The New-Zealander.

New Zealander, Volume 4, Issue 225, 26 July 1848, Page 2

The New-Zealander.

lie juht an<l feat not: Lot all the end i tlioii aisns't at, be thy Country's, Iliy f Jon's, and Truth-,

WEDNESDAY, J b L * 26, 1848.

The debute in the House of Lends, on occasion of the second le.tume; of tin 1 New Zealand Government Bill, li pierentin<r neither novel nor peculiai fe at ure tor heal coin mental y, is, at least, singuki'ly felicitous as ijr as regards the moment of its publication amongst us ; inasmuch is it aiToids to ovr jiolitical c«*eiies a coinLident.il oj>u)itupi' t y of -■compauwg the sketch of, Gom> nor Gwi, d'.Ouiea'jd in flowing colons by Uic p:iici!s of nv lv l aii.^, oi no mean Eiuopean ccl'-bnt), 'iM'h the nuie ela.Jioiate but veiy dii&imilai poitraitu^, of tije

same eminent personage, just issued from a colonial easel. Leaving to others to decide which the pictuie, which the caucaluie, we must still frankly decto'e that, in the paueg)nc of Eail Grey, re-echoed by Loul Stanley, we iecogm.se much which prejudice itself cannot but confess to be fairly meiited by the object of tlieii Lordship's eulogiums. Regarding him, neither as the Admirable Crichion of Ministerial lhapsody, nor yet as the incipient Maciuavm-u of Colonial reprchensior. — wo feel bound to affiim that the government of Captain Guky has teen preeminently fortunate and, in many lespecls. eminently prudent. It were, therefore, the veriest injustice — in censuring what he may have been deemed to have done amiss — to withhold the honest meed of commendation foi actions skilfully conceived and vigorously conducted. Whatever HE may owe to the colony, the colony unquestionably owes much to him, and we rejoice to perceive the debt so worthily acknowledged by antagonistic leaders of the most opposite political sentiments in the highest councils of the nation. It is neither very instructive nor particularly interesting to follow Earl Grey in his elucidalioa of the principles of the Bill which is not at present, to amend the New Zealand Constitution. In common with most of our Australasiatic contevnporaties, we have ever entertained but one opinion of that mav\ellous bill, for whose suspension we feel deeply giateful, trusting to the- chapter of accidents that it ma \, like other capitally convicted offenders, hang for ever in abeyance. Lord Stanley launched against the ciude conception some characteristic outbursts of withering scorn. " Talk of the British constitution !" quoth his Lordship, with the disgust which, here, has been so universal. "This is no British constitution. It is more like a French constitution. It is a Representative Assembly with an Electoral Chamber ; or it is , a constitution which had never existed except m the mind of the noble Karl 1 The popula- j tion of the islands was 12,000, or 14,000, or | 16,000 j and what was the machinery of government to be given to these 16,000 persons'? There Was a Go\einor-in-Chief and a Legislative Council^ and Provincial Legislative Councils, Representative Assemblies, Mayors, and Town Councils, and all for 16,000 persons ! Theie would hardly be a single mdi'- ' vidual who would not be one of these functionaries ; they would all be elected, and no electors." A sort of new-found example we presume — all officers and no soldiers ! En passant, whilst enumerating the difficulties Capiam Grey, had to encounter, Earl Grey pays but a scuivy compliment to our naval and military forces who, he most absurdly alleges, "were beginning to bedispiiited by the ill success which had attended then operations." Lord Grey's estimate of Biitain's waniors must be poor indeed, if he thinks the men who, by tea and by land, ha\e upheld her name, and stamped her fame in every clime, could be so easily daunted. Irritated at not being able to grapple with their enemies hand to hand they doubtless were — but dispirited 1 — let the daring with which they threw themselves upon impracticable pahs ghe ii refutable answer. Do we read a portion of Earl Grey's oration aright 1 ? Can it be that New Zealand possesses no fixed capital? Or of what other construction sre the following sentences susceptible % " If the seat of government had been fixed at either of those places, (Auckland or Wellington,) it would have been highly inconvenient to the inhabitant* of the other ; and this inconvenience would have been increased in consequence of the jealousy existing between the two towns, as to which should be the capital of the colony. It therefore seemed advisable that two legislative bodies should be established — one at Auckland, the other at Wellington— and that the colony should be divided into two distinct provinces." We quitfe coincide in opinion with Eavl Grey that it is most desirable for the peace, happiness, and prosperity of all classes of Her Majesty's New Zealand subjects, that the native race should be instructed to read and write the English language ; but how they would ever have been able to acquire such instruction unless the Missionaries (whom Earl Grey so inconsiderately and ungenerously blames), had in the first instance reduced the " barbarous native dialect," into a language translateable into English, and thus communicable by instructor to the instructee, we are at a locs to conceive. The great bill, then — the marvellous constitution — which almost frightened New South Waks into premature rebellion — is, it would appear, to be" burnt and purged away," to a mere act for electing of municipal authorities, according to the mode and manner in which the Governor may think proper to prescribe. So mach the better — Earl Grey will gain more time for levision ; for he must surely now peiceive that neither his instructions nor their accompanying illustrations, were so clear as to penetrate every intellect with their infallible perspicuity. Even Lord Stanley had fallen into the same er.or, as the Bishop, and the entire Australian world, as to the construction of Eari Grey's watte land confi^catory despatch 5

