The Press. SATURDAY, APRIL 26, 1879.

Press, Volume XXXI, Issue 4287, 26 April 1879, Page 2

The Press. SATURDAY, APRIL 26, 1879.

It will be a comfort to the public to read the two telegrams which have been handed to us by ihe Hon. Mr. Hall for publications and which appear in this issue. They clearly tell the whole story, and the true one, of the WaterhouseTTull "conspiracy." The upshot of the matter is shown to be that one public man " conspires "with another to send a telegram of a more or less gossiping nature, and that his correspondent replies in very general and very reasonable terms. The absurdity of the whole tale that has been concocted by the Government, or their newspaper supporters, or not improbably by an injudicious combination of the utmost ability of both, will be sufficiently exposed by the publication of these telegrams. Amongst them they have contrived to hoax the public in the most 'complete manner. From end to end of the colony, the " conspiracy " has been insisted upon as a fact, and even more than the usual amount of untruths have been told by the Government and their organs. There are now only two points apparently requiring the notice of any respectable journal. Colonel WHi-übre's conduct in publishing Mr. Hall's telegram marked " private * has already met with the unanimous condemnation of all journals and individuals who are in the slightest degree entitled to be classed as respectable. The first of the two points is the propriety, or. otherwise, of "Mr.. Hall sending to Colonel "Whitmore a reply to such a telegram as the one the former received. In dealing' with the general run of mankind, or Ministers, Mr. Hall's proceeding would have been open to criticism. In the present case it is open to nothing of ihe kind, and there is no (question that he would be completely exonerated by anyone who has the least acquaintance with Colonel Whitmore's inveterate habit of abusing his colleagues in general and his Chief in particular.

Having in a previous article alluded to this subject, it ia unnecessary for us to pursue it further. The other point is of more importance. It is the question of the source whence all this piece of work has proceeded. No reasonable doubt can exist iv the mrrid of any unprejudiced person that the falsified telegram, in which a list of a supposed new Ministry was given, was the work of the Government. During the whole of last session they spent much time and labor, which might have been much more usefully employed in public business, in endeavouring to make out that there was an organised Opposition, and that it was headed by Major Atkinson" and -his late colleagues. Having failed completely in this attempt in the House, they have seen in these telegrams between Mr. Waterhonse and Mr. Hall an opportunity of deceiving the public into a belief that such an organisation existed. It is not material to enquire which particular Minister has in this instance presented himself as the "lying spirit" who was prepared to undertake this exceedingly dirty task. There is nothing now in this style of conduct on the part of Sir George Grey and his colleagues. Knowing that the unpopularity of the last Administration has not yet altogether disappeared, they eagerly embrace the faintest chance of throwing stones at their predecessors, and endeavouring to connect with the objects of their hate every possible independent candidate for office. Destitute of capacity for the decent administration of the affairs of the country, incapable of conceiving legislation of the smallest public value, mendacious in their public utterances, and existing alone by broken promises and intrigues, they naturally have recourse to this miserable expedient.

