TRANSPORTATION TO AUSTRALIA.

Press, Volume VI, Issue 673, 26 December 1864, Page 3

TRANSPORTATION TO AUSTRALIA.

t The Queeh's Ministers know by this time the effect - of their obstinate persistence in forcing convicted c criminals upon Australia. It would be interesting to f learn what they thins: of their handiwork, as they 1 read the letters and newspapers by tho overland i mail. They have landed us, at last, in a petty quarrel s with our Australian brethren. We wish the Queen'? s representatives abroad much joy of their task when 1 tluy are invited (o declare to intelligent foreigners ? what all this commotion in the colonies is about, and 5 how it has come to p;iss that the free Australians are > united as one man in resistance to the Home Governi ment. Very pleasant it will be for them to explain > that we are contending with the colonists for the right l to saturate their soil with our crime. Nothing so disgraceful to our Government as • tliis dispute has happened in the history of our . colonial administration. If the resolution to make ■ young colonies the moral dunghill of the mother , country had been taken rashly or in ignorance, I the conduct of Ministers would have admitted •of some excuse. But they proceeded deliberately, ■ sinning not only against light and knowledge, but ■ against their previous convictions and in violation iof their recorded promises. They knew what i they were about, and were fairly warned of the conr sequences. They knew that the colonists of free i Australia dreaded the systematic deportation of ! criminals to their continent as an injury, and would • feel hurt by it as an insult. The Government ought ■ to have been proud of the jealousy with which the s Australians resisted the proposal to poison the life iof their young communities at its source. The ' Colonial-oulce, especially, was bound to defend the i interests of the colonies against an Home Secretary s who was ready to use them for the vilest purposes. ■ The Government appears to have felt that it was in ■ danger of doing a shameful tiling when it sought to ; evade its proper and inalienable responsibility by re- ; furring the question of transportation to a royal com- , mission. Was it right, was it even decent, to refer such a question to a set of country squires and . reactionary peers ? We know how men of this stamp ; regard the colonies. In their eyes the Australians are little better than Americans—a sort of semirepublicans —a people capable of living in brutish - contentment under a dispensation in which primogeniture, game-laws, and a state church are unknown. . The Australians were sure to get no consideration at ; the hands of such a body. The recommendations of the commission were, of course, too gross to be acted upon, but then* report served a mischievous purpose. It became a standard by which, unfortunately, Mr. Cardwell measured his moderation. It enabled him to persuade himself that because he was not ready to perpetrate all the evil which the commission devised, he was entitled to credit for resolving to effect a part. As to the constitutional law of the case, as to the right of the Imperial Government to send criminals to Western Australia, to the injury of the other colonies, it is not worth a moment's consideration. The right may be perfect, but it ought not to be exercised. I South Australia and Victoria belonged to the French instead of to us we should see this in a moment, and should never think of pleading our rights in answer to the natural and reasonable remonstrances of M. Drouyn de Lhuys. We should perceive, as soon as it was pointed out, that we were committing an intolerable injury, and should immediately desist. If the Australian colonies were so many independent States, the nuisance, however profitable to Western Aus- : tralia, would not last a year. What are we to think of tho statesmanship which studiously indentifies it with the British connection ? It will be seen by the minute which the Premier of Victoria has presented to the Queen's representative in that colony, that the responsible advisers of that functionary have placed themselves at the head of the resistance which the whole community is resolved to offer to the transportation scheme. In this minute Mr. M'Culloch declares to Sir Charles Darling that it is to the government of the colony matter of the utmost regret that all efforts made by them, the Parliament, and the people of Victoria, in common with the other colonies, have failed to secure that measure of justice which the colonists have a right to expect. He then proceeds to notify to Sir Charles Darling the course which the Government of Victoria will fee compelled to pursue. He states that a careful consideration of Mr Cardwell's despatch, written in the face of all the earnest representations addressed to her Majesty's Government, has satisfied him and his colleagues that all further remonstrance is useless, and that " the time has arrived when it is incumbent upon the colonial community, in the exercise of itpowers of self-government, to initiate legislation for its own protection." The ministers of Victoria cannot express the pain they have felt in being obliged to take this course, but to have hesitated would have been to neglect their highest duty. It is impossible to read the Australian newspapers and doubt the perfect accord that reigns throughout the colonies on this subject. As the Melbourne Argus observes :— " The main difficulty at present arises out of the very fact of our being all of one mind on the question. As it was suggested by one of the speakers at the meeting yesterday, there is really nothing to agitate. An agitation implies that there are two parties in the question ; but on the subject of transportation there is but one only. We are not an agitating people. Engrossed in turning to account the material resources which nature has put within our reach, it takes a strong i disturbing force to counterbalance the inducements ■to rest and quietude which everywhere beset us. JBut there are provocations against which no inertia of character is proof. The conduct of Downing-street and the language of Earl Grey are just such provocations. Forget that language we cannot. There is not a man among us into whose soul the insult has not entered ; and if the exasperation increases in volume and intensity, as increase it will if the cause of irritation be not removed, the name of Earl Grey will long be associated in colonial history as the mover and exciter of rebellion. He has evidently appro- • priated to himself the role of Lord North, and if he is allowed to play his part out, he cannot fail of earning Lord North's " reward." As to the particular , method by which the free colonists propose to effect their purpose, we can offer no opinion; they are the best judges of the suitableness of their means to their ends. But unanimous and earnest as they are they must succeed. Tbe sooner Mr. Cardwell perceives I this and separates himself from the counsels of Achitopel the better it will be for his peace of mind, and the sooner the kindly, forgetful public may once more be found admiring the wisdom with which his department sustains the mighty fabric of our colonial empire.— Daily News.