MELBOURNE.

Otago Witness, Issue 1160, 21 February 1874, Page 4

MELBOURNE.

(fbom our own uokkespondent. ) ] February 7th. We have still a condition of absolute inactivity in political matters. The elections are still so far off, that but very few candidates have issued their addresses ; and still fewer have taken the field so far as to deliver speeches to the electors. There is evidently an odd feeling of uncertainty as ta the line that it will be safe to take on some important Bubjects. For instance, the question of Pro teclion, or a return to Free Trade, bids fair to be one that will have to be confronted but veay few of the candidates see clearly the way in which it should be answered. Not I that they are much troubled in their convictions on the subject. There are very few who have convictions, and fewer still who would not be ready to sacrifice them at a moment's notice to a clear view of their interest ; but they have not a very clear view of the side ou which their interest lies, or as to the safest side to give their adherence to. If, as we have been told on ancient authority, "a good man struggling with adversity is a spectacle worthy of the gods," this view of some scores of politicians, agonised wifcb uncertainty as to the particular set of "principles" that would pay best for glowing, and fervent, and enthusiastic advocacy, is a sight worthy the admiration of a different order of spectators altogether. Ovir Ministers are, in all probability, waiting on Providence in just the same manner as the candidates for Parliament. Thf-y don't appear to have any policy, and will in all likelihood take up one on short notice byand bye, when events have sufficiently made it manifest in which direction the " cat will jump." It is something to get a Ministry composed of men of personal honesty and respoctable character, who are not likely to plunder the Treasury, or to commit any shameful malversation. But the obtaining of a Government composed of high-minded

men who are guided by fixed principles, and who only view power as an opportunity of giving these principles effect — this is a position that it would be almost unreasonable to aspire to. Our Government is very well as Australian Governments go, but it would be folly to credit it with a degree of chivalrous devotion to principle to which it does not even profess a claim. But at any rate I think we are entitled to congratulate ourselves on the reflection that no Government cmld stand in Victoria for any time in the position now occupied by that of New South Wales. The correspondence between Mr Francis and Mr Parkes has been published, and shows very clearly the opinion entertained of Mr Parkes by our Chief Secretary. Mr Francis is at no pains to conceal his view that the Victorian negotiators were overreached by the representatives of New South Wales in the diplomacy which resulted in the Border Treaty. And further, that they were overreached because they had to with a man capable of resorting to the most unfair means to advance unfair objects, and addicted to the use of trickery of a kind not often employed on public diplomacy at the present day. In addition to all this, there are the direct imputations cast by this affair on the personal integrity of Mr Parkes. It is not a pleasant thing to see that although these have been openly urged and supported upon evidence which no lawyer could deny makes out at least a prima facia case, they have been utterly ignored by the Press and the public of Sydney. Public opinion at that metropolis docs not appear in a very healthy state when the conviction that the Premier was trying, by fair means and foul, to advance Sydney interests, is allowed to procure full condonation for the little byegames of his own that he was managing to play at the same time. I believe much of this deficiency in the public ethics of the Colony is due to the decrepid inanity of the leading metropolitan journals, which, while maundering column after column on the genial subject of dissenting tea-fightp, and the prospects of the mission to Titnbuctoo, has nothing but batlike imbecility to bring to bear on matters of local politics, and dreads nothing so much as expressing an opinion, unless indeed, it be faintly hinting a censure. And thus it is that this serious charge against the honour of the Government is utterly blinked aud evaded by the Press.

His Excellency the Governor has just been taken on an excursion trip by Mr Casey, the Minister of Landt. Sir George Bowen is not fastidious as to Ins company, nor as to the positions into which indulgence in company occasionally leads him. It does not appear a very dignified situation for the Governor of the Colony to be trotted round the country in the suite of one of his Ministers, and to be used as a means of enhancing the importance of the Minister in the eyes of free selectors, squatters, and borough councillors. But Sir George Bowen does not seem to mind it. Possibly he is charmed with the society and conversation of his Casey, and that bland, oily, low-caste, third-rate political Jesuit may have fascinations for the viceregal mind that he does not possess for society at large. Of course, if that is the case, there is no more to be said on the subject.

A rather awkward contretemps occurred I the other day when the Governor and a i highly distinguished party were on board the P. and 0. ship Pera taking a pleasure {trip down the bay. The occasion was a little festive inauguration of the commencement of the new P. and 0. contract, with Melbourne as the head-quarters of the service. Everything was passing off all right ; the champagne was good and abundant, everybody's I health was proposed, and drunk with unbounded enthusiasm and musical honours, when all at once it was found that the vessel was stuck hard and fast on one of the shallow sandbanks which encumber the waters of Port Phillip Bay. Just at that time the steamer Williani3, with passengers from Sclmapper Point, was passing, and the Pera hailed her and asked for assistance. The evidence here becomes rather conflicting as to what took place, but it appears that the captain of the Williams preferred some exorbitant claim for the service, which the Pera people refused to give, and after some time had been wasted in these bargainings he con seuted to the lower terms proffered, when just as lie was about to round-to so as to get a hawser on board, the Pera floated clear. The captain of the Williams took his boat up to Melbourne, meditating on the neceassity in I certain positions of bargaining, not only with decision and firmness, but, above all things, with promptitude and celerity. Another curious nautical incident occurred the other day when the Under-Sheriff tried to board the ship Essex, at the Heads, to serve some writ arising out of an action about a collision in which she had taken part in the waters of our bay. However, the ship declined to stay, and the official was nearly drowned in an adventurous and enthusiastic attempt to get on board. If the captain of the Essex, however, thinks that he has successfully performed the feat of "paying with the fore., topsail," hemiidt forget that there is such a thing as the submarine telegraph in existence, and he may find out his mistake on arriving in London. The distinguished individual who calls himself "the Editor of Graham's Review," and hails from Dunedin, has not been attracting that degree of public notice or causing that'amount of excitement that he evidently anticipated. Since he had an absurd meeting the other day, and announced his intention of crushing Spiritism and other heresies, aud also of accepting a seat in Parliament, he seems to have subsided, as the only thing I have seen from him has been a

letter in a newspaper", in reply from one affectionately inquiring if he were the John Graham known in Dunedin as " Barracoota Jock" and "Red Coat." Graham answered in some balderdash ; but I fancy that he will find that he has very much blundered in coming to Melbourne with the expectation of making himself prominent by lunatic eccentricities. Hamlet's madness would get cured in England, and if it did not it did not so much matter, as all of the people were as mad as he. So I think that Mr Graham will find, that in this nondescript community he will find plenty of people as cranky and as impudent as himself, and with a much better knowledge of the local conditions and the people to whom they wish to make themselves acceptable. So that, if Graham thinks to get into Parliament by the force of wild absurdity or egregious imbecility, I believe he will find how poor are his qualifications compared with those of many of his competitors. The mail steamers this time make their first call at Glenelg on the journeys homeward and outward, and an extra day is allowed for the detention. Judging, however, from the early arrival of the hitherward mail, the allowance will not be required, and the steamers will be able, under favourable circumstances, to keep the same time as before.