The Express.
London, England, 1850-02-08 00:00:00

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OUTGOING MAILS.
The nails fee British North Amid* sad the United
Stain will be egad' op this moles, Feb. 8.
The West lathe Mails. imeludies Bermuda Havannalt,
Names, Ho duns, New Orleans, sad Mesita, end iocludiug
tams for Madeira. St. Juan-tlaNiesresua, New Granada,
Chili, sad Pera.wlll be atadoup as Fab. 17.
in. snails for Lisbal, Spats, and (Abealter will be made
up on Feb. 17.
The mails tor Gibraltar, Malta, Orseat, the lonian Islands,
Egypt, Ceylon, India, and China, eia Southampton, wit'
be made ap os the morning of Feb. M.
The ■ails eel Marseilles, to the Mediterranean, Egypt,
C pins, ld a, Hoog.Koeg, &c., will be made up on the
evening of Feb. W.
-

The ;awls fur lisderia, the Brazils, and Buenos Lyres, will
4 Rade up oa the evening of March 4.

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LONDON, FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 8.

Tut liberal party in this country is accused of
holding the doctrine that colonies are not worth keep-
ing : we fear that it is not the liberals who have
arrived at this conclusion, bat the officials ; for most
certaisly to them, who have been taught, or been
wont, to consider colonies in a government point
of view, colonies are few of them worth keeping.
What were colonies good for, in the eyes of such
people ? They were good for taxation, good as a
field of patronage, or as a monopoly of trade. The
United States long since set the quettion of taxation
at rest. No colony of English population will allow
any revenue to be exported from it. Those who
desire it, must at least come to earn and consume
it on the spot in the shape of salary. And
even this can only be done by keeping up
an ascendancy party in the colony, gifted with the
monopoly of political power, and willing to share
it merely with a few sect out from Downing-street,
in return for the real government and influence in the
colony being entrusted to their hands. Bat America
is the great colonial reformer; acd while the United
States exploded the system of mother country taxa-
tion, Canada has exploded the system of governing
by a league between official and colonial toryism.
As to colonial free trade, that has carried itself.
Cho very distance of our colonies rendered it inevi-
table that they should supply their necessities and
make nee of markets in their own hemisphere. We
were unable either to coerce them or to pay them, four
being poli'ical and commercial enemies of their
nearest neighbour,.
All the good, therefore, that governments could
descry in colonies has passed, or is fast passing away.
And the great difficulty is, how are they to supply
the absence of the old official links, or how replace
them by some connexion more popular, more volun-
tary, more mutually beneficial, and more strong?
That this cur be found, we believe; but let us first
await Lord JOHN RVIIBILLL'S colonial programme.
England, however, has other lands subject to her,
not at all in the same category, and wrongly called
colonies. These are countries of populous and con-
quered races, where the Englishman is only permitted
to come as the master, the superintendent, the
policeman, or the official. These are countries
that know none of the rules or exemptions we have
spoken of. They are corria6le d merei. Toey can
be taxed for home purposes and for domestic caprice,
their trade, nay, their very soil, monopolised. To
talk of constitution or liberties connected with such a
people is idle. We bold power on the principles of
oriental despotism, which we wield as ruthlessly as
NICUOLAS; whilst our governors, we are told, are
very Havesue for flogging, confiscation, and murder.
What control have we for the present, or shall we
have for the future, to prevent such atrocities? None,
save that wielded by parliament anl its committees.
And the great effort of the Colonial-office, its secre-
taries, and its governors, is to cheat parliament, bam-
boozle its committees, screen the guilty, and put
truth under an extinguisher. How is truth to be
got at? It is quite plain, from the conduct of
Lord TOSIINOTON, that the first act of a governor
who has been guilty of cruelty from folly
or from cowardice, is to crush the local press, quash
local efforts to get up petitions, and build a thick wall
round the colony to prevent accusation from coming
forth. Send a commission of inquiry, urges a com-
mittee of the House of Commons. Impossible, ex-
claims the minister, you would discredit the govern-
ment. Send, then, a sufficient number of witnesses
home. Oh, yes. Yon shall have the secretary of the
colony to examine and one of the police magistrates.
But there are witnesses on the other side, whom it is
so advisable to hear. Oh, they cannot be spared; they
would cost too much to bring home; the colony could