THE GATHERING STORM.

Lyttelton Times, Volume II, Issue 73, 29 May 1852, Page 3

THE GATHERING STORM.

From the " Sydney Empire." The speck which appeared on the horizon is obscuring the entire heavens. Darkly, rapidly, portentously, the clouds thicken and spread. That the storm will burst upon us, fiercely and fearfully, can hardly be any longer a matter of doubt with serious and reflecting minds. It would be as wise to look for a suspension of the laws of nature in the physical world to arrest the tempest, as to hope for any just and enlightened change of Imperial policy, to allay the moral storm of indignation which the Colonial Minister has kindled in Australia. Immutability in wrong-doing seems to be the only principle of Colonial Government that has vitality in Downing Street. Every principle of justice, right, and reason is dead. The unanimity of sentiment which pervades the action of the three principal colonies of Australia at the present moment is strikingly remarkable. Within nine days of each other the communities of Sydney, Melbourne, and: Hobart Town, have all spoken out plainly and earnestly of separation from the mother country as an event not possible to be long delayed ; and with a singular agreement, almost of express terms, have charged the whole responsibility on the Secretary of State. The proceedings of the large and influential meeting in Sydney on the 6th iust. have been fully reported in the public journals. On the 2nd iust. a similar meeting was held at Melbourne, which has also been reported in the press. Some of the most enlightened and honourable men of either colony took part in the business of these meetings ; and, on both occasions, the public feeling, unmistakably and without qualification, was for separation from England rather than submission to the tyrannical will of the English Minister. The last mail from Hobavt Town brings a Protest against the landing of the convicts by the Aboukir, in which the same seutiments for the first time are expressed. The reader who has paid any attention to Tasmanian affairs will be aware that on the arrival of every prisonship at Hobart Town, for some months past, a solemn protest against the landing of the criminals has been addressed by the League Council to Earl Grey. Hitherto the document has been in form and language a simple protest against the repeated acts of injustice inflicted upon the Colony by the landing of the successive cargoes of felons. The last protest goes a long way further: we copy it as it appears in the Hobart Town papers : — "PROTEST AGAI.SST THE PRISONERS, PER ABOUKIR. " Southern Tasmanian Council of the Australasian League, March 27, 1552- ------" My Lord, —We the undersigned, as the Council of the Southern Tasnniuian Bravch of

the League, had the honour to transmit to your Lordship, on the 29th January last, a Protest against the introduction of prisoners into this colony, and we now make the like protest against the renewed breach of faith committed by Her.Majesty's Government in pouring into this colony 279 convicts from the Aboukir, recently arrived from London. "In making this Protest, we beg to assure your lordship that we are not weak enough to suppose that any regard for good faith, or sense of justice—still* less any care for the welfare of the Australasian Colonies—will influence your Lordship's conduct; but your Lordship may form some idea of the feelings of the colonists in reference to transportation from the proceedings of their Representatives, who, in giving expression to those feelings, have merely discharged the trust reposed in them ; and we beg to suggest to your Lordship, that if the continuance of the unprincipled and wicked policy hitherto pursued should sever these.', colonies, with their newly-discovered and incalculable wealth, from the parent state; your Lordship may be held amenable for their loss. " We have the honour to be, my Lord, your most obedient servants, T. D. Chapman, R. Officer, J.Dunn, W. Crooke, H.Hopkins, J. Allport, A. McNaughten, >F. Haller, W. Rout. "To the Right Hon. JEarl Grey, Secretary of Staie-4bf' the Colonies." Some of these names will be instantly recognized as among the most respected, in Van Diemen's Land ; indeed, this is admitted by a paper which is known to be the organ of the Denison Government. "