not be difficult to show from the Duke's own journal tham's executors; the Memoirs of Mr. Dowdeswell that the charges of Junius had a substratum of truth, by his son: the Journal of the Duke of Bedford let the friends and flatterers of the house of Bedford,"came accidentally into the editor's hands," he from Brougham and Mackintosh downwards, strive says; but let it have reached him how it may, we as they will. imagine it came from the archives at Woburn: the

Of the authenticity of the papers in this valua- history of the Cavandish Manuscript is to be told in ble addenda to Parliamentary history, there is evi- the fourth volume. We should have thought it the dence of every thing excepting the Debates. The first thing to set about telling: though we have no Caldwell Reports were communicated by Lord Cha- I doubt of its authenticity.

From the Spectator.

MR. WAKEFIELD ON THE MEANS OF
NATIONAL EMIGRATION.*

THE prevailing rumours that the Government contemplate a scheme of Emigration worthy of the country of "ships, colonies, and commerce," have induced the Author of the New System of Colonization to set forth his most deliberate views of the means to such an end; and he bequeaths this exposition, through our pages, as a legacy to the cause, on taking his departure for North America. In the few years which have elapsed since Mr. Wakefield's system was first propounded, it has been tested in a number of ways-in friendly and hostile comments, in the personal examinations and cross-examinations of the propounder before Parliamentary Committees, and in partial experiments of a practical kind; it has undergone the revision of his own corrected judgment and long reflection; and he has thus been enabled to present the result of matured thoughts. The paper in which he has done so may be regarded as a condensed summing-up of volumes which have been written and spoken on the subject, with all the aids which we have enumerated. Therefore, although it is called forth by the occasion, it is of more than merely temporary use; it constitutes the rule of the Wakefield System, now laid down by its author in the most accessible shape. That system professes no cure of present distress in the country: it interferes not with the action of any needful remedy: it is not a substitute for any other desirable measure. It is for all times and seasons-without question, an efficient help in bad times; but still more efficient in maintaining and continually extending prosperity.

To the Editor of the Colonial Gazette.

of my scheme. Nor are the results in practice by any means unsatisfactory. South Australia, Austraha Felix, and New Zealand have been founded: New South Wales has obtained an ample immigrationfund the disposal of waste land, which used to cost more than it produced, has yielded in the Southern Colonies alone, whose population scarcely exceeds 200,000 souls, the sum of about 1,700,000l.: and every other colony of the empire which suffers from a deficiency of labour calls aloud for the adoption of the principle of turning waste land into a fund for promoting the immigration of people. It looks as if the work of colonizing in this manner would surely go on and prosper. Whilst I know that a large proportion of the labours by which this system has been set on foot, has been performed without my participation-whilst I acknowledge great obligations to many who have afforded to my obscure exertions a generous and powerful aid-I am bound to declare, that for much of that assistance, for having been able to avail myself of it, for whatever share of credit may be due to me in the whole matter, I am chiefly indebted to you. I should have done nothing at all, if you had not constantly helped me during the years when the pursuit of systematic colonization was a continual struggle with difficulties.*

The rumour of a project of emigration on a large scale has been so well received by the public, that I propose to confine myself to the consideration of means only. If this thing could be done by wishing, every Government would be ready to do it. Every Government is deterred from doing it by a fear of adding to the public burdens. The idea of extensive emigration is still commonly associated with the idea of taxation for the purpose. And, indeed, when one thinks of emigration by itself-of the mere sending away of people-the next thought is inevitably about the cost of the process. And at this disaLONDON, 28th November, 1841. greeable point most people stop in reflecting on the Even if the rumour of the intention of Government subject. They stop here, because they have not to adopt a large measure of emigration has no solid learned to regard emigration as but a part of somefoundation at present, it seems likely to fulfil itself thing else. It is in truth only one of the elements by exciting hopes which the Government would be of colonization. Viewed in this light, emigration very unwilling to disappoint. Some plan, therefore, appears to be susceptible of being carried on without may perhaps be submitted to Parliament in the any cost to the Mother-country. It is said that about coming session. With this hope, I am induced to forty thousand poor persons emigrated to our Southsend you a few remarks on the subject, as a contri-ern Colonies during the past twelvemonth. They bution towards fixing on a good plan. I wish to could not pay for their own passage: the cost of their publish them now, because I am on the point of quit-passage was not defrayed by any grant of Parliament: the whole ting England with a prospect of being absent for seexpense of this great emigration is veral months. borne by the Colonies, for which the accession of people is an increase of wealth out of all proportion Colonies complain of having to pay for this great larger than the expense of the passage. Do these immigration of people? No; they only ask for more hands on the same terms, knowing well, that just in proportion as they are supplied with labour will be their means of paying for its importation. Here, then, is the principle of a mode of carrying on emigration, which steers clear of the only objection to an extensive plan. The whole cost must be thrown on the colonies benefited by the measure, and

