Oldalképek
PDF
ePub

this Upper House. We ought not to call these antagonistic powers into existence; but, with the many recent arrivals, it is quite possible that a sufficient number to constitute both Houses may be elected in whom the people will have full confidence. And I would suggest this: if the colonists generally are competent to elect members for the Lower House, where all the intelligence of the country will be needed, they may be equally trusted to elect, directly or indirectly, the members of an Upper House. I would propose, therefore, that the gene tlemen elected by the people should have power, either from their own number, or from the colonists at large, to elect a small number-say 21, for seats in the Upper House. To make the latter independent of those who appointed them, I should propose to give them a term of office, not, indeed, for life, but three or four times as long as that for which the members of the Lower House would hold their seats. It may be said that this would be a mere duplicate of the Lower House; but this would not be the case. The nature of its position and term of office would render it independent, while it would be indirectly appointed by the popular voice. There are other suggestions from a gentleman (Mr. Norton), whose standing and long experience entitled him to considerable weight in that Ilouse, and whose suggestions honourable members would do well to consider. Their leading feature was, that the government should nominate 100 gentlemen, and that out of this number the elected chamber should select twenty-one. I concede that this subject is one of very considerable difficulty, and admits of very wide difference of opinion. What is the proposition of the body out of doors, which has taken this matter into consideration, I am not prepared to say, not having yet had an opportunity of considering it. But in any case the House has no right to gag these people. I should rather be prepared to give a due consideration to their suggestions. It is a great pity that expressions should have gone forth taunting and branding these people as all that is contemptible.

In

That

There is, I maintain, as much intelligence among these people, and as earnest a desire to promote the best interests of the country as there is in this House. There has been no demonstrations antagonistic in the slightest degree to the law of the country. (Hear, hear.) former years no one was so much looked up to as the hon. and learned member for Sydney. I have myself been in the habit of looking up to that gentleman as one of the ablest men in the country. And if I now insist upon the expression of any particular views, it is that gentleman's influence and example I have to, thank for it. Although differing from the hon. and learned member's present views, and opposed to his present measures, people out of doors still admire him for his great abilities, and appreciate the good he has done in times past. gentleman might, in fact, pass as safely through the city at any hour of the twenty-four as the most popular member of the day. The people, whose representations have been rejected and treated with contempt by that House, must appeal to the Parliament of England if this measure be pressed against their will. And if they are compelled to take this step, one object which the House and the country have in view, that of obtaining responsible government, will be defeated. The government at home will never venture to confirm a law which has been passed by thirty gentlemen in the face of thousands; and seeing that there is no agreement here as to what form of constitution should be adopted, they can come to no other conclusion than that the time for granting responsible government had not arrived. I will call upon the House to pause ere it grafts nomineeism upon this measure, in the vain hope of establishing an institution bearing some analogy to the British House of Lords. We have abundance of talent and abundance of experience among us, and we ought to make a constitution for ourselves-a constitution not copied from that of any other land, but one which shall be peculiarly our own, and adapted to the exigencies of the country. There

[ocr errors]

are people here of all pursuits. The honourable and learned member, for Sydney has himself had a finger in every pie, and an iron in every fire, until he attained his present happy position of complete and comfortable independence. And this, by the by, he attained through the gold discovery, from which he predicted nothing but loss and confusion. The interests of the country are by no means identical with those of its great freeholders or great squatters, and no paramount influence should be given to either of these classes. Mr. Lowe, I presume, will not be objected to as an authority in this House, (hear, hear, and ironical cheers,) and I will quote from that gentleman with reference to the position and influence of nominees, although, as a general principle, I must condemn, as useless, the very lengthy and continued quotations from various writers in all ages which have been made throughout the debate. Mr. Lowe said

