THE COLONIAL QUESTION. [From the "Times," April 26.]

New Zealander, Volume 6, Issue 464, 25 September 1850, Page 3

THE COLONIAL QUESTION. [From the " Times," April 26.]

The more than fifty dependencies of this empire en« joy every vaiiety of constitution. From the" military station" and the " Crown colouy" on tbe one hand, to the all but independent communities of British America, and the " Charier*' of the East India Company, there is every shade of dependence, and every mode of connexion. As the history, population, and present circumstances of these settlements present at least an equal diversity, it is no fault of ours that there political institution* have not been all cast in the very Fame mould. There are philosophers, indeed, who imagine (hat if England did her duty, every member of the po. litical ] rogeny would have a House of Lords, a House of Commons and everything else on the orthodox model. The colony is to start a full-grown goddess, in full panopoly, from the brain of the patent; and should it subsequently undergo any constitutional change, that is set down to (he impel fection of its origin, and the founder,* want of creative wisdom, lth very natural, of course that we sliodM wish to see our most distant* offspring HUe ourselves ; and compelled as we are to see our eximple followed so little, and to so little purpose in the Old World, it would he a great consolation to us if wo conld point to the antipodes to prove the universal aptitude of our cherished constitutional principles. The fucts, however, are rather against us, and tbe House of Commons on very good grounds as we believe, have cousented to sur render for the present the fascinating idea of half-dozen Australian governments, each the " model" of our own. Yet many excellent persons still cling to the pious expectation, and it is very nutural, we do not say probable, that they should find their feelings echoed in the House of Lords. But the sticklers far the British model, in whatever directions they push their scruples, have probably forgotten one most impoitant and essential difference between a colony and its mother country. Give a colony any species of legis'ative assembly, and you have at once three powers concerned in its government — the Imperial authority, the Colonial Executive, and the Assembly, If you give the colony two Assemblies, you have no less than four authorities concerned. A colony is not in the position of the mother country, because it is not independent ; it receives laws from an external power, which is thus part of its legislative. The Colonial Governor is also part of the legislature, nut, however, as Sovereign, foi Sovereign he is not and no one assigns to him this lofty position. He reprc sents the Sovereign in some respects, but in others he represents the Ministerial influence, and in others he occupies the possition of our House of Lords. When the Governor puts his veto on a colonial bill, or reserves it for the sanction of the Crown, he is diicharging an office which the Constitution has foi merry vested in the Crown, but which is practically discharged in these days by the House of Lords. It is to that House that we naturally look for the correction of our Parliamentary excesses. When the Commons ppear to

be going a-head, evorybody as\\s " What will the Lorda do ?'' Conservatives lhank Heaven that they have a House of Lords to give the nation a little breathing time when the pace becomes trying. The House of Lords is called tlic drag or the legulator of the machine the ballast of the ship, and whatever else imparts sleadineis and gravity to motion. Now, that is the position of a Colonial Governor, with his ciicle of officials. He is no mere representative ot the Sovereign ; no mere organ of the Imperial Government. Dependent though he be, he is still distinct, lie is tieatcd us such. He is abuied on his own account lie receive 1 ! a good deal of public sympathy in hii quairela with the Colonial Office. He is expected to act with a large degree of independence and thought very ill- rscd when he is snubbed by the gentleman in Ddwningstreet; all of which proves that whatever the exact termi of his commission a colonial Governor is not a mere rainisirel officer. He has, in fact, a position and power of his own, occupying, as we Imve B.iid to a great extent the ground of the British House of Lords. At all events it will be admitted that if a colony ehall possess two legislative assemblies, there will then ha four consents nececsary to the enactment of a law— the Imperial and Colonial Executivs eand the two Houses. This would render any attempt at three orders in a colony a fresh beginning of difficulties. Indeed the result 13 so obvious that we cannot but look on the project as a plausible scheme for hastening the day of dependence. Suppose a colonial House of Commons in a really " liberall" footing, and leprcscnting that very important interest as Mr. Vernon Smith culU it a squatting interest; — suppose, too, a House of Lords which really comprehend the most wealthy aud influen* tial personages in the colony and let them agree on a bill ;~would they toletate a denial by the Governor ; or in case of his consent, would they allow him to b". overruled by the Government at home ; They would make the Governor either much less than he is, or much more than he is — that is ; either a notary or a king. We are not for a moment denying that as the colony improved in population, wealth, and social order, it will demand, require, and deserve a perfect representative of that locial aristoracy which is sure to rise But when a colony shall have two Houses at all resembling our own and when any measuies that passes through both shall thu» be endorsed with the sanction of all clanei high and low, it will be high time to leave the government of the colony entirely in its own hands and content ourselves with its.dignified and di&in'terested attachment. By that time it will be too powerful for Governors or Downing-street ; and though it maybe the interest of all parties to keep up old namei, the colonj will be realy as independent of us as the Uuited Statei of America are at this moment. For the present there are not the matt-rials in any of our Australian colonies for to perfect and mature a developemont. The origin, the dispersion, the pursuits of the population prcseut seiious obstacles to a comprehensive franchise ; and as yet the colonial wo.ld is not graced with a noble or a wealthy aristoracy* There is only a confusion of claues and if we can by any contrivance get one respectable legislature out of all classes that is as much ai we can reasonably expect

