INFLUENCE OF LAST ELECTION ON COLONIAL AFFAIRS.

New Zealander, Volume 9, Issue 722, 16 March 1853, Page 3

INFLUENCE OF LAST ELECTION ON COLONIAL AFFAIRS.

[From the " Colonial imtl Asiatic Review."J

All who are interested in (he prosperity and good government of our Colonies, or in the extended power and dominion of our country, must have scanned, with no small degree of interest and anxiety, the results obtained by the General Election which has recently terminated. This grand display of the freedom and power of the inhabitants of the Imperial kingdoms when they periodically assemhle and openly declare who shall represent them in the Senate of the nation to make laws for them and look after their interests, affects deeply their distant fellow subjects with a sense of humiliation and neglect. The Colonist is proud of the noble freedom enjoyed by his countrymen at home, but feels it hard that he should lose his dearly-prized birthright by living at Cape Town instead of Manchester, or Melbourne instead of York. Distance frequently but enhances his love of his country, and elevates his loyally to the Sovereign. Yet in the Great Imperial Council of the Empire the Colonists is not only debarred all semblance of direct representation, but even indirectly the Colonies, since the ruin of the West Indies, exert no influence in returning members to Parliament. Acquaintance with Colonial affairs, services in the Colonies, however brilliant, are held in little regard in this country, and would constitute too microscopical an unit in any candidate's list of qualifications even to be mentioned when he was recommending himself for the sweet voices of a constituency, however liberal and enlightened. What would it avail the candidate to say :—"I am intimately acquainted with British North America. Its sea-like rivers and inland waters I have navigated—its magnificent forests—its illimitable plains of rich and virgin soil, I have traversed and carefully perused—and, as a lover of my country, I am endeavouring to awaken the attention of the Government and people of England to the importance of this great territory—this vast empire, whose Atlantic ports should be but as the wharves for the mighty exodus proceeding towards the West, its utmost limits being washed by the Pacific Ocean. I desire, on patriotic grounds, to have the aid of the Government and people of this country to turn to account magnificent ports and harbours, some of them large enough to protect the navy of the world —cultivable fields lying waste —admirable water-ways neglected—and many other of Nature's choicest gifts totally ignored. 1 desire to place there the poor and discontented man, and he is discontented merely because he is poor, of this densely-peopled country, with plenty around him, and 1 would sec the waterways and natural passes in the mountains taken such advantage of, that litis mighty continent may be opened up by the civilizing influence of steam from the Atlantic to the Pacific—binding together, as it were, with an iron band, the various provinces of British North America, and uniting them still more closely to the Parent State, and not only so, but throwing open, as it were, to the world a new and improved route to the East, every portion of which, being through British territory, must add incalculably to the strength and security, and power of the mighty but widely scattered regions which own allegiance to the Imperial Crown." Would such views and sentiments as these obtain a single vole ? They would not be listened to by any body of electors as a ground for claiming their votes. Such things would not touch them like a proposition for remodelling the taxes, shifting the burden from one class to another, on the plea that that mysterious person, the consumer, the hero of mythological economics, must be taken care of ; any restriction or extension of the franchise, or any change in the mode of voting would be certain, on the other hand, to excite the liveliest interest and attention.

