The Sun.
London, England, 1848-07-26 00:00:00

EVENING, JULY 26, 1848.

functionaries received in the United States. The Go-
vernor of Canada, for example, superintending a popula-
tion of 1,200,000, received 7,0001. per annum, while the
President of the United States had only 5,000/. per an-
num; the Governor of New York, with a population er
2,600,000, receiving 8001. per annum. The Chief Justice .
of Upper and Lower Canada had 1,5001. a year each ; she
Chancellor and Chief Justices of New York had 81`1('d. a
year each. The Puisne Judges of Canada had I Awe a
year each; and of New York, 2001. a year eseeh. The
( Governor of Nova Scotia had 3,500/. a year; the Gover-
nors of New Brunswick and Newfoundland had 3,0001. a
year each; while the Governor of Massae'ausetts, with a
much larger population, had only 5001. a year. The
same rate of lavish expenditure prevailed in our other
colonies; there were the Governors of Mauritius and
Ceylon with their 7,0001 a year each; the Governor of
Jamaica with 6,5001. a year; the Governors of Gibraltar,
Malta, &c., with their 5,0001. a year a piece, and so on;
while, if the colonies had to make the appointments,
they would select much better men than the present
average for a fourth of the cost.---(Hear, hear.) In the
West Indies, Jamaica, the Leeward Islands, the Wind-
ward Islands, with the exception of St. Lucia and Ba-
hamas, with a population of 700,000, had an expenditure
of 450,000/.' or 12s. 10d. a head, the rate of Jamaica
being 13s. Compare these with St. Lucia, Honduras,
Trinidad, and British Guiana, with a population of
190,000, and an expenditure (exclusive of emigration) of
284,0001., being at the rate of 11. 95., or twice that of
colonies with representative assemblies. And there again
the salaries of the higher functionaries were excessive;
there were twelve governors and lieutenant-governors,
with 29,0001. a year. At the Cape and Mauritius there
was a population of about 160,000. These being Crown co-
lonies, the rate of expenditureiwas about the same as the
Crown colonies in the West Indies, 11. 7s. a head. The
Governor of Mauritius receives 7,0001. a year; Governor
of the Cape 5,0001.--(Hear, hear.) It might be said,
that the rate of expenditure was higher in the Crown
colonies because they were more thinly inhabited; but
the Crown colonies of Mauritius were four times as
thickly inhabited as Jamaica, yet the rate of expenditure
at Jamaica was half less than that of Mauritius.—(Hear,
hear.) Now, with respect to the Australian colonies, he
found that only one of them—New South Wales was the
only one which had a legislative assembly; and the con-
sequence was that a reduction had taken place in the
expenditure of that colony immediately after the consti-
tution had been granted to it. Frum the years 1841 to
1845 the expenditure had averaged about 31. 4s. per
head on the whole population of New South Wales.
In the year 1846, one twelvemonth after the legislative
assembly had begun to sit, the expenditure was reduced
to IL Bs. per head, or less than half what it had been
previously. Let him compare the expenditure of New
South Wales with that of the kindred colony of Van
Diemen's Land, where it amounted to 4/. 6s. in 1841, a
sum three times , greater than in New South Wales
after the t legislative assembly was established. This
excessive expenditure occasioned the greatest discontent
at Van Diemen's Land, and it caused excessive taxation.
The colonists themselves were of opinion that this taxa-
tion was illegal, and one of the judges there had been
recently removed from his post for having declared these
taxes illegal.—(No, no.) The Hon. Member then
entered into a statement of the proceedings of the Colo-
nial-office with respect to asserting the right of the
Crown to royalties on the products of mines situated in
Australian colonies, which proceedings he asserted were
highly unjust, oppressive, and contrary to good faith.
With respect to the colony of New Zealand, he was un-
able to state what the amount of expenditure per head
was, but it must be very great, as the military proceed-
ings there had been very expensive ; and what with an
imbecile Governor, an incendiary bishop, a faithless co-
lonial secretary, and a discontented set of colonists, that
settlement was at present in a most unsatisfactory and
extraordinary state. A constitution had been granted
to the settlers and natives of New Zealand in the course
of 1846, but it had been arbitrarily suspended by the
Colonial-office authorities within a year after it had
come into operation. With respect to the desirableness of
the establishment of legislati no assemblies in those colo-
nies where none now existed, there could be no question.
