The Sun.
London, England, 1853-06-08 00:00:00

AUSTRALIAN EMIGRATION.

(From the Times.)
Every strong public sentiment, however genuine,
every movement of the general mind, however just and
rational, is accompanied by its corresponding delusion.
Every success has its victim—every improvement its
martyrs. So it is, and so, we suppose, it will ever be,
while selfishness, carelessness, or ignorance shall warp
ite judgment a man, and cloud his faculty of discrimi-

nation.

There never was, probably, in the history of the
world, an occasion which opened to the working classes
such a prospect of pure and unmixed good as the recent
discoveries in Australia. To men who deemed them-
selves happy if they could only satiate the barest crav-
ings of nature is suddenly opened the prospect of plenty,
of comfort, and even of affluence. A strong hand and a
willing mind, a little skill in some rude mechanical oc-
cupation,
are all that is required to realise in a few
years, or frequently even in a few months, a destiny far
better than the brightest day dream could have pre-
sented to them. Think of a country where a black-
smith can earn three pounds a-day; wheelwrights.
twenty-five shillings a-day ; carpenters, bricklayers, and
similar trades the same, and with every prospect of con-
tinuance for an indefinite period. Call it "exodus," or
what you will, it is not to be expected that anything
short of a physical impossibility should arrest the
rush of our working population to a land where go!cl-
digging is the staple trade, and every other is remum -
rated on the gold-digging scale. Whatever be the effects
of this great change, we must make up our minds to hear
them. To prevent them, or even in any serious degree
to modify them, is quite out of our power. But people
seem to have thought that, because so many of the poor
are prosperous in Australia, poverty is the only recom-
mendation required there to secure success. This is the
delusion corresponding to the just and general impres-
sion of the advantages which New South \Vales and
nnPaoovtr
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and cowherds succeed in Australia, but because they each understand
some trade, for the practise of which there is almost an
inexhaustible demand. A rude state of society, a rapid
generation of capital, with which all the other arts of life
can but with difficulty keep pace, naturally calls forth
efforts to supply, first, the more material wants, and,
until those are fully gratified, cares little for that
which tends to the graces and amenities of life. There-
fore while the railway labourer, the plcughman, or the
sawyer are rolling in wealth, the adepts of all the intel-
lectual professions and every species of indoor labourer
find themselves reduced to a worse poverty than in
England, and compelled to undergo a yet severer
struggle for existence. One would have thought that it
was unnecessary to warn persons about to emigrate to
Australia that before they go they ought to consider
what occupation they mean to follow when they get
there ; and, unless they can satisfy themselves that such
occupation will be open to them in the colony, that they
had better remain at home. How many thoughtless
young men, dazzled by the reports of enormous and sud-
denly acquired wealth, have betaken themselves to Aus-
tralia without considering a moment the means by which
that wealth can alone be gained ! The diapers' ap-
prentice forgets that the hand which alone has wielded
the scissors or the yard-measure is but ill-adapted to the
shovel or the pickaxe, and the accountant, whose
whole prospects in life resolve themselves into the
power of keeping books by single and double
entry, cannot bring himself to believe how few of
his tribe a country like Australia can support, and
how eager must be the competition between men on
whose immediate success in obtaining employment it
generally rests whether they shall retain their own po-
sition in society or sink into one immeasurably below it.
We believe that in the present state of Melbourne it is
better to be a cook than a governess, a bricklayer than
a mathematician, or a navvie than a scholar. When one-
half of the town is forced to dwell in tents in a climate
peculiarly subject to sudden changes of temperature, it
is natural that those who can build walls and make roofs
should be in higher estimation than wit, music, poetry,
the belles lettres, law, physic, or theology. The soul
may be superior to the body, but, the body having come
first, always insists upon being first served. Ws there-
fore earnestly warn those young men who, without
capital of their own, or without the knowledge of any
rough or useful trade, are about to emigrate to
Australia, that they are carrying their commodities to:a
market already drugged with them to satiety, and;hs -
they have no one but themselves to thank if they find
themselves reduced to occupations in which their
education is useless, and those thews and sinews
which they have hitherto regarded with so little respect
will be alone out of all their personal accomplishments
available to their support. We would also point out to
respectable young women, without friends or connexions
in this distant colony, that there are comparatively few
families in the enjoyment of affluence who can afford
employment to governesses or any species of inmate
above the degree of a servant, and how certainly they
are preparing for themselves distress and mortification
by venturing on the strength of mere vague rumour of
wealth into a country where there exists no demand for
their services.
The hardest case of all, however, and that which has
most frequently come under our notice, is that of parents
who take away a son from a public school, an academy,
or a counting-house, and launch him, without remorse,
without preparation, and without advice, into a com-
munity whose complicated snares and difficulties
might well require all the wisdom of the wise
and all the experience of the aged. That this is
often done from mere honest, uncalculating stupidity,
which cannot, distinguish between the wants, of one
country and the exigencies ofjanothor, we do not deny;
but sometimes we fear even this excuse is wanting.
Instances have come under our notice in which a parent,
after having been fully warned of the fate which awaited
his child, has nevertheless, against all advice, sent him
forth to this distant land with no better prospect than
being a shepherd, a stockman, a porter, or a carrier.
The same persons who in this country would shudder to
see their sons do any thing ungentlemanlike,—nay, whose
pride has led them to qualify them for a career they are
never destined to fill, de mot scruple to sell them into
this species of ignorniaious bondage in a distant land.
There is no finer field for the enterprise of young men or
young women than the Australian colonies, but then
they must be trained to fill the situation for which they
are destined, and not expect to live in a new society
upon occupations created to gratify only the wants and
serve the purposes of an old one.

