The Express.
London, England, 1851-10-08 00:00:00

THE EXPRESS, WEDNESDAY EVENING, OCTOBER 8, 1851.

that must not be left untold. Though New South Wales
has not for many years had any convicts: sent
directly to it, there has been a constant oozing
of *sprees into it from Van Diemen's Land;
load there are still survivors of the old direct impor-
Wipes. As yet the mischief to be apprehended from
this element in the colonial society appears to be in
a manner latent, bat a fact which hue been commu-
nicated to us on unquestionable authority will show
how much it is to be dreaded. Some three years ago
a large
.piece of gold was found by a shepherd in the
mountain range in Victoria (Port Philip), that goes
by the name of the Pyrenees. It was well known
that gold dust existed in the sande of the streams
that had their sources in that range, though it had
not been found in such quantities as to repay wash-
ing. But the discovery was not followed up, and the
reason was this :—The goldtinder in his isolated situ-
ation was beset by some expirees in his neighbour-
hood,
who threatened him with death if ho
did not reveal to them the locality of the precious
metal. The unscrupulous character of the men, and
the difficulty of obtaining protection in a thinly
peopled district, so worked upon the apprehensions
of the shepherd, that he fled the colony to escape
their persecution, and left no trace to the deposit.
It will be said that he must have been a weak-
minded man. Bo it so : the narrative shows what
kind of ruffians convict transportation, mismanaged
as it has been, has inflicted upon Australia, and the
dread with which they are regarded by the honest
settlers. _ . _ . .

What, it will be asked, is the government doing
in these circumstances to preserve order and the
due administration of law, and to secure to
the general community that wealth which ought
to be made available for the general bene-
fit? The governor has issued a proclamation
declaring that the gold is the property of the crown.
This assuredly was not the way to lead the general
public to co-operate in the efforts of government to
have the gold deposit regularly and judiciously ex-
plored. It was, on the contrary, calculated to make
the colonists regard the gold in the light of some-
thing the crown wished to keep for itself, while they
thought they had the best right to it. It placed
the " diggings " in the same category as the re-
served civil list—a government usurpation to be
assailed by all means direct and indirect. To add to
the absurdity, the government, having issued this
proclamation, did not (perhaps could not) take any
effective steps to enforce it. Less than a dozen
additional policemen had been sent to the mining
district, and of these some were aborigines. The total
number of police, mounted and unmounted, native and
European, assembled in the district did not much
exceed fifty men. Of course tie crowds who had
flocked to the gold region, and were busy with pick-
axes, shovels, and some apparently with their hands
only, snapped their fingers at the proclamation and
the police. A government commissioner had arrived
at the " diggings," but, " witk much good judg-
ment," observes a writer on the spot, "he did not
press the diggers, who were without means, for the
immediate payment of the license fee, but gave them
a week for the purpose, and offered to take the
amount in gold dust." At the end of the week he
would not be one jot nearer the attainment of his
object.
The governor and his official advisers, we learn
from the letters of respectable and trustworthy per-
sons moving in the official circles, had been holding
daily councils ever since the news of the gold dis-
covery had been confirmed. But it is clear that
these councils had been mere " palavers," to borrow
a phrase from the negro statesmen of West Africa,
that they may have been fertile in talk, but that
they have assuredly been barren in action. The
local authorities arc isolated and impotent. If the
colony is to struggle through the difficulties to which
its sudden accession of wealth has subjected it, its
local rulers must be instructed by their superiors.
With the history of the Colonial-office for the last
twenty years fresh in our memory this is indeed but
a desperate kind of hope; and besides, much precious
time must be lost before instructions can be received
in the colony.
There seems, however, to be little doubt as to the
kind of measures which arc most likely to prove effective.
In the first place, the local government ought to be
instructed to make common cause with the colonists.
They ought to bo told (sincerely, and in no dubious
phrase) that the rich dekersit is to be administered
for their benefit, by their instrumentality, and with
due deference to their opinions and wishes. By this
means the intelligence and energy of the colony
(and it possesses both in abundance) will be eulisted
in aid of a judicious management of the gold mines.
The next object will be to remedy the evils likely to
result from the draining of labour from the old (scantily
supplied) channels. To this end it will be ne.
ccssary to promote that spontaneous emigration
which is beginning to set in with redoubled vigour
from this country upon Australia, and to afford every
facility, and security, and encouragement to intend-
ing emigrants. Nor will this be sufficient to meet
the immediate pressure : a writer, whose opinion in
such matters is entitled to great attention, has
pointed to China as a source whence large and in-
stant supplies of labour may be drawn. Lastly, an
embargo ought forthwith to be made upon all con-
templated additions to the surplus felon population
of Australia. There arc already morn of our Eng-
lish rogues there than it will be easy to manage
in existing circumstances.

