The Globe. MONDAY, JUNE 4, 1877.

Globe, Volume VIII, Issue 918, 4 June 1877, Page 2

The Globe. MONDAY, JUNE 4, 1877.

The " bloodless revolution " in Victoria has dealt a crushing blow to the party of moderation and free trade in colony. The contest has been carried on with unnecessary acrimony on both sides, and unfortunately the questions at issue have been frequently lost sight of and|been subordinated to those of a merely personal nature. Sir James McCulloch is unpopular, perhaps deservedly so, and Mr Berry, on the other hand,|is looked upon, it is said, as an ill-treated man. Personally, perhaps, Sir James McCulloch deserves the treatment he has*Jreceived. The protectionist party cannot forget that he is a renegade. Accused of adopting protection from selfish motives, and to increase his own wealth, he soon deserted the cause he had taken up, and was received with open arms by his enemies. Then again, the contempt and scorn heaped upon the heads of the various - " liberal " candidates as they are called by the free trade press, has caused a reaction in favour of those men. They cannot be so black as they are painted. Speaking of them, the Melbourne correspondent of a Dunedin contemporary says: —"The extreme Berryite party, the party of protection, the stonewall and 'bursting up' comes back, with a majority of 51 in a house of 86, and the Ministerial party is represented only by 15 members : 51 of them, and such a 51, as for incapacity, ignorant clap-trap, shadiness of character, and general nonentity, could havdty be collected in any colony. * * * The most extraordinary statements are current about many of the chosen of the ' sweet voices.' One district chose a a man who is respondent in a pendingdivorce suit, which it is said he doe* not mean to defend. A discussion arose in one district whether one of the

candidates ' came out to the colony as a free man,' and the candidate whose antecedents were so discussed was returned at the head of the poll. Another district elected a man, who, in a former Parliament, was reprimanded for complicity in bribery; another, a man who, when member of Parliament during the Duffy administration, ran a sham newspaper, which was subsidised by hundreds of pounds of public money, under the pretext of advertising; another a man whose only recommendation is his having been for years engaged in producing supplies of literary garbage for filthy and obscene Melbourne prints." When we turn to the " liberal " press, we find the new Parliament described as not inferior to that which it has succeeded, in intelligence, experience, and mental calibre. The reason given for the vote of the country is that the constituencies were determined "to make an example of a Ministry that had not only set constitutional government at defiance, but announced its intention of reversing the fiscal policy of the country under whicli its prosperity had been gained and continues to be maintained." But whatever minor causes have operated in producing the result, it is evident that the free trade party has been very much reduced. One of the watchwords of the now dominant party is the " bursting up of bis: estates." As announced during the recent elections, the programme was of a sufficiently revolutionary character, to satisfy the most violent democrat. IS T ow, however, that Mr Berry has grasped the reins of G-overn-ment, more moderate counsels may prevail. The land question has always been a burning one in Victoria, and the resistance to the settlement of the people on the land, has no doubt caiiscd violence of expression which may well have'caused some alarm. If the result is the adoption of a more liberal land law by that colony, the recent elections will not be productive of unmixed evil. Unfortunately this gain is secured at the expense of a further continuance of protection, the evil results of which Victoria is already beginning to experience. The free traders, though defeated, are not discouraged. Helfishness, if not sound argument, will tell in the long run.