The Westport Times. TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 2, 1869.

Westport Times, Volume III, Issue 575, 2 November 1869, Page 2

The Westport Times. TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 2, 1869.

Neither the time nor the circumstances under which we are called upon to refer to the election of yesterday are opportune to anything like full force being given to the moral —the paiufuland unpalatable moral—which the electors of the West Coast must draw from a reading of the result of the polling in the city of Nelson. In that strong-hold of the man who, in spite of warnings definite and indefinite, they were seduced into selecting—in that home of homes where he lived in the hearts of the people, and especially of the humble but "working bees "—in that city iu which he was a burgess among burgesses, and, iu good opinions, if not in goods, was " passing rich " —in that political region where all the voting power,or, at the very meanest estimate, a large proportion of it was held in his hand as a thunderbolt to hurl at the head of Curtis—in that part of country which he had adopted because he liked it, and was adopted because he himself was liked—there, on his hearth, he polled the magnificent number of seventy votes, and Mr Oswald Curtis polled THREE HUNDRED AND EIGHTYFOUR. This is a " division "of voting power with a vengeance not after the fashion of Cocker, it ia true, but after the fashion of such good and worthy but misguided men as Messrs Rowlands and Haller when their calculating faculties are, with themselves, misled by the unworthy and misguiding. Upon " division " such as this has a large constituency—namely the constituency of the West Coast—based their calculations, and miscalculated so sadly as literally to disfranchise themselves, and to defeat—as those best informed have all along anticipated and said—the very object which they had in view. Out upon such " division " as the reason for hearty unanimity and happy success ! It may be too early to cry before we arc out of the wood, but if this is the beginning, what is likely to be the end ? We only ask the electors—those who have hopefully and faithfully, if blindly, voted lor the man who in Nelson was, according to the oracles, omnipotent—to remember the picture which was drawn, and to compare with it this first glimpse of the reality. Doing so, we ask them what prospect they have of the future ? Without saying onewordin favor of the other candidate, he at least deserves the credit, of this, that the representations of his support in Nelson are fully substantiated. His probity is proved, and that cannot be said for Mr Akersten, whose representations, so far, have proved to be as fallacious as they were specious. Well might Mr Akersten exclaim ''Vote for me to a man," with but seventy backers in the place in which he has lived and means to die, as he has already, in all probability, died politically. With all respect for the electors who honestly and believin«;ly voted for him ; but with no respect whatever for the inglorious triumvirate who, in unholy alliance, were rampant, and —much more than rampant —outrageous in supporting him ; and, if it ispossible,withsull less respect for Mr Akersten himself, we mean to assert that the almost unanimous vote of the West Coast was got for him upon false pretences as distinct and clear as were ever established before any moral or legal tribunal. We shall not anticipate the complete result, which may or may not yet prove itself to be in keeping with the wishes and interests of the Coast, but there is no denying or blinking the fact that one of the first promises of the manv made by Mr Akersten—that he could and would poll equal with Mr Curtis ia Nelson City—is proved to be a mockery, a delusion, and a snare. And, though it is a much less important matter, this is also proved—that the information which was furnished by this journal for the guidance of electors, impugned, disregarded, and contemned as it has been, was much more than we ever described it—absolutely and beyond question correct.