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of that settlement from its commencement. Nearly of equal interest would be a correct diary of proceedings in this new colony, so different in the principles of its formation from all others, of modern nations at least, that we are acquainted with. The settlers have undertaken to occupy the territory at their own expense, and to depend solely on their own resources. They can derive no benefit, as the sister settlement did, from the cheap and nearly gratuitous labour of convicts, nor from the sale of their produce to the government, to feed those convicts together with the civil establishment and a large body of troops, thus creating an immediate demand for agricultural products, highly beneficial to the progress of an incipient colony. With the exception of a handful of troops, to guard them against any sudden attack of the natives, the settlers on Swan River have nothing of the kind to stimulate their exertions. The want of such a certain and steady demand may retard, but will not ultimately prevent, the progress to that state of prosperity, which we sincerely hope this little settlement is destined to attain. The rapid march of New South Wales to her present point is unexampled, and may chiefly be ascribed to convict labour. The present scheme may be considered as an experiment, which will ascertain how far, without that labour, the same end may be obtained; at any rate the result, if successful, will undoubtedly be the formation of a more respectable community. That of New South Wales, we regret to see, is divided into parties, turbulent among themselves, and troublesome to the government which has done so much for them. The demagogues, who are, of course, the stronger party there, begin to talk of their independence, and are clamouring for a legislative assembly and trial by jury.

We have a word to say on this point. Whenever a colony shall have arrived at that state of population and prosperity as to be able to protect itself against any ordinary hostile attack, and to show resistance to the rule of the mother-country sufficiently strong to make it less inconvenient to grant its independence than to compel the continuance of its allegiance, we deem the best policy would be to allow it to follow its own inclinations. The colonies of North America have taught us a lesson on that head, by which we ought to profit. They felt themselves qualified, and were ready and desirous to govern themselves, and would have shaken off their allegiance in a very short time, whether England had taxed their tea and their stamps or not. That proceeding furnished a tangible pretext for resistance, in the absence of which an imaginary pretext would not have been wanting. In truth, it is pretty much with colonies as with children: we protect and nourish them in infancy; we direct them in youth, and leave them to their own

guidance

guidance in manhood; and the best conduct to be observed is to part with them on friendly terms, offer them wholesome advice and assistance when they require it, and keep up an amicable intercourse with them. New South Wales, however, we need hardly say, has not arrived at that state of maturity, which would warrant her separation on such terms; and we have no doubt that, if suffered to indulge her whim, she would very soon, like the prodigal son, be reduced to 'feed on husks,' and, having felt the folly of her disobedience, would, like him, return to her parent, confessing that she had sinned, and imploring forgiveness.

As to the granting to this, or to any other colony, a legislative assembly, we conceive that his Majesty's government, with the examples of Canada, Jamaica, and some others of the West India islands before its eyes, will hesitate in giving way to any such clamorous demand. From the peculiar materials and construction of society in New South Wales, we deem it of all others the settlement least fit for receiving such an institution. To grant them their boon would be, in our opinion, to entail on them the greatest misfortune that could befal a society so constituted. There would be, in the first instance, a constant struggle for power between it and the officer appointed by, and responsible to, the Crown; a perpetual lurking jealousy, lest one should be trenching on the ill-defined privileges of the other. What one proposed the other would oppose; and the best plans for the improvement and melioration of the colony would be nullified by constant impediments and counteractions; while heart-burnings, ill-humour, and party contests, would pervade the whole frame of society. The Cape of Good Hope, too, with its fifty-five thousand of white inhabitants, scattered over a surface of about five hundred by three hundred miles, is petitioning for a legislative assembly-that is to say, the English part of the population, which does not amount to more than about two thousand, or rather the two hundred out of these two thousand who may be established in Cape Town; nay, properly speaking, it is a part only of these two hundred who are calling out for a house of representatives. The Dutch inhabitants are perfectly satisfied to be governed by an officer appointed by the Crown. All they wish for is, that the affairs of the colony may be administered by an honest and upright governor-one who has no resentments to

Of the total population of New South Wales, which, in round numbers, may be taken at 40,000, the Free Emigrants amount only to about

7,000

Native Children

Emancipated Convicts

Convicts in Servitude

5,000

8,000

20,000

gratify

gratify-who shows no undue partiality towards one set of persons over another has no favourites to enrich at the expense of the public-no whims to indulge, occasioning a wasteful and useless expenditure of the revenues-but one who, in all his measures, has clearly and obviously no other view than that of the interests of the colony at heart. Such a one will prove a far greater blessing to a small colony than a representative assembly, whose members are but too apt to sacrifice the public to their individual interests.

We happen to know that the most respectable natives of the Cape of Good Hope are of opinion that the state of their small society, which is very much connected by ties of relationship, is not at all suited for the boon we have bestowed on them by the introduction of that institution which we value so highly-trial by jury; and that, in the country districts, it is found highly inconvenient, and in some places next to impossible, to collect a sufficient number of qualified persons to form a jury: To crown the absurdity of every little society wishing to govern themselves, the cod-fishers of Newfoundland are sighing after a representative government: we imagine we shall next hear of the liberated negroes of Sierra Leone petitioning to be represented by a black House of Assembly.

