TOPICS OF THE DAY,
FAREWELL TO THE COLONIES.
W7Am is it that her Majesty's Ministers mean to do with her Majesty's Colonial Possessions? A paper in the Times, this week, is calculated to raise that question in the most serious form. For some time past, the Leading Journal—distinguished, among many things, for the eagerness with which official parties court its alliance—has continued to publish a series of papers tending to prepare the public mind to bear some Colonial disaster without too indignant a surprise ; but of the whole series the most expli- cit is the one published on Thursday last. Its subject is the news from the Cape of Good Hope; and its apparent purpose is' on the one hand, to make light of the course of events in that co- lony, as likely to have no further result, and on the other hand, in case the worst result should ensue—the actual rebellion and loss of the colony—to reconcile the public to such an event by keep- ing it in view as a possible and not altogether undesirable contin- gency. These repeated suggestions indicate some fixed idea in high quarters, and the public ought to know what is really meant. The Times represents, that the thing which gave offence to the Cape arose in the most harmless manner ; but the recital is a cu- rious and instructive sample of official encroachment. It amounts to this. In September 1847, a despatch was sent to the Cape, stating that military convicts would be transported thither from Mauritius—an African island ; and " no remonstrance of any kind was received in reply." Surprising fact! "Silenti non fit in- juria" is the official version of the maxim—you may go on till the people cry out. A twelvemonth later, it was announced that military convicts would also be sent from Hongkong ; and in March last, that they were to be sent also from India and Cey- lon : all of which was completed [in London] "before any angry feeling arose." Then came the affair of the Bermuda convicts : " the sentiments of the colony on the subject were known in this country, and Sir George Grey promised that no more [convicts] should be sent in future." That, says the Times, is all—the dis- pute has never gone beyond that first stage: the immensely pro- tracted voyage of the Neptune—which left Bermuda on the 22d of April and reached the Cape on the 19th of September—has prolonged the suspense of the colonists; but all that has really happened, argues the Times, is, that "the Home Government has presumed rather too much on the acquiescence of the colony in a measure of doubtful tendency—the colony, taken by surprise, has protested somewhat too fiercely."
Simultaneously with this apologetic and soothing composition appeared a paper in the Morning Chronicle, which threw a curious light on one point—the destination of military convicts. It shows a remarkable suppression of documents. A return was made to the House of Commons, which professed to include "copies or extracts of any correspondence on the subject of Trans- portation to the Cape of Good Hope, of later date than the ad- dress of the House for such correspondence on the 19th of March 1849": but the Chronicle now publishes a letter by Mr. Herman Merivale, Under-Secretary for the Colonies, asking the India Board "to move the Commissioners for the Affairs of India to direct that all soldiers of her Majesty's army sentenced in manner above mentioned [to transportation] by courts-martial in the East Indies, shall be sent to the Cape of Good Hope by the first con- venient opportunity, until further orders." This is followed by the reply of the Secretary to the India Board in assent, and the corresponding despatch from the Court of Directors. None of the documents appeared in the return. On the 28th of March, Sir George Grey assured the House of Commons that the convicts to be sent to the Cape "were not tainted with crimes for which ordinary convicts were made to undergo the penalty of transport- ation," but that "the plan" or "system" contemplated by Go- vernment merely comprised "ticket-of-leave" men, who had "un- dergone a part of their punishment": Sir George Grey said this on the 28th of March; the letter of his colleague, Mr. Herman Merivale, is written on the 28th of March! If it be answered, that Sir George Grey, with his cousin and colleagues of the Colonial Office, thought the transportation of military criminals too slight a matter to take into the account, then such a notion only betrays their ignorance of the fact, so forcibly represented by Governor Sir Henry Smith, that the Cape colony is peculiarly unfitted to re- ceive military convicts. And what is more, it does not appear that this military convictism has been abandoned yet ! Sir George and his colleagues treat it as a distinct affair ; and the only dis- claimer yet published has related to further transportation of "or- dinary" convicts. Will the Cape colonists then have to make a separate " emeute," as the Times calls it, to resist the invasion of military convicts ? The journalist has a threat : if the Colonies are not to be regarded as "integral portions of the empire, sharers in its weal and wo "—[its cash and convicts]—if they will not take off our hands some of those numerous criminal classes that embarrass us so much—if " it is to be all give' and no ' take ' as far as we are concerned,"—" it is as well that it should be known and re- membered, especially when the Estimates coinic under review." The Cape is to be fined for the fastidiousness of its "prudes." But the Times 19oks beyond; and here lies the darksome hint to which we have already alluded-
" &kb Incidents as the succnsful bmente at the -Cape, against an Imperial
order;canhOt Increase the noutyoptilar =icizw!. as to the value of our -Co/onieg, and the wisdom qf mainiaaang them at so enorM011s an expense.
