TRANSPORTATION RENEWED BY FORCE. (From the Sydney Morning Herald, Feb. 27.)

New Zealander, Volume 4, Issue 291, 14 March 1849, Page 3

TRANSPORTATION RENEWED BY FORCE. (From the Sydney Morning Herald, Feb. 27.)

The publication Inst week of the lettcis of Mr. -Tackson, now in London, on a political mission fiom Van Diemen's Land, had prepared the people of th s colony for the disagreeable tidings contained in the official despatch published in our columns of yesterday. Xt was fortunate that the bad newt was thus gradually broken, for had the Secretary of State's announcement come upon us suddenly, the shock wouldjiiave been much more vio'ent, and o ir feelings of resentment and disgust proportionately more intense. Prepared as we were, however, this cool, complacent, undisguised avowal of ci gross breach of faith on the pint of her Majesty's Government, has made us blush for the tarnished honour of the BritMi name. For what are ths ciieumstances of the case ? In 181b 1 Mr. Secnt.iry Gladstone proposes a lenewal, with cci tain modifications, of Hie transportation system. 'Ihe pioposmon is scouted from one end of the col my to the oilier, and evmtually by the Legislative Council itsc'f. In 181-7, Earl Grey pioposcs another scheme of a kind.cd nature, but divested of the more ohji ctiona'.le properties of the former one, and accompanied by stipulations winch promised to neutraliie much of the evil inherent in convictism under any form To this proposition ths colonists, under the extremities to which they had been i educed by a Fcaitfity of labour, yielded a tehictant consent, not d-übting fur a moment that it had been made with peifect sincerity, and would be scrupulously carried out in all iv integrity. But what iB the result ? Her Maicty's Government have r-omplctcly shifted their ground, turning iound upon us with a statement to the fallowing effect: " We oiler to send you British Exiles on terms which we thought to be at once essential to your moral iuteres s, and calculated to remove your "very just objections to a measure of so questionable a character. On these terms you agreed to our overture ; and thereupon a bargain between us was fairly struck. We acknowledge that, on every principle of honest dealing we thus became bound to fulfil our part of the agreement to the very letter. But we found out that we could not do so without a iound sum of money ; and money we could not get without a vote from 1 arliament; and Parliament was just finishing its leisum ; and we doubt whether Parliament, at any period of the sebMon, would have voted us the money at all. And so, all things considered, we have thought it expedient to set the bargain aside, and to send you convicts in our own way, just as if no bargain had ever been made. We do not like to speak evil of dignitaries ; but m the transactions of private life such conduct would be branded with the most odious epithets, and its authors held up to general scorn. It is the sacrifice of honour on the altar of expediency. In minds rightly constituted, first thoughts aie often the best So it was in this instance with Earl Grey. When he first became aware of the impracticability of his own terms, by reason of the financial derangements of !the country, he at once perceived what was the rieht course to be pursued. "Under these circurastances," says his Lordship in the despatch, " my first impression was, that it would be necessary to abandon altogether the idea of sending out convict* to New South Wales, as 1 readily acknowledge that after what has already taken place upon this bubject, Her Majesty's Government cannot, without the consent of the colonists, lefuse to provide for ihe conveyance of nn eoual number of free emigranti, if convicts are to lie sent at all to New South Wales.". Exactly bo. This, wai the tme state of the case ; and the " first impression" produced hy a Calm view of the new difficulties which had supervened, was the only one consistent with honour .md good faith. The thought of s^ndiii" out a smgl. convict until the colonists should fint \uw released the Minister from bis pledge, ought to have bean crushed in the bud. No considerations of expediency ou^ht to have been allowed to warp his Loidship's mind, for one moment, from the rectitude of its " fin-t impiChsion." The tempter, however, was listened to; and, as a matter of course, he triumphed. " Further conside. ration" reconciled the noble Secretary to the very ihinw from which at the outset he virtuously recoiled. His "attempt to justify his conduct— we say it with all p.oper respect— is a miserable failure. He urges s. veral pleas ; but only one of them is worthy our notice, all the lest being foreign from the point, lie pleads, as a justification of his departure from the terms of his bargain, » the urgent want of labour in the colony;" which "urgent want," bis Lordship presumes, would induce the colonists to receive " a moderate number of convicts" on any terms, lo this bophistry there is an obvious reply. In the first place, that " urgent want" was felt in all its force at the time when the colonists agreed to ths conditions offered in his Lordship's despatch of 3rd September, 1847 ; and it was only because the want was urgent that they contented to receive convicts even on these conditions. This fact puts down the plea at once. Iv the next place, his Lordship must have been well aware that long before his convicts could reach these shores, the "urgent want" would have ceased to exist. When the colonists closed the bargain, they had been without imniiuration for some years, nor had they any reasonable prospect of Us revival. Now, the scene is changed. Immigration is pouring in by thousands ; and the only fear with many prudent men amongst us is that the thing will be overdone— that men and women, boys and girls, will anive in such numbers, and in nuch quick succession, as to outstrip our means of providing them with subsistence. And under these altcicd circumstance*, convicts are to be thrust upon us ! And to be thiust upon us on the pretext of our " urgent want oj labour !" Our untainted labowers, our free immigrants, arc not only to find, in all piobability, a labour maikct over stocked with competitors of their own class, but a.c to find also the hatful competition of ticket- oS'lvuve holders. For it turns out that we a.c not to have the quasi convicts called exiles, but bona fide felons holding tickets-of- leave. And for this purpus*, wa cannot be allowed to retain the dignity of u Fice Colony, but

