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FREEDOM AND INDEPENDENCE 
 
 FOR THE 
 
 GOLDEN LANDS 
 
 OF 
 
 AUSTRALIA. 
 
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 'NCRAVEO M JAMES \N)LD, LEICESTER SQ.LONDON. 
 
FREEDOM AND INDEPENDENCE 
 I! 
 
 FOR 
 
 THE GOLDEN LANDS 
 
 AUSTRALIA; 
 
 THE EIGHT OF THE COLONIES, 
 
 AND 
 
 THE INTEREST OF BRITAIN AND OF THE WORLD. 
 
 BY 
 
 JOHN DUNMORE LANG, D.D. A.M. 
 
 RECENTLY ONE OF THE REPRESENTATIVES OF THE CITY OF SYDNEY IN THE 
 LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL OF NEW SOUTH WALES ; 
 
 HONORARY MEMBER OF THE AFRICAN INSTITUTE OF FRANCE, OF THE AMERICAN 
 ORIENTAL SOCIETY, AND OF THE LITERARY INSTITUTE OF OLINDA, 
 
 IN THE BRAZILS. 
 
 “ Primo pecuniae, dein imperii cupido crevit. Ea quasi materies 
 omnium malorum fuere.” — Sallust. Catilin. c. x. 
 
 First the love of gain, and then the lust of empire. — these have 
 been the principles of British colonization, and the source of innu¬ 
 merable evils. 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 LONGMAN, BROWN, GREEN, AND LONGMANS. 
 1852. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 3qZ 
 
 K 2.4 
 
 There is no great public question in which the British 
 nation has so deep an interest, or in regard to which 
 a large proportion of the intelligence of the country 
 is so profoundly and fatally ignorant, as the Colonial 
 question, or the proper relation of a mother-country 
 to her colonies. A system of government for the 
 British colonies has accordingly been suffered to grow 
 up, as if by sheer accident, and to subsist in great 
 measure unquestioned, as far at least as its funda¬ 
 mental principles are concerned, to the present day— 
 a system, however, wholly unwarranted by the law 
 of nature and nations, and not less unjust and op¬ 
 pressive towards its more immediate objects than 
 disastrous and suicidal in its tendencies and results 
 to those who uphold it. 
 
 There is no subject also on which the literature of 
 this country presents so complete a blank. Of the 
 many books on the Colonies with which the British 
 press perpetually teems, where are there any that go 
 to the root of the matter, and discuss with manly 
 freedom the first principles of colonization ? For my 
 own part, I know of none. A few glimmerings of 
 light were, doubtless, struck out on the subject du~ 
 
 A 3 
 
VI INTRODUCTION. 
 
 ring the great struggle for freedom and independence 
 in America; but these were soon trodden out again 
 under the iron hoof of irresponsible power, and as 
 far at least as colonization in the Southern Hemi¬ 
 sphere is concerned, the last state of the British colo¬ 
 nies is worse than the first: for instead of groing 
 forward in the right direction, since the days of the 
 Charleses, we have actually been going back! 
 
 Under this bad system also the colonies them¬ 
 selves — neglected on the one hand, and thwarted in 
 their every effort for their own social and political 
 advancement on the other — have in too many in¬ 
 stances become apathetic and indifferent in regard to 
 their own rights and interests, and sunk down into 
 a condition of social, moral, and political degradation. 
 To use the language of a New England lawyer, 
 shortly before the commencement of the American 
 troubles, “ There has been a most profound, and I 
 think a shameful silence, till it seems almost too late 
 to assert our indisputable rights as men and as 
 citizens.” * 
 
 It is the object of the following work to point out 
 the right principles of colonization, and to confirm 
 the theory that is thus advanced by an appeal to the 
 principles and practice of those nations, both in an¬ 
 cient and modern times, whose efforts in the work of 
 colonization have not only been the most successful, 
 but have, notwithstanding all our boasting on the 
 subject, presented a perfect contrast with our own. 
 In short, it is the object of the writer to show, that 
 
 * The Rights of the British Colonies asserted and proved. By 
 James Otis, Esq. Boston, New England, 1765, p. 63. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 vii 
 
 Great Britain has hitherto been all wrong in her 
 principles and practice in the matter of colonization, 
 and that, in common with the colonies themselves, 
 she has been reaping the bitter fruits of this fatal 
 mistake for two centuries and a half. 
 
 But lest the reader should suppose that such a 
 thing is incredible, let him bear in mind that all 
 that is truly great and glorious in the legislation of 
 this great country for the last quarter of a century 
 has been nothing more nor less than the successive 
 confession and abandonment — the successive ac¬ 
 knowledgment and repudiation — of one fallacy and 
 delusion after another, under which the nation had 
 been duped, deluded, and self-deceived, in some in¬ 
 stances for centuries before. 
 
 The first of the fallacies and delusions I allude 
 to was — that it was expedient and necessary for the 
 good government of this country, to exclude from 
 the enjoyment of their undoubted political rights, as 
 citizens and subjects, a large number of the most 
 conscientious men in the country. If I am not 
 mistaken, it was Mr. Canning who procured the 
 national repudiation of this fallacy in the Repeal of 
 the Test and Corporation Acts — the first step in the 
 right direction. 
 
 Another fallacy and delusion, of a still more 
 inveterate character, was — that it was expedient and 
 necessary, for the maintenance of the Protestant in¬ 
 stitutions of this country, to deprive at least one 
 fourth of our fellow subjects of their political rights 
 and privileges, and to degrade them into the con¬ 
 dition of a Pariah caste in their native land. In my 
 humble opinion, the late illustrious Duke derived 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 more real glory from the part he took in inducing 
 this great nation to renounce this fallacy, and to 
 perform an act of justice at all hazards, than he did 
 from all his victories. No doubt the Catholic Eman¬ 
 cipation Act has not been attended in some respects 
 with the tranquillizing effects anticipated from it; 
 but the reason is obvious — there are other fallacies 
 to be got rid of in the same direction, which it is 
 unnecessary to particularize. 
 
 A third notorious fallacy and delusion of the past, 
 of which the increased enlightenment of the age has 
 enabled us to get rid as a nation, is — that it was 
 expedient and necessary, for the good government of 
 this great country, to maintain the national repre¬ 
 sentation on the same basis on which it stood three 
 or four centuries ago: although towns which were 
 then populous and important had since been blotted 
 out of the map of the country, while other great 
 towns and cities had sprung into existence, which 
 were not represented at all. The famous Reform 
 Act was merely the national abandonment and repu¬ 
 diation of this notorious fallacy. 
 
 In like manner, the Repeal of the Corn and Navi¬ 
 gation Laws, and the general recognition of the 
 principles of Free Trade in our national legislation, 
 have merely been the successive abandonment and 
 repudiation of so many of the remaining fallacies and 
 delusions of the olden time. In all these instances 
 we have been virtually acknowledging to the whole 
 civilized world that we were all wrong in these 
 matters till very recently, and that the boasted 
 wisdom of our ancestors was the sheerest folly and 
 delusion. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 IX 
 
 On all these important matters, therefore, on any of 
 which every intelligent person in the United Kingdom 
 \ was quite capable of offering an opinion, it has thus 
 been publicly acknowledged that we were, nevertheless, 
 all wrong till yesterday, as it were. Is it not exceed¬ 
 ingly probable, therefore, a fortiori, that on such points 
 as Colonial Government, the relations of a colony to 
 the mother-country and the right principles of colo¬ 
 nization — points on which not one in every hundred 
 thousand of the inhabitants of this country is capable 
 of offering an intelligent opinion, simply because he 
 has had no experience on the subject, and because the 
 case it involves is totally removed from his proper field 
 of observation — is it not highly probable that we 
 may have been all equally wrong, all under a similar 
 fallacy and delusion? Nay, if men even of the 
 highest intelligence in the colonics have only arrived 
 at the truth in these matters after long study and 
 reflection, how is it to be supposed that men who have 
 had no colonial experience, and who have never 
 thought on the subject at all, should, nevertheless, 
 be in the right? “Many,” says the celebrated Dr. 
 Benjamin Franklin, in the preface to his Considera¬ 
 tions on the Nature and the Extent of the Authority 
 of the British Parliament, — “ Many will perhaps 
 be surprised to see the legislative authority of the 
 British Parliament over the colonies denied in every 
 instance. These the writer informs, that, when he 
 began this piece, he would probably have been sur¬ 
 prised at such an opinion himself. For it was the 
 result, not the occasion, of his disquisitions. He 
 entered upon them with a view and expectation of 
 being able to trace some constitutional line between 
 
X 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 those cases in which we ought, and those in which 
 we ought not, to acknowledge the power of Parlia¬ 
 ment over us. In the prosecution of his inquiries 
 he became fully convinced that such a line doth 
 not exist; and that there can be no medium be¬ 
 tween acknowledging and denying that power in all 
 CASES.”* 
 
 Let the intelligent reader, therefore, examine the 
 principles and arguments of the following work on 
 their own merits, and in the light of those undeniable 
 facts and illustrations I have adduced in support of 
 them. I am quite aware of the host of ignorant 
 prejudices which the bare announcement of this 
 humble effort for the freedom and independence of 
 my adopted country will array against me — of the 
 storm of abuse which it will excite in certain quar- ! 
 ters, and the shower of nicknames which will be 
 rained down upon me. But after having circumna¬ 
 vigated the globe, and buffeted with the tempests of 
 Cape Horn, for the welfare and advancement of my 
 adopted country, seven times successively, during 
 the last thirty years, I may be supposed to have ac¬ 
 quired the necessary powers of endurance for such 
 visitations. Firmly persuaded, therefore, as I am, of 
 the soundness of my principles and arguments, al¬ 
 though I anticipate much personal abuse, I expect 
 no answer at all worthy of the name. 
 
 My proposal to establish free institutions through¬ 
 out the Australian colonies on the basis of universal 
 suffrage and equal electoral districts will proba- 
 
 * Considerations on the Nature and the Extent of the Authority of 
 the British Parliament. By Dr. Benjamin Franklin. Rivington's 
 New York Gazetted - , Oct. 30tk, 1774. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 XI 
 
 bly be regarded in certain quarters with scornful 
 contempt; and the case of France will perhaps be 
 appealed to as a sufficient answer to all such alleged 
 “raving's.” But the case of France is nothing to 
 the point. Will any man venture to assert that the 
 famous Coup cl'Etat, and the series of measures with 
 which it has been followed up, could have been 
 either practicable or possible in any country in which 
 the English language is spoken, or of which a large 
 majority of the inhabitants are Protestants ? What, 
 then, can the case of sheer Despotism, supported by 
 Romanism, in France, and merely pretending to rest 
 upon the basis of universal suffrage, have to do with a 
 constitution for the Australian colonies? Louis Na¬ 
 poleon has taught the European world a very important 
 lesson, which I trust it will get by heart; and it is 
 this — that there is no security for civil liberty in any 
 country in which Romanism predominates. This is 
 all in reality that the case of France teaches us. 
 
 The following work, with the exception of a very 
 few paragraphs which have been interjected since, was 
 wholly written at sea in the months of March and 
 April last, before I was aware that Earl Grey and 
 Her Majesty’s late ministers generally were out of 
 office. It is published, therefore, precisely as it would 
 have been had his Lordship and his late colleagues 
 been still in power; and any reflections which it con¬ 
 tains are therefore to be understood as directed 
 against the system of colonial government which we 
 have hitherto been keeping up as a nation, rather 
 than against the men who have at any time been en¬ 
 trusted with its management. 
 
 Contemporaneously with this volume, another 
 
xii 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 work of mine, entitled, An Historical and Statistical 
 Account of New South (Vales; including a Visit to 
 the Gold Regions, and a Description of the Mines: 
 with an Estimate of the probable Resxdts — moral, 
 social, and political — of the great discovery: in two 
 vols., is now issuing from the press; in which the 
 reader who may peruse both will find a whole series 
 of proofs and illustrations of the soundness of the 
 views advanced in this volume. As it is probable, 
 however, that this work will fall into the hands of 
 readers, in the colonies especially, who will have 
 no opportunity of seeing the historical work I allude 
 to, I have deemed it expedient and necessary, for 
 obvious reasons, to embody in this volume a few 
 pages from that work. I trust this explanation will 
 be deemed satisfactory by the readers of both. 
 
 London, Oct. 25. 1852. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE RIGHTS OF COLONIES. 
 
 Page 
 
 Section I. — Definitions and Limitations - - 1 
 
 Section II. — Objects of Colonization - - 5 
 
 Section III. — Is the Extension of the Empire of the Colo¬ 
 nizing, or Mother-country, a proper and legitimate Object 
 of Colonization? ------ 8 
 
 Section IV. — Is the Propagation of Christianity a proper 
 and legitimate Object of Colonization for any Government ? 14 
 
 Section V. — Distinction between Colonization, properly so 
 called, and the Modes of Settlement in other Dependencies ; 
 with the natural and necessary Results of that Distinction - 19 
 
 Section VI. — Analogy between a Colony and a Child, and 
 Inferences from that Analogy - - - 22 
 
 Section VII. — The Australian Colonies have attained their 
 political Majority, and are consequently entitled to their 
 Freedom and Independence - - - 25 
 
 Section VIII. — The Sort of Government proposed for these 
 Provinces — both Provincial and National - - 33 
 
 Section IX. — A Compromise proposed and considered—Par¬ 
 liamentary Representation for the Colonies - - 35 
 
 Section X. — Another Compromise proposed and considered 
 — Municipal Independence - - - - 37 
 
 Section XI. — Nationality a real and not an imaginary Good- 41 
 
 Section XII.—An Objection urged and considered — Great 
 Britain planted the Australian Colonies, and has therefore 
 a Right to rule them - 
 
 43 
 
XIV 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 Section XIII. — Another Objection stated and considered — 
 
 The Colonies are claiming their Freedom and Independ¬ 
 ence, because they hate their Mother-country, 'which has 
 done so much for them; and Her Majesty, the Queen, to 
 ■whom they owe all due Allegiance ; and because they are 
 cherishing in their Hearts the Satanic Spirit of Rebellion - 48 
 
 Section XIV. — A Third Objection stated and considered — 
 
 The British Colonies are Part and Parcel of the British 
 Empire — An Empire on which the Sun never sets, and 
 which, far more than any even of the so-called universal 
 Empires of Antiquity, extends its Sceptre to all the Four 
 Quarters of the Globe — To every Continent, without 
 Exception, and to almost every Isle: it must be glorious, 
 therefore, to belong to such an Empire: it cannot but be 
 monstrous, unnatural, suicidal, and highly criminal to at¬ 
 tempt to dismember it - - - - - 51 
 
 Section XV. — A Fourth Objection stated and considered — 
 
 The Colonists who are calling out for their Freedom and 
 Independence are a mere Pack of Republicans, and are unfit 
 to govern themselves - - - - - 61 
 
 Section XVI. — A Fifth Objection urged—The Australian 
 Colonies would be unable to defend and protect themselves 
 from foreign Aggression, in the event of their obtaining 
 their Freedom and Independence, and would, therefore, if 
 abandoned by Great Britain, very soon fall into the Hands 
 of some other Power - - - - - 77 
 
 Section XVII. — How the Claim of Freedom and Independ¬ 
 ence is likely to be received by the Parent State - - 82 
 
 CHAP. II. 
 
 PRINCIPLES AND PRACTICE OF THE ANCIENTS, AND ESPECIALLY 
 OF THE GREEKS, IN COLONIZATION. 
 
 Section I. — The Greek Colonies - - - - 85 
 
 Section II. — British Colonization before the War of Ameri¬ 
 can Independence - - - - - - 94 
 
 Section III. — British Colonization since the American War 111 
 Section IV. — The Beneficial Results of Grecian Colonization 
 to Greece Proper - - - - - -114 
 
 Section V. — Is Colonization one of the Lost Arts? - - 123 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 XV 
 
 Page 
 
 Section VI. — Quack Salve for bad Sores; or the Tree of 
 
 English Society to be transplanted to the Colonies - 126 
 
 Section VII. — The Grecian Specific for successful Coloni¬ 
 zation— Freedom and Independence for the Colonies - 139 
 
 Section VIII. — Roman Colonization, and the Roman Colony 
 of Britain - - - - - -154 
 
 Section IX. — American Colonization — its Principles and 
 Results - - - - - - -162 
 
 CHAP. III. 
 
 THE PRESENT CRISIS IN THE AUSTRALIAN COLONIES ; AND THE 
 DUTY OF GREAT BRITAIN IN THAT CRISIS. 
 
 Section I. — Earl Grey and Lord North; or Preparations, 
 after the old Pattern, for the Dismemberment of an 
 Empire ------- 182 
 
 Section II. — Earl Grey and Lord North continued; or the 
 Governor-General - - - - - 189 
 
 Section III. — The Discovery of Gold in Australia, and its 
 probable political Results ----- 196 
 
 Section IV. — Evidences of the Author’s Credibility as a 
 Witness, in regard to the actual Condition of the Aus¬ 
 tralian Colonies - - - - - -210 
 
 Section V. — The Duty of Great Britain in this Crisis - 234 
 Section VI. — Proposed Conditions of the Treaty of Inde¬ 
 pendence—-Half of the Land Revenue to be Appropriated 
 for the Promotion of Emigration from Great Britain - 243 
 
 Section VII. — Proposed Conditions of the Treaty of Inde¬ 
 pendence continued — no hostile Tariff, no Custom-house- 248 
 Section VIII. — Reasons why the Extent of Territory sug¬ 
 gested is desirable for the General or National Government 253 
 
 Section IX. — Reasons why Great Britain should legislate at 
 once in this Matter ----- 255 
 
 CHAP. IV. 
 
 RESULTS TO BE ANTICIPATED FROM THE PROPOSED CONCESSION 
 OF FREEDOM AND INDEPENDENCE TO THE AUSTRALIAN COLO¬ 
 NIES. 
 
 Section I. — A Befitting Career opened up for Men of Talent, 
 Enterprise, and Honourable Ambition ... 262 
 
xvi 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 Page 
 
 Section II. — Wonderful Increase of Emigration to Australia 
 among the Humbler and Working Classes of the United 
 Kingdom ------- 267 
 
 Section III. — Realization of all the other Legitimate Objects 
 of Colonization - - - - - -.274 
 
 Section IV. — Annexation, and its probable Progress - 289 
 
 Section V. — Results to Education, Morals, and Religion - 292 
 
 CHAP. V. 
 
 AN APOLOGY FOR PENAL COLONIES FOR GREAT BRITAIN. 
 
 Section I. — Causes of the large and constantly increasing 
 
 Amount of Crime in the United Kingdom - - 298 
 
 Section II. — National Safety-valve provided for the Remedy 
 of this fundamental Defect in our Social System - - 300 
 
 Section III. — No Means of permanently disposing of the 
 constantly increasing Criminal Population of the British 
 Islands at Home ------ 301 
 
 Section IV. — Objections to Convict Colonization considered 
 — Lord Bacon’s ------ 302 
 
 Section V. — Results of Transportation in New South Wales 
 and Van Dieman’s Land no Argument against the System 
 generally ------- 304 
 
 Section VI. — Objection, from the alleged Perpetuation of 
 Crime in a Penal Colony, considered and refuted - - 306 
 
 Section VII. — The Principles on which a Penal Colony 
 ought to be founded and managed ... 310 
 
 Section VIII. — Places where such Penal Colonies might be 
 advantageously formed — the Falkland Islands - - 321 
 
 Section IX. — Other Places where Penal Colonies might be 
 successfully formed — the West and North West Coasts of 
 Australia - - - - - - -325 
 
 CONCLUSION.335 
 
 APPENDIX 
 
 337 
 
FREEDOM AND INDEPENDENCE 
 
 FOR THE 
 
 GOLDEN LANDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
 
 ' CHAPTER I. 
 
 TIIE RIGHTS OF COLONIES. 
 
 Section I. — Definitions and Limitations. 
 
 A colony is a body of people who have gone forth from 
 the Parent State, either simultaneously or progressively, 
 and formed a permanent settlement in some remote terri¬ 
 tory, whether that territory has been already occupied by 
 an inferior race or not. 
 
 There are therefore two things necessary to constitute 
 a colony properly so called; viz. 1st. Emigration from 
 the Parent State; and, 2nd. Permanent settlement in the 
 occupied territory: and if any dependent community is 
 deficient in either of these essentials, it cannot with pro¬ 
 priety be designated a colony of the country to which it 
 is subject or on which it is dependent.* 
 
 * Of colonisation, the principal elements are, emigration and the 
 permanent settlement of the emigrants on unoccupied land. A 
 colony, therefore, is a country wholly or partially unoccupied, 
 which receives emigrants from a distance ; and it is a colony of the 
 country from which the emigrants proceed which is therefore called 
 the mother country.— A View of the Art of Colonisation, Sfc. By 
 Edward Gibbon Wakefield, Esq. London, 1849, p. 1G. 
 
 B 
 
9 
 
 FREEDOM AND INDEPENDENCE FOR 
 
 A British colony is therefore a community of Britons, 
 however formed, permanently settled in some country or 
 territory beyond seas. It is a gross abuse of language 
 to apply the designation to any community constituted 
 otherwise; and the prevalence of this abuse serves only 
 to maintain the palpable delusion that the colonies of 
 Britain, or British colonies properly so called, either 
 are, or ever were either numerous or extensive, as com¬ 
 pared with the population and resources of the Parent 
 State. This delusion serves to foster our national pride, 
 while it blinds us to our national danger: it feeds our 
 national vanity, and prevents us from doing our national 
 duty. 
 
 Agreeably to this definition, we must exclude from the 
 list of British colonies all such foreign possessions of the 
 British empire as India, Ceylon, Malta, and the Ionian 
 Islands. These countries are all doubtless dependencies 
 of the British empire, but they are in no respect British 
 colonies. Ninety-nine out of every hundred of their inhabit¬ 
 ants, or rather perhaps nine hundred and ninety-nine out 
 of every thousand, neither are nor ever have been Britons ; 
 and the mere handful of Britons who go to any of these 
 colonies never think of forming permanent settlements in 
 them, and of thereby identifying themselves, “ for better, 
 for worse,” with their inhabitants. They go to them 
 either to make money or to get honour and glory in the 
 world, and to return to spend the evening of their days in 
 their native land. They have none of the peculiar feel¬ 
 ings, desires, or prospects of colonists, properly so called, 
 and never can have. 
 
 Our definition must also exclude all such dependencies 
 of the British empire as Lower Canada, the Mauritius, 
 St. Lucia, the Cape of Good Hope, Demerara, and Trini¬ 
 dad. Not one of these dependencies is a British colony 
 properly so called. The first three — Lower Canada, the 
 Mauritius, and St. Lucia—were French colonies, con¬ 
 quered and appropriated by Great Britain. The Cape of 
 
THE GOLDEN LANDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
 
 3 
 
 Good Hope and Demerara were Dutch colonies acquired 
 in a similar way; and Trinidad is merely a conquered 
 colony of Spain. In short, in regard to not a few of the 
 transmarine possessions or dependencies of the empire, 
 which we are in the habit of designating, with great self- 
 complacency, our colonies, we have been realising pretty 
 much the popular idea of the cuckoo, which, it is said, 
 builds no nest of her own, but lays her solitary egg in 
 that of some other bird and forthwith takes possession. 
 In all the instances enumerated — and the list might be 
 somewhat extended if it were necessary — we have merely 
 seized the colonies of other weaker people; and after de¬ 
 positing our solitary egg in them, we have called them 
 ours, as if we had planted them from the first— British 
 colonies,- forsooth ! It is a most unwarrantable misnomer. 
 As old Cato well observes, Vera nomina rerum longe 
 amisimus—largiri aliena vocatur liberalitas: or, in plain 
 English, “We have long lost the proper names for things 
 — for instance, making free with other people’s posses¬ 
 sions is called British Colonisation !”* How many 
 Britons ever go to the foreign colonies we have thus 
 appropriated? — the merest handful comparatively. How 
 many of these even go to them merely to make money 
 and to return ? Almost the whole of them. 
 
 Neither are the really British islands of the West 
 Indies—Jamaica, Barbadoes, St. Vincent, &c., including 
 the Bahama Islands,—entitled to be called-BWfr's// colonies. 
 At least nine out of every ten of the inhabitants of these 
 islands are either Africans, or the descendants of Africans 
 who were originally stolen from their native country, and 
 made slaves of, to grow sugar, cotton, and coffee for Eng¬ 
 lishmen ; and the very few Britons comparatively who 
 ever went to them went merely to make money, and to 
 return. These islands are therefore merely British planta¬ 
 tions— they are in no respect British colonies, properly 
 
 * Cato’s Speech in Sallust, De Conjur. Catilin. 
 
4 
 
 FREEDOM AND INDEPENDENCE FOR 
 
 so called; both of the essential requisites of a really 
 British colony being wanting; for the negroes, who con¬ 
 stitute so large a proportion of the entire population 
 never emigrated from Great Britain, and the negro-drivers 
 regularly return to the mother country whenever they 
 can afford to do so. 
 
 Still less are we entitled to profane the designation 
 British colony —which I confess I consider a very high 
 and honourable distinction for any community, and one 
 that ought not to be lightly applied or appropriated where 
 it is not deserved — by applying it to any of those nume¬ 
 rous posts or stations that are held either for naval and 
 military purposes, or for the furtherance and protection 
 of commerce : such as Heligoland, Gibraltar, Bermuda, 
 Honduras, St. Helena, Ascension, Sierra Leone, the 
 Gambia River, Aden, Malacca, Pulo Penang or Prince of 
 Wales’ Island, Singapore, Hong Kong, and Labuan. It 
 would be equally absurd to call the Eddystone Lighthouse 
 and Tilbury Fort British colonies, as to apply that much 
 abused designation to such places as these. They are all 
 British possessions, and it is doubtless necessary for the 
 purposes of a great maritime and commercial nation that 
 they should always remain so; but not one of them is a 
 British colony, properly so called. 
 
 What then are the British colonies, properly so called ; 
 as it is evident they must now be reduced to a very small 
 number indeed, as compared with the long list of what are 
 commonly called British colonies? They are 
 
 1. The North American colonies of Upper Canada, 
 Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Prince 
 Edward’s Island. 
 
 2. The Australian colonies of New' South Wales, Van 
 Dieman’s Land, South Australia, Victoria or Port Phillip, 
 and Western Australia, or Swan River. 
 
 3. The New Zealand group of islands—begun to be 
 colonised but yesterday. 
 
 4. The Falkland Islands — still in the clouds. 
 
 5. Vancouver’s Island — ditto. 
 
TIIE GOLDEN LANDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
 
 O 
 
 Section II. — Objects of Colonisation. 
 
 What then are the proper and legitimate objects which 
 such a country as Great Britain ought to have in view or 
 to propose to herself in forming such colonies as these 
 — British colonies, properly so called? They are, 
 
 1. To secure an eligible outlet for her redundant popu¬ 
 lation of all grades and classes. 
 
 2. To create a market for her manufactured produce 
 by increasing and multiplying its consumers indefinitely. 
 
 3. To open up a field for the growth of raw produce 
 for her trade and manufactures; and 
 
 4. To sustain and extend her commerce by carrying 
 out all these objects simultaneously. 
 
 Now these are noble objects for any nation to pursue; 
 and no wonder that Lord Bacon should designate the 
 peculiar work they indicate the heroic work of colonisation. 
 Nay, it is something more even than a merely heroic 
 work: it is the course divinely prescribed in the first 
 commandment given to the human race, Be fruitful and 
 multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it*; and it 
 may, therefore, be inferred that it can never be safe for 
 any nation to neglect this work, if in the peculiar circum¬ 
 stances to which the commandment applies. For, as God 
 made the earth to be inhabited , he will certainly hold that 
 nation, which he has specially called in his Providence to 
 carry out this divine ordinance, responsible for the neglect 
 of its proper duty, if it has been neglected, and will afflict 
 and punish it accordingly. For while Divine Providence 
 has peculiar benefits and advantages in reserve for nations, 
 as well as for individuals, who pursue the prescribed 
 course, whether in politics or in any thing else, it has 
 pains and penalties of an endless variety of forms, and of 
 
 * Genesis, i. 28 . 
 
6 
 
 FREEDOM AND INDEPENDENCE FOR 
 
 an infinity of degrees of pressure, for those nations or 
 individuals who act otherwise. 
 
 It must be clear therefore as daylight that Great Britain 
 has been specially called, in the good Providence of God, 
 to the heroic work of colonisation. She has by far the 
 largest Colonial Empire in the world: she has facilities 
 for colonisation such as no other nation on earth has 
 ever had since the foundation of the world: and she has 
 a remarkably redundant, and at the same time a peculiarly 
 energetic, people, the fittest on earth for this heroic work, 
 and the most willing to engage in it heartily. And it 
 must be equally clear, from our very limited experience 
 on the subject as a colonising nation, that a regular and 
 systematic obedience of the divine commandment, on the 
 part of Great Britain, would, in such circumstances, enable 
 her to realise all the objects of colonisation enumerated 
 above; or, in other words, would infallibly secure an 
 eligible outlet for her redundant population, of all grades 
 and classes ; create a market for her manufactured pro¬ 
 duce by increasing and multiplying its consumers indefi¬ 
 nitely ; open up a field for the growth of raw produce for 
 her trade and manufactures to any conceivable extent; 
 and sustain and extend her commerce simultaneously, to 
 a degree hitherto unparalleled in the history of the 
 world. 
 
 But from “the beggarly account of empty boxes” which 
 the history of British colonisation, properly so called, has 
 hitherto exhibited, as compared with the population and 
 resources of the empire, it must be equally clear and 
 undeniable that Great Britain has utterly failed both in 
 discharging her proper duty as a nation in this important 
 respect, and in realising the proper benefits and advantages 
 of colonisation to anything like the extent to which they 
 might have been realised; and that she must consequently 
 have incurred the pains and penalties which Divine Pro¬ 
 vidence justly and properly attaches to such neglect. The 
 Condition-of-England question, but more especially the 
 
THE GOLDEN LANDS OF AUSTRALIA. 7 
 
 Condition-of-Ireland question, sufficiently declares what 
 these pains and penalties are. They are, 1st. The extra¬ 
 ordinary redundance of the population, of all grades and 
 classes, as compared with the means of comfortable sub¬ 
 sistence and eligible employment for these grades and 
 classes respectively; 2nd. The unnatural and enormous 
 competition for employment and subsistence to which this 
 state of things gives rise among what are called the respect¬ 
 able classes of society, of all ranks, occupations, and pro¬ 
 fessions; 3rd. The periodical stagnations of commerce, 
 arising from over-production and the want of outlets, and 
 the frequent ruin of merchants, manufacturers, and traders 
 of all kinds, to which this redundance and competition 
 necessarily lead; 4th. The frequently recurring periods 
 of want of employment for the industrious classes, and the 
 w r ide-spread destitution which it occasions, together with the 
 normal condition of abject poverty and misery into which 
 whole masses of the humbler classes are constantly sink¬ 
 ing; 5th. The fearful increase of pauperism in numerous 
 localities throughout the United Kingdom, in which such 
 a condition of society was quite unknown, within the 
 memory even of the present generation; and, 6th. The 
 frightful increase of crime and of a criminal population, 
 not to speak of the serious and successive shocks which 
 the moral principle of the nation generally must sustain 
 in this downward progress of society. 
 
 In the year 1831, during one of those periods of dis¬ 
 tress, arising from want of employment, among the working 
 classes, which are nowof such frequent recui’rencethrough- 
 out the United Kingdom, I happened tobe spending an hour 
 or two with the late Rev. Dr. Chalmers, of Edinburgh; 
 and the conversation happening to turn upon the state of 
 the poor and the distress of the times, Dr. C. inveighed, 
 as I thought, somewhat severely against the improvidence 
 of the humbler classes, and especially their early and im¬ 
 prudent marriages; enlarging upon the necessity of apply¬ 
 ing the principle of moral restraint somewhat more effec- 
 
8 
 
 FREEDOM AND INDEPENDENCE FOR 
 
 tuaily, to prevent the population from outrunning the 
 means of subsistence. These sentiments, I confess, grated 
 rather harshly upon my ear, as a British colonist; and 
 notwithstanding my habitual veneration for the great and 
 good man, I took the liberty to inform him that I was 
 accustomed to take for my maxim in political economy 
 the divine commandment recorded in the first chapter of 
 the book of Genesis, repeating the passage above cited ; 
 and adding, that after riding over millions of acres of as 
 fine land as the sun ever shone on, and in one of the finest 
 climates on the face of the earth, lying utterly waste, I 
 could not help thinking that the divine commandment was 
 a right one after all, and that there must be something 
 radically wrong in our social and political system in not 
 applying the remedy which the case demanded, viz. that 
 of extensive colonisation. “ Aye,” replied Dr. Chalmers 
 with remarkably good humour, “ that may be very sound 
 doctrine in your colony, but it will not do here,” meaning 
 Edinburgh. I am persuaded however that it is there, :.l 
 chiefly, and in every place similarly situated in the United 
 Kingdom, that the doctrine is peculiarly applicable. 
 
 Section III. — Is the Extension of the Empire of the colo¬ 
 nising, or Mother Country, a proper and legitimate Ob¬ 
 ject of Colonisation ? 
 
 If the extension of the empire of the mother country 
 were compatible with the attainment of all the proper and 
 legitimate objects of colonisation enumerated above, this 
 would be an open question, which I have no hesitation in 
 saying, every rightly constituted mind would be predis¬ 
 posed to answer in the affirmative. But there is a previous 
 question to be answered ; viz. “ Is the extension of the 
 empire of the mother country compatible with the attain¬ 
 ment of the other and legitimate ends of colonisation ? ” 
 and this question I have no hesitation in answering in the 
 negative — it is not. Whether empire be made the direct 
 
THE GOLDEN LANDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
 
 9 
 
 object of colonisation, or merely regarded as a necessary 
 inference or corollary from it, the mother country must 
 in either case make up her mind to the sacrifice and loss 
 of all the other objects for which colonisation is either 
 warrantable or desirable. And this is precisely what has 
 hitherto been done by every mother country in Europe, 
 our own not excepted. Like the foolish dog, in the fable, 
 when swimming across a rapid river with a lump of beef 
 in his mouth — in order to catch at the shadow, empire, we 
 drop the substance, beef; and we then find to our un¬ 
 speakable mortification, and perhaps disgrace, that both 
 are gone ! This has been the brief history of European 
 colonisation, without one solitary exception, ever since 
 the discovery of America. The final result may not in¬ 
 deed have been arrived at as yet, in certain instances, but 
 we are certainly hurrying rapidly towards it in all.* 
 
 Mr. Wakefield, who has a theory of his own on this 
 subject, which he puts forth, however, somewhat hesi- 
 
 * “ It is a most extraordinary feature in the character of the 
 British Government, that while the people of England itself are 
 under the mildest possible laws, and enjoy the largest amount of 
 liberty of any nation in the world, the colonies of England, which 
 are justly esteemed her pride and her strength, are subjected to a 
 dominion more assimilated to that of Russia and Turkey than any¬ 
 thing else. In the colonies, the genius of British liberty is no longer 
 to be found. Her mild sway is exchanged for the iron rod of the 
 despot, and those who were her children in her native land have 
 become the subjects and the slaves of petty tyrants. The truth of 
 this will be found in the history of every colony, and felt in the ex¬ 
 perience of every colonist; its effects have been the premature sepa¬ 
 ration of the first American colonies, the recent rebellion and blood¬ 
 shed in Canada, the ruin of the present settlers of New Zealand, the 
 extravagant expenditure of this Government, and the demand upon 
 England for money to support it.” — New Zealand in 1842 ; or the 
 Effects of a Bad Government on a Good Country. In a Letter to the 
 Bight Hon. Lord Stanley, Principal Secretary of State for the Colo¬ 
 nies. By S. M. D. Martin, M.D., President of the New Zealand 
 Aborigines’ Protection Association, and lately a Magistrate of the 
 Colony. Auckland (New Zealand), 1S42. 
 
 E 5 
 
10 
 
 FREEDOM AND INDEPENDENCE FOR 
 
 tatingly, would paint the shadow, and call it prestige, 
 which he thinks a good equivalent for the solid beef: let 
 him dine upon prestige by all means. 
 
 Mr. Wakefield observes: — 
 
 “ Regarding colonial government as an essential part 
 of colonisation, the question remains, whether the govern¬ 
 ment of the colony by the mother country is equally so. 
 Is the subordination of the colony to the mother country, 
 as respects government, an essential condition of colonisa¬ 
 tion ? I should say not.” * 
 
 Another able writer, however,—a member of parlia¬ 
 ment, holding office under the present Government-)- — 
 speaks somewhat more to the point than Mr. Wakefield 
 on this important subject: — 
 
 “ The contrivance of a subordinate government,” ob¬ 
 serves that writer, “ renders the government of a distant 
 territory possible, but does not render it good .” 
 
 And again: — 
 
 “ So great are the disadvantages of dependencies, that 
 it is in general fortunate for a civilised country to be 
 sufficiently powerful to have an independent government, 
 and to be ruled by natives.” 
 
 And again: — 
 
 “ The disadvantages in question arise principally from 
 the ignorance and indifference of the dominant country 
 about the position and interests of the dependency.” 
 
 “ The dominant country, in consequence of this igno¬ 
 rance, often abstains from interfering with the concerns 
 of the dependency when its interference would be expe¬ 
 dient ; and when it does interfere with the concerns of the 
 dependency, its interference, as not being guided by the 
 requisite knowledge of these concerns, is frequently ill- 
 judged and mischievous.” J 
 
 * A View of the Art of Colonisation, Sfc., p. 17- London, 1849. 
 
 t This was written at sea, when it was not known that Lord John 
 Russell’s government had ceased to exist. 
 
 + Essay on the Government of Dependencies. By George Cornewall 
 Lewis, Esq., M.P. London, 1841, pp. 253. 268. 293. 
 
THE GOLDEN LANDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
 
 11 
 
 Mr. Lewis, however, subjoins a very consolatory re¬ 
 flection for all colonists ; to whom he administers at the 
 same time what he doubtless considers very judicious ad¬ 
 vice : — 
 
 “ If the inhabitants of dependencies were conscious 
 that many of the inconveniences of their lot are not im¬ 
 putable to the neglect, or ignorance, or selfishness of their 
 rulers, but are the necessary consequences of the form of 
 their government, they would be inclined to submit pa¬ 
 tiently to inevitable ills, which a vain resistance to the 
 authority of the dominant country cannot fail to aggra¬ 
 vate.” * 
 
 Mr. Lewis here admits that there are serious “ incon¬ 
 veniences ” or “ ills ” in the lot of colonists, and that 
 these are the “ necessary consequences of their form of 
 government,” or, in other words, of the attempt on the 
 part of the mother country to conjoin empire with colo¬ 
 nisation. But whether the ills are “ inevitable ” is a mere 
 matter of opinion, on which certain colonists will pro¬ 
 bably take the liberty to differ from Mr. Lewis in due 
 time. In the meantime they are extremely obliged to him 
 for his honest opinion as to the utter incompatibility of 
 empire with the other and legitimate objects of colonisa¬ 
 tion. 
 
 “ The best customer which a nation can have,” ob¬ 
 serves the same able and honest writer, in further illus¬ 
 tration of his views, “ is a thriving and industrious com¬ 
 munity, whether it be dependent or independent. The 
 trade between England and the United States is probably 
 far more profitable to the mother country than it would 
 have been if they had remained in a state of dependence 
 upon her.” j- 
 
 And again : — 
 
 “ If a state of dependence checks the progress of a 
 community in ivealth and prosperity, the consequent 
 
 Lewis, Preface. 
 
 f Ibid. p. 225. 
 
12 
 
 FREEDOM AND INDEPENDENCE FOR 
 
 limitation of its demand for imported commodities will 
 more tlian compensate the advantages which the domi¬ 
 nant country can derive from being able to regulate its 
 commercial relations with the dependency.” * 
 
 But the most important testimony as to the incom¬ 
 patibility of the pursuit of empire with the attainment of 
 the other and legitimate objects of colonisation, is that of 
 Professor Heeren, of Gottingen, one of the ablest historical 
 and political writers of the age. Remarking on the uni¬ 
 versal pursuit of empire in colonisation by the different 
 colonising powers of Europe, that writer observes: — 
 
 “ Time and experience were required to ascertain the 
 relations in which the colonies might be placed most ad¬ 
 vantageously for the mother country. Without any con¬ 
 sideration of their true value and proper use, the first and 
 prevalent idea was in favour of an absolute possession, and 
 total exclusion of strangers. The propagation of Chris¬ 
 tianity formed a convenient pretext, and none thought of 
 inquiring either into the justice or the utility of their 
 treatment. In truth, we know not how other views could 
 have been acquired, and yet we must needs lament that 
 the European system of colonisation should so early have 
 taken a direction as unalterable as it was destructive to the 
 interests both of the colonies and their mother states.” -f- 
 One of the principal disadvantages of dependencies is 
 their distance from the seat of empire. 
 
 “It was an unfortunate circumstance for the British 
 Government,’' observes the intelligent historian of the 
 United States of America, “during their colonial period, 
 and a strong reason for dissolving its colonial dominion, 
 that it was disabled by distance from adapting its measures 
 to the actual and immediate posture of affairs in America. 
 Months elapsed between the occurrence of events in the 
 colonies, and the arrival of the relative directions from 
 England : and every symptom of the political exigence 
 
 * Lewis, p. 231. 
 
 f Europe and its Colonies , p. 24. 
 
THE GOLDEN LAND3 OF AUSTRALIA. 13 
 
 had frequently undergone a material change before the 
 concerted prescription, good or bad, was applied.”* 
 
 To the same effect, the celebrated Edmund Burke well 
 observes, “ The last cause of this disobedient spirit in the 
 colonies is hardly less powerful than the rest, as it is not 
 merely moral, but laid deep in the natural constitution of 
 things. Three thousand miles of ocean lie between you and 
 them. No contrivance can prevent the effect of this dis¬ 
 tance in weakening government. Seas roll, and months 
 pass, between the order and the execution ; and the want 
 of a speedy explanation of a single point is enough to 
 
 defeat a whole system.In large bodies the 
 
 circulation of power must be less vigorous at the ex¬ 
 tremities.” f 
 
 Now if even three thousand miles of ocean were suffi¬ 
 cient to render the pursuit of empire incompatible with 
 the attainment of the other and legitimate objects of 
 colonisation, in the case of the original British Colonies 
 of America, how much more strongly must not the in¬ 
 crease of that distance to five times this amount, to half 
 the circumference of the globe, render empire and the 
 pursuit of the other objects of colonisation utterly incom¬ 
 patible ? It is no answer to this argument to tell us that 
 Steam has reduced distances so greatly within the last 
 half century that no part of the world can now be con¬ 
 sidered remote; for Steam can never give a man residing 
 in London so thorough a knowledge of the state of things, 
 in so remote a colony as New South Wales, as to qualify 
 him to legislate for it: and to pretend to such a qualifica¬ 
 tion, notwithstanding, is virtually laying claim to Om¬ 
 niscience— one of the incommunicable attributes of God. 
 
 * Grahame’s History of the United States of America, Sfc., vol. iv. 
 p. 369. 
 
 f Edmund Burke's Speech on Conciliation with America, Works, 
 vol. iii. p. 56. 
 
14 
 
 FREEDOM AND INDEPENDENCE Ftm 
 
 Section IV.—Is the Propagation of Christianity a proper 
 
 AND LEGITIMATE OBJECT OF COLONISATION FOR ANY GOVERN¬ 
 MENT ? 
 
 To this question I would give the unhesitating and direct 
 answer — certainly not, as far as Government is concerned. 
 Governments are instituted for the protection and further¬ 
 ance of the temporal interests of their subjects : they have 
 nothing to do with the concerns of eternity. A Govern¬ 
 ment is neither a Christian church nor a missionary in¬ 
 stitution, and can therefore have no right to usurp the 
 proper province of either. All that a Government has 
 to do with the Christian religion is to let it alone — to 
 give it free scope — and to protect its professors, of all 
 denominations, in the enjoyment of their rights and privi¬ 
 leges as citizens or subjects. As Professor Heeren well 
 observes, “the propagation of Christianity formed a con¬ 
 venient pretext,” with European Powers generally, in 
 seeking to gratify their lust of empire through colonisa¬ 
 tion ; but in no instance whatever was it ever more than 
 a mere pretext. 
 
 But the case is totally different, as regards individuals , 
 associating for the promotion of colonisation ; although, 
 with such associations, the propagation of Christianity has 
 often been a mere pretext also. The able historian of 
 British Colonisation in America informs us that letters 
 patent were issued by King James I., in the year 1606, to 
 Sir Thomas Yates, Sir George Somers, Richard Hakluyt, 
 and their associates, granting to them those territories in 
 America lying on the sea coast between the 34th and 45th 
 degrees of North latitude. The design of the patentees 
 was declared to be “ to make habitation and plantation, 
 and to deduce a colony of sundry of our people into that 
 part of America commonly called Virginia;” and as the 
 main recommendation of the design, it was announced 
 that “so noble a work may, by the prudence of Almighty 
 
TIIE GOLDEN LANDS OF AUSTRALIA. 15 
 
 God, hereafter tend to the glory of his Divine Majesty, 
 in propagating of Christian religion to such people as yet 
 lie in darkness and miserable ignorance of the true know¬ 
 ledge and worship of God, and may in time bring the 
 infidels and savages living in those parts to human civility, 
 and to a settled and quiet government.”* 
 
 How the said “ Sir Thomas Yates, Sir George Somers, 
 Richard Hakluyt, and their associates,” acquitted them¬ 
 selves of the duties they had thus voluntarily undertaken 
 “in propagating of Christian religion,’’and in bringing “the 
 infidels and savages to human civility, and to a settled and 
 quiet government,” it is scarcely necessary to inquire. It 
 was simply one of those “ good intentions ” with which, 
 we are told in the Spanish proverb, “ hell is paved.” But 
 history informs us of an association of families and indi¬ 
 viduals of a somewhat different description, which was 
 formed in England for the purpose of colonisation very 
 shortly thereafter, and of which one of the’ main objects 
 was the propagation of the Christian religion, in one of 
 its purest forms, on the continent of America. In a Pro¬ 
 spectus which was issued by the projectors of the original 
 Puritan emigration to New England in the year 1620, 
 entitled “ General Considerations for the Plantation of 
 New England,” the design was recommended to all 
 Christian people on the grounds,— 
 
 “ That it will be a service unto the Church of great 
 consequence, to carry the Gospel into those parts of the 
 world, and raise a bulwark against the kingdom of Anti¬ 
 christ, which the Jesuits labour to rear up in all parts of 
 the world.” “For what,” they add, “can be a better or 
 more noble work, and more worthy of a Christian, than 
 to erect and support a reformed particular church in its 
 infancy, and unite our forces with such a company of 
 faithful people, as by timely assistance may grow stronger 
 and prosper; but for want of it, may be put to great 
 hazard, if not be wholly ruined ?”f 
 
 * Grahame’s History of the United States of North America, fyc., 
 vol. i. p. 34. London, 1836. f Cotton Mather. 
 
16 
 
 FREEDOM AND INDEPENDENCE FOR 
 
 Now there has certainly never been any object placed 
 before the Christian world, since the days of the Apostles, 
 of more transcendent importance to the interests of the 
 Christian religion, as well as of mankind generally, than 
 the one declared in this Prospectus; and there has never 
 been any object more remarkably realised. The famous 
 Crusades and their results sink into perfect insignificance 
 when compared with the magnificent results of this com¬ 
 paratively humble project of Christian colonisation. 
 
 The Puritan emigration consisted altogether of about 
 twenty thousand persons, and extended over a period of 
 about twenty years, viz. from the year 1620 to the year 
 1640. These people emigrated, therefore, professedly, to 
 raise a bulwark against the progress and prevalence of 
 Romanism in North America; and what has been the 
 result of their emigration in this particular? Why, in 
 the year 1840, when I visited the United States, the 
 original Puritftn emigrants had increased and multiplied, 
 in the six New England States, to a nation, perhaps the 
 most thoroughly Protestant in the world, of 2,229,879 
 souls. But this was a mere nothing, in comparison with 
 what they had effected for the Protestantism of the coun¬ 
 try generally, in the way of colonisation ; for as their 
 country is but of limited extent, and naturally poor, they 
 had been obliged to emigrate from time to time, and had 
 thus been the great emigrating and colonising people of 
 America ever since the War of Independence ; spreading 
 themselves over the Middle and Western States, but 
 especially the latter, in numbers, compared with which the 
 largest emigration from any European country has been 
 quite insignificant. For even at the commencement of the 
 present century, when the whole emigration from Europe 
 to the United States was a mere trifle in amount, the emi¬ 
 gration to the Western States from New England alone, 
 notwithstanding the comparatively small population which 
 it must have had at that period, amounted to three hundred 
 thousand persons in one year ! And these emigrants — 
 
THE GOLDEN LANDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
 
 17 
 
 these Protestant missionaries, — have everywhere carried 
 out with them, to their remotest settlement in the Far West, 
 the grand idea of the original Puritan emigration ; consti¬ 
 tuting themselves the “ bulwark against the kingdom of 
 Antichrist ” wherever they go. 
 
 Certain second-rate writers on America, who have views 
 of their own to establish as to the importance of a religious 
 establishment for any country, and who look only at the 
 Romish emigration from Ireland and the Continent of 
 Europe to the United States, are fond of predicting that 
 that country, and in particular the valley of the Mississippi, 
 will speedily become a Roman Catholic country. But the 
 whole European emigration to the United States is even 
 yet quite insignificant, compared with the internal and 
 thoroughly Protestant emigration from the Eastern to the 
 Western States. In the year 1840, the population of the 
 United States amounted to 17,100,572; and during the 
 previous year Dr. Ivenrick, the Roman Cathplic bishop of 
 Philadelphia, who was not likely to under-estimate his own 
 communion, estimated its numbers at somewhat less than 
 a million — millionem fere pertingimus. Of that number 
 I ascertained that one half were located in the Eastern 
 States, and the other half in the valley of the Mississippi; 
 but as the population of that valley was then five millions, 
 the proportion of Roman Catholics could not be more 
 than one in ten. Happening to meet at Philadelphia with 
 an intelligent clergyman from the State of Missouri, of 
 which the capital, St. Louis, had once been a French 
 settlement, I asked him what was the estimated proportion 
 of Roman Catholics in that State; and was told one in ten. 
 This then was the general proportion in the valley of the 
 Mississippi at that period; and I do not think it is likely 
 to have altered much since. 
 
 It is evident, therefore, that Christian colonisation is, 
 beyond all comparison, the best means of Christianising 
 the world; and I beg very earnestly to recommend the 
 subject to the serious consideration of all Protestant com- 
 • munions in the United Kingdom. In advocating and 
 
18 
 
 FREEDOM AND INDEPENDENCE FOR 
 
 establishing missions to the heathen, they are doubtless 
 doing well; but in neglecting the most effectual means of 
 Christianising the world, they are committing a species of 
 suicide — they are betraying the citadel of their strength 
 into the hands of the enemy.* Had the colonising power 
 jf Great Britain been only turned to account, as it might 
 have been, and as it ought to have been, for the welfare 
 of the nation, since the Protestant Reformation, what a 
 vast extent of the earth’s surface might not now have been 
 covered with Protestant Christianity ! 
 
 Even the ancient Heathen considered the extension of 
 their own peculiar form of idolatry a worthy object of 
 colonisation, and one for which hardships might well be 
 endured. Virgil speaks of his hero in the following lan¬ 
 guage : — 
 
 “-Multum ille et terris jactatus et alto, 
 
 Multa quoque et hello passus, dum conderet urbem, 
 Inferretque Deos Latio.” — JEnekl. 
 
 And he represents him elsewhere as saying of Italy, 
 
 “ Sacra Deosque dabo.” 
 
 And again, 
 
 “ Sam pius ./Eneas, raptos qui ex boste Penates 
 Classe veho mecum, fama super aethera notus. 
 
 Italiam qusero patriam.”— Ibid. 
 
 Once more, 
 
 “ Litora quum patriae lacrimans portusque relinquo 
 Et campos, ubi Troja fuit. Feror exul in altum 
 Cum sociis, natoque, Penatibus et magnis Dis." 
 
 Heathen as he was, Virgil had a much higher idea of 
 the proper objects of colonisation than the British people 
 have hitherto had. Who is there that ever thinks of it 
 with us, as a means of extending the Christian religion ? 
 
 * The first Article in the Charter of the French Company, formed 
 under Cardinal Richelieu, for the colonisation of the West Indies 
 and America, in the year 1635, bound the Company D'y faire passer 
 quatre mille Francois Catholiques, pendant Vespace de vingt annees. 
 To convey to these regions 4000 French Catholics, during the first 
 twenty years. — Droit Public, ou Gouvernement des Coloniies Fran¬ 
 coises. Paris, 1771. 
 
THE GOLDEN LANDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
 
 19 
 
 Section V. — Distinction between Colonisation, properly so 
 
 CALLED, AND THE MODES OF SETTLEMENT IN OTHER DEPEN¬ 
 DENCIES ; with the Natural and necessary Results of 
 
 that Distinction. 
 
 The families and individuals of the British nation who 
 go to any of the long list of British possessions, planta¬ 
 tions, or dependencies which I have enumerated above, 
 but which are not British colonies properly so called, uni¬ 
 formly go thither for a temporary sedes or settlement only, 
 to remain there, either longer or shorter, for the accom¬ 
 plishment of their particular object, and then to return to 
 their native land. They never think of making the place 
 of their temporary and perhaps reluctant sojourning their 
 country; they never regard it as their home. There is 
 no transference of affection from Britain to the depen¬ 
 dency ; and this is the uniform burden of their son g,Du/ce, 
 dulce domum, “ There is no place like home ! ” — meaning 
 England, Scotland, or Ireland. There are individual ex¬ 
 ceptions, doubtless; but this is the general rule. There 
 are occasional incursions also of really British colonists 
 into the territory of what was once a French or Dutch 
 colony, as in Lower Canada and the Cape of Good Hope; 
 but these are rare cases, and the line of demarcation be¬ 
 tween the colonists of the old and those of the new re¬ 
 gime is as strongly marked as if it had been staked off 
 with a line of palisades.* 
 
 But the really British colonist goes to a really British 
 
 * “ To proceed to a new country in a number sufficiently large to 
 form a nation or community within itself greatly relieves and mode¬ 
 rates the evils of emigration; but to abandon our country for an¬ 
 other where the people have nothing in common with us but the 
 bond of the same humanity, is to renounce our nationality and 
 our race— two things which are not given to man that he may cast them 
 off whenever it pleases his fantasy .”— Count Strzelccki's Physical De¬ 
 scription of New South Wales and Van Dieman's Land, Sfc., p. 381. 
 
20 
 
 FREEDOM AND INDEPENDENCE FOR 
 
 colony with far different feelings and views and objects. 
 He may feel as strongly attached to his native country as 
 the other adventurer, and as loth to leave it; and the 
 better man he is, he will only cherish these generous and 
 manly feelings the more strongly. He may say, with all 
 the deep-toned emotion of the poet, 
 
 “ Nos patrios fines, et dulcia linquimus arva ; 
 
 Nos patriam fugimus !”* 
 
 but Divine Providence has said to him, as plainly as God 
 said to Abraham, Get thee out of thy country , and from 
 thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that 
 I will shew thee\; and he has made up his mind to the 
 issue. In such circumstances, it is not merely sedes — a 
 temporary settlement — which he seeks, but a home and 
 a country, sedes patriamque. And as he builds his house 
 in the wilderness, and clears and cultivates the virgin soil; 
 or as his sheep and cattle graze peacefully around him, 
 while his children grow up, perhaps with only the faintest 
 recollections of their native land, the colonist feels that a 
 new object is gradually filling up the vacuum in his soul ; 
 and without being conscious of any estrangement from the 
 land of his birth, he finds that his affections are gradually 
 and insensibly transferred to the land of his adoption. In 
 short, the colonist is like a tree transplanted from its 
 native soil — it is some time before the shock of trans¬ 
 plantation, the tearing up of the tender roots, can be got 
 over; but, by and bye, these wounds are healed; the tree 
 gets used to the soil; it strikes out fresh roots in every 
 direction, and it probably reaches a far loftier height, ex¬ 
 hibits a far more luxuriant growth, and spreads around it 
 a far deeper “ continuity of shade,” than it would ever 
 have done in its native soil. 
 
 In one word, whether the colonist has had great diffi- 
 
 Virgil, Eel. i. 
 
 f Genesis, xii. 1. 
 
THE GOLDEN LANDS OP AUSTRALIA. 
 
 21 
 
 culties to overcome in effecting his settlement in the 
 colonial wilderness, or has experienced a speedy and un¬ 
 expectedly abundant return for his labours, a strong 
 attachment to his adopted country arises insensibly in his 
 mind; and, as time wears on, and the new interests with 
 which he has become identified are multiplied and 
 strengthened, this feeling gradually ripens into a spirit 
 of what may perhaps be designated colonial nationality. 
 His native land gradually fades from his view, and his 
 interest in its peculiar objects becomes fainter and fainter. 
 The particular colony, or group of colonies, to which he 
 belongs, engrosses all his affections, and the idea of the 
 welfare and advancement of his adopted country, like a 
 new passion, takes possession of his soul. 
 
 The spirit of colonial nationality, which necessarily 
 arises in the circumstances I have described, is no acci¬ 
 dental feeling; it is unquestionably of Divine implanta¬ 
 tion, and designed, not for evil, but for good. The 
 institution of a family is confessedly a Divine institution, 
 fraught with benefits of inestimable value to mankind ; 
 and all the attempts of Robert Owenism, Fourierism, Com¬ 
 munism and Socialism, to set it aside and substitute some¬ 
 thing better for it, are therefore vain and futile. So also 
 is the institution of a nation , or group of many families of 
 kindred origin inhabiting the same country, and separated 
 from the rest of mankind by lofty mountains or vast tracts 
 of ocean. Such a group of families will infallibly have 
 feelings, and interests, and objects centred in their own 
 country or territory, and differing, in that particular, from 
 those of every other portion of the human race. In one 
 word, a British colony, properly so called, and especially 
 a group of such colonies, will infallibly become a nation, 
 provided there is ample room and verge enough for its 
 due development. “ Colonies,” says the celebrated 
 William Penn, “ are the seeds of nations , begun and 
 nourished by the care of wise and populous countries, 
 
22 
 
 FREEDOM AND INDEPENDENCE FOR 
 
 conceiving them best for the increase of human stock, ami 
 beneficial for commerce.”* 
 
 Section VI. — Analogy between a Colony and a Child, and 
 Inferences from that Analogy. 
 
 As every human being who attains maturity of age 
 must pass through the three successive states of infancy, 
 of youth, and of manhood, so must every colony; and as 
 the infant must be nourished and cherished, and the 
 youth guided and governed by his parents, so must the 
 colony. But there is a time when the youth is no longer 
 to be wider tutors and governors. He attains his majority 
 at a certain period fixed by law, and he is thenceforth his 
 own master; being expected, of course, to support himself, 
 as well as to guide and govern himself, thenceforward. 
 Now I maintain that there is, in like manner, a time for 
 every colony, and especially for every group of colonies, 
 to attain their majority, so to speak, and to guide and 
 govern themselves thenceforward. 
 
 The time fixed by the law of the land for a young 
 man’s reaching his majority is the completion of the 
 twenty-first year of his age; for if an unreasonable or 
 tyrannical parent should refuse to give his son his entire 
 freedom, or to allow him to manage his own affairs, after 
 he has attained that age, the law will at once interfere, on 
 the appeal of the son, and set him free. It will not be 
 received as a valid argument, on the part of the father, 
 to allege that he does not consider his son capable of self- 
 government; for the law can take no cognisance of any 
 such allegation. It simply ascertains the fact that the 
 
 * Speaking of “ agricultural colonies, whose object is the cultiva¬ 
 tion of the soil,” Professor Heeren, of Gottingen, observes that 
 “ The colonists, who form them, become landed proprietors, are 
 formally naturalised, and in process of time become a nation, pro¬ 
 perly so called.”— Manual of the History of the Political System of 
 Europe and its Colonies. By A. II. L. Heeren, Professor of History in 
 the University of Gottingen, p. 24. London, 1846. 
 
THE GOLDEN LANDS OF AUSTRALIA, 23 
 
 son has reached the age at which he is legally entitled to 
 entire freedom from all further parental control, and at 
 which therefore the patriapotestas ceases and determines; 
 and it decides accordingly. 
 
 But as there is no positive law, either human or divine, 
 to fix the time when a colony, or group of colonies, shall 
 be held to have attained their majority, and to be permitted 
 to manage their own affairs, and to guide and govern 
 themselves, it may be alleged, with some shadow of 
 reason, that the analogy fails at this point. Does it do so, 
 however? By no means. For the reason assigned for the 
 decision which the law pronounces, in setting the son 
 who has attained his majority entirely free from the con¬ 
 trol of his unreasonable and tyrannical parent, is that he 
 is both able and willing to manage his own affairs, and to 
 guide and govern, as well as to maintain, himself. Now, 
 as this reason is equally applicable to both cases, I main¬ 
 tain, without fear of contradiction, that a colony, or group 
 of colonies, attains its political majority, and is thenceforth 
 entitled to entire freedom and independence, whenever it 
 is both able and willing to manage its own affairs, and to 
 guide and govern itself, without either assistance or pro¬ 
 tection from the parent state. This is the law of nature, 
 or, in other words, the ordinance of God; and the parent 
 state, which in such circumstances refuses to grant entire 
 freedom and independence to any colony or group of 
 colonies, is resisting the divine ordinance, and is acting 
 unreasonably and tyrannically. The authority it assumes 
 is usurpation, and the exercise of that authority is down¬ 
 right tyranny. 
 
 There is certainly no law requiring a young man to 
 claim entire freedom from all parental control when he 
 attains his majority; and if he chooses to remain in his 
 father’s house, and assist him in his business, that is his 
 own affair, and is supposed to be a matter of private 
 arrangement between his father and himself, with which 
 no law can interfere. But it is natural for a young man 
 
24 FREEDOM AND INDEPENDENCE FOR 
 
 in such circumstances, especially if he has learned a 
 business by which he can maintain a family, and sees a 
 favourable prospect of establishing himself successfully in 
 the world, and has fixed his affections on some virtuous 
 female of his own class in society, with whom he can be 
 united in matrimony when he is his own master — it is 
 natural for a young man in such circumstances not only 
 to desire his entire freedom and independence, but to 
 assert that freedom and independence, and to act accord¬ 
 ingly. By the law of nature, or, in other words, by the 
 ordinance of God, as well as by the laws of the land, the 
 young man is constituted the sole judge as to whether he 
 shall assume and exercise his entire freedom and inde¬ 
 pendence or not. 
 
 In like manner it is not only in accordance with the 
 law of nature and the ordinance of God that a colony, or 
 group of colonies, which has attained its political majority, 
 and is both able and willing to undertake the entire 
 management of its own affairs, without either assistance 
 or protection from the parent state, should desire its 
 entire freedom and independence with intense earnestness; 
 it is the law of nature and the ordinance of God that it 
 should have that freedom and independence. “ The desire 
 of independence,” observes Professor Heeren, “ is natural 
 to agricultural colonies; because a new nation gradually 
 becomes formed within them." * To the same effect, the 
 celebrated Grotius, cited in the following paragraph by 
 Mr. Ex-Governor Pownall, describes the natural growth 
 of a colony into a new nation : — 
 
 “Our colonies and provinces, being each a body politic, 
 and having a right to, and enjoying in fact, a certain 
 legislature, indented rather with the case of the Grecian 
 colonies, as stated by Grotius: Hue referenda et discessio 
 quae ex consensu fit in colonias, nam sic quoque novus 
 populus sui juris nascitur." [To this category is also to 
 
 * Heeren’s Hist, of the Pulit. Syst. of Europe and its Colonies, 
 p. 278. 
 
TIIE GOLDEN LANDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
 
 25 
 
 be referred the case of the voluntary emigration of people 
 to colonies; for in this way too a new and independ¬ 
 ent NATION IS BORN.] * 
 
 The parent state therefore is not the judge as to whether 
 the particular colony or group of colonies, claiming its 
 freedom and independence is fit lor, or ought to be en¬ 
 trusted with such a possession. This is a matter for the 
 colony, or group of colonies, to determine for itself. The 
 parent state has as little to say in it as the individual 
 parent in the case of his son. 
 
 Section VII. —The Australian Colonies have attained their 
 political Majority, and are consequently entitled to 
 their Freedom and Independence. 
 
 If, therefore, it is true and cannot be gainsaid, that the 
 desire of freedom and independence is natural to all 
 “agricultural colonies,” that is, to all such communities 
 as British colonies, properly so called; if this desire is the 
 natural and necessary result of their peculiar circumstances 
 and situation, from the fact that “ a nation becomes formed 
 within them;” if it is divinely implanted, moreover, and 
 therefore designed for good and not for evil — for the 
 welfare and advancement of the human family, and not 
 for its injury or depression ; and if such colonies are 
 entitled to their entire freedom and independence when¬ 
 ever they have attained their political majority, or are 
 
 * Administration of the Colonies, ly l >r,,::js i nwnall, formerly 
 Governor of Massachusetts p. 55. London, 1768.— Pownall was a 
 well-meaning man who did his best, as a Member of Parliament in 
 England, to reconcile both parties, during the American troubles; 
 but of course without effect. He advocated, what he called, in his 
 own clumsy style, “ A grand marine dominion, consisting of our 
 possessions in the Atlantic, and in America, united into one empire, 
 in a one centre, where the seat of Government is.” The thing was 
 impracticable: it was contrary to the law of nature and the ordi¬ 
 nance of God, as stated by Grotius in the very passage he cites. 
 
 C 
 
 ( 
 
26 FREEDOM AND INDEPENDENCE FOR 
 
 both able and willing to manage their own affairs, without 
 either assistance or protection from the parent state, I 
 maintain that the Australian colonies, having attained 
 their political majority, and being both able and w'illing 
 to maintain and govern themselves, are entitled to claim 
 their freedom and independence; and I maintain, more¬ 
 over, that Great Britain, the parent state, being an inter¬ 
 ested party in the matter, has no more right to constitute 
 herself a judge in the case, and to put forth an adverse 
 decision, than the unreasonable and tyrannical parent 
 who withholds his freedom from his own child. 
 
 There is no particular number of men, women and 
 children, required, under any law either human or divine, 
 to constitute a nation. The Chinese nation is said to 
 comprise not fewer than three hundred and fifty millions 
 of people, or about a third of the whole human race. The 
 Tahitian nation numbered only about ten thousand souls, 
 when it was swallowed up, and “ annexed ” by the late 
 Louis Philippe of France ; for which fraternal act towards 
 his royal sister, Queen Pomare, certain people in New 
 South Wales, who were deeply interested in the welfare 
 and advancement of the little nation, are of opinion that 
 the said Louis Philippe met with condign punishment in 
 due time. There is another Polynesian nation, the Ha¬ 
 waiian or Sandwich Island nation, with a king and par¬ 
 liament recognised, and its freedom and independence 
 guaranteed by Great Britain, although it has a consider¬ 
 ably smaller population than the colony of New South 
 Wales. And surely we are not to be told that a people 
 of British origin are less likely to be able to govern 
 themselves than a still smaller number of South Sea 
 Islanders. 
 
 “ A state or commonwealth,” says Milton, “is a society 
 sufficient in itself in all things conducible to well-being 
 and commodious life:” and I maintain, without fear of 
 contradiction from any quarter, that the community of 
 the Australian colonies forms, at this moment, just such 
 
THE GOLDEN LANDS OF AUSTRALIA. 27 
 
 a society — “a society sufficient in itself in all things 
 conducible to well-being and commodious life.” 
 
 The group of Australian colonies for which I would 
 claim entire freedom and national independence, as a 
 matter of right as well as of policy, are those in the 
 eastern section of the Australian continent, including the 
 island of Van Dieman’s Land. For as the eastern and 
 western portions of the Great South Land are separated 
 from each other by a great central desert, like those of 
 Africa and Arabia, of at least a thousand miles in extent, 
 it must be evident, that the eastern and western divisions 
 of that land must each be under a separate regime. Be¬ 
 sides, the colony of Western Australia, or Swan River, 
 has recently been transformed, with the consent of its 
 own inhabitants, into a penal settlement, a condition 
 which all the eastern colonies strongly repudiate; and it 
 is more than probable that the imperial government will 
 form a series of such settlements along the west and 
 northwest coasts. There is, therefore, as complete a 
 separation of the eastern and western divisions of the 
 continent as if a wide ocean had rolled between them. 
 The eastern colonies are, according to their seniority, as 
 follows; viz. 
 
 1. New South Wales, with a coast-line of about five 
 hundred miles on the Western Pacific Ocean, from Cape 
 Howe, the south-eastern extremity of the land, to the 
 thirtieth parallel of south latitude ; comprising an area of 
 three hundred thousand square miles, or an extent of 
 country equal to all Great Britain and France together. 
 \ very large proportion of this land is doubtless hopelessly 
 iterile; but there is still a vast extent of its surface equal 
 n quality to any land in the world, and its mining re¬ 
 sources, from gold to coal, are inexhaustible. From the 
 ueight of its mountains, and the extent of its table land, it 
 las a great variety of climate, and a corresponding range 
 if productions. Its present population is 189,951. 
 
 2. Van Dieman’s Land, a beautiful island nearly equal 
 
28 FREEDOM AND INDEPENDENCE FOR 
 
 in size to Ireland, and in a still milder climate. It pos¬ 
 sesses agricultural and other capabilities for the sustenance 
 and employment of a dense population superior to those 
 of most European countries of equal extent. Its present 
 population is 70,130. 
 
 3. South Australia, with a coast-line of about five 
 hundred miles along the Great Southern Ocean, and an 
 area of three hundred thousand square miles. Only a 
 comparatively small portion, however, of this vast extent 
 of territory is at all fit for the purposes of man*, the rest 
 of it being part of the great central desert of Australia ; 
 but the available portion is of superior quality for agri¬ 
 culture, and its copper mines are rich and extensive. Its 
 present population is 67,000. 
 
 4. Victoria or Port Phillip, with a coast-line of about 
 five hundred miles along Bass’ Straits and the Great 
 Southern Ocean, from Cape Howe, the boundary of New 
 South Wales on the one hand, to that of South Australia 
 on the other. It extends however only a comparatively 
 small distance inland, and its area is about eighty-five 
 thousand square miles, or about the size of Great Britain. 
 A large portion of its surface consists of the finest land 
 in one of the finest climates in the world, and its gold 
 mines are of unequalled richness. Its present population 
 is 77,345. 
 
 5. Cooksland, or the Moreton Bay County, with a 
 coast-line of about five hundred miles along the Western 
 Pacific, from the thirtieth parallel of latitude to the Tropic 
 of Capricorn. It has an area of three hundred thousand 
 square miles, eight or ten rivers disemboguing in the Pa¬ 
 cific, and all available for steam navigation, and an 
 extent of land of the first quality for all sorts of cultiva¬ 
 tion suited to the soil and climate, considerably greater 
 than the whole extent of such land in Port Phillip and 
 Van Dieman’s Land put together. Its mineral resources, 
 
 Vide Captain Sturt’s Discoveries in Central Australia. 
 
THE GOLDEN LANDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
 
 29 
 
 with the exception of coal, whicli is abundant and easily 
 procurable, are as yet unknown, although gold has been 
 recently discovered on one of its navigable rivers. Its 
 climate, although rather hot in summer, is one of the 
 finest on the face of the earth. The present population 
 of this province, which is still a part of New South Wales, 
 is 10,396. The inhabitants are at present petitioning for 
 their separation from the older colony, which the Home 
 Government is, in such an event, pledged by Act of Par¬ 
 liament to grant. 
 
 The population of tiiese five provinces (excluding that 
 of Cooksland, which is included in the census of New 
 South Wales), is therefore 401,126; and in all likelihood 
 it will be considerably upwards of half a million before 
 the close of this present year — that is, a population 
 greater in all probability than that of Her Majesty’s an¬ 
 cient kingdom of Scotland, when king Robert the Bruce 
 gained the battle of Bannockburn, and delivered his 
 country from the intolerable yoke of England. Surely 
 then a community of such extent, especially when sepa¬ 
 rated by half the circumference of the globe from the 
 dominant country that professes to have both a right and 
 . ability to govern it, must form “a society sufficient in all 
 things conducible to well-being and commodious life.” 
 
 As I consider the waste lands of the Australian conti¬ 
 nent the property — not of the actual colonists, as certain 
 . influential members of the Legislative Council of New 
 South Wales uniformly represent them *, but of the 
 
 * The following is one of the items of a solemn protest of the 
 ■ late Legislative Council of New South Wales, including the district 
 of Port Phillip, addressed in the form of petitions to Her Majesty 
 . and both Houses of Parliament, in the year 1851. 
 
 “ That the revenue arising from the public lands, derived as it is, 
 mainly, from the value imparted to them by the labour and capital 
 of the people of this colony, is as much their property as the or¬ 
 dinary revenue, and ought, therefore, to be subject to the like con¬ 
 trol and appropriation.” 
 
 I deny the principle, and I took special care, as a member of tho 
 
30 FREEDOM AND INDEPENDENCE FOR 
 
 humble and industrious classes of the United Kingdom, 
 which ought therefore to be managed in the best possible 
 manner for the national welfare, these provinces, or rather 
 their general government, would, under the arrangement 
 which I would propose for the recognition of their free¬ 
 dom and independence, be virtually the agents of the 
 mother country for the colonisation of the eastern portion of 
 Australia with a thoroughly British population. It would 
 be absolutely necessary, however, for the development 
 of this great scheme of colonisation, of which the details 
 will appear in the sequel, as well as for the welfare and 
 advancement of the existing colonies, that the whole east 
 coast-line, from Cape Howe to Cape York, should be 
 under the same General Government ; for as the Gulf of 
 Carpentaria is evidently destined to be the grand outlet 
 for the north-eastern portion of the Australian continent, 
 and perhaps the principal highway to England from Aus¬ 
 tralia, it must by all means be made available for the whole 
 of the eastern provinces. I would propose therefore that, 
 in addition to the five provinces above mentioned other 
 two should be formed, to be under the same General 
 Government, so as to comprise the remaining coast-line 
 from the Tropic of Capricorn to Cape York. These pro¬ 
 vinces I would also propose to designate in honour of two 
 eminent men, to whom the Australian world is under the 
 deepest obligations, for the inestimable services they both 
 rendered to society, and for the hardships and sufferings 
 they were both doomed to encounter, in the cause of 
 geographical and maritime discovery in Australia. 
 
 6. Leichartsland (in honour of Dr. Ludwig Leichhardt, 
 
 late Council, to enter my disclaimer of it upon the spot. The land 
 revenue — meaning the revenue arising from the sale of land, not 
 from the mere use of it — is doubtless to be administered for the 
 benefit of the actual colonists; hut it is not their property. It is 
 the property of the empire; and the people of Great Britain and 
 Ireland are to share that benefit with them in the way best con¬ 
 ducive to the welfare of all. 
 
THE GOLDEN LANDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
 
 31 
 
 the celebrated German traveller, who first traversed and 
 made known to the world this valuable tract of country, 
 and whose bones, it is greatly to be feared, are now 
 blanching on the waste in the midst of the Great Central 
 Desert of Australia). The coast-line of this province 
 would extend about four hundred and fifty miles along the 
 Western Pacific, from the Tropic of Capricorn to about 
 17^° south latitude, or the latitude of the head of the 
 Gulf of Carpentaria. It is somewhat remarkable that on 
 this parallel of latitude, a tract of broken country forms 
 the divisio aquarum, or water-shed, separating the south¬ 
 eastern waters flowing into the Pacific Ocean from the 
 north-western flowing into the Gulf. The province would 
 stretch to the westward as far as the south-western angle 
 of the Gulf, so as to afford the inhabitants a port on the 
 Gulf, besides whatever ports it may have on the Pacific. 
 The area of this province would be about three hundred 
 thousand square miles ; and from all that is known of it, 
 it contains a vast extent of the richest land for all the 
 different branches of tropical cultivation, 
 
 7. Flindersland (in honour of the late Matthew Flin¬ 
 ders, Esq., captain in the Royal Navy, whose maritime 
 discoveries, and whose personal sufferings on the coasts 
 of Australia and elsewhere are generally known). This 
 province would consist of the entire peninsula of Cape 
 York, which forms an isosceles triangle, with its base line 
 to the south, and its opposite sides fronting the Western 
 Pacific Ocean and the Gulf of Carpentaria. It would 
 thus have a coast-line of from eight to nine hundred miles, 
 while its area would be equal to that of the island of Great 
 Britain or the province of Port Phillip. There is little 
 | known of ic as yet, with the exception of the highly fa¬ 
 vourable report of Dr. Leichhardt, in regard to the country 
 abutting upon the head of the Gulf; Mr. Kennedy, a 
 Surveyor on the establishment of New South Wales, who 
 had been sent out with an exploring party to follow up 
 
32 FREEDOM AND INDEPENDENCE FOR 
 
 Dr. Leichhardt’s discoveries on the peninsula, having been 
 unfortunately murdered by the black natives. 
 
 There would thus, under the scheme of union and of 
 General Government which I would propose for the Aus¬ 
 tralian provinces, in the event of these provinces having 
 their freedom and independence conceded to them by the 
 Imperial Government, be “Tiie Seven United Pro¬ 
 vinces of Australia”; viz. three to the south, and 
 three to the north, of New South Wales, with that great 
 province in the centre. The head-quarters of the Na¬ 
 tional Government, as well as the capital of that central 
 province, would be the city of Sydney on the magnificent 
 harbour of Port Jackson. 
 
 That such a union of these provinces into one great 
 whole would be highly desirable on many accounts, is 
 evident even at present. The river Murray, for example, 
 which, it is believed, could easily be rendered navigable 
 for the whole of its course, will eventually form a strong 
 bond of union between the three southern continental 
 provinces, viz. New South Wales, Victoria, and South 
 Australia; and steam communication already connects 
 Van Dieman’s Land — the fourth of the southern pro¬ 
 vinces—with all the other three. Then, as to the north¬ 
 ern provinces, New South Wales and Cooksland have a 
 common boundary ; and there is already a regular steam 
 communication between Sydney and two of the principal 
 rivers of the latter province. As soon as the two remain¬ 
 ing provinces are settled, that communication will be ex¬ 
 tended to both ; while the Gulf of Carpentaria, with cheap 
 lines of wooden railway to the southward and eastward 
 from the port at the head of the gulf, will form a common 
 outlet for all the four northern provinces, including New 
 South Wales, and bind them all together into one whole. 
 
 Such a result, however, could only be realised at pre¬ 
 sent through the action of the Imperial Government; as, 
 in the event of the whole of the provinces obtaining their 
 entire freedom and independence, it is questionable whether 
 
THE GOLDEN LANDS OF AUSTRALIA. 33 
 
 they would coalesce into one Great Dominion without 
 some strong pressure from without. 
 
 Section VIII. — The Sort of Government proposed for these 
 Provinces—both Provincial and National. 
 
 Supposing, then, that an Act of Parliament should be 
 passed, constituting a Senate and House of Representatives 
 on a popular basis, for each of the existing Australian pro¬ 
 vinces, with a proviso for the extension of a similar con¬ 
 stitution to such other provinces as might thereafter be 
 formed, I would propose that a Senate and House of Re¬ 
 presentatives should be constituted also for the General 
 Government or National Legislature. In the House of 
 Representatives I would have the popular element through¬ 
 out the national union represented; each province having 
 a number of representatives, to be elected by the people, 
 proportioned to its entire population : but in the Senate, 
 or Upper House, I would have the provinces represented 
 equally, without reference to population ; and the choice 
 of these Senators I would entrust to the respective pro¬ 
 vincial Senates and Houses of Representatives, — these 
 bodies to meet together in the same house for that special 
 purpose, as is customary in certain cases in the Norwegian 
 Storthing.* 
 
 Thus, supposing the Province of New South Wales had 
 a provincial Senate of fifteen, and a House of Representa¬ 
 tives of forty-five members; and supposing the number 
 of senators allotted to each province for the national legis¬ 
 lature should be three ; the fifteen provincial senators of 
 New South Wales would meet with the forty-five members 
 of the House of Representatives, and elect, either by ballot 
 or otherwise, three senators for the National Legislature. 
 And supposing that each fifteen thousand of the entire 
 population should be entitled to return a member for the 
 
 Laing's Travels in Norway. 
 
£4 FREEDOM AND INDEPENDENCE FOR 
 
 Lower House of that, legislature, New South Wales would 
 be entitled to return twelve members for a population of one 
 hundred and ninety thousand. A President and Vice Pre¬ 
 sident — the latter to be the Speaker of the National Se¬ 
 nate, as in the United States — would be best elected by 
 the whole Australian nation ; and there would thus be a 
 bond of union established among the whole seven pro¬ 
 vinces, while a noble career of honourable ambition would 
 be thrown open to the master spirits of the nation. 
 
 Such, then, are the provinces that could be formed — 
 five of them immediately, and the other two in a few 
 years hence — into a grand national union for the govern¬ 
 ment of the eastern division of the continent of Australia. 
 It would be preposterous to allege, after the example we 
 have already had of the working even of imperfectly re¬ 
 presentative institutions in New South Wales, that such 
 a government could not be formed with the utmost facility; 
 and it were equally preposterous to allege that such a go¬ 
 vernment would not be eminently efficient in its character 
 and working, remarkably economical in its structure and 
 management, and in the highest degree satisfactory to the 
 people. And if it is the law of nature and the ordinance 
 of God, as I maintain it is, that we, the Australian people, 
 who have already attained our political majority, and are 
 both able and willing to govern ourselves, should be forth¬ 
 with permitted to do so by the parent state, there cannot 
 be the shadow of a doubt that the longer a measure of 
 such paramount importance is deferred, incalculable evils 
 will, in one form or other, result both to Great Britain and 
 to Australia. It is unsafe in the highest degree to coun¬ 
 teract a law of nature: it is positively sinful to resist an 
 ordinance of God. 
 
