The Lyttelton Times. Saturday, October 18th.

Lyttelton Times, Volume VI, Issue 413, 18 October 1856, Page 6

The Lyttelton Times. Saturday, October 18th.

Thbx>itghout the late election for the Christchurch Country District, the cry of * No nominated Superintendents' was freely used against Mr. Ward, who had declared himself an adherent of the fame views as those put forward in the * LyHelton Times,' on the subject of elective Superintendents. We have not heard that any arguments have been adduced in answer to the opinions we advocated, but the people were told that a deep and insidious attack was made on their liberties, &cc. See. We need not go through the list of ad captandum appeals which almost always go down with the majority. Everybody is aware of the kind of oratory that gains cheers and votes at election time; and of the bad reception which any one is likely to receive who sets his face resolutely against advocating a view merely because it bears a superficial popularity. To the large class of men who are led away without the slightest consideration of a subject by clap-trap and flattery, must be added another class which we are afraid is a very large one also. We mean the mornl cowards. There are too many men in every community who dare no oppose a majority ; who either Bud out and attach themselves to the most numerou' party, or else keep out of the way whe

they might be called upon to express their opinions. This is the most dangerous class of men to a community. It is o\ying to them that under a popular Government the happy choice of an election cry will often carry-the'day against principle and reason; that the leader of the noisiest adherents will have little difficulty in swelling the.number of his followers. We cannot think that want of interest in political questions can be pleaded as an excuse, by any men living under a popular form of government, for not making up their minds on the -respective merits of men or opinions, when they have any power to influence in the slightest degree the contest which may be going on around them. Apathy in political matters is as bad as cowardice ; it does not, indeed, wear as ugly or as mean an aspect, but it evinces a total disregard and recklessness of a responsibility which is not the less great because it is not acknowledged. Many responsibilities are cast upon men which they have not chosen for themselves, but which, nevertheless,cannotbe neglected •without great culpability. Is the smallness of the number of electors who polled on the present occasion to be attributed to apathy or to moral cowardice ? Were the unpolled electors careless as to whether Mr. Ollivier or Mr. Ward represented t hem ? Were they too much-engrossed'by •-private business to take the trouble to vote ? Or were they afraid of recording their votes ? Has it never struck them that they . have neglected a duty; that however little they may care about either of the candidates, yet that they were giving away real power; and that they are.responsible for not having taken the trouble or faced the obloquy, as the case may be, of coming to a|decision ? For ourselves, we confess we have much more respect for the '■consistency, of those who boldly and straightforwardly oppose the opinions which we hold to be the right ones, however indefensible we may conceive their views to be, than for those who shirk the necessity of coming to a decision.