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Leader (1850-1860), 28th August 1852, Edition Town of 2, Page 824, Untitled Article

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      Untitled Article

      There is nothing so revolutionary , because there is nothing so unnatural and convulsive , as the strain to keep things fixed when all the world is by the very law of its creation in eternal progress . —Dr . Abkold .

      Untitled Article

      THE " FELONIAL" OFFICE . " Colonial Office" is a misnomer . There exists in this country no department of Government truly answering to that name ; none that fulfils the functions of a national organ for conducting the business of colonization , promoting the interests of our colonists , and facilitating their mutual relations with the mother country . The office in Downing-street , facetiously styled Colonial , is a legalized imposture , a transcendental Tripe and Montagu concern , organized and maintained for the sake of pay and patronage . Its action is

      most prominently displayed in thwarting colonization , injuring and insulting the colonies , wasting the national revenue , and sowing the seeds of hatred and strife between Great Britain and her young offshoots . If it were swallowed up to-morrow by a partial irruption of Lord Maidstone ' s deluge , it is probable that neither the imperial mother nor her distant progeny would find themselves much the worse for that catastrophe . The only mourners for the lost institution would be placemen and place-hunters ; Kaffir

      cattlelifters , whose trade has so grown and prospered under the auspices of the defunct ; and British thieves and ruffians , for whom it has so liberally provided free passages to the gold-fields of Australia . Disposed to call things by their right names , we must coin an epithet to designate an institution that offers splendid bounties for crime , deals lovingly with gaol-birds , and vexes honest men . The " Felonial" Office it may well be called , in consideration of the order of interests it delights to foster and favour .

      Of all our more important colonies there is but one alone that has not present cause of complaint against this same office . That happy exception is Canada , which is at this moment at the highest point of prosperity she has ever reached , so that even the late disastrous fire at Montreal is already regarded as an insignificantdrawbackfrom the growing wealth of the community . The rise iu her fortunes has been continuous since the

      change in her constitution , consequent upon the rebellion into which she was goaded by Downing-. street . Having by that event acquired the right of nominating her own paid functionaries , she has ceased to be a profitable subject for official inierference . . Downiiig-street , therefore , disdains to meddle with her , and she thrives accordingly . The workings of the . fclonial system at the ( ¦ ape of Good Jlope are fresh in the recollection of our readers . Kvery one known how . Karl Grey , in violation of a , solemn promise , attempted to land a , shipful of his proteges on the shores of Table I 5 iiy ; how the colonists refused to accept the gift , held fast by their determination in spite

      of threats ant ! cajolery , and compelled the imperial minister to recede from his purpose , covered with the ridicule of defeat and the ignominy of gratuitous bad faith . We remember the attempts to coerce the Cape Boers , and their results ; how the sturdy Dutchmen abandoned their farms and homesteads , and migrated to Natal , a region in which I he . British flag ha * l not . yet been planted ; how they were pursued by a military force , and their right to migrate was argued down with muskets and cannons ; how they clung to their freedom with the obstinate courage of their fathers of old , turned their faces once more towards Mie wilderness , mid wandered in search ol

      a new settlement beyond the Orange . Itiver . And now we have seen how one of the latest nets of the British governor has been to ratify a , convention with IVetorius , the leader of the emigrant Boers , fully conceding to them the independence which it was found impossible to withhold . There is no need that wo should dwell upon the sad and shameful history of the imst and present ICaliir wars ; the two last of them

      especially bearing the impress of Downing-street in their origin and their whole progress . Engendered by a quackish system , in which a spurious philanthropy was a main ingredient , and conducted under the inspiration of the same spirit , they have resulted in the development and permanent organization of rapine , havoc , and bloodshed , on a scale of appalling magnitude . The crew

      of an English man-of-war avenged themselves upon a tyrannical captain by standing motionless , with folded arms , at their guns , under the enemy ' s fire , until the conscience-stricken offender humbled himself on his knees before the brave men he had wronged . The Cape colonists will not take up arms for the defence of their own lives and property under an authority which possesses neither their respect nor their confidence .

      The treatment which Australia and Van Piemen's Land are now experiencing at the hands of the parent state is perhaps as tragi-comic a piece of foolery as was ever exhibited by the genius of red tape . We are letting loose the elite of our criminal population , the boldest and most skilful hands among them , upon the disorganized and defenceless society of the gold colonies . The consequences are notorious to everybody . Robbery and murder are as common as nuggets in Port Phillip ; men are seized and rifled in broad daylight , by numerous gangs , in presence of armed spectators , who dare not interfere ; and a

      vessel lying in Hobson's Bay , within three miles of Melbourne , has been boarded by twenty pirates , and plundered of gold dust to the value of more than 30 , 000 Z . The perpetrators of these crimes have been in almost every instance convicts escaped from the neighbouring penal settlements of Van Diemen's Land . The universal testimony of the suffering colony to that effect is corroborated by the totally different aspect of affairs in New South Wales , which , safe in its remoteness from the polluted island , has enjoyed unbroken quiet and order ever since the discovery of its gold beds in May , 1851 . It is a contemptible equivocation to say that the home government sends no convicts to the Australian

      mainland , and therefore has no hand in deluging Port Philip with crime . It has been an accessory before the fact to nine-tenths of the murders and robberies committed in the colony during the last ten months . It has neA er ceased to send off shiploads of convicts to Van Diemen's Land , where they immediately obtain tickets of leave and employment at 20 * . wages a-week , or more . There is no control over their movements except that of policemen of their own class , who are not likely to keep very fast hold of their charge when once their palms have been greased . Bass ' s Strait is but 200 miles wide . Seven hundred

