NEWS OF THE WEEK.
ON Monday Lord Carnarvon made a good speech on the shabby and dangerous conduct of the Colonial Office to New Zealand, and would have made a better, if he had not been a good deal tampered by his own official antecedents. Lord Granville, who has been marvellously lucky hitherto in not causing a new massacre, either because the Maori tribes are more exhausted than anybody (especially Lord Granville) believed, or are divided amongst themselves, was in admirable spirits, and made some very .amusing remarks on the " renovated condition" of the opposite Bench, on the gallantry of the Duke of Richmond in undertaking the leadership, on the danger that he would find a rival near his throne if it were true that that man would always lead the party who showed " most sport," and on Lord Carnarvon's great apti- tudes in that direction, especially since, like Antmus, he had been restored to his pristine strength by renewed contact with the bench of leaders. He quoted an Australian politician's description of Lord Carnarvon as a statesman who used to have an old head on young shoulders, but who has now got a boy's head on old shoulders ; and, in fact, indulged so far in chaff of every- body opposed to him in this controversy, that his speech may almost have been said to wallow in chaff. For the present, we must admit that Lord Granville's policy has had more success,—or more luck,—than it deserved. But it is dangerous to give the Colonies the notion that their troubles make admirable sport for statesmen at home.
