Wanganui Chronicle, AND TURAKINA AND RANGITIKEI MESSENGER WANGANUI, JANUARY 3, 1866.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 9, Issue 572, 3 January 1866, Page 2

Wanganui Chronicle, AND TURAKINA AND RANGITIKEI MESSENGER WANGANUI, JANUARY 3, 1866.

“Give me,” said a Scotsman, many centuries ago, “the making of my country’s songs, and I will leave the making of its laws to any one that pleases.” The old Scot was a wise man in his day and generation. The Scottish people then had no literature beyond their songs, and these they all sung, both in the house and a-field. Fletcher of Saltoun clearly saw that a minstrelsy so prized and so pervasive was infinitely more effectual in moulding the life of the people than any amount of permission or restriction placed upon the statutebook could possibly be. Song was not only the’solace and delight, it became also the incentive and guide, of his countrymen and better still of his countrywomen. It formed and directed that indescribable and subtle but powerful influence, which we now designate by the name of Public Opinion. Perhaps Scotland, erroneously supposed to be so dull and dour, was somewhat exceptional in the matter of minstrelsy, as no country in the world is so rich in song of the purest and highest character —song which has the power to stir the heart and bring that mist into the eyes through which the spirit may catch its loftiest light—song which has swept down the aisles of time, without break or pause, quickening and gladdening millions of Scottish hearts, many of them this day at the ends of the earth. But other countries must, paort>or-loaa, have felt the power of a similar influence ■ Times, however, are changing and changed. "We do not sing now, at least, we do not sing in the same lightsome hearty way as the people of a byegone era did. Somehow the burden of life seems to press more heavily upon us, and we frequently sigh when we should sing. But in the absence of minstrelsy we have a substitute, so that Public Opinion still maintains its hold of communities, —is now, indeed, much stronger and its power more acknowledged in old-es-tablished countries than ever. In the British colonies the people have hitherto been too restless and unsettled to give their opinions the weight and force to which they are entitled, although we hope this source of weakness is gradually passing away. The newspaper in our day takes the place of the ballad. The Editor comes in the room of the Minstrel. Quantum mutatis ab illo Hectore! But comparisons are odious, and we, at least, shall not institute any between the two. Carlyle considers the journalist as belonging to a new race of preaching friars. One of these, he says, “ settles himself in every village, and builds him a pulpit which he calls a newspaper. Therefrom he preaches what most momentous doctrine is in him, and dpst thou listen and believe ? Look well, thou seest everywhere a new clergy of the mendicant order, some bare-faced, some almost bare-backed, fashion itself into shape, and teach and preach zealously enough for copper alms and the love of God.” Perhaps to look upon the journalist as a preaching friar is more near the thing than to regard him as a minstrel. He is about as poor as the former, and he is not so merry as the latter. Call newspapers what you like (some very dignified people are in the habit of speaking of them as “ prints”)—make little of them, if it so suits you ; but the fact remains that they form and give shape, as well as utterance, to a large extent, to the views and feelings of the community. This is simply Public Opinion —Public Spirit—of which there is yet too little amongst us. This is a fitting time, beginning a new year, to say that we desire, as we have always desired, to make more and better of this Public Opinion—to give it greater force and concentrate it on worthy objects. There is good reason for seeking to do this. It is impossible to exaggerate the beneficial influence of a sound healthy opinion. Where it exists not in some degree of strength politics become mere self-seeking, shabby deeds are daily done, and men having a little brief authority play the most fantastic tricks, Just laws are most necessary—although we are in the fair way of having too many of them, —but public opinion, rightly directed, is really above and beyond legal forms and restrictions ; it virtually rules the community. Law is or should be

the letter of popular sentiment, but public opinion is its spirit. The former is a very feeble thing placed alongside the latter ; indeed, the one, unless supported by the other, is so much waste paper. It has always been a subject of common complaint, as it is matter of every-day experience, that the law wholly fails to meet the greater numbers and the more cruel kinds of social wrong. Law cannot reach a husband who makes his wife miserable, and there are ten thousand ways of doing so without beating her ; law is powerless to make a father properly educate his children; all the laws that ever were made or ever will be . made, must fail to reach the crimes that drive wise men mad; they fail to avenge misplaced confidence or to affix even a stigma to ingratitude : law cannot obtain honour for grey hairs or teach youth modesty ; it succeeds in hunting down the larger game of the chase, but is perpetually baffled by the smaller deer. In short, it tries to do what it can, and let us gratefully acknowledge it does much, but it often fails where it is needed most. Unless communities are true to themselves—unless there exist among them, based upon the principle of individual responsibility, the culture of what is pure and noble in character—unless from week to week, and year to year, there is the promulgation of and adhesion to honourable actions —the best interests of society will maintain but an uncertain tenure. Wherein law is weak, therefore, Public Opinion should seek to be strong. And it becomes of inestimable importance to infuse into this power the breath of Christian truth—to make it a species of rule under which we shall bow, not because we cannot well help ourselves, but because it is in every way worthy of our allegiance. And hence, and to this point we have been tending all along, although it has taken us some time to reach it, the importance of newspapers,'as the helpers and exponents of public opinion, being conducted fairly, honestly and under a sense of responsibility. A high standard should at least be aimed at. Even amid the jest and the badinage which is not only allowable but (as we think) quite proper in a newspaper, the writer ought not to forget that he is a guardian of morality and an advocate of the common weal. We hare no wish to make too much of the thing ; and many of us in the provinces are of small account. But each one has his own little sphere, and should do his duty faithfully therein. We cannot all be clever or pungent or vivacious, but we may all be honest and true, and shame to us if we are not. We may take, at least, such a view of our position, —and it is not the highest view, —as shall deter us, even for the sake of a small additional profit, from pandering to the vanity of the rich or the lawlessness of the poor, and as shall ever induce us to range ourselves on the side of concord and good government. For ourselves we have no large or new promises to make ; we are willing to be judged by the past, and to point to it as an index of the future. And thus we commence the labours of a new year.