RETRIBUTION.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume V, Issue 214, 1 June 1877, Page 11

RETRIBUTION.

The spirit of the age is a spirit of money getting, and the chief end of man is widely considered to be the acquisition of property. The millionaire is the hero of the day, and the details of his career and the traits of his character are esteemed to be of as high, interest as if he were one who, by virtue of a lofty intellect, had raised the standard of a nation, or whose philanthropy or bravery had rescued a people from famine, pestilence, or slavery. Purse-pride, we are told, is the worst of all pride, and the man, whose mind becomes inflated only by the contemplation of his worldly possessions, is owner of nothing

which can by any accident elevate him in the least above grovelling point. Yet, of late years, many have made a noise in the world, of whom there seems to have been nothing worthy recorded, except that they had been, endowed with a wondrous talent of acquiring wealth, and had employed such a talent to its uttermost. But this golden-calf worship is corrupt at the core, and, like many another false creed, is infected with a virus destined to destroy it. The votaries of the idol, while they make their obeisance and are loud in laudation, are secretly devoured by envy, and they are ready at any moment, as we believe it is the case with the inhabitants of certain heathen lands, to severely punish their gods should the occasion arise. It is interesting to watch the various modifications of the growing enmity of the masses to men of wealth, and to trace its working amongst the impecunious, from the bloodthirsty Socialist on the continent of Europe, to the bursterup who threatens with bankruptcy the plutocracy of Victoria. " Thou shalt not steal" is a very plain and definite commandment, and it is .a difficult task to draw the line at which the property of another may be alienated without his consent, and yet so as to observe the obligations of honesty. It shall be lawful par exemplc for a king to send out an army and possess himself of a city that has been for more than one thousand years the acknowledged possession of another sovereign, but for a band of sans-culottes to break into that king's palace and make their own of all they found there, would be outrageous robbery. This is unreasonable reasoning, and so, indeed, ifc is perceived to be, and the governments and rulers, that have so instructed the people related to them, have given a deeper lesson than they intended, and are drifting fast to that point at which it will be rehearsed in their ears, all too forcibly, by willing pupils. In Victoria we perceive, according to the manner of the country and its circumstances, something also of this general war against capital, that bids fair at no distant date to tear the world asunder, and overthrow all existing institutions ; and who shall say that the class attacked has not also done its part in stirring up the strife, in which, according to all appearance, it will probably perish ? The squatter class has been noted for its selfishness. Throughout Australia tracts of country, that might long since hare been covered with the homesteads of a prosperous people, are still populous only with the wild animals of the country. The dummy system and tricks innumerable have been successfully made use of, to secure to the dominaut party the enjoyment of expanses of land, wide as principalities, and immigration has been encouraged only as the means of procuring cheap labour. However dishonest then may be the mode in which it is now sought to dispossess the holders of gigantic estates, or however politically corrupt, it cannot but be felt that they have, in a great degree, brought retribution on themselves, and thus, though we may deplore the immorality of the whole proceeding, we cannot but acknowledge that, if it be successful, the sufferers will but have reaped that which they have themselves sown.