settlement has representative institutions all civil expenses for local purposes ought to be paid by the colony, while all civil expenses for imperial purposes ought to be paid by the united kingdoms. In 1846-47 our colonial civil expenditure was 500,000l. Of this sum about 300,000l. were for the clothing, maintenance and transport of convicts; and 70,000l. were expended on the military stations; these two sums, therefore, were required for imperial purposes, and it was proper that this country should pay them. Of the remaining 130,000l., 11,000l. were paid to the North American clergy-that charge will cease with the lives of the present clergy; 14,000l. were paid in the shape of presents to the Indian tribes in Canada; about 80,000l. were spent in the West Indies in salaries to clergymen, stipendiary magistrates, and governors; and, lastly, about 20,000l. were spent in New Zealand. It appears to me that the whole of this sum of 130,000l. ought, according to my principles, to be ultimately saved, with the exception of the sum required for the salaries of colonial governors; for, in my opinion, as long as colonial governors are appointed by the imperial Government they should be looked upon as imperial officers, and therefore their salaries should be paid by the united kingdoms.

In concluding my observations on our colonial expenditure I must remark that in every colony there are many persons who have a strong sinister interest in the amount of imperial expenditure. These persons have made, or expect to make, large gains by contracts, jobs, and by the innumerable other modes of robbing the mother country. They

rejoice on every increase of imperial expenditure. To them a Kaffir or a Maori war or a rebellion is a godsend. I have heard on good authority that in the Canadian rebellion the enormous gains of these persons were equal to the losses of the rest of the community, and that they have been heard to toast the good old times of that rebellion, and the speedy commencement of the next. Sir H. Smith has stated in one of his despatches that during the last Kaffir war many persons amassed large sums of money; that the consequences were a redundancy of money at the Cape of Good Hope, with general prosperity, and a tendency to over-speculation. I have heard similar statements with regard to New Zealand. And it is self-evident that, with an imperial expenditure many times greater than the local revenues of a colony, there must be a fine harvest for the jobbing and peculating tribe, and that noxious race must flourish and multiply. To this class, and it is not an uninfluential one, in our modern colonies, any proposal for a reduction of imperial expenditure is in the highest degree distasteful. Corrupted by that expenditure, they have not the feelings of self-reliance and selfrespect which, according to the just remark of Lord Grey, our old colonies displayed in their conflicts with the Indians, and even with the might of France. Many of these unworthy Anglo-Saxons would, in their hearts, prefer Colonial Office despotism, with huge imperial expenditure, to the freest institutions with imperial economy. We are to blame for this degeneracy, which every high-minded and every right-minded colonist deplores. We are to blame for having departed from our old colonial

polity, and demoralised our colonial children by our waste and extravagance. The sooner we return to the old polity the better for them morally, for us pecuniarily; their character will be elevated and ennobled by becoming self-reliant, and obtaining self-government; and our money will be saved by bestowing upon them the freest institutions, and strictly enforcing the maxim-no imperial expenditure for local purposes. That maxim is the sum and substance of my first resolution. These resolutions express my idea of the true colonial policy of Great Britain, which is self-government for true colonies, and no imperial expenditure except for military stations. With that policy the more true colonies we have, and the fewer military stations we have need of, the richer and more powerful the British Empire will be. I move these resolutions in no hostile spirit to the Government, but, on the contrary, to encourage them to pursue boldly and vigorously the policy which they have commenced on the continent of Australia. I ask them to assent to this motion. I ask all honourable members to support it who wish to reduce the national expenditure; for if there be any portion of that expenditure in which a considerable reduction. can be made without injury to the empire, that portion is our colonial expenditure; and that expenditure can only be reduced by acting in conformity with the principles contained in the resolutions which I now beg leave to move:I. "That it is the opinion of this House that steps should be taken to relieve this country, as speedily as possible, from its present civil and military expenditure on account of the colonies, with the

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exception of its expenditure on account of military stations or convict settlements." 2. "That it is expedient, at the same time, to give to the inhabitants of the colonies, which are neither military stations nor convict settlements, ample powers for their local self-government, and to free them from that imperial interference with their affairs which is inseparable from their present military occupation."

ON THE INTRODUCTION OF THE BILL FOR THE BETTER GOVERNMENT OF THE AUSTRALIAN COLONIES.

FEBRUARY 8, 1850.

[The resolutions proposed by Lord John Russell before the introduction of the Australian Government Bill were follows:

as

1. That provision be made for the better government of Her Majesty's Australian colonies.

2. That the Governor and Legislative Council of Her Majesty's Australian colonies be authorised to impose and levy duties of customs on goods, wares, and merchandise imported into such colonies.]

THE noble lord, the Prime Minister, commenced the very able speech to which we have been listening by tracing the origin and progress of our colonial empire, and in so doing he stated many important facts with regard to the amount of the population and the extent of the commerce of our colonies; thence the noble lord inferred that the loss of our colonial possessions would be a heavy blow and a great injury to the British Empire, and that every one who wished well to this country would endeavour to prevent such a catastrophe. Then the noble lord proceeded to make known his opinions on the subject of colonial government; he declared that his colonial polity would be founded on the principles of commercial freedom and of