MR FOSTER VESEY FITZGERALD.

West Coast Times, Issue 604, 31 August 1867, Page 2

MR FOSTER VESEY FITZGERALD.

(FEOJT THE ABGTJS.) Have we at length heard the last of Mr John Foster Vesey Fitzgerald, or will this pertinacious petitioner continue to accumulate applications for eleemosynary assistance ? Will he, in fact, never move on ? The colony has had quite enough of Mr Foster Fitzgerald ; it had had quite enough of him long ago, and would willingly have remitted him to the obscurity of thirdrate London clubs. Mr Fitzgerald, however, is neither a modest nor a sensitive man, and provided he sees the slightest probability of attaining his object, he will most complacently endure any number of rebuffs, and humbly thank the donors. It is this particular element in his character which renders it doubtful whether, even after the decisive manner in which the Assembly scouted his audacious demand on Tuesday last, the colony has really done with him. It would be far from surprising to see his claim again hawked round the Assembly Chamber next session, say by the hon. member for South Gipps Land. Mr Snodgrass. By the way, if all the claims advocated by this same hon, gentleman, and all the claims he would advocate if he had the slightest chance of being successful, were entertained, not only would fresh taxation have to be resorted to to meet the alarming deficiency which would be caused in the revenue, but it would be actually necessary to create a fresh branch of the service, which might be called " the claim and complaint department." It may, however, be hoped that at least for a few months Mr FitzGerald will cease from troubling us. He may perhaps wait until his warm friend and advocate, Capt. M'Mahon, occupies a seat on the Treasury benches, and then endeavor to induce that hon. member to place a handsome sum on the Estimates as a solatium for all that he has endured at the hands of an ungrateful country. There is, however, but little danger that the unparelled pertinacity of even Mr Foster Fitzgerald will succeed in pursuading the Assembly to recognise a claim for which there is now not the shadow of a foundation. Mr Fitzgerald asked for compensatiou for what he terms his voluntary resignation for the good of the country. None know better than Mr Fitzgerald that his desire for the good of the country had nothing whatever to do with his abandonment of office at the most important crisis the colony has ever known. He abandoned his office because, by his nial-administration, he had brought the colony into a state of rebellion, and when he saw the meeting convened at the Mechanics' Institute, for the purpose of supporting him, turned into an immense out-door assemblage in Swanston street, where his acts were condemned and execrated, aud he himself spoken of in terms which, perhaps, never before or since, were applied to any public man in Victori, his heart failed him ; he had not the courage -to attempt to allay the storm he had excited, but gave up the reins of power lest perchance he should be the first victim to the rage and anger he had so thoroughly aroused. It was somewhat surprising to see Messrs Irelaud and Aspinall, who at the period alluded to most vehemently denounced the couduct 'of Mr Fitzgerald, voting for the proposed grant to him on Tuesday last. It is almost impossible to attribute the action taken by them to any other motive than a goodnatured desire to assist one, wliO) they perhaps imagined, might be in impecunious circumstances. Mr Ireland, indeed, tried to justify himself, and acquit his client of the charges which had been brought against him, but he lamentably failed, and did not even attempt to prove that by the evidence taken before the select committee Mr Fitzgerald had cleared his character. Mr Ireland asserted that his former denunciations were made under the belief that Mr Fitzgerald was responsible for the acts committed by the Government of which he was a member, but he found that such was not the case, and therefore -withdrew all that he had previously stated. The hon. member, however, refrained from stating the grounds upon which he. had arrived at such a conclusion, and in so doing he no doubt acted most prudently, for he is far too good a lawyer not to know the danger of proving too much. Mr Foster — or Mr Fitzgerald, as he is now called — was the principal responsible Minister of Sir .Charles Hotham. If he was not, he should have been, cognisant of all the arbitrary and unfortunate proceedings which led to such unhappy consequences at Ballarat. If he did not approve of them, his duty was solemnly to have protested against them. 13 yso doing he would in no way have endangered his own position, and he might have prevented many of the occurrences, and in all probability the loss of life, which afterwards took place. He knew this was his duty, but he did it not, He seems to have taken a malignant pleasure in witnessing the Governor he was bound to counsel aud advise taking an imprudent course. He abstained from interfering when such interference was his only honourable course, aud left Sir Charles Hotham, to make most unfortunate mistakes — mistakes which in the first instance resulted in the miners rising in rebellion, and in the second place most unquestionably ended in his own death. For all this Mr Fitzgerald is responsible. He had been longer in the colony than Sir Charles Hotham, better knew the temper of the people he had to deal with, and the experience which he had obtained should have been, but was not, placed at the service of his chief. Captain MacMahon's assertion, that to refuse compensation to Mr Fitzgerald is an act of repudiation, is pure nonsense. Had Mr Fitzgerald's conduct been ten times worse than it now stands revealed, and had any promise of compensation been ever made to him, we would unhesitatingly have advised an immediate liquidation of his,

claim rather than that the colony should be guilty of anything having the faintest semblance to a repudiation of its just obligations. But no such promise was ever made. All that was ever promised Mr Fitzgerald has been scrupulously fulfiled. Governor Hotham said he would send down a message to the Council, recommending compensation to him. That message he sent down, but the Council, declining to act the same leniency as was displayed Sby the Governor towards an unprofitable- servant, declined to accede to the recommendation. The Legislative Assembly has twice since that period ratified the decision, the last time by an overwhelming majority. It was, of course, "very easy for Mr Ireland to say that the argument, that the Governor had fulfilled his promise, was not worth answering. He was only practising a ruse common in the nisiprius courts with arguments which are found unanswerable. Mr Fitzgerald has already been treated even better than he, deserved. He accepted the appointment of Colonial Secretary" of Victoria under the belief that the salary was LBOO a-year ; he found it L 2000.' He was told not to expect a pension, and it is now advanced in his favor that he took his chance. He did so, and the chance has turned out a blank. He carefully refrained from informing the Legislature of this colony of the terms upon which he received his appointment. He induced the belief that a pension to the retiring Colonial Secretary was a sine qua non to the granting of the Constitution. The pension was provided, but, happily, the man who thus unfairly saddled the colony with it did not enjoy it. His policy in this as in almost every other matter was tortuous and disingenuous, and to the question, " What has he ever done for the colony ?'' a fit reply will be found in the graves of the. soldiers and miners who were slain at the Eureka Stockade.

(For remainder of News see Uh Page.)