The Sun.
London, England, 1853-08-09 00:00:00

HE SUN, LONDON. TUESI-)AY EVENING, AUGUST 9, 1855.

advantages, necessary roads, port facilities to his
heart's content, a college, a church, a bishopric,
and a corresponding church establishment. As-
surances of this alluring kind were given in all
imaginable forms by the promoters of the enter-
prise.Distinguishedc personages belonging to the
society endorsed by their names
higher
grades
of
the promises of the Association. And those pro-
mises were trumpetted abroad not only by
orators at public meetings, but also re-
peatedly through black-on-white in the co-
lumns of the Canterbury Papers, of the New
Zealand Gazette, and of other periodical pub-
lications. An energetic pioneer had been found
in Mr. JOHN ROBERT GODLEY, the originator of
the whole of this magnificent undertaking. Be-
sides which, the exertions of Mr. GODLEY, as
Chief Agent, were enforced by those of Mr.
THOUAS, as Chief Surveyor ; of Mr. WAKEFIELD,
as Commissioner on Land Sales ; of Mr. BLACH-
FORD, as Accountant ; and of Mr. ALSTON, as
Secretary. Nay, these glittering promises were
carried so far, that the Rev. Mr. JACKSON was
designated the Bishop-elect for the diocese of the
new Settlement. Consequent upon all which,
three hundred land purchasers were induced to
embark in the enterprise—and these three hun-
dred land purchasers are now declared to
have been " shamefully defrauded," to quote
the simple phrase employed on the authority
of the Committee deputed to communicate with
Lord LYTTLETON, one of the most prominent and
distinguished of the promoters of the Canterbury
Association. As epitomising in the strongest and
the clearest language possible the charge entered
against the association by this Committee, on the
part of the unfortunate victims, the 300 land
purchasers, the subjoined passage is entitled to
particular consideration. It sums up the preface
of the remarkable pamphlet mentioned at the
outset of our observations, and is expressed in
the terms following :

" It is not pretended that all the members of the Can-
terbury Association were cognisant of the nature of the
evil daily perpetrated under the sanction of their great
names, in the course of these proceeding;, under which
they unfortunately imagined a great religious principle
was going on to a triumphant development. Nothing less
than an English Church community, perfect in all its
parts, could be tolerated by these high-minded and pious
gentlemen. Four thousand helpless Christian people
on an uncultivated waste, surrounded on all sides by
impassable rock and bar ; no church, no bishop, no
ecclesiastical or educational establishment of the meanest
kind • no preparation beyond a barrack for the labour.
ing classes, and a wharf subject to dues; no roads,
nothing but the hard earth and shapeless rock as it
was from the earliest ages ; —such and such only was
the disastrous issue of the greatest religious delusion
that could disgrace the intelligent sanctity of modern
days."
Such are the startling assertions made on
behalf of the sufferers from this bubble
blown by certain religious philanthropists, and
now formally submitted to the judgment of
the community by the Committee recently in
communication with Lord LYTTLETON. Further
allusion to the subject were superfluous at the
present moment one might conjecture on a hasty
glance at the circumstances connected with its
very eccentric rise and development. Reflection,
however, assures us to the contrary so forcibly,
that we cannot but be tempted to examine the
matter analytically, and in minute detail, at the
earliest available opportunity. It is obviously on
" the very head and front of its offending" in
every way entitled to some such scrupulous and
searching examination, this " greatest religious
delusion," as it has been called, of our vaunted age
of shrewdness and sanctity, enlightenment and
civilisation.