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^ oraries , has suffered prejudice to supply the nlace of investigation and fair judgment . Genuine socialism is not " robbery , " but the development of property : is not disorder , but " conrt " " harmony ; " and it is from an extension of the socialistic feeling that we look for the rejnoval of the disorders and chaotic disruption of Australian society . . Why , we ask , is her society so disorganized P Why her property so unsafe P It is , because with every fresh import of human beings , she continues to be supplied with more individualism .
Thither , to that great Eldorado , thousands repair to make a fortune . The shore gained , helterskelter they go ; the timid to the towns , the strong to the diggings , exclaiming , with a reckless sneer , " each for himself , and God for us all t" A three or four months' voyage has developed crude notions of liberty , and possibly the whole physical being has acquired a vigour unfelt before . The prizes , however , are not for all ; and to those who are there , and to those going there , we throw out the hint to concert your action one with another . " Concert" is the watchword of the true and rational socialist , not
" robbery . The gradual formation of companies for different trading purposes in Australia proves that a species of organization is being developed , and societies for the stemming of disorder , by arresting criminals , are actively contemplated amongst the citizens ; the service performed by the Government officials being of little avail . The criminal will necessarily form part of that stream of population which is rushingthrough that magnificent field of enterprise . But there is in Australia an amount of intelligence greater for the number
of its population more than any other colony can boast ; and when this intelligence gets concerted in its operations , the disorders , suffering , and waste will be diminished . England and America present examples in the greatness of their institutions , of unity of action springing from unity of purpose ; and although it is evident that Australia will , out of the abundance of her means , in process of time develope institutions suitable to the necessities of her people , how much more rapid and smooth the development when directed by a common understanding .
It is not by lectures or exhortations that this Australian socialism is to be there spread . The lecturer waiting for an audience at the diggings would find no parallel in absurdity . Like the windmill , with Don Quixote tilting at it , the machinery of Australian society would go ( lashing round with the same rapidity as ever , heedless of such feeble and futile attempts to arrest its course . "Where bread , mutton , and
wine can be earned by the sweat of the brow , and iueomes realized considerably above seven shillings ii week , the propagandist who would speak to be heard amongst those motley groups , must exhibit his passport with the word " capital" inscribed thereon , and must bo the skilful contriver of schemes for the further enrichment of his auditors . The monied ceeonomist might read that practical working lesson in concert ; and although ! t would be his place to point out where thin pair ;> f muscles had best labour , and where ! that pair ,
'J | order to realize the increase of advantages indivi duall y and collectively , still his energies would not be directed so much to direction as to | » u ) inai . ion ,. aiming to attain the zeal stimulated "Y a common interest . Surrounded by the raw Material in abundance for every earthly comfort , men with pale and anxious countenances aro mirasHrd b y the feverish uncertainty of their 'mire of either riches or life . Teach thorn how
J <> work together , how to rob , not each other , hut u yirtli nlone , guarantee to them the means of a tf <|<> d .. eirinninjr , lUii \ j , | lov would repay the uscono"J'w t with gratitude and ' n good round " interest . " ¦ "rough ] um tju , y . wou | (] practically leurn how '"'' ' ease of mutual protection and increase- of Pioht are convertible terms arising from tho ( " ' " ••( iral application of his doctrine . Amongst ' •¦ U federated hands , horses and bullockrt would ( 01 dy to |> o returned to their owners , \ v in w 1 ) llI ( l know that the property of all in l ort'li more than tho plunder of tlio few .
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^ A NCR 10 W . Nol ! "V ' IlH < ' y ° nv ' tuo Government having reoii A ~" . y " »< ' ••• bounty be extolled!—to bestow tj ' "Ntralia the boon of a bimonthly mail , udver-Wih tendm-H /<> , that service . The call JUiBworcd by the Gouorul Screw Stomu
Shipping Company , who offered to put upon the intended line such vessels as the Queen of the South , the Lady Jocelyn , and others whose build , fittings , appointments , speed , and punctuality , have made that Company ' s name illustrious in the annals of steam navigation . But their offer was not accepted . A new company , formed for the occasion , —a company untried , inexperienced , possessing as yet not a single ship , and hardly known beyond the latitude of the Stock
Exchange , proposed to undertake the job at a lower figure ; and how could a thrifty Government refuse such an offer ? The contract was given , not to the company that presented the amplest guarantees for its strict fulfilment , but to that one which promised to do the business , no matter how , at the least cost ; and so the Australian Royal Mail Steam Navigation Company came before the public , encompassed with the prestige of Government patronage , and exalted almost to the rank of a national institution .
The company ' s first vessel , the Australian , left England in Jun ' e last , and from Cape de Terde , the first land she touched at , came public protests , signed by her passengers , besides numerous private letters filled with vehement complaints . The writers admitted the good sea-going qualities of the Australian , but alleged that she was unfit for the service on which she was employed , and that her inherent defects were made more
intolerable by all sorts of mismanagement . She was much too low , they said , between decks ; her cabins were too small , six berths being inclosed in a space not more than sufficient for four ; she was ill-ventilated and indecently deficient in accommodations requisite for health and cleanliness ; she "was over-crowded with passengers and over-freighted with goods , even her decks being so encumbered as to leave no walking-room for the more numerous class of passengers ; and her cargo had been stowed with such heedless haste as to bury under it part of the luggage marked for use on the voyage . To these and many other complaints the directors of the company replied with equivocations , with excuses on the ground of difficulties incident to a first start , and with
promises to do better next tune . The Sydney was the second vessel ; and in her the company was to have shown what they could do after two more months of preparation ; but she exhibited most of her predecessor ' s faults , and added to them one more—namely , gross want of punctuality . She was a week behind her time at Plymouth , and about a month at the Cape , where one , at least , of her passengers , is known to have quitted her in disgust . Steamer though she is , she will have made a slower passage to Australia than many a sailing vessel .
