The Press.
London, England, 1858-08-21 00:00:00

THE PRESS, AUGUST 21, 1858.

fluctuations of popular opinion are more speedily
and more directly expressed through the repre-
sentative body, changes of administration are
more sudden and frequent, and, as the supporters
of a Ministry are less perfectly organized, the
obstructive power of a hostile minority is in-
creased. When we remember how near Mr.
CARDWELL'S resolution brought us to another
" appeal to the country," we should not marvel
that Parliaments are shortlived in Australia.
When we remember the changes in English
Cabinets since Sir ROBERT PEEL broke up the
Conservative party, we ought not to rail at the
restless "in and out" of Canadian Ministries.
We have deliberately established responsible go-
vernment in our leading colonies ; it is most im-
portant, both to the good understanding between
those colonies and the mother country, and to
the cause of constitutional freedom throughout
the world, that we should neither undervalue
their success in self-government nor exaggerate
inevitable defects in their modus operandi. They
have already done so much, in spite of obvious
difficulties, that we may safely calculate on their

doing more.
We have been led into this train of reflections
by a letter, addressed to Lord GREY, which we
believe will he as interesting to many of our
readers as it has been to ourselves. The writer
is the Hon. S. DONALDSON (brother, we believe,
to the distinguished Cambridge philologist), one
of the most accomplished members of the Legis-
lature of New South Wales, and more than once
a leader in its Administration. He thinks it due

to the colony of which he is an ornament that
this refutation of an unintentional misstatement

on the part of the Noble Lord should be speedily
and widely circulated. We are happy to meet
his views by giving the letter early insertion :

(Copy.)

" Killet House, Sydney, New South
Wales, May 10, 1858.
"My Lord,—A copy of your Lordship's recent
publication upon the subject of ' Parliamentary
Government' has this day reached me.
" I hasten to represent to your Lordship that
you have (I am sure unintentionally) been led
into an error with regard to the proceedings of
the Parliament of New South Wales under
responsible government.
" In the note to page 216 you say :—‘ The first
session of the Parliament of New South Wales
after responsible government came into operation
lasted for five months. In that time but one bill
was passed—an act to authorize a loan—which
went through both houses in about an hour. The
remainder of the protracted session seems to have
been chiefly devoted to party squabbles and the
overthrow of two Ministries.'
" Now, as a matter of fact, the first session of
the Parliament of New South Wales under re-
sponsible government lasted ten months. During
that session there were passed into law forty-two
public and five private bills. Allusion to the
value and importance of these measures is made
both in his Excellency the Governor-General's
speech at the close of the session and in the
Speaker's report, copies of which documents I
inclose.
" I also forward the official report of the house,
stating the number of sitting days, 107, and the
hours, 773 and 47 minutes, or an average of 7
hours 14 minutes each day.
";As I had the honour to hold the office of
Colonial Secretary in the first Administration
formed under responsible government, and that
of Treasurer in the third, I hope your Lordship
will pardon my addressing you, in the expecta-
tion that you will take an opportunity of cor-
recting the error into which you have been acci-
dentally led.
" I am quite sure that your Lordship will not
allow your high name to be used to give wide
circulation to any statement reflecting upon a
Colonial Legislature, when such statement is
found to have been made under a misapprehen-
sion of the facts.
" I have the honour to be, my Lord, your
Lordship's obedient and very humble servant,
STF.WART DONALDSON.
" The Right Hon. Earl Grey."

We have examined the copies of documents and
the official report, of which Mr. DONALDSON
speaks as accompanying his letter, and they
bear out his statements in every particular.

795

Had the mistake, of which we thus publish
the correction, occurred in some shallow
pamphlet, gotten up for an ephemeral party
purpose, we should have thought it little worth
notice. But Lord GREY'S work on Representa-
tive Government (more than once noticed in
these columns) has, from the independent tone of
thought, the clearness and occasional profundity
of the views expressed, obtained an influence
among reflecting men more than proportionate
to its circulation, though the latter has been con-
siderable. It would be matter for great regret
if the high character of the work were to become
the means of giving currency to a misstatement
affecting a most important question. The advo-
cates of responsible government have a right to
the full benefit of the fact, that its inauguration
at Sydney produced, not a long period of fruitless
wrangling, but a sort of annus mirabilis in
colonial legislation ; that the new stimulus which
it supplied produced healthy, and not morbid,
symptoms. For ourselves, we most truly rejoice
in this corroboration of our a priori belief that
Englishmen carry with them into new scenes and
distant regions that aptness for self-government
which is not merely a distinctive mark of race,
but the result of centuries of national training.
But the importance of the subject does not
stop here. The possibility of such a mistake on
the part of such a man as Lord GREY strikingly
illustrates a defect which has hitherto been the
opprobrium of English Administrations. Our
home affairs, our foreign relations, may have
been better or worse managed, according as the
Secretary for the time being has been appointed
with a view to the service of the nation or to
satisfy the demands of a clique ; but, at all events,
their respective importance has been duly recog-
nized, and the facts bearing upon them have been
diligently studied and discussed. But the Colo-
nial-office has always been a land of darkness,
whose rulers have seldom even appeared to wish
for light. We have acted on a most imperfect
knowledge of facts, and with a very scanty recog-
nition of principles. In fact, we have neither
known nor cared enough about colonies which to
the rest of the world are marvels or portents.
And even since we have wisely established that
system of colonial self-government which has
rendered the inhabitants of New South Wales,
for instance, or Canada, substantially the arbiters
of their own material interests, we have not suf-
ficiently regarded the feelings of those our dis-
tant kindred. We have not sufficiently consi-
dered that the tie which unites Great Britain to
her colonies must derive its strength and perma-
nence from mutual affection and goodwill, as
well as from calculations of common advantage.
And, especially, we have undervalued the merits
and services of those friends of order and sup-
porters of British connection, like Mr. DONALD-
SON, Sir W. MANNING, or their friend and
colleague, Mr. DARVALL, to whom it is mainly
owing that the progress of our colonies has been
steady and peaceful as well as rapid—that Free-
dom has not run riot, nor Sydney imitated San
Francisco. Deriving their influence from the
free suffrages of large constituencies, they have
exerted it in the independent support of the re-
presentative of the British Crown against factious
or anarchical movements. Such men, we re-
peat, have been too often overlooked, when mere
colonial agitators have received an attention here
absolutely affronting to the community which
they troubled. We will hope that a better day
has dawned on the Colonial-office, and that the
present Ministry will adopt a policy very dif-
ferent from the ignorant indifference exhibited
by their predecessors. " The Right Hon. R.
Lowt:" was a man whom New South Wales did
not delight to honour. Sir E. B. LirrroN may
easily find men some honorary recognition of
whose services, though little important to them-
selves, would be welcomed in the colony as a
graceful act of justice.