No. III. TO THE EDITOR OF THE 'SOUTHERN CROSS.'

Daily Southern Cross, Volume VI, Issue 435, 29 August 1851, Page 3

No. 111. TO THE EDITOR OF THE 'SOUTHERN CROSS.'

"Wild, indeed, alvrayi kept at much truth ai po«sible in everything; and thii, he said, was turning the ctnnon of the enemy upon themcelret." Hittory of Jonathan Wild, the Great. Fulcra Lirerna, Da mihi fallere, da sancto juitoqne videri, Noctem peccatis, et fraudibut objice nubem. Hor. Epitt. 41 Let timber be pulled down from his home, and, being set up, let him be hanged thereon." Ezra, eh. v\,v. 11.

Sim.,— l proceed with my examination of Governor Grey's Despatches. You cannot alwaya expect untra'hs to be so unanswerably brought home to him at in the cue of hit apology for abutting up the Court of Requests. Few of the despatches can be ao fairly grappled with; it stands almost unriralled in audacity of misrepresentation, Velut inter ignet Luna minores, and meets you face to face. Their more usual character is "hit of eluding the graip, like the nightprowling dacoitt of India, whom you may catch but cannot hold, their naked bodies being purposely oiled from head to foot. But proof so logically con* elusive ii no longer needed. The charge of deliberite untruth hating been made good against one deipatch, the taint has been conveyed to all the rest. They are what the French call sutpectes: the writer can no longer fall back upon character, but is in the position of a man " well known to the police." — Henceforth it is easy work ; we have met at Philippi, and nothing now remains but to cut up the runaways. How Sir George can look a Blue Book in the face is to me a mystery , He must lire in daily terror of accidental revelations — never secure from the apparition of a mis-statement starting up in his path. His morning >prayer must be that of Falstaff at Shrewsbury — " Would it were bed-time, Hal, and all were well." [ I tike this opportunity of protesting, at the outset) against any charge of garbling extracts. You cannot afford me space at pleasure, and I mnst therefore condense where lam able. I quote no more from the Blue Books than is absolutely necessary to make my own remarks' intelligible ; and accordingly, once for all, refer those who take interest in the subject to the originalt. Let us analyse the despatch in which he excuses himielf for having charged Mr. Brown with having garbled an official document. The fac's of the case maybe dismissed in a fevr words : — Mr. Brown having obtained cognizance of a letter from the Governor to the Bishop, concerning Missionary land-claims, moved in Council for a copy, and was refused, on the ground of no such letter having been written.' What was refused within the Council-Chamber walls was obtained without, and publication in the Southern Cross ensued. Sir George made this -a matter of complaint to the Secretary of State for the Colonies,, and likewise accused Mr. Brown of having omitted " an important sentence." [It happened to be clearly unimportant ; but that is nothing to the present purpose J This oharge becoming known in dn<* time to Mr. Brown, through the medium of the Blue Book, he wrote forthwith to Lord Grey, requiring an unqualified retractation of the statement, the letter, as printed, being word for word as it stood in the original. Sir George admits the fact, but defends himself in the despatch now under consideration, by asserting that the letter was obtained, in a " suspicious," an '■ indirect," and "improper" manner; which terms Lord Grey, in the return despatch; concentrates into "surreptitious." His Excellency, now driven to shew tliafc Mr. Brown's • 'omission" was not his own " interpolation," sub-encloses a letter from the Rev. F. Thatcher, who says that the fault of the omission (in copying the letter actually sent to the Bishop from the draft) rested with himself. It is curious'that Mr. Brown, as if in the spirit of prophecy, should have used the following words when writing to Lord Grey :— " First, I ask that my answer to the charge should be allowed equal publioity with his Excellency's attack upon my character, by publication in the Blue Book. " And secondly, that his Excellency should be required to communicate to me an unqualified retractation of his statement : unqualified I say, for a mere attempt at explanation, such as I fully expect, under colour of a mistake, I cannot be expected' to accept." I will, nevertheless, take Mr. Thatcher's word for the fact implicitly, or for anything else that he may assert, as I believe will every one who knows him. Two questions only will therefore remain for consideration — whether the Governor told the truth in Council, and whether the letter in question was, "improperly," or " surreptitiously,"' obtained by" Mr. Brown. The following is the second paragraph of the despatch :— " I was first, about two yeara ago, accused by this Mr. Brown of having written i letter to the Bishop requesting him to use his clerical influence to enable me to accomplish what was described as an unjust political object. I then indignantly denied, as Ido now, ever having written a letter upon the terms of which such * construction could be justly put. I believe every one now admits that this charge was an untrue one." The case is admirably pnt ; splendide mendax — so much so, that I feel almost loth to msr it. But virtuous indignation shall not avail ; it may pass current in Powning-street, but hardly so in Auckland, wheie our knowledge of facts is more precise. •' Mark, now, how plain a tale shall put him down/* The matter was debated in Council on three several days— the 14tb, 18th, and 21st of September, The accusation of using clerical influence to obtain a political object was not made until the third day, the 2 1st. The denials of the existence of any such letttr were made on. the first and second day— the Governor not being then so accused ; on the thiid day, when he was so accused, the denial was no longer persisted in. Unfortunately for the despatch writer, those tell tale reports in the New-Zealandtr remain, like the bricks in the chimney built by Jack Cades' father, which " are alive at this day to testify it." A simple reference to the letter and to the report!^ will sufficiently prove the mis-statement of Governor Gr«y u

