On this page
-
Text (5)
-
Untitled Article
-
Untitled Article
-
Untitled Article
-
Untitled Article
-
Untitled Article
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
-
-
Transcript
-
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Untitled Article
towards Trance , their second country . Although they do not build any exaggerated hopes on the results of this struggle , they accompany with their most ardent wishes the efforts of th « West to put a . curb on the encroachments of Russian policy . In the families of the high aristocracy there is an apparent good understanding with th « Russian authorities ; but , nevertheless , their Irishes go with the cause of justice defended by the West . " y
Untitled Article
AUSTRALIA . The Croesus , arrived this week from Sydney , brings . some very interesting news , dated September 1 st . For the intelligence which we are enabled to give , we are mainly indebted to the careful correspondent of the Times . The colonies appear to concern themselves with European news more than with their own matters . " The European conflict is watehedjwith intense anxiety , and public feeling in the colonies' is thoroughly with England in the struggle . Following the example of the motlier country , a day has been set apart in all the provinces for public prayer and humiliation ; in New South Wales it "was the 18 th of iaigust , in Victoria the 14 th . In the capitals and in tlie towns of the interior
tie [ day was strictly kept by all the various religious communities . Collections were made at the churches and chajels for the benefit of the wives and children of the soldiers and sailors engaged in the war . In Sydney 2 , 0007 . was thus raised , and the contribution from the whole province will probably be twice that amount . " A very singular fact has been ascertained . The colonies , like elder sons , and younger sons . when they oan , are spending considerable more than the " father of the family . " The cost of government , it seems , Is more in proportion per head than in Great Britain . The following paragraph from the Sydney Emphe gives statistics , and we must bear in mind that New South "Wales has neither fleets , armies , nor national debts .
" -Ih tie year 1853 we estimated our Government ex ^ penses at 579 , 080 / ., and we saved out of that sum 117 , 085 ? . ; leaving our actual expenditure 461 , 995 / . For 1854 we estimated our expenditure at 590 , 135 /; and we Lave now added to that sum , by way of supplementary estimate , 185 , 0597 ., making an actual outlay for 1854 of 775 , 194 ? . ; thus in one year the expenses of the Government have been nearly doubled . For the year 1855 the estimate now submitted is 766 , 480 ; and this , it must be remembered , is for a population of 231 , 800 souls , prosperous , rich , and contented . "
Sir Charles Hotham , the new Governor of "Victoria , Is actively engaged in his duties . He disapproves of the great expenses , and in a . speech which he made at Geelong , he reproved the people for their reckless extravagance . The officials , who have been shamefully negligent of their work , no matter in what department , became rather alarmed at Sir Charles ' s demonstrations of reform . He is determined to check reckless expenditure , and has appointed Commissioners to inquire into the cause of the debfc which has fallen on the " Golden Colony . " Referring to the speech , the Times correspondent says : —
"At the same time , Sir Charles declares that he neither intends to put a stop to all public works , nor to reject tlie aid of the money market , if ncceiaary , in carrying them out , All he had done hitherto was , he said , ' to have a look at the books , ' as he was determined to ' master the financial state of tlie colony . ' After that , though he did not think it right to incur debts for political purposes , or the expenses of Government , yet fox the construction of great national works , it might be ¦ wise and just to borrow money when , by the increase of the revenue and population , the extinction of the debt could bo effected within a given time . ... In a colony scarcely twenty years old works were proposed for which other countries have been compelled to wait centuries , even with a more compnet nnd settled state of
society . There was also an evident tendency to prefer works of splendour to works of utility , and the means that would havo paved and lighted the city were crippled , by drawing on them for pulacos . With the representative system not yot out of the shell , and with no possibility of calculating whsit it may bo or require twenty years hence , magnificent Houses of Parliament have boon undertaken for tho handful of members to be elected by little more thun a qimrtor of a million of people . Tho first chock to thia career of unreason was given by tho rather sudden apparition of ' a debt ; ' but , as aomo public works are absolutely essential to the well-being of tho community , discretion will bo required to decide which may bo Hiispemled , and which curried on . This discretion Sir Charles llothnm appears well disposed to exorcise . "
Sir Charles mndo some apt remarks on the principles of government , and his position with regard to them . He said Uo stood between two systems of government—tho present , inul that which would ariso under tho new constitution when brought into operation . That constitution they hud adopted with the principle from which it sprangthat all power proceeded from tho people ; and on that principle lie intended to conduct his administration . He added : —
