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The following diagrams illustrate the method: Les cartes, planches, tableaux, etc., peuvent Atre filmte A des taux de reduction diff6rents. Lorsque le document est trop grand pour Atre reproduit en un seul ciichA, il est film* A partir de Tangle supArieur gauche, de gauche A droite, et de haut en has, en prenant le nombre d'Images nAcesssire. Les diagrammes suivants illustrent la m^thode. >y errata ed to mt me pelure, B9on A 1 2 3 32X 1 2 3 4 6 6 s: [T I ^rS Si wl foi SOI th< th( fol wii col ec< las de' att [Pbice Twopekos. FINANCIAL REFORM TRACTS. Nob. U and 12. SPEECH OF SIR WM. MOLESWORTH, BART., M.P., IN THE HOUSE OF COMMONS, ON TrESDA.T, 25tH JULY, 1848, ON COLONIAL EXPENDirXTBE AND GOVERNMENT. [Through the obliging permission of Sir William Molesworth, the Finan- cial Reform Association are enabled to present, in an entire form, to their subscribers and tne public generally, the important facts contained in his speech on Colonial expenditure, delivered in the House of Com- mons on the 25th July, 1848. So complete and searching an exposure of Colonial Administration, and of the net profits accruing to this country from her extended Colonial empire, ought to be in the hands of every elector throughout the kingdom, that each may determine for himself how far it is either wise or just to keep up an enormous armed force and most extravagant civil establishments, for no other purpose, ostensibly, than to foster and protect a commerce which would be established as certainly, and probably more rapidly and safely, were the Colonies to be self-governed, as many of them are able and desir- ous to be.] Sib, — ^In submitting to the consideration of the House the motion of which I have given notice, I must entreat the indulgence of the House ; for the nature and extent of the subject will compel me to trespass at some length upon its patience. My object is, in the first instance, to call the attention of the House to the amoimt of the colonial expenditure of the British empire ; and in so doing, I shall endeavour to establish the following positions : 1st. That the colonial expenditure can be diminished without detriment to the interests of the empire ; 2nd. That the system of colonial policy and government can be so amended, as to ensure more economical, and altogether better, government for the colonies. And lastly, that by these reforms the resources of the colonies would be developed, they would become more useful, and their inhabitants more attached to the British empire. In speaking of colonies, I do not intend to include under that term ti- 2 i territories which are governed by the East India Company, but shall confine my rentaifas to those fcireign possessiont of the Cfown which are under the jurisdiction of the Colonial-office. Notwithstanding this limitation, the colonial empite of G«eat Britain contains between four and five millions of square miles — an area equal to the whole of Europe and British India added together. Of this vast space about one million of square miles have been divided into foOi;ii:T.>i> .^tmtAni I next proceed to the Bermudas. Since the peace we have expended there upwards of £600,000 (exclusive of the cost of convict labour) on navy and ordnance worLs alone ; and it is now estimated that to complete these works a further sum of £160,000 will be required. At the Bermu- das there is a garrison of 1,200 men, at a cost (exclusive of the expense for convicts) of about £90,000 a-year. Now, what is the use of such costly establishments and fortifications on these worthless rocks ? It is said that the Bermudas are useful as a means of aggression against the United States, and that we have garrisoned them and fortified them lest the United States should take possession of them. I believe the United States would not accept of them as a gift. They are chiefly used as a comfortable residence £g»: the admiral on the North American station, for whom it is proposed to build a house at a cost of about £15,000. I ne^t proceed to St. Helena, which costs us in civil and military expen- dituxe about £40,000 a-year, and to the colonies on the western coast of Al^ica, which in a similar manner cost us about £52,000 a-year. These colonies are not, strictly speakiog, military stations, nor are they of much commercial importance : their main object is to impede the slave trade. The fleet which we had last year upon this station consisted of twenty- four ships, with 259 guns, and a complement of 2,781 men, and its cost was returned to Parliament for wages, victuals of crews, and wear and tear of ships, at £301,628 a-year. Besides these sums we generally expend about £80,000 aryear on other matters connected with what is called the suppression of the slave trade. Therefore, at least half a mil- lion a-year is the direct expc:iJicure by Gxeat Britain in the vaan attempt to put a stop to that traflic. It nay not be proper to indude all this .under the head of colonial expenditure ; but, nevertheless, I may be per- mitted to express my belief that it is a most useless expenditure, and to recommend Parliament to abandon it, together with the coloi^ of Sierra X^one, and the other stations on the west coast of Africa, and thus to save the country an outlay of at least £450,000 a-year. >; j.- I now arrive at the colony of the Cape of Good Hope (the avea^ of « wnich is considerably larger than that of the United Kingdom). It may be looked upon as a commercial colony as well as a military station. As a commercial colony, it is not of much importance. In 1844, the declared value of our exports to it was only £458,000, and our imports from it were £258,000. Th difference was made up by the military expendi- ture of Great Britain, which for 1843-1844 amounted to £294,000, or more than fifty per cent, on our exports. In that year the number of troops in the colony was 2,951 rank and file ; last year, the number was at one time 5,470 rank and file. This increase was in consequence of the Kafir war ; and for the same reason the fleet on this station was increased to nine ships, with a complement of 1,700 men, which fleet must have cost this country at the rate of £170,000 a-year. For that war we have akeady paid £1,100,000, and, in all probability, £800,000 or £900,000 more will be required to close the account. The House will be not astonished at this expenditure when it is informed, in the words of Sir Harry Smith, " that in the last bit of a brush with a Kafir chief called Sandhilli, £56,000 were expended in waggon hire alone." One word with regard to that war, — ^for it is a striking instance of tihe pranks that colonial governors can play, of the little control that the Secretary of State for the Colonies can exercise over them, and of the danger to which this country is perpetually exposed, imder the present colonial system, of having vast sums of money expended upon a worthless colony. The Cape of Good Hope is the Algeria of England. The Kafir war which has just terminated was, I believe, the fourth in the last thirty years. The one which preceded it is said to have cost this country half a million sterling. All these wars have originated from nearly the same cause, namely, cattle stealing along a frontier of upwards of 700 miles. Some- times the Kafirs stole, or were accused of stealing, the cattle of the colo- nists ; the colonists retaliated ; then they came to blows ; blood was shed ; the Colonial Government interfered ; a large expenditinrc of public money ensued, to be paid for out of the Imperial treasury. This was the case in the last war. With regard to the origin of that war, there is a great difference of opinion. Some persons, apparently with grea* reason, ascribe it to the discontinuance of the system of Sir B. D'Urban, and the adoption of the mistaken policy of the missionaries ; and they maintain that the war was inevitable, and only too long delayed by attempts to conciliate the Kafirs. Other persons, with much show of reason, ascribe its origin and ill success to the haste and indiscretion of the Governor, Sir P. Maitland. However this may be, the immediate cause of the war was this : a Kafir on the frontier stole an axe. He was arrested and sent off to prison. On the road a rescue was attempted ; a conflict ensued ; on the one side a Kafir, on the other side a Hottentot constable we»e slain, and the prisoner was rescued. Application was then made to certain Kafir chiefs to give up the offenders. They refused, bn the grounds that the colonial authorities were not entitled by treaty to send a Kafir to prison for such a trifle as stealing an axe, and that the blood of the Hottentot had been paid for in the blood of the Kafir first killed ; and they entreated the Governor not to be in haste with forces, but to have a talk about the matter