WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 8, 1851.

New Zealander, Volume 7, Issue 494, 8 January 1851, Page 2

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 8, 1851.

We published in our last number a Petition to the Queen, which now lies for signature at our office, and at that of the Southern Cross, praying for the entire and immediate cessation of transportation to Van Dienien's Land, as a boon,— or, "we might rather say, as an act of justice — which the inhabitants of Australasia generally, solicit from the Imperial Government. The subject is one which has been so repeatedly discussed in various ways and forms, that it might be supposed to be worn out, — leaving nothing new to be urged against Convictism which would either stimulate the energies of those who have already,, on cumulative evidence, formed their conclusions against the evils and dangers of the pollution, or clear the vision of those who, amidst what we may well call the blaze of illumination already cast upon the subject, remain blind to the existence of the evil, and the imminence of the danger Still there aie one or two aspects in which we think it may be presented just now, that possibly have not been considered by all our readers in their full bearing on the question. One of these arises — as so many novel things have arisen — from the relation in which Australasia stands to California, where the topic of Convictism, imported as is alleged, into that State, from our Penal Colonies, is exciting an attention, the extent and depth of which may be partly inferred from an article in the Alia California which is copied in another column. Although New Zealand is not named there, (as, thank God it could not be truly named any -where) as itself a penal colony, yet we are informed on amply sufficient authority, that little distinction is really made in this matter by the Californian public at large, and that our own colony is generally classed by them with those from which " El Dorado " is said to receive the immigrants characterized by such epithets as our San Francisco contemporary employs. Impartial readers of the article will probably think with us, that it is exaggerated in its tone, and too sweeping in its ascription of the great bulk, if not the whole of the crime perpetrated in California to " the leprous gang of incarnate fiends," whom it states to have reached the State from " the piolific lazarettos of Van Diemen's Land and New South Wales." This is one of those selfcomplacent inferences which men are so apt to draw from inadequate premises at the bidding of self interest or self love. Had no British convict foot ever trodden the soil of California — had no one immigrant from Australasia ever landed on its shores — there would have been abundant instruments of every moral and social crime that has arisen there, in the heterogenous mass of adventurous, reckless, or desperate men, who have crowded into it from other quarters, as a gambler's last chance, as a refugium peccutorum, as a kind of Ultima Thule of civilized existence. In the turbid ocean which these strangely combined rivers have swollen, we fear that the really virtuous and upiight (and such we are convinced there are,) who have made California their home, would be found greatly in the minority, — the rari nantes in gurgite vasto. But while we deny the wholesale charge that Avould affix upon Australasia the production, even by its convict population, of all the evil, we have no wish to repress our conviction that a portion of the accusation is true, and that convicts from our penal colonies have not been backward in ci-

