o personal and
party interests the overweening importance which attaches to them in
the estimation of local politicians. There are no real grievances here
to stir the depths of the popular mind. We are a comfortable people,
with plenty to eat and drink, no privileged classes to excite envy, or
taxes to produce irritation. It were ungrateful to view these
blessings with regret, and yet I believe that they account in some
measure for the selfishness of public men and their indifference to
the higher aims of statesmanship.

[Sidenote: Responsible government.]

The comparatively small number of members of which the popular bodies
who determine the fate of provincial administrations consist, is also,
I am inclined to think, unfavourable to the existence of a high order
of principle and feeling among official personages. A majority of ten
in an assembly of seventy may probably be, according to Cocker,
equivalent to a majority of 100 in an assembly of 700. In practice,
however, it is far otherwise. The defection of two or three
individuals from the majority of ten puts the administration in peril.
Thence the perpetual patchwork and trafficking to secure this vote and
that, which (not to mention other evils) so engrosses the time and
thoughts of ministers, that they have not leisure for matters of
greater moment. It must also be remembered that it is only of late
that the popular assemblies in this part of the world have acquired
the right of determining who shall govern them--of insisting, as we
phrase it, that the administration of affairs shall be conducted by
persons enjoying their confidence. It is not wonderful that a
privilege of this kind should be exercised at first with some degree
of recklessness, and that, while no great principles of policy are at
stake, methods of a more questionable character for winning and
retaining the confidence of these arbiters of destiny should be
resorted to. My course in these circumstances is, I think, clear and
plain. It may be somewhat difficult to follow occasionally, but I feel
no doubt as to the direction in which it lies. I give to my ministers
all constitutional support, frankly and without reserve, and the
benefit of the best advice that I can afford them in their
difficulties. In return for this I expect that they will, in so far as
it is