MELBOURNE.

Colonist, Volume II, Issue 193, 26 August 1859, Page 3

MELBOURNE.

Most extraordinary has been the. reaction that has taken place in public feeling; here, within the last three weeks. The enthusialm and zed about our defence, which so completely seized upon our population upon the arrival ofthe last English mail, and which prompted our panic-striken babblers to utter all manner of foolish nonsense, have now subsided into the most absolute indifference. Those who made such an outcry about the plundering of bur banks, and conjured up all manner of dreadful phantasms to alarm and terrify the timid, have apparently either been convinced that their fears and apprehensions were groundless*, or that the Government might safely be trusted to make all suitable preparation for every emergency. However this may be, certain it is that a public meeting, which was called for the purpose of forming a volunteer rifle corps in Melbourne, wai attended by only soma half dozen individuals, and, consequently, nothTßg was done—another proof that talking and action are two very different things. If we only had liked working as we have liked talking, great and wonderful as the progress of this colony has been, it would have been incomparably greater. In St. Kilda considerable military ardour still prevails, and a volunteer rifle corps has been already formed at that pleasaniind somewhat aristocratic watering-place. Candidates for Legislative honors are now, to use a common phrase, becoming " plentiful as blackberries"—indeed almost everybody seems to consider himself " a fit and proper person" to represent some constituency or other. Hence we have a madman of the name of. McDonough, who ought to have been Lodged long ago in the Yarra Bend Asylum, actually announcing himself asa candidate for a seat in the Assembly for an up-country constituency, and L. L. Smith, the notorious quack, has received a numerously signed requisition to allow himself to be put in nomination for South Bourke. There are already five candidates in the field for Collingwood, which returns three members, and there is every probability of more coming forward before the elections. Mr. George Harker, or I believe I should say, the Honorable George Harker, the Colonial Treasurer, is one of the present members for Collingwood, and he has again come forward as a candidate for re-election. Although he is the most popular, or rather I should say, the least unpopular member of tho present Ministry, his reception at a meeting which he held last, week was by no means flattering, and very strong doubts are entertained of his return. HeTadmitted that the Ministry wore unpopular, which he attributed in & great measure, to the fierce and incessant misrepresentations and attacks ofthe press, particularly of the Aye, He confessed, also, that many of their magisterial appointments were positively disgraceful; but, then "he was no party to such appointments." Some of your readers will be aware, perhaps, that ori j -of Mr. 0 Shannassy's J.P.s was such an indifferent penman, as not to be able to sign his own name " when any person was looking at him," and that others of them had been convicted df drunkenness and assault shortly before their appointment, and that, in fact, they possessed no qualifications for the magisterial bench except their devotion to Mr. O'Shannassy—so that Mr. Harker is by no means entitled to much credit for admitting what was patent to the whole colony!, and what has tended probably more than anything else to make the Ministry unpopular. Mr. Harker voted for pensions to retiring ministers, but he denied that he had deceived his constituents in this for he hadnever promised to them that he would oppose such pensions. It turns out that the cause of Mr. Duffy's resignation, or rather dismissal, for it is as well to call things by their right name 3, was owing to a quarrel between that honorable gentleman and Mr. Harker. It is but just to the latter to state that Mr. Duffyj while he was in office, was continually accused of rem issnes sin the performance of his. duties, and of discourtesy towards those who had occasion to wait upon him in 1 U official capacity. It was also rumoured that he exhibited an unwarrantable hauteur, amounting to contempt, towards his colleagues, and particularly towards Mr. Harker, whose school education lias been sadly neglected. Although business continues very dull, grert improvements are taking place, particularly in the class of buildings that have been recently erected, or are now in course of construction, so that tie general aspect of the principal streets of the city has been greatly changed for the better, within tlie last twelve months. The new Parliament Library is advancing rapidly, and the Custom House, and the London Chartered Bank of Australia, the former in Flinders-streety and the latter in Collinsstreet, are approaching completion. The Treasury, which will be an exceedingly handsome building, is but getting slowly on—it has for some reason or other made very little progress for the last six months. The elegant fountain at the intersection of Collins and Swanston streets, is nearly finished, and will be inaugurated on Tuesday next, and the ceremony of naming it the "Victoria Fountain" will be performed, we are told by advertisement, by the Lady Mayoress. I was not previously aware that there was a Lady Mayoress in Australia, but it seems Mrs. Walsh has that title. — /Sidney Empire's Correspondent.