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

LONDON, FRIDAY, APRIL 11, 1851.

In the House of Lords last night,
Lord BUOUGIUM introduced a Bill conferring en ori-
ginal equitable jurisdiction on the judges of the County
Courts.
The Mutiny Bill and the Marine Mutiny Bill were
read a third time and passed, and their Lordships ad-
journed.

In the House of Commons,
Mr. DISRAELI stated that the object of the motion of
which he had given notice for to-night was to seeare to
the farmer exemption from the house-tax.

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In answer to ANSTEY,
Lord PALSLER6TON said that he had officially protested
against the proposed incorporation of all the States of
Prussia and Austria in the German Confederation.
Sir WILLIAM MOLESWORTS moved the resolutions of
which he had given notice, on the subject of colonial
policy. Th-se resolutions were to the r ffe,ct—first, that
steps ought to be taken as speedily as possible to relieve
this country from the civil and military expenditure
' now incurred on account of the colonies, excepting only
the military nations and convict settlements; and, se-
condly. that there ought to be given to all but those last
named dependencies ample powers for local self-govern-
ment, so as to set them tree from the imperial inter-
terence with their sffiirs, which is inseparable from their
present military occupation. The Hon. Baronet con-
tended that a saving of 1,600,0001. might be effected up .n
our military colonial expenditure, which at present
amounted to 4,000 0001. per annum. and that a consider-
able saving might also be effected in our civil service.
He went very minutely into the details of the military
expenditure of the various colonies, and spoke at length
respecting the Kafir outbreak, which he attributed to the
frontier policy of Sir H. SMITH.
Mr. UccancAET seconded the motion.
Mr. HAwEs contested the accuracy of the statements
of Sir W. MOLESWORTU, and protested against the adop-
tion of the course proposed by the Hon. Baronet, which
would be practically an abandonment of our colonial em-
pire, and greatly endanger our commerce.
Mr. ADDERLEY supported the motion.
Mr. STANLEY insisted upon the necessity of maintain-
ing Jamaica as a military station, which, from its vici-
nity to th.s Isthmus of Panama, would soon become of
the utmost importance.
Mr. COBDEN called upon the representatives of agri-
cultural constituencies to support this motion, if they de-
sired a relief from taxation, and contended that the co-
lonies would be willing to defend their own frontiers if
they were permitted to govern themselves, and that there
was no danger that in such a case they would sever the
connexion with the mother country.
Lord J. RUSSELL consider( d that the question at issue
was not a mere financial question; it involved the
maintenance or dissolution of the empire ; the na-
tion'll honour was deeply interested, for it would be
tarnished if, under pretence of giving them self-govern-
ment, we abandoned the defence et our weaker colo-
nies; if we abandoned them, enger rivals would tyke
possession of them. Ho admitted that in many of the
colonies the defence of the frontier might be confided to
a local militia, and that was an object of which the Co-
lonial Minister had not lost sight.
Oa the motion of Mr. HumE, the debate was adj ourned
till Tuesday, and the House adjourned.