" The first element of that principle is publicity . I intend no reflexion by what I am now going to say . I simply feel bound to state my firm conviction that in the present day a Government cannot be conducted with satisfaction to the people without the fullest and freest communication , with the people . It is on this principle that the new constitution is based ; and if you did not intend to adopt that principle fairly and fully you had no right to found your constitution upon it . "
Untitled Article
The Diggings . —The notion that the colonies are paved with gold appears to be as apocryphal as the provincial idea of London streets : " It is impossible to impart any interest to the accounts from the older gold-fields ; the de tails are of the baldest kind , and stamped with a wearying tameness . A few general indications of the social state of the mining population may , however , be gathered from them . That it is uneasy may be inferred from the frequent changes and shifts from place to place on the slightest rumours of individual success . To the multitudes who cannot afford to wait the result of sinking deep shafts it is an absolute necessity to obtain quicker and easier returns , and they may be described as perpetually in search of
good ' surface' diggings , and numberless are the creeks and gullies that have been tried , abandoned , and tried again , especially in the neighbourhood of Bendigo . At times the abandonment of that old field seemed pending , and the storekeepers and hotel proprietors began to fear a complete exodus ; but , as yet , the original locality has not lost its power of attraction . Most of the ' rushes ' are from point to point in the vicinity of the first discovered fields , on which towns , the future capitals of the gold districts , are rapidly rising ; . From these , as from centres , the country will be in course of time explored ; but in what direction , or at what distance from the first
and richest workings the next great discovery will be made is left to chance . The zeal for ¦¦ ' prospecting' is very faint when it ' cannot raise a subscription of 500 / . There are other indications that the gold-diggbng population is not in the mass prosperous ; the complaints of poverty and destitution are frequent , crimes against property are on the increase , and—a still darker featureso are cases Of insanity . There is no regular occupation in the colony that does not pay "better . than gold-digging —a fact which most of the skilled workmen of the towns have long since discovered ; they willingly leave the pursuit to newcomers . "
Some Facts from Melbourne . —Colonies usually acquire strength and stability from the boldness with which they throw over the conventionalities of the mother country . Melbourne , according to the Daily News , attaches itself to the least favourable institutions : " Nothing can more forcibly show the depressed state of business at Melbourne than the fact that in fourteen * days , writs for actions for trial in the Supreme Court were issued for debts amounting to no less than 78 , 000 ? . A discovery of spurious warrants to a large extent has been made public , consequent on the failure of the house of Davidson and Gordon . It appears fhat with these warrants they obtained 100 , 000 / . from Messrs . Overend and Gurney , and 40 , 000 / . from the London Joint Stock Bank . When they went to examine the goods , they were not in bond , and , it turns out , never had been there . "
Value of Land ix Melbourne . —The price of town land -is almost beyond credit . There is no limit to the extravagant opinion that buyers and sellers entertain of its value . Innumerable instances might be quoted . In one case a house purchased for 250 / . lately fetched 12 , 000 ^ . Another , offered to Government for the uso of tho military officers for 3000 / ., a month after was valued at 5000 / . They still hesitated , nnd tho price gradually rose to G 00 O / ., which sum Government declined giving , having about that time received iron barracks . As another instance , Government have long : desired Dogravo's fine blue-stone store , and have made many liberal overtures , but without tempting tho proprietor to sell . They at last asked him , to name a price— a final figure—in order that they might settle tho affair one way or anothcT . Ho meditated awhile , and then us his tdthnutmn . named 85100 0 / ,
Untitled Article
A FETTERED PRESS . Thr Paris newspapers are at present indulged with rather more liberty than has been recently accorded . But the position is most awkward , and it would be far more merciful to say , " Thus far shalt thou go . " The Times correspondent in Paris says : " 1 mentioned the other day that it was intimated to tho editors of thu public journals , on tho part of the Government , that they wore at liberty to uso language , when alluding to the war , of a more vigorous and oxciting kind than previ <> unly . Tho Miniwtorial journals have , with more or Icsh effect , and to u ccrtuin degree , availed themselves of tho pcrmiHsion- But it is not enough for tho preHs to receive thus measured out , as it