In their third performance , the Australian lloyal Mail Steam Company surpassed themselves , and established for their fleet a reputation unparallelled save by her Majesty ' s steamers . They took the simplest and surest means to achieve this distinction by purchasing the Greenoch , built for the Admiralty , and notorious for the tinkering she had undergone in the vain hope of making her seaworthy . This doomed abortion , too bad even for the Admiralty , whs christened by her new owners the Melbourne ;
but no baptism could whhIi out the original sin of her parentage . Six weeks ago she floundered out of ' the Thames , became almost a wreck in passing through the Downs , put into Deal for shelter , underwent repairs at Devonport dockyard , and wits reported ready for sea again . But she could not even get out ' of port without another little adventure , in which she lost her jib-boom , davits , chain cable , anchor , Ac . At last she wan fairly started from . Plymouth , on the 15 th of October , twelve days after . her
appointed time . But she was no sooner at sea again than she began to take in water greedily , like a sponge ;; the under-deck was Hooded , Imggago and berths were drenched , and Home of the hitter rendered quite untenantable . This was the state of things in lair weather and with a favourable wind . Hy-and-bye a fresh breeze sprang up ,
but nothing like what seamen call half a , gale , and the Melbourne began to roll and pitch an none but Admiralty-built steamers , or line-of-battle ships like the Albion , rollodbeforo , or as one of the Melbourne ' s own boilers might have- done if it , had been rigged up as a yacht , and set afloat in the Hay of Biscay . At last , with a sudden crash , she rolled all her top-masts an d her jobboom overboard , with all their gear und ouuvuhs . The screw
and the rudder were entangled by the wreck ; scarcely sail enough could be set to keep the ship ' s head to the wind ; and for two days and nights tnis crazy tub lay lurching fearfully , and pitching like a porpoise , unable to sail , steam , or steer . Crew and passengers , toiling together , succeeded , after thirty hours' labour , in clearing the screw ; but another long interval elapsed befor ' e the engines could be prevailed upon to move . This difficulty also was overcome ; and the ship had again been running her intended course for some twenty hours , when it was found that she * had
sprung a leak . Her head was immediately turned towards Lisbon , where she arrived on the 24 th of last month , and thence , it is said , she is to be brought home to her old quarters in Devonport Dockyard , in order to undergo another course of repairs of indefinite duration . Badly as her voyage has ended , the catastrophe might have been infinitely worse . The closing and caulking of her port-holes , after her first disasters in the Downs , though it did not render her water-tight , yet made her far more than sufficiently air-tight . The ship ' s surgeon , Dr . Foueart , has recorded his deliberate opinion , that had the Melbourne continued her voyage southwards a few days longer , a fearful mortality must have occurred ;
for it was impossible to preserve health and cleanliness in such a vessel , and disease had already established itself among her overcrowded inmates . Ill-found , unseaworthy , unventilated , with an ill-conditioned crew of disorderly landlubbers , with rigging not half spread or rattled doAvn , with a choice of two deaths staring the passengers in the face , —such are the temptations to embark in a steam-ship privileged to carry the pendant and her Majesty's mails . Convict-ships are palaces of comfort in comparison . We may then congratulate the Melbourne s passengers on their escape from a horrible dilemma—death by malignant fever , or by such a fate as theirs who went down in the President .
But meanwhile what are they to do ? Many of them are men of small means , who can badly , or not at all , afford the expense to which they have been already put by their forced sojourn at Plymouth and at Lisbon , and that which they must further incur if they have to pay for their passage to Australia in another vessel . Some of them have sent out goods to Australia , expecting to arrive before them in that first-rate fast-going steamer , which never again , we hope , will venture on such a voyage . One gentleman , a passenger from the United States , has six or seven vessels consigned to Port Phillip , and was going out to meet them . He would have saved time
if , instead of embarking in the Melbourne , he had taken ship for New York , and thence made his way by a sailing vessel to Australia . Tlie ill-used passengers have requested the directors of the Australian ltoyal Mail Steam Company to forward them to their deal ination by another vessel ; but to this the directors demur for the present : they will do nothing until they have the report of a commission which they have sent to Lisbon to inquire into the facts of the case . But the facts already authenticated and notorious are more ( han enough to justify the demand of the passengers , and to make it imperative on any company , jealous of its reputation for liberality and lair dealing .
Happily the business of linking Australia and England together l > y steam communication will not long- be left at the sole discretion of tho gentlemen who manage the allairs of the Australian Ivoyal . Mail Steam Navigation Company . The directors of the General Screw Stea . ni Ship Company have ; summoned a meeting of proprietors lor Friday next , to lay before them a matured project , for establishing , without delay , " a . lull and cllicicnt
communication , by means of large and powerful sleam-nhip . s , with Port Phillip and Sydney . " Such an announcement coming from sucli a quarter will be hailed by the public wilh unbounded confidence and satisfaction . ' What that Company is pledged to do may already be regarded a . s a , filing - well ( lone . Gentlemen of the Australian h ' oyal Mail Steam 'Navigation Company ! your annual Government subsidy of 'J 7 , <)()»)/• i * '" jeopardy . Change your ways if you w ish to save it .
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SKATS TO SKi : Til K SHOW . Tine spirit is awaking . if it be true that fho officials proposed to keep down the flags in ( Mielsea . Hospital at the time of tint Duke ' s funeral , lest they should " oU ' eml tho lbrci ^ uer , " tho
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No vember 13 , 1852 . ] THE LEADER . 1089
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Nov. 13, 1852, page 1089, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1960/page/13/
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