The late Premier, Sir Henry Parkes, has a special aptitude for discovering which way the wind is going to blow, which places him first on the list of living Australian politicians.  Whilst colonists have appreciated the compliment paid to them in the flattering reception which he has recently met with in London, no one who has lived in Sydney can forbear a smile at the idea of Sir ‘’Enery’ passing as a representative of the respectable portion of the Australian community, to whom, for the most part, he is only less obnoxious than Mr. Berry.

The ink with which I wrote the last paragraph had not been dry a fortnight, when the unexpected news came of the defeat of the Parkes-Robertson Government on their Land Consolidation Bill.  Although the Parliament was still young, and there was no reason to believe that it did not fairly represent the views of the country upon the question at issue, Sir Henry obtained a dissolution from Lord Augustus Loftus, who is credited with having had no opinion independent of his Premier since his arrival at Government House.

The General Elections have resulted in an enormous majority for the Opposition, and Sir Henry has resigned with the worst possible grace, having forfeited any regret that might have been felt for his overthrow by the abuse which he lavished on his opponents when he saw that the elections were going against him, and the ridiculous pomposity with which he has told the electors that they were not educated up to appreciating him.  As to the cause of his fall, it may partly be attributed to the opposition of the Roman Catholics or denominational-education party, and of the publicans; but it is chiefly due to a strong feeling throughout the colony, that the land policy inaugurated by Sir John Robertson, just twenty-one years ago, has proved a failure, and that it has raised up a warfare between the pastoral tenants and the agriculturists, without any adequate advantage to the latter.

It is passing strange that the colony, which was the first to introduce the democratic land system of ‘free selection before survey’ into Australia, should be the first to abandon it; and that the same Minister, Sir John Robertson, who came into note through its introduction, should practically end his political career with its downfall.  The faults of selection before survey were obvious from the first.  The ‘selector,’ being allowed to purchase in any part of the colony, used often to pick out the heart of the squatter’s leasehold run.  It became, of course, the squatter’s interest to starve him out, and the selections, being isolated instead of contiguous, were ill able to battle against this opposition.