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 1_
 
 AN AUSTRALIAN ORATOR 
 
 SPEECHES, POLITICAL, SOCIAL, LITERARY AND 
 
 THEOLOGICAL, DELIVERED IN THE PARLJA.MKM 
 
 OF NEW SOUTH WALES, AKD ON THE PUBLIC 
 
 PLATFORM 
 
 BY 
 
 DAVID BUCHANAN 
 
 Of the Middle Temple, liarrister at LAW, Member of the Parliament of New 
 South Wales for the latt Twenty-Jive Years 
 
 EDITED BY 
 
 RICHMOND THATCHER 
 
 OF SYDNEY NEW SOUTH WALES 
 
 LONDON 
 KEMINGTON AND CO PUBLISHERS 
 
 HENRIETTA STREET COVENT GARDEN 
 
 1886 
 [All Rights Reserve J\
 
 To A. B. 
 
 THIS SMALL VOLUME IS DEDICATED BY 
 
 THE ADTHOB IN TESTIMONY OF A REGARD THAT WILL DIB 
 
 WITH HIM, AND WHICH ANY LANGUAGE HE 
 
 COULD USE WOULD FAIL TO EXPRESS. 
 
 BTDNEY, IST MAY, 1886. 
 
 13CSC-18
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 
 A FEW of the following speeches were published 
 in Sydney, New South Wales, where they were 
 delivered, roost of them in the Parliament of the 
 country. They were very favourably received in 
 Australia, both by Press and people, and sold 
 rapidly. The small volume then published is 
 now considerably enlarged by the addition of 
 several speeches, delivered since the date of the 
 publication referred to, and is now published in 
 London simply to satisfy an apparent curiosity 
 which, in England, has grown of late, and which 
 seems greatly to concern itself with all that 
 pertains to the young, vigorous, wealthy, and 
 rapidly progressing colonies of Australia. 
 
 Our country is not a hundred years old, that is, 
 since its discovery and foundation by Englishmen. 
 Our present Constitution and free Parliament have 
 only been in existence since 1857, not thirty years. 
 We have had some very eminent and able men in 
 that Parliament, and, under those circumstances, 
 
 B
 
 2 PREFACE. 
 
 it may be interesting to the English reader to 
 have some means of judging of our Parliamentary 
 talk. I have therefore collected a number of Mr. 
 David Buchanan's ablest deliverances for publi- 
 cation in London. Mr. Buchanan has long been 
 a conspicuous figure in the public life of Australia. 
 He has been a member of the Parliament of New 
 South Wales for over a quarter of a century. He 
 has introduced and passed several important 
 measures, and he has always enjoyed the reputa- 
 tion of being a sterling, independent, out-spoken 
 Liberal, as those who may honour this little volume 
 with a glance will soon find out. No better idea 
 of Australian political life, action, and thought 
 could be attained than by a careful perusal of Mr. 
 Buchanan's terse, incisive, vigorous utterances. 
 All over Australia Mr. Buchanan has long enjoyed 
 the reputation of being an eloquent speaker, both 
 at the Bar and in the Senate. It may be that the 
 more fastidious English taste will not altogether 
 relish some of the more forcible of his effusions, 
 but they were relished by the keen, active, 
 energetic people of Australia, and are now 
 offered to the candid consideration of the English 
 public as a fair average sample of the public 
 political speech of New South Wales. The 
 Editor asks no favour in the consideration of 
 those speeches. He only asks that they may be 
 judged by their merits and with the fairness of 
 Englishmen. 
 
 EICHMOND THATCHER, 
 
 Eandwick, New South Wales, 
 26th March, 1886.
 
 CAPITAL PUNISHMENT. 
 
 [ON the 25th January, 1861, Sir Henry (then Mr.) Parkes moved 
 the second reading of a Bill to abolish capital punishment, 
 on which occasion Mr. Buchanan delivered the following 
 speech : ] 
 
 MR. EWART'S annual motion in the House of 
 Commons to effect the purpose of this Bill has 
 long rendered me familiar with all the arguments 
 used to support the principle of the Bill now 
 before the House, and which I trust will be 
 thrown out by a decisive majority. The honourable 
 member for East Sydney, Mr. Parkes, has not 
 added anything new or original in the shape of 
 argument to what we have already known as 
 being continually put forth by the upholders of 
 his views. Indeed, we could well afford to leave 
 the honourable member unanswered, so little has 
 he said that in any way calls for argumentative 
 reply. The subject of prison discipline, or the 
 proper and just dealing with prisoners, is one of 
 large importance all the more important when 
 we reflect upon the strange notions that are 
 abroad in reference to their treatment, and the
 
 4 AN AUSTRALIAN ORATOR. 
 
 spurious diseased sympathy which seems to set in 
 in favour of great criminals, and of which the 
 Bill now before the House seems to be an emana- 
 tion. I am afraid we are going so far with our 
 superfine philanthropy and heaven-born bene- 
 volence that we run a strong chance of losing all 
 distinction between the virtuous and the vicious, 
 the criminal and the upright honest man. There 
 are in all towns of the world, and in this town as 
 well, a large body of very poor struggling honest 
 people, who have remained honest amidst all 
 manner of squalid misery, battling with hardships 
 and privations in a life or death struggle for bare 
 existence. These people have endured all those 
 hardships and sufferings patiently and bravely, 
 and have preserved their integrity surrounded by 
 many temptations. They are poor and wretched, 
 but honest, and are sustained mainly by hope in 
 bearing up against the hardships of their lot. 
 Now this is the soil by cultivating which a 
 healthy philanthropy might reap a rich and 
 tangible harvest. No more wholesome, healthy, 
 or holy feeling than that of sympathy here. 
 Sympathy and active aid from philanthropy in 
 this quarter would be a blessed spectacle in 
 harmony with righteousness and truth, and 
 elevating and inspiring all concerned with the 
 purest feeling of religion. This is the proper 
 quarter for the exercise of a just and rational 
 philanthropy. When philanthropy and bene- 
 volence are spurious, as well as diseased, they 
 play strange pranks, and often most wofully 
 mistake the road. A jail, I always understood, 
 was a place of punishment, but the danger we 
 have to guard against is to see that it is not 
 transformed into a place of easy, comfortable,
 
 CAPITAL PUNISHMENT. 5 
 
 quiet recreation and repose, entirely at the 
 instance of the aforesaid diseased and spurious 
 philanthropy. No man can be said to be pos- 
 sessed of a healthy moral feeling who does not 
 hate the criminal scoundrel who compels you to 
 confine him in a jail. There can be no love of the 
 good and virtuous without a corresponding hate 
 of the vicious and criminal ; and the nature 
 where this hatred does not exist is an unwhole- 
 some nature, diseased to the extent of almost 
 rottenness. When prisoners are all properly 
 classified in a jail, with a view to discipline and 
 their own advantage, a uniform spirit of stern, 
 sharp severity should pervade the place. They 
 should be made to feel constantly that they are 
 in a place of punishment, and that society detests 
 them and their crimes until by repentance or re- 
 formation a better opinion or feeling is justified. 
 The time was when the jail was a terror to evil- 
 doers ; but poor, sickly, tottering philanthropy has 
 pretty well shorn the place of all its terrors. 
 What poor man lives so well or is so well cared 
 for as the inmates of our jails? Are the honest 
 poor housed as well, kept so clean, or fed so well, 
 with doctors to attend them when ill, and clergy- 
 men to supply their spiritual wants ? Well, then, 
 I say that it is a blind, ignorant, diseased, and 
 benighted sympathy that only feels an interest in 
 a man when his detestable villany makes him the 
 inmate of a prison. I maintain, and have always 
 maintained, that every act of kindness by which 
 things are made soft and comfortable for these 
 prisoners in our jails is a wrong done to the poor 
 honest man, who, outside, is contending with 
 hardship and want to preserve his integrity, as 
 well as his existence. Philanthropy, in these
 
 6 AN AUSTRALIAN ORATOR. 
 
 days, is perpetrating no end of mischief in render- 
 ing it almost impossible to rule the ruffianism of 
 our prisons, teaching them by every means in its 
 power that their crimes have enlisted its love and 
 interest instead of its deepest and most authentic 
 hatred. All intermeddling, at the instance of 
 philanthropy, with the government of our prisons, 
 should be stopped forthwith. Even visitors should 
 not be allowed there, and the prisoners should 
 never see a face but those of their jailers, and be 
 taught to understand that both they and their 
 crimes are hated by every true honest man, which 
 cannot be altered but by their own repentance and 
 resolute purpose to amend. This question of 
 prison discipline is one that will have to be looked 
 into one of these days, not in the way of making 
 it more comfortable for prisoners, but in shaping 
 things so that the bare mention of the word jail 
 will never be heard by our scoundrel class without 
 a shudder. I trust honourable members, in con- 
 sideration of the importance of this part of the 
 subject, will pardon me following it up a little 
 farther before considering what I believe to be the 
 advantage of the death punishment. I have said 
 that it is the duty of every healthy wholesome 
 nature to hate the criminal scoundrel who compels 
 you to lock him up in prison. There are two 
 principles existing here patent enough to all of us, 
 good and evil. There can be no love of both the 
 love of the one necessitates the hatred of the other, 
 and how any man can say that he hates evil and 
 loves the doer of it is one of those problems 
 entirely beyond my comprehension. Let me put 
 a case to bring the truth of this matter vividly and 
 clearly before honourable members. A poor patient, 
 faithful, loving wife and mother finds the reward
 
 CAPITAL PUNISHMENT. 7 
 
 of all her anxious kindness and devotion in brutal 
 ill-usage at the hands of her scoundrel husband. 
 She has borne this for years without murmur, but 
 it ends in the ruffian kicking and trampling the 
 life out of her. Does the Christian religion 
 encourage love for a detestable wretch of this 
 kind ? The Bill before the House, if passed into 
 law, which I trust it never will be, would save 
 him from the only punishment equal to his deserts ; 
 but will any man answer me and say that that 
 man is in a healthy state, morally, whose soul 
 does not blaze into fiery and divine hatred of such 
 a ruffian. I am sick to death of this weak, 
 effeminate mixing up of right and wrong, good 
 and bad, and pretending to see no difference 
 between them, but to have the same feelings of 
 love, pity, and sympathy for the criminal that 
 are entertained by all good men for the struggling, 
 devoted poor but honest man. Who can say what 
 may happen in these days if the philanthropy that 
 staggers about like a drunken lunatic gets the 
 upper hand, and is allowed to do as it likes inside 
 our jails. Most pernicious is that ignorance and 
 mawkish cant that is perpetually getting up an 
 agitation to save some detestable criminal from 
 his appropriate punishment. If this sickly system 
 of spurious benevolence in the treatment of our 
 prisoners is continued we will very soon be 
 admonished to change our tactics. I do not 
 wish to shut the door against a prisoner's re- 
 formation, I rather wish to open every door that 
 could lead to so desirable a result. But no man 
 need imagine that he can commit crime with 
 impunity ; and when he finds, in a prison shorn 
 of every attraction, the iron entering his soul, 
 he must read this as a lesson which the sooner he
 
 8 AN A USTRALIAN OR A TOR. 
 
 learns the better will it be for himself, if not 
 learned it will necessitate the administering 1 of 
 a still more drastic dose. The Bible is a book 
 where true and correct guidance, in almost every 
 state of circumstances, is sure to be found. I 
 need not say that its teaching is entirely opposed 
 to the maudlin philanthropy I have been speaking 
 of as well as to the principles of the Bill now 
 before the House. There is a passage in it that I 
 have often thought over in reference to the right 
 feeling to be entertained towards criminals; it is 
 this : " Let him who doeth evil be afraid, for the 
 magistrate beareth not the sword in vain, but is 
 God's minister on earth, a revenger executing 
 wrath against those who do evil." What a com- 
 mentary is this upon the broken-winded philan- 
 thropy and lamentable love that pretends to live 
 in some hearts for great criminals. A revenger 
 executing wrath is a very different character from 
 your platform orator pouring forth diseased mis- 
 placed sympathy on behalf of the objects of that 
 wrath. Remark also, that it is not pity or 
 sympathy that is executed, but wrath, deep 
 heaven-born hatred of crime and its perpetrators, 
 hanging over the seat of justice a drawn sword, 
 as the emblem of the work done. Holding these 
 views in reference to crime and -criminals, honour- 
 able members may imagine with how much 
 detestation I contemplate the proposal before 
 the B ouse involved in the Bill introduced by the 
 honourable member for East Sydney. That Bill 
 is the sort of climax or outcome of all that wretched 
 philanthropy I have been exposing and which 
 aims at making things smooth and comfortable 
 for the worst of all criminals the murderer. To 
 abolish capital punishment while you leave capital 
 crime rampant is certainly not the most approved
 
 CAPITAL PUNISHMKM'. 9 
 
 method of going to work. This Bill begins at the 
 wrong end. The best and surest method of abolish- 
 ing capital punishment would be to try and abolish 
 capital crime, but to begin by abolishing the 
 punishment while murder stalks abroad, I am 
 sure will not meet with the approval of this 
 Assembly. It has been alleged, I think, by the 
 honourable gentleman who introduced this Bill, 
 that imprisonment for life is a more terrible 
 punishment than death. Well, in reply to this, 
 I assert that there is not a feeling, principle, or 
 instinct of humanity that does not give the lie 
 to this statement. All animal life, from man 
 downwards, prove, every minute of time, how 
 infinite is their estimate of the value of life, and 
 what prodigious superhuman efforts of courage, 
 endurance, and desperate daring they will make 
 to save it. But I will enforce my argument by 
 an illustration that may bring the matter rather 
 sharply home to the honourable member for East 
 Sydney, the introducer of the Bill now under discus- 
 sion. Suppose the honourable gentleman, through 
 a combination of mischances, found himself in the 
 position of being sentenced to imprisonment for 
 life, and was actually so sentenced, I ask him 
 what would be his thoughts and feelings on re- 
 ceiving some such communication as the following : 
 " Her Majesty having carefully considered your 
 case, and from some of the facts and circumstances 
 attending it, of a mitigatory character, Her 
 Majesty has been graciously pleased to extend 
 to you the royal prerogative of mercy, so that 
 instead of being imprisoned for life, your original 
 sentence, you will, by way of mercy and miti- 
 gation, suffer the secondary penalty, and be 
 taken out to-morrow morning and hanged by the 
 neck until you are dead." (Loud laughter and
 
 10 AN AUSTRALIAN ORATOR. 
 
 cheers.) In the face of this I wonder if the 
 honourable member would still hold that im- 
 prisonment for life was a more terrible punish- 
 ment than death. Bat as far as I am concerned 
 I do not desire to inflict a severer punishment 
 than death on the murderer ; if imprisonment for 
 life is a severer punishment I am quite content to 
 abide by the lighter punishment of death, leaving 
 to my opponents the odium and cruelty of advocat- 
 ing what they assert is a severer and heavier 
 punishment, namely, imprisonment for life. There 
 is also a stupid phrase often used in the discus- 
 sion of this subject, and used, I believe, in this 
 debate, " That you can't put a man to a worse 
 use than to hang him." I quite agree with this, 
 but at the same time I declare that you can't put 
 a murderer to a better use than to hang him, nay 
 more, that you are bound by every principle of 
 religion, justice, and right to hang him, and if you 
 allow any maudlin sentimental cant to prevent 
 you performing this, your plain duty, the society 
 in which you live will be the sufferer ; besides, has 
 anyone ever tried to measure the danger of ac- 
 cumulating in a jail all our desperate murderers, 
 men whom you can't punish any further, and who 
 would be constantly increasing on your hands, 
 and whose safe custody would form the most per- 
 plexing and difficult problem of the day, because, 
 mark you, this congregation of murderers would 
 form a body of men driven to absolute desperation, 
 ready to murder a warder, or anyone who came 
 near them, with as little compunction as they 
 would light their pipes. Macbeth says : 
 
 I am in blood 
 
 Stepped in so far, that should I wude no more, 
 Returning were as tedious as go o'er.
 
 CAPITAL PUNI*IIMI-:NT. n 
 
 So will it be with this continually increasing gam; 
 of desperadoes, forming a danger to the State that 
 the supporters of this Bill would do well to ponder 
 deeply before they advance another inch on the 
 road they are going. It has been advanced as an 
 argument during this debate that in Tuscany they 
 have abolished the punishment of death, and that 
 now, under imprisonment for life, murder is much 
 less frequent than when the death punishment 
 prevailed. If this is so, it must arise from acci- 
 dental circumstances and nothing more, and will 
 have no permanency. If those who have used this 
 argument don't agree with this view, they will be 
 forced to the adoption of the only view left them, 
 namely, that the Tuscany murderers may be 
 imagined saying to themselves something like 
 this : " Well, it's no use committing murder now, 
 because we can't enjoy the luxury of being hanged. 
 As long as they hanged us for it we had some 
 inducement to commit murder, but now that they 
 have abolished hanging and substituted imprison- 
 ment for life, we have not the slightest inclination 
 to commit murder." I put it to the House whether 
 this is not a fair inference from the argument and 
 the way it has been used? Statistics of this 
 description are not to be relied upon as bearing out 
 the conclusions that people generally put upon 
 them. But no matter what statistics prove or 
 disprove, as long as I have my senses about me, I 
 will never part with the punishment of death for 
 the murderer the most formidable and destructive 
 weapon we can stike him with. There are two 
 crimes rape and murder thoroughly deserving 
 of death, and, in the interests of society, I trust 
 that this House will never part with the effective 
 and most richly-deserved punishment for these
 
 12 AN AUSTRALIAN ORATOE. 
 
 offences. The punishment of death, whatever 
 people may say to the contrary, is the most dread- 
 ful of all punishments. It annihilates hope, the 
 grand sustainer of humanity. There is no despair 
 so black that hope, with its thousand suggestions, 
 will not cheer and lighten ; no dungeon so dreary 
 that the rays of hope will not penetrate ; no chains 
 so heavy that hope will not ease and dissipate. 
 Yes ; hope springs eternal, and gilds and illumi- 
 nates with brightness the hardest lot that man 
 can be consigned to, but to take a man in the full 
 vigour of youthful manly health and strength, and, 
 at a given signal, strangle the life out of him, is a 
 punishment compared to which all others dwindle 
 to nothing. In the interests of good government 
 and of the safety of society, I trust that the 
 punishment of death, in certain cases, may be 
 retained, and that the Bill before the House may 
 be thrown out as a serious danger to the State. 
 [The Bill was thrown out by a large majority.]
 
 DIVORCE BILL. 
 
 [IN the year 1870, Mr. Buchanan moved the second reading of t the 
 Divorce Bill. The following is an abridged report of his 
 speech : ] 
 
 MB. SPEAKER, In moving that this Bill be now 
 read a second time, I hope hon. members will come 
 to the consideration of it with minds untrammelled 
 by prejudice or bigotry of any kind. This is a 
 question, the importance of which cannot be 
 magnified ; it is a question removed far above the 
 atmosphere of party, therefore I trust this House 
 will deal with it in the interests of truth, and the 
 happiness and well-being of the people of this 
 country. In introducing this Bill, I am introduc- 
 ing no new principle. The principle of divorce 
 has been acted upon for two hundred years in the 
 mother country, and other countries, such as 
 America, Victoria, Canada, &c., have adopted it 
 with advantages to themselves of the most un- 
 deniable character. Hon. members are of course 
 well aware that in Catholic times divorce was not 
 allowed, the Church of Rome holding marriage to
 
 14 AN A USTRA LI AN OR A TOR. 
 
 e a sacrament and indissoluble on any ground 
 whatever; but notwithstanding this there were 
 uch things as dispensations granted in those 
 times. The indissolubility of marriage, as declared 
 the Church of Rome, was found to be attended 
 > .ith so much inconvenience that a loophole of 
 escape was very soon found. The Church still 
 f adhered to the sacramental dogma and the indis- 
 I solubility of the tie, but it evaded it by declaring 
 I the marriage invalid, and therefore null and void. 
 The marriages that the Church of Eome thus 
 declared invalid were so declared, not from 
 any wrong done by either of the parties, for, 
 however flagrant that wrong might have been, 
 it must have been borne in patience, as the 
 Church could afford no relief on that ground, but 
 some miserable, wretched pretext was bolstered 
 up, and, upon the payment of a sum of money, the 
 marriage was declared null as having been invalid 
 from the beginning. The grounds of such appli- 
 cations were generally a remote consanguinity, 
 and hon. members will see how easily they could 
 have been obtained when I tell them that one 
 marriage was declared invalid on the ground that 
 the husband had stood godfather to a daughter of 
 his wife's third cousin. The fact of the matter is 
 that this declaring of marriages invalid by the 
 Church of Borne was done without reference to 
 the justice or injustice involved, but simply to in- 
 crease the revenue of the Church so that the priest- 
 hood might wallow in all that luxury and licen- 
 tiousness which has characterised them in all ages 
 and in all countries. The revenues from this 
 source were at one time nearly as great as from 
 the sale of indulgences, which indulgences when 
 obtained and they can only be obtained by pay-
 
 DIVORCE BILL. 15 
 
 ment the person who is so favoured may commit 
 any sin, no matter how monstrous, if not with the 
 express approval of the Church, at all events with- 
 out any of its censures. I have no hesitation in 
 saying that in any given year there have been 
 more marriages declared invalid by the Romish 
 Church than there have been divorces granted by 
 all the Divorce Courts in the world in the same 
 time, with this difference, that the Divorce Courts 
 have acted legally, and on proof of guilt, while the 
 Romish Church has acted from no higher motive 
 than a grovelling desire to enrich her coffers, and 
 hesitates not to perpetrate rank injustice as well 
 as deep sin, that the priesthood may be clothed in 
 purple and fine linen, and live in rank and idle 
 luxuriance. From all my reading and investi- 
 gation of this subject I am persuaded that this 
 indissolubility of the marriage tie is a device of the 
 Romish Church originated and maintained for no 
 other purpose than extortion and the systematic 
 fleecing of the poor helpless victims who fall so 
 easy a prey to their priestly tyrants. Well, then, 
 upon all this ignorance and degradation arose the 
 sun of the Reformation, and with its piercing rays 
 dispelled all those dense fogs of superstition which 
 had so long enervated and obfuscated the minds of 
 men. The reformers were earnest, truth-loving, 
 Bible-reading men, and one of their first acts was 
 to knock the Romish dogma on the head as to 
 the indissolubility of marriage. They appointed 
 several of the most eminent of their number to 
 confer on this subject, and it would be difficult to 
 find in any age or State so noble a band of men of 
 genius and learning as drew up the document 
 known as the Reformatio legum, the deliverance of 
 this eminent body. In that document it is laid
 
 16 AN A US TEALIA N OR A TOR. 
 
 down that marriage is a civil contract, dissoluble 
 on the ground of adultery, and all Protestant 
 churches have ever since held this opinion, and 
 although it was only enacted as the law of England 
 so lately as 1857, still it was the practice in Eng- 
 land ever since the Reformation, and divorces were 
 constantly granted every year by special Act of 
 Parliament, while in Scotland it was the law of 
 the land, grantable on application to the Supreme 
 Court. The process in England was so expensive 
 that it could only be taken advantage of by the 
 rich, and in consequence of this the present divorce 
 law was introduced by the House of Lords, ten of 
 the Bishops voting for it, and most ably supported 
 by Lords Lyndhurst, Cranworth, Campbell, &c. 
 On its coming to the House of Commons it was 
 carried by over two to one. This Act has now 
 been in operation in England for twelve years with 
 marked advantage to the interests of the people. 
 It has been in operation in Scotland since the time 
 of the Reformation, and we have the testimony of 
 such able jurists as Lord Stair and Mr. Erskine 
 that it has worked most beneficially, and pro- 
 moted the moral welfare of the people in a large 
 degree. But whatever may be the result and 
 working of that law, one truth is plain, that not a 
 single solitary voice has been raised, either in 
 Scotland or England, asking for its repeal. Is 
 there an hon. member in this House who for a 
 moment supposes that this Act would be allowed 
 to stand a single day in the mother country, if the 
 experience of it had been evil? It stands there 
 now unchallenged by a single man, and at every 
 sitting of the Court affords relief in cases where to 
 withhold relief would be to perpetuate cruel wrong, 
 and to force persons into the commission of sin,
 
 DIVORCE BILL. 17 
 
 which they would avoid if the law allowed them. 
 I have not referred to the Scriptural justification 
 of this measure, simply because it is so plainly and 
 clearly in favour of granting divorce on the ground 
 of adultery, that I did not deem it necessary. I 
 am satisfied that every unprejudiced mind will 
 agree with me that our Saviour admitted that 
 marriage might be dissolved on the ground of 
 adultery, when He said, " Whosoever putteth 
 away his wife, saving for fornication," &c. I 
 think this is a most clear admission on the part of 
 our Saviour that a man might dissolve his mar- 
 riage on the ground of adultery, and it is a view of 
 the subject which the whole bench of bishops co- 
 incided with when the matter was under discussion 
 in the House of Lords ; at all events I would have 
 been the last man on earth to have brought in this 
 measure unless I believed it was in accordance 
 with the teachings of the Bible, clearly laid down 
 in several parts of the Word of God. Well, then, 
 I come to the measure immediately under discus- 
 sion, and in reference to it I candidly admit that 
 it differs from the English Act, but in a manner 
 which should all the more recommend it to hon. 
 gentlemen. The English Act gives the man the 
 right to dissolve his marriage on the ground of the 
 wife's adultery, but it does not deal out the same 
 justice to the woman. She cannot dissolve the 
 marriage on the ground of the husband's adultery; 
 lie must accompany the adultery with cruelty, 
 desertion, or some other crime. Well, I say I 
 detest this injustice, and have blotted out the 
 wrong from, the Bill I have had the honour of 
 introducing to this Parliament, and which is now 
 under discussion. The whole spirit of the English 
 law is most unfair in its dealing with woman, and 
 
 c
 
 18 AN AUSTRALIAN ORATOR. 
 
 the lowest possible ideas are at the bottom of re- 
 fusing to give her equal rights with men in this 
 matter of divorce. Let hon. members take any 
 view of the matter they like. Let them take the 
 Scriptural view, which I submit is the only view 
 they should take, and will any man dare to say 
 that, in the eyes of God, the crime of the man is 
 less than the crime of" the woman, or that God 
 would measure out one penalty for the woman and 
 a less penalty for the man ? Surely not. Well, 
 then, if they assume that marriage is a civil con- 
 tract, which I admit it is, and nothing more, are 
 not both parties equally bound by it? and should 
 not the same consequences follow a breach by 
 either party ? Surely the most common and every- 
 day principles of justice, if allowed fair play, would 
 settle this matter triumphantly in favour of the 
 Bill. But I may be told, and I have no doubt will 
 be told, that the wife's adultery is attended by 
 I more serious consequences than the man's, inas- 
 much as it may introduce spurious offspring into 
 the family. I meet this with the answer, may not 
 the man's adultery introduce spurious offspring 
 into some other family ? The miserable selfishness 
 of such a view as this, subordinating as it does the 
 high morality and unerring justice of God to alow 
 human selfish fear, is, in the last degree, degrading 
 to the advocates of such a principle. I say to the 
 members of this House, let us, as a Parliament, 
 lead the way in an attempt to elevate woman to an 
 exact equality with man in the eye of the law, 
 a thing which British law has never yet done, 
 but on the contrary, in all its dealings with 
 woman, has treated her with an injustice 
 which is founded on feudal barbarism and that 
 wretched vassalage, the spirit of which animates
 
 DIVORCE BILL. 19 
 
 certain orders in England to this day. I look upon 
 the change I have made in the English Act, by 
 which equal justice is done to the woman, as the 
 best part of the Bill I have laid before this Par- 
 liament. It was most warmly supported by many 
 of England's ablest prelates, and Lord Lyndhurst 
 delivered a most striking and remarkable speech 
 in favour of it, voting and protesting against the 
 third reading of the Bill, because this very equality, 
 which is in the thirteenth clause of the Act now 
 before hon. members, was not incorporated in the 
 English Act. I therefore trust that a sense of 
 justice will prompt hon. members to adhere to the 
 thirteenth clause as it stands that they will 
 stamp with the seal of their condemnation the sin 
 of the man equally with the sin of the woman j 
 that they will palliate in no degree the sin of the' 
 man, but visit it with the same consequences that 
 they are prepared to mete out to that of the 
 woman and in doing this they will act in accor- 
 dance with God's justice, which is the only rule 
 and guide to direct us in this matter. The thir- 
 teenth clause involves the whole Bill, and on this 
 clause it must stand or fall. I have one word to 
 say to the Roman Catholic members ; and first let 
 me say a word or two as to their much-talked-of 
 petitions against the Bill. Hon. members know 
 very well the worth of these petitions, and how 
 they are got up. They simply embody the 
 opinions of the priests, and the mode by which 
 they are originated and completed affords an 
 admirable illustration of priestcraft in all its 
 debasing, enslaving tyranny. When the Roman 
 Catholic priests require a show of petitions for any 
 purpose a draft is prepared at head-quarters and 
 issued to all the churches in the country then,
 
 20 AN AUSTRALIAN ORATOR. 
 
 by a most vehement beating of the drum-eccle- 
 siastic, the poor deluded followers of Romanism 
 are commanded to sign it. Every nefarious trick 
 is resorted to a table is erected at the church 
 doors, and all and sundry are enrolled, including 
 hundreds of children whose names are taken down 
 for them. If any one dares refuse to sign the 
 petition he is instantly subjected to a withering 
 fire from the spiritual artillery of the Church, and 
 is branded and scouted for daring to think for 
 himself. Let hon. members look at the petitions 
 already received they will find most of the names 
 written in the same handwriting. I am not sur- 
 pi'ised at this, because popery was never distin- 
 guished for enlightening its followers ; but I am 
 informed, by eye-witnesses, that whole schools of 
 children have had their names attached to these 
 petitions by command of the priests. Does this 
 not show what an unscrupulous body these priests 
 are, and how they hesitate not to insult this Par- 
 liament by sending petitions, signed by hundreds 
 of children, meaning us to believe that they eman- 
 ated from men and women ? But thank God there 
 are men in this House who are prepared to take 
 these priests in their own craftiness and expose 
 their nefarious, scheming devices on all occasions. 
 I say boldly these popish petitions are worth 
 nothing. They, as far as they are signed by 
 adults, emanate from poor, deluded, priest-ridden 
 slaves who have basely surrendered their thoughts, 
 their minds, their independence into the hands of 
 men who live by deluding them, and whose system 
 is built upon the ruins of human liberty, the wilful 
 and systematic falsification of God's Word, and 
 the degradation and utter debasement of human 
 nature itself. I tell those priests that the less
 
 DIVORCE BILL. 21 
 
 they cross our path the better the more they 
 come in collision with us the more disastrous will 
 it be for them and their system, and I arn sure 
 the House asks no more humiliating spectacle 
 humiliating as exposing most thoroughly the 
 unscrupulous acts of popery than an inspec- 
 tion of those very popish petitions now lying 
 on the table. Now then let me say a word or 
 two to the Roman Catholic members of this 
 House. According to their own statements they 
 cannot possibly be affected by this Bill they 
 cannot take advantage of it. I therefore think 
 if they acted rightly they would not vote at all. 
 The Protestants can take advantage of the Bill, 
 and if the Roman Catholic members vote against 
 it, what is it but an insolent attempt to thrust their 
 dogmas, which we Protestants repudiate and des- 
 pise, down our throats ? They will try by their 
 votes on this occasion to compel all the Protes- 
 tants in the community to be bound by the dogma 
 that marriage is a sacrament and indissoluble. It 
 would be vain to hope for independent action from 
 a set of men who are driven by their priests like 
 sheep, and who have basely surrendered their 
 thoughts into the keeping of men equally feeble, 
 ignorant and fallible. Under such circumstances, 
 the representatives of the Roman priesthood, for 
 they are not representatives of the people, will be 
 found to a man voting against this Bill. I care 
 not for this I believe the independence and intel- 
 ligence of the House will guide it to a correct 
 conclusion. I will never for a moment believe 
 that this Parliament, composed of educated gen- 
 tlemen from all parts of the country, will affirm 
 the monstrous doctrine that a woman may scan- 
 dalously break her marriage vow and cover her
 
 22 AN AUSTRALIAN ORATOR. 
 
 husband with dishonour, and that the law should 
 allow the injured man no relief or redress. I will 
 never believe that this Parliament will allow one 
 of the parties to a marriage contract to trample 
 the contract and all his or her obligations under 
 foot, while it still holds it binding on the other. 
 I cannot for a moment suppose that this Parlia- 
 ment will so stultify itself as to allow cruel wrong 
 to exist without the application of a remedy. Is * 
 it for the interests of morality or public policy that 
 a marriage contract should be maintained when 
 the very soul lias been knocked out of it by the/ 
 adultery of one of the parties to it? Will hon. 
 members of this House say that all these cruel 
 wrongs that have desolated and laid waste many 
 a previously happy home are to be aggravated 
 and inflamed by the cruelty and injustice of the 
 law? That a woman who has basely betrayed her t 
 husband, and in open day is living a life of infamy '< 
 before his very face, is still to be allowed to bear ' 
 his name, and while she has laughed the contract 
 to scorn, the law is to hold it binding upon him 
 during her life? Let hon. members only bring 
 the very commonest sense to bear on this subject, 
 and they will soon see the necessity as well as 
 justice of this measure. I know there will be a 
 great deal of sentimental trash talked about the 
 danger of passing such a Bill as this. I can. 
 almost already hear the rush of that fearful tide 
 of misrepresentation which is sure to set in when 
 such a measure as the one we are now discussing 
 comes on the carpet. I have no doubt we will 
 have fearful pictures of the immorality which 
 this Bill, as if by the wand of an enchanter, is 
 to call into existence, the moment it is made law. 
 My comfort is that it has always been so, that no
 
 DIVORCE BILL. 23 
 
 reform was ever yet introduced to the world with- 
 out ;i chorus of misgivings and abundant predic- 
 tions of all manner of evil. Bat confident ;m<l 
 fall of hope, I press on this measure as one 
 demanding the most prompt and decisive action 
 on the part of hon. members. It is a measure 
 which one of England's most eminent prelates 
 has described as having purified the moral atmos- 
 phere of English society. It is a measure which 
 will tend to heal all those festering sores and 
 wounds which are slowly but surely eating their 
 way to the very vitals of society. It is a measure 
 which will be hailed by many a man and woman 
 in this country as affording them relief from a 
 sense of cruel degradation and great moral wrong. 
 In one word, this is a measure which, while it 
 leaves the pure and holy institution of marriage 
 resting securely and safely upon the immovable 
 foundation of human necessity, opens up an 
 avenue of escape from the burden of a contract 
 which, through the misconduct of one or other 
 of the parties, has become vitiated and corrupt, 
 a fruitful source of wretchedness and moral de- - 
 basement. This measure only steps in after the 
 marriage vow has been broken, dishonoured, and 
 trampled upon, and aims, in the interests of 
 virtue, at the dissolution of a tie, the existence of 
 which is gall and wormwood to the injured party. 
 It will afford an opportunity of putting an end to 
 a most unhappy and unholy alliance from which 
 every germ of peace, love, purity, and honour has 
 departed. It will enable a man or woman to break 
 and for ever dissolve a dissolute and disreputable 
 connection, the bare thought of which wrings their 
 hearts with anguish, and crimsons their cheeks 
 with shame. It will rekindle hope in hearts
 
 24 A1\A1E2$ALIAN ORATOR. 
 
 V 
 ,, already plunged in despair, and will open up anew 
 
 1 world and brighter prospects to the victims of the 
 cruellest and saddest of all domestic calamities. 
 Hon. members will, therefore, do well to pause in 
 the deepest earnestness ere they reject a measure 
 of this character, so pure and so philanthropic in 
 its aims and objects ; but, whatever may be the 
 fate of this Bill, whether it is rejected or passed, 
 its opponents will have some difficulty in denying 
 the justice, righteousness, and truth of the prin- 
 ciple on which it is founded. 
 
 [Mr. Buchanan sat down amid loud cheers from 
 both sides of the House, and on a division the 
 Bill was carried by 30 to 10. The Upper House 
 rejected the Bill, but Mr. Buchanan introduced it 
 again and again, until he ultimately carried it, 
 and it became law.] 
 
 1
 
 GOLD FIELDS BILL. 
 
 [ON February 12th, 1873, Sir George Innis, Solicitor-General, 
 moved the second reading of the Mining Bill, when Mr. 
 Buchanan delivered the following speech : ] 
 
 MR. SPEAKER, Sir, in rising to address myself to 
 the measure now under discussion, I think I may 
 safely assert that in anything I have to say on 
 this important question I will speak the sentiments 
 of my constituents. They may not agree with me 
 in every detail, but in the strong condemnation 
 that I will deliver of all the main features of the 
 Bill, I believe I will express the exact sentiments 
 nnd opinions of the intelligent miners of the West. 
 I appear here as the representative of the largest 
 constituency in the country. By a return laid 
 upon this table some time ago the electors of the 
 Western Gold Fields were numbered at 20,000, 
 nearly double that of East Sydney, and greater 
 than East and West Sydney combined, which con- 
 stituencies are represented in this House by no less 
 than eight members. There are as many as twelve 
 representatives of the people in this House who do 
 not represent as many electors as the Western
 
 26 AN A US TRALIA tf RA TOR. 
 
 Gold Fields electorate contains. T, therefore, 
 having the honour to represent a constituency so 
 large and so important, am entitled to the respect- 
 ful attention of the members of this House ; above 
 all, I am entitled to their respectful attention 
 when I speak on an occasion like the present, 
 when the subject matter under discussion comes 
 so completely home to the business and bosoms of 
 my constituents. There is one thing that I have 
 been much struck with during this debate that 
 is, the want of interest shown by hon. members 
 in this great and deeply interesting, as well as" 
 important subject. During the entire speech of 
 the hon. member for the Southern Gold Fields it 
 seemed almost impossible to keep a quorum, 
 together, and I am positive that the attendance 
 during his whole speech would not average twenty 
 members. Well, I ask, is not this scandalous ? 
 And yet, notwithstanding this, and in spite of the 
 fact that scarcely a member has read the Bill, we 
 will find them voting for it simply because it is 
 introduced under the wings of a Government, 
 whereas, had it been introduced by a private 
 member these very gentlemen who will now vote 
 for it, to please those in power, would have 
 trampled it under foot as an outrage upon every 
 principle of justice and right. This is not very 
 flattering to the honour and character of this 
 House, but it is true, nevertheless. I ask those 
 gentlemen who have not read the Bill to read it 
 before they vote, and if they won't or can't read it 
 for themselves, let them, in God's name, have the 
 common sense and decency to come in and listen 
 to those who have read it and studied it also. It 
 grieves me to see a number of hon. members 
 young men, too continually nestling behind the
 
 GOLD FIELDS BILL. 27 
 
 Colonial Secretary, surrendering their right of 
 thought into his hands, and following him in every 
 direction, and wherever he goes, without reference 
 to conviction or the sanctity of individual opinion. 
 Surely those youths would act a more spirit' 1 I 
 part if they confronted authority rather than slink 
 behind it. If they appreciated and understood 
 their position as representatives of the people, 
 they would see at a glance the degradation they 
 are steeped in by allowing any Government to 
 count upon them at all times, and to look upon 
 them as little better than voting machines, who 
 dare not exercise the right of thought or of inde- 
 pendent action. Would that I could inspire them 
 with the independence and nobility of purpose 
 which would prompt them to act rather as a curb 
 and restraint upon authority than as one of the 
 main sources of its strength. All power, instead 
 of being supported by independent members, 
 should be jealously watched, and no opportunity 
 lost to restrain it and keep it within bounds. But 
 what hope is there for a country where the young 
 men distinguish their advent to public life by an 
 inglorious, ignoble surrender of all spirit and all 
 independence, and become wretched tools and 
 flunkeys serving and waiting upon authority. I 
 am fully alive to the fact that no reading of this 
 Bill will do such members any good. When the 
 division comes it will not be the injustice or 
 justice of what they are voting for that will 
 agitate them, but their whole anxieties will be 
 absorbed in their desire to know where the mem- 
 bers of the Government are sitting, and in their 
 eagerness to place themselves behind them. Can 
 we, therefore, hope for anything like justice from 
 a House like this'? Can we expect that the claims
 
 28 AN AUSTRALIAN ORATOR. 
 
 of the gold miners will be regarded when the 
 whole business of a representative of the people 
 seems to be the support of a Government ? But 
 hopeless as the task is, it is my duty, and I will 
 resolutely perform it, of showing this Mining Bill 
 in all its naked deformity I will point out 
 atrocities in this measure that will shock the 
 sense of justice of all who listen to me, and before 
 I have done I will make it appear so ill- digested, 
 ill-considered, arbitrary, and oppressive a piece of 
 legislation that, if intelligence and independence 
 were characteristic of this Assembly, it would be 
 unhesitatingly and resolutely trampled in the dust 
 as an insult to the entire body of the miners, arid an 
 infamous outrage upon all that we have hitherto 
 regarded as the equal rights of all men, and the 
 just and equitable principles of human govern- 
 ment. This may be thought the language of 
 extravagance and exaggeration, but it can only be 
 so thought by those who have not read the Bill. 
 Apart altogether from the fearful wrongs that are 
 scattered through the Bill, from beginning to end 
 it is drawn by a mere legal pedant. From first to 
 last it is burdened and choked up with floods of that 
 barbarous legal jargon that seems to have been 
 invented for no other purpose than rendering con- 
 fusion worse confounded. There are whole series 
 of clauses that no miner could possibly act upon 
 without having a skilful lawyer constantly at his 
 elbow. Its wordy, complicated, and involved 
 character, is perplexing in the extreme, and if 
 the country is visited by so dire a calamity as the 
 passage of this Act, I say, Mr. Speaker, that the 
 toiling, hard-working, patient gold miners would 
 be justified in rising up in open war against it, 
 rather than suffer its infamous enactments to sink
 
 GOLD FIELDS BILL. 29 
 
 them to despair. Let hon. members, instead of 
 deserting their duty, only take the Bill up and 
 read it for themselves. If they are honest they 
 are bound to do so before they vote ; and if they 
 vote for the Bill, as I doubt not many will do with- 
 out doing so, then the country may well view with 
 alarm the danger to which it is exposed by the 
 presence of such men in its Parliament. If lion, 
 members won't listen to gentlemen who have studied 
 this measure, and who will make good all they have 
 said against it, I ask them will they listen to the 
 miners themselves on the subject ? Need I say that 
 I believe they will not. The miners have spoken 
 out in several petitions, and, in the name of justice, 
 I ask the members of this Assembly to listen to 
 them. There is a petition from Gulgong signed 
 by over 3,000 men. It condemns the Bill as a 
 whole for many and divers reasons. Hon. members 
 meet me with the assertion that they wish to pass 
 it. They conclude with a prayer that their views 
 may be embodied in the Act, but if their views 
 were carried into effect this Act would be so 
 mutilated and destroyed that nothing would re- 
 main of it. To carry out the views of the peti- 
 tioners a new Act would be required. Let any 
 one follow me through this petition, and then say 
 whether the petition is not against the Act in toto, 
 and whether it would not be utterly impossible to 
 embody the views of the petitioners in the Act 
 without, by the very process, creating a new Act 
 altogether. The petition asks that the miners 
 should have the right of framing their own regu- 
 lations. Grant this, which I assert you should do, 
 and you cut out a large slice of the Bill. They 
 then object to a number of the clauses; to the 
 construction of the Warden's Court. They pray
 
 30 AN' AUSTRALIAN ORATOR. 
 
 that the duties of Warden be excised from the 
 Bill, thereby demolishing 1 , at one fell swoop, dozens 
 of the clauses. They object to the Mining Appeal 
 Court as " productive of ruinous delay and exces- 
 sive cost." That all the clauses relating to the 
 conditions of occupation, the registration, or the 
 forfeiture of any claim be omitted. They condemn 
 all the clauses relating to leases, and all the clauses 
 as to mining on private property. After this who 
 will say that these petitioners wish the Bill passed ? 
 Here is a whole army of the most formidable and 
 fatal objections to every principle of the Bill, and 
 yet, because the petitioners in their courtesy merely 
 ask that their views be adopted, their petition is 
 actually quoted as being favourable to the Bill. 
 Where would the Bill be, I ask, if the views of 
 those petitioners were adopted? It would be out 
 of existence ; a blessed relief to all concerned. 
 This petition from Gulgong is a most able docu- 
 ment ; with every sentiment and principle there 
 laid down I most cordially agree. Those petitioners 
 are entitled to the most respectful consideration of 
 this House, and it would have been well for the 
 unhappy author of this measure, the honourable 
 and learned Solicitor-General, if some of those 
 petitioners had been by his side when he drew this 
 unique and marvellous literary curiosity, the Min- 
 ing Bill of 1873. Let us, therefore, hear no more 
 about those intelligent petitioners being in favour 
 of the second reading of the Bill. We all know 
 that the right and proper parliamentary action is, 
 when we are opposed to the principle of a Bill, to 
 vote against the second reading, and undoubtedly 
 this would have been the recommendation of the Gul- 
 gong petitioners had they not thought that it was 
 perhaps the more courteous proceeding merely to ask
 
 GOLD FIELDS BILL. 31 
 
 that their views be embodied in the Bill. I assert, 
 sir, that it would be difficult to imagine a more 
 sweeping condemnation of any measure than that 
 which breathes from every line of the Gulgong 
 petition. Let the Solicitor-General and the 
 Government only have faith in what they see. 
 The Solicitor-General seems to have a strong 
 objection to place the power of drawing regula- 
 tions in the hands of the miners, but only let the 
 House grant them this one advantage and a very 
 short time will suffice to prove the efficacy of the 
 reform. I trust the House will listen to the voice 
 of the miners, so clear and intelligent in its ex- 
 pression, and I do trust hon. gentlemen will read 
 carefully the different petitions from the various 
 gold fields, and show at least some deference to the 
 wishes of those who are so seriously concerned. I 
 will now, sir, proceed to justify all the strong lan- 
 guage I have applied to this Bill. 1 will go over 
 it seriatim, and deal with important and un- 
 important objections as they occur, although I 
 believe I will encounter few of the latter descrip- 
 tion. 1 have used very emphatic strong language 
 in condemnation of this Bill, but as I go on hon. 
 members will see the necessity for such language. 
 I have said that it was an outrage against justice 
 a piece of rank treason against every known 
 principle of right a black and damnable insult 
 thrown in the face of liberty, and a most atrocious 
 and studied wrong inflicted upon a most laborious 
 and worthy class of the community. I ask the 
 House to judge between me and the proofs of this 
 which I will now' produce. I feel almost dis- 
 heartened at the prodigious nature of the task I 
 have imposed upon myself in exposing the in- 
 numerable wrongs of this Bill of 173 clauses, and
 
 32 AN AUSTRALIAN ORATOR. 
 
 I 6rst call attention to clause 4 which, under the 
 pretence of providing for the preservation of exist- 
 ing interests, perpetrates the absurdity of having 
 two laws affecting mining interests while it is 
 perfectly right to preserve existing interests, surely 
 a statesman would have managed matters so that 
 one law would have ruled all. As it is, there are 
 at present in existence about 4,000 leases, and the 
 holders of those leases are to hold them on different 
 terms, and by a different law, from the present. 
 The consequence will be endless difficulties and 
 disputes. Leases will be issued under the pro- 
 posed law, and the miners, finding many people 
 holding land on different terms, and having 
 different laws affecting them, will come in col- 
 lision with them, and disputes and litigation will 
 be the order of the day. Well then I say that a 
 statesman, in view of all this complication and 
 trouble, would have so arranged matters that, 
 while both laws would be assimilated, all existing 
 interests would be preserved. Clause 7, providing 
 for a Minister for Mines, I object to. I do not 
 believe it would be of any advantage to the miner; 
 while, politically, it is open to very serious objec- 
 tion. What is wanted is the appointment of a 
 shrewd, intelligent, practical man as secretary to 
 the mining department, with full charge, under 
 the Minister of Lands. His duties would be to 
 take charge of all mining matters, and to be ready 
 at a moment's notice with all papers and informa- 
 tion on all matters connected with the department. 
 Such an officer, with no other duty to perform,, 
 would soon bring our mining affairs into order and 
 regularity. I object to the power of the Executive 
 being strengthened in this House by the appoint- 
 ment of another Minister. We have seven Ministers
 
 GOLD FIELDS BILL. S3 
 
 in this House, and if the House of Commons had 
 the same proportion they would have upwards of 
 seventy Ministers of the Crown there an enormity 
 which, of course, would never be tolerated. The 
 influence of those seven Ministers on the members 
 of this House is already too great without increas- 
 ing it. The Executive power in this House should 
 be cut down rather than increased. The appoint- 
 ment of one or two more Ministers would enable a 
 Government to carry everything, and completely 
 paralyze the efforts of the independent and genuine 
 members of the House. On these high constitu- 
 tional grounds I oppose the appointment of another 
 Minister. I would not grudge the expense if I 
 thought such an appointment would advance the 
 interests of the miner ; that expense would be no 
 trifle with an under-secretary and staff of clerks, 
 officers, servants, &c. The next clause, 8, provides 
 for schools, museums, and the appointment of a host 
 of professors, teachers, readers, &c., which is sheer 
 absurdity if it is meant to benefit the gold miner 
 by all this. I have no objection to your having as 
 much of it as you like in the Sydney University, 
 the proper place for it, but introducing such ideas 
 in a Mining Bill is in my view in the highest 
 degree Utopian. Hon. members will observe that 
 the Warden mentioned in the Bill is a person en- 
 dowed with enormous powers powers that it 
 would be almost dangerous to entrust in the hands 
 of an angel from Heaven and in clause 11 his 
 power commences; he is there empowered to pro- 
 claim an entire area within a radius of two miles, a 
 gold field upon it being so reported by a person 
 claiming to have made such a discovery. This 
 may be all very right, but I surely don't require to 
 tell hou. members that it is a large power to be 
 
 D
 
 34 AN A US THALIA N OR A TOR. 
 
 entrusted to a Warden, and might be worked 
 tremendously to further nefarious purposes. 
 Clause 13 provides for the appointment of War- 
 dens, and heaps up expenses by the appointment 
 of a numerous staff of highly-paid officials. The 
 proviso enacts that no Warden shall hold any 
 interest in any claim or mineral lease. Very good, 
 but why limit it to the Warden ? why not place 
 the Mining Ministei*, the Appeal Court Judges 
 under the same restriction? Clause 17 provides 
 for what is called Consolidated Miners' Eights, 
 which means that one man may take out miners' 
 rights for fifty or a hundred, or, for the matter of 
 that, five hundred men. This principle is intended 
 to strike a blow at the independence of the miner. 
 It destroys his individuality and makes him some- 
 thing like the serf of the monopolies which employ 
 him. Let the gold miner always maintain his 
 independence and his character as a gold miner. 
 This Bill, I say, all through favours monopoly and 
 the great capitalists, and deals most harshly with 
 the individual miner. In the next clause, 18, 
 sub-section 1, there is a notable piece of injustice. 
 Speaking of taking up land, it says " and such 
 quantities, dimensions, and boundaries shall be 
 determined at or after the time of taking such pos- 
 session, and be subject to alteration and adjustment 
 from time to time." Hon. members will see that 
 there is here no finality : what is your land to-day 
 may be altered to-morrow; there is no fixity of 
 tenure. It is liable to change at any time, and 
 uncertainty is the atmosphere that looms over 
 the unhappy miner by this sorry enactment. 
 Clause 20 seems to me abstruse nonsense, like so 
 many others in this masterpiece of mining legisla- 
 tion. Clause 22 enacts that no man shall do this,
 
 GOLD FIELDS BILL. 85 
 
 that, and the other unless he has a miner's right. 
 Why, he has no locus standi unless he has a 
 miner's right, and therefore this clause is like so 
 many others, mere surplusage. Clause 24 heaps 
 up expense upon the miners and all the residents 
 on the gold fields, and this pervades the whole 
 Bill. Wherever there is a chance of taking money 
 out of the miner's pocket, this Bill does it. A 
 business license, by this clause, is 5 ; by the pre- 
 sent Act, I believe, it is only 1. Clause 29 con- 
 fers a most dangerous power upon the Minister 
 that of reserving any land he likes, on a newly- 
 discovered gold field, from mining, residence, or 
 business purposes. A corrupt Minister might 
 reserve the best portion of a gold field and divide 
 it among his friends, which the next clause (30) 
 enables him to do. That this power would be 
 abused, who is there that listens to me can for a 
 moment doubt ? but, whether or not, no such power 
 shall ever, by my vote, be placed in the hands of 
 any man. Then we come to clauses 34 and 35, 
 which deal in the most arbitrary manner with the 
 business people. A man puts up a store, at great 
 expense, on the gold fields, and just as he is about 
 to realize something like a fair return for all his 
 labour and risk, the Government propose to sell his 
 land. The advantage this Act gives the owner is, 
 that he will get it if he is the highest bidder, with 
 the value of his improvements deducted. But 
 suppose he is unable to raise means to put himself 
 in the position of the highest bidder what then? 
 Why, he is turned out, and a stranger steps in to 
 enjoy the business he has made, the connection he 
 has established, and the entire advantages of the 
 position. A more gratuitous or senseless wrong 
 was never imagined or inflicted. Clause 36 is im-
 
 36 AN AUSTRALIAN ORATOR. 
 
 portant, as embodying the very principle for which 
 the diggers contend as to mining on private pro- 
 perty. By this clause the diggers may go on pri- 
 vate property to cut a race, on giving the owner 
 compensation for the damage done. What more do 
 they want in asking to mine on private property ? 
 If it is right to allow miners to go on private pro- 
 perty to cut a race, on giving compensation to the 
 owner, must it not be equally right to allow miners 
 to go on private property to sink a shaft on giving 
 the owner compensation. The Solicitor-General 
 affects horror at the idea of invading private pro- 
 perty for mining purposes, but he has enacted it 
 in this (36) clause, although, perhaps, he is not 
 aware of it, which is his position in reference to 
 many of the clauses of this Bill. I have spoken of 
 the enormous power of the Warden under this 
 Bill ; by clause 38, sub-section 6, he has the power 
 to suspend this sub-section for a period of two 
 months. The hon. member for the Southern Gold 
 Fields says it is so at present ; that may be, but it 
 is, nevertheless, an enormous power, and a power 
 liable to the very gravest abuse. Sub-section 9 
 of this clause lays an embargo upon all the water 
 in the country. It says no license shall be granted 
 for the use or diversion of any water which may 
 be required for public purposes. Why, I would 
 like to see the Solicitor-General dip his finger into 
 that piece of water in New South Wales that may 
 not be required for public purposes. Therefore 
 hon. members will see what desolation this power 
 would create were it enforced. Clause 44 comes 
 down on the pockets of the miners again at the 
 rate of not less than 5s. nor more than 20s. per 
 sluice head per annum. The miners pay nothing I 
 understand at present. In the following clauses
 
 GOLD FIELDS BILL. 37 
 
 the author of the Act uses terms such as " Act 
 of Council now or hereafter to be in force," which 
 satisfies me that he acted without thought or con- 
 sideration in framing this Bill or, as the Gulgong 
 petitioners say, " artlessly copied from other Acts 
 of other countries, what has no meaning or appli- 
 cation here." What Act of Council can ever be 
 in force hereafter in this country ? I can't under- 
 stand what the learned gentleman means by 
 "Act of Council," and 1 am certain the solu- 
 tion is as I have already stated. Clause 50 admits 
 of a monstrous state of things under it; prospect- 
 ing leases may be issued of 640 acres, distant more 
 than three miles from the nearest gold field ; and 
 if the ground so leased turns out payable, then 
 fifty acres is given to the prospectors Had this 
 clause been in operation when the Home Rule was 
 discovered, that gold field might have been in the 
 sole possession of a dozen people ; but our com- 
 prehensive Solicitor-General never thought of this. 
 All these clauses are against the miner, and in 
 favour of monopoly ; and indeed, so far does this 
 Bill go in this path, that I believe if it is enacted 
 without amendment it will lead to serious dis- 
 turbance all over the gold fields. If hon. gen- 
 tlemen will turn to clause 60 they will see 
 that the Warden is endowed with a juris- 
 diction denied to the Courts of Petty Sessions, 
 or to the District Courts. In fact he has 
 unlimited jurisdiction, and can decide on matters 
 involving from pounds to millions. He is a 
 marvellous person, this Warden, as I shall show 
 as I proceed. By the clause I am considering, 
 namely, clause 60, in any dispute all gold that 
 has been taken from the claim must be lodged in 
 the hands of the Warden until the dispute is
 
 38 AN A US TRALIAN OR A TOR. 
 
 settled. Under this clause, on some of the rich 
 Hill End claims, if they happened to be contested, 
 it might be that the Warden might get 100,000 
 lodged with him. Was ever man so trusted ? 
 Surely the miners would require some guarantee 
 for their money before they parted with it in this 
 way. But there is nothing for it ; this law com- 
 pels them to part with it in the manner described. 
 All the clauses from 60 to 70 are so involved that 
 it would be dangerous for any miner to act upon 
 them without the advice of a skilful lawyer. 
 Clause 71 purposes to grant leases even if the 
 applicant shall not have complied with the regu- 
 lations. Will this not open the door to litigation 
 and all manner of disputes? What advantage 
 has the man who has complied with the regula- 
 tions if he could have gained his object without 
 such compliance? What an evident want of 
 thought and consideration this proves in the 
 drawer of the Bill. Clause 77 provides, in cases 
 of ejectment, that the Attorney- General appears 
 in the Warden's Court as one of the parties. 
 What a precious chance a poor miner would have 
 with the Attorney- General his opponent and the 
 Warden the judge the Warden who is the mere 
 creature of the Government, and who would 
 tremble for his office if he dared to decide against 
 the Attorney-General. I now come to the con- 
 sideration of the Bill under that section headed, 
 " The Administration of Justice," which literally 
 bristles with wrongs of the grossest character. 
 Clause 88 enacts that there shall be no appeal 
 from the Warden unless the sum exceeds 30. 
 Now I ask why is the miner to be deprived of 
 rights enjoyed by the rest of the community? 
 All the people have the right of appeal from
 
 GOLD FIELDS BILL. 39 
 
 Courts of Petty Sessions from 10, and I cannot 
 understand why the gold miner is to be subjected 
 to an injustice from which all the rest of the com- 
 munity are exempt. Clause 92 confers more 
 power on the Warden, and Clause 96 heaps ex- 
 pense on the miner by giving the Warden the 
 power of sending for scientific witnesses in the 
 shape of mining engineers, surveyors, accountants, 
 experts and other scientific persons, all of which 
 tremendous expense is thrown upon the miner 
 who loses. Clause 97 is a clause remarkable for 
 its injustice it enacts that a person, if unwilling 
 to take an oath, may make an affirmation, but it 
 puts this great power in the hanils of the Warden 
 at the same time : " It shall be lawful for the 
 Warden, upon being satisfied of the sincerity of 
 such objection." Well, here the whole thing 
 rests with the whim or caprice of the Warden, 
 who may be an insolent, ignorant puppy for aught 
 we know, and who has the power here of saying 
 to any man, " I am not satisfied of your sincerity, 
 and, therefore, if you decline to take an oath I 
 will send you to prison for contempt." I charac- 
 terise this, and denounce it, as a piece of destest- 
 able tyranny, and a scandalous insult to the 
 whole mining community. A little further down 
 another piece of flaming injustice is to be met 
 with. The clause provides for trial by Warden 
 and three assessors, and if two of the assessors 
 are of one opinion and the Warden and one 
 assessor are of another, the Warden carries the 
 point. What is this but the grossest injustice? 
 It may be that the two assessors are men of 
 supreme intelligence, and have arrived at the 
 correct conclusion ; and it may be that the other 
 assessor and the Warden are a couple of block-
 
 40 AN AUSTRALIAN ORATOR. 
 
 heads, and so stupidity and injustice would 
 triumph over intelligence and right. Under the 
 provisions of the Act, intituled, Special Powers 
 and Duties of Warden, it is enacted that on the 
 decision by a Warden's Court, it shall be lawful 
 for the Warden to " order that any gold or 
 auriferous earth in the possession, and being the 
 property of the party by whom payment of any 
 sum in respect of any such debt, damages, or 
 costs, as last aforesaid shall be ordered," &c. I 
 should like to know how the Warden is to ascer- 
 tain the value of auriferous earth. I point out 
 this merely as showing the slipshod way in which 
 the Bill is drawn. Clause 110 gives a tremendous 
 power to the Warden namely, of granting an 
 injunction without notice to the other side. How 
 this power will be abused, and great injustice 
 wrought, I require not to point out. Clause 111 
 provides that the Warden may order gold in dis- 
 pute to be placed in the hands of any person. 
 This gold may be of any value, and the Warden 
 may order it to be placed in the hands of anyone. 
 One would think that this clause was actually 
 drawn for the express purpose of enabling a dis- 
 honest Warden to plunder the gold-miners. Plow 
 beautiful is the idea of not ordering tho gold to 
 be placed in his own hands ; if he disappeared 
 suspicion would be raised, but the gold being in 
 the hands of any person, that person may have 
 decamped while the Warden is preparing leisurely 
 to follow him. Then again, clause 113 gives the 
 Warden power to imprison for disobedience of an 
 order, and this without previous notice or sum- 
 mons to the person disobeying. What fantastic 
 tricks would those Wardens not play with powers 
 of this description placed in their hands. Clause
 
 GOLD FIELDS BILL. 41 
 
 115 is a detestable piece of grinding tyranny. 
 It enacts that any order of commitment may be 
 made ex parte, that is, on hearing one side only, 
 so that. ;i ili^ger may be working quite innocently, 
 conscious of having committed no wrong, while 
 .someone is making a charge against him behind 
 his lurk. The first intimation the poor digger 
 hours of it is his arrest on Warden's warrant, and 
 in u'aol he will be left to wonder what on earth he 
 could have been guilty of. This is a treat pro- 
 vided for the respectable miners of New South 
 Wales by our sapient Solicitor-General. The 
 next part of this wretched measure I would draw 
 hon. members' attention to is the Appeal Court, 
 namely, the District Courts. T protest against this 
 as involving ruinous delay and excessive cost. 
 The judges of the District Courts are overworked 
 as it is, and the time between the sittings of such 
 Courts is too long. The unfortunate miner would 
 find all his works suspended for three or four 
 months in the event of an appeal ; he and all his 
 witnesses would require to travel to the town 
 where the Court met, and the expense there 
 would be serious indeed, and then they might 
 find that the District Court judge could not 
 undertake their case, and so it would be put off 
 till next sittings. What is wanted is a mining 
 judge to visit the gold fields once a fortnight, or 
 once a mouth, for the purpose of hearing appeals, 
 and so transact the business promptly and expe- 
 <3itiously. I find in this clause there is a pro- 
 vision for an appeal to the Supreme Court only 
 when the sum exceeds 500. Why should this 
 be ? All the rest of the people have the right of 
 appeal from the District Court to the Supreme 
 Court on sums under 200 ; but the gold miner is
 
 42 AN AUSTRALIAN ORATOR. 
 
 here again treated differently, and deprived of 
 rights enjoyed by all the rest of the community. 
 There is also another wrong inflicted on the miner 
 in this clause ; he is deprived of the right of 
 appeal to the Privy Council. How valuable this 
 right is let hon. members ask the many parties 
 who are now enjoying property which they would 
 never have had but for this great right of appeal 
 to the Privy Council ; and if there is one section 
 of the community more than another who should 
 have this right it is the gold miner. Questions 
 involving large sums will often arise on the gold 
 fields, and I for one will never be a party to 
 the removal of any of the safeguards by which 
 right and justice are secured. Above all, I 
 will never be a party to the removal of so 
 formidable a barrier against wrong as the right 
 of appeal to Her Majesty in Council. Under the 
 division of the Bill headed " Mining Assessors,'* 
 there are some startling enactments. In clause 1, 
 hon. members will see that, although the Warden 
 sits as a judge and also as a juryman, he has the 
 sole power of making up the jury list, and may 
 strike off anyone who " in the opinion of the 
 Warden is not a person of good repute." So that 
 the Warden, if he has any little game to play, 
 may kock off whoever he chooses from the jury 
 list by omnipotently saying, " I, the Warden, am of 
 opinion that So-and-So is not a person of good 
 repute." Was there ever such infernal folly enacted 
 in this world before ? Does this childish Solicitor- 
 General, or this childish and foolish Assembly, 
 think that the gold miners will stand anything? 
 True it is they are an orderly, patient, respectable 
 body of men, but beware how you goad them to 
 despair. Have a care that your tyranny and
 
 GOLD FIELDS BILL. 43 
 
 insult may not become unbearable. This Bill 
 seems to have been conceived in every imaginable 
 folly and absurdity. Clause 140 provides that if 
 an assessor is once sworn he should never be 
 sworn again. This puts me in mind of the 
 celebrated Dr. Franklin's remark to his father 
 when he was assisting him to take in twelve 
 months' provisions, " Had you not father, as well 
 say grace now for the whole twelve months' 
 supply and save trouble saying it at each meal ? " 
 Why, again, are the miners to be treated 
 differently from the rest of the community ? If it 
 is thought a guarantee that truth will be spoken 
 through the administration of an oath, why take 
 away the guarantee from the miners ? In clause 
 146 the Warden may be expected to commit grave 
 blunders, through the extravagant powers com- 
 mitted to his hands. If he is of opinion that a 
 witness is prevaricating, he may send him to gaol 
 for two months; or if any one shall, in the 
 opinion of the Warden, in any way misbehave in 
 Court, or be guilty of any contempt whatever, he 
 or she shall receive two months' imprisoment. It 
 is easily to be seen that, by this clause, a silly 
 Warden and the probabilities are ten to one that 
 the Wardens will be silly people might send an 
 honest, truthful digger to prison for two months 
 through mistaking his rough honesty for imperti- 
 nence. Then we come to penalties and forfeitures, 
 and in clause 151 a 10 fine is inflicted for selling 
 a box of matches without a business license. By 
 clause 152, employing any unauthorised person 
 that is a man without a miner's right to take a 
 letter to the post office mulcts you in a 10 fine. 
 A carrier who has no miner's right, merely 
 camping on a gold field, is liable by this clause to
 
 44 AN AUSTRALIAN ORATOR. 
 
 a fine of 10. Clause 153 revives the old in- 
 tolerable nuisance of hunting diggers for their 
 miner's rights, and can only lead to vexation and 
 annoyance without serving any good purpose. 
 Clause 158 inflicts a penalty of six months' 
 imprisonment on any man \vho, having lost his 
 case before a Warden's Court, shall assault, or 
 threaten to assault, the successful party. No 
 allowance is here made for the distress of a man 
 who finds himself the victim of an adverse 
 decision ; and if, in his anger, he should let slip 
 the words to his opponent, " I'll punch your 
 head," six months in prison is his fate. So hon. 
 gentlemen will see that this measure goes on 
 piling wrong on wrong and injustice on injustice 
 without remorse or dread on the head of the 
 unfortunate miner. Clause 161 gives a power to 
 the Warden which, if hon. members could only 
 comprehend, it would make their blood curdle. 
 The Warden may forfeit the claim. Now, I do 
 not go into the grounds on which this forfeiture 
 may be executed I utterly repudiate and deny the 
 right of any man to such a power. I would not 
 give it to the Supreme Court constituted by all 
 the judges ; to take a man's claim from him, 
 which might turn out to be worth thousands, 
 because he had not complied with the terms and 
 conditions of any lien or mortgage, is an unex- 
 ampled and unheard-of piece of feckless ignorant 
 cruelty and tyranny. But, nevertheless, it will be 
 enacted by this House because it is composed of 
 members who don't represent the people, but 
 come here to support a Government, through 
 thick and thin, for reasons best known to them- 
 selves. The next and last section of the Bill I 
 have to consider is the mining on private property,
 
 GOLD FIELDS BILL. 45 
 
 which I look upon as a mere insult to the miner. 
 Why did not the Solicitor-General take the manly 
 course, and tell us he was afraid to de;il with this 
 subject ? But whether he does so or not it will not 
 be this wretched abortion that he has drawn that 
 will satisfy anyone. The views of the miner are 
 the right to mine on private land on giving fair 
 compensation, and the right of no man to hinder 
 him unless this is conceded him those clauses 
 might as well be struck out. I have now gone 
 over this entire Bill, and I ask hon. members to 
 say whether or not they approve of it. I have 
 shown defects in it of such a character that those 
 who have listened to me cannot plead ignorance if 
 they vote for them. I cannot expect that the 
 bulk of hon. members of this House will read the 
 Bill, and I have no hope that they would under- 
 stand it if they did read it. I therefore ask them 
 to listen to those who have read it, and be guided 
 by them in this one instance. This is a serious 
 question, and if hon. members will not listen to 
 me, in the name of honour I ask them to listen 
 to the army of miners who have petitioned against 
 the Bill. If you are dead and insensible to this 
 paramount duty of the office you hold, go on and 
 perpetrate injustice upon injustice until a day of 
 reckoning comes, when the eyes of many members 
 of this House will be opened to the fact that there 
 are other duties for a true and honest representa- 
 tive of the people than a systematic, crawling, 
 servile support of a Government. I oppose this 
 measure as in every way bad. I oppose it as 
 having been conceived in ignorance and shallow- 
 ness, the uniform accompaniments of presumption. 
 It is a measure that will fall like a millstone upon 
 the energies of the gold miner, paralysing his
 
 46 AN AUSTRALIAN ORATOR. 
 
 efforts and retarding his progress. Above all, it 
 is a measure so hateful in its injustice and so foul 
 in its wrong, that it strikes at the very foundation 
 of all the miner's hopes of peace for the future. 
 I therefore oppose it with an intense inveterate 
 determination of purpose. If an ignorant and 
 misguided Assembly, turning a deaf ear to the 
 prayers of these petitioners, persist in the support 
 of a measure which they have, confessedly, never 
 read, let the memory of this fearful wrong stamp 
 itself indelibly upon the character of this Parlia- 
 ment. Let it be known far and wide that I have 
 been told in the course of this address that only 
 three members have read the Bill and let it be 
 further known that scarcely twenty members could 
 be kept together during the course of the discus- 
 sion, and that, in all probability, barely a quorum, 
 will divide on the measure; and then let the 
 country judge of this Parliament and the fitness 
 of its members to perform their important func- 
 tions. Whatever derangement or injury is visited 
 upon this great interest by the passage of this 
 infamous Act, I, at least, stand clear of all 
 responsibility, and to make assurance of this 
 doubly sure, I beg to move " That the order of 
 the day be discharged with a view to the introduc- 
 tion of a measure more concise and intelligible, 
 less complicated and involved, and better calcu- 
 lated to promote the prosperity and advancement 
 of the great mining interests of this country." 
 
