other hand, I rejoice at the separation, it is only because I prefer the lesser evil; believing that the colonists, after our tyrannical attack on their local constitutional rights, had no choice but between independence and abject submission to our power; and that the triumph of our tyranny in America would have been a misfortune to the world. It is, sir, on the same principle, while I wish that our connection with Lower Canada were more intimate and more friendly than it has ever been, that I hope that the people of that country will either recover the constitution which we have violated, or become wholly independent of us. However strong my impressions may be of the advantages of colonial empire, yet I sincerely trust that I shall ever sympathise with a people struggling for their just rights, and heartily wish them success.

Sir, there is another disadvantage under which I labour, and from which I hope, with the permission of the House, to relieve myself in a few words. Knowing how distasteful this motion is to some hon. members, especially on my own side of the House-aware, of course, of the difficulty which they will have to refute or even to deny a proposition which every one who hears it must acknowledge to be perfectly true, I expect (unless they should take the more prudent course of silence, relying on the right hon. baronet's protection and guardianship when it shall come to the vote), I expect that they may refer to general political opinions, which I have avowed in this House and elsewhere, and may endeavour to represent this motion as having democratic objects and tendencies. This would be a way of making the motion unpopular in this

House. I will, sir, however, endeavour to prevent the success of such a manoeuvre. I declare, then, that in bringing the subject of our colonial administration, and of the qualifications, or rather disqualifications of the Colonial Minister before this House, I have had no regard whatever to any abstract opinions of my own, with reference to the best form of government for an old and muchadvanced country like this, that I can hardly conceive a greater absurdity than the proposal to set up democratic institutions in all our colonies, amongst the ignorant and superstitious millions of India, amongst our negro fellow-subjects in the West Indies, or the convict and once convict inhabitants of New South Wales, or amongst the motley and not half or even quarter civilised population of our territories in South Africa, or even among the labouring rustics for whom Parliament has provided the means of settling in South Australia, most of whom could not tell you the meaning of the word "democratic" or the word

institution." Sir, I am convinced that the form of government, which a colony should possess, must depend upon the special circumstances of the case, and that the sort of constitution which was very good for one colony might be very bad for another: that some colonies absolutely require a despotic authority; that for others an aristocratic power may be most suitable; and I doubt much whether amongst all our colonies there be more than two or three, in which I should not be very much afraid to try the experiment of a pure democracy. What is the nature of our government of 100,000,000 of people in India? Fortunately it is not of the nature

of Colonial Office government, but it is anything but democratic. Yet I know not if a better could be devised for the people who are subject to it. What would be the state of India if all the public affairs of that country were confided to the neglect of the Colonial Office? I hope some hon. gentleman connected with India will tell us how he should like such an arrangement. The House will, therefore, see that the present motion has no concern with, or relation to, my opinions on government in general, whatever they may be; that the motion is no more open to the objection of having democratic objects and tendencies than if it had been proposed by the hon. baronet the member for Tamworth,' and seconded by the right hon. baronet the member for the University of Oxford.2

Sir, it may be said that I have singled out the noble lord at the head of the Colonial Office for an invidious and spiteful attack; that he is not more incompetent than some of his colleagues; that his office has been filled by as incompetent men ; that the whole cabinet are responsible for neglect of duty in each department of the State; and that the censure of this House should be directed against them as a body. I am not sure, sir, but that there may be some force in the last objection to my motion. Let me, however, explain to the

House the reasons which have induced me to call upon them for an expression of want of confidence in Lord Glenelg alone. The Colonial Office differs materially from every other branch of the Government. All the other departments of the State administer for us, who are represented in this 2 Sir R. Inglis.

1 Sir R. Peel.

House; the Colonial Office administers for the colonies, not one of which is represented in any assembly, to which that office is in any degree responsible. The other branches of Government administer only, they do not legislate; but the Colonial Office, besides having to conduct an administration, comprising all the branches of government, civil, military, financial, judicial, and ecclesiastical, an administration rendered still more difficult by the various institutions, languages, laws, customs, wants, and interests of a great variety of separate and widely different communities; besides all this, which the whole administrative force of this country could hardly manage well, besides an administration more varied and difficult than that of this country, of one race, language, and law; besides this infinite variety of executive functions; (as if the executive duties were not sufficiently complicated and incongruous) the Colonial Office has further to legislate more or less for all the colonies, and altogether for those colonies, which have no representative assembly, by means either of instructions to Governors, or of orders in Council, or by appointing and instructing some or all of the branches of the Colonial Legislature. Such a complication of functions in a single office would be bad enough if all the colonies were close together, and close to England. Let us recollect, however, how widely they are dispersed, and how far from Downing Street is the colony which is nearest to England. As to most of them, several months, and, as to some of them, a whole year, must elapse, before a letter between the Government and one of its subjects can be answered

by return of post. A petition arrives here. Who is there to press its prayer on the attention of the Colonial Minister? Who is there to take care that it shall be even read by him? Whether he ever looks at it must depend on the degree of his diligence, and of his interest in the colony whence it comes. Orders dispatched hence should be adapted, not to the state of things, which existed in the colony, at the date of the Minister's last advices therefrom, but to that, which he may conjecture will exist, when his orders arrive. How can he fail to err without the highest sagacity and foresight? Besides, in many cases, the very subject of the letter, or petition, or remonstrance, may be worn out before he can even know of its existence. Whatever the difficulties, then, of both legislating and administering for so many different communities, all these are enhanced a thousandfold by the great distance between the subjects and the Government. Let us further reflect, sir, that in addition to all these most ardous functions, we impose upon the Colonial Office no small portion of the task of suppressing the prosperous and increasing slave-trade with Africa, and also a branch of criminal jurisprudence in the administration of a secondary punishment at the antipodes. Forgetting one-half of the duties of the Colonial Office, still it must be at once admitted that the place of Colonial Minister should never be held but by a person in the very highest degree qualified for public affairs; by the most diligent, the wisest, the most careful and assiduous, the most active and energetic member of the Cabinet; that the Colonial Minister stands out from the rest of the Cabinet, overcharged with the most arduous duties,