THE

COLONIES OF ENGLAND.

CHAPTER I.

OBJECT OF THE WORK

A COLONY, WHAT?— ENGLISH COLONIES CLASSED-WHAT CLASSES TREATED OF IN THIS WORK - WHAT OBJECTS SOUGHT IN FOUNDING

AND MAINTAINING COLONIES

SURPLUS POPULATION

THE object of the present work is to bring into some

thing like a system the principles which ought to prevail in the government of some portion of our colonies. Hitherto, those of our possessions termed colonies have not been governed according to any settled rule or plan— caprice and chance have decided generally everything connected with them; and if success have in any case. attended the attempts of the English people to establish colonies, that success has been obtained in spite of the mischievous intermeddling of the English government, not in consequence of its wise and provident assistance. In the following pages an attempt will be made to discover, if possible, a means of preventing the continuance of this evil system-if system that can be called which has no

B

rule or order. I shall endeavour to ascertain the mode in which the metropolitan authority can be best employed in the planting and government of those communities which we term colonies, so that they may be rendered prosperous and happy, in so far as their prosperity and happiness are dependent on the government to which they are subject and while thus flourishing within themselves, may become useful to the mother country from which they have sprung.

A Colony-what?

There are many dependencies under the control of our Colonial Office which are not colonies in the present English acceptation of that term. Ceylon, the Ionian Islands, Malta, are not considered colonies. The idea of settlement is not connected with them. Their lands are already occupied. They have for their limits a sufficient, a dense population, which population are not emigrants from another land, but belong to the country in which they live, and look to no mother country, no metropolis for which they feel affection, and to which they are willing to render obedience.

There are two leading ideas which enter into our conception of a colony-the one is, that the territory itself is, or within recent memory has been, for the most part, wild and without inhabitants; and the other, that the inhabitants for which it is eventually destined, or which it has in part already received, are to go to it from our own country, or have gone from us or from some other mother country. The relation to, and supervision by, the mother country is the great distinctive mark of a

colony, and is that which will be kept in view throughout the following pages. The present work, in fact, is an attempt to turn that relation to use for both the parties concerned.

If we advert to Ceylon, and inquire why it is that we do not consider it a colony, we shall find that there is no belief on our parts, or on that of any one else, that there are wild or unoccupied lands within the island, which are fit for, or likely to receive, any body of English settlers who will go there with the intention of founding a new community in that distant country, transmitting the language, the habits, and the manners of England to generations yet unborn, who will there find a country and a home, but who will always look back to England as their origin and parent. The tribes who now occupy Ceylon are so numerous, that very little land is left for a new comer; and even if there were large unsettled territories which had no owners, yet the climate almost precludes the possibility of planting there an English population.

If on the other side of the globe we look to the United States, we shall find there all the elements necessary for the complex notion of a colony except one. The relation to the mother country no longer exists. They have ceased to be colonies.

Taking, then, these conditions, such as here described, we are to inquire in what way, under what system, can we render useful both to the mother country and her colonies that tie and relationship-that peculiar dominion which is understood when we speak of OUR COLONIES and our COLONIAL EMPIRE.

The colonial dominion of England must, for my present purpose, be viewed under two separate aspects. We have colonial possessions lying in various parts of the globe, forming distinct systems, or countries. Each of these systems must be considered by itself, and with regard to the interests and circumstances peculiar to each. But there are certain matters which are common to all these separate systems which can be well discussed together, and general rules established concerning these common interests, before we come to the specific considerations which belong to the distinct divisions of our colonial empire.

What is here meant by distinct systems, may be best explained by making at once the division intended to be adopted when the more specific detail is given :

1. Our territories in North America, all lying north of the United States, including Newfoundland,

form one system.

2. Australasia forms another separate system.

[By Australasia I mean the whole of the vast island sometimes called New Holland, and also the island of Van Diemen's Land, together with all the islands which cluster round the coast, both of New Holland and Van Diemen's Land.] 3. South Africa forms also one.

[By South Africa, I mean all that we do, all that we may, acquire at the southern end of the continent of Africa. We have already an immense and fertile territory there, which promises to increase.]