THE MELBOURNE PRESS AND THE MILITARY.

New Zealander, Volume 8, Issue 687, 13 November 1852, Page 3

THE MELBOURNE PRESS AND THE MILITARY.

[Fiom the " Sydney Heidld," October, 30.] A few days ago we had to announce, that a reward of two thousand pounds had been offered by the Government of Victoria for the discovery of" the perpetrators of one of the most daring outrages ever committed in a civilized community. The state of crime in that colony is such that even in broad day-light, and in the most crowded thoroughfares of the very metropolis itself, robbery and personal violence are of constant occurrence. In a Melbourne newspaper of the 20th instant, there appears a letter containing the following statement : — " If the Government of this colony do not come forward boldly, and at once organise a sufficient police force, mounted and on foot, to parade the streets of Melbourne night and day, to punish offenders and depredators, we shall be witnessing a greater amount of crime than was ever perpetrated in any coimtry or in any age but this. * * The outrage committed in open day, in Bourke and Queen -streets, witnessed by some of our leading merchants, will show the state we have arrived at- * '"' Talk of California ! Ours is a pandemonium in comparison." Deeply as this state of things is to be deplored, it cannot be wondered at. Considering the maddening effects produced throughout the entire community by the enormous quantities of gold which are incessantly pouring down from the mines — considering the torrents of population which are every day rolling into the city from every part of the world; considering, especially, the thousand^ of hardened villains, expirees and runaway convict*, who are incessantly arriving from the penal shores* of Van Diemen's Land, raging with the lust of gold, and reckless of the means whereby their lust may be satiated — it must be admitted that the social disorders of the colony are only such as might have been expected from the first, and such as a prudent Government was bound to be prepared for, to the utmost extent of its resources. It is just the state of things which, sixteen or seventeen months back, was expected in our own colony. It was foreseen by the thinking colonists generally ; it was foreseen, and vigorously prepared for, by our vigilant and cautious Executive. So far as our own interests are concerned, we have reason to rejoice that the more attractive shores of Victoria have served as a barrier between us and the impending deluge; so far as our neighbours are concerned, we are far more disposed to commiserate their sufferings than to envy their country's fame. And when the intelligence reached Sydney that the Home Government were about to send out a reinforcement of troops, the prevailing feeling here -was one of satisfaction that two-thirds of them were destined for Victoria, and only one* third for New South Wales. Not that we were unwilling to receive even the whole of them but that we were convinced they were more urgently required there than here. Hence we were glad that in so far as the faithful services of British soldiers could allot d protection to life and property under the extraordinary circumstances of the times, the sufferings of the neighbouring colony were to that extent about to be alleviated. The troops have arrived. They entered Port Phillip just as the alarming state of the colony called most loudly for their services. One would have supposed the event would be hailed with universal joy — or at least that the only exceptions would be found amongst the thieves and cut throats whom the bayonet was intended to overawe. No such thing;. We have before us a Melbourne newspaper, the Argus of the 20th instant, the very journal from which we took the quotation given above, whose leading article expatiates on the event in the most disgusting terms of seditious and inhuman ribaldry. The Shipping Intelligence of the paper announces, first, the ai rival of 11. M. si cam-ship Vulcan, 1748 tons, Commander Donop, R. N., with 590 men of the 40th regiment, Lieu-tenant-Colonel Vaillant in command, from the Cape of Good Hope ; and, next, that the troop ship Vulcan had been placed in quarantine, there being a case of small-pox on board. So far the chronicler of facts. Now for the sentiments of the editorial commentator. " The soldiers," quoth he, " are come at last. The Vulcan steamer anchored yesterday in Hobson's Bay, freighted with a cargo of two kindred evils — two malignant diseases, which have, perhaps about equally, desolated the world, — the red jacket and the small pox. True to their nature, while shut out from inflicting their woes upon mankind, they have waged war upon each other ; and for the present we are to be precluded from the satisfaction of actual contact with either of them." What heartless stuff is this ! What gloating over the afflictions of fellow-cieatures — what wanton, cruel, malignant insults to the brave men who, at their Sovereign's command, had come to shield the innocent from the guilty, to put down crime and outrage, and assist in giving efficacy to the laws, and tranquillity to the whole population j " The world is old enough, 1 * proceeds this Melbourne sage, " for man to have learned by this time to be governed by brain and not by muscle. It is the function of the baton to protect — the function of the bayonet to coerce." It follows, that in Victoria there must be a lamentable deficiency of brain, seeing that brain has not yet been able to keep her people in order. It follows, too, that since the baton also lias signally failed as an instrument of protection, it might not be amiss to try what can bo done by the bayonet. But it is the function of the bayonet, forsooth, to coerce ! i And what is the whole fabric of civilised society, what the whole system of law and government, but an instrument of coercion ? What is the intention of the civil power, but that it should be a terror to evil doers, while it is a praise to them that do well ? And for what purpose has the bayonet been sent to Victoria, but that it might enable the civil power to fulfil the purposes of its existence? j But to meet such pitiable sophisms as these with sober argument, is a waste of words. They ought to be met by the tribunals of the country. The Attorney-General of Victoria ought to raise the question at the bar of the Supreme Court, whether such wholesale attacks on the constitutional safe-guards of. the country as this writer indulges in are within the limits of fair discussion, or whether they do not breathe so much of the spirit of sedition as to call for a prompt and vigorous check. It is quite enough for the peaceable inhabitants of Melbourne to have to bear up against the masses of turbulence which are every where pressing upon their persons and their homes, without having to endure the extra danger kindled by the fire-brands of a demagogue and > editions' Press.