The Manawatu Times WEDNESDAY; OCTOBER 16, 1878.

Manawatu Times, Volume III, Issue 106, 16 October 1878, Page 2

The Manawatu Times WEDNESDAY; OCTOBER 16, 1878.

These are few colonists but have been made acquainted through the columns of the Press with the name of James Gobdon Stuabt Grant : a name highsounding m itself, but borne by a man who has done more to blacken the fair fame of this colony, than the efforts *of any dozen of paid immigration lecturers could succeed m nullifying. With hini it was a labor of lore, and he entered upon his task with heart and spirit, following it up with determination, energy, and perseverance. Possessed of undoubted ability, with education suffi. cierit to make him dangerous, contempt for a too punctilious regard for trtitb, and an insane love for notoriety, Mr. GfiAjfT, during the last quarter of a century, has devoted his pun and power to vilifying and defaming all things, persons, and institutions colonial; From being the First Rector of the High School, Dunedin ; a member of the Provincial Council of Otago, he has become a blatant, brawling, and not by any means truthful demagogue. He has Dccii imprisoned for his contumacy, he has been lashed both m the streets and m the Press, and hitherto he has always come up smiling. He has boasted that he was a Spartan m courage and a Stoic m his fortitude, and he has stuck to his colors with a tenacity worthy of a batter cause. James Gordon Benkett of the " New York Herald " was accustomed to boast that he was the best kicked man m all America. That he could tell blindfolded when the operator performed the pedal process wearing a square or round-toed boot, whether it was pegged or sewed; blucher or Wellington ; laced, or. elastic. Jakes Gqbi»p« Gbant may not have Tiad the varied experience of his American prototype, but even he himself will admit that he has had his share of monkey's allowance. Hitherto he has plumed himself upon the malignity and persistency of the attacks made upon him, but a "change has come o'er the -spirit pf ;bis' dream," and he now purposes fleeing from the scene of his slow: martyrdom. He hag written to the Dunedin " Star " to announce I his intention, and evidently writes | more m sorrow than m anger. These are his valedictory remarks :— " Nothing can touch me much further. 1 have no congenial home and no real happiness. In place of being— -where I ought long ago to have been— in the highest position of influence and affluence, I am now literally, levelled by the hand of Providence m the dust, the sunshine of my personal felicity clouded and a living corpse suspended before my imagination. Sir, ..'• it was the boast of the Stoic, philosophy to make man unshaken by calamity, and unelated by success'; incorruptible by pleasure, and invulnerable to paiys.' Well, as the English sage happily said, 'These aye heights of wisdom to which none ever attained, and to which few can aspire.' Whatever Reno, Chrysippus, and the masters of ancient wisdom may say on this point, ther.e are calamities potent enough to level 'the strongest man m the dust, and to draw rivers of waters from the eyes. Christianity does not condemn: such grief j on the contrary its founder on more than one ocoasion wept and gave way. to grief. A man can bear the storms of fa t# and the persecutions of the world so long as he has a happy home to shield him from the :blasts ;of * outrageous . fortune 'v and \ from the malice of unreasonable men . An. Englishman's home is his castle, jOf this, vias of everj^ othet possession, 1 hav£ ? oeeiif ; mysteriously The plot has worked admirably. If not yet;driven from Duiiiediti^my life has been embittered. : ir l hive drained the cuj » of sorrow to ifcb.e very dregs. I had been lone ago m my £ raye > were I composed of, the 'ordinary mould pf^fraijti''' To those who^did riot know -this itroculent dernrtgbgue/ and reckless, an dlinveracious .; Jibclierof the Colony, ifche'al|oye nianifesto would appear to ,be written by a. sebond AbW' tides . j;fi« Just -bef oi'e' ; going ;out into bamshm^irt/,,. There is ..»-•:• snivelling, whining cant all through^ which sits with^d grace^upbhtlio shoulilers of the fiery, turbulent Mr^ Goisno.N GtBANTt, and we fear there is just 'as^u^^ -truth m the% j^hounceinent; of hia 'intended depar||re, as' there ism tK(| maniier of making^'it ; knpwn^ He^ : |i^sr courted notoriety, he h^s wdrked for it, and he hasjMfon. it i but, it is a^^ notoriety snoh as^jfew men jrojijd care^ t t6 ipherit. ( His parae is,-identifled not '; with' lenHeayors to promote the progreß s of the Colony, but as r the^ 'forger and -of the blackest calumnies aga^rist.ife"} not a«s a lierald : bf its future greatness or'pfc»BoJit capacity fpr' the newicpmeri. but as a Cassandba^— prophesying ruin '.;anfl desolation, pollution' and •*■ mi scry, to all "?whb visit these shores: Mr Jambs Gobdox Stdabt has, dui-.ng tiie •■ p*st twenty-lhree years, to. tb> very best of his ability acted as a mill-stone xo%M

the neck of : the Colony; he has repeatedlythreatened to leave a land so cursed and a people so degraded, but although he^has received many broad hints that it would be acceptable, he has hitherto refrained from doing so. If fKere be any truth m his lachrymose epistle, his once proud .spirit has fled, tiis iron w!U is broken, and he is ill prepared to bear the scoffs and scorns, the blows and revilings which have been his lot m the past. If any particle of reliance can be placed m the words of such a man, he is about to leave us, and tear himself away from his selfimposed crusade. We are afraid the news is too good to be true ; but if it be so, then we say with all our hearts "Amen," for it is a consummation devoutly to be wished.