In the letter to the Bishop the following paragraph! occur :— " My wish, therefore, under these circumstances, would be, that the Missionaries would accept the offer I made them, through their Secretary Mr. George Clarke, in the Colonial Secretary's letter of the 15ih instant, and that thry would thin voluntarily restore the surplus land to the original Native owners or their heirs. * * Would your Lordship interfere so far as to communicate, the contents of this letter to them, and then recommend the course I have pointed out, or * similar one." It was upon thsse that Mr. Brown took his stand. He introduced the subject to Council by stating that serious and disastrous results to the prosperity of the colony were likely to ensue from the prevalent doubts of the intentions of the Gorernment concerning land claims, and requested specific information as to what classes of claims the Government intended to re-open for investigation. The Governor declined to answer. — Mr. Brown thzn gave notice " that he would move, on Saturday next, for copies of all despaches forwarded by this Government to the Secretary of State for the Colonies on the subject of the land Claims, and also for the copy of a dai patch recently addressed to tbe Bishop of New Zealand by the Governor, in which his Excellency had requested his Lordship to use -bis influence with the Church Missionaries to induce them to give up their lands/ " The Governor answered, he had written several letteri to his Lordship, but hid no recollection of making tny requeit such as bad been referred to." On the second day of debate Mr. Brown rose in accordance with his notice of the last sitting, to move for the production of all despatches that had passed between the Home and Local Governments on the subject of Lind Claims in this colony sincp November 1845. The Governor said, that they should appear at the proper time, and referring to a question mooted at the previous sitting, used the'following words :— " He was aware that he had written several letters to hit Lordship ; aud since the last meeting of Council he had carefully examined the copies of them, but he could not find any terms in any of them that bore the least resemblance to what bad been alleged as grounds for the motion." On the third day, Mr. Brown again moved, under another form, for a copy of tbe letter, specifying the date. This time, he did connect "clerical influence" with " political purposes ;" and this time, tbe G ivernor did not deny the letter, but turned the subject, by declamation about llrs land claims. Now let the second paragraph of Governor Grey's despatch be read again. I was myself present in the gallery upon each of the three occasions referred to. I was firmly convinced, during the two fi st sittings, that the letter had absolutely no existence at all ; I believed that Mr. Brown had found a " mare's nest," and confess to having taken a certain malicious pleasure iv seeing the hon. member, to whose political principles I have been always strongly, opposed, so far commit himself. The only other, non-official member present told me that he was misled, equally with myself. The denial may seem unaccountable ; capable almost of the reductio ad abturdum. The fact is, that Sir George was taken by surprise, and that Mr. Brown, though able to have described the letter much more specifically, Ted him on to believe that the request was grounded upon a bare surmise. A bold assertion might be therefore risked, to stop enquiry. But, for once, Ulysies was outwitted. The value of a distinct untrntb to a professed 6ppoarnt, was of cour«e incalculable ; .and the hon. member, with the address of an old tactician, lured him into the snare. He abstained, in bis motion, of the second day, from particularising the letter, as if afraid of having already gone too far, but merely asked the production of a certain set of despat<hes, in general terms. Sir George took heart of grace, assumed the offensive, and went out of his way to reintroduce the question : as the one reoeded, the other advanced : the weaker Mr. Brown's 'assertions, the stronger tbe Governor's denials, until they were finally clenched to the hon. member's satisfaction. So much for the Council Chamber : now for the mode of obtaining the letter. The Governor's despatch induces Lord Grey to believe that Mr. Brown had got possession of. the letter "in some surreptitious