I 
 
 LI B RARY 
 
 OF THE 
 
 U N IVLRSITY 
 
 or ILLl NOIS
 
 TWO SPEECHES 
 
 OF 
 
 ROBERT R. TORRENS, Esq., M.P., 
 
 ON 
 
 EMIGRATION, 
 
 AND 
 
 THE COLONIES. 
 
 IN THE HOUSE OF COMMONS 
 
 MAECH 1, AOT3 APEIL 26, 1870. 
 
 EXTRACTED FKOM 
 HANSARD'S PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES,' 
 VOLS. CXCIX.-CC. 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 COENELIUS BUCK, 23, PATEENOSTEE EOW, E.G.
 
 LONDON: CORNELIUS BUCK, 23, PATERNOSTER ROW, E.G.
 
 EMIGRATION, 
 
 HOUSE OF COMMONS, MAECH 1, 1870, 
 
 Me. E. TOEEENS said, in undertaking to bring under tlie 
 notice of the House tlie efficacy of emigration as a remedy for 
 tlie distress so widely prevailing, he did not presume to claim 
 credit for any truer or warmer sjnnpathy with that suffering 
 than he was satisfied stirred the hearts of other hon. Members ; 
 but he stood, in relation to this question, in a position so far 
 peculiar that, owing to his having resided for nearly a quarter of 
 a century in a land where such distress was absolutely unknown, 
 its very strangeness rendered him more sensitive to its influence, 
 impelling him to action ; and the same circumstance placed him 
 in the position of being enabled to testify, as an eye-witness, to 
 the efficacy of emigration, when judiciously conducted, as a re- 
 medy for that condition of suffering which all alike deplored. 
 He would not take up the time of the House by dilating upon 
 details of that distress ; but having already assumed its existence 
 to be admitted and sympathized in, he would content himself 
 with observing that the statistics of pauperism, though exhibit- 
 ing a serious increase, by no means afforded a true measure 
 either of the extent or intensity of suffering actually existing, 
 inasmuch as they disclosed only the increasing number of those 
 who, succumbing to pressure, become actually chargeable upon 
 the poor rate, but tell nothing of the suffering of the still greater 
 number who, with a patience and fortitude deserving all com- 
 mendation, endure the pangs of insufficient sustenance and all 
 the depressing incidents of extreme poverty, hoping against 
 hope from day to day, if by any means they may escape the de- 
 gradation of becoming chargeable on the parish. The evidences 
 of this state of things, though not afforded by statistical tables, 
 are only too patent to all who will be at the pains to inquire into 
 the condition of the working classes. There might be — he 
 
 B 2
 
 wislied it were in his power to say confidently there were — 
 reasons for believing this calamitous distress to be but tem- 
 porary as regarded the condition of the artizan class ; but as 
 regarded the agricultural labourer, the case throughout a great 
 part of the country was undoubtedly chronic. When there was 
 employment for two there were three seeking for it, and by this 
 competition wages were kept at a scale which barely sufficed to sup- 
 ply food, clothing, and lodging essential to sustain a single man in 
 vigor. In the case of the married labourer, therefore, that amount 
 of food must be curtailed that the wife and children might be 
 clotlied and not starve. Lassitude and depression, induced by in- 
 sufficient sustenance, created a craving for ardent spirits to arouso 
 the system, or for the drugged beer of the pot-house to stupify 
 and deaden the sense of suffering. The dwelling of the labourer 
 seldom afforded sufficient accommodation to admit of separation 
 of the sexes and observance of the ordinary decencies of civilized 
 life. The conditions of such an existence were inconsistent with 
 moral or intellectual culture — and the labour of a man thus en- 
 feebled in body and almost brutalized in mind was dear even at 
 the paltry wages paid for it. Disease and premature decay in- 
 duced by those causes incapacitated for labour at a comparatively 
 earl}^ period of life ; a result hastened by despair of being able 
 to rescue himself and family from the downward track at foot of 
 which the inevitable workhouse yawned to receive them. This 
 was no exaggerated picture, but a true description of the state 
 of things in certain districts, and its existence was a disgrace to 
 the civilization and humanity of this wealthy nation. Happily 
 it was confined to certain districts. Notably our Northern counties 
 were free from that opprobrium, a circumstance which afforded 
 absolute assurance that it was remediable by human agencies. 
 But wherever this state of misery existed — whether the locality 
 bo rural or urban — whatever be the industry, whether agricul- 
 tural or manufacturing — and whether the distress be temporary 
 or chronic, the proximate cause was one and the same, excessive 
 competition — competition induced by the existing disproportion 
 between the number of labourers and the amount of employment 
 afforded within the limits of these islands. Probably no one 
 would be found to deny that the distress which they dej)lored 
 would at once be alleviated if only it were possible to interpose 
 Nova Scotia or New Zealand in the ocean space between Great 
 Britain and Ireland, so that the labour and capital here in ex
 
 cess miglit pass over to fertile lands inviting cultivation. The 
 competition in tlie market for each wonld be relieved — the Irish 
 land famine would be appeased — and the previously im- 
 poverished, because inadequately employed, labourers would, 
 with their families, become largely customers for the manufac- 
 tured products of those whom they had left behind in the old 
 locations. The beneficial agency of such a migration would 
 therefore be two-fold — immediate in reducing competition for 
 employment, and ultimate in increasing the amount of em- 
 ployment for those who remained. As this augmentation of 
 acreage of these islands was impracticable, as the mountain could 
 not move to Mahommed, Mahommed must move to the mountain. 
 That was, for migration they must substitute emigration, and 
 analogous, if not identical, results would be attained. He was 
 aware that that had often been denied, and probably would again 
 be denied, by those who pleaded that emigration drained the coun- 
 try of its strength, its best producers ; since it was the young, 
 the vigorous, the enterprizing, who emigrated ; leaving the aged, 
 the feeble, the listless, to burden the ratepayers of the country. 
 To that he would venture to reply — first, that the emigration 
 which went on spontaneously or with the aid of Colonial funds, 
 and which could not be interrupted, was almost exclusively of 
 that valued class ; but the emigration which he was prepared to 
 advocate for the relief and at the cost of the mother country, 
 would be almost exclusively of middle-aged parents accompanied 
 by their children. Secondly, that the young, the vigorous, and 
 the enterprizing were a strength only in the proportion in which 
 the country afi'orded them employment. When they exceeded 
 that limit they were not a strength but a danger and httle less 
 a burden than the aged and infirm. Thirdly, he would reply 
 that the declaration of policy by Her Majesty's Minister for the 
 Colonies in " another place " should go far to dissipate the idea 
 that those who took up their abode in British Colonies ceased to 
 constitute portion of the strength of the Empire. Large em- 
 ployers of labour need not be uneasy lest emigration be carried 
 to such excess that upon a revival of trade they should find a 
 scarcity of hands to avail of it. The ties of home and kindred 
 were strong and not lightly broken. The reluctance to abandon 
 an occux^ation in which skill and adroitness have been acquired 
 by long practice, in exchange for one laborious and irksome, be- 
 cause unaccustomed, was also powerful, and would not be en-
 
