THE COLONIST. NELSON, FRIDAY, JULY 13, 1860.

Colonist, Volume III, Issue 285, 13 July 1860, Page 2

THE COLONIST. NELSON, FRIDAY, JULY 13, 1860.

In our last we laid before our readers an extract from the New Zeahnder, from which we learn the highly-honorable and flattering manner in which Dr. Hoehstetter and the various members of the Austrian scientific expedition had • been welcomed home; which, as it forms such a striking contrast to any similar occurrence which ever takes place in boasting enlightened England, demands some notice at our hands, seeing that two of our natives (intelligent, we presume) were permitted to accompany the expedition back to Europe. In the first place, we are pleased to see that the Austrian and Wurtemburg governments, whatever we may think of their political construction, and however great may be the boasted superiority of our glorious constitution, practically speaking, they leave the latter far behind in the matter of fostering genius and enterprise when engaged in the development of what, after all that can be said of the glories of conquest, are the true basis, support, and source of

all that can render life desirable or enjoyable, namely, the development of the hidden bounties and provisions of nature, waiting only the industrious and scientific labor and researches of man to bring them within the reach of and render them subservient and conducive to the support, convenience, and social enjoyment of the human race. And here we would say, without wishing to detract from the honour of the British soldier, that in many instances (we might even say in almost all cases) of the exploration of new and uninhabited countries, or if inhabited solely occupied by ignorant and savage races, the hardships, difficulties, personal dangers, and privations, are often much greater and more lastingly afflicting than that of the soldier; and even where the former are voluntary, undertaken from purely patriotic and scientific motives, without either hope or expectation of any personal, profitable, (or substantial return, seldom, even after having achieved every object which they were in search of, find the profit side of the amount, self-gratifica-tion at their success accompanied witfc a damaged constitution with a beggar's blessing for their pains, and perhaps a stone monument erected to commemorate the gratitude of their country for the benefit it has derived during the century that has elapsed since they died, perhaps in penury or of a premature death unnoticed and forgotten at the time. Will not any one conversant with the history of the intelligence, genius, and enterprise of some of not only England's but the world's greatest benefactors, say, ought such facts not to be sufficient to make Englishmen hide their heads with mortification and shame when they find their country outdone in the performance of mere acts of common justice, to say nothing of gratitude ? which latter feeling is sometimes brought into action when some intellectual or philanthropic biographer, in groping below the scum and refuse of pampered indolence and ignorance brings up to the surface the smothered recollection or reminiscences of those whom neither poverty, disease, nor death had been unable entirely to obliterate, and places them in juxtaposition with the imperishable fruits of their former labours and contributions to the furtherance of the true interests and permanent happiness of their ungrateful fellow-, creatures.

Now that our members of the General Assembly may be expected to be preparing for their yearly journey north, a little enlightenment as to what is likely to be effected or attempted upon some subjects of general interest would be by no means ill received by the public at large. Frequent enough have been the notifications of the assembling of the General Legislators, and sufficiently emphatic have been the hints and experiences of the past year concerning the wants and expectations of the community to lead our representatives to urge forward the measures which have for some time been seriously discussed by the publicForemost of these measures, and which has called forth more of public comment than any other, both for its expense and its utter inutilit}^, stands the District Court. Next in importance is the Insolvent Debtors' Act; or in plain English the abolishment of punishment for misfortune, and the distinguishing between the honest trader and the dishonest schemer. The first would be the abrogation of a superfluity; the second a creation of a just necessity. To ascertain the intention of our members on two points which have been more generally agreed upon than is at all usual amongst us, would be a wise precaution against disappointment to their constituency; and it becomes the more necessary to be assured of what we may reasonably expect through our representatives, when it is remembered that one premonitory word is worth a volume of disappointed invective upon discovering that the general desire has been set aside or indefinitely prolonged by any of the thousand difficulties which beset the legislative highway. Subjects which are so publicly and privately discussed and demanded as in the first degree necessitous, should be urged by those to whom the public have a right to look for advocacy and support.