ORIGINAL CORRESPONDENCE.

Wellington Independent, Volume VII, Issue 587, 28 May 1851, Page 3

ORIGINAL CORRESPONDENCE.

Tα Sir George Grey, Giwernor-inOhinf.

Snt,—l intend to β-lilress you from time to time, through the columns of the Indtpmiiknt, on subjects tlmt are commanding the attention of the public. I have some respect for you Sir George Xou are fur from being devoid of intellect, education! gentlemanly feeling, and popular address ; imd these qimhficatious would, if riglitly conducted, win for yon the esteem of the colonists, and promote the well-being of this colony. 15ut you cannot do as you would; you are only the instrument—-a very ingeniously mnnufactued and useful in«tr>imr>nt I will admit—in the hands of the officials inlJowninStreet. In obedience to their behests, (you will agree with me) you made a very sorry exhibition on Monday, the 10th instant. I wa s, and lam sure you were vexed at this. You yourself was, and felt yourself to be, a mere tool, and therefore you might have felt a little sympathy for the wretched possitijion of the few tools of your own that you had managed to pick up after a long and laborious search amongst the riibbusb surrounding the doors, or contained within the walls of Government offices. " A fellow feeling makee us wondrous kind." How many were there Sir George, sat at your Council Table that were not mere officials? Where there thirty? Twenty? Ten? No. A less mumber than that composed the Council, Lieut. Governor Kyie; Col. M'Cleverty; the Attorney.General • the Colonial Secretary; the Colonial Treasurerthe Collector of Customs; and (let me not forget) Captain Smith, could they be called independent members of the Council ? muck less could they be said to represent the opinions of the colonies? Had they courage to giye an opinion hostile to yours ? Were they capable of having an opinion at a! ■ They appeared to understand their position. I his is a proof they were not totallj blind; ami they evidently felt they were there for the purpose ;o. relieving you of a part of the responsibility incurred in tUe making of Jawa. and in the layin'" on of taxes, which might serionsly affect the liberty and property of the people, in which the parties interested had no voice, and over which they had no control. I knew that a man placed in the" posi- • lion you occupy would have all the snull % composed of disappointed office seekers &c , to contend with, b;it I confess I was totally unprepared to find you in the position you were iv at the opening of your Council. To see you the chairman of such a Council, composed of such men ! The mountain, truly, had been several months in labour, and as truly brought forth a mouse ! I would seriously advise you, Sir George, to pass your own laws in future, like a genuine despot, without pretending to be guided by men whose opinions, if they have any, cannot accord with those of the eolonis'ts, and who, cannot be said to represent any influential portion of them, or they never would have become nominees. lam no party man; and I feet I could not live in any countiy, or under any Government, where the people of the one did not feel proud of the name of Britons, and the laws of the other did not, embody the spirit of the British constitution, 1 thought that when I removed from the mother country to this colony, I should have enjoyed the , same political and legal priviledges I had at home; but if you, calling yourself the representative of tier Majesty by aud with the advice and consent forsooth, of two or three. military officers, sheep farmers, land-jobbers, and merchant pawnbrokers are to make laws affecting the life, liberty, and property, of myself and family, without being allowed a single voice in the matter, I am a slave,- and nothing else; and to hare the spirit of an Englishman and at the same time to pretend to have° any afleclioa for your Government as at present constituted would be downright nonsense. I am, Sir George, Your humble servant, May 35, 1851. ■- M,KOB '

To Sir G-eorge Grey Ooverwr-in-ChUf.