He had presented many petitions praying for them from
colonies not possessing those institutions. Indeed, all the
colonies so circumstanced had repeatedly petitioned the
House during the last ten years to grant them legislative
assemblies, and only in one instance, that of New South
Wales, had these petitions been attended with success.
All the others had been refused, and yet he would not
hesitate to assert, that if they had had legislative assem-
blies they would have been far better governed than they
had been by the Colonial-office. He did not mean by
what he stated to cast any blame upon the individuals
who administered the affairs of the Colonial-office. The
system was to blame, and not the men; and it was the
system alone which merited, and which should receive
his blame and disrespect. Indeed, if he turned back to
the proceedings of former sessions of Parliament, he could
cite the opinions of the Hon. and Learned Member for
Liskeard, and of the present Earl Grey, the Colonial
Secretary, as fully bearing him out in his description
of the manifold evils of the system observed of govern-
ing the colonies. The ambition of the Colonial-office
was no less glaring than its incapacity. The authori-
ties there pretended to be able to govern pos-
sessions ranging between the arctic and antarc-
tic poles—they exercised authority over colonies
which were at the distance of a twelvemonth's
voyage from the seat of their authority, and it
was notorious that one letter had scarcely been dispatched
from Downing-street, ere a change in the circumstances
of the colony to which it was addressed compelled the
Colonial Secretary to write another diametrically op-
posed to it, and thus they went on from year to year,
the orders and recommendations of the home authorities
being alike neglected and despised by the legislative as-
semblies to whom they were addressed, and disobeyed
hr the governors who received them, the colonists them-
selves being disgusted and alienated by the gross igno •
ranee displayed by those who assumed the right of di-
recting their affairs. Now, if it were expedient to en-
trust such multifarious and important duties as those of
Colonial Secretary to any single individual, that person
ought to be possessed not only of a vast amount of
knowledge, but also he ought to be a man of great expe-
rience and sagacity. Now, did these qualifications cha-
racterise the individuals who had of late years presided
over the Colonial-office ? Was the rule laid down for
the choice of a Colonial Secretary that which was fol-
lowed in selecting that functionary ?—(Hear, and a
laugh.) He was of opinion that no such rule had ever
been laid down—much less carried out. The Colonial
Secretary was generally chosen for expediency sake,
from amongst the heads of one or the other of the par-
ties who sought to govern the country, and the average
duration of his term of office did not exceed eighteen
months.—(Hear, hear.) On looking back during the
last nine years, he found that there had been exactly six
different Colonial Secretaries, namely, Lords Glenelg,
Normanby, Russell, and Stanley, Mr. Gladstone, and
Lord Grey. In point of fact, whilst the Colonial Secre-
taries were constantly changing, the system maintained
in Downing-street was one of unmitigated despotism,
qualified by weakness and uncertainty. The changes in
policy were as frequent as, and even more so, than those
in the heads of the office, At one moment the Colonial-
office was swayed by the West Indian interests, the next
day the Protectionists had the rule, the Anti-Slavery
party succeeded these, and in their turn were displaced
by the New Zealand Company, who gave way before
the missionaries, and thus the Colonial-office authorities
were " Everything by turns, and nothing long," which
rendered all their projects abortive and all their measures
unsuccessful. Such a system of government might suit
a nation of serfs, but to a people accustomed to self-
government it presented no other aspect than that of an
odious and a hateful tyranny.—(Hear.) If his asser-
tions wove doubted—if he was supposed to misrepresent
the sentiments of the colonists, let him refer the Colonial-
office authorities to the West Indies add the other colo-
nic!' they pretended to govern, and from one and all the
from
the demand would be received, " Relieve us
tho rule of the Colonial-office." Even the Canadas, theot
most favoured and petted of all the colonies,
Assembly,was
t
not
satisfied; for although they had got ,theircomplaints
against every now and then they
.sent homeco But
com
if the
against the heads of the Colontao
colonists had reason to complain against the Downing-
street authorities, they had far more serious grounds
for complaining of the governors who were sent out to
rule over them, and who were chosen, not on account of
their fitness to exercise such important functions, but
purely on personal grounds, such
~as providing(ii for the
needy relatives of those in pow er— ear, hear)—of,
providing posts for unsuccessful officers, unemployed
barristers, or importunate office hunters. Nay, the class
of persons selected as governors was not always con-
fined to the reputable though needy, for instances were
not wanting in which discreditable persons had been got
rid of by nominating them to a distant governor-
ship, where the fame of their previous career had not
spread. Such being the sort of persons sent out to act
as governors to the colonies, was it to be wondered
at that they were utterly unfit to sustain their charac-
ters, or that they became the tools of the factions
which existed at the seat of their rule? From such
causes sprung the jealousies and feuds which were so
frequent amongst the authorities and functionaries of
distant colonies. The governors and the judges were,
owing to these causes, frequently upon a hostile footing
towards each other, and not a year passed in which
some petitions were not presented complaining of the
arbitrary removal of judges or other functionaries by
the superior authorities of the colonies. So frequent,
indeed, were these petitions, that a permanent tribunal'
had been constituted to judge of tueir grounds ; and
who should be placed at the head of such a commission
but the man who had long been designated as the " evil
genius of the Colonial-office ?"—(Cries of " Name." to
p )
which some Hon. Member answered Ste hens. 'The
facts which he referred to were of such
notoriety that all
were acquainted with them more or less. No wonder,
therefore, that the colonies were badly governed under
such a system, or that the colonists were discontented.
