The Northern Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1856-09-05 00:00:00

AUSTRALIA.

We have received our papers and private advices from
Sydney to the Bth, and Melbourne to the 10th of June,
Inclusive, per the London clipper-sh'p Kent, noticed in
yesterday's impression of the NoatitertN TINES, and sub-
join an ample report of the more interesting, political,
general, and commercial intelligence.

1 'VICTORIA.
Our Melbourne advices inform us that political affairs
in the colony of Victoria were tame. Several other
• •• .. . •

candidates for seats in the, refO;nl-41;gi.glaIu—r-ev.:(l madet

their aPpearaince. The old council had been prorogued
to the 3rd of June, and had been further prorogued, by
proclamation in the Government Gilzette, until the Ist of
July. It was considered that unless some new unforeseen
circumstance Would arise, the old legislature would never
meet again. Mr. Foster, the former colonial secretary. or
prime minister, had become a candidate tor
" lie was driven from once," says one of the
Melbourne papers, " somewhat abruptly on the occasion
of the Ballarat riots, for which at that time he was held
mainly r ,sponsible. From blame on this respect we think
public opininn has since partly acquitted him, but public
sympathy can scarcely be said to have been aroused in his
favour. We apprehend that he *as too much given to
Scheming and intrigue when in office to have Wade many
;ticere friends, and the general verdict seems to be that
-e or twice wrongfully accused he has often'got oft
,lot free when he degivvecl flutrishment, and that, on the
whole, the ce' -
has

-cusure he has unoeib— ,een in no way
in excess of his deserts. He is almost certain to be
returned for Williamstown however, having spoken with
much ability and managed his electioneering matters with
great tact and adroitness thare. Since his retirement
there have been occasional symptoms of a burning desire
on his part to re-enter public life ; and, take him for all
in all, we shall hail the reappearance of so able a man in
the Vidtorian Parliament with considerable satisfaction,
although we do not think it possible that we shall ever
wish to see him prime Minister again.
Mr. Duffy's canvass at the West continues, aid it was

said with every prospect of suedes, although !lis
injudicious speech at Belfast had had a Most perni-
cious effect upon hill prospects, and the estimatiet
in which, he is held. Iletelowing the sayings and
doings ef Mr. Luffy in Victoria, the editor of a
Melbourne journil, dated Sane 10, remarks :—" Mr.
Duffy's opponents have taken advantage of his speech to
quote to his prejudice a former phrase of his, that he was
"an Irish rebel to the back bone, and to the spinal
marrow," and even many of his most ardent admirers
have had their. faith shaken at finding in their idol such
vanity. and such carelessness of speech. The fact seems
to be that Mr. Duffy was prostrated by what prostrates
most new-comers, but which it was hoped his intellectual
constitution would have been strong enough to have with-
stood—the mental fever of new chumism. Almost every
new-comer fancies he is going to effect a revolution in our
society, and never reflects on the generations of men with
similar hopes and anticipations who have sunk into
obscurity, and become merely atoms in the mass of our
population. A fresh influt of men occurs, each of whom
thinks himself the first missionary of civilisation in
Australia, and each of whom is speedily gathered to his
predecessors. Mr. Duffy's new-chumish feeling was
aggravated by the greeting he received. Dinners and
deputations succeeded one another, and Mr. Duffy became
more and more convinced that he had imported the first
consignment of real statesmanship which had reached
these shores. He permitted this feeling to away
him to the utterance of what betrayed recklessness
of the public character of others, and much ignorance of
men and things in the place of which he aspired to be the
great political reformer. The consequence has been that
his prestige has in a great measure vanished. No doubt
he will soon recover from the new-chum sickness, and
then his honesty and ability will place him in a high and
appropriate rank. Yet it shows no great statesmanship
to have thrown away so much of the political credit he
brought out with him. Perhaps, upon the whole, it will
scarcely be to his disadvantage to have destroyed all
extravagant expectations of himself before entering
parliament."
We observe that a proposition had been mooted for the
employment of Chinese emigrants in the construction
of railways. It is suggested that in lieu of the capitation
tax now levied upon all Chinamen landing at any of the
Victorian seaports, each celestial should serve a digging
apprenticeship upon our railways, before being admitted
to digging-mastership upon our gold-fields. The principal
objection which has been urged alainst the scheme is the
danger which it involves of establishing a dominant and
an enslaved race.

The Queen's birthday was celebrated with great eclat
at Melbourne on the 26th of May.

The•good•will and pint of the Age, daily newspaper,
the Weekly Age, the Melbourne Leader, together with the
plant of the Age jobbing office, were so'd by order of the
official assignee, for £2,000, to Mr. E. Syme, one of the
co-aditors.

A gymnastic institution has been-opened in MQlbourne,
on the system adop.ed by the best institutions of a similar
character on the continent of Europe : and under the
supervision Or a geinletnan wry) tias Owl 26 years' expe-
rience in the management of an European gymnasium,
The instil ute is calculated to supply a great desideratum
in the city, and to become a valuable agency for the
development of the mental and physical capacities of the
rising generation in Melbourne and its vicinity.