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Source.—Port Phillip Gazette, 21st January 1851
The uselessness of protests against Transportation from the various states, proved the necessity for the whole of Australia to act together in external affairs. Thus the inauguration of the Anti-Transportation League was the first step towards Federation.
Breakfast To The Tasmanian Delegates
On Monday, the members and promoters of the Launceston Association for securing the cessation of transportation, entertained at Public breakfast the gentlemen delegated to represent the interests of the Colony at the Australian Conference, which is about to be held in Melbourne. A cold collation was prepared at the Cornwall, and about 100 gentlemen sat down, amongst whom were many magistrates and gentlemen representing the most influential and respectable portions of the
northern and midland districts. Breakfast being concluded, the Chairman rose, and said, it was a matter of pleasure to him to meet so large and respectable a body of gentlemen, some of whom he had known for a quarter of a century. They had not assembled to petition; it was a truth deplorable and sad that petitions had hitherto been unavailing and they were now met to force from Her Majesty's Government, relief from an evil of which history presented no parallel. (Hear, hear.)
Petition after petition had been transmitted home, but the prayers of the Community had been constantly rejected. It now remained to try other means.
The Rev. J. West rose and said he felt some embarrassment in addressing that meeting. He, however, felt grateful for their recognition of his appointment, and should rely on their indulgence during the few moments he might address them. The colonists had been led up to a position from which it was impossible to recede. Van Diemen's Land must obtain a share in the general freedom, or for ever sink. They had petitioned for a cessation of transportation; whilst there was a
possibility of the other colonies receiving a portion of the convicts annually sent from Britain, they expected by the more general distribution to experience some relief. But the resistance of the other colonies had removed the faint anticipation, and shut up to us this last hope—to our union with them. When it was proposed to solicit the co-operation of the adjacent colonies, some persons prophesied a failure; it was thought by some, improbable that the colonies would feel
any interest in our fate. But the heart of an Englishman is ever susceptible of pity; and when we spoke of our wrongs they listened; and when we exposed the enormous danger, they consulted their own safety, and came forward to our help. Let us look well to our position. We have to change the policy and contend against the power of a mighty Empire. In the effervescence and excitement of public speaking it was not at all surprising that a threat should sometimes be uttered; but
many years must elapse before an appeal to physical force would bear even the semblance of reason. We have, then a mighty Empire to contend against—one which can laugh our threatening to scorn. And what are the weapons we must employ? What, but the weapons of truth? We must diffuse right information; we must expose our wrongs—and we must appeal to the justice of the British Nation. Let the evils and injuries under which this fair domain of the Crown now suffers, be laid
before the English people, and a cry will be heard from Land's End to the opposite shore, "transportation shall cease because it degrades the British name." (Cheers.) The injuries resulting from transportation to the colony are various. A gentleman, however eminent his station and virtues, going to a distant part of the world must cautiously suppress the fact, that he came from Van Diemen's Land, or even this quarter of the globe. (Hear, hear.) Yes, Sir, our sons, who have
quitted this colony in search of a home denied them in the land of their birth, have been compelled to conceal the place from which they came, and to drop into the box, by stealth, those letters which were to relieve parental anxiety, and express their filial affection. And is this to be for ever endured? Shall our own children never know the pleasure and pride of patriotism? Shall we not ask all the colonies of the Australian empire to aid us in our struggle? Shall we not
confide in the justice of Australasia?
When it is said that England cannot support 4,000 or 5,000 offenders the question naturally occurs: What has she not done? Did not England for her Continental wars incur a debt of £800,000,000: did she not give £20,000,000 to free her West India slaves; did she not expend £7,000,000 to combat the famine of Ireland? Is not the proposed expenditure for the National Executive of the present year an evidence of her boundless opulence? And yet to save a trifling outlay compared
with the injustice now done, the representative of Her Majesty is compelled to carry about under his skirts a parcel of convictism; to deposit these tokens of imperial interest he is driven to have recourse to artifice, trickery and falsehood. (Hear, hear.) As England glories in her past history, and has found means to keep afloat that flag which has never been lowered; so she must find means to carry on a nobler struggle with her own poverty and crime. Hitherto, Van Diemen's
Land has not been heard at home; but if by the united voices of the other colonies, a sort of telegraphic communication can be opened with Britain, if a speaking trumpet be formed, we shall be heard. When he (Mr. West) heard that Ministers had departed from their promise that transportation should cease, he was astonished and desponding—he thought that if a promise so solemnly given could be so recklessly broken, hope was delusion. But as in the moral, so it is in the
political world. The Divine Being frequently ordains that good shall arise out of apparent evils; that a tedious delay shall make the remedy more perfect. Had we been relieved when Ministers promised; then, transportation to the other colonies would have been continued, and its evils accumulate there. (Hear, hear.) When it was proposed that all the colonies should receive a share of convicts, all things considered, he, (the speaker) for one could not have then objected to Van
Diemen's Land being joined in the co-partnery. Had such been the case a century might have elapsed before the reproach of convictism had been removed from this hemisphere. But the refusal of the other colonies occasioned by the injuries inflicted on this, has roused us all into action, and now all declare that not a man, no, not one—in fetters shall be landed in Australia. (Tremendous cheering.)
