The Sun.
London, England, 1851-04-16 00:00:00

THE SUN,

ehle lire stitherliv rei'ht he neon other coin 1, lie was
ieed ease chenel .1 at epeek as to tee eine aeterntwe
the Kit:: coo:, and the nboatinahee practices tei v,ls oh
they were a idicted. They ate one another; they be-
lieved in witchcraft, and aced on that belief;
they openly practised perjury, arson, end
rape. Further, it appeared that no progress
had or could he made with such men in the work of civi-
lie, etien—neither by means of missionaries nor of mili-
tary. Long as our iniseiouaries had been there no con-
siderable proeress was made in spreading the influence
of religion among them; with such savages, then, there
was no hope of improvement. When the Noble Lord
spoke of- extending oar frontier, he (Mr. V. Smith)
could not help feeling that, as we had a governor at
the Cape, there would be a constant attempt
to extend the frontier, for governors were driven to
that policy by all possible motives. In extending the
frontier they felt that, generally speaking, they were
quite safe so long as they had unbounded military re-
sources; and in most cases they might be said to poseess
such resources, for the moment news reached this couns
try of a British subject having been killed, the House
of Commons—and very properly so—was prepared to
incur any expense that might be necessary for avenging
the outrage. But, on the whole, he doubted whether
this colony was entitled to all the protection and
encou-
ragement which it seemed to claim; and he did not agree
with the Hon. Member for Staffordshire, in the opinion
which he expressed with regard to the convict question
at the Cape; en the contrary, he thought that the inha-
bitants of the Cape ought to have been willing to take
from us our reformed convicts. He would not press that
point any further, but merely content himself in this
place with adding, that he thought the Cape, at least,
ought to support its own military. As to the more li-
mited question now before the House, he should only
say, in conclusion, that it formed part of the great
question which the Hon. Baronet the Member for
Southwark had already brought before the House, and
that it must always be considered with reference to
the whole of our colonial system. For the reasons,
then, that he had stated, he should divide against both
propositions.
Mr. F. SCOTT said it had been truly stated that this
question presented great difficulties, but, after the best
consideration which ho could give to the subject, he felt
that he ought to support the proposition of the Noble
Lord at the head of the Government, as, at all events,
better than the appointment of a commissioner. It ap-
peared to him that the reasons given by the Right Hon.
Gentleman opposite against tho appointment of a com-
missioner were quite conclusive; to appoint a commis-
sioner
would be at once to supersede the Governor. In
his opinion the Kafirs were such irreclaimable savages
that they should be at once made aware that England,
in defiance of them, was determined to retain its
colony at the Cape, however great might be the cost of
doing so. He should still be favourable to the appoint-
ment cf a committee, for there had been so many
changes in the Colonial-office that investigation
was desirable. There had been three propositions
made upon this subject; one was that of the Hon
Member for Staffordshire; another that of the Noble
Lord; and a third that of the Member for Southwark;
but the three propositions could really be resolved into
two, namely, who was to pay for the war, and how the
war had been caused ? The war had been to a great
extent caused by our home policy; and it therefore was
the duty of Parliament to investigate those causes, so as
to prevent a repetition of such untoward events. In the
course of the debate respecting Ceylon it had been said
li
that the vote then proposed amounted to a direct censure
on the Government, and he confessed it appeared to him
that the motion of the Noble Lord was little less; with
that view, he should support the motion, and he thanked
the Noble Lord for so candidly bringing it forward. The
conduct of the Government of Ceylon might be considered
harsh and severe, but every one must admit that the ad-
ministration of the Government of South Africa must
he regarded as having been in all respects conciliatory.
The next object a hich he shoulu notice was the tenure
of land in the colony. The Kafirs had a land question,
like other native tribes, in a system of quit-rents which
was established, and in limits to their holdings of land.
It was a mistake to suppose that the payment of a
sum of money was considered by them as an equivalent
for the loss of the pomp, license, and authority' which
they had been accustomed to hold. Another cause of dis-
pute was the boundary question. The Kafirs did not
believe in the permanence of the present system, and
that gave them such audacity in venturing into cur limits.
He could not believe that Sir H. Smith, when the 'out-
break occurred, was well informed upon the state of feel-
ing among the natives. Up to the last moment he ap-
peared to believe that there was no serious cause for
apprehending a breach of peace and tranquillity. He
held in his hand a letter from an officer at the Caps,
dated January 14, 1851, in which the writer said that
Sir H. Smith had, for several weeks, been warned of
what was going on, but to no effect. On the 25th of
December 5,000 Kafirs fell upon the patrol set by Sir
11. Smith, and attacked them wholly unprepared. Cob
Mackinnon chose to march his men with pieces not
loaded, and the consequence was they had to fight their'
way out of the defile at considerable loss. He (Mr.
Scott) thought that to sacrifice the lives of officers and
men by not having their muskets loaded evinced, on the
part of Colonel Mackinnon, an unwarrantable laxity,
and as great a disregard of the interests of his men as
was possible. Another letter from the Cape stated that
the burghers were very slow in coming forward, and if
they did not take the field it was hard to say what the
result would be. At present it seemed as if the war to
be waged was very like a war of extermination. It was
clear that our colonial policy had already involved the
country in great expense, and that it was likely to lead
us into further expense, unless a change of system was
adopted.