THE GOLDEN LANDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
 
 35 
 
 Section IX. — A Compromise proposed and considered—Par¬ 
 liamentary Representation for the Colonies, 
 
 Among the various expedients that were proposed by 
 ingenious speculators, and rejected by both parties, during 
 the American troubles, previous to the War of Indepen¬ 
 dence, was that of Parliamentary Representation for the 
 colonies. It has been suggested, also, in more recent 
 times, in the House of Commons; and there have occa¬ 
 sionally been colonists of talent and standing who have 
 expressed themselves favourably in regard to it. The 
 person who first suggested the idea appears to have been 
 Oldmixon, an American annalist of the era of Queen Anne 
 or George I. It was afterwards put forward with appro¬ 
 bation by the celebrated Dr. Adam Smith, and advocated 
 for a time, but afterwards rejected and strongly opposed, 
 by Dr. Benjamin Franklin. Franklin was too keen an 
 observer of passing events, when sojourning in London 
 as a delegate from the colony of Pennsylvania, not to per¬ 
 ceive how utterly valueless for his constituents a seat in 
 the House of Commons would be for the Representative 
 of a colony. Only think how the Honourable Member for 
 Botany Bay would be sneered at on the floor of the House, 
 and what small effect anything he could say would be 
 likely to have on the affairs of the nation ! Besides, what 
 possible interest can the people of New South Wales or 
 South Australia have in one even out of every hundred of 
 the cpiestions that are brought before Parliament? It 
 would decidedly be unconstitutional, and therefore wrong, 
 for the people of England to allow a mere colonial mem¬ 
 ber to vote on any question of British taxation or of in¬ 
 ternal administration ; and would it be accordant with the 
 self-respect which the colonists owe themselves to allow 
 their members to sit silent in the British House of Com¬ 
 mons? We can learn from the public press, without the 
 circuitous and expensive course of having a Parliamentary 
 
36 FREEDOM AND INDEPENDENCE FOR 
 
 Representative to report to us, how often the House is 
 counted out every session on colonial questions, of what¬ 
 ever importance they may be to the colonies; and we all 
 know already, without a Parliamentary Representative to 
 guarantee the fact, the precise degree of indifference and 
 disgust with which colonial questions are almost uniformly 
 regarded in that House. 
 
 Besides, what are we to do for representation for the 
 colonies in the House of Lords; for we are surely quite 
 as much entitled to representation in that House as in the 
 other ? Are we to have colonial Peers of Parliament as 
 well as colonial members of the Lower House — the Mar¬ 
 quis of Parramatta, for instance. Lord Wollongong, and 
 Viscount Curraducbidgee ? We, colonists, are certainly 
 not responsible for the ridiculousness of the thing —. it is 
 no proposal of ours. 
 
 Again, if we fell into the trap that is thus proposed to 
 be set for us, by accepting Parliamentary Representation 
 for the colonies, we should virtually declare that the 
 British Parliament has a right to legislate for the colonies, 
 just as it has for the people of England, and to precisely 
 the same extent; and we should thereby be bartering 
 away the liberties of our country for a thing of no value 
 whatever. We have certainly no desire, as Australian 
 colonists, to legislate for the people of England ; and we 
 deny that the people of England can have any right, by 
 the law of nature, which is the ordinance of God, to 
 legislate for us. 
 
 It may not be inexpedient, however, to ascertain what 
 opinions were actually entertained and propounded on 
 this subject by the American colonists; for if Parlia¬ 
 mentary Representation was deemed unsuitable and unde¬ 
 sirable for them, a fortiori it must be undesirable and 
 unsuitable for us at the extremity of the globe. 
 
 “ Our Representatives,” says Smith, in his History of 
 New York, “agreeably to the general sense of their con¬ 
 stituents, are tenacious in the opinion that . . . the 
 
THE GOLDEN LANDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
 
 37 
 
 session of Assemblies here is wisely substituted instead of 
 a representation in Parliament, which, all things con- 
 'idered, would at this remote distance be extremely incon¬ 
 venient and dangerous 
 
 At a considerably later period than the one referred to 
 by this historian, viz. in the year 1765, “there assembled 
 in the town of New York a convention composed of twenty- 
 eight delegates from the assemblies of nine of the colonies; 
 one of their resolutions was as follows: viz. “That while 
 all the British subjects are entitled to the privilege of being 
 taxed only by their own representatives, the remote situa¬ 
 tion of the colonies rendered it impracticable that they should 
 be represented except in their own subordinate legisla- 
 tures.” f 
 
 The Assembly of Massachusetts, during the same year, 
 resolved “ That the citizens of Massachusetts never had 
 been, and never could be, adequately represented in the 
 British Parliament.”}: 
 
 To the same effect Dr. Benjamin Franklin “declared 
 his conviction, that the legislatures of Britain and America 
 were and ought to be distinct from each other, and that 
 the relation between the two countries was precisely ana¬ 
 logous to that which had subsisted between England and 
 Scotland previous to their Union.” § 
 
 Section X. — Another Compromise proposed and considered 
 — Municipal Independence. 
 
 Mr. Edward Gibbon Wakefield, a gentleman for whom 
 I have the utmost respect, and who has laid the colonial 
 world under the highest obligations for the invaluable 
 services he has rendered to society in the cause of coloni- 
 
 * Grahame’s Hist, of the United States of North America, vol. iii. 
 p. 324. 
 
 f Ibid. vol. iv. p. 217. f Ibid. vol. iii. p. 374. 
 
 § Ibid. vol. iv. p. 221. 
 
33 
 
 FREEDOM AND INDEPENDENCE FOR 
 
 sation, proposes, in common with various other colonial 
 reformers, that the colonial legislatures should have entire 
 freedom and independence in all subordinate matters, or in 
 other words, what he calls municipal independence, but that 
 all imperial questions should be left to the Imperial Parlia¬ 
 ment. As it would require some third party, however, 
 to decide which were imperial and which were subordinate 
 questions, and as no such party can exist under the cir¬ 
 cumstances supposed, this beautiful theory could never be 
 reduced to practice. 
 
 Jt is remarkable how much better the principles of civil 
 liberty were understood, apparently by every body, in the 
 seventeenth century, than they are at the present day 
 even by colonial reformers. In the year 1619 the Virginia 
 Company passed an ordinance to the effect, that “the 
 enactments of the [Colonial] Assembly should not have 
 the force of law till sanctioned by the Court of Pro¬ 
 prietors in England; and that the orders of this Court 
 should have no force in Virginia till ratified by the Vir¬ 
 ginia Assembly.” * There was something like reciprocity 
 in this enactment; but I confess I see nothing of the kind 
 in Mr. Wakefield’s proposal. Again, in the year 1636, 
 the colony of Plymouth (in Massachusetts) drew up a 
 body of laws, of which the first is “ That no act, imposi¬ 
 tion, law, or ordinance be made or imposed upon us at 
 present, or to come, but such as has been or shall be en¬ 
 acted by the consent of the body of freemen, or their repre¬ 
 sentatives, legally assembled, which is according to the free 
 liberties of the freeborn people of England'' + Then again, 
 in the year 1662, that is, during the reign of Charles the 
 Second, “certain of the leading colonists [of Rhode 
 Island], together with all other persons who should in 
 future be admitted freemen of the society, were incor¬ 
 porated by the title of The Governor and Company of the 
 
 * Grahame’s Hist, of the United States of North America, vol. i. 
 p. 70. 
 
 f Holmes’s Annals of America, vol. i. 
 
THE GOLDEN LANDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
 
 39 
 
 English Colony of Rhode Island and Providence. The 
 supreme or legislative power was invested in an assembly 
 consisting of the Governor, Assistants, and Representatives 
 elected from their own number by the freemen. This 
 assembly was empowered to enact ordinances and forms 
 of government and magistracy, with as much conformity 
 to the laws of England as the state of the country and 
 condition of the people would admit; to erect courts of 
 justice; to regulate the manner of appointment to places 
 of trust; to inflict all lawful punishments; and to exercise 
 the prerogative of pardon. A governor, deputy-governor, 
 and ten assistants were appointed to be annually chosen 
 by the assembly; and the first board of these officers, 
 nominated by the Charter, on the suggestion of the pro¬ 
 vincial agent, were authorised to commence the work of 
 carrying its provisions into execution.”* 
 
 A charter equally liberal was granted during the same 
 year to the Colony of Connecticut, by the same monarch 
 —Charles the Second ! 
 
 Again, in the year 1775, the assembly of New York 
 declared, in a petition to Parliament for the redress of 
 grievances, “ that exemption from internal taxation, and 
 the exclusive power of providing for their own civil 
 government and the administration of justice in the 
 colony, are esteemed by them their undoubted and in¬ 
 alienable rights.” t 
 
 And again, “The birthright of every British subject is, 
 to have a property of his own, in his estate, person, and 
 reputation; subject only to laws enacted by his own 
 concurrence, either in person or by his representatives; 
 and which birthright accompanies him wheresoever he 
 wanders or rests, so long as he is within the pale of the 
 British dominions, and is true to his allegiance.” J 
 
 * Grahame’s Hist, of the United States, vol. i. p. 316. 
 
 f Ibid. vol. iv. p. 369. 
 
 J Dr. Benjamin Franklin’s Historical Review of the Constitution of 
 Pennsylvania. Grahame, vol. iv. p. 440. 
 
40 FREEDOM AND INDEPENDENCE FOE 
 
 One extract more and I have done: “Massachusetts 
 and New Hampshire — the one enjoying a chartered, the 
 other an unchartered jurisdiction — were the only two 
 provinces of New England in which the superior officers 
 of government were appointed by the Crown, and from 
 the tribunals of which an appeal was admitted to the king 
 in Council. In Connecticut and Rhode Island, all the 
 officers of government (excepting the members of the 
 Court of Admiralty), were elected by the inhabitants; and 
 so resolutely was this highly-valued privilege defended, 
 that when King William appointed Fletcher, the governor 
 of New York, to command the Connecticut militia, the 
 province refused to acknowledge his authority. The laws 
 of these States were not subject to the negative, nor the 
 judgments of their tribunals to the review of the king. 
 So perfectly democratic were the constitutions of Con¬ 
 necticut and Rhode Island, that in neither of them was 
 the governor suffered to exercise a negative on the reso¬ 
 lutions of the assembly. The spirit of liberty was not 
 repressed in Massachusetts by the encroachments of royal 
 prerogative on the ancient privileges of the people, but 
 was vigorously exerted through the remaining and im¬ 
 portant organ of the provincial assembly. All the pa¬ 
 tronage that was vested in the Royal Governor was never 
 able to create more than a very inconsiderable royalist 
 party in this State. The functionaries whom he, or whom 
 the Crown appointed, depended on the popular assembly 
 for the emoluments of their offices; and although the 
 most strenuous efforts and the most formidable threats 
 were employed by the British ministers to free the Go¬ 
 vernor himself from the same dependence, they were 
 never able to prevail with the Assembly to annex a fixed 
 salary to his office. The people and the popular authorities 
 of Massachusetts were always ready to set an example to 
 the other colonies of a determined resistance to the en¬ 
 croachments of Royal prerogative.”* 
 
 * Grahame’s Hist, of the United States, vol. i. p. 421. 
 
THE GOLDEN LANDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
 
 41 
 
 These American colonists would scarcely have thanked 
 Mr. Wakefield for what he designates municipal indepen¬ 
 dence, highly as he esteems it. They looked for something 
 of a much more liberal character, and on a much firmer 
 basis than that gentleman would seem disposed to allow. 
 For in order to enable the Imperial Government and Par¬ 
 liament to correct any false step which might be made in 
 the way of granting even Municipal Constitutions for the 
 colonies, by giving the colonists too much, Mr. W. pro¬ 
 poses that the Charters granting these constitutions should 
 be revokable by the Parliament at pleasure! 
 
 “ In order to retain for the Imperial Pow'er the most 
 complete general control over the colony, the colonial 
 constitution, instead of being granted immutably and in 
 perpetuity, as our old municipal charters were, should, in 
 the Charter itself, be declared liable to revocation or alter¬ 
 ation by the Crown, upon address from both Houses of 
 Parliament.”* 
 
 And does Mr. Wakefield really suppose that the Aus¬ 
 tralian colonists — half a million of people at the ends of 
 the earth — would be abject and spiritless enough to ac¬ 
 cept such a constitution as this ? I thought he had known 
 us better. In one word, there is only one way in which 
 the question can be settled definitively, and at the same 
 time satisfactorily for all parties, that is, the way prescribed 
 by the law of nature and the ordinance of God. 
 
 Section XI. — Nationality a real and not an imaginary 
 Good. 
 
 If the desire of freedom and independence is natural to 
 colonists, as I have shown it is — if it is the necessary 
 result of the circumstances in which they are placed, in¬ 
 asmuch as “a nation is formed within them”—it must 
 
 * View of the Art of Colonisation, fy-e. By Edward Gibbon Wake¬ 
 field, Esq., p. 308. London, 1849. 
 
42 FREEDOM AND INDEPENDENCE FOR 
 
 necessarily be implanted in their breasts by the All-wise 
 and Beneficent Creator; and it is doubtless so implanted 
 that it may be gratified. The feeling of nationality is no 
 emanation from the nether regions: it comes down to us 
 from heaven. It is the gift of God for the welfare and 
 advancement of his creature man, and bears no resem¬ 
 blance to the works of the Devil. 
 
 So far indeed from the feeling of nationality being a 
 mere matter of the imagination, it constitutes a bond of 
 brotherhood of the most influential and salutary character, 
 and forms one of the most powerful principles of virtuous 
 action. Like the main-spring of a watch, it sets the 
 whole machinery in motion. Like the heart, it causes the 
 pulse of life to beat in the farthest extremities of the sys¬ 
 tem. It is the very soul of society which animates and 
 exalts the whole brotherhood of associated men. 
 
 And must the young Australian be debarred from the 
 exercise of that generous and manly feeling, of which 
 every rightly constituted mind is conscious, when he ex¬ 
 claims, with deep emotion, 
 
 This is my own, my native land ! 
 
 And must it be held a crime for the Australian colonist, 
 who has gone forth in the vigour of manhood to that far 
 land, to labour earnestly for the freedom and independence 
 of his adopted country, and to identify himself, in reality, 
 as well as in imagination, with the coming glories of that 
 great nation of the future, of which he forms a part ? 
 
 In one word, nationality, or their entire freedom and 
 independence, is absolutely necessary for the social wel¬ 
 fare and political advancement of the Australian colonies. 
 Give us this, and you give us everything to enable us to 
 become a great and glorious people. Withhold this, and 
 you give us nothing. “Is not dependence, however 
 slight,” observes that truly eminent man, Sir James 
 Brooke, the Ilajah of Sarawak, when contemplating the 
 abject condition of the Malayan race in the Indian Archi- 
 
THE GOLDEN LANDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
 
 43 
 
 pelago, under the depressing influence of Dutch domina¬ 
 tion for three long centuries — “Is not dependence, how¬ 
 ever slight, a bar [to national advancement?] I should 
 answer, Yes. National independence is essential to the 
 first dawn of political institutions''* 
 
 Section XII. — An Objection urged and considered — Great 
 Britain planted the Australian Colonies, and has there¬ 
 fore a Right to rule them. 
 
 This was the notable argument of the celebrated Dr. 
 Johnson, when working as a literary day-labourer for his 
 Government pension, during the discreditable and disas¬ 
 trous struggle with the American Colonies. Forgetting 
 that these colonies had, with the single exception of 
 Georgia, been planted without assistance of any kind from 
 the parent state ; and perhaps wilfully forgetting also, 
 that some of the most prominent among them had origi¬ 
 nated in the fierce intolerance and unnatural and atro¬ 
 cious persecution of the Government of the day, the 
 courtly pensioner put forth the notable argument, in 
 defence of the British taxation of America, that, “as Great 
 Britain had nourished the calf, she had a right to milk 
 the cow.” But, to use another of the homely similes of 
 the distinguished moralist, Great Britain soon found to 
 her cost that “ it was the bull she was attempting to milk 
 all the while;” for he soon kicked her over, pails and 
 all; a mishap which cost her, at least, a hundred and 
 fifty millions sterling, besides broken bones and loss of 
 character. ]- 
 
 * Narrative of Events in Borneo and Celebes, §'e., vol. i. p. 67. 
 London, 1849. 
 
 f At the commencement of the 'War of Independence in America 
 the national debt of Great Britain amounted to 128,500,000/. On 
 the 5th of January, 1786, when the arrears of the War of Inde¬ 
 pendence had all been paid, it amounted to 268,100,000/., notwith- 
 
44 
 
 FREEDOM AND INDEPENDENCE FOE 
 
 But it must be borne in mind that Great Britain 
 planted the Colonies of New South Wales and Van Die- 
 man’s Land, which eventually proved the seedplot for all 
 the rest, for her own purposes exclusively, — for her own 
 convenience, — and probably without even the slightest 
 intention of permanently benefiting these colonies in any 
 way. 
 
 “ From the foundation of the penal colonies,” observes 
 Sir William Molcsworth, in his speech on Transportation 
 in the House of Commons, delivered on the 5th May, 
 1840, “to the year 1886, the total expenditure of this 
 country on account of these colonies has exceeded eight 
 millions. During that period 98,000 convicts have been 
 transported. Their punishment has, therefore, cost at 
 least 81/. apiece up to 1836.” 
 
 But if these convicts had been confined in penitentiaries 
 at home, — at Millbank, for instance, — they would have 
 cost the country 15/. per head more than that amount, 
 besides subjecting it to the serious and intolerable annoy¬ 
 ance of their continued presence in the land.* 
 
 Besides, the convict origin of these colonies has en¬ 
 tailed on their present inhabitants an enormous additional 
 expenditure, for the maintenance of their police and 
 judicial establishments, beyond what would have been 
 
 standing the extraordinary efforts and exertions of the war period, 
 over and above the national loss indicated by the amount of addi¬ 
 tional debt incurred. 
 
 * “ The average expense of each convict kept in the convict hulks 
 in England for a period of four years would not be less than 30?.; 
 if kept in a house of correction, such as those of Wakefield or Cold- 
 bath Fields, would not he less than 55 1. or 56 1 .; and if kept in a 
 penitentiary, similar to that of Millbank, would not he less than 96/.” 
 — Lord John Russell's Letter to the Prime Minister, quoted by Sir 
 W. Molesworth, Speech, p. 59. 
 
 Sir William observes, however, in reference to this estimate, “ The 
 last and cheapest would he the hulks, the expense of which is much 
 under-estimated by the noble lord at 30 1. a convict.” 
 
THE GOLDEN LANDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
 
 45 
 
 required for these services, had they been originally free 
 settlements.* And from the utter want of common sense, 
 and often even of common honesty, in the carrying out 
 of the penal system of these colonies from the first, the 
 
 * “ In addition to this sum,” adds Sir William, when stating the 
 amount of the convict expenditure of the year 1836-7, “ the colonial 
 expenditure on account of the administration of justice, gaols, and 
 police, was 90,000/. a year; an enormous amount, as it is nine times 
 as great in proportion to population as that of the United Kingdom for 
 similar purposes. The greater portion of this expenditure evidently 
 belongs to transportation. ” 
 
 The extent to which the colony of New South Wales has suffered 
 from the effects of the Transportation System will appear from the 
 following Resolutions, moved by the late Joseph Phelps Robinson, 
 Esq., then Member of Council for Melbourne, in the Legislative 
 Council of New South Wales during the session of 1844. 
 
 “ That an humble address be presented to Her Majesty, setting 
 forth that according to the Estimates for 1845, laid before the Coun¬ 
 cil, it will be requisite to raise, from the general revenue and muni¬ 
 cipal assessments, the sum of 96,741/. 7s. 6 d. for police, gaols, 
 building of gaols, &c., being in a ratio of 12s. per head on the 
 population of the colony (165,541); whereas the whole expense of 
 the Government of the Canadas does not exceed 7s. per head; and 
 were a ratio similar to that existing in New South Wales necessary 
 for the United Kingdom, a sum not less than 16,200,000/. would be 
 required for these purposes. 
 
 “ That for the eight years, ending on the 31st December, 1843, a 
 sum of 839,800/. 7s. 7d. was paid by the colony for those services. 
 
 “ That the number of prisoners who have arrived free, or have 
 been bom in the colony, bear a proportion to those who have arrived 
 as convicts, of 39 to 72 ; and that, as a matter of equity, instead of 
 the colony being subjected to the payment of this enormous sum, it 
 should not be called upon for more than 33,990/. 5s. 7c/., whilst 
 the Home Government is justly chargeable with the balance of 
 62,751/. Is. llrf. 
 
 “ That of the amount of 839,800/. 7s. 7 d. already paid by the 
 colony, only 295,064/. 6s. 3d. is its fair proportion ; and that the 
 balance of 544,736/. Is. 4 d. is due to it by the Home Government. 
 
 “ And that Her Majesty be therefore humbly requested to re¬ 
 commend to Parliament that the amount of 544,736/. Is. 1 Id. being 
 
46 
 
 FREEDOM AND INDEPENDENCE FOR 
 
 vast expenditure of British money which was incurred in 
 the process proved but of very little permanent value to 
 the colonies, while the natural progress of reformation 
 among the convicts themselves was neutralized, and ob¬ 
 structed, and defeated by the very measures of the local 
 Government and its agents in every conceivable way. 
 The debtor and creditor accounts between Great Britain 
 and her Australian colonies will therefore exhibit but a 
 very small balance against even the originally penal colon¬ 
 ies, if any at. all; as it is evident and unquestionable that, 
 for all her outlay in the shape of convict expenditure, in 
 connection with these colonies, Great Britain has received 
 a substantial quid pro quo. 
 
 But Great Britain has also received an ample compen¬ 
 sation for that outlay in another and much more valuable 
 form — in the magnificent outlet she has thereby esta¬ 
 blished for her redundant population ; in the valuable 
 and indefinitely extending market for her manufactured 
 goods of all kinds which she has thus created, and in the 
 boundless field she has opened up for the production of 
 the raw material required for her manufactures, and for 
 the employment of her home population. Assuredly, 
 
 the due portion of the expense entailed by the presence of a convict 
 population in the colony, be defrayed by the Home Government. 
 Or should Her Majesty deem it more desirable, upon taking into 
 her gracious consideration the fact that 59,788 convicts were trans¬ 
 ported to the colony, and also the present exigencies of both 
 countries, in the one of which upwards of 4,000,000 of its popu¬ 
 lation are subsising on private and public charities, and in the 
 other, hundreds of cattle are daily destroyed for the mere hides and 
 tallow ; it would, in the opinion of this Council, be of equivalent 
 advantage to this colony that the like number of 59,788 free emi¬ 
 grants be sent out at the expense of the Home Government within 
 the next five years, and the colony, through their consumption of 
 taxable commodities, be reimbursed in the sum annually due to it, 
 amounting to 62,751 /. Is. lit/., as hereinbefore expressed; which 
 measure would likewise tend largely to increase the prosperity of 
 the colony, and the exports of the United Kingdom.” 
 
THE GOLDEN LANDS OF AUSTRALIA. 47 
 
 Great Britain has never expended any money for which 
 she will receive an ampler return than she has already 
 received, land will still continue to receive, for all time 
 coming, from the expenditure she incurred in the esta¬ 
 blishment of the Australian Colonies. Independently of 
 the market for goods of all kinds which these colonies 
 afford to the mother-country, to an extent unequalled in 
 any other country of the same population in the world, 
 Great Britain actually received from the Colony of New 
 South Wales alone, during the first ten years from the 
 introduction of the present system of selling the waste 
 lands of the colony, and devoting a large portion of the 
 proceeds for the promotion of emigration, the sum of a 
 million sterling; the whole of which was expended in 
 relieving the mother-country of a serious public burden 
 by paying for the conveyance of poor persons from Great 
 Britain and Ireland to New South Wales. 
 
 But even, although Great Britain had never received 
 any pecuniary or other compensation for the expenditure 
 she incurred in the establishment of the Australian Colo¬ 
 nies, this would in no way have affected the right of these 
 colonies to their entire freedom and independence, on the 
 attainment of their political majority. The slave has an 
 absolute right to his freedom, whether his master has 
 cleared his purchase-money by him or not. The son, 
 who has completed the twenty-first year of his age, has 
 an absolute right to entire freedom from parental control, 
 whatever his father may have expended on his board and 
 education. It is the law of nature and the ordinance of 
 God, that the parent should provide for the child during 
 his non-age, without entering him in his ledger as a debtor 
 for the expense of his up-bringing. If the parent has 
 discharged his duty in the case, the child will delight to 
 repay the obligation in whatever way he can. He will 
 honour his father and liis mother , from the instinctive feel¬ 
 ing of filial affection, as well as that his days may be long 
 in the land which the Lord his God shall give him ; and 
 
48 
 
 FREEDOM AND INDEPENDENCE FOR 
 
 so far from this feeling being extinguished by the mere 
 fact of his being legally free from all parental control, 
 it will still grow with his growth and strengthen with his 
 strength, till, in the course of nature, he is called to de¬ 
 posit the remains of his venerated parent with sorrow in 
 the grave. 
 
 Section XIII. — Another Objection started and considered 
 —The Colonies are claiming their Freedom and Independ¬ 
 ence, because they hate their Mother-Country, which has 
 
 DONE SO MUCH FOR THEM, AND HliR MAJESTY, THE QUEEN, TO 
 WHOM THEY OWE ALL DUE ALLEGIANCE, AND BECAUSE THEY ARE 
 CHERISHING IN THEIR HEARTS THE SATANIC SPIRIT OF REBELLION. 
 
 Now, as British Colonists, we, the inhabitants of the 
 Australian Colonies, who are earnestly desiring our free¬ 
 dom and independence, repel this peculiarly offensive 
 charge as being equally false and unfounded. From our 
 inmost hearts, we can say, and we do say, with the poet: 
 
 England, with all thy faults, we love thee still! 
 
 And we are conscious of no other feeling towards Her 
 Majesty the Queen,—that pattern of every domestic, every 
 royal virtue, — but that of unfeigned respect and reve¬ 
 rential admiration. But what has all this to do with the 
 previous question, as to whether we, as British Colonists 
 who have attained our political majority, have, or have 
 not, an inherent and indefeasible right, under the law of 
 nature and the ordinance of God, to our entire freedom 
 and independence? We are.entitled to have this ques¬ 
 tion considered and answered first; for personal rights 
 have a much higher claim in the eye of the law than mere 
 conventional rights and reasons of state policy. We insis 
 then that we have such a right — and that is the question. 
 
 Besides, is the son who has received his education and 
 learned his business,—both perhaps under his father's 
 roof, — but who sees a fair prospect of establishing him- 
 
THE GOLDEN LANDS OF AUSTRALIA. 49 
 
 self in the world, and of rearing and supporting a family 
 of his own, and who has accordingly fixed his affections 
 on some suitable helpmeet, and planned out an establish¬ 
 ment for himself, — is such a son supposed to hate his 
 father because he is endeavouring to do the best he can 
 for himself; and is the future intercourse (or rather no 
 intercourse whatever) which is to subsist between the 
 parties, to be characterized by such mutual and unnatural 
 charges and threatenings as the following ? 
 
 (The father speaks ): “That villain, John — to think of 
 setting up for himself, with the mere doll of a wife he has 
 got, when I was willing to have kept him about me, and 
 given him his old seat at my own table for ten or twenty 
 years to come! I have a great mind to burn his shop 
 down about his ears ; but I will, at all events, cut up his 
 trade for him, and ruin his reputation ! ” 
 
 ( To which the son retorts , in great vexation ) : “ There’s 
 that old fool, my father, at his old tricks again ! annoying 
 Sally wherever he meets her, and calling her a doll that I 
 lave stolen out of her father’s nursery; and telling every 
 Jody to give me no credit, for I am not to be trusted, and 
 iave cheated him to an amount that he could have made 
 ne swing in a halter for I I declare I must swear the 
 ieace against him, and have him put in the stocks or sent 
 o the madhouse ! ” 
 
 Now if these are not the feelings that are entertained 
 owards each other by a father and son, in the circum- 
 tances supposed, neither are they the feelings that either 
 hould, or would, or could subsist between a mother 
 ountry and her colonies, even although the latter ivere 
 sserting their natural, inherent, and indefeasible right to 
 ntire freedom and independence, on the attainment of 
 leir political majority. 
 
 And as to the charge of our violating or renouncing 
 ur allegiance to Her Majesty the Queen, in claiming, as 
 e do, our entire freedom and independence, I repeat it, 
 lere is a previous question to be put and answered, ere 
 
50 FREEDOM AND INDEPENDENCE FOR 
 
 this knotty point can be determined, ere this offensive 
 charge can be substantiated — I mean the question as tc 
 whether we, as British colonists who have attained oui 
 political majority, have, or have not, a right to our entire 
 freedom and independence. For if we have such a right 
 as I have shown we have, the right of Her Majesty the 
 Queen to reign over us necessarily ceases and determines 
 Under the universal government of God, there canno 
 possibly be two inconsistent and incompatible rights ; anc 
 the right to obedience or allegiance on the one part 
 is clearly inconsistent and incompatible with the right tc 
 freedom and independence on the other. It is precisely 
 where and when the one of these rights ends, that the 
 other begins: they cannot possibly occupy the sam< 
 place, or extend to the same persons. The alleged righ 
 of a sovereign to reign over a people who, by the law o 
 nature and the ordinance of God, have a right to thei) 
 freedom and independence, and who claim that freedon 
 and independence accordingly, is a mere imaginary right 
 and has no existence in reality. In plain English, it i 
 downright usurpation, and its exercise is tyranny anc 
 oppression. 
 
 If, therefore, British colonists who claim their freedon 
 and independence because they have attained their poli 
 tical majority, are accused of violating or renouncing thei 
 allegiance to the best of queens, they can, with perfec 
 justice, retort — not against Her Majesty individuall; 
 (God forbid that I should use such language towards He I 
 Majesty personally!), but simply as the imaginary politica 
 impersonation of the State — by representing her as - 
 selfish, heartless, unnatural, cruel mother, who hates t( ■ 
 see her own children doing well and establishing them 
 selves in the world; who considers only her own selfisl 
 ends in all her dealings with them, and who is doing he 
 very utmost to keep them down.” And is it either righ 
 or safe, I would ask, to allow Her Majesty, as the Sove 
 reign of the British empire, to acquire such a characte 
 
THE GOLDEN LANDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
 
 51 
 
 as this, in the estimation of the most valuable, although 
 hitherto but little esteemed, class of her subjects, the 
 British colonists? I think not. Let us hear no more 
 then of this pitiful, this contemptible charge, about our 
 violating or renouncing our allegiance. The question is, 
 Do we owe such allegiance, in the sense in which the term 
 is used in the charge, as implying that we have no rights 
 in the case ? To which I unhesitatingly answer, No. 
 
 Section XIV. — A Third Objection stated and considered.— 
 The British Colonies are Part and Parcel of the British 
 Empire — An Empire on which the Sdn never sets, and 
 which, far more than any even of the so-called universal 
 Empires of Antiquity, extends its Sceptre to all the Four 
 Quarters of the Globe — To every Continent, without 
 Exception, and to almost every Isle : it must be glorious, 
 therefore, to belong to such an Empire : it cannot but be 
 
 MONSTROUS, UNNATURAL, SUICIDAL AND HIGHLY CRIMINAL TO 
 ATTEMPT TO DISMEMBER IT. 
 
 There can be no question as to the enormous extent of 
 lie British empire, and the colossal character of its power. 
 Tirdling the earth, as it does, in every zone, and covering 
 lie sea, it is as like a universal empire as possible, and 
 lierefore the more likely to be dismembered , as it is called , 
 ~ery shortly. For Divine Providence has, for the last 
 hirteen hundred and fifty years, that is, ever since the 
 iloman empire, or fourth universal monarchy, fell, set its 
 ace against the establishment of anything like another 
 universal empire or fifth monarchy upon earth; conse- 
 uently, the more extensive any empire becomes, and the 
 lore closely it approaches to universality, we have every 
 eason to believe that it is only the nearer its fall or dis- 
 lemberment. It is instructive to glance at the past his- 
 iry of the world in connection with this point; as in 
 omparing the present with the past, we may be enabled, 
 ith some degree of confidence, to anticipate the future. 
 
52 
 
 FREEDOM AND INDEPENDENCE FOR 
 
 The first attempt to establish a universal empire or fifth 
 monarchy upon earth, since the fall of the Roman empire 
 in the West, was made by the Saracens; who, succeeding 
 to a portion at least of the noble inheritance of Rome in 
 the East and West, speedily overran both Asia and Africa, 
 but were finally checked at their entrance into Europe by 
 Charles Martel in the south of France. The Turks, who 
 in later times succeeded the Saracens in their Eastern 
 dominion, also received their final check, when apparently 
 on the highway to universal empire in the West, from 
 John Sobieski, king of Poland, under the walls of Vienna. 
 As to similar attempts among Christian nations, Charle¬ 
 magne endeavoured, with no small degree of success for 
 a time, to reunite the scattered fragments of the Roman 
 empire in the West; but the mushroom dominion of that 
 great potentate soon fell to pieces again under the govern¬ 
 ment of his sons. At the era of the Reformation Charles 
 the Fifth made a similar attempt with precisely similar 
 results: and so did Louis the Fourteenth at a later 
 period; and so also, in our own times, did the renowned 
 Napoleon. 
 
 There are two periods in British history very remark¬ 
 able in relation to this law of Divine Providence. In the 
 year 1756, the famous battle of Plassy gave England the 
 presidency of Bengal and the future emjnre of India. 
 But as if this was not sufficient, the battle of Quebec, in 
 the year 1759, when the gallant Wolfe fell in the arms of 
 victory on the heights of Abraham, gave England the 
 whole of the French empire in North America, as was 
 afterwards solemnly and definitively determined by the 
 Treaty of Paris in 1763. Never had the British empire 
 been so extensive as at that period ; never was its power 
 so resistless; and never was there a fairer prospect of its 
 dominion becoming all but universal.* But Divine Pro- 
 
 * Her possessions in North America, extending from the Missis¬ 
 sippi to the great St. Lawrence, and from the ocean to the Alleghany 
 Mountains, were enlarged at the Peace of Paris, by the acquisition 
 
THE GOLDEN LANDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
 
 53 
 
 vidence had determined many ages before that no other 
 universal monarchy should be established on earth; and, 
 as if in fulfilment of this decree, a spirit of infatuation 
 was sent forth into the counsels of George the Third ; a 
 series of arbitrary and oppressive measures was enacted 
 by the Imperial Parliament in reference to the American 
 colonies; and thirteen noble provinces were at length 
 wrested from the British empire, just as ten of the tribes 
 of Israel had been from the family of David, in remark¬ 
 ably similar circumstances, on a question of iniquitous 
 taxation.* 
 
 Now it appears to me that we are approaching a some¬ 
 what similar crisis in the history of the British empire at 
 the present moment. For a long time past we have been 
 adding province to province in India, till our empire in 
 that country now comprises upwards of a hundred and 
 twenty millions of people, nearly an eighth part of the 
 whole human race ! We have also been adding province 
 to province in Africa, and subjecting the country in the 
 process, through the grossest mismanagement on the part 
 of our local rulers — half saints and half merry-andrews, 
 as certain of them are — to all the horrors of an extermi¬ 
 nating war. We have humbled China, and planted a 
 colony, as we call it by courtesy, and a line of posts, on 
 her frontier. We have annexed New Zealand to our 
 Australasian dominion; and we are threatening to annex 
 Borneo, in addition to Aden, Singapore, and Labuan, to 
 
 if all Canada and Florida. Never did British authority seem more 
 irmly established in these regions; but events soon proved that it 
 never was less so. — Europe and its Colonies , by Professor Heeren, 
 >. 278 . 
 
 * The king hearkened not unto the people, for the 
 :ause was from the Lord. * * * So when all Israel saw that the 
 'ting hearkened not unto them, the people answered the king, saying, 
 What portion have we in David ? neither have we inheritance in the 
 on of Jesse: to your tents, O Israel: now see to thine own house, 
 David. So Israel departed unto their tents _ 1 Kings, xii. 15, 16. 
 
54 
 
 FREEDOM AND INDEPENDENCE FOR 
 
 our empire of the East; and certain political enthusiasts in 
 the colonies are actually promising us the whole multi¬ 
 tude of the isles of the vast Pacific. In short, never was 
 the British empire more extensive than it is at present; 
 never was its power more formidable, in every land and 
 on every sea. The press everywhere is telling us usque 
 ad nauseam that the sun never sets upon it, and a certain 
 idolatrous limner at the Great Exhibition, catching the 
 vainglorious spirit of the age, has actually represented 
 the four quarters of the globe paying homage to Queen 
 Victoria! 
 
 Now no man of the slightest discernment can be blind 
 to these very significant signs of the times. Such national 
 pride, accompanied as it is with such national dereliction 
 of duty towards the poor in the land, for whom this vast 
 colonial empire is held in trust, necessarily precedes a fall; 
 for it cannot but be peculiarly offensive in the eyes of the 
 Great Governor among the nations. We are evidently 
 hastening to another great crisis in the history of our 
 country. We are on the eve of another dismemberment; 
 and I shall be greatly mistaken, if, in a very few years 
 hence, both the eastern colonies of Australia and the 
 British colonies of North America shall not have ceased to 
 belong to the British empire. Which of the two great 
 groups will go first, no man can tell; but it is certain, 
 at all events, that they are both getting ready. 
 
 And why should they not ? And why should a great 
 nation like ours seek to prevent them ? If it is the right 
 of these groups of colonies, by the law of nature and the 
 ordinance of God, to form two great nations, instead of a 
 series of miserable and miserably governed dependencies, 
 and to assume the prominent and highly influential posi¬ 
 tion they are destined to occupy in that capacity on the 
 face of the earth, why should Englishmen endeavour, in 
 their folly and madness, to delay “a consummation so 
 devoutly to be wished ? ” * 
 
 * Prejudices and prepossessions are stubborn things in all cases; 
 but in none more peculiarly obstinate, than in relinquishing detached 
 
TIIE' GOLDEN LANDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
 
 55 
 
 Besides, how can we — Britons and Protestants as we 
 profess to be —how can we pretend to object to the claim 
 of that “ Italian Man,” the Pope, to govern the whole 
 Christian Church, in all its numerous, diversified, and 
 widely scattered settlements — on which the Sun never 
 sets ; when we ourselves actually set up a sort of political 
 Pope in Downing Street, and empower him to govern the 
 whole Colonial Empire of Britain, in all its numerous and 
 endlessly diversified and widely scattered settlements — 
 on which also the Sun never sets ? The pretended right 
 to govern is in both cases the sheerest usurpation — a 
 mere trampling under foot of the sacred and inherent 
 rights of men. In both cases, also, that pretended right 
 is based upon the same blasphemous assumption — an 
 assumption of two of the incommunicable attributes of 
 the Godhead — Omniscience and Infallibility ! For ex¬ 
 ample, — “ the Pope' knows everything throughout the 
 
 parts of an unwieldly extended empire; there not being, I believe, 
 a single instance in all history of any nation surrendering a distant 
 province voluntarily, and of free choice, notwithstanding it was 
 greatly their interest to have done it. The English in particular 
 have given remarkable proofs of their unwillingness. For though 
 it was undeniably their interest to have abandoned all the provinces 
 which they held in France, yet they never gave up one of them, till 
 they were compelled to it by force of arms. Now, indeed, and at 
 this distance of time, we see clearly that our forefathers were 
 wretched politicians in endeavouring to retain any one of the French 
 provinces, which, if it was a little one, would be a continual drain, 
 and perhaps an increasing expense ; and if it was a great one, might 
 grow up to be a rival, and become the seat of empire. I say, we 
 can see these things clearly enough at present: yet, alas! what 
 advantages do we derive from the discovery? And what application 
 do we make of such historical mementos to the business of the 
 present day? The remotest of our provinces in France were hardly 
 300 miles distant from our own coasts: the nearest of those in 
 America are about 3000.—“ Humble Address and earnest Appeal ” in 
 favour of separation from America, by Josiali Tucker, D.D., Dean 
 of Gloucester, p. 70. Gloucester, 1775. Look at South Africa! 
 d 4 
 
56 
 
 FREEDOM AND INDEPENDENCE FOR 
 
 Christian Church, as well as everything that is needful 
 for it; and therefore he can never go wrong in governing 
 it” — this is Popery in Religion. “Earl Grey knows 
 everything throughout the Colonial Empire of Britain, as 
 well as everything that is needful for it; and therefore he 
 can never go wrong in governing it ” — this is Popery in 
 Politics: the first cause or moving spring of the two 
 enormities being also precisely the same — an unhallowed 
 lust of empire, on the part of the two bodies which the 
 Pope and the colonial autocrat respectively represent, 
 contrary alike to the ordinance of God and the rights of 
 men. 
 
 It is not Cardinal Wiseman, therefore, but Earl Grey, 
 that ought to be tricked out in the harlequin attire of a 
 red hat and scarlet hose, with this blasphemous inscription 
 on his forehead, Infallibility Grey ! What possible 
 harm can the pitiful envoy of “the Italian Man” do to 
 the rights or liberties of Britons, either at home or abroad, 
 if they are only true to themselves ? But here is a really 
 formidable power— formidable, I mean, to the rights and 
 liberties of Britons, both at home and abroad — here, I 
 say, is a really formidable power, this Political Popery, 
 or Popery in Politics; devil-born, like the other; and 
 existing only, —as it has done for two centuries past in 
 one form or other— to hurt and to destroy. 
 
 As to the glory of belonging to such an empire as that 
 of Britain, “I am of opinion,” says Mr. Wakefield, in the 
 language of a supposed speaker whose sentiments he 
 adopts, “ that the extent and glory of an empire are solid 
 advantages for all its inhabitants, and especially those who 
 inhabit its centre. I think that whatever the possession 
 of our colonies may cost us in money, the possession is 
 worth more in money than its money cost, and infinitely 
 more in other respects. For by overawing foreign nations 
 and impressing mankind with a prestige of our might, it 
 enables us to keep the peace of the world, which we have no 
 interest in disturbing, as it would enable us to disturb the 
 
THE GOLDEN LANDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
 
 57 
 
 world if we pleased. The advantage is, that the posses¬ 
 sion of this immense empire by England causes the mere 
 name of England to be a real and a mighty power ; the 
 greatest power that now exists in the world.” * 
 
 I admit that for those who are at “ the centre ” of the 
 national system, where all its life and heat are concen¬ 
 trated, it may be very pleasant and self-satisfying to look 
 around on their vast domain of colonies of all sorts, of 
 plantations, possessions, and dependencies, and to say, 
 fvith Robinson Crusoe, 
 
 “ We are monarchs of all we survey;” 
 
 aut the condition of those who are at the extremities of 
 hesystem may, from that very circumstance, be supremely 
 incomfortable ; and whether the latter are to surrender 
 heir natural and inherent rights, merely to gratify the 
 r anity, or to minister to the self-importance of those 
 rho are at the centre of the system, is a question which, 
 conceive, admits but of one answer. It so completely 
 jets aside the golden rule of doing to others as we 
 hould wish to be done by, that one can scarcely help 
 leeling ashamed at hearing of such a proposition from any 
 rerson calling himself an Englishman. Again, to talk 
 f England keeping the peace of the world, while she has 
 ight hundred millions of debt of her own, incurred through 
 ur generally unjust and unnecessary wars, is amusing 
 jnough ; but it can surely be no reason why British colo- 
 ists, who have a natural and inherent right to nationality, 
 ;iould be forced to continue in the very subordinate and 
 ^satisfactory condition of mere dependents and vassals. 
 f thou mayest be made free, says the apostle Paul (and 
 ,ie advice applies to communities as well as to individuals), 
 te it rather.\ 
 
 It would be considered supremely ridiculous, as well 
 exceedingly heartless and unfeeling, for a cotton-planter 
 
 * View of the Art of Colonisation, Sfc. p. 98. 
 
 f 1 Corinth, vii. 21. 
 
53 FREEDOM AND INDEPENDENCE FOR 
 
 in South Carolina, on learning that his “ niggers ” were ; 
 anxious for their freedom, to tell them that “ he considered 
 them very unreasonable creatures indeed ; that the owner¬ 
 ship of so many of them gave him a standing and influence 
 in society, an importance in the country, which he could 
 not otherwise possess; that he had three votes for a Con¬ 
 gress-man for every five of them, and that in such circum¬ 
 stances it was very ungrateful in them to seek to lessen his . 
 consequence in the world by desiring their freedom.” It 
 is equally ridiculous, however, and equally unfeeling and 
 insulting to British colonists, to tell them that it is ne-< 
 cessary for England, in order to maintain her dignity and 
 importance in the world, to retain in miserable and humi¬ 
 liating vassalage those to whom God has not only given 
 the desire of freedom and the right to assert it, but the 
 means and ability to use it for their own welfare and ad¬ 
 vancement. There is much sympathy professed by men 
 of all ranks and classes throughout the United Kingdom: 
 for the unhappy condition of the American slave ; but if it 
 is true that “ the man who hates his brother is a murderer” 
 at heart, then I maintain that the man, of whatever rank 
 or influence in society, who uses his influence to prevent 
 those British colonists that have attained their political 
 majority, from obtaining their freedom and independence, 
 merely because he imagines that the honour and glory of 
 England would thereby be somewhat impaired, is a slave¬ 
 holder at heart; and when he tells me, in the mawkish 
 language of the day, that “his heart bleeds for the slave,” 
 
 I tell him in the plainest English in reply, that “ he is a 
 hypocrite and a liar: ” for if he has no sympathy for his 
 colonial brother whom he has seen, how can he sym¬ 
 pathise with the poor African slave whom he has never 
 seen ? 
 
 I deny, however, that England has anything to lose in 
 the case, and I maintain that she has everything to gain. 
 Mr. Wakefield's prestige is merely another name for sha¬ 
 dow : it has no substance in it, no real value. The ques- 
 
THE GOLDEN LANDS OF AUSTRALIA. 59 " 
 
 tion is simply — What solid advantages does England 
 really derive from her possession of such dependencies as 
 the Australian colonies ? In answer to this question, 
 George Cornewall Lewis, Esq., M.P., in his able and sin¬ 
 gularly honest work, on the Government of Dependencies, 
 enumerates the advantages which a parent state or domi¬ 
 nant country derives from its supremacy over a depen¬ 
 dency as follows: viz. 
 
 1. Tribute, or revenue paid by the dependency. — This, 
 it is well known, was the system in universal practice 
 among the ancients in the government of their dependent 
 provinces; but the attempt to enforce it in America led 
 to the War of Independence in that country, and the 
 claim was at length formally renounced by the 18 Geo. III. 
 cap. 12.* 
 
 2. Assistance for military or naval purposes. — Such 
 assistance was very frequently rendered by the earlier 
 colonists of America, in the wars of the mother country 
 with France, which had then an extensive empire in that 
 country; but no such assistance could either be expected 
 or would be necessary now. It is worthy of remark that 
 the celebrated Dr. Adam Smith considered the contribu¬ 
 tion of revenue and military force as so essential to the 
 very idea of a colony that he regarded any dependency 
 utterly valueless that did not contribute either the one or 
 the other. His words are as follows: — 
 
 “ Countries which contribute neither revenue nor mili¬ 
 tary force towards the support of the empire cannot be 
 considered as provinces. They may perhaps be considered 
 as appendages, as a sort of splendid and showy equipage 
 of the empire.”— Wealth of Nations, b. v. c. 3. 
 
 3. Advantages to the dominant country from its trade 
 
 * According to the present feelings and opinions of men, no direct 
 benefit, by way of tribute or payment of any sort, can be derived by 
 England from her colonies.— The Colonies of England, by John 
 Arthur Roebuck, Esq., M.P. London, 1849, p. 11. 
 
60 FREEDOM AND INDEPENDENCE FOR 
 
 with the dependency. —Since the commencement ot the 
 present Free Trade system, no advantage can be derived 
 by the mother country from this source. 
 
 4. Facilities afforded by dependencies to the dominant 
 country for the emigration of its surplus population , and 
 
 for an advantageous employment of its capital. —Mr. Lewis 
 admits, however, that in order to secure this advantage to 
 the mother country, it is not necessary that the colony 
 should be a dependency of the parent state; of which 
 abundant proof will be given in the sequel. 
 
 5. Facilities for the transportation of convicts to a de¬ 
 pendency.—These facilities, however, are now at an end 
 in the colony of New South Wales, and they cannot 
 possibly be continued longer, under existing circum¬ 
 stances, in Van Dieman’s Land. 
 
 6. The glory of possessing dependencies. —This, there¬ 
 fore, is the only real advantage, if it is one, that remains. 
 On this point, however, Mr.Lewis very judiciously observes, 
 that “ A nation derives no true glory from any possession 
 which produces no assignable advantage to itself or to 
 other communities. If a country possesses a dependency 
 from which it derives no public revenue, no military or 
 naval strength, and no commercial advantages or facilities 
 for emigration which it would not equally enjoy though 
 the dependency were independent, and if moreover, the 
 dependency suffers the evils which are the almost inevitable 
 consequences of its political condition , such a possession 
 cannot justly be called glorious.* 
 
 Mr. Lewis also enumerates the advantages derivable by 
 a dependency from its dependence on the dominant 
 country under the following heads, viz. 
 
 1. Protection by the dominant country. —This I shall 
 show in the sequel is quite unnecessary in the case of the 
 Australian colonies. 
 
 2. Pecuniary assistance by the dominant country .— 
 
 * Lewis on the Government of Dependencies, p. 240. 
 
THE GOLDEN LANDS OF AUSTRALIA. 61 
 
 Nothing of this kind is required in the Australian 
 colonies. 
 
 3. Commercial advantages .—But these have all been 
 done away with under the Free Trade system. 
 
 There is therefore not one substantial advantage, de¬ 
 rivable either by the mother country on the one hand, or 
 by the Australian colonies on the other, from the continu¬ 
 ance of the present connection of domination and depen¬ 
 dency. The only advantage remaining to the mother 
 country is a merely imaginary one — the glory of the 
 thing; which, Mr. Lewis admits, is utterly valueless, and 
 which is surely not to be considered for one moment as 
 an adequate compensation for the loss which the mother 
 country herself sustains, as well as for the unspeakable 
 evil which is entailed on the colonies, by the continuance 
 of their bondage. 
 
 Section XV—A Fourth Objection stated and considered— 
 The Colonists who are calling out for their Freedom and 
 Independence are a mere Pack of Republicans, and are 
 unfit to govern themselves. 
 
 After nearly thirty years’ experience in the Australian 
 colonies, and especially after nearly ten years’ experience 
 of the working even of imperfectly representative institu¬ 
 tions in New South Wales, I have no hesitation in ex¬ 
 pressing it as my belief and conviction, that the very 
 worst government which it is possible to suppose could 
 ever emanate from popular election in these colonies, in 
 the event of their attaining their freedom and independ¬ 
 ence, would be incomparably better than the very best 
 we are ever likely to have under their connection with 
 Great Britain. The celebrated Adam Smith informs us 
 that the thirteen American colonies, containing at the 
 time a population of three millions, were not only go¬ 
 verned, but well governed, previous to the War of Inde- 
 
62 
 
 FREEDOM AND INDEPENDENCE FOR 
 
 pendence, for the incredibly small amount of 64/760/. per 
 annum, or at the rate of fivepence per head.* But the 
 government of New South Wales (including the district 
 of Port Phillip), containing a population of not more than 
 265,503, on the 31st December, 1850, actually cost for 
 that year 564,487/. 15s. Id., or deducting 171,505/. 6s. 4 d., 
 expended for immigration, 392,982/. 8s. 9c/.; or at the 
 Fate of 1/. 9s. 7 d. per head I But colonial government, 
 under the present system, is throughout a government of 
 corruption ; under which the people’s money is abstracted 
 from them by men who have no right to take it, and ex¬ 
 pended in great measure in the maintenance of unne¬ 
 cessary offices, or in the payment of extravagant salaries, 
 while the general improvement of the country in an end¬ 
 less variety of ways is utterly neglected, and public works 
 of urgent necessity, for the welfare and advancement of 
 its people, are indefinitely postponed. 
 
 Nay, so utterly helpless are the colonists, for the redress 
 
 * The expense of their own civil government has always been 
 very moderate. It has generally been confined to what was neces¬ 
 sary for paying competent salaries to the governor, to the judges, 
 and to some other officers of police, and for maintaining a few of the 
 most useful public works. The expense of the civil establishment 
 of Massachusetts Bay, before the commencement of the present 
 disturbances, used to be about 18,000?. a-year. That of New 
 Hampshire and Rhode Island 3,500/. each. That of Connecticut 
 4,000/. That of New York and Pennsylvania 4,500/. each. That 
 of New Jersey 1,200/. That of Virginia and South Carolina 3000/. 
 each. The civil establishments of Nova Scotia and Georgia are 
 partly supported by an annual grant of parliament. But Nova 
 Scotia pays, besides, about 7,000/. a-year towards the public ex¬ 
 penses of the colony; and Georgia about 2,500/. a-year. All the 
 different civil establishments in North America, in short, exclusive 
 of those of Maryland and North Carolina, of which no exact account 
 has been got, did not, before the commencement of the present dis¬ 
 turbances, cost the inhabitants above 64,760/. a-year; an ever 
 memorable example at how small an expense three millions of 
 people may not only be governed, but well governed.— Smith’s 
 Wealth of Nations, vol. ii. p. 372. 
 
THE GOLDEN LANDS O.F AUSTRALIA. 63 
 
 of their own wrongs, under the wretched system of 
 government that prevails in the colonies under Downing 
 Street domination, that even Acts of Parliament that are 
 passed for their better government are effectually burked 
 by the political knaves and swindlers whom the system 
 has created, that that system of misgovernment and cor¬ 
 ruption may be continued and promoted. For example, 
 an Act of Parliament was passed in the year 1850 for the 
 better government of the Australian colonies ; reducing 
 the previously high franchise to a Ten Pound rate, but 
 leaving the Electoral Districts to be arranged by the actual 
 Council; of which, however, one-third of the members 
 were Crown nominees, and so many of the others under 
 the influence of the Government as to give it a decided 
 majority. The Electoral Act was accordingly so framed 
 as almost entirely to exclude the popular element from 
 the new Council, and to give the corrupt Government a 
 much more preponderating influence than it had before. 
 For under this infamous act, as it was generally designated 
 in New South Wales, every fifteen thousand of the citizens 
 of Sydney, the capital of that colony, were allowed only 
 the same political weight and influence in the new Legis¬ 
 lature as fifteen hundred in an Electoral District on the 
 frontier, about seven hundred miles distant! But the 
 people of Sydney are in general strongly imbued with 
 the spirit of freedom, and earnestly desirous of a thorough 
 reform, while those of the frontier district are either 
 tenants of the Crown or their servants ; and it was there¬ 
 fore necessary, in order to depress the former, to elevate 
 the latter. The Act of Parliament would have been a 
 real benefit to the colony, if it had only been honestly 
 carried out; but of what avail are even the best Acts of 
 Parliament to the colonists, if they have not the means of 
 carrying them out ? 
 
 As to the charge that the colonists who desire their 
 freedom and independence are somewhat tinctured with 
 republicanism, I fear it must be admitted. The fact is, 
 
6i 
 
 FREEDOM AND INDEPENDENCE FOR 
 
 there is no other form of government either practicable 
 or possible, in a British colony obtaining its freedom and 
 independence, than that of a republic. Without inquir¬ 
 ing, therefore, as to whether one form of government is 
 better than another, we must be prepared, as British 
 colonists, if we are ever to become free and independent 
 at all, to take that particular form “ for better, for 
 worse.” * 
 
 And why should we be either unwilling or afraid to do 
 so? It is now fifty years and upwards since the celebrated 
 Charles James Fox characterized the British government 
 as a disguised Republic; and the Reform Act has since 
 taken away a considerable portion of the disguise. Why 
 then should Englishmen object to a Republic without 
 disguise for their emancipated colonies? Why should 
 they object to a form of government which has given 
 
 * Mr. Wakefield seems to have arrived at a somewhat different 
 conclusion on this important point, as will be evident from the fol¬ 
 lowing passage of his recent work :— 
 
 “ The Imperial Sovereign is a person as well as an institution, and 
 we reverence the one as much as we value the other. To transplant 
 a complete offshoot of the whole is, therefore, simply impossible. 
 The nearest approach to doing so would he by the erection of 
 Canada, for example, into an independent monarchy, and filling its 
 throne with a child of the British sovereign. But the colonies are 
 intended to he subordinate to the empire, and though it would, I think, 
 be wise to make the younger branches of a royal family, whose 
 social position here is anything hut agreeable, subordinate sovereigns 
 of the more important colonies, yet subordination requires that the 
 colonial chief magistrate should be appointed and removable by the im¬ 
 perial.”—View of the Art of Colonization, p. 307. 
 
 Whether this beautiful theory of subordinate sovereignty would 
 be practicable in Canada, so very near as it is to the United States, 
 I have no idea whatever. I can safely state, however, that the 
 thing would be utterly impracticable in the Australian colonies. 
 Nor do I think it advisable to put forth theories of this kind, which 
 inexperienced people of all ranks in England would probably unite 
 in admiring, but which would most certainly lead to a civil war, if 
 attempted to be carried out in the colonies generally. 
 
THE GOLDEN LANDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
 
 65 
 
 birth, in every department of human excellence, to a 
 series of the greatest and noblest men that have ever trod 
 the earth ? Why should they vainly attempt to disparage 
 those glorious republics of antiquity, from which we have 
 inherited so much that exalts and embellishes humanity, 
 and whose invaluable annals are so prolific in the most 
 splendid achievements that the pen of history records.* 
 
 No wonder that there should be a wide-spread and 
 deep-rooted, although in many instances, I believe, an 
 affected prejudice against Republican institutions, among 
 the hangers-on for office both at home and abroad — 
 among the numerous horde of helpless and hungry ex¬ 
 pectants of a share in the spoils of the people. But that 
 such a prejudice, whether real or affected, should extend 
 to men professing the Christian religion, and receiving 
 the Holy Scriptures of both Testaments as the Word of 
 God, I confess, surpasses my comprehension. “ The 
 Christian religion,” says Novalis, an able German writer 
 of the present century, “ is the root of all democracy, the 
 highest fact in the rights of man.” f Besides, it is matter 
 of sacred history that the only form of human government 
 that was ever divinely established upon earth, was the Re¬ 
 publican — in the wilderness of Sinai — and that God 
 himself interposed, in the person of his own accredited 
 minister, to protest against the unwarrantable innovation, 
 when that form of government was at length set aside in 
 the commonwealth of Israel, and monarchy established in 
 its stead.j: Monarchy doubtless prevailed for a long 
 
 * In ( ancient ) Mexico, small colonies (of Indians), wearied of 
 tyranny, gave themselves republican constitutions. Now, it is only 
 after long popular struggles that these free constitutions can be 
 formed. The existence of republics does not indicate a very recent 
 civilization. — Humboldt, New Spain, book ii. 6. 
 f Novalis, quoted by Carlyle. 
 
 f Then all the elders of Israel gathered themselves together, and 
 came to Samuel unto Ramah, And said unto him Behold, thou art 
 old, and thy sons walk not in thy ways: now make us a king to 
 
66 FREEDOM AND INDEPENDENCE FOR 
 
 period in that country, by Divine 'permission , as many 
 things else do in this lower world, that are certainly not 
 of Divine appointment; but Republicanism existed from 
 the first by Divine appointment; and it cannot, I submit, 
 be a very bad form of government, which can plead such 
 an authority in its favour. 
 
 I shall be told indeed that the Israelitish government 
 was a theocracy , and therefore forms no precedent for us. 
 But it was evidently quite as much a theocracy under the 
 kings, as during the commonwealth. Nay, in the original 
 Magna Charta of Israel — that famous Constitutional Act 
 which came down from Heaven, bearing the Sign Manual 
 of the Eternal, for the establishment of a Republic more 
 glorious, and happier far, while it subsisted, than those of 
 either Greece or Rome — there was an express provision 
 for the foreseen contingency of the establishment of a 
 monarchy; and the theocracy was, therefore, as complete 
 in every part of it, during the reigns of David and Solo¬ 
 mon, as under the presidency of Joshua and Samuel.* 
 
 judge us like all the nations. But the thing displeased Samuel, 
 when they said, Give us a king to judge us. And Samuel prayed 
 unto the Lord. And the Lord said unto Samuel, Hearken unto the 
 voice of the people in all that they say unto thee: for they have 
 not rejected thee, hut they have rejected me, that I should not reign 
 over them. According to all the works which they have done since 
 the day that I brought them up out of Egypt even unto this day, 
 wherewith they have forsaken me, and served other Gods, so do 
 they also unto thee. — 1 Samuel, viii. 4—9. 
 
 * When thou art come unto the land which the Lord thy God 
 giveth thee, and shalt possess it, and shalt dwell therein, and shalt 
 say, I will set a king over me, like as all the nations that are about 
 me; Thou shalt in any wise set him king over thee, whom the Lord 
 thy God shall choose: one from among thy brethren shalt thou set 
 king over thee: thou mayest not set a stranger over thee, which is 
 not thy brother. But he shall not multiply horses to himself, nor 
 cause the people to return to Egypt, to the end that he should 
 multiply horses: forasmuch as the Lord has said unto you, Ye shall 
 henceforth return no more that way. Neither shall he multiply 
 
THE GOLDEN LANDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
 
 67 
 
 There was no part of the theocratic government set aside 
 or abrogated on the introduction of monarchical institu¬ 
 tions : the Divine command, in regard to the outward 
 form of government, was merely set at nought, just as it 
 was in a thousand other instances; but the Divine Consti¬ 
 tution subsisted in every other particular notwithstanding. 
 It is impossible for any man of common understanding to 
 come to any other conclusion on reading the beautiful and 
 affecting passage quoted below. 
 
 In that ancient Magna Charta, moreover, we find all 
 the principles of manly freedom established and developed 
 — universal suffrage, perfect political equality (combined 
 with one of the most beautiful and affecting devices 
 imaginable to preserve it,) and popular election ; the three 
 grand fundamental principles of Republican government. 
 As this, however, may perhaps be regarded as an unwar¬ 
 rantable assertion, I beg to subjoin the proof, which can 
 easily be verified, as the authorities are in everybody’s 
 hands. 
 
 When the congregation of Israel, therefore, were as¬ 
 sembled on the plains of Moab, previous to their entrance 
 into the promised land, it had become a matter of neces¬ 
 sity to ascertain who were thenceforth to be considered 
 the nation , for all political purposes; and among whom, 
 and on what principles, the national domain, which was 
 about to be acquired, was to be parcelled out and divided: 
 
 wives to himself, that his heart turn not away: neither shall he 
 greatly multiply to himself silver and gold. And it shall be, when 
 he sitteth upon the throne of his kingdom, that he shall write him 
 a copy of this law in a book out of that which is before the priests 
 the Levites: And it shall be with him, and he shall read therein all 
 the days of his life: that he may learn to fear the Lord his God, to 
 keep all the words of this law and these statutes, to do them: That 
 his heart be not lifted up above his brethren, and that he turn not 
 aside from the commandment, to the right hand, or to the left: to 
 the end that he may prolong his days in his kingdom, he, and his 
 children, in the midst of Israel. — Deuteronomy, xvii. 14 — 20 . 
 
68 
 
 FREEDOM AND INDEPENDENCE FOR 
 
 for the ancient conquest of Canaan was attended with 
 very different results to the great body of the people who 
 were thenceforth to inhabit the land, from those of the 
 famous Norman Conquest of England. A Census was 
 accordingly taken by Divine command — not of all the 
 people, however, but of all the males, from twenty years 
 old and upwards; who were thenceforth to be considered 
 for all political purposes the nation. For on their number 
 being ascertained to be 601,730 (Six hundred and one 
 thousand, seven hundred and thirty), it was further 
 divinely directed that the land should be equally divided 
 among these males, without partiality and without dis¬ 
 tinction ; the families which had a larger proportion of 
 such males to have the larger extent of land, and those 
 which had fewer to have the less.* And in order, as 
 much as possible, to preserve this political equality, and 
 the equality of property which was deemed necessary 
 to maintain it, it was further provided that, every fiftieth 
 year, all those who had in the mean time been sold off or 
 
 * And. it came to pass after the plague, that the Lord spake unto 
 Moses and unto Eleazar the son of Aaron the priest, saying, Take 
 the sum of all the congregation of the children of Israel, from 
 twenty years old and upward, throughout their father’s house, all 
 that are able to go to war in Israel. And Moses and Eleazar the 
 priest spake with them in the plains of Moab by Jordan near Jericho, 
 saying, Take the sum of the people, from twenty years old and up¬ 
 ward; as the Lord commanded Moses and the children of Israel, 
 which went forth out of the land of Egypt. * * These were the num¬ 
 bered of the children of Israel, six hundred thousand and a thousand 
 seven hundred and thirty. And the Lord spake unto Moses, say¬ 
 ing, Unto these the land shall be divided for an inheritance accord¬ 
 ing to the number of names. To many thou shalt give the more 
 inheritance, to few thou shalt give the less inheritance: to every 
 one shall his inheritance be given according to those that were 
 numbered of him. Notwithstanding the land shall be divided by 
 lot: according to the names of the tribes of their fathers they shall 
 inherit. According to the lot shall the possession thereof be divided 
 between many and few.— Numbers, xxvi. 1—4. 51—56. 
 
THE GOLDEN LANDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
 
 69 
 
 sold out, whether through mismanagement or misfortune, 
 should return every man to the possession of his family.* 
 
 And when these principles had been in so far reduced 
 to practice, we learn, from an interesting incident, that 
 the mode of appointment to public offices was by popular 
 election. For after a portion of the land had been sur¬ 
 veyed and settled, under the presidency of Joshua, there 
 still remained seven tribes to be located. In these cir¬ 
 cumstances, Joshua assembled the people, and directed 
 them to elect whomsoever they might consider “ fit and 
 proper persons ” to survey and divide the land, and he 
 would appoint them accordingly, by giving them their 
 Commissions and Instructions, as the Head of the 
 Executive.f 
 
 Here then are the three grand fundamental principles 
 of Republican government — Universal Suffrage, Perfect 
 Political Equality, and Popular Election — in full opera¬ 
 tion, under the Divine sanction and appointment, in the 
 
 * And thou shalt number seven sabbaths of years unto thee, seven 
 times seven years; and the space of seven sabbaths of years shall 
 be unto thee forty and nine years. Then shalt thou cause the trum¬ 
 pet of the jubile to sound on the tenth day of the seventh month, in 
 the day of atonement shall ye make the trumpet sound throughout 
 all your land. And ye shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim 
 liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof: it 
 shall be a jubile unto you; and ye shall return every man unto his 
 possession, and ye shall return every man unto his family.— Leviti¬ 
 cus, xxv. 8—10. 
 
 f And there remained among the children of Israel seven tribes, 
 which had not yet received their inheritance. And Joshua said 
 unto the children of Israel, How long are ye slack to go to possess 
 the land, which the Lord God of your fathers hath given you ? 
 Give out from among you three men for each tribe: and I will send 
 them, and they shall rise, and go through the land, and describe it 
 according to the inheritance of them ; and they shall come again to 
 me. And they shall divide it into seven parts: Judah shall abide 
 in their coast on the south, and the house of Joseph shall abide in 
 their coasts on the north. Ye shall therefore describe the land into 
 seven parts, and bring the description hither to me, that I may cast 
 lots for you here before the Lord our God. — Joshua, xviii. 2—6. 
 
70 FREEDOM AND INDEPENDENCE FOR 
 
 commonwealth of ancient Israel. And surely, if the God 
 of Heaven deemed it just and necessary to establish such 
 principles of national government for the welfare and 
 advancement of His own chosen people, I appeal, with 
 perfect confidence, to professed Christians of all denomi¬ 
 nations throughout the United Kingdom, as to whether it 
 can be either wrong or unwarrantable to advocate the 
 establishment of such principles for the government of a 
 community of British origin at the ends of the earth. 
 
 In the year 1635, the mere handful of Puritan-settlers 
 who had then but very recently gone forth from England 
 to plant the new colony of Connecticut, on the banks of 
 the beautiful river of that name, in North America, met 
 together, by appointment, in a barn, to form a Constitution 
 for the future government of their country, as they were 
 empowered to do under their Charter. They accordingly 
 framed a Constitution, based on the three principles I 
 have indicated as the characteristic features of the Consti¬ 
 tution of ancient Israel — Universal Suffrage, Perfect 
 Political Equality and Popular Election — and that Con¬ 
 stitution remained unchanged for upwards of a hundred 
 and forty years, or until the Revolution of 1776! It had 
 necessarily to undergo some change on an event of such 
 mighty moment for the whole country; but what was the 
 amount of that change ? Why it was simply the substitu¬ 
 tion of the word People for the word King ; for with that 
 necessary alteration excepted, the Constitution of Con¬ 
 necticut remains unchanged and in full operation as it 
 was originally framed, to the present day ! In short, these 
 honest men did the right thing at first, and it required no 
 mending afterwards. But where, it may be asked, did 
 they get such objectionable principles, which are now so 
 generally referred by political writers and statesmen to 
 Chartism , Communism , and Socialism; as it is matter of 
 history that none of these isms were ever heard of till a 
 full century and a half after their time ? Why, they got 
 them, as is quite evident from the preceding argument, in 
 precisely the same place in which I have got them, and 
 
THE GOLDEN LANDS OF AUSTRALIA. 71 
 
 in which any person may get them still, in that Word of 
 God which endureth for ever. 
 
 As to the question whether the Australian colonies are 
 fit to be trusted with a government based on such liberal 
 principles, the very proposal of such a question is an 
 insult to the understandings, and an outrage on the rights 
 of British freemen. Let it be remembered, that the people 
 for whom the singularly free constitution of ancient Israel 
 was established, were living under the mere twilight of 
 Judaism, and were oppressed, moreover, with the weight 
 of its burdensome ceremonial, while we, a community of 
 British origin, rejoice in the light and liberty of the 
 Gospel. Let it be remembered, moreover, that only a 
 few years before this free constitution was proclaimed, 
 the whole nation of Israel were a nation of slaves. In 
 short, the only preparation for national freedom is free¬ 
 dom itself.* 
 
 There are, doubtless, people in England who peck and 
 laugh at the idea of universal suffrage for any community 
 of British origin, on the ground of its alleged injustice in 
 excluding the women and children; who, as they allege, 
 ought also to have votes. Let these “minute philoso¬ 
 phers,” however, explain, if they can, why the God of 
 Heaven authorized Moses and Eleazar to leave out the 
 women and children of ancient Israel, when they were 
 numbering the nation (as it was thenceforth to be consi¬ 
 dered for all political purposes), and we shall meet them 
 on the point. It is comparatively easy for “ iniquity es¬ 
 tablished by law,” and rendered venerable by the practice 
 of ages, to make itself merry with the rights of men; but 
 
 * Many politicians of our time are in the habit of laying it down 
 as a self-evident proposition that no people ought to be free till they 
 are fit to use their freedom. The maxim is worthy of the fool in 
 the old story, who resolved not to go into the water till he had 
 learned to swim. If men are to wait for liberty till they have be¬ 
 come wise and good in slavery, they may indeed wait for ever._ 
 
 Macaulay's Essays, i. 42. 
 
72 FREEDOM AND INDEPENDENCE FOR 
 
 it ought to be remembered, that it is not always perfectly 
 safe in these stirring times. 
 
 I cannot allow the subject to pass without directing the 
 attention of the reader to the remarkably different princi¬ 
 ples on which the two communities of ancient Israel on 
 the one hand, and the British nation on the other, were 
 established in regard to property in land. In the com¬ 
 munity which, we all admit, God himself set up, there 
 were 601,730 (six hundred and one thousand, seven hun¬ 
 dred and thirty) proprietors of land, each having an equal 
 share, for a population not exceeding at the utmost three 
 millions of souls! But in Great Britain and Ireland, 
 under a constitution, doubtless, the most glorious and 
 happy, both in church and state, that was ever devised 
 by man, there are, according to Mr. D’Israeli,* not more 
 than about 240,000 (two hundred and forty thousand) 
 proprietors of land for a population of twenty-eight mil¬ 
 lions of people 1 Hinc ilia: lachryma: ! Hence the 
 enormous competition for a subsistence among all classes 
 throughout the three kingdoms. Hence the perpetual 
 recurrence of scenes of frightful destitution, from the want 
 of employment, and the want even of the commonest 
 necessaries of life, among whole masses of the people. 
 Hence the peculiarly ominous aspect of the condition of 
 England question to all concerned ! f 
 
 * In one of his speeches in the House of Commons about two 
 years ago. 
 
 f A time there was, ere England’s griefs began, 
 
 When every rood of ground maintained its man; 
 
 For him light labour spread her wholesome store, 
 
 Just gave what life required, and gave no more: 
 
 His best companions, innocence and health; 
 
 And his best riches, ignorance of wealth. 
 
 Famine is the prevailing type in which peasant life seems now to 
 he printed throughout the whole district I traverse. It has been 
 my habit, from time to time, to leave my car, and enter the cabins 
 by the roadside; it was enough to melt a heart of stone to see the 
 people in them. In one instance, under the roof of a tumble-down 
 
THE GOLDEN LANDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
 
 73 
 
 Let it not be supposed, however, that, in making such 
 a comparison, I have any wish for a redistribution of the 
 property of the country. I am no Communist or So¬ 
 cialist, although any man who honestly advocates the 
 cause of the people, whether at home or abroad, will be 
 sure to be subjected to that reproach. My object is very 
 different. Conceiving, as I do, that colonization is the 
 grand necessity of the times for the British people, it is 
 simply to inform the struggling classes of all grades of 
 society at home, for whom there is evidently no inherit¬ 
 ance provided in the land of their fathers, that there is 
 land enough and to spare for them all in the noble colo¬ 
 nies of Australia. We have seen the land; and behold, it 
 is very good ! and the gold of that land is good also. Let 
 them comeTto us in any numbers, under such able and 
 honest leadership as may easily be found, to assist us in 
 setting up a government in that land, somewhat more on 
 God’s model than on that of man,— a government based, 
 like that of ancient Israel, on universal suffrage, perfect 
 political equality, and popular election ; and under which, 
 moreover, they may all literally sit, each under his own vine, 
 and under his own fig-tree, and none to make them afraid. 
 
 In regard to the bearing of Republican government on 
 the development of national spirit, national character, and 
 national virtue, I would beg to quote the following re¬ 
 marks of the learned and eloquent historian of Greece on 
 
 house, I found a mother and some small children, the latter quite 
 naked, mere skeletons. At another spot, a scarce-clad girl was 
 sitting at the door of a wretched hovel: I took from the well of my 
 car a loaf which I threw to her. In a moment a crowd of beings 
 rushed from the cabin, and a struggle began for the prize, in which 
 all feelings for sex and age were forgotten. The prasha weed, or 
 corn kail, with nettles, is now so sought after, that serious damage 
 is now done to the corn by the poor creatures who thus try to 
 live. — Correspondent of the “Times” from the West of Ireland, June, 
 1849. 
 
74 FREEDOM AND INDEPENDENCE FOR 
 
 the result of the establishment of popular government in 
 the City and State of Athens, after the subversion of as 
 selfish, effete, and unprincipled an oligarchy as that which 
 has hitherto prevailed, under the fostering care of the 
 Colonial Office, in the Australian Colonies. 
 
 “The grand and new idea of the Sovereign People, 
 composed of free and equal citizens, or liberty and equality 
 — to use words which so profoundly moved the French 
 nation half a century ago — it was this comprehensive 
 political idea which acted with electric effect upon the 
 Athenians, creating within them a host of sentiments, 
 motives, sympathies, and capacities, to which they had 
 before been strangers. Democracy, in Grecian antiquity, 
 possessed the privilege, not only of kindling an earnest 
 and unanimous attachment to the constitution in the 
 bosoms of the citizens, but also of creating an energy of 
 public and private action, such as could never be ob¬ 
 tained under an oligarchy, where the utmost that could 
 be hoped for was a passive acquiescence and obedience. 
 . . . Herodotus, in his comparison of the three sorts 
 
 of government, puts in the front rank of the advantages of 
 democracy ‘ its most splendid name and promise,’ its 
 power of enlisting the hearts of the citizens in support of 
 their constitution, and of providing for all a common 
 bond of union and fraternity. This is what even demo¬ 
 cracy did not always do ; but it was what no other go¬ 
 vernment in Greece could do : a reason alone sufficient to 
 stamp it as the best government, and presenting the 
 greatest chance of beneficial results, for a Grecian com¬ 
 munity.” * 
 
 I happened to reach the city of Rio de Janeiro, in the 
 Brazils, where I remained a fortnight, on my first voyage 
 to New Soutli Wales, in the month of January, 1823, 
 only a few days after the country had thrown off the yoke' 
 of Portugal, and proclaimed its national existence and in- 
 
 * History of Greece. By George Grote, Esq., vol. iv. p. 241. 
 
THE GOLDEN LANDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
 
 7 5 
 
 dependence. It was a period of extraordinary excitement 
 and enthusiasm; and triumphal arches, thrown across the 
 principal streets of the city, bearing in large letters the 
 inscription, Independencia 6 Morte, “ Independence or 
 Death,” proclaimed the new-born liberties and awakened 
 spirit of the people. Don Pedro, the eldest son of the 
 King of Portugal, who happened to be in the country at 
 the time, adroitly placed himself at the head of the 
 movement, and guaranteeing liberal institutions to the 
 people, probably secured the country for a generation or 
 two for his family. But “the new idea of the Sovereign 
 People ” was evidently working the same changes at Rio 
 as it had done at Athens, and was visibly infusing new life 
 into the whole community. I have twice visited the country 
 since (not at Rio, however, but at Pernambuco), in the 
 years 1839 and 1846 ; and depressed and borne down, as it 
 still is, under the prevalence of the two grand calamities 
 and curses of humanity, Popery a nd Slavery e^imb inndj it "T 
 was impossible not to recognize the transforming influence 
 and beneficial working of popular freedom and national 
 independence. All public improvements in the country 
 were dated from the era of Independence. A National 
 System of education had been established on a popular 
 basis , free from alljpriesthj control; and a bill had been 
 actually mule? the consideration of the Brazilian Senate 
 for the legalization of the marriage of priests. The 
 bishops were complaining, in the meantime, that they 
 could find no candidates for the priestly functions to keep 
 alive their effete superstition ; and the case of a Brazilian 
 female taking the veil was scarcely heard of. The monas¬ 
 teries were tumbling down, but schools and colleges were 
 rising in their stead. I assisted, by particular desire, in 
 1846, as a Master of Arts of a European University, at 
 the creation of a Bachelor of Laws in the Brazilian Uni¬ 
 versity of Olinda, the most ancient on the continent of 
 America; and in return for a letter of congratulation and 
 
 E 2 
 
76 
 
 FREEDOM AND INDEPENDENCE FOR 
 
 good wishes which I addressed, in the Latin language, to 
 the graduate, I had the honour, some time after my ar¬ 
 rival in England, of receiving a diploma of honorary 
 membership from the Literary Institute of that ancient 
 city. 
 
 In regard to the bearing of Republican institutions on 
 public and private morals, and on the prevalence and 
 practice of pure and undefiled religion, I think it must be 
 evident to the readers of Holy Scripture, that notwith¬ 
 standing their frequent national defections, the morals of 
 the nation of Israel were much purer under the Judges or 
 Presidents of the Hebrew Commonwealth, than under the 
 Kings : and as to the prevalence of that high-toned piety 
 which the law of God enjoins, we have an express testi¬ 
 mony on the subject which cannot be gainsaid. In that 
 dark and dismal period which preceded the fall of Jeru¬ 
 salem, and the temporary extinction of the Jewish State, it 
 was natural for the patriot and prophet Jeremiah, when an¬ 
 ticipating and lamenting over the approaching ruin of his 
 country, to look back with a melancholy pleasure to those 
 brighter and palmier days of its past history, when Israel 
 walked with God, and God blessed Israel. And to what 
 period in the past history of his nation does he look for 
 these glorious days? Is it to the reigns of Josiah and 
 Hezekiah, these reforming kings of Judah? Is it to the 
 period of the warrior David, the sweet singer of Israel ? 
 By no means. The prophet at once overleaps the whole 
 period of the monarchy, and recurs instinctively to the far 
 brighter and palmier period of the infancy of the Hebrew 
 Commonwealth. I remember thee, the kindness of thy 
 youth, the love of thine espousals, when thou wentest after 
 me in the wilderness, in a land that was not sown. Israel 
 was holiness unto the Lord, the first-fruits of his increase* 
 
 There is no reason to fear, therefore, either for morals 
 or for religion, under a popular form of government, 
 
 * Jerem. ii. 2, 3. 
 
THE GOLDEN LANDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
 
 77 
 
 established on the ancient and divinely accredited basis 
 of universal suffrage, perfect political equality, and popular 
 election. 
 
 Section XVI. — A Fifth Objection urged —The Australian 
 Colonies would be unable to defend and protect them¬ 
 selves FROM FOREIGN AGGRESSION, IN THE EVENT OF THEIR 
 OBTAINING THEIR FREEDOM AND INDEPENDENCE, AND WOULD, 
 THEREFORE, IF ABANDONED BY GREAT BRITAIN, VERY SOON 
 FALL INTO THE HANDS OF SOME OTHER POWER. 
 
 This is an argument against colonial freedom and in¬ 
 dependence, which is often put forth triumphantly by 
 those who find it to their personal advantage to keep 
 tilings as they are, and which is not without considerable 
 weight with timorous and nervous people ; but it only 
 requires to be looked at for a moment to feel assured of 
 its utter worthlessness. For who, I ask, are the enemies 
 with whom the Australian colonies, if free and independent, 
 would have to contend ? Is it the wretched Aborigines 
 of their own territory ? Alas ! most of them have already 
 disappeared from the face of the earth; the last man of 
 the Sydney tribe or nation, once a comparatively nume¬ 
 rous body of people, having died a few years ago ! Is it 
 the New Zealanders or the South Sea Islanders? The 
 very idea is absurd. Is it the Malays of the Indian Archi¬ 
 pelago, or the adventurous subjects of the Emperors of 
 China and Japan? These inoffensive and unwarlike 
 people could never even find their way to the Australian 
 colonies. They have no idea where they lie, and have 
 probably never heard of them. It is evident, therefore, 
 that the formidable enemies of free and independent 
 Australia can be no Aboriginal people within the vast 
 semicircle, having Australia for its centre, and extending 
 northwards and eastwards from the Cape of Good Hope 
 to Cape Horn. 
 
