THE COLONIST. NELSON, TUESDAY, JULY 10, 1860.

Colonist, Volume III, Issue 284, 10 July 1860, Page 2

THE COLONIST. NELSON, TUESDAY, JULY 10, 1860.

* The consideration of money lias so taken possession of men's minds, that not only do poverty and riches stand in the places of guilt and innocence, but are actually treated as such.' In our number of June 29th we extracted from the Wellington Advertiser a running commentary on the Judge's charge to the grand jury of that province. Speaking of the state of society at home, as set forth by his Honor the Judge, the editor very justly observes that « History demonstrates the insufficiency of human laws and contrivances for the punishment of criminals and the repression of crime, while philosophy clearly points out that it is with the hidden causes of existing evils, and not with the visible effects, that legislation ought permanently to deal.' With one exception, we fully concur with the writer, which is, that the causes of the present anomalous state of things, so far from being hidden, are as plain as a pikestaff to any man who can see an inch beyond his nose; and, notwithstanding some recent amendments in the representative system, the saying of."—None are so blind as those who will not see," may be applied to the great body of our modern legislators. And so long as the present state of ignorance shall continue throughout the so-called higher classes of the first principles of social and political economy, judges and legislators, priests and prophets, may go on charging and legislating, preaching and foretelling till the • crack of doom,' with as little effect as they have hitherto done, until they shall have first convinced those'lords of the creation there are other duties besides the preservation of the privileges of their selfcreated order, by which the late Lord Grey, in his memorable speech in the debate on the Reform Bill, said, ' notwithstanding his bodily infirmities, he was still prepared to stand, and, if needs must, to fight for;' imperatively calling for earnest performance on their part before they can hope for the slightest reduction in the astounding statistics of their criminal calendars by the aid of their stupendous criminal code. The writer then observes that, * while it requires little or no effort to contrive and multiply means for the punishment of crime, it is in vain to expect that legislators will ever have recourse to any rational or humane measures to check the recurrence of it.' The evils of the old feudal system regarding the tenure of landed property has struck too deeply into the heart of the English social economy to hold out any hopes that any permanent alteration of one portion of society can be effected so long as the other portion shall have the right of framing and administering the laws by which the privileges of landed property are protected and preserved. The writer goes on to say, notwithstanding, as compared with former days, 'the vengeance of the law' has been in this boasted enlightened age somewhat softened down, yet even our present treatment of venial faults and misfortunes, and our mode of suppressing crime, will be received by unborn generations with as much horror and surprise as we now contemplate the cruel and irrational means employed by our ancestors for similar purposes. Again, if we look to our elaborate educational statistics exhibiting the high per centage of ignorance among the great mass of the people with a church hierarchy endowed with some ten millions of money annually for educational instructions, they afford, as is truly observed, ' when taken alone, and without reference to other considerations, no proof of the restraining1 influence of either elementary or religious instruction. Were we to follow out the whole of the

article we should exhaust the patience of our readers. We will therefore drop all further reference to redtapist statistics, and see if we can gather any ideas more to the purpose from the consultation of reason and and common sense. i - To persons reared under the influence of class distinctions and class legislation, it will perhaps be difficult to convince them how much men are conciliated towards one another, no matter how separated by education or worldly circumstances simply by becoming personally known to each other. It is human nature (though not the most amiable part of it) to think ill of those we do not know, especially when our interests seem to be opposed to one another by personal acquaintance, when there is a disposition to conciliate will of itself soften asperities, even if it do not generate esteem and respect. '' If masters fully understood the influence which even the slightest personal attention produces on the mind of their workmen, they would be more lavish than they are of a simple act of justice, which cost them so little and would profit them so much. Treat a man as a friend, and you soon make him one; treat him like a rogue, and his honesty must be much greater than your wisdom if he does not soon justify your suspicion. In no way are men so easily led (often, it is true, so blindly led) as through their affections; whereas, to begin by appealing to their reason would be fruitless. First win over their affections, then we have a firm natural basis whereon to build a noble superstruc* ture. The prevailing spirit of the present day is to educate them first; common sense says do no such thing. If you do, your first step is a false one; for it stands to reason, if you give instruction to a body of illiterate men who have been accustomed to look upon you with a feeling even worse than indifference, because they have never known or felt your sympathy, who feel that you have looked upon them with feelings nearly allied to contempt from the high station which they envy yon, you only weaken your position and lessen the chance of sincere respect on their part by bringing their cultivated reason to the aid of their old prejudices. If we closely examine the connection between the affections and the judgment we shall find that what men's passions have prompted them to invent, men's passions have helped them to believe. A moment's consideration would convince us that the reality of the connection between the affections and the judgment stands in little need of formal proof, inasmuch as it is clearly anticipated and accorded in the general conviction of mankind—a conviction most conspicuously manifest in their language and conduct—so conspicuously their language, wherein, for example, we find the epithets describing actions and dispositions transferred as a matter of course to opinions, as in the current phrases * profligate opinions,' 'uncharitable judgments/with others equally illustrative of that same conviction, Did space allow, it would be easy to support this train of argument by reference to the writings of the first philosophers of ancient and modern times. We will therefore briefly add, cultivate the understanding of your dependent fellow-meii through their affections. Give the labouring man titledeeds of his respectability, and he is independent of the world and an honour to his country; treat him with distrust, and you make him an enemy to himself, a traitor to the hand that feeds him, and an outcast to society. Man cannot be both a machine to minister to your cupidity and a friend to guard your interests as his own. You must know him, and you must show him,, that you take an interest in his welfare beyond the mere physical strength which sustains you in your social position above him. Until then the antagonism between the employed and the employer can never be obliterated, let judges, priests, prophets, and legislators, charge, preach, prophesy, and legislate as they will.