"SIR ARTHUR BY THE GRACE OF GOD."

Globe, Volume XXIV, Issue 2512, 26 April 1882, Page 3

"SIR ARTHUR BY THE GRACE OF GOD."

In the old Puritan days such names as Praise-God Barebones and other designations that in these degenerate times would appear ludicrous were common enough. The change of custom is, perhaps, unfortunate for the gentleman who has the honor to represent Queen Viotoria in New Zealand. Had the uutique fashion been still in vogue the Governor of this colory might have been known by a cognomen as distinctive as any of those assumed by the enthusiasts of Cromwell's timo. When Sir Arthur was Governor of New Brunswick he distinguished hinceelf by making an extraordinary demand on the Bishop of the Anglican Church there. This was no leas than an order to His Lordship that in the various ohurohes throughout the diocese, in lieu of the ordinary prayer offered up for the Governor, there should be specifio mention of "Sir Arthur Gordon, by iho grace of God and favor of our sovereign lady, the Queen, Governor of New Brunswick." The demand was, of course, not complied with, as the Bishop possessed a keener sense of the ludicrous than had been bestowed on his Excellency. Howovor, the matter became subjeot for infinite merriment amongst the colonists, and long after the author of the "joke " had shaken American dust from hi 3 feet, he was known as " Sir Arthur, by the grace of God." The soubriquet has followed him to the Antipodes, and it is now a by-word amongst the Governor's " good friends "in Wellington. The old saying " A straw bfst shows how the wind blows" is aptly illustrated by this laughable incident in the career of our present Governor. He was so puffed up by his own importance that he was_ not content to be prayed for as a more ordinary Governor—he wanted his personality more clearly defined, lest the Deity might oonfound him with the common ruck of viceregal representatives throughout the wide dominions of her Majesty. Elver since then Sir Arthur Gordon has never failed to exhibit an overweening notion of his own dignity. He is nc-.ver content to be a mere constitutional Governor carrying out the wiohes of his responsible advisers. He seems to imagine that being "Sir Arthur Gordon, by the grace of Go 3, Governor," he is endowed with what has been fitly styled " the right divine of kingß to govern wrong." This accounts for his extraordinary aotion in the present political orisis. Ho was well aware that Mr Hall possessed a clear majority in Parliament, and yet, instead of asking that gentleman for advice he summoned to his oounsels Sir Goorge Grey, who oould not, by any stretoh of imagination, be supposed to represent public opinion in New Z3aland. Similarly in regard to Native affairs tho policy of the Hall Government has been eminently successful and unprecedentedly popular, yet " Sir Arthur, by the grace of God," emphatically disapproves of that policy, and nothing would please him more than to be able to i'sne a mandato by which JYZr Bryce would be consigned to a dungeon, and Te Whiti let loose again to plot sedition at Parihaka. The man means well, but he is so oonceited, and so utterly wrongheaded, that oooupying the position ho does ho is likely to do more harm than an arrant knave possessed of plenty of savoir faire would accomplish.— Abridged from the Ran gitikei Advocate..