affords are to us unknown. The strange-the stirring life-the rapid advance, the activity, the eagerness, the strife even, the absence of all the constraint which besets us in our mode of living-the roaming and the freedom-these are exciting, intensely exciting enjoyments, of which we know nothing, and which we cannot appreciate. Yet they who have tasted of this magic cup are for ever after slaves of "its brewed enchantments." They feel, when brought into the subjection of our civilization, like a wild animal confined in a cage -his waking hours are hours of misery, because of the narrow limits of his enforced home; and in his sleep, he dreams of the distant wilds which he has lost for ever, lives again his life of happy freedom, and wakes, to find himself in the miserable thrall of his narrow prison.* All the inconveniences which in a drawing-room are talked of with intense disgust, are passed by without comment, or are heeded only for a moment; they add to the excitements, and heighten the enjoyments, which that state of society affords.

A class of men, moreover, has been brought into existence in America by the necessities of a rising country, whose life is passed as the PIONEERS of civilization. When they have rescued the land from the wilds, they grow tired-they become sick of the "clearings;"

* See the confessions, on this subject, of the young Ruxton, an Englishman and an officer, who was so enamoured of this wild existence, that he left England to enjoy it, and died shortly after his return to America. The "Far West" is the title of his work, and gives the bright side of the picture.

(it was no exaggeration of the old hunter, who said he lost his way in them;) and they pass on, and are succeeded by the farmers of the country, a race very unlike our tenant-farmers, but a hardy, active, shrewd race, nevertheless, well fitted for the task they have to perform. And wonderful are the results. These are best to be seen in the Western or Prairie States, which, if the doctrine of concentration had been acted on by the United States, would still have been the untilled wastes which they were half a century since, with the wild Indian for an inhabitant. The old states would not, however, have been at all improved by this hopeful scheme. The riches of the west have reacted on the older states; the rising young communities have supported and buoyed up their older brethren. Fortunately for the United States, practical wisdom has presided over their colonization. They, fortunately for themselves, have not been obstructed by an inert and jealous colonial office; nor have they been encumbered by futile schemes,-by which the private interests of the people are subjected to the supervision of the State, and individual prudence superseded by government wisdom.

Throughout the plans and arrangements which I propose, I look to the one object of planting successfully a colony-and promoting its success to the utmost, after it has been planted. By this means, I assume that the welfare of the mother country is most fairly, as well as most effectively promoted. My object is not to obtain a means of cheaply getting rid of a troublesome population. I offer no scheme to my countrymen for any such purpose; neither do I propose to them a scheme of

money-getting, or a speculation by which a large per centage is to be obtained on their capital. I address myself to the statesmen of England, and submit to them for consideration a system of arrangements, by which our waste dominions may be made the happy homes of future generations-of millions who will speak the language be proud of the name, of Englishmen and continue in close connexion with the parent state, because united to her by a strict community of interests. Viewed with reference to these considerations, this question of the application of the money produced by the sale of the waste lands, though an important, is by no means the most important subject of inquiry. Some of the early difficulties which arise in planting a colony are, by means of the fund supplied by the land, rendered less formidable. But many things must be thought of besides this one. It is an item, indeed, not inconsiderable in itself, but if looked at with reference to all that must be taken into the account, will be seen to have been greatly overrated, and to have withdrawn consideration from other and yet more important matters, without which the means furnished by the land will be of no avail towards attaining the great national end we are now seeking.

The fashion of the present day is very much to deride all ancient (classic) experience; but I cannot avoid, when seeking for experience upon the subject of colonization, looking sometimes to the endeavours of the great forerunners in all human improvement, the Greeks, and asking what they did as the founders of colonies? Their colonies were very unlike those of the Roman. There

was much more in them of the circumstances which belong to a modern English colony, than can be found in any colonies of Rome. The iron lords of Rome thought only of extending Rome as Rome-the dominant, enforcing, tyrannous Rome. Greece did not seek this end. There was in her colonies the kindly, gentle feeling of the mother city-a word which we have adopted with the feeling which it enunciates. That gentle, kindly tie, we also wish to exist, and we endeavour to create it. Now, then, let us look to Greek experience-let us look at the great colonies of Sicily, and let us overlook the injustice done to the aborigines-the Sikels and the Sikans as we overlook the aborigines in Asia, Africa, and America. That we-we Englishmen-do so, cannot be denied; and it is nothing but a base, shuffling hypocrisy that attempts to hide this fact. I acknowledge it; and I say, that for the mass, the sum of human enjoyment to be derived from this globe which God has given us, it is requisite for us to pass over the original tribes that we find existing in the separate lands which we colonize. When the European comes in contact with any other type of man, that other type disappears. Let us not shade our eyes, and pretend not to see this result. Hypocrisy is by such a proceeding added to all the evils which we must encounter. The result is the same.

The aborigines disappear.

The Greeks afford us a remarkable example, if we read their history with carefulness, and with attention to things, and not to words. What says their latest, and, though Thucydides has written their story, I may say their most thoughtful historian-one who brings to his

task a remarkable combination of qualities-one who in these days of progress has been a merchant-a pupil of a philosopher a democratic representative of the people and is a scholar-need I say, that I mean Mr. Grote? What, then, is his statement as regards Grecian colonies? The concentration of the Greek Sicilian colonies was complete. The outlying and hostile population forced them to a remarkable concentration. The land was fertile, the climate exquisite, the people of the finest type the world has ever known; and when I say so, I take the Anglo-Saxon type into the comparison. What does Mr. Grote say of the Sicilian colonies of Greece?

"Their progress, though very great, during this most prosperous interval (between the foundation of Naxos, in 735 B. C. to the reign of Gelôn at Syracuse, in 485 B. C.) is not to be compared to that of the English colonies in North America; but it was nevertheless very great, and appears greater, from being concentrated, as it was, in and around a few cities. Individual spreading and separation were rare, nor did they consist either with the security or the social feelings of a Greek colonist. The city to which he belonged was the central point of his existence, where the produce which he raised was brought home to be stored or sold, and where alone his active life, political, domestic, recreative, &c., was carried on. There were dispersed throughout the territory of the city small fortified places and garrisons, serving as temporary protection to the cultivators in case of inroad; but there was no permanent residence for the free citizen except the town itself. This was, perhaps, even more the case in a colonial settlement, where every