The Sun.
London, England, 1849-04-16 00:00:00

COLONIAL EXPENDITURE.

Mr. SCOTT then rose to move for a Select Committee
to inquire into the political and financial relations be-
tween Great Britain and her dependencies, with a view
to reduce the charges on the British Treasury, and to
enlarge the functions of the Colonial Legislatures. He
said he owed an apology to the House for venturing to
bring so important a subject under consideration,
because when he remembered that no allusion

was made to it in the Speech from the Throne,
he felt that the subject became one of too much
importance to be dealt with by an humble Member
like himself. When he remembered, too, the divi-
sion of opinion which existed in the House on
the subject, he felt that he ought to shrink
from introducing the question, but, on the other hand,
wheu he recollected the interests which were involved in

the prosperity of our colonial empire, he could
not help thinking that it behoved every man, how-
ever humble his station and ability might be, to
endeavour to bring about a better system of government
for the colonies than at present existed.—(Bear.) The
number of our colonies was somewhere between 40 and 50,
while they were about forty or fifty times as large as the
British empire; our exports to these colonies were far
greater than the exports to all the other parts of the
world put .together. Our tonnage and shipping trade
was the same, for in 1845, while the tonnage to
foreign ports amounted to 2,250,0001., the tonnage
to colonial ports was no less than 3,170,0001. The
present expense of governing the colonies amounted to
no ltss than .5,600,0001. The population of the
colonies,
.half of whom were negroes and other
coloured races, was five millions. Now, it
was said that this country was extravagantly taxed;
but if that were so, as no doubt it was, the colonies had
double cause for complaint, inasmuch as the population
of these countries amounted to 30,000,000, and the tax-
ation to 24,000,0001.,. giving only 16s. a head, while the
population. .of the colonies being 5,000,000, with
5,600,0001. of taxes, gave as much as 28s. per head.
Now it did appear to him to be a subject worthy of in-
quiry whether the enormous cost of governing our
colonies was owing to the extensive tracts of

continent which We possessed in Asia, in Africa,
in America, and in Australasia, or whether it was
not rather due . to one small responsible and
geographical spot in Downing street; and when
they talked of making changes in our colonial govern-
ment, he thought it behoved them to consider whether
they might not with great advantage make some changes
nearer home. When they talked of giving up the colonies
—and he knew that such an opinion was entertained by
some Honourable Members opposite—he thought they
might, with great advantage to this country, pro-
pose giving up something in the metropolis.—
(Hear.) Mr. Adam Smith stated that the government of
the English colonies in North America would not cost
the inhabitants more than 64,7001. a year. " Such,"
added that eminent writer, is a "memorable example of
the small expenditure for which three millions of people
may not only be governed, but well governed." Then
the highest possible authority in this country—he
meant Earl Grey—stated, on the 10th of August, 1848,
that our system of colonization was never so perfect
as at the present time. If, then, our system of coloni-
zation was so much more perfect than it was in 1770,
when Adam Smith wrote, and when three millions of
persons were governed fur 64,7001., they might surely
calculate that five millions of subjects might at the
same rate be governed for 105,1071. Bat in these days
of perfection no less than 3,372,198/. was required fur
the governmeni of the British colonies. It costs now
as much to 'govern 100,000 persons as it did for three
millions 1770,' and it required 140 times as much to
govern every subject in the Mauritius as it did when
colonization was not so well understood. Although
the salaries received by the Governors of the
Mauritius and Ceylon exceeded the amount required
in 1770 to govern three Millions, Earl Grey stated

