THE HON. WALTER BALDOCK DURANT MANTELL.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XIV, Issue 144, 18 June 1879, Page 4

THE HON. WALTER BALDOCK DURANT MANTELL.

Mr Mantel! is a singular individual. He is endowed with rare and valuable gifts, but some evil genius at his birth imposed upon them, the curse of sterility. He is like rich auriferous earth, from which some sinister fate prevents the extraction of gold. We can see and almoet handle the glittering particles of precious metal, but we cannot separate them from their matrix, and turn»i£em- to practical account. A dragon is s&id to have guarded the gardens of the Hesperides ; and there are several dragoni which watch at the portal of Mr Mantell's treasury of learning and ability. His nature is cynical end somewhat churlish. He is a cross between Diogenes and Apemantus. He has no favor to beg of great men, except that they would not stand between himself and the sun ; and with Apemantus he would say — a Immortal gods I crave no pelf ; I pray for no m&n bnt myself, Grant I may never prove so fond, To txust man on his oath or bond." Mr Mantell is also sarcastic. He makes innumerable witty remarks, but they are generally personal and caustic; His temperament is not genial, though we are sure bis heart is kind and charitable. His friendship, when he finds a friend, muet be valuable, for there are, as we said, sterling qualities in the inner temples of Mr Manteli's mind ; tbe difficulty ia -to get access to that - sanctuary. Mr Mantell has also, notwithstanding his rather rough rind, a sensitive disposition. He is naturally touchy and irritable, and that natural peculiarity ia to outsiders, like a notice of •' spring guns" to possible trespas? sera. These are dragons which preclude access to tbe close preserves of Mr Mantell's mind. Bnt there is in it an organic defect which incapacitates him from turning it to practical ac- . count. He lacks that creative faculty which enables minds of mnch lower order to make the most of what they have. He fails altogether in publ i - work, and whenever he is caught and aet to do do it be is out of his element, and he rushes back as soon as possible to bis native freedom of thought and speech. He accumulates treasures, but they must only be looked ot from a distance by the public through iron bars, like the Grown jewels at the Tower. He has plenty of bullion, but he cannot get it coined and circulated as currency. This is the pity of it, for U is a sad public loss that so much talent should be unproductive. The meaeure and weight of that are remarkably great. He is eminent in knowledge of natural history. He has great official and political experience in the ■ colonisation of New Zealand.; He combines in a rare degree perceptive and reflective faculties with logical arrangement and power of clear expression. , Although crotchety and contentious, he can, if he chooses, say much that is worth hearing. He is "a fellow of infinite jest and excellent fancy." and although be cannot be said, in a popular sense, to overflow with bumor, he has in him an inexhaustible supply of wit. His puns, numerous, aa they are, often surpass the best of thoae * recorded in the lives of Sheridan and Douglas Jerrold. And yet, with all this wealth of natural and acquired intellectual power, Mr Mantell ia in public life only a curious paradox. Like Gideon's fleece, be is wet when tbe ground is dry, and he is dry when the ground is wet. ,