SIR GEORGE GREY AND THE "MEN OF KENT."

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume XXI, Issue 5445, 28 July 1879, Page 3

SIR GEORGE GREY AND THE "MEN OF KENT."

-,• <f Norman" writes a long and amusing letter ito the New Zealand Times on Sir i George . Grey's advice to the Taranaki settlers " to- be calm," because ' anything done under excitement in a time of ■ disturbance is badly done," and his reminiscences abo\it '*' a very similar circumstance which took place in Kent in my youth," ; " Norman" says : — *• I remember -all the circumstances of that 'Kentish affair as well as Sir George. - There is in some respects a sort of parallel • with the present affair at Taranaki, but in others- a great difference. The circumstances of the Kentish emeute were, iriah'ort", as follows,:— A certain lunatic who was at Urge in Kent (when Sir

George Girey was a youth) took: it into his head to patronise the " poor man" and make, him a ruler and a legislator, and everiso niariy other/ fine" things besides, and, for his benefit to f lit down,- iri a general way, all rich people, especially -landlords, and that in return the poor man should make him, the lunatic at-large,-a ki«po'r a-goyernory tp rule. them, 'and all -that sortof fhirigi > So ihialiinatio went about (in Kent) making speedhea' id the poor men and " operative classes," as ithiey are called ; and at last got them to believe in him, and that lie was a supert n/itural personage 1 .. 0" f stfurse; you' know, sir, that all he said was nonsense, hiit they believed in him none the leas for ihati J^o poof men armed themselves'with flails and pitchforks/ with the purpose of conquering the wholei wdrlcf, and putting down all" and'- Biindiy. (Vftse, poor men of Kent ! well worthy of a,, doub/e . franchis,6, like the Maoris.) Their first proceeding wris to levy Contributions of food from those abominable rich landlords, and also of stnidry half- : - .crowns for pocket money, to keep theri^ ..going until they could come at the Bank of England, While the men were raising sup*plie§ ill 'this Way ,. the 1 leader committed a -'corip'le of mifrdets in -the coolest manner •p'piSsibley. and without the slightest " cxi "citem'em j" which 1 shows that,, like Sir ; George Grey, he u'ndWrtftoo'd the propriety of doing, tilings quietly. The nei£t step of . the popr niteri and. operatives of Kent was to muster their whole ln'ob, and march in the direction' they tho"u'g'h't would soonest bring them to the Bank of England and New Jerusalem, which they believed to be both in the same parish — poor, poor men of Kent ! They did not, however, |jet very far before they met with ah impediment in (ha shape of a body of soldiers ; to remove which the ma"d leader, coolly f and without the slightest "excitement" (right again), shot the commanding officer dead on the spot, and incontinently was displayed the difference between the conduct of a well-behaved madman and that of a number ■of foolish men ! who" were' not mad at all. The soldiers a!t once . got into a m'osfc reprehensible sta^e di- il excitement. " even though it was plainly " a iirtie bi disturbance." They killed the well-behaved madman out of hand, and shot and bayoneted away like furies, until they had killed quite a heap of the poor men of Kent, and taken all the rest that they could lay hands upon prisoners, and behaved generally in a very uncivil nianner. Upon ■ recalling the circumstances of this Kentish affkir, I find the parallel is not so perfect as Sir George would give its to understand ; in th& beginning . it is correct enough, where we see a number of poor,' ignorant people led by the nose by a crafty and crazy leader, a long way in the direction of their own ruin, but before the comparison is • perfect we must wait until Te Whiti brings up his side of the parallel to the proper point, and then do, as liro'ldienJ did in Kent (leaving out the excitement of course) — a mode of dealing with the difficulty which . Sir George no doubt in. reality approves of, if < someone else will do the job, and give him ' theehance to blame them after it is done ; or why shottld he take us as far as Kent to show us an example for our guidance 1 '