The Evening Star FRIDAY, AUGUST 30, 1872.

Evening Star, Issue 2974, 30 August 1872, Page 2

The Evening Star FRIDAY, AUGUST 30, 1872.

We should think by this time the peoph of the Colony will bo heartily sick of the long “ no-confidouco ” debate which hus been agitating the House of Kepresontatives for the last fortnight. Lord Macau lev remarked, “ It is seldom that oratory changes votes.” We quite believe it, and have no doubt that weak as the attack upon the Ministry has been, and strong as many points of the defence have been, the result would have been pretty much the same had the House proceeded to vote upon the bare resolutions submitted, without a reason having been given why they should be affirmed or why they should be negatived. The whole affair is one that can hardly be said to involve a change of policy. The country cannot now recede from engagements entered into : it is a mere question of administration, and there is no reason to believe anything can be gained by entrusting the management of public affairs to other hands. Even should Mr Stafford have a majority, it will be so narrow that he must be a bold man to venture upon carrying on the work of government with it, should the Opposition he will have to encounter use the weapons at their command against him. From the very nature of our democratic constitution, it cannot be that any Ministry can continue to rule for many consecutive years. Parliament is necessarily composed of a number of the most ambitious, although perhaps not the most able men in the community. We think it very likely that there are men, who content themselves with giving attention to their own affairs, of higher talent than most of those who are sent to Parliament. But since they are quite willing to stand aside, and become witnesses of party strife instead of participators in it, the Colony must be content with such representatives as can be obtained. These party struggles, therefore, have their uses. They tend to train up men to public business who would otherwise be altogether unfitted for it, and to dovolopo talent that without such opportunities for distinction would remain hidden, and its possessor would only bo an obscure supporter of some acknowledged party leader. We cannot say that any brilliant successes have attended the efforts of what are called the “ small fry” in the House. One or two men have stood more prominently forward than before, and are marked for promotion. Thus we have Mr Curtis and Mr Beid struggling to the top, which, in all probability, at some future time, if not this session, they may reach, while some others who gave fair promise at one time of achieving distinction, have not excelled their former efforts, and will have to be con-

tent to follow; for they cannot lead. In some respects the present Ministry, if superseded, need not regret the short rest they will hare before they return to office. Some of their plans have not worked very well, however wellintentioned they may have been, and it will devolve upon their successors to apply remedies. It is very probable that the present Ministry would be the best able to do this, through the thorough knowledge they have of the reasons for the failures, and it is more than likely that the attempts at remedy that will be made will only make matters worse. However that may be, if a new Ministry be formed under the idea that they will be able to initiate and cany out the policy they have enunciated with regard to public works, they will find they have set themselves a taste beyond their strength ; that their efforts will but induce confusion, and that their term of office will bo but short and unsatisfactory. We can imagine the new Premier coming down, to the House and saying he found that the late Ministry had so far the country to a certain couraH*/action, that all the new Ministry could do was to carry out the measures they had adopted, with a strict regard to economy and efficiency. The strangest part of this wrestling match between the ins and outs is, that the faults laid upon the shoulders of the Goverement are what the House has thrust upon them. When the Public Works scheme was first placed before the country, it was proposed to carry it out under direction of a Board, thus relieving the Ministry and the House of Representatives from the necessity of attending to details. But this would not suit honorable members, as it reduced their functions to the merely legislative: they could not then with so good a grace interfere in the price of labor and of iron, or cavil at estimated traffic returns. It remains for ns in the country to submit to pay the cost of this somewhat unseemly battle—the price is somewhere about eleven hundred pounds already—and to ask ourselves whether we shall gain or lose as much by a change. _____