The Sun.
London, England, 1862-02-13 00:00:00

THE AUSTRALIAN COLONIES.

The anniversary banquet of the Australian Asso-
ciation took place last night at the Freemasons'
Tavern, and the occasion being also the celebration
of the 75th anniversary of the foundation of the
Australian colonies, nearly 200 gentlemen connected
with or interested in the welfare of our great
Southern dependencies were present, including the
Duke of Newcastle, Lord Stanley, Lord C. Paget,
Lord A. Churchill, Sir J. Pakington, Lord Elcho,
Sir R. Murchison, Sir John Dickinson, Sir Charles
Clifford, Sir Daniel Cooper, Sir William Holmes,
the Commissary-General-in-Chief, General Mac-
arthur, Colonel Last, Mr. Alderman Salomons, M.P.,
Mr. Clive, M.P., Mr. Childers, M.P., Mr. Marsh,
M.P., Mr. Justice 'Terry, the Hon. J. Stuart
Wortley, Capt. Begot, Capt. Clarke, R.E., &c.
Sir J. Palmer, formerly President of the Legis-
lative Assembly of Victoria, presided as chairman.
The cloth having been removed, the usual loyal
toasts were drunk in respectful silence:

The CHAIRMAN then proposed," the Army, Navy,
and Volunteers," including the name of Lord Pal-
merston as the foremost Volunteer to support the
military power and dignity of Great Britain.
Major-General MACARTHUR responded for the
army, and alluded to the fidelity which British
soldiers had ever exhibited in the Australian colo-
nies in the face of extraordinary temptations. _

Lord CLARENCE PAGET returned thanks for the
navy, for which service he claimed Lord Palmerston
as its best friend in recent times. The connexion
between the British navy and our colonies was so
intimate and continuous that none but the most
cordial feelings of friendship could exist between
them ; but he might mention one fact which had not
yet been made public, that during the late American
crisis the Duke of Somerset and his colleagues had
taken ample precautions for the defence of our mag-
nificent colonial dependencies, and for the protection
of the immense amount of property continually pas-
sing between them and the mother country. (Hear,
hear.) He however recommended the Australian
colonists to follow the example of Great Britain, and
from their ample maritime resources to form a naval
reserve, which would be of great service in defend-
ing their coasts from attack.
Lord aciao, on behalf of the Volunteers, who he
said were entitled to credit for the sacrifices they
had made for the public service, returned thanks for
the good feeling exhibited towards them by their
colonial fellow-subjects. At the same time, he felt
that the origination of a Volunteer force was
to be attributed to those colonies which in 1854
not only undertook to perform all military
duties, but proposed to raise a regiment for service
in the Crimea. (Hear.) Some remarks had been
made about a supposed decline in the numbers of
the Volunteers in Great Britain, and possibly there
was some falling off, but he believed there was no
fear of the magnificent array being materially di-
minished. Some there might be whose zeal had
been greater than their means, and who were not
able to replace the uniform when worn out, but he
hoped that Government would be more generous
towards that class, and bear in mind the example
of Australia, where the whole expense of uniform
and accoutrements for Volunteers was defrayed out
of the public purse. (Hear.)
The CHAIRMAN then proposed " the health of her
Majesty's Ministers."
The Duke of NEWCASTLE returned thanks, and
expressed his gratification at meeting so many of
his fellow-countrymen who had spent much of their
lives and devoted many of their efforts to establish
the prosperity of the great Australian colonies of
Great Britain. He thanked them for the honour
they had done to his colleagues and himself by
the toast they had just drunk, but he was fully
aware that in so doing they only intended to exem-
plify the intimate connection between the colonies
and this country apart from any party preference
or predilection, and that the existing Government
of the day was recognised as a Constitutional
insti-
tution which they honoured and respected. They
had been pleased to do him ample justice in his de-
sire to perform his duties as Colonial Minister as
much as possible for the benefit of the colonies. The
duties of a Colonial Secretary were now very diffe-
rent from what they were a few years ago. We had
now no discontented colonies. We received now
from none of the numerous dependencies of Great
Britain a single word of serious complaint, nor a
murmur of disloyalty, and that not because dis-
loyalty was repressed, but because it nowhere
existed. (Hear.) In former times a Colonial Sec-
retary had a difficult task to perform, for he had to
rely to a certain extent upon the exercise of his
own will. At the present time he had an equally
difficult but wholly different task to perform, for he
had by patience, by forbearance, and by prudence
to influence and modify the acts and intentions of
those who now possess the power of governing
themselves. But he could say that the benefits of
that system were gradually showing themselves in
l
many ways. If he could no longer, Colonial
Secretary, Secretary, order this thing or that thing to be done,
still there was a growing disposition on the part of
enlightened colonists to listen to honest advice
iten-
dered by a Colonial Secretary of State, and n a
recent instance, in one of the Australian colonies,
point, a money bill, the
upon that most delicate
Legislature of the colony had yielded to his opinion
and had altered the bill in compliance with his sug-
gestions. (Hear.) Not only was there no disloyalty
in any of our colonies, but peace prevailed every-
where, except in one of the Australian colonies, and
of that he would only say that he entertained a con-
fident hope that, under the influence of the distin-
guished man who was now called to govern that
colony, peace might speedily be restored and per-
manently maintained. Some allusion had been made
to Canada, and recent events were said to have shown
that loyalty there amounted to a passion ; but if so,
it was a sober and well regulated passion. (Hear.)
The attitude of those colonies of North America
during the recent crisis was one of the most strik-
ing events of modern times. When an indignity had
been offered to our flag—and it was their flag as
well as the flag of Great Britain—the Canadians,
without a murmur of dissatisfaction, prepared to
meet the probable danger that would follow, and
when the Signal was given by the Government of