AUTHORSHIP OF THE SOUTH AUSTRALIAN SYSTEM.
To 'nix Enrron 01' TILE SPECTATOR.
5. Adam Street, Adelphi, 19th July 1839. Sin—In yourpaper of the 13th instant, I am charged with having quoted several passages from a work which Colonel Tounmss did not write, in such a manner as to make it appear to have been written by him, and with the obvious design to leave au impression that he is the author of the singular plan of cote- nization adopted in South Australia : now the charge is so entirely destitute of foundation, that I firer assured that, on referring again to CAresn'a South Aus- tralia, you will at once retract it. ln that work, after quoting some passages from the report of at speech of Colonel TORRENS recommending the American system of disposing of waste lands and the employment of the proceeds us on Emigration Fund, I proceed to make quotatious from two other works, the British Proriar, at' South Australia, and the British Colonization of tlirr Zealand, in ohieh the singular plan of colonization adopted in South Australia is fully developed and presented as a practical scheme. But I most distinctly deny that my quotations are given in such a manner as to make it appear that those works were written by Colonel TORRENS, or that I had any design of attribut ing to him the inithorship of any, principles of colonization be- yond those expressed in the quotations from the report of his speech in the House of Counmio, 011 Sir Rouewr Howrox's motion Liar the reap- pointment of the Select Committee on Emigration. Though the other publications from which I quoted, and in which the sin- gular plan of colonization adopted in South Australia is explained, are anony- mous, yet it is perfectly well known that they are written by Mr. EDWARD Gin- nor WAKEFIELD; ittld I am at a loss to conceive how you could have been led into the error of imputing to me the design of representing Colonel TOR- RENS as their author.
This letter only makes bad worse. It has induced its to compare the third with the first edition of CarrEn's South Australia. In the first edition, we find this passage—" The peculiar principles upon which the new colony of South Australia was founded, were orig,inally developed by EDWARD GIBBON WAKEFIELD, Es1., hi a work called ' England and America ;' the distinguish- ing feature of which is, that all waste and unoccupied laud shall be sold at a price sufficient to carry out the requisite supply of labour for its cultivation." England and America was published in 1833. In his third edition, Mr. CAPPER substitutes for the above passage the following statement —" These novel prin- ciples were explained by Colonel TORRENS m the House of Commons on the 25th of February 1827." We have examined the Colonel's speech, and cannot discover in it any thing like an allusion to the South Australian system. But in 1830, Colonel 'loons:Ns joined Sir R. W11.110T Howros: in earnestly opposing the very principles which he is said to have "explained" in 1827. A paper which he wrote on the subject, concludes as follows—" I. conceive that it is strictly demonstrable, that the affixing of a price on new grants of Colonial lands would be the very worst source from which a colonization fund midi, derived." Mr. CArrcn is a dependent of Colonel TORREN$ in the South As" tralian Commission. These frets require no comment.—En.]
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