The Nelson Evening Mail. SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 1868.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume III, Issue 32, 8 February 1868, Page 2

The Nelson Evening Mail. SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 1868.

We trust, for the credit of this fair province and of its inhabitants generally, that the meeting which took place on Thursday evening at the Provincial Hall, in reference to the anticipated visit of H.R.H. the Duke of Edinburgh to Nelson, may not be considered as any reliable gauge of the love aud respect with which theThroue and the Royal Family are regarded by the Nelson colonists. We would fain attribute to any cause than this the icy apathy aud utter want of spontaneity which characterised the proceedings aud contrasted so strangely and unaccouutably with the outburst of strong and hearty loyalty with which similar movements have been greeted not only in other colonies but in •other parts .of New Zealand. We would rather believe that the absence from the meeting of very many of our leading men, who might reasonably have been expected -to take a prominent part on the occasiou, or the singularly narrow and infelicitous ■choice of the individuals selected as members of the Reception Committee had no small share — -as was undoubtedly the case, in throwing such a damp upon the meeting, as rendered the adoption of the resolutions rather a matter of compliance with decent formality than the enthusiastic and unanimous expression of the public mind. If we could be brought to believe that the numerous and influential signatures which figured upon the requisition by which his Honor the Superintendent was induced to convene the meeting were affixed to that document under some misapprehension of its object, and that no particular anxiety prevailed that Nelson should assert her claims to participate with her sister provinces in the honor of a visit from the Queen's son, then we should reluctantly accept the unpalatable truth, and at least feel thankful that the province had not committed itself to the hypocrisy of offering a welcome to the youug prince, whilst, oblivious of the many advantages it, would reap from such an honor, it begrudged the miserable pittance — miserable as compared with the perhaps too lavish prodigality with which other colonists have delighted to honor the opportunity — which is required to provide for his merely decent and unostentatious reception. Bnt we require some more decided indication in this direction thau the sobriety of tone and sedateness of external manners which, truth to tell, is somewhat characteristic of public proceedings in Neison, and which exercised even a more than usual influence over the meeting on Thursday night, before we eau accept such a conclusion. There are indeed circumstances which would lead one to anticipate and certainly to justify something like a touch of extravagance in the feelings with which the bare announcement of the probability of a royal visit would be greeted by thiß community. It is the first time mute . its settlement that this '. colony ,

I lias beeu visited by a scion of Royalty. The people themselves, who constitute the colonists, when they left their native land — Many of them some three or five and twenty years ago — bid a long adieu to the sight of Royalty and of courtly pageantry. They came to battle with the rude and stern realities of colouial life, casting behind them the memory of a softer, but not so independent an existence as that to be met with iu new colouies. Aud now, when with most of them the first rough buttle is ov-er, uud they have settled down for life iu the country of their adoption, the approaching arrival of the Queen's aou in this colony seems to bridge over the / gulf of time aud space which separates them from those days aud that country to which their memory ever fondly turns, aud summons up an apparition that recalls aii the rosy time of their youth and of the early days when Victoria, the youthful queeu and mother, diffused throughout society, liijzli and low, the radiant influence ef happy domestic royal lile. Again, the sentiment of loyalty at the preseut day is .not, with us, the mere servile obeisance to sovereign power concentrated in the hands of one person or monarch, which it was in other times and is still in other lands. The nature of a constitutional monarchy is to do away with that less noble sentiment and replace it by one which is the reflex of the popular confidence in the justice and moderation of that exercise of sovereign power which is tempered by beiug shared with the representatives of the people themselves. And this honorable feeling of loyal respect and coufidencej which exists for the oecupant of the Throne, extends to all the scions of the Royal House, especially when — as we have every reason to believe is the case with the Duke of Edinburgh— their personal conduct and manners are such as to win affection aud respect. Independently, too, of these considerations, it is impossible not to overlook the imperative seuse of duty imposed upon us by our present status and future aspiratious, in according such a pro (per reception to the youthful sou of our Queen, as will become alike his exalted rank and our own capabilities. In honoring the Prince we houor ourselves, and in honoring: him with zealous earnestness and with sober unpretentious demonstrations of loyalty, we shall manifest not merely sincerity, but the universality and solidity of the bond of love and respect which connects us with the Throne. We have every reason to believe that the selection of a more extended, and if we may use the expression without offence, a more popular Reception Committee, and the immediate aud energetic adoption of of all the requisite preparations for the royal visit would have the effect of rousing us from the state of lethargic apathy which seemed to surround the assemblage ou Thursday evening, and thus enable Nelsou to vindicate her claim to the proud privilege, 60 eagerly and zealously sought by her sister provinces, of eutertainiug the worthy son aud representative of our liege lady the Sovereign of this mighty Empire. ■■■' ■" ih ■____■ _■-■■— ■ m ii i i ■ i i ■■_**- *■■■■—_—_._.—■— a