LORD GREY—EMIGRATION. (From the Times.)

New Zealander, Volume 4, Issue 289, 7 March 1849, Page 3

LORD GREY— EMIGRATION. (From the Times.)

Tutßt are miny persons who know what w^re the views entertniurd respecting the c»lonie« by the noble S«cre'ary lor that department when h« contemplated itt working from the benches of the opposition. There ate others who know what the noWe Lord's plans were after his inauguration in office. The former will not require to be toltl how completely hit peformances hare disappointed the expectations of his fricndo ; nor the latter how far they have fallen short of hit own. We believe that if the noble Lord's confidential correspondence with the Governor! of our Australian and American coloniei during the first year of his pre«ent tenure of the leali could be made public, they w< uld revrtl u complete a failure of coinpiehensive plans, and us sad a disappointment of sanguine bones, as errr were deplored by a people or h miniver. Nor will the tone which prevailed throu<hou' htsapeech on Thursday night, though it may mitigate, altogether remove the dissatisfaction which has been felt by both. It is clear that the advocate! of " great, systematic, and comprehensive cobnization" have at present nothing t> hope from tlv. Government. Nothing will be done in this , direction bey»nd the standard umi meisMre of that which is already domg. We believe we are warranted ! i » expressing our conviction that no one regrets the ■tate necessities wh-ch tir his hands and hampet lit* «'eti?m more than Earl Grey himself; and that the m gumed indication of hi* Hpi»loj»eti« reply to Lord Monteagle th« other nieht does not disguise, though it may co our, bin unwilling t ttbraisHton to the exigencies of a poor Exchequer and the dogmas of a Cobdenic policy, Lord Grey would do many things to aid, extend, and augment the colonial enterprise of the age ; but hj» plans require mwy, and money is precisely the very thing which Sir C Wojd cannot spare. It U all very well for Earl Grey in one house, and Lord J. Russrtl in another, to content themselves with ••yiug that colonization must depend «noa indivi'ifu >1 exertion and suoutfiiu'om enterp<izj This will with curtain cond.tions and under certain circumstances, do something. Given (he Auglo-Siuou pith, pluck, iin^w, ambition, aud unoccupied lands, we may safely predict certain results. Some two or tine* thousand persont will set oil' to the ends of the earth, will land, se-tlr, Rght >hi natives, bett lh-m, aud be beaCsu by then», plough the land, try experiments, and become exporters of gnan >, gutta percha, or ivory. At the end of a dozen years s >me few score out of the few thousand will return home with lurge foi tunes, and rather queer accounts of their acquisition ; th« rest will have been wrecked, ruined by speculation, or eaten by the savages. This is adventure. It is adventure conductej on the true principles of laissezfaire It it in accordance with the doctrines of Mr. Cobden and the economists. If such pt-opl ' wanted to ro, why should not they go ? If they did not want to go, why should the State send them ? This is the true economical argument. Ju»t in the same way if people won't starve, why should not they work ? If they can't get work, why should they not starve ? But we suspect the ma» I jonty of people are quite willing to waive theoretical verities for practical realities. Adventure is not colonization. What the populati n— what the country— what th? present and the future interests of the empire demand, is colon'Zition. They demand a system wnich shall not merely make the foitutirs of a few, but insure the comfoita of many. It is not wealth and opulence for a handful of lucky men, but subsistence for a great multitude that it required. The population 1$ growing—perhaps not beyond the materials of a scant and niggardly sustenance, but certainly beyond those means of fruition and comfort which an age of civilizatiou and commerce indentines with the necessities of life. The rapid processt* of machinery— the minute apportionment of work — the sudden demands for numerous hands — all accompanimeuts of oar manufacturing system— have crowded in our towns masses of population who are mbjec ed to the vicissitudes of high remuneration and short work. The occasional pressure on one part of the community reacts upon another. The oscillations in employment of one class vibrates on the oscillatory speculations of another. When the loom ia buty, and the jenny working, and the wheel turning, and the hand of childhood bidden for by competing capital, prices rise, speculation flourishes, trade thrives, and all classes eujoy a transitory prosperity. When the change comes, it comes to all. Not only the artisan, but his employer ; not only the mercantile, but the professional man ; not only the manufacturer, but the doctor, the attorney, and tha schoolmaster feel the rebound. The clerk who had lent bis raourv at high interest to a respectable firm— the young lawyer who had pnid hi* first calls to a railway or a joint-stock company — the young tradesman who had bought and sold on credit with a fair prospect of quick returns— all are involved in the ruin. With each periodical panic the circle of distress widens ; and it would not be too muah to say that duriug a time of commercial distress novr.adays one half of the middle classes in tha north and in the metropolis suffer great privations. It », we rei peat, to the middle classes, no less than to the lowest class, tliat colonization is, or should be, a boon. The middle classes require an outlet, a vent, a new field of | employment, ai much as those below them, they are multiplying without the pronpect of adequate subsistence, itruggling without the chance of commensurate succe»s, and working without the receipt of corresponding teward. It ia to them that the colonies should be open. We often hear of America. Some economists can nevar cease dinning into our ears the blessings of a Yankee pslity and Yankee resources But America hat her " Far We»t." She hat an immense tract of rich aud fertile toil to decoj h«r growing population