Mr. MACKINNON said it was very convenient to
Hon. Gentlemen opposite to make the actions of Sir H.
Smith and other officers at the Cape of Good Hope a
cloak for their attacks upon the Colonial-office. It was
no new thing in the history of civilization that the savage
tribes did not amelgamate with the colonists. On the
contrary, they by degrees receded until they disappeared
from the bounds of humanity. This was the case in the
West Indies and in the United States. In the case of
the latter country, there was the certainty that in a few
years the North American tribes would bo annihilated.
Civilization was extending itself et the Cape, and con-
stant conflicts between civilization and barbarism there-
tor!, became inevitable. Our governors had extended
their territory as far as they could, so as to make a
neutral ground between the colonists and the natives.
Tne colonists were increasing and extending their terri-
tory, and it was impossible to prevent conflicts between
the advancing colonists and the retreating tribes. Sir
H. Smith, under such circumstances, had shown great
tact and prudence in settling the questions at issue be-
tween the colonists and the natives. It was out of his
power to prevent the last outbreak. It was not possible
for the House to pass a judgment upon the conduct of
the Governor unless they had the whole of his policy
before them. A Select Committee of impartial Members
would be more likely to form a fair judgment than any
other tribunal. Being satisfied that Sir H. Smith had
shown himself to be a man of honour and humanity, as
well as of superior powers cf mind, he should support
the amendment of the Noble Lord (Lord J. Russell)
Mr. GLA.DSTONE said the Hon. Member for Lym-
ingtoh had propounded, by way of solving the practical
question before the House as regarded the Cape of Good
Hope, a philosophical theory which might be very in-
genious and reasonable—that they were to regard the
war that had occurred us one of the incidents of the con-
tact of civilization and barbarism. That might be very
true; but the question then for them to consider would
be, whether those incidents were capable of being im-
proved by prudent conduct on their part. It was enough
for him if they took practical measures on this question;
at the same time he agreed with those who had spoken
that the more they separated this question from the in-
culpation of individuals the better, because the matter
was so difficult, and the blame, he believed, must be di-
vided among so many, and the House itself must come in
for its full share, that it would be unprofitable to con-
sider how that blame should be shared. As to himself,
he should be content if they could establish against the
Cape any claim for bearing part of the expenies of this
war. If the Government could effect that object they would
deserve well of the country, but what ho was most anxious
about was that they should remember that the future was
in some degree in their power, and that they should not
commit themselves as to the future by any act of
indiscretion, or by any omission it was their duty to
fulfil. He was indeed very much in the same predica-
ment as the Right Hon. Gentleman the Member for Nor-
thampton. He did not agree with one proposal or the
other. As to the appointment of a commissioner, he
thought the Right Hon. Gentleman had stated all that
could be said; but as to the appointment of a Committee,
he thought that all the objections to a Parliamentary
Committee for the examination of a colonial question had
especial force in this instance. The effect of such a
Committee would be to hang up the question, and stop
the discussion of it probably for two sessions of Parlia-
ment.—(Hear, hear.) The Committee must necessarily
be composed of gentlemen having many other avocations.
They would examine such witnesses as would be ready
to their hand; they would find it necessary to send for
witnesses from the Cape to give them further informa-
tion; those witnesses would not arrive until next. session;
then there would be the old story, over again, and. the
House would be in great good fortune if they obtained
the report in the session of 1852, or oven of 1853. But it
was objectionable at all times to stop for a long time the
.
discussion of public questions—(Hear)—and regard
to a question of this kind it was objectionable in a ten-
fold degree. At that moment the House and the country
were smarting under the sense that there was something
wrong in the policy that led to these continued and suc-
cessive wars, and so long as they suffered from that
smart, and felt that the mischief was pressing and urgent,
there was some hope of the attention of the House being
profitably directed to the subject.—(Hear, hear.) But
let this war pass away and the items for it appear no
longer in the estimates, and they would be met on all
occasions when any practical reformation was attempted
with declarations that they were about to dismember the
empire,
and the spirit of patriotism and, freedom would
be again invoked, and tho discussion would be a waste of
time.—(Ffear, hear.) But a Committee was a bad in-
strument fur the examination of this question.—(Hear,
hear.) He had long been impressed with the conviction,
from his acquaintance with colonial affairs, that Govern-
ment in the colonies themselves was the only Govern-
ment that could be satisfactory, and sound, and health-
ful, when the colonists were in a legitimate and normal
position as freemen cf our own care. But if they were
to have a Government in this country, lot it be the,
Queen's Government.—(Hear, hear.) It would only in-
crease the mischief to leave the Government with that
House. The Secretary of State was a responsible officer
—he had means of infortnation which the House had
not, and he was always acting under a sense of respon-
sibility. They could not find fifteen gentlemen in that
hoase who would hive the came advantages for govern-
ing as the Secretary of State; and if he looked at the
conduct of committees on colonial questions he could not
I say he was satisfied with the result. They had heard