30 DECEMBER 1871, Page 6

PREMIER, LATE REBEL.

WE called attention nearly four months ago* to the very able speech in which Mr. Gavan Duffy, Irish Roman Catholic, ex-rebel, ex-editor of the Nation, ex-exponent of the policy of Disestablishment and Tenant-right for Ireland, had inaugurated the Government, of which he is the pillar and the head, in the greatest of the Australasian Colonies, and we illus- trated the prompitude, the definiteness, the admirable perspicuity, as well as popular breadth of the policy,—in the whole of which, founded, as it was, on a compromise with protection, we could not, of course, concur,—which be had sketched out for his Cabinet in that first ministerial manifesto addressed to his constituents. We return to the subject because a late debate, —almost the closing debate of the session in the Victorian Legislature,—turns, in great measure, on the very point we were then anxious to bring out, the transmutation of the Irish rebel into the successful and trusted Premier who, during the four months of his ministry, has been continually and steadily gain- ing ground, till even his political enemies speak of him in debate as "the most powerful minister that this colony has seen since we had Constitutional Government." Nor do these remark- able words come from a man of little weight on the Opposition, side but from a weighty, cautious, legal-minded debater, Mr. Stephen, whose name is deservedly respected in England from the influence and honour gained for it by near kinsmen of his MD, one of whom is now the legal representative of the British Government in the Council of India. This is how Mr. Stephen, member of the Opposition in the Victorian Parlia- ment, speaks of the Prime Minister's progress in power and

influence since he assumed office Duffy, remarked Mr. Stephen, had in the first instance formed an " Omnium- Gatherum Ministry," the members of which had " scarcely a single feeling in common," beyond confidence in the

personal ability of their chief. "The Chief Secretary did not assume office as the representative of any party in the House, or because he was mainly instrumental in the defeat of the previous Ministry. He was placed in his present position apparently by accident, and for a long time his position was not viewed by the public or by the House as very secure. But any one must have seen that he has gradually been gaining the confidence of the House, though no one could anticipate that he would be able to retain office until the division which took place last night. Every one must feel after the result of that division that he has been adopted as the leader of the House, and that the House places the fullest confidence in him. . . . He may govern the country for many years, with all the strength which must be possessed by a gentleman who governs not by Parliamentary tactics, but by the mere force of genius, and by being at one with the senti- ments of the country I do not hesitate to say that the pres-ent Chief Secretary is the most powerful Minister that this colony has seen since we have had Constitutional government." Such is the estimate formed on the 18th October by an opponent who had assumed with all Victoria on the 18th June that Mr. Duffy's Government was a mere fortuitous concourse of political atoms, without a chance of life and strength. Now, what are the qualities which had enabled Mr. Gavan Duffy to achieve this brilliant result in so short a space of time, and to defeat votes of no-confidence by majorities of two to one, in a Parliament chosen under the auspices of opponents, and in which at first it hardly appeared that he would have the remotest prospect of success ? We may answer without hesitation, that it is precisely the very qualities which made Mr. Duffy, after being an Irish rebel in 1818, an Irish Nationalist animated by all the enthusiasm which had previously stimulated his disloyalty, and sobered by all the experience derived from failure and keen observa- tion of the Irish causes of failure, in 1852, which make him the brilliant and trusted Premier of Victoria in 1871; and the truth of what we say is amply illustrated in the very debate to which we are now referring, a debate which turned chiefly upon the question of Mr. Duffy's own personal loyalty to the British Government, and the doubts thrown upon it by the opening passages of his Irish career.

The Parliamentary question at issue was whether or not Mr. Duffy had been respectful enough in a memorandum to the Governor, Viscount Canterbury, written by him in reply to that despatch of Lord Kimberley's—to whiah, we made some reference a fortnight ago—wherein our Colonial Secretary had disputed the power and right of the Australian Colonial Governments to arrange amongst themselves for intercolonial

