118 A HISTORY OF THE COLONY OF VICTORIA 



the State outside of protection to life and property should be as 

 limited as possible ; and that it is unjust to impose a burden upon 

 the whole community, the benefit of which is confined to a portion 

 only. Having gone beyond the safety line, the Government felt 

 itself constrained to bear increasing burdens, which grew out of this 

 first false step. It found itself unable to resist the pressure of the 

 manufacturer who strove to translate protection into prohibition ; 

 and having yielded there, it could not withstand the demand of the 

 working man to be rendered independent of the gains or losses of 

 his employer. Hence it came about that the whole community 

 began to regard the Government as the mainstay of all industry, 

 the helper in every season of difficulty. Under this impression 

 individual enterprise was weakened, and the tendency to lean on the 

 support derivable from State socialism permeated all classes, with 

 the debilitating effect of an oriental fatalism. 



To return from this anticipatory digression to the opening of 

 the fourth Victorian Parliament on the 29th of November, 1864, Sir 

 Charles Darling, in the speech provided for him, emphasised two 

 important points, which were alleged to require immediate attention. 

 Of the promised amendment of the Land Act he said : " My advisers 

 deem it necessary to the settlement of this difficult subject that 

 Parliament should be invited to pass a law which shall be simple 

 in its principle, unencumbered with superfluous and impracticable 

 conditions, calculated to bring the lands of the colony within easy 

 access of the public at large, whilst dealing equitably with existing 

 interests ". Then he passed cautiously to open the subject which 

 was destined to wreck his career. " It is proposed by my advisers 

 that the revenue collected through the Customs House shall be 

 levied partly by reduced duties upon objects already chargeable, 

 and partly by duties, moderate in amount, on various commodities 

 which as yet have been altogether exempt from taxation. The 

 effect, it is conceived, will be to decrease the burden of taxation 

 borne by the mining and other industrious classes, and to distribute 

 it more equitably among all classes of society." 



The debate on the speech was mainly noticeable from the great 

 dissatisfaction expressed by Graham Berry at the half-hearted manner 

 in which the revision of the tariff was referred to, To him it was 