a measure, which although it elicited a stringent castigation, seems to retain a fiuu hold of the noble Secretary's heart — or if not, wherefore conclude the debate m terms so ominous as these '? " The crown was the trustee of all land for the population white or coloured^ The natives wet e entitled to such lands as they had hecn accustomed to enjoy ot as were necessary for their living ; But whatfvtr was not wanted BY THEM SHOULD BK AVVIAED TO THE SERVICE OK civiufern mp.n." Speak by the card, my Lord; Equivocation may undo us '

We lament that to the I*l-0% isional Government of Fiance should belong the honor of originating one of the w lsest, the most just, and the most siatesmonhke measiucs of modern day? ; — for we had long cherished a sanguine, although it has proved an illusive hope that England — the mightiest of colonizing nations — would have become sensible to the true interests of her extended empire, and that she would have been the first to prochim and to substantiate the imprescriptible rights of her distant sons. But she h?s not done so. She has outstaid the hour, and more, she has been outstnpped in the race of Justice by the infant Republic of France, uhich* wills the practical emancipation of the colonies of France, and the complete and equal uLnUfication of eveiy Fiench citizen, by according to e\ eiy possession of her Commonwealth the right, of which no colony should ever have been stupi — to send deputies to represent it in the Council of the nation. All honour be to Fiance that she has acknowledged and has acted upon this just and pi udent principle. It is indeed a step in advance — one which we trust will prove as conducive to her gieatness as it is commendable to her gloiy. To France peitoms the enviable distinction, of having been the fhst to confer an equal citizenship upon her natives of 1 the tropics and her natives of the parent soil. , i If no intestine dissensions, such as defoimedi ! her first revolution, shall defeat her measures of self regeneration she will find this geneious, concession to her colonies — this their amalgamation in the paient power — a measure of the deepest consequence to her stability. By this simple concession she imparts and she acquires a ledoubled vigour. She levels unjust distinctions — she destroys unequal and injurious' piivilcges — and she elevates the mere colonist, into the confident and confiding citizen. Can England long lesist the example thus honomably s>et ? Will she, the Queen of Colonisers, persist in luling, and thereby alienating, her colonies by means of a tyrannous excrescence on the face of her own free and liberal native constitution ? What unexpa..iated B'"iton woi.iii for a moment endure the ignoiant and supercilious sway of that canker at the heart of Biitish Justice, — the Clerkly Oligarchy enthroned within the purlieus of Downing Sticet ? In the bmeatt of the Colonial Office — in the shitting councils of its ephemeral Sovereigns will be found the source of all the euls which oppiess and stultify, and disgust, the colonists oi England. It. ia through a Dictatorship such as this that the affections of even British bom are esttanged, and the desiie3 of their colonial offspringaie directed to contemplation of the houi when the British dependenc , instead of clinging to the parent stem, shall become strong enough to shake off, the intolerable yoke, and spiing like America, into a rival state. Were this a necessary — were this an inevi- 1 table consequence of the physical progression ' of Colonies, we could only deplore it as a na- j tural misfoitune, but convinced, as we are, that the very ie\me is the case — that colonies aie deeply and during! y attached to the Mother country — that their affections are bound and j tied up by the magic influences of a " lIoW i which thousands of their sons never saw ; and that they fondly cherish every prestige of her ] name and fame, we cannot but consider the apathy, the neglect, or the wrongs that compel them 10 Independence as a national crime. It is, (as we have erewhile, and elsewhere, wiitten,) perhaps, not one of the least singular characteristics of the day, that whilst the government of England's mighty empire — its colonial government especially — either slumbers at its post, or is mischievously employed in the concoction of measures calculated to coerce or restrain the healthful growth and coidial identification of interest between the parent stem and the numerous offshoots of the Anglo-Sax-on family, that enlightened and patriotic individuals are constantly making known the results of their experience, calling the attention of the British people to new sources of wealth and aggrandizement, and striving, heart and soul, not merely to peipetuate, but to extend, British interests and British happiness throughout the globe. The Colonial interests of our magnificent empire have been woefully mismanaged, because they would not be understood ; at least in so far as Downing Street is concerned, the chief sources of information have been not only fallible but questionable, because the authorities relied on for the coriectness of given points have too frequently been deeply concerned in misstating them, whilst the straightfouvard and fearless advocate of truth has too, often paid the penalty for his unwished and uncouitly testimony. The prime evil of Colonial misrule is to be. traced to the comparative mystei y

