MR. COBDEN ON COLONIAL REFORM. (From a Speech to the Electors of the West Riding.)

New Zealander, Volume 5, Issue 355, 15 September 1849, Page 3

MR. COBDEN ON COLONIAL REFORM. (From a Speech to the Electors of the West Riding.)

You know what my motion about retrenchment is. It is a very simple case. I put it before Parliament, nnd I was forry you found your representative in to small a minority. But I beg you di-.tiuct'y to understand that I was in good comj any. (Cheers.) 1 had Lnncashire with me-— I had the metiopolis with me— l I. ad Edinburgh and Glasgow with me— l hid Middlesex with me. Of all the large towns only Liverpool — *' a strange anomaly," feeing thut financial reform commenced then, and Sheffield, rather peculiarly situulcd (a laugh) plumped aguitist me. (Cheer*.) Sheffield v )ted against me under peculiar ciicumstanceg, which yju will understand; but that won't <-ccur again, (oncers.) I am very anxious that you in ihe Wist Kid»ng should nndeistand this, and if you wjll take the trouble to anfthze the place* whmc« my supporters came, you w II nnd that enlightened und free public opinion was with me on that ino'ion br certainly ay it ever was with Mr. Vill en before Sii 11. Peel took up free trude in corn ; and I may boldly say th it I never expect to be in a majtirity in reducing <ur exprnditure to the standard of 1835 Government will take care of that, ><s they did on the Com Laws ; they will do the wuik thrmselvee. (It we were in the majority, the Queen would hive to bend for Ui (dieerh), and that would not suit them. (Cheers.) Some Oovrnment muttd) it for us. To be lure our right hon fiiend and neighbour Sir Charles Wood hus only made a beginning— that is his po'icy. It is intended only in an encouragement for us to go on. Perhaps he could nut do more for us this time, hut it is quite plain vth-H he means if you persevere, c pecially in the West Ridjnc- A great deal more will be i'oih; nxt year, nnd ii will be »ll done at soon at pos ib'c. (Loud cheirs.) What I proposed wm to go back us speedily as possible to the .xpendtture of 1835. No nnswer was given to the fact* I stated, \ti , that the successive increases of our expenditure for armament* had all been occasioned by Bpeti.il circumatunces, which liavc nil passed r.way. (Cheers ) I sta'cd other changes, which I hope will engage the attention of the Wt st Hiding. I sv-mt to enlist you in two or three practical questions, but which our opponents wi 1 cull Utopian. (Cheers.) Utopias? The Wtst Hiding has a knack ot making Utopias realities. (Cheers.) The West Riding made Clurkson's Utopins for the abolition of the slave trade n riality. The West Hiding made Wtlberforce's Utopias for abolition of slavery a reuli'y. You made what was called madness in 1839 reality in 1841) (Cheers.) I want you to take up my other Utopia*. (Cheers.) One of them is to reduce the expenditure by means which seem to follow naturally out of our free-trade struggle. I want you to raise ihe ciy for colonial reform. (Cheers.) De| end upon it you are ai much interested in carry'nj; out reform in our colonial system as the colonies themselves, or as you are in our own municipal affaire, because it u only by the reform of your colonial ». s cm that you cun ever hope largely to reduce your present expenditure, or be in a position to be safe against an overwhelming expenditure from any accidental caus>e that miyaii-e. You may have another war in Cuffraria or New Zealand. We must have our colonies put in a lotaliy different position ; we must rniae the cry of •' self-government for the colonies.*' Don't give a feeb'e r sponse to th.it under the idea, industiiously spread abroad, that something tending to a dUmcmbeiment of the empire is involved in giving our colonial feUow-nubjects self government. As EngliHhmen they arc entitled to it. II you don't eepnrate yourselves from the dominant class — if there be a dominant class, for it is hardly fashionable to say there is (clieois) — if you don't separate yourselves from them in then attempt to keep the colonies as a field of patronage for their jounger sons, and thut the urlktocracy may nominate the Governm- nt, you will have wars without end with your colonial fcllow.subjccts. English people, whether in North America, at the Cape of Good Hope, iv New Zealand, in Australia, or in tho West Riding of Yorkbhire, will govern themselves (Cheers.) You cannot take a newspaper from any point of the compass without meeting complaints in every direction. Ido not wish to be thought at tacking the noble Lord »t the bend of the Colonia. Office. Ido not attack Karl Grey. I have a hi«h respect for his personal honour, and for his moral courage and independence. He was one of the fiist who boldly advocated our piinciplcs of free trade. (Cheers.) Some of you recollect he i bandoned office rather thun lend himself to compromise on the slavery cmestion. (Cheers.) Such a roan is entitled to our respect. I make no charge against Mr. Haweg, a man of busmen from amongst ourselves, who industriously nnd honourably fiUn nn oflicc under GoYcrnmfnt. What I do find fnull with n, that men should allow thcmnclves to he put in office to do impossibililjcs ; it

