The Character of a Nation is its Most Enduring Quality.

The character of its public men and of its government should be the chief concern of a people.

During recent years the material concerns of our people have engrossed their attention to the practical exclusion of all keen criticism of an interest in political affairs. Acts of administration calculated by their low moral tone to demoralise the public service, and prove destructive to democratic or popular rights, have during recent years been committed, and the public attention, being directed towards other, more exciting or immediately profitable concerns, has scarcely found time to notice, much less to punish, such actions.

This laxity upon the part of the electors towards administrative wrongdoing has dulled the edge of the public conscience, and has encouraged contempt for moral ideals on the part of the Ministry.