Читать книгу Life of Sir Henry Parkes - Charles E. Lyne - Страница 12
ОглавлениеIN THE LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY.
The first Legislative Assembly in New South Wales was opened on 22nd May, 1856, and was dissolved on 19th December, 1857. Its life was short, for it was found difficult in the early days of the new order of politics, and in the desire to have the system of self-government proceed with the greatest public advantage, for Ministries to remain long in office. In the nineteen months during which the first Assembly was in existence four Ministries were in power, a dissolution of Parliament taking place three months after the fourth Ministry was appointed.
The instability of Governments at this period cannot be said to have been due to an unseemly scramble for office, though party feeling was very prominent. Discouraging as were many of the circumstances connected with the political life of the time, a high political morality pervaded the first Assembly. There were a sense of honour and an uprightness of conduct among most of the members which placed the public interest above personal advantage. The foundation of self-government having been successfully laid, there was a very general feeling that the edifice to be built upon it should be symmetrical and lasting, and there was a desire to make no false step, but to go forward in the right direction from the outset.
Henry Parkes sat among a body of men many of whom would have done honour to any political assembly in the world. Cowper, Arnold, Darvall, Donaldson, Forster, Hay, Jones, Macleay, Manning, Martin, Murray, Nichols, Parker, Piddington, Robertson, Dalley, Deniehy, and Plunkett, are names that, in the history of New South Wales, will ever be conspicuous among those of the men who were the founders of the liberties which Australians enjoy and of their wonderful advancement.
But the want of a stable ministry during the period of the first Legislative Assembly made the progress of the colony under responsible government, for the time, very slow. The rapid succession of Governments unsettled matters somewhat seriously. The Donaldson Ministry, the head of which was in all respects an English gentleman, resigned after being in office only two months; "in a fit of petulance" those annoyed at the resignation described it, but largely because the high-mindedness of an honourable man declined to submit to attacks prompted, he considered, in some quarters, by little more than party spirit. He was succeeded by Mr. Cowper, but no sooner had the Cowper Government taken office than they were met by a motion of want of confidence, and the motion was carried. No time was allowed the hapless ministers to either announce or initiate a public policy. The Parker Ministry who next came into power were almost equally unfortunate. Attempting land legislation and electoral reform, they failed in both; and the rejection of their Electoral Bill brought their existence to a termination. Mr. Cowper, reappearing as the head of an Administration, and having with him Mr. James Martin, Mr. Terence Aubrey Murray, and Mr. Richard Jones, again found it impossible to proceed effectively with public business, but he managed to remain in office until he could secure a dissolution. Introducing a Land Bill, the Government succeeded in passing its second reading by a majority of 36 in a House of 44; but so persistently was the measure attacked, both in and out of Parliament, that ultimately it had to be withdrawn. Then appeared a Judges Appointment Bill, which was rejected on the motion for leave to introduce it; and, following this, a bill to provide for the assessment of stock on squatting runs, which, on the motion for the second reading, was defeated by a majority of one. This, and the difficulty on the land question, brought about a dissolution, and the Parliament went to the country in the hope that a general election would remove the obstacles to progress by sending back one party or the other with the majority necessary to enable them to rule.
Class jealousies and class interests were greatly at variance, the old squatting coterie being strongly opposed to the popular party which the new Constitution had sent into Parliament.
It was at this time that John Robertson was beginning to impress both the Legislature and the people with his scheme for dealing with the public lands of the colony on the principle of free selection before survey. Young and ardent, he lost no opportunity for putting forward his views upon this important question; and much of the difficulty experienced by the second Cowper Government, in their attempt at land legislation, was due to his persistent action. Sensible of the importance of such an opponent, Mr. Cowper considered how best he could be dealt with, and, before the meeting of the new Parliament, decided to accept his land scheme, and to offer him the position of Minister for Lands, which Mr. Robertson accepted. Land legislation on a popular basis became then the chief question of the hour, and the stability of the Cowper Government was assured.
