The New-Zealander. SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 26,1848.

New Zealander, Volume 3, Issue 182, 26 February 1848, Page 2

The New-Zealander. SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 18 4 8 .

He )iist ami Ic.ir not,: Let. all (lie onds tlion auus'l at, be tliy Country's, Thy (Jons, and Tiuth's.

"lie shall l>c Hayed alive ; then 'noiiiletl over with honey, set «»> the head of a wasp's nest ; then stand (ill ho 1k v tliu'o qiuiteis and a diani dead ; llien \eeovuied n»am with aquavit*, 01 some olhci hot iiiitision ; then, law :is he is, and in the hottest day pioguostication pioi'liiims, shall he bo set against .1 hi ick wall, the sun looking will) a nonthwaid eye upon liim, wheiu lie is, to behold him with flies blown to death." WiN'i mi's Tali:. " Opposition" (we personify it throughout, to steer clear of personality) should take a leaf out of Autolycus's book ; there is much profit (o be derived there f »om. For in what did the real refinement of the punishment devised by this most ingenious of .or mentors consist 5 Was it not in the recovery, " by aqua vita), or some other hot infusion ;'* in the restoration of a blunted sensi- ; bility, lest the victim should become too soon calloiia to the torture. That was a master-stroke of ait, which " Opposition" has yet to learn. We believe that it has not gone the right way to work to make the best of its own position, or toward tho best fuit lterance of its own peculiar views. It never knows when to leave oil', or to grant a respite from infliction ; in its incessant rain of blows, it goes beyond the limits of fair play ; for it is un-Knglisli f « strike a man when he is down, although it is perfect'y lawful to pick, him up, and then to knock him over again as often as you please. It has not yet learned "the right trick of fence; "it commits faulls which we, who fight under other colours, are not displeased to see, and which we certainly would not point out but for the full conviction that they will never be amended. We believe that " Opposition" hits too furiously ; bo much at random that nearly every thrust is parried. It rushes with shut eyes, as was lately observed, like the Andalusian bull, and may be met with as little danger. For Tauromachy, or the art of battling with bulls, might be reduced to a system in New Zealand, as securely as it has aheady been in Spain. The principles upon which it is based are these: — " that the bull butts without seeing the object against winch he strikes; that ho vents his rnge on the cloak of the chulo, the flag of tUe matador, or the horse of the J picador; and that when lie feels the barbed darts of the haudcrillcros in his neck, he halts, I and thinks not of pursuing his assailant.'' Verbum sapicntibus ; they that have understanding will make good the whole parallel, line by line* It must be confessed, that our Auckland " Opposition 1 ' is fearfully heavy-handed. — " Its labour" j Mars what it does ; yen, very foice entangles Itself with strength." Even where it only means to tickle, it "fillips with a tin cc man beetle." It opens oyster \ with daggers, and goes to market to buy an ] axe to bieak an egg. It is Achilles and the j elephant Ajax over again, who "could not in ' circumvention deliver a fly from a spider, without diawing thur massy irons, and cutting the web," It overcharges wi'h powder, thereby causing the shot to scatter '• equal measure of each is thought to be the moic killing charge. It has held a good hand, but has played its trump cards lashly ; discovering Us game at once, in open defiance of iloyle and Major A. We therefore venture, wilh all befitting modesty, to give some counsel — which, it must be confessed, would be much more charily offered were it not safe to he refused — a few slight hints, stratagems, and devices which are useless to ourselves, but might be turned lo \ good account on the other side of the <juestion. The first object of a true patriot should be "to realise political capital." By political capital is signified, the esta blishmcntof a reputation ' ( >r candour, for moderation, for disinterested motives, and purity of purpose. To the speedy acquirement of I which, a good personal grievance (Church rate martyrdom is the most effective in lingland, but here we must be content with tyranny and oppression) is powerfully conducive, although not of strict necessity. A sufficiency of such stock in trade having been accumulated, the next should be, to avoid extravagant expenditure of it. Resources must be husbanded with care. And what, can be more wasteful than to burst into eloquent remonstrance about things indifferent ; to wax " hot in a cold cause," or to be wroth about trifling oversights and atomic errors of .state. We have heard of a dog that barked at a thief in the candle. He may have been valuable as a curiosity, but few would choose so ovei-scru-pulous a guardian to watch the house. In choice of subject, our patriot cannot be too nice. Let him bide his time ; chances will turn up — plenty of them, and soon enough : but it is greediness to take the first that comes. The fox hound that opens upon every trail, that will hunt anything, from an ant to an elephant, runs some risk of being hanced for his pains.

