MELBOURNE.

Otago Witness, Issue 925, 21 August 1869, Page 11

MELBOURNE.

(FROM OUR OWN C'OIUUWPONDENT. )

Anguit 10th.

Nothing of mach interest or novelty has occurred in tho political world of Victoria since the date of my last. The debate on th 6 new Land Bill in Committee hn at length nearly reached its close ; and, aftor a hard fight, Ministers have sucoeedod in carrying through all tho more important dames— however objectionable thoy may have been to a portion of tho House and tho country. Tho sittings of the Coramitteo last week olosed with a division upon tho 100 th and last clause, renewing the squatting tenure for a further period of lU yoara— tuo Assembly affirming that proposal by a majority of 35 to 10. Soveral attumpts wore made by a portion of the Opposition, in conjunction with certain of the ultra-Liberala, to defeat the Bill upon thu squatting ouibUon, but they all proved abortive. It in •oavnvhafc singular that in the final division upon this important olauso in the Bill, only 46 mombcrs should havo voted out of a Home consisting of 76*. There is a standing axiom to tho effoot that, whim wo don't know what to do, wo should do nothing : and it wu probably sotno fooling of this kind that indooed «o many of our

parliamentary representative* Jo desert the post of duty upon r so important an occasion. But although the'Land.Bill is Bafe so far, it oannot yet be considered* to hav< escaped all danger of ultimate cbnsignmflnt to the waste paper b»sket. It has still to be read a third time, in the Assembly, and/th«n, Bent adrift amongst the rocks and shoaia of * the Upper House. The' hon.. inembera of that body occasionally display so much eccentricity in their legislative movements, that, quite apart from the conside ration of the intrinsic merits of any bill with whioh they may bo called upon to deal, it is utterly .impossible to predict what' courad they, may take with respect to it. Quite recently our colonial, " Lords " have furnished ample proof that I am in no way maligning, them by this remark, for out of the very few measures which have beon sent up to them during the present session, they have contrived to "shelve" two of the most important. Of the bills thus muddled, one was a much-needed amendment .of our local government' law, in which they made, an alteration which they either knew or ought to have known, would not be accepted by the Lower House/, while the other was at ill upon the subject of scab in sheep, which, instead of passing at once as they ought to havedone, in order to prevent the spread of the \ contagion referred to in it, they thought fit 'to refer to a Select Committee. To come back to the Land Bill then, it might vex a great many people who are desirous of seeing ( the Ministerial measure of the session passed into law, but it would certainly surprise no one who is at all conversant with Victorian politica if, after all the pains that have been bestowed by the Ministry and the Assembly upon the settlement of that great' question, the Legislative Council were to carry a motion that it be read a second time six months hence, or in other words, if they were to throw out the Bill. If thia far from improbable event should actually come about, I am not disposed to think that the Government would resign. Their more probable course would be that of appealing to the country on their land policy, and sending tho same till, or one very similar to it, once , more to the Council, backed up with the additional prestige of a national vote in its favour— if, indeed, the public were to endorse that policy at a general election. A.nd talking of a general election. I may mon f iou, by the way, that apart from the action which may be taken by the Council on the Lsnd Bill, there have been rumours afloat here lately according to which the Ministry have had serious thoughts of dissolving the Houbo, on aooount of the so-called " obstructive" proceedings of those hon. members who had hitherto endeavoured either to defeat or to delay the passing of the meosu-e l>y taking advantage of all "the forms of the House" for that purpose. This I <reatened storm msiy, perhaps, now be regarded as having vanished from our political horizon, since there is very little chance left of successful opposition to the passing of the Bill in the lower House.

Some excitement was caused both inside and outside the walls of the Assembly the other evening, by the eccentric conduct of a member named Cope, who raised "ft storm in a tea-pot ;" first, by bringing befor < the 'Ouae— for amongst Mr Cope's other claims to fame, ia a constant habit of dropping his El's — a griovance of an enHre'y private nature ; aud, secondly, b> culling the attention of the Speaker to tlv fact th&t there were "strangers present," and thus obtaining the exclusion of the prosa for the whole evening, because ho was bantered in tao morning papers for hin ridiculous ennduct. It will be readily imagined that the course taken by tho honourable and tanlearned member did not tend to improve tho tono of the press in respect to his conduct ; and, still further irritated by what met his eye in the Argus of the next day. he agam endeavoured to get the reporters turned out of tho gallery ; but in this instance the common ' seuso of tho House proved too strong for him, »nd ho found that he must either withdraw his notice, or bri->R upon himself the severest displeasure of all his fellow- membora. He ohose the former alternative, and much to his chagrin ho was obliged to content himsolf with a muttortxl throne that ho would onco more insist on his right to clear the gtlterirtt, if tho press over abused him again. As might have boen expected under thf ao oircumstancos, tho attention of the Hona« anil the Government uas been ctvllod to tho »«:ccssity for making some regulation for restraining the oxorciso nf a Parliamentary privilege — now lookod upon as obsolete at horno — by whioh a single member of the Colonial Locrialature may at his own will or c*prico virtually pn« a stop to the business of the countiy. The Chief Secretary ha«alre*dy admit ed the importance of the subject, and given the Houso to understand that tomorrow evening ho will bring forward a proposal for tho purposo of meeting the caso.

Tho oonviot Jnmos Ritson, sentenced to death for tho uiurdor of tho Rev William Hill at Pontridgo, mffored tho extreme penalty of tho law, within tho preoincts of tho Melbourne gaol, on Tuesday raornint; l,tat. The unhappy man met his awful fate with great fortitude, and there is reiwon to hopo that ho died in a penitent frwno of mind. Oa tho day boforo tho execution, a lftot effort was made to obtain a ropriovo Tor tho uriminal on tho pround of his alloßeil iuniuiity ; ami with that end in tww, a petition. ai#nwl by «ov«ral hun>lreil in -v v\ ho were of opinion that h» was not i»«rtlly resi>oni»i»>l« for his homicWal tenilowiw, was forwartlml to tho Exftontivo. Tint body, however, sUtod in rouly, that thoy p«K»n-» new grounds to alter thoir deoision, and tho Uw wai aooorJingly allowed to take it* oottrst. ,