The Sun.
London, England, 1828-12-01 00:00:00

the mines are perhaps the richest in the world, if
explored. No adequate enquiry has ever been
m in-
-stituted; by Governent, as to. what the country is
or is not; in this respect we are miserably behind
both France and Russia, as Colonizers. It is like-
wise most strange that with the number of our yes-
sels constantly doubling the Cape, and sailing down
the same parallels of latitude on the Eastern shores
'of Africa, we know nothing at all of that shore; nor
do any material particulars appear to have been
added to our maps during the last 200 years. If we
cross Africa at the 20th degree of south latitude, we
have, on the north, a country near 3,000 miles in
length, and 2,600 in width, untraversed beyond
about one hundred miles or so ; (arid something
more on the side of Egypt) from its circumference.
We know that there is' such a person as the King
of Ashantee, because he has made us feel his power,
barbarous as it is; mid the Sovereign of Dahoney,
with his gold spitting basin; but the occupations of
these powers are scarcely skin-deep on the Conti-
nent; nor is the centre wholly desert, as some tra-
vellers reprezent it, when they find it convenient
to break down in their projects. 111`Leod visited
what he calls the Circassia of Africa : and asserts that
the Tea Tree ;night be grown there in the greatest
possible perfection; lie scarcely went a hundred miles
up the country; yet he found it one of the finest
description. It is evident, from the quantities of
gold used by the native Princes, and the abundance
of precious stones, that the centre of Africa is the
richest territory in the world for those productions.
Yet- we are raising companies to buy up arid explore
the old and worn-out mines of Peru, &c.—What is
Sierra Leone in our hands, but a job for places, and
ah inlet for Bibles ! We give the natives our book
of the Scriptures, and take their gold dust; which
they might be supposed to be giving us in retalia-
tion, for our folly. This old Slave Market of the
Christian powers has been alremly amply revenged
on many of its old tyrants. With what reverence
and respect must these native races of the climate,
after our commerce in the blood of their countrymen,
—recorded in the most execrable page of human
history,—receive our good books ! arid how impli-
citly must they believe iii our superior humanity !
With less capital than we have colonized either of
the Indias, (in the one, a doubling voyage that were
equal to sailing three parts round the world), we
might have made all the kingdoms of Africa tributary
to us ; superseding our distant establishment at Can-
ton ; breaking up our iniquitous commerce in slavery
in the West ; and our labouring dominion in the
East : claiming a territory more than fifty times the
practical extent of all our Colonies put together: and
lying in part within a seven days' sail of our own shores.
There is a uniform principle of impolicy in the Go-
vernment of this country, continually leaning to the
side of a profligate expenditure, for which it is diffi-
`cult to account; for we cannot always trace the,
operation of such policy to aay advantage either in
a corrupt power, or the auxiliaries of such power.
We are left to suppose that there is a sympathy
existing in one corruption towards another, in which
the pot may admire the sable qualities of the kettle.
It is strange, but it is not less true, that we might
say to every person about to commit a felony, hav-
ing a fair chance of detection, whether from want or
from sheer vice;—" forbear the offence; and it will
well answer our purpose to give you a handsome an-
nuity for life." It would be difficult to say what is
the ultimate sum that it costs this country to prose-
cute individual offenders ; to maintain them ; and
ultimately dispose of them according to their respec-
tive sentences. It is always reckoned a good job
to-a jailer to take off his transports, at certain pe-
riods every year, to the' vessels destined for their re-
ception. We have seen an item for 701. for a sma

batc/i of about four prisoners, in their transit from
the jail to the floating prison: In former times they
have cost us as much as 601. or 701. each, with•their
fit out in their voyag.e. to Botany Bay ; now, we be-'
lieve• the contract is as low as 151.: but the
expenses never properly terminate with many ;
for if their terms expire, and they return, they
renew their old trade; so that a good prac-
tical thief is as dear a personage to the country as
one of the regular Stale leeches. As far as the con-
sideration of expense goes, it is doubtful if it would
not be economy to make a:1 the rogues State Gentle-
men. W e send the mass of offenders to the most
remote place on the habitable globe, as though our
safety depended on their distance; or rather perhaps
on the expense by which they are removed. In our
system of Colonization, we embrace no i►ttelli-
gible principleS ; or otherwise that which is the
weakness of the mother country might be made
the strength of otu• outward stations. With means
that no other country possesses, we effect less of
the ends of knowledge and of empit e than the poorest
of other nations. Portugal, with all her besotted
prejudices, retained in Brazil a resource of actual em-

Aire in the defection of the mother country : because
she had peopled it with the spirit of her populace.
Spain too, but for her incurable folly, had a dominion
in South America more •valuable, and more avail.'
able,,,in danger, than the parent state. England, in
the East Indies, has an immense and a powerful Co-
lony : and yet it is the property of a Company. In
every other instance, the mother country is a great
loser by all her distant stations; because her plan of
Colonization is made neither more nor less than a
job for the Minister of the day.