The National Register. — London, England, 1819-10-18 00:00:00

CAPE OF GOOD HOPE. That full and precise information, in regard to the Colony above-mentioned, is wanted by the public at large, at a time when a pecuniary grant of the House of Commons, and the intimations of his Majesty's Government, have turned the thoughts of multitudes to emigrating in that direction, will not be denied ; and this want is the more apparent from the fact, that amid the meagre, though in some instances, sufficiently boastful coutributions, which, on the spur of the occasion, the press has hitherto offered, none but the tier side of the picture has been exhibited ; no discriminating hand has been stretched forth, to svarate the bud from the good, nor no warning voice litied up, to forbid unfounded expectations, nor prevent improvident adventure. His Majesty's G3vernmeut has proposed emigration to the Cape of Good Hope, and immediately the press has seemed anxious only to stimulate the appetite for the under taking, without reference either to the diiliculties or the evils to be encountered abroad, or to the mis takes, and even the frauds, which are to be appre hended at home. The features of less agreeable appearance, which the intended English settler should contemplate, be fore he resolves on departure for the Cape, and especially before he enters into uny engagements to that end, are not few, and shall here, in part, be se verally, though briefly, pointed out. I. Too volt G Elie dangers of a passage, in a crow ded ship, across the equator, to the southward of it, iu the. summer (Nuvember, December, uud Jauuar)), must mot be overlooked. 2. Cc ATE —SoMething 100 anlelt has probably been generally said concerning the excellence of the climate of the Cape of Goad Hope, especially in reference to the bodily and mental carillons of Europeans placed coder its influence. 3. LaIOUR.—AII the lebour, at present perforated in the Colony, proceeds f-en persons of either Hottentot servants, or Malay or African slaves. This fact is of I moortanee in an infinity of views. 4. Wttite LaßOVltaas.—lt is by no means certain that Europrau constitutions are physically cumpettut to the performance of bodily labour at the Cape I but, inde pendently of this doubt, there exists inure Hein one moral difficulty In the nay'. In all regrocultu al setileruents, in all toiletries where the quantity of land mid spontaneuus pro dects of nature overbalance the population, bodily labour in peculiar contempt; at the Cape of Good Hope it is known to be undeniably so. The whites do nothing. Every white man, however poor, and however wretched, prefeis the endurance of those evils to labour, and especially to m. 0.- Thus, a layout iog man in England, coutinoing to he labouring man at the Cape, will feud the hardship of his lot considerably aggravated. 5 CAPITAL.— the pi ice of labour at the Cape, whether pectinated by slaves or by free persons, is exceedingly high— a consideration of great importance to t he capitalist. If inch an tmeeisould attempt to remedy the evil, by carrying indented labourers from .his country, the circumstances referred to in the preceding paragraph will 'evolve him in endlrss trouble. The labourers will find, ut or soon after t liver arrivals. that they have signed to what they in u.i respect uederstornl; they will aspire to be masters, they a ill drowse rt strata, and they will prefer living with the Intientois or Caffics, iu a state of independence, to living a ith their brother Europeans in a state of servitude. 6. I.Antis.—Many didiculties will present themselves to capitals's, in (hi ohtaining of lands suitable in point of uluati au,and sant:km in point of extent; thlficiii.ies for which the state of the surface, and the character of the limate in England, can in no wise have prepared them; but when (as it is said to be the case) uofartunate and iglu"- taxi permit's ruder themselves to be indented, in this country, for three or four years' service, ut the price of loci iving Eventrfi:•e °crag of land at the end of the term, nu winds can express w ith saiicient strength, the grossness of the int p,grit Twenty•five acres of lead, to the Coltny of the Cape of Good Hope, must, in almost every case be worth omitting al all. 