The Sun.
London, England, 1847-04-10 00:00:00

PRE RECAL OF SIR E. WILMOT..
TO THE EDITOR OF THE TIMM
SlR,—The public were some time since; informed
the recal of Sir Eardley Wilmot, Bart., from • the Go;
vernment of Van Diemen's Land, but apprized. only'by
the announcement in the Gazette of the appointment of
his successor. They are at length, through Ate. instru-
mentality of Lord Stanley, favoured with the liking of •
judging, to a certain extent at least, of the justice or
otherwise of his Excellency's recal, by, the publication
of the correspondence between the Secretary of State
and Sir. E. Wilmot. This so called correspondence, 10
far as it goes, can hardly be considered satisfactols
confined, as JUN to the public dispatch and a privatQ
letter of the same date, addressed to Sir E. Wilmot by
Mr. Secretary Gladstolie,
announcing the former'a sud-
den recal, and stating.; for the first time, in the same
document, the reasons assigned for this determination.**
No decision which affects the rights and privilege,
individual can be satisfactory which lacks the quality so '
essential to the spirit of justice, embracedin the maxim,
" Aud latter= poutem." . .
The dispatch announces, as j,5 usual in' uccu-
ments, that "it I.as become the painful dut v t -vi-
ter to apprize his Exedlercy, that her I'd}j,,,iv7,ieev,,,-,cl
'to dispense with his futureand that t-Tr Ma-
jesty's Government had been. induced to tender the ad-
vice which induced this recal, not on account of the in-
competcncy, real or alleged, for the ordinary duties at-
tached to the chief cxecirive officers of thy, dependen-
cies of the Crown, but from a regard to the sp,,erai
exi-
gencies of the particular colony over which his Esc,l-
lehey load been appcitit(d and had undertaken to preside,
and to the very de'-'c Live manier in which, according to
the judgment of her Maje.4y's Government. those
g,-.l:cies had been met by him."
Heretofore the assignment system bad been established
in this colony, under the reasonable hope and expecta-
tion that if any latent seed of morality er repentance
rested in the mind or disposition of the convict, it would
be more likely to germinate anti bear wholesome fruit
when nurtured and encouraged by contact with, and
exempla of, those untainted with crime, than by herding
criminals of every grade in such close contiguity, if not
irresistible confederacy, as to render almost a miracle
the escape of one individual so placed and associated
from the darkest abyss of moral contamination and in-
famy.

