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.

I now proceed to move that an humble address be presented to her Majesty, praying that her Majesty will be graciously pleased to appoint a commission to inquire into the administration of her Majesty's colonial possessions. I make this motion because I share in the belief, which now prevails, that our system of colonial government is in many respects faulty, and ill-suited to the present state of Great Britain and of the colonies. Therefore I maintain that it requires revision; and for the purpose of revision I ask that a searching inquiry should be made into the colonial polity of the British Empire. With the permission of the House, I will state, as briefly as I can, what, in my opinion, should be the nature of the inquiry, and to what subjects it should be directed. But first, in order to satisfy the House that there ought to be an inquiry, I will endeavour to show what has produced the general conviction, that there are grave errors and defects in our colonial polity.

What I mean by the term "colonial polity of Great Britain" is of recent date, not more than three-quarters of a century old. For, when we began to colonise, the Government had little or nothing to do with it, and, strictly speaking, there was no colonial polity. Our first colonies were planted by adventurers, who left this country for various reasons: some in search of the precious metals; others to escape from intolerance at home; and others to enjoy intolerance abroad. They settled on the shores of America with the nominal sanction of the Crown. Fortunately for them, civil conflicts in England, and the weakness of the executive, left them for many years unmolested

in full enjoyment of virtual independence. They flourished; their numbers increased rapidly; they became wealthy and powerful. Meanwhile, the executive in this country gradually acquired strength; its attention was directed to the prosperity of the colonies; it attempted systematically to interfere in their government; the colonies resisted; some rebelled and became independent; the remainder submitted; and the present system of colonial government was founded upon the ruins of our old colonial empire. By far the greater portion of our modern colonial empire is of recent acquisition; all of it, with the exception of the plantations in the West Indies and two or three old colonies in North America, has been acquired within the last ninety years, most of it within the last fifty years; for instance, the Canadas in 1759; Trinidad and other West Indian islands, Ceylon, and New South Wales, in the interval between 1763 and 1797; the rest of Australasia, New Zealand, the whole of South Africa, British Guiana, the Mauritius, Malta, the Ionian Islands, Heligoland, Hong Kong, and Labuan, are not (as the noble lord the Prime Minister once called them) precious inheritances from our noble ancestors, but have been added to the British dominions since the beginning of this century. These colonies have been acquired for various reasons. Some we conquered because we grudged the possession of them to rival Powers, and fancied that the might of a nation was in proportion to the extent of its territory; others we held as outposts, on the plea of protecting our own trade, and injuring the trade of other countries; and others we occupied as places

of punishment for our criminals. Thus our colonial empire consisted chiefly of conquered provinces, garrison towns, and gaols. Their government was entrusted to a central authority in England. The invariable tendency of such an authority is to grasp as much power as possible, and to resist every measure which seems likely either directly or indirectly to diminish that power. In conformity with these tendencies the colonial polity of Great Britain was framed; and the Colonial Office laid claim to omnipotence and infallibility in all matters concerning the colonies. That claim was long recognised in this country, and scarcely disputed in the colonies. But of late years it has been contested not so much within as without the walls of this House; and every colony has repeatedly and energetically protested against it; and now the conviction is daily gaining ground throughout the empire that our colonial system is not well suited either to the State of Great Britain or of the colonies.

The conviction that our colonial polity is faulty has acquired strength in this country in proportion as public opinion has been more and more directed to colonial questions, and of late years greater attention has been paid to those questions for various reasons. First, because within the last quarter of a century Great Britain has begun again to colonise, and on a much greater scale than ever before. For, during that period, at least 2,000,000 of persons have migrated from this country; half of them have gone directly to our independent colonies of the United States; the other half to our dependent colonies, whence a large portion of them have