A number of Irish members and other gentlemen on Sitturclay•
gave a dinner to Mr. Gavan Duffy, late Minister of Public Works! in Victoria. His speech was an able one, full of facts, and of that excessive sensitiveness which distinguishes all Anglo-Saxon. colonists. He complained of the unfriendly tone manifested by' the British Parliament and Press towards Australia, and predieted danger from it. He could' not understand it, he said, for Victoria, for instance, did not cost the mother country a shilling, managed her own affairs without pestering Parliament, and poured into England a tide of gold averaging a-quarter of a million a week. We should get thevold if Victoria were free, so that- is no argu- ment, but it is true that there does exist in Great Britain an: inexplicable dislike of colonists. Any charge against a settler in New Zealand. or Australia, or India., is always accepted by a large party. Mr. Duffy defended the Australian Parliaments, which, he-said; really represented. the. colonies, and said the workmen, though they had a majority of votes{ had not combined for any- thing except protective duties, and: in one colony had been beaten even on-that point.
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