THE FUTURE OF THE COLONIES.

Otago Witness, Issue 304, 26 September 1857, Page 2

THE FUTURE OF THE COLONIES.

PRITSTCE ARTHUR, KING OF AUSTRALIA. (From the Sydney Empire.) Some amusing speculations as to. the future course of events in the British colonies have been put forth in a ■work recently published in London, entitled, " Imaginary History of the next Thirty Years." According to this prophet, Canada will he erected into a kingdom under Prince Alfred, who is to choose for his queen " a beautiful young lady, the belle of the colony, and heiress to a fortune which would have enriched half the petty princes of Germany." Australia will follow in the wake of Canada. We are indebted to a gentleman, who has often laid us under similar obligations, for a copy of the " Imaginary History ;" and we extract the description of the revolution which issues, we suppose, sometime within the next twenty years, in the Australians declaring themselves an independent sovereignty under King Arthur :—: — " The colonies of Australia, after the discovery of gold, attracted for some years most of the young blood of the parent kingdom, as well as that of many other countries in both hemispheres. For a time the gold diggings and the commercial cities afforded abundant scope for the enterprise of the adventuring immigrants, and many who had made fortunes returned to their native countries. After the mania for gold-digging, however, had subsided and the country was becoming rapidly enriched, many desired to make it their permanent abode, and to become landed proprietors. It happened, however, that before .the mineral wealth of -the country was known, certain rights had been conveyed to the earlier colonists, who were, known as " squatters," to run their sheep over vast tracts of land, which rights they continued to claim when the circumstances of the colony had entirely changed. Eventually their claims were compromised, but the squatters continued to form a class widely differing from the latter settlers in habit and sentiment.- When Colonial Legislatures were established, the differences between the new and the whole interests commonly proved so irreconcilable that the constitutions, pretty enough on paper, would not work. There were continual ministerial crises, interregnums, dissolutions of Parliament, elections, and the same process over again and again, until at last all the Administrations fell alike into contempt. The machinery of the local Governments obviously wanted a regulator, which was difßcult to devise, the antipodal distance of the Imperial Government preventing that sfrady application of executive force which is ever felt to proceed from the Crown, even where its'action is not seen. The Governors who acted as proxies of the Crown were commonly most inefficient for the purpose, and altogether the political state of the colonies was eminently insecure. The turbulence of the new settlers was only equalled by the insolence of the old, and the leaders of both parties, who were immensely wealthy, and backed to any length by their supporters, continually coming into collision, the colonies appeared to be verging towards anarchy. The Imperial Government being utterly unable to restrain the excesses of the rival colonists, the colonists as naturally as unjustly laid all the responsibility of their own imprudence on the Imperial Government. In fact, the colonists having got into the habit of blaming the Home Government for every conceivable and inconceivable fault, blamed it now for many things of which it was innocent. The social state of the country, however, was so unbearable, that it was obvious recourse must be had to some extraordinary measure, and the urban, commercial interests, being by far the most popular, were all for establishing a great Australian Republic — merging the several colonies into one, and all being represented in Congress. As the squatting interest was much indebted for its influence to the uniform support of the Governors sent to the colonies from Eugland, and under the existing constitutions had an influence derived from property rather than from popular election, it was anticipated that, by adopting the representative principle as the entire basis of the Government, the chronic political evils of the colonies would be got rid of. Nor was it unnatural that these colonies, grown so vast in population, abounding in splendid cities, with large seats of manufactures rapidly extending, fine harbours, a river accessible to shipping for hundreds of miles, rich plains and golden mountains — combining, indeed, every advantage which a new country could desire — should be content to remain subject to a Government 15,000 miles away. One peculiarity of Australia, however, was that the people had never been accustomed to military movements. The few soldiers they had ever seen were always imported from the Old Country, and withdrawn every few years. Disorderly, in fact, as the country has been, it had always submitted to the policeman's staff. When, therefore, disjunction from Great Britain began to be seriously talked of, there was great acknowledged difficulty in the manner of effecting it. The Australians were fierce enough, but it was against each other, and in the newspapers'; their constant reliance on Britain for the means of defence and the genenerally peaceful nature of their pursuits, disinclined them from warlike preparations. If then, the separation from England was to be brought about, it was apparent that it must be .by-negotiation rather than by war. "",.*' The, erection of Canada into a Principality