and try to understand it. However, the Governor at once hastened to the frontier ; by his orders Kafirland was invaded ; but every arrangement was so ill made that our troops were repulsed ; twice our baggage-waggons were cut off; and the victorious Kafirs, in their turn, invaded the colony. For months Sir P. Maitland lived in the bush, enduring, according to his o>vn account, unheard-of hardships, when he was very properly superseded. Great was the amazement and indig- nation of his successor, Sir Henry Pottinger, at the state of affairs which he discovered in the colony. He declares that he cannot give an "ade- quate idea of the confusion, unauthorized expense, and (as he believed) attendant peculation which had obtained." In that peculation it is rumoured that men of high sation were implicated. Numerous in- stances of reckless expenditure are stated in Sir Henry's despatches. One of a settlement on the Kat River, where the few inhabitants were, on the plea of defending the frontier, receiving rations at the rate of £21,000 a-year. Another in the vicinity of a station called Block Drift, where rations had been regularly given to a number of Kafirs, who had been fighting against us. Sir Henry attempted to put a stop to these abuses ; and the war seemed to be drawing to a close, when, unfortunately, fourteen goats were lost. They were tracked across the frontier into the territory of a Kafir chief ; he was required to restore them, and to give up the supposed thief. Twelve of the goats were immediately sent back, but the chief denied all knowledge of the other two, and of the thief, if there were one. Sir Henry Pottinger was not satisfied. He ordered a secret expedition into Kafirland, to surprise the chief in question. The expedition, as usual, failed ; the chief escaped ; the troops retreated, after having killed a few Kafirs, and carried off some head of cattle ; and the war was kindled afresh. Throughout, Sir Henry Pottinger was thwarted by a divided command ; and the greater portion of his troops were unsuited for the service which they had to perform. For instance, old ofiicers of the Peninsula, accustomed to regular warfare, were intent upon displaying their strategic skill in a contest with savages ; heavy dragoons, mounted upon chargers, armed with rifles impossible to load on horseback ; and English regiments, with their ordinary clothing and accoutrements, had, under the burning sim of Africa, to attack Kafirs skulking in a bush all but impenetrable to Europeans. In such a war, seven British regiments, with artillery and engineers, were not a match for half the number of naked savages armed with assegais. The war would never have been brought to a close had it not been for the colonial corps, who, composed of Hottentpts, led on by brave and energetic young English officers, followed the spoor of the Kafirs, captured their cattle, and hunted them down like wolves. By these means Sir Henry Pottinger brought the war to a close just as he was succeeded by Sir H. Smith. Sir H. Smith, in addition to other marvellous feats, has made the Kafir chiefs kiss his foot, has proclaimed himself their only Inkosi Inkulu (great chief), and has added, on the north of the colony, some 40,000 square miles (about the size of England) of as barren a desert (to use the words of the surveyor-general) as is to be found upon the earth's crust. Thus the loss of one axe and two goats on the frontier of the Cape of Good Hope has cost this country a couple of millions sterling. I attach no blame to Lord Grey or his predecessor on account of this war ; it is clear from their despatches (I trust they will pardon me for saying it) that they were helpless and ignorant ; and I believe Lord Grey was as much astonished as any man when he heard the amount of the bill to be paid. I warn the House, however, that, under the existing system, there is no reason whatever why, every four or five years, there should not be a similar war, with a similar bill to pay. For, with a frontier of about 700 miles in extent, causes of war with the neighbouring savages will perpetually recur. In the colony such a war is most popular, and is wished for on account of the lavish expenditure of Great Britain ; and every effort is made to prolong its duration. There is but one means of securing our purses for the future, namely, by withdrawing our troops from the frontier, and letting the colonists distinctly under- stand that they must defend themselves, and pay the cost of such defence. Then they will have the strongest motives to prevent the commencement, and to hasten the termination, of a Kafir war. In return for so doing, they should receive free institutions, and have complete control over their own expenditure. Then a thousand troops would be a sufiUcient garrison for Cape Town ; and, in ordinary years, there might be a saving at the Cape, in military expenditure alone, to the amount of at least £200,000 a-year. If, however, public money be to be spent at the Cape of Good Hope, it would be better both for this coimtry and for the colony that it should be spent on emigration. I believe that about £10 a-head is sufficient to defray the expense of sending emigrants to that colony. Now, the direct military expenditiu*e by Great Britain on accoimt of the colonies is at the rate of £60 a-year for each soldier in the colonies. Therefore, if we were to reduce our military force at the Cape by 1,500 men, and were to send there, in their stead, 9,000 emigprants a-year, there would, in all probability, be a reduction in our expenditure on account of that eolony ; and the rapid increase of population would enable the colonists to guard then' frontier effectually against the Kafirs. From the Cape of Good Hope I proceed to the Mauritius, which may likewise be looked upon, to a certain extent, as a commercial colony. The declared value of the exports to it of British produce was £285,000 10 in 1844. The yrhola. expenditure by Great Britain, in 1843.44« on account of this colony, was £92,000 ; I should think that it costs some- what more at present, for we have about 2,000 troops at the Mauritius, and we are going to improve the defences of the island, at the estimated cost of £150,000. Where is the necessity for keeping this amount of military force at the Mauritius ? Is it in order to keep down the planters ? It is true they are discontented and overburdened by taxation ; but the best plan would be to bestow upon them free institutions, and to give IP , them complete control over their expenditure; then a thousand men (which was about the amount of the militaiy force in that colony in 1826) . would be an ample garrison. From the Mauritius I should proceed to Hong Kong ; but first, I will stop for a moment at Ceylon. As Ceylon is neither a military station nor a colony, properly so called, but is a subjugated territory of the same kind as our possessions in India, it appears to me that it would be better governed by the East India Company than by the Colonial-office, in which case we should have nothing to pay for the troops in that island. In 1843-4 the military expenditure by Great Britain amounted to £110,000, in addition to a military expenditure by the colony of nearly £70,000. At present the military force in Ceylon consists of 4,000 troops, including colonial corps. Now, £110,000 a year is a heavy price to pay for a- colony, the declared value of our exports to which did not exceed £240,000 in 1844 : it is true, however, that the import trade from Ceylon, especially of coffee, is rapidly increasing in value. ^ j ^^^^ I now arrive at Hong Kong. From the 1st of May, 1841, when we took possession of that island, up to the 30th September, 1846, we have expended upon it £314,000, exclusive of the sums derived from the local revenue. I find in the Navy, Ordnance, Commissariat, and Miscellaneous Estimates for this year, that Hong Kong appears under sixteen different heads, for siuns amoimting in all to £94,514 ; to which must be added the expense of paying, clothing, &c., of 1,200 troops, which must amount to at least £40,000 a year. Therefore Hong Kong bids fair to be a costly "jolony, as, indeed, it ought to be, when the salary of the governor is £6,000 a year. As the East India Company has a fleet of its own to defend its own possessions, the greater portion of this expenditure is on account of the trade with China, which, on the average of the last four years, did not exceed £2,000,000 a year in British produce and manu- factures. Next, I have to Siform the House that Labuan appears this year for the first time in our estimates (Mr. Hume : " Ha, ha," laughter), as yet only in the miscellaneous estimates for the sum, of £9,827, £2,000 of which is the salary of his Excellency the Rajah Brooke, of Sarawak (Mr. Hume : " Ha, ha," laughter), to whose