A GRAVE CHARGE UNREFUTED.

Globe, Volume XXIV, Issue 2641, 23 September 1882, Page 3

A GRAVE CHARGE UNREFUTED.

It is somewhat singular, and gives color in a great degree to the statement made, that not one of the Canterbury members of the House of Representatives have denied a very eerious accusation brought against them publicly. We allude to the statement made by the President of the Chamber of Commerce that one-half of t.bn Canterbury members were absolutely pledged to support that most palpable of jobs, the extension of the Northern Railway through the Cheviot Hills and other properties. It must bo remembered that this statement was made at a meeting of merchants of Canterbury by no less a personage than the President, and as yet it has been allowed to go unchallenged. We would fain believe t) at it is not true, •till this persistent silence makes one give credence to it. Under these circumstances it was to have been expected that the people’s champion, the oratorical Boanerges,Mr. John Holmes, whose coat is always trailing in the dust for the chance of a row, would have indignantly denied the assertion. But no, the Parliamentary lion “ roars you as gently as a sucking dove,” end for a brief space at least the shillelagh of oratory is at rest. We eonfess to being unable to understand this. That an oat and out Liberal like Mr. H. Holmes, the beloved of the orny ’anded sons of toil, who, followingtho lead of his chief, the old man eloquent, comes forward to rescue the thousands of serfs from beneath the heel of bloated capitalists, should be silent under such an imputation is wonderful. Then we have the people’s William, that heaven born statesman, who was to have led the Opposition to victory but didn’t, Mr. Montgomery. Is he one of those who favor the line referred to ? No sign is made by him, nor by any of the other gentlemen who are publicly charged with advocating a course diametrically opposed to the wishes of their constituents. There is not even a shadow of excuse, because on this subject all are agreed, without a single dissentient. We do not know what the public generally think of this matter, but to us it seems that the gentlemen implicated should have taken the earliest opportunity of contradicting —if untrue —so damaging a statement as that made by Mr. Mearos. We trust that even now, at the eleventh hour, there may be amongst the body of our representatives some one with the courage to stand forth and say that, so far as he is concerned, such a very undesirable state of things does not exist. We shall be especially pleased if our old friend Mr. Holmes is the one to bell the cat.