 countered except under pressure of circumstances amounting to 
 Bometliing like necessit3\ Upon revival of trade, or any other 
 cause su2)pl3dng permanent cmplo3anent at adequate wages, emi- 
 gration would cease of its own accord ; but, pending the con- 
 tingency of increased employment from that source, they were 
 not justified in leaving in indigence and misery thousands of 
 their fellow-countrymen who, if removed to a position of com- 
 petency in the Colonies, would, as customers for our manufac- 
 tures, be largely instrumental in bringing about that revival of 
 trade so earnestly desired. Again, it had been urged that that 
 class of men were not suitable colonists, and that the demand 
 for skilled labour was limited. There was some truth in that 
 objection ; but, after the experience of many years as a colonist, 
 he dared assert that its applicability had been greatly exagge- 
 rated. He had known hundreds of artizans whose strong limbs 
 and determined hearts had overcome whatever there was of diffi- 
 cidty or irksomeness in the change of avocation. He must, how- 
 ever, admit that there was a considerable degree of truth in that 
 objection ; and therefore it was desii'able that any continuous or 
 extensive emigration promoted or directed by the Government of 
 this country should be of the agricultural class. The wisdom 
 of this course would appear manifest when it was remembered that 
 experience proved that new inventions and defaces for increasing 
 the efficacy of human labour when applied to manufactures did 
 ultimately and vastly increase the amount of employment, inso- 
 much that it might, without exaggeration, be said that wherever 
 by such means two men were enabled to perform the task of 10 
 the result had been to cause 10 to be employed where two only 
 found work before. This was so because manufacturing industry, 
 co-expansive with the markets of the world, could not be cir- 
 cumscribed by the narrow Kmits of these islands. But as re- 
 gards agricultiu'e this was reversed. If the steam plough, the 
 mowing machine, and the reaping machine, superseding the 
 spade, the scythe, and the flail, enabled two men to perform the 
 task of 10, no increased demand for labour ensued to absorb the 
 eight thrown out of emplojTnent so long as the limits of these 
 islands were allowed to circumscribe the area within which that 
 industry was to be exercised. Hence it would be their true policy 
 to divert to other fields of production the labour which con- 
 stantly gravitated from the rural districts towards the towns, 
 intensifying the competition for emplojinent already excessive
 
 in those great centres of industry ; and by that means, rather 
 than by any extensive emigration of their skilled labourers, they 
 might indirectly and gradually, but safely and effectually, re- 
 lieve the distressed condition of their artizans and mechanics. 
 He believed he had now made out a sufficient case to establish 
 the expediency and the efficacy of emigration as a remedy for 
 the distress so deplorably prevalent. It remained to consider 
 from what sources the funds requisite for the application of that 
 remedy might be derived. The Colonies, as they would benefit 
 at least equally with the mother country by any well-considered 
 system of emigration, had naturally been looked to as a source 
 from whence aid might be expected. Speaking with a very in- 
 timate knowledge of the facts, he regretted his inability to en- 
 tertain any sanguine expectations of material aid from that 
 quarter. The Government of the Dominion proposed to afford 
 some small aid in looking after the emigrants when landed on 
 their shores, and, not without a fair show of reason, excused 
 themselves from further contribution, by pleading that their 
 money would be availed of by emigrants en route to the United 
 States. Throughout Australia, prior to 1837, the Wakefield 
 system of colonization had been more or less operative ; the prin- 
 ciple of which was that the value which population conferred 
 upon land on which it was located should constitute a fund for 
 defraying the charges of emigration. The waste lands of the 
 Crown, so far as they were placed at the disposal of the local 
 governments, were so placed to be alienated by sale only, and 
 the proceeds held subject, as regarded one moiety, to lien in the 
 interests of the people of England, available for generations to 
 come, to relieve this country of surplus population. He lacked 
 words wherewith to convey to the House an adequate idea of 
 the beneficial working of this system. In an evil hour, no less 
 for the Colonies than for this country, the Colonial Minister of 
 the day conceived the idea of bestowing upon these small com- 
 munities the vast estate of the people of England in these lands, 
 without any reservation of the emigration moiety ; and, at the 
 same time, a form of government, the most purely democratic 
 the world had ever known, was introduced into them. An im- 
 mediate consequence of throwing the entire control of this land 
 revenue into the hands of the class of hired labourers had been 
 the abandonment of the Wakefield system — they withdrew the 
 bridge by which themselves had passed to independence — and
 
 since that time but a meagre and inadequate sum had been 
 grudgingly doled out by the Australian Legislatui'es for emigra- 
 tion. Wages had been forced up to 65. or 75. per day ; but the 
 previously rapid advance in popidation and wealth had been 
 arrested, and the working classes of this country, without their 
 knowledge or consent — and he ventured to add without the cog- 
 nizance of their rei)resentatives — had been deprived of that fund 
 which, at a period of severe distress like the present, woidd 
 have been available to transport them to lands where liberal 
 wages and a fair futui-e prosj)ect would reward their industry. 
 Such conditions did not warrant any reasonable hope that the 
 Colonies would contribute any sum sufficient to have an appre- 
 ciable effect in relieving the labour market of this country. If, 
 therefore, that relief was to be afforded they must look at home 
 for the means ; and that brought him to the concluding con- 
 sideration, towards which all the remarks, with which he had, 
 he feared at too great length, troubled the House, were intended 
 to converge. He would assure the House, and especially Her 
 Majesty's Ministers, that in offering suggestions, which were the 
 result of much careful thought, upon a subject in which he took 
 the deepest interest, he did not presume to dictate or prescribe 
 any special course as that which should alone be adopted. On 
 the contrary, he held that not one agency but several might 
 with advantage be called into play for the promotion of emigra- 
 tion ; and in that spirit he offered a few suggestions to be con- 
 sidered with others for what they might be worth. Yoluntaiy 
 efforts were being made, and in these the merchant princes of 
 this city had, with the liberality which ever distinguished them, 
 contributed large sums, to be expended under the auspices of 
 the Emigration Aid Society, in furtherance of this great work 
 of charity. He would venture to call it this best work of charity, 
 for it was free from that alloy which, more or less, entered as an 
 ingredient into other modes of relief. It did not break down 
 the spirit of self-reliance in the recipient, but placed him in a 
 position of independence. Neither was the benefit conferred 
 upon the individual alone. It endured to all -^'lio might be 
 borne of him for generations to come. Yoluntary efforts of this 
 kind should by all legitimate means be encouraged ; and with 
 that view he begged leave urgently to press upon the considera- 
 tion of Her Majesty's Government the expediency of assisting 
 the efforts of the society he had named — a society which num-
 
 bered amongst its active administrators many Members of tbat 
 House — tlie Lord Mayor of London, and others, wliose names 
 were a guarantee for a judicious and faithful use of any means 
 that might be entrusted to them — by placing at their disposal 
 some of the Grovernment transports or vessels of war which 
 might be suitable for conveyance of emigrants, and not likely 
 to be again or speedily commissioned. He would venture to 
 hope that no considerations of departmental convenience, or 
 other such obstruction, would be allowed to interfere with what 
 the public voice loudly and distinctly called for in this matter. 
 But whilst voluntary efforts should be availed of and encou- 
 raged, it would be worse than folly to shut their eyes to the fact 
 that the scope and magnitude of the work in this case requiring 
 to be done was altogether beyond what could be accomplished 
 by private benevolence. If anything effectual was to be done 
 for the relief of the present distress, or for the permanent 
 improvement of the condition of the working classes, it was 
 not in hundreds, but in thousands that families must be 
 transplanted ; and for such a work they must look elsewhere 
 than to private resources and voluntary associations. It remained 
 for consideration whether the funds required for j;his object 
 might, with greater justice and expediency, be drawn from local 
 rates, from the general taxation, or from both. It had been 
 objected, and the objection insisted on with some pertinacity, 
 that a local rate for emigration would lay an additional burden 
 on those who remained for the advantage of those who emigrated. 
 That objection would be fatal were there any question of a special 
 rate for emigration ; but as he would presently show that simply 
 by a more judicious use of the amounts already drawn from the 
 pockets of the ratepayers, they woidd be in a position to afford 
 substantial relief, that objection, on the score of injustice, fell to 
 the ground. For the emigration of a family such as he had 
 referred to as drifting towards pauperism, but not yet paupers — ■ 
 say, the parents over 40 years of age, and four children under 
 10, equivalent to four statute adults — the sum of £50 would 
 suffice if transx^lanted to Australia, or £30 if transplanted to 
 Canada. The mean of these amounts — £40 — would, on the 
 terms on which moneys were advanced to Irish landlords for the 
 improvement of their estates, impose on the parish or union an 
 annual charge of £2 12^. for interest and sinking fund. Surely 
 the case needed but to be stated in order to satisfy every rational
 
