The Sun.
London, England, 1839-06-17 00:00:00

IN VINO VERITAS.

The ephemeral advantages accruing to the ene-
mies of national education from the vast conflation
of error and prejudice with which they have been
industrious to surround themselves, have brought
with them one advantage (and this not ephemeral)
to the Liberal party—an advantage just now over-
looked, but likely to tell hereafter with redoubled
force. Forgetting themselves in the insolence of
triumph, the Tories and Church bigots have suf-
fered their true sentiments to escape—sentiments
which all their endeavours were previously directed
to disavow and repudiate—now divulged, irrevo-
cable I Better for them if, with fewer petitions and
smaller grounds of confidence, they had been more
continent of themselves and of their counsel, had
deferred the season of open declaration, and been
content with the victory without insisting on the
triumph. But now we know all ! Their language
is no longer obscure, nothing is left to conjecture ;
there is no subaudition, no ellipsis—the syntax is
full—the phrase perfect, round, unmistakeable—
" WE WILL HAVE NO EDUCATION FOR THE
PEOPLE."

This voice has gone forth, and we are glad of it.
It is the genuine heartfelt expression of pure Tory
despotism, uttered incautiously, but cordially and
explicitly, in a crisis of exultation caused by be-
holding the sudden blaze of fanaticism which their
united breath has momentarily evoked from the
embers of a fire, of late disused, but once the forge of
of all their thunderbolts. Into this fire of semi-
political, semi-religious fanaticism would they now
cast back the heart of England, again to mould it
to the hateful shape it wore in those cringing times
when no man called his soul his own, or dared
looked his superior in the face ; when no man gave
to God the pure incense of a grateful heart in words
warm from its truthful springs: but for religious disci-
, pline, it mattered little if the Creator were adored so
' the Bishop was worshipped. In this detested fire
would they purge the national character of all the
self-reliance it has learnt since it was weaned
from helplessness. In this fire would they new•
fashion it to the likeness of the passive tool
they once used it for, when they could work
it at pleasure, to every purpose of a crooked and
tyrannous policy. But the hope is . fallacious....
their fire extinct—the tool no more a tool, Lever to
be so again ;
and the Tories and the bigots have
spoken out too soon, have committed themselves—
as assuredly they will not long be permitted to
doubt. The voice of their passionate hatred has I
gone forth, we say ; and we rejoice at it. Its echo
will be ringing
in their ears long after they shall
have begun to wish to God they had been born
dumb. They have said all--they have let out the
truth ; and we bless the cup of intoxication that
set loose their venomoustongues.es.
4, WE WILL
HAVE NO EDUCATION FOR THE
,
PEOPLE,"—such is the Tory edict—such the solid
result into which all logical refinings, all sophis-
tical limitations have resolved themselves.
The
of
thefnewsttilat i
pacpmemr,
oafs
England, may be
the principal re-
presentative
referred to for evidence of the growth of self-
assurance on this question, which has gra-
dually led the party to throw off the mask
of liberal intentions, and show themselves in
their proper colours, as the sworn, implacable ene-
mies of all measures having for their object the en-
largement of the means of popular information.
This journal in a sort of historical article, which
appeared on Thursday last, after warmly eulogising
the Church of
England for keeping her people in
the thick of ignorance during the space of a thou-
sand years, proceeds to notice (with evident loath-
ing)
the.first blossoms of the tree of liberty. The ,
change which first removed the peasant from the
condition of a soil-bound serf, and brought home
the blessings of independence to the hearth of the
labouring man, is thus described :
" In the middle of the last century, however, a

