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

kirENING. APRIL 16,

Select Committee, let 1,7:e sbeeeete the fa:seticn3 1-1 a
Government alogelter, and confess he was so weak as
to be unable to control what belonged to Eug
laud.—
(Hear, hear.) The Ministry was responsible for the
government of the country. That House was not to take
upon itself the administration of affairs, but was to stand
separate and was to be the judge in the last resort over
the Administration. Lot not the House then cede to a
Committee 0: their own body those junctions of go"ern
meat which the Noble Lord and his colleagues truly held,
but did not adorn.—(Hear, hear.)
Mr. LABOUCHERE said that the Hon. and Learned
Gentleman who had just sat down, following to some ex-
tent the Right Hon. Gentleman the Member for Ossoed
University, but greatly exaggerating his views, had ex-
pressed his surprise that the Government should have
proposed, to appoint a Select Committee to consider a
very grave ana important point connected with the colo-
nial policy of this country. He (Mr. Labouchere) must
say that he was astonished that such an argument should
have been employed by two Gentlemen so well acquainted
with the history of our colonies. He remembered, in the
case of Canada, at the time of a very interesting crisis
in the affairs of that colony, that Mr. Huskisson, a Co-
lonial Minister not of small repute, acting under no-less
a person than the Duke of Wellington, asked the House
to appoint a Select Committee to consider the whole
affairs of Canada. He (Hr. Labouchere,), though then
a young Member, served upon that Committee, and he
well remembered what their proceedings and
recommendations were. He believed that they
were some of the most important recommenda-
tions that had ever been made. They pointed
out an entire change of our policy with regard to Ca-
nada. Those recommendations had been to a great
extent acted upon by that and successive Governments,
and in his conscience he believed that to them iu a great
measure we owed it that we still retained Canada as a
colony of this country.—(Hear, hear.) A similar course
was adopted on perhaps the most difficult and important
colonial question that it had ever fallen to the lot of.
a Government to deal with—he meant the condition of
the slave population in the West Indies. The whole
course of legislation with regard to slavery in those,.
colonies was the fruit of the anxious investigations of
that Committee. Slave emancipation was ushered in,
supported, and, in fact, carried by the authority of that
Committee.—(Hear, hear.) Again. the same course had
been pursued with reference to the apprenticeship ques-
tion, when the Colonial Secretary—a man not wanting
in firmness and energy—Lord Stanley, he believed—did
not think he was lowering the authority of his office by
asking for a Select Committee. Unless they said, then,
that the affairs of the colonies were to be ieft entirely to
the Colonial-office, without any care or solicitude on the
part of the House, ho did not see what reflection there
could be upon the Government for asking from time to
time, as occasion required, for the assistance of
Select Committees to consider important political
questions.—(Hear, hear.) Again, in the case of the
Cape, some ef the many courses of policy with re-
ference to the treatment of those aborigines had been
recommended by a Committee of the House of Commons
of which hs believed the Right Hon. Gentleman (Hr.
Gladstone) had been himself a member. The Right
Hon. Gentleman had argued as if the only danger to be
apprehended at the Cape of Good Hope was that the
white population might be overwhelmed by the coloured
population; but the Committee of which the Right
Hon. Gentleman was a member took a very different
view of the subject. He (Mr. Labouchere) believed that
if the white population were left to themselves in that
colony, without any assistance from this country, al-
though they might at first be exposed to danger from
the natives, and there might be scenes of bloodshed and
de vss'a i in,the ultimate danger was that the ex tereninaron
of the aborigines would ensue. That was the view taken
by the Right lion. Gentleman opposite as a member of
the Committee. [Mr. GLADSTONE—No, I opposed it.]
If that were so, he (Mr. Labouchere) must admit that
the personal argument, so far as the Right Honourable
Gentlemen was concerned, tell to the ground; but he
was entitled at least to claim the authority of fte ma-
jority of the Committee as in favour of such
opinion. The whole tenour of the report of
the Committee of 1837 was this—that it was the special
and sacred duty of the Government, and the
Parliament to exercise their authority wherever British
colonies were planted in juxtaposition with great masses
of aboriginal inhabitants, to prevent the frightful conse-
(pences that must ensue from allowing the passions of
the white and black population torbe excited and arrayed
against each other, thus leading to dreadful scenes of
carnage and desolation. Ile begged to remind Hon.
Gentlemen what were the questions really before them.
The Hon. Gentleman opposite (Mr. Aclderley) had pro-
posed that Commissioners should be sent out to the Cape
of Good Hope. He (Mr. Labouchere) thought the
general sense of the House was against that proposition.
—(Hear, hear.) He considered, that if the Governor
and the other chief officers of that colony deserved the
confidence of the Government, they were at least as
much to be depended on as any Commissioners who could
be sent out to make inquiries—(Hear, hear)—and the
necessary effect of sending out Commissioners would
be to weaken the authority of the Governor and other
official persons at a moment when it was of the utmost
importance that their authority should be strengthened
and upheld in every possible way. The other proposal
before them was that of his Noble Friend (Lord J.
