THE O'SHANASSY ADMINISTRATION.

Southland Times, Volume 2, Issue 73, 17 July 1863, Page 5 (Supplement)

THE O'SHANASSY ADMINISTRATION.

(From the Age.') What a pity it is that nineteen stone of flesh and bone, and a large measure of brains, should be wasted in the compositi. n of such a man as Mr O'Shanassy ! We have known much better men with half the brains, and of little more than half the bulk. He ought to be as b?ave as Agamemnon, and us wise and prudent as Nestor. But he is neither. The late Chief Secretary is a quantative, not a qualitative man. There is plenty of material, but it is ill arranged. There is a large intellect, but it is jumble and chaos. The mind is as ungainly as the body, and both are far from upright. He would make a very excellent Japanese, who, according to Sir Rutherford Alcock, do everything the wrong way. Mr O'Shanassy is, probably, not ashamed of his conduct on Tuesday evening, but the public generally is ashamed on his account. lie knew very well that the Governor was coming down to assent to the Electoral Act, as also did Mr Haines that the House would be asked for a money grant. It was thought, however, that the new Government might be embarrassed, if a course discourteous and unconstitutional were taken. Neither consideration would weigh with th<.> member for Kilmore, if a point could be gained ; and the ex-Treasurer was easily persuaded. The real object of the move was to get through the District Councils and Municipal Bills, or, by the aid of the discontented Liberals, to carry a vote of want of confidence in the new Administration at the outset. It mattered not to Mr O'Shanassy how deceitfully the advantage was obtained, provided that he got it. Consequently persons were put forward to make cowardly and false statements regarding the intentions of the Ministry. The malignant M.r Wood, undeterred by bis late chastisement, levelled voluble impertinences against the gentlemen who sat below the bar, and who could answer them in neither of the ways in which Mr Wood's impertinences have been answered. But Dr Macad m was the trump card of the new Opposition. Desirous of an excuse for openly allying himself with his Catholic friends, he pretended intense disgust at the want of principle amongst the members of the Cabinet. The soft-brained creature in black, however, damaged the case of his friends. For him to complain of not having been consulted, or to talk of political consistency, was too much for the gravity of the House. Then followed Mr Haines, who informed the House that the Governent could not go on, since they had no money ! Well, no one expected that there would be anything in the public coffers after Mr Haines had been twenty months in the Treasury ! The hon. gentleman quite chuckled over his own success in emptying the till, but had he been endowed with those generous instincts for which he obtains credit, instead of raising the pecuniary difficulty, he would have repaid the courtesy of Mr Verdon, who, when ejected fr< m office, voluntarily brought down a bill to provide his successor with funds during the adjournment. The House having agreed to Mr Cohen's proposition, another and most dastardly trick was resorted to. Mr Macgregor was entrusted with the money bill, the absence of which was so much a matter of exultation to Mr Haines. The late Government and their supporters left the House evidently with a view of obtaining a count out. Had this been accomplished, what would have been the position of the Government? An adjournment of five weeks had already been agreed to, and a quorum not being present, the Speaker would have had no alternative but to end the disorderly proceedings. Had Mr O'Shanassy 's trick succeeded, the business of the country would have been thrown into confusion through the inability of the Government to meet accruing liabilities. The ruse was, however, unsuccessful and the next obstructive proceeding was an attempt to get the District Councils Bill through committee. That failed also. It is quite evident that the late occupants of office hoped to recover their lost position by a coup demedn. Believing that His Excellency would not grant a dissolution, they imagined that, by premature action on the part of the House, Mr M'Culloch and his colleagues would be forced to retire.

Whatever else may be involved in the change of Ministers, there is a struggle of nationalities for mastery. And, if it be true that Mr O'Shanassy exultingly and sneeringly exclaimed on Tuesday afternoon, " You English and Scotch can never govern the country. You no sooner get power than you split among yourselves. We are the boys that can pull together." If this report be correct, we have a clue to Mr O'Shanassy's proceeding?, and discover his purpose in fomenting discord amongst the supporters of the Government. Mr O'Shanassy and his followers did pull together, and the Scotch and English did show that they were incapable of smothering petty jealousies in order to attain a common object. Let the scene of Tuesday be repeated, and the late Ministry will be back in office within six weeks. There will be no difficulty amongst them of framiug a policy, and no fear of a mutiny amongst their supporters. ' : Pulliug together," they will surmount all difficulties, and those who ought to have saved the country from misrule will earn the execration of all right thinking men. Our Geelong contemporary quotes from Judge Therry's book an observation to which we ought to have before directed public attention. He states that an eminent Victorian statesman remarked to him — " Allow me to appoint the electoral registrars, and I will govern the country." There is no doubt that it was Mr O'Shanassy from whom the observation came ; and it affords an insight into that crafty, Jesuitical policy which has characterised his administration of affairs. Give him the power of creating instruments, and he will undertake that they shall work out his purpose. Give him the means of corrupting, and corruption shall accomplish its work. Of course, so zealous a Catholic as Judge Therry highly appreciates the sagacity of the " Victorian statesman," and he quotes his remark without the least suspicion of the treason against public liberty. There is no doubt that had Mr O'Shanassy been permitted to appoint the registrars under the new Electoral Act, the suffrage would have been manipulated, so that he might govern the country. Foreseeing for so long a period the use that might be made of this power, it cannot be supposed that he would refrain from using it. So far from the accession of the new Ministry being premature, they are just in time to save the country from accumulated mischief. We have the assurance of the Attorney General that the Electoral Act undermined the ballot — a fact which we must say ought to have been discovered before. In this insidious subversion of the most satisfactory principle of- the Constitution we detect the agency by which Mr O'Shanassy and his co-religionists work. It is another illustration of tile " pulling together" policy.