The Lyttelton Times. June 26, 1852.

Lyttelton Times, Volume II, Issue 77, 26 June 1852, Page 7

The Lyttelton Times. June 26, 1852.

I Thekb is something of sadness in all | parting scenes, and the feeling is not lesI sened when combined with a sense of ingra- | titude. What have we done that Colonel I Campbell should withdraw his patronage i from our columns ? Surely he cannot com- | plain of our treatment of him. We have I published all his notifications, notices, and | advertisements from the manuscripts sent to • our office, absolutely without a single mis- ' take. We have never, even for the character of our journal, corrected mistakes in ; his grammar, or lessened the obscurity of I his meaning. We have placed our best cop lumns at the service of his illiterate compels sitions. Nay more: we have attracted I' public attention to their value, in a manner f which probably no other Editor would have p done; and if his writings! have not gained p the publicity they deserved, it is no fault of F ours. But in return for all this, Colonel L Campbell withdraws his custom, and in the [, unkindest manner makes our columns |, the vehicle of publishing our disgrace to | "the world. When Mr. Hoby, the boot- ; maker of great renown, commanded the [ market of half London, a young ensign in s the guards is said to have one day threatened to withdraw his custom. " John" said that great man, gravely addressing his forema», "put" up the shutters, and stop, payment: Ensign Sprig of the Guards has withdrawn his patronage from the establishment." The reflection slyly expressed by the boot-maker affords us consolation in a similar affliction. Let us turn to the no-

Like a practised actor the gallant Colonel has kept his greatest feat for his last appearance on the Lyttelton Boards. His " Positively-for-the-last-time-of-notifying" is certainly the best of his compositions. It runs as follows :

"All Communications intended for Stockowners and others occupying in any manner Crown Lands in the Middle District, Middle Island, will be officially made to them in the New Zealand Spectator, published at Wellington. They are therefore requested to arrange so that such communications may reach them with as little delay as possible after publication, as they will be held responsible for compliance with any instructions or notices given to them in that newspaper.''

In the first place this notice is dated from the Commissioner's Office at Akaroa. The Commissioner has placed his office, and there is not the least symptom of his removal, at the furthest habitable spot in the whole of his district from the work which he has been appointed to do. We speak without the slightest exaggeration when we say, it would not have been possible to select a spot in the " Middle District Middle Island," at least where the necessaries of life are to be obtained, so inaccessible as Akaroa to the stockholders on the plains. It is two days journey from Lyttelton, and between two and three from Christchurch. The journey must be made at all times, partly by water and partly by land, across a country which is inaccessible to horses, and must therefore be climbed over on foot.

But the inconvenience, the expense, the vexation, the waste of time to which the squatters outside the Canterbury block are thus subjected, did not appear to the Commissioner to be sufficient. With a happy and ingenious obstructiveness the Commissioner has devised a new mode of tormenting them. Hef refuses to communicate with them except through the columns of the Wellington Spectator ! There being two public journals in his own district, he prefers that a delay of six or eight weeks should elapse before his " instructions" or " notices" are received, supposing, no doubt, that like wine or cheese their very flavour will improve by keeping. But with the most consistent facetiousness the Commissioner selects the " Spectator" as the channel of his edicts. He might have said the " Independent" but the Independent has a wide circulation—which is of course an objection. Then there is a Government Gazette also published at Wellington which an ordinary official might have preferred. But that is got up in a business like and official manner which would contrast oddly with the extravanganzas of the Colonel. But the Spectator is the kindred paper: badly written, and rarely read, it suits equally the mediocrity of his powers and the modesty of his character.

