The Sun.
London, England, 1861-03-18 00:00:00

AUSTRALIA.
(From the
_Correspondent of the Times.)
MELBOURNE, JAN. 25.
The November mail did not arrive until the 13th
inst., owing to the prevalence of strong head winds.
An alteration has been made in the time of depar-
ture of the homeward mail, which will deprive us
of the opportunity of transmitting the latest morn-
ing's news. Hitherto there has been a supplemen-
tary morning mail made up at 9 a.m. on the 28th
of the month, the mail ship sailing at about noon.
The new regulation is that the mail is to close at
10 p.m. on the 25th of the month, with no supple-
mentary morning mail, the ship sailing early in the
morning of the 26th. Our merchants are dissatis-
fied with this, and it has not been explained what
countervailing advantages are gained in return for
those which We lose.
Sir William Denison, late Governor-General, and
Governor of New South Wales, is a passenger by
the Behar, on his way to Madras. Before he left
he had a difference with his Ministers on a point of
some constitutional importance as to the use of the
colonial seal. I have not received a full account, but
yesterday's telegram from Sydney states that Mr.
Cowper, on Wednesday evening, made an unex-
pected explanation" to the Assembly. Sir Win.
Denison had demanded that the great seal of the
colony should be affixed to a grant of land to the
widow and son of Tawell, the Quaker, who was
executed in England for murder some years ago. If
this grant was to convey part of the waste lands of
the Crown it would clearly be illegal; if to convey
lands forfeited by Tawell's attainder, the Crown has
no more than the "year, day, and waste," and the
legality of the grant even of that is questionable.
Grants of Crown lands must be by way of sale ;
gratuitous grants can only be made for public pur-
poses. The Ministers, as a body and individually,
declined being a party or parties to this, and on
Monday last they tendered their resignation, at the
same time (so the account states) handing over the
Great Seal to the Governor. This is the part of the
story which I cannot understand. The Governor
• is by the terms of his commission the keeper of the
colonial seal. Perhaps it may mean this—that the
seal is usually kept in the Executive Council
Chamber, as it is always used, "by the advice
of the Council," so that on the Ministers' re-
signation the Governor was left in uncontrolled
possession of the seal. Sir William Denison (so
the account proceeds) then used the seal as he
desired, and returned it, at the same time re-
fusing to accept the resignations. The question
has been raised in the Assembly as to an
address to Her Majesty, praying that the seal
shall not be used without the consent of the Execu-
tive Council, and there the matter ends for the
present.
I may state that in this colony no patent ever
passes the Great Seal, be it for a grant of land, a
patent for an invention, or an official commission,
without the sanction of the Executive, and the
counter-signatures required are such as that a grant
could not pass as above without a breach of duty
on the part of the officer submitting it. I doubt
whether any Ministry we have ever had would have
returned to office, as the Sydney Ministry have
done, under such circumstances, and a Ministry so
refusing would he firmly supported by the Assem-
bly, even against the most popular Governor.
Moreover, we have plenty of men here sufficiently
acquainted with and attached to constitutional
principles to move in the Assembly " that the
Attorney-General do take the proper steps by scire
facias to have the validity of the grant tried in the
Supreme Court of the colony." Possibly the Sydney
Assembly may think of some such proceeding,
though their public men are certainly less addicted
to constitutional courses than ours are. lam very
sure the Governor of this colony would not have
adopted so unconstitutional a proceeding, even in
obedience to the directions of the Secretary of State.
This affair raises the question whether the exist-
ing securities against the improper use of the seal
are sufficient. This last act of Sir Wm. Denison,
-which was only unexpectedly explained the day
after he had left the colony, should be at once
brought before the notice of Parliament. The
Secretary of State should be asked whether he has
any information on the subject, and, if so, all
papers connected with it should be moved forth-
with. It is just possible that the Secretary of State,
out of compassion for the widow, may have aug
gested this grant, but it is not to be presumed that
he intended that the grant should be made against
law. It should be ascertained what Fuld it is--
whether waste land or land claimed forfeited. If
so, the Crown has only the " year, day, and
waste." On behalf of the friends of constitu-
tional practice in these colonies I appeal to the
friends of the colonies in Parliament to drag this
proceeding into the full light of day.
We have had here an approach to another " Mi-
nisterial Crisis." The Assembly met on the 3d.
Rumours had got abroad of increased taxation,
and other schemes not palatable to their supporters.
Mr. Brooke, who formed the Ministry, was very
unhappy in his Ministerial explanation, which was
such as to draw down upon him contradictions both
in the House and out of it. From this alone they
lost many supporters, and in others a degree of ill-
feeling was generated which may lead to desertion
at any time. Their Budget, however, has nearly
completed their ruin, and they are now kept in
office because no party is in a condition to take it
out of their hands. The case is simply this,—We
have, in round numbers, a revenue of £3,000,000.
In former years there was generally a surplus. The
total expenditure has been about £3,500,000. of
this about half is for roads, bridges, and public
works, with something more than £lOO,OOO granted
‘` in aid" to the municipalities. Now, the first prin-
ciple enunciated by Mr. Vcrdon was not to keep the
expenditure within our ways and means, but that
the ways and means should be raised to the extent
of the expenditure. The estimates of expenditure
brought down by the Treasurer exceeded .C 3,500,000.
Without additional taxes the estimated revenue for
1861 is a trifle over £3,000,000. The whole of our
enormous expenditure on roads, public works, and
grants in aid of various kinds, was proposed to be
continued, and the only economy was to be effected
by cutting down salaries, and chiefly the salaries of
clerks, to a starvation rate. The new taxes pro_
posed were stamp duties on bills of exchange and
xeceipts, and a duty of 11 per cent. on bank-notes,
wharfage dues, light dues abolished in
.1853, and
some revision of the tariff, which, although not
boldly asserting the principle of protection, which
would have raised a definite issue, nevertheless
savoured of protection. This scheme the House
almost unanimously condemned, Mr. O'Shanassy
enunciating the principle that the expenditure
should be kept within the income, and that it was
most unwise and improvident to fix the expen-
diture at a high rate, and then to inerease the
revenue by taxation to meet it. The Minis-
terial scheme is therefore withdrawn. Minis-
ters talked about resigning, as if they were such
tried men that the country could not do without
them ; but they were told that the house did not
intend them to resign, and they must stay there
until the estimates were passed ; so they are to go
on with their estimates of expenditure, and the
house
will no doubt cut them down to something
like £3,000,000. Ministers -
talked of the expendi-
ture on public works giving employment to 20.000
people, as if the same means would not employ as
many if lift in the hands of the people. Indeed,
this heavy expenditure has been treated as a sort
of out-door relief, and the
ersuaded that the working classes have been
py we
all the better for heavy
taxation, if expended on themselves. They cannot
comprehend the net loss of the cost of collection. I
think the debates of this week will do immense
good in disclosing the true nature of the Ministerial
fallacy on the subject, and I hope the Legislature
has taken the first step towards the destruction of
that extensive system of " log roiling" which has
There is a very popular cry for
hitherto prevailed.
local self-government, and gentlemen cn the hust-
ings have always been very
eloquent on the evils of
centralisation, but when their schemes come to be
examined they come to this---they want local ma-
nagement, and central
paying the But local
self-government will never be effective un.il the
localities pay for it. • Here the whole police,
crimi-
of the
Country, gaols, hospitals, the prosecution of

