The Sun.
London, England, 1855-09-13 00:00:00

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7.11-49

(Ftm, the Melbourne Age of May 28.,
Certain :ultra-loyalists and. people of st.
conservativ'e sentiments affect to be immensely
gusted with this journal for the perfect freedom
with which it presumed to criticise the kind of en-
\tertainment which was dealt out to the company
rho were invited to the State Ball at Toorak on
er most gracious Majesty's birthday. It
they think, undignified to specify the-nature,-and
impertinent to indicate the quality, of the viands
provided for the guests ; above all, it was most un-
pardonably " vulgar" to mention even the words
sour Marsala, colonial swipes, and salt junk ; and,
in fact, they hold us guilty of the crime which
Joseph charged upon his brethren, namely, spying
out and exposing the " nakedness of the land." It
was our bounden duty, as patriotic journalists,
they further declare, to put the best possible face
on the business, and at worst to have dealt in
gentle insinuations of dissatisfaction, or else to
have preserved blank silence respecting it.
Upon which charges we have a few words to say
in self-defence. And in the first place, we did not
state anything positively, and of our own know-
ledge, respecting the character of the entertainment,
for the sufficient reason that we were not there ;
we simply reported the general conversation—
which it was our specific business to do. We do
not know that there were three times as many
people invited to Toorak as the rooms could hold ;
that scores of people were in consequence com-
pelled to return without even effecting an entrance ;
that all inside was crushing- and confusion ; that
the music consisted of nothing but a shabby Ger-
man street band ; that the solid dainties were of
ofth the kind,hootmhealiveisntgbeenprovided
andboie indubitable
a distinguishedubitahl
eevide
evidence
c uisiti
vieer ry w
; and
atehsat the fluids were rigorously co-
nfinednotprtooourthee csohemapnecsht vin s
aordgilnaaire and Mr. Mur-
phy's
the gentlemen a bottle of sotdhasaa
t recherche liquids were served out in such vessels as
are used by private soldiers ; and that, in general,
soda-water
tladies ;
lemonade,
t that
at couldt
or
the arrangements were cast on a scale which
seemed to imply that his Excellency expected
guests about equal in social standing and manners
to a company of draymen, or of very small shop-
keepers. We say we do not know this. What we
know is, that scores of people who were at the ball
and supper say all this, and something more than
this ; and if, therefore, any blame attaches to those
who give such statements notoriety, we are guilt-
less ; the blame rests with the grumbling guests.
Now, it is very true that we might have given a
pleasant little paragraph (like the one which ap-
peared in bur distinguished contemporary the
Argus), in which no fault would be found with any
of the details, but just a general word of approba-
tion, by way of making things pleasant to all par-
ties; but besides that we do not like to "damn with
faint praise," when we cannot cordially express sa-
tisfaction. To have given any other account than the
one we did would have been to pervert truth. As
we say, the shabby music, the washy liquids, the
sorry solids of the entertainment, are nothing
to us ; those who talk contemptuously of them may
have Leen exaggerating the real facts ; but it is, to
say the least, a great pity that any grounds should
have been afforded for such exaggerations.
Secondly, if it be so very reprehensible to give
currency to statements• of this kind, what is to be
said of those who furnish Occasion for them ? If
three or four hundred people are invited to ,a grand
entertainment ; and if they publicly announce,
when it is all over, that the thing was au entirely
paltry and even contemptible affair—such an " en-
tertainment," in fact, as might have been expected
from a Daniel Dancer or a John Elwes—is not the
entertainer pr.marily to blame ? The question
answers itself, and exonerates us.
For our part, we have only condescended to
comment on the affair because it is one that involves
the public character of the colony. As we have
already pointed out, it was a grave political mis-
take for his Excellency to have disgusted a large
body of respectable citizens, when he had so fine an
opportunity cif gaining their good graces by a dis-
play of gentlemanly and generous (however unac-
customed) hospitality. But it was more than this ;
it was an unpardonable insult to the guests to treat
them shabbily, as it implied that they were accus-
tomed to, and deserved, nothing better : it was
unbecoming the dignity of the Governor-in-Chief
of this colony to carry the meanest details of
household economy into his first State festival ;
it was making sad work of the prestige-attached
to her Majesty's representative ; and it was
a direct insult to the whole body of colonists
who have granted his Excellency an extremely
liberal salary, and who were represented by the
guests at Toorak on Thursday evening. Therefore
it is we speak out ; for we demand, and we must
have, a generous and noble standard of social in-
tercourse in this colony, just as much as a high
standard of political existence • and it is as unpar-
donable in a Governor to fall below the one as it is
for him to oppose the other. We no more want a
skinflint or a miser to govern us than we want a
noodle or a dunce. And most emphatically we do
not want a Governor, or an official of any grade,
whose sole object is to make as much out of the
colony as he can, within a limited time, and then
abandon it.