The Nelson Evening Mail. MONDAY, AUGUST 15, 1870.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume V, Issue 191, 15 August 1870, Page 2

The Nelson Evening Mail. MONDAY, AUGUST 15, 1870.

■ The relations between the mother country > and this colony have formed the subject ( of a most able and animated debate in the House of Representatives, a debate which was introduced by Mr M'Gillivray who, ' in order to bring the matter under discussion, proposed the following resolution : — "That this House is of opinion that the Imperial Government has failed in its duty to the Colony." We may premise that after a full discussion, the matter was allowed- to drop, the House being of opinion that the object of the mover would be fully attained by an expression of the views of the members, aud that it was scarcely desirable to pass any resolutions which must either take the shape of the exceedingly unsatisfactory ones adopted by the Legislative Council, or be of a nature which could, not fail to produce further ill-feeling between England and New Zealand. Such of the members as spoke, however, were almost unanimous in their condemnation of the conduct of the Imperial Government, and instances were adduced to show that thati conduct was of a peculiarly offensive! character towards this colony, in that a I speciil exception had been made iu the manner in which we have been treated by the Home authorities — in other words, it has been found that it does not pay to assist New Zealaud, and that no kudos is to be obtained in fightiug a few savages in this extreme quarter of the world, and! therefore those who have settled here under the fancied protection of the British flag are to be left to fight their own battles, aud to get out of the scrape in which they have been involved by the Imperial policy in the best way they can. The Home Government in fact is perfectly willing to wash its hands of us entirely, but for very shame's sake it dares not do so in a determined and straightforward maimer, and there-) , fore wishes to throw upon the colony the' whole responsibility of secession should it think fit to take so extreme a step. As the mover of the resulution said, "If Lord Granville's policy means anything practical, it means this — the sooner the colouies take leave of the mother country! the better, His statement simply amounted: to this: we cannot decently tell these! colonists to shift for themselves, nor can we decorously tell them that they may separate themselves from the British Empire, but we can by other means let them know that they are at perfect liberty to withdraw from their allegiance to the ! British Crown. * * * * I have uo doubt that the British people winced under the enormous expenditure of the Abyssinian expedition, and the British Ministry, wishing to show what excellent retrenchers they can be, have adopted this hunger - bitten economy towards New Zealand and the other colonies." But we cannot bring ourselves to believe that the action taken by Lord Granville is such as will be endorsed by the British public. In the minds of the New Zealand colonists there still remains a certain amount of sentiment, notwithstanding all the harsh treatment they have received at the hands of the parent country. They are still proud of the name of Englishman, and they glory in their birthright, of which they will not suffer themselves to be deprived unless they are fairly driven to so unwelcome an alternative. And if such a feeling exists in the colony, as we feel sure it does, we cannot but believe that a corresponding sentiment obtains at home. I It is an Englishman's proud boast that he . is one of a nation on whose possessions the sun never sets, that from that little spot which represents on the map the British isles there has gone forth throughout the whole world a people which has made for itself homes in every portion of the globe, that, go where he may, north, south, east, or west, he will find his country's flag flying, and an offshoot of the

race to which he belongs settling down and populating the country in the face of difficulties the most serious, and it is not to be readily believed that he will, at the bidding of Lord Granville, allow this magnificent empire to be dismembered and broken up. The Colonial Treasurer in his speech on this subject quoted the following eloquent passage from Burke's "Reflections on the French Revolution," "But the age of chivalry is gone. That of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded, and the glory of Europe is extinguished for ever. Never, never more, shall we behold that generous loyalty to rauk and sex, that proud subordination of the heart, which kept alive, even in servitude itself, the spirit of an exalted freedom. The unbought grace of life, the cheap defence of nations, the nurse of manly sentiment and heroic enterprise is gone ! It is gone, that sensibility of principle, that chastity of honor, which felt a stain like a wound, which inspired courage whilst it mitigated ferocity, which ennobled whatever it touched, and under which vice itself lost half its evil, by losing all its greatness." There is much in the above passage which is applicable to the English Ministry as at present constituted, but we cauuot accept it as descriptive of the feelings of the nation at large. "We cling to the belief that economy is not the ruling power of the day, to the sacrifice of all sentiments of a higher and nobler nature, but we venture to assert that "that dignified obedience" to which allusion is made will be fouud wanting in the breasts of the Euglish people if they are invited to commit so suicidal an act as to denude the empire of its colonial possessions, or if they are asked to desert a young and promising offshoot of the parent stock in its hour of need.