The colonies of England: a plan for the government of some portion of our colonial possessions

Front matter

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Preface

In the truth of the main conclusions which the following

work seeks to establish, I have myself a most sincere and

earnest faith ; but I cannot hope that, to others, they

will appear equally correct ; neither do I expect that my

plan will be at once adopted, and followed. There are

so many interests, fancied and real, opposed to every

reform in our colonial management — ^there is so much

ignorance (I must be pardoned the word) respecting

everything connected with our Colonies, that no plan

could be devised which would not, on the instant of its

promulgation, be met with a storm of violent abuse.

Some would be angry because a profitable abuse was

pointed out for extirpation ; some, because the means of

a fancied benefit were to be removed ; others, because a

real advantage would erroneously be deemed in danger ;

and lastly, all the timid, all those who hate chanoe

because it is change, would be in arms against the plan.

For all this opposition I am prepared, and shall be

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ly PREFACE.

The reader will see, that throughout this whole work my object is to lay a ground for legislation — ^that from the first to the last page I have an act of parliament in my mind ; and he will be of opinion, if my reasoning produce upon his mind the effect that I desire, that without systematic preceding legisktion, aU attempts at systematic colonization will be useless, and doomed to fail. Before we can act according to a plan, we must frame the plan. Such a plan to be framed must be written, put down, and recorded. Men will then see what the plan is. And what it is, it will remain, when once recorded in writing. If we decide that a particular course is the right one, the next object should be to make those adopt it who act under our rule. The only effective means of doing this is to give to our recorded plan the authority of law. In short, we must frame and pass an Act of Parliament.

In procedure, the teaching of experience is more needed than in any portion of the field of law — and in administrative procedure, no less than in judicial. I was therefore anxious to ascertain what had already been done by ourselves and others in the planting and governing of colonies; and as the reader will see, I have made constant use of the example afforded by the conduct of the Congress of the United States of America in this particular. In one instance, however, I propose to

PREFACE. Yll

depart very widely from the plan that Congress adopts ; and I do so, because I believe our own more favourable position enables us to do once for all, what Congress does upon every occasion of establishing a new Tebbi- TOBT and State. Upon the formation of such new Territory, and the reception of a new State into the Union, a specific act of Congress has been passed ; except, indeed, in the case of the Territories which were created under, and by virtue of the authority of the ordinance of 1784, which will be found quoted in extenso in the body of my work. That ordinance provided for the government of the territory belonging to the United States, north west of Ohio, and contemplated from the beginning the carving of many states out of that vast tract of country. I, looking in the same way upon aU the wild lands in the several portions of our Colonial Empire to which my work relates, as one whole, propose, as Mr. Dane did, by his celebrated ordinance, to make one law for all. The separate interests which press upon Congress and obstruct its legislation, do not, after the same fashion, lie in our path ; so we may, if we legislate at all, legislate safely, for the whole of the colonies and wild lands in the several possessions of which I speak.

One observation is necessary, in order to guard myself against the imputation of incorrectness in the yill PREFACE.

statistics quoted which relate to the United States. Everything in her new Territories and States changes, and advances so rapidly, that the descriptions and the figures which are accurate this year are wholly incorrect for the next. I have done what I could to obtain the latest statistics, and where I am able, I state the year to which they belong. But my conclusions will, I believe, in no case be found affected by the sort of inaccuracy here spoken of.

Ashley Arnewood,

April 2Sy 1849.

Chapter I. Pags

Object of the work — A colony, what? — English colonies classed — What classes treated of in this work — What objects sought in founding and maintaining colonies — Surplus population carried away — Trade — How proposed benefits are to be obtained — ^Examples ~ Of two systems of colonization 1

CHAPTER 11.

English colonization in America — Virginia, 1606 — Maryland, 1632 — New England, 1620 — Massachusetts — Connecticut — ^Rhode Island — Carolina, 1663 — ^Pennsylvania, 1681 — Georgia, 1732 . . . . m. 20

Chapter III

American colonies — General description — Comparison — Boundaries of the United States in 1783 — Boundaries in 1849 — American system — Some results— Power of Congress as to Waste lands — Territories — States — An ordinance quoted — General conclusions 75

Section I. — General view — ^Plan — Nomenclature — Settlement — ^Province— System 113

Section II. — Settlement — Mode of establishing — Survey — First sale of land — Government — Extent of interference by the mother-country — Colony self-sustaining — Means, land, etc. — The money of the colony, how dealt with — Census — ^When settlement becomes a province — Frame of

the government — Powers of— Judicature 115

Digression concerning Land Fund 129

CONTENTS.

PAGE

Section III. — ^Province — Declared — Tripartite constitution —Of what composed — Powers of — Civil list — Land fund — Trade — Disputes respecting powers — The church — Education -142

Section IV. — System — What — New Zealand excluded — Provinces included — British North America — ^Australasia — South Africa— Boundaries and extent of provinces — Objections stated and answered — The united legislature — Form of — Legislative — Administrative — Judicial — Powers of legislature — Powers of the administrative body — Powers of judiciary sketched 163

Chapter V

British North America— Circumstances peculiar thereto — Provinces existing — Danger of separation imminent — Plan for the union of provinces previously proposed — Lord Durham — Memorandum of plan — Changes proposed — Desires of American politicians with respect to British America — Mode of defeating them — Conclusion • • .186