 10 
 
 person that, in guaranteeing ratepayers on sucli terms as these 
 against tlie moro than probable contingency of having to support 
 this family in the workhouse, there would be the truest economy 
 for those who remained in this country, and that, so far from 
 imjDOsing any additional burden, the future pressure on the rate- 
 payers would be effectually relieved ; whilst,. at the same time, 
 the higher wages and cheap and abundant food which reward 
 industry in new countries would enable the emigrating parents 
 to bring up their family in comfort, with a well-assured j^rospect 
 of future independence. To render that practicable it would be 
 necessary to amend the existing law, 3 & 4 Will. IV. c. 76, so as 
 to place Boards of Guardians on the same footing as Irish land- 
 lords, as far as regarded the privilege of borrowing from the 
 public Treasury on the security of the rates. The law, as it 
 ah'eady stood, recognized the principle of borrowing of money 
 for emigration purposes ; but, in addition to other disabling 
 conditions, it required the sum so borrowed to be repaid within 
 five years, and limited the amount to a sum not exceeding the 
 average of a half year's rates collected in the parish or union. 
 The amendment of the law in that respect was the second sug- 
 gestion which he ventured to submit for the consideration of the 
 House and of Her Majesty's Government. But as a district 
 which once relieved of its siu'plus labourers by the procedure he 
 had been recommending would be liable to be again overbur- 
 dened by the influx of indigent workmen from other districts, 
 attracted by the improved state of the labour market, it was 
 desirable to encourage simultaneous action wherever the number 
 of labourers was in excess. And in that view, as well as on the 
 grounds that all classes thi'oughout the kingdom were interested 
 in the solution of this momentous question of the condition of 
 the working classes, he felt justified in advocating the policy of 
 stimulating local efforts by subsidies from the general revenues 
 of the country, proportioned to the amounts expended by the 
 several localities. That was the third suggestion which he 
 begged to submit. Whilst in the interests of the mother country 
 he thus earnestly advocated the emigration of large families at 
 the cost of ratepayers and the general pubhc, he must in the 
 interests of the colonists and with equal earnestness protest 
 against any scheme that could have the efi'ect of transferring to 
 them the bui-den of supporting our habitual paupers, or persons 
 not capable of earning subsistance for themselves and families.
 
 11 
 
 TliG colonists, in Australia at least, had serious grounds for com- 
 plaint on this score in times past, and in order to guard against 
 the revival of any such abuse, it would be necessary that all 
 emigrants sent out at public expense should, before embarkation, 
 be passed by the emigration agents of the several Colonies in this 
 country. Subject to this condition, no reasonable objection could 
 be raised by the Colonies against receiving emigrant families of 
 the suitable class. On the contrary, he was convinced that such 
 families would be welcomed if sent out at the cost of the mother 
 country, although it was true that the colonists, as they were 
 reasonably entitled to do, required that Colonial funds should bo 
 exjD ended exclusively on the emigration of young adult persons 
 as the most valuable producers. In conclusion,' he would remark 
 that as he knew of no question of equal importance or to the 
 solution of which the highest intellects of the country might 
 more worthily be devoted, neither was he aware of any object 
 for the attainment of which the resources of this great country 
 might more legitimately be drawn upon. He begged to express 
 his gratitude for the patience with which the House had borne 
 with him for so long a time, and would conclude by moving his 
 Resolution — 
 
 " That, in order to arrest the increase of Pauperism, and to relieve the 
 distressed condition of the working classes, it is expedient that measures be 
 adopted for facilitating the Emigration of poor families to British Colonies."
 
 THE COLONIES, 
 
 HOUSE OF COMMONS, APEIL 26, 1870. 
 
 Mr. E. TOEEENS said, tliat a sufficient apology for bring- 
 ing forward at tliis time the Motion of which he had given 
 notice would, he felt assured, be recognized in the feeling of 
 uneasiness and uncertainty respecting the character and the per- 
 manency of the political relations existing between this country 
 and her self-governing Colonies. He had observed with pain 
 that recent official communications between Her Majesty's Secre- 
 tary of State and the Governments of some of these Colonies ex- 
 hibited a tone of irritation, dissatisfaction, and distrust sadly in 
 contrast with the spirit of mutual respect and confidence which 
 had hitherto generally characterized that intercourse. He had 
 also noticed that these conditions, so favourable for the purpose, 
 were taken advantage of by men of great ability to j)ropagate 
 opinions adverse to the integrity of the Empire, opinions which 
 were rapidly gaining a more tolerant if not a more ai^proving 
 assent in this country and in the Colonies, but which his expe- 
 rience had entirely satisfied liim were as inconsistent with the 
 true interests of those Colonies as they were incompatible with 
 the futm^e greatness of this Empire. The school of politicians 
 to which he referred — and lest he should misrepresent them he 
 would quote the language of their great apostle, Professor 
 Goldwin Smith — declared — 
 
 " That our possessions, if regarded as military posts, must be abandoned, 
 because in these days of free ti'ade commerce no longer needs cannon to clear 
 her path ; but if regarded as Colonies they must bo abandoned, because in 
 adopting free trade we have destroyed the only motive for retaining our 
 Colonies." 
 
 He would not occupy the time of the House by discussing the 
 arguments by which these philosophers of the closet attemj)t to 
 sustain this view, because the same premises would force the 
 very opposite conclusion irresistibly upon the conviction of every 
 practical inau observant of things as they really are. Such men
 
 13 
 
 do not need to be told tliat the result of free trade in rendering 
 England the workshop of the world has been to concentrate a 
 population vastly greater than can be fed u]Don the produce of 
 these islands, and so has brought it to pass that the very life of 
 our people is dependent upon our retaining command of the seas, 
 the high road for the transport of the people's bread and of the 
 manufactures with which it is purchased. But the time has 
 passed away when our navies spread their sails to the wind as 
 the only motive power ; in these days the command of the seas 
 means coals accumulated in secure and convenient depots where 
 our steam navy may replenish ; free trade therefore, so far from 
 rendering it unnecessary to retain such of our possessions as 
 afford advantages of this kind, places us under the strongest 
 obligation of necessity to retain them. 
 
 Again, free trade, instead of ' ' destroying the only motive 
 for retaining our Colonies," has destroyed the only rational 
 motive for casting them off, since it has abolished monopolies 
 which, under the previous regime, imposed an onerous taxation 
 on the inhabitants of this country for the benefit of the Colonies, 
 amounting, on the single article of sugar, to over £2,000,000 
 per annum. The most frequent objection against England 
 maintaining her Imperial position as the central coh«sive power 
 amidst the free communities which she has brought into exist- 
 ence is based upon the alleged costliness of that j)osition, and a 
 heavy bill is made out by including the expenses of military 
 posts and convict establishments in the same account with 
 expenditure on account of Colonies properly so called. But, on 
 referring to a Beturn recently laid on the Table, it would be 
 seen that the charge entailed on this country for military de- 
 fences, and other purposes of the self-governing Colonies in 
 Australia, amounted, in 1865, to £69,064, and, in 1867-8, to 
 £106,863, giving a mean of £87,963 only, a sum barely suffi- 
 cient to cover the expenses entailed on these communities by 
 the residuum of an evil inheritance entailed upon them for the 
 relief of this country. So far, therefore, as regarded the five 
 self-governing Colonies in the Australian group, this argument 
 on the score of costliness was absolutely without foundation. 
 If, however, other settlements founded under the auspices of the 
 Colonial Office have entailed enormous cost, that circumstance 
 afforded them no argument for casting them off, though it 
 furnished a valid reason for reforming that management.
 
