MELBOURNE.

Lyttelton Times, Volume IX, Issue 564, 31 March 1858, Page 3

MELBOURNE.

(From a Corres. of the 'S. M. Herald.') Monday Morning, Ist March.—My last letter' prepared you for ministerial explanations, and even for ministerial changes, but scarcely for a ministerial crisis. Since the time that letter was written, we have been without a "government." Mr. Haines resigned" into the hands of his Excellency the'charge that had been confided to himsqlf and colleagues, and failed to mention the name of any gentleman of whose advice he could recommend his Excellency to avail himself in the emergency. So says

rumour, and rumour is borne out by Mr. Haines' explanatory speech, in which he has omitted all allusion to the advice tendered to his Excellency in this matter. lie merely said—" Therefore, under these circumstances, and feeling- that the Government are unable to carry through these measures in this House as they propose— feeling that it does not hold the position in this House it ought to have, having regard to its own dignity and its utility, which is rar above all, we came to a determination, in accordance with which I, on mj behalf and that of my colleagues, tendered to his Excellency our resignation this rooming. His Excellency was pleased to state that he will release us from office as soon as our successors are appointed. Under present circumstances it would be well that no business should be transacted, and I therefore move that this house adjourn to this day week."

As I was necessarily hurried in my last communication, I may as well recapitulate the mode in Jwhich the fall of the Haines administration took place. The Assembly Members Increase Bill, as originally introduced, contained a Schedule, "providing, that in order to secure a representation based on population, the colony should be divided into twenty-two electoral divisions, instead of into thirty-seven as at present. This schedule did not meet with the assent of many of the liberal members. who were favourable to the principle of the bill itself, and accordingly Mr. Haines brought down a second schedule, which provided that the colony should be divided into thirty electrics, each to return three members—thus securing an increased representation pretty equally distributed. On Tuesday evening last, the clauses of the bill having been passed, Mr. Haines announced that, in order to .test the opinion of the House on the question of representation based on population, he would move the schedule originally annexed to the bill. This schedule honourable members were at liberty to amend any way that they deemed most likely to secure a representation based on population, but the rejection of the schedule he would consider tantamount to a defeat of the bill. This schedule Captain Clarke proposed to have struck out, with a view to the adoption of another, which retained the existing- electoral divi-

sions, but distributed the representation in a different manner, basing it partly on population, and partly on interest. The amendment that the schedule be struck out was carried'by 26 to 18. When the public became aware of the

action the Haines Ministry had thought right to adopt, great dissatisfaction was expressed on all sides. Rumour pointed to Mr. Chapman as the only man who could, under the circumstances, construct a cabinet, and at the same time aimounced that he had been sent for. This was not the case. Nobody had been recommended, and nobody had been sent for. Then arose the most extraordinary report of attempts to retain power, by Mr. Haines and his co!leag-ues, by means of a general compact, with the squatters and with the opponents of reform and secular education. Reform was to be thrown over, education left in statu quo, and the assessment on - sheep to be reduced to 6d. per head. Strange as these rumours were, they were extensively believed as time travelled on and no "coming man" was seen approaching* Government House ,* the people cried outthrough the press. At length the bulky form of John O'Shanassy was observed making his way to the hill in Williamstreet, on the summit of which the Hag* of the Governor is unfurled. It passed through the portico and soon passed out again, and the friends and supporters of Mr. O'Shanassy were at once made acquainted with what had happened. Mr. O'Shanassy had been asked to become a party to the re-construction of the - old cabinet. The seals of office had been offered to him, but not unconditionally. He had been asked to become a member of a fallen ministry. The advice tendered to the Governor by Mr. O'Shanassy was sound and constitutional. He recommended that either one of the majority in the recent division, or some prominent member of the House not directly implicated in the vote, " Mr. Chapman, for instance," should be sent for. There for the present the matter rests. Mr. Chapman is at-Bendigo, prosecuting on behalf of the Crown, and the Governor and the people await his arrival in Melbourne.

• Tho Loudon Stereoscope Company have issued a poster in which is a lithographed stereoscopic View of a weeding, and above they place the following:—"The two become one, and produce an effect unknown to art."