COLONIAL GOVERNMENT.

Anglo-Maori Warder, Volume 1, Issue 22, 21 September 1848, Page 3

COLONIAL GOVERNMENT.

It is certainly tantalizing enough to read the accounts which history hands down to us of the nature and grounds of the financial differences between England and her older colonies. The question then used to be, how m- ~h she could get out o{ them; the question now is, 1 v much they can get out of her. We read ofquarrua resulting from art attempt to tax them, without their own consent, for Imperial purposes; the tables are turned now with a vengeance, it is Great Britaio which is taxed for Colonial purposes. Victor Hugo has drawn an ingcuious and interesting parallel between the state of Europe in the 15ih and in the 19th century. He shows the features of similarity which exist between the two great military powers of the two periods (Turkey and Russia) and then he goes on to compare the two great colonial and commercial powers, Spain and England He traces, very justly, the decline of the former to the effects of her colonial system, and he shows ttte danger wbich the British empire incurs from the same cause. Bat he has omitted to point ont one among the many striking distinctions which exist between the two cases—it is, that Spain's decay was attributable to the effects of the precious metals which ber colonies poured into her. If England's colonies are to ruin her, they will do so ■ * the exactly opposite process. For nearly 150 years, . .ter the foundation of the fir»t British Col ay ,n I'orth America, there never wa*. a Briish sold.-f stationed in garrison on that continent; the colonists not only paid their own civil lists (including very often the salary of an absentee governor appointed by the Crown,) but they made war, offensive and defensive, on Great Britain's account, with their own means. When England went to war with France, the American colonies fitted out expeditions and attacked, at their own charges, the dependencies of the common enemy.— For example, vn find in the journals of tbe House of Commons the following resolution of a committee in the year 1748. 4 Resolved, that it is just and reasonable that the provinces of Masachusert's Bay, New Hampshire, Connecticut, aod Rhode Island be reim- j bursed the expenses which they have.incurrediu taking and securing to the Crowu of Great Britain the island of Cape Breton and its dependencies." This is one instance, out of many quoted by Mr. Burke in support of hi* position that the colonies, in the 18th century habitually 4, gtive, and gave to satiety," tbtir contributions to the geueral expenses of tbe empire. We will not attempt to exhibit a balance-sheet of the account the colonies of lhe 19. h century and ourselves We have aoaoooned everything which can even be culled financial advantage from them. A hundred yeats a§o. direct taxation was considered the smal est of the colonial contributions to our E\chequer ; the main boast of those who advocated our colonial system <ws founded on tbe advantages supposed to re* suit from our monopoly of colonial commerce. Now, we have not only gnen up all idea of taxing our dependencies, directly or iudirectly, but we have assumed the task of protecting and supporting them, at an expense of at least four millions a yen?, aud we have bisides s>ucctcded (iucb is our progress in statesnianssij ) in tlunginj tiitir loyalty into discontent.Now tunly it is incumbent on u&to inquue what is tb£

meaning awl cause of this lingular change in the veUtita pocition of Great Britain and her dependencies, and in what respect oar administration of their affairs differ* now from what existed in the times when gave to much and asked eo little* To such an in» quiiy inswer is obvi jus ; lha old colonies governed It is a remarkable fact, that until we began to colonise with convicts, sixty years ago, it never seems to have entered the heads of the Government and people of this country that a British Emigration could tako plaoe unaccompanied by British institutions of local government. Even the most despotic of our Smarts never fought of carrying out their principles to such an extent as to govern the colonies irresponsibly, by means of a bereau in London* Everything else in the comparison is unfavourable to the older colonies; they had more formidable enemies, and generally speaking, a worse climate and sod to deal with, navigation and commerce were less advanced, the resources from whence their capital and labuur were derived were far more scanty. One element ol superiority aloue they possessed, they were not governed from Downing-street. The colonial office is a modern invention. There was no cant then talked about giving to colonies constitutions when they are " fit for it' : (that is, when they have acquired the habits which grow j up under a system the very opposite of constitutional;) I the day they landed they proceeded to make their own 1 regulations, under the powers conferred upon them by their charters, and to provide for the growth of communities, the constitution of which should be sound, vigorous, and stable, because its roots were plauted in ih* soil. This is not the place to enlarge oa the effects pro* duccd by participation in political affairs on national character. They are appreciated, we hope, by every Englishman already. We confine ourselves to results ; we find that in the days ufaen the colonies governed themselves from the beginoHf, they were self-respect* ing, independent, able defend themselves against foreign a part in foreign conquest; and above not treated with contumely and injustice, tlflHbey were contented and loyal. The result of the opposite system has been, in the first place, to nurse in the colonies a spirit of indolent dependence, founded on the notion that everything is to be done for them by England; nest, to give them a just ground for making exorbitant demands on her Treasury—if she chooses to manage their affairs : U is only fair that she should pay for the effects of that | management; and lastly, to create such a spirit of i disloyalty and discontent in their breasts, to make he task of keeping them in subjection invidious and I burdensome in time of peace, perhaps impracticable in I time of war. Self-government and self-taxation are i co-relative terms. Let people manage their own affairs, and they will pay their own expenses. Give them the patrouage of their offices, and they will provide the salaries; let them raise their owu militia, and you may keep your soldiers ayiome; let them trust to their own exertions, and theyyUl not waut your help ; let them have a direct interest by participation in the Government under which-they live, and they will be faithful and loyal to. Surely history his been written to no purpose if we iail to draw so obvious a lesson as this from the two historical pictures which are now before us. The words of Burke, with which we will conclude, are as applicable and as important ia our day as in his: — t4 Magnanimity in politics is often the truest wisdom, and a great empire and little minds go ill together, We ought to elevate our miuds to the greatness of that trust to which the order of Providence has called us. By adverting to the dignity of this high calling, our ancestors turned a savage wilderness into a great empire. Let us get a colonial revenue as we got a colonial empire. English privileges have made it all that it is. English privileges alone will make it all that it can be."—Morning Chronicle, April 29.