I speak with some degree of certainty upon this subject, because I have had the honour of filling that office myself, and of resigning it, because I found it impossible, whatever I did, to fill it to the satisfaction of my own conscience, and, at the same time, to the satisfaction of others. For instance, if I voted with the government, I was in danger of being reproached, as I have been on one or two occasions, by representative members, as a mere tool of the government, and not, according to the theory of the constitution, acting for the colony at large; and if I took the opposite course, and voted with the opposition, as I did upon most questions, and upon none more heartily than on that relating to district councils, I was reproached by the officials as a traitor to the Government. In fact, I was in this position -if I voted with the government I was taunted with being a "slave" and if I voted against them, I was taunted with being a "traitor." The emoluments of the office are not so tempting as to induce any one with the least spark of independence to put up with this situation, and therefore I thought it the wisest to resign my seat, and I did resign it altogether. Observe, now, the position which these nominees hold universally throughout the colonies. It is one full of anomalies. They represent nobody; yet they have not the slightest affinity to an aristocratic institution. They are the scapegoats of the constitution, the target for every attack, the butt of every jest. Ignominy and obloquy rain thick upon them: and when it is asked whether the colonies have materials for

Course

a second chamber, the question may, I think, with more propriety be put, can they have ma terials for nominees? Can they have people so paramount in talent, so independent in property, so conciliatory in manner, so combining all sorts of contradictory attributes, that they can hold this invidious office without exposing themselves to the sort of treatment to which I have alluded? That I think is impossible; and it is not my opinion alone, but that of almost every other person throughout the Australian colonies.

At one time the whole house had been in arms to put down this creature nomineeism (hear, hear, and laughter). The hon. and learned member for Cumberland, and the hon. member for Durham, brought under the consideration of the House a great mass of arguments and authorities to show the fallacies of this measure; but they had all up-hill work, and met with nothing but unmerited abuse.

The hon. member for Northumberland has entertained the House with details of tyranny and oppression during the early times of America. But surely the hon. gentleman does not mean to say, that such acts would be permitted here in the present day. They might have done very well at former periods of the colony's history, for there were many cruelties here in times past. What those cruelties were I will not stop to inquire; but I will leave the hon. member to inquire for himself. The details of the measure will have to be considered and discussed when it goes into committee, and I will therefore not detain the House by going into any of these questions. My chief desire has been, in performance of what I conceive to be my duty to my constituents, to vindicate them from the aspersions which have been cast upon them. I again entreat the House to pause before it admits this principle of nomineeism into the bill, After having contended so long and so earnestly to get rid of this system altogether, it is better that hell should gape, and swallow us, than that we should thus, by our own act, give up a measure of freedom within our grasp.

Mr. NICHOLS: Had it not been for the lengthy arguments which have just been addressed to the House, I should

not have thought it necessary to trouble the House long. As to the attacks upon the honorable and learned member for Sydney, I may well leave him to defend himself. But whatever opinions may be entertained upon this bill, however the measure may be condemned, I have no doubt that every reflecting and impartial man must give the honourable and learned gentleman who framed it, credit for having preserved and conservated the best interests of the country. (Cheers.) In its main features this measure is characterized by a large and enlightened liberality; and we should be traitors to ourselves and to our posterity if we refused to accept it. (Cheers.) Now I am unable to come to the conclusion that the country is not pledged to this measure, although I admit that some latitude of discretion is allowed in the despatches of Sir John Pakington; and I believe if the measure is not accepted, the colony will lose all those great advantages which it has so long contended for, and which are at length conceded to it. I believe, although the question of a nominee or elective house will have to be settled in Committee (hear, hear), I believe that this bill will check anarchy, whilst it will secure to every man his liberty. (Loud cheers.) And when future generations shall enjoy the inestimable blessings of true public liberty-when the party animosities and personal antipathies of the present day have faded away when our posterity comes to weigh impartially the great actions of distinguished men-I believe they will place at the head of the list of the worthies of Australia, the name of William Charles Wentworth. (Loud cheers.) I believe that, as a reward for his public services, he will have the praise of having laid the deep and secure foundations of the future empire of the South; for, to use his own expressions, there is no doubt that this colony has been precipitated into a nation. I and my honourable and learned friend are not wanderers in the land; we are natives of the soil-all our affections and all our hopes are centered in this land; and can we so betray our posterity as to found a constitution which

