The Evening Star. PUBLISHED DAILY AT FOUR P.M. Resurrexi. MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 1882.

Thames Star, Volume XIII, Issue 4279, 18 September 1882, Page 2

The Evening Star. PUBLISHED DAILY AT FOUR P.M. Resurrexi. MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 1882.

The general opinion among members of the legislature [is that some mode must be devised to reform proceeding in Parliament. The Constitution we had given us was -only a paper constitution drawn up on a bad model and no one could ever dream of forming such a thing as an adoption on an English constitution for a new country when he remembered that the very thing he sought to copy was being amended year after year from its original form. And yet the English constitution will not run smoothly; it never has done so: But our governing machine runs more roughly even than the English one. What happens is this. A man out of a hundred or three score stands up and talks by the hour on any subject he pleases, and all the rest are compelled to listen to what he chooses to say. If they get tired and go away from the drowsy sound of his voice he calls the attention of the speaker to the smallness of his audience, and the bell is rung to bring the stragglers back. If they do not choose to obey the call of the bell, the business of the day is broken up, and all the arrangements of the Government temporarily disordered. This thing is called liberty of speech and freedom of debate, and as the world is governed in a -great measure by phrases the tyranny of the one man over the other endures and will endure until the system is changed. Who, for instance, would allow such a thing to happen at a meeting where men meet to discuss parish or mercantile affairs? What would happen if, such a thing took place at a Church meeting? In ordinary colloquial language, that man would very soon get '"sat upon." But the privileges of party and standing orders'hedge around the Parliamentary obstructionist so closely and surely that he can bid defiance to all sense . of decorum and propriety, and render himself an enduring nuisance to his companions, and an obstacle to all public business, when in an obstructive mood. Such is' one phase of obstruction. But obstruction is not the only disability under which Parliament labors. Half of each session is spent in determining who is to govern ' the country for the next year. The manner of governing is not taken into account, the whole ' absorbing topic of interest being who shall govern ; what men shall be in office, and what out. Until this question is settled, all others must remain in abeyance. Till it is known who is to have the custody of the Treasury, nothing can be done, and men speculate only on the future.,, When the question has been decided, then the " spoils " are claimed by the victors.