ORIGINAL CORRESPONDENCE. To the Editor of the New Zealand Spectator. Wellington, September 23, 1848.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume IV, Issue 329, 23 September 1848, Page 2

ORIGINAL CORRESPONDENCE. To the Editor of the New Zealand Spectator. Wellington, September 23, 1848.

Sir, — I was much surprised to find, in the Wellington Independent of yesterday, some very acrimonious attacks on your able leader of Saturday last, and also on a letter signed ' A Settler,' which appeared in the same number of the Spectator. The Editor of the Wellington Independent, and his correspondent signing himself ' A Working Man/ exhibit much bitterness, and but little point, in their strictures on your leading article and a Settler's letter. As to the first memorial, the meeting convened to adopt it was called by handbills circulated the day previous, without signatures ; the public at large did not know at whose desire or suggestion ; | and they had indeed no guarantee that the whole affair was not a hoax. The meeting, however, was numerously attended, although the short notice 1 given to the public, 'and the uncertainty of what jkind of memorial was prepared by the unknown ! callers of the meeting, and also the perfect ignorance I ofthe general intentions of these incognito placarders, | prevented, or at least caused to be .neglected, the drawing up of any other address ; consequently the originators of the meeting had it all their own way. I am still rather mystified as to the motives of the gentleman who aimed .at the comedy line of -performance on the evening of the second meeting aad his political colleagues, who, after transacting their own business without impediment, came to the meeting apparently for no other purpose than to create uproar and confusion. I cannot call them opponents, for we came to the meeting -merely to express our' opinions on a subject of deep interest to us, without hostility to any one, and by no means anticipated any interference from those approving the first memorial. Thinking that the subject ofthe existence or non-existence of a representative government is of as much importance to the poorest settler as to the richest merchant, and believing in the right of every man to express his opinions, without which reason itself would avail ' but little, and which is not merely essential to freedom, but is the spirit of liberty itself, I shall still I exercise the right in spite of any purseproud dictatorship. The Editor of the Wellington Independent and his correspondent wax very wroth at the remarks made,' in the Spectator of Saturday last, on a gentleman who, to judge from his talent for reviling others, we may reasonably infer; should* be ibme-

what callous to censure himself. If, instead of argument, he abuses other gentlemen as cringers, crawlers, and the like, he cannot expect his' own vagaries to pass without comment from those whom he wantonly attacks. He, -whose only logic is slander and the slang epithets of the fisheries, should not be so thin skinned. If gentlemen will pander to the folly of the ignorant, and assume a leadership in buffoonery, they must expect, that however such conduct may excite the laughter, it will hardly create the esteem, or induce the respect of the rational part of the community. If a British merchant will act the mountebank before a public meeting, the very,novelty. of the proceeding will cause remarks ; and this probably occasioned a Settler's letter, in which I can discover only a correct narration of occurrences, which every impartial person present at the meeting can corroborate, and no perversion of truth, or virulence of temper, as impudently stated in the Wellington Independent. I am, Sir, Your humble servant, N A Democrat.