In the other North American Colo. nies, the principal topics touched on by Lord Grey are. first, the question which arose in Nova Scotia, as to whether holders of situations in the public service in the colonies should be regarded as having vested interests in them, and as entitled to compensation for dismissal, unless that dismissal be for misconduct. On both these points the answer to the question has been in the affirmative; and we think wisely so with respect to all offices which are not of a strictly political

nature.

The holders of any offices, similar in nature to those of our ministers, who come into them on the strength of the popular demand, cannot complain, when another set of men claim to step into their places on the very same ground on which they themselves obtained them. These men are but the embodiment of the policy the people wish to see carried out, and the instruments by which alone they can effect their purpose. In the case of all offices, however, that are not necessary for effecting the popular will, which require peculiar fitness and experience for their administration, or which are of a professional nature, it is but wise in the people to guard against the possible consequences of their own caprice, and to make them permanent for life (unless from misconduct). If this be true, compensation for the loss of an office, the continuance of which is judged inexpedient, or from any other cause not the holder's fault, follows as a natural corollary.

The second question is the allowance of bounties for the encouraging certain branches of industry, which was raised by the legislature of New Brunswick granting a bounty for the cultivation of hemp. Bounties such as these occasionally come before us with such plau sible pretexts, that we believe the only safe rule for a politician is to refuse to listen to all the circumstances of the case, and to be strictly guided by the maxim of political economy, which declares all bounties to be bad, certain of being injurious to some one, and, in the end, destructive of the ob ject expected to be gained; on this point, therefore, we also agree with Lord Grey.

The third topic is the fishery question, which, under the over hasty management of Sir John Pakington last year, was near involving us in a war

with the United States. We remember to have heard a story of some one having set up a fishing-boat some where on the west of Ireland, and going into a neighbouring bay to fish. On landing he was set upon by the people, and nearly murdered for coming to fish in their bay. "But," said be, "you don't fish yourselves; you have no boats, no nets, nor even hooks or lines." "3.66 Arrah, what matter," returned they, "sure don't the fish belong to us— what right have you to be coming and taking them ?" Now, any one who approves of the native reasoning on this occasion is logically entitled to defend the restriction of the fisheries on our own shores, whether home or colonial. For ourselves, we must say, that if the people who live close by don't choose to catch the fish, or have not the means or skill to catch so many or so fast as those who come from a distance, it is simply their own fault; and if they grumble they deserve to be laughed at for their pains. Lord Grey lets us a little into the real state of the case with respect to Newfoundland, by showing that it is not the fishermen there who grumble at the intrusion of the Americans or the French, so much as the merchants who supply the fishermen, who generally manage to keep them in debt, and whose gains are diminished by the supplies brought by American schooners along the coasts. We remember to have heard something of this before, and have not the least doubt of its being the true history of the outcry about the fisheries.

Lord Grey then takes up the colonies of Australia, and discusses three principal questions with respect to them, namely:-1st, The sale of land, and emigration. 2nd, Transportation and the convict system. 3rd, The constitutions and governments of the several colonies.

With regard to the first, Lord Grey of course defends the past and existing state of things, showing the advantage of disposing of all lands by sale at auction, keeping the minimum price up to £1 per acre, devoting half the land fund thus acquired to the cost of the emigration of labourers from this country, and the regulations and restrictions on that emigration adopted by the commissioners at home. On all these points we think Lord Grey makes out a good case. We agree with him also on the advantages of the plan of giving to squatters in the unsettled

districts ten years' leases for their "runs," and compensation for permanent improvements. He tries to support a pet crotchet of his own as to the establishment of " District Councils" in New South Wales-a kind of rural municipal organisation, so admirably adapted to the circumstances and habits of the colonists, that, though the power of establishing them has been some years in existence, we very much doubt whether the majority of the inhabitants have ever heard of it. This puts us in mind of a proposition of Lord John Russell's when he was Colonial Minister, for concentrating the convict population of New South Wales upon Cockatoo Island in Sydney Harboura proposition that would be equalled only by a plan for locating all the paupers and distressed inhabitants of Ireland upon Ireland's Eye, or all the prisoners of London upon Eelpie Island. Such little mistakes in the relative size and importance either of places or measures are incidental to, and characteristic of, our Colonial Office.

The question of transportation of convicts, and the various modes of employing or emancipating them in the colonies, is so large a one, that to do it anything like justice would require far more space than we are able to devote to it.

