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Lyttelton Times, Volume II, Issue 79, 10 July 1852, Page 9

To the Editor of the Lyttelton Times. Sir, —Among: the advertisements in your paper of last week appeared one, calling- a meeting: of persons desirous of establishing- an Institution in Christchurcl), of a purely literary and scientific character, to be called* the Christchurch Athenanim, and at its foot were appended the names of a few of the most respectable inhabitants of the Plains as the active promoters of the object. It is well understood that this institution is intended as an opposition to the Colonists' Society, from which it differs in the one great point "of the exclusion of politics ; and yet most of those gentlemen who have signed their names to this advertisement, were present at the iirst meeting- of the Colonists' Society, and one of them was actually elected to ±111 the oifice of Vice President, which, however, he has since resigned ; while another, who was President of the Land Purchasers' Society, was one of those who most ac-

tively urged the plan of organizing a complete political association of all the inhabitants of the settlement, and yet deserted it in its infancy. I will not stop to enquire what source of reasoning induced that gentleman to alter his views; though it is plain it cannot have been the purely political character the Colonists' Society was at first intended to assume, as he had previously expressed his opinion that a political organization of all classes in the settlement, and, therefore, on a broader basis than the Land Purchasers' Society, was wanting; nor can it have been dislike to the subsequent modifications which have made it bear, in addition, rather the character of a literary and scientific, and, therefore, not purely political society ; for, as we see, he now wishes the formation of an institution totally unpolitical, and opposes his original fancy with all the influence he supposes himself capable of exercising. But I wish to discuss the arguments adduced in favour of the Athenseum as contrasted with the Colonists' Society. The promoters of both, as far as I can understand, dntend giving lectures on subjects calculated to interest and educate their fellow Colonists; but while, on the one side, it is proposed that such subjects should only be discussed and lectured on which do not border on politics, on the other, it is intended that the latter should form one of the chief subjects. Now I can hardly suppose that anybody will say that politics is a matter that the people have nothing to do with, and are better without understanding ; and that they are happier and wiser men because they know nothing of how they are governed, or of the reasoning of the laws they are taught to obey. Surely, when they are called upon to elect representatives to express their opinions, they ought to know what their opinions are, and why they are led to form j them ; else how can they tell whether the men they elect will represent what they think or not! But we are told that the consideration of politics unsettles a man's mind, makes him discontented, and breeds disputes and quarrels. Now as to the first objection that it unsettles a man's mind, and makes him discontented, I confess I do not see the force of it. You might just as well say that Beligion ought never to be taught, because when it awakens a man's mind to a sense of his ignorance and sin, it unsettles him and makes him discontented with his former life. What is much more likely to make him discontented is total ignorance of the why or the wherefore the laws which govern him are passed, and the undefined notion he-has of what the constitution he lives under does for him As to the consideration of politics leading to' quarres and disputes, I would adopt the answer of Mr- Godley in his admirabl/address to the Lyttelton Colonists' Society, and say granted, but I would prefer the chance of the quarrels and disputes which we are threatened with, but which I confess I do not fear, to the total avoidance of the subject. If all matters on which we poor erring mortals differ were to be avoided, we had better close all our scientific and literary societies at once, and leave the discussum of all subjects to those who are all of one opinion, though I am not sure that even then they would not quarrel, as the gentlemen of the Athensmm are likely to do as to who shall be their leader But another, and, as I understand the chief objection is, that the Colonists' Society, with few exceptions, is composed chiefly of the people and working classes, and thevl fore, as I have heard in Christchurch, takes a democrat* and republican, or Charti tendency. Now for the sake of argument I wdl grant this, and say that it is Sjally composed of the working classes and^eXj that there are very few of what is termed the higher classes who have anything to di^th it and that the majority of the committee! c not ChShn S\ ngl\ a Standi"S inth* s°eieJ ? of Afl,2f a^J ef Clemen who promote the Atnenseum. J3 ut I Wou ] d a k } . , Because many o f the gentlemen who were ai the first promoters of it, deserted it at the outset, and never coming near it, have what so many seem to dread" the effect of tlm,w n i more than it otherwise would have been Tnto i fil T* I til G Pe °ple- If these gentlemen had stood by the society as they undoubted?) ought to have done, having count" a ced7t at the first meeting, they wo°uld natum U have become the leaders, and the objection they now Bjake to the Society would have had no weM* 1 lie uneducated will always be led by the edujated no mutter under what circumstances, and that the working classes of the Plains, the Republicans and Chartists of Mr. Brittan's and

others' imagination, prefer the guidance of a gentleman they have confidence in to that of one of themselves, they have not confidence in, is evinced by the fact that while Mr. Tancred had some six and thirty votes, Mr. Rae, (whose speech at the first meeting first gave the alarm to the staunch Tories and Conservatives who think it their duty as Christians, &c, to support the measures of an obnoxious and unconstitutional government,) had only about six. It is a fact which cannot be denied that the masses, as they are called, are everywhere taking much more share in Government than they formerly did. Wherever we turn we see the people taking a prominent share in all political changes. In England the suffrage is beinoextended, and it is more than likely that in whatever Constitution we may have sent to us, the people will be called to take a very leading part. We must also, incoming out here, be ready to give up many of the exclusive notions that we have been bred up in, in England. The Aristocracy of talent takes the place of the Aristocracy of birth, if it is not properly supported by other qualities. Men who interest themselves in the people, in their affairs, and in their education, are those that obtain their confidence, and will be elected by them as their representatives, and not those who hold themselves aloof from a useful work, because an unshaven face and dirty hands are their next door neighbours. Let us then, while we have yet time, join hand in hand, I will not say m educating the people, but, in educating ourselves, in educating each other; and that, not only in literary and scientific subjects, but also in that which every man, woman, and boy ought at least to know something of, the government of their country; so that when the time comes when we shall be called upon to take a real, and not an imaginary, share in the aflairs which most concern us, i. c. the way we are governed, we may at least know that we have not been, idle, and may not have to reproach ourselves, when too late, with having ne<*ected precautionary measures which mio-ht have saved us much self-reproach and heartburning afterwards. I remain, Sir, Your obedient servant, July 6th, 1852.