 [The amendment was lost by 22 to 2, and the 
 second reading of the Bill carried by 20 to 2. The 
 Parliament is composed of 73 members. The Bill 
 never got beyond the second reading, the Govern- 
 ment having withdrawn it.]
 
 REPRESENTATIVE RIFLEMEN. 
 
 DANGAR having moved that 1000 should be voted to send 
 ri tit-men to Philadelphia, Mr. Buchanan opposed the vote 
 in the following speech : ] 
 
 MR. SPEAKER, I was not in the House when this 
 proposal to spend a 1000 of the people's money 
 for such a purpose was first brought forward, and 
 the more I have thought on the subject since, the 
 more I am satisfied that this expenditure cannot 
 be characterised in any other way than as a most 
 profligate expenditure. (Hear, hear.) When I 
 reflect that the people of the interior have to con- 
 tend with bad roads, bad bridges, or no bridges, 
 that they, in many places, have no end of difficulty 
 in bringing their produce to market through the 
 roads being almost impassable, I can easily 
 imagine how great a help the expenditure of even 
 this 1000 would be to many of them. (Cheers.) 
 At all events, will any candid member of this 
 House say we are justified in spending this 
 money, in the way proposed, while the settlers in 
 many parts of the interior are struggling with
 
 48 AN AUSTRALIAN ORATOR. 
 
 every sort of drawback and downdrag through, 
 the want of money to improve and ameliorate the- 
 difficulties of their position. I say we are not 
 acting true to our duty if we expend this money 
 in the most preposterous and absurd piece of 
 folly that ever entered into the heart or mind to 
 conceive, while there is a single district where it 
 might be spent with advantage and benefit to the 
 inhabitants. We propose to expend 1000 on the 
 sheerest absurdity, while petitions constantly flow 
 in upon us to grant such sums, and even smaller 
 sums, for roads, bridges, courthouses, and 
 numerous other wants of the people which 
 cannot be neglected without leaving the poor 
 people to struggle as best they may with, 
 difficulties that are well-nigh overpowering. 
 (Cheers.) And yet we have the Government 
 looking on at this iniquitous proposal with a, 
 complacency which shows how little they have 
 the prosperity and progress of the people of the 
 interior at heart. Why the Government would 
 have allowed the matter to pass as a formal 
 motion, and now instead of offering it their most 
 strenuous opposition, they are going to vote for it 
 and support it. I have no hesitation in saying 
 that the Government are acting in this matter 
 with an indifference to the people's rights, and 
 with a reckless disregard of all principle and 
 duty, which stamps them as unfit for their places. 
 What right have they to vote this money of the 
 people's away for this extravagantly ridiculous 
 purpose, while they know so well that numbers of 
 the people in many districts have been asking, 
 and asking in vain, for such a sum to be expended 
 in useful and necessary works, which would be of 
 unspeakable advantage to the districts in ques-
 
 REPRESENTATIVE RIFLEMEN. 49 
 
 tion? Will anyone say that the 1000 which is 
 to be expended in sending some idle people across 
 the ocean to shoot at a mark in Philadelphia, 
 could not be more advantageously and better 
 expended on many a bad road in the country? 
 Well then, if this is true, how dare the members 
 of this House vote any such a sura for so idle and 
 profligate a purpose ? How can members who 
 vote for this detestable and unprincipled folly 
 iace their constituents of the interior who, in 
 many cases, can hardly bring their produce to 
 market without danger to their lives and property ? 
 Do the members who are about to vote for this 
 1000 not think they would be more faithfully 
 performing their duty to those who sent them 
 here by refusing to do this wrong, for wrong it is, 
 while there is a single district in the country that 
 would be bettered by having the advantage of 
 this vote. I shall oppose the iniquity at every 
 possible stage, believing that the expenditure is 
 a most unprincipled expenditure, without a 
 shadow of justification, and lowering and de- 
 grading to us as a representative body. Who- 
 ever heard of such a proposal as this being 
 mooted in the House of Commons ? The people of 
 England I believe, send riflemen to Philadelphia, 
 and other places, but did anyone ever hear of any 
 member of the House of Commons proposing to 
 take the money for such a purpose out of the 
 public purse? The member who made such a 
 proposal would be scouted, and both he and his 
 motion unhesitatingly trampled under foot. In 
 England, the section of the people who indulge in 
 this sort of fun have to pay for it, and the British 
 Parliament has never yet been degraded by such a 
 proposal as we are now discussing. I am utterly 
 
 E
 
 50 AN A USTRALTAN OR A TOR. 
 
 at a loss to account for the large amount of 
 support this proposition is receiving, and can only 
 account for it by the fact that it is brought for- 
 ward by a very rich man, and in saying this I am 
 not paying a very high compliment to the 
 character of this Assembly. Nevertheless, it 
 seems to me strictly true. Suppose the member 
 for Wollombi, or myself, or the member for the 
 Upper Hunter, had brought forward this motion, 
 do honourable members think we would have been 
 supported by a single vote besides our own? The 
 proposition would have been hurled out of the 
 House with indignation ; but because it was 
 brought forward by a wealthy individual, hence 
 all this unanimity which is an indirect worship of 
 the golden calf, and infinitely contemptible to the 
 members so acting. The Government, which 
 should be, as all members are bound to be, the 
 vigilant, watchful guardians of the public purse, 
 have egregiously failed in their duty in this 
 matter ; they have abandoned their duty, I 
 believe, for no higher purpose than to conciliate 
 a vote or two, but the people will judge between 
 them and me, and I very much mistake the 
 character and intelligence of those people if they 
 fail not to visit with the severest condemnation 
 the expenditure of this large sum of money on 
 mere idleness, which could be otherwise spent for 
 the benefit and advantage of the people. We are 
 told forsooth that this expenditure will improve 
 our riflemen in some miraculous way ; that it will 
 do the colony no end of indescribable good ; that 
 it will bring us into notice, and so forth. Is not 
 this the merest puerility, and the most con- 
 temptible childishness? Even suppose it did 
 make all our riflemen first-rate shots, I cannot
 
 REPRESENTATIVE RIFLEMEN. 51 
 
 imagine this to be any great advantage in war. 
 There is no occasion for this great nicety of aim. 
 It matters little, in war, whether a soldier strike 
 the enemy on the head or on the foot, so that he 
 strike him at all. What is the difference if a 
 soldier aims at a certain man and only succeeds 
 in hitting one a yard from the man he aimed at? 
 (Great laughter.) The service rendered is quite 
 the same. Is a man not equally destroyed if you 
 send a ball through his bowels, instead of through 
 his heart, which you aimed at ? (Laughter.) No 
 doubt this would be considered bad shooting, but 
 could the very best shooting be more effective? 
 If I am opposed to all the gentlemen opposite me, 
 and in attempting to destroy them, fire a shot at 
 the member for New England, who is immediately 
 in front of me, which shot misses him, but knocks 
 over the Premier (roars of laughter), that is bad 
 shooting, but still for the purpose of war it is 
 most eifective, and what is more, the best and 
 most accurate shooting could not be more effec- 
 tive. In the hurry-scurry, hubbub, and carnage 
 of war men do not take deliberate aim ; they have 
 a general direction to fire low, and many a shot is 
 fired on mere speculation, in the hope of hitting 
 somebody, there being no merit at all in hitting 
 anybody in particular. The great purpose of all 
 the firing in a battle being to kill, it is surely 
 exactly the same thing if a man in firing at No. 
 1 misses him, and kills No. 2. (Laughter.) The 
 conclusion from this reasoning is therefore that 
 accuracy of aim is of no advantage to the soldier, 
 and never can be as long as you have to tire 
 at numbers, where the most aimless rifleman, 
 firing without precision, and at random, is almost 
 certain to kill his man, which is all that the best
 
 52 AN AUSTRALIAN ORATOR. 
 
 shot in the regiment can do. But surely there is 
 a far better training for soldiers than this rifle 
 shooting. The endurance of great fatigue has 
 always been held to be a high attribute of the 
 soldier. Let our men march out to Parrarnatta 
 and back two or three days in the week in full 
 accoutrements ; let them camp out in all sorts of 
 weather, march thirty miles without food or 
 drink, and lie down in the mud for a bed, this is 
 the training for soldiers, and a little of it would 
 do more to make an effective army than practising 
 at rifle butts day and night. Some honourable 
 members, by way of joke I suppose, talk of a 
 team of lawyers being sent out. Well, who can 
 doubt but that this would be a far nobler and 
 grander purpose ? Rightly or wrongly there can be 
 no doubt of this, that 110 human being has in any 
 age of the world gained a renown so universal as 
 the Philadelphia lawyer. Even in our childhood, 
 when anything smarter clever was done, our very 
 nurse would compare us to a Philadelphia lawyer. 
 Whenever we are brought in contact with a pro- 
 position utterly insoluble, we are generally told it 
 would puzzle a Philadelphia lawyer. The reputa- 
 tion of these Philadelphia lawyers is therefore 
 as universal as it is apparently well founded. 
 What a transcendently glorious enterprise would 
 it not therefore be to send forth a team to compete 
 with them in a race on the wide ocean of legal 
 lore. Surely this mere shooting at a mark sinks 
 out of sight in comparison to the grandeur of 
 such a competition. Our ordinary lawyers here 
 are by no means everyday personages ; they are 
 not to be considered as a parcel of legal monks 
 cloistered in cells, poring over musty statutes ; 
 no, they are men largely conversant with the
 
 REPRESENTATIVE RIFLEMEN. 53 
 
 world and its affairs, thoroughly imbued with all 
 jnirient and modern learning; men whose every- 
 day avocations require the exercise of the most 
 unerring sagacity, the most marvellous shrewd- 
 ness, and the most miraculous common-sense, 
 combined with an accuracy, activity, and industry 
 which are the only sure passport to a successful 
 professional career. Well, then, why not send such 
 a team to test the prowess of the far-famed and 
 renowned Philadelphia lawyers ? In such a cause 
 there is glory to be gained. Imagine, in the event 
 of victory crowning our efforts, what a halo of 
 renown will surround our name ; we will for ever 
 afterwards be known as the nation that plucked 
 the laurels from the brows of the great lawyers of 
 Philadelphia, and our fame and name will reach 
 to every nook and corner of the habitable globe. 
 A glory of this character would be worth paying 
 for, but the pitiful and wretched proposal of dis- 
 tinguishing ourselves as marksmen .mere marks- 
 men, as if we could neither read nor write is too 
 contemptible for serious consideration. But with- 
 out any further fun or folly, let the members of 
 this House look to what they are doing before 
 they consent to throw away a thousand pounds of 
 the people's money in any such mad proposal as 
 that now before the House. It is a wasteful, 
 extravagant, unprincipled robbery which cannot 
 be justified, and a cruel wrong to the best interests 
 of the people of this country. I will oppose it to 
 the death, and if I stand alone it shall never pass 
 without an effort at its obstruction on my part
 
 THE DRAMA. 
 
 [ON Wednesday, June llth, a public dinner was given to Mr. 
 Creswick, the celebrated actor; the Hon. Geoffrey Eager 
 occupied the chair, supported by several Ministers of the 
 Crown, Members of Parliament, &c. The toast of " The 
 Drama" was entrusted to Mr. Buchanan, who proposed it 
 in the following speech. The Sydney Mail, in copying the 
 speech into that paper, says : " The speech of Mr. Buchanan 
 at the dinner given to Mr. Creswick, of which a condensed 
 report appears in another part of this issue, partook so 
 much of the character of a literary essay that we make a 
 place for it here " : ] 
 
 MR. CHAIRMAN AND GENTLEMEN, The toast that 
 I have now the honour to propose is that of " The 
 Drama." The toast is one that I would like to do 
 some sort of justice to if I could. It is one that I 
 could have wished had fallen to someone more 
 capable of dealing with so great a therne. I am 
 anxious to do justice to it, and, knowing my own 
 great deficiencies, I venture on the subject in 
 something approaching to a spirit of sheer despera- 
 tion. I believe that mankind were born with a 
 love of the drama implanted deeply in their nature, 
 and when I see a man who professes to dislike or 
 discountenance the drama, I believe firmly he is
 
 THE DRAMA. 
 
 acting against his natural feeling or inclination in 
 deference to some erroneous principle or mistaken 
 delusion, which mukes a victim of him to his own 
 detriment, and in large deduction of his innocent 
 enjoyment and recreation. As long as human 
 nature remained as it was the drama would always 
 be supported. The people of the world would 
 always like to see the world brought before them 
 on the boards of a theatre, and the peculiarities of 
 humanity hit off in some well-conceived, cleverly- 
 constructed drama. As long as men and women 
 are agitated by hopes and fears, swayed by 
 stormy passions, stimulated by love and hate, and 
 have hearts brimful of both laughter and tears, the 
 drama will always retain its hold upon the people 
 as a most attractive source of amusement and in- 
 struction. Nay, whatever may be said to the 
 contrary, there was no useful or moral lesson that 
 could not be taught from the boards of a theatre, 
 and the stage need stand second to no school as a 
 powerful mural and intellectual instructor. And 
 how could it possibly be otherwise, when we 
 reflect upon the intellectual character of the men 
 who have written for the stage ? Their very names 
 were household words, cherished and embalmed in 
 millions of hearts as the great leaders and throned 
 monarchs in the realms of thought. 1 do not 
 speak of foreign dramatists, but confine myself to 
 our English writers, and when I mention such 
 names as Shakespeare, Jonson, Addison, Samuel 
 Johnson, Goldsmith, Massinger, Sheridan, Byron, 
 Scott, Knowles, and 13ulwer 3 surely there is no 
 room to wonder that their immortal productions 
 should captivate the general ear, and raise the 
 theatre high in popular estimation as a school of 
 instruction, moral and intellectual, second to none.
 
 56 AN AUSTRALIAN ORATOR. 
 
 If anyone dissented from this view, let me ask him 
 what school, or what pulpit if you like, was ever 
 illuminated by fire so pure and bright as flamed 
 from the genius of those men ? I will go further 
 and ask, as has been asked before, What sermon, 
 from any pulpit in the world, ever more power- 
 fully or eloquently enforced the command : " Thou 
 shalt do no murder," than the representation of 
 Macbeth ? How fruitful is that magnificent play 
 in its moral lessons and the grandeur of its moral 
 teachings ! How frightfully false and deceptive 
 does Macbeth find his rash and reckless philo- 
 sophy, " I am in blood stepped in so far that, 
 should I wade no more, returning were as tedious 
 as go o'er ; " and again, " Things bad begun make 
 strong themselves by ill." What a painful com- 
 mentary upon this, and what a picture of desola- 
 tion and woe and sharp-biting never-ceasing 
 remorse is offered to our contemplation in the 
 guilty pair, unable to rest night or day, or even to 
 eat without fear : 
 
 Ere we will eat our meal in fear, and sleep 
 
 In the affliction of those terrible dreams that shake us nightly. 
 
 Well might Macbeth add: 
 
 O, full of scorpions is my mind, dear wife I 
 
 Bad and wicked as we know them both to be, we 
 cannot help feeling compassion for them as we see 
 them tossed about on such a raging sea of torment 
 and misery, with no help, no hope ; left a prey to 
 the stinging remorse of their own poisonous 
 thoughts, with no consolation but this: 
 
 Better be with the dead 
 
 Whom we, to gain our place, have sent to peace, 
 Than on the torture of the mind to lie in restless ecstasy.
 
 THE DRAMA. 57 
 
 It is a terrible picture, carrying wit li it a 1<rril>lo 
 lesson, and in the hands of great actors transforms 
 the theatre into a school of the highest moral 
 teaching, where the best of us may derive instruc- 
 tion not easily found elsewhere. I hope you will 
 not misunderstand me. I am not here under- 
 valuing the pulpit T am merely insisting that the 
 stage should get its due. It has always seemed to 
 me a mystery that certain people should absent 
 themselves from the theatre, even when the works 
 of the great masters whose names I have already 
 mentioned were on the carpet, on the ground of reli- 
 gious principle. I need not tell you that thousands 
 of the most sincerely religious people, in all coun- 
 tries, think it no sin to patronise a play, and I lose 
 all patience when I hear people say that it is wrong 
 to go and see a play, when I know it is full of 
 wisdom and truth, and could not but operate in the 
 most healthy way upon all spectators. Those 
 people who acted thus might think themselves 
 pious, but in reality they were only bilious ; their 
 religion, such as it was, proceeding more from the 
 disordered state of their stomachs than the purity 
 of their hearts. [ am sure it would be difficult to 
 find in any part of New South Wales any place 
 where anything approaching to so high a moral 
 and intellectual entertainment was served up for 
 public gratification as that which interested and 
 enlightened the crowds assembling nightly for the 
 last five months at the Victoria Theatre under the 
 magic of Mr. Creswick's great dramatic genius 
 illustrating the grand and immortal pi'oductions 
 of Shakespeare. This long engagement of Mr. 
 Creswick's has not only been a great success, but 
 it has done much for the education of the people 
 in disclosing to them many of the beauties of
 
 58 AN AUSTRALIAN ORATOR. 
 
 Shakespeare hitherto unnoticed, and familiarising- 
 them with a genius so commanding and exalted 
 that all classes bend under its fascinations, proudly 
 acknowledging the pre-eminence and power of the 
 unrivalled poet. How few, if any, remain insen- 
 sible to the irresistible fascination of Shakespeare. 
 There is no ignorance so dense that the rays of 
 his powerful genius do not penetrate, carrying 
 even to the most benighted a pleasure and a com- 
 fort they cannot account for. But surely that man 
 is not to be envied who fails to discover a deep and 
 profound meaning in the stormful agonies and 
 mournfully pathetic wailings of Lear ; whose heart 
 does not vibrate in deepest sympathy with poor 
 Othello, as he sees him with fatally erroneous 
 guidance, launched out on that stormy sea of doubt 
 and darkness, where he sinks and perishes, drag- 
 ging down with him the sweetest innocent that 
 ever man's imagination pictured ; or whose wisdom 
 and power of thought is not increased and stimu- 
 lated by the deep, far-reaching philosophy of 
 Hamlet ; or who could not extract a moral, and a 
 striking one, from contemplating that burning 
 hell of remorse and bitterness that poisons the life 
 and lays waste the peace and happiness of Mac- 
 beth, wringing from him, in the depth of his deso- 
 lation and despair, the painfully pathetic confession 
 " Macbeth shall sleep no more." 
 
 But it is not alone in painting those dark 
 pictures of human nature in its extremity that 
 Shakespeare is renowned. Never was there a 
 more fascinating, fantastic, light, aerial being 
 than the great poet, full of wild, grotesque fun, 
 unrivalled wit, overflowing humour, and a dialogue 
 matchless in its epigrammatic force, and charac- 
 terised by an eloquence, philosophy, and wisdom
 
 THE DRAMA. 59 
 
 that we might search all other literature for in 
 vain. No one was ever blessed with the poetic 
 faculty in a higher degree. Do you ask for an 
 illustration ? Take his description of a moonlight 
 scene in one line 
 
 How sweet the moonlight sleeps on yonder bank. 
 
 Could anything be imagined more vivid? That 
 one line calls up, as if by magic, the quiet, soft, 
 dreamy stillness of a moonlight night with the 
 force of reality. Again, take another illustration, 
 literally among thousands 
 
 Night's candles are burnt out, and jocund day 
 Stands tiptoe on the rnisty mountain tops. 
 
 Was not that a marvellous description of daybreak ? 
 On reading it one almost felt the sweet, fresh morn- 
 ing air playing about his temples. Nothing, in- 
 deed, could be more graphic or poetic. Every 
 great moral purpose Shakespeare served by the 
 power and beauty of his everlasting dramas. Did 
 any combination of temperance societies ever serve 
 the cause as Shakespeare had done in exhibiting 
 Cassio as a drunkard, the sport and laughing-stock 
 of his comrades, " unlacing his reputation for the 
 name of a night brawler." Or had they ever 
 such texts to preach from as Shakespeare had given 
 them ? " Oh, that men should put an enemy in 
 their mouths to steal away their brains ; " " Every 
 inordinate cup is unblessed, and its ingredient a 
 devil." Well, this was the great author whose 
 magnificent genius Mr. Creswick had been illus- 
 trating with unrivalled power at the Victoria 
 Theatre, to the edification and delight of thousands 
 of the people. The drama could never die while 
 humanity retained its ordinary everyday intelli-
 
 AN AUSTRALIAN ORATOR. 
 
 gence. So long as the theatre was lighted up by 
 the genius of our great dramatists, it would prove 
 itself a never-failing source of enlightenment, in- 
 struction, and pure innocent delight, attractive 
 alike to high and low, rich and poor, and often- 
 times affording solace and comfort to those who, 
 turning aside from the cares and anxieties of the 
 world, had found pleasure and satisfaction in the 
 contemplation of the great masterpieces of our 
 noble dramatic literature. 
 
 [This speech was much applauded throughout, 
 and at its close.]
 
 MITEED MOUNTEBANKS. 
 
 [MlTBED Mountebanks and Lay and Surpliced Lunacy in contention 
 with sound reason and common sense, being a reply to the 
 opinions of Archbishop Vaughan and Mr. Dalley on the 
 question of public education. This address was delivered in 
 the Temperance Hall, where an immense audience as- 
 sembled, many being unable to get in.] 
 
 MR. CHAIRMAN AND GENTLEMEN, I daresay you 
 will have observed that when Mr. Dalley or Arch- 
 bishop Vaughan have anything to say in public 
 they receive marked attention from the press 
 (hear, hear) the leading journal, on a late occa- 
 sion, awarding Mr. Dalley no less than nine 
 columns of space, while Archbishop Vaughan is 
 sometimes treated to thirteen columns. Now, I 
 think that few will be disposed to deny that this 
 is an attention and consideration out of all pro- 
 portion to the value of their utterances. (Loud 
 cheers.) I think this is the way it is done : those 
 gentlemen deliberately write out all they have to 
 say long before the night of meeting, and the pro- 
 bability is that their speeches are in print before 
 they are delivered. (Laughter.) I do not expect
 
 62 AN A US TRALIAN OR A TOR. 
 
 any such attention from the press, simply because 
 I have neither time nor inclination to supply the 
 manuscript ; but I will at least have the satisfac- 
 tion of conclusively proving, in the estimation of 
 this overcrowded meeting, that there has nothing 
 so feeble, nothing so shallow and fallacious fallen 
 from any speaker or writer in the history of this 
 controversy than what has fallen from Archbishop 
 Vaughan and Mr. Dalley. (Loud cheers.) Not 
 only this, but I believe I am correct when I say 
 that this meeting will not separate without passing 
 a resolution that not another farthing of the money 
 of the State shall be spent for the support of 
 Denominational schools. (Loud and prolonged 
 cheering.) Mr. Dalley had, no doubt, the reputa- 
 tion of being a man of considerable accomplish- 
 ments. I do not deny the justice of this opinion, 
 although my view of the matter is much more 
 moderate than that which seems to prevail 
 (hear, hear) and I always carry with me the 
 thought of the mental disability or defect which 
 must accompany the man who seriously believes in 
 such a creed as that of Rome. (Loud cheers.) I 
 use the word seriously, because thousands of people 
 merely pretend to believe in it, and one-half of its 
 adherents are too ignorant to have any rational 
 belief at all. (Cheers and laughter.) The man 
 who seriously believed in the monstrosities of such 
 a creed was beyond the pale of reason, and must 
 be left to the full enjoyment of his miserable 
 delusion. (Loud laughter.) Mr. Dalley, I re- 
 member, not many months back, was on our side 
 on this great question. (Hear, hear, and cheers.) 
 He was a member of a Government that struck a 
 heavy blow at Denominationalism, and I know of no 
 more melancholy picture than the sight of such a
 
 MITRED MOUNTEBANKS. 63 
 
 man allowing himself to be made a tool and 
 instrument of a benighted priestcraft (loud cheers), 
 and advocating on a public platform as truth 
 what he has so frequently exposed and denounced 
 as the most absurd error. (Prolonged cheering.) 
 Mr. Dalley is now acting under the shadow of a 
 dark and dangerous superstition. He has appar- 
 ently surrendered himself, body and soul, into the 
 hands of a gang of ignorant priests. Let us, 
 therefore, this night, with all solemnity, erase his 
 name from the roll of the army of progress. 
 (Loud cheers.) He has lashed the putrid festering 
 dead body of Popery to him, and, thus accoutred, 
 let him drift on towards that eternity to which we 
 are all hastening, deriving what consolation he 
 may from its dead, rotten carcase. (Great cheer- 
 ing.) Mr. Dalley opened his address with a 
 miserable, unmanly whine about the ill-treatment 
 and insults the poor Roman Catholics were receiv- 
 ing. I suppose he referred to the sharp criticism 
 of their religious and political views. Now what- 
 ever is offered to human belief for its acceptance 
 is, that moment, subject to the ordeal of the 
 severest criticism, and, if necessary, the most 
 powerful exposure and denunciation ; and just in 
 proportion as a man is wedded to the truth, in the 
 same proportion is he bound to come forward in 
 fierce antagonism to every form of falsehood. 
 Well, then, we are asked to believe in the dogmas 
 of Rome. We are told they are true. Knowing 
 them to be as false as hell, where they apparently 
 originated, we are bound, by our respect for, and 
 love of truth, to come forward, on all occasions, 
 and expose this monstrous system by every fair 
 and just means. ('Prolonged cheering.) Insulting 
 the poor Roman Catholics forsooth ! Does Mr.
 
 64 AN AUSTRALIAN ORATOR. 
 
 Dalley forget who began this sort of thing? 
 (Loud cheers.) Is he oblivious to the fact that 
 Archbishop Vaughan denounced our most excel- 
 lent public schools " as seed plots of immorality, 
 infidelity, and lawlessness?" Does Mr. Dalley 
 imagine that the ladies and gentlemen who send 
 their children to those schools, which Mr. Dalley 
 so lately eulogised, do not feel cruelly insulted by 
 the language of Archbishop Vaughan ? Since 
 Archbishop Vaughan has opened this controversy 
 with lying abuse of our Public School System 
 let him look to it he may expect no quarter after 
 this. Living in such a miserable glass house as he 
 does, let him not be surprised if it is shivered to 
 atoms. But the amusing part of Mr. Dalley's 
 address is that no sooner than he has uttered his 
 whine about the ill-usage of the poor Roman 
 Catholics, he straightway commences to sneer at 
 those gentlemen who have appeared on Sydney 
 platforms advocating the opposite side, and never 
 did Mr. Dalley commit a greater mistake than in 
 this. Unfortunately for Mr. Dalley's sneers the 
 Sydney platform speakers have been men eminent 
 for their high intellectual attainments. Dr. Kely- 
 nack and the Eev. Mr. Jefferies will rank higher 
 than either Mr. Dalley or Archbishop Vaughan, or 
 both put together, in the possession of a keen in- 
 tellectual insight and great mental depth and 
 strength. Dr. Kelynack's deliverance, in point of 
 eloquence, thoughtfulness, argumentative force, 
 and remarkable felicity of expression, was far and 
 away superior to anything that has ever fallen 
 from Dr. Vaughan, and I would not insult Dr. 
 Kelynack by comparing it to the wishy-washy 
 platitudes of Mr. Dalley's nine columns. Mr. 
 Jefferies' fine scholarly disquisition, so full of
 
 MITRED MOUNTEBANKS. G5 
 
 truth and common-sense, might be used as a text- 
 book to educate Mr. Dalley and Archbishop 
 Vaughan. (Great cheers.) Yet those are the men 
 that Mr. Dalley, with boundless flippancy and pre- 
 sumption, attempts to sneer at. The only other 
 gentleman that appeared on the Sydney platform 
 was the Rev. Pastor Allen, an honest, truth-loving 
 man, who, in point of refinement and culture, was, 
 surely, infinitely superior to the Father Gilhoolies 
 and Father Mulcahys of the other side (roars of 
 laughter) Mr. Dalley's enlightened spiritual 
 guides to say nothing of the elegant and highly 
 classical-looking and polished Paddy Quinn, the 
 Bathurst Bishop. (Prolonged shouts of laughter.) 
 If many of Mr. Dalley's spiritual guides could 
 write their own names it was as much as they 
 were equal to, and yet Mr. Dalley, surrounded as 
 he is by the lowest type of ignorant Irish priests, 
 and used by them as their mouthpiece and tool, 
 has the short-sighted insolence to aiFect to sneer 
 at such men as Dr. Kelynack and Mr. Jefferies. 
 Another remarkable feature in this extraordinary 
 address of Mr. Dalley was his reference to tolera- 
 tion. How dare any Papist take such a word in 
 his mouth ! (Loud cheers.) Mr. Dalley belongs 
 to a Church that is the most intolerant organiza- 
 tion in existence (hear, hear) an organization 
 which, when it is in the majority, prohibits all 
 other worship but its own. All Protestant wor- 
 ship was suppressed in Catholic countries, and 
 Protestants were not even allowed to bury their 
 dead within the towns of Catholic countries ; and 
 yet Mr. Dalley, with an insensibility and ignorance 
 of the character and history of the political 
 organization which he belongs to miscalled a 
 Church dares prate about toleration. Suppose this
 
 66 AN AUSTRALIAN ORATOR. 
 
 country was a dependency of a Catholic power, 
 that our Government were all Roman Catholics, 
 and that out of seventy- three representatives of 
 the people, comprising our Parliament, that only 
 eight or nine were Protestants, what sort of 
 toleration might we then expect? (Long con- 
 tinued cheering.) Why, our free worship of God, 
 according to our deliberate belief, would be put 
 down by violence, and the nauseous fables and lies 
 of Rome would be thrust upon us, calling forth, 
 on our part, resistance to the death. (Great 
 cheering.) Glancing at Mr. Dalley's utterances a 
 little further, there was nothing in his whole 
 speech I was more absolutely shocked and horrified 
 at than his eulogy of the detestable Jesuits. Mr. 
 Dalley, after sounding the praises of the Jesuits in 
 the language of extravagance, says that they have 
 blessed every portion of the earth where they have 
 been. Jesuitism had become an English word, and 
 what did it mean ? Fraud, deception, double-dealing, 
 and lying (loud cheers) ; and not only so, but the 
 Jesuits had adopted a system of what they called 
 morals, by which every crime in the calendar, from 
 murder downwards, might be extenuated, and the 
 commission of it defended as a virtue. They had 
 earned the detestation of Europe, and Roman 
 Catholic Governments had expelled them from 
 Roman Catholic capitals. They were repeatedly ex- 
 pelled from Rome, France, Austria, and Spain, not 
 by Protestants but by Roman Catholics, who could 
 not endure their gross immoralities nor their 
 destructive teachings so ruinous to all human 
 rectitude and virtue. Their treasonous designs 
 against the good government of states, and their 
 hateful and hellish teachings, had raised humanity 
 against them, and forced them to skulk about
 
 MITRED MOUNTEBANKS. 67 
 
 wherever they went in disguise, and yet Mr. Dalley 
 comes before a Sydney audience, in this en- 
 lightened era, to eulogise the Jesuits and their 
 principles, and to tell his hearers that this 
 detestable crew had blessed every spot of earth 
 where they had been. The Jesuits were hated 
 :u IK nig men, even among Roman Catholic men. 
 Their principles are the most pernicious ever 
 imagined even in hell's darkest corner, and the 
 people may imagine the extent of Mr. Dalley's 
 blindness and the depth of his delusion, standing, 
 as he does, in the infamous position of the eulogist 
 of such men. In speaking of the Jesuits as I have 
 done I have merely spoken the opinion of 
 enlightened Europe. They had been destroyed 
 in England, and would never get a footing there 
 again. (Loud cheering.) In case anyone was 
 so foolish as to imagine for a moment that I had 
 exaggerated in speaking of the Jesuits, I will 
 support my position by the opinion of two very 
 great men, one of them possessed of the most 
 distinguished and powerful intellect at present 
 living, and the other the purest public man in 
 Europe I refer to Thomas Carlyle and General 
 Garibaldi. (Prolonged cheering and great en- 
 thusiasm.) General Garibaldi was a very different 
 man from Mr. Dalley (great laughter); he had 
 seen Popery in all its hateful deformity, he was 
 born and bred in its midst ; he looked on it as the 
 downdrag of his country and the degradation of his 
 countrymen ; he saw, under the rule of the priest, 
 the people growing up in ignorance, crime going 
 about unpunished; the priests halving the spoU 
 with the criminal; he saw open an 1 undisguised 
 immorality rampant, and beggiry, and thieving, 
 us the most direct proluct of J&ouiish priestcraft.
 
 68 AN AUSTRALIAN ORATOR. 
 
 Listen to what he says, then, of Mr. Dalley's 
 favourites the Jesuits. What he says is in a 
 letter addressed to myself, and is as follows : 
 
 " Capera, 16th March, 1870. 
 
 " MY DEAR BUCHANAN, 
 
 " The principal obstacle to human progress is 
 the Romish priest, and those who think civilization will 
 destroy him easily are mistaken. An impure emanation 
 of evil in the human family, he is like that herb that 
 spreads the more you apparently destroy it. Look at the 
 Jesuits, hated, insulted, trampled upon, and expelled 
 from every city in Europe ; they are at present the 
 absolute masters of the Pope and his imbeciles, and 
 in France they are all powerful. It is a pity that a 
 generous people like the Irish should fail to see that the 
 Homish priest is the main cause of their abasement, their 
 misery, and their degradation. 
 
 " I trust you will not suffer the presence of this human 
 reptile in your beautiful and virgin country ; and if any- 
 one says there must be liberty to all, answer him that you 
 will not give liberty to vipers, assassins, and crocodiles 
 and the Jesuit priest is worse than any or all these. 
 " Yours, ever sincerely, 
 
 "G. GARIBALDI." 
 
 So speaks the illustrious Garibaldi, a man who 
 saw his country ruined and cursed by Popery, 
 and devoted himself to its exposure and denuncia- 
 tion during the whole of his brave and glorious 
 life. (Loud cheers.) I will now read to you what 
 the renowned Thomas Carlyle says of those 
 accursed Jesuits. Carlyle is a man whose genius 
 stands unequalled, at present, in the world's 
 history. With a tithe of it you could make a score 
 of such minds as your Newmans, Mannings, and 
 Yaughans ; he is a man whose splendid and 
 powerful intellect is as much admired in France,
 
 MITRED MOUNTEBANKS. 69 
 
 Germany, and America, as in England, and he is 
 not a greater ornament to literature than he is a 
 friend to truth. One cannot read the magnificent 
 writings of Thomas Carlyle without being struck 
 with their eternal truthfulness. I believe he 
 would die sooner than write what was not true 
 a great philosopher and patriot, no literary man 
 has conferred such services on the human race ; 
 he will therefore be listened to with the utmost 
 deference and respect, and this is what he says on 
 the subject : 
 
 " So it may be said these current, and now happily 
 moribund times of ours are worthy to be called, in loose 
 language, the age of Jesuitism an epoch whose Palinurus 
 is the wretched mortal known among men as Ignatius 
 Loyola. For some two centuries the genius of mankind 
 II:IN been dominated by the gospel of Ignatius, perhaps 
 the strangest, and certainly the most fatal, ever preached 
 hitherto under the sun. To me this Loyola seems 
 historically definable as the poison fountain from which 
 those rivers of falsehood and bitterness that now sub- 
 merge the world have flowed. Under this thrice Stygian 
 gospel of Jesuitism the Papist has this long while sat ; a 
 doctrine of devils I do think, if ever there was one, and 
 are now, ever since 1789, with endless misery and 
 astonishment, confusedly awakening out of the same, 
 uncertain whether towards swift agony of social death, or 
 towards slow martyrdom of recovery into spiritual and 
 social life. Jesuitism and its many Popish supporters 
 who have believed the falsehood of it; universal 
 prevalence from pole to pole of such a doctrine of devils ; 
 reverent faith in the dead human formulas, and somnolent 
 contempt of the divine ever living facts ; who will deliver 
 us from the body of this death, a living criminal (us in 
 the old Roman days) with a corpse lashed fast to him. 
 What wretch could have deserved such a doom ? 
 Jesuitism, centuries ago, gave satisfaction to the devil's
 
 70 AN AUSTRALIAN ORATOR. 
 
 advocate, the Pope, and other parties interested. Its 
 founder was canonized, named saint, and raised duly into- 
 heaven, officially so-called ; whereupon with many he 
 passes ever since for a kind of god. Alas ! the admira- 
 tion of mankind goes a strange road in these times. A 
 poor man, in our day, has many gods foisted on him, and 
 big voices bid him worship or be damned in a menacing 
 and confusing manner. What shall he do ? By far the 
 greater part of those gods, canonized by the Pope, are 
 mere dumb sticks and stones, and, occasionally, beatified 
 prize oxen ; nay, some of them who have articulate 
 faculty are devils instead of gods. If Ignatius, worshipped 
 by millions as a kind of god, is, in eternal fact, a kind of 
 devil, or enemy of whatsoever is god-like in man's 
 existence, surely it is pressingly expedient that men were 
 made aware of it that men, with whatever earnestness is 
 yet in them, laid it awfully to heart. Of Jesuitism, then, 
 I must take leave to say, there can this be recorded, that 
 probably it has done more mischief on the earth than all 
 else put together. A scandalous mortal, brethren of 
 mankind, who live by truth and not by falsity, I call its 
 founder. Frantic mortal, wilt thou at the bidding of any 
 Pope war against Almighty God ? Is there no inspira- 
 tion then but a Romish one, with big revenues, loud 
 liturgies, and red stockings ? Quench not among us, I 
 advise thee, the monitions of that thrice sacred gospel, 
 holier than all gospels which dwells in each man direct 
 from the maker of him, the knowledge of right and wrong. 
 The principles of Jesuitism are hateful, and even helli>h. 
 To cherish pious thoughts and assiduously keep your eye 
 directed to a heaven that is not real, will that yield divine 
 life to you or hideous galvanic life in death ? To cherish 
 many quasi-human virtues, and wed them all to the 
 principle that God can be served by believing what is not 
 true ; to put out the sacred lamp of intellect within yon ; 
 to decide on maiming yourself of that higher god-like gift 
 which God himself has given you with a silent but awful 
 charge in regard to it ; to be bullied and bow-wowed out
 
 MITRED MOUNTEBANKS. 71 
 
 of your loyalty to the God of light by big phantasms and 
 three-hatted chimeras ! Can I call that by the name of 
 nobleness and human courage ? This country has been 
 tolerably cleared of Jesuits proper by earnest pious 
 thought and fight, and the labours of the valiant born to 
 us, nor is there any danger of their ever coming to a head 
 here again. But, alas, the expulsion of the Jesuit body 
 avails us little, when the Jesuit soul has so nestled itself 
 in the heart of mankind. What we have to complain of 
 is, that most men have become Jesuits ! That few men 
 speak truth to you or to themselves, and with blasphemous 
 audacity pretend not to know that they are lying. This 
 is the full heritage bequeathed to us by Jesuitism ; to 
 this sad stage has our battle with it come. Men had 
 served the devil, and men had very imperfectly served 
 God, but to think that God could be served more perfectly 
 by taking the devil into partnership this was reserved 
 for Jesuitism to effect. Words fail us when we would 
 speak of what the Jesuits have done for men. Probably 
 the most virulent form of sin which the old serpent has 
 yet rejoiced in on our poor earth. For me it is the 
 deadliest high treason against God our Maker which the 
 soul of man could commit. The heart of the world is 
 corrupted to the core by it ; a detestable devil's poison 
 circulates in the life-blood of mankind through it, and 
 taints with an abominable deadly malady all that mankind 
 do. Such is Jesuitism, the greatest curse that ever fell 
 on men." (Cheers.) 
 
 Compare these striking words of the illustrious 
 Thomas Carlyle with Mr. Dalley's superficial 
 ignorant talk, and what a falling off is there ! 
 (Great cheering.) When Mr. Dalley came to talk 
 on the immediate subject of his discourse, namely, 
 the education question, what did he say ? His 
 utterances were a combination of weakness and 
 folly unexampled in the history of controversy. 
 In point of incoherence, and absurd inconsistency,
 
 72 AN AUSTRALIAN ORATOR. 
 
 as well as childish imbecility, they were only out- 
 done by the pastorals of his spiritual overseer and 
 superintendent, Archbishop Vaughan. Here is 
 the essence of Mr. Dalley's philosophy and wisdom. 
 That the Catholics, he says, constitute one-third 
 of the people here, and were therefore entitled to 
 one-third of the educational vote. Supposing 
 this to be the case, would the Koman Catholics 
 of this community, from whose ranks half the 
 criminals of the country were supplied, agree to 
 pay half the cost of convicting and maintaining 
 them ? (Intense applause.) I do not think I am 
 out in this matter ; I have occasion to know a 
 good deal about it. Half the criminal population 
 of this country, I assert, and I am greatly within 
 the truth when I state that they are Roman 
 Catholics. (Loud cheers.) Was the Eoman 
 Catholic community, therefore, prepared to pay 
 half of the police vote, half of the gaol vote, and 
 half of the expensive machinery instituted for 
 the purpose of bringing these scoundrels to 
 justice? (Loud cheers.) The press of this country 
 had distinguished itself in exposing the absurdities 
 of Archbishop Vaughan, and had maintained a 
 thousand times the sound doctrine that the State 
 could properly take no cognizance of sect. The 
 people were taxed and dealt with as citizens on 
 equal terms, and not as sectarians; and it was 
 the height of presumption and ignorant folly for 
 any portion of the people to step out of the ranks 
 of the people and assert that they belonged to a 
 particular sect of religionists, and that, in virtue 
 of this, they demanded their fair share of the 
 educational vote, a third, if it happened to be so. 
 Well, such a position was utterly untenable, and 
 in the last degree insolent and ridiculous. (Con-
 
 MITRED MOUNTEBANKS. 73 
 
 tinned cheering.) What would it lead to ? It 
 would result in something like this : Chinamen, 
 for instance, were pretty numerous in the country, 
 and they would come forward and demand to be 
 treated like the Roman Catholics, and have their 
 share of the education vote whatever it was. The 
 god worshipped in the Chinese Joss-house was 
 made of wood. That worshipped in the Roman 
 Catholic Joss-house was made of flour and water 
 (roars of laughter and prolonged cheers) 
 which was the more barbarous of the two. The 
 Chinese could not swallow their god (laughter) 
 but the Roman Catholics not only swallowed 
 theirs, but they digested it also ; and, by the very 
 necessity of the case, sent it ultimately floating 
 down the sewers. (Long continued laughter and 
 great cheering.) Am I speaking the truth, or am 
 I not? (Loud cries of "The truth the truth," 
 and cheers.) If Mr. Dalley's and Archbishop 
 Vaughan's opinions prevailed, every sect would 
 claim what they claim for the Roman Catholics, 
 and we would consequently have the Buddhists, the 
 Mahomedans, the Mormons, the Spiritualists, 
 and even the Infidels coming forward to claim 
 their share of the education vote, which could not 
 be consistently refused ; and so we would witness 
 all those conflicting and antagonistic sects sub- 
 sidised by the State, and disseminating their wild 
 delusions with the money of the people of New 
 South Wales. A system of public education was 
 already established in this country, and I have 
 always argued that it should be of an entirely 
 secular character, and this did not in the least 
 degree imply that religion was thereby necessarily 
 ignored. The State says that it had the greatest 
 possible regard for religion, but that in a com-
 
 74 AN AUSTRALIAN ORATOR. 
 
 rnunity composed of every conceivable variety of 
 religious sect, it could not undertake to teach 
 it, but preferred leaving such, teaching to the 
 churches, the Sabbath schools, and the parents 
 of the children. (Cries of "Quite right/' and 
 cheers.) Even if the community was composed 
 of only one sect, I would still object to religion 
 being taught in schools on the ground that they 
 were not the proper places to teach religion, if 
 such a thing could be taught. The noise, the 
 levity, and bustle of a schoolroom were not 
 calculated to inspire religious feelings, or to pro- 
 mote religious impressions. While giving the 
 children of the people the incalculable advan- 
 tages of a good, sound elementary education, 
 the State relied upon the clergy of the 
 various churches, the teachers in the Sabbath 
 schools, and the parents of the children to instil 
 into their minds the simple beauties of the 
 Christian religion. (Loud cheers.) Could the 
 common -sense of this meeting, or of the entire 
 community, suggest any more rational course? 
 (Hear, hear.) This system of subsidising Denomi- 
 national schools would lead to the subsidising of 
 every conceivable creed, and would, therefore, 
 lead to the adoption of a system so monstrous 
 that men of intelligence could not patiently 
 tolerate it. Besides, State-aid to religion has been 
 abolished in this country (loud cries of " Hear, 
 hear ") abolished by Act of Parliament. We had, 
 therefore, decreed that it was wrong to teach 
 religion in the Church with the money of the 
 State ; how, therefore, could it be right to teach 
 religion in the schools with the money of tho 
 State ? (Cheers.) Were we not acting a most 
 glaringly inconsistent part in all this, inasmuch
 
 MITRED MOUNTEBANKS. 75 
 
 as we were setting up with the one hand what we 
 had knocked down with the other ? Archbishop 
 Vaughan had the audacity to assert that the 
 public schools were " seed plots of infidelity, im- 
 morality, and lawlessness." I feel so shocked at 
 the cruelty of this atrocious libel and insult to the 
 community (loud cries of " He lies, he lies/' and 
 great excitement) that I wish that someone 
 would lay a criminal information against him for 
 libel. (Hear, hear.) I would like to see him get 
 six months' hard labour on the roads, and I am 
 sure there is not a man so punished that deserves 
 it more. (Cheers.) Can you conceive the feelings 
 of those mothers and fathers who have their 
 children at our most excellent public schools, on 
 being told by this inflated and shallow Archbishop 
 that they send their children to schools where 
 they are taught " infidelity, immorality, and law- 
 lessness " ? A grosser or more infamous insult 
 was never before offered to any community, and 
 justice demands that this Archbishop should be 
 punished for it. (Loud and excited cheers.) He, 
 however, is not done with those libels yet. He 
 would have rough and rougher things yet said of 
 him; and he might rely upon it that this gross 
 insult to the men and women of New South 
 Wales would not be forgotten. The arrogance 
 and insolence of these inflated priests might do 
 very well for the crouching slaves who kneel at 
 their feet, and degrade themselves by so kneeling, 
 but free, enlightened men despise them with their 
 whole souls. I suppose Archbishop Vaughan 
 imagines that he is dealing with those kind of 
 slaves, and hence the palpable absurdity and folly 
 of his several pastoral letters. (Cheers.) A more 
 shallow and intellectually deficient man than
 
 76 AN AUSTRALIAN ORATOR. 
 
 Archbishop Vaughan has never been amongst us, 
 or been so heartily laughed at and despised from 
 one end of the country to the other. (Loud 
 cheers.) Now, to show you how much I am 
 speaking the truth in reference to Archbishop 
 Vaughan' s deficiencies as a man of intellect, he 
 says that the teaching of our public schools will 
 make infidels of the children, and this in spite of 
 the priests having one day in seven to cram them 
 with their dogmas ; so that the Archbishop is 
 landed in this notable absurdity and falsehood, 
 that merely teaching children reading, writing, 
 and arithmetic, will not only rub out all that can 
 be done in the way of teaching religion fifty-two 
 days in the year, but it will absolutely substitute 
 infidelity for the religion you have attempted to 
 teach every Sunday in the year. (Great laughter.) 
 That is neither more nor less than what Dr. 
 Vaughan says. Give him a number of children 
 every Sunday to teach them all he knows about 
 religion, probably little enough, and let some other 
 man only teach them reading, writing, and arith- 
 metic during the week, and by some occult and 
 magic influence, not only is all Dr. Vaughan's 
 labours knocked on the head, but every mother's son 
 of the children so treated starts up a flaming 
 infidel. (Great and continued laughter.) I sup- 
 pose rubbish of this melancholy description is also 
 endorsed by the leading Catholic layman, Mr. 
 Dalley. Now I ask you would not the intelligence 
 of a baby, if left to itself, laugh to scorn lay and 
 surpliced lunacy of this kind ? I believe the Romish 
 priests of this country, and of all countries, care not 
 two straws about the education of children ; they 
 would rather have them uneducated. (Loud cheers.) 
 What they want is the money to deal with as they
 
 MITRED MOUNTEBANKS. 77 
 
 like, and it seems marvellous that neither Bishop 
 Barker nor Bishop Moorehouse, the two Anglican 
 bishops, seemed to see this. Archbishop Vaughan, 
 with very vulgar flattery and barefaced adulation, 
 was spreading the bread of those two Anglican 
 bishops with layer after layer of a very rancid 
 quality of butter (great laughter), and the best 
 of the joke was the two simple bishops did not see 
 it. It is a matter of small moment to the advo- 
 cates of secular education what course is taken by 
 Bishop Barker. (Prolonged cheers.) His advo- 
 cacy of Denominational schools being supported 
 with the money of the State will not affect the 
 views of the Church of England laymen, and if 
 Dr. Vaughan flatters himself to this effect he is 
 trusting to a rotten reed. The very backbone of 
 Protestantism is the free and independent right of 
 private judgment (loud and continued cheers), 
 and no Protestant worthy of the name would suffer 
 for a second the slightest interference by bishop 
 or archbishop with the free current of his opinion. 
 (Loud cheers.) But just let us look at this ques- 
 tion for a moment from an economical point of 
 view apart from the nonsensical and absurd views 
 of Mr. Dalley, and the keeper of his conscience, 
 Archbishop Vaughan great heavens ! what 
 a charge for a man to part with ! The fearful 
 expense and extravagance the State was landed in 
 by its support of Denominational schools, was of 
 itself more than a just ground to settle the question 
 against Denominationalism. Just look at this 
 in New South Wales there are ninety-four places 
 where Public schools are established, with varie- 
 ties of Denominational schools also. Those ninety- 
 four public schools are more than adequate to 
 meet all the educational wants of the ninety-four
 
 78 AN AUSTRALIAN ORATOR. 
 
 places, but in every one of these ninety-four places 
 there are two, and in some places three, Denomi- 
 national schools set up alongside of the public 
 schools, to do all the injury to them possible, and 
 to have three, and in some places four, small in- 
 efficient schools where one large, effective, and 
 superior public school would suffice, and would 
 exist, but for this pernicious principle of encou- 
 raging Denominational schools with the money of 
 the State.* (Loud cheers.) It was fashionable to 
 call the advocates of secular education the enemies 
 of religion. This was not true. (Cheers.) The 
 advocates of secular education aspired to see all 
 the children of the State well educated, and the 
 best way to accomplish that was to establish 
 secular schools where the children of all sects 
 might be educated together, and grow up in friend- 
 ship and mutual regard, and as I have already 
 said the religious wants of the children being 
 amply attended to in the various churches, Sabbath 
 schools, and the homes of the children. (Hear, 
 hear, and applause.) We object, with deep earnest- 
 ness, to the money of the State being expended 
 for the support and dissemination of, it might be, 
 Buddhism, Mahomedanism, Mormonism, Roman 
 Catholicism, infinitely worse than any of them 
 (great cheers), and even open infidelity, and this 
 is what Mr. Dalley, in league with Archbishop 
 Vaughan, is labouring, in a way, to bring about. 
 When Archbishop Vaughan's first pastoral ap- 
 peared, it evoked, from one end of the country to 
 the other, a universal howl of disgust. (Loud 
 cheers.) Its flimsy, pitiful logic was torn in 
 shreds by the press of the country, and public 
 
 * Since then Denominational schools have been entirely 
 abolished in New South Wales. EDITOR.
 
 MITRED MOUNTEBANKS. 79 
 
 meetings were held and public speakers came for- 
 ward, and with ease cut the ground from under 
 Dr. Vaughan. The Archbishop, in his next pas- 
 toral, with an insolence which absolutely reached 
 the sublime, stated that the reason of this com- 
 motion was that the people " were dazed with the 
 Roman Catholic truth they had heard from him." 
 (Great laughter.) From this platform, and in the 
 presence of this large, intelligent, and influential 
 meeting, I ask Dr. Vaughan, is it the spectacle of 
 that mean, ignorant, benighted slave at the foot of 
 a priest, a poor, wretched, sinful worm like himself, 
 the one sinful man, God of Heaven, asking the 
 other to forgive him his sins ? (Prolonged cheers.) 
 Is this a specimen of the Roman Catholic truth 
 that has dazed us ? Or is it that other blas- 
 phemous farce of a poor, weak, imbecile, old man, 
 laying claim to the highest attribute of God 
 infallibility (continued cheers), and when this 
 monstrous insult to both God and man is being 
 enacted, by the assistance of a gang of priestly 
 knaves, who chuckle inwardly at the frightful 
 joke, but who have a prodigious pecuniary interest 
 in seeing it swallowed quietly the poor old in- 
 fallible lunatic, on its consummation, is imme- 
 diately seized with a fit of the gout, and carried 
 to his bed where he lies sprawling, a picture of 
 human weakness and irapotency? (Loud and 
 continued cheers, and great laughter.) Is this 
 the Roman Catholic truth that has dazed this 
 intelligent community ? Or is it the spectacle of 
 large bodies of men making gods of poor, guilty, 
 sinful men and even women, addressing prayers 
 to them, and worshipping them ? I ask again, 
 will Dr. Vaughan tell us if this is the sort of 
 Roman Catholic truth that he thinks has dazed
 
 80 AN AUSTRALIAN ORATOR. 
 
 us? Dr. Vaughan had better not lay such a 
 flattering unction to his soul. The people of 
 this country hate Popery with a deadly hatred. 
 They look upon it as a system built upon a founda- 
 tion of monstrous lies (loud cheers) a vile con- 
 spiracy against human freedom and human rights 
 a low degrading superstition worthy of the 
 darkest times of savage barbarism a system in- 
 sulting to God and degrading to man, and cal- 
 culated to plunge every people who are cursed by 
 it into poverty, ignorance, uselessness, and abso- 
 lute heathenism, speedily resulting in complete 
 decay. (Loud and reiterated cheers.) Do I speak 
 truth in what I am saying? (Loud cries of " Y"es, 
 yes.") Let me call witnesses to corroborate my 
 assertions I ask you to look at the north and 
 south of Ireland the north Protestant, the south 
 Catholic. In the north all is energy, enterprise, 
 and active business, commerce and manufactures 
 flourish, and the people are intelligent and inde- 
 pendent. Go to the Roman Catholic south, and 
 what do you find neither commerce nor manu- 
 factures, nor business of any kind but you find a 
 poor, unfortunate, awe-struck people, believing in 
 all sorts of miracles and supernatural visitations, 
 living in hovels and " sharing their meal of roots 
 with the swine." (Loud cries of " True," and 
 great cheering.) In other countries it is the 
 same compare Protestant England, Scotland, 
 America, and Germany, with Catholic Italy, Spain, 
 Austria, and Portugal. I don't cite France, be- 
 cause the leading intellects of France repudiate 
 Popery and priestcraft in all its bearings. (Cheers.) 
 Mr. Dalley thinks to strengthen the position he 
 has taken up by citing the concessions made by 
 such men as Mr. Lowe and Mr. Forster in favour
 
 MITRED MOUNTEBANKS. 81 
 
 of his views. I cannot see that this -will assist 
 him much. If Mr. Lowe and Mr. Forster have 
 made such concessions, it must have been done in 
 opposition to their sounder judgment, and probably 
 for some purpose most likely a trick to smooth 
 their way to office, or a bid to catch the Irish 
 vote. Mr. Dalley must be aware that it is not 
 a sound reason to justify our doing wrong be- 
 cause wrong has been done in England. Mr. 
 Lowe and Mr. Forster were to be despised 
 for allowing their anxieties about office to 
 lead them to uphold unsound principles, but I 
 believe the day is not far distant when a 
 thorough reaction will take place in England, 
 and the large and influential body of Non- 
 conformists will strike with deadly effect at 
 this priestly interference with civil government, 
 which threatens to make all government im- 
 possible. (Loud cheers.) I cannot help, here, 
 remarking that in my humble opinion, during 
 this controversy about education, there has been 
 a great deal of weak, shallow, ignorant trash 
 talked about the teaching of religion in our 
 public schools. (Hear, hear, and cheers.) It 
 would appear that it has been discovered that the 
 schoolmaster is the only oracle who can be en- 
 trusted to teach religion to children. Now if by 
 religion, belief is meant, I am strongly inclined 
 to think it cannot be taught at all. Is it the gift 
 of God a miracle ? It probably may be promoted 
 by the hardships and trials encountered in the 
 journey through life, but to attempt to teach 
 religious belief to the children in schools, would 
 certainly be as hopeless a task as to try to teach 
 them to write plays as good as Shakespeare's. 
 (Loud cheers.) Religious belief is infused into 
 
 a
 
 82 AN AUSTRALIAN ORATOR. 
 
 the heart and soul of man by God Himself, in a 
 thousand different ways, and by a thousand 
 different agencies. We all, in this life, feel that 
 we are advancing with rapid strides towards the 
 unknown ; and, surrounded as we are by the 
 wonders and miracles of creation, I can imagine 
 no position better calculated to elevate the mind 
 to great thoughts tending to some sort of solution 
 of life's profound mystery. (Loud cheers.) Men 
 are, in most cases, led into religious belief not 
 by the lessons of schools, or even of churches, but 
 in the great world itself, where adamantine fact 
 preaches sermons to them. When Paul of Tarsus 
 was pursuing Christianity, with the utmost 
 virulence of persecution and with all the fiery 
 ardour of his stern nature, he received his first 
 lesson in religion when that mysterious voice 
 sounded in his ears, prostrating him in the dust, 
 and altering the whole course of his future life. 
 When men struggling through life find themselves 
 at last hemmed in, surrounded, crushed and beaten 
 down by the accumulated weight of many miseries, 
 what inspiration is it that prompts them in their 
 despair to turn their eyes towards heaven for help, 
 not without hope and never without consolation ? 
 (Loud continued cheers.) As we sail through the 
 ocean of life without a ripple on its surface, the 
 balmy breezes of prosperity wafting us along, 
 prayers are often a mere assemblage of meaning- 
 less words, and religion an empty name, but 
 when adversity comes, when the tempest rages, 
 when ocean " yawns abyssmal " and destruction 
 threatens, " it is then we begin to understand the 
 sublime language by which the aid of heaven is 
 invoked." (Great cheering.) Even in the darkest 
 abodes of vice and crime lessons are often taught,
 
 MITRED MOUNTEBANKS. 83 
 
 impressions conveyed, aye, and even faith implanted 
 in hearts that would have remained barren and 
 blighted in the hottest focus of your religious 
 school teaching. In the school I am speaking of, 
 the lessons there taught sink deep down into the 
 souls of men, opening up new regions of thought, 
 rich in religious lessons not easily forgotten or 
 effaced. (Enthusiastic cheers.) The presumption 
 of mitred mountebanks and lay and surpliced 
 lunacy while speaking on this subject is very 
 amusing. They imagine they are the sole 
 repositories of religious belief and can impart it 
 at pleasure. I remember hearing a mother de- 
 livering a homily on morality to her son, a boy 
 about twelve years old; the boy broke in upon 
 her with " Mother, it is no use talking if you 
 have a low vagabond son, no teaching will alter 
 that. If you have transmitted your own and 
 husband's honour to him, no contamination or 
 contact with the world will injure it." This boy 
 knew more of human nature than either Mr. 
 Dalley or Archbishop Vaughan, and could 
 probably have taught them both how simple a 
 thing was true religion. (Cheers.) Before 1 con- 
 clude, I have one word to say about Dr. Vaughan's 
 exhortation to fight this battle out at the elec- 
 tions, so let it be, say I, and let every one tainted 
 with Dalleyisrn or Vaughanism be marked out for 
 determined opposition. If those Papists come 
 into Parliament to vote as their priests dictate, 
 they deserve to be deprived of the franchise. 
 (Loud cheers.) No slave has any right to enter a 
 free parliament, and I trust that every power in 
 the country will be organized to keep them out. 
 (Continued cheers.) This is a great and important 
 question, and every true man is called upon to
 
 84 AN AUS TRALIAN OR A TOR. 
 
 fight with his whole soul against the dark 
 superstitions and the grinding tyranny of Eome. 
 Let our societies and combinations in all parts of 
 the country be placed on a war footing and daily 
 increased. Let the friends of secular education 
 unite in the country and in the Parliament, 
 founding their union and action upon an unalter- 
 able adherence to the truth and justice of the 
 principle that binds them together, and with this 
 bond of union animating and inspiring them, let 
 us all labour devotedly in the cause. There will 
 then be seen at least one great party in the State, 
 held together by devotion to a principle. Let us 
 have no foolish fears, but with boundless con- 
 fidence in the justice and righteousness of the 
 principle we advocate, march on, not behind, but 
 in front, of advancing time, with a free and en- 
 lightened educational policy inscribed on our 
 banners, untrammelled by every phase of super- 
 stition and ecclesiastical chicane, and undismayed 
 by the hollow fallacies of prating bigots, or the 
 more dangerous devices of selfish and designing 
 knaves. (Loud applause.)
 