In asking a place for these remarks in the Colonial Gazette, I take the opportunity of publicly expressing my gratitude to you, as the person to whom I am especially indebted for having been able to propose with effect recent improvements in the art of colonization. As editor of the Spectator, you patiently examined my proposals, and manfully upheld them when they were treated with disdain or ridicule by nearly all others who thought it worth while to consider them. It was your support that encouraged me, not only to maintain a theory offensive from its novelty and generally disregarded or disapproved, but also to engage in a variety of labours of which the object was to submit that theory to the test of practice. Only eleven years have passed since I began this up-hill work, with no helping public hand but yours; and I think we may say now, that public opinion has gone a long way towards embracing the main principles

Transferred, as common property, from the Colonial Herald of Wednesday last.

APRIL, 1842.-MUSEUM.

57

With the generosity of most high intellects, Mr. Wakefield attributes to the aid of others successes commanded by his own great powers: it was these even that compelled the aid which he acknowledges. The kind of that of not being frightened by the novelty of a scientific merit which the Spectator seeks not to disclaim, is simply proposition; and of having, when examination had assured us of its solidity, held by it until others had become as convinced of its reality and of its practical nature as we are.-ED.

will be cheerfully defrayed by them. Such is the satisfactory conclusion drawn from viewing emigration as only a part of colonization.

It happens, in the next place, that the means by which the Colonies thus pay for emigration from the Mother-country, are not provided by Colonial taxation, but arise, one may almost say spontaneously, as an incident of arrangements made with a view to Colonial prosperity independently of immigration. The old plan of granting waste land for nothing was abandoned, because it was seen to operate as a check to the productiveness of Colonial industry and the increase of Colonial wealth. It produced this effect by causing the extent of appropriated land to be excessive in proportion to population. In order to bring about a better proportion between land and people-one in which the colonists should be less dispersed, and labour for hire more available-it was found requisite to diminish the facilities of obtaining new land. And this, it soon became obvious, could be done in no way so easily, so fairly, and so efficiently, as by putting a ready-money price on all new land. The consequence was, a fresh source of public revenue for the colony-a fund that seemed to come by a sort of magic, as if for the purpose of enabling the colony to procure labour without taxing any body. If the proceeds of the sales of land were turned into an immigration-fund, the buyers of the land obtained for their money, not the land merely, but precisely that which was calculated to add most to its value-to make it cheap at the price which they had paid for it-namely, an increase of the Colonial population in exact proportion to their purchase-money. And the greater the immigration, the more land would be sold; the more land was sold, the greater would be the immigration. This system may be termed a colonizing machine worked by an inherent and continually-growing power.

Let me now endeavour to show distinctly that this system has never yet had a fair trial.

To a fair trial of the system-to such a trial, I mean, as would have exhibited its greatest power of emigration without cost to the Mother-country-several conditions were indispensable.

or none of the purchase-money being used in adding to the Colonial population: the more the purchasemoney adds to population, the less will be the price required for causing any given proportion between land and people; the less an increase of people is occasioned by the purchase-money, the higher must be the regulating price of land. It may be asserted further, that any diversion of the purchase-money from the purpose of adding to population, necessarily operates as a partial tax for general purposes on the buyers of land and on the class of labourers for hire: it makes the buyers of land alone contribute so much for general purposes; and as it calls for a higher price than would have sufficed if the whole purchasemoney had added to population, it necessarily prolongs the term of the poor immigrant's service for hire, by postponing the period at which savings from his wages will enable him to become a landed proprietor. It was found hard to establish the propriety of requiring any price for new land, even for the purpose of providing labour: but now opinion seems inclined to get into the opposite extreme, and there are some who think that waste land is the best source of general revenue, and pioneers of the wilderness the fittest subjects for taxation for general purposes. But the uncertainty is worst of all. Uncertainty as to the rate at which land-sales will add to the Colonial population, carries uncertainty into several matters besides that of the business of dealing in land: beyond casting doubt and insecurity on the value of land and the progress of settlement, it renders the supply of the labour-market and the rate of wages precarious: it seems to me to be calculated to have as mischievous an effect on the economy of a colony as uncertainty about the standard of value would have in this country.

