The New-Zealander.

New Zealander, Volume 5, Issue 338, 7 August 1849, Page 2

The New-Zealander.

Be just and fear not} Let all the ends thou aims't at, be thy Country's, Thy Goo's, and Truth's.

TUESDAY, AUGUST 7, 1849.

We had been at considerable pains to prepare for this department of our paper, an article of some length on the proceedings of the Legislative Council on Saturday, including an analysis and summary of the Attorney General's luminous speech, on the second reading of the Crown Titles Bill. But, at the last hour, we find that the pressure of the favours of our advertising friends, and of other matteis, compels us to omit it. When either must be left out, we, of course, cheerfully make our own comments give place to the Report of the discussions in the Council — which we are enabled to gite with a fulness and accuracy that we trust will be gratifying to our readers. It will be seen that to-day, the Governor will bring forward th« Estimates.

We invite particular attention to the announcement in our advertising columns that a Publio Meeting will be held this evening in the large School-room adjoining the Wesleyan Chapel, for the purpose of considering the provisions of the Marriage Ordinance for New Zealand, so far as they confer sectarian and exclusive privileges on two of the religious denominations in the colony, to the comparative degradation, and the positive injury, of others ; and of memorializing the Legislative Council for the removal of disabilities which, while they ielfevidently effect no real good for the parties exempted from their operation, are not only regarded by those on whom they press, as wrong in theory and principle, but are painfully felt by them as harassing and oppressive in their practical every-day working. The question is obviously one of Civil and Religious Liberty, and, as sach, must engage the sympathies of all who understand the nature, and desire to uphold and advance the claims of constitutional freedom. It presentsaa common ground on which enlightened and tolerant lovers of the country — however they may differ on a thousand other points — can join hand-in-hand ; leaving the advocates of the Ordinance as it is, to stand confessed before the public gaze as the opponents of religious equality and the partizans of class-legislation in one of its worst and most offensive forms. If there be any plea in vindication of the existing restrictions which cannot fairly be resolved into a narrow-minded and illiberal sectarianism, we shall be prepared to give it all due consideration when it comes before us. At present, we can only say that we have never met with or heard of such a plea. The subject makes then a forcible claim on the friends of equal rights and laws generally. And let us add it appeals not only to their public prinj ciple and generosity, but also to their instincts of self-interest. The objectionable clauses involve assumptions which may soon be carried out so as to affect more immediately classes not just now touched by thejn. They embody the spirit of an aggression on liberty, which, if permitted to proceed, would, we venture to predict, have the proverbially certain results of the introduction of the small end of the wedge. As regards the Presbyterian and Wesleyan Churches, let it not be forgotten that the Ordinance is not merely an exclusive measure, debarring them from privileges conferred on the Protestant Episcopal and the Romish churches, but a direct and novel infliction of what are substantially, grinding pains and penalties. The Scottish Presbyterian finds, on his coming to New Zealand, that the Marriage law binds him in fetters of which he felt and knew nothing in his own country, — and so binds him for no other reason than that he isjnot an Episcopalian* and the Wesleyan colonist, who had paid a visit of a year or two to England, would find on his return that the privileges of his denomination had been invaded during his absence, and that, in one of the most important concerns of social life, he had been thrust down from the level on which he formerly stood side by side with his fellow colonist, — and so thrust down for no other reason than because his conscientious convictions attach him to the Wesleyan Church rather than to that of England, or that of Rome. Can anything, beyond the mere statement of these facts, be required to call forth, against such a measure, the indignant protest and stern condemnation of the right minded and patriotic of every class ? We anticipate a full and interesting meeting this evening. The agreeable change in the weather, and the consequently somewhat less bad state of the thoroughfares, with the bright moonlight, will favor the attendance of females and aged persons wh« otherwise might have been detained at home.