The Express.
London, England, 1849-12-27 00:00:00

MR GODLEY'S LETTER
COLON ON TYE GOVERN-
MENT OF THE lES.

TO THE EIGHT HON. W. E. GLADSTONE, M.P.
Plymouth, Dee. 12, 1849.
MI DIMS Mk. CILX/MXOdl-0a the eve of laving Bog-
land for one of out most distant colonies, I cannot resist the
desire of saying a few words before I go, to the British
public, on Pao 'abject of colonial politico, under the new
semi which they have lately assumed ; • subject in which
I ban keg been neadatively interested, and in which I
am now neat to snake a deep sad immediate personal
someses. And I have ventured, with your kind permission
to prefix your same to my observations ; not from any m-
samed assordsnee between your views and my own, lnat
simply been's, m you seem to me to he the one among our
lesUag statesmen who has most folly coma? ered the qua.
tin of colonial reform, so you an the one mat likely to
nreekte sad amperage the humblest effect to advance
WM.
Jalgieg, indeed, teemthe 'peones whin yen have made
during the lea two esseises, and from the lin of conduct
which you thiak it right to adopt with reference to this
quesdem, I lake that you do not agree with
me ; that is, that you are far from astatinued
se highly as I do the danger which threatens our
gessad the mesamity ofinestiag it promptly by moseures
cifeemert reform. If pea did, I feel lure (from my faith in
your pentodes& and public spirit) that, waiving all con-
'Westing of a permed sad piety asters, you would and
forth es the setive ehampion of those bearskin remedies by
whisk elan the disarm which is coundeg our greatness
can now be eared. I coofidently, perhaps presumpts-
oul but my sonv ia have at least not ben formed
without meth thought and observation. My occupations
have for some time past thrown me into habitual intercourse
with emicalan perenelly, and soptaintaece with the various
organist animist *aka. No one has had better oppor
aides of off reskilag the inmates cheap which has lately
Qes .kaki mind, and the tarn hopelessness of
sand*, it mew with " padual instalments" of freedom.
A year or two ego I thought, as perhaps you think now, that
though a system so absurd in tUuy, end so unsuccessful
in prunes as that by which our -W.o are ruled, must
break down comet or lent still it might last indefiaitely
—for ten emus to ems, Ponape for twenty ; and that
our stores might 'ably be directed to a gradual &mellow
tin of it. lam now maenad that I was wrong ; the nal
dagger h, not that the despotism of the Colonkl-fee
wfli
lea tem or twenty years—not that the colonists will be ep-
premed by ft be ea indefinite time to come—but that it
may last jest long enough to break up the British empire i
a consummation whit*, at the pant rate of progreas, will
not perhaps take • great deal MOM than ten or twenty
mouths. I should be very. glad now to be as sure that
the flag of my country will not be hauled down during
my lifetime in any part of the Queen's dominions, as I
em tint the hours of " Idr. Mothereountry's " reiga are
numbered. The point, therefore, which I am most anxious
to urge upon you, as upon all colonial reformers is,
that whereas they have hitherto pleaded in the it
as they thought, of entering colonies alone, they
must sow plead in the interests of British honour and British
supremacy ; that mimeses the alternative has hitherto cep
to be between keel seltgovernment and the cestra-
=Olt Dowsing-Mese, mow it is between local ealf-govera-
meat and nationl independence. Many causes have costa.
bated to this change in the aspect of the question ; bat the
chid of them are these—first, the increased smog* of the
soled's, or rather (perhaps) their increased facedown"' of
strength • sad secondly, the growth in England of •
school holding the doctrine that the colonies ougeotled
abandoned. As lam anxious to avoid even the semblance of
writing in a party spirit, I forbear to enlarge on the Wasik'
imparted to the °porno& of both them causes by the pear
vering mismanagement to which the colonies have bees of
late subjected ; but it would be mere affectation to ignore
altogether an influence so undeniable and so important.