 14 
 
 The casting off of our Colonies, and especially those of the 
 great North American gi'oup, had also been advocated, on the 
 plea that by that means we might evade the obligation to defend 
 them against foreign aggression. But, he would ask, could 
 England remain tamely quiescent whilst communities of her 
 children, founded under her protecting auspices, were subjected 
 to aggression or forcible annexation ? Would she not, in such 
 case, sink dishonoured in the estimation of the whole world, 
 and forfeit the prestige acquired by so lavish an expenditure of 
 blood and treasure in times past ? Assuredly this result would 
 follow upon such pusillanimous conduct in either case, equally 
 whether those communities, ambitious of more complete inde- 
 pendence, parted from us in amity or remained content to com- 
 bine the privileges of perfect local self-government with those of 
 common citizenship in this great Empire. Nay, even Mr. 
 Goldwin Smith repudiates a policy founded on cowardice and 
 dishonour, declaring that — 
 
 " Supposing Canada to become independent, and supposing her independence 
 to be afterwards threatened by the aggressive combination of any foreign power, 
 no Englishman would vote more heartily than himself for risking the fortunes, 
 and, if it were needed, the existence of the Empire in her delence." 
 
 If it be argued, as it had been argued, that the scattering of our 
 naval and military forces in time of war would prove a source of 
 weakness, he would confidently reply that if , once our relations 
 with the self-governing Colonies were placed upon a reasonable 
 and permanent basis, the wealth and strength of the 7,000,000 
 of the English race who inhabited them would constitute the 
 wealth and strength of the British Empire little if at all less 
 effectively than if those 7,000,000 were resident within these 
 islands. He based this assertion upon a j^erfect knowledge of 
 the hearty and fervent loyalty of these people, a loyalty not 
 confined to the British-born but quite as earnestly felt by the 
 Colonial-born subjects of Her Majesty. That loyalty, that fer- 
 vent desire for continued identity with this country had not died 
 although, with the deepest regret, he must state that a con- 
 viction — whether founded on adequate grounds or otherwise 
 — had been induced upon the Colonial mind, that it was the 
 deliberate policy and set purpose of Her Majesty's Govern- 
 ment to bring about a separation ; that in furtherance of that 
 purpose some Colonies were encouraged by significant sugges- 
 tions to ask for independence, whilst others were being incited 
 and goaded on to the same end by an unequal and inconsistent
 
 15 
 
 course of action, by refusal of reasonable aids in times of diffi- 
 culty, by misrepresentations and bitter taunts, wben tlie circum- 
 stances ratber called for indulgent and sympatbizing considera- 
 tion. It was true tbis policy bad been distinctly disavowed by 
 Her Majesty's Ministers, and be accepted tbat disavowal in per- 
 fect good faitb ; still, tbe reports wbicb reacbed us simultaneously 
 from opposite quarters of tbe globe rendered it impossible to 
 doubt tbat tbe line of conduct wbicb bad of late been pursued — 
 be the motive of tbat conduct wbat it may — bad bad tbe effect 
 of inducing upon tbe minds of tbe colonists tbe belief to wbicb 
 he had referred. 
 
 In tbe Dominion Parliament we find Sir Alexander Gait 
 stating his conviction, based upon correspondence with Her 
 Majesty's Government, that — 
 
 " The policy of independence had been arrived at by the Imperial Govern- 
 ment ; and, so far as his loyalty to the Crown is concerned, he stood on the 
 same ground aa the Ministers of the Crown of England." 
 
 The impression created by this statement bad been strengthened 
 by the refusal of the Secretary of State for the Colonies to allow 
 the publication of the correspondence referred to, though re- 
 quested by Sir Alexander Gait, and urged by a Member of tbis 
 House. In tbe same Parliament, the Hon. L. S. Huntington was 
 reported to have said — 
 
 " Opposition was useless, and Imperial influence is always too powerful 
 for Colonial dissent. I have accepted the situation in its fullest sense, as faith- 
 fully and loyally as if I had originally promoted it. But, the first step having 
 been taken, I see dangers in delay, and I believe it is expedient to take mea- 
 sures for the severance of our present relations to the Empire. This noble 
 sentiment of loyalty to the British Crown, which has so generally and so 
 happily subsisted among the great masses of our people. Can we forget our 
 noble Queen ? Can we dissociate ourselves from the glories and the traditions 
 of the Empire ? British Citizenship is no idle word, and what could we creato 
 for ourselves to surpass it ? For a century the affectionate Colonial eye has 
 rested from afar upon the British Throne, as the centre of power, protection 
 and glory. Can all this trustfulness, this affection and loyalty be torn ruth- 
 lessly away ? It deserves at least respect and tender treatment." 
 
 As to the views entertained in New Zealand there was testimony 
 that must be accepted, as it was that of the local correspondent 
 of the journal which pre-eminently advocated the Ministerial 
 policy. The Times of 23rd March published the letter of their 
 Wellington correspondent, dated the 21st January, from which, 
 with the permission of the House, he would read a brief extract, 
 describing tbe effect produced by recent despatches —
 
 16 
 
 " The despatch is stigmatized freely as harsh in the extreme, ungenerous, 
 and filled with assertions and implications showing wilful misrepresentation or 
 great ignorance of the antecedent history of the Colony. It would, however, 
 be impossible to recapitulate the objections to this celebrated despatch, which 
 appears to have been commented on as severely in England as here. As tho 
 immediate consequence of Earl Granville's expressions and his declaration of 
 the Imperial policy towards New Zealand, the expediency of declaring the 
 independence of the Colony, of refusing to maintain the viceregal establishment, 
 and even of annexation with the United States has been freely discussed, and 
 it is only because the case of the Colony appears to have attracted considerable 
 attention, and called forth the sympathy of a large and influential section of tho 
 English people, that no decided steps have been taken in one of these directions. 
 It is also expected that the Colonial question will be fully considered during 
 tho next Session of Parliament, and the more moderate section of the commu- 
 nity is willing to await the event of that discussion before accepting any proposal 
 for a radical change." 
 
 They had yet more aiitliontative testimony in the Memorandum 
 
 of tho New Zealand Government, in reply to Earl Granville^s 
 
 despatch of October 7, as follows : — 
 
 " Nowhere more than in New Zealand does there exist a stronger feeling 
 of loyalty to the Crown, and of devotion to Her Majesty, or a higher value 
 attached to its position as an integral part of the Empire ; and INIinisters feel 
 assured that throughout the Colony there will arise a universal feeling of regret 
 that the tone and purport of Earl Granville's despatch (written at a time when 
 he must have known the Colony to be in the greatest distress), arc scarcely 
 susceptible of any other explanation than a desire to abandon this country, and 
 to sever its connection with the Empire." 
 