 PROTECTION. 
 
 [Ox the 27th of March, 1880, Mr. Buchanan addressed a large 
 audience at the Victoria Theatre on the subject of pro- 
 tecting our native industries. He spoke as follows : ] 
 
 MR. CHAIRMAN AND GENTLEMEN, I have taken the 
 liberty of calling you together to speak to you on 
 matters deeply concerning your vital interests. 
 The earnestness with which I believe in the truth 
 of what I have got to say will, I have no doubt, 
 palliate, if it does not altogether excuse, my ap- 
 parent presumption in calling you together for 
 such a purpose. One thing I may say, if an 
 apology is wanted, that I have represented the 
 people for twenty years in Parliament, and that I 
 have there been, during all that time, continually 
 voting and speaking, and I now say that I 
 challenge any man to point to a sentiment uttered, 
 or a vote given by me against the interests of the 
 people. (Loud cheers.) I am a republican, and a 
 thorough democrat in my political creed, and I 
 cannot imagine any one supposing that I have 
 any purpose to serve in advocating the opinions I
 
 86 AN AUSTRALIAN OPATOR. 
 
 am about to lay before you, other than a sincere 
 desire to advance the best interests as well as to 
 increase the prosperity and happiness of the 
 people of this country. (Loud cheering.) The 
 position and prospects of our mechanics have 
 always appeared to me in the highest degree un- 
 satisfactory ; large bodies of them continually 
 idle, and unable, however willing, to find any 
 regular or continuous occupation ; everything 
 having the semblance of a local industry either 
 struggling for bare existence or finding itself 
 suddenly drowned and extinguished by a flood 
 of foreign importations (cheers ; ) all workers 
 in wood, iron, leather, cloth, and many other 
 materials thrust aside and condemned to enforced 
 idleness, while the corresponding workmen of other 
 countries are kept busy and comfortable with our 
 money. (Continued cheering.) Is there a man 
 amongst us so blind as not to see that if we 
 import all we want in manufactured iron, wood, 
 leather, and cloth goods, the workers in those 
 materials here must, of necessity, remain idle; 
 while all the money which we pay for these foreign 
 importations goes, mainly, as wages to the foreign 
 workmen, while our own workmen stand at the 
 street corners in pitiable idleness, watching the 
 dray-loads of foreign goods rolling past them, and 
 the manufacture of which goods here should have 
 given them full and constant employment, good 
 wages, and all the comfortable happy home accom- 
 paniments of a state of things so beneficent and 
 so just. (Loud cheers, and cries of " True, true.") 
 I say again, emphatically and truthfully, that if 
 the people of New South Wales resolve to employ 
 foreign workmen for all they want in the shape of 
 machinery, furniture, clothing, boots and shoes,
 
 PROTECTION. 87 
 
 and many other articles, let them not be the least 
 surprised if they find large bodies of their own 
 mechanics condemned to lives of idleness and 
 poverty. Let them not be the least surprised 
 if they find the country destitute of manufac- 
 turing industries, and the people unemployed, 
 hopeless, and despairing. Let them express no 
 wonder if they see our male and female youth 
 growing up with no means of employment open 
 to them, and their prospects for the future 
 dark and lowering. How is it possible for these 
 to be otherwise when a fiscal system is in force 
 by which our whole manufacturing and mechanical 
 community is supplanted by the mechanical and 
 manufacturing community of some other country ? 
 (Loud cheers.) And this state of things is justified 
 by Freetraders, forsooth ! by the shallow pretext 
 that we can only be producers of the raw material. 
 If there is any truth in this most iniquitous asser- 
 tion, we want no mechanics here, we want no skilled 
 workmen of any kind. Slaves from the South Sea 
 Islands will do our turn. (Cheers, and cries of 
 " That's what it's coming to.") As far as I can 
 gather, all that the Freetraders have to say in 
 justification of the state of things here described 
 is a few phrases such as " Buy in the cheapest 
 market and sell in the dearest ; " " Free Trade 
 benefits the many, Protection the few." But I 
 put it to the common sense of this meeting, even 
 supposing that you can buy the imported article a 
 little cheaper than if it were manufactured here, 
 is this cheapness in any way to be looked upon as 
 a compensation for your armies of idle mechanics 
 and the desolation of your industrial population ? 
 (Enthusiastic cheers.) But we deny the alleged 
 cheapness under Free Trade. We say that by a
 
 88 AN AUSTRALIAN ORATOR. 
 
 wise system of encouragement to all our native 
 industries the competition amongst ourselves 
 would keep prices fair and equitable. In fact, 
 in the neighbouring protected colony of Victoria 
 almost every article can be bought there cheaper 
 than in Free Trade New South Wales. The four- 
 pound loaf is twopence cheaper in Melbourne, as 
 compared with Sydney, although there is duty on 
 imported wheat and flour in the neighbouring 
 colony vastly to the advantage of the Victorian 
 farmers, and essentially to the advantage of the 
 people of Victoria, as compared with their Free 
 Trade brethren of New South Wales. It makes 
 me melancholy to think of the narrow-minded 
 and narrow-hearted argument used \)j Freetraders, 
 that Protection can only benefit a few manufac- 
 turers. Protection calls into existence every in- 
 dustry that the country is capable of. It originates 
 manufacturing eritei'prises, employing thousands 
 and thousands of our men, women, and children. 
 It keeps our mechanics engaged doing all that the 
 surrounding population wants done. It circulates 
 all the money that went to pay for foreign imports 
 amongst ourselves. Who, therefore, can truth- 
 fully say that it is a system that benefits the few 
 at the expense of the many ? If Protection enables 
 a manufacturer to rise amongst us who employs 
 500 hands and pays them wages which keeps them- 
 selves, their families, and their homes in every 
 comfort, how gross and ignorant a thing it is to 
 say, as Freetraders say, that Protection only 
 benefits the few manufacturers. Just look for 
 a moment at this. Suppose we had no manufac- 
 tured furniture imported, no boots and shoes im- 
 ported, no ready-made clothing imported, no cloth 
 imported, no saddlery imported, no machinery iiu-
 
 PROTECTION. 89 
 
 ported, and that the manufacture of all of these 
 commodities, including 'Coach-building and many 
 oilier industrial articles, afforded full and constant 
 employment for every worker in the community, 
 what a revolution would be created in our whole 
 industrial system ! What an absorption of all idle 
 hands ! What an infusion of fresh energy and 
 strength into every conceivable manufacturing 
 enterprise ! What an accumulation of wealth 
 among ourselves, and what a startling metamor- 
 phosis would be effected in the whole interests, 
 prospects, advantages, and rights of labour ! (Great 
 cheering.) I assert that one year's experience of 
 a system which brought about this state of things 
 and I further assert that a judicious encourage- 
 ment to our native industries would go far to bring 
 it about would so change the industrial aspect of 
 this country, would so enhance its prosperity, pro- 
 gress and wealth, would so invigorate and stimulate 
 labouring enterprise at its very heart and centre, 
 that the best and oldest friend of the country 
 would not know it after one short year's experi- 
 ence of a system so sound, wise, and beneficent. 
 (Cheers.) Mr. Justice Byles, in his remarkable 
 and most able work on the " Sophisms of Free 
 Trade," says and to make it more clear to you I 
 will substitute the word " Australian " for 
 " British" Mr. Justice Byles speaks thus: 
 *' The entire price, or gross value, of every home- 
 made article constitutes net gain, net revenue, net 
 income to Australian subjects. Not a portion of 
 the value, but the whole value, is resolvable into 
 net gain, income or revenue, maintaining Austra- 
 lian families, and creating or sustaining Australian 
 markets. Purchase Australian articles with Aus- 
 tralian articles, and you create two such aggregate
 
 90 AN AUSTRALIAN ORATOR. 
 
 values, and two such markets for Australian in- 
 dustry. (Cries of " That's clear.") Whereas, on 
 the contrary, the entire net value of every foreign 
 article imported is net gain or income to the 
 foreigner, and creates and sustains foreign 
 markets. Purchase foreign articles with Aus- 
 tralian articles, and you then create only one 
 value for your own benefit, instead of creating 
 two, and only one market for Australian in- 
 dustry instead of two. You lose by this policy 
 the power of spending the entire value on one 
 side, which you might have had as well as on the 
 other, and you lose a market for Australian in- 
 dustry to the full extent of that expenditure. It 
 is not a small difference in price that can com- 
 pensate the nation for the loss. For example, 
 suppose New South Wales can produce an article, 
 say an engine, for 100, and can import it for 99. 
 By importing it, instead of producing it, she gains 
 1 ; but though she pays for it with her own manu- 
 factures, she loses (not indeed by the exchange 
 itself, but by not producing at both ends of the 
 exchange) 100 of wealth which she might have 
 had to spend by creating the value at home ; that 
 is to say, on the balance, she loses 99, which she 
 might have had in addition to the 100 by pro- 
 ducing both commodities at home." (Hear, hear, 
 and cheers.) You will remember that when this 
 was quoted at the great Free Trade v. Protection 
 controversy,* at the Masonic Hall, Mr. Reid 
 shrieked out in tones that resembled the crowing 
 of a spasmodic cock, " But what becomes of 
 
 * A controversy between Mr. Buchanan and Mr. Reid Mr. 
 Reid for Free .Trade, Mr. Buchanan for Protection. The crowded 
 meeting decided in favour of Protection by a large majority. 
 EDITOK.
 
 PROTECTION. 91 
 
 the engine?" (great laughter) evidently not 
 seeing that under Free Trade whatever paid 
 for the engine went away from us ; while, 
 under Protection, both the engine and what 
 purchased it remained as wealth among ourselves. 
 (Cheers.) I do not think that this reasoning of 
 Mr. Justice Byles can by any possibility be 
 refuted. Let us take another illustration from 
 the same high authority, merely using Australian 
 names, for the sake of a better understanding of 
 the matter. Suppose we had manufactories in 
 this country of any importance which I regret 
 to say we have not, and never will have under a 
 system of Free Trade but suppose the day came 
 when this state of things was altered, and that 
 under a Protective system manufactories sprung 
 up in every district well, then suppose woollen 
 stockings to the value of 500,000 a-year are 
 made at Bathurst, and exchanged annually for 
 gloves to the value of 500,000 a-year made in 
 Maitland the landlords and tradesmen and work- 
 men of Bathurst and Maitland enjoy together an 
 annual net income of 1,000,000 sterling from 
 this source. Suppose now that from some real 
 or supposed advantage in price or quality the 
 Bathurst people, instead of exchanging their 
 stockings for gloves from Maitland, exchange 
 them for gloves from some foreign country, say 
 from Calais, thus depriving the Maitland people 
 of their Bathurst market what is the conse- 
 quence? It is this, that Maitland loses what 
 Calais gets : that Australia loses and France 
 gains half a million a year by the new locality of 
 the glove manufacture by its transference from 
 Australia to France Australians have half a- 
 million a-year less to spend, Frenchmen have
 
 92 AN AUSTRALIAN ORATOR. 
 
 half a million a-year more to spend. Australian 
 markets, of which Maitland used to be one, fall 
 off to the extent of half a million a-year ; French 
 markets, of which Calais is one, are augmented by 
 half a million a-year. (Loud cheers.) The 
 Australian glove manufacture, with its half- 
 million of national net income, is gone from 
 Australia, where it used to maintain Australians 
 and Australian markets, to France, where it now 
 maintains Frenchmen and French markets. Nor 
 does the mischief end here. On the Maitland 
 glovemakers were dependent bakers, millers, 
 gi'ocers, butchers, tailors, shoemakers, &c., with 
 their servants and families. The migration of the 
 glove trade from Maitland to Calais ruins all ; 
 they are destroyed like a hive of bees." (Loud 
 cheering, and cries of " True.") Let me illus- 
 trate this subject a little further, by recording a 
 little bit of trade history, which will enable you 
 to see clearly what a disaster Free Trade is to a 
 young struggling country like this. When last 
 in England I met a gentleman who was carrying 
 on business as a merchant in a small seaport 
 town. He told me the following story. He said 
 he had orders from Melbourne at this time 
 Victoria was under Free Trade principles for 
 certain machinery to be manufactured at a certain 
 fixed price. He asked some engineers if they 
 could execute the order; they declined to do so 
 at the price. He then had recourse to a clever 
 blacksmith of the town, whose prospects were at 
 this time at the lowest ebb, probably not worth 
 10. Well, the blacksmith undertook the work 
 willingly, and executed it with cleverness and 
 alacrity. The result was that the blacksmith got 
 a prodigious quantity of this work, his fortunes
 
 PROTECTION. 93 
 
 rose, large workships were erected, and numerous 
 hands employed. In about ten years the black- 
 smith had made a large fortune, and he re- 
 solved to see the country that had been such a 
 benefactor to him. He consequently took his 
 passage in the ill-fated London for Australia, and 
 unfortunately met the fate of almost all concerned 
 in that disastrous voyage. He had appointed the 
 gentleman already spoken of, and who opened up 
 this splendid prospect to him by first employing 
 him, as his executor, and that gentleman informed 
 me that his estate realized 87,000, besides the 
 cost of large and extensive works. He had era- 
 ployed numerous hands in carrying on this trade, 
 who drew high and regular wages. Now I ask 
 this audience to reflect on this for a moment. 
 All this work might, and should, have been done 
 in Melbourne. (Loud and continued cheers.) It 
 went away from Melbourne to employ foreign 
 workmen, and to enrich the foreign manufacturer. 
 If Victoria, at that time, had adopted the wise 
 and salutary principle of protecting its own people, 
 and encouraging its own industries, the 87,000 
 that was realized at home in ten years would have 
 been realized by a Melbourne manufacturer in- 
 stead of an English one. The extensive and 
 expensive workshops that were erected to carry 
 on this trade would have been erected in Mel- 
 bourne instead of the English sea-port town 
 referred to ; the hundreds of workmen employed 
 to execute this extensive work would have been 
 Melbourne workmen instead of English workmen. 
 (Great cheering.) So that the prodigious loss to 
 the colony by this little bit of trade history is so 
 palpable that a blind man might see it. (Cheers, 
 and cries of " True.") No doubt it will be said
 
 94 AN AUSTRALIAN ORATOR. 
 
 that the English manufacturer could do the work 
 cheaper than the Victorian. Probably he could 
 at a time when Free Trade had struck everything 
 in the shape of manufacturing industry with 
 paralysis, and laid waste the whole industrial 
 prospects of the country. But Victoria has 
 awakened from the delusion of Free Trade ; and 
 I know as a fact that, at the present moment, 
 Victoria could turn out the same machinery 
 cheaper than it was at the time imported from 
 England, and cheaper than it could now be im- 
 ported from that country. (Cheers.) Free- 
 traders cannot answer arguments of this descrip- 
 tion they prefer to pass them by in silence. 
 But just let us look a little into the history of 
 this great question, with a keen rapid glance 
 which time necessitates. As far back as the 
 time of Queen Elizabeth, and anterior to that 
 time, no country was so environed by protective 
 laws as England. She was protected at all points, 
 and under this system she achieved whatever 
 wealth and greatness was hers up to the time 
 when she adopted the principle of Free Trade. 
 England's policy seemed to be to create markets 
 abroad for her manufactures, and to protect 
 herself strictly at home from any injuries by 
 importations. Although she herself was wedded 
 to Protection she enforced Free Trade upon all 
 her colonies, including America, then a colony of 
 hers. Ireland was treated in the same way, and 
 looked upon merely as a market for England's 
 manufactures, as was also India and the Cape of 
 Good Hope. At the time spoken of England's 
 treatment of her colonies was very different to 
 what it is now, and the most unpalatable things 
 were forced upon the colonies until open rebellion
 
 PROTECTION. 95 
 
 brought about emancipation and freedom, as in 
 the case of America. The very same spirit shows 
 itself in some quarters in England at the present 
 time, and may be seen in the angry spirit in 
 which the colonial protective laws are condemned, 
 showing that England has no consideration for 
 the interests of the people here, but merely wishes 
 to use the colonies for her own advantage, or, in 
 other words, as markets for the absorption of her 
 manufactures. (Loud cheers.) England turns a 
 deaf ear to the fact that Protection is undeniably 
 benefiting Canada and Victoria; but what is 
 that to her, they have closed their doors against 
 her manufactures, and that is an unpardonable 
 fault, no matter what prosperity it brings to the 
 colonies named. The time was when England 
 would not have permitted this, but in these 
 enlightened times the colonies can govern them- 
 selves, and seem to be resolutely bent to study 
 their own interest in whatever legislation they 
 adopt. England may grumble as much as she 
 likes at the loss of colonial markets, but if the 
 colonies are wise they will resolutely secure those 
 markets for themselves (loud cheering) and 
 employ their own workpeople in the manufacture 
 of all they want. And who for a moment doubts 
 their ability to do this ? (Cheers.) Under Free 
 Trade this will never be done. That system, 
 means abundance of work for the foreign 
 workmen, paid with our money, and total 
 idleness and poverty for our own people. 
 Horace Greely calls Protection a system of 
 National co-operation for the encouragement 
 and elevation of labour, and who can deny that 
 this is a sound and true definition ? its truth and 
 wisdom illustrated by the practice and experience
 
 96 AN AUSTRALIAN ORATOR. 
 
 of every nation on the face of the earth excepting" 
 England, and England itself seems for some time 
 past to have been feeling most keenly the injury 
 to herself by her ports being open to every pro- 
 tected country on the face of the earth while 
 theirs are strictly shut against her. In the days 
 immediately preceding the declaration of 
 American Independence the colonists of America 
 were kept in great poverty and distress by all 
 their industries being destroyed, as soon as 
 attempted, by importations from England. No 
 sooner was an industry started than ship-loads of 
 English manufactures pouring in swamped and 
 destroyed it. The people were consequently idle 
 and impoverished; but no sooner was their in- 
 dependence declared, than their first President, 
 the illustrious Washington, in his first message to 
 Congress, most earnestly exhorted them to adopt 
 a stringent system of Protection if they wished to 
 save their country from absolute ruin. But even 
 before this those sagacious men, the authors of 
 the federal constitution of the United States, ur- 
 gently recommended the adoption of the principle 
 of Protection, as an absolute necessity to the well- 
 being of the State. All the early Presidents of 
 the United States were equally earnest in their 
 recommendation of Protection, as the only policy 
 by which the country could rise to wealth and 
 power. (Continued cheers.) That extraordinary 
 man, Benjamin Franklin, one of the most accurate 
 and most powerful reasoners that ever lived, writes 
 the following letter to his countrymen it is 
 written from London, 1781. He says: "Every 
 manufacturer encouraged in our country makes a 
 market for provisions within ourselves, and saves 
 so much money to the country as must otherwise
 
 PROTECTION. 97 
 
 be exported to pay for the manufactures he 
 supplies. Here in England it is well known and 
 understood, that wherever a manufacture is es- 
 tablished which employs a number of hands it 
 raises the value of land in the neighbourhood all 
 around it. It is, therefore, the deep interest of 
 our farmers and owners of land, as well as of the 
 State itself, to encourage and protect our young 
 manufactures in preference to foreign ones if we 
 ever wish to grow in wealth and greatness." 
 Benjamin Franklin you all know was dis- 
 tinguished for the deep subtle character of 
 his reasoning, which led up to his marvellous 
 discoveries in science ; he was a thorough 
 practical man as well as a profound philosopher. 
 Well, then, here we have this great reasoner 
 and eminent man of genius, most earnestly ex- 
 horting his countrymen, at the very birth of the 
 nation, to adopt without delay a system of Pro- 
 tection to their native industries, if they wish to 
 grow in wealth and greatness. The policy 
 was adopted by the universal voice of the people, 
 every statesman of note from, that day to this, 
 adhering tenaciously to the principle, and such 
 men as Clay and Webster spending their best 
 powers in proving its soundness and truthfulness 
 and defending it against the attacks of enemies. 
 >^ Well, then, we sometimes hear Freetraders talk of 
 the wealth and advancement of England since 
 she adopted the principle of Free Trade. But is 
 there in the history of nations any approach to 
 the miraculous and swift advance to greatness 
 and power made by the United States during her 
 short existence ? She is about one hundred years 
 old, and, at the present moment, she stands at 
 the very head of the nations of the world, and 
 
 H
 
 98 AN AUSTRALIAN ORATOR. 
 
 outstrips them all in her gigantic \vealth and in 
 her continually swelling proportions. If anyone 
 doubts this at the present moment, there will be 
 no room for doubt after the lapse of a few years. 
 This great nation owes her present position 
 largely to the wisdom of her statesmen, who 
 would not suffer their people to be kept in idle- 
 ness while the money that should have paid them 
 wages went to enrich the workmen of another 
 country. The great statesmen of America, from 
 its foundation up to the present hour, did not be- 
 lieve in supporting the manufacturers of England 
 while they left their own to perish. They saw at 
 a glance that they would have no manufactures 
 without Protection. They also saw that if every- 
 thing they wanted was manufactured abroad, 
 they must of necessity have an idle and im- 
 poverished people at home ; with one emphatic 
 voice they enacted protective laws, and at the 
 present moment, as well they may, they cling to 
 those laws with more determination than ever. 
 (Great cheering.) Well, here is a country that 
 has had a large experience of the advantages of 
 Protection. It has grown in every conceivable 
 way as no other nation has done. It is composed 
 of a keen, shrewd, sagacious people, alive and 
 sensitive to every injury, and just as clear-sighted 
 in discerning an advantage, and, therefore, those 
 who know this great people must know that if 
 Protection was an injury to them, it would not 
 stand twenty-four hours, or rather would never 
 have been adopted, as the Americans are far too 
 clever a people not to know what is best for them ; 
 but written on the mind and heart of the 
 nation, in characters that cannot be erased, are 
 these words, " Protection has been our salvation,
 
 PROTECTION. 99 
 
 and is now our highest hope " (cheers), and the 
 whole nation, while I speak, is more wedded to it 
 than ever. Can it be that a nation like America 
 is wrong in adopting the Protective principle after 
 a hundred years' experience of its advantages, and 
 after every one of her great statesmen and writers, 
 in different eras of her history, vying with each 
 other in extolling the soundness, wisdom, and 
 absolute necessity of its adoption ? Surely a fact 
 like this should teach your flippant, shallow Free- 
 trader a little modesty, and lead him to the belief 
 that it is just possible that a nation like America 
 may know what is for her advantage and what is 
 for her disadvantage ; and above all, that that 
 shrewd people after long years of practical illus- 
 tration of the benefits of a protective policy may 
 be allowed to continue it without being called 
 " lunatics," the civilist word that Freetraders 
 have for those who differ from them. America 
 has grown to unprecedented wealth and power 
 under Protection, and the nation seems to be at 
 the present moment more thoroughly satisfied of 
 its immense advantages than ever. But how ex- 
 traordinary a thing it is that we should have the 
 case of Canada alongside of this great State to 
 illustrate at once the injury and ruin worked by 
 Free Trade, and the prosperity and wealth 
 brought about by Protection. I assert that 
 the history of Canada mathematically demon- 
 strates the truth of both of these propositions. 
 Canada has had a long and dismal experience of 
 the results of Free Trade in the fullest sense of 
 the word, and after a most extensive and all- 
 embracing trial of this principle, she has con- 
 demned it and abandoned it. (Continued cheers.) 
 Under Free Trade Canada found that she could
 
 100 AN AUSTRALIAN ORATOR. 
 
 not prosper. No sooner did she attempt to es- 
 tablish a native industry than an inundation of 
 imports from the United States and England 
 swept it away. Canada struggled hard to es- 
 tablish manufacturing industries of her own, and 
 again and again attempted to do so, but was 
 always defeated and destroyed by ship loads of 
 importations. She struggled on in this way till 
 hope was at last extinguished and desperation 
 took its place, and the nation demanded in a 
 voice, the tones of which could not be mistaken, 
 either Protection or annexation to the United 
 States. (Loud and continued cheers.) Under 
 Canada's long experience of Free Trade, the 
 people were idle everything that their mechanics 
 should have made was imported distress was 
 everywhere the consequence. No manufacturing 
 industries of any kind existed, and the nation was 
 drifting fast towards utter ruin, when the people, 
 awakened to intelligence by the powerful lessons 
 of fact, rose in their majesty and might, and 
 scattered to the winds a Free Trade Parliament 
 and a Free Trade Government. (Loud cheers.) 
 The Government and people of Canada have now, 
 and for some time past, adopted the protective 
 principle with almost electric advantage to the 
 best interests of the people. The moment Pro- 
 tection was adopted by Canada, one man came 
 forward with 100,000 to again set up an industry 
 that had been previously twice or thrice ruined 
 by Free Trade importations. That industry now 
 flourishes in Canada, and employs many hands ; 
 those hands would be idle but for this beneficent 
 principle of Protection. Other industries have 
 started up in every Canadian district, and 
 the country prospers and grows in wealth and
 
 PROTECTION. 101 
 
 greatness, while her formerly idle people are now 
 well employed, earning good wages. Just let us 
 pause for a moment to contemplate the significance 
 of this small piece of Canadian history, and see 
 with what irresistible force it comes to the aid of 
 the advocates of Protection. Canada had done all 
 she could with Free Trade ; she had tried it for 
 years and years, and, under it, her whole fiscal and 
 industrial system was crushed to utter ruin, and 
 her people left in idleness and penury. She saw 
 alongside of her a stupendous nation which had 
 grown to her unparalleled dimensions of wealth 
 and power by the adoption of a fiscal system 
 which she claims as the main cause of her un- 
 exampled rise. Canada looking, with the eyes of 
 intelligence at all this, roused herself from her 
 lethargy and apparent stupor, and with one 
 supreme effort revolutionized her whole system 
 and adopted Protection as the only means left her 
 to ward off impending ruin and to save the nation 
 from inevitable decay. (Loud cheers.) The na.tion 
 is, beyond doubt, saved by this policy. Canada, no 
 longer having her markets swamped and ruined 
 by foreign importations, witnesses now her own 
 mechanics and her own manufacturers supplying 
 the wants of her own people. She witnesses a 
 busy, well-employed people thriving and pros- 
 perous, just because she has come to see the 
 advantage of keeping the work to herself instead 
 of sending it, and the money to pay for it, to keep 
 busy and to enrich the labourers of other countries. 
 One would think that a child could see the reason 
 and the force of all this, but Freetraders seem un- 
 able to see anything. I notice one of them, a -Mr. 
 Broadhurst, a member of the House of Commons 
 I believe, writes to the Trades and Labour Council
 
 102 AN AUSTRALIAN ORATOR. 
 
 of Sydney, which letter was published in the 
 Herald, in which he says something to this effect : 
 " That those people who cannot see the advantages 
 of Free Trade those Protectionists who cannot 
 understand the blessings of Free Trade after read- 
 ing what can be said in favour of it must be 
 knaves, or something else." Now I ask you, in all 
 candour, what answer can one make to a man of 
 this description? (Loud laughter, and cries of 
 " None.") That is just my own opinion, and there- 
 fore I will leave him to continue his enlightened 
 correspondence with the members of the Trades and 
 Labour Council. I maybe allowed here to say all 
 I desire to say about that body. In an agitation 
 of this description I should have thought that the 
 Trades and Labour Council would have been in 
 the van struggling, on our side, for the triumph of 
 our policy. The Trades and Labour Council, at 
 their congress, put forward encouragement to 
 native industries as one of the main objects of 
 their organization; but now, as a body, they 
 decline to interfere because, they say, they are a 
 non-political body. Their principal object is, 
 they say, to guard the rights and interests of 
 labour; this involving the just solution of some of 
 the most difficult political problems of the day, 
 yet this being the prime purpose and object of the 
 Trades and Labour Council, wonderful to relate, 
 they say they are a non-political body. The 
 great political question of State assistance to 
 immigration calls forth the most active zeal of the 
 Trades and Labour Council. I suppose in con- 
 sequence of its being a non-political body, and I 
 suppose it is because it is a non-political body, 
 discarding politics from its thoughts, that it 
 actually aims at getting itself represented in Par-
 
 PROTECTION. 103 
 
 Hanient, and threatens to put forward its secre- 
 1:iw, Mr. Roylance, as a candidate for that high 
 position. (Great laughter and cheers.) Now I 
 ask you, is not this a funny non-political body? 
 The inconsistency and absurdity of this could only 
 be equalled by a teetotal society saying, that while 
 they had nothing to do with the drink traffic, their 
 main purpose was to shut every public-house in 
 Sydney. (Roars of laughter.) I have no objection 
 to the Trades and Labour Council putting forward 
 a candidate for parliamentary honours, and if he is 
 a Protectionist I will support him. But Mr. Roy- 
 lance is neither one thing nor another, who says 
 that with general politics he will have nothing to 
 do but only give his attention to labour questions. 
 Now what is this but saying that he will not enter 
 Parliament as a representative of the people, but 
 MS a mere delegate of the Trades and Labour 
 Council? Mr. Roylance may rest assured that he 
 will get his eyes opened when he first confronts 
 the people. (Loud cheers, and cries of " We'll 
 settle him when he shows up.") So much for the 
 Trades and Labour Council. As a political body 
 it might do incalculable good, and whatever it 
 may say to the contrary, it is a political body, 
 and nothing but a political body, and that to the 
 backbone so long as its objects are what they say 
 they are. (Cries of "True.") Before I made 
 this slight digression I was speaking of the 
 remarkable rise of Canada since she adopted the 
 principles of Protection. Need I remind you that 
 every country in Europe is strictly guarded by 
 protective duties ; and that all the great con- 
 tinental statesmen, such as Bismarck, have never 
 diva nit for one moment of even giving Free Trade 
 a trial, so satisfied are they of the immediate ruin
 
 1 04 AN AUS TEA LI AN OR A TOR. 
 
 that would follow. What a country India would 
 be if Protection gave it a chance to rise to manu- 
 facturing greatness. But as long as 1-ngland 
 rules there India will be reserved as a great 
 market for her manufactures, utterly regardless of 
 the poverty and idleness that this brings on her 
 people. No country in the world offers such 
 advantages to the establishment of native manu- 
 factures, and if they were established by India 
 protecting herself against foreign importations 
 that country would speedily become one of the 
 richest countries on the face of the earth in indus- 
 trial enterprise and manufacturing wealth. As it 
 is her enormous population is in the most abject 
 poverty and ruinous idleness. England compels 
 them to keep their ports open, and supplies all 
 their wants. How is it possible, under such cir- 
 cumstances, for any industries to start there or the 
 people to thrive? But now just let us inquire 
 how England herself is thriving under Free Trade. 
 She is the only Free Trade country on the face of 
 the earth, or, to speak more accurately, in Europe. 
 According to Freetraders all England's greatness 
 dates from, the day she adopted Free Trade ; but 
 sensible people know that tngland was a great 
 nation centuries before this. All England's manu- 
 facturing wealth grew under a system of strict 
 Protection. The nation was made what it is by 
 the adoption of a protective policy, which existed 
 up to our own times, and I question if England 
 would have ever thought of Free Trade but for the 
 tax on corn. This was an impolitic and an unjust 
 tax, simply because England could not grow half 
 as much wheat as would supply her own wants ; and 
 in the face of a faniine and a starving people 
 how could such a tax be for a moment maintained ?
 
 PROTECTION. 105 
 
 Tt was abolished amidst a ferment of angry feel- 
 ing, the people's passions being lashed into fierce 
 agitation at the bare thought of such a tax, ;m<l 
 in the public turmoil of the time the system of 
 Free Trade which now prevails in England was 
 adopted. No intelligent reader of the history of 
 those times fails to observe that the leading 
 advocates of Free Trade imagined that if the 
 principle were adopted by England, every other 
 country would have followed England's example ; 
 and if this had taken place, every other country 
 would have speedily found how completely they 
 had cut their own throats, and how essentially 
 they had served England. But every other 
 country had more sense, and instead of following 
 England's example, they redoubled their protec- 
 tive guard, and set themselves earnestly to the 
 perfecting of themselves in manufacturing art, so 
 that they might, as soon as possible, take all due 
 advantage of England's open door to pour in their 
 own manufactures on her markets. (Loud cheers.) 
 There is not much use in Freetraders producing 
 statistics of England's exports and imports, during 
 her Free Trade history, to prove her great in- 
 crease of trade, and her great prosperity. What 
 is the use of this, unless they can prove that 
 protected countries, of equal wealth and power, 
 fell away during the same period in a corres- 
 ponding ratio ? We all know that England 
 advanced with giant strides during the last forty 
 years; so did also America, France, and other 
 countries. The Freetraders say Free Trade did 
 this for England. If this is so, will they kindly 
 tell us what did the same thing for America, 
 where Free Trade has no existence ? I apprehend 
 that increase of population, the discoveries of
 
 106 AN AUSTRALIAN ORATOR. 
 
 science, the improvements in locomotion, and the 
 wonders that time works, had much more to do 
 with England's prosperity than Free Trade. Well, 
 as a Free Trade country England is left alone in 
 her glory ; and instead of even her own young 
 colonies imitating her example, they jump at 
 Protection as essentially necessary to their 
 existence, and thrive and prosper under it, as 
 they had previously sunk towards ruin- and decay 
 under their experience of Free Trade. No ques- 
 tion about this, that it will take an enormous- 
 amount of injury inflicted on England before she 
 cries out ; her innate strength, her colossal wealth, 
 her vigorous and energetic people, the rare spirit 
 of enterprise that impels them, and which seems 
 characteristic of the nation, will always enable it 
 to put a good face on the worst of times. But 
 that England has, of late, cried out in tones of 
 utmost distress is a fact that cannot be denied. 
 There is at present serious calamity in the 
 manufacturing districts of England, and her trade 
 is weltering in a state of stagnation. A child 
 might ascertain the cause of this, and it is a, 
 comfort that the English people are not blind to 
 it. They say they are fighting an unequal battle, 
 inasmuch as, while their manufactures are ex- 
 cluded from every country on the face of the earth, 
 so far as heavy protective duties can exclude them, 
 yet our ports are open and free to the entry of the 
 manufactured goods of every one of those pro- 
 tected countries, and on these terms we can no 
 longer continue the battle. This is true, whatever 
 Freetraders may say to the contrary. In one year 
 64,000,000 sterling of manufactured goods 
 comes into the free port of England from 
 protected countries. If England had been pro-
 
 PROTECTION. 107 
 
 tected that year she would have sold 64,000,000 
 sterling of her manufactured goods more than she 
 did do. Is it not clear that England's Free Trade 
 brings her the loss of this enormous sale and con- 
 sumption of her manufactures? And is it in the 
 least degree wonderful or surprising that the 
 English manufacturers cry out when they find 
 their own manufactures thrust aside to the extent 
 of 64,000,000 sterling in one year, and see the 
 manufactures of foreign countries to that amount 
 bought in preference? (Loud cheers.) No wonder 
 the call for reciprocity is loud and long, at the 
 present moment, in England ; and it will be louder 
 still as the imports from protected countries flow 
 in upon her, in .a stream continually increasing in 
 breadth and depth. The protected manufacturer 
 in America and other countries is guarded against 
 foreign competition, and has the home market 
 entirely to himself, supplying which clears all his 
 expenses and gives him his profits; but seeing 
 England's door gaping wide open, and a free 
 entry, he, ^^ith the zeal of a keen man of business, 
 takes instant advantage of the position, so favour- 
 able to himself, works his plant to its fullest 
 capacity, supplies the home market, and pours an 
 immense surplus into England's open door. If 
 the English manufacturers can stand this much 
 longer, I will be greatly surprised. It is already 
 causing them to cry out in much agony and even 
 shutting up many of their manufactories, while 
 many are working half time. One of two things 
 must take place, either England must be armed 
 with the same weapon wielded by her competitors, 
 that is Protection, or she must go to the wall as 
 certainly as I speak. England cannot perform 
 miracles, and if other nations have now reached
 
 108 AN AUSTRALIAN ORATOR. 
 
 the same perfection, skill, and ability, in the 
 manufacture of every commodity that England 
 has long been distinguished for, how is it possible 
 for England to continue a fight so unequal, which 
 must be the case as long as her ports are free and 
 open to the manufacturers of every nation in the 
 world, while every nation of the world most care- 
 fully shuts the door against a single ounce of 
 England's manufactured goods coming in upon 
 them without previously paying a heavy and im- 
 possible duty. (Continued cheers.) Can anyone 
 doubt that England will very soon be compelled 
 to listen to the voice of distress which rises from 
 the manufacturing districts, and resort again to 
 protective duties if she has the slightest notion of 
 preserving her great manufacturing interest from 
 total ruin by being supplanted by the enormous 
 importations of the manufacturers of other 
 countries ? If the late Mr. Cobden had been 
 alive at the present time, judging from what he 
 said during his life, who can doubt that he would 
 have been an earnest advocate of reciprocity? 
 Listen to those words of Mr. Cobden, uttered not 
 many years before his death. " What," he says, 
 " is the cause of England's enormous wealth ? The 
 answer is the cheapness of her manufactures. 
 What is the cause of her great maritime strength 
 and power ? The answer again is, the cheapness 
 of her manufactures. What is likely to wrest 
 this wealth and power from her? I answer only 
 the superior, or greater cheapness, of the manufac- 
 tures of other countries." Now this is exactly 
 what has happened. Other countries, assisted by 
 energy, zeal, and activity, and the all-powerful 
 weapon of Protection, and seeing England, through 
 her Free Trade and open ports, in a position of
 
 PROTECTION. 109 
 
 enormous disadvantage, have greedily seized the 
 opportunity to inundate the English markets with 
 their own surplus manufactures, made for the 
 purpose, and so undersell her on her own ground 
 to her palpable injury and distress. (Loud 
 cheers.) Freetraders, in deep chagrin, may shut 
 their eyes to this, but the eyes of the English 
 manufacturer, as well as those of the English 
 people, are being opened wider and wider every 
 day, until the ruinous and destructive fact has 
 emerged from dim shadowy obscurity into the clear 
 light of day, carrying with it lessons of wisdom, 
 neither to be contradicted or explained away, and 
 which are at present working out their purposes 
 on the practical, thoughtful, and intelligent por- 
 tion of the English nation. (Cheers.) The 
 statistics that Freetraders generally trust to, 
 bearing on England's present position, prove 
 little. Since the advent of Free Trade in England, 
 and for a long time afterwards, other nations in 
 their manufacturing skill were not in a posi- 
 tion to do her much harm; but as time rolled 
 on they gave their whole attention to perfect 
 themselves in manufacturing skill and industry, 
 and now, and for some years back, America, 
 Belgium, France, and Germany are not far 
 behind her in manufacturing expertness and 
 ability, if they are not actually abreast of her. 
 And, consequently, it is only within the past few 
 years that England has begun to feel keenly the 
 tremendous results to her prospects in the con- 
 tinually increasing flood of manufactured goods 
 that is constantly flowing in upon her from those 
 strictly protected countries. Well, then, here are 
 statistics that carry some meaning with them as 
 bearing upon the present argument. In the year
 
 110 AN A USTRALTAN OR A TOR. 
 
 1877 the exports of England decreased to the ex- 
 tent of 46,000,000 sterling, while her imports 
 increased to the enormous extent of 56,000,000 
 sterling. This, to my mind, proves that, while the 
 protective duties of other countries reduced her 
 exports, as stated, her own free ports increased 
 her imports by 56,000,000 sterling or, in other 
 words, Free Trade in England, without reciprocity, 
 cut down her exports by 46,000,000 sterling ; 
 while her open ports enabled protected countries 
 to destroy her home markets in her own goods to 
 the extent of 56,000,000 sterling. (Cheers, and 
 cries of " Quite true.") If this game is continued 
 much longer, on the same terms, it requires not 
 the assistance of inspiration to predict that a great 
 change must speedily take place in England's 
 policy, or she will find herself driven to the wall, 
 wrecked and ruined in the notoriously unequal 
 contest a contest that would ultimately over- 
 whelm England were she ten times what she is 
 in point of stability, wealth, and greatness. 
 (Cheers.) I have now said almost all J desired 
 to say, although the subject is one so large that 
 if I broke other ground the time allotted me here 
 would not admit of me doing anything like justice 
 to the matter spoken of. 1 will have many other 
 opportunities, I hope, of enlarging upon this, to 
 you and to us all, intensely interesting subject, 
 which, if it were dealt with in accordance with 
 its importance, every man in the country, and 
 notably the working man, would challenge every 
 candidate for parliamentary honours as to his 
 opinions on this vital matter. I may congratu- 
 late you on the fact of Mr. Reid having come for- 
 ward to uphold the cause of Free Trade, and for 
 having published his speech, carefully revised, cor-
 
 PROTECTION. Ill 
 
 rected, and added to. I say I may congratulate 
 you on Mr. Reid having done this, because now 
 you know all that can be said for Free Trade 
 by this Free Trade essayist and honorary member 
 of the Cobden Club. 1 desire to say nothing dis- 
 respectful of Mr. Eeid far from it, but I appeal 
 to the intelligence of Sydney whether Mr. Reid's 
 speech is not pre-eminently false in principle as 
 well as reasoning. (Loud cheers.) I have no 
 time to go into detail to prove this, but I saw 
 a letter by my friend Mr. Hammond, a letter 
 which he read to me, which left Mr. Reid without 
 a leg to stand on, and utterly demolished him by 
 a systematic exposure of his false statistics and 
 falser reasoning. (Cheers.) Mr. Reid does not 
 grapple intellectually with the subject, and aim at 
 solving problems by the force and strength of his 
 own thoughts; any capacity he shows, in dealing 
 with this subject, is not intellectual capacity, but 
 the mere result and offspring of a continuous 
 plodding among the dry details of Blue Books 
 which prompts him to attempt to prove his cause 
 by putting forward figures that could be made, 
 with ease, to bear the very opposite construction 
 that he strives to put upon them. As a sample of 
 the puerility of Mr. Reid's reasoning qualities, he 
 says this : " The Protectionists say that labour 
 is capita] : well, climbing a greasy pole is labour, 
 therefore climbing a greasy pole is capital.'' Mr. 
 Reid means this for a very felicitous illustration, 
 and the best argument he can bring against the 
 undeniable fact, which to me seems strange that 
 Mr. Reid should deny, that labour is indeed capital. 
 The answer to Mr. Reid is a very simple matter, 
 and is this : climbing a greasy pole is capital if 
 you are paid for it. Mr. Reid's entire speech
 
 112 AN AUSTRALIAN ORATOR. 
 
 might just be as easily knocked on the head as this 
 portion of it, and my friend Mr. Hammond has 
 done this most powerfully and effectively in the 
 letter mentioned, and which I trust he will publish 
 in some paper with larger views than the Sydney 
 Morning Herald. To show you how ignorant Mr. 
 Reid is of the state of things under his very nose, 
 he says in the preface to his published speech 
 " If anyone talks to you of Protection, point him 
 to your well employed mechanics, their high 
 wages, and their comfortable homes." (Cries of 
 " It's not true.") Well may you say that. I tell 
 Mr. Reid that he is utterly and shamefully igno- 
 rant of the subject, I say without the slightest 
 fear of truthful contradiction that there is not a 
 country on the face of the earth which could, in 
 proportion to its numbers, turn out so many idle, 
 impoverished men as New South Wales. (Loud 
 and continued cheering.) The labour reports of 
 the Herald and Evening News prove this beyond 
 controversy, and my own personal knowledge more 
 than corroborates these reports. What faith can 
 you put in anything that falls from Mr. Reid after 
 a statement of this description ? But I will now 
 leave Mr. Reid to learn to know better before he 
 puts forward statements as facts that have not 
 a vestige of foundation in truth. (Loud cheers.) 
 Well then, gentlemen, if you believe in the sound- 
 ness and truth of the opinions I have put forward 
 in this somewhat lengthy address, act upon them 
 if you are wise resist, with your whole force, a 
 system which leaves you a prey to the cupidity of 
 foreign countries act like the working men of 
 Canada and Victoria, and assert your own power 
 at the ballot-box return men to Parliament who 
 look forward to a higher destiny for this country
 
 PROTECTION. 113 
 
 than merely growing the raw material to be 
 manufactured by other nations. Eise in your 
 might against a system that necessitates the 
 idleness and impoverishment of well-nigh half the 
 people. Let our mechanics and farmers, and all 
 who wish to see this a thriving manufacturing 
 country, aim their deadliest blows at the system 
 which at present prevails, and which transfers 
 your labour and its emoluments to the hands and 
 pockets of foreign workmen. (Loud cheers.) 
 Never let this great fact be absent from your 
 minds, that open ports mean work for the stranger 
 and foreigner, and poverty and idleness for your- 
 selves, accompanied by stagnation and national 
 decay. (Great cheering.) Look to your children 
 and the dark prospect before them, under a system 
 which encourages and prospers the workmen of 
 other nations, while it leaves our own people in 
 poverty and idleness. Never relax your efforts to 
 destroy this system, but continually increase the 
 emphasis of your protest against it. The truth 
 is with you, and in the end victory will crown 
 your efforts. In the meantime let all earnest souls 
 combine in the devoted advocacy of this great 
 cause the very life of the country is involved in 
 the struggle, and our triumph, which is certain 
 at no distant date, will realize advantages for our 
 people which will challenge the gratitude and 
 obtain the blessings of our own and after ages. 
 (Loud and long-continued cheering, again and 
 again repeated, in the midst of which Mr. Bu- 
 chanan resumed his seat.)
 
 BUENS AND HIS POETEY. 
 
 [THE anniversary of the birthday of the poet Burns was cele- 
 brated, under the auspices of the Highland Society of 
 New South Wales, by an entertainment given in the 
 Protestant Hall. Mr. Buchanan was asked to deliver an 
 opening address, which he did, as follows : ] 
 
 MR. CHAIRMAN, AND LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, 
 The theme I have been asked to discourse on, 
 necessarily for a very short time this evening, is 
 a great one, being no less than the character and 
 genius of the renowned Eobert Burns, whom 
 Carlyle designates as a great poet, and one of 
 the most considerable British men of the last 
 century. Of all the departments of literature, 
 poetry is by far the most fascinating. It is uni- 
 versally allowed to be the fruit of the highest and 
 rarest intellectual capacity. It is in every sense 
 a divine gift, the inspirations from which have, 
 in all ages, attracted the warmest admiration of 
 mankind and embalmed the memory of the writers 
 in the hearts and affections of myriads of human 
 beings who were yet unborn when the poets 
 nourished. Poetry deals with themes that it is
 
 BURNS AND HIS POETRY. 115 
 
 impossible for even the most callous and cold- 
 lira rted to be indifferent to. Every varied chord 
 of the human heart is struck by the genius of the 
 poet, and responds with a warm glowing emotion 
 which soothes and lulls the very soul to rest. 
 Every passion in man or woman's nature is roused 
 by the power and spirit of poetry, and alternately 
 melted in tenderness or inflamed with the most 
 ardent aspirations after all that is good, lovely, 
 and truthful. The avocation of the poet is not 
 always limited to the circumstances and events of 
 this world. Sometimes he launches out on the 
 wings of a vivid and powerful imagination, paint- 
 ing scenes and events beyond the gulf which 
 separates us from eternity, and sometimes, with 
 matchless creative skill, depicting the action of 
 angels and the very purposes of God ; frequently 
 entering into all the miseries, misfortunes, and 
 mishaps of poor human nature, and gilding even 
 the hardest lot with such sweet, tender touches 
 of sympathy that new courage is infused into the 
 most hopeless and new strength into weakness 
 itself. Again, we have bitter, merciless assaults 
 upon all that is mean and worthless ; fierce ex- 
 plosions of scorn and contempt at the hollow 
 hypocritical falsehood of the world ; pictures of 
 gentleness and innocence sinking and perishing 
 in the iron grip of despair ; noble instances of 
 generous devoted love discarding all selfish con- 
 siderations, and, with a generosity that knows no 
 bounds, offering up life itself in the cause of 
 others. " This world," says Dr. Channing, " with 
 all its prosaic everyday details, is far from, being 
 unpoetical. On the contrary, it is full of the very 
 elements of poetry. We have the world itself, in 
 all its everlasting beauty, magnificently furnished
 
 116 AN AUSTRALIAN ORATOR. 
 
 for our reception. We have the beauties of 
 nature, in their simple majesty, equally beautiful 
 whether seen in the peaceful calnniess of a smil- 
 ing landscape or convulsed by the fury of a tempest. 
 We have the mighty ocean in its boundless deso- 
 lation, and, turning to even sublimer objects, we 
 have woman with all her fine and manifold graces, 
 her fulness of feeling and depth of affection ; 
 the impassioned tenderness of the marriage tie; 
 the devotion and heaven-born happiness of a 
 mother or father's affection ; the wild swelling 
 commotion of the young heart, with all its 
 feverish anxieties and indescribable delights, 
 when the grand master passion of love first visits 
 there, and awakens thoughts of a happiness too 
 vast for earth/' All these are poetical, and lift 
 the soul far above the ordinary everyday concerns 
 of life, affording themes for the exercise of the 
 poet's power which, when touched by the magic 
 hand of genius, invariably find a response even in 
 the most obscure and humble of human hearts. 
 The power of the poet is therefore a power of the 
 very highest order, and the rareness of the gift 
 proves its inestimable value. As a master of this 
 high art Eobert Burns stands pre-eminent. In 
 the short time that I am allowed for this address, 
 of course I can do nothing more than merely 
 glance at the subject. You all know of the 
 wretched drudging poverty of poor Burns' life 
 from childhood upwards, of his incessant toil 
 without much return, of his short life being, from 
 first to last, a painful struggle with all manner of 
 misfortunes and difficulties under which he ulti- 
 mately sank, despairing and broken-hearted, in 
 the full vigour of early manhood. Notwithstand- 
 ing all this, where will you find so sweet a singer ?
 
 BURNS AND HIS POETRY. 117 
 
 "Where will you find a humorist so overpower- 
 ing? Or if satire is his weapon, what writer 
 ever equalled the force and destructive power of 
 his strokes ? He died at the age of thirty-six, in 
 the prime of early manhood, and his whole life 
 might be said to have been one long day of un- 
 interrupted toil. His poems were written after 
 the labours of the day with body and mind ex- 
 li;i listed and worn out with fatigue, and, under 
 such circumstances, surely it is surprising that he 
 did so much. It would be in vain to speculate as 
 to what would have been the product of Burns' 
 genius under happier auspices. As it is, we have, 
 as it were, mere short glimpses of his genius, no 
 sustained effort requiring time and study, to say 
 nothing of peace of mind, to work it out as 
 Carlyle beautifully and eloquently says : " His 
 sun shone as through a tropical tornado, and the 
 pale shadow of death eclipsed it at noon." His 
 works, such as they are, are before the world, and 
 have been so for nearly a century, and curious 
 enough no poet, with the single exception of 
 Shakespeare, has given rise to so much earnest 
 disquisition, has attracted the attention of so 
 niiiny men of genius, and afforded a theme for 
 some of their finest writings. What, then, is 
 there in Burns' poetry that gives rise to all this? 
 I say its truthfulness, its naturalness, its mascu- 
 line force and vigour, its high poetic beauty as 
 coming from, the very soul of a man who saw, 
 with a clear, penetrating eye, every object he 
 attempted to describe. There is nothing effemi- 
 nate about Burns, although no woman was ever 
 gifted with a keener sensibility. He has a heart 
 overflowing with love and tenderness to all 
 animate and inanimate things. lie grieves over
 
 118 AN AUSTRALIAN ORATOR. 
 
 the fall of a simple flower, and a wounded hare 
 limping past him in the fields of his daily labour 
 calls forth his impassioned sympathy and his 
 bitter curses at the cruelty of such an act. 
 Carlyle, in his fine eloquent style, says : " A 
 thousand battlefields remain unsung ; but a 
 wounded hare has not perished without its 
 memorial, a balm of mercy still breathes upon 
 us from its dumb agonies because a poet was 
 there." There never lived so gentle, loving, 
 tender a being as the poet, and yet withal so 
 stern and manly a character ; he is a favourite 
 wherever he goes, loved by high and low. High 
 born dames of the nobility, duchesses and 
 countesses, are thrown into raptures by the fas- 
 cinations of his conversation, and pronounce him 
 the most feeling and perfectly well-bred man they 
 ever met a fine homage to the genius and char- 
 acter of this ploughman a man whose keen 
 sensitive nature and exquisite delicacy of feeling 
 was well calculated to captivate the sympathy of 
 refined and accomplished women. When Burns 
 comes first to Edinburgh he is only some twenty- 
 seven years of age, and he has scarcely ever looked 
 on any face but that of a peasant. He is a 
 peasant himself, and, up to this time, his every- 
 day companions are the peasantry, male and 
 female, of his country. But, in Edinburgh, he is 
 at once introduced to as noble a band of men of 
 genius, scholars and philosophers, as could be found 
 at that time, or, indeed, I may say, at any time, 
 in any city of the world. Such men as David 
 Hume, the renowned historian and profound and 
 subtle philosopher; Adarn Smith, whose great work 
 on political economy altered the policy of nations ; 
 Henry McKenzie, the author of "The man of
 
 BURKS AND HIS POETRY. 119 
 
 feeling ; " the celebrated Professor Dugald 
 Stewart; Lord Monboddo, the original of Dar- 
 win's philosophy; Professor Allison, the accom- 
 plished author of the essay on taste ; Blair, 
 Blacklock, and many others, including Sir Walter 
 Scott, then a boy of sixteen. Into this splendid 
 society of accomplished men of genius, Eobert 
 Burns, just from the plough tail, walked, with no 
 forwardness or flippancy of any kind, but with 
 the consciousness that this was his proper place, 
 and that his genius gave him a right to be here. 
 He deliberately measures himself against the best 
 of them, without a taint of vanity or conceit, but 
 with a self-possessed assurance that he, too, was 
 one of the gifted, and that it was in such society 
 that he had a right to speak. Professor Stewart 
 has left on record that he outshone the best of 
 them in the profound depth and eloquence of his 
 conversation, so much so that the great Hume con- 
 fessed that he was more than his match in con- 
 troversy. No higher proof of the remarkable 
 genius of Burns could be given than this. But I 
 have scarcely left myself time to say a word about 
 his poetry. Graphic force and condensed power 
 of expression with a deeply touching pathos are 
 its characteristics. Take one example, the de- 
 scription of a storm in four lines : 
 
 The wind blew as 't would blaw ita last, 
 The rattling showers rose on the blast, 
 The speedy gleams the darkness swallowed, 
 Loud, deep, and long the thunder bellowed. 
 
 It was a true poet who wrote that line "The 
 speedy gleams the darkness swallowed." It is 
 simply magnificent in its power of expression and 
 indicates the finest poetic faculty. Take another
 
 120 AN AUSTRALIAN ORATOR. 
 
 four lines, among scores of such, on a different 
 theme 
 
 Had we never loved so kindly, 
 Had we never loved so blindly, 
 Never met or never parted, 
 We had ne'er been broken-hearted. 
 
 Surely there is beauty, vigour, condensation, 
 pathos, and true poetry in those four lines. Lord 
 Byron takes them for his motto to the " Bride of 
 Abydos," and Sir Walter Scott says they convey 
 the complete history of an unfortunate courtship 
 with unexampled felicity and power. His descrip- 
 tion of a brawling rivulet, called in Scotland a 
 burn, is admirable, and in point of poetic beauty 
 and descriptive power, superior to a long poem, 
 Tennyson writes on the same subject : 
 
 Whiles ow'er a linn the burnie plays, 
 As through the glen it wimpl't 
 Whiles round a rocky scar it strays, 
 Whiles in a weil it dimpl't; 
 Whiles glittered to the nightly ra3 r s, 
 Wi' bickering dancing dazzle, 
 Whiles cockit underneath the braes, 
 Below the spreading hazel 
 
 Unseen that night. 
 
 It was also a poet, and a true one, who wrote 
 those lines so beautiful in their expressive force, 
 and so true. Here is the sort of trenchant 
 power he brings to bear in finishing off a popular 
 actor he saw at Edinburgh 
 
 Thou art awkward, stiff, affected, 
 Murdering nature, torturing art, 
 Natural graces all rejected, 
 Thou indeed dost act a part. 
 
 But it is as a song writer that Burns will live for 
 ever. Some one has said that Shakespeare is not
 
 BURNS AND HIS POETRY. 121 
 
 more certainly the first of dramatists than Burns 
 is the first of songsters, and this is true. He 
 throws off literally hundreds of songs that Shake- 
 speare would have been proud to own, with an 
 ease and facility in every sense wonderful. It 
 would be impossible here to notice the infinite 
 variety of his songs and their infinite beauty. 
 " Scots wha hae " stands out universally allowed 
 to be the finest war ode ever written, a blaze of 
 fierce fiery energy never to be forgotten, that 
 should be sung, as Carlyle says, with the throat 
 of the whirlwind. " A man's a man for a' that " 
 has been translated and sung in almost every 
 language, and the name of Burns blessed for 
 writing it. Compare the manly sentiment of 
 those songs with the diseased unwholesome senti- 
 ment of a set of songs, the product of the late 
 American war, such as " Just before the battle, 
 mother/' " Oh, mother, I've come home to die," 
 " My mother kissed me in a dream," &c. I can- 
 not for my life understand what is the meaning 
 of all this poor prate about one's mother on so 
 supreme an occasion as the eve of battle. Burns 
 does not offer his men much prospect of seeing 
 their mothers on such an occasion. No, it is 
 " Welcome to your gory bed " that he holds out 
 as an attraction to them, with the consciousness 
 that they will be fired at it rather than dismayed 
 by it. Talking of mothers, a good story is told of 
 the celebrated British general, Sir David Baird's, 
 mother. Sir David was taken prisoner in India, 
 and the news came to England that, by way of 
 insulting and degrading British officers in the 
 hands of the enemy, they were chained to Sepoys 
 and kept that way night and day. Some friends 
 undertook to communicate the sad intelligence to
 
 122 AN AUSTRALIAN ORATOR. 
 
 Lady Baird, Sir David's mother, and having done 
 so, they were shocked to hear Lady Baird, instead 
 of being speechless with grief as they expected, 
 ejaculate in the broadest Scotch " a' weel, God 
 help the poor wretch that's tethered to our 
 Davie." " Oh, mother, I've come home to die " 
 would not be the words used by such a son to 
 such a mother. If there was dying in the ques- 
 tion it would be the field of battle that such a 
 man as Sir David Baird would select for such a 
 purpose. In Burns' songs there is no such 
 spurious sentiment as disfigures those American 
 songs. In conclusion I have left myself no 
 opportunity to speak of Burns as a man. I have 
 nothing to say against his character ; I only wish 
 that every man who finds fault with his character 
 were a fiftieth part as good, generous, and kind- 
 hearted. At this time of day it seems to me a 
 mere impertinence to speak of Burns' character 
 as it has been talked of. He was a large-hearted, 
 unselfish, genuine man, and as such let him 
 always be thought of, because it was his true 
 character. The British Government could find 
 him nothing higher to do than gauging ale 
 barrels, and on this I cannot help again quoting 
 Carlyle, for he says with great beauty and true 
 poetry " They forgot that a courser of the sun 
 could not be tamely yoked as a dray-horse his 
 hoofs are of fire, and his path lies through the 
 heavens, carrying light to all lands, not lumber- 
 ing over mud highways, dragging ale for earthly 
 appetites from door to door." And so poor Burns 
 wears himself out in thirty-six years, he dies in 
 poverty and sadness, fighting with difficulties to 
 the last, and while he is dying in one room, his 
 poor wife is giving birth to twins in the next.
 
 BURNS AND HIS POETRY. 123 
 
 His genius the world is still possessed of, and as 
 each year rolls on it adds fresh treasures to his 
 fame. It is now over one hundred years since his 
 birth, and his genius shines, through his works, 
 with as pure and brilliant a lustre as ever, and 
 like Milton's day-star 
 
 Tricks its beams and with new spangled ore 
 Flames in the forehead of the morning sky. 
 
 This address was much applauded, and at its 
 close the cheering was long continued.
 
 ARCHBISHOP VAUGHAN. 
 