the preeklen cy. He thinks the Prince would become ne-
eessary in two events (both, it is true, pretty nearly
inevitable). The first would bo the maintenance of
the law of banishment against the Orleans family by
the Assembly, which would make it incumbent upon
the country to decide the question for itself; and the
, second an unconstitutional candidature, against
which M. Creton calls upon all right-thinking men

to unite.
o•The address of Kossuth to the Marseillais has
made a great stir among the diplomatic body, who ,
immediately despatched couriers with it to their re- ! I
spective governments. The municipal addresses in
.:land to the ex-governor of Hungary are like-
wise a theme of much debate.
The Constifutiannel follows the example of the :
Patric in bestowing several columns of abuse upon
Kossuth. As there is no kind of slander more
odious than that which is invented to ex-
cuse injury, so there is no disparagement
' more despicable and ineffectual than that which
is delivered with the scoffing sneer of the
cynic. A single expression will exhibit in its true
light the spirit in which the organ of the Elylike
attacks the ex-governor of Hungary. "The carnage
of the mayor goes to fetch the illustrious foreigner
from the pier to the town-hall; an address is handed
to him, which the scribe of the council has written
out fair on fine paper, and the mayor makes a speech,
to which the illustrious foreigner replies with what
eloquence sea-sickness has hit him." The man whose
genius was the life of the Hungarian war of inde-
pendence is spoken of in these terms: " Tenth will
not fail to unmask this vulgar declaimer, whose blun-
dering alone is equal to his pride." In the same breath
fulsome adulation is thus bestowed upon Austria :
" Perhaps Austria, although she Du this occasion had
the good fortune to defend the cause of civilisation
and progress, would have succumbed under theefforts
of Georgey, Dembinski, and so many valiant soldiers,
if the incapacity of Kossuth had not destroyed the
advantages conquered by the most heroic courage."
Can any better proof be offered than such an article,
that the French government is to-day what it was
when it bombarded Rome. Nay, it has made some
progress, when its confidential organs assert, under
the date of the Gth of October, on the anniversary of
the murders of Batthyany, Leiningen, Damjainch,
and the rest of the Hungarian leaders, that the cause
which was served by the hangman Ilaynau was
the cause of civilisation and progress. Fines and
imprisonment are the reward of the writers who pro-
test against such blasphemies.
The Stevie replies as follows to the observations of
the linirera on the refusal of the government to
permit M. Kossuth to pass through France :
The necessity of insulting all that is great, all that is
noble, and all that has been rendered sacred by glory and
by mi.fortune, weighs on the whole party of reaction ; hut
we must admit that the Vairers carries this fatal necessity
to a greater length than any other adversary of the people
and of progress. With the square cap leaning
M.
the
car, this religious journal now declares that M. Leon
Faucher, a really great man, has acted wisely in
refu-ing Louis Kossuth permission to pass through
France, styling hint "an ambitious spouter, of whom
the Hungarians have been the dupes and the sic-
' time." he Umrers afterwards, in sketching the history
of the Hungarian revolution, in the manner of Father Lou-
, quit, affirms that the Magyars only wished to render more
absolute their domination over the Selavonians annexed to
Hungary. That is not true ; but that is necessary in order !
to draw the conclusion that Kossuth was the agent of the
• Magyar aristocracy, while the Batt Jellachich and the Ern-
; pens of Austria were the dcf.ndsrs of democracy. The
, end justifies the means. We shall nut lose time in refuting
t such assertions, we shall only register tho fact, and leave it
to public opinion. M. Faucher repulses Kossuth ; the
Utaieers insults him. If Kossuth complain, ho will but
, badly under-land the sentiments of France.

At the Buurse, the Five per Cents. fell 3e., closing
at 91•80; and the Threes rose 3c., and closed at 36-13.
Itailways were firm: Rouen rose 8.73; and Northern,
Ilavre' and Strasbourg, 2.30. .Nhuveilles fell 2.30;
and the Ventre, 1•25.