There can be little doubt that for this country, and for the convicts themselves, a well managed system of transportation is almost an unmixed good. No better system of disposing of and reforming criminals (so far as they are capable of reformation) has hitherto been devised.

If, on the other hand, we look on it from a colonial point of view, there can be as little doubt that materially and pecuniarily a certain large amount of convict labour is most beneficial to a colony during its earlier years of settlement, and for a certain time after its foundation. On the other hand,. there can be no doubt whatever that, morally, the introduction and emancipation of convicts must be in all cases most injurious to the well-being and happiness of any colony. Lord Grey truly remarks, that it does not follow because a man is a free emigrant that he is therefore necessarily moral and virtuous, and that, practically, many convicts who have been led into crime by sudden temptation or other circumstances, may really be better men than

some free emigrants. Granted; but the difference is here, that a free emigrant has a character to lose, and an emancipated convict has none. We are not thinking now of great crimes, but of the every-day life and action of the men. If an emancipated convict abstain from great crimes and the actual infraction of the law, he does all that can be reasonably expected of him; he is a very worthy and respectable person for an emancipist. That he does not adhere to the truth, that he is not fair and honest in his dealings, that he is ready at all times to resort to low trickery, to mean subterfuges, and to all the baseness which distinguishes the blackleg and the scoundrel from the honest man in every rank of life, is what all men expect from him and allow of in him. A free emigrant, even if he have no principle to guard him against these practices, will, in the majority of instances, be prevented from falling into them by the mere shame attached to them. The mere shame of appearing as a knave before his family, his friends, or his neighbours, keeps many a man in the straight path. Now, an emancipated convict has no sense of shame-it has been burnt out of him by the branding ordeal of the court and the prison, even if not destroyed long before. Any society, therefore, that has any large infusion of emancipated convicts among its ranks-men ostensibly without shame and without principle, must inevitably have its standard of morals lowered, and its truth and honesty debased.

Take a small example. We recollect travelling by coach between Sydney and Bathurst, when a decently-dressed, well-behaved man, but one whom any old colonist would have known as an emancipist, got off the coach at dusk. The coachman said his fare was half-acrown, and the man gave him a coin, which, instead of pocketing, the coachman carefully looked at, and immediately jumped down and laid hold of him; on which the man merely laughed, and exchanged it for another. first was a rupee, or two shilling piece. Neither the coachman nor passengers seemed to look on the occurrence as anything remarkable or different from what might be expected. The coachman merely exercised a caution and suspicion of all men, that had become habitual to him. Now, this suspicion, and utter want of confidence in the strict honesty of the majority of

The

those with whom you come in contact, is one of the most unhappy and contaminating influences that can be exerted on any man or any set of men. We can easily understand that among the class of the rich "squatters" and landholders, as also among the capitalists and merchants of the Australian colonies, there is a large proportion in favour of the importation of convict labour. Employers of labour of course wish to have it as cheaply as they can. This desire fully accounts for a part of the Legislative Council at Sydney having reported in favour of it, and for the desire expressed for it by the "squatters of Moreton Bay and others; but we do firmly believe, that the popular agitation that arose against the continuance of convict importation, and the strong popular resistance that was rising against it, though it may have been intensified somewhat by the hope of keeping up wages, was based in the strong instinct and common-sense feeling of the people-that united instinct which so often turns out to be true, and natural, and correct, though it may never find adequate expression, and though all kinds of specious and irrefutable reasonings and arguments may be brought forward against it.

We fully agree that life and property may be as safe in a well-managed convict colony as they are here at home, but nothing like so safe as they are in a colony that has never received convicts, and is at a distance from convict influence. Moving suddenly from such a colony as the latter into one of the former, is like passing from a drawing. room of ladies and gentlemen into the wards of a work-house, so far as one's feelings and associations are concerned.

We should now, therefore, at whatever cost or risk, advocate that entire cessation of the transportation or importation of convicts into the Eastern Australian colonies, whether as convicts, as ticket-of-leave men, as exiles, or as expirées, which, it appears, is likely to be enforced by our present Government.