But it appears all the stock owners are to take in the Wellington Spectator under pains and penalties; and not only so, but to provide themselves with it as speedily as possible. This is a droll arrangement. It is one of the expenses of a station which our friends to the northward and southward never contemplated. It ought to have been inserted in the Ordinance, —" License, Five Pounds; Wellington Spectator,Hvio Pounds." Considering its enlarged circulation, the Spectator has certainly made a good spec of its unwearied and wearying support of Sir George Grey's Government. But ought it not to be put the other way ? We have often heard of Government buying a paper,

but this is rather a case of a paper buying a Government. Far be it from us to impute unworthy motives to so distinguished a personage as Colonel Campbell, but the transaction is so strange it would really not suffer by a little explanation. As it stands, its prominent aspect is a design to enlarge the sale of the Wellington Spectator. At all events, if the Commissioner were paid to do so, or had taken, a share in the business, he could not have displayed a greater anxiety to effect that object. In the name of all honest journalism, we protest against this plague of Spectators with which the Commissioner's rod is about to afflict our coasts.

But we must not part from our old correspondent in this merry mood. Speaking seriously, Colonel Campbell's appointment and his conduct in his office, are public grievances. His name is never mentioned in this settlement uncoupled with an expression of contempt. The warmest supporters of Government, and the most ardent admirers of Sir George Grey, are the loudest in their just indignation at his conduct. Strongly as we have reprobated his doings, our language has been tame in comparison with what we daily hear, whenever he is the subject of conversation ; and not from those only whom interest or fate has connected with the Canterbury settlement, but from all who are brought into official contact with him.

From these facts we shall ask our readers to answer a plain question, suggested by the recent proclamation published in the Government Gazette. Supposing we enrol our names under the Provincial Councils Ordinance as Sir George Grey proposes to us to do, and suppose we vote for members for such a Council, would our representatives have any power to stop Colonel Campbell's salary, or to have him removed from an office in which he only makes himself and the Government a laughing stock? Here is a plain grievance : could Sir George Grey's Provincial Council remove it ? Not a bit. If his Excellency so willed it, Colonel Campbell would still continue to draw his salary—a much larger salary than that of any other Government officer in the district—to draw the salary of a secretary, who has literally nothing whatever to do, and to make a variety of other demands upon the Treasury Chest. And for all this the people would have to pay. And the Provincial Council would still have no power whatsoever to put a stop to the nuisance. Let those lay this to heart who think that by enrolling their names as electors they will acquire any single particle of that influence over the Acts of Government, which that honourable title confers in the land of their birth.

We call the attention of the Members of the Lyttelton Colonists' Society, and of others who have not yet joined it, to the Meeting to be held on Wednesday evening next, at the School Room, when an introductory addresSj explaining the nature and objects of the Society, will be delivered by the chairman, Mr. Godley. Candidates for the Committee and other offices will be nominated then, and their election take place on the 14th July.

CHARACTER OF SIR ROBERT PEEL. (From D'lsraeli's Life of Lord George Bentinch) " Such a man, under any circumstances, and in any sphere of life, would probably have become remarkable. Ordained from his youth to be busied with the affairs of a great empire, such a man, after long years of observation, practice, and perpetual discipline, would have become what Sir Bobert Peel was in the latter portion of his life, a transcendent administrator of public business, and a matchless master of debate in a popular assembly. In the course of time the method which was natural to Sir Bobert Peel, had matured into a habit of such expertness, that no one in the despatch of affairs ever adapted the means more fitly to the end; his original flexibility had ripened into consummate tact; his memory had accumulated such stores of political information that he could bring luminously together all that was necessary to establish or to illustrate a subject; while in the House of Commons he was equally eminent in exposition, and in reply: in the first, distinguished by his arrangement, his clearness, and his completeness ; in the second, ready, ingenuous, and adroit, prompt in detecting the weak points of his adversary, and dexterous in extricating himself from an embarrassing position.

"Thus gifted, and thus accomplished, Sir Robert Peel had a great deficiency; he was without imagination. Wanting imagination, he wanted prescience. No one was more sagacious when dealing with the circumstances before him ; no one penetrated the present with more acuteness and accuracy. His judgment was faultless, provided he had not to deal with the future. Thus it happened through his long career, that while he always was looked upon as the most prudent and safest of leaders, he ever, after a protracted display of admirable tactics, concluded his campaigns by surrendering at discretion. He was so adroit that he could prolong resistance even beyond its term, but so little foreseeing that often in the very triumph of his manoeuvres he found himself in an untenable position. And so it came to pass that Roman Catholic emancipation, Parliamentary reform, and the abrogation of our commercial system, were all carried in haste or in passion and without conditions or mitigatory arrangements.

