'the only civil office in that colony in the gift of the Home 'Government, and is the greatest prize in the Colonial service, 'the manner in which it was on this occasion disposed of affords 'a proof of the injustice of the common allegations that the 'colonies are retained only for the sake of the patronage they 'afford.' Lord Elgin went out in January, 1847, taking with him further instructions as to the mode of conducting the government of Canada. He was soon called upon to act upon them; for the party which he found in office, being in a minority in the Assembly, requested him to dissolve the Parliament, and a dissolution accordingly took place. The result was that the opposition party triumphed at the elections. When the Assembly met a vote was carried against the Administration, and a new Executive Council was formed. Lord Elgin gave his confidence to each executive, and acted as an adviser to the party in power, without attempting to dictate a policy to them. By a steady adherence to this impartial course, Lord Elgin was able to give satisfaction to the French Canadians and to the Liberal party in the western province, and to inspire them with feelings towards the English connexion which had not before existed. The party which had hitherto enjoyed political ascendancy, and considered itself as peculiarly associated with English interests, was, on the other hand, displeased. It happened, likewise, that the discontent of this party was increased by the existence of temporary commercial distress, consequent on the changes in the tariff of England. The chief losses were caused by the unsound measure of 1843, by which a premium was given upon grinding American corn in Canada for exportation to England. All investments made for taking advantage of this differential duty were deprived of their artificial value by the equalising law of 1846; but although the grant of the privilege was the measure which really deserved condemnation, its withdrawal was naturally the object of colonial indignation. In this state of public feeling the Rebellion Losses Bill, to which Lord Elgin gave his assent, lighted a flame in the colony. The Government, however, maintained their ground; the riots at Montreal led, indeed, to a change in the seat of Government, and to a decision that the sittings of the Provincial Parliament should in future be held alternately at Quebec and Toronto; measures were also taken for removing from office all persons who had openly declared an opinion in favour of the annexation of Canada to the United States; but by degrees the animosities of the contending parties were mitigated, and the desire of a separation from England was removed. In the meantime the Legislature employed itself upon the preparation of useful laws;

for revenue;

July,

the tariff was revised and reduced to a moderate scale of duties the municipal organisation was improved; measures were adopted for constructing roads and railways; and further explains the policy adopted in Canada by the English popular education was extended in both provinces. Lord Grey Government with respect to emigration, commercial intercourse Iwith the United States, and the Clergy Reserves; important We will only call attention to a remark made by him upon the questions, into which our limits forbid us from following him. policy of the United States in maintaining a protective duty

against Canadian corn.

If the result of this system is to keep

up a higher range of prices of corn in the United States than in Canada, Quebec and Montreal will have an advantage over New York in the carrying trade for the supply of the western

country.

So clear does it seem to me (Lord Grey says), that this is the tenproduce of Canada into the United States, that, in the interest of the former I should wish these restrictions to be maintained for a few years, until her trade with the West can be thoroughly established; were it not that I have unlimited faith in the general rule, that in every case the removal of restrictions upon the freedom of trade is certain to be attended with advantage to all whom those restrictions

affect.'

It appears that a plan of providing for the salary of the Governor of Canada out of a parliamentary grant, and of guaranteeing a loan for constructing a Canadian railway by the credit of the English Treasury, combined with a reduction of the military expenses of the colony, was in contemplation when

Lord John Russell's Ministry was dissolved.

Some diminution

of the outlay under the latter head was, however, actually effected, and during the six years of Lord Grey's tenure of office the loyalty and attachment of the colony to England was increased; the internal disputes were calmed; a regular system of constitutional government was brought into practical operation; many useful laws were passed; and the economical state of both provinces was greatly ameliorated. Lord Grey considers it to be proved, by statistical evidence, that Canada has made a more rapid progress in wealth than the most flourishing of the United States.

as

to

On the remaining North American colonies we can only bestow a few words. In Nova Scotia a question arose the permanence of tenure of non-political offices, owing to a desire of introducing the practice of the United States, to treat all offices as equally precarious. This question was decided by

the recognition of the English rule, which considers all nonpolitical offices as practically held during good behaviour. In New Brunswick the Colonial Legislature passed a temporary Act for granting bounties on the cultivation of hemp. The consent of the Queen to this Act was notified, but the Governor was informed that it would be refused to similar measures in future. The Legislature remonstrated, on the ground that it was a matter of purely local interest; Lord Grey held that the grant of bounties was a matter affecting trade, and involving imperial interests, and a communication in this spirit was made to the colony. The Legislature adhered to their former view, and the question remained unsettled when Lord Grey left office. The proceedings in the fishery question (which rose into great transient importance during last autumn) are detailed by Lord Grey; and he also relates the recent history of Newfoundland (where the town of St. John's was almost destroyed by fire in 1846); but we cannot dwell on these topics, and we must change the scene to a distant quarter of the world.