 We must therefore look for the future enemies of free 
 
78 FREEDOM AND INDEPENDENCE FOR 
 
 and independent Australia among the civilized and Chris¬ 
 tian nations of Europe and America; and before enter¬ 
 taining the very idea that any of these nations would 
 commit any act of unprovoked aggression upon us, we 
 must do them the honour to suppose that they are no 
 better than the Scandinavian Sea-kings of the middle 
 ages — mere pirates and robbers— which they would all 
 doubtless consider a very high compliment. Away with 
 the unnatural and anti-Christian policy that would thus 
 proclaim the whole human race but ourselves “ rogues 
 and vagabonds,” and get Acts of Parliament passed, and 
 treaties and alliances formed, to denounce them, and fleets 
 and armies hired to put them down ! This was the policy 
 that saddled Great Britain with her eight hundred millions 
 of debt, and that has reduced whole masses of her popula¬ 
 tion, in the midst of all the elements of national wealth 
 and universal prosperity, to a state of suffering and 
 wretchedness utterly discreditable to any civilized nation. 
 
 Considering then that we have nothing to fear from 
 external aggression in Australia, within the vast semi¬ 
 circle extending northward and eastward from the Cape 
 of Good Hope to Cape Horn, and that we have all the 
 substantial protection besides that a four months’ voyage, 
 which it takes to reach us, implies, against the supposed 
 Sea-kings — the pirate and robber States — of modern 
 Europe and America, we can easily afford to treat the 
 famous question of National Defences very coolly. Besides 
 Great Britain herself, the only maritime powers in Chris¬ 
 tendom that could be supposed capable, even if they pos¬ 
 sessed the inclination, of committing acts of aggression 
 upon free and independent Australia, are France, and 
 Russia, and America; but so far from any of these great 
 Powers having the slightest inclination to meddle with us 
 in such circumstances, I appeal to every intelligent reader, 
 as to whether it would not be a far likelier event, that the 
 Envoys we should have to send to these countries with 
 the tidings of our freedom and independence, would 
 
THE GOLDEN LANDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
 
 79 
 
 be received at Paris, and Petersburg, and Washington, 
 with the most cordial welcome, and be admitted at one 
 into the great family of nations with the liveliest derm 
 strations of joy. 
 
 The fact is, the only chance we have of hearing of war 
 in any shape in Australia for a century to come, lies in 
 our connection with Great Britain, as a group of her 
 many dependencies. And considering the warlike pro¬ 
 pensities of our worthy mother, and the character she has 
 so long sustained of being the prize-fighter and pay-mis¬ 
 tress of the world, our chance of peace under her wing is 
 at best but very precarious.* If she chose to go to war, 
 
 * Colonists have generally no predilection for war: they have 
 almost uniformly been dragged into it by the mother country, for 
 her own purposes, and not for theirs. Take a case in point: “ Three 
 years before this period (anno 1G98), King William had concerted 
 a plan for the general defence of the American settlements against 
 the French forces in Canada and their Indian allies; in conformity 
 with which, every colony was required to furnish a pecuniary con¬ 
 tingent proportioned to the amount of its population,—to be admi¬ 
 nistered according to the directions of the king. This plan was 
 submitted to all the provincial legislatures, and disregarded or rejected 
 by every one of them; the colonies most exposed to attack being 
 desirous of employing their forces in the manner most agreeable to 
 their own judgment and immediate exigencies; and those which 
 were more remote from the point of danger, objecting to participate 
 in the expense. Governor Nicholson clearly perceived the utility 
 of King William’s plan as a preparative of the ulterior object of a 
 General Government of the colonies: and though peace had now been 
 established, he determined to signalize his recent promotion, by 
 reviving the royal project and retrieving its failure. He ventured 
 accordingly to introduce this unwelcome proposition to the assembly 
 of Virginia; and employed all the resources of his address and 
 ingenuity to procure its adoption. He asserted that a fort on the 
 western frontier of New York was essential to the security of Vir¬ 
 ginia ; and insisted that the legislature of this province was conse¬ 
 quently engaged by every consideration of prudence, equity, and 
 generosity, to contribute to its erection and support. But his argu¬ 
 ments, though backed by all the aid they could desire from reference 
 e 4 
 
80 FREEDOM AND INDEPENDENCE FOR 
 
 which she might do at any time, and on any question 
 in which we may not have the slightest imaginable in¬ 
 terest, with any of the three great Powers I have men¬ 
 tioned, what a noble chance there would be for a few 
 French, or Russian, or American frigates and privateers 
 to cruize off Cape Leeuwin to pick up the outward- 
 bounders, or off the North and South Capes of New 
 Zealand, to alter the destination and ownership of our 
 ships homeward bound to London and Liverpool, with 
 their valuable cargoes of fine wool and tallow, copper and 
 gold ! Besides, we should have the pleasure of such an 
 occasional interlude as the burning of our towns on the 
 coast, and the destruction of our ships in port; which 
 would be enacted from no imaginable hostility to us as 
 Australians, or colonists, but simply to annoy our pugna¬ 
 cious parent in London! 
 
 “Oh! but that is the very case in point,” I shall be 
 told. “ Great Britain would defend and protect us in 
 
 to the wish and suggestion of the king, proved totally unavailing; 
 and the proposition experienced an unqualified rejection from the 
 Assembly. Nicholson, astonished and provoked at this discom¬ 
 fiture, hastened to transmit a report of the proceeding to the king; 
 in which he strongly reprobated the refractory spirit of the Virgi¬ 
 nians, and urged the propriety of compelling them yet to acknow¬ 
 ledge their duty, and consult their true interests. William was so 
 far moved by this representation, as to recommend to the Provincial 
 Assembly a more deliberate consideration of the governor’s proposi¬ 
 tion ; and he even condescended to repeat the arguments which 
 Nicholson had already unsuccessfully employed. But these reasons 
 gained no additional currency from the stamp of royal sanction. 
 The king's project encountered again the most determined rejection 
 from the Assembly; and his argument elicited from them only a 
 firm but respectful remonstrance, in which they declared their con¬ 
 viction, ‘ that neither the forts then in being, nor any other that 
 might be built in the province of New York, could in the slightest 
 degree avail to the defence and security of Virginia; for that either 
 the French or the northern Indians might invade this colony, and 
 yet not approach within 100 miles of any of those forts.’ ”— Gra- 
 hame’s History of the United States of America, vol. iii. p. 14. 
 
THE GOLDEN LANDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
 
 81 
 
 case of war, as she would be bound to do. She would have 
 frigates cruising off Cape Leeuwin ; she would have others 
 off both Capes of New Zealand, and others still off this 
 stormy Cape Horn, where you are now writing, and scarce 
 able to guide the pen from the rolling and plunging of 
 the ship in this tempestuous sea.* Besides, she would 
 have ships of war cruising along our whole line of coast, 
 and occasionally enlivening us with their presence in our 
 harbours ; and what is best of all, she would make her own 
 'people pay all the expenses, without asking a farthing from 
 us ! ”f Now this is a great deal too much for Great Bri¬ 
 tain to do for us. We have no desire whatever to put 
 her to the slightest trouble or expense in the matter, or to 
 tax her people a single farthing for our protection and 
 defence—simply because it is quite unnecessary. Let her 
 only give us our freedom and independence, and we pro¬ 
 mise her we will live at peace with all the world, — for 
 this good reason, if for no better, that we could not afford 
 to go to war; and she will in the meantime save the ex¬ 
 pense of her proposed naval armament for the protection 
 and defence of Australia in the event of a European 
 war. 
 
 The notable idea, which was seriously put forth two or 
 three years ago by the London Morning Chronicle , that 
 if Great Britain should abandon her Australian colonies, 
 some other European power would take them up, scarcely 
 deserves the slightest notice. From the passage above 
 quoted from Mr. Grote’s History of Greece, the reader 
 will doubtless infer that to take a free and independent 
 country would be something very different from the mere 
 taking of a miserable dependency. Besides, although the 
 yoke of Britain is galling enough to the British colonists 
 
 * This was written when actually doubling Cape Horn, with a 
 strong northwesterly gale, and a heavy sea, in latitude 58° South. 
 
 f Quicquid delirant reges, plectuntur Achivi. 
 
 Whether the war be with Johnny Heki or with the Kaffirs, 
 John Bull must pay the expenses.—Free Translation. 
 
82 
 
 FREEDOM AND INDEPENDENCE FOR 
 
 of Australia who feel themselves entitled to their freedom 
 and independence, they could never be induced to ex¬ 
 change that yoke for any other. If the yoke of Britain 
 is galling, that of France, or Russia, or America, would 
 be a hundred-fold more galling —it would be absolutely 
 intolerable — for “ Britons never can be slaves.” 
 
 Section XVII. — How the Claim of Freedom and Independ¬ 
 ence IS LIKELY TO BE RECEIVED BY THE PARENT STATE. 
 
 There is no political truth so universally admitted as 
 that certain colonies, or groups of colonies, will ulti¬ 
 mately attain their freedom and independence, and be¬ 
 come great and powerful nations.* The idea that mil¬ 
 lions, or even hundreds of thousands, of intelligent and 
 enterprising people, living together in any country what¬ 
 ever, will allow themselves, in this advanced period of the 
 world’s history, to be governed by any other people resi¬ 
 ding at the opposite extremity of the globe, is so pre-emi¬ 
 nently absurd that no person of any pretensions to common 
 sense or common honesty would venture to stake his 
 reputation upon putting it forth. “ There must ulti¬ 
 mately, therefore,” it is universally admitted, “be a time 
 for the separation of the colony, or group of colonies, 
 from the Parent State. But nobody, surely,” it will be 
 added, “ can be mad enough to suppose that the time has 
 come yet! Wait a while longer by all means, — it is 
 only a question of time.” 
 
 But this question of time is just the point upon which 
 the whole case turns. For while the colonist maintains 
 
 * “ Every colony' ought by us to be looked upon as a country des¬ 
 tined, at some period of its existence, to govern itself.” — The 
 Colonies of England. By John Arthur Roebuck, Esq., M.P., 
 p. 170. 
 
THE GOLDEN LANDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
 
 83 
 
 that the present time is the time fixed by the law of 
 nature and the ordinance of God, as the community to 
 which he belongs has attained its political majority, and 
 is both able and willing to govern itself; “ Pooh, pooh ! ” 
 says the Right Honourable the Secretary of State for the 
 Colonies, backed, as he is sure to be, by a large majority 
 of the people of England, “ the future time can be the 
 only proper time for the consideration of so grave a ques¬ 
 tion. Let us hear no more of it, therefore, for half a cen¬ 
 tury to come.” 
 
 Thus the very people who will take infinite credit, from 
 all who are simple enough to give it them, for their glori¬ 
 fication of Kossutli and Mazzini for their heroic efforts to 
 establish the freedom and independence of Hungary and 
 Rome, will look as cold as the frigid zone upon those who 
 presume to claim for a whole group of British colonies — 
 that is, for their own countrymen, and friends, and bro¬ 
 thers,— that freedom and independence to which they 
 are unquestionably entitled by the law of nature and the 
 ordinance of God. The Ministry of the hour, whose 
 glory it would diminish, and whose power it would 
 abridge, will doubtless meet the claim of the colonists and 
 their friends with the stale and dishonest charge of disaf¬ 
 fection and rebellion ; and the people of England, who have 
 just, perhaps, been feteing and huzzaing the champions 
 of the liberties of continental Europe, will stand tamely by 
 while their own rulers are employing all the powers of the 
 State to repress and extinguish the dawning liberties of 
 Australia. “ There are instances,” says Professor Heeren, 
 “in which individual rulers, weary of power, have freely 
 resigned it; butno^jeopfe ever yet voluntarily surrendered 
 authority over a subject nation.” * It would seem, there- 
 
 * Reflections on the Politics of Ancient Greece. Jeremy Ben- 
 thani expresses a similar idea in regard to an aristocracy, and this 
 is perhaps more directly applicable to the case in question; the 
 power in that case being in the hands of the Imperial Parliament, 
 which can only be regarded as an aristocracy exercising absolute 
 
84 
 
 FREEDOM AND INDEPENDENCE FOR 
 
 fore, that those “ hereditary bondsmen ” of the British co¬ 
 lonies, who would be free and independent, must still 
 achieve that freedom and independence in the old regular 
 and accustomed way. Like the patriarch Jacob, they 
 must take their ■portion out of the hand of the Amorite with 
 their sioord and with their boiv.* 
 
 power over the subject people of the colonies. “ Of voluntary sur¬ 
 renders of monarchy into the hands of expectant and monarchical 
 successors, there is no want of examples : not even in modern—not 
 even in European history:—Charles the Fifth of Germany, monarch 
 of so many vast monarchies; Christina of Sweden; Victor Ama¬ 
 deus of Savoy ; Philip the Fifth of Spain : here, in so many different 
 nations, we have already four examples. But, on the part of an 
 aristocratical body, where is there as much as any one example to 
 be found of the surrender of the minutest particle of power which 
 lliey were able to retain?” — Jeremy Bentham, Plan of Parlia¬ 
 mentary Reform. 
 
 * Gen. xlviii. 22. 
 
THE GOLDEN LANDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
 
 85 
 
 CHAP. II. 
 
 PRINCIPLES AND PRACTICE OF THE ANCIENTS, AND ESPE¬ 
 CIALLY OF THE GREEKS, IN COLONIZATION. 
 
 Section I. — The Greek Colonies. 
 
 One of the most interesting features in the history of 
 the ancient world, is the remarkable extent to which the 
 mere handful of people who inhabited “ the Isles of 
 Greece ” diffused their singularly beautiful language, their 
 equitable laws, their “elegant mythology,”* and above all 
 the spirit of manly freedom that pervaded their whole 
 political system, over the remotest regions of the then 
 known world. We know comparatively little of Phoeni¬ 
 cian colonization ; and the barbarous and impolitic decree 
 of the Roman Senate, Delenda est Carthago j, appears to 
 
 * “ The elegant mythology of the Greeks.”— Gibbon. Be it so — 
 of course with a few grains of salt. 
 
 f These were the terms of the famous decree of the Roman 
 Senate for the destruction of Carthage, the ancient political rival 
 of Rome. The Carthaginians had at one time an extensive colonial 
 empire, chiefly in Africa, Sicily, and Spain. 
 
 King Solomon appears to have done something considerable in the 
 way of colonization. The sacred writer informs us that Solomon 
 went to Hamath- Zobah, and prevailed against it. And he built 
 Tadmor in the wilderness, and all the store cities, which he built in 
 Hamath. — 2 Chron. viii. 3, 4. In these countries, as well as in the 
 conquests of his father, David, to the eastward, Solomon probably 
 planted one or more colonies of emigrants from the land of Israel, 
 dividing among them the conquered territories. The advice given 
 in Prov. xxiv. 27., Prepare thy work without, and make it fit for thy¬ 
 self in the field, and afterwards build thine house, appears to have 
 
86 
 
 FREEDOM AND INDEPENDENCE FOR 
 
 have extended to the literature as well as to the walls of 
 Carthage, to the archives of her history as well as to the 
 monuments of her power. But the glorious Greeks have 
 left the traces of their presence on every shore to which 
 it was possible to steer their adventurous galleys, from the 
 Pillars of Hercules to the Sea of Azof; and the solitary 
 marble columns of her once splendid, but now fallen, 
 temples and palaces, and towers, that are still to be found 
 alike, in the midst of surrounding desolation, on the verge 
 of every African desert and every Asiatic coast, proclaim 
 to the admiring traveller how mighty a people must once 
 have lived and reigned in the Central Sea. 
 
 And yet the native land of these heroes of the olden 
 time — Greece Proper-—was considerably smaller than 
 England; the famous Peloponnesus, which occupies so large 
 a space in ancient history, being only about the size of 
 Yorkshire*; for it was not until a comparatively late period, 
 
 been intended for these emigrants, to whom it must have proved the 
 best possible advice ; for it is difficult to conceive how it could have 
 applied to the circumstances of a long settled country like the land 
 of Israel in the days of Solomon. 
 
 * The Greek States make such a conspicuous figure in history, 
 that the reader will not easily believe their inhabitants were so few, 
 or their territories so small, as certain circumstances compel us to ad¬ 
 mit. The whole extent of their country, even when they flourished 
 most, comprehended only the peninsula of Peloponnesus, and the 
 territories stretching northwards from the isthmus of Corinth to the 
 borders of Macedonia, bounded by the Archipelago on the east, and 
 by Epirus and the Ionian Sea on the west. The mean breadth of 
 Peloponnesus from north to south can scarcely be reckoned more 
 than 140 miles, and its mean length from east to west cannot be 
 estimated at more than 210 miles. Yet, within this narrow boundary, 
 were contained six independent States, Achaia, Elis^. Messenia, La¬ 
 conia, Argolis, and Arcadia. Admitting, then, thal .je territories 
 of these States were nearly of equal extent, the dimensions of each 
 particular State will appear to be no more than 23 miles in breadth, 
 and .35 in length. 
 
 The country belonging to the Greeks on the north side of the 
 
THE GOLDEN LANDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
 
 87 
 
 and after all the great works of Grecian colonization had 
 been in some measure completed, that the Macedonians, 
 who were afterwards so celebrated in Grecian histor>, were 
 admitted into the brotherhood of the Greeks. The cli¬ 
 mate was doubtless superior to that of England, and the 
 available land of greater fertility ; but much of the super¬ 
 ficial area of the country consisted of bare rocks and 
 barren hills, and the territory of Attica in particular was 
 very inferior in its agricultural capabilities. But the 
 Greeks, and especially those of tire islands, were a mari¬ 
 time people, and a comparatively large proportion of their 
 number preferred living by commerce to the cultivation 
 of the soil. Their foreign trade necessarily extended their 
 knowledge and expanded their minds, whilst it brought 
 them large accessions to their national wealth : and this 
 wealth nourished and sustained literature and science, 
 philosophy and the arts. The consequence was that the 
 Greeks were a cultivated and refined people, while the 
 ruder Romans, who were steadily advancing to universal 
 
 isthmus, I have computed, from the best maps, to contain, of mean 
 breadth, 153 miles from north to south, and of mean length, 258 miles 
 from east to west. It comprehended no fewer than the following 
 nine independent commonwealths, Thessaly, Locris, Boeotia, Attica, 
 Megaris, Phocis, iEtolia, Acarnania, and Doris. Supposing, then, 
 as in the former case, these commonwealths to have been nearly 
 equal in point of territory, in order to obtain an idea of the mean 
 magnitude of these dominions, we shall find each of them to have pos¬ 
 sessed lands to the extent only of 17 miles in breadth, and 28 in length. 
 What is still more extraordinary, several of them consisted of cities, 
 which were independent of one another, and were associated only for 
 mutual defence. Both the Locrians and the Achaeans afford in¬ 
 stances of this case. The former had not even all their territories 
 contiguous, nor did they act always in concert, and the twelve cities 
 of the latter seem to have been connected in no other manner than 
 by alliance.— History of tlic Colonisation of the free States of Antiquity, 
 applied to the present Contest between Great Britain and her American 
 Colonies (attributed to W. Barron, Esq. F. II. S. Edinburgh), p. 22. 
 London, 1777. 
 
88 FREEDOM AND INDEPENDENCE FOR ’ 
 
 empire in their immediate neighbourhood, could only do 
 two things — bear arms and cultivate the soil. 
 
 The political state of Greece, moreover, was most un¬ 
 fortunate, and apparently most unfavourable to national 
 advancement. Instead of forming one great whole, and 
 being thereby enabled to concentrate the national ener¬ 
 gies upon any one object or series of objects, the country, 
 like Italy in the middle ages, was broken up into almost 
 as many sovereign and independent States as there are 
 counties in England ; and these States were in perpetual 
 warfare with each other—Greek everywhere and at all 
 times meeting Greek in mortal strife, and the resources of 
 the country being wasted the meanwhile in fruitless and 
 ruinous wars. 
 
 And yet it was under all these disadvantages that, 
 Avhat Lord Bacon very properly designates the “ heroic 
 work” of colonization, was commenced among the an¬ 
 cient Greeks, and carried on from time to time with all 
 the native energy and vigour of that wonderful people; 
 till it reached at length an extent and magnitude that 
 renders the utmost efforts even of Great Britain in modern 
 times, and notwithstanding all the appliances of modern 
 civilization, insignificant in comparison. 
 
 The first remote country, to which the colonizing efforts 
 of the ancient Greeks were directed, was Asia Minor; 
 and each of the three great divisions of their race — the 
 Ionians, the jEolians, and the Dorians — formed a whole 
 series of colonies on the coast of that country; the Ionians 
 and .Eolians having each twelve cities or independent 
 sovereignties, and the Dorians six.* It is immaterial 
 whether we refer the great migration, which led to the 
 planting of these colonies or States, to a particular year, 
 
 * Two hundred and forty years after the Trojan war, the western 
 coast of Asia Minor was planted by the iEolians in the north, the 
 Ionians in the middle, and the Dorians in the south (anno a.c. 944). 
 — Hist, of Ancient Greece, its Colonies and Conquests. By John 
 Gillies, LL.D. vol. i. p. 103. 
 
THE GOLDEN LANDS OP AUSTRALIA. 
 
 89 
 
 as is done by historians of the second class, who are gene¬ 
 rally dealers in the marvellous, or consider what is com¬ 
 monly called “ the Ionian Migration,” a legend, with Mr. 
 Grote, and spread it over a long series of years ; for the 
 result is in either case precisely the same. The proba¬ 
 bility indeed is that there were not fewer than thirty dif¬ 
 ferent migrations altogether; each having a separate leader, 
 and each founding a distinct city or State.* For as the 
 same national calamity at home would, in all likelihood, 
 either induce or compel a great many families and indi¬ 
 viduals of the same tribe or people to emigrate simul¬ 
 taneously from their native country, it was absolutely 
 necessary in these times that they should do so, to enable 
 them to effect a settlement in their adopted country at all; 
 for Asia Minor was already inhabited, although but 
 thinly, by a warlike people, when it was colonized by the 
 Greeks, and every distinct colony had consequently to 
 defend itself against “the barbarians.”'!' In such circum- 
 
 * There existed at the commencement of historical Greece in 
 776 b. c., besides the Ionians in Attica and the Cyclades, twelve 
 Ionian cities of note on or near the coasts of Asia Minor, besides a 
 few others less important. Enumerated from south to north, they 
 stand—Miletus, Myus, Priene, Samos, Ephesus, Kolophon, Lebe- 
 dus, Teos, Erythra:, Chios, Klazomena:, Phokaea. 
 
 That these cities, the great ornament of the Ionic name, were 
 founded by emigrants from European Greece, there is no reason to 
 doubt. How or when they were founded, we have no history to 
 tell us : the legend gives us a great event called the Ionic migration, 
 referred by clironologists to one special year, 140 years after the 
 Trojan war .—History of Greece. By George Grote, Esq., vol. iii. 
 p. 230. 
 
 f Not the prosperity, not the policy, but the troubles and mis¬ 
 fortunes of the country gave origin to the principal colonies of 
 Greece. The TEolic Migration was an immediate consequence 
 of the conquest of Peloponnesus by the Heracleids. The great 
 Ionic Migration took place somewhat later, but produced colonies 
 still more flourishing. It was led from Athens by Androclus and 
 Neleus, younger sons of Codrus, upon the occasion of the determina¬ 
 tion of the succession to the Archonship in favour of Medon. The 
 
90 
 
 FREEDOM AND INDEPENDENCE FOR 
 
 stances, there was no such contemptible word as “protec¬ 
 tion”— in the sense of a naval or military force from the 
 mother country, which certain timid people consider ab¬ 
 solutely necessary for a British colony — in the whole 
 colonial Greek vocabulary. Every colony defended aud 
 protected itself from the very first. 
 
 As these colonial cities or States grew and prospered, 
 they generally became mother countries in their turn, and 
 sent out other colonies, either into the interior, or along 
 the remoter coasts of the adjacent seas. We shall have 
 some idea of the prodigious amount of subsidiary coloni¬ 
 zation, which was thus originated in all the other twenty- 
 nine original cities or colonies of Asia Minor, from what 
 history informs us in regard to the famous city of Miletus 
 — the first of the Ionian cities, and the city in which the 
 great apostle of the Gentiles held his interesting and 
 affecting interview with the elders of the Church of Ephe¬ 
 sus, when driven from that city by a popular commo¬ 
 tion.* For it tends exceedingly to enhance the interest 
 we naturally feel in “ these ancient things,” to reflect 
 that the earliest triumphs of Christianity were achieved, 
 and the most numerous and flourishing of the apostolic 
 Churches planted, among the Grecian colonies of Asia 
 Minor. “ Of the Ionic towns,” says Mr. Grote, “ with 
 which our real knowledge of Asia Minor begins, Miletus 
 was the most powerful ; and its celebrity was derived not 
 merely from its own wealth and population, but also from 
 the extraordinary number of its colonies, established prin¬ 
 cipally in the Propontis and Euxine, and amounting, as 
 we are told by some authors, to not less than seventy-five 
 or eighty. ”■(• 
 
 In this way, doubtless, the Carian or Dorian province 
 
 Carian colonies in general boasted the Dorian name. — History oj 
 Greece. By William Mitford, Esq., vol. i. p. 376. 
 
 * Acts, xx. 17—38. 
 
 f History of Greece. By George Grote, vol. iii. p. 241. 
 
TIIE GOLDEN LANDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
 
 91 
 
 of Lycia, towards the south coast of Asia Minor, was 
 colonized from the old colonies — the Dorian Hexapolis, 
 with its principal city Halicarnassus — on the coast. In 
 that province Sir Charles Fellowes has, within the last few 
 years, discovered a whole series of magnificent remains of 
 Grecian antiquity; on which Mr. Buckingham, late M.P., 
 makes the following judicious remark : — 
 
 “In the single province of Lycia—embracing little more 
 than a degree in latitude and longitude, or not more than 
 2,000,000 acres, with a large portion of this limited area 
 occupied by rocky mountains and inaccessible cliffs, with 
 not a single large navigable river or lake, — were no less 
 than 36 cities, in the time of Herodotus; while over the 
 200,000,000 of acres in our Western provinces, we could 
 not present, in the united public works and edifices all 
 put together, so much of architectural beauty, cost, and 
 grandeur, as some single one of these cities of Asia Minor 
 possesses, even now, in such of their remains as have yet 
 come down to us after 2000 years or more of time !”* 
 
 But Lycia was only one small province of Asia Minor. 
 The whole country was a series of such provinces — all 
 colonized successively by the Greeks, and all doubtless 
 exhibiting the magnificent remains of Grecian architecture 
 to the present day. 
 
 At a somewhat later period in the history of Greece, 
 Grecian colonization took a westerly direction ; and one 
 of the principal colonizing cities or States of Greece, 
 which sent out colonies in that direction, was the cele¬ 
 brated city or State of Corinth. Of the many colonies 
 planted by that city, I shall mention only three. The first 
 was Locri, on the north coast of the Gulf of Corinth, to 
 which I shall have occasion to refer in the sequel, and 
 which in its turn became a colonizing city also, and planted 
 another city of its own name, which afterwards became 
 wealthy and populous, to a far greater extent than the 
 
 Buckingham, Model of a Town , Sfc. 
 
92 FREEDOM AND INDEPENDENCE FOR 
 
 parent city, on the coast of Italy. The second of the 
 Corinthian colonies I shall mention was the city of Coreyra 
 or Corfu, on the island of that name. This city also soon 
 became a mother-city or State, and planted the colony of 
 Epidamnus on the mainland, about which it was able to 
 go to war, as it actually did, with the Parent State. The 
 third Corinthian colony was the city or State of Syracuse, 
 in the island of Sicily, which very soon far outstripped its 
 Parent State in wealth and splendour and population. 
 
 The city of Agrigentum was another Grecian city in 
 Sicily, scarcely, if at all, inferior to Syracuse; and the 
 two insignificant Grecian States of Chalcis and Megara 
 had each also a distinct colony, or city and district, in 
 that island. It would seem, therefore, that Mr. Grote is 
 decidedly in error when he speaks in the following dis¬ 
 paraging terms of the Grecian colonies in Sicily : — 
 
 “ Such were the chief establishments founded by the 
 Greeks in Sicily during the two centuries after their first 
 settlement in 735 b. c. * * * Their progress-, 
 
 though very great, during this most prosperous interval 
 (between the foundation of Naxos in 735 b.c. to the reign 
 of Gelon in Syracuse in 485 b. c.), is not to be compared 
 to that of the English colonies in America; but it was 
 nevertheless very great, and appears greater from being 
 concentrated as it was in and around a few cities.” * 
 
 Mr. Grote ought to have recollected that the English 
 colonies in America, whether he refers to the original 
 Thirteen, or to the present British North American pro¬ 
 vinces, were the colonies of a mighty empire, having an 
 extent of domestic territory, so to speak, at least three 
 times larger than that of Greece Proper, with probably 
 four times its population; having nothing, moreover, 
 in the shape of internal wars to distract it at home, 
 possessing facilities for colonization incomparably supe¬ 
 rior to those of ancient Greece, and being able to con- 
 
 History of Greece. By George Grote, Esq., vol. iii. p. 491. 
 
THE GOLDEN LANDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
 
 93 
 
 centrate its whole force in the way of colonization on 
 any particular point; whereas the Greek colonies of Sicily 
 were each the colony of a small insignificant State, no 
 bigger than a second or third rate town in England, while 
 Sicily itself was only one of the many fields of Grecian 
 colonization. A comparison, in such cases, Mr. Grote 
 will surely allow, is scarcely warrantable. 
 
 The South of Italy was also another extensive field of 
 Grecian colonization; and so important was it considered 
 in this respect by the Greeks themselves, that it was 
 commonly called Magna Gracia, or Greece the Greater. 
 Naples still bears the commonplace name of New Town*, 
 which was given it by its original Greek colonists; and, 
 not to exhaust the patience of the reader with more nu¬ 
 merous examples, the Greek colonies of Marseilles and 
 Lyons in the Soutli of France, and of Cyrene on the coast 
 of Africa, w'ere evidences of the presence and energy of 
 the Greeks in these comparatively remote lands. 
 
 “ The colony of Sybaris, called afterwards Thurii, in 
 Italy, was settled by the Achaeans. It was powerful and 
 successful, had under its jurisdiction four adjacent States, 
 possessed twenty-five cities, and could bring into the field 
 300,000 men, which it did in the war with its neighbours 
 the Crotoniatae, or inhabitants of Croton, also a colony of 
 Achaea, by whom they were completely routed, and their 
 city destroyed.” "j" 
 
 Such w r ere the mighty and magnificent results of 
 Grecian colonization. Considering the limited extent, 
 and comparatively small population of Greece, and es¬ 
 pecially considering the unfortunately divided state of 
 the gountry, and the constant prevalence of intestine wars, 
 it is altogether one of the most remarkable phenomena in 
 the history of man. But even all this was comparatively 
 nothing to the mighty influence which this w-onderful 
 
 * N tcnro\is, Neapolis, Naples, or New Town. 
 
 t History of the Colonisation of the Free States of Antiquity. 
 London, 1777. 
 
94 
 
 FREEDOM AND INDEPENDENCE FOR 
 
 people acquired throughout the civilized world, after the 
 subversion of the Persian empire by Alexander the Great. 
 Their language then became the universal tongue of the 
 civilized world; displacing alike the Coptic in Egypt and 
 the Syriac in Antioch and Palmyra, while the influence 
 of their laws and learning was felt to the utmost bounds 
 of civilization. 
 
 Section II.— British Colonization before the War of 
 American Independence. 
 
 It may not be unprofitable to contrast, with this product 
 of the isles of Greece, the vaunted colonization of Britain, 
 both before and since the war of American Independence. 
 To begin then with the colonies of New England in 
 America, these, as I have already observed, were planted 
 during the twenty years that elapsed from the year 1620 
 to the year 1640 ; the original colonists consisting of about 
 twenty thousand persons, who had fled for liberty of con¬ 
 science to the American wilderness, from the tyranny of 
 Charles the First, and the relentless intolerance of his 
 minister Laud. The fact of so extensive an emigration 
 having taken place, within so limited a period, and so 
 near to our own times, may show that there is no ante¬ 
 cedent improbability in the common historical account of 
 the great Ionian migration; for under a strong impelling 
 power in the mother country, like the persecution of the 
 Puritans in England, the same effect would doubtless have 
 followed. With a few insignificant exceptions, no further 
 emigration took place from the mother country to New 
 England till the War of Independence. Bancroft, the 
 American historian, estimates the population of New Eng¬ 
 land, at the Revolution of 1688, at seventy-five thousand. 
 
 Virginia was the oldest English colony on the continent 
 of America. It was originally planted during the reign 
 of James I., in the year 1606; but in the year 1642, its 
 
THE GOLDEN LANDS OP AUSTRALIA. 
 
 95 
 
 population did not exceed 20,000; and according to Ban¬ 
 croft, it amounted only to 50,000 at the Revolution of 
 1688. At the usual rate of increase in America, — 
 doubling in thirty years, — this amount of population 
 would give 640,000 in the year 1792; which must have 
 been pretty near the actual amount, for in the year 1800 
 the population of Virginia amounted to 880,200, — of 
 whom, however, about, one-half were negroes! How in¬ 
 significant, therefore, must the whole amount of British 
 emigration to the great colony of Virginia, — the Old Do¬ 
 minion, as it used to be called, — have been, previous to 
 the era of Independence, when the whole white popula¬ 
 tion of the country, with all its increase, after a hundred 
 and seventy years, amounted only to 320,000 ? 
 
 It is commonly alleged that the original colonists of 
 Virginia were cavaliers, or gentlemen, and not Round 
 Heads, or plebeians, like the Puritan colonists of New 
 England; who differed from the Virginian colonists in this 
 important, particular, that they almost uniformly carried 
 their wives and families along with them to that country. 
 Whatever they were, there was so large a number of males, 
 and so serious a want of female population in the young 
 colony, that the Virginia Company in England had to send 
 out whole ship-loads of young women—I presume from 
 the workhouses or other similar establishments of the pe¬ 
 riod, as in the case of the recent Irish Female Orphan Emi¬ 
 gration to New South Wales, — to supply the deficiency ; 
 and these young women were literally sold to their future 
 husbands, the gentlemen and cavaliers of Virginia (!) at 
 so many pounds of tobacco each, to repay the Company 
 the cost of their passage out. There was another species 
 of emigration to Virginia and the American colonies ge¬ 
 nerally, which had been long in practice before the War 
 of Independence,— it was that of shipmasters carrying 
 out labouring people, or adventurers, who were unable to 
 pay their own passage, and selling their services for a 
 certain period to the colonists, after their arrival, to reim- 
 
96 FREEDOM AND INDEPENDENCE FOR 
 
 burse themselves for their outlay ; people of this class 
 being called Redemptioners. But the want of labour was 
 so great in the American colonies, and the flow of volun¬ 
 tary emigration so limited, that the atrocious practice of 
 kidnapping for the colonies was long and systematically 
 had recourse to in the seaport towns of the United King¬ 
 dom ; unfortunate people, both male and female, from the 
 country chiefly, being allured on board ships ready for 
 sea, and carried off and sold for a time for their passage 
 money, like the Redemptioners. And last of all, there 
 was the convict emigration to Virginia and the other 
 American colonies, which amounted for some time pre¬ 
 vious to the War of Independence to about two thousand 
 annually. And yet, with all these sources of supply, so little 
 creditable to Great Britain as a great colonizing country, 
 the entire white population of Virginia did not exceed 
 320,000, even including foreigners and their offspring, at 
 the era of the American war; that is, at the close of one 
 hundred and seventy years of British colonization ! The 
 original amount of British emigration required to produce 
 such a result after so long an interval, must therefore 
 have been exceedingly small. 
 
 The colony of New York was originally a conquest 
 from the Dutch, during the reign of Charles the Second; 
 and the number of its inhabitants, who were consequently 
 all Dutchmen, at the period of its capture, was upwards 
 of ten thousand.* To these there were subsequently 
 added a number of German Protestant refugees from the 
 Palatinate, and also of French Huguenots, who had been 
 
 * This circumstance alone is quite sufficient to account for the 
 extremely limited British emigration to the colony of New York 
 till the War of Independence, when a new order of things com¬ 
 menced. Previous to that period, it was a Dutch colony in reality, 
 although a British in name and in government; and the British 
 people do not like to settle in foreign colonies under any circum¬ 
 stances, as the state of the Cape colony, of Lower Canada, and of 
 the Mauritius, sufficiently proves to the present day. 
 
THE GOLDEN LANDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
 
 97 
 
 driven from their country after the Repeal of the Edict of 
 Nantes. So considerable indeed was this latter infusion 
 that the French language continued to be spoken in certain 
 localities in the neighbourhood of New York till the war 
 of the Revolution.* 
 
 The colony of New Jersey was originally settled in 
 great measure by emigrants from Scotland, who had been 
 driven from their country by persecution; with whom 
 were incorporated a body of Polish Protestants whose 
 emigration had had a similar origin. The Polish names 
 are common in this part of America to the present day. 
 
 The origin and character of the settlement of Penn is 
 well known ; although it is a gross injustice to the memory 
 of many other excellent and Christian men, connected 
 with the original colonization of America, as well as a 
 very common error, to suppose that he tvas either the 
 
 * Governor Hunter carried out about two thousand Palatines, as 
 they were then called, or German Protestant refugees, to the colony 
 of New York, in the reign of Queen Anne; for the English emigra¬ 
 tion of that period was very limited. There was a French Hugue¬ 
 not agricultural settlement at that time about twenty miles from 
 the city; and the emigrants, in writing home to their persecuted 
 friends in France, informed them, that “after their week’s labour 
 was over, they regularly walked to New York every Saturday 
 afternoon, to attend divine service with their countrymen, in the 
 French Protestant church there, twice every Sabbath; and rising 
 a great while before day on the Monday morning, they walked back 
 to their own settlement again, to resume the labours of the week;” 
 adding “ What a privilege! ” 
 
 Quis talia fando, 
 
 Temperet a lachrymis ? 
 
 It was the extensive prevalence of such principles as these, in the 
 original emigration to that country, that has formed the cement of 
 the Republican Institutions of America: it is the want of such a 
 cement that renders precisely similar institutions a mere wall built 
 with untempered mortar in Mexico and elsewhere. The American has 
 therefore no reason to fear for the stability of his social fabric. His 
 foundation is in the holy mountains.—Psalm Ixxxvii. 1. 
 
 F 
 
98 
 
 FREEDOM AND INDEPENDENCE FOR 
 
 first or the only founder of a colony in that country who 
 purchased the lands he occupied from the Indians. “Not 
 only,” observes the American historian, whom I have 
 already quoted so frequently, “ tvere all the lands occupied 
 by the colonists [of New England] fairly purchased from 
 their Indian owners, but, in some parts of the country, 
 the lands were subject to quit-rents to the Indians,” 
 “which,” says Belknap, in 1784, “are annually paid to 
 their posterity .”* 
 
 The colony of Pennsylvania absorbed a small colony of 
 Swedes on the bank of the Delaware River; and, in 
 common Avith all the other States to the South, with the 
 exception of Georgia, it received a comparatively large 
 number of French Huguenots — a people tv ho had un¬ 
 questionably a much larger share in the colonization of 
 America than is generally supposed.-j- In the reign of 
 Queen Anne the French population of Charleston, in 
 South Carolina, was as large as the English; and it is a 
 remarkable fact, which I ascertained myself in America, 
 that of the seven Presidents of the American Congress 
 during the revolutionary Avar, and before the adoption of 
 the present Constitution of the United States, not fewer 
 than four Avere of French Huguenot descent. The num¬ 
 ber of Germans also Avho had settled, from time to time, 
 in the provinces to the southward of Netv England, before 
 
 * Grahame’s Hist, of the United States of North America. Lon¬ 
 don, 1836, vol. i. p. 412. 
 
 f Charles the Second contributed from his own privy purse a 
 sum sufficient to defray the cost of the passage out to Carolina of 
 two ship loads of French Protestants. Charles is commonly ac¬ 
 cused of having spent upon his mistresses the money collected at 
 the instance of Cromwell and his secretary Milton for the relief of 
 the Protestants of the Piedmontese Valleys; but I presume part of 
 it went this way, and there is no necessity for making the bad man 
 worse than he was. His sending out these unfortunate French 
 Protestants was unquestionably a good action, even if he never 
 performed another in his life. 
 
THE GOLDEN LANDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
 
 99 
 
 the War of Independence, was very great; acts of natural¬ 
 isation, on behalf of German Protestants, being of constant 
 recurrence in the proceedings of the legislatures of all 
 these provinces during the entire colonial period. In 
 short, there is reason to believe that as large a proportion 
 as one third of all the original European settlers in the 
 United States to the southward of New England, previous 
 to the revolutionary war, consisted of foreigners; including 
 the ten thousand Dutch, of the era of Charles the Second, 
 in the State of New York. 
 
 It is evident, therefore, that, up to the War of American 
 Independence, the entire amount of emigration from Great 
 Britain to America had been paltry in the extreme; con¬ 
 sidering the extent, the population, and the resources of 
 the mother country.* A few distinguished leaders, such 
 
 * It is universally allowed that the whole population of.New 
 England, which amounted, in the year 1790, to 1,009,522, had 
 sprung from the twenty thousand Puritan emigrants of the reign of 
 Charles the First. But the colony of Virginia was an older colony 
 still than New England, while the Carolinas were settled in the 
 ■reign of Charles the Second. Supposing then that the rate of in¬ 
 crease was as rapid in the middle and southern colonies as it was in 
 New England, it would have required little more than 40,000 
 emigrants to have been settled in these colonies before the middle of 
 the seventeenth century to have called into existence the whole 
 remaining American population at the commencement of the War 
 of Independence, or rather at the first census of the United States 
 n 1790. Bancroft estimates the whole population of the American 
 lolonies at the Revolution of 1688 at 200,000, which was distributed 
 is follows, viz.:—New England 75,000; New York 20,000; New 
 Jersey 10,000; Pennsylvania and Delaware 12,000; Maryland 
 •25,000; Virginia 50,000; the Carolinas 8,000. In the year 1790, 
 lie population of the United States amounted to 3,921,326, of whom 
 ■>97,697 were negro slaves; the whole population at the commence¬ 
 ment of the war being, according to Mr. McGregor, only 2,500,000. 
 deducting from this latter estimate half a million for slaves, and an 
 •qual number for the descendants of foreigners, there remains at 
 he very utmost only 1,500,000 for British colonisation with all its 
 ncrease for 170 years! How extremely contemptible is such a 
 •esult! 
 
100 FREEDOM AND INDEPENDENCE FOR 
 
 as the Puritan chiefs in New England, Lord Baltimore in 
 Maryland, William Penn, in Pennsylvania, and a few 
 others, started up indeed, from time to time, with their 
 respective schemes, and through their personal influence 
 or the peculiar circumstances of the times, gave a slight 
 impulse to the public mind in favour of their particular 
 projects: but under the depressing and deadening in¬ 
 fluences to be afterwards indicated, this temporary excite¬ 
 ment soon died away; the subject of colonization never 
 got hold of the national mind, except in the way of dislike 
 and aversion; it never became a matter of public interest 
 or concernment to any extent; and although a few families 
 and individuals were still emigrating to the different 
 colonies from some part or other of the mother country 
 every year, the total amount of such emigration was at 
 no time so considerable as to affect the condition of the 
 United Kingdoms, either for good or for evil, in any 
 conceivable manner or degree. Instead, therefore, of 
 realizing, to anything like the extent to which they might 
 otherwise have been realized, the proper and legitimate 
 objects of colonization, from the possession of her American 
 colonies, I question whether the condition of the mother 
 country would have been materially affected in any way, 
 except perhaps in the temporary stoppage of the usual 
 supply of tobacco, had the whole of the Thirteen Colonies 
 been annihilated, at any period from their first settlement 
 till the War of Independence. 
 
 It is equally evident that a large proportion of the 
 actual amount of British emigration to America, previous 
 to the War of Independence, was the effect of religious 
 persecution at home; and it must not be forgotten that 
 another portion of it consisted of persons who had been 
 banished from England for their crimes, and who were 
 then sent to America, just as they have been since, in 
 much larger numbers, to Australia, merely to be got 
 rid of. 
 
 All that the British government ever did, with the single 
 
THE GOLDEN LANDS OF AUSTRALIA. 101 
 
 exception I shall notice immediately, for the promotion of 
 British colonization in America, previous to the revolution¬ 
 ary war, consisted in giving charters of incorporation to 
 joint stock companies, or to such private proprietors as had 
 interest enough to procure them from the Court, for the 
 planting of colonies. In the case of Georgia, indeed, a 
 small Parliamentary grant was conceded for the formation 
 of that colony, about the year 1732, at the instance of its 
 founder, General Oglethorpe; but this I believe was the 
 only instance previous to the War of Independence, in which 
 theBritish Government had done any thing for the promo¬ 
 tion of British colonization in the extensive territory com¬ 
 prised within the thirteen original colonies of America. 
 
 But if the British Government did nothing, com¬ 
 paratively, to promote colonization in America before the 
 War of Independence, it did enough, in every possible 
 way, and with singular success, to harass and oppress the 
 actual colonists, and thereby virtually to put a stop to 
 colonization altogether. For this is the whole secret of 
 the paltry and insignificant results of British colonization 
 up to the period in question, as compared with the mag¬ 
 nificent results of the colonization of the ancient Greeks. 
 This antagonistic action of the British Government, in 
 regard to American colonization, previous to the revolu¬ 
 tionary war, was unfortunately not peculiar to any one 
 Royal house or government—it was alike the characteristic 
 of all; the difference to the American colonists being only 
 in the degree of badness, for even the Revolution of 1688 
 could scarcely be called a revolution for them. Even the 
 “ Glorious and Immortal Memory” is associated with acts 
 of the grossest injustice and tyranny in America; and the 
 affair of Glenco is not the only blot on the fair es¬ 
 cutcheon of William the Third. I shall subjoin a few 
 illustrations of the truth of this statement from the multi¬ 
 tude of a similar kind that might easily be adduced. 
 
 In the year 1661, when the people of Massachusetts 
 apprehended some attack upon their chartered rights on 
 
102 FREEDOM AND INDEPENDENCE FOR 
 
 the part of Charles the Second, “ The General Court," 
 as we are informed by the historian Grahame, “appointed 
 a committee of eight of the most eminent persons in the 
 state to prepare a report, ascertaining the extent of their 
 rights, and the limits of their obedience ; and, shortly after, 
 the court, in conformity with the report of the committee, 
 framed and published a series of declaratory resolutions, 
 expressive of their solemn and deliberate opinion on these 
 important subjects. It was declared that the patent 
 (under God) is the original compact and main foundation 
 of the provincial commonwealth, and of its institutions 
 and policy; that the governor and company are, by the 
 patent, a body politic, empowered to confer the rights of 
 freemen; and that the freemen so constituted have au¬ 
 thority to elect annually their governor, assistants, repre¬ 
 sentatives, and all other officers; that the magistracy, thus 
 composed, hath all requisite power, both legislative and 
 executive, for the government of all the people, whether 
 inhabitants or strangers, without appeal, except against 
 laws repugnant to those of England; that the provincial 
 government is entitled by every means, even by force of 
 arms, to defend itself both by land and sea against all 
 who should attempt injury to the province or its inhabit¬ 
 ants; and that any imposition injurious to the provincial 
 community, and contrary to its just laws, would be an 
 infringement of the fundamental rights of the people of 
 New England.”* 
 
 These declaratory resolutions were accordingly trans¬ 
 mitted to the king by deputies, who were appointed, and 
 sent home expressly for the purpose, by the provincial 
 legislature ; but all the efforts and intiuence of these 
 deputies could not prevent the instituting of legal pro¬ 
 ceedings against the colony in the infamous law courts of 
 the period, to deprive it of its charter, and to reduce it 
 under the arbitrary government of the Crown. From 
 
 * Grahame’s History of the United States, i. 310. 
 
THE GOLDEN LANDS OF AUSTRALIA. 103 
 
 circumstances, however, which it is unnecessary to detail, 
 the forfeiture of the charter of Massachusetts was not 
 formally declared till after the accession of James the 
 Second. As soon as that monarch had ascended the 
 throne, other deputies were sent home to England, to 
 plead the cause of the colonists with the king; who, 
 agreeably to his usual custom, received them roughly, 
 and demanded an unconditional surrender of the charter, 
 on the part of the colonists, which the deputies of course 
 refused. A writ of Quo Warranto was therefore issued 
 against the colony in the year 1683, and the charter was 
 at length adjudged to be forfeited, on the most frivolous 
 pretences, on the 2nd of July, 1685. The chartered right 
 of the colony to elect its own governor being thus taken 
 away, Sir Edmund Andros, an unprincipled tool of James 
 the Second, was appointed Governor of New England 
 during the reign of that monarch, and continued in power 
 till the Revolution of 1688. 
 
 “ But why,” the reader will doubtless ask, “ why rake 
 up the unjust and oppressive acts of that infamous and 
 dismal period, as if its acts of injustice and oppression 
 had ever been either recognized or approved of by any 
 subsequent government of England ? The charter of 
 the metropolitan City of London was declared to be for¬ 
 feited in precisely the same way, and at precisely the same 
 period as the Colonial Charter of Massachusetts; but was 
 it not speedily restored again by our great deliverer, 
 William of Orange, whose ‘ glorious and immortal me¬ 
 mory’ all true Englishmen must ever revere?” There 
 was no doubt a good and sufficient reason for this very 
 politic procedure of William ; for he knew well, that if he 
 had refused to restore the Charter of the City of London, 
 the people of England would very soon have sent him 
 back again to Holland. But unfortunately it was far 
 otherwise with the Charter of Massachusetts, which Kin<r 
 William refused to restore, although deputies had actually 
 been sent over from America to solicit its restoration; 
 
104 FREEDOM AND INDEPENDENCE FOR 
 
 thereby meanly taking advantage of the knavery of his 
 predecessor. The people of Massachusetts accordingly 
 never recovered the rights and privileges which had been 
 solemnly guaranteed to them, on the faith of the Crown, 
 under the Royal Charter of Charles I.*, till the revolution 
 of 1776—the only revolution that was ever of any service 
 to America. But the people of England — those sworn 
 friends of freedom and of the rights of men — where were 
 they, and what did they do all the rvhile ? Why, they 
 just cared as little for a mere colony Mew as they do now; 
 they sided with their Government, and left it to do as 
 it pleased with the colonies, as they have always done, and 
 as Mr. Lewis very honestly informs us they will do yet in 
 any similar case. 
 
 “ In any struggle for power between their own country 
 and the Dependency, the people of the dominant country 
 are likely to share all the prejudices of their government, 
 and to be equally misled by a love of domination and by 
 delusive notions of national dignity.” j- 
 
 “ It was with great reluctance,” adds the historian of 
 America, “ that King William surrendered to the American 
 colonies any of the acquisitions which regal authority 
 had derived from the tyrannical usurpations of his prede¬ 
 cessors ; and his reign ivas signalized by various attempts 
 to invade the popular rights which at first he had been 
 compelled to respect or to restore.” J 
 
 Witness the following clause of an Act of Parliament 
 
 * By the Charter of Incorporation granted to the colony of Massa¬ 
 chusetts Bay, in the year 1628, by Charles the First, the first governor 
 of the company and his council were named hy the king: the right 
 of electing their successors was vested in the freemen of the cor¬ 
 poration. The executive power was committed to the governor 
 and a council of assistants; the legislation to the body of freemen, 
 who were empowered to enact statutes and ordinances for the good 
 of the community, not inconsistent with the laws of England.— 
 Grahame’s History of the United States, i. 206. 
 
 f Lewis, on the Government of Dependencies, p. 254. 
 
 \ Grahame’s History of the United States, ii. 232. 
 
THE GOLDEN LANDS OF AUSTRALIA. 105 
 
 of the 7 and 8 William III., establishing an arbitrary- 
 authority over the colonies : — 
 
 “ Be it further enacted and declared by the authority 
 aforesaid, that ail laws, bye-laws, usages, or customs at 
 this time, or which hereafter shall be in practice, or 
 endeavoured, or pretended to be in force or practice, in 
 any of the said plantations, which are in any wise repug¬ 
 nant to the before-mentioned laws, or any of them, so far 
 as they do relate to the said plantations, or any of them, 
 or which are anywise repugnant to this present act, or to 
 any other law hereafter to he made in this kingdom , so far 
 as such law shall relate to and mention the said plan¬ 
 tations, are illegal , null , and void to all intents and pur¬ 
 poses whatsoever.* 
 
 When Sir Edmund Andros, Janies the Second’s Go¬ 
 vernor of New England, demanded a surrender of the 
 Charter of Connecticut, the precious document was brought 
 forth by the officer in charge of it, and laid upon the 
 table of the General Court; of which the members were 
 doubtless looking at it mournfully, as they conceived, for 
 the last time, when the lights were suddenly extinguished, 
 and the charter was carried off in the dark by some person 
 unknown, and concealed in the hollow of a tree till after 
 the Revolution of 1688. By that charter the command of 
 the militia of the province was assigned to the Governor 
 of Connecticut, who was appointed to his office by popu¬ 
 lar election. Notwithstanding this chartered right, how¬ 
 ever, King William, in the year 1693, commissioned 
 Fletcher, his Governor of New York, to command the 
 troops of Connecticut. Fletcher accordingly proceeded 
 to Connecticut, and in the presence of the assembled 
 troops began to read his commission from the king. The 
 colonial officer, however, in command of the troops 
 under the Governor of Connecticut, ventured to remon¬ 
 strate against this unconstitutional procedure; but Go- 
 
 7 and 8 William III., cap. 7., sec. 9. 
 
106 FREEDOM AND INDEPENDENCE FOR 
 
 vernor Fletcher, disregarding his remonstrance, and con¬ 
 tinuing to read his royal commission, the officer com¬ 
 manded the drums to beat, to drown his voice, which they 
 did accordingly. Fletcher was furious at this interrup¬ 
 tion, and stormed and raged accordingly; but the Con¬ 
 necticut officer very coolly ordered the drums to beat the 
 louder, and the excitement becoming general, the “ Glo¬ 
 rious and Immortal Memory’s” Governor of NeAV York was 
 literally drummed out of the province of Connecticut, 
 which was thenceforth left to be governed according to 
 law ! It would scarcely be credited, if it were not the 
 fact, that within five years of the glorious and happy 
 revolution of 1688, the very creature of that revolution, 
 William the Third, should have attempted, through his 
 functionaries in America, to do the very same thing that had 
 so shortly before cost one of the Stuarts his head, and 
 another his crown — viz., to substitute the royal will for 
 the laws of the land. But the good people of England 
 had no intention, it seems, in making a revolution for 
 themselves, to make one also for America. They left the 
 Americans to perform that necessary service for them¬ 
 selves, and they did so accordingly. 
 
 “The preservation of the original Charter of Connecticut 
 had always been a subject of regret to the Revolution 
 government of England; and various attempts were success¬ 
 fully made to withdraw or abridge the popular franchises 
 which it conferred. We have remarked the encroachment 
 attempted by King William in the year 1693 on the 
 chartered rights of the province, and the determined 
 opposition by which his policy was defeated. In the 
 year 1701 a more formidable attempt was made to under¬ 
 mine those rights altogether, by a bill which was intro¬ 
 duced into the English House of Lords for rescinding all 
 the existing American charters, and subjecting the rela¬ 
 tive provinces to the immediate dominion of the Crown.”* 
 
 * Graliame, iii._32. 
 
THE GOLDEN LANDS OF AUSTRALIA. 107 
 
 Of the great and good deeds of Queen Anne for the 
 promotion of colonization in America, I shall only men¬ 
 tion one, which is sufficiently characteristic. 
 
 “On the removal of Nicholson from the government of 
 Virginia in 1704, this dignity was conferred as a sinecure 
 office on George, Earl of Orkney, who enjoyed it for 
 thirty-six years, and received in all 42,000/. of salary from 
 a people who never once beheld him among them.”* 
 
 The accession of the House of Hanover seems to have 
 mended the matter very little in regard to the treatment 
 of the American colonies by the Whig government of the 
 period. For 
 
 “In the very first year of the king’s reign [George I., 
 anno 1715] a bill was introduced into the British par¬ 
 liament for abolishing all the charters of the various pro¬ 
 vinces of New England .” j 
 
 How a bill of such beneficent intentions towards the 
 American colonists could have broken down under the 
 paternal government of the Whigs, it is difficult to con¬ 
 ceive ; for the ministry of the period were not destitute 
 of the power to do good when they pleased, and were by 
 no means scrupulous about the means of doing it, in so 
 far as money could effect their object. Nay, the same 
 historian informs us, that about this period, and until the 
 revolution of 1776, “ the whole strain of British legislation 
 with regard to America disclosed the purpose of raising 
 up a nation of customers for the merchants and manu¬ 
 facturers of the parent state, and acknowledged the idea 
 that the American communities existed solely for the ad¬ 
 vantage of Britain .” J 
 
 There can be no doubt of the truth of this assertion ; 
 for even the famous Earl of Chatham, patriot though he 
 was, declared in Parliament, in explanation and illustra¬ 
 tion of the British constitution in regard to colonies, that 
 
 * Grahame’s History of America, iii. 67. 
 f Ibid. iii. 72. J Ibid. iii. 137. 
 
108 FREEDOM AND INDEPENDENCE FOR 
 
 “ the American colonists had no right to manufacture 
 even a horse-shoe nail,” without the express permission 
 of the Sovereign Power. But the British government of 
 the period had evidently been taking their lessons in 
 colonization from a very experienced master in the art, 
 the king of Spain; for, according to Professor I-Ieeren, 
 “ the original character of the Spanish colonies, namely, 
 that of mining settlements, led naturally to commercial 
 restrictions. A free admittance of foreigners, under such 
 circumstances, would have been absurd. The advan¬ 
 tages of general trade, if at all considered, held a very 
 inferior rank ; the main object was to import into Spain, 
 and to Spain alone, the immediate treasure of America. 
 Even to the Spaniards it might have been evident that 
 the prosperity of the colonies was not likely to be advanced 
 by these means, — but the prosperity of their colonies, as 
 usually understood, was no design of theirs* 
 
 That no opportunity of harassing and oppressing the 
 American colonies might be neglected, and that no British 
 monarch should be precluded from a share in this good 
 work, an abortive attempt was made to tax the Americans 
 in the reign of George the Second; and on its abandon¬ 
 ment, another vigorous effort was made in Parliament to 
 abolish the colonial charters. 
 
 “Another measure,” observes the historian, “which 
 succeeded the relinquished design of taxing the American 
 colonies, was the repetition of an attempt, of which we 
 have already witnessed several instances, to invade their 
 chartered systems of liberty. A bill was introduced into 
 the British Parliament in the year 1748, by which all the 
 American charters were abolished, and the king’s instruc¬ 
 tions to the provincial governors were rendered equiva¬ 
 lent to legal enactments.” f 
 
 The tyrannical aggressions of the ministry of George 
 the Third upon the liberties of America, which led at 
 length to the Revolution of 1776, and the freedom and 
 
 * Heeren, uhi supra, 58. 
 
 f Grahame, iii. 308. 
 
THE GOLDEN LANDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
 
 109 
 
 independence of the American colonies, are sufficiently 
 known to render it quite unnecessary to show what that 
 venerated British monarch did for the promotion of colo¬ 
 nization in America. It is deeply to be lamented, indeed, 
 by every lover of his country, that the iniquitous conduct of 
 a band of heartless and unprincipled men, in that gloomy 
 period of our national history, should have given birth to 
 a spirit of bitter hostility towards the British name on the 
 part of a large portion of the citizens of the United States 
 
 — a spirit which will doubtless subsist for generations to 
 come. There was no such feeling towards their mother 
 country, on the part of the Greek colonies of antiquity ; 
 and we shall show in the sequel the reason why. 
 
 It must be evident, from these brief sketches which might 
 easily be multiplied to any number, so as to exhibit innu¬ 
 merable acts of the most unprincipled and tyrannical cha¬ 
 racter, on the part of British governors of the colonies 
 during the period in question, that the only object which 
 the British government ever pursued, in connection with 
 colonization, throughout the whole course of the colonial 
 history of Great Britain, previous to the war of American 
 Independence, was empire — and that the only passion 
 with which that government was ever actuated towards 
 the colonies was the lust of empire.* 
 
 It must be equally evident that, in the pursuit of this 
 worthless shadow — in the gratification of this unhallowed 
 lust — all the proper and legitimate objects of coloniza¬ 
 tion were sacrificed and lost. For while every petty 
 Grecian state had its own colony, or series of colonies, 
 
 * I have heard it said by a person in one of the first departments 
 of the state, that the present contest [with the American colonies] 
 is for dominion on the side of the colonies, as well as on ours: and 
 so it is indeed ; hut with this essential difference: we are struggling 
 for dominion over others ; they are struggling for SELF-dominiou 
 
 — the noblest of all blessings. — Observations on Civil Liberty, and 
 the Justice and Policy of the War with America. By Dr. Price. 
 1766, p. 74. 
 
110 FREEDOM AND INDEPENDENCE FOR 
 
 each of which became a mother-country in its turn, and 
 was often, as in the cases of Syracuse and Miletus, pro¬ 
 bably four times the extent of the parent state, both in 
 wealth and in population, the whole population of the 
 British colonies, after a period of a hundred and seventy 
 years, did not exceed two millions and a half, at the com¬ 
 mencement of the War of Independence. Such at least is 
 the estimate of Mr. McGregor, a highly competent au¬ 
 thority. But of that amount upwards of half a million 
 were Africans ; and of the remaining two millions, at 
 least one-fourth were the descendants of foreigners! 
 Considering the extent, population and resources of the 
 United Kingdom, this result of British colonization, for 
 so long a period, is not only insignificant but humiliating; 
 whether we regard colonization merely as a noble and 
 heroic work , with Lord Bacon, or view it in the far higher 
 and Christian light of its being the peculiar mission of 
 Britain in the modern world. It is abundantly evident, 
 at all events, that so insignificant an amount of coloniza¬ 
 tion as this result gives, when contrasted with the colo¬ 
 nizing poiver of Great Britain, could never have secured 
 to the mother-country the attainment of any one of 
 the proper and legitimate objects of colonization in any 
 sensible degree. 
 
 There can be no doubt, therefore, that it was simply and 
 solely the impolitic and suicidal attempt to combine with 
 colonization the pursuit of empire and the exercise of an un¬ 
 righteous domination over subject states and people beyond 
 seas, who had a natural, inherent, and indefeasible right 
 to their freedom and independence, that made us, as the 
 great colonizing nation of modern times, to differ so widely 
 in this most important respect from the ancient Greeks; 
 who had precisely the same national mission as ours in 
 the ancient world. For who, except under the pressure 
 of the direst necessity, would have chosen to forego the 
 rights and the enjoyments of freemen in their fatherland, 
 to share the hard fortunes of those self-expatriated men 
 
THE GOLDEN LANDS OF AUSTKALIA. Ill 
 
 who were doomed to pass their dreary existence in coun¬ 
 tries so wretchedly and so disgracefully governed as the 
 British colonies must have been, as far as Great Britain 
 could have her finger in the colonial pie, previous to the 
 War of American Independence? 
 
 It was under these circumstances of persecution at 
 home, and tyranny and oppression abroad, that the Thir¬ 
 teen original colonies of America, like Israel in Egypt, 
 grew and prospered; and became at length, from the 
 smallest beginnings, through the indomitable energies of 
 a British people, under the ennobling influences of their 
 thorough Protestantism, a great nation. The amount of 
 British colonization out of which this nation arose, was 
 insignificant in the extreme ; and the character and history 
 of that colonization form one of the blackest pages in the 
 annals of our country. But perhaps Great Britain never 
 learned the art of colonization until after the American 
 War. Let us see then if it be so from the result of her 
 efforts since. 
 
 Section- III. — British Colonization since the American War. 
 
 I have already observed that we have no right to con¬ 
 sider either Lower Canada or the Cape of Good Hope 
 British colonies, or to take credit in any way for their 
 colonization. As well might Gelon, the tyrant of Syra¬ 
 cuse, have considered any of the Carthaginian settlements 
 in Sicily, which he had reduced under his dominion, Greek 
 colonies. The amount of British colonization in these 
 countries is quite insignificant, and can in no respect be 
 considered as a distinct element in the calculation we 
 subjoin.* The following is the census of the North 
 
 * The number of French colonists in Upper Canada is probably 
 as large as that of English, Scotch, and Irish in Lower Canada ; 
 and there are probably as many Germans in the Australian colonies 
 as the whole of the British-born inhabitants of the Cape Colony. 
 
112 
 
 FREEDOM AND INDEPENDENCE FOR 
 
 American colonies for the year 1842, the latest to which 
 I have access at present: that of the Australian colonies 
 is from the census of 1851. 
 
 British North American Colonies. 
 
 Upper Canada - 486,055 
 
 Newfoundland ... 75,094 
 
 Nova Scotia and Cape Breton - 178,237 
 
 New Brunswick - 156,142 
 
 Prince Edward’s Island - - 47,034 
 
 Total population in 1842 - 942,562 
 Australian Colonies. 
 
 New South Wales - - 189,951 
 
 Van Dieman’s Land - - 70,130 
 
 South Australia - 63,700 
 
 Victoria, or Port Phillip - - 77,345 
 
 Western Australia or Swan River - 5,000 
 
 New Zealand - 25,000 
 
 Total population in 1851 - 431,126 
 
 Total population of the British Colonies 1,373,688. 
 
 Such then was the amount of British colonization, pro¬ 
 perly so called, at the periods indicated.* How extremely 
 insignificant, when contrasted on the one hand with the 
 population and resources of the mother-country, and the 
 unprecedented facilities for colonization which it possesses 
 beyond any other country on the face of the earth ; and on 
 the other with the wonderful and successful efforts of the 
 ancient Greeks in the same field of heroic exertion. I ques¬ 
 tion whether the population of the city of Syracuse alone, 
 
 * The reader will perceive that the North American colonies of 
 1842, and the Australian colonies of 1851, are afterwards compared 
 in the text with the colonies of the New England States in 1840. 
 There is no injustice, therefore, done to Great Britain — but rather 
 the reverse. 
 
THE GOLDEN LANDS OF AUSTRALIA. 113 
 
 which was merely one of the many colonies of the com¬ 
 paratively small City and State of Corinth, and which Mr. 
 Grote informs us was fourteen English miles in circum¬ 
 ference, was not as large as the whole amount of British 
 colonization properly so called at the present day. Again, 
 the entire population of the Australian colonies, including 
 New Zealand, is scarcely greater than that of the single 
 city of Glasgow in our own country. As to the Grecian 
 colonial population of Asia Minor, it was, probably, as 
 early as the days of Herodotus, considerably greater than 
 that of the mother-country. In the days of the apostles, 
 it was probably ten times greater. 
 
 Besides, there is a most important point of difference 
 to be observed, in by far the greater portion of the 
 British colonization of the present day, as compared with 
 that of the ancient Greeks. Our colonization consists for 
 the most part of mere paupers, driven from their native 
 country by sheer want, and importing into their adopted 
 country nothing but labour of the rudest description, with 
 characters often debased in the downward progress of the 
 masses, from comparative comfort to the confines of star¬ 
 vation. It was one of the items of complaint of the late 
 Legislative Council of New South Wales that “ Our ter¬ 
 ritorial revenue, diminished as it is by a most mistaken 
 policy, is in a great measure confined to the introduction 
 among us of people unsuited to our wants, and in many 
 instances the outpourings of the poor houses and Unions 
 of the United Kingdom, instead of being applied in direct¬ 
 ing to this colony a stream of vigorous and efficient labour, 
 calculated to elevate the character of our industrial popu¬ 
 lation.” Grecian colonization, on the contrary, consisted 
 of people of all ranks of society ; and the humblest of 
 these colonists were, for a reason which I shall state in 
 the sequel, of a much higher standing in society than the 
 great majority of ours. There are people even in this age 
 of refinement so low in the social scale, that, they cannot 
 be made to rise to a higher level; and it is positively dan- 
 
114 
 
 FREEDOM AND INDEPENDENCE FOR 
 
 gerous to any community to allow whole masses of the 
 people, as has been the case in many instances in the 
 United Kingdom, to reach so hopeless a condition. Mere 
 paupers make but very indifferent colonists anywhere ; and 
 the Greeks understood the art of colonization so well, that 
 they never attempted it. To tell the real truth, however, 
 they practised that art so successfully, that they escaped 
 both the evil itself and the danger to society which the 
 neglect of it is sure to occasion, and from which the 
 United Kingdom has hitherto suffered so deeply, as it will 
 continue to do till we alter our plan. 
 
 Another particular, in which our colonization system 
 differs from that of the Greeks, is the large amount of 
 convict colonization which characterizes our system. 
 Since the year 1787, Great Britain has transported to the 
 Australian colonies upwards of 100,000 convicts. There 
 was nothing of the kind known among the ancient Greeks. 
 Their colonists were always freemen — the freeest of the 
 free and the bravest of the brave. But how did they get 
 such people to colonize with, and in such numbers, too, 
 under a system of morals and religion confessedly so in¬ 
 ferior to ours? And how were they not incommoded 
 with that immense accumulation of crime and of a crimi¬ 
 nal population, which almost compels us to form convict 
 colonies ? These are very important questions, which 
 well deserve an answer. Before attempting to answer 
 them, however, it will be necessary to glance at the be¬ 
 neficial results of Grecian colonization to the mother- 
 country. 
 
 Section IY. — The Beneficial Results of Grecian Coloniza¬ 
 tion to Greece Proper. 
 
 In a passage quoted by Dr. MUulloch, in his valuable 
 Dictionary of Commerce, the philosopher Seneca assigns 
 three different causes for emigration in the ancient world, 
 
THE GOLDEN LANDS OF AUSTRALIA. 115 
 
 and particularly in ancient Greece.* The first was civil 
 dissensions; the second was redundance of population; 
 and the third was the favourable accounts which had 
 been received of the capabilities of the particular colony 
 to which the emigration was to be directed. As Seneca 
 was a much better judge than we can be of the compa¬ 
 rative influence of these causes respectively in the ancient 
 world, we shall take them in the order in which he gives 
 them, beginning with civil dissensions. 
 
 It is a remarkable fact that kingly government appears 
 to have been generally subverted in ancient Greece, and 
 to have been as generally succeeded by some popular form 
 of government before the age of Grecian colonization 
 began. The traditional leaders of the great Ionian migra¬ 
 tion, and the founders of the city of Miletus, the first of 
 the twelve cities of the Ionian confederation of Asia 
 Minor, were Nileus and Androclus, the sons of Codrus, 
 the last king of Athens.| Now, it must be evident tha% 
 under the ill-balanced republics that succeeded the over¬ 
 throw of monarchy, or, as the Greeks called it, tyranny, 
 in the numerous petty States of that country, a state of 
 things would speedily arise, of which we can have no ex¬ 
 perience, under our well-balanced representative institu¬ 
 tions, and our more permanent forms of government. 
 There must necessarily, under so imperfect a system, have 
 been a perpetual struggle for place and power between 
 the ins and the outs ; and that struggle would give rise 
 to a far more rancorous hostility between these two classes 
 than we can have any idea of. J Society would every- 
 
 * Nec omnibus eadem causa relinquendi qumrendique patriam 
 fuit. Alios domestica seditio submovit: alios nimia superfluentis 
 populi frequentia, ad exonerandas vires, emisit: quosdam fertilis 
 or®, et in majus laudatae, fama corrupit: alios alia causa excivit 
 domibus suis. — Seneca. Consol, ad Helviam, c. 6. 
 
 f In the year before Christ 502. I copied this date from Gillies: 
 it is surely wrong. 
 
 f Supposing that the colony of New South Wales were becoming 
 
116 
 
 FREEDOM AND INDEPENDENCE FOR 
 
 where resolve itself into two formidable factions, of which 
 the mutual hostility would only become the more ran¬ 
 corous as wealth and population increased, and of which 
 the party in opposition would not always be the only 
 uneasy class of the two. In order to maintain their own 
 authority, the party in power would naturally endeavour 
 to make the yoke of their political opponents as grievous 
 as possible, and to attach as large a portion as possible of 
 the general population to their persons and interests. 
 Such a state of things would at length become intolerable 
 to the weaker party, who, with their friends and adherents, 
 would seek refuge from the insufferable evils of their con¬ 
 dition in emigration. We find accordingly that the party 
 in the ascendant in a Grecian colony was generally op¬ 
 posed to the party in power in the mother city or State : 
 if the Tories were in at Corinth, the Whigs had their 
 turn at Corcyra. 
 
 We have a somewhat remarkable, and at the same time 
 instructive and amusing instance of this in the case to 
 which I have just alluded—that of the famous city or 
 State of Corinth, and the colonial cities of Corcyra and 
 Epidamnus. The aristocrats, it seems, were long in the 
 ascendant at Corinth, and the democratic party accord¬ 
 ingly resolved to emigrate, and founded the city or colony 
 of Corcyra in the neighbouring island of Corfu.* But the 
 
 free and independent to-morrow ; and supposing that the present 
 Colonial Oligarchy, who exist merely in virtue of Downing Street, 
 were determined to keep their places and their power in spite of all 
 opposition — employing the pecuniary means at their command to 
 purchase political adherents, and to hire mercenary troops to uphold 
 the system — we should have an exact picture of an ancient Grecian 
 Oligarchy; and the necessary consequence would he that the popu¬ 
 lar party would he under the necessity of marching off in a body 
 and forming another colony for themselves to the northward, unless 
 in the course of a civil war, which would probably arise in the 
 meantime, they should gain the upper hand; in which event it 
 would be the Oligarchy who would have to march. 
 
 * The boatswain of the ship (the Wandsworth, of Glasgow, Cap- 
 
TIIE GOLDEN LANDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
 
 117 
 
 Corcyrseans themselves, who very soon became a power¬ 
 ful maritime people, having eventually carried matters 
 with too high a hand in their own city, a party of the 
 citizens emigrated in like manner with their friends and 
 adherents, and founded the city and State of Epidamnus 
 on the mainland of Greece. In process of time the party 
 who had the upper hand in Epidamnus deemed it expe¬ 
 dient and necessary, doubtless for the public welfare, to 
 banish certain of their own citizens who happened un¬ 
 fortunately to be in the political minority, and who na¬ 
 turally threw themselves upon the sympathies of Corcyra, 
 their mother-city. The Whigs of Corcyra at once 
 espoused the cause of these unoffending and deeply in¬ 
 jured people, and accordingly insisted upon the Tories of 
 Epidamnus, their own colony, replacing them bodily in 
 their offices, their honours, and their estates. This, how¬ 
 ever, the Epidamnians were by no means disposed to do; 
 but being unable to protect their city against the powerful 
 fleet of Corcyra, they appealed, for assistance in their 
 distress, to the old Tories of their grandmother city of 
 Corinth, who at once declared for Epidamnus ; and hence 
 originated a regular Greek war ! It cannot be denied, 
 however, that in at once relieving any great mother-city 
 or State of a number of unquiet spirits, with all their 
 discontented and disaffected friends and adherents, the 
 process of colonization, which was thus rapid and uni¬ 
 versal all over the country, was of unspeakable advantage 
 
 tain Dunlop), in -which this volume was written, was a native of 
 this island. He was a tall, stout, fine-looking, middle-aged man, 
 who had served on board the “ Hellas ” frigate, under Lord Cochrane, 
 for the liberation of Greece. He told me he had met with a coun¬ 
 tryman of his own in Sydney, who had married and settled in the 
 colony, and was commanding one of the colonial coasters. He 
 wished the boatswain to leave the ship and settle in New South 
 Wales, where he thought he could do much better; hut the boat¬ 
 swain had engaged to return with the vessel, and would not break 
 through his engagement. He intended on reaching London to 
 proceed to the Ionian Isles, hut he has gone out again with the ship 
 to Port Phillip. 
 
118 
 
 FREEDOM AND INDEPENDENCE FOR 
 
 to the different States of Greece; as it served, in numerous 
 instances, to preserve the public peace when there would 
 otherwise have been fierce commotions and civil wars. 
 
 But in far more numerous instances emigration and 
 colonization in ancient Greece must have originated in a 
 redundancy of population. With a fine climate, a fertile 
 soil, a flourishing colonial trade, and a popular govern¬ 
 ment, population would doubtless increase, on the main¬ 
 land and in the isles of Greece, with prodigious rapidity ; 
 and an outlet for that population would soon come to be 
 considered one of the first necessities of every Grecian 
 State. Certain portions of their territory also, as for in¬ 
 stance Attica, and certain of the islands, being naturally 
 sterile and unproductive, the inhabitants necessarily be¬ 
 came a maritime and commercial people; who soon 
 obtained a sufficient acquaintance with the capabilities of 
 remote countries for the settlement of colonies, and to 
 whom therefore emigration would be a far less formidable 
 affair than to the plodding agriculturist. Grecian colonies 
 were thus formed successively in all the distant localities 
 enumerated above; some adventurous individual of stand¬ 
 ing and talent putting himself at the head of the move¬ 
 ment, and organizing a numerous party among his fellow- 
 citizens to form a settlement in some new-found-land, or 
 the State assuming the initiative in the matter, by a decree 
 of the Sovereign People, and sending forth the colonists 
 with the best wishes of their country, and with all the 
 solemnities of religion. The Grecian colony was thus 
 formed and organized before it embarked ; and it went 
 forth, like a swarm of bees from the parent hive, to re¬ 
 produce the whole framework of society, according to 
 the pattern of their native land, in the place of their ap¬ 
 pointed settlement, far, far away. 
 
 And what a difference there must have been in any 
 great effort of colonization in such circumstances as 
 these, from the miserable affair that we call colonization ! 
 In the case of the Greeks, men of all ranks in society, of 
 
THE GOLDEN LANDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
 
 119 
 
 all professions and occupations, went forth on the great 
 undertaking, and staked their character and their fortunes 
 on the issue; but they all went forth from the same 
 mother-city or State, and they were all perfectly ac¬ 
 quainted with each other before they started on their 
 noble undertaking. As an embryo community, they had 
 all from the first the same interesting associations, and 
 the same endearing recollections of the land they had 
 left; they had all the same objects and interests, the same 
 feelings and views in the land of their adoption. The 
 sprightly and enterprising Ionian from Athens was not 
 incommoded with the presence of the dull Boeotian from 
 Thebes, or the plodding Dorian from the plain of Argos. 
 Ionians, Aiolians, and Dorians had all their separate 
 colonies ; and every Greek emigrant found himself on his 
 arrival in his adopted country in the midst of his old 
 neighbours, and countrymen, and friends. They all left 
 the same locality in the old country, and they all settled 
 together in the new. 
 
 Under our colonization system, people of a certain 
 class only—people who have somehow lost their way in 
 the world—people who have tried every thing at home 
 and have uniformly failed — people who have already 
 reached, or are fast verging towards the lower walks of 
 life—people of this kind assemble from all quarters of 
 the three kingdoms, and meet together for the first time 
 in some great shipping port, as, for instance, Liverpool. 
 Unlike the companions of Aineas, they require no long 
 navigation to carry them to the land of the Harpies ; for, 
 in all likelihood, they find them there; and they suffer far 
 more from the sharhs on land than they are ever likely 
 to do from the sharks at sea. They pay their fare at length, 
 as Jonah did when he went to go unto Tar slash ; and they 
 go down into the sides of the vessel, with hearts perhaps 
 too full either for sleep or for tears, each as utterly unac¬ 
 quainted with his numerous fellow-passengers as they 
 are with him. On arriving in their adopted country, after 
 
120 
 
 FREEDOM AND INDEPENDENCE FOR 
 
 a few weeks’ intercourse and acquaintance on board ship, 
 they again separate for ever, one going to the north and 
 another to the south, and a third to the west; and falling, 
 as they now do, among utter strangers, the moral re¬ 
 straints of their native vicinage are gradually weakened, 
 
 and perhaps completely lost.* 
 
 % 
 
 * The following graphic description of modern British coloniza¬ 
 tion is extracted from the celebrated speech of the late Charles 
 Buller, Esq., M.P., on Systematic Colonization, delivered in the 
 House of Commons, on the 6th of April, 1843. I cannot admit, 
 however, with Mr. Buller, Mr. Wakefield, and Bishop Hinds, that 
 it was the formation of convict colonies that brought emigration 
 into disrepute in Great Britain. The thing had been done, a whole 
 century before convict colonization was thought of. It was the 
 lust of empire on the part of the mother-country, and British mis- 
 government of the colonies, that brought emigration into disfavour 
 from the very first; but this must now be too obvious to require 
 additional proof. 
 
 “ And thus was colonization always conducted, until all our ideas 
 on the subject were perverted by the foundation of convict colonies; 
 and emigration being associated in men’s minds with transportation, 
 was looked upon as the hardest punishment of guilt, or necessity of 
 poverty. It got to be resorted to as the means of relieving parishes 
 of their paupers; and so sprung up that irregular, ill-regulated emi¬ 
 gration of a mere labouring class which has been one of the 
 anomalies of our time. The State exercised not the slightest con¬ 
 trol over the hordes whom it simply allowed to leave want in one 
 part of the empire for hardship in another; and it permitted the 
 conveyance of human beings to be carried on just as the avidity and 
 rashness of shipowners might choose. I am drawing no picture of 
 a mere fanciful nature, but am repeating the solemn assertions of 
 the legislature of Lower Canada, confirmed by Lord Durham’s 
 report, when I say that the result of this careless, shameful neglect 
 of the emigrants was, that hundreds and thousands of pauper 
 families walked in their rags from the quays of Liverpool and Cork 
 into ill-found, unsound ships, in which human beings were crammed 
 together in the empty space which timber was to be stow'ed in on 
 the homeward voyage. Ignorant themselves, and misinformed by 
 the government of the requisites of such a voyage, they suffered 
 throughout it from privations of necessary food and clothing; such 
 privations, filth, and bad air were sure to engender disease ; and the 
 
THE GOLDEN LANDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
 
 121 
 
 What is termed Government Emigration is something 
 equally exceptionable with all this — equally heartless. 
 Instead of directing the emigrant ships to proceed suc¬ 
 cessively to different ports in the United Kingdom — as 
 for instance to the east and west coasts of England and 
 Scotland, respectively, and to the north and south of 
 Ireland — where there would at least be some chance of 
 people emigrating in considerable numbers from the same 
 locality, the Government Bounty emigrants are collected 
 by a regular staff of whippers-in from all parts of the 
 three kingdoms, and forwarded by steamboat to Ply¬ 
 mouth — a place which nineteen out of every twenty of 
 them have probably never heard of before — where the 
 Government commissioners have a depot, into which these 
 emigrants (many of whom are exceptionable enough) are 
 collected from all quarters, like slaves from the interior of 
 Africa in some great barracoon on the coast; the sequel 
 being precisely the same as in the Liverpool private ships. 
 And this is what we presume to call colonization, for¬ 
 sooth, and to compare with that of the ancient Greeks! 
 