Oa the no head, I my, the colonists have acquired an
increased confidence in their ewe strength ; a confidence
derived not only from the knowledge that their material
ensures' :are syearly increasing, but also from the moral
power which is imputed by the experience of successful
conflicts. Net only loss the Colontal-office received many
damaging defeats of late, but it has so titan its matinee
and its coacessions as to give precisely the utmost possible
encouragement to colonial revolt. Canada, for example,
gained by rebellion nearly all for the sake of which she
rebelled, and which during yeas of peaceful agitation she
had bare refused • and she is now given to understand very
plainly, by official people, that tst of her demands
will be be
granted, if she apply in a similar
way. New South Wales, too, has more than
once within the last two years repulsed the
aggressions of the alma' minister. But the turning-poiat
of the conflict I consider to be the incemsful resistance of
the Cape of Good Hops. It is morally impossible the
that
authority of Downing-street over the colonies can long sur-
vive the shock which it hand received in South Africa-. That
small and feeble, but high-spaded dependency, has taught •
lesson which others, more powerful at once and more ag-
grieved, will not be slow to learn. The machinery which
she has employed for her special purpose may be employ
by any other colony for any other purpose with respect to
which the colonists shall be at issue with the impeand go-
vernment ; and, if equal energy and unanimity be displayed,
with equal sums. It will be used to obtain immunity
from convict emigration in every shape ; to acquire load
self.gineennant, or even to
old, independeuce. Fortified
places we may continue to h and naval stations ; but I
think it is henceforth established that we cannot govern, or
eves occupy. • distant colony permanently without the con-
sent of its population. It would be useless to deny that
these facts, and the knowledge of them prevailing among
culosists, are very dangerous under present ciedamstances to
thestability of the empire.
Oa the other hand, a political school has grown up in this
country which is supposed to advocate the abandonment of
colonies, on the ground that they do not " ray." I say sup-
posed to advocate, because I do not knew that the doctrine
has yet been distinctly stated and fatly avowed. Still there
is no moral doubt of its being in fact held, goof its being in
manna with the general tone views pro-
cleaned by • powerful and Wanting class of
English paiticians. With those who entertain this
anti imperial doctrine, I need hardly tell you that I feel no
sympathy ; but I cannot help perceiving how formidable it
is, bemuse it falls in with the positive and material character
of the age, and especially with the habits of thought pre-
vailing among the now very powerful middle classes of this
country. Moreover, I se* manifold grounds for believing
that statesmen of far higher position and greater nark (some
from spite, and more from indolence) regard the pmeibitho utility
of • separation between England and her colonies w
any kind of dissatisfaction. "Mr. Mother-country" is of
opinion, no doubt, that if our colonial empire is not toe
b
kept as a toy for him to play with, it is not worth keeping at
all. On the whole, them, it appears to me that we are on
the eve of what may truly be called • revolution is our co-
lonial relations; bad that during the next year or two, in all
probability, it will be decided shyether " the British empire"
sa to endure and to grow, hitherto grown, for an
indefinite time to come, or whether it is to shrink by a
rapid progress of disintegration into the dimension of two
small islands. Now, aithough to me, an intending colonist,
this consideration is one of deep and momentous import, it
will appear, I fear, to a large portion of my countrymen, a
matter of comparative indifference. There are powerful and
popular menus woo will aeon inquire openly, as they now
do by implication," What shall we lose by separation ? If,
as you say, colonies are no longer to be used sa fields of
official petratage—ao longer to be debarred, for our profit,
from the commerce of the world—no longer to be made re-
ceptacles for the surplus population of our gaols—if, in nut,
their proper functious are to be henceforth undischargT
"ed,
what, we beg leave to ask, is the good of colonies ?his
will soon become the question of the day; and it is one for
which it behoves us to prepare betimes an answer.
The best argument, perhaps, against separation is to be
found in the strength and prevalence of • moral instinct
which 'epeeists do sot recognise, and which they hardlytruth un-
derstand, though they beer a sang testimony to its
in the remarkable releases. which they manifest to avow
their doctrines. A true patriot personifies and idealises his
country. and rejoices in her greatness, her glory, and her
pre.eininenos, as a loving son would exult us the triumphs
of • parent. Dandle's, such greatness and glory may be
too dearly bought; but that Is not the question. I eay that,
independently of reasoning, they are felt to posies' a great
and seal, although an immaterial value, and that they are
the more keenly se felt in the most noblest
periods of a
Nay,
I and by the best and noblest of its sons.