Sir,—ln calling together what you are pleased | to call your Legislative Council, you either desired to obtain the services and experience of men who could be saiJ to represent the general will; or you wished to collect together, as a Council, a certain number of individuals whs neither possessed the independence of soul necessary to qualify them as Councillors, or the public confidence indispensable in persons who undertake to legislate for British colonists—whom in part you invited for the purpose of relieving you of the responsibility of enacting measures that would tend to greatly increase the public revenues, or, in other words, to relieve the industrious colonist of an additional share of his hard earnings. If the first was yeur motive, I pity you, for never was a man placed in 90 painfal, and at the same time so ridiculous a position; if the last, I should sincerely pity the people if they allowed themselves tamely and silently to be thus bamboozled. In this cuse you forcibly remind one of the chief character in the fable of the Cat and the Monkey. A certain monkey observing a quantity of nice chestnuts roasting by the fire,his mouth watered to get at them, but this he did not like to do directly, himself, as he might chance to burn his fingers. On turning himself round he saw several cats, and these he endeavoured to persuade to lend him their paws, by which to obtain the temptim* treasure. One or two shook their heads knowingly, but another no wiser than he should be, and in the hope he should be rewarded hereafter for his devotion, consented to do the required service. The cat burnt his pa-,v, and the monkey got the chestnuts. But if I am not greatly mistaken, Sir George, in making use of this catspaw of a Legislative Couueil you are not likely to be quite so fortunate as the hero I have alluded to, but by chance you may burn your own fingers and lose the chestnuts into the bargain.

Seriously, I have a great objection to your dividing your despotic power witli a number of mdi viduals neither born to command, nor able to serve, and who have had " all their greatness thrust upon them." The government of a single despot, when compared with one composed of a number of petty despots, has many advantages. For, as an illustrious Frenchman, with whom you are no doubt acquainted, longngo observed, " in the one case I have only to stand against the wall when I see him coming by, or prostrate myself, or knock my bead against the ground according to the custom of the country; but in the other I may be obliged to repeat this ceremony a, hundred times a day. A pure despotism has also some other merfts. It is simple; it is known from whence auy public mischief springs; under it an amount of personal and social freedom may be enjoyed. But a government composed of a number of petty despots pretending to echo the voice of the peojile, and actually undertaking to make laws for, and levy taxes on them, is opposed to the genius of the British race, to the theory of their constitution, nud would not be tolerated in this colony only from the idea that it is harmless. Harmless ! the component parts of the Council ("poor little things) are imimless enough no doubt, but nre they as a legislative Council harmless ? and is the precedent for the establishment of similar Councils in future fraught with no danger to the freedom, prosperity, and of this colony?

Were 1 personally your enemy—liuil Ino admi, ration nni] esteem. Tor you, I. would say continue lh,o sitting* of your Nominees. For, as the wef> intrirn'ejy spun for tlio bees'of this hive of itidusr try lias failed to cutoli any thing bpt a few drones, from whom you cuntiot Kxtriiot honey, however anxious they may be to exirnct it from you, nil the mischief the Council may do, or advise you to do, will be laM on your own shoulders, and yours will he the hands that will put in operation, and spread it tlirouxlioijt the land. Therefore as a sincere councillor f would advise you not to be pampered, any longer by smgli a mockery of a Council, bot at once to dissolve it, avid proclaim undisguised!)- that in your nv/n person, singly and alone, is centered the Legislative and Exeotttive government of the colony. But remember, Sir George, when you do so, that the real, direct, and immediate cause of the downfall of the liberty and greatness of thp Greeks and liouiiins was the union of the legislative and executive offices in one body; and that every nation or colony has been prosperous and free, in so fur oa the legislative body was' the head that gave expression to, and the executive power the hand that executed the voice and IoHI of lite people. But you do remember all this, and hence the anxiety you have manifested to make the public believe that in yo:it> own government these two powers were distinct and separate. J3ut yoa see it will not do; therefore throw off your disguise, and let us look on you, as .you really are, the sole despotic ruler of these island.?. I urn Sir, Your obedient servant,

