now is, and able eventually to support a more numerous population than that of which Irish proprietors now complain. The unfortunate emigrant may also, by the change, become a new man. His new country may, and probably will, create in him new habits; hope will make him cheerful and industrious; a chance of success will make him self-dependent, and convert a discontented mendicant into a worthy, self-relying, and self-maintaining labourer.

The inconvenient population is, however, of two sorts. The one has been here described and illustrated by the Irish peasant that which is deemed a surplus, but which is really a troublesome dweller on the land. The other class of inconvenients are the criminals. With these last the present work has no concern. The principles which should direct the conduct of government towards a convict settlement are entirely different from those which ought to preside over our policy and acts in colonization.

I mention the subject of criminals and transportation on the present occasion, only for the purpose of at once removing it out of my path, and separating it entirely from my system of colonial policy.*

After the mother country has obtained what benefit

* English statesmen and writers, when discussing the subject of colonies, almost exclusively consider them with reference to English, or rather, metropolitan interests. The Irish famine, for example, makes the population of Ireland a burthen, and straightway our statesmen endeavour to discern what can be done with this troublesome, because starving race. A colony, with politicians of this order, is a favourite subject of contemplation and discourse. They look at it as an admirable mode of getting rid of the people-and

flows from removing some portion of her population, she may look forward to the more distant but far greater advantages which will come from the existence of a thriving and friendly community, dwelling in one of her outlying territories. Having, by the fact of COLONIZING, relieved herself from the inconvenient pressure of a superabundant population, if such have existed, she now reaps from the COLONY all the good which a growing market can supply. If the mother country, while she thus extends her dominion, thus carries her name, language, institutions, and manners to distant lands, and increases the number of her people and the amount of her wealth-if, while she does this, she retains the affection of these outlying portions of her people, and makes them consider themselves integral parts of her empire, she may, by means of her colonies, acquire a power and influence which her own narrow territory might not permit her to attain.

According to the present feelings and opinions of men, no direct benefit, by way of tribute or payment of any sort, can be derived by England from her colonies. The ever-memorable struggle with the present United States has happily precluded the possibility of our attempting to convert any portion of our people into

the difficulty. When they bring the subject of colonies before parliament, you always find them endeavouring to win attention by a long preamble detailing the miseries of the existing surplus populations. (See the speech on Colonies by the late Mr. Charles Buller, and the many speeches about what is called systematic colonization, for example.) But this mode of looking at the subject is fraught with injustice: it produces plans unfair towards the colonies, and, in the end, injurious to England.

tributaries to our dominion. The difficulty of creating a new settlement is of itself sufficiently great, without the addition of a metropolitan tax. To raise up a new community in the wilderness-to create civilized homes, and establish all the arts and all the necessities of civilized life-to supply the one and cherish the others -this is indeed a task, in the performance of which the stoutest heart may quail, will often sink, and be ready to despair. Painful regrets beset him who applies himself to this trying business. HOME, with all the many sentiments which that word inspires, (and which none can fully appreciate but the wanderer who has renounced home, the home of his youth, for ever,) comes in the hours of weariness and disappointed hope, and seems in the distance, as home is to the settler, a land of fairy enjoyment. The courtesies and amenities of the life he has quitted rise up to contrast themselves in his mind. with the coarse and harsh realities which are all around him. Sickness comes, and sorrow comes, and want too-and for what, he asks himself, "am I thus a wanderer and an outcast?" The effect of such thoughts and of all the real difficulties and troubles which beset the early settler, is great upon the firmest men; we may easily conceive what their influence is likely to be upon women. But women must share in all the trials, and aid in resisting all the miseries, which the new life of of an emigrant brings. From people who have to combat all these difficulties and resist all the influences which induce despondency and despair, it is useless to expect any tribute to the country from which they have emigrated, and in which they could not live. But still

in many ways it may be useful to the mother country to have her people employing their energies and their capital in the formation of new communities. If they could be as profitably employed at home, we may be assured that the misery which ever attends an emigrant would not be braved by him. The capabilities which the new country possesses enable him, by industry, to maintain himself, to increase his substance, and to provide for his family. The present great difficulty once conquered, his future is more assured than it would be at home, and his children grow up with feelings of attachment to the adopted home of their parents, which is, probably, their natal place, and is their home, in short. But in countries destined to be great, to grow into powerful and increasing communities, there will never be found any means of acquiring sudden wealth and extravagant fortunes. There, where steady labour is needed to live and to thrive, will be found the habits which are needed to make a great people. The gold that lies in the soil of California, or is found in the mines of Potosi, may for the moment attract cupidity by holding out the promise of vast and sudden wealth to the adventurers who seek those lands; but in these auriferous regions, useful colonies, the solid foundations of great nations, are not to be created, unless the soil shall cease to afford gold, and the mines come to yield only a scant return to labour and to capital. In the gradual progress which is won by steady labour, the mother country which is wise will see her most promising return for the protection she has afforded; for the assistance she has given to her adventurous sons, who

have dared the difficulties of creating a new community in a wild, uncultivated region. As the new community grows, the wants of the inhabitants increase also, and with them the desire and the power to purchase the commodities which the metropolis can produce more easily and more cheaply than the colony for itself. Thus a new market is created for the produce of the mother country. Trade between people so intimately related is sure to arise, and needs no coercive laws to force it into being. With unfettered trade there will arise a community of interests and of feeling. Instead of hostile and envious rivals, we shall have made willing and friendly customers, into whose ports we can enter without restriction and untaxed; who will not be desirous of placing upon our productions the check of a hostile tariff, or eager to refuse to us the benefits of an untrammelled comIf in a spirit of true liberality we regulate our whole conduct towards the new nations which our people from time to time create, they in their turn will deal generously and in a spirit of friendship with us. But if we permit the narrow views of a protective policy to be the guides of our system, and by restrictive laws thwart and check the energy and ingenuity of the growing communities while subject to our sway; if we force upon them the monopoly implied and really expressed in the shibboleth of "ships, colonies, and commerce," we prepare our colonies for a race of rivalry and hostility when they are able to cast off our dominion. Unfortunately this course we have hitherto pursued, and we see the fruits in the conduct of the United States. We taught them, while colonies, to believe restriction wise

merce.