understood—th'tNa,
I maintain that the love of empire, properly
is, the instinct of self developarat and expansion—is an un-
failing sympton of lusty end vigorous lite in a people ; and
that, subject to the candidata of pasties and humanity, it is
not sal y Imitimate, but most laudable. Cate& I am, that
the decline of such a talkie is always the molt, not of ma-
enad wisdom or enlarged philanthropy, bat of luxurious im-
becility and selfish sloth. When the Roman sagas retreated
across the Daudet, not the loss of Dads but the satisfactiem-
ofon the Regan people at the lore was omen of
pire's fell. Or, to take an illustration nearer home, it is
usquetionable that, notwithstanding the disgreeeful circm-
stance ander which America was torn from the grasp of Eng-
land, we watered less in prestige and in strength by that ob-
stinate and disastrous struggle, than it, lite the soft triumvir
we had " lost a world, and been content to lase it." De-
pend upon it, the instinct of national pride is sound and
true; and it is no foolish vanity which makes Englishmen
shrink from the idea of peeing their country diminished and
humbled in the eyes of the world.
But the cue of those who defend the preservati of our
esieedes does not rest oa any such instinct alone ;on it rests
dm at porketly tangible and material grounds. I will ad-
mit, for the sak- of argument, that oar trade with the coke
eke might not outer by separation, though I have lit•le
doubt in fact that it would. A certain kind of emigration,
too, such as that which now prooeeds to the United States,
would of course go on. But there would be no good colo.
ideation : no English gentianen—indeed few Englishmen of
any clam who were not bad specimens of it—would delibe-
rately renames their allegiance, and place themselvesdu in
to
a
position where they might be called upon, by their ty
their adopted country, to fight against the country which gave
them birth. They would not consent to stand towards their
Mem& and kindred in the relation of " foreigners;" they
wield never give up the name, the rights, and the privileges
of Englishmen. This may be a very foolish and uophilao-
Wad feeling; but experience as Awl as theory shows that
kis entertained : and consequently, by making "
ementries" of our colonies, we should cut off on forei
gn
Mud the bat part of the British nation from colonisation,
end on the other we should abar.don the Pain duty of build.
fig up society in its best form throughout those wide re-
gions which are destined, to be peopled by our descendents
We should deliberately rovide for the construction of hos-
tile democracies out of the worst of the materials which
soarer the Beulah people.
Again, the union of the provinces which make up the Bri-
tish empire mastitates a positive element of matetial

strength. it is perhaps true, that now the value of our
calming may be counterbalanced by their coat ; but such has
been thecsee only since the invention of the Coloniatoffitse—
thai is, since we have made colonies effeminate by our pro-
tection and disaffected by our tyranny. The early British
colonies cuitributed largely, both in men and money, to the
military expenses of the imperitl treasury ; they fitted tut
privateers to destroy the Commerce of the common enemy ;
nor did they confine themselves to the defence of their own
territory against aggression, bat single-headed they cos-
entered and kept new realms for Ragland. Why should we
doubt that modem British 040aird, if allowed similar
liberty, would show meal loyalty ? Their imperial
patriotism is a thing of which we at home
have • bat • faint Ides. Until they are spoiled by
bad government, they delight in their connexion with Eng-
land, they worship the British flag, their eyes fill with tests
at the thought of " home," and their highest bout is the
share they claim in the triumphs of English literature, arts,
and arms.
But, notwithstanding their good natural dispositions
towards us, there is one thing which colonists will not en-
dure at our hands—and that is, being governed Mal
Downing-street. They would not be Englishmen if they
did. By a steady and persevering course of distant govern-
ment we do sunned in destroying, to a easy great extent,
the love et mother °pantry, and implanting in its place •
holies which is peculiar to colonies governed from home, •
(relies made up of jealous dislike and cowardly dependence.
But this is factitiously engendered, and would disappear with
the causes that produced it. The normal sentiment of colonists
towards England greatly resembles that felt by ourselves
towards oar lOTUOlial. We should not like them to govern
us ; but so long as they abstain from that, our affection for
them is not only enthusiastic, but deep and real. We rejoice
in their joys, and sympathise with their sorrows, as matters
in which we have a personal interest; nay, I hilly believe
that there are net many individuals in this aslant who would
hesitate to sacrifice property and life in order to save the
Queen from indignity or danger. Of a like allure is the
feting which oolenista cherish for an ideal England; and I
moult oak those who hold that its existence and mainte-
nance are of no importance, whether loyalty such as I have
described (and such as is perfectly consistent with a determi-
nation to be calf-governed) does not exercise • powerfal and
ennobling influence on the national character and national
history of Ragland ?
