The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1853-08-16 00:00:00

eligious influence being con

coutAol, the apogtt

lowed full

dom to exerei

,stly domination over the weak
s. The ennEet of the Ministry

offlitese questions-is a virtual.o=ying out of the
traitorous combination, known as the Lichfield-

hose compact. "In England, a master can hardly
atk his workman for a vote N'iithout
taant accusal:lams of interfirrirg with the freeclom
of election, whereas in Ireland-the grossest syatem
of ,and violence is openly practised I)3T

,Rom.ish priests for the retzan:of Romanist mem-
bers to the House of Commons ; and their.par-
liamentary support to the istry is purchased by
concessions such as those .we have alluded -to.
`The coalition Cabinet receive the support 'of pro
fessing Libersls,'who trumpet .their praises as the
champions of -liberty ; but they are in reality-the
Slaves of the hardest taskmnsters., the mere tools of
Bowe, traitors to their country.; :and were there a
. spark of EngEskohivalry existing in the breasts of
'Radicals, they •weuld long since have been igno-
miniously expelled from offiee,-,with the execra-
limas of every honest man.

Tr Government have at length discovewathat

itfis.not the best use of the British Colonies in
Australia, to in'alle them receptacles for 'the
criminals of this tountry, and that the necesty
has become urgent for abolishing-:the punishment
of transportation until at least .-some place' has
been *found the banishment to 'which shall be

deemed a punishment to the erimival, and not to
the :settler. on whose society he is forced. This

decision has been, in a measure foteed upon the
Government, as the evil was becomhg too great to
be longer endure& The Cape Colonists pertina-
ciously refesed to admit the moral eeriamination,
and reached the verge of rebellion -rather than
submit to-the infliction;; and there can le no doubt
that those. of Australia would not have been slow
to follow tote example, ane with far more
They, indeed, had had bitter expe-
rience of theThdleful effects of such a system, and
by many wonld have been deemed morally:justified
in resisting, even at the hazazd of shaking .eff their
allegiance to the mother country, which, by forcing
convicts upon them, was their oppressor rather
than their protector. In:introducing, therefore, a
Bill for the abolition of transportation, which Lord
PALMERSTON did on Tuesday the House ,of
ttommons, the Ministry have but performed a duty
from which they had no alternative. It is, how-
,ever, but justice to them to say, Altai it is a most
.difficult question with which they have to deal, and
there was also the apprehension that, in devising
any .new mode of secondary punishment for
offences only short of the heaviest, it might not
prove efficacious in operating as a salutary check
to the commission of crime. However this may
be, it was manifestly clear that Australia, as a home
for emigrants, could no longer be continued as a
penal settlement, and we hail the proposed change
as one which in this respect will contribute more
than any other circumstance to promote the welfare
of that colony, and render it, in addition to its gold-
fields, a most valuable appanage to the British Crown.
In Lord PALMEBSTON'S statement to the House
of Commons he was not very explicit as to the de-
tails of his measure, which may be attributed to
the difficulty of his task, as he admitted that it
must rather be considered as an experiment than
as a matured system. It may be gathered, how-
ever, from his explanation, that in future the first
portion of the period of punishment is to be passed
in prison, where the treatment, it may be supposed,
is to be of a reformatory character. In the next
stage the criminal is to be employed on the public
works, as is the case now in the employment of
convict labour in the Dockyards and at Portland
Breakwater. Having undergone this probation
satisfactorily, the convict is to be entitled to a
ticket of leave, which will give him more liberty,
though he will•still be under surveillance ; but as
it is not at all probable that he will be able to ob-
tain honest employment, and distrea might com-

injurious

consequences,