"PIONEEB" AND MR McILHONE.

Thames Star, Volume XI, Issue 3610, 22 July 1880, Page 2

" PIONEEB" AND MR McILHONE.

To the Editor of the Evening Stab.

Sib, —"Will you permit me to answer the letter of "Pioneer" which appeared in the issue of youi contemporary of yesterday. I have a reason for transferring the correspondence, which may be made known in due time. " Pioneer " seems to overlook the fact that it is both the privilege and duty of a British subject to scrutinize the acts of a public servant, and that this is one great lever by which the service is kept in some measure from being abused by bad or incompetent men. Noxr just iv proportion as citizens are lax, or altogether wave this undoubted right, so in proportion is the service likely to become unrighteous or impure. Public opinion and public scrutiny are two of the best safeguards the British constitution allows to its people, and woe be to the community, presently, in these days of increasing evil, which does not exercise these valuable safeguards. MrMcllhone was a public servant, and as such was open to the scrutiny of the public at the j Thames. Now, if what Mr Campbell I tells us in his lett ir to your journal is true I •—and it seems a very straightforward and truthful statement —then Mr Mcllhone in his public capacity has not done his duty to the natives by a long way. There rests the matter in a nutshell, while it is not at all likely that the Minister would have ho summarily dismissed' him had there been no real cause for dismissal. I look therefore at the matter wholly as a public question, and not as a private one, as "Pioneer" would seem to make it. I

have no ill feeling towards Mr Mcllhone, or towards any other nun. My religion teaches me to lo7e all men irrespective of their actions, which frequently I am obliged to condemn. I love them because Christ loves them and died' to redeem them, and my mind is to do even to my enemies a good turn if it lies in my power to do so. But as regards the actions of men, good or evil, I am taughi by the same religion to jadge righteous judgment—be these actions those of a public or of a private man. As to being frightened that Me. will get his billet again, this to me looks very suspicious, and savours of terrorism, but I beg to assure Mo. that I have no fear of him or any other man before my ejes, and shall always do what appears to me my duty to do without fear or regard for any man's pecaditloes. Let all men " cease to do evil and learn to do well," then no community will have much to complain about, either as regards their public men. or their private citizens. To show that I am not afraid I affix my name as I usually do— William Wood.