THE Marlborough Express. SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 1869.

Marlborough Express, Volume IV, Issue 160, 20 February 1869, Page 3

THE Marlborough Express.

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 1869.

“ Giya me the liberty to know, to utter, and to prgue freely according to conscience, above all other liberties.’ —Milton.

Our Contemporary, the Advertiser —the acknowledged General Government organ, in its issue of the 12 th instant, says:— “ Mr. Eyes and Mr. Bunny, who both afforded the present Government an uncompromising support last session, have met their constituents, and have severally received votes of thanks and confidence. The result cannot but be gratifying to these gentlemen who have been vilified by the Press in their respective districts, and declared generally by the Opposition Journals to have forfeited their influence by the course they thought right to adopt. The system of wild assertion, to call it by no stronger name, which distinguishes many of our contemporaries, has .received another serious check, and their prophetic souls must be wrung with disappointed predictions. With Mr. Bunny, we in this Pi'ovince have more especially to do. This honorable member affords a considerable contrast to his colleagues. He treats his constituents with courtesy and respect, and at regular intervals is ready, after due notice, to give an account of his stewardship.”

Perhaps the writer-, who is evidently inspired, will point to a sentence which has appeared in the press of Mr. Eyes’ district, prior to the late meeting, which either reflected upon, or “vilified” him. Mr. Eyes has had every chance here of clearing himself from the private imputations made to and of him, of misrepresenting his constituents, and his friends trusted to the last that he would be able to shew a good cause for joining the ranks of their foes. Sixty thousand pounds sterling was our due ! What have we got in lieu of it! Had we received the money, or even any appreciable proportion of it, we could see a x-eason for going over to the enemy, but—“ almost a promise of some money ” only, was a poor equivalent for the freedom of the Province and a vote which saved a Government! We have not even the satisfaction of knowing that our rightful claim was remembered when the time for its consideration arrived. Unlike Mr. Bunny, who could not get 20 persons to attend any of his meetings, he did not treat his friends with even common courtesy, for when they sought to shew him what their views were, he considered it insolence on their part. He told us the other week that the telegraph was kept going all the day long, and heaps of letters arrived by every mail; that one person whom he “left in his shoes” had so written to him, all trying to “improperly influence” him ! One instance of this “ improper influence ” was hinted at, which has never been explained publicly. Some three of Mr. Eyes’ friends, who had always worked with him on previous occasions, hearing that statements had been made in the Wellington papers that the meeting ( in October) was to unseat him as Member, and oust him from the Supeiintendency, and aware also of their falsity—met two days before the meeting, and considered how Mr. Eyes, then in Wellington, could be heard on his own behalf. As a steamer was leaving for Picton next day, they resolved upon, and sent the following telegram :

“ Considerable excitement here. Public meeting on Thursday. Explain Fnancial Question fully, and reason of vote against Pox, by steamer. Signed .” All three names were appended in order to show that it was a concerted and friendly request. No reply came, nor did the kind-ly-meant message receive attention in any shape, until the Friday-week following, when a letter came addressed to the senders declining “ to recognise their right to ask his reason for voting on any question in such manner as I may think best.” Mr. Eyes therefore considered himself a Deputy and not a Representative. The letter however did go on to consider the question; and, following up the idea with which the first telegram had been sent, a second was despatched to him, requesting liberty to publish the letter, to which was returned a single monosyllable, “No!” jj Great stress was laid by Mr. Eyes upon the circumstance that it had been reported to him by one of his tools, that only 24 persons were present at the October meetring. Seeing that the notice was necessarily short, if the voice of the meeting was to affect the important issue of the debate then going on, the attendance was not out of the way, and at least their resolutions might have met with some acknowledgement, even if the recipient did not care to act in accordance with them. But the fact is now apparent that Mr. Eyes had already given that “ uncompromising support” to the Ministry, which he continued to the end of the Session, and determined to turn overboard those with whom he had hitherto acted. The Advertiser remarking upon the

paucity of attendance at Mr. Bunny’s meetings, which averaged about 12 persons, says : “The taunts of our evening contemporary, as to the smallness of the attendance at the late meetings at Greytown and Featherston, are very pointless indeed. The member whose conduct is disapproved, may reckon on a full meeting, and look forward to standing an hour or so in the political pillory ; but when a man has acted in his representative capacity entitely in accordance with the general feeling of the constituency, he pays a grateful compliment by inviting them to meet him; and they prove their confidence most unmistakably when they decline to question as to the past or future. Although the meetings were not numerously attended, their expression of opinion may be clearly taken as that of the district, and we believe of the whole Province.”

We may conclude these remarks with the same moral as our hired contemporary : “We congratulate Mr. Bunny and the party he so ably supports, upon the confirmation he has received from his constituents, that they entirely appreciate his usefulness. His position in the House is much stronger, with his constituents at his back, than any mere joint of the Provincial tail, even though ycelpt “your Honor,” and lubricated with the sweet oil of salary. Let the Provincialists clear out with what plunder they can ! Their hour is come—the handwriting is plain upon the wall. Uneducated mediocrity will have to seek other pastures than the public purse, and the nine “your Honors’,” and their tribe of sycophants will have to seek some other method of living by their wits.”