PORT PHILLIP.

Wellington Independent, Volume VI, Issue 565, 12 March 1851, Page 3

PORT PHILLIP.

THE CONFLAGRATION.

(From the Geelong Advertiser, Feb. 8.)

The calamity which has fallen upon the farmers of the Bnrrabool Hills and the Valley of the Moorabool is so awful in its aspect, so sudden in its acomplishment, so lamentable in its consequences, that it can only be equalled in those pages of history where invading armies are described as laying countries waste with

fire and sword. In the course of a few hours the labour of many years has been reduced to xiouglit, and the stout hearts which have borne up hopefully against many reverses are again cast "down in despair. The highly-cultivated district which on Thursday morning was teeming with the fruits of harvest is now a blackened smoking waste; the stacks of wheat are reduced to little heaps of cinders ; the fences are only traceable by the red line of ashes; the sites of houses arc here and there only recognizable by heaps of smouldering ashes, or a ft-w solitary stone or brick chimneys. Where a hut has been saved, it is crowded by those who have no longer roofs of their own to shelter them ; and although a manly fortitude sustains many uf the eldisrhimates, yet the poor children, wandering through the blackened fields, more truly give ex- | pression to the woe which possesses every ! breast.

The calamity was one which defiei precaution. The hot blast and the devouring flame seemed endowed with Satanic life. Now, the flame coursed along the dry herbage with the speed of a racehorse: anon, it leaped into the branches of some tall tree, and the wind tore off the flaming- limbs and earned them over roads and creeks; here, it stopped a moment at the fence, and the posts and rails fell crumbled into charcoal; there, the flarue ranalougiu tongues licking up the stubble, carrying along the ears left by the gleaner, and throwing them into the stacks and thatch ; the conflagration, actually streamed from hiiitop to hill top, and where the stacks had been drenched with water leaped over them, and hurried on its course on the other side. Where man faced the devouring element he was driven back, and in more than one instance was laid prostrate, and burned to a cinder in the open fields. People in Britian may look upon these statements as the exaggeration's of a madman; but it is not for them we write. It is for the prosperous iollowcolotr'sts of the wretched sufferers.

It would be a noble deed in those whom the ruin has not reached by an immediate effort of benevoience to place the sufferers as nearly as possible in the positionjvhich they accupied previous to the calamity; by an adequate subscription restore huts and fences, and to place sufficient sum in the bauds of the poor people to enable them to carry on farming operations for the next season. The process by which this can be accomplished is, holding a public meeting, organising a sufficient system of collection, appointing a committee to enquire into the extent of losses, and to apportion the funds subscribed according to the exigency of particular cases.

All this can and will be clone promptly. Were.it not that we know that better men will take the matter earnestly in hand, we would onrselves, at once, regardless of the usual forms, appoint an hour and place for the people to assemble. But the movement will not be the less effectual for being more deliberate. PARTICULARS. So wide spread has been the devastation of the late fire, that it will be many days before complete details of its ravages can be collected. In the meantime the following may be relied upon as an accurate statement of the facts which have come to our knowledge. On the Barrabool Hills the house, barns, stables, &c, seven buildings in all belonging to Mr. Holmes, with all his stacks and feuces, were utterly destroyed. It was at this point that the fire crossed the river. Mr. Bennett's stacks and fences are destroyed, as are also those of Mr. Heard. Mr. Fisher's house was saved ; the whole of his crops destroyed. Mr. Thomas has lost his house, stacks, fences, and implements, including a very valuable thrashiug machine. On Mrs. Wilson's farm everything is destroyed ; but the report of her death, prevalent yesterday, is incorrect, —she is living in the house of her neighbour, Mr. Leigh, one of the few whose premises escaped destruction. Mr. Michael Holian has had everything destroyed with the exception of a small hut. Mr. Piper had his stone house destroyed, but succeeded in saving one stack. Mr. Furlong's stacks and fences are burnt; Mrs. Furlong was severely burnt, and her injuries may be fatal. Mr. Honey's house escaped destruction on Thursday, but took fire yesterday afternoon, and was totally consumed. At Mr. Hooper's, on the Waurn Ponds, the houses, barns, stacks, fences, and implements were all destroyed, and three lives lost. At Mr. Powell's, Mr. Dewing, with other losses, had a newlyerected fence burnt. But we cauuot even enumerate the names of all the sufferers. We have had no precise information about the vineyards. It is reported that Belperoud's is partially detroved. Petavil's is safe.

