A REPLY TO “A SUGGESTION.”

Marlborough Express, Volume V, Issue 218, 26 February 1870, Page 4

A REPLY TO “A SUGGESTION.”

To the Editor of the Marlborough Express. Sm, —In your last issue appeared a letter signed ‘ ‘ Elector, ” in which the writer suggests that the M.P.Q.’s for Blenheim should be called upon to resign their seats after the Superintendent is elected, but he forgets to show why the members for Blenheim should resign their Seats any more than the members for all the other districts ; now if there is to be another general election, will not the same question be fought over again, and where shall we stop, as some members may be pledged another time to vote for compulsory rating for Roads, others for Education endowments, &c. ? and if so, why should not those members resign directly they have voted for the main principles by which they gained their election ? ‘ ‘ Elector ” seems to think, or rather wish, that directly they have recorded their votes for the Superintendent they should resign, and allow other members to be put in to turn him out again ! To use a popular expression, I would say, “Not for Joseph !” Had “Elector” signed Ins name —as 1 will mine to answer him, if he does—the public could have judged if he was a defeated candidate, as some suspect, and a proper person to make a suggestion, as one of them is doing a very heavy canvass ready for another election ; but my own opinion is that the letter is only inspired by one, and is really by one of their supporters —I mean the gentleman who made a number of bets on the last election, and then devoted a month to canvassing for his man, and got sold for his pains. Perhaps he wants another election to make a new book; if so, I would advise him to purchase a work on betting, so as to know the correct odds. I should hope the members have no intention of resigning their seats, as they have sufficient confidence in the “ respectability and intelligence ” of the electors of Blenheim to know that turn-coats are a scarce commodity here, and that all those who voted for them the last time would. do so again. As “ Elector ” appears to be reading up and taking lessons at a School, I advise him to read J. S. Mills on “Representative Government,” and there he will find a representative is a delegate in respect to those' principles for which he is pledged previous to election, but in all other

matters a representative. One word of advice to “Elector”—that is, to let the peace and harmony of our town alone ; for some time to come, we have had plenty of elections, and ill-feeling engendered by such canting as he is. I am, &c., Another Elector. Blenheim, Feb. 23rd, 1870.