The third condition was, that the mode of sale (whatever the price and the use made of the purchase-money) should be based on sound principles. For a long while I had not imagined that this was a matter of much importance; and such appears to have been always the state of mind of those who have had to deal practically with the subject. Inquiry and reflection have taught me that the mode of The first was, that the price required for the new sale has effects of the greatest moment. If a uniland should be sufficient for the objects with which form price is adopted, whatever the quality and situany price had been imposed. A penny per acre, for ation of the land, then, unless there be always on example, would have been less than the quit-rent sale a quantity equal to the wants of the colonists previously demanded for new-land, and would have from time to time, this restriction of quantity will had no effect at all. What price would have been have the same effect as an increase of price in dimi too high, it is not so easy to point out. Nor do I in-nishing the proportion which land bears to populatend to enter here on the question of the measure by which to get at the golden mean. It is sufficient for my present purpose to state, that the colonies in which this system has been tried furnish abundant evidence of the price having been every where too low with reference to the objects in view; and the questions put by members of the recent Committee of the House of Common son South Australian affairs, show that the public men who are best acquainted with the subject, incline to an effective though gradual raising of the price.

The second condition of a fair experiment, was that the whole, or at least some large fired proportion of the proceeds of the sales, should be devoted to immigration. This has been done nowhere. While it remains undone, a principal element is wanting of any sound calculation as to what would be the proper price for it is obvious, that as the aim of a price is to occasion a due proportion between land and people, very different prices would be requisite under the different circumstances of the whole, or a part,

tion. If under the plan of a uniform price the surveys are not carried far in advance of the wants of the colonists, the choice of buyers will often he restricted to lots of inferior quality or position, so as to occasion a waste of capital and labour. If the mode of sale is by auction at a low upset price, with the view to a selling average of much higher amount by means of competition, then (with the exception of certain spots adapted for towns and suburban lots) the price obtained will depend on the quantity put up for sale. If the quantity open to purchasers much exceeds their wants, the selling price will hardly ever exceed the upset price, (as happens in Canada and throughout the United States,) and the auction will be a mere mockery of competition. In this case, the low upset price will really be the regulating price, contrary to the intentions of the Government. On the other hand, under the auction plan, it would not matter in the least what was the upset price if the quantity brought to sale were below the wants of the colonists. In this latter case, the price obtained