from tho crowded cities of the Eait. Tor years to come the plains of Michigan and tho country south- west of the Rocky M nunUins will afford food and employment to millions if her ciiizims. Jingland has iu> continrnui " Far West." She is " bound in wilh the triutnplinut »ea." Bu» — by a wise and vigorous p«>!«cv — her colonies mi s ht be made to her what the l''ar Wc*l is to the United Slates. She might bridge the vast ocean which seperatei her from her d.stuni. po&sesMous. Her crowded and competing industiy might find work unit wage enough to the uncultivutul wa-tes of Australasia, or the unhewn woods of Canada. Bat a8 long as llu* prudent system of ob truciion prevai s in the Colonial Office this it i nuoss.blt.'. We 'don't question E;n I Grey » facti. But what do they amount to ? That a certain number of capitalists have settled in N. w Sou'U Wales and South Australia; »n<l th <t they have employed .1 ccitum amount ot labour. We don't d<m<>t it. What we complain of is, that none but lar^e rapi alis>« and poor labourer cau out twihadvun age under the present system. Meu who can't afford to j^ve £ 1 ait acre for pasture land (n price wliwh Mr. Wakefield says he never Intended to fix for any but arable lund), and who arc not accus'omeil to agricultural Inbour — i.e., three-touiths of the middle olaB^e^~|^rp debarrr d by the regulation* of the Colonial Office fn.m buying land in Australia Thin, a tno<>t mnneions and valuable body of small capitalists is excluded from conferring or receiving the benefits ot " legular colonization.' ' Again, we compl ia liueily of the, neftli^enca 01 the weakness uh eh the colonial ittimin stratum, ftilu-r at home or uhroad, munifesin, aiul of the wor»e ihftn weakness that tlw colonial msembhes exhibit in th»ir mode of dealing w th the property of private ittdividuatat and onforemp the contracts of Uhour. Proprietors who let laud can* not g-'.t their ittipaUted rents for it . any effoits to enfoice p-tyment are neutralized by the members ot the P.ovincial Legisla'urt:. an i the Government at home in foiced to connive ar thU legalized tobbary by its colonial subjects. On the iinpp.dimeuts. that such icaudtious rejudiation thiows in the w»y of cnpitalists anxious to mvast their nun 7 in the North American co onw* it iiuniieceisary to enlarge, nnl we believe its frmti luve already been reiped by the province! of Prince J£dvrard'tf Island tind New Brunswick. Against such drawback-, it i» difficult to get companies or individual! to contend. And tbiu has been defeated a plaa w'lich Lard Durham, Lord Stanley, and Eail Grey himself, successicely conceived, ot planting villages at certain distances in the least populous districts of Can • ads and New Brunswick t.» seive as nnc'ei ot a future population. This was prevented by tue squabble* and division* of laud co apatites, the Provincial Assembly and the Colonial Oliiee- We aie bound to say, on a review of thest*. C4ses,th«t if the iinonf.Jtioi\ ol weaknesn rests on " th^ office," th it of co'.lu .ive dislionesty must rest oi thf colonies. The mischiels arisit q from the tdilute to ii^compliah m) svise a policy are ibu3 desciibed by Lord Dudiain in his Repot t :~" On the sidu ot the Uni ed Stites all is activity. The forest has bent w.do'y cleared ; every yi'ar setlleuocu's a'ad thousands of farms creutfd out of the waste ; tho countiy ii intersected by roads, canult, &«. ; gicxl houses, waM'lionses, mills, inns, villages, »r« becu to spring almost out of the desert. . . . On the Biiti.h side, of the line, with kome few Uvuiucd exceptions, all seem-i waste and detolate. That p4iu'ul truth is manifest f>r 10 0 mill's!" Yet who cm sny wlitt "hchoijiKt »udjuili jnus expenditure ot some i' 50,000 or iilOO.ooo might not have done when we had a surplus revenue.