"Sir Robert Peel had a peculiarity which is perhaps natural with men of very great talents who have not the creative faculty; he had a dangerous sympathy with the creations of others. Instead of being cold and wary, as was commonly supposed, he was impulsive and even inclined to rashness. When he was ambiguous, unsatisfactory, reserved, tortuous, it was that he -was perplexed, that he did not see his way, that the routine which he had admirably administered failed him, and that his own mind was not constructed to create a substitute for the custom which was crumbling away. Then he was ever on the look out for new ideas, and when he embraced them, he did so with eagerness, and often with precipitancy ; he always •carried these novel plans to an extent which even their projectors or chief promoters had usually not anticipated, as was seen, for example, m the settlement of the currency. Although wrapped up in himself, and supposed to be egotistical, except in seasons of rare exaltedness, as in the years 1844-5, when he reeled under the favour of the Court, the homage of the Continent, and the servility of Parliament, he was really deficient in self-confidence. There was always some person representing some theory or system exercising an influence over his mind. -In his 'sallet-days' it was Mr. Homer or bir Samuel Romilly ; in later and more important periods, it was the Duke of Wellino--ton the King of the French, Mr. Jones Loyd; and, finally, Mr. Cobden. " Let us now see how this peculiar temperament influenced his career and the history of his country. "There never was such an opportunity of forming a strong and enlightened Administration and rendering the Tory party famous and popular in the country as on the junction of the friends of Mr. Canning, after his decease with the followers of the Duke of Wellington' All personal jealousies had ceased, and men like Mr. Huskisson, Mr. Lamb (Lord Melbourne), and Lord Pahnerston, had, without reluctance or reserve, recognised the leadership of Mr. Peel, then only in the perfection of his manhood, and were acting with him with deference and cordiality. The times were ripe for a

calm, prudent, and statesmanlike settlement of two great questions: the admission of Roman Catholics into the House of Commons, and some reconstruction of that assembly itself. Very moderate measures would have sufficed. The enfranchisement of half-a-dozen of the great manufacturing towns would have been hailed with general satisfaction. The Duke of Wellington was against all change. Sir Robert Peel was then under the influence of the Duke of Wellington. He believed that the Duke of Wellington was indicated as the man who would govern the country for the next quarter of a century. He joined the Duke, therefore, in resistance to those who would have transferred the forfeited franchise of a corrupt Cornish borough to some great town of the North. The followers of Mr. Canning, who would not agree in so short-sighted a policy, were rudely expelled from the Cabinet, and Sir Robert Peel, remaining the leader of a Parliamentary party destitute, with his own exception, of Parliamentary renown, was forced in a short space of time hurriedly to concede to the violence of external agitation so unconditional a satisfaction of the claims of the Roman Catholics that he broke up the Tory party, and the reform of the House of Commons was consequently carried, and in the midst of a revolution.

"After a great disaster it was observable of Sir Robert Peel that his mind seemed always to expand. His life was one of perpetual education. No one more clearly detected the mistakes which he had made, or changed his course under such circumstances with more promptness ; but it was the past and the present that alone engrossed his mind. After the catastrophe of 1830 he broke away from the Duke of Wellington, and announced to his friends with decision that henceforth he would serve under no man. There are few things more remarkable in Parliamentary history than the manner in which Sir Robert Peel headed an Opposition for 10 years without attempting to form the opinions of his friends, or instilling into them a single guiding principle, but himself displaying all that time, on every subject of debate, wise councils, administrative skill, and accomplished powers of discussion. He could give to his friends no guiding principle, for he had none, and he kept sitting on those benches till somebody should give him one. He was so blind to the future that when the Whigs, utterly prostrate, yielded him the government of the country on a colonial defeat in 1839, he did every thing he could to avoid taking the helm, when he might have come into office comparatively unpledged, and free at least, whatever course he had taken, from the painful and deserved reproaches that accompanied his last acts. But it so happened the finances of the country at that time were not flourishing ; the great interests under such circumstances were beginning, as usual, to grumble; and Sir Robert Peel wanted to be brought in by the great interests. He succeeded in this object, and in the course of five years he was "denouncing those great interests as monopolies, and destroying them.

