The Express.
London, England, 1849-01-12 00:00:00

MILITARY ESTABLISHMENTS FOR THE

0011,0141111.
IMege4l bee Mennel t• ale that a contribution
Om esiesbt.lniesentlitegesielesee, in the advoceey
of whisk yen are at prom* se eisislly
es e &gagedpati foe
ators, the
sonstry—l us*. rednellen ef the embed ex
and especially of the said end eatery item of that mos.
ditere—esigin net bit unseespliside to year mien Li=
laxly m the pewalioe aged dw.w with which
le be acquairated, es • eideniek is the ems es which th.
British pabile geserally are shoeing; Weep awe ea opinion.
tort'eommealy supposed, threshes. thee dames a milt
ee is, is oregoory-donsnlnnuo, ef via, libelee la
the madam eeraggey he • time of the preemies of seek
• Sine is deep • matter of i.mapenmD4 mem*, in the
cieleake. New I maintain that there is still less neessity
for the possum of a military Bees la the colonies generally
is times of this then Is et hew. There am surely
be we new, la sash deeendeitens, ter a military frees to
defeed the Nimbi fres eggesedats fees without ; Ur what
natio In Clinfeeseelom would ever have densest of afteMeag
sYayy of cur minales, eves if there had sot bees • sleigh
aaWerlsanyeneofthemforthelestthirty years? Audiu
the mainmeases of the public penes sad efgood government
wit the nolenise theaweives, • police force, which the
esioniele weld, is iereases. he bath able and willing
to mantels milvely from their own resources, is all that
Is really semmary.
The light ia which military establishments for the coked. a
are regarded by the colonists themselves ma be aseerained,
with perfect facility. from the followinglnstructive facts.
When New South Wales, the colony with which I am best
sequaisted, was a penal settlnesin, the complement for that
coney was three reer(mate of 'abater. Bat, es Supporta-
dee to New South Wales has been diesestinsei for the last
nine years or thenabotits, while there has teen a very large
influx of free immigrants from the united kingdom during
the last twelve years, the boss government had very wisely
&Weaned, sanest ears ago, to reduce the military establish.
meat of that depe deaey. Whoa the matempleted redee-
ten was first aaaoanced in the macaw ' the late Richard
Wisdryer. Esq., barrister-at law, ens .1 the ablest and moat
deservedly popular members doer colonial legal' anus, men-
tioned the eireneestsnee to me, sad *ammo! • hope that I,
as as of the npressatatives of Port Philip is that legis-
lature, would Min him and cartels of the other popular
members in getting up a strong petition and remonstrance
from the a mind to the home government artsioat the reduc-
tion. I told him, in reply, that I thought the c ntemplited
masers a very wise one on the part of the home govern.
meat, as I had long been of °piston that we could do very
well in New South Wales without soldiers at all. " What!"
Said Mr. W., " do you sot knew that every regiment we
home here ensures an additional expenditure ot 100,0001. a
year of British money in the colony ?" the oaken,
it mans, being supposel to expend • great clod
mime generally than their mere pay. When the
angel reduction ot the military force of the colony to
a tingle regiment was formally amounted to the ceased,
UM" was • prodigious term of opposition to the measure in
that body generally ; but as no ewe pence could allege that
the presence of a military force was at all secessmy for the de-
fence and protection of the colony, either hem without or from
within. and as it would not have boss expedient to pet for-
ward Mr. Wiedryer's
ea reessa4777podag the reduction too
broadly, the chord that was mice the occasion wee
the crying Wasik. of putting so important and valuable
a colony as New Smith Wales with only one regiment, when
other colonies of far leis impaction and value, am, foe in-
seam*, the Matoitise, the Cape, sad New Zealand, had each
three or four. But the reason assigned by Mr. Windryer was
unquestionably the true one, and the people of England are
therefore to linden:sod that if they are to centimes to be
burthened with the maintenance of a large military force io
the colonies, it is not because such • force is at all necessary
for the protection and defence of these colonies, but because
it is prel•able for the colonists to have a large expenditure of
British snag going on among them.
