The appointment of Sir Henry Barkly to be Governor of
the colony of Victoria is as great a triumph to the principles of co- lonization which we have uniformly supported, as was the ap- pointment of Sir William Molesworth to a seat in the Cabinet. The selection, after the offers which have been vainly made to other persons, is a practical confession, that in order to find out " the right man," Government has been compelled to seek amongst these who have been trained in the study as well as practice of Colonial government. Sir Henry llarkly was by birth and pro- perty connected with the West Indies ; he was originally known to the public as a member of the Conservative party in the House of Commons ; but he became more distinguished for the firm support of rational principles in Colonial policy and " respon- sible government," than for adhesion to common party dis- tinctions. He was sent over to the colony of British Guiana at a time of its greatest difficulty : he reconciled factions in that small bet troubled community ; and he so completely acquired the confidence of all parties, that on his promotion to the more im- portant colony of Jamaica, they took their leave of him with regret. He is called to a third post of difficulty at Melbourne ; where he will find economical embarrassments and factious com- plications aggravated, not as in Guiana by the poverty of the co- lony, but by the coincidence of great natural wealth with serious derangements. Some of the colonists have lately been demand- ing the right to appoint their own Governor ; a claim which was net supported by the great body of the community, but which was no more than the extreme expression of a feeling universally diffused,—that the man at the head of affairs ought to have the capacity and the training for a thorough comprehension of the colony, its present difficulties, and the proper mode of extrica- tion from these difficulties. The colonists still desire a Governor from home, but he must be a man able to work with them as well as to lead them. They could not have found a Governor more in conformity with these conditions than Sir Henry Bark- ly ; and there is scarcely another man available who would have been equally suited by his studies, his training, and his temper.
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