THE NELSON EXAMINER. Saturday, June 26, 1858.

Nelson Examiner and New Zealand Chronicle, Volume XVII, Issue 51, 26 June 1858, Page 2

THE NELSON EXAMINER. Saturday, June 26, 1858.

Journals become more necessary as men become more equal and individualism more to be feared. It would be to underrate their importance to suppose that they serve only to secure liberty: they maintain civilization. De TocaoitviLLi, Of Democracy in America, vol. T.,p.230

The question wbich was the other day proposed to us, and wbich we, at that moment, deferred answering, was an inquiry as to what was Public Opinion. We presume it was suggested by the circumstance that this same public opinion had been appealed to as an authority which ought of itself to decide a disputed point, and to render any further argument or additional reasoning on the merits of the case superfluous and unnecessary. The phrase is a good illustration of what Home Tooke observed, iv his introduction to the Diversions of Purley, that, although his work only professed to treat on the derivations and meaning of words, it, in fact, was a treatise on logic; since he was sure that, if disputants settled beforehand the precise meaning they attached to the words they used, they would see, for the most part, their dispute disappear, and. the question become no question at all. By public opinion, then, we understand simply, the belief of the majority — whether right or wrong; whether grounded on facts and supported by reasoning, or the mere creature of prejudice, and the unthinking assent spontaneously given to any proposition likely to advance our own private interests. But even in this restricted sense, which deprives public opinion of all claim to be appealed to as an umpire in any doubtful case, it is often quoted and affirmed to exist, upon very insufficient evidence. The fact is, that, upon subjects which interest us we are always strongly disposed to think that all the rest of the world must think as we do, unless they are fools, and therefore not worth counting ; and upon those which we do not care abput, we are equally disposed to be very much obliged to any one who will save us the trouble of thinking at all for ourselves. Cobbett declared that the secret of his success lay in constant and unflinching reiteration; and that he created a public opinion by affirming it to exist in full force already. Thus, at one time, no one doubted the existence of thirty thousand distressed needlewomen in London : letters were written, committees were formed, subscriptions raised, and vessels chartered ; till Carlyle, in a few pithy sentences, declared that he had sought in vain for a single specimen of the class, and, without success, had prosecuted the inquiry throughout the whole circle of his acquaintance ; shams, indeed, he heard of in plenty, voracious in appetite, and insatiable in thirst ; but as to a good honest day's work for a good day's wage, worthless: and so that public opinion was heard of no more. A short time after the republic was proclaimed in France, and, as it was thought, by public acclamation, we recollect being much amused by hearing a gentleman declare, that he had travelled through the whole country without meeting with a single republican ; and he did not know where the public opinion had hidden itself; for he had seen none of it. The old Duke of Wellington was hissed and hooted on leaving Apsley House, and, on the same afternoon, was vociferously cheered as he entered Palace Yard. Which here was the true vox populi, and which the imposture? Then, again, public opinion, in James the First's time, was decidedly iv favour of hanging, burning, and drowning some thousands of poor women as witches ; very decidedly condemned Galileo for teaching that the earth went round the sun, when every one who had eyes could see to the contrary ; was opposed to Harvey when he taught the circulation of the blood ; and would willingly have given up to popular indignation those who first introduced vaccination, for giving to innocent children the disorders of beasts. In Africa, a man must be careful how he talks irreverently of Mumbo- Jumbo ; and respect to Juggernaut was, until very lately, a political duty in India ; whilst even now, in :

Borneo and some of the islands of our own seas, a man is quite warranted by public opinion in burying alive his own father or mother, when it seems to him they have lived too long for their own comfort or his satisfaction. In the first place, then, this so-called public opinion is often not even the opinion of a numerical majority, but of a noisy minority, who make up for paucity of numbers by activity and turbulence ; and, in the next, when this is not so, it is but a poor support to depend upon, and a sorry substitute for selfreliance and the matured conclusions of a thoughtful mind. This self-reliance may indeed degenerate into obstinacy, and a man may mistake the promptings of diseased self-suffi-ciency for superiority of intellect ; but this mistake is not so common a one as its opposite ; and wheu it does happen, the ridicule of the world at large quickly applies its appropriate corrective and remedy. As the phrenologists would say, the organ of "self-esteem" is counterbalanced by the "love of approbation ;" whilst both qualities are necessary to the formation of a manly character. Without a due share of the first, man is a poor insipid creature — the mere ape of others, the retailer of their ideas, the servile imitator of their actions ; like the courtiers who suddenly fell lame when the sovereign limped, and when he became near-sighted, took universally to spectacles. Oh the other hand, without a proper infusion of the second he degenerates into a mere humourist; whilst the world compassionately shakes its head, and significantly touches it lightly with its forefinger when he is spoken of; if it does not shut him up altogether, leaving him only the consolation of the poor madman we once read of, who declared that the fools were in the majority, and had put him and all the sensible people into con> finement, out of pure envy and spite at their superior acquirements. Before, then, we allow the phrase " Public Opinion " to pass current, or take it in payment as good coin, we should feel disposed to put it to the test ; and, if found hot altogether counterfeit and spurious, still to inquire as to the quantity of alloy or baser metal employed! in its fabrication. This, as we before observed, forms a great part of the duty of the press; but it is especially the function of those who are placed at the head of a community, especially of a small, a newly-formed 1 , and a rising one. There the duty of the Governors is not simply to keep things quiet and comfortable ; not merely to ask what public opinion is, but to judge what it ought to be ; and their best response to tho confidence which placed them in their positions, and gave them the chief direction of affairs, as the most honest, trustworthy, intelligent, and well-informed members of the society (for that is what their election really signifies, if it has any meaning or worth at all), will be, not to follow but to lead ; not to lag in the rear, but be found in the van of improvement ; if their measures are criticized by a party, their no measures will be condemned by all ; and if they stand still while all around them are advancing, or put their hands in their pockets waiting for a little puff of popular applause to show them which way to steer, the chances are they will be taken aback all of a sudden, i and have the breeze they courted blow right in their teeth. We might have been able, perhaps, to make these observations more generally interesting, "to point our morel and adorn our tale," by choosing our illustrations, in days less remote from our own; and by pressing home politics and the events of the day into our service ; but our correspondent's question was a general one, and we have answered it accordingly: its application to particular cases may be safely left to tbe ingenuity and research of our readers.