MELBOURNE.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 3862, 3 July 1874, Page 3

MELBOURNE.

(fkom.ouk own correspondent.)

June 20th.

The long debate on the constitutional question, after lasting nearly four weeks, has ended, and the Assembly has bo far adopted the Norwegian scheme" by the large majority of 48 to 28. That represents the voting on the second reading, out if it will also represent that ontfce.thirdisan entirely different question. The . second reading ?has been supported by many ~ members who reserve to themselves the right of advocating all sorts of alterations iv Committee, and the difficulty is that their alterations lun not only in different, but in'entirely opposite directions. Some consider it too revolutionary, and announce their intention of trying, to amend it so as to maintain'the privileges of the Council intact.;. while others regard it as not half sweeping enough, and will seek to introduce alterations that will fit the Bill to become an" engice-for bringing a stiffnecked oligarchy under the foot of the sovereign people. There, is likely to be some difficulty over these conflicting demands, but there is little doubt that the measure will in some form or other pass the Assembly and jro up to their lordships of the Council. • -There seeni3 to be a little doubt of its fate there, although the great leader of our ehivalrie nobility against the aggressions of democracy—Sir John O'Shannasy—is riot at present a member of that august body. Si ill if is hardly likely that any body of men would tamely and unresistingly accept a measure, the object of which is to strip them of power and consign them to contempt. So it may be confidently expected that the 8.1 l will be rejected in the Council. After tfrat—the deluge. This is the event that is to be the fated sign of all sorts of mysterious doings,.about which the Ministry never speak but with half words, doubtful hints, ominous shakings of the head, and otlur portents of some stupendous transaction. In all likelihood it will"prove a bottle of smoke, aud pass off very harmlessly indeed. We ought to feel very much alarmed, and on the verge of some sleeping volcano, just heaving and groaning prior to an eruption ; but somehow we don't;1

Matters have been, veiy uneventful with us for some time, and the stagnating paralysing effect of the long dreary debate would seem to have extended into social affairs as well as political ones, if it were not for the recent flutter which has been caused ia the halts of Toorak by an unpleasant discovery. On Saturday, the 6fch inst., the following advertisement appeared in the Argus :— "Caution.—The public are cautioned against a young man, who by wrongfully representing himself as Hugh Leslie Courtenay, a son of the Reverend the Honourable H. H. Courtenay, has obtained money from various persons in America, London, Paris, and the south of France. He also represents that he has beenin the English navy, and he has the above name with ILN. oa his luggage. The above facts having come to the knowledge of the said H. H. Cuurtenay, he hereby cautiouß the public that the young man is not his sou. TL H. Coubtekav, Mainhead, Devon, March, 1874."

Alas Jit was too l*te. The young man in

question had already run a brilliant carter in India upon the strength of his agreeable features, and having exhausted that field of enterprise had come on to Melbourne. He was "hand in glove" with our highest nobility at once, ami the unpleasant exposure made by this awkward advertisement was almost as annoying to them as to him— to the dupes as to the swindler.- The not dUanl Mr Courfcenay had managed thiugs--1 rjtty well. He came from Gale by tfie mail steamer, and a little while after leaving Galle the captain of the vessel handed him a letter addressed to the Hon. H. L. Courtenay asking him if that was for him. "It can hardly be.for me," he said, "unless, indeed, my uncle, the Earl of Devon, is dead." After opening the letter :"It is so, md cd. My poor uncle is dead, and my father wants me home in all haste. I will give you, Captain, £1000 if^ yon put the ship back and land me at Galle." The captain regretted that, even to oblige the eon of an Earl, he was unable to comply with this request; but he took care to inform the other passengers what a distinguished young gentleman" thfcy had amongst them. Need it be said that all kinds of attentions and respects were shown to the scion of the illustrious and once Imperial line of the Courtenays, or that when he arrived at Melbourne his brother aristocrats of the shoddy pilaces of Litt'e Flinders street received him with open arras ? Blue blood is blue blond all the world over, and every opulent wholesale grocer or keeper of a wholesale dry-goods store felt like a brother towards the young patrician. He was received everywhere; his presence was an honour and a favour; he dined with ilie richest and danced with tlie fairest; and the very highest circle of our Colonial society was open to him. The daughters of Toorak admired liis conversation, delighted in. his talk about tue titled friends he had left at home, and the Ltdy of Lyons did not hang with greater rapture on Claude's description of his palace by Late Como than the aspiring girls of Victorian society bestowed to the young visitor as he described the glories of his ancestral line, and the family seat, of which he wouUT one day be the lord. An English, or rather Irish earl, bad lately married a young la<ly in Tasmania, and why might not the future Eari of Devon wed-a Melbourne bride? Things^were afc the best and brightest when, the crash came. Ihe young man who bad been so flattered, to whom Vice-royalty had shown such kind attentions, now 'ound that the game was up, and that he might as well without loss of time transfer his talenis and his enterprise to some new and unworked field. So the halls of dazzling light knew him no more, ami his iniige only remained as a tantalising dream, in many a. fc mler heat which had dreamed feoo wildly "f a coronet and a title that had now ilitted aw:iy. The case is only one of the many humiliations which our mercantile aristocracy has had to bear, owing to its abject fiuukeyism to everybody, were he the most v.dgar impostor thai claims to be the representative or bearer of a title. If that fat Orton had been content to stay in Melbonrne, instead of going home, our noUlity would have been feasting him and licking his feet to this day; and had he.not unluckily married th.it Irish servant girl, the fairest girls of the South Yaira mansions would have been paying him court -and admiring his haul ton and aristocratic breeding.' However, they have had a lesson that willserve for a time.

