DR. LANG AND MR. GODLEY.
IN common with the Morning Chronicle we have been invited to publish an important letter addressed by Mr. J. R. Godley to Mr. Gladstone on the subject of Colonial Government. The Chronicle, whose opportunity of publication has preceded ours, introduces the letter with this brief account of the writer- " Mr. John Robert Godley is the eldest son of a gentleman in the North of Ire- land, and was a candidate at the last general election for the representation of Leitrim, his native county. Educated at Harrow and Oxford, his 'grand tour' comprised British North America and the United States, as well as the North and South of Europe; and he became known to the reading public by an interest- ing work on the former countries. At the time of the famine in Ireland, the miseries of that part of the United Kingdom directed his mind practically to the subject of colonization, with which his travels in America had made him ac- quainted; and, in concert with a number of very eminent Members of both Houses of Parliament, he brought forward a comprehensive scheme of Irish emigration, which excited much attention in 1847. Afterwards he became a Director of the New Zealand Company, and the founder of the Canterbury Association, for the purpose of planting a colony in the Middle Island of New Zealand, which is now in progress; and he has just quitted this country with his family, as the organ of the Association, and pioneer of the first body of intending colonists, who will pro- ceed to their destination in the ensuing summer."
The Times, in a friendly notice of the Canterbury Settlement, which is intended to resemble "Old Virginia" by means of being made specially attractive to members of the Church of England, (there is another colony in the same island based on the principle of voluntary contributions for the support of religion and education according to the tenets of the Presbyterian Church of Scotland,) mentions Mr. Godley as "a man of great colonial information." We are enabled to add, that although, as must in this country of representative government be the case with ever so accomplished a politician who has not been in Parliament, he ks scarcely known to the public at large, his ability and acquire- ments, together with an amiable disposition and truly liberal views, have obtained for him, among an important circle of public men composed of all our parties, a very considerable amount of popularity and influence.
We indulge in this personal notice of Mr. Godley, in order the better to compare his letter to Mr. Gladstone with one from Dr. Lang to Lord Grey, which we recently published. The two men present a signal contrast in many points ; but it is a contrast which only renders more striking the points in which they re- semble each other. There is only one of the differences between them on which it is necessary to dwell. Resembling each other in being colonists of the Australasian group—in addressing a Colonial Minister on the same subject at the moment of their emigration as colonists—in denouncing as intolerable our central system of Colonial government, and in confidently predicting its early downfall by means of Colonial disaffection and re- sistance—they differ altogether in this, that Dr. Lang seems to glory in the prospect of an early disruption of the British empire, whilst Mr. Godley most earnestly deplores it. The one exults, the other mourns at the advent of "the President of the United States of Australia." The one departs with an angry eye and a clenched fist, threatening his country : the other affectionately beseeches her to preserve the attachment of her co- lonies and the greatness of her empire. The cause of the differ- ence is easily perceived. When Dr. Lang quitted England for the first time, he was probably as much attached to his country as Mr. Godley is now ; but this is his seventh departure for Australia, after sojourning here three years as a snubbed and frustrated pleader for his colony : the prime of his life has been wasted in suffering as a colonist, and in vain efforts to relieve New South Wales from the grie- vous burden of Colonial Office government; and he now de- parts for the last time, a confirmed rebel at heart. Mr. Godley has not yet suffered in his own person as a colonist; he has not felt or witnessed, but has only read and heard of the miseries of Downing Street government at a vast distance from Downing Street. His view of the subject is purely reasonable : Dr.Lang's is a passionate view, the last conclusion of suffering interest and wounded pride despairing of redress. As respects loyalty or trea- son, Mr. Godley resembles Benjamin Franklin before the blind tyranny of England which converted loyal America into a foe of the Mother-country ; Dr. Lang, by his own express avowal, re- sembles Franklin quitting England for the last time.
Perhaps in a year or two, after seeing colonization frustrated, and being himself wronged and insulted by the low tribe of offi- cials whose mere will, subject to orders from ignorant and crot- chety Downing Street, is the law of government for New Zea- land, Mr. Godley might be like Dr. Lang in feelings towards England. We say "might" instead of will, because we con- cur with Mr. Godley in believing that Colonial Office government cannot last long enough to create many more such rebels as Dr. Lang. We are aware that the heedless public at home does not expect very serious Colonial troubles. The public at home never did, and never can, receive formidable news from a colony with- out being startled.. The brave and successful resistance of the Cape has surprised the British public: so did the late disturb- ances in Canada, when they immediately followed Mr. Hawes's boast in the House of Commons, that Canada, at all events, was a most peaceful, happy, and loyal dependency 1 We sincerely be- lieve that Mr. Hawes knew no better. Sir Robert Peel is apt to watch the signs of the times more keenly and successfully than most men ; but we venture to opine that he is at this moment in a state of ignorance as profound as that of Lord John Russell, or the Duke of Wellington, with respect to the disaffected state of the Colonial mind in North America, the West Indies, South Africa, and " the Newest World" of the Southern Pacific. Some early arrival from the antipodes of England may perhaps open a little the eyes of all our statesmen.
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