would really be settled by competition, or rather by chaser should be compelled to take land of inferior the officer of the Government who determined the quality or position while there was any of the supequantity to be offered for sale. Another great ob-rior kind within reach. The system, therefore, rejection to the auction plan is that it occasions delay, quires ample surveys. Unsurveyed land is not land by requiring notice in order that there may be com- for the purposes of this system, any more than unpetition; it often subjects to disappointment those picked cotton or unthrashed corn is fit for market. who have spent time and money in selecting particu- Practically the want of ample surveys has not been lar lots which after all are obtained by higher bidders severely felt, (though it led in South Australia to at the sale; and in Canada and the United States, the costly device of "special surveys" at the public most assuredly, it gives occasion to a great amount expense,) because neither the uniform nor the upset of jobbing, trickery, and fraud. The single ad- price has any where been high enough to make it a vantage attributed to it is, that it obtains for the Go- great hardship that the land of the best position and vernment more money than any other mode of sale. quality was not open to purchasers; but if ever the But is this an advantage? Is it desirable that the price should be raised so as to meet the views exGovernment should get from the class of land-buyers pressed by Lord Howick in the South Australia more than the price which is sufficient for a due pro- Committee of last session, ample surveys will be inportion between people and land? And if it were dispensable in order that there may be a wide liberty desirable to get more than that sufficient price, would of choice. And here it may be well to notice two it not be secured even more easily and surely by objections to such a price as Lord Howick is supadding the desired excess to a sufficient uniform posed to contemplate. The first is, that at such a price, than by the auction plan with all its irregulari- price, whether fixed or upset, land of inferior quality ties, its dependence on the quantity brought to sale, or position would not find purchasers. Then let it its notices, delays, disappointments, and rogueries? remain unpurchased, so long as there is preferable I know that the auction plan has recommended itself land to sell. But when the preferable land had been by the large sums obtained for small quantities of bought and cultivated, and the district had been peoland marked out by the Government as town sites pled and improved, the land which had been at first and suburban lots; but it may be questioned whe- neglected, though still waste itself, would no longer ther, if the Government could obtain the sufficient be in the midst of a waste, but would have acquired price (and more if more were thought desirable) by a position superior to that of any land in the waste, the simple plan of a fixed uniform price, it does and would then, unless wholly sterile by nature, wisely to encumber itself with the pursuit of a busi- fetch the price of the best land in waste districts; ness so liable to miscalculation, so often ending in and if any wholly sterile land remained for ever undisappointment among the buyers and reproaches sold, it would occasion no greater inconvenience against the seller, and, above all, when undertaken than that which had been decreed by Nature under by the Government, so apt to stimulate merely spe- every mode of colonization. The second objection culative investment, as that of choosing the sites of to a sufficient price is, that though suitable for rich intended towns in a half-explored country, and sell-soils which would make a large return to capital and ing town and suburban lots by auction. Is it to be labour, it would be too high for great part of such a wished that the Government should take the part of country as Australia, where the main employment land-jobbing companies or individuals, without the of capital is sheep-farming, and where, in some dispecuniary responsibilities that belong to the latter? tricts, several acres are required to feed a sheep. If not, the auction plan has no recommendation to ba- And this objection must be fully admitted. But in lance its inconveniences. An alleged inconvenience admitting it, the statement has to be made that noof the uniform price is that it requires ample surveys body has ever proposed to put a price on the use of and the fixing of a "sufficient" price by authority; natural pasturage. That might be granted for nowhich indeed it does: but so does the auction plan thing, as all land used to be, but in strict proportion if the quantity brought to sale be ample (since in to the stock kept by the grantee, and on condition that case the bulk of purchasers will buy at the up- that whenever any body wanted to buy any of it that set price;) and it is surely better to acknowledge portion should be resumed by the Government for and face the difficulty of fixing the right price by sale, without even a tendency to defeat the object of law, than to fail in the attempt to evade that diffi- insisting on a price for every acre acquired as perculty by so irregular and uncertain a process as a manent property. capricious limitation of the quantity brought to sale. In fact, however, neither the one plan nor the other has been firmly established with its proper accompaniments. Under the uniform plan, the price has been far too low; under the auction plan, the quantity has been far too great, or the upset price too low; and instead of either plan being fixed by the final choice of Government, both have been the subject of perpetual controversy and indecision.

The fourth condition was, supposing the price to be sufficient, that the greatest liberty and facility of selection should be afforded to purchasers. When the Government gets the true maximum-that is, the highest price required for the only purpose with which waste land ought ever to be saddled with any price-it ought so to manage matters that no pur

* I have been assured, that at a recent auction sale in Australia, very improper influence was used to prevent biddings against the purchasers of certain lots.

The fifth condition was, that, whatever might be the price and the mode of sale, both should be applied uniformly to all parts of a colony and to all the colonies of any group. One plan in one place, and another in another place not far off, were sure to counteract each other. This is so obvious as scarcely to require explanation. Yet in the only group of colonies in which the mode of sale with a view to immigration has been tried at all, it has been tried under a variety of modifications at the same time.

The sixth condition was, supposing the uniform or upset price to be "sufficient," that sales to come should be anticipated by the raising of loans on the security of future sales, and the use of the proceeds of such loans as a fund for immigration. This is required for a new colony, because the first emigrants will hardly give the sufficient price (whether upset or uniform) until the settlement is in some measure peopled; and is still more required for old colonies, because in every one of them the discarded

well had been adopted, I should still say that it had not been fairly tried.

stability, are almost utterly wanting in almost every particular. Considering the unwillingness of most men to embark their fortunes in a career which hardly admits of calculations as to the future or the present, the wonder is, not that more has not been done with the new mode of colonization, but that so much has been accomplished.

