The Evening Star. PUBLISHED DAILY AT FOUR P.M. Resurrexi. FRIDAY, AUGUST 18, 1882.

Thames Star, Volume XIII, Issue 4253, 18 August 1882, Page 2

The Evening Star. PUBLISHED DAILY AT FOUR P.M. Resurrexi. FRIDAY, AUGUST 18, 1882.

It seems rather a farce after all for the Ministry to be part end parcel of the jury that is summoned to try them and see whether the bulk of the evidence is in their favor against them. And the farce becomes still broader, and the trial a more complete mockery when the verdict of the jury is obtained only by the voting of jurors who are sitting in judgment on themselve3. This is what took place in Well ington last week. The Speaker, who acted as judge, declared the Ministry exculpated from the charges of maladministration and incapacity by a majority of six votes. Of these six votes two were obtained by men breaking their pairs, and Messrs Atkinson, Bolleston, Dick, Bryce, and Johnston voted for their own acquittal. We have no intention of saying that the men who escaped from the dock in the court of public opinion last week did not deservedly escape, but would point out the absurdity of men in a "trial of this description being their own judges. The violation of the pairs may have been an accident, but, granting the accidental character of the violation, two things have to be borne in mind, only Government supporters break pairs, and the habit of pair-«breaking never came into vogue bntil the Ministry came into office that commenced their career by rifling the Telegraph Office. Thus, these accidents have a suspicious look, and it needs a large amount of charity to remove the suspicions, which, ghoul-like, flit across the mind. Ministers have not been guilty of maladministration because Ministers themselves say so. But what convict would there be at the present time undergoing penal servitude if the sentence of punishment depended on the malefactor's own confession of guilt or assent to the sentence of his own degradation. Murderers would still live and thieves still prosper at the expense of others. Society could not cohere if the criminals of the land were constituted their own judges. Unpleasant, however, as this aspect~ of the No Confidence trial may be, like the trials which have; taken place in other years, a more damaging circcumstance still has to be borne in I mind. The accused have bribed the judges to declare them innocent. In the matter of bribes there is unfortunately no room for doubt. The particular prices of the treachery to particular men is well and publicly known. It is not as though payment came from the men who are retained in office, or that the wages of corruption were paid from private hoards, but the representatives of the people are paid with the people's money. Although votes of want of confidence are becoming

part and parcel of our yearly governing farce, their character and the way the questionable verdict is obtained should be carefully Borne -fib mind.