great chancre occurred in the condition of the poo-
ple. The growth of manufactures, and other
causes, producing a demand.for labour, uprooted
the peasantry from their hereditary localities, and
in this, and in other ways, undermined their here-
ditary morality."
For " uprooting the peasantry from their here-
ditary localities," read, " liberating them from
a state of unconditional, bestial servitude,
and endowing them with the means of earning an
independent, honourable livelihood;" and for " un-
dermining their hereditary morality," read " opening
their eyes to the moral infamy of the said bestial
servitude."
The writer in the Standard is one of those
whose inborn preference of moral and physical
bondage over every state of free breathing exist-
ence blunts whatever may be naturally acuminous
in his perceptions, and leaves him on this question
no more intelligence than a child. lie looks at
the subject of popular education from a certain re-
mote angle .which belies all its proportions, and
because he dares not look it manfully in the face, his
readers must take all his distortions at second hand
for a true copy of the original. Nothing is easier
than to make a bugbear of popular education by
regarding it only with reference to its partial results
in a state of transition from ignorance to knowledge,
and under the influence of obstructions not yet
withdrawn. But none but infatuated obstructives
would be guilty of the solemn absurdity of com-
plaining that the waters ran not smooth, while they
were themselves standing in the middle interrupt.
ing their course.

Does the Standard think we do not appreciate
at its true worth the sort of virtues which, under
the names of " hereditary morality," he admires,
but with no right understanding of their source or
nature in the Church-going peasant of eighty years
ago ? Virtue may, and does often, attend on
ignorance (for, thanks be to God, the light of
virtue is never quite extinct, and, in some shape,
graces and exalts every state of life, though there
are some that cannot recognise it if it speak not by
the card) ; and a beautiful and affecting sight it
to behold the contentment, humility, and patient
endurance of those whom fortune has placed
amongst the lower.lost and most wretched of her
creatures, and their frequent unsuspecting confidence
in the good faith of their masters and superiors.
Such virtues were undoubtedly often found amongst
the " adscripti gleba" of ancient England ; and it
is history's hardest business to satisfy the world
that they were not systematically abused. But
higher virtues and higher destinies belong to the
human mind, and unless it be maintained that
only a certain fezu are to cultivate the moral and in-
tellectual gifts which the Almighty has scattered
with equal hand on all, we can neither see how jus-
tice to manorrespect to the will of his Maker is shown
in withholding from the mass of our fellow-creatures
that light we rejoice in ourselves, which we feel to
be, after virtue itself, the one thing needful to
cheerful or happy existence.

But the 'Tories and the enemies of popular in-
struction are for working out the principle of the
division of labour in their peculiar sense. Re-
garding the business of life as made up of rights
and duties, they would reserve to themselves the
means of living pleasurably, and would delegate
to the multitude the task of living morally.

NEW SOUTH WALES.

MASSACRE OF NATIVES.
(Abridged from the Observer.)

