South Shields

“ It shows General Shields, easily distinguishable, in the thick of the fight, where he always loved to be. It thus, on the outer walls of the Senate, where ten years later he shed glory on Minnesota, certifies to his imperishable renown.
After the conquest of Mexico, and on July 28, 1848, General Shields' brigade was disbanded, and he returned, still feeble from his wound, to Illinois and resumed his law practice. His State presented to him a sword that cost $3,000, and South Carolina presented him a diamond-hilted sword which cost $5,000. ”

“ It could not exist a single day without a close and intimate connection with some great nation having all the elements of industrial, financial and commercial power. The South possesses none of these elements. It has plenty of cotton, and it has brave men and lovely women, but it is wholly destitute of all the other material elements of national power. ”

“ The woods available for making shields are in the south very different from those of the north. A species of ficus which grows in the north yields a soft and light wood, which is admirably suited to the requirements of the native; and with this he has constructed a weapon which differs essentially from the heavy wooden club-shield and the lighter spear-shield of the men of the Murray and the Yarra.
The weapons and implements of the West Australian natives differ in some respects from those of the natives of the eastern and southern parts of the continent. ”

“ Shields, North, a flourishing seaport of Northumberland, on the Tyne, near the mouth, 8 m. NE. of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, and lying within the municipal borough of Tynemouth (47) ; is of quite modern growth, and of a plain, uninteresting appearance; has a theatre, free library, Mariners' Home, fine park, &c.; the docks cover 79 acres, and a large export trade in coal is carried on.
Shields, South (78) , a busy seaport and popular watering-place in Durham, with a frontage of 2 m. on the south bank of the Tyne, 9 m. ”

“ Ninian’s, Stirling, 51 Saline Hills, 55 Schiehallion, Mount, 20, 23 Scone, Perthshire, 27-29 Scott, Sir Michael, 97, 102, 103 Selby, Advantageous situation of, 315-318 Seton, 69, 70 Sewingshields, Castle of, 149 Shaftos, The, Seat of, 181 Sheriffmuir, 48 Shields, Harbour of, 167; rise of South Shields, 107, 168; ballast heaps, 168; North Shields and its stairs, 168; intensely maritime, 168; the “Low Lights” and “High Lights,” 169; the first lifeboat and volunteer life brigade, 170 ”

“ A band of horses and ponies which they have liberated is contentedly grazing on the river bank, and several small bands of cattle may be seen in various directions, most of them at considerable distances away, for they are wild and avoid the presence of human beings. A cloud of dust is faintly visible on top of the divide nearly three miles to the south, and on examining it carefully with our glasses we find it is being raised by a jolly band of five cowboys, who are riding like mad, each leading four or five horses. ”

“ Sedley would have been at his wits' ends on an English farm; for farming comes no more by nature than gig-driving. Very soon, therefore, he found himself altogether beyond his wits on an Australian settlement. In other words, misfortunes rapidly set in upon him; and to add to his embarrassments, one of those periodical times of depression, to which all now colonies are more or less subject, fell upon New South Wales. ”

“ A government was established; Captain Phillip, of the navy, was appointed governor, and in 1787 took out the "first fleet" with convicts. He established a settlement at Port Jackson, and founded a city which he called Sydney, after the then secretary for home affairs. Such was the unworthy beginning of the present magnificent colony of New South Wales.
The population outgrew the police system. Riots were frequent in times of scarcity or popular excitement, and often could only be quelled by soldiers. Throughout the whole of our period highwaymen infested the roads ”

“ In 1822 Governor Macquarie embarked for England, after a longer and more successful administration than any governor in the Australian colonies has hitherto enjoyed. He found New South Wales a gaol, and left it a colony; he found Sydney a village, and left it a city; he found a population of idle prisoners, paupers, and paid officials, and left a large free community, thriving on the produce of flocks and the labour of convicts. ”

“ The powers vested in the governor were exercised without the restraining influence of council or law adviser until 1822. [2]
Amazement and horror overcome us when we look back on the early days of New South Wales. Under the absolute government described, the settlers were crowded together on a narrow space a promontory cleared of a dense forest. The soil was a barren sand; every yard required for cultivation had to be gained by removing enormous trees of a hardness that tried the temper of the best axes, wielded in skilled hands. ”

“ As when Truth, trampled under foot of men, fled from the earth, and took refuge in heaven, so the spirit of corporations, being bullied, and insulted, and reformed in England, seems to have taken refuge in New South Wales. ”

“ It is amazing to think that New South Wales holds two-fifths of the population of the whole Commonwealth and that Sydney holds more than half of the population of New South Wales. That fact alone shows the vast importance, not only to the Commonwealth, but to the future of the whole Empire, of this state and its lovely capital. Sydney is indeed the London of the Southern Hemisphere. ”

“ Between 1810 and 1820 the lot of the settlers was no easy one, and those who came intending to amass a fortune and return to England found their project a mere dream, and that they needed steady perseverance before they could make their way in the Colony itself. Bigge noticed that New South Wales was unlike any other British Colony, inasmuch as the colonists looked upon it as their future home. ”

“ The colony of New South Wales, is, I believe, the only one of our possessions exclusively inhabited by Englishmen, in which there is not at least the shadow of a free government, as it possesses neither a council, a house of assembly, nor even the privilege of trial by jury. ”

“ But when, without any of the safeguards which made it tolerable in England, this principle comes to be acted on, with regard to the black population in New South Wales, it operates as a complete protection to them in all their aggressions on the settlers. We will suppose that a hut has been robbed by the natives, the hut-keeper and shepherd surprised, and either killed or wounded, and a flock of sheep carried off. The settler arms some of his other servants, and pursues them immediately. They come up with them, and recover such of the sheep as have not been killed. ”