The Seventh, Eighth, and Ninth Letters treat of Australia; the Tenth of New Zealand. Lord Grey begins with an explanation of the much discussed Land question: and he shows that the system with respect to the disposal of the Crown lands now enforced in the Australian colonies, does not depend on the will of the Colonial Secretary, but is embodied in an Act of Parliament, passed in 1842, which was itself grounded on the Report of a Select Committee. This Act requires that all public lands shall be sold by auction, at a price not less than 14. per acre. Of the proceeds of the land-sales, one half is to be applied to immigration; the other half to such objects of public utility as may seem desirable to the Governor and Secretary of State. This Act was upheld by Lord Grey, who attaches great importance to the policy on which it is founded: it was only modified by giving to the Government a power of making leases for a term not exceeding fourteen years, and of granting compensation for improvements. By this power, squatters, who hold what are called 'runs' (tracts of land used only for pastoral purposes) are enabled to obtain a sufficient interest in the land to induce them to make improvements. Lord Grey expresses an opinion, that the disposal of the unoccupied Crown lands in a colony, and the appropriation of the proceeds to purposes of immigration, are questions of imperial, and not merely of local interest: land-jobbing is, he remarks, the prominent evil of newly settled countries; and he shows that the Government of the United States, where the system of sale is not employed, prevents the evils of improvident grants by local rates, which force appropriated but uncultivated land into the

market. The immigration to Australia made great progress under Lord Grey's administration; not less than 60,000 immigrants were sent out by the Emigration Commissioners in the five years ending 1851. He disapproves, however, in general of Parliamentary grants for purposes of emigration; and he thinks that the population of this country is not now in excess of the profitable demand for its labour.

We now come to the subject of Transportation. The demoralisation of Van Diemen's land under the Government of Sir Eardley Wilmot (partly produced by measures of injudicious economy, but chiefly by the excessive accumulation of convicts on this single spot) created the necessity of suspending transportation to that island for two years. Sir W. Denison was sent out as Governor, and a new plan of secondary punishments was devised, which was embodied in a letter from Sir G. Grey, as Secretary of State for the Home Department. The penal system thus framed, was to consist of a limited period of separate imprisonment, succeeded by employment on public works, either abroad, as at Gibraltar, or at Bermuda, or in this country, and ultimately followed, in ordinary cases, by 'exile or banishment for the remaining term of the original 'sentence.' This plan was subsequently modified by substituting tickets of leave for conditional pardons, with respect to the class of convicts who were to go out as exiles. Transportation to New South Wales had been abolished in 1840; and an attempt to restore it made by Lord Grey was frustrated by the opposition of the colonists. In Van Diemen's Land the suspension has expired, and the settlement of Western Australia is also applicable to purposes of transportation. Lord Grey is of opinion that, upon the whole, the advantages of transportation preponderate over its disadvantages, with reference to the interests both of mother country and colony. The mother country gains by the system, because, instead of placing its discharged convicts under circumstances which render a return to a life of crime almost inevitable, it disposes of them in a country where they are likely to acquire habits of regular in

The agrarian laws of Rome were substantially a question similar to that of the Crown lands in our colonies. The rich became squatters upon them, and obtained a possessory title: an agrarian law, or the sending out of a colony, was a measure for dividing the public land among the poorer citizens without any payment. If the Romans had adopted the plan of selling the public land at a moderate price, they would probably have prevented the fierce party conflicts which their agrarian laws provoked.

dustry. With regard to the colony, Lord Grey has the following remarks:

'Looking back at the history of Australia for the last sixty years, I see nothing to justify the conclusion that, upon a fair balance being struck between the good and the bad moral results of transportation, even as it had actually been conducted, the bad would be found to preponderate. No doubt great evil resulted from the creation of a society in which the convict element (if I may use the expression) predominated so much as it formerly did in New South Wales. No doubt great moral corruption and great physical suffering were produced by the manner in which convicts were formerly conveyed to the colony, and by the system (or rather absence of all system) of management to which they were subject, both during the passage and on their arrival. Before public attention had been seriously directed to the subject, frightful abuses certainly occurred in the transportation of offenders; even when the practice of assignment was established, there were still abuses; and, as I have shown, the probation system, which was substituted for it in 1842, was still more open to objection. But with all these errors in the mode of conducting transportation, when we look at what the Australian colonies are at this moment, and consider that these communities have been created by it (for it is notorious that the penal settlements afforded the means of founding the others), I think it would be difficult to deny that, if the scheme of sending convicts to Port Jackson has worked much evil, it has worked still greater good.' (Vol. ii. p. 75.)

The history of the measures adopted for amending and enlarging the free institutions of the Australian colonies follows next. These proceedings commenced with a reference made to a Committee of the Privy Council, consisting of Lord Campbell, Sir James Stephen, and Sir Edward Ryan, to prepare a scheme of Australian reform. On the Report which emanated from this Committee, a Bill was presented by the Government, which, after various modifications, became law in 1850. When the plan of this measure was first circulated in the colony, it was favourably received; but the criticisms which it underwent during its passage through Parliament, produced a change in the feelings of the Australian public. Lord Grey justly remarks that the inhabitants of New South Wales may be as'sured that the success of free institutions in any country depends far less upon the particular form of those institutions, than upon the character of the people upon whom they are 'conferred, and the use they make of the power placed in their hands. Two points in this Australian Act are deserving of special attention. One is, the power which it confers upon the colonial legislatures of altering its provisions with the consent of the Crown. Where a constitution is granted to a colony by