Russell), that a Committee of that House should be
appointed to consider the whole of the complicated
and difficult question connected with the relations be-
tween this country and the tribes on our South African
frontier. The Government had been charged with en-
deavouring to evade responsibility in making this propo-
sal, but they in no degree shook off responsibility in
requesting the aid of a Committee, not to consider what
measures were requisite to meet an urgent and instant
state of things, for that was the duty of the Executive
Government, but to consider deliberately, and to report
to the House, what should be the fixed and settled po-
licy of this country with regard to the question of the
Cape frontier. That was no more a subject peculiarly,
and solely, and exclusively belonging to the Executive
Government, than were the questions relating to Canada
in 1837, or the questions as to the West Indian slavery,
with regard to which Committees of that House had
been appointed; and he thought it was a subject upon
which the Government, without giving up the least por-
tion of that responsibility which attached to them, might
justly and properly ask for a Committee to assist and
give weight to their deliberations. These were the
grounds on which the Government proposed the am.
pointment of a Committee. He thought them its suffi-
cient and complete as those upon which the appointment
of any similar Committee had ever been demanded, and
he hoped the House would not refuse to aid and encou-
rage the Government in the course they had pursued by
consenting to the amendment of his Noble Friend.
Mr. HUME had never heard a speech in that House
more at variance with facts than that of the Right
Hun. Gentleman—(A laugh)—who seemed to forget that
the whole policy of the Government towards the colonies
had, within the last few years, undergone a change.
Instead of keeping up the system of governinte in Down-
ing-street, the desire now was to git rid of the colonies,
and to allow them to govern themselves.—(Laughter,
and Hear, hear.) After the debate a few nights ago on
the motion of his Hon. Friend (Sir W. Molesworth), a
newspaper of great influence charged all those who ad-
vocated the opinions of the Hon. Baronet with a desire
to separate the colonies from England, and so far to
weaken this country; but the object of the policy ad-
vocated by the Hon. Baronet and by himself was to
render the colonies better affected and more devoted
towards England then they were now, to relieve this
country from the expense of maintaining them, and to
enable them to conduct their own affairs, which they
could do much more satisfactorily to themselves than
it could be done for them in Downing-street. The
Right Hon. Gentleman (Mir. Labouchere) called upon
the House to take care of the white population in the
colonies; but the white population, who were the best
judges of the ratter, had no fear of any danger, for
they asked to be allowed to manage their own local
affairs. The colonists said, "We have perfect con-
fidence; we believe the disturbances and wars which
have taken place were wars of aggression; we believe
the natives will observe treaties, and that we can
conduct our relations with them with perfect security."
Why, there was a penalty attending severity and oppres-
sion towards the natives. In such,,e. case the natives
would revolt; it would be necessary to resort to coercion;
coercion entailed expense, and that expense would snake
the colonists very cautious how they entered upon wars.
He had boon informed within a month past by gentle-
men from the Cape of Good Hope that the colonists
apprehended no difficulty if they were allowed to manage
their own affairs, and that they were prepared to under-
take the task. The colonists were not answerable for
the measures of the colonial governor appointed by this
country, and it would be hard and creel to call upon them
to defray the expense of a war in which they were not
involved. The Noble Lord bad said that the colonists
had never been ready to give cordial assistance to the
Government of this country. [Lord J. Russell was
understood to express his dissent.] He certainly under-
stood the Noble Lord to say that there had been a want
of cordiality at the Cape of Good Hope in supporting
the measures necessary for suppressing the aggression;
but why should the colonists afford assistance to the
Government when they had been treated like so
many cattle, and had never had anything
.to
do
with their own government ? He thought it was
now in the power of the Hous©
thtios countryp
evil for the future, for there were
Good Hope, who had come here to settlel
delegates from the mass of the peoplemofutchhe
teCramnsefoorf
bsody of the a constitution as would unite the
metha.ses slave-trade
four months without anything being d
co-
lonists, but they had been allowe.dwhtnooenreemaiin,hheerneigfohrt
question
on Gentlemanwa s
Lard Stanley said, I will
Cone-
miitee. Quite the reverse.
not carried i eads throughked
b y
' tee." and he Commit .s.brought
not be regulated by any
out his own plan upon
but that w-as not '
Ceylon Committee might be cited,but to expose to
his own responsibility. The
appoint a Committee; it
give advice to the Government, abuses
which the Minister denied. Tie home) hoped the
to
Hous© would net agree
would be shelving- the question for
a twelvemonth or
But a Commission to/ be sent out. was required
more.
The first thine was to
and would he of great use.
Let the b form
a responsible Government. Commissioners go
out and stand between the aborigines and the colonists,
and see matters properly arranged.—(!lsar.) Why
should the Government deter giving responsible govern-
ment, and
throwing on the colony the duty of its own
defence as soon as the war could be concluded? We
sould not refuse to the colonists that which we had
pledged ourselves to give them, and which would secure
their cordial co-operation, and unite them in repressing
earession.—(Hear.)
'Mr. J. BELL could not:allow the remarks of the lion.
and Learned Member (Mr. Roebuck) to pass without
30000 notice, as it might be supposed that the House ac-
quiesced in principles ut variance with morality, honour,
' and Christianity.—(Hear, hear.) That gentleman laid
' it down that it was proper to "do evil that good might
h d come," and he was ready to justify injustice, and held