The Sun.
London, England, 1865-01-13 00:00:00

-
04. iu

LONDON, FRIDAY, JAN. 13, 1865.

The intelligence from our Australian colonies is
interesting, though not specially important. The
general election which, when the last mail arrived,
was in process in Victoria, has of course long since
arrived at its conclusion, and the result has been to
send the Ministry back to the House with a large
majority. This is said to be partly owing to the
Hibernian propensities of the late Administration,
which alarmed English and Scotch by installing
Irishmen in all the comfortable sinecures. Those
who traced their descent to other portions of the
British race were therefore glad of the opportunity
of securing a long lease of power to less exclusive
patriots. In New South Wales the election was
going on when the mail left, but matters were less
harmonious. So keen was the contest between
the rival parties that the Opposition refused to vote
the supplies necessary for carrying on the govern-
ment during the interregnum, and therefore the
Administration will have to undertake the responsi-
bility of making unauthorised payments. This task is
the more invidious because the finances of the
colony are in anything but a satisfactory condition,
and the present Ministry entered office with a de-
ficit of nearly £400,000 left by their predecessors, to
which they have ingeniously added a corresponding
This is naturally not a very agreeable
'position for the national exchequer, and conse-
quently the financial reputation of the Government
is at a discount. Happily the fortunes of this young
anti flourishing colony do not give ground
for much uneasiness. The relationship of Eng-
land to her colonies is just now the topic of
interest in Australian circles, as it is in other
quarters of the globe
States
Although happily the great
Southern continent
aste:ot a dangerous neighbour
like the Northern
ta watching her movements
and coveting her territ
0 Ties, still the great body of
the population are by no ana
insensible of the
advantages of their connection with the mother
country. It is true that a party may
.he fousuntdnoinw
Melborne itself, where the question isbem
actively agitated, who put forward tli:eiegno3ld argu_
ments, that so far from Great Britain
pro-
tection to her children they are likely togbeame'
through her, involved in wars with which individnu 1
ally they have nothing to do. These thinkers plead
that the old days of unscrupulous aggression on
weak states, merely because they are weak, are
gone by, and that no Power would now dream
of any interference with their liberties unless they
had the plea of a war with England for doing it.

amount.

They further argue that in case of such a war Great
Britain would have enough to do to defend herself

awl her commerce, and that consequently ber
remote colonies must be left pretty much to their

own resources. This party is happily in a decided
minority among our colonists, and it is not difficult
for the far larger body who still cling to the old
name and the old ties to dispose of their arguments.
The days of buccaneering may be over, but if we are
to trust the experience of the last ten years, the days
of wholesale aggression on weak and unprotected
States are by no means numbered with the past. The
Danubian Principalities and the Schleswig-Holstein
Duchies are, one would think, sufficiently notable in-
stances to the contrary, and prove conclusively enough
that right must still rely on might for material
support. The fertile and gold-bearing colonies of
the Southern ocean would certainly offer as tempt-
ing a prize to the cupidity of unscrupulous Powers,
as the North American provinces would present to
the eager aggression of the United States. Our
dependencies had better not indulge in dreams of
their fancied security when once severed from the
terror of the British name, for the wolf never lacks
an excuse for devouring the lamb. As for the
plea that in case of war the mother country would
be unable or unwilling to assist her dependencies,
such an argument is evidently unsound, since what
a powerful protection to her commerce would be
afforded by the open harbours of the South. Sup-
posing the ties between the two nations to be broken,
England would certainly not suspend her commer-
cial dealings with Australia, and therefore
when a European war broke out she would be under
the necessity of protecting this large and valuable
branch of her foreign trade. By far the greater
proportion of our exports goes to the dependencies
of Great Britain, and surely the best way of pro-
tecting our commerce is to secure both ends of the
journey. Australia has often proved her loyalty to
the mother country by her ready contribution of
funds for the relief of exceptional disasters, and we
have no doubt that if they were needed she would
supply us with a troop of hardy volunteers to defend
not only her own shores, but those of other parts.
She has just furnished valuable assistance to her
sister colony of New Zealand, and will at any rate
be prepared to take an active part in her own pro-
tection. Despite any passing differences with the
mother country, and despite their mixed population,
the Australians are fully sensible of the blessings
which they enjoy under our Government, and the
large amount of individual freedom and constitu-
tional liberty which they are able to possess. The
histories of young communities generally show
wild disorder and semi-barbarism, or the strict rule
of a despotic Power. Our colonists, on the other
hand, while enjoying an amount of public and per-
sonal freedom which the older nations of the world
look upon with wonder and envy, live under an
effectual and orderly administration of the laws.
They have, of course, found the course of their self-
government not altogether. smooth, but the fluc-
tuations of policy to occasional extravagance, and
all other blunders which they may have made or be
making are only part of that very necessary
and wholesome experience which all States
must acquire before they can govern themselves
well and wisely. Thanks to their connection with
this country, they have learned their lesson in pacific
times, with no outward alarms to disturb their
equanimity—no foreign foes to profit by internal
differences. Should they be cast adrift and left to
their own resources the case would soon be altered ;
but, despite the ingenious logic of a small party on
both sides, such an event is, we trust, still far
distant. The separation from our colonies, however
eventually probable, is far from being wished for
by Englishmen, however much such an idea may be
fostered by the enemies of this country, who desire
to see her strength impaired, her influence
diminished, her reputation lowered, and her com-
merce lessened in importance—all which events
would be the more than probable results of a
wholesale curtailment of our national dominions.