is the style of going to woik, ns much a3 the woik actually done, that now commands attention. Style is every tiling ; .style is now what action was — the first, second, and thud requisite for oratorical display. The linjQ is past for infU minatory eloquence ; for red hot explosions of patriotic wr.itli, Quousqwc landfui C.italinarians have lost their (oree — arc mere blank cartridge — Bru* turn fuimen. Even virtuous indignation, once the prettiest of all known figures of speech, will no longer avail. It has been worn out, used up many a long day since; its tattered shreds abandoned to third rate actors on the political stage. Lr, petit coup de langue— the innuendo, the bye blow, the caielcss, passing hit, will tell as heavily again. He should affect to speak or write " more in sorrow than in auger," The subdued an<l quiet tone is always more influential : there is an air of good breeding about it that is irresistibly enticing. And though he may suffer lumsolf to be roused from time to time, to be goaded to desperation by a sense of insufferable wrong; let it be done with caution,^aucl watchful observation of effect. The secret ol effect, is contrast* The chiaroscuro, or management of light and shade, must he attended to in politics as in painting; piano's and forte's must be observed, for patriotic agitation, as for musical emotion ; ceaseless indignation soon becomes as ineffective 1 as the outrageous noise that ill co iductcd orchestras so invariably indulge in. Blowing of horns straight, setting fiddle string! on lire, sawing double bases in half, and bursting of drums, may startle for a moment, but soon palh upon the ear, and becomes insupportably monotonous. The proper handling of " facts" — those thews and sinews of rhetoric— will next come under consideration. The first object is to give them the colour of truthfulness — to relate them so as to ensure belief. Simple narrative has become of uncertain force : men are too wary now to swallow downright assertions. It has become necessary to prepare them ; to wile the readers or the lihteneis into a mood of unsuspecting belief. There are two fashion of gaining credence. The one tells its story with finished exactitude and circumstantiality of detail, throwing in occasionally some of those Daniel Defoe touches that are so charmingly piirsuasivc — ■ that cureless mention of accessory trifles — so artless and unstudied — which would never have been thought of had they not been true. For the service of an immediate purpose, this style of telling a tale is not without its advantages. It may serve, like a match or fuse, to lire a mine, or burst a shell ~after the fragments of which no inquiry is likely to be made ; the mischief is done, and there is an end of it. But we cannot recommend its systematic adoption. It requires too much ingenuity and painful attention ; it braves the risk ol being trust by a point blank denial unless, indeed, the fact should l>y any chance be true— aud, at the very best, painfully commits the narrator for a future day. The safer mode of dealing with facts is in principle directly opposite. It lulls little but creates '• impressions." JKxtreme vagueness is substituted for extreme appaient accuracy. The half is told instead of the whole— the imagination is appealed to ; mystery, which, like a fog, magnifies every object seen through it, contubutes its unfailing aid. " And Solomon left all the vessels unweighed, because they were exceeding heavy, neither was the weight of the brass found out," The wisest of kings well knew that a doubtful estimate must gain in the telling ; that he would be unlucky, if common fame contented itself with only a four fold increase. Let it only be taken for granted that a " fact,' is well known to all — that a bare allusion to it suffices; let the universal knowledge of leaders and listeners be only assumed, and few of them will confess to ignorance. Bnt we have dealt too long in general maxims, concerning which we might write till doomsday and be never the better heeded,— But what if we were to offer a hint of more special and local application—of immediately practical eflect. Shall we tell '• Opposition" what it should have done long since : what we ourselves would have attempted but for a latent fear of too complete success. It should at once have fastened upon the despatches, tooth and nail ; it should have staked all against the despatches, and taken its chance to throw deuce a<e, or to sweep the board. It should have sifted each of them, line by line, and word by word ; each in turn' should have boen separately referred to whoever might be best able — fiom his own peculiar sources of information — from local knowledge or co-partnership in action — to confute or verify the statement contained therein ; the comments should have been filed, and a complete Liber veritatis, — to borrow a title from Claude Lorraine — compiled and given to the world, in accusation or justlficauon, as the case might be. Let our words be marked — for we shall never shrink from them — it is by his own Despatches that Captain Grey will stand or fall. If they be fair and honest — far bo it from us to breath a suspicion of iheconfrary — he is •A mdii nf rronino <irwl « liorn fnt hio rkwn

c>V'rtully concede the title, craviug absolution for much injustice that we ourselves have been guilty of towards him. But, on the other hand, should the doubts that have been so freely expressed be confirmed into certainties —if he should have really appropriated the deserts of others to himself— if lie have wilfully blemished the fair fame of good and just men to bring about his cherished purposes— if he have confounded many such as the famous " blood and treasure" despatch, (for the one alone, like a first fault at school, is pardonable to human frailty) he is a lost man. For it is not in the nature of things that systematic mis-representation, should endure beyond a certain while. The genius of Ulysses could not support it; It succeeds for a time, — all goes on smoothly,— till some casual, unforseen mishap, betrays a glimpse of truih. Though it be but a glimpse, it is enough to rouse suspicion ; and suspicion, once excited, soon brings the whole to an end. The scales fall from the eyes of ths judges, the cloak from the culprit, Le masque tombe, l'homme reste, Et Theros s'evanouit.

Remarkable Fecundity. — In the orchard of J* Scott, Esq., near Epsom, there are several young apple, trees growing, eight of which have borne fruit this season, although none of them are above three years old. From thoso eight young trees, 500 " Ribstone Pippins" were gathered—all well sized and perfectly matured. A grafted peach tree in the same pluntatioti, of not above tbiee and a half year's standing, hns this yenr yielded upwards of 1200 peaches, of a middling size, but all ripe and succulent, and of a delicate flavor. Custom's Department.—" Private letters received by the same opportunity [ship Staff, from London, 2nd October, arrived at Port Phillip 23rd Jan.,] mention that Mr. DArch, who it at present Collector of Customs, at New Zealand, with a salary of £500 per annum, had, at his own request, been re-appointed Collector of Customs at Launceston, Van Diemen's Land, the salary of which ii only £350 per annum." —Melbourne Argus Jan. 25.

Programme.— On Thursday, March 2, at 4 o'clock, on the space of ground opposite the Council Chamber, the Band of the 58th Regiment, will perform the following pieces of music :— Overture— Op., " Les Diameni " Auber Cay. & Coro.— Op. "La Parisina " Donizetti Quadrille — ''The Phantom Dancers " Jullien Cay. Op. — " Donna Caritea " Mcrcadante Cuv. Op.— " I Puritani " Belline I'rcsto Movement from Beethoven'i " Sinfnn'ai