GENERAL CAMERON AND SIR G. GREY.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume 6, Issue 322, 9 November 1865, Page 2

GENERAL CAMERON AND SIR G. GREY.

The following is a copy of a letter addressed by a Captain R. S. Milne to the Right Hon. Edward Cardwell, Secretary of State for the Colonies, and appears in a Wellington Independent of the 28th ult.; — Sie.—lf her Majesty’s Ministers continue to act on the counsel of that oracle of pretending wisdom—that grandiloquent, elephantine ignoramus—the Times, and recall both Sir George Grey and General Cameron, the affairs of New Zealand will be hopelessly complicated. The General, assuming authority over both her Majesty’s Representative and her Majesty’s Ministers in New Zealand, must have lost his senses. The asumption of authority by the military over the civil power, would be an introduction of military despotism. What would be thought of the Commandcr-in-Chief in England, were he attempt to dictate to her Majestyand her Ministers what they were todo. The General’s doings, too, seem not less extraordinary than his politics. To occupy four months in marching—with a corps of 3,000 —through a country, unopposed even by the few hundred savages he had to fight —a distance of only sixty miles—two miles a day —is a feat without a parallel in military annals. In 1809, a brigade—the 43rd, 52nd, and 95th—under General Crauford, each man carrying, including sixty rounds of ball, a burden of sixty pounds weight upon his shoulders—after only a few hours rest at the end of a journey of twenty miles, marched, thus laden, under a burning July sun, sixty-two miles more in twenty-six hours, in order to take part in the battle of Talavera, the object of their ambition, and on the field of which they arrived just as victory had declared in our favor; and 40,000 French, under Marshals Jourdan, Gictor, and King Joseph, were in full retreat before a British force of only 14,000, encumbered by a lot of cowardly useless Spaniards under Cuesta, half of them running away. What a contrast! General Crauford and his brigade, march eighty-two miles in little more than thirty hours; while General Cameron and his brigade require four months to march sixty miles!!! But those were Generals and soldiers of days gone by. There would be some excuse for General Cameron if Sir George Grey were without ability or a novice in Government, jeopardizing the honor of the Crown, the interests of the settlers, and the civilisation of the aboriginal inhabitants. But to place himself in a position of antagonism to a man of great experience, excelling talents, and the most humane feelings, is an act of insanity. His recall becomes, therefore, a matter of imperative neccessity, in order to confirm and establish her Majesty’s authority, and to bring the war to a favorable issue. To follow the maniac counsel of the Times, and recall Sir George Grey, will destroy, in both the British and Maori races, all confidence in the Crown, and produce complications, the mischief of which will be endless.—l have the honor to be sir, yours respectfully, R. S. Minra.