 In the New South Wales Parliament, Sir James Martin, late 
 
 Chief Secretary, was reported to have said — 
 
 '* lie was sure that, if the Colonies were canvassed from one end 
 to the other, it would be found that a large majority would condemn that 
 policy, which was supposed to be the policy of the Imperial Government. It 
 might be very well for the Ministry at home, in order to retrench, to advocate 
 the necessity of leaving the Colonies to defend themselves, and, for the purpose 
 of inducing them to do so, to hold out the intention of allowing them to separate 
 from the mother country whenever they should show any disposition to take 
 that course, lie thought, however, that such a course would be injurious to 
 all concerned — to England and the Colonies." 
 
 The Hon. 0. Cowper, Colonial Secretary — 
 
 " Hoped never to see tho day when these Colonies should be separated 
 from the mother country, but he thought they would be separated before many 
 years. The Home Government had shown no disposition to favour the connec- 
 tion ; but he was by no means sui*e that if the Colonies were to think of sepa- 
 rating, they would not move in another direction." 
 
 In the Parliament of Victoria, the Hon. G. Duffj^, formerly 
 a Member of this House, and recently a Cabinet Minister in the 
 Colony, said, on the 3rd November — 
 
 " IIo admitted that we should be prepared to defend ourselves, at our own 
 cost, for the result of any quarrels of our own ; but it seemed to him to be a 
 monstrous proposition that we should take, so far as we are concerned, tha 
 responsibility of the quarrels of the mother country, over which we exercised no
 
 17 
 
 more control than we did over the solar system. lie thought that by negotia- 
 tion some arrangement might be arrived at by which the Colonies might hold a 
 position similar to that occupied by Hanover when annexed to the British 
 Crown. That country was not necessarily involved in every war that Great 
 Britain might undertake. It might be possible to place the Colonies on the 
 same footing, so that unless they voluntarily chose to assist the mother 
 country and espouse her quarrels they would be held harmless." 
 
 Were it needful, lie miglit adduce similar testimony from 
 other Colonies ; but a brief extract from the address of Sir Philip 
 "VVodehouse to the Legislative Assembly of Cape ToAvn might 
 suffice as a summary of the whole. >Sir Philip, speaking in his 
 capacity as Her Majesty's representative, fully instructed, it 
 must be presumed, as to the Colonial policy of Her Majesty's 
 Ministers uj^on pre-eminently a question of vital importance, as- 
 sured the Assembly that— 
 
 "In North America we have unmistakable indications of the rapid estab- 
 lishment of a powerful independent State. In Australia it is probable that its 
 several settlements, with their great wealth and homogeneous population, will 
 see their way to a similar coalition. In New Zealand the severance is being 
 accom2)lisJied under very painful circumstances.^' 
 
 It vras passing strange to find such concurrent testimony 
 arriving simultaneously from such authorities, separated from 
 each other by half the earth's circumference, and each professing 
 to have derived his information from the same authen^c source — 
 Her Majesty's Colonial Ministers — and yet to be assured by Her 
 Majesty's Ministers themselves that they entertained no such 
 views, and utterly repudiated the policy attributed to them. He 
 believed that the Plouse would agree in the opinion that the 
 occurrence of such a i)henomenon warranted the inquiry — 
 ' ' Whether some modification might not with advantage be intro- 
 duced in the existing machinery for official intercommunication 
 between Her Majesty's Colonial Minister and the Cxovernments 
 of those great dependencies ?" 
 
 In contrast to the feelings which found voice in the extracts 
 which he had read, as also in answer to those who regarded our 
 Colonial possessions as a source of weakness, he would draw the 
 attention of the House to the manifestations of hearty fervent 
 loyalty and desire for permanent union exhibited only a few 
 years back by this same 7,000,000 people who inhabited those 
 great Colonies, a loyalty, as he had said before, not confined to 
 the British-born, but, if possible, more earnestly felt by the 
 Colonial-born subjects of Her Majest}^, and vouched by sub- 
 stantial proofs. Canada, during the Crimean War, had offered 
 to aid the mother country by furnishing a regiment. He 
 happened to be in Melbourne when the news of the Trent affair 
 
 c
 
 18 
 
 arrivecl. There was a general conviction that war was inevitable 
 — if, indeed, it was not then already raging. The Victorians 
 saw clearly enough that their Colony would be a special object 
 of attack — that the gold ships leaving their port would be to 
 the Privateers from California what the Galleons were in days 
 of old to the Buccaneers of the Spanish Main. The first inti- 
 mation that hostilities had commenced would probably be the 
 presence of an American ship of war lajdng the town and 
 shipping under contribution. The quarrel was one in which 
 they had no concern, no voice. They were involved in it solely 
 through their connection with this country, yet no thought of 
 severing that connection was for a moment entertained. One 
 spirit animated all — one common voice called aloud to stand or 
 fall by the old coimtry. Yet this was the Colony in which Mr. 
 G. Duffy had, imder the irritation produced by recent despatches, 
 and, apparently, with general concurrence, advocated what was 
 tantamount to severance, though within so short a period the 
 cry in Victoria and throughout those Colonies was — ''Eng- 
 land's distress is Australia's opportunity," raised in a sense 
 the opposite of that in -^^hich it was used by the great Irish 
 Agitator, and the response to it appeared in the shape of 
 munificent contributions on the occasions of the Irish Famine, 
 the Cotton Famine, the Crimean War, and the Indian Mutiny. 
 He regretted that Returns which he had asked for two months 
 ago had not been laid upon the Table, as they would furnish the 
 particulars. He could, however, from another source convey to 
 the House some idea of the spirit which, at a time so recent, 
 animated our fellow-subjects in that part of the world — he 
 referried to a recent work of great interest, entitled Exi^eriences in 
 Vicererjal Life, the author of which was not entirely unknown 
 to Mr. Speaker, and, with the permission of the House, he would 
 read a brief extract descriptive of a meeting held in Sydney, on the 
 20th Februar}^, 1855, to raise a fund for the relief of widows and 
 orphans of soldiers who fell in the Crimean AVar. 
 
 " What charmed mo most was the feeling of the people. There seemed 
 such a hearty loyalty towards England, such an evident pride in being spoken 
 of as Britons, and having their British sympathies appealed to— any expression 
 of the kind being sure to be followed by hearty applause ; — such a cordial 
 recognition of the blessings they enjoyed under British rule, and of the claims 
 therefore which England had on them — a point which was frequently dwelt on 
 by the speakers, and always so cordially applauded that it was delightful to 
 see. £0,000 was subscribed on the spot, though this was only the commence- 
 ment ; and there are still collections to be made all over the Colony." 
 
 Such were the feelings towards this country which at that time per- 
 vaded those Colonies — feelings now estranged, though he trusted
 
 19 
 
 not yet hopelessly, by tlie course of action pursued by tlie Secre- 
 tary of State for the Colonies. He was anxious to guard against 
 being misunderstood on tliis point. He fully recognized the 
 great abilities of the noble Lord the Secretary for the Colonies, 
 and of his right hon. Friend who represented that Department 
 in that House ; and he was also satisfied that they were actuated 
 by the best intentions. Their deficiency was one which they 
 shared in common with their predecessors in Ofiice — an unavoid- 
 able ignorance of the real condition and requirements and, what 
 was of no less importance, the aspirations and sentiments of the 
 great communities, in the administration of whose affairs those 
 good intentions and great abihties were employed. What had 
 occurred was the natural product of the departmental machinery 
 under which the affairs of the Colonial Empire were administered. 
 That Department consisted of a permanent staff imbued with a 
 traditional policy, acquired not in the Colonies but in the ofiice 
 itself, in which pohcy it was their business to instruct the quasi 
 responsible Minister, who was not always selected for any special 
 qualification for that post, but rather as the convenience of 
 political parties might dictate, and who was usually removed just 
 about the time when he was beginning to gain an insight into 
 the real condition and requirements of the communities whose 
 interests were committed to his charge. Such a system was 
 well adapted for its original purpose — namely, for enforcing the 
 policy or the will of this country upon military posts, convict 
 settlements, and plantations in which a few European masters or 
 drivers accumulated wealth by the forced labour of numbers of 
 a darker race ; but its very aptness for that state of things con- 
 stituted its unfitness for conducting the affairs of a great Empire, 
 comprising powerful and intelligent communities of Englishmen 
 in the enjoyment of constitutional government. Applied to 
 such communities the precedents of the past assume the character 
 of partiality, inconsistency, illiberahty, and an offensive assump- 
 tion of superiority intolerable to communities which claim incor- 
 poration in the Empire on terms of equality or not at all. 
 
