order
arising from the sudden advent of Mammon can be but temporary. In
California neither property nor life is safe, the executive government
is powerless, the laws are openly defied and outraged with impunity;
mobs are allowed to usurp the functions of judge, jury, and
executioner, perpetrating murder in the name of public justice. In none
of these things docs Australia resemble California; and there is a broad
distinction between the political and social constitutions of the two
countries. California is a republic in its most offensive form, and in
a disorganized condition. Australia is a British colony. In California
the sovereignty of the people is more than a match for the sovereignty
of law and order, having degenerated into the worst of despotisms. In
Australia the sovereignty of the Crown is implicitly acknowledged by a
loyal community, who have been proof against the seductions of
demagogues, who, under the cloak of religion, have sought to undermine
that loyalty. In California, the country is a desert, formerly thinly
peopled with semi-barbarians, but how thickly studded with men who have
degenerated from civilization to barbarism. In Australia the
population, previous to the discovery of gold, had risen, in an
unprecedentedly short time, to a high commercial and social position,
under a constitutional legislature. Her gold mines found her in a safe
and orderly position, and that position she is in a condition to
maintain from her population having been trained, though composed of
heterogeneous elements, to obey mild laws, and respect the tribunals of
justice. Besides which, California has no wealth besides her gold,
whilst that of Australia, independently of gold, is illimitable.