before the Committee on the miscellaneous estimates

that the colonial governors were exceedingly under-
paid. The Honourable Member then referred to the
opinion expressed by a statesman in 1845, who
thought that we had better return to the policy of
our ancestors, and allow the colonies to govern them-
selves; and who said that although they might commit
some serious mistakes, from all his expe-
rience he was in favour of self-government.
Earl. Grey was now the statesman in power with the
means of carrying out his political views _as a states-
man; but with his change of place a change had
come over the Noble Lord. The praise of the Noble
Lord formerly related to times past, but his praise
was now re'erred to the future. The colonies, at
the period to which Lord Grey alluded, had
charters of self-government at that time given to them,
in many instances, during the period of the Stuarts,
which was not the most liberal period of our history.
There were afterwards charters drawn up for them by
Lord Somers, one of the greatest statesmen of that time.
Carolina was at that time aristocratic, and the other co-
lonies had the power, to the fullest extent, of making
their own laws; and now at this time, when those colo-
nies had that power, he might ask why Ireland should
not be self-governed? By war we lost colonies which
we once possessed, and by war we had taken the colonies
which we now held. We preserved them indeed
within the pale of our dominions, but without the
pale of the Constitution, and denying them in
melt instances civ 1 rights, we governed them by in-
structions and by dispatches sent out froth Downieg-
street; and that minister who, in 1835, condemned that
system, continued it in 1849. In 1670 it was, that there
was first appointed a Committee of the Privy
Council on colonial matters, and afterwards Lord
Somers, who drew up the beads fur the Board
of Council, crew up likewise the charters. Those colonies
continued to be well governed while they were governed
under their own charters; and when at length we lost
those coloniei, the two causes which tended prin-
cipally to light the flame were precisely the
two causes which were now carried into effect
by the present Minister ; he (Mr. Scott) meant
that of altering the constitution without the will of the
colonies, and of refusing them the privilege of self-
government. To these might be added the taxing
them without their consent. Now in the various
colonies that was carried into effect at the
present day by the present Minister ; in New South
Wales, British Guiana, and Jamaica. We taxed the
colonists with heavy civil lists against their consent and
against their most express desire. Now, he would ask,
not whether it was fair and just, but whether it
wise, prudent and politic to propagate such
iniquities, and then to allow such feelings
to 'arise and to be engendered as if there
were no common feelings existing between this country
and her colonies, or no common interest? Instead of
continuing to tamper with their constitutions, and deny-
ing them rights which we claim to ourselves as
British subjects, we ought to regard them as
British subjects in different parts of the same empire.
During the last year there had been some attempt to
obtain a remedy for the grievance. In a letter obtained
under the return moved for by Earl Grey, there had been
a reference made to the duties to be imposed and the
saving to be made, but no remedy, so far as he was in-
formed, had been carried into effect. But it should be
observed that the remedy which had there been suggested
was not a remedy for the relief of the colonies or of the
House, but for the relief of the Secretary for the Colo
nies.—(Hear, hear.) And this remedy did not so much
affect the state of the colony, as the convenience of those
who had the government of it ; a relief, let it be re-
marked, that the Minister and not the colonists
were to enjoy. But these duties, to whom were
they to be delegated ? Certainly not to the Go-
vernor. The colonists could not undertake them,
and the Colonial-office was too full of business
to interfere in any way in so delicate an affair. In fact,
the whele duty was to devolve upon that prime agent
of all colonial affairs, the Secretary of State.—(Hear, ,
hear.) In the evidence given before the Select Com-
mitte during the course of the last year, be found that
to the question 6,650 the Noble Earl made the reply,
that though formally the whole of those matters were
under the jurisdiction of the Board of Trade, they were
in reality and substantially under the entire direction
of the Secretary for the Colonies. If be referred to the an-
swer of Sir J. Stephen, the same result would be obtained.
The words might seem to bear something different from
that containeds in the reply of 'the Secretary,
but, upon
e.i the r moreexitienatioe, it would be found to be
IeSS than the same.—(Hear.)
e a e just
t ice, e, or
the important
a
It w as unreasonable to suppose that great colonies could
bereag; a distanceovernedwith a propriety,
economy,distant
raftsim
g
them. Next, he m
question of auditing the public accounts.
appeared Shat 170 persons were constantly engaged
out at a cost of 2,0701. Now, if we allowed them to
audit their awn aceounts the cost would be greatly re.
duced. Then, again, the colonists had a right tocomplain
that the Home Ministers were constantly changing their
policy. Those to whom the destinies of our great colo-
nial empire were entrusted were changed on the average
once in eighteen ;months. Indeed, of late they had
changed the Secretary of State and tlle Under-Secretary

