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Lyttelton Times, Volume II, Issue 68, 24 April 1852, Page 6

To the Editor of the " Lyttelton Times"

Sin,—-Allow me, through the medium of your paper, to address a few words to my fel-low-colonists on a very important subject. I mean the election which will soon take place of a new Council. So carelessly has the scheme for the political organization of the colonists been looked upon,—so conducive to the welfare of the settlement would be its success,—that I have been tempted, perhaps presumptuously, to take up my pen to urge upon your readers the advantages to be derived from a full expression of public opinion. The two chief arguments which I have heard against the scheme—if arguments they may be called—are these. Ist, That the proposed Council, having no legal power, would be useless, and that it would therefore be worth neither the time nor the trouble which must be devoted to it. 2ndly, That the assemblies for the election

of such a council would.only disquiet men's minds draw them from their occupations, and make' many of them mere ale-house demagogues. These are the chief arguments against the scheme among those who are not unmindful of the public welfare. As for those who profess an utter indifference to everything but their own private business or amusement, I have nothing to say to them, except to tell them, that in a smaUlSid struggling community like ours the selfisi'^|s.s they boast of is infinitely more to be blamed than amid a large population, where their voices would be scarcely missed. We shall find that if unhappily we are unable to avert the effects of mis-government from our settlement, this class of persons will be the first and the most clamorous in their complaints.

But let me return to the arguments which I have before mentioned. The first, that the Council, having no legal power, would not be worth attending to, is one which is often repeated, aye, and by those who ought to. have more sense. Of course no one disputes the fact that a Representative Assembly, legally constituted, would be preferable ; but what if all the colonies of the south seas have been strugglinoin vain for this boon through a long series cd" weary and heart-sickening years;—what if, as far from their object as ever, they are suffering all that can be suffered from the want of it; — are we to sit down and endure patiently and without a struggle all the evils of tyranny and mis-goverment? There are few who are unEnglish enough to answer this question in the affirmative. The next question, then, which suggests itself is—How can we resist? How can we struggle ? There is one resource left to an English subject when all others fail; that is, the right of public meeting, and the full and "free expression of public opinion : and experience has shown that this is not to be despised. Public opinion has made the tyrant tremble, has kept the public man in remembrance of his responsibilities, and has roused the dormant consciences of judges. When Cicero, in his welh^ known speech against the oppressor and tyrant of a province, warned the judges that he would appeal to public'opinion if Verres were nst condemned, it was no idle threat. (Would that we had more Cicero's now-a-days, we should not want for a Verres.) Approaching our own times, although Warren Hastings was acquitted, is there any one that doubts the influence that puhlic opinion has had over Governors in India, aroused and expressed as it was at the time of the trial of that great man. You, Sir, a few weeks ago, justly remarked that almost all great measures in England have been carried by the external pressure of public opinion ; and of all measures, any one embracing a system of Radical Colonial Reform must be necessarily so carried. It is not our duty to ask whether possibly the Reform party in England would not do their business just as well without our troubling ourselves about it. If all our colonies were to act upon this supposition, the opponents of our defenders in Parliament might justly turn round and ask them why they were so uneasy about matters which the colonies bore so lightly. But we may be thankful that the colonies are not inclined to do so. Shall we look round, and see our neighbours struggling manfully ; Australia and Van Diemen's Land by means of the best representation they can get; the settlements in these islands by means of "the readiest makeshift; and shall we then sit down and let them work for us too ? All must bear their share in the labour, if all expect to get a share in the reward, A means is now proposed for organizing the expression of public opinion, and we do not " live in times, nor do we come from a country in , which an unanimous feeling on the part of the^, people is wont to pass without effect. ' s " Numina nulla wemunt; mortali urgemur ab hoate Mortates; totidem nobis animceque mannsque."

The second objection to which I have allndt'M.' is one which would hold good of any franchise for the election of any governing power instituted by law. That assemblies for the election of representatives of the people would rouse men to consider and to talk of public matters there is no doubt; but the question is, in the first place, whether this is an evil, and, in the next place, whether there would hot be as much fear of ale-house politics without any such election, As to political enquiry being an evil generally, we must look to history for experience ; and the result of such a reference must be a conviction that every nation has been prosperous and great exactly in proportion to the interest taken in public affairs by its people. There is not room in a letter of this kind for producing examples

of what I state ; but what I say is not said rashly, nor without a perfect willingness to support my position. From the opinion that men would be needlessly drawn from their occupations, and that uproarious disputes would be created by such a scheme, I beg to dissent. I hold, on the contrary, that the proposed representation would be a kind of safety valve for the emission of all the discontent and ill-feeling wlfyj'h must more or less occupy the minds of Englishmen when they find themselves treated with the same respect as a pack of serfs, and are allowed as much voice in the management of their own money and their own business. It would argue a very depraved state of mind if they allowed this management of their affairs without their own voice and full concurrence to go on unshackled by challenge or protest, even though they were ever so well treated. Let no Englishman ever forget the words of Lord Camden, one of our most eminent lawyers, in a debate upon American taxation. " My position," he said, "is this—l repeat it —I will maintain it to my last hour—taxation and representation are inseparable ; this position is founded on the laws of nature ; it is more, it is in itself an eternal law of nature ; for whatever is a man's own is absolutely his own ; no man hath a right to take it from him without his consent, either expressed by himself or his representative. Whoever attempts to do this attempts an injury ; whoever does it, commits a robbery; he throws down and destroys the distinction between liberty and slavery." Nothing can be more forcibly expressed than this. And so we are slaves. Is it good for the morals of freemen, who have been made slaves merely by changing their homes, to be content to remain so? if any one holds this opinion, let him stay away from our public meetings—he would be in the position of Ate in the Peleian banquet halls, uninvited and unwelcome.

But I have trespassed long enough for the present on your columns. Hoping that my remarks may induce some one with an abler pen to rouse my fellow-colonists from their apparent lethargy,

V I am, Sir, your obedient servant, Civis