The Express.
London, England, 1851-05-21 00:00:00

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LONDON, WEDIVESDAY, MAY 21.

The reason alleged last night by Sir GEORGE
GREY for opposing the motion of Sir WILLIAM
MOLESRoUTII was, that if the house agreed to ad-
dress the crown to put a stop to the transportation
of convicts to Van Diemen a Land, they must be
prepared to encounter the general and wider ques-
tion of what we are to do with our criminals, and
what is to be the other punishment we mean to sub-
stitute for transportation'.?" 1/id Sir GEoneis mean
to maintain that the house ought to, or can for any
kngth of time evade the consideration uf one or
both of these questions?
If the system of convict transportation which pre-
vailed before 18:35 had never been tampered with or
altered—if a definitive system that had been found
to work well had since been adopted in lieu of h—
alm the house might with regard to this question act
upon the Walpoliau maxim, pieta non niurere.
But the arrangements under which convicts are now
gent to the colonies cannot by any latitude of speech
be designated ins pieta. The 01a system has been
broken in upon : 'New South Wales has been enuxuei-
puted from the necessity of receiving convicts at all ;
Icortblk Island has bevel abandoned, and its trebly
concentrated ruffianism and depravity removed to
Van Diemen's Land; and the system of convict
management in Van Dienwa's Land has been
changed over and over again, the present being like
all its predecessors, avowedly an experimental and
inferior one. The unsettled and precarious nature of
the existing arrangements is in itself a sufficient
reason why the house should grapple with the "gen-
caul Null wider question," and that without delay.
The extreme suffering occasioned in Van Diemen s
land by the interim system, the alarm excited in
the neighbouring coloaits by the spectacle which
that !,t ttlement presents to them, the measures on
foot throughout Aastraia to turn aside the stream
of cone ict immitpration from that country, the irri-
tation and disaffection which the contest is calculated'
to excite. --snare reasons for entertaining the question
without delay. And it is one which dues not admit
of being viewed in a one-sided manner, with refer-
enee to the colonies which are recipients of the con-
Idea alone; its bearing upon the mother country that
relie.ed of them must also be attended to. The
day cannot be much louger staved elf when the house
will be compelled to deliberate—anxiously and with
a view to immediate action—upon the questions :
Can or ought we to persist in sending convicts to the
Australian colonies? In what manner and un-
der what arrangements ought they to be sent
thither if at all If they are no longer to be sent
thither, how are they to be disposed of? Are they
to I:. n tallied in this country, or are new penal colo-
nies. tip be founded els..where ? 'l'ho house cannot
get rid of these discussions by refusing to listen to
the petitions from Vun Diemen 's Lund. They may
grant the prayer of these petitions without acceler-
ating by one hour the unwelcome day of debate and
kgislation on this head.
This being the case, the question as to the con-
tinuance of convict transportation to Van Diemen's
Land, may and ou'.ht to be determined with refer-
ence to the special circumstances of that colony ex-
clusively. The debate last night was untimely
broken off by the instrumentality of sonic one or
other of those officioua gentlemen who arc always
ready to catch at a temporary thinness of the
house, to relieve government from the pressure of 1
disagreeable discussions. Whether this WWI done
with the foreknowledge and assont of government,'
or was the volunteer impertinence of some one who
Minified it might be deemed acceptable service after
it was done, is a matter of no moment. The course
pursued by ministers last night is so strongly indica-
tive of misgivings and hesitation on their part as to
invite to an immediate renewal of the charge.
Though Mr. lianas was present, and though the
subject hills within his department, the Home Secre-
tary took the word out of his mouth. And Sir
(t mess; Gum . pleaded the cause of government,
stated its views and intentions, in a temper
and to a purport materially differing from
what we have been recustomed to hear from
Mr. lISWEs, or from what we heard, no
further gone than last week, from his principal,
Earl CRISS-. Sir GEORGE GREY substantially ad-
mitted every essential point of the colonists' awe as
stated by them. lle talked, indeed, of exaggera-
tions in their representations, but he did not specify
in what these exaggerations consist: and he ad-
mitted the intolerable inconeeniences to which the
colonists have been subjected and their right to com-
plain. Ilia admissions went much further than this.
The colonists complain that government has broken
faith with them ; that a promise was given them
that transportation to their island should cease,
which has not been kept. Earl GREY and Mr.
11 woes sturdily deny (in the face of their own
dispatches, and in the face of the interpretation put
upon these dispatches by their own governor at the
time he received them), that any such promise was
given. lint what said Sir GEORGE GREY last
night ? '• lum bound to admit that the views ex-'
pressed in the letter referred to, and in Lord GREY'S
dispatch to Sir WILLIAM DENISON, are nut in strict
aen,rdance with the mum subsequently pursned Ly
the norernment." All the explanations and soften-
ing by which Sir Gisonce, in the latter part of hie
speech, endeavoured to break the force of this admis-
sion, are unavailing. Dainty and guarded though
his language be, when translated into plain, straight-
forward English it amounts to this, that
faith has not been kept with the colonists ;
and it admits of nu other interpretation.
The substitution of Sir Gs:mica for Mr. II twis in
lust night's debate is therefore pregnant with mean-
ing. It implies a sense on the Fart of 11l ill Liters
that the Secretary for the Colonies and his
Under-Secretary have taken ap a position that
cannot be maintained, and a bringing forward of the
Home Secretary to cover their retreat.