dominions in Borneo we have t this year appointed a consul at the salary of £500 a year. Now, as in 11 these matters the first step is tH the difficulty, ^e may expect in a year or two to see Labuan, Sarawak, and perhaps in iSicir train- some half, dozen other Bomeon pfnnoipallitieB, holding conspicuotis places in the army, navy, oi^anee, «s well as misceHanieous estimates. Then we shall i build barracks and fortifications, and garrisob them with a few troops, i The troops wiH create a demand for a small quantity resentative assemblies, was about 820,000, and their expenditure in 1845 was £1,420,000, or at the rate of £1 14s. a-head of their population, or 18s. 7d. a-head more than in the colonies with representative assemblies. I am convinced that this great increase of the rate of expenditure in the Crown colonies is mainly to be attributed to the want of self-govern- ment ; for it is most apparent when the rate of expenditure in each class of colonies is examined and considered separately. The rate of expenditure is the lowest in the North American colonies, where there is the greatest amount of self-government. In fact, since the last insurrection in Canada, and the establishment of the doctrine of responsible government, Canada has become, in most respects, an inde- pendent state, except as far as the civil list is concerned, and except that it is now and then subjected to some mischievous and foolish interfer- ence on the part of the Colonial-office. Now the expenditure of the North American colonies in 1845, was £1,134,000, their population was :i 1^ 1,700,000 ; l!icrefore tbe rate of expenditure was 13s. 4d. per head lof the population, or Is. 7d. less thun than the average late of the colonies with re^Hresentatiye assemblies. But it should fee remarked, that off the £1,184,000 expended in 1845 by the North American colonies, £500,000 was an extraordinary expenditure by Canada, on account of new works and buildings, a large portion of which was defrayed by a loan. If a portion of this loan be omitted, as it ought to be, from the annual expen- diture, then the rate of expenditure by the North American colonies for the year 1845 would have been nearly the same as it was for the year 1842, when it amounted to about Os. a head of the population. Though this rate of expenditure is low, as compared with other colonies, yet it is about 80 per cent, higher than that of the United States for similar pur j poses. The difference mainly arises from the high scale of salaries paid to the higher functionaries in the North American Colonies. Generally speaking, those functionaries receive from three to four times the amount of the salaries of similar functionaries in the United States. For instance, in the Canadas, with a population of 1,200,000, the governor is paid £7,000 a year ; in the United States, the President has only £5,000 a year, and no governor has more than £1,200 a year; in the State of New York, with a population of 2,600,000, the governor only receives £800 a year. Again, the chief justices of Upper and Lower Canada are paid £1,500 a year each, while the chancellor and chief justices of the state of New York receive only £800 a year each. The puisne judges of Canada receive £1,000 a year each ; those of New York only £200 a year each. The governor of Nova Scotia is paid £3,500 a year ; the governors of New Brunswick and Newfoundland are paid £3,000 a year each. In Massachusetts, ^vith a population much larger than that of the three last colonies added together, the salary of the governor is only £500 a year. In fact, the four North American colonies which I have just mentioned, pay £2,500 a year more for the salaries of their four governors, than the thirty states of the Union do for their thirty governors. Now in the colo- nies, the salaries are fixed by the various civil lists. These civil lists, being removed for a series of years from the control of the representative assemblies, are perpetual causes of quarrelling and discontent ; and there is always a dispute going on between the Colonial-office and some colony or other on this subject, which frequently leads to^lie most unpleasant resxdts. For instance, the dispute about the civil list of Canada was one of the causes which ultimately lead to the insurrection in that colony ; and at present the Colonial-office is involved in a civil list quarrel with British Quiana. In all these quarrels, the object of the office is to keep up the pay of its functionaries, and the object of the colonists is a reduc- tion of expenditure. There can be no doubt that the salaries of the higher functionaries in the colonies are excessive, as compared to the standard of the United States, which is the usual standard of comparison in the colonies. For the salaries of the governors of the thirty states of the Union amount in all to but £14,000 a year ; therefore the average is £460 a year for the salary of each governor. Now there are eighteen British colonies which pay for their own governors ; their salaries amount in all to £72,000 a year ; therefore the a.erage is £4,000 a year for the salary of each of these governors, or nearly nine times the rate of pay in the 90 United States. In fact, nine out of the eighteen governors in question receive as much as, or more than, the President of the United States. For instance, the governors of Canada, the Mauritius, and Ceylon, receive £7,000 a year each ; the governor of Jamaica has £6,500 a year , and the governors of Gibraltar, Malta, the Ionian Isles, the Cape of Oood Hope, and New South Wtdes, have £5,000 a year each. I do not think this rate of pay is too high for noble lords and other gentlemen of rank and connexion, when they undertake the duties of governors of the colonies ; but if we are determined to employ such persons in the colonies, we ought to pay for them ourselves. On the other hand, if we insist upon the colonies paying their governors, it appears to me that, with the exception of the military stations, we should permit the colonies to elect their own governors and other functionaries, and to pay them what salaries they think fit. Such was, in olden times, the constitution of our colonies of Rhode Island, Connecticut, and Massachusetts ; and the honour and distinction attached to the office of governor would induce the best men in the colonies to serve for moderate salaries. If, however, the colonists were to chose, in any particular case, a person unfit to be a governor, they would be the sufferers ; they would have no one but themselves to blame : but, as I will presently show, it would be difficult for them to make a worse choice than the Colonial-office generally makes. To return to the question of the comparative rates of expenditure in those colonies which have, and those colonies which have not, represen- tative governments. In the West Indies the colonies with representative assemblies are Jamaica, the Leward Islands, the Windward Islands (with the exception of St. Lucia), and the Bahamas. Their population is about 700,000; their expenditure in 1845 was £450,000, or at the rate of 12s. lOd. per head of their population; the rate of Jamaica was 13s. Now compare this rate with that of the West Indian colonies without representative governments, namely, St. Lucia, Honduras, Trinidad, and British Guiana (the combined court of which cannot with any propriety be termed a representative assembly) ; their population is about 190,000 ; their expenditure, exclusive of the cost of immigration, was £284,000, or at the rate of £1 9s. a head, or more than twice as much as that of the West Indian colonies which have representative assemblies. The slaries of the higher functionaries in the West Indian colonies are all excessive, as compared with the standard of the United States. Twelve governors and lieutenant governors receive £29,000 a-year, £16,000 of which are paid by the colonists to five governors. As I have already observed, the Colonial- office is involved in a civil list dispute with British Guiana. In conse- quence of the distressed condition of that colony, at the close of last year the elective members of the Court of Policy proposed a reduction of twenty-five per cent, upon all salaries above 700 dollars a-year. The Colonial-office refused to accede to this proposal ; and the governor carried the estimates for the year in the Court of Policy by the exercise of his double vote. The Combined Court then refused to vote the supplies for the period required by the governor. The Colonial-office has retaliated upon them for this conduct by stopping immigration to British Guiana, and by refusing the usual licenses to carry Jiberated negroes from Sierra Leone to that colony. This unexpected proceeding has occasioned con- 21 considerable inconvenience and loss to various shipowners in this