XXXVIII. of Great Britain, and therefore the most expensive to CHAP. reach by her emigrants, and the exclusive receptacle for its convicts, became ere long overcharged with the latter description of inhabitants. 1839. which the brought Loud murmurs on the subject were in consequence 8. heard in Sydney, upon which Government, to elude the Mode in difficulty, sent them all to Van Diemen's Land, a colony change was still farther away, to which no free emigrants could go about. for less than £25 a-head, while to the American shores the transit cost only £5. As a natural consequence, Van Diemen's Land became choked up with convicts: from three to four thousand were in the end sent there every year, being more than the annual free emigrants. The evil consequence of this disproportion, which was soon generally known, diffused an universal panic in all the colonies, from which petitions for the entire abolition of transportation flowed in on all sides. To these demands Government, not properly understanding the subject, in an evil hour yielded; and the system of transportation, the best which human wisdom ever yet devised, both for the mother country, the colonies, and the criminals, has been, it is to be hoped only for a time, abandoned. The story of this disastrous change will form an important topic in the sequel of this History. 9. resolution ment re garding col It was fortunate for Great Britain that at the time when this unfortunate change, the result of ignorance Important and inattention on the part of the central Government, of Parlia was preparing in regard to transportation, more rational views came to pervade both the legislature and the country on the subject of colonisation generally. On 27th June 1839, resolutions on the subject were brought forward by Mr Ward, which are of value as embodying, for the first * "Resolved-I. That the occupation and cultivation of waste lands in the British colonies, by means of emigration, tends to improve the condition of all the industrious classes in the United Kingdom, by diminishing the competition for employment at home, in consequence of the removal of superabundant numbers creating new markets, and increasing the demand for shipping and manufactures. 66 "II. That the prosperity of colonies, and the progress of colonisation, onisation. XXXVIII. 1839. CHAP. time in the proceedings of the legislature, the true principles of colonial administration, which had been so often misunderstood or perverted by the selfishness or cupidity of those possessing influence or authority at home. They consisted in disposing of colonial lands, not to a few favoured individuals in huge lots, to whom they might prove a source of great and growing fortune, but in moderate quantities to such as might really undertake their cultivation, and at such reasonable prices as, without discouraging enterprise, might insure an attempt at least to produce reimbursement by their produce. The ruinous effects of the opposite system had been felt both in Canada and Northern Australia, where immense tracts of fertile land were retained in a state of nature from haying been imprudently alienated to a few favoured individuals; and the beneficial effects of the system now recommended had been evinced in the new colony of Southern Australia in the most remarkable manner. The resolutions were withdrawn by Mr Ward, as it was too late to legislate on the subject in that session of Parliament; but Mr Labouchere, on the part of Government, announced their adoption of the principles embodied in mainly depend on the manner in which a right of private property in the waste lands of a colony may be acquired; and that amidst the great variety of methods of disposing of waste lands which have been pursued by the British Government, the most effectual, beyond all comparison, is the plan of a sale, at a fixed, uniform, and sufficient price, for ready money, without any other restriction or condition; and the employment of the whole, or a large fixed proportion of the purchase-money, in affording a passage to the colony cost free to young persons of both sexes of the labouring class, in an equal proportion of the sexes. "III. That in order to derive the greatest possible public advantage from this method of colonising, it is essential that the permanence of the system should be secured by the Legislature, and that its administration should be intrusted to a distinct subordinate branch of the colonial department, authorised to sell colonial lands in this country; to anticipate the sales of lands by raising loans for emigration on the security of future land-sales; and generally to superintend the arrangements by which the comfort and wellbeing of the emigrants may be secured. "IV. Resolved, That this method of colonising has been applied by the Legislature to the new colony of South Australia with very remarkable and gratifying results; and that it is expedient that Parliament should extend the South Australian system to all other colonies which are suited to its operations."-Parl. Deb. xlviii. 997; Ann. Reg. 1839, p. 229. CHAP. XXXVIII. 1839. the resolutions, which had already been applied in the new colony of Southern Australia; and they have formed the basis of colonial administration ever since that time. It is only to be regretted that, combined with these just views of colonies and emigration, there was not introduced a wise and extensive system of transportation, which might not only have relieved the mother country of that prodigious accumulation of incorrigible offenders which has since been felt as so serious an evil, but, by providing a steady supply of forced labour for the formation of roads, bridges, and harbours in the colonies, have left individual free enterprise to devote itself to the cultiva-Parl. Deb. tion of the separate properties, and thus rendered the 1017; Anr. increase of crime in the British Islands an additional 229, 241. source of prosperity and happiness to the whole empire.1 xlviii. 