To the E'lilor of lite Wellington Independent,

Me. tlm letter.l, intend to sey n few words on the state of education in England, and tbe connection existing between ignorance and crime; but I think it will be well for me, before I proceed farther, to define wlmt I wean by the term Education, In one sense it means rearing or bringing up ; .and, when applied to youth, the development of intellect and the formation of character, In an extended sense, a!l persons are educated ; every home, workshop, &c, being schools where all tbe inmates are either well or ill educated, The education of the fireside has, for weal or woe, more influence on the destiny of the young ih:iu any other. It is here the character begins to he formed, and it depends in a great measure upon tha examples they here see, and the lessons they are here taught whut their future conduct will he. Imitation is one of the earliest, most active, and. most strongly developed faculties of the child, and therefore too mush care cannot be taken to exhibit before Lim only :,bal which is worthy of imitation. Ft has been well said, " few cm receive the hounurs of a college, hat all are graduates of the hearth." I consider there is a wide distinction between education and mere instruction in reading, writing, &.c, winch, when we are considering inSusnce it has on c!iaracter,-shou! J uot be lost a; o '!is of. Reading and. writing are simply iastruiueuts by which knowledge may be more readily acquired, and the intellect cultivated and e:iiiglitene<l than they would otherwise he; but a complete education consists in the full developement and discipline of every organ r.n-i faculty of the body and mind—both being so trained and strengthened as to enable the individual to resist or avoid any injurious influence that may cross his path on his journey through life ; while the finer feelings of his nature, his religious aspirations and emotions, are so nurtured aud directed as to enable him co discern aud to feel the great object for which he is created, aud to understand and practise those duties he owes to himself and family, to society and to God. A person may be well instructed iv all the elementary branches" of learning and yet may never have acquired the moral discipline and intellectual strength he requires to resist the evil influences by which he may be surrounded, and to fulfil the duties which , devolve "Upon hicY in this stage of his existence. On the other hand, a person, not knowing a letter in tiie alphabet, may be able to do this by means of example and oral communication alone. Nevertheless, as reading is the most useful and powerful instrument that can he used for the acquisition of religious, moral, and scientific knowledge, and for making us, as it were, the fellow students and companions of the great and good amongst the unforgotten dead, to.be able to read with facility is an accomplishment of the greatest value; aud he who possesses the means of acquiring knowledge, has, generally in acquiring these means from the books used and the mental exercise required, become also more or less acquainted with his religious,moral, and social duties, it follows that, though mere instruction is not education, the amount of such instruction possessed by an individual, may, on the whole, be taken as a criterion by whiah to judge of the amount of moral and mental education he has received. In England it appears, from the Eegistrar-General's report, that about one-third of the adult population of England cannot write their own names, and that nearly oiiefourtb. cannot even write or read in the most imperfeat manner. In Manchester and Salford, out of 169,223 persons of all ages amongst the working classes examined, it was found that 01 per cent, or more than one-half, could neither read nor write. I In Bury, out of 14,000, 73 per cent could not write; j and similar results were obtained in several other of the factory towns of Lancashire. But, contrary to the generally received opinion, a greater amount of instruction it was found was spread amongst the agricultural population than amougst the inhabitants of towns. The Registrar-General found from the number of persons who signed with a mark when contracting marriage wns much greater amongst females than males, and that the average of the whole who did so was about one-third of those who entered the matrimonial state: he, therefore, rightly inferred that this number could not write at all, or at least in a manner worrhy of the name. This report exhibits, glaringly, the great want of j even elementary instruction amongst', the English, people. We will now see what is the amount and extent of instruction amongst the criminal population of that country. From Parliamentary Returns' it has been demonstrated that not more than 4 in 1000 criminals had received superior instruction, and not more than 10 in 100 could read and write with any degree of facility. In three years, 69,517 persons of both sexes were committed for trial, of this number 30 per cent could neither read nor write; .34 could do so imperfectly; and 10 could read and write well. Amongst those who could read and write imperfectly, the question is not whether by dint of spelling letter by letter they could make out the direction on a sign post, but whether they had sufficient instruction to enable them to understand what they read, to allow scope to the imagination and the "judgment while they read, and to apply the information obtained to the practical purpose of self-improvement. Criminals who could ouly read and write imperfectly could not do this, and it may therefore be concluded that 90 out of 100 of their number were uneducated persons. Amongst the disorderly prostitutes of London and Dublin, only 3 in 1000 in the former and 2 in 100 in the latter city could read and write well, and only 1 in 1000 hud received a superior degree of instruction. From the above it is olear that the proportion of uninstructed criminals, when compared with the rest of the population, is more tnan double, aud that it is almost exclusively amongst the ignorant that criminals are found. lam not, however, prepared to say that even the complete education of the people would be the means of totally eradicating crime; neither nm I prepared to deny that edlernporaucously with the establishment of schools, and the extension of the means of education in England,