Humboldt's Opinion uelativu to Sib John Franklin. —A coirespondent of an American paper, writing iroin Berlin, relates an interview with [Jtimboldt the savant, when (he following opinion as to the fate of Sir John Franklin was incidenally elicited from him :— •' He thought it quite probable that Franklin had not periihcd, but was still shut in by the ice, and gave several facti of voyagers whom he had seen, and who had been for long seasons so detained in the northern seas. The Esquimaux of the coast, he said, were not at all dangerous; Franklin was well supplied with provisions, and would probably yet return to givo an account of his voyage. Indeed, the report that tho Esquimaux Indians had laid that some vesiels had long been last in the ice, away off to the north, seemed to be fully confirmed."

Music—Voltaire ii commonly stated to have been a hater and despiser of the art of sweet sounds ; but there is, perhaps, ai much evidence against the assertion as for it in his works. Getry says of him, that he would sit with a diaconted fac.} while music was going on, which, considering what French niuaic was in his time, might argue not a worse car than his neighbours, but a better. But granting Voltaire had no musical symp tliies in him—and it goes against our conscience to think he had —his fiiend and fellow thinker, Fiederick of Prussia, had them in a great degiee; and a man as unlike boih as this woild could otter —the late Dr. Chalmers—had none at all, except, of couisc, Mint be liked a Scotch air, as all Scotchmen, by some meiciful provision of nature, uppcar to do. Then it may seem natural to our preconceived ideas that such u mind as Horace Walpole's should have no capacity lor musical pleasure ; but by what possible analogy wai it that Charles Limb's should have just .is little ? How came it to pais that Itosseau, the wonhlcss ancestor of all Radicals, was an enthusiastic and piofuuud musician, while Dr. Joknson, the type ol all Torjibm, did not know one tune fiom another; or that Luther pio. nounced music to be one of the best gifts of Heaven, and encouraged the study of it by precept and example, while Calvin and Knox persecuted it as a snare of tho evil one, and oonscientou&ly condemned it to perpetual degradation in their chuichcs ? All we can say is, that the majority pay her homage —that it is one of her heavenly nt'ributes to link those natuies together whom nothing else can unite. Men of the most opposite characters and lives that hibtory can pnducc tiaternibe in music. If Alfred loved hir, to did Nero ; if Coeuer de Lion was a swett musician, so was, Charles IX j if George 111. delighted in all music, especially in that of a sacred churat-tcr, so did Ileniy VIII; if the hero of our own times, the motto ot whose life has been duty, is musical both by nature and inheritance, hit antagonist, Napoleon, at least hummed opcia tunes. Oliver Cromwell bade a intuician ask of him what favour he pleHsed. John Wesley rcmonslrultd against leaving all the good tunes to the devil. Every privute family could quote souoc domestic torment and some domestic treasure, alike in nothing cite but in the love for music. There is no forming any system of judgment. There is no looking louud in a concert room, and saying in one's heait, tl.cse people are not of oneway of thinking; they aie all intelligent, or all humane, or nil poetical. There is no bioad mark —young and old—high and low—passionate und meek—wise and foolish—babies, uliuls, insane people —all, more or less, like music. At must, there uro some who are indifferent, or fancy themselves bo, us much from wunl of opportunity as f.om taste; tome who do not caie for bad music, and never hear good, if bo hard a lot can be imagided ; but there is only one clais of men who condemn it, and thosu are fanatics; and there is only one order of beings, aocoiding to Luther, who hate it, and those aio devil;,.— Quarterly Revkiv. When bent on matrimony, look more than skin deep for beauty, dive fuitlier than the pocket fot wouu, ami search lor temper beyond good humoui fonhe moment remembering it ii not always the most agreeable paitner at a ball who forms the most amiable partuer for life, Viitue, like some flowers, blooms oHeu fairest in the shade.