The Express.
London, England, 1849-12-14 00:00:00

COLONISATION OF NATAL.

Mr. J. C. Byrne delivered a lecture yesterday
evening, at the Nunes] Hall, Holborn, on the subject of
the new colony of Natal. The rats wee very fully attended..
The colony of Natal was, he said, • portioa of South Aid*
over which British dominion had bees assumed within
the last five years. It was about the same size as fle*
land, comprising an area of tighten thawing
square miles. Oeigically the Dateb, who pommeled ohs
Cape of Good Hope, purchased a lave a quantity el hind
at Natal, of the native shish la the ithyt, INA Pled Mr
it the sum of 76 six Mien. The saw epee urea Ina•
smith of by Great Britain when Napa:sea arapiai Hol-
land, and afterwards surrendered to the Dutch. It was I
ultimately transferred to Great Britain by treaty at the
close of the war. Slue then the colony of the Caps of
Good Hope had remained la the poundal' of Great Britain,
but Great Britain did nothing to amass paused= of Natal;
she lest all to individual enterprise. Towards 1835, is ems-
nos of claims brought forward by the crown of Great
Britain, of various nada in the old Cape colony, the resi-
dent Dutch farmers became exceedingly assayed, anl
turned their attention to discover other lands, at
a distance from the colony, where they might settle
and remove from British connexion. A large deputation
of farmers were sent to explore the interior of Africa. They
permeated woes the Seedy Deserts and extensive moun-
tains sad found themselves, in Ave weeks, within the fertile
district of Natal. Tney ascertained its natural capability,
and reported so favourably of it to their fellow-countrymen,
that in four yeses upwards of 7.000 Dutch boors were settled
then. They expelled the Zulus. In 1844 Natal became
British propert sad a governor end &military force were esta-
blished there. Minerals existed in abundance; iron was [thud
ell over the country, and the present native population, the
refugee native population, melted these minerals, converting
the iron into agricultural implements. Coal of a very sups-
ritr description existed in various puts of the Plum-
begs, tapper @MI AIM also existed. At present there we,.
only two towns; the chief was Pieter, Merit:burg, and the
seaport town Derby. Pieter Merit:brag had a population of
2,000 nuts, exclusive of 460 troops, who vire stationed there
There were five places of worship ; two of the Duch re-
formed church, one Wesley's'', one Baptist chapel, and on.
t.mporary Church of England place of worship. The inha•
blunts of Derby did riot exceed 600, but it was rapidly in-
creasing. There existed at present no aboriginal titles
in Natal. He (Mn. Byrne) had been the firA to
propose to the British government to give the men tf
smelt means land at Natal, in return for the money expended
for the passage of themselves and families. Stich a principle
had n been recognised before by our colonial govern-
ment; they only held out advantages to the man of large
capital, and the man who poaseued nothing at all. Now,
every adult who proceeded to the colony could get steerage
passiga for 101. and 20 acres of land in fee, children under
14 yean of age being charged and counted as halt.
Therefore a man with his wife and two adult children
would get 80 acres of land for 401. In Natal cotton
was produced of vary Barrio, quality, and within
the last few weeks the indigenous cotton had been
sold in Manchester for 81. sad 611. • pound. Same
had been sold as high as 1416. per pound. It wu, per-
haps, the strongest fibre that was ever seen. Why should they
not proceed to this country in thousands ; they had nothing
to fear from the natives; their very existence was mixed up
with our dominion, and they only required'. be tinted kindly.
Alter replying to some questions put by persons
in the meeting,
_Mr. Byrne expressed his nope that the in.
formation ha had given was satisfactory, and was greatly
cheered.

A PROTECTIONIST ON FREE TRADE AND

FINANCIAL REFORM.

