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CHARLOTTETOWN, P. E. ISLAND, SATUR

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“THIS IS TRUE LIBERTY, WHEN FREEBORN MEN—HAVING TO ADVISE THE PUBLIC, MAY SPEAK FREE”—£ururres.

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DAY, AUGUST 7, 1847.

[No. 1.

ce RANDOM REFLECTIONS ON LOCAL POLITICS.—No. 1.

Pil make him rue mss handy-work, And wish that He had rather dared

‘To pull the devil by the beard. » Huptpras,

* Parturiunt montes, nascetur ridiculus mas.”* Horace. TO THE EDITOR OF THE EXAMINER, it has been often intimated that the “hanourable and learned member for Prince County,” (Mr. J. H. Conroy), ashe has been sometimes designeted in the Astembly— delights to embrace every opportunity that f enable him to convince the world—or, rather that the world that may be curious enough to c itself; about sucha dazzling genius as the aforesgid gentle- man imagines himself to be—that he chegishes some reminiscences of his school-boy days, endean, occ2- sionally, cull a Latin quotation for an adversary, as safe- ly as he can cull asimple fora patient. Hecan have little or no difficulty, { presume, in translatitgthe above somewhat trite sentence from Horace; anglet lim, for

ment on their long-cherished privileges, and put forth all their strength to secure a majority of votes to Mr. Coles’ opponent, who was their own nominee.—It is ve- ry well known that several of the Charlottetown shop-keepers—such persons, for instance, as Messrs. Andrew Duncan, James Purdie, Robert Longworth, Charles Welsh, Kenneth MacKenzie, and George Beer, (Butcher)—all Solons in their wey—scoured almost every section of the District, for several days before the Election commenced, in order to pro- cure votes for Mr. M‘Callum. In this enterprise, they were assisted by Doctor Conroy, and the individual who holds the Speaker’s Chair in the House of Assembly,

ing to admire those principles, opinions, or motives, that have given, in times past, the “ Family Compact” of Prince Edward Island such a predominant sway over its Government. Let any candid and unbiassed reader turn once more to the namesI have written, and let him challenge his memory to produce one act, perform- ed by either of them, that will give him or them a right to be considered as Members of the Liberal Party, or,

a moment refer to his letter-in the Islandgrof the 22:

if you like, advocates and friends to the great Reform

ult.,—-and, in the solitude of his own breast,now that tlie} Principle that is now working its way through every pride of his conception must have passed amay, pethaps! wovernment of British America. Kenneth McKenzie, he wil) admit with me, and with the unbiased portion | and such men as he, advocates of the Reform Principle!! of the reading public—that the line is notinappli¢ab!e, phe thing is too ludicrous to be entertained with a se-

to himself and his precious production. irions countenance. Some of the parties who undertook

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It is a long time since i have written a fetter for the noir Jate crusade against Mr. Coles, have so deeply Newspapers, because there was no inducement to Write: inbibed the doctiines of Toryism, as to be incapable of —while the printers in Charlottetown had no manifest ontertaining 2 liberal opinion; besides, most of them inclination to publish, the opinions of any jan wh bad pave scarcely a sufficient amount ef brains to enable honesty and independence enough to thipk differently | thom to form any just conception of the orinciples” of from them upon public affairs. Knowing that the pub-| political science. In their private transactions, they ‘ication of Tue Examtxer will tend to remedy thigevil,'ar0, probably, estimable men; but if they would not i will hail its’ appearance as an era in our political damn themselves to save the Lord the trouble,” they literature; and it is not unlikely that I will be nom engyoud perform one wise.act in eschewing political, agi- then soliditous of speaking throngh its coldums— eee Maio The advice oi Apélles to @ Crispin may -justly the labours and cares of a somewhat agtive life will lenough be recalled for the edilicatien of some of those leave me leisure for the purpose—touching those various | gentlemen who were lately so active in their canvassing circumstances and events that engage fhe attention Of oxeursion—JVe suior ulira crepidam;—for my own part, our pigmy politicians. ‘however, I should not care a rush about their interfe-

Mr. Conroy’s letter is an amusing pjyoduction. The} rence in the political squabbles of the day, so long as

laugh which its transparent sophistry/and inordinate they confined themselves to principles, and abstained

vanity must have excited, was nota bad recompense|f-5m exciting national and religious feelings among)

for the fatigue and dulncss one must ¢ndure while tra-| poorte too easily inflamed by their prejudices on nation- velling through the somnifcrous leadess of the Islander.) and religious topics. It is a fact too notorious, and The learned Gentleman is aware of hig prominent weak-|to9 wel] established to be disputed, with any show of ness—i. e. vanity—when he modestly deplores. “the | reason; tliat every effort was made te arouse the bigotry apathy so prevalent in this Island,” aad secks to exempt) of the credulous and unthinking: The Protestant por- himvelf from so heinous an accusation, because, forseoth,|tion of the District had it continually dinned into their

he is one of those who have been “entrusted with the representation of the people, and who have thereby in- curred the obligation of watching their political rights.” As for the “apathy,” 1 do not think it is by any means so prevalent,” as the public-spiriied Representative for Prince County intimates. Mr. Conroy makes his com- plaint in reference to the appointment of Mr. Coles to a seat in the Exeentive Council. Surely, public opinion

hag been as active as it need be, on this subject: but)

public opinion has been, unhappily for Mr.Conroy,tumed against him and his political confederates ;. and becadse the mass of the people are not silly enough to imbibe his prejadices and those of hig party, he adopts the very, sage conelusion, that they—the people—are apathetic.

