The New-Zealander.

New Zealander, Volume 3, Issue 200, 29 April 1848, Page 2

The New-Zealander.

lie just and le.u n<>t: Let all tlie cuds tliou ;ums't at, be tliy Country's, Thy God's, and Tiutli's.

S A I 1I 1 URL) A V, A PHIL 29,18 48.

The Constitution for the Australasian Colonies, winch threw each individual membei of the groupe into a fever of indignant denunciation, and whose anti-Knohsh complications flcic intended to ha\e been pnmaiily e\o!\ed in New Zealand, has been, tor a time at least, ■vulhdiawn ou the lecommendation of our ruler. The reason assigned by his Excellency, whilst counselling delay, is piobably the sole one legitimately admissable by a minister fiom his deputy. That reason is inexpediency, and it is enfoiccd by such elaborate cncumstantiality of detail, as must, we think, cairy conviction of the Governors piudence to every unprejudiced mind. Whether Captain Grey could not ha\e adduced, and did not actually urge, other and equally cogent leasons why this constitution should not remain in abeyance, does not transpire, however much the gaps in the despatches may lead us to surmise. Whether he could not cleaily and conclusively ha\e demonstrated its utter inapplicability to any British community it is not foi us to cam ass. Those are questions he may ha\e blinked,— nevertheless, whethei by a side wind or a fiee, he has carried his point with statesmanlike sagacity, and the colony has just cause to thank him for freeing it of an incubus winch would assuredly have paralyzed its e\ery energy, if not lui^e plunged it into a state of anarchy more disastious than that from which we have so lately escaped. " Her Majesty," says the Governor, in deprecation of the Constitution, " will give to a small minority of one race the powei of appropriating as they think proper a laige revenue laised by taxation fiom the great majority of her subjects of another lace." Assuming this dictum to be correct, is it the only evil contingency likely to affect a large proportion of Her Majesty's subjects? We think not — nay, we consider this degenerate Constitution would give to a paltry fraction of the colonists the power of governing not merely the native race, but their British fellow subjects likewise. It would be a Constitution for the gain of a few at the cost of the many. A Constitution calculated to lender the quasi House of Repiesentativcs, the tools or the tyrants of the supieme authority. It ■would be the mle of a clique accountable not to the people, but to the people's delegates. Is it not monstious then to term such a system representative ? It is electoral — electoral in the most chcumsciibed and unjust degree; compared with this, the constituencies of Old .Sarum and Gatton were purity and integiity indeed. Let us endeavour to unravel it. The citizen, for example, elects his burgess • — now, howe\er content one townsman may be to invest another with the moderate amount of municipal power involved in corporation dignities, can it for one moment be supposed that any community of free" born Englishmen would, otherwise than by the strong arm of might, divest themselves of that high andinappieciable privilege, the boast and the bulwark of Britons, the in alien mile rioht to choose their repiesentatives, — can it, we repeat, be supposed that they would cede this sacred right in favor of their civic deputies, a body not generally pre-eminent for mental or moral excellence. Let us imagine the theoretical tinkers of Downing-street attempting to patch the British Constitution. Let us fancy Earl Grey proclaiming to the denizens of London, Edinbuigh, or Dublin, — " You shall have the power to elect your city magistrates, common councillors, and other muncipal subordinates, but there your right of franchise ends. You are incapable of the nice discrimination of selecting fitting members for the Senate. To the superior wisdom of the Common Council, and Livery of London, — to the prudence of the Piovost and Bailies of Edinburgh, — to the political acumen of the Coiporation of Dublin, these gra\e lesponsibilities must be confided." Fancy'lhe possibility of such an attempt, and the consequences it would involve ; and let us , ' «t^ mqune why we, many of us, not long ''ctoisof Londor hxlinbiugh, or Dub- , 'c <-tiij}edc. ;i British conbtitun e, in -i possession of the British s „ ouiei lO indulge the IaAV making piopensiU rj ot any chimerical Sccretaiy ot hJtate whatever 1 ? A constitution applicable to the peculiar

