MR SEPOY HOGG.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume IX, Issue 2669, 9 August 1887, Page 2

MR SEPOY HOGG.

(To the Editor.) jC-...' _ Sir.—Readersof. Sydney Smis|r inimitable.eiplys'' and reviews tnay perhaps remember ' the - following passage-: „ . v of- {lie , 'aV tEcif^fcicg '. aa Jiayihg iJowidt:# ;totKftmennersanaeas^nS , .«id tnereiore ihe : . pecxtHat siren upon this iMtrumenJ ia ;^'uiallj cblcwkw to produce, in. the minda -o!-_ tha humane,.a ■ "great degree of mysterious terror, - A drawing

!'ofthe "liitao"" was imporioußiy" called'.forj and the want of it a subtle-evasion for whieh ; ' Mr Styles is fairly accountable;' As-he has; ljeen silent on this subject ; it is for us to. plain the plan.and nature of. thiß and unknownpiece of mechanism. A" then, isneithermoienor te than a is&t ' print in Bfiview for a " ktilfet". . and from the blunder of a printer hM Mr .' Styles manufactured, this Datfaleatf iCßttu i ment of torture calle'd a " ; kimcl" 'We were at first nearly, persuaded, by this argument against "kirncs"! we grew frightened ; but we looked in the errata,'and found MrHtabfv to bo always Mr Styles—always cut off every hope of mercy,- arid remaining for ever himself." '

" Sir,'l perceive'the: race of. Styles has not died out, though the raw of Sydney Smiths'/ who so admirably castigated ignorance and-presumption, I fear has. I was reminded of the passage 'I have quoted by reading ; that Mr Hogg, speakiiig at Mauriceville, s'aid.:~r '' , . They (the Opposition)-wciiild even tas salt and reduce the working men of New Zealand to thG condition ol the Sepoys ' This is verJJiemWe-11 can imagine \ j the thrill of terror w'hjclj 1 his audience -oHhafepql'tioiiif hfs'aiidirace which

know no'better—must naye fejt-whej|jA they pictured that bloodthirsty Major Atkinson, reducing-them to the miserable condition*': of an ; Indian " Sepoy." I can imagine tregor - j)i indignation with which Mr Hogg ejaculated that fatal wori! " Sepoy I" 'Unfortunately for. Mr Hogg hii Sepoy is a great',deal more harmlesa than Mr 1 j Styles'jZtnw., The-rlndian Sepoy is .; hot, as Mr fl ogg evidently seems' to'

imagine, some .degraded, overtaxed, starving creature. "The Sepoy, as most schbqltovs know, is > sow, a fat, contended, well fed,. "pted, swaggering dandy, who, takb him, all round, and -considering his- smaller ; . needs, js.a great deal better off tlian .tlie gi® : mass of our-felipw 'men., ,I,t is 'all very well for Mr 'Hogg to talk contemptuously of the Stpy, but if he .were in Benares or Allahabad. he.woiild Have to-be remarkably civil io tint Sepoy, or that gentleman would . want to know the reason uliy. I , dealt at some length with-this simply; to show, the noatoc this •, gentleman who wishes.to become'our law-giver, talks. I blame no-rn&u for illiteracy,/ without he is 'one who attempts to ridicule and make.little of others i'then I tliink.it is only just to show wh at. s.ucli' a : pretended • superior knowledge is worth, Mr Hogg ■' never attempts, a simile Qr. an illuswithout making' a' mess of it; and his,'f-facts" are as weak m his similes. ■ To paraphrase Mr with, Mr Hogg is always Mr Hogg -ways . . cut off from every hope of mercy, and remaining for ever himself. ' Perhapshe meant a Rpt. .; * I am, &c„ - Rihchusdbj; .