 This statement was susceptible of easy proof; and he 
 claimed the indulgent attention of the House whilst he cited 
 instances to show that he had not brought it forward rashly, or 
 upon insufficient grounds. He would abstain from going back 
 to any remote date, not because there was any lack of such 
 instances in the history of past administrations — unfortunately 
 there was an evil uniformity in that respect — but because recent
 
 20 
 
 transactions, woll within tliG memory of tlio House, afforded 
 ample material for liis purpose. He would begin witli the Eed 
 Eiver difficulty as the most recent. 
 
 The Papers laid on the Table proved great care and masterly 
 statesmanship on the part of Her Majesty's Secretary of State 
 for the Colonies in bringing to a conclusion the negotiations 
 which had been so long pending between the Hudson's Bay 
 Company and the Dominion Government for the cession to the 
 latter of the North-West country. The pecuniary obhgations 
 and interests of the high contracting parties had been most 
 carefully attended to. He also observed a laudable consideration 
 for the interests of the aboriginal tribes. But there were others 
 of Her Majesty's subjects nearer in blood, and who, from their 
 numbers as well as from the progress they had made in settling 
 the coimtry, were entitled to be called into counsel on a matter 
 vitally affecting their interests ; yet the very existence of these 
 settlers, numbering some 20,000 souls, appeared to have been 
 ignored thi'oughout the negotiations, imless, indeed, he assumed 
 that they were the '^ third parties" referred to in Part 3 of the 
 Memorandum addressed by Mr. M'Dougall, on the 28th Decem- 
 ber last, to the Governor General of Canada, which, as it was very 
 brief, he would read — 
 
 " That your Excellency will be piCcased to express to his Grace, as the 
 opinion of the Canadian Government, that it is highly expedient that the 
 transfer ^vhich the Imperial Pai'liament has authorized, and the Canadian 
 Parliament approved, should not be delayed by negotiations or correspondence 
 \\'ith private or tldrcl parties, whose position, opinions, and claims have 
 heretofore embarrassed both Governments in dealing with this question." 
 
 Admitting that the North American Act of 1867, which in 
 Section 146 sanctioned the incorporation in the Dominion of tho 
 then outstanding Colonies upon Addi'esses of their resi^ective 
 Legislatures to Her Majesty, ordained also that Eupert's Land, 
 not having a separate Legislatiu'e, might be incorporated upon 
 Address to Her Majesty by the Parliament of Canada alone ; 
 still that provision did not appear to contemplate, still less to 
 sanction, the extinguishment of the inherent common-law rights 
 of these 20,000 British subjects to be allowed a voice in the 
 settlement of their local government and taxation and to have 
 their rights and privileges secured, before the ratification of the 
 transfer of themselves and lands to the absolute sovereignty of 
 another settlement, from which they were divided by a vast desert, 
 and with which they had little communication. Their expecta- 
 tions do not appear to have been at all unreasonable. They
 
 21 
 
 claimed that tlieir local affairs should be administered upon 
 the spot by a District Council and officers of their own selection, 
 and that they should send a representative to the Dominion 
 Parliament ; but, unfortunately, whether through oversight or 
 ignorance, these rights were not secured to them. They were sold 
 and handed over, just as sheep were, with the run, in Austraha, 
 and the result was an armed demonstration, which must retard the 
 settlement of the country, and it was to be feared woidd not ter- 
 minate without bloodshed. It would suffice to adduce one other 
 case, prolific as it was in examx^les of unequal dealing, inconsistent 
 policy, harsh and imgenerous treatment, such as fully justified 
 the significant language of Sir Philip AVodehouse, that—'' the 
 policy of severance is being worked out under very painful 
 circumstances in New Zealand." 
 
 In that Colony a war originated at a time when the Native 
 affairs were retained under the exclusive management of the 
 Imperial Grovernment. That war, interrupted by an occasional 
 truce, had endured ever since. Whilst it was yet raging the 
 Legislature of the Colony, yielding to the continued solicitations 
 of the Secretary of State, withdrew the positive refusal to take 
 over the management of Native affairs, conveyed in their 
 Memorial of 1868, and on the express condition conveyed in the 
 following explicit language : — 
 
 " In consideration of the thoroughly efficient aid which Her _ Majesty's 
 Government is now affording, and relying on the cordial co-operation of Her 
 Majesty's Government for the future " 
 
 consented to relieve this country from the responsibility of Native 
 affairs. 
 
 Earl Grranville, speaking of this war in the House of Lords, 
 on the 25th July, 1864, said— 
 
 ** It was impossible for the mother country to divest herself entirely of 
 responsibility for her Colonies, especially in case of war. . . . With regard 
 to the origin and commencement of the war now being waged in New Zealand, 
 he believed it to be a just war ;" 
 
 and the present Prime Minister, being at that time Chancellor of 
 the Exchequer, declared that — 
 
 " He did not see how England could with justice throw the whole respon- 
 sibility of the war on the Colony ;" that " the policy which had led to the war 
 had not been exclusively that of the Colony ;" that " the Home Government 
 had approved it, and were so far responsible for it." 
 
 Notwithstanding these statements — as just as they were explicit, 
 and notwithstanding the express condition for future aid, under 
 which the Legislature of New Zealand agreed to relieve this 
 country from resjDonsibilities attached to Native affairs, they 
 found that Colony impoverished by the continuance of the war,
 
 22 
 
 and oppressed by the tmcxamplcd taxation of £6 55. per liead, 
 appealing in vain to the Government of this country not for 
 money, but simply for a guarantee, which, without costing the 
 taxpayers of this country one farthing, would have enabled them 
 to raise a war loan at 4 per cent, instead of 6\ or 7 per cent. 
 When it was noted that the guarantee thus denied to New Zealand, 
 under cu-cumstances amounting to something like a life or death 
 necessity, was at the same moment granted to the Canadian 
 Government — not because of any such necessity, but in further- 
 ance of an object which could not be deemed more than one of 
 expediency — then tliis denial, grievous and imjust in itself, was 
 aggravated by evident partiality. 
 
 The same partiality and absence of any guiding principle was 
 exhibited in the allowance of military aid to the Dominion 
 Government for the suppression of an emeute of a comparatively 
 trifling character, whether they considered the relative forces or 
 the issue at stake — whilst the assistance of a single regiment for 
 which they offered to pay every farthing of expense, was refused 
 to New Zealand, although the Secretary of State was in possession 
 of the Governor's despatch assuring him that, after consultation 
 with General Sir Trevor Chute, and with the Admiral on the 
 station, he had reason to fear that — ''the withdrawal of that 
 regiment would lead to a general rising of the Native race, and 
 tragedies as dreadful as those of Dellii and Cawnpore." 
 
