4. New Zealand.

5. The islands commonly called the West Indies, together with Guiana, and our territories on the main in that part of South America.

6. Borneo, and our possessions in the Indian Archipelago.

My present work relates exclusively to the four first mentioned of these systems.

The principles which I shall endeavour here to establish are applicable, in my opinion, to all these territories.

The West Indies, and the other territories which I include with them, are, in many essential circumstances, different from these, and require for their proper management a different system or arrangement of the powers of government. To frame such an arrangement for them would not, I fancy, be difficult. But at present, I lay them out of consideration; not because they are unimportant possessions, but simply because I have enough before me, in the task which I have undertaken. The peculiar modification and complication of interests existing in the West Indies would require a volume to themselves, if they are to be satisfactorily provided for.

So, also, I put aside, and for similar reasons, Borneo, and the circumjacent territories possessed by us. Our knowledge of those countries is besides so scant, that we are yet ignorant of the uses to which they can be turned. I intend, therefore, not to discuss any question relating to them, or the interests connected with them.

The subject matter, then, of the present work is the plan of government which ought to be adopted for the

four separate territories which I have above described and named; that is to say—

1. British North America.

2. Australasia.

3. South Africa, and

4. New Zealand.

These territories, though they lie in very distant parts of the globe, the one from the other, are in many important particulars alike. They possess, all of them, similar attributes and capabilities, which render them to England valuable, and the principles according to which they ought to be governed are alike. While they thus in their distinctive characteristics resemble one another, they are in certain other things unlike each other. The mode, then, of treating the question of their management suggests itself naturally :—

:

1. The principles which are common to all of them may be treated of, once for all-and this explanation and discussion will serve as a proper preliminary to the,

2. Second exposition, which will relate to those circumstances which are peculiar to each.

[To prevent mistake, let me observe now, that when I use the word colony, without any further explanation, I mean the colonies comprehended in the four above-named territories or colonies exactly like them in all those essential particulars which have led me to class under one head the different possessions which form the subject matter of the present work.]

FOUNDING AND MAINTAINING COLONIES.

7

The statements which will be given in the first of these two proposed expositions ought, in my opinion, to be embodied in an Act of Parliament. They will be found to constitute a general plan of government for the class of colonies of which I treat, and require to be put into an authoritative shape in order to produce the effect which I anticipate. Should the opportunity be afforded to me, this Act I purpose framing, so that it may be submitted to the scrutiny of Parliament.

Of the second and more specific details and exposition, I shall not be able to give more than relate to British North America. Time must determine whether I can fill up the sketch here made.

Before we endeavour to frame a polity, there ought to be in our minds a clear conception of the ends we seek to attain and this preliminary question, on the present occasion, is-What are the purposes for which we plant and maintain colonies?—Why do we seek, why do we keep, at a great expense of trouble, of wealth, and of blood, our colonial empire?

This question is the more important on the present occasion, because there are philosophers and statesmen, of no mean authority, who consider our colonial possessions an unnecessary burthen. They believe them to be costly and mischievous additions to our dominions— maintained partly from pride, and partly from a false notion of gain resulting from them. They assert, and truly, that hitherto our colonies have been to us a source of constant quarrel with other nations, and of unprofitable expense to ourselves; and they say, that it would be better for us to be without colonies, than to keep

them, as we have done hitherto, to be a perpetual cause of strife and waste. But having arrived at this accurate conclusion, the statesmen and philosophers to whom I allude draw one other inference, which appears to me far from correct-and this inference is, that colonies must necessarily be thus mischievous and costly. I perceive that this conclusion is favoured by political economists generally, (not by all indeed, for there are some remarkable exceptions,) and I also perceive that the members of parliament who are classed as the Manchester and Yorkshire party have a tendency towards this belief, though they have not yet very definitely stated their views on this interesting subject, and I suspect have hardly yet made up their minds upon it. I am therefore the more anxious to state clearly, though briefly, the benefit which I believe may be derived from colonies if they be properly administered-and the mode in which that benefit may be obtained. The people of this country have never acquiesced in the opinion that our colonies are useless; and they look with disfavour upon any scheme of policy which contemplates the separation of the mother country from the colonies. For this opinion, the people have been seldom able to render an adequate reason; nor have they been accustomed to describe with accuracy the way in which the colonies prove useful to us; still they believe them beneficial, and so believing, they regard with suspicion those who roundly propose "to cut the connexion." On the other hand, the economical statesmen clearly perceived that the cry of " Ships, colonies, and commerce," was a monopoly anti-free-trade cry, and they therefore regard

with jealousy every scheme for the preservation and management of our colonies. Now to me it appears possible to conciliate the popular feeling, and economical views-that colonies may be created and maintained without waste, and that a lasting benefit may be derived from their existence-both for England and the new communities she establishes; but that this good can only be accomplished by means of free-trade and self-government.

The mother country may hope to derive advantage1st, from colonizing—and, 2nd, from her colonies. The one advantage is immediate, the other prospective.

The first advantage is to be derived from sending off a surplus or inconvenient population.

The population upon some Irish estates, where more people are asserted to be than are needed for the proper cultivation of the land, may be deemed a surplus population.

The

I have, however, great doubts as to this excess. area of Ireland, with adequate capital, could profitably employ a very large population. Hitherto this capital has not been found. A miserable pittance of capital has been used by the peasant farmer, his land has been not half tilled, and the produce, now that the potato has failed, is inadequate to support himself and his family. For himself and his family, emigration to another land may be a happy change, and perhaps the absence of a turbulent and ignorant peasant farmer may make room for a peaceful and industrious labourer, who, receiving weekly wages, will make the land, under the guidance of an instructed capitalist, far more productive than it