*See Speolator of the 0th September. free-trade without relation to the Constitutional power of Great Britain to veto differential duties imposed upon the goods of Eng- land and of foreign countries which are not also imposed on the goods imported from other colonies. Lord Kimberley, though admitting that we have waived this right to be treated as favour- ably as other colonies in relation to the Dominion of Canada,—by way of concession to the principle of federation,—was disposed to insist on it in relation to the group of Australian colonies which are not as yet united by any such tie. Some of the other members of this Australian group, while uniting, of course, with Victoria in protesting against any right of the Home Government to restrict the freedom of intercolonial trade if not extended to the mother country and to foreign countries, had agreed to a memorandum in which there were unseemly hits at the supposed wish of Mr. Gladstone's Govern- ment to break up our Colonial Empire,—hits especially pointed at Mr. Gladstone himself. In this memorlindum, Mr. Duffy, on behalf of the Government of Victoria, declined to join, and it was imputed to him that he had thus declined from secret sympathy with the movement for breaking away from Great Britain, in other words, from the old disloyalty of temper. The Prime Minister accordingly produced a great effect by declaring, and proving, that on the contrary, his motive had been a hearty loyalty, that he had declined expressly on the ground that he regarded Mr. Gladstone as the leader of the Liberal party not only in England, but in the world- " in the universe" was the exact expression he used, which may have been either pardonable Irish hyperbole or the confession of a secret sympathy with the late Dr. Whewell as to the uninhabitable, or at least unpolitical character of the other planetary and solar worlds,—and as having done more to cement the British power and "heal the wrongs of generations" than "any British statesman has ever done before." In short, it came out in debate that Mr. Duffy, so far from wishing to break the tie between Great Britain and her colonies, was never so proud of it and so sanguine about it as at present, or so anxious to strengthen the hands of the Home Government by respectful and courteous consideration for their wishes and feelings ; but that not the less he held it part of his duty to the Empire, no less than to Australia, to insist firmly on the practical right of the Australian Colonies to make, without restriction from Home, such tariff arrangements amongst themselves as would most contribute to their harmony and to the progress of the scheme for federation. He was, how- ever, very careful to deny that he desired to refuse the mother country the right of binding the colonies by her treaties with foreign Powers ; all he insisted on was that no treaty made by Great Britain with foreign Powers should interfere with the right of the various Australasian colonies to treat each other as if they were practically only counties in the same kingdom, i. e., to trade with each other on any terms they chose to agree upon, without any regard to the most-favoured- nation clause or other stipulations in the foreign treaties of Great Britain. Having thus clearly defined his exact position on the particular point at issue, Mr. Duffy, amid loud and general cheering, referred to the " rebellious " character with which his Memorandum had been charged, and the pride in that character which had been attributed to him. He vindi- cated eloquently the bitter wrath with which in 1817 Irish pat- riots had witnessed the annihilation by famine within the little island of Ireland of "more men, women, and children than in- habit this island of Australia, though the country was pro- ducing ample food to save them all ;" spoke of the pride with which he recalled his associates, " a band of generous young men" "my connection with whom I would not deny for anything that Parliaments or Sovereigns could give or take away," and who, though subsequently scattered over the world, were recognized in every country they adopted as men of honour and capacity, deserving of respect and love, mentioning amongst others Meagher, who died a General of the United States after fighting a gallant fight for the country which had given him shelter, and Darcy M'Ghee, who, after uniting the various colonies of Canada in one federation, was followed to his grave by all the men of distinction in the country to which he belonged; and then he wanton to tell how he himself had subsequently formed a party in the British Parliament for the very objects of the great reforms which Mr. Gladstone has just accomplished, and left that Parliament for Australia only when he saw that at that time all his efforts would be unavailing, Lord Palmerston having succeeded in breaking up their party by a system of official bribery of which he himself might have had, if he would, an ample share, and ended by saying, amidst the emotion of the House :—" Sir, I cannot hope that my life

will be a long one. There are few men who have to look back upon more sins and shortcomings than I have ; but I may say this without fear, and indeed without impiety, that when I have to face the last eternal Judge, I shall not be afraid or ashamed to answer for my Irish career. I did whet I believed best for the country and the people, without the slightest regard for its effect upon myself. And now I trust the Committee will forgive me for speaking on this subject ; I have never done so before ; but I am not going to be cowed or deterred from referring to that which I consider an honour and a distinction, the recollection of which I would not part with for anything earth could bestow."

The effect of this speech,—coming, as it did, from a minister who had already shown so much practical sagacity, promptness, and clearness in defending his measures as to break up the Opposition into a very incoherent assortment of fragments,— in fixing the Parliamentary imagination of Victoria on Mr. Duffy's personal enthusiasm and vigour of character, was remarkable. The censure moved by Mr. Fellows was rejected without a division, and a very great ascendancy was gained in a single stride by the Prime Minister over the mind of his Parliament. And not without reason. For, as we have before said, it was the very same qualities which, though then alloyed with more or less youthful indiscretion, but showing a steady tendency towards sagacious and reflective caution, had marked his early career in Ireland and in London, which now fitted him to deal with the imminent problem of drawing closer the relations of the Australian Colonies, and defining more exactly their relation to the Imperial authority and Parliament. The passionate attachment to country, the dis- interestedness which had made Mr. Duffy risk himself in a hopeless cause on its behalf, the power of discerning the difference between a dream and a practical hope which led him to exchange O'Connell's barren policy for a genuine Parliamentary agitation for religious equality and a tenant- right law for Ireland, and the loyal devotion to his cause which rendered him insensible to the official ambitions by which others were drawn aside from that noble struggle, are precisely the kind of qualities which, when united as they now are to a keen and incisive intelligence for political detail, fit an Australian statesman for commencing the great constructive work before the Australian Colonies, and commencing it in a spirit at once fair and loyal to the British Government and firm on behalf of the local interests. There was in Mr. Duffy's speech, and also in his action in reference to Lord Kimberley's despatch, on the one hand that deep sense of colo- nial rights, colonial interests, and colonial self-respect, which is essential to any work of that kind ; and on the other, that 'ready and generous sympathy with the temper of the Govern- ment at home which is needful to facilitate such an arrange- ment. He has the pride and enthusiasm which give a heart to local politics, and the imaginative sympathy which lend significance to Imperial politics ; and his early experience had been an admirable school for both. We can only hope that it may be given to "the most powerful minister that the colony has seen since it had constitutional government" to complete the great work he is beginning, and succeed in effecting for Australia what his old friend and colleague, Darcy McGhee, effected for the Canadian Dominion. There is but one work in life for which lie could be more fit, and that is very un- likely over to be within the range of his political opportunities. But Mr. Gavan Duffy as Minister for Ireland in the Cabinet of Mr. Gladstone or of some premier of like-minded policy, might divert effectually all Irish popular enthusiasm from the cause of treason, and fuse at last the long-cherished political sympathies of the still far from United Kingdoms in an indissoluble identity.