 In defence of that conduct, it was alleged that the Secretary 
 of State for the Colonies was only carrying out the policy of his pre- 
 decessors. That statement, however, was not borne out by the facts 
 as disclosed in the Papers before the House. They, on the con- 
 trary, exhibited a constantly sliifting pohcy. For example, they 
 found the right hon. Gentleman the present Secretary of State for 
 "War, in 1866, and his successor Lord Carnarvon, in 1867, when 
 Secretary for the Colonies, proposing to leave one regiment, on 
 condition that a certain sum was contributed by tlie Colony — 
 £50,000, he believed — for Native purposes, a condition which had 
 been faithfully complied with. Next they found the noble Duke 
 (the Duke of Buckingham) — in his despatch, dated 8 th Jidj^ 
 1869 — declaring that Her Majesty's Government had no intention 
 of withdrawing the troops if the Colony would pay for them. 
 And, finally, they had the present Secretary of State, in his de- 
 spatch of the 21st May last, intimating — '^ that he woidd not 
 have ordered the withdrawal of the troops had he been aware 
 that the Colony was willing to make sacrifices ;" and yet, in the
 
 23 
 
 month, of November following, thougli informed that the Colony 
 had made provision for payment of all the expenses of the regi- 
 ment, he abandoned that plea altogether, and peremptorily or- 
 dered the withdrawal of the troops on the new plea that possibly 
 they might be emploj^ed '^ in support of a policy," wliich, as he 
 stated, ' ' the Imperial Government had always regarded as 
 pregnant with danger." And that refusal was persisted in, 
 although a stipulation had been offered that the troops should 
 remain in garrison under direction of Imperial authority, as, in 
 fact, they had remained during the last two years without having 
 been called upon to fire a shot, although hostilities had pre- 
 vailed incessantly, and settlements had been devastated, women 
 outraged, infants slaughtered almost within sight of the barracks. 
 
 The policy which it was alleged the Imperial Government 
 regarded as "pregnant with danger" — as far as could be learned 
 from the despatch of November last — was the confiscation policy 
 and the non-recognition of the so-called Maori king. 
 
 What were the facts as regarded those confiscations ? Peace- 
 ful settlements — without the slightest provocation given, or even 
 alleged to have been given — were attacked by savage fanatics, 
 the women outraged, infants and young children ^ ruthlessly 
 slaughtered, the homesteads, created out of the wilderness by the 
 labour of half a lifetime, given to the flames, implements and 
 materials destroyed, the cattle and horses driven off as plunder. 
 
 Year after year that process had been repeated, and as 
 often as the Maori found it desirable to sue for peace — that was, 
 as often as he had expended his ammunition, or his crops 
 required attention — peace was granted him without exacting 
 compensation for the destruction of property, or restoration of 
 the plunder. Under such a system war, always congenial to the 
 Maori, became a very profitable pursuit. In fact, such a system 
 offered the greatest incitements to renew the career of murder 
 and outrage so soon as the necessary ammimition could be 
 obtained from the American whalers which frequented that coast 
 for that express trade. 
 
 It was at length found unavoidable to change that policy, 
 and, as a condition of peace, to exact retribution for murder and 
 outrage, and compensation for destruction of property. But 
 upon what could compensation be levied? The rebel Maori 
 possessed no movable property. His lands alone were available 
 for the purpose ; and therefore, upon the recommendation of Sir 
 George Grey — in his despatch to the Duke of Newcastle, dated
 
 24 
 
 30tli November, 18G3 — this confiscation policy was adopted by 
 Her Majesty's Government, -^vlio at that time retained the 
 management of Native affairs in their own hands exclusively. 
 Ho would trouble the House with a few extracts from the de- 
 spatches, setting forth the policy approved by Her Majesty's 
 Grovernment at that time. The Duke of Newcastle, in reply to 
 Sir Greorge Grey's despatch, said — 
 
 " I think tliat any body of Natives which take up arms against Her Majesty 
 on such grounds as those alleged by Waikatoes may properly be punished by a 
 confiscation of a large portion of their common property. I think the lands 
 thus acquired may properly be employed in meeting the expenses of carrying on 
 the war ; nor do 1 see any objection to using them as sites for militaiy 
 settlements." 
 
 "We find the same policy endorsed by Mr. Cardwell, who suc- 
 ceeded the Duke as (Secretary for the Colonies, in the following 
 
 words : — 
 
 " We have accepted the principles upon wJdch he (Sir George Grey) has 
 acted— the chastisement of the guilty Natives — the exaction of a reasonable in- 
 demnity for the expenses incurred by the war, and a moderate security for the 
 settlement and future protection of the colonists." 
 
 And again — 
 
 "The objects which Her Majesty's Government have been desirous of 
 efifecting for the colonists were substantially these — they have wished to inflict 
 on the rebel tribes, or some of them, an exemplary punishment in the way of 
 forfeiture of lands, which should deter them from wanton aggression in the future." 
 
 Notwithstanding this exphcit adoption of the confiscation 
 policy. Her Majesty's Secretary of State, in his despatch of the 7th 
 of October last, intimated, in effect, that troops were withdrawn 
 and a guaranteed loan denied, with the express object of placing the 
 colonists, imder compulsion of dire necessity, to i^u'chase a tempo- 
 rary and disgraceful truce by the restoration of the lands most 
 righteously forfeited. He believed that he should be supported by 
 everyone who had any knowledge of savage or semi-civilized races 
 when he said that the restoration of those lands would be viewed by 
 the Maori as an indication of weakness, and would be the signal 
 for a fresh onslaught. The refusal to recognize the sovereignty 
 of the Maori chieftain, who had thrown off his allegiance to Her 
 Majesty and assumed the title of King, was not originally the 
 policy of the colonists, but was transmitted to them as portion 
 of the evil inheritance of which they had undertaken to reheve 
 this country on the conditions he had referred to ; and the 
 reversal of that policy at this time would, in the judgment of all 
 who had any knowledge of the true condition of affairs, at once 
 alienate the more powerful and higher-class tribes who remained 
 faithful to their allegiance, and refused to recognize the assump- 
 tion of a sovereign position by a second-class chieftain.
 
 25 
 
 The New Zealand colonists saw in the policy thus attempted 
 
 to be forced upon them consequences so disastrous that even the 
 
 cruel necessity of separation from the mother country would be 
 
 a preferable alternative. In the language of the Memorandum 
 
 of the New Zealand Gfovernment, in replying to the despatch of 
 
 the 2nd October — 
 
 "They claim that the Colony should be practically recognized as an 
 integral portion of that Empire, and not be thrust out beyond its pale as of 
 infinitely less consideration than a British subject in foreign lands. They ask 
 England for no pecuniary sacrifice ; they do not appeal to her compassion ; 
 but they do appeal to those etei-nal principles of justice, which are as much the 
 duty of the strong as they are the heritage of the weak, and which oven the 
 most powerful nation should never withhold from the feeblest suppliant," 
 
 That the stability of the Empire had received a severe 
 shock through the harshness and the injustice of the course 
 adopted towards New Zealand, was undeniable. Wliat, it was 
 asked, was the utility of union with Great Britain if it did not 
 ensure mutual aid and sympathy in times of difficulty and trial ? 
 To affirm that whilst the Colonies remained obnoxious to hostile 
 invasion, in consequence of their connection with Great Britain, 
 they were to be refused succour and countenance in their danger 
 and distress, was an untenable proposition. In the language of 
 a right hon. Baronet opposite (Sir Charles Adderley) — 
 
 " Such terms of intercourse compose no friendship, nor alliance, nor com- 
 munity, nor solid connection of any sort but a fool's paradise of mutual 
 promises and expectations, equally visionai'y and evanescent. If the Colonies 
 will undertake the duties as well as the privileges of British citizens, we may 
 go on together as members of one great Empire, each part habitually maintain- 
 ing itself, and the whole ready to rally round any threatened point." 
 
