The Express.
London, England, 1848-11-10 00:00:00

COLONIAL.

COST AND CONSEQUENCES OF COLONIAL
MISGOVERNMENT.
On this subject the Manchester Examiner says:
From alv.ust all points of the compass we have tidings
of war, revolt, or disaffection in our colonies. The latest
irtelligence from India dispels the fon ' hopes entertained by
the friends of peace that Lord Dalhousie's rule would be dis-
tinguished beyond that of his predecessors by the promotion
of agriculture, and commerce, the prseress of internal im-
provement, and the avoidance of domestic or external wars.
Scarcely have the congratulations with which Lord liar-
elitism was received on his return ho re died upon our ears,
hardly have we ceased to lavish on him substantial proo's of
our gratitude for consolidnting the peace of our eastern em-
pire, when lo! the Temple of Janus is again opened, troops
are everywhere in motion towarc s the scene of our last con-
quests, and those resources which ought to be available for
making long projected railways, deepening navigable rivers,
and c,nstmcting tanks and canals for irrigation, will now be
expended upon munitions of war, and the conveyance of
troops to the remote field of military operations.
Another of our Eastern possessions, second in importance
only tc the compapy's territories, Ceylon, has been in a state
of armed revolt agaiast the government of Lord Torrington,
originating in the imposition of some new and unpopular
taxes upon Runs and doge, which the natives declare to be
indirpensable in a country overran by wild elephants, begs,
and other animals. The insurrection has of course been
crushed, although not without an importation of fresh troops
from Bombay ; martial law has been declared in some dis-
tricts, snd we are sorry that the same leniency has not been
exhibited to the convicted rebels which has so generally pre-
vailed under similar circumstances in Europe. Without
attempting to go fully into a discussion on the subject of
Ceylon polities, it mutt be stated as a strong proof that
every thing is not quite right, that at the very time when
the natives of the interior were in rebellion a very
temperate and loyal memorial to Lord Grey was drawn up
and signed by upwards of a dozen British merchants of Co-
lombo, who, whilst they condemn the conduct of the rebels,
at the same time point out the• impolicy of the new tame,
I and draw attention to the extravagant expenditure of the
local government. The opreition newspapers attribute the
I troubles in the island to the incapacity of the governor, who
is treated in this unceremonious fashion by the Colombo
Observer:
teed John Rowell, prime minister of Britain, le the son of the
third Duke of Bedford by a daughter of a Visconnt Tmrington. This
explains the appointment of so young and undistinguished a man ea
the present viscount to so high d post, and leaves little town to hope
Oar his immediate removal, be his vagaries ever so wild or ea fearful
In their result*. But this anti other like cases will hasten the day
when the finest colonies of Britain will no longer be looked on merely
es the pre" of a grasping and unprincipled aristocracy.
The Mauritius, another of our eastern possetsions,although
not in • state of revolt, is only not so, if we may believe its
local organs of the press, from a sense of prithence, and not
from any affection to the British authority. Wo have read
some bitter articles extracted from the newspapers of the
island, denouncing in unmeasured language, almost
amounting to the open and advised uttering of treason,
the extravagance and oppressiveness of the British govern-
ment.
Coming westward, we find thins fertile provinces of the
Cope colony, which would afford room enough for almost the
whole population of England, a prey to civil war between
the government and its Dutch subjects. Here again have
we been doomed to disappointed hopes. We had flattered
ourselves that the closing scene of Sir Harry Smith's hats
with the Kaffirs, where he made the chiefs kin hie
foot (!) was the beginning of a lasting peace ; and we were
trying to forget the million and a half of money expended
in that war with the savages. But it seems that our rule is
I not more popular with the Dutch peasantry than with the
Kaffirs. The farmer abandoned their homes and the graves
of their fathers, and with their flacks and herds emigrated
beyond the settled portion of the British territory. Thither,
however, they were followed by the government authori-
ties, to demand their oath of allegiance to Queen Victoria.
The battle of Bloom Pleats was the consequence, where,
amongst other exploits, we are coolly and exultingly told of
one round shot which killed half a dozen flying Dutchmen!
Well might Sir William Molesworth describe the Cape as
cur Algeria.
If we cast our eye to the Mediterranean, we find the
lonian States, of which we are the gratuitous sovereign pro-
tectors, at an expense of upwards of 130,0001. per annum (at
much as our exports to three islands amounted to in 1844),