 The third of the causes of emigration and colonization 
 in ancient Greece was, according to Seneca, the favour- 
 
 ships that reached their destination in safety, generally deposited 
 some contagious fever, together with a mass of beggary, on the 
 quays of Quebec and Montreal. No medical attendance was re¬ 
 quired by law, and the provision of it in some ships was a creditable 
 | exception to the general practice. Of course, where so little thought 
 was taken of men’s physical wants, their moral wants were even less 
 cared for; and as the emigrants went without any minister of re¬ 
 ligion or schoolmaster in their company, so they settled over the 
 vacant deserts of Canada without church or school among them. 
 Respectable tradesmen and men possessed of capital shrunk from 
 such associations ; and if their necessities compelled them to quit 
 their own country for a new one, they went as a matter of course 
 to the United States. The idea of a gentleman emigrating was 
 ilmost unheard of, unless he emigrated for a while as a placeman ; 
 md I recollect when Colonel Talbot was regarded as a kind of 
 nnocent monomaniac, who, from some strange caprice, had com- 
 nitted the folly of residing on his noble Canadian estate.” 
 
 G 
 
 jj 
 
122 
 
 FREEDOM AND INDEPENDENCE FOR 
 
 able reports that were given of the new or intended co¬ 
 lony. When the settlement was once successfully formed, 
 it would naturally attract emigrants from the mother city 
 or State, in proportion to the tidings of the success of the 
 first adventurers; and thus all the three great divisions of 
 the Grecian race — the Ionians, the iEolians, and the 
 Dorians, corresponding to the English, Irish, and Scotch 
 of our own country, — had each their whole series of colo¬ 
 nies, both in the east and west, which would all serve as 
 favourite centres of attraction to the adventurous youth of 
 their respective races. 
 
 In the meantime the extensive commerce which would 
 originate in so vast a colonial system would afford a 
 boundless market for the various products of the national 
 industry of Greece, and supply her looms, her workshops, 
 her dockyards, and her furnaces, with the raw produce 
 for her different manufactures; while the lofty fame of 
 her statesmen and generals, her historians and philoso¬ 
 phers, her orators and poets, her architects and sculptors 
 and painters, would fill her academies with the ingenuous 
 youth of every remote colony, and concentrate upon her 
 the admiration of the world. In such a state of things 
 crime would be comparatively rare; for there would be 
 plenty of employment at remunerating wages for all classes, 
 while all would enjoy in comparative abundance both the 
 necessaries and the comforts of life. In short, I can con¬ 
 ceive of no substantial advantage of colonization which 
 Greece Proper must not have enjoyed in a very high 
 degree in the midst of her vast colonial empire; and it is 
 mortifying to reflect that while Greece so nobly fulfilled 
 her evident and undoubted mission in the ancient world, 
 as the great colonizing power of antiquity, that Power 
 which has so evidently been called by Divine Providence 
 to occupy the same distinguished place in the modern 
 world, and which enjoys facilities for the purpose of which 
 the loftiest imaginations of Greece could never havei 
 dreamt, should have hitherto neglected in great measure 
 to follow her bright example, and failed for the most part 
 to realize the same magnificent results. 
 
THE GOLDEN LANDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
 
 123 
 
 Section V. — Is Colonization one of the Lost Arts? 
 
 It seems to be the general impression that, like several 
 others of the useful arts of life, that were long success¬ 
 fully practised by the ancients, but are utterly unknown 
 to the moderns, colonization, that noblest of all the arts, 
 has been entirely lost; and the comparative results we 
 have given above of Grecian and British colonization are 
 surely sufficient to prove that the idea is well founded. 
 For whole centuries in succession, colonization served to 
 carry off the redundant population of Greece, and to se¬ 
 cure plenty of employment at remunerating wages, and 
 abundance of all things for those who remained. Has 
 British colonization ever had the slightest effect on the 
 enormous redundancy of the population of Britain, with 
 the single exception of the recent depopulation of Ireland 
 — a fact, taking it with all its attendant circumstances, in 
 the highest degree discreditable to any civilized country? 
 Has it done anything to ensure to the myriads of la¬ 
 bourers, and artisans, and operatives of all classes, “ a fair 
 day's wages for a fair day’s work.” For the redundant 
 population of the higher and middle classes of society", for 
 whom an eligible outlet is as prime a necessity of life as it 
 is for the most unskilled labourers in the land, British 
 colonization has hitherto done nothing whatever. And 
 what has it done in the way of carrying off the dangerous 
 classes of society of all grades, from the Parliamentary 
 agitator to the humblest socialist and leveller in the 
 land? Why, they are all here yet, ready for anything 
 that may present itself in the mysterious future ! It has 
 done something indeed in the way of showing what might 
 be done under a system at all characterised by common 
 sense and common honesty, for the creation of a market 
 for the produce of the mother-country, and for raising 
 
 G 2 
 
124 FREEDOM AND INDEPENDENCE FOR 
 
 raw material for her manufactures. But the trifle she lias 
 done in either way, in comparison with what she might 
 have done, is perfectly contemptible. I think it quite fair, 
 therefore, to regard colonization on a system at all ade¬ 
 quate to the urgent necessities of the case, as one of the 
 lost arts. 
 
 It is so regarded at least by some of the ablest writers 
 of the day. Mr. Edward Gibbon Wakefield, one of these 
 writers, very justly speaks of our national system of coloni¬ 
 zation in the following disparaging terms : —■ 
 
 “ To use a heedless expression of the Quarterly Review, 
 it renders the colonies ‘ unfit abodes for any but convicts, 
 paupers, and desperate or needy persons.’ It cures those 
 who emigrate in spite of it, of their maladie du pays. It 
 is the one great impediment to the overflow of Britain’s 
 excessive capital and labour into waste fields, which, if 
 cultivated into new markets, would increase the home 
 field of employment for capital and labour. It has 
 placed colonization itself among the lost arts, and is thus 
 a negative cause of that excessive competition of capital 
 with capital, and labour with labour, in a limited field of 
 employment for both, which is now the condition of Eng¬ 
 land and the difficulty of her statesmen.” 
 
 “ It is remarkable,” observes the Rev. Dr. (now Bishop) 
 Hinds, late Dean of Carlisle, in a paper embodied in Mr. 
 Wakefield’s recent work, “that notwithstanding the greater 
 facilities which modern times afford for the settlement and 
 growth of colonies, the ancients were more successful 
 with theirs than we are with ours. If we look back on 
 the history of Greek emigrations especially, we find many 
 ruinous enterprises indeed, owing sometimes to the situ¬ 
 ation for the new settlement being ill-chosen, sometimes 
 to the difficulties and dangers of rude and unskilful navi¬ 
 gation ; sometimes again, to the imprudence of settlers, or 
 the jealousy of neighbours embroiling the infant state in 
 quarrels before it was strong enough to protect itself. 
 But supposing the colony to escape accidents of this kind, 
 
TIXE GOLDEN LANDS OF AUSTRALIA. 125 
 
 it was generally so efficient in itself, so well organized and 
 equipped, as to thrive; and this at far less cost, it would 
 seem, and with less looking after, on the part of the parent 
 state, than is usually bestowed (and often bestowed in 
 vain) on our colonial establishments. After a few years, 
 a colony was seen, not unfrequently, to rise into a condi¬ 
 tion of maturity that afforded support or threatened rivalry 
 to the state that had lately called it into existence. 
 
 “ Our colonies are, in fact, far less liable to those acci¬ 
 dents which have been alluded to as occasionally inter¬ 
 fering with the success of those of ancient times, both 
 from the greater stock of useful knowledge, and from the 
 greater power and wealth possessed by those who now 
 send out colonies. And yet how many instances are there 
 of modern European states, carefully providing for a new 
 plantation of its people — expending on it ten times as 
 much money and labour as sufficed in earlier ages; and 
 still this tender plant of theirs will be stunted and sickly; 
 and, if it does not die, must be still tended and nursed 
 like an exotic. At length, after years of anxious looking 
 after, it is found to have cost the parent state more than 
 it is worth; or, perhaps, as in the case of the United 
 States, we have succeeded in rearing a child that disowns 
 its parent — that has acquired habits and feelings, and a 
 tone and character incompatible with that political trropy p 
 which colonies formerly are represented as entertaining, 
 through generations, for the mother-country.” 
 
 And again, — 
 
 “ Want presses a part of the population of an old-esta¬ 
 blished community such as ours. Those who are suffering 
 under this pressure are encouraged to go and settle them¬ 
 selves elsewhere, in a country whose soil, perhaps, has 
 been ascertained to be fertile, its climate healthy, and its 
 other circumstances favourable for the enterprise. The 
 protection of our arms, and the benefit of free commer¬ 
 cial intercourse with us and with other nations, are held 
 out as inducements to emigrate. We are liberal, perhaps 
 G 3 
 
 
126 
 
 FREEDOM AND INDEPENDENCE FOR 
 
 profuse, in our grants of aid from the public purse. We 
 moreover furnish for our helpless community a govern¬ 
 ment, and perhaps laws; and appoint over them some 
 tried civil or military servant of the state, to be succeeded 
 by others of the same high character. Our newspapers 
 are full of glowing pictures of this land of milk and honey. 
 All who are needy and discontented — all who seek in 
 vain at home for independence and comfort and future 
 wealth, are called upon to seize the golden moment, and 
 repair to it. 
 
 “ ‘ Eja! 
 
 Quid statis ? Nolint. Atque licet esse beatis! ’ 
 
 Those who do go, have, for the most part, made a reluc¬ 
 tant choice between starvation and exile. They go, often 
 indeed with their imaginations full of vague notions of 
 future riches, for which they are nothing the better: but 
 they go, with a consciousness of being exiled ; and when 
 they arrive at their destination it is an exile.” 
 
 And again, after alluding to the wonderful superiority 
 of the Greeks in the art of colonization, the worthy 
 bishop adds, — 
 
 “ If the art of founding such colonies as theirs be in¬ 
 deed one of the artes perditce, it is well to be sensible of 
 the difference and the cause of it, that we may at least not 
 deceive ourselves by calculating on producing similar ef¬ 
 fects by dissimilar and inadequate means.” 
 
 Section VI. — Quack Salve for bad Sores ; or the Tree of 
 English Society to be transplanted to the Colonies ! 
 
 And what is the panacea which this worthy bishop, 
 who has evidently had no colonial experience , proposes 
 for the remedy or cure of these serious national evils ? 
 We must allow him to state it in his own words: — 
 
 “ The main cause of this difference may be stated in 
 few words. We send out colonies of the limbs, without 
 
THE GOLDEN LANDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
 
 127 
 
 the belly and the head ; — of needy persons, many of them 
 mere paupers, or even criminals ; colonies made up of a 
 single class of persons in the community, and that the 
 most helpless, and the most unfit to perpetuate our na¬ 
 tional character, and to become the fathers of a race 
 whose habits of thinking and feeling shall correspond to 
 those which, in the meantime, we are cherishing at home. 
 The ancients, on the contrary, sent out a representation of 
 the parent state — colonists from all ranks. We stock the 
 farm with creeping and climbing plants, without any trees 
 of firmer growth for them to entwine round. A hop- 
 ground left without poles, the plants matted confusedly 
 together, and scrambling on the ground in tangled heaps, 
 with here and there some clinging to rank thistles and 
 hemlocks, would be an apt emblem of a modern colony. 
 They began by nominating to the honourable office of 
 captain or leader of the colony, one of the chief men, if 
 not the chief man of the state, — like the queen-bee lead¬ 
 ing the workers. Monarchies provided a prince of the 
 blood royal; an aristocracy its choicest nobleman; a 
 democracy its most influential citizen. These naturally 
 carried along with them some of their own station in life, 
 — their companions and friends ; some of their immediate 
 dependents also — of those between themselves and the 
 lowest class; and were encouraged in various ways to do 
 so. The lowest class again followed with alacrity, because 
 they found themselves moving with, and not away from. 
 the state of society in -which they had been living. It 
 was the same social and political union under which they 
 had been born and bred; and to prevent any contrary 
 impression being made, the utmost solemnity was observed 
 in transferring the rites of pagan superstition. They 
 carried with them their gods — their festivals — their 
 games; all, in short, that held together, and kept entire 
 the fabric of society as it existed in the parent state. 
 Nothing was left behind that could be moved, — of all 
 that the heart or eye of an exile misses. The new colony 
 
128 FREEDOM AND INDEPENDENCE FOR 
 
 was made to appear as if time or chance had reduced the 
 whole community to smaller dimensions, leaving it still 
 essentially the same home and country to its surviving 
 members. It consisted of a general contribution of mem¬ 
 bers from all classes, and so became, on its first settlement, 
 a mature state, with all the component parts of that which 
 sent it forth. It was a transfer of population, therefore, 
 which gave rise to no sense of degradation, as if the colo¬ 
 nists were thrust out from a higher to a lower description 
 of community.” 
 
 Again, speaking of the emigration of the humbler 
 classes — “ the uneducated clown, the drudging mechanic” 
 — the bishop proceeds: — 
 
 “ He has been accustomed, perhaps, to see the squire’s 
 house and park; and he misses this object, not only when 
 his wants, which found relief there, recur; but simply be¬ 
 cause he, from a child, has been accustomed to see gentry 
 in the land.” 
 
 And how is this desideratum to be supplied, that a 
 veritable colonial aristocracy may exist, so that the “ un¬ 
 educated clown, or drudging mechanic,” may enjoy the 
 interesting and enlivening prospect of a “ squire’s house 
 and park, and of gentry in the land” of his adoption? 
 Why, the bishop shall again answer the question himself: — 
 
 “ Offer an English gentleman of influence, and compe¬ 
 tent fortune (though such, perhaps, may fall short of his 
 wishes) a sum of money, however large, to quit his home 
 permanently and take a share in the foundation of a 
 colony; and the more he possesses of those generous 
 traits of character which qualify him for the part he would 
 have to act, the less likely is he to accept the bribe. But 
 offer him a patent of nobility for himself and his heirs,— 
 offer him an hereditary station in the government of the 
 future community; and there will be some chance of his 
 acceding to the proposal. And he would not go alone. 
 He would be followed by some few of those who are 
 moving in the same society with him, — near relations, 
 
THE GOLDEN LANDS OF AUSTRALIA. 129 
 
 intimate friends. He would be followed by some, too, of 
 an intermediate grade between him and the mass of needy 
 persons that form the majority of the colony, — his inter¬ 
 mediate dependents, — persons connected with them, or 
 with the members of his household. And if not one, but 
 some half-dozen gentlemen of influence were thus tempted 
 out, the sacrifice would be less felt by each, and the num¬ 
 bers of respectable emigrants which their united influence 
 would draw after them so much greater. A colony so 
 formed would fairly represent English society, and every 
 new comer would have his own class to fall into; and to 
 whatever class he belonged he would find its relation to 
 the others, and the support derived from the others, much 
 the same as in the parent country. There would then be 
 little more in Van Diemen’s Land, or in Canada, revolt¬ 
 ing to the habits and feelings of an emigrant than if he 
 had merely shifted his residence from Sussex to Cumber¬ 
 land or Devonshire, — little more than a change of natural 
 scenery.” 
 
 And again the worthy bishop adds: — 
 
 “ The desirable consummation of the plan would be, 
 that a specimen or sample, as it were, of all that goes to 
 make up society in the parent country should at once be 
 transferred to its colony. Instead of sending out bad 
 seedlings, and watching their uncertain growth, let us try 
 whether a perfect tree will not hear transplanting: if it 
 succeeds, we shall have saved so much expense and trouble 
 in the rearing; as soon as it strikes its roots into the new 
 soil it will shift for itself.” 
 
 To the same effect, the late Charles Buller, Esq., M. P., 
 in his famous speecli on Systematic Colonization, delivered 
 in the House of Commons on the 6th April, 1843, insists 
 upon the same specific of a complete transference of the 
 whole fabric of English society to the colonies.* 
 
 “ If you wish colonies to be rendered generally useful 
 
 Inserted as an Appendix to Mr. Wakefield’s work. 
 
130 
 
 FREEDOM AND INDEPENDENCE FOR 
 
 to all classes in the mother-country — if you wish them 
 to be prosperous, to reflect back the civilization, and 
 habits, and feelings of their parent stock, and to be and 
 long to remain integral parts of your empire — care should 
 he taken that society should be carried out in something of 
 the form in which it is seen at home — that it should con¬ 
 tain some, at least , of all the elements that go to make it up 
 here, and that it should continue under those influences that 
 are found effectual for keeping us together in harmony. 
 On such principles alone have the foundations of suc¬ 
 cessful colonies been laid. Neither Phoenician, nor Greek, 
 nor Roman, nor Spaniard — no, nor our own great fore¬ 
 fathers— when they laid the foundations of an European 
 society on the continent, and in the islands of the Western 
 World, ever dreamed of colonizing with one class of 
 society by itself, and that the most helpless for shifting 
 for itself. The foremost men of the ancient republics 
 led forth their colonies; each expedition was in itself an 
 epitome of the society which it left; the solemn rites of 
 religion blessed its departure from its home; and it bore 
 with it the images of its country’s gods, to link it for ever 
 by a common worship to its ancient home. The govern¬ 
 ment of Spain sent its dignified clergy out with some of 
 its first colonists. The noblest families in Spain sent their 
 youngest sons to settle in Hispaniola, and Mexico, and 
 Peru. Raleigh quitted a brilliant court, and the highest 
 spheres of political ambition, in order to lay the founda¬ 
 tion of the colony of Virginia; Lord Baltimore and the 
 best Catholic families founded Maryland; Penn was a 
 courtier before he became a colonist; a set of noble pro¬ 
 prietors established Carolina, and intrusted the framing 
 of its constitution to John Locke ; the highest hereditary 
 rank in this country below the peerage was established in 
 connexion with the settlement of Nova Scotia, and such 
 gentlemen as Sir Harry Vane, Hampden, and Cromwell 
 did not disdain the prospect of a colonial career. In all 
 these cases the emigration was of every class. The mass, 
 
THE GOLDEN LANDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
 
 131 
 
 as does the mass everywhere, contributed its labour alone ; 
 but they were encouraged by the presence, guided by the 
 counsels, and supported by the means of the wealthy and 
 educated, whom they had been used to follow and honour 
 in their own country. In the United States the constant 
 and large migration from the old to the new states is a 
 migration of every class; the middle classes go in quite as 
 large proportion as the labouring; the most promising of 
 the educated youth are the first to seek the new career. 
 And hence it is that society sets itself down complete in 
 all its parts in the back settlements in the United States ; 
 that every political, and social, and religious institution of 
 the old society is found in the new at the outset; that 
 every liberal profession is abundantly supplied; and that, 
 as Captain Marryat remarks, you find in a town of three 
 or four years’ standing, in the back part of New York or 
 Ohio, almost every luxury of the old cities.” 
 
 In short, Mr. Buller’s panacea is precisely the same as 
 the Bishop’s — the tree of English society must be care¬ 
 fully taken up, with a good ball of earth round the roots, 
 and transplanted whole and entire to Canada or Australia. 
 I suspect, however, that both the Bishop and Mr. Buller 
 got this tree originally from the Wakefield Nursery; for 
 it was generally understood that, in the year 1840, when 
 the article of which the following is an extract was pub¬ 
 lished in the late Colonial Gazette , on the 21st of May, 
 of that year, Mr. Edward Gibbon Wakefield was the 
 mainspring and chief supporter of that journal:— 
 
 “ It has been mooted, of late years, whether coloniza¬ 
 tion be not one of the lost arts. The question was sug¬ 
 gested by a comparison between the signal advancement 
 of the colonies of Ancient Greece, which commonly 
 equalled, and sometimes surpassed, their Parent States in 
 less than a century, and the slow progress of modern 
 colonization towards wealth and greatness. But the 
 question was solved as soon as asked : if the art of colo¬ 
 nization were lost it has been recovered, by the inquiry 
 
132 FREEDOM AND INDEPENDENCE FOR 
 
 ■which has made known the causes of rapid advancement 
 in the one case, and of stagnation in the other. 
 
 “ In ancient colonization the powers of society were 
 transplanted complete. The colony was matured before 
 its departure, by the most careful preparation ; it com¬ 
 prised all ranks and classes — the most eminent citizens 
 in war and learning; a martial army for land or sea; and 
 abundance of slaves, as the means of ample production. 
 It carried with it, too, renowned teachers for intended 
 schools; and the sacred fire, which was religiously pre¬ 
 served, for temples to be built. Its removal was like the 
 transplanting of a full-grown tree, with sufficient precau¬ 
 tions for its growth in a new situation ; so that the only 
 change was the change of place. 
 
 “ Modern colonization, on the other hand, has, for the 
 most part, been a loose scramble, and, at best, very de¬ 
 fective in some important particulars. A good half, it 
 has been reckoned, of the settlements which have ema¬ 
 nated from Modern Europe, actually perished from want 
 of foresight and preparation ; and the most prosperous of 
 them have exhibited a long struggle of a moral or econo¬ 
 mical kind, which might have been averted by the 
 adoption of the Greek principle of forecast and com¬ 
 pleteness.” 
 
 This idea, which passed for a profoundly original one 
 at the time, took remarkably well in the United Kingdom. 
 It made the complete round of the British periodical 
 press, and served, like the celebrated Paganini’s single 
 fiddlestring, as the cord on which every “able editor” in 
 the land, whether metropolitan or provincial, played off 
 his “ articles ” or “ series of articles ” on “ Systematic 
 Colonization,” forsooth ! explaining, till the thing became 
 perfectly nauseous, that what he meant by “colonization” 
 was not “emigration,” or a mere “shovelling out of 
 paupers;” but the transplantation to the colonies of the 
 whole tree of English society and civilization, roots and 
 all. It may be taken for granted, therefore, that, in the 
 
THE GOLDEN LANDS OE AUSTRALIA. ] 33 
 
 flourishing settlement of No-man’s-Land, which was 
 doubtless formed about that period, on the newly disco¬ 
 vered principle of colonization, this tree will be found 
 growing with remarkable luxuriance; so that the famous 
 Arabian “ bird called the Roc ” will build its nest every 
 year in its topmost branches, while that ancient mariner, 
 “ Sinbad the sailor,” will be seen reposing under its shade. 
 
 The fact is, this idea of the transplantation to a colony 
 of the whole tree of English society, is the merest fallacy 
 imaginable. It has no foundation whatever either in 
 reason or in experience; and the circumstance of its 
 having taken so remarkably at the time it was put forth, 
 only shows how exceedingly gullible both the press and 
 the people of England uniformly are on all subjects 
 relating to the colonies. The truth is they see and feel 
 universally that they are all wrong somehow, and “ out of 
 order ” in their colonial system; and they catch at any 
 Morrison’s or Holloway’s pills that may be offered them 
 to “ put them to rights.” And when such national “ pills ” 
 are duly “ gilded ” and advertised by men of mark in the 
 world, like the late Mr. Duller, Bishop Hinds, and Mr. 
 Wakefield, who is there who would not provide himself 
 with a four and sixpenny box? 
 
 The simple truth is, the tree of English society is inca¬ 
 pable of transplantation to any colony under the sun. It 
 would never stand the salt water. It would be sure to lose 
 its vegetative power in crossing the Line. And if it lived at 
 all to reach Australia or New Zealand, it would soon 
 wither and die in the midst of the far stronger and 
 healthier indigenous vegetation. 
 
 The idea of the transplantation of the tree of English 
 society to the colonies proceeds on the notable assumption 
 that, if such a transplantation took place, the different 
 parts of society—the trunk, the roots, the branches, and 
 the leaves — would preserve the same relative proportions 
 to each other, ami maintain the same relative distances as 
 in the parent soil. Now any person who has had the 
 
134 
 
 FREEDOM AND INDEPENDENCE FOR 
 
 slightest colonial experience knows that the very reverse of 
 this is the fact. Suppose, for instance, that the population 
 of a whole English county could be transplanted — each 
 individual with the precise amount of property and qualifi¬ 
 cations he possesses at home — to some favourable locality, 
 comprising perhaps a million of acres of land of average 
 quality in Australia, the goodly tree of English society 
 would be nowhere recognizable in a single twelvemonth; 
 the relative proportions of its different parts would be 
 hopelessly destroyed, and the relative distances perhaps in 
 no instance preserved. The man who had carried out 
 plenty of money with him, without the requisite ability to 
 lay it out advantageously, would be sure to lose it, if not 
 in extravagant living, at least in unnecessarily expensive 
 improvements, and in unprofitable and ruinous specula¬ 
 tions ; while “ the uneducated clown ” Joe Tomkins per¬ 
 haps, who commenced as a day labourer, and had reared 
 a comfortable cottage for his family with his own hands 
 on the bit of ground he had purchased with his first 
 savings, would very soon work himself up into the pos¬ 
 session of a well-cultivated and well-stocked colonial farm; 
 and as he looked around him on his rapidly increasing 
 property, and his fat white-haired urchins of colonial 
 children playing happily around him, instead of being 
 oppressed with the absence of “ the squire’s house and 
 park,” about which the worthy Bishop fancies he must be 
 perpetually dreaming, he will have learned to sing, what 
 was once the old English, but is now the colonial, song— 
 
 “ When Adam delved and Eve span, 
 
 Where was then the gentleman ? ” 
 
 “ Ha! but I am much mistaken if that is not the old 
 squire himself, riding up leisurely among the trees yonder, 
 on his old racer. He has been spending a great deal of 
 money to no good purpose in draining a swamp, and has, 
 unfortunately, got rather behind. He is coming I dare 
 say to ask some assistance from Tomkins, who was 
 
THE GOLDEN LANDS OF AUSTRALIA. 135 
 
 formerly a common labourer in his parish in England, 
 and often very badly off. He used then to call him Joe; 
 but times are a little changed now. I will just make a note 
 of their conversation. 
 
 Joe Tomkins. — Good morrow, Squire. 
 
 Squire. — Good morning, Mr. Tomkins! Pray, would 
 you oblige me with the loan of one of your teams for a 
 day or two, to help me in with my stuff; for these fellows 
 are leaving me in dozens, and we are sadly behind with 
 everything ? 
 
 Joe Tomkins. — With all my heart, Squire; I’ll send 
 you two of my lads, with a couple of teams ; for we have 
 got all in here, and can help a neighbour at a pinch. 
 
 Squire. — Thank you! Thank you ! Mr. Tomkins.” 
 
 The idea, therefore, that colonization, properly so called, 
 bears any resemblance in its nature and results to the 
 transplantation of a full-grown tree from its native soil in 
 England to some favourable field beyond seas, is utterly 
 untenable ; being based on an assumption which is con¬ 
 trary alike to reason and to uniform experience. What 
 then, it may be asked, does colonization resemble ? Why, 
 suppose a chemist should take a handful of chemical salts, 
 all of different component parts and qualities, and throw 
 them all together into some common solvent, say boiling 
 water,— they will all dissolve, and nothing but the pure ele¬ 
 ment will appear for a time to the naked eye. But as the 
 water cools and evaporates, a number of specks, or centre- 
 points of crystallization, will appear throughout the liquid ; 
 and these will gradually attract the floating particles of 
 congenial character, till the whole mass arranges itself 
 into new forms of crystallization, as perfect and beautiful 
 .as the first, but in all likelihood totally different in their 
 component parts and qualities. In like manner, take 
 people in any number from all classes of society in the 
 mother-country,— from Prince Albert to Albert, ouvrier ,— 
 and set them down together upon the shore of some colony 
 or new-found-land, the original qualities and proportions of 
 
135 FREEDOM AND INDEPENDENCE FOR 
 
 the different component parts of the mass will soon dis- 
 appear; society, so to speak, will assume a new form of 
 crystallization, exhibiting totally different phases and 
 qualities from the first ; and nature’s own aristocracy will 
 rise to the surface in the process, and assume, by uni¬ 
 versal consent, the place to which it is entitled. For it is 
 pre-eminently absurd, and contrary to all experience, to 
 suppose that society can possibly exist long in any coun¬ 
 try without exhibiting heads as well as tails. With the 
 permission, therefore, of Mr. Wakefield, Bishop Hinds, 
 and the executors of the late Mr. Buller, I will hew down 
 this beautiful tree of theirs, and barn it off, as it stands 
 very much in the way of efficient colonization. 
 
 Before doing so, however, I must have one word more 
 with the Bishop about the notable expedient of creating an 
 aristocracy for the colonies, which he suggests as a sine 
 qua non towards efficient colonization. It is the more 
 necessary to attend to this point, as the idea has recently 
 been started in New South Wales by Mr. Justice Dickin¬ 
 son, one of the puisne judges of that colony. Mr. Dickin¬ 
 son proposes that there should be a certain number of 
 Baronetcies of New South Wales, obtainable on the con¬ 
 dition of purchasing a certain extent of waste land, and 
 carrying out a certain number of free emigrants to occupy 
 and cultivate it; while the Crown should have the power 
 of creating a certain number more without purchase ; and 
 that out of these rich and rare materials an Upper House 
 of Legislature should be constructed, on the good old 
 hereditary principle; it being a well-ascertained fact that 
 the ability to make wise and good laws for any people is 
 transmissible by natural descent from any person who has 
 purchased a sufficient extent of waste land, or who happens 
 to possess what is considered by the Crown, or, in other 
 words, by the Colonial Office, merit or desert, which sim¬ 
 ply signifies some sort of relationship to somebody in 
 Downing Street. In short, the Bishop’s scheme is pretty 
 much the same as the Judge’s, although the latter goes 
 
THE GOLDEN LANDS OF AUSTRALIA. 137 
 
 somewhat more into detail. I have only three objections 
 to offer to such a proposal. 
 
 1st. It would be grossly unjust to the actual colonists, 
 and would never be tolerated in any colony whose inhabit¬ 
 ants had the least particle of the spirit of freemen. What! 
 are we, the British colonists of Australia, after having 
 made the country what it is, by our toils and sacrifices, 
 our talents and exertions, to be degraded into an inferior 
 class in our own adopted country, that we may bear up upon 
 our shoulders a mushroom aristocracy, without a leg of 
 its own to stand on ? 
 
 2nd. Although I would by no means question the right 
 of Her Majesty to create an aristocracy, with hereditary 
 rank and legislative privileges, for the colonies, — seeing 
 the Queen can do no wrong, — I have no hesitation in 
 expressing it as my decided opinion, that the minister who 
 would give such advice to the Crown as the proposal im¬ 
 plies would richly deserve impeachment. As the source of 
 rank and titles, the Crown is merely a trustee for the 
 nation ; and it is perilous to exercise the right of creation 
 where no adequate service has been rendered to the State, 
 and where the rank and title would certainly not be recog¬ 
 nized by the people. For I do question the right of the 
 Crown to reward services performed in England with 
 rank and title in the colonies, in the way of creating a 
 colonial aristocracy. Justice demands that the service 
 should be rendered to the particular community which is 
 expected to recognize the rank and title. The case of a 
 governor representing the Crown pro tempore is very 
 different. 
 
 3rd. An aristocracy of the kind proposed would be 
 utterly contemptible. It is not less true of an aristocracy 
 than it is of a poet, Poeta nascitur; non Jit. It is of slow 
 growth, and cannot be made to order. “ Aristocracy,” 
 says M. de Chateaubriand, “ has three successive ages: 
 the age of superiority, the age of privilege, and the age of 
 vanity. Having emerged from the first age, it degene- 
 
133 FREEDOM AND INDEPENDENCE FOR 
 
 rates in the second, and perishes in the third.”* A co¬ 
 lonial aristocracy would reverse this process: it -would 
 begin with an age of vanity, and would lay claim to privi¬ 
 leges without superiority; the claim would therefore be 
 disallowed, and the claimant be overwhelmed with merited 
 contempt. 
 
 At the same time, I admit that there are people in the 
 colonies Avho would delight in seeing such a scheme carried 
 out, in the hope of sharing in the rank and titles to be 
 conferred. “ Probably,” observes the historian of America, 
 “ there has never existed a single community of men in 
 the world entirely pervaded by the love of liberty ; a sen¬ 
 timent which can never prevail in its highest force, or 
 merit the name of a generous passion, except when united 
 with the virtues of self-denial, humanity, moderation, and 
 justice. In servile sentiments and practices, there is much 
 to flatter the natural inclinations of mankind: to obey, 
 accommodates the indolence,—to corrupt, and be cor¬ 
 rupted, the avarice and ambition of human nature. To 
 regard with peculiar veneration one or a few individuals, 
 lifted by general consent and homage to a vast though 
 fanciful superiority over the rest of mankind, ministers 
 gratification to every shade and intermixture of human 
 pride, vanity, and idolatry.” f 
 
 Besides, in a country like New South Wales, in which 
 a species of despotism has been long prevalent, as was 
 undoubtedly the case in that colony during the prevalence 
 of the convict system, — in a country also in which large 
 revenues are expended upon unworthy objects, without 
 the sanction or concurrence of the people, as is still the 
 case in that colony, — it is to be expected that the wor¬ 
 shippers of rank and title should form a pretty numerous 
 “ denomination.” But I feel perfectly assured that nothing 
 would tend so speedily to bring matters to a crisis in the 
 
 * Memoirs of Chateaubriand, pt. i., p. 40. 
 f Grahame, iii. 338, 
 
THE GOLDEN LANDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
 
 139 
 
 Australian colonies generally as the attempt to create 
 rank and titles there. It is somewhat remarkable that 
 there should even have been worshippers of rank and title 
 in America before the Revolutionary War. “There had 
 always,” says Grahame, “ been some individuals, and now 
 there was a party among the colonists, certainly not con¬ 
 siderable in numbers, who longed for such an assimilation 
 of the colonial institutions to those of the Parent State as 
 might enable themselves to indulge the pride and partake 
 the splendour and ease of the titles, trappings, and pen¬ 
 sions of Europe, even at the expense of exalting the royal 
 prerogative in America, and proportionally restricting and 
 depressing the liberties of their countrymen.” * 
 
 Section VII.— The Grecian Specific for successful Coloni¬ 
 zation— Freedom and Independence for the Colonies. 
 
 What, then, was the secret of the wonderful success of 
 the Greek colonies of the ancient world ? Why, the an¬ 
 swer is plain and obvious to every person who will honestly 
 admit the fact — they were free and independent 
 from the first. This, conjoined with the spirit and 
 energy of the people themselves, was the cause, and the 
 sole cause, of their rapid advancement and extraordinary 
 prosperity. 
 
 “ The migrations of the Greek colonists,” says Bishop 
 Thirlwall, “were commonly undertaken with the appro¬ 
 bation and encouragement of the States from which they 
 issued; and it frequently happened that the motive of the 
 expedition was one in which the interest of the mother- 
 country was mainly concerned, as when the object was to 
 relieve it of superfluous hands, or of discontented and 
 turbulent spirits. But it was seldom that the Parent State 
 looked forward to any more remote advantage from the 
 
 * Grahame, iv. 61. 
 
140 
 
 FREEDOM AND INDEPENDENCE FOR 
 
 colony, or that the colony expected or desired any from 
 the Parent State. There ivas in most cases nothing to 
 suggest the feeling of dependence on the one side, or a 
 claim of authority on the other. The sons, when they 
 left their home to shift for themselves on a foreign shore, 
 carried with them only the blessing of their fathers, and 
 felt themselves completely emancipated from their con¬ 
 trol. Often the colony became more powerful than its 
 parent, and the distance between them was generally so 
 great as to preclude all attempts to enforce submission. 
 But though they were not connected by the bands of 
 mutual interest, or by a yoke laid by the powerful on the 
 weak, the place of such relations was supplied by the 
 gentler and nobler ties of filial affection and religious 
 reverence, and by usages which, springing out of these 
 feelings, stood in their room, and tended to suggest them 
 where they were wanting. Except in the few cases where 
 the emigrants were forced, as outcasts, from their native 
 land, they cherished the remembrance of it as a duty 
 prescribed not merely by nature, but by religion. The 
 colony regarded its prosperity as mainly depending on the 
 favour of the tutelary gods of the State to which it owed 
 its birth. They were invited to share the newly-con¬ 
 quered land, and temples were commonly dedicated to 
 them in the new citadel, resembling as neai’ly as possible, 
 in form and position, those with which they were honoured 
 in the mother-country ; their images here renewed the 
 old model; and it is not improbable that the priests who 
 ministered to them were sometimes brought from the 
 ancient seats. The sacred fire, which was kept constantly 
 burning on the public hearth of the colony, was taken 
 from the altar of Vesta in the Council-hall of the elder 
 State. The founder of a colony, who might be considered 
 as representing its parent city, was honoured after his 
 death with sacred rites, and as a being of a high order; and 
 when the colony in its turn became a parent, it usually 
 sought a leader from the original mother-country, to direct 
 
THE GOLDEN LANDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
 
 141 
 
 the planting of the new settlement. The same reverential 
 feeling manifested itself more regularly in embassies and 
 offerings sent by the colony to honour the festivals of the 
 parent city, and in the marks of respect shown to its citi¬ 
 zens who represented it on similar occasions in the colony. 
 But the most valuable fruit of this feeling was a disposition 
 to mutual good offices in seasons of danger and distress.” * 
 
 “The Greek colonies,” says Baron Niebuhr, “were 
 planted at a distance from the Parent State, usually by 
 persons who emigrated to escape from commotions and 
 civil feuds, and not under the direction of the government 
 at home; or if a colony went forth in peace, and with the 
 blessing of the Parent State, and the latter retained hono¬ 
 rary privileges, still the colony from the beginning was free 
 and independent , even when founded to serve as a safe mart 
 for commerce .” f 
 
 To the same effect, the laborious and accurate McCul¬ 
 loch, in his Dictionary of Commerce, under the Article 
 Colonies , observes: 
 
 “ The Greek colonies of antiquity seem to have been 
 chiefly founded by citizens whom the violence and fury 
 of contending factions forced to leave their native land; 
 but they were sometimes formed for the purpose of re¬ 
 lieving the mother-country of a redundant population, and 
 sometimes also for the purpose of extending the sphere of 
 
 * History of Greece. By the Rev. Connop (now Bishop) Thirl- 
 wall, Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, vol. ii. p. 98. 
 
 f Niebuhr’s History of Rome, vol. ii. p. 43. In a posthumous 
 work, just published, Niebuhr repeats the same idea in the following 
 language: 
 
 “ The very fact that the motlicr-city made no claims to rule over her 
 colonies, as modern States do in regard to theirs, and that the colonies, 
 in cases of emergency, assisted the parent city, produced in anti¬ 
 quity a cordial relation between the mother-city and her colonies ; 
 of which we find hut few exceptions, as, e. g., between Corcyra and 
 Corinth.”—Niebuhr's Lectures on Ancient History. Translated by 
 Dr. Schmitz, of the High School, Edinburgh, 2 vols. London, 
 1852. 
 
142 FREEDOM AND INDEPENDENCE FOR 
 
 commercial transactions, or of providing for their secu¬ 
 rity. The relations between the mother-country and the 
 colony depended, in a great measure, on the motives 
 which led to the establishment of the latter. When a 
 colony was founded by fugitives, forcibly expelled from 
 their ancient homes, or when it was founded, as was fre¬ 
 quently the case, by bodies of voluntary emigrants, who 
 received no assistance from, and were in no respect con¬ 
 trolled by, the Parent State, it was from the first inde¬ 
 pendent ; and even in those cases in which the emigration 
 was conducted under the superintendence of the parent 
 city, and where the colony was protected by her power and 
 influence, the dependence was, mostly, far from being 
 absolute and complete. The great bulk, of the Greek colo¬ 
 nies ivere really independent States; and though they 
 commonly regarded the land of their forefathers with 
 filial respect, though they yielded to its citizens the place 
 of distinction at public games and religious solemnities, 
 and were expected to assist them in time of war, they did 
 so as allies only, on fair and equal terms, and never as 
 subjects. Owing to the freedom of their institutions, and 
 their superiority in the arts of civilized life to the native 
 inhabitants of the countries among whom they were gene¬ 
 rally placed, these colonies rose, in a comparatively short 
 period, to a high pitch of opulence and refinement; and 
 many among them, as Miletus and Ephesus in Asia 
 Minor, Syracuse and Agrigentum in Sicily, and Tarentum 
 and Locri in Italy, not only equalled , but greatly sur¬ 
 passed, their mother cities in wealth and power" 
 
 Even Mitford, whose history appears to have been 
 written for the express purpose of bringing all popular 
 government into discredit, and of inducing men to submit 
 without murmuring to the most arbitrary rule, admits this 
 remarkable fact in the following language: 
 
 “ Few of the Grecian colonies were founded with any 
 view to extend the dominion of the mother-country. 
 When a State by a public act sent out a colony, the pur- 
 
THE GOLDEN LANDS OF AUSTRALIA. 143 
 
 pose was generally no more than to deliver itself from 
 numbers too great for its territory, or from factious men, 
 whose means of power at home were unequal to their 
 ambition. Corinth, however, early, and in later times 
 Athens, had sometimes further views. Possessing naval 
 force, they could give protection, and exact obedience; 
 of which the Grecian commonwealths in general could do 
 neither. For the most part, therefore, in the colonies, as 
 in Greece itself, every considerable town claimed to be an 
 independent State; and, unless oppressed by a powerful 
 neighbour, maintained itself by its own strength and its 
 alliances." * 
 
 The maritime State of Corinth, as this historian informs 
 us, was the first Grecian State that attempted to lord it 
 over her colonies, and to hold them in subjection. Thucy¬ 
 dides informs us of the first attempt of this kind which 
 she seems to have made, and of the spirited manner in 
 which it was repelled. The Locrians, a Corinthian colony 
 on the north coast of the Gulf of Corinth, having, in the 
 usual way of the times, exhibited their determination to 
 think and act for themselves, the haughty Corinthians, 
 who seem to have been a regular Tory community of the 
 old school, designated them as “refractory subjects,” and 
 proceeded to treat them accordingly. But the Locrians 
 firmly asserted their freedom and independence; protest¬ 
 ing, in a remonstrance which they addressed to the Co¬ 
 rinthian government, and of which the historian has given 
 us the substance, “ that they had emigrated, not to become 
 the slaves or subjects, but the equals of the Corinthians, 
 and that this had been the original understanding and 
 condition of their emigration.” + It is humiliating to be 
 obliged to acknowledge that, with all our boasted civili¬ 
 zation, and our professed Christianity, ive are still as a 
 people so far behind these ancient Pagan Greeks, who so 
 
 * History of Greece. By William Mitford, Esq., i. 385. 
 
 t Ou yap eiri tu SovAoi, aAA’ €7 n rep 6/j.oloi eivai eiarepurovrai. Non 
 enim ut servi sint, sed ut pari jure sint, dimittuntur. — Thucyd. lib. i. 
 
144 
 
 FREEDOM AND INDEPENDENCE FOR 
 
 fully understood, and so nobly and successfully vindicated, 
 the principles of manly freedom, two thousand five hun¬ 
 dred years ago ! * In the noble art of colonization, they 
 were unquestionably our masters ; and we shall never 
 practise that art successfully till we follow their illus¬ 
 trious example. They planted colonies on every shore, 
 and everywhere they prospered — simply because the colo¬ 
 nists were everywhere their own masters, and had no 
 Colonial Office to thwart their efforts, and to blast and 
 curse their prosperity! 
 
 The brightest and palmiest period of Grecian coloniza¬ 
 tion appears to have been the seventh and sixth centuries 
 before the Christian era; of which Bishop Thirlwall speaks 
 in the following language of well-merited admiration. 
 
 “ How far political changes were connected with the 
 prime spring of that wonderful activity which was dis¬ 
 played by the Asiatic Greeks, more especially thelonians, 
 in the seventh and sixth centuries before our era, can 
 only be conjectured. It seems probable that the fall of 
 the ancient aristocracies which succeeded the heroic 
 monarchy, and the emulation between a growing com¬ 
 monalty, and an oligarchy which grounded its political 
 claims solely on superior wealth, were conditions, without 
 which the Ionian genius would not have found room to 
 expand itself so freely. On the other hand, the inferior 
 degree in which the Dorians and iEolians were animated 
 with the spirit of commercial adventure, may have been 
 owing to their political institutions, not less than to a 
 
 * “ In the circuit we have traversed,” observes an able writer by 
 no means favourably disposed to the claims of colonists in modern 
 times, “ no vestiges have appeared of any disposition, in the several 
 parent states, to impose taxes on their colonies, or even to retain 
 sovereignty over them .”—History of the Colonization of the Free 
 States of Antiquity, p. 46. London, 1777. 
 
 And again : 
 
 “ The only connection known, for many ages, between the 
 mother-country and the [Greek] colony was that of affection and 
 alliance.” — Ibid. p. 32. 
 
THE GOLDEN LANDS OF AUSTRALIA. 145 
 
 difference in their national character. It is however 
 certain that in the two centuries just mentioned the 
 progress of mercantile industry and maritime discovery 
 was coupled with the cultivation of the nobler arts, and 
 the opening of new intellectual fields, in a degree to 
 which history affords no parallel before the beginning of 
 the latest period of European civilization.”* 
 
 The enemies of public freedom, and especially of re¬ 
 publican institutions, are fond of representing the govern¬ 
 ment of the petty republics of ancient Greece, as “ a 
 constituted anarchy;” but the magnificent remains which 
 they have left us of their inimitable architecture — the 
 undoubted evidence of their civilization and refinement— 
 sufficiently demonstrate that the government under which 
 such buildings could have been erected must have been 
 both strong and stable, and that both government and 
 people must have been pre-eminently the patrons of the 
 liberal arts. Although the Greeks were unfortunately 
 unacquainted with the representative principle, which, I 
 agree with Chateaubriand in thinking, is rather to be 
 traced to the polity of the primitive Christian Church 
 than to the forests of Germany, the colonies of each of 
 the three great races that occupied the west coast of 
 Asia Minor, formed distinct federations of sovereign 
 and independent republics; which had regular places of 
 meeting, and which were doubtless serviceable in main¬ 
 taining a good understanding among their component 
 parts. 
 
 “The meetings of the Ionians,” says Bishop Thirlwall, 
 “ were held in a spot at the northern foot of Mount 
 Mycale, called from its destination — that of receiving 
 the whole Ionian body — Panionium, and consecrated to 
 the national god, Poseidon. In them too the religious or 
 festive object was almost exclusively predominant. Yet 
 it would appear that in early times there was among the 
 Ionians a tendency of disposition and of circumstances 
 
 * Thirlwall’s History of Greece, ii. 105. 
 
 II 
 
146 FREEDOM AND INDEPENDENCE FOR 
 
 toward a closer union than subsisted among either their 
 northern or their southern neighbours.* 
 
 These federations, however, were sufficiently loose, and 
 from circumstances with which we are unacquainted, were 
 soon dissolved. 
 
 “ The Ionian cities,” adds Bishop Thirlwall “ were soon 
 completely isolated. No provision was made either for 
 defence against foreign enemies, or for the maintenance 
 of internal tranquillity: there was no common treasure, 
 nor tribunal, nor magistrate, nor laws. Yet it may have 
 been very early, though the time is uncertain, that the 
 Lycians set an example of the manner in which the 
 advantages of a close federal union might be reconciled 
 with mutual independence. They distributed their twenty- 
 three cities into three classes: the cities of the first rank 
 possessed each three votes, those of the second two, those 
 of the least one, and each contributed to a common fund 
 in proportion to its weight in the common council. This 
 was held, not in any fixed place, so as to raise one city to 
 the rank of a capital, but in one appointed for the time 
 by common consent. A supreme magistrate and other 
 officers were here elected; and a court was instituted for 
 the decision of all disputes that might arise between 
 members of the confederacy ; the cities contributing in 
 proportion to their rank to fill the places in the national 
 judicature and magistracy: in the same assemblies were 
 discussed all questions relating to peace and war, and the 
 general interests of the united states. Had the Greeks 
 on the western coast of Asia adopted similar institutions, 
 their history, and even that of the mother-country, might 
 have been very different from what it became. 
 
 “ But whatever ill effects may be attributed to their 
 want of union, it does not seem immediately to have 
 checked the growth, or to have diminished the prosperity 
 of the several cities. They may perhaps have shot up 
 the more vigorously and luxuriantly from the absence of 
 all restraint. This advantage undoubtedly also resulted 
 * Thirlvall’s History of Greece, ii. 102. 
 
THE GOLDEN LANDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
 
 147 
 
 from the abolition of the monarchical form of government, 
 which probably took place every where within a few 
 generations after the first settlement, though the good 
 was balanced by great evils.” * 
 
 But even taking it for granted that the Grecian re¬ 
 publics were merely “constituted anarchies,” there is 
 much truth, as well as meaning, in the observation of the 
 learned historian of the Middle Ages , which applies 
 equally to the ancient Grecian republics, and to those of 
 modern Italy : “ The wildest excesses of faction are less 
 dishonouring than the stillness and moral degradation of 
 servitude.”! The ancient Greeks doubtless felt with our 
 great writer and poet, Sir Walter Scott, when lie observed, 
 “ The feast of fancy will be over with the feeling of inde¬ 
 pendence.”! And they would certainly have sympathised 
 with that poet, when he says, in the very spirit of their 
 own immortal bards, 
 
 “ Sound, sound the clarion, fill the fife; 
 
 To all the sensual world proclaim, 
 
 One crowded hour of glorious life 
 Is worth an age without a name.” § 
 
 Agreeably to the maxim of the eminent French philo¬ 
 sopher—“ L’usage que nous devons faire de notre liberte, 
 c’est de nous en servir autant que nous le pouvons;”|| 
 “ The use we ought to make of our liberty, is to avail 
 ourselves of it as much as we can ” — agreeably to this 
 maxim, when the Greeks were precluded from the full 
 enjoyment of their national freedom in one city or State, 
 they emigrated, and straightway recovered it in the found¬ 
 ing of another. 
 
 It cannot be denied indeed that, in the course of the 
 
 * Thirlwall’s History of Greece, ii. 103. 
 
 f Hallam, vol. i. p. 483. 
 
 I Diary, in Life by Lockhart, vol. vi. p. 163. 
 
 § Sir Walter Scott. 
 
 I 
 
 I H Malebranche, De Inquirenda Vcritate, lib. i. cap. 2.— French 
 Translation. 
 
 H 2 
 
148 FREEDOM AND INDEPENDENCE FOR 
 
 great Persian war, and chiefly as one of the natural 
 results of that event, an important change took place in 
 the political condition of a considerable number of the 
 Grecian colonies, and that, from being independent before, 
 not a few of these communities became thenceforth mere 
 tributary states. In such a crisis as that war presented 
 for the whole Greek nation, the idea of a common trea¬ 
 sury, to which each state should contribute in proportion 
 to its means, for the general expenses of the war, as well 
 as of a common head to direct both offensive and de¬ 
 fensive operations, was perfectly natural; and who so fit 
 to undertake the highly responsible and delicate duty of 
 managing this national treasury, of fixing the due pro¬ 
 portions for each of the allies, and of undertaking the 
 general management of the war, as the metropolitan City 
 and State of Athens ? The two great Powers of Greece at 
 that period were Athens and Lacedaemon or Sparta; the 
 former a naval Power, like Great Britain, and the latter 
 a military Power like France; but as a large portion of 
 Greece consists of islands and of lands accessible chiefly 
 by sea, it was natural that the maritime Power should 
 acquire the predominance over the inferior States. 
 Annual contributions, however, for any common object 
 are always dangerous to the liberties of such States; for 
 when once acquiesced in by the weaker party, and a 
 precedent established, a ready pretext for their con¬ 
 tinuance will always be'found by ambitious and unscru¬ 
 pulous statesmen ; insomuch that a political connection 
 originating in the friendly alliance of sovereign and inde¬ 
 pendent states, is sure to ripen into the supremacy and 
 domination of one, and the compulsory subjection of all 
 the others. Plence the real result of the Persian war was 
 not so much the liberation of Greece as the elevation of 
 Athens to the rank of a metropolitan Power or dominant 
 country at the head of a great federation of tributary and 
 subject states. “ The Athenians,” says an able but ano¬ 
 nymous writer in the interest of Great Britain in the 
 
THE GOLDEN LANDS OF AUSTRALIA. 149 
 
 course of the American troubles, “ the Athenians suddenly 
 acquired the sovereignty of almost all the islands of the 
 Archipelago, and of the whole of the eastern coast of that 
 sea. The Ionian colonies became their zealous friends, 
 and the iEolians their subjects. Both followed their 
 standard in war, and advanced contributions for the 
 public expense.” 
 
 When the relation of a dominant country and a series 
 of dependencies had thus been established between Athens 
 on the one hand, and the free colonies of Ionia and /Eolia 
 on the other, the Athenians appear to have reckoned on 
 the permanence of this relation, and to have carried 
 matters with a very high hand towards these subject 
 states; for in the course of the famous Peloponnesian 
 war, or the long and desperate struggle between Athens 
 and Lacedaemon for the supremacy of Greece, the Les¬ 
 bians, who had never been a colony of Athens at all, took 
 the first opportunity to revolt, and joined the Lacedae¬ 
 monians. 
 
 “ The Lesbians, an JEolian colony ,” observes the same 
 writer, “ revolted from the Athenians in the fifth year of 
 the war, and joined the Lacedaemonians. The Athenians 
 were provoked beyond measure by this unnatural and 
 ungrateful rebellion. In the first transports of their re¬ 
 sentment, they passed the most cruel and bloody vote, 
 that all the males of Lesbos, arrived at the age of puberty, 
 should be put to death, and thb women and children sold 
 for slaves; and they sent the same day a ship with com¬ 
 missioners to see the decree put into execution. 
 
 “ When their passions subsided, they began to reflect on 
 what they had done. A meeting of the citizens was 
 therefore convened next day. The former sentence was 
 reviewed, and after much contention, it was carried, by a 
 small majority, to prevent the execution of the former 
 order. The deputies of Lesbos, who had come to plead 
 
 * History of the Colonization of the Free States of Antiquity, p. 58. 
 London, 1777. 
 
150 FREEDOM AND INDEPENDENCE FOR 
 
 their cause at Athens, returned on board this last vessel. 
 They procured changes of rowers, that one party might 
 sleep while the other was employed. They offered them 
 the most palatable provisions, and promised them the 
 highest rewards, to procure their most vigorous exertions. 
 The former ship had departed full twenty-four hours 
 before them, and they could not overtake her in her 
 course. They arrived, however, before the Athenian 
 commander had finished the reading of the first order. 
 The Lesbians were immediately assembled, and informed 
 both of their danger and their safety.” * 
 
 When the Lacedaemonians acquired the supremacy of 
 Greece, as the result of the Peloponnesian war, they seem 
 to have outdone the Athenians in the tyranny they ex¬ 
 ercised over the subject or tributary states; proving, if 
 indeed the thing required any proof, that the liberties of 
 any one people can never be safe in the hands of another. 
 But these successive instances of successful usurpation 
 over the inferior states of that country, on the part of the 
 two great naval and military powers of ancient Greece, 
 are no evidence whatever against the view I have given 
 above of the principle on which colonization uniformly 
 proceeded among the ancient Greeks, viz., that of entire 
 freedom and national independence. 
 
 “ If the Corinthians tell you,” observe the deputies of 
 the city of Corcyra, a Corinthian colony, in their address 
 to the people of Athens, when soliciting an alliance with 
 the latter,—“ if the Corinthians tell you that it is not right 
 for you to form an alliance with us, because we are their 
 colony, they ought to learn that a colony is obliged to 
 respect its mother-country, only when well used by it. 
 If, on the contrary, it is ill used by it, it becomes its 
 enemy. It is not to be its slave that it is sent forth as 
 a colony by the mother-country, but to enjoy entire 
 
 * History of tlw Colonization of the Free States of Antiquity, p. 58. 
 London, 1777. 
 
THE GOLDEN LANDS OF AUSTRALIA. 151 
 
 freedom, and to have the same rights and the same pre¬ 
 rogatives as its mother-country.” * 
 
 Indeed the Athenians themselves never pretended to 
 base the authority they exercised, in the period of their 
 power and glory, over the subject states of Greece, on 
 the right of a mother-country to rule over its colonies ; 
 for it was notorious that certain of these states, as for 
 instance the Lesbians, were not Athenian colonies at all. 
 When certain of the minor states called in question the 
 right of Athens to exercise such authority shortly before 
 the Peloponnesian war, the Athenian ambassadors put 
 the matter on its right footing by replying very coolly, 
 as the historian informs us, “ In all past times the strongest 
 have been masters : we are not the authors of that law ; 
 it is founded in nature.” f In short, the Athenians pre¬ 
 tended to no higher right in the authority they exercised 
 over other states, whether colonies or not, than that of 
 the famous Rob Roy Macgregor, — 
 
 “ That they should take who have the power, 
 
 And they should keep who can.” 
 
 In regard to the natural good feeling that continued 
 to subsist for ages between the mother-country and the 
 many Grecian colonies that were successively planted in 
 Europe, Asia, and Africa, on this principle of entire 
 freedom and independence, I will only give two instances 
 in proof of the fact: the first in the case of a Corinthian, 
 and the second in that of an Athenian colony. “ The 
 Syracusans,” observes the writer I have just quoted, 
 “ oppressed by the tyranny of Dionysius the younger, 
 and harassed and plundered by the Carthaginians, applied 
 to Corinth for aid (in the 108th Olympiad). They re¬ 
 ceived first the famous Timoleon for their general, and 
 
 * Thucydides, lib. i. 34. .38. 
 
 t C’est de tout terns que les plus forts sont les maitres ; nous ne 
 
 sommes les auteurs de cette loi; elle est fondee dans la nature_ 
 
 Thucydides, lib. i. 84. French Translation. 
 
152 FREEDOM AND INDEPENDENCE FOR 
 
 ten gallies loaded with supplies ; to which afterwards 
 were added ten more, furnished in the same manner. 
 Timoleon banished Dionysius, and expelled the Cartha¬ 
 ginians. He made free all the Greek cities in Sicily, 
 and established democracy in Syracuse. The constant 
 wars, however, with which, for a long time, Sicily had 
 been wasted, had almost depopulated the country. Timo- 
 leon, therefore, supplicated Greece for a recruit of in¬ 
 habitants. He caused it to be proclaimed through all 
 the states of Peloponnesus, that the senate and people 
 of Syracuse offered habitations and lands to all persons 
 who should repair thither to possess them. The repu¬ 
 tation of Sicily for opulence and fertility was so great, 
 that no fewer than 50,000 people emigrated to take pos¬ 
 session of the vacant territories ; and before this event, 
 5000 persons had arrived from Corinth.” * 
 
 The other instance is remarkably in point, and is only 
 the more interesting, as the manifestation of kindly feel¬ 
 ing which, it shows, subsisted between the mother-country 
 and her colonies, led to a series of the most memorable 
 events recorded in the history of nations, and eventually 
 gave the Greeks the empire of the world. 
 
 When Cyrus, king of Persia, was preparing to sub¬ 
 jugate the Grecian cities of Asia Minor, Aristagoras, 
 the political chief of the Ionian city of Miletus, who had 
 been stirring up his fellow-countrymen to resist “ the 
 barbarians,” was deputed by the Ionian Confederation to 
 proceed to Greece, to solicit assistance in their approach¬ 
 ing struggles in the Old Country. He accordingly pro¬ 
 ceeded in the first instance to Lacedaemon, which was 
 then the head of the most powerful and warlike of the 
 states of Greece. But he was unsuccessful in that 
 quarter, the Lacedemonians, who were of the Dorian 
 race, being rather a phlegmatic and unimpressible people ; 
 
 * History of the Colonization of the Free States of Antiquity, p. 46. 
 London, 1777. 
 
THE GOLDEN LANDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
 
 153 
 
 and he therefore proceeded to Athens, the recognised 
 head of the Ionian family, and of which his own native 
 city, Miletus, had been an ancient colony. Aristagoras 
 accordingly addressed the sovereign people of that illus¬ 
 trious City and State in their national assembly; remind¬ 
 ing them that Miletus was an ancient colony of their 
 own, and soliciting assistance, on behalf of the Ionian 
 Confederation of Asia Minor, against “ the barbarians,” 
 the common enemy of the Grecian name. This appeal 
 proved irresistible; the generous Athenians immediately 
 voted the assistance required, and twenty ships of war 
 were accordingly dispatched, in aid of their oppressed 
 and struggling fellow-countrymen, and soon rendezvoused 
 in the harbour of Miletus. No doubt, as Herodotus in¬ 
 forms us, “ these ships were the beginning of evils both 
 to Greeks and barbarians * for this generous and fra¬ 
 ternal procedure on the part of the Athenians undoubtedly 
 led to the invasion of Greece by the Persians, and to the 
 subsequent subversion of the Persian Empire by Alex¬ 
 ander the Great. But it is impossible not to admire the 
 generous spirit that animated the Athenians on the oc¬ 
 casion, in so readily affording the assistance required in 
 their necessity by the people of Miletus, although nearly 
 four hundred years had elapsed since the original settle¬ 
 ment of that city by an Athenian colony. And is Chris¬ 
 tianity, in the middle of the nineteenth century, less 
 likely to maintain a generous and kindly feeling between 
 a mother-country and her free and independent colonies, 
 than the worship of Jupiter and Apollo five centuries 
 before the Christian era? Shame on the men who for 
 one moment could seriously entertain a sentiment so un¬ 
 warrantable in itself, and so supremely dishonouring to 
 the Christian name 1 
 
 * History of Greece. By William Mitford, Esq., vol. ii. p. 61 . 
 History of Greece. By John Gillies, Esq., LL.D., vol. i. p. 369 . 
 
154 
 
 FREEDOM AND INDEPENDENCE FOR 
 
 Section VIII. — Roman Colonization, and the Roman Colony 
 of Britain. 
 
 Baron Niebuhr, in his celebrated History of Rome, 
 gives the following definition of a Roman colony : — 
 
 “ A colony is a company of people, led at the same 
 time and in one body to a certain place furnished with 
 dwellings, in order to live there under certain legal con¬ 
 ditions : they may be citizens or dependents sent out to 
 form a commonwealth, according to a decree of their 
 state, or of that to which they are subject; but not such 
 as have seceded during a time of civil dissension.”* 
 
 There was therefore this essential difference between a 
 Grecian and a Roman colony, that whereas the former, 
 although occasionally the result of an act of the state, 
 was not necessarily so, and was often indeed an associa¬ 
 tion of families and individuals opposed to the party in 
 power, the latter was always the result of a decree of the 
 Senate. The Grecian colonists almost uniformly defrayed 
 the expenses of their own emigration and settlement; while 
 the Roman, like the earlier settlers in New South Wales, 
 had grants of land and a free passage out, with rations 
 and other indulgences, including an ample supply of slave 
 labour, from the State. The Grecian colonies, moreover, 
 were founded, either to relieve the mother-country of the 
 pressure of a redundant population, or to provide places 
 of refuge and settlement for those, whether unquiet spirits 
 or not, for whom the mother-country had become a great 
 deal too hot; but the Roman colonies were formed ex¬ 
 pressly to extend the limits of the empire, or to hold, by 
 military occupation, territories which had been acquired 
 by force of arms. The Grecian colonies were therefore 
 free cities, supporting themselves by agriculture and com- 
 
 * Niebuhr’s Rome, ii. 43. 
 
THE GOLDEN LANDS OF AUSTRALIA. 155 
 
 merce, and defending themselves from the surrounding 
 barbarians, till they could subjugate and civilize them, by 
 their own warlike prowess: the Roman colonies were 
 mere garrison towns on the frontiers of the empire, and 
 the lands were held by the leading colonists on a tenure 
 somewhat similar to that of the feudal system, each large 
 estate being a knight’s fee.* 
 
 It was under this peculiar system of colonization that 
 the island of Britain was conquered and colonized by the 
 Romans under Julius Caesar, about fifty years before the 
 Christian era; and the following incidental notice, which 
 is given us in the letters of Cicero, of the state of the 
 island at that early period, and of the Roman estimate of 
 its inhabitants and capabilities, is certainly by no means 
 flattering to our national vanity : — 
 
 “ Britannici beili exitus expectatur. Constat enim 
 aditus insulae esse munitos mirificis molibus. Etiam illud 
 jam cognitum est, neque argenti scrupulum esse ullum in 
 ilia insula, neque ullam spein praedae, nisi ex mancipits: 
 ex quibus nullos puto te literis aut musicis eruditos ex- 
 pectare.” j- 
 
 “ We are all on the tiptoe for news of the issue of the 
 war in Britain: for it appears that the approaches of the 
 island are defended with works of prodigious strength. 
 
 * McCulloch, in his Dictionary of Commerce, under the Article 
 Colonies, gives the following account of the Roman colonies. The 
 Roman colonies were, for the most part, founded by and under the 
 authority of Government; being intended to serve both as outlets 
 for poor and discontented citizens, and as military stations, or gar¬ 
 risons, to secure the subjection of the conquered provinces over 
 which they were scattered. The most intimate political union was 
 always maintained between them and the mother city. Their in¬ 
 ternal government was modelled on that of Rome; and, while their 
 superior officers were mostly sent from the capital, they were made 
 to contribute their full quota of troops and taxes, to assist in carry¬ 
 ing on the contests in which the Republic was almost constantly 
 engaged. 
 
 f Cicero. Epist. ad Atticum, lib. iv. 16. 
 
156 FREEDOM AND INDEPENDENCE FOR 
 
 As for money, it has already been ascertained that there 
 is not one silver sixpence to be got in the island, and that 
 there is not the slightest hope of booty, except from slaves ; 
 and I presume you will scarcely expect any schoolmasters 
 or fiddlers from such a quarter.” 
 
 Cicero’s correspondent, Atticus, had probably requested 
 him to purchase for him some well-educated slave, pro¬ 
 bably as a private tutor for his nephews, Caius and Marcus, 
 and especially to teach them instrumental music; but no 
 British-born slave of that period possessed such high 
 qualifications ! The reader will probably suppose that it 
 would be out of the question to talk of slaves from the 
 British islands in any part of the world now. Let him 
 only wait a little: we have not got so far dowli yet. 
 
 There was a good deal of hard fighting, as usual, in the 
 Roman conquest of Britain, of which the reader who de¬ 
 sires it will find a full and particular account in the 
 proper place; but Britain, or rather the southern portion 
 of the island, was fairly conquered at last, and proclaimed 
 a. Roman colony with the customary formalities; liberal 
 grants of the waste lands in the island being held forth to 
 intending emigrants of the requisite qualifications, with 
 the other indulgences enumerated above. From the first 
 Eclogue of Virgil, which may be regarded as a sort of 
 Anti-Emigration Circular of the day, we learn that 
 Britain was one of the regular Emigration Fields of the 
 empire for carrying off the redundant population and the 
 unquiet spirits of Italy, during the reign of the Emperor 
 Augustus; although it does not appear to have stood very 
 high in public estimation at Rome, being regarded by in¬ 
 tending emigrants in much the same light as the Falkland 
 Islands in our own time. This is pretty evident from 
 Virgil’s mentioning it last of all, with anything but a note 
 of recommendation; for he hints that where there might 
 be a possibility of getting home again from other colonies, 
 there was no hope of returning if you went there. 
 
ME GOLDEN LANDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
 
 157 
 
 “ At nos hinc alii sitientes ibimus Afros, 
 
 Pars Scythiam, et rapidum Cretae veniemus Oaxem, 
 
 Et penitus toto divisos orbe Britannos.” 
 
 “ But we, alas, must leave our native land, 
 
 To pitch our tents on Afric’s burning sand, 
 
 Or range the Scythian wilds with weary feet, 
 
 Or build our wigwams on the streams of Crete; 
 
 Or, sadder still ! on Britain’s distant shore, 
 
 Ne’er to be seen or known of mankind more !” 
 
 In short, Britain was virtually as far from Italy in Virgil’s 
 time, as New Zealand is from England in ours; while the 
 dangers of the voyage were incomparably greater, consi¬ 
 dering the comparative facilities of ancient and modern 
 navigation. 
 
 And yet the island did get colonized notwithstanding, 
 and became in time a first-rate Roman colony; the garri¬ 
 son towns all over the country being transformed succes¬ 
 sively, as they became wealthy and populous, into Roman 
 municipal cities, enjoying, within certain well-defined 
 limits, the privilege of self-government, and exhibiting in 
 no inconsiderable degree the civilization and refinement 
 of Rome. The numerous English cities and towns of the 
 present day, of which the names end in cliester, cester, 
 caster, and even castle, mark the sites of these ancient 
 Roman municipalities, which were originally only Castra 
 or Castella, Camps or Forts; and they exhibit, in the 
 most unmistakeable manner, the extent and progress of 
 Roman colonization in our island. It extended at one 
 time as far north as the Friths of Clyde and Forth, where 
 the Emperor Antoninus threw a wall across the island, the 
 remains of which are now called “ Graham’s Dike,’’ to 
 protect the colonists from the incursions of the Scots and 
 Pictk of the north. These barbarians, like the Caffres of 
 the present day, came down occasionally upon the colonists 
 in great force, carrying off much valuable booty to their 
 hills; and it was even alleged, as is stated by the historian 
 Gibbon, that they were somewhat addicted to cannibalism, 
 
158 FREEDOM AND INDEPENDENCE FOR 
 
 “ preferring the shepherd to his flock.” * These incursions 
 became so frequent and disastrous that the Emperor 
 Severus at length contracted the limits of the colony, by 
 throwing a second wall across the island from the Solway 
 Frith to the German Ocean ; and within these limits it 
 continued to increase and prosper till the beginning of the 
 fifth century, when it numbered not fewer than ninety- 
 two considerable towns, including thirty-three municipal 
 cities, having all the privileges and appendages of such 
 cities throughout the Roman empire. As an interesting 
 particular in the history of the times, as exhibiting the 
 state of Roman civilization in the colony of Britain, we 
 learn from the poet Juvenal, who flourished in the reign 
 of the Emperor Nero in the first, and of Trajan in the 
 second century, that it was customary, in his time, for 
 young gentlemen of Britain, who were studying for the 
 bar, with a view to the practice of their profession in the 
 Roman courts of the municipal cities of the island, to 
 cross over to France for their education, f 
 
 - Such then was the state of Britain at the commence¬ 
 ment of the fifth century. It was a Roman colony of four 
 hundred and fifty years’ standing ; wealthy and populous, 
 with all the appendages and advantages of Roman civiliza- 
 
 * This is related of a Caledonian tribe of the period, whose head¬ 
 quarters were somewhere near the site of the present city of Glasgow, 
 and who were called the Attacotti. But Gibbon was probably not 
 aware that savages are in the habit of accusing other tribes of their 
 own countrymen, with whom they are at variance, of cannibalism, 
 to prejudice the civilized race against them, and thereby to serve 
 their own purposes. There is nothing more common in New South 
 Wales. I am somewhat concerned in this matter personally, being 
 a native of the town of Greenock, near Glasgow. If the ancient 
 savages of that neighbourhood ever did eat any Roman colonists, it 
 is evident, to use the language of the late Rev. Sidney Smith, that 
 they must have “disagreed” with them, as their posterity have an 
 utter aversion to everything Roman now. 
 
 f “ Gallia causidicos docuit facunda Britannos : 
 
 De conducendo loquitur jam rhetore Thule.”— Juvenal. 
 
THE GOLDEN LANDS OF AUSTRALIA. 159 
 
 tion, and having a degree of freedom, moreover, under the 
 municipal institutions of Rome, such as no British colony 
 of the present day in Australia is permitted to enjoy. 
 And yet there was one thing wan ting — that one thing which 
 the Greek colonies uniformly had from the first — that is, 
 their entire freedom and national independence; and the 
 first opportunity that presented itself of achieving these 
 great benefits and blessings for their adopted country was 
 accordingly seized with avidity by the Roman colonists of 
 Britain, who thenceforth became free and independent. 
 This important event, so deeply interesting to every Briton, 
 but especially to every British colonist, is related in the 
 following language by the eloquent historian of the Decline 
 and Fall of the Roman Empire: — 
 
 “ Whilst Italy was ravaged by the Goths, and a succes¬ 
 sion of feeble tyrants oppressed the provinces beyond the 
 Alps, the British island separated itself from the body of 
 the Roman empire. The regular forces, which guarded 
 that remote province, had been gradually withdrawn; and 
 Britain was abandoned, without defence, to the Saxon 
 pirates and the savages of Ireland and Caledonia. The 
 Britons, reduced to this extremity, no longer relied on the 
 tardy and doubtful aid of a declining monarchy. They 
 assembled in arms, repelled the invaders, and rejoiced in 
 the important discovery of their own strength. Afflicted 
 by similar calamities, and actuated by the same spirit, the 
 Armorican provinces (a name which comprehended the 
 maritime countries of Gaul, between the Seine and the 
 Loire) resolved to imitate the example of the neighbour¬ 
 ing island. They expelled the Roman magistrates, who 
 acted under the authority of the usurper Constantine; 
 and a free government was established among a people who 
 had so long been subject to the arbitrary will of a master. 
 The independence of Britain and Armorica was soon con¬ 
 firmed by Honorius himself, the lawful Emperor of the 
 IVcst, and the letters, by which he committed to the new 
 States the care of their own safety, might be interpreted as 
 
160 
 
 FREEDOM AND INDEPENDENCE FOR 
 
 an absolute and perpetual abdication of the exercise and 
 rights of sovereignty. This interpretation was, in some 
 measure, justified by the event. After the usurpers of 
 Gaul had successively fallen, the maritime provinces were 
 restored to the empire. Yet their obedience was imperfect 
 and precarious ; the vain, inconstant, rebellious disposition 
 of the people, was incompatible either with freedom or 
 servitude; and Armorica, though it could not long main¬ 
 tain the form of a republic, was agitated by frequent and 
 destructive revolts. Britain was irrecoverably lost (anno 
 409). But as the Emperor wisely acquiesced in the inde¬ 
 pendence of a remote province , the separation was not 
 embittered by the reproach of tyranny or rebellion; and 
 the claims of allegiance and protection were succeeded by 
 the mutual and voluntary offices of nationalfriendship. 
 
 “ This revolution dissolved the artificial fabric of civil 
 and military government, and the independent country, 
 during a period of forty years, till the descent of the 
 Saxons, was ruled by the authority of the clergy, the 
 nobles, and the municipal towns. Zosimus, who alone 
 has preserved the memory of this singular transaction, 
 very accurately observes, that the letters of Honorius were 
 addressed to the cities of Britain. Under the protection 
 of the Romans, ninety-two considerable towns had arisen 
 in the several parts of that great province; and, among 
 these, thirty-three cities were distinguished above the rest, 
 by their superior privileges and importance. Each of 
 these cities, as in all the other provinces of the empire, 
 formed a legal corporation, for the purpose of regulating 
 their domestic policy; and the powers of municipal go¬ 
 vernment were distributed among annual magistrates, a 
 select senate, and the assembly of the people, according 
 to the original model of the Roman constitution. The 
 management of a common revenue, the exercise of civil 
 and criminal jurisdiction, and the habits of public counsel 
 and command, were inherent to these petty republics; 
 and when they asserted their independence, the youth 
 
THE GOLDEN LANDS OF AUSTRALIA. 161 
 
 of the city, and of the adjacent districts, would natu¬ 
 rally range themselves under the standard of the ma¬ 
 gistrate.”* 
 
 From this very interesting narrative, we learn — 
 
 1. That the colonists of Britain, although enjoying a 
 considerable degree of freedom under the admirable 
 municipal institutions of Rome, nevertheless embraced 
 the first opportunity that offered, of achieving their entire 
 freedom and national independence; which were after¬ 
 wards formally guaranteed to them by the Emperor 
 Honorius : and, 
 
 2. That for forty years, previous to the Saxon irrup¬ 
 tion, the government of the island was administered by 
 a Confederation of Sovereign and Independent Republics, 
 on the model of the ancient Republic of Rome. 
 
 It was no disparagement to the Roman colonists of 
 Britain, that their country was so speedily overrun, and 
 their whole national system subverted and destroyed by 
 the northern barbarians. In that gloomy and disastrous 
 period, this was the common fate of every Roman pro¬ 
 vince in succession, till Rome itself fell, and was sacked 
 by the Goths. A people long habituated to the arts of 
 peace were but ill fitted to withstand the furious onset 
 of the half-savage hordes of the north, especially at a 
 time when fire-arms were unknown ; but the circumstance 
 that every vestige of Roman civilization, as well as of 
 the Roman language, was swept away, and no trace of 
 either left in the Anglo-Saxon institutions, or the Anglo- 
 Saxon tongue of the country, sufficiently declares how 
 hard a struggle the Anglo-Saxons must have had ere 
 they conquered the island, and how every successive city, 
 as it fell, must have been put to the sword by the ruthless 
 conquerors. 
 
 There is only one reflection that suggests itself on the 
 
 * Gibbon’s Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, vol. iv. p. 169. 
 London, 1825. 
 
162 
 
 FREEDOM AND INDEPENDENCE FOR 
 
 review of this transaction, —and it is this : if the Roman 
 colonists of Britain were entitled to their freedom and 
 independence, under the reign of the Emperor Honorius, • 
 when they seized upon that freedom and independence 
 themselves, why should we, the British colonists of Aus¬ 
 tralia, be refused our freedom and independence under 
 the reign of Queen Victoria ? Why should we be ac¬ 
 counted either rebels or criminals, if we earnestly desire 
 and endeavour to accomplish that freedom and independ¬ 
 ence for ourselves? Is it because we are nearer Great 
 Britain, than the ancient Roman colonists of Britain were 
 to Rome ? This will surely not be pretended. What 
 then will stand in the way of the attainment of our na¬ 
 tural and inherent rights as British colonists, able and 
 willing to manage our own affairs in every thing? No¬ 
 thing, I answer, but that unhallowed lust of empire that 
 has been the fruitful source of “woes unnumbered” to 
 Great Britain already — nothing but that vain pursuit, on 
 the part of a deluded people, of an empty shadow, for 
 which the invaluable substance is sacrificed and lost. Let 
 her Majesty be only advised to follow the good example 
 of the Emperor Honorius, and no part of her present 
 Colonial Empire will ever be half so valuable in its actual 
 condition, even to Great Britain, as free and independent 
 Australia. 
 
 Section IX. — American Colonization — its Principles and 
 Results. 
 
 In a work which I published in the year 1840, on my 
 return to London from a tour of observation in the 
 United States, entitled Religion and Education in 
 America *, I showed that those states and territories 
 
 * Religion and Education in America. Ward, Paternoster Row, 
 London, 1840. 
 
THE GOLDEN LANDS OK AUSTRALIA. 163 
 
 • 
 
 of the American Union, which have been either acquired 
 or settled since the War of Independence, including the 
 great valley of the Mississippi, bear precisely the same 
 relation to the original Thirteen States, as the numerous 
 colonies of Britain do to the United Kingdom. They are 
 to all intents and purposes the colonies of the United 
 States ; for as far as the relation of a mother-country 
 and a colony is concerned, it is of no importance what¬ 
 ever, whether the latter is planted on the same continent 
 or island as the mother-country, or is separated from it 
 by vast tracts of intervening ocean. This idea, I per¬ 
 ceive, has since been put forth by John Arthur Roebuck, 
 Esq., M.P., in his recent work, entitled The Colonies of 
 England, with a view to contrast the progress and extent 
 of colonization in the United States with its progress and 
 extent in the British Empire since the peace of 1783. 
 
 And with what a contrast does this view of the two 
 countries present us! The United States commenced 
 
 ( their national existence with a population of scarcely 
 three millions, and that population is already increased 
 considerably more than sevenfold; the increase being 
 chiefly in the colonies, in which a population of upwards 
 of ten millions has been called into existence, making 
 all due allowance for the natural increase of the popu¬ 
 lation of the original Thirteen States. But Great Britain, 
 with a much larger population to start with, — a popu¬ 
 lation five times greater than that of the United States 
 in the year 1783, — has only a colonial population, pro¬ 
 perly so called, of about a million and a half! In 
 short, while Great Britain has been enjoying, as abun¬ 
 dantly as America, the Divine benediction implied in the 
 first commandment given to mankind, Ee fruitful and 
 multiply, she has utterly neglected her proper duty, so 
 clearly enjoined in the second part of that commandment, 
 Replenish the earth and subdue it, — she has not been 
 filling the world with her cities, like America; she has 
 not been making the wilderness and the solitary place 
 
164 
 
 FREEDOM AND INDEPENDENCE FOR 
 
 rejoice with the happy abodes of a numerous, virtuous, 
 and Christian population. 
 
 In order, however, to set this matter in its proper light, 
 it will be advisable to limit the field of vision to a par¬ 
 ticular instance of American, as compared with British, 
 colonization ; and the instance I shall take is that of 
 New England, or the group of Northern Free States, 
 consisting of Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, 
 New Hampshire, Vermont, and Maine. New England, 
 I have already had occasion to observe, was colonized, 
 almost exclusively, by the twenty thousand Puritan emi¬ 
 grants who settled in that country between the years 1620 
 and 1640; the subsequent additions of population from the 
 mother-country being quite insignificant. In the year 1790, 
 when the first census of the United States was taken, 
 the population of New England amounted to 1,009,522; 
 having doubled itself every twenty-seven years or thereby, 
 from the year 1640. During the next fifty years, how¬ 
 ever, it little more than doubled itself, its amount in 1840 
 being only 2,229,859 ; but this arose entirely from the 
 enormous emigration of the intervening period, which we 
 are now to compare with that of Great Britain,—the 
 great colonizing power, forsooth, of modern times. The 
 population of Great Britain, therefore, or rather of the 
 United Kingdom, in the year 1790, was 15,684,906, and 
 it had not even doubled itself during the next fifty years; 
 the amount in 1841 being only 27,041,031. In so far 
 therefore as the internal increase is concerned, there is 
 no great disparity, although the balance is considerably 
 in favour of New England. In regard, however, to their 
 respective colonizing powers, the two countries were re¬ 
 markably different from each other; their population 
 being respectively as follows ; viz. 
 
 Old England —Population in 1790= 15,684,906. 
 