must bo njjnin degraded, by the formnlity of nn Order in Council, to the level of a Penal Svtllement ! And mmk the consequences. Foremost amongst them is the check which will thereby be given to that gradual adjustment of the balance of the sexes upon which we have ho often dwelt with encouragement and hope. The convirtj, under the present ariaugemiMit, must needs be unaccompanied by wives; so that every mnn of them discharged upon our wharves will he an item on the wiong side of oui soei il account, swelling the already dangoious preponderance of malcj over females. Next, as we aro to relapse into the condition of a penal colony, we must again be toddled with the odious and expensive establishments appei taming to tint condition. Our convict department must be icorgniuzed ; oui police i'orre must he augmented ; <md our legislation must revive anti-Untish restraints upon the fice membeis of our community. Next, as felons aro once inoro to constitute a poition of our society, there must again be drawn a Btrict and impassible line between those who came hither in bondage, and those who came free or were born in the land. Our little community mu9t revive, not only the distinction between Fiee and Bond, but the more rancorous distinction between Free and Freed. And, though last not leait, the character of the colony, a* a place for respectable emigration, will be blown. This evil Eail Giey proposes to obviate by distributing the convicts amongst several of the colonies. But the colonies selected for this disreputable companionship are those which, compared with America, have the diiad vantage of being remote from British shores. The consequence willj be, that the western continent will become more than ever the favourite emporium of emigrant capital and labour. But how does his Lordship know that this notable scheme of convict fraternization will be submitted to ? Van Diemen's Land, smarting under bitter experience, has solemnly determined to resist it to the uttermost. The Cape colony has done so to. New Zealand, we have no doubt, will be equally indignant and equally firm. Western Australia has no scope either for emigrants or convicts. Ceylon is in ruins. Mauritius is more fit for Asiatic than for Saxon labourers. If New South Wale«, therefore, slnll submit to this penal degradation, she must stand alone in her unenviable glor). Bat will she submit? We shall see. Tho c e who respond in the negative — and we fancy wo hear a loud and vehement " no !" from every pai t of the colony — rauit bestir themselves instantly. Not a moment is to be lost. Public meetings must be called in every town and in every district, to protest and petition against the minister's breach of faith. Sydney, of course, should set the example ; and we cannot doubt that steps will be promptly taken for convening a great meeting of the antt-convict citizens. The Minister says, if we don't like his measure, he will put a. stop to it. Let us leave him no room to doubt on that score !