The Sun.
London, England, 1864-07-27 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS,

TIMM—We think that we can trace in the tone
of both Houses of Parliament on the subject of the
guarantee of the Loan to New Zealand symptoms
of a transition period—that is of a change of senti-
ment—with regard to the relations of the Mother
Country to her Colonies, which those Colonies, and
all whe concern themselves with their manage-
ment in this country, will do wall to lay to heart.
Old watchwords are losing their force, and no new
ones are found to replace them. A little while ago
such words as " our ancient and faithful ally,"
the faith of treaties," "the legitimate influence
of England in Europe," " the balance of power,"
" the encroachments of despotism," or " the excesses
of democracy," were quite sufficient to plunge us
into war with one half of Europe. Now we are
grown cooler and older, and require, i❑ addition to
these time honoured incentives to slaughter, some
proof that our national faith is involved, or our ma-
terial interests directly and unequivocally compro-
mised, before we plunge the country into war. Just
so with the colonies. In former times, and the tra•
dition is not yet worn out, a colony had nothing to
do but pick a quarrel with a tribe of neighbouring
savages in order to convince us that we wereat war,
perhaps with people whose name we had never
heard of, and of whose ex;stence we were not aware
till it was forcibly brought to our notice by a de•
mend for half a dozen regiments and a million of
money. This may still be said to be the o,t vial
faith on the subject :—We must defend our empire ;
a colony is a part of our Empire; therefore we must
still defend our celonies, without troubling ourselves
to consider whether they or we exercise the powers
of government, or are responsible for the policy
which involves us in native wars. But, though our
officials still hold this faith, proofs are not wanting
that much and grievous experience has shaken this
belief in the mind of the country. We begin to ask
whether we do not do enough if out of the taxation
and population of the British Islands we find the
men for our owa wars and the money for our
own expenditure; whether it is reasonable for
a country mocked with the style and title of Im-
perial away to be called upon to fight the battles
of some twenty or thirty communities, having
no common link with us except allegiance to
the same Sovereiga, and ready to resent as the
direst insult any attempt on our part to interpose
any check upon their powers of legislation and self-
government, or to remonstrate against any duty
with which they may think fit to burden our com-
merce or any institution which they may establish
at variance with our notion of good government and
sound principle. Lord Granville, in moving the
second reading of the bill for a guarantee of a loan
of a million to New Zealand, spoke by no means as
a man satisfied of the goodness of his case. He was
very far indeed from taking high ground. He ad-
mitted himself to be opposed, as a general principle,
to the guarantee of loans to Colonies, and justified
what was being done purely as an exceptional case.
It was impossible, he thinks, though wo know not
why, to divest ourselves of all responsibility for the
commencement of the war, nor was there any good
reason for believing that the colonists had supplied
arms to the natives to be used against them and
against us. For our own part, we cannot conceive by
what process of reasoning this country can be held
responsible for a war which is ❑either commenced
in pursuance of our policy nor conducted for our in-
terest, and which, when concluded, will be so by
Ministers responsible to an Assembly over which we
have no control. No doubt the immediate occasion
of war was the attack and slaughter by the natives
of a small division of British troops; but this mas-
sacre was in retaliation for a block of land seized
from the natives, and was only a savage way of be-
ginning a conflict long before determined on for
other and weightier reasons. As regards the sale
of arms by the colonists to the natives, we will
meet the denial by a statement a little more de-
tailed. In 1857 the New Zealand Ministry pressed
the governor to relax the ordinance which prohibited
the sale of ammunition and fire-arms to the abori-
gines. The Commander-in-Chief officially protested
against it, and wa►s supported by the Ilishop and at
least one friendly chief. 'lnc argument in favour
of free trade in arms was the desire to put down the
smuggling trade and the propriety of letting the
profits of the trade come into regular hands. Th©
measure was eminently successful. In the nine
months immediately succeeding June, 1837, there
were sold to the natives 7,8491 b. of powder and 752
single or double-barrelled guns. The English tax-
payer will be pleased to learn that very large profits
were realised by these regular traders. Orders for
the sale of ammunition were obtained in blank and
as a matter of course. The natives and colonists
were equally pleased with the traffic, and for
many years the Maozies have purchased little else,
and have forreed magazines with a perse-
verance and foresight which do them no little
honour. The colonists also have not only realised
large sums by the traffic, but have succeeded i❑
attracting a large commissariat expenditure, since
it is quite clear that Great Britain, having,• under-
taken to defend the Colony against the natives,
must increese her forces exactly in proportion to
the degree in wh;ela they are armed to oppose her.
The worst of it is that daring all this time the
Government has had good reason to know that the