As to Western Australia, the question is pretty well settled by the inhabitants desiring the importation of convicts, and being indeed no longer able to do without them. Extraordinary diseases require extraordinary remedies, and, in this case, perhaps we might turn homeopathists, and say"similia similibus curantur." " Western Australia has been all along ill of the

Colonial Office; it will require further doses of it to cure her. Surrounded by an impassable desert on the land side, and by a wild and stormy ocean on the other, with few or no boats, except at one or two points, escape from the country is difficult. Its climate, on the other hand, is healthy and delightful, and its tracts of fertile land widely scattered, with great spaces of desert country between them. It might safely then be given up to the Colonial Office as a great prison for many years, with the hope that, eventually, by the means of convict labour, they may make it a fit residence for a community of honest

men.

As regards the constitutions of the Australian colonies, Lord Grey gives an abstract of the deliberations and reports on which the general measure respecting them was founded in 1850. There is one point of general interest raised here which is worth examination Should a colonial legislature consist of one chamber or two? Most people, perhaps, would at first-arguing from the analogy of our own legis lature, and our two houses of Commons and Lords-say two; and if it were a question of founding a constitution for an independent nation, we should most certainly agree with them. We here meet again, however, with that remarkable want of all clear ideas and guiding theory of what a colony is, and what it ought to be, which, however speculative it may be deemed, is perpetually turning up in one shape or another as a practical difficulty. Any one with clear theoretical ideas on this point would at once see that a second legislative chamber (answering in its functions to our House of Lords) is absolutely useless in our colonies as at present constituted. Its functions of resisting hasty popular legislation, and of introducing greater deliberation before the measures passed are acted on, are all discharged by the Colonial Office itself, or by the Imperial Parliament in some instances. The motive or originating power being the legislative assembly of a colony, its action at present is clogged, first of all by the assent of the Governor being required; secondly, the assent of the Crown, as advised by the Colonial Minister; and thirdly, if need be, by the assent of Parliament. To add still another clog and drag-chain to this well-guarded legislative action is not merely superfluous, but mischiev

ous, inasmuch as it tends greatly to diminish the sense of responsibility under which the primary legislators ought to act, and to render them careless and supine in their duties. It can hardly be worth people's while taking any great pains, or exercising great caution, in framing measures that have so many ordeals to pass before they can come into permanent existence. Any blame resulting from them, moreover, may be bandied about from one side of the water to the other. Whereas if the framers and passers of any act were at once to be face to face with the people, as the authors of it, when it came in force, they would take very good care to have sound reasons to give for the measure.

We can, then, perfectly understand Lord Grey's doubts and hesitation as to the utility of a second chamber in the colonies, although he may hardly be conscious of their real origin.

If there be a real use in, and a necessity for, a second chamber in any colony, there can be no longer any use in, or necessity for, the Colonial Office as regards that colony. Conversely, there can be no use in a second chamber in any of our colonies until they are freed from the control of our Colonial Office.

There is one amendment on the old practice introduced into the late act constituting the Australian legislature, which we think really an amendment, and it bears directly on the question just discussed. The Governor, instead of his powers being confined to the simple assent to, or disallowance of, any bill passed by the Assembly, has now the power of returning such bill for further consideration, with any amendments he may think it right to suggest. In other words, the House of Lords, or second chamber, function, is to be shared between the Governor and the Colonial Office. We think this arrangement may work well in several ways, not the least of which we regard as this one, that it will accustom the Legislative Council to have amendments proposed to it, on bills and acts that are still fresh in their memories, and in which they have not lost an interest; and they will thus be trained to that vital action and reaction of different parts of the body politic which are essential to the life of politi

It will,

cal as of individual bodies. moreover, diminish the antagonism be tween the Governor, as the mere servant of the Colonial Office, and the legislature, and tend to produce a greater union of feeling and interest between them.

In a former part of his work Lord Grey mentions a curious modification of the jury system, as having originated in Tasmania, which we think is worthy of some consideration. This modification is as follows:- the verdict, if given within two hours, must be an unanimous one; but after the expiration of two hours a verdict with a minority of one is allowable; after four hours a minority of two, after six hours a minority of three, after eight of four; and if after a deliberation of ten hours more than four remain still dissentient, a new jury is to be empannelled.

It

The chapter (or letter) devoted by Lord Grey to New Zealand is, beyond question, the most interesting, as it is also the best written in his book. owes this distinction in part to the extract from the very admirable despatch of Sir George Grey, the present Governor of New Zealand,* and partly to its being of a more historical and descriptive character than his accounts of the other colonies.

