ANCHOVIES AND TOAST.

Auckland Star, Volume VI, Issue 1747, 20 September 1875, Page 2

ANCHOVIES AND TOAST.

J (o) I {From Our London Correspondent.)

London, July 27, PROCEEDINGS IN PARLIAMENT.

The Parliamentary Session of 1875 is fast drawing to a close, and Mr Disraeli has not yet completed more than a tittle of his promised work. Still I think it may fairly be said that his Government has done more in a short space of time, and with the materials at hand, than any Liberal Government would have done. It is at any rate certain that what they have done has been really for the advancement of the nation and the good of the people. There has been none of that harassing legislation so peculiar to the Liberal party —what sailors would call a " buz nagging" or what landsmen would designate as " meddling." Mr Disraeli has not only kept together one of the most difficult teams ever handled by a political

coachman, but he has piloted them thronA most awkward turnings, steered " th**fi over some most awkward tracks, and finaT landed them comfortably and with a sense f duty performed and glory gained. The Con servative party is without question strong at the present moment than it was dura _VS the early part of the session, and that thi*■' * i due to the masterly skill of the genial autli of "Lotbair" there can be no doubt, j* the course of a little time members will h arraigned before their constituencies aSS although the Liberal organs -would hkvexi to suppose that they will have no account L render, I cannot but thinjjc that they will}/ able to offer a very excellent balance-sheef What can they say '( Well 1 let us supped that you are the audience, afad I am tk Conservative member. I reply to your cv^ tion as to the results of the session and th condition of the Government party Iw° are a united party, and that 'is jf m Y? than any Liberal Government has been able to say for many a long day. v?* have little internal discords it is true. W.f family has not ? But we are like the bundl! of sticks : we are bound together; or like, herd of wild horses : we join noses, and turn out our heel- at the approach of the enemy We vote en masse, and on all essential point! we are as one m-an with our grand old chief It is true that the enemy has been hardlu worth the name ; he has never recovered from his disorganisation, but when he does muster the strength and the pluck for a rush y_ meet him shoulder to shoulder and, as Br Kenealy would say, "we .shake him like a" dewdrop from our mane." You ask what have we done ? Well! we haro done a good deal. Imprimis, we have made the voice of England once moreheardin questions of foreign policy Who would have thought a yew aL that Russia would have been desirous of . forming an alliance with a power which she was manifestly beginning to regard as "wiped one of tbe map of Europe."" Yet such an alliance she does desire if we are to believe the statements of her official organs. Our colonies are once more objects of solicitude and interest. There is no more talk of dig. integration of tbe Empire. It is true that a party still exists which would thus endeavour to mutilate the extent of the Empire, but that party is crippled itself, and has no voice in the present Government. Lord Carnarvon has shewn himself conversant with abstruse colonial questions by his action with regard to the proposed South-African Confederation and the Colonial Office is now wide awake to the interests, the complaints, and- the advancement of our brethren on far-off shores. You pan scarcely blame the Government for the* present crisis in trade. The immorality of merchants cannot he laid to the door of Mr. _ Disraeli Times bave been so prosperous, indeed, that reckless people have taken advantage of the circumstance, and now their criminal folly is involving > in ruin honest people. It is true that the Budget was not of a startling nature. There was no great, and perhaps imaginary, bun ' plus, but there was something better It showed that the country could pay its way, i and projected a plan for clearing off no less than two hundred millions of the National ' Debt in thirty years. This alone I think ia i proof that we are the right mfen in the right i place. But I • have not done yet. We have done something in the way of ' legislation. We have not annoyed or , harassed the trades and professions all I ground. We have not fidgetted everybody out i f of his life by throwing in his way of busi- • ness all the tiresome obstructions we could . s invent. Messrs Gladstone and Co., the ' I people's William and his friends, were fer 3 ever holding themselves up as models of the t working man's friend. What they did for the - working man in fact was to enact measures" I against Trade Unions, -which the Conseryal tives have repealed in their first session. Ifc i is the Conservatives who have passed the ? Artisan's Dwelling Bill, and thereby given 3 him a chance to live like a human being, - instead of a swine or a sewer rat. It is the , Conservatives who have passed the. Friendly 3 Societies' Bill, which enables him to protect 3 himself, his savings, and his family from the t fingers of plunderers*; and still the Govern--3 merit is pondering over plans for giving him 3 pure water and good drainage and soundfood. i The shopkeepers are delighted by the amend--1 1 ment of the Food and Drugs Act, which s cruelly pressed upon the small retailer, arid r let the real offender, the wholesale dealer, a or "merchant" as he calls himself, go free. s The Government have made immense strides s in the direction of sanitary perfection, and 1 next session the entire laws relating to this p subject, will be turned inside eat, scraped, . cleaned, and re arranged. The House of s Lords was in fear and trembling from the threats of the Liberal party, who desired to 0 tike away the provincial authority which the v Conservatives have restored. The new Law r Courts, the Church, the Irish Local Laws, c all have had a share, and a good share, of . t attention, and have all been largely bene■l fitted. And all this is this year's work. r No so bad I think after all, in i spite of what the Liberal organs may say. Last, but by no means least, we have diverged from that inexorable rule of the r Liberals, non extension of Empire, and have r added to the Crown jewels that important _\ gem the Fiji group, and we don't want much pushing to annex New Guinea. As^ for '• Colonial honours, such as they are, we have 8 been most lavish with our badges of bt. Michael and St. George, the only, baubles - at our disposal, and on the whole we have a really been a most paternal and yetneither. • retrogressive nor grand motherly Govern' > ment.