The Sun.
London, England, 1851-06-14 00:00:00

aggression had led to retaliation, and the people of England
were called upon to pay a tax in order to support this act of
aggression on our part. Sir Benjamin ,e'Urban, whom the
Noble Lord quoted, was not the man who would advise such
a course to be taken. Earl Grey gave Sir H. Smith the
authority to govern Kafiraria separate and distinct from the
Cape of Good Hope; and the Noble Earl further told Sir
H. Smith to take possession of the lake that was discovered
about 700 miles northward of our territory. Tney were
now called upon to carry on a war which the Cape Attor-
ney-General in 1819 declared they had no right to carry on
at all; but who, two years afterwards, altered his opinion,
on the pretence that there was a cession of the land by some
men who had each 50 followers. The fact, however,
was, the English were the aggressors. He, therefore, ob-
jected to this expense. Let the colonists have a constitution,
and they, by conciliation and justice, would obtain peace.
But now to give money was to encourage oppression and in-
justice, and that he would not consent to do. The Noble
Lord's statement as to the reason why the colonists bad not
now a constitution was not worthy of the attention of the
Home. The Noble Lord had not acted with his usual can-
dour in stating the cause of the dispute with the colonists at
the Cape. It arose from the Governor insisting on having
the estimates from those who declared they had power, as
they had not been authorised to grant them. Then there
was a dispute about a Bill which referred to an ordinance of
1813, concerning the Church. The protests of the popular
representatives were disregarded by Sir H. Smith and the
officials; the representatives retired, and their conduct was
approved of by eight-tenths of the constituency of the colony.
Instead of delaying a constitution, they ought at once to
have given one, in accordance with the patent previously
sent out. There ought not to be a day's delay in sending it
out, and from the moment it was granted the colonists would
provide for the safety of their own colony.—( Hear, hear.)
He considered that every one who gave his sanction to this
vote sanctioned the present proceedings of the Government ;
not that he meant the money should not be paid, but that
by refusing the vote at this moment they would compel the
Government to alter its policy.
Mr. HAWES was glad to hear, notwithstanding all that
had been said by his Hon. Friend, that he admitte.l this was
a vote which could not be refused.—(Hear, hear.) It had
been stated that this was a war of aggression and marked by
atrocity. He denied both propositions. The policy now
recommended by Sir H. Smith was that recommended by
Sir B. D'Urban, and that had formerly been approved by his
Honourable Friend. There was no intention of extending
their frontier; certainly not of carrying it to the inland lake
which had been referred to. All that was intended to do was
to enforce the law so far as that British subjects who com-
mitted crimes beyond the frontier should be punished for
those crimes.—(Hear, hear.) With regard to the extension
of territory in British Kafraria, the policy pursued was pre-
cisely that which had been followed by Sir Benjamin
:.'Urban; and let it be remembered that the eastern frontier
of the Cape had never been a peaceful frontier. In 1835
there was an inroad of upwards of 10,000 Kafirs, who
committed the greatest atrocities in the colonies, and Sir
Benjamin D'Urban, atter quelling that insurrection,
thought it necessary not to extend the British ter-
ritory but the British authority, and to advance British
power in Kafraria; in fact, to defend the frontier of the
Cape, nut on but beyond the frontier. And this was
exactly the policy which had since been carried out by Sir
Henry Pottinger and Sir Harry Smith. What was the re-
sult? Why, in the present case we had not had any incur-
sions in the colony; and British military authority being es-
tablished, as it were, in the rear of the Kafirs, they had been
afraid to enter the colouy, so that up to the time of which
he was speaking no serious damage hal been done within its
boundaries, except the Kat River settlement, where peculiar
discontent existed. With regard to the extension of the ter-
ritory northward, and the appointment of a resident, that
had been done at the request of the natives themselves, to
protect them against the aggressions of the boers, and not
for the purpose of holding military possession of the district.