My own otlectione to the presence and maintenance of a
military force in the colonies are twofold : leret, it is a
nuns of demoralisation to the colonies. Druukennen, and
dissipation in every other brutalising and offensive form, is
the uniform accompaniment eves of the British army, and
the evil that is dons to *Medal moiety in this way far more
than counterhalaines any imaginary benefit arisiog from the
preseace of • military force even in the way of xpenditure.
It is not merely the bad maniple of the common soldier that
deteriorates and demoralises our colonial communities : the
oGeen are often worse then the soldiers themselves. A case
in point, that occasioned • prodigious sensation in our colo-
Biel capital jest be'ore embarked for England, occurs at
this moment to my recollection. A captain in one of the
argimente then stationed in New South Wales bad seduced
a very interesting young woman, the sister in-law of a highly
esepectable and prosperous tree-emigrant tradesman in the
tows of Sydney ; and when applied to for redress by the
=tydiswieved relatives et the unforeseen' lemon, he coolly
as it was out of the question for him to offer the
meldestiss of • gentleman to • tradesman, they wen puce
webeone to inatittre an action at law if they pleased.
My see oid objection to military establi•hments in the
easeke 1., that the only real use of them is to maintain
end perpetuate a system of colonial government ruinous alike
es the beet interests of the colooks end of the mother country.
Pee nem*, a civil list of 81,6001. a year, nearly a third of
es
weber, revenue (apecifyieg a number of office", for the
Mikes ef which we were to provide salaries at the extran
gnat gete flied by the Secretary of State for the Colonies),
wee eon dad as a schedule to the set of parliament granting
a seswitatioa to New South Wales, at the instenes of
'Lied Stanley, is toe year 1842. By that schedule our
Governor was to have a salary of 6,0001. a year, and con-
'giving that this amount was very considerably more
than was necessary for the office, or than we could well
afford, • bill was ietroducei into the council, during the
sheinistration of the late Sir George Gipps, by the gentle-
men is whom I have already alluded, the late Rieberd
Winder?, 134 , to limit the salary of any future governor.
On the principle of the bill being carried, Mr. Wind:yet pro-
posed in committee that the rainy of the future governor
seeeld be 4.0001 a year. on which I proposed as an amend-
ment that it should be 3.0001, urging that the saving which
I esseeived meld very ropily be effected would give us
MOM. a year for the advancement of educe•ion. My
emendleanat was seconded, but was net carried. Mr. Wes-
terlies maim. however, was ear led; and the Speaker,
lir. IL, end myself, were appointed by the council •
denallibielle present the bill to the governor for her Ma-
te**, I. His excellency, of entree, received us very
y, and promise.' to transmit the bill to her Majesty
—Laughing, I dare say, in his sleeve all the while at the so-
lemn fern we were enemies; fee in des time • reicript was
snmenmesel hem Lord Stanley, Informing us that her Ma.
=
bed
"lewd the ball, his lordship considering that it
nee be mink the while of any scion of the aristocracy
if to iligovens us for lees than 6,0001. • year.
Is ohm& the struggle in which yea are engaged for the
sehelike if the national expenditure is precisely. the same
IS OM Vida is going on, en • much smaller scale indeed, In
• whin seem of our colonies • and it I. chiefly, if not ex-
eineleely, to maintain and pernetuate—against the best is-
tenelle el the colonies, and the wishes and desires of the
enhelits—the system of eztraysganes and mismanatemest,
which Is now dkrciB.d with the Wow of oaken' govern-
ment% that the present military establishments tor the colo-
nise me kept ap, and the people of Ileglaad pressed to the
wiey ground to maintain them. Only give us the manage.
sent of our own internal affairs and especially of oar
own money, to which we are fairly entitled as British sub-
jects, and we shall " wish sot a man from England," to carry
a musket for our &knee and protection at your ex —I
am, Sir, de., Joint Dueness Lazo, D.D.—Loudon, Jas.
1. 1649.