THE COLONIST. NELSON, FRIDAY, DECEMBER 4, 1857.

Colonist, Issue 13, 4 December 1857, Page 2

THE COLONIST. NELSON, FRIDAY, DECEMBER 4, 1857.

" As truth is truth, And, told by halves, may, from a simple thing By misconstruction to a monster grow, 111 tell the whole truth."

Sheridan Knowles,

Nearly two years ago, an acquaintance remarked, to a meeting convened for political improvement, that he would never consent to be paid for what, in his opinion, should be a voluntary offering at the shrine of legislative disinterestedness. Many honourable and patriotic men have viewed the matter in an opposite light; but this view entirely' agrees with our own. In these times of all-devouring selfishness, the predominant English parliamentary feeling on this subject should be cherished, so as to induce more of that high-souled, unbought service which is one of the distinctions of senatorial character in its more palmy state. Private wealth, it is true, enables many members of the British legislature to hold their independent standing in " the House " without the need of pecuniary aid from the State; but it may be doubted whether less affluent men, than the average of those who are membeis, could effectually serve their brethren unless they possessed more than ordinary virtue, fortitude, and magnanimity. Yet if English usage woje to open a channel, as some of our more gifted legists and political philosophers have desired, for men of science and worth, having the necessary mental qualifications, it is not unlikely that a. strong and pure stream of suitably endowed minds would regularly flow into the seriate, notwithstanding comparative want of the now ordinary recommendations of mere sterling ability. In the colonies things are very different from what they are where money seems to be the panacea for all defects, the representative of all capabilities; for there the staple produce of the several principal districts, and the euergy of the leading spirits assert their several kinds of claims to superiority, and to ruling authority. There humanity in its more native and primitive simplicity and strength is to be more readily seen and owned. There too it can better stand forth in public service, supported only by its own intrinsic desert and unborrowed proportions. Its own nature and more immediate demands, are there at once glassed in the more open element of popular sympathy. Even the degrading fashionable idolatry of riches, enslaving as it mostly is, must there give place to the more heart-winning bearing of hearty justice and unmistakable sincerity' that silently shine through good conduct, and often light up the soul's truest clearness, obscured only for a limited time by blasts of adversity.

In the Jess artificial- circumstances of colonial life, a man's good deeds, contemporaneous with his daily movements, are his title to regard, meekly defying all disesteem where eyes can really see, and ingenuous breasts rightly feel. There a man, having first won his own severest approbation, may solely stand upheld by conscious integrity above the low level of temptation, on the firm footing of correct principles and doings suited to all duration. Such a one, more jealous of the satisfying honour accorded by his own serious judgment than that of strangers or even casual acquaintance who want the fitting key to his motives and resulting actions, may now and then surprise the slightly reflecting, when he seeks to serve his fellows without any patronage but that of a deportment with which they are partially acquainted, and of a good will that he feels within him as a deep and exhaustless well of restless purity. Mistaken as to his fitness for well-doing his neighbours may be for a time; but the fair growth of goodness along his usual course will justify the true virtues of" his more retired excellence. When he shows them, that however entitled to the " hire" of which his labours are worthy, he only desires permission to have the inward gratification of rendering them his sincerest aid, there is a presumption of something like the power of such effective service as heartiness only can vigorously employ. Fearless, free, and sturdy are that hand and tongue, which no groveling selfishness can prompt or direct, and nothing less than the pleasure of doing conscientiously exert continuously. Can you by stipends, for brief endeavours in a Council Chamber, reward the feelings of such a one ?^ It may be perfectly right for you to provide such remuneration, but his gratitude may have the highest enjoyment in refusing it, particularly if he be sensible that his ordinary resources are enough for him. Yielding to the best impulses of generous intentions, he becomes able to stamp his proceedings with the imprimatur of an esteem too precious for gold to purchase. Some may deem him odd, affected, eccentric, and even preposterous in his notions, —but such notions are the peculiar want of an age of nuggets, and of delving in the mire for the most adored of earthly particles, each of which is too often more estimable than a deity. Surely a practice, exemplified by a renouncement of the usual means of aggrandizement needs no trumpet; and it must, in the hour of need, even in a national council, advance against the people's enemies as an invincible phalanx, when accompanied by legitimate prudence.

We dare not insinuate, were we even disposed to do so, unworthily, that our members of Council, under the guidance of legislative mea-

sures, should cling to a stipendiary provision, nor yet that they should proudly refuse it; but we do say to all whom it concerns—alike heedless and dreadless of scorn—we know we halve your better sensibility oti our side when we say, let every one that feels he can afford it serve the public, during the short term of a session with all generosity, that his services niay be the more effectual. He who would command by his policy, must win men no less by uprightness in claiming his dues than by%is liberality in duly asserting the privilege of doing a nation good from-tlie delight alone of serving it to the best of iiis ability.

As " Hippocrates'" letter in a late number of the Examiner principally dwells on the innocence of Nelson, and leaves the point which drew out a " Colonist's" censure where it was, it may be concluded that the moral effect of a single remark in a long article quoted from an English journal, would have escaped the observation of any but those who have very peculiar facilities of diving into the recesses of the human heart, and discovering its weakness, its passions, and its crimes. The innocence of Nelson is the only thing to be dealt with. " flypocratcs " cites as a criterion'of that innocence, that the judge once or twice came here, and had no case to try. Happy Nelson, say we then. But arc there no crimes committed but by those brought before a judicial tribunal ? Is every crime mentioned in the ten commandments amenable to our laws ? .

Lot Hypocrates and everybody else./ carefully read the'dccaloguc through, and, pause^at" 'every division of it, and then look round" <this little Nelson, and say that it is entirely tree from the crimes named there. It is a deplorable fact that crimes against property are the only recognized sins amongst many in a commercial community. We do not say that Nelson is worse than other places. At the same time truth must not be perverted, by saying it is better. " Hippocrates" knows that the cure of a disease depends.in a great measure on a knowledge of its causes ; and that the cure of such disease is likely to be retarded if not defeated by any secrecy on the part of the patient. .

Was " Hippocrates" in court the last time the judge was here. If we mistake not, the _judge "made a remark that there was something in the state of society in Nelson that he could not understand ; and we believe he declared such state of society to be decidedly rotten. Has " Hippocrates" never heard of the state of society in that part of the province peculiarly affected by the richer classes of Nelson ? If he has never heard of or seen that state of society in that place, we beg that he will reserve his further judgment in the matter till he has ascertained the truth.

In conclusion, we may state that we do not pretend to indorse the opinions enunciated in all our quotations, as we wish our paper to be a fair, free, .open, and fearless organ of truth, come from what quarter it may. At the same time Aye shall be careful to admit nothing determined to morals or good taste.