would require omnipotence and omnipresence almost to be able, irom a itreot in London, to govern more than forty dependencies in every latitttde. Suppose we had to send up to Sir George Grey to have his authoiity for every tiling we do in municipal afFairs, would we tolerate such a thing ! And yet we have railway Iranfit that performs the distance between this and London in six houis, mid by the telegraph, that will communicate with the metropolis in a minute, you can tulk wuli the Home Office, and yet you would not tolerate its interference in Wakefield, Leeds, or Manchester. How, then, do you think thut in Downing Street they can govern the people of New Z aland and Australia ? Before they can exchange communications, ten to one the object of those communications will have paused away. It is utterly absurd, and it is impossible for ihe interest of the colonies, with the inalienable right o' Englishmen and the rights of our own interests, that they should be kept in a state of pupilage any longer. H the colonies require our soldiers as a police they must pay for it -, they must pay every farthing required for their own defence a. id their own jjovernoneut; nor would they grumble to do so if we only gave them self-government. No doubt I hear Lord John Russell m-se's Sir W. Molesworth on this subject with an objection which, with all deference and respect, has shown me more than anything else that Lord John is not quite equal to the po ition in which he is placed. I refer to the puerile levity with which ha treated those profound arguments and most cnrefn'ly collected facts which Sir W.Uiam Moles-worth and others brought forward on thii subject. He said twice since, 4< You want something totally different from me; you want to dismember the empire; you want to make thi* great united empire a smaller empire by getting rid of your colonies one by one. You are going the right way to accomplish your object." Is it ri<ht to trait this question in such a spirit ? What is free trade for, if it be not carried out to itt legitimate ends 1 There «re some statesmen of our days who think the only object of the Reform Hill or the abolition of the Corn Laws was to place them in power (cheers), and that when once in power they nre to remain there. The country is to be satisfied that they are there. They console themselves with the belief that the country wants nothing but that they shall be there, and they are utterly incompetent, or, what is the same thing in effect, they are unwilling to carry out legitima'ely those principles by which they have arquired power, and of which they professed to be the champions. (Cheers.) Our colonies are subjected to an enormous expenditure in order that Government may exercise the patronage. We have five colonial governors and a governor in our North American colonies with silnries amounting to .£17,000 a year, whilst the United States, wi'h thirty governors, paid only ;£ 1 4,300, our colonies having a population of 2,000,000, and the United States 20,000,000. (Cheers.) The last appoiutmeut made by the United States was of a Governor of California, with a salary of i?6'00 ; our last appointment was the Governor of Labuan, with £2000 a-year. The hon. gentleman then urged, at great length the necessity of grfatly reducing our armaments, insisting on the policy of a>bilration instead of war. lie also urged the formation of a convention between England and France and Ameiica, to prevent the indefinite increase of our n<\val lorce, and concluded an I eloquent speech by calling on hie friends to attend 'o the registration, as the best menus of canying ou their pacific economical views. lie sat down amidst loud diceiinj.