nals, coroners—everything, in short, which in Eng-
land is charged upon the county or borough rates
or paid for by special local taxation, is charged
upon the consolidated revenue, and the whole energy
of the country member is concentrated on the pro-
blem of how to get the largest slice of the public
revenue. The old system, which the present Trea-
surer desired to perpetuate, would have destroyed
our credit ; the principle laid down by O'Shanassy,
and which I feel sure will be affirmed, will help to
sustain our credit in the English money•market.

In one respect, Ministers propose to begin their
reductions at the " big end." They have carried
a bill to reduce the Governor's salary and emolu-
ments from £15,000 to £B,OOO a-year ; but it is not
to take effect during Sir Henry Barkly's first term
of office. Mr. Michie, formerly Attorney-General,
proposes to reduce the !sum appropriated to Minis-
terial salaries from £14,000 to £10,500. The other
questions before the House are of no interest out of
the colony.

The gold produced during the year is 2,011,9510 z.,
against 2,205,194 last year, the difference being
193,2430 z. The persons engaged in mining are,
however, fewer in number, and all other branches
of industry have increased. The shipments of gold
in 1859 were 2,269,0490 z. ; last year they were only
2,071,8260 z. The gold ships which have sailed since
the Jeddo are the Result, 29,3350 z. ; Alliance,
31,5130 z. ; Lightning, 28,8440 z. ; and Southampton,
21,5440 z.
NEW SOUTH WALES.