ther inciting to or joining in the ciimes winch threaten, as the Alta candidly expiesses it, to make the State " a perfect Pandemonium "—" — " the sink of the world. 7 ' At all events, the existence of such a belief there, is a circumstance -which should not he without its effect. California is now " a great fast;"— the veil which shrouds the futiue as respects countries, as well as individuals, is perhaps more than ordinauly impenetrable in its case ; but even the small portion of that veil which has been lifted discloses unequivocal indications that it is destined — whether for eventual blessing or curse, — to exercise a powerful influence on many parts of the world, and probably, as immediately on those colonies, as on any other parts, with the exception of the United States. The prejudice now existing there against Australasian immigrants, and the " something " which the Alia, however vaguely, calls upon Congress to do in the way of passing " restrictive measures " in the matter, may seriously damage the interests even of our own wo>i-penal colony, so far as they are, or may become, connected with California. An assurance, such as a satisfactory pledge of compliance with this Petition would afford, that no more convicts would be sent out to any of the Colonies in these seas, might exert a very bt - neficial effect in the point to which we refer. We know that this is a comparatively low ground on which to discuss the question of Convictism ; — hut, having on many former occasions treated the evil on its higher and broader grounds, — we feel free to advert to it here in this subordinate but not unimportant light. Another present aspect of the case is, the increased development of the injurious and destructive effects of the Convict system which is exhibited in Van Diemen's Land itself. The papers which have lately reached us from that colony afford indications, which the most indifferent observer can scarcely fail to recognise, of a possible, if not probable, impending civil strife. Class seems fiercely arranged against class. The Anti-Transpoitation portion of the community loudly and equitably demands, — not merely on the abstract merits of the question, but as the fulfilment of an engagement solemnly made by the Home Government — that no more convicts should be sent amongst them, "without their consent expressed through their Colonial Legislature." In other words, thoughtful and respectable people see, that if " Advance Tasmania !" is to be any thing more than a clap-trap in an after-dinner speech, or a turgid newspaper rhodomontade, the further infusion of the convict pollution must be put an end to. In pursuing this object, however, we must say that we think some of them have been injudicious and even unjust in the language they have used — much of which is not only coarse, but implies (if it means anything) that a man who has fallen into the commission of a crime against the laws of his country, is so hopelessly lost, that he can have no "place for repentance," and cannot by any subsequent consistency of good conduct re-fit himself for a place in society. We have no sympathy with such a doctrine as this. Let any one of the strait-laced moralists who. virtually if not avowedly hold it, ask his own conscience if he is himself ready to stand in the judgment of his final account on such a ground. But, while we frankly make such concessions as these on one side, there is another side to be looked at. The Van Diemen's Land Convicts (instead of keeping within those modest boundaries of pretension which would have been not only most becoming but most conducive to their own welfare) have formed an Association, composed of themselves, and such others as sympathize in their sentiments, under the designation of the "Tasmanian Union," — a title which has been adopted on further consideration in preference to that originally proposed, the " Prisoner's Protective Association." We have before us a copy of the Resolutions and " Address from the Managing Commit:ee to the Inhabitants of Van Diemen's Land," as given in — ive need scarcely say — a thoroughly sympathising journal, the Hobart Town Irish Exile, conducted by Mr. Patrick O'Donohue, one of those patriots who have " left their country for their country's good." We see in these documents much that might well have been called forth by an indignant sense of wrong, (real or fancied) inflicted on the writers ; but we see in them also a deeply rooted determination to wreak their vengeam c (if they can) on the country which has vomited them forth, and to introduce (if they can) the same principles which have made them exiles from home. The immediate object evidently is, to unite a confedeiacy which will blend " the Tax-payers and the holders of the Franchise in a League to return so many members holding their own views to the Assembly to be elected under the New Constitution," as to secure a majority in favour of the " Exile System." That thay have no despicable power to accomplish this may be inferred from the following statement in a leading article on the subject in the Sydney llerald of the 6th ult., the accuracy of which we have no reason to doubt ; — Foolish, impolitic, and unprovoked as this countermovement is, it is not to be contemplated without seiious apprehensions. In New Soutb Wales, as we lately had occasion to prove, the convict influence is comparatively nothing; in Van Diemen's Laud it is paiamount. Even two yeais ago, the fiee male emigrants in the island numbered little more than 7,000; white the men who had become twe numbered nearly

9,000, exclusive of ncaily 5,000 male ticket-of- leave holders. The male convicts in Government -employ and in private service numbered, at the same time, 16,000. Since then, these numbeis on the " Prisoner's Protection " side have been swelled by the influx of transportation, and their influence simultaneously augmented by fiesli issues of conditional pardons ; while it is to be feared that the numerical strength of the emigrant class has not been recruited, but diminished. With these figures before us, it is impossible to shut our eyes to the mischiefs with which this emancipist combination is fi aught. Supposing such an influence to be brought into operation, it needs no argument to show that it will all be in favour of Convictism in the Colonies. The conclusion is — -we need scarcely indicate — that those who desire to see Australasia free from the evils, whether direct or indirect, which the importation of fresh and fresh supplies of British criminals into the boundaries of our Australasian sisterhood, is calculated to produce, should now nerve themselves as to a renewed struggle, which, if it be only conducted on the right side in a spirit duly combining firmness and loyalty, may not improbably be the final one. The question " What is England to do with her Convicts ?" is undoubtedly one of extreme difficulty. We are not of those who flippantly declaim against Downing Street for not immediately solving the problem. But that is a riddle to be unravelled at home. We are too far away to see how the case may just now stand there. But the good old practical rule is, that every man (and, by an obvious parity of reasoning, every country) should mind his own business. It is undoubtedly the proper business of the Home Government to find out what they shall do with British criminals. It is undoubtedly our proper business to say, you should n:t — and, if we can constitutionally and loyally help it, you shall not — make the Australasian colonies the receptacles into which British crime is to be disgorged. Returning to the immediate subject of the Petition, we think that' — although Petitioning (as we have heard members of both Houses of Parliament more than once say,) has "lost the effect it once had from the manner in which it is now known to be often golten-up" — still a Petition like this, emanating from no clique or selfish party, would have weight, and we therefore suggest to those who concur in its sentiments the propriety of immediately affixing their names to it.