On the Corio side of the Moorabooli the conflagration seized Mr. Costigan's farm, swept over the heights, and passed through Mr. M'Lean's paddock, without inflicting further injury thau destroying the grass, and throwing out a black tongue that licked the little herbage visible. From the range overlooking Costigau's and the neighbouring farms the scene was dismal in the extreme—Burnt black, the charred embers steamed heavily from the recent ruins ; the chimney stack upright was the only object visible—the solitary remnant of house, huts, bams, and farm-produce. Mr. Wallace's house is burned to the ground, together with his farming implements, seven hundred bushels of corn, and several fences ; bis losses are estimated at £800. Mr. Jacks has suffered little, if any. Costigan-.bas lost a barn, fiye ricks of oats, one .rick; of

Cabinet Office that overlays us under ])retence of nursing us, contrives to shift "Out of the impeachment it so richly deserves, and screen its contemptible tools. . The two latest instances are those of 'the lonian 'Islands and Ceylon. With regard to the former, Mr. Hume'moved. : nh address to the Queen, praying the appointment of a Royal Commission to proceed to the lonian-Islands and enquire •on the spot iftto the causes of disturbance that occurred in Cephalonia, under the rule of Sir H. Ward, -who, to suppress 'treason, or rather justifiable discontent "and opposition, hanged twenty-one out of forty-four'arrested persons, and flogged and banished ninety-two—without trial! Of course Mr. ilawcs and Lord John Itussell stood forth in defence of their amiable "Ward," and succeeded in shirking investigation'by a majority of eightyfour to thirteen, in a venial House of Commons. Respecting the latter, how- ■ ever, the pressure against Ministers was 'too strong. A special Committee was ' obtained, which ferreted tfut the facts that ! LordTorriugton, the Governor of Ccylou 'had caused to be executed an alleged protender to the throne of Candy (an an- ' cient kingdom of that island, only re- ' cently mediatized,) without proof of guilt or trial; but that discovering his mistake he had caused to be shot another pretender, who also turned out to be the wrong • person i! :; and that he boasted of exocu- ! ting, in full canonical robes, a Bhuddist priest, to the indignation of the people • and the wanton disgrace of their religion!"!! iiy some mnuueuvrirtg/'tlicse trifles ; it appears, "'wdiildhiive been got over, under pretence of "zeal for the service," as in the case of " lonian Ward," but as luck would have it, Mr. James Emmcrson Tenant/ the-Colonial Secretary of Ceylon, (■who '"was - at one time mentioned as the lint Governor for Victoria) came home " by accident," whilst the investigations were proceeding, and he, being a man of great parliamentary influence, with 'damning" documentary proofs in his hand of Lord Torrington's public corruption and .private immorality, the Committee succeeded in 'driving the Colonial Office to recal the worthy representative of British Majesty und imperial interests, to answer in person forhis misdeeds; although Mr. IFawus, on the plea that the evidence upon which the Committee had acted had been " confidentially" obtained, passed a rote for referring , tho report and evidence ■not to the Judicial Committee of the Qaeen's Privy Co*in,."U, but to the Secre-tary-of State'for the Colouios! Wo may now, with tho Cingalese, fijt down of course and twiddle our thumbs*, in the full assurance that strict and impartial justice will be done. "Oh leinpora, oh moms."

The British Association—Opened its session for 1850, at Edinburgh, on tlio 3 1st- of July last, under the presidency of Sir David Brewster, its originator, he having in 1831, at York, proposed the Preliminary Meeting which led to its formation and establishment, hi his ■ inaugural address, this eminent philosopher alluded to the ameliorated physical condition of man, as now promoted and being perfected, and referred to the necessity and wisdom of providing such a nice with a system of education for the purposes of self-control, suited to their advancing circumstances. He remarked : —" It is a great problem yet to be <sblved, to determine what will be the state of society when man's physical powers are highly ameliorated, without any corresponding change in his moral habits and position. There is much reason to' fonr that every great advance in material civilization requires some moral arid compensatory antagonism; but,■•however, this may be, the very indeterminate character of the problem is a warning to the rulers of nations to prepare .for the contingency by a system of national instruction which shall either reconcile or disregard those hostile influences under which the people are now perishing'for lack of knowledge." The their prescient opinion, we earnestly : dra\v the attention cf colonial legislators and political economists, as strongest incentive to giving the people a national system of education, either irrespective of religious differences, or practically free from sectarian principles. The colonists, from the highest to the lowest class, are about to share largely in political privileges—it is the best assurance of their moral independence; but to use them aright, they must receive concomitant tuition,—"religious," if it can be had, upon general principles, at state expense, but " lay," <it all events ; in tho trust that pareuts and ministers will furnish the supplement.