The question to be considered was, whether the system
could be amended. It appeared to him that the admi-
nistration of the affairs of the colonies by the Downing-
street authorities was far inferior to the system of self-
government. The colonists were far bettor judges of
their own wants than any person jobbing in Downing-
street could be. The Colonial-office was entirely irre-
sponsible, and it was only when the country was called
upon to pay for its misdeeds, iu the shape of a Kafir or
New Zealand war, that any accounts of its proceedings
could be obtained. And even then the documents were
so carefully prepared that few of the Members of that
House were able to trace the various items so set out by
the Colonial-office.—(Hear, hear.) Neither the House
nor the country placed any confidence in the documents
put forth by the Colonial-office.—(Hear, hear.) They
wore drawn out to suit the views entertained by the Co-
lonial-office authorities, and consequently they misled
people and did not inform them.—(Hear, hear.) The
only remedy for the state of things he had described was
self-government ; and the conclusion that he bad come
to was, that the only course now to be followed towards
the colonists was to bestow on them every power of
managing and controlling their affairs, only reserving to
England the sovereignty-over thew, which to withdraw

would, be injurious to the whole empire. The purposes
for which the colonies were chiefly, if not wholly, useful
the mother country were to afford an outlet for emi
gration and a market for her manufactures. During the
last twenty years the cost of emigration had been
20,000,0001., and taking periods of five years during
that time, it would be found that emigration had gone
steadily on increasing every year. In 1832, it was
60,000; in 1837, 66,000; in 1842, 86,000; and in 1847,
121,000. These important facts would show that the
habit of emigration was steadily advancing; and his con-
clusion was that free trade and emigration ought to be
the sole objects held in view in reference to the colonies
in concurrence with maintaining the sovereignty of Great
Britain over them. It' henceforward, instead of expend-
ing 4,000,0001. on the military, naval, and civil estab-
lishments of the colonies, 2,000,0001. were to be an-
nually applied to the purposes of emigration, the
result would soon be most beneficial. The colonies
were competing for labour ; and could England
not bridge over the ocean by her emigration ships
so as to supply those wants 2 If that could be
accomplished one of the most difficult social problems of
the day would be at once solved. The difficulty was to
find funds ; but, as he had said, why not expend
2,000,0004 a year in this way instead of the 4,000,0004
now so idly and wastefully spent ? The statesman who
would carry into operation a vast and comprehensive
scheme of emigration would achieve for himself an im-
perishable name. But the system upon which emigration
must be based ought to be that practised by the Greeks
in founding their colonies, and by those wise and self-
denying men who founded the stales of New England on
the shores of America. All classes must go thither.
The capitalist, the professional man, the artisan, the
farmer, the mechanic, the labourer, all with their wives,
their families, their implements, so as to constitute a
complete colony in themselves. The horrible system of
casting out paupers in a state of disease too horrible to
think of, and sullied by crimes unmentionable even to
the most polluted ears, was one which characterised the
recent efforts at emigration sanctioned by the Colonial-
office. It was alike disgraceful to those who were the
participators in the scheme and those who were its
victims. If the good old system of colonization were
pursued the savage deserts of New Zealand would soon be
converted into the happy abodes of the Saxon-English
race. Having thus explained his views, he begged to
move the resolution which he had already read, and to
state in conclusion that if the Government agreed in it,
he would on a future day give notice of his intention
next session to appeal to the Honse to appoint a Com-
mittee to inquire into the means by which the views ho
had explained could best be carried into effect.

