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
ii at., owing to the prevalence of strong head winds.
Au alteration has been made in the time of depar-
tkre 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-

)11entary morning mail, the ship sailing early in the
(corning 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-
pk.cted explanation" to the Assembly. Sir Win.
3)enison had demanded that the great seal of the
colony should be affixed to a grant of land to the
vidow and son of 'Elwell, the Quaker, who was
e x:ecuted 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
-12,Ionday 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
i 3 by the terms of his commission the keeper of the
colonial seal. Perhaps it may mean this—that the
teal 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-
tignation 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
fAhall 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 be 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
fucias to have the validity of the grant tried in the
Supreme Court of tho 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 sug-
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 land it is—
whether waste land or land claimed forfeited. If
ao, 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 li
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 clown 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
competed 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 £3,50,000. Of
this about half is for roads, bridges, and public
works, with something more than £lOO,OOO granted
4' 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 £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, as 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-
Tosed were stamp duties on bills of exchange and
receipts, 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
nn with their estimates of expenditure, and the
house will no doubt cut them down to something
Zkin e £3,000,000. Ministers talked of the expendi-
eo_e on public works giving employment to 20,000
LPLeas if the same means would not employ as
Lun.ny if left in the hands of the people. Indeed,
this heavy expenditure has been treated as a sort
ord-door relief, the working classes have been
I'gr2'"lled that were all the better for heavy
taxation, if expended
of
sh themselves. They cannot
net lo
comprehend the
.of the cost of collection. I
think the debates
good in disclosing thes week will do immense
truend I hop
nature of the Ministerial
fallacy on the subject, a
the Legislature
has taken the first step towardstehe destruction of
that extensive syst'ein of
log rolling" which has
hitherto prevailed. There is a very popular cry for
local self-governmentr and gentlemen en the bust-
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 piper. But local
•self-government will never be effective until the
localities pay for it. ti Here the whole police of the
of crimi.
country, gaols, hospitals, the prosecution