The Sun.
London, England, 1835-07-02 00:00:00

CLAINI of the FREE INHABITANTS of
NEW SOUTH WALES to a LEGISLATIVE AS-
SEMBLY.
TO THE HONOURABLE THE COMMONS OF THE
UNITED KINGDOM OF GREAT BRITAIN AND
IRELAND, IN PARLIAMENT ASSEMBLED.
THE HUMBLE PETITION OF THE FREE INHA-
BITANTS OF NEW SOUTH WALES.
:We, his Majesty's most dutiful and loyal subjects, free inhabitants
.1.11 New South Wales, assembled at a public meeting, duly convened
by the Sheriff, in Sydney, on this, the forty-fifth anniversary of the
f_ormation of the Colony, in again preferring a statement of our
Zva'UtlC bs to express our grateful thanks for the attention bestowed
of by your Honourable House upon our condition, on the presentation
our late Petition for Trial by Jury and a House of Assembly.
The
pledge made by the Under Secretary for the Colonies on that
o
n, that Trial by Jury had already been conceded by his
.4ajesty's Government,. has diffused amon us unlimited satisfac-
tesuniAndeinntthe earnest hope that such pledge comprehends the
It is neediesiof Grand and Petty Juries in the game form as in
intse7,;...Te,or Petitioners have confined the expression of their
-ets to a Representative Assembly.
.whatever colon
tion of their ytothpoint out the inalienable rights of Britons, in
they may have fixed their abode, to the Constitu-
the Colonies, mother country. His Majesty's Under Secretary for
Lord Howick, in debating on the late Petition, dis-
91utly admitted the justice of our claim, upon principle, to those
heinstitutions which are so highly cherished by Englishmen, 'whilst
pßosed their present introduction upon grounds of expediency,
i
ehi gn
~.ug as the only reason for withholding from the inhabitants of
kAlony all share in their own government and taxation, the
tarty spirit and violenctlarassencsouorf "0 hich the Noble Lord stated to
.e.zist between different wur society, and he overwhelm-
ing influence which would be acquired by the Emancipists over
ewviethry other class in a Colonial House of Assembly.
Your Petitioners have read this report of Lord Howick's speech
Surprise and grief. Assembled on the spot where we could
not venture to assert what is capable of refutation, your Petitioners
thus publicly disclaim the imputation cast upon our community,
Whilst we cannot but feel that a statement from such high autho-
rity, so much at variance with the fact, by displaying the great
Thr,,sapprehension which; exists with respect to the real state of the
"luny, furnishes a cogent ttrgument for granting to it a Repre-
sentation of its own.
We do not attribute the statement made by the Noble Lord to
!Illy wilful perversion of the facts within his means of knowledge.
We are satisfied that it was founded on information derived from ig-
norant or interested his
; or, at any rate, that amongst the va-
rious accounts which his Lordship had received, it seas impossible
to obtain a correct view of our situation • and such we respectfully
represent will ever be the case, until the 'Colony has within itself an
Assembly, wherein the wants of the people may be openly discussed,
and whence information may be correctly derived.
That the " violent and rancorous" party feeling assumed to
exist in New South Wales is purely .imaginary, we beg to call the
attention of your Honourable House to the numerous public esta-
blishments which have been formed, and are maintained in the Co-
lony for purposes of benevolence, education, and trade ; to our
Banks, Colleges, and Charitable Societies. In these and man others, support has been given by respectable individuals of ever; class--emancipist, emigrant, and their respective descendants, and
yet it is not found that party feelings have occasioned any difficult
in their management • on the contrary, the success of the establish!
silent has ever secured a paramount consideration, and the very
union of different classes to promote one common object has become
the means of allaying that party spirit which it is strangely enough
assumed it would excite. We would further instance the numerous
signatures of every class and description of free people within the
Colony, which are appended to the last and to this Petition. If
such party feeling as is attributed to us really subsisted, our Peti-
tions for a House of Assembly would not obtain such general, we
may almost say universal, support.
'Whilst see decline, however, urging upon the wisdom of your
Honourable House what class of persons amongst us should be eliz
gible to elect or be elected to a Legislative Assembly, we deem it
right to state that inasmuch as the freed portion of our population
reside principally in the towns of Sidney, Paramatta, Windsor, and
Liverpool, if it be true that this class do possess that prepondera-
ting weight from their number and property which has been relied
on by his Majesty's Under Secretary for the Colonies (in which
View, however, your petitioners do not concur) their influence, whe-
ther real or imaginary, might easily be obviated by confining the
votee of all electors to the place of their residence, and by reducing
the number of Members to be returned by those towns somewhat
below what their population would otherwise justify, on the one
hand, and by giving to the interior districts and counties, which are
chiefly peopled by emigrants more than the due proportion of Mem-
bera on the other.