Mr. Parkes sat in Parliament during the first few months of the session of 1856, an attentive observer of its proceedings. When he considered it necessary he was not backward in expressing his views upon the subject under discussion or on any matter claiming his attention; and he and his opinions were held in high respect; but he was not a frequent speaker.
He had been offered office in the Government, and had declined it. Mr. Donaldson, in the desire to secure a satisfactory position for his Administration, saw much to be gained by breaking up the party following Mr. Cowper, and this he thought could be done by including some of the best of them in his Government. In pursuance of this idea, when forming his Ministry, he offered office to Mr. Cowper, and failing in that, he sought the assistance of Mr. Parkes, the medium of communication between the two being Sir Charles Nicholson. That gentleman seeing Mr. Parkes on the subject, submitted to him a list of names representing those it was desirable to have in the Government; and the list included the names of Mr. Parkes and Mr. Edward Flood. "A Government of that kind", Sir Charles Nicholson remarked, "will last twenty years." Mr. Parkes, however, explained that it was impossible for him to leave his friends, and that he did not approve of the coalition proposed; and Mr. Donaldson's Government existed for only a few weeks.
During this session Mr. Parkes was chairman of a select committee appointed to report upon the introduction of the electric telegraph into New South Wales. The colony of Victoria had done much in introducing and extending this means of communication through its own territory, and had proposed to run a line to connect Melbourne with Albury, on condition that New South Wales should connect Albury with Sydney. The committee regarded the matter as a question "of practical bearing and immediate necessity", calling for active measures to preserve the position of the colony in its various relations with the other Australian colonies, and recommended that the proposed connection between Sydney and Melbourne should be carried out, and also that Bathurst "as the industrial and commercial centre of an important rising district", should be connected by telegraph with Sydney.
Throughout this period of Sir Henry Parkes' life, earnest and zealous as he endeavoured to be in all he undertook, there could be seen very plainly the struggle between his ambition to excel as a politician and his desire to establish himself in a sound position in the community commercially. Between the demands upon his time and attention at the newspaper office, and those which made it indispensable that he should be regular in his attendance in the Assembly, and, if he desired to rise, take an active and intelligent part in the proceedings of Parliament, he was in a serious dilemma. Each being incompatible with the other, to satisfactorily perform the duties of both positions seemed impossible. The sacrifice of one or the other appeared inevitable, and yet to abandon either was as if to commit self-destruction. His position as a newspaper proprietor was essential to his means of livelihood; his seat in Parliament was necessary to his success as a politician. Conscious of his capacity to excel in either, and yet impressed with the difficulties of adhering to both, he was tormented by the thought that one must be given up. Had he been possessed of a private income, or had the newspaper attained a position in which losses had given way to satisfactory profits, his mind would have been at ease. But it was still an uphill fight with the Empire, for though eminently successful as a literary production it had not yet succeeded financially, and close and undivided attention was the only means likely to make it profitable.
Outside Parliament, among the people, his worth as a public man and ultimate success as a politician were settled convictions. To them he was the champion from their own ranks specially fitted to do great public service in protecting their interests and extending their liberties. His courage and capacity to attack abuses, and to advocate whatever appeared for the public good, represented him as just the kind of man wanted to drive the remnants of the old official regime into permanent obscurity, and to encourage the growth of the new order of things which had brought constitutional government and its attendant advantages into existence. He himself was well aware of his abilities. He had not up to this time done very much in Parliament, but he had been a very useful member, and had given much indication of what he might yet do. He knew his strength, and was conscious of the services he might perform in the future. He knew also that when brought forward by the electors of East Sydney, as one of their candidates for the Assembly, he had declared that, if elected, he should consider himself bound to a life-long service in Parliament. But with all the desire to remain in the Legislature, and the capacity to perform good work, the absolute necessity to give something like proper attention to his business affairs was so plain that an early retirement from Parliament very quickly appeared impossible to avoid. It therefore came about that his seat in the first Assembly was not held for much more than a third of the period during which the Parliament existed.