It might appear at first sight that New Zealand is a mixed colony as we have defined that term, composed, namely, of an inferior coloured race and a dominant white one. For the present, and to a certain extent, this is doubtless true. New Zealand, however, is an exception to the other mixed colonies, because the inferiority of the coloured race will, in a short time, become nothing. They have hitherto been, and still are, our inferiors in civilisation, habits, manners, customs, &c.; but this was from defect of circumstances, not of capacity. When the New Zealanders are compared with negroes or any other coloured race, there is this difference, that the capacity of the New Zealanders already exists, and can be at once trained and utilised, while that of other coloured races must be greatly increased by a training of several generations, gradually breeding a superior race, before it can be placed on the same footing. We have always been

aware and always contended for the admission of this fact, that the whole Malayo-Polynesian race, are, in natural capacity, whether physical, mental, or moral, the equals of ourselves. Whenever they were placed in temperate and unenervating climates, they would, in a brief space of time, be capable of being civilised to any amount. Of the truth of this idea the corroboration may be found even in the tropical regions of the Eastern Archipe lago, the Sandwich Islands, and Tahiti; and it is now amply confirmed by Governor Grey's account of the rapid strides making by the New Zealanders in education, in the acquisition of property, in habits of civilisation, and in the practice of the precepts of Christianity. Whether in war or in peace, they are evidently worthy of our respect and esteem, and we look forward to their approaching amalgamation into the ranks and society of the colonists with confident expectation.

In Lord Grey's account of Ceylon there is nothing of any remarkable interest. He describes a personal tax on the natives for road-making as working well, and being cheerfully paid; advocates the stringent repression of rebellion; and defends Lord Torrington. As to the vigorous action of troops, when brought out, we entirely agree with him. We would never summon out our armed force until absolutely compelled; but when we were compelled, it should be no child's play, and no idle pageant. Soldiers are meant to kill men with; if you are to use them, you must put them to the use for which they are intended.

Of the Cape of Good Hope; Lord Grey writes more at length and more in earnest. This earnestness verges upon anger, when he comes to treat of the resistance offered by that colony to the landing of the convicts taken out by the Neptune; and like any other angry man, Lord Grey ventures upon several rash and inconsiderate assertions. First of all, Lord Grey talks about the Cape colonists having "so much regard for the general interests of the British nation," and "taking their share of the common burdens of the empire." Why, what does Lord Grey suppose the colonists went out for? He might as well expect them to claim their share of the national debt. He laments their inhumanity to the convicts in not allowing them to land. But were the colonists to give up their great,

and as they and we believed, their most momentous cause, from mere pity to a set of convicts? The sufferings of the convicts were plainly chargeable on those who sent them there, not upon the colonists who did not want them, and all along protested against having them. Then he says, that in the House of Lords, even the peers opposed to his government did not object to their being sent. Very likely not! What had the peers to do with a parcel of colonists in the other hemisphere? How many of our hereditary legisla tors would have troubled themselves to interfere to save the Cape from being buried in the ocean, unless some petty point of their own interest-some party object, or party passion, or some privilege of their order had been involved in the cataclysm? Lastly, Lord Grey says that this resistance to the landing of the conviets was the cause of the lust Kaffir war!! and that he is sure the colonists must have repented of it. With such nonsense as this there is no serious argument. The real point of soreness and irritation in Lord Grey's mind is this, the aristocratic Earl was for once fairly opposed by the roused democratic strength and spirit of a people, and he had to succumb to it. The spirit of the future appeared embodied before his eyes, and he knew it for his master. Never was more significant sign made to mortal — never was a handwriting on a wall more plain to any one with eyes that can dare to read it. The powerful minister of the mightiest empire upon earth was calmly and deliberately defied and resisted by a small community of Saxon freemen, who simply felt that as long as they were resolved and united, no earthly power could make them submit. Repent! We know very little of British colonists if there be one free man at the Cape who repents, or has ever repented of that action, and if it is not handed down from father to son as a goodly heritage and boast.

To keep their commonwealth unspotted from the stain of convictism was a noble object; it was gained in a noble and heroic way - by a bloodless victory that will be quoted as an example to be followed, if need be, in every other British colony on earth; and as a lesson to be learned by Earl Grey, and every other minister who may hereafter have the management of the colonies placed in his hands.

After getting as well as he can over