The daily exchange. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1858-1861, 1858-10-05
BALTIMORE.
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 5. 1858.

r,,. question has frequently been asked, why it
:. .b+ en- active and energetic people as the
I,,ob have never yet succeeded in their efforts to
..tob,ish Aourishng colonies. To some persons,
= has been matter of surprise, that while Great
Rrtain, with population of twenty-five millions,
has been able 10 extend her jurisdiction over
numerous dependencies, in all quarters of the
globe the colonial possessions of country like
France, containing a population of some thirty
six millions, should be limited to Cayenne, Mar
tinoue, and Guadeloupe, in the West Indies; to
Algeria, st. Louis and Goree, on the West Coast
of Africa; to the Isle of Bourbon, in the Indian
Ocean, and in Asia, to Pondicherry, Carical, Chan
dernagore, and Mahe the aggregate OF whose
populations does not exceed two millions of souls.
of these colonies, the one which has been most
petted and nursed. is that of Algeria. For TWEEN
weight years, the French Government has been
nnremtting in its efforts to promote emigration
thither. 1t has constructed perfect network Of
roads all over the Regency. 1t has vigorously
prosecuted great works of drainage and irrigation;
at has sent over, the paupers of France, built
"villages, bought all the necessary agricultural
s'tools, and has even cleared the ground ready
sfor occupation" Yet, after spending four hun
dred millions of dollars in the conquest and col
onization of the Province, the number of Euro
pean settlers in Algeria docs not exceed 100000,
and not more than one half of these are of French
extraction If we examine into the causes that
have operated to produce results so meagre from
labors so imposing, we shall find that the chief
obstacles in the way of colonization in Algeria,
arise from the manner in which the affairs of the
colony are administered. The Government has
not only undertaken to do everything within
its power to promote the welfare of the
colony, but it has assumed that the colo
nists were incapable of doing anything for
themselves While it has invited enterprise, it has
adopted regulations that feer and restrict it. The
Central authority exercises supervision not only
over the concerns of the Colony, but over the pri-
yate affairs of individuals An immigrant, to be
entitled to an allotment of land, must first prove
himself possessed of a certain sum in money; che
''must build house, and plant given number of
strees. and engage TO clear all his land within a
'igiven time If he proposes to make an invest
ment of capital, he must apply for permission to
the French officials, who frequently, in turn, for
ward the application to Paris, for the sanction of
the Home Government. ''There have been instan-
ices in Algiers" says an English journalist, ''of
important manufactures being constructed and
''having, after their completion, to wait two years
flor Government license before commencing OPP
ferations. Only the funds of large company
tcould Withstand the drain of such a system
'Nfany small capitalists must have been ruined in
'similar transactions" There are very few per-
sons who would be found willing to expatriate
themselves, and to undergo all the hardships of
building up a new house in foreign land on such
conditions. If France had left her colonists free
to work out their fortunes in their own way-if she
had given them voice in the management of their
local affairs: if while distributing among them
portion Of the fertile and unoccupied territory at
her disposal, she had encouraged them to depend
mainly upon their resources, and had refrain
ed from harassing them by we-intentioned, yet
not the less arbitrary, social and commercial re-
strictions, there is every for believing that
the Colony of Algeria, instead of showing "a def
f'cit in single year of more than fifteen millions
''of dollars, on an administration of which the
total expenditure is but twenty millions" would
have been at this day not only prosperous and
populous, but seltsupporting. The condition OF
that colony presents striking illustration of the
injurious effects which result from governing a peo-
pie overmuch When no freedom of action what
ever is left to the people, it necessarily follows as
Prince NAPOLEON recently stated, in his speech at
Limoges, that the spirit of initiative and of enter
'prise is stihed;' and that capitalists who present
themselves either to engage in commercial pur-
n M inf fact,
Will hesitate to embark in adventures that promise
to prove lucrative to themselves and beneficial to
the general interests of the colony from a well
grounded apprehension of the complications to
which they wonld be exposed, through the neces-
sity of being constantly obliged to conform to the
stringent regulations adopted by the Provincial
authorities. In her system of Colonization France
might have happily profted by the examples set
her by England and the UNITED STATES. She might
have limited her authority to general administra-
ton of the affairs of the Princpality, leaving the
while all power was centralized at Paris, it was
scarcely possible to concede, to French subjects
abroad, greater freedom and larger share of
political liberty than were enjoyed by their coun-
trymen at home, without provoking invidous COM
parsons 1t was foreseen that to relax the tutel-
age exercised over the Colonists of Algeria, it |
would be necessary, first of all, to abandon to an
equal extent, the policy of Capitalization, enforced
In the mother country and at length from the tenor
OF recent advCes from France, there appears every
reason to believe that some very salutary changes
IN this respect are in contemplation. Similar mod-
hcatons of the previous arbitrary rule are also to be
carried out in Algeria under the auspices of Prince
NAPOLEON, and if this release from the pressure of
external authority takes place. we shall then have
better opportunity for Judging, not only of the
capacity of the French people for selfgovernment,
but of their ability for colonizing remote pro-
vinces.