wants and appliances of any remote dependency is at best, but an experiment, to be anxiously and honestly undertaken, and carefully modified and amended, as circumstances demand, by the faithful and appiwed local guardians of the dependency. It should not be a mere ciosrr project of any hereditaiy legislator, however gifted, howcAer just, or howe\ci well-intentioned. The cuise of all the colonies, has been the passion eunced by each .succeeding Secretary to legislate o\er much. He .sits him doun, and piobably from some Utopian basis, furnished by an incompetent underling, laises an ingenious supeistiuctuie, which, at a .sixteen thousand mile focus, seems as beneficial as beautiful, but w hen impoited to the piovince foi whose pecuh.u behoof it was flamed, it suddenly assimilates with the labours of Frankenstein, and instead of an incarnation of peifection, becomes a monstei to the world, and a source of disgust to Us projector. If Downing- street legislation is obnoxious to eveiy colony, — if it be impossible for the holdeis of its seals of office, who like the! Sovereigns in Macbeth, " Come like shadows, so depart,*' to origin vtt any practicable measure for their ! advancement, — how peculuuly so must il be fu a possession like Ne:v Zealand, wheie British sway has hitheito been toleiated lather than enforced, andAvhere an able, an eneigetic, and a warlike lace is sensitively ali\c to, and suspiciously on the watch against e\eiy mea- ; sme likely to lower their standing, or affect their independence. This is one of the greatest difficulties with which Governor Grey has had to deal in combatting the immediate introduction of the proposed constitution. In fact, it may be said, to be the giound on which alone he has taken his stand. We think that ground has been jndiciously chosen, feeling hrmly persuaded that to no other remonstrance would the Downing-street magnates have paid the prompt attention they have done. Purely British colonies never yet have attained their lights until they Aveie able to conquer them. A French insurrection commanded remedial measures for Canada ; and Maori outbreaks have not been without a certain effect in nvetting attention to the claims of New Zealand. It remains to be seen whether the lesson will be read with piudence or not. Our community, as yet, is a small and a widely scattered one, and to the character, capacity, and integrity of a Governor we must, for some years, needs be much more largely indebted than to any measure the Colonial office or the Parliament may de\ise. Captain Grey suggests a Council of official and unofficial members, — the latter elective, — to constitute the government for some time to come. We confess we should prefer the Dictatorship recommended by Mr. Hume, because a dictatorship, under imperim. sbpniwisioN, entails personal lesponsibility, and ensures a wholesome caution, whereas a Council, — one half officials trained to order, the other half petulant or pliant, but without the power to initiate any measure, becomes a shield, a stalking horse, from behind whose cover an aibitiary Governor can shoot his shafts unscathed. Well did that wily diplomatist Colonel Aithur appieciate this his colonial body-guird, and contemptuously did Sir Eardley Wilmot evince his estimation of their power, when he twitted them as puppets who might impede but never control the government machine. A Council, similar to that of New South Wales, with a somewhat larger infusion of the elective in its members, would, we apprehend, be found the most beneficial change, Avhenever change shall be determined on. We have entered so fully into discussion of the rejected constitution that we have scarcely a word to say in reference to the lecture read — or attempted to be read — by Earl Grey to the Bishop, in consequence of his protest against infraction of the Waitangi treaty. One thing is clear, and Aye congratulate ourselves and the colonies in general thereupon, that the Bishop has put the noble secretary upon his defence. This is a great point gained. It is an admission that colonists have a right to express an honest and a fearless opinion in questions of colonial Avrong, and it is an encouragement for those in colonial high places to peiform their duty unshrinklnsly' To Eail Grey the merit belongs of bearing the just rebuke, infened by the Bishop's protest, meekly. His defence, hoAvever, is labored and inconclusive — a very pretty specimen of special pleading — partaking largely of " what the learned callj;igmarole." The reading of Lord Grey's despatch on the subject of the Avaste (?) lands of NeAv Zealand, Avas not peculiar to the Bishop or the mis- . sionaries deputed to ratify the treaty of Waitangi. It was commented upon in a like spint by nearly every journalist of every British colony in this hemispheie, those of the NeAV Zealand Company's settlements excepted. Indeed, so fraught AVith peril did Aye in the North esteem Earl Grey's illustrative instructions to be that their publication Avas purposely suppressed in this journal. The tendency of these hazardous instructions on the susceptible, suspicious, and impetuous Maori, Avas discussed at the mess of every reI gnnent, and on hoard of every ship. And so far Avas the protest of the Bishop and the deprecation of the clergy in general from being likely to prove instrumental to revolt, that, on.

the contrary, their bold and manly disclainers, i and their expressed convictions that England would lmer sanction the perpetration of so monstrous a fraud, were probably the main inducements lo the preservation of that peace which has been so happily observed. We in•sifcted at the time, that Great Britain ne\er contemplated the spoliation Earl Grey's misintopieled instructions infencd. Our clergy of e\ ci y denomination — our townsmen — our settleis — all concurred in declaring a similai conviction, and ue now heartily congratulate our Maori fellow subjects andouisehes that we ga'se expiession but to ti nth.

Thk Anolo-M.\ori Wardfr. In tlic Journal so styled, which was ushered into iiteiaty existence on Tuesday, we ha\e to welcome an old iiiend — we auII not say with a new face, but Avith a new -vehicle — in which, we have no doubt, he will leap new laurels, and with the same felicitous pen which Avon him "golden opinions" heietofoie, and with which (until fortuitous circumstances transplanted us), he was wont, in our pages, to " Hold the mirror up to nature," and to shew the miniature world of Auckland "Its form and picture." As mil contempoiaiy has justly obseived • — '• That theie should be loom for a thiid Journal in a community, which counts as yet but a poor five thousand souls, is not one of the least striking signs of the times." We lejoice to think that it should be so. But we rejoice .still more that the third Jomnal should ha\ c been originated by a gentleman of well tried ability, of liberal and enlightened views, and of just and generous sentiments. Fiom past and praiseworthy exertions in the Colonial cause, he is entitled to a fair and a favourable claim for present and prospective suppoit. That the Anglo-Maori Warder will be conducted with a high minded integrity, the character of its Editor, his proved temper and habits are sufficient guarantee. That he will soar after game, not batten upon garbage we well know. Measures not men, we feel firmly persuaded will be his quarry. That he will ne\er sully his pen by personal scurrility, nor by pandering to the cravings of vitiated appetite, we have the testimony of his previous political career in guarantee. But even were such assurance wanting, the extract in his first page, — (a motto, as it were,) — from Mr. Justice a'Beckett's charge, in delivering his opinion of the ribald license of a portion of the Melbourne press, coupled as that extract is with the corollary to be found in the first leading article of the AngloMaori Warder, — these Aye hail as conclusive pledges that the new bora journal will be conducted with that tone and temper with which an English gentleman should conduct an English Journal. Under such impressions Aye greet our neAV contemporary Avith a brother's love, wishing him that success .he may desene. Should conflicting opinions, at any period, lead us to espouse antagonistic opinions, Aye trust to enter the lists in the same manly spirit that prompted Prince Henry towaids Hotspur : " As if a brother did a brother dare, To gentle exercise and proof of arms."