On Friday the whole day was taken up with the debate, beginning at a few minutes past noon, and adjourning, unfinished, at half-past ten in the evening. The principal speakers were Major Richardson, who was more pedantic and less humorous than usnal ; and Mr. Stafford, who developed a susceptibility of character, and dis played an emotion wholly unsuspected by all except his intimate friends. The tendency of his speeoh was in favour of unity on the broadest grounds. He had seen, he said, the earliest foundations of the colony laid ; he had watched and aided in its earliest struggles, first for existence, and then for freedom of government ; he had taken a part in the first administration by the colonists of their own affairs, both General and Provincial, as Superintendent of Nelson, and the Premier of the first real responsible Adminis tration of the colony. He had hoped that the land, whose cradle he had stood by, would have grown in strength and dignity, powerful and united, until the time should come when he should be laid beneath its soil ; but he felt now that that was not to be ; he was persuaded that the day of separation waa coming, and could hardly be stayed, except by the exercise of the highest wisdom on the part of its rulers, aided by the interposition of a merciful Providenoe. He reproached both sides for their unseemly bitterness ; the separationists for their haste to break the ties which held them together, and promised a glorious future for New Zoaland ; the Government, for the blind fatuity which drove them to irritate, instead of soothing, those who represented Otago and Auckland, spoke of their wrongs and' sufferings under the pressure of the calamities of war. He implored both sides to exercise moderation , and expressed the hope that, if a little longer time were given, the gulf of separation might even yet be avoided. In parts of this addreßS Mr. Stafford waa so affected as to be unable to speak with calmness ; and at one time he was wholly unable to prooeed from the violence of his emotion.