Letters and papers which have just reached us from
Sydney, New South Wales, have furnished us with ac-
counts of a series of as cold blooded and heartless murders
as ever stained the anneals of crime in any country.
The whole of the miscreants were discovered, arrested,
and already have seven of them expiated their offence
on the gallows ; notwithstanding, we regret to say, very
strong efforts on the part of some of the Sydney news-
papers to prejudice the public mind in their favour, and
to stay the retribution which their delinquency so loudly
demanded. The names of these monsters in human
shape were Charles Kinnaister, William Hawkins,
James Perry, Edward Foley, James Cates, John Russell,
and John Johnson. All of them were convicts, and had
been transported from this country. They had been
assigned as stockmen or shepherds to some of the set-
tlers in the interior. In the month of June last these
ruffians set out on horseback in pursuit of their help-
less victims. They were traced in their progress in-
quiring after blacks, and at last arrived at a but
near the big river, beyond Liverpool plains, oc-
cupied by the first-named sufferer, Kinnaister. Here
they discovered that a little tribe of about thirty natives
men, women, and children, including babes at their mo-
thers' breasts, were congregated in the bush, unsuspi-
cious of danger and unconscious of offence. TiliS was
on the Sunday. They immediately approached their
victims, who, terrified at their manner, ran into Kin-
naister's hut for protection, crying for mercy ; but they
appealed to hearts of stone, who having thus caught
them; as it were, in a trap, dismounted, followed them
into the hut, and, despite of their entreaties, tied them
together with a rope, with the exception of one woman.
Tiiii was done without a word being uttered, and with a
cool and bloody determination. When all were thus
secured, one end of the rope was tied round the
body of the foremost of the murderers, who, having
mounted his horse, led the way, draping
the terrified group after him, while his in-
famous companions guarded them on all sides.
In vain, however, did the aged and youthful
of both sexes appeal for compas-ion. Their doom
was cast. Onward they were dragged till a fitting
place in the bush was reached, when the work of
slaughter commenced, and, unresisting, were these hap-
less wretches, one after the other, brutally butchered.
Fathers, and mothers, and children, fell before the pre-
viously sharpened swords of these self-appointed execu-
tioners, till all lay a lifeless mass, in death clinging to
each other with the throes of natural affection. But
one shot was fired, so that it was presumed one only
perished by fire arms. The precise number thus immo-
lated has not been accurately ascertained, but it is com-
puted that not less than thirty lay stretched on the en-
sanguined earth. Th demon butchers then placed the
bodies in a heap, kindled an immense fire over them.
and thus endeavoured t ) destroy the evidence of their
unheard-of brutality. Fragments of the unconsumed
bones, however, still remained; but seen these were
collected, and attempted to be hidden from human
eye. Birds of prey were seen hovering about
the spot where the unconsumed remains yet
existed. Stockmen in search of their strayed cattle
were attracted to the locality, supposing they
should find their carcases. In this way it was that the
ribs, jaw-bones, half-burnt skulls, and other portions of
human skeletons were found—wh le symptoms of the
conflagration in the vicinity were likewise detected.
This led to inquiry, and, ultimately to discovery-, of the
horrible truth. The place was fitty miles from the
nearest police-station. The whole of the villains were
apprehended, and their own admissions and conduct pre-
vioua to, and subsequent to, the bloody work, added to
a chain of circumstantial evidence, left no doubt of their
guilt. It chanced, too, that on the night previous to
the murders a heavy rain had fallen—and traces
were thus discovered of horses' feet, as well as of
the naked feet of the wretched natives on the way
to the field of death. Every possible pains were
taken to save these monsters from condign punish-
ment—subscriptions were made for their defence,
and Counsel retained, but in vain. Their guilt was
established beyond a doubt, and Sir John Gipps suf-
fered the law to take its course to the satisfaction of
every properly thinking person in the Colony—although
we shudder to find that there were tl'ose who en-
deavoured to palliate the crime, and inveigh against
the hardship of sacrificing the lives of " the Whites"
for the mere destruction of " a few black Cannibals," as
these poor inoffensive and helpless Aborigines were pro-
nounced. Some even went so far as to declare that in
future this wretched class should be cut off by other
and not less certain means—namely, by poison—by
arsenic mixed with the wheaten cakes, of which the
poor creatures are so fond. Four of the murderers still
remain to be tried—a black child who escaped death
having been discovered in addition to the former testi-
mony. The seven men found guilty were executed on
the 15th of December last. The pretence for this
diabolical affair was the supposed aggression of the
blacks in killing and spearing cattle. Whether the
assassins acted under the direction, or at the instigation,
of their masters, has not been distinctly ascertained ;
but it is stated that many of the stockholders, some of
them Magistrates, joined in the contributions to defend
their servants—a fact from which a conclusion the most
appalling is drawn.

NATIONAL DEFENCE FUND.—The Northern
Star, or Chartists' paper, in allusion to the recent arrests
of the Chartists, says,:—.“ We don't believe one word of
the evidence against M'Douall. The fellows who swear
from writing which has been improved and corrected by
same pettifogger, merely put down enough for their own
purpose, which might have been altogether altered by the
context. The foolish Whigs and more foolish Magis-
trates are doing more for our cause than we should be able
to accomplish without their help. We will not, however,
much longer remain in this position. There is no courage
in continually standing to receive the assaults of a weak and
cowardly enemy. Let the Convention do its duty, and we
have no doubt of the courage and the resolution of the
people. Thus we open, and thus we head, the National
Defence Fund; and we tell the people—yea, the very
poorest of them—that it is their bounden duty to subscribe,
and so they will." To this fund we see Mr. O'Connor
subscribes 201. _