“ Governor King.—Governor Hunter, who left Sydney in the year 1800, was succeeded by Captain King, the young officer who has been already mentioned as the founder of the settlement at Norfolk Island. He was a man of much ability, and was both active and industrious; yet so overwhelming at this time were the difficulties of Governorship in New South Wales, that his term of office was little more than a distressing failure. The colony consisted chiefly of convicts, who were—many of them—the most depraved and hardened villains to be met with in the history of crime. ”

“ While the merchants and traders, who were usually landholders as well, belonged almost entirely to Sydney, in other respects the description of the people of one district serves equally well for that of all. Thus the classification given by Alexander Riley, a merchant of New South Wales, of the society of Sydney is not only an accurate account of that district, but well describes the whole settlement. ”

“ Both were wrong, of course; people usually are who see one side. There were two sides to that shield.
The point of view has to do with what one sees. For example, when Rev. Doctor Field went South, the shield which he looked at on the way was burnished gold. He saw it. He wrote a book about it, which was honorable to his heart and to his eyesight. Everything was lovely and of good report down South. It was faith, hope and charity, but the greatest of all was charity. Then Editor Grady came to New York and told us in eloquence and imagination of the New South. ”

“ The inhabitants of colonies which have never received felon immigrants often cry out that Sydney is a convict city, but the prejudice is not borne out by the countenances of the inhabitants, nor by the records of local crime. The black stain has not yet wholly disappeared: the streets of Sydney are still a greater disgrace to civilization than are even those of London; but, putting the lighter immoralities aside, security for life and property is not more perfect in England than in New South Wales. ”

“ We may turn, therefore, from the rural districts, and take a rapid view of the principal towns of New South Wales. Among these the capital, Sydney, claims the first place, not less as a matter of right than of courtesy. By a happy concurrence of events, the very first settlement made upon the eastern coast of New Holland was formed upon one of its most eligible spots; and accordingly that town, which ranks first in point of time, is likely always to rank first in population, in size, in commerce, and in wealth. ”

“ To facilitate the rise of New South Wales to a state of consequence and independence, its interests must be entrusted to a governor who has no private or mercenary views, and will seek after nothing but the welfare of the colony; who will thoroughly support the trust and honour reposed in him, as the representative of our most gracious Sovereign; who will not treat, nor suffer others to treat, the officers serving under him with indignity ”

“ Although Van Diemen's land seems to possess few or none of those vast depths of soil with which the happiest spots of New South Wales are blessed; yet it seldom sickens the heart of its traveller with those extensive tracts which at once disarm industry, and leave the warmest imagination without one beguiling project. ”

“ The encouragement of a few barristers to go over to the settlement, who have not met with success adequate to their wishes in the mother country, but who are, notwithstanding, persons of unimpeached moral character (for nothing could be more impolitic in any case than to import persons of doubtful characters into a colony of this description) , and whose legal knowledge would be amply sufficient for every purpose in New South Wales; such an importation would be attended with very great advantages to the inhabitants. ”

“ Such of the convicts from the ships as were in a tolerable state of health, both male and female, were sent up to Rose Hill, to be employed in agriculture and other labours. A subaltern's detachment from the New South Wales corps was at the same time sent up for the military duty of that settlement in conjunction with the marine corps. ”

“ The settlers who came out in the Bellona having fixed on a situation at the upper part of the harbour above the Flats, and on the south side, their different allotments were surveyed and marked out; and early in this month they took possession of their grounds. Being all free people, one convict excepted, who was allowed to settle with them, they gave the appellation of 'Liberty Plains' to the district in which their farms were situated. ”

“ Thus the preponderance of the town population, so marked a feature of Australian life to-day, and so potent a cause of the democratic sentiment of the country, had already, by 1820, begun to show itself and grew yearly more marked.
Sociologically the history of New South Wales must remain for the present a complete puzzle. ”

“ Peel is directed by Lord Liverpool to acquaint ... in answer to his application for permission to proceed to New South Wales, that no persons are allowed to go out as free settlers to that Colony, unless they can prove themselves to be possessed of sufficient property to establish themselves there without the assistance of Government, and who can produce the most satisfactory testimonials and recommendations from persons of known respectability. ”

“ At the battle of the Wilderness, on the 5th of May, 1864, Charles Smedley was captured a second time, and, as we are informed in his diary, was taken by the Confederates to Gordonsville, thence to Danville, from Danville to the prisoners' pen at Andersonville, Georgia, and lastly to Florence, South Carolina. At Andersonville he remained nearly four months in a stockade filled with thousands of Northern patriots. Here he suffered untold hardships, being exposed to the scorching rays of the sun, the cold atmosphere of the night, and to frequent storms of rain. ”

“ But it was his object to crush M'Arthur, so he persisted; and when he found the six officers of the New South Wales Corps equally firm in protecting him, he proposed to arrest and imprison the six officers on a charge of high treason. At this stage of the proceedings the patience of the colony was exhausted. On the 26th of January, 1806, Major Johnstone, lieutenant-governor, commanding the New South Wales Corps, who had been prevented by severe illness from attending to the repeated summonses of the governor, rode into town. ”

“ Powers equal to those of the first governor of New South Wales, if held, have never been exercised by any other official in the British dominions. He could sentence to five hundred lashes, fine five hundred pounds, regulate customs and trade, fix prices and wages, remit capital as well as other sentences, bestow grants of land, and create a monopoly of any article of necessity. All the labour in the colony was at his disposal ”