VICTORIA.

Daily Southern Cross, Volume XIV, Issue 1030, 12 May 1857, Page 3

VICTORIA.

By late arrivals, we have received Melbourne news to April 23. Ihe Pailiament /net April 21 ; when Mr. Wood, the member for the Oven?, took the o ths and his seat. On the motion of Mr. O'Shanassy, a committee was appointed to prepare an address to his Excellency, the Governor, Sympathising with him upon the death of Lady Barkly. [A bimilar motion wa» made in the Upper House ] The Assembly triet again on Wednesday at the usual hour, and continued the debate on Mr. Fellows' motion of want of confidence in the Ministry. After an acrimonious debate, which lasted for fifteen hours and a half, the motion was carried— the number! being — for ministers, 19 ; against them, 34. A public meeting which the ' Age ' characterizes — " As the largest ever held in Melbourne since the great Anti-Convict meeting held in front of the Supreme Court-house some years ago, was held in the Eastern Market, April 22, for the purpose of expressing an opinion upon the policy of the new Cabinet. At the time the first resolution was put there were about seven thousand persons present." The Mayor, who declared he had no sympathy with the meeting, was voted into the chair. Three resolutions were proposed and carried unanimously ; an amendment which was offered, being lost amidst groans and great excitement. The meeting was addressed by Messrs. Bowden, Don, William Kerr, Dr. Lang, Galloway, Dr. Haig, Dr. Eudes, Strickland, and Sutherland. The following petition was adopted and carried to the House by the reluctant Mayor, and was presented by Mr. Aspinall to the Assembly. To the Honourable the Members of the Legislative Assembly, in Par liament assembled. The humble petition of the citizens of Melbourne, in public meeting duly convened, humbly showeth to your honourable House — That your petitioners view with alarm a motion introduced into your honourable House for the purpose of displacing the present Ministers of the Crown, without affording them any opportunity of developing the measures which they have propounded to the country, and without any statement or pledge of any public policy by any party proposing to replace them. That your petitioners are of opinion that the Chief Secretary has enunciated a wise and salutary policy, in accordance with the wishes of the people, and deserving the support of your hon. House. That your petitioners, therefore, pray that your honourable House will reject this motion, and will allow the present advisers or the Crown a fair opportunity of placing their measures in detail before the country, and being judged by the same. And your petitioners as in duty bound will ever pray. Signed on behalf of the meeting, Chairman. Melbourne, April 22nd, 1857. The ' Age ' of April 21 says : " The existence of leprosy among the Chinese, at Castlemaine, has now been established upon the most indisputable testimony. Dr. Preshnw, Local Officer of the Beard ot Health, presented a report at the last meeting of the Town Council at Castlemaine, giving not only the result of his own experience but that of several other medical gentlemen, all concurring in the statement that this terrible disease has been in existence in Castlemaine for two years back. Certain adroit gentry have recently been practising adulteration of gold on an unusually extensive scale, and with considerable success. Ballaarat is the great scene of their operations, the inferior gold of other localities being brought thither and passed off as the genuine ore of the district. Four more convicts, out of seven tried, John Chesley, Francis Brannagan, William Biowne, and Richard Bryant, charged with the murder of Mr. Price, have been convicted and sentenced to death. Bryant vehemently protested his innocence, and the jury strongly recommended him to mercy. The funeral of Lady Barkly took place April 21. Though the hour was early, the s'reets were lined with spectators, and almost every shop on the route to the cemetery was closed. The Bishop of Melbourne read the burial service. The brass plate on the coffin bore the following inscriDtion : " Elizabeth Helen Barkly, O.R 17th April, 1857, iEtat 37." The tradesmen of Melbourne marched in procession to Ciemornp gardens, April 21. to commemorate the anniversary of the Eight-hours Movement. Two bands of music were in attendance, and nine trades were represented : masons, bricklayers, labourers, quarrymen, coachbuilders, painters, plasterer*, joineis, and plumbers. On ajriral at the gardens about fifteen hundred sat down to a substantial dinner. After sunset the trades retired, to make room for the u«ual \isitors. McGresor, the police defaulter, had at length been committed for trial. Under the heading of the murder of Mr Price, the 1 Argus,' of April 21, says — The following remarkable letter, signed b)' 104 prisoners, confined in the Pentridge Stockade, has been presented to Mrs Price. We learn, on reliable authority, that this expression of sympathy with Mrs. Price was the result of a purely spontaneous movement on the part of the prisoners :—: — " Madam — We, the undersigned prisoners at Pentridge Stockade, beg respectfully to request your acceptance of this letter as an offer of our sincere condolence for and sympathy with you and your family in yt ur present deep distress. " We have heard with much indignation that public rumour attributes to us the cognizance of the intended attack upon the late Inspector-General. This we beg in the most emphatic manner to deny, and to state th*t j we had not the most remote knowledge of the dreadful e\ ent. And also to add, that had we been on the spot we should have used e> cry exertion to save his life. 11 We are aware of many instances in which you have personally shown kind offices to the sick, by providing them with comforts not otherwise attainable. " We beg once more to offer you our united and sincere condolence. " Penal Establishment, Penlridgo, 9th April, 1857." A new paper, called the ' Emerald Hill Weekly News,' had been started in Melbourne. The ' Argus' remarks : —The ' News' is a creditable and promising production, and, as we observe by the census returns published in it, that the population of the district is 6163, its claims to be represented by a journal of its own are sufficiently apparent. Public meetings had been held in various pa?ts of the colony in favour of the O'Shanassy ministry Piior to his departure for England, Mr. M'Kean Buchanan had played lago to Mr.G.V.Brooke's Othello, to a crowded theatre in Melbourne The following night they transposed the characters. Norma had been performed with great success at the Theatre Royal. Mrs. Heir was to open as Beatiice, in Much Ado About Nothing. Mr. and Mrs. Clarence Holt were about to start for England.