This being the case we might almost assume that j
we are entitled to pass unnoticed the repetition of
the fallacies of his colleagues with which Sir GEORGE
marred the conclusion of his speech. His previous
admissions deprive them of all weight. The papers
lately presented to the house place in their
true light the allegations that the colonists
are becoming reconciled to the system of transporta-
tion. The individuals who, to please the governor,
protested against part of the proceedings of an anti-
cony ict meeting, arc only 390 in number, and their
opponents amount to many thousands. Nay, more,
them: protesters expressly refrain from expressing
any opinion u to the expeilieney or inexpediency of
continuing convict transportation to Van Diemen 's
Land.

The sooner government and the legisLiture make
up their minds, not only to relieve an Diemen 's
Land from the inundation of convicts which
threatens to swamp the respectable portion of
society in that island, but to revile our whole
system of convict transportation, the better. The
intelligence which we publish in another part
of this day's paper, from the southern eolotnes,
shows that there is no time to lose. The
meeting of delegates at Port Phillip from the vari-
ous Australian anti-convict associations, resolved to
raise by public subscription the sum of 90,000/. to
wary out their objects. This is the hand-writing
on the wall.

Tilt inquiry into the late Harwich election has
terminated in unseating, for want of qualification,
Ir. Tuour l'aiNbt.t.; but without, on a scrutiny,
seating Mr. ROBtirt CRAIRTORD. So, the House
of Ceausous permitting, there will be a new election

for that borough, which, to use Zineuln's unsavoury
expression, bath " an ancient and fish like" reputa-
tion fur immoral practices on such occasions and
opportunities.
As, however, Harwich has just bad a very lucky
escape, in consequence of the mortgage on Mr.
THOBY PRINSkeS house in Tybumisehe insuffi-
ciency of his Indian income to form a qualification,
Harwich will, it is to be supposed, be now on its
good behaviour ; and it will be curious and useful to
note what constitutes good behaviour at elections at
Harwich.

Though no one of constitutional or sorrect feelings
can sympathise with the spectacle of a gentleman
who, after having been largely concerned in the de-
tails of Indian administration, and being selected,
because of his presumed knowledge of our eastern
empire, to share in the duties, responsibilities, emolu-
ments,
and patronage of its government, in his'
desperate efforts to get into parliament, places him-
self at the disposal, and submits to the degradation of
becoming the nominee, at Harwich, of Mr. JOHN
Arrwoou, a person notorious for his unclean con-
nexion with corruptible constituencies—though, we
say, no one, even of the Conservative Club, can sympa-
thise with Mr. Thous PRINSEP, the East India Di-
rector, in his defeat in such a connexion, we are free
to confess, that the law which did unseat him is both
senseless and absurd; and that quite irrespective- of
the geneml question of additional qualification for scats
in the House of Commons other than the free
choice of constituencies. For, it is quite clear,
that, though not perhaps in the United Kingdom,
Mr. Thous l'alxstx, the East India director, has
:Off. a year ; the required income. But the corpus
of the fund--the Bengal Civil Service Fund—out of
which it accrues is in India; whereas the statute
requires that it should be in the United Kingdom ;
hence legally he is without, though pecuniarily he
has, the necessary qualification. Such anomalies as
this will generally be found to accompiiny laws bad
in essence; th,ir practical operation iv always
more restrictive than their original intention ; and
though Mr. AOMONBY and Mr. ADDERLEV may suc-
ceed, as we trust they will, in repealing the restrictive
words in this case, that improvement of the existing
law ought nut to form any argument for the repeal
of all qualifications next session, when Lord Jonx
Itt:ssEtt. comes to deal with the great question of
the franchise and its exercise.

