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Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XI, Issue 232, 21 September 1876, Page 4

The Spectator of June 24, contains an eloquently written notice of Dr Featherston, from whicli we quote the following: — " A man with a singular faculty for silence, combined with such and so much action aa to win the deeper coutidetjc. both of barbarians aud of civilised men, was Dr FeatherstoD. He was educated as a physician, and had to the last more than the physician's characteristic belief in remedies. He watched the progress of his own fatal illness wiih a sort of stoical lucidity and reticence which was most characteristic of the maD, now and then dropping a hint which was soon verified, but ueither impatient of tbe result, nor dismayed at what he foresaw. We ouly mention this because it was characteristic of his political career. He had both the strength und the weakness of the brooding nature, — the strength, because, whiie yet hiß vital energies were great, it gave him the power of waiting to speak tili he knew his own tniuii, aud the clearness of conviction when he did speak, which men who form hae'y opinions, and of course soon change them, cannot bave, — the weakness, because whenever his confidence in himself at all failed, his tetnptutiou was to think it hardly worth while, even when his mind was made up, io bre.k the silence which he knew to would he so difficult lo break with good effect."

Miss VViiliatas, professionally known as Little Nell, or the Califoruian Diamond, has been advertising the Otago Guardian, and the Guardian has been advetttsing Miss Williams by engaging in a discus-ion, curried on from the stage ou one side, aud in ihe columns of ihe paper ou the other. What the criticism was which roused Little Nell's wrath, we have not noticed, but it appears to have been sufficiently pointed to have induced the management to pei mit Little Nell to come uefoie the curtain ufl.r the first act of a play, aud to ciitieiso the critic in terms more plain than polite. She begun at once by referring to the ..■ruicLuiasa premeditated aud cowardly attack. She said she was in a position io prove that persous on the staff of the Guardian hud threatened to make it hot lor her. Thou Bhe became biographical. Siuce she was five years old she had beeu performing ou the stage, and she theretoie claimed to have some knowledge of her profession, lu the United States her perionnauces had beeu favorably criticised by educated geutleaieu, who had had more years' connection with tho Press than i.he mun who wrote the attack on her had lived. The Guardian had copied into its columns some uufavorabie notices she hud received in Melbourne, but it had not, said that llios_ notices were written by a gentleman whose atqu'iiutauce aud soctnl attentions she had declined. Drawing her remarks to a conclusion, Miss Williams said: — "If L had been a man, this cowardly and .slanderous attack would never have '•ecu written for fear of pergonal chastisement; but being only a weak defenceless girl, this penny-a-liner has felt himsalf saf'o lo write of me as he ha3 dune. He i B n cur and a coward, and I only hopa he is presontthis evening to hear my opinion of him." At the conclusion ot Little Nell's speech there was considerable applause from