country, who complain that no reliance can be placed upon the Colonial-office with its perpetually shifting regulations. The Cape of Good Hope and the Mauritius have each of them about the same population, namely, 160,000, and being Crown colonies, their rate of expenditure is about the same as that of the Crown colonies of the West Indies, namely, £1 78. a head; they are grievously taxed, especially the Mauritius. As I have already said, the governor of the Mauritius has £7,000 a-year, and the governor of the Cape has as much as the President of the United States. It may be said that the rate of expenditure is higher in the Crown colonies, because, generally speaking, those colonies are more thinly peopled than the colonics with representative assemblies. It is perfectly true that, everything else being the same, the rate of expenditure in a thinly peopled territory will generally exceed that of a thickly peopled one. But the Crown colony of the Mauritius is four times as densely peopled as Jamaica, yet the rate of expenditure in Jamaica per head of the population is less than one-half of what it is in the Mauritius. Again, the Crown colony of Malta is one of the most densely peopled spots on the face of the earth, yet the rate of expenditure is 16s. 6d. a head of the population, or twenty per cent, more than that of the plantations in the West Indies ; or nearly double the ordinary rate of expenditure in the thinly peopled North Ameiican colonies. Again, Malta is more than twice as thickly populated as the Ionian States, but those states have a certain amount of self-government, and their rate of expenditure in 1840 (the last return which I have been able to get at) was 14s. 3d. a head, or 28. 3d. a head less than that of Malta. . . : ,. ,^ Ceylon is the only apparent exception to the rule, that the expenditure of colonies governed by the Colonial-office is greater than that of self- governed colonies. According to Sir Emerson Tennent, the population of Ceylon in 1846 must have amounted to 1,500,000, and the expenditure in that year was £498,000, or at the rate of 68. 7d. a head of the popula- tion. It is true this rate of expenditure is lower than that of any other colony, yet I believe it will be found to be extravagant when the nature of the population is considered ; for it ought to be compared with that of the territories governed by the East India Company, which are inhabited by an analogous population, but are locally governed by men carefully selected on account of their special aptitude. The population of those territories is said to be about 93,000,000, and the expenditure on the average of the five years ending 1844 was £20,000,000 sterling, therefore at the rate of 48. 3d. a head of the population, or one-third less than that of Ceylon. There can be no doubt that if Ceylon were transferred, as I propose, to the East India Company, it would be more economically governed than it is by the Colonial-office. Lastly, with regard to the Australian colonies. New South Wales is the only one which has a representative assembly of any kind. It com- menced its existence in 1843, and immediately caused an extraordinary diminution in the expenditure. In 1841 the free population of New South Wales amoimted to about 102,000, and the ordinary expenditure, exclusive of immigration, was £350,000, or at the enormous rate of £3 4s. a-head of the population. In 1843 the Representative Assembly at once li 92 ♦•3 ^1 dimtnished the expenditure for the subsequent year by £60,000 ; and in 1846, when the free poptilation amounted to 178,000, the expenditure was only £254,000, or at the rate of £1 8s. a-head of the population. This extraordinary reduction in the rate of expenditure may be attributed, to a certain extent, to immigration ; but the reduction in the positive amount of expenditure can be distinctly traced to the commencement of local self-government in 1843. Compare the rate of expenditure of New South Wales with that of the neighbouring colony of Van Diemen's Land, which has in vain petitioned for a representative assembly. In 1 842 the free population of that colony amounted to 37,000, and on the average of the four years ending with 1844, the expenditure, exclusive of immigration, was £161,000, or at the enormous rate of £4 6s. a-head. This rate of expenditure was not very different from that of the kindred colony of New South Wales prior to the establishment of representative government ; but it was more than three times that of New South Wales after the establishment of a repre- sentative government. It must, however, be acknowledged that the difference m the rate of expenditure of the two colonies may be attributed in part, though certainly not altogether, to the abolition of transportation to New South Wales, and to its continuance, in its worst form, to Van Diemen's Land. The house may remember the appalling description which was given last year of the loathsome moral state of the convict population of that colony and its dependency, Norfolk Island ; of their hideous crimes ; of their frightful diseases ; and of their atrocious mur- ders. It was shown that the unhappy state of that colony was brought about partly by the negligence of the then Secretary of State for the Colonies, Lord Stanley; partly by the mismanagement of the then Governor of Van Diemen's Land, Sir Eardly Wilmott ; and partly by the misconduct of the then commandant of Norfolk Island, Major Childs, In consequence of these horrid disclosures, it was announced last year to the Governor of Van Diemen's Land, Sir W. Denison, that it was the intention of the Government that transportation should be discontinued altogether, and that annoimcement was received with great satisfaction in the colony. Unfortunately, it now appears that transportation is to be renewed to Van Diemen's Land, though in a mitigated form. The colonists will be bitterly disappointed and exasperated when they receive this information. At present they are discontented ; for to meet the vast expenditure of the colony, taxes have been imposed which the judges have pronounced to be illegal ; and one of the Governors so deciding has been removed by the Governor, as the colonists believe, in consequence of his decision ; a belief which, from the statements made to the house by the honourable gentleman the Under Secretary of State for the colo- nies, appears to be unfounded. The colonists, however, will have every reason to be dissatisfied with the renewal of transportation, which will mar their prospects, and make them for ever the plague-spot and reproach of Australasia. In the other Australian colonies which have not representative govern- ments, I am imable to state with accuracy the rate of expenditure per head of the populatio^^. In South Australia, at one time, it exceeded £10 a-head per annum ; and the colony became utterly bankrupt through the extravagance of its governor, Colonel GaAvIer. We had to liquidate I i :l ; and in liture was n. This buted, to e amount of local lat of the (etitioned at colony ing with )0, or at was not lies prior tore than ' a repre- that the ttributed portation I, to Van scription ! convict of their 3us mur- brought 3 for the he then y by the r Childs. year to was the jntinued isfaction on is to m. The receive the vast judges ling has equence 2 house le colo- e every lich will eproach govem- ;ure per icceeded hrough quidate I 'A its debts, partly by a ^ in 1842 to the amouat of £214,936, and by a loan of £85,000. This loan will be repaid, because South Austriilia is becoming rich, in consequence of the discoTery of mines. With regard to these mines, it is said that the Colonial Office has created great dissa- tisfaction in this colony by reserving a royalty of one-fifteenth of their gross produce. The house is probably not aware that almost every year the Colonial Office makes some change in the management of the waste lands of the Australian colonies, which affects, to a greater or less extent, the value of all landed property in those colonies. For instance, with reference to minerals. OriginAlly all minerals were reserved to the Crown, and only the surface of the .-toil was conveyed to the purchaser. In one instance, however. Lord Bathurst, when Secretary of State for the Colonies, gave all the to A in New Bouth Wales to one company. In consequence of these reservations, no ono bad any interest in searching for or in discovering mines, therefore no mines were discovered, or, if discovered, they were carefully concealed. When, however, the noble lord the member for the city of London became Secretary of State for the Colonies, he, with his usual good sense, at once perceived the impolicy of such reservations, and imder his rule all minerals were conveyed to the purchaser of the soil. Then mines were discovered, especially in South Australia ; and then, to the astonishment of most persons, the Colonial Office determined upon reserving a royalty upon all Aiture mines. Mr. Hawes : No, no. Sir William Molesworth : What ! Do you mean to say that you have in no instance reserved a royalty ? Mr. Hawes : I mean to say that the late Colonial Secretary, Lord Stanley, did it.