ENGLISH EXTRACTS. (From the Times, March 1.)

New Zealander, Volume 5, Issue 323, 3 July 1849, Page 3

ENGLISH EXTRACTS. (From the Times, March 1.)

It wai with perfect justice that in last weeks debate on Ceylon so emphatic a reference wa< made to Mr. "Wakefield'a book On the Art of Colonization. The nature of the subject, which has Ut*ly awakened an amount of public attention so marvellously contrasted with the public indifference that preceded it, will in part contribute to the attractiveness of the work: while a greater inteieat will be inspired by a desire to learn the Bentimems and the experience of a man whose life has been devoted to the objects, and whos* name i« identified with the progress of colonization. Beyond th s, there are many politicians in the country, to whom Us chief reoommeudation will be that it records the opiiriom, the doubt*, the fears, on'd tho zeal of the lamented Charles Buller. It U supe.iluous to say that a work of this kind, nuDliahed under such cucumstances, necessarily confaint many personul animadversion, and some mdiZL complaints. The fb.n ia which it appears implies if it do M not justify, this. It it a tetwi o Sf. . «ippo»cd to pa.s between a « Statesman" and a « Colonist." The "Statesman" aptly, though indirectly, reprwents one whose premature loes wi 1 b3b 3 long deplored by all who vaiue>c w« combiimuon

