The Globe. FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 1878.

Globe, Volume IX, Issue 1221, 1 February 1878, Page 2

The Globe. FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 1878.

From time to time the question of Confederation crops up in one shape or another, but nothing practical will be done till the matter is forced upon the authorities by some grave crisis in the relationship of the various portions of the empire. Several solutions of the difficulty have been suggested, but the almost utter impossibility of proposing any mode of representation which would work smoothly has prevented any steps whatever being taken to alter the present somewhat unsatisfactory state of affairs. The tie which at present binds the various portions of the empire to the mother country is so slight that hasty or illconsidered action on the part of those in authority might rudely snap the link asunder, Fe\V, we venture to assert, in any of the colonies blessed with free institutions would, in their calm moments, desire such a change. We are all proud of our citizenship. But we cannot shut our eyes to the fact, that as the colonies grow in wealth and population, questions will arise which may strain to the utmost our relationship to the mother country. Britain cannot hope to enjoy uninterrupted peace. The day will no doubt come when she will be dragged into some deadly struggle which may tax her energies to the utmost. When that time arrives, the question of colonial defence, for example, will have to bo settled. On the one hand colonists will say, wo have had no voice in the management of the events which brought about the war, and and therefore the British taxpayer must defend us against a common enemy. On the other hand the Imperial authorities will no doubt maintain, and with a large amount of truth, that colonists must pay something for the privilege of protection. But this, colonists will never consent to do, beyond protecting their own port perhaps, without being represented in the Imperial Parliament. Here the difficulty arises, and although many suggestions have been made to overcome it, none have hitherto been regarded as satisfactory. A solution, which has, not to our knowledge, been proposed before, is brought forward by a writer in the World. He is discussing the question of a reform in Parliamentary procedure. The existing modes are threatened by the Irish obstructionists, who have announced their intention of repeating, this session, the scandals which disgraced the last. After stating several courses which might be taken, he goes on to explain a plan which would cut the grievances of the Home Rulers from beneath their feet, and relieve Parliament from the charge of vestrymanship, so often brought against it, “There can be no reason in the nature of things,” ho says, “ why the House of Commons, for all purposes of business not purely Imperial, should not bo divided into three or four committees —English, Scottish, Irish, and Colonial. When the subject matter was of imperial moment, the legislation would be carried through all its stages by a committee of the whole House. When it was not, it would be quite sufficient that the House of Commons, in its collective capacity, should consider the question only on the third reading of the Bill. Ireland and the Colonies would thus be able to combine Home Rule with Imperial representation. The subdivisional committees might also co-opt members without the right of voting—a right, by the bye, which, till within the last three or four years, committee referees had. We make this suggestion for what it is worth. It is plain that the whole question of Parliamentary procedure must shortly be dealt with.; and it is probable that any effort to deal with it piecemeal, or with reference to the Irish obstructionists only, must end in failure.”

We have already directed attention to the startling events which are taking place in the neighbouring colony of Victoria and to the grave issues at stake there. They arc of a character calculated to arrest the attention of thinking men in every country where constitutional government prevails. The strangest part of all these sensational and startling proceedings is the fact that they are countenanced by the Governor, Sir G. Bowen, without whose authority some of the steps would have been impossible. Wo should have imagined that the first duty of the representative of the Crown would have been to secure the carrying on of the Queen’s Government. We should have thought that the very last thing to which a Colonial Governor would have lent the authority of the Queen’s name, would have been the violation of the law. There is a cheerful candour about tbe whole proceedings which constitutes tlieir not least noteworthy feature. Ministers uro not ignorant of their true character. They are revolutionists, and they declare it. the chief being the Governor himself. There is no work of destruction of which they profess they are not capable. The closing of the public schools, the paralysation of justice, the opening of the gaols and the shooting out of the hardened felons therein confined upon a helpless and unprotected society, they appear at one time to have contemplated with grim complacency. But there are signs that the madness which has seized the Ministry has all hut run its course. The wholesale dismissals have stopped, and nearly all the County Court Judges have be n re-appointed. These facts prove that Mr. Berry and his crew are beginning to doubt the wisdom of the course they have been pursuing, and, were an appeal made to the electors, the Ministerial majority would in all probability disappear. , The Mayor of Melbourne has called a public meeting to coneider the proceedings of the Government, which we can well imagine will receive the heartiest condemnation. This action will in all probability bo speedily followed by similar meetings in every town and village throughout the colony, and Mr. Berry will discover that the popularity, which ho has sought with an insatiable hunger throughout the whole of his political career, has departed from him never to return.