This blemish on law making. and outrage on com-
mon sense, stood between Harwich and an exposure
of its venality—between Mr. JOHN .krrwoon and an
insight into his relations with Mr. 'NOISY PRINSEP
—it intercepted and averted a better knowledge of
Harwich and its elections, than even that for-
merly given in the Daily Netts, in the series of
papen entitled "Our Representative System; and
• for this result we owe that legal absurdity au especial
grudge. For, now that the subject of the franchise
and of representation has assumed greater import-
ance than ever, we want to know a little more of
Mr. Jon,: ArrwooD and of the way he manages at
Harwich, at Lyme Regis, at Kintaie, and at Ath-
lone (becoming now more famous because of Mr.
KEOGH, than even for " the widow Mahme").
and at every other manageable little depot of
electoral dirt and corruption on which, ogre-like, he
sets his "evil eye."
Instead of all this, we had a scrutiny into votes.
Now, far be it from us to blame the petitioners for
indulging the lawyers in a scrutiny. Rut of all bad
things in that line, a scrutiny seems to us the very
wont; it is the last parliamentary relic of a detes-
table system; amnia scandal it is to parliam,nt that
it should be left to plague election committees. What
can anyone want with a scrutiny in parliament after
a registration and a revision of votes and a right of
appeal from the decision of the revising barrister to
a (-nut of law? To be sure the scrutiny, so far as it
went, at one time placed Mr. Citawroan in a majo-
rity of one; hat only next day to raise Mr. PRINSEP
to an equality with him; and thus it goes on
week after week reducing and decreasing the number
of voters, when the object mid desire of every
•
rational titan is to increase the number.

The proper place to scrutinise votes, if they nre to
' be scrutinised, is the revising barrister's court; there
they are examined into coolly, deliberately, and
without excitement, and at a trifling cost. But a
parliamentary scrutiny leads to excitement, passion,:
false s-ivearing, irritation, and expense; for width
nothing can recompense the borough affected. And
every promoter of suffrage reform was right glad to
see the Harwich scrutiny terminated.
Nut that Mr. RoBERT CRAWFoRD'S success was a
matter of political indifference to the liberal party.
On the contrary, he is from his information, his pur-
suits, his position, and his opinions, one of the most
eligible candidates any constituency can return to
parliament ; and his presence in the House of Com-
mons would never he more useful than during a ses-
sion when the government of the East India Com-
pany has to be subjected to investigations; for that
is a question in which Mr. CeawFoan, from long
and independent knowledge of India, is eminently
qualified to take part; whereas in the return of Mr.
TitonY l'ufxsEe, the East India Company would
only add another to the professional representatives
it ailready has there.
And when the career of Mr. PRINsEr at Harwich
is considered, it is not calculated to give a very high
impression of the state of morals in Leadtnhall-
street ; for to that place Mr. PRINsEP Went as the
nominee of Mr. JOHN ATTWOOD. Ile was there sure
rounded and assisted by that person's agents, lawyers,
followers, and retainers. A poor man was packed
off to Chelmsford gaol to prevent his voting for Mr.
CRAWFORD ; wine and beer and brandy flowed at
public houses; corruption and profligate expenditure
were the agency wherewith to gain Mr. l'utxsitp
votes; and in order to gratify his parliamentary
vanity and Mr. JOHN Arrwoori's unaccountable, if
sane, love of political power, hundreds of responsible
beings were demoralised.
Contrast this, the East India director's conduct
with Mr. ROBERT CRAWFORD, a City merchant's
bearing and acts at Ilarwich. He sought the elec.
tors' suffrages for his political opinions only ; he re-
fused to secure his returu by unlawful expenditure,
and returned from these shameless scenes at a cost
of some only.
If, then, the constituency of Harwich wish to re-
trieve the reputation of their borough, to save it per-
, hnps from the fate impending over St. Albino., and
, to restore its ancient prosperity by restoring to them-
selves a sense of independence, they will take the
opport 'ty that is now offered them of purging the
town of NG. Jots Arrwoou and his pestiferous
influenec by the return of Mr. ROBERT CRAWFORD,
who will reprs sent them on honourable terms only.