Now that Parliament is almost on the point of
assembling, it is curious to observe how many M.P's
are rushing in to make their appearance before their
constituents, and fire away their diatribes upon past
and present affairs, and give their opinions upon
public and political questions, good, bad, and
indifferent. Mr. FORSTER has made a long dis-
course at Bradford, and certainly delivered an ex-
plicit avowal of his sentiments, without reserve or
reticence. He plunged in medics res at once by
entering into that vexed question, par excellence, the
Danish affairs of last year. This matter, as he truly
said, haunted Parliament from the beginning to the
end of the Session, under the form of an enquiry as
to whether we should or should not have interfered
in the quarrel between Denmark and Germany.
Although decidedly averse to a war; Mr. FORSTER
appears to entertain a very correct notion of the
faulty manner in which our Government carried on
matters, of the empty bombastic tone in which they
indulged, and of the humiliating position into which
they plunged themselves and the country when they
withdrew from their embarrassing situation. He
also had the tense to speak the truth which his
discrimination had taught him, and not to be bam-
boozled by the pretentious subterfuges which appear
to have warped the judgment of so many persons
concerning the inexpediency of driving this present
Government from office. After the absurd statements
that have been made respecting this alternative, it
is positively refreshing to find a member addressing
his constituents in the following decisive tone :—" I
must candidly confess, that liberal as I am, the
question of whether -the present Government
would be displaced or not did not weigh very
much with me." Had this idea prevailed
to a greater extant it is very likely that a different
result would have followed upon the great party
debate and division of the session. A heavy respon-
sibility rests with those members who, believing
public affairs are misconducted, persist, when the
test is applied, in supporting the Government whose
acts they virtually censure, and whose policy they
are always calling in question. Mr. FORSTER found
fault with the treaty of 1852, and declared that it
was very unwise for the ambassadors and represen-
tatives of England and the other great Powers to
meet and decide the fate of other people whose
views and sentiments they did not know. So far as
the event has proved, it seems true that it was an
error, but no one then supposed that the day would
come when the great Powers would repudiate their
own words, and allow the stipulations of their
treaty to be violated without attempting a re-
monstrance with the aggressors, that was
of any avail, because the offenders knew
too well that no effort would be made to
verify the expression of opinion. Vox et preterea
nihil might well be called Earl RUSSELL'S motto,
and bitterly has his country had cause to rue the
day when he adopted it. Mr. FORSTER is quite
against our meddling in foreign affairs, but he has
discernment enough to see that the desired point
has not yet been reached of gaining all public
opinion in this matter. Well may he declare that
the intellect of the country must be convinced, and
its conscience at rest, before it can change its course
with regard to foreign affairs, and that this deside-
ratum has not yet been
gained. Never was a true
r
saying uttered, forthr
of the land there prevails a universal feeling of
oughout the length and breadth
condemnation concerning ruthless manner in
+l,—E5
which our Administration led Denmark to suppose
she would not be left alone and the cruel

way in which she was deserted in her hour of
need. Mr. FORSTER is quite wrong, however, in
saying that our interference would have turned a
local war into a general one. Germany would only
have been too glad to retire from the contest,
and to have relinquished an attempt which had
drawn down the wrath of the two chief Powers of
Europe. As for the " awful responsibility of our
spreading the scourge of war where it would not
have come without us," this is very false reasoning,
and not all the right way to regard matters. As
for Prussia, the scourge of war was richly deserved
there, and the true principle to guide the actions of
individuals and the policy of nations is to consider
what is right, and leave the consequences alone. It
never does any service to ourselves or others to
palliate error and condone crime, and the schemers
of Prussia will yet bitterly regret the false kindness
shown to them by this country, when decision at the
outset would have deterred them in their faulty course.
Mr. FORSTER deserves credit for speaking out his
mind, and not shilly-shallying over important
matters, and he is the exponent of a view which
many eminent and enlightened persons take ; but
not the less is it a mischievous and mercenary one,
and calculated to lower the tone of public morality,
while it militates against the high and heroic senti-
ment that should alone actuate the councils of a
mighty nation, and animate the heart of a great
people. War is a dreadful thing, but disgrace is a
worse one, and the true spirit which should actuate
the representatives of a great country should be to
regard their material interests as secondary and subor-
dinate to the primary claims of truth and justice. "I
could not love them half so much, loved I not hon-
our more," is a fine sentiment, and one which it
would be wellto see more generally exercised and
freely appreciated in the community of our day and
generation. The welfare of commerce, the flourish-
ing of trade, the prosperity of capitalists, are not to
be put before the keeping of promises and the main-
tenance of our just influence, or, if they are, we
shall pay a heavy price for their usurpation. It is
time that those ideas of honour which our ancestors
cherished to so great an extent were a little more
current among us, or we shall find that in grasping
at shadows we have lost the substance. We must
not expect to have all the sunny side of the
world to ourselves. If we partake largely of the
blessings of Providence, we should not allow the
possession of power and wealth to make us hard and
selfish, or we shall be abusing our gifts, instead of
making them conducive to the welfare and interests
of others, which is the only way to make them truly
valuable.

The Brompton Oratory.