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to Australasia; where the climate is so peculiarly suited to our race, where abundance of food can easily be obtained; there, flourishing and contented, they would have been anxious to purchase our produce and manufactures; wealthy states, worthy of the British name, would have been generated, carrying on with us an enormous trade; selfgoverned, they would have needed neither army nor navy to protect them, and would have gladly defrayed every local expense. That would have been a colonial empire to boast about!

Again, the same sum of two millions sterling a year would, in ten years, have conveyed to North America some three millions; say, of Irishmen. With that sum I believe you might have created beyond the Atlantic a new and happy Ireland, so attractive to the Celtic race that they would have migrated in shoals from the old and unhappy Ireland, and thus, perhaps, have enabled you to solve that fearful problem, which neither gagging Bills, nor coercion Bills, nor alien Bills, nor even a repeal of the Union will ever solve. That indeed would have been a feat for a great statesman to accomplish, and would have covered his name with immortal renown! I do grudge the four millions a year which we squander upon our colonies, when I consider what might be done with half that sum for the benefit of this country, and of the colonies, by means of systematic colonisation.

But to colonise beneficially it is necessary that the higher and richer, as well as the poorer classes, that the employers of labour as well as the employed, that all classes of society should migrate together, forming new communities, analogous to

that of the parent state. On such principles alone have successful colonies been founded in ancient or modern times. On such principles the colonies of Greece and of New England were founded.

For instance, from the overcrowded cities of Greece the colonists departed under the guidance of their foremost men; they carried along with them the images of their heroes and their gods, whose common worship linked them for ever to their ancient home. Arrived at their destination, they formed states after the model of the parent city; they flourished in wealth, excelled in all the arts of civilised life, extended the empire, and added to the renown of the Dorian or Ionian name. Not dissimilar in principle was the old English mode of colonising, except that our colonies, instead of commencing their existence as independent states, professed their allegiance to the mother country; but their charters gave them all the essential powers of self-government, and complete control over their internal affairs. They flourished rapidly, were most loyal, and sincerely attached to our empire, till we drove them into just rebellion by our new colonial system. Very different from these successful modes of colonising has been that of the Colonial Office. It has been either a shovelling out of paupers or a transportation of criminals, whereby some of the fairest portions of the British. dominions have been converted into pest-houses of pauperism, or sinks of iniquity, polluting the earth with unheard-of diseases and unmentionable crimes. No gentleman, no man of birth or education, who knows anything about the matter, would ever think of emigrating to a colony, to be under the control

of the Colonial Office. But if the colonies were properly planted, and self-governed according to the old fashion, then our kinsmen and friends, instead of overstocking the liberal professions, instead of overcrowding the army and navy, where no career is open for them, would seek their fortunes in the colonies and prosper. For we are by nature a colonising people. The same destiny that led our forefathers from their homes in the farthest East still urges us onwards to occupy the uninhabited regions of the West and the South; and America, and Australia, and New Zealand anxiously expect our arrival to convert their wastes into happy abodes of the Anglo-Saxon race.

In making these observations I wish merely to show that if vast sums of money are to be expended on the colonies they can be expended in a manner far more beneficial to the interests both of the colonies and of the rest of the empire than they have been hitherto expended. I do not, however, intend to propose to the House any plan of systematic colonisation, or any grant of public money for that purpose. My only objects, at present, are reduction of useless expenditure and reform of bad colonial government, which are things good in themselves without reference to any ulterior measures. But I will presume to express my belief that there is a great and noble career open for any statesman who, possessing the power, shall with firm and vigorous determination, curtail that expenditure, reform that system of government, and, at the same time, promote systematic colonisation. In what manner colonial expenditure can be curtailed without detriment to the interests

of the empire, in what manner the system of colonial government can be amended for the benefit of the colonies, I have attempted to show; and in the hope that I have succeeded in proving that that expenditure ought to be curtailed, and that system of government ought to be amended, I take the liberty of moving the resolution :-" That it is the opinion of this House that the colonial expenditure of the British Empire demands inquiry, with a view to its reduction; and that to accomplish this reduction, and to secure greater contentment and prosperity to the colonists, they ought to be invested with large powers for the administration of their local affairs." And if the Government will accede to this motion I give notice that next Session I shall follow up this subject by moving for a committee of inquiry.

ON A ROYAL COMMISSION TO INQUIRE INTO THE ADMINISTRATION OF THE COLONIES.

JUNE 26, 1849.

[This motion was seconded by Mr. J. Hume, and supported by Mr. Gladstone. It was opposed by Mr. Hawes and Mr. Labouchere, and on a division was defeated by a majority of 74; 89 voting in its favour, 163 against.]

SIR,-Before I ask the House to consider the motion which I intend to make, I wish to present a petition which I received yesterday from Wellington, in New Zealand. It is signed by a large portion of the adult population of that settlement. The petitioners state that their reasonable expectations of obtaining representative institutions have been disappointed, that their Governor has established a form of government repugnant to their feelings, and inefficient for good government; and they pray that Parliament will not sanction any measure which will delay the introduction of representative government into the southern settlements of New Zealand. I heartily support the prayer of this petition because I believe that the petitioners are in every way well qualified to enjoy representative institutions, and that with representative institutions New Zealand would soon become one of the greatest and most flourishing colonies of the British Empire.

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