SIR GEORGE GREY AND MR. FITZHEBBERT.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 4264, 19 November 1874, Page 2

SIR GEORGE GREY AND MR. FITZHEBBERT.

■- «. The following telegram was sent by Sir G. Grey in reply to Mr. Fitzherbert : —“ Thank you for telegram. Surely men worthy of the great liberties they have will not let them be taken from themselves and descendants without a struggle. The British Parliament which gave these liberties thought them so valuable that it in each amending Act made them more secure. Pray telegraph as Superintendent to the Secretary of State, and point out the course taken as unconstitutional, and pray that no action be taken until new election should take place and the provinces heard. Parliament will at ones accede to this. —G. Grey.” We have, by way of Auckland, the missing link in the telegrams between Sir George Grey and the Superintendents. It will be remembered that we published a telegram from Sir George to Superintendent Fitzherbert, which was communicated to the Press, but Mr. Fitzhbrbert’s reply was withheld. It has, however, been published in Auckland. The Herald was favored with this brief but courteous message. “Mr. Fitzher- “ bert’s reply to Sir George Grey was “ as follows :—‘l thank you sincerely for “ ‘ your able protest against the subver- “ ‘ sion of the Constitution !’ ” Nothing more. A whole volume of satire in a single sentence. Mr. Fitzherbert’s face, when he despatched that message to Sir George Grey, would have been a study. During his long and active public life we venture to say that he never before enjoyed such a moment of extreme felicity. It was to him, doubtless, what “ the “moment of projection” was to the alohemysts of old, with this difference, that unlike them, he was successful at all points. Mr. Fitzherbert should recall his thoughts upon that occasion, and sit for his portrait,—an historical portrait; in which men might see, as in a glass darkly, the history of political intrigue in this colony for more than a quarter of a century. How he penned the message without laughing, those only who have the privilege of knowing Mr.. Fitzherbert can tell; and how the Champion of the Constitution at Kawau read it, without sidesplitting laughter, is “a thing no fellah “ can understand.” Like the Augurs, however, as a matter of policy they preserved their gravity in public, and so successful are their efforts, that our usually sharpwitted contemporary, the JS’ew Zealand Herald, has been imposed upon. It introduces the telegrams between the two masters of state-craft, with childlike simplicity. “The reciprocal feeling which “ exists between Sir George Grey and “ Mr. Fitzherbert on the subject of “ Constitutional changes is made manifest “ in the telegrams which have passed be- ‘ ‘ tween these two political veterans on “ the subject of Sir George’s recently “published ‘State’ document.”’ Thus the Herald. Now, we venture to think that a little more knowledge of the subject would induce our contemporary to change his tone. He is a victim of misplaced confidence. Mr. Fitzherbert, it will be observed, with his proverbial caution, commits himself to nothing. It is the other Constitutional Party that goes and does it, and the Superintendent of Wellington politely stands by and pats him on the back.. Truly, in the whole political history of New Zealand there is no exhibition of insincerity so humiliating as that which has been made of late by the high personages who so warmly espouse the Constitution.