He could assure the House also that there was no intention
on the part of Government to withhold representative insti-
tutions from the Cape. If the colonists had not at this mo-
ment a representative constitution, it was entirely their own
fault; and he could not concur either with Mr. Adderley er
Mr. Hume that the Governor was in the least to blame for
the delay which had occurred. If the constitution were so
popular at the Cape, why had they not accepted it? Why
have delayed and discussed it? The truth was that the
gentlemen forming the legislative council were indisposed
to become legislative councillors except for one special and
high purpose—for which they were not elected or chosen.
They were chosen to examine all the functions of members
of a legislative council, and to manage and direct the
whole of the affairs of the colony; and they were assured
that there was no authority for saying that they were
elected for one special purpose alone. Indeed, Sir Andreas
Stockenstrom accepted petitions upon various subjects, and
presented them to the council ; and in the next place, the
letters patent contained words to the effect that the council
were to make, enact, ordain, and establish laws for the
good government of the settlement. They met, not simply
to frame a constitution, and when they interposed
their vexatious objections, it was to benefit the particular
party to which they belonged, and to which the most
important party in the colony were diametrically opposed.
Earl Grey had simply said this, and no more, that whilst a
war was raging in the colony, and the governor was on the
frontier, devoting his whole time and energy to suppress an
insurrection, and whilst every functionary in the colony was
disturbed and distracted by the present state of the colony,
it was utterly impossible to throw upon those functionaries
the consideration of all the details of a representative con-
stitution which required to be considered dispassionately
calmly, and impartially.—(Hear.) In fact, that whilst war
was raging, it was impossible to introduce representative in-
stitutions with any chance of success, but that the moment
the insurrection was put down and peace was restored, that
moment it would be quite in the power of the legislative
council to proceed with the consideration of the subject. It
was said that we had been the aggressors in the case of
British Kafiraria, and that we had unnecessarily seized upon
that territory—but the fact was that the colonists to a man
were in favour of that quasi extension of territory. If the
colony of the Cape of Good Hope was to be protected and
peace preserved, clearly some change of policy must be
adopted with regard to British Kafiraria. The 'Hon. Gen-
tleman (Mr. Adderley) had spoken of the " strong arm of
of defence." What did that mean ? Why, nothing else
than the old commando system, which was marked with
such atrocity and bloodshed that it was tound impossible to
maintain it in the opinion of good men either in the colony
or in this country.—(Hear.) It was, therefore, abandoned;
and when he (Mr. Hawes) asked Mr. Fairbairn if he would
revert to that system, he at once said, " No, I wish to have
established a disciplined military force on the frontier, and
not to revert to the old system." Mr. Fairbairn also told
him that the colony would net undertake to pay the ex.
pence either of this or any other war. In conclusion, Mr.
Hawes said that, from all the information he could gather,
he was satisfied that the policy now pursued was the only
policy which would secure the frontier; and in a great mea-
sure it had secured the frontier in the present war.
Mr. V. SMITH agreed with Lord J. Russell that when a
war was raging at the Cape, which required all the energies
of every person employed, it was not the time to discuss the
question whether we should confer upon the colonists repre-
sentative institutions or not. But the House was justified
in entering upon matters which were not strictly relevant to
the question, because they had unfortunately no other oppor-
tunity of discussing these matters, except upon some ques-
tion like the present. His Noble Friend said the only ques-
tion was, whether they would vote this money or not? 'but
he (Mr. V. Smith) thought there was a far more important
question at issue, and that was, how often these votes were
to be repeated, and what interest the people of England had
in this colony which justified such an expenditure. He
agreed, however, with those who had stated that the war
was strictly an Imperial war—that it was our war, and
not the war of the colonists—and he did not believe the
colonists would have willingly engaged in it— neither did
he think if they had willingly engaged in it, that it would
have been carried on in the way that it had been carried on.