Mr. HUTT lamented his inability to offer any ade-
quate tribute to the admirable speech which the Hon.
Baronet had just delivered, and he should even have felt
diffident in rising to second the motion, were it not that
he was prepared to maintain nearly every position laid
down by the Hon. Baronet. In 1830, a ,few gentlemen
tried to show how advantageous emigration would be to
the labouring classes, and an association was established
for the purpose of trying the experiment in South
Australia. The intended colonists, who wore ready
to sacrifice everything here for the purpose of going
out to colonize that country, could but expect every
thing in the way of assistance from the Colonial-
office; but the difficulties which that office inter-
posed by their Bill rendered colonization almost
impossible. These difficulties were, however, over-
come; and notwithstanding that, it required an Act of
Yarliamentjo shield the colonists from misery. The
colony was however established in spite of the Colonial-
office, and was now flourishing to a degree which was
not expected. There were a great many people in this
country who were severely suffering from the pressure of
the times, and who would be glad to exercise their
labour in our distant dependencies. The elements of
comfort which they afforded if judiciously combined
would be vastly beneficial to those who would emigrate
from the country if encouraged by the Colonial-office.
There was at this moment a great desire on the part Of
the working classes in this country to emigrate; but they
should do something to improve the colonists, and to
inculcate affection towards the mother-country. They
ought not to be taught to support one constitution in
one colony, and another in another colony, for such
would lead to nothing hut dismemberment and disaffec-
tion. This was a subject vriiich most loudly called for
the attention of the L:gislature. Only give the colonies
the right of self-government, and they would defray all
the expenses of their own administration, and would thus
relieve the Colonial-office from all existing embarrass-
ments.

Mr. HAWES said, that whether he regarded the im-
portance of this debate, or the magnitude of the subject,
and the multitude of details it involved, he might ven-
ture to solicit the kindness and indulgence of the House
whilst he drew somewhat largely on its attention. The
lion. Member for Gateshead (Hr. Hutt) had impugned,
not the colonial policy of the present day, but of Eng-
land itself; reproaches had been heaped on the Colonial-
office, and on the Noble Lord now at its head, of which
he humbly begged to take his share.
Mr. HUTT begged distinctly to state that he had
directed no reproaches against the Noble Lord (Lord
Grey) or the Hon. Gentleman.—(Hear.)
Mr. HAWES said that what had fallen from his Hon.
Friend and the Hon. Baronet the Member for Southwark,
had not only cast reproaches on the system, but on those
who had so long administered it.—(Hear.) It was not
for him (Mr. Hawes) to presume to defend all the errors
which had accumulated in their colonial policy from
time to time; but this lie would say, that the colonial
policy of England was the most successful and the most
beneficial that the world ever saw .—(Cries of " Oh,"
and " No.") Then he would call upon any Hon. Gen-
tleman to point out another instance, and to say where
it was that they saw the same degree of internal tran-
quillity and commercial prosperity. The Hon. Member
then referred to what he termed the " old colonial sys-
tem," an expression which he owned did not convey to
his mind any very definite idea of the particular system
intended, but if he meant the system of colonization,
which once prevailed, and which consisted largely in
monopoly and slavery, he thought they would not be
very eager to return to it, but would rather be disposed
to continue the system, which at present was in force.—
(Hear, hear.) The Hon. Member made some harsh ob-
servations on the tampering which he thought prevailed
at the Colonial-office, saying that needy adventurers,
and those who could command any interest there, were
the persons appointed to its various offices of emolu-
ment. He thought the Hon. Member might have re-
frained from attaching any sordid nature to such ap-
pointments, and have given credit for a sincere desire to
promote the true interests of the public service, by
a choice of able and distinguished men. The Hon.
Member, if he had chosen, might have recalled name
after name of men appointed to important posts in the
colonies, whose services deserved the greatest praise.