We assure your Honourable House, that our present Legislative
Council, so far from being the guardian of our interests, has served
as might have been anticipated from its being composed of mere
nominees of the Crown, and those mostly holding offices from which
they are removable at pleasure, to ward off all responsibility from
the Executive Government, and to give a legal sanction to many
injurious measures, and to a heavy load of taxation, not more unne-
cessary in its amount than opposed to the well-being of the Colony,
and which we are conscious that the Executive Government of it-
self, had the Legislative Power been confided to its sole exercise,
would not, on its risk and authority, have ventured to enforce.
These observations are confined by your petitioners to the mere
constitution of the Legislative Council, which, possessing no points
of contact with the people at large is, it must be evident, essentially
devoid of sympathy with the public feeling, and ignorant alike of the
public wants as of the state and resources of the country for which it
is called upon to legislate.
Whilst we would this impress upon your Honourable House the
inadequacy of our present Constitution, we humbly represent, that
nothing short of a Representative Assembly will satisfy our wishes,
or suffice for the rising condition of the Colony. In proof that the
Colony is ripe for the introduction of the great constitutional right
for which your petitioners are thus desirous, we are not aware that
we can refer to any facts more strongly in point than our growing
trade, revenue, and population.
It appears from official documents, that our imports in 1828,
amounted to 570,000/. ; and our exports, exclusive of bills drawn
by the Commissary on the Treasury, to only 90,050/. ; and in 1832
the total value of our imports (properly so called) amounted to
510,733/, whilst our exports had increased to 371,174/., and the
drafts of the Commissary on the Treasury (which arc in the nature
of an export) amounted to 115,629/. ; thus leaving an excess of
imports over exports, of only 23,901. and establishing the grati-
-fYing,prospect, that our exports in the current year will conside-
rably exceed our imports. If also appears from official docu-
ments, that the Revenue of the Colony for the year 1828, amounted
only to 94,862/., whereas, in the year 1832, it had increased to
135,909/. 155. 61Ad.
We have no correct data,in consequence of the known inaccuracy
of the last census, taken in 1828, from which the number of our
free population can be determined with any degree of precision.
Rut by referring to• the more correct returns of 1824, and allowing
for the increase which must have taken place, from births, immi-
gration, and the freed, since that period, our free population at pre-
sent may be estimated at about 45,000 souls, and the prison popu-
lation at about 2.5,000 ; whence it is apparent, that every free in-
habitant of this colony, man, woman, and child, pays at the rate of
3/. towards the public expenditure—a rate of taxation considerably
exceeding what is levied on our fellow-subjects at home, and carry-
ing with it the irresistible conclusion, that a people sufficiently ma-
ture for taxation, to such an amount, must know best how to im-
Pose their own burdens, and to appropriate the revenue raised from
the fruits of their industry.
Your petitioners, in thus coming before your Honourable House,
to ask that as a boon which is due to them as of right, cannot but
express their fears, notwithstanding the sincere respect they enter-
tain for the Councils of his Majesty, that so long as the Revenue
of this colony forms so large an item in the patronage at the dis-
posal of the Colonial Office, the people of New South Wales can-
Uot hope, without the interference of your Honourable House, to
obtain the blessings of a Constitution which is their birthright; and
yet your petitioners already pay more than is required for the sup-
port of their civil government, and are ready and willing, and here-
by "submit, to defray all proper and necessary expenses for the time
to come.
Your petitioners beg to inform your Honourable House, that
there are 120 magistrates, and at least twice that number of other
• - to4nlists of equal wealth, intelligence, and respectability, qualified
. act, and from whom an efficient House of Assembly could be
• 7rs'eyte.:l; and your petitioners therefore hope that your Hone :cable
"°nse will grant them a House of Assembly in which there may be
not fewer than fifty members, as that number would be requisite in
a e,lllltrV so extended? to secure a due attendance of members, and
to insure their independence. • ),
Your petitioners cannot but feel that these th eir ust clams ceme
Ulder peculiarly favourable auspices before a Refjormedi 1:104:ie of