The former system had its day, and it was determined
that the latter should receive a trial. The dispatch no*
before us too plainly shows how prolific the new system
has been of all those frightful evils so naturally to have
been anticipated as its fruits.
This latter system came into operation shortly after
Sr E. Wilmot assumed these duties, justly denominated
ly.the Minister "an arduous task;" the worst results
followed, and there is sufficient in the dispatch to show
that they were duly announced to the Home Govern-
ment—not, I presume, in a spirit of dietatios, which
would ill become the character of the Queen's Viceroy,
but by "transmitting to the proper quarter the most hor-
rible and revolting accounts of the state of morals
among a portion of the female convicts." His Excel-
lency did not impertinently intrude his convictions on
the subject of this horror-working system upon the
authorities by whom it was maintained; he did not say,
" Give up this new fangled and demoralizing experiment
which has worked so much evil, which has placed the
convict population beyond the reach of moral example
or influence; abandon the false position you have taken
in the science of moral regeneration ; return to that
wholesome system of assignment, which was not only
promised to the early settler as an encouragement to
embark his fortunes in this distant climate, but which
has proved the happy and fruitful source of moral
amendment, as attested by the existence of a large sec-
tion of the present trading and agricultural portion of
the community over whic I preside, who have been
snatched from vice and contamination by the healing
influence of that system which you have thus aban-
doned." I have reason to believe that these were the
sentiments of Sir E. Wilmot, though not put forward
after this obtrusive and dictorial fashion.
Sir E. Wilmot is not accused of " incompetency real
or alleged." "He had been appointed," says the Mi-
nister, " to carry out a system brought into use for the
purpose of affording a solution tai one of the most diffi-
cult of social problems—u system a i .pt,d 1. his view
not to econ smical but mural purposes, and whilst sepa-
rating the convict from the general community, yet to
neutralize by discipline, and by religious and humanizing
influences, all those dangers which arise from the close
juxtaposition and coestant intercourse of criminals among
themselves."
Truly a very " arduous task !" We accuse you, says
the Minister and sole judge in this case, and
mina
iiad wishthereforedwuee
condemn you of not having applied your
diligandence
ar
ro
gav
ene
.md withaccuse f
teha
ar tn
you
ur t
oci
oof
unncooetfr
htn
the
etvoi
populationn
g thed egmo voenrsnturmna
det nee
drt
that the absence of successful results must be ascribed to
the inherent defects of the system, and not to the apathy
and neglect of those to whose charge it had been com-
mitted. Of all this we accuse you, not from official
reports, but from "rumours" and from evidence "frag-
mentary' and indistinct ;" and lastly, wa promulgate these
accusations for the first time in the selfsame document
which seals your condemnation and punishment. And,
now, to turn to the letter which accompanied this di-
spatch, and which is as follows :
"Downing-gstreet,
dutyA psrtiilll3mo,orlel34p6a.in.
" Sir,—l have now to is
ful and delicate than that of addressing you in a public
dispatch to communic4e to you your recal from the ad-
mimstration It affairs in Van Diemen's Land.
" Advertieg to the fact that this recal rests upon the
allegation of a faiiure on your part with respect to special
and peculiar duties only, which attach to the care of a
penal colony, but not to that of colonies in general, you
may feel some surprise at the circumstances that I have
made no allusion to the possibility of your employment
during the ordinary term of six years.
" I should have felt authorise d to express a willingness
to consider of any favourable opportunity which might
offer itself for such employ ment, had it not been for the
circumstance that certain rumours have reached me from
a variety of quarters relative to your private life, to the
nature of which it is perh Ts unnecessary that I should
at present particularly allude.
„„" Had these rumours been slight. and without pre-
sumptions of credibility, I might warrantably and gladly
have passed them by. Had they, on the other band,
taken the form of charges or of information sup-
ported by the names of the parties tendering it, it
would have been my absolute duty, independently of
any other reason for interference with your tenure of
office, to refer the matter to you, and at once call upon
you for your exculpation. But they occupy anlintermediate
position. Presuming that I have been justified in re-
fraining from bringing them under your notice up to the
present time, I feel that it would be impossible to recom-
mend your resumption of active duties under the Crown
in any other colony until they are satisfactorily dis-
posed of. To found proceedings upon them against a
person holding office appeared to me a very questionable
matter, but I think it quite unquestionable that they
must be taken into view when re-appointment is the
matter at issue.
" I know not what your views and wishes on that sub-
ject may be. I should not have entered wantonly and
needlessly on such a topic as that to which I now refer.
My reason for doing so, without waiting for any request
from you for re-employment, is, that I think that some
favourable intimation on that head would have been your
due had no obstacle intervened, and I have, therefore,
found myself bound to account for the omission from my
dispatch of this day of any such intimation.
" I have, &c.,
" W. E. GLADSTONE."
Now, throughout this dispatch and the accompanying
letter, it appears that no far from any inquiry or expos-
tulation having been made in reference to the alleged
errors and omissions c Nntained in the former, or in
reference to the anonymous rumours alluded to in the
latter document, the accusation and condemnation were
simultaneous. The verdict is pronounced, in the first
instance, without hearing the defence, and, when all the
damning and ruinous effects have been felt and suffered,
the accused is humanely permitted to plead in denial or
mitigation.
Will not these circumstances render it a stronf " pre-
sumption," indeed, on the part of the writer of this letter,
that he had been justified in refraining from bringing
the charges preferred against the accused under his
notice prior to the announcement of his irrevocable
decision upon them ? or, is the tenure ef office in her
Majesty's colonies a thing so frail and unsubstantial that
it may be at once annihilated by the breath of scandal
or by anonymous rumours, fabricated and concocted in
a community proverbially tainted by the under-current
of that jealous, envious, and designing slander which
has been the downfal of more than one honourable indi-
vidual, as well as the bane and curse of that community?
Can that decision be satisfactory to a British public
which is arrived at in defiance of all those rules of which
they boast as the palladium of British liberty? I need
but to revert to the principle involved in the decision of
her Majesty in Privy Council last year, in the case of
" Mr. Justice Willis in appeal against the Governor of
New South Wales," who had thought proper to suspend
him from the exercise of his judicial functions without
having called upon him for_ his
ndef defence—a principle
which treated the act of the G?vern r in so doing as an
outrage upon the rule by which even the criminal is
T PARTEM."
entitled to be heard before condemnation—an act which
•
annihilates the cherisheduispheld maxim

CHARGE AGAINST A CHILD OF ATTEMPTING TO
POISON HER SISTER.—A little girl, not more than
twelve years eld, named Maria Makin, of Brown's-
square, Meadow-lane, was last Monday brought before
R. Bramley, Esq., and Ralph Markland, Esq., charged
with attempting to poison Ann Makin, the wife of her
brother. It appeared from the evidence of the brother
that, having lost their father and mother, he had taken
his little sister into his house. A short time ago she
was sent to a shop for some blue colouring to use in
white-washing. She returned with blue vitriol, which
which was not used. Shortly after wards she atternpte3
to poison her brother and sister by putting it into their
food, and according to her brother's account she made
this attempt for the third time on Sunday last, when she
put it into some broth, which was taken by her sister,
who on Monday was ill in consequence. The policeman
by whom she was taken into custody stated that, in
answer to a question put to her by himself, she had ad-
mitted that she knew what it was sile put into the broth,
and what effect it would have if taken. The magistrates
expressed very great surprise that atter the first attempt
the vitriol was not removed from the house, as by that
means a repetition of the attempt would have been
avoided. Viewing all the circumstances of the case, in
connexion with the youth of the prisoner, they enter-
tained very much doubt that the act had been intentional,
end therotore discharged her. The little girl, who had
wept touch during the examination, then left the court.
—Leedv
TIL., Earl of Clarendon left Combe Abbey! Cov.eptrfs
the seat of the Earl Craven, yesterday, for ins resza
envo
Grove Park, Herts.