THE "STORY OF THE SESSION," [From the "Times," May 20.]

New Zealander, Volume 8, Issue 676, 6 October 1852, Page 3

THE "STORY OF THE SESSION," [From the "Times," May 20.]

The morning sitting of yesterday contained in a small compass the story of the session. Half-a-dozen subjects were discussed to no other purpose than to discover that the discussion was useless. A prescription of several years has consecrated Wednesday to spiritual affairs, and Mr. Bennett, Maynooth, and the Colonial Church were severally introduced, merely to be consigned once more to the limbo of impracticables. For one reason or another the House now always reverts to the original understanding that nothing was to be done this session except what was absolutely necessary. So far as regards actual results, never was an understanding so faithfully observed. " Nothing" has this year become a substantive quantity, a high political duty, a mission, a virtue, a heroism. Thoro is a dolce far niente, but this is the glorious do-nothing. But when this great idea of a do-nothing session was first originated, it was imagined that a donothing session must necessarily be a short one ; for, as nature abhors a vacuum, and as idleness itself becomes wearisome, a difficulty was found in conceiving an indefinite prolongation of nothingness. Each successive week, however, since the first of March has enlarged our powers of conception on this point, and it is now become quite comprehensible that Parliament might sit for ever, and yet do Nothing. The fact of an almost indefinite extension was brought out yestevday, for it was mentioned, and acquiesced , in by all parties, that the House of Commons I would probably be still sitting and doing nothing

on the eighteenth of next month, or later. Supposing that this power should be finally exhausted by Midsummer-day, Parliament Avill then have attained to five-sixth's of a normal session, and will have consumed that long period in political inanity. So remarkable a fact cannot fail to give a turn to inquiry. If Parliament takes five months to do Nothing, how much docs it usually accomplish in six months ? It is a simple sum in rule of three direct. The importance of such speculations is increased by the fact that Parliament, for particular reasons, did Nothing last year, and, for other particular reasons, will most probably do Nothing next year. It is growing into a custom, and will soon be time out of mind. i But the British public, which " expects every man to do his duty," and which hates, despises, and punishes idleness, will take a practical view of the question, — What is the use of a Parliament that does nothing ! If there is anything to be done, cannot it be put into better hands? Just now the national pride is rather interested in proving the value of Representative Government, as ours happens to be the only considerable specimen left on this side the Atlantic ; in fact, the only self-working and self-supporting specimen, for Belgium ia maintained in its present state by external influences. It is rather annoying to see despotism so generally successful, so useful, so popular, so respectable as it is ; but that annoyance is aggravated by the circumstance that England is now contributing a negative argument cf the same tendency. These despots are doing a great deal of good, and we are doing nothing at all. They are laying out and granting money to Hew lines of railway of national importance ; they are reclaiming vast districts, improving their capitals, originating all kinds of useful works, and doing things in real Imperial style ; being already, in some grave respects, considerably in advance of our own noble selves. Some of those great doings, we flatter ourselves, are not on the right principle, but they nevertheless tell. Right or wrong, they give satisfaction, and, like many other institutions of doubtful principle, will produce noble fruits many centuries hence. But what right have we to criticise others when we are doing Nothing ? It is true that the most indolent are always the mosfc cynical. The man who has nothing to do has plenty of eyes for his neighbour. But Europe will care little for the criticisms of those who, talk as they may, cannot do better. A tree is judged by its fruits, and what is the value of a Government whose fruits are Nothing ? But this session we have been doing something. We have been undoing. The little that we have done these two or three years has been this year taken down, pulled to pieces, and swept away, like the building in Hyde Park. Nearly all that has been done, or that was in the way of being done, for draining aud purifying this metropolis, for supplying it with water, and for burying its dead in more wholesome and sensible fashion, has been annulled. So we go on. It used to be thought one of the punishments of hell to roll a stone up a mountain, and see it roll clown again, to revolve on a wheel, and to pour water into a sieve. We have ourselves cc mbined these fruitless toils in the treadwheel of our convicts, and the many forms of labour foi the sake of labour, imposed on our paupers. Parliament is now itself falling into the same dreary mode. The excuse foi' all this is the constitutional system, and government by parties. As each party arrives in succession at the helm, it is forced to consult its self-preservaiion, not the public good, and to propose the measures on which it happens to be pledged, or in which it may have a special interest, not those which have only the general recommendation of being, like reform in Chancery, for instance, great public wants. No good measures can be passed, or carried into effect, without the creation of considerable powers ; so, whenever any good thing is to be done the Opposition has always a handle in our constitutional jealousy of interference and of authority in general. So, the more substantial the object, and the more effectual the method for obtaining it, the greater is the advantage given to political opponents, and at the same time the greater their inducement not to let the party in power do a good thing 1 . The result is that legislation, as conducted in the splendid establishment at Westminister, is a mere game in which chance, and a low description of finesse, divide the results. Standing round a table, first one side and then another takes the cue, or names a colour. Gambling is abolished elsewhere only to be concentrated at the head-quarters of order and of law, and we have no lotteries except where office is the prize, and the nation has nothing but blanks. This certainly accords with the saying that the House of Commons is the best club in town. But how long will tills last ? Will the people always be satisfied with King Log, who, after all, is a veiy expensive King, for the modern King Log, if he has no hands, has a rather wide mouth ? Then we are told with much complacency that evils cure themselves in this country. So they do, with a vengeance. A hundred crying political evils have cured themselves in England — by revolution. We are a tolerant and long-suffering people, but we rise at last, and do things effectually. Since the commencement of this century we have had a dozen serious agitations, caused by the inertness or obstancy of Parliament, and crowned by results which politicians of the old school did not hesitate to call "revolutions," "robberies," "sacrileges," and so forth. These terms of extreme reprobation have been so often applied of late years that they have lost their force, and respectable men begin to relish a little judicious revolution, confiscation, or impiety. Now, what if this vicious custom of doing nothing in Parliament should at last fare as the other abuses alluded to I What if some sharp and sudden remedy should be found whereby the work of the nation should be put into more honest and business-like hands \ There is a certain people in the world that takes the law into its own hands, when the I courts are indecisive, weak, or procrastinating ; and that people is of British race and tradition. We ! may never come to such rude expedients as " com- | mittees of vigilance," but we shall come, for we have frequently come, to such expedients as a j grand public demonstration that acquires the force of law, and compels Parliament to register its decrees ; and, though the forms and fashions of that process have varied from time to time, according to the matter or the age, there can be little doubt that the spirit which suggested them still survives among us. i

The New Secretary of State for the Colonies. — Sir John Somerset Pnkington, Bart., Secretary of State for the Colonies, assumed his present surname (iv lieu of his patronymic, .Russell) as heir to his uncle, the late Sir John Pakington, Bart., of West wood. The Pakingtons represented Worcestershire almostuninterruptedly for centuries, and allied themselves to the chief families in that county. Sir John Pakington, Bart., M.P. (the new Secretary of State's great-great-grandfather), was the original of Addisons Sir Koger de Coverly. The present Baronet has sat as chairman of the Worcestershire quartersessions since 1834, and has been Member of Parliament for Droitwich since 1807. He was born 20th February, 1700, and he has been thrice married. Departure of the Bishop of Sydney. — The Bishop of S} f dney embarked in the .Salncia at one o'clock ye&terdajr, and the ship immediately proceeded to sea. 11 is Lordship has appointed the Venerable Archdeacon Cowper, and the three senior clergymen residing in Sydney, the Row Messrs. Allwood, Grylls, and Walsh, to bo his Commissaries for managing the affairs of the diocese during bis absence. The three last named have also been appointed Canons. — Herald, August 17.