L'UNION FAIT LA FORCE.

Lyttelton Times, Volume II, Issue 75, 12 June 1852, Page 3

L'UNION FAIT LA FORCE.

The United States were lost to this country because, as they did not form integral parts of the British empire, they felt themselves to be mere colonists, and not Englishmen. Our existing colonies will follow the example so soon as they become strong enough to stand

alone, if some means be not discovered to make Canadians and Australians feel themselves to be Englishmen, as well as the inhabitants of Lancashire or Yorkshire, At present the connection is kept up principally by a mixture of bribery and fear. We bribe them to remain loyal by bearing ourselves a considerable part of the colonial expenditure, and we hold out the threat of a bloody war in case of any attempt at separation. The ties founded on such a basis merely, are, of necessity, of the slenderest description, and if we do not succeed in impressing on the colonial mind the desire to continue a portion of the British empire, the very first maritime war we may be engaged in will afford the opportunity for shaking off the connection. The only way of preventing the break up of our vast colonial dominions is by making the colonies as much part of the empire as Scotland or Ireland. What changes in the form of government may be necessary to effect this thoroughly, it may be difficult, and at any rate it is premature, to discuss, but the advance of scientific discovery, by annihilating distance, has removed, or at least indefinitely diminished, the only insuperable obstacle to a thorough union. It is not so very long since Ireland and the northern parts of Scotland were, to all practical purposes, much further than .Canada —nay, we may almost say Australia—will soon be from London. No further back than the middle of the last century a journey from the metropolis to Edinburgh occupied as long a time as the passage to Halifax; and the passage between England and Ireland, always uncertain, was occasionally interrupted, not for days merely, but for weeks, by a prevalence of easterly winds. In such a state of things a thorough union of the two countries was impossible. The office of Lord-Lieutenant and the Vice-Regal Court at Dublin are shadows of what was, in its origin, a necessary reality.

Our strongest and most populous, if not our most important, group of colonies at present comprises the British provinces in North America. Halifax will shortly be reached in a week from the west coast of Ireland; and when the electric telegraph shall be laid from Ireland to America, as will in all probability be done ere long, Quebec will be, for practical purposes, nearer to London than an inland town a hundred miles off was twenty years ago. Looking, however, to the future, and especially to the recent discoveries in Australia, not of gold merely, but other minerals quite as valuable, if not so dazzling at first sight, it may not be long before our Australian colonies will be entitled to claim the first rank among the outlying portions of the empire. We cannot bring the Australian continent as near to us as the continent of America; and with all the daring ingenuity of modern engineering skill, a proposal to lay down a telegraph from London to Sydney would savour a little too much of the marvellous. We can, however, do a good deal to bring the countries closer together. We can reduce the voyage, which now always takes four, and frequently five or six months, to less than two. This should be done at once. That the establishment of lines of steam communication to Australia has been postponed up to the present .time is not perhaps much to be regretted. Great additional experience has been gained, and the mother country and her colonies have probably escaped being fixed with a contract which, in the present state of knowledge, might appear ludicrously inefficient. But we cannot wait for ever. The time has undoubtedly come when the very best communication which our knowledge of steam navigation will enable us to devise should at once be put in operation between England and Australia. Some time since the Admiralty advertised for contracts for a continuation of the Cape line by large screw steamers to Australia, a route which has only been practicable since the capabilities of ocean screw steamers have been tested by experience ; a route which offers the great advantage of involving no shifting of passengers or cargo, and—what is still more important, perhaps—would be uninterrupted in time of war, so long as this country remains mistress of the seas, a pre-eminence which if she loses, all else will be of little moment. To secure these great advantages some sacrifice may not improperly be made, and even if the passage to■ Australia round the Cape should prove a few days longer than the other, it would not'constitute a sufficient drawback to its adoption. The boats on the Cape route were to run every alternate month, and the other day the Admiralty advertised for tenders for the steam

service to our Eastern possessions, to comprise a communication every alternate month, from Singapore, by Batavia and the west coast of Australia to Adelaide and Sydney. This route is the only one which accommodates at once the whole of the Australian colonies; it moreover will furnish a communication between Holland and Batavia; and although we might stand excused for not paying any particular regard in the matter to the interests of a foreign country, the fact that the proposed line will, of necessity, carry the mails and passengers from Europe to one of the most important places in the East, after Calcutta, will not, probably, be without its influence in lowering the amount of the tenders.

If both these plans are carried out, the whole of Australia, except Swan River, will have a communication homewards every month, alternately by the Cape and Singapore. Two independent lines of communication to the same colony are all that can, in reason, be expected, at least at present. Some day or other, and perhaps not at a very distant period, looking to the rapid occupation by our race of the Western coast of America and the islands of the Pacific, a line of steamers may be started from Panama to New Zealand and Sydney; but it is admitted that it would be premature to attempt this as yet. So far as the line selected is concerned, the Admiralty appear to be in the right; but they will be in the wrong if, as the terms of their last tender would seem to imply, they accept anything short of the very fastest communication by Singapore they can obtain. It is just because Australia is so far off that a very quick communication is desirable, and to insist on a speed of twelve or fourteen knots to Singapore, and then allow it to drop down to a rate of eight or ten seems altogether unaccountable. A very few thousands a-year will make the whole difference between the hare and the tortoise—an insignificant amount, which would not be felt by the tax-payer, if, indeed, the increased speed did not render probable a much greater influx of passengers, and a consequent augmentation in the receipts. This requires reconsideration, and the proceedings of the board ought to be vigilantly watched to ensure that no contract is concluded for a too protracted period. During the last few years the improvement in the speed of ocean-going steamers has been unequalled, and now that the ingenuity of our builders and machine-makers is stimulated by the rivalry of the Americans, we may very possibly, in half a dozen years, witness the results which at present, if stated, would seem fabulous. To tie ourselves down for an extended period to the speed of the present day would be a very foolish thing ifideed. Guardian, Dec. 31.

The Expedition to Central Africa. — The Consul-General of France at Tripoli, in Barbary, has written a letter containing some account of the expedition of Mr. Richardson and Dis. Barth and Overweg to Central Africa. After "iving details already known, and recording the death of Mr. Richardson, it says that the two Prussians were still at Kuka^ in communication with the sheik of the rathei ir_— portant state of Bornu. This sable personage had received them with great kindness, as had also his prime minister. The latter, who is said to possess considerable instruction, is agent of the English consul of Mourzouck. Barth had made a journey to the south as far as lola, the capital of Ademawa. In that country he found great rivers, which he traversed in canoes, consisting of the trunks of trees scooped out. Lola stands on a branch of the river Chad, which flows into the Niger above Niffe. The source of the Chari is supposed to be near those of the White Nile, in Dongola ; and this gave the travellers some reason to suppose that the ' old opinion, that the Niger and the Nile have a common origin, is not unfounded. Anotherbranch of the Chari was ascertained to flow into the lake Chad, and it was imagined that there may be communication by water between Bornu and the Gulf of Guinea. Dr. Overweg had visited several islands in the lake Chad, and had found them fertile and beautiful. A considerable number of boats were constantly passing between the islands and the continent. It had not been possible to ascertain the limits of the lake, but the travellers fancied that it would turn out to lie a little sea. They were informed that last year steamers had ascended the Niger as far as Niffe, and they assumed that they were Brazilian slavers, which had escaped the attention of the English cruisers on the coast. — Literary Gazette.