VICTORIAN POLITICIANS.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume V, Issue 55, 7 March 1870, Page 3

VICTORIAN POLITICIANS.

The Victorian Parliament has opened with the following little episode : — Dr. MacArtney said he wouid impress upon the Government the desirableness of adjourning the debate on the Governor's speech. The Opposition, if they then thought themselves strong enough to carry an amendment, would not want, an adjournment. The Government, however conscious of their strength, might have to give way. Mr. G. P. Smith : Oh ! Oh ! Dr. MacArtney : I may tell the hon. member that a day will come for a settlement of accounts between him and myself, and I will then tell him what he is conscious of. Mr. Smith : I may inform the horn member that I shall be ready to kick him Whenever he pleases. (Cries of " Order," *' Chair, 1 " and great confusion). . A discussion on the propriety of making use of such lauguage then took place, which resulted iv Mr. Smith being compelled to withdraw the offensive expression, but it appears that after the House adjourned he carried his threat into execution, substituting, however, in the hurry of the moment, a blow for a kick. The Australasian refers to the above affair in the following terms : — "Parliament has met for the transaction of business and Mr. G. P. Smith lias struck Dr. MacArtney a blow in the face. The sessiou has opened most suspiciously. On no previous occasion lias the fighting begun so promptly. It, lias been quite a common thing heretofore for the first week to pass over without so much as a foul word. Nay, in the early days of constitutional government, before the Assembly had become thoroughly "" loyal liberalised," it was not unusual for months to slip by without the occurrence x>f a " sceue." This time, thanks to the ex-Attorney-General, there has not been •a moment lost. On the first day of the House meeting, the hon. member for ISouth Bourke has volunteered to kick the hon. member for South Gipps Land, and has absolutely assaulted bim in one of the lobbies of the House. In taking this •course Mr. Smith was, doubtless, instigated by a laudable desire to proceed to business as quickly as possible, for he had otherwise but little incentive to prompt him to lake such energetic measures."

A Wild Scene was to be witnessed at Cairo on the prophet's birthday. The prostrate bodies of fanatics were ridden over by the Sheik el Bekree, live snakes were eaten, glass crunched and swallowed, "bodies slashed with swords, cheeks and breasts pierced with sharpmelal instruments which were left sticking in the wounds they made, and hundreds -of men and boys shrieked and writhed, and wrestled, in what professed to be a mad ecstasy of religious fervor. All this was gone through io the public streets, in broai daylight, and in the presence of as many lookers-on, as cotild be crammed, into the narrow thoroughfare, as could crowd together on the flat roofs, or could see from the windows of the houses, or at the gratings of the mosque, at which the festival culminated. Tom King, — It gives the Neto York Tribune great joy to inform the American world that Tom King, late of the London P. R., is now the Rev. Thomas King, of Wales ; that instead of poundiug he now preaches, and he only wrestles in prayer. Notice is made in one of the Welsh newspapers of Thomas's exhortations, and, as we should pre-suppose, his style is stated | to be very forcible, bold, and earnest. He will, hereafter, engage only in knocking down sin, getting the head of the devil into chancery, letting his right fly at iniquity, and his left at hardness of heart ; thus keeping the ring against all evil doers, and sending sinners generally to grass. It is pleasant to read of this beautiful ending of an ill-spent life ; and for a retired pugilist it is decidedly more creditable than the usual resource of opening a liquor shop, keeping a gambling saloon, or becoming a democratic Congressman.