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

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 consolidatedrevenne, 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 exultations 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.