THE POLITICAL CRISIS IN VICTORIA.

West Coast Times, Issue 609, 6 September 1867, Page 3

THE POLITICAL CRISIS IN VICTORIA.

(iBOM THE MELBOTTBNE ABGiJS.) -*-

So far as the political crisis has yet gone no very serious mischief has arisen. Whether an ordinary Ministerial change is to be converted into a serious public difficulty, whether we are to escape from our present entanglements by the legitimate process of a change of Ministers, or whether the constitution is to be brought to dead-lock, depends, at least in the first instance, upon the Ministerial members of the Assembly. We say in the first instance, because there is an ultimate appeal to which, if the Assembly should unfortunately determine to push matters to an extremity, recourse must evidently be had. The Ministry have forced a quarrel upon the Upper House. As tho result of their conduct, they have for the present — we do not say cut off the supplies — but prevented the money now in the Treasury from being applied to its proper purposes. The only remedy which they could suggest for the difficulty which they had created, was, it is said, the very simple expedient of a formal prorogation, and a return of the

bill in its present form, to be again rejected by a majority of four to one. The Governor naturally seeks for advice a little more promising than this. He does » not de,sire that the administration of public affairs shall be rendered impossible. The Council have officially pledged themselves to pass the Appropriation Bill without the offensive vote. The question therefore is, what will the Assembly do ? What the Assembly ought to do, what it is the interest of their constituents, and of*the country, that they should do, is very plain. The resignation of the Ministry has relieved them from a false position. They have as yet no quarrel with the Council, and the Council desires no quarrel with them. There is not even a pretence of privilege. On merely technil cal grounds the Council are plainly in the right. On the question of the expediency ofexercising their acknowledged power, it is manifest that, if the Council did not exercise that power against an avowed vote of censure, they would in future have no power at all to exercise. So far are the Council from desiring to invade any any privilege of the Assembly, that it is only with extreme reluctance, and on a matter not of a financial but of a political character, affecting their very existence, that they have taken their present «tep.

They do not deny the control of tho Assembly over the public purse. They do not desire to go into any financial details. But they object to register Mr Higmbotham's decree for their own condemnation, and they contend that if the events of the past two years must be reviewed, that review on which the two Houses may differ should be kept apart from the Appropriai tion Bill, in which both are agreed. In these circumstances, can any reasonable 'man doubt what is the proper course for the Assembly to pursue ? They are as yet free from the quarrel. Let them keep out of it. The Ministry have had a difference with the Council, and have consequently resigned. That is the act of the Ministry itself, and the Assembly is in no way responsible for it. It gave that Ministry a consistent and cordial support. It would have continued that support if the Ministry had remained in office. But now that they have left office, the Assembly is not bound to render, so far as in it lies, all government impossible. If it gets a Ministry that it likes less than that of Mr M'Culloch, it must bear with it until a more satisfactory one can be found. The loss of Mr M'Culloch and of his colleagues may be very grievous ; but it is only savages who express their grief for their lost friends by wounding their own flesh. The Assembly may be disconsolate at the present bereavement, but Mr M'Culloch can hardly expect that it will perform in his behalf a political suttee. His supporters may well say that these were not the pledges that they gave to their constituents. They were returned not to discuss but to pass Mr M'Culloch's measures ; and they did pass them, They mourned for Sir Charles Darling; they voted L 20.000, although it was sending so much gold out of the country, to Lady Darling. They supported Mr M'Culloch through good and evil. But now they are released from their allegiance. Their leaders have left them. It is plain that if they wish to assist Sir Charles Darling they must try a different method. Why, then, should they engage in this quarrel ? There is no security, there is not even any probability that their participation in it would bring back the Ministers, or get Lady Darling her L 20,000, or secure the passing of the Appropriation Bill. No one can now believe that if Parliament were prorogued, and the Appropriation Bill were sent up next week to the Council, it would meet any different reception from that which it experienced this week. The Assembly has, therefore, nothing to gain, except it desires to gratify Mr M'Culloch's revenge, by committing itself to a war of extermination with the Council.

But if the Assembly has nothing to gain in such a course, it certainly has much to lose. The stoppage of supplies can never be a popular remedy. Even if little sympathy be felt for the civil servants, who are supposed to be powerless, the classes among whom the salaries of the civil servants are spent are not likely to be silent. The suspension of public works, the cessation of the usual aid to charitable institutions, and innumerable minor channels of public expenditure suddenly closed, are consequences which the boldest supporter of Mr M'Culloch may well dread to encounter. If the struggle be prolonged, even the money voted for "the reception of the Duke of Edinburgh will not be available, and the country will be disgraced before the whole world. We cannot doubt that the Governor would feel extreme reluctance to grant to either party a dissolution before an Appropriation Bill is passed ; and yet if the two Houses are firm, a dissolution must ensue. Even with a new Parliament, the objections of the Council to this vote would continue undiminished. The Assembly, therefore would have all the trouble and expense of a new election, and would not be one step nearer to their object. They have no means of coercing the Council. The Upper House has only to remain firm. It is upon the Assembly that the inconvenience, whatever it may be, that results from the hostility of the two Houses- must fall, But the country cannot and will, not endure a state of anarchy. Least of all will it submit to this suffering, when the question is only whether the proposed vote to Sir Charles Darling shall be made in an Appropriation Bill or in a separate bill. Hitherto, indeed, the controversy has not excited out of doors much sympath with Ministers. There adherants do not feel the same intense interest which inspires Mr M'Culloch and Mr Higinbotham- The tariff was a far more nopular measure than the donation of L 20,000. Yet the Council, by remaining resolute, carried their point in that instance, and. if they remain resolute they will carry their point in this, Thus, then, if the Assem- / -■£%- resolve to listen to no terans^oi" agTfe&nieiit^^l engage in a protracted and desperate "cbnteej-^fiV an unpopular cause ; it will inflict upon its constituencies heavy loss and inconvenience for a dispute in which victory can bring them no advantage ; it will bring upon itself the certainly, sooner or later, of a dissolution ; and in all probability it will end by giving up, as it did before, the matter in dispute/ And it will do all this not to restore to their former authority Mr M'Culloch's Ministry, but to prevent any other Government from being constructed. Such a course would be absurd among angry children. In grown men, accustomed to the exercise of free ' institutions, and justly proud of them, it is criminal folly.

(For remainder of News see 4&h Page.)