of the quickest and subtlest intellect with tlie moit playful humour and the most benevolent heart, and whose thoughtful disquisitions on the colonies and their government ore a lasting memorial of his short but valuable life. The " Colonist" is Mr. Wakefield, und his personal experience ol Ihe "insolence of office," and of the abortivenesi of non-official efforts, i>ives a piquancy to his descriptions which would hnidly be exprcted in a theoretical es«ay. Doubtless Mr. WakefieiJ has. been in hs daj— like eveiy o.her Bpeculotor, however ingcm,us — snubbed, soured, and disappointed. But we doubt whether the rebuffs and mom of ihe Colo»ial«»ffice aie sufficient to wamint hu vehement dislike and strong denunciations of Lord Grey. Lord Grey may be a man of irritable temper, of ungainly manners, nnd of some official inenrsistency. These are serious impediments to his popu larity and drawbacks to hia efficiency. If proved, ihey die laul s which are all but disqualifications for official siluition. But they are perfectly consistent with hone»ty, patriotism, and the most iahoiious dil'gencc It is certainly a gteatcvil that the man who is bound to hear the complaints, receive the opinions, and superintend the progress of coionibts so vaiiou*, so scattered, and so remote v* those of the British Empire, should be con ptcuous for the loughness of his manners, the morjs.ntss of his temper, and tlie olTcnsiveiieis of his hauteur. But these, where they exist, may proesed from mere physical infirmity; and they are is often imagined where they do not ex ist as exaggerated wiieie they do. The letteis of the " Colouist" were penned under the influence of bad health :— may not that influence hay communicated its taint to bis reminiscences and his opinions? He complains of the brutality of Lord Giey'g manner. May he not have mistaken awkwardne s for brnsguerie and shyness for pride ? Lord Grey is not the nrst nobleman in that office whose personal demeanour has been most injuncUoly mibinturpreted. {Again, he convbts Lord G py of vacillation and inconsistency in hia colonial views. But, we may ask, who is there that has not shifted and modified his op.nions on colonial questions during the last 15 years ? Has Mr. Wdk.. field hmuelf been consistent ? We notice these peisonal objei tl ins because, at the very moment tha 1 ; they inuke tbc book ■ more amusing, they detract from its value as a treatise i upon a subject of permanent importance. At the same time we are fully alive to the mischiefs which result ftom the mere opinion which Lord Grey's demeanour hat untoi tuuately created. It could not be supposed that Mr. Wakefield would compose a treati c ol this kind without a reference to the circumstances which make colonizition a matter of economical necessity. He ktates these, wbich are not new to the readeis of The Times, in hnguage of which the fault is not certainly w..nt ot force. " There is," sajs he (p. 05 J, " a general cucumstance by which j Grea' Britain is at presant distinguished from ail other ! countries. I hat circumstance may be termed a want iof room for people of all classes. ..... In Ireland there is a want of room for the poor, tut plenty of room for capitalists, if they cou'd be got to !go or giow there. I» France there is a remarkable want 01 room for the literary class, though not tor capitalist, who would be tar more numerous without iturtful crowd ng if there were mote security against revolutions but in Great Britain *U classes suffer from the want of room. He illu*trates this proposition by statements which must strike many by their painful reality. The competition for Bubsist-ence-s ibaistence according to the staudjidot each c'ass— is not confined to the laboring population. It is not merely among the peasants and the mechanics that the nre.suro of a galling rivalry i» hurtfull/ telt. It erends lo the class above them aud the clasi above that. Every profusion and every vocation exemplify '• the same pinching for room." Clerks, curatei, barristers biieved or briefless, attorneys, surgeons, apothe<aiiei, we all jostling and rubbing against one another in feaiful contiguity. But this is not bH. I is not only among what may be cal'ed the working as distinguished from the moneyed cla.ses that this phenomenon is seen. It is iccognised aho among that class which is popularly tupposed to be above threats of want and the collision ot rivalry -among the dealers in money and the hoarders ot gold. 'I be symptom which Holland exhibited in the 17th century England reproduces in the 19ih. Capitalists want room like other people. Not only does labour seek for employment, but at the same time capital sacks new means ol investment. Profifs and wages are both alike neai their ultimate level. Two years of rash speculation, insolvency, ruin, and dea.th fail to drain off the superfluous bullion which still returns to its cbofced coflers. then come, speculation more wild and irrational than cv r. Capital is diverged from undei takings of safe character and moderate returns into others as fallacious as they ace flattering. A panic ensues. Ihe great capitalist is frightened; the small one ruined; every class ot traders and merchants is more or less affected, until .security returns, and the whole process is repeated over again. But while Mr. Wakefield reco <h the reverses to which men in most professions and trades are expased, he does not forget » numerous— the most numerous— class that suffers from the over population of a civilise* nauon-m., the women. « Was there eve/ aski Mr. Wakefteld, " a country in which grown up unmarried women were so numerous in proportion to the married ? I say nothing of the monastic life ot the unman led men, who, if there were as much room here as in America, would be the boshandi , of our countless miserable nuns. The unhappincs. ! The vice I These tonics, you will excuse me for saying, wou.d be best brought before the House of Common* by Lord A Tisi whole state of things-thecompetilion of capital withcapital-the gambling, dis honesty, an d ' smaitueas" which tins civates-the dare-all, nsk-all, makeshifty habits introduced into the dealings of a vast body of merchants and tradesmen-the insolvency and nun which cn a ue-all this accompanied by extended knowredge and multiplied combination, among the wortag clussea-the oa ntul prudence of some and the utter SlessnessoV otherZ-all ,he.c, co incident jrth our possession of a vast but remote field of produetw and Employment, teem to mdicate that without some ai yet untiied or partly tried escape discontent and in. .abordmatlon will break barriers stronger than the ordnance of the Artillery, and ™« £™ |d ?JJ c ££ the batons ot special constables. " With the coninuance of discontent and the sp.ead of education, Chartlm and Boe.al.sm will have -any a struggle for the mastery over a restricted franchise and private property." , dutot be r'fiecuo- .of thoughtful men ta .the p«amount question of EngU, h „ nd Uu. S SSSS hiStpo^A;^ I which hW own net question Las now Ukcn of the public mind, let uu contrast what it was 18 lears ago with what it is "uhat httle knot ot men, yclept toe Colo»..«»~^ clety, in 1830, to the explosion of the blundeis in Wei Australia, thence to the bungling negotiations for the settlement of South Australia, vhzn a Prince of [be Blood Hiked h^\ Broviglnm, "Whc-e u tins ,

Soulh Australia?" and Lord Brougham aniwered, " Some where near Botany Bay"— thence to its protection undes the Duke of Wellington— thence to the settlement, the difficult iei, the re settlement, and the present promise of New Zealand despite Ciown Commisiioners, Parliamentary ignorance, and — Laid Grey, Let him renew ihess things, and when he reflects on the contemporaneous exertions now made by two bod it'B of men 10 different in their constitution, their tenets, and their clmructer> but bo harmoni me ns ut the great principles on which colonization should be conducted, as are the Otago and the Canleihury Associations—let him ask himself whether it is woilh whiL to peril the great work on which he has bii lnshcnif, by weakening or impeding nn important public ofhec, even though its presiding Minister lie as nioioso as ill-tempered, nnd as baughty as Loid Gioy has 100 often given ihe woild reason to suppose that hi )2 t