RESIGNATION OF THE STAFFORD MINISTRY.

Evening Star, Issue 3013, 15 October 1872, Page 2

RESIGNATION OF THE STAFFORD MINISTRY.

The subjoined report, from the Independent of the 9th inst., of what took place in the House of .Representatives onthepreviors day, will explain the circumstances uiu'cr which Mr Stafford was at last induced to resign. Our contemporary, in its leading column, says : Tho announcement of the resignation of the Stafford Ministry was remarkable for the omission of any recommendation on the part of the Government to the Governor as to whom ho should summon to form a new Ministry. It is evident that Mr Stafford refused to pursue the usual constitutional course, and left his Excellency to the exercise of his own volition. . . . J It is ruipored that the defeated party will pursue in Opposition the same tactics which they cariied to extremes while in power—that they will insist upon such an arrangement with the incoming Government as will secure at least a dissolution of Parliament. It is possible that tiffs means of obtaining what they consider revenge may be attempted, but we would counsel them that the defeat they have already suffered will be made a still greater defeat if they try on this last dodge. It is said that every possible kind of obstruction will he opposed to the new Government, unless the concession we have indicated is granted ; but those who favour such a course may rest assured that it will be met with such a determined opposition as to make the position of those who attempt the obstruction still worse than it is, Mr Stafford has already lost casts as a statesman through his action this session, and more particularly with regard to the course he elected to adopt after the hostile division of Friday last. If it were possible to add to the accumulated indignity which he has voluntarily heaped upon himself during this session, the addition is to be found in his puerile conduct in declining, whilst tendering the compulsory resignation of himself and colleagues to the Governor, to make the usual recommendation as to who should be sent for to form a new Government. The almost unanimous murmur which ran through the House when Mr Stafford announced that he had not advised the Governor in this respect was, or ought to have been, sufficient to indicate to him the intense dissatisfaction of the House at the course he had pursued.