This " moral aucl compensatory antagonism," as tlio moro needful, in this country, man is fast realizing as to material condition, what is and must remain a dream and a hope/for centuries, if not for ever, in European kingdoms. Here, man enjoys a climate favourable to the highest physical development, maintainable with common prudence, by an abundance of cheap and wholesome food, raiment, and lodging,—and a sufficiency of money-gains ; to provide for his descendants—present ancl future wants— his material civilization is all but complete,—ho is a full-blooded, pampered animal, hut innocent for the greater part of training, and deprived in a great measure of mentorial checks and guides. To fit him aright, for this noblo destiny, he must be educated ;—that his physical and political advantages may be increased to the benefit of himself, and the good of commuity.

Laing, the political economist and traveller, has represented the Prussian system of lay oduoation as a

failure; as making men whose mental capacities are solely exercised in propagating mischievous principles of Deism, or wasted on metaphysical abstractions ; and of men, the ready tools of a martinet illiberal Government. Granted ; but it is because the men, after receiving their education, have no religion but such as is provided for thorn by law, no newspapers but such as may be legally circulated ; and above all, no political privileges whatsoever to call ;forth a sense of moral independence and practical economy, that they take refuge in Pantheism and Transcendentalism. Here we realize the other extreme. The colonist has his own religion and his own politics, ad>led to high animal condition; but his -children are growing up ignoraut alike-of their social, religious, and political duties; amend this, and all goes right.

Faraday o>? Animal Ei.kcthicity.— '■ This great and distinguished practical chemist has, by a long series of experiments established the identity between Electricity and Magnetism ; and between. Magnetism and Electricity de\eloped in the human body, and the nervous motion of that structure—Bell, long ago, adopted the existence of the " will," by which motion is effected, us a fifth sense. Spurzlicim proved incontestibly that the human action was subject to the material organization of the brain ; and Mesmer or his followers have elicited, by the manipulation of phreno-magnetism, that those organs, the deficiency or preponderance of which give the cast to what ■we call the mind, are themselves, excitable by animal magnetism—thus we come round the circle again, to Faraday's new defination of nervousness. Out of this material circle who will take us to a proof of soul, which we believe and affirm '> tobe,supcrior to mind, and the consciousness of which proves existence— the "cogito ergo sum," of Malbrauche, i and erects in the heart, a monitor for good and evil? Are we to rest satisfied with the mind's dependence upon the organic structure of the braiu, and that again upon nervousness, or animal magnetism, or the fifth sense, itself supposed to bo seated in the medullary ganglion ? or are we to seek and never find (except in the ancient traditions, of a doomed and self-secluding race; subject to every error of translation and construction, and becoming, in the hands-of their wisest, best and most beloved commentator, the last and greatest Theo-sophist the world has ever yet seen; a perpetual excuse and justification for hatred, cnv}-, murder, and all uncharitableness;) the assurance of conscious soif-extatence, life, and immortality ?

Discovery of Exoumous Fossil Eggs.—The Calcutta Englishman writes: —" We have received Mauritius papers to the 13th ultimo. The Mauritian mentions, on the authority of a Bourbon journal, that a singular discovery has been made in Madagascar. Fossil eggs of an enormous size have been found ill the bed of a torrent. The shells are an eighth of an inch thick, and the circumference of the egg itself is 2 feet 8 inches lengthways, and 2 feet 2 inches round the middle. One which has been opened contains 8-J- litres, or about 2 gallons! What was to como out of these eggs? Bird or crocodile ? The natives seem to be well acquainted with them, and say that ancient tradition is uniform as to the former existauce of a'bird large euough to carry oft"an ox. This is only a little "smaller than the roc of oriental fable, which waited patiently till he saw the elephant and rhinoceros fighting, and then carried off both at one stoop. Some fossil bones were found in the same place as the eggs but the Bourbon editor says that he will leave it to the pupils of the great Cuvier to decide to what animal they belong. If they should prove to be the bones of a bird, of size corresponding to the eggs, the discovery will indeed be an extraordinary one.