AN ENGLISH VIEW OF VICTORIAN POLITICS.

Globe, Volume XX, Issue 1543, 29 January 1879, Page 3

AN ENGLISH VIEW OF VICTORIAN POLITICS.

[Pall Mall " Grazettp.' ; J A tcleeram from Melbourne informs US that the Assembly and the Lcgislative Council not having been able to agree in the conference which w? n held between the two Houses on the reform of the constitution, three Commissioners nre to come to England in order to confer with the Imperial Government. Two of the members of the Commission are said to bo the Chief Secretary, Mr Graham Berry, and Professor Pearson, an Oxford gentleman, who has been a few years in the colony, and has distinguished himself by giving the Government a vigorous support in all its proceedings. After a long debate, we are told, £SOOO has been voted to defray the expenses of this appeal. The main question now at issue is whether the sola control of the finances of Victoiia ought or ought not to bo vested in the Lower House, which is elected by manhood suffrage. All minor issues aro really swallowed up in this. Both Houses appear to be anxious to avoid a recurrence of those deadlocks which have been so disastrous to the interests of the whole community, and the Council has shown an apparently honest desire to make that branch of the constitution more popular. It has been proposed that the number of members should be largely increased, that the qualification of electors should be reduced, and that the Council should even part with some portion of its authority under the existing constitution. But that the entire financial authority should be vested to all intents and purposes in the Lower House seems too much, and all the more so because no such power has been claimed in other colonies. But whether the Imperial Government should decide a local question of this sort is perhaps doubtful, Hero we are rejlly outside any consideration as to the judicious or injudicious behaviour of Sir George Bowen, or even as to the conduct of Mr Graham Berry and his supporters in their dealings with the civil service. 'Wow that we have given tho colonists the right to dispose of their lands, and even to tax our goods as they please, it i 3 clear that tho rearrangement of their Constitution affects Imperial interests very slightly indeed ; and it is hy no means certain that leaving them to sottle the matter amongst themselves would not prove tho most conservative policy in the long run. Already some reaction against entrusting the whole taxing power to the neediest portion of the colony is apparent, and this will gain force as the facts_ aro ooked into. If, however, Sir Michael HicksBeach does recognise tho reference to the Imperial Government, it may be hoped that no desire to make matters smooth with the democracy of Victoria will prevent him from thoroughly examining the case of the Legislative Council. There is in Victoria the most complete bureaucratic machinery possible, and the party in office have it in their power to use much of the public money in such a way as to gratify their supporters. This is a consideration which the Colonial Secretary, if ho deals with the matter at all, shoidd not overlook.