The Darling Downs Gazette and General Advertiser, 27 February 1866, p. 3
“PERIO: TEGO.”
MR. JOHN DOUGLAS, the tamed lion of the North, is not to be
permitted to sacrifice himself upon the Ministerial shrine without some
substantial equivalent for the display of self-abnegation. When this gentleman
patriotically consented to relinquish his honourable position as a
representative of the people in order to become, without office or pay, the
representative of the Government in the Legislative Council, many persons, who
were not of the nil admirari school of philosophers, expressed
admiration at his disinterestedness, and astonishment at the fact that he had
joined a Ministry, the chief measures of whose leading members he had generally
strongly opposed. No motives except those dictated by honourable ambition and
patriotism could possibly be ascribed for his acceptance of a thankless post,
from which no emolument was to be derived. JOHN DOUGLAS, Esq., who, in
opposition, was the denouncer of venal tergiversators, had joined the Ministry
with a stern scorn of public gold and public fame, which was worthy of a CINCINNATUS.
He had studied the public weal and felt that his presence was required in the
Ministry, but no paper from the Treasury should be allowed to pollute his
pellucid banking account.
Such were the suggestions urged by the particular admirers
of Mr. DOUGLAS when he joined the Ministry. But it now appears that any
laudations of the action of Mr. DOUGLAS in accepting a quasi ministerial
position, without receiving any salary for the performance of the duties, were
premature. He is to become the recipient of a very important office with a
salary attached to it. It is but right that the leader of the Upper House and
the representative of the Ministry in that chamber should be a gentleman in
possession of some official position or emolument, but after the vehement
castigations administered by Mr. DOUGLAS to those unfortunate gentlemen who
have for the last two or three sessions deemed it their duty to support the
Ministry, we scarcely expected that he would condescend to accept an office of
profit as colleague of Messrs. MACALISTER and BELL.
By an announcement in the Government Gazette of
Saturday last it will be perceived that henceforth the office of
Postmaster-General will be of a political character. Mr. T. L. M. PRIOR may be
presumed to have resigned his former functions, having accepted a seat in the
Upper House; and Mr. DOUGLAS assumes the office thus rendered vacant. The
Postmaster-General will also be the official representative of the Telegraph
Department in the Legislature. This arrangement appears to entail no additional
expense upon the country, and is one to which it would seem no exception could
be taken.
In making the Postmaster-General a political officer, we are
but following the precedents which have been set us elsewhere. Mr. DOUGLAS is a
gentleman of fearless integrity, industry, great energy of character, and
ability. Under his management we may be sure that the Post-office will be
conducted as efficiently as any department under the Government. Assuming that
Mr. PRIOR has resigned (and we imagine he must have done so, otherwise Mr. DOUGLAS
would not be gazetted) to make way for this new accession to the Ministerial
strength—the matter will require some further explanation and we trust the
correspondence connected with it will be placed on the table of both Houses at
an early period of the Session.
If he has relinquished his post through physical incapacity
to perform his duties, or in other words through ill health, then we presume he
will not be able to enter upon any other official duties again for a
considerable period, even although a situation of emolument should be offered
to him. If on the other hand he has received a hint to resign, or has done so
voluntarily whilst professing outwardly his capability to perform his duties,
then his relinquishment of his office looks very like a tacit avowal of
incompetency, unless good reason to the contrary is shown, and he is thus
placed in a false position.
It appears to give color to the assertions of those who—when
the affairs of his department were discussed in Parliament—insinuated that he
was not so competent as he should be. If the Government wished to get rid of
him on account of the disclosures then made, the proper time to do so would
have been at the termination of that enquiry. At present, the causes of the
presumed resignation of Mr. PRIOR are shrouded in mystery, and uncharitable
persons, of whom there are too many in this world, will be apt to place an
uncharitable construction upon it. It cannot for one moment be imagined that
the barren honour of a seat in the Legislative Council is intended to
compensate Mr. PRIOR for his loss of a honourable office of emolument.
We scarcely know how Mr. DOUGLAS, who, in Opposition was so
great a stickler for political consistency, will explain the change that has
come o’er the spirit of his dream as evinced by the company he at present
keeps. Possibly, he will wisely not attempt to explain it, but he must not be
surprised if Nemesis, in the shape of his former speeches and denunciations of
those who have changed or modified their political opinions, occasionally
visits him.
The Ministerial benches will, no doubt, produce the same
result in him as they have in others. The wild colt of the Opposition will tone
down into the well trained official steed. He will not, as he did last session
impress upon Mr. MACALISTER that a political Reform Bill, embodying a thorough
re-construction of the electorates with “Justice to the North,” is a sine
qua non, without the introduction of which no Ministry should be allowed to
retain office.
Yet we do not for one moment wish to insinuate that Mr. DOUGLAS
in taking office has been actuated by any unworthy motive. He is, we should
think, every way worthy of office, and the colony will benefit by his
abilities. But the best of men, when heated by political strife, are too liable
to insinuate that the actions of their opponents are prompted by bad and
mercenary influences, and Mr. DOUGLAS in Opposition has not invariably been an
exception to this rule, nor has his friend, Mr. WALSH. Those in Opposition
should, therefore, always remember that in the course of their political career
they may have to ignore some of their political opinions, with the best
intentions, for the purpose of taking office, and this reflection should cause
them to be less ready to bring accusations of personal motives when the action
of an opponent is the topic of comment.