He might have recalled the names of Lord Metcalfe,
Lord Elgin, Sir Harry Smith, Sir William Colebrooke,
oMf Mr.
hMom. O'Fitceorurladll,
not Sir G
heaeao e
idrgthGetrery, andarl L
ianieonrtdaryHns,
r
ence alone procured them their posts. The Hoend.ieGntento-
tleman then contended that it was wise and expedient
vies,g v e the largest a t t
he sameporti portion
timeof h see fn-
tpothaeayctohl:t.
Now he (Mr. Haires)
he would abandon none of them.
gdoervsetronomdennt
wherever the co
agreed so far wiltohnythwe
alaloannitebdl.efmorbeerelfa_sgotvocrtnhinineok itihttivt4
Government of this country was bound terallew itis:Thas,
principle, however,. was to be received wit; cautioh; and
laichaatrieono.f
aTehif.ugs,oiyiliervenftodz
naltrtsgteaitepxtend the same constitution to
much
would
Canada
da
ita qualifiedd
be prudent
pt hr
dn
el
the small island of Nevis?—(Hear, hear.) The Mau-
ritius, for another example, was a military station as
well as a colony, and must be regarded under both
points of view. It was in such cases as those, and in
others where few Europeans were mixed up with large
numbers of the coloured races, that the beneficial influ-
ence of the Crown, in tempering their frequently dis-
cordant interest, was perceived. He was glad to hear,
however, that the Hon. Member did not recommend the
House to abandon any of the colonies, and he could only
regret that he should have brought this' subject forward,
without being sure, in the first instance, of establishing
a case, as a debate of that kind materially tended to
weaken the authority of Government in the colonies.
The Hon. Member then cited the case of Canada, as an
instance of the extension of the principle of self-govern-
ment, and afterwards mentioned that of New Brunswick.
In the coarse of his speech the Hon. Member for South-
wark made some harsh observations on the subject of the
Bill which was passed for the purpose of defining and
improving the government of New Zealand. The Bill
for the government of New Zealand contained a provile
sion for the franchise of the natives, which was the first
instance where so great and good an object was had in
view, of admitting the natives to a share of fhe govern-
ment. And how stood the fact with regard to
Australia? The Bill in that case, not meeting with
general approbation, was abandoned, and the
probable result would be a representative govern-
ment. In a dispatch of the 20th December, 1841,
Sir G. Napier, the governor of the colony, recommended
the establishment of a representative government, of
which his Noble Friend Lord Stanley took notice after-
wards, saying that the project should be entertained as
soon as the affairs of Kafraria were arranged. It was
the first business of Sir Harry Smith on settling them,
to inquire into the civil institutions of the colony, and
they expected that he would fully report upon that very
point. It was a matter of notoriety, that the colonies,
as a rule, contained a very small European and a very
large coloured community; and that being the case, was
the House prepared to concur in the policy of the Hon.
HG eo nn t. elmf
ea
mn
htehre M
said e mtbheart froer S p
re
so
eunt ht
awt
iavrek ?G
vTe
rhne the n e
nt
s
conducted all their affairs more successfully and more
economically. He did think that his Hon. Friend was
not in possession of proper grounds of calculation, upon
which he could base his opinions. In the West Indian
colonies, for instance, it was extremely difficult to
ascertain the amount of the revenue; but in Australia,
if they included 50,000 emigrants in their calculation,
the result, of course, would be totally different,
and the comparison unfair. Neither British Guiana,
nor Hong Kong were such costly colonies as the Hon.
Member seemed to think, the total annual ex-
penditure of the former being only 42,0004,
and their expenditure would, for the future, be decreased.
In Ceylon, the entire expenditure had been placed under
review, and in Mauritius the Governor had reduced the
expense by 65,0004 a year, and had relieved the inhabi-
tauts of 30,0001. by removing the stamp duty. He
therefore thought he had shown, that the principle of
self-government had been extended to every colony that
admitted of it, and that their expenditure had not yet
been recognised as a substantive ground of complaint
against the system. The total value of the imports in
1445 into the United Kingdom, was 15,100,0001., and
the total value of the exports in the same year was
13,000,000/. It was quite clear that the total
value of the imports and exports was tho
sum on which they had to strike their per tentage.
With respect to the colony of Australia, it was well
known that it was a pet colony ; and had
not the Colonial Department taken it into hand,
it was quite clear it would be now in a state