The New-Zealander.

New Zealander, Volume 5, Issue 355, 15 September 1849, Page 2

The New-Zealander.

Ie just and fear not: Let aJI the ends Uiou aims't at, be thy Country's, Tliy God's, and Truth's.

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 15, 184 9.

"We have received by the schooner Ellen, from New Plymouth to Manakau, newspapers, brought from London (as we intimated in our last) by the Cornwall. They are, however, few in number, and, of course, the intelligence contained in them is of an older date than that ivhicb had already reached us via Sydney. But they fill apoition of the hiatus occasioned by the iiregular and uncertain way in which we now get news from England, and we shall select from them for our next such items as may appear worth copying.

Tim files of Sydney papers which have lately reached us contain (as we before intimated), some details on subjects, the interest of which reaches beyond the locality immediately affected by them. We may here notice two or three of them in the way of summary and brief comment. The evils actually experienced, as well as the dangers to b e apprehended, from the introduction of convicts into our colonies are now -r,ii fully understood that it would seem almost a work of supcreiogalion to enlaige upon them. Every testimony, however, to the practical working of the convict-labour- system in the extension of crime and the pollution of society, is valuable as an addition to the stubborn facts which are already accumulated, and by the force of which, the fine- spun theories of some sentimental reformers, whose compassion for society at large is swallowed up in a romantic compassion for criminals, are swept down like cobwebs as they are. The testimony to which we now allude has especial weight, being that of no less competent and trustworthy a witness, than Sir Alfred Stephen, Chief Justice of New South Wales.' In an official letter to the Colonial Secretary — dated Jnne 25, 1849 — explanatory of certain points in the Law Returns and Statistics lately furnished by him for the information of the government, His Honor says :—: — " There is one circumstance connected with Australian Criminal Statistics, which I take the opportunity of mentioning in this place. The three heaviest calendars at Sydney within the last three yeais, have been those in August and March last, and in the present month of June. In the August calendar, there were 27 piisoners; of whom only nine were always free, the remaining eighteen being persons originally transposed. In the March calendar, theic were 23 prisoners, of whom only six weie always free. In the late calendar, there were (including Quaiter Session cases), no less than 65 prisoneis; of whom sixteen only were always free. The remaining forty-nine were persons originally transported, /. e.,five transported to Van Diemen's Land, and forty-four to this colony. In two of those culendars, there were eight cases of rape, of murder, or attempt to commit those ciinies. Of the prisoners charged in these eight cases, one was an aboriginal, and the other seven were all ticket-of-leave holders, or men free by servitude." This is a very striking and instructive report ; and the conclusion to which it leads is strengthened by various corresponding statements from other districts. The crimes, taking them merely numerically, are found to have Leen committed in a vei y large proportion by persons who had been originally transported, (in this instance, it will be seen that the propoition was 81 to 115); and, — a still more significant fact, — the proportion was very much greater in cases of the worst description, the charges against peisons who had come to the colony free, having been for the most pait larcenies and other minor offences, while ticket-of-leave holdeis, and men free by seivitude,had nearly monopolised the bad distinction of being the peipetiatois of more flagrant crimes.

But reasonings and facts on the subject seem lost on many of the Sydney folk ; or at least, however convincing to their understarding, seem poweiless to contiol their domimnt love of gain. Tho.se lofty patriots, will goto a public meeting on the convict question, if it weie"only for the fun of the thing;" aid they will shout for morality, and libeity, aid truth, or whatever else may be the popu ar ephemera of the hour ; and they will applaud to the echo the most rabid attacks on the government, for having attempted so to wrong and pollute their colony ; and they will sign petitions — (writing the name to a petition is an easily performed act, if one knows Low to write at all, and, moreover it flatters one's consciousness of being politically some-tody ;) and then — what then ? Why, as soon as they hear of the approach of the Randolph, or any other convict ship, they will vie with one another, and almost overwhelm the Superintendent of Convicts m their endeavours to obtain those very " exiles 1 ' as labourers for themselves ! Still the realities of the evil and dangers of the system itself, are unaffected by the inconsistency of such persons, — or, we should rather say, by their consistency in sacrificing every thing to self-interest. It would be only retributive justice, however, if some of them should be amorgst the first to experience those results from the wider diffusion of convictism through the colony, which they professed to deprecate so earnestly in speeches, protests, and memorials.