will degrade us as a nation? (Cheers.) We are of the people. Have not I risen from the ranks of the people? Has not my honourable and learned friend raised himself, by his genius and his talents, from the ranks of the people? Is he not one of the people now? and has he not the same deep interest in the country as any other man has ? Why should he wish to injure himself and his own children? Does any one believe it possible that he who has achieved for his country the freedom of the press, trial by jury, and the right of electing its own representatives, that he should wilfully forfeit his claims to the gratitude of that country,that he should deliberately tarnish his fair fame? (Cheers.) I do not and cannot believe this. I cannot believe that, at the close of his great career, my honourable and learned friend could be such a traitor to himself. (Cheers.) The hon. member for Sydney has quoted some observations of Mr. Lowe in support of his arguments; but if he had read a little further he would have found that those observations went the other way. And, indeed, Mr. Lowe is well known to have changed his opinions as often as the cameleon changes its skin. (Hear, hear.) In the speech of Mr. Lowe to the Colonial Reform Association, in June, 1850, after he had quitted this country, though he complained of his position as a nominee, he never dreamed that the Imperial Government would consent to give an elective Upper House to the colony. And he had first broached the idea in a letter which was addressed to the editor of one of the Sydney papers. I am surprised-or rather I am not surprised—at this sudden change of opinion on the part of Mr. Lowe. (Laughter.) I have answered that letter through the press, referring to the former speeches of that gentleman, because I do not like to see my fellow-citizens led away by the opinions of a man who is so constantly vacillating. (Hear.) [The honourable gentleman here referred to one of those speeches in which Mr. Lowe had strongly advocated the maintenance of the British constitution.] It is my

N

[ocr errors]

desire to see that British constitution maintained. I have been taunted with changing my opinions; and, in truth, I did begin life as a radical, but only as a radical reformer of all proved abuses; and have yet to learn that the British constitution is a proved abuse. (Cheers.) On the contrary, it is acknowledged on all hands to be the pride, the admiration, and the glory of the world. (Renewed cheering.) The honourable member for Sydney has said that he is not here as a delegate but as a representative; but his speech denies his assertion. His speech, indeed, is merely a repetition of what has appeared for the last month past in the columns of the Opposition press, and I compliment the honourable member on the excellence of his memory. (Laughter.) But I have a much higher view of the duty of a representative. If my services to my constituency are not worth their votes, I declare at once that I care not two straws for a seat in the Legislature. (Hear, hear.) These are my principles. I have a deep respect for public feeling and for popular applause; but I will always give my honest opinion fearlessly, hoping that what I do will be for the benefit of the country. (Cheers.) If they reject me, let them do so; I shall be no worse a man, and they may get a better representative. (Cheers.) I have no intention to trouble the house with lengthy authorities; and, indeed, I think that it is a very inconvenient practice that has grown up in this house; but I will refer briefly to a modern writer who has lived in the neighbourhood of a democracy, and knows well what it really is. Now it may be that I should be for extending the franchise; and I think that a class of persons who are now paying large taxes to the Government ought to be enfranchised. But I believe that in no part of the world is life and property safer than in New South Wales. (Cheers.) Every man that is honest and industrious can sit under his own vine and his own fig-tree. The Government has done much by its educational plans to advance the social and moral welfare of the people; and it is no vain hope that, in future days, orators, statesmen, and

poets, will spring up in this land equal to those of any other country under the sun. (Cheers.) The labouring classes are better off than in any other country. Would to God the poor starving thousands in the mother country could share in their abundance, for all we want are the sinews of the labourer to make this colony a great nation. But though I an favourable to the extension of the franchise, I am not now for universal suffrage. I read my recantation on that point (hear, hear); and I am reminded of an old man, now living, who was the contemporary of Fox, Pitt, Burke, and Sheridan, but who acknowledged that in early life he was a Radical, in middle age a Whig, and he intended to die a Conservative. (Laughter and cheers.) Now I believe in my heart the honourable member for Sydney is the rankest aristocrat in the colony (renewed laughter); and that he would be eminently fitted to succeed Lord Campbell, of Campbell's Wharf. Why, I remember the time when the honourable gentleman would not deign to sit upon a jury. (Hear, hear.) Where was he when the Patriotic Association was fighting for the liberties of the country? (Laughter.) Why, either in his counting-house, counting out his money, or at the Pestle and Mortar Club. (Laughter.) Talk about consistency! Why he is the most inconsistent man in the House. (Cheers.) And I will tell him that I thought at first that the representation of Sydney ought to be increased; but, after the exhibition he made of himself the other night, I am more inclined to think that Sydney has one representative too much. (Laughter and cheers.) I have listened to the honourable gentleman's speech with great attention; but I defy anybody to understand what he meant, and I defy the honourable member himself to explain what he meant. (Continued laughter.) Of all the melancholy exhibitions that have ever been made by the representative of such a city as this, that was the most disreputable. honourable member from Salisbury Plains (Mr. Marsh) has said that the greatest constituencies often returned the worst