 [ON Tuesday, the 1 1 th November, 1879, Mr. Buchanan moved the 
 adjournment of the House to call attention to the speech 
 delivered at Balmain, by Archbishop Vaughan. Mr. 
 Buchanan spoke as follows : ] 
 
 MB. SPEAKER, I move the adjournment of the 
 House to bring under the notice of the Govern- 
 ment a matter of considerable importance; I refer 
 to the extraordinary speech delivered by Arch- 
 bishop Vaughan, at Balmain, last Sunday, and 
 reported in the newspapers of Monday. My duty 
 compels me to notice the tone and style of that 
 speech, and I ask any candid mind to read it and 
 then judge of the propriety of such a deliverance. 
 The manifest tendency of such a speech is to 
 inflame the passions of those who listen to it, and 
 it is not by such utterances that the public peace 
 is preserved. There could be no doubt as to the 
 danger of such harangues. The people were asked 
 if they would not spill their blood in the cause the 
 speaker was advocating that cause being opposi- 
 tion to the Public School law. The speech had 
 astonished the whole community, and a large pro-
 
 ARCHBISHOP VAUGHAN. 125 
 
 portion of the Roman Catholics were as loud in 
 their condemnation of it as were Protestants. If 
 this speech had been delivered in Germany, in 
 France, or even in Rome, Archbishop Vaughan 
 would have been within the four walls of a jail 
 before twenty-four hours had passed over his head. 
 There are archbishops and bishops, at the present 
 moment, suffering imprisonment in Germany for 
 much less than is involved in this speech of Arch- 
 bishop Vaughan's. I wish particularly to call the 
 attention of the Government to the matter, and to 
 ask whether this man, or any man, is to be allowed 
 to address language to the people which cannot 
 but have a dangerous tendency. If the speech 
 meant anything it meant that an amended Educa- 
 tion Act was expected which they the people the 
 Archbishop was addressing were bound to resist, 
 in fact to spill their blood in resisting. Surely 
 this could be looked at in no other light but as an 
 invitation to open and undisguised violence. 
 There have been, in our own times, men im- 
 prisoned in England for the use of language in 
 addressing large bodies of the people, less 
 questionable than this. Daniel O'Connell re- 
 ceived a sentence of imprisonment for far less 
 questionable language, and it becomes a serious 
 question how far the use of such language as that 
 contained in this Balmain speech could be 
 tolerated by the Government in view of the 
 preservation and security of the public peace. 
 Not only was this imprudence in the use of 
 language characteristic of a large portion of the 
 speech, but the Archbishop aggravated matters 
 by giving outrageously false representations of 
 history, I don't say intentionally, but none the 
 less playing on the ignorance of the people he was
 
 126 AN AUSTRALIAN ORATOR. 
 
 addressing. Those people were blinded as to the 
 real facts of the case, so that there was a danger 
 of their being misled into a position where they 
 might fall victims to the violated law. Herein 
 lay the thoughtlessness and rashness, and indeed 
 I might well say the infamy of Archbishop 
 Yaughan. Under the free flag of England great 
 liberty of speech was very justly allowed, but he 
 had yet to learn that under that flag language 
 tending to endanger the public peace would be 
 tolerated. There could be no more wholesome 
 procedure on the part of the Government than to 
 read this Archbishop a lesson to bring him to 
 the bar of justice ; and if so brought, he would 
 venture to say that he would very soon be the 
 right man in the right place. Really, when we 
 came to reflect upon this inflammatory language, 
 we would almost imagine that the speaker was 
 bereft of his senses. We demanded nothing for 
 the Protestants that we did not freely give to the 
 Roman Catholics ; and to justify any language 
 approaching that used by Archbishop Vaughan, 
 we should have to pass an educational measure 
 giving large benefits to the Protestant portion of 
 the people, and systematically excluding the 
 Roman Catholics from all participation in the 
 boon. But the reverse of this was the case. 
 Whatever measure we had passed had been for 
 the benefit of the whole people, Roman Catholics 
 as well as Protestants. When we, therefore, found 
 the whole people standing on the same level of 
 equality all participating equally in the benefits 
 arising from our legislation how unjustifiable 
 seemed the conduct of this Archbishop? How 
 severely must he stand condemned at the bar of 
 public opinion ; how, even among the Roman
 
 ARCHBISHOP VAUGIIAN. 127 
 
 Catholics, the unreflecting portion of whom he 
 was so egregiously misleading, must he stand 
 condemned for the language and attitude he had 
 assumed all through this great educational con- 
 troversy. Now the Archbishop alleged that the 
 Roman Catholics could not conscientiously avail 
 themselves of the educational measure the Govern- 
 ment had brought forward. I meet him on the 
 very threshold of his argument by the assertion 
 that this is not true, there being close on 11,000 
 Roman Catholic children attending our most 
 excellent Public Schools at the present moment. 
 This Archbishop, who prated about tyranny, 
 practised the most abhorrent tyranny over his 
 followers. In the first place he denounced our 
 Public Schools as " seed plots of immorality, 
 infidelity and lawlessness," thereby attempting by 
 false representations to bring discredit upon our 
 Public School system, which is hailed as a bless- 
 ing by almost the entire population. Who was 
 it, in the case of Mr. Kenna, of Bathurst, that 
 launched damnation at his head because he 
 asserted the right to send his children to what 
 school he pleased ? Mr. Kenna had his children 
 at the Sydney Grammar School, as in his opinion 
 the institution where most justice would be done 
 them, and because he refused to take them away 
 from that school at the bidding of the priests of 
 Rome, they refused him on his death-bed the rites 
 of the Church, and threatened him with the refusal 
 of Christian burial. Mr. Kenna was firm and 
 resolute in resisting this unexampled oppression 
 and insult, and although enervated and weakened 
 by disease and approaching death, he never 
 flinched a hair's breadth, but with his last breath 
 hurled defiance at his priestly tyrants. Who can
 
 128 AN AUSTRALIAN ORATOR. 
 
 contemplate without extreme admiration the con- 
 duct of Mr. Kenna iu thus daring and defying' 
 those priests, and resisting their monstrous de- 
 mands literally to the death, telling them to leave 
 his dying chamber, and asserting his manhood 
 and the right to govern and control his own 
 children even with his last breath. All honour to 
 the man who so acted. He died without the 
 ghostly aid of priestcraft, and preserved his man- 
 hood and independence in spite of all the threats 
 and terrors of Rome. His death may be con- 
 sidered as a triumph over superstition and priestly 
 tyranny, and his example may well inspire his 
 Roman Catholic brethren of all classes with 
 courage and hope. The language used by Arch- 
 bishop Vaughan at Balrnain makes one almost 
 believe that he is lost to all sense of what is due 
 to the law which protects him. This was the 
 opinion of men, uttered at every street corner, 
 many of them expressing a belief that the speech 
 was extravagant and dangerous to the public 
 peace. When we consider how much the speaker 
 relied upon the ignorance of the people he was 
 addressing, and how unique and extraordinary 
 were his interpretations of history, no one could 
 avoid the conclusion that his passion ran away 
 with his reason, and left him not altogether 
 responsible for what he said. Here is an 
 example of the language he used : " I will not 
 conceal from you, or from myself, that there are 
 signs in the heavens of that which of all things 
 else in a free country is likely to produce such a 
 storm as no bishop or priest would be able to avert. 
 I refer to the spirit of tyranny and persecution 
 that seems as if they were about to be unchained/' 
 JSow, surely, this is unpardonable language to be
 
 ARCHBISHOP V A UGH AN. l-2'J 
 
 used to a mob of excited people, and all because 
 the Government think fit, in the interest of the 
 people's well-being, to establish a system of public 
 education \vhichpeople inay either take advantage 
 of or not, just as they please. One would think 
 the Government was passing an Act to compel 
 Roman Catholics to enter the Public Schools on 
 pain of imprisonment. As matters stand, if the 
 threatened storm came at all, it would come from 
 the Roman Catholics themselves, and, in that case, 
 we wanted neither bishop nor archbishop to avert it. 
 The powers that be were quite sufficient for that 
 purpose, and they would no longer be deserving 
 of that appellation if they were not. The Arch- 
 bishop talked of the impending storm in a style 
 that led us to believe that his object was intimida- 
 tion, because the inference clearly was that if the 
 bishops and archbishop were powerless to avert 
 the storm, no other power could do so, and the 
 people would therefore be left at its mercy. If 
 this threatened storm should ever come, which 
 there is not the slightest fear of, Archbishop 
 Vaughan will get his eyes opened at the ease with 
 which it will be dispelled, and its elements scattered 
 to the four winds, without the slightest aid from, 
 bishop or archbishop whose spirit I imagine would 
 rather inspire and animate the storm, than attempt 
 to allay it. Let honourable gentlemen just listen 
 to this passage from the speech in question : 
 " What did we suffer as slaves and helots for at 
 home ? Because we preferred torture and death to 
 acting against our conscience, and to be butchered 
 ami disembowelled rather than allow those for 
 whom we were responsible to be tampered with in 
 their faith. We hoped that we had escaped from 
 all forms of tyranny and persecution by coming
 
 130 AN AUSTRALIAN OR A TOE. 
 
 so far away, where we were told that all were 
 equal and all were free. The end of the more 
 brutal form of persecution and of the more culti- 
 vated is one, it is to destroy our holy religion. I 
 believe the scientific method is more effective, and 
 I believe more odious, than the more expeditious 
 way of tearing out the heart and bowels of a living 
 and grown man." I ask the honourable members 
 of this House if they can imagine more outrageous 
 language than this, addressed as it was to an 
 excited multitude, and plainly intimating that our 
 enlightened and beneficent education law was more 
 odious and cruel in its operation than " tearing 
 out the heart and bowels of a living and grown 
 man." This Archbishop seemed very familiar with 
 the process of disembowelling people and tearing 
 out their hearts. Probably he remembered that 
 this was a favourite recreation and pastime of 
 popes, cardinals, and archbishops in bygone times, 
 and hence the readiness with which those super- 
 fine appliances suggest themselves to the simple 
 and innocent mind of Archbishop Vaughan. It 
 was immediately after the utterance of this passage 
 that he went on to describe an instrument of 
 torture called the <c scavenger's daughter," and 
 again compared our educational law to the opera- 
 tion of this instrument in crushing out the faith 
 of the people. How implicitly this priest relied 
 upon the ignorance of his auditors. Let me 
 ask him who invented those implements of torture ? 
 Not only the " scavenger's daughter/' but the 
 scavenger himself, and a long ancestry of the 
 same breed? If he wished to go to the grand 
 armoury of all sorts of implements of mutilation, 
 torture, and maltreatment, let him go to the 
 Vatican. That was where they originated, and
 
 ARCHBISHOP VAUGHAN. 131 
 
 where they were stored ready for use even in this 
 nineteenth century. Archbishop Vaughan seemed 
 to be ignorant of history, or he presumed upon the 
 ignorance of the people to an incalculable extent, 
 when he had the temerity to speak of implements 
 of torture with the history of his Church before 
 his eyes. The sighs and groans of the many 
 victims who have writhed under the tortures of 
 the Inquisition have not yet died away, and cannot 
 be forgotten. What in the name of truth and 
 fact is the history of the papacy? Was it not 
 one long history of cruelty, torture, mutilation, 
 and every conceivable refinement of human suffer- 
 ing? Was not that its true history from the very 
 day of its inauguration, or, more correctly speak- 
 ing, its apostasy ? Nobody would dare deny this ; 
 nobody could deny it. Just let the dungeons of 
 the Inquisition be opened, at any period of its 
 history, and look at the poor, mangled, groaning 
 victims trembling in every fibre under the rack and 
 thumb-screw. And who were the authors of all 
 this dastardly work? Let the answer be pro- 
 claimed to the four winds. The priests of the 
 Church of this very Archbishop. All history spoke 
 loudly of its infamy, and yet here, in this en- 
 lightened city of Sydney, this Archbishop had the 
 barefaced insolence to prate about implements of 
 torture. The Church of Rome was ingenious in 
 the invention of implements to produce and prolong 
 human agony. And to whom were those infernal 
 machines applied ? They were applied notably to 
 men of genius, whose grand intellects had made 
 discoveries for the benefit of humanity; and it 
 was because they would not recant their faith in 
 their discoveries, which conflicted with the super- 
 stitions of Rome, that those terrible appliances of
 
 132 AN AUSTRALIAN ORATOR. 
 
 torture and death were brought to bear on them. 
 No Government, no State, no church, no organiza- 
 tion of any kind had so signalized itself by cruel 
 relentless torture and persecution as had the 
 Church of Rome. This is a fact known to in- 
 telligent mankind, and can neither be gainsaid or 
 denied. And yet this man, Archbishop Vaughan, 
 talked of the persecution he had suffered, talked of 
 himself as a helot and a slave coming from England 
 where, for the last fifty years, a Liberal Govern- 
 ment had been in the van in lifting off disabilities 
 from all sects from Dissenters and Jews, as well 
 as from Roman Catholics. All this must be known 
 to Dr. Vaughan, and his speech at Balmain couhi 
 have been intended for no other purpose but to 
 inflame the minds of his hearers against the edu- 
 cation law of this country. Anyone who knew 
 the history of the world must be filled with abso- 
 lute wonder on reading this speech of Archbishop 
 Vaughan's. Did he forget the terror and agonies 
 of that awful St. Bartholomew's night when wild 
 massacre ran riot ? Did he forget that that was 
 the result of a Popish plot, which was planned and 
 deliberated upon for years before it was executed ? 
 Did he forget that, with the sanction and authority 
 of the Pope, a body of innocent people, men, 
 women, and children, in the dead of night, when 
 helpless and asleep in bed, at a given signal, were 
 ruthlessly slaughtered and mangled by the most 
 detestable and cowardly acts ever perpetrated 
 under the silent stars of heaven? Did Archbishop 
 Vaughan forget these things, or did he think that 
 we could ever forget them ? The record of that 
 bloody massacre gleamed in lurid flames from the 
 world's past history, and would not suffer itself to 
 be extinguished. It would never be erased from
 
 ARCHBISHOP VAUGHAN. 133 
 
 the memory of man, but would stand out high 
 and conspicuous above every event of history, an 
 everlasting monument of the cruelty, cowardice, 
 and infamy of the Church of Rome. But retribu- 
 tion had followed and continues, and ever will con- 
 tinue to follow, as the intelligent reader of history 
 cannot fail to observe, seen in the fact, as a great 
 writer has remarked, that the streets and gutters 
 of the city of that massacre had since periodi- 
 cally run red with the blood of archbishops and 
 priests, thus marking the universal hatred of 
 the act which lived, and ever will live, in 
 the human heart. It would occupy too much 
 time were I to go into the history of the enor- 
 mities of this Church. Its whole history was 
 one long dark night of cruelty and oppression, 
 blasphemy and bloodshed. Archbishop Vaughan 
 told the people at Balmain that he was ready to 
 spill his blood in the cause. I suppose he meant 
 the cause of resisting our education law. The 
 Archbishop said this when surrounded by a 
 number of friends and when danger was very far 
 away. But when the time of blood-spilling comes, 
 if it ever comes, it will probably require a pair of 
 very sharp eyes to light upon Dr. Vaughan within 
 a mile of it. He is not the man to incur any 
 risks dangerous to the comforts and luxuries of 
 his very easy life. But he had an admirable 
 opportunity of serving his poor flock without spil- 
 ling his blood. We see him rolling along every 
 day in a rich equipage drawn by two horses I 
 suppose in imitation of the A postles. Why does 
 he not sell his carriage and horses, and give the 
 proceeds to the poor ? That would be a means of 
 serving the poor Archbishop Vaughan could easily 
 avail himself of. But no, he preferred to keep his
 
 134 AN AUSTRALIAN OPAWR. 
 
 chariot. Dr. Vaughan claimed to be a successor 
 of the Apostles. We had received some very 
 grand lessons from the Apostles. Their history 
 was the most glorious extant. But they never 
 kept carriages and horses, and drove about the 
 flowery paths of life, ending in some luxurious 
 and comfortable Apostolic palace. We had also 
 the fact recorded that they never received pay- 
 ment for what they did. The Apostle Paul gave 
 us some information as to what he got in return 
 for his splendid services. Here was a portion of 
 the payment he got : " Of the Jews five times I 
 received forty stripes save one." That was a 
 species of thirty-nine articles that modern arch- 
 bishops and bishops were not familiar with. 
 " Thrice was I beaten with rods, once was I 
 stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck, a night and a 
 day I have been in the deep, in journeyings often, 
 in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils 
 of mine own countrymen, in perils by the heathen, 
 in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in 
 perils among false brethren, in weariness, in pain- 
 fulness, in watchings, often in hunger and thirst 
 in fastings, often in cold and nakedness." In 
 this beautiful and pathetic language the Apostle 
 Paul tells us of the reward he received ; neverthe- 
 less he did not flinch or shrink from his work, but 
 went through it all and on to his ignominious 
 death with a steadfastness and unalterable courage 
 that surrounds his name with a halo of imperish- 
 able glory, enabling us to draw a mighty distinc- 
 tion between the grandeur of his life and death 
 and the insolent hypocrisy of his pretended suc- 
 cessors. What a difference between the life 
 of the Apostle Paul and the life of this Arch- 
 bishop. And what a hollow mockery and
 
 ARCHBISHOP VAUGHAN. 135 
 
 si i allow deception it was on his part to talk of 
 shedding his blood when no one was desirous of 
 interfering with him in the slightest degree. 
 Every intelligent, upright, honest man who read 
 and understood his Bible must come to the con- 
 clusion that modern sacerdotalism was a delusion, 
 a mockery, and a most egregious snare. Well, 
 this Archbishop, it seemed, was going to declare 
 war ! That was the sum and substance of his 
 speech so far as we could see. I do not under- 
 stand how it was that none of the Archbishop's 
 friends took him in hand to see to his protection. 
 I know that the Archbishop is surrounded by 
 Irish priests who do not like him, and perhaps the 
 reason why they did nothing to protect him was 
 because they were following the principle that if 
 they allowed him a sufficiency of rope the desired 
 consummation would be secured. But whether 
 that were so or not I ask the intelligent Roman 
 Catholics of this community whether they were 
 prepared any longer to endure the insolence of a 
 dictation which deprives them of the right to 
 send their own children to what school they 
 please ? Did they not know that their children 
 in our Public Schools were being made accom- 
 plished men and women, that they were receiving 
 a good education, and, knowing that, would they 
 for one moment surrender their manhood into the 
 hands of men who have no right to demand such 
 a sacrifice, and which cannot be granted without 
 degradation and the forfeiture of self-respect and 
 everything bearing the semblance of honour and 
 manly independence. I appeal to the Bomau 
 Catholics, in whom I feel a deep interest, not to 
 allow themselves to be trodden down in this way, 
 and I feel sure that if they resist oppression,
 
 136 AN AUSTRALIAN ORATOR. 
 
 above all, the oppression that interferes with the 
 government of their own children, they will be 
 happier men and women, with happier homes, 
 adorned by more enlightened and accomplished 
 children. I have felt it my duty to bring this 
 matter under the notice of the House. I think 
 Archbishop Vaughan has used language alto- 
 gether unjustifiable in this Balmain address. It 
 seems to me that nothing but misery can follow 
 such ill-judged harangues, which may lead those 
 who listen to them into misery and wretchedness, 
 because so sure as they come into collision with 
 the law so sure will punishment follow. If such 
 language as I have referred to is persisted in by 
 Archbishop Vaughan, or any archbishop or bishop, 
 I hope the Government will adopt means to pro- 
 tect society from such a danger, and to bring the 
 offenders to justice, whoever and whatever they 
 may be. (Loud cheers.)
 
 LICENSING BILL. 
 
 :[ON the 2nd June, 1880, Sir Henry Parkes moved the second 
 reading of the Licensing Bill, on which occasion Mr. 
 Buchanan delivered the following speech : ] 
 
 I DO not think the Premier can be congratulated 
 upon the Bill he has introduced, or upon the 
 speech with which he has moved the second read- 
 ing. The speech seems to me to be strangely 
 inconsistent, as well as, in some degree, inco- 
 herent. The English statistics to which the 
 honourable member has appealed are not of any 
 moment or value. They only prove that in 
 seasons of prosperity, when the people's pockets 
 were overflowing with money, they drank more 
 than they did when they were empty. The state- 
 ments the honourable gentleman made about 
 America were as surprising to me as they would 
 be to anyone else who has visited that country. 
 I noticed nothing more notable in San Francisco 
 than the fact that if you go to an office there to 
 transact any business you are immediately asked 
 to adjourn to the bar of a public-house, and there
 
 138 AN AUSTRALIAN ORATOR. 
 
 the business is done. The statement of the- 
 Premier that the Americans do not drink at 
 meals is without a shadow of foundation. The 
 action of the State of Maine has been referred to, 
 but everyone knows that the people of that State 
 quickly discovered the folly and absurdity to which 
 they had committed themselves, and had to retrace 
 their steps. Now there is as much liquor consumed 
 in the State of Maine as in any other part of the 
 United States. But, notwithstanding all these 
 statements, I contend that the consumption of drink 
 in America is very much the same as in England; 
 and that in England it is about the same, in 
 proportion to numbers, as it is in New South 
 Wales. In spite of all that you can do that 
 consumption will continue, with little alteration, 
 till the end of time. But just let us for a moment 
 consider the inconsistent position occupied by the 
 Premier in reference to this matter. He says that 
 the liquor trade is encouraging intemperance all 
 over the country these are his exact words. If 
 that is so, why does he bring in a Bill to legalise 
 such a trade, to encourage it by stamping it with 
 legal approval ? The Premier's statement is equiva- 
 lent to saying that a trade which directly occasions 
 domestic disruption, desolation, and ruin, leading to 
 the loss of health, employment, character, self- 
 repect, and the multiplicity of evils which natur- 
 ally follow in the wake of such a state of things, 
 should be carried on with all the sanction and 
 authority that law can give it. The Premier of 
 this country, who has introduced this Bill, has 
 introduced a Bill which, on his own showing, will 
 legalise a trade that encourages intemperance all 
 over the country ; in the name of morality and all 
 that is righteous, if the Premier believes this,
 
 LICENSING BILL. 139 
 
 why does he introduce such a Bill? Surely he 
 would perform his duty more faithfully, would be 
 truer to himself and his opinions if he introduced 
 a Bill to put an end to the trade altogether ? The 
 question arises either this trade is legitimate or 
 illegitimate. If it is illegitimate, let it be put a 
 stop to at once. For my part I think it just as 
 legitimate as any other trade, and on that ground 
 I cannot see the justice of demanding a license 
 fee to carry it on. The Bill before the House 
 does not attempt in a single instance to do what 
 might be done by a Government who understood 
 the question and its duty in reference to it. The 
 object of the Government should be to license 
 houses kept by men of high character, the houses 
 containing ample accommodation, rather than to 
 harass the trade with innumerable annoyances 
 and petty degrading insults at the hands of police 
 officers. It is a most outrageous thing that you 
 license a person of admitted respectability and 
 character to carry on this business, charging him 
 a heavy fee annually for so doing, while, at the 
 same time, you let loose the police upon him to 
 break down his door at any hour of the night ; 
 the police, by this Bill, being authorised to do so 
 if there is any undue delay in opening the door 
 when called on, the undue delay being a matter 
 for the judgment of the police. How can you 
 hope for men of character to take their families 
 into a house exposed to an outrage and degrada- 
 tion of this description ? I am sure such things 
 will not be countenanced by any member of this 
 House who understands and respects liberty. The 
 Bill does not attempt to put down mere drinking 
 kennels or shanties, in fact it encourages them by 
 authorising the magistrates, if they think right,
 
 140 AN AUSTRALIAN ORATOR. 
 
 to dispense with every necessary accommodation, 
 so that, under the Bill, a public-house may be 
 licensed with nothing but a bar to drink at, and 
 thus the worst defect of the present system is 
 retained, the Bill leaving untouched the lowest 
 type of drinking dens. This trade might be made 
 a great comfort and advantage to the public if 
 only first-class hotels were licensed, and all mere 
 drinking houses swept away. If men of character 
 and respectability applied for licenses for any 
 houses having the necessary accommodation, the 
 licenses should be granted without fee of any 
 kind. I cannot see on what principle of justice 
 this trade should be singled out for special taxa- 
 tion, a taxation from which all other trades are 
 exempt. The Premier will probably justify the 
 tax by saying that we are dealing with a trade 
 which is demoralising and ruinous to the best 
 interests of the people. I hear some honourable 
 gentlemen cheer this remark ; but if this is true, 
 why do you license it ? What can we think of 
 men, who, holding such opinions, give their votes 
 to license a trade that brings desolation and ruin 
 upon large masses of the people, and undermines 
 and saps the foundations of human virtue and 
 integrity ? This is an important measure, but its 
 provisions are such as could never have been 
 devised by any person who had the slightest ap- 
 preciation of what was due to the free and 
 intelligent society that surrounds him. Just let 
 me shortly point out a few of the very gross 
 things that this Bill contains. Under the 8th 
 clause a witness who refuses to be sworn is to be 
 liable to sixty days' imprisonment, and so also is 
 a witness who absents himself when called upon 
 to give evidence. The man may be detained by
 
 LICENSING BILL. HI 
 
 illness, and not be able to attend, and yet he is to 
 be liable to a fine of 50, or sixty days' imprison- 
 ment, if he fails to appear. If a witness be 
 disrespectful to the chairman of the licensing 
 In,: ml, probably some inflated blockhead who may 
 have no proper idea of the responsibility of his 
 position, or what really constitutes disrespect, a 
 penalty of sixty days' imprisonment is the con- 
 sequence. The proposal which the Premier, in in- 
 troducing the Bill, seemed to justify namely, that 
 a policeman shall have the power to break into a 
 public-house if the landlord does not open, the 
 door promptly is a detestable power, and I 
 cannot imagine how any Minister of the Crown 
 could deliberately sit down and draw a clause so 
 arbitrary and oppressive. The publican may be 
 fast asleep in bed, in the dead of night, and if he 
 does not promptly answer the summons of the 
 policeman, which he cannot hear, he is to be 
 subject to this outrage. The Bill goes on to 
 provide that the holder of a license shall not be 
 allowed to supply liquor to a prostitute ; but how 
 is he to know a prostitute if one comes into his 
 house ? and is it because she is a prostitute that 
 she is not to be allowed a glass of liquor ? If 
 this is the reason, it would be equally valid in 
 preventing her being supplied with meat from, 
 the butcher or bread from the baker. It is 
 this pitiful, wretched meddling with the rights 
 of people that I most complain of in this Bill. 
 The ignorance displayed by the friends of it is 
 superlative, and those cruel and galling attempts 
 to interfere with the rational liberty of individuals 
 meet you at every turn. I would prefer that the 
 matter of granting licenses should be placed in 
 the hands of the District Court Judges j but, if a
 
 142 AN AUSTRALIAN ORATOR. 
 
 Board is preferred, as the Bill takes all sorts of 
 care that no one having any interest in public- 
 houses should sit upon it, it would be only justice 
 to exclude teetotalers. This Bill, it will be 
 observed, deals with a variety of matters besides 
 the liquor traffic, greatly to its detriment. It 
 would have been well had the Bill dealt with 
 liquor licenses only, but no one can blind his eyes 
 to the fact that this measure aims at putting an 
 end to the Sunday evening lectures which have 
 for some time past been delivered at the different 
 theatres in Sydney. Those lectures, I am in- 
 formed, because I never attended any of them, 
 affect to deny the Christian religion. Yielding 
 to no man in respect, veneration, and love for the 
 simple beauty of that religion, I think we can all 
 very well afford to allow all opinions free scope. 
 To attempt to coerce or put down any adverse 
 opinion by any other weapon than fair argument, 
 is at variance with the spirit of the age, and 
 should be discountenanced by all lovers of free 
 speech. The days of pains and penalties for the 
 free expression of one's thoughts have long since 
 passed away, although the spirit of those dark 
 times seems to be revived in the clauses of this 
 Bill which strike at these theatre lectures. Accord- 
 ing to the Bill, lecture halls must be licensed, and 
 if not licensed the lecturer must have permission 
 from the Colonial Secretary before he can deliver 
 his opinions to the public. This seems a retro- 
 grade and barbarous movement, a pandering on 
 the part of those responsible for this Bill to the 
 narrowest and bitterest spirit of persecution. The 
 same spirit that would close a man's mouth against 
 the free utterance of his thoughts would enclose his 
 body within the four walls of a prison, or burn it at
 
 LICENSING BILL. 143 
 
 the stake, in pursuance of their dark and be- 
 nighted intolerance. The truth has nothing to 
 fear ; the more it comes in contact with false 
 opinions the more certain is their destruction. 
 Tree inquiry should be everywhere encouraged, 
 and will go on in spite of the combined despotisms 
 of the world, as well as the small tyranny of this 
 very contemptible little Bill. The Premier, in his 
 speech, seemed to argue against these Sunday 
 lecturers being allowed to continue their lectures 
 because, he argued, as the people won't suffer the 
 plays of Shakespeare to be performed on Sunday 
 nights, he did not see the justice of allowing 
 lectures to be delivered on that night denying the 
 truth of the Christian religion. I question very 
 much whether the people would object to the 
 plays of Shakespeare being performed on Sunday 
 nights ; but even suppose they did, that would be 
 no valid reason for closing the theatres against 
 accomplished and intellectual men, speculating 
 upon the truth or falsehood of all that is offered 
 for the acceptance of human belief. It would be 
 well for all parties concerned to meet the conclu- 
 sions of free inquiry and put them down, if they 
 can, by argumentative force and not by brute 
 force, and I, for one, believe that, in such an en- 
 counter, the grand truths of the Christian religion 
 have nothing to fear. The plays of Shakespeare 
 are among the best educational agencies of which 
 we have any knowledge, and any man who pur- 
 poses to perform the great works of the English 
 dramatists ought to be allowed to do so without a 
 license. This oppressive principle of the Bill has 
 been extended to concerts and ball-rooms, and is 
 a most harsh and uncalled-for interference with 
 the innocent enjoyments of the people. The
 
 144 AN AUSTRALIAN ORATOR. 
 
 House ought to exact an apology from the Premier 
 for putting such provisions into the Bill, provisions 
 worthy of the ages of persecution, when argument 
 was answered by imprisonment and death, and 
 the right of free speech strangled by a wild and 
 savage fanaticism. Although this Bill deals with 
 these important matters spoken of, still, in the 
 main, it is intended to settle the principles upon 
 which this drink traffic shall be suffered to con- 
 tinue. One would think this a simple enough 
 matter, and so it would be if the Government 
 would only license respectable houses, of ample ac- 
 commodation, kept by respectable men, and, above 
 all, see to the establishment of a system by which 
 the adulteration of the liquor sold shall be con- 
 stituted a crime, and punished with imprisonment. 
 It would be also an advantage, which I observe 
 the Bill recognises, to see to the size of the 
 measures used by the publican in serving out his 
 liquor. There have, of late years, been some ex- 
 traordinary inroads upon the standard measures, 
 inroads which have always tended to diminish the 
 size of the vessel used. I observed, no later than 
 this very day, this sort of measure used in a public- 
 house, and so struck was I with its insignificance, 
 that I brought it away with me for exhibition in 
 this House, and here it is. Now I ask honourable 
 members did they ever see a more miserable, 
 attenuated, consumptive-looking abortive article; 
 one feels horrified at such an abomination when 
 the days of pints and quarts are remembered, and 
 I am glad to observe the Bill enforces a return to 
 those substantial measures. In what I have said 
 I have pointed out only a few of the defects of 
 the Bill, and I know the honourable member for 
 the Lower Hunter will supply what I have omitted.
 
 LICENSING BILL. 145 
 
 The principle of the Bill is radically wrong, and 
 the details are such that they will continue the 
 very defects that the Bill was introduced for the 
 purpose of abolishing. Let me say a word or two 
 to the teetotalers before I conclude. This class 
 of society seem to suppose that it is the number of 
 public-houses that creates the demand for drink 
 it is exactly the opposite. Surely all reasonable 
 men will admit that it is the demand for drink 
 that creates the public-houses. Suppose there are 
 100 public-houses in the principal street in Sydney ; 
 if you close fifty of them what result do you bring 
 about? The teetotalers tell you that by such a 
 procedure you reduce the consumption of drink 
 one-half, but common sense tells you that you do 
 nothing of the kind ; but more likely you leave 
 the consumption of drink exactly as it was, with 
 this difference that you drive the consumption of 
 the fifty houses you abolish into the coffers of the 
 fifty you allow to remain. In the language of a 
 celebrated writer, those advocates of the reduction 
 of the number of public-houses, believing that by 
 so doing they reduce the consumption of drink, 
 " mistake the cataract that breaks the stream for 
 the fountain from which it springs, and are con- 
 tent to refer the fruit to the blossom without 
 taking into consideration the germination of the 
 seed and the underground working of the root." 
 Of course, if you reduced the number of public- 
 houses to a large extent its effect upon the con- 
 sumption would be felt, but I believe a reduction 
 of even thirty per cent, would occasion no percep- 
 tible difference in the consumption. You may 
 reason as you like, but to the end of time you will 
 never be rid of sin, you will never be rid of misery, 
 and rely upon it that men will murder themselves 
 
 L
 
 146 AN AUSTRALIAN ORATOR. 
 
 by excess in drink as by other excesses, as long as 
 the world lasts. Remove every public-house from 
 this city to-morrow, and innumerable private stills 
 will be established where poisonous drinks will be 
 fabricated, detracting infinitely more from the 
 well-being of humanity than the trade as it now 
 stands would do were it doubled or trebled. As 
 1( ng as you have to deal with this world you will 
 have to deal with poor, frail, struggling humanity. 
 You will have to deal with men who have not the 
 firmness to resist the temptations of drink. You 
 may persuade the drunkard, and rescue him from 
 his danger and distress by making him a total 
 abstainer the only hope for him but you will 
 never succeed by imposing severe restrictions, 
 even if these restrictions are upheld by all the 
 solemnity that attaches to an Act of Parliament. 
 If the public-houses are not called into existence 
 by the demand for drink, any number of them 
 can' do no harm. Men don't drink in consequence 
 of the presence of a public-house; they drink 
 from inclination, strong in some men, liable to 
 become a disease in others, and a disease charac- 
 terized by an insatiable and devouring craving 
 which hurries its victims to sure and certain 
 perdition. This excess carries its own remedy 
 with it. If the unspeakable tortures of the ordeal 
 do not, with frightful agonies, drive the unhappy 
 victims back to total abstinence, and consequent 
 safety, the horrors of a painful and terrible death, 
 either in the madhouse or the gutter, will drop the 
 curtain upon a picture not more tragic than it is 
 appalling. As far as I have observed, and I have 
 given much thought to this subject, there are 
 three classes of drinkers. There is a very large 
 class, in all countries, who do not care for drink
 
 LICENSING BILL. 147 
 
 in the least degree, who have rather an aversion 
 to it than otherwise, although they take a glass 
 when it is going. They have no liking for it, and 
 seldom take more than one or two glasses at a 
 time. There is another very large class, every- 
 where to be met with, who like good wine, who 
 have an infinite relish for it, enjoy it with rare 
 gusto, and take it as regularly as they take their 
 food, and, to all appearances, with as much advan- 
 tage. They never dream of excess, and mean to 
 end as they begun. Millions in every large 
 country reach extreme old age under such a 
 regimen. These two classes form the bulk of 
 every country, and would be in no degree injured 
 if every second house was a public-house in the 
 towns where they are resident. There is also a 
 third class, comparatively a very small class, who, 
 from some cause or other, speedily fall victims 
 to this their deadly enemy. They cannot control 
 themselves drink seems to deteriorate and destroy 
 every good quality in them. They have no happiness 
 but in excess. Moderation is hateful and painful 
 to them. Their nature and disposition, originally 
 good, become corrupted ; all their finer feelings 
 obliterated, their moral perceptions blunted, all 
 delicacy and sensibility destroyed, and nothing left 
 them but an overpowering and ungovernable desire 
 for the accursed thing that has brought such ruin 
 and destruction upon them body and soul. I do 
 not care how originally pure and honourable a 
 man's nature may have been, a persistence in this 
 course of excess will metamorphose him to a 
 felon ; will force him to the performance of acts 
 from which at one time he would have shrunk as 
 from a loathsome leprosy; will sink him to the 
 lowest depths of grovelling meanness, and often
 
 ' 
 
 148 AN AUSTRALIAN ORATOR. 
 
 leave him no door through, which to pass away 
 save that opened to him by suicide, the madhouse, 
 or the gallows. Well, then, this is the class for 
 which the advocates of total abstinence work, and 
 for which such measures as the one we are now 
 considering are forced upon us as a necessity. The 
 public-houses, as I have already said, are harm- 
 less and powerless to do the other two classes the 
 slightest injury, and I would, in solemn earnest- 
 ness, ask what possible chance have you of serving 
 this third class unless you could shut up every 
 public-house in the land ? If one remained the 
 drunkard would be served, even if he had to climb 
 mountains and swim rivers to reach the spot. 
 For this class there is only one remedy, but it is a 
 most effective one, namely, strict and inviolable 
 total abstinence. This can save them nothing else 
 can. Legislation can effect nothing here. Those 
 who trust to it to save the class I am speaking of, 
 are trusting to a falsely grounded hope. The 
 drunkard who is reformed is driven into the 
 harbour of reformation by insufferable pain and 
 terror ; if he is not so driven, he is driven to hell 
 with a thousand demons at his heels, expiring 
 amidst the most appalling surroundings and 
 accompaniments. The man who weathers a 
 storm of this description thinks twice before he 
 again exposes himself to the same disaster. If 
 the lesson is thrown away upon him, and he con- 
 tinues his drunkenness, it will be repeated with 
 the horrors and ills of it deepened and intensified, 
 resulting in a bitter and tragic -end. The fate of 
 the drunkard is so terrible that all good men pity 
 and deplore it. When once a young man finds 
 this habit of drinking gaining upon him, if he is 
 wise he will turn his back upon it for ever, or he
 
 LICENSING BILL. 149 
 
 may rest assured it will overwhelm him. I am 
 sure honourable members of this House will 
 excuse me if I try to picture the beginning and 
 end of the drunkard, in the hope of inspiring 
 terror and alarm in the minds of those who may 
 be approaching the threshold of this fatal path. 
 A young man of decent and honest parents begins 
 life with high hopes and expectations. He is 
 most attentive and devoted to business, and stands 
 high in the opinion of his employer, as well as all 
 who know him. He is always dressed with 
 punctilious neatness, and is seldom to be found 
 absent from his home after business hours. He 
 is high-spirited and manly in all his acts, and 
 everywhere a favourite. From some cause or 
 other, not easily discoverable, an entire change 
 comes over his whole conduct. He has taken to 
 drinking habits, a thing unknown to him before; 
 he is seen to frequent public- houses at nights 
 where no possible chance ever found him a short 
 time previously ; by-and-bye he is never to be 
 seen anywhere else of an evening. Those habits 
 and late hours soon begin to tell on him. He is 
 often not punctual at his business in the morning ; 
 sometimes late hours and drink prevent him 
 appearing at all. He has now to drink through 
 the day, and is frequently absent from duty for 
 that purpose ; those absences bring the eye of 
 his employer upon him ; he is spoken to severely 
 on the subject, which drives him to despair and 
 greater excess ; it ends at last in his dismissal, 
 with a lost character, broken health, and ruined 
 hopes. He is now a pitiable object, wandering 
 about from public-house to public-house without 
 purpose or object, his appearance bleared and 
 blighted, his sunken blood-shot eyes and bloated
 
 150 AN AUSTRALIAN ORATOR. 
 
 face the very image of haggard misery. His 
 dress, formerly so neat and clean, is now dirty, 
 tawdry, and slovenly, and only serves to intensify 
 and bring out in strong relief the fatal ravages of 
 excess. He seems to be entranced chained down 
 to absolute inaction, and powerless to make the 
 slightest effort towards his emancipation from a 
 thraldom so degrading, or to strike one solitary 
 blow in furtherance of his restoration to honour- 
 able and manly action. Alas ! what a picture, 
 visible, no doubt, everywhere, as well as here in 
 Sydney. The end of this unfortunate being's sad 
 history is not far to seek. His whole business in 
 life is now drink ; he emerges from his wretched 
 home in the early morning and crawls to the 
 public-house for drink food is his aversion ; he 
 sits there the whole blessed day, the very picture 
 of a drivelling idiot which excess has reduced him 
 to. He seems powerless to move, and is only 
 roused from his lethargy that the house may be 
 shut up. He makes an effort to stand and steady 
 himself, and, having armed himself with a bottle 
 of spirits, he reels onwards to his dismal home ; 
 having arrived there, without an attempt to 
 undress, he falls heavily on his wretched bed, 
 clothes, boots, hat, and all, and is soon in a state 
 of apoplectic stupor, instead of the " innocent sleep 
 that knits up the ravelled sleeve of care/' In 
 this perturbed state all manner of loathsome 
 shapes and things, and wild, hideous phantas- 
 magoria pass through his fevered and troubled 
 brain. In the excess of unbearable suffering he 
 starts to his feet, affrighted, with an alarming 
 and agonizing cry, trembling from head to foot, 
 and perspiring at every pore. He gropes about
 
 LICENSING BILL. 151 
 
 for the bottle of raw spirits he brought home with 
 him, seizes it with avidity, gulps down the half of 
 it, and falls back senseless on his bed of exquisite 
 torture. This cannot last long: convulsions soon 
 seize him, and, while writhing in one of the 
 fiercest paroxysms, he is at last laid at rest, and 
 lies there a ghastly corpse, with an expression on 
 his dead face that might appal the devil. The 
 most melancholy feature in all this is, that if 
 such an unfortunate has a mother near, I think I 
 can see her, as the body moves slowly away to its 
 last home, holding up her hands in silent thanks- 
 giving to Heaven that the grave has at last closed 
 over all that remains of a son who was only an 
 eye-sore and a disgrace to her and a nuisance and 
 a misery to himself and everyone else, while she 
 is painfully conscious that the poor misguided, 
 helpless victim has left this world "abhorred, 
 self-hated, hopeless for the next, his life a burden 
 and his death a fear." Those who think that 
 such measures as the one now under considera- 
 tion, or any legislation whatever, can reach the 
 class here spoken of, and represented by the 
 picture I have attempted to paint in colours not a 
 whit too vivid, will speedily find out their mistake. 
 If the tortures of excess do not cure the victim, 
 there is nothing so certain than that they will 
 kill, and it is equally certain that, as long as the 
 world lasts, men will discard the lessons of ex- 
 perience and perish miserably under this influence, 
 so ruinous and destructive to humanity. I cannot 
 see my way to support the Bill before the House. 
 Its irritating and impolitic intermeddling with 
 the business and everyday rights of the people, 
 its unnecessary interference in matters that
 
 1 52 A N A US TRALIAN OR A TOR. 
 
 might well be left alone, the arbitrary and 
 oppressive spirit -which characterizes it all 
 through, must be hateful to every enlightened 
 member of this House, and as a necessary conse- 
 quence meet with their unequivocal condemna- 
 tion. 
 
 [The Government withdrew the Bill at the con- 
 clusion of the debate.]
 
 SUPPLEMENTARY FINANCIAL STATE- 
 MENT. 
 
 fOx the 16th Jnne, 1880, the Treasurer made a Supplementary 
 Financial Statement, in which he proposed an export tax 
 upon wool, a tax upon stock, and a tax upon coal. Mr. 
 Buchanan addressed the House as follows, on those propo- 
 sals : J 
 
 Sin HENRY PARKES is the Premier of a Free Trade 
 Government, he calls himself a Freetrader, he, in 
 fact, has received the Cobden medal, which, by- 
 the-bye, after what has happened, I would advise 
 him to return without delay ; and now just let me 
 "bring under the notice of the House what this so- 
 called Free Trade Government has done within the 
 last few months. What I say of the Government 
 is this, that being, notoriously, professed Free- 
 traders the truths of Protection have gained such 
 an ascendancy, and commanded so much support 
 in the country that, in deference to this principle, 
 the Government is compelled to purchase what 
 machinery it wants from local manufacturers, in 
 order to give employment to our own mechanics, 
 although they say they can purchase the articles
 
 154 AN A USTR ALIA N OR A TOR. 
 
 cheaper from the importer. Protectionists could 
 do no more than this. The Government have just 
 placed an import duty on beer, and abandoned 
 their excise duties on the home-made article; this 
 is the very essence and soul of the protective prin- 
 ciple. The Government have also abandoned the 
 convention with South Australia, afraid of the 
 competition of that colony. They last week pro- 
 posed a royalty of so much a ton upon coal, but 
 being told that such a tax would act prejudicially 
 upon our rising industries, they changed it into an 
 export duty. Now, I ask this House what does all 
 this mean? You are mostly all Freetraders, and 
 yet you are insensibly forced to the adoption of 
 protective principles, from no pressure unless it be 
 the pressure of truth and plain common sense, 
 which leaves you no other alternative than to 
 follow their dictates. There is something in the 
 highest degree interesting in the spectacle of this 
 Tree Trade Parliament and Free Trade Govern- 
 ment forced to the adoption of the protective 
 principle under the pressure of the simple truth 
 that circumstances force upon them, and without 
 the presence of any strong protectionist party in 
 this House. No greater homage was ever paid to 
 the truth of the principles of Protection than to 
 see this powerful Free Trade Government adopt- 
 ing and putting them in force of their own free 
 will, as the only means left them by which the 
 prosperity of the country might be maintained, 
 and its credit upheld. The policy of the Protec- 
 tionists in this country is a very sound and simple 
 one. It is ad valorem duties, retrenchment, and a 
 fair rental for the public estate. If this policy 
 were adopted we could abolish the Stamp Act, 
 and we would require no other taxation than that
 
 FINANCIAL STATEMENT. 155 
 
 we receive through the Customs. But just look 
 at the position of this Free Trade Government, 
 and the inconsistencies and incoherencies it is in- 
 volved in. Does the injustice of the present pro- 
 posals of the Government not strike everyone as 
 absolutely monstrous? A class is to be singled 
 out for heavy and specific taxation. An export 
 duty on wool is to be levied, and a tax of so 
 much a head on sheep and cattle is to be inflicted 
 in violation of every known principle of taxation, 
 and to the extreme and unjustifiable injury of a 
 class of the community. The justification of all 
 this is, according to Sir Henry Parkes, that the 
 class in question does not pay an adequate rent 
 for their runs. They, at all events, pay all the 
 rent they are asked to pay, and if this is not suffi- 
 cient, surely it is not their fault, nor does it 
 redound much to the credit of the Government 
 that, while admitting that the rent paid by the 
 squatters is inadequate, they have never made the 
 slightest effort to raise it, but now, in a fit of 
 ignorant reckless desperation, strike at a special 
 class of the community and inflict it with a heavy 
 and direct burden, from which all other classes 
 are exempt, and this is done, forsooth, because it 
 has pleased the Premier to say that the Govern- 
 ment has resolved not to go to the Custom House 
 for any further taxation. I assert that this 
 singling out of any class of the community for 
 special taxation brands with complete incompe- 
 tency the authors of those financial proposals; 
 and the amusing part of it is that the Govern- 
 ment is forced to resort to those unjust, clumsy, 
 and ruinous propositions through the preposterous 
 fear that its Free Trade character would be com- 
 promised if it went to the Custom House for any
 
 156 AN AUSTRALIAN ORATOR. 
 
 further revenue, a Government which has already 
 purchased from the home manufacturers all the 
 machinery it wants, although it has to pay dearer 
 than it could get the same article from the im- 
 porter, and which shrinks from its original propo- 
 sal of a royalty on coal through the fear of 
 injuriously affecting our young rising iron indus- 
 tries, and which, while imposing an increased duty 
 on imported beer, abandoned its proposal to tax 
 the home-made article through the imposition of 
 excise duties. I think, after this, the less said 
 about the Free Trade character of the Govern- 
 ment the better. The Protectionist party is cer- 
 tainly not strong in this House at present, but I 
 believe it is strong, and growing in strength, in 
 the country. The Protectionist action of the 
 Government in the way I have pointed out has 
 certainly not been brought about by any formid- 
 able display of voting power on the part of the 
 few advocates of Protection in this House, but is 
 due entirely to the self-evident truths which the 
 Government, coming in contact with the veraci- 
 ties, has not failed to perceive. But a Government 
 which is neither Protectionist nor Free Trade, but 
 which may be driven by necessity to adopt or 
 violate either principle, is always a danger to the 
 community where it exists, and hence we find the 
 present Government, in its intellectual helpless- 
 ness and despair, driven to the injustice of 
 pouncing down upon a section, or class, of the 
 community, and fastening burdens upon them on 
 the ground, as they say, that they are rich and 
 can bear them. Is not this the argument of a 
 burglar? Surely this House will never consent to 
 these proposals, backed as they are by arguments 
 of this description. Taxation should light equally
 
 FINANCIAL STATEMENT, 157 
 
 on all classes, if possible, and no system of taxa- 
 tion seems to me so fair as ad valorem duties, 
 which, while bringing possibly a large revenue, 
 will undoubtedly stimulate the rise of various 
 manufacturing industries in the country. As our 
 In lid revenue has been frequently pointed to as an 
 evidence of our great prosperity and wealth under 
 Free Trade. I hold it to be my duty to take this 
 opportunity of thoroughly exposing this trans- 
 parent fallacy. Before I leave this part of the 
 subject, I believe I will make it clear that our 
 land revenue that is, the money derived from 
 the sale of our public lands is more a proof of 
 the unsoundness of our land law than anything 
 else. It is well known that we have had Govern- 
 ment after Government wilfully shutting their 
 eyes to the financial position of the country, and 
 recklessly going on with extravagant expenditure 
 when they knew that the condition of things was 
 rotten to the core. The sale of our lands for the 
 last six years, I am informed, brought in three 
 millions sterling per annum, and this we always 
 called revenue, which it, in reality, was not. 
 The statement that it was revenue was con- 
 stantly sent home to England, while we were 
 boastingly comparing our position with that of 
 our neighbours in Victoria, and gasconading 
 about the success of our Free Trade policy, as 
 shown by a revenue of five millions sterling. I 
 would here ask do those boasters ever ask 
 themselves what would have been the position of 
 Victoria had she been blessed with a territory as 
 large as ours, and could have raised three 
 millions sterling by the sale of land? As it is 
 Victoria is far ahead of us in every conceivable 
 way. She has more employment for her labourers
 
 158 AN AUSTRALIAN ORATOR. 
 
 and mechanics, and infinitely more activity in 
 trade, while manufacturing industry flourishes 
 there under the fostering and nourishing influence 
 of Protection. But the question I would like 
 strangers to understand is, what do these exten- 
 sive land sales of ours represent ? The people in 
 England most erroneously imagine that they 
 represent the successful settlement of the people 
 on the public lands. It will be my duty here to 
 show that instead of that being the case, these 
 sales of land represent no settlement, but that the 
 land is purchased and used as a weapon of offence 
 as well as defence, and may be said, with great 
 truth, to represent the undying animosities of 
 two classes of the people, which a ruinous and 
 destructive land law had brought into violent and 
 disastrous collision. No one will deny that the 
 pastoral interest of this country is a source, if 
 not the main source, of our national wealth that 
 it absorbs a vast amount of labour, gives rise to 
 the commerce of our port, and may be looked 
 upon as essentially the backbone of the country's 
 prosperity. Well then, I say, in passing a Land 
 Law, or any law, this great fact should have been 
 looked to, and every care taken to conserve an 
 interest the importance of which to the country's 
 well-being is so transcendent. But this was not 
 done. By the Land Law of 1861, passed under a 
 gust of passion, the pastoral interest was uselessly 
 and without reason well-nigh destroyed. Instead 
 of keeping the agricultural and this great interest 
 separate, which might easily have been done, 
 with mutual advantage, the two interests were 
 brought into direct collision, and have been 
 waging an incessant war from that day to this, 
 pretty much to the serious injury, and, in many
 
 FINANCIAL STATEMENT. 159 
 
 individual cases, to the ruin of both interests. The 
 free selector, under the law, invades the squatter's 
 run, it may be at several points ; if the squatter 
 cannot prevent this his ruin is inevitable. He con- 
 sequently proceeds, by every means that the law 
 will allow, to harass and annoy the free selector, 
 impounding his stock, and ruining him, by actions 
 of trespass. Sometimes the squatter is forced to 
 buy the free selector out, and this process is often 
 repeated upon him by the same man. I need not 
 say that I am as warm a friend of the free 
 selector as any man in this House or in the 
 country, and I say unhesitatingly that, under 
 this wretched Land Law of ours, the free selector 
 is an infinitely greater sufferer than the squatter. 
 Scarcely a selection is taken up that is not found, 
 two or three years afterwards, to be invalid in 
 consequence of being on some other person's 
 property or on a reserve. No later than to-day I 
 put into the hands of the Minister for Lands a 
 letter from a selector who, after being in posses- 
 sion of his selection for three years, and after 
 fencing and improving it, and rearing his family 
 upon it, was told that it was on a reserve, and 
 that he must leave. Only the other day a Bill 
 was passed through this House to validate one 
 hundred and sixty selections of this description, 
 and probably there are five hundred others which 
 have not yet been discovered. In the face of 
 such facts who can hesitate to condemn a law 
 which brings about such results ? The squatters 
 all over the country, finding themselves invaded 
 in every direction by strangers squatting down on 
 the best parts of their runs, have lost no time in 
 drawing the sword in self-defence they have 
 used the Act for their own preservation. They
 
 160 AN AUSTRALIAN ORATOR. 
 
 have become free selectors themselves, and have 
 purchased large portions of their runs, in different 
 places, using them as fortresses to annoy, and if 
 possible destroy the free selector ; by judicious 
 and well-selected purchases of land they have 
 hemmed the free selector in made it impossible 
 for him to move without a trespass, and involved 
 him in costly legal proceedings the moment a 
 chance offered. This is the state of things as 
 they exist at present, and as they have existed 
 since the passage of our infamous Land Law. 
 The land which has been bought during the last 
 six years, and which has brought us three millions- 
 sterling annually, has been bought by the squatters, 
 not that they wanted it, but simply to be used by 
 them as a means of destroying the free selector, 
 so that instead of this enormous laud revenue 
 representing a wholesome settlement of the people 
 upon the lands of the country, it represents no 
 settlement whatever, but is proof positive of the 
 ruin of the squatter, brought about by his being 
 forced to purchase land he does not want, and 
 to borrow money to purchase it, paying heavy 
 interest, nine per cent., to the banks for the loan. 
 This, then, is the real truth about our splendid 
 revenue, said to be the results of Tree Trade. 
 Our Land Law, undoubtedly the worst in the 
 world, has placed two interests in violent antago- 
 nism, leading to an agrarian war all over the 
 country. The free selector's fate is to sustain a 
 few years of this war, and then sink into utter 
 ruin, leaving the squatter master of the situation, 
 but only for a short time, as he has soon to 
 encounter another invader who is served in the 
 same way. The enormous purchases of land 
 which the squatters have been forced to make
 
 FINANCIAL STATEMENT. 161 
 
 have brought them, as a body, to the verge of 
 bankruptcy, and this land revenue which we have 
 boasted so much of, and put forward as a proof of 
 our prosperity, in reality expresses and means 
 nothing but the ruin of a great interest, and the 
 pernicious character of that law which will be 
 truthfully described by the future historian of 
 this country as a Land Law that blighted and 
 withered the two great interests of the State, and 
 has acted as a more formidable barrier against its 
 progress than any combination of causes could 
 possibly effect. But it seems that now the 
 squatters are unable to purchase any more land, 
 and so, our land sales having failed, the Govern- 
 ment is now forced to think of some new taxation 
 to meet an anticipated deficit, and hence the pro- 
 posals now under consideration proposals in 
 themselves grossly unjust, embodying all the 
 worst features of class legislation, and striking 
 a heavy blow at the very vitals of our great pro- 
 ducing industries, which should be encouraged 
 and fostered rather than weighed down by the 
 pressure of unbearable burdens. I say that this 
 odious taxation should be resisted by the intelli- 
 gence of this House that the atrocious sentiment 
 of the Treasurer and the Colonial Secretary that 
 the justification of this taxation is the wealth of 
 those on whom it is inflicted is a sentiment so 
 infamous in its rank injustice and reckless, 
 ignorant wrong-doing, that no intelligence will 
 hesitate a moment in visiting it with its utmost 
 condemnation, We are now, I suppose, on the 
 eve of a general election, and let the Government 
 go with those extraordinary financial proposi- 
 tions to the country propositions involving a 
 programme of extravagance, class taxation and 
 
 M
 
 162 AN AUSTRALIAN ORATOR. 
 
 export duties and let them be met and answered 
 with proposals of retrenchment, ad valorem duties, 
 a secure tenure to the squatters, and a fair 
 rent for the public estate, and if wisdom guides 
 the constituencies, who can doubt as to the 
 decision ? The Government is all weakness and 
 hesitation in regard to this important matter of 
 finance. The members of it have no fixed or 
 clearly defined principle, but are driven from one 
 absurdity to another as defeat after defeat over- 
 takes them. The time was when any Government 
 found its financial policy scattered to the winds 
 under a tempest of dissent, that resignation 
 would instantly follow such a catastrope, but 
 no such event takes place now. The Govern- 
 ment seems to be quite content to see its 
 various financial proposals condemned by the 
 House, and is quite prepared to swallow the 
 accompanying humiliation upon the one condition 
 of being allowed to retain office. Well, it is a 
 mercy that this Parliament is at its last gasp, and 
 the constituencies must inevitably soon be called 
 upon to create another. If my words could avail 
 anything, I would say to the people, Remember our 
 unprecedented revenue from the sale of land is at 
 an end, the capacity to buy is exhausted, but the 
 stimulant to purchase still remains. The squatter 
 will now have to fight the free selector without 
 the mighty aid of land purchase, and while that 
 mutually destructive war still continues the people 
 have only to look around to see armies of idle 
 mechanics kept idle by a never-ending stream of 
 foreign importations flowing in upon them and 
 striking with paralysis the hand of industry in 
 every part of the country. If this will not
 
 FINANCIAL STATEMENT. 163 
 
 awaken the people from their lethargy, let them 
 think of their children and of their fate in the 
 future, with a terrible danger hanging over them 
 in the total absence of any means of honest em- 
 ployment, and the dark, bleak, blighting prospect 
 of it may be the bush for the boys, and the 
 streets for the girls. How on earth can it be 
 otherwise when every article that they should 
 make is imported, and every pound that should 
 pay them wages is sent to pay for such imports ? 
 I exhort the people in every district of this 
 country to ponder well over this weighty matter 
 before they part with their votes at the impending 
 general election, and vote for the men who will 
 encourage and foster our native industries. It is 
 a matter in which the very fate of your children, 
 and your children's children, is wrapped up and 
 involved. The principles I advocate would go far 
 to secure them constant and honourable employ- 
 ment, and would be a constant source of happi- 
 ness and comfort to the many fathers and mothers 
 who cannot fail to see how dark a prospect lies 
 before those who are so dear to them so long as 
 we are burdened and afflicted with a fiscal policy 
 which blights and withers every industry as soon 
 as it attempts to rise, and carries away our wealth 
 to secure the happiness of foreigners. Truths so 
 plain and self-evident cannot fail, ere long, to 
 arrest the attention of the people of this country ; 
 and I trust that every patriotic feeling, and every 
 manly intelligence, will come to the rescue, and 
 return men to the next Parliament whose lofty 
 aims will reverse the old worn-out policy of giving 
 all to the foreigner, while every home industry 
 languishes and dies, and every second man we
 
 164 AN AUSTRALIAN ORATOR. 
 
 meet knows not from where the next day's work is 
 to come. I have thought it my duty thus to ad- 
 dress the House, as I have no faith in the Govern- 
 ment. To the people I therefore look, and if they 
 still remain blind to their interest and duty in 
 reference to this great question, I will at least 
 have the consolation of having laboured in a great 
 cause, and in the thought of a high-minded, 
 patriotic intention. (Loud cheers.)
 
 PROSTITUTION. 
 
 THis address was originally delivered as a lecture on the above 
 subject. It afterwards appeared, in a condensed form, as 
 an article in the Sydney Morning Herald.] 
 