 New England — Population in 1790= 1,009,522.* 
 
 The population of Great Britain doubles itself every 48 years, 
 
THE GOLDEN LANDS OF AUSTRALIA. 165 
 
 I will not introduce any disturbing element into the 
 question, by reminding the reader that Great Britain 
 had the advantage of all the American Loyalists to start 
 with, in Nova Scotia and elsewhere ; for it is quite evident 
 that these Loyalists must have been the merest handful 
 of people, — and the circumstance constitutes, without 
 exception, the most condemnatory sentence that has ever 
 been pronounced upon the colonial policy of the British 
 Empire to the present day. That after an imperial rule 
 of upwards of a hundred and fifty years, — with all the 
 numberless means of acquiring and consolidating power, 
 extending influence, and practising corruption, which 
 that rule had given the mother-country throughout this 
 long period, — there was nobody to take her part in the 
 great struggle with her colonies but the miserable handful 
 of American Loyalists ; 
 
 “ ’Twas strange, ’twas passing strange ! 
 
 ’Twas pitiful, ’twas wondrous pitiful! ” 
 
 “ For dust was thrown upon her sacred head, 
 
 And no man cried, God bless her! ” 
 
 but this insignificant handful of American Loyalists, who 
 probably expected to be well paid for their loyalty all 
 the while, and who certainly never dreamt that the 
 Americans would gain the day ! 
 
 Behold, then, these two brave countries, — Old Eng¬ 
 land and New England, — starting fair in this race of 
 colonization, in the year of grace 1790; the former with 
 her fifteen millions and a half of people and her boundless 
 resources in ships, colonies, and commerce; the latter 
 with only one million of people, almost all as poor as 
 Lazarus, as they had but just escaped with the skin of their 
 teeth from an unnatural and calamitous war! 
 
 and that of the United States every .30 years ; but the numbers 
 I have given are sufficiently near the truth for all practical pur¬ 
 poses. 
 
166 
 
 FREEDOM AND INDEPENDENCE FOR 
 
 It is an interesting and very remai’kable fact in the 
 history of the internal emigration and colonization of the 
 United States, that it has uniformly proceeded upon a 
 parallel of latitude from the point of departure; the 
 Northern, Middle, and Southern States throwing off their 
 respective swarms of emigrants every year to the regions 
 due west of them respectively ; deflecting very little, if at 
 all, from that parallel either north or south. Since the 
 annexation of Texas and California, indeed, this order of 
 things has been somewhat deranged; but from the peace 
 of 1783, till the year 1840, it had been, with only few, and 
 these unimportant, exceptions, the general rule in the 
 United States; each state, or group of states, colonizing 
 the unoccupied territories due west of itself. New Eng¬ 
 land, as being the most densely peopled, as well as the 
 most limited in extent, and the least fertile, portion of the 
 original Union, was first in the field as a colonizing coun¬ 
 try ; for emigration had thus become a matter of necessity 
 for the inhabitants of that region, and the highly favour¬ 
 able accounts that were received from time to time from 
 the first emigrants to the westward, soon rendered it a 
 perfect passion; insomuch that the emigration from New 
 England alone, which had commenced soon after the peace 
 of 1783, reached in one year at the commencement of the 
 present century, when the whole European emigration to 
 America was perfectly insignificant, the almost incredible 
 amount of 300,000 souls !* 
 
 The country that was first colonized in this way from 
 New England was the western portion of the State of 
 New York, and the State of Ohio; both of which coun¬ 
 tries are literally New England colonies. A large portion 
 
 * Dr. Seybert, an eminent American statistical writer, estimates 
 the number of foreign emigrants who arrived in the United States 
 from the year 1790 to the year 1810, at 120,000 altogether, or 
 6,000 per annum; and Mr. McGregor estimates the number from 
 1810 to 1820 at 114,000. These were evidently but inconsiderable 
 additions, when compared with the natural increase from the 
 American stock. 
 
THE GOLDEN LANDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
 
 167 
 
 of the waste lands in these extensive regions had been 
 allotted by the National Congress, as the only recompense 
 which the country had to give them for their services, to 
 the soldiers of the Revolution ; many of whom sold their 
 tickets of location for the merest trifle to the leaders of 
 the successive colonies from New England. One of these 
 tickets happened to be given by his client, an old Revo¬ 
 lutionary soldier, to a country lawyer in the State of New 
 York, as the only fee he could offer him for conducting 
 and gaining a law-suit for him. The lawyer placed it in 
 his desk, as an article that might one day have some as¬ 
 signable value, but had none then. A good many years 
 thereafter, when the flood-tide of New England emigration 
 had been flowing for years in the direction of the region 
 to which this location ticket referred, the lawyer wrote 
 to a friend in the western country, inquiring what the 
 value of his property thereabout might be, — and the 
 answer he received was Seventy-five thousand dollars, 
 and rapidly rising I ” It was the possession of this pro¬ 
 perty that enabled that lawyer, who proved to be a man 
 of superior ability, to devote himself to the service of his 
 country, first in the legislature of his native State, and 
 afterwards as a member of Congress, at Washington, where 
 I had the honour of being introduced to him, in the year 
 1840, as President of the United States. The distin¬ 
 guished individual I allude to was Mr. Martin Van Buren. 
 
 When the emigrants from New England had spread 
 themselves over the western portion of the State of New 
 York and the whole State of Ohio, they afterwards over¬ 
 ran and occupied successively the subsequently formed 
 States of Indiana, Illinois, and Michigan. It is perfectly 
 fair, therefore, to consider the whole of these countries as 
 the colonies of New England; for although a consider¬ 
 able number of emigrants from the Middle States, and 
 also from Europe, settled in all of them from time to time, 
 a much larger number of New Englanders had in the 
 mean time been scattered over the whole of the other 
 
168 FREEDOM AND INDEPENDENCE FOR 
 
 States of the Union, and particularly of the State of Ken¬ 
 tucky, in the various capacities of professional men, mer¬ 
 chants, traders and artisans of all kinds, as well as planters 
 and farmers. The population of these New England 
 
 colonies in the year 1840 was as follows, viz.: — 
 Western half of the State of New York - 1,214,460 
 Ohio - 1,519,467 
 
 Indiana - 683,314 
 
 Illinois - - - 474,403 
 
 Michigan ... 211,705 
 
 Total Colonial population of New 
 
 England in the year 1840 = 4,103,349 
 
 Such then were the magnificent results of the colonizing 
 efforts of New England during a period of fifty years; 
 commencing, although it did, with a colonizing power 
 of only one million of souls, and the scantiest resources 
 otherwise. But the entire colonial population (properly 
 so called) of Great Britain, originating, although it did, in 
 a colonizing power of fifteen millions and a half of people, 
 with boundless resources of every kind, amounted — two 
 years later for the North American, and eleven years later 
 for the Australian colonies (see page 112) — to not more 
 than 1,373,688 souls; even throwing the whole convict 
 emigration of the Empire, with all its increase for fifty 
 years, like the sword and belt of Brennus, as a make¬ 
 weight, into the scale! 
 
 Surely then if the art of colonization has been lost, as 
 it seems to have been, in Old England, it has been found 
 again in New England; for I question whether even the 
 ancient Greeks ever surpassed the New Englanders in 
 that noble art, that heroic ivork. 
 
 What then is the reason — for there surely must be 
 some adequate reason •— for the prodigious difference in 
 the two results? Why, the answer is plain and obvious 
 to the meanest capacity : — America, like the ancient 
 Greeks, gave her colonies freedom and independence from 
 
THE GOLDEN LANDS OF AUSTRALIA. 169 
 
 the first; whereas Great Britain has uniformly withheld 
 every thing like manly freedom from her colonies, has 
 treated them with the coldest neglect and the grossest in¬ 
 justice, and has harassed and oppressed them in every 
 possible way with the incubus and the curse of her Colo¬ 
 nial Office to the present hour. Yes ! instead of insulting 
 her colonies by offering them, what certain soi-disant co¬ 
 lonial reformers in England think it would be a great 
 deal indeed for Great Britain to offer hers, viz., municipal 
 independence, — which signifies allowing them to manage 
 for themselves in all little matters, and leaving all important 
 ones to be managed for them at home, or, in other words, 
 by the Colonial Office — instead of insulting her colonies 
 by offering them municipal independence, America gives 
 them at once complete independence ; that is, the entire 
 control of all matters affecting their interests, as men and 
 citizens, ip every possible way. In short, America realizes 
 the beau ideal which the ancient Locrians indignantly 
 reminded the Corinthians was the implied condition of 
 their own emigration — she makes her colonies in every 
 respect like herself; she treats her colonists not as her 
 slaves or subjects, but as her equals. 
 
 In particular, whenever a number of American colo¬ 
 nists, equal to about one-fourth, or at all events one-third, 
 of the present number of the inhabitants of the British 
 colony of New South Wales, are congregated in any 
 American colony, they have a right, under the American 
 colonization system, to meet together and form a Con¬ 
 stitution for themselves. They may have a Legislature, 
 either of one or of two Houses, as they please ; they may fix 
 the franchise either high or low, as they choose; they may 
 elect whatever public officers they think necessary for the 
 management of their affairs, and pay these officers what¬ 
 ever salaries they think proper; they may make the best 
 possible arrangements that suggest themselves to their 
 own minds for the construction of roads and bridges, the 
 maintenance of schools,and colleges, the dispensation of 
 
 i 
 
170 FREEDOM AND INDEPENDENCE FOR 
 
 justice, and the punishment of crime ; and they may choose 
 whomsoever they consider the fittest and properest persons 
 to represent them in the National Legislature, to deliberate 
 upon all those great questions of foreign relations, peace 
 and war, customs’ duties, public lands, and the general 
 post office—in which they have a common interest with 
 the rest of the nation. In one word, America gives her 
 colonies all that the ancient Greeks ever gave theirs — 
 entire freedom and independence ; admitting them upon 
 perfectly equal terms with herself into the great National 
 Confederation. 
 
 Contrast with this the system pursued in a British co¬ 
 lony — and the reader will observe that the particulars I 
 shall enumerate represent the actual state of things, up to 
 the present moment, in the British colony of New South 
 Wales. 
 
 Imprimis, no conceivable number of British subjects, 
 congregated together in any British colonial territory, 
 have a right to frame a Constitution for their own govern¬ 
 ment. They may petition for one, and they may have to 
 repeat that petition for years together, as the people of 
 Port Phillip had to do for ten years successive^, suffering 
 the utmost inconvenience, hardship, and injustice, all the 
 while, before they get one at all; and when they do get 
 one at last, it may not have the slightest resemblance to 
 the one they would have chosen for themselves. But the 
 humiliating fact is, they have no choice in the matter; — 
 like common beggars, British colonists must take what is 
 offered them by tlieir betters, and be thankful. 
 
 Item, the franchise is fixed by authority, and so fixed as 
 to exclude from all political rights and privileges a large 
 proportion of the intelligence and moral worth of the co¬ 
 lony ; and the natural and necessary consequence is, that 
 a large proportion of the community become either per¬ 
 fectly indifferent about their government, or animated 
 with the fiercest hatred towards the institutions of their 
 adopted country. 
 
THE GOLDEN LANDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
 
 171 
 
 Item , instead of being allowed to choose their own 
 legislators, a third of them must be nominated bv the 
 Crown, or in other words, by the Secretary of State for 
 the Colonies, or his principal Turnkey, the Governor; and 
 in all likelihood, they are so nominated that for any ser¬ 
 vice they are of to the community — otherwise than by 
 voting on all possible occasions against its proper interests, 
 and for the support of heartless extravagance and general 
 corruption — a majority of the nominees might be repre¬ 
 sented by as many empty beer barrels, with moveable 
 heads on, to second motions! The Treasury Bench of 
 the first Legislative Council of New South Wales, con¬ 
 stituted under the Imperial Act of 1842, was a perfect 
 Refuge for the Destitute; and it was quite humiliating to 
 see the sorry figure its occupants made. Yet these were 
 the men who were holding the highest offices and receiv¬ 
 ing the largest salaries in the country! 
 
 Item , nearly a third of the Ordinary Revenue of the 
 colony, besides the whole of the Land Revenue, is taken 
 out of the control of this insult and mockery of a Legis¬ 
 lature by Act of Parliament, and appropriated for the 
 payment of salaries enormously above either the necessi¬ 
 ties of the case, or the means of the people — as for 
 instance, in giving a salary to the Governor of less than 
 wo hundred thousand colonists, equal to what is allotted 
 :o the President of the United States, the first magistrate 
 jir head of a sovereign and independent nation numbering 
 lpwards of one-and-twenty millions of souls ! 
 
 Item, the little knot of officials, Crown nominees, and 
 ickspittle colonists, into whose hands so preposterous a 
 ystem virtually throws the whole legislation of the colony, 
 rrange the electoral districts by an Act of the Local Le- 
 jslature, as they are permitted and authorised to do by 
 Vet of Parliament, so that fifteen thousand of the citizens 
 f Sydney shall have no more political weight or influence 
 a the country, than fifteen hundred of the inhabitants of 
 frontier district seven hundred miles distant from the 
 i 2 
 
172 FREEDOM AND INDEPENDENCE FOR 
 
 seat of government; the reason for this Artful Dodge being 
 that the inhabitants of Sydney are anxious for political 
 improvement and general reform, while the inhabitants of 
 the frontier district are almost exclusively tenants of the 
 Crown and their servants, who can of course be very easily 
 managed, especially at so great a distance. 
 
 Item, under this artful system, and in order to extend 
 the influence and increase the number of the retainers of 
 the Local Executive, the enormous revenue which is 
 raised in the colony, in proportion to its actual population, 
 is expended in great measure in the maintenance of un¬ 
 necessary offices, or in the payment of salaries enormously 
 disproportioned to the services rendered to the community; 
 insomuch that the construction of all public works of ur¬ 
 gent necessity for the welfare and advancement of the 
 colony, such as roads, bridges, tanks, reservoirs, break¬ 
 waters, &c., &c., is either not undertaken at all, or re¬ 
 tarded and stopped for want of funds, while the appro¬ 
 priations even for the education of the colonial youth are 
 paltry in the extreme.* 
 
 * One of the first duties of a Government in such a country as 
 New South Wales is to keep the public roads in a state of repair; 
 and with so ample a revenue as there has hitherto been available 
 for public purposes in that colony, this duty ought, unquestionably, 
 to have been etficiently and satisfactorily discharged. From a 
 recent colonial paper, however, containing a return of the amount 
 expended for this purpose for five or six years past, it appears that 
 the total amount voted and expended in New South Wales, includ¬ 
 ing the district of Port Phillip, for making and improving the roads 
 of the colony, from the 1st January, 1846, to the 31st October, 1851, 
 was only 52,703/. 10s. Id., being an average annual expenditure of 
 not more than about 8,800f. This paltry amount was all that was 
 expended for the last six years on the roads of New South Wales 
 and Port Phillip, countries larger than all Great Britain and France, 
 and producing a revenue, available for general purposes, of half a 
 million a year 1 But it stands to reason that if the public money is 
 expended, as it actually is, in the support of useless or extravagantly 
 paid offices, it chnnot he available also for the formation or repairs 
 of roads ; and therefore the public must suffer. The loss which the 
 
THE GOLDEN LANDS OF AUSTRALIA. 173 
 
 Item, instead of having a fixed and liberal system for 
 the disposal of waste land, as in the American colonies, 
 the system in the Australian colonies has been changed, 
 within my ow n recollection, like the wages of Jacob, ten 
 times, to the unspeakable annoyance and loss of the colo¬ 
 nists; while the system at. present in operation has often 
 been so illiberally and oppressively administered, and the 
 delays interposed by interested and corrupt functionaries 
 so extremely vexatious, as to prove in numerous instances 
 absolutely ruinous to the bond fide settler.* 
 
 colonists sustain from this single item of bad government, government 
 from Downing Street, is incalculable. On returning to Sydney from 
 the Gold Regions, by the public road over the Blue Mountains, in 
 October last (1851), I observed quite a succession of parties, who 
 were so far on their way to the diggings, encamped under the heavy 
 rain that was falling at the time, in the open forest on the road side; 
 as the shafts in some instances, and in others the axles of their 
 drays, had been broken on the wretched roads they had had to 
 traverse. There they had to remain for days—perhaps for weeks 
 —in the utmost discomfort imaginable, till they could get their 
 shafts replaced or their axles mended forty or fifty miles off. On 
 my last journey overland between Sydney and Melbourne, I en¬ 
 quired on the way for two postmen—very civil, obliging men, with 
 each of whom I had travelled a whole day on my former journeys, 
 but who I found were no longer on the road. One of them I was 
 told had been drowned in swimming with the mail-bags across a 
 aarrow gully,—where a few pounds would have been sufficient to have 
 constructed a wooden bridge,—while the other had been lamed for life 
 ’rom the overturning of his vehicle. I have been twice thrown out of 
 he mail-carriage myself on that route, escaping on both occasions 
 vith my life, almost miraculously. B ut independently of the loss of life, 
 vhich is considerable, the colonists lose far more in this way every year 
 ban would be sufficient to keep the roads in a state of complete repair. 
 
 * It is quite amusing to hear Lord Stanley, now Earl Derby, — 
 fter giving the colony of New South Wales the wretched burlesque of 
 Constitution, of which I have thus sketched out the leading features, 
 -in the year 1842, expressing his hope in a despatch to the Gover- 
 or, of date 5th September, 1842, that the colonists would be duly 
 ;rateful for the “ small mercies they were going to receive.” 
 
 “ In conclusion, I have only to express my anxious, but confi- 
 cnt hope, that the Act which I now transmit to you, conferring 
 i 3 
 
174 
 
 FREEDOM AND INDEPENDENCE FOR 
 
 Such, then, is the miserable and suicidal policy which 
 Great Britain has been pursuing, in the government of her 
 colonies, ever since the War of American Independence. 
 
 upon the inhabitants of New South Wales, powers so extensive for 
 the administration of their own local affairs, will he received by 
 them with feelings corresponding with those which have induced 
 her Majesty, by my advice, to divest herself of so large a portion of 
 her authority over the internal management of the colony, and, with 
 the aid of Parliament, to grant so large a measure of self-govern¬ 
 ment ; — that the powers thus vested in the Local Legislature will 
 he wisely and temperately exercised; —and that her Majesty may 
 have the high satisfaction of witnessing, as the result of her gracious 
 boon to the colony, its continued advance in religion and morality; 
 its steady progress in wealth and social improvement; and the per¬ 
 manent happiness and contentment of her people. — I have the 
 honour to he, sir, your most obedient, humble servant, 
 
 “ Stanley.” 
 
 The following Notes, appended to a Return to an Address of the 
 Legislative Council of New South Wales, in the year 1846, exhibit¬ 
 ing the amount derived from the sales of waste land throughout the 
 territory, during the ten years from 1836 to 1845 inclusive, will 
 show the way in which this most important department of the pub¬ 
 lic service has hitherto been managed in the colonies under Down¬ 
 ing Street domination. 
 
 “ In the year 1831, Lord Ripon’s regulations for the abolition of 
 free grants, and the sale by auction of all Crown lands, were first 
 promulgated in the colony. 
 
 “ 1839. — In this year the minimum price was raised from 5s. to 
 12s. per acre. 
 
 “ 1841. — In this year the system of sale at a fixed price of 1?. per 
 acre was introduced into the district of Port Phillip. 
 
 “ 1842. — In this year the system of sale by auction was resumed 
 throughout the colony, at a minimum upset price of 12s. per acre 
 for country lands, with liberty to select portions not bid for at the 
 upset price. 
 
 “ 1843. — In this year the minimum price was raised to 1 1, per 
 acre, by the Act of the Imperial Parliament 5th and 6th Victoria, 
 cap. 36.” 
 
 Here were six different systems, all established by authority, in 
 successive operation for the disposal of land in New South Wales, 
 within the short period of twelve years! 
 
THE GOLDEN LANDS OF AUSTRALIA. 175 
 
 Like some old withered hag, she has been gratifying to 
 the full her lust of empire, and sacrificing every thing that 
 was really valuable and desirable for the gratification of 
 the unhallowed passion — the hopes and prospects, nay ? 
 the very existence, of myriads of her people at home, and 
 the welfare and advancement of myriads of her people 
 abroad. It is recorded, as one of the golden sayings of 
 the good King Henry of Castile, “ that he feared the 
 curses of his people more than the weapons of his ene¬ 
 mies.” Would God we had rulers in Britain that really 
 feared the curses of their people, either at home or abroad ! 
 Deep and hollow, like a voice from the sepulchre, they 
 rise to the listening ear of heaven from the cheerless 
 haunts of wretchedness in every city of the land; and 
 they are wafted across the ocean with every breeze from 
 her remotest colony ! 
 
 At an early period after the great Protestant Reforma¬ 
 tion, Great Britain was elevated to the high and honour¬ 
 able position of the first Protestant nation in Christendom ; 
 and there was given her a colonial empire such as no other 
 Protestant nation has ever possessed. Her peculiar mis¬ 
 sion among the nations — her high and holy mission — was 
 therefore to colonize the waste places of the earth with 
 her Protestant people; and we have only to look at the 
 magnificent results of the colonization of New England, 
 that noblest colony ever planted by man, to have some idea 
 of what Britain might have done for the cause of God and 
 of Protestantism, had she only done her duty, had she only 
 fulfilled her mission. In two centuries exactly, the twenty 
 thousand Puritans of New England had become a great, 
 people of two millions and a quarter; and during the last 
 half century before the close of that period, they had called 
 into existence a colonial and thoroughly Protestant popu¬ 
 lation besides, of upwards of four millions of souls ! 
 
 “ We often hear it said,” observes the eloquent historian 
 of England, “ that the world is constantly becoming more 
 and more enlightened, and that this enlightening must be 
 
176 
 
 FREEDOM AND INDEPENDENCE FOR 
 
 favourable to Protestantism, and unfavourable to Catholic¬ 
 ism. We wish that we could think so. But we see great 
 reason to doubt whether this be a well founded expec¬ 
 tation. We see that during the last two hundred and fifty 
 years the human mind has been in the highest degree 
 active ; that it has made great advances in every branch of 
 natural philosophy; that it has produced innumerable in¬ 
 ventions tending to promote the convenience of life; that 
 medicine, surgery, chemistry, engineering have been very 
 greatly improved; that government, police, and law have 
 been improved, though not to so great an extent as the 
 physical sciences. Yet we see that during these two 
 hundred and fifty years Protestantism has made no con¬ 
 quests worth speaking of. Nay, we believe that as far as 
 there has been a change, that change has, on the whole, 
 been in favour of the Church of Rome.” * 
 
 And again: — 
 
 “ In fifty years from the day on which Luther publicly 
 renounced communion with the Papacy, and burnt the bull 
 of Leo before the gates of Wittenberg, Protestantism 
 attained its highest ascendency, an ascendency which it 
 soon lost, and which it has never regained. Hundreds, 
 who could well remember Brother Martin a devout Catho¬ 
 lic, lived to see the revolution, of which he was the chief 
 author, victorious in half the States of Europe. In England, 
 Scotland, Denmark, Sweden, Livonia, Prussia, Saxony, 
 Hesse, Wurtemburg, the Palatinate, in several cantons of 
 Switzerland, in the Northern Netherlands, the Reformation 
 had completely triumphed; and in all the other countries 
 on this side of the Alps and the Pyrenees, it seemed on the 
 point of triumphing.” f 
 
 Admitting, therefore, the indisputable fact, that the 
 progress of the Reformation was suddenly checked through¬ 
 out European Christendom within fifty years after the 
 
 Macaulay’s Essays, vol. iii. p. 208. 
 
 f Ibid. p. 221. 
 
THE GOLDEN LANDS OF AUSTRALIA. 177 
 
 burning of the Pope’s bull at Wittenberg; it is a fact 
 equally indisputable, that about the period when Pro¬ 
 testantism received its great check in Europe, Great 
 Britain, as the first of the Protestant nations of Europe, 
 had a vast colonial empire given her beyond seas, which 
 she has been constantly increasing from time to time to 
 the present day ; and within that vast empire, the field for 
 the maintenance and extension of her national Protestant¬ 
 ism, by means of British colonization, has been open and 
 unlimited these two hundred and fifty years. And what 
 has Great Britain done for the extension of our common 
 Protestantism over that vast field these two centuries anti 
 a half? Literally nothing that deserves to be mentioned! 
 All her efforts in this way throughout this long period 
 sink into insignificance compared with those even of her 
 own colony of New England in half a century; for it is 
 another indisputable fact, although Mr. Macaulay has not 
 mentioned it, as he ought to have done, that the United 
 States of America is the only country in Christendom in 
 which Protestantism has really been extending its area— 
 lengthening its cords and strengthening its stakes —these 
 two hundred and fifty years; and this extension has taken 
 place principally, if not exclusively, since the era of Free¬ 
 dom and Independence. 
 
 If Great Britain, therefore, is to be considered the bul- 
 icarli of the Reformation, it can only be in the sense of 
 keeping it back, and confining it within the ancient terri¬ 
 torial limits which it had already attained only a few years 
 after the death of Luther. Her gross neglect or misuse 
 of the power which Divine Providence had given her of 
 extending it far and wide over continent and isle, by 
 means of British colonization, “ stereotyped the Reforma¬ 
 tion at that early period, and it has ever since been printed 
 from the same ancient plates.” And this result, as I have 
 shown) sufficiently, has in no respect been due to any want 
 of enterprize or energy on the part of her people, but 
 simply and solely to her own unhallowed lust of empire — 
 
178 FREEDOM AND INDEPENDENCE FOR 
 
 to her uniform and systematic refusal of that self-govern¬ 
 ment, that freedom and independence, to which her colo¬ 
 nists had an inherent and indefeasible right by the law of 
 nature and the ordinance of God. 
 
 Instead, therefore, of pluming herself for the services 
 she has rendered to the Protestant Reformation, let Great 
 Britain hang her diminished head, and listen in silence to 
 the sentence that awaits her, for having ruined its interests 
 and betrayed its cause. For it is entirely owing to her 
 neglect of duty, her breach of trust, in regard to this vital 
 interest of Protestantism, that the Reformation cannot 
 now number up millions and millions more of a people of 
 British origin and Protestant religion, in countries that 
 are still tenanted only by the grizly bear or the timid 
 kangaroo. Whether the lamentable shortcomings of Great 
 Britain, in the non-fulfilment of her high and holy mission, 
 are not sufficient to involve a forfeiture of her colonial 
 empire in the high court of heaven, it is not for me to 
 determine; but methinks I see the handwriting against 
 her upon the wall — methinks I hear this forfeiture de¬ 
 clared by a voice from the Eternal! 
 
 The loss annually sustained by the British nation, 
 through this gross mismanagement of the British colonies, 
 is incalculable, while the gain to the United States is 
 correspondingly great; for much, if not all, that we lose 
 through our bad system, they gain through their good one. 
 In particular, no foreigners ever emigrate voluntarily to 
 the British colonies ; but the influx of foreigners — many 
 of them people of substance as well as of respectable 
 standing in society — into the colonies of the United States 
 is very great; and the Union receives annually a large 
 accession both of wealth and strength from this source. 
 In two years very lately, not fewer than twenty-five thou¬ 
 sand Germans emigrated to the United States from the 
 kingdom of Prussia alone, carrying with them not less 
 than five millions of German dollars. By dint of great 
 exertion in certain quarters, there has of late been a con- 
 
THE GOLDEN LANDS OP AUSTRALIA. 
 
 179 
 
 siderable German emigration to South Australia and Port 
 Phillip; but the voluntary and self-originated emigration 
 from Germany is all to the United States; and the fact 
 can only be regarded as a strong condemnation by foreign¬ 
 ers of our colonization system, as compared with that of 
 the United States.* 
 
 But the number even of British subjects, of the middle 
 and more respectable classes of society, who annually 
 emigrate to the United States, is beyond all comparison 
 greater than that of those who emigrate voluntarily to 
 the British colonies, f I have myself known many in¬ 
 stances of persons of this class who greatly preferred our 
 Australian climate to that of the United States, and who 
 would gladly have cast in their lot with a Brjtish rather 
 than with an American community; but who made up 
 their minds at last to emigrate to America from their 
 thorough detestation of our colonial system. Now, when 
 it is considered that every inhabitant of the United States 
 consumes only about seven shillings and sixpence worth 
 of British produce and manufactures annually, whereas 
 every inhabitant of the Australian colonies consumes from 
 seven to ten pounds’ worth, the loss which Great Britain 
 sustains in this way must be immense. There has no 
 doubt been a considerable emigration of families and indi¬ 
 viduals of this class to the colony of Port Phillip, since 
 that province was opened for settlement about sixteen 
 years ago; and the Colonial Office has most unwarrantably 
 taken much credit to itself from the fact. For that fact 
 merely demonstrates the irrepressible desire for emigration 
 
 * The number of individuals who annually emigrate from Ger¬ 
 many to the United States is 30,000, who carry with them at least 
 5,000,000 Prussian dollars, or about 750,000/. The emigration from 
 Bavaria alone, during the five years from 1835 to 1839, amounted 
 to 24,500, with a capital of 7,000,000 florins, or 675,000/. — West¬ 
 minster Review, for 1849, p. 97. 
 
 f I allude of course to the period preceding the discovery of an 
 extensive gold field in Australia. 
 
ISO FREEDOM AND INDEPENDENCE FOR 
 
 that pervades all classes in the mother-country; for if such 
 an emigration has taken place, even under the wretched 
 system I have indicated above, what amount of emigration 
 might there not have been, had there been a liberal system 
 in operation all along ! 
 
 But the strangest and most humiliating fact of all, in 
 illustration and in condemnation of our colonization 
 system, as compared with that of the United States, is 
 the wholesale emigration to America from Ireland for 
 years past, and the abject character and condition of a 
 large proportion of the emigrants. These emigrants, it is 
 well known, are “ the hewers of wood and the drawers of 
 water ” in the United States; they are employed in all 
 manner of servile work, as diggers of canals, as labourers 
 upon the earth-works of railways—in doing every thing, in 
 short, that the humblest American workman disdains to do. 
 Now, what a humiliating and degrading condition is this 
 for any country in Christendom, and especially for any 
 portion of the United Kingdom, to be reduced to — to be 
 a mere breeding state, like Virginia, for the rearing of 
 “ white niggers,” as they are technically called over the 
 water, for the haughty republicans of America! The 
 very idea is sufficient to make one’s blood boil with vir¬ 
 tuous indignation. “ Look at Ireland,” said the Duke of 
 Sotomayor to Lord Palmerston, when the latter was ten¬ 
 dering his advice, somewhat unseasonably, as to the in¬ 
 ternal government of Spain : “ Look at Ireland I ” For 
 my own part, as a Christian man, I cannot help thinking 
 that it would have been far less dishonourable to Great 
 Britain to have been defeated either at Trafalgar or 
 Waterloo, than to have allowed a foreigner, and that 
 foreigner a Spaniard too, to speak these three words to a 
 British Minister. It is no disgrace to a great nation to 
 be defeated in a just cause, taking it for granted that the 
 cause iu both of these cases was a just one, which is some¬ 
 what doubtful; but it is a deep disgrace to any nation to 
 allow whole masses of its people to sink into such a con- 
 
THE GOLDEN LANDS OF AUSTRALIA. 181 
 
 dition of social degradation as to warrant the whole 
 volume of charges implied in the speech of the Duke of 
 Sotomayor, “ Look at Ireland ! ” We may naturally feel 
 indignant at Cicero’s telling us that there was nothing to 
 be got in Britain in his time but slaves, and even these of 
 so inferior a class, that one could not pick out either a 
 schoolmaster or a fiddler from a whole shipload of them ! 
 But there is a much worthier object for our indignation 
 here; for what is this wholesale emigration from Ireland 
 to the United States but a species of “ white slavery ” 
 with which we condescend to furnish America, simply be¬ 
 cause her colonization system is incomparably better than 
 ours, and because that better system alone enables her to 
 employ our surplus poor, whom we are glad to get rid of, 
 after having first degraded them to the level of slaves ? 
 For I have no hesitation in expressing my decided opinion 
 that, if the extraordinary facilities which the British 
 empire affords for colonization were duly turned to ac¬ 
 count, by giving her Australian colonies entire freedom 
 and independence, on condition of their co-operating with 
 the mother-country in carrying out a great system of na¬ 
 tional emigration, every overburdened class of society in 
 the United Kingdom would speedily be relieved; compe¬ 
 tition in every branch of business would be diminished ; 
 poverty and destitution would in great measure disappear 
 from the face of society, and crime would be wonderfully 
 lessened in amount. It is her colonies that serve as the 
 safety-valve for America; and I am confident the time is 
 not too late even yet for her present colonies to prove the 
 safety-valve for Great Britain also. The extent of desti¬ 
 tution and suffering that result from a redundancy of 
 population is much greater, and the amount of emigration 
 that is necessary to have a salutary effect upon a country 
 suffering from such a redundancy, is much smaller than is 
 generally supposed. It is the last ounce that breaks the 
 back of the camel — it is the last drop that makes the 
 pitcher overflow. 
 
182 
 
 FREEDOM AND INDEPENDENCE FOR 
 
 CHAP. III. 
 
 THE PRESENT CRISIS IN THE AUSTRALIAN COLONIES ; AND 
 THE DUTY OF GREAT BRITAIN IN THAT CRISIS. 
 
 Section I. — Earl Grey and Lord North; or Preparations, 
 
 AFTER THE OLD PATTERN, FOR THE DISMEMBERMENT OF AN 
 
 Empire. 
 
 If Eavl Grey had been studying how he could best 
 alienate the affections of the Australian colonies from the 
 mother-country, so as to ensure the speedy dismemberment 
 of the empire, he could scarcely have adopted a fitter 
 course of procedure for the attainment of his object than 
 the one he has been pursuing for years past. Lord North 
 has evidently been his “ Great Apollo,” and the spirit of 
 that defunct statesman, whose name will ever be asso¬ 
 ciated with the disasters and dishonour of his country, 
 appears to have been the evil genius of the Colonial 
 Office since the year 1846. 
 
 The grand object of Earl Grey's administration has 
 been to force upon the Australian colonies a continuance 
 of the transportation-system, in direct opposition to his 
 own express pledges on the subject, and to the almost 
 unanimous protest and remonstrances of the colonists. A 
 great deal of casuistry has been employed by the Colonial 
 Office and its men of business, of that peculiar description 
 which characterized the special pleading of the department 
 in the case of the West India dispatches, to prove that Earl 
 Grey never pledged himself not to continue transportation 
 to Van Dieman’s Land. But I confess I regard it as a 
 matter of very little moment indeed whether he pledged 
 
THE GOLDEN LANDS OF AUSTRALIA. 183 
 
 himself or not; for I have yet to learn that the opinion of 
 any Secretary of State, on any subject whatever affecting 
 the interests of colonists, is to be weighed for one moment 
 against the deliberate opinion of a whole series of British 
 colonies. Every insult has been heaped upon the colonies, 
 and especially upon the unfortunate colony of Van 
 Dieman’s Land, in connection with this matter; every 
 discreditable manoeuvre has been resorted to to steal a 
 march upon them, and to worm out of them something 
 that may be interpreted as an expression of acquiescence 
 in the meditated infliction : everything has been sacrificed 
 to promote the convict policy of Earl Grey. 
 
 I had the honour, as one of the two Representatives of 
 the city of Sydney in the late Legislative Council of 
 New South Wales, during the year 1850, to present the 
 most numerously signed petition that had ever been pre¬ 
 sented to the Colonial Legislature, against the renewal 
 of transportation to that colony. It had 36,589 names 
 attached to it, — names of persons of all ranks in society, 
 and from all parts of the colony. * But although I had 
 cordially participated from the first in the anti-trans¬ 
 portation movement, and had protested, in the strongest 
 manner, against the continuance of transportation to any 
 of the actnal colonies of Eastern Australia, or to any 
 part of the eastern coast of that continent, I took oc¬ 
 casion, in my speech on the subject in Council, — as I 
 had done before a Select Committee of the House of 
 Commons in the year 1837, — to express my decided 
 approval of transportation in the abstract, as a species of 
 punishment for crime. I cannot therefore be regarded 
 as a prejudiced witness in the case, or as being actuated 
 by mere party spirit, in opposing a measure of import¬ 
 ance in the eyes of the Colonial Office. On the contrary, 
 I consider the continuance of transportation as one of 
 
 * The number of signatures to the petition in favour of the con¬ 
 tinuance of transportation on the same occasion was only 525. 
 
184 FREEDOM AND INDEPENDENCE FOR 
 
 the political necessities of the British Empire; and I 
 regard the punishment itself, if properly carried out, as 
 both humane and reformatory in a very high degree. 
 But as there is no political necessity for the continuance 
 of transportation to Van Dieman’s Land, or for its ex¬ 
 tension to any part of the eastern coast of Australia, 
 it was folly in the extreme on the part of Earl Grey, — 
 it was something akin to political insanity, like Lord 
 North’s, — to force upon the colonies a measure so ex¬ 
 ceedingly distasteful, and thereby to imperil their con¬ 
 nection with the British Empire. The Australian Anti- 
 Transportation League, which his Lordship’s impolitic 
 measures virtually called into existence, is one of those 
 characteristic features of the times, which cannot pos¬ 
 sibly be without important results. It has given the 
 colonists the idea of a Union of the Colonies. It has 
 taught them, moreover, that union is strength; and it has 
 furnished them with an instrument which they may use 
 on some other occasion, and with still greater effect. 
 
 The Australian Colonies Bill of 1850 was supposed, by 
 ill-informed people at home, both in Parliament and out 
 of it, to have been a great improvement on the previous 
 system. As far as the colony of New South Wales is 
 concerned, it has been quite the reverse. It lowered the 
 franchise, indeed, from twenty to ten pounds, — a con¬ 
 cession, be it remarked (as a proof of how little either 
 the people or the people’s House care for the colonies), 
 for which the colonies were indebted, not to the House 
 of Commons, but to the House of Lords, —but in leaving 
 the apportionment of the electoral districts to the actual 
 Legislature, it virtually provided for the establishment 
 of a worse system of government than the one previously 
 in existence. For to suppose that the interests of the 
 people would be safe in the hands of a Legislature con¬ 
 sisting, to the extent of one-third of its whole number, 
 of government nominees, with a revenue of enormous 
 amount, as compared with the actual population, to ap- 
 
THE GOLDEN LANDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
 
 185 
 
 propriate for the extension of official patronage, and the 
 purchase of political adherence, was pre-eminently absurd. 
 Earl Grey was not left in ignorance as to the probable 
 issue of so unwarrantable an experiment. Sir William 
 Molesworth had stated distinctly, in his speech on the 
 Australian Colonies Bill, that the interests of the colonists 
 could not be safe in the hands of the actual Legislature ; 
 and it was therefore the bounden duty of the Colonial 
 Office to have sent out instructions to the local Execu¬ 
 tive, to ensure the carrying out of the Act on the prin¬ 
 ciples of common sense and common honesty. But as no 
 such instructions were sent out with the Act, and as the 
 Act itself was actually carried out by the Government- 
 packed Legislature to which the colony was subjected at 
 the time, on the principles of political swindling and 
 downright knavery, Earl Grey is chargeable with the 
 entire result, agreeably to the maxim Quod facit per 
 alium, facit per se. The best part of the colonists have 
 been cheated and robbed of their political rights and 
 privileges, as I have already shown in the case of the 
 city of Sydney, under the mockery of an Act of Par¬ 
 liament, which official influence was permitted to mutilate 
 on its passage, so as to deprive the colonists of all the 
 benefits it designed. It is generally believed, indeed, in 
 New South Wales, that all this was clearly foreseen in 
 Downing Street, and was artfully contrived in order to 
 elicit from the mock Legislature, which would thus be 
 created, an expression of opinion in favour of a resump¬ 
 tion of transportation to that colony I 
 
 This peculiar species of political knavery, — in vitiating 
 the electoral systems of the colonies, so as to repress, or 
 prevent the expression of, public opinion, and to ensure 
 pliant majoritigs in the Colonial Legislatures, for the 
 carrying out of the principles of arbitrary government,— 
 was one of the regular devices of Lord North and his 
 associates, and one of the fruitful causes of the American 
 Revolution. 
 
186 FREEDOM AND INDEPENDENCE FOR 
 
 “In North Carolina, at this juncture,” observes the his¬ 
 torian, “ a general ferment was excited by the efforts of 
 Dobbs, the Royal Governor, so to alter (partly by creating 
 new boroughs and counties, and partly by other measures,) 
 the system of popular representation, as to ensure to the 
 Crown an entire ascendant over the deliberations of the 
 provincial assembly. From these measures, after he had 
 pursued them so far as to kindle a high degree of public 
 spirit in the province, he was at last compelled to depart, 
 by the resolute opposition of the assembly, accompanied 
 by such expressions of popular indignation as strongly 
 betokened a revolt against his authority.”* 
 
 Again, “ On a question from New Jersey in 1773, with 
 respect to the number of representatives from certain 
 counties or places, the attorney-general Raymond advised 
 the King that he might regulate the number to be sent 
 from each place, or might restrain them from sending any 
 at his pleasure. In 1747, on a similar question from 
 New Hampshire, the Crown lawyers, Ryder and Murray, 
 informed his Majesty that the right of sending represen¬ 
 tatives to the assembly was founded, originally, on the 
 commissions and instructions given by the Crown to the 
 governors of New Hampshire.” — “ These questions, 
 Pitkin [an American writer] very justly observes, could 
 be settled only by a Revolution.”f 
 
 A third particular in which Earl Grey, as the Autocrat 
 of all the colonies of Britain, has identified himself with 
 the real authors of the American Revolution, and in 
 which he has even surpassed King James the Second, 
 King William the Third, and Lord North himself, is the 
 appointment of a Governor-General for the Australian 
 colonies, under the sole authority of the Colonial Office, 
 and without any Act of Parliament whatsoever. The 
 idea of combining the whole of the American colonies 
 
 * Grahame’s History of the United States , iv. 75. (Anno 1760.) 
 
 f Ibid. iii. 58. 
 
TIIE GOLDEN LANDS OF AUSTRALIA. 187 
 
 under one general government, and subjecting them to a 
 Governor-General, to be under the sole authority of the 
 Crown, originated with a British monarch, whose opi¬ 
 nions and practice, in what his worthy grandfather used 
 to call “ kingcraft,” doubtless deserve all honour and imita¬ 
 tion from the Colonial Office of the present day,—I mean 
 King James the Second !! ! The fact itself, with the views 
 and objects of its worthy projector, is thus detailed by 
 the historian of America : —. 
 
 “ The project of a general government, embracing all 
 the colonies, which had been devised by James the Second, 
 but rendered abortive by the Revolution, was now (1692) 
 revived by this enterprising politician (Nicholson, gover¬ 
 nor of Virginia), who beheld in it at once the most 
 effectual means of securing the absolute authority of the 
 Parent State, and the fairest promise of his own ascent 
 to the pinnacle of provincial greatness. By his merit in 
 promoting an object so agreeable to the English Court, 
 added to his boasted influence and experience in America, 
 he hoped to entitle himself to the appointment of Go¬ 
 vernor-General ; and this ambitious vision seems to have 
 mainly influenced his language and actions during his 
 second presidency in Virginia.” * 
 
 Again, “ He [Governor Nicholson] cooperated (anno 
 1698) with his friend, Colonel Quarry, another function¬ 
 ary of the Crown in North America, in the composition 
 of the memorials which were presented in Quarry’s 
 name to the Commissioners of Trade and Plantations in 
 England. These memorials represented the colonists of 
 America, and the Virginians in particular, as deeply em- 
 bued with republican principles; strongly recommended 
 immediate recourse to the most rigorous measures for 
 preserving the ascendancy of the Royal prerogative ; and 
 especially suggested, “ that all the English colonies of 
 North America be reduced under one government and 
 
 * Grahame’s History of the United States, iii. 12. 
 
188 FREEDOM AND INDEPENDENCE FOR 
 
 one viceroy, and that a standing army be there kept on 
 foot to subdue the enemies of Royal authority.” * 
 
 But the American colonists, of the Anti-Revolution 
 period, were too watchful over their own rights and 
 liberties, ever to permit such an appointment as that of 
 a Governor-General to be made in their midst; and the 
 project had therefore to be abandoned, with every in¬ 
 clination in the proper quarters to carry it out. But 
 mark the progress of the true principles of government in 
 ourperiod! Without consulting either House of Par¬ 
 liament, and certainly without consulting the Australian 
 colonies, Earl Grey merely nods * to his underling ; and 
 forthwith the parchment, with the sign manual attached, 
 is duly issued, and a Governor-General is created for 
 Australia! 
 
 I am strongly of opinion, however, with that able po¬ 
 litician, Nebuchadnezzar, that it is of no use to set up 
 a golden image for the people to worship, in the plain of 
 Dura , unless you can make that worship compulsory : 
 and as red-hot fiery furnaces are no longer in use as 
 instruments of government, a hue and cry must be got 
 up in the proper quarter about the “ Defences of Port 
 Jackson,” and urgent dispatches must be written calling 
 for “ Protection for the colony, and especially for the 
 gold mines,” to ensure the regular and approved sub¬ 
 stitute of the times, viz., plenty of red-coats, to be paid 
 for by the people. These are the artful dodges actually 
 in progress to maintain the state and dignity of the 
 Governor-General. So far, however, as the thing has 
 gone, this Downing Street demonstration has proved a 
 signal failure. So sheer an insult was the appointment 
 considered to the colonies generally, that some of them, 
 as for instance South Australia, got up an expression of 
 indignation on the occasion ; but so utterly useless, as 
 
 * Grahame’s History of the United States, iii. 15. 
 
 f Hutu quatit Olympum. (scil. Jupiter) — Virgil. 
 
THE GOLDEN LANDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
 
 189 
 
 well as uncalled for, was the appointment, that the rest 
 scarcely thought it worth while to be angry. In short 
 Downing Street exclaimed, 
 
 “ A Governor-General! A Governor-General for Australia ! ” 
 
 and to set the example, fell down and worshipped accord¬ 
 ingly. But the colonists looked on in utter scorn, and 
 merely replied, 
 
 “ A Popinjay ! Good friends ! A Popinjay !”* 
 
 Section II.— Earl Grey and Lord North continued; or The 
 Governor-General. 
 
 But who, it may be asked, is the man whom Earl Grey 
 delights to honour with the new and dignified appointment 
 of Governor-General of Australia? The present governor 
 of New South Wales is his Excellency, Sir Charles Au¬ 
 gustus Fitz Roy, of the ducal House of Grafton. He 
 had previously been Governor of the island of Antigua, in 
 the West Indies ; and on his arrival in New South Wales, 
 he was accompanied by his lady, the late Lady Mary 
 Fitz Roy, a daughter of the Duke of Richmond, and two 
 sons, who had both reached man’s estate. Soon after his 
 arrival, Lady Mary, who was much liked, was unfortu¬ 
 nately killed by a fall from her curricle; the horses hav¬ 
 ing taken fright, when the Governor was imprudently 
 acting as charioteer, and galloped off with the vehicle. 
 Whether this calamity made a deep impression upon his 
 
 * It is very questionable policy, as well as an evidence of very bad 
 taste, to introduce upon the stage a functionary of this kind, who is 
 really not wanted, and for whom there is nothing earthly to do. 
 The maxim of Horace is as good in politics as it is in poetry. 
 
 “ Nec Deus intersit, nisi dignus vindice nodus 
 Incident.” — Horat. Ars Poetica. 
 
 There was certainly no such nodus in the case in question. 
 
190 
 
 FREEDOM AND INDEPENDENCE FOR 
 
 Excellency or not, the reader will judge from the sequel. 
 For my own part, I presume to offer no opinion on the 
 subject. 
 
 To all appearance, as well as in the general opinion of 
 the colonists, Sir Charles Fitz Roy is a man with neither 
 head nor heart — 
 
 “ Sans eyes, sans ears, sans taste, sans everything.” 
 
 By orders from Home , we pay him 5000/. a year, with 
 various valuable perquisites besides, for governing the co¬ 
 lony ; but. as he is universally understood to be somewhat 
 effete and incapable in matters of government, we have to 
 pay 1500/. a year to a Colonial Secretary, as governor’s 
 keeper; the latter doing much of the work, without shar¬ 
 ing the responsibility. From the distinguished position 
 which his Excellency and his two sons—one of whom is 
 his private secretary—hold in the colony, they are ne¬ 
 cessarily the observed of all observers ; and their influence 
 on the community, whether for good or for evil, is corre¬ 
 spondingly great. As the reader will therefore desire to 
 have a glance at their likenesses, I beg to refer him to the 
 following full-length portrait, which was drawn eighty 
 years ago by the ablest limner of his day. It is a family 
 picture; and the beauty of it is that it still exhibits the 
 family likenesses as true to the life as ever. 
 
 “ There is a certain family in this country, on which 
 nature seems to have entailed an hereditary baseness of 
 disposition. As far as their history has been known, the 
 son has regularly improved upon the vices of his father, 
 and has taken care to transmit them pure and undiminished 
 into the bosom of his successor. In the senate, their 
 abilities have confined them to those humble, sordid ser¬ 
 vices in which the scavengers of the ministry are usually 
 employed. But in the memoirs of private treachery, they 
 stand first and unrivalled. The following story will serve 
 to illustrate the character of this respectable family, and 
 to convince the world, that the present possessor has as 
 
THE GOLDEN LANDS OF AUSTRALIA. 191 
 
 clear a title to the infamy of his ancestors, as he has to 
 their estate. It deserves to be recorded, for the curiosity 
 of the fact, and should be given to the public, as a warn¬ 
 ing to every honest member of society. The present Lord 
 Irnham, who is now in the decline of life, lately cultivated 
 the acquaintance of a younger brother of a family, with 
 which he had lived in some degree of intimacy and friend¬ 
 ship. The young man had long been the dupe of a most 
 unhappy attachment to a common prostitute. His friends 
 and relations foresaw the consequences of this connection, 
 and did every thing that depended upon them to save him 
 from ruin. But he had a friend in Lord Irnham, whose 
 advice rendered all their endeavours ineffectual. This 
 hoary lecher, &c.”* 
 
 The liocmj lecher ! — Good ! — but we must stop here, 
 and proceed with our illustrations. 
 
 As Her Majesty makes a Royal progress at home every 
 year, it is natural that Her Representatives in the colonies 
 should do the same. Whether they imitate the good ex¬ 
 ample of their Royal mistress in other respects is not quite 
 so evident. At all events, Sir Charles Fitz Roy was en¬ 
 gaged in one of his Viceregal progresses in New South 
 Wales, when he reached the inland town of Berrima, about 
 eighty miles from Sydney, and took up his abode at the 
 “hostelrie” of an innkeeper of the name of C., formerly, 
 I believe, the champion of New South Wales. C., it seems, 
 had a daughter who was by no means destitute of personal 
 attractions, and who appears to have fixed the regards of 
 the Governor-General himself. What occurred at the inn, 
 I neither know nor care; but in due time Miss C. proving 
 enceinte , the fact was inhumanly laid to the door of Her 
 Most Gracious Majesty’s Representative, the Governor- 
 General of Australia ! C. acted on the occasion as any 
 honest man would be likely to do, whether a pugilist or 
 not; and he came at length to Sydney for redress: but 
 
 * Junius, Letter LXXXVII., addressed to the Duhc of Grafton. 
 
192 
 
 FREED031 AND INDEPENDENCE FOR 
 
 meeting with some such cold reception as humble people 
 like himself are likely to do when asking redress of any 
 kind at the mansions of Governors-General, he placed his 
 case in the hands of an able solicitor in Sydney — William 
 Thurlow, Esq.,—the Right Worshipful the Mayor of that 
 city for the past and present years. 
 
 Mr. Thurlow accordingly stated his case, and preferred 
 his claim upon his Excellency, in the usual style, demand¬ 
 ing compensation for the loss of the services of his client's 
 child; and as all such “private affairs,” in the govern¬ 
 ment of important colonies, must be transacted through 
 his Excellency’s private secretary, the employe submitted 
 the case, doubtless with some diffidence, to that function¬ 
 ary, who, as I have already observed, happens to be one 
 of his Excellency’s full-grown sons. Not in the least dis¬ 
 concerted at the application, that ingenuous young gentle¬ 
 man, who appears to have been “ used to it,” asked, with 
 a degree of naivete which is perfectly refreshing in the 
 present age of hypocritical pretensions, “ how they could 
 
 know that the child was his father’s; for-,” but I can 
 
 scarcely venture to finish the sentence. No doubt it would 
 have been very difficult for Mr. Thurlow — shrewd lawyer 
 though he is — to ascertain to which member of the ex¬ 
 emplary family the paternity in the case was to be assigned; 
 but as this was no part of his client’s case, he stuck to the 
 Governor-General, and the result was that a sum of two 
 hundred pounds, as was reported, was paid to C. to pre¬ 
 vent exposure and disgrace ! 
 
 If the reader should feel inclined to question the pro¬ 
 priety of my entering into these details, I think he will 
 scarcely do so on reflection, for the following reasons : — 
 
 1. “ No nation, or people,” I quote from the able writer 
 on America whom I have repeatedly cited, “ can ever be 
 safely indifferent to the moral character of its political 
 chiefs and leaders ; ” * and therefore if that character 
 
 * The Americans were generally imbued with the persuasion (which 
 some notable events in their subsequent experience tended to illus- 
 
THE GOLDEN LANDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
 
 193 
 
 happens to be notoriously bad in any particular instance, 
 it ought, for the benefit of society, to be publicly and 
 fearlessly exposed. No doubt, it may be somewhat ha¬ 
 zardous to make the attempt; but, as Sir Walter Scott 
 observes in his Diary, “If we do not run some hazard in 
 our attempts to do good, where is the merit of them ? ” * 
 It has been an ancient practice with the Colonial Office 
 to send out men for the highest appointments in the 
 colonies who have been bankrupt alike in character 
 and in purse; and if this practice has been continued 
 to the very latest period in New South Wales, it has 
 doubtless been because the people have hitherto had so 
 little to say in the management of their own affairs. “ I 
 confess,” says Oldmixon, an American annalist of the 
 earlier part of last century, “ it gives me a great deal of 
 pain, in writing this history, to see what sort of governors 
 I meet with in the Plantations.”! And, in reference to 
 a period much nearer that of our great Apollo, Lord 
 North, another writer on America observes — 
 
 “It unfortunately happened for our American provinces, 
 at the time we now treat of, that a government in any of 
 our colonies in those parts was scarcely looked upon in 
 any other light than that of an hospital where the fa¬ 
 vourites of the ministry might lie till they had recovered 
 their broken fortunes; and oftentimes they served as 
 asylums from their creditors.”! 
 
 We seem, however, to have improved in Australia, even 
 upon Lord North and his times: for, without descending 
 to particulars, there is no place in New South Wales that 
 
 trate and confirm), that a nation can never be safely indifferent to the 
 moral characters of its political chiefs and leaders; and that private 
 virtue and prudence afford the surest test of the purity and stability 
 of patriotic purpose and resolution. — Grahame, iv. 316. 
 
 * Sir Walter Scott’s Life, by Lockhart. Diary, vol. vi. 139. 
 f Oldmixon, quoted by Grahame, vol. ii. 302. 
 
 X Wynne (an American writer), also quoted by Grahame, vol. iii. 
 p. 236. 
 
 K 
 
194 
 
 FREEDOM AND INDEPENDENCE FOR 
 
 could furnish so large a contribution to the Scandalou; 
 Chronicle as Government House, Sydney. 
 
 2. As the citizens of Sydney have, on two different occa 
 sions during the past two years, done me the honour t< 
 elect me one of their representatives in the Colonial Legis 
 lature, placing me on the latter occasion at the head o. 
 the poll by the largest majority ever known in the colon}'. 
 I have not merely a right, but I am loudly called on, tc 
 interfere for the protection of the public morals, in a: 
 matter in which the best and dearest interests of the citi¬ 
 zens are so deeply concerned. It is reported that when 
 the Earl of Shaftesbury was consulted within the last 
 two years, as to whether the city of Sydney was a proper 
 place for Mr. Sidney Herbert’s female emigrants to be 
 sent to, he replied in the negative, giving our fair city 
 and its inhabitants a very indifferent character. Now, 
 without deeming it necessary to inquire whether his 
 Lordship was right, or wrong in this condemnation of the 
 city of Sydney, I have only to express a hope, that when 
 he next condescends to characterize the citizens of the 
 metropolis of Australia, in which, I am happy to state, 
 there are thousands of families and individuals as virtuous 
 as his lordship, he will adopt the poet’s maxim— Princi- 
 pium a Jove —and begin with HerMajesty’sRepresentative. 
 For, connected as his lordship has formerly been with the 
 Royal Commission of Sewers for the cities of London and 
 Westminster, I can assure him, that there is no localityj 
 in these cities that requires a more liberal application of 
 the disinfecting fluid — of the moral chlorate of lime — 
 than Government House, Sydney: there is no back slum, 
 either in London or Westminster, that stands more 
 urgently in need of a thorough clean-out. 
 
 The last instance I shall adduce of the complete identi¬ 
 fication of Earl Grey with his 
 
 “ Most noble, reverend, and approved good masters ” 
 of the Lord North school is the idea which his lordshipi 
 
THE GOLDEN LANDS OF AUSTRALIA. 195 
 
 lias repeatedly put forth, that the governors of all the 
 British colonies should have their salaries paid by the 
 mother country, or, in other words, that they should be a 
 sort of out-door paupers, supported by the parishes in 
 England! Whether any of the Australian colonies would 
 be abject enough to consent to such a proposal, the real 
 object of which is to make the governors the complete 
 tools of their paymasters, I shall not say; for under a 
 Government-packed Legislature, with nearly half a million 
 a year to appropriate in salaries for offices of all kinds, 
 whether necessary or not, there will always be plenty of 
 people abject enough for any thing — plenty of “ four- 
 footed beasts and creeping things: ” but it is positively 
 refreshing, while it tends to raise one’s opinion of human 
 nature, to contemplate the manner in which so insidious a 
 proposal was received by the patriots of the olden time 
 n America. The following passage from the American 
 iiistorian relates to events that took place during the ad- 
 ninistration of Governor Hutchinson, the last Loyal 
 Governor of the Colony of Massachusetts : — 
 
 “ Hutchinson had enjoyed his commission as governor 
 mt a very short time, when he acquainted the provincial 
 tssembly that he no longer required a salary from them, 
 is the king had made provision for his support. By this 
 neasure, the British Court expected gradually to intro- 
 luce into practical operation the principle for which it 
 tad already contended, of rendering the emoluments, as 
 roll as the communication and endurance of executive 
 unctions in America, wholly dependent on the pleasure 
 f the Crown ; and doubtless it was supposed that the 
 tmericans would give little heed to the principle of an 
 inovation of which the first practical effect was to relieve 
 aemselves from a considerable burden. But the Ameri- 
 ans valued liberty more than money, and justly accounted 
 the political basis on which reposed the stability of every 
 temporal advantage. Hutchinson’s communication was 
 laturely considered; and about a month afterwards the 
 
196 
 
 FREEDOM AND INDEPENDENCE FOR 
 
 assembly, by a message, declared to him that the roya 
 provision for his support, and his own acceptance of if 
 was an infraction of the rights of the inhabitants recog 
 nized by the provincial charter, an insult to the assembly 
 and an invasion of the important trust which from th< 
 foundation of their commonwealth they had ever con- 
 tinued to exercise.” * 
 
 Again, on his subsequent “avowal, that he could ncj 
 longer authorise a provincial provision for the judges, as 
 the king had undertaken to provide for tlieir remuneration 
 also, the assembly instantly passed a resolution declaring 
 that this measure tended to the subversion of justice ant! 
 equity; and that while the tenure of judicial office con¬ 
 tinued to depend on the pleasure of the king, ‘ any of the 
 judges who shall accept of and depend upon the pleasure 
 of the Crown for his support, independent of the grants of 
 the assembly, will discover that he is an enemy of the con¬ 
 stitution, and has it in his heart to promote the establish¬ 
 ment of arbitrary power in the province.’ ” * 
 
 Now, if “ coming events cast their shadows before,” it 
 can scarcely be difficult to anticipate the events in which 
 the proceedings I have related above are likely to issue in 
 Australia. 
 
 Section III. — The Discovery of Gold in Australia, and its 
 
 PROBABLE POLITICAL RESULTS. 
 
 The late Legislative Council of New South Wales,! 
 which had been constituted under the Imperial Act of 
 1842, met for the last time on the 3rd of May, 1851, after 
 having made the requisite legislative provisions for the 
 construction of the present Council under the Imperial 
 Act of 1850; the principal business of its final session 
 being the passing of the famous Electoral Act, ivhicli de-j 
 
 * Grahame’s History of the United States of America, iv. 323. 
 
THE GOLDEN LANDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
 
 197 
 
 prived nearly one half of the inhabitants of the colony of 
 their proper share in the general representation, and de¬ 
 livered over the country, bound hand and foot, into the 
 hands of a government in which the people could have no 
 confidence. In such circumstances, the prospect as to 
 reform and political advancement for the colony was 
 dismal in the extreme; but light and deliverance happily 
 appeared in this crisis, in a quarter from which they were 
 least of all to be expected. On the sixth of May, 1851, 
 only three days after the Legislative Council had done its 
 deed of darkness, and virtually breathed its last, the dis¬ 
 covery of a gold field of unknown extent in the interior of 
 New South Wales was publicly announced in the city of 
 Sydney! 
 
 It is not my intention, neither is it at all necessary, to 
 enter into any details, in the present work, as to the dis¬ 
 covery of the gold fields of Australia, or as to their antici¬ 
 pated or ascertained extent; my business being simply with 
 the probable political results of that discovery. 
 
 It is perfectly evident, therefore, that this wonderful 
 discovery has virtually taken the settlement, or peopling, 
 of Australia out of the hands of the Imperial Govern¬ 
 ment. With facilities for colonization superior to those 
 of any other country on earth, — with millions of acres 
 of the finest land, in the finest climates, lying open for 
 settlement in Australia alone, and millions of pounds of 
 animal food annually destroyed in that country, simply 
 for want of consumers, for the sake of the tallow, — the 
 British Government had never made a single effort, at all 
 worthy of the name, for the settlement of these vast soli¬ 
 tudes; although myriads of the inhabitants of the British 
 Isles — industrious and virtuous families and individuals — 
 were generally in a condition bordering on starvation ! 
 By this discovery, however. Divine Providence has vir¬ 
 tually declared that these lands shall no longer be suffered 
 to lie waste—that Australia shall be inhabited—and has 
 accordingly taken the work of Australian colonization into 
 
19S 
 
 FREEDOM AND INDEPENDENCE FOR 
 
 its own hands. It may be difficult, indeed, to ascertain 1 
 beforehand of what materials, and in what relative propor¬ 
 tions, the future population of Australia will be constituted; 
 but that a vast population, numbering hundreds of thousands, 
 and probably millions, and comprising numerous respect¬ 
 able families and individuals of all grades, occupations, 
 and professions, with innumerable adventurers of all de¬ 
 scriptions, will ere long be congregated in that country, 
 there cannot now be the shadow of a doubt. The gold 
 discovery has thrown the colony of New South Wales fifty 
 years in advance of its previous position ; or, in the words 
 of Mr. Wentworth, one of the present members for the 
 city of Sydney, it will precipitate the colony into a nation. 
 
 Another, therefore, of the certain results of this won¬ 
 derful discovery is that Australia will, in spite of every 
 effort to the contrary, very soon be free and independent; 
 and Great Britain must therefore make up her mind to 
 the issue with the best possible grace.* But while this 
 will undoubtedly be the result in any circumstances, there 
 are causes at present in operation which, if not counter¬ 
 acted in time, will precipitate the issue, and deprive the 
 mother-country, for all time coming, of the most valuable 
 national advantages, which might otherwise be secured 
 from her present possessions with the utmost facility. 
 
 In the first place, therefore, there is an utter want of 
 confidence in the present Local Government, on the part 
 of a large proportion of the intelligence and moral worth 
 of the colony, and a thorough contempt for it among the 
 energetic and industrious classes of the community. The 
 persuasion that it consists of men who care nothing for 
 the people, provided they can abstract the largest possible 
 amount of their funds for their own purposes — for the 
 
 * “ A country which is being peopled at the rate of five thousand 
 a week hy men nursed in freedom will soon he able to demand as a 
 right that which she now entreats as a favour.”— Times, July 30. 
 1852. 
 
THE GOLDEN LANDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
 
 199 
 
 maintenance of their own system, and the pensioning of 
 their own friends and adherents — is all but universal. 
 The Colonial Electoral Act is proof positive of such a 
 state of things, and no man can be blind enough not to 
 see it. 
 
 This feeling is not a little strengthened and enhanced 
 by the American experience which a considerable portion 
 of the present mining population of the colony have re¬ 
 cently obtained. On the announcement of the discovery 
 of the Gold Mines of California in the Australian colonies, 
 there was quite a rush of adventurers from these colonies 
 —many of them carrying with them their wives and 
 families — to the American mines ; for people who have 
 once fairly left their mother-country, and made a long 
 sea voyage to any remote settlement, are much more 
 easily incited to repeat the experiment, and try some 
 other and better place, than if they had never left their 
 native land. But as soon as the news of the discovery of 
 a gold field in Australia reached California, the tide 
 turned immediately, and the emigrants found their way 
 back again in whole ship-loads to Australia. The first 
 steamship — a screw propeller—that ever crossed the 
 Pacific, arrived in the harbour of Sydney, with a whole 
 cargo of returned emigrants, including a few Americans 
 even, from San Francisco, the evening before I left the 
 colony. Now a large proportion of these returned emi¬ 
 grants have not only been acquiring valuable experience 
 in gold-mining in California, but have also been observing 
 the working of free institutions among a people of kindred 
 origin in that country ; and it is not to be wondered at if 
 in such circumstances the feeling of dissatisfaction with 
 the present political state of the Australian colonies should 
 have become both general and intense in whole masses of 
 the community. 
 
 Besides, the Gold Regulations of the Local Government 
 constitute a positive grievance of rather a serious cha¬ 
 racter. Every miner must take out a license to mine, 
 
200 
 
 FREEDOM AND INDEPENDENCE FOR 
 
 for which he pays thirty shillings a month. To any 
 person who is at all successful, this is but a very light 
 tax: but gold-mining is everywhere a lottery, in which, 
 although there are splendid prizes, there are also many 
 blanks; and to the man who has drawn a blank, for 
 months perhaps in succession, as is the case with some, 
 the payment of a monthly tax of thirty shillings besides 
 is a serious grievance. The aggravating part of the affair 
 to any person who has the slightest regard for the welfare 
 and advancement of the country, is that only a compara¬ 
 tively small portion of the large revenue which is raised 
 from this license fee finds its way into the public trea¬ 
 sury, so as to be available for the general improvement 
 of the country. A large portion of it is absorbed in the 
 payment of the salaries and appointments of a whole host 
 of Gold Commissioners and Assistant Gold Commissioners, 
 and their clerks and attendants, who have in the mean 
 time been palmed upon the colony to an extent perfectly 
 astounding.* Certain of these trumpery officials, more¬ 
 over, are mere boys, just from school; the relatives and 
 friends of course of those who can assist in any way in 
 keeping up the system. That these functionaries are not 
 yet out of their “teens” may be inferred from a circum¬ 
 stance which I learned at Bathurst, when returning to 
 Sydney from a tour to the Turon Mines in the month of 
 October last. The Gold Commissioners and Assistant 
 Commissioners had been holding a meeting, it seems, in 
 that inland town, to determine, doubtless among other 
 matters of equal importance, what sort of button they 
 should have for their contemplated uniform. There was 
 one, it appears, which, in the language of shopmen, “ met 
 with general approbation;” but, on consulting an old 
 military officer in the neighbourhood, he told them it was 
 
 * La multiplicity effrenee des offices est la marque assuree de la 
 decadence prochaine d’un etat. — Sully. The unrestrained multi¬ 
 plication of offices is the sure sign of the approaching fall of a State. 
 
THE GOLDEN LANDS OF AUSTRALIA. 201 
 
 a Navy button, in use among the marines, and that if they 
 adopted it, they would be called “ the Horse-Marines ! ” 
 Of course, the knights of the button, who had evidently 
 put off their pinafores too soon, had reluctantly to make 
 another choice. 
 
 For my own part, I am strongly opposed to the license 
 fee and these Gold Commissionerships altogether: I would 
 have a mere nominal fee, not exceeding five shillings a 
 month, to enable the authorities to mark out the proper 
 limits of each miner’s claim, and to maintain a small 
 police force; but I would subject the whole of the crude 
 metal raised from the mines to an impost of five per cent, 
 for the State. This was the system to which the Spanish 
 Government was obliged to come at last, after many ex¬ 
 periments and many failures, in the management of its 
 South American mines. 
 
 “ The search after precious metals,” observes Professor 
 Heeren, “ was left to individual enterprise, with the re¬ 
 servation of a tenth to the Crown. * * * The 
 
 proportion paid to the king [of Spain] it was found 
 necessary to diminish by degrees from twenty to five 
 per cent.; notwithstanding this, in the richest regions of 
 the earth, mining was so hazardous a game that by far 
 the greater number of speculations ended in ruin.”* 
 
 The attempt to realize a large per-centage for Govern¬ 
 ment from the produce of mines has uniformly proved a 
 failure, and it is surely not the policy of any Government 
 to lead its subjects into the strong temptation which a 
 large per-centage on the results of mining implies. If 
 the Spanish government had to be satisfied with five 
 per cent, at last, so should we, from the first. 
 
 In regard to the probability of ensuring this per-centage 
 for the State, gold is so precious a metal, and people ex¬ 
 porting it are so anxious to ensure its safety, that there 
 would be no difficulty whatever in subjecting it to a duty 
 
 Europe and its Colonies, Sfc., p. 57. 
 
202 FREEDOM AND INDEPENDENCE FOR 
 
 of five percent.; under a legislative enactment, making 
 the requisite provisions on the subject, and subjecting to 
 seizure all gold attempted to be exported without payment 
 of duty. The miners would thus be treated fairly, and 
 the State would derive a comparatively large revenue, 
 available for all public purposes, from the mines. But a 
 Government like that of New South Wales or Port Phillip 
 has no idea of treating men fairly, and appealing to their 
 sense of justice ; which, in such circumstances, is the only 
 effectual specific for ensuring the public peace. Their 
 only principle for governing men is force ; their only in¬ 
 strument of government is the bayonet: and, accordingly, 
 it was understood, before I left the colony, that the Local 
 Government, resorting to the universal specific of inca¬ 
 pacity and dishonesty, had applied for a large military 
 force from England for the Australian mines. 
 
 For my own part, I consider a military force totally 
 unnecessary at the mines, and far likelier to create than 
 to repress dissatisfaction and disaffection among the 
 mining population.'* The idea of occupying the vast ex¬ 
 tent of the Australian mines with a military force, or, in 
 other words, establishing a military cordon of a thousand 
 miles in extent, is in the highest degree preposterous and 
 absurd ; and, dispersed as that force would necessarily be, 
 its presence would only add fuel to the existing, although 
 smothered, flame, and lead to some collision or outbreak, j 
 of which the consequences cannot be foreseen. It is not 
 troops, but justice, that is required for the mining districts 
 — a fair field and no favour. 
 
 * I had likewise, in those days, a mortal antipathy to standing 
 armies in time of peace ; because I always took standing armies to 
 he only servants, hired, by the master of the family for keeping his own 
 children in slavery; and because I conceived that a prince who could 
 not think himself secure without mercenary troops, must needs have 
 a separate interest from that of his subjects: although I am not 
 ignorant of those artificial necessities which a corrupted ministry 
 can create for keeping up forces to support a faction against the 
 public interest. — Dean Swift, Letters to Pope, 1720. 
 
THE GOLDEN LANDS OF AUSTRALIA. 203 
 
 Besides, the temptation of a gold field is one to which 
 British soldiers have never yet been exposed; and if 
 that temptation has proved strong enough to turn the 
 heads of the wisest men in our Australian colonies, there 
 is no calculating its effect on theirs. At all events 
 they would soon discover that there is no better in¬ 
 strument for picking out gold nuggets from the crevices 
 of the Australian rocks than a Birmingham bayonet: 
 and to what issues such a discovery might lead, under 
 colonial tuition, I leave the reader to conjecture. 
 
 I hold it, therefore, to be absolutely certain, 
 
 1st. That the large population that will be found in 
 Australia, within a few years hence, will on no account 
 tolerate the present irrational and nefarious system of 
 government in that country : 
 
 2d. That the idea of controuling the mining popula¬ 
 tion, and maintaining things as they are, by a military 
 force, is out of the question : and 
 
 3d. That, unless immediate preparation is made for 
 effecting a thorough and entire change of system, that 
 change will be effected by other means and instruments; 
 when the power to regulate and controul the movement, 
 and to give it the right direction for all parties con¬ 
 cerned, and for all time coming, will have been lost for 
 ever. 
 
 “ The generality of revolutions,” observes a British 
 officer, after a tour of some years among the recently 
 formed states of South America, “ have been effected by 
 two or three thousand badly armed men.”* There will 
 very soon be a hundred times that number at the Aus¬ 
 tralian gold mines; and the reader will perceive from 
 the following extract of a letter, of date lltli December, 
 1851, on the subject of the grievances of the miners, 
 which I received shortly before leaving the colony, from 
 
 * Wanderings in same o f the Western Republics of America. By 
 George Byam, late 43rd Light Infantry. 
 
204 
 
 FREEDOM AND INDEPENDENCE FOR 
 
 the Secretary of an Association recently formed in the 
 principal mining district for their mutual protection, that 
 the idea of something of the kind has actually been cross¬ 
 ing their minds:— 
 
 “ Affairs are rapidly approaching a crisis, and it is high 
 time for every man whose mind is imbued with the spirit 
 of patriotism, to think deeply, disinterestedly, and truly. 
 Were we desirous at present of exhibiting a demonstra¬ 
 tion of physical force, the ability to do so is ours ; but we 
 prefer intellectual and moral force, so long as it may 
 operate unfettered and free ! We are true men, and our 
 acts are constitutional. 
 
 “ We are deliberating whether it be advisable to hold 
 simultaneous meetings throughout the Diggings — each 
 meeting to resolve itself into a committee, to send a de¬ 
 legate to some central convocation. I cannot be more 
 explicit now. 
 
 “ We deeply regret your untimely withdrawal from the 
 Legislative Council, and deprecate the idea of your re¬ 
 turning to Europe, before your noble advocacy of the 
 rights of the people shall have been duly rewarded.” 
 
 At the same time it would be exceedingly unwise to 
 speculate too much on the alleged invincible attachment 
 of British colonists to the British Crown and empire. As 
 the poet Burns sings, — 
 
 “ God save the king’s a cuckoo sang, 
 
 That’s unco-easy said, aye 
 
 and when a Government has several hundred thousands a 
 year to appropriate for the maintenance of “ things as 
 they are,” lip-loyalty is very easily purchased. British 
 government has hitherto been so wretchedly administered 
 in all the Australian colonies, that if a revolutionary 
 movement in any one of them were successful in its 
 outset, it would very soon communicate itself to the whole 
 of them; and nineteen out of every twenty of the colo¬ 
 nists, with the exception of those only whose sole depend- 
 
THE GOLDEN LANDS OF AUSTRALIA. 205 
 
 ence is on the continuance of the present order of 
 things, would see that government fall without an effort 
 to preserve it, and without a sigh. 
 
 Mr. Wakefield doubtless speaks of “a peculiarity of 
 colonies, as distinguished from dependencies in general, 
 which furnishes a reason,” as he conceives, “ for wishing 
 that they should belong to the empire. I mean,” he con¬ 
 tinues, “ the attachment of colonies to their mother- 
 country. Without having lived in a colony — or, at any 
 rate, without having a really intimate acquaintance with 
 colonies, which only a very few people in the mother- 
 country have, or can have — it is difficult to conceive the 
 intensity of colonial loyalty to the empire. In the colonies 
 of England, at any rate, the feeling of love towards 
 England and of pride in belonging to her empire, is more 
 than a sentiment; it is a sort of passion which all the 
 colonists feel, except Milesian Irish emigrants. I have 
 often been unable to help smiling at the exhibition of it. 
 In what it originates I cannot say: perhaps in a sympathy 
 of blood or race, for the present Anglo-Americans feel in 
 their heart’s core the same kind of love and respect for 
 England that we Englishmen at home feel for the memory 
 of Alfred or Elizabeth: but, whatever may be its cause 
 I have no doubt that love of England is the ruling senti¬ 
 ment of English colonies.”* 
 
 Now, with all his acuteness, Mr. Wakefield has here 
 confounded two things that are essentially distinct from 
 each other, viz., “ the love of England ” and “ the love of 
 her empire,” or government, in the sense of a strong desire 
 to be, or to continue, under it. The love of England — 
 meaning the love of the country, of its people, of its institu¬ 
 tions, and of its prosperity, is a generous and manly feeling, 
 which, I am most happy to admit with Mr. Wakefield, is 
 the characteristic of all British colonies : and so far from 
 there being anything either strange or unaccountable in 
 
 Art of Colonisation, (fc., p. 101. 
 
206 FREEDOM AND INDEPENDENCE FOR 
 
 it, as Mr. W. seems to imagine, it is the most natural 
 thing in the world. For, according to the Scotch proverb, 
 “ Blood is thicker than water,” or, in other words, “ we 
 shall always be more kindly-affectioned towards our own 
 kindred, our own country, our own race, than towards 
 mere strangers or foreigners,” provided always that no 
 disturbing element shall have intervened , as in the case of 
 the War of Independence in America; which I am sorry 
 to say has generated very extensively somewhat different 
 feelings in that country from those which Mr. W. con¬ 
 siders universal. But Mr. Wakefield is decidedly in the 
 wrong in taking it for granted, as he does, that this love 
 of England, which is both natural and universal in British 
 colonies, necessarily implies a desire to live under her go¬ 
 vernment, as mere dependencies of her empire. I deny 
 that it does. I deny that the two things have the slightest 
 connection with each other; and it is throwing dust in the 
 eyes of the people of England, and rendering them stone 
 blind both to their interest and their duty, to persuade 
 them that they have, or that the equally generous and 
 manly desire of freedom and independence, on the part 
 of British colonists in certain circumstances, implies any¬ 
 thing like a hatred of England, or of her people, of her 
 institutions, or of her prosperity. Away with such folly 
 — such madness! 
 
 In a passage I have quoted above, the great Hugo Gro- 
 tius, one of the ablest and best interpreters of the law of 
 nature and nations that has ever lived, lays it down as a 
 universal and unquestionable maxim, that in such circum¬ 
 stances as those of the British colonies of North America 
 and Australia, respectively, novus populus sui juris nas- 
 citur, “ a new and independent nation is born.” And 
 Heeren, no mean authority in politics either, confirms this 
 maxim, by stating, in a passage I have also quoted above, 
 that “ the desire of independence is natural to agricul¬ 
 tural colonies, because a new nation gradually becomes 
 formed within them'.' And this natural, and therefore 
 
THE GOLDEN LANDS OF AUSTRALIA. 207 
 
 divinely implanted, desire, with the new and multiform 
 attachments from which it flows, constitutes one of the 
 strongest principles — one of the strongest passions — of 
 human nature. In short, the love of England, and the 
 desire of national independence, on the part of British 
 colonists in the circumstances I have indicated, are in 
 perfect harmony with each other, like all the other works 
 of God; which both of these generous and manly feelings 
 undoubtedly are. It is highly presumptuous, therefore, 
 to say the least of it, for mortal man to imagine that his 
 •puny arrangements for the welfare and advancement of 
 society in this lower world, should be preferable to those 
 of the Supreme Creator, and Lord of all—that his noto¬ 
 rious device of Downing Street, for instance, should be a 
 better device for the government of such countries as 
 British America and Australia, than the one indicated in 
 the law of Nature and the ordinance of God ; which pro¬ 
 claims, with a voice from heaven, that these countries 
 should be free and independent, as they will certainly 
 both be very soon, in spite of all the efforts of Downing 
 Street to the contrary. 
 
 There has doubtless been a disturbing element at work 
 in the case of British America, which has deranged in 
 some degree the natural tendencies of things in that 
 country — I mean the late American war, and the feel¬ 
 ings of bitter hostility which it unhappily engendered on 
 both sides of the boundary line; for such feelings are the 
 regular stock in trade of your “ British empire men,” and 
 your “ zealots for British connection,” as opposed to the 
 advocates of national independence. Then there are the 
 antipathies of race, within the boundary line, aggravated 
 and enhanced as they must have been by the Canadian 
 Insurrection of 1838. But we are happily free from all 
 such disturbing elements in Australia. There are no 
 hostile races there, as in Canada; there are no unreason¬ 
 able antipathies towards America, to make us profess what 
 we do not feel; and least of all, is there any temptation 
 
208 FREEDOM AND INDEPENDENCE FOR 
 
 in the Australian colonies to the folly of annexation , in 
 the Canadian sense of the phrase. We love England as 
 warmly as Mr. Wakefield can wish us to do, and from our 
 inmost hearts we will ever pray for her prosperity; but 
 we cherish at the same time that generous and manly 
 desire of national independence, which God and nature 
 have implanted in our breasts. 
 
 Mr. Wakefield has also fallen into a serious mistake in 
 considering “the attachment of colonies to their mother- 
 country a peculiarity of colonies, as distinguished from 
 dependencies in general, which furnishes a reason for 
 wishing that they should belong to the Empire.” On the 
 contrary, it furnishes no such reason whatever, but the 
 very reverse. The British subject who goes to any of the 
 other dependencies Mr. Wakefield speaks of—to the East 
 or West Indies, for example; to Ceylon; to the Mauri¬ 
 tius ; to Hongkong, Singapore or Labuan ; to Aden, St. 
 Helena, the Bermudas, Gibraltar, Malta, or Heligoland — 
 uniformly carries his patria, or country, along with him, 
 in imagination , and returns to it in reality, as soon as he 
 can ; never for one moment seeking for another patria or 
 country in any of these dependencies. But the British 
 colonist, properly so called, leaves his patria, or native 
 country, for ever, and seeks for another patria, or adopted 
 country, in the land of his emigration.* It must be ob¬ 
 vious, therefore, that Mr. Wakefield’s wish that those 
 colonies, in which hundreds of thousands of his fellow- 
 countrymen have actually found the patria, or country, 
 they were in search of, when they left their native land, 
 “should belong to the empire,” rather than the other de¬ 
 pendencies in which there can be no such patria either 
 sought for or found, is, to say the least of it, somewhat 
 unreasonable. 
 
