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Observer, Volume 2, Issue 35, 14 May 1881, Page 376

It would be unjust, however, to place Mr. Ormond in the same category with these two gentlemen. He has not Mr. Wood's power as a speaker, but neither has he the shiftiness and smallness of view for which Mr. Wood has become remarkable. He has not Mr. Saunders' thickness of skin and malevolent love of trampling on all whom chance may place in his power; but his ability is undoubtedly of a higher order. Excepting for his reputed selfishness Mr. Ormond's experience in politics and his steadfastness of purpose would place him in the front rank of politics. When he declares deliberately that he intends to support a certain

policy for the future we may be sure that he will not readily depart from the lines he has laid down. What are those lines ? He would put an end to the policy of the present Ministry which relegates to Commissions the diity they ought to do themselves. The farce which Sir William Fox is performing on the West Coast, and the absurdly omniscient Batkin and Seed Commission, are natural results of a Ministry weak, incompetent and self-laudatory beyond any of its predecessors. Few will differ with Mr. Ormond on this point. He next refers to the Judicature Commission, and makes the strange statement that, "from the indirect information which had come to his knowledge," any reforms in cheapening justice which that Commission may propose we shall owe to the lawyers, and not to the Judges.