THE The Grey River Argus. TUESDAY, OCTOBER 20, 1869.

Grey River Argus, Volume VIII, Issue 589, 26 October 1869, Page 2

THE The Grey River Argus. TUESDAY, OCTOBER 20, 1869.

Op the many social and political changes which have occurred in England of late years there is nothing so remarkable as the alteration that is taking place in the national sentiment regarding many of the venerable and hitherto most revered traditions, in defence of which for ages the greatest minds and most eminent public men fought, against what they deemed to be the rank impiety of traitorous men t Yet in spite of all the advantages which the old Tories have enjoyed — the attachment of the people to their old institutions ; the support of a most powerful and influential clergy ; the power which attends the ownership of the soil — in spile of all these important advantages, the progress of thought, of religious and political freedom, has been such that we find that one after another the old traditions and landmarks are being broken down, as being no longer suitable to the altered circumstances of the nation. The last few years have been prolific of examples of this tendency to " lever-up" the institutions of the Empire to the necessities of the era. Time was when the extension of political freedom to others than the landed proprietors, the freeholders and wealthier classes, was regarded by great and good men as dangerous to the existence of good government. Time was when the identity of Church and State was considered the palladium of the best interests of the Empire. And yet within two years we have had a Reform Bill which has placed the .political power in the hands of the middle and working classes, and we have witnessed the disestablishment of the Irish Church — which last measure can only be regarded as paving the way to the separation of the Church and State in Great Britain. Of course such revolutions are not accomplished without a struggle — old prejudices, vested interests, and a thousand and one obstacles have had to be overcome, but they have been overcome, and the nation has accepted the result without disturbing its equanimity. And so with regard to the foreign and colonial policy of England. Within the time of the present generation, hardly a petty quarrel could take place between the pettiest foreign states, but England must a have say in it, and perhaps more. Little wars or great wars she had always more or less to do wren tiioui, seldom to her own immediate benefit, and generally to her great cost. This was possibly "glorious." It was a fine thing to be an arbiter of the fate of nations, and carry the flag that braved a thousand years from east to west and from north to south. But somehow the fact has been gradually breaking upon the minds of both Brings and peoples that war is not a profitable thing, and that it is more conducive to the happiness and prosperity of -a nation to pay more devotion to the arts of peace. Even the great mystery man of the Tuilleries has ceased to go to war for an idea, and the enormous increase in the revenues and trade and commerce of France is abundant consolat ; on to him. Great Britain has adopted the policy of allowing other folks to quarrel by themselves so long as they let her alone, and she is wise in her generation. People talk about the "national spirit being dead," of England having "lost her prestige," and so on, but who believes them i Can anyone venture for a moment to doubt that whenever the occasion should come thai England should have tv tight in defence of her rights, the national spirit would fa'l her, or that her enormous resources would not be forthcoming ? No. England was never more influential, never more respected than at the present time, and this has been brought about not by bluster, by overawing armaments, or threatening fleets, but by the enlightened course she is pursuing, and the liberality of her political institutions. Again, what a change has taken place in the policy of England towards her Colonies. Turnup the records and compare the Imperial despatches of the pveseni day to the colonial authorities, with those of a century ago. " The glory of England is her Colonies," Rays a celebrated writer, and he is right, but the " glory" was very differently understood then from what it is now. When Drake, Frobisher and Raliegh went roaming about as the splendid freebooters they were, their territorial discoveries were looked upon only in the lights of possible sources of individual and national wealth. The En/jlish people at that time had even a less elevated idea of colonization than the Spaniards. They only dreamt of golden cities, silver mines and all manners of spices, whereas the Spaniards did associate a religious mission with their more sordid iews. After-cir-cumstances turned Englishmen into true colonists, and in time they planted themselves over the American continent and the Indies and became large communities, not unfit appanages of a great Empire. But how long it was before political freedom was given to them, before the administration of their own a%irs was wrested from the iron hands of Imperial authority. It is not so very long ago that Colonies were prohibited consuming goods

of foreign manufacture, and to this day they cannot make separate commercial treaties with foreign States or with each other. But all these things have undergone or are undergoing a change. Free institutions have buen liberally granted, and little more than nominal control except in a very few matters is exerted by the Mother Country, and the question is being openly and seriously debated whether it is essential tc the welfare of the Colonies themselves or necessary to the interests of the Empire that this con-, trol and political connection should con- ' tinue. Judging by the tone of the written and expressed opinions and views of great and influential writers and speakers in England, and by the course of action adopted by the present Government towards the Colonies, the people of England are beginning to regard the independence of the principal Colonies as not only a near possibility, but a thing to be desired. The doctrines taught so sedulously by G-oldwin Smith during the last seven or eight years have not. fallen on barren ground, and now that the English mind is no longer afraid of great political change 3, and is accustomed to regard questions f rom a pra6tical point of view, it is high time th.it the Colonies themselves should take the matter into consideration, and prepare for the period when the only ties tiiat will bind them to the Mother Country will be the ties of affection and of social and commercial intercourse. No doubt many minds will feel shocked at the idea of separating from the Mother Country, and call it revolutionary and so on, but separation will come for all that. The graves of the port-bibing squires and red-nosed hunting parsons of old should have opened aud liberated their uneasy occupants when the Reform and Irish Church Bills passed, but they did not. And those who cling affectionately, perhaps, but with the afFection of a timorous child, to the apron of England will find that the natural destination of the Anglo-Saxon race is liberty— pure and .simple. With all the evidences we have before us of a settled policy to liberate the colonies, to make them responsible for their own protection, aud cause them to be assailable pointsof the Empire, what a wretched spectacle does New Zealand present, with all its wealth, population, and prosperity, in crawling to the foot of the throne to beg for a few soldiers !