The Evening Star. MONDAY, APRIL 25, 1870.

Auckland Star, Volume I, Issue 91, 25 April 1870, Page 2

The Evening Star. MONDAY, APRIL 25, 1870.

,It is said " happy is the nation that has no history;" and happy is the European mail that has no news. The mail to hand is singularly destitute of striking intelligence ; there are neither wars nor rumours of wars ; the Alabama controversy is still pending; Spain, as before, searching for a King ; the Emperor of the French, aa usual, emei'ging from a conspiracy against his life ; and the (Ecumenical Council still trying to gulp down infallibility. But the Colonial Conference is dead! The eminent " colonial gentlemen" have retired from their emiuence; "poor bleeding, groaning New Zealand" is left to groan; the gushing Mr. Edward Wilson is gushing in silence, and the Cannon-street bubble has burst. It is sad to look on blighted hopes and ambitions smothered. But yesterday the man of Toul might have stood against a thousand, to-day not one so poor as do him reverence. It is rarely that in this matter-of-fact age, and among colonists, the most matter-of-fact people, presumption is encouraged to venture to such a length. A few colonial gentlemen —each one, no doubt, of some importance in his own colony, and representing himself as of much greater, in fact, as an authority, according to the fashion of travellers, and capable of swaying his colony's councils — meeting together in idle moments, with time heavy on their hands, and their importance unrecognised in London, conceived the happy idea of bringing their joint influence to bear on the colonial policy of England. Fortunately New Zealand appeared opportunely as lepauvre diable; and, fortified with this "horrid ex- " ample" of Imperial tyranny and neglect, they stormed the office of the Secretary for the Colonies. Apparently Earl G-ranville quailed at first before this unusual demonstration. He was assured on authority that by his policy to New Zealand " the blood of thousands of his Jfellow-countrymen might be at his door;" that " bleeding and groaning New Zealand _vas; being driven from the Empire;" and that there was a determination to renounce the British rule and declare, allegiance to the United States. A conference of portentous magnitude would sit in London, and wield the united strength of England's colonial empire. The edict went forth from Messrs. Toul, Sewell, and Blame, and the minister in alarm appealed to the various Governors to stay the formidable combination. But, alas for the ingratitude of human nature! People in the colonies asked who are Youl, Sewell, aud Blame ? and eclio answered " Who ? " and the " colonial " gentlemen " were obliged to take up the lament of the children in the market-place : —" We have piped unto " you, and ye have not danced ; " we have mourned unto you, and ye " have not wept." Anything more ignominious than the descent of the " colonial gentle- " men " it is hardly possible to conceive ; and after the " contempt of ".silence" shown in her Majesty's speech for them and their question,

the finishing blow is given in the withering sneer conveyed in. Lord Granville's statement-in the? House of Lords :—".(hie of tile gentlemen (Mr. " Toul)/wbo issued .the circular; in- " viting a colonial conference told me " some tih-e: ago that he had received " a favourable answer from the colo- " nies to/ the. proposition, .and pro- " raised i.o iotfward it; to me, but he " bas v either forgotten the circum- " stance, or bean prevented by press of "business from doing: sd." It-would be waste of words to tell tbe causes contributing to this miserable failure. The movement had in it none of the elements of success. The offspring of presumption, it aimed at impossibility. Conferences are notoriously unproductive, and a conference of delegates, having nothing in common, save tbe ability to growl, presented too many points of weakness for grappling with the correct information and diplomatic experience of the Colonial Office. The reply from almost every colony, save New Zealand, gave evidence of colonial common sense and manly independence, and the patriotism of the " colonial gentlemen in London" was incontinently snuffed out. ), Othello's occupation being gone, the.agitators, laughed at by the press of England, are found to have slipped quietly away into other spheres of usefulness ; while Earl Granville from his place in the Hou_se of Lords excuses them on the grounds of press of business. The only moral we can draw from the whole procedure is in the, melancholy contrast of colonial puppyism before the dignified bearing of a British peer.