* Sir William Molesworth : Well, it matters not who did it. The con- sequence is, that the previously-discovered mines, which are nearer the coast, and therefore can be worked with less expense, will have to pay nothing; whilst the subsequently-discovered mines, which are furUier from the coast and therefore more expensive to work, will have to pay a royalty of 6| per cent, on their gross produce. Such a measure is bad on economical grounds, and bad also in policy ; for sound policy requires that this country should interfere as little as possible in the internal affairs of its colonies, and, above all, as little as possible with their pockets. The policy of the noble lord (the member for the City oi London) was the right and statesman-like one ; — sell your land to the colonists and have done with it. Signeuries and royalties are relics of feudalism, wholly unsuited to colonies. Their establishment is another instance of the utter ignorance of men and things which the Colonial- office generally displays in its administration of the colonies ; and, to crown the absurdity, the emigration commissioners report that these royalties are, at present, not worth collecting in South Australia. Swan River, alias Western Australia, has a delicious climate, much good land, plenty of coal, and is well situated for commerce ; it might have proved a flourishing colony by this time, but it was, over-laid at its birth by the Colonial-office. Its expenditure exceeds its income ; and we * Mr. Hawes subaequentlj stated that these royalties, had been abandoned a few davs before this speeoh was made ; a fact which had not previously been oonununicated to tne 24 have to pay seven or eight thousand pounds a year for its civil govern- ment. Lastly, New Zealand. I do not know the rate of expenditure per head of the population of that colony. Its expenditure, however, far exceeds its irxome. We annually vote between twenty and thirty thousand pounds a year for its civil government, exclusive of the biU wluch we shall have to pay for Maori wars. In the course of the last two years, we have voted that £236,000 shall be lent to the New Zealand Company, which I hope will be repaid some day or other. In that colony, what with imbe- cile governors in the beginning, what with constitutions proclaimed and suspended, what with quarrels with the natives, what with missionaries snd land sharks, there has been a state of the most extraordinary confu- sion ; yet, I believe, through the indomitable energy of our race, New Zealand will ultimately become a flourishing colony, the Britain of the Southern Seas. The House may remember that in 1846 the Colonial- office imagined a nondescript constitution for New Zealand, and sent it oflf post haste to that colony. It was to divide New Zealand into two provinces — New Ulster and New Mimster. Each was to have a repre- sentative assembly. When the constitution arrived. Governor Grey refused to bestow it on New Ulster, on the groimds that it would enable the British population to legislate for and tax the natives. Therefore Governor Grey suspended the constitution of New Ulster till he could receive further instructions ; but he expressed his opinions in very strong terms that the inhabitants of New Munster were fit for a constitution. When this Litelligence reached the Colonial-office, Lord Grey immedi- ately proposed to Parliament a biU (which was passed about three or four months ago) to suspend the constitution of both provinces. Now I infer, from late accounts &om the colonies, that New Munster has obtained its constitution ; and perhaps its representatives M-ill be assembled, and will be hard at work legislating, when orders will arrive from England to suspend their constitution, and to dismiss them with ignominy. A curious farce is the history of the management of this colony by the Colonial- office. This same nondescript New Zealand constituion was sent by the Colonial-office to New South Wales for the colonists to inspect, and to see how they would like a similar one. They have rejected it with scorn and contempt. I am afraid, sir, that the present Secretary of State for the Colonies, notwithstanding his very great abilities, will not be renowned in future history as either the Solon or Lycurgus of Australia. ; ., I think I have sufficiently established my position that, in every portion of the globe, the British colonies are more economically and better governed in proportion as they are self-governed. In North America the various states of the Union govern themselves twenty five per cent, cheaper than the Canadas do, which are to a certain extent under the contiol of the Colonial Office. In the West Indies the Crown Colonies, which are governed by the Colonial Office, are twice as heavily taxed as the plantations ; and in Australia, and in the Mediterranean, the same rule holds good. These facts justify the conclusion at which I now arrive, that the greater the amount of local self-government, and the less the Colonial Office interferes in the internal afiairs of the colonies, the more economically and the better the colonies will be governed. In the course of the last ten years petitions, complaining of Colonial Office th€ ins go prd dif u same now lie less es, the In the Office government, and praying for representative government, have been presented from the Cape of Good Hope, New South Wales, Van Diemen's Land, Western Australia, South Australia, New Zealand, British Quiana, Trinidad, St. Lucia, and Malta. The prayer of only one of these petitions has been acceded to. New South Wales has obtained a mongrel form of representative government, which must soon be amended, though not in the fashion proposed by the Colonial Office. All the other petitions have been rejected. Now I do not assert that each of these colonies would derive the sam^ amount of benefit from free institutions; but I am prepared to maintain that with representative government every one of them, not excepting the Mauritius, would have been more economically and better governed than they have been or are governed by the Colonial Office. In saying this I do not mean to speak with disrespect either of past or present Secretaries of State for the Colonies ; but there is no essential difference between them ; the system is throughout the same, whoever may be the nominal cluef. Of that system, however, I do intend to speak with disrespect ; and I can quote, in justification of my so doing, some high authorities on this side of the house, who have carefully studied the subject. I mean my honourable friend the member for Liskeard (Mr. C. Buller), the hon. gentleman the member for Sheffield (Mr. Ward), and the noble Earl at the head of the Colonial Office, before he became Secretary of State for the Colonies. As long as that system exists, the majority of the colonies must be ill governed, and their inha- bitants discontented ; for the Colonial Office undertakes to perform an impossible task. It undertakes the administration, civil, military, finan- cial, judicial, and ecclesiastical, of some ^orty different communities, with various institutions, languages, laws, customs, wants, and interests. It undertakes to legislate more or less for all these colonies, and altogether for those which have no representative assemblies. It would be difficult enough to discharge all these fimctions in a single office, if all the colo- nies were close together and close to England, but they are scattered over the surface of the globe, from the Arctic to the Antarctic pole. To most of them several months must elapse, to some of them a whole year must elapse, before an answer to a letter can be received, before a petition can be complied with, or a grievance redressed. Therefore, orders which are issued from the Colonial Office in accordance with the last advices from a colony are, in innumerable instances, wholly unsuited to the state of the colony when the orders arrive ; in some cases, questions which time has setUed are re-opened, forgotten disputes are revived, and the tardy interference of the Colonial Office is felt to be a curse even when a wrong is redressed. In other cases, the instructions of the Colonial Office are wisely disregarded by the governors, or rejected with derision by the colonial assemblies, who marvel at the crass ignorance of their transatlantic rulers. In addition to its other arduous functions, the Colonial Office is required to assist in the vain attempt to suppress the slave