VICTORIA.

Lyttelton Times, Volume XI, Issue 665, 23 March 1859, Page 3

VICTORIA.

Our news from Melbourne, via New South Wales, is to March Ist. The following is from the ' HeraldV Correspondent. - . Parliament was prorogued on Thursday. At half past 10 o'clock Sir Henry Barkly entered the Council and dismissed both Houses to their homes. The last day in the Assembly witnessed one of the most disgraceful scenes that has ever been enacted in a House of Legislature. Tier Majesty's representative was deliberately insulted by the Conservative, party. The insult was planned beforehand/and carried out with a spirit worthy of a good cause. Sir Henry Barkly had appointed four o'clock as the hour at which he would come down to the Council to give the royal assent to certain bills, and to prorogue Parliament. He was kepfc waiting till the hour I have named, in order that Michie, Greeves, Sitwell, Embling, might speak "against time," and that the "Commons" of Victoria might dine. This latter will appear incredible to you, but it is a fact nevertheless—,a painful fact. At 6 o'clock, his Excellency was awaiting in an anti-room the conclusion of public business, while Dr. Embling was deliberately insulting him by talking nonsense to prolong the time, aided : by Mr. David Moore, who showed his respect for his Sovereign by supplying his medical friend with a glass of water when he seemed about to break down under the exhaustion of pouring out a stream of words without meaning. Michie was applauding, Ebden nodding approval, Adamson performing antics something akin to those of a bear climbing a pole, and the other Conservative subs were exhibiting emotions of intense delight. Six o'clock struck, and the Conservatives rose from their seats in a body amidst general cries of " dinner," and left the Assembly. The Speaker in vain appealed to them, and remindedthe House of the fact that the representative of her Majesty was " waiting its convenience." No matter. The Commons must dine! Mr. D. S. Campbell confessed that it" was an intended insult, but added "it cannot be laid at our door; it is entirely owing to the Government." But the occasion out of which all this display of ill-temper ajid ungentlemanly conduct arose was an unfortunate one for the' Conservatives; The Lower House had sent the Appropriation Bill to the Upper ! House, and that House had returned it with an amendment marking out the division of the sums voted; for educational purposes: This was a material amendment, which, if permitted, would have established by precedent the right of the Upper House to interfere with money bills. Mr. Michie contended the amendment was one the English House of Lords, could make, but the eases he brought forward told against him, and he forgot that the dry hard words of an Act of Parliament rule the matter with us.

Sir Henry Barkly behaved, as he indeed always does, splendidly/ He is not the man to perceive an insult offered to the Queen's majesty,, unless indeed he could not in honour shut his eyes to it. He showed himself far too much of a gentleman to exhibit personal annoyance. He read'the ; speech arid dismissed the two Rouses of Parliament in the same quiet, dignified manner he would have dismissed them had their " convenience " permitted of their meeting him at the hour he had appointed. But what, after'&ll/had'S'r Henry Barkly done to bring down on his head this insult? ' Because the Government had.been guiltyof an act of dodgery on the previous evening, by securing a count one, and thus " burking" Mr. Michie's threatened attack on the Education question. There is> no doubt about the blame due to the Government in this matter. With full knowledge of the intentions of the Upper House to try to introduce: an amendment iuto the Appropriation Act, every member of the Government and every supporter of the Government but one absented himself oii Wednesday afternoon, and a House could not be formed. The? did this with their eyes open to the fact that the Governor had appointed three o'clock on Thursday to come down to the House, and to the. effect of standing orders, which prevent members from assembling until four o'clock, unless a special adjournment to an earlier hour be agreed, to by the House; They thought not of this. ,It was so great a thing to gain a victory over the Opposition by a manoeuvre, and the opportunity was so tempting. So a " white bait" dinner was got up, at which loud and uproarious was the mirth at the discomfiture of-Michie and his friends.

Talk of opportunities! Here was one for the Conservatives. What a dignified protest might have been entered against this gross violation of the privileges of Parliament—this disgraceful* insult to the representatives of the people ! A Government resorting to dodging to stifle discussion —on such a question—on the-education of the people. How Michie might have declaimed! How dignified might have been Ebden's stem rebuke! How determinedly might Moore have expressed the feelings of an Australian merchant! , How delicately censorious might Greeves have been! And how much gentlemanly disgust might Adamson and Embling have silently expressed by keeping rigidly to their seats, with a.frown of,dissatisfaction on their expressive* countenances !

But no! The Ministers had dined yesterday, and the Conservatives would dine to-day I—let who will wait. What a policy for a hand of statesmen ! What a " cry" for the hustings! " Gentlemen electors, I was one of that glorious band which dined on (under) one floor of the House while the Queen's representative waited. Brother electors, is this a free country, or is.it not? What man is there among you who will not follow the glorious example, thus, set you ? If a policeman. tread on your toes, kick a magistrate." You have heard by telegraph of the deplorable fire at North; Melbourne, by which 42 houses have been destroyed,:and above 160 persons have been severe losers. The inhabitants of this block of houses were chiefly working, men, with their families—many of them saving, well-to-do men, who had bought their little hits of land and built, their houses in spare times; men who were beginning to enjoy the comforts of a house after having undergone the discomforts of tent life, while they husbanded their means to buy materials for more permanent houses; many of them uninsured. The single men who were lodgers in ike houses of others .have lost everything —their tools, their clothes, many of them sums of money they have been laying, by against a rainy day. It is calculated that at least £1500 in notes have been destroyed in this fire.' A: subscription has been set on foot, but it has not made much progress. Wo are becoming an immovable, heartless set in Melbourne, lam afraid.! An appeal made on behalf of the sufferers "by the bush firea in South Australia has, as yet, scarcely elicited a response of any! kind. '.A large fire, has /just occurred in. Flinder'slane, deaf roving the warehouses of Messrs. Unmack, Brothers, Mason,' and Frith (the office of the' Journal of Commerce'), Gt. C. Stephens and Co., and Siitherland and Baillie. The fire originated in the stores of Messrs. Unmack, 'Brothers, who are not insured to one quarter of their value. Thedocal offices are the -chief su'iffera-s. The warehouse of

;Messi\s.'tP.:B. Martin, and *C 0..,: a'large'- pile, of bhV "stone, s'tbttped file pi-ogress of the flames, not with-. j)ut considerable damage being' done to soft: goods, provisions, from the water thrown on the roof •fwlucli was onccoVvtwiceinilames.