What Everybody Says.

Thames Star, Volume VII, Issue 2087, 11 September 1875, Page 2

What Everybody Says.

" In multitude of counsellors there is safety." —Oi/D Proverb. Everybody agrees that the proceedings in Parliament are getting decidedly interesting but essentially unsatisfactory. The dead-lock in the Victorian Parliament was a mere trifle to the situation in our own representative assembly. There is jugt as much difference of opinion outside the House as in, but if anything parties are more evenly balanced amongst the people than in the House, and this circumstance is taken advantage of by the Opposition to hold out. Everybody says abolish the Provinces, but take time— put it off to a more convenient season. While the Government and their followers hold that there is no.time like the present. And there is a great deai of what everybody agrees with in the latter's reasoning. If they are not competent to deal with the question now, the new parliament will be less competent, and the abolition which nearly everybody desires may be postponed indefinitely. If another Cromwell would arise and treat the parliament as the Protector did a discordant crew a few centuries ago, possibly abolition would be promptly achieved. Mr .Reader Wood must have felt his position acutely when he rose to speak to the House for. a few hours with nothing to say, the more so as the, honorable member asserted that it was the first time in his life he had ever been placed in such a position. If this be correct Mr Wood is rather a fortunate man, for most people have at some period of their lives been in that awkward fixof being required to speak and yet having nothing to say. Such for instance as being called upon to reply for " the ladies" at a most inopportune moment, at a time of life before the habit of thinking on.one's legs has been a enquired:; Mr Wood was candid, however; 1 He told the few members who were in their places that he had a duty toperform, and he did it in a. perfunctory manner. No attempt to enlist their ears or their sympathies. And if the reporters had been precise no doubt the hon. member's speech would have been interpolated with stentorian snores in place of the " hear hear's" which are usually accorded to his ordinary oratorical efforts.

■ If the Friendly Societies delegates treated Mr Bagnall scurvily, some of the Friendly Societies are making it up to him. No less than two of these discerning bodies have expressed their approval of Mr B.s acts in terms evidently intended to be complimentary to him, and at the same time censorious to the delegates. Possibly the latter will survive the censure, while, if the certificates of character thus gratuitously tendered to a M.P.C. are of any use to him now or hereafter, or confirm him in his opinion of his mens conscia recti, the delegates need not begrudge him that trifling consolation. But these small compliments do not affect the question at issue, and from what has been published it doth not appear that the delegates came out of it so very much blackened in name or character. The discussion seems to hare hinged upon the question whether Mr Bagnall took the course he did for himself solely and individually or as representing the friendly societies of the Thames; and whether the delegates passed a vote of censure on Mr Bagnall, and caused it to be published as emanating from " various " or " the various" friendly societies. This has not been elucidated as yet; when it has been, everybody will know more about the storm in a teapot. As " the greater includes the less," so " the various" must be inferred to mean the whole; and it seems the delegates only represented "various" not "the various." Perhaps somebody will carry the argument a bit further, and set the friendly societies and delegates right. Everybody will give it up. Everybody attributes the quietness of the late election to the fact that ladies were for the first time on the Thames permitted to penetrate the sacred precincts of the polling booth and assert their rights as burgesses. This may have had something to do with it, for it is unquestionable that the presence of females exercises a restraint upon the sterner sex—very often for good. The Licensing Commissioners do not seem to think so. They have no objection to young girls serving out nob biers to thirsty souls over a bar counter, but having adopted " a broad principle" they won't allow a mother to hold a license and so have a practical and authoritative oversight over girls so engaged. No woman can be allowed to hold a license, but no restriction is imposed on young girls assisting in a bar. Yet the commissioners have as much authority for the one " principle " as the other. There are many people with some pretensions to sense who think that young girls should be prohibited by the legislature from serving in bars, who at the same time assert that women are not in any way disqualified from holding a license and conducting the business of hotelkeeper with prudence and respectability. As the Thames Commissioners have, however, laid down v a broad principle that women shall not hold licenses, the Parliament of the Colony will no doubt accept the " principle " by adding another" clause to the Licensing Act embodying the dictum of our commisssioners, which, like the laws' of the Medes and Persians, is not to be departed from. If the commissioners would only give chapter and verse for their authority everybody would be better satisfied.

' A curious letter appeared the other day on a subject not usually discussed in the columns of a newspaper. As the letter caused seme talk, perhaps it. will not be considered inapropos to let everybody have a short say. * The letter referred to was that in reference to emotional ejaculations during public worship. This method of expressing the inward feelings could no doubt be justified by many: it is all a matter of taste or a matter of habit, but without expressing an opinion, perhaps the following might be submitted as a suggestion to the more demonstrative of the class referred to in the letter mentioned. It is from an American paper, and although it may be considered to be

verging on the profane, it hits the nail on the head which the letter writer was hammering at ■:—•" Concerning * hollering' in meeting, Aunt Judy, an old colored woman said to one of her sisTers: ' Taint de true grace, honey; 'taint de sure glory. You hollers too loud. When you gits de dove in your heart and de lamb in your bosom, you'll feel as ef you was in that stable in Bethl'em and de blessed Virgin had lent you de sleepin' baby to hold.'"