SIX PERSONS POISONED.

BELPER TUESDAY.—On Thursday last great conster-
nation was created at Belper by a rumour that a family
of the name of Flewitt, living in the Cluster-buildings,
were poisoned. On proceeding to the house of the un-
fortunate individuals, the rumour was found to be too
true. It appears that the moment the father had finished
his last course at dinner, which was rice pudding, he
complained of sickness, and was obliged to remove
hastily from the table. Scarcely had he got out of the
house before three of his children and a young man
named Sheldon were also seized with sickness and vo-
miting. They became very alarmed, and the mother
ran into a neighbour's house and informed them that she
believed the whole family were poisoned. She was ad-
vised to get medical assistance, and immediately ran for
Messrs. Lomas, surgeons, who reside a short distance
from Cluster-buildings, and on her return she was found
to be suffering from the same cause. Messrs Lomas
were on the spot immediately, and lost no time in ap-
plying antidotes ; but a difficulty arose here, as none of
the family could give any account of what kind of poi-
son they had taken, except a little girl about twelve
years of age, who said she saw something like flour
in the sugar her mother used in making the pud-
ding. From this it was thought to be arsenic, al-
though they all denied having it in the house. Sheldon,
working in the same shop with Flewitt, has been
in the habit of taking his dinner to his house to eat ; the
eldest daughter, then at home, baying a dislike to rice
pudding at all times, Sheldon offered her his pudding,
which was of a different kind, in exchange for her share
of the rice one, which she accepted. This, at first sight,
caused a little suspicion to be thrown upon the daughter,
from the fact of her having escaped ; but on being closely
questioned, she explained the matter in precisely the
same manner as Sheldon and the rest of the family,
which threw the affair into perfect mystery. The poor
creatures suffered most intensely for many hours, and a
most distressing scene it was to witness. Every assist-
ance was rendered by Messrs. Lomas, and their attend-
ants, to the poor unfortunate sufferers, and for several
hours it was difficult to tell which was most afflicted.
On Friday morning, however, it was perceived that the
mother was in a dying state, in which she continued
until five o'clock in the evening, when she expired.
On Saturday, an inquest was held before 11. Mozley,
Esq., coroner, when a post mortem examination of the
body was made by Douglas Fox, Esq., of Derby, and
Messrs. Lomas. For want of further evidence the in-
quest was adjourned until Tuesday morning. The con-
tents of the stomach, and what could be found of the
sugar, &c., were given to Mr. Albert J. Bernays, analy-
tical chemist, of Derby, for analysation. The rest of
the family are slowly recovering.
Superintendent Wragg having received instructions
from the coroner, commenced making inquiries, and
from a variety of circumstances that came to his know-
ledge he waited upon that gentleman early on Monday
morning, when he ordered the immehdiitanteairip, apprehension
ens'
of Sheldon. It appears that last week Sheldon asked
the master dyer at Messrs. Ward's, Belper, at whichased
place he worked, if he could supply
sic acid ; and on the morning the parties Were poisonedpoisoned
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respectably connected, his father being
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THE BRITISH
SCHOOL OF s
eV°lloCdaleilshatillOinti°l:v as
dstuladetntes7
OfCALISATION* .—The
l
en
irto.h eltBritisho
vSecrliso oulareof
Reoms, when they performed Tennyson's "Ode ong the
Death of the Duke of Wellington," as set to music by
Mr. G. F. Flowers, the founder of the school. Mr.
Flowers is well-known to the musical world as a com-
poser of great science and much originality, and the work
he has now produced is eminently marked by those cha.
racteristics. Some of his themes, especially in the
choruses, are of a pleasing cast, and are very skilfully
worked out. The ,students executed the music in a
highly creditable manner, and were encored in several
of the pieces. The room was well filled.