The Express.
London, England, 1851-01-23 00:00:00

THE EXPENS, THURSDAY EilicNiNfik„ JANUARY 23, Ali

for the colony a serious disegreeniMia hoe
mein the local government and tbdcrmm e
The latter insist that the existi4o,4llfijilativ ,
cil shall only act as a ' anstftuent pie*
bly, and abstain fromet)ll parmaltaat Ele nos=
argent acts of legislation. Th. governor, ors-ttrir
other hand, has endeavoured to impetrate from it legis-
lative acts which would materially embarrass the
future legislature, and nentraliee its power of doing
good. Complaints are also made that the governor,
atter affecting to relinquish the appointment of
the non-official members to the community, has
endeavoured to pack it by nominating inaividtials
who received fewer votes than several gentlemen who
have been pissed over. With a few inconsiderable
exceptions, the whole South African community are
opposed to the governor on these matters. They have
I appointed reprerentativesto plead their cause in per-
: son with the home government. One of these is at
I present in this country, the other is detained in the
: colony by bad health, but has untqoivocally declared
his entire concurrence in the steps taken
by his fellow-colonists. The antecedents of Sir
ANDRIES STOCKENSTWEN render his conduct on this
oc,ariou particularly full of meaning. Government
have experimentally found I im to be one of those
likeable, well-meaning men, who, with an extreme
! craving for popularity, find it difficult, almost im-
possible, to say "no to men in office. When he
unreservedly and irrevocably takes part with the
public against government the torrent of public I
; opinion must indeed be irresistible. The Colonial-
office must therefore be aware that the South African
delegate who has arrived in this country speaks the
earnest and unalterable wishes of the whole comma-
;
city. And yet he her been received with studied
slight and disrespect—admitted only to a three
minutes' interview with the minister, and coldly in-
, formed that until an answer to despatches, sent off to
, the governor a few days before, bad been received, no
' communication could be held with him. . .

The lesson of the American revolution seems to be
utterly thrown away upon ministers. Tney have
forgotten, or they do not know, that the closing of the
' port of. Button was only the last drop that made the
coo of bitterness ovetflow—that the alienation of the
affections of one transatlantic countrymen • u the
work of years of supercilious oppression exercised
upon the colonists by the evil and military officers of
the mot^.er country. They have forgotten, or they
do not know, that FRANKLIN preserved, in all the
gloss of newness, the coat he wore when insulted in
the Privy Coosa, to appear In it at the signing of
the treaty of Paris.
Nor can it bo said that the treatment of the Cape
I colonists by Downing-street is an exceptional cue.
The medical awastaree which New York spontane-
ously rent to Jamaica wh. n decimated by the cho-
lira was reluctantly despatched by the Colonial-office
at the twelfth hour wi,h a callous re-assertion of the
opinion that it ba 1 nor.r been needed. Mr. Howe,
of Nova Scotia, Li at this moment in England seek-
, ing to promote measures for rendering the co-operation
of the mother country and the colonies in the de-
velopment of the mounts of the latter more *if:e-
`live: what countenance or er.emiragement has he
received from the Colonial-office? An organised
league to resist the con'inuance of convict transports-
] Lion to Van Diemen's Land at present agitates the
whole of our Australian settlement", with the excep-
tion of Swan River. Yet no attention is paid to it
in Downing-street; and the opportunity is embraced
to intimate to New South Wales new military ar-
rangements, moat proper in themselves, in a manner
' certain to be offensive and irritating to the col4nie
mind.

Were we then wrong, when we lately attributed, to
parties in this country connected with colonial ad-
ministration, a willingness to see the bonds which
twit* the c..iknies to ttc mother country ruptured,
net of sheer p qui at the pr, grealive curtailment of
official jobs and redaction of official Emoluments?