of State on the average every year. But this was not all.
The chief ruler of the destinies of the colonies ehanerd
his mind once every six weeks.—(Laughter.) 1••• r ex
ample, there was a dispatch sent out, and it was ree,ked
within a month. There was a constitution sent out for
New Zealand, and it was revoked within a year. There
was a Constitution sent out for New South Wales; it was
disapproved of there, and then it was said it was only
sent out for a pattern. There was a Constitution sent
out to the Cape of Good Hope, which was just
as badly received. This battledoor and shut-
tlecock affair might be fine fun for the Colo-
nial-office, but it would not do for plain thinking
and well educated men. The fact was, that in the go-
vernment of all our Australian colonies the crotchets of
the Secretary of State were made paramount to every
other considerations. In giving constitutions to the
colonies the course that had been pursued appeared to
do well in theory, but it did not do in practice.—
(Hear, hear.) At this moment the colonies were
loud in their complaints against the present Go -
vernment, and he warned her Majesty's Ministers
that if they did not change theiir colonial policy,
this country would lose one of the greatest colo-
nial empires that any kingdom ever held. What was
it caused the war between this country and Ame-
rica? It was precisely what was being done now
in some of our best colonies. Sir Thomas Barnett, the
Governor of Massaehussets, refused to admit into
the legislature of the colouy a member who
did not support his views. That was precisely
what was being done in many colonies, Governors were
overriding the law, and Ministers might depend upon it
that if they persisted in their present course of
colonial policy many of our best colonies
would soon follow the example of America.—(Hear.
hear.) He would pass now from British Guiana to
our North American colonies. But perhaps in the
minds of some Honourable Gentlemen, looking at the
circumstances which had recently transpired about
Canada an impression might prevail that the present is
not the season to bring forward a complaint of this sort,
but he must be allowed to repeat that the non-in-
terference in this country with colonial questions,
and the absence of discussions upon topics fre-
quently gave rise to many of the difficulties which
affected our colonial empire.—(Hear, hear.) Now
to pass at once from British Guiana to the North Ame-
rican Colonies—these colonies had two forms of Go-
vernment ; one he might call the democratic
form, and the other the absolute form. For instance, in
Prince Edward's Island the Government of the country
was centralised in three or four persons, some of whom
held as many as ten state offices, and if he
was rightly intormed three of them held no less than
seventeen places between them.—(llear.) In the demo•
cratic class, such as Canada, the Government was much
better, but still it might be greatly improved ; and he
thought it a much safer policy to make wise concessions
in time, than pursue a bad policy till the colonists rose up
and threw off the yoke of the mother country.—(Hear.)
The fact was, if England had always considered her co-
lonies as rising states, of which she might at some
future period have great reason to be jealous,
she could not have adopted a course • more
calculate d to alleviate their regard and affection.
In the Mauritius the commerce was burdened to an
amount of about 3,000,0001., or nearly 21. per head of
the population. In Jamaica it was found there was an
adverse balance of 395.,0001. on an - entire export
trade of 1804,0001. The eolonial policy pressed on the
commerce of the colonies. The Government at home
imposed or rather sanctioned the expenditure and re
duced the revenue. The petitions from Demerara and
Tobago complained simply that they had not' the control
of their own expenditure. Although Ito allusion
was made to the colonies in the Queen's Speech
in Parliament, he might ask whether they were without
the pale of constitution, and whether the principles of
freedom and justice had not the same foundation in the
extremest parts of the globe as within the realm of Eng-
land. He knew that the Hon. Gent', man, with nll his tact
would tell them of all the advantages which bad been
enjoyed by the colonies, but he believes that if the
inquiry were fully made, that it would be found that
there was not one of the colonies which had received
the slightest advan'ege from the erection of civil inAi
tutions. Why did they speak of responsible govern
ment, when there were so many interferences with the
proper discharge of official duty ?—(Cries of " Hear,
hear.") He alluded, however, not only to the
discharge of duty, but to the mischiefs which
arise from the evils emanating from the possession of
property. He was aware that the Crown had the right
to possess property in the colonies, but it would seem
that instead of being a benefit, the right which ought
above all others to be a benefit to a colony, had proved
to be nothing but a detriment. Responsible Govern-
ment was in tact a mockery. He had seen from a letier
of Lord Grey that naauy men of family had emigrated,
and he was aware that such bad been the case. But what
was the result ? Those who had gone out with hope
had returned in despair—those who had gone out with
property had returned in poverty. The Villiers, the
Vernons, and all the others had proceeded
to the colonies in fhe reasonable anticipation
of taking position had given up the attempt
in miserable disappointment, and they were now nowhere.
In fact, the Colonial-office was responsible for all the evil
which hod accrued through the misadventure of the
system which they had adopted.
[LEFT SPEAKING.]