PARLIAMENTARY INSTITUTIONS

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 53, Issue 3822, 16 October 1936, Page 3

PARLIAMENTARY INSTITUTIONS

DEMOCRACY’S TRUSTEE. “The British people have taught the worth of Parliamentary institutions; England has been called the august mother of representative assemblies and the direct responsibility of governments to the governed. It will be a sad day for us if ever we desert our own record in this respect and substitute violence for free speech and the right of the individual freeman to make his will felt in the election of those who take charge of our corporate affairs,” says Canon R. G. Campbell. “Only one thing can avert catastrophe, so far as human wisdom can judge, and that is the return of Christendom to the faith that created 't and to the simplicity of life that made possible the colossal achievement which it is ours to cherish and preserve. “Let us remind ourselves of this in an hour when there is so much to depress hope and diminish courage and energy. The star of England is not set; nay, we may thankfully affirm that in contrast with most parts of the world it shines brightly and steadily still. “We recall the words of Pitt at .what was previously the greatest peril, wherewith a ruthless militarism threatened our national independence and the liberties of mankind: ‘England has saved herself by her exertions, and she will yet save Europe by her example.’ There are signs that that declaration is coming true, again. Despotisms are but for an hour; mighty as they seem, they will soon pass; the stability of England is broad-based upon her people’s will.”