At the annual meeting and exhibition of the Cal.
lington Agricultural Association, which was held at Ceiling-
ten on Wednesday, Mr W. H. P.Cerew, M.P., remarked
in the course of a long speech, that their party, whatever
they might be in the country, in the legislature were in the
minority, and, therefore, had no chance of reco • g pro-
tection U proposed; no man could believe that there was
et plesollA the shadow of • chimes, bat supposing they
SW NOS It by a chance vote, or by any combination
d piety, hei believed that it woad be making bad still
muse, to pain protection and lose it again 'very speedily
allerwerels. (Hear, heir.) In adverting to the various
females for low pekes, the hon. member proceeded to say
local taxation, was certainly one of the burdens they bed the
best chance of relieving themselves of. He had even heard
the question mooted as to whether they might not thro v the
whole of the taxation on the Consolidated Fund ! Any
scheme of that kind, believer, Milli end in national bank-
ruptcy. It was impossible to get persons effectually to sad-
sister the public funds imless they had • personal interest In
the matter. He thought Mr. Disraeli had hit off the thing es
well es he could in proposing that hell of it should be borne
by the Consolidated Fund, because the interest would he the
same. Now he was most anxious that under these circum-
stances they should be united u a body to demand these re-
' duties' of their burdens. The landlords had not been united,
Ifs Mast farmers bed not been united, and the labeurt r
bed se vo's in the state, except through their represens
Sam. The next point which he had thought war fairly
open to attack, was the official salaries. He could not coo-
save how the present government could have had the
fire to refuse to reduce the official salaries. Ho+ often had
they been duelling Into their (the people's) ears, that they
were all to save by free trade—all were to live cheaper by
It—one shilling was to go as far as five formerly dd. How,
after each promises, they could refuse to reduce their salaries,
he could not tell. (Hear, hear.) He should not despair, when
they had inch a good cause to uphold. The third point
which he thought they might cry out for, and with • chance
of betterment, was the ctioniel administration. He referred
to the expenditure of the government of the colonies ; they
not only paid the governors, but they had to support an
army and navy for men. He thought this not only unne-
curare, bet that it acted injuriously, by causing the
colonies to be disaffected ; but of the Anglo-Saxons he had
such an opinion, as to believe that they would be better con-
nected with Englend, and that the army, tic., might be re
dead, and the colonies had more of their own government
located in themselves. He made reference to Canada end
the Cape es illustrating this part of his subject, end then
continued: Another just demand of thsirs was. that the
income tax should be placed on a foie footing, for what could
be more arbitrary than the present plan of levying the tex
on half the rents of the farmer, without leaving them an
opportunity of proving or disproving the assumption on
which the tax was made. It had been said if they were to
remove this item from the taxation they would be reducing
the revenue, and consequently their own chance of relief;
but he thought It was their duty to persist in this, and it'
would be the duty of the minister to provide for the revelmo
by another tax (bear, bear) since justice compelled them to
repel this one • and, after all, the minister might think it
just es well to get the tax from the foreigner as from
them. (Cheers) After some further observations, Mr. Can w
continued : He should like to say • few words on a subject
I which he thought worthy of much consideration. He could
not help hoping, and thinking that they were suffering now
from • panic. (Criss of " No, no.") Well, he thought so.
(" No, no," repeated, and some alight interruptions of the
hon, speaker folbwed; on the cry of "chair, chair," and
" hear, hear," silence wee restored, end the speaker resumed.)
He was satisfied that a great deal of corn and cattle was car•
vied to market earlier than it naturally would have been—
(A Voice: "Yes, to pay the rent")—well, it might be to
pay the rent, or for went of money; bat he did think that if
• tenant went to his landlord and represented to him Met it
would be convenient to have IMO little time allowed him
for the payment of his rent, end if he could prove that by •
little forarenee, he would be able to ply though at the
present he wee unable, the landlord would refrain from
pressing the payment of thereat. (A ery " Where has it been
so ") Then at least, Übe did not effoed IMO time be would
in Dome measure reduce the rent. They were suffering now
from the great reiuction of employment ; it wee the calm
after the storm, it was since the railway fever they were
suffering from the withdrawal of all the lines which bad
afforded employment; were these works resumed, he had no
doubt the price of beef would immediately rise. It was well
known that those navvies ate 20th.. of beef per man per week
(laughter), aid he bad no doubt that the high prsce of meet
was raised by the consumption made by the navvies. He
wished to see the landlord and tenant %mitt& they
ought to be friends, and to feel themselves de-
pendent on. neon the other. In concluding, he thanked
them for the kindness they had shown him, audit' e dif-
fered from them, he hoped they would agree

ACCIDENT FROM PLATING WITH GUNPOWDER.—
A distressing accident from Olivia( with gunpowder occurred
on Sunday morning to two children, the nine and infant
son of Mr. Thorpe, poulterer' Weetsrwroad, Hove. The
girl, aged about 14, was desired to light the fire in the par-
lour behind
boy five the
years old,p when she proposed to her eximpinion
a little to " have a game with some gun-
powder," eiwhich she had founds flak Ina desk among ease
old pipers. She shook noose over the fin, and the flame
immediately rushed into the East, trolling the powder,end
bending the leek, which exploded with a loud noise. The
aided dad wee frightfully burnt about the arms and neck,
sal vs esaveyel to the hospital, where she brill suffering
seventy. TM Bide bey was also mash burnt in the face,
sad lees his eyeholes, sad has hen men ea leo delirious
ah
ewe liner. The isak had set bees seed for three
7011 n. 'sad Kr. ad forgotten It was la the roma
The desk wee tbe key Isseetag bees blared by
some works.a trees of the irk remiss, so
grist we the km al the explosim—Brighton Cluariews.
8110CRING OCCURRENCE AT BAltelAT's BaIVZRT.
—IAN evening, at 7 o'clock, a wßained William Fraser,
a emote at Messrs. Barclay's brewlsouse, whikt at work in
isedieg a east with bet hope hem the vat in whisk they are
balled hal amiss to walk slept a plank, wad is se &kg
be MI kW die belffilS
desadilsl aseseg hot boa sad yes mead fa a very
, as wee ultra sae asi girded in St.
= Revital, when he awe lies k a *odds; stale at