ENGLISH EXTRACTS.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 612, 14 June 1851, Page 4

ENGLISH EXTRACTS.

Havannah.—The new Captain Genera! Corda has arrived at Havannah and entered upon his duties. He was said to be rapidly gaining in public favour. His proclamation to the army and people indicated the course he intends to pursue. It advises a firm and prudent policy. The increase of force had reached 1,250, and more was expected speedily. The Count of Alcoy, the former Captain General of the islands, was to sail immediately for Spain, in the steamer Caledonia. —Atlas, December 14. Responsibility or Statesmen. —It is of the first moment that all who are, or are likely to be, called to administer the affairs of a free state, should be deeply imbued with the statesmanlike virtues of modesty and caution, and should act under a profound sense of their personal responsibility. It is an awful thing to undertake the government of a great country ; and no man can be any way worthy of that high calling who does not from his inmost soul feel it to be so. When we reflect upon the fearful consequences, both to the lives, the material interests, and the moral well-being of thousands, which may ensue from a hasty word, an erroneous judgment, a temporary carelessness, or lapse of diligence ; when we remember that every action of a statesman is pregnant with results which may last for generations after he is gathered to his fathers ; that his decisions may, and probably must, affect for good or ill the destinies of future times ; that peace or war, crime or virtue, prosperity or adversity, the honour or dishonour of his country, the right or wrong, wise or unwise solution of some of the mightiest problems in the progress of humanity, depend upon the course he may pursue at those critical moments which to ordinary men occur but rarely, but which crowd the daily life of a statesman ; the marvel is that men should be forthcoming bold enough to venture on such a task. Now, among public men in England this sense of responsibility is in general adequately felt. It affords an honorab e (and in most cases we believe a true) exp.anation of that singular discrepancy between public men when in and when out of office—that inconsistency between the promise and the pertormance—between what the leader of the opposition urges the minister to do, and what the same leader, when minister himself, actually does—which is so commonly attributed to less reputable motives. The independent member may speculate and criticise at his ease; may see, as he thinks, clearly, an with an undcubting and imperious conviciion, what course on this or that question ought to be pursued ; may feel so unboundedly confident in the soundness of his own views, that he cannot comprehend or pardon the inability of ministers to see as he sees, and to act as he would wish; but as soon as the overwhelming responsibilities of

office ate his own—as B oon as obstacle to the carrying out of hi ? Od ’ H cept such as may arise from the .. P an ‘ * does so at the risk of his count' and his own reputation—he is S L? “Mh strange diffidence, a new-born" 480 ! Witk i mistrust of his own judgment whkh • felt before; he re-examines he h • " he delays; he brings to bear upon th S tigation all the new light which offici i?' 1, ledge has revealed to him ; and fi that he scruples to do himself wbatV 113 * 1 not scrupled to insist upon before q M rooted is this sense of responsibility »•!"?’ countrymen, that whatever parties a •• 1 popular feeling might carry into p?* 8 ' 1 should have comparatively little dread f and no dread of corrupt, conduct on S part; we scarcely know the public man t when his country’s destinies were com * to his charge, could for a moment dr acting otherwise than with scrupulous^ 11101 rity, and to the best of bis utmost dili vuuvtvuo jUM gWCUW^ at a ]j - till the dulness of daily custom had laid hi - vigilance asleep. We are convinced that w Lord Stanhope and Mr. Disraeli to be b'' into office by some grotesque freak ot T tune, even they would become sobered ait magic, and would astonish all beholders 1 by their vagaries, but by their steadiness 2 discretion. Now, of this wholesome sense awful responsibility, we see no indicationamong public men in France. Dumont in his ‘Recollections of Mirabeau,’ “D,, 1 sometimes thought that if you were to si o ? hundred men indiscriminately in the slree( l of Paris and London, and propose to each to undertake the government, ninety-nine of th Londoners would refuse, and ninety-nioeof the Parisians would accept.” In fact find it is only one or two of the more expet. ienced habitubs of office who, in France evtt seem to fell any hesitation. Ordinary dt. puties, military men, journalists, and meuol science, accept, with a naive and simple con. rage, posts for which, except that courage, they possess no single qualification. Bt'i this is not the worst; they never hesitate, it their country’s risk and cost, to carry out their own favorite schemes to an experimentin fact they often seem to value office mainly for that purpose, and to regard their country chiefly as the corpus vile on which the experiment is to be made.— Edinburgh Review. Important Discovery.—A patent Is been recently granted to a physician practit ing in the metropolis, for a method of galvuically preventing the incrustation of stem boilers by earthy matters, a problem wbith has occupied the attention of practical ni scientific men for-many years. We undestand that the efficiency and economy of th plan pursued are placed beyond doubt, by th trials to which the discovery has been subjected. The galvanic action induced would seem not only to prevent incrustation, but even to remove it when present. According to our information an object is thus attained of the highest importance as regards stem power, while a new and most interesting fact is acquired for science. A Scene in Westminster Hall.— 0» ! day, during the term that is just over, a je* june junior rushed into the Exchequer with marionette, or little motion, and happened enter just as their lordships, in Banco, ww looking into a case that had been cited by tbe Queen’s counsel, who had been in the actol addressing them. The junior, unconscious of the state of the case, fancied he had found just the favourable opportunity to get a beating, and creeping into a back row, effected a tremendous clearance of his throat, with a to a sustained effort of eloquence. I* s “ al commenced, and got as far as “ If your ships please,” when the four Barons looke up with the air of very discontented Barons f and the junior, having got the eyes of Court, and believing he had also its ear, p lo ' ceeded as follows : —“ I rise, My Lords, the purpose ” Here he was interrupt® by an exclamation of “We can’t hear you, sft from one of their Lordships, an intimation 11 only caused the determined “ utter" to g r “ bolder and more distinct in his utterance. _ began again, “ I rise, my Lords,” aud once more cut short with “ We can’t heavy ll j sir,” from the bench ; which urged him 1 ’ stentorian effort of startling vehemence; ’ “ We can’t hear you, now, sir,” w ® sa could elicit from the bench, and he im®* ately left the court, remarking that he justice was blind, but its deafness he # aS prepared to combat with.”- — Punch.