manner which he still declines to explain." " Tour Lordship will see from the enclosed letter from the Rev. F. Thatcher, who" was at tbe time alluded to acting as my Assistant Private Secretary, that the fault of the omission in the letter rested, however, with him, and not with the Editor of the Paper ; and this circumstance would immediately have been discovered if it hud not b;en for the indirect manner in which a copy of this letter had been obtained for publication without the knowledge or consent of the Bishop or myself. The error of this transaction, therefore, rests with those who were guilty of this first improper proceeding." How the discovery was retarded by Mr."* Brown's having obtained the letter indirectly, or how it would hare been hastened by his not having obtained the letter, is difficult to see. The sentence would have puzzled old Johannes Tzetzes himself, the Scholiastic interpreter of Lycophron— that most incomprehensible of writers, excepting Gorerner Grey. " The error of this transaction" (i. c. the erroneous charge of garbling a despatch), " therefore, rests upon those who were guilty of this first improper proceeding." Is not the reasoning exquiste ? The letter was obtained improperly : argal, the Governor was justified in asserting that it bad been garbled — in saying what be pleased about the matter, whether true or not true I - These, however, are trifles, mere way-side flowers, which it is tempting to stop and call, though loss of time be involved. Coming at once to the main point, I say that the letter was not "improperly" or "surreptitiously" obtained by Mr. Brown, and that Governor Grey's charge is of a piece with his usual recklessness of assertion. A, copy of it was forwarded to Mr. Brown, unsolicited, by a gentleman who likewise forwarded (a few days later) another to myself, with liberty to use it at pleasure. Mr. Brown did make use of his copy : for reasons irrelevant to the present question, I made no use cf mine. But is it not farcical to talk of " indirect," "suspicious," and "improper" modes of obtaining what had already lost the stamp of privacy. In the very letter itself Governor Gnj -unconditionally, without reserve— -requests the Bishop to communicate its contents to the Missionaries. From the moment of., such communication — which the Bishop had no choice but to make, or else return the letter to the writer, with a request that he would communicate the same himself— it became their property, as fully aa if it had been directed, unconfidentially, to the Missionaries themselves : it assumed the character of a " broad letter," an open document ; and to expect them to make any mystery about the matter would have been no less than • flit absurdity.— Without the consent of either the Bishop or himself ! The Bishop had no power to make objections} and the Governor had already waived them. Yet, in spile of internal direct evidence that, the letter need not have been ''improperly*' obtained, Sir George does not scruple to indite the following Stn'enci :— "I. perhaps hastily, concluded thai people who would not h esttate in an indirect manner to obtain

ii cojij of this letter, and to accuie me ot baring made in application to the Bishop, which I should hare regarded as disgraceful to bis Lordship and myself, would not hare hesitated to go one step farther, and to omit publishing a passage in the letter alluded to." Who, after reading this, can feel secure ? Is not trpsragragh a manifest outpouring of that vindictive spirit, which, if it cannot find ground* for an attack upon private character, will in rent them ?— Well may Mr. Brown, in his letter to Earl Grey, observe that " Every man here who* has a character to lo»e, and who has the misfortune to differ from his Excellency in political opinion, lives in continual dread of secret aspersions upon bis name.— Some, aa in thii instance, having been made public, are refuted, but a general impression obtains, that there is much in the back-ground which has never come to light." METOIKOS. August 21, 1850. P.S. — An editorial notice appeared in the lait number of the Cross stating that the letter of " Me* toikos" already in type, was unavoidably postponed for want of apace. Curiously 'noogh, a despatch has been since received from Earl Grry on the same subject. The letter stand* as it was written, there being no occasion for any alteration, j