Hawke's Bay Herald. TUESDAY, JANUARY 21, 1879.

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume XXI, Issue 5286, 21 January 1879, Page 2

Hawke's Bay Herald. TUESDAY, JANUARY 21, 1879.

It is surprising how obstinate some men are in pursuing a wrong course when once they have entered upon it. It would seem as if the more plainly such men- are .shown to be wrong the more persistent are they in carrying out what they have determined upon, even though failure may be staring them in the face. Mr Graham Berry is just such a man. From the time that he first conceived the notion of going home to England to get the Imperial Parliament to alter the Victorian Constitution he was assured by all who may be deemed well informed on such a subject, that his mission would be useless, as the Imperial Government would not interfere unless every possible means of reconciling matters

within the colony itself had been first exhausted. He would not, however, give ear to any counsel save his own inclinations, and at length, though not without difficulty, he obtained the sanction of the Legislative Assembly to the ridiculous embassy. But before the Victorian Parliament was prorogued, the Governor, Sir George Bowen, received from the Secretary of State for the Colonies a despatch which should have induced Mr Graham Berry, were he a reasonable man, to have abstained from going on a fool's errand. In his despatch Sir Michael Hicks Beach puts the question of appeal to the Imperial Parliament in the plainest and most unmistakeable terms. Eeplying to the hope expressed by Sir George Bowen as to the subject of a reform of the Constitution being discussed with moderation, the Secretary of State says, " I share your hope that the whole question may be discussed with moderation and in a fair spirit of compromise, and I shall be sincerely pleased if through the exercise of mutual forbearance and concession, the Legislative Houses of the great colony of Victoria succeed in devising means for preventing the re•currence of such collisions as have seriously affected their reputation, and cannot but operate injuriously upon the credit of the colony. But as it may be found impossible to attain this desirable result, I think it may be convenient to your Ministers, and to those who are taking a leading part in the present proceedings, that I should, at as eai'ly a stage as possible, place before you certain considerations which dispose me to the opinion that no sufficient cause has yet been shown for the intervention of the Imperial Parliament in the manner suggested by your Ministers. Such a step, however justifiable in the last resort, as the only remaining means of carrying into effect the deliberately expressed will of the people of Victoria upon an issue plainly represented to them, does not appear to me to be warranted by the circumstances contemplated by your Ministers as likely to occur in the present case." The Secretary of State then proceeds to give in detail the " considerations" disposing him to the opinion he expresses. But though they may have seemed sufficient for Sir Michael Hicks Beach, they worked no change in the mind of Mr Graham Berry. He was bent upon going out on an embassy to England, and it was not so small a matter as a despatch from a Secretary of State that would move him from his purpose. But there was danger that the Legislative Assembly would alter its decision on learning that it would only be "in the last resort" that the Imperial Parliament would be asked to interfere, and so it was contrived that the despatch, should not be disclosed until Parliament was prorogued, although it was received two days before that event. Here we have as good an instance as could possibly be given of the lengths to which an unscrupulous man will go to carry out what he has determined upon. And yet Mr Berry contrives, by the very ferocity of his language against the propertied class, to retain so strong a hold upon the masses that there is nothing that he chose to do that would be deemed a moral or political wrong. What will be the outcome of the affair is hard to tell. It is quite certain that he will not effect that which he has gone home to do, and when he returns unsuccessful, what course will he shape for himself and his fellow-demagogues 1 Will he quietly submit to his defeat 1 If he is wise, and if he has the slightest regard for the country he is misruling, he will endeavor to get settled in the colony the question he would have had brought before the Imperial Parliament. But we fear there is neither wisdom nor patriotism in men of the Graham Berry type. Such men delight !in turbulence— in pulling down, not in ! setting up. It is no pleasure to them to see their country peacefully prosperous ; for them prosperity has no meaning unless it is attained with a rough hand and by the downfall of all the. real or imaginary foes that stand in the way. Things look bad for Victoria. The only hope is that Providence in His bounteous mercy will open the eyes of the people in time, and save them from the anarchy and ruin to which their present rulers are leading them.