ORIGINAL CORRESPONDENCE.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 574, 1 February 1851, Page 1 (Supplement)

ORIGINAL CORRESPONDENCE.

To the Editor of the “ New Zealand Spectator.” Wellington, January 30, 1851. I Sir, —Of course there will in due time appear a report of last night’s most amusing meet- i ing. Such reports, however, frequently omit many interesting details which should on no account be lost; even that part of the proceed ings which is immortalized is often precisely the part which did not occur, and the speeches those which were not spoken. Let me put on record a few notes taken last night. I hate personalities so, with your permission, I shall , suppress the real names of the actors. For five I minutes after we were admitted to the Theatre we were allowed to gaze in silent admiration ; on the fiist-rate men who filled the platform. | There, in the chair into which he was yet to be voted, sat that talented man and eloquent speaker, Dr. Coarsette, of “ rogue, fool, or liar” notoriety. Somethin!; was said at the time when this able and temperate statesman

threw those mild epithets so generously around him; why’ any one should have blamed him I cannot imagine, for surely’ be hau a rigiit io no i as he pleased with his own: besides, this (with ' a little aid from the pistol) is perhaps the way in which first rate men shew their gentlemanly’ : tone and their impartiality in the chair. There too was the great Fiddlestone, doctor and duellist; there the mighty Fogs, that liberal compensator of his partners. There, almost | hidden behind poor old Scouse of the cetacean navy, was the noble Cockybee, rejected of the Jockey Club, and elected of Fiddlestone; and the amiable Fagin, adorer of the “ bows yews de jolly dams.”’ Many other first rate men were there, but I must, as the noble Snifford would say, proceed with the proceedings,—not very seriatim, but very seriously. I will not attempt to discuss the 11 ridiculus mus" of a Constitution which was then first promulgated by the inaudible voice of the ventriloquistic duellist; lam not a first rate man like him, nor a statesman like Fogs, but a plain bushman who must have time to think over such serious matter. So far as I could gather, nil it tHst W35 not 1)0 now cd from Orcv or ; Molesworth was to give universal suffrage to Whites, none to Natives, and to place the management of the waste lands for five years in the hands of the disciples of the nobly compensating Fogs. A working man having courageously dared to mount the platform and propose, amid cheers for Sir George, an amendment expressive of confidence in Sir George Grey, and satisfaction with his Constitution, was replied to by the first rate Fogs with that Old Bailey flippancy and clap-trap which, like all first rate gentlemen, he knows so well how to I use. He stated, and very truly, that he had I made this his native country; he has certainly I been borne here much longer than he would have been in England. The orator Sniftbrd [ prayed the settlers settled in this settlement to : consider considerately the Constitution which he and the other - first rate men had framed after considerable consideration, and then blazed forth in a rather undignified passion (“considerably ugly,” as Jonathan says) at the emissaries of Sir George Grey, who, as the honorable ex-member said so, must certainly have been present, but whom, in support of his hasty assertion, he unluckily could not name. His able and first rate tautologies being concluded (only, I hope, to be resumed on Monday), a little squeaking boy named MacQuinsey rose, and fluted forth a noble oration. “He knew why they wanted the Meeting adjourned” (a course which a gentleman had proposed to examine the bantling of a Constitution submitted by these first rate men to the meeting), “ they knew that then the man who was all for liberty” (in compensation), “the man who would advocate his” (the little boy’s) “ cause in the House of Commons, if he can get there would be gone! and then” (symptoms of blubbering) “ ’twould all fail to the ground ! —that we had met to deliberate seriatim seriously, and that if we adopted his” (the little first rate boy’s and great first rate statesmen’s) constitution, we should be free! and if not, we should be slaves!!!” Shouts of laughter rather disturbed the little Demosthenes; the frantic gesticulations of Fogs’ hand were at last obeyed, and the pretty dear silenced. After the clever jockeying of the impartial chairman, by which he made me and the majority who voted for adjournment vote also

* Tho way this first-rate man, at ono of his public exhibitions, pronounced les beaux yeux desjolies dames.

against it, an attempt was made by Fiddlestone to bring forth the bantling piecemeal seriatim seriously, which, however, failed. One orator complained that they had formerly on former occasions always been so unanimous, and, of course, ascribed to Sir George Grey, the bugbear of these first rate men, the opposition simply attributable to the presence of a few of us settlers, who have neither borrowed money norgotprivate compensation from Fogs, nor look to him for introduction to his or any other coterie. So end my notes, —I rejoice to see that the settlers tired of laughing at the ridiculous assumption (the only first-rate thing about them) of the Fox and Geese, are at last inclined to stop the nonsense of these selfstyled and would be “ leaders of public opinion.” Let these puppets of a Bankrupt Company be taught that there are yet in the settlement sufficient independent spirits to reject the dictation and resist the despotism of any oligarchical faction ; and that one “ opinion of the public” is strongly' suspicious of the ability and principle of men so soon driven to that ultima ratio stultorum, the pistol, as certain persons styling themselves “the Settlers’ Constitutional Association,” I am, Sir, Your obedient servant,