THE GOVERNMENT OF ENGLAND.

Otago Witness, Issue 1751, 13 June 1885, Page 15

THE GOVERNMENT OF ENGLAND.

TO THB EDITOR. Sia,— At the opening of this correspondence I challenged Mr Adams to point to a single service rendered to the State by the House of Lords during the whole period of its existence. On his answer to this cnallence I staked the issuo of the diEcussion. Kepeatedly, and with tbe most unblushing effrontery, ho proclaimed hia atrocious ignorance by declaring tnat " the House of Lords procured Magna Charts -' Ignoring his paltry attempts at equivocation, I pursued him with this damping proot of hia ignorance, and nt) length forced him into the nearest approach to an admission of bis error that could be expected from one who has proved himself to ba the very embodiment of quibble aad contradiction. Observe, then, hlu manner as I whip him up (metaphorically, of course) to the distasteful task. He exhibits, as you will see, •11 the innocence ot the dove with the cunning of the serpent. You are no Etudent of history I tell him, cr only a very superficial one at most; yojr knowledge of history begins at the outside of books, and. ends there. The Hou:e of Lords, as it is known in hisiory, and, as it is known $0 pre-s-nt generation, is as innocent of obtaining the Magna Charfca as you ate • f inditing the j'eiterd of •' Junius." In some such way I pinned him to his a atsment, and finding every aveuuo of escape closed, this is how he defends his position "Mr Joseph," he writes, "said th*t the Witan of the early Knglish t!m;a was simply a Howe ot Lords, and therefore, he tiys in substance, if I stated th it the Houie of Lords procured Magna Gharca, Mr Joseph, aud not 1, is responsible for th« error." Here, then, ia lit Adams figuring as ths well-licked whimpering tchooliioy, and with consummate cowardice endeavouring to sav<j himself by faying, " Please, fir, i never said it ; it wm Mr Josopn." .Now I aak Mr Adams whother it is likely to inspire us with a belief in his ssif-re^pect, of which he epeaka so loudly, or if it is in keeping with hja boa=ted knowledge of ihe " eight diuiinguished "authors," that he should commit himself to a statement, perslso in its being an historical fact, brin*; forward garbled historical quotations to substantiate iis truth, and finally be compellod to admit lfea untruthfu'uoia But what seems most amusing to me In this matter is that Mr Adams, deep iv historic ilk re, the intimate of Creasy and Hume and tlallam, should bediivento tho pitiable erpedioni of torturintr Mr Josep .'a remarks into an ap"logy for his own perverse and reiterated ignorance I have on this particular point forced him t j swallow tho leek, and shall therefore Inflict no further humiliation on hlml I have for the present done with Mr Adams ns a chronicler of history. Lot us, the>e'ore, Bee how he acquits himself as a logician. "Zeno," ho writes, " (iocs not know what he ia aiguing abjut," and this is how he undertakes to prove ie :

"Zeno" ettted at the cpsn'ng of this correspondence! that he was thoroughly in accord w.th the opinion of your able contributor, Mr JT. A Joseph," which was tha) "the House of Lo'rda had ou 'Jived the period of its uaoulness." This I claim i> have proved by argument and by tha fact that Mr Adatm waa unable to poliit to a aingla service rendered by it to the Jstale that could establish its usefulness. Emboldened by success, and becoming aware of tbo insignificance ot mv adversary, I then went a step further, and in a subsequent letter said, "I am not sow discussing with Mr Adams whether the House of Lords ha< outlived the psricd of its usefulness, for I deny that it ever had a period of usefulness." Now Mr Adams ia his last letter, while professing to quote this aontenci in its entrety, con -eniently omits tho latter part, of it and thus completely alters its meaning and intention I forbear firm characterising such a tilcik in the only term it desjrves; probaby Mr Ada-u=> thinks It consistent with what hu would call hiaV'Belf-reopect." What constructive legislation, I asked Mr Adams, has this Upper House to sot against its eternal war against progress. He answers, me in his last in tho only form of argument which he seems capable of - that X by a nameless newspaper quotation. Hißtory, I tell him again, is as eiloot as tho gravo as to the constructive legislation of the Lords. And yet Professor Hearn, in his " Government <.f England," tells us that " tr.ov are, conjointly with the Lords spiritual and the Commons in Parliament assembled, the Legislative Assembly ol the Kingdom." Yet the profound and philosophic Mr Adams says they are not, and Ifttikq»s.teßk q»s.teß that nobody but himself and his venerable idoJ, •^Tord Derby, rcaliy knows what their functions are. And bo the matter stands. Good, gentle Mr Adams, even in the intensity of his bitterness he is unable to veriest a wish that I may not suffer in the eyes of mv Mends and acquaintances. Such a spirit of sublime humility is touching in the eitieme. As a small act of rep .ration let me advise Mr Adama against) a continuance of his literary escapades. Instead of being ammJng, as at present they may, if peisisted in, arouße the most serious suspicions of his friends. I symrathiae with Mr Adams in tho mental necessity that compels him to recapitulate once more those dreadful arguments of his. -.Ihis really seems a hard fate for one who has devoured bo many distinguished constitutional authors. But, Sir, from the beginning: of this correspondence Mr Adams has shown a lack of thought, of originality, or even common eenße, that contrasts very .strangely with his excessive pretensions to knowledge and reading ■ and not only that, but I find that he is guilty ot plagiarism more or less throughout all his letters, which I need hardly say is an indiscretion as dishonourable as it is contemptible. In his very first letter he writes • "Tbe Bicameral system accompanies the Anglican race like the common law," which.he extracted bndily and without a word of apology from Lieber's work on "Civil Liberty," and gave it to the public as an emanation of hia own teeming brain. Tho remainder of bi-» letters are similarly interlarded with purloined extracts, which this already long letter prevents me from noticing in detail.— l am, to., Zeno. June 8.

Mr H. F. Hardy reports the following salc^ of property :- Q iavtcr-acro sections IS and 18, block VII town of Bulclutha, to Mr John M'Oorloy, at £20 each Ten-acre sections at Balclutha, to Mr John Wilkinson at £7 per acre, tectjon 20 and four-roomed house! Argyle street, South Dunedin to Mr John Mulrhead for £180.

A woman named Mary Adamßou, wife of Peter Adatfisop, bakar, at Hawera, drowned herself in the river late on Moodsy night,