The extreme and very proper reluctance of the colonial authorities at Home to have to do with anything which savours, in however slight a degree, of an attempt to override constitutional powers once granted to a colony is receiving apt illustration in the failure of Mr. Berry to carry his point at Downing atreet. As our readers are now aware, the appeal of the Victorian Premier for legislation by the mother country is not to be granted. Mr. Berry has been recommended, it appears, before pressing his application further, to appeal to the country in the usual way by means of a general election. What may be done for him when the event of such an appeal becomes known is not apparently suggested, i And indeed it would be difficult even to hint at what might be done in the utter uncertainty at present attending the result. The recommendation is however, on the face of it, a postponement of the whole question sine die; and the spirit in which it is likely to have been made may be gathered by the advice tendered to Mr. Berry by the London Times. The friendly relations existing between that journal and the Imperial Cabinet are tolerably well understood, and it is not difficult to fathom the real intentions of the British Government when the Times tells the Victorian Premier that he had better return as soon as possible to hiß own colony and not waste any more time in endeavouring to persuade the Imperial Government to commit itself to what it designates a meddlesome policy. It is a great pity that this should be «._ x/—.— v»- -> O-l 5-1 Tl_—_ r _D"—. J.— not of course contend that a colony should never ask anything of the mother country which it is not sure of having granted. Negotiations must, from the nature of things, be constantly going forward, in which it is not unreasonable that a considerable extent of failure should be anticipated and submitted to. They are in the every day course of transactions conducted by the Agent-General of a colony and the British Colonial Office. But in the present case we have to deal with a totally different matter. When the Premier of a colony, and of such a colony as Victoria, is sent home specially to demand a grave constitutional change, and is understood to be supported in making this demand by a large majority, both of the Legislative Assembly and in the colony at large, and notwithstanding fails entirely in his object, it is impossible not to feel that the status and prestige of the colony itself have received a rude shock. Yet this undoubtedly is the result of Mr. Berry's mission to England.

' But we are bound to say that we do not see what other course the British Government could have taken. The " Times " refers to the willingness of the Legislative Council in Victoria to agree to substantial, though moderate, reforms. And. upon considering them there can be no doubt that, while, if acceded to, they would not go to the length of placing the second Chamber entirely on a basis such as we might ourselves be disposed to approve, they would go a long way to remove the existing causes of complaint. For the present evil is not so much that the Conncil is badly constituted in the sense that the machinery of it, so to speak, is ill devised, but that it is based upon a wrong principle altogether. In no sense does it represent the people. It does not even claim to do so. It repre-1 sents, and by representing it creates, a I privileged class of the community. It is commonly spoken of as the " Squatters' "House," and its working is such as practically to secure the squatting interest an undue share of control over the legislative action of the colony. It does this in three ways. Its members are required to be possessed of a high property qualification. Those who elect them again must also prove a qualification considerably higher than is necessary to vote for members of the Lower House; and they retain office for a long term which is not liable to be cut short by a dissolution. On all these points the Legislative Council, under the advice of their eminent leader Mr. Service, had intimated their willingness to make concessions before Mr. Berry left for England. Their own qualification was to be lowered. The basis of their electorate was to be widened, their term of office Was to be shortened, and the I Upper House was to be subject to a dissolution in the event of disagreement with the Lower upon a money Bill. We need not dilate upon the importance of these concesssions. Honestly carried out they would effectually be destructive of the present grievance. The Legislative Conncil would be, probably, not the House of the entire people, as it would not be elected by 'universal suffrage; but, it would no longer be the House of the squatters. "We should imagine that it wonld cease even to be the representative of a class. Our fear would rather be that its constituency would be drawn so largely from all classes of the community, and that there would be found among its members so many of the best of each class, that the Lower House would be too heavily overweighted by its inevitably superior

influence. But this is one of those cases in which it is impossible to act upon possible consequences. Time and experience alone can be trusted to indicate the event. If it be clear, as we think it was, that the concessions offered are sufficient to remedy the existing evils, the mere possibility of future difficulty affords no justification for a refusal to entertain them, still less for an attempt to get rid of the Upper Chamber altogether, and to do so at the price of surrendering to a (superior power the j right of suspending the constitution itself. _-s we have thus stated the question, it becomes obvious that the proposal made by Mr. Berry to the Colonial Office was one which it could not possibly accept. It was requested not to interfere on behalf of the colony generally against a class of the community which had unhappily acquired the power j to override its interests, and insisted j on using that power. This would have been on the face of it a case for interference. But what was sought of the Colonial Office was that it should take sides against a class of citizens of unquestionable importance both by their wealth and respectability, who had consented to surrender everything which gave them an undue advantage over the rest of the community. Under these circumstances the decision of the Colonial Office was the only one which could be arrived at. They could not say, of course, that the compromise offered must be accepted. That was a question for the colony to consider. And the Imperial Government have left it to the colony by recommending Mr. Berry jto test the question at a general election.