'toe pceeni," says a circular letter of Earl Bathurst, " under a ti , se directiou a party of settlers proceeds, is at liberty to secure their services by any legal agreement 111111 which they may tlank proper to enter.”— T his ptragraph miasma:Oily points to a system of a hic h many 'gum ant speculator', and some bad minds, will certainly take advan age. We have already heard in England, of reillemptiutien and white slaves in the United States of America. We sh JI 'low hear of them at the Cape of tiood Mope. These " legal oereemems" ail: be hound crud', °pole-sive; the servants will a, from their contracts, and the appeal a ill he to—Dutch Isia s. 116 MajCl.Ws Da- Vetotticia, so tar from lending Its counterman c ill these . 5 legal ape.. moos," ought to provide equaali.e relief for the deluded victims of them, by proposing to l'arliaineut a Bill for rendertug null amid void all contract, for service within the Coloity of the Cape ut tiood Hope, either forma' y or •irtually centered init., by any person, not tieing a waive of the Cape, eit her in Euro p e, or elsee here, at allly time o Blau two moths after hts first arrival at the Pape; prnvidtd ilia if, 111 pursuance of any stub contract, any tervive 'di ill have been actually performed, then one set vain shall br elditled to receive under it a propurtioual part of st imitated reward. 7. Ways titaCTll.—Want of market+, and of means of conveyaace to market, form whittler subject fur the serious cousid.•. atom of the captalist ; and these evils, to whatever cause they may be 111Vilit, are confessed to prevail a: the Cape of (Mad Hope. lier.•, too, it seem" proper to ult.erve, that th CI :111011111,T sourer. of the inactiiiti, and other cott•elittent c ,uses of tae tidal 01.11 1.1 11. ca, far which the Coliniaas are sa !omit , blamed, a ill, t here is too much 1C.111./11 1n lea, be found equa). to uppii• -, Fogiishinen, and ultimately to produce a L.n a psi thin of snai.l.., ty 111 the character and tonaltlei of th • !•• .111ei•, uI whitt t'.•l' .atom. Let ith ad led. tivit in aticithir Sio•emi'at clie natural feu, lily erne soil 11. elllll.llt . 01' 1.1.' / u. ) kind, a hint. radial! 1/11_11( In be ill. 41111111.1 tor v.•,) little. except *Moe the., ire a: dilated 1,. a a. 111:,a1.1. 8.--1•ANGI: ALL'S A\l) IA 41r 'IIIN PHI SE•r COLO:111bl Ile.. •"111.•1.. ea on a t sores 10 hold no ,- mm' happiner., nor even todependent ta.• present Colouots. nese are foreigners, wlw speak Otis owe laiszuage, possess their own utouaers, am' profess ,w it zeal, their own religion. They have overspread the country, though thinly their numbers are fast increasing; they sire lookin.: out for lands for their sous and daughters; their interests are opposite to those of the new Settlers; they have betaight down upon the Colony the animosity of two uncivilized oa ions, and this situatioo of things enters into the whole compositiose of their allies'. The Dutch and 1 , Germain languages must be learned by the new Settlers, which latter must become Dutch and Gemini' themselves I for it would contradict all experience to expect that the imitation will take place on the slde of the old inhabitants and the majority, instead of that of the new inhabitants and the minority. —Mr. Burchell, a writer who describes himself as having travelled in the back country of the Cape, proptises to obviate some of these objections, by collecting the English Settlers in a separate ...immunity, on the hanks of of the Sea-cow River ; but that country, in which Mr. Bur then, as lie informs us, fuuud only inoffensive and friendly natives, cannot he approached but through a region, which the Dutch have been obliged to abandon, on account of the hostilities of the exasperated Rosjesmans. 