- TOPICS OF THE DAY.
JOHN BULL, MIND YOUR POCKET!
INSTEAD of pursuing, as we promised last week, the subject of Sir William Molesworth's motion on Colonial Government and Expenditure, we are called on to notice an embryo project of the Government relating to that topic. Information has leached la from various quarters, that the Government contemplates an im- mediate application to Parliament for authority to raise a loan tor emigration. The amount, it is said, will be at least 500,000/. perhaps 1,000,0001. We are not aware that the project has bee]; finally adopted by the Cabinet ; but that it is seriously entertained by Lord Grey and the Colonial Office, and that it will be brought before Parliament as a Government measure if the prospect of carrying it should be deemed favourable, there is, we believe, no doubt.
The first impression with regard to such a project is, that in the present state of the public finances, it would inevitably be scouted by the House of Commons. But on reflection a different view of the subject arises. A grant of money, requiring an im. mediate increase of taxation,. would almost certainly be objected to by Parliament, whatever the purpose of the grant might be, provided that purpose were new ; and for a new purpose so little liked by the public as mere emigration, it would be hard indeed to obtain a grant of money : but in the case of a loan, in a Lich the evil day of payment is indefinitely postponed, or saddled on posterity, everybody knows that Parliament is generally disposed to acquiesce in any proposal of the Government which they urge with earnestness and vigour. Besides, in the present instance, as we hear, Parliament would not be asked to engage absolutely for even the interest of the loan : both interest and principal would be " charged " or " secured " on a Colonial fund,—on the fund, namely, to be derived from the sales of waste land : and all that Parliament would be asked for, is a guarantee of the interest in case those sales should fail to produce enough money for the pur- pose. Some Members might, to be sure, say that the sales would probably be insufficient ; but if Lord John Russell replied with confidence that he was of a different opinion, the House, in its ig- norance of the whole subject, would most likely be disposed to assent to the view of the Minister. On the ground of mere ex- pense, therefore, we do not think that the scheme would be for- midably opposed if it were adroitly brought forward' and earnestly pressed. And, moreover, if some serious opposition should arise, it would probably be confined to a few well-informed Members, who know that our whole system, or rather systemless practices, with regard to the disposal of waste land, are calculated to pre- vent instead of promoting the acquisition of considerable funds from that source; and this opposition, not being very earnest, because the subject is one of but little public interest in this country, would be sufficiently counteracted by the Colonial in- terests in the House of Commons,—such as shipowners, the di- rectors of various land companies, and the agents of some colo- nies, who would not fail to puff the -value of the security, with a view of obtaining from John Bull's pocket the means of a great outlay for the benefit of the settlements with which they are connected, and for their own benefit.
But our belief in the facility with which authority to raise such a loan might be obtained by the Government, rests on the sup- position that Parliament would know but little more about the subject than just what the. Government and certain interested parties should please to tell them. That supposition it is our pre- sent object to destroy. We are desirous of placing enough of the truth before the public to enable Members of Parliament and con- stituencies to determine on sufficient grounds whether or not Par-
liament ought to authorize such a loan. We do not object to the loan on principle : constant readers of the Spectator should be aware that for years we have missed no opportunity of urging the expediency of raising loans for emigration on the security of
the waste lands of the Colonies : but whilst the principle of the intended loan has our warmest approval, we must know a great deal more about the whole scheme before we can approve of the present application of that principle; and we feel bound to lay be- fore our readers a statement ofthe conditions on which, according to our knowledge of the subject, such a loan would be desirable or thoroughly objectionable.
Does the scheme contemplate anything more than the emigra- tion of persons too poor to defray the cost of their own passage I Is it a scheme of mere emigration, or of colonization ? If the lat- ter, what are the means by which persons of the middle and higher classes are to be induced to emigrate along with the poor labourers ? At present, in every one of the colonies to which this project of Lord Grey can be in any measure applicable, the "birth- right of Englishmen " is withheld from the settlers ; gentlemen arriving from England become subject, in all that most deeply concerns their interests and feelings, to a government which is not merely despotic but arbitrary, and not merely arbitrary but distant by the space of half the world's circumference. Less than three years ago, Lord Grey (then Howick)' said in the House of Commons—" I hope we shall resort to the ancient and wise policy of our ancestors and allow the colonists to govern them- selves. * * When I look at what our ancestors accom- plished two centuries ago under this system, and contrast it with attempting to govern from Downing Street a settlement at the Antipodes, I must say experience is decidedly in favour of letting
the colony govern itself. * * We have before us a melon-
choly proof of the height to which misgovernment may be carried in Downing Street. * From some experience of the Colonial Office, I am persuaded that it is utterly impossible for any man, be his talents and industry what they may, adequately to administer such complicated affairs as those of the British Colonies scattered all over the world." , In the way of realizing the promise of beneficial change thus held out by Lord Grey when he was attacking his predecessor from the Opposition benches, he has hitherto done nothing as Minister : he.has done worse than nothing, by framing an absurd constitution for one colony, and destroying it without a trial. But now, we suppose— now that he contemplates applying to Parliament fora great sum of money for colonial purposes, we may conclude that he intends to do something in the shape of reform of colonial government. Without that, the Colonies, as the Quarterly Reviem said long ago, are only fit abodes for convicts, needy adventurers, and paupers : without that, his scheme is only one for " shovelling out paupers " at the public cost. With