HAMILTON.—Sept. 22.

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume I, Issue 34, 24 September 1869, Page 3

HAMILTON.—Sept. 22.

(From our own Correspondent.) ! After several years of immunity our " lords 'of the soil " have seen fit to pay us a visit, to receive payment for the cattle depasturing on this run. Mr. Rowley, the manager, called on those having stock, and very civilly performed his —I should imagine—rather unpleasant duty; a,nd, to all appearance, pretty well to the satisfaction of the payees, for I hear few complaints ; the only bone of contention being that some fancied they were paying for the current year, when they were really paying for the year just expired—a ■thing they do not appear properly to understand, as they have never had notice that they would be charged.. Any other complaints are founded on the fact that the collector did not appear to adhere to any uniform charge, having evidently a peculiar way of his own in levying a rate ; audit seems a puzzle to tell whether he applied the ad valorem on the cattle or on the owners at sight. I may, however, as well mention that we all received a quiet hint that no one would be allowed to run more than five head, and considering that I have a great longing to be the possessor of a few " beasts of burthen," I feel rather annoyed at the limit. However, I think I can manage them : for I have an intention of getting married; that, of course, would give me a right to other five, and the consequences ought to still further assist me. But it appears.to me that it ought to.pay the runhoider to allow the residents on their run to depasture any number oil payment of a fair rate. I believe it is a notorious fact that wool is not paying much, and mutton is cheap and must further decline. " I .think if I were the " spirited proprietor " of 50,000 acres of land, 1 would be glad of the chance of allowing an unlimited number of cattle to depasture—or starve, as the case may be—a.t the rate of 15s. a head (I paying the assessment tax), and would quietly pocket my lis. 6d. a head, and remain their humble (servant; and would further feel inclined to oiTer up a sincere wish that they—-the cattle I mean—might increase and multiply amazingly. Instead of which, these benighted Assyrians are crying out that they will be eaten up by these four-footed locusts, and are raising a crusade against the modest owners of a few head of cattle, which they, perchance, have managed to purchase out of their rather precarious earnings, and which they hope

still further to augment by eschewing the ..whiskey shop. I submit that it is a sign of prosperity in any place when the residents layout their spare cash in cattle, or in any other manner which gives them an interest in the country, and by encouraging them it engenders a spirit of prudence and care —a desire to acquire or invest in something that may stand by them in the d*K of misfortune—and surely nothing*ould be more commendable than to see fathers of families striving, by their own individual labor, to provide against the evil day, and I would denounce that runholder as no christian who would discourage them - unless by doing so he injures himself, which I maintain he does not, while in receipt of a reasonable rate for pasturage. Surely they do not wish to be surrounded by an ignorant, grovelling, dram-drinldng people, whose only aim would be to earn sufficient to have a carouse from Saturday night till Monday morning, or to drive the more prudent from the country to seek elsewhere a more con- | genial society. Let them look to this, I and it may be that by studying the | matter they may come to the concluj si on that it is to their own interest to ! keep an industrious and frugal population as neighbors. 1

. How unfortunate that Mr. P. M. j Morony should have thought fit to ; publish that sublime epistle of his in ! your last issue, for it has been the ! cause of a serious quarrel between ray j friend A. A. and myself; and now, even at the risk of being "thought in- j consistent, I must request you to with- i draw the interest I sought to gain in his favor. You see, when I received the paper my friend, who was all eagerness to know what was going on among the honorable body called the School Committee, at once caught a glimpse of the letter referred to, and was so unreasonable as to declare that he believed the writer was a candidate for the vacancy which is about to occur, and in a. stigmatical manner stigmatised the letter as a flagrant attempt at bombast by a very conceited (though learned) man, and gave it as his decide;! opinion that, lie is not better learned, by many degrees, than any other man in Naseby; aud further " stigmatically stigmatised " his reference to the derivation of the -English language as a base attempt to insinuate himself into the good graces of the 110-d.mrriites, and wonders if the allusion to the external and internal appearance of " Impartiality " proceeds from a belief that he is marked with the small-pox; or that he is descended from some family of known hereditary pulmonary tendencies. But he allowed that he believed it was an error in printing, that he (Mr. M.) was supposed to say that " Impartiality " liad got an itch (for writing) ; and he said he considered that Mr. M. bad taken off his mask too soon, thereby showing | that he was not a clever man. But it j would weary you to tell all that my j friend, in the bitterness of his spirit, | said ; sufficient that I tell you it ended !in our mutual estrangement. But I ■ may be permitted to say that I took I quite a different view of Mr. Morony's • letter, and look upon it as the effusion i of a pure and virtuous mind, of a clear ! -and well-defined understanding, of a I good and noble nature, of feelings that | would not brook being included among t-a set of unlearned men, of one whose bosom was bursting to let the Hogburnites know that great and mighty learned man was in their midst —a man "whose soul was in arms to crush cliqueism in the bud, to drive bigotry from among them as a pestilence, and to raise the banner of charity and christian forgiveness. I can scarcely believe that any man could be so bold as to traduce him in such a vile manner, or dare to include him among the unlearned—he, who must have been acquainted with the very roots of the English language before grass grew or anything green was seen on the face of tlie earth, whose knowledge must date as far back as Adam, and who is intimately acquainted with the different degrees of learning, from number -nothing—downwards. Out on thee, " Impartiality; go ! hide thy ignoble head, for well hast thou deserved the castigation from the pen of Mr. P. M. Morony.