The Sun.
London, England, 1844-09-14 00:00:00

worth making, if only to satisfy the public notions of r
equity, by giving Ministers fair play; and notwith-
standing his emphatic declarations in the Dublin Con-
ciliation llall on Monday last, we should not be at
all surprised were Mr. O'CONNELL gradually to dis-
continue the Repeal agitation, or if not exactly dis-
continue it, at least moderate its vehemence, until he
should be fully in possession of the remedial measures
of Sir ROBERT PEEL. Difficult as this may appear
to be, on the first view of the case, there is, neverthe-
less, no doubt that it is in Mr. O'ComsELL's power
to do it, for his countrymen regard him at this rat).
ment with more respect, confidence, and affection, if
possible, than ever, and seem to take a pride in blindly
obeying his commands to the letter, under a strong and
unalterable conviction that he is the best judge of
what is good for their interests, and will never advise
them to adopt any step but such as may be benefi-
cial to them. As regards his proposal of endea-
vouring to procure the impeachment of the Irish
Judges who tried and sentenced him to, what is
now proved to have been an illegal imprison-
ment, we think he acts quite rightly in bringing
the matter under the notice of Parliament ;
indeed, it is his bounden duty to do so, for a great
Constitutional question is involved in the result of
the decision of the House of Commons on the subject.
Not less do we approve of Mr. O'Comsmr.L's inten-
tion to visit in person the principal towns and cities
of England, a month or two previously to the assem-
bling of Parliament, in order to explain the details of
his case, and show the rank injustice that has been in-
flicted on the " convicted conspirators," as they were
insolently--and as it now appears, falsely—called.
Too much publicity cannot possibly be given to such
harsh and unwarrantable proceedings as the Irish
Judges were guilty of; and hundreds will listen
with avidity to the Honourable and Learned
Gentleman's recapitulation of the circumstances
of the case, who may have perused them with
comparative indifference when recorded in the
columns of the daily press. In the justice and pro-
priety of these two propositions of Mr. O'CONNELL
we cordially concur ; and we think we can assure
him that, when he comes among Englishmen ;
explains frankly and boldly the nature and ex-
tent of the injustice of which he has for
three months past been made the victim ;•
and appeals to their cordial sympathies in his favour;
his appeal will be warmly and generally responded to,
even by those who may happen to disapprove of his
politics, for there is nothing that John Bull more
warmly resents than an act of injustice, no matter
how exalted be the authority that perpetrates it, nor
how specious the legal forms under the sanction of
which it is perpetrated.

It has long been our unpleasant duty to demon-
state, from time to time, the vicious administration of
our Colonial Government. In speaking of Colonial
Government, we allude to that course of policy, in its
largest sense, which the Ministers of the British Crown
originate here—in the exercise of the imperial autho-
rity of the Sovereign over the affairs of her
Mw-
aESTYS colonial possessions and dominions ;—or which
is implied in their sanction to the acts of her servants
in authority over them, or of their Local Houses of
Assembly, Legislative Councils, &c. Very recently
we endeavoured to illustrate the vital importance of
our colonies to the greatness, commercial and politi-
cal, of this country ; and to enforce the gravity of
England's responsibility to human civilisation, as well
as to her own fame and destinies, in respect of the
sacred charge devolved upon her with this immense
and scattered empire in each quarter of the globe-
We did not anticipate so early an occasion for refer-
ring to the subject as that which is not only pre-
sented, but irresistibly pressed upon us, by the con-
tents of the last Sydney papers, coming down to the Ist
of May, that reached us the day before yesterday.
From these it appears, that on the 24th of April last, a
meeting was held at Goulburn, New South Wales,
" to take into consideration the ' Squatting Regula-
tions,' lately promulgated by his Excellency the Go-
vernor" (Sir G. Glees). Never, so far as we have
yet had the means of forming a judgment on the mat-
ter, was a code devised of disabling ex post facto
" regulations," more unwise, more impolitic, more
arbitrary in themselves, or better calculated to ruin
the country for which they are intended, in their
operation. Our readers will not be misled by their
knowledge of what is intended by the term " squat-
ters " in the forests of Canada, and on the prairies of
the United States or of Texas, as to the construction
it bears in New Holland. We will venture to dis-
tinguish between these two sets of occupiers, in order
that we may do justice, in the first place, to those
who are the subjects of Sir Oaoaaa GIPPS'S scheme of
license fines, &c., in New South Wales.