" The Roman Catholic Association, the Birmingham Union, the Manchester League, were all the Legitimate offspring of Sir Robert Peel. No minister ever diminished the power of Government in this country, so much as this eminent man. No one ever strained the constitution so much. He was the unconscious parent of political agitation. He literally forced the people out of doors to become, statesmen, and the whole tendency ol his policy was to render our institutions mere forms. In a word, no one, with all his Conversative language, more advanced revolution. In an ordinary period he would have been a perfect Minister, but he was not a Minister for stormy times; he wanted depth and passion and resource for such an occasion.

"After destroying the Tory party in 1846, he fell a-thinking again over the past and the present, as he did after his fall in 1830, and again arrived at a great conclusion. In 1830, he said he would act no longer as a subordinate; in 1846, he said he would act no longer as a partisan. In 1830, he visited his position on the Duke of Wellington ; in 1846, on the political ties of 1841; but if he had been a man of genius he would have guided the Duke of Wellington, and in 1841, would have given a creed to his party, always devoted to him, instead of borrowing their worn-out ideas. " No one knew better than Sir Robert Peel that without party connection Parliamentary Government which he so much admired

would be intolerable; it^nTl^T^ time the weakest and mostcorrunt ? le San,e "» th? worW- In casting this sh , Veriu^nt Sir Robert Peel meant only to T* J*^ combinations of which he had »,- ?''iule *c by which he had risen. Excused 1/ 16'*6 and which he'ought to have wielded f rt pow« of a century, he sat on his <«ilit a « f qnime r volving the past. At 60 he W?^ Ie" heiid his position. The star of M™^ seemed as it were to rise from »■>,„ , ducllester fori, and he felt helha/SSrK 01; career to an obsolete education and » ?• •al system for which he could not Sec Le St** 1 euthanasia. even an " Sir Robert Peel had a very bad ms m«. , which he was sensible ;he was bT ™ *'of shy, but forced early in life "to 7emTnS? tions, he had formed an artificial ll^ haughtily stiff or exuberantly bland, of S generally speaking he could not divest him There were however, occasions when he dW succeed in this, and on these, usually when )! was alone with an individual whom he \ V H i to please, his manner was not only unaffected! cordial but he could even cbarm. When 1 was ridiculed by his opponents in 1841 as onl little adapted for a court, and especially the Court of a Queen, those who knew him well augured different results from his hi<di promo tion, and they were right. But generally speak" ing he was never at his ease, and never very content except in the House of Commons Even there he was not "natural, though there the deficiency was compensated for by his uurivailed facility, which passed current with the vulgar eye for the precious quality for which it was substituted. He had obtained a complete control over his temper, which was by nature somewhat fiery. His disposition was o-ood: there was nothing petty about him; he was very free from rancour; he was not only not vindictive, but partly by temperament, and still more, perhaps, by discipline, he was even mac nanimous.

" For so very clever a man he was deficient in the knowledge of human nature. The prosperous routine of his youth was not favourable to the developement of this faculty. It re never his lot to struggle. Although 40 years in Parliament, it is remarkable that Sir Robert Peel never represented a popular constituency or stood a contested election. As he advanced in life he was always absorbed in thought, and abstraction is not friendly to a perception of character, or to a fine appreciation of the circumstances of the hour. After the general election of 1834-35 a nobleman who was his warm friend, and who had exerted himself very greatly to establish. Peel in power, expressed his regret that the result of the appeal to the country had not been so favourable as they could have wished. In short, the Tories on their own dissolution, were in a minority. Sir Robert, however, did not share the apprehensions of his friend. ' I have confidence in my measures,' said Sir Robert, with an expression of satisfaction. Now to suppose that any measures, had they been arch-angelic, could have influenced the decision of a liberal Parliament that had been rudely dissolved by a Court intrigue, of which, by the bye, Sir Robert Peel was perfectly innocent, and which was panting for vengeance, displayed a confidence m the abstract justice of man which experience does not warrant. The Minister of a court wbicii . had outraged a Parliament and that Minister in a minority, was not exactly the personage w carry measures. As might have been expecten, the House of Commons refused even to put uu Speaker in the chair, in order that accepting the intimation his measures might not even brought forward. i « After the reform in the House of Commons,? Sir Robert Peel was naturally anxious to ais cover who was to be the rival of his lite, ana is noticeable that he was not successful in observations. He never did jusl"*/!? t John Russell until he found Lord John only his rival, but his successful one, and uuy according to bis custom and his nature, ne the present Minister of England v jus No person could be more sensible otthe* import of the events in Canada which occw on his accession to office in 1834 tnano bert Peel. They were the comment great calamities and occasioned nun i v tionate anxiety. It was obvious that . thing depended on the character ot w dual sent out by the metropolis t° c",' fa( ithis emergency. The highest qimhtie- , ministration were demanded. Altei inucfl I

