Correspondence.

Colonist, Volume IV, Issue 314, 23 October 1860, Page 2

Correspondence.

To the Editor of the Colonist. / Sir—Your manifest impartiality in giving full scope to a free and fair discussion of. the causes of the present war with the netives in Taranaki, and the manner in which it has, so far, been conducted induces me to trouble you with a few passing thoughts upon tiie all-absorbing subject. Notwithstanding the remarkable theory advanced by Hobbes, of Malmesbury, that war is the natural condition of the human race; I believe that Philosophy and Religion alike preve that Peace may be regarded as the normal state of society. It is the state associated with the earliest history of our race, which poets have lived to depict as the golden age of the world. That it is a desirable and healthy state few will be found to deny. It is that in which society puts forth its moral, intellectual, and material powers, and employs them for the noblest purposes. It is the state in which those kindly and social affections, which are the sources of national happiness and prosperity flourish and extend from families to nations, and from nations to the whole race of man. Its mission is all invading and all embracing. It is the natural state of man. And war is the dissase of the world, the corroding and pestiferous disease that gradually wears away a nation's highest life and strength, and however inevitable it may appear to be to many, in ■ certain social convulsions, it must always be regarded by the moralist as a death-dealing malady. War rests for its chief support on the force of public opinion, and it is to the diffusion of an eni lightened moral sentiment throughout the great nations of the earth, that the lover of peace must look for its speedy abolition. Civilisation is still advancing with rapid strides even among- nations that call themselves civilised, and is making vast inroads into the less enlightened parts of the globe. One barbarous custom after another, transmitted to us from the much-lauded wisdom of the past, has withdrawn into the shades of antiquity, and as the tone of public sentiment becomes wiser and more thoroughly christian, it will no longer be endured that our national energies and industrial resources shall be absorbed by taxation that goes to support an institution like the military system, which contributes little or nothing to the promotion of learning, science, education, the increase of national wealth, or the interests of labor. I have been led to indulge in these reflections from reading the account triven in your last issue of a Farewell dinner to Major-General G. L. Gold by the Officers of the 65th Regiment. Nothing is more marked in that entertainment than the self-glorification which pervades the speeches of these men-slayers. With all their inarching and counter-marching, their cannonading and rifle practice, they do not conquer the Maories and yet they boast'of their galbui'ry, and their fearlessly "atuiling at diffieuUies and dangers, confident in one another, determined to work to the utmost the toeal of the province" of TaranaUi. The complete abnegation or those for whose protection (forsooth !) they are paid, belies this assumption of honor and tire-lit. The cry of suffering humanity never mingles with their complacent enjoyment. They have "possession, andgthat is nine-tenths of the law." The idea of an impoverished body of settlers does not excite their sympathy. They forget the ill-fated individuals that compose that body—the men of property driven from their estates —the men of small capital reduced to poverty —the men of industry lowered in the social scale—all made to wait and learn their good pleasure. What care they for the wives and children of these men, whose homes need no longer defending; their cry is notjheard to disturb the song and the toast so freely called forth under the influence of the wine-cup. Even the widows and orphans are thrown upon their neighbors' charity, or consigned to the tender mercies of the Government! Thsir garments of sorrow disturb not the martial eye of him whose "heart throbs with delight " at the comfortable quarters of his " dear old Regiment." How is it their prodigious labors are not more fully appreciated ? How is it that the Press and the Provincial Council of Nelson should so ungratefully cause the chief of the Tigers to growl out a complaint against the "anonymous scribblers " of the former, and regret that "no power of redress could be obtained for the deliberate insult" of the latter. The truth seems to be that people scarcely distinguish sufficiently the various elements of which our military establishments are composed. One of the greatest prejudices of the English people is, that they wish to be governed by gentlemen—to have gentlemen to fight their battles—and to settle their disputes, &c. They expect a certain degree of refinement and education from their rulers; a culture not perhaps philosophical, or perfect, but still elaborate, distinctive, and conventional. This high culture tends to diminish the restless impulse to impatient action, from which the business yeoman, or trading volunteer is rarely free. In the haunts of business theie may often be seen men of prodigious activity and energy who are everywhere and always, who sweep like a rushing, mighty wind, over the calm region of regular life, and an idea often prevails that they are men of prodigious practical power. In business matters this may be all very well, and such men are apt I to think that promptitude ought to be an esseniial element in warlike tactics. But wise men in red coats know better. They know that difficult affairs are not managed at railroad speed—that no telegraph or invention has yet accelerated the anxious deliberations of the brain, as to fight or not to fight. They let the " violent person, 1' as the scripture calls him, pass on, and feel sure that the end will not be at the beginning. They talk gently about a want of judgment, of *' mens cotiscia recti'1 that leads to pity " false and calumnious accusers." They know that before activity they must coolly settle what shall be done—remembering at the very nick of time that beneath all the cumbrous and countless details which are the exterior crust of action, there will be found in all matters of practice, a small point and kernel of discretion, on which the conduct and guidance of the whole depends. Now the fine tact fostered by many generations of hereditary refinement, the habit of good society, the cultured watchfulness of the accomplished gentleman, are found in nice matters to outweigh the coarse vigour and ferocious energy of the low born upstart. flow can it be expected' that plain plodding settlers should know anything about those cogent " political reasons" which allowed not " the chief of the gallant j the brave old Tigers, fora considerable period, to attack Wiremu Kiugi,'1 and thus unfortunately to '•' forego an aggrandisement and eclat in the eyes of the military world," which would have transmitted down to posterity something more glorious than "'the services in the Southern Expedition, where, with the gallant sailors of the ships Pelorus and Cordelia, whole villages at Warea and Wareate;*, some 30 miles down the coast, with no end of pas, a mill, canoes, and much valuable property, crops, and corn, belonging to the Taranaki tribes, were destroyed." If the present unhappy conflict with W. Kingi and his natives is to be rtgarded as a mere " d.sturbance" and "not a war," as your correspondent Mr. Duncan parenthically states—then the full horrors of war in reality must be such as to cause the mind of every lover of humanity to recoil from its contemplation. For my part regarding all war as unchristian and impolitic, 1 cannot but feel that the experience of the last few months has afforded a convincing proof that in proportion to the prevalence of Christ's religion, which in its progressive course will take into its service and use, for its own purposes, advancing knowledge, and social, and political science,—mankind will, under the in- ■ $uence of this divine principle, learn to detest the love of military glory, and form' juster and nobler conceptions of the true honor of nations. A LOOKER ;ON.

Beggar woman; "Please sir, give nje a penny to keep me from starving." ,Gent: " Can't stop —in a great hurry—l've got to make a speech at the society for the relief q£ the destitute*"

Lecture.—On Friday evening last the Rev. T. D. Nicholson, formerly of this city, gave a most instructive and spirited lecture on the lifo aud writings of the celebrated Dr. Chalmers, who held a most prominent position among the great arid good meii.wbo abounded in England in the first half of the present century. The vigorous and racy style of the lecturer is well known and was remrkably effective in treating thVsubject of his lecture, whicii apparently is a great favorite with him ; and what a man likes he generally does well. We trust there wiil be no flagging in these lectures. Our amusements here are but scanty, and we know of nothing better than lectures to keep meu steadily on the moral track of sociality.