This is an editorial written by Dan Deniehy and published in the Goulburn Herald in 1854. Deniehy was at the forefront of Australian Republicanism in the mid-1800s along with John Dunmore-Lang. Deniehy's article shows two aspects of Republicanism in Australia, the irritant cause and the inevitable Republic. Australian Republicans have often cast the change to a Republic within the prism of American and French Republicanism. Where an irritant cause led to revolution away from a Monarchy. The other is the fallacy of the inevitable Republic. It has been inevitable for one hundred and fifty years now, and we still do not have a Republic. Neither an irritant cause or inevitability is necessary for an Australian Republic. The political model of a Republic is superior to any form of Constitutional Monarchy.

Freedom And Independence

In the early part of the reign of George III, and that too at a time when it was admitted by the celebrated writer we have quoted, England was in a prosperous condition, one strongly-marked feature was observed in the character of the Government of the day - namely, the filling of every office with cringing favourites and incapable sycophants. In no instance was this more exemplified than in the appointment of the Duke of Grafton a profligate young man, broken down and ruined by play, to the office of First Lord of the Treasury.

About this time the misgovernment of England produced a crisis in her affairs-no less than the threatened disruption of the American colonies from the parent state. Affairs had just progressed so far as to admit of a reconciliation under a wise and judicious system of management; and for this purpose it was deemed expedient to select a man adequate to the task. The choice fell upon the Earl of Hillsborough, whose very first act was such a violent and unconstitutional stretch of the Royal prerogative as to drive the colonies into the greatest excesses - added to which he filled every office of the colonial Government with creatures of his own - contemptible from their incapacity, to the exclusion of the most brilliant and talented natives of the colonies, which so exasperated them that rebellion and separation were, as is well known, the ultimate consequence.

Now, is there any analogy between their case and our own? We answer, no two cases can bear a stronger resemblance. Without much political sagacity, or any extraordinary depth of observation, we need only mark how the principal departments of the colony are bestowed, and look no further for the true cause of our remaining in a condition of status quo. Previous, however, to going into the grievances under which we labour, we will take a view of what America was before her independence, and what she now is under a free government: Previous to her separation from Britain, although the indomitable spirit of her hardy and venturous population had made great progress, yet she was so trammelled and bound by political disabilities, that her mighty resources could not be developed to the satisfaction of those men who were toiling with unwearied energies for the advancement of the land of their adoption.

The pioneers of the wilderness, after having cleared away mighty forests, and established homes of comfort and peace in what had been but a short time previously wildernesses of almost boundless extent, naturally yearned for such political arrangements as would leave their energies unshackled; and indeed in the administration of their local affairs, particularly in a ministerial point of view they considered themselves entitled to a share. In this, however, they were disappointed: an injudicious and unwise policy contracted their powers - nay, almost brought them to a stand-still. The consequences are well known to the world - Freedom and Independence.

We will now take a view of the progress of improvement in some of her most savage and forest-clad States, under a fair, just, and equitable system of government. An American writer, when speaking of the enterprise of a free people, says:

The growth of Boston, never slow, has been so accelerated since the railroads were opened which join it to Providence, to Albany, and to Portland, that the extreme depression of trade has not concealed it from the most careless eye. The narrow peninsula which a few years ago easily held its 30 or 40,000 people, with so many wildernesses and waste lands, has been found too straight when 40 are swelled to 100,000. The waste lands have been fenced in and built over. The private gardens of Boston, one after another, have become streets. Boston proper consisted of 720 acres of land; acre after acre has since been won from the sea, and in a short time the antiquary will find it difficult to trace the peninsular topography. Within the last year from 12 to 1500 buildings were erected, many of them of a rich character; and because each of the new avenues of iron road ramifies like the bough of a tree, the growth of the city proceeds at a geometrical rate. Already a new road is shooting north-west towards Connecticut and Montreal, and every great line of road that is completed makes cross sections from road to road more practicable, so that the land will presently be mapped in a network of iron, each section in the highest state of cultivation.

Now, if the indignation of the great political writer already mentioned was raised to such a height on the Premier of England sending out a man to govern the colonies of America who proved himself wholly unfit for the task, and ultimately by surrounding himself with unprincipled and mercenary functionaries, lost the finest dependency of the British Crown, how-bitter must our indignation be against that British Minister who has fixed us with a Government so wholly incapable of administering to the wants of this rich and mighty country.

We now intend for the benefit of our readers to review, seriatim , the whole body politic of our colonial Government. In reference to Sir Charles A. Fitzroy, we deem him to be a good, kind-hearted man; we should be sorry to say that, like the Duke of Grafton, he is, or ever was a broken-down or ruined spendthrift - and we are strongly inclined to deny that he is at all addicted to those little gallantries that look so amiable at a certain period in the life of a good old English gentleman - no, no, Sir Charles is a man of the most excellent qualities in his own domestic circle - the father of a virtuous progeny of hopeful sons.

We freely admit all this, but now comes the point. We would ask has our good Governor shewn by any of his acts, that zeal, energy, and capacity so essential for the government of a great colony? Has he filled up the various departments of the immediate Executive with men of high political ability, and known integrity, whose honest zeal would be devoted to the interests of the colony? Has he given the natives of the colony a fair share in the administration of its affairs? Has he kept a strict supervision over the Surveyor-General's establishment, the Colonial Architect's establishment, and the various other departments, the healthy action of which is so essential to the interests of the colony? The thousand grievances under which we labour, both socially and physically, negative every one of these queries. So far, good Sir Charles, you will bear a comparison with Lord Hillsborough, who paved the road for American revolt.

