" A lively controversy is maintained among our evening contemporaries,
the Standard, the Globe, the Courier, and the Sun, upon the questions whether the
-Government has shown any, and if any, what favour to Mr. Frost, the New-
port traitor, since his arrival in the penal colony to which he was transported. The Standard, the Courier, and the Sun, mutually rely upon the authority of each other in support of the assertion that Mr. Frost has been appointed to a clerkship, or some other place, implying the favour of Government, though they differ materially both as to the circumstances and the merit of the sup- posed transaction.
"The Standard, upon the authority of its Liverpool correspondent, is quite positive that Mr. Frost has been pardoned, and appointed to a respectable and lucrative office ; and denounces accordingly the Government in terms of great severity—of just severity if the statement were true. " The Courier says, that so much of the statement is true as regards the appointment to a place ; mentioning as its authority the Australian papers re- cently received. The Courier, in common with the Standard, condemns the display of such lenity towards so atrocious a criminal as Mr. Frost.
"The Sun hopes and believes that the assertion of the Standard's cor- respondent is true ; refers to the Australian journals as corroboutting a part of it ; and boldly maintains that Mr. Frost, as an old friend of the Govern- ment and a stanch supporter of Liberal principles, deserves, not only pardon, but office, and rapid promotion in the Queen's service.
" The Globe asserts officially, that every part of the statement of the Standard's correspondent is untrue ; Mr. Frost having received no favour at the hands of Government whatever, but remaining at this moment in the un- mitigated condition of a convicted and transported felon.
"'The quarrel is a very pretty quarrel as it stands; and we have no desire to interfere it, it, further than to repeat our remark, in introducing the assertion
of the Standard and the contradiction of the Globe to the notice of our readers, that we think the statement of the former journal improbable, and that we have sought in vain throughout our files of Australian papers for any passage tending to the confirmation of any part of it. " We are known not to attach any inordinate value to the official contra- dictions given through the medium of the Government journals to statements prejudicial to their patrons. Nevertheless, we cannot but think the positive
contradiction of the Globe, upon the authority of the Colonial Office, though worth little, worth as much as statements said to be borrowed from
Colonial journals or private letters, so long as the text, the date, and the name
of the original authorities are withheld from the public. The Standard relies upon the corroboration of the Courier, and the Courier avowedly depends
upon the authority of a Colonial journal; while the Sun chimes in with the Standard and the Courier, not concealing that their news affords it un. speakable delight. Why does not the Standard, instead of declaiming upon the subject of Mr. Frost's pardon and promotion, and manifesting impartial anger against everybody who doubts either, give us the name, the date, and the text of the Colonial journal in which the Courier discovered the appointment of .Mr. Frost to office as a reward for his exemplary conduct during his voyage ? This would go far to set the matter at rest; and till this be done, we must be -excused if we continue to think it improbable that Government should have ventured so soon to give any manifestation of its sympathy with Mr. Frost, in addition to that which the mitigation of his well-merited sentence afforded."
Previous page