trade with Africa ; and it has likewise the difficult task of adminstering a secondary punishment in a penal colony at the antipodes. Now, if it were possible for any mortal man to discharge the duties of such an office, it is evident that he ought to possess, not merely gpreat mental powers, but a long and intimate 26 } acquaintance -with the affairs of the different colonies ; he should be brought np to the business, it should be the study of his life, and he should be appointed on account of his special aptitude to conduct such business. Is this the rule for selecting Secretaries of State for the colo- nies ? Nothing of the kind. They are generally chosen hap-hazard from the chiefs of the two great political parties in this or the other House of Parliament ; and they retain their office, on the average, some eighteen months or so. During .the last nine years there have been no less than six Colonial Secretaries, — namely. Lord Glenelg, Lord Nor- manby. Lord John Russell, Lord Stanley, Mr. Gladstone, and Lord Grey ; all of them, I acknowledge, are men of great ability ; all of them, I believe, most anxious to use their abilities for the benefit of their country and of the colonies ; but I feel persuaded that one-third of them had little or no acquaintance with colonial affairs prior to their acceptance of office ; just, therefore, as they were beginning to learn the wants and interests of the more important colonies, and to acquire the first rudiments of colonial lore, they were succeeded by some other statesman, who had to commence his lessons as Secretary of State for the Colonies, and to try his hand in the despotic and irresponsible government of some score or so of dependent states. In fact, the Colonial Government of this country is an ever-changing, frequently well-intentioned, but invariably weak and ignorant despotism. Its policy varies incessantly, swayed about by opposite influences ; at one time directed, perhaps, by the West India body, the next instant by the Anti-Slavery Society, then by Canadian merchants, or by a New Zealand Company, or by a Missionary Society : it is everything by turns, and nothing long ; Saint, Protectionist, Free-trader, in rapid succession ; one day it originates a project, the next day abandons it ; therefore, all its schemes are abortions, and all its measures are unsuccessful ; witness the economical condition of the West Indies, the frontier relations of the Cape of Good Hope, the immoral state of Van Diemen's Land, and the pseudo-systematic colonization and revoked constitution of New Zealand. Such a government might suit serfs and other barbarians ; but to men of our race, inteUigent and energetic Englishmen, accustomed to freedom and to local self-government, it is one of the most hateful and odious governments that can well be imagined. It is difficvdt to express the deap-seated hatred and contempt which is felt for the Colonial-office by almost every dependency subject to its sway. If you doubt this fact, put the question to the West Indioe and the Mauritius ; put the same question to Van Diemen's Land, to New South Wales, to New Zealand, and your other Australian colonies ; from all of them you will receive the same answer, and the same prayer to be freed from the control of the Colonial-office. Even the Canadas are not content, though they have responsible government ; and though, in most respects, they are virtually independent of the Colonial-office, yet every now and then the Colonial- office contrives to produce irritation by stupid interference in some ques- tion of minor importance, such as the regulations of a banking-bill, or the amount of a petty salary. Though the colonies have ample reason to complain of the manner in which their affairs are administered by the Colonial-office in this country, they hpave still greater reason to complain of the governors and other 7, ■'/.I hoiild be , and he Luct such the colo- p-hazard the other je, some been no »rd Nor- rd Grey ; them, I country lem had )tance of ints and idiments who had 3, and to ne score langing, spotism. aces; at stant by a New y turns, cession ; fore, all witness Ls of the and the Zealand. ; to men freedom I odious ress the ffice by 'act, put e same jealand, receive )1 of the ;y have virtually olonial- le ques- bill, or at functionaries who are sent hy die CoJopiaL-oflice to the colonifis ; for^ generally speaking, they axe chosen, not on account of any special apti- tude fbr, or knowledge of, the business they iriU have to pnfona, but for reasons foreign to tiie interests of the colimies^ For insitaoce, poor rela- tions, or needy dependents of men having politiueal influ«aee ; officers in the army or nary, who^haTO been unsneeessfol in thrar professions; brief- less barristers ; dectioneering agenla ; unportonate applicants for public employment, whose employment in this country puUic opinion would forbid ; and at times, even discreditable partisans whom it is expedient to get rid of in the colonies; these are the materials ou;t of which the Colonial-office has too frequently manufactured its governors and other functionaries. Therefore, in most cases, they are signally unfit for the duties which they have to perform, and being wholly ignorant of the affairs of the colony to which they are appointed, they become the tools of one or other of the colonial factions ; whence perpetual jealousies and never-ending feuds. The governors, the judges, and the other high funxitionaries are generally on hostile terms. The governors amove the judges, the judges appeal to us for redress ; every year a petition or two of this kind comes under the consideration of Parliament. To settle such questions the Colonial-office has just created a new tribunal, com- posed of an ex-Indian judge and railway commissioner, and of an ex-permanent Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies ; the one with little knowledge of Colonial affairs, the other famed for years as the real head of the colonial system, and, therefore, reputed to be the evil genius of the colonies. It would be easy to cite instances which have occurred during the last ten years which would illustrate every one of these posi- tions. I forbear, however, from mentioning names, as the facts are notorious to every one who has taken any interest in Colonial affairs. It is no wonder that the colonies are discontented, and that they are badly and expensively governed. Is there any remedy for this state of things ? I have traced the evil to its source in the colonial system of the Colonial-office. Can that system be amended ? It appears to me that the Colonial-office, as an instrument for governing the colonies, must always be far inferior to any mode of self-government by the colonists ; for it is evident that at least in ninety-nine cases out of every hundred, the colonists — ^the men on the spot — ^must be better judges of their own interests than honourable gentlemen far away in Downing-street can pos- sibly be. It is evident, likewise, that (though the empire at large has a deep interest in the good and economical government of the colonies ; though all of us here present are most sincerely desirous that the colonies should be contented and happy), yet we have other things to do besides studying colonial affairs and looking after the Colonial- office ; therefore, the Colonial-office is virtually irresponsible. It may play what pranks it pleases ; it is only when we have to pay for a Canadian insurrection, or a Kaffir war, that an outary is raised, and the Colonial-office itself is called to account, and then there is not above a score of us who know anything about the subject, even after a laborious study of the documents carefully prepared for the purpose by the Colonial- office. Remember, likewise, that implicit reUance cannot be placed on those documents. Some, for instance, are long didactic despatches, written for the sole purpose of being presented to Parliament^ not in. 28 'i tended to produce any specific results in the colonies, but full of well- turned periods, containing lofty sentiments and apparently statesmanlike views, calculated to gain credit for the office, and to satisfy the minds of honourable, ignorant, and confiding members, who soon afterwards forget dil about the matter. Again, as a collection of materials for (enabling Uie House to form a judgment with regard to colonial affairs, those documents are not to be trusted, for, generally speaking, they are tainted with par- tiality, and necessarily so, because they are selected out of a vast mass, on account of their supposed importance. Of that importance the Colo- nial-office is the sole and irresponsible judge : it determines without appeal what shall be produced and what shall be suppressed. In so domg, it must obey the unchanging laws of human nature, and