A CONSTITUTION.

Colonist, Volume III, Issue 265, 4 May 1860, Page 4

A CONSTITUTION.

{From tU Melbourne Arg&t.) In the contemplation of young children, some moralists feel, or affect to feel, a sentiment of regret at the prospect of those innocent creatures growing up to a possibly villanous manhood. It is melancholy to reflect (say these didactic writers) that the soft bloom of those rounded cheeks should be blanched in; (:a lawyer's office and replaced by the: sallow tint of old parchment; that the fair, open forehead should be ploughed with the-, lines of-.craft and care and crime; that tfie bold, bright eye should acquire an expression of malignity or greed treachery or suspicion; and thatihe tongue which prattles pretty nothings should ever flatter, fawn or He, babble in drink,.or.blaspheme in folly. If this kind of sentiment may be indulged in with respect to a child, it is surely permissible in the case of an infant state—such a callow fledgling as Queensland for example. Gar own correspondent exhibits to us the colony justas it is about to emerge from its; innocent and happy childhood. The picture is Arcadian. " There they fleet the time carelessly,, as in the golden age;" and the people of Brisbane hitherto must have resembled the villagers •who inhabited the timber-built cottages of Grand Pre*. ■

"Men whose lives glided on like river* that water the woodlands, ,

Darkened by shado^Yß of eafeth, l»ut reflecting an imago

of Heaven." .. " ' ; Or, as the occupations of the men of Brigbane are more mercantile than agricultural, perhaps "they might be more correctly likened to the New Amsterdanimers before the harmony df the burghers was disturbed by the dreadful feud between the partisans of Ten Breeches aud-of Tough Breeches, so faithfully recorded by Diedrich Knickerbocker. .

Our correspondent's picture of the capital of Queensland, enlivened by groups of savages, and the little knot of loiterers outside the corner public house, and enriched by tropical foliage, deepens the ieeling^ of compassion inspired by the impending troubles of the inhabitants. They have got a constitution, and they are about to elect a parliament. They are going to «• put away childish things," and invest themselves with the garb of political manhood. And they are actually elated with the prospect. Poor fellows! Already a land bill looms above the horizon, and.a Liberal Association is maturing its principles and nursing its courage in Fortitude Valley. The embryo Assembly is to hold its sittings in the old convict barracks, and the Upper House is to be accommodated on the lower floor.

As soon as the legislative machinery Is fairly in working order, of course the politicians of Queensland will commence taking it to pieces, and reconstructing it. Ministerial crises will periodically occur, and there will be the consequent marchings and counter-marchings across the floor o£ the Lower, that is to say, the Upper House. We foresee, moreover, that there will -be a Corner. Brisbane has all the necessary materials for its composition. That "little knot of loiterers daily lounging at the corner public-house will constitute the germ of a third parly, which will go in for payment of members, free grass, and protection, extensive public works, high wages, and no immigration, Public feeling upon the latter question is already taking a definite form,.and finding articulate expression? for thus writes our correspondent :r-a good deal of jealousy exists on the part ofQaeenslanders on the subject of the fe#r appointment! ■which have already, been made, whenever the situations applied for hare not been filled by candidates who are native and to the manner born." Extra-colonial official! are therefore as obnoxious to the place hunters of Queensland as German artisani to the masons of Victoria.

Perhaps some "mute inglorious " Cathies, Dons, Woods,- and Sinclairs, only # await the first election to Queensland Pissatisfied with the meagre accommodation afforded by the first floor of that derogatory convict barrack, we suppose the legislators will vote a handsome sum out of the public revenue for the erection of new Houses of Parliament, with refreshment rooms, in which railway, contractors may bid large salaries for the services of useful senators, and with a library well supplied with works of fiction for the recreation of exhausted members. "There are no theatres- in Brisbane;" but the proceedings of the Legislature will very likely remedy the deficiency. Will Queensland have its own peculiar Duffy, with his party of two, its Convention, and its Belvidere? Will it negotiate a railway loan, and confide the execution of the work to a contractor gifted with a, ganius for manipulating members of Parliament? Will it imitate *ur follies, and emulate our extravagance? We fear there is no reason to believe that it will profit by our experience, w take warning from our disasters. In all likelihood the young colony will sow its wild oats, and will reap the inevitable crop. We are sufficiently the senior of that juvenilia-member of the, Australasian family, to be enabled to watch its movements and speculate upon its early indiscretions with the affectionate and compassionate interest of an elder brother.: Not that Victoria ;£as altogether passed thrgugh the hey-day of its youth, but that it has already acquired a better experience of the evil consequencesfof its political excesses, and of the unhappy results which have followed the u^iscriminating selection of its political counsellors. In manyrespects it is "a shocking example j"-but shocking exarnple^ some&)wvflpnptjßh^ck;; and therefore our own, in -ajl probability^ willhavenoeffect in deiteKingthapeople of Queehsland;fr6m doing' as #c have do-nej H before them:: We cart orily V lament tb> prospect which liea beforei that youthful community, and exclaim with Othello :— " But yet the pity of it, lago I—o, lago, the pity of ill"