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New Zealander, Volume XVIII, Issue 1672, 26 April 1862, Page 5

a people. It is much easier to misrepresent a man than to understand him. Sir George Grey must be content to submit to the misrepresentations of those who have no other key to unlock the mystery of his proceedings than their own preconceived notions of what is honorable and what is not. Of coarse the anxiety of Sir George Grey to maintain inviolate the national honor, can bear no comparison with that of the sapient scribes who sit in judgment upon his actions. Does it never occur to these theorists that Sir George may possibly be much better qualified than they are for discriminating between the real and the fictitious —the genuine coin and the spurious counterfeit; between what would do honor to, and what would tarnish the lustre of, the national character? It is really time to lay aside the hollow ad captandum phrases that have been so often bandied about in connection with the problem of New Zealand, by the advocates of a warlike policy. Sir George Grey is, doubtless, quite as sensitive on the subject of "national honor" as those who carp and cavil at his conduct; but the fact is, his definition of the term widely differs from that which his critics adopt. He knows that England cannot possibly gain any honor in warlike conflict with the Natives of New Zealand, and that even if she has been worsted in some encounters with " naked savages," it comports more truly with her honor to seek the subjection of her unruly subjects by peaceable means, than to put forth her strength merely for the sake of wiping away an imaginary disgrace. Nothing but self-defence can justify a war with the Maories, and Sir George Grey will not, in our opinion, allow the sword to be again unsheathed for any other purpose.