998, Reg. 1839, facts con and colo brought debate. Some very curious and important facts bearing on 10. the great questions of emigration and colonisation were Important brought out in the course of this debate. It was stated nected with by Mr Ward, that in the last forty-two years the Ameri- emigration can Government had realised by the sale of waste lands in pisation the different States of the Union no less than £17,000,000 out in this sterling, and yet these States, so far from having been retarded in their growth by so large a price being exacted for the purchase of lands, had made unprecedented progress in population, wealth, and industry. As a contrast to this, our own North American colonies, where vast tracts of land had been alienated to a few individuals incapable of improving them, remained comparatively waste and desolate, and not only made no progress, but brought in no revenue to lay the foundation of a better state of things. In the United States of America, no less than 140,000,000 of acres belonging to the State had been surveyed and mapped at an expense of no less. than £500,000; and for the information of intended Parl. Deb. purchasers, a general land-office was established at Wash- 1019; Ann. ington, and forty subordinate ones in different parts of 232 the Union. The sum paid into the treasury since the 2 xlviii. 1042, Reg. 1839, XXXVIII. 1839. CHAP system was introduced amounted to 84,000,000 dollars, by means of which the national debt had been paid off; and the annual sums paid into the treasury from this source, which in 1795 had been only 4836 dollars, had risen progressively, till in 1836 they amounted to 24,000,000 dollars. 11. On the other hand, the adoption of the opposite system Continued. in most of the British colonies had been attended with the most disastrous results. In the case of the Swan River in Western Australia, no less than 500,000 acres were granted to Mr Peel, who took out £50,000 to cultivate it; and the Governor got 100,000 acres : but these huge grants remained desolate, for the labourers taken out, not being attached to the soil by the bonds of property, all dispersed, and the colony went to ruin. In New South Wales, since the system of selling land had been introduced in 1832, though the price asked was the very inadequate one of 5s. an acre, no less than £240,091 had been realised in four years, which was a security for £1,000,000 of an emigration fund. In Canada, the system of large grants had been the most serious of all bars to improvement, and was the great cause of the acknowledged inferiority at that period (1839) of those provinces to the United States. In Upper Canada, out of 17,653,000 acres surveyed, only 1,597,000 remained unappropriated; in Lower Canada, only 1,669,963 out of 6,169,000; and in Nova Scotia, only 250,000 out of 6,000,000. In Prince Edward's Island 1,400,000 acres had been alienated in one day, in blocks of from 20,000 to 150,000 acres each. Of all this immense territory the greater part remained waste and uncultivated; not one-tenth of the alienated land had been rendered profitable, while the opposite shores of America were teeming with towns, villages, and inhabitants. On the other hand, since the opposite system had been wisely adopted in 1831, by Lord Howick, in South Australia, the most gratifying results had taken place. No less than 124,738 XXXVIII. 1839. acres had been alienated from 1831 to 1839, for a price CHAP. of £124,499; and the inhabitants who already had gone out in five years were no less than 10,000 souls, at a cost of £18 a-head. Sir W. Molesworth at the same time mentioned the important fact, that the rapid progress of Australia was owing, not to the Government having provided the settlers with gratuitous lands, but "having furnished the combinable labour, which gave value to the soil, by means of convict slaves transported at the cost of the country, while the Government had further created an excellent market in the form of convict, civil, and military establishments for the manufactures of the country. They had granted away 7,000,000 acres, and transported in all 110,000 persons, of whom from 30,000 235, 237. to 40,000 were now in private service." 1 1 Parl. Deb. 1050; Ann. xlviii. 1043, Reg. 1839, 12. These valuable observations indicate the principles on which the new colonial administration of Great Britain New colonial system has been founded, which, beyond all doubt, are in them- of England. selves just, and for introducing which the Whig Government, and in particular Lord Howick (now Earl Grey), who first reduced it to practice in 1831, deserve the highest credit. These principles are: 1. To alienate the crown lands only in moderate quantities to individuals, and at such prices as render the purchase of large tracts impossible by any one person; 2. Out of the price obtained for these lands to form a fund for the gratuitous removal of emigrants to aid in their cultivation; 3. To give to the local legislature of the colonies such extensive powers as to render them, to all practical ends, selfgoverned. The latter object, which has now, though after a considerable lapse of time, been attained, by granting constitutions on the most liberal principles to all the colonies, was absolutely indispensable after the Reform Bill passed, and alone has held the colonial empire together since that momentous epoch. As the destruction of the nomination boroughs, by which the colonies had been formerly represented without the admission of any |