attach greater importance to those documents which confirm its views, and less importance to those which are adverse to its opinions. The former, therefore, obtain its special care, and are sure to be produced ; the latter are comparatively neglected, and liable to be forgotten and suppressed ; the result is inevitable, namely^ partial statements ; instances of human fallibility, affording incontestible proofs of the impossibility under which this House labours of forming a correct judgment with regard to colonial affairs. For similar reasons the Colonial-office labours under a similar difficulty, because the statements made to it by the colonial authorities must frequently be of a partial character, and at times wholly imtrust- worthy ; yet always months, and sometimes whole years, elapse before any explanation of those statements can be obtaiaed. Therefore ignorance and responsibility are the characteristic defects of our present mode of governing the colonies. For these defects there is no remedy but local self-government. Hence I come to the conclusion, that we should delegate to the colonies all powers of local legislation and administration which are now possessed by the Colonial-office, with the reservation only of those powers the exercise of which would be absolutely inconsistent with the sovereignty of this country, or might be directly injurious to the interests of the whole empire. It appears to me that the powers that ought to be so reserved are few in number, and could easily be defined. To determine them, it would be necessary merely to consider what are the benefits which this country may derive fi'om the colonies, and what is requisite to secure the continuous enjoyment of those benefits. , • ^ Colonies are useful either as affording markets for our produce, or out- lets for our population. To pro\e their utility as markets, my honour- able friend the member for Liskeard, in his most able and admirable speech, in 1843, on systematic colonization, showed that the rate of con- sumption of British produce and manufactures, per head of the popula- tion, was very much greater in colonies than in other coimtries. Of the correctness of this position there can be no doubt. In 1844, continental Europe, with a population of about 220,000,000 of inhabitants, did not consume more than £24,000,000 worth of our produce and manufac- tures ; whilst our colonies (including the United States), with a popula- tion not exceeding 25,000,000, consumed £16,000,000 worth of our goods. Therefore, while the rate of consumption of our goods did not exceed 2s. 2d. a-head in continental Europe, it amounted to 8s. a-head in the United States, and £1 12s. a-head in our other colonies. It must, ho v.- of well- imanlike oinds of Is forget »ling tiie cuments dth par- jst mass, tie Colo- without , In so 1 attach and less former, he latter pressed ; t human jr which colonial I similar thorities untrust- e before ^orance mode of )ut local colonies ossessed ivers the jignty of le whole reserved them, it ich this cure the or out- honour- Imirable of con- popula- Of the Ltinental did not lanufac- popula- r goods. exceed d in the t. liov,- i J. 99 ever, be admitted, that a considerable portion of our trade with our subject colonies, consists of goods sent to defray the cost of our establishments there. Making, however, every fair deduction on that account, still it cannot be denied that they are excellent markets for our goods. It is very unfortunate, therefore, tluit they cost us so much as 16s. a head of their population for government and defence, as that sum must absorb the greater portion of, if not all, the profit of our trade with those colonies. To show the utility of colonies as outlets for our population, I may refer to the reports of the emigration commissioners, from which it appears that in the course of the last twenty years, 1,673,803 persons have emigrated from this country, of whom 825,564 went to the United States, 702,101 to the North American colonies, 127,188 to the Australian colonies, and 19,090 to other places. It would be interesting to know what has been the cost of this emigration, and how it has been defrayed. I cannot put it down at less than £20,000,000 sterling, of which about £1,500,000 were paid out of the proceeds of land sales in the Australian colonies. This emigration has varied considerably in amount from year to year ; from the minimum of 26,092 persons in 1828, to the maximum of 258,270 persons last year. If averages of five years be taken, it appears to have gone on steadily increasing in amount ; for on the average of the five years ending with 1832, it amounted to 60,000 persons a-year : ending with 1837, to 66,000 persons a-year ; ending with 1842, to 86,000 persons a-year; and ending with 184V, to 121,000 persons a-year. Therefore the habit of emigrating is confirmed, and becoming more powerful every day; and therefore colonies are becoming more useful as outlets for our population. Therefore, free trade with the colonies, and free access to the colonies should, in my opinion, be the sole end and aim of the dominion which Great Britain still retains over her colonies. By keeping these two ob- jects distinctly in view, by bestowing upon the colonies all powers of local legislation and administration which are not absolutely inconsistent with these objects and the sovereignty of this country, I believe that our colonial expenditure might be greatly diminished in amount, and that our colonial empire would flourish and become of incalculable utility to this country. I do not propose to abandon any portion of that empire. I only com- plain that it is so little use to us ; that ii is a vast tract of fertile desert, which costs us £4,000,000 sterling a-year, and yet only contains a million and a half of our race. Would it not be possible to people this desert with active and thriving Englishmen? To cover it with communities composed of men with wants, habits, and feelings, similar to our own, anxious to carry on with us a mutually beneficial trade ? In this country, every trade, every profession, and every branch of industry, are over- stocked ; in every quarter there is a fierce competition for employment. On the contrary, m the colonies, there is an equally fierce competition for labour of every kind. Now, is there any mode of bridging over tlie oceans that intervene, so that o'^ colonies may be to the United Kingdom, what the backwoods are to the United States ? If such a plan could be devised, if it could be carried into execution, it might tend to solve the most difficult economical problems of England and of Ireland. To carry such a plan into execution, two things would be requisite. First, funds whecewxtk to conirey ^m poorer dasaeft to the ooknies. How oovld such funds be obtained ^ The hon. gentleman 1^ member for Sheffield, the hon. gentleman, the member for Gateshead, aood my hon. Mend the member for liskeard have, in their numerous and able speeches upon this subject^ told us that sufficient funds could be obtained by the sale of waste lands, according to the well.known plan of Mv. Wakefield. I hold the same opinion. I firmly believe that with continuous and systematic emigration, sufficient funds could be so obtained. But I will suppose, for the sake of argument, that they must be obtained, for the present,, from some other source. Now, I ask the house to consider, first, that we spend four millions sterling a-year in the colo- nies on army, navy, ordnance, commissariat, Kafir wars, Canadian rebet. lions, and the like ; secondly, that for half four millions (the siun which I propose to save by a reduction of colonial expenditure) we might send annually to Australia 150,000 persons, and to Canada twice that nimiber. I ask the house, at the expiration of ten or fifteen years, from which of these i\m modes of expending the public money would the nation derive the greater benefit ? Our army, navy, and orihiance cost us at present from six to seven millions sterling a-year more than they did in 1835, when their force was ample for the defence of the empire. What have we to show in return for this enormous increase of expenditure ? A Cana- dian, insurrection suppressed, a Kafir war terminated, barren trophies in India, the gates of Somnauth, Hong Kong, Labuan, and the Falkland Islands. What should we have had to show for it had only a portion of it been expended on colonization ? A third part of it (the two millions a-year, which I affirm can be spared from our colonial expenditure) would have been sufficient in ten years to double or triple the British population of our colonial empire. For instance, that sum would in ten years have conveyed a million and a half of our fellow-citizens to Australaiua; where the climate is so peculiarly suited to our race, where abimdance