NEW ZEALAND SPECTATOR AND Cook's Strait Guardian. Saturday, November 28, 1857.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume XII, Issue 1286, 28 November 1857, Page 2

NEW ZEALAND SPECTATOR AND Cook's Strait Guardian. Saturday, November 28, 1857.

Press of the neighbouring Provinces has I been passing in review the startling events in I our recent political history. In another ' coininn will be found a series of articles on this i subject from the Nelson Examiner. Like that i paper. the Lyttelton Times, up to a recent period, I had preserved a reputation for moderate and | courteous language, and for good taste in ab- | staining from taking an active part in the poj lith-al warfare at any rate of the Provinces j '.’.lnch it does not represent. When it did rel t.c.i news from this Province, it used to bo in the habit of giving its authority at the same j time, so that the reader could judge of its au- ■ thenlicity. It could not do wrong in quoting j the opinions of Dr. Featherston’s party in the i Wellington Independent, or those of his oppo- ! nents limn this journal. And even a letter | from a Wellington correspondent, of either side in Wellington politics, sometimes appeared in its columns without being open to objection, provided that any reply from tho o'iier side were also admitted. Nor could there be anything wrong in the Lyttelton limes ' expressing its ( , v , n opinions, even in the I strongest language, as to public transactions I here bearing on the interests of the colony at large, amt involving matter for the discussion of the General Assembly or the interference of the General Government. But that paper, on the 18th instant, has suddenly taken a very different course. Without quoting any authority for what it alleges to be a statement of tacts, it plunges headlong into the arena of Wellington Provincial politics, in its leading article:—

“Al this very inomentj ” says the writer, “a remarkable instance of political insanity is brought under our liulice in the neighbouring province of Wellington. ‘’ln that province the late general elections have been little less than a revolution, as far as the city of Wellington is concerned. The popular men of four years ago are now rejected en masse to make way for others acknowlcdgcdty their inferiors in every requisite to form councillors. We have been all along far from agreeing with Dr. Featherston and his associates in the Provincial Government of Wellington, but we have given them credit for being able, energetic wen, thoroughly devoted tu the advancement of their province. If, however, a fair and honest opposition bad been organized on definite qiolitical principles we should not have been astonished. But, as in the case oi the Superintendent’s election, so in that of the twelve members for the town of Wellington, the opposition tactics have been simply a disgrace io the constituency. The Government party had to face public and private slander of the basest kind; they wire refused a hearing by mobs infuriated by drink and falsehood, which refreshments were lavishly distri' Luted by designing leaders. Every man of their party was indiscriminately thrown out, to make way for mere uobodics. The Superintendent is left to look for support to tbe country districts which secured his election. A hat Wellington has gained, and what will be done by the new crew of members, we are at a loss to conceive. Some idea of their political views may be gathered how the only detenninatiuu goido of them have come io:—to get rid of the Superintendent by hook or by crook. “To remind the Wellington Government party that ;»s they have sown the wind so they must reap the whirlwind, may seem ungenerous at this moment; hut in looking for tlic causes of the present state of affairs nt Wellington, we cannot conceal from ourselves the fact that the personalities so rife in Wellington politics were first introduced into the discussion of public matters by some of those who have now suffered from them. They must not bo astonished if, in the hands of <7 lower party than their own, a bad system will become worse, or that ribaldry and scurrility will be tho answer of the low minded and vulgar to the unfairness and vulgarity of purely personal attacks. However that, may be, Dr, Featherston and his friends have not flinched from the struggle. The experience gained iti the last month will not be lost upon them ; and, no doubt, as regards some of Lis ultra views, the Superintendent of Wi llington will be a sadder and a wiser man. We heitriily wish him success in the struggle which will < iiFue; success commensurate with his honesty ana courage !” really do not think it necessary to contradict all iLe glaring niib-stutcnients of which ><> many nn* crowded into a few of the above lines. But we should be. glad to learn who was the reporter or informant of the Lyttelton Times, which, not. being on the spot, could not Imve htxl I he advantage of personal knowledge o! tlu’in ? Even the Independent has not eouclie.; its false; accounts of the contest in Mich extravagant language. Both tho false statements, and tho comments upon them, coining editorially from the .Lyttelton amount, to insolent, if it were not childish, presumption. Who appointed its Editor

“mad doctor ",'.o the political majority of this province? lias ho ever felt its pulse? Can he judge of its sanr’/y ? Does ho rely on his own judgment, as to whether the 20 Opposilion members arc “ acltnmoledgedly the inferiors of Dr. Featherston and his associates in every requisite to form Councillors?’’ or, if not, by whose judgment has lie been guided ? What docs he mean by whining that he would not have been “ astonished," if the opposition had been organized “ on definite political principles?’’ Has he read the resolution, stating “the chief objects of a Radical Reform of the Provincial Government? Where can he show us any principles half so fair, honest, or definite, ever put forth by Dr. Featherston and his associates ? What does he know about our local politics ? As to the “ slander ’’ am 1 , the “drink,” and the “infuriated mobs,” —if the writer had made proper enquiry, he would have learned that the two first were most used by the Government party, and that the third never existed at all, except in his romantic imagination. The whole cost of the elections to the popular party has been probably about one fifth of the sum spent by the other side ; and the principal expense on the Reform side has been in printing and disseminating information. We wish the Lyttelton Editor joy of his good taste, in calling the chosen men of a large majority of the people of this Province “ designing leaders,” “ mere nobodies,” “ new crew of members,” “ a lower party than that of Dr. Featherston.” Who told him so ?