It may poem that I have unnecessarily insisted on the de-
sirableness of the colonial connexion sad that I should have
better employed my time in explaining and defending the
practical means which I would propose for preserviag it. I
ilo not think so, however ; and I am sure time will show
that lam right. I am nut going to waste arguments in
support of the municipal system as applied to colonial ge-
-1 yerstencut, because, in fact, everything has been slid that
I can be said on that aide of the emotion, whilst literally no-
I thing worth notice has been said on the ether. Beside', we
really have pasied the argumentative stage in *impart of the
business. That the central system, whether right or wrong,
will be speedily abolished, no man with a grain of political
be much mere seriously deband—namely, that seek • which
awyiel 1.
freesethereforeesulitghort
aces,
codiroidaonnuedbtiot.mayloalf roteurpetoooaurtliinbniatt
atehpmeropoirpnl;sioaqruonnesotitohnicl
I remains to be settled is whether its abolition shall be the
laden is neither unavoidable nor deeirable, but pre-eminently
the reverse.
Bat it is necessary for me to state what I mean by local
self-government, as the phrase, though hacknied, has been
much abused. Ido not mesa, then, mere Dowers of paving
and lighting and road making; nor the privilege of initiatory
legislation ; nor the liberty of making subordinate official sp-
pointments ; I do net mean a regimen involving the TWITS.
don of civil lists or the interposition of vetoes, or any other ot
thou provisions in virtus of which ministers in Dawning-
[ street are the habit of interfering with the internal concerns
of colonies, I mean by local sallgovernment, the right and
power to d6,withia the limits of each colony reap actively, w ith-
out cheek, control, or intervention of any kind , e ye ry tine g that
the supreme government of this country can do within the
limits of the British Islands—with one exception. I allude
to the prerogative of regulating relations with foreign powers.
This one prerogative, the concentration of which is essential
to imperial unity, the colonists themselves would gladly tee
reserved, in exchange for the privilege and the security of
being identified with the empire; but more than this it is
nether beneficial nor possible for us to retain. I need t ardly
say that my idea of self government includes the power of
making and altering local cthstitutious. We ought not, I
am sure, to impose upon the colonists any form of govern-
ment whatever, even to start with. When we shell have
duly authorised them to act for themselves, our function with
regent to their internal affairs should end. Paper constitu-
tions, drawn up by amateurs without personal interest in the
subject, never answer. All the best of the old colonial con-
stitutions were framed by the colonists; and while many of
them have endured with hardly an alteration, for more than
200 years, all of them, whether altered from the originals or
not, give (being home made) perfect satisfaction to those
who live under them. I have yet to hear of a colonial-office
constitution which has lasted 10 years. or given a moment's
satisfaction to any one but the doctrinaires who drew it. I
define, then, the proper conditions (as they appear to me) of
a colonial relation to the mother country in three terms.-1,
an acksowledged allegiance ; 2, a commen citizenship ; 3, an
offensive and defensive alliance. Less than these it is idle to
offer, because to these, atter whatever struggles, we shall
acme at last; only that if granted after struggles, and not
freely, they will perhaps lose all their efficacy.
As a matter of course, colonies enjoying, es those of New
England did, the perfect administration et their own affairs,
ought not to cost the mother-country a shilling for their
government ; and I am confident that, l:ke Massachusetts
and l'eansylvania of old, they would regard total pecuniary
independence of the mother country as an important means
of preserving their municipal privileges.
There is. I suppose, little doubt that even the colonial
office will think it necessary to " do something " in the way
of colonial reform next year; nay, that what they do will be
in advance on the absurd eures proposed last region ;
'but I cannot bring myself mob lieve that they will do any-
I thing "thorough,' and I moat earnestly hope that the
I friends of the colonies will not be satisfied with anything
11 less. We must hear no more of " gradual ameliorations ;"
1 things have gone much too far for experiments and instal-
I menu ; and the session after next it may be too
I late to reform. I conclude by Doric is g, that
if to you at home the issue of this impending struggle
be a matter of comparative indifference I can answer,
for it that to British colonists it will appear one ot absolutely
vital moment. For my own pert, I can only say, that though
I might consent, in spite of reason and experience, to live in
I a colony permanently governed by a minister in London, I
would neither do so myself, nor ask others to do so, if the co-
lony we founded were destined during our lifetime to be se-
parated from the mother country. It is in the hope of seeing
the only means adopted by which you can avert such a con-
summation that I now leave England.
