ROYAL CIVILITY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume V, Issue 1401, 14 May 1868, Page 5

ROYAL CIVILITY.

(Prom the New York Tribune), It is stated in the newspapers that the amiable Queen of England has sent a letter of condolence to Mrs. Charles Kean upon the death of her husband. If it be true, as sometimes asserted, that Victoria has by |her persistent isolation since the death of the Prince Consort lost something of the affection of her subjects, she appears by the publication of her hugbands biography, and by several acts which in monarchical countries are considered condescending, to be desirous of assuring hor subjects that there is nothing of royal hauteur in her seolusion. The sovereigns of England since the early dajß of George 111. have had very little to do with the Government. That wrong-headed personage, whenever he waa in hia right mind, fought for the irresponsible prerogatives of the throne with all the zeal and irrational obstinancy of the Stuarts. Aided by the French Revolution, he aucceed in fastening upon the nation for a long scries of years a Tory administration ; but he bartered the future of his house for the sake of a mero shadow, and when the inevitable reaction came there was nobody to oppose it, except a King who wassimply graceless by the grace of God. Hissucces;or would have made an excellent Bea- captain, but a cipher quite sufficiently expresses his influence as a rulor. It was to a throne assailed upon one side by Whig faction and upon the other by a growing spirit of democracy, that the Queen succeeded ; but as a woman, Bhe had a claim upon whatever chivalry might remain in the English character. We have sometimes thought that with maternal instinct, and with a full knowledge of the deficiencies of the heir-apparent, she was seeking, in his behalf, to reach tho more generous sympathies of those who are her subjects only in name. '1 he Prince of Wales, should he reign long enough, may yet be indebted to tho memory of his mother for the stability of his royal head upon hia royal shoulders. There are a dozen questions unsettled no<v, which cannot remain so for over. Ireland is one of the most difficult of these problems ; the land tenures furnish another, and the Church Establishment a third, while pauperism has certainly reached a height in H'ngland almost as great as it had attained in Franco when Louis XV bade a final farewell to his painted courtezanß. English paßßions may rise slowly, but, when once at their full tide, EnglisV history proves that they are not easily restrained. ■Tamos I. would have sent unybody who had foretold the fate of his Bon instantly to the Tower, and with but small delay to the scaffold. The English prophets of tho prasent day print their predictions in quarterly reviews and in daily newspapers; while those who think the throne has too much power, and thoße who think the throne has not power enough, seem to agree in the opinion that very possibly, sooner or later, there may be no throne at all, A democracy is the one experiment in government which the English people have never tried. They might like republican rule, and they might not; but if they should take a fancy to taste liberty, or even license, for themselves, a dark day might come for princes, for peers, and for prelates. Such a day would" surely be hastened by tho accession of a dissolute monarch for in these times the people would not hear what they tolerated, and even half approved, in tho times of the Megency. The throne, it is true, has not of itself sufficient authority justly to provoke any great degree of personal animosity, but it is part of a Bystom of which the remaining elements are peculiarly obnoxious—it is the key-stone of that arch of whioh entail, primogeniture, hereditary rank, and the church eatablißhm3nt (all distasteful alike to tho lower and the commercial classes) are the component divisions. Tho Queen, with the intuitive readiness of a woman, may comprehend the future perils of the throne; but whether conciliation and complaisance may be trustod to avert them, after the tragic experience of the Widow Capet, is a question for the students of history and the observers of mankind.

MORE COMPENSATION. Oh, Heaven defend us! what a shame To victimise us thus by plunder, For Busby's thirty-year-old claim, At last adjusted for a wonder ! And how adjusted ? let us see, Where, by what court of judicature P Or what new evidence brought he To thus invert the laws of Nature ? To force us in our greatest need To yield at once to his selection All our unsold estate, indeed, Of impudence this is perfection. That thirty years ago ha bought From Maoris seventy thousand acres, To us now matters not a groat, Who in his trade were no partakers. Slops truoked away in 'Thirty-nine, Or muskets, tomahawks, or axes, Or blankets coarse or superfine, Were cheap enough—they paid no taxes. But whether they were cheap or dear That question shall not long detain us, We only know that we are here, And Auckland's acres must maintain us. Now, nine-and-twenty years ago, Where Queen-street standi the mangrove flourished, And always when spring-tides did flow Its mud the scaly millions nourished; 'Twas thought by those who saw it then A fitter home for goose or gannet, Than for its present race of men, Or other bipeds of this planet. Now at that date, had Busby sold His three estates, both swamps and highlands, What would they realise in gold, From Waipu to the Bay of Islands ? 'Tis true the limes are altered now, And gold's abundant, Lord be thanked ! Then, one could buy what scarce he'd plough In twelve months for a single blanket. Eight hundred, thousands thirty-six, By Auckland paid would soon destroy her, And we must suffer for the tricks Of C n, and of Busby's lawyer. And, in addition to this sum, There muit be paid in Bpecie weighty, To lawyer J n and his chum, Three hundred sterling pounds plus eighty. Who does not see in this award The handiwork of Auckland's traitors, Who slily work with one accord With Stafford's tools of legislators, Who meditate both day and night The downfall of Provincialism, And bribe oach day, in broad daylight, Some Auckland serf to preach the schism. The venal schemer well we know, In Busby's cause who proved Bo zealous, For years has been our city's foe, Ol discord's fires the greatest bellows ; His calumnies in days of yore Against our ruler brought us sorrow, He drove onr first George from our shore, Aod would our second George to-morrow. B. B.