The Sun.
London, England, 1858-12-15 00:00:00

AUSTRALIA.

By the Overland Mail we have received letters
and papers from Melbourne and Sydney. Their
dates are Melbourne, Oct. 16; and Sydney, Oct.
12. We extract the following summary of news
from the Melbourne Herald of Oct. 16 :

The departure of the Victoria with the October
mail furnishes the occasion for our usual summary.
Since our last resume of political news by the

European, the Parliament of Victoria has been
again assembled in session. The Legislature was
opened on Thursday week, the 7th inst., by Sir
Henry Barkly in person, with the formal vice-
regal speech usual on these occasions. His Excel-
lency set forth the measures to which the Govern-
ment specially desired to direct attention, as the
main business for the despatch of which he had
summoned Parliament together. These are the
measures which embody the project of Parlia-
mentary reform that had failed to become law in
the last session, namely, a bill to alter the electoral
districts of the colony and increase the number of
members in the Assembly ; a bill to shorten the
duration of Parliament from five to three years ;
and a bill to limit the number of persons holding
office under the Crown, who may hold seats in
either house of Parliament. In addition to these,
the passing of the estimates for 1859 constitutes
the chief work to be required at the hands of hon.
members in the present session. Some other mea-
sures of minor importance, such as bills for the
amendment of the audit act, of the assessment act,
referring to squatters' stock), of the acts relating
to the Chinese, to the construction and main-
tenance of public roads, and also to weights
and measures. The programme thus submitted
by Ministers to Parliament is limited to
this extent fnr the purpose of having a short
session, and then a dissolution of Parliament, to be
followed by the general elections, for a new and
reformed House of Assembly, in which it is expec-
ted the long-pending vexed question of a liberal
land policy for permanently locating population
upon a large scale on the unoccupied soil of the
country, will be settled. Whether Ministers will
be able to get through the work of the session with
the rapidity contemplated, it is impossible at this
early period to state with certainty. There is no
doubt that there are a few individuals in both
houses who are disposed to offer opposition to their
proceedings, if they can by any means devise an
ostensible opportunity for so doing ; and they are,
as yet, deterred from such a factious course, not by
any conscientious scruples about impeding the
work of parliamentary reform, but solely by the
apprehension of the storm of public indignation
which such an obstructive policy on their part
would rouse throughout the country. The desire
of the people 'generally, more especially the gold.
fields population, for the enactment of the proposed
measure of reform, is earnest and intense. By this
means alone they see the way to electing a Legis-
lative Assembly, which will, !not like the present
unpopular body, fully and truly represent the great
body of the people at large. Indeed, the undeni•
able and urgent character of this want has so forced
itself on public attention, that the Governor in his
vice-regal speech on the opening of the session, felt
himself justified in departing from the usual com-
mon-place enunciation and recommendation to the
notice of honourable members of the measures men-
tioned in his speech ; and in emphatically pronounc-
ing his Excellency's opinion with respect to the
proposed Electoral Reform Bill, that it was "abso-
lutely indispensable, in order to give effect to the
extended franchise which has already become
law, to distribute more equally the representation
of the people, and to provide a sufficient number of
members to conduct the public business." Such an
expression of opinion coming from the Governor of
the colony, and uttered in the face of rumoured
factious opposition in Parliament to that measure,
and to the policy generally of the present Govern-
ment, is a significant and important fact. But
emanating from Sir Henry Barkly, it has peculiar
weight, and much suggestive meaning. Sir Henry
Barkly, has but just returned from a tour in the
western district of the colony, which embraces the
largest area of the richest agricultural land in Vic-
toria, as well as one of the most extensive, most
productive, and latest discovered of our gold fields
—namely, Ararat. And the impressions produced
upon his mind by that tour found expression in a
speech, which he made at the time on the occasion
of some complimentary public demonstration in his
honour ; and, in which, after pourtraying the
splendid character of the country, its magnificent
resources for supporting and enriching a large popu-
lation, and pointing to its waste, unpeopled condi-
tion at the present moment, he added emphatically
the words—" Here, indeed, there is room enough
for all." . His Excellency thus conveyed in mild
phraseology a strong rebuke to the dog-in-the-
manger spirit, which would exclude population
from the soil, for the purpose of covering it sparsely,
and only in detached spots, with grazing sheep
and cattle, as is at present the case. And in the
vice-regal speech which we have quoted, he
shows his desire that such an impracticable
and suicidal policy as that of opposing reform,
and attempting to maintain our present land sys-
tem, shall be seen to receive no countenance from
him ; and shall be at once and for ever replaced
by a sound and comprehensive system of Parlia-
mentary representation, preparatory to the exten-
sive settlement of population on the soil. Coming
from Sir 11. Barkly, this expression has, we repeat,
peculiar significance. When he was first selected
_now nearly a dozen years ago—from amongst
the members of the House of Commons by the Im-
perial Government of that day to fill the trouble-
some office of a colonial governor, it was because
his conciliatory manners and sound discretion pecu-
liarly fitted him for the task of healing the local
asperities and:hitherto irreconcileable disputeswhich
distracted the colony of British Guiana. The party
of progress there was thwarted in the most obstruc-
tive way by the old ruling and so-called conserva-
tive faction ; the battle-field of these local quarrels,
so mischievous to the interests of the colony, was the
legislature; and the contending parties there were
" tearing to pieces" amongst themselves the rights
and interests of the community, wholly regardless
of consequences.
Sir H. Bar* was sent out to save the colony
from its conservative patriots ; and the ample
powers vested in him, and his own ability, tact,
moderation, and good sense, enabled him " to save "
the colony " from its friends." His next colonial
mission was one of a similar character, namely to
interpose in Samaica, between the obstructionists
and the party of progress; and there too he suc-
ceeded admirably. He now finds himself at the
head of the government of a colony of vastly
greater importance in every respect than those men-
tioned, in which he perceives the same mischievous
spirit of obstruction at work on the part of a few
factious and insensate politicians, but in which the
evils of such a course are a thousand fold of a worse
character, and more pregnant with danger to the
commonweal, than would possibly be the case in the
comparatively paltry West Indian colonies where he
has hitherto performed the part of general pacifica-
tor. He sees the character of the population which
is congregated together in Victoria—its peculiarly
masculine and independent tone of mind—its high
intelligence (being in both these respects European
rather than colonial in its standard of superiority)
its firm resolve to open for the general settlement
of population the soil of this country, in which, as
he himself says, and as the people here know and
feel, "there is room enough for all." Seeing and
understanding all this, and bearing in mind his
" colonial experience" in the other quarters we
have named, Sir Henry Barkly has not hesitated
to pronounce, at the earliest opportunity, in•favour
of those measures of reform which, if agreed to in
good time now and with good grace, may save him
from interposing in a more authoritative way under
the direction of the Imperial Government, as in the
case of Guiana and Jamaica, to rescue the public
interests of the people of Victoria from the evil con-