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Westport Times, Volume III, Issue 477, 13 March 1869, Page 2

Oub readers are already aware that, in view of the hesitancy which was exhibited on the part of locally resident men to come forward as candidates on the occasion of the last election, a number of electors signed a requisition to Mr D. M. Luckie, of Nelson, soliciting his candidature to become the successor of Mr Bentley in the Provincial Council. To that requisition Mr Luckie has given a reply which is published in another column, and which, after 'the favorable opinion of Mr Lucki6 which we previously ventured to express, it is not at present necessary for us to make the subject of comment. The requisition was signed and sent to Mr Luckie, on the understanding that, should a local and eligible candidate present himself, a preference would be given to such a candidate ; and, though there was no special mention made of such a condition, we see that Mr Luckie has wisely, and with a sense of justice towards the electors, intimated that it is distinctly upon such a condition that he agrees to come forward. "Whether he will, by the fulfilment of that condition, be bound to withdraw, does not as yet appear. During the week the wish that Mr William Pitt would allow himself to be nominated became parent to the thought that he would do so, if he were asked; and a requisition was accordingly presented to that gentleman. There cannot be a doubt that, were Mr Pitt to become a candidate, he would receive, as he would deserve, a unanimous assurance of the constituency's confidence, or such a majority of votes as would place him in a position infinitely above any other candidate who might present himself. To confirm this, it is certainly not necessary for us to detail Mr Pitt's peculiar qualifications, or the amplitude of his desire, were he elected, to do his best for the interests of the district. But there is an obstacle to Mr Pitt's election which, according to his own view, is insuperable. He conceives that, by the fact of his holding the office of Crown Prosecutor for the district, he is disqualified, and, although we imagine that precedents to the contrary might be quoted, his conclusion is very probably correct. Thus, the only local man whose name has as yet been associated with the probable honors of the office is excluded from election ; and, so far, Mr Luckie is the only one absolutely in the field. To him there has been taken the objection that he is an ultra-Provin-cialist, and at the present moment, when the community has committed itself to Separation and the County System, it is thought that to select such a one would be an act of stultification. To show the groundlessness of that objection, it is surely not necessary to do more than to remind the electors that it is not in the Provincial Council, but in the G-eneral Assembly, that the question of Separation must be settled, and while we have a Provincial Council, it is well to return to it, not men whose enthusiasm is subdued by their antagonism to the institution as a whole, but men who will do their best for the interests of the district through the exercise of the only form of representation which we at present possess.