The Express.
London, England, 1850-01-17 00:00:00

ante enweoo.

OUTGOING MAILS.
Ths mails for Gibraltar, Malta, Gn yes, the I oaks Islands,
Mope, Ceylon, India, and Ch', eta Southamptos, will
be made up on the teenier of Jos. 19.
no math via Marseilles, to the blediterraasen, Bee.
Ceylne, ladle, Hoag-Soot, La, will be mad* up ea the
eveniog of Jan. 24.
The nails for British North Americo sad the United
States will he made up on the evening of ho. 25.
The mails for Lisboa, Bras, end Gibraltar wall be made
up oa Jan. 27.
TM West India Mails, ioelodisi Bermuda, Martinmas,
Meman, Handierus, Now Orleans, and Illszioo, end 'li:shading
Moos for Madeira, St. Juan-tholfiewreirna, Now Granada,
Chill, end Peru, will he made np ea Feb. 2.
Tie Mani for Moder* the BraeUs, and Basso Aree,will
be made up patio evening el Feb. 4.

MOOR •QTR AT LONDON 141111DOlL
Tar nah —/Arahnsg. 4h. go. Alterhom. 4h. 41,..
1.4-sheso*-111441A141. MN.. AllAnsea. 4 I. Iheh

LONDON, THURSDAY, JANUARY 17.