T^TsYr Robert selected the amiable and pohrLord Canterbury. It was entirely his own and it was perhaps the most unfit !|I at could be made. But Sir Robert Peel asociated Lord Canterbury with the awful authos.' 0 f twenty years of the Speaker's chair. That authority had controlled him, and of course he thought it must subdue the Canadians. It was like a grown-up man in the troubles of life going back for advice to his schoolmaster. But perhaps his want of perception of character was never more remarkably illustrated than in the appointment of his Secretaries of the Treasury in the Government of 1834. The party had been managed in opposition by two gentlemen, each distinguished by different but admirable qualities. One was remarkable for the sweetness of his temper, his conciliatory manners, and an obliging habit, which o-ains hearts oftener than the greatest services; he knew every member by name, talked to all sides, and had a quick eye which cau«ht every corner of the House. His colleague was of a different cast; reserved and cold, and a great parliamentary student; very capable of laborious affairs and with the right information always ready for a Minister. Sir Eobert appointed the man of the world Financial Secretary of the Treasury, locked him up iin a room or sealed him to a bench, and intrusted to the student under the usual title of ; Patronage Secretary of the Treasury, the management of the House of Commons—a posi- ; tion which requires consummate knowledge of human nature, the most amiable flexibility, and : complete self control. The Administration did I not last five months ; but enough occurred in 'the interval to induce the Minister to change >on the next occasion the positions of these two \ gentlemen, who then served him as efficiently |as they had before done with fidelity and zeal.

I "As an orator Sir Robert Peel had, perhaps, |the most available talent that has ever been to bear in the House of Commons. IWe have mentioned that both in exposition and lin reply he was equally eminent. His statesmen ts were perspicuous, complete, and dignified; when he combated the objections or criti|cised the propositions of an opponent, he was | adroit and acute; no speaker ever sustained a | process of argumentation in;a public assembly |more lucidly, and none as debaters have united |in so conspicuous a degree, .prudence with I promptness. In the higher efforts of oratory |he was not successful. His vocabulary was pample and never mean ; but it was neither rich prior rare. His speeches will afford no sentiment pnf surpassing grandeur or beauty that will linjfger in the ears of coming generations. He I embalmed no great political truth in immortal £ words. His flights were ponderous ; he soared | with the wing of the vulture rather than the r;plume of an eagle; and his perorations when | most elaborate were most unwieldy. In pathos |he was quite deficient; when he attempted to | touch the tender passions, it was painful. His I face became distorted, like that of a woman I who wants to cry bdt cannot succeed. Orators * certainly should not shed tears, but there are | moments when, as the Italians say, the voice i should weep. The taste of Sir Robert Peel was I b'ghly cultivated, but it was not originally fine ; | he had no wit, but he had a keen sense of the Ridiculous and an abundant vein of genuine | humour. Notwithstanding his artificial rel serve s«e had a hearty and a merry laugh, and | sometimes his mirth was uncontrollable. He i was gifted with an admirable organ ; -perhaps I t»e finest that has been heard in the House of s °p ri| a.vs> unless we except the thrilling tones ;<« 0 Connell. Sir Robert Peel also modulated ms voice with great skill. His enunciation was ,eiy clear, though somewhat marred by provincialisms. His great deficiency was want of na-m-e, which made him often appear even with a Rood cause, more plausible thau persuasive, and more specious than convincing. He may be ? aJ" t0 liave gradually introduced a new style mto the House of Commons which was suited o the age in which he chiefly flourished, and to the novel elements of the assembly which he j>acl to guide. He had to deal with greater deans than his predecessors, and he had in many '"stances to address those wdio were deficient in Fevious knowledge. Something of the lecture, «erefore, entered into his displays. The style may be called the didactic. After his fall, in the autumn of 1846, when in ta Vli sit to orie wno Da(* °pp°se(^ n*s p°ficy ,»t who was his friend, sauntering with his ■L i and sitting on a stile, Sir Robert Peel spoke very fully 0 f the events that had just, oc-

