The recent Ministerial crisis at Melbourne is not very clearly
understood here. We believe the general outline of the facts to be as follows. The late Ministry fell partly because it transpired that one of the Ministers had been trying to get another colleague, habitually subject to delirium tremens, put into a lunatic asylum ; partly because a seat in the Cabinet had been given to a man who bad no place in Parliament. Thereupon, Mr. Gann Duffy was sent for, and he proceeded to form a Coalition Government, and the names were announced. But great clamours arose among the .squatters, whose Land Bill is still before the Upper House,. and Who feared that Mr. Duffy would supersede it by a more liberal bill. Mr. M'Culloch, who is himself a large squatter —part owner, we believe, of eight runs—made overtures to the more democratic section of the Coalition, to the effect that if the Govern- ment were constructed exclusively from that section of the coalition, be would protect it from annoyance during the remainder of the session. As the great object was to break np effectually the party which had held power for full six years, Mr. Duffy advised this course to be adopted, and waived his own pretensions. The new Cabinet is weak in ability and has no official experience, but it will probably check the squatterocracy.
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