      ticket of leave men are knoAvn to have escaped across it since the first gold was dug in Port Philip . But now , as if to make the iniquity of our Government more glaring , and to increase the disorders consequent upon convict transportation to the most intolerable degree , gold has been found abundantly in Van JJiemen ' s Land itself . A casual observer passing through a town near the

      diggings has seen a nugget valued at 1500 / . He describes the condition of Hobart Town as exactly resembling that of Melbourne after the discovery of the Mount Alexander mines ; the wages for ull kinds of service rising enormously—coachmen refusing to hold the reins for 2 ( X )^ . a-yeaij butlers telling their masters " they will sec them hanged first" before they remain in their service at any advance of wages ; and workmen expecting to earn from their trades something like the amount of the Governor ' s salary . The same writer , an oflicer in the JKMli regiment , states , that unless the pay is indefinitely increased , his regiment will melt away . The odiccrs cannot live on their present allowance , and the men will not . Already one officer , a lieutenant of seven years' service , had thrown up bis commission and gone to the diggings . That / is the state of the island , to which some of the most accomplished desperadoes in the world are to be sent for safe-keeping , discipline , unil reformation : safe-keeping in an island that by this time , perhaps , has not an organized force sufficient to put down an alehouse riot ; discipline under a universal relaxation of Lhd ordinary bonds of society ; reformation , in the midst of boundless profusion and licence , in the delirium of sudden wealth , or under the fierce ? throbbings of the gold-fever ' s unslaked thirst . It is scarcely a month sinco 1 . 110 ' . Lady Montaau sailed with convicts for Van Diomcn ^ sLand .

      On the 17 th instant , the arrival of the Equestrian convict ship , having the same destination , was reported at Spithead . The inevitable consequence of a little longer perseverance in this atrocious system will be the premature loss to Great Britain of her Australian colonies . The loathing and indignation it excites in them are intense , universal , and i rrepressible and give ominous significance to the allusions to American history and American institutions

      nowfrequent in the mouths of Australians and Taamanians . The large and increasing infusion of the Yankee element into a population thus disposed is another fact that cannot be regarded with indifference ; for Yankees are formidable propagandists . A republican federative council is ready organized and extant in the Australasian Anti-convict League , which combines together the best energies of four provinces ; and Downing-street may be well assured that the leaguers are thoroughly in earnest .

      Untitled Article

      CONCERT IN RAILWAY ADMINISTRATION . When theTimes remarks , sarcastically , that amalgamation implies the existence of two railway companies , where one is superfluous , and the existence of two capitals , where one is superfluous , it does but state a fact manifest to all who survey the topography of railway distribution . The result is a strange practical paradox . In many cases there are two , or even three , railways performing the amount of work not more than sufficient for one ; at the same time that , in the same district , these very railways are insufficient for the work they have to perform , and , by that insufficiency , causing many of those accidents which inflict death and injury on individuals , and loss on the companies . For example , the Great Western [ Railway , the North . Western , and the Great Northern , are competing for the traffic of districts common to the three ; and yet there is no doubt that the North Western Eailway is insufficient for the traffic which it already serves . By their competition , these railway companies are helping to reduce each other ' s receipts , not only through the process of beating down for fares , —for Tow fares are not alwaj's a source of ] OSS )—but also by positive abstraction of traffic from one railway to another . In other words ,

      the dividend of that district , which might very well be shared by two railways , is now distributed over three railways , and three capitals are occupying the ground where two would suffice for supplying the service , as it is now supplied . It would be better for these railway companies , and , we believe , not greatly worse for the public , if one of these railways were taken away ; and yet we believe that the tliree capitals which have been employed to construct these roads , might very well be devoted to the same district , with a great increase of public benefit and safety , and with a proportionate increase to the prosperity of the

      enterprisers . . . Without entering into nice details , or pledging ourselves to minute particulars , the drift ot our observations will be clear , when we point totfto fact , that the traffic of the North-Western JtaUway overcrowds that line , compels the managers to send trains too large , or too rapidly one aticr the other . The consequent effect is , that tnc safety and good order of the lino would be mucn increased by doubling it , and separating tno heavy slow traffic from the light fast triune . Insteml nf flint , useful division , that lntelUM "''

      distribution , we have two mixed railways ; «» u having two things when one would do , « nci y remaining without that thing which w need . Now that railways are constructed , w evil , perhaps , cannot be wholly , or , at least , no so conveniently avoided , as if it had becn . con" - dered from the first ; and yet nothing m tn « whole case is more obvious than the fact , < even now an intelligent combination or resourc and distribution of services , might very mucn niay

      mitigate the evil . One line , for instance , bo employed mainly in heavy and slow tia » and the other lino , with some modification o branches , employed , inoro especially , «» ? " ° ^ , i traffic , The resources of hucIi distribution wouiu bo increased in proportion to the extent <> field , and to tho number of lines pltfcecl at disposal of tho amalgamated managers . . this view is Btrengthoncd by «»»« J ^ fJ issued Uevort of tho [ Railway Board for 1 » W- , .

      that document somo remarkable facts are J »" » out , showing that , in spite of . successes too t giblo to bo questioned , some injurious iniiuw

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      Pnhl'u Malts.

      pnhl ' u Malts .

      Untitled Article

      SATUKDAY , AUGUST 28 , 1852 .

      Untitled Article

      ¦ : > - *« ¦ :,. , " . ¦ ¦'¦ ' '¦¦' :- ¦' " ¦ ¦ ' . ^¦ ' •• 'Wv - ;^ J 5 j (» ri ^ rWf * WiJiJ' ^ . **? ' ¦ ' . - ¦ " * '¦ : " r '^ , *; 824 THE LEADER . [ Saturday ,

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Aug. 28, 1852, page 824, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1949/page/12/