THE SOUTHERN CROSS. Friday, August 3, 1860. WON BY A FLUKE.

Daily Southern Cross, Volume XVII, Issue 1318, 3 August 1860, Page 2

THE SOUTHERN CROSS. Friday, August 3, 1860.

WON BY A FLUKE.

LUCEO NON URO. "If I hure been extinguished, jet theie use A thousand be.uoiM fiom the spaik I boie."

The House of Representatives found itself last night in a sufficiently absurd position. The question was, the Address in reply to the Governor's Speeoh. A debate of about a weeks duration had been expected ; hon members had oaretully prepared their speeches,; arms had been burnished, guns double shotted, double ratiots served out; when a peace, more astounding than that of Villafranca, supervened (for it was not made), no one knowing how or why. The public, unacquainted with parliamentary practice, must understand v that the geoe al practice in regard to the address, is this The Ministry bring forward a couple of young members, acknowledged supporters, as mover and secondor. Then follows the leader of the opposition, with his amendment, if any be intended ; the debate then goe3 on promiscuously, the bigwigs on either side reserving themselves, for the most part, until the later period. The question, as soon as it has been moved and seconded, is proposed by Mr. Speaker to the House. Then again, when the whole debate is exhausted, the question is put; that is to sayj put to the vote. But if uo debate take place, the question proposed and the question put merge into one, and the voices are taken without further delay The mover and seconder spoke by the card ; the question was proposed ; old hands are so used to the proposal being matter of form that they scarcely heed it ; and there was no leader of opposition in the House, to rise as third in the debate. There was also an impression in the House, derived from a sort of half understanding arrived at on the previous sitting day, that a ministerial statement was to be made, after which the debate was to be adjourned, that hon members might have time to digest what had been prepared for them. In fact the mover had himself announced a statement. But no sign of life was shewn from the Treasury Bench ; each member appeared to be waiting for somebody else ; Mr. Speaker called for voices; not an aye or a no was given, that we could hear, at all events ; and there being no "noes," Mr. Speaker veiy properly declared that the "ayes" had it. We know of one hon member who was upon the point of saying ''no," but checked himself, just in time Lucky for him that he did so ; for the "no" would have had it ; and he might have found himself "sent for," nnd prime minister within four and twenty hours. As the miller wakes up when the wheel stops, so was "the House" awakened from slumber too deep for division, by the silence The Address had been carried by a fluke. Firstly, ja feeling of blank astonishment seemed to pervade the House ; hon members rose one after the other, asking in plaintive tones, whore was the debate ? It had vanished, hey presto) gone to that repository iv the moon, where, as Ariosto tells us, every thing is laid up that has been lost on earth,-madmeiis' wits, lovers' vows, Government promises, and all the soup that ever was spilled Gradually lecovering from the shock, a few of the bolder sort opened fire against the ministry upon various questions of adjournment. The Government answer was not unreasonable, — that it was too much to require them to play their own pait and that of the opposition likewise. But they did not stop there ; by fencing and word catching, they spoiled their game, and the melee became general. They soon contrived to get the House into bad humour General information was asked for ; Government could not or would not understand what sort ; slips of the tongue were taken advantage of, some members using]the terms "Addres-," and "Reply," in place of the more strictly formal designations, "Speech" and "Addie^s;" and though a distinct promise was given at last, even ministerial supporters felt that it might have been <iivcn at first, without another word. Wo think that the carrying of the Address by a fluke, instead of being a piece of good luck to the Government, was, on the contrary, a misfortune to them. Passed in solemn silence, like "the memory of those who fell at Wateiloo" they cannot rely upon it for support with the Home Government. After the emphatic declarations of members, that they did not agree to it, the formal vote enterpd on the | minutes is left barren and valueless. No one knows, for certain, whether or not the Address would have been carried, after debate. We think that it would, though not by a laige majority ; and ministers would then havo had the advantage of committing a certain number of members to the Government policy. As it is, however, none, save the mover and seconder, are committed ; and some, before the end of the Session, may see cause to be well pleased that entire freedom of action has been left to them. We believe that the event was quite accidental, not resulting from any scheme, either on one side or the other ; but think that the Ministry acted with want of forethought, or presence of mind in not rising to continue the debate. With the Governor's Speeoh, there is no great fault to find. The diction is certainly not in the- purest of English ; but Queen's speeches are notorious. When His Excellency expresses the "satisfaction" with which he has recourso' J»the advice of the Assembly, in difficult ofESmstances, he means, we presume, to say, thoHb welcomes thcic advice— that he is glad to aTOp himself of it Upon the rank cockneyisin" of the thanks tendered to the Government of Victoiia, for despatching to our assistance "its fine armed stoamor," we offer no remark, further than observing that the expression would seem to have been borrowed

from the advertizing columns of a newspaper. But the Address is open to grave objection. It commits the House in the second of the two following paragraphs to the asserting of more than thoy can yet be certainly assured of. Your Excellency has informed us that the immediate occasion of this disturbance of the Public Peace has been an attempt, on the part of a Native Chief of the Ngatiawa Tribe, to forbid the sale to the Crown, and forcibly to prevent the Survey, of a piece of land, to which he neither asserted nor possessed any Title. We concur in the opinion that it was Your Excellency's duty to repel such an assumption of authority, a<! being inconsistent alike with the maintenance of the Queen's Soveieignty, and the rightß of the Proprietors of the land in question, and express our satisfaction that in this course Your Excellency has received from all parts of the Colony assurances of Sympathy and Suppoifc, affoiding gratifying evidence of the Loyalty of all clashes of Her Majesty's Subjects : Assuiances which we desire emphatically to affirm. To the first of these paragraphs no exception can be taken. There could be no difficulty in voting what is certainly true— that His Excellency had informed the House. His Excellency might himself have been misinfoimcdj but that is no part of the question. Tlie'second paragiaph is of a very different character. It calls upon the House to assert what the House did not yet know to be true. Theie aio two sides to every question; and the House was in possession only of the ministerial side. It is idle to say that all that was to bo said on the other side would be elicited in debate ; for how could it be assumed that there arc menibeis in the [louse who know the whole. We venture to say, there is not one. But there may be members who could find out the whole, were the proper means affoided To us, the paiagrapb. savouis ot political immorality. Of course, those who wrote it do uot peicehe that it does; but this is the worst part of the matter, — that they are mentally so constituted as to be unable to perceive it To us it appears as an attempt to coerce ; to drive those members who suspend their judgmentinto a dilemma--to place them in the false position of having either to do violence to their own consciences, or to place themselves in an attitude of seeming hostility towards the Government, at a time when they ought to sink all grievance*, at least for the present, and unite in the common endeavour to extricate tlje country fiom the serious difficulties that beset her. Nothing would have been easier than to have given a hypothetical turn to the paragraph, Nothing would have been easier, or faiier to both sides, than to have added an "it" ;; — to have expressed a concunence in opinion with His Excellency, provided 'the data were coriocfc. Had a well fiamcd amendment to such effeetboen moved, there is every reason to think that it would have been earned. For, if expressions which escaped during the incgular debate which took place are to be taken as an index of opinions, there are not a few, well affected to the present Government, who would have felt relieved by the' opportunity afforded of escaping from a difficulty which ought never to have boon created And it is not^unliksly that nothing hindered such an amendment, (which had indeed boon contemplated,) but the fear of cairying it— of having to be "scut for," and called upon to undeitake the Government ; a bed of thorns at all times but woise just now than the gridiron of St Laurence.