An
illustration was used in another place in explaining this part of the
subject by the venerable and gallant knight, our Premier, than which
nothing could be more clear. He observed that when we had had five
administrations within four years, it was full time to look out for
some permanent remedy for such a state of things. True--most true--
Constitutional Government among us had touched its lowest point when it
existed only by the successful search of a messenger or a page after a
member willingly or unwillingly absent from his seat. Any one might in
those days have been the saviour of his country. All he had to do was,
when one of the five successive Governments which arose in four years
was in danger, to rise in his place, say 'Yea!' and _presto_ the
country was saved. This House was fast losing, under such a state of
things, its hold on the country; the administrative departments were
becoming disorganized under such frequent changes of chiefs and
policies; we were nearly as bad as the army of the Potomac before its
'permanent remedy' was found in General Grant. Well, we have had our
three warnings: one warning from within and two from without. Some
honorable gentlemen, while admitting that we have entered, within the
present decade, on a period of political transition, have contended
that we might have bridged the abyss with that Prussian pontoon called
a Zollverein.
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