Anything that is distant and imperial is left to the chapter of accidents by those who return members to Parliament, while they applaud or condemn with eagerness anything merely fiscal or local in its operation. The general election then, which has such an important bearing on colonial affairs, whether regard be had to the sentiments of individual members returned to Parliament, or to its probable action on the colonial policy of a cabinet, is a crisis of paramount interest and importance to every colonist; but he has no voice in the issue, and is totally disregarded by those who have. There are individual members whose return or rejection the colonist will watch with the utmost anxiety ; but it will be observed how little the assiduity bestowed by these members on the service of distant dependencies influences their return to Parliament. The influence of last Election on Colonial affairs, so far as individuals are concerned, may be illustrated with one or two examples. The Australians lose at Bedford the erratic and tedious attentions of the everlasting Mr. Chisholm Ansley, but they acquire a very distinguished representative in Mr. Robert Lowe, who is elected for Kidderminster. We do not entirely approve of all the opinions expressed by Mr. Lowe; nevertheless, it is certain that he is able to state the results acquired by a most observing mind during a long personal experience of New South Wales, where he was very recently member of the Legislative Council. Canada will rejoice in the return of her acrid tribune, Mr. Roebuck, for Sheffield, although it is not the result of his Canadian distinctions, but of the sympathy which he finds in tiiat highly radical horough. No man has bestowed more research on colonial subjects than Sir William Molesworth, or maintained his opinions at adverse seasons with more unconquerable independence. His opposition to the ciaims of the New Zealand Company entitle him to the gratitude of the colonists, while his efforts for the Cape of Good Hope to put down the Kaffir war by liberal institutions, in the last papers from the colony, only appear to excite the ridicule of the colonisls,and furnish them with another plea for being represented in Parliament by those possessing correct information regarding their affairs : but the mistakes of Sir William Molesworth had as much to do as his uprightness of purpose on the liberal electors of Soulhwark. Nevertheless,it is unquestionably true that few M.P.'s know so much of the wants and the wishes of the colonies as the honorable and indefatigable baronet in question. It is advantageous that he should be in Parliament.

Oxford did not return Mr. Gladstone because he applies his learning and eloquence to adorn and illustrate his profound knowledge of colonial government and polity. British colonists arc too loyal and 100 much attached to the institutions of their native country, as well as 100 anxious to obtain for their respective colonies a government and constitution as analogous as possible to those they had been accustomed to al home, not to regrel the apparently 100 fervent admiration of this accomplished statesman for the constitution of the United States, as if it were the ne plus ultra of constitutions, and to which the wonderful progress and prosperity of the trans-Atlantic republic is mainly to be attributed. However, be that as it may, the absence of Mr. Gladstone would not only deprive the Imperial Legislature of one of its chief ornaments, but would deteriorate it for the treatment of colonial affairs.

Lynn has honourably distinguished itself by returning two rising statesmen, Lord Jocelyn and Lord Stanley. But the former docs not take his seat as the enlightened exponent of the wants of our mighty empire in the East, neither does the other as the champion of the blasted and ruined isles of the West.

Edinburgh, the repentant Queen of the North, did not return her orator and statesman so that he might grace the debates on the Charter Act of India. The West Indies will share with all the colonies in satisfaction at the return of Sir John Pakington for Droilwich. Sir John Pakington so far from treating the Colonies with slight or contempt, as his predecessor was too much in the habit of doing, has treated them with unprecedented attention, and has evinced an assiduity in their favour which has marked him as the most promising of colonial ministers. He is returned, however, entirely on grounds of English politics. So far as the colonies have any influence on the composition of the council which makes laws for them, they might not exist. In the choice of candidates the electors know not the colonies.

It would be very different if the colonics had any embodiment in the English political world. If, for example, a representative board existed in London, exercising a proper influence in the conduct of colonial affairs, there can be no question that although it would not have much bearing on elections so far as to effect the composition of Parliament, yet there can be no doubt that the views and suggestions of such a body would be received by Parliament with consideration. This would, however, be only a step in the right direction. The colonies must be represented. The colonies must exert a direct influence in Parliament by representatives chosen by themselves. It is a most fortunate circumstance for the colonics, until proper arrangements are made in this country for the representation of their interest, that they have not to trust to the tender mercies of a Grey or a Russell.

The fears of the Whig party at the popularity of Tory colonial legislation are not without foundation. There is no more palpable fact than that the Tories are in office, and likely to remain so. Another fact equally palpable is that by another session of Parliament, Sir John Pakington will have elaborated a bill, giving Australia not only all she asks for, but, as in the case of New Zealand, more than she expects. We care nothing for parly nor its intrigues, we rejoice at the Tory triumph, and trust that it may be a long one, from the colonial freedom which it promises, and will, if in office, make good—having given earnest both of promise and performance. What the colonists might except at the hands of Whig statesmen, if in office, may be gathered from a letter recently published in the Times from a prominent member of that party in Ihe Slate —a noble Duke, as well known for his logical powers as for his enlightened benevolence.