With regard to Jamaica, and some other of the West India islands, which have their Houses of Assembly, their systematic opposition to every measure proposed by the king's government, considering the precarious situation in which they stand, appears to us to be little short of insanity. They seem not to know that they are tottering on the very brink of a volcano-which the first blast of a trumpet from St. Domingo would cause to explode, and bury in one common ruin man, woman, and child. As it is, nothing but the king's armed force preserves them from destruction. And yet these silly people have been so unwise as to refuse to continue the supplies which they are bound to furnish to the troops who protect them; nay, even to throw out something in the shape of a threat to sever themselves from the mother-country, and seek for protection elsewhere. Is it possible that these people can, for a moment, forget that England protects them and their sugars at the expense of her other colonies? Do they not know that if she were to admit the sugars of the East Indies and the Mauritius, on the payment of equal duties, or, still more effectually, if she were to levy a discriminating duty on West India sugars, the sun of their prosperity would immediately set? Let the House of Assembly look at these things, and desist in time from using or abusing its little authority by a vexatious opposition to his majesty's govern

ment.

We

4. We are much less surprised at the proceedings of the Canadian House of Assembly. The evil in that quarter may be easily traced to the impolicy of granting to any conquered colony the exercise of its own laws and language when ceded at the end of a war. It is utterly inconsistent that men so completely on a level, in other respects, as Englishmen and Frenchmen, should live together in peace and harmony under a double set of laws, one for the conquerors and another for the conquered; nor is the keeping up two distinct languages likely to forward the amalgamation of such colonists. By the recommendation of the commissioners who were sent to the Cape of Good Hope, the Dutch court of justice was superseded by the introduction of English laws, administered by English judges; previously to which it had been ordered that all law proceedings should be held and registered in the English language; that the same language should be adopted in all legal writings, such as deeds, transfers of property, indentures, &c., the consequence of which has been, that almost the whole of the Dutch part of the population speak and write English, the children are all sent to English schools, and there is no doubt that the next generation will know nothing either of Dutch law or the Dutch language. We are at a loss to know why the same experiment has not been extended to the Mauritius, which remains to this day as completely French as when we first captured it; nor do we see any reason why the same practice, late as it is, should not be put in execution in Canada. We entertain not the least doubt that the result would be the same as at the Cape, and be attended with the greatest benefit both to the English and the French part of the population of the two colonies above-mentioned.

This digression has led us somewhat beyond our original intention;-but the subject is so important, that we may probably be induced to take an early opportunity of resuming it in greater detail than our present limits will allow. Indeed, we have no doubt the day is at hand when questions of colonial policy will claim and obtain in the discussions of the cabinet, of the parliament, and of the press of this empire, a much larger space than circumstances have hitherto permitted them to occupy. attention which the state and prospects of our colonies have begun to excite on the continent of Europe-and particularly the number of new works on such topics published in France—are important signs of the times.'

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ART. III.-Letters from the West; containing Sketches of Scenery,
Manners, and Customs; and Anecdotes connected with the First
Settlements of the Western Sections of the United States.
the Hon. Judge Hall. London. 8vo. 1828.

WE

By

Western

E have often wished for some account of these Sections' of the United States from the pen of a genuine American; and here we have caught one at last, such as he is, in the person of an honourable Judge, and, we believe, a jobber of land into the bargain. We acknowledge that we never had much doubt as to the general accuracy of the statements made by English travellers in those regions (making due abatements for some little exaggeration, perhaps on the score of prejudice, or, in one or two instances, from motives of interest);-yet, as the Americans have always affected to throw discredit on the reports of such travellers, when they happened to be unfavourable to the state of the country and the people, and have shown their ill-humour with us for believing anything they set down, we were not only willing but very glad to hear what a native Republican, of the highest grade, might have to allege in their favour. The little additional light, however, which his Honour's very limited travels and still more contracted talent for observation have thrown on the state of these countries, really turns out more confirmatory than contradictory of the worst conclusions which could have been drawn from the accounts of any of his English predecessors.

The fact of the honourable author uniting with his judicial character that of land-jobber, it is right we should say, is not directly avowed; but enough oozes out, in the course of his Letters, to show that his lot is cast in the Western States,' and that he has a deep interest in their improvement-which, of course, he states to have made a much greater progress than we could have thought the mud-bottoms of the Wabash or the prairies of Illinois were capable of. One of his many reasons for visiting these regions, he tells us, was the uncertainty in which he remained as to their actual state and condition, some having lauded them as the best of all earthly paradises, while others denounced them as a hell; some ascribing to them health, fertility, and innumerable commercial advantages, while others persisted in filling them with swamps, agues, tomahawks, and musquitoes.-His Honour, therefore, exclaims, I will see into it, said I;' and off he sets, we know not how, from his native Pennsylvania; but in a moment we find him fairly embarked, and gliding merrily down the Ohio,' on the banks of which is situated Shawnee-town, the ultima Thule' of his travels whether by land or by water. We are justified, therefore, in denying

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