curred. He said then, and was then in the habit of saying, though it was quite a self-illu-sion, that nothing should ever jinduce him to accept power again. And he gave among many interesting reasons for arriving at this conclusion, not only the untimely end of so many of his predecessors, significant of the fatal'trust, but a consciousness on his own part that his debating powers were declining. But this would seem to have been a false judgment. Sir Robert Peel encountered in 1846 an opposition which he had not anticipated and partly carried on in a vein in which he did not excel. To be bearded, sometimes worsted, in that scene where he had long reigned paramount, at the moment galled and mortified him, and he accounted for the success of his opponents by the decay of his own powers. But Sir Robert Peel made some of his most considerable efforts in the great struggle of 1846: and it may be a question whether his very best speeches were not those which he made during the last three years of his life They were more natural than his speeches either as minister or as leader of opposition. There was more earnestness and more heat about them and much, less .of the affectation of plausibility. "It is often mentioned by those political writers who on such a subject communicate to their readers their theories and not their observations of facts, that there was little sympathy between Sir Robert Peel and the great aristocratic party of which he was the leader ; that on the one side there was a reluctant deference, and on the other a guidance without sentiment. But this was quite a mistake. An aristocracy hesitates before it yields its confidence, but it never does so grudgingly. In political connections under such circumstances the social feelingmingles, and the principle of honour which governs gentlemen. Such a following is usually cordial and faithful. An aristocracy is rather apt to exaggerate the qualities and magnify the importance of a plebeian leader. They are prompted to do this both by a natural feeling of self-love and by a sentiment of generosity. Far from any coldness subsisting between Sir Robert Peel and the great houses which had supported him through his long career, there never was a minister who was treated with such nice homage—it may be said with such affectionate devotion. The proudest in the land were proud to be his friends, and he returned the feeling to its full extent and in all its sincerity. " Sir Robert Peel was a very good-looking man. He was tall, and though of latter years he had become portly, had to" the last a comely presence. Thirty years ago, when he was young and lithe, with curling brown hair, he had a very radiant expression of countenance. His brow was very distinguished not so much for its intellectual development, although that was of a very high order, as for its remarkably frank expression, so different from his character in life. The expression of the brow might even be said to amount to beauty. The rest of the features did not, however, sustain this impression. The eye was not good; it was sly, and he had an awkward habit of looking askance. He had the fatal defect of a long upper lip, and his mouth was compressed. " One cannot say of Sir Robert Peel, notwithstanding his unrivalled powers of despatching affairs, that he was the greatest minister that this country ever produced, because, twice placed at the helm, and on the second occasion with the court and the parliament equally devoted to him, he never could maintain himself in power. Nor, notwithstanding his consummate Parliamentary tactics, can he be described as the greatest party leader that ever flourished among us, for he tried to destroy the most compact, powerful, and devoted party that ever followed a British Statesman. Certainly, notwithstanding his great sway in debate, we cannot recognize him as our greatest orator, for in many of the supreme requisites of oratory he was singularly deficient. But what he really was, and what posterity will acknowledge him to have been, is the greatest member of Parliament that ever lived.

"Peace to his ashes! His name will be often oppealed to in that scene wdiich he loved so well, and never without homage, even by his opponents."