The Duke of Argyle has favoured the Times with a manifesto, having apparently for its object the postponement to an indefinite period of any final action upon the measures demanded by the Australian colonists, by bewildering the Legislature on a subject than which nothing can be plainer. " Let us govern ourselves," is the simple demand of the Australian colonists: " You can't govern yourselves," says the Duke of Argyle, " in all you want, and that for a thousand and one reasons, some of which I subjoin. The imperial power is clearly bound to guard the interests of future as well as of existing colonists ; and therefore, under such circumstances, the imperial power may very well be the fittest judge of colonial power may very well be the fittest judge of colonial interests." These are the Duke of Argyle's own words and his station and influence may, and perhaps will, be (he means of complicating a most important question with a View lo the failure of ils solution except at the hands of his own parly. If this be not his object, it is difficult to see at what point he is aiming ; for though differing from the colonists in almost every important particular, he spares no pains to assure them of his advocacy. The Duke of Argyle evidently overlooks the spirit of the Australian petition. The Australian colonies ask for (he rights which Englishmen have everywhere else but in colonies. They ask these most respectfully but firmly ; and they close their demands with an unmistakeablc declaration, that if these rights are not conceded to them, they will take them of their own accord. It is their dearest wish to continue Iheir connection with the mother country unless the mother country compel them to sever it. They are prepared, or are preparing for whichever the molher country, in its wisdom may choose. The Times thus gives the stale of this part of the question : —" It is idle to argue the mailer further, these things the colony will have, and a country which is being peopled at the rate of 5000 a week by men nursed in freedom, will soon be able to demand as a right that which she now entreats as a favour."

If we see such a man as this, for parly purposes, undertake to advocate the cause of the colonists only to betray them, and not only refusing his concurrence in the prayer of (he petition which had been confided in him, but administering a lecture very like a rebuke lo those who had been weak enough lo place confidence in the liberal profession of that great party with wlmm he claims an ancient hereditary alliance —if we see, we say, such a man as this attempt to stifle the legitimate aspirations of his distant fellow subjects for those rights which are the inalienable property of every natural born subject of the Imperial Crown—stifle, we say, by coldness, and confuse and misdirect, by subtlety and cajolery, the most reasonable hopes and expectations, —what might we not expect had the result of the last election been favourable to the hopes of the Whigs of again returning to power? For example, let us examine the history of their Colonial policy and its results. In the West Indies the mouldering and motionless machinery, and rank vegetation luxuriating on the deserted walls of the silent factories, speak more eloquently-than words, of ruined enterprise, and a land hastening to decay. To the West Indies the visitation of the Whigs has been like that of the Mahralla lo the fertile provinces of Bengal ; in each there was wealth, commerce and abundance, but the Whigs, like the M ah rat las, " made a solitude and willed it peace." For New Zealand they endeavoured to cobble up liberal institutions, but they cobbled in vain ; their wretched abortion of a constitution was repudiated by the New Zealandcrs as the illegitimate and sinister offspring of a truckling administration, making a pretence of bastard freedom. When the New Zealand Bill of the present ministry was in progress, no small portion of the opposition it encountered emanated from Whig chagrin at the Tories having sanctioned a measure which the former party had long talked of without any intention of acting upon it. This animus was clearly apparent in some of the Whig opponents of the Bill, who strained every nerve to get it postponed to another session, when it might again serve for a Whig slock-picce. In the Cape their bungling policy is still germinating. There the record of their antinational and suicidal policy is daily being written in the blood of their countrymen. The Whigs

not only held back free institutions from the Cape colonists, but after they had produced deep dissatisfaction and disappointment, they goaded the colonists to passive rebellion by an attempt to force the contamination upon them of a convict population ; but as if it were not sufficient to withhold from the Cape colonists their just rights, and endeavour to trample them under foot, that very time was chosen to withdraw a considerable portion of the troops, in obedience to the deceitful howling of a class of economists, whose only aim appears to be to dismember the Empire and lower the dignity of the Imperial Crown. Active rebellion in our own provinces, and the aggression of the savage borders on our frontiers, were the immediate and natural results. A distinguished general was cruelly sacrificed to the indignation of the country, which is now paying at the rate .of 50,000J per month for the prosecution of a useless, bloody, and most inglorious war, resulting entirely from the perverse and perfidious bungling of the Whigs. In Canada we could instance their compensations and rewards to traitors. But enough of this ungrateful theme.