The Sun.
London, England, 1869-04-22 00:00:00

SEMI-SLAVERY IN QUEENSLAND.

The employment of natives of the South Sea Islands in
the Australian colonies has been the subject of a large
public meeting at Sydney. Petitions are to be sent to the
two Houses of Parliament in Queensland, praying them to
repeal the Polynesian Labourers Act if necessary. The
Bishop of Sydney spoke strongly against the working of
this Act, which permits the importation of South Sea
islanders into Queensland ; and some sad revelations were
made of the injuries inflicted by captains in recruit-
ing the poor islanders under the license of the
Queensland Government. The wife of a mis-
sionary furnished some accounts which shewed how
the slave traffic was being carried on in these islands.
In one case the authorities have been compelled to put
the law in force against the captain and one of
the crew of a vessel. They are to take
their trial for the murder of three natives
o! one of the New Hebrides grcup of islands. Many
shippers are engaged in this traffic, which can be carried
on under the sanction of the Queensland Parliament.
The Sydney petition has shewn that slavery in the
colonies will he the consequence of this system of kidnap-
ping if the injustice is not put a stop to.

JOIIN JAY, U.S. AIIIVISTER TO AUSTRIA.

Last week we announced that Mr. John Jay had
been selected for the Embassy to Austria, and his no-
mination was among those sanctioned by the Senate
on Monday. The name recals that of his grand-
father, whose signature is attached to the Declara-
tion of Independence, and is endeared to the
American mind by an association with an act which
must remain as of the greatest political importance
that occurred on the Continent. Though the grand-
son is a lawyer of eminence and a speaker of no
ordinary ability, he has for the last few years been
most associated, with the Union League Club, an
influential organization established in New York
City, first to grapple with the spirit of disloyalty
which threatened to paralyse the action of the
North on the outbreak of the war, and afterwards
to combat the corruption which has lately spread
like a cancer in the large cities of the Republic.
Other Union Leagues have been formed and have
become a power in the land ; but that which
has indelibly associated its history with the war
is the parent club of New York, of which Mr.
John Jay has been for an anxious period, Presi-
dent. On the 23d of June, 1866, he issued an
address to the members, which we have before us
while we write. It was sent from Europe, where
the President then was, resigning the post, as he
feared his absence might be detrimental to the ob-
jects whose interests the club was pledged to up-
hold. His attempt to resign was overridden by the
unanimous voice of the organization, and Mr. Jay
has since held the post and resided in New York.
The brief history he therein gives of the club's con-
nection with the events lately enacted and then en-
acting, is of the more interest as nearly three years
have elapsed since it was written. That it was
truthful in its exposition of the past may partly be
judged from the singular accuracy of its predictions.
The remarks on education are specially worthy of
note. "To secure ignorance on the part of the
masses was the deliberate policy of slavery." " Sla-
very may be destroyed in a day, but its unpleasant
traits may survive for a generation. The brutal
ignorance, political degeneracy, and social degra-
dation that it engenders demands for their ex-
tinction systematic and persevering efforts."
" Universal education in a Republic governed
by popular suffrage is a thing not simply de-
sirable, but absolutely essential to the safety
and welfare of the people. Inevit•
ably an unenlightened constituency become the
blind tools of designing politicians, and in New
York the less educated Democracy were made
throughout the Rebellion to do the work of the
aristocrats and despots of Europe. whom they do
not profess to love ; in assisting the rebel attempt
to divide the Union and to overthrow at once the
American Government and popular freedom."
Further on he alludes to the dangers which fos-
ter the insolent ambition of unscrupulous leaders,
which facilitate the corruption that thrives by the
" lobby" or the " ring," and saddle the industry of
the community with exorbitant taxes to administer
to private and political profligacy. On the 27th
of March last the Union League Club met to con-
sider measures pending at Albany, relating to the
City of New York. Mr. Jay, who occupied the chair,
said :

"The Union League Club bad been originally organized
with a view to the preservation of the Union, but that
great end being accomplished they had adopted a new
principle—namely, resistance to, and exposure of, corrup-
tion, wherever found in State or municipal affairs. Mr.
Jay referred to the actions taken by the Club in other
matters of a kindred nature. It had, last year, opposed
the appropriations for the support of the Roman Catholic
schools of a private character, and, subsequently, the

_
naturalization frauds received its attention. 11°5c";
tions, respecting the election frauds iu the city °,
New York, at last. general election, were then read an°,
adopted. The preamble referred to the Assembly Co
mittee on privileges and elections appointed to investigate
those frauds. The committee have discovered that the
frauds practised at the election on the 3d of November last
far exceeded anything of the kind in our past historilY(l
[hat they had been conducted upon a systematic plan, 8 15
with the knowledge and connivance of prominent offlet%
of Now York. These frauds comprehended every kn°'i,
crime against the elective franchise. Now, therefore feto
solved that Congress ba respectfully besought to give r,
this subject their united and earnest attention, n"d t`'°
daiu at the present session some scheme of naturalizatto3
which, while offering all proper facilities for the
lizat ion of aliens, will preserve unimpaired the high dt
nity of American citizenship, which has been so sham
fully degraded by fraud and perjury, and which will at
the same time wipe out the fraudulent and counterle
certificates of naturalization wills which the country
ha
been flooded, in violation of law and justice, and
which, if they aro not annulled by Congress,
the abetto
of the late conspiracy hope to perpetuate their ill-Ptte
power."
Of
However popular may be the appointment
John Jay to the Court at Vienna, we cannot but
regret that he should be removed from his presejili
sphere of usefulness. It is not every man that Wlio
undertake the thankless task of attempting to tit%
the tide of corruption. It is not one for which Lid
is paid ; it commands no patronage or power, alio
receives but the feeble support of peop'e who
only hazily the deep interest to themselves and t'e
children involved, while those whose operations are
interfered with direct at the head of the reformer t;
torrent of calumny and vituperation, subjecting
him to every indignity in their power. Hence tbeos
rascals thrive, and society finds so few chatnriL
to guard its interests. No man in Congress
been more abused than Mr. Elihu B. Washburnel
the United States Minister just appointed to France'
and although Mr. John Jay had a club at his back;
we dare say he has been made to feel the effects °
his action. We doubt whether it be for the n
tional good that influential men, willing to take 11;
such a part, should be offered Foreign lklissi°°-'
although it may be agreeable to themselves to
change a post of detraction for one of bone%
However, the energies of the Union League Clil
have been, and are well directed ; and we b°ne
,1r
there are many among its members on who'll %,
Jay's mantle may fall, and that there are RePr. g
sent atives in Congress not incompetent or unwilli/
to act the "Treasury watch-dog'spart," whosebur
we fear, will not soon again be heard in the ball °
the House. —Anglo-American Times.