The Sun.
London, England, 1827-09-08 00:00:00

would be allowed for a moment to stand in the way
ofthe establishment ofsuch codes oflaws as appear-
ed best adapted to the regulation and welfare of the
free settlers ; and, in point of fact, we find at this
day, with such modifications as peculiar circum-
stances called for, the Spaniard, the Portuguese,
and the Hollander, living abroad under precisely
the same regulations that his forefathers consi-
dered best fitted for their security at home. The
circumstances under which Great Britain came
into possession of her Colonies were different,
and the result has been also different. The
Colonies in the West Indies had, when they fell
into our hands, been long possessed by the
Spaniards, the Dutch, and the French—nations
in point of civilization, on an equality with our-
selves. In all of them we found laws established
and customs prevalent, which it might have been
unwise, and which it must have been difficult,
to abrogate and change. In the East Indies
again, we were but a handful of adventurers in
the midst of a mighty nation, which derived its
institutions, civil and religious, from a period long
antecedent to the origin of the English monarchy;
and which, had anv sudden and violent attempt
been made to substitute for them the laws or the
creeds of Europe, might have hurled from its shores
the strangers who wished to disturb what time
had so long hallowed to their imaginations...—.
These then are the causes why, in the treatment
of her Colonies, Great Britain has been in some
measure compelled to adopt rather a series of
expedients than a general and , comprehensive
plan of management, and these are the causes
:why, even now, a general system cannot be .pur-
sued in regard to our colonial possessions.—
'There are also local causes which forbid this.
We have Colonies consisting of a handful of
Europeans, and an immense free population, the
majority and minority opposed to each other in
almost every particular in which men can differ—
in religion, habits, manners, complexion ; such
are our possessions in India. We have Colo-
nies in which the numbers of white and black
are not less disproportioned, and where the latter
are slaves to the former ; such are our posses-
sions in the West Indies. We have Colonies
wrested from Europeans, where the process of
amalgamation between the original settlers and
their conquerors may be looked on as nearly
complete, as Canada ; and we have others where
it is hardly begun, as the Cape of Good
Hope. Lastly, we have settlements composed
wholly of Englishmen, as Botany Bay ;
but Englishmen under such circumstances,
that to apply to them the same rules as are
applied to their countrymen at home, would be
the extreme of legislative folly, These diversi-
ties tend greatly to complicate the question of
colonial reform, and though they do not abso-
lutely preclude, they render the application of
general rules a matter of much nicety, of much
calculation, and liable to numerous local modi-
fications and exceptions. Many complaints have,
from time to time, been made of the excessive
powers of Colonial Governors, and it is not to
be denied that Governors have in many cases
used their powers for purposes but slightly cons
nected with the prosperity of their Governments.
Here, however, as in most human grievances,
it is much easier to indicate the disease than to
find the remedy. Any check which can be ex-
ercised by the courts rior the councils at home,
must evidently be in a great measure useless, for,
long before it can be applied, the evil has been
effected. And to establish checks in the colo-
nies themselves, is tantamount to the esta-
blishment of several independent authorities.
which might.. when prpoisep.- co-- or' atiler,
be productive of more mischief than good.--
One check may be established, which seems well
I adapted to lessen, if not completely remove, the
causes for complaint of mal-administration,
namely, the rendering of all Colonial Judges ir-
removeable during good behaviour, as in the
case of the Judges at the Cape of Good Hope,
according to a late arrangement. The indepen-
dence of one branch is thus brought into play to
compensate the independence of another—the
Judicial is opposed to the Executive Power—
and the dispute, should any arise, will be set-
tled not by an appeal to individual judgments,
but to the potency of the Statute Book. The
question of Juries, to which infinitely more
weight is attached than it deserves, and another
question, on which we may he supposed to
speak with more assurance—we mean the press
of the Colonies, on which much good argument
has been expended to very little purpose, are also
very proper subjects for Mr. Huskisson's consi-
deration, but we cannot at present enter on the
discussion of either.—Bid.