The Western Star. (PUBLISHED BI-WEEKLY.) WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 18, 1880.

Western Star, Issue 373, 18 August 1880, Page 2

The Western Star. (PUBLISHED 81-WEEKLY.) WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 18, 1880.

There is a retribunve justice in political affairs which seems to overtake the wrongdoers with even more certainty than the punishment due to private and personal injuries.. A strong party will sometimes consider itself so strong that it may carry what measures it likes by the mere brute force of numbers, without needing to consider whether a statesmanlike regard to the rights of small minorities, and an offering of due concessions may not prove in the course of a few yeats the wisest, ns well as the most just policy. A striking illustration qf this principle is furnished at the present time by the condition of political parties in Victoria ; a condition highly suggestive to our own colony, and all the more so because we have many persons readv at any time to fall into not only a similar,but also the identical error with that alluded to. . We refer to the mode in which the present “ free, secular, find compulsory syvtem of education,” was carried some years ago in Victoria, and to its present political results. About nine years back in the si.-tcr colony, Sir Charles ©avan Duffy had formed a Ministry which appeared destined to be a lasting one, though it contained no one man of remarkable ability but the Premier hiimclf. Both the extreme organs.of public opinion, the Conservative “Argus,” and the Democratic “ A ge,” were opposed to it. but still it stood. At length a well grounded charge wad made that the Ministry had committed the same political crime as that which Sir George Grey’s Ministry only a few ; months ago shameless y committed and avowed, of bribing and intimidating the Press. The charge was sustained by facts, and e’early proved, : but still,somehow, the Ministry stood. As a last resource religious intolerance was brought into piny, and to the astonishment of almost every politician in the colonv, the want of a free, secular, and eompnlsoiy, system of education was made the ground of a want of confidence mor on in the existing Government., Sir Charles Gavan ' Duffy was at that time, and perhaps is still, the most trusted of all politicians by the Eoman Catholics of Victoria. In consistency with his creed it was impossible for him to, agree to such a measure, no matter how popular. The Ministry were beaten in Parliament, compelled to resign, howled: down at the hustings on the ensuing election, and their objections overruled with the utmost contempt in the next Parliament. Since that time they have not leased to protest when an opportunity occurred, but until quite lately have made no organized attempt to bring their party as a combined party to tbe front. They were simply biding their time, however, and their opportunity in due course arrived. The Berry Ministry, after remaining in office for some years, had disgusted almost every one, except the rabble of physical force men in Melbourne, and a hand’ul of manufacturers and artisans largely subsidised by the. State in support of their own special industries at enormous cost to the rest of the population. The Premier had removed, often without warning, many of the ables; and most upright of the members of the Civil Service, and placed incompetent or dishonest men in their stead; he had placed his own relatives in positions for which they were utterly, unfit; had taken sums of money from the Treasury, as on his visit to England, and refused to account for it, and wound up by a proposal to assume powers of altering the constitution which the Queen would not attempt. It was a relief to all honest and intelligent men when be was at-length left in.a minority in Parliament, and was compelled' to resign. The new Premier, Mr Service,.however, had scarcely been injoffice more than two or three months when a long promised increase of constiutional reform was brought forward, and was thrown out by the voles of a small knot of Eoman Catholic members and their sympathisers, headed by Sir John o*Shanassy, utterly hostile in general principles to the Berryites. but for the moment aiding them. Everything at present in Victorian Government is, therefore in confusion. Mr Berry, by himself, cannot form a Ministry which can stand, neither can Mr Service, and Sir John O’Shanassy with a small but determined baud of followers are masters.of the Situation. It is prac

tically a political deadlock ; a triangular duel. Sir John O’Shanassy insists on large concessions in the way of educational reform and also a seat in the Cabinet for himself as the price of Ha allegiance to either party, and these conditions neither the Premier nor ex Premier will grant. The injustice done to the Roman Catholics and the other advocates of religious education ha« come home as a curse to roost. The despised, minority have their revenge; but in the meantime reforms of which Sir John O’Shanassy and his follower:, as clearly as any men see the necessity, are indefinitely postponed. The time perhaps may come a few years hence in New Zealand when a similar cause will have produced a similar effect. Practical politics consist not so much in indulging passions and prejudices as in making wise and equitable compromises, or at least in endeavouring to make them.