of food can easily be obtained ; there, flourishing and contented, they would have been anxious to purchase our produce and manufactures ; wealthy states, worthy of the British name, would have been generated, carrying on with us an enormous trade ; self-governed they would have needed neither army nor navy to protect them, and would have gladly defrayed every local ex- pense. That woidd have been a colonial empire to boast about ! Again, the same sum of two millions sterling a-year would, in ten years, have conveyed to North America, some three millions ; say, of Irishmen. With that sum I believe you might have created beyond the Atlantic a new and happy Ireland, so attractive to the Celtic race that they would have migrated in shoals from the old and unhappy Ireland, and thus, perhaps, have enabled you to solve that fearful problem, which neither gagging bills, nor coercion bills, nor alien bills, nor even a repeal of the tmion will ever solve. That indeed would have been a feat for a great .statesman to accomplish, and would have covered his name with immortal renown! I do grudge the four millions a year wh' 'Ji we squander upon our colonies, when I consider what might be vie no with half that sum for the benefit of this country, and of the colonies by means of systematic colonization. But to colonize beneficially, it is necessary that the higher and richer, .* I n ies. How imber for I my hon. lipecches ed by the iTakefieM. aous and . But I obtained, tie house the colo- [an rebet- un which ighi send ; number, which of on deriye t present [ in 1835, liat have ACana- ophies in Falkland portion of > millions re) would opulation Uion and ate is SQ jasily be 1 anxious hy of the h us an army nor local ex. 1, in ten ; say, of yond the race that Ireland, n, which a repeal ieat for a me with vA we :n»: with y means 1 richer, as well as the poorer classes ; that the employers of labour as well as the employed ; that all classes of society should migrate together, forming new communities, analogous to that of the parent state. On such prin- ciples alone have successful colonies been foimded in ancient or modem times. On such principles the colonies of Greece and of New England were founded. For instance, from the over-crowded cities of Greece the colonists departed under the guidance of their foremost men; they carried along with them the images of their heroes and their gods, whose common worship linked them for ever to their ancient home ; arrived at their destination, they formed states after the model of the parent city ; they flourished in wealth, excelled in all the arts of civilized life, extended the empire, and added to the renown of the Dorian or Ionian name. Not dissimilar in principle was the old English mode of colo- nizing, except that our colonies, instead of commencing their existence as independent states, professed their allegiance to the mother country ; but their charters gave them all the essential powers of self-government, and complete control over their internal affairs. They flourished rapidly, were most loyal, and sincerely attached to our empire, till we drove them into just rebellion by our new colonial system. Very different from these successful modes of colonizing has been that of the Colonial-office. It has been either a shovelling out of paupers or a transportation of criminals, whereby some of the fairest porfions of the British dominions have been converted into pest-houses of pauperism, or sinks of iniquity, polluting the earth with unheard-of diseases and umentionable crimes. No gentle- man, no man of birth or education, who knows anything about the matter, would ever think of emigrating to a colony, to be imder the control of the Colonial-office. But if the colonies were properly planted, and self- governed according to the old fashion, then our kinsmen and friends, instead of over-stocking the liberal professions, instead of over-crowding the army and navy, where no career is open for them, would seek their fortunes in the colonies and prosper ; for we are by nature a colonizing people. The same destiny that led our forefathers from their homes in the farthest east, still urges us onwards to occupy the uninhabited regions of the V est and the south ; and America, and Australia, and New Zea- land anxiously expect our arrival to convert their wastes into happy abodes of the Anglo-Saxon race. . T .bni In making these observations I wish merely to show, that if vast sums of money are to be expended on the colonies, they can be expended in a manner far more beneficial to the interests both of the colonies and of the rest of the empire than they have been hitherto expended. I do not, however, intend to propose to the House any plan of systematic coloniza- tion, or any grant of public money for that purpose. My only objects, at present, are reduction of useless expenditure, and reform of bad colonial government, which are things good in themselves without reference to any ulterior measures. But I will presume to express my belief that there is a great and noble career open for any statesman who, possessing the power, shall, with firm and vigorous determina- tion, curtail that expenditure, reform that system of government, and, at the same time, promote systematic colonization. In what manner colonial expenditure can be curtailed without detriment to the^ interests of the empire, in what manner the system of )lonial government can be I I «iip^ for the benefit of tlie eoloniee , I have attempted to show ; and in the lippe that 1 liavf succeedeil in proving that that expenditure ouflht to be cnrtailed, and that system of government ought to be amendec^ I take the liberty of moving the resolution :— '^'That it is the opinion of this House that Che colomal expenditure of the British empire demands inquucy, with a view to its reduction ; and that to accomplish this reduc- tiom,fnd; to, secure greater contentment and prosperity to the colonists, th»j (Night to be invested with large powers for the adnunistratibn of ^Pfllpcal affairs." And if the Government will accede to this motion, I gi;ve notice that next session I shall follow up this subject by moving for a committee of inquiry. [No substantive motion followed this able speech, as it was considered by Sir William Molesworth and his friends that the bare mention of those admitted facts would bo sufficient to induce the Government to come forward with some proposal for an entire revision of our colonial system. As no steps have yet been taken in this direction, it is to be hoped that the patriotic members of the House of Commons will not allow this vital question to slumber during the present session of Par- liament, but will forthwith adopt such measures as will force on the attention of the Government the necessity for promoting extensive reforms in this department of administration, seeing that the manner in which it is conducted has an intimate bearing on all really effective ' reductions in the military and naval expenditure of the country. In future numbers of these Tracts the Association hope to bring forward additional evidence in support of their position, that the system on which the colonies have been hitherto governed must undergo a complete revision and re-modelling, if the future prosperity of the mother country, and the claims of millions of her industrious sons, are to be consulted.] FINANCIAL REFORM. The financial Reform Association was instituted in Liverpool, on the 20th of April, 1848, for the following OBJECTS. Ist. To nae al} lawful and eoniititutioiul means of indodng the most rigid economy in the expenditure of the Government, consistent with due efficiency in the several de- partments in the public service. 2nd. To advocate the adoption of a simple and equitable system of direct taxation, fairly levied upon property and income, in lieu of the present uneoual, complicated, and expensivev-eoliected duties upon commodities. Political partisansh^ is distinctly disowned, the Association being composed of men of all political parties. --'' • »• Post-office orders to be made payable to Bdwabd Brodribb, Esq., Treasurer of the Association, Harrington Chambers, North JohnnBtreet Sobsariptions are also received l^ Mr. Effingham Wilson, Royal Exchange, London. Financial Reform Association, BaiirktgloH Chambert, Worth Johm-$trett, Livtrpool, Mar^ 1849. LnnBRPOOLt Pul^liihed by th« Association, Hatringrton Chambers, Kotth ' Joh^«itr«et ; by Smith, Roobbson, and CO., Lord-atreet ; and Sold by all the BodneUfcrs. LONDON: The Trade Sqpylied at tiie Offiee of the Standtttd nist8, ion of lotion, loving ed by those come >lonial to be ill not fPar- on the ensive lanner pBCtive bring tystem ergo a 3f the IS. are !Othof conomy eral d6< ixation. ted, and rmen of easurer ^ange, net; bjr 9N: The K, MiB- OBOOK- oae^strMt Ion