If, thee, this was a war which the colonists would not un-
dertake, of course it was a war we could not ask them to
pay for. Therefore the question was, whether they were to
pay for it or not; and, in his opinion, we could not posi-
sibly ask them to pay this 300,0001.—(Hear, hear.) The
Honourable Member then impressed on the Government
the necessity of the exercise of elution with regard to
the Cape, and criticised the policy of Government in first
agreeing to the appointment of a Committee of the House
of Commons, and in subsequently nominating a Commission
to inquire into the affairs of the colony. With the greatest
respect for his Noble Friend's judgment, he did think that a
more indiscreet course, as regarded the maintenancS of the
cecurity and prosperity of the colony could scarcely have
been adopted. He trusted that the Government would here-
after be more considerate in stating their case when they
called on the House to vote the public money.
Lord J. RUSSELL, after what his Right Hon. Friend had
said, must offer some explanation of the conduct of the Go-
vernment in the matter. The Right Hon. Gentleman's com-
plaint appeared to him to be very inconsistent. The Right
Hon. Gentleman stated that he (Lord J. Russell) had said
that the question now before the House was as to voting this
public money, and that he had omitted all mention of the
question of the frontier war, and the policy to be adopted in
future. He (Lord J. Russell) had certainly stated that the
question immediately before the House was the voting this
money; but so far from not bringing before the House
those questions the Right Hon. Gentleman referred to, he
had brought forward a motion for a Select Committee,
stating at the same the history, so far as he understood
it, of those frontier disputes; and then when he proposed
a Select Committee for the purpose of eliciting farther
information on the subject, the Right Honourable Gentle-
man was the first to object to it. He could not under-
stand, when he objected to the Select Committee, how he
could also object to the want of information respecting the
necessity for this vote ; for it was not usual for the Govern-
ment to propose resolutions stating that, in their opinion,
such and such a policy was the best to pursue at the Cape
of Good Hope, or In this frontier war, or in dealing with the
Kafirs. General resolutions of that kind were not usually
proposed by Government. The Hon. Gentleman said that
he (Lord J. Russell) having objected to the appointment of
a Commission, had nevertheless appointed Commissioners to
go out to the Cape. What he (Lord J. ituassll) objected to
,
was the appointment of Commissioners to go and supersede
Sir H. Smith. What he desired was to enable Sir H. Smith,
while engaged in the conduct of the war, to have certain
persons to aid him who were well acquainted with the co-
lony, and carry on such communications with the Kafirs as
might lead to a peaceful settlement of the matters in dispute.
He hoped his Right Hon. Friend would profit by the evi-
dence laid before the Committee, and perceive that it was
not a war for extension of territory, but for the protection of
the colonists, that they were now engaged in ; and the
whole question was how they could be best protected. In-
stead of having those perpetual disturbances on the frontier
with the Kafirs, and shooting them down whenever they
made aggressions to carry off cattle, it was the opinion of
Sir Benjamin d'Urban, Sir Peregrine Maitland, and Sir H.
Pottinger, that it would be far the better way to have posts
within the Kafir territory, and to endeavour to reconcile
view
them to a more civilized mode of life, alai thus prevent those
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Mr. BRIGHT said they were all agreed as to the dissatis-
fied state in which the Cape Colony was at present, though
not as to what was to be done under the circumstances. He
e Hon. Gentleman
oughto
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;Aldo-r
thought thethpartopwohsiictihontheof
Government h
delay which had occurred in giving to the colonists
t
tdtoheentilye was
constitutional government which they demanded was to
be attributed that discontent which deprived them of all
sympathy with the governor in his efforts to put an end to
the war. The Noble Lord objected that Sir H. Smith was
at present so busily engaged in the war that he could not
attend to the question of the constitutional government to
be conferred on the colony, and the Hon. Secretary (Mr.
Hawes) added, that the functionaries of the colonial govern-
ment were so distracted by the present calamitous state of
affairs, that they would not be able to undertake the matter.
Sir H. Smith might be very capable of carrying on the war
with ability, but he did not think he had shown any
particular capacity for the government of a colony,
and it was most unfortunate that they always sent out
a military governor to the colonies, or if they sent a
civilian he was one who had a bad banking
account, and could not remain at home. But the Noble
Lord's argument, if it were good for anything, went to
this—that the colonists should have to wait until the end

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