Again, when he accuses the Reform party of something dreadful, because they are determined to get rid of the present Superintendent, as he alleges, “by hook or by crook,’’ and praises Dr. Featherston’s “ honesty and courage,”—he entirely omits to mention the reasons which that party advance for constitutionally getting rid of Dr. Featherston, because he has shewn anything but honesty in refusing to carry on Responsible Govern incut faithfully,—anything but courage in calumniating in a lump the private characters of his opponents. All that part of the article sounds like the mortified vanity of some disappointed Wellington candidate, getting somebody in a similar predicament to revile his conquerors from a distance, in language which even the beaten party’s own newspaper, the Independent, will not go the length of using on the spot, where the facts are known. The subsequent part of the article, together with what we do know of the Canterbury politics, enables us to guess why the Lyttelton press has been so ready to discharge somebody elsc’s bile. Although the writer professes to be “ satisfied on the whole” with “ the recent elections in his own Province,” he draws his readers’ attention to the dangerous tendencies which always develop themselves on all sides in a popular election asks them “to consider again whether tjiere is not too much fear lest a ‘cry’ judiciously worked by intriguers and demagogues would not carry away a large portion of the electors against their better judgment ; and winds up with the following moral:— “The political anil social storm from which our neighbours ore now sutl’ering ought to make us prepare for a day—which yet we may hope is far distant—wben unscrupulous traders in political agitation tatty be active in stirring up all that is lowest c.-.il banal among us to fatten on the spoil while they laugh r.t the If wo thought that the Lyttelton Times represented the real feelings of the people of Canterbury, we should have to regret that at the very time when the Radical Reform party here, representing the majority of the inhabitants of the Province, have been expressing their desire for the adoption of more conciliatory behaviour towards the Sister Provinces, that of Canterbury should have adopted towards that majority the very “ unfairness and vulgarity ” of which their paper accuses us. But we know that this isl not the case. The fact is, that a “ revolution” of a somewhat similar character, but less demonstrative because the evils to be removed had not been so oppressive, has taken place at Canterbury. The elections there, both for Superintendent and for Councillors, have been of a popular, “ reforming” character. “ The popular men of four years ago” have not been elected in a majority there. Some of them are as bitterly disappointed as the rejected candidates here. Mr. Chosbie Ward, the proprietor of the Lyttelton Times, has fallen between two stools to the ground, and been rejected by both Lyttelton aud Akaroa. Has poor Mr. Charles Clifford, while on a visit to Canterbury for change of air, strolled into the “ Editor’s Box,” and exchanged condolences with him ? And have the two naughty boys, who couldn't get in on the would-be-aristocrat side, rubbed their fingers in their eyes, and their noses together, and concocted the ill-tempered whine of the Lyttelton Times over the horrible qualities of “ these mobs'l"

VVc turn from this paltry exhibition of dis appointment badly endured, to the Nelson press. We have given at full length so much of the Examiner's articles as relate to our politics; and we are bound to add that, unlike the Lyttelton writer, that paper shews fairness by extracting accounts of the elections from the newspapers of both sides here. We have little to complain of in the comments of the Examiner. He is, perhaps, rather hard upon the Radical Reform party when ho speaks of “ utterly condemning their unscrupulous tactics and unjustifiable language.” But some allowance must be made for want of local knowledge. We need only refer to the period when the opponents of Mr. Robinson, the present Superintendent of Nelson, assailed his private character, when first a candidate—(so coarsely and violently that a public meeting was called specially to rebut those attacks) —to prove that such terms would apply to the conduct of one party in Nelson not very long ago. But this trilling error is amply atoned for by the reasonable manner in which the writer subsequently states the only alternatives left to Dr. Featherston and iris party, in order to “show that deference for enlightened public opinion which they have always insisted upon so strongly whilst that opinion was in their favour namety, for him to “ eat his leek, drop his old supporters, and take up us gracefully as possible with the new men imposed upon him by the popular will or else for him and them, “to msign, and go into opposition," for which the Nelson writer says they are “ best fitted by Umir natural disposition to find fault and to criticise the acts of others.”

Ini: Marchioness arrived hist night after a ]>ass:ige ol eleven days from Melbourne, with t he English mails to Sept. Kith. Through the polite attention of Captain Krecft, we have been furnished with a file of the rrgus up to the 14th inst., containing a stunnniry ol the most interesting intelligence. Belin had been taken by General Wilson on the 18th September, and the whole of the city wits in our possession. Nana Sahib had com inittcd suicide, having drowned himself and ns family on being deserted by his troops. I arliiirncnt was prorogued on the 28th August, the aspect of affairs in Europe is peaceful and hopelul. The Emperor Napoleon had established a grand picturesque camp at Chalons. A meeting has been fixed to take place be* tween him and the Czar at Stuttgard. The. King Prussia lias been invited to be present, and it is said the'Czar is afterwards to proceed Io Paris tn meet Queen Victoria. Money was scaiee on the Loudon stock exchange, and on the continental Bourses. Consols left off on the Kith Sept, at 90 to 004 for money, and 90J to !H)J- for the account.