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PARTY FEELING.
There is nothing more distasteful to
the conductor of a public journal, whose
first wish should be to avoid interfering with
the feelings or prejudices of any
portion of the community to which he
may belong, than to find himself compelled
to adopt a course which must,
of necessity, do violence to the in-
clinations and wishes even of many of
those by whom he is supported. Yet it will
readily be admitted by every candid
man, such is the anomalous character of
our colonial society, that it become a duty
to speak out when it is evident that a
systematic design to insult a large body
of the free colonists has been brought into |
operation. It is in this feeling that we
consider it incumbent upon us once more |
to advert to a subject which has already
engaged our pen, though not, as we]
wished and hoped for the last time.
. A respectable settler at Newcastle-a
man of wealth, and the father of a family
whose future welfare when he shall be
no more, is the first object of "his. care -
having resolved to give his children that
best of all portions-a liberal and virtuous
education, made arrangements to
establish two of his daughters, for that
purpose, in Sydney. Before, however,
those arrangements were carried into
effect, it was suggested to him by his wife,
that their parental wishes might be accomplished
by placing their children]
at a ladies' school more in their mine
diate neighbourhood ; namely, at Maitland.
The father of the girls waited
upon the principal of that establishment,
who consented to receive his daughters,
and a day was appointed for their reception.
In the interim, however, their
astonished parents received a note from
the mistress of the school, stating that
circumstances over which she had no
control, prevented her from receiving
the young ladies and winding up this
most curious epistle by sending com-
pliments to their mother! Upon being
pressed for an explanation, the school
mistress (or to use the fashionable slang,
the principal of the " seminary for young
ladies") stated, however unwillingly, that
the applicants for admission to her school
being the children of an emancipist (good
heaven!) she could not receive them
without giving offence to others who pa-
to raised her, and, as a consequence, without
probable injury to herself. To that
effect, upon being solicited, she gave a
written statement, and upon this the matter
terminated so far.
We have made some enquiry about this
school, with a view to ascertain, if possible,
the source whence such an unfeel-
ing, such an unchristian objection to the
reception of two young and innocent,
girls could have proceeded and the result
of our enquiries is, that the school is
chiefly, if not altogether, formed by the
children of Mr. Winder, Mr. Close, M.C.
Mr. Bloomfield, Mr. Cobb, Mr. E. Sparke,
Mr. Pilcher, Mr. Jones, and Mr. Kemp,
who keeps a respectable inn at Newcastle.
Which of these persons was it, who objected
to the education at Mrs. Luke's
school of the child of an emancipist?
Front the very best authority, we learn
that the objection proceeded neither from
Mr. Winder, Mr. Close, nor Mr. Bloomfield,
One of the gentlemen we have
named-the first in rank-repudiates
it Who made the objection? Let us
know it. People who really believe that
they are acting rightly will not shrink
from stating their names and avowing
their motives. Then who was it that
objected to the daughters of Mr. Smith
of Newcastle being received into the
school of Mrs. Luke, who lives at some
place called " Morpeth" in Maitland?
Come, let us know the parties.
We have headed our article with the
words " party feeling;" but party feel-
ing is not confined to the banks of the
Hunter. Mr. Smith, with feelings which
may be much easier imagined than expressed,
came to Sydney to seek a school
wherein his daughters would be admitted.
He applied to the principal of an " establishment
for young ladies," kept at
Cleveland House (we hope this may meet
the eye of Mr. Daniel Cooper) ; but
here again was the applicant received
dubiously. He was put off from day to
day-why ? Until', as we have been
told the opinion of a certain Captain
Collins, lately deputed to purchase horses
for the Madras army, was taken with
respect to the propriety of educating the
children of an emancipist in the same
room with the children of an emigrant!
This is what has been told us by the insulted
parent who seems to have wandered
about, shunned by a contemptible
upstart set, as if he had a brand on his
forehead. We have lately heard many
instances of the existence of this despicable
feeling. The pompous proprietor
of something which is nicknamed the
" Sydney Bazaar;" a party who has had
good service from our pen-has lately
refused the high office of a porter to
a man, Well recommended, on the
ground that he had been a prisoner.
" He," he said, " had resolved to employ
in his establishment, neither prisoners,
nor men who had been pri-
soners." A respectable and wealthy
man-Mr. Kite, of Bathurst has also
been lately thrust out of the Bathurst
Bank on similar grounds ! Are we not
right, then, in asserting that it " party
feeling" prevails to a greater extent now
than at any former period since the
formation of the Colony' And are we not
also right in calling upon the individuals
thus attempted to be condemned, to resist
insult by every legitimate means, and to
provide their despicable enemies that they
possess the power to retaliate ? Let the
emancipist colonists exert that power,
and we'll warrant that no member of
their body will again be subjected to
treatment like that which Mr. Smith, of
Newcastle, and others have lately experienced.
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