MACAULAY'S WORDS APPLICABLE TO NEW ZEALAND.

Taranaki Herald, Volume XVII, Issue 869, 20 March 1869, Page 3

MACAULAY'S WORDS APPLICABLE TO NEW ZEALAND.

To the Editor of tlie Taranaki Herald. Sik, — I am of opinion that the ideas in the following extract from Macaulay's critique oa Hallam's Constitutional History, are applicable to the present state of affairs in the North Island of New Zealand: — "If there be auy truth established by the universal experience of nations, it is this, that to carry the spirit of peace into war is a weak and cruel policy. The time of uegotiaiiou is the time for deliberation and delay. But when an extreme case calls for that remedy which i? in its own nature most violent, and which in such cases is a remedy only because it is violent, it is idle to think of mitigating and diluting. Languid war cau do nothing which negotiation or submission will not do better j a:id to act on any other principle is, not to savo blood and money, but to squander them." (A slight transposition will be necessary in tha following extract to bringit home to us) :—": — " Thi9 the parliamentary leaders found. Tho third year of hostilities was drawing to a close ; aud they had not conquered the King. They had not obtained even those advantages which they had expected from a policy obviously erroneous in a military point of view. They had wished to husbiitid their resources. They now fonud that in enterprises like theirs, parsimony ia the wornC profusion. They had hoped to effect a recon. ciliiition. The event taught them that the best I way to conciliate is to bring the work ot destructioii to a speedy termination. By their moderation many valuable lives and much property had been wasted." — I am, &c, W. Tatton. Tarauaki, loth March, 1869.