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THE SYDNEY MONITOR.
- -- --- C
WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON, MAY 8, 1833
I fully admit the right, and not only the
right but the duty, of every man, to watch
closely and vigilantly, the administration
of Law and Justice. - (Speech of the
Duke of Wellington in the House of
Lords, 22 Feb. 1829.)
NATIONALITY
A GREAT EVIL IN THE COLONIES.
We have received a most valuable letter
from a most valuable man. Every word in it
we religiously believe, and recommend to
the solemn consideration of our Scottish
friends. We hope we shall never hear, either
from the pulpit or the professor's chair, any
more, that they are God's peculiar people.
We know of one nation only which can claim
this distinction. The ancient Jews, though
under the divine displeasure for eighteen cen-
turies, are God's peculiar people still. His
oath to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob he will
never abjure. Eighteen centuries ago, they
rejected, their Divine King and Lawgiver,
therefore they are scattered through every
nation under heaven, without a king. But
they will not always be so. The Scotch
can claim nor boast of nothing of this sort.
They are Britons; let them not therefore
arrogate exclusive honours.
To THE EDITOR OF THE SYDNEY GAZETTE.
Sydney, May 6, 1833.
Sir,
I observe in one of your contemporaries of
Saturday, a long and violent tirade on your indi-
rect expression of disapproval of nationality of
any kind, elicited from you, by the very national
style adopted by the Rev. Mr. Carmichael in his
opening lecture to the Mechanics' School of Arts,
I entirely agree with you, Mr. Editor, that the
feeling alluded to, is to be sincerely deplored. It
is spoken of as having already done serious and
deep injury to society at Calcutta, in which place,
the mere circumstance of your being a native of
Scotland, without other merit, is a sufficient
introduction. I have perceived this spirit to be
creeping fast into Australia, and to be followed
already by effects not less injurious, as far as they
have extended. I deprecate such a spirit; and
caution the public from cherishing it. We have
already done much to destroy all public odious
municipal distinctions between Emancipists and
Emigrants; and it is the imperative duty of all
sects and parties in the Colony, to watch with a
determined opposition, invidious and insidious dis-
tinctions of every description, national or religious,
which tend to give one man or one class of men,
distinction above his fellows irrespective of that which
results from natural and constitutional means.
Let merit, not sect, nor nation, raise a man to
distinction. whether he be a churchman or dis-
senter, a catholic or a protestant, a Scotchman or
in Irishman, an Englishman or a naturalized
American or Frenchman; let not these distinc-
tions be held to be meritorious or otherwise in
themselves; but let virtue and talent only be
allowed to raise any one in the scale of society
in New South Wales. On this ground, I object
strongly to national dinners, whether given in
honour of St.Patrick, St. Andrew, St. George,
or St. David. What have we in Australia to do
with these invidious distinctions, where the four
tribes of British men, are harmoniously, or ought
to be harmoniously, amalgamated?
I should be sorry to see the youth of Australia
segregate from the community, and associate
together in any exclusive way, either of science
or friendship. All British Colonists would con-
demn this; and where such a habit has been dis-
covered, it has been justly censured. Yet the
Australian-born have as great right and reason to
associate exclusively, and to establish a sect among
themselves, as the votaries of St. Patrick or St.
Andrew? I will say this both for the English and
the Ancient Britons, they have never celebrated
dinners in honour of the English and Welsh
Saints, and so far, have shewn a liberality of view
and sentiment, worthy of imitation by the Scotch
and Irish.
Scientific and literary institutions and clubs are
to be encouraged; still more, Colleges, Schools,
and Mechanics' lnstitutions. But, let not such
institutions, under a general name, become nati-
onal and sectarian. This great error, one of our
colleges has already fallen into, and hence, being
governed by one particular national feeling, civil,
religious, and political, it is no longer British, but
is the college of one nation only. It is so in fact;
it is supported nearly exclusively by one nation,
and chiefly by one sect of religion. And if the
Reverend Lecturer pursue the baneful principle
he acted upon in his introductory lecture, the
lately formed British Mechanics' School of Arts,
will soon become the Scotch Mechanics' School of
Arts; and the English, Irish, and Welsh portion
of our mechanics, will, with an ambition and na-
tonal spirit, which, under such circumstances, one
can hardly condemn, either form an Irish, English,
or Welsh Mechanic School of Arts, or, at all
events, secede from the one already formed, if it
continue to belaud nothing but Scotch things
and Scotch men.
I am, Mr. Editor,
A REAL AUSTRALIAN.
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