VICTORIA.

Otago Witness, Issue 851, 21 March 1868, Page 13

VICTORIA.

(from our own correspondent.)

Melbourne, 11th March.

The new Parliament is to meet on Friday next, the 13th instant ; but the real business of the session will not commence until a few days later, as the usual formal preliminaryproeeedings, such as the swearing in of members, the election' of a Speaker and of a Chairman of Committees, &c.', will, of course, occupy some little time. In all probability Sir Francis Murphy will again occupy the chair which, as Speaker, he has so ably filled for many years past ; and, although it is rumoured that_ the re-election of Mr Lalor, the late Chairman of Committees, is to be opposed, it is not unlikely that he' may again obtain the appointment. Touching the probable termination of the quarrel between the two Houses on the subject of the Darling Grant and the Appropriation

Bill, all at -present i* surmise' ; 'thoseamongst, our quidnuncs, who are in the habit of prophesying with the greatestconfidence as to the future events looming in the political horizon, appearing to be altogether nonplussed in the present instance, and unable to see any ' further beyond their noses than the very commonest of , their fellow mortals. ' The situation is, in fact, something like what I had sometimes seen in this City, when two sulky carmen happen accidentally to drive their vehicles into" opposite ends of a narrow lane or right-of-way, in which case each one, with any amount of emphatic attestations, declares that he will not " back," and neither can by any possibility go forward. Under such circumstances, J. have always felt the greatest confidence that if I were' to pass the 1 same spot on the following day, I should not find the two angry disputants still there, and in this supposition, I have even been wrong. Applying the same line of argument to the two bodies at present blocking up our political right-of-way, it seems clear that, obstinately as each of them at present refuses to go back, one or other of them eventually must, and that before very long. The only question is, which House is it to be 1 but although I have my own convictions upon that point too, I will at present hazard no conjecture upon it. One thing is certain — we shall have warm work of it while the fight lasts, whichever side may come off vi torious. In the meantime, the Opposition party — weak as they were in the late Assembly, and weaker s+ill in the new one — have had two kinds of consolations administered to them under their present unfortunate circumstances, the one description being of a mental nature, offered to them in the shape of a number of leading articles in their favorite journals, assuring them that if we had been blessed with what is called "the representation of minorities," they would not have been beaten nearly so badly as they actually were at the lat« elections ; and the other consisting of more solid and less delusive entertainments, comprised in good substantial dinners, provided for the defeated candidates and their friends by their political sympathisers, and at which, acordiug to our funny friend Melbmirm Pimch, "consolation steaks" formed the principal dish. By the bye, I hear of nothing in the way of consolation articles, or consolation dinners, being got up for the special benefit of the poor unpaid civil servants, who are the chief sufferers by all our political turmoil; except, indeed, it be the sorry comfort of being now once more enabled to obtain a portion of their salaries, by a roundabout process of first sueing the Government and then availing themselves of the services of moneylenders, Jew and Christisn, who kindly offer to make advances on the sums for which judgment is obtained, at rates varying from 20 to 50 per cent, per annum, or I even higher.

One of the heaviest criminal sittings of the Supreme Court ever held in this city, was concluded last week. In the course of the proceedings, three criminals were sentenced to death — two for murder, and one for rape. One of the murder cases was that of Whelan, condemned after a second trial, for killing a hawker named Thomas Bramley, at Rokwood, with some particulars of which I have already furnished your readers. It was thought by many persons that certain law points submitted in the course of this unfortunate man's trial, would be argued before the full Court by special command of the Governor in Council, previous to the cp-rrying out of the extreme sentence of the law upon him ; but at a meeting of the Cabinet on Monday last, it was determined that the execution should take place on that day week. The second case was one in which a young farm laborer, named Bernard Cuniinwaam, was charged with murdering one John Fairweather, ' an old man, in whose company he was working on a farm at Keilor. The crime was proved as clearly as by circumstantial evidence it well could be ; and in addition to the chain of testimony of that nature, it was proved that the prisoner had confessed having caused _ the old man's death to a youth living in the same neighborhood. This murder was attended with circumstances of great brutality. It appeared that the prisoner, after having felled his victim with a blow from his fist, knocked him on the head with a hoe, and then jumped upon the prostrate body until the ribs were broken and driven into the lungs. The wretch completed the horrible tragedy by dragging the unfortunate old man's ■body to a neighboring creek, and throwing it into the water.

During the whole of last week, the weather here was hotter and more oppressive than we have had it, even in January ; almost every green thing has been parched up, and in some places great inconvenience is being caused by the drought. Fortunately, an agreeable change for the better, in point of temperature, took place yesterday, but rain s Btill very much wanted.

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