The Sun.
London, England, 1863-06-25 00:00:00

THE NEW GOVERNOR OF VICTORIA,

Last evening a grand banquet was given at Wil-
lis's Itooni:, in honour of his Excellency Sir Charles
Darling, K.C. 8., who is about to proceed to Victoria
as the Governor-in-Chief of that colony. Mr. 1-1.
Childers, M.P., long connected with the colony, had
in tended to act as chairman, but was prevented being
present by a domestic effliction, and strange to say
Sir C. Darling himself was absent from the dinner
in consequence of illness, though at some risk he
came and paid his respects to the company after
they bad assembled. The Duke of Newcastle.
who had accepted an invitation, was likewise com-
pelled by indisposition to be absent, but his Grace
and the Colonial-office were represented by Mr.
Chichester Fortescue. In the absence of Mr.
Childers, the chair was occupied by Mr. J. V. L.
Foster, late Chief Secretary to the colony of Vic-
toria, and the following gentlemen, including
several leading colonists now in England, were also
present :—The Right Rev. the Lord Bishop of Mel-
bourne, Mr. Vansittart, M.P., Sir Chas. Nicholson,
Sir Charles Clifford, Sir Edward Macarthur, Judge
Therry, Mr. Charles Kean, Mr. E. Wilson, Mr. L.
Mackinnon, Major Pasley, Colonel Tidy, Captain
Clarke, Mr. Engleheart, Captain Begot, Mr. E.
Hamilton, Mr. C. H. Ebden, Mr. H. Creswick, Mr.
Landsborough, Mr. Hodgson, and Mr. George
Macleay, the company mustering in number to up-
wards of 100. After the usual loyal toasts, the
chairman, in proposing the toast of the evening,
" His Excellency Sir Charles Darling," said that,
although it was a subject for regret that his Excel-
lency was not then present, he had testified his
sense of the honour they had intended to confer upon
him by leaving a sick bed and coming among them
in the early part of the evening. His Excellency,
suffering from fever, had not only left his bed, but
within the next forty-eight hours was about to em-
bark on a voyage to Melbourne, which, under the
circumstances, was a great trial to him. He would
go out not altogether a stranger to Australia, for in
early life he was there during the Governorship of
his uncle, Sir Ralph Darling. During that time
an expedition went down to Port Philip, and on
its return the Colonial-office reported that the
country was worth nothing, and was only fit for
kangaroos. Yet that country was colonised in
spite of the Colonial-office, who absolutely forbade
people to go there. Now, again, there was no
encouragement from that quarter to settle in
North Australia ; but he would say, in
the :presence of the Under-Secretary for the Colo-
nies, that whether the Colonial Minister liked it or
no he must establish a colony in North Australia.
Sir Charles Darling went out no untried man. He
had already filled the office of Governor of St. Lucia,
the Cape of Good Hope, Newfoundland, and Jamaica,
and had been a successful governor wherever he had
represented his Sovereign. It might almost be said
of him, nail tetigit quod non ornavit. He believed
that the same amount of success would await him
in Victoria, the more so as the new system of re-
spoesible Government had established order in the
colony, and had made the duties of a colonial Go-
vernor comparatively easy. Mr. Chichester For-
tescue, in speaking to the toast of " Her Majesty's
Ministers," dwelt upon the spirit of justice and fair
dealing with which his noble friend and chief had
conducted himself during his long career as Colonial
Minister, and the liberality and loyalty with which
he had carried into effect the great principle of co-
lonial self-government in domestic affairs. He re-
marked that in these days, with respect to the colo-
nies, the Minister, from whichever side of the
house he might be taken, was not the Sinister of a
party but of the nation and the Crown. This country
had never been, and never could be, governed by a
man more thoroughly devoted to its interests than
his noble friend Lord Palmerston, and every colonist
present might rest assured that in no hands could
the honour and interest of British subjects, whether
here or at the antipodes, be safer than in those of the
noble lord. With him he must couple the name of
the Foreign Minister, Earl Russell, who for many
years served the country at the Colonial-office. Some
years ago, he said, the then French Minister at this
Court, M. Guizot, informed Lora Russell, then at

the head of the Colonial-office, that the French
were desirous of establishing a penal settlement
in New Zealand, and asked what part of the ter-
ritory so called the English considered their own,
Lord Russell coolly replied that New Zealand was
all their own. The French Minister then inquired
how much of New Holland they regarded as be.

longing to them. The Colonial Minister again an-
swered that they claimed the whole of it. He (Mr.
Fortescue) mentioned the circumstance merely to
show the spirit in which British Colonial Mini-
sters regarded the colonies, and how ready they
were to extend over them the aegis of England. It
was in that spirit, he was convinced, that the wish
he was about to express would, under the provi-
dence of Heaven, be fully carried out—that for
many ages to come the prosperity of the Australian
colonies would continue, as now, to excite the pride
of Great Britain and the envy and admiration of the
world. The company separated about 11 o'clock.
Mr. Harker, jun., acted as toastmaster.