Henry Parkes

“ THE REPUTATION OF THE COLONY IN ENGLAND—AUSTRALIAN INTERESTS IN THE HOUSE OF COMMONS—BRITISH CONNEXION—THE LONDON POOR.
NOTWITHSTANDING all that has been said against our dear old colony, the accounts from Sydney place her, in the estimation of observant men here, first of the Australian group in the elements of solid prosperity. If political mistakes have been made, they know that worse mistakes have been made nearer home, and in the midst of it all they see that the colony is making real progress. ”

“ The English papers, so far as they reflect the opinions of conspicuous men in Parliament and directing minds in literature (and the English masses never think about the matter at all) , will have informed you that events are tending towards the withdrawal of all Imperial military aid from the Australian colonies. Two set debates on the subject have occupied the Commons (that is, a miserably thin minority of the House) during the past month, besides the incidental sallies of honorable members in the same direction. ”

“ Your correspondent 'Australian,' on his way to the City yesterday, sees a pretty little girl, miserably dad and shoeless, crying in the street, and no man regarding her. The day is bitter, and he is touched. He asks her why she cries, and whether she has no friends. ”

“ After walking a short distance, I turned to see what she did with herself, when I saw another bigger girl taking the pence from her, and beating her to make her cry for more. It is of no use—it is worse: it is supporting their tyrants to give to these children. ”

“ They want to withdraw the military, but they are wonderfully tender on the point of being suspected of a wish to weaken the ties of British connexion; and, when embarrassed by the logical sequence of their own arguments, they at once except all the ground on which the colonists base their claim to military protection. ”

“ There are leading men in both Houses of Parliament, and certainly on both sides of the Commons, who are ready to go the whole length, and Professor Goldwin Smith, who on account of his popularity can afford to say what he thinks, is only a little bolder than other men with names and followings at the Universities, while the Times, ever splendid in its inconsistencies, has startled the elderly gentlemen in nightcaps, by putting . ”

“ But though 'the father' softens, the merchant, the stockbroker 'is fixed,* and must not lose his appointment in the City; and so the half-crown hurriedly bestowed, though imparting a genial glow Co the giver, often carries a curse to the receiver, aiding and confirming a course of deceit and crime, helping the pretty face of the child to trade upon the better sympathies of humanity till it is eligible to minister to its grosser vices. ”

“ If the colonists are involved in the quarrels of England, forsooth, they would rush to the defence of the colonies 1 The truth is, I suspect that these gentlemen, in the dearth of popular topics, have discovered that it tickles the English voter's idea of his pocket to be told how he ought not to be taxed for the defence of the saucy and well-conditioned colonists. There is another class of politicians, however, who are much more in earnest, and possess much more ability, and exercise a much wider range of influence. ”

“ Cowper wants to borrow will be readily obtained, and the alarm about Australian democracy is beginning to lose its potency to English ears. Englishmen at home believe in the English stock abroad, and there must be some worse fruits than any yet from the working of manhood suffrage to shake this belief. Among the public men of England the desire is to let the colonies govern themselves more—not less. ”

“ Tens of thousands of pounds are spent yearly by this country in sending missions to the heathen: cannot a little money be spared to pick up in the streets and care for these little girls; and if the; cannot be provided for in this overpopulated country, send them in due time, under proper care, to those countries, like Australia, where they would in time become prosperous and happy mothers of families? ”

“ Baxter in a house of three-fourths of a quorum, and passed in the affirmative. Five minutes after, Mr. Locke King moved the second reading of his Register of Voters' Bill, and the House thereupon was counted out. The process of "counting out" is very different from that of the New South Wales Assembly, and certainly much more sensible. When Mr. Locke King moved, a member on the opposite benches forewarned him that if he persisted in so thin a House, he would count him out. Mr. ”

“ Out of Parliament there is little domestic matter of interest, and Parliament itself is unusually dull. The most spirited debate took place a few days back, when the general subject of international maritime law was brought forward by Mr. ”