The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1853-01-11

furnished grounds for the belief that the suspicious it
has itself pr0fessed to entertain less reasonably
founded than those which have been expressed else
where. With respect to Japan, we are assured that
the objects Of the expedition are limited to the re-
quirements of maritime hospitality and that our own
example in China will be followed by the extension
to all nations Unfortunately ofany advantages OBJ
tained In arguing, however, that the American
government could make these overtures more salts
factory than that of any other State in consequence
OF its known indisposton to aggrandizement, we
think the President has ventured on assumptions not
unlikely to be disputed.
The financial and domestic affairs of the Union
represented as most furnishing. All branches Of
manufacturing industry generally prosperous;
the public debt is in process of eectual liquidation,
and there is surplus in the treasury of some
f3 100000 sterling. Notwithstanding these pros
pects Mr.. Fillmore processes infeXibe adherence
to the ancient dogmas OF protection. Like certain
statesmen home, he publicly declares that his
views on this important question remain un
changed" and he proceeds 70 the advocacy of his
opinions with the most obsolete fallaces Of this in
veterate mposture He argues that agricuturists
need manufacturing population to consume their
produce that manufactures require capital and skill,
and that capital and skill can only be created by the
prevention of foreign competition Or in other words
by the exclusion of all who may possess capital and
skill in greater perfection than those who are endea
vorng to create it. So universal IS the Jargon OF
protectionism that we actually find an American
"untaxed foreigners" and talking of the "ruinous
competition from abroad" to which his own coun-
tlymen may be subjected. It will occur, we doubt
not, to Mr. Fmore's successor that the best way to
call capital and skill into being is not to dispense
with their employment bya protective tariff, and
that agricultural produce will be most likely to find
q market when every branch of industry is left to
deveope itself in its natural direction.
1t is interesting to remark the gradual but irressti
BILE tendency of the American government to those
| peculiar measures of policy which have been sup
TN
tutions. Though intervention in the affairs of Eu-
rope is still formally repudiated the Department of
State has become so overburdened with increase OF
business from foreign negotiations as to require ma
terial relief and extension; the army-small enough,
to be sure-is overworked even by frontier duties,
and the Notifications will be continued,
an American journal predicts cas- long as there is
dollar in the It will amus Sc
that much anxiety is felt in America about
manning the navy, and that the establishment
of permanent corps Of trained seamen is suggest
ed that the administrative system of the various
departments of government is marked out for reform;
that building is urgently needed for the national
records and that great embaIrassments are expert
enced in adjusting the relations between the citizens
of the outlying States; Or in other words the colon
lists of the Union and their savage neighbors On
the whole, however, while the contents of the mes
sage should certainly be satisfactory to the American
people, its spirit is undoubtedly creditable to the
federal government; could the most conservative
statesman of conservative Europe have spoken with
greater. discernment boldness than Mr. Fillmore,
in assuring his countrymen that not only the pre-
sent necessities but the permanent safety and in
terest" of nation, are best consulted by "a stern
sense of international justice, and that any aggres
sive propagandism is "more likely to result in the
overthrow Of republican liberty at home than its
establishment abroad"
Policy Of England as Regards Australia.
From the London Times, Dec "a
While we SO busy in settling own govern
ment, it is not inopportune to remind our readers
that there is large interesting, and important Sec
ton of this empire which, at this moment, possesses
no government at all. The most ardent disciple of
the doctrine of aisses aer could not frame so loose
and inadequate definition Of the duties Of govern
ment as to include within it, under any reasonable
construction, the incompetent juntas to which are
We have often pointed out how irritating the system
of absentee and centralized government, in which
still pesevere, is to our remote dependencies how
much it aenates the minds Of the people, and how
seriously it compromises the integrity of the empire.
The matter now presents itself in another point Of
view and we see this system Of centralized manage
ment as incompetent as it is unreasonable as feeble
as it is oppressive. We have sacrificed the good will
of our colonsts and loaded our Colonial Office with
the mismanagement Of number of intricate and per-
picking details, the parish matters of the Antpodes,
in order that we might maintain in our foreign de-
tendencies strong government. Well, an emer
gency has at last arisen in which strong govern
ment is required, and we gradually awake to the
conclusion that we have established in these remote
perial powers, between which our miserable and
jealous policy has divided the duties of adj
ministration, have mutually paralyzed each other
as fep he machine ant a he mo
ment when its vigorous action was the
most required. Nothing was more essential than
that the colonial governors and legislatures should
have been able to deal with the public lands so as to
meet the new and surprising circumstances which
have arisen; but this they could not do for we had
fettered and tied up those lands by act of Parlia-
ment, in a manner most unsuitable to any country,
but absolutely runous to the peace of such country
Australia: and no power short Of an act of Para
ment or armed rebellion could unoose the gordan
knot Many Of the lands where gold is likely to be
found leased for fourteen years, renewable for
another fourteen for pastoral purposes to persons
who are forbidden even to cultivate, and who have
right of presumption these lands, at one pound
an acre. This state of things could not have been
durable under any circumstances Increasing pOpu-
lation would be to resume by force these vast
and improvdcnt gifts but the discovery Of gold has
precipitated the solution Of the question. read
juslment is absolutely necessary, but the colonial e
gislature, which has the knowledge, has not the
power, and the Imperial Parliament, which has the
power, has not the knowledge
Again, we have often pointed out how absolutely
necessary it was unless these governments meant to
abdicate their cearest and most elementary duties
the protection of life and Of public and private pro-
perty-to establish, at whatever sacrifice, large and
efficient body of resolute and wearmed police. We
showed over and over again. that by such means
alone could the utter decentralization OF the lower
classes in Australia be prevented and the plumber of
an incalculable store OF public wealth be averted.
This interference due to the capital invested in
the colony under the protection of the government,
which exposed to destruction by the drain of its
labor towards those countless treasures which that
government lavished so profusely and recklessly.
We proved that no system for regulating the work
ing of the gold fields, or for collecting revenue
from the miners, could be permanent or effectual
which did not rest on the respect due not merely
to legal authority, but to an armed and energetic
force. The very welfare of the miners themselves
demanded that they should not be abandoned to the
excuses Of wild and perilous anarchy. The gold
Of defraying this necessary expense, which was,
indeed, no more than what was requisite for the
collection of this branch Of revenue. We cannot
doubt that except for the peculiar intecity of their
position, and the mutilated and inadequate nature Of
their powers, the governments of New South Wales
and Victoria would at least have made effort to