The first division of the session of 1888 was a revelation to him, and it taught him a lesson that he never forgot. He invited nobody to pledge himself to follow him, but asked that he should be allowed to declare his policy, and then everybody, he said, would be free to support or oppose him, according to opinion and principle. There were not half-a-dozen members except Sir Harry and his colleagues who really believed that the new Government would stand. In the lobbies it was a common remark that the Government would be defeated.
These were the circumstances in which Atkinson formed his last Continuous Government.
It was never strong. The party which was supposed to be supporting it had fallen back gradually from the splendid position occupied before Sir George Grey came to give it its first reverse; and in 1888 and 1889 it was in its last days. Public opinion was against it. Many people thought of it as the emblem of Conservatism and non-progress, and, somewhat unjustly, associated it with the miseries through which the colony was passing.
The Conservatives’ success at the polls in 1887 was regarded by Mr. Seddon as a disastrous affair. He saw in it a return to old times. He believed that the colony, instead of continuing to struggle out of the Slough of Despond, would sink back again deeper than ever. He had no hope that Sir Harry Atkinson would foster Sir Julius Vogel’s industrial policy. He was afraid that industries would languish, and that trade would come to a standstill. As a matter of fact, the Conservatives’ success was the best thing that had happened for Mr. Seddon since he entered Parliament. It opened his fighting vein and it brought him into greater prominence as a politician than he had yet achieved.
He lost no opportunity of attacking the party on the benches. Determined that his voice should be heard, he launched invectives at the head of the Ministry with a persistence that made him a dreaded antagonist. Like many other vigorous public speakers, he appeared to much more advantage as an attacker than as a defender. At first the Government
