New Zealand Spectator, AND COOK'S STRAIT GUARDIAN. Wednesday, September 26, 1849.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume VI, Issue 433, 26 September 1849, Page 2

New Zealand Spectator, AND COOK'S STRAIT GUARDIAN. Wednesday, September 26, 1849.

We have been favored with a file of Hobart Town papers received by the Agenoria, containing English news to the 6th June, of a highly important nature. Our extracts, to which we refer our readers, are very full, and embrace all the most interesting particulars. The latest news from Canada shews that the effect of pampering rebels, besides offering a premium on disloyalty, has rekindled the smouldering ashes of civil dissension, and threatens to produce a war of races in that colony, unless averted by prudent and timely measures of precaution. Every loyal subject will rejoice to know that the late attempt on the Queen's life has providentially failed, and that her Majesty escaped without injury. From another extract it appears that the New Zealand Company did not dissolve at its last annual meeting in May, as anticipated by Mr. Wakefield, but " like a wounded snake, drags its slow length along," for another twelve months, trusting to the chapter of accidents for some lucky and unexpected turn in its favour.

The following, which is taken from the Hobart Town Courier, is an extract from an article in the Times of June 2nd, on Sir George Grey's proposed Constitution for this colony, which we infer has heen made public in England. The extract excites our curiosity to peruse the whole article, but it is evident that the judgment of " the leading Journal of Europe" is highly favourable to Sir George Grey's plan, since it pronounces its provisions to be "liberal enough to satisfy the most ardent friends of liberty, and the warmest friends to colonization." The Times indulges in a few caustic sneers at those who talk " like schoolboys about freedom, duty,

tyranny." &c, which are ssingularlyy v applicable to the Faction, who are as unused to " the knack of public business," as they are unpractised in " the courtesies of public dis-^ cussion." Such are the main provisions of -the new constitution ; and we think they are liberal enough to satisfy the most ardent friends of > liberty, and the warmest enthusiasts in colonization. Of course in this, as in every other scheme, it is easy to pick holes. There appear to us to be two points open to objection. One is, that a species of government which should in a colony precede every other is permitted rather than prescribed, — hinted at rather than delineated, viz., the municipal. Now, this is the first and archetypal form of all self-government. It is the simplest, the most natural, and the most necessary. It comes home to the business and wants of every inhabitant in every district. Men who are indifferent about the grander subjects of general policy feel very strongly and think very much, even if they do not think very ! profoundly, about assessing themselves to deter the parochial burglar, or to remedy the provincial drought. Bridewells, chapels, schools, dams, reservoirs, all are needful ; and all require money for their construction. Each man, therefore, in the district, or the town, has an interest in seeing that he himself does not pay too much, and that his neighbour pays enough. The little corporation or the parish vestry is the normal school for legislation. It teaches men to discuss matters of business in a practical or sensible way. It teaches the knack of public business and the courtesies of public discussion. Men who go into public assemblies without this preliminary discipline often begin talking like schoolboys about freedom, duty, tyranny, martyrdom, &c. Anybody who remembers having been present at a schoolboys' debating society must remember how very much more hearty, earnest, and intelligent were the discussions on the colour of a carpet, or the pattern of a tablecloth, or the imposition of a fine, than on the character of Rienzi and the comparative merits of monarchy and democracy. It is the same with men as with boys. Had France been trained by a series of municipal assemblies, the National Assembly would have been spared hours of turbulence and volumes of nonsense. We do not, indeed, apprehend that our countrymen at the antipodes will diverge from a debate on the salary of a civil officer, or the modification of Customs' duties, into rhapsodies about Harmodius and Aristogeiton, but we are convinced that two" or three years of municipal would have admirably prepared them for a great futurity of political self-government.