The Nelson Evening Mail. FRIDAY, JUNE 7, 1867.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume II, Issue 131, 7 June 1867, Page 2

The Nelson Evening Mail. FRIDAY, JUNE 7, 1867.

Our unfortunate contemporary, the Colonist, has, we grieve to say, suffered a relapse.' For some time past sanguine hopes had been entertained by its best friends that the chronic tendency to acerbity and personality which had ever and anon exhibited itself in such varied and aggravated forms, had submitted to- a course, which had been found very effective in similar cases, and which, for the general information of our readers, we may state consisted in the joint action of a withdrawal of public favor and a manifestation Of popular disgust, aided, on two or three occasions, by a judicious administration of the law of libel, when the symptoms of the unhappy patient had assumed a more than ordinarily violent form. These flattering hopes — and we say it with tbe most sincere sympathy and regret-are evidently doomed to be disappointed. At the same time we may remark that it requires no very critical diagnosis to account for theacute state of morbid despondency under which our illfated contemporary is now laboring. Most of us will remember those bright halcyon days when the Colonist indulged in reveries of future dignity and influence as the recognised organ of the Government — hopes, alas, so fondly cherished, so rudely blighted in the bud ! — and when article followed article in its columns, all devoted to the most fulsome and unscrupulous laudation of its whilom patron, the crafty and treacherous Stafford. We can therefore regard with unfeigned pity the painful necessity, which, in compliance with the stern and inexorable requirement^of *poetic justice, and in deference to the dictates of public opinion, has compelled the . Cohnist to ''turn round and bespatter the _ very idol on which such gorgeous aspirations had'iolice beisn fondly based. This sad

verse, acting upon . a system constitutionally morbid and excitable, and still further irritated by repeated vicissitudes, has naturally operated most powerfully and injuriously upou our contemporary's organisation. We can easily understand the sensations experienced by Peter Schemyl, the Shadowless Man, when he found himself bereft of tbe appendage which had adhered so faithfully to his person from the hour ofhis birth, and we can as easily realise the present feelings j ofthe Colonist, the late representative of a party whose every act was dictated by self-interest and aggrandizement, aud which has now no following, and is rapidly vanishing into thin air under the genial influence of a more liberal and intelligent regime. Like the last rose of summer, Left blooming alone ; All its lovely companions Are faded and gone, and the sad results of this desertion we have already communicated to our readers. The latest result of this unhealthy idiosyncrasy may be found in a leading article which appeared in tbe Colonist this morning, and whicb, starting from a very flimsy attempt to cover by tbe most transparent equivocation a mischievous statement, which it had inserted in its columns, obviously for the purpose of throwing imputations upon the policy of the present Provincial Government, in reference to the management of the West Coast Gold-fields, diverges into an enquiry into the antecedents and doings of Mr. Samuel Symms, interspersed with an amusing assumption of superior forethought aud sagacity, and ending with a miniature sermon which might have figured in the pages of Blair or — Dr. Syntax. With that delicious air of injured innocence, which the Colonist occasionally assumes, it commences its attack of this morning upon this journal by professing a sincere desire to repress " dishonest and groundless assertions." This, let us observe, comes with singular grace from our unscrupulous contemporary, and shows that at least some locus penitential is occasionally discovered even for the most hardened sinners. It then proceeds, after its ordinary custom, to make a retractation, or semi-apology for the objectionable statement, and then concludes by reproducing it in all its pristine mendacity. "The error," the Colonist is glad to know, has . been remedied, and Mr. Kynnersley's resignation has been withdrawn ; but such tender was made after there nad been, by a high official, an expression of opinion unfavorable to Mr. Kynnersley's estimates, an opinion which has been spoken of, and dissented from, by some of the Executive out of doors." It is seldom that we have met with one short sentence so pregnant with untruth. As a matter of fact, we have every reason to justify us in the belief that Mr. Kynnersley's' resignation has not been withdrawn officially, at ali events, but that it is considered to be held in abeyance, pending the present unsatisfactory state of his health, that it was never proposed to restrict Mr. Kynnersley's powers at all ; tbat every desire has been shown by the Government to carry out his policy, and to assist him in his arduous responsibilities, and that no disagreement of any kind whatever has occurred between the Superintendent — doubtless the "high official" alluded to — and the Commissioner. The Colonist must forgive us if we . characterise as a pure invention the statement that a subject which the Executive had never definitively, approached, had " been spoken of and dissented from by some of the Executive out of doors." We really cannot bring ourselves to believe that any member of the present Executive would be so unwise and so forgetful