The

[blocks in formation]

That's the beauty of havin' two bodies, to look at things thro' only one spyglass, and blow bubbles thro' one pipe. There's no appeal, no redress, in that case, and what's more, when one

party gives riders to both horses, they ride over you like wink, and tread you right under foot, as arbitrary as old Scratch himself. (Laughter.) There's no tyranny on áirth equal to the tyranny of a majority; you can't form no notion of it unless you seed it. Jist see how they sarved them chaps to Baltimore last war, General Lingan and thirty other fellers that had the impudence to say they didn't approve of the doin's of the administration; they jist lynched 'em and stoned 'em to death like dogs. We find among us the greatest democrats are the greatest tyrants.

seal up the voice of the executive, so that they darn't call their souls their own, or make 'em onpopular; and whenever the executive once fairly gets into that are pickle, there's an eend of the colony, and declaration of independence would soon foller. Papenor knows that, and what it would lead to in the eend. That critter may want ginger, for ought I know; but he don't want for gumption, you may depend. Elective Councils are inconsistent with colonial dependence.

that's the reason he's so hot for it-he knows

(Hear, hear.) No one could doubt that; and I would ask whether the House would rather see the colony independent, or see it continue under the protection of the glorious flag that has

ane

Braved a thousand years,
The battle and the breeze?

(Cheering.) I do not think it worth while to reply to the scissors and paste speech of the honourable member for Durham. I have read it, but I can make neither head nor tail of it. (Hear, hear). I have been taunted with making after-dinner speech, in which I said that, if the British Government refused. I have no doubt the honourable gen- to concede the colony its rights, they tleman would live to find that out. could look to American sympathisers to (Cheers.) Looking at the effects of de- enforce those rights. True, I did say mocracy on the Continent and in Cali- so; but has not the British Governfornia-looking at the shooting down of ment actually conceded all demands? innocent women and children in France, (Cheers.) There is no occasion now for and the hanging of people without trial sympathisers to take away our allegiin America, I would ask, is that the sort ance from our Sovereign-(cheers)—and of government that Englishmen desire? I will say, with my honourable and (Cheers.) God in his infinite goodness learned friend the member for Sydney, preserve this country at all events from that I hope the British flag will never such horrors as those. (Loud cheers.) again witness the bloodshedding of freeBut let the house hear Sam Slick again:- men; and whenever the day comes If there be any good in that 'are Council at -which may come indeed-in which all, it is their bein' placed above popular excite- a separation must take place, it will be a ment, and subject to no influence but that of peaceful separation. (Cheers.) The reason, and the fitness of things; chaps that House will pardon me if I now say a few have a considerable stake in the country, and words in reference to the hereditary don't buy their seats by pledges and promises, pledges that half the time ruin the country if clauses. It has been said of me that I they are kept, and always ruin the man that want to become Marquis of Waterford. breaks 'em. It's better as it is, in the hands of (Laughter.) As reasonably might they the government. It's a safety-valve now, to let call my honourable friend from Toxteth off the fume, and steam, and vapour, generated by the heat of the Lower House. If you make Park Earl of Drinkwater. (Renewed that branch elective, you put government right laughter.) I have never done the disin the gap, and all difference of opinion, instead graceful things which were recounted of being between the two branches as it is now, of the Marquis of Waterford. (that is, in fact, between the people themselves,) would then occur in all cases between the people strongly opposed to hereditary titles, for and the Governor. Afore long that would either I consider that where high merit claims

I am

« ElőzőTovább »