Yes, this is the proposition—if the Colonies are costly and not accommodating, opinion will grow in favour of giving them up : and this is the opinion which the successive papers in the Times, whatever their motive may be, have a manifest tendency to fos- ter ; this is the opinion which is thrown out to fortify the apo- logy for the official conduct, which is recorded in anticipation of future apologies for the further results. The pococurante repre- sentations of the Times would be useful under two kinds of con- tingency: first, in case the Government were defeated by a con- tumacious colony—which stage is already accomplished ; secondly, in case the course of administration were to result in the separa- tion of the Colonies—and already the Times is beating up re- cruits for that anticipative apology, not without an eye to the Manchester gentlemen who are so hostile to colonies. It seems therefore, that., in official circles, separation is not an impossible contingency, scarcely a distant one. Now is that so ? Are we mistaken, or is such really the intent of her Majesty's Ministers ? It is very necessary that this point should be thoroughly under- stood ; because it the colony is to be given up, it would be by much the best course to spare all further expense of blood and treasure, and jump at once to the final arrangement. If it is the deliberate intention of her Majesty's Ministers to give up the Afri- can colony, let us understand the truth, because then the public can help to bring about the separation in the best possible manner. It is the more important to have a thorough understanding, since the same arguments which apply to the Cape, mutatis mu- tenths, apply also to Australia, whose unsettled spirit is now no- torious. lf our African and Australian Colonies cast off their moorings, Canada would scarcely hesitate to fulfil her project of annexation, with the concurrence of her Majesty's Ministers ; for the main arguments apply also to Canada. And then, how long the West Indies would cling to a capricious parent state, we can- not guess. Our Colonies relinquished, a. fortiori we should be bound to give up those false colonies our military stations in the Mediterranean, the protected Jordan states, and the like.
Then what of India ? Similar arguments also apply to In- dia, its constantly increasing expenditure and its constantly in- creasing deficit. True, ostensibly the Indian Government pays for its soldiers ; but it does not relieve us of all the consequent cost—the permanent liabilities for so many more additional regi- ments to be kept in readiness, the promotions, the honorary pen- sions, &c. Of course, persons high in office would desire to retain India' because it is so great a preserve of patronage : but the Colo- nies free, how could independence be refused to India, supported as that would be by the economical section of the Liberals at home ?
India and the Colonies gone, what of Ireland ? Especially if she wholly ceased to pay, as she has in part, that large tribute of rent to residents in England which engages so many persons of high connexion to maintain the Union. Carry out the process hinted by the Times, and you reduce her Majesty's dominions to the bare island of Great Britain. Some- thing might be said for that sweeping deprivation, no doubt : a little island may be a great state ; only the British state would unquestionably be a very different one from what it is at present. Instead of including wide lands of varied clime to receive its out- pouring emigrants, it must let them go to be aliens. Instead of being so wide that the sun never sets upon it, the sun would set tipon it every day—at this season within eight or nine hours after rising. It would no longer be an " empire " but only a king- dom and not of the largest. Not at all self-supporting in point of food, it must be absolutely thrown upon the alternative of thinning its numbers by starvation, or becoming really "the workshop of the world." At very cheap rates, too, must the workshop stand open. But a workshop does not need for its head an imperial sovereign; nor would the shrunken state need those vast official establishments which now provide so comfortably for certain families. The course of Colonial separation may be justi- fied by sufficient reasons, but these are incidents that will have to be considered.
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