Believe me, my dear Mr. Gladstone,
JOHN yours very faithfully,
ROliEar GODLZT.

THE NEW ACT TO AMEND Tlll LAWS FOR THE
ENCOCHAOEMINT OF Battiest SHIPPING AND NAVIGATION.
—On Tuesday next the new act to repeal the existing navi-
gation laws will come into force. From and after Monday
next various goods from foreign countries will be admitted
into our ports under the new custom regulations. There are
22 sections in the act thrallng a number of laws and making
new regulations with regard to commerce imported into or
exported from the United Kingdom. both in respect to the
coasting trade sad to our colonies. The subject of recipro-
city forms an important feature in the new law. It
is provided by several sections that in case it
shall be made to appear to her Majesty that
British vessels are subject in any foreign country
to any prohibitions or restrictions as to the voyages in which
they may engage, or as to the uncles which they may im-
port into or export from such country, it shall be lawful for
her Majesty, if she shall think fit, by order in canned. to im-
pose such prohibitions or restrictions upon the ships of each
benign country, either as to the voyages In which they may
engage, or as to the articles they may import into or export
from any part of the United Kingdom, or of any British pos-
-1 sessions in any part of the world, as her Majesty may thick
fit, so as to pace the ships of such country on as nearly as
possible the same footing as that on which British ships are
placed in the pore of such country. Her Moirety may im-
pose additional duties on foreign ships, and piece other re-
striction' on vessels, so as to countervail for the
disadvantages arising from the noneadmisaioa of
articles of this country into foreign places. The orders in
council are to be advertised in the London Gazelle, and laid
before parliament. They are to specify the ships to which
they apply, and may be revoked at any time her Majesty
shall think fit. A I goads is ported contrary to the provisions
of this act are to be foe felted, and the master of the vessel
liable to a penalty of 1001. There are several provisions
respecting the coasting trade of the country, and Bri,ish
ships. It also contains a form of registry for British ships,
and provisions as to the employment of British seamen in
certain cases. The set is entitled, "An act to ameud the
laws in force for the encouragement of British Shipping and
Navigation."
ACCIDENT ('N THE MANCHESTER, SHEFFIELD, AND
LINCOLNBII IRA RAILWAY. —On Wednesday two men,
aimed W. O'Brien, sged 31, and James Kennedy, aged 20,
were killel by the op-train which is due at Gainsboroogh at
p.m. It appears from the evidence given before the coro-
ner, that these men were bricklayers' labourer, and that
they had been serving the bricklayers who were building
some cattle pets at filiation le.Steeple station, where the
fatal catastrophe occurred. Mr. Spilling., tho staion mu-
ter, on perceiving the approach of the train, hoisted a red
flag, with the intention of stopping • luggage traia whisk
was coming from Osinsborough, so that • horse•box might
be attached to it; but the engineer whistled, which i,.dicated
that he caned not bring up the train as it was so beevily
loaded. Mr. Spilling. no sooner was aware of this than MI
motioned his wife to hold up the green flag, warnieg the
driver to proceed cautiously. When this took he
was et the points, ready to turn the train on to a siding
where the horse box was. The luggage train was prueeeding
at the rate of five miles an tour. The two unfortunate men
(one of whom resides at Retford), en per:,eitiiig the train
proceed so slowly, threw down their tools, ad von towards
it, purposing, it is believed, to get on os.e otn the
tide to Retford. Mr. Spillings called to them to g.t cut of
the way, or ttey would be killed; they either did not hear,
or they paid no attention, for he bad no sooner sail ti.is
words than a train was up et them, coming in col i-iun with
both. 0.. e of the poor fellows was outied a die-Roe, ot 17
or IS yards f;om where he came in contact with the 'rein.
He was finally depoaited in a culvert. Tory were IRA
terribly cu ii sted ; one bad the back part of hi, head driven
in, end the other had his forehead knocktd in by t! e eepine
and one of his legs was shockingly lacerated. O'Brien has
left a wife and two children to lensing his keg. No blame
was attached either to the station master or the engiae-
drivers. Kennedy was terribly nsiktilated by being run.
over. . ,

Apr •1 •P
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