Chapter IX.
The New Liberal Ministry.
With a tottering Conservative Government in power, and a strong Liberal Opposition pressing it hard at every step, the colony prepared for the general election of 1890. The people realised that the contest would be an important one, although few looked for the revolutions it brought forth. The Liberal Party was a thoroughly united body. It had taken over ten years to recover from the effects of the rout into which Sir George had led it at the very point when a permanent victory seemed to be assured. It had practically been in opposition all that time. There were members of the Liberal Party in the Stout-Vogel Government, which received a large share of the party’s support; but that Government cannot be described as a Liberal Government in the same sense as the Liberal Government which had gone before and the Liberal Government which was to come after. The Stout-Vogel Ministry introduced liberal measures; but so did the Continuous Ministry all along its career. The former honestly tried to help the colony out of the depression, according to its lights; but its distinctive feature, at most, was its semi-Liberalism. It was the best the advanced Liberals could get at the time. Had it lived longer, it might have gone much further and done much better.
The party’s organisation was hurried on. The cry of “North versus South” was sunk. Sir George Grey was no longer a stormy petrel, and there was nothing to divide the forces. The Liberal Party was confident that the people would stand by it. On looking back at the work of the past session, it congratulated itself on what it had done. It had not ousted the Conservative Government, which had the advantage of going to the country as the representative of the party in power; but it had never been more vigorous in its criticisms, and it felt that the colony had reaped some benefit from its operations.
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