After the elaborate statement submitted to the
House of Commons last evening by Sir WILLIAM
Moeeswonxu, no further misapprehension can exist
as to the precise extent or character of our colonial ex -
penditure. The community can no longer be hood-
wicked in reference to this as to so many other re-
ported grievances. Statistical details have at length
been furnished through the assiduous inquiries and
indefatigable researches of the Hon. Baronet the
Member for the metropolitan borough of Southwark,
and, accompanied by the corrected evidence of the
Under-Secretary in the Colonial Department, these
details may he regarded with some degree of reliance
even by the most incredulous politicians. There cer-
tainly does exist on the very surface of the investigatio❑
such a very remaikeble and bewildering discrepancy,
that some effort is required, in the first instance, to
enable us to estimate correctly the amount of our an.
nuel disbursements for the support of the colonial
civil and military esteblishments. When it is con
sidered that, according to Mr. HAwEs, the gross sum
annually expended for this purpose throughout the
colonies does not exceed 2,358 0001, out of which
661,0001 are devoted exclusively to the military
stations and the convict settlements, leaving only
1,697,0001. for the ends above-mentioned ; when it
is remembered that in direct contradiction to this Sir
W. MOLESWORTH calculates the civil expenditure alone
in the colonies to reach 500.0001., and the military to
exceed actually 3.ooo,oool.—having increased to
that amount from 1,800,0001., as it was in 1832
not inclusive, be it recollected, of another million fur
the payment of those soldiers at home for the non-
effective services—some notion may be formed of
the difficulties in the way of arriving at any satisfac-
tory conclusion. If we take the assertions of the
malcontents as conclusive, we must perforce re-
gard the squandering of the public mo-
neys as extravagant beyond the reach of
palliation. If, on the contrary, we view the declara-
tions of the Government as incontrovertible, we
must still consider the disbursements complained of
as unnecessarily exorbitant, and as requiring a very
speedy and comprehensive reduction. Nevertheless
it remains for us to decide in some manner as to the
veritable nature of the grievances which our financial
reformers are anxious to destroy in connexion with
the Colonial Department of the Administration.
Before we can reasonably expect Ministers
to coincide in any way with the demands
of economising innovators it becomes necessary, of
course, to point out explicitly and even minutely the
extent of the desired improvements, and consequently,
for the better advancement of this, to enumerate the
actual evils against which we are declaiming so very
loudly. All this we cannot but think has been really
accomplished by Sir WILLIAM MOLESWORTH in his
masterly speech of yesterday, for, in spite of the
blunders committed by him in one or two instances
(blunders not to be marvelled at, considering the mul-
tiplicity of the facts enumerated, and the extraordi-
nary confusion in which they have hitherto
remained), his remarks comprise a vast
accumulation of unanswerable truths brought for-
ward with considerable logical acuteness, and adduced
with admirable candour for the scrutiny of the House
of Commons, and in the presence of her .MARISTY'S
Government. _ _

Without any question, Mr. COBDEN correctly in-
sisted last evening upon the folly of depending as
much as we have done heretofore upon the influence
of our pecuniary liberality, or rather, we should say,
of our monetary extravagance, with a view
to connect this country the more intimately
with its enormous and scattered possessions.
Better and wiser would it be incomparably
to bind our colonies more strongly to ourselves by the
ties of a common descent, by the influences of equal
laws and of identity of language, rather than attempt
to effect the same miracle by the paltry bribes of a
civil and military expenditure. True undoubtedly it
is, as the Prime .Minister objected, in the course of
yesterday evening's discussion, that such links cannot
always be welded between England and her
trans-oceanic territories—referring, as be ac-
knowledged, to such colonies as the Cape
and the two Canadas—but in the majority
of cases it must be obvious that such a line of
proceeding is at once practicable, and not only prac-
ticable, but preferable for a variety of considerations
to the peddling policy hitherto employed for the pur-
poses of our colonial government. While, however,
we are fully satisfied that such a principle of action
as the one here sketched out by the Honourable
Gentleman the Representative of the West Rid-
ing of Yorkshire is the most wise and politic,
we would shrink unquestionably from any such im-
plicit
confidence in its sufficiency as to advocate, the
project of Sir WILLIAM MOLESWORTH, where daring proj
he suggests, for example, the withdrawal of
nearly all our troops from our Australian
possessions. Not that we can at all confound,
as Mr. HAWES did rather surprisingly last evening,
the scheme of retrenchment advocated by our finan-
cial reformers with the virtual abandonment of the
colonial empire of Great Britain. To protest against
an annual squandering of 2,000,000/. or 1,000,0001.
upon the military establishments of the colonies, is
assuredly somewhat more rational than to suggest the
propriety of abandoning those colonies to the cupidity
or ambition of the more enterprising states of Chris-
tendom. When the Membcr for Southwark is in-
veighing against the folly of disbursing 1,000,000/,