MELBOURNE TOWN TALK.

Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume II, Issue 285, 11 April 1889, Page 4

MELBOURNE TOWN TALK.

(FBOM OUR OWN COBBESPONDENT.)

It may be well said in relation to Victorian politics at present, that the whirligig of time brings in his revenges, Who would have thought some years ago that those two great champions of Freetrade and Constitutionlism, Mr B. Murray Smith and Mr Langton, would have been prevented from giving effect to their ambition to again figure on the floor of the Assembly by the very men who were formerly their principal supporters P

It is not only that these two candidates who have always been missed in the House, should have been induced to withdraw from the approaching contest— the one for St Kilda and the other for South Yarra—but they have been compelled to make place for men who literally could not hold a candle to them as regards ability. Mr Joseph Harris, the very personification of a voting machine, has been preferred to Mr Langton; and “oh, ye gods!” a young solicitor named Jennings, whom nobody ever heard of before, is taken in preference to such a leading Conservative light as Mr B. Smith, whom everybody regards as about the most eligible colonist for legislative honors.

The secret of all this is, in my humble opinion, due to the impression that the compromise entered into six years ago, resulting in the formation of the Coalition Government, should be continued for some time longer, sonsequent upon the threatened commercial crisis following upon the collapse of the land boom, if this is the real explanation of the action of the Coalition committee, and of the withdrawal of Messrs Smith! and Langton at the instance of their friends, it must be acknowledged that they are equally deserving the credit of making a sacrifice on the altar of their country’s welfare.

Everybody knows that Mr C. E, Jones is anxious for Ministerial office. This was never so clearly evinced as when prior to the elections he determined to relinquish his old constituency and contest Windermere. His object, I am given to understand, was not so much to enter the House without trouble and expense as with a view to ultimate eventualities. He argued thusly:—“No doubt if I stand for Ballarat West I shall be returned, possibly at the head of the poll, and in any case the Colonel will be bracketed with me. If there is a change of Ministry, Colonel Smith will put forward a claim for inclusion in the new Cabinet, a* one constituency cannot possibly look for two portfolios, I may be left out in the cold. Therefore I shall go for Windermere, get returned and be appointed Minister of Bailways within a month after the assembling of Parliament.” But it is just possible the hon. gentleman’s hopes may not be realized.

Alas, how have the mighty fallen! Mr James Mirams, who at one time was supposed to be possessed of wealth to an extent that has been rendered proverbial by the celebrated saying of Dr Johnson, has been obliged not only to retire from public life, but to throw himself upon the mercy of people whom he would previously have scarcely have deigned to notice. Mr Mirams’ rise to affluence was no less sudden and extraordinary than has been his disastrous failure in the accomplishment of the ambitious designs he had evidently formed for taking the political and commercial world by storm. He is an honorable man, however—honorable as the world goes—but unfortunately for him he was carried away by the land boom and has now been landed in a dilemma from which he will be fortunate indeed if he escapes unscathed. His transactions no more than five months ago amounted to millions, but at the present time he would be satisfied, I doubt not, by returning to his former office and receiving an assured salary which he well earned.