The Sun.
London, England, 1851-04-11 00:00:00

Members on the other side refused to support it under
that aspect, they were not entitled to any remission of
taxation. If the military and civil expenditure of the
colonies were reduced, he (Mr. Cobden) could see his
way to a repeal of the malt-tax, for instance—(Laughter)
—but otherwise he could not.—(Great laughter.) go
held that Hon. Gentlemen opposite would bo on their
trial on that occasion; and if they wished for a reduo-
tion of taxation they would join his Hon. Friend, who
was one of themselves—a person who had agricultural
interests at heart, who had come forward as an inde-
pendent gentleman, and not from the Manchester School
—(Laughtter)—and, indeed, if ever there was an occa-
sion upon which to show themselves sincere, the present
was one.—(Hear.)

Lord J. RUSSELL said, I quite agree with the Hon,
Gentleman who has just sat down, that this is a aost
important question.—(Hear, hear.) It is not a question
of , the saving of 1,200,0001., or 1,500,0001., or even
2,000,000/. a year. It is nut a question of the repeal of
the malt-tax, which the Hon. Gentleman thinks is the
most capsiviting form in which to place it before Hon.
Gentlemen eppositc—(Laughter)—but it is a question
whether the tendency of your policy shall be towards
the maintensnce or the dissolution cl this great empire.
--(Hear.) This is the nature of the motion which the
Hon. Gentleman has made. The motion of the Hon.
Gentleman is, as the Hon. Member for Lynn has argued
most justly, in that very able speech which he has de-
livered—(lrear)—this: it is a question, not of diminish-
ing a part of your military esta.blishmente—of reducirg
that which may be excessive in some of our colonies—
but to take away the whole of your military expendi-
ture from those colonies which cannot be considered
as military or convict stations.—(hear, hear.) Now,
Sir, it is impossible to consider such a question as
this without endeavouring to trace what might be the
consequences of such a policy being adopted—effecting,
in the words of the resolution, this policy as soon as
Possible. The Hon. Member for the West Riding
says that these colonies will remain attached to you,
from the attachment which naturally and particularly
belongs to them as persons of the same race. But this
is not a consideration to make us abandon all those colo-
nies. Nor is it the question which affects some of our
principal colonies to which he has adverted. With re-
gard to Canada, you say you will not have any military
expenditure; but if you show a disposition not to defend
Canada in time of war—they are of the same race, they
may require our protection—but, not receiving it, they
may look for the protection of some other country. But
it may be said that Canada can form a separate and in-
dependent state of her own. This, however, is not the
case with many other colonies. Jamaica, for instance,
could never exist as a separate state. There was a
publication issued the other day by an American
gentleman who oad visited Jamaica, and he said that
within twenty years Jamaica must belong to the United
States; but if you adopt this policy which the Hon. Gen-
tleman recommends, this change will take place within
two years instead of twenty.—(Hear, hear.) It is im-
possible not to believe that the people of Jamaica, if
they saw the whole of their garrisons removed, and
all the duty of protection discarded, would not refer
to some strong state which would give them pro-
tection, and that state must be the United States of
America. It is the same thing with regard to our other
colonies which in former wars we have taken from
other powers. The Cape, for instance, which is in a
great part inhabited by Dutch, if you say you will
leave them to any danger which may threaten them or
their possessions, what would be easier for them than
to come to the kingdom of the Netherlands and ask for
that protection which a colony has a right :to ask, as
long as you demand allegiance from them?—(Elear.)
In the same way, if you abandon Trinidad, she may
apply to Spain, and the Mauritius to France. So in the
course of some two or three years you would have dis-
solved that great colonial empire which it cost the wis-
dom, design, and valour of our greatest statesmen, our
best soldiers, and our moat gallant sailors to build up in
the course of "former wars.—(Cheers.) But then my
Hon. Friend who makes this motion, and those who
vote with him, think and speak as if another war was
an improbable thing, and there was to be a perpetual
peace. As we hare been so long without the calamity
of war, they think there is no danger of peace being
interrupted. But we must never lose sight of the fact that
by some sudden turn of events, often by an unforeseen oc-
currence springing up, we might be engaged in war with
some of the other powers of Europe. What then would be
the case with your trade?—(Hear.) It would not be
in times of war as in times of peace. Your colonies would
be the depots of privateers, would be filled with hostile
ships, your trade and commerce would be destroyed, and
those your now loyal and attached colonies would be the
resort of your most implacable enemies.—(Hear, hear.)
I confess I am sometimes disheartened by the language
held by various parties out of doors as much as in this
House. It really seems to me that after the career
through which we have gone in the course of centuries,
from the time that Oliver Cromwell first took Jamaica
down to the end of the last war, there were persons who,
seeing that we were in possession of a great and suffi-
cient empire, can merely consider in what way that em-
pire may be diminished and lessened.—(Hear, hear.) It
is quite evident that if this policy were carried into
effect in the manner proposed, it would not be many
years that you could maintain your present place and
reputation in the world. No sooner was it known that
you had given up your colonies, than foreign powers who
hod little cause of quarrel would consider the best mode of
attacking a country less able to resit them. But you must
not conceive that that great place which we keep in the
world, and which we have secured with many battles
and scars, is not an object of envy to many other states,
and that immediately they saw you were disposed to
shrink from your empire—not that its limits were nar-
rowed, but yet that the spirit which maintained it was
narrowed, and that the same determination which ani-
mated this mighty monarchy had departed—then this
envy would spring up into wars of aggression against
you.—(Hear.) In what state would you be left then?