for military alone, in such a state of disaffection, that even
the presence of 2,500 English troops did not prevent it from
recently manifesting itself in the form of an armed resistance
to our authority.
Craning the Atlantic, we behold discontent not lees
strong, although varied in its origin, and in its manifesta-
tions taking a more constitutional form. There is Jamaica,
our largest tropical island, threatening to stop the wheels of
government by refusing to vote the supplies, a course which
bas been actually entered upon by the Court of Policy of
Galena. In all probability this example will be followed by
these other sugar colonies which possess legislative 'stem-
bass; whilst in the crown colonies the taxpayers have begun
to race the question as to the right of the government to
levy taxes even for local purposes, excepting through their
own representatives.
I We have thus glanced at the disaffection which prevails in
so many of our colonies, according to the latest &deices, with-
out feeling at all certain that we know the worst ; we dread
the arrival of news from OUT distant possessions, bemuses we
feel how helplessly we are exposed to all the conseluences of
the acts of othars, over whom it is impossible that we an
exercise any control. It is quite possible, for example, that
the next advices may announce another war between the
New Zealand settlers and John Heki, or some other native
chief. The governor, under such circumstances, would feel
himself justified in calling to his aid, if necessary, for the
protection of his colony, fresh regiments of troops from
Australia, and ships of war from the India and China
station. Before an answer could reach New Zee-
land from England, with an opinion from the Colo-
nial-office as to the origin or conduct of the war (the
opinion at such a distance of time would, of course,
be useless), hundreds of thousands of pounds might have
probably been expended, which the English taxpayers, after
much grumbling, would be obliged to pay. In fact we are,
in one way or another exposed to a drain of money of un-
limited amount, from between forty and fifty colonial ceta
blishments, every one of them being interested in as large an
expenditure PI possible of English money ; and we are much
mistaken if the bills to be presented nest session do not open
the eyes of the English people to the danger of allowing the
present system of colonial government to be continued, even
tar another year.
For our pert, the course we have marked out for our-
selves upon the subject of our colonial policy is this : Both
in the interest of the mother country and the colonies we
shall advocate the enrrying out logically the principles of free
I trade in their relationship with each other. To the colonists
we would offer self government, and an absolute control over
their own expenditure; but having done justice to them, we
will maintain that the people of England ought ant to be
subjected is a farthing of expense for the civil or military
government or protection of such colonies es Comas,
/males, the Cape, South Australia, New Zealand, Ceylon,
&c, If we choose to keep thousands of soldiers upon a bar-
ren rock like Gibraltar, or Malta, they must be supported
and paid by the English pecple ; and if we empty eur gaols
upon the shores of Van Diemen's Land, we mast, of course,
expect to be called on by the colonists there to find soldiers to
keep the convict p ipulation in order, but with exceptions such
as these, we see no reason why, in the imerest of both parties,
the mother country should not be altoget see relieved from
any charge on amount of the civil or military establish-
ments in the colonies. In this view we are, as tree traders,
only carrying out one step further the principles of Adam
Smith, who in his ' Wealth of Nation, ' declares that ' in
order to render any province adventigeous to the empire to
which k belongs, it ought to afford an time of peece a re-
venue to the public sufficient not only for defraying the

whole tepees* of its own peace establishment, bat for eattri.
betleg its pr )(see ate the support of the general revers-
mat of the empire.' This was written mars them 70 years
sea, whilst the whole of America, North and Beath, sad
nearly every square league of tropical territory accessible to
Nemeses were stilt in the possession of Spain,
Yortegal, Bested, as some ether power, white
sided,ad all other countries free any participa-
tion in the trade of its olocies. Now met mere
ewceglr don the argument apply are, when the
New World is esasatipated from the Old, and when Nag-
land he treed her remaining solonie from all them re.
strictions (the navigation lee essepted, ter a taw seethe
)anger) which formerly impeded their ineememuse with
forties countries. To the dbriplee of Mee Smith, the old
wpm's, must be entrusted the task of eniersim the appal-
s:stem of the free trade principle to our Muleshoe with our
eolooics, and we trust they will at oars Is tie the flag of col-
osial reform.