The Express.
London, England, 1866-11-23 00:00:00

BRITANNIA.
Tan EVVWIO. SOME [SELLS THAT RANG. Mr. J. Rey-
nolds.—THE Wli.tT 1.. IT "Danelug Mail" Bryan:
Miss IC. (12:-,t.,iik-; 31.tster George l'erks.—Concluiling with
TUE AD CIIL::RV TREE. Mrs. Lane.

HIGH WATER AT LiNDON BRIDGE.
Ta DAY —Hominy, 211. ..ut Afternoon, 2h. ?gm.
TO-YOKSOW—Moruing, 211. 51ut Altornoon, 31a. Tign.

LONDON, FRIO 4Y. NOVEMBER 23.

THE dinner given at Willis's Rooms on Wed-
nesday to the lion. G. F. VEaDoN, Finance
Minister of Victoria, as reported yesterday in our
columns, delerves notice for reasons which go
beyond its immediate occasion. Primarily a well-
deserved personal compliment, it has a political
significance which may not have been perceived
by all who took part in it. Mr. VERPON came to
this country in the summer on important business ;
he has accomplished the mission entrusted to him by
his fellow colonists, and in so doing has gained the
_ _

high esteem of all with whom he has been brought
into contact. Sir July( PAKINGTON and the

Earl of CARNAuvos, the two Ministers with
whom he has had business to transact, vie
with each other in testifying to his capacity and
worth, and the Crown has been advised to send
him back to Australia with marks of honour. Mr.

VERnoN's tinaliticaLionS, and the manlier in which
he has discharged his duty, hive reflected credit on
the colonial community which sent him, and Vic-
toria was extolled on Wednesday by Ministers of
the Crown with a freedom of praise to which its
people have lung been unaccustomed in England.
After all this, let us ask, who is the Hon. Mr.
Vrerxix ? lie is, and long has been, one of the
chief members of that administration which ad-
vised Sir CHARLES DARLING in the difficult crisis
of 1865, when the Victoria House of Com-
mons had to defend the rights of the
people at once against an oligarchical
Council in the colony and Mr. CARDWELL in
Downing-street. As Treasurer of Victoria, Mr.
VERDON not only shared the responsibility of his
colleagues, but—the contest turning upon ques-
tions of finance and revenue—sustained a principal
part in the debates which took place in the Co.
lonial Parliament. Our readers know what hap-
pened in Victoria ; the people of the colony
triumphed, as they could not but do, over all
their opponents, and Downing-street, unable to
reach them, visited Sir CHARLES DARLING
with its displeasure, recalling him in dis-
grace, after a long and meritorious career.
It is equally well known what happened in Eng-
land. The principal organs of our governing
classes day after day gave themselves up to viru-
lent abuse of the people and government of Vic-
toria. No charge was too bad to be brought
against them ; every term of obloquy which had
been employed against the Americans during the
civil war was remembered and became a missile to
be hurled at them. They were a reckless, tyran-
nical, abandoned people, the very helots of the
empire, fit only to serve as a warning to the other
colonies, and a permanent argument against any
considerable extension of the franchise at home.
We know not whether the adherents of the present
or the last Imperial Ministry were loudest in their
denunciations of the utter and irreclaimable pro-
fligacy of the Government and people of Victoria,
but it is a fact that this journal stood almost alone
in vindicating the character of the colony.
Immediately following this excitement, and
before Sir CHARLES DARLING'S successor had
arrived out, Mr. V 'ninon visits this country and
puts the real opinion of England concerning his
colleagues and fellow-countrymen to a very prac-
tical test. He asks the British public to lend the
colony 850,0001. for reproductive public works,
chiefly railways and aqueducts, and the public at
once offer 3,075,000/. Such is the answer of
the sober, thinking, and responsible portion of the
home public to writers who have vituperated Vic-
toria by the column without having taken even
the trouble to read the laws and constitution of
the colony. If half of that which was written in
English newspapers in the spring of the present
year had been true, Mr. VERDON ought to have
been received—or rather avoided—here as a poli-
tical leper, and his financial proposals should have
been met with an nhao!nte non possum's. Instead
of that, he is heartily welcomed by the Government,
and the City opens its money bags to him. The
reason is plain. In practical matters the people
of this country do not hold their common sense
at the service of political prejudice. They may
not like universal suffrage, but when they learn