MR. E. G. WAKEFIELD ON THE CHARACTER OF COLONIAL POLITICS. (From "A View of the Art of Colonization ")

New Zealander, Volume 5, Issue 370, 31 October 1849, Page 3

MR. E. G. WAKEFIELD ON THE CHARACTER OF COLONIAL POLITICS. (From "A View of the Art of Colonization ")

LETTER XXIX. r There is nothing perhaps which more offends the tastes and habits of the better clais of emigrants, than the state of colonial politic?. By the word pol tics I tlo not mean government, but what one itx in Eng. land supposes that the other talks about when left 'alone af'er dinner. Colouiul party politics, then, are remarkable for the facetioimieis and violence of j oliticiani, the pievalence of demoguguism, tho roughness and even biutality of the newspaper, the practice in carrying on public differences o: making war to the hnife, and always striking at the heart. In a newcolony with a teprc-eiitative form of government, if the exfccitive, which geueral'y siies wi h the minority, propose* something disagreeable to the majority, or if the m jorily pioposes something of which the minority disappiovts, the two par tie* iiibiilt and provoke each other for a time ; and the majority is apt to resort to impeachment or a stoppage of supplies. O:i the other livid, the minority not to be behind the majori'y ia resorting to ex trem i meamres, frequently usrg the veto. The la>t resnmcei if the Britihh constitution, which we have baidly used e toll since we complettd our constitution in 1688, and shall probably never use again, are oidinary weapons ol colonial party warfare. Rebellious are not very uncommon, and die not common only because, in mostcolotun, rebelliai bus no chance «f Buccp c B. In all oui colonies, at ull time*, a rebellious spirit ni'iy bi' obseived. In saying (his, I do jiot fmgvt vny previous at itetnent aliout the imperial loy.ilty t-f ctlonuts. The rebellions spu it in question | does not hate England or the impeuul connexion ; ii only hates the Government of the colony, which is not England nor the imperial government. What it i«, I fchall have the pleasure of explaining soon. Meanwhile you will comprehend, that this lia red of their govf rtment by colonists, and, as a consequence of coJonisU by heir government, are disngreeabk- c rcurnstjnre< in the social st.tc of colonies. It w.is from »uch a statrf of hatrfd between subjret* and their government that the Canadian rebellion* sprung and that the body of South African colon'st^ fled, who iet tied at Poit Nata 1 , aid are now fighting with u-. there lor their independence. It is a st.ite of things by no means confined, as. the last instance shows*, to repre> sentativc c^lunies, or caused by repretent itiv,- l ii- 1 tution>-, Oa the contrary, there is less ot it in Canada at this tiine titan in <'«iy o her colony, h rause there represent titiyo mst'tu f io»a 'ire bjcommj <i •"lality, and