SYDNEY, JAN. 22.
In New South Wales the new Parliament has met,
but has not had time to get fairly to business. Mr.
Murray has been re-elected Speaker, but a new
Chairman of Committees, belonging to the party of
the majority, has been appointed. The old Land
Bills have been reintroduced, as also the bill for
constituting an elective Upper House. The Go-
vernment has an overwhelming majority as against
the late Conservative party, but is in considerable
danger of a secession of Radicals from its own ranks.
The late elections have strengthened it in one direc-
tion, but weakened it in the other. The democratic
progress has been very great—rather too great, in
fact, for the Ministry, who by no means wish to go
too fast, while at the same time they wish to be con-
sidered at the head of the movement. The squatters
are bitterly mortified at their almost total defeat and
the exclusion from Parliament of nearly all the not-
able men of Conservative leanings, and their victori-
ous opponents do not spare them any taunts. The
state of political feeling in the colony is very bitter.
Hitherto parties have been somewhat balanced,
the Conservative party at the outset of re-
sponsible government having a slight Parliamen-
tary majority, but too slight to enable them to
legislate. This advantage has been diminished at
every successive election, leaving them little more
than the power of formidable obstruction, till at
this last election it has been almost annihilated, the
merest remnant only being preserved. As a party,
the old governing class disappears henceforth from
the political history of New South Wales. This
utter and ignominious extinction of a class that has
been so long supreme, and the transfer of legislative
and executive power to a new set, many of whom
have pushed their way out of the ranks of the igno-
rant and needy, must needs be a bitter destiny to
those who are humbled by it. Loud are the lamen-
tations over the slight the constituencies have put
upon men of wealth, intelligence, and colonial ex-
perience ; and louder still are the exaltations at the
triumph of " common sense" over "educated intel-
lect," and of "popular principles" over an "effete
policy and an obstructive party."
Sir Wm. Denison leaves Sydney to-day for his
new Government at Madras. He has been perfectly
overwhelmed with congratulatory addresses. The
Conservative party are in the sulks with him be-
cause he consented to the late dissolution, and have
rather hung fire from doing him honour on his de-
parture. But they have taken nothing by this
move, for the more they disparaged his Excellency,
the more the Democratic party resolved to thank
and to compliment him. Apart from politics, too, he
has earned the goodwill of most colonists. He has
energetically assisted at every movement of a social,
intellectual, philanthropic, or religious character,
and has done what he could to advance the mate-
rial wellbeing of the colony. His private and
domestic life has enabled the clergy of all sects
honestly to compliment him, and though it is no
more virtuous in a Governor to be a moral man than
it is in a mechanic, still the contrast between the
fame of Government-house under the present and
the late administration has been such as to stimu-
late specific recognition, Col. Kempt will be the
acting Governor-General until the arrival of Sir W.
Denison's successor, who, we are told, is to be
Sir John Young, formerly of the lonian Islands.
On Saturday last his Excellency reviewed for
the first time our young volunteer force. We only
mustered 1,400, and there was no firing. The men
went through their movements—which were, how-
ever, only of a simple character, very fairly. Most
of them have only been under drill for about three
or four months, but now that the review has given
a stimulus to the movement it is expected that
their numbers will increase and their discipline be
improved.

The Viceregal speech at the opening of Parlia-
ment represents the general condition of the colony
as satisfactory. In the Assembly the minority
made nothing more than a verbal protest against
this representation ; but in the Council an amend-
ment was carried in the reply contradicting it. I
am afraid that the view taken by the Council is
nearer the truth than that taken by the Cabinet.
The mining interest is certainly looking up, but
beyond that it is not easy to see signs of encourage-
ment. Insolvencies continue, accounts are col-

lected with the greatest difficulty, the customs re-
venue is declining; business is dull, especially in
the departments of popular luxuries ; prices, pro-
fits, and wages are declining; employment is not
abundant; what surplus capital there is fights shy
of permanent investment, and is put into the banks
at a fixed rate of interest, aggravating thereby the
tendency to an excessive discounting. We may look
for a revival of trade when the present feeling of
insecurity has passed away. If the land question
can get settled, and the values of all sorts of pro-
perty get adjusted to the new order of things, and
pastoral and agricultural industry take a fresh
start, then we shall soon get righted. The colony
has immense resources, and only needs a free field
both for capital and labour to develope a growing
prosperity.

INDIA.
By the arrival of the overland mail we have re-
ceived papers from Calcutta to Feb. 8. They con-
tain scarcely any news. The famine in the north-
west and the Punjaub appeared to be becoming

still more severe.

A great meeting of all classes had been held at
the Calcutta Chamber of Commerce to take steps
to relieve in as far as possible the miseries in the
north-west, and a very handsome subscription was
immediately commenced. Upwards of £7,000 had
been already subscribed in Calcutta alone, and
£5,500 forwarded to the Lieutenant-Governors of
the north-west and the Punjaub.
At the meeting of the Chamber of Commerce an
important question was raised by Mr. Peterson, a
leading barrister, which was, " Why is it that the
north-west suffers periodically from famine, while
Bengal, which in olden times was as subject to
famine as any other part of India, now never suf-
fers P.' lie answered this by showing that the
north-west settlement had destroyed all the great
landholders, and reduced all to one dead level of
pauperism, so that when a bad season came there
were no "buffers," as he called Zemindars and
rich merchants, between them and misery. They
had not been permitted to accumulate
property,
and so had nothing to fall back upon. This view
was vehemently combated by the civilians present,
Sir Bartle Prere taking the lead ; but Baboo Ra..
mapersaud Roy, the government pleader in the
Bthatudder Court, supported Mr. Peterson, declaring
he had travelled over the north-west and the
provinces subject to the Thomason settlement, and
that it was true that the
to übject poverty by 4. people had been reduced
He also attributed the