which, in a gi eater or lesser degree, pervades the entire anangement of the colonial government machmeiy ; added to which, the Immense importance of her colonial possessions is little felt,sometimes denied, and scarcely sympathized with by the bulk of the British nation. As proof, let the empty benches of the House of Commons upon any question purely colonial bear evidence. The pettiest squabble of (he most petty European principality would be listened to by a numerous and morbidly excited house which would discuss the mus in mons topic with becoming senatorial gravity, whiht the mere intimation of a Colonial subject — no matter of what importance to the empire — sounded like a bugle note, — sauvc quipcut. By the unjust system adopted towards her remote dependencies — no wealth, no talent, no attribute, moinl or mental, avails to have distinguished England's despised colonists. Aliens in the land "of then sires — thr subjects of foreign and fluctuating domination in the ungenial soil which they, by patient toil and heart breaking stiuggks, may have converted to a prosperous province — what is their reward? 1 Are they, in any instance, selected to sway the ! destinies of the dependency in whose welfare , they should be best instructed — whose advancej ment they have most promoted 1 ? NKVER !' They are placed under the anti-English sway of militaiy lufc — under an iion despotism that is subject to repeated clnnge but little amelioration, and which authoritatively draws a definite and degrading line betwixt Imperial rights* and Colonial expectations ! The French Republic — honour to it, again s?.y we — has beaten dov.n this iniquitous barrier to the rise and progress of French Colonists. The present rulers have been wise in their d.iy and generation. They have preferred to conciliate rather than to exasperate their dependencies. They have given strength to the heart by permitting a free circulation to the extremities of their dominions. They have eschewed the practice which reft from Britain ' the fnirert jewel of her diadem. They have profited by the lesson read to Spain by her provinces, who haughtily deriding their prayers of being permitted to send deputies to the Cortes, indignantly sprang into independent States, hurling their urn while Mistress into the most abject position amongst the monarchies of Europe. Li liberating and aggrandizing her colonies, France has done wisely and well, and England will best evince her wisdom and her magnanimity, by following the example she should hat c set. Nations rarely learn wisdom. When the colonial possessions of yj-ain poured i>ito h<ulap all the tre?isme3 of the ea-tand we.'-t, did she c )nTidci the wants, the wishes, the feelings of hei ieir>ote subjects? No ; she treated tH-ir leasonable demands with scot n, deeming them the vaT.ils of her will. Injustice has now stripped her of all ; and her N \vy, oiicp amongst ihe most formidable of Euiope, can scaice at piesent equip on insignificant squadron. Let Britain, in time, conciliate her colonies, — let her ceacf to convert them to degraded cesspoo's of ministerial patronage — let their right to self government be fully, fairly, liberally conceded — let their privileges hv. respected — their wrongs redressed — their feelings sympathized with. Open the path of fame to their sons — admit them to equal fellowship, to equal consideration with their British-born, and Britain-resident brethren. Do this. Let them but feel themselves Unions indeed, end woe to the foe that dare offer insult to the mcan:st of her members. The inteiestof the Colonies is the interest of the Navy ; the ascendancy of the navy is tho salvation of the state. The present condition of Spain is an incontestable proof of the tiuth of these axioms. With the loss of hur colonies, came the destruction of her commerce. With the destruction of her commerce, came the downful of her navy, and on the prostration of her navy she delegated at once into an inferior power. Should Britain pursue a similar course with Spain, who can say that she shall be exempted fiom a similar fate*?