 * This is the remarkably appropriate language in which emigra¬ 
 tion and colonisation are uniformly described by the ancients: “Nos 
 PATRIAM fugimus — patriam qucerentes.” — Virg. “ Causa relin- 
 qtjendi QtLERENDiQUE patriam.” — Seneca, as quoted above. 
 
THE GOLDEN LANDS OF AUSTRALIA. 209 
 
 If these principles are well founded — and I challenge 
 all and sundry to prove that they are not — it follows 
 that much, if not the whole, of what we are in the daily 
 habit of hearing from all quarters, as to the benefits and 
 blessings of “ belonging to the British Empire,” in the 
 sense of being mere dependencies of that empire, and of 
 being governed as such, is the sheerest cant and the 
 grossest delusion. Nay, it is a mere artifice of the 
 devil, to extend and perpetuate human misery, by setting 
 men’s minds and hearts against the adoption of those 
 beautiful and perfect arrangements, which the All-wise 
 and beneficent Creator has established, for the welfare 
 and advancement of society in this lower world. 
 
 So far, indeed, from the British government of the colo¬ 
 nies, properly so called, having ever been either a benefit 
 or a blessing to these colonies, it has uniformly, and with¬ 
 out one solitary exception, been the bane and the curse 
 of the colonies, from the time when the first of them was 
 planted, under that Solomon of his age, King James the 
 First, to the present hour. And if it has been “destruc¬ 
 tive” to the best interests of the colonies, as Heeren testifies 
 it has, it has been infinitely worse for the mother-country 
 herself. With a virgin soil and a propitious sky, with a 
 luxurious climate and a country of boundless resources, 
 we colonists can struggle on, even under the worst go¬ 
 vernment, and prosper notwithstanding. But—to take 
 a single instance of the genuine domestic effects of this 
 lust of empire, on the part of Great Britain, this grasping 
 at the shadow and losing the substance, this virtual stop¬ 
 page of the healthful perennial stream of emigration that 
 would otherwise have flowed from an overcrowded coun¬ 
 try for two centuries and a half,—what can you do, in 
 your present circumstances, ye poor needlewomen of Eng¬ 
 land ? Instead of pining in the hopeless wretchedness of 
 your cheerless lot, ye might, every one of you, had Great 
 Britain only discharged her proper duty to herself, and to 
 you, in the matter of colonization, have been the happy 
 
210 
 
 FREEDOM AND INDEPENDENCE FOR 
 
 mothers of hopeful children in the colonies; and your 
 sons and your daughters would have been extending our 
 noble language, our equitable laws, our free institutions, 
 and our Protestant religion over every continent and 
 every isle. 
 
 Section IV. — Evidences of the Author’s Credibility as a 
 
 Witness, in regard to the actual Condition of the Aus¬ 
 tralian Colonies. 
 
 As every effort that self-interest and malignity can de¬ 
 vise will be made, for obvious reasons, by my political 
 opponents in the Australian colonies, to damage my 
 reputation in England, and thereby to throw discredit 
 on my representations of the actual state of things, and 
 especially of the state of public opinion in New South 
 Wales, I am virtually obliged — for the sake of the good 
 cause with which I have the honour to be identified as a 
 tribune of the people — to submit to the reader, what I 
 should otherwise have willingly withheld, the few following 
 particulars, as to my own standing and acceptance with the 
 colonists, as the author and advocate of the opinions ad¬ 
 vanced in this work. For if I am the very questionable and 
 unworthy character I have been represented to be, on the 
 faith of letters from New South Wales , in certain British 
 periodicals, my statements ought to have no weight with a 
 discerning public, and even my arguments should be re¬ 
 ceived with suspicion. It is characteristic of the line of 
 procedure I have followed for years past, to awaken 
 the fiercest hostilities, as well as the strongest attach¬ 
 ments ; and any man must have formed a very fallacious 
 estimate of human nature, if he supposes that he can pub¬ 
 licly call in question the craft by which whole classes of 
 men have their wealth, in the work of deceiving and pillag¬ 
 ing society, with impunity. Although, therefore, I might 
 leave the arguments of this work, in favour of the view 
 of colonial government I have been advocating, to work 
 
THE GOLDEN LANDS OF AUSTRALIA. 211 
 
 their way with the public, it is prudent at all events, if 
 not absolutely necessary, to prevent their being subjected 
 beforehand to any disparaging and damaging influence 
 from the quarters I have indicated. 
 
 It cannot, therefore, but be regarded as a very signifi¬ 
 cant indication of the state of public feeling in New South 
 Wales, in the years 1850 and 1851, that nothing — at 
 least nothing to speak of—should have been contributed 
 from that colony to the Great Exhibition ! The Local 
 Government attempted indeed to get up the steam on the 
 subject— doubtless with a view to stand well themselves 
 with the authorities at home — but without effect. The 
 compartment of New South Wales, the oldest and largest 
 of the Australian colonies, and the one whose produc¬ 
 tions are the most diversified, remained empty during 
 the Exhibition ! The fact was, that the colony had been 
 so scandalously used by the Home Government for years 
 previous, chiefly through the artifice and trickery of the 
 Colonial Office on the convict question, that it had be¬ 
 come completely disgusted ; and it therefore took no 
 interest in the Great Exhibition, and contributed literally 
 nothing to the World’s Show ! Whether it is either politic 
 or safe for statesmen to disregard such moods of mind 
 in a whole people I leave the reader to determine. In 
 my view, they are somewhat like the settled sullen calm 
 that precedes a storm. 
 
 But although New South Wales contributed nothing to 
 the Great Exhibition in London, all the world knows that 
 it had a Great Exhibition of its own in the meantime, and 
 one which is likely to have much more important results 
 to mankind than even the one in London. In these cir¬ 
 cumstances certain ultra-loyal people —public functiona¬ 
 ries of course—considering the discovery of gold a fit and 
 proper occasion for getting up a public demonstration of 
 loyalty towards Her Majesty, doubtless for their own 
 glorification, proposed to have a Royal diadem of Aus¬ 
 tralian gold constructed by subscription, to be forwarded 
 
212 
 
 FREEDOM AND INDEPENDENCE FOR 
 
 as a present to Her Majesty. Preliminary meetings 
 were accordingly held in Sydney, and a provisional com¬ 
 mittee appointed to carry out the design, with the usual 
 appendages of a chairman, secretary, and treasurer. But 
 the grand Parliamentary Sham of 1850, facetiously called 
 “ An Act for the better government of the Australian colo¬ 
 nies,” having in the meantime arrived in New South Wales; 
 and the infamous Electoral Act of the Local Council, which 
 deprived one-half of the colony of its proper share in the 
 representation, having just been passed, the colonial public, 
 rightly conceiving that, in such circumstances, public 
 demonstrations of loyalty to Her Majesty would be inter¬ 
 preted as an approval of the procedure of Her ministers 
 and Parliament, as well as of the local rulers, the proposal 
 was groaned upon at a Public Meeting held for the pur¬ 
 pose in Sydney, and the idea had consequently to be 
 abandoned; the only memorial that remained of the move¬ 
 ment being the soubriquet of Diadem W, which attached 
 itself to its author. The affair, it may be said, was not 
 of much importance in itself, but it had nevertheless con¬ 
 siderable political significance; and the intelligent reader 
 will doubtless infer from it that the people who can act in 
 this way are not to be trifled with. 
 
 These feelings of bitterness towards Her Majesty’s 
 Government have been prodigiously enhanced and aggra¬ 
 vated by the obstinacy of Earl Grey in persisting in the 
 continuance of transportation to Van Dieman’s Land, in 
 the face of the repeated protests and remonstrances of 
 the vast majority of the reputable inhabitants of all the 
 Eastern Colonies. The Port Phillip branch of the Great 
 Anti-Transportation League having sent home as their 
 delegate, in the year 1851, John C. King, Esq., recently 
 Town Clerk in the City of Melbourne, to advocate their 
 interests in this important matter with the Government and 
 the public, Mr. King had, up to the period of my leaving 
 the colony, obtained no satisfaction on the subject from 
 
THE GOLDEN LANDS OP AUSTRALIA. 213 
 
 Earl Grey, and the colonists were accordingly exceedingly 
 exasperated.* 
 
 * It appears that Mr. King has since sent out a printed Minute 
 of his interview on this question with Earl Grey, with his lordship’s 
 observations on the occasion corrected by himself, intimating his 
 fixed determination to continue transportation to Van Dieman’s Land. 
 A general meeting of the New South Wales branch of the League 
 was accordingly held in Sydney, to take the subject into considera¬ 
 tion, on the 8th of April last, and the following is the leading article 
 of The Empire, a Liberal daily paper, published in Sydney on the 
 9th April, commenting on the proceedings. The pervading idea of 
 the meeting was evidently that of “ cutting the painter: ” — 
 
 “ The League Meeting. 
 
 “ The report of the important public meeting held on Tuesday 
 evening, which we published yesterday, will be read both in the 
 colonies and in England with more than usual interest. The great 
 event of our gold discovery has had the effect already of exciting 
 public attention in the mother-country, to an extent not yet appre¬ 
 ciated on this side of the ocean, to every passing circumstance in 
 which we are actors. Eyes that never looked in this direction be¬ 
 fore, are now calmly surveying the changeful character of Aus¬ 
 tralian society, and the far fields of enterprise and fortune which 
 are opening in the southern hemisphere. The better class of men 
 throughout Great Britain, who may have in contemplation the 
 adoption of this country as their home and their children’s heritage, 
 will wisely look to the moral aspect of the people with whom they 
 are to cast their household lot for the future. Such men — men of 
 sterling worth and character—would be slow in yielding to the 
 temptation of gold, if coupled with social degradation. The tradi¬ 
 tionary pitch which yet sticks to our whispered name, with the 
 craven spirit of a degenerate race, would make even a mine of 
 gold loathsome and intolerable to minds enamoured of honour and 
 liberty. The spirit of Tuesday’s meeting will he to British emi¬ 
 grants an assurance that the Anglo-Saxon breast has not grown 
 effeminate under a warmer sun. The spirit was worthy of the 
 parent stock, and equal to the high and enduring interests which 
 render so sacred this hard-fought cause. 
 
 “ If we employ the word ‘ respectable ’ to represent the property 
 as well as the intelligence of a community, the late meeting was 
 thoroughly respectable. We do not remember any similar public 
 
214 
 
 FREEDOM AND INDEPENDENCE FOR 
 
 In regard to the Constitutional Act of 1850, the fol¬ 
 lowing was the comment of a highly influential Colonial 
 
 demonstration, more fairly representing the different classes of 
 society. Many gentlemen, moving in our more retired circles, 17110 
 have hitherto abstained from mingling in these anti-transportation 
 excitements, were, on this last occasion, brought into immediate 
 association with the old friends of the cause, by the intensified in¬ 
 terest which the whole question now presents. The sobriety and 
 earnestness which characterised the proceedings, were not less re¬ 
 markable than the general respectability of the audience. The 
 unanimity was perfect. Not a single hand was raised against any 
 of the resolutions; not a murmur of disapprobation met any of the 
 bold expressions of the speakers. On the contrary, every resolution 
 was carried amidst a general burst of applause; and the sentiments 
 of resistance, uttered by each successive speaker, were again and again 
 responded to, by increased enthusiasm. The feeling of the meeting 
 might be read in every countenance—that feeling could not be mis¬ 
 interpreted. It was that which, once awakened by injustice, cannot 
 be stifled by power — once lighted in a community oppressed, can 
 never be extinguished except by the hands of liberty. The fea¬ 
 tures of levity and confusion common to most popular meetings, 
 were wholly absent; the business seemed to be, as it ought to be, a 
 personal affair to all. 
 
 “ At this numerous, influential, and earnest meeting, convened by 
 public announcement in the largest city of the Australian colonies, 
 where any man could attend, and express his own sentiments or his 
 dissent from those of any other man—at this meeting the Secretary 
 of State is plainly told—for the first time in serious earnestness — 
 that the colonists, rather than surrender their rights in this struggle, 
 will ‘ cut the painter,’ and drift away from the mother-country in their 
 frail bark of freedom. And the Venerable Archdeacon, who spoke 
 these words, was stopped by the meeting with ‘ tremendous cheering.’ 
 This ‘cutting of the painter’ was the master-thought—the all per¬ 
 vading idea, running its electric light through the varied tissues of every 
 speech, and diffusing its influences like a moral atmosphere round that 
 congregated body. The determined spirit thus manifested is the true 
 spirit; and we do not anticipate that it will be lightly regarded, 
 even by the perverse and relentless author of our wrongs. To the 
 struggling colonists of Van Dieman’s Land last Tuesday’s proceed¬ 
 ings will impart new strength in their work of patriotism. They, 
 at all events, will not throw away the moral lesson which such pro¬ 
 ceedings teach.” 
 
THE GOLDEN LANDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
 
 215 
 
 Journal on that measure, on the 9th of April, 1851, immedi¬ 
 ately before the passing of the Electoral Act of the late 
 Legislative Council, which was passed professedly to carry 
 out the provisions of the Constitutional Act, and to bring 
 it into operation : — 
 
 “ In the first number of this paper ( The Press ) we stated 
 it as our opinion, that if New South Wales Proper had 
 stood alone at present, the proper course for the Legis¬ 
 lative Council to have taken in the matter would perhaps 
 have been to have treated the new Constitutional Act, or 
 Government Sham, exactly as their Honours the Judges 
 usually treat the criminal who has been found guilty of 
 some capital offence, —viz. to have caused the said Act * to 
 be taken back to the place from whence it came, and there 
 
 It appears from a still more recent paper, The Empire of the 6th 
 May, 1852, that this desire of entire freedom and national indepen¬ 
 dence has been becoming stronger and more prevalent in the colony 
 from day to day, as the following extract from that paper -will 
 
 show: — 
 
 “ It will be remembered that some two years ago a League was 
 talked of, in certain quarters, for the whole of the Australasian 
 colonies, by which they were to be ushered into birth as one nation 
 having its prospective independence in view. The idea was borrowed 
 from the constitution of the provinces which subsequently became 
 the thirteen United States of America. To this scheme, no one is 
 ignorant, there were loud objections, attended with opprobrium. 
 But, strange to say, that very idea, then so offensive to some people, is 
 nowfamiliar to all ears—runs through public meetings like an electric 
 stream, and that without the remotest agency or influence of the 
 party who first struck out the spark, only, as it appeared, to see it 
 quenched. The spark has been struck out again by the hand of 
 Government—the Imperial Government chiefly. To change the 
 figure — a charmed wand has been employed by our very Govern¬ 
 ment to reveal objects in new and wondrous shapes. We have 
 learned, by the aid of this talisman, in two years, not only to tole¬ 
 rate the idea of the monster of frightful mien, but to think of him as 
 a possibly pleasant companion. We do not positively wish for his 
 presence, but we will vastly prefer him to the Giant Convictism. 
 
 ‘ We will have independence of England rather than convictism : ’ 
 this is in every mouth not sold to sycophancy.” 
 
216 
 
 FREEDOM AND INDEPENDENCE FOR 
 
 (in Downing Street) to be hanged by the neck, till it be 
 dead, dead, dead!’—Earl Grey and Lord John Russell 
 to be witnesses of the fact. In short, as a gross outrage 
 upon the common sense of this colony, as a virtual denial 
 of our rights as freemen and Britons, the Act in question 
 deserves no other treatment at our hands; and both the 
 Legislature and the community would be lost to all proper 
 feeling of self-respect, if some such expression of opinion 
 should not be given forth on the subject. 
 
 “But, unfortunately, we do not stand alone in this 
 matter. Our Port Phillip friends are still rowing in the 
 same boat with us; and as this Act will enable us to give 
 them the boon they have been calling for so loudly for 
 years past,—viz., ‘ Separation and the management of their 
 own affairs,’ — we are bound, on the principle of doing to 
 others as we wish they should do to us, to receive and 
 carry out the Imperial Act, and to give them their Tickets- 
 of-leave in due form. 
 
 “ But, as we have already observed in a former article, 
 bad as the New Constitutional Act is, it has two redeem¬ 
 ing qualities that would still prevent our unconditional 
 rejection of it, independently of the case of Port Phillip 
 altogether. The New Act lowers the Elective Franchise 
 to Ten Pounds, and leaves the distribution of the repre¬ 
 sentation under that franchise entirely in our own hands. 
 For our own part, strong as our opinions are on the subject 
 of the franchise, we consider the latter of these privileges 
 of far greater importance to us at present than the former; 
 for even if the franchise were lowered to Universal Suffrage 
 itself, what would this avail us if, in the exercise of that 
 political legerdemain in which the firm of Thomson and 
 Co. are such adept proficients, we should have such an 
 artful shuffling of the political cards as to throw the great 
 bulk of the representation into the hands of a mere frac¬ 
 tion of the population?” 
 
 As a member of the late Legislative Council of New 
 South Wales, I was doing my utmost at the time when 
 
THE GOLDEN LANDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
 
 217 
 
 these remarks were published, viz., in the month of April, 
 1851, to obtain for the people a fair and honourable ap¬ 
 portionment of the representation of the colony, on the 
 basis of population and property combined, agreeably to 
 what I conceived and maintained was the spirit and in¬ 
 tention of the Act of Parliament. But the Local Govern¬ 
 ment and their standing majority decided it otherwise, and 
 the leading features of their unprincipled Act were ac¬ 
 cordingly characterised as follows in the same colonial 
 journal of the 14th May following: — 
 
 “ The people of this colony were almost to a man dis¬ 
 appointed and dissatisfied with the New Constitutional 
 Act of last session of Parliament, — still, however, they 
 were willing that it should be honestly carried out, and 
 that the experiment it proposed should be fairly and fully 
 tried; more especially, as it conceded two points of real 
 importance to this community, by reducing the elective 
 franchise to ten pounds, and by leaving the distribution 
 and apportionment of the representation in the hands of 
 the colonists themselves, through their representatives in 
 council assembled. But the thoroughly unprincipled men 
 into whose hands the rights and interests of the people 
 have unfortunately been committed for the present, under 
 the wretched constitution of the expiring council, have, 
 at the bidding, and under the leadership of that crafty old 
 fox, the Colonial Secretary, — that superlatively ungrate¬ 
 ful man, whose bread the people of this colony have been 
 buttering on both sides these many years, at the enormous 
 rate of 1500/. a-year, but who has thus betrayed and sold 
 hem at last, — concocted a system of representation which 
 effectually robs a large proportion of the inhabitants of 
 •he colony of all the advantages they might otherwise have 
 lerived from these redeeming clauses of the Parliamen- 
 ary Act, and which, by conjuring into existence a mere 
 nock-representation for the remote and thinly inhabited 
 listricts of the colony — a representation which will be 
 mtirely under the leading-strings of an unprincipled exe- 
 L 
 
218 FREEDOM AND INDEPENDENCE FOR 
 
 cutive, and its host of lickspittle and contemptible no¬ 
 minees— will virtually subject a large portion of the 
 colony to taxation without representation, and fix upon it 
 the brand of political degradation. We allude, of course, 
 to that piece of monstrous and shameless political villainy 
 — the concoction of the Thomson, Wentworth, and Do-; 
 naldson Socialist clique — which consists in allotting only 
 six elective members to that portion of the colony which 
 contains upwards of three-eighths of its entire population, 
 intelligence, wealth, and enterprise, while the remaining 
 five-eighths are to be honoured with thirty! 
 
 “ Fellow-Colonists, this is an injury, to which, 
 
 IF YOU HAVE ANY REGARD FOR YOUR OWN INTERESTS AS 
 
 British colonists, you will never submit : it is an 
 
 INSULT, WHICH, IF YOU ARE NOT UTTERLY DEVOID OF 
 
 British spirit, you will never consent to bear. 
 
 “Instead, therefore, of waiting patiently until you are 
 driven into the polling-booths, like sheep into a Went¬ 
 worth squatting pen, to vote for the members allowed you 
 under the new Electoral Act, our advice to you, and we 
 give it calmly and deliberately, is simply to do everything 
 in your power either to prevent that infamous Act from 
 ever coming into operation, or to enable us to get rid of 
 it as soon as possible if it does. And there is much that 
 may be done in this way — much to advance the cause of 
 public freedom — without proceeding to the ne plus ultra 
 of physical force. There are cases, indeed, in which the 
 resort to physical force in defence of men’s rights is un¬ 
 questionably justifiable— cases in which the right of re¬ 
 sistance is acknowledged by the ablest and best of men. 
 Listen to what is said on the subject by that great man, 
 Oliver Cromwell — ‘You say,’ he observes, in his letter 
 to Colonel Hammond, then Governor of the Isle of Wight, 
 you say, £ God hath appointed authorities among the na¬ 
 tions, to which obedience is to be yielded. This resides; 
 in the Parliament, &e. But I do not therefore think the 
 authorities may do anything., and yet such obedience be 
 
THE GOLDEN LANDS OF AUSTRALIA. 219 
 
 due. All agree that there are cases in which it is lawful 
 to resist' 
 
 “And what is the case before us? Why, it is that of 
 a body delegated by Act of Parliament to distribute and 
 apportion the representation of this colony among its 
 actual inhabitants, agreeably to the principles of the Bri¬ 
 tish Constitution, that is in proportion to its population 
 and property ; but who, in utter defiance of that Consti¬ 
 tution, have allotted only six members to three-eighths of 
 the population and property of the whole colony, and 
 thirty members to the remaining five-eighths! This, 
 therefore, is clearly one of the cases in which it is lawful 
 for the people to resist the constituted authorities — if 
 they choose, and if they can. The colonists have as clear 
 a right, under the Act of Parliament, to resist such an un¬ 
 principled attempt to deprive them of their just rights in 
 the representation of the colony, as they have to resist a 
 company of burglars attempting to break into their houses 
 ay night. ‘ He that steals my purse steals trash,’ says the 
 aoet, but he that robs me of my just rights as a citizen 
 ind a freeman, is a robber indeed, and deserves to be 
 :reated as such by all honest men. 
 
 “But we have other authority than that of Cromwell to 
 ippeal to in favour of the rights of resistance in such a 
 case as the one before us. ‘ If the feudal aristocracy,’ 
 >ays M. Guizot, the able but unfortunate minister of the 
 ate Louis Philippe, King of the French, ‘If the feudal 
 iristocracy took part in the development of nations, it 
 .vas by struggling against royal tyranny, by exercising 
 lie rights of resistance , and by maintaining the maxims 
 >f liberty.’”— Guizot, Hist, de la Revol. d’Angleterre. 
 
 Strong as this language may be supposed to be, it is in 
 cerfect accordance with the language of the friends of 
 reedom in all past ages. “ Although, in a constituted com- 
 nonwealth,” observes the celebrated John Locke, in his 
 issay on Government, “ standing upon its own basis, and 
 
220 FREEDOM AND INDEPENDENCE FOR 
 
 acting according to its own nature, that is, acting for the 
 preservation of the community, there can be but one su¬ 
 preme power, which is the legislature, to which all the rest 
 are and must be subordinate; yet the legislature being 
 only a fiduciary powei', to act for certain ends, there re¬ 
 mains still, in the people, a supreme power to remove or 
 alter the legislature, when they find the legislature act con¬ 
 trary to the trust reposed in them. For all power given, 
 with trust for the attaining an end, whenever that end 
 is manifestly neglected or opposed, the trust must neces¬ 
 sarily be forfeited, and the power devolve into the hands 
 of those who gave it, who may place it anew where they 
 shall think best for their safety and security.”* 
 
 “I rejoice,” exclaimed Lord Chatham, “that the 
 Americans have resisted. Three million subjects of the' 
 British Empire, so dead to any generous impulse as to 
 submit their necks to such a yoke, would be fit instru¬ 
 ments to make slaves of the rest.” But let it be remem¬ 
 bered— the Americans never had grounds of resistance to 
 be compared for one moment with those of the present 
 colonists of Australia. 
 
 At the General Election for the New Council that en¬ 
 sued in the month of September 1851, my unsuccessful 
 efforts on behalf of the people in the Old Council were not 
 forgotten; as the following account of the Declaration of 
 the Poll, at the City Election, from the Empire, a Sydney 
 Daily Paper, of the 18th September, 1851, will sufficiently 
 show: — 
 
 “ Yesterday afternoon (17th Sept. 1851), at four o’clock, 
 a great number of the citizens assembled before the 
 hustings in Macquarie Place, for the purpose of hearing 
 the official declaration of the poll taken the previous day. 
 
 “ The Right Worshipful the Mayor said, it was now his 
 duty to declare to them the result of the polling yesterday, 
 which differed only in a trifling degree with the announce- 
 
 * Locke on Government, book ii. 
 
THE GOLDEN LANDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
 
 221 
 
 ment he had made at the Town Hall on the previous 
 evening. The votes polled for each candidate were as 
 follows: — 
 
 “ For the Rev. Dr. Lang 
 
 1191 
 
 1015 
 
 991 
 
 900 
 
 870 
 
 John Lamb, Esq. (R. N.) 
 
 William Charles Wentworth, Esq. 
 Alexander Longmore, Esq. 
 Charles Cowper, Esq. - 
 
 He therefore certified to them, and declared the Rev. John 
 Dunmore Lang, John Lamb, Esq., and William Charles 
 Wentworth, Esq., duly elected to represent the City of 
 Sydney in the Legislative Council. He begged to con¬ 
 gratulate his fellow-citizens on the peaceful and orderly 
 manner in which the election had been conducted. It was 
 i circumstance highly creditable to them, and worthy of 
 being held up as an example to the whole world. (Cheers.) 
 He would now call upon the Reverend Dr. Lang to address 
 :he meeting. 
 
 “The Rev. Dr. Lang, M.C., then came forward amidst 
 inthusiastic and long-continued cheering. He said, lie 
 leartily congratulated them on the result of the present 
 election, not because of any merit personally inherent 
 n himself, as having led to the gratifying result, but be¬ 
 muse it was the triumph of those liberal principles which 
 ,vere the glory of the age in which we live—the hope of 
 ong oppressed and suffering humanity. (Loud cheers.) 
 This election had not turned at all upon the question of 
 ransportation. The real pivot on which it turned was the 
 nfamous Electoral Act. (Cheers.) The members re- 
 ;urned had been returned because of the strong opinions 
 which a large majority of the electors had taken up upon 
 hat question. He disclaimed all idea of any personal 
 merit in himself as having led to the result; he felt that 
 le owed his election entirely to the fact that he had identi- 
 ied himself thoroughly with those principles of political 
 reedom which they desired to see applied in all these colo- 
 
222 
 
 FREEDOM AND INDEPENDENCE FOR 
 
 nies. (Cheers.) They were all aware that within the last 
 few months the local government had been entrusted with 
 the transcendantly important duty of establishing a consti¬ 
 tution for this territory on the basis of the Act of Parlia¬ 
 ment which had been sent out for that purpose. During 
 the progress of the Constitutional Act, he (Dr. Lang) had 
 repeatedly but vainly entreated the Colonial Secretary as 
 the mouth-piece of the government, as the mainspring of 
 the measure, to do justice to all classes of the population, 
 and to make a proper distribution of the representation 
 among those who were entitled to the franchise; and he! 
 had predicted, at the time, that all those concerned in the 
 concocting of the infamous Electoral Bill would suffer a 
 heavy punishment sooner or later. (Loud cheers.) They 
 were well aware that on that occasion, the Local Govern¬ 
 ment, acting through the Colonial Secretary, had con¬ 
 cocted a system of representation which he could only 
 designate as a downright fraud upon the electors. (Vo¬ 
 ciferous cheering.) A countryman of his own, arguing, 
 on this very subject with a native of the sister isle, asked 
 if one man was not as good as another? ‘Yes,’ replied 
 the Irishman, ‘ and a great dale better.’ (Loud laughter.) 
 Now he (Dr. L.) did not go quite so far as the Irishman 
 (laughter) in this matter. He would confine himself to 
 the positive degree. But he maintained, without fear of 
 contradiction, that any one man entitled to the elective 
 franchise was just as good as any other man. (Cheers.), 
 This was the principle on which the present election had 
 turned. The Colonial Secretary had been the mainspring 
 of the Electoral Bill, as far as the Government was con¬ 
 cerned ; but feeling his inability to carry that measure 
 himself, he had looked about him for an accomplice (cheers 
 and laughter), and he was fortunate enough to find one in 
 a quarter in which one would not have expected such a 
 character—namely, in the honourable and learned mem¬ 
 ber, his present colleague. (Laughter and cheers.) And 
 agreeably to the system concocted between them, they 
 
THE GOLDEN LANDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
 
 223 
 
 had established it as a rule, that 14,700 inhabitants of 
 the City of Sydney, 8000 inhabitants of the Hamlets, and 
 11,000 inhabitants of the County of Cumberland, were no 
 better than 1400 or 1500 inhabitants of the outskirts of the 
 colony, 600 or 700 miles off! (Groans.) Now he appealed 
 to them — but they had yesterday decided the matter — 
 that this was nothing but a gross outrage on the common 
 sense as well as on the rights of the citizens of Sydney. 
 Their decision yesterday was emphatically a sentence of 
 condemnation on those who would defraud them of their 
 just rights. (Cheers.) The result afforded a melancholy 
 spectacle, he must acknowledge. The man whose towering 
 talent would have given him the most pre-eminent station 
 in the colony, had he stuck to their interests and to his own 
 duty, — whose distinguished intellectual qualities ought to 
 have ensured him that station to the latest day of his exist¬ 
 ence ; he who should have been the leader, the virtual 
 dictator of his country, presented now the melancholy 
 spectacle of coming in third best. (Cheers.) Nay, gentle¬ 
 men, he may be thankful to the diggings for being in at 
 all (cheers); for if the 1001 of his (Dr. L.’s) countrymen, 
 instead of going to the gold mines, had remained to dis¬ 
 charge their duties as electors — (mind, he did not say 
 which was of the greatest importance), they would have 
 said to him in the very broadest Scotch, ‘ Ye’ll gang nae 
 mair till yon toun.’ (Laughter and loud cheers.) He 
 repeated it: the people of this metropolitan city had 
 pronounced in the most unmistakeable manner, and in the 
 most intelligible language, a sentence of condemnation on 
 all concerned in getting up this infamous Act—they, the 
 people of a city which would shortly be second to none in 
 importance and influence on the face of the earth. The 
 tidings of this sentence of condemnation on all concerned 
 in this case of public fraud would come like a thunder¬ 
 clap on the Colonial Executive. But the tidings had fallen 
 with heaviest effect on that false old crone, My Grannie O ! 
 No wonder she was hurt, no wonder she raved, as she saw 
 that the days of fiddle faddle and of the Sydney Morning 
 
224 FREEDOM AND INDEPENDENCE FOR 
 
 Herald were ended ! She found that it was men, and no 
 mistake! and not scarecrovVs, that would henceforth be 
 sent to represent the people. But it was proper to say 
 nothing of the dead; and he would therefore say nothing 
 more about the Sydney Herald. (Laughter.) The prac¬ 
 tical effect of this sentence of condemnation on the framers 
 of the Electoral Act was, that that Act must be amended, 
 and amended forthwith. (Cheers.) One of the first 
 duties of the New Council would be to amend that Act, 
 and he was sure his honourable and gallant colleague, who 
 had been sent into Council on this occasion, would hold 
 himself equally bound with him to obtain an immediate 
 amendment of the Electoral Act, The constituencies of 
 Sydney, of the Hamlets, and of the County of Cumber¬ 
 land, were determined to have justice done them as soon 
 as possible. The other anomalous constituencies had been 
 called into existence for the express purpose of giving the 
 Government a larger power than the Act of Parliament 
 contemplated, in the manufacture of Crown nominees. 
 But they would spare no exertions to do away, as speedily 
 as possible, with this sham and mockery. Only when 
 justice was done them in this matter, could they hope to 
 obtain responsible government. If they had responsible 
 government, no doubt the prime mover in this infamous 
 business, the honourable the Colonial Secretary, would 
 have to march out of his place, and make way for some 
 abler and better man. (Cheers.) Not that he (Dr. L.) 
 would let him down completely and suddenly — he vrould 
 do so gradually and gently — for instance, he would offer 
 him the Professorship of Bunkum in that notable abortion, 
 the Sydney University. (Laughter and cheers.) He 
 congratulated his fellow-citizens on the position which the 
 city had taken up as the political heart of the whole 
 Australian group. They knew it was essential to the right 
 action of the body, that the centre of the system should 
 be healthy. The heart of the colony was in healthy 
 condition, and the blood it would send into the limbs and 
 
THE GOLDEN LANDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
 
 225 
 
 branches of the other colonies would infuse new life into 
 the whole political system. Personally, he thanked them 
 for the certificate of character which they had given him, 
 and which he doubted not would serve a future purpose, 
 not only in the colony, but in England, if 4 should be his 
 fate once more to go home. They were all aware of his 
 efforts to arouse public feeling at home, in order to obtain 
 justice for the colonists of the empire generally; but in 
 making those efforts he had aroused the wrath of the Colo¬ 
 nial Office against himself. The certificate of character 
 given him by the city of Sydney would, however, enable 
 him, in the phrase of military men, to open the trenches 
 before Downing Street itself, and its committee of inca- 
 pables (laughter), and ultimately, he trusted, to carry the 
 place by storm. (Loud cheers.) He recollected that 
 some time after his election for the city last year, some 
 comments had appeared in the London Daily News, 
 stating that his election had been accidental, and that the 
 constituency took no part in the extreme views he held, 
 particularly as to the right of a colony to entire freedom 
 and independence (loud cheers), so soon as it was able and 
 willing to manage its own affairs. lie had risked his pre¬ 
 sent election, and he knew that he risked it, on a strong 
 expression of this opinion. It was from no feeling of dis¬ 
 loyalty that he professed these opinions. God forbid that 
 he should feel disrespect for the authorities of the old 
 fatherland! No one entertained higher sentiments of 
 respect and regard than he did towards Her Majesty the 
 3ueen and her royal consort. He contemplated with the 
 greatest pleasure the domestic felicity of that happy family 
 — a family which uniformly set a virtuous example to all 
 wound them, which he deeply regretted was not always 
 mitated in the colonies. (Cheers.) But whilst he yielded 
 to no man in respect, in veneration for the constituted 
 ruthorities of the mother-country, he would never hesitate 
 l .o express his conviction of the right of any colony of the 
 Crown, as soon as it could stand on its own legs, to entire 
 
226 FREEDOM AND INDEPENDENCE FOR 
 
 freedom and independence. If Great Britain had acted 
 on this principle towards America, she would have saved 
 150,000,000/. of her treasure; she would have spared the 
 spilling of much of the best of her blood, and prevented 
 those feelings .of alienation and hatred which prevailed 
 and would still prevail between the two nations. He. held 
 that a common language, a common literature, a common 
 law, and a common religion, constituted an infinitely 
 stronger and more binding tie than those which kept them 
 now under the domination of Downing Street; and when¬ 
 ever the day came when they should have a flag of their 
 own — (cheers) — floating over the splendid series of colo¬ 
 nies founded in Australia, he felt confident that Great 
 Britain would rejoice with them and say, ‘ Many daughters 
 have done virtuously, but thou, Australia, hast excelled 
 them all!’ (Immense cheering.)” 
 
 W. C. Wentworth, Esq., barrister, a native of the 
 colony, of supereminent talents, but of questionable prin¬ 
 ciples, had always stood highest on the poll before, 
 against all rivals; but as he was supposed at the late 
 election to have sold himself to the Government, by 
 voting as he did for their Electoral Bill, he was left by 
 the indignant citizens at the bottom. As a large number 
 of the middle and industrious classes of the inhabitants 
 of Sydney were absent at the time at the gold mines, one 
 of the two seats for the extensive agricultural county of 
 Durham was kept open till after the election in Sydney, 
 that I might be returned for that county, if thrown out 
 in the capital. I had also been requested to become 
 a candidate for the counties of Northumberland and 
 Hunter, and was promised extensive and active support 
 if I did. I was proposed, without my own previous know¬ 
 ledge, for the united counties of Brisbane, Bligh, and 
 Phillip, and continued an involuntary candidate, till after 
 the Sydney election *: and I was invited to become a 
 
 * When the Sydney election was as yet undecided, a, paper, of 
 which the following is a copy, was numerously and most respectably 
 
THE GOLDEN LANDS OF AUSTRALIA. 227 
 
 candidate for the town of Bathurst, in the midst of the 
 gold mines. I happened to visit that district shortly after 
 the election, and experienced a more cordial reception 
 from the miners generally than any other colonist of any 
 rank or class in society had previously met with ; and 
 previous to my leaving the district a public meeting of 
 the miners was held on the plain of Sofala bn the Turon 
 River, of which the following account is extracted from 
 the People s Advocate., a colonial weekly paper of the 
 11th October, 1851 : — 
 
 “Great Public Meeting to address the Rev. Dr. Lang, 
 at the Turon, on Monday, October 6th. 
 
 “ A public meeting took place at Sofala, Turon River, 
 to present an Address of Congratulation to the Rev. Dr. 
 Lang, M. L. C. ; it was numerously and respectably at¬ 
 tended. It being generally known that the honourable 
 and reverend gentleman was about to depart for Bathurst, 
 on Monday morning, a large assemblage of diggers col¬ 
 lected round his quarters, to testify their respect and 
 esteem for his past political conduct, and to intreat him 
 not to desist from urging upon the people the necessity 
 of large and extensive reforms in our Colonial Govern¬ 
 ment until a greater share of public freedom shall be 
 meted out to them. 
 
 “At ten o’clock the meeting assembled in the open air, 
 on the beautiful valley of Sofala, near Burton’s Royal 
 
 Circus. 
 
 “ After the meeting had been constituted and a chair- 
 
 signed by the electors of these counties, and afterwards published in 
 the Sydney papers :— 
 
 ! (Copy.) 
 
 “ w e, the undersigned electors of the United Counties of Brisbane, 
 Bligh, and Phillip, being of opinion that the absence of the Rev. Dr. 
 bang from the Legislative Council would be a severe public calamity, 
 and that such a contingency as his rejection by the constituency of 
 Sydney, although highly improbable, is by no means impossible, 
 hereby determine to exert ourselves to ensure his election for these 
 counties.” 
 
228 FREEDOM AND INDEPENDENCE FOR 
 
 man appointed to preside, the latter, in a concise and 
 appropriate speech introduced the Honourable and Re¬ 
 verend Dr. Lang, M. C. L., to the meeting; who was 
 received with loud cheers. 
 
 “ It was then proposed by Mr. A. M‘Lean, and seconded 
 by Mr. W. Baker, that Mr. Quinn be requested to read 
 the Address which had been prepared by the Turon Gold 
 Miners. 
 
 “ Mr. James Quinn then came forward and read the 
 
 Address to the Rev. John Dunmore Lang, D.D., 
 M.L.C. 
 
 “ ‘ Rev. Sir, — We,the Gold Miners of Sofala, in public 
 meeting assembled, most respectfully and cordially beg 
 to congratulate you on your first visit to the Turon 
 Diggings, after your triumphant return at the head of the 
 poll as Member of the Legislative Council for the City of 
 Sydney. 
 
 “ ‘ Unlike any of the hypocritical leaders of that base 
 and grovelling faction of obstructionists (now fast falling 
 into decay), your name will henceforth be associated with 
 ‘human progress;’ it will be a watchword for liberty; 
 and when your career of usefulness shall have been 
 brought to a close, it will occupy a distinguished place 
 in the history of your adopted country. 
 
 “ ‘ To your immortal honour, you have been the first 
 legislator to promulgate the principles of self-government 
 for this great country, — principles which, from their 
 being based upon equity and the general good of man¬ 
 kind, can never die; but ultimately must preponderate 
 throughout the whole civilized world. Your mission is 
 therefore a noble one, and for this reason we tender you 
 our esteem. You are the Apostle of the Independence 
 of Australia, and this will be the foundation of your 
 future fame. 
 
 “ ‘ In order to become the wealthiest and most powerful 
 state in the southern hemisphere, all we want is — a 
 liberal and enlightened government, willing to advance 
 
THE GOLDEN LANDS OF AUSTRALIA. 229 
 
 with the spirit of the age; we therefore conjure you 
 to use, in every legal and constitutional way, all your 
 interest, which is great, and all those splendid talents 
 which nature has so plentifully endowed you with, to 
 accomplish this grand object. 
 
 “ ‘ We sincerely regret that the limited period of your 
 stay amongst us, precludes the possibility of testifying 
 our acknowledgments in any other way than simply pre¬ 
 senting you with this short address. 
 
 “ ‘ May Divine Providence assist you in all your under¬ 
 takings ; and more particularly, when you shall‘be ne¬ 
 cessitated to wage political hostilities against the enemies 
 of the young nation of Australia I 
 
 “ ‘ When you leave here, you may assure yourself, that 
 you will carry with you our warmest wishes for your 
 welfare; and in whatsoever place you may be, we shall, 
 at all times, learn with supreme satisfaction, that you are 
 surrounded by every comfort which can contribute to 
 render your happiness complete. 
 
 “ ‘ Signed on behalf of the Meeting, 
 
 “ ‘James Quinn, Secretary.’ 
 
 “ The Address was read amidst great demonstrations 
 of applause, after which the chairman said: ‘Reverend 
 Sir, it is now my pleasing duty to present you with 
 a bag of pure virgin gold, which has just been placed in 
 my hands for your acceptance. It was dug out by the 
 miners contiguous to this spot this morning, and it is 
 almost wet from the cradles.’ 
 
 “The reverend gentleman then returned the following 
 reply : — 
 
 “ ‘ Gentlemen,— I cannot but feel exceedingly gratified 
 with the Address which you have now done me the ho¬ 
 nour to present to me, although I am not vain enough to 
 suppose that I can be at all deserving of the very high 
 terms of commendation in which you have been pleased 
 to allude to my past efforts as a member of the Legislative 
 Council of this Colony. 
 
 “ ‘ I have simply studied in that capacity to obtain 
 
230 FREEDOM AND INDEPENDENCE FOR 
 
 political justice for my fellow-colonists, believing that in 
 the attainment of that object, the greatest happiness would 
 infallibly be secured for the greatest number; but con¬ 
 stituted as our Colonial Legislature has hitherto been, 
 and still is, those who follow such a course will always 
 be left in a very small minority (hear, hear). But the 
 result of the late Sydney election has shown that the 
 principles of public freedom, and of the rights of men, 
 are now at length in the ascendant (cheers); for whereas 
 it was the evident and undoubted object of the Local 
 Government, and their standing majority in the late 
 Council, to frame the recently passed Electoral Act so 
 as to swamp the popular element, and throw the repre¬ 
 sentation as much as possible into the hands of the 
 Government, the largest constituency in the colony has 
 pronounced a sentence of condemnation upon the ini¬ 
 quitous proceeding, which cannot fail to be productive 
 of the most important results for the cause of public 
 freedom and general advancement (loud cheers). Gen¬ 
 tlemen, I beg to congratulate you on the recent discovery 
 of gold in this territory, and on the political, as well as 
 the social and economical significance of that wonderful 
 discovery. It will not only prove a source of incalculable 
 wealth to the colony, but ensure to us, at a comparatively 
 early period, a numerous, industrious, and virtuous free 
 immigrant population from our fatherland (hear, hear), 
 and enable us to hold out the right hand of encourage¬ 
 ment to myriads of our unfortunate fellow-countrymen 
 at home, who will now gladly cast in their lot with us in 
 this golden land. And it will not fail to accelerate a 
 consummation, for which, in the ordinary course of human 
 affairs, we must all be prepared, whether we desire it or 
 not, — I mean our entire political freedom and national 
 independence (cheers). Gentlemen, it was -— partly at 
 least — to see with my own eyes this great exhibition, 
 and thereby to have it in my power to offer an intelligent 
 opinion on any question connected with it that may come 
 
THE GOLDEN LANDS OF AUSTRALIA, 231 
 
 before the New Council, that I was induced to visit the 
 gold regions before the opening of the Legislature. I 
 need not say that, from all I have seen, I have been 
 gratified beyond my own highest anticipations; and when 
 I look around me, and see so numerous, so peaceful, and 
 so orderly a community, formed instantaneously, as it 
 were, from such heterogeneous materials, I cannot but feel 
 proud of my adopted country (much cheering), — I can¬ 
 not but anticipate for its inhabitants the highest destiny 
 that can await any people in the whole civilized world 
 (enthusiastic cheers). Gentlemen, I beg to bid you fare¬ 
 well; and while I thank you for the substantial testimo¬ 
 nial which you have presented me, I cannot but feel 
 exceedingly grateful for your kind wishes on my behalf. 
 I beg, in return, you will receive my best wishes for your 
 success, and that of all your fellow labourers, in the im¬ 
 portant enterprise in which you are engaged; and if 
 it should be within the compass of my humble abilities as 
 a member of the Legislative Council to contribute in any 
 way to your comfort and welfare, you may rest assured 
 that no effort will be wanting on my part.’ 
 
 “ When the Rev. gentleman finished his reply, three 
 hearty cheers were given. Some grievances were re¬ 
 ported, in reference to the post-office, and other irregu¬ 
 larities; then the meeting, after seeing the honourable 
 and Rev. Member mount his horse and start for Bathurst, 
 peacefully separated.” 
 
 These expressions of public opinion, to which I should 
 certainly never have adverted had it not been absolutely 
 necessary in order to counteract the influence and effect of 
 whole quires of misrepresentation and falsehood, that will 
 doubtless be transmitted to England respecting myself and 
 my procedure, from the highest places in the colony, will 
 incontestibly prove that the opinions which I have advo¬ 
 cated in this volume, and which I had taken repeated op¬ 
 portunities of advocating in the colony, both in lectures 
 and from the press, for upwards of a twelvemonth before 
 
232 FREEDOM AND INDEPENDENCE FOR 
 
 the discovery of gold in New South Wales, are not those 
 of an insignificant handful of low people, as they will 
 doubtless be represented, from Government House and 
 elsewhere, but those of a large proportion of the intellec¬ 
 tual and moral worth of the Australian community. Let 
 it be remembered by all whom it concerns, that “ the 
 dissensions between the two countries, which afterwards 
 terminated in the dissolution of the British empire in 
 America, were not a little promoted by the pernicious 
 counsels and erroneous information transmitted to the 
 English ministry by the governors of those provinces in 
 which the appointment to that office was exercised by the 
 King.”* 
 
 But I am not singular in holding the opinions I advo¬ 
 cate, as to the inherent and indefeasible right of any 
 community, such as a British colony, able and willing to 
 sustain and protect itself, to declare its entire freedom 
 and independence. The Rev. Dr. Witherspoon, President 
 of the College of Princeton, New Jersey, in America, had 
 only been six years out of Scotland, where he had previ¬ 
 ously been one of the most eminent parochial ministers 
 in that country, when he was elected a member of the first 
 National Congress of the United States, and signed the 
 famous declaration of independence at Philadelphia, in the 
 year 1776. t The sentiments of Dr. Witherspoon, and 
 
 * Grahame, vol. i. 389. 
 
 f I was told by persons of the highest intelligence in America, 
 when in that country in the year 1840, that, next to Washington, 
 there was no man to whom the Americans considered themselves 
 more deeply indebted for the achievement of their national freedom 
 and independence, than Dr. Witherspoon. His high character and 
 eminent talents had given effectual support to the cause of freedom, 
 which he had embraced at an early period in their great national 
 struggle ; and during the subsequent progress of that struggle, when 
 things were at the gloomiest, and not a few even of his coadjutors 
 were ready to give up the contest as utterly hopeless, Dr. Wither¬ 
 spoon repeatedly reanimated their drooping spirits, and encouraged 
 them to those renewed efforts which were ultimately crowned with 
 
THE GOLDEN LANDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
 
 233 
 
 also of the celebrated John Wesley, on the relations of 
 mother-countries and their full-grown colonies, will 
 appear from the following extract from the able and ex¬ 
 cellent historian of America: — 
 
 “ It was the opinion of Dr. Witherspoon and many 
 other persons of sincere and profound piety in America, 
 that when collisions arise between different authorities in 
 the same empire, every man possesses the right of choos- 
 
 success. But no sooner were tlie liberties of his country effectually 
 secured, than, without looking for either office or emolument for 
 himself, he returned, like an old Roman, to his quiet college, and 
 even volunteered a pilgrimage to Scotland, where his name and 
 character had always stood very high, to engage ministers, and can¬ 
 didates for the ministry, for those parts of his adopted country which 
 had been left desolate by the war, and to collect funds for their 
 settlement. 
 
 It is somewhat remarkable that one of my own earliest recollec¬ 
 tions should have been connected with the memory of this great 
 and good man, and especially with that event of his life to which I 
 have just alluded. My mother, who was born in the year 1770, 
 used to tell me, when a little boy, that the first Charity Sermon she 
 i ever heard was one preached in the open air at Beith, in Ayrshire, 
 Scotland, where she was then on a visit to a relative, by the Rev. 
 Dr. Witherspoon, from America. She was fourteen years of age 
 at the time, which must consequently have been in the year 1784, 
 the year after the Peace. Dr. Witherspoon had been the parish 
 minister of Beith many years before; and the concourse of people 
 from the surrounding country was so great on the occasion, that the 
 parish church could not hold them, and the service had to be held 
 in an adjoining field, where Dr. W. preached from a moveable 
 pulpit, or as it is technically called, in the west of Scotland, a tent. 
 My mother used to describe to me his venerable appearance and 
 snow-white locks, and the peculiarly impressive character of his 
 oratory, the whole scene having evidently made a deep and indelible 
 impression upon her mind. I was afterwards at school for a short 
 time in Beith, and the schoolmaster, in whose house I resided, had 
 the same feeling of veneration for the memory of Dr. Witherspoon. 
 These apparently trivial circumstances naturally led me at an after 
 j period to enquire into the public career of Dr. Witherspoon, and 
 may perhaps have had some influence in shaping out my own. 
 
234 
 
 FREEDOM AND INDEPENDENCE FOR 
 
 ing which side he shall support, bounded by the duty of 
 consulting the interests of religion and liberty, and of 
 respecting the opinions and wishes of the majority of the 
 community. The scriptural precepts referred to by the 
 Quakers and other advocates of submission, they thought 
 were intended (in so far as their application might be 
 supposed universal) to inculcate the duty without defining 
 the limits of obedience to civil authority, and to recom¬ 
 mend a peaceable, moderate, and contented disposition, 
 and averseness to wanton and unnecessary change. John 
 Wesley was at first opposed, upon religious principles, to 
 American resistance, and in letters to the Methodists in 
 America, endeavoured without effect to dissuade them 
 from embracing the cause of their country. But he very 
 soon changed his opinion, and even encouraged the Ame¬ 
 ricans to revolt by expressions of his good wishes and 
 approbation * 
 
 Section V. — The Duty of Great Britain in this Crisis. 
 
 “ It is the trade of the colonies,” observed the citizens 
 of Boston nearly a century ago, “ that renders them be¬ 
 neficial to the mother -country : our trade, as it is noiu, and 
 always has been conducted, centres in Great Britain.”\ 
 
 “ King Tullius (in Dion. Kali.) says, we look upon it 
 to be neither truth nor justice, that mother-cities ought of 
 necessity and by the law of nature to rule over their 
 colonies.” % 
 
 “ If a dominant country,” observes Mr. Cornewall 
 Lewis, with equal truth and honesty, “ understood the 
 true nature of the advantages arising from the relation of 
 
 * Grahame’s Hist, of the United Slates, iv. 315. Also, Southey’s 
 Life of Wesley. 
 
 f Instructions to the Representatives of the City of Boston, in the 
 Legislature of Massachusetts, May, 1764. 
 
 j Grotius, de Jure Belli, Sfc., b. 2. c. 9. sec. 10. 
 
THE GOLDEN LANDS OE AUSTRALIA. 235 
 
 supremacy and dependence to the related communities, 
 it would voluntarily recognise the legal independence of 
 such of its own dependencies as were fit for independence; 
 it would, by its political arrangements, study to prepare 
 for independence those which were still unable to stand 
 alone; and it would seek to promote colonization for the 
 purpose of extending its trade rather than its empire, and 
 without attempting to maintain the dependence of its 
 colonies beyond the time when they need its protection.”* 
 “ Under the present system of management,” observes 
 the celebrated Dr. Adam Smith, “Great Britain derives 
 nothing but loss from the dominion she assumes over her 
 colonies.” j- 
 
 To the same effect Mr. Roebuck observes, as follows, 
 although he coidd scarcely have anticipated the event that 
 will enable Australia so speedily to realise his prediction, 
 and to take her place in the great family of nations: — 
 
 “ The colonies, which we are founding in America, 
 Australasia, and Africa, will, probably, at some future 
 day, be powerful nations, who will also be unwilling to 
 remain in subjection to any rule but their own. But this 
 withdrawal from our metropolitan rule ought not to offend 
 or wound us as a nation ; we should feel in this case as a 
 parent feels when a child has reached unto manhood — 
 becomes his own master, forms his own separate house¬ 
 hold, and becomes, in his turn, the master of a family. 
 The ties of affection remain — the separation is not the 
 cause or the effect of hostility. Thus should it be with a 
 mother-country and her colonies. Having founded them, 
 and brought them to a sturdy maturity, she should be 
 proud to see them honestly glorying in their strength, and 
 wishing for independence. Having looked forward to 
 this time as sure to come, she should prepare for it. She 
 should make such arrangements in her system as to put 
 
 * Essay on the Government of Dependencies. By George Corne- 
 wall Lewis, Esq., p. 334. London, 1841. 
 t Wealth of Nations, c. vii. 
 
236 FREEDOM AND INDEPENDENCE FOR 
 
 all tilings in order for this coming change in the colony’s 
 condition, so that independence may be acquired and 
 friendship retained. The colony would, in such a case, 
 continue to feel towards the mother-country with kindness 
 and respect; a close union would exist between them, and 
 all their mutual relations would be so ordered as to con¬ 
 duce to the welfare of both.”* 
 
 I am therefore decidedly of opinion that it is alike the 
 interest and the duty of Great Britain, in accordance with 
 the recommendations of these eminent writers, to ini¬ 
 tiate at once the series of measures that are needful to 
 ensure the entire freedom and independence of the Aus¬ 
 tralian colonies. But in whatever manner this opinion 
 may be regarded, and this advice received, it is doubtless 
 a very remarkable fact in British history, that precisely 
 the same opinion was entertained, and precisely similar 
 advice unsuccessfully tendered, in the case of America, 
 by a dignified clergyman of the Church of England, 
 eighty years ago. 
 
 “ Only one Englishman at this crisis,” (anno 1771) 
 observes the historian of America, “ had the sagacity to 
 perceive that the views and pretensions of Britain and 
 America were quite incompatible, and that, in the warmth 
 of the controversy, these conflicting views had been so far 
 disclosed and matured, that a cordial reconciliation was 
 no longer possible. This was Dr. Josiah Tucker, Dean of 
 Gloucester, one of the most learned and ingenious writers 
 on commerce and political economy that England has ever 
 produced. With a boldness equal to the comprehension 
 of his views, he openly recommended, in several tracts 
 which he published about this time, an entire separation 
 of the two countries, and a formal recognition of the in¬ 
 dependence of the American States. The doctrine which 
 he inculcated was, that when colonics have reached such a 
 
 * The Colonies of England. By John Arthur Roebuck, Esq., 
 M.P., p 170. 
 
THE GOLDEN LANDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
 
 237 
 
 degree of wealth and population as to be able to support 
 themselves, the authority of the parent State whence they 
 emanated, must necessarily be trivial and precarious ; and 
 that, consequently, in all cases of this hind, it is the dictate 
 of prudence and sound policy that file parties, instead of 
 waiting to be separated by emergent quarrel and strife, 
 should dissolve their connexion by mutual consent. Such, 
 he contended, was now the situation of the British colonies 
 in America; and in urging upon Britain the consequent 
 policy of releasing them from further controul, he 
 maintained with much force and good sense that this 
 measure would be attended with a great alleviation of the 
 national expense, without any real diminution of the 
 national gain. For this unpalatable counsel the doctor 
 was regarded as a wild visionary, both by those of his 
 countrymen who supported, and by those who opposed 
 the measures of their Government. But time illustrated 
 his views and honoured his wisdom.”* 
 
 The celebrated Edmund Burke, and the distinguished 
 ethical writer, Soame Jenyns, both threw all the influence 
 of their names and their fame at this period into the scale 
 of war with America — the former characterising the 
 truly politic and patriotic scheme of Dean Tucker as 
 puerile and childish; and the latter showing up the 
 Americans in a poem, after expatiating for a while over 
 the wide fields of freedom, voluntarily throwing themselves 
 back once more into the arms of Britain ! It is scarcely 
 necessary to remind the reader that this poetical fancy 
 was but indifferently realised. These distinguished men 
 proved “ blind leaders of the blind,” and the nation, under 
 their guidance, “ fell into the ditch.” Dean Tucker’s was 
 the true wisdom, because it was in accordance with the 
 law of nature and the ordinance of God; and it is sin- 
 
 * History of the United States of North America, from the Planta¬ 
 tion of the British Colonies till their Iievolt and Declaration of Inde¬ 
 pendence. By James Grahame, Esq., 1836, vol. iv. .307. 
 
238 
 
 FREEDOM AND INDEPENDENCE FOR 
 
 cerely to be hoped, although, I confess, but little to be 
 expected, that those whom it concerns may profit by the 
 lesson of wisdom which it teaches, ere it be too late for 
 the second time. The American historian adds in a note, 
 “Watkins, in his Life.of the Duke of York, relates, that 
 after the independence of America had been irrevocably 
 conceded by the Treaty of Paris, George the Third, 
 meeting Tucker at Gloucester, observed to him, ‘ Mr. 
 Dean, you were in the right, and we were all in the 
 wrong.’ ” * 
 
 But although I maintain that British colonies, in the 
 state of advancement to which those of Australia have 
 attained, are entitled to their freedom and independence, 
 whatever may be the result of the supposed change in 
 their condition to the mother-country, I confess I should 
 scarcely have ventured to advocate such a measure as 
 the concession of freedom and independence to these 
 colonies, if I were not able to prove, as I am confident I 
 shall do in the sequel, to the satisfaction of every reason¬ 
 able person, that it would prove of incalculable advantage 
 to the mother-country herself, as well as to the colonies. 
 The interests of the mother-country and the colonies are 
 perfectly identical, as respects this measure; which, I 
 shall show presently, would ensure unspeakable benefits 
 to both, although in different and directly opposite ways.t 
 
 The initiatory measure, therefore, which I would 
 
 * Grahame, iv. 308. 
 
 f “ Let the trade to North America he what it may,” observes the 
 truly patriotic dean quoted above, “ of little importance, or other¬ 
 wise ; it is a mere begging the question, and a most disingenuous 
 artifice to insinuate that this trade will be lost, if a separation 
 from the colonies should ensue. On the contrary, it is more pro¬ 
 bable that, when all parties shall be left at full liberty to do as they 
 please, our North American trade will rather be increased, than 
 diminished by such a measure. Because it is freedom, and not con¬ 
 finement , or monopoly, which increases trade.” — Dean Tucker’s 
 Humble Address, recommending Separation from America, p. 61. 
 Gloucester, 1775. 
 
THE GOLDEN LANDS OF AUSTRALIA. 239 
 
 humbly and respectfully propose, in order to prepare the 
 colonies for the change that awaits them, and to secure 
 to the mother-country all the great advantages that 
 may be reaped from that change, would be simply an 
 Act of Parliament, granting a Constitution in reality to 
 the Australian colonies, and not the mere mockery of a 
 Constitution, like the one provided in the Act of 1850. 
 The principles on which such a constitution should be 
 based, so as to prove satisfactory to the colonies, will be 
 found in the Resolutions passed at a Public Meeting 
 held in the city of Sydney, on the 27th of December, 
 1851, the Right Worshipful the Mayor of Sydney in 
 the chair; a copy of which I subjoin in a Note.* 
 
 * At a public meeting of the inhabitants of the city of Sydney, 
 held in the Royal Australian Circus, Sydney, on Saturday, the 27th 
 December, 1851, the Right Worshipful the Mayor of Sydney, in 
 the chair, the following resolutions on the subject of Constitutional 
 Reform were passed unanimously, viz.: — 
 
 1. That this meeting desires to record its solemn and indignant 
 protest against the gross injustice perpetrated upon the people of 
 this colony by the Local Government and its standing majority in 
 the late Legislative Council, in the recent Electoral Act, whereby 
 the city of Sydney, the Sydney Hamlets, and the county of Cum¬ 
 berland, comprising upwards of three-eighths, that is nearly one- 
 half of the whole population and property of the colony, have only 
 had one-sixth of the representation allotted them, while the other 
 five-eighths, have had five-sixths; nearly one-half of the whole 
 population being thereby defrauded of their proper share of the 
 representation, and a mock representation created for the other half, 
 in direct opposition to the spirit and intention of the Constitutional 
 Act of the Imperial Parliament. 
 
 2. That, in the opinion of this meeting, the object of the Local 
 Government in this iniquitous arrangement, — as has been suffi¬ 
 ciently evinced in the recent proceedings of the first session of the 
 Legislative Council constituted under the present Electoral Act, — 
 was to swamp the popular element in the Legislature, and to main¬ 
 tain fa system of extravagance and misgovernment, in defiance of 
 the wishes and interests of the people. 
 
 3. That this meeting can have no confidence in a Legislature so 
 constituted, and has no hope of attaining those measures of Reform 
 
240 
 
 FREEDOM AND INDEPENDENCE FOR 
 
 An Act of Parliament adopting the principle of these 
 Resolutions would provide for the establishment of a 
 
 which are now of indispensable necessity for the general welfare, 
 through its instrumentality. 
 
 4. That this meeting is decidedly of opinion that the time has 
 arrived when the present Legislative Council should he superseded 
 by a Legislature to consist of Two Houses, both exclusively elective, 
 viz., a House of Representatives, to be chosen on the principle of 
 Universal Suffrage, Vote by Ballot, and Equal Electoral Districts, 
 and to subsist for Two Years ; and a Senate, to be elected by the 
 said House of Representatives, for Six Years, so that each house of 
 representatives, after the first election of senators, shall have the 
 power to elect one-third of the whole number of senators ; provided 
 only that every such senator shall have attained the fiftieth year of 
 his age, and shall have been previously elected a member of the 
 House of Representatives. 
 
 5. That this meeting desires to express its entire concurrence in 
 the resolutions proposed by Robert Lowe, Esq., late member of the 
 Legislative Council for this city, viz. “ That no form of constitution 
 for the colony of New South Wales would be acceptable, permanent, 
 or beneficial, which did not embrace the following requisites, viz.:— 
 
 I. An explicit recognition of the right of the colonists of New 
 South Wales to have their government administered by persons 
 responsible to their representatives. 
 
 II. A Governor removeable by the vote of the Colonial Legisla¬ 
 ture, and invested with all colonial patronage. 
 
 III. An Elective Assembly in which no person nominated by the 
 Crown shall have a seat. 
 
 IV. The placing the sum of SI,000/. contained in the schedules 
 A. B. and C. appended to the Act 5 and 6 Victoria, chap. 76., toge¬ 
 ther with the expenses of the Customs Department, at the disposal 
 of such assembly. 
 
 V. The repeal of the 5 and 6 Victoria, chap. 76., and the transfer 
 to the Local Government and Legislature of the management of the 
 waste lands of the colony, and the revenue derived from them. 
 
 6. That as it is extremely probable that parliamentary proceed¬ 
 ings, involving the rights and interests of the people of this colony, 
 will be instituted by the Imperial Government during the next ses¬ 
 sion of Parliament, in consequence of the tidings of the discovery of 
 the Australian gold mines, it is the opinion of this meeting that these 
 resolutions should be forwarded to England by some fit and proper 
 
THE GOLDEN LANDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
 
 241 
 
 House of Assembly and Senate in each colony or province; 
 the former to be elected by the colonists in the manner 
 indicated in the Resolutions referred to; and the latter 
 by the House of Assembly. To the legislature so formed 
 should be surrendered all the revenues arising from all 
 sources whatsoever, within the particular colony or 
 province (with the exception of the revenues arising from 
 the sale or occupation of the Waste Lands), and the entire 
 control over all such revenues, together with all the 
 other powers of government necessary for the constitution 
 of a provincial legislature. The proposed Act would 
 therefore provide a constitution of precisely the same 
 form and character for the five colonies or provinces of 
 New South Wales; Van Dieman’s Land ; South Australia; 
 Victoria, or Port Phillip ; and Cooksland, or the Moreton 
 Bay country; to be afterwards extended to the other two 
 colonies or provinces to be formed to the northward — 
 say Leichartsland, extending to the Gulf of Carpentaria, 
 and Flindersland, comprising the peninsula of Cape York; 
 in all seven colonies or provinces. 
 
 The proposed Act should also contain a proviso, au¬ 
 thorising Her Majesty, in the event of not fewer than 
 four or five of these colonies or provinces agreeing to 
 form a General Government for the whole, on a certain 
 basis to be indicated, and on certain conditions to be 
 specified, to recognize tlic said General or National Go¬ 
 vernment, and to grant entire freedom and independence 
 to the whole Australian Union. 
 
 The General or National Government should consist of 
 a Senate and House of Representatives, with a President 
 and Vice President, and have controul over all Foreign 
 relations, the Public Lands, and the Post Office—in short, 
 over all matters of strictly national concernment. The 
 
 person duly authorized to advocate and support the same, both with 
 the Imperial Government and with the British public. 
 
 (Signed) W. Thurlow, 
 
 Mayor of Sydney. 
 
 27 th December, 1851. 
 
242 FREEDOM AND INDEPENDENCE FOR 
 
 National Legislature I would designate, neither after the 
 American, nor after the French — a Congress or a 
 National Assembly — but after the British example, a 
 Parliament. The House of Representatives should re¬ 
 present the population of the Union; each province 
 returning a number of members equal to the multiple it 
 should contain of a certain minimum amount of population 
 —say ten, fifteen, or twenty thousand: the Senate should 
 represent the different provinces on a footing of perfect 
 equality; each province returning the same number of 
 .senators—say three or five. The senators of the National 
 Parliament I would propose to be elected by the Senate 
 and House of Representatives of each province, meeting 
 together for that express purpose in the same hall, as is 
 customary on certain prescribed occasions in the Norwe¬ 
 gian Storthing. 
 
 The reasons why I would reserve for the General or 
 National Government the entire controul of the Public 
 Lands are, 
 
 1. It would be absolutely necessary for the National 
 Government to have such controul, in order to enable it 
 to fulfil the conditions of the Treaty of Independence to 
 be hereafter specified ; for that Treaty could only be 
 made with the National Government, and not with that 
 of any particular province. 
 
 2. It would prevent the enactment of injudicious and 
 probably wasteful measures, in regard to the disposal of 
 the waste lands, which might otherwise be passed by some 
 of the provincial legislatures ; for this is just the point 
 on which a check would require to be placed upon the 
 action of these legislatures by the national mind. 
 
 3. It would introduce uniformity of system and of 
 action throughout the Union, in regard to the disposal of 
 Public Lands; and, 
 
 4. It would greatly strengthen the National Govern¬ 
 ment, and form a national bond of union. 
 
 The National Government would therefore have the 
 controul of the entire revenue arising from the sales of 
 
THE GOLDEN LANDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
 
 243 
 
 public lands throughout the Union; with this proviso, 
 however, that the revenues arising from this source in 
 any particular province should be expended in emigration 
 or otherwise for that province exclusively. It would also 
 have to decide on all questions as to the price of land 
 and the mode of sale ; the circumstances of every par¬ 
 ticular case or province to be taken into account. A 
 Land Office would thus be created by the National Go¬ 
 vernment in each province, and be independent of the 
 Provincial Legislature. 
 
 Section VI. — Proposed Conditions of the Treaty of Inde¬ 
 pendence— Half of the Land Revenue to be appropriated 
 
 for the Promotion of Emigration from Great Britain. 
 
 As one of the main objects of colonization is to pro¬ 
 vide an eligible outlet for the redundant population of 
 the mother-country, I would take it for granted that 
 Great Britain would never concede independence to any 
 colony, or group of colonies, at all adapted for such a 
 purpose, without providing for the carrying out of this 
 great object as fully as if the colony, or group of colonies, 
 had continued a dependency or group of dependencies. 
 And it is chiefly on the vast importance of such an ar¬ 
 rangement to Great Britain, and the unspeakable advan¬ 
 tage she would gain in this particular from the proposed 
 change in the condition of her colonies, that I would base 
 any hope I have of the favourable entertainment of my 
 proposal in influential quarters. 
 
 The particular reasons why it would not be expedient 
 for Great Britain to surrender the controul of the waste 
 lands to the provincial governments, are, First, that if 
 these lands were to be surrendered unconditionally to the 
 provincial governments, these governments might deter¬ 
 mine that no part of the proceeds arising from their sale 
 should be appropriated for the promotion of immigration * : 
 
 * The following extract of a letter from Earl Grey to the Governor 
 of New South Wales, of date, “ Downing Street, 27th May, 1851,” 
 
244 
 
 FREEDOM AND INDEPENDENCE FOR 
 
 and Second, that even although the provincial govern¬ 
 ments might appropriate a portion of the land revenue 
 for immigration, the probability is that there would be 
 no restriction imposed as to where the immigrants should 
 come from ; so that Great Britain would reap no special 
 advantage from the arrangement, and might possibly be 
 excluded from any advantage from it through the com¬ 
 petition of foreigners. Ideas of this kind have of late, 
 and especially since the discovery of gold, been put forth 
 again and again in New South Wales; and I have oftener 
 than once incurred some degree of obloquy myself, in the 
 Legislative Council of that colony, for insisting, as I have 
 uniformly done, that the waste lands are not the property 
 of the actual colonists, as certain influential members of 
 Council are in the habit of regarding them, but of the 
 British empire, — to be administered, however, for the 
 mutual advantage of the mother-country and the colony. 
 At the late general election in New South Wales, several 
 of the candidates put forth the idea that as the discovery 
 of gold would send out plenty of emigrants to the colony, 
 no part of the land fund ought in future to be appro¬ 
 priated for immigration purposes, but that the whole of it 
 should be applied for the construction of roads and bridges, 
 
 embodies a Resolution of the Legislative Council of that colony, on 
 the appropriation of the Land Revenue : — 
 
 “ I have received your Despatch No. 239. of the 31st December 
 last, forwarding an Address from the Legislative Council of New 
 South Wales to the Queen, setting forth the amount expended upon 
 Immigration from the Land Fund since the year 1836, and the debt I 
 incurred upon it for the same object, setting forth the advantages 
 derived from that outlay to the Mother Country, and urging that it 
 is no part of the duty of the Colonists to pay for the importation of 
 Emigrants.” — Council Paper. 
 
 There is no proposition or observation of mine in this whole 
 volume that breathes such a spirit of alienation, and, I will add, of 
 hostility towards Great Britain and her interests, as this Resolution 
 of the Legislative Council of New South Wales: and the circum¬ 
 stance serves to show what Great Britain would have to expect from 
 surrendering the Waste Lands to the Local Legislatures, without the 
 security I propose. 
 
THE GOLDEN LANDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
 
 245 
 
 &c. But Great Britain has a deep interest in preventing 
 any such measure from being carried, — she has a deep 
 interest, on behalf of her industrious and virtuous poor, in 
 insisting upon the continuance of the present arrange¬ 
 ment for the appropriation of one-half of the land fund 
 for the promotion of emigration from the United Kingdom. 
 
 I am therefore decidedly of opinion that Great Britain 
 should on no account surrender the controul of the waste 
 lands to any mere provincial legislature, and that she 
 should make it a sine qua non , in a Treaty of Independ¬ 
 ence with the General or National Government, that 
 one-half of the proceeds of the sales of all waste lands 
 throughout the Union, should be appropriated as at 
 present for the promotion of emigration from Great 
 Britain and Ireland ; the price of the land to be fixed, 
 either permanently or from time to time, by the National 
 Government, and the emigrants to be carried out from 
 the proceeds of the land revenue, to be selected under 
 the superintendence of fit and proper persons possessing 
 the confidence of the legislature or government of each 
 particular province. 
 
 This arrangement would effectually ensure a thoroughly 
 British population for the Australian provinces, which, 
 I confess,—with the best possible feelings towards fo¬ 
 reigners of all nations, — I regard as a matter of essential 
 importance for their welfare and advancement. Under 
 such an arrangement also, the National Government of 
 the Australian Union would virtually be a mere agency , 
 and as far as the mother-country is concerned, an unpaid 
 agency , for carrying out the first grand object of colo¬ 
 nization for Great Britain; viz., the providing of an 
 eligible outlet for her redundant population. The Aus¬ 
 tralian provinces would therefore, although formally free 
 and independent, be in reality a series of tributary states 
 to Great Britain ; paying her a large amount of tribute 
 for the promotion of emigration from her shores every 
 year: for although the benefit would be mutual and 
 equal, the arrangement would necessarily take the form 
 
246 FREEDOM AND INDEPENDENCE FOR 
 
 of a large annual contribution to the British treasury from 
 Australia — probably not less in amount than a million 
 a year. 
 
 I can imagine no difficulty whatever in the way of the 
 carrying out of such an arrangement as I propose, or of 
 the creation of the requisite guarantees to ensure the 
 fulfilment of the proposed condition. Great Britain would 
 have this completely in her own power, and could easily 
 enforce the fulfilment of such a condition, if there were 
 the slightest disposition exhibited on the part of the Aus¬ 
 tralian government, to set aside the treaty. But this is 
 scarcely conceivable; for the arrangement would be so 
 beneficial to both parties that there could be no dis¬ 
 position to withdraw from the terms of the engagement. 
 I would limit the arrangement, however, to the period of 
 fifty years. If at the close of that period, a future 
 generation of Australians should deem it expedient to 
 renew the treaty, on the same conditions, they would 
 have it in their power to do so ; but if not, they would be 
 free to do as they pleased. And in the mean time, I can 
 think of nothing that would be likely to interrupt the 
 friendly intercourse that would be sure to subsist be¬ 
 tween the two countries, on a basis of such reciprocal 
 advantage. 
 
 I am happy to find a confirmation of some at least of 
 these views in the following passages of the work of 
 G. C. Lewis, Esq., to which I have already repeat¬ 
 edly referred. I concur entirely with Mr. Lewis in the 
 view he takes of the vast importance of colonization for 
 the advancement of mankind; and it is for this reason 
 that I would endeavour above all things to obtain a 
 thoroughly British population for the colonies of Australia; 
 for how good soever other people may be, “ There’s nae 
 folk like our ain folk,”*' for the heroic work of colonization. 
 I was told by a gentleman in Sydney recently from San 
 Francisco, that about a third of the inhabitants of that city 
 
 * Old Scotch Song. 
 
THE GOLDEN LANDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
 
 24 - 
 
 are French immigrants: I confess I should be sorry, on 
 various accounts, to see such a proportion of foreigners, 
 even from La belle France, in any city of Australia. I trust 
 also that Mr. Lewis will recognize, in the plan I have just 
 sketched out, as favourable a prospect for extensive and 
 efficient colonization as has ever been submitted to the 
 British nation. But I shall recur to this part of the 
 subject more particularly in the sequel. 
 
 “ The system of defraying the expenses of emigrants 
 from the proceeds of the sale of public lands in the 
 colony does not necessarily suppose that the new settlement 
 is a dependency of the country which sends out the 
 emigrants. If it were advantageous for a new settlement 
 to employ a portion of its public revenues (whether 
 arising from the sale of lands or from any other source) 
 in procuring immigrants, its government would naturally 
 devote a portion of its revenues to this purpose, whether 
 the settlement were independent or dependent.” 
 
 “ On reviewing the history of the Greek colonies, the 
 conquests of Alexander and of the Romans, and the 
 settlements of the modern European nations in Asia, 
 Africa, America and Australia, it will be seen that the 
 advancement of mankind is to be expected rather from 
 the diffusion of civilized nations than from the improve¬ 
 ment of barbarous or half civilized tribes. The promotion 
 of successful colonization is, therefore, one of the best 
 means of advancing and diffusing civilization, and raising 
 the general condition of mankind; and whoever can 
 devise or carry into execution any effectual means for 
 facilitating and improving it, is among the greatest bene¬ 
 factors of his race. But there is nothing in the colonial 
 relation which implies that the colony must be a dependency 
 of the mother-country; nor generally is it expedient that 
 such a relation should exist, even in the case of a newly 
 founded Settlement.”* 
 
 * Essay on the Government of Dependencies. By George Cornewall 
 Lewis, Esq., p. 235. 
 
 m 4 
 
248 
 
 FREEDOM AND INDEPENDENCE FOR 
 
 Section VII. — Proposed Conditions of the Treaty of Inde¬ 
 pendence CONTINUED — NO HOSTILE TARIFF, NO CUSTOM-HOUSE. 
 
 The second of the grand objects of colonization is the 
 creation of a market for the surplus produce and manu¬ 
 factures of the mother-country ; and I should consider it 
 expedient and necessary for Great Britain, in conceding 
 entire freedom and independence to any of her full grown 
 colonies, to make effectual provision, in any Treaty of 
 Independence, that no hostile tariff should be established 
 against her in the country acquiring its freedom, for a 
 certain fixed period at least—say Fifty Years. 
 
 But although it would be expedient and necessary for 
 Great Britain to insist upon such a provision for her own 
 interest, I would by no means propose it on the part of 
 the colonies as a special exemption in her favour. On 
 the contrary, I would propose, as a measure of the best 
 possible policy for the future good government of the 
 Australian provinces, that all import duties, and other re¬ 
 strictions on the importation of goods of any description 
 from all foreign parts, should forthwith be discontinued, 
 and all custom-houses abolished.* 
 
 * Mr. Roebuck proposes, in his scheme of Municipal Inde¬ 
 pendence, which is rather a post too late now for Australia, that 
 the same privilege, as I propose should be guaranteed by treaty, 
 should be secured by Act of Parliament. “ Neither for purposes of 
 regulation or taxation should any power be given to tax the produce 
 and manufactures of the mother-country or of her colonies; and the 
 mother-country ought to resolve not to tax the produce of the 
 colonies.”— The Colonies of England. By John Arthur Roebuck, 
 Esq., M.P., p. 153. But he would allow the colonies to tax the pro¬ 
 ductions of other countries as much as they pleased. Now this is too 
 bad, Mr. Roebuck ! To use the language of the poet: 
 
 “ Free as the winds, and changeless as the sea, 
 
 Should trade and commerce unrestricted be. 
 
THE GOLDEN LANDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
 
 249 
 
 As a proposition of this kind may at first sight seem 
 somewhat startling, it may not be out of place to ascer¬ 
 tain the grounds on which it may nevertheless be urged 
 with the utmost propriety. 
 
 1. It can be no reason, therefore, why there should be 
 a custom-house in Australia, for the levying of duties on 
 foreign trade, that there is one in England, another in 
 France, and a third in the United States. The circum¬ 
 stances of the countries contrasted, in each of these cases, 
 with Australia, may be totally different from ours. There 
 is an Established Church, for instance, in England, and 
 one in Ireland , too ; there is an immense standing army 
 in France; and there is the institution of slavery — 
 worst of all — in the United States: but what need have 
 we, in Australia, for any of these transmarine institutions? 
 Besides, the universality, whether of a custom, or of a 
 custom-house, is no better argument for its propriety, 
 than its great antiquity: and it is well observed by 
 an able French writer, “ Ancient customs are sometimes 
 nothing but great abuses, which are only the more dan¬ 
 gerous the more respectable they are considered.”* A 
 country overburdened like Great Britain with debt and 
 taxation, could scarcely give up her custom-house with 
 safety to the State; but what has that to do with the case 
 of Australia? We should not even desire to be exempted 
 
 Wherever land is found, or oceans roll, 
 
 Or man exists from Indus to the Pole, 
 
 Open to all, with no false ties to bind, 
 
 The world should he the market of mankind.” 
 
 ' “ Les anciennes coutumes ne sont quelquefois que de grands 
 abus, d’autant plus dangereux qu’on les croit plus respectables.” — 
 L’Abbe Millut. To the same effect, the celebrated Christian Father. 
 Cyprian, in his Epistle to Stephen, bishop of Rome, when testifying 
 against Roman traditions, observes, “ Consuetudo sine veritate, 
 vetustas erroris est.”— Custom, without truth for its basis, is merely 
 the antiquity of error. The same excellent observation will apply 
 ’ equally to custom-houses. 
 
 M 5 
 
2,50 
 
 FREEDOM AND INDEPENDENCE FOR 
 
 from customs’ duties on Australian produce in England, 
 as Mr. Roebuck proposes for the colonies, on the reci¬ 
 procity system. We should only desire to be placed on 
 the footing of the most favoured nation. * 
 
 2. Custom-houses are a great obstacle in the way of 
 trade, and frequently a perfect incubus upon it. It is uni¬ 
 versally acknowledged that the public lose far more in the 
 additional price they have to pay for their taxed commo¬ 
 dities, than the State derives from the taxes in the shape 
 of duties: and all this loss has to be sustained by the 
 community.-j- 
 
 * It is somewhat singular that in one of the most ancient treaties of 
 peace and commerce in existence—viz. between the Carthaginians and 
 Romans,—free-trade and no customs’ duties forms one of the stipula¬ 
 tions. Polybius (Book 3. chap. 22.) has preserved a copy of a 
 treaty of peace and commerce between the Romans and Carthaginians, 
 concluded so early as in the year after the expulsion of the kings of 
 Rome, under the consulship of Junius Brutus and Marcus Horatius, 
 that is, 28 years before the expedition of Xerxes into Greece, and 246 
 from the building of Rome. It is remarkable for the entire free¬ 
 dom of trade which it establishes between the rival republics, while 
 it jealously guards against expeditions of war or invasion. The 
 Free-trade proviso, translated into Latin by Isaac Casaubon, is as 
 follows : — 
 
 “ Qui ad mercaturam venerint, ii vectigal nullum pendunto, extra 
 quam ad prteconis aut scrihae mercedem.” Let those [Romans] who 
 come [to Carthage] for purposes of trade, pay no customs' duties, with 
 the exception of the fees of the auctioneer and clerk of the market. 
 
 j “ The last remedy which I would propose is one which I feel 
 persuaded would not only be attended with beneficial results to New 
 Zealand, but also to all the Australian colonies: — it is the doing 
 away with the Customs, and declaring the ports of New Zealand 
 free. The impetus that such a measure as this would give to trade 
 in this and the neighbouring colonies is incalculable. The loss in 
 revenue could easily and equitably he made up by means of a pro¬ 
 perty and income tax, which I doubt not the people would cheer¬ 
 fully pay. The present taxes on imported goods are made to press 
 heavily on the honest trader alone, the facilities for smuggling 
 being so great in a country possessing such fine harbours, and such 
 an extensive coast line as New Zealand as to require a more effi¬ 
 cient Coast Guard than that of England or Ireland for its prevention. 
 
