foundation of colonial establishments as, generally speaking, inexpedient. It is not to the establishment of colonies that he objects, but to the trammels that have been laid on their industry, and to the interference exercised by the mother country in their domestic concerns. Occasions may occur, when the soundest 'policy dictates the propriety of supporting and protecting them. ' until they are in a situation to support and protect themselves.' But surely the right of interference, however much to be deprecated is the indiscreet exercise of that right, must belong to the protective Government. And so long as those colonies require such protection, it is but just that they should be made to yield some advantage in return to the parent State.

But Mr. M'Culloch seems to doubt, with Sir Henry Parnell, whether colonies can, as such, be of any advantage to the mother country. Europe has been prodigiously benefited by the colonization of America, it is admitted, inasmuch as it has immeasurably extended the empire of civilization, and opened new marts for commerce; but it is the formation of such colonies, not our possession of them, it seems, that is so beneficial. That there should be such countries to trade with, is an advantage; but that they should belong to us, is a disadvantage. If they did not belong to us, we should save all the expense of governing them, and yet derive from them precisely the same commercial advantages. Now surely this is taking much more for granted, than is warranted by either facts or sober calculation. What has created the commerce and maritime greatness of Great Britain, but her colonies? And what are many of those colonies but out posts for the maintenance of our power? To represent the military and naval expenditure occasioned by the colonies as incurred simply on account of the colonies themselves, is palpably fallacious. If Malta, Gibraltar, and the Ionian Islands cost us the expense of a garrison, is the command of the Mediterranean of no advantage to our commerce ? If the former two were ceded to Spain, and the latter abandoned to the protection of Russia, would our commerce suffer no detriment? Or if the Cape, the Mauritius, and Ceylon were given up to the Dutch, would our ascendancy in the Indian Seas, and the security of our Indian empire, be in no wise affected? Yet, all these would be sacrificed by Sir Henry Parnell's sweeping plans of colonial reduction. If perpetual peace could be secured, some of our possessions might be safely parted with; but upon his principles of financial reform, it were better to discard them all as useless incumbrances.

If, however, our colonies be in fact the bulwarks of our commerce, the expense of maintaining them must be set against the total revenue derived from our commerce, not against what is furnished by the colonies themselves. If they are not in a si

tuation to maintain their political independence, it were unreasonable to require that they should defray the whole military and naval expense of their being protected; for this would be in effect to protect themselves, which it is supposed that they are unable to do. But, for this political protection to which they owe their security, whether it be that of the mother country, or of any foreign power, they may justly be expected to yield some compensation; and if the monopoly of their trade can be made of advantage, it is but a fair equivalent. Yet, it is not for the sake of that monopoly merely, that they are of value, but as military and naval stations; and in protecting them, the mother country protects her own interests.

That the colonies ought to defray the charges of their civil establishment and internal defence, is but reasonable; and this they do, with the exception, we believe, of our slave colonies, where the presence of a considerable military force is required, not to defend the islands against foreign enemies, but to keep down the black population. The expediency of retaining such colonies may, indeed, be questioned. The system of government in the West India islands, is upon the most expensive scale; and were slavery abolished, nearly the whole of the military expenditure which they entail, might be saved. The charge of their naval protection would then alone devolve upon this country; and that is the fair price of the security of our commerce.

When colonies become strong enough not merely to govern, but also to protect themselves, and when they find it cheaper to do so, than to buy the protection of a distant State, then, being virtually independent because capable of asserting their independence, it may be for the interests of all parties, that a political separation should take place. At all events, it is likely to ensue. That the separation of the American colonies from Great Britain, was in no respect injurious either to them or to this country, we cannot indeed admit. The injury has been more than repaired; it has been exceedingly counterbalanced by the marvellous expansion of the united colonies into a powerful State, exerting a salutary moral re-action upon the decrepit governments of Europe. But at the time, the separation, being premature as well as violent, was productive of mutual injury. And had not Great Britain retained, by means of her Canadian and other colonies, the means of indemnifying herself for the loss, the blow to our commerce would have been fatal. As it is, our share of the American trade is now become more valuable than the monopoly of the colonial trade was prior to the separation; and the population of British America at this moment, is almost equal to that of the Thirteen Colonies at the middle of the last century *.

* In 1748, their total population was estimated at about 1,100,000.

Nova

The greatest advantage that America has gained by the separation, has been, perhaps, the privilege of a pacific neutrality amid jealous belligerent nations, and security against aggression from any European power. Except as having escaped from implication in the politics of the mother country, she would otherwise have reaped little solid advantage. Prior to their becoming independent, Professor M'Culloch remarks,

Every thing relating to the internal regulation and administration of the different colonies, was determined in the colonial assemblies by representatives freely chosen by the settlers. The personal liberty of the citizens was well secured and vigilantly protected. And if we except the restraint on their commerce, the monopoly of which was jealously guarded by the mother country, the inhabitants of Virginia, Pennsylvania, and New England enjoyed nearly the same degree of freedom, when colonists of England, that they now enjoy as citizens of the powerful republic of North America. Their progress in wealth and population was in consequence quite unprecedented in the history of the world.' p. 312.