of his duty to his colleagues in office as to be guilty of such a breach of confidence. And yet the Colonist accuses us of listening with too greedy ear to the representations of gobemouckes and impostors, apparently unconscious of the fact — let us put it as charitably as possible — that it had itself been made the victim of misrepresentation ! Verily, " mutato nomine, de te Fabula narratur." The Colonist evidently desires to shirk any] further allusion to this subject, and we can quite comprehend tbe motives for such delicacy. Itis easy to understand also, with what a piquant sense of enjoyment it must have returned to its more congenial occupation of attempting to "break a butterfly upon a wheel," or in other words, impaling its contemporaries and Mr. Samuel Symms upon the same gibbet. Our present space will not permit us to notice this portion of its remarks as fully as we could wish. With that omniscience which the Colonist continually arrogates to itself, it assumes that tbe Evening Mail was cognizant of certain of Mr. Symms's antecedents, aud in one sense it is perfectly coirect, insomuch that the opinion of that, individual, as regards mining matters, was entitled to favorable consideration. We would call to the remembrance of our contemporary that this same Mr. Symms did predict to the Nelson Government, two years before the realisation of the prophecy, that gold would be found in the Valley of the Pelorus (a statement which was also discredited at the time), and that this letter is still preserved in the Government archives. Knowing, too, that he had been one ofthe earliest explorers of the West Coast, it was not too much to expect that he was a skilled and truthful authority, to whose representations credit might safely be given. If we have been mistaken in our estimate, we have erred in company with many others. With reference to Mr. Symms's private delinquencies we can have nothing whatever to say, and the attempt to show that this journal had purposely attempted to falsify its police reports, is altogether worthy of our unscrupulous contemporary. It is a most unprofitable task to listen, day after day, to the dismal chronicles of the Police Court, to the oft repeated tale of drunkenness at night and repentance in tbe morning, and we believe that our readers would hardly thank us for retailing them in our columns. It is therefore possible that some mistake may arise, once in a way, in copying the names of the various delinquents, as appears to have been the case in the present instance. We do not constitute ourselves the apologists of Mr. Symms, but in common justice we must remark that so far from "inducing a credulous writer to believe that he had found gold in the granite from Adele Island," he distinctly stated in the letter, describing that island, which appeared in this journal, his belief that no gold would ever be found upon it. The particle of gold discovered in the specimen of con-; glomerate submitted to many competent judges in this city (and since proved to, be very thickly impregnated with the precious metals), was accidentally detected; by Mr. Grant, aud, we believe, was neveii even seen by Mr. Symms. Our contemporary, in very sanctimonious fashion, desires to " improve " the occasion, and consequently impresses upon his readers that a salutary lesson is derivable from tbe over-coufidence to which we and others have been made, as he would have them believe, the victims. We, for once, will copy this example, and remind him that no mean passions should be allowed to warp the judgmertf; of the journalist — that personal pique, or jealousy, or hatred, sbould never be permitted to guide and .influence his pen, of whose chivalrous honour, indeed, he j

should be as careful as the judge on the bench is of the stainless purity of hi 3 ermine— that his teachings, in short sbould be accurate and trustworthy, and wholly untainted by personal motives and unworthy prejudices— that, in fine, he should hold in utter abhorrence one, .who, to quote the words of Charles Mackay Will twist, misquote, and utterly pervert Thy thoughts and words, and hug himself, meanwhile, In the delusion— pleasant to his soul— That thou art crushed, and he a gentleman.