MR STAFFORD’S OPINION OF THE ENGLISH GOVERNMENT.

Evening Star, Volume VII, Issue 1971, 30 August 1869, Page 3

MR STAFFORD’S OPINION OF THE ENGLISH GOVERNMENT.

The following was spoken by Mr Stafford in Lis seat in tlie Louse of Representatives, and if such opinion gain ground in the colony and bear fruit, the English ministry and the English press will have succeeded in working no small amount of mischief. In reply to an hon. member among other things he said : —“ Now we come to the real kernel of the question but briefly referred to towards the conclusion of the honorable member’s speech, and that is the belief that England’s heart is so great that she will defend us in our extremity. I do not believe that England’s heart is great in that direction. lam sorry to think so. There was a time when it was not only believed to be great, but there were convincing proofs of it. Ido not believe that the Abyssinian, war had any-thing to do with England’s heart being groat. That war, which has been so often spoken of as showing England’s great heart, was a war to maintain the position which English statesmen know that they were daily losing with surrounding nations. They knew that in France, Austria, and Prussia, as I have heard myself, people pooh-poohed the idea that England -was one of the great powers, I have heard foreigners say, what is England’s opinion to us'?— England cannot fight. That war was forced on her as the cheapest way of reestablishing her lost position- It was no motive of that kind which would induce her to send troops to New Zealand. The cases are not parallel. If New Zealand were a foreign country, not under British supremacy, and if a foreign potentate in it had captured some British subjects, then, for the honor of the nation in the eyes of other nations, a force might be sent out to rescue them ; but this war is looked on by the people in England as a street row, or an Irish riot on a fair-day, in which England ought not to entangle herself. I use that word because I know it has been used by the Secretary of State for the Colonies, who has said it was a war with which England was determined no longer to entangle herself. It is not so much a question of money, as of avoiding these little wars, which are a nuisance to them, and as to which most troublesome motions are made in Parliament ; and it is a part of the settled policy of England to withdraw her troops from the extremities of the Empire, and especially from New Zealand, which has tnmbled her so long. The Abyssinian illustration is none to me, and can be none to any one who considers the question apart from that glamour of sentiment and respect for the flag and power of Great Britain which we refer to under the name of the Imperial Government. There is no Imperial Government. There is a British Government, sitting in Downing street, managing affairs in the United Kingdom very badly, but no Imperial Government ; and, as to Commissioners, not even if they went on their knees would they get the settled policy of both sides in English politics of withdrawing the troops altered. Whether it is a wise policy, whether it is a great policy, whether in the end it will be a successful policy for the Mother Countiy, is another question. I hold an opinion opposite to that policy, but because I hold the opinion that it is a policy which is Avicked and foolish, and will in the end be destructive to them, will effect no more than will the two Commissioners whom the Government propose we are to send home.