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

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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.) He
held that Hon. Gentlemen opposite would be on their
trial on that occasion; and it 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
—(Laughter)—and, indeed, if ever there was en 00011-.
sion upon which to show themselves sincere, the present
was one.—(Hear.)

Lord J. RUSSELL said, I quite agree with the Hope
Gentleman who has just sat down, that this is a most
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 not a question of the repeal of
the malt-tax, which the Hon. Gentleman thinks is the
most captivating form in which to place it before Hon.
Gentlemen opposite—(Laughter)—but it is a question
whether the tendency of your policy shall be towards
the maintenance or the dissolution of this great empires
--(Hoar.) 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--(Hear)—this: it is a question, not of diminish-
ing a part of your military establishments—of reducirg
that which may be excessive in some of our colonies—
but to tako 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 Ito 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.—(Bear, 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
I 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?—(Hear.)
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 most 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 have 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 en 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, bear.)
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 kiown that
you had given up your colonies, than foreign powers who
had little cause of quarrel would consider the best mode of
attacking a country less able to resist 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 ecars, 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
vou.—(Hear.) In what state would you be left then?
You would have none of the material power which 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 empire and possessions.—(Hear.)
Now, Sir, I must say, I think the loss would be more
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 eountry before ono
or two years, and the calamity did not produce any
great sensation then. Bat 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 Cape of Good Hope, had been at-
tacked, and the greater portion of them murdered by sa-
vages—that the land they cultivated was seized, and the
villages they inhabited burned by the barbarians who
had slaughtered them—if you had heard from New Zea-
land that a hostile tribe had destroyed another:fill:
that, having abandoned and if you heard, moreover,
Hon.ndon d th
coast of Africa (for that too was part of the i
Gen-
tleman's savings) the slave trade was flourishn g in that
latitude with all its former vigour, I think the
people of
u it may be
and would nay,
whatever would turn with indignation,
whatever the saving may
1,000,000/. or 2,000,000 L by this
,be,
.stilsth although
economical pro-
jeot, let us bear the burden, and put eves twice as
much on us, sooner than :have our countrymen de•
stroyed in the colonies which you have made, and
where they went under your protection.—(gear, hear.)
1 Putting aside the question of empire and power, the
honour and reputation of this country would so greatly
suffer we should be unable to maintain such a polio as
this.—(Bear.) With regard to the motion of the Hon.
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
more 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, hear.) In
Trinidad you have 400 men; but if you were to give
them representative institutions it is the opinion of
Lord Harris that the number of races there is snob
that there would be a continuous war of races, and
instead of 400 men being sufficient the numbs'
would require to be augmented, instead of haying an
taken away.—(Hear, hear.) This question of the °T,'
1 ference of races in the colonies is one
.0L:E!
utmost consequence, and should never be lost sight of to
the consideration of the military garrisons necessary
French,
be kept in those countries. We have Germano,ribes of
Spaniards, Portuguese, Dutch—savage tribes in every
description—aborigines of New Zealand, " a
eart.ea
fact,'orother
there is scarcely a race of mankind °I2 Ime on some
of
gmivielittoaroynperooi
whom are not under our dominion in s°
of our colonies. But in taking awiyoutlhde
tection which they now have, y
those races the sole military 1311"wr.t
authority,
those and
you would
introduce endless dissensions is _ cases. Take
Alleayvell°tllhe eFriendoloni
east
tho case of Canada, for Mea
that in all such cases
be
would
tranquillity. provide for their own internal Any one who
of. Canada must have has observed the
historych
ob-
served the danger which
arisen
to Canada from its
having been dieidedl.
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
d canaian
French republic in Lower Canada.
Such a dangerous attempt the English race
resisted; and when the insurrection took place it was
put down by them, and through the moans of the mili-
tary forces in the country under the able direction of
Sir John Colborne. But if this insurrection, instead of
having been put down as it had been, had been put down
by an English militia in the same province, you
cruelty
have a much longer enmity and much greaterrarc)
Sir,y
than had occurred or was desirable.
—(liert'he speech of
I cannot assent to this motion. I admire
and one whisk
my lion. Friend, as a very able speech,
reat subject, and
showed that he had studied thantogu
t nworthy of that
brought it forward in a mannerag
ree with him, if
subject.—(Hear, hear.) hear.) I could
withdraw from those co-
stead of saying that we should
to define; if he had said
lonies—which it was impossible
ionie which the military
that there were some
and in which the people them-
, garrisons are too greats
ucient military. The House
selves might furnish Ii m
of late dispatches of Lord
must have seen a couplei•ence to New South Wales
Grey's, in which, with
..1 proved that these colonies
and Canada, it ";:terielly to their own military de-
ought to contribute
_, woe kept
up
ter
45
yeas
' , few); that the trib
ute "