 The passage he had quoted described the true position as 
 regarded the obKgations of the Colonies, but the proposition was 
 conversable. It was equally a condition of ''our going on toge- 
 ther as members of one great Empire," that the parent State 
 should ''imdertake the duties as well as the privileges of" the 
 head of that great Empire, and that she had not done so in the case 
 of New Zealand was but too painfully manifested. The colonists 
 neither desired nor expected to continue burdensome to the tax- 
 payers of this country. To be self-supporting as well as self- 
 governing was their normal condition ; but this, like every other 
 general rule, was subject to exceptions, of which the mutually 
 reciprocal obligation to afford aid and sympathy in time of war, 
 distress, or difficulty was the chief. 
 
 He believed that Her Majesty's Government recognized this 
 obligation on the parent State, although the ill-advised course that 
 had been pursued had induced a contrary opinion. He repeated 
 
 D
 
 20 
 
 his belief that the misimderstanding which had arisen was attri- 
 butable not in any degree to lack of ability or lack of good in- 
 tentions on the part of Her Majesty's Ministers, but wholly to 
 the unsuitableness of departmental machinery. He had con- 
 sidered various schemes which had been suggested for rectifying 
 that deficiency with the respectfid attention that was due to the 
 character and experience of the gentlemen from whom they 
 emanated. Some had proposed to give the Colonies representa- 
 tion in that House ; others, the establishment of a Council ex- 
 terior to, and, as regarded certain great Imperial questions, supe- 
 rior to this Parliament ; others, a Council of Advice similar to 
 that which assisted the Secretary of State for India ; and he had 
 come to the conclusion that the noble Lord the Secretary of State for 
 the Colonies was right in rejecting them one and all, either as im- 
 practicable or as inconsistent with the theory of the Constitution. 
 
 On the other hand, it was a great error to suppose, as had 
 been asserted by Earl Grranville, that the Governors constituted 
 the proper channel of official communication between the Go- 
 vernments of the great self-supporting Colonies and the Secretary 
 of State. The Governors constituted a most suitable channel for 
 conveying to the Colonial Cabinets the poKcy of Her Majesty's 
 Government, and very potent instruments for promoting that 
 policy; but, as the servants of the Imperial Government, de- 
 pendent as regarded their future prospects on the favour of the 
 Secretary of State, they were not, and never could be, suitable 
 channels for advocating the colonists' case from the colonists' 
 point of view at the Imperial Court. He was glad to find himself 
 borne out in that view by the right hon. Baronet op^DOsite the 
 Member for Staffordshire, from whose recent very admirable 
 work on Colonial Policy he would here read a brief extract — 
 
 " It was true that Colonial Governors, however dependent their Ministers 
 might he on the confidence of local representative hodies, are likely enough 
 themselves to keep an eye on the policy of the Home Government, and tune 
 their own course with it." 
 
 He would also avail himseK of the concurrent testimony of one 
 whose experience had been gathered, like his own, in the adminis- 
 tration of Colonial Cabinets. Mr. M^CuUoch, late Chief Secretary 
 in the Colony of Yictoria, had said, in a recent debate uj)on the 
 relations with the mother country — 
 
 " He deprecated the system which made the Governor, rather than the 
 Ministry of the day, responsible for the despatches which were sent in reply to 
 Imperial communications ; these despatches, about which the people in the 
 Colony knew nothing, were taken in England as expressive of the community 
 hero, when the fact was neither thepcople nor the Ministry had anything to do with 
 them. This position seemed to him to be a wrong one which should not be continued."
 
 27 
 
 For Mmself lie believed that a very small alteration would 
 suffice to adapt the present machinery of the Colonial Office for 
 the efficient administration of affairs under the novel relations 
 which the great development of the self-governing principle in 
 modern times had brought about. What he believed practicable 
 and also sufficient for the purpose was — First, to limit the veto 
 upon acts of the Colonial Legislature to cases in which those acts 
 infringed upon the Prerogative, or were inconsistent with treaty 
 obligations; secondly, to permit such Colonies, as might elect 
 so to do, to send envoys duly empowered and authenticated, who 
 should stand to the Secretary for the Colonies on precisely the 
 same footing which the envoys or charge d\affaires of foreign 
 countries occupied in their intercourse with the Foreign Secre- 
 tary, to watch over the interests of their respective Colonies, 
 entitled to be made cognizant of any measure in contemplation 
 affecting them, and that, before the Minister had committed 
 himself by any action to a particular course ; entitled, more- 
 over, to proffer advice and suggestions, which, being founded on 
 personal experience, would prove invaluable to the Secretary of 
 State, and secure him from falling into errors such as had 
 recently been committed. 
 
 What would be thought of a suggestion that Her Majesty's 
 Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, instead of being advised 
 as at present by ambassadors or charge d'affaires, duly authen- 
 ticated from the Governments with which we have diplomatic 
 relations, should be advised respecting the affaii-s of those coun- 
 tries by officers of liis own appointing, who had neither special 
 knowledge respecting those affairs, nor any mission to advocate 
 the interests of those countries from their own special point of 
 view ; but, on the contrary, a direct interest to square their ad- 
 vice in accordance with the proclivities of the Secretary of State 
 on whose favor they were dependent for future advancement ? 
 
 Surely no one would affirm that such an arrangement was 
 calculated to perpetuate friendly relations ; but, on the contrary, 
 would expect from it the frequent occurrence of mistakes and 
 misconceptions, giving rise to recriminations and antagonistic 
 feeling. Yet this was precisely . the machinery by means of 
 which our diplomatic relations with the great self-governing 
 Colonies were conducted. Every man of practical experience 
 would acknowledge the immense advantage of personal inter- 
 views for preventing difficulties and irritations, and for smoothing 
 them away when they arose, and he firmly believed that if
 
 28 
 
 either of tlie Colonial statesmen now in this country on a special 
 mission from New Zealand, had been authenticated from the 
 commencement, and before the Secretary for the Colonies had 
 committed himself to a particular course, that course would have 
 been modified and the heartburnings and alienation of feeling, 
 which all must deplore, would have been avoided. It had been 
 objected that the policy which lie now advocated would tend to 
 relax instead of drawing closer the bond of union. He would 
 reply that the bond of union between the parent State and the 
 now adult Colonies was not strengthened but strained by an un- 
 duly close association perpetuating the condition appropriate to 
 nonage, and the conviction forced upon him by a long and 
 varied experience in Colonial affairs was, that the alternative lay 
 between ultimate sejoaration and the recognition of those Colonies 
 on the same footing as foreign States in alliance so far as regards 
 this matter of diplomatic relations. 
 
 He believed he had made out a sufficient case for inquiry. 
 He had occupied the attention of the House at too great length. 
 Conscious as he was of inability to do justice to so great a subject, 
 he must thankfully acknowledge the kind attention with which 
 the House had favoured him. Loyalty and patriotism were 
 potent spirits, had worked wonders in times past, and might 
 again ; but they were spirits intangible, incorporeal — once evapo- 
 rated they could never again lay hold of them. They were lost 
 for ever. This consideration should temper and guide not only 
 our dealings, but our tone of communication with our great self- 
 maintaining and self-governing Colonies. 
 
 A great opportunity now presented itself for consolidating, on 
 an even and permanent basis, the union of their great Colonial 
 Empire — an opportunity which, if allowed to pass awa}^ might 
 never return, for uniting those great self-governing communities 
 with the parent State by the bond of a common allegiance, 
 affording to each the advantages of common citizenship, and to 
 both the strength of union in a great Empire. 
 
 LOXDON : CORNELIUS BUCK, 23, PATEEXOSTEE EOW.
 
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