were inch by inch , the liberty of upeeoh ; and from tho penniflition granted to thorn X . scarcely anticipate any very great result , because tho prcHa does not feol itself , oven with thin , entirely freo from danger . How , for instance , can a writer , who is expected to rouso or add new heat to tho cnthuHiuHin of tho people , fool himself at easo wlien ho knows , that for a hasty Gxprcuwion or word which may slip from hin pen hi Inn patriotic ardour , his journal may ireceiva an avertiascment , or , if it has already received one , may bo suspended or ( suppressed ? Ho lniiHt still write with tlie iuwuro of some despotic
prefect , or other over-zcalouw functionary , who cliortsb . es tho proper official miatruHt of > urnalinm , ever frowning in tho distance . When tho offoncoH of tho press aro not defined , but aro loft to tho judgment of Homo Helf-suIndent and ignorant official , who has tho will nnd the mount * to annoy , l » ovv win it bo expected that a writer will nit down him ! oompoHo an appeal which itj Intended to rouso an will' t «« voice of tho trumpet , the patriotic enthuni «» ni of tl >() wiwh 1 '" * An W ( i 11 command u man to danco tlio Hpanirth bolero , Highland fling , or an IriHU Jig , whoso limbs you hftvo proviounly bound in futtorrt . "
Untitled Article
rican diplomats and consuls in China appears to be strictly limited to a sort of allied armed neutrality against imperialists and rebels for the protection of trade . Our bate Minister , Mr . Humphrey Marshall , exhibited a decided leaning ; to the existing Imperial dynasty- on the ground that the success of the rebels would result in reducing the country to a condition of anarchy , from the evils of which it could only be rescued through the humane interposition of the East India colonial policy of England . In this view , Mr . Marshall argued that the interests of the United States in Chbva and on the Pacific Ocean would be better subserved by sympathising with the legitimate reigning Emperor than with the savage and bloody rebels , whose leader modestly assumes to be nothing more than a younger brother of Jesus Christ , appealing to arms for the extirpation of Paganism and the substitution of the benign dispensation of the New Testament .
" Russia has not been idle . Within the last year she has appropriated and annexed the Northern Manchou provinces , nearly equal in extent to the area , of the United States east of the Mississippi , and watered by the river Saghalian , scarcely second in length and volume to our great ' Father of Waters' himself . Russia has done this , and has thus secured a military and naval position on the eastern coast of the Pacific , which will ultimately enable her to hold her own against even England on that side of the world .
" Should China be reduced to the hopeless confusion of internal anarchy , what will be the policy of England and France ? A joint protectorate ? The experiment was tried in the East Indies , but the Frenchmen were expelled , and England assumed the monopoly there . Can they agree to divide the Chinese empire between them ? They would probably fall out upon the boundary and come to blows for . 'thcwliole or none . The ultimate fate of China may hang upon the present war with RllSsi ;! - "
" Let Russia hold out , and fatigue tlie allies into an ignominious peace , and the results may be widely different in Europe , America , and Asia . The rebels may capture ' and destroy Canton , Nankin , and Pekin ; but the war will st 3 U go on in the -vast interior , between the old religion and the new Christian dispensation , of the revolutionary leaders , until a third power steps in and appropriates tlie spoils . A settlement with Russia , on the other hand , must be followed by an adjustment of the balance of power' in America , with the pacification of China upon some commercial basis , in which the contest lmist be between England , Russia , and the United States for commercial supremacy .
" We could not—we never could—conveniently annex China , even upon the unanimous application of her people . Our interests in that quarter depend upon the independence of the empire , and a commercial footing with it equal , at least , ' to tliat of the most favoured nations . ' We could not very conveniently intervene by force of arms to enforce the doctrine of non-intervention in China ; but we may , in the mean time , by active and sagacious diplomacy , do much to prevent the absorption of the Chinese territories into the British East India colonies while England will , no doubt , see -to it that the Central Flowery Kingdom is not absorbed by Russia . "
american view of the chinese ilevo-^ ution . A vyniTKK in tho New York Herald looks at this subject from a most ultra go-n-hend point of view . Tho probabilities of tlie next few conturies iu'o canvassed with even more ease than that with which tho last few centuries are reviewed : — " The patriarchal barbaric system of Chiiui , which claims a history of thousands of years behind tho Egyptian Pyramids , i » assailed by tho modern principled of 1 mauifoHt doutiny , ' and must go down . Something of ' tho progrosMivo spirit of the ago , ' something of oiviliaatiou and Chrintlaiiity , must H « porned « i it . Whether it rthnll bo in tlits form of mi independent Christian empire or republic , or in tho shapa of a Rnntiinn province , or another British KuHt India proteotornto , it In for time to determine . Tho nnciout Chinese system is undermined , and nniHt full to tho ground . " The present policy of tho British , French , nnd Arae-
Untitled Article
December 30 , 1854 . ] Zgj DEADER . 1229
-
-
Citation
-
Leader (1850-1860), Dec. 30, 1854, page 1229, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2071/page/5/
-