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We have fallen in by chance with an old number of the United Service Journal, in which high compliments are paid to Sir George Grey upon the ability displayed by him at his Sandhurst examination, and have seiz-'d on it accordingly—almost as upon a prize—for insertion among our extracts, as supporting that estimate of his intellectual powers which we have all along maintained, even in opposition to many whose opinions are entitled to the most considerate respect. We have failed, on the other hand, to obtain a number of the Edinburgh Review—of too early date to be readily met with in so voung a colony—containing a very remarkable article, which insists upon the onesidedness of that peculiarly mathematical cast of mind—upon its natural unfitness to make successful grapple with the realities of hfe, and which then proceeds to demonstrate the unsoundness of a system of education, such as is pursued at one of our Universities, where so unfair and almost exclusive attention is paid to that single branch of science. It is not on the score of ability that his deficiencies must be laid. Give him his time—and to shew that lie requires time, it needs but to contrast the cleverness of lus written reply to the Wellington memorial, with the clumsiness of his oral answer on the self-same subject to a deputation—give him but his time, and lie will seldom fail to work out his end. It is not ou the score of ability, but on the spann£ manifestation of the nobler feelings, ou the utter want of all the higher principles of action—of any more generous rule of conduct than com-mon-place expediency. He has built up his house, story by story, with admiiable ingenuity and art, but he has based it upon sand- ; the winds and the lluod may have been long to come, )et will not the less auiely beat aud blow jt last. lie is essentially '*; i mail behind the times

who has formed himself upon the practice of the old school, but has devoted his more special attention to the rotten side of it. Management, chicanery, adroitness, Protean versatility (though the latter be not his forte), are no longer the essential elements of power that they once have been. The very vulgar are outgrowing them. The jugglery of cups and balls could hardly draw together a dozen idlers in the market-place. With fear and much doubt for the future, we can still hail one feature of regeneration about the times, in which so much that is petty and trumpery is beginning to be daffed aside, as not worth a passing thought. Men are now too much in the world is at last beginning to learn the value of realities. To any vain and egotistical man, there may bean intense inward feeling of selfsatisfaction in the consciousness of coming oft* a winner at a long game of manoeuvres •. but there his pleasure and his success must end ; for it is not by surh means that a name in the world is any lon At tarifesecured. Yet it is small cmfNifor us colonists to be told, that such must of necessity break down in run ; for the miscliief done meanwhile Stems almost irremediable. If the practiser were to be sole loser by the system he pursues, the protraction of it would be less material. But to his own loss, that must be superadded which is suffered by the community; for he is steadily lowering the tone of the society o\er whic 1 -- he presides. Let us not try to blench the besetting sins of English colonists. They are too unscrupulous, too greedy of immediate gam, too mechanical, too far behind upward move that is taking place as it is ; but what change for be expected when we find our own upborne by the occupant of the highest station in the coun • try ; when we see him not only emulating the worser traits of it, but gifted with ability likewise to succeed in rendering himself many tunes more cofo'iitd than the very colonists themsehes. It is example to elevate and refine us that we need; not to pluck us dowii lower in tone of feeling than we otherwise should really stand. We can already discern a few signs in the horizon from afar. Amongst others, let it be observed that the old unanimity of opinion with regard to merits no longer prevails English journals. One by one, his ol<M(J>porters are beginning to steal away, seeMMcly almost ashamed at first openly to cross rie floor, but with an evident and growing suspicion that they luue little time to lose. Some aienow "in stays*" others have at least " made all clear to g-> about." The Mornmnc. Post, one instance among many, exntessgfcuo opinion, but is open be seen by a we have extracted fioin its columns, anc% republished, alth ugh not holding precis ly the same opinions as the writer with regard to the sale of land. Wr have gi\eu it as earnest merely of what is yet to c>me. His Kxcellencytira been called the vt Brummagem Napoleon. maturer thought, we feel that it waMpftng the name m vain of a really great, thoXhTuulty man ; and theit - fore now cia\ i offer reparation to his memory, by re-christening our New Zealand hero, " Louis Philippe in Little."

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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/AMW18481012.2.8

Bibliographic details

Anglo-Maori Warder, Volume 1, Issue 25, 12 October 1848, Page 2

Word Count
886

Untitled Anglo-Maori Warder, Volume 1, Issue 25, 12 October 1848, Page 2

Untitled Anglo-Maori Warder, Volume 1, Issue 25, 12 October 1848, Page 2

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