A painful collision betveen the Bishop of Sydney and one of his ( lergy, the Rev. F. T. C. Russell, late of St. Mark's Church, Alexandria, has been broaght before the public very prominently, not only by as many publications of one kind ard another as would Jill a good-sized volume, but by a long discussion in the Legislative Council, and in various other ways. The principal facts — so far as we can gather them from the voluminous and contradictory statements and counter-statements before us — are these. Mr. Russell, on his arrival in Sydney in 1847 thought he found (and in our judgment, has satisfactorily proved that he did find) that Tractarian opinions were more or less openly maintained by a party in the Diocese. He regarded tl is dereliction of Protestant principle with the indignant reprobation which is natural in any honest son of the Church of England or of any other Reforned Church, and which is perhaps especially natural in a clerical alumnus of Trinity College, Dublin, — for in Leland the semi- Romanism of the Puseyile sect has affected the Established Church much less extensively than in England, — partly, no doubt, because (as the Bishop of Cashel mice significantly expressed it) there is " so much of the real tiling there." Mr. Russell manifested his opposition to this party in ways some of which, we think, were more zealous than discreet, but which, under the present circumstances, may he excused if not justified ; and which, at all events, honourably contrasted with the Jesuitical treachery of men who were possessing attachment to a Protestant Church, holding office in it, and eating its bread, while they were insidiously undermining its fundamental tenets in their public ministrations, in private intercourse, and in the teaching^given at St. James's College. Certain of his more unguarded statements were fastened on as the foundation of ecclesiastical proceedings, — particularly those in a letter, charged to be " of an insulting nature, and tending to excite strife and offence, contrary to his duty as a Deacon" which he (injudiciously, as we think) delivered to the Bishop, on Trinity Sunday last, when attending at the Church of St. Andrew, for the purpose of being ordained priest ; — and for having accused the Reverend Messrs. Naylor and Walsh with being parties to a confederacy in some design to debar him (Mr. Russell) from the priesthood. After various intermediate steps, involving many personal contentions and heart-burnings, the Bishop, at a Consistorial Court assembled on the 25th July, sentenced Mr. Russell to be " suspended ab ojficio, and inhibited from discharging any of the offices of a Deacon for three months ; and further, until he make due acknowledgment of his fault to the Bishop." On the 7th of August, Mr. Lowe brought the case under the consideration of the Council in a violent speech, moving for an address to the Governor, praying that he would " cause to be laid upon the table of the House copies of the proceedings of the so called Consistorial Court, in the case of the Rev. Mr. Russell, and of al 1 papers tending to throw light on the origin an d jurisdiction of the said so called Court." After a warm debate the motion was rejected by a majority of 1 7 to 6. Meanwhile, the parishioners of St. Mark's, headed by their churhwarden, Mr. Whistler Smith, have rallied round their ex-minister, presenti ig to him an address, in which they " express their extreme sorrow" at being deprived of his ministerial services, and go on to say, " In consequence of this painful occurrence, we are anxious to convey to you, as early as possible, our sincere appreciation of your zealous effoits to promote the spiritual welfare of the parish, the good effects of which are distinctly visible ; and at the same time to declare the respect and esteem which we all cannot but entertain towards you, whether we regard the sincerity and sound doctiine dis

played in your ministrations in the Church, the innocency of your private life and conversation, or your unremitting attention to the indigent and the afflicted, to the aged and youthful members of the flock hitherto entrusted to your caie." Under their auspices a pamphlet (sold at an almost nominal price) has been issued, containing copious correspondence and other statements on the subject. Thus the matter stood at the date of the last infoimation that lias reached us. Our impression on a review of the case as presented in the various documents is, that Mr. Russell acted in some particulars impetuously and imprudently, and that the Bishop, on his pait, dealt harshly with him, treating as grave offences matters which, however they might have called for correction, seem to have been only the excesses of an incautious zeal in resisting the growth of Tractaiianism. But perhaps his Lordship is not quite free from secret sympathy with that system. Indeed, the general tone of his judgment would lead to this suspicion. It needs no prejudiced or hypercutical eye to detect in it a desire to explain away or gloss over the alleged Tractarian tendencies of some of his clergy, which, coupled with his treatment of Mr. Russell, reminded us not a little of the characteristics of " Henry of Exeter," who — lion as he is well known to be when "Evangelicals" infringe ecclesiastical rule — becomes softened down to lamb -like meekness when he has occasion to touch the sayings and doings of Romanizers. At the same time, Mr. Lowes speech on the case in the Council merits little but unqualified censure. The matter was one in which that Body had no power of efficient interference whatever. And the language of the mover was almost uninterrupted abuse of the Bishop, whom he described as worse than Pontius Pilate, worse than the most grossly and outrageously unjust judge in heathen and Roman histories ; in short, said Mr. I.owe — (in adding the last flower of indignant rhetoric to his bouquet of dignified senatorial eloquence — " Even in that most execrable court, which disgraced the most execrable period of English history, in the reign of England's most weak and execrable monarch, presided over by the most execrable villain who ever defiled the English ermine, the Couit of High Commission presided over by Lord Chancellor Jeffries, had at least somewhat more of the semblance of a tribunal of justice than the Court enacted by the Ijishop of Sydney." It would be a good cause indeed that would not be injured by an advo cacy so indecently scurrilous as this. We would not leave the subject, however, without expressing our gratification that the laity have taken a stand which we hope, i 3 not a mere manifestation of peisonal regard for Mr. Russell, but also an indication of theii aversion to Tractarian doctiines and practices, and their determination to maintain the true principles of the Articles and Liturgy of their Church against any or all who would pervert them by "non-natural" and Rotnanistic interpretations. In various parts of England the laity have proved more faithful conservators of those principles than the clergy ; and men who theoretically maintain the right of private judgment, should- at least, on such vital questions as are here involved — be prepared to exercise that right when occasion arises, in a becoming spirit, but with uncompromising firmness.