The Globe. TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 14, 1875.

Globe, Volume IV, Issue 392, 14 September 1875, Page 2

The Globe. TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 14, 1875.

Whatever decision is finally arrived ai between the Government and the Opposition, there can be only one opinion as to the position in which Ministers have placed themselves. Their inability to grasp the bearings of the question will have greatly shaken public faith in their power to guide firmly and wisely the destinies of the colony when any crisis arises. But the Opposition have managed nearly as badly. Should the result today be an announcement that an arrange has been come to by which the next Parliament is to decide in one way or another, whether Abolition is to be carried out or not, the Opposition will have gained their point, but at the expense of placing themselves in an ugly fix at the coming elections. Messrs Montgomery, Eolleston, and Peeves, and other members of the Opposition, will then have to give a distinct answer to the question —“ Are you in favour of Abolition, and will you vote that it be carried immediately into effect ?” And on the answer which they give will depend their seats. It is true that those gentlemen have not up to the present time declared themselves entirely in favour of Provincialism. They can still come before the electors and say that they have all along been in favour of Abolition, only they wanted the question referred to the electors before its final settlement. But they can only justify their wish to have that course adopted, on the ground that they believed the electors had not made up their minds, and that a great wrong would be inflicted on the country were the measure at once passed into law. What object can be gained by referring the question to the country if the people have already made up their minds in its favour P This referring of it to the constituencies implies a belief on the part of those who, desire it that the people may differ from Parliament on the question. Those gentlemen therefore, who have been opposing the Bill by the pure force of obstruction will have to come before their constituents, and tell them either that they fully believe in the measures notwithstanding, or they will have to tell them what they do want. How much better it would have been for the Opposition to have adopted all lawful and honorable Parliamentary means of opposing the Bill, without resorting to steps which must bring discredit, not only on themselves, but on the House of which they are members ; and if they had failed, they would have failed honorably. They would have been fighting in an ancient and honorable, if mistaken cause; they would have been able to come before their constituents, and have told them that they had done their best to retain those institutions, which in their day had done much to advance the prosperity of the country, but had been unsuccessful. It would not have been necessary for them to place before the electors their views of what the Constitution should be, as they will have to do now. They will have to show us what kind of local Government they wish to take the place, of those those institutions which they admit can not continue to exist much longer in their present form. We will look forward with great interest to the policy which Messrs Eolleston, Montgomery, iVlacandrew, Eeader Wood, and Sir George Grey can unite in elaborating.