The Sun.
London, England, 1853-06-23 00:00:00

SPAIN.

The Madrid journals of the 17th contain no
news of interest. The Gazette publishes a royal
decree removing Don Manuel Lassala from the post
of Governor of the Province of Barcelona, and ap-
points Don Melchor Ordonez as Civil Governor,
with a commission to assist in the new organisation
of the Province.
The Queen has expressed her desire to see the
Cabinet complete previous to her departure for
La Granja.
The Three per Cents. were at 44k.

AUSTRALIA.

The latest advices received from the Australian
colonies extend to the 23d March inclusive, by a
vessel arrived at Madras, but the intelligence con-

veyed to this country is of a somewhat irregular
character ; this is the more to be regretted, as it
has often occurred that very late news has been
received both from New South Wales and the
colony of Victoria by similar opportunities. There
are also accounts to the 14th March by way of New
York. The general state of trade at Sydney is re-
presented as very active, and the market for most
kinds of imports very firm. The yield of gold had
declined, but it is accounted for by the adoption by
the Legislature of the act to " regulate the raising
of a revenue from the gold mines of New South
Wales." The effect of this measure was to create
great dissatisfaction and disorder at the mines and
to very considerably decrease the population, many
thousands of whom had left for the neighbouring
colony of Victoria. It will, if persisted in, says
the Empire, drive all foreigners from the New
South Wales diggings, and deter the colonists and
British immigrants from the enterprise, or induce
them to step over the boundary to the still more
tempting diggings of Victoria, where a similar law
does not exist. The chief points of this law deemed
so aggressive are these :
"Under pretext of preventing runaway servants from
digging, it empowers the authorities to demand from
every one proofs that he is not an absconder, and to
imprison him until he can produce such proofs, and all
this without any one to bring against him a complaint.
It thus, contrary to the whole spirit of British law,
throws on the innocent party the onus probandi
of his innocence, and deems him guilty without
proof of guilt. This is one of the offensive provisions.
Another is, that it requires everyadult male remain-
ing in any district proclaimed as a gold field, unless
engaged in pastoral or agricultural pursuits, or in tun-
nelling, to take out a licence, as if he were a digger, of
30s. a month, every male being reckoned adult above 14
years of age—so that all persons carrying on any kind
of trade in the township must not only pay licences for
themselves, but for every one in their employ. And it
empowers the authorities to fine or imprison all such
persons found on the ground who have not taken out a
licence. The effect is to prevent enterprise, and to raise
the cost of necessaries, so as to make digging, to the
great majority, a profitless labour. And a third objec-
tionable clause is one that makes the fee double to a
foreigner, and puts the onus probandi upon every person
who may be accused of being such.
With regard to the general effects produced by
this law, a local paper observes
"The diggers are abandoning their work by thousands,
and retreating to Victoria, rather than hazard an illegal
collision. Manwhile, the splendour of recent discove-
ries in that quarter is enough of itself to effect a power-
ful revolution in the minds of the labouring class, in
favour of that colony ; and were other things equal,
there would soon be very little labour left in New
South Wales ; and the concoctors of those mischievous
measures would bitterly suffer the fruits of their own
folly. However, the exeessive appetite for gold in Vic-
toria has produced a state of things there extremely dis-
astrous to the public and social well-being. The im-
mense rush of immigration has found the colony unpre-
pared by wise measures for its reception. The employ-
ment at the mines, rich as the production is, adds
nothing either to the necessary sustenance or to the
comfort of the colony. Agriculture and other agricul-
tural pursuits are ill cared for. The Government is
weak and incapable. The squatting occupancy shuts
uy the land. The result is, that there is at Melbourne
a large floating population, of which it would be hard to
say whether it belongs to the colony or not. We are
told, says the Empire, that there are thousands of per-
sons at the city, living in tents, for the site of each of
which the Government charges a ground rent of five
shillings a week. The price of labour and material
being exorbitant, building is rendered next to impossible.
Nor is the spirit of Victoria legislation any improvement