of the empire justified and
accounted for its tolerance. There is no tyranny so watchful as that of
fear, and no cruelty so relentless as that of factions who struggle for
existence.

The non-dependence of the government on the people has united the
colonists in one body. It has been the colony against England, and not
tories against whigs. In America the powers of self-government were too
often seized by a faction, and a political opposition, even in a most
moderate form, was stigmatised as felony and punished as treason. But in
the Australias the colonists have expended their rage on a distant
office, and in their real or imaginary sufferings have felt a sympathy
for each other. The ascendancy of a faction in a small community is the
reign of terror, and might soon lead those who value their personal
freedom to regret the most sensitive and unscrupulous vice-regal
despotism.

The spirit of colonial government, however, has been sensibly affected
by the policy of Great Britain. The enlargement of popular freedom at
home has relaxed the severity of colonial rule. For every considerable
amelioration the colony has been indebted to the whigs. They gave trial
by jury: they stopped white slavery in the Australian colonies, and thus
in the end transportation. They placed religious denominations on an
equal footing: they introduced the sale of land, for the purposes of
immigration: they granted first to New South Wales, and since to all the
colonies, the legislative assemblies which now watch over their rising
liberties. In the days of a Castlereagh or a Bathurst, England possessed
far less practical freedom than her colonies now enjoy. It is impossible
to prevent the contagion of opinions, and the colonies may see in the
growing intelligence and spirit of the United Kingdom the assurance of
their own gradual advancement in the ranks of freedom. In this respect
Australia is more happily conditioned than was once her American sister.
The colonies of that continent were in advance of the parent country.
The royal government not only detested their institutions as democratic,
but as a standing reproach to the maxims of domestic policy. Thus, the
appearance of a royal governor was ominous to their liberties. He came
to entrap, to report, and to betray them. They had to hide their
charters, to preserve them from violent abduction; and to threaten
insurrection as the alternative of liberty. Whatever Australasia gains
she will att