it, on the other hand— with such a reform of colonial government as would. render -the Colonies attractive to all classes, and make them truly repetitions or extensions of political and social England—his scheme would be one of " colonization," and would command the respectful attention, perhaps the zealous support, of the most intelligent and influential classes in this overcrowded country. Nor would the mere economists object to it, because local self-government for the Colonies includes the cessation of expenditure by this country in misgoverning them. Lord Grey, when he was running down the sort of colonial government which he now administers, said nothing about its costliness. The saving to this country which would ensue from bestowing good charters of local government on the settlements to which Lord Grey's present scheme is alone applicable, would far exceed the interest of the desired loan. Again, the loan is to be secured on the land-fund : the House of Commons is to be told, and if possible persuaded, that the land-fund is a good security. But is it? Everybody acquainted with this subject supposed that Lord Grey was the man of all others, except perhaps Mr. Charles Buller, who would use official power for the purpose of correcting the defects, self- contradictions, and hindrances of our present regulations for the disposal of waste land by sale—for the purpose-of giving the ut- most efficiency to the plan of selling waste land for emigration, instead of leaving it, as it has. ever done more or less under the "melancholy" mismanagement of Downing Street, to operate in reality as a tax upon colonization. In order to such utmost effi- ciency, the author of the plan, ?4r. Wakefield, who was {ince an unquestioned authority with Lord Grey, notto say his prompter on this subject, has steadily asserted that certain conditions are indispensable. He insists that the price is everywhere too low with a view to the aims with which any price ought' to be re- quired ; that the price ought to be fixed and uniform, not as now, infinitely variable ; that selling by auction produces the most mischievous results in the form of gambling or jabbing by specu- lators and ruin to the bona fide settler; and that the surveying, which is an indispensable preliminary of proper settling, should be placed on an efficient footing, instead of exhibiting the utmost feebleness and causing great waste of money. To these evils -Lord Grey has not hitherto attempted to apply a remedy. Does he contemplate any ? Does he, in short, intend to put our coloni- zation as well as the government of our colonies on a•seund foot- ing? If he does, and if his whole plan has been wisely framed so as to bear examination by persons conversant with the subject, there will be no great difficulty about the loan. If not, the atep plication for a loan will be- an avowal by the Whig- Government, that they are incapable of giving any reality to the.great pro- mises of colonial reform which were held out to us when Lord Stanley was Colonial Minister, by Lord Grey, Mr. Hewes, Mr. Buller, Mr. Ellice, and Lord Sohn Russell ; and that all they now propose, Lord Grey being, Colonial Minister, with- Sir Robert Peel and his friends ready to support him in any good measure of colonial reform, is virtually to fall back upon Wilmot-Horton- ism I In that case, we shall have, to say of Lord Grey, that, wanting ability to give any effect whateverto his own views, and yet of course anxious to be doing something—to avert the now common complaint of his utter want of practical talent—he begs Parliament-to take his unfortunate case into consideration, and grant him plenty of money to make ducks and drakes with. The last expression is very suitable. Lord'Grey has done some- thing as a colonizer. He is understood- to have been the real author of two similar-plans of "'Military Colonization," so-called; one of which was tried in Canada, and denounced by Lord•Dur- ham as singularly mischievous; the other is now on trial'in New Zealand. The likeness between these two plans was explained by us last year,* when the semi-official organs of the press were loud in their praises of the latter. Some account of the working of the New Zealand plan has been received: These military colonists are described by a newspaper published at the seat of Govern- ment -in September last, as "incompetent to the severe task of breaking up and subduing a new country : they have not the stamina required : they have not turned out the healthy and able- bodied men promised in Lord Grey's despatch." Their appear- ance is mentioned as having given the greatest dissatisfac- tion to the industrious settlers, who regard them as a heavy bur- den cast upon the colony. The poor men themselves are said to be disappointed and very unhappy. This is just what Lord Dur- ham said at greater- length and in stronger terms of the worn- 11•Speciater for 1847, pase229. out, idle, thriftless old-soldier or pensioner emigrants in Canada. The cost of giving effect in New Zealand to Lord Grey's crotchet has, we believe, been immense •in proportion to the number of emigrants : for it has turned out as we predicted, that the whole cost of removing across the world and establishing such useless and helpless colonists falls upon the Gov ent. We are not informed that' any part of the desired loa, 3t iiibe ex- pended in this way ; but it is certainly probable .' :t.-f Lord Grey obtain the money, he will spend a good deab pn his own pet method of colonizing,—that is, making ducks e a drakes with the money, besides permanently injuring, instead of serving, both the emigrants and the settlements to which they' shall be carried.
One word more, and a word in point. On the motion of Lord Lincoln last year, the House of Commons presented an address to the Queen, praying her Majesty to institute an inquiry into the best means of colonization ; and her Majesty replied that she would attend to the wish of her faithful Commons. Has any in- quiry taken place? Such an address and answer, if- it had related to the business of any department of the Government except the Colonial Office—to that of the Foreign Office, the Treasury, the Home Office, the Post-office, or the Woods and Forests—would have been followed without delay, almost as a matter of course, by the appointment of a Commission of Inquiry. The actual re- quest of Parliament has been treated as if nobody in office had ever heard of it. There has been no inquiry, either by a Com- mission or otherwise. The subject is Colonial, and therefore who cares? But when John Bull is asked for the million of money, the subject will possess some interest for politicians in this country. Then, perhaps, Lord Lincoln will remind the Government of their promise in the Queen's name, and ask what they have done to realize it.
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