property. While their “ carefully prepared” Bill was under ■consideration our Provincial Law Officer satirized and altogether repudiated the notion that education should be given to ■orphans or destitute children whether ■orphans or not,“ as rations are distributed 'to paupers.” With much warmth of manner he protested against all schemes ■of education which should enable educators or schemers to handle public money without Government being able to ascertain where the money went, and what kind of education was given for it. Yet nothing plainer than the fact that the very Education Bill to the passing of which he was a-party appoints special Inspectors for each school. Nice Provincial Law Officer truly! Either he did or did not know that speeial Inspectors of schools to be recognized by the Bill, are incompatible with the Government authority and knowledge with regard to state paid for education which he took such pains to enunciate, or he did not. If he did not, what can be thought of so ignorant a Provincial Law Officer ? If he did, what should be done with one so thoroughly unprincipled ? In the art of making arrangements for general confusion this Provincial Law Officer is unrivalled. lie is the stormy petrel of Auckland politics. When confronted by Southern members (who have accurately taken his measure) he dare not play such tricks, or indulge himself with such antics, as he ventures upon in the Provincial Parliament. There less of talent than audacity is required — There impertinences pass OMwaoticed that in the House of Representatives would call forth jocose but'crashing rebuke. In the Provincial Council he fancies himself a Triton among Minnows. In the House -of Representatives he finds himself a Minnow among Tritons. Every where he is an unfit man 'either to make law or lo interpret it.