THE GOLDEN LANDS OF AUSTRALIA. 251 
 
 3. The taxes levied through the custom-house are un¬ 
 equal in their pressure, and consequently unjust in their 
 operation: they are paid chiefly by the humbler classes, 
 who are least able to bear them. The industrious me¬ 
 chanic consumes perhaps as much sugar and tea as the 
 squire himself, especially if his wife happens to be a tidy 
 body, and at all fastidious in her taste; but he virtually 
 contributes greatly more to the State. 
 
 4. The cost of an efficient custom-house establish¬ 
 ment for such a country as Australia would be enormous, 
 and out of all proportion to the amount of revenue to be 
 derived from it. Already the cost of the custom-house 
 establishment at Twofold Bay, in New South Wales, ex¬ 
 ceeds the whole amount of tl*e duties received by it; and 
 there are several suspicious places along the coast that 
 must be vigilantly watched, and defended by a custom¬ 
 house force, without the least prospect of duties, in the 
 way of a Preventive Service. Such a service, for a coast 
 line of several thousand miles in extent, with numberless 
 bays, creeks, and roadsteads, would be greatly too costly 
 for any country, but especially fora young country to bear. 
 
 5. The custom-house system is already interfering 
 materially with the productive industry of the colonies, 
 and promoting extensive demoralization. The cultivation 
 of the vine, for example, is now becoming both extensive 
 and profitable in New South Wales; but it is found, in 
 the process of wine-making, that much of an inferior 
 quality has to be made into brandy, as for instance when 
 the grapes happen to have been saturated with rain. But 
 the Government derives an import duty on all French 
 brandy imported, and to prevent the diminution of the 
 
 To such an extent is smuggling carried on in the article of tobacco 
 alone that a short time ago it could in this country be bought at 
 10 d. per pound, duty paid, or said to be paid, while the duty itself 
 was a shilling.” — New Zealand in 1842, or the Effects of a bad 
 Government on a good Country. By S. M. 14. Martin, M. D., Auck¬ 
 land, New Zealand, 1842. 
 
252 FREEDOM AND INDEPENDENCE FOR 
 
 revenue derivable from this source, which would be a 
 serious matter for a Government with so much unneces¬ 
 sary and expensive machinery to keep up, the colonist is 
 actually prohibited from making brandy for sale from his 
 own vineyard, lest he should interfere with the importation 
 from France ! So preposterous a system can only have 
 one result—illicit distillation and extensive demoraliza¬ 
 tion — and accordingly a considerable seizure of colonial 
 brandy was effected, just before 1 left the colony. It was 
 coming to Sydney, from one of the northern settlements, 
 under the denomination of tallow ! 
 
 6. Revenue, arising from indirect taxation, always holds 
 out a strong temptation to unnecessary and extravagant 
 expenditure; and has uniformly been the egg from which 
 the ill-omened bird, War, has been hatched by unjust and 
 dishonest statesmen. 
 
 7. The amount of patronage which a custom-house 
 system would throw into the hands of the executive would 
 be dangerous to the character, as well as to the stability 
 and permanence, of the national institutions. This is 
 deeply felt already in the United States, and it will be 
 much more so by and by. 
 
 8. A custom-house system for the Australian provinces 
 would be quite unnecessary; as a revenue of sufficient 
 amount for the support both of the provincial and national 
 governments could be raised by other means, and from 
 other sources, with perfect facility. It is scarcely neces¬ 
 sary, however, to indicate these means and sources at 
 present. 
 
 9. In the event of the revenue required for the support 
 of Government being raised as at present, through a 
 custom-house, it would be impossible to ensure such a 
 distribution of the public expenditure as to prove satisfac¬ 
 tory to all parties. For example, the district of Hunter’s 
 River, in New South Wales, contributes very largely to 
 the public revenue, but has hitherto obtained only a very 
 small share of the public expenditure. This, it must be 
 
THE GOLDEN LANDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
 
 253 
 
 evident, cannot be tolerated long; and accordingly, in 
 the year 1850, one of the members for that district, 
 Donald MTntyre, Esq., a gentleman of liberal opinions, 
 who had previously resided for many years in the United 
 States, and had seen and experienced the benefits and bless¬ 
 ings of the State governments of that country, told the 
 Council very plainly that, if the district he represented were 
 not more equitably treated in future, it would demand sepa¬ 
 ration from New South Wales, like Port Phillip. But if 
 there were no indirect taxation, the money raised in each 
 district for public improvements would generally be ex¬ 
 pended in that district under the eye of those who raised 
 it: they would consequently have no ground of complaint 
 against other districts, and they would doubtless look very 
 carefully after the expenditure of their own money. 
 
 10. The absence of such a system would render it com¬ 
 paratively easy to extend the National Government over 
 any number of additional provinces, to be formed, for in¬ 
 stance, among the islands of the Western Pacific, which 
 might be the subject of future and progressive annexa¬ 
 tion ; but with a custom-house system of the usual 
 character, such an extension of the area of the National 
 Government w'ould be neither practicable nor desirable. 
 
 Section VIII. — Reasons why the extent of Territory sug¬ 
 gested is desirable for the General or National Govern¬ 
 ment. 
 
 I have already observed that the provinces which 
 ought to be comprised in the Australian Union, under the 
 style and title of “The Seven United Provinces of 
 Australia,” are, 1st. New South Wales; 2d. Van 
 Dieman’s Land; 3d. South Australia; 4th. Victoria or 
 Port Phillip; 5th. Cooksland, or the Moreton Bay 
 country; 6th. Leichartsland, or the country intervening 
 between the Tropic of Capricorn and the Gulph of Car- 
 
254 
 
 FREEDOM AND INDEPENDENCE FOR 
 
 pentaria; and 7th. Flindersland, or the Peninsula of Cape 
 York. Tiie first four of these have all been duly consti¬ 
 tuted and recognised as separate and distinct colonies, 
 and the fifth has already applied to be recognised and 
 admitted into the group as a separate and independent 
 colony. But why, it may be asked, why require a further 
 extension of territory, still waste and unoccupied ? I 
 answer—• for the following reasons: — 
 
 1st. It will be comparatively easy to colonize the two 
 northern provinces — Leichartsland and Flindersland — 
 from the southern colonies; but it would be hopeless to 
 attempt to colonize them direct from England, in conse¬ 
 quence of the low latitudes in which they lie. The sheep 
 and cattle of the actual colonists have already reached the 
 Tropic of Capricorn ; they will speedily cross that imagi¬ 
 nary line, and occupy the whole intervening country 
 between the Tropic and the Gulf; and the stream of 
 colonization will naturally follow them in their track to 
 the northward, the colonists becoming gradually acclima¬ 
 tized as they advance northwards; for the climate is salu¬ 
 brious enough, although rather hot. 
 
 2d. It is indispensably necessary for the progress of 
 colonization in Australia, and especially for the trade and 
 commerce of the actual colonies, to have free access over¬ 
 land, from the southward and eastward respectively, to the 
 Gulf of Carpentaria, without passing through Torres 
 Straits. In connection with such lines of communication, 
 from the southern colonies, the head of that Gulf will be 
 a great centre point of future colonization, as well as of 
 commerce, for Australia; but such a system of operations 
 could not be worked well separately or in different hands. 
 The colonization of Flindersland, or the Peninsula of Cape 
 York, is likely to take place in the first instance along its 
 western shore from the head of the Gulf. Leichartsland 
 will in all likelihood be colonized immediately, both from 
 the head of the Gulf and along the Pacific. “• The Seven 
 United Provinces ” would therefore comprise the whole 
 
THE GOLDEN LANDS OF AUSTRALIA. 2 55 
 
 eastern coast-line from the South Cape of Van Dieman’s 
 Land to Cape York, with a port or outlet on the Gulf of 
 Carpentaria. 
 
 3d. It is neither expedient nor desirable that, in con¬ 
 ceding entire freedom and independence to any of her 
 colonies that have reached their majority, Great Britain 
 should allow them to form a number of petty independent 
 States,-like the ancient Republics of Greece. It will be 
 far preferable for themselves, and for the interests of 
 humanity, that wherever their actual circumstances and 
 relative situations shall admit of such an arrangement, 
 they should form one large State, through a confederation 
 of separate and independent provinces, like the United 
 States. As separate and independent States, the present 
 Australian colonies ivould be comparatively insignificant, 
 and would ha've no weight or influence in the family of 
 nations; but seven such provinces united, with the whole 
 eastern coast of Australia for their coast-line towards the 
 Pacific, would at once form the first power in the southern 
 hemisphere, and prove, as I shall show presently, a for¬ 
 midable rival (and the only formidable rival that great 
 country is ever likely to have out of Europe) even to the 
 United States. 
 
 Section IX. — Reasons why Great Britain should legislate 
 
 AT ONCE IN THIS MATTER. 
 
 It will doubtless be urged, by the advocates of “ things 
 as they are,” against any immediate interference on the 
 part of the Imperial Parliament, that “We have sent 
 out a Constitution to the Australian colonies very lately. 
 Let them try how it works, and report progress by and 
 by.” But there are times and seasons when delays are 
 not only impolitic, but dangerous ; and I am persuaded 
 this is one of them. For, 
 
 1st. The Constitution of 1850 is discreditable in the 
 
256 FREEDOM AND INDEPENDENCE FOR 
 
 highest degree to the Imperial Parliament, and an insult 
 and outrage upon the whole intelligence and moral worth 
 of the Australian colonies. To allege, as was virtually- 
 done by the Imperial Parliament, that we, the British 
 colonists of Australia, required to be “ cribbed, cabined, 
 and confined,” under such a Constitution, as if we were 
 either dangerous lunatics, or worthless knaves, who could 
 not be trusted with the management even of our own 
 money, is rather too much, in the way of Imperial as¬ 
 sumption, for the middle of the nineteenth century. To 
 abstract nearly a third of our Ordinary Revenue, and to 
 appropriate it at pleasure, without our consent or con¬ 
 currence ; to vitiate our legislature by assuming the right 
 to nominate a third of its members, that is, to nominate 
 men to tax the people , in direct opposition to one of the 
 fundamental principles of the British Constitution, —this, 
 I repeat it, is rather too much, even for the Antipodes, 
 especially since the gold discovery, which has wonderfully 
 quickened men’s apprehensions in these matters. In 
 short, this Parliamentary Constitution, as it is somewhat 
 facetiously called, of 1850, has been received, as it well 
 deserved to be, with extreme dissatisfaction by the colo¬ 
 nists of New South Wales ; and but for their good feeling 
 towards the people of Port Phillip, for whom it provided 
 a separate government, which had become indispensably 
 necessary, and for its solitary redeeming feature in lower¬ 
 ing the franchise to a ten pound rate, they would have 
 thrown it back at its authors with the scorn and contempt 
 which it merited.*' 
 
 * It was very discreditable to the Imperial Parliament of 1850, 
 that the Constitution, forsooth! which it granted to the Australian 
 colonies, at the bidding of the Colonial Office, should have been so 
 exceedingly inferior to the one granted, a hundred and ninety years 
 ago, by King Charles the Second, to the colony of Jamaica. I 
 quote the following notice from the well-known historian of the 
 West Indies:—“In the year 1661, Charles II. appointed General 
 D’Oyley Governor of Jamaica; ordering him to erect courts of 
 
TIIE GOLDEN LANDS OF AUSTRALIA. 257 
 
 2d. No doubt the Constitution of 1850 provided for its 
 own progressive improvement, through the Local Legis¬ 
 lature ; but to bid the colonists look to that Legislature 
 for any satisfactory improvement or amendment of the 
 Constitution, when it consisted, to the extent of one-third, 
 of Government Nominees, and to a much larger extent of 
 men who were completely at the beck of the Local Execu¬ 
 tive, was adding insult to injury. Let the reader imagine, 
 if he can, what can be expected in the way of reform, on 
 the part of a Legislature which could be guilty of the 
 political swindling and knavery so indignantly denounced, 
 as follows, by the citizens of Sydney, at the public meet¬ 
 ing before referred to, held on the 27th of December last. 
 
 “ That this meeting desires to record its solemn and in¬ 
 dignant protest against the gross injustice perpetrated upon 
 the people of this colony by the Local Government and 
 its standing majority in the late Legislative Council, in 
 the recent Electoral Act; whereby the city of Sydney, the 
 Sydney Hamlets, and the County of Cumberland, com¬ 
 prising upwards of three-eighths, that is, nearly'one-half 
 of the whole population and property of the colony, have 
 only had one-sixth of the Representation allotted them, 
 while the other five-eighths have had five-sixths; nearly 
 one-half of the whole population being thereby defrauded 
 of their proper share of the Representation, and a mock 
 Representation created for the other half, in direct oppo¬ 
 sition to the spirit and intention of the Constitutional Act 
 of the Imperial Parliament.” 
 
 In such circumstances, it surely becomes the Imperial 
 Parliament to interfere for the protection of the Austra¬ 
 lian people, by giving them a Constitution really worthy 
 of the name. 
 
 judicature, and, with the advice of a council to he elected by the in¬ 
 habitants, to pass laws suitable to the exigencies of the colony.”— 
 Bryan Edwards, vol. i. p. 215. The patent of Barbadoes was some¬ 
 what similar. — Id. 320, 321. 
 
258 FREEDOM AND INDEPENDENCE FOR 
 
 3d. If it is desirable for Great Britain herself, as well 
 as for Australia and the whole civilized world, that Eastern 
 Australia, in the event of the actual colonies becoming 
 free and independent, should form one Great Nation, 
 instead of a series of small ones, she must provide for that 
 issue beforehand, in the way I have suggested; for 
 otherwise, there is not the least likelihood of its being 
 realized at all. Under the present colonial system, there 
 are always petty jealousies subsisting between the different 
 colonies, even of the same group; which, if they were all 
 free and independent, would prove a source of repulsion 
 rather than of attraction. The Power that is to fuse them 
 into one homogeneous mass must therefore be exerted 
 from without. For example, the people of Port Phillip 
 have hitherto had a substantial grievance to complain of, 
 in regard to New South Wales, from the fact of a large 
 portion of their land revenue having been appropriated 
 for the service of the older colony, of which Port Phillip 
 was a mere dependency, till last year. But the fact was, 
 the appropriation was made by our Downing-Street go¬ 
 vernor, over whom the colonists of New South Wales had 
 no control; and so absurdly was the whole affair managed, 
 as I have shown in my account of the period *, that, instead 
 of benefiting anybody, it almost ruined everybody in the 
 older colony. 
 
 Again, the newswriters of PortPhillip are foolish enough 
 to imagine that theirs is the central province of the Eastern 
 group of colonies, because they form a sort of half-way 
 station between Van Dieman’s Land and South Australia, 
 and have New South Wales behind them; forgetting that 
 there is another province, thrice the size of Port Phillip, 
 to the northward of New South Wales, and other two to 
 be formed in the same direction in the course of a few 
 years. In such circumstances, a National Government 
 for Eastern Australia must have its head quarters on the 
 
 * Historical and Statistical Account of New South Wales (under 
 the government of Sir George Gipps). 
 
THE GOLDEN LANDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
 
 259 
 
 Pacific, and not in Bass’ Straits ; and Great Britain alone 
 can effect such an arrangement — an arrangement so de¬ 
 sirable for all parties concerned — in the way I have pro¬ 
 posed. From the present petty feeling on the subject, 
 the probability is that, if all the colonies were free and 
 independent, Port Phillip would endeavour to form a 
 separate State, in conjunction with Van Dieman’s Land 
 and South Australia, and break off from New South 
 Wales and the northern colonies altogether. But I repeat 
 it, it is not for the interest of Great Britain, or of the 
 world at large, to permit such an arrangement to take 
 place; and so long as it is in the power of the mother- 
 country to bind together the whole of the eastern pro¬ 
 vinces into one great nation — one mighty power in the 
 Pacific, that will condescend to play “ no second fiddle” 
 to Brother Jonathan, but will claim perfect equality with 
 him from the first — her proper course in the matter is 
 plain and obvious, and cannot be mistaken. 
 
 4th. It is equally necessary, I conceive, that Great 
 Britain should interfere in the way I propose, for the 
 maintenance of the internal peace of the colonies. The 
 friends of freedom in the Australian colonies will certainly 
 not permit the present monstrous system of government to 
 subsist much longer. They w ill risk a struggle by and by ; 
 and ‘‘the odds,” I think, are greatly in their favour. The 
 present enormous expenditure of the Local Government 
 would of itself support a considerable army for the 
 achievement and maintenance of freedom ; and is it to be 
 supposed that such a temptation as it offers will be long 
 resisted by men determined to be free? * No doubt the nu¬ 
 merous host of cormorants and vampires, who are at present 
 
 * “ As to what is called a Revolution principle,” observes the 
 celebrated Dean Swift, “ my opinion is this : — That whenever those 
 evils, which usually attend and follow a violent change of govern¬ 
 ment, are not in probability so pernicious as the grievance we suffer 
 under a present power, then the public good will justify such a Jlevo- 
 lution.” — Dean Swift, Letter to Mr. Pope. Dublin, Jan. 10. 1720. 
 
260 FREEDOM AND INDEPENDENCE FOR 
 
 preying upon the vitals of the country, would scarcely be 
 disposed to surrender their respective shares in the spoils 
 of the public, without a strong effort to engage the mother- 
 country on their behalf: and, accordingly, professing their 
 profound and exclusive attachment to the British empire, 
 that great goddess, Diana , whom all the world worshippeth, 
 “ The Groans of these Britons ,” forsooth, would again be 
 addressed to the Imperial Power, like those of the help¬ 
 less inhabitants of our own Fatherland, when Britain her¬ 
 self was a colony of Rome.* But the timely interference 
 of the Imperial Parliament, in the way I propose, would 
 effectually prevent all such possible collisions, and allow 
 every needful reform to be effected in perfect peace. 
 
 5th. But whatever may have been the necessity for 
 Parliamentary interference before, the urgency of the 
 case has been increased tenfold since the discovery of 
 gold in Australia. By that wonderful event, the Aus¬ 
 tralian colonies have been virtually taken out of the hands 
 of the British Government, like a boat out of the hands of 
 the rower in the rapids of an impetuous river; and they 
 are now swept along by the current towards freedom and 
 independence, with a velocity which the Imperial Parlia¬ 
 ment may guide, as I have shown, for the accomplishment 
 of the highest and noblest national objects, but which it 
 is utterly powerless either to stem or to check. During 
 the last few months the Australian colonies have virtually 
 lived half a century ; and can any reasonable man suppose 
 that they will not feel the new life that is in them, and 
 exhibit all the usual evidences of national vitality? 
 
 The spirit of freedom and national independence is one 
 of the most generous and disinterested, as well as one of 
 the loftiest and most ennobling passions of human nature; 
 
 * When Britain was a Roman colony, and the Emperor, having 
 need for all his troops to defend the central provinces of the empire 
 against the barbarians, recalled the legions that were stationed in 
 Britain, and thereby left the colony exposed to the incursions of 
 the Scots and Piets, a humble petition, entitled 77/e Groans of 
 Britain , was forwarded to Rome, praying for military protection! 
 
THE GOLDEN LANDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
 
 261 
 
 and when it once animates a people, they become capable 
 of deeds, and sacrifices, and exertions, of which they could 
 never have supposed themselves capable before. Besides, 
 this spirit is highly contagious; and when it is once forced 
 into a country, through imperial injustice and oppression, 
 it soon communicates itself to the whole mass of the 
 people. 
 
 Doubtless the Local Government have called for a strong 
 military force — the last and crowning argument of inca¬ 
 pacity and dishonesty — to keep down, or to put down, the 
 people; but there are countries in which either a naval or 
 a military force must act at great disadvantage against 
 even a comparatively small body of resolute men. There 
 are no rivers on the coasts of Australia, which an armed 
 vessel can ascend, like the Potomac at Washington ; and 
 the passes of the Blue Mountains, on the road to the Gold 
 Mines of the interior, like the Straits of Thermopylae, 
 could be defended by a mere handful of Australian Greeks 
 against the whole power of Persia. If even “ two or three 
 thousand badly armed men ” should attempt a revolution¬ 
 ary movement at the Australian mines, there is no calcu¬ 
 lating the possible issue. 
 
 “There are conjunctures,” says the Abbe Millot, “in 
 which the destiny of a people,” as possessing a distinct 
 nationality, “depends upon a single head:”* and there 
 can now be no doubt whatever that, in the natural pro¬ 
 gress of events, some such head will soon appear to give 
 a distinct nationality to the British colonists ol Australia. 
 
 The fatal consequences that resulted from the scornful 
 neglect of the truly wise and patriotic counsel of Dean 
 Tucker, eighty years ago, should read a solemn lesson to 
 the men of the present generation; but as another Dean 
 very justly observes, “ No wonder if men will not take 
 advice, when they will not even take warning.’ j- 
 
 * II est des circonstances ou la destince des peuples depend d’une 
 seule tete.— Millot. 
 
 t Dean Swift. 
 
262 
 
 FREEDOM AND INDEPENDENCE FOR 
 
 CHAP. IV. 
 
 RESULTS TO BE ANTICIPATED FROM THE PROPOSED CONCES¬ 
 SION OF FREEDOM AND INDEPENDENCE TO THE AUSTRA¬ 
 LIAN COLONIES. 
 
 Section I. — A Befitting Career opened up for Men of 
 Talent, Enterprise, and Honourable Ambition. 
 
 Supposing then that Her Majesty’s Government should 
 grant Freedom and Independence to the Australian colo¬ 
 nies, on the conditions I have suggested ; these colonies, 
 or provinces, having each a Senate and House of Repre¬ 
 sentatives, with a governor and other functionaries to be 
 elected by the people, would open up a wide field for men 
 of ability, enterprise, and honourable ambition, both at 
 home and in Australia. For the reader will bear in mind 
 that the “ Seven United Provinces of Australia” would 
 individually be much larger than average-sized American 
 states * ; New South Wales being as large as Great Britain 
 and France together ; Victoria, or Port Phillip, as large as 
 Great Britain; and Van Dieman’s Land, as large as Ire¬ 
 land. The provincial field would, therefore, be both wide 
 and promising for men of character and ability. 
 
 Besides, those who could establish for themselves a high 
 provincial reputation in any one of the provinces, would 
 have a still higher and wider field opened up to them in 
 the general or National Government. The Australian 
 Parliament would be open to them, as senators, and mem¬ 
 bers of the House of Representatives; and the highest 
 
 * New South Wales, Cooksland, and Leichartsland would each 
 have an area equal to that of seven average-sized American States. 
 
THE GOLDEN LANDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
 
 263 
 
 iffices" of the country, including those of President 
 ind Vice-President, together with embassies to foreign 
 states, would be within their reach. In short, the maxim 
 if the late Emperor of France, La carriere ouverte aux 
 ’alens, or, as it is quaintly translated by Carlyle, The tools 
 r or those who can handle them , would be fully realized 
 n Australia; and the emigration of persons of the higher 
 Masses, from the mother-country, including all the liberal 
 professions, would be great beyond all former precedent. 
 
 It has hitherto been a prodigious error in the colonial 
 system of Great Britain, that it has held forth no suitable 
 career in the colonies for persons of these classes in the 
 mother-country ; who have consequently been left to over¬ 
 stock every profession, every branch of business above the 
 condition of mere manual labour, so that, to use the feli¬ 
 citous expression of Mr. Wakefield, there is a universal 
 want of room throughout the United Kingdom for all 
 grades and phases of British gentility. It is from the 
 numerous disappointed persons of these educated classes, 
 that the humbler forms of dissatisfaction and disaffection 
 usually obtain their leadership and their organization ; 
 and the consequent danger to society only becomes the 
 greater, the longer the evil is allowed to exist, and the 
 more numerous these classes become. Under the Gre¬ 
 cian system of colonization, such unquiet spirits were 
 from time to time drafted off, and disposed of in the colo¬ 
 nies; where they became leaders of the people, and 
 realized those offices, and honours, and distinctions, from 
 which they were virtually precluded at home. And so 
 would it be also under the system I propose. Hundreds 
 and thousands of the disappointed, unquiet, and restless 
 spirits that are always floating about upon the surface of 
 society at home — cupidissimi novarum rerum — would 
 betake themselves to the United Provinces of Australia; 
 where a new and highly promising field would be opened 
 up to them — a fair field and no favour. The value of 
 such an outlet to Great Britain, and its importance, in 
 
264 
 
 FREEDOM AND INDEPENDENCE FOR 
 
 regard to the future stability of her institutions, are in¬ 
 calculable. 
 
 Even for the actual colonists, the change in this respect 1 
 would be one of prodigious importance. Hitherto every 
 respectable office, in connection with the different colonial 
 governments, has been hopelessly shut against the sons of 
 the soil; as well as against British emigrants, indeed, 
 of whatever ability or talent, if without interest or con¬ 
 nections at home. Indeed, the possession of superior 
 ability of any kind has usually been a complete bar to 
 admission into any office connected with Government in 
 the colonies; as it served to cast a sort of invidious re¬ 
 flection upon the dull mediocrity around it. 
 
 Besides, the young Australians have generally but little 
 chance of rising in the world as merchants, as they can 
 have no English connections; and if they dislike going 
 into the interior, to keep sheep and cattle, and are above 
 taking a butcher’s shop, or applying for a publican’s li¬ 
 cence, the only resource for them is to enter a solicitor’s 
 office — a branch of business which is consequently pretty 
 well stocked already in the older colonies. No wonder, 
 therefore, that the respectable classes in these colonies, 
 especially those who have sons, should intensely desire a 
 thorough and entire change in our colonial relations. No 
 wonder that the young Australians, whose attachment to I 
 their native land is intense, and whose opinion of its su¬ 
 periority to all others is universal, should already be 
 learning and entering into the spirit of this Australian 
 
 lay : — 
 
 “ Sons of the soil, the die is cast! 
 
 And our brothers are nailing their flag to the mast: 
 
 And their shout on the land, and their voice on the sea, 
 
 Is, The land of our hirtli is a land of the Free ! ” 
 
 Writers on the colonies have generally reproached them, 
 and perhaps not undeservedly, with their inordinate love 
 of money, as the characteristic and exclusive passion of 
 all classes of their inhabitants. “ Unfortunately,” says | 
 
THE GOLDEN LANDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
 
 265 
 
 Vlr. Wakefield, “the ruling passion of individuals in our 
 lolonies is a love of getting money.’'* But it is scarcely 
 air to reproach colonists generally with their money-mak- 
 ng propensities, when we have effectually closed every 
 loor of honourable ambition against them otherwise, 
 hrougli the bad system of government we have forced 
 ipon them, in the gratification of our lust of empire. We 
 nete out to the colonies precisely the same measure of 
 njustice as we do to the Jews, whom we ridicule and 
 leery for their money-making propensities, after we have 
 hut up every other respectable and honourable walk of 
 ife against them. But let ability and desert of every 
 and have a fair field opened up for them in the colonies 
 — let the colonists know and feel that they have a coun- 
 ry to labour for, and not a mere Downing Street jrre- 
 erve for pitiful incapacity —and the same generous and 
 lanly feelings will forthwith be developed, over the whole 
 ace of colonial society, as have uniformly characterized 
 he birth of freedom and independence in every land. 
 About twenty or twenty-five years ago, before free 
 migration had begun to set in strongly for the Australian 
 olonies, the cause of public freedom, in New South 
 Vales, had got into very questionable hands. The “ pa- 
 dots,” as they were then called, were — many of them at 
 :ast — men of exceptionable character; while not a few 
 f them were mere ticket-of-leave-men and emancipists, 
 hose legs were still blue with the marks of their double 
 ons. Mr. Wentworth -j- — an ominous name for the 
 iuse of public freedom — was the demigod of their liero- 
 orship, and was ever and anon bawling out lustily, at the 
 ublic meetings of the Patriotic Association of the period, 
 ir a five pound franchise, and the rights of the people, 
 he Local Government of the day could therefore afford 
 
 * A View of the Art of Colonisation, Sfc. p. 101. 
 f Now one of the members for the city of Sydney, on the old 
 uancipist interest, which is fast wearing out. 
 
 N 
 
266 
 
 FREEDOM AND INDEPENDENCE FOR 
 
 to sit very much at its ease, even in the midst of this agi¬ 
 tation ; for it knew perfectly that “ the patriots ” had no 
 confidence in each other; that their leaders could be 
 bought off at any time, as the result has shown; and that 
 their patriotism would very soon burn out.* The really 
 respectable colonists of the period also took no interest 
 in the matter, and looked on with indifference, if not with 
 contempt.-j- 
 
 * Religion, in the generous, not sectarian, meaning of the word, 
 has this grand distinction — that whilst it restrains, it elevates yet 
 more. Without it the struggles of the labouring classes for rights 
 and dignity are anything but hopeful. — Charming. 
 
 f The following was a poetical comment on the political aspect 
 of the colony, at the period referred to, by an eye-witness :— 
 
 “ Unhappy land! where demagogues uprear 
 
 Adulterous foreheads, reeking with pollution ! 
 
 Catching full oft the unsuspecting ear 
 
 Of innocence with their villainous elocution ; 
 
 And eke presenting to the mob each year 
 A thumping bastard and a Constitution ! 
 
 There’s B—y W—h. What a tale he weaves ! 
 
 A House of Commons for a den of thieves! 
 
 “ I love thee, Liberty, thou blue-eyed maid! 
 
 Thy beauty fades not in the hottest clime ! | 
 
 In purple or plebeian garb arrayed, 
 
 I love thee still! The great in olden time, 
 
 Roman and Greek, worshipped thy very shade, 
 
 And sung thy beauty in their song sublime. 
 
 Tis Paradise to live beneath thy smile, 
 
 Thou patron-goddess of my native isle! 
 
 “ But he that loves fair Liberty must be 
 
 Virtue’s sworn friend : the vicious is a slave 
 And serves a tyrant, nor can e’er be free. 
 
 Of old her wooers were, like Brutus, brave ; 
 
 Like Marvell, incorrupt; Milton, like thee! 
 
 A recreant race wooes now, and digs her grave ; 
 
 Byron, their leader, whose high-lineaged Muse 
 Walks a vile pimp, and caters for the stews! 
 
 “On Freedom’s altar ere I place strange fire, 
 
 Be my arm withered from its shoulder-blade ! 
 
THE GOLDEN LANDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
 
 267 
 
 But the cause of public freedom in New South Wales, 
 swell as in all the other Australian colonies, has got into 
 ery different hands now — into those of intelligent, vir- 
 uous, energetic, and, in many instances, thoroughly Chris- 
 ian men, that is, men, ivho, like Cromwell’s troopers, fear 
 iod and nothing else — men, in short, who are deter- 
 rined that, as far as they are concerned, this grand out¬ 
 age upon the sacred rights of Britons, as well as on 
 lie common sense of mankind, “ Government of the colo- 
 ies by Downing-Street,” shall come to an end. And 
 (though it may suit Mr. Wentworth, who is now a Go- 
 ernment man, and thinks even a twenty pound franchise 
 10 low for the people, to stigmatize these men with the 
 ick-names of communists and socialists — a class of people 
 ith whom they have nothing in common — he knows 
 ight well that a spirit has now been conjured up in the 
 olonies which can never be laid, till the country obtains 
 s entire freedom and independence. 
 
 ection II. —Wonderful Increase of Emigration to Aus¬ 
 tralia AMONG THE HUMBLER AND WORKING CLASSES OF THE 
 United Kingdom. 
 
 I have already observed, that although the waste lands 
 f the present Australian colonies would be under the 
 xclusive control of the National Parliament, in the 
 vent of the arrangement I have recommended being ac- 
 ided to by Her Majesty’s Government, the revenue 
 rising from the sales of such lands in each province, 
 
 Yea, were I lord of great Apollo’s lyre, 
 
 I’d sooner rend its chords, than e’er degrade 
 Its sweet seraphic music to inspire 
 
 One vicious thought! When built on vice, fair maid. 
 Thy temple’s base is quick-sand : on the rock 
 Of virtue reared, it braves the whirlwind’s shock ! ” 
 
 Diary of an Officer in the East. 
 
268 FREEDOM AND INDEPENDENCE FOR 
 
 would be expended for the benefit of that province exclu¬ 
 sively ; and that an agent would be appointed for eacl 
 province, with the concurrence of the Provincial Legisla¬ 
 ture, to superintend and direct the Bounty Emigration 
 from the United Kingdom to the particular province 
 for which he held his appointment. The duties of that 
 officer would be to promote emigration, of the best pos¬ 
 sible character, and to the utmost extent, to his particular 
 province, by diffusing information respecting its capabi¬ 
 lities, and the prospect it held forth to industrious persons 
 of all classes ; by granting assistance, in all proper cases, 
 from the Land Fund, to the full extent to which it might 
 be available ; and, perhaps also, by entering into arrange¬ 
 ments with parishes and unions at home, for the convey¬ 
 ance of their juvenile pauper children, of both sexes, 
 under proper superintendence, to that province. There 
 would also, in all likelihood, be public works in progress 
 in each of the provinces, at which the humbler emigrants 
 would obtain employment at regular wages on their ar¬ 
 rival, till they should obtain a preferable private engage¬ 
 ment, or could otherwise shift for themselves. 
 
 In particular, the provincial agents would be able to 
 render essential service, both to the mother-country and 
 the colonies, by facilitating the emigration of small 
 farmers from those parts of the United Kingdom — as 
 for instance, from the North of Ireland, — in which the 
 subdivision of land has been carried to a ruinous extent; 
 encouraging such persons to make money payments, to 
 the utmost of their ability, to assist in defraying the cost 
 of their own passage out, so as to increase the available 
 land-fund, but giving them at the same time an order on 
 the Provincial Land Office for an extent of land equiva¬ 
 lent to these payments. Thus, for example, the county 
 of Down, in the province of Ulster, in the North of 
 Ireland, contains an area of 514,180 acres, which, ac¬ 
 cording to a letter, published in the London Morningl 
 Chronicle, of the 29th of November, 1847, by W. 
 
THE GOLDEN LANDS OF AUSTRALIA. 269 
 
 Sharman Crawford, Esq., M. P., is occupied as follows, 
 
 viz. : — 
 
 Iu farms of from 1 to 5 acres — in all 13,753 farms. 
 
 do. 
 
 5 to 15 acres 
 
 — in 
 
 all 11,991 
 
 do. 
 
 do. 
 
 15 to 30 acres 
 
 — in 
 
 all 
 
 3,865 
 
 do. 
 
 do. 
 
 above 30 acres 
 
 — in 
 
 all 
 
 1,508 
 
 do. 
 
 Now, as the county of Down is a fair representation of 
 the system which obtains generally in regard to the sub¬ 
 division of land in the North of Ireland, it must be evi¬ 
 dent that that system has been allowed to proceed to an 
 extent which is altogether incompatible with the perma¬ 
 nent prosperity of the country, or the general advance¬ 
 ment of its inhabitants. There is nothing similar to this 
 minute subdivision of land in any part of Scotland. It 
 may be possible, indeed, to extract a bare subsistence 
 from such fragmentary farms as the greater number in 
 this list, but it is utterly impossible that the general po¬ 
 pulation of the province of Ulster can be maintained in a 
 condition of comfort and comparative independence, such 
 as is absolutely necessary for the general welfare and ad¬ 
 vancement, in connexion with such a minute subdivision 
 of the land. 
 
 Emigration from all such localities in the United King¬ 
 dom would be a public benefit at home; while it could 
 not fail to prove equally beneficial to the particular Aus¬ 
 tralian province to which it should be directed. For, as 
 it is well observed, by the late President Jackson, of the 
 United States, “ The wealth and strength of a country 
 are its population, and the best part of that population are 
 the cultivators of the soil;”* it would be a most desi¬ 
 rable application of the Land Fund, to assist such small 
 farmers as a large majority of those in the county of 
 Down, in paying their passage out ; and if these farmers 
 could pay a portion of their own passage money, in con- 
 
 President Jackson’s Message to Congress, Dec. 1832. 
 
270 FREEDOM AND INDEPENDENCE FOR 
 
 sideration of getting an equivalent in land in Australia 
 such payment would virtually be an addition to the avail 
 able fund, and could easily be placed to the credit of th( 
 province. 
 
 I would not propose that these provincial agents should 
 have anything to do with the shipping of the emigrants 
 They rvould only have to report their selection to the 
 Commissioners of Emigration, who would make the requi¬ 
 site arrangements for their passage out, as at present. 
 But the agents would be personally responsible to the pro¬ 
 vincial authorities, for the sort of people they should re¬ 
 spectively send out, and for the amount of benefit which 
 the respective provinces rvould derive from their services. 
 Their characters would therefore be at stake in the mat¬ 
 ter, and the best interests of the respective provinces 
 rvould be greatly promoted. 
 
 Under such efficient machinery, there would very soon 
 be a vast amount of emigration of the very best descrip¬ 
 tion from the United Kingdom to the Australian pro¬ 
 vinces ; and a large portion of the mighty stream of po¬ 
 pulation, that is annually directed to the United States, 
 rvould forthwith be directed to Australia. It is not be¬ 
 cause emigrants of the humbler classes (with the excep¬ 
 tion, perhaps, of the lower Irish) prefer America, that they 
 go thither; but because the cost of passage is much less 
 than to Australia, and because nobody cares for them, or 
 assists them to go elsewhere. But if such machinery as I 
 have described were in operation, and if an interest were: 
 taken in the humbler emigrants by the respective provin¬ 
 cial agents, and assistance afforded them for their passage! 
 out, there can be no question but that a large proportion 
 of the present British emigration to the United Stales 
 would at once change its direction for the golden lands 
 of Australia. I need scarcely add that Great Britain 
 rvould derive material benefit from such a change of di¬ 
 rection, in the stream of emigration setting out from her 
 shores, as well as Australia, from the much better market 
 
THE GOLDEN LANDS OF AUSTRALIA. 271 
 
 which the same amount of population in the latter country 
 affords for her produce and manufactures.* 
 
 Under the present system, there is no provision made 
 for equalising the demand and supply in the matter of 
 immigration, over extensive tracts of the colonial territory ; 
 so that, while labour is comparatively plentiful and mode¬ 
 rately priced in one district, it is often scarcely procurable 
 at all, or if so, only at exorbitant rates in another. This 
 evil has been felt very seriously of late in Cooksland, or 
 the Moreton Bay country; where the increase of all de¬ 
 scriptions of stock has of late years been quite unprece¬ 
 dented. This increase necessarily creates a great demand 
 for pastoral labour, to tend the rapidly increasing flocks 
 and herds. But although there has been a pretty large 
 amount realised from the sale of waste land and town 
 allotments in this district, there has been no free emigra¬ 
 tion directed to it of late, because it has been the policy 
 
 * There is nothing more remarkable than the extreme ignorance 
 that prevailed even among men of the highest intelligence otherwise, 
 about the middle of last century, on the subject of emigration. They 
 deprecated it as a national calamity, and one of Dean Tucker’s 
 arguments in favour of a peaceful separation of Great Britain and 
 her American colonies was the hope he entertained that emigration 
 to America would thereby cease. 
 
 “ Granting,” he observes, “ that emigrations arc bad things in all 
 respects—granting that they tend to diminish the number of your 
 sailors, as well as of your manufacturers, yet how can you prevent 
 this evil ? And what remedy do you propose for curing the people 
 of that madness which has seized them for emigration ? I answer : 
 Even the remedy which hath been so often, and all along proposed, 
 A Total Separation from North America. For most certain it is 
 that, as soon as such a separation shall take place, a residence in 
 the colonies will be no longer a desirable situation. Nay, it is much 
 more probable that many of those who are already settled there, 
 will wish to fly away, than that others should covet to go to them. 
 
 * * * Under such circumstances, there is no reason to fear that 
 many of our people will flock to North America.” — Dean Tucker’s 
 Humble Address, recommending Separation from America, p. 68. 
 Gloucester, 1776. 
 
 n 4 
 
272 FREEDOM AND INDEPENDENCE FOR 
 
 of Downing-street, and consequently of the Local Go¬ 
 vernment, to force the transportation system upon the 
 district, to which a large majority of the inhabitants 
 are decidedly averse. In these circumstances, the pro¬ 
 prietors of stock have been virtually compelled to resort 
 to a somewhat singular expedient — the importation of 
 whole ship-loads of labourers from China, chiefly from 
 the cities of Amoy and Shanghae. Each of these Chinese 
 labourers costs the importer 13/. for his passage to Aus¬ 
 tralia ; and as there had been about a thousand Chinese 
 imported into Moreton Bay alone, besides those imported 
 into other parts of the colony, before I embarked for 
 England, that district had actually contributed not less 
 than 13,000/. for the importation of foreigners through the 
 ruinous policy of the Colonial Office. 
 
 Every person, who has the slightest regard for the real 
 welfare and advancement of the country, regrets and 
 reprobates this importation exceedingly. The Chinese 
 labourers are a miserable-looking people, many of them, 
 it is believed, having been convicts in their own country 
 
 — entirely ignorant, of course, of our language and laws 
 
 — and all males ! But when it is considered that the same 
 expenditure would have carried out to the Moreton Bay 
 country a thousand of our own suffering countrymen, of 
 the semi-pastoral population .of the Highlands and islands 
 of Scotland — the very description of people that are 
 needed in the pastoral country of Moreton Bay — one 
 cannot help feeling deeply indignant at the manner in 
 which the best and dearest interests of both countries are 
 thus compromised and sacrificed through official incapa¬ 
 city. Had the management of the Land Fund been in 
 the hands of a National Government, in the way I pro¬ 
 pose, there would have been the utmost facility in regu¬ 
 lating the demand and supply of labour for the Moreton 
 Bay district from the very first; as Government, even in 
 Australia, can always obtain any amount of money at a 
 reasonable interest on debentures, secured on the Land 
 
THE GOLDEN LANDS OP AUSTRALIA. 
 
 273 
 
 Fund, while the provincial agent at home could have 
 selected, and sent out through the Emigration Commis¬ 
 sioners, the precise number and description of people re¬ 
 quired in the district. When I left the colony several 
 thousand Chinese emigrants were expected to fill the 
 places that, under a better system, would have been gladly 
 filled by our own countrymen from home. Besides, this 
 Chinese immigration — disguise it as its advocates may — 
 is merely a peculiar form of slavery ! It is introducing 
 into the country an inferior and abject race; and there are 
 other evils attending it which I cannot venture to mention.* 
 
 * At an out-station in Moreton Bay, -where a number of Chinese 
 mmigrants were employed as shepherds, stockmen, and general 
 abourers, one of their number, conceiving himself injured in some 
 ,vay by the overseer, made a rush at him with a spade, and would 
 jrobably have killed him, had the overseer not had a musket at 
 land, which he presented at the infuriated creature and shot him 
 lead. Knowing the character of the men he had to deal with, and 
 hat they would make no allowance for justifiable homicide, the 
 iverseer immediately fled for his life to the head-station, and placed 
 limself under the protection of the superintendent. But he had 
 icarcely reached that station, and been placed under covert, when 
 he whole of the Chinamen, from the station at which the man was 
 iilled, came up in full force, brandishing a sort of clasp knife which 
 hey wear, and surrounding the house, demanded that the overseer 
 hould be given up to them that they might dispatch him imme- 
 liately. This the superintendent refused to do, endeavouring to 
 xplain to them, as well as he could, that the man would be tried 
 ,nd would forfeit his life, if fouud guilty. But nothing would 
 atisfy them, till after surrounding the house for hours, they at 
 ength departed, but returned a second time. In the meantime, 
 lowever, the superintendent had enabled the overseer to effect his 
 scape. He was tried in due course, and, I need scarcely add, was 
 cquitted. One of the Chinese, however, who had been brought up 
 s a witness in the case, hanged himself in prison, simply from not 
 ■nderstanding the object of his detention ; for, it seems, it is a point 
 f justice in China to consider the person who is found nearest a 
 ead body as the murderer, and to treat him accordingly. Such, 
 aen, is another of the results of Downing Street colonization. 
 n 5 
 
274 
 
 FREEDOM AND INDEPENDENCE FOR 
 
 Section III. — Realization of all the other Legitimate 
 Objects of Colonization. 
 
 When the first of the four legitimate objects of coloni¬ 
 zation has been secured in any instance by a colonizing 
 country, in providing an eligible outlet for its redundant 
 population, all the other three legitimate objects of colo¬ 
 nization will also be attained in a greater or lesser degree, 
 according to the capabilities of the country colonized, the 
 variety and value of its productions, and the industry and 
 energy of its inhabitants: in other words, a market of a 
 constantly improving character will be created for the 
 purchase and consumption of the manufactured goods of 
 the mother-country ; a field of, perhaps, boundless extent 
 will be opened up for the growth of the raw produce re¬ 
 quired in these manufactures, as well as of other valuable 
 goods and produce, and the trade of the mother-country 
 will in the mean time be progressively and indefinitely 
 extended. 
 
 I have already noticed the impulse which the attain¬ 
 ment of freedom and independence would give to emigra¬ 
 tion to Australia; but as the actual inhabitants of that 
 country consume annually British goods and manufactures 
 to the extent of about 'll. 10s. per head of the entire 
 population, it follows as a necessary consequence that a 
 greatly increased emigration to that country will give a 
 greatly increased impulse to the manufacturing industry 
 of the mother-country, and afford more extensive em¬ 
 ployment, and a higher rate of remuneration to the ma¬ 
 nufacturer and the operative — it will make trade brisker 
 and stimulate manufactures. 
 
 The way in which the colonists are enabled to consume 
 this large amount of British manufactured goods is by 
 raising raw produce in the colonies, to be given in ex¬ 
 change for these goods, and to be worked up in the 
 
THE GOLDEN LANDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
 
 275 
 
 manufactures of the mother-country or otherwise con¬ 
 sumed. Thus the vessel in which I am now writing is 
 conveying to England a cargo of Australian produce 
 which, it is expected, will be worth in the London market 
 about 124,000/.; consisting of wool, tallow, hides, horns 
 and hoofs, preserved meat, timber, wine, and gold. Now 
 all this variety of valuable produce is to pay for British 
 goods that have either been sent out already or are yet 
 to be sent out in return. And if the number of the inha¬ 
 bitants of Australia were only increased twenty-fold, as 
 they would doubtless be very shortly, if the country 
 attained its freedom and independence, the variety and 
 value of these productions would only be proportionally 
 increased. 
 
 Now it is in this mutual interchange of products and 
 good offices, and not in any domination that Great Britain 
 exercises over us,- that the real value of the Australian 
 colonies to the mother-country consists; and whatever 
 would promote and augment this interchange (as the 
 freedom and independence of these colonies would un¬ 
 questionably do to an indefinite extent) would only 
 render Australia the more valuable to Great Britain, 
 whether dependent or not. 
 
 Of what possible benefit, for instance, can it be to the 
 people of England, that we, the people of Australia,— the 
 growers of wool for the manufactures of Leeds, and the 
 diggers of gold for the Bank of England, — should have 
 some rotten limb of the British aristocracy, a man per¬ 
 haps like the present apology for a ruler, without either 
 head or heart, to rule over us, instead of a man of our 
 own choice, such as the urgent necessities of the colony 
 demand in the present emergency—a man and no mistake? 
 And of what benefit can it be to us, the wool growers 
 and gold-diggers of Australia, to have the worst possible 
 example set us in the sacred name of Her Majesty the 
 Queen, and to be obliged to pay for it too at the rate of 
 5000/. a year besides pickings? This unreasonable amount 
 
276 FREEDOM AND INDEPENDENCE FOR 
 
 we are compelled to pay by Act of Parliament—an Act 
 founded on precisely the same sort of right as that which 
 is implied in the well-known formula of the highway 
 “ Stand and deliver! ” * For I challenge all and sundry to 
 show, if they can, on what other right such an Act can 
 be based than the right of might, the right of force, the 
 right of usurpation. If we colonists have a right to 
 anything—our own eyes and ears for instance — we have 
 a right to our own money ; and no power or Parliament 
 on earth can have a right to touch or appropriate that 
 money without our permission. The best paid governor 
 in America, the Governor of the State of Louisiana, with 
 a far larger population to govern than that of New South 
 Wales, has a salary of only 1500/. a year. Now the very 
 best man in Australia could be got for that amount, and 
 would be proud of the honour and distinction, if we had 
 only the power to choose him; and the difference in the 
 mere amount of his income, as compared with the present 
 imposition, would enable us to give salaries of 50/. a year 
 to seventy additional schoolmasters in the thinly peopled 
 districts of the interior! It is these enormities that are 
 fastened upon us by Acts of Parliament and Rescripts 
 from Downing Street, that keep us down as colonists, and 
 prevent us from being half so valuable to the mother- 
 country as we should otherwise be. It is these acts of 
 unrighteous domination that compel us to leave our youth 
 in the far interior uneducated, our roads and bridges 
 unrepaired, and the wants of our people in a hundred 
 different ways unattended to and unsupplied. 
 
 It is difficult indeed to say which of the two parties, 
 
 * Parliament takes the money of the colonies and applies it to 
 purposes they do not sanction, without giving them in exchange any 
 consideration whatever. It is scarcely worth while to argue whe¬ 
 ther this he in violation of the Declaratory Act of 1778. It is cer¬ 
 tainly a violation of natural justice, and will he submitted to so long 
 as it is impossible to resist it successfully; hut not one moment 
 longer.— Times, July 30, 1852. 
 
THE GOLDEN LANDS OF AUSTRALIA. 277 
 
 the mother-country or the colonies, has suffered the most 
 under the monstrous system that has hitherto characterized 
 the government of the Colonies of Great Britain — that 
 system which for two centuries and a half has sacrificed 
 more or less all the legitimate objects of colonization for 
 the gratification of an unhallowed lust of empire, unwar¬ 
 ranted by the laws of God, and trampling under foot the 
 rights of men —and it is one of the most gratifying signs 
 of the times that the true relation of a colony to its 
 mother-country is beginning to be understood in influ¬ 
 ential quarters, and that the way in which alone such 
 dependencies can ever be valuable to the Parent State is 
 beginning to be fully appreciated. “ Is it a secret to 
 you,” asks the celebrated Jeremy Bentham, in his famous 
 Address to the French Convention of 1793, recommending 
 them to emancipate their colonies, “ Is it a secret to you 
 any more than to ourselves, that our colonies cost us 
 much, that they yield us nothing — that our government 
 makes us pay them for suffering it to govern them — and 
 that all the use or purpose of this compact is to make 
 places, and wars that breed more places ? ” * 
 
 “ With respect to Canada,” observes the late Sir Henry 
 Parnell, — “ With respect to Canada (including our other 
 possessions on the continent of North America) no case 
 can be made out to show that we should not have every 
 commercial advantage we are supposed now to have, if it 
 were made an independent state. Neither our manufac¬ 
 tures, foreign commerce, nor shipping, would be injured 
 by such a measure. On the other hand, what has the 
 nation lost by Canada? Fifty or sixty millions have 
 already been expended: the annual charge on the British 
 Treasury is now full 600,000/. a year; and we learn from 
 the Second Report of the Committee of Finance, that a 
 plan of fortifying Canada has been for two or three years 
 in progress, which is to cost 3,000,000/. f 
 
 * Emancipate your Colonies. Jeremy Bentham. 
 
 f Financial Reform. By the late Sir Henry Parnell, M.P. for 
 Dundee. 
 
278 
 
 FREEDOM AND INDEPENDENCE FOR 
 
 “ A country," says McCulloch, “which founds a colony 
 on the liberal principle of' allowing it to trade freely with 
 all the world, necessarily possesses considerable advantages 
 in its markets from identity of language, religion, customs, 
 &e. These are natural and legitimate sources of preference 
 of which it cannot be deprived ; and these, combined with 
 equal or greater cheapness of the products suitable for 
 the colonial markets, will give its merchants the complete 
 command of them.”* 
 
 “ Under the present system of management,” observes 
 the celebrated Dr. Adam Smith, “ Great Britain derives 
 nothing but loss from the dominion which she assumes 
 over her colonies. 
 
 “ To propose that Great Britain should voluntarily give 
 up all authority over her colonies, and leave them to elect 
 their own magistrates, to enact their own laws, and to 
 make peace and war as they might think proper, would 
 be to propose such a measure as never was, and never 
 will be adopted, by any nation in the world. No nation 
 ever voluntarily gave up the dominion of any province, 
 how troublesome soever it might be to govern it, and 
 how small soever the revenue which it afforded might be 
 in proportion to the expense which it occasioned. Such 
 sacrifices, though they might frequently be agreeable to 
 the interest, are always mortifying to the pride of every 
 nation. * * * The most visionary enthusiast would 
 
 scarce be capable of proposing such a measure, with any 
 serious hopes at least of its ever being adopted. If it 
 was adopted, however, Great Britain would not only be 
 immediately freed from the whole annual expense of the 
 peace establishment of the colonies, but might settle with 
 them such a treaty of commerce as would effectually secure 
 to her a free trade, more advantageous to the great body 
 of the people, though less so to the merchants, than the 
 
 * McCulloch’s Statistical Account of the British. Empire, vol. i. 
 p. 595. 
 
THE GOLDEN LANDS OF AUSTRALIA. 279 
 
 monopoly which she at present enjoys. By thus parting 
 good friends, the natural affection of the colonies to the 
 mother-country, which, perhaps, our late dissensions have 
 well nigh extinguished, would quickly revive. It might 
 dispose them not only to respect, for whole centuries 
 together, that treaty of commerce which they had con¬ 
 cluded with us at parting, but to favour us in war as well 
 as in trade, and, instead of turbulent and factious subjects, 
 to become our most faithful, affectionate, and generous 
 allies; and the same sort of parental affection on the one 
 side, and filial respect on the other, might revive between 
 Great Britain and her colonies, which used to subsist 
 between ancient Greece and the mother-city from which 
 they descended.” * 
 
 But the world has been making great advances since 
 the days of Adam Smith; for even while these pages are 
 passing through the press, I observe the following gene¬ 
 rous and enlightened sentiment in an article on Australia, 
 in the leading journal of Europe : — 
 
 “ The people of England have long ago renounced any 
 wish to retain by force of arms remote settlements, in¬ 
 habited by people of our own race, in unwilling and com¬ 
 pulsory subjection. Henceforth the bond of union which 
 unites Britain to her colonies must be free.” f 
 
 There are still, indeed, individuals, both in our own 
 and in the other mother-countries of Europe, who cling 
 to the old fallacy of empire, and regard either the actual 
 or the possible loss of dominion over distant colonies as 
 an event in the highest degree to be deprecated and 
 deplored. M. de Chateaubriand, for instance, in his 
 “Travels in North America,” laments over the loss of 
 the French empire in that country with the most piteous 
 ululations. But another Frenchman, of less brilliancy of 
 genius indeed, but of far keener discernment in matters 
 
 * Wealth of Nations , vol. iii. C. 7. 
 f Times, July 30, 1852. 
 
280 FREEDOM AND INDEPENDENCE FOR 
 
 of every-day life, passes a very different judgment on that 
 event, in regard to its real bearings on the material in¬ 
 terests and social welfare of France. 
 
 “ It is high time,” says M. Say, the eminent French 
 political economist, who wrote much about the same 
 period as M. de Chateaubriand, “ to drop our absurd la¬ 
 mentations for the loss of our colonies, considered as a 
 source of national prosperity. For, in the first place, 
 France now enjoys a greater degree of prosperity than 
 while she retained her colonies: witness the increase of 
 her population. Before the Revolution, her revenues 
 could maintain but twenty-five millions of people; they 
 now (1819) support thirty millions. In the second place, 
 the first principles of political economy will teach us, that 
 the loss of colonies by no means implies a loss of the trade 
 with them. With what did France buy colonial pro¬ 
 ducts before? With her own domestic products, to be 
 sure. Has she not continued to buy them since in the 
 same way, though sometimes of a neutral, or even of an 
 enemy ? * 
 
 And again: — 
 
 “ The ancients, by their system of colonization, made 
 themselves friends all over the known world ; the moderns 
 have sought to make subjects, and therefore have made ene¬ 
 mies. Governors, deputed by the mother-country, feel not 
 the slightest interest in the diffusion of happiness and real 
 Avealth amongst a people, with whom they do not propose 
 to spend their lives, to sink into privacy and retirement, 
 or to conciliate popularity. They know their consider¬ 
 ation in the mother-country will depend upon the fortune 
 they return with, not upon their behaviour in office. Add 
 to this the large discretionary power, that must unavoid¬ 
 ably be vested in the deputed rulers of distant possessions, 
 and there will be every ingredient towards the composition 
 of a truly detestable government * 
 
 * M. Say, Political Economy. Paris, 1820. 
 
THE GOLDEN LANDS OF AUSTRALIA. 281 
 
 Many thanks, M. Say, for the correct definition you 
 have given us of colonial government; for I have no hesi¬ 
 tation in acknowledging it as the general result, of my own 
 experience and observation for nearly thirty years past, 
 that the British government of the Australian colonies 
 has, in comparison with what the government of such 
 communities ought to have been in the present age of free 
 institutions and general enlightenment, been, during the 
 whole of that period, “ detestable government ” — suicidal 
 for Great Britain herself as a great manufacturing and 
 commercial country, with a redundant but peculiarly 
 energetic population, and ruinous for the best interests of 
 the colonies, both morally and materially, in an endless 
 variety of ways. 
 
 All the great names in the literature, both of our own 
 and of foreign countries, are decidedly in favour of the 
 entire freedom and independence of colonies as the best 
 possible condition both for the mother-country and for 
 the dependency. I have already enumerated Grotius, 
 Heeren, Milton, Franklin, Dr. Adam Smith, Mr. Lewis, 
 M. Say, and Jeremy Bentham. I may add Turgot, 
 Talleyrand, Storch, Chardozo, Dr. Thomas Cooper, of 
 America, Malthus, Brougham, Huskisson, Baring, Ri¬ 
 cardo, Torrens, Senior, and last, but not least, the eminent 
 political writer, Mr. James Mill. These distinguished 
 men are unanimously of opinion that dominion over colo¬ 
 nies is of no real use to a mother-country in increasing its 
 commercial prosperity, and that its actual and never-fail¬ 
 ing tendency is to produce or to perpetuate bad govern¬ 
 ment for the colonies. 
 
 “ A word of recapitulation,” says Jeremy Bentham to 
 the French Convention, in summing up his argument, 
 which is equally applicable to the case of Great Britain 
 and her Australian colonies, “and I have done—you 
 will, I say, give up your colonies — because you have no 
 right to govern them ; because they had rather not be 
 governed by you ; because it is against their interest to 
 
282 FREEDOM AND INDEPENDENCE FOR 
 
 be governed by you ; because you get nothing by govern¬ 
 ing them ; because you can’t keep them; because the 
 expense of trying to keep them would be ruinous; because 
 your Constitution would suffer by your keeping them; 
 because your principles forbid your keeping them ; and 
 because you would do good to all the world by parting 
 with them.”* 
 
 There are three articles of agricultural produce, admir¬ 
 ably adapted to the climate and soil of Australia, and for 
 which there is a constant demand at a remunerating price 
 to the agriculturist in the British market, of which the 
 production would be increased to an unlimited extent, in 
 the event of the Australian colonies attaining their free¬ 
 dom and independence; while the production of these 
 articles for the home market would increase the trade and 
 wealth both of the mother-country and of Australia to a 
 degree scarcely conceivable. 
 
 The first of these articles of Australian produce is wine. 
 The cultivation of the vine is now pursued as a branch of 
 colonial industry to a considerable extent; and in those 
 parts of the country that are of trap formation, as in the 
 district of Hunter’s River, the produce is so remarkably 
 abundant that my brother, Mr. Andrew Lang, J. P. of 
 Dunmore, Hunter’s River, has actually had 1800 gallons 
 of wine, and a ton of fruit besides from a single acre of 
 vines. The wine of Australia is a light wine, like those 
 of the Rhine or the South of France ; and under the judi¬ 
 cious superintendence and stimulus of colonial associations 
 for the cultivation of the vine, it is improving in its cha¬ 
 racter as well as increasing in its quantity every year. 
 
 There is no extent to which this branch of cultivation 
 might not be carried with a large population in New South 
 Wales; and as one of the first considerable exports of 
 Australian wine—29 casks—has been effected by the 
 vessel in which I am now writing, there is no doubt that 
 
 Emancipate your Colonies. Jeremy Bentham. 
 
THE GOLDEN LANDS OF AUSTRALIA. 283 
 
 it could be produced in any quantity for the home market 
 at a considerably cheaper rate than most of the wines of 
 the continent of Europe. 
 
 Another article of Australian produce for which the 
 soil and climate are admirably adapted is tobacco. The 
 plant is indigenous in New South Wales, and its produce 
 is beyond all comparison greater than in the United 
 States ; for while the usual produce of an acre of tobacco 
 in the new State of Texas, in precisely the same latitude 
 as New South Wales, but in the opposite hemisphere, is 
 usually 700 lbs., a ton to the acre is not an uncommon crop 
 in New South Wales. This article is grown exclusively by 
 slave labour, both in the United States and in the other 
 foreign countries from which it is at present imported 
 into Great Britain ; but in free and independent Australia 
 it would be grown to an unlimited extent by a people of 
 British origin exclusively, and entirely free. 
 
 The third article of agricultural produce for which the 
 soil and climate of Australia are admirably adapted is 
 cotton. It has now been satisfactorily ascertained, chiefly 
 through experiments originated by myself, that this article 
 of indispensable necessity for the manufactures of Great 
 Britain, for the supply of which the United Kingdom is 
 almost entirely dependent on the United States, can be 
 growm to any conceivable extent, by means of European 
 labour, along 500 miles of the Australian coast to the 
 northward of Sydney; and as water-carriage is available 
 along this whole line of coast, the facilities for its produc¬ 
 tion are extraordinary, while the climate is in the highest 
 degree salubrious. There is room enough, indeed, on that 
 coast alone, and a highly eligible field besides, for the em¬ 
 ployment of agricultural labour in the production of this 
 article of unlimited demand in the mother-country, for 
 the whole redundant population of Great Britain for half 
 a century to come; and as this commodity is grown ex¬ 
 clusively by means of slave-labour in America, there is 
 
284 
 
 FREEDOM AND INDEPENDENCE FOR 
 
 reason to believe that it could be imported into Great 
 Britain from Australia, the produce of British free labour 
 exclusively, at so cheap a rate as to drive the slave-grown 
 produce of the United States out of the market.* 
 
 * The following is the Report of the President of the Chamber 
 of Commerce at Manchester, on nine samples of Australian cotton, 
 which I brought home with me by way of specimen, from five rivers 
 on the east coast of Australia along a coast line of 350 miles. The 
 preliminary remarks on the subject are from an article in the Daily 
 News of the 21st July, 1852 : — 
 
 “ Some specimens of cotton grown in Australia have been sub¬ 
 mitted, by the Rev. Dr. Lang, to the examination of Mr. Thomas 
 Bazley, President of the Manchester Chamber of Commerce; and 
 the opinion of this gentleman, who is acknowledged to be a first- 
 rate judge of the qualities of cotton, will be read with great interest, 
 as showing that this quarter of the world gives promise of becoming 
 one of the finest cotton-fields which have yet been discovered in our 
 colonies, if not, indeed, in the world. The samples of cotton were 
 accompanied by the following schedule, giving a brief history of 
 each description of cotton : — 
 
 “ ‘ 1. In the small canvass bag, grown by Dr. Hobbs, of Brisbane, 
 Moreton Bay, in latitude 27 deg., from seed labelled “ Owen’s 
 superior.” The locality is on a tide river, about fifteen miles from 
 the sea. 
 
 “ ‘ 2. Small specimen of cotton in the seed, grown at Ipswich, on 
 the Bremer River, a tributary of the Brisbane, about forty miles 
 from the sea, in the same latitude. 
 
 “ 1 N.B. This specimen deserves particular attention, as it is the 
 only one that affords satisfactory data for estimating the produce 
 per acre, which, in this instance, was 920 lb. in the seed. It 
 was grown by a Mr. Douglas, of Dunlop, who had no means of 
 cleaning it, and who sold it to Mr. Brierley, of Sydney, at 2 hd. 
 per lb. It was sown on the 1st of October, corresponding to our 
 April; it did not come up till the 21st of the month, when there 
 had been some rain; the season afterwards was dry and warm, 
 but the drought in no way affected the plants; they began to bloom 
 in the middle of December, our midsummer in the southern hemi¬ 
 sphere; the picking commenced on the 20th of February, corre¬ 
 sponding to August in England ; and it lasted four months, during 
 which time the plants continued blooming and producing fresh 
 
THE GOLDEN LANDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
 
 285 
 
 There are twelve tide rivers, all available for steam na¬ 
 vigation, and all having a large extent of land of the first 
 
 pods, till checked by the frost. Estimating the wages of a labourer 
 at 20 1. a-year, with liberal rations, the cost of labour, in preparing 
 the ground and picking the cotton, &c., was 5 1., which, even at the 
 rate at which it was sold, left 4l. 11s. 8 d. as profit on the experi¬ 
 ment. It could be grown to any extent when there is a central 
 establishment on the river for picking it, which could easily be 
 effected, as the two rivers are traversed in both directions every 
 lawful day by two steamboats. 
 
 “‘3. A small specimen of “Big Cream” cotton, grown by the 
 Rev. Mr. Gibson, formerly of Jamaica, now of Clarence River, in 
 latitude 29j deg. south. 
 
 ‘“4. Another specimen from Mr. Gibson’s plat in the seed. 
 Mr. Gibson considers it admirably adapted to the soil and climate. 
 
 ‘“5. Also grown by Mr. Gibson, Clarence River, from different 
 
 seed. 
 
 “ ‘ 6. From Dunmore, Hunter’s River, latitude 32 t deg., grown 
 by A. Lang, Esq., J.P. 
 
 “ ‘ 7. Small specimen in the seed, from the same river, opposite 
 side, grown by Mr. Scobie. 
 
 1 “ ‘8. Grown by J. Bucknell, Esq., Patterson’s River—the second 
 
 year's crop from the same plants. They stand the winter quite 
 well, and Mr. Bucknell says the yield is finer and more abundant 
 the second year than the first. The Patterson is a tributary of the 
 Hunter, in latitude 32i deg. 
 
 “ ‘ 9. An additional specimen from Mr. Bucknell’s in the seed.’ 
 
 ‘‘ The following is Mr. Bazley’s answer, as submitted through the 
 Secretary of the Chamber : — 
 
 “ ‘ Chamber of Commerce and Manufactures, 
 Manchester, July 15. 1852. 
 
 “‘Reverend Sir, — I have submitted the samples of Australian 
 cotton, sent by you to the Chamber yesterday, to the criticism of 
 our President, Thomas Bazley, Esq., whose knowdedge and judg¬ 
 ment in such matters are not surpassed by any gentleman connected 
 with the trade. He has instructed me to make the following 
 report thereon, according to the numbers adopted in your sche¬ 
 dule : — 
 
 “‘No. 1. Grown by Mr. Hobbs, of Brisbane; excellent cotton, 
 and in perfect condition for the spinner; value 22(/. per lb. 
 
 “ ‘ No. 2. Grown by Mr. Douglas, of Ipswich ; really beautiful 
 cotton ; worth, if perfectly clean, 2s. per lb. 
 
286 
 
 FREEDOM AND INDEPENDENCE FOR 
 
 quality for the growth of cotton, on the east coast of: 
 Australia, from Sydney to the Tropic of Capricorn; 
 that is, along a coast of ten degrees of latitude, or nearly 
 seven hundred English miles: and I have no hesitation in 
 expressing it as my decided opinion that if her Majesty’s 
 Government were only to concede entire freedom and in¬ 
 dependence to the Australian colonies, on the highly ad¬ 
 vantageous conditions to Great Britain which I have 
 specified above, as many as half a million of the redundant 
 agricultural population of Great Britain, and Ireland, 
 including women and children, might be settled for the 
 cultivation of cotton along these rivers, within a very fen- 
 years, and without costing her Majesty’s Government a 
 
 “ ‘ No. 3. Grown by the Rev. Mr. Gibson, “ Big Cream ; ” very 
 good cotton, but not well got up ; worth 21 d. per lb. 
 
 “ ‘ No. 4. Grown by the same : very excellent, and in good con¬ 
 dition ; worth 23d. per lb. 
 
 “ ‘ No. 5. Grown by the same: excellent cotton ; worth 22 d. 
 per lb. 
 
 “ ‘ No. 6. Grown by A. Lang, Esq.: short-stapled cotton, of the 
 New Orleans class ; worth 5 \d. per lb. 
 
 “ ‘ No. 7. Grown by Mr. Scobie: good cotton ; worth 20 d. 
 per lb. 
 
 “ ‘ No. 8. Grown by J. Bucknell, Esq.: good and useful cotton, 
 but of the common Sea Island class ; now worth 18d. per lb. 
 
 “‘No. 9. Grown by the same: like the preceding; worth 17d. 
 per lb. 
 
 “ ‘ I am further instructed to assure you, that in the preceding 
 estimates Mr. Bazley has been careful to keep within the limits 
 which his own appreciation of their worth would have led him to 
 fix ; and I am to express his opinion that such superior and excel¬ 
 lent attributes of perfect cotton have been rarely seen in Manchester, 
 and that your samples indisputably prove the capability of Australia 
 to produce most useful and beautiful cotton, adapted to the English 
 markets, in a range of value from 6d. to 2s. 6d. per lb. 
 
 “ ‘ I am, Reverend Sir, your most obedient Servant, 
 
 “ ‘ Tiros. Boothman, Secretary. 
 
 “ ‘ The Rev. John Dunmore Lang, D.D., 
 
 Brunswick Hotel, Manchester.’ 
 
THE GOLDEN LANDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
 
 287 
 
 single farthing.* Our Land Fund, properly managed, 
 would cover the whole expense. The effect of such an 
 emigration on the pauperism and crime of the United 
 Kingdom, independently of its results to the cotton-spin¬ 
 ners of Manchester and Glasgow, would be salutary in the 
 highest degree. It would certainly not permanently di¬ 
 minish the home population; but it would greatly im¬ 
 prove the circumstances and condition of those who should 
 remain. 
 
 As to the probable effects of such an emigration, for 
 such a purpose, on the commercial relations of the mother- 
 country, the extensive production of cotton in Australia,— 
 which I am confident is destined to bring far more wealth 
 into that country than all its mines, — would at once put 
 an end to the present dependence of Great Britain on the 
 United States for the raw produce for her national manu¬ 
 factures. And as it is now no longer a matter of doubt 
 that we can grow cotton of superior quality for the 
 British market, at a cheaper rate than the same quality 
 can be grown at by the American slaveholder, we should 
 in all likelihood compel the latter to break every yoke, and 
 to let the oppressed go free, -j- 
 
 * These rivers are the Hawkesbury, the Hunter, the Manning, 
 the Hastings, the McLeay, the Clarence, the Richmond, the Tweed, 
 the Logan, the Brisbane, the Wide Bay, the Boyne; besides seve¬ 
 ral others of lesser note. The Hawkesbury has been long settled 
 by a European population of small farmers, who grow wheat and 
 maize almost exclusively. On the Hunter, there is much capital 
 and labour already engaged in the cultivation of the vine and of 
 tobacco, which it would not be desirable to interfere with ; but all 
 the other rivers are open and remarkably adapted for cotton cul¬ 
 tivation. 
 
 t There is certainly no country in Christendom that has a 
 stronger interest in maintaining things as they are, as far as ive are 
 concerned, or in preventing Great Britain from conceding Freedom 
 and Independence to Australia, than the United States. For although 
 we should have no such intention, we should certainly, if we could 
 
283 
 
 FREEDOM AND INDEPENDENCE FOR 
 
 The much greater distance of Australia from the Euro¬ 
 pean market, is commonly regarded as an insurmountable 
 obstacle to our success in competing with the Americans; 
 but it is really no obstacle at all. The vessel in which I 
 am now writing is actually carrying home nearly 2,000 
 bales of Australian wool, at a halfpenny a pound; while 
 the usual freight of cotton (which can be packed much 
 more closely without hurting the fibre), from New Orleans 
 to Liverpool, is three farthings a pound. But even sup¬ 
 posing the freight of Australian cotton to be a penny a 
 pound, which it is not likely to exceed, what is that 
 amount on the value of an article worth from one to two 
 shillings a pound? We compete successfully with all the 
 world in wool, notwithstanding the distance. Why, then, 
 should we not compete successfully with the Americans 
 in cotton ? 
 
 But brilliant as this prospect is for Great Britain, and 
 especially for the manufacturing interests of the United 
 Kingdom, I confess I despair of anything of the kind being 
 ever realised till we obtain our entire freedom and inde¬ 
 pendence, and are fairly rid of the incubus of the Colo¬ 
 nial Office for ever. 
 
 “ Now’s the day, and now’s the hour,” 
 
 for the settlement of this great national question — it may 
 be too late to-morrow. 
 
 only obtain our freedom and independence, do a serious injury to 
 that country in several most important respects. 
 
 1. We should direct a large portion of the stream of emigration, 
 which now sets so strongly to the United States, to the land of 
 Freedom and Gold in the Southern Hemisphere. 
 
 2. We should certainly be able to undersell the Americans in all 
 the finer descriptions of cotton in the Liverpool and Manchester 
 market; and I am confident also that 
 
 3. We should thereby give such a deadly blow to the peculiar 
 institution of slavery as it has never yet received. 
 
THE GOLDEN LANDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
 
 289 
 
 Section IV. — Annexation, and its probable Progress. 
 
 Were a National Government established for the 
 nited provinces of Australia, in the way I have proposed, 
 he process which is technically called annexation would 
 i all likelihood proceed as rapidly in that country as it is 
 ow doing in the United States, and in a far less excep- 
 ionable way. I am confident, at all events, that three 
 ears would not elapse, from the period of its establish- 
 lent, till the mother-country would be earnestly peti- 
 :oned by the colony of New Zealand for permission to 
 irm a part of the great Australian Union, as an eighth 
 rovince — of course, on precisely the same conditions as 
 3 emigration and no hostile tariff, as the provinces of 
 lustralia. For the benefits of a Local Government for all 
 omestic matters on the spot, and the head-quarters of a 
 fational Government for all higher matters within a week’s 
 ail, are incalculable — especially to any colony that has 
 een unhappy enough to experience the enormous evils of 
 lie present system. And I am equally confident, that so 
 lr from sinking, Great Britain would rise exceedingly in 
 le estimation of the whole civilized world, from adopting 
 le policy I recommend. Her colonies would then be an 
 lestimable benefit, instead of being a burden, as they 
 ave hitherto been, to the nation; and she would then be 
 le subject of the most devoted attachment on the part 
 f the present colonists, instead of being, as she is now, 
 le object of their dissatisfaction and constantly increasing 
 lienation. 
 
 A National Government in Eastern Australia wouid 
 Iso, I am confident, make immediate and energetic ar- 
 ingements for the occupation and settlement of the great 
 ;land of New Guinea, immediately to the northward of 
 'ape York. Although that great island, which is as large 
 s all France, and probably as valuable as all the British 
 o 
 
290 FREEDOM AND INDEFENDENCE FOR 
 
 West India islands together, could scarcely be colonized by 
 any European power, without great expense and loss, il 
 could be colonized with the utmost facility by the Na¬ 
 tional Government of Eastern Australia, from any settle¬ 
 ment formed at the head of the Gulf of Carpentaria. Il 
 is questionable whether the climate would sustain Euro¬ 
 pean life, so as to be fit for the residence of persons and 
 families of the industrious classes; but there are certain 
 Christian Malay islands in the Indian Archipelago, of 
 which a large portion of the redundant population could 
 easily be conveyed to that island, and settled in suitable 
 localities along the coast, under the superintendence of 
 intelligent Europeans, as artisans, agriculturists, and 
 traders. The valuable nutmeg tree is indigenous in New 
 Guinea, as well as in the Molucca Islands; and its Abo¬ 
 rigines appear to be a decidedly improvable race, as com¬ 
 pared with their congeners in Australia. Some of its 
 tribes are agriculturists in the interior, while others are 
 fishermen and traders on the coast; and, like certain of the 
 aboriginal tribes of the archipelago far to the westward,' 
 they construct immense wooden buildings, in which all 
 the families of a village live together, each however in its 
 separate compartment as on board ship, the unmarried 
 men having a separate house for themselves. 
 
 After being occupied in this way for a time, New G uinea 
 would ultimately become a ninth province of the Austra¬ 
 lian Union, but without the condition as to emigration, as 
 in the Seven United Provinces. It would prove like the 
 East and West Indies to the adventurous youth of the 
 Union, who would there grow tropical productions by 
 means of Aboriginal, Malayan, or Chinese labour. 
 
 Two other provinces might also be formed, as parts of 
 the great Australian Union, from the islands of the Wes¬ 
 tern Pacific; with the island of New Caledonia, perhaps, 
 as the head-quarters of one of them. And although it 
 would not be expedient to divert any portion of the Land 
 Fund of Australia and New Zealand for the promotion of 
 
THE GOLDEN LANDS OF AUSTRALIA. 291 
 
 emigration to these provinces from the continent of 
 Europe, I can see no reason why a similar fund arising 
 from the sale of land in the islands of the Western Pa¬ 
 cific and New Guinea, should not be appropriated for that 
 purpose. When the late German Parliament at Frank¬ 
 fort professed, during its ephemeral existence, to take up 
 the subject of emigration as a national concern, I caused 
 a pamphlet which I had written on the capabilities of the 
 island of New Caledonia for the settlement of a European 
 colony, to be translated into German, and published at 
 Leipsic for circulation among the members; showing them 
 how easily they could form a flourishing German colony 
 in that noble island, which I felt confident the British 
 Government would at once sanction their doing. But I 
 confess it would be much better done by the future 
 National Government of Australia. 
 
 In one word, it is quite in the power of Great Britain, 
 by a single Act of Parliament (which, so far from imply¬ 
 ing any real sacrifice on her own part, would be produc¬ 
 tive of extraordinary and incalculable benefits to her 
 people), to give existence to one of the mightiest Powers 
 on earth, in the Australian seas — a Power that would 
 form the only formidable rival to the United States out of 
 Europe. With a coast-line extending from the South 
 Cape of Van Dieman’s Land to the Equator (including 
 the island of New Guinea), and with whole groups of 
 islands in the Western Pacific looking up to her National 
 Government as their common parent and protector, where 
 is there elsewhere on earth the prospect of so vast a power 
 being called into existence, and within so short a period 
 also, as that in which this entire ideal might be fully real¬ 
 ized ? It appears to me peculiarly desirable for Great 
 Britain to have such a power in these regions bound to 
 herself, as the one supposed would necessarily be, by the 
 strongest ties, considering the vast ambition of our brother 
 Jonathan in the Far West. We are incomparably better 
 situated in Australia for commanding the trade of the 
 
292 
 
 FREEDOM AND INDEPENDENCE FOR 
 
 Eastern Seas, than the Americans are in California and the 
 Oregon territory; and it must evidently be the highest 
 interest of Britain that we should grow and prosper. The 
 boundless extension of her own trade, and the happiness of 
 myriads of her people, are indissolubly bound up with the 
 freedom and independence of Australia. Why then should 
 she imperil these mighty and substantial advantages for a 
 mere empty and valueless possession — the mere whistle of 
 a name ? I cannot imagine anything either more interesting 
 or more beautiful for the moralist, for the philanthropist, 
 for the Christian man, than the strong and devoted at¬ 
 tachment which would immediately spring up and ever 
 afterwards subsist on the part of the whole Australian 
 people towards Great Britain, if she were only to do us 
 this one act of justice—to give us freedom and inde¬ 
 pendence. 
 
 Section Y. — Results to Education, Morals, and Relicion. 
 
 I am strongly of opinion that the freedom and in¬ 
 dependence of the Australian provinces would give a 
 wonderful impulse to the cause of popular education 
 throughout these provinces. Hitherto, nothing compa¬ 
 ratively has been done in this matter in the Australian 
 colonies; the object of the public functionaries having 
 uniformly been to get as much of the public money as 
 possible appropriated in the way of salaries, and as little 
 as possible for anything else. In the new States of America 
 there are uniformly large appropriations of the public 
 lands made by Congress for general education from the 
 very first; and these school-lands are placed under able 
 and vigilant trustees, who realise the largest possible re¬ 
 venue obtainable from them, for the particular object of 
 their destination; it being the general belief of men of 
 intelligence and public spirit in the United States, that 
 the republican institutions of the country could not be 
 sustained, if the people were not generally a well-educated 
 
THE GOLDEN LANDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
 
 293 
 
 people. The proportion set apart for the support of 
 jducation in the new states is every 36th allotment; and 
 t is an interesting fact, as illustrative of the effect which 
 republican institutions have upon a people, in inducing 
 ;hem to support institutions for education, that the state 
 if Connecticut, having had a portion of waste land in the 
 date of Ohio, as large as the whole state of Connecticut, 
 issigned to it after the Revolution, in lieu of certain 
 claims for territory to the westward which it agreed to 
 relinquish for the public benefit, nobly resolved to set 
 ipart the whole of this princely domain for the support 
 if education. It is lamentable, however, to think that 
 lot one acre of public land has ever yet been appropriated 
 n Australia for education ; but this is only one of the 
 nany benefits and blessings of Downing Street colonization. 
 
 From what I know of the Australian colonies, I am 
 oersuaded that liberal appropriations would most willingly 
 oe made by any popular government in Australia for edu¬ 
 cation of all kinds in that country — for common schools, 
 or academies, for colleges, and for universities — and 
 hat a noble field would thus be opened up for emigrants 
 if standing and ability in all the liberal professions, and 
 especially in all departments connected with the education 
 )f youth. That education should become popular in any 
 eountry, it is absolutely necessary that its professors should 
 )e respected; and this very desirable consummation can 
 )nly be arrived at by giving them salaries that will place 
 hem on the same level with other respectable men. The 
 •ector of a public academy or high school in the city of 
 Boston, in Massachusetts, receives as high a salary from 
 he public as the governor of the state. * 
 
 * “ It was a happy and memorable feature in the character of the 
 American colonists, and especially of the people of New England, 
 hat the work of tuition, in all its branches, was highly honoured 
 tmong them, and that no civil functionary was regarded with more 
 •espect, or crowned with more distinguished praise, than a diligent 
 ind conscientious schoolmaster.”—Grahame, iii. 345. 
 
