Correspondence.

Lyttelton Times, Volume VIII, Issue 526, 18 November 1857, Page 5

Correspondence.

To the Editor of the ' Lyttelton Time*.'

Sir, —The bustle of a general election, has prevented me from replying at an earlier period to the last letter of your correspondent, Mr. C. A. Marsack. If we are to receive the effusions which have emanated from that gentleman as so many proofs of his zeal in the cause of Divine truth and the universal happiness of mankind, he certainly deserves great credit for his perseverance; but, sir, it sometimes happens that the most ardent champion is not the best friend of the cause he advocates ; on the contrary, the blindness of his zeal injures that which he presumes to defend. Mr. Marsack's letters are a vivid example of the case in point. Destitute of argument and void of grace, they^ are mere personal attacks on the friends of dramatic literature, and on the drama itself; or

SbitTnTf 68 ag.ah?st popular amusements; exiubiting a most lamentable ignorance of iS wMd? °? ly T alk- d b * thf P-Scity with which he clings to opinions long since exa din has denouncedVe d?aSa but ,3? . 31ng and sllbve™™ of industry; SL f ¥ Can Prove that all the imraora characters whom he has known or heard of in connection with the drama would not have been equally so Wlthout it> his asserfcion f nothing; and as for its being the promoter of theatre—so they do the church; but the industrious man will not be seduced from his legitimate pursuits by so light a temptation. ° 1 have been induced to make this reply to your correspondent, because I was, I believe, the hrst man 111 the settlement who publicly advocated dramatic entertainments {vide a letter of mine published in the • Lyttelton Times' in March, 1852). Since that time I haveTade every effort m my power to awaken and cultivate a taste for poetical and dramatic literature amongst my fellow working men ; and having both by precept and example, publicly shew°u myselt the friend of theatrical entertainments, 1 feel bound in self-defence to repudiate the charges of your correspondent. _ " Dramatic performances," says a high authority, " are means of bringing the mass of people into a quicker sympathy with a writer of genius, to a profounder comprehension of his grand, beautiful, touching conceptions, than can be effected by the reading of the closets. No commentary throws such a light on a great poem, or any impassionate work of literature, us the voice of a reader or speaker who brings to the task a deep feeling of his author and rich and various powers of expression. A crowd, electrified by a sublime thought, or softened into a humanising sorrow under such a thought, partake a pleasure at once exquisite and refined; and I cannot but believe that this and other amusements at which the delicacy of women and the purity of Christians can take no offence are to grow up under a higher social culture. Let me only add, that, in proportion as culture spreads among the people, the cheapest and commonest of all pleasures—conversation—increases in delight. This, after all, is the greatest amusement in life; cheering us round our hearths, often cheering our work; stirring our hearts gently, acting on us like the balmy air, or the bright light of heaven, so silently and continually that we hardly think of its influence. This source of happiness is too often lost to men of all classes from want of knowledge, mental activity and refinement of feeling; and do we defraud the labourer of his pleasure by recommending to him improvements which will place the daily, hourly bless-" ings of conversation within his reach ?"

Sir, I have been tempted to exceed the usual bounds of my correspondence; but at an early period of my life my lot was cast amongst those whose daily labour supplied (as far as it might) their daily wants, and I have always felt it my duty to defend the rights and interests of the class to which I belong, to the best of that poor talent which God has bestowed— I cannot bury it in a napkin. Does Mr. Marsack know anything of the wants, the habits of the uneducated working man ? Does he wish to reduce him to the position of the horse in a mill—to work that he may eat, and to eat that he may work, in the same monotonous round of toil ?

I cannot help looking with a jealous eye on the man who seeks to deprive, the working classes of intellectual pleasures. The high thoughts which flow from the pens of our heaven-inspired poets can only reach the uneducated through the medium of the stage ; and it is only when the public taste is depraved that anything like immorality will be tolerated on it."

I will not trouble you with any reply to Mr. Marsack's observations on the People's Band performing in London, as my letter is already somewhat lengthy; but in conclusion I would beg to ask if Mr. Marsack's call on all true Christians to be up and doing bears any analogy to the words of the Duke of Wellington—" Up, Guards, and at 'em "? Or does he contemplate a-crusade against the armies of Belial, with the sword in one hand and the Bible in the other ? If so, it is also necessaiy for every friend of religious- liberty and truth'to be on his guard ; for, of all the cant that has afflicted this world, the cant of bigotry is the worst. -

CHARLES J. RAE, Claverton Cottage, Nov. 9th, 1857.

To the Editor of the ' Lyttelton Times'

Sir, —May I ask through the medium of your paper if the people of this settlement have any remedy against a public officer, appointed by the General Government, who causes them a very great deal of annoyance, loss of time, and even (I may say) money, through neglect of duty? My reason for asking this question is the very negligent and inefficient manner in which the general spostal [arrangements in this town are canied out.

English letters and newspapers are continually being detained in the post-office, simply because Mr. Howard does not choose to take the trouble to look for them when applied for. I have been served this way two or three times, and I am not the only one who has reason to complain. To my own knowledge, two instances of the kind occurred with the last mail by the Canterbury: in both cases the letters and papers have only just come to hand, although applied for several days ago. The hours of business at the post-office are sufficiently short to enable the Postmaster to do that little well.

The consequences of neglect in this department are not easily to be estimated; it is there-

fore high time that we had -a man at the head of that department who could and would do the duty in a proper manner.

CENSORIOUS, Lyttelton, Nov. 11, 1857.