CORRESPONDENCE.

Nelson Examiner and New Zealand Chronicle, Volume IV, Issue 186, 27 September 1845, Page 119

CORRESPONDENCE.

To the Editor of the Nelson Examiner.

It is not surprising that men who are unacquainted with the political characters of our would-be statesmen, should think with " Vindex," that the noble lord at the head of the Colonial Office was incapable of a dishonourable, much more a dishonest act (I speak politically) ; but any body who recollects the precipitate retreat that noble lord made from his present office in 1834, under a promise from his then colleagues that no further inquiry should be instituted respecting his conduct regarding Canada (which promise was honourably kept by all parties), will not be so sceptical or surprised at the conduct of the noble lord or his subordinates towards the colony of New Zealand. Mr. Hope, I have no doubt, found ample precedents in the archives of his office for his late insult upon the understanding and common sense of the British community, in his Jesuitical distinction between an agreement and a promise; and I have no doubt he has also discovered, that for a man to become the mouthpiece of a party, there is so much duplicity to defend, so many equivocations to be persevered in, so much to be kept back and to dissemble, that, whatever may be the honesty and uprightness of his mind, his zeal, however great it may be at the outset of his career, soon evaporates, and he is obliged to replace it by artifice, by heat of temper, or by brilliancy of words. Always subject to attack, he learns to confute, but is unable to persuade ; consequently, he is heard with mistrust : then he attempts to bully the timid or seduce the wary by an affectation of candour ; and then, like Joseph Surface, becomes a hypocrite. Whether the noble lord, following out his precedent of 1834, should make a similar retreat from his office as he has from the arena where alone his conduct could be fairly tried, remains to be seen. But, aa there is every prospect of our lingering under the tender mercies of the Tory Incapables, it may not be amiss to remind the noble lord and his sub, " that there is honour even among thieves*' — that agreements must be made by words — and that agreements must be kept, or there would be no faith between man and man. Should they, however, hold to the nice distinction between an agreement and a promise, I would remind them that " Good faith should ever be held free from taint, Whether to one or to a thousand given ;

Remote from cities- and the haunts of men j Or facing a tribunal and amidst A crowd of fitnesses and formal words. Leave oaths and records to the base ; enough 'Mongst men of honour is apromite given." I am yours, &c, Senbx Alb us. P.S. Can you inform us if the report is true that Governor Fitzßoy ia gone to Sydney, and that the Government have followed him?