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New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume XII, Issue 1286, 28 November 1857, Page 3

Dull attention has been called to some senrrilons remarks in tho Independent, and also in , the Wanganui Chronicle, levelled at clergymen of the Church of England, confessedly as an . offset to the very grave charges which have been proved against Mr. Buller and his sou. The absurdity and irrelevancy of such a retort has been lately pointed out by a correspondent in . reference to the elderMr.Buller's flippant letter to ourselves, and to Mr. Brandon’s inuendos on the hustings. The Independent now holds out threats of being provoked by our censure of the Bullers into still more direct personal recriminations ;—and the same hand, or one writing in tho same spirit in the I> ’angar-ui Chronicle, has practically illustrated the meaning of the threat by no obscure intimation of the particular object and grounds of the intended editorial onslaught. We have too sincere respect for the character of the maligned party to deal seriously with the gross insinuation’ But the Independent, by its cowardly threat, has put itself into this awkward dilemma: —it cither ought or ought not to say what it threatens, whether against clergymen or others ; if it ought and can,—it is a duty to do so without waiting for provocation; if it ought not, —no provocation in the world would justify tho doing so; it simply would be abase and vindictive piece of spite, of no better or worse character than has all along marked the career of the official patrons of that journal. Those worthy gentlemen no doubt feel very considerably nettled at finding so vast an amount of "respectability and intelligence arrayed against them ; tliat. even clergymen of the largest and most, influential religions body, whether among settlers or the Maorics, consider it. a duty and matter of conscience, as citizens, to use against them that “ political influence” which, -Mr. Buller tells us in his sermon, “ as Christians wo must regard in I he light of moral accountability, aft well us of personal privilege.” Wo can only say that wo feci an unqualified satisfaction in the countenance and support of such unexceptionable witnesses to the goodness of our cause. But them wo do not forget, that the law of Parliamentary Committees recognizes such a political crime as “undue influence. Il is such we have condemned in the conduct of the

two Bullers. Religious denunciations, whether from tho altar or the pulpit, in their effect upon ignorant and superstitious minds, are justly enough censurable under this head. Anyhow, charges of clerical partizanship come with an especially ill grace from those who have taken advantage of the weak point of a preacher’s personal vanity io “ tune” one dissenting pulpit in their favor, ami have closely associated with themselves tho occupant of another, who, wc dare say, at a pinch, would not be backward even to “ demand a poll." The Independent, in its malignant personality, has not even the excuse of not knowing better. It is not the first time we have had occasion to point out the “ pot and kettle ” character of its morality. We recommend tile following “little scrap of Latin” as no nnappositc substitute for its present ill-assorted motto : —“ Vide,, melioru probmpie. deb-rlora *r. ijuor —for in the very article in which the poltroonisli threat alluded to is thrown out, occurs this grandiloquent preachment iv.'ninst its own characteristic vice. We quote it ad verbatim:— “A bully may seem brave while calculating on the forbearance «.!’ a i.ian >4 eliiinictor. Scurrility and low iiisinnatioiis are innvi-niciit wi.api,: s tlase who have the hast“,(•<- m own ihem. ’ll, y 1-iv«- ;i!--tliH fi>lvm:V:gr. a man of ri.-;><■< tabi’ity cannot mo the;.) i ;1 r ,■turn.’’ !■ : ’>•, ’ ;v i-,|- i! editeind “bully,’’ whether ol th-.- 1.-lcp-or Wu.-igamii Chronicle, thiit lie is cte'l by this “ udvaiHage ” in the present c.-tsf ; It.;we suspect the “ man of respcctabilii v ’’ who forms the object of his “low insinuations” would not bo found a 1 bigoted par.-on too far behind the times in “ intellt cinal cahbrc” Io prove more than a match for so “shallow a politician.”