The National Register.
London, England, 1819-08-22 00:00:00

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Votitiral Ilettozperr.

THE grant of a lerge sum of money at the dose
of the late Session of Parliament, for the purpose of
encoureg'mg Emigration to the Cape of Good Hope,
fercibly stra.k us, at the time of its passing the Le-
gislature, ai one of those wretched and miserable ex-
pedients which have 60 *111,01)1.11;11y marked the policy
of our present Rulers, though the press of other
matter prevented us from then adverting to it ; and
our astonishment was still further excited at the lit-
tle opposition made to it, as a more impolitic or un-
neeessery waste of public money and of public
strength never was committed. It may now seem
late to be canvassing a measure decided on more than
a month ago, but the passing events of the day, and
Vie erroneous opinions so generally prevalent upon
siikject, may still render it not unworthy of at-
tent'on. A meeting was the other day held at
lese's to ta'ee Into consideration the pimple v of a
private subset-in:ion to aid the emigration of about
pee fiecntrand persone, belonging to that place. and
to flomish the stews of enabling them to quit their
native hind. Some, individual, however, had the
wielom to suggest that, it' times should mend, these
pmele would again be wanted, and the pniject ac-
cordingly was dropt. Several of the public Jour-
eels are also devoting their pages to the un-
worthy object of recommending both the general
principle te' suet' a system, and the application by
Government of the public Revenue in furtherance
of such a purrese. The Editor of the Times has
discovered that .e Colonization might to be regarded
as the feet cf all great objects ; for it is. in Clio en-
Inrging, the productive surface of the kingdom,
bringing into cultivatiou an immense extent of hi-
tl•.ertii barren territory, and reinforcing the soil of
3 neimel by another soil far more than equal to her
tee it extent, and beyond all calculation excelling
I ft. is fertility ." He has further discovered that
•.. too mat.y of our own waste lands at home 'have ix en
:c=reaky rendered productive, and the encreased
emetity acorn brought to the central markets has
ceeply injured the lower classes," and lastly, "that it 1
dreadful to observe how our peasantry have not
troy been kjured, but est/nu/shed by the inc.rorabk
dxti.ine that large capitals employed in Agriculture
ere the most profitable in their application." In a
publication so generally respectable and enlightened,
is was not without regret renit we found such a
.'ring of unwarrantable assumptions, idle nonsense,
and erroneous theories. These may be harsh terms,
but such reasoning deserves no better. We can
readily admit that the parent State of our society is
wrong, and requires correction; that the body po-
litic is sick, and loudly calls for heeling, But what
is the wisdom, or what the merit of that treatment,
whish, the moment a limb becomes disordered,
cruelly and inhumanly cuts it off, regardless of
either the blemishes or the impotence which may
follow foam its loss. With respect to Colonization,
we know that the great States of antiquity, in their
most flourishing periods, often permitted numerous
bodies of their subjects to leave their present coon-
try, and to form settlements as their own inclina-
tions led them ; nor wculd we now be understood
as whiting to prevent the same liberty of will and
octiole, here. But both Greece and Italy were in
very different circumstances at there periods from
what we are now placed in ; and there was farther
also this most itnportunt dissimilarity between their
policy in this point, and ours—that a band ofGreek
ur Itosnau adventurers quitted their country of their
own free will, and formed wherever they !leased to
settle, erealdidiments and laws, and institutions,
to ally iiidepeudent of the parent state: Every
thine was there left to find its own level, and the
whole interference of the Mother Country was
confined to a few acts of kindness and good-will to-
A rds those whom she still emnsidered as her chil-
dam What has Great Britain ever gained by all
the colouies she has either planted or possessed ?
I low many wars has her colonial policy led her to
ceeberk in ? How many acts of tyranny and oppress
sun has it led her to attempt to exercise, t.ll an
antheirity, ituwisdy exercl:ed, has pro-
and justified resistance and tsrtninated in
eleaticipatimi on one side and dby,race on the other ?
We may lavish our treasure upon cultivating the
wastes of Afiicn, and semi oar people to usurp and
eucreacli upon the territories of a peaceful and un-
o l'en.liog race of natives, bet let us nut at least be
t •hl that in so doing we are perseing a better po-
"ice then in cultivating drat soil to which !lateral
jr.sti,:.: gives us the best glider, and whieh on the
ether hand has surely the strongest claims epon our
care Bieiles which, are it it colonies the usuel
;ryas tor which all natiens ualtbrntly contend in
eor ? War give as the Capra, and the of
t eneeect has et:mine:el it in cur possession, bat the
alive that gave it ieay again just al;
t Os:: it away, or same ]'arum ToliiiiSter tray think a
fe%V thousand souls aml a batten country hardly
worth coatendin; for, ant 1 recommend its being
Eject: tei for ViZe tviv4;at. And is it item