 THE subject I propose to speak upon to-night is 
 one that must interest every well-wisher of his 
 species. Looking at the matter as it is to be 
 seen all over the world, one can observe, even on 
 the surface, such an indication of acute misery, 
 wretchedness, and indescribable wrong that a 
 deeper investigation of the subject only leads to a 
 most ample confirmation of one's preconceived 
 ideas. To witness so many young girls, the 
 flower of their sex, openly sacrificed to a system 
 so pernicious is well calculated to enlist the 
 sympathies of humanity, and to rouse the purest 
 feelings of charity and philanthropy in aiming at 
 its amelioration, if not at its entire abolition. 
 The victims of this atrocious system are generally 
 the finest and most beautiful of their sex. Their 
 very beauty and attractiveness is the primary 
 ause of their fall. Simplicity and innocence,
 
 166 AN AUSTRALIAN ORATOR. 
 
 allied to a fascinating, handsome figure and 
 "beautiful face, is too conspicuous and attractive 
 an object to escape the designs of reckless,, 
 daring, unprincipled wickedness, and hence the 
 ruin that is often wrought, and the life-long 
 misery that is often entailed by the successful 
 snares which every dastard thinks he is entitled 
 to lay for the unwary, and the impunity with 
 which he knows his villainy can be accomplished, 
 so far as the law is concerned. Could seduction 
 be made a criminal act, and I know of no felony 
 more atrocious, and punished by severe imprison- 
 ment, a considerable check would be imposed on 
 the cowards who only look upon a beautiful and 
 unprotected young girl as fair game, and as a 
 prime object on which to exercise their unbridled 
 and ungovernable animal propensities. One feels 
 something like a sickening sensation creeping 
 over him as he witnesses, in our large towns, 
 those poor girls plying their wretched vocation, 
 knowing, as we all must know, the speedy and 
 dreadful end of such a career. I do not suppose 
 that there are many who now listen to me who 
 will be disposed to deny that the evil I am speak- 
 ing of is one of the most frightful and destructive 
 scourges society has to deal with, nor will they,. 
 I think, refuse to admit the difficulty of proposing 
 any plan for its repression, and even if no plan, 
 at present, occurs to me for that purpose, still, 
 something will be gained by merely calling atten- 
 tion to the subject, so that philanthropic men and 
 women may be induced to take it into their 
 serious consideration, and, if successful, even in 
 this, I doubt not some good will result from thus 
 pressing the matter upon public attention. The 
 evil, to speak in plain terms, consists in that
 
 PROSTITUTION. 167 
 
 strong tide of prostitution which seems to flow, 
 and never ebb, in our large colonial towns. Few 
 people, of any observation, will be prepared to 
 deny that this evil, or, at all events, the public 
 exhibition of it, exists in Sydney, for instance, in 
 a much larger degree than in any town of the old 
 country of similar dimensions; and surely it is 
 worth while to try and ascertain the exact cause, 
 or causes, of this. The rulers in many Continental 
 cities have felt themselves so utterly unable to 
 cope with this evil that they have, by licensing 
 it, taken it under their own control, and have 
 succeeded in bringing it under stringent regu- 
 lations and a severe surveillance if they cannot 
 altogether destroy it. I am altogether opposed 
 to this plan on the simple ground that neither the 
 State nor any other power should give the 
 slightest countenance to vice or immorality of 
 any kind ; and if the participators in the evil I 
 am speaking of find that dreadful disease and life- 
 long punishment follow their iniquity, I unhesi- 
 tatingly say let it be so ; it is the wholesome edict 
 of a wise Providence which ordains that all viola- 
 tions of the moral law shall be followed by punish- 
 ment as certainly as " the thunderbolt pursues 
 the flash." Speaking of the matter in reference 
 to our own great city, I mean Sydney, I will 
 never believe, and I ask you all to go along with 
 me in this unbelief, that any young woman in 
 this country is forced to resort to prostitution as 
 a means of living. And there are thousands of 
 the very humblest class who would die rather 
 than submit to the infamy of such a life, who 
 would slave the flesh off their bones, in the 
 humblest capacity, sooner than sink themselves 
 beneath the contempt of the most worthless, and
 
 168 AN AUSTRALIAN ORATOR. 
 
 bring dishonour and shame on the name they 
 bear. In the large majority of cases, women are 
 forced into this destructive path by a false step in 
 the first instance. Many feel disinclined to a life 
 of patient, humble industry, and listen to the 
 voice of temptation falsely, and fatally, believing 
 it to be the signal for their emancipation, while 
 not a few fall victims to the perfidy of men. 
 Those men, under the pretence of making honour- 
 able proposals to them, take advantage of the 
 confidence thus engendered to consummate the 
 ruin of their poor unhappy dupes, who are then 
 abandoned, covered with shame, shunned and 
 despised by every heartless wretch who apparently 
 delights in the thought of their degradation. 
 Such unfortunates are now in a dreadful plight. 
 Left without character or friends, with the fierce 
 execrations of those who once knew them ringing 
 in their ears, and publishing their shame far and 
 near, is it in the least degree surprising that, in 
 the unequal strife, the poor, unhappy girls are 
 borne down, and -seek, in the wild, reckless, 
 whirling dissipation of the town, oblivion of those 
 sorrows that are known to themselves alone ? 
 This class of unfortunates are to be pitied indeed, 
 and many of them might easily be rescued by 
 kind words and timely interference. Notwith- 
 standing- that dire necessity compels them to live 
 a life of infamy, they frequently retain much 
 purity and innocence of thought and feeling, and 
 in their quiet moments no one but themselves 
 knows of their agony and how they loathe and 
 detest the life which the harsh and un-Christian 
 laws of society force them to continue in, by 
 rendering it impossible for them to do anything 
 else. Just let me picture to you the case of a
 
 PROSTITUTION. 169 
 
 young girl situated as I have indicated. She 
 confides her inmost soul, her character, her all, 
 to the honour of the man she loves ; she would 
 sooner doubt her own existence than doubt his 
 truth and fidelity. She is full of implicit, trust- 
 ing confidence, and can imagine or apprehend no 
 evil from the man she would die for. In an evil 
 hour, and under a whirlwind of passion, she falls, 
 and is at the same time betrayed, deserted, and 
 abandoned, most heartlessly, by the only being 
 in the world who could restore her to happiness 
 and peace of mind, and who has it in his power 
 to rescue her from inevitable ruin. But instead 
 of being so dealt with, she is left to struggle 
 alone with the overpowering misery of her posi- 
 tion, not the least part of which is the burning 
 thought of her pretended lover's execrable villainy. 
 Many a cowardly wretch, miscalled a man, who 
 acts thus, thinks he has done something great, 
 and, according to his own base notions, some- 
 thing manly. It is a crime which the laws of 
 this world take no notice of, therefore there is no 
 want of cowards to perpetrate it ; but it is, never- 
 theless, a crime than which I know of none more 
 calculated to inflame the anger of Heaven, often 
 receiving the most signal and exemplary punish- 
 ment in this world, but, whether or not, certain to 
 meet it, with all its consuming severity, in the 
 next. But just let me here stay for a minute, 
 to ask you how does society deal with the 
 unfortunate girl and her unmeasured wrongs ? It 
 shuts in her face, and bars, every door against her ; 
 closes up every avenue, by entering which she 
 might hope to regain and retain an innocent and 
 virtuous position. It stamps her with the brand 
 of its deepest detestation, and, by treating her
 
 170 AN AUSTRALIAN ORATOR. 
 
 stupendous calamity with a heartless levity and 
 indifference, leaves her to perish in pain and 
 wretchedness, and only too glad to escape through 
 the door that death so mercifully opens for her. 
 Such things force us to reflect how little of the 
 spirit of true Christianity exists in the world. 
 God help the poor girl so situated, so far as the 
 mercy of this world is concerned. A beautiful 
 story is told of the great Edmund Burke. Coming 
 home one night with his illustrious friend, Samuel 
 Johnson, they passed a poor unfortunate young 
 woman fainting in the street. They stopped and 
 tried to help her, although they both could see 
 that she was one of those unhappy women who 
 live by prostitution ; this in no way arrested their 
 desire to administer relief, and seeing no readier 
 means of attaining that charitable object, Burke 
 nobly resolved to take her home with him, and 
 forthwith conveyed her to his own house, and 
 there, by kind and Christian treatment, nurtured 
 and restored her, and saved her by directing her 
 steps on the right path for the future. No 
 grander act in the grand career of Edmund Burke 
 than this. It was an act worthy of the beneficent 
 founder of our common Christianity, and was 
 the very embodiment and realized essence of 
 Christianity itself. But as I have asked, and 
 shown, how society deals with the unfortunate 
 girl, just let me put the same question to you, and 
 ask how does this same rigidly righteous and 
 virtuous society I, of course, speak of the world 
 in general deal with the man, the author of this 
 fearful wrong inflicted upon the unhappy girl? 
 It receives him with smiles and caresses. His 
 crime forms no bar to his admission among the 
 highest circles ; mothers and fathers knowing
 
 PROSTITUTION. Ill 
 
 well the whole story never dream that their 
 daughters and themselves are insulted by the 
 presence of so unworthy a wretch. They hear the 
 story of his infamy, and talk of it as a piece of 
 harmless gallantry, while the unhappy broken- 
 hearted victim of this cowardly villainy, to give it 
 its right name, is pining in wretchedness, and 
 sinking unnoticed in sorrow and despair. So 
 much for the justice and righteousness of this 
 world. After this, might we not be almost led to 
 believe that its censure is as little to be regarded 
 as its applause ? In fact, I have sometimes 
 thought that when the applause of the public was 
 very enthusiastic in favour of any individual, 
 there was pretty sure to be found some falsehood 
 or want of genuineness in the conduct thus 
 applauded, and vice-versa. Of course, there are 
 exceptional cases of thorough-paced nobility of 
 conduct that the public never make any mistake 
 about. A very large proportion of the unfor- 
 tunates who infest the streets of our large cities 
 at night, and who may be seen flaunting about 
 elaborately dressed and apparently joyous and 
 happy, are very young girls, most of them native 
 born. In numerous instances, those girls are 
 induced to follow this course of life from seeing 
 nothing but the fair side of the picture, if it has 
 such a side. They see girls whom they had 
 formerly known in service dashing about at 
 theatres and other places of amusement, expen- 
 sively dressed, with all the airs and appearance of 
 fashionable ladies the ravages which vice and 
 disease have made upon them in a great measure 
 obscured by gaudy attire and every conceivable 
 artificial appliance. Under such circumstances, 
 the apparent independence and freedom of their
 
 172 AN AUSTRALIAN ORATOR. 
 
 career attracts the thoughtless and giddy, and 
 thus recruits the fatal ranks of prostitution. We 
 see those poor girls of an evening, painted and 
 decorated and richly attired, their spirits heigh- 
 tened by stimulants, and their eyes flashing and 
 sparkling with the consequent excitement. Inex- 
 perienced youths, and young lads from the 
 country, are overwhelmed by the spectacle ; they 
 stand transfixed in admiration, and, as far as any 
 thought of resistance is concerned, they seem to 
 be enchanted, fascinated, and undone. The girls 
 are not slow to see this, and, in their sweetest 
 manner, complete the business by luring their 
 victims to the dearly-bought and unhallowed 
 delights of some wretched back slum, which is all 
 these poor girls, with all their finery, can call 
 home. If some of those misguided youths could 
 only drop in upon any of those girls in the morn- 
 ing, before they have had time for painting and 
 decoration, what a sight would meet their pre- 
 viously deceived and deluded senses. Suppose 
 any of the enchanted youths were to call upon 
 the most bewitching and lovely of the ladies who 
 so entranced them when seen at night sweeping 
 along with the distinguished and graceful ease of 
 a duchess. Well then, having sought out her 
 squalid, poverty-stricken home, and entered it, 
 behold the poor, unhappy girl on her wretched 
 couch, her head splitting with never-ceasing pain, 
 her nerves shattered and unstrung, and her finery 
 tossed about the bare room in every direction. As 
 she attempts to sit up, to see who disturbs her, 
 what a frightful, debauched, battered look meets 
 your gaze. Her eyes are bleared, blood-shot, and 
 painfully languid, the paint of last night runs in 
 streaky seams over her haggard face, which is pale,
 
 PROSTITUTION. 173 
 
 ghastly, and almost livid. Dreadful and deadly 
 sickness overwhelms her the moment she raises 
 her throbbing head ; she gulps down brandy to 
 alter this, and sinks back on her wretched bed 
 suffering the tortures of the damned. She spends 
 the whole miserable day thus, and towards even- 
 ing, with the assistance of stimulants, she makes 
 a languid, painful effort to array herself in her 
 most fascinating style. At length, with difficulty, 
 she completes her toilet, and, with a farewell 
 application to the brandy bottle, not dreaming of 
 such a thing as food, she makes for the scene 
 which is hurrying her to perdition. But what a 
 wretched, dishonouring, and degrading life it is at 
 best. I waive altogether the infamy and sinful- 
 ness of such a career, and ask every young woman 
 to look at this. It is a life which, under the most 
 favourable circumstances, will speedily consume 
 and destroy health, the most priceless blessing we 
 know of. In almost every case an incredibly short 
 time suffices to deface and deform the appear- 
 ance, however beautiful. When this beauty and 
 attractiveness leaves them, then the iron, red hot, 
 enters their very souls. Neglected and thrown 
 aside by the most worthless, spurned and despised 
 by all, their poor, unhappy hearts sink within 
 them ; they become objects of loathing even to 
 themselves. Disease of the most virulent charac- 
 ter, long neglected, fastens its merciless talons 
 upon them, and, with minds racked and tortured 
 by never-ceasing remorse, they crawl into some 
 wretched den of infamy, far removed from all who 
 once knew them, and there, in an agony of bodily 
 pain and mental anguish, with no kind friend to 
 whisper a word of comfort to them, or in gentle, 
 loving tones to point to brighter days and a
 
 174 AN AUSTRALIAN ORATOR. 
 
 happier fate beyond the grave, they expire, 
 generally amidst the oaths and execrations and 
 wild revelry of wretches whose humanity is 
 scarcely recognisable from the ravages of vice, 
 disease, drunkenness, and the filthiest debauchery. 
 
 ' So the struck deer, in some sequestered part, 
 Lies down to die, the arrow in its heart, 
 Reclines unseen in coverts hid from day, 
 Bleeds drop by drop, and pants its life away." 
 
 Such is the fate of nine out of ten of the girls I 
 have been speaking to you about, and he would 
 be indeed a benefactor to his race who could 
 devise some means to rescue these poor girls from 
 this danger, and deter others from certain and 
 disastrous shipwreck by embarking on a sea so 
 fatal and so deadly as that of prostitution.
 
 CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 [THE following address was delivered by Mr. Buchanan in the 
 Temperance Hall, Sydney, to a very crowded audience. 
 It was so cordially and warmly received that a number of 
 gentlemen waited on Mr. Buchanan and asked him to re- 
 deliver it, which he agreed to do, and it was again 
 delivered in the same Hall to a crowded and enthusiastic 
 audience : ] 
 
 LA.DIES AND GENTLEMEN, Some eighteen hundred 
 years ago there appeared upon the earth a man of 
 singular virtue with the startling statement in 
 His mouth that He was the Son of God. He 
 makes this statement with great meekness and 
 modesty ; He never swerves from it a hair's 
 breadth, but clings to it with uniform and reso- 
 lute tenacity to the last. He predicts His own 
 cruel death, and announces Himself as the Saviour 
 of the world. He never hesitates to claim a direct 
 commission from Heaven. He is born into the 
 world by miraculous agency; He recognises no 
 ties of human relationship, but speaks of a uni- 
 versal brotherhood founded upon the love and 
 worship of God. He attacks with unrivalled
 
 176 AN AUSTRALIAN ORATOR. 
 
 vigour the prevailing religious systems, and 
 founds a Church so simple and so pure in its 
 constitution and principles that a child might 
 understand and love it. 
 
 During His short life, reaching to thirty-three 
 years, He promulgates the purest and most 
 exalted system of morals the world has seen. 
 In all His dealings with human nature He rises 
 infinitely above it. All that mankind strive and 
 struggle after is looked upon with absolute indif- 
 ference by Him. He is born poor, and poverty 
 accompanies Him through life. He associates 
 with the poorest of the poor, and selects His most 
 trusted friends from that class. He never cringes 
 to the rich or the most powerful in authority, but 
 to their faces assails them with truths of the 
 most unpalatable character. He raises all in 
 authority against Him ; drives to madness the 
 priesthood of the time ; stings them to the soul 
 with a relentless plainness of speech and a caustic 
 severity which, in all literature, stands unequalled 
 for its crashing and consuming power. All human 
 objects, struggles, purposes, and efforts are ignored 
 by Him so far as He is Himself concerned. He 
 has come to found a system by which humanity 
 may be comforted, guided, made happy here, and 
 inspired by the certainty of everlasting happiness 
 with Himself in Heaven hereafter. This grand 
 purpose He pursues with a constancy and fidelity, 
 and a devotion so sublime in its singleness of pur- 
 pose, that all men marvel at the spectacle. His 
 life is spent amidst continual persecution and 
 danger ; it is entirely occupied in relieving 
 human distress. His pure heart overflows with 
 exhaustless and universal love, and the simple 
 though grand religion which He promulgates is
 
 CHRISTIANITY. 177 
 
 all summed up in the words " Do unto others as 
 you would that they should do unto you." He 
 flatters no man with the hope of any human pros- 
 perity or worldly advantage in espousing His 
 cause ; on the contrary, He tells them that His 
 own fate would be theirs that he who would 
 save his life in the next world must lose it in this. 
 If they are rich men He tells them to go and sell 
 what they have and give to the poor, and take up 
 their cross and follow Him. He exhorts them to 
 an implicit, unwavering faith in God, who clothes 
 the lily in all its simple beauty, and feeds the 
 birds of the air, who neither toil nor spin, and 
 asserts that the same care and attention would be 
 devoted to them if they threw themselves upon 
 His mercy and beneficence with a single-minded, 
 all-absorbing, earnest faith. The people were 
 carried away by the simple beauty of this teach- 
 ing, and saw in the deep earnestness and noble 
 bearing of the Teacher something that made 
 them feel more than they could either understand 
 or express. And so He continued the preaching 
 of His grand and elevated system of charity, 
 forbearance, and love, not without danger to 
 Himself, as He is frequently brought in collision 
 with the powers that be, and this at the instance 
 of the arrogant, intolerant priesthood of the day. 
 On those occasions His calm, dignified bearing, 
 His superhuman wisdom and Divine aspect, strike 
 His judges with awe and terror. He breaks the 
 charge in pieces by one or two laconic sentences, 
 pregnant with meaning, and walks away, leaving 
 judges and audience silent and thoughtful, and 
 only able to mutter, with an indefinable apprehen- 
 sion or fear "What manner of man is this?'' 
 When attacked by His priestly and self-righteous
 
 178 AN AUSTRALIAN ORATOR. 
 
 assailants in the course of His wanderings, He 
 sometimes breaks upon them with the power of a 
 thunderbolt, strikes into the very inmost soul of 
 them, laying bare the blackness of their hearts ; 
 ruthlessly tears the mask from their faces, and 
 with a sharp, incisive, murderous invective, strikes 
 them dumb and prostrate. On those occasions His 
 assailants soon find they are in the presence of a 
 power that never before dwelt in human nature ; 
 His keen searching eye penetrates every refuge of 
 falsehood ; His intuitive knowledge of every 
 movement of the human heart, and every expres- 
 sion of the human face, enables Him to hold up 
 before His opponents their true pictures, and the 
 graphic power by which they are painted covers 
 them with self-convicted confusion and admitted 
 defeat. His conduct in dealing with the outcasts 
 and lost ones of humanity, with whom He con- 
 stantly associates, contrasts in the most striking 
 manner with the same conduct of the professedly 
 religious of that day, and of all days up to the 
 present hour, and He esteems them much fitter 
 objects for the reception of His truth than the 
 rigidly righteous, who outwardly display a flaming 
 zeal for the worship of God, but inwardly are full 
 of all manner of unrighteousness and deceit. In 
 His life of suffering and dejection He is often 
 without the means of relieving the pangs of 
 hunger, and His home is frequently on the cold 
 ground, in His own touching words, " having no 
 place to lay His head." As His beautiful and con- 
 solatory system gained ground enemies thickened 
 around Him. The priests of that day, jealous 
 of the large-hearted liberality of His doctrine, 
 and fearing the subversion of their own hollow 
 superstitions, dragged him before the tribunals
 
 CHRISTIANITY. 179 
 
 on charges of blasphemy and sedition, but 
 His spotless life and immaculate character, 
 combined with the calm, dignified intrepidity by 
 which He met them, paralysed his judges, and 
 sufficed for the moment to avert injustice and 
 wrong. The hatred of the priests, however, suc- 
 ceeded in inflaming the passions of the mob 
 against him, and their narrow, malignant hearts 
 were often gratified by the spectacle of His ill- 
 usage and insult. He bore all this with never- 
 failing patience and equanimity, and in His 
 deepest humiliation offered an example of resigna- 
 tion and fortitude which was more divine than 
 human. His life was now in constant peril; 
 nevertheless, with splendid courage and un- 
 wavering zeal, He preached and taught His grand 
 doctrines of love, mercy, and forgiveness. He 
 called His few followers around Him, and told 
 them of the cruel death which He knew would 
 shortly overtake Him. He exhorted them to 
 fidelity and constancy in the cause when He was 
 gone, and exhibited before them infallible proofs 
 of His divine connection, cheering and animating 
 them to the highest pitch of fidelity and devotion, 
 and arming them with a superhuman courage to 
 meet the trials and miseries which He well knew 
 they would all soon have to grapple with. He is at 
 length arrested, without a shadow of foundation 
 in justice, and dragged before a judge, who has 
 gained an immortality of infamy by his conduct 
 on the occasion. The judge, Pilate by name let 
 us name him in order to execrate him finds no 
 fault with the pure-minded Divine Being before 
 him ; and yet the dastard orders Him to be flogged, 
 and ultimately hands him over to the tender 
 mercies of an ignorant, intolerant Jewish rabble
 
 180 AN AUSTRALIAN ORATOR. 
 
 to be murdered in cold blood, with every 
 accompaniment of cruelty and brutality. He 
 meets His fate with a calm, unostentatious courage 
 and a dignity and exalted piety which drew forth 
 the admiration and sympathy of His persecutors. 
 His death, painful and horrible at best, was 
 aggravated and embittered by filthy and brutal 
 insult and every circumstance that could deepen 
 its ignominy and degradation ; and yet, amidst all 
 this injustice and cruel wrong, and while writhing 
 under the tortures of a fearful death, He turns His 
 mild, benignant face to Heaven and breathes an 
 earnest prayer to God to forgive His persecutors 
 on the ground that they knew not what they did. 
 Thus perished the man Christ Jesus, and " if ever 
 God was man or man God, He, indeed, was both/' 
 Could His murderers have known that from that 
 time and to the end of time their illustrious victim 
 would be worshipped by all grades and classes of 
 people as the God and Saviour of the world how 
 they would have shrunk from the perpetration 
 of their crime ! We are now eighteen hundred 
 years distant from the consummation of that foul 
 deed, and in all countries millions of human 
 beings are moved to tears and deepest worship at 
 the bare mention of the name of Jesus. His 
 beautiful life and touching story can never die, and 
 so long as the world lasts humanity will lean upon 
 Him and cling to Him, under all circumstances of 
 prosperity or adversity, as its hope and consola- 
 tion, and as the shining light that will dispel the 
 terror and the darkness of futurity. In pausing 
 for a moment to contemplate the character of 
 Jesus we are struck by its amazing singularity. 
 Since the creation of the world nothing resembling 
 it has appeared ; not only is this so, but ranging
 
 CHRISTIANITY. 181 
 
 through the realms of fiction we find no conception 
 that bears the remotest likeness to the poor, 
 dejected, broken-hearted wanderer of Judea. Men 
 like Shakespeare, Dante, and Milton, with all the 
 strength and splendour of their far-reaching 
 powers, while portraying every conceivable phase 
 of human character, have, by the exercise of their 
 vivid imaginations, soared into regions beyond 
 death and the grave, painting, with amazing 
 power, scenes and events beyond ordinary concep- 
 tion ; yet with all their splendid faculties, es- 
 pecially in their portraiture of human nature, they 
 have imagined nothing approaching the faintest 
 likeness to the character of Jesus of Nazareth. 
 Let us search all history, ancient or modern, 
 investigate the literature of all countries, in all 
 ages, and curious enough the same fact will be 
 elicited. If I am asked for proofs of the divine 
 character of Jesus, where shall I find them if not 
 in His life and actions ? Show me such another 
 life since the beginning of time. Where shall we 
 find His all-embracing love, His sympathetic zeal 
 in relieving human distress, His patient endurance 
 of suffering, His perfect purity of thought and 
 spirit, the beauty and grandeur of His moral 
 teaching, illustrated by His spotless life and 
 character, His steadfastness and intrepidity in 
 the face of danger, His sublime courage in the 
 presence of death ? All this is remarkable enough 
 as exemplified in the life of Jesus ; but when we 
 come to reflect upon the object of His life, and 
 the consistent and persistent devotion to that 
 object through all manner of trials and sufferings, 
 which He knew to be the only reward He would 
 meet with in this world, then we begin to be 
 struck with His superhuman character. In
 
 182 AN AUSTRALIAN ORATOR. 
 
 looking at this character, we find, from first to 
 last, a rigid and unbending integrity, maintained 
 and practised at the expense of every worldly 
 comfort and every worldly advantage. We notice 
 a calm, deliberate intention to pursue a course 
 antagonistic to the prevailing systems of His time 
 and in defiance of all consequent danger. We 
 observe a sweetness and gentleness of character, 
 and a uniform humility associated with a stern 
 and enduring courage, which never for a moment 
 shrinks or quails before any danger however 
 formidable. We see this poor, forlorn, friendless 
 Being inspired with the sublime thought of 
 rescuing mankind from all manner of debasing 
 superstitions, and planting in their hearts a true 
 knowledge of the nature and character of the 
 Creator of all things, pointing out to them a 
 means which not only secures their peace and 
 happiness here, but assures them of a happy 
 destiny beyond the grave. In the performance of 
 this grand duty never before did humanity witness 
 such singleness of purpose, such unselfish devotion, 
 as was seen in the daily life of this dauntless 
 apostle of freedom and philanthropy, and great 
 moral teacher; privations, cruel hardships, toil un- 
 ceasing are the daily accompaniments of His short, 
 sad history. He is frowned upon by all in 
 authority and continually menaced by danger, 
 yet with what determined purpose He advances on 
 His course. Is there nothing divine in all this ? 
 Is there nothing remarkable in His systematic 
 contempt for the things of this world so dear to 
 humanity? We don't find Him cultivating the 
 society of the rich and powerful, and living a life 
 of luxury under their protection, which He might 
 easily have done, but, on the contrary, grinding-
 
 CHRISTIANITY. 188 
 
 poverty is His lot, and it is His pride to take, 
 literally, in His arms the victims of loathsome 
 disease with a view to their relief. What a noble 
 trait in His character is this warm sympathy 
 with those suffering from the pangs of disease ! 
 What boundless solicitude for their restoration 
 to health and happiness is displayed in His every 
 act, and what an inflexible purpose He shows in 
 treating the poorest of the poor with as much, and 
 even more, consideration than the powerful and 
 wealthy. The best argument for the divinity of. 
 Jesus is to compare His life with the best specimens 
 of humanity that have ever appeared in the world. 
 Nothing approaching to the complete and perfect 
 picture of all that is pure, simple, elevated, and 
 holy, as exemplified in the life of Jesus, has ever 
 appeared in the world before or since. That life 
 stands alone in the world's history, and can be 
 accounted for in no way but by the fact that there 
 dwelt in it and inspired it the great Spirit that 
 called all things into existence, and which presides 
 over the destinies of the world and all that it 
 contains. It is curious to notice how afraid most 
 men are of the adverse opinion of their fellow- 
 men, and how often they are cowed by this fear 
 into silence on matters as to which honest speech 
 is urgently demanded. The very constitution of 
 human society forces men into an attitude of 
 deceit, double-dealing, and hypocrisy ; they are 
 compelled to make a show of acquiescence as to 
 things which they inwardly condemn, but silence 
 is imposed upon them through fear of imperilling 
 their worldly position and prospects. There is, 
 consequently, a prevailing tone of falsehood in 
 almost all that is done or said in the world ; and 
 the man who dares set his face against this, does
 
 184 AN AUSTRALIAN ORATOR. 
 
 so at the risk of injury, and it may be ruin, to 
 what he calls his position and interests. Whole 
 nations profess to worship Jesus Christ, and to be 
 guided by His principles and doctrines, but let 
 any man attempt to put these principles into 
 practice and he would be scouted and buffeted out 
 of existence the very penalty Jesus Christ Him- 
 self paid for the transcendent blessings He con- 
 ferred upon humanity. The principles enforced 
 with such matchless zeal and enthusiasm by 
 Jesus, while the world professes the utmost devo- 
 tion to them, are at war, and deadly war, with the 
 whole system and constitution of human society ; 
 and the reason of this is obvious enough, and 
 may be found in the grovelling selfishness of 
 humanity, which never can or will understand 
 the unexampled purity, the self-sacrificing virtue, 
 and the high moral grandeur of the character of 
 Jesus. Although this is the case, a large portion 
 of the world have agreed, with a singular unani- 
 mity of opinion, to regard the doctrines and 
 principles of Jesus Christ as the highest and 
 most valued moral teaching known to humanity, 
 however far their practice may be removed from 
 such an opinion, a cheap way and a way dear to 
 mankind of gaining a reputation for sanctity. 
 There are, however, occasionally some men who 
 make an attempt to realize in practice the religious 
 principles they pretend to hold. These men are 
 generally very rich men, who have reached that 
 period of life when the shadow of death rises 
 ominously before them, and they begin to see 
 how impotent and useless are these hoarded 
 treasures ; and now, in a fit of panic, aim at 
 smoothing their course to the next world by 
 dedicating immense sums to public charity
 
 CHRISTIANITY. 185 
 
 amidst the plaudits and worship of the multi- 
 tude. The whole proceeding is dictated by the 
 most contemptible fear, and is often a cruel wrong 
 to surviving relatives. There are some, even in 
 the prime of life, who give of their vast wealth 
 1,000 to the hospital amidst all manner of 
 eulogistic newspaper paragraphs and clouds of 
 human incense ; yet the act puts them to not 
 the slightest inconvenience, and is not to be 
 estimated, in point of moral value, with the act 
 of the poor mechanic who gives his threepenny 
 piece. The mechanic's gift is, of course, con- 
 sidered beneath notice, but the 1,000 donor is 
 raised to a pedestal of saintship, and so extrava- 
 gantly belauded, publicly and privately, that in 
 due time another 1,000 is given, eliciting another 
 barbarous roar of human applause about nothing, 
 and filling the air with the " hallelujahs of flun- 
 keys " and the newspapers with fulsome plaudits 
 of an act not worthy of being associated with so 
 sacred a word as charity. Such a man might 
 very easily give 1,000 occasionally to the 
 hospital, or other public institution, and have 
 not one particle of genuine charity in his whole 
 composition. We are told authoritatively that a 
 man may give all his goods to feed the poor and 
 even his body to be burnt, and still be without 
 charity. There can be no true charity without a 
 sacrifice, and the mere giving of a 1,000, while 
 thousands are still held in possession, is not the 
 charity of Jesus Christ, nor does it bear the 
 remotest resemblance to it. It may pass current 
 with the world as charity, and be applauded to 
 the echo as such, but when put to the test of 
 Christ's demands it will be found to be mere 
 vanity, or more likely a cunning policy adopted
 
 186 AN AUSTRALIAN ORATOR. 
 
 for the purpose of purchasing a reputation, so- 
 that a readier admittance may be obtained to 
 public confidence with a view to ulterior objects. 
 In tracing the lives of the very best of men how 
 frequently does the cloven foot of their human 
 nature appear to mar and distort their very best 
 actions ! How little difference, in reality, is there 
 between the best and the worst, and when tried 
 by the test which Jesus Christ applied, how com- 
 pletely both are reduced to the same level. The 
 prevailing aspect of the world is falsehood, and 
 falsehood is the very essence of human nature. 
 Truth is a principle to be acquired, and no man 
 does acquire it but after a frightful struggle 
 against the falsehood of his nature ; that false- 
 hood is never eradicated from the nature of men, 
 but lurks there ever ready with its suggestions, 
 its temptations, and insidious efforts to obtain 
 mastery, and more or less tincturing the thoughts, 
 actions, and conduct of all men. Let any ob- 
 servant man look around him, and he will soon 
 find ample corroboration of the truth of what is 
 here said. There is scarcely a trade or occupa- 
 tion to which man turns his attention but is 
 based upon falsehood and deceit. From morning 
 till night men labour to overreach each other, all 
 arrayed in the disguise of honesty, but all pro- 
 pelled by selfishness, avarice, and overruling, im- 
 perious necessity. From this sickening scene of 
 fraud, hyprocrisy, and double-dealing, how refresh- 
 ing it is to turn to the simple purity and genuine- 
 ness of the life and character of Jesus. What a 
 sovereign contempt do we see here for all that 
 interests and animates mankind to effort ! What 
 nobility of purpose is revealed in His every act 
 and deed ! No taint of sin or selfishness, or
 
 CHRISTIANITY. 187 
 
 human weakness of any kind, mars for one 
 moment the dignity and moral beauty of His 
 devoted life. He has no two faces, one for the 
 rich and powerful, another for the poor and 
 helpless. He does not recognise the distinction 
 between them, so visible to humanity ; and 
 is equally in earnest whether administering 
 a rebuke to the highest functionary in the 
 land, or tending and nurturing, with the 
 most loving solicitude, some poor, diseased, 
 helpless outcast. It is certainly a remarkable fact 
 that no human being has appeared on the earth 
 before or since the appearance of Jesus that bears 
 the remotest resemblance to Him. He stands out 
 so conspicuously from humanity, is so infinitely 
 superior to, and so different from even the very 
 best specimens of human nature, that the conclu- 
 sion is irresistibly forced upon us that He had 
 a divine nature as well as a human one. But 
 whether God or man or both, the dignity and 
 majesty of His sublime figure will for ever move 
 before our imaginations ; the purity and unselfish 
 devotion of His simple life will ever attract a 
 spontaneous worship; and the cruel injustice of 
 His tragic end will, to the end of time, thrill the 
 souls of men as they mourn over the fate of so 
 much goodness and so much glory. Say what we 
 will, argue and philosophize as we may, reason 
 with all power, human or superhuman, we shall 
 never erase, in the slightest degree, the indelible 
 mark which the life and death of Jesus has left on 
 every age of the world since His birth. We shall 
 never be able to deduct one iota from the divine 
 power of that life and death to soothe the trials 
 and brighten the hopes of the poor, to comfort 
 the oppressed, inspire the hopeless, cheer the de-
 
 188 AN AUSTRALIAN ORATOR. 
 
 jected, and enable them all to issue from their last 
 struggle with their last enemy irradiated by the 
 consciousness and crowned with the glory of con- 
 quest. During the lifetime of Jesus He founded a 
 Church, and after His death His followers and 
 disciples spread that Church over a large portion 
 of the earth. The doctrines of the Church were 
 very simple, and consisted merely of faith in Christ, 
 that He was the Son of God and died for all. His 
 apostles preached nothing else but this, one of 
 them saying "I resolve to know nothing but 
 Christ's death and crucifixion." The ministers 
 of those Churches, whom they called elders, were 
 appointed to that office from the possession of no 
 worldly learning or accomplishments, but from an 
 earnest faith in Christ's life and death. On ap- 
 pointment to this office they did not deem it neces- 
 sary to give up their secular labours by which they 
 supported themselves, nor was there any instance 
 of one elder being appointed to any Church, but 
 always a plurality. The idea of being educated in 
 the worldly schools to this priesthood, and following 
 it as a profession or means of living, never crossed 
 the mind of Jesus or one of His followers, and 
 would have been looked upon by them as a mon- 
 strous prostitution and open blasphemy. The 
 crafty priesthood of modern times quote one or 
 two isolated texts, such as " the labourer is worthy 
 of his hire," to justify their wholesale extortion 
 and plunder of the people. The example and 
 direction of the Apostle Paul on this vital subject 
 are entirely thrown away upon them. While it 
 was notorious that every preacher in the Church 
 of those days, as a matter of vital principle, 
 laboured with his own hands at his secular occu- 
 pation to support himself, the Apostle Paul directs
 
 CHRISTIANITY. 189 
 
 them in their travels to take, in the shape of meat 
 or drink, whatever was voluntarily given, and adds 
 " For the labourer is worthy of his hire." But 
 from his birth till his death he worked for his own 
 living at his secular occupation, and never dreamt 
 of or imagined such a state of things as prevails 
 now. Let us hear the great Apostle himself on 
 the subject, because, in speaking on it, he is not 
 only perfectly plain and explicit, but emphatic and 
 conclusive beyond doubt or question. This is what 
 he says " Nevertheless we have not used this 
 power" the power to take money for preaching 
 " but suffer all things lest we should hinder the 
 gospel of Christ." Again he says, " But I have 
 used none of these things, neither have I written 
 these things that it should be so done unto me ; 
 for it would be better for me to die than that any 
 man should make my glorifying void." In the 
 same place he says " What is my reward, then ? 
 Verily, that when I preach the gospel I may make 
 the gospel.of Christ without charge." In the same 
 strain he writes to the Thessalonians "For ye 
 remember, brethren, our labour and travail, for 
 labouring night and day, because we would not be 
 chargeable to any of you, we preached unto you the 
 gospel of God." In the second epistle to the same 
 Church he writes^-" Neither did we eat any man's 
 bread for nought, but wrought with labour and 
 travail, night and day, that we might not be 
 chargeable to any of you, not because we have not 
 the power, but to make ourselves an example unto 
 you to follow us." Besides the trials and sore per- 
 secutions which befel Paul in the exercise of his 
 ministry, and which he terms " the things that 
 were without," he found a serious occupation for 
 his mind and attention in that which he says
 
 190 AN AUSTRALIAN ORATOR. 
 
 " conieth upon me daily, the care of all the 
 Churches." Yet we see that, notwithstanding that 
 serious charge of the oversight, not of one Church, 
 but of all the Churches, he did not deem it in any 
 way incompatible with that duty that he should 
 labour and work with his hands that he might be 
 burdensome to none. Accordingly, when he came 
 to Corinth, and met with Aquila and his wife 
 Priscilla, he abode with them, and wrought, be- 
 cause he was of the same craft, for by their occu- 
 pation they were tent-makers, and there, although 
 he resided with them and was maintained by them, 
 he wrought with his hands at their business of 
 tent-making, that he might not be chargeable to 
 them. He refers particularly to his conduct in 
 this important point, in a manner so clear and 
 conclusive that if gospel truth had been the object 
 of the various Churches of the world, they would 
 have had no difficulty in arriving at it. In his 
 remarkable address to the elders of Ephesus, whom 
 he sent for to Miletus, and after declaring that he 
 was pure from the blood of all men, as he had not 
 shunned to declare to them the whole counsel of 
 God, and exhorting them to take heed to them- 
 selves and all the flock, he says " I have coveted 
 no man's silver or gold or apparel. Yea, ye your- 
 selves know that these hands have ministered to 
 my necessities and to them that were with me. I 
 have shewed you all things, how, that so labour- 
 ing, ye ought to support the weak, and to re- 
 member the words of the Lord Jesus how He said 
 * It is more blessed to give than to receive/ ' 
 Surely nothing could be plainer than all this, or, 
 to a candid mind, more satisfying or convincing, 
 but it is all thrown away upon our modern Churches. 
 This is one of the main sources of the degeneracy
 
 CHRISTIANITY. 191 
 
 and corruption of Christianity, and so our modern 
 clergy turn their backs upon the Apostle Paul, 
 and close their ears against his noble and self- 
 sacrificing doctrines, while they, with greedy 
 avidity, clutch at the lucre, and, in many instances, 
 to an extent which stamps them as the veriest 
 impostors and charlatans the world has seen . We 
 see, then, how simple was the constitution and 
 doctrine of the Church founded by Jesus a body 
 of earnest men brought together by the power of 
 God's truth over their consciences. Their grand 
 doctrine was belief in His life and death ; they 
 were all earnest believers, and this was the only 
 qualification for appointment to the ministry. I 
 wonder how many of our modern clergy of our 
 Established Churches possess this qualification. 
 No educational qualifications availed anything for 
 the ministry of Christ's Church. A man might 
 have been the most accomplished scholar of 
 the age and it would have in no way recom- 
 mended him for admission to the Church, far less 
 to the ministry. Whatever his accomplishments, 
 if he lacked the faith by which mountains are 
 moved he was but a " sounding brass." The 
 Apostle Paul, in the language I have already 
 quoted, shows clearly with what indignation he 
 repudiated the idea of a minister of Christ receiv- 
 ing payment for the performance of his duty. He 
 performed that duty without charge, and, in his 
 own touching language, here is a portion of the 
 payment he received for it : " Of the Jews 
 times I received forty stripes save one. Thrice 
 was I beaten with rods ; once was I stoned ; thrice 
 I suffered shipwreck, a night and a d;iy i have 
 been in the deep. In jourueyings often, in perils 
 of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils by mine
 
 192 AN AUSTRALIAN ORATOR. 
 
 own countrymen, in perils by the heathen, in 
 perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in 
 perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren ; 
 in weariness and painfulness, in watchings, often 
 in hunger and thirst, in fastings, often in cold 
 and nakedness." When we reflect upon this and 
 listen to the modern pretenders prating about per- 
 forming the work of their Master, many of them 
 drawing thousands of pounds yearly in considera- 
 tion of the pretence, how the soul of every true 
 believer and genuine reader of the New Testament 
 is filled with scorn and contempt! And what a 
 contrast when we look at the various religious 
 organizations of our own day and compare them 
 with the Church of Christ and His immediate 
 followers. That Church, with no paid ministry, 
 with every member an earnest, devoted believer, 
 ready at any moment to lay down his life in the 
 cause, and exposing it in spite of the knowledge 
 that the bare profession was certain to result in 
 loss of comfort, property, liberty, and life. When 
 we reflect that this Church and every one of its 
 adherents were, from the first, marked out for the 
 most relentless and bitter persecution, at the 
 instance of all the powers of the earth ; that the 
 Apostles, almost to a man, met a cruel and violent 
 death ; that all who took any part in it must have 
 first made up their minds to certain ruin and sore 
 destruction, to be hunted from place to place, 
 imprisoned, flogged, spat upon, insulted in every 
 vile manner, and ultimately tortured to death,. 
 Under such circumstances what a guarantee had 
 we for the sincerity of those devoted men ! What 
 a pure and genuine worship must have ascended 
 to heaven on the assembling of this band of heroes ! 
 What a divine Inspiration that must have been
 
 CHRISTIANITY. 193 
 
 that armed them with the sublime courage to 
 brave the bitterest hatred of the mightiest 
 monarchs of the earth, to laugh to scorn 
 dungeons and racks, and to hold aloft the banner 
 of Christ with rare constancy and firmness, 
 amidst poverty and hunger, torture and insult, 
 desolation and death ! Estimate, if you can, the 
 power of that principle of worship, inspired by the 
 life and death of Jesus, which had laid hold of 
 these men, prompting them to consider all things, 
 life itself, as lost for His sake. In all history 
 there is nothing so grand or so thrilling, and, 
 curious enough, notwithstanding the persistent, 
 continuous, and frightful persecution to which 
 the Church of Christ was exposed notwithstand- 
 ing the formidable character of the powers arrayed 
 against it, and the wholesale murder of its 
 adherents, wherever they could be found in 
 spite of all this we see it burning only with a 
 clearer and a steadier lustre, as the efforts to 
 obscure and extinguish it were redoubled. This, 
 then, was a Church worthy of its pure and divine 
 Founder. It was a Church which left every man 
 to act upon his own conviction nay, demanded 
 that he should do so. " Let every man be fully 
 convinced in his own mind " was the very soul of 
 the system. There were no priests here arrogating 
 to themselves a monopoly of the knowledge of 
 Christ, and pretending that it could not be 
 imparted to anyone without their aid. Each 
 man was responsible for his own belief, and was 
 taught and exhorted to search, study, and investi- 
 gate for himself. Their one dogma was Christ's 
 death and resurrection, and they never tired ex- 
 patiating on the glorious theme. Their doctrines 
 were simple and beautiful, consisting of brotherly
 
 1 94 AN A USTRALIAN OR A TOR. 
 
 love and mutual aid, bearing each others' burdens. 
 No treasures were laid up on earth, but the poor 
 were the recipients of each one's surplus. No 
 thought was expended on the future, and, having 
 food and raiment, they were all required to be 
 content. The Church struggled on nobly, making 
 many converts, in the face of the most appalling 
 persecutions and under the most grinding tyranny. 
 Persecution and the sword were in full cry after it 
 when an event took place that altered everything, 
 and laid the foundations of that vast fabric of 
 corruption which took the place of the pure Chris- 
 tianity of the persecuted Church and prostrated 
 the whole human mind, where it prevailed, under 
 a priestly thraldom which is visible, in a mitigated 
 form, at the present hour. The event referred to 
 was the conversion to Christianity of the Koinan 
 Emperor Constantine. This event corrupted the 
 pure struggling Church to the very core, and 
 raised anti-Christ to his throne. After Constan- 
 tine's conversion all persecutions of the Church 
 ceased, and just in proportion as it had been 
 hunted and oppressed by the kings of the earth, 
 in the same proportion was it now, by them, 
 nurtured and fondled, and in every way supported, 
 protected, and patronised with results which I 
 shall attempt to portray presently. I have tried 
 to sketch the true and only Church of Christ in as 
 faithful and condensed a manner as possible by 
 merely reflecting the facts of the New Testament. 
 It is now left for me to paint the corrupted Church 
 which superseded the purity and simplicity of 
 Christ's system after Constantine's conversion, or. 
 so-called conversion, and which has been more or 
 less the curse of humanity from that day to this. 
 Under this monstrous incubus mankind has
 
 CHRISTIANITY. 195 
 
 groaned for ages, kings and priests have used it 
 for their own aggrandisement, and through it 
 man's intelligence has been struck with paralysis, 
 his body enslaved, his spirit broken, and his 
 whole character degraded almost to the level of 
 the beasts that perish, while priests have rolled in 
 luxury and licentiousness, and amused themselves 
 by inventing new devices for the further degrada- 
 tion of humanity and to rivet the almost universal 
 thraldom. In these days there are signs abroad 
 that the reign of the priest is at end. May God, 
 in His mercy, open the eyes of poor blind humanity 
 to see the depth of their corruption and treachery, 
 and the happiness and peace that are to be found 
 in an earnest, life-giving faith in the simple 
 beauty of the pure Christianity of the New Testa- 
 ment. We have seen what a noble struggle the 
 Church of Christ made against the powers of the 
 world, and what a splendid and dauntless courage 
 animated its followers. The handful of poor men 
 who threw all that men hold dear to the winds for 
 the sake of the grand truths they upheld, their 
 unswerving fidelity to those truths, their inflexible 
 firmness and constancy under cruel punishment, 
 the devotion with which they offered up their 
 lives in the cause, the fearless intrepidity with 
 which they ignored all earthly considerations, 
 stamps them as the noblest characters and the 
 grandest heroes of history. Their Church was 
 integrity itself, as well it might have been, every 
 member being there at the cost of his life. No 
 money rewarded their ministry, but the loss of 
 everything was cheerfully endured for the sake of 
 their belief. It was a Church for virtue to glory 
 in. The preachers poured forth their souls in 
 burning earnestness, and struck conviction to the
 
 196 AN A US TRALIAN OR A TOR. 
 
 hearts of all listeners. The intense zeal and 
 boundless devotion of every man of them bore 
 down every obstacle, and kept the flame of 
 Christ's righteousness alive when every earthly 
 power was bent upon its eclipse. This Church 
 was existing in all its purity and strictness 
 of discipline when the Roman Emperor Con- 
 stantine ceased to persecute it, became a, 
 member of it, and upheld it. The effect of this 
 was, as I have said, to corrupt it to the very core. 
 The Emperor's example was everywhere followed, 
 without the slightest reference to principle or 
 conviction. After the Emperor joined the 
 Church there was no road to place or power but 
 through membership of it. Every knave took 
 his cue from the Emperor and joined the Church, 
 deeming it the most politic course he could adopt. 
 Crowds of scheming libertines, unprincipled im- 
 postors, and designing politicians entered it with- 
 out a thought of anything but their own worldly 
 advantage in so doing. In one word, the flood- 
 gates were at once opened for a full, broad stream 
 of corruption to roll in, and the pure Church of 
 Christ and His apostles became an implement of 
 government, a machine, through which, the 
 priesthood became the hirelings of kings, and 
 both united for the simultaneous plunder and 
 oppression of the people. This has con- 
 tinued to this very hour, and has stimulated the 
 deepest hatred of priests and their craft in the 
 hearts of all enlightened, true men. The Church 
 of Christ was thus almost entirely obliterated ; 
 its doctrines, constitution, and practice trampled 
 under foot, and a most appalling spiritual tyranny 
 set up in its place. The new priests soon let it be 
 known that it was no part of their programme to
 
 CHRISTIANITY. 197 
 
 live in poverty or to depend upon the voluntary 
 contributions of the people for support. They 
 became the paid officers of the State, and began 
 by exacting the tenth of every man's earnings to 
 keep them in luxury and affluence. The original 
 upholders of the purity of Christ's Church had all 
 disappeared, under imprisonments and death sen- 
 tences, and their successors, with the aid of kings 
 and civil rulers, enforced their atrocious plunder 
 of the people by legal process and, if necessary, 
 by military force. The provision of a tenth of 
 each man's earnings was soon found inadequate to 
 satisfy the rapacity of those priestly vultures, and 
 in due time, with the aid of the temporal power, 
 they laid claim to and obtained large tracts of the 
 finest lands, which afforded them princely re- 
 venues for all time coming. In the meantime 
 their numbers were increased immensely with 
 every variety of rank and grade, from the mere 
 novice up to him they called the head of their 
 Church, whom they also created a temporal king. 
 Their whole proceedings were without a shadow 
 of foundation in the Word of God, and this was 
 so well known to them that the reading of the 
 Scriptures was prohibited, and the Bible became 
 a sealed book to the people. Every monstrous 
 fable and blasphemous dogma were then taught 
 as the Word of God, the priests telling the poor, 
 unfortunate people that no one was competent to 
 understand the Scriptures without a priest being 
 present to interpret. The whole substance of 
 Christ's beautiful and simple doctrine was lost 
 and swallowed up in this terrible corruption and 
 apostasy. The thing at length became so 
 spurious and rotten that the priests did not care 
 to conceal their profligacy and licentiousness.
 
 398 AN AUSTRALIAN ORATOR. 
 
 For some reason, unknown to God's Word, the 
 priests were prohibited from marriage, and it re- 
 quires no vivid imagination to picture the 
 frightful grossness and profligacy that this de- 
 testable rule induced. Open and undisguised 
 immorality among the priesthood was the rule, 
 and it was followed by a train of consequences 
 too horrible to mention. Religious houses were 
 established for the reception of men and women, 
 who thus retired from the world. The women 
 saw no human beings but the priest, and in all 
 countries this infernal system produced results 
 from which the soul of man shrinks with horror. 
 Every device that human invention could think of 
 was put in practice by the priests for the purpose 
 of raising money. Not content with the splendid 
 provision already made for them, they pretended 
 to forgive sins and sold this forgiveness to their 
 poor dupes for money. They also granted in- 
 dulgences for money, tha,t is, on payment anyone 
 got liberty to do as he or she liked for a specified 
 period. Even the dead were turned into coin, 
 and large exactions made from the deluded sur- 
 vivors in order that the priests might secure the 
 repose of the souls of the departed. The revenues 
 from these sources were enormous, and enabled 
 the priests to live lives of rare luxury and licen- 
 tiousness. An embargo was laid upon education, 
 and the discoveries of science were silenced on 
 pain of death. A system of confession of sins to 
 the priests was introduced, by which the secrets 
 and private affairs of all families were disclosed 
 and used for various atrocious purposes. Under 
 this frightful system the entire body of mankind, 
 where it prevailed, were sunk and lost. The 
 human mind was hopelessly enslaved ; all right of
 
 CHRISTIANITY. 1'J'J 
 
 free thought gone. The priesthood hung over 
 the people stupifying them with a deadly 
 malaria from which there was apparently no 
 recovery; all independence annihilated, no one 
 ever dreamt of thinking for himself, far less 
 attempting to throw off the stigma and torture 
 of this infernal, blighting, soul-destroying 
 tyranny. This state of things continued for 
 centuries, and well-nigh succeeded in entirely 
 extinguishing human intelligence. The priests 
 reigned supreme, and saw with delight the mass 
 of the people prostrated at their feet in hopeless 
 thraldom. Such was the state of the world when 
 what is called the Reformation burst upon it with 
 a terrible explosion. A priest of unrivalled ability 
 and rare courage, Martin Luther by name, had 
 long looked upon all he saw with feelings of pro- 
 found disgust. The abuses of the so-called Church, 
 and the libertinism and glaring immorality of the 
 clergy, had filled his soul with loathing, and, being 
 an earnest, true man, he assailed the monstrous 
 fabric of superstition and corruption with all his 
 splendid ability and unconquerable courage, and 
 never ceased until he had split it in two and 
 shook it to its foundations. Luther was in every 
 way fitted for this gigantic task, and played his part 
 with the spirit and devotion of the early martyrs. 
 Priestcraft received a deadly blow at his hands, 
 and at this day we owe to him the right of free 
 thought and emancipation from the shackles of a 
 galling, priestly oppression unendurable by en- 
 lightened men. The new opinions spread in all 
 directions, and were espoused by the intelligence 
 of every land, and reformed Churches set up in all 
 countries. However little we may value the 
 character of those reformed Churches, as compared
 
 200 AN AUSTRALIAN ORATOR. 
 
 with the simplicity and purity of the Church of 
 Christ, we cannot fail to glory in the event that 
 struck down the colossal spiritual tyranny that 
 had so long degraded and oppressed mankind. 
 The reformed Churches did not dream of going 
 back to the Scriptures, which were now opened 
 for the perusal of the people, for their model in 
 founding a Church. Had they done so we would 
 have had something very different from what now 
 prevails. They took for their model the system 
 they had left, and retained many of the leading 
 abuses of the original apostasy. Let us take the 
 Church of England, as by law established, as an 
 example. It seems to be the merest mockery to 
 talk of it as a reformed Church. Its connection 
 with the State, to begin with, gives the lie to the 
 dying declaration of Jesus Christ, " that His 
 kingdom was not of this world." Where is the 
 authority in Scripture for such offices as their 
 archbishops and bishops with their enormous 
 revenues? The Archbishop of Canterbury has 
 15,000 a year, and the bishops, to be within 
 the mark, say 3,000 each. Are not these a 
 remarkable set of followers of the meek and 
 lowly Jesus, who had not, on this earth, where 
 to lay His head ? Consider that those magnifi- 
 cent revenues are wrung from the people, in many 
 instances, in spite of their repudiation of the 
 Church and dissent from it; and yet we find 
 those bishops and archbishops have the effron- 
 tery to take the name of Jesus in their mouths ! 
 As a means of extortion and plunder, the Church 
 of England at this moment stands unrivalled ; the 
 Church of Eome scarcely surpasses it in rapacity. 
 The reformed Church lays hold of the tithes, and 
 has property in all towns, besides splendid revenues
 
 CHRISTIANITY. 201 
 
 from the best lands in the country. This " Cor- 
 morant Church " preys upon mankind from their 
 birth till their death. The livings of this Church 
 are mostly in the hands of the aristocracy, and 
 are often sold in London, by auction, to the highest 
 bidder. As the result of this system the most 
 worthless and profligate men are frequently 
 appointed to very rich livings. This, then, is 
 what is called the reformed Church of England. 
 Is it not monstrous that the people, who have 
 access to the New Testament, should tolerate a 
 system of this description ? Do men pretend to 
 exercise their judgments upon religious matters 
 at all? or do they accept, without inquiry, what- 
 ever is placed before them for their belief? The 
 Bible might never have been written for aught 
 there is in the constitution and practice of the 
 Church of England to be found there. And what 
 are all intelligent men forced to pronounce it to 
 be but a mere political machine set in motion by 
 men who are bribed by the State to use it as a 
 means of upholding kingcraft and aristocracy, and 
 for the purpose of keeping the people in ignorance 
 and awe ? There are no men so ready to call out 
 Atheist as the bishops and clergy of this church 
 when anyone raises his voice against it. The true 
 Atheist and practical opponent of Christ's religion 
 is the man who dares to open his mouth in defence 
 of the Church of England and its multiplied abuses. 
 We have seen the large i*evenues drawn by her 
 bishops, in open defiance of almost every word that 
 fell from the lips of Christ. I wonder if any of 
 those bishops ever thought of the passage, " Go 
 and sell what thou hast and give to the poor, and 
 take up your cross and follow Me." To be sure 
 they did, only to laugh at it. Take up their cross !
 
 202 AN AUSTRALIAN ORATOR. 
 
 The cross they take up is generally large instal- 
 ments of their yearly pay to be devoted most 
 religiously to their own luxurious comfort. One 
 of their number, T observed some time ago, died 
 leaving behind him the enormous sum of 200,000. 
 What a sum to be imprisoned at the instance of a 
 bishop ! Of course, this bishop had a beautiful 
 conception of the text, " Lay not up treasures 
 upon earth " or " Having food and raiment, let 
 us therewith be content." Had that bishop's 
 faith been as strong in Christ as it was in 
 his money, what a happy man he would have 
 been ! I wonder how he felt when he passed, in 
 rags and wretchedness, the beggars in the street ! 
 If he ever prayed, I wonder if his prayers were 
 only limited to the preservation of his treasure ! 
 And now that he is dead and before his God, may 
 we not rely upon the fact that his soul is in the 
 company of other rich men, where cold water, for 
 cooling purposes, is in considerable demand ? 
 Just let us suppose for a moment that this bishop 
 had been a Christian man ! What a world of 
 tears he might have dried up with a tithe of that 
 sum what an infinity of distress he might have 
 alleviated had Christianity lived in his heart ! 
 And what a consolation, when the inevitable 
 stroke of death came upon him, to reflect that the 
 bulk of his fortune had been expended in carrying 
 joy and comfort to many a desolate hearth, and 
 pouring balm into many a wounded spirit ! Under 
 such circumstances how smooth the pillow of his 
 death-bed ! With what calm placidity could he 
 have faced the last enemy, his dying couch sur- 
 rounded by visions of faces beaming with smiles 
 of the most ineffable gratitude, and whispering in 
 Ms ear the hopeful words " Fear not, inasmuch
 
 CHRISTIANITY. 203 
 
 as you did it unto us, you did it unto our blessed 
 Saviour," the dying man's greatest anxiety, if he 
 had any, being a pardonable impatience to be 
 ushered into the presence of the God he had so 
 faithfully served, and whose teachings he had so 
 practically followed. But let us look at the 
 picture as we may suppose it to have actually 
 existed. Behold his Grace lying on the bed of 
 death, bis whole soul torn to pieces, in an agony 
 of despair, at the thought of leaving his vast 
 treasure, which I have no doubt had occupied him 
 every moment of his life in accumulating. See 
 him, frantic with anguish, with nothing but his 
 money to console him, and the searing fact enter- 
 ing like red-hot iron into his soul, and telling 
 him, in the most unmistakable manner, that it 
 was futile and powerless for such a purpose, and 
 that a few hours, perhaps, must tear it for ever 
 from his cramped, narrow, polluted, miserable 
 heart. See what a vivid expression of fear and 
 alarm overspreads his dying face at the bare idea 
 of looking to such a source for consolation ! 
 Mark the agony that is depicted in his every 
 muscle as he thinks he hears the words already 
 ringing in his ears, " Depart from Me, ye cursed." 
 And see him, at last, sink paralysed into death 
 with the apparent consciousness that his brief 
 heaven was now over, and that his eternal hell 
 was about to begin ! And so will it be with 
 every pretender to Christianity who luxuriates on 
 the spoils of the people, and preaches the gospel 
 as a mere profession, and makes it a means of 
 amassing wealth. Although, in the Church of 
 England and Scotland, there is a departure from 
 many of the grosser errors of the Popish super- 
 stition, still anyone who looks at those Churches
 
 204 AN AUSTRALIAN ORATOR. 
 
 will see at a glance what manifold abuses leaven 
 them from top to bottom. We see the Scriptures 
 entirely discarded as a means of guidance by their 
 founders. We see doctrines and practices per- 
 vading both Churches entirely unknown to the 
 Word of God ; we see the clergy of all grades, 
 hired and paid by the State, and acting, collec- 
 tively, more as an engine of government than as 
 Churches, far less than as Churches of Christ. 
 Against this scandalous system the Scriptures are 
 continually witnessing and protesting, but their 
 voice is drowned by the clamour of an army of 
 priests who share the gigantic wealth of those 
 human inventions created for the purpose of giving 
 stability to the political system of England and 
 other countries, and for aiding kingcraft and 
 aristocracy in the compassing of their nefarious 
 ends. So we have always seen the priests of 
 those Established Churches, particularly those of 
 England, acting on the side of wealth and power, 
 and arrayed against the people on all political 
 questions of vital concern to them. On all ques- 
 tions of reform, originated for the purpose of 
 extending the people's influence, the clergy of the 
 Church of England were always their bitterest 
 opponents. Even when the question was the 
 transcendent one of cheapening the bread of 
 starving millions the clergy of whom I am speak- 
 ing fought to the last against the beneficent 
 reform. What cared they for the struggles, the 
 trials, the privations of the poor, in comparison 
 with the smile of the Lord to whom they owed 
 their livings? What was it to them if fathers 
 and mothers cried for bread to save their dying 
 children, and cried in vain, so long as they, by 
 their action, laid the foundation for another and a
 
 CHRISTIANITY. 205 
 
 higher step in the ecclesiastical ladder? Those 
 Churches exist by the power of the State ; take 
 away that power, and they fall to the ground, 
 stone dead no power but State money giving 
 them the semblance of life. Their influence on 
 the people is insignificant, and their very rotten- 
 ness and enormity has created a wider-spread 
 infidelity than all other causes put together. 
 The Established Church of Scotland, while not 
 defaced by the manifold abuses of the Church 
 of England, still it cannot escape from the 
 charge of being a branch of the kingdom 
 of anti-Christ, inasmuch as the Scriptures has 
 been a closed book to the founders of it so far as 
 it contains anything in common with the Church 
 of Christ. Its very State connection proves that 
 it was never intended that it should be constituted 
 in accordance with the principles of the Church 
 of Christ, whose kingdom, He so repeatedly said, 
 was not of this world. The advocates of this 
 State alliance with the Church have constantly, 
 and most falsely, asserted that religion would go 
 down but for this alliance. Granted, that the 
 spurious thing that passes with them for religion 
 would vanish on the withdrawal of this money 
 support. But can they shut their eyes to the 
 glorious struggle maintained by the early 
 Christians, not only without any such support, 
 but in the face of an organized system of the 
 most virulent persecution, rained down upon them 
 with all its fierce and virulent force, sweeping 
 away their liberties and their lives? The few 
 poor men who upheld Christ's pure system under 
 circumstances so terrible were true believers in 
 Christ and His word, and this is the only secret 
 of their devotion. The modern pretenders are
 
 206 AN AUSTRALIAN ORATOR. 
 
 true believers in pounds, shillings, and pence ; 
 hence their lukewarmness and utter absence of 
 all response to their ministrations on the part of 
 the great mass of the people. Large masses of 
 people, indignant at the palpable prostitution 
 of Christ's gospel, as seen in the practice and 
 humdrum action of the various denominations, 
 have turned away from them, and may be seen in 
 hordes on any fine Sunday enjoying the beauties 
 of God's creation, at all times calculated to inspire 
 a higher worship than that which is generally 
 induced by listening to some poor creature narrow- 
 ing down the large-hearted maxims of Jesus Christ 
 to the pitiful dimensions of his own insignificant, 1 
 paltry soul the consolation to this picture being 
 that the congregation are for the most part 
 oblivious of all that is going on, they having 
 come under the mesmeric influence from the 
 moment of the preacher opening his lips. It 
 seems to me wonderful how this conspiracy 
 against Christ's truth is not seen through even 
 by the most ignorant ; and, above all, it seems to 
 me wonderful how the clergy can maintain their 
 ground in the face of all that can be said against 
 them. Even in quiet, sedate Scotland the Estab- 
 lished Church clergy obtain their livings by the 
 most questionable means. In the towns they tax 
 the people of all sects for their support, and if 
 anyone refuses to pay, which is frequently the 
 case, he is sent to gaol, or his goods are sold off 
 at a ruinous loss. In Edinburgh the spectacle has 
 been seen of a respectable citizen dragged off to 
 gaol, handcuffed like a felon, because he refused 
 to contribute to the support of a Church he did 
 not belong to, and the doctrines of which he hated 
 and despised. I myself have seen serious riots
 
 CHRISTIANITY. 207 
 
 over this in Edinburgh. I have seen a man's 
 furniture dragged into the street and sold under 
 the protection of military force to pay the clergy 
 of the town. On those occasions the fiercest 
 hostility to the system was evoked, and the 
 clergy were talked of in a way that would have 
 done them good to listen to, while the military 
 were attacked by an angr} r multitude, and the 
 furniture smashed to atoms before their faces. 
 This rather than that the ecclesiastical cormor- 
 ants should touch a farthing by the sale. Fancy 
 ministers of Christ, so called, living by such 
 means ! Imagine those impostors ascending their 
 pulpits on Sunday with the knowledge of all this, 
 and that honest citizens were lingering in gaol 
 because they refused, most righteously, to con- 
 tribute to the support of a Church they had 
 nothing to do with. If the New Testament had 
 any meaning for these insolent pretenders, how it 
 must sting them ; how true is the Scripture, 
 " They impose heavy burdens upon men grievous 
 to be borne, but they themselves will not touch 
 them with the point of one of their fingers." 
 And again, " They devour widows' houses, and 
 for a pretence make long prayers." My hearers 
 will observe that up to this point I have only 
 spoken of the Church of Christ, the Popish super- 
 stition, and the political machines, miscalled 
 Churches, of England and Scotland. There has, 
 of course, been large disruptions of the three last 
 named institutions by dissent, most, if not all, of 
 the dissenters leaving them on account of their 
 strong belief of the truth of the charges I have 
 levelled against them in this address. This dis- 
 sent has spread all over Europe and America, and 
 has become most formidable in its dimensions and
 
 208 AN AUSTRALIAN OK A TOR. 
 
 power. The dissenting Churches have again and 
 again been dissented from, and there seems to be 
 a continuous effort to fight back to the pure 
 simplicity and truth of the original system. In 
 all the large bodies of Dissenters, they retained 
 much of the error contained in the Churches they 
 had left; but some of the later dissents made 
 effort to organize themselves on the primitive 
 model, with more or less success. The funda- 
 mental error of those large bodies of Dissenters 
 was their failure to see how unscriptural it was 
 to make the preaching of the Gospel a profession 
 by which a living was to be obtained ; and what 
 terrible results of indifference and rottenness the 
 practical operation of this principle produced. 
 The knowledge of God is not a thing that can be 
 taught in schools, as many shallow people suppose. 
 The existence of faith is a miracle, and exists 
 nowhere but where God implanted it. Every 
 true believer on the face of the earth at the 
 present moment, and in all past time, must have 
 undergone identically the same process by which 
 the Apostle Paul was converted. Paul was one 
 of the most relentless of Christ's persecutors, and 
 in a moment, while thus engaged, his whole 
 thoughts and belief were revolutionised and 
 changed. He saw, as if by a flash of electricity, 
 the simple gospel of Christ in all its everlasting 
 beauty, and Christ Himself as the God and Saviour 
 of the world ; and on this splendid truth break- 
 ing in upon his darkened mind he says, with 
 intense emphasis, "Henceforth I conferred not 
 with flesh and blood, but became a preacher of 
 the faith which once I destroyed." It was no 
 human influence that brought about this conver- 
 sion, and every human being who is brought to a
 
 CHRISTIANITY. 209 
 
 knowledge of God's truth is so brought by the 
 sin ue power and the operation of the same process 
 which wrought so mighty a change on the moral 
 life of Saint Paul. Is this principle, I would ask, 
 recognised by any of the many Churches we see 
 around us ? Do we not see in all cases young 
 men asked by their parents to become ministers 
 of the various Churches as the most likely means 
 to obtain a living? And what are the quali- 
 fications deemed necessary by men for this pro- 
 fession or trade ? A university training, consist- 
 ing of the acquisition of a knowledge of the 
 wisdom of men, which is foolishness with God, 
 and when this is attained they are generally 
 appointed to the charge of a Church. They are 
 not brought to this by the power of God's truth 
 over their consciences. They may be, and 
 frequently are, entirely without belief on the 
 subject, and have taken up the profession as a 
 mere trade by which a living is to be obtained for 
 themselves and families. What wonder, then, 
 under such a system, that the pulpits of almost 
 all the sects are characterised by sleepy, sluggish 
 indifference, and a total absence of all vitality or 
 animation. The clergy are not in earnest because 
 most of them are unconverted, their belief being 
 a sham, not a reality. They preach, not as the 
 early Christians did, from undying and devoted 
 love, but for the lucre that rewards them. Is the 
 whole thing as we now see it, in our established 
 and large dissenting Churches, not, therefore, an 
 egregious mockery and hollow pretence as com- 
 pared with the stern and noble reality that I have 
 already, most feebly, attempted to picture ? Look- 
 ing round upon what is called the religious world, 
 what do we see ? We perceive innumerable sects 
 
 p
 
 210 AN AUSTRALIAN ORATOR. 
 
 upholding antagonistic systems, every one of them 
 putting forth their own creeds and confessions as 
 their guide and rule, to the prejudice of the Holy 
 Scriptures. " In vain do they worship Me, teach- 
 ing for doctrines the commandments of men " 
 the clergy, in many instances, receiving princely 
 revenues, and, in every instance, considerable 
 salaries for preaching the Gospel of Christ, which 
 Paul said he did without charge. Let us take our 
 own capital, Sydney, and look for the results of 
 all this paid preaching. Sydney may be looked 
 upon as the head-quarters of the clerical army, 
 where the Generals and all the rank and file are 
 present ; and here, if anywhere, some result 
 should be visible. Well, then, in this very Sydney, 
 we find our gaols crammed to the door, crime 
 rampant, female prostitution overloading our 
 thoroughfares to a degree that has frequently 
 called forth the animadversions of the press, 
 drunkenness in rare glory, and every species of 
 juvenile delinquency, male and female, flourishing 
 with exuberant fruitfulness. Let the clergy of 
 all denominations look at this, and acknowledge 
 their impotency. It is no answer to this state of 
 things to keep up this continuous psalm-singing, 
 and, as Carlyle says, " this assiduous Sunday 
 organ-grinding." This is a very poor reply to the 
 demand for something like earnestness and faith. 
 We want a clergy totally the reverse of what we 
 have, and we shall never get this until there is a 
 return to the truth as Christ and His apostles 
 preached it. Sooner or later the thing must be 
 exploded ; the people already see its utter hollow- 
 ness, and the clergy know they have neither in- 
 fluence or power. They will, no doubt, point me 
 to the fact of their churches being crowded on
 