For several years after the commencement of the French Revolution, the state of the political world favoured the enterprise of the Americans, whose vessels, as neutrals, were employed to carry from port to port the commodities of the belligerents. In fifteen. years, reckoning from 1793, these favourable circumstances increased the amount of American tonnage from 491,000 to 1,242,000 tons. This accidental advantage resulting from the separation of the American Colonies from Great Britain, does not, however, fairly come under consideration, in estimating the general benefits of detaching colonies from the mother country. But for the war, it is not impossible that the progress of America in wealth and population would have been quite as rapid, had the colonies still continued to acknowledge the sceptre of Great Britain.

At all events, before their separation can be regarded as a precedent establishing the advantage of getting rid of our colonies as fast as possible, it may be as well to inquire, in what respects the loss of Brazil and the Indies has redounded to the advantage of Portugal, what France has gained by the independence of Hayti and the loss of her other colonies, and how much Spain has saved by being relieved from the expense and trouble of governing Mexico and Colombia. Till this is satisfactorily ascertained, we really think that it would be unwise to sacrifice the Canadas either to financial reform or to political hypothesis; more especially as the Canadians seem at present to be too well aware of

Nova Scotia contained only 13,000, and Canada about 70,000. The Canadas and Nova Scotia now contain between 900,000 and a million.

the benefits they derive from their connexion with this country, to wish to renounce that alliance for the equivocal advantage of admission to the American Federacy. In tonnage and seamen, the trade of the British North American provinces is said to employ, at present, about one-fifth of the whole foreign trade of this country.

We regret to find Professor M'Culloch countenancing the extravagant misrepresentations and malignant clamours that have been circulated respecting Sierra Leone. The prodigality of the expenditure occasioned by this colony, he asserts to be

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matched, except by its uselessness.' Commercially considered, it appears to quite as little advantage, he says, as in other points of view; and if an establishment be really required for the advantageous prosecution of the trade to Western Africa, it is abundantly obvious, that it should be placed much further to 'the south than Sierra Leone.' We take leave to say that this is the reverse of obvious. Captain Beaver, no friend to the colony, admitted, that if commerce were one of the principal objects' of the Company, they had chosen a tolerably good situation, with an excellent harbour,'*-the only good one, in fact, between Gibraltar and the Gold Coast. And if this station has not had the effect of destroying the slave-trade carried on with the countries round the bights of Biafra and Benin, it has extinguished it from the Rio Nunez to the Shebar inclusive. Nor does its insalubrity, which has been grossly exaggerated, by any means entitle it to be styled 'the most pestiferous of all pes'tiferous places.' The climate of Guinea, of the island of Fernando Po, respecting which such delusive accounts were circulated, and of Mozambique, is still more destructive. Nay, the Havannah, and the Dutch East India islands, exhibit a greater mortality. Even the Quarterly Reviewers now admit the declamations against Sierra Leone, which their own Journal was chiefly instrumental in instigating, to be misplaced and absurd.' 'There can be no question," they say, 'that, as a colony, it is not 'worth retaining; but where, within the necessary limits, is a 'healthy spot to be found, where the objects which the treaties 'have in view can be fairly accomplished?'+ We do not concede that, even as a colony, it might not be made worth all that it costs us; but the project of looking out for a more advantageous situation further south, has been sufficiently exposed as founded on ignorance and illusion.

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In all that Professor M'Culloch says as to the inefficiency of

* African Memoranda, p. 307.

+ Quart. Rev. No. LXXXIV. p. 525. The whole sum expended upon Sierra Leone at present, is stated to be ridiculously small, compared with the statements which have been put forth.'

the mixed commission courts,-the absurdity of bribing Spain and Portugal to relinquish the slave-trade, the evil effects inevitably resulting to the colony from the annual importations of uncivilized negroes, and the propriety of employing instructed blacks to fill up the official stations, -we completely concur. The colony has been grievously injured by the want of any systematic plan for its government, by jobbing and mismanagement; it has had, in short, every thing against it. But, under a judicious and effective administration, it might be rendered of the highest advantage to Africa, and of far greater use to the commerce of this country. By the way, from his manner of referring to Sierra Leone at p. 340, it is evident that our Author is not aware, that both the Portuguese and the French had formed settlements on the river, before us; and that Golberry, the French traveller, had spoken of the bay as one of the most delightful sites in the world.

Upon the subject of our West India colonies, Professor M'Culloch discovers considerable embarrassment. For the present depression of the trade, it is perhaps impossible,