294 FREEDOM AND INDEPENDENCE FOR 
 
 It will scarcely be necessary, after the sketches I have 
 felt myself constrained to give of the present inmates ol 
 Government House, Sydney, to inform the reader that the 
 morals of the people would be promoted to a wonderful 
 degree by the achievement of their national freedom. Thc : 
 influence of an immoral and worthless ruler, in lowering 
 the standard of public morals throughout an entire com¬ 
 munity, is incalculable. Like an iceberg in the great 
 Southern Ocean, it lowers the moral temperature for 
 leagues around. 
 
 Besides, the virtual exclusion of the great body of the 
 people, including even the respectable classes of society, 
 from all concern in the government of their country, 
 under the anti-popular institutions to which we are still 
 subjected in the Australian colonies, renders them posi¬ 
 tively indifferent on the subject, and makes them concen¬ 
 trate all their hopes and affections on the grovelling pur¬ 
 suit of wealth. It is indispensably necessary for the 
 moral welfare and advancement of society, that men should 
 both know and feel that they have a country; but it is 
 quite impossible that men should do this under the exist¬ 
 ing system. 
 
 The glorification of wealth, as the only object worthy of 
 men’s pursuit or ambition, is, as I have already had occa¬ 
 sion to observe, the necessary result of our present insti¬ 
 tutions ; and although it is therefore rather our misfortune 
 than our crime, it has necessarily a debasing influence on 
 the entire community. The circumstance of the late; 
 General Harrison, President of the United States, living 
 in his own log-cahin, on the great bend of the Ohio 
 river — or of the late President Polk dying worth only- 
 25,000 dollars, that is, only about 5,000/. — reminds us of 
 the glorious days of old Rome, and of the real and not 
 pretended contempt of riches for which her heroic people 
 were so remarkable: 
 
 “ Privatus illis census erat brevis ; 
 
 Commune magnum.” 
 
THE GOLDEN LANDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
 
 295 
 
 ‘ The salaries of their public functionaries, and the 
 istates of private individuals, were then comparatively 
 small; but the wealth and power of the state were pro- 
 lortionably great.”* The creed of the Mussulman is, 
 ‘ There is no God but Allah, and Mahomet is his Pro¬ 
 phet:” but the creed which is virtually taught by our 
 veculiar institutions is, “ There is no God but Mammon, 
 ind we are all his worshipers.” 
 
 I am equally confident that the triumphs of Christianity, 
 in its purest forms, would be rapid, signal, and exten¬ 
 sive under the flag of entire freedom and national inde¬ 
 pendence in Australia. The present Australian colonial 
 system, of supporting all forms of religion equally from 
 the treasury of the state, is essentially latitudinarian and 
 infidel in its character, and therefore necessarily irreli¬ 
 gious and demoralising in its tendency. It would never 
 be permitted to subsist under the reign of freedom and in¬ 
 dependence. There would then be a fair field for all, and 
 no favour for any; and as the truth is great, it would 
 
 * Curius Dentatus, having been presented by the Roman people 
 with fifty acres of land, on account of the great ability and bravery 
 he had exhibited in gaining a victory over Pyrrhus, king of Epirus, 
 for which he had also been honoured with a triumph, declined 
 receiving the gift, which he thought too great, and was content with 
 the usual plebeian allotment of seven acres.—Columella, i. 3. (I 
 think I am indebted for this illustration to Niebuhr, but I have 
 omitted to mark the reference.) I wonder what this honest old 
 Roman would have thought of our Mr. Wentworth—a patriot, like 
 himself— claiming, from the late governor of New South Wales, 
 the recognition of his right to the whole of the Middle Island of 
 New Zealand, under the notorious pretext of his having purchased it, 
 forsooth, from a few of the natives! It is impossible, in the nature 
 of things, that genuine patriotism can co-exist in the same breast 
 with such enormous greed; and, therefore, it was one of the most 
 natural things in the world for Mr. Wentworth to turn his coat and 
 become a government man, as he did, and vote for the infamous 
 Electoral Act, that deprived half the inhabitants of his native land 
 of their proper share of the general representation. 
 
296 FREEDOM AND INDEPENDENCE FOR 
 
 ultimately prevail. At the same time it is one of the pro- 
 foundest mysteries in the history of man, as I have noticed 
 elsewhere, that the progressive landing of 50,000 British 
 criminals on the shores of Australia should have been the 
 first in that series of events which is evidently destined, ini 
 the counsels of Eternity, to issue in the occupation and 
 settlement, the civilization and Christianization of a large 
 portion of the southern hemisphere. It reminds us, at all 
 events, that God’s thoughts are not our thoughts, neither 
 are our ways His ways. For as the heavens are higher 
 than the earth, so are His ways higher than our ways, 
 and His thoughts than our thoughts * 
 
 Australia is at this moment one of the most important 
 centres of moral and Christian influence on the face of 
 the globe. It possesses this character in a degree incom¬ 
 parably higher than the United States of America. The 
 forty millions of the Mahometan and Pagan inhabitants 
 of the Indian Archipelago, whom Christian Europe has 
 left almost entirely uncared for these three centuries, will 
 be brought within a few days’ sail of our first settlement 
 on the Gulf of Carpentaria. New Guinea, one of the 
 largest islands in the world, is at our door; and the mul¬ 
 titude of the isles of the Western Pacific are close upon 
 our eastern coast, while China looms in the distance from 
 the northern extremity of the land. There is clearly, 
 therefore, no part of the habitable globe on which it is of 
 more importance at this moment to plant a thoroughly 
 Christian people than the shores of Australia. The Chris¬ 
 tian settlement formed, through my own instrumentality, 
 at Moreton Bay, sufficiently shows how much may be 
 accomplished in this way, with very limited means, and 
 notwithstanding every discouragement on the part of a 
 thoroughly heartless, blind, and unprincipled Government. 
 With half a million of people of the same class and cha¬ 
 racter— and there would be no difficulty in finding them 
 
 * Tsai. lv. 8,9. 
 
THE GOLDEN LANDS OF AUSTRALIA. 297 
 
 — Australia would have a moral machinery to bring to 
 bear upon the heathenism of the earth, unsurpassed by 
 that of any other Christian country of equal population 
 in the world. I confess I entertain the highest hopes of 
 my adopted country in this important particular. I be¬ 
 lieve it is destined, in the counsels of Infinite Wisdom, to 
 be the seat of one of the first of the Christian nations of 
 the earth, and that while the number of its Christian 
 people will yet be as the sand of the sea which cannot be 
 measured or numbered, it shall come to pass that in the 
 olace where it teas said unto them, Ye are not my people, 
 there it shall be said unto them, Ye are the sons of the living 
 God* 
 
 * Hosea, i. 10. 
 
298 
 
 FREEDOM AND INDEPENDENCE FOR 
 
 CHAP. V. 
 
 AN APOLOGY FOR PENAL COLONIES FOR GREAT BRITAIN. 
 
 Section I. — Causes of the large and constantly increasing 
 Amount of Crime in the United Kingdom. 
 
 I have already had occasion to contrast the social sys¬ 
 tem of the ancient commonwealth of Israel, in the article 
 of the distribution of property in land, with that of the . 
 United Kingdom at the present day. In the nation of 
 Israel, when originally constituted, there were 601,730 
 proprietors of land, each holding an equal extent, out of 
 an entire population of about three millions, that is one 
 for every five: and there was a provision besides, in the 
 Constitutional Code of the country, to the effect that any 
 person who had lost his landed property in the interval — 
 no matter from what cause — should return into the pos¬ 
 session of his family every fiftieth year. 
 
 The object of this peculiar political institution was un¬ 
 questionably to preserve as much as possible a condition 
 of equality in the distribution and possession of the real 
 property of the country, as being the most conducive, in 
 the eye of the legislator, to the moral welfare and social 
 happiness of the people. This object, and the reason on 
 which the peculiar political institution to which I have 
 referred was based, are clearly stated by that ancient but 
 able politician, Agur, the son of Jakeh, in his beautiful 
 prayer, Remove far from me vanity and lies: give me 
 neither poverty nor riches ; feed me with food convenient 
 for me: Lest I he full, and deny thee, and say, Who is the 
 Lord? or lest I be poor and steal, and take the 
 
THE GOLDEN LANDS OF AUSTRALIA. 299 
 
 name of my God in vain.* Passing over the other 
 social and political aspects of this ancient record of con¬ 
 summate political wisdom, it is here laid down as a fixed 
 and established maxim of social polity, “ that a condition 
 of poverty leads directly to dishonesty and theft, to irreli- 
 gion, and to all manner of crime.” I find precisely the 
 same idea put forth by that able but eccentric political 
 writer, the late William Cobbett, in the following ener¬ 
 getic language :—“ Poverty and misery have always been, 
 and always must be, the prolific parents of crime.” f 
 
 Such then was a social system of God’s planning and 
 organization : let us now see one of man’s under our own 
 glorious and happy constitution in Church and State. 
 According, therefore, to Mr. D’Israeli, we have consi¬ 
 derably under 250,000 proprietors of land in all Great 
 Britain and Ireland, for a population of twenty-eight mil¬ 
 lions, that is, one in every hundred and twelve of the 
 entire population ; while the land, so held by this mere 
 handful of proprietors, is in all manner of unequal pro¬ 
 portions, from whole counties down to mere potato gar¬ 
 dens. Besides, so far are we from having anything equi¬ 
 valent to the beautiful Jubilee institution of the ancient 
 Israelites — so far are we from having laws to equalize 
 the distribution of real property after periodical intervals 
 — the whole course and object of our legislation for cen¬ 
 turies past has been to accumulate landed property in the 
 hands of a comparatively few individuals, and to depress 
 a large portion at least of the rest of the community to 
 an abject and degraded condition. That grand iniquity, 
 for instance, the feudal system, has left us, as a sacred 
 legacy, its laws of primogeniture and entail, to depress 
 and degrade the masses of the people. 
 
 I should be sorry to have it supposed that I had any 
 intention to recommend a substitution of the political 
 
 * Prov. xxx. 8, 9. 
 
 f Letter to the Pope. London, 1828. 
 
300 
 
 FREEDOM AND INDEPENDENCE FOR 
 
 institutions of Moses for those of the United Kingdom, 
 or to hint at the propriety of a redistribution of the 
 landed property of the country, on the principle of the 
 Hebrew Jubilee. I have nothing in common with M. 
 Prudhomme and the French Communists, nor do I hold 
 with them the monstrous and dangerous doctrine that 
 “ Property is robbery.”* All I mean to assert is, that a 
 right principle for the organization of a social system 
 must be equally applicable to us and to the ancient 
 Hebrews, and that a wrong one will be productive of 
 precisely the same effect in both cases. And if every 
 tree is to be known by its fruits, it is at least questionable 
 whether the tree of our own glorious and happy consti¬ 
 tution should be classified under the category of good 
 trees, or under that of bad ones; for it cannot be denied 
 that it produces a fearful, and a constantly increasing, 
 amount of poverty, and misery, and crime. 
 
 Section II. — National Safety-valve provided for the 
 Remedy of this fundamental Defect in our Social System. 
 
 But Divine Providence has beneficently furnished the 
 British nation with a safety-valve, so to speak, for the 
 periodical escape of much of this peccant matter — the 
 product of our peculiar social system — and for turning 
 it to the best possible account. It has given Great Britain 
 a colonial empire of vast extent, comprising every variety 
 of soil and climate, fit for the settlement and sustenance 
 of European life. It has given her facilities for coloniz¬ 
 ation, such as no country in the world ever possessed 
 before. And it has called her, as if by an audible voice 
 from heaven, to fulfil her proper mission — the highest 
 and holiest mission ever assigned to any nation upon 
 earth — to extend, by means of her enterprising and ener- 
 
 Proyritti c'est le vol. — Prudhomme. 
 
TIIE GOLDEN LANDS OF AUSTRALIA. 301 
 
 getic people, her noble language, her equitable laws, her 
 free institutions, and her Protestant religion, over a vast 
 extent of the habitable surface of the globe. And what 
 have we been doing all the while — with these glorious 
 objects before us, and this mighty machinery of means 
 at our command ? Why, like unskilful engineers as we 
 are, we have, for two centuries past, been placing that 
 talent of lead, the Colonial Office, upon the national 
 safety-valve, colonization, to prevent the waste steam 
 from escaping, till we have all but burst the boilers, and 
 blown up the noblest ship that ever sailed the seas. 
 
 Section III. — No Means of permanently disposing of the 
 
 CONSTANTLY INCREASING CRIMINAL POPULATION OF THE BRITISH 
 
 Islands at Home. 
 
 • 
 
 In these circumstances there is no possible means of 
 permanently disposing of the constantly increasing crimi¬ 
 nal population of the United Kingdom, in Great Britain 
 and Ireland. Employ what form of punishment for crime 
 you please — gaols, hulks, or penitentiaries ; the silent and 
 social system, or the silent and solitary system — the result 
 is precisely the same: there is a constantly increasing 
 amount of criminal population, which it is utterly impos¬ 
 sible to dispose of, either safely or advantageously, at 
 home.* For if the criminal is thrown back upon society, 
 after he has completed his term of punishment, under any 
 conceivable system, society rejects him with abhorrence; 
 for who, if he knows it, will employ a man who lias served 
 his time at the hulks ? Whatever purposes of amendment, 
 
 * “ Warning is, in ordinary cases, the principal end of punishment; 
 hut it is not the only end. To remove the offender, to preserve 
 society from those dangers that are to be apprehended from his in¬ 
 corrigible depravity, is often one of the ends. In the case of such a 
 knave as Wild, or such a ruffian as Thurtell, it is a very important 
 end.”—Macaulay’s Essays, vol. i. p. 142. 
 
302 
 
 FREEDOM AND INDEPENDENCE FOR 
 
 therefore, the criminal may have been led to form during 
 his period of punishment, he finds it impossible to realize 
 them on his return to society, there being no suitable 
 field open for him in any quarter, and every door being 
 closed against him. In such circumstances he has no re¬ 
 source but to return to his former courses, and he returns 
 accordingly ; like the dog returning to his vomit , or the sow 
 that was washed to her wallowing in the mire. 
 
 It appears to me, therefore, to be an absolute political 
 necessity for the British empire, under existing circum¬ 
 stances, to have a system of convict colonization, as part 
 of the national machinery for the repression and punish¬ 
 ment of crime; such a course being equally the dictate of 
 humanity towards the criminal, and a matter of absolute 
 necessity for the well-being of society. 
 
 Section IV. — Objections to Convict Colonization considered 
 — Lord Bacon’s. 
 
 “It is a shameful and unblessed thing,” observes Lord 
 Bacon, “ to take the scum of people, and wicked con¬ 
 demned men, to be the people with whom you plant: and 
 not only so, but it spoileth the plantation; for they will 
 ever live like rogues, and not fall to work, but be lazy, 
 and do mischief, and spend victuals, and be quickly weary, 
 and then certify over to their country to the discredit of 
 the plantation.”* 
 
 Now I entirely agree with Lord Bacon as to the general 
 principle laid down in this passage; and if Great Britain 
 had no other system of colonization in progress, than 
 convict colonization, I would join with his lordship in de¬ 
 nouncing it with all my heart. But Lord Bacon had no 
 experience of such a state of things as the present in the 
 British empire; for if it has become a matter of urgent 
 
 Essays, No. 33. “ Of Plantations. 
 
THE GOLDEN LANDS OF AUSTRALIA. 303 
 
 necessity for the well-being of society, as well as a measure 
 of humanity towards the criminal, to establish a system 
 of convict colonization, there must necessarily be a parti¬ 
 cular exception to his excellent general rule ; for all such 
 rules admit of such exceptions.* If Lord Bacon had 
 lived in our times, he would most certainly have recog¬ 
 nized such an exception in the case in question ; and while 
 he would have urged the observance of his general rule in 
 any system of national colonization, for the relief of the 
 poverty and misery, and for the gradual withdrawal of the 
 dissatisfaction and disaffection of the empire, he would 
 also have admitted the necessity for a system of convict 
 colonization, for the disposal of its constantly increasing 
 criminal population. 
 
 At the same time, Lord Bacon was, as Mahomet says 
 of the Unbelievers, “ in a manifest error, ”f when he laid 
 it down as a maxim for such cases, that convicts “ will 
 ever live like rogues, and not fall to work” in a plantation. 
 This is contrary to all colonial experience in penal colonies ; 
 and if so little work comparatively has actually been got 
 out of the convicts in such colonies, it has arisen princi¬ 
 pally from the bad system on which these colonies have 
 hitherto been founded and managed. If crime in Great 
 Britain is, in great measure, as I firmly believe it is, the 
 result of the poverty and misery so prevalent in the 
 mother-country, and if that poverty and misery is the re¬ 
 sult of our peculiar institutions, in regard to the distri¬ 
 bution of property, combined with the pressure of the 
 Downing Street talent of lead on the national safety-valve, 
 colonization, the probability is that, in a large majority of 
 instances at least, the convict, if relieved from the further 
 pressure of poverty and misery, and placed in circum¬ 
 stances which would afford him a certain prospect of 
 comfort in his worldly condition, would “ live like a 
 rogue” no longer, but “ fall to work” in right earnest. 
 
 Exceptio probat regulam. 
 
 f Sale’s Alcoran, passim. 
 
304 
 
 FREEDOM AND INDEPENDENCE FOR 
 
 Section V. — Results of Transportation in New South 
 
 Wales and Van Dieman’s Land no Argument against the 
 
 System generally. 
 
 No person in the least acquainted with the history of 
 New South Wales and Van Dieman’s Land, during the 
 continuance of the Convict system in the former of these 
 colonies, can fail to be astonished at the utter want both 
 of system and ot common sense, as well as at the gross 
 mismanagement, that were everywhere apparent; and the 
 only wonder is that, in circumstances so peculiarly un¬ 
 favourable, such results, as were actually attained, could 
 have been realized. When examined before the Select 
 Committee of the House of Commons on Transportation, 
 in the year 1837, I gave it as my opinion that transport¬ 
 ation to New South Wales and Van Dieman’s Land should 
 forthwith be discontinued; as these colonies were then 
 no longer fit places for carrying out the objects of 
 transportation, in consequence of the mismanagement of 
 former years, and as they were also sufficiently advanced 
 in their material interests not to require such an ap¬ 
 pendage any longer. But regarding the continuance of 
 transportation as a political necessity for the British 
 empire, and a measure of humanity towards the convict, 
 I recommended that it should still be continued, and 
 carried out, with all the improvements which the expe¬ 
 rience of half a century would suggest, in some other 
 locality. And to these opinions and recommendations I 
 still adhere.* 
 
 * “ The vast amount of crime which is chargeable on the colony” 
 (of New South Wales) “ almost entirely proceeds from its unre¬ 
 formed convict population, for whose moral improvement and proper 
 restraint little has, at any period of its history, been done, and, of the 
 former at least, little in comparison with the necessity is even yet 
 in progress.” — Judge Burton, Article on the Moral Condition of 
 New South Wales; Colonial Magazine, May, 1840. 
 
THE GOLDEN LANDS OF AESTKALIA. £05 
 
 It is monstrous, therefore, for the British Government 
 to persevere, as it has been doing for years past, at the 
 instance of Earl Grey, in maintaining a fruitless and dis¬ 
 creditable contest, first with the colony of New South 
 Wales, and afterwards with that of Van Dieman’s Land, 
 for the continuance of transportation to these colonies. 
 If the question had been for the continuance or discon¬ 
 tinuance of transportation absolutely, there would have 
 been some reason for holding out for its continuance; 
 but when it took the form of a contest with a particular 
 colony for continuing and carrying it out in that colony, 
 against the opinions, and remonstrances, and protests of 
 a large majority of the colonists, the procedure of the 
 Home Government was as impolitic as it was oppressive 
 and tyrannical, and could only be met, as it has been, 
 with determined resistance. 
 
 The discovery of gold in Eastern Australia has placed 
 this question in a very different light from what it has 
 ever appeared in before. The probability is that the 
 Australian Andes, on the western slopes of which the 
 gold regions are chiefly found, are auriferous throughout 
 their whole extent, to the northern extremity of the land. 
 It would, therefore, be folly in the extreme, besides being 
 an actual premium on crime throughout the United 
 Kingdom, to banish criminals to a Gold Field. Besides, 
 to send convicts to Cooksland, or Moreton Bay, as Earl 
 Grey has recently been proposing to do, would virtually 
 be quite the same as sending them to New South Wales, 
 from which they are now expressly excluded ; the boun¬ 
 dary between the two countries being a mere imaginary 
 line. And to form a penal settlement on any part of 
 the east coast, still farther to the northward, would be 
 holding out the greatest facilities of escape for the 
 convicts to the numerous inhabited isles of the Western 
 Pacific; the water on that part of the coast being so still 
 within the Barrier Reef, and the islands so near. So far, 
 therefore, as the carrying out of the transportation system 
 
306 
 
 FREEDOM AND INDEPENDENCE FOR 
 
 of the United Kingdom is concerned, the island of Van 
 Dieman’s Land, and the whole eastern coast of Australia, 
 must be given up and abandoned. 
 
 Section VI. — Objection, from the alleged Perpetuation of 
 Crime in a Penal Colony, considered and refuted. 
 
 There are men who would benevolently, as they con¬ 
 sider it, order home all the actual convicts from the 
 existing penal colonies, but who protest strongly against 
 the idea of founding any other colony of the same kind, 
 on the ground of the alleged immorality of the thing, and 
 of the supposed tendency of a colony so framed to 
 produce nothing but crime. The proceedings of the 
 Select Committee of the House of Commons on Trans¬ 
 portation, in the years 1837 and 1838, called into exist¬ 
 ence a whole host of these well-meaning, but exceedingly 
 ill-informed, and wrong-headed people. Without troubling 
 themselves as to what they were to do with the constantly 
 increasing number of convicts — the natural product, in 
 so many instances, of poverty and misery—in the United 
 Kingdom; and without troubling themselves as to what 
 the liberated convict could do for himself in the mother- 
 country, after the completion of his period of punishment, 
 they got up a senseless hue and cry about the inherent 
 immorality of a Penal Colony; and formed, in their own 
 fertile imagination, a sort of inclined plane, descending 
 from the actual level of society to the bottomless pit, 
 down which a colony so formed would be sure to de¬ 
 scend, with the perpetually increasing velocity of a falling 
 body. - 
 
 One of these well-meaning, but ill-informed and wrong¬ 
 headed people, is the Rev. Dr. (now Bishop) Hinds, (late) 
 Dean of Carlisle, who, in a Paper on Colonization, ap¬ 
 pended to Archbishop Whately’s Thoughts on Secondary 
 
THE GOLDEN LANDS OP AUSTRALIA. 307 
 
 Punishment., published in the year 1832, thus delivers 
 himself of his great idea — referring all the while to the 
 then convict colony of New South Wales. 
 
 “ Imagine the case of a household most carefully made 
 up of picked specimens from all the idle, mischievous, 
 and notoriously bad characters in the country ! Surely 
 the man who should be mad or wicked enough to bring 
 together this monstrous family, and to keep up its num¬ 
 bers and character by continual fresh supplies, would be 
 scouted from the society he so outraged, — would be 
 denounced as the author of a diabolical nuisance to his 
 neighbourhood and his country, and would be proclaimed 
 infamous for setting at nought all morality and decency. 
 What is it better, that, instead of a household, it is a 
 whole people we have so brought together, and are so 
 keeping up ? — that it is the wide society of the whole 
 world, and not of a single country, against which the 
 nuisance is committed ? 
 
 “ If then, the question be, What can be done for this 
 colony? Begin, I should say, by breaking up the system; 
 begin by removing all the unemancipated convicts. I do 
 not undertake to point out the best mode of disposing of 
 these ; but let them be brought home and disposed of in 
 any way rather than remain. There is no chance for the 
 colony until this preliminary step be taken. In the next 
 place I should propose measures, which may be compared 
 to the fumigation of pestilential apartments, or to the 
 careful search made by the Israelites in every recess and 
 corner of their houses, for the purpose of casting away 
 all their old leaven before beginning to make the unlea¬ 
 vened loaves for the Passover. There should be a change 
 of place,—a transfer, if possible, of the seat of govern¬ 
 ment to some site within the colony, but as yet untainted 
 with the defiling associations of crime and infamy.” 
 
 And again : “ Can we look forward without a shudder, 
 at the appalling spectacle which a few generations hence 
 
308 
 
 FREEDOM AND INDEPENDENCE FOR 
 
 may be doomed to witness in Australia? Pass by as many 
 years to come as it has taken the United States of America 
 to attain to their present maturity, and here will be 
 another new world with another new people, stretching 
 out its population unchecked; rapid in its increase of 
 wealth, and art, and power; taking its place in the con¬ 
 gress of the mightiest nations ; rivalling, perhaps, ruling 
 them ; •— and then think what stuff this people will have 
 been made of; and who it is that posterity will then curse 
 for bringing this mildety on the social intercourse of the 
 world; who it is that will be answerable for the injury 
 done by it to human virtue and human happiness, at 
 a tribunal more distant, but more awful even than 
 posterity.” 
 
 I can only say that such sentiments as these are not 
 only quite unwarrantable, and contrary to all experience 
 in penal colonies, but utterly unworthy of any Christian 
 divine.* Mr. Cobbett, exceptionable character as he was 
 
 * To the same effect, Archbishop Whately, in his speech in the 
 House of Lords, 19 th May, 1840, thus expresses himself: — 
 
 “ Better—far better—would it have been that the lands of New- 
 South Wales should have remained till the end of time in their 
 primitive wildness,—better for the mother-country, —for the abo¬ 
 rigines, — and for the settlers themselves, —that the whole region 
 should have been swallowed up in the ocean, than that it should 
 have been erected into such a monument of national folly and per¬ 
 versity, such a stronghold and seminary of wide-spreading and 
 permanent moral corruption, as it now exhibits.” 
 
 And again, “ To persevere, I say, knowingly and deliberately in 
 thus creating a profligate nation, and by continual fresh supplies 
 making and keeping it from generation to generation the most 
 hopelessly corrupt community that ever the sun shone upon, would 
 he a national crime and folly which I do trust there is too much 
 good feeling and good sense among us to endure.” 
 
 And again, “ The more such a colony flourishes in respect of 
 worldly prosperity, — the more its population increases, — (as it is 
 likely to do most rapidly, with a practically boundless extent of 
 territory) — and the more of commercial and political importance it 
 acquires,—the more will its evil tendencies he developed,—the 
 
THE GOLDEN LANDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
 
 309 
 
 in some respects, was a much better divine than Bishop 
 Hinds, when he maintained that poverty and misery were 
 the prolific parents of crime in England, and left it to 
 be inferred, that the only effectual means of diminish¬ 
 ing crime is to remove its causes or sources. A large 
 proportion of the poverty-and-misery-made criminals of 
 England have only to be placed in circumstances more 
 favourable for the development of the better parts of 
 their moral nature, and for their acquisition of the means 
 of living comfortably in a more reputable way, to ensure 
 their return to the paths of virtue. Besides, it is anti- 
 Christian, it is absolutely inhuman, to maintain that there 
 is any taint in the blood, in the family, in the race, of a 
 poverty-and-misery-made criminal, so that the offspring 
 of such parentage should necessarily either equal or 
 surpass the parents in crime. I know of numerous in¬ 
 stances in New South Wales, of the offspring of convict 
 parents on both sides becoming reputable, industrious, 
 and virtuous members of society; and I should have no 
 
 more widely and the more powerfully will it diffuse its pestilential 
 taint; till it become a most portentous curse, as well as disgrace, to 
 this nation, and to the world at large.” 
 
 Transportation to New South Wales was discontinued in 1840, 
 while free emigration, for years before, had been greatly increased ; 
 the population having been doubled, from that source alone, during 
 the administration of Sir George Gipps. The change, therefore, 
 that has taken place for the better in the colony generally during 
 the last fifteen years is wonderful. Still, however, the sweeping and 
 condemnatory language of Archbishop Whately, as to the necessary 
 and actual effects of transportation, even under the old system, bad 
 as it was, is totally unwarranted, and the sheerest exaggeration. So 
 also is the following picture of Sydney, in 1836, by Sir W. Moles- 
 worth, in his Notes to the Report of the Select Committee on Trans¬ 
 portation :— “To dwell in Sydney would he much the same as 
 inhabiting the lowest purlieus of St. Giles’s, where drunkenness and 
 shameless profligacy are not more apparent than in the capital of 
 Australia.” As a picture of Sydney at present, this would simply 
 be ridiculous from its absurdity; but, even in 1836, it was the grossest 
 exaggeration. 
 
310 ' FREEDOM AND INDEPENDENCE FOR 
 
 fears whatever for the morals even of a convict colony, 
 in the second, and still less in the third and fourth gene-, 
 rations, if founded on a right, principle and judiciously 
 managed. The colonies of New South Wales and Van 
 Dieman’s Land, as well as all the other colonies of the 
 group to which they belong, are destined, on the attain¬ 
 ment of their freedom and independence, to take a high 
 place, both in morals and in everything else, in the great 
 family of nations; and there are few, if any, cities of 
 Great Britain and Ireland, of equal population, and 
 forming at the same time a haven for ships, that have 
 a more quiet, orderly, and, I will not hesitate to add, 
 virtuous population than a large majority of the inha¬ 
 bitants of the city of Sydney. Certainly, there is no city 
 of equal extent in the United Kingdom in which a 
 general election, even in a time of universal excitement, 
 is conducted throughout in so peaceful and decorous a 
 manner. 
 
 Section VII. — The Principles on which a Penal Colony 
 
 OUGHT TO BE FOUNDED AND MANAGED. 
 
 It is one of the wise sayings of Homer, that “ the day a 
 man loses his freedom, he loses half his virtue;” and it 
 were well for mankind if the principle were recognized in 
 regard to communities, as well as in regard to individuals; 
 for I have no hesitation in expressing my belief and con¬ 
 viction, that the acquisition of entire freedom by any 
 community, now existing as a British colony, or series of 
 colonies, would prodigiously increase the sum total of the 
 public and private virtue of its inhabitants. 
 
 But there is no case in which this principle has been 
 more completely lost sight of than in the management of 
 criminals in penal colonies. The convict in such circum¬ 
 stances has uniformly been regarded and treated as a 
 slave; and if the Local Government has not retained him 
 
THE GOLDEN LANDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
 
 311 
 
 in its own hands, and for its own purposes, a master has 
 been assigned him — and perhaps a tyrant — while the 
 penal system to which he has been subjected has, gene¬ 
 rally, been irregular and uncertain in its operation, and 
 in many instances unjust and cruel in the highest degree.* 
 
 * The following is a description of the situation and condition of a 
 convict in assigned service in New South Wales during the penal 
 times in that colony. It is extracted from a chapter on the “ Dis¬ 
 tribution, employment, condition, and character of the convict popu¬ 
 lation,” contained in the second edition of my Historical and Statis¬ 
 tic^’ Account of that Colony, published in 1837 ; the whole of the 
 chapter having been expunged in the present or third edition, as 
 there is no longer a convict population in the colony : — 
 
 “ The condition of a convict in New South Wales depends greatly 
 on the character of his master: it is in the power of the latter to 
 render his yoke easy and his burden light; it is equally in his 
 power, however, to make him superlatively miserable. In general, 
 the lot of a convict in the colony is by no means a hard one: for 
 the most part, he is better clothed, better fed, and better lodged, 
 than three-fourths of the labouring agricultural population of Great 
 Britain and Ireland; while, at the same time, his labour is beyond 
 all comparison much less oppressive. In a great many instances, 
 indeed, the object of the convict evidently is to get as much in the 
 shape of allowances, and to do as little in the shape of hard labour, 
 as possible. 
 
 “ The grand secret in the management of convict-servants is to 
 treat them with kindness, and at the same time with firmness; to 
 speak to them always in a conciliating manner, and at the same 
 time to keep them constantly employed: and it is nothing less than 
 absolute blindness to his own interest, and a want of common sense 
 amounting to downright infatuation, that can lead any master to 
 treat them otherwise. It must be acknowledged, however, that 
 such infatuation has prevailed in New South Wales to a lamentable 
 extent, and has greatly retarded the advancement of the colony on 
 the one hand, and occasioned much misery on the other. 
 
 “ A free emigrant settler, who has perhaps been riding about the 
 country for a fortnight — neglecting his own affairs and troubling 
 his neighbours — returns to his farm, and finds that his convict-ser¬ 
 vants have been very idle during his absence: he talks to them on 
 the subject, and his choler rises as he talks; and he curses and 
 swears at them as if he had taken his degree at Billingsgate, instead 
 
312 
 
 FREEDOM AND INDEPENDENCE FOR 
 
 And how, I ask, can a man be expected to recover either 
 the whole or the half of his lost virtue, in such a situation ? 
 In general, the thing is hopeless ; and in so far I cordially 
 
 of being a free landed proprietor in New South Wales. One of the 
 convicts — a man who has perhaps seen better days—replies in no 
 measured terms; and the master immediately exclaims, with the 
 highest indignation, ‘ You convict-scoundrel, do you speak to me at 
 this rate ? ’ and, taking the overseer to witness that the man has 
 spoken insolently to his master, he forthwith hies both overseer and 
 man to the nearest magistrate, who perhaps resides ten miles off, i 
 and gallops after them himself an hour or two afterwards. On 
 arriving at the magistrate’s, the settler, who is a remarkably good; 
 Protestant, kisses the hook, and swears that the man spoke to him 
 insolently: the overseer, who is a stanch Roman Catholic, confirms 
 his master’s deposition by kissing the same book on the other side ; 
 on which the worthy magistrate — who knows that the Bible was 
 sent him for kissing and not for reading—has religiously pasted a ! 
 bit of whity-brown paper, cut with a pair of scissors, in the form of 
 a cross. When this religious ceremony has been gone through, the 
 magistrate, assuming a very grave aspect, sentences the convict toi : 
 receive twenty-five lashes for insolence to his master, and he is : 
 accordingly delivered over to the scourger of the district. In the; 
 meantime, the farm is deprived of the superintendence of the mas¬ 
 ter, the exertions of the overseer, and the labour of the convict;, 
 while the other convicts, disheartened and disgusted at the obviousi 
 injustice with which their fellow-labourer has been treated, do justi 
 as little as possible. 
 
 “ As soon as the man who has been flogged is fit for labour, he is, I 
 ordered to the plough; but perceiving that a thick strong rootf 
 crosses the furrow at a particular point, he contrives the next time the 
 bullocks reach that point, to run the plough right against the root and; 
 snap it asunder. ‘ You did it on purpose, you scoundrel 1’ says the 
 infuriated settler, who has indeed good reason to be angry, for the 
 season for ploughing is perhaps nearly over, and two or three days 
 must elapse before the plough can be repaired, as there is probably; 
 no blacksmith within fifteen miles. The man, to whose corrupt 
 nature revenge is so delicious that he does not deny the charge, but 
 who is perhaps the best ploughman on the farm, is accordingly hiecj 
 off immediately to his worship again; and, after the same piou^ 
 ceremony of kissing the calf’s-skin binding of the desecrated bool 
 and the whity-brown-paper cross has been reacted, is sentenced tc 
 
THE GOLDEN LANDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
 
 313 
 
 ;ree with the opponents of transportation as it has hi- 
 erto been conducted. 
 
 dree months’ hard labour on the roads, to be returned to his mas- 
 • at the expiration of that period.’ 
 
 “ The man returns accordingly at the expiration of his sentence ; 
 t being addicted, as most convicts are, to the use of colonial 
 bacco, he allows a spark to fall from his tobacco-pipe, on his way 
 his labour, very near his master’s largest wheat-stack, at a time 
 len the latter happens to be off the farm; and in less than a 
 arter of an hour after the stack is observed to be on fire. One 
 duld naturally suppose that in such a case of emergency, all the 
 m on the farm would immediately run to extinguish the flames: 
 :h a supposition, however, would be very far from the truth, 
 le convicts are so conscientious, forsooth, that they will not do 
 y thing which their master has not particularly told them to do ; 
 
 I d he has never told them to extinguish the flames when any of 
 ; stacks should accidentally catch fire. Besides, they have a task 
 :;igned them, which they must not leave: in short, nothing gives 
 ;m greater pleasure than to see their master’s stack burning; fol¬ 
 ly know he must give them the regular ration, procure it where 
 t may, or send them back to Government, in which case they will 
 ve a chance of being assigned to a better master. By and by, 
 : master returns at full gallop in time enough to see where his 
 ; ck stood. He has reason to suspect that a conspiracy has been 
 med against him by his men ; but to save him the trouble of 
 nging any of them to justice, four of them immediately take to 
 bush, i. e. become bush-rangers, or runaway convicts, subsisting 
 ■ plunder. In a month or two after, two of them are apprehended 
 : robbing a settler’s cart on the highway, and tried, and convicted, 
 
 : 1 condemned to death ; and the wretched men assure the minister 
 religion who may happen to visit them in the jail or attend them on 
 •scaffold—(I have received such information in such circumstances 
 self when it was too late to falsify)—that it was the arbitrary 
 1 unfeeling conduct of their master alone, that brought them to 
 untimely end. 
 
 ‘ I may be told, perhaps, that this is a supposititious case, and that 
 
 ( of these circumstances have not occurred in any single instance, 
 is immaterial, however, whether they have or not, as I can testify 
 ht well where and when they have all occurred singly. 
 
 1 Some settlers think it necessary, forsooth, to humble their 
 ivict-servants, and to make them fear them. An instance of this 
 V 
 
314 
 
 FREEDOM AND INDEPENDENCE FOR 
 
 I would therefore recommend that, in organizing an; 
 future penal colonies for Great Britain, the punishment 
 properly so called, should be undergone in England, iij 
 hard labour or otherwise, in some penitentiary or hous: 
 of correction ; and that after undergoing this punishmen 
 for a certain period, proportioned to the term of his sen 
 tence, or the magnitude of his crime, the convict shouli! 
 be transported to the penal colony, and there treated ii 
 all respects as a freeman ; with the exception of not bein' 
 permitted to leave the colony, till the period of his sen 
 tence should have expired.* 
 
 On the recommendation of Archbishop Whately, th 
 
 kind I have heard of in the colony with indignation and horror 
 A settler, requiring some office of a very disagreeable and offensiv 
 character to be performed on his premises, ordered one of hi 
 convict-servants to perform it, instead of adopting the much mot 
 efficacious mode of offering him a small reward on his doing it- 
 a piece of tobacco, for instance, or a little wine. The man ha 
 perhaps seen better days, and therefore, feeling indignant at bein 
 set to such an employment, flatly refused. The master coolly of 
 dered him off to a magistrate, who sentenced him to receive eitht 
 twenty-five or fifty lashes for disobedience. The man returned 1 
 his master, who gave him the same order a second time; which tl 
 man a second time refused to obey : he was again taken before fl 
 magistrate, and sentenced to be flogged as before: and it was n< 
 till this degrading and brutalizing operation had been repeated 
 third time, that the spirit of the miserable convict was sufficient' 
 broken to allow him to obey the mandate of his relentless tyrant. 
 
 “Man, indeed, is essentially a tyrant: it is education—I use tl i; 
 word in its widest sense—that makes him humane in any instancj f 
 Whatever arrangement of society, therefore, invests any man wit 
 such power over the person and happiness of his fellow-creature, j 
 is possessed by the master of a convict or the holder of a slave, 
 essentially evil, and ought doubtless to be deprecated as indicate 
 of an unhealthy state of the body politic.” 
 
 * “ It is possible that transportation might be usefully employed ! 
 combination with efficient penitentiaries, as a means of providiij 
 for convicts who have completed their terms of imprisonment.”-; 
 Lewis, on the Government of Dependencies, 239. 
 
THE GOLDEN LANDS OF AUSTRALIA. 315 
 
 llect Committee of the House of Commons on Transport- 
 lion, of the year 1838, adopted and embodied in their 
 jiport, a somewhat similar idea as to the mode of dis¬ 
 using of convicts who had undergone a sentence of hard 
 hour in some Penitentiary at home. The passage of 
 te Archbishop’s letter, which the committee adopted, is to 
 ie following effect: — 
 
 “ Under a reformed system of secondary punishment 
 mpposing transportation abolished) it strikes me as de- 
 rable, with a view to the preservation from a return to evil 
 . urses of persons released from penitentiaries, &c., after 
 h expiry of tlieirpunishment, that such as may have indi¬ 
 cted a disposition to reform, should be, at their own desire, 
 rnished with means of emigrating to various colonies, 
 ■itish or foreign, in which they may mix, not with such 
 fen as their old associates in crime, but with respectable 
 Arsons, unacquainted with their past history, and may 
 us be enabled, as the phrase is, to ‘turn over a new 
 .if.’ This of course implies, that they should not emi¬ 
 rate in a body to any one place, and as a distinct class.” 
 The differences between the Archbishop’s suggestion 
 d the plan I propose are as follows, viz.: — 
 
 1. The Archbishop would afford the means of emigra- 
 >n to some colony as a favour, to be granted to the well- 
 bposed liberated convict, at his own desire ; allowing all 
 e other liberated convicts to be turned loose upon society 
 aim I would, on the contrary, make banishment to a 
 nal colony a part of the original sentence, and enforce 
 equally upon all; for the double purpose of giving the 
 nvict himself a fair chance in the world, and of ridding 
 e mother-country of his presence. Agreeing as I do 
 tirely with Sir William Molesworth, in thinking that 
 ;he separate system tends, more than any other punish- 
 |int, to improve the moral character of an offender,”* I 
 
 * Sir W. Molesworth’s Speech in the House of Commons, 5th 
 iy, 1840. During my visit to the United States in the year 1840, 
 
316 
 
 FREEDOM AND INDEPENDENCE FOR 
 
 ■would subject the convict for seven years, to one year’ 
 imprisonment in England under this system ; the convic 
 for fourteen years, to eighteen months’ or two years’ ira 
 prisonment, and the convict for life to two years, or t\v< 
 and a half, if two were adopted in the other case : and a 
 the close of these periods respectively, I would subjec, 
 them all to banishment to the penal colony ; leaving then 
 no choice as to where they should be sent to, and keeping 
 them there under safe custody for the remainder of thei 
 sentences. 
 
 2. Archbishop Whately and the Committee wouh 
 furnish the well-disposed liberated convicts with the mean 
 of emigrating, in a sort of clandestine manner, to sonn 
 colony, British or foreign, “in which they may mix,” for 
 sooth ! “ with respectable persons, unacquainted with thei 
 past history.” And what right, I ask, can Great Britaii 
 have to send persons of this description, to the numbe 
 probably of several thousands annually, to any colonies 
 whether British or foreign ? What right can Great Britaii 
 have to practise so gross and unmanly a deception upoi 
 the colonies ? Every colony, whether British or foreign 
 on which it was attempted, would successively protest am 
 rise indignantly against it, as the Californians of Sai 
 Francisco recently did against a similar immigration o 
 
 I visited several of the prisons in different States — particularly on 
 on the Silent and Social System, in Baltimore, Maryland, and anothe 
 on the Separate and Solitary System, in Philadelphia. I decidedl! 
 prefer the latter of these systems. At my own request I was locke 
 in, successively, with four or five of the convicts, in their respeetivj 
 cells, in the Penitentiary at Philadelphia, that I might conversj 
 with them on the subject; and the result of my enquiries was i 
 strong conviction that the separate and solitary system was in 
 high degree both humane and reformatory, while it is evidently suffi 
 ciently formidable. I also examined the Medical Report of th 
 Prison for a considerable period, and found that the alleged tef 
 dency of the system to produce insanity was not substantiated; th 
 cases of insanity being not more numerous than under any othe 
 system of punishment. 
 
THE GOLDEN LANDS OP AUSTRALIA. 
 
 317 
 
 ipiree convicts from the Australian colonies. For surely 
 le Archbishop and the Committee know well that the 
 overty-and-misery -made crime of the United Kingdom 
 not so small in its amount, as to be thus disposed of 
 ithout observation, even after it has undergone the re- 
 irmatory discipline of penitentiaries at home. Great 
 ■ritain must act openly and honestly with the colonies in 
 lis matter, and must therefore provide a separate place 
 f refuge for liberated convicts, after they have under- 
 one that discipline, in some penal colony formed on the 
 lan I propose ; in which, while the mother-country would 
 e rid of his presence, the convict would have the fairest 
 hance of regaining the position of an honest and repu- 
 ible man. I am totally at issue with the Archbishop as to 
 le probable moral and social results of a colony formed 
 n that plan, consisting, although it would, of liberated 
 onvicts almost exclusively. 
 
 The saving of expense to Government in organizing 
 le supposed colony would, under such a system, be pro- 
 igious, while the effect on the convicts themselves would 
 e salutary in the highest degree; for whereas, under the 
 fstem hitherto in operation, the convict has always re- 
 eived his rations, whether he wrought for them or not — 
 nd he generally contrived to do as little as possible — he 
 ould, under this system, receive no rations, but be 
 bliged to find subsistence for himself from the wages of 
 is labour. 
 
 Besides, the hope of acquiring property of any kind is 
 le grand incentive to labour — among convicts, as well 
 5 among all other classes of people — for it is only when 
 man finds that he is not working for nothing, that he has 
 ny heart to work at all. Nay, the hope of acquiring 
 roperty by means of labour, and the powerful influence 
 ■hich that hope exerts upon the individual, are, in general, 
 le only means left of acting upon the convict and of en¬ 
 uring; his reformation. Punishment mav have lost, its 
 errors for the criminal, and any indulgence that could be 
 
313 
 
 FREEDOM AND INDEPENDENCE FOR 
 
 given him, so long as he is a mere Government slave, nia’ 
 be despised ; but let him only feel and know that he is hi 
 own master, that he can acquire property by means o 
 his labour, that he can make himself a man of substance 
 and therefore of consequence, in the land of his banish 
 ment, and you have thenceforth the strongest hold upoi 
 that individual that human nature affords. 
 
 But there is one thing wanting still, without whicl 
 everything else would be worthless in the way of securing f 
 either general or permanent reformation; and that is, the ti\ i 
 of family. What is property, in such circumstances, to ; 
 banished man, who has nobody to think of, and nobodj 
 to care for, but himself? The probability is, that if, ii 
 such circumstances, he acquires property at all, he wil 
 spend it in rioting and dissipation, if he has the means tc, 
 do so. He will labour for a time, and perhaps accumulate 
 largely; but being an isolated individual on the earth 
 with nobody to care for, and nobody to care for him, he 
 will, in some moment of recklessness, when the spirit of the! 1 
 beast returns upon him, and that of the man has fled foi 
 the time, have a regular blow-out, as men of this descrip¬ 
 tion frequently have in the actual penal colonies, and spend 
 the whole of his property in reckless dissipation. But lei i 
 such a man have the opportunity of having a wife and 
 children, and the process of reformation will be wonder¬ 
 fully accelerated, and its permanence secured. 
 
 It would therefore be indispensably necessary, in order 
 to ensure the progress of reformation in a penal colony, 1 - 
 constituted as I have proposed, to provide a female as well 
 as a male population for the colony; and this might be] 
 done in the three following ways, to the full extent re-j I 
 quired:— 
 
 1. Only convicts that were married, and had wives and 
 children, might be sent to the penal colonies in the first, 
 instance; the wife and children to be sent out by the 1 
 Government, passage free, after a certain brief period ofj 
 probation on the part of the convict. 
 
THE GOLDEN LANDS OP AUSTRALIA. 
 
 319 
 
 . 2. Female convicts might, after the establishment of the 
 
 :olony, be sent out. as well as males, to enable the latter 
 ;o form matrimonial connections among persons of their 
 iwn class; and 
 
 I 3. After the penal colony had acquired a name and a 
 character at home, a free passage out to it might be offered 
 from time to time to a certain number of the female in¬ 
 mates of penitentiaries in the United Kingdom, to enable 
 these females, for whom there is now no opening at home, 
 to make the best of the chance which emigration to such a 
 colony would afford them, of regaining that position in its 
 society which they had forfeited in their own country ; 
 or, in other words, to afford them the chance of becoming 
 wives and mothers. It might even be practicable to 
 secure the repayment of the passage money of such female 
 emigrants from their future husbands, as the Virginia 
 Company did in the case of the female emigrants they sent 
 out for a similar purpose to that ancient colony.* 
 i The different religious societies of the mother-country 
 would be sure to take a warm interest in any penal colony 
 founded on such principles as these, and would gladly 
 send out ministers of religion and missionaries to labour 
 . among its inhabitants for their general reformation ; and 
 the presence of such ministers and missionaries would 
 wonderfully facilitate the carrying out of the great objects 
 of the settlement. It would be desirable, however, for the 
 Government to leave this matter entirely in the hands of 
 these societies; as in that case a revenue would very soon 
 be raised in the colony for the support of the ministers or 
 missionaries — if not entirely, at least in part. There is 
 no means of effecting the reformation of persons in the 
 condition supposed so effectual as that of giving them an 
 
 * It ought also to be a sine qua non in such a colony, that the 
 public functionaries should be married men, to set a proper example 
 to the colony, and to form a point d'appui for all well-disposed 
 persons. 
 
320 
 
 FREEDOM AND INDEPENDENCE FOR 
 
 opportunity of being recognised as members of some > §l 
 Christian congregation. I L 
 
 To enable the Government to carry out a plan of this 
 kind in any newly formed colony, it would be necessary L 
 to have certain works in progress, requiring both skilled 
 and unskilled labour, in the first instance, to enable the 
 liberated convicts to earn reasonable wages for their sub¬ 
 sistence ; the Government supplying the necessary provi- , 
 sions at a reasonable price, till merchants and dealers should 
 spring up in the community, which they would be sure to 
 do, almost immediately. These works would consist of the 
 erection of such public buildings as would be indispensably 
 necessary for the purposes of government, as well as of 
 houses for the liberated convicts ; the clearing, fencing, 
 and cultivation of the land; and the construction of 
 wharfs, roads and bridges. The outlay for such purposes! 
 would not require to be large, and a considerable portion 
 of that outlay would eventually be repaid to the treasury, 
 from the progressive sale of the houses and allotments of 
 ground so erected and cleared; which the colonists would 
 be glad to purchase at a reasonable rate. This, of course, 
 presupposes that the locality would be well chosen for soil, 
 climate, and means of communication. 
 
 Such, then, are the principles on which a whole series of 
 penal colonies might easily be formed and managed by 
 Great Britain, at a comparatively small expense, for the 
 transcendantly important purpose of relieving her of the 
 present and intolerable annoyance of her constantly in¬ 
 creasing criminal population. And I appeal to the reader 
 as to whether such a mode of disposing of that popula¬ 
 tion would not be incomparably more humane to the 
 convict, as well as incomparably safer to the State, than 
 immuring them for a series of years in prisons of any kind 
 in England, and then throwing them back upon society as 
 liberated felons. As to the prospect of eventually form¬ 
 ing a reputable society even out of these base materials, 
 
 I confess I am totally at issue with such men as Sir 
 
TIIE GOLDEN LANDS OF AUSTRALIA. 321 
 
 /Villiam Molesworth, Archbishop Whately, and Bishop 
 linds; but their opinion, it must be observed, on the 
 ubject of penal colonies, or rather their theory as to what 
 , penal colony, however founded and managed, must ne¬ 
 cessarily be, and must necessarily become, has been 
 ormed without sufficient evidence, and without one tittle of 
 >ersonal experience; whereas, the opinion I have expressed 
 ,bove is the result of nearly thirty years’ observation and 
 ixperience of the capabilities of human nature, under the 
 conditions of a penal colony. The idea that the second 
 md third generations of a penal colony, so formed and 
 nanaged as I have recommended, would be such a com- 
 nunity of cut-throats, villains, monsters in human form, as 
 hese gentlemen take it for granted they would be, is con- 
 rary to all experience in the Australian colonies. I am 
 confident that long before the third generation of a colony, 
 ormed and managed as I have recommended, should ap- 
 oear upon the stage of existence, most of the traces of its 
 convict origin would have disappeared. 
 
 Section VIII. — Places where such Penal Colonies might be 
 
 ADVANTAGEOUSLY FORMED-THE FALKLAND ISLANDS. 
 
 There is no place in Her Majesty’s dominions so suil- 
 ible in every respect for the formation of a Penal Colony, 
 of the kind I have indicated, as the Falkland Islands : and 
 as these islands have no native inhabitants, and have been 
 offered for colonization to the British public unsuccess¬ 
 fully for at least ten years past, there can be no possible 
 objection to the proposal on either of these grounds. 
 There are no Aborigines to contaminate, and no Euro¬ 
 pean free colonists to interfere with. 
 
 The Falkland Islands are a group of islands belonging 
 to Great Britain, and situated in the Southern Atlantic 
 Ocean, to the northward and eastward of Cape Horn ; 
 extending from 51° to 53° south latitude, and from 57° to 
 
322 FREEDOM AND INDEPENDENCE FOR 
 
 62° west longitude. They consist of two principal islands, 1 
 — the Eastern and Western Falklands — with a number f 
 of smaller ones; and their coasts abound in bays, har¬ 
 bours, sounds and fishing banks, to an extent perhaps 
 unequalled in any other islands of equal area in the 
 world. The following is the superficial extent of the 
 islands: — 
 
 Sq. m. 
 
 East Falkland, 95 by 53 miles : mean 85 
 
 by 40 - - - — 3000 
 
 West Falkland, 80 by 25 miles - = 2000 
 
 Smaller islands, at least 90 in number = 1000 
 
 6000 
 
 Or, 3,840,000 acres.* 
 
 | 
 
 The Sound that separates the two larger islands is from 
 seven to twelve miles broad, and forms a series of superior 
 harbours. The thermometer ranges from 70° of Fahren¬ 
 heit in summer, to 30° in winter ; the climate being pretty 
 much like that of Scotland, but considerably milder in 
 winter, snow seldom lying more than forty-eight hours on 
 the ground, and the vegetation being chiefly evergreen. The 
 islands have no standing timber, which would have to be 
 procured from the Straits of Magellan, where it is obtain¬ 
 able in any quantity for all purposes ; but peat, for fuel, is 
 abundant, and the soil is a beautiful black mould, from six 
 inches to two feet deep. Wheat and flax have both been 
 grown on the islands; and potatoes, cabbages, turnips, 
 and other European roots and vegetables, grow abundantly 
 and of excellent quality. Besides, there are 30,000 horned 
 cattle on the eastern island, the produce of a few head 
 that were left on that island, where a French settlement 
 was formed and afterwards abandoned about a century 
 ago — in consequence of a dispute about the proprietor- 
 
 * Parliamentary Paper. Report, by Lieut.-Governor Moody, iu 
 1842 : with other authorities. 
 
THE GOLDEN LANDS OF AUSTRALIA. 323 
 
 ship of the islands—with many horses, pigs, rabbits, goats, 
 and geese. 
 
 The Falkland Islands are about half way from the Aus¬ 
 tralian colonies to London, on the homeward voyage by 
 Cape Horn. They would form an excellent place for 
 yessels in that trade to touch at for refreshments; their 
 principal harbour, Berkeley Sound, being quite in the 
 way, if the wind happens to be favourable. I have passed 
 them seven times, but have seen them only once; as ships, 
 from the colonies, not intending to touch (which they 
 could only do lately), generally keep away from the land. 
 On two occasions, when we had intended to touch at 
 Berkeley Sound, the wind was unfavourable, and we were 
 driven off. The former of these occasions was a very 
 remarkable one. We had doubled Cape Horn on the 
 ’25th of August, 1833, and were steering for the islands 
 for a day or two afterwards, when a northerly wind drove 
 us too far to the eastward to beat back, which we con¬ 
 sidered a misfortune at the time. But I afterwards as- 
 | certained that that contrary wind was one of the most pro¬ 
 vidential occurrences in my life; for on the 26th of 
 August, the day after we had doubled the Cape, a hor¬ 
 rible massacre of all the Europeans at the Sound was per¬ 
 petrated by a number of Buenos Ayrean convict Guachos, 
 or herdsmen, who were there in the service of a few 
 Europeans, on the establishment of a French merchant 
 of Buenos Ayres ; the islands not being at the time in 
 the possession of the British Government. Had our 
 vessel, which was only a small one, gone into the Sound 
 immediately after such an occurrence, we should probably 
 have been all murdered, before we had learned what had 
 taken place on shore; as the Guachos would have been 
 glad to have seized such a vessel to carry themselves 
 and their plunder to South America. 
 
 The present Government Establishment on the Falkland 
 Islands, which was formed in the year 1842, with a view 
 to the colonization of the Islands, costs the mother-coun- 
 
324 
 
 FREEDOM AND INDEPENDENCE FOR 
 
 try 500(V. a year; but no colonization has taken place as 
 yet, the whole number of the inhabitants, including the 
 Government Establishment, being still considerably under 
 a hundred. As a free colony, therefore, the project has 
 been a complete failure, and a very expensive one, too, to 
 the mother-country; but the islands are unquestionably 
 one of the fittest places possible for the establishment of 
 such a penal colony as I have described. And if the 
 convicts, to be sent out to them in the event of that sug¬ 
 gestion being adopted, should in the first instance be mar¬ 
 ried men exclusively, with their wives and children, two 
 very important objects would be attained — the men 
 would have no inducement to leave the islands, while an 
 island population would soon be created, strongly attached 
 to the place, and peculiarly fitted to- engage in every oc¬ 
 cupation which its soil, and climate, and seas, might 
 render suitable and desirable. That it is a suitable place 
 for the habitation of Europeans is unquestionable. That 
 it is exceedingly desirable that a British settlement should 
 be formed in so promising a locality, is equally undeni¬ 
 able ; and that no such settlement is likely to be formed 
 in that particular locality in any other way, must now be 
 pretty evident to all parties. The present Government 
 Expenditure at the Falkland Islands, for which Mr. Hawes 
 found it so difficult to account, when taken to task on the 
 subject, last year, by Mr. Cobden, would be quite sufficient 
 for the mere government of the place, as a penal colony, 
 for a considerable time to come, while the change would 
 give the present officials something to do. The climate, 
 which is somewhat rigorous, would compel the liberated 
 convicts to labour for their subsistence; but that labour 
 would be sure to meet with an abundant reward: and it 
 would surely redound to the honour and glory of Britain 
 thus to form, from the very refuse of her population, as I 
 am confident she would succeed in doing, a noble British 
 colony in this remote locality. Such a colony would in 
 all likelihood lead eventually to the occupation of much 
 
THE GOLDEN LANDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
 
 325 
 
 land, which is still open for colonization, in the extensive, 
 but little known, region of Patagonia. * 
 
 Section IX— Other Places where Penal Colonies might be 
 
 SUCCESSFULLY FORMED—THE WEST AND NORTH WEST COASTS 
 
 of Australia. 
 
 It appears to me that a series of small penal colonies, 
 
 I of the kind I have suggested, would be much more likely 
 to prove successful, in ensuring the general and rapid re¬ 
 formation of the liberated convict population, than a single 
 
 1 large one. With this view, while one such colony might 
 be formed in Berkeley Sound, on the north-eastern coast 
 of the Eastern Falkland Island, another could with equal 
 facility be formed on the south-western coast of the 
 Western Island, either subordinate to the other, or inde¬ 
 pendent of it. There is room, indeed, for half a dozen 
 such settlements on the Falkland Islands alone. 
 
 But there is a far more extensive field for the formation 
 of a whole series of such colonies on the west and north¬ 
 west coasts of Australia, including the present colony of 
 Swan River, or Western Australia; in which considerable 
 progress has recently been made, with the concurrence of 
 the free inhabitants, in the formation of a convict esta¬ 
 blishment on the old principle. Whatever may be the 
 issue of that experiment, it appears to me that it would 
 be greatly preferable, in forming a series of new penal 
 colonies on the plan I have recommended, to occupy a 
 completely new field, where there would be no colonists 
 of a different description to be interfered with: and the 
 first point which it would be advisable, on many accounts, 
 to occupy in this way, is the Victoria River, on the north¬ 
 west coast. This noble river, as yet the largest known in 
 
 * These observations were written within about two hundred 
 miles of the Falkland Islands. 
 
326 FREEDOM AND INDEPENDENCE FOR 
 
 Australia, was discovered by Captain Wickham, R.N., of 
 her Majesty’s surveying ship “ Beagle,” now Police-Magis¬ 
 trate at Brisbane, Moreton Bay ; and it is thus described 
 by Captain Stokes, who succeeded Captain Wickham in 
 the command of the expedition, and conducted the explor¬ 
 ing party up the river: — 
 
 “ The Victoria [river] falls into the Indian Ocean, in 
 lat. 14° 40' S. and long. 129° 21' E., being, at its con¬ 
 fluence with the sea, twenty-six miles wide. The land 
 upon either side as you enter the river is bold and well 
 defined; but from the margin of the western shore, an 
 extensive mud and mangrove flat, not entirely above the 
 level of high water, and reaching to the base of a range 
 of hills, about seventeen miles from the water’s edge, 
 seemed to indicate that at one time the waters of the 
 Victoria washed the high lands on either side. 
 
 “ For the first thirty miles of the upward course, the 
 character of the river undergoes but little change; the 
 left side continuing bold, with the exception of a few ex¬ 
 tensive flats, sometimes overflowed, and a remarkable 
 rocky elevation, about twenty-five miles up, to which we 
 gave the name of The Fort, as suggested by its bastion¬ 
 like appearance, though now called Table Hill, in the 
 chalk. To the right the shore remains low, studded with 
 mangroves, and still, from appearance, subject to not un¬ 
 frequent inundations: towards the mouth, indeed, it is 
 partially flooded by each returning tide. Thirty-five 
 miles from its mouth its whole appearance undergoes the 
 most striking alteration. We now enter the narrow defile 
 of a precipitous rocky range of compact sandstone, rising 
 from 400 to 500 feet in height, and coming down to the 
 river, in some places nearly two miles wide, in others not 
 less than twenty fathoms deep, and hurrying through, as 
 if to force a passage, with a velocity sometimes not less 
 than six miles an hour. It continues a rapid stream during 
 its passage through this defile, an extent of some thirty 
 miles; and beyond it is found slowly winding its way to- 
 
THE GOLDEN LANDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
 
 327 
 
 wards the sea across a rich alluvial plain, fifteen miles in 
 width. About this plain is found a second range, of simi¬ 
 lar character and formation to that before mentioned ; the 
 stream, however, having of course somewhat less both of 
 width and depth, and flowing with a decreased rapidity. 
 The elevation of the hills on either side was at first enter¬ 
 ing considerably less than in the former range; they had 
 also lost much of their steep and precipitous appearance; 
 but as we gradually proceeded up, the former distinctive 
 characteristics returned: the hills rose higher and more 
 boldly, almost immediately from the water’s edge, and 
 continued each mile to present a loftier and more rugged 
 front; never, however, attaining the extreme altitude of 
 the former or Sea Range. Above Reach Hopeless the 
 : width of the alluvial land lying between the immediate 
 margin of the river and the hills which bound its valley 
 considerably increased ; and just in proportion as the high 
 bold land approached the channel on one shore, it receded 
 from it on the opposite, and left an extensive alluvial flat 
 between that bank and the retreating hills. The whole 
 valley, too, widened out, so that, supposing the stream at 
 , one time to have filled it from the bases of the high land 
 on either side, it must have had a breadth above Reach 
 Hopeless of from three to five miles, and this still in¬ 
 creased when I traced its presumed course beyond Mount 
 Regret. 
 
 “ The extreme altitude of Sea Range is from 700 to 800 
 feet, and of the hills last seen, near Mount Regret, from 
 400 to 500. The distinctive formation common to both 
 ' consists in their level summits, within twenty feet of which 
 a precipitous ■wall of rock, of a reddish hue, runs along 
 the hill side. The upper portion of the valley through 
 which the river passes varies in its nature, from treeless, 
 ■ stony plains, to rich alluvial flats, lightly timbered with a 
 white stemmed gum. The banks are steep and high, 
 thickly clothed with the acacia, drooping eucalyptus, and 
 tall reeds. The various lake-like reaches had, of course. 
 
328 FREEDOM AND INDEPENDENCE FOR 
 
 no perceptible stream, but their banks, no less than the 
 dry patches in the bed of the river, satisfied us that the 
 Victoria had recently been, and in all probability would 
 soon again become, a large and rapid river.”* 
 
 “ Our last regretful view of this part of the Victoria 
 was taken from a position in lat. 15° 36^ S. and long. 
 103° 52' E., 140 miles distant from the sea: but still500 
 miles from the centre of Australia. Its apparent direc¬ 
 tion continued most invitingly from the southward — the 
 very line to the heart of this vast land, whose unknown 
 interior has afforded so much scope for ingenious specu¬ 
 lation, and which at one time I had hoped that it was 
 reserved for us to do yet more in reducing to certainty. 
 And though from the point upon which I stood to pay 
 it my last lingering farewell, the nearest reach of water 
 was itself invisible, yet far, far away, I could perceive the 
 green and glistening valleys through which it wandered, 
 or rather amid which it slept; and the refreshing ver¬ 
 dure of which assured me, just as convincingly as actual 
 observation could have done, of the constant presence of 
 a large body of water, and left an indelible impression 
 upon my mind, which subsequent consideration has only 
 served to deepen, that the Victoria will afford a certain 
 pathway far into the centre of that country, of which it is 
 one of the largest known rivers.” + 
 
 There is evidently a splendid field for colonization on 
 this noble river, which, it seems, is navigable for the 
 largest vessels sixty miles from the sea, and for small craft 
 ninety miles higher: and as it rises in the south-eastern 
 interior, it must conduct, in following it up, to more ele¬ 
 vated land and a more agreeable climate. The position 
 of the outlet of the Victoria River is most commanding, 
 whether for trade with Europe by the Cape of Good 
 Hope, or with India, China, and the western portion of the 
 
 * Discoveries in Australia. By Captain Stokes, ii. 115. 
 
 f lb. ii. 83. 
 
THE GOLDEN LANDS OF AUSTRALIA. 329 
 
 Indian Archipelago ; and there cannot be a doubt that it 
 will, at no very distant period, form the head quarters of 
 a populous and powerful State. As there is reason to 
 believe that the climate is highly salubrious, there can be 
 no objection to the locality on account of its compara¬ 
 tively low latitude. And if French artificers — soldiers 
 and freemen — work regularly at their several handicrafts 
 in the island of Tahiti, as I have ascertained to be the fact, 
 
 ■ in nearly the same latitude, I should have no misgivings 
 in sending British convicts to the Victoria River on ac¬ 
 count of its tropical climate. Mere heat is by no means 
 l prejudicial to health, where the climate is dry, as is uni¬ 
 versally the case in Australia: it is an atmosphere sur- 
 ! charged with moisture, and with the malaria arising from 
 I decaying vegetation, as in the East and West Indies, and 
 on the coast of Africa, that is so generally fatal to Euro¬ 
 pean life. The indigenous vegetation of Australia is 
 1 rarely deciduous, and the leaves, or rather spiracles, of 
 many of the trees are strongly charged with an empyreu- 
 matic oil, which counteracts the tendency to putrefaction, 
 and of which the exhalations are highly favourable to 
 health. 
 
 Besides, there would be no prospect of colonizing the 
 Victoria River by means of free emigration. Free emi¬ 
 gration from the United Kingdom would certainly not go 
 voluntarily to such a locality, till it had become a place of 
 importance from its produce and trade; and surely it is, or 
 rather ought to be, one of the legitimate objects of penal 
 colonization, to prepare the country to be colonized for 
 becoming eventually the chosen resort of a free emigrant 
 population, and for taking its place among the free states 
 of the world. As the Gulf of Carpentaria is evidently- 
 destined to be the outlet of a large portion of the trade of 
 the north-eastern section of the Australian continent, and 
 as screw-propeller steamboats will in all likelihood be 
 plying very shortly between London and the head of that 
 Gulf by the Cape of Good Hope, the Victoria River 
 
330 FREEDOM AND INDEPENDENCE FOR 
 
 would be quite on the route for such vessels, both out and 
 home, and might consequently have its intercourse with 
 the mother-country maintained at a very inconsiderable 
 cost to the public treasury. 
 
 The available land on the Victoria River and its tribu¬ 
 taries would in all probability be equally fitted for cattle 
 and horses, and probably also for sheep, with the other 
 settled portions of the Australian continent; and its pro¬ 
 ducts would therefore in the first instance be, like those 
 of all the other Australian settlements, wool, tallow, and 
 hides; and perhaps horses for the India market. But the 
 agricultural productions of the colony would be those of 
 the intertropical regions generally; viz. cotton, sugar, 
 coffee, indigo, tobacco, &c., and there is reason to be¬ 
 lieve that all the intertropical fruits of other countries 
 would grow luxuriantly. 
 
 The Victoria River would of itself form a sufficiently 
 extensive field for a whole series of small penal colonies, 
 of the kind I have suggested; having the necessary Go¬ 
 vernment Establishment at the principal settlement, and a 
 resident magistrate at each of the others. But the occu¬ 
 pation of that central point would lead gradually to the 
 discovery and occupation of a whole series of others, to 
 the southward, as the capabilities of the country in that 
 direction came to be known ; for the more important dis¬ 
 coveries in Australia have generally been made by land 
 explorations and not by sea. Men of superior intelligence 
 and observation, who have resided for years on the west 
 coast, and have travelled over a considerable portion of 
 its known extent, affirm that its capabilities for coloniza¬ 
 tion are not inferior to those of the eastern; and the in¬ 
 teresting account of the discovery and exploration of the 
 Victoria River by Captain Stokes sufficiently proves that 
 the country is not “ all barren.” 
 
 The expense of a whole series of penal colonies, esta¬ 
 blished on the principle I have suggested, would be com¬ 
 paratively trifling to the mother-country. After getting 
 
THE GOLDEN LANDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
 
 331 
 
 a fair start, they would pay for their own maintenance, and 
 ivould, probably, repay a considerable portion, if not the 
 whole, of the expenditure incurred in their original form¬ 
 ation — in the sale of either cleared or waste land, 
 town allotments, and cottages, or other buildings erected 
 at the outset of the colony, to afford employment to the 
 colonists. It is a fatal error, and one of the many bad 
 results of Downing Street mismanagement, to suppose 
 that colonization of any kind must necessarily be a very 
 expensive process for the colonizing country. It has 
 never been so in any instance in which the colonization 
 ,f has been of the right description — based on a rational 
 principle, and conducted in a judicious manner. For if 
 colonization has uniformly been enormously expensive to 
 Great Britain, as well as unsatisfactory in its general re¬ 
 sults, it is simply because it has always been based on the 
 Downing Street principle, and conducted under the su¬ 
 perintendence of the Colonial Office. 
 
 Should Great Britain, therefore, be disposed to grant 
 entire freedom and national independence to the Seven 
 United Provinces of Eastern Australia, and to leave the 
 business of free emigration from the United Kingdom to 
 these provinces — to be conducted under an equitable, 
 honourable, and highly advantageous treaty, such as I 
 have suggested — she would still have a vast field for the 
 creation of another empire on the western and north¬ 
 western shores of Australia at some future day; and in 
 preparing in the meantime for such a consummation, by 
 forming a whole line of penal colonies along that extensive 
 coast, she would be consulting her own best interests 
 in every respect. Under such a twofold system of 
 colonization, poverty and misery would disappear from 
 many localities in the United Kingdom, and crime would 
 rapidly diminish; while the trade of the country, and the 
 prosperity of all classes of its inhabitants, would be in¬ 
 creased beyond all former precedent. Extensive coloni¬ 
 zation of the right kind M r ould certainly not diminish the 
 
332 
 
 FREEDOM AND INDEPENDENCE FOE 
 
 population of the mother-country; on the contrary, it 
 would tend rather to increase it: but, as every free emigrant 
 becomes a valuable customer to his mother-country, and 
 a grower of raw produce for her manufactures, it would 
 enable the mother-country to support a much larger po¬ 
 pulation than at present, and in a much more comfortable 
 way. 
 
THE GOLDEN LANDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
 
 333 
 
 CONCLUSION. 
 
 I commenced this volume exactly a month since, in the 
 South Pacific Ocean, about two thousand miles to the 
 westward of Cape Horn: I am now writing its concluding 
 paragraphs in latitude 42° South, in the Southern Atlantic; 
 the interval having been chiefly a succession of violent 
 gales, sometimes fair and sometimes foul. This will 
 doubtless account sufficiently for occasional defects of 
 style, and for perhaps unnecessary repetitions of the same 
 idea; for it is scarcely possible, in such circumstances, to 
 ; arrange either one’s thoughts, or papers, as in a com¬ 
 fortable parlour or library on shore. What reception 
 my volume may meet with in the mother-country, I 
 cannot possibly divine; for the range of speculation in 
 
 I which it indulges on Colonial subjects is doubtless very 
 much out of the usual track, while the language in which 
 it is couched may, in certain quarters, be deemed occa¬ 
 sionally more plain than pleasant. But I have an earnest 
 hope, as well as a strong persuasion, that it will at least 
 do some service to the good cause it advocates, and that 
 its true and faithful representations of things as they are 
 in the colonies will work conviction in the minds of many, 
 both at home and abroad, as to the entire accordance of 
 | its views and objects with the deductions of right reason, 
 
 • as well as with the law of nature and the ordinance of 
 God. 
 
 I cannot doubt, indeed, that the publication of this 
 volume will somewhat accelerate “ a consummation so de¬ 
 voutly to be wished,” for the interests and welfare of all 
 parties concerned, as the freedom and independence of 
 the Golden Lands of Australia. Colonists, generally, stand 
 greatly in need of information on the subject of their 
 proper relations to the mother-country; and when they 
 
334 
 
 THE GOLDEN LANDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
 
 come to understand their real position—their sacred 
 rights, and their brilliant prospects—they will be the less 
 likely to be troubled with doubts and misgivings as to 
 the course they should pursue when the time for action 
 arrives. I am satisfied, at all events, that as far as the 
 mother-country and the Australian colonies are concerned, 
 
 I have given the best possible advice for the present 
 emergency. If that advice is only taken in time, Great 
 Britain herself will gain immensely by the arrangement 
 proposed, while there will be peace and joy and uninter¬ 
 rupted prosperity in all the associated colonies. But if this 
 advice should not be taken in time, as I scarcely think it 
 will be, the people of England will have leisure enough 
 by and by — when both Australia and Canada are gone* i 
 —to reflect whether they have been in the right after all, 
 to sacrifice everything that is really valuable in coloniza¬ 
 tion for the gratification of that unhallowed lust of empire i 
 which they have been cherishing these two centuries 
 past, so fatally for themselves, and for all the British ji 
 colonies. 
 
 In one word, after the gross injustice which the Aus¬ 
 tralian Colonies have so long experienced from the 
 mother-country, and the unworthy treatment they have 
 received at her hands, I am decidedly of opinion that 
 there is nothing really worth struggling for in Australia 
 but entire freedom and national independence. This 
 is our natural, inherent and indefeasible right, by the law 
 of nature or the ordinance of God; which I maintain, 
 without fear of contradiction, is of infinitely higher 
 authority than mere Signs-inanual or Acts of Parliament. 
 And I am firmly persuaded that it is the highest interest, 
 not only of Britain, but of the world at large, that that 
 right should be recognised immediately. 
 
 * Remote as they are from each other, there is a certain secret 
 sympathy between these two countries; and I am strongly of opi¬ 
 nion that when they do go, they will go together. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 I happened to meet with the following passages, illustrative and 
 i confirmatory of some of the positions in this volume, when it was 
 j too late to embody them under their respective heads. 
 
 1. On the Relations of Colonies to their Mother-Countries. 
 
 “ Les anciens comparoient ordinairement les devoirs des colonies 
 ' envers leur mere patrie, a ceux des enfans envers leurs peres. Dans 
 I’ordre de la nature, les membres d’une famille, disperses et formant 
 Jchacun de nouveaux etablissemens, sont tous dans l’independance, et 
 ■ ne restent plus lies a leur pore commun que par le respect et la 
 reconnaissance. Or, si ces sentimens sont essentiellement libres, 
 :e qui est incontestable, ils ne peuvent done jamais etre des engagemens 
 le servitude. D'apres ce principe, l’antiquite pensoit que le pouvoir 
 ibsolu des metropoles n’etoit par sa nature ni legal, ni vrai, ni juste. 
 
 “ Grotius, fidele a cette maxime, pretend avec raison qu’une 
 :olonie est un nouveau peuple qui nait dans l'independance. Novus 
 >opulus sui juris nascitur. • 
 
 ' “ La puissance legislative de la mere patrie, ne pouvant reprimer 
 issez tot et toujours effieacement les abus de la puissance executive 
 Ians ses colonies, a cause de leur eloignement, l’egalite de sort ne 
 auroit pas subsister entre les citoyens des metropoles et ceux des 
 olonies. II devient, alors, juste et necessaire que ces derniers ayent 
 les prerogatives qui les dedommagent de leur situation et retablissent 
 equilibre. Leur liberte doit, done, augmenter a proportion de la 
 t istance des pays qu’ils habitent, et des difficultes qui s’opposent ii 
 eur frequente communication avec ceux chez qui reside le corps 
 jgislatif.” * 
 
 * De I'Etat et du Sort des Colonies des Anciens Peuples, Pliiladel 
 hie, 1779, p. 127. 
 
338 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 “ Sous le joug de l’autorite, une colonie naissante fait des progres | 
 beaucoup plus rapides que si elle jouissoit d’une entiere 'indepen- ] 
 dance. L’usage de la liberte ne convient qu’ a une societe bien 6tablie, j 
 et non point a celle dont les membres sont reduits a un etat faible et j 
 precaire. Mais cette meme autorite doit necessairement diminuer a 
 mesure que le nombre des colons augmente, ou etre abrogee quand 
 leurs besoins cessent. Tout rentre alors dans l’ordre imperturbable de 
 la nature ; les liens de politie se forment par de nouvelles conven¬ 
 tions, et les droits de gouvernement s’etablissent sur des nouveaux 
 fondemens.”* 
 
 Cocceius, a Dutch commentator, commenting upon the famous say¬ 
 ing of Grotius quoted above, viz. that, in the case of a colony, “ a new 
 and independent nation is born,” observes, somewhat strangely and 1 
 in downright contradiction of his author, as follows: — “ Colonia est 
 nudum instrumentum populi mittentis, et migrat non ut cives esse 
 desinant, sed ut alibi habitent; indeque manent sub potestate et imperio 
 mittentium." f 
 
 “ A colony is the mere instrument of the colonizing or mother 
 country: its inhabitants, in emigrating, merely change their place: 
 of abode, but not their citizenship; and, therefore, they continue 
 under the power and government of the mother country.” 
 
 Cocceius was the courtly advocate of their High Mightinesses the' 
 States of Holland, whose government of their colonies was in the! 
 highest degree unjust and oppressive. His definition of a colony,; 
 which is exactly that of Downing Street, was evidently “ made to 
 order,” and it simply denies all rights to colonies. 
 
 Singularly enough, there is a perfect parallel to this impudent: 
 Dutch definition of a colony in the Westminster Review for the 
 present month, in an article entitled “ Our Colonial Empire,” bu( 
 which ought properly to have been entitled, “ Milk-pap for Beardec 
 Men!” The Radical Reviewer, forsooth! would allow of a “ Colo¬ 
 nial Representative Body,” as he calls it, to consist of Delegates frorr 
 all the Colonies, to meet here in London, but “ to be restricted in it: 
 functions to discussion and advice ! ” He takes for granted “ tin ' 
 necessity of preserving unity in the central authority,” and admit: 
 
 “ the difficulty of separating in all cases between Imperial and Co * 
 lonial subjects ;” but he would make all odds even by “limiting th< 
 power of the Colonial House to the free public discussion of al 
 subjects, and the recording of its views !!! ” 
 
 * De I'Etat et du Sort des Colonies des Anciens Peuples, Philadel 
 phie, 1779, p. 216. 
 
 f Henrici Cocceii Comment, t. ii. p. 547 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 339 
 
 I should consider myself degraded, as a Tribune of the People in 
 the great colony of New South Wales, to reply to such drivelling 
 impertinence. Let the Reviewer know that we, the men of progress 
 in the colonies, hold with that great authority, Dr. Benjamin Frank¬ 
 lin, whose opinion on such subjects is worth that of a hundred 
 Westminster Reviewers, that such a constitutional line, as he supposes, 
 between Imperial and Colonial interests, doth not exist; and, as a 
 legitimate corollary from the principles and arguments of this work, 
 we go one step further, with the said Benjamin, and simply deny 
 the right of the Imperial Parliament to legislate for us in any case 
 whatsoever. 
 
 2. Jeremy Bentham on Parliamentary Representation for the Colonies. 
 
 “ Oh, but they will send deputies: and those deputies will govern us 
 as much as we govern them." — Illusion ! — What is that but doubling 
 the mischief instead of lessening it ? To give yourselves a pretence 
 for governing a million or two of strangers, you admit half a dozen. 
 To govern a million or two of people you don’t care about, you 
 admit half a dozen people who don’t care about you. To govern a 
 set of people whose business you know nothing about, you encumber 
 yourselves with half a dozen starers, who know nothing about yours. 
 Is this fraternity? Is this liberty and equality ? Open domination 
 would be a less grievance. Were I an American, I had rather not 
 be represented at all than represented thus. If tyranny must come, 
 let it come without a mask. Oh, but information! True, it must be 
 had ; but to give information, must a man possess a vote? 
 
 The following is a Resolution of the Original American Congress 
 on the same subject: — 
 
 “ Resolved 4. That the foundation of English liberty, and of all 
 free government, is a right in the people to participate in their 
 Legislative Council; And as the English colonists are not represented, 
 and from their local and other circumstances cannot properly be repre¬ 
 sented, in the British Parliament, they are entitled to a free and 
 exclusive power of legislation in their several provincial legislatures, 
 where their right of representation can alone be preserved in all 
 cases of taxation and internal polity .”—Resolutions of the Congress at 
 Philadelphia, A. d. 1774. 
 
London : 
 
 Spottisvvoodes and Shaw, 
 N ew^street-Square.