“Hew matiers have excited more attention and con- sention than this very appointment of Mr.Coles. [ wil! shew this. It led immediately to an election. At this election, every man who had an independent vote to give, which he believed, might serve to benefit his yoistment as a concession to part of the Licutenant Gover-

The 2

country, regarded the ap Liberal principles on the | or, and sanctioned that concession by his vote. Clique, ont

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*. "The mountain is in Jabowr, and a ridiculous mouse brought forth.”

ears, that Mr. Coles was desirous of establishing a Ca- tholic ascendancy, and was, consequently, unworthy of their suffrages. The Irishmen, again, were attempted 'to be cajoled into the belief, that Mr. Coles was an ene- my to their country and their creed,—and the most vil- lainous falsehoods were printed and propagated among them, to impress this absurdity on their minds, and ex- cite them against him at his election. Bribery—the most barefaced and most flagrant—was resorted to, where falsehood and scurrility could not prevail. But, though unfortunately, these unhallowed measures proved effectual in a few instances, there were still enough of honesty and intelligence found among the electors to frustrate the machinations ¢f the disreputable Clique who arrayed themselves against Mr. Coles, and who

most strenuous supporters. Does the reader desire to knaw from what circumstances this change of feeling arose? IT answer—-from Mr. Coles, having, in the first instance, connected himself with the tried friends cf; the People in the Assembly,—iu the second, from his|

Ys . é . | ;winked by their sophistry—nor influenced by thei; ihopes and designs of selfaggrandizement.

‘ > * 1 independent. exposure of the corruption ef the “ Com-j}as to the fitness of Mr. Coles. Pray, is he.net fully as

others, that I might adduce, that little or no “apathy” prevailed among parties who opposed or favoured the appointment of Mr. Coles. It is likely that I will have many more observations to offer, at another time, touch- ing this appointment, and the consequent election.

When the portly member for Prince County makes the broad assertion, that “the prerogative of the Crown” is “frittered away or degraded by appointments that only add further odium to the man who makes, or the Council who advises and cénsents to such”—he would perform an essential service by giving even the Jeast particle of proof. If the appointment of Mr. Coles was

At Ol and by many others, of perhaps, less note; but all affect-|a violation of, or an encroachment upon, the Queen’s

prerogative, why did the Queen confirm it? and why did not Doctor Conroy publish his declamatory remon- strance at an earlier period? Had he the silliness to suppose that Her Majesty would disallow a constitu- tional act of an Officer whom she had deemed worthy to represent her? Did he imagine that her Colonial Minister would be influenced by the sneaking Memorial of afew individuals--some of them holding situations under the Government, from which they had not the manhood to retire, when they privately disapproved of an appointment ?—or did he believe that the influence of a certain non-resident Land Proprietor could be as omnipotent in its service to Tory interests on that occa- sion as it was on a formegione? Take any of the late appointments, what “odium” attaches to them? Ay, perhaps they are not sufficiently Tory in their charac- ter: they are not hangers-on to the “Clique”—they haye not been conferred on persons accustomed to re- gard Mr. Conroy—-el hoc genus omnes-~as the alyha and omega in statesmanship. On whet reasonable ground is Mr. Coles’ appointment objectionable? The very ‘clever member for Prince County says, he ought not to be appointed because he is the nominee of Mr. Rae: a most excellent reason, in scoth! ‘The appointment is offered to Mr. Rae,--the latter gentleman declines, be- cause its acceptance would interfere with his private business,--net from the cause so impertinently assigned by Mr. Conroy--and suggests to the Governor the pro- priety and utility of giving the office to Mr. Coles. Se- veral gentlemen in the Assembly back the suggestion of Mr. Rae,--the Governor, having confidence in the party with whom Mr. Rae is connected, and who had a majority on most questions in the Assembly, last Ses- sion, elevates Mr. Coles to the Council, and, in doing so, carries out his own views, and the views of the party I have just referred to. It is a matter of very little consequence whether a majority of names were attached to the recommendation furnished the Go- vernor by Mr. Rae: it would be preposterous to sup- pose, that on this recommendation the appointment entirely rested. Mr. Conroy or his party should prove, f they desire to make the recommendation alluded to, a test, thatany members of the House refused to sign it. One thing he or they cannot forget, that Mr. Coles was nol in a minorily as a Member. Iwill ask Mr. Conroy did he suppose the Governer would offer the seat to him, or any of his party--and it is well known, that one or two of ther: would not hesitate so long as to require to be asked twice--avter they had sold themselves, body and soul, to an individual, who had much more hardy- hoed and perseverance in carrying out his schemes than they themselves had—who woald pause at no means,

had, only a year before, ranked themselves among his|however odious and despicable, that might serve to

accomplish his ends—and who would remorsely con sign to the bottomless pit, party and people, to procure a gratification of his resentment against the Govornor?

The Governor could not do any thing of the kind, wiih.»

out rendering the act unquestibnably odious. Ther,

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. ° * yd * a > ' i ha +7 ; » @? ye Ps } We | pact’-—in the third, froin daring to accept a seat in the} competent to hil the situation, as most of these aber 2 s h.} . y im baAlaes ; 3 Aa ' thie 5 MT Oe - he other hand, deemed it to be an encroac2 Council of a Governor, that would not always be hood-| have beld and do hold seats in the Executive Couneit? u Go back to the appointments pf the last ten or Miteewe:

years, and inform us, if you-can, what prodigies of

It is abundantly evident from these facts, and from

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