THE ENGLISH PRESS AND THE VICTORIAN CRISIS.

Otago Witness, Issue 740, 3 February 1866, Page 1

THE ENGLISH PRESS AND THE VICTORIAN CRISIS.

(From the Daily Times January 23 )

"The leading English papers are unanimous in their condemnation of the proceedings of the Victorian Government. The Times characterises as disgraceful the threat •■which was made l»y Mr M'Culloch, that he ■would procure the passing of an Act to upset the decisions of the Supreme Court, in regard to the Customs duties, and by retrosprctive clauses •would throw upon the successful -plaintiffs the costs of the proceedings. It is not the fault of the Government that this threat was not put into execution, and that the law proves the stronger. Its decisions Lad to be bowed to. The fact ptill Temains, that in the pursuit of their selfish -ends the members of the Government are willing, if they can, to upset the Jaw, the preserving the integrity of which should be their first duty. No less strongly is the course condemned by which it was contrived to expend the public money without legal appropriation The fact is beyond dispute, that by a conspiracy between the Governor, the Government, and a bank, of which the head of the Executive is stated to be the only local director, the whole control of the public revenues ha 1 * been withdrawn from the Legislature. The Times says very truly, that on this occasion the proceeding had the sanction of the Lower House; but on another, the same machinery .might be used against it, and with the approbation of only the Upper House, or in opposition to both Houses. There is no setting the limit to lawlessness when once it is supported by authority. It is the first step which is the most grave. We are entitled to feel more '-astonishment at what the Victorian Government have already done, than we should be if, pursuing the same lawless path, they were to set both Houses at defiance, and insist on retaining the reins of Government against all opposition. The proclamation, for instance, of Mr M'Culloch, as Dictator, would be a mere coup d'etat, and would not be a more startlinj or more treasonable proceeding than that of deliberately defying one of the branches of the Legislature, and of attempting to defy the Courts of Law. The Times hints unmistakeably at the necessity of re calling Sir Charles Darling in disgrace. Indeed it seems that the very safety not only of Victoria, but of the other colonies, demands such a step. There i 3 no knowing what may occur, if, in addition to the half-ignorant and wholly prejudiced and selfish governments which are liable in the Colonies to attain to power, Governors are weak or wicked enough to lend themselves to a subversion of the laws and the constitutions over the maintenance of which it is their duty to watch. Sir Charles Darling should think himself lucky to escape an impeachment. We say this much in the interests of the Colonists generally. As we have before bad occasion to remark, the majority of those who represent the wealth and intelligence of Colonial communities take no interest in politics. They come to the Colonies with other objects, and they adhere to them. They see some of their fellow settlers make more or less of a profession of public life, and they are content so long as nothing very outrageous occurs. Occasionally doubts cross their minds as to the safety of vested interests, when these be <;ome the sport of men who have little to lose and much to gain. Still they quiet their fears and endure a great deal, remembering that after all the supreme power rests with the Governor, and that the representative of Royalty would at any rate interpose in case of imminent necessity. We are not drawing upon romance ; there are hundreds and thousands of men who feel as we have described. And they are men who perform important functions. As colonists, their intelligence, enterprise and wealth are invaluable. Now, once let it be understood that the playing at colonial government may degenerate into ruffianly lawlessness, the Governor himself becoming a party to it, and all sense of security will be lost. Sir Charles Darling has no excuse to offer. It was competent to him, the moment he saw his advisers defying the Upper House, to have dispensed with them. Again, he could have dismissed them when they insulted him by asking him to become a party to an illegal " dodge" for

expending the revenue without appropriation; and, again, when they set themselves against the Supreme Court. The crowning proof of their misconduct was afforded him when they found themselves obliged to retrace their steps. But in so many words he made common cause with them, he was as much one of themselves as any of their number. He became personally interested in the success of their policy. These two words we have italicised are the true tests. A personal interest in the intrigues of any party is the greatest political crime of which a Governor can be guilty. It is to prevent a personal interest that the Colonial Office jealously restricts to a limited period the tenure of office of a Governor in any one colony. And the petitions sent home by colonists, praying that the term should be increased, are regarded as arguments in favor of maintaining the decision. Thi* applies chiefly to a general personal interest in the colony and the colonists. But surely its force is magnified many fold, when it has to be applied to a Governor who descends to become a partizan of a particular Government, and who has not even the discretion to remember, in preference to that partizanship, the obligations of good faith, of the law, and of loyalty, who lowers himself from the pedestal he occupies, as the Representative of Royalty, to become a fellow conspirator with men who would subvert the constitution in virtue of which they borrow their power, and in virtue of which that fellow-conspirator has found his way to the Colony.