regular party-government is taking the place of wha fc Lord Durham called a •' constitutional anarchy." These extremes of violence do not of couise break out very frequently : still, as they are of a character to insure their being heard of in this country, they happen often enough to make an impression here, that the peace of colonies is apt to be disturbed by them : that colonial public life reiembles public life in Ireland. Essentially Irish disturbances of another kind are by no mean* rare in lome colonies. In Canada, the j Orange and Milesian factions hava been effectually tiansplanted, and wage a perpetual war. Savage encounters between them, resulting in bloodshed amongst the combatants, and producing terror and disgust for other people, are of frequent occurrence. Even at the antipodes of Ireland, at Port Phillip, in Australia Felix, a large immigration of Milesian Irish has produced faction fights and frightful rows, that could only be suppressed by the armed force of government. But in ' this respect Mr. Mothercountry may lay the colonies ] only suffer in common with ourselves. He ought to gay in common with that part of the kingdom which is called Ireland, and which in candour he should add, is the last place to which the inhabitanti of the other parts would rhink of emigrating. But there is a violence short of rebellion, factionfighting, impeachment, and stopping the supplies, by which public and and also private life in the colonies generally, more or less is made uncomfortable for emigrants who have not yet learned to practice it; and especially if they are emigrants of the moit valuable class. When colonists, lam ipeaking generally, and would allow for exceptions, differ upon such a point, for example, as the amount of a proposed import duty or the direction of n road, both sides treat the question as if it were one of life and death ; and instead of compromising their difference, or giving a quiet victory to the preponderating weight of votes or influence, they instantly set about tearing each other to pieces with the tongue and pen, after the manner of the late Daniel O'Connell. A colonist who meddles with public matters, should have a skin of impenetrable thicknes*. Quiet sort of people who emigrate, though often the best qualified for public business, generally refuse to medd c with it : they cannot endure thn scarification to which any interference with it would expose them. But it is not the skin alone that suffers, when tli in enough. Frequent scarificHtiou renders most colonial skins so impenetrably thick, that the utmost vituperation makes hardly any impression upon them. Recourse therefore is had to something sharper than bil'ingsgate. It is a general custom in the colonies, when your antagonist withstands abuse, to hurt him seriously if you can, and even to do him a mortal injury, either in order to carry your point, or to punish him for having carried his. In every walk of colonial life, everybody strikes at his opponent's heart. If a Governor or high officer refuses to co nply with the wish of some leading colonists, they instantly try to ruin him by getting him recalled with difgrace : if two officials disagree, one of them is very likely to be tripped up and destroyed by the other ; if an official or a colonist offends the official body, they will hunt him into jail or out of the colony ; if two settlers disagree about a road or a watercourse, they will attack each other's credit at the bank, rake up ugly old stories about each other, get two newspapers to be the insttutuents of their bitter animosity, perhaps ruin each other in a de-pemte litigation.— Disagreement and rivalry are more tiger like than disagreement anil rivalry in this countiy. Coloni tt at variance resemble the Kilkenny cats. C lonial democracy is not peasant to emigrants of the gentry class : and least of all is it pleasant to them when they happen to be very well qualified by moral and intellectual qualities for taking a useful part in the i üblic affairs of their new country. Colonial democracy is of two distinct kinds. First, in the lepresentative colonies, there is the democracy which arises from a suffira^e practically next to universal; and secondly, thsrre is the democracy of the bureaucratic colonies which grows out of arbirary government. I hopi that a few words about each of them may not be unaccei table. In Canada, as in most of the adjoining State*, the hest men, as we should consider them,— 'hat is the wisest and most upright men— are sek'om the favouriie Candida c* of the majoiity of voters, generally not even candidates at all. The favourite candidates are the ablest demagogues ; f lic men who best know how to flatter the piejudices and excite the passions of the ignorant and pabsionate mass of electors. The result ia that not « few of the ' ' representatives of the people," whether in the House of Aasemb'y or the D strict ! Councils, are of that order of noisy, low-lived, spouting, half educated, violent, and unscrupulous politicians, one or two of whom occasionally get into the British House of Commons. In the Canadian Assembly, there [ is always a con iderable propoitionof Busfield Ferrands and Fearpus O'Connors. From this fact you will infer many more which exhibit the influence of Canadian democracy. It is an influence wh eh pervades public life in the eolonj", and thus to a great extent keeps the best class of emigrants out of public lffe. In sayin? that the other representat ye colonies resemble Canada more or less in this respect, I must exclude those of the West Indies, in which the bulk of the people, hi. viii^ been recently slaves, have not yel acquired the voter's qualification. In those colonies however, if the bottom of society is not yet put al top by a suitable parliamentary suffrage, there is the prospect of a Black democracy less tolerable for the higher orier of colonists and even for all Whites, than is, for settlers of the higher order, the actual demociacy of colonies inhabited bs people of one colour. The democracy of the representative colonies is obviously caused by a democratic suffrage ; that of the bureaucratic colonies is occasioned by withholding from a'l settlers all part in the government of their country. In the latter cane, the settlers having no political rights, resort to agitation as the only means of influenciug the Governor and his nominated council of officials. Tliiy make use of (etui >nj, remonstrances, and public meetings. The Opposition of the colony, as distinguished from its Government, is carried on by means of public meetings. In New South Wales, Australia Felix, South Australia, i nd New Zealand, the common mode or'endiHvouung to influence the local government or its nthsters m Downing-street, is by getting up a public ove ing, and publishing its pro-« ceedings in the newspapers. The cilling of a public meeting is nn appeal to nuin> bers, to the majority of the democratic pi inciple. The device of select meetings, such as those from which oet anti corn law league used to exe'ude people who disagreed from them, by means of tickets of admission, is not adopted in colonies because it would not work there. It would not work for two reasons ; first, because the official party would in some cises map their finge 1 sat what they might truly call v ' hole-and-cornei " meeting; and secondly, bee use, if the mojoiity were excluded from a meeting by means of tickets, and I thereby det-ply offended, the offiuml party, by ihe aid of j some purchased demagogue, wou'd easily get up a counter meeting tnoie numerous and violent than the one directed ag hist theuisJves The system of opposing government by means of public meetings is an iiregul.ir clt in crapy for opposition purposes. When the

object i», as sometimes happens, to support the government faction! it it more than ever necessary to avoid offending the majority, who therefore enjoy for the occasion a sort of univerial suffrage. None of the factions into which a colony may be divided, has recourse to a public meeting without intending an appeal to numbers. The practice of appealing to numbers is habitual. Politicians in the bureaucratic colonies, therefore, not excepting the highest officials when it happens to suit their purpose, naturally resort to the arts of the demagogue; demagogues are the leading politicians. The newspaper presi of these bureaucratic colonies is to the full as detnagoguish— as coarse, as violent, as unscrupulous, often as brutal as that of the representative colonies in which democracy it constituted by law. Of course, there are exceptions to this as to every other tule. There have been colonial newspapers, though I do not recollect one that laited long, remarkable for moderation and forbearancp. There are one or two colonies, I believe, like West Australia, so stagnant, tame, and torpid, as to have no politic*. Even in the most political colonies, there are times, of couise, when politics are comparatively asleep. lam speaking generally. As a general rule, colonial politics are like what ours would be, if our suffrage were either made universal, or totally abolished. In either of those cases, I fancy, a colony which had representative government,. with a suffrage that gave influence to the wisest and* most upright, would attract iwartns of the most valuable clasi of emigrants. At present that is a class of emigrants, which colonial politics repel.