130 A HISTOEY OF THE COLONY OF VICTORIA 



On the 2nd of March the Tariff Bill was again sent to the 

 Council, and on the 13th was rejected by a majority of twenty 

 to eight, upon the grounds that the aggressive preamble was 

 still maintained, and that as a temporary measure, limited to three 

 years, it involved the possible absence of any Customs revenue 

 at the end of that period. When this became known, McCulloch 

 declared that the Constitution had failed, and tendered his resig- 

 nation. This step was accompanied by a voluminous Cabinet 

 minute, addressed to the Governor, setting forth the reason for 

 the retirement of his advisers, and throwing all the blame of the 

 deadlock on the Council. The document naturally attracted much 

 attention, and it was described in an article in the Argus as "fairly 

 bristling with falsehood". The epithet, though perhaps pictur- 

 esquely exaggerated, was by no means inapt. Those electors 

 whose judgment had not been dethroned by political passion 

 weighed the Council's defence, and saw in it a sufficient justifi- 

 cation for the use of strong language. And although the members 

 of the aspersed House were content to use the milder form of 

 "inaccuracies and misrepresentations," the minute they placed 

 upon record went far to justify the trenchant terms of the daily 

 journal. 



McCulloch's indignation was very great, and he prevailed upon 

 the Assembly to put itself in the ridiculous position of resolving 

 that the obnoxious article was a scandalous breach of the privileges 

 of the House, and that the printer should be summoned to the 

 bar to answer for it. There could have been little doubt even 

 then, and there can be none at all now, that when the Ministerial 

 accusation and the Council's defence were placed side by side, 

 the charges did contain much that was absolutely untrue, and 

 much more that was gratuitously offensive in the imputation of 

 most discreditable motives to the members of the Council as a 

 body. But McCulloch's subservient majority were so eager to 

 punish some one for speaking disrespectfully of their chief, that 

 they cared little for facts. The Opposition fought hard to avert 

 the scandal, but the resolutions were carried by a large majority. 

 On the 20th of March Mr. Hugh George, the printer, was called 

 to the bar, and as the House refused his application to be heard by 



