The Sun.
London, England, 1859-04-05 00:00:00

retain their places under what, in the language of
our feudal law, may be called a base or servile ,
tenure, and they must not grumble at any work
their masters may set them to do." How have the
mighty fallen ! How greatly has the Cracle been
deceived ! No base or servile tenu .e has been
accepted by the Government. They have fought
boldly and manfully against most extraordinary
odds, and by their decided and straightforward
conduct have turned defeat into victory, and—
" From the nettle danger plucked the flower safety."

But will Lord J. RUSSELL be present in the new
House ? Not, we believe, as one of the representa-
tives for the city of London. The ambiguous speech
of his brother respecting the Ballot gained him
many votes. He received one more trial. But
he has bitterly disappointed the expectations
that were formed. No sooner was he firmly
seated than he avowed himself the uncom-
promising opponent of secret voting. He would
have it at any price or on any terms, and verily he
shall receive his reward. He may endeavour to
find refuge in one of the small boroughs which he
intended to destroy. But no true advocate for the
Ballot' can support the man so firmly pledged
against it. It may be observed that he carefully
abstained, in bringing forward the resolution, from
saying anything that could bind him to any real
practical measure of reform. He was contented
with criticising the work of his opponents, but with-
out giving the slightest inkling as to his own views
or intentions.

Lord PALMERSTON may be placed in the same
category. He, too, is the strenuous adversary of
the Ballot, and, indeed, we may add, of every other
change. He would have things remain as they
are, without change or alteration of any
kind, and, with the help of Lord JOHN,
contrives to keep the question always open,
as an excuse for rejecting any of the minor
improvements that may be required. It is possible
that Tiverton may be more accommodating, and far
more easily satisfied, than the metropolis. The
electors have for some time past revelled in " the
loaves and fishes." They must therefore feel that
political gratitude which, we are told, consists of a
lively sense of favours to come. If, however, there
are supporters of " the Ballot" amongst the elec-
tors, they should pause before bestowing their votes
on one whose return to office would delay, if it
did not altogether prevent, full protection from
being afforded to every one desirous of bestowing
the suffrage honestly and conscientiously.

The Ministers are entitled to the thanks and
gratitude of the country for the straightforward
course they have pursued, and which has so com-
pletely defeated the views of the conspirators.

The rapid growth of our colonies has just received
a new and remarkable illustration. It appears
from reliable statistics that within the last twenty-
six years New South Wales has more than doubled
its population. To put the same fact differently
before the public, we may say, in round numbers,
that the colony of New South Wales has just
doubled its population in a quarter of a century. ,
The number of its inhabitants may be taken at '
about 300,000. Considerably more than half that
total, namely, 166,862 immigrants, have arrived
there between the first day of 1832 and the last day
of 1857. Double that number would exceed the
aggregate of the present 'umber of its inhabitants.
Instead of showing a total of barely 300,000, it
would yield one of 333,944. So that in twenty-six
years the colony has clearly more than doubled its
population. Separating the adults from the
children, out of this multitude of 166,972 immi-
grants—we find of the latter, that is of children,
41,576, and of the former, adults, 125,216. A larger
proportion of men—namely, the proportion of one
hundred to every eighty-nine women—is one of
the inevitable characteristics observable upon a care-
ful analysis of this total of more than 125,000 adult
immigrants. Little more than seventy years have
elapsed, remember, since the formation by Britain
of this particular settlement. New South Wales,
the original colony in Australasia, was established
indeed as recently as 1788. It was established at first
as a place of punishment, as a penal settlement. Gra-
dually—encouraged by the attractions of a fine cli-
mate—respectable classes of society in the possession

of capital, as well as of energy and character, have

flocked out there in increasing numbers. Insomuch
that whereas it took the first forty-five years, the
best part of an entire half century, to raise the
population of New South Wales to an aggregate
of 150,000 souls—it has required only these six and
twenty years last past, otherwise but a single
year over merely one quarter of a century, to double
that number of inhabitants, rather, or as we have
seen, to more than double it. Enormous and rapid
though this rate of increase undoubtedly is in itself
—it yields a total amount of population quite
insignificant as compared with the capabilities of

New South Wales. That colony, it should be
borne in mind, embraces within its limits the
greater part of the eastern coast of Australia—from
the northern boundary line of Victoria to the Gulf
of Carpentaria. By the year 1836 its population
had risen to 77,000. By 1849—just ten years ago
—it had attained an aggregate of 212,000, of whom
not far short of 30,000—we believe just 27,000 were
convicts regularly taken into service among the
settlers. It was eight years previously to the last
mentioned date that the colony was at length
relieved (1841) of the penalty of continuing to be
a place for tranportation. Felons were thenceforth,
for the most part, sent to Van Dieman's Land, until
the punishment of transportation eventually gave
place to penal servitude. From the capital of this
important colonial province—Sydney, containing a.
population of more than 30,000—the advancing
energies of immigration are perpetually radiating.
Population, wealth, produce, all increasing at a
ratio that give promise, in another hundred years,
of a noble empire at our antipodes. British emi-
gration all the while growing wondrously, as a
system, in so manyother directions—trailing hither
and thither across the ocean in all quarters, to
Canada, to the Cape, even to a little standing-
ground like Labuan, but last, not least, to that
new and magnificent colony founded in the far
west upon the eastern shores of the Pacific, the
noble colony of British Columbia.