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transportation by every means in his power. What will you Discontinue transportation or repeal the Constitution of Van Diemen's Land? You must do one of these two things. For free institutions and transportation cannot co-exist in Van Diemen's Land as long as the feelings of the inhabitants of that colony are such as they are at present. I beg the House to observe that the question upon which I ask for a decision to-night is not whether there shall or shall not be such a punishment as transportation; upon that question I have repeatedly expressed opinions which are unchanged. The question for the House is not whether any more convicts shall be transported to any colony, but whether any more convicts shall be transported to Van Diemen's Land without the consent of its inhabitants. You have laid down the rule with regard to your southern colonies, that no convicts shall be sent to any one of them without its consent. You say that Van Diemen's Land shall be the one exception to that rule, that you created that colony for convicts, that you have a right to use and abuse your creation; that Van Diemen's Land has been, is, and shall continue to be, a penal colony. Then I say you have committed an act of insanity in giving to the inhabitants of Van Diemen's Land free institutions, and arming them with the best weapons to resist your will. I call upon you to keep faith with them, and to extend to them the rule that no convicts shall be transported to them without their consent. I have proved that all classes of free settlers in Van Diemen's Land, that Bishop and clergy, magistracy and gentry, tradesmen and labourers, fathers and mothers, are utterly hostile to the receiving of convicts under any system. I have shown that accumulated and appalling evils, moral, political, and social, have resulted from transportation to Van Diemen's Land; that in consequence of the existence of those evils, which you have repeatedly acknowledged to exist, the Colonial Office did promise, first, in 1846, to suspend transportation to Van Diemen's Land for two years; secondly, in 1847, to discontinue transportation altogether to that island; thirdly, in 1848, that the additions to be made from this country to the population of that colony should not consist principally of convicts. I have proved from your own despatches that every one of these promises has been distinctly made, and not one of them has been kept; that in 1846 you did not suspend

transportation to Van Diemen's Land; that in 1847 you did not discontinue transportation to that colony, and that since 1848 you have poured into Van Diemen's Land four times as many convicts as free emigrants. I have shown from resolutions agreed to at numerously-attended public meetings, and by petitions signed by every one of note and respectability in Van Diemen's Land, that your faithless and vacillating conduct has produced throughout the whole of Tasmania and Australia the deepest indignation and discontent, that it is destroying the attachment of Van Diemen's Land to this country, and is producing an Australasian League against transportation. I believe such a league amongst colonies with. free institutions, situated at the antipodes, cannot be resisted. It appears to me, therefore, that it would be not only just but wise and prudent to take steps to bring about as speedily as possible the discontinuance of transportation to Van Diemen's Land. I exhort and warn the House to suffer no delay in this matter if it hold dear our Australasian dependencies. For many years I have taken the deepest interest in the affairs of those colonies. I am convinced that they are amongst the most valuable of our colonial possessions, the priceless jewel in the diadem of our colonial empire. I believe they can be easily retained, with a little common sense and judgment on our part; that, well governed they would cost us nothing, but offer us daily improving markets for our industry, fields for the employment of our labour and capital, and happy homes for our surplus population; that Australian empire is in peril from the continuance of transportation to Van Diemen's Land; and therefore I move that "An address be presented to her Majesty praying for the discontinuance of transportation to Van Diemen's Land."

ON COLONIAL EXPENDITURE AND

GOVERNMENT.

JULY 25, 1848.

[The resolution was seconded by Mr. Hutt, one of the small band of colonial reformers. Mr. Hawes, the Under Secretary for the Colonies, who replied, while traversing many of Molesworth's statements, "had not the least objection to the motion, which only carried out that course of policy which he had endeavoured to describe. He thought that the passing of the resolution would strengthen the hands of his noble friend, and enable him to proceed still further in the prosecution of the views which he entertained." The debate, however, stood adjourned.]

SIR,-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 amount of the colonial expenditure of the British Empire; and in so doing I shall endeavour to establish the following positions: First, that the colonial expenditure can be diminished without detriment to the interests of the empire; second, 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 the territories which are governed by the East India Company, but shall confine my remarks to those foreign possessions of the Crown which are under the jurisdiction of the Colonial Office. Notwithstanding this limitation, the colonial empire of Great 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 forty different colonies, each with a separate Government: four of them are in Europe, five in North America, fifteen in the West Indies, three in South America, five in Africa and its vicinity, three among the Asiatic islands, and five in Australia and New Zealand. The population of these colonies does not exceed 5,000,000 of this number about 2,500,000 are of European race, of whom about 500,000 are French, about 350,000 are Ionians and Maltese, a few are Dutch or Spaniards, and the remainder, amounting to about 1,600,000, are of English, Irish, or Scotch descent. Of the 2,500,000 inhabitants of the colonies who are not of European race, about 1,400,000 are Cingalese, and other inhabitants of Ceylon, and 1,100,000 are of African origin. In 1844 (the last complete return) the declared value of British produce and manufactures exported to the colonies amounted to about 9,000,000l. sterling. The whole colonial expenditure of the British Empire is about

8,000,000l. sterling a year; one-half of which is defrayed by the colonies and one-half by Great Britain. That portion of the colonial expenditure which is defrayed by Great Britain consists of military, naval, civil, and extraordinary expenditure.

First. The net military expenditure by Great Britain, on account of the colonies (including ordnance and commissariat expenditure) was returned to Parliament for the year 1832 at 1,761,505.; for the year 1835-36 at 2,030,0591. ; and for the year 1843-44 (the last return) at 2,556,919l., an increase between 1832 and 1843 of 795,414/. The present military expenditure is probably about the same as it was in 1843-44; for the military force in the colonies amounts at present to about 42,000 men (exclusive of artillery and engineers), or to about three-eighths of the whole military force of the British Empire (exclusive of the army in India). For this amount of force we shall have to vote this year, first, in the army estimates for the pay, clothing, etc., of 42,000 men, and for the foreign staff, about 1,500,000l. ; secondly, in the ordnance estimates for the pay of the artillery and engineers (which I will suppose to be the same as in 1843-44), for ordnance establishments, barracks, fortifications, and stores in the colonies, about 550,000l.; and thirdly, in the commissariat estimates for commissariat services, provisions, forage, fuel, light, etc., in the colonies, about 450,000l.; in all, about 2,500,000l., which will be the direct military expenditure by Great Britain on account of the colonies for this year. To form a fair estimate of the whole military expenditure by Great Britain on account of the

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