Untitled

Anglo-Maori Warder, Volume 1, Issue 14, 27 July 1848, Page 2

We could have wished much to have let pass this number of the revived Anglo-Maori Warder without any allusion to the contents of the last. We feel that it would have been in better taste—in appearance, at all events—to have nwrtained sf.ict fllence with regard to all that has taken place meanwhile. It is to be regretted that no choice has been left. So much notice has 1 ren taken of the last leading article, and that in so marked and painful a manner, that a few words of comment are forced upon us. lluch h;'s been said of the personality with which it was written. A certain tinge of personality is inseparable from the subject; still we put it to any one of the few complainants to say whether the whole could have been told ■with less ; whether the remarks in question do not bear evident marks throughout of the most painstaking care to avoid it, so far as the veiy nature of the subject would allow. Jir.t, iurtead of westing time "with making needless 'X'j'.ise, let us take up higher ground at once, and aJc, by whom was the example first set ? From the time tho.t the famous " blood and treasure" despatch u a-j first made public—to say nothing of numerous ethers almost equally to the puipose—a missive reflecting so cruelly on the personal c'ir.ruiter of men to whom this country owes t!:; debt of gratitude ; the boldness of Us a -ertious inspired by the li.ipi- of secrecy . f.mi that time forwaid all coiifcifiitijus ..c:::p!i., on the ccore of personality have been relieved,no restiainingcouaidernito'i, save that of courtesy alone, leiug left in PCtlOll. And Captain llnnv is too skilful of fence foi .y one lo venture to concede advantage to him ; he mu.-.t be met at-his onn weapons, and j»ith all of them. In that desperate combat ■which was fought between Quel;'..,a rui:<iun of Henry 111. of France, and A-itrat.iist, Quelle; complained that hu aU3£oni;i nad o,;r luui

the advantage of a poinard which he used in parrying, while ht3 own left hand, which he was forced to employ for the same purpose, was cruelly mangled. When he charged Antraguet with this, " Thou hast done wrong," answered he, " to forget thy dagger at home. We are here to fight, and not to settle punctilios of arms." So long as the dagger be used in parrying alone, and not to stab in the dark, it is a lawful weapon. There is another matter, concerning which we aTe bound to sperk. An obseivation.that " he has looked with Ishmaelitish suspicion on all around him," had escaped the writer's pen. For reasons which possibly ought not to have, but certainly would have weighed with him, the passage would have been suppressed, could the construction that has since been put upon it have been foreseen. Would any one believe that the expression —one of general application, a trait in a character—could be d'stoued into a special accusation of miit.ustJng Government officers. Could Captain Grey have imagined the writer so selfishly regardless of consequences, as to have placed men, with all of whom he is on tetms of amity, in so painful a situation. Far from it; obtuseness is not his Excellency's failing. But there was nothing else to be laid hold of, and even that not without the invention of a new sophism for the nonce. There is no doubt but that the universal includes the particular—that if he be distrustful of all, he must be distt ustftil of some ; but as the rays of the sun, when converged into a focus by the burning mirror, are of greater power, yet still are the same rays that they would have been if equally dispelled; so the remark was pointed by the one consttuction of it; hatmless,through generality of application, in the other. But what shall we say of the use to which this misconstruction has been applied. We are loth to speak [of it; not that we feel bound by any delicacy of reseive, the whole having become matter of public notoriety, but because we dare hardly tiust ourselves with words. And yet, there is balm in Gilead. It is pleasant to perceive that his Excellency has profited by our own advice. He has fallen back upon " that legitimate influence which ' his station confers upon him," and has exerted it, in an attempt to interfere with the relations of private friendship. It was simply the course which any high spirited gentleman must have been expected to take. He has shewn tact likewise, in which we were mistaken enough to have believed him wanting ; for he has aimed at the most vulnerable point of his antagonist; an defaut de la cuirasse. By one means or another, he would contrive to get at the heel of Achilles. Really, he mends, upon acquaintance ; one cannot at times help feeling a certain admiration of his dexterity. Allowances 100 ought in fairness to be made ; for the " siin» of truth" is barbed, and always rankles sore. Haret later! ietha'is arundo. Pity that Touchstone is not here, to make up all with an " if. " Cap and bells might do much; but the joint wisdom of the "seven justices," yea, even of seven Resident Magistrates, would fail.