A VICTORIAN PETITION TO THE QUEEN.

West Coast Times, Issue 2787, 8 March 1878, Page 2

A VICTORIAN PETITION TO THE QUEEN.

The Melbourne Argus publishes the full text of the " People's" Petition to the Queen, and remarks : —The signatures of those invited are those of the Executive Council, members of Parliament, magistrates, members of the learned profession, merchants, manufacturers, and other inhabitants of the Colony of Victoria resident in and around Melbourne, A recital of the aggressive acts of the Ministry conclude* as follows. — "These high-handed, and, a=; your petitionera believe, illegal proceedings, have produced a most disastrous effect upon nearly every branch of business and enterprise. Trade is paralysed, property has become almost unsaleable, capital is seeking investment elsewhere, and such a feeling of insecurity prevails as your petitioners believe to be almost unknown within your Majesty's dominions. If the majority of the colonists desire that members of Parliament should be paid, your petitioners believe that they have but to express that wish at a general election, and to present the matter to the Legislative Council in a constitutional way, to secure its enactment. The Ministry now propose to pay moneys from the Consolidated revenue on a vote of the Legislative Assembly, and without the authority of I adiament ; and a resolution approving that course ha<* been passed in the Assembly. Inasmuch as the Constitution Act expressly declares that the 'consolidated revenue shall be subject to be appropriated to such specific purposes as by any Act of the said Legislature shall be provided on that behalf,' your petitioners believe that if the Governor sanctions payments without such authority, a further and graver breach of the law than any which has preceded it will be committed."