---
Fame a multiplicity of symptoms we are warranted
to hope that the government arrangements " for pro-
moting emigration." as they are fttietilialy
will have to undergo, during the approaching Win=
of parliament, a thorough sifting. 'Mr. SIDNEY HER.
szter's benevolent effort in behalf of the distressed
needlewomen, the etforts of the Society for the Pro-
motios of Emigration, and many other simultaneous
independent movements show that the emigration
question has taken a strong hold of the oatmeal
imagination.
Tee machinery of the central department of colo-
nial government in Downieg-street is, take it for
all and all, as comical • state engine as the wit of
man ever devised. but the excrescence, the pawrasitical
plant or fungus, which has of late years grown out of
It and maned the de-eignstion of the "Colonial Land
and Emigration Commission" is infinitely the most
curious thing about it.
The Colonial-office governs the colonies. True,
there are ministers reinicing in the titles of Colonial
Seeretaty and Coder Secretary. but they are managed
by the office, no: the office by them. They are placed
osteesibly at the head if the Office which acts as vice-
roy over them. They come into their plat s in the
routine of piny seniority, without knowing anything
about the col inks, and they step out of them, on the
path of upward promotion or downward dismissal, be-
fore they have time to learn anything. While in
place, they do as the Office bids them. Now, the Office
et composed of a number of clerks, who know nothing
of the colonies beyond what they find in the despatches
of governors, which it is their business to arrange,
sad register. and sometimes abridge or amalgamate
into memorials. They are registrars, and nothing
more. Of any knowledge of the men and communi-
ties with whom they have to deal, or with the prin-
ciples °politics and commerce, they are utterly inno-
cent. The Colonist-office is an attempt to govern by
the art of book-keeping.
This is absurd enough, but the Colonial Land and
Emigration Board is a greater ab.nrdity still. Some
dozen years ago the colony of South Australia was
founded under an act of parliament, upon the prin-
ciple that no waste land was to be conveyed in pro-
perty to private individuals except by sale, and that
the produce of the lard sales, or the greater part of
it, was to be employed to pay fur tree passages to the
colony for labourers. The comMilliioLers under the
act for managing the affairs of the colony got
into difficultiel; government took the colony into
its own hands; and the commissioners became govern-
ment officers. Tue Colonial Office extended the prin-
ciple of land sales and free passages to all the other
Australian colonise and talked of doing so to the
colonies of the North American and West Indian
groups, and the Cape of Good Hope. The commis-
sioners of land and emigration tor the colony of
South Australia were promoted, in title at least, to
be commissioners of land and emigration for the
colonies generally. Superintendents of emigrants at
the day; ent ports had been appointed some time be-
fore ; they were placed under the direction of the
new board. •
But the dis sell of lands in our Nor:h Ame-
rican colonies had previously been vested in the local
governments. In most of the We.t India colonies the
lands had been all granted away, and foe the rest
each an emigration of free labourers as was contem-
plated in setting aside the land fund to provide free
passages for emisrants of that clam was out of the
question. The commissioners were, de facto, re-
stricted to the Australian C.donies, and, with regard
to them they were co-fiued to the duties of register-
ing correspondence, and tarnishing reports when
called upon by government. The management of
colonial Lail and land funds was retuned by the
Office.
Of the manner in which the waste lands in our
colonies have been managed or mismanaged, and emi-
gration dealt with, we shall speak hereafter. It is
an important coneiderstion, but one which does not
fall in our way when discussing the Colonial Land
and Emigration Commissioners. The functions of
these gentlemen may be briefly described. When any
application is transmitted from a colony relative to
lands, or emigrants, or any matter therewith
connected, a letter is prepared in the Colo-
nial-office, signed by the Colonial Secretary, and
transmitted to the commissioners of colonial lands
and emigration. 'Ms letter rehearses the application
made, states that the colonial secretary thinks so or
so about it, and asks the opinion of the commissioners.
The commissioners. after • decorous pages, return
an answer recommending the course to be pursued
which the letter signed by the Secretary has shown
them they are expected to r.commend. Au answer to
the application num the colony is then issued from
the Colonial-office in the terms of this recommenda-
tion. To carry on such correspondence, to look out
and arrange documents when a blue book is called
for, to get up an annual report of the number of
emigrants to the colonies, and the sums realised by
land sales, and to return unmeaning answers to com-
plainants of misconduct in emigrant ships or appli-
cants for information about the colonies, are the du-
ties of the commissioners of colonial lands and emi-
gration.
The staff maintained for the discharge of these
onerous duties is sufficiently large, and sufficiently
wall paid. There are a secretary and three com-
missioners, who are paid, respectively, 8001., 1,0001.,
1,1001., and 1,200!. a-year, with " sundriee." They
have 12 clerks with salaries ranging from 801.
to 4001. per annum, and their " contingencies"
amount to seedy 9001. a-year more. Altogether the
ant of this board, as aopeara by the miscellaneous
atheists of 1849, amounts annually to 13,4511.
a which the lion's share, or 8.0001. a year, goes di-
:sew:lto the salaries and expenses of the staff. The
of this money, be it remembered, is charged to
the maw country : and let so me what the mother
genatzy gets for it.
Thismay be made to appear by °aspiring the amounts
of mosey raised for land sales and the number of
egolgreats sent to the colonies, with the disbursement
sad forwarding of which the commissioners have
nothing to do, with the sums expended upon their
establishment The fends raised by the gale of waste
lands in the gaieties betwees the years 1843 and 1848
inclusive samensted to somewhat less than a quarter
of • minks. We have the return in one of the latest
reports af the essemadimens. It is as follows :
1843
ttl44

Mb

160

1227,666

•
Doris( Ow one period, how many emigrants were
Ma oat to the eol,)&te ? Here is a return of the
alpsties to Anstralia and New Zealand :

1843
11
884441 . B3O
1348

Bo that for each pesos sent out—men, women,
and children, toAetbse--the Colonial Land Find
would appear to have paid at the rate of more than
281, per head, or twice u much as these emigrants
could have been Weep out fur as steerage poweregers
in any of the vessels which sail weekly from the ports
et the United Kingdom ! But the truth is that the
greater part of the land fund is ramrod to pay the
saiseise of government officers in the event of the
SOl _IN. raining rusty, and refusing the supplies.
It appears from this account that the people of
iii=are paying no less than fourteen thou-
meni a par to maintain a board which does
mit taU. charge of the expenditure of an annual average
ma of 60,00 W. On this calculation every And:slim