In America a " squatter " is synonymous with any
individual of desperate fortunes and sufficient per:,
sonal energy to bear with the privations, the perils,
and the loneliness of the wilderness; who, betaking
himself to some remote locality, far beyond the line
of occupied districts and reclaimed land, settles, or
" squats," upon some spot which he selects—without
distressing himself, in the remotest degree, about any
present rights or title, or any contingencies of future
sale and transfer on the part of the State, of private
owners, purchosers, or buyers. He fells the timber;
he builds his log-hut; he clears the ground, and sows
his crop of grain; he provides for the demands of
subsistence and shelter, as best he may, with his rifle
and his axe ; and if, some fine day, an emigrant pur-
chaser of the " lot" within which the squatter has
tnade good his location come to take possession of it,
he not unfrequently finds that desperate men settle
titles—and competing claimants with the bowie
knife or a bullet. The American squatter is gene-
rally a man of fierce nature and determined habits ;
lawless, reckless, and vindictive ; and, not being deli-
cate about the means, he usually manages, either
by a dogged resistance to weary out the new claim-
ant, or to dispatch him. It is not often that justice
can vindicate her MAJESTY against such delinquents.
If pursuit should ever grow hot, the guilty squatter
only pushes further into the savage wilderness ; and
the clamour of human voices, even—much more the
feeble whispers of human law— are soon lost in the
thick forest, and behind the rocks and the rivers, the
lakes and the ravines, which his silent flight has inter-
posed between him and his fellows. This man's
existence, it is indisputable, is purely a selfish one.
He is not the auxiliary of civilisation and her benign
influences, but their fellest enemy. He is not a
champion of society, but a traitor to its rights, and a
destroyer of his species. Now, New Holland com-
prises a superficial area so vast, as to entitle it to take
rank as the fifth grand division of the land of our
globe. It is thinly peopled—to a degree, indeed, al-
most incredible. Its interior is, for the most part, a
grassy desert, here and there well wooded and finely
watered ; but in other regions ridges of lofty moun-
tains and difficult ascent intersect the country—and
vast rivers, of still uncertain origin, but subject to
frequent and capricious overflowings, suddenly inun
dates the level and enormous plains, through which
they run, to an extent of many scores of miles, and
render the escape, or temporary shelter of men or
animals from those boundless " steppes," a work
of inconceivable difficulty and danger. It is
throughout the length and breadth of this mighty
land that the incalculable flocks of sheep are depas-
tured, whose fleeces form the "wool bales"—the only
available article of export on which the colony has to
depend for the maintenance of its white population.
This wool has now attained in Europe—especially in
the English market—the reputation of the highest
quality that can be procured; so that the colony ex-
ports to the mother country nearly 1,000,0001. worth
of this commodity every year. But, in order to raise
and maintain the requisite number of sheep, and to
provide them with such ample " runs " as are neces-
sary to keep up the quality of their fleeces, it is in-
dispensable to extend and change their pastures. The
growing numbers of the flocks demand incessant re-
movals, and the discovery of new grazing lands (al-
lowing range sufficiently wide to prevent the confu-
sion of these flocks, or of the numerous herds of cattle
which the settlers also raise). And who are the men
who traverse this enormous, this difficult and dan-
gerous country, in every direction—driving these
herds and flocks from exhausted or over-crowded pas-
tures to others yet untried, far away in the heart and
solitudes of a region extending, almost as well in
breadth as in length, 2,000 miles ? The Squatters
But let no less eminent authorities than Mr. M'Ae;
TIME (the son of that JOHN M'Aterenst, who must
ever be considered as the father of the pastoral great-
ness of New south Wales) and Dr. MURPHY, one of
its most intelligent European residents, describe
them :—" Do they not, by their enterprise, exertions,