You would have none of the material power a hich these
colonies have given you—you would have parted with
these colonies, to obtain which you have contracted such
a heavy debt, and yet the obligation of that debt would
still remain. You would have an undiminished debt,
with a diminished en Tire and possessions.—(Hear.)
Now, Sir, I must say, I think the loss would be mote
than the loss of possessions, there would be also the loss
of that reputation—of that high honour we have hitherto
enjoyed, which, if you are prepared for a very short
time to suffer, the people of this country will not be
prepared to suffer also.—(Hear.) We can recollect in
former times when colonies were founded in the United
States, obtaining little support from the mother
country, there were incursions made by the savage tribes
into the infant settlements, and villages were destroyed,
and the inhabitants massacred. At this time the news
of this calamity did not arrive in this country before one
or two years, and the calamity did not produce any
great sensation then. But if you were to hear now that
a number of English settlers, who in 1819 had gone out
under the sanction and protection of the Government of
this country to the Capo of Good Hope, had been
_t.
tfteked, and the greater portion of them murdered by !.Ele
vages—that the land they cultivated was seized, anr.ansdwthno
villages they inhabited burned by tho barbarians
e
eshtarov4d another town,
abandoned the
had slaughtered them—if you had heard from New Zea-
land that a hostile tribe had d
and if you heard, moreover, that,
coast e f Africa (for that too was part of the lion. Gen-
latitude with all its former vigour, people of
tivman's savings) the slave trade walstfillotnukristhhieng in that
England would turn with indignation,
gntahtls economical lon,annin
and would
ld say,
whbe,atever
1,000,000/. Cr 2,000,0001., by
whatever the saving may although may be
pro-
ject, lt us bear the burden,d an put eves twice as
eeh on us, sooner than
,have our countrymen de-
toll
stroyed in tho colonies which you have made, and
where they went under your protection.—(Hear, hear.)
Putting aside the question of empire and power, the
honour and reputation of this country would so greatly
stiffer we should be unable to maintain ouch a policy as
this,—(Hear.) With regard to the motion of the lion.
Baronet, that in return for the loss of this military
protection we should give representative institutions to
our colonies, I must say I think the argument of the
Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies on that sub-
ject is quite unanswerable. In Jamaica you have free
representative institutions, and an Assembly which takes
mere power upon itself than the House of Commons.
You might take away the 1,500 men from Jamaica, but
you cannot give her a more powerful Assembly or
freer institutions than she now has.—(Hear, bear.) In
Trinidad you have 400 men; but if you were to grilve
them representative institutions it is the
f
Lord Harris that the number of races ther°,3P
that there would be a continuous war oferace
numbera
instead of 400 men being sufficient gi,.__:ng
say
would require to be augmented, ofinsteaddtion D"
of the dif-
ference away.—(Hear, hear.) This question irssi:saunc h.
one of the
of races in the colonies
be lost sight of in
utmost consequence, and should nevergrrisons necessary to
the consideration of the military
h'iava Germans, French,
savage tribes of every
rs; fact,
°Zealand, Kfi in
be kept in those countries.
the earth, some of
Spaniards, Portuguese, llutleri
anwmaysottnh: omnielitoarryotphreor.
description—aborigines of New Zealand,
on
there is scarcely a race of mar?
taking
o
of our colonies. But in lc
whom are not under our dto:
military authority, and you would
now have, you would give to one of
ttehcotsiconrawchesichthtshzl.o
for instance.
introduce endless dissensions in all those cases. Take
Canada,My Hon. Friend said
such cases he would leave the colonies to
tthheatcaisne
allof C
provide fo their own internal tranquillity. Any one who
has obseed the history of Canada must have ob-
servedry
danger which arises to Canada from its
having LA thebeen divided into two distinct divisions—one
inhabited solely by British settlers, and the other by
French. The French race, having the majority by two
thirds or three-fourths, were bent upon separating from
this country altogether, and establishing a
French
Canadian republic in Lower Canada.
Such a dangerous attempt the English race
resisted; and when the insurrection took pletcheelt
pia: down by them, mad through the means of
mili-
tary forces in the country
instead of
Sir John Colborne. But if this insurrection,
put down
having been put down as it had been, d
h you would
by an English militia in the same provincesl
under the ablend,irection of
i hear.) Sir.
have a much longer enmity and
.ino.ui
them had occurred or was desirabl (rg,,arer,ater cruelty
h and one which
and
1 c.sueot assent to this motiona.bielSapdeecoli.r:'d the speech of
Btu
anner not unworthy of that
brought it forward in ce
°could agree with him, if in-
sinhyoaleedn'tlh'ariten 1(11 aasaaaverydied that great subject,
uhj ar, hear.)
hould withdraw from those co-
stead of saying
colonies in which the military
that there were
somet and in which the people thorn-
loniss—which ittwhaats wimepsossible to define; if he had said
selves might 'ln. couple of late dispatches of Lord
nish sufficient military. The House
garrisons are tooc
must have seen a
, in which, with .
reference to New South Wales
Grey s,it was proved that these colonies
and Canada,to their own military
oughtde-
be amount of foroe iiept up for 45 plus
folio; t
to contribute materially