9. Hose. arr v or THE NATITEI6--That part of the Colony of the Cape of Good Hope, which, in other respects, lutist be moat eligible for the reception of the English Settlers, ai.d to which the views of his Nlajesty's Government (influenced, as it is probable, as well as by local , as by home banianit ) are reportid to be turned, is exposed . to the ravages of the Cadres on the East, and of the !hairs mans, or wild Hottentots, on the North. The colonial quarrels with these two nations are nut green, sold such its must be expected every where, between foreign colonists and the natives of the ; but are the growth of yea s, and eusanguined and embittered by long series of reciprocal hat borates. of the perpetratton anal provocation of 'stitch the New Settlers are equally innocent, but of which they must bear the cousequeeces. 10. GOV SR N lINNT AND LAWS —lf every other objec tion were removed, there Mould still remain one, of some magnitude, obeli the question reJirils the removal of En glishmen, into a country where the fot in of Government a-- lows of nothing hoc w its English liberties, itli•l where the laws, whether better or worse, are, for tile most part, wholly different from those under which thes nave Moro mut bred. The Cape has no house of titeembis, Ilt) freedom of the press, our no teal by jury; nu consent of the governed to leas either of pollee or of revenue I hough swayed by the British sceptre, it participates neither in the British constitut , nor in the British laas.• Sonic of its laws, the diversity of %bah, f the ISt itieh, is here spoken of, come home to toe most ordinary lei:blews of life, and press for the exaininati tttt of every endiselyal. The laws of marriage and divot cc ore of this number. Di !Forces are obtainable for causes unheard of in this ruu a try ; sod it is open to unprincipled emigrant mob/Inds, having first removed their wives to the Cape, to obtain divorces upon the most unexpected grounds. Thu,„ in all our views of the Cape—of the construction of its society, as well as of the quality of its soil and climate ; —of its language, man ners, religion, government and laws;—it is a foreign t our , try, and not merely a distant portion ut English territory— an English colony, such as the what/rated doubtlessly es• teem it; and to crown all, this foreign country is the actual theatre of foreign and ferocious wars,—wail to the origin of which, Englishmen have neither given nor received injury, sod io the conclusiou of which their hearts are without interest. 11, TIMM Or D ttttt one FIAOSI THIS COUSITRTir It remains only to take ounce of a part of the arrangements of his Alirjesty'a Government, concerning abash it seems difficult to other au explanation, and the inipo Dente of a hich, nevertheless, is of the highest order; for if the Cape really possessed every allurement, mid were accompanied by nosubject lor hesitation, will, the proper season for em barkation fur it would be entitled to the most Plitt'''. regard. In a postcript to the printed letter which appears to have been the first, circulated from Downing-street, it is said that " in order to ihsure the arrival of the Settlers, at the Cape, at the beginning of the plan tin g season, the Uaos ports will nut leave this country till the month of Novem ber." Now, the seasons of the year, as will be seen fr more than one statemeot contained io the Co.onial Journal, Ni.. IV. as well us other sources of infurinalwo, are, at the Cape of Good Hope, the exact opposite of those iu Eugland. The English autumn is Use Cape spring. The voyage to the Cape is estimated at three mouths; and ships, wiling from this country iii the bee •cg sit November, are there fore to be expected to reach the Cape in the beg gof February; that es, at the season hf droughts and ba.remiess, and not at the planting betoths. The spa sag plautiog ftUSUII at the Cape, begins ait h September, and Settlers, to arrive at the Cape at that time, ought to leave this t ountry in the beginnieg of June: for proofs, consult the comparative 'Fable of the Seasons, and the Cape of timid Hope Iturtil Calendar, contained iu the Colonial Journal, No. IV but, for further