If an unfortunate offender becomes as a penitent desirous of amending his life, and disposed to conform to the usages, and claims of honest society, he will find no man here spitefully to remind him of his former errors. But if he is brought wearing the badge of disgrace we will not have him. We will say to the British Government "Until you can with safety discharge him into your community, he shall not enter ours." (Loud Cheers.) This is the righteous principle upon which we
have taken our stand. Whilst we were disputing among ourselves who should bear the load, we were likely to be sacrificed by our ungenerous divisions. But we have now a new principle; and a principle is a wedge—if sufficient force is applied, every obstacle will be riven into shivers. We now say that no man should be an involuntary gaoler, much less shall the inhabitants of these colonies be the penal slaves and gaolers of the British Empire. (Cheers.) We assert that a
community should deal with its own crime, at least so deal with it that in its disposal it shall not injure those who never offended—so at least that the honest and industrious laborer should not be brought into unfavorable comparison and competition with the hardened criminal, so that, at all events our sons shall not be driven from their homes to seek employment in distant lands—to meet there suspicion and contempt. These are the wrongs of which we complain—wrongs which
could never have been perpetrated but in oblivion of that first great Law, alike the basis of private and public virtue: "do unto others as ye would that they should do unto you." The Rev. gentleman resumed his seat amidst loud and prolonged cheering.
W.P. WESTON, ESQ.—It was with mingled feelings that he rose to address that meeting; but when he ascertained that Mr. West was to accompany him, he lost all fear, and at once accepted the invitation.
It had not been considered necessary to furnish them with written instructions how to act; it was left entirely to their own judgment; they had, as it were, a carte blanche; but he thought it advisable to mention one or two points towards which he and his colleague would direct public attention on the other side of the Straits. The first was, that transportation as hitherto conducted, was altogether and entirely rotten. He anticipated no very great difficulty in establishing
that point. The next was, that no country had a right to force its crime upon a distant and unoffending one; it was a moral wrong. He was much struck at a remark which appeared in the Public journals in Melbourne. It seems to have been the custom of some persons to collect all the filth and rubbish from their persons and during the night to force it upon the premises of their neighbors. Now, these persons were designed miscreants, the paragraph commenced "the miscreants have
been at work again." But he considered that the Government who would force a mass of moral filth upon a small and helpless colony were miscreants in the very worst sense of the term. (Hear, hear.) However severely the evils of convictism may have been felt in this community, they will be felt at Melbourne in a greater degree. Any evil may be counter-balanced and perhaps removed, if it can only be seen. The convicts come to this land under restraint and are completely at the
disposal of the Government, but after completing their education in a chain-gang, and filling up, as it were, the measure of their iniquity they go over there where they are unknown to the police and consequently their crimes escape detection. The very worst characters amongst us proceed to the neighboring colonies as soon as an opportunity offers. This fact accounts for the insecurity of property at Melbourne. A short time ago he was there and not more than two or three days
after his arrival the linen which had been put out for washing, was stolen. Shortly after whilst the family were sitting at tea, information was given that the bedroom window was open and upon proceeding to ascertain the cause it was discovered that a thief had effected an entrance and carried off whatever he could lay his hands upon.
A letter lately received mentions that six gentlemen's horses in one locality had been robbed and that Melbourne was full of thieves. (A laugh.) No opportunity had previously offered of talking to the Melbourne people upon the subject, they were so occupied in endeavors to obtain separation from Sydney that every question was lost sight of; but now the matter was settled he did not apprehend any difficultly in establishing this point also.
We are a loyal people, and have given abundant proof of our loyalty; but it is not an unalterable principle. There is an old Spanish proverb—"The sweetest wine makes the sourest vinegar," and so it will be with us.
But the British Government must, and will yield, for they will find it will be to their interest, as well as their duty to grant the reasonable request of the Australian Colonies. (Cheers.)
Three cheers were then given for the Chairman, and three more for the Queen, and the meeting terminated.
A Source Book of Australian History, 1919 |
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