 CHRISTIANITY. 211 
 
 Sundays. For my part, I am never there to see ; 
 but, taking it for granted, let me ask them to 
 deduct those who are there in deference to the 
 cant of a spurious respectability. Let them 
 deduct those who are there to further their worldly 
 interest those who are there to see and be seen 
 those who are there from sheer vanity those who 
 are there to see their sweethearts, if not to meet 
 them and how many do the clergy think would 
 remain as being there to worship God in spirit 
 and in truth ? But do the clergy not admit the 
 truth of what I am saying when, by their spas- 
 modic efforts to bring about from time to time 
 what they call a revival of religion, they confess 
 that the religion they profess to teach is fainting, 
 if not dying ? If this is not the case, what use 
 for a revival ? The clergy have a sad task before 
 them in attempting to revive that which never 
 existed. They know all this as well as I do, but 
 something must be done for their money; and 
 this is the curse of that money, that it is not 
 legitimately earned, and has brought the clergy 
 of almost all denominations into contempt in the 
 eyes of all earnest readers of, and true believers 
 in, the New Testament. We see the clergy also 
 busy forming what they call societies for the 
 promotion of morality. Is this not a plain con- 
 fession that their various Churches are failures 
 for this purpose? If their Churches were any 
 good for the purpose of promoting morality, 
 surely there would be no occasion to resort to 
 other means ; but it is because the clergy find 
 their Churches are total failures for the purpose 
 that recourse is had to those new societies. The 
 day, I hope, will soon come, for the sake of all 
 concerned, that this making a profession of
 
 212 AN AUSTRALIAN ORATOR. 
 
 preaching the Gospel of Christ, as a means of 
 obtaining a living, may be discarded by all honest 
 men. It is thoroughly unscriptural and wrong, 
 and has done more to retard the advance of 
 Christ's truth than any other cause known to me. 
 It has demeaned and lowered the clergy, and many 
 of them seem conscious of it, and confess as much 
 by their looks. Let the clergy, therefore, seek to 
 earn their bread in some more reputable way; 
 and then let them enter the pulpit animated by 
 the zeal of those noble ones of old, and preach 
 the glorious Gospel of Christ as He and His 
 apostles preached it, " without money and without 
 price," We may wait long enough for this and 
 other reforms in the various Churches, but so long 
 as they remain as they are, they will be simply 
 tolerated, and that is all. The cold-hearted in- 
 difference as to religious truth which prevails so 
 widely among the people has its root in the self- 
 seeking designs of the clergy and their marked 
 selfishness, together with the palpable insincerity 
 of their entire action and attitude. It is difficult 
 to imagine how it could be otherwise when religion 
 is degraded into a mere handicraft, and followed 
 as a profession or trade by which a living is ob- 
 tained. I have no objection to all this going on ; 
 but if it is to continue, let them shut the Bible 
 once and for ever. Don't let them any longer 
 pretend that the Bible countenances the " feigned 
 words " by which they make merchandise of it, 
 and falsify it for their own interested purposes. 
 Although the world, which notoriously prefers 
 falsehood to truth, may smile and approve, there 
 is a time which may yet come when the clergy 
 will be taken in their craftiness. To that time 
 and place let them be relegated strictly to abide
 
 CHRISTIANITY. 213 
 
 their fate. I would here also remark upon the 
 un scriptural character of the titles the clergy 
 arrogate to themselves the Reverend, the Very 
 Eeverend Father in God, his Grace the Lord 
 Bishop, and so forth. Would any of the clergy 
 kindly tell us what portion of the New Testament 
 justifies their assumption of such preposterous 
 titles ? Are they not rather unequivocally con- 
 demned by the whole spirit of God's word, 
 " He who will be greatest among you shall be 
 least ? " Was the Apostle Paul ever addressed 
 as his Grace the Lord Bishop ? And yet we find 
 herds of men, who can read and apparently have 
 their senses about them, falling on their knees 
 before a poor sinful worm like themselves, while 
 " may it please your Grace " falls from their re- 
 creant lips. I charge those men, if they can be 
 called such, with turning away from the Gospel of 
 Christ, and accepting the gospel of men. I 
 charge them with allowing poor weak, culpable 
 sinners like themselves to come between God and 
 their consciences, and with allowing upstart 
 insolent, as well as ignorant, priests to thrust 
 all manner of lying fables into their idiot heads 
 as the truths of God. These are serious charges ! 
 Yet how true are they. If the poor dupes I am 
 speaking of would only read their Bibles for them- 
 selves, and if they do not do so they will have to 
 answer to God for the omission, how they would 
 spurn the impostors who live by deceiving them. 
 As for the clergy, it is in vain to address argu- 
 ment to them; they are too well paid, their 
 position is too comfortable, their vestments are 
 too soft and fleecy, their luxurious, idle life is too 
 enjoyable to be relinquished without a death 
 struggle. I have often imagined the spectacle
 
 214 AN AUSTRALIAN ORATOR. 
 
 when final judgment will be awarded, when all 
 those Popes, Cardinals, Archbishops, Bishops, 
 Reverends and Eight Reverends are called upon 
 to give an account of the deeds done in the body. 
 What a picture to imagine them standing in the 
 presence of Christ and His Apostles, and to be 
 told, with bitter scorn, " I know you not ; you 
 rolled in wealth and luxury while on the earth, 
 and blasphemously drew it all in My name ; you 
 prostituted My gospel and falsified it for your own 
 base advantage; you ground princely revenues 
 out of the poor and applied them all to your own 
 selfish ends. You basely betrayed Me in your 
 every act, and now you are here to answer for it." 
 Imagine the cowardly terror of the sneaking, 
 selfish crew, as those words fall like forked 
 lightning upon them; but there is no escape 
 here, they are struck dumb, and vanish out of 
 sight under the terrible words of the sentence, 
 " Depart from Me ye cursed ! " Could the 
 wretched victims of those designing knaves who 
 are " fooled to the top of their bent " by the 
 schemes and devices and lying wonders of priest- 
 craft could they, I say, only open their eyes and 
 look the matter fairly in the face, how monstrous 
 would their delusions appear; how they would 
 hate and despise the charlatans by whom they 
 are deceived and plundered, and what a relief if 
 they could only shake off the priestly incubus 
 under which they have so long groaned and 
 weltered. Many causes have contributed to the 
 frightful corruption of Christianity which we see 
 on all sides of us. A fruitful cause of this I 
 have already pointed out that of the kings and 
 rulers of the earth making use of it as an 
 implement of government. All State-subsidized
 
 CHRISTIANITY. 215 
 
 Churches may therefore be looked upon as in no 
 \\-\\ v entitled to be considered as Christian Churches 
 at all, but rather as political organizations, or a 
 higher order of police, hired and paid to promote 
 the preservation of the peace, and to keep down 
 all political restlessness or agitation on the 
 part of the people. The Scriptures are entirely 
 abandoned by them as a means of guidance, 
 although they affect to use the Bible as their sole 
 guide to save appearances, yet their prayer-books 
 and catechisms, and confessions, and creeds, are 
 invented and used for the purpose of superseding 
 it. In what part of the Scripture shall we find 
 authority for such an officer of the Church as the 
 Pope of Rome ? And in what part of the Bible 
 shall we find his infallibility promulgated ? An 
 infallible priest at the head of a pretended 
 religious organization, built upon a foundation of 
 monstrous lies and grovelling delusions that the 
 intelligence of a baby, if left to itself, would laugh 
 to scorn, is a notable invention of human villainy 
 in every way calculated to subserve the ends of its 
 inventors ; those ends being plunder, extortion, 
 the enslavement and degradation of the people, 
 and their own luxurious comfort and elevation 
 above all that is called God. How long is man's 
 intelligence to remain so clouded and besotted 
 that it allows itself to be played upon after this 
 fashion ? Well may those priests be alarmed at 
 the prospect of the schoolmaster getting abroad. 
 Well may they dread the power of education, and 
 struggle so hard to stifle the efforts of good men 
 to rescue the people from their brutalizing in- 
 fluence. Wherever those priests have been with 
 their vile teaching, the same luxuriant crop of 
 ignorance, helplessness, and crime may be reaped ;
 
 216 AN AUSTRALIAN ORATOR. 
 
 the same black, benighted superstition springs into 
 existence ; the same paralysis of human intelli- 
 gence and human progress prevails, and we 
 observe a poor, helpless, awe-struck people be- 
 lieving in miracles and apparitions, and leaving 
 and expecting all their obvious duties to be 
 performed by such supernatural agencies. Is 
 it, therefore, an unpatriotic work to labour to 
 bring this reign of priestcraft to an end ? The 
 intelligence of mankind in this very century is 
 slowly but surely sapping the foundations of all 
 the strongholds of the priest. A yell of agony 
 comes from the enemy's camp as every fresh 
 weapon is forged for this purpose. Priestcraft 
 may well tremble in these times, for never 
 before was the artillery of truth more for- 
 midable or served with greater precision than 
 that which is at present directed against, and 
 playing upon, its citadel. No doubt members 
 of the different sects will agree with me in all this 
 because they themselves have not gone, perhaps, 
 so far in the abandonment of the Scriptures as 
 their guide and rule. But surety they have gone 
 far enough in this direction. I have already re- 
 peatedly spoken of the degrading and unscriptural 
 proceeding of prostituting the preaching of Christ's 
 Gospel into a mere trade by which a living is ob- 
 tained ; and I charge all the leading Christian sects 
 with appropriating only so much of the Scriptures 
 as will suit them, while they attempt to mutilate 
 and distort the remainder into conformity with 
 their own worldly and self-seeking views. Take, 
 for instance, that passage of Scripture beginning 
 with " Lay not up treasures upon earth." The 
 whole chapter is a most earnest exhortation to 
 save no money over and above our immediate
 
 CHRISTIANITY. 217 
 
 necessities, and in carrying out this rigid pro- 
 cedure those who practise it are cheered and 
 comforted with the assurance from Christ's own 
 lips that they would be tended and cared for by 
 the constant and watchful love of their Heavenly 
 Father who would never allow them to want. Do 
 the Churches believe this ? Unquestionably they 
 do not ; they get away from it by attempting to 
 say it is not to be taken literally. The whole 
 chapter will bear nothing but a literal interpre- 
 tation, and is a necessary and inevitable result of 
 all Christ's teaching and example. All Christ's 
 genuine followers are required to be content if they 
 get food and raiment, and it is just as monstrous to 
 suppose Christ Himself hoarding up money in a 
 bank as to imagine anyone who professes to be a 
 follower of His doing so ; and the man who pro- 
 fesses to be a folllower of Christ, and at the same 
 time lays up treasures upon earth, is to all intents 
 and purposes an unbeliever and a hypocrite en- 
 gaged in the impossible task of trying to serve 
 both God and Mammon. " It is easier for a 
 camel to go through the eye of a needle than 
 for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of 
 Heaven." This language is plain enough, but do 
 the Churches believe it? No, they do not, nor 
 any other portion of Scripture which calls upon 
 them to take up their cross. 
 
 The joys of Heaven are offered to the rich man 
 on the one condition that he sells what he has and 
 gives to the poor. There is no escape from it 
 " Go and sell what thou hast and give to the poor, 
 and take up your cross and follow Me." The man 
 to whom this was addressed went away sorrowful 
 because he had great possessions. From that day 
 to this, doubtless, millions upon millions have gone
 
 218 AN AUSTRALIAN ORATOR. 
 
 away sorrowful from the same cause. The alter- 
 native, according to the clergy, is the torments 
 of hell. Now if this was accepted, in the faintest 
 way, by human belief, how quickly would every 
 rich man professing Christianity rid himself of 
 his superfluous dross. And the reason he does 
 not do so is because he is an unbeliever at heart 
 who would like very well to get to Heaven and 
 escape from hell, but hesitates about the price 
 because he has no assured belief in the reality of 
 the bargain. Considering the short and fleeting 
 nature of human life, its precarious tenure at all 
 times, and the tremendous eternity beyond, what a 
 momentous question for human decision, whether 
 that eternity is to be one of bliss or one of torture ! 
 And if the torture could be avoided and the bliss 
 attained by laying up no treasures upon earth, but 
 expending the surplus on deeds of charity and 
 goodness, what a maniac would that man be who 
 retained a shilling beyond that which would pro- 
 vide him with food and raiment, with which he is 
 bound to be content if he believes the Bible or is 
 a follower of Jesus Christ. Are we not then 
 forcibly driven to this conclusion, that when we 
 see a rich man professing to believe in Christianity 
 and still retaining his money we see an unbeliever 
 and an impostor who has no faith in Christ's words, 
 but an abundant faith in the filthy lucre which 
 is the real object of his worship and affection? 
 All this the clergy try to explain away by saying 
 that it is not to be taken literally ; but as they 
 have in this way explained away almost the whole 
 Bible, the next best thing they can do is to try to 
 explain away Christ, who must be a sharp thorn in 
 their sides and a constant reproach to them so long 
 as their whole system is so entirely opposed to
 
 CHRISTIANITY. 21 Q 
 
 His. It is amusing to see the rich men trying to 
 compromise matters by subscribing largely to build 
 new churches and towards all charitable objects; 
 but Christ has signified in the clearest language that 
 such trickery and cunning will not do. There can be 
 no charity without a close imitation of Christ, so 
 far as it is possible for sinful humanity to imitate 
 Him ; and the idea of a professing Christian 
 with thousands of pounds laid up in banks is a 
 more monstrous anomaly than that of a teetotal 
 agitator starting a public-house. The position of 
 the clergy is becoming every day more and more 
 untenable, and it is not difficult to predict what 
 their fate will be during the next fifty years. 
 They must either return to the simplicity of 
 Christ's doctrine and practice, or they will be dis- 
 missed by the indignant voice of public opinion. 
 They may take to the frantic ringing of their 
 church bells as the only resource left them to 
 silence the earnest remonstrances of the people, 
 but, so sure as I speak, their occupation, as it' 
 now stands, is gone. The public, when once 
 alive to the plain teaching of Scripture, will 
 suffer no paid emissaries of selfish worldlings to 
 usurp the position of Christ's ministers, and to 
 cloud and obscure His beautiful and simple 
 doctrine by their own fables and inventions, as 
 embodied in their creeds and confessions, their 
 decrees and catechisms. The Scriptures are open 
 to all men, and so plain that " he who runs may 
 read." But this state of things would not suit 
 the game the clergy had to play, so they tried to 
 make out that the whole thing was a deep and 
 almost insoluble mystery ; they called it divinity, 
 theology, &c., and appointed Professors in 
 Colleges to teach it, and pretended that no man.
 
 220 AN AUSTRALIAN ORATOR. 
 
 was competent to preach the Gospel of Christ 
 unless he had undergone a preparatory training 
 in those schools, that Gospel, be it remembered, 
 "being simply : " Do unto others as you would that 
 they should do unto you." The clergy have 
 laboured most assiduously, both by precept and 
 example and when I speak of the clergy. I mean 
 the Protestant clergy as well as the Popish clergy 
 professing and practising nothing but legerde- 
 main, to teach the people the possibility of serving 
 both God and mammon. There is not one of 
 them who dares either practise himself, or teach 
 the people to practise, the doctrines of Jesus 
 Christ. Let me see the clergyman who will 
 excommunicate any of his members who " lay 
 up treasures upon earth," or " who takes any 
 thought of to-morrow," or " who is not content 
 with mere food and raiment." If these doctrines 
 are not carried out literally it is because they are 
 not believed in, and so, therefore, the clergy don't 
 teach them, as it would interfere with the service 
 of mammon so dear to mankind, the clergy in- 
 cluded. But if the clergy don't teach them, 
 Jesus Christ and all His Apostles taught them, 
 and, what is more, put them in practice to the 
 very letter, and demanded the same self-denial 
 from all who pretended to follow them. " Go 
 and sell what thou hast and give to the poor," 
 &c., was a test that the man with great posses- 
 sions shrank from. He, it would appear, thought 
 to serve both God and mammon, but Jesus Christ 
 undeceived him quickly, and he went away 
 sorrowful. This test is as applicable now as 
 then ; but the clergy don't think so, as it would, 
 if put in force by them, probably destroy their 
 trade entirely; and so they go on cutting down
 
 CHRISTIANITY. 221 
 
 the Scriptures to suit their own convenience, and 
 making it abundantly clear that whatever service 
 they give to God shall in no way interfere with 
 their more devoted, their more earnest and con- 
 genial service to mammon. I have often thought 
 of that passage in Matthew's Gospel where the 
 devil attempts to overthrow the virtue of Jesus 
 Christ : " Again the devil taketh Him up into an 
 exceeding high mountain, and showeth Him all 
 the kingdoms of the world and the glory of them ; 
 and saith unto Him, All these things will T give 
 Thee if Thou wilt fall down and worship me. 
 Then saith Jesus unto him, Get thee behind me, 
 Satan : for it is written, Thou shalt worship the 
 Lord thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve." 
 Although the devil was completely defeated here, 
 he was by no means dismayed. He made the 
 same offer to the clergy, and it was by them 
 greedily accepted, with the annexed condition of 
 falling down and worshipping him, and hence all 
 we see. Well, then, what is the aspect of the 
 world we see around us? The simple and life- 
 giving religion of Jesus Christ is abandoned by 
 men, under the pernicioug teaching of their 
 priests, as requiring too many painful sacrifices 
 to be practised, and we observe gangs of priests 
 and parsons living on the substituted imposture. 
 These priests, as they walk through life, must 
 often notice an angry expression of interrogation 
 on many a face : " What are you doing for the 
 money you draw ? " " Did the Master you pre- 
 tend to follow draw any money for the work 
 that He did? " " Would you do a hand's turn in 
 His cause minus the money ? " " Why not betake 
 yourselves to some useful labour by which your 
 stomachs may be appeased and your bodies
 
 222 A tf A US TEA LI AN OR A TOR. 
 
 clothed, and not barter away the truths of God 
 for the dearly-loved filthy lucre ? Do you imagine 
 your transparent play-acting is not seen through, 
 and laughed to scorn by every intelligent man 
 living ? " The answer the clergy give to these 
 interrogations is to get up what they call a 
 revival of religion by resolutely working their 
 spiritual bellows and blowing heartily until 
 fanaticism, mixed with lunacy, flames forth in 
 ghastly, lurid colours, dying out as rapidly as it 
 was kindled, and leaving our lunatic asylums 
 well stocked with the unhappy victims. Messrs. 
 Moody and Sankey have a good deal to answer 
 for touching this matter. The coarse, vulgar 
 ribaldry employed on those occasions is sickening 
 enough. The disgusting familiarity of the various 
 preachers' style in speaking of sacred things would 
 be simply laughable were it not so shocking 
 and revolting. The name of Christ is bandied 
 about with a levity myriads of miles removed 
 from genuine piety, and the whole scene is, from 
 first to last, the most lowering, degrading, and 
 humiliating spectacle the eyes of intelligence ever 
 rested upon. And so the clergy are satisfied with 
 a revival of this description, taking advantage of 
 an extensive derangement of the human stomach 
 to aggravate and inflame human fears ; and this 
 is their apology for the money they draw. This 
 is the " be all and end all " of their functions, 
 and the justification of their idle, worthless lives. 
 If the clergy aspire to the respect of mankind, 
 instead of courting their contempt, their course is 
 a plain one, although not an easy one. Follow 
 after the example of Christ and His Apostles, and 
 if this requires more courage than any of them 
 possess let them throw down once and for ever
 
 CHRISTIANITY. 223 
 
 their cowardly pretence, act the part no longer of 
 sheer impostors, " assume a virtue if they have it 
 not," and seek in honest labour to serve God in 
 spirit and in truth. Labour is worship, as has 
 been said of old, and the labourer if he is worthy 
 will get his wages ; but to be paid for praying, or 
 even for preaching, and to exact this in the name 
 of Christ, is so flagrant and gross a thing that the 
 being who does it must, as a condition precedent, 
 have divested himself of all belief in Christ or His 
 teachings, and recklessly entered the arena obli- 
 vious of everything but the one grovelling and 
 sordid consideration which seems to be the Alpha 
 and Omega of all ecclesiastical organizations under 
 heaven. And so it will be till men are roused from 
 their stupor and open their eyes to see clearly and 
 measure accurately the worth of the charlatans 
 who come to them under the preposterous pretence 
 of attempting to save their souls while their own 
 well-clothed and well-fed bodies and comfortable 
 livings are the only things in jeopardy. Was 
 there ever, in this world of sham and delusion, 
 anything imagined so comical and preposterous as 
 the spectacle of a poor wretched worm, a miser- 
 able, fussy, pragmatical thing of clay approaching 
 a fellow-sinner with the portentous statement that 
 he has come to save his soul, or even to assist at 
 an undertaking so extraordinary? And yet do 
 we not know that shoals of people believe that 
 poor blockheads, like themselves, have this power, 
 and do actually implore their assistance in emer- 
 gencies. What can we say to this but call loudly 
 for education to make men and women of what the 
 clergy, with their hollow teachings and nefarious 
 trickery, have all but transformed into " dead sea 
 apes " ? How different from all we see was the
 
 224 AN AUSTRALIAN ORATOR. 
 
 Church of the New Testament, where men were 
 appointed to the ministry from no educational 
 acquirements or successful scholastic examina- 
 tions, but from an intense and earnest zeal in 
 Christ's cause, where no money was offered or 
 received for preaching the gospel, but each man 
 laboured at his secular occupation and found the 
 means of support by so doing ! Have we seen 
 anything approaching to this under the worldly 
 system of a paid hireling clergy, who in many 
 cases, as the result of the system, follow it 
 as a means of living without reference to 
 belief at all? Have we seen the very faintest 
 resemblance on the part of the modern, pre- 
 tended, upholders of Christ's cause to the glorious 
 band of devoted men who upheld His Church 
 amidst all manner of danger and distress, and 
 sealed their devotion to it with their blood ? 
 Here, in this Church, invisible as it is at the pre- 
 sent time on the face of the earth, I cast my 
 anchor, believing firmly and most sincerely that 
 there is neither comfort, safety, nor satisfaction in 
 any of the numerous and various shams that pre- 
 vail. Looking around, then, on the various 
 temples that have been raised in the name of 
 Christ, we shall scarcely find one on which He 
 would not have turned His back and despised as 
 an unreal mockery and a hollow pretence. If, 
 therefore, I, and those who think with me, can 
 find no Church that we can conscientiously enter, 
 surely we are no losers thereby. Have we not 
 got the great world for a church, with sermons in 
 every breeze that blows and in every flower that 
 springs ? Have we not got the most immortal 
 discourse ever pronounced on this earth, the 
 Sermon on the Mount? And with its splendid
 
 CHRISTIANITY. 225 
 
 morality and everlasting consolations animating 
 and sustaining us, let us walk through life humbly, 
 though firmly, under the shadow of Christ's 
 righteousness, wish the fear and love of God 
 ever present to us, but with no fear of man what- 
 ever. 
 
 [This address was highly appreciated, and much 
 applauded by two very large audiences.]
 
 TITLES. 
 
 [ON Tuesday, 18th January, 1881, Mr. Buchanan moved, in the 
 Parliament of New South Wales (1) That in the opinion 
 of this House the conferring of titles upon any of the 
 people of this country is inconsistent with the spirit of 
 our democratic institutions, and ought to be discontinued. 
 (2) That the above resolution be communicated by address 
 to his Excellency the Governor for presentation to her 
 Majesty the Queen. In bringing forward this motion Mr. 
 Buchanan spoke as follows : J 
 
 ME. SPEAKER, I have thought it my duty to have 
 this motion considered in the interests of the 
 people of this country. Nothing can be imagined 
 more ridiculous and contemptible than to proceed 
 any further with the practice to which I take ex- 
 ception, and for that and other reasons I think 
 we ought respectfully to suggest to the imperial 
 authorities that it be discontinued. There can be 
 no doubt that the conferring of titles upon the 
 people here is inconsistent with the spirit of our 
 democracy ; that it is an insult to our democratic 
 institutions ; and that it tends to sap the founda- 
 tions of all true manliness and independence by 
 setting up false objects of ambition for the attrac- 
 tion of the people as well as spurious objects of 
 respect. I think and I believe all rational men
 
 TITLES. 227 
 
 will join me in thinking that the conferring of 
 titles at the rate this is being done at present, and 
 reflecting upon the class- and character of the 
 people who are obtaining them, is calculated to 
 bring about no other result than the deterioration 
 of society in this country, certainly far enough 
 gone in that respect already, and not to be im- 
 proved by creating a vain, vulgar, ignorant set of 
 titled nonentities, who, in most cases, achieve the 
 worthless distinction by a systematic servility and 
 grovelling meanness, prompting them to pros- 
 trate themselves before authority, absolutely soli- 
 citing the contempt that so often greets them, 
 thinking themselves only too well recompensed 
 by being allowed for a short time to breathe the 
 same atmosphere as the poor titled worm they 
 venerate and worship. This system which I am 
 condemning has grown to such an extent of late 
 that it demands a check from this Parliament. 
 Can anyone doubt that it tends in a great degree 
 to the injury of that wholesome spirit of manly 
 independence which should prevail in a young 
 rising democracy like this? The existence of 
 titles has exercised a very sad and pernicious 
 influence on the people of England, inasmuch as 
 it has lowered the character of the people by 
 leading them to form the most erroneous views as 
 to where they should repose their respect and 
 esteem. I can scarcely imagine anything more 
 despicable or mean than a vulgar Englishman's 
 worship of a lord simply because he is a lord. An 
 Englishman of the type to which I refer, like Sir 
 Pertinax, could not stand erect in the presence of 
 a titled person, no matter how worthless or con- 
 temptible that titled person might be. When 
 I say Englishman I, of course, include Irish- 
 men and Scotchmen, who are, if anything, a
 
 228 AN AUSTRALIAN ORATOR. 
 
 shade worse than their brother donkey of Eng- 
 land, and who may be seen any day offering 
 up incense to every insignificant, contemptible 
 thing of clay who, in many cases, has earned 
 a title by playing the part of a mean pander, 
 destitute of every feeling of honour, and every 
 manly, upright, independent principle. Those 
 things, I believe, had a most enervating and de- 
 teriorating effect upon the people. Titles had 
 exercised that influence in England, and I do not 
 wish to see the same injurious influence at work 
 in this country. On every ground of policy and 
 principle titles should not be allowed here. But I 
 take the highest of all ground, and assert that the 
 conferring of titles is at variance with the spirit 
 of our common Christianity, which recognised no 
 such thing. Not only is this so, but the great 
 Founder of Christianity repudiated the idea of 
 accepting a title, and positively rebuked the person 
 who addressed Him as " good master; " not even 
 considering it right that He should take that title, 
 although no human being that ever lived deserved 
 it more. Clearly, then, Christianity placed a ban 
 upon all such absurdities, and even when the 
 Apostles were contending as to which was the 
 most distinguished or first in point of rank and 
 status, the Saviour of mankind settled the question 
 most effectually by saying that the first should be 
 last and the last first, and that the least amongst 
 them should be the greatest, thereby levelling all 
 their towering ideas of vanity and ambition, and 
 setting His face against the practice to which I 
 now call the attention of this House. The whole 
 system of Christianity is founded on the purest 
 principles of democracy. The practice of confer- 
 ring titles had been resorted to in England, as in 
 all countries where the monarchical principle pre-
 
 TITLES. 229 
 
 vails, for the purpose of upholding the interest of 
 kings, and blinding and bribing the people at a 
 cheap and easy rate ; but not only had it corrupted 
 society in England by setting up false objects of 
 public esteem not only had it done all I have 
 said in the way of injuring and deteriorating the 
 strong masculine .sense of the people, but it did 
 all this for the purpose of maintaining and 
 upholding kingcraft as well as priestcraft, with all 
 their accompanying wrongs and crimes that have 
 so desolated the difterent ages of the world's his- 
 tory. Were not the professors of religion enlisted 
 under the same banner, and bribed with money as 
 well as title and rank to take office under this 
 system ? Titles were not only conferred upon 
 laymen, but also upon clergymen, some of whom 
 were addressed as "your Grace," "your Emi- 
 nence/' " Eight Reverend Father in God," and so 
 forth, thus adding blasphemy to the pitiful farce 
 they were playing. Those titles were not and 
 could not be conferred in the interests of religion, 
 because the clergy, having allowed themselves to 
 be hired into the service of kings, to assist in up- 
 holding monarchy in all its unprincipled extrava- 
 gance and open robbery, it was thought to please 
 the worthless men who thus acted by conferring 
 on them titles and enormous revenues, and by 
 thus appealing to their swelling vanity and base 
 cupidity they became the willing tools and instru- 
 ments of every conceivable tyranny and oppression 
 as well as every vile and dastardly plunder of the 
 weak and helpless. And so the people of England 
 groan under the oppression of a titled and privi- 
 leged class, temporal and spiritual an idle, do- 
 nothing aristocracy, engaged almost entirely in 
 the preservation of game to shoot at their leisure, 
 while the poor people are perishing around them
 
 230 AN AUSTRALIAN ORATOR. 
 
 in a life and death struggle for bare existence. 
 But let me ask what are their paltry titles at best ? 
 There are great historical names in England of an 
 eminence and lustre so enduring that the highest 
 title known fades away into insignificance and 
 total eclipse in presence of their simple grandeur. 
 What title could do anything but obscure the 
 illustrious names of Cromwell and Hampden ? 
 Imagine Cromwell calling himself " the Earl of 
 Baconfat," by way of advancement and distinc- 
 tion. There were men in England who had stead- 
 fastly set themselves against the idea of titles, and 
 had point-blank refused to accept them. Faraday 
 and the grand old Thomas Carlyle, and many other 
 eminent men of genius, spurned from them the 
 bare idea of a title, and carried their own glorious 
 names with them to the grave. No title dims and 
 obscures the name of William Ewart Gladstone. 
 Mr. Disraeli, it is true, had recently taken refuge 
 under a palti-y title, and I have no doubt that if 
 they had covered him a foot thick with titles his 
 true character would be visible through them all, 
 and he would appear as he was, " mosaic to the 
 very watch chain." The names of Fox, Pitt, 
 Burke, Cobden, and Bright would go down to the 
 most distant posterity untarnished by any con- 
 temptible title. Their names are free from this 
 degradation, and in their simple majesty command 
 a respect and regard deeper than that accorded to 
 the holder of the highest title in the land. It 
 would thus be seen that, even in England, the very 
 hot-bed of this system of title-mongering, there 
 were high-minded, independent men who would not 
 suffer their names to be degraded by such folly. 
 Those men had only to say the word in order to 
 obtain the highest title at the command of the 
 Sovereign, but not one of them did so. They pre-
 
 TITLES. 231 
 
 ferred the simple untitled name given them at their 
 birth, and which they had covered with a glory in 
 the presence of which the highest titles paled into 
 invisibility and utter extinction. This being the 
 case in England, one might have thought that 
 there would have been no attempt to create a 
 titled aristocracy in this country. But there has 
 been such an attempt seriously made even to create 
 a House of Peers here. I speak advisedly when I 
 say that a deliberate attempt was made to create 
 peers of this realm of Australia. If this idea is 
 ever realized in practice, I trust that the titles of 
 our peers will have some character and meaning 
 about them. So much am I interested in this 
 that I have gone the length of preparing a few 
 titles which are not more characteristic than they 
 are beautifully euphonious, and, I doubt not, will 
 give entire satisfaction. I would like to ask those 
 people who are so fond of titles how they like 
 " His Grace the Duke of Burglary;" "The Most 
 Noble the Marquis of Manslaughter;" "The 
 Right Honourable Lord Robbery ; " " Viscount 
 Perjury;" "Sir Petty Larceny, K.C.M.G.," &c. 
 Whatever honourable members may say of these 
 titles, they will, at all events, admit their ap- 
 propriateness as entirely characteristic and de- 
 scriptive of the aristocracy of Botany Bay. 
 There is a title given to some people here which 
 consists of putting the letters C.M.G. after their 
 names. I believe this title is much coveted among 
 the " wealthy lower orders/' as they have been 
 very aptly styled, and is, occasionally, conferred 
 upon publicans, aldermen, Government clerks, in- 
 cluding the butler and head servants at Govern- 
 ment House. Those are mainly the classes who 
 aspire to and generally receive this title of C.M.G. 
 It is, however, sometimes given to fussy people
 
 232 AN AUSTRALIAN ORATOR. 
 
 who are always hovering about the skirts of great 
 men, performing the duties of valet most re- 
 ligiously. One man, we all know, was made a 
 C.M.G. for taking cha.rge of a few toys and dirt of 
 that description at one of those great public shows 
 that are so common in this era ; while another 
 received the title for making himself conspicuous 
 at all sorts of public ceremonies, and for organizing 
 banquets and testimonials to himself and other 
 nonentities. These are apparently the description 
 of services in recognition of which this title is 
 conferred. It has now become so low that I 
 question if it would be accepted by any person 
 above a publican or a Government House servant. 
 But surely it is in every degree contemptible and 
 degrading to the country that its people should be 
 imposed upon to this extent, and it is high time 
 that Parliament interfered with a strong remon- 
 strance. For my part I intend to protest against 
 these titles in every conceivable way. In point of 
 principle they are "both wrong and absurd, while 
 they bring ridicule and contempt upon those on 
 whom they are conferred. Thomas Carlyle says, in 
 one of his great books, " The first spiritual want 
 of a barbarous man is decoration, as indeed we 
 still see among the barbarous classes in civilized 
 life." Do we not see the truth of this exemplified 
 in the sort of people who decorate themselves with 
 this little bit of ribbon from England? And do 
 we not see the distinction, if it can be called such, 
 sunk to the lowest depth of dishonour and worth- 
 lessness, a byword and mockery in the mouths of 
 the people generally ? I trust this motion may be 
 carried, and the Government of England told 
 emphatically that we wanted none of their con- 
 temptible titles here that here we were an 
 honest democracy, respecting men for their worth
 
 TITLES. 233 
 
 a,nd integrity, and knowing no higher or more 
 honourable or enviable title than that of an 
 honest man. But it was amusing to observe 
 some of the more prominent of the men who 
 accepted those titles here. One would have 
 thought that our silly, empty-headed, pretended 
 Tories, for there are such beings here, would have 
 been the only candidates for those pitiful dis- 
 tinctions. No one would have ever imagined that 
 our chief Radicals would have been the most 
 eager of the people to caricature themselves after 
 this fashion. But, to our extreme surprise, we 
 find two of our most distinguished Radicals, Henry 
 Parkes and John Robertson, metamorphosed into 
 Sir Henry and Sir John, at their own earnest 
 solicitation, thus showing what a vulgar vanity 
 dominates those two men, and how essentially 
 they belong to the valet species. Mr. Francis, 
 late Premier of Victoria, refuses this so-called 
 honour, and so comforts us with the assurance 
 that everything that is genuine and manly has not 
 altogether departed from us. Mr. Francis gives 
 his reasons for refusing the paltry distinction of 
 knighthood almost in the terms of this motion 
 now before the House, namely, that those titles 
 are inconsistent with our democratic institutions. 
 What a contrast is here exhibited between the 
 conduct of Mr. Francis and our Radical Robertsons 
 and Parkes's, to say nothing of our Irish rebels. 
 The Parkes and Robertson case was bad enough, 
 but that of the Irish rebels brought consuming 
 and destroying ridicule upon the whole pitiful 
 business. Some of those Irishmen were tried as 
 rebels in Ireland, and now look at them kneeling 
 at the feet of the power they alleged had 
 oppressed their country, and accepting from the 
 hand of the oppressor this wretched distinction.
 
 234 AN AUSTRALIAN ORATOR. 
 
 In the whole history of titles conferred, can any- 
 honourable member of this House imagine any- 
 thing so absolutely humiliating as those Irish- 
 men, or any one of them, accepting the title of 
 knighthood from the English Government? Was it 
 for this that John Martin and the stern John 
 Mitchell suffered transportation for life and had 
 sentence of death passed on them? Was it for 
 this that those Irishmen themselves stood in the 
 criminal dock in Dublin ready to pour out their 
 lives in their country's cause ? Just look at 
 those patriot Irishmen arraigned in the felon's 
 dock, ready to die in the cause of their oppressed 
 country, and then turn your eyes upon them 
 kneeling at the feet of the very power that they 
 had just stigmatised as the oppressor of their 
 country, and accepting from the hands of what 
 they and their associates denounced as the base, 
 bloody, and brutal oppressor, a title that should 
 fasten to their names the odium of an everlasting 
 infamy. Well might the young Ireland patriot 
 ejaculate, pointing to the humiliating and degrad- 
 ing spectacle : " The flaming patriots who so lately 
 scorched us in the meridian shine temperately to 
 the west, and are scarcely felt as they descend.'* 
 I can conceive nothing more absolutely despic- 
 able than the action and conduct of those men 
 amongst us who covet and run after those 
 wretched titles that England scatters so freely 
 around. The best of the joke is that hitherto 
 they have mostly been obtained by rampant 
 Radicals and democrats of a very vulgar type a 
 set of men whom I often think must be made of 
 the same sort of clay that urinals are made of, 
 and who, in their encounter with true men, cannot 
 complain if they are met on that understanding, 
 and, in theory, at least, put to the same use.
 
 TITLES. 235 
 
 With regard to our two Radicals, Sir Henry 
 Parkes and Sir John Robertson, surely those two 
 men would have been held in higher esteem and 
 regard had they led the way in refusing this small 
 distinction. They, however, allowed their very 
 small vanity and native littleness to overpower 
 what good sense they had, and now they are 
 doomed to carry on their shoulders for the term of 
 their natural lives " the barren burden of knight- 
 hood." Why, the thing is so contemptible that 
 the late Charles Kean, the actor, shrank from the 
 humiliation of knighthood, and bravely refused 
 to degrade his name by such absurdity. The 
 authorities thus failing to humiliate the stage, 
 descended among the fiddlers, and so the leader 
 of the orchestra became a member of the order of 
 knighthood. It is curious to note that after Henry 
 Parkes and John Robertson had accepted this title 
 the moment they appeared before their constituents 
 they were both rejected, proving that the sound, 
 manly sense of the people despised them for degrad- 
 ing in their own persons the good sense and man- 
 hood of the country. I trust that the members of 
 this House will be true to themselves, and not 
 suffer the country to be further degraded by the 
 dispensing of those small titles. The motion 
 before the House is in the interest of the country's 
 honour, and, if carried, will tend to the elevation 
 of the people by inspiring them with a nobler 
 ambition than seeking after distinctions so vain 
 and unreal. Let the people of this country under- 
 stand clearly that there is no title or distinction 
 comparable to that of an honest, upright char- 
 acter, which neither kings nor queens can confer, 
 but which add the purest lustre to royalty itself. 
 Let the people of this country stand upon their 
 own worth and merit, emulating each other in
 
 236 AN AUSTRALIAN ORATOR. 
 
 their high aims and objects, recognising no titles 
 but those of probity and honour, and prizing those 
 above any title that power can confer, while at the 
 same time turning their backs upon the wretched 
 distinctions of the mother country, which have 
 neither sense nor meaning, but are invented for 
 the purpose of upholding the craft of kings and 
 priests, and to aid in the subjection and enthral- 
 ment of the people. 
 
 [This speech was received with much applause 
 and laughter, but the motion was defeated by a 
 large majority.]
 
 OPENING MUSEUM AND PUBLIC LIBRARY 
 ON SUNDAYS. 
 
 [ON Tuesday, the 29th March, 1881, Mr. Melville moved the 
 following motion : " 1. That in the opinion of this House 
 it is undesirable that the Museum and Public Library 
 should be opened on Sundays. 2. That the foregoing 
 resolution be communicated by address to his Excellency 
 the Governor " on which occasion Mr. Buchanan spoke 
 as follows : ] 
 
 MB. SPEAKER, I think honourable members must 
 be struck with the very poor deliverance we have 
 just listened to, by the total absence of all argu- 
 ment and a disinclination on the part of the mover 
 of the resolution to encounter this subject and 
 deal with it from a New Testament point of view. 
 How is it that all of those very righteous people 
 who stand out for a strict and literal obedience 
 to the fourth commandment shun all reference to 
 the New Testament view of the matter? Is it 
 because the New Testament dictum is dead 
 against them, and totally destructive of their 
 gloomy and fanatical theories ? Some people 
 do not like to touch upon what they call the 
 religious aspect of the question, but there is no 
 question at all if you leave out the religious con-
 
 238 AN AUSTRALIAN ORATOR. 
 
 siderations attached to it. It is religion that 
 makes it a question, and what I will aim at show- 
 ing in what I have to say is that religion, the 
 religion of Christ, is with us in doing well on the 
 Sabbath day. The promoters of this resolution 
 found all their argument upon the strict words 
 of the fourth commandment. But the fourth 
 commandment in its strictness cannot be observed 
 by any of us. Observe that day as required by 
 the terms of the fourth commandment and the 
 world would be brought to a standstill not a 
 dinner would be cooked, not a bed would be made, 
 not a house would be swept, not a vehicle would 
 be visible in the street. All ships would stay 
 their onward course and lie listless for twenty- 
 four hours, and the world would be plunged in 
 gloom and stagnation, productive of indescribable 
 misery and wretchedness. But I ask, Is this 
 fourth commandment binding on us as Christians ? 
 I say it is not. The fourth commandment speaks 
 of the seventh day, which is Saturday, and insists 
 that that is the day to be observed in the fanatical 
 manner described. Well, even the supporters 
 of this resolution do not observe Saturday as 
 a religious day at all, and by this practical 
 act prove that the fourth commandment is 
 abandoned by them as a guiding influence. 
 The fourth commandment says, "Neither thou, 
 nor thy son, nor thy daughter, nor thy man- 
 servant, nor thy maid-servant, nor thy ox, 
 nor thy ass, nor the stranger that is within 
 thy gates " shall do a single thing on the 
 Sabbath day. Is not this continually broken 
 and violated by all classes of the people, religious 
 and irreligious ? What clergyman hesitates a 
 moment in setting his servants to work on the 
 Sabbath day, cleaning his boots, cooking his
 
 THE SUNDAY QUESTION. 239 
 
 dinner, and performing all the work incident to 
 housekeeping ? And do we not see crowds of 
 carriages, in every large city, driving up to the 
 church doors on the Sabbath day, blocking up the 
 thoroughfares with their chariots, their servants, 
 their oxen, and their asses ? What becomes of 
 the binding nature of the fourth commandment 
 in the estimation of those very religious people, 
 who would, in all probability, vote to close our 
 public libraries and museums against those who 
 believe they do well in frequenting such places on 
 Sundays, the only day that offers them an oppor- 
 tunity for such visits ? The commandment refers 
 to the seventh day, yet on this day they acquiesce 
 in the opening of theatres and of places of 
 business, and the ordinary business of life is 
 carried on upon this day exactly the same as on 
 the other days of the week. Does this not prove 
 that, among Christians, the seventh day is aban- 
 doned as a holy day, or day of worship, or rest? 
 And if this is so, as all must admit, what is the 
 use of asking us to be bound by the strictness 
 and severity of the fourth commandment when 
 they themselves, in their practice at least, entirely 
 repudiate it? This cant and humbug about 
 Sabbath observance, as it is called, is an old 
 story, as old as Christianity itself, and curious 
 enough, the very men who in our day make all 
 this noise about ceremonial observances of days 
 and seasons are the representatives of the men 
 who stickled for the rigid observance of the 
 Sabbath in the time of our Saviour, and even 
 attacked and denounced Jesus Christ Himself as 
 a Sabbath-breaker as well as His devoted 
 Apostles. But Christ turned upon His self- 
 righteous assailants and consumed them by pour- 
 ing on them a flood of the most caustic and bitter
 
 240 AN AUSTRALIAN ORATOR. 
 
 sarcasm ever uttered by human lips. Our Saviour 
 first reasoned with them with admirable clearness 
 and vigour, telling them that if they had known 
 the meaning of the text " I will have mercy and 
 not sacrifice, they would not have condemned the 
 guiltless." I question if either the clergy cr the 
 humble mover of the resolution now before us 
 understand the meaning of the text quoted. The 
 plain meaning is this, that while the Old Testa- 
 ment system was one of sacrifice the New Testa- 
 ment system was one of mercy, and it was this 
 more kindly and beneficent system that Jesus 
 Christ introduced, to the destruction and entire 
 abolition of the cruel, hard-hearted, rigid system 
 of Jewish rites and observances. Jesus Christ 
 said it was right to do well on the Sabbath day, 
 and this in answer to the charge of Sabbath - 
 breaking brought against Himself by the Sabba- 
 tarians of that era; and is there anyone that 
 doubts that if our Saviour appeared in these days 
 that His large-hearted liberalism would not be 
 hated and despised and He Himself insulted, ill- 
 used, imprisoned, and even murdered by the very 
 party represented by the mover of this resolution? 
 Our Saviour described that party in ever memor- 
 able language, painting their pictures in colours 
 so vivid, and with an eye and hand so steady and 
 unerring that, tested by eighteen centuries of 
 time, the universal judgment is that the work is 
 pre-eminently a masterpiece. I cannot refrain 
 here from giving the very words of this masterly 
 picture of the religious Pharisee and hypocrite, 
 the assailants of Jesus Christ, because their very 
 counterpart is to be found in the noisy, narrow- 
 scheming hypocrite of our own day and time, 
 above all among large sections of the clergy and 
 their religiously arrogant followers. Are not
 
 THE SUN DA Y QUESTION. 241 
 
 those who would prevent a working man, or anj 
 man, from attending a public library or museum 
 on a Sunday one and the same with the arrogant 
 hypocritical impostors who accused our Saviour 
 of Sabbath-breaking because He healed the sick 
 on a Sunday ? Are they not the same whom 
 Jesus Christ pilloried for ever as insolent pre- 
 tenders ? Can they shelter themselves from the 
 application of that language which, in its wither- 
 ing, consuming severity, laid bare their brethren 
 of old ? Do they for a moment pretend that they 
 do not see themselves painted to the life in the 
 assertions that they " bind heavy burdens grievous 
 to be borne and lay them, upon men's shoulders, 
 but they themselves will not touch them with one 
 of their fingers ? But all their works they do to 
 be seen of men, they make broad their phylac- 
 teries and enlarge the borders of their garments, 
 and love the uppermost rooms at feasts, and the 
 chief seats in the synagogues, and greetings in 
 the market place, and to be called of men Rabbi, 
 Rabbi. But woe unto you hypocrites, for ye shut 
 up the kingdom of heaven against men ! For ye 
 devour widows' houses, and for a pretence make 
 long prayers ; therefore ye shall receive the 
 greater damnation. Ye compass sea and land to 
 make one proselyte, and when he is made ye make 
 him tenfold more the child of hell than ye are 
 yourselves. Woe unto ye hypocrites, for ye make 
 clean the outside of the cup, but within it is full 
 of extortion and excess ! Ye blind hypocrites, woe 
 unto you, for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, 
 which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but are 
 within full of dead men's bones and all uncleanness; 
 even so ye also appear righteous unto men, but 
 within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity ; ye ser-
 
 242 AN AUSTRALIAN ORATOR. 
 
 pents, ye generation of vipers ! How shall ye 
 escape the damnation of hell ! " If Jesus Christ 
 hurled this terrible invective at the heads of those 
 hollow hypocrites who found fault with Him 
 because He cured the sick on Sundays, and with 
 His Apostles because they plucked the ears of 
 corn while walking in the fields on the same day, 
 how much more would He launch it at their 
 modern representatives who blame us for opening 
 libraries and museums on Sundays for the im- 
 provement and elevation of the masses. " It is 
 lawful to do well on the Sabbath day ; " those are 
 the words of Jesus Christ, and, as far as this 
 argument is concerned, they settle it entirely in 
 our favour. The man who spends a portion of his 
 Sunday in studying the rich literature of England 
 in our free public library, or walks quietly through 
 oar museum studying the works of God's creation 
 there exhibited, cannot be said to do otherwise 
 than well in this. If this is so, we have the 
 sanction of our Saviour, in the language quoted 
 above, that it is lawful to do it, and under such 
 circumstances we can well afford to despise the 
 buzzing, noisy, narrow hypocrites who are so fond 
 of displaying an outward zeal for religion, but 
 inwardly are just exactly what Jesus Christ said 
 they were. When I said those people displayed 
 an outward zeal for religion, I was sadly mistaken ; 
 religion they know little or nothing about, and 
 if they did they would not appear in our Parlia- 
 ment with motions of the description now under 
 consideration. Outward and public observances 
 is their idea of religion, and in proportion to the 
 noise they make in brawling over those questions, 
 and to the amount of public attention they attract 
 to themselves, do they feel satisfied of the purity 
 of the religious feeling by which they are inspired ;
 
 THE SUNDAY QUESTION. 243 
 
 they bless God continually that they are not as 
 other men, and look down with a lofty disdain 
 upon all who venture to come between the wind 
 and their spurious sanctity. I have felt it my 
 boundeu duty to consider this question from a 
 religious point of view, because I was convinced 
 the sanction of the New Testament was strongly 
 with us in repudiating the insolence of those 
 Pharisees both ancient and modern. I think I 
 have made it pretty plain that both religion and 
 common -sense, as well as common humanity, are 
 strongly with us in opening up all innocent 
 sources of recreation and amusement on the 
 Sabbath day that the cold-blooded, narrow, 
 sectarian bigotry, always rampant on occasions 
 like this, shall have no voice in this free Parlia- 
 ment that its sour, hateful, fanatical visage is as 
 repulsive to us as its teachings are cruel and 
 heartless, and as far removed from the pure 
 religion of the New Testament as from the pros- 
 pect of contributing in the slightest degree to the 
 public happiness or well-being. I shall say no 
 more upon the religious aspect of the question, 
 believing as I do, and also believing that I have 
 demonstrated that all its sanctions are with us in 
 providing innocent modes of instruction and 
 recreation for the people on the Sabbath day. 
 Our opponents affect to think that opening 
 libraries and museums on Sundays is getting in 
 what they call the thin end of the wedge, and 
 that this is merely a preliminary to the complete 
 secularization of the Sunday, and the forcing of 
 the labouring population to work on that day just 
 as on any ordinary day, and so result in the 
 working man being deprived of his day of rest. 
 This argument has been seriously used by the 
 friends of Jewish ceremonial and rigid obser-
 
 244 AN AUSTRALIAN ORATOR. 
 
 vances, and doubtless accepted and believed in by 
 people who don't think for themselves. Its 
 absurdity and fallacy can be seen at a glance by 
 people of the least reflection. Why, it is difficult 
 enough to get men to work a fair day on week 
 days, far less attempting the hopeless task of 
 getting them to work on Sundays. Let any 
 employer of labour only attempt to work his men 
 more than eight hours a day on the ordinary week 
 days and he is instantly met with strikes and re- 
 bellion and a fierce agitation which has compelled 
 the almost universal application of what is called 
 the eight hours' system. Under such circum- 
 stances, with armies of such vigilant guardians of 
 their own labour rights as the working men, what 
 possible chance is there that the working man 
 will ever be deprived of his Sunday's rest? As 
 regards the question before the House, the working 
 men, as a body, both here and in England, have 
 always favoured the policy that opened up the 
 means of rational enjoyment and recreation, as 
 well as instruction, to them on a Sunday. A 
 working man, if so disposed, has generally neither 
 the opportunity nor the inclination to occupy 
 himself in reading after the labours of the day ; 
 he is probably more disposed for entire rest than 
 anything else ; but on Sunday he has the whole 
 day to himself, and I, for one, believe that it 
 would be difficult for him to spend it in a more 
 instructive, enlightened, and even religious 
 manner than by passing some hours in a public 
 library or museum, deriving all the benefits and 
 advantages from a study of the great masters of 
 English literature or in the contemplation of the 
 most interesting works of God's creation. Our 
 opponents would deprive him of this great boon, 
 and seem bent on consigning him, and all of us, to
 
 THE SUNDAY QUESTION. 245 
 
 the gloom and misery of a dark and benighted 
 fanaticism which, erroneously, imagines religion to 
 consist of forms, ceremonies, and observances ac- 
 companied byasour-visaged affectation of dejection 
 which finds expression in groans and howls and 
 blatant bellowings, making both night and day 
 hideous to all within hearing. Reference has been 
 ina<le to Scotland, and the great advantages of the 
 strict observance of the Sabbath that prevails in 
 that country. In regard to this I cannot speak of the 
 state of things there at present, but when L lived 
 there, many years ago, this very strictness of ob- 
 servance forced the people to excesses under cover 
 of the roofs of their houses, which j if a rational 
 freedom prevailed, would have been avoided. On a 
 Sunday in Edinburgh you would imagine that 
 famine and pestilence had decimated the people, 
 all was as still as the grave, not a mouse stirring ; 
 outwardly the town was apparently plunged in 
 profound slumber, the streets empty, and scarcely 
 a vehicle visible. But could the eye of the 
 spectator only penetrate the walls of the houses 
 scenes of drunkenness and debauchery, in far too 
 many houses, would meet the gaze, proving that 
 the outward observance indicated no proportionate 
 piety on the part of the people, but was rather 
 forced upon them against their will, and in spite 
 of their inclination. While all the numerous 
 churches are open three times a day, five hundred 
 pnblic-Jiouses were open, going like spring wells, 
 after church hours, and vomiting forth, every now 
 and then, crowds of men and women, and even 
 children, whom they have dragged with them 
 through their mad debauch. All this was well 
 known to my experience of Edinburgh up to the 
 year I left it. At that time I have no hesitation 
 iu saying that Sunday was the most drunken day
 
 246 AN AUSTRALIAN ORATOR. 
 
 of the Edinburgh people, and that this was mainly 
 brought about by their barbarous notions of Sab- 
 bath observance which shut them up to no other 
 course by closing against the people every place of 
 enjoyment and recreation, such as libraries, exhi- 
 bitions of art, and even public gardens, while all 
 the public-houses were left open as if purposely to 
 drive the people into them. What we propose by 
 opening public libraries, museums, exhibitions of 
 art on the Sunday is to attract the masses of the 
 people to those sources of instruction, and so wean 
 them away from the public-house. The working 
 man wants recreation as well as rest on the Sun- 
 day, and while he should never forget the worship 
 of God on that day, he should not be debarred 
 from the enjoyment of all innocent and rational 
 sources of amusement, instruction, and recreation. 
 The clergy may rely upon it that they will never 
 drive the people into their churches by force. The 
 more clearly the people discover and see the aim 
 of the clergy in this Sabbath observance agitation 
 the more determinedly will they set their faces 
 against coercion of any kind in this matter. The 
 rational way to spend the Sunday, I should imagine, 
 would be to spend a portion of the day in the 
 worship of God, a portion in healthy open-air 
 exercise, and, if so disposed, a portion in visit- 
 ing our public library and museum, or in reading 
 any instructive or entertaining book at home. As 
 matters stand at present the only places open to 
 the people on Sundays are the churches and the 
 public-houses, and how well the latter are patro- 
 nized no one requires to be informed. This Par- 
 liament, in opening our free public library and 
 museum on Sundays, did so in the best interests 
 of the people, and the extraordinary numbers who 
 have taken advantage of the boon prove conclu-
 
 THE SUNDAY QUESTION. 247 
 
 sively the beneficence of the reform. I trust, 
 therefore, that this House will, by an overwhelm- 
 in LT majority, reject the motion now before it and 
 maintain intact the reform which the people value 
 so highly. Such a reform, will go hand-in-hand 
 with the enlightened observance of the Sabbath 
 day while it is in harmony with the pure teachings 
 of the Christian religion. I trust that the members 
 of this House, as well as the people of this country, 
 will always distinguish between the simple, cheer- 
 ful beauty of the religion of Christ arid the in ad 
 hysterical ravings of fanaticism ; that they will 
 not fail to see the difference between the sweet 
 religion of the New Testament and the pine-apple 
 rum religion of " Stiggins; " and that, while regard- 
 ing with pure and holy feelings of reverence and 
 love the grandeur and life-giving efficacy of the 
 pure and undefiled religion of Christ, they will en- 
 tertain a corresponding detestation of that miser- 
 able, hollow-hearted, semi-delirious cant which has 
 invaded this House with the present motion, and 
 which resembles true religion as much as " star- 
 light resembles street mud/' I again ask all 
 enlightened friends of the people here assembled 
 to vote with me against the insolence and intoler- 
 ance of the motion before the House ; that they 
 will stamp for ever with the seal of their deepest 
 aversion this wretched bigotry, barren as the east 
 wind, which a nauseous intolerance would force 
 upon us, and so secure to the people of this country 
 enlightened advantages which will enable them to 
 spend their Sundays like rational men, while at 
 the same time rescuing true religion from the 
 degradation of a blind, ignorant, blighting, and 
 brawling fanaticism. (Loud cheers.) 
 
 [The motion was thrown out by over two to one 
 amidst great cheering.]
 
 DEATH OF GARIBALDI. 
 
 [ON the news reaching Sydney of the death of Garibaldi, the 
 Italian residents advertised a public meeting for the 
 purpose of expressing regret at the departure of the great 
 patriot, and also to pass resolutions expressive of respect 
 and regard for his memory. The meeting was held in the 
 Garden Palace, Exhibition Building, and was crowded to 
 excess, over 12,000 people assembling to honour the great 
 Italian hero. Almost every public man of note, from Sir 
 Alfred Stephen, the Lieutenant-Governor, downwards, 
 attended. Dr. Marano, Italian Consul, occupied the chair, 
 and the first resolution was moved by Colonel Fariola de 
 Razzoli, Mr. Buchanan seconding it in the following 
 speech : ] 
 
 MR. CHAIRMAN, *s LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, It 
 is with the utmost cordiality and the greatest 
 pleasure that I appear before you to do myself 
 the honour of seconding this motion, and also to 
 do what little I can to promote the high and 
 sacred objects that this vast assembly has in view. 
 -^LotKl cheers.) It has often occurred to me that 
 there is no historical character of any age or 
 country who has so completely challenged the 
 admiration and respect, and so entirely enlisted the 
 sympathies and warmest affections of the vast 
 majority of the civilized world, to the same extent 
 as the illustrious man whose life and deeds we are
 
 DEATH OF GARIBALDI. 249 
 
 met here this, day to commemorate and to honour. 
 rThe very name of Garibaldi sent a 
 
 _ 
 
 thrill of deejT interest and warm affection through 
 all generous and manly hearts. (.Great jchee ring.) 
 We cannot hear his name pronounced without 
 thinking of his noble, patriotic devotion, his in- 
 vincible and enduring courage, his indomitable 
 energy, his never-ceasing, never-tiring zeal in the 
 cause of his country, his splendid audacity and 
 matchless daring, all combining to bring about the 
 grand object of his life the union and regenera- 
 tion of his country. (Loud cheers.) That grand 
 consummation could never have been achieved 
 without the presence and the unexampled heroism 
 of Garibaldi. He was the very soul of Italy. 
 (Qgeat ohooMw) He was an earnest impassioned 
 patriot and enthusiast, a great soldier, a states- 
 man of no ordinary calibre, and as pure a philan- 
 thropist as ever lived. (Ohoora!) He seemed to 
 have the power of communicating his own earnest 
 enthusiasm to others and leading them on, with 
 splendid valour, against fearful odds and formid- 
 able dangers. With an unequalled courage and 
 daring he dashed onwards at the head of his un- 
 disciplined hordes against the well-trained legions 
 of France and Austria, and with death-defiant 
 energy drove them from the field. (Lcmrt ohoom,) 
 Garibaldi's title to the character of a great soldier 
 nas sometimes been questioned, but what soldier 
 now living could have achieved what he did with 
 the same material and under the same circum- 
 stances? (Citoorer)- I venture to affirm that 
 there is not a soldier in Europe at the present 
 moment who could have done the work of Gari- 
 baldi ; and what is more, I don't believe there is 
 one who has the courage to have attemped it. 
 The daring and audacity of Garibaldi, accoin-
 
 250 AN AUSTRALIAN ORATOR. 
 
 panied as it was by so much splendid success, 
 made people think that he was an inspired man 
 who walked about the earth a constant terror to 
 the enemies of freedom. (Cbaerau-) It was a 
 remarkable quality in the character of Garibaldi 
 the power with which he gained the affections of 
 all peoples and nations, ris this enormous meet- 
 ing not a striking prooiof what I am saying? 
 -(LonrU-ohoers-.) Here, in New South Wales, far 
 removed from Europe, this meeting is barely 
 announced by one or two short advertisements, no 
 speakers' names published, and, as if by magic, 
 this enormous hall is crowded to excess. What 
 did this but the bare mention of the name of 
 Garibaldi and the esteem and affection in which 
 it is held by the people of this country ? (Much 
 appliinnri) I can scarcely imagine a more perfect 
 proof of the high estimation in which Garibaldi 
 is held by the people of Sydney than the fact of 
 this meeting, the largest, the most unanimous, 
 and the rpoafr enthusiastic ever held in Sydney. 
 (OfrgeTs.) fit is not my intention to speak of 
 Garibaldi's' splendid career in South America. 
 Every one knows that he there performed prodi- 
 gies of valour that would have made the name 
 and reputation of a score of heroes. A sentence 
 of death, passed upon him by the tribunals of his 
 own country, forced him to retreat from the scene 
 and endure a considerable exile. He returned 
 with this sentence still applicable to him, and 
 landed in spite of it. There had been an attempt 
 upon Koine to destroy the temporal power of the 
 Pope, and burning to assist in this great enter- 
 prise, Garibaldi sounded his trumpet call to 
 arms in the shape of one of those fiery addresses 
 to his soldiers, which, in their spirit-stirring 
 energy, seemed as if they would raise a
 
 DEATH OF GARIBALDI. 251 
 
 soul under the ribs of death itself. - (Cheers.) 
 The state of Italy at this time was deplorable. 
 The Pope ruled as a temporal prince at Rome, and 
 his government was, without exception, the most 
 infamous and corrupt in Europe ; or if there was 
 a worse one, it was that of King Bomba at Naples. 
 . and continued cheers.) The dungeons of 
 
 the Inquisition at Rome were full to overflowing 
 with victims guilty of no crime but love of 
 country. The people were weltering in ignorance ; 
 crime and vice were rampant, while an army of 
 idle, profligate priests (loud- choots) lived luxuri- 
 ously on the open plunder of the people. The 
 Pope's prime minister, Cardinal Antonelli, ruled 
 with a hand of iron. This is the same Antonelli 
 who died some time ago leaving behind him the 
 enormous sum of nearly two millions sterling, 
 and now his children mark that the children 
 of a priest are fighting for the spoil in the courts 
 of law in Italy. (Loud laughter and cheers.) 
 was the state of affairs at Rome under the 
 enlightened sway of Pope Pius IX/, while his 
 friend and brother, Bomba, at Naples, had earned 
 the execrations of all nations by the savage 
 cruelty of his rule. It was the government of this 
 wretch that Mr. Gladstone exposed so thoroughly 
 in a powerful and able pamphlet which tilled 
 England with horror. Well, this government of 
 the ruffian King Bomba was described by the 
 Pope as a model government, while Mr. Gladstone 
 denounced it as " an outrage against religion, 
 civilization, humanity and decency." (fromJ and 
 -O0feifttret}--eiieev*,) Garibaldi, then brimful of 
 wrath against all this, raised an army of volun- 
 teers quickly, and marched upon Rome. He en- 
 countered the Pope's troops and scattered them to 
 the winds. (Gi-eat-clieeiiugr) The Pope himself
 
 252 AN A US TRALIAN OR A TOR. 
 
 fled, and where do you think he went? Like a 
 genuine priest he threw himself into the protect- 
 ing arms of King Bomba, the most detestable 
 wretch in Europe. (JLoud -cheers and laughter.)- 
 Garibaldi, radiant with victory, was soon at his 
 heels and was met by the army of King Bomba. 
 He routed it with ease, for which the Pope 
 ordered a Te Deum, as for a victory for himself 
 and Bomba. A short time after Garibaldi again 
 encountered the army of Bomba and so signally 
 routed and ruined it that the Pope did not sing 
 any more Te Deums. (Greafc-tybeermg.) Garibaldi 
 was then recalled by the republican Government 
 of Rome to defend it against the French. He 
 met the French general Oudinot, 7,000 strong, 
 and with 5,000 men Garibaldi attacked him with 
 an impetuous fiery ardour which forced him to 
 give way, leaving 500 prisoners in Garibaldi's 
 hands and as many dead on the field. (ond"and 
 ^continued cheering.) The French, however, were 
 soon reinforced and swarmed in upon poor Italy 
 in enormous numbers. And now commenced one 
 of the most bloody sieges on record. Garibaldi 
 was everywhere inspiring his troops and fighting 
 with the desperation of a demon. All was, how- 
 ever, of no use ; the French general sent up 
 reserve after reserve, and Garibaldi saw that all 
 was over. Heartbroken and dejected, he retired 
 with those of his followers who chose to follow 
 his fortunes, and with his poor wife a hopeless 
 invalid, he retreated from Rome only to see his 
 wife perish in his arms and he himself forced to 
 leave her remains to be buried by strangers, wjiile 
 he struggled to escape Austrian capture. fT_o~my 
 mind it was a very inferior courage that enabled 
 Garibaldi to brave many a whirlwind of musket 
 bullets on many a bloody field compared to the
 
 DEATH OF GARIBALDI. 253 
 
 sublime heroism that nerved his great soul as he 
 bore away his dying wife from the beleaguered 
 city of Kome, and exposed to every conceivable 
 danger, stuck to her and tended her with over- 
 flowing affection till she died in his loving and 
 devoted arms. {fce4 flpplause^) This episode in 
 his picturesque, romantic story, is deeply mournful 
 and pathetic, and is in the highest degree touch- 
 ing and tragic. It cannot be read without carry- 
 ing away the sympathies and the tears of all 
 manly hearts. -fMrrcinsteernrgr) Garibaldi soon 
 reached neutral territory, and there prepaygd for 
 one more effort in his country's cause, plis next 
 adventure was his splendid Sicilian 1 campaign, 
 where, after a whole series of magnificent vic- 
 tories, he met King Victor Emanuel, hailed him as 
 King of Italy, and presented him with a kingdom. 
 Garibaldi had unlimited means during this cam- 
 paign of possessing himself of wealth, but after 
 presenting the King of Italy with a kingdom, he 
 had not as much money as would carry him back 
 to Caprera, his island home. "(firrtirTrerastic 
 > cbeoisr) Garibaldi had several other struggles 
 before he saw the realization of all his holiest 
 aspirations and his fondest hopes in a regenerated 
 and united Italy, with Rome as its capital. I 
 cannot conclude without a slight reference to 
 Garibaldi's marvellous reception in London. 
 (Cheers.) All England seemed to rise to receive 
 him. No crowned head that ever visited England, 
 or ever will visit England, could meet with a 
 tithe of the honour. The Queen of England her- 
 self, much loved and deservedly popular as she is, 
 (loud cheera) could scarcely have been received 
 with more affection than this grand old hero. The 
 aristocracy vied with each other to do him honour. 
 Statesmen, men of science, poets and historians
 
 254 AN AUSTRALIAN ORATOR. 
 
 crowded round him and felt honoured by a shake 
 of his hand. Working-men in England and Scot- 
 land sent him addresses and affectionate invita- 
 tions to visit them. Things were assuming such 
 a shape that the despots of the world began to 
 tremble and only breathed freely when Garibaldi 
 departed. But was there not a deep meaning in 
 all this universal love and respect for Garibaldi ? 
 Yes. It spoke of England's love of courage, devo- 
 tion, patriotism, endurance, purity, and virtue. 
 (Loud -cLears). The English people, and the 
 world, knew Garibaldi to be an honourable, manly, 
 upright soldier, pure in motive and high in char- 
 acter, not one of those cowardly wretches who 
 skulk in corners and secret places, plotting assas- 
 sinations-^- (loud cheering, continued, and again, 
 and again repeated)---and manufacturing infernal 
 machines for the cruel, cold-blooded purpose of 
 indiscriminate murder. They knew Garibaldi to 
 be a soldier who always met his enemies, sword 
 in hand, in the open field, f^k'eai- cheering.) It 
 was this and many other fine traits in his great 
 character that captivated the English people to 
 the extent it did, and made us all feel a pang as 
 the news reached us that his pure, gentle spirit 
 had passed away for ever. ^Ladies and gentlemen, 
 no one is more alive than myself to the feebleness 
 and inefficiency of this poor attempt of mine to do 
 justice to the great character of a great man. I 
 feel incapable of rising to the greatness of the 
 theme. I feel that any language that I, or any 
 man, could use would be wholly inadequate to 
 paint the glories and the virtues of the renowned 
 Garibaldi. He was a hero and a patriot worthy 
 of the deepest" veneration and the warmest regard 
 of all true men. The name of this illustrious man 
 will for ever gather around it the suffrages of the
 
 DEATH OF GARIBALDI. 255 
 
 world. His noble, gallant life, his artless simpli- 
 city of character, the lofty grandeur and greatness 
 of his aspirations, his singleness of purpose and 
 unselfish devotion, all combine to stamp him as 
 one of nature's noblemen, whose great name, 
 undimmed by any paltry, insignificant title 
 (grrnt ohftmi) will go down, covered with glory 
 as it is, to -the remotest posterity, inspiring every 
 struggling patriot in all future ages with a never- 
 ceasing love for the cause of human freedom 
 ( 1r "ifl clipp* -) and nerving men, by the very 
 magic of its sound, to deeds of dauntless daring, 
 as they bear onwards the great principle for 
 which he fought and bled on many a gallant field. 
 -(Eiithusiautic diccre.) Glory to the memory of 
 Garibaldi (grco>fe cheers) as the world's plaudits 
 encircle his great name with imperishable renown. 
 (Loud ad long-confciaued cheering.) 
 