plan of granting has caused such an excess of land in proportion to people, that, except for certain old reserves or peculiarly eligible spots, there would be The seventh and last condition was, that the whole no purchasers at the sufficient price until the popula- system should be fixed, or at least so far fixed as not tion of the colony was considerably increased. It to be liable to change in any of its material parts has been objected to such loans that they would bur- without public discussion and ample notice. I canden the colony with debt. And what then? The not imagine how this should be done except by act incurring of debt for a good object, the borrowing of of Parliament. At present every thing is in a state money with a view to profit, is as legitimate a of uncertainty, not to say of perpetual change. Nocourse of proceeding for governments as for indi- body concerned in the matter seems to know what is viduals, provided the borrowed money is laid out so his proper business, and still less what may happen as to insure the means of its repayment with profit in a month with respect to any part of the subject. besides. Now if the Government peopled its land At one time the Secretary of State determines, and first and sold it afterwards, it would be able to sell it the Governor finds some reason for declining to act for a great deal more than if it sold it first and peo- on the instruction; at another the Governor makes pled it afterwards. This is proved by the great and a plan of his own, which is overset by the Secretary rapid increase in the market value of land that inva- of State. Sometimes Commissioners are to do every riably takes place in new settlements which attract thing, then the Colonial Office, next the local Gopopulation. If the Government could begin by tak-vernments; and decisions of the utmost conseing people to its land without borrowing, that would quence are continually made as lightly and with as be the best course; but the Government has no capital. little responsibility as if nobody had an interest in The advocates of loans for emigration to be raised on them. In one settlement they sell by auction; in the security of future sales of land, propose only another, close by, at the uniform price; in several that the powerful aid of capital should be brought to places the auction obtains to-day and the uniform the work of colonization. They say to the Govern- price to-morrow. What portion of the proceeds ment, Take example from the manufacturer of cot- of land-sales is devoted to immigration varies conton, who lays out his own or a borrowed capital in tinually every where. As to many points, the lanbuilding a factory and providing it with machinery guage of regulations is so vague as to admit of differand raw material, reckoning on the powers of pro-ent interpretations, and sometimes to be hard to duction which the use of capital gives, as a means comprehend. Distinctness, uniformity, order, and of replacing his investment with profit. But governments, it may be urged, are so wasteful in their outlay, and so apt to be extravagant when they have facilities of borrowing. The answer is, that the business of laying out money on emigration and afterwards selling waste land (on the simplest plan) may be made a work of routine, and so guarded by publicity and other checks to extravagance as to preclude all danger of waste. Indeed, experience is here on the side of those who propose that the Government should use a capital in colonizing: a large amount of the proceeds of the sales of waste land has been expended on emigration under the direction of Government, and with remarkable success as respects both economy and the well-doing of the passengers. But another objector says, if the Government has too much money for emigration, it will send out too many labourers, and there will be suffering from want of employment. Why should the Government ever have "too much" money for emigration? why should it ever borrow more than enough to supply from time to time the ascertained want of labour in the colonies to which the system was applied? And even if the Government were so careless as to commit such errors, there is reason to believe that an excess of labouring emigration be yond the wants of the Colonies would be accompanied by an amount of capital sufficient to employ the surplus. The emigration of labour seems always to give occasion to the emigration of capital; if a shipowner trading to any of the Southern Colonies can but fill his steerage with passengers of the labouring class, he is pretty sure of finding occupants for the cabins; and this would be still more invariably the case if the labour-emigration were more constant and more easily foreseen, so that capitalists should be more certain of obtaining labour on their arrival in the colony. I know of no other objection to the borrowing of money for emigration on the single security of the land sales. But at all events, this is so essentially part of the system originally proposed by me, that, if all the other conditions of its working

This array of requirements is much less formida ble than it appears at first sight; as will be manifest to those who observe that a compliance with them would tend rather to simplify than to complicate the process. Nor are the deficiencies and errors which it exhibits a fit subject of reproach to any one. Instead of complaining that a nearer approach to perfection has not been made, we shall be more just if we express satisfaction at the rapid progress of im provement which the present exhibits in comparison with the barbarous doings of ten years ago. This is still a new subject. But the most careless observer must perceive that there is a growing sense of its im portance; and eminent public men on both sides as to party have paid so much attention to it, that un questionably if the whole case were now considered by persons in authority with the object of devising a general plan of colonization, some very good mea sure would be the result.

At the same time, I am not so sanguine as to hope that any attempt will be presently made to find out and establish the best possible mode of proceeding. And indeed it may be questioned whether, as regards a subject still imperfectly understood, it would be wise to aim at perfection. In this case, though the newest road might not necessarily be the very best, the very best would be wholly new to many; and such ways are apt to be full of lions. A measure sufficient for the time might be adopted without startling any body. Let us but keep moving in the path marked out by what has been done already, and with great acknowledged benefits, in one group of our colonies. It would suffice for the present if the Government should submit a measure to Parliament for raising and fixing the price (whether uniform or