There is another and most essential point on which we conceive our present Governor has, to say the least of it, been very remiss: finding that the colonial Legislature, brought into esse by an Act of the Imperial Parliament, was either not competent or not willing to legislate for the equal benefit of all, the poor as well as the rich, to the exclusion of all class interests, it was his duty, as an honest man, to have made such reports from time to time to the Home Government as would have clearly, shown the unjust and imperfect working of our system; and in that case the Imperial Parliament would have done us justice; that is to say, it would have so altered the legislative machine as to secure equal and just laws - laws that would guarantee the rights of the hard working man and give him that interest in a new country so essential to its welfare, by allowing him to become a proprietor of the soil, on equal terms with the squatting oligarchy, provided his industry warranted his becoming so.

The next individual of whom it will be necessary to speak is no less a personage than the Colonial Secretary: - Upon this officer depends the practical working of every branch of existing law, and also there devolves upon him an ex-officio duty of enquiring into abuses and negative evils, arising from the absence of any positive law for the promotion or protection of general interests: in fact, he is the embodiment of the Executive; and, just as in England, a wise and liberal administration would cast its glance over the wants and requirements of the country, with a view to bring in a bill to redress a grievance or pass a salutary law for whatever branch of the community might require such. We think that it will be readily admitted that the gentleman holding such a high position should be a man of great mental capacity - of almost gigantic powers of mind and sleepless watchfulness - that he should be possessed of powers of intuition which would enable him to know the true state and condition of not only every class but almost of every individual in the colony.

Now we would very good naturedly ask our readers whether the Honourable. C.D. Riddall is the embodiment of these essential qualifications: We need hardly wait for a reply: there is something really pleasing in the personal appearance: what a fine rubicund countenance and portly figure he possesses: any one unacquainted with his genealogy would pronounce him "a fine old English gentleman, one of the olden time." He is very regular in his attendance at the club-house, where his witticisms and practical jokes have procured him the soubriquet of a bon vivant . At 11 o'clock precisely he shoulders his umbrella (he always carries one), and proceeds home, humming over that favourite air of the land of his fathers, "Over the water to Charley," tumbles into bed and dreams of bills, debates, divisions and all the other etceteras connected with his senatorial functions. There cannot possibly be a doubt but these in themselves, as far as they go, are excellent qualities, but surely the man who possesses these qualities alone, is not qualified for the high and important office of Colonial Secretary, upon whom so much depends. Why, Mr. Riddell, himself knows right well he is not qualified for the office he holds and has once or twice admitted the fact during the heat of debate.

We need only draw the attention of our readers to his conduct on the two most vital of all questions being discussed in the Legislature - viz.: railways and roads - he comes forward and offers on the part of the Government to advance a sum of money sufficient to complete the railway from Sydney to Parramatta, and no further (and let it be remembered that the public highway between those towns is the very best in the colony, added to which there is, as everybody knows, a fine water communication, available for every purpose of commerce or pleasure, between the same towns). Let us see how far he has proved his capacity on the road question. On Mr. Martin's motion relative to the roads, that gentleman faithfully described the shocking, nay almost impassable condition of the road from Razorback to Goulburn, and insisted most emphatically that immediate steps should be taken for the repair of at least the worst part of it.

In order to defeat the motion, the Member for the Southern Boroughs stated that the bad state of the roads in the southern districts was to be attributed solely to the state of the weather, this being the most inclement season on record. This was certainly the most unblushing piece of effrontery we remember to have ever heard, because it is a fact known to every one of our readers that the present is the finest season within memory, and notwithstanding such being the case, the roads are as bad as the imagination can well conceive. But what we wish to point out is simply this: Did the Colonial Secretary evince any, the least, knowledge of the case? None. He appeared to know just as much about the matter as the Laird of Cockpen: on every other point connected with the general interests of the colony he appears to be equally well informed, and therefore the analogy between those mentioned in the preceding part of our article and our colonial Government holds good.

And here we would direct the attention of our readers to our remarks relative to America, before and after her independence, and request them to draw a comparison between that country and the condition of our own, not with the view of attaining: immediate independence, but for an object we shall presently point out. We have not written one line of this article with the view of its making any impression either on our sapient Government or our misrepresentatives in Macquarie Street. We are convinced we might as well attempt to pierce with our pen the hide of a rhinoceros as to effect a change either in the incapable Government or the incurable Legislature. No; our object is of a far deeper import to the weal of the colony: our object is to stimulate our readers to think deeply and seriously on the matters here set forth, as with themselves will rest the power of righting the evils, and redressing the grievances which so deeply affect every class of the community.

There can be little doubt but that a general election will take place at an early day, and that your suffrages will be sought by men of all shades of opinion. Then will be the time when we trust you will bear in mind our exposition of a system which weighs down like an incubus the best energies, and destroys, as it did in America, the fruits of your most holy and sacred efforts to establish a home for yourselves and families in the wilderness. When that hour does arrive - and arrive it soon must, let the concentration of your votes in the Council Chamber proclaim to the powers that be that the Men of Australia are determined to have equal privileges, equal rights, and equal laws

By Dan Deniehy

For more writings of Dan Deniehy, John Dunmore Lang and Charles Harpur, seek out the book, "Our First Republicans" .