OUR REPRESENTATIVE.

Westport Times, Volume VII, Issue 1059, 1 April 1873, Page 2

OUR REPRESENTATIVE.

(To the Editor of the Westport Times.)

Our representative! Heaven save the mark. I attended Eugene O'Conor's meeting on "Wednesday last, hopefully expectant that the man had learned wisdom, and had at last turned over a new leaf in his political primer. I came away, one among many, annoyed and despondent. It were possible to forgive him all display of egotistical vanity, his overweening confidence in the gullibility or bad memories of bis listeners. Charitablyinclinedhishearers might, and probably did, receive his assertions of what He did and said in the House of [Representatives as mere playful eccentricities ; the babblings of a highly imaginative faculty. But what can be said or thought of an individual who having, figuratively speaking, during the last twelve months, floundered into a perfect slough of dirty water, and after woeful bespattering has at last, by lucky chance and the services of interested friends, shaken off all outward signs of mire from his political habiliments, should now, like dog returning to his vomit, go back to that very dirty pool and splash anew in the fetid waters ?

Eugene O'Conor called a public meeting at no one's request, at no one's prompting , save his owtt. He gave no reasons, stated no purposed line of action or debate. Respecting his position, if not the man, his townsmen gathered together and listened patiently to his utterances. No one thought necessary to recall the past, none ventured to speak doubtfully of the future. All, except perhaps a few to whom the mere chance of wordv vulgar warfare is even as the smell o"f carrion to greedy night birds, were ready to receive his oracular platitudes as bearing the promise of better things hereafter. None would debate with or question him, for they had learnt of the past that silence is golden. Eugene had a chance, a glorious chance, of retrieving all past errors of word or action. He lost that chance, the last he may ever obtain a dis-

s)lav of splenetic contrariness, unworthy any man claiming the possession of intelPgmt judgment. What do the electors of the Buller now cai'e to hear about the " Westport . sections," or Eugene's antipathies? Have they notbeen sickened andwearied by the vecital aforetime? Basnot our Honorable Representative been politically whitewashed as thickly as'any man in his position need eipecfc, and 'is not the private history of that special whitewashing known as yet but to a few? Does he want it blazoned to the world ? And his constituents have they not shown by their very silence, and more by recent action, that they are not "unwilling to place trust again in their political representative, if he but 'chooses to keep within the bounds of reason ? But 'tis herein that Eugene fails. Granting that he has shrewdness and ability beyond the common measure yet 'does his actions and his words create the impressionj of much self-cOnceit and a malignant nature 'Outbalancing all good qualities. He 'may be judged wrongly. He may be as an Angel tff Political Light amongst the benighted 'denizens of the Buller, but the impression conveyed to many minds is that he sets himself up as a great political I AM, who says to those who have placed him upon his pedestal of fancied power, you must think as t do, Relieve all I 'tell you, trust to me as .your pdlitical guide and saviour. Question my motives, suggest even the faintest doubt-as to my infallibility and I become an avenging spirit, Waiting and watching for the moment •to swoop down upon .you. And not alone in political but in all other matters wherein I am permitted to make ■my presence felt, -I must be the one ruling power, and to 'me alone must all thought and inclination become subservient. The- electors may be mistaken in '■iheir 'opinion of the msm, but until he> -of himself alone, proves their error, so long does he remain as a very plague : amongstus. Yours, An Eleotob,