proof, hear the words of alr. Bartow, in hi. Pr. five to his 'Travels into the interior Of Southern Africa. The passage comprises, besides, some qualifying remarks on the general character of the Cape, in respect of its ve getable riches:—" lit the instance of the Cape, us in most other cases, we may probably discover the tt uth to he in the widdlr, It offers nothing very peculiar, either int he productive qualay of tee soil, or HI tits sterility. %% here there is moisture, the a unlit It of the climate rt. 1111 l tes ve geta! 11l witimut the preparation of an to titicial soil, by the aid of c posts or immures: hence, one trop of grain in the year may be procured from the shallowest sail, anti event from sheer mild. But, nefot tuoately for tile country, in the hottest mouths of the year, limn the beginning of De cember to the cad of ,Ilareh, reset sometimes is the midale of .Ipril, there SCritalgjalls a single shower of rain. hi these months the veraure totally disappears; wad the %Mule Sariace the country presents to the tae, cult r large trail. a hue sand, ousted with blialsrlleal berths anal other sitiubs, struggling, as it were, to maintain tic: living p. Mewls , to regi c..vere anti that brown 5:60) Ilse, is a1114:11 au angry poet, %jib Mille at it than „ill-lice., has dressed the an. face of that part of oui island to the Mau.% aid of the 't aced : Esr sis the ye utold nil tire %% as g in re..et, lively greLii.'" " "f • ;11•1,11.1,,' l'll.lOllUrS I'4IIIUW, " :111'11 , 111A flow 11 ,1•4 I'o3 il e V, ;41111 1111dIrd1;ilel 111d1 . 1111,4 With 1110,1 01 11l 1.11111,1 1111, :Old solllr ut I.ll' to dioli'4l t , 1. 41.1 . WWI, 11•140U111, 40,:t dr it 1110 , 1111 1 11 : .111.111 di/111; 411111,11111 11.218111", 11141,11t,1 141011 • 441.1 h/d0.•.1 Ililil I t•frebhole,.l3 ftii the t 1114.• JlaU part of 1111 . 1 r 10111 .gt•, 41t . •lilt .11.%10a i iiii lOC 41111 1111 . %il'. M . lie 1..1.1 ate t.titrii iitti ca.t v;,rieli of au vr er: iig 11111411)s a .t 1 •ive ru.ileti plat a., Phil Ihrt ore, look tat: sandy oarlatr utt al N hi. I. they rOW, chlurei) bar , of any li,od of arias, Nud debtitute of that verdant turf which is so distiuguishing is feature of our QUAR 368,941 Quarters ended 10th Oct. Increase as , Decrease as ' compared compared 1818. 1819. I with 1818. with DSOs. -- Customs .f; 3,669,754 £ 2,75.3,1671 Excise. 5,8660504 5.674,687 Stamps 1,672,165 1,375,437 Post-office.... ' 560,i5i0 375,4.1110 £15,000 Assess. Taxes 787,426 781,4.11, Land Taxes . 11,1,801 198,177 16,371; 31iscalaiit.s3. 49,150 77,628 28,478 , --. l —s---,—. 12,387,1(10 11,433,544 59.854 !1,211,410 Decrease as Di.duct I with the 59,K 1818' 1,151,8% C.IIILILII'S TO THE EDITOR. Sir,—Perceiving in it morning paper, that my name is introiluied in a manner calculated to lead the public In believe that l was instrumental to framing the defence of 31r. Carlite, on his trial for publishing Paine's " Age of Iteasins," you will oblige Noe by affording your readers an opportunity of knowing the true state of Hie case. Having been present in Court, as un auditor, I was earnestly solici ted at the close of the second day by several friends to the liberty of the press, to point out, in conjunction with two literary gentlemen, Hate authors who hail written the most ably in d.•fence of toleration, and unrestricted freedom of °pima, im religions subjects, and to mark the passages. Unit I as►euted to; nor d, I apprehend that such a request a mild have been refuted by any liberal-minded Wall, ot • that the most scrupulous would lipid fault with me for having act; jested in it. I accordingly arranged, alio, as well as I could is a few hours,' he nest morning, connected a series of quotatio Ili from Archbishop Tillotson, Hastily squire, fir. urneaus, Bishop Watson, Proletsor Limbach, l'rufi•s«.r ampbell, Jlr. Locke, Hr. linlield, the Rev Mr. %%. else Rev. Mr. Aspland, the Christian Reins 'tier, and other authorities of equal a ri_ki and tendency. 