The Globe. MONDAY, DECEMBER 13, 1875.

Globe, Volume IV, Issue 467, 13 December 1875, Page 2

The Globe. MONDAY, DECEMBER 13, 1875.

j—— ""'_!_'"''"" """" ™~""*" —-I -—■■.■■.-■■ ■■■—^ 1 It is a pleasant thing to we that, the 1 arguments and appeals ' of the abolitionists have at last had an effect upon our contemporary, the Li/ttellon Times, and that he is beginning to see that the proposals of the Go\ernraent are very different from what, he has tried to represent them. After endeavouring in vain for months to misrepresent the meaning of the Abolition Bill, he has been forced to admit that the abolition of the provinces does not mean the complete destruction of local self-government. On the contrary lie fiudß, what all who took the smallest trouble to ascertain, have all along known perfectly well, that under the new state of thiuga we are to have as thorough a system of local administration as the provinces ever afforded. In his leader of Saturday, our contemporary " has changed front, and is " trying to take up the battle ground " of his opponents." He has completely abundoued his former stand point, and admits that the principle which will gnide the Government is " decentralisation of administration." He has received with surprise and pleasure the programme as sketched out by the Minister of Public Works, and affects to learn for the first time that suoh is the policy of the abolitionists. Willi a lofty contempt for such things as facts, he would try to make us believe that, for the first time during the present agitation this policy has been announced. And yet speaker after speaker, not only in the House of E-presentatives, but at the numerous public meetings which have been since held, have shown that the measures of the Government mean local administration with central supervision. " Efficient local Government " is what the abolitionists have been fighting for, and although it has taken many months to convince our contemporary that such is our aim, we are glad at last to welcome him to our ranks. Truo to his instiucts, no sooner does he find that the tide of public opinion has fully set in against the provinces, than he abandons his former friends, and welcomes with the zeal of a new convert the programme of the Government as explained by the Hon E. Eichardson. After trying in vain " to throw dust in " the eyes of the people, and blind " them as to the tendencies of the mea((nures they are about to pass," he

turns round and affects to discover for the first time that Abolition does not mean, in the hands of the Government, Centralism. But in making this barefaced change of front, our contemporary attempts to justify his conduct by accusing his opponents of inconsistency. With well feigned surprise, he inquires what is the use of rousing the people's eagerness for destruction, and setting the country on fire, if all that is to result from i; is a mild reproduction "f provincialism? We assure our contemporary that the measures of the Government have a very different aim. Their object is to sweep away and for ever, the farce of Provincial Councils and Provincial Executives, and all the thousand evils attendant upon them, to put an end to those continued demands upon the colonial purse which every successive session of Parliament has witnessed. In their place it is proposed to set up real local self-Go-vernment, with central supervision. We sympathise with our contemporary in the sorry position in which he finds himself placed. As long as he continued to defend an honorable but mistaken cause, we could respect, if we could not agree with, him. But when he attempts to defend his sudden change of front, in obedience to the risiug tide of popular opinion, by abusing his former opponents for the inconsistency of which he alone is guilty, all honest thinkers will having nothing but contempt for such unmanly conduct.