LATEST INTERCOLONIAL NEWS.

Grey River Argus, Volume V, Issue 363, 12 May 1868, Page 3

LATEST INTERCOLONIAL NEWS.

The Argus, of the 2nd instant, says : — " The Constitutional Association of Victoria was fairly launched yesterday. Some seventy gentlemen met m the large room over the Chamber of Commerce, and having resolved that such an association should be formed, it was also agreed that its objects should be as follows : — ' 1. The government of the colony according to law, and in conformity with the recognised principles of the Constitution. 2. The effecting of all changes which experience may prove to be desirable in the Constitution or the Jaws of the colony by the regular and legitimate means provided by the Constitution itself. 3. The administration of public affairs for the benefit of the country as a whole ; and not with a view to the advantage of any particular class, sect, or party. 4. The maintenance of the British connexion, and the due recognition of the fact that the Queen is one of the three branches of the Legislature of Victoria.' " We take the following from the Argus, of the 2nd inst. : — " Up to the present time, his Excellency appears to have made no attempt to form a new Administration. He is now fully possessed of the result of Mr Fraser's negotiations, and unless he is still waiting for more despatches, there is no reason why he should not take some definite course. So far as is known, no one has been sent for, and the position remains as before." Our Hokitika contemporary, of Saturday, has later information to the following effect : — "In the course of the forenoon of the 2nd, Mr Fellows had an interview with his Excellency the Governor, which resulted in his being the bearer of a letter to Mr Sladen, in which his Excellency again requested that gentleman to undertake the task of forming an Administration, without exacting from his Excellency a pledge to dissolve parliament. The letter, however, sanctioned the policy of introducing the Appropriation Bill into the Legislative Assembly without the Darling grant embodied in it ; and in the event of the House refusing to pass the Bill in that form, his Excellency reserved to himself the right of determining what course he should pursue in order, if possible, to release, the colony from its present deadlock. "\',\ A rather dangerous experiment was made on the 26th ult. , with the view of testing the efficacy of Shires' antidote for snake-bites. The proprietor of the remedy has been exhibiting his snakes during the last few days at the Canterbury-hall, in Bouke street, allowing himself to be bitten by snakes which had previously killed fowls without suffering any injury. Amongst those who happened to have their attention directed to the matter was Mr W. H. Drummond, P.M., who chanced to be staying at Garton's Hotel. He expressed an opinion that the snakes used by Shires in his experiments were not venomous, and in accordance with his own wish he was last night bitten by a black snake, which had for some time been in the possession of Shires. The reptile was allowed to fasten upon his wrist, where it inflicted a severe wound. Shires, who was present, immediately applied the antidote, and, as may be imagined, ■ the result was anxiously awaited by the rash experimentalist. He suffered to a considerable extent from the effects of the poison, though his own statement was that it merely produced temporary giddiness and partial loss of sight. He was able, however, in about an hour's time to write a note and walk from the hotel. The Sydney Morning Herald defends the genuineness of the published version of the confession of O'Farrell ; and speaking of the time when the idea of the crime may have entered that unhappy person's mind, says: — "He gives us no account of the time when this thought of vejigeance first possessed him. It must havte been several weeks before he perpetrated the deed. A curious fact was stated by the Mayor of Sydney, almost publicly. When the Prince was about to land he saw a man on the stage who, he knew, what not a member of the committee, and ordered him off. When he beheld O'Farrell. pinioned for execution he recognised hint at once as the same man, although he had not seen him since the day of the Prince's arrival." A man named John Ryan, an old digger, who arrived in Brisbane from New Zealand a short time ago, was robbed of LllO \a notes at Mrs Tregilgus's Bird in Hand public house, Derby street, where he was stopping, on Easter Monday night. He went into a bedroom while under the influence of drink, and fell asleep on the bed ; on awakening he found that the notes, twelve in number, had been taken from his trousers. — Courier. The fortnightly escort arrived from Gympie Creek at Maryborough, on the 24th inst., bringing with it four thousand four hundred and eighty-eight ounces of gold. Mr John Gray, of Kiama, who lately received threatening letters for allowing an Orange lodge to meet in his house, has been shot atfrom^he scrub. The noise caused his horse to rear, and the bullet perforated the pummel of the Baddle. The horse's movement alone prevented the bullet from enteting Mr Gray's body. The powder burned his face. In the Assembly at Sydney on the 23rd April, Mr Macleay read a certificate which had been given him by Archbishop Polding, to the effect that the copy of the letter which he (Mr Macleay) had read to the House the previous evening was received from O'Farrell by the Rev. gentleman. The following is a correct copy of the statement left by O'Farrell : — " Being now about to appear before my Creator, I feel it my duty to give expression to my heartfelt sorrow at the grievious crime I have committed. From the very bottom of my heart do I grieve for what I have done. I have hitherto said that I ■was one of many who were prepared to do the deed had I not done it. I had not the slightest foundation for such a statement. I was never connected with any man, or any body of men, who had for their object the taking of the life of the I Duke of Edinburgh ; neither was I, in any other than in an indirect manner connected with any organisation, in Ireland or elsewhere, which is known by the name of the Fenian organisation. I wish, moreover, distinctly to assert that there was not a single human being in existence who had the slightest idea of the object I had in view when I meditated on it, and, through the merciful, providence of God, failed in carrying into effect, the death of the Duke of Edinburgh. I have written

to the printers of two Irish periodicals an address to the people of Ireland. So certain was 1 of the deatli of the Duke of Edinburgh, that I stated therein that which I believed would be the fact ; and I think I have more than implied that I was but one of an organisation to carry the same into effect. I need but say that the truth of the latter portion rests upon a slighter foundation, than the former ; in fact, that unless from in ere hearsay, I had no foundation for stating that there was a Fenian organisation in New Soutli Wales. From continually thinking and talking of what J may still be allowed to call the wrongs of Ireland, I became excited, and filled with enthusiasm on the subject, and it was when under the influence of those feelings that I attempted to perpetrate the deed for which I am now justly called upon to suffer. — H. J. O'Fakrell."