In the New South Wales Assembly, the Gardiner debate has been the occasion of bitter strife and wrangling that hive lasted to the present time. The divL-ion on the motion of disapproval of the release of the prisoners was an equal one, and was decided by the casting vote of the Speaker, who gave* it against the motion, in accordance with the traditions under which Speakers exercise this vote. Bat it would not have been an equal one, but for the circumstance that Mr T. Robertson, member for the Ranee, who had paired off with another member earlier in the evening, came to the decision to give a vote for the Government. His appearance was the signal for a wild clamour. It epeutcu roirdJy from the Opposition benches that he had paired off and eoald not vote. This being denied, Mr Coombe3, the proposer of the motion, declared, that he had the written pair in his pocket. Oh this, Mr T. Robertson explained that Mr Raphael; with whom he had paired, had sent him a note relea ing him from the arrangement, and he produced and read the missive. Still there were clamours that it was obtained under pressure, and cries were heard of " Examiner of Titles"—the insinuation being that Mr Robertson was to obta:n that post in recog-j nition of his timely assistance. However,1 all the wrangling and dispute could not alter the vote. Of course, had it been a want of confidence motion, the Government could not have gnne on upon the basis of the Speaker's casting vo'e, but, as Mr Parkes pointed out; the vote carried no political consequences, and the Government would not have regarded it as proving their loss of the confidence of the HoGse, even had it gone against them. We now hear by telegram of auofcher wild disorderly debate on the same subject, lasting till half past eight o'clock next morning. It is evident that the Opposition thought the opportunity one that would enable it to snatch a victory or to inflict a damaging blow on the Government, afhd/is chagrined to find that its <wy>,was a failure. The matter has been the result of bringing about an alteration of the way in which the Governor of the Colony exercises the pre! rogative of pardon. The case has shown very forcibly tbe great inconvenience that might-arise from the Governor acting upon his own opinion or impulse in the discharge of this important trust"; and as the issue of some correspondence between Sir Hercules Robinson and Mr Parkes, it has been decided that "itk future all applications or petitions for remission.of sentences are to be sent to the" Minister of Justice, and that he is to attach in writing his advice before submitrting them to His Excellency the Governor. That is to say, that the exercise of this prerogative is to take place by tiie advice of Ministers, who may be. responsible to the country for the way in which it was used, Had the la*e blunder about Gardiner been the work of a Ministry instead of the Governor, such a Ministry would have been at once swept out of office fey the indignation it hasevoked. . *

The unfortunate Press has been the subject of abuse lately from many different quarters. A bl-itant market gardener named Bent, who sits as member for Brighton in the Assemby, has declared that the reporters only mention such proceedings of the Land Office as the Minister of Lands likes to have made public, and suppress the others athis rtquesfc. He has been askbd by a committee of reporters to prove or withdraw Jiis assertions; but, acting <>n the advice of some of his slauder loving fellow members,' who'say that to comply with the request would be establishing a bad precedent, that would i-nd to curtail the privileges of Parliament — libel aad calumny being one of them—Bent has declined to take any notice of the application.. It is expected that the reporters oa-their side will not take any niore notice of Bfofc, but simply discontinue to report him till he has apologised. This would very soou bring him to his knees, and in the memtinie there is not a living soul who wishes to read his speeches. The .other assailant of tLe Press is a Wesleyan minister namedSymons, who his been lecturing about newspapers, declaring that leading articles are written to order, and do not convey the opinions of the writers, and al l the familiar abuse on the subject. He also says that it is always necessary to take off 25 per cent, from everything that is stated in the papers. The best of it is thst Symons is himstif the e<litor of a religions paper, calie I the Wesleyan Chronicle, and tlie general opinion is agree 1 that 25 per cent, would be a very moderate inargia to iake off a good deal that appears in that not very enlightened print. Then as to the writers of '.rfcielea not expressing taeir own opinions, what guarantee has anyone tbat Syoions and his brethren express theirs in the sermons which they are accustomed to deliver every Sunday. Indeed, in many cases, the hope is that they do not, as it would be impossible to acquit them of blind, besotted, malevolent bigotry, except upon the plea that they were merely preaching to order—supplying their congregations with what they thought their congregations wanted, but-did not believe a word of it themselves.