Arguments to prove the policy and necessity of granting to Newfoundland a constitutional government in a letter to the Right Honourable W. Huskisson, principal secretary of state for the colonies, &c. &c. &c

Field: Social Sciences (Social Sciences)

t 1 public of America.If, gir, I prove the fisheries of Newfoundland, which, according to the opinions of the most able politicians and best writers, and even of the legislature itself, as expressed in various acts of parliament, are considered " the best nur- sery for seamen to man the British navy," are, by the policy hitherto pursued, converted into a nursery for seamen, more for the American and French than the navy of England, it is a subject, I most humbly subnu't, worthy the serious consi- deration of those ministers who direct the councils of his Majesty.In presuming to address you, I have made the public press the medium, to afford an opportunity, if the opinions or facts I shall advance and state are founded in error or misrepresentation, of refuting the one and exposing the other ; and, without at- tempting a compliment, I can assure you, Sir, that you are the last man in the empire whom I would attempt to impose on by false reasoning or false facts, as detection and exposure would be the in- evitable consequences.My object is, in the first place, to endeavour to prove that a local consti- tutional government is absolutely necessary for Newfoundland, and that it is vain to hope, that the country can much improve without it.Secondly, that the want of such a government to foster the iuternel resources of the country, and to encourage agriculture and settlement, has caused, within the last twenty years, not less than from forty to fifty thousand of our best seamen and fishermen to emigrate to the United States, carrying with them all their knowledge and (experience, to enable our rivals to compete with us in our fisheries, and, in <^a.^c ^^f need, io sfipply their fleets with seamen.• I consider the present to be a most important crisis in the affairs of Newfc undland.The act, under the authority of which the present govern- ment of the country is constituted, expires in the early part of next year, and it will be matter for the consideration of his Majesty's government,whether the present narrow system shall be continued, or one more liberal and extensive adopted.And I hope to be able to prove, though there may be various plans proposed, that no other plan, than a government founded on the fundamental princi- ples of the constitvition of the parent country, will be found dapted to the present exigencies of Newfoundland.All the other early English colonies have had the advantage of being allowed to manage their internal afft^irs in the manner they con- sidered best calculated to promote their prosperity and happiness.To the provinces of Nova Scotia and Canada, and the Island of Cape Breton, ceded by the French soon after they came under the go- vernment of Great Britain, to Barbadoes, Jamaica, and all the British West India Islands, not except- ing even the small rock of Bermuda, were granted the same invaluable boon ; indeed, I believe there was no other system of government ever contem- plated for our American colonies.Blackstone, in his Commentaries, in the chapter "On the Countries subject to the Laws of England," observes that, " with respect to their interior polity, our colonies are properly of three sorts, Ui, Provincial Establish- ments, the constitutions of which depend on theres- pective commissions issued by the crown to the Governors, and the instructions which usually accompany those commissions^under the authority of which provincial assemblies are constituted, with the power of making local ordinances not repugnant to the laws of England.Second, Proprietary Governments, granted out by the crown to individu- als in the nature of feudatory principalities, with all the inferior regalities and subordinate power* of legislation which formerly belonged to Counties Palatine.Third, Charter Governments, in the nature of civil Corporations, with the power of making bye-laws for their own interior regulation.'*The sort of Government adopted for Newfound- land is one, with which this great constitutional lawyer was either unacquainted, or for which he could not devise an appropriate designation.England, like an indulgent parent, freely gave to her wandering children, compelled to seek homes and countries in a new and distant world, a fair por- tion of their inheritance.She granted them the greatest boon in he* power to bestow-the liberty of forming their infant governments on the basis of her own matchless constitution ; and when we look back and observe the rapid strides those countries have made in wealth, population, and imptove- ment, we may exclaim with Sir James Mackintosh, that " Liberty is the parent of commerce, the PARENT OF WEALTH, THE PARENT OF KNOWLEDGE, THE parent of EVERY VIRTUE."Unfortunately for Newfoundland, the withering and blavSting influence of mercantile monopohf pre- vented the parent government from acting towards her with the same liberal and generous policy she did to her other eolonies.I am free to admit that this was not occasioned by any indisposition on the part of government to promote the interests of the country, or the happiness of the people ; the cause is well explained in a Memorial presented from Newfoundland to the Right Honourable Earl Bathurst, under date of the 6th of December, 183^, from which the following is an extract.. '* The Committee now beg leave to call the at- *' tention of your Lordship to the present state of " Newfoundland, a country of great extent, the " oldest of the British settlements in Americap laced nearly in the same latitude as England, with a climate peculiarly favourable to the health " of its inhabitants, possessing more of the elements of commerce than any other of the colonies of North America, and of the greatest importance " to the paient state, not only as a valuable acqui-- " sition to the commercial interests of the empire,- " but as the best nursery for seamen to supoort its " naval ascendancy ; now, after the lapse of near *' three centuries, being almost in the same slate as *' when first discovered by Cabot.With a popu- lation of one hundred thousand persons, without any certain mode of employment or subsistence, without a government efficient for any local pur- pose, without roads, without means of education '* for the peoplcj without aiiy of those institutions ct