1 nes ma. read by Mi. Cathie, on the third day, with initrisolations of his own; and tla s, with the loan of En t suni 3 , i, toll ' s A reopa gitica, Delituiw on Nonconformity, a volume of Black stone, a tract by Lord S 00000 and a few se:110114 and pamphlets, sr inisiiiuted the whole of my exertions ins this ex tratirdivary sicration. I um, Sir, your obedient servant, W ILL! AM HONE. 43, Ludgate-hill, October 13. C-Jrlile, the bookseller, resided about two years ago. tlie Coloomide, Bron,wiek- , miare, at which lima tie w.ts a jourtleyntat Minim, and way 50 miserably pour, that fie was then receiving telief how the patistt of St. Gilt miu.threlields. TIIE NATIONAL REGISTER. OCT. lg. happy island. Beautiful as the heaths of the Cape most uuqueslionably are, yet those who have been accustomed to look at tbem matured in the green houses of Engl.md, where all or most of the numerous species, and variety of the spe cies, a►e cmlected into one group, and arrange,' so as to convey the most striking elect, would be greatly disap pointed if they expected to meet them, ill the snow state of perfection, iu their natural , oil." To revert to the planting season, or seasons, it would he endless to cite authorities for "boa itag , that this, io the Cape Spring, is from the beginning of s•pfember to the end of Nurember ; a bile from December to March (the period within which ships sailing from Eng land in October or November should arrive) is the hottest time ofthe year; the time of Summer, instead of the time of plantiug; the time alive south-eubt winds, which, like the" Sirocco of Naples, relax both the body and the mind ; the the time when the plough cannot be put into the ground, and when travelling into the country cannot be pea formed ! The Cape Autumn begins in March, or even as late as the middle of April; and, therefore, to meet either the former or the latter rains. Settlers should leave this country, Tither in the heghihin of June, tor else in the beginning of January. Under every aspect, his Majesty's Oliver 1111 l ctit, it, the plan which it has adopted for encouraging no access' of ttlers at the Cape, has taken upon itself a heavy responsi. It lily ; iesponsibilits of si Inch it is not the small. st purl, that it will lied 'self ratted alum to bear the aright of the sons and mistakes of others as well its that of its own. It o ill b,. reproached as the parent of every disappoiatt d hope, and the COlotroVer of every fraudulent bargain; and no lung space of time, it is to het . ..area, will follow, after the depar tor- and iliseinharkation of the Settle's, before it a ill Gad the a hole transaction a (wank subject of complaint and ensure. Several circumstances. it is understnod, have had the effect of bringiol,, for toe present, hi: Majesty's Government Ilia paws• 1 ond of t Nese, 40 c of Ilan must pritininen , , as well as the most easily guessed, i the :tate of the Cairrr tsar.— In This 4.114111[1911 of 1110 emigrants, exce,.l those who adm i t s pledge as to time, Will he fora ardcd at the present season, and these, it is s .id, a ill he landed at Cape Town, %here their:Hu:oloh it may be suspected, will lint hem very enviaole one. lime, then, ha n g to he gained, I. tus hope th u has Majesty's Government a ill avail itself of the oppor tunity tuus afforded it for reconsidering all the details of this design. • - See Colonial Jouriial, No. 111, page 50, No. VI, page 310. TILE REVENUE. Abstract of the net produce of the Revenue of Great Britain (ex clusive of the arrears of wa i r l ti o ty et r B n l i B a . l t w a i n d d l PotmhP4rty. in years and quarters ended o showing the increase or decrease on each head thereof. YEARS Years ended 10th Oct. increase as Decrease as compared compared with 1518. with ►Bt6. 9.562,820 22,982,875 .ti 826,793 6,211,449 1,416,090 77,990 6,178,432 4,599 1,199.736 44,816 349,055 47,920,567 953,498 1819. Excise Stamps Po tides AS114:11S. Taxes Land Taxes. Mismllaaco. z i T. 10,348,183 22,156,088 6,427,270 1,339,000 6,173,833 1,134,R20 490,0' A:965,363 215,821 140,9G5 1,1i.2,14S Deduct Increise.. 953,24 N spared with the year 181 TERS. 48,289, 1818. ash