Kelly, the other accomplice, was arrested the next day, and both were sent back to Van Diemen's Land, tried, and executed.
ANTI-TRANSPORTATION MOVEMENT
Source.—Port Phillip Gazette, 21st January 1851
The uselessness of protests against Transportation from the various states, proved the necessity for the whole of Australia to act together in external affairs. Thus the inauguration of the Anti-Transportation League was the first step towards Federation.
BREAKFAST TO THE TASMANIAN DELEGATES
On Monday, the members and promotors of the Launceston Association for securing the cessation of transportation, entertained at Public breakfast the gentlemen delegated to represent the interests of the Colony at the Australian Conference, which is about to be held in Melbourne. A cold collation was prepared at the Cornwall, and about 100 gentlemen sat down, amongst whom were many magistrates and gentlemen representing the most influential and respectable portions of the northern and midland districts. Breakfast being concluded, the Chairman rose, and said, it was a matter of pleasure to him to meet so large and respectable a body of gentlemen, some of whom he had known for a quarter of a century. They had not assembled to petition; it was a truth deplorable and sad that petitions had hitherto been unavailing and they were now met to force from Her Majesty's Government, relief from an evil of which history presented no parallel. (Hear, hear.) Petition after petition had been transmitted home, but the prayers of the Community had been constantly rejected. It now remained to try other means.
The Rev. J. West rose and said he felt some embarrassment in addressing that meeting. He, however, felt grateful for their recognition of his appointment, and should rely on their indulgence during the few moments he might address them. The colonists had been led up to a position from which it was impossible to recede. Van Diemen's Land must obtain a share in the general freedom, or for ever sink. They had petitioned for a cessation of transportation; whilst there was a possibility of the other colonies receiving a portion of the convicts annually sent from Britain, they expected by the more general distribution to experience some relief. But the resistance of the other colonies had removed the faint anticipation, and shut up to us this last hope—to our union with them. When it was proposed to solicit the co-operation of the adjacent colonies, some persons prophesied a failure; it was thought by some, improbable that the colonies would feel any interest in our fate. But the heart of an Englishman is ever susceptible of pity; and when we spoke of our wrongs they listened; and when we exposed the enormous danger, they consulted their own safety, and came forward to our help. Let us look well to our position. We have to change the policy and contend against the power of a mighty Empire. In the effervescence and excitement of public speaking it was not at all surprising that a threat should sometimes be uttered; but many years must elapse before an appeal to physical force would bear even the semblance of reason. We have, then a mighty Empire to contend against—one which can laugh our threatening to scorn. And what are the weapons we must employ? What, but the weapons of truth? We must diffuse right information; we must expose our wrongs—and we must appeal to the justice of the British Nation. Let the evils and injuries under which this fair domain of the Crown now suffers, be laid before the English people, and a cry will be heard from Land's End to the opposite shore, "transportation shall cease because it degrades the British name." (Cheers.) The injuries resulting from transportation to the colony are various. A gentleman, however eminent his station and virtues, going to a distant part of the world must cautiously suppress the fact, that he came from Van Diemen's Land, or even this quarter of the globe. (Hear, hear.) Yes, Sir, our sons, who have quitted this colony in search of a home denied them in the land of their birth, have been compelled to conceal the place from which they came, and to drop into the box, by stealth, those letters which were to relieve parental anxiety, and express their filial affection. And is this to be for ever endured? Shall our own children never know the pleasure and pride of patriotism? Shall we not ask all the colonies of the Australian empire to aid us in our struggle? Shall we not confide in the justice of Australasia?
When it is said that England cannot support 4,000 or 5,000 offenders the question naturally occurs: What has she not done? Did not England for her Continental wars incur a debt of £800,000,000: did she not give £20,000,000 to free her West India slaves; did she not expend £7,000,000 to combat the famine of Ireland? Is not the proposed expenditure for the National Executive of the present year an evidence of her boundless opulence? And yet to save a trifling outlay compared with the injustice now done, the representative of Her Majesty is compelled to carry about under his skirts a parcel of convictism; to deposit these tokens of imperial interest he is driven to have recourse to artifice, trickery and falsehood. (Hear, hear.) As England glories in her past history, and has found means to keep afloat that flag which has never been lowered; so she must find means to carry on a nobler struggle with her own poverty and crime. Hitherto, Van Diemen's Land has not been heard at home; but if by the united voices of the other colonies, a sort of telegraphic communication can be opened with Britain, if a speaking trumpet be formed, we shall be heard. When he (Mr. West) heard that Ministers had departed from their promise that transportation should cease, he was astonished and desponding—he thought that if a promise so solemnly given could be so recklessly broken, hope was delusion. But as in the moral, so it is in the political world. The Divine Being frequently ordains that good shall arise out of apparent evils; that a tedious delay shall make the remedy more perfect. Had we been relieved when Ministers promised; then, transportation to the other colonies would have been continued, and its evils accumulate there. (Hear, hear.) When it was proposed that all the colonies should receive a share of convicts, all things considered, he, (the speaker) for one could not have then objected to Van Diemen's Land being joined in the co-partnery. Had such been the case a century might have elapsed before the reproach of convictism had been removed from this hemisphere. But the refusal of the other colonies occasioned by the injuries inflicted on this, has roused us all into action, and now all declare that not a man, no, not one—in fetters shall be landed in Australia. (Tremendous cheering.)
If an unfortunate offender becomes as a penitent desirous of amending his life, and disposed to conform to the usages, and claims of honest society, he will find no man here spitefully to remind him of his former errors. But if he is brought wearing the badge of disgrace we will not have him. We will say to the British Government "Until you can with safety discharge him into your community, he shall not enter ours." (Loud Cheers.) This is the righteous principle upon which we have taken our stand. Whilst we were disputing among ourselves who should bear the load, we were likely to be sacrificed by our ungenerous divisions. But we have now a new principle; and a principle is a wedge—if sufficient force is applied, every obstacle will be riven into shivers. We now say that no man should be an involuntary gaoler, much less shall the inhabitants of these colonies be the penal slaves and gaolers of the British Empire. (Cheers.) We assert that a community should deal with its own crime, at least so deal with it that in its disposal it shall not injure those who never offended—so at least that the honest and industrious labourer should not be brought into unfavourable comparison and competition with the hardened criminal, so that, at all events our sons shall not be driven from their homes to seek employment in distant lands—to meet there suspicion and contempt. These are the wrongs of which we complain—wrongs which could never have been perpetrated but in oblivion of that first great Law, alike the basis of private and public virtue: "do unto others as ye would that they should do unto you." The Rev. gentleman resumed his seat amidst loud and prolonged cheering.