solved the difficulty for the Australians, who at once formed the idea of converting their united colonies into a kingdom, and of inviting another member of the Royal Family of England to take the Crown. This proposal was approved of with an unanimity new in the history of the colony. The democratic party were convinced that, as in the Old, Country,. the real power of the Government would be wielded- by the middle classes; while the landed and monied interest looked forward to aristocratic honours. Addresses were accordingly agreed to in each of the colonies, both to the British Crown and Parliament, expressing the loyal attachment of the colonists to her Majestyls person, but setting forth"" that the peculiar circumstances of i the colony,- its singular history, and its vast distance from the seat of her Majesty's Government, had prevented that satisfactory working of the Colonial Government which was to be desired ; wherefore, without dishonour to the 1 royal prerogative, but rather to the end that it might be magnified, they now prayed the con- ; sent of the Queen to the declaration of the independence of her Australian possessions, and their establishment into a kingdom, under the sovereignty of her Majesty's son, his Royal Highness Prince Arthur. In their addresses I to the two Houses of the British Parliament, the colonists, after .a like preamble, stated that, so far from entertaining any unfriendly fetling to the country from which they had sprung, they gloried in her greatness and venerated her fame, and it was because they admired her constitution, and saw in it a safeguard from the dangers to which the colonies were exposed, that they desired to copy it more closely than had hitherto been practicable. In seeking to become an independent kingdom, they sought not a separation, but rather an identity of interest — not antagonism or rivalry, but rather imitation and emulation. By choosing an English Prince for their future King, thuy wished to signify the descent of the kingdom, as well as the colony, from the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, and the benefits from the establishment of Canada into the Principality, under Prince Alfred, with a Peerage also branching from the Peerage of England, induced them also to desire the settlement in Australia of a number of the young English nobility. The separation would in no way effect ihe prestige or resources of Britain, since the commercial intercourse of colonies was too firmly settled to be affected by any changes of Government, and the colonists desired that the first act of their King should be" to enter into a treaty of alliance with her Majesty, offensive and defensive, in support of which they would at once proceed to the equipment of a fleet worthy of the Australian kingdom, and stipulating that whatever tariffs might be imposed on imports or exports, British traders should be exempt from them. " The tact exhibited in these addresses, appealing to the special interests of the several estates of the realm, was not altogether successful in obtaining for the overtures the same hearty approval with which those that had preceded the Canadian Principality were received. The Court hesitated to signify its sanction to an arrangement so advantageous to one of the Royal Princes, lest it might be suspected of a too grasping family policy. The Canadian movement, too, was a novelty; and political, like musical encores, never go off with the eclat of the first performance. This Australian proceeding was too much of a repetition to make a very remarkable sensation. Still, -there was a i large and able party — commonly known as the Manchester or cosmopolitan party — who, believing that Britain would be quite as prosperous and as powerful, and much more economically governed, without her colonies than with them, were glad of overtures for relieving the country from the charges of the Australian Government. "The debates which the proposal elicited were chiefly remarkable for developing a new scheme for the extinction of the National Debt. One of members of Parliament strenuously contended that Australia, so much abounding in wealth, should take a share of the enormous burden pressing upon the tax-payers. He contended that the colonies should be considered as the children of the Mother Country, and that now they were growing up to man's estate, they should relieve their parent of a portion of the responsibilities she had incurred in protecting them. If it were not for the National Debt, it would be the cheapest instead of the dearest country in the world to live in, and the surplus revenue would provide for the construction of the most noblest national works ever contemplated. His plan was that in Australia, Canada, India, and every other colony where there were unappropiated or waste lands, a certain quantity should be appropriated by the colonies, to be sold, as opportunity might offer, for the payment of the interest and reduction of the National Debt. In order, too, that fundholders might be induced to surrender their claims, he proposed that every £100 of Consols land in the colonies valued at £120 should be granted, and that the warrants should be so easily transferable as to pass from hand to hand like common debentures. This scheme was naturally regarded with favour by the British taxpayers : the difficulty was in the carrying of it out. The overtures from Australia, however afforded an opportunity for testing its practicability, and the Colonial Commissioners who brought over the addresses were asked whether they would be prepared on the part of the colonists, to agree to the cession of 100 square miles of land in Australia, to be sold in the progress of time for the extinction of British National Debt. They telegraphed i the,- question immediately .to the Provisional' National Council at Melbourne,- and on the following morning had a reply that the colo- 1 lonists would willingly concede 50 square miles

in the heart of the country, and referring to the map for the boundaries of the locality, which was a considerable- distance from the habited portion of the colonies, but which eventually proved one of the richest quarters for the produce of gold,, and had, besides, several excellent agricultural districts. This concession on the part of the colonists removed whatever ground of opposition there had been to the separation of the colonies from the ancient kingdom, and all the preliminaries being satisfactorily adjusted, it was mutually .determined that his Royal Highness Prince Arthur should ascend the throne of ihe first kingdom in the Southern Pacific by the title of the King of Australia."