 [Tho resolution- waft-snthaaiastically carried.]
 
 DEATH OF GENEEAL GAEFIELD. 
 
 [ON the 21sfc of September Sir Henry Parkes, K.C.M.G., 
 Premier of New South Wales, moved the following reso- 
 lution : " That Mr. Speaker be requested to communicate 
 to Mrs. Garfield the profound sympathy and sorrow of the 
 members of the Legislative Assembly of New South Wales 
 at the untimely death of her illustrious husband." On 
 this occasion Mr. Buchanan spoke as follows : ] 
 
 ME. SPEAKER, It was my intention, without con- 
 sulting anyone, to have spoken a few earnest 
 words on this sad event, and also to have put 
 myself in order by moving the adjournment of 
 the H ouse ; but the motion now before the House 
 renders that course unnecessary. The death of 
 the chief ruler of the United States is an event 
 which has elicited universal sympathy and sorrow. 
 The news of the monstrous and detestable crime 
 which has so cruelly deprived the world of so 
 much nobleness and goodness, sent a thrill of 
 horror and consternation to the uttermost corners 
 of the earth, and now that the deplorable attempt 
 upon General Garfield's life has culminated in his 
 most affecting and deeply mournful death, the 
 mind and heart of the world seems troubled and 
 agitated in the contemplation of a catastrophe so 
 sorrowful and so appalling. General Garfield 
 was no ordinary man j he was a man of rare 
 excellence earnest, devoted, and undaunted. He
 
 DEATH OF GENERAL GARFIELD. 257 
 
 was born in the midst of trying and depressing 
 poverty ; his life, in its early years, being one 
 continuous struggle with overpowering hardship; 
 he was entangled and beset by every conceivable 
 obstacle ami ilith'culty. But he cut himself free 
 from the jungle of his early perplexities and 
 dangers, and emerged and advanced to the very 
 front rank of scholars and statesmen ; and, not 
 resting there, he rose, by the force of his own 
 genius and character, to the highest position 
 which it is competent for any citizen of the 
 United States to hold. Looking down the long 
 roll of illustrious rulers who have swayed the 
 destinies of that great country until the eyes are 
 dazzled by the lustre that surrounds the name of 
 Washington, there is not one of those great men 
 who stands higher in nobleness of character, 
 intellectual attainments, or high moral worth 
 than the late lamented President. President 
 Garfield, the soldier, scholar, and statesman, has 
 fallen by a most cowardly and hateful act, and by 
 the cruellest possible death. His death has elicited 
 the sorrow of the whole world and the sympathy 
 of mankind, while undying hatred of the deed 
 will for ever move the human heart. When we 
 reflect upon the character of this great man ; 
 when we see that no paltry, vain, insignificant 
 title brought obloquy and contempt on the name 
 of James Garfield ; when we see him standing out, 
 like all his illustrious predecessors, in the native 
 simplicity of his own innate nobility we cannot 
 help being struck with the majesty and dignity of 
 a figure so imposing. Looking at the high-souled 
 honour and undeviating rectitude which guided 
 him from obscurity into the blaze of a rare dis- 
 tinction; noticing his elevation by the voice of 
 
 s
 
 258 AN AUSTRALIAN ORATOR. 
 
 probably the greatest nation on the face of the 
 earth to the highest position in its gift ; observ- 
 ing him conducting the duties of that great office 
 with rare justice and wisdom, infusing into every 
 department of Government a tone of sterling 
 probity, and performing all the grand functions 
 of his great office with the intellectual power and 
 purity of thought and feeling which marked his 
 career from first to last looking at all this, and 
 reflecting on the monstrous crime which brought 
 so much worth and goodness to an end, I may 
 almost be pardoned for altering two of Campbell's 
 lines, and quoting them thus 
 
 Hope for a season bade the world farewell, 
 And justice wept when the noble Garfield fell. 
 
 I intended to propose that we suspend our busi- 
 ness for the day as a mark of respect to the 
 memory of this great man, as proving our detes- 
 tation of the atrocious crime which led to his 
 death, and as indicating our deepest sympathy 
 with the woes and sorrows of a great nation ; but 
 as the honourable gentleman at the head of the 
 Government has proposed the motion now under 
 consideration, I shall content myself by giving it 
 my most cordial support. It would ill become me to 
 speak any further on this melancholy event. The 
 late illustrious President seems to have captivated 
 the hearts of all men. When I think of his great 
 character and of the high promise which he held out 
 to the nations of the world in the administration of 
 the great office to which he was called, and also of 
 the base and wretched instrument by which his fall 
 was brought about, I cannot help quoting, and 
 concluding, with two of Shakespeare's lines 
 
 An eagle, towering in his pride of place, 
 Was by a mousing owl hawked at and killed. 
 
 (Applause from all sides of the House.)
 
 SIE HENEY PAEKES AND SIR JOHN 
 
 EOBEETSON: THEIE POLITICAL DECAY 
 
 AND DEATH. 
 
 [THIS speech was delivered in the Parliament of New South 
 Wales immediately on the assembling of Parliament after 
 the dissolution on Wednesday, 3rd January, 1883.] 
 
 THE Government of Sir Henry Parkes and Sir 
 John Eobertson, probably the strongest we ever 
 had in this country strong, not in ability, but in 
 the large amount of support it received alienated 
 almost all that support by a series of the most 
 questionable acts, culminating in an open viola- 
 tion of the Constitution repeated again and again 
 spending large sums of the public money with- 
 out the sanction of Parliament, there being no 
 urgent necessity compelling such action, and treat- 
 ing it, on repeated occasions, with undisguised 
 contempt, the crisis was brought about by their 
 receiving a crushing defeat on the second reading 
 of their Land Bill. On this occasion Sir Henry 
 Parkes and Sir John Eobertson recommended an 
 appeal to the country, assuring His Excellency 
 the Governor that everything was right as re- 
 garded supply ; this, afterwards, turned out to be
 
 260 AN AUSTRALIAN ORATOR. 
 
 very far from the truth in any case, the Press 
 and public loudly condemned the appeal to the 
 country, as being unconstitutional and wrong 
 especially as the Leader of the Opposition was 
 prepared at once to take their places with a land 
 policy which he had formulated on the second 
 reading of their defeated Land Bill. Wrong and 
 unconstitutional as the granting of this dissolu- 
 tion was, it took place with memorable results. 
 Sir Henry Parkes and three of his ministers 
 were thrown out by large majorities those three 
 ministers were rejected for other constituencies, 
 some of them on three occasions ; Sir Henry 
 Parkes himself was returned by a mere accident, 
 where, in an obscure constituency, the only candi- 
 date resigned in his favour on the day of his 
 nomination, leaving no time for further opposi- 
 tion, so he was returned without the chance of 
 opposing him. Sir John Robertson was returned 
 for Mud gee, in charity for his years and pitiable 
 position. He went crying through the district, 
 "Pity the sorrows of a poor old man/' and 
 touched the hearts of the people by the intensity 
 and earnestness of his supplications. Every 
 supporter of the Government, with the exception 
 of some half-dozen, was rejected by the people, 
 so that the appeal to the country literally 
 destroyed the Government rejecting three of 
 the ministers themselves, and leaving them with 
 only half-a-dozen followers. Notwithstanding all 
 this, Sir Henry Parkes and Sir John Robertson 
 still clung to office making appointments and 
 dismissing public servants, just as if they were a 
 Government clothed with power and responsi- 
 bility, instead of being the mere remnant of 
 what was once a Government without a vestige 
 of power, responsibility, or support of any kind.
 
 SIR H. PARKS S AND SIR J. ROBERTSON. 261 
 
 In this position Sir Henry Parkes and Sir John 
 Robertson had the hardihood and brazen inso- 
 lence to meet Parliament under the pretext of 
 providing Supply, although they had previously 
 told His Excellency that they had Supply suffi- 
 cient to cover the Dissolution. They were, how- 
 ever, forced, at last, to resign the incoming 
 Government, most righteously, declining to take 
 Supply at their hands, which fact resulted in 
 such an exposure of the misconduct of Sir Henry 
 Parkes and Sir John Robertson that almost the 
 first act of their successors was to bring in a bill 
 of indemnity, to save public officers from the 
 responsibility of their illegal and unconstitutional 
 acts. When Parliament met, Sir Henry Parkes 
 and Sir John Robertson still clung to office and 
 its emoluments, half their colleagues having been 
 rejected, and almost all their supporters ; and it 
 is necessary that all this should be known to a full 
 understanding and appreciation of the following 
 speech. The first act of the new Parliament was 
 to elect a Speaker, and Sir George Wigrain Allen 
 was proposed for the office, to which motion an 
 amendment was moved, that Mr. Barton be 
 Speaker whereupon Mr. Buchanan moved a 
 further amendment, as follows : " That in the 
 opinion of this House our first duty is to uphold 
 its honour and dignity, and, in pursuance of this 
 high purpose, and before the election of Speaker, 
 or the transaction of any other business, this 
 House calls upon the remnant of the Government 
 left, as the result of the late appeal to the people, 
 to resign at once, and so save the country from 
 the disgrace and scandal of its existence a moment 
 longer ; and, further, that this resolution be com- 
 municated, by address, to His Excellency the 
 Governor." On moving this amendment Mr.
 
 262 AN AUSTRALIAN ORATOR. 
 
 Buchanan delivered the following speech. Ad- 
 dressing the principal clerk of the House, there 
 being no Speaker, he said : 
 
 MB. JONES, I have a further amendment to 
 propose, and the reason I rise so early in the 
 debate is to place that amendment before the 
 House. (Amendment as above here read.} I am 
 sure this amendment will be acceptable to many 
 honourable members, and I further think it would 
 be a deep and sad reflection on the character of 
 this Assembly if we suffered the remnant of the 
 Government that has survived the Dissolution to 
 escape the just and well-merited censure it has so 
 richly earned and deserved. Sir Henry Parkes 
 and Sir John Eobertson are the principal delin- 
 quents, and if the people of this country ever come 
 to know the full extent of their misconduct, as 
 Ministers of the Crown, no vestige of trust or confi- 
 dence will ever again be reposed in those two 
 honourable gentlemen. Their conduct in office 
 has been inexpressibly bad. The Constitution 
 under which we live has been, by them, 
 totally disregarded. During the appeal to the 
 country, which has just concluded with results so 
 ruinous to the Government, Ministers of the 
 Crown, from the highest to the lowest, degraded 
 themselves into low electioneering agents. Even 
 the Premier of the country, Sir Henry Parkes, 
 descended from his high position and prostituted 
 his great office into a mere electioneering spouter, 
 and went canvassing different electorates on behalf 
 of the minions of authority, who had no other 
 distinction than their mean, crawling subserviency 
 to him. Not only has he done this, but, after the 
 very soul has been knocked out of his Government, 
 and his power shattered to invisible atoms by the 
 destructive and overwhelming action of the people,
 
 SIR H. PARKES AND SIR J. ROBERTSON. 263 
 
 he has actually had the audacity, in the present 
 mangled state of his Government and power, to 
 make important appointments in the public service. 
 A more unconstitutional a more scandalously 
 disgraceful and, in every sense, illegal procedure 
 never took place in this country before ; and this 
 newly-elected Parliament, if it is alive to its own 
 dignity and honour, ought not to suffer the 
 monstrous proceedings of these men to pass 
 without impeachment, and the severest censure. 
 We will fail in our essential duty if we fail in 
 this, and will give encouragement to gross pro- 
 fligacy in the highest offices of State if we pass 
 by unnoticed the unexampled misconduct of Sir 
 Henry Parkes and Sir John Robertson, and when 
 I speak of those two honourable gentlemen I 
 speak of the Government. Can there be imagined 
 anything more indecent and unseemly than the 
 frightful tenacity which they exhibit in clinging 
 to office when all power has departed from them, 
 and even the respect of their own friends ? Was 
 there ever such a spectacle seen in this world 
 before of men stripped of every vestige of 
 authority, condemned by the people to whom 
 they appealed, and by them reduced to utter 
 helplessness and iinpotency, still clinging to office 
 and its emoluments, and pretending to govern 
 when the whole frame of Government is struck 
 dead, and lies helpless before us? Surely it 
 is time for the people's representatives to remove 
 forcibly the dead body of this Government and 
 bury the hideous thing out of sight without any 
 farther delay. The excuse that these honourable 
 gentlemen offer for their continuing in office under 
 circumstances so dishonouring and so humiliating 
 is " That it is necessary Supply should be got." 
 What outrageous work is this, after assuring his
 
 264 AN AUSTRALIAN ORATOR. 
 
 Excellency and the country that no Supply would 
 be wanted that they had enough to cover the 
 Dissolution. I, for one, will resist to the death 
 this thing miscalled a Government, which now sits 
 before me, performing one single act of Govern- 
 ment, and I do trust those who come after them 
 will refuse to accept Supply at their hands. There 
 is only one act that Sir Henry Parkes and Sir 
 John .Robertson can now perform an act which 
 should have been performed long ago. I mean 
 the one honest act remaining to them, namely, 
 instant resignation. Supply, indeed ! The supply 
 they want is supply to their own pockets, 40 per 
 week that is the supply Sir Henry Parkes and 
 Sir John Robertson have trampled on the Consti- 
 tution to obtain a few weeks longer, and for 
 which they cling to office, to the scandal and dis- 
 grace of Eepresentative Government not only 
 here, but, indirectly, everywhere. The conduct of 
 Sir Henry Parkes and his fellow knight has been 
 so gross and unworthy that I can scarcely restrain 
 my tongue in depicting it, but I know that I 
 cannot use any language, however harsh and 
 severe, that will not fall infinitely short in the 
 description of the unexampled infamy that has 
 characterized the Government since the Dissolu- 
 tion. Do we not all remember how the Premier, Sir 
 Henry Parkes, in his whining and most hypocriti- 
 cal tones, used to nauseate us by his oft-repeated 
 statement, "That he would not hold office a 
 minute longer than he enjoyed the confidence of 
 the people. Only tell me," he used to say, " that 
 we have no longer the confidence of the people 
 and we will resign that moment." And now, 
 after he has sustained such a defeat as no Minister 
 in this world ever before suffered, he holds on to 
 office, a spectacle for the commiseration of both.
 
 SIR H. PARKES AND SIR J. ROBERTSON. 265 
 
 men and gods. Never before in this world did 
 an y Government get so complete, so instantaneous, 
 and ignominious a destruction and total ship- 
 wreck as this Government of Sir Henry Parkes 
 on appealing to the people. They appeal to 
 the people and they are destroyed by the 
 people. Not only are half the Ministry, and 
 almost all their supporters, destroyed, but every 
 man infected with the slightest taint of 
 attachment to the two knights is plunged into 
 nothingness the moment the people get a chance 
 at him ; and wonderful to relate, they still hold on 
 to office, and I now ask the honourable members 
 of this House is it their fault or mine that I am 
 forced to tell them that they do so from the 
 wretched motive of still having the chance of 
 drawing their salaries, which, under the circum- 
 stances, is neither more nor less than a flagrant 
 act of public robbery. So great is my respect for 
 the institutions of this country and the high offices 
 of State that I would not utter what I am now 
 saying, unless the truth was forced upon me, and 
 from me. What other conclusion can I come to, 
 looking on at what I see ? and, therefore, at the 
 door of Sir Henry Parkes and his colleagues let 
 the infamy rest of having brought unparalleled 
 degradation on the public life and public institu- 
 tions of this country. Strong and emphatic as 
 my language is, I know that it will find a response 
 in every manly and intelligent soul ; and I say 
 that it is our bounden duty before electing a 
 Speaker before doing a single legislative act to 
 tear these men from the position and emoluments 
 which they are clinging to with such inveterate 
 tenacity, and hugging to their hungry souls in the 
 spirit, and with the principles, of burglars. Those 
 honourable gentlemen opposite me dissolved the
 
 266 AN AUSTRALIAN ORATOR. 
 
 late Parliament .without a shadow of justification, 
 and on grounds the most unprincipled, and, in 
 doing so, they outraged every known principle 
 of the Constitution ; indeed, they induced the 
 Governor to consent to a Dissolution by stating to- 
 him that they had Supply sufficient for the public 
 service during the time occupied by the elections, 
 which we now know to have been not true ; so, it is 
 clear, the Dissolution was brought about by means 
 of false pretences ; and when we find Sir Henry 
 Parkes still hanging to his office, after he has 
 been stripped of every vestige of authority, am I 
 not justified in denouncing him and his colleagues 
 as clearly doing so for the purpose of keeping a 
 few weeks longer the filthy lucre which seems to- 
 have corrupted the whole of them ? I think I am 
 justified in saying, in view of the facts of the 
 case, that it is that consideration alone which has 
 led them to prostitute their offices, to degrade and 
 outrage the Constitution to lower themselves 
 beneath the contempt of all men, and to alienate 
 from them even some of the creeping things who 
 used to crawl after them with such uniform 
 docility. "What other grounds can the Govern- 
 ment assign for the course they have taken ? A 
 Dissolution would give them a few weeks more of 
 salary, and therefore it is resorted to without 
 reference to the public interest. A Dissolution 
 on their thrice wretched Land Bill that the people 
 have been condemning for the last twenty years 
 the product of an idiot it has, with all its multi- 
 farious injustice and cruel wrong, weighed upon 
 the vital interests of this country with the wither- 
 ing blight of a pestilence. It has brought two 
 large classes of the community into savage and 
 deadly hostility, and enabled them to carry on the 
 war against each other by legalizing every species
 
 SIR H. PARKKS AND SIR J. ROBERTSON. 267 
 
 of fraud, lying, and deception. It has offered a 
 premium to the scoundrel in carrying on his mis- 
 deeds, and at the same time brought ruin and 
 disaster on the honest man. It has spread dismay 
 all round ; and while inviting the people to settle 
 on the public lands, it has sealed their doom that 
 moment they did so by the innumerable snares 
 and traps it has there set for them. It has been a 
 downdrag and a curse to the country, and from 
 its introduction up to the present moment no 
 heavier calamity has weighed and preyed on its 
 existence. All this was well known to the people, 
 and has been variously expressed by them from 
 one end of the country to the other. To appeal to 
 the people on such a Bill as this with a thought of 
 a favourable verdict was the madness of Sir Henry 
 Parkes, led into it by the stronger madness of Sir 
 John Robertson. Well, then, the appeal to the 
 people is decided upon, and now behold Sir Henry 
 Parkes preparing for his perilous voyage. See 
 him standing at the helm of the State ship with 
 Sir John Robertson's Land Bill as a mainsail 
 swelling to the breeze, steering his course into 
 the great ocean of public opinion. No sooner is 
 he there than wild winds howl around him the 
 tempest rages angry, remorseless waves sweep his 
 decks thunder-peals roar from above oceanopens 
 to receive him, and down he sinks, engulphed, 
 without leaving so much as a solitary spar, or even 
 a tatter of rope or bunting on the surface of the 
 water. And thus Sir Henry Parkes ends his 
 joyous voyage to the country. The storm that 
 thus wrecked and ruined Sir Henry Parkes and his 
 Government will be ever memorable in the history 
 of this country. It will teach the lesson that 
 flagrant misconduct in high office shall never go 
 unpunished, that no minister can trample on the
 
 268 AN AUSTRALIAN ORATOR. 
 
 Law and Constitution with impunity, that " cor- 
 ruption wins not more than honesty," and that 
 evil-disposed and unprincipled men in office can be 
 brought to book and covered with obloquy and 
 contempt, as in the case of the honourable gentle- 
 men who now sit opposite me. I now feel most 
 anxious that this House should understand and do 
 its duty. If what I have said is true, and there is 
 not an honourable member of this House who 
 dare deny a word of it, then I call upon the House 
 to go along with me in censuring Sir Henry Parkes 
 and Sir John Robertson for all the injury and 
 infamy they have, as Ministers of the Crown, 
 inflicted on this country. I call upon every inde- 
 pendent and upright man in this House to stand 
 by the purity of Government, and assist in bring- 
 ing to punishment the men who have plunged the 
 whole system of Representative Government into 
 a sink of scandalous corruption. I call upon the 
 House to visit with severe condemnation men who 
 still cling to office when all power and support 
 have left them ; when, in fact, they are no longer 
 a Government, and who, notwithstanding, continue 
 to make appointments to the public service, when 
 they can be no longer held responsible for what 
 they do. I ask the House to look at the flagrant 
 misconduct of all this, and to say whether it 
 thinks any action of any men could have brought 
 more degradation and pollution on the great offices 
 of State and on the public life and public institu- 
 tions of the country than the action of Sir Henry 
 Parkes and his colleagues during the last six 
 months of his administration. In dealing with 
 such men as Sir Henry Parkes and Sir John 
 Robertson it becomes us, as representatives of the 
 people, who value our own credit and character, to 
 put our strong sense of the misconduct of these
 
 II. PARKES AND SIR J. ROBERTSON. 269 
 
 gentlemen on record, so that those who come after 
 us may find to what extent every known principle 
 of the Constitution which we value has been 
 trampled upon and departed from by the two 
 gentlemen who, for those misdeeds, are now, by 
 the action of the people, stripped of every vestige 
 of power, and are, to all intents and purposes, 
 politically dead. In conclusion I may say I have 
 tried to do my duty in thus speaking, and it is 
 now for the people's representatives, who should 
 be the guardians of the public honour, to do 
 theirs. 
 
 [Mr. Buchanan's speech was admitted to be true 
 by the manner it was received. Sometimes it was 
 cheered, but no expressions of dissent fell from the 
 lips of a single member. 
 
 Mr. Buchanan's amendment could not be put, 
 there being no Speaker. He consequently ex- 
 pressed his intention of taking another oppor- 
 tunity of reintroducing the subject. The Govern- 
 ment of Sir Henry Parkes at last resigned that 
 very night.]
 
 THE COMPOSITION OF MR. STUABT'S 
 GOVERNMENT CRITICIZED. 
 
 [ON the resignation of the Government of Sir Henry Parkes, Mr. 
 Stuart was called upon to form a Government, and in 
 noticing its composition the following speech was de- 
 livered. The Address in reply to the Governor's speech 
 having been moved and seconded, Mr. Buchanan rose and 
 spoke as follows : ] 
 
 ME. SPEAKER, Time and the hour run through 
 the roughest day, no man can tether either the 
 one or the other, and so we are now in the 
 presence of the new Government, every member of 
 it being present, with the exception of one man, 
 the Minister of Public Works, who has been de- 
 feated by his constituents at Newtown. The first 
 blow, therefore, aimed at this new state of things 
 is delivered by the intelligent electors of the great 
 metropolitan constituency of Newtown. (Hear, 
 hear.) I think, in an Assembly of this kind, it is 
 every independent member's duty to express him- 
 self boldly and freely on the occasion of a crisis 
 so important as the formation of a new Govern- 
 ment. This is a deliberative Assembly ; we are 
 here for the express purpose of deliberation. Our 
 system of Government is government by debate,
 
 MR. STUARTS GOVERNMENT. 271 
 
 government by public discussion, government by 
 public opinion. If we therefore fail to express our- 
 selves upon all important occasions, we miss the 
 very object of our being here, and fail egregiously 
 in recognising the very spirit and essence of our 
 system of government. It is, therefore, not my 
 intention to be silent on this occasion. (Hear, 
 hear.) On the contrary, I mean to speak exactly 
 what I think and feel, in reference to the new 
 constitution of things, and I mean to do so freely 
 and boldly. (Laughter and cheers.) The honour- 
 able gentlemen who constitute the Government 
 have been before their constituents, and the most 
 noticeable thing in reference to their doings and 
 sayings there, is, that they all seem to have 
 agreed upon the grand purpose of singing each 
 other's praises. According to their own account, 
 no more remarkable set of men has ever before 
 appeared in the Government of this country. 
 They are all, according to their own dictum, 
 paragons of perfection (laughter), marvels of 
 superhuman capacity, and wherever they go, they 
 entertain the people with anthems and hallelujahs 
 in absurd praise of themselves. (Hear, hear.) 
 Well, this is all very laughable and very amusing, 
 and as the people have had the Ministerial account 
 of their own high qualities and miraculous powers, 
 it may not be out of place, in this House, that 
 something like the truth should be told bearing 
 upon this most interesting matter. (Hear, hear.) 
 I am sure the members of this House entertain 
 very moderate views as to the qualifications of the 
 gentlemen at present occupying the Treasury 
 Benches. (Hear, hear, and laughter.) Some of 
 them, I believe, are held to be totally unfit for 
 that high position (hear, hear) and I, for one, 
 don't hesitate to announce that as my own
 
 272 AN AUSTRALIAN ORATOR. 
 
 opinion. But since they have been so absurdly 
 extravagant in singing their own praises all 
 through the country, I will have the less delicacy 
 in entering upon a just, though lively, criticism 
 of a set of men who herald themselves with so 
 much vehement blowing of their own trumpets. 
 Well, then, let us begin with the Premier, a man 
 destitute of any notable quality (hear, hear) 
 undistinguished in this House, and known as a 
 very ordinary man, feeble and irresolute, and 
 wearisome to listen to, obsolete in his political 
 opinions, and without the power of adequately 
 expressing them, which may be looked upon as an 
 advantage under the circumstances. Well, then, 
 this gentleman signalises his advent to power, as 
 Premier of the country, by four distinct acts of 
 palpable desertion of his best friends. (Hear, 
 hear.) We all remember the other day, when we 
 were called upon to elect a Speaker, the humiliat- 
 ing action adopted by the present Premier. 
 (Cheers). Although he said that Sir George 
 Wigram Allen, one of the candidates, was his 
 old friend of thirty years' standing, and although 
 he further said that Sir George Wigram Allen, 
 during his long tenure of the high office of 
 Speaker, had performed its duties most admir- 
 ably, he illustrates the value of his friendship 
 by refusing to vote for him. This was desertion 
 number one. At this time, as we all know, the 
 Premier was Leader of the Opposition raised 
 to that onerous position by the devotion of a 
 large number of followers. Well, then, how did 
 the Premier act towards them ? He treated them 
 as he had treated his friend, Sir George Wigram 
 Allen, by refusing to vote for their nominee (Mr. 
 Barton), and so deserted them in the most 
 shameful manner (loud cheers) immediately on
 
 MR. STUART'S GOVERNMENT. 273 
 
 the back of his equally shameful desertion of the 
 late Speaker. In the history of weak, feeble, 
 vacillating action no parallel can be found to this. 
 It was as weak as it was unprincipled, and brought 
 the undisguised contempt of the whole House on 
 the honourable member. Was there ever such 
 silly, futile action heard of in any quarter of the 
 globe? The honourable member, the' present 
 Premier, refuses to vote for his old friend, 
 although he thinks him an admirable man for 
 the office, and he also refuses to vote for the 
 candidate put forth by his own friends of the 
 Opposition, although he has no fault to find with 
 him, and thus he nullifies himself, extinguishes 
 himself, renders himself nugatory, and, by this 
 poor, weak, unprincipled, and wretched conduct, 
 cancels himself as completely as the Kilkenny cats 
 ever did. (Laughter and cheers.) Who could 
 put any trust in a man of whom all this could 
 be said ? Well, this was desertion number 
 two, since which time the honourable gentle- 
 man has been translated from Leader of the 
 Opposition to that of Premier of the country, 
 and the way he has distributed the offices 
 of his Government marks a desertion of faithful 
 qualified friends as lamentable as the two cases 
 spoken of. Men who have fought for years with 
 him in Opposition, and of marked ability, have 
 been thrown overboard, and comparative strangers 
 to Parliament and public life preferred to them. 
 But desertion number four is probably the worst 
 of all, and iu saying this I refer to the case of 
 Mr. Garrett. The honourable gentleman at the 
 head of the Government was not above sending 
 for Mr. Garrett, and taking him into his councils, 
 at a time when he knew he would be almost the
 
 274 AN AUSTRALIAN ORATOR. 
 
 next week called upon to form a Government, and 
 having advised with the honourable member for 
 Cam den, and received the benefit of his larger 
 knowledge, the honourable member for Camden is 
 met with the reward of being, without the least 
 compunction, thrown overboard. If the Premier 
 had no intention to take the honourable member 
 for Camden as a colleague, he had no right to 
 consult with him, and so gain the advantage of 
 his superior knowledge and capacity. This was 
 dishonest action in every sense of the word, and I 
 don't envy the country which places in the high 
 position of its Prime Minister a man against 
 whom all this can be truthfully said. (Cheers.) 
 A man so base in common everyday principle, so 
 infirm of purpose, and so weak, is a danger, as 
 well as a disgrace, to any State, and I am sure he 
 will not remain long in office before this is found 
 out. Moreover and what I am to speak of now 
 is of very grave importance honourable gentle- 
 men will remember that the present Premier was 
 a short time ago appointed to the high ofiice of 
 Agent-General with a salary of 2000 a year. The 
 honourable gentleman accepted this ofiice, but had 
 to relinquish it for some cause or other. If that 
 cause was that he was in the power and under the 
 thumb of any of our Banks or monetary institu- 
 tions, then I say that, if he is still in that position, 
 I don't say he is, but if the fact be that he actually 
 is so, then I can imagine nothing so wrong as his 
 accepting the ofiice of Premier. The people here 
 have large transactions with our great Banks, and 
 it is not seemly, decent, or proper, that our chief 
 ruler should be in the position that any of those 
 institutions should have it in its power to crush 
 him at a moment's notice. It is not a very 
 splendid position for the Premier of any country
 
 MR. STUARTS GOVERNMENT. 275 
 
 to be in, and it is by no means a comfortable 
 thought for the people to reflect on. Considering 
 the large transactions the people of this country 
 have with the Banks here, the people's rulers, who 
 conduct these transactions, should be free and 
 independent, and in no way under influences such 
 as I have hinted at. So much for the Premier. 
 As to the Vice- President of the Executive Council, 
 Sir Patrick Jennings, who sits next to him, I have 
 nothing adverse to say. He is a courteous and 
 affable gentleman, and the little bit of business he 
 did for the Government the other day he did with 
 great affability, I might even say, without exag- 
 geration, he did it with extreme unction.* (Great 
 laughter.) S'o much so, that at the time I thought 
 it very ominous of the speedy dissolution of the 
 Government. (Hear, hear, and laughter.) I dare 
 say honourable members will agree with me that 
 the Vice- President of the Executive Council will 
 act as a very solid and substantial piece of ballast, 
 and tend to keep the State vessel on an even keel. 
 I have now to treat of the honourable the Attorney- 
 General that pretty little piece of human pinch- 
 beck, garnished with rubies, and tipped with kid, 
 scented and ornamented in a fashion truly exqui- 
 site. No wonder such beings as the Postmaster- 
 General and the Minister for Works fell prostrate 
 before his sublime haw-haw. (Great laughter.) 
 But seriously speaking does anyone know anything 
 of Mr. Dalley's political opinions ? Does anyone 
 know anything of his opinions on this great Land 
 Question ? The only opinions of his we know 
 anything of are his opinions on the Education 
 Question, and, in reference to this question, and 
 indeed I may say, with truth, all others, he stands 
 in the present Administration as the representative 
 
 * Sir Patrick is a leading Roman Catholic.
 
 276 AN AUSTRALIAN ORATOR. 
 
 of a dark fanaticism and a benighted priestcraft, 
 (Cheers.) The Attorney-General, in the estima- 
 tion of his colleagues, it would appear, is their 
 trump card. They each and all of them became 
 absolutely nauseous in their puerile praises of their 
 Attorney- General while appealing for re-election. 
 (Hear). Well then, if the colleagues of the 
 Attorney-General know nothing about him, many 
 of the members of this House understand him 
 well, and I would like to ask when did the 
 Attorney- General ever take the slightest interest 
 in the affairs of this country, with the solitary 
 exception of the Education Question, when the 
 priestcraft, before which he bends and bows, 
 lashed him into a benighted action ? Did anyone 
 ever see the Attorney-General seek election to this 
 House for the purpose of struggling, without 
 money and without price, in the people's cause ? 
 Have they not rather seen him immovable until 
 some office of emolument brought him down from 
 his lofty pedestal (loud cheers) only to retire 
 when the office and emolument left him ? (Hear, 
 hear.) For the last twenty years has not this been 
 the honourable gentleman's action ? Did he not 
 constantly lie dead to every political duty until 
 the offer of a rich office galvanised him into life? 
 (Hear, hear.) Was he ever known to accompany 
 his friends into Opposition ? No ! with the dis- 
 appearance of office and emolument, the disap- 
 pearance of the Attorney-General resulted, only to 
 return when office and emolument returned, and 
 to mark his systematic adherence to this unworthy 
 and contemptible conduct, he did not care whether 
 he took office from the present Premier or from 
 Sir John Robertson his opponent. Nay, I believe 
 he would have jumped at office and emolument 
 even if it had been offered him by Sir Henry
 
 MR. STUARTS GOVERNMENT. 277 
 
 Parkes, if Sir Henry had ever been foolish 
 enough to do so. Suppose this Government is 
 turned out a month hence, will the Attorney- 
 General accompany them into Opposition and 
 assist them there ? Do we not all know he will 
 not, but will leave his colleagues to their 
 fate, perfectly heedless what that fate may be, 
 and get himself a gain hoisted to his pedestal, there 
 to wait till some turn of the political wheel again 
 brings some rich office to his door. (Hear, hear.) 
 Can anyone deny these facts ? The history of Mr. 
 Dalley, the present Attorney-General, for the last 
 twenty years proves their strict truth to the very 
 letter. One cannot help feeling something like 
 bitter scorn as we see the Attorney- General affect- 
 ing to sneer at Mr. Davies, not a long time ago his 
 colleague in another Government, and for whom 
 he had then nothing but fulsome and ridiculous 
 praises, but then his office and emoluments were 
 in danger, and anything to save those ; and so, 
 even now, we see the right honourable Attorney- 
 General condescending to play the part of an elec- 
 tioneering hack, and go spouting through the city 
 singing the praises of illiterate, ignorant dolts and 
 clodhoppers, who sit with him as colleagues in this 
 most pitiful Government, and all to preserve his own 
 office and its dear emoluments. To the winds with 
 public life and all his colleagues, will be the ejacula- 
 tion of the Attorney- General, when the rising storm 
 of public disgust and indignation swells into a furi- 
 ous tempest, and scatters this incompetent Govern- 
 ment, a miserable wreck, to the four quarters. 
 The Attorney-General's interest in public life and 
 the progress of his country will then cease his 
 colleagues may sink to perdition never more to 
 rise, while he himself will have his eyes open to 
 nothing but the chance of having another grab,
 
 278 AN AUSTRALIAN ORATOR. 
 
 no matter under what auspices, at office and its 
 under the circumstances ignominious advantages. 
 The Attorney-General is a man given up to strong 
 delusion that he, of necessity, must believe the 
 worst of lies, and I ask the members of this honour- 
 able House can any Government expect honour, 
 credit, or anything but injury, from the alliance 
 of such a man as this ? I now come to that very 
 pliant, elastic, and most flexible gentleman, the 
 Minister of Education. I am not surprised at that 
 honourable gentleman's rise, such as it is, con- 
 sidering the quantity of gas he contains (much 
 laughter) ; he has gone up like a balloon, and like 
 a balloon he will come down, probably in the usual 
 state of wreck. (Hear, hear.) Childishness seems 
 to be his main characteristic. If there is ever any 
 notable piece of donkey worship to be performed, 
 the Minister of Education is sure to be selected as 
 the high priest to perform this ceremony. He 
 has an inexhaustible mine of insufferable frivolity 
 and puerility about him, and, the misfortune is, 
 he is always digging in it. (Loud laughter and 
 cheers.) Well, shallow and superficial as the 
 Minister of Education is, he is in a position where 
 he may do much mischief, and he has already 
 begun this mischief, as I shall instantly show. 
 Let honourable members never forget that the 
 "Vice-President of the Executive Council and the 
 Attorney-General, as well as the Premier himself, 
 are mortal enemies of the Public Schools Act. 
 Well, while, of course, they dare not attempt to 
 publicly interfere with that Act, they may injure 
 the cause frightfully by acting upon a weak, pliant 
 minister, who has no earnest opinions upon the 
 subject at all (hear, hear) and this, 1 assert, 
 has been done in the case of altering the intention 
 to convert St. James's Denominational School into
 
 MR. STUARTS GOVERN M I-:.\ T. 279 
 
 :i large and effective Public School. (Loud cheers.) 
 Honourable members will understand that this St. 
 James's School was a very large Church of England 
 Denominational School, situated in the very heart 
 of the city. With the cessation of all State aid to 
 Denominational Schools, which only took place 
 the other day, this school fell into the hands of 
 the Government, and the late Minister of Educa- 
 tion, under the recommendation of the officers of 
 the department, and the advice of the School 
 Board, most wisely resolved to open it as a large 
 public school, and so provide for the hundreds of 
 scholars who had attended the Denominational 
 School. This was being speedily and wisely done, 
 when the present Government came into office, 
 and now we hear, to the astonishment of every 
 sane man, the present Minister has rashly and 
 ignorautly resolved that there shall be no Public 
 School at this spot, but that the school shall be 
 turned into a High School, although the great 
 Sydney Grammar School is right opposite. Now, 
 the policy of the new Minister of Education is 
 simply so stupid that it can be accounted for in no 
 way but on the supposition that pressure has been 
 brought to bear upon him not to open a Public 
 School there, as it might interfere unduly with 
 St. Mary's Koman Catholic School hard by. (Loud 
 cheers, and laughter from the Minister.) The 
 policy of the Minister is in no other way to be 
 accounted for. Here is a grand site for a great 
 Public School, with the scholars all ready to enter, 
 and the certainty that it would form another Fort 
 Street School, and supply an absolutely necessary 
 want of the locality, and do no end of public good 
 the thing recommended by officers of the Govern- 
 ment School Boards, and decided upon by the late 
 Minister himself, and now we find this new Minister,
 
 280 AN AUSTRALIAN ORATOR. 
 
 with a characteristic thoughtlessness, losing this 
 grand opportunity of establishing probably the 
 largest and finest Public School in Sydney. I call 
 upon honourable members to have their eyes open 
 to this matter, and others of the same kind, all 
 the more necessary while we have an Adminis- 
 tration opposed to our Public School System, and 
 ready to injure it in favour of Denominationalism, 
 whenever opportunity offers. The presence in 
 office of a frivolous, superficial, pliant Minister of 
 Education, who will bend any way, is too glorious 
 a chance for Romish priestcraft to miss. There- 
 fore, I say, beware, and watch a danger that is 
 imminent, and might be ruinous to the whole 
 fabric of our Public School System. (Cheers.) 
 The Treasurer, Mr. G. E. Dibbs, is a man of 
 small and narrow mind, rash and inconsiderate, 
 and pretty certain to bring distress upon his 
 colleagues and injury to the country, but he may 
 look upon himself as a most fortunate man in 
 winning the prize without ever having run in the 
 race. The honourable the Minister for Justice is 
 in the same position. As to him, what shall I 
 say ? Well, let me charitably say with Portia in 
 the " Merchant of Venice," " God made him, let 
 him therefore pass for a man." The Minister for 
 Works is absent, defeated and extinguished ; 
 it would, therefore, scarcely be fair to speak of 
 him. The advent of the Minister for Mines proves 
 what I have often alleged how much our Parlia- 
 ments have deteriorated. When we reflect that 
 such a man as Sir Henry Parkes was seventeen 
 years in this House before he reached office, what 
 a commentary is this upon several of the offices of 
 State filled by such men as I see before me. Now- 
 adays, every puny whipster has office thrust upon 
 him without reference to experience or qualifica-
 
 MR. STUARTS GOVERNMENT. 281 
 
 tion. But now I come to the Postmaster-General, 
 and this is the most remarkable appointment of 
 all. Did anyone ever hear of an utter stranger 
 to public life entering the House of Commons, and 
 never so much as opening his mouth there, being 
 lifted into high office without anyone ever having 
 heard the tone of his voice ? I do not suppose 
 anyone ever did or ever will hear of such a thing ; 
 but it has happened here in the case of our Post- 
 master-General. How it has been brought about 
 no one can tell or even imagine ; but we all believe 
 there is something more in this than appears on 
 the surface, if philosophy could only find it out. 
 In consideration of his total silence during the 
 year he has sat as a member of this House, I 
 suppose he has been appointed to office in order 
 that he might give practical realization to the 
 grand old principle of a " wink being as good as a 
 nod to a blind horse " the Premier being the 
 blind horse ; but he tells us himself that it was 
 because he was a carrier that he was selected. If 
 this was sound policy, a carrier of letters rather 
 than a carrier of wool and tallow would be the 
 likelier man for the office. The thing puts me in 
 mind of the man who, being asked if he could 
 speak French, replied, " No, but I have a brother 
 who can play upon the German flute " the 
 analogy here being not more remote than in the 
 case of the Postmaster-General, appointed to that 
 office in virtue of his being a carrier. (Loud 
 laughter.) Suppose the Premier pushes this 
 principle to its utmost consequences, we may 
 then look to have a jail-warder Minister of 
 Justice, a detective Attorney-General, and a 
 policeman Chief Secretary. The first fruit of 
 such an appointment is this, told by the Post- 
 master-General himself. While addressing his
 
 282 AN AUSTRALIAN ORATOR. 
 
 constituents, he said that lie informed the clerks at 
 the Post Office " that he was going to be 
 master there;" and the Minister for Works said 
 he did the same thing. The vulgar ignorance 
 of this at once proves incompetency, and speaks 
 volumes as to the absurdity of appointing carriers 
 and navvies to high office. (Cheers and laughter.) 
 The Minister for Lands is the last member of the 
 Ministry I have to notice, and I say this, that the 
 fact of his having received a testimonial of 1,800 
 and a service of plate for performing duties as 
 a Minister of the Crown that he was paid 1,500 a 
 year for doing, fills all men with suspicion doubly 
 does it do so when the names of the subscribers 
 to this extraordinary testimonial have never been 
 up to this hour divulged, although repeatedly 
 called for. This testimonial was never given by 
 the people, but it is said it was given by the 
 squatter class ; and whether or not, it calls loudly 
 for explanation, the more especially at this 
 moment when the same gentleman enters upon 
 our land administration at a time of great public 
 excitement. I have heard it said that the Land 
 Minister was appointed on account of the influence 
 he had in this House. I deny his influence here 
 or anywhere. The man of influence here, in this 
 Assembly, and in all assemblies of the kind, is the 
 man who can put a truth vigorously, earnestly, 
 and vividly before the House, and who can as 
 vigorously and earnestly expose the falseness of 
 a falsehood. The man who can do this with 
 eloquent power is the only influential man here, 
 and I care not were he as poor as Lazarus and 
 went about in rags, you must listen to him, so 
 supreme and paramount is the power of intellect 
 in overwhelming and destroying ignorance, how- 
 ever outwardly gilded or adventitiously upheld.
 
 MR. STUART'S GOVERNMENT. 23 
 
 What would become of the present Ministers in 
 the presence of a difficult, abstruse, complex 
 political problem, demanding instant solution, 
 defence, or exposure? What, I say, would your 
 Wrights and Stuarts and Farnells do under such 
 circumstances ? Well, I will tell you what they 
 would do. They would run for light to their 
 oracles, Morris and Eankin, whom they have just 
 appointed as a Royal Commission to assist them 
 with their new Land Bill. The attitude of the 
 Government here is supremely contemptible. 
 The country has placed them in power to pro- 
 duce a Land Bill, instead of doing which they 
 pray for time and appoint a Commission to assist 
 them in doing what we demand should be done by 
 themselves. The men whom I have so severely 
 criticized have justified my utmost severity in the 
 poor puling tone they have adopted since they 
 became a Government. They are afraid to face 
 the Land Bill, knowing that the moment they 
 touch it their doom is sealed. The composition 
 of the Government is bad, the offices are filled, in 
 some instances, by very incompetent men, and the 
 feeling of this House, as far as I can read it, is 
 to cast them adrift as soon as opportunity avails. 
 (Cheers.)
 
 VOTE OF CENSUBE. 
 
 [ON the occasion of Mr. (now Sir Henry) Parkes moving an 
 amendment on the address in reply to the Governor's 
 speech on the opening of Parliament, Mr. Buchanan de- 
 livered a speech of great power. It was completely 
 destroyed by the imperfect reports of the daily papers. 
 We have only space to give the concluding sentences, 
 which we offer as a fair sample of the whole speech, by 
 far the finest we ever heard in our Parliament. 
 " Cumberland Mercury."] 
 
 THERE is another matter in connection with his 
 Excellency the Governor's conduct in leaving his 
 post for so long a time, that I implore the atten- 
 tion of the Press and the country to. At the time 
 of his Excellency's leaving, there were three men 
 lying under sentence of death. The cases of 
 those men were only considered last Monday, and 
 in every case a reprieve was granted. But can 
 honourable gentlemen form the least estimate of 
 the intolerable burden of cruel, racking anxiety 
 that weighed upon the souls of those men for six 
 long weeks, in order that the Governor might en- 
 joy the sport of horse-racing in another colony ? 
 Who can picture the sleepless nights of agony 
 endured by those unhappy men, with visions of 
 the ghastly gibbet perpetually haunting them, 
 making night hideous, and the day too horrible 
 for endurance ? What language can depict the 
 slow consuming misery that gnawed at their
 
 VOTE OF CENSURE. 285 
 
 hearts as they imagined that each day brought 
 them nearer to their doom a doom so frightful 
 and appalling, intensified in its horror by this 
 long, unnecessary uncertainty and suspense? If 
 honourable members can imagine how full of 
 horrors those men must have supped, stretched, 
 as they were, for six weeks on the rack of a cruel, 
 inhuman and culpable neglect, let them try to 
 judge of the character, and measure the weight 
 of the condemnation that should fall upon the 
 Government and on his Excellency the Governor, 
 the authors of this stupendous wrong. Had life 
 and death been more important to his Excellency 
 than grovelling in all the revolting immoralities 
 of a miserable race-course, the fate of those men 
 would have been known to them six weeks ago, 
 and a world of dreary wretchedness lifted from 
 their trembling souls. But what recked he, or 
 the Government, what agonies of painful, anxious 
 thought those men suffered so long as the one 
 saw the races and the others drew their salaries ? 
 If misconduct, cruel, heartless abandonment of 
 duty on the part of the Governor and Govern- 
 ment, leading to intense suffering to others, even 
 if those others were condemned felons, was ever 
 perpetrated under heaven's canopy, surely it was 
 here. I call upon every man in this House to 
 come forward and attest his manhood by voting 
 destruction to a Government so lost to every 
 sense of the sacredness of the trust they hold, 
 so insensible to the wrongs and agonies of men 
 to whom they owed a solemn duty, and who 
 would have been relieved from intolerable distress 
 by its performance, and so utterly regardless of 
 every principle of humanity, that in the name of 
 that humanity, so grossly outraged, I call for 
 their extinction.
 
 THE SOUDAN EXPEDITION. 
 
 [THIS Soudan business was by no means so popular in New- 
 South Wales as people at a distance might suppose with 
 the exception of a very few noisy and talkative people, 
 led on by a singularly weak and vapid Press. In Sydney, 
 the people, as a whole, derided it and laughed at it, while 
 large numbers of the most solid and sensible portion of 
 the population condemned it as " a rash and ignorant 
 display of our own weakness," and foolish interference in 
 matters which in no way concerned us or our interest in 
 any way. In the following speech of Mr. Buchanan, 
 delivered in Parliament, the subject was handled in his 
 own vigorous style, and a considerable amount of truth 
 and sound sense poured npon honourable members. 
 Parliament was specially called together on the 17th of 
 March for the express purpose of getting " Parliamentary 
 sanction to the act of the Government in sending troops 
 to the Soudan." The address in reply to the speech from 
 the Governor having been moved and seconded, Mr. H. 
 Clarke moved an amendment to the following effect : 
 " That the address be amended by the omission of the 
 second paragraph with the view to the insertion in its 
 place of the following paragraph : ' We, however, feel 
 bound to state that the occasion did not warrant the 
 despatch of troops from this country without the authority 
 of Parliament.' " This amendment having been seconded, 
 Mr. Buchanan rose and spoke as follows : ] 
 
 MR. SPEAKER, It is my intention to support this 
 amendment, although I wish it had been more 
 emphatic, more conclusive, and a more complete 
 and perfect expression of our dissent from pro- 
 ceedings on the part of the Government that I, 
 for one, consider in every sense criminal. I refuse
 
 THE SOUDAN EXPEDITION. 287 
 
 to listen to the shallow talk that is put forward 
 in justification of this enormity, ;m<l which has 
 mainly characterized the speech of the mover of 
 the address. No one could listen to that speech 
 without a feeling of regret. It was paltry and 
 puerile to a degree, woithy of all that has taken 
 place since the inception of this astounding act of 
 sheer madness which the Government has been 
 guilty of in sending our men out of the country 
 to fight in a foreign war. This, sir, is an 
 occasion the importance of which it is impossible 
 to exaggerate. The act of the Government has 
 imperilled the safety of this country and its 
 people, and it has done this without -the sanction 
 of Parliament, and in defiance of every principle 
 of constitutional law, and in total disregard of 
 those common everyday prudential considerations 
 that even fools respect and suffer themselves to 
 be guided by. This very gross misconduct on the 
 part of the Government should call forth the 
 strongest expression of dissent as well as denun- 
 ciation from this Assembly. It is most scandalous 
 in its illegality and inherent baseness, and can be 
 justified by no man in the possession of his senses. 
 The whole thing resolves itself into an empty, 
 ignorant, unprincipled piece of reckless swagger, 
 in every way pitiful and contemptible, and very 
 worthy of the source from which it sprung. I 
 believe it was done at the instigation and through 
 the caprice and thoughtless vanity of one member 
 of the Government without consulting any of his 
 colleagues, and inspired by the one thought of 
 creating a loud, sensational noise, utterly regard- 
 less of the country's dearest interests. I do not 
 believe the Premier of the country knew anything 
 of it, nor do 1 believe that the Attorney-General, 
 Mr. Dalley, who is the principal delinquent here,
 
 288 AN AUSTRALIAN ORATOR. 
 
 condescended to even mention the matter to his 
 colleagues until the wretched, abortive act, dis- 
 playing in so clear a light our weakness and im- 
 becility, had been consummated. No one can 
 deny that what has been done is illegal and un- 
 constitutional in every sense. The Government 
 have enlisted soldiers in this country to fight in a 
 foreign quarrel, and have sent them out of the 
 country for that purpose; and they have done this 
 without the sanction of Parliament. A grosser 
 treason to the best and highest interests of this 
 country could scarcely be imagined. And what, I 
 would like to ask, is the wretched, false excuse 
 offered for this misconduct ? Serious as the 
 matter is, one can scarcely think of it without 
 laughter. The excuse is that England was in an 
 emergency in extreme need. We were even 
 told that poor old England was at her last gasp, 
 stricken with paralysis, and that this mighty 
 armament of five hundred men from New South 
 Wales was required to protect and save her. This 
 is actually the ludicrous defence the Government 
 put forward for their high-handed, illegal, and 
 unconstitutional acts. Need I tell this House 
 that the excuse is a tissue of barefaced falsehoods, 
 and this gives a very vivid colour to the fact that, 
 in their senseless, thoughtless action, the Govern- 
 ment were influenced and inspired by no higher 
 purpose than the creating of a noisy demonstration 
 by which, as is so commonly said, the country 
 might be advertised and talked about. The pretence 
 put forward by the Government in justification of 
 their insane procedure is false to the very heart 
 of it. England was in no emergency, in no want 
 of troops ; and well did the Government know 
 this, as we may judge from telegrams laid upon 
 the table of this House since we met, but when
 
 THE SOUDAN EXPEDITION. 289 
 
 published in the Press, some fortnight ago, im- 
 portant portions of them were held back from 
 publication so as to deceive and mislead the 
 people as to this matter of urgency. Signally 
 disgraceful to the Government has been all this 
 deception, lying, and double-dealing. Why, the 
 English Government told our Government that 
 there was no hurry, that the troops were going 
 into summer quarters, and that our troops would 
 be in time enough if they were there by the 
 autumn. Our Government struck this out in 
 publishing the telegrams, and left the poor, 
 ignorant people to believe that the emergency 
 was vital, and that England was in extremis. 
 But what a view does this give us of the little 
 peddling, paltry purposes of the Attorney-General. 
 Had any thought of England's interests been in 
 his mind, he might have sent a united armament 
 of some strength and importance from all the 
 Colonies, because at the time I believe their rulers 
 were insane enough for this ; but our Attorney- 
 General, Mr. Dalley, palpably wished to have a 
 monopoly of the so-called glory in his own hands, 
 and hurried away his handful of men before 
 Victoria or any other Colony had a chance of 
 participating in it. That the Attorney-General 
 never gave a thought to the interests of this 
 country is plain enough. A sensational, empty 
 noise, based upon the prevailing spurious notions 
 of what he calls loyalty, was the only thought in 
 his small mind in landing this country, it may be, 
 in responsibilities that, if continued for any length 
 of time, will lead to its inevitable ruin. Under 
 this most lamentable policy we are going, volun- 
 tarily, thousands of miles out of our way to seek 
 trouble and disaster. No one asks us to do so.
 
 290 AN~ AUSTRALIAN ORATOR. 
 
 We have no call to do so. Every interest of this 
 country is opposed to such madness, and will 
 suffer by it in every imaginable way. Just let us 
 reflect for one moment what a dreadful calamity 
 war is, even when forced upon us by the insolence 
 of an invader, the only war we should ever be 
 engaged in. Did the Attorney- General, when he 
 embarked upon this sea of troubles, without rhyme 
 or reason, and without a shadow of cause or excuse, 
 reflect that this country has at present a public 
 debt of thirty million sterling, and that when we 
 have borrowed alt the money we have got liberty 
 from Parliament to borrow our debt will have 
 reached fifty millions sterling, a consideration 
 that is well calculated to " give us pause " ? No 
 doubt this enormous debt, enormous to be con- 
 tracted by under a million of people, has been 
 incurred for the construction of reproductive 
 works, such as railways ; but suppose, along with 
 this, we adopt a policy of ignorant, uncalled-for 
 intermeddling with the wars of England, does the 
 blindest man not see that those fifty millions 
 would soon swell into proportions that would leave 
 us hopelessly ruined and exhausted? And, at 
 best, this war in the Soudan is not worthy of 
 the name. A wretched scrimmage with a few 
 barbarians, which could be extinguished by Eng- 
 land, acting with due vigour, at any moment, is 
 certainly a most laughable event to call forth all 
 this illegal, unconstitutional, and extravagant 
 folly on the part of this country. Surely England 
 had reached the depth of her infatuation when 
 she accepted the aid of this contingent from New 
 South Wales. By doing this, undoubtedly without 
 thought, England approved of a most disastrous 
 and ruinous policy for this country. Under no 
 circumstances should this country ever send troops
 
 THE SOUDAN EXPEDITION. 291 
 
 out of it to fight in foreign wars. If we under- 
 stood our duty, we should know that our true 
 policy is to organize all our warlike power to 
 meet an invader ; to conserve our force here at 
 home, and be ready for any emergency of attack 
 from without. This should be our policy now and 
 for ever. If this accursed precedent is in any 
 way followed, this country would be ruined and 
 beggared in no time were it a hundred times 
 greater than it is in wealth and population. And 
 what a wretched war we have sent our men to 
 fight in. England is at the present moment 
 attempting to enforce upon those poor Arabs a 
 hatefully corrupt and villainous government. Both 
 Lord Dufferin and General Stewart have spoken 
 of the detestable government of the Egyptians, 
 and how much the Arabs of the Soudan were 
 justified in rebelling and fighting against it. 
 If I understand the matter right, England is 
 fighting to reimpose this detestable Government 
 on the oppressed and cruelly ill-treated Arabs, and 
 our men have gone to assist in this debasing busi- 
 ness. May such luck attend them as such an en- 
 terprise deserves. One of the most humiliating 
 features in the base, contemptible business, is to 
 see bishops and clergymen coming forward and 
 invoking the blessing of God upon this blood- 
 thirsty enterprise of ours, where our men have 
 gone forth to slay people with whom they have no 
 quarrel, who have done them no harm, and who 
 are engaged in a death-struggle for their own 
 rights and liberties, and against the bitterness of 
 unbearable oppression. Such bishops and clergy- 
 men seem to be the leaders and teachers of the 
 devil's worship instead of the worship of God. 
 Be this as it may, the. question this House is 
 now asked to decide is, whether the Government
 
 292 AN AUSTRALIAN ORATOR. 
 
 was justified in organizing and sending away this 
 contingent of troops without first having consulted 
 Parliament and obtained its sanction. We have 
 seen that the excuse of urgency and England's 
 helplessness is ridiculous as well as false to the 
 core, and the Government stands condemned for 
 resorting to the meanness of falsehood to justify 
 its illegal and infamous procedure. There is not 
 a shadow of justification for the act of our Govern- 
 ment an act, the offspring of shallowness and 
 childish vanity, conceived and carried out by the 
 reckless irresponsibility and diseased sentimen- 
 tality of one man in every way unfitted to form 
 any accurate estimate of the ultimate injury to 
 this country by the adoption of a policy so ruinous 
 and destructive. We are in no position to send 
 soldiers abroad, and, as I have already said, even 
 if we were, it would be a ruinous policy for us to 
 adopt. When this offer was made to the British 
 Government by the Attorney- General, without 
 consulting his colleagues, we had not a single 
 soldier enlisted. It was all done after the foolish 
 offer was so foolishly accepted. As it is, many of 
 the five hundred who have gone are married men, 
 in desperate circumstances, who have left their 
 wives and families to the mercy of the waves 
 during their absence. And this is nicknamed 
 patriotism, forsooth ! If it were properly desig- 
 nated, a very different word from patriotism would 
 require to be used. Those men have deserted 
 their wives and families not to fight for liberty 
 and country, but to assist in imposing an iron yoke 
 of oppression upon unfortunate men who are doing 
 so. Amidst all the noisy tumult of a half-witted 
 excitement and hollow agitation, those things 
 may be lost sight of, but the true bearing of this 
 egregious folly will yet be seen in its true light
 
 THE SOUDAN EXPEDITION. 293 
 
 when the public mind is restored to something 
 like calmness and clearness. It is curious to 
 observe that no sooner had our handful of troops 
 left, than we heard ominous reports of war be- 
 tween Russia and England. Even this did not 
 open the blind eyes of the Government to the folly 
 of sending from our shores our only means of 
 defence against an invading enemy. Surely Eng- 
 land's answer to us, if she had given half a thought 
 to the subject, when this preposterous offer of a 
 handful of troops was made to her, should have 
 been " We are much obliged, but had you not 
 better keep what armaments you have for your 
 own defence ? " This is the answer England should 
 have sent, and if it had been sent it would have 
 saved us from the mess we are now in, and from 
 an expense which we cannot well bear with our 
 millions of debt weighing us down to the very dust 
 at the present moment. We have heard, and do 
 hear every day, a great deal about our loyalty to 
 the mother country. This loyalty is clearly more 
 in the mouth than anywhere else. We had a 
 grand illustration of this the other day when Eng- 
 land ran counter to our wishes respecting the 
 occupation of New Guinea. Then the fiercest 
 denunciations were hurled at England and her 
 Secretary of State for the Colonies, and nothing 
 was heard but loud cries for separation, and I say, 
 advisedly, that wherever there is any self-interest 
 involved and endangered, on either side, the tie 
 that binds those Colonies to England will snap like 
 a silken thread. (Cries of " No " from some 
 honourable members.) It is all very well to call 
 out " No," but a short time will soon prove who is 
 right. The natural and certain fate of this country 
 is to grow into an independent nation, just as, in 
 human life, youth grows into manhood and indepen-
 
 294 AN AUSTRALIAN ORATOR. 
 
 dence. Honourable members of this House know 
 well that I have always advocated separation 
 from England as the best policy for both countries. 
 In advocating this policy I have always despised any 
 imputation on my loyalty to England in so acting. 
 It is true loyalty to England as well as to this 
 country that forces me to this action. Anyone 
 with eyes in his head must see at a glance 
 that the true policy of this country, and all Eng- 
 land's Colonies, is to separate from her for their 
 mutual interest and advantage. England, in the 
 midst of European complications, is always liable 
 to be immersed in war with some of the great 
 European States, and the misery and danger to us 
 is that, from our political connection, which has 
 yielded us nothing, every enemy of England be- 
 comes an enemy of ours and that enemy may at 
 any time strike a blow at us. We have no voice 
 as to the justice of England's wars ; England 
 may be hurried into a war of the rankest in- 
 justice by the folly of her rulers we have no 
 say as to whether those wars should be entered 
 upon or not. Yet we are involved in the same 
 wars, and may be struck disastrously by any, or 
 all, of England's enemies. Why should we incur 
 such a danger as this? England, on the other 
 hand, has her fleets scattered over the whole 
 world, protecting her distant colonies, which 
 lands her in enormous expense, and cripples her 
 power to an incalculable degree. It is, therefore, 
 for the mutual benefit of England and her colonies 
 that I advocate separation ; and I laugh to scorn 
 the shallow, sentimental trash that is nowadays 
 talked about, called by the sounding name of 
 "imperial federation/' as if England could hold 
 under her rule growing countries thousands of 
 miles away from her, when she cannot very well
 
 THE SOUDAN EXPEDITION. 295 
 
 hold Ireland, lying alongside of her. Every 
 nation on the face of the earth is governed by 
 self-interest, and every earthly consideration melts 
 and disappears under the fierce friction of this 
 overpowering instinct. This country has interests 
 of its own widely different from those of Eng- 
 land, and when those interests clash, disruption 
 and separation are the inevitable consequences. 
 Nature points to this as the certain issue, and 
 time and circumstances will assuredly work out 
 the result. This tendency was beautifully ex- 
 emplified in the late New Guinea business, and we 
 will see it again, notwithstanding our hollow and 
 pretended loyalty, whenever England's action 
 imperils any interest of ours. It will then be 
 seen how naturally will arise the question of 
 separation, and, with it, the necessity of organizing 
 our own defences, and never dream of fighting 
 anywhere but against an invading foe. A cele- 
 brated writer of the present century, a relative 
 and namesake of my own, in a work entitled " An 
 inquiry into the taxation and commercial policy of 
 Great Britain," has this to say on the subject I 
 am speaking upon : " It is now generally acknow- 
 ledged that colonies are of no real advantage to 
 the mother country. The monopoly of the trade 
 is a positive injury to both parties; to the de- 
 pendent as well as to the parent State; and the 
 sovereignty, however it may flatter the national 
 vanity, brings with it no solid benefit. The 
 undue importance attached by Great Britain to 
 her American colonies was fully proved by the 
 event. The wisest statesmen were impressed with 
 the notion that the loss of this great empire, the 
 brightest ornament, as it was said, of the British 
 Crown, would be a serious blow to the national 
 prosperity. How entirely has the subsequent
 
 296 AN AUSTRALIAN ORATOR. 
 
 prosperity of England belied those vain fears. 
 The loss of America has in no degree affected the 
 commercial greatness of Britain ; it has rather re- 
 dounded to her advantage ; and the only regret 
 now is that the Canadas were not united in the 
 same successful revolt, which would have freed 
 the mother country from all farther care or ex- 
 pense concerning them, and from the injurious 
 monopolies established, as well as from the danger 
 of being involved in wars with other powers on 
 their account." With those sentiments I entirely 
 concur, and undoubtedly it is merely a question of 
 time as to their realization in practical results, 
 which may be precipitated sooner than many 
 honourable gentlemen of this House imagine. Al- 
 though this matter has no direct bearing on the 
 question before the House, still as there has been 
 so much sorry talk of loyalty in reference to this 
 expedition to the Soudan, 1 have thought it my 
 duty to speak out boldly my own views of what 
 loyalty means. There is no question about any 
 one's loyalty here, and it is a matter that should 
 never be lightly called in question. There is a 
 despicable pretended loyalty, spurious and barren, 
 which is never out of the mouths of a certain 
 class in this country. The loyalty I refer to is 
 rotten and nauseous to the very heart of it most 
 rank and loathsome in the extravagance of its 
 idiotic expression, destined to pass away with the 
 fools that indulge in it, giving place to a manly, 
 genuine independence, an independence based 
 upon complete freedom, and inspired by a 
 patriotism very different from the brawling, 
 blustering, bellowing, which, the other day, filled 
 the air with discord, and covered all concerned in 
 it with unmixed contempt as this wretched ex- 
 pedition left our shores. The Attorney-General
 
 THE SOUDAN EXPEDITION: 297 
 
 is the grand manufacturer of this sentimental 
 loyalty and sickly patriotism, the great political 
 Barnum of the occasion, the organizer of those 
 wild explosions of popular folly, so frequent of 
 late, and the grand reservoir from which flowed 
 all that frothy jargon and imbecile rant that has 
 been so carefully preserved to us in the columns of 
 the daily press. It is indeed monstrous that this 
 Attorney-General, in a fiction, in a dream of 
 patriotism, should force his soul so to his own 
 conceit that, by her working, a large portion of 
 this community seemed to have lost the guidance 
 of reason. And what has our Press of Sydney 
 been doing throughout this crisis ' in our his- 
 tory ? I answer, with one noble excepion, it 
 has acted like a great overgrown, soft-headed 
 baby. Time-serving, timid, feeble as the Press 
 of Sydney has been for years past, in this supreme 
 moment of our history, it gave us no other 
 guidance than the hysterical ravings and screams 
 of a half-demented school girl. The Government 
 boast a good deal about what they call the patriotic 
 fund, raised for the purpose of relieving the wives 
 and children of those who may fall in battle. 
 Judged by this test, I submit that the country is 
 against the Government as to this matter of 
 sending troops to the Soudan. Whatever sum 
 has been raised, I assert that twenty men have 
 subscribed half of it ; that the people have not re- 
 sponded to this call at all, and that not more than 
 three hundred of the people have subscribed, apart 
 from the civil servants of the Government, who 
 have been compelled to do so. I can imagine 
 nothing so mean and contemptible in its petty 
 tyranny as the act of the Government in sending 
 a circular among the civil servants asking them to 
 subscribe to this fund. Do honourable members
 
 298 AN AUSTRALIAN ORATOR. 
 
 fail to see what this means ? Does it not mean, 
 and even say, you must subscribe, and if you do 
 not you will be marked men, and ways and means 
 will be found to make this tell against you? In 
 the history of base, degrading tyranny, I know of 
 nothing so base or mean as the sending of this 
 circular among the civil servants of the Govern- 
 ment; and notwithstanding all this whipping and 
 spurring and unprecedented pressure, I still say 
 that considerably more than half of the sum col- 
 lected has been subscribed by twenty men. Let 
 me say a word as to the action of the Chief Justice 
 of this country. He never was so much out of 
 place as when, the other night, he stood upon a 
 political platform and talked politics to the people, 
 when he might have been called upon the very next 
 day to give judgment in a case arising out of the 
 present action of the Government. The Chief 
 Justice attended a stormy political meeting at 
 which a motion was proposed to approve of the 
 policy of the Government touching this matter. 
 There was so much dissent from the objects of the 
 promoters of the meeting that it was a question 
 whether any of their resolutions were carried,, 
 although the Chairman declared them to be so. 
 Yet in this atmosphere of violent political party 
 feeling our Chief Justice thought it not beneath 
 his dignity to appear and move one of the resolu- 
 tions. The high office of Chief Justice suffered,, 
 through this action, in the estimation of all high- 
 minded, intelligent, thoughtful men. At thia 
 meeting, clearly of the " Jingo " stamp, honoured 
 by the presence of the Chief Justice, all manner of 
 extravagant nauseous stuff was talked about this 
 Soudan enterprise. It was called " inspiration,'* 
 " genius," " the grandest and greatest event that 
 has ever happened in the world ; " " it has made
 
 THE SOUDAN EXPEDITION. 299 
 
 us a nation/' " struck terror into the hearts of all 
 foreign powers," "paralysed the arm of Russia," 
 and left the rulers of France and Germany 
 "sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought.'* 
 Ineffable twaddle of this description has saturated 
 our poor Sydney newspapers for weeks past, and 
 is a fair specimen of the inflated rubbish that fell 
 from most of the speakers at the meeting in ques- 
 tion. With regard to England's conduct in ac- 
 cepting those Australian troops, I put it down to 
 weakness on the part of her rulers. There seems 
 to be a sad want of spirit and resolute purpose on 
 the part of England's rulers in dealing with foreign 
 affairs. In one of to-day's newspapers I read a 
 telegram as follows : " Earl Granville stated in 
 the House of Lords this afternoon that her 
 Majesty's Government had received information 
 concerning the report that the British flag had 
 been lowered at Victoria Cameroons, and the Ger- 
 man flag hoisted in its place. He expressed his 
 conviction that, in any case, Prince Bismarck 
 would take such an attitude in the matter as would 
 prevent trouble arising out of any action on the 
 part of German officers." Do honourable members 
 of this House not feel a sense of humiliation on 
 reading such a telegram as this ? Surely this is 
 not the tone that would have been sounded by any 
 of England's great rulers of old in the face of so 
 gross an insult. Let honourable members observe 
 that England is not expected to redress this in- 
 tolerable wrong and insult to herself. No ! Eng- 
 land is to wait, humbly, on Prince Bismarck's 
 action ! Can you imagine anything more humi- 
 liating ? The deadliest insult that could be offered 
 to England was to lower the British flag and hoist 
 another in its place, and when this is actually done, 
 instead of England instantly resenting it with fire
 
 300 ^1^ AUSTRALIAN ORATOR. 
 
 and sword, and with the last drop of her blood, if 
 need be, the Foreign Minister of England, in the 
 spirit of the most abject poltroonery, coolly tells 
 us that, although it is true that our flag has been 
 lowered, yet we can do nothing, and must wait for 
 what redress it may please Prince Bismarck to 
 charitably dole out to us. This is not the style in 
 which the England of old was accustomed to re- 
 dress her wrongs. It would be a blessing for the 
 old country if she would call to her counsels true 
 men of the old stamp, with somewhat of the nerve 
 and spirit of the great Cromwell in them, to 
 grapple with her enemies, and carry her on to the 
 heights of glory so familiar to her of old. Serious 
 and important as the subject before the House is, 
 it is not my intention to trouble honourable mem- 
 bers with any further remarks upon it. While 
 supporting the amendment, I am by no means 
 satisfied with the terms of it, and, if allowable, I 
 will move now that the following words be added 
 to it " And, further, that in the opinion of this 
 House, the act of the Government in sending men 
 from this country, without Parliamentary sanction, 
 to act as soldiers and fight in a foreign war against 
 people with whom we have no quarrel, who have 
 done us no harm, and who desire to do us no harm, 
 is unconstitutional, illegal, and a very gross 
 wrong ; suicidal to us as a rising and progressive 
 community, ruinous to the best interests of the 
 State, and inevitably leading to serious disaster, 
 financially and otherwise, while, in all probability, 
 culminating in national dishonour and disgrace." 
 T move that those words be added to the amend- 
 ment as a clearer intimation of the general feeling 
 of the people of New South Wales as to the reck- 
 less folly of this most impolitic act of the Govern- 
 ment. The means we have of estimating or
 
 THE SOUDAN EXPEDITION. 301 
 
 gauging public opinion on this question entirely 
 favours the idea that the bodj of the people is 
 earnestly opposed to it. The patriotic fund is a 
 distinct failure, and in over a dozen districts 
 public meetings have expressed themselves in 
 strong terms of dissent from the Government 
 policy. This dissent is every day increasing in 
 force and volume, as the people begin to calmly 
 reflect on the stupendous absurdity of this country 
 sending armaments from its shores to fight in wars 
 that cannot, by any straining of even the imagina- 
 tion, be brought to concern us in the remotest 
 degree. To satisfy the hollow vanity of a few de- 
 plorable blockheads, this destructive policy is im- 
 posed upon us a policy which we cannot continue 
 if the necessities of war require its continuance, 
 and which, of necessity, if pursued, must leave us 
 beggared and bankrupt which can gain us neither 
 honour nor credit nor advantage of any kind, and 
 whose only justification is a vain, presumptuous, 
 insolent spirit of weak impotent intermeddling. 
 No doubt the Government have a majority, and a 
 large one, in favour of the motion ; but this does 
 not mean much at present. The solid sense of the 
 country is not entirely dead, and, rely upon it, the 
 supporters of the Government, in this madness, 
 will not be overlooked when the people get a chance 
 at them. The supporters of the amendment, which 
 is the side of truth and justice, have nothing to 
 fear. They will vote with the consciousness that 
 they are trying to shield this country from the 
 heaviest evil that has yet fallen upon it, and the 
 clear, intelligent vote they will give will, at least, 
 afford them the satisfaction of knowing that they 
 are voting for the benefit of England as well as 
 Australia, and with the truest regard to their
 
 302 AN AUSTRALIAN ORATOR. 
 
 mutual safety and security. (Loud cheers greeted 
 this deliverance.) 
 
 [As was expected, the Government carried the 
 motion by 64 to 23, the sympathies of the people 
 being largely with the minority, and this sympathy 
 increasing every day. If such another expedition 
 were attempted now it would be scouted by the 
 whole people, so much has the feeling changed.] 
 
 NOTE. Since the foregoing speech was delivered by Mr. 
 Buchanan, Mr. Froude has published a book upon Australia, and 
 I have no hesitation in stating that those who look to that book 
 for authentic information on the subject will find themselves 
 egregiously misled and misinformed. Some time ago Mr. Froude 
 made some disparaging remarks on the Australian Agents- 
 General, which, being resented, Mr. Froude offered an explanation 
 to the effect that a wrong construction had been put upon what 
 he had said, and, further, that he had only met one of the Agents- 
 General. Mr. Froude seems to have been in a similar position in 
 giving judgment on the people of New South Wales. He came 
 overland, by rail, from Melbourne, travelling by night, and he re- 
 mained a very short time in Sydney, and, I believe, was never out 
 of it. He saw two or three of our public men, and evidently 
 derived all his information concerning the people from one of them. 
 Ee says the people speak good English ! no doubt, if the rankest 
 Cockneyism can be called good English. Among the people, and 
 even in the Parliament, the r'& and A's are sadly misused. This 
 statement is not more absurd than the other he makes, to the 
 effect that the people are Conservatives ! If so, those Conserva- 
 tives have enacted, as law, the abolition of State aid to religion, 
 manhood suffrage, vote by ballot, and triennial parliaments. Mr. 
 Froude goes on to say that Mr. Gladstone is everywhere unpopular 
 here 1 Not very long ago one of the largest and most influential 
 meetings ever held in Sydney unanimously passed resolutions 
 applauding to the echo Mr. Gladstone and his policy, and for- 
 warded said resolutions to Mr. Gladstone with an address of high 
 appreciation and respect. He says " he never saw in Australia a 
 hungry man, or met a discontented face." He might have seen 
 both in numbers had he only opened his eyes to look. At this 
 very moment the Government of New South Wales have great 
 difficulty in providing for hundreds of unemployed men, and are 
 making work for them as best they can. Mr. Froude takes care 
 to bespatter with extravagant eulogy only the men here who agree 
 with him in his puerile and essentially shallow notions about what
 
 THE SOUDAN EXPEDITION. 303 
 
 he calls "Imperial Federation,'' which the most rational and 
 sensible of the Australian people treat with derision, knowing well 
 1 1 1:1 1 the ultimate fate of these great colonies is a separate and in- 
 dependent nationality. The people of New South Wales, as a 
 whole, glory in the genius and power of Mr. Gladstone, and his 
 great name is cherished among all classes with affection and 
 respect. In this note I have pointed out a few of Mr. Froude's 
 extravagant and ridiculous statements, and, if space permitted, they 
 could be largely added to. EDITOR.
 
 MOTION OF CENSURE AGAINST THE 
 SPEAKER. 
 
 [ON Thursday, the 28th of March, 1885, Mr. Buchanan moved 
 the following motion standing in bis name: "That the 
 act of the Speaker of this Assembly attending a public 
 political and party banquet given to the Ministry by their 
 friends and supporters was inconsistent with the neutrality 
 and impartiality of his office, and not favourable to the 
 fair and upright conduct of the business of this House." 
 When the House met, Mr. Buchanan gave notice of his 
 intention to add the following words to the above motion, 
 namely, " That the act of the Speaker of this Assembly 
 attending and taking part in a public political and party 
 meeting concerning a matter of a political interest sa 
 intense that the whole community were arrayed against 
 each other in two hostile camps, was entirely inconsistent 
 with the character of his high office and disrespectful to 
 this House ; " and, further, " That the action of the Speaker 
 in enforcing upon this Assembly the new rules of the 
 House of Commons, rules notoriously instituted by that 
 body to suppress a state of absolute riot there, was an 
 insult and a degradation to the character of this Assembly, 
 from which it was the duty of the Speaker to take the 
 lead in defending it." The Speaker ruled that Mr.. 
 Buchanan could not move the additional words he pro- 
 posed to add to his motion. Mr. Buchanan, therefore, 
 contented himself by moving the motion as it stood on 
 the business paper of the House, and he did so in the 
 following speech : ] 
 
 MR. SPEAKER It was from, a high, sense of 
 public duty that I put this motion on the paper.
 
 MOTION OF CENSURE. 305 
 
 I desire to enter upon the discussion of it with 
 perfect calmness. I am perfectly aware of the 
 delicacy that attaches to such a proceeding, and I 
 am equally aware how essentially important it is 
 that the conduct of the Speaker of this Assembly 
 should, on all occasions, be far above the possi- 
 bility of doubt or question. When it is not so, a 
 duty lies at the door of every member of this 
 House, for the sake of its character and dignity, 
 to interfere, promptly, as it falls to my lot to do 
 on this occasion. J need not say how disagree- 
 able and painful the performance of this duty 
 is to me, but I do say that it would be ten times 
 more painful if I allowed any consideration to 
 silence me in view of an impropriety on the part 
 of the Speaker of this Assembly, so flagrant that 
 to pass it by unnoticed would be to reflect dis- 
 credit as well as dishonour upon the character 
 of this Assembly. The Speaker is chosen by a 
 majority of the members of this House. At the 
 time of his choice he may be an earnest partisan, 
 but the moment he is raised to the dignity of 
 occupying the chair he is lifted high above all 
 thoughts of party he becomes the mouthpiece not 
 of any section or side of the House, but of the 
 whole House, and as long as he continues to fill 
 his high office he should be blind and insensible 
 to all party interests or objects, showing no favour 
 or leaning to either side of the House, but treat- 
 ing both sides and all sections of it with uniform 
 impartiality. Holding this view of the genius 
 and character of this great office, I can scarcely 
 describe what I felt when I saw it announced that 
 the Speaker had attended a banquet given to the 
 Ministry by their friends and supporters. I felt 
 astounded and shocked beyond expression when I
 
 306 AN AUSTRALIAN ORATOR. 
 
 saw that the Speaker had identified himself with 
 a notorious party-demonstration. It was an im- 
 propriety that no previous Speaker had ever in- 
 dulged in, and I resolved that, if no other member 
 of this House brought it under public notice, that 
 I myself would not fail to do so. I mentioned 
 the matter to several friends, among whom were 
 members of the House, and they all denounced 
 this act of the Speaker in much stronger terms 
 than I am now using. I think honourable 
 members will agree with me that the Speaker 
 should be scrupulously exact, at all times and 
 places, in guarding himself from any misconcep- 
 tion of his conduct ; notoriously, he ought to 
 avoid all such positions as attending public meet- 
 tings of a party character, or public events got 
 up for the honour and glory of any party in 
 the State. What could be more palpable than 
 that this banquet was a party banquet, when we 
 know it was the Government who were selected, 
 by their friends and supporters, for this honourable 
 recognition ? In this House a large section 
 of it meet the Government as opponents, and do 
 their utmost by eveiy fair and constitutional 
 means to destroy them. The banquet was given 
 to honour men whom we, on this side of the 
 House, are constantly trying to discredit and 
 destroy. We do this because we imagine that 
 their presence on the Government benches is an 
 injury to the best interests of the country. We 
 are a component part of this Assembly the 
 Speaker presides over us as well as the Govern- 
 ment, and we have exactly the same claim to his 
 consideration as that enjoyed by the Government; 
 and any Speaker who acts in conformity to the 
 spirit and character of his office will avoid, with 
 religious punctilio, the very thought of appearing
 
 MOTION OF CENSURE. 307 
 
 to lean to one side more than another. Now, I 
 ask this House, couM a. party feeling, or leaning, 
 be shown more conspicuously than by the Speaker 
 of this Assembly attending a party banquet got up 
 by the friends of the Ministry to do them honour ? 
 Could a stronger party disposition be shown by any- 
 one? At such a banquet, no doubt, the members 
 of the Opposition were pretty sure to be singled 
 out for severe and caustic criticism their efforts 
 and themselves covered with contempt and ridicule. 
 Will anyone say that it was decent or proper for 
 the Speaker to be present at a meeting of this 
 description, listening, it may have been, to a 
 section of the Assembly he presides over, equally 
 entitled to his respect with any other section, 
 misrepresented, abused, and ridiculed with all the 
 added gusto superinduced by the freest application 
 of the wine cup? It is in vain for the Speaker 
 or his apologists to allege that the banquet in 
 question was not a party affair. The Ministry is 
 the head of a party, the offspring of party, dis- 
 tinctly called into existence and created by party ; 
 and nothing conceivable could so much partake of 
 political party spirit, or feeling, as a demonstration 
 got up in honour of any Ministry. Party is the very 
 life of a Ministry ; apart from it it would die. No 
 Ministry could live an hour separated from party, 
 any more than a human body could live separated 
 from the spirit. To say that this banquet to the 
 Ministry had nothing to do with party is about as 
 ridiculous as to speak of a prayer meeting that 
 had nothing to do with religion. A Ministry can 
 no more divest itself of the quality of party than 
 arsenic can divest itself of the quality of poison; 
 and it would be as absurd to speak of a public 
 banquet to the Ministry that had nothing to do 
 with party as to say "This is a dose of arsenic," but
 
 308 AN AUSTRALIAN ORATOR. 
 
 it lias nothing to do with poison." T ask honour- 
 able members would it have been proper for the 
 leader of the Opposition to have gone to this 
 banquet to the Ministry in honour of men whom 
 to oust from their positions is his thought by day 
 and night, and the business of his life ? If, there- 
 fore, it is an impossibility, from regard to 
 common decenc} 7 , that the leader of the Opposition 
 should appear at such a banquet, how much more 
 was it incumbent on the Speaker of this House to 
 guard himself and his office from the faintest 
 breath of adverse criticism, to say nothing of just 
 and righteous condemnation which was sure to 
 light upon him by such conduct ? This House 
 may be divided into two parties only, and it may 
 be divided into a dozen. It is the duty, the 
 religious duty, of the Speaker to stand aloof from 
 them all ; to be as friendly and courteous to the 
 one as to the other ; to be entirely free from any 
 taint of partisanship. Can anyone tell me that 
 the Speaker is in that position when he goes and 
 sits down with the supporters of the Government 
 at a banquet especially arranged in their honour 
 and for their support? Can it be said that the 
 Speaker of any Parliament, in so acting, has not 
 departed from the tone of high-minded, strict 
 impartiality that should at all times govern the 
 conduct of such an officer? No one who under- 
 stood clearly what he was doing would go to a 
 demonstration in honour of any Government 
 unless he meant it to be understood that he was a 
 supporter and partisan of that Government. If 
 he was not favourable to the Government he had 
 no right there. If this applies to any private 
 citizen, with what tenfold force does it apply to 
 a gentleman holding the high office of Speaker ? 
 The Speaker's duty to all parties should have kept
 
 MOTION OF CENSURE. 309 
 
 him away from such a meeting ; and it is just 
 because he owes a duty to all parties, in virtue of 
 the office he holds, that he should be scrupulously 
 careful to avoid giving offence to any. For my 
 part, I know of no course that could be adopted 
 by the Speaker better calculated to give very gross 
 offence to the opponents of the Government than 
 his attending a banquet got up for the especial 
 honour of the Ministry. The Speaker carries 
 great weight and influence wherever he goes, and 
 his presence at the Ministerial banquet went far 
 to support and bolster up a weak and decaying 
 Ministry. I say, broadly, that this was unpardon- 
 able conduct on the part of the Speaker, and I do 
 not envy that man who thinks otherwise. I defy 
 any honourable member of this House to cite a 
 solitary instance where any Speaker of the British 
 Parliament was ever guilty of similar conduct to 
 that I am at present commenting upon ; and I am 
 perfectly certain that if the Speaker of the House 
 of Commons attended a banquet given in honour 
 of the Gladstone Government, or any Government, 
 that sharp and instant action would be taken in 
 the House of Commons to bring down upon 
 such conduct its just and proper condemnation. 
 If honourable members consider this matter 
 without prejudice, I am sure they will say with 
 me that the Speaker of this Assembly committed" 
 a grave mistake in appearing at this banquet; 
 and if they do so, they will of course vote with 
 me. For my part 1 neither know nor care 
 how they will vote. I have not even asked any 
 one to second this motion, and I do not know 
 whether it will have a seconder. But if it is not 
 seconded it will not be for want of conviction on 
 the part of many honourable members, because 
 numbers of them have expressed to me their strong
 
 310 AN AUSTRALIAN ORATOR. 
 
 sense of the impropriety of the Speaker's conduct. 
 (Honourable members: "Name.") I know this 
 House very well. It is with me at heart, but it is 
 too cowardly to act. Mr. Speaker : The honour- 
 able member will be encouraged in every way to 
 proceed with his speech, but he cannot be allowed 
 to do so until he has withdrawn the expression of 
 gross insult to this House which has just fallen 
 from his lips. The honourable member may, under 
 this motion, insult the chair to his heart's con- 
 tent, but the chair must protect the House from 
 insult. The honourable member must withdraw 
 the words he has used, and must apologise to the 
 House for their use. Mr. Buchanan : I withdraw 
 the words. Mr. Speaker : Does the honourable 
 member apologise ? Mr. Buchanan : I apologise, 
 and I am astonished at the anxiety of Mr. Speaker. 
 Mr. Speaker : The honourable member will please 
 resume his seat. The chair is very anxious to hear 
 the honourable member until the close of his 
 speech, and I hope the honourable member will 
 not resort to any action which will have the effect 
 of suspending his discourse Mr. Buchanan : Do 
 not threaten me, sir, but do whatever else you 
 like. Mr. Speaker: The honourable member 
 should know that I am not in the least degree 
 likely to threaten any honourable member of this 
 House. The honourable member having insulted 
 the House, he must not only withdraw that insult 
 but must tender an apology to the House. The 
 House will agree with me that the honourable 
 member cannot be allowed to proceed until he has 
 taken that course. (Honourable members: "Hear, 
 hear.") Mr. Buchanan : The other evening a 
 gentleman on the Opposition benches indulged in 
 grossly disorderly language, but the Speaker did 
 not threaten him because he happened to be Sir
 
 MOTION OF CENSURE. 311 
 
 John Robertson. Mr. Speaker: The honourable 
 member must confine himself to the motion of 
 which he has given notice, and it is not competent 
 for the honourable member to indulge in any in- 
 vective of the chair apart from that matter. I am 
 sure, however, that the House is assured of the 
 impartiality of the chair on the occasion to which 
 the honourable member refers. (Honourable 
 members: "Hear, hear/') Mr. Buchanan: In 
 reference to the Speaker's remark that I am at 
 liberty to insult the chair to my heart's content, 1 
 protest against this remark from, the Speaker. 1 
 appeal to honourable members have I insulted 
 the chair since I began to speak ? I have not 
 used any language which is in the slightest degree 
 improper. It was not my purpose to insult the 
 chair, and whatever I have said has been said by 
 me more in sorrow than in anger. Had it been 
 my cue to even speak harshly of the gentleman 
 who occupies the chair of this honourable House, 
 the circumstances which surround the motion I 
 am now discussing would afford me ample and 
 just grounds for that purpose, but I have studiously 
 avoided saying a word that could be fairly con- 
 strued into an insult to the chair, and the apparent 
 feeling displayed by the Speaker in using the 
 words I protest against seem to give some sort of 
 colour to the thought that the Speaker is now 
 satisfied that the gentleman occupying the high 
 position of Speaker of this honourable Assembly 
 cannot attend any public, political, party banquet, 
 or meeting, without inflicting degradation on his 
 great office and insult upon this House. If I do 
 not find a seconder to this motion, I, at all events, 
 stand out as one who has done his utmost for the 
 vindication of the honour and character of Parlia- 
 ment, as well as for the purity and honour of the
 
 312 AN AUSTRALIAN ORATOR. 
 
 chair. If this motion is not seconded, it will not 
 matter much to me. I have nothing to do with 
 that. Honourable members are the masters of 
 their own actions. All I know is, that many of 
 them have, privately, expressed as strong an 
 opinion as I have in reference to the impropriety 
 that has demanded the action I am now taking. 
 It is now for the House to say whether this act of 
 the Speaker's in attending a political party ban- 
 quet was consistent with the dignity, honour, 
 and impartiality that should, at all times and 
 all places, distinguish the gentleman occupy- 
 ing the high and honourable position of Speaker 
 of this House. 
 
 The motion was seconded by the honourable 
 member for the Upper Hunter, Mr. John Me 
 Elhone, who was the only member who voted 
 with the mover. Several members walked out 
 and did not vote at all, and forty members re- 
 corded their votes against the motion. Mr. Me 
 Elhone was tbe member who was solely instru- 
 mental in procuring the Speaker's nomina- 
 tion for the office. But for Mr. McElhone the 
 Speaker would not have been nominated, and, 
 having procured his nomination, Mr. McElhone 
 was indefatigable in his efforts to obtain victory, 
 and may be said to have been the main cause of 
 the victory that was secured. Mr. McElhone has 
 always had the courage of his opinions, and the 
 honesty to act upon them under every state of 
 circumstances. He is one of those members, 
 rarely met with, who vote for what they believe 
 to be the truth apart from every other considera- 
 tion, a line of conduct not often followed by all of 
 the members of the Parliament of New South 
 Wates. After this debate Mr. Buchanan wrote 
 to some of the most distinguished of England's
 
 MOTION OF CENSURE. 313 
 
 public men, asking " If they thought it right for 
 the Speaker of any free Parliament to attend a 
 public banquet to the Ministry of the day, or a 
 public political meeting, and move a resolution, 
 although among the resolutions to be moved there 
 was one approving of the policy of the Govern- 
 ment touching the matter as to which the meeting 1 
 was convened ? " The following letters received 
 in answer from the Speaker of the House of 
 Commons, and the then leader of the Opposition, 
 Sir Stafford H. Northcote, take exactly Mr. 
 Buchanan's view of the matter, and decide it 
 entirely in his favour. Mr. Gladstone declines to 
 answer the question, but his letter is given as in- 
 teresting and curious. 
 
 " May 5th, 1885. 
 " SIR, 
 
 " In reply to your letter of the 27th of 
 March, received to-day, I am directed by the 
 Speaker to say that the Speaker of the House of 
 Commons in this country is entirely disassociated 
 from political parties, and he would not consider 
 it consistent with his duty to attend either the 
 public banquet to the Ministry of the day or the 
 public political meeting referred to by you. The 
 Speaker on a dissolution is free to act as other 
 candidates for Parliament, with such restraint, 
 however, as is imposed upon him by the fact that 
 he remains Speaker till the new Parliament 
 assembles. 
 
 " I am, sir, your obedient servant, 
 
 " EDWARD PONSONBY, 
 
 " Speaker's Secretary. 
 " To D. Buchanan, Esq., M.P." 
 
 Sir Stafford H. Northcote is not less clear and 
 distinct in his answer.
 
 314 AN A US TRALIAN OR A TOR. 
 
 "30, St. James's Place, 
 
 " May 5th, 1885. 
 " SIR, 
 
 " In reply to your letter of the 27th March, 
 I would say that according to present practice it 
 would not be thought right for the Speaker of 
 the House of Commons to take part in a political 
 meeting of a party character. 
 
 " I have the honour to be, your faithful servant, 
 
 " STAFFORD H. NORTHCOTE. 
 " David Buchanan, Esq., M.P." 
 
 " 10, Downing Street, 
 
 "Whitehall, May 14th, 1885. 
 "DEAR SIR, 
 
 " Perceiving that your letter touches upon 
 the borders of controversy, I should be unwilling 
 to reply to it if the answer were to involve giving 
 an opinion on any matter of doubt. But while I 
 an well understand that it may be matter of 
 argument whether an English precedent is in all 
 respects applicable to New South Wales, the 
 facts with regard to the Speakers of the House 
 of Commons are among us matter of notoriety. 
 A Speaker in no way renounces his political creed 
 or any of its articles, but he places the practical 
 application of them largely in abeyance, on the 
 principle, as I suppose, that he more effectively 
 serves all portions of the nation, including his 
 own party, by promoting in the chair the efficiency 
 of the House of Commons in general than by a 
 purely personal action, more directly connected 
 with his opinions, but lying within a narrower 
 and lower sphere. The constituency of the 
 Speaker is no doubt entitled to call upon him, as 
 any other constituency is entitled to call on any 
 other member, in what pertains to his direct re-
 
 MOTION OF CENSURE. 315 
 
 lations with them ; but this power is commonly 
 exercised with much consideration and reserve. 
 I have never known a case of a Speaker rejected 
 at the poll when anticipating re-election to the 
 chair. I remember in 1834 an occasion when the 
 Speaker of the day, speaking in Committee of the 
 whole House with reference to a matter specially 
 touching his constituents, and much contested, 
 said he should certainly hold himself entitled to 
 give a vote on the merits if he thought proper. 
 The Chairman of Committees, who is also Deputy- 
 Speaker, exercises in a very limited degree some- 
 thing of the abstention observed by the Speaker ; 
 he votes freely, except when in the chair, but he 
 does not often interfere actively in debate on con- 
 tested matters, or in political action out-of-doors. 
 The Lord Chancellor is Speaker of the House of 
 Lords, and interferes in politics by speech and 
 vote, and by acting in the Cabinet but he is not 
 armed with the large powers over debate and pro- 
 cedure which is entrusted to the Speaker of the 
 House of Commons. Having said thus much, I 
 would rather, at the same time, not take upon me 
 to answer any question applicable to a peculiar 
 case and combination of circumstances, which I 
 think would be beyond my province. 
 
 "I have the honour to be, dear sir, your faithful 
 servant, 
 
 "W. E. GLADSTONE. 
 
 "David Buchanan, Esq., &c., &c., &c."
 
 A SCENE IN THE HOUSE. 
 
 [ON a motion before the House in reference to the Bathurst Jury 
 List, an honourable member, more distinguished for wealth 
 than any other quality, made an uncalled-for attack on Mr. 
 Buchanan, not in the best of taste, which called forth the 
 following effective reply : J 
 
 ME. : I notice whenever the honourable mem- 
 ber for the Western Gold Fields, Mr. Buchanan, 
 speaks in this House he is pretty sure to make an 
 attack upon the squatters. He should remember 
 the time when the work the squatters gave him to 
 do enabled him to keep body and soul together, 
 and probably saved him from starvation. 
 
 Mr. BUCHANAN : Mr. Speaker, The honourable 
 gentleman who has just sat down has, with admir- 
 able taste and propriety, reminded me of the days 
 when I was a labouring man in this country, doing 
 work for the squatters and others. What the 
 honourable member says is true. I did labour in 
 the way he states, and this is a part of my history 
 that I delight to speak of among my friends. But 
 suppose the honourable member had been in my 
 position, would he ever have found his way into 
 this House ? I am afraid he would have lived and 
 died a labouring man, if he had heart or spirit 
 enough to sustain him in that position. The-
 
 A SCENE IN THE HOUSE. 317 
 
 honourable member is very much at his ease in 
 the possession of inherited riches, which he, of 
 course, gained by the accident of birth. But just 
 let him come out from behind the shelter of his 
 great wealth, and let us both be placed in a 
 foreign land without a friend and without a 
 shilling in either of our pockets. How would it 
 fare with the honourable gentleman under those 
 circumstances ? Well do I know what the result 
 would be while I would, most certainly, be 
 struggling with difficulties, kicking obstacles out 
 of the way, and bending my whole mental and 
 physical energies to the subjugation of all oppo- 
 sing forces, what would the honourable gentleman 
 be doing? Why, to a certainty, his poor little 
 heart would be sinking and dying within him, and 
 he would, in the depth of his heart-broken des- 
 pair, inevitably crawl to my door, where I would 
 be shocked to see him, in rags and wretchedness, 
 on his knees soliciting my charity and commisera- 
 tion. The honourable gentleman may thank his 
 stars that I have dealt so leniently with him, and 
 he should also feel grateful for this effort of mine 
 to teach him a little wisdom, and humility. (Loud 
 cheers from all sides.)
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 THOUGHTS ON THE IEISH QUESTION. 
 
 TO THE EDITOR OF THE "DAILY CHRONICLE." 
 
 SIR, Even here, in the middle of the Red Sea, 
 the distraction, and, as Carlyle would say, the 
 delirium, of English statesmen and politicians on 
 this Irish question is patent enough. In throw- 
 ing out a few thoughts on the monstrous folly 
 that seems completely to blind Mr. Gladstone and 
 his insincere pretended followers in this matter, I 
 would like in the first place to ask Mr. Gladstone, 
 or any one of his supporters, what right or poli- 
 tical privilege at present enjoyed by Englishmen 
 or Scotchmen is denied to Irishmen ? The answer 
 to this question must be, clearly and undeniably, 
 that no right enjoyed by either Englishmen or 
 Scotchmen is denied to Irishmen ; that they all 
 enjoy the same and equal rights ; and that, therefore, 
 the claims of the Irish are groundless and unten- 
 able, unless they aim at declaring themselves an 
 independent nation, which is their true aim and 
 object, however much they may attempt to dis-
 
 APPENDIX. 319 
 
 guise or deny it. Since the Catholics were eman- 
 cipated and the English Church disestablished the 
 Irish people have had nothing to complain of that 
 political action of the ordinary stamp could not 
 easily remedy any more than their brethren of 
 England and Scotland, and the agitation and 
 turmoil that has continued in Ireland, in spite 
 of the reforms mentioned and the disposition of 
 England to go all reasonable lengths in this line, 
 means, if it mean anything, complete and entire 
 severance from England, and Irish independence, 
 and this Bill of Mr. Gladstone's will give them this 
 as effectually as if they had never been united or 
 connected in any way whatever. How well the 
 Irish leaders know this a blind man might see, but 
 our poor peddling English rulers and their pliant 
 followers affect not to see it, and are now engaged 
 playing the game of the Irish national party to 
 rare perfection. The weakness and wretched futi- 
 lity of English statesmen have rendered it now a 
 very difficult matter to govern Ireland, and in the 
 absence of the competent and determined man for 
 that grave duty, it would be infinitely preferable 
 to let Ireland go rather than to witness the wreck 
 and ruin that will be the sure result of any further 
 continuance of that feebleness and hesitating im- 
 becility that has so long prevailed, and that' has 
 been taken so much advantage of. 
 
 A hundred times sooner let Ireland go free, and 
 rule herself as best she may, than look on at a 
 repetition of such rule as English statesmen have 
 mocked with the name of government for years 
 past. The verdict of posterity will be that Eng- 
 land did not deserve to hold Ireland, because, 
 through the imbecility and weakness of her rule, 
 there was no security for either life or property, 
 crime in a large degree went unpunished, and
 
 320 AN AUSTRALIAN ORATOR. 
 
 that, while crime was rampant and lawlessness 
 almost universal, the poor, weak, infirm English 
 Government, instead of striking with all its force 
 at such a state of things, propounded pitiful 
 measures of conciliation, degenerating into mere 
 namby-pamby ism and dangerous effeminacy and 
 this by way of curing the evil ! The first duty of 
 a ruler is to see that the law is respected. So did 
 not think Mr. Gladstone on the occasion here 
 referred to, but thought to convert the law- 
 breakers into obedience by mistimed and con- 
 temptible measures of conciliation. One would 
 think that a child might have known that conci- 
 liation was the last thing to be thought of while 
 insolent rebellion was rampant, and lawlessness 
 the main feature of almost every district in Ire- 
 land. Who can wonder that lawlessness and crime 
 have now triumphed over weak and cowardly 
 rulers, and that the connection between England 
 and Ireland will soon be spoken of as a thing of 
 the past unless a very different set of men from 
 those who have ruled of late grasp the reins ? 
 Even at this distance from the scene I am close 
 enough to observe most extraordinary things. 
 Tor instance, Mr. Bright writes a letter to a man 
 in Birmingham saying that some day soon he will 
 go into the whole matter " in your Town Hall." 
 But why not in the House of Commons, where he 
 is sent for the purpose, and which, of all places, 
 is the most appropriate place, and, if delivered 
 there, might have a chance of doing some good, 
 especially among a body of men so infirm of pur- 
 pose, but not probably impervious to the splendid 
 periods of Mr. Bright? In the letter referred to 
 Mr. Bright makes the following extraordinary 
 statement : " That if Mr. Gladstone's Bill had 
 been introduced by any other person not 20 mem-
 
 APPENDIX. 321 
 
 "bers outside the Irish party would be found voting 
 for it." This statement I believe to be true, and 
 it is the most severe and damning censure of the 
 present House of Commons that could well be 
 imagined. Besides all this, looking at the stupi- 
 dity of the Bill, if it passed in its present shape 
 it would place Ireland in an inferior position to 
 any of our free Colonies. The Colonies can 
 deal with Customs duties as they like, also 
 police and military forces. All this, under the 
 Bill, Ireland is precluded from touching. Does 
 anyone suppose that Ireland would submit 
 to a degraded position of this description for 
 a single moment ? And does this not prove 
 the truth of what I have already said, that the 
 Bill means total and entire severance and separa- 
 tion from England for ever. It is somewhat 
 amusing to ordinary people to listen to Mr. Glad- 
 stone as he talks with an apparent air of triumph, 
 to the effect that if his dangerous and ruinous 
 policy is not adopted, the only alternative is 
 coercion for 20 years. This is about the saddest 
 stuff I ever heard or read of. One would think 
 that it was a plain ABC proposition that coercion 
 and punishment, not for 20 years, but for ever, 
 must be enforced in all countries, so long as the 
 law is violated and crime is rampant. The main 
 and prime duty of any and all Governments 
 worthy of the name is to put this crime and law- 
 lessness down, and not to stay its hand in the 
 fiercest coercion until it is put down. This is the 
 course adopted in England and everywhere where 
 Government exists. 
 
 It may be here asked, is there any hope to be 
 looked for from the other party ? Kot a vestige. 
 The Parnell party, after labouring to defeat Mr. 
 Gladstone at the late general election, lost faith
 
 322 AN AUSTRALIAN ORATOR. 
 
 in the Tories, and turned upon them, which, of 
 course, prompted Lord Salisbury to trim his sails 
 and steer another course ; and he and his followers 
 are now pretending to be seriously opposed to Mr. 
 Gladstone's Bill. But can any honest man put 
 the slightest faith in them ? I believe, most 
 sincerely, that for the sake of holding office Lord 
 Salisbury and his friends would go as far as Mr. 
 Gladstone has gone in attempting to ruin both 
 England and Ireland ; and with such facts as we 
 have before us, it is impossible for any upright 
 man to think otherwise. At all events, Lord 
 Salisbury will probably soon be called upon to 
 display the utmost force and power that is in him, 
 both of honesty and statesmanship, in ruling the 
 kingdom. If Mr. Gladstone and his Bill are re- 
 jected by the people, the task of Lord Salisbury 
 begins. To a man like the great Cromwell, with 
 a tithe of the powers and appliances that Lord 
 Salisbury, as Premier of England, has at his back, 
 the task would be a very simple one, and easily 
 and permanently settled. But alas ! Lord Salis- 
 bury is not a man like Cromwell ; and, therefore, 
 instead of firm and determined rule, we may look 
 for timidity, feebleness, vacillation, uncertainty, 
 and all the ills that flow from incompetence and 
 cowardice. To rule Ireland after Mr. Gladstone's 
 failure will require a prompt, decisive, and in- 
 flexible rule, till every vestige of lawlessness is 
 tamed into submission. Is Lord Salisbury the 
 man for such a crisis as this ? If not, his in- 
 capacity will make itself apparent at once. It is 
 a task for a true, able, patriotic man, sound of 
 head and heart, fearless and unbending, and with 
 a nerve that will grow in firmness with the occa- 
 sion. Whoever undertakes this task, minus those 
 qualities, will end in failure and defeat and vanish
 
 APPENDIX. 323 
 
 under a tempest of derision. There is one im- 
 portant matter never noticed by English statesmen, 
 although very clearly seen by them, as Mr. Glad- 
 stone exemplified when he lately wrote his 
 pamphlet on Vaticanism, and that is, that a 
 Roman Catholic population, in any numbers, 
 living under a Protestant dynasty, will never be 
 loyal and true to that dynasty. They have sworn 
 a superior allegiance to a foreign potentate, and 
 as ;ill Protestant Powers repudiate the prepos- 
 terous claims put forth by that potentate, his 
 adherents will always act in his interests when 
 those interests clash with those of the Power they 
 are ruled by and live under. Does anyone suppose 
 that there would be any Irish question or trouble 
 from Ireland if Ireland was like Scotland, Protes- 
 tant? It may suit the policy of English statesmen 
 to ignore this, but it is true notwithstanding, and 
 they know it; but if they don't know it, the 
 Protestants of the North know it, and know 
 farther what they have to expect from a Popish 
 Parliament sitting in Dublin. The Protestants 
 of the north will never suffer such a thing while 
 the spirit of God's truth lives in them ; and if 
 this idea is persisted in, I venture to predict that 
 it will be the cause and occasion of as bloody a 
 resistance as ever covered with honour and glory 
 the brave acts of their earnest and devoted 
 ancestors. It will not be with cowardly assassina- 
 tions and wretched dynamite explosions that the 
 brave men of the North will fight their battle, nor 
 will the issue end in a cabbage-garden. The Pro- 
 testants of Ireland are high-minded, intelligent, 
 earnest men, and their determination when put to 
 it is unquestionable. They will have the sympathy 
 of Scotland and England in their struggle, and 
 the prayers of the righteous will not be wanting
 
 324 AN AUSTRALIAN ORATOR. 
 
 in resisting what, to them, will be a cruel, 
 dastardly, and grinding tyranny. May the appeal 
 to the English people for ever put an end to so 
 sad a prospect by consigning Mr. Gladstone and 
 his measure to a long, undisturbed oblivion ! Then 
 let men arise and rule like men in the spirit of 
 those brave ones of old, who made the name of 
 England feared and respected in every clime and 
 country on the face of the earth. If such men 
 do not appear, cut the tie at once that binds 
 Ireland to England, for there will be neither 
 peace nor advantage on any other terms. The 
 North will then, if left to itself, most certainly 
 subdue and conquer the South, and then the Irish 
 of that quarter will get something like the justice 
 they have so long clamoured for. This will be a 
 comfort and blessing to England as well as Ireland. 
 I have the honour to remain, Sir, 
 Yours respectfully, 
 
 DA.VID BUCHANAN. 
 
 Written on board E.M,S JBulimba while sailing 
 up the Eed Sea, June 23. 
 
 THE DECAY OF EXECUTIVE AUTHOKITY 
 IN ENGLAND. 
 
 TO THE EDITOR OF THE "DAILY CHRONICLE. " 
 
 SIR, I do not think an apology is necessary in 
 offering a few remarks on the above subject. It 
 is one of vital interest and importance, and it will 
 be my earnest endeavour to write truthfully upon 
 it, with such light and intelligence as I can com- 
 mand. I have long thought that there is a 
 marked deterioration in the public life of England 
 as compared with what it was, say, 40 years ago. 
 There is, undoubtedly, a distinct falling off in the 
 intellectual character of the House of Commons,
 
 APPENDIX. 325 
 
 and the tone of the place is very different to what 
 it once was, while those who occupy official posi- 
 tions are, comparatively, weak and inferior. 
 What I have particularly to remark is that 
 governments seem to be afraid to do the right 
 thing, even when they know what that right 
 thing is. They prefer to do the wrong thing, or 
 to do nothing at all, by way of conciliating some 
 section of the people whom, they imagine, it 
 would be dangerous to offend. A Government 
 acting upon such principles is pretty sure to bring 
 contempt upon itself, while it encourages all sorts 
 of insolent demands on the part of different sec- 
 tions of the people, and teaches the dangerous 
 lesson that continued turmoil and agitation will 
 wring from weak and vacillating authority almost 
 anything. I tbink it will be admitted by all 
 candid persons that the different Governments of 
 England for many years past answer pretty well 
 to this description. To prove the truth of such 
 an assertion, I do not require to go back to the 
 time of Home Secretary Walpole, who on the 
 occasion of a riotous mob assembling in Hyde 
 Park and seriously endangering the public peace, 
 burst into a flood of tears as he thanked Mr. 
 Beales, who had assured him that he (Beales) 
 would take care that the peace was preserved. 
 This was inimitable in its way, the Home Secre- 
 tary handing over all his power and authority to 
 the irresponsible Beales, and actually thanking 
 him, with watery eyes, for undertaking the duty. 
 Government was pretty well washed out on this 
 memorable occasion ; but was it not equally so 
 the other day when a lawless, plundering, 
 villainous rabble held possession of London for 
 several hours, sacking shops and wrecking houses 
 at their leisure ? It will surely be admitted that
 
 326 AN AUSTRALIAN ORATOR. 
 
 Government was at a discount on this melancholy 
 and disastrous occasion. No excuse or apology 
 will in the least degree palliate the misconduct of 
 the Government in thus failing to protect the 
 people against the violence of a dangerous mob. 
 It will not do to say the police were at fault. The 
 Government, and the Government alone, was 
 answerable for the mischief, and it makes one 
 gravely reflect what might happen under a more 
 formidable crisis. No one doubts for one moment 
 the strength and force of the power that would 
 scatter to the four winds any repetition of such 
 lawlessness ; but the danger is that the Government 
 of the country may be in hands so feeble and tremb- 
 ling as to be incapable of promptly and vigorously 
 applying such force, thereby allowing the lawless 
 and dangerous elements to gain an ascendancy 
 difficult to control and subdue. 
 
 Looking on at the formation of the present 
 Government by Lord Salisbury, I can notice 
 action of the most questionable character on the 
 part of his lordship, leading one to the belief that 
 the Government is not to be a bold, determined 
 organization, resolved to rule upon high principle, 
 with an immovable fidelity to justice and right. 
 Can anyone tell me why Mr. Matthews has been 
 appointed Home Secretary ? He has never been 
 in office before. He has not, I believe, distin- 
 tinguished himself in debate. No one knows 
 anything of any administrative power he may 
 possess, and worst of all there are several men 
 of tried and tested ability, with infinitely higher 
 claims on the party, who have been passed over to 
 make way for Mr. Matthews. There undoubtedly 
 must be some reason for this extraordinary pro- 
 cedure. I again ask, Can anyone inform us what 
 that reason is ? In the absence of any inform a-
 
 APPENDIX. 327 
 
 tion on the subject, will you allow me to guess 
 at the reason ? Mr. Matthews is a Roman 
 Catholic, and probably he has been appointed to 
 the high and onerous office of Home Secretary, 
 regardless of his qualification, as a sop to the 
 Roman Catholics of Ireland, and by way of con- 
 ciliation. This is a mere guess of mine, but if I 
 have lighted on the truth in my guess it will not 
 be long before we will see Lord Salisbury's con- 
 ciliation go the full length of Mr. Gladstone's. 
 It is fashionable to speak of Lord Kandolph 
 Churchill in anything but respectful terms, but I 
 cannot divest myself of the feeling that, in spite 
 of all the blame and condemnation attached to 
 him, I have more confidence in him as a ruler 
 than any member of the Administration, not ex- 
 cepting Lord Salisbury himself. He is a bold, 
 outspoken, fearless man, and for such rare and 
 invaluable qualities in our public life I am pre- 
 pared to swallow a host of defects. People will 
 alter their opinion about Lord R. Churchill ere 
 long. It seems, as Leader of the House, he is to 
 be overwhelmed with the invectives of the Oppo- 
 sition. Very good. If this is so, I venture to 
 predict that the Opposition will be paid back with 
 compound interest, and will not continue the game 
 very long. 
 
 1 think the history of the late Government is a 
 most striking exemplification of the truth of my 
 assertion as to the failure of Government here. 
 Mr. Gladstone, while admitting that coercion was 
 the right course to adopt, and practising it, sud- 
 denly wheels round and tries the very opposite 
 course, conciliation ; and he does this while 
 crime is rampant and lawlessness everywhere 
 prevalent in Ireland. A short time ago he im- 
 prisoned the Irish leaders. Now, while they are
 
 328 AN AUSTRALIAN ORATOR. 
 
 still exactly what they were, he joins them, and 
 unites with them in doing what he so lately im- 
 prisoned them for. Is this government, or is it 
 not more like the total abandonment of all govern- 
 ment, at the dictates of lawless violence and, all 
 but, open rebellion ? The talk of giving Ireland 
 a Parliament and still holding her bound to 
 England is mere shallow absurdity. Once grant 
 a Parliament to Ireland and there is an end of 
 the English connection, simply because you can- 
 not grant such a Parliament without giving it 
 the full powers of a Parliament, which would 
 sever the tie at once. There is a piece of puerile 
 legerdemain in connection with this subject which 
 prompts the assertion that Scotland and Wales 
 are to have Home Rule too. But, as far as any 
 of us can see, neither Scotland nor Wales wants 
 Home Rule, and they would be great fools if they 
 did, and I am satisfied that Ireland would be of 
 the same mind if the bulk of its population was 
 not Roman Catholic. A Roman Catholic Parlia- 
 ment in Dublin could, of course, serve the Church 
 materially, and such a prospect is never over- 
 looked by that body. But without entering fur- 
 ther into this part of the subject, I would just 
 like before concluding to speculate a little as to 
 what prospect there is in reference to the main- 
 tenance of government under the present men. 
 They have it in their - power to vindicate the 
 character of government and gain the respect of 
 the people for an institution which has long 
 tottered about, in trembling weakness and futile 
 action, despised by all rational men. Ihey will 
 not satisfy Ireland by any legislation short of Mr. 
 Gladstone's. Let them, therefore, be prepared to 
 rule under those circumstances, and to rule with
 
 APPENDIX. 329 
 
 determined and inflexible purpose. Let there be 
 no weakness or time-serving compromise. If they 
 feel unfit for their positions, in God's name give 
 them up, and open the door for Mr. Gladstone to 
 make ducks and drakes of both countries. Better 
 this than any feeble indecisive parleying or 
 tampering with the great interests of a great 
 empire. Let them strike down lawlessness and 
 crime in every district of Ireland, and maintain, 
 with their very lives, if necessary, the integrity 
 and union of the empire, never ceasing to re- 
 member the great words of a great ruler of old, 
 " I will suffer to be rolled into my grave and 
 buried with infamy sooner than yield an inch in 
 this great cause." May his immortal spirit guide 
 the councils of England now and at all times is 
 the fervent prayer of, Sir, yours very respectfully, 
 
 DAVID BUCHANAN, 
 Member of the Parliament of New South 
 
 Wales for the last 25 years. 
 London, Aug, 8. 
 
 IMPEEI AL TED E RATION. 
 
 TO THE EDITOR OP THE "DAILY CHRONICLE." 
 
 SIR, Imperial Federation is a fine high-sound- 
 ing sonorous phrase much used in these times by 
 certain cliques and coterias at home and abroad. 
 A few English enthusiasts and colonial non- 
 descripts are mainly answerable for the very small 
 talk that is occasionally heard on this subject. 
 When we ask any of its advocates what it means 
 we are at once enveloped in clouds of vague high- 
 flown sentiment signifying nothing. The nearest 
 approach to any practical result is given us in the
 
 330 AN AUSTRALIAN ORATOR. 
 
 idea that the Colonies are to be drawn, by some 
 unrevealed means, closer to the mother country, 
 and this is apparently to be " the be all and end 
 all " of the grand conception. I do not know 
 that this matter is anywhere talked of so much as 
 in Australia, and as I know pretty well the state 
 of things there I would like to tell the truth about 
 it as far as I can. Those who interest themselves 
 about this question in the Australian Colonies are 
 generally a small clique of probably the shallowest 
 of our public men. It would scarcely be credited 
 in England the extent to which the lust for small 
 titles, such as C.M.G., K.C.M.G., &c., rages in 
 Australia. Whig and Tory, Radical and Eepub- 
 lican, are with few exceptions all smitten with 
 this epidemic, while the body of the people look on 
 at the struggle among our public men for this 
 sorry distinction with open undisguised derision 
 and contempt. The curious thing is that our 
 chief Radicals and flaming Democrats are as 
 anxious for the small decoration as the most ex- 
 clusive Conservative, and this question of Imperial 
 Federation is seized upon by themjind used as a 
 means of conciliating the goodwill of England, 
 and so furthering the grand object of their ambi- 
 tion namely, the possession of this much coveted, 
 though small distinction. Some of those who 
 have already obtained the title so vigorously 
 hunted are destitute alike of public services or 
 public merit, and it is an insoluble riddle in 
 Australia to this hour how some of those titles 
 have been obtained. 
 
 In noticing the deputation that waited on Lord 
 Salisbury the other day on this matter of Imperial 
 Federation I did not know a single Australian 
 name but that of Mr. Service, and I venture to-
 
 APPENDIX. 331 
 
 affirm that there is not a public man in Victoria 
 or New South Wales unknown to me. I observed 
 that Mr. Service was designated on that occasion 
 as the Hon. James Service this is an illustration 
 of that vulgar colonial love of title that I have 
 spoken of. Mr. Service should have been designated 
 plain Mr. Service, minus the title, and I mention 
 this simply to introduce a very good story on the 
 subject. If a colonial Minister has been three 
 years in office he is entitled to wear the title 
 Honourable before his name on application to and 
 leave granted by her Majesty the Queen, but this 
 title and privilege is granted to him only within 
 the colony. He cannot adopt the title unless he 
 applies for and receives leave to do so. Fancy a 
 man applying to the English authorities to be 
 allowed to call himself honourable ! The story I 
 was about to tell was this : A Member of Parlia- 
 ment in Sydney, having so applied, was addressed 
 in the House as "The Honourable Member, 
 honourable within the colony only, and, as a 
 natural consequence, dishonourable everywhere 
 else." The^horus of laughter occasioned by such 
 a joke as this does not deter men from making so 
 contemptible and humiliating an application as 
 the one referred to, and serves to show how strong 
 is the mania among colonials for the very smallest 
 of titles. 
 
 There is no doubt that the Australian Colonies are 
 loyal and true to England beyond expression, 
 which the people always affectionately speak of as 
 home, and love with their whole hearts, but this 
 does not prevent them from looking closely to 
 their own interests, or from seeing what is detri- 
 mental or advantageous to them. With all their 
 loud and genuine professions of loyalty to the
 
 332 AN AUSTRALIAN ORATOR. 
 
 mother country, they are sensitively alive to the 
 slightest danger to themselves, and would, as far 
 as I can see, sacrifice the English connection at a 
 moment's notice if circumstances necessitated 
 such action. Every nation on the face of the 
 earth is governed and guided by self-interest, and 
 under the fierce friction of this imperious instinct 
 every consideration but that of self-preservation 
 and self-advantage is swallowed up. Australia 
 proved this very palpably in the late New Guinea 
 agitation, when loud and menacing cries of separa- 
 tion, both in the Press and by the people in public 
 meeting assembled, reverberated through the land. 
 No doubt the earnest, reflecting people of England 
 would have not the slightest objection to this 
 separation. The Australian Colonies have been 
 doing their very best of late to embroil England 
 with both Germany and France, and if the 
 language and attitude of Australia at present 
 adopted, is persisted in, England will be landed in 
 no end of dangerous trouble. 
 
 The colonists have an enormous territory un- 
 peopled, and the population of the whole Austra- 
 lian Continent is about a million less than London ; 
 yet they keep demanding that England shall take 
 possession of this island and that island, without 
 a thought of the responsibility and difficulty en- 
 tailed upon England by so doing. Mr. Service 
 talks about negotiating the French out of the 
 Hebrides and the Germans out of New Guinea, as 
 if the Australians could make the slightest use of 
 either place if they had it. The French, of course, 
 have no right in the Hebrides in the face of treaties 
 prohibiting them ; but England may be relied upon 
 to see to this without being embarrassed by the 
 pompous and impotent threats of the Colonies. As
 
 APPENDIX. 333 
 
 to New Guinea, I trust that the Germans will re- 
 main there and colonise a most unpromising l;md 
 they are excellent colonists, and would be ad- 
 mirable and friendly neighbours of ours. 
 
 Just let us reflect for a moment. What is going 
 on alongside of this silly agitation for what ia 
 called Imperial Federation? no one as yet being 
 able to tell us what Imperial Federation means. 
 At the very heart of the Empire itself there are 
 elements of disruption at work, which have just 
 been stilled by the strong sense and patriotic 
 determination of the people. Does any sane man, 
 under such circumstances, think it prudent and 
 politic to ask England to take upon herself 
 increased governmental responsibilities as to 
 countries thousands of miles away from her with 
 opposing interests and aspirations, and growing 
 rapidly into powerful independent nations. He 
 must be short-sighted indeed who does not see the 
 inevitable future of Australia. That she will rise 
 into an independent nation in the near future is 
 certain enough, and that such a consummation 
 should be devoutly wished by both England and 
 Australia should go without saying. As things 
 are at present the connection between Australia 
 and England is a danger to both countries. Every 
 war that England is involved in is a danger to 
 Australia. Australia has no voice in the declara- 
 tion of those wars, and may entirely disapprove of 
 thenvyet she is open to be struck by any, or all, 
 of England's enemies ; while England, in the midst 
 of all manner of foreign complications, of which 
 Australia is totally and entirely ignorant, may be, 
 by the action of Australia, involved in foreign 
 quarrels which would never have been thought of 
 but for this useless connection ; besides, the ex-
 
 334 AN A US TRA LI AN OR A TOR. 
 
 pense to England of defending those numerous 
 Australian Colonies is by no means an inconsider- 
 able item. One thing is quite clear, that England 
 .-will not suffer itself to be dragooned by the 
 Colonies into taking possession of any further 
 territory, nor will she suffer dictation from them 
 as to the language she shall use to foreign powers. 
 I have seen so much inconsiderate rashness of the 
 Australian Colonies in talking of both France and 
 Germany that this alone will seriously endanger 
 the integrity of the tie that binds them to Eng- 
 land, if it does not ultimately snap it. And then 
 what would be the result ? Things would remain 
 in statu quo, with this difference, that Australia 
 would be free from all danger from England's 
 enemies, and England would be relieved from no 
 end of trouble and embarrassment, as well as ex- 
 pense, in looking after those far-away possessions, 
 while the same extensive commerce and large cor- 
 respondence would go on between the two countries 
 the same as ever. 
 
 I have thrown out these few thoughts to expose 
 the absurdity of this talk about Imperial Federa- 
 tion, one of the most patent anomalies of it being 
 that some of its most distinguished advocates have 
 taken the lead in the support of Mr. Gladstone's 
 Bill for the disruption of the home or mother 
 country, thus placing themselves in the singularly 
 absurd position of, with the one hand, attempting 
 to unite in one federal whole the entire empire, 
 and with the other trying to sever Ireland from 
 England. To such absurdities do men reduce 
 themselves when they allow vague wild sentiment 
 and extravagant imaginings to usurp the place of 
 sound, solid reason and common sense. Whatever 
 is done by England's rulers or people, I trust and
 
 APPENDIX. 335 
 
 pray that the great and glorious country will ever 
 stand out, in bold relief, the paragon of nations, 
 the home of freedom, and the birthplace of all that 
 is great in intellect and worth. 
 
 I have the honour to remain, Sir, 
 
 Very respectfully yours, 
 DAVID BUCHANAN, 
 Member of the Parliament of New South 
 
 Wales for the last 25 years. 
 London, Aug. 15. 
 
 THE END.
 

 
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