INTERCOLONIAL NEWS.

Grey River Argus, Volume V, Issue 345, 31 March 1868, Page 3

INTERCOLONIAL NEWS.

Victoria never saw such a public meeting as that convened by the mayor of Melbourne, in the new Exhibition Building on the evening of the 13th inst, to place on record the abhorrence of the people of Victoria at the horrible outrage perpetrated the day before in Sydney on the person of Prince Alfred. The newspapers of the morning stated that such a meeting would take place, a few placards were issued late in the afternoon, and yet over 6000 persons crowded the body of the hall, and fully 400 of the leading politicians of Victoria and citizens of Melbourne occupied the gallery. It gave the .spectators in the gallery quite a thrill to hear the cheers that follows! every patriotic sentiment, or to see the forest of waving hats and hands when a resolution \yas carried, by acclamation. The only .difference of opinion of which there was the faintest expression was in respect to the authorship of the outrage, wliich every speaker concurred in stating could as yet be only attributed to an individual, and which a portion of the audience appeared inclined to charge to the account of the Fenians. It is not often that such orators as Messrs Higinbotham, Aspinall, Verdon, O'Shanassy, and MacMahon meet on the same platform, and are greeted with the same enthusiastic applause, but such -was the case last night. The mayor of Melbourne (Mr J. S. Butters) occupied the chair, and shared the general approbation, for the audience were not sparing jn their acknowledgements of the way in which he had called the meeting at the very first opportunity, and thus enabled & rei/ort of the proceedings to go home by the s.s. Great Britain, in anticipation of the mail. Upon jthe whole, last night's proceedings amply achieved their object, .and the effect was to demonstrate once more the deep-seated sentiment of loyalty which animates Victorians. — Argus. The Legislative Gouucil Chamber witnessed yesterday (13th instant) the opening of the sixth Victorian Parliament. Although the actual, it was not the formal, commencement of Legislative business. Yesterday was the day for getting the members together, swearing them in, appointing necessary officers, &c, while the visible glories that belong to our great public ceremonies are reserved for Tuesday week next, when the body and galleries of the Chamber will be crowded with gailyrdressed visitors, consuls, and military officers ; and the Governor, in full official costume, accompaied by his staff, will come down to the House, read the Royal speech, and set the ball of legislation fairly rolling. Seldom has the Assembly presented such an inanimate appearance as it did upon its meeting. The members on the Government side were not particularly jubilant in consequence of the resignation of the Ministry, and an almost indescribable gloom rested upon all in consequence of the dastardly attempt upon the Duke of Edinburgh. The swearing-in was performed in the most perfunctory manner, ;md the only enthusiasm evoked was when the Attorney-General expressed the indignation which animated all classes of $he community at the murderous outrage upon the Prince. The whole of the members were sworn in with the exception of Messrs M'Culloch, E. Cope, J. T. Harcourt, D. Thomas, and \Y. Wilson, who were absent. An address of sympathy jind condolence to the Duke of Edinburgh was unanimously adopted, and the House adjourned until Tuesday week.— l6£<2. A few days ago, the proceedinge at the Hobarton Police Court were interrupted for a considerable time in consequence of the non-attendance of a second magistrate. At about a quarter-past 11 o'clock the bell of the town crier was heard outside the office, and in stentorian voice that functionary Gried, " Oh yes ! oh yes ! oh yes ? A second magistrate wanted." Probably this novel mode of exposing the failings of the magistracy may have tho effect of inducing the Attorney- General to take gteps to prevent such a scandal upon the Bench bein^ repeated. It had a good effect, for within five minutes of the ffrst announcement Captain Crosby entered the Court and took his seat. — fyfommj. A few weeks ago, during the hearing of a case in Port Denison (Queensland) Police Court, a witness and an attorney got to loggerheads.. The witness, named Macleod, refused to answer some questions put by the attorney (a Mr. Norris), and told him not to. be impertinent and cast any insinuations. The magistrates interfered and said they were determined to put a stop to that sort of thing ; they would protect both attorney and witness. The attorney must ask his questions properly and civjlly, and the witness must answer respectfully. Mr. Norris's temper here le.d him away, and he applied some of the most opprobrious terms to the witness, which, having fear of libel before our eyes, we do. not choose to publish. The witness lost control of his temper, and seized Mr. Norris by the collar ; the police rushed forward to interfere. The Magistrates, immediately cleared the Court, and adjourned for half-an-hour to consider what course to adopt under the circumstances. When the court Avas reopened the Chairman of the Bench said they had a most painful duty to perform A gross insult had been offered to the Court. His Worship then read a judgr ment bearing on the subject. It seemed to be laid down that Police Courts not being courts of record, could not punish by fine and imprisonment, but might require offending persons to enter into recognizances. Mr. Norris had given Mr. Macleod, a most gross insult. With the after act of Mr. Macleod, occasioned by that insult, they would deal ,resently. Mr. Norris would be bound over to be of good behavior in recognizances of himself for LI OO and two sureties for Ll5O each. Ultimately, Mr. Norris apologised, and the matter dropped. Mr. G. P. Smith is apparently deter- ' mined to make himself as disagreeably notorious in the present Parliament as he was in the last. With singular bad taste he attempted to treat the House to an oration on Fenian ism, when the only question before the Assembly was the proposition to adopt the address of condolence to His Royal Highness the Duke of Edinburgh which had been just brought up by a select qommitte. Fenianism may exist in the colony, but no one not utterly lost to a sense of the position which the Assembly yesterday occupied would have ventured to broach the subject. It is to the credit of hon. members on both sides that they received Mr. Smith's remarks with unmitigated disgust.

The correspondent of the Otago Daily Times, writing from Melbourne on the XCth, gives the following account of the causes that led to the resignation of the M'Culloch Ministry, and of the present state of the political situation : — The same issue of the daily journals which on Friday morning last contained the particulars of the dreadful and oxciting event, which had jnst occurred in New South Wales, also conveyed to the public the importaut political intelligence that the Victorian Ministry had resigued office. The news came as a great surprise, both upon the supporters and the opponents of the Government ; since whatever might be the result of the campaign, a resignation of the reins of office by Mr M'Culloch and his colleagues previously to the meeting of the two Houses, was far indeed from anybody's thoughts. Wo had not, however, far to seek for the cause which had led to this unexpected step ; for immediately following the announcement of tho resignation, appeared copies of both desjiatches that had passed between his Excellency the Governor and the Secretary of Statj fi;r tiie Colonies, and certain correspondence between the head of the Verdon Ministry and the Governor, to which the last despatch received from his Grace the Duke of Buckingham had given rise. These documents taken together made the Victorian public fully aware of the grounds upon which tlie Ministry hid thought fit to throw up the reins of office, whatever opinion might be entertained as to the sufficiency of these grounds. In reference to a despatch from the Governor, dated October 20, 3567, and furnishing the Imperial Government with the details of the progress of the Victorian crisis up to that date, the Duke expresses a hope that, in the event of a new Assembly being returned distinctly in favor of the ©ariing Grant, the Council will acquiesce not only in the vote itself, but also in the mode in which the Assembly may send ib up to them ; but his Grace goes on to intimate that in the event of the Council again rejecting the Appropriation Bill, including the Darling vote, the Governor ought not to make himself the instrument of one branch of the Legislature for the purpose of coercing the other by again allowing the Bill to be sent up in the same form. The Duke says further that he only refrains from giving the Governor ' ' positive instructions" on this point because he is unwilling to bind him irrevocably to a specific course of conduct under circumstances which may have, materially changed before the arrival of thgjtigfcpatch. This communication was haimafi to Mr M'Culloch by his Excellency oh the 6th instant, shortly after its arrival by the Panama mail. A correspondence then took place between the Chief Secretary and the Governor, in the course of which the former enquired — on behalf of himself and his colleagues-— whether in the event of advice being tendered by them, according to the tenor of the conditional instructions contained in the Duke's despatch, such advice would be accepted. To this, his Excellency replied, in substance, that he should, in such a Ciise, be bound to abide by his instructions from the Secretary of State. Then followed the Ministerial resignation. Mr Fellows was shortly afterwards sent for by his Excellency, and it is said that that gentleman at once undertook the task of forming a new administration ; but we do not yet know whether he lias been successful. His great difficulty will probably be — not the mere formation of a Ministry, for lie has a good deal of materiel ready to his hand in such men as O'Shannassy — who, of 00111*86, would be Chief Secretary — Aspinall, M'Mahon, Langton, and others of le3s celebrity for the less prominent posts — but the course to pursue when he had got his men together. The newly elected Assembly would certainly refuse Mr Fellows and his colleagues all means to carry on the war in the shape of ' ' supplies ;" and for them again to appeal to the country immediately after a general election, which has gone dead against the party they represent, would be little short of madness. In fact, every fresh move upon the political chess board seems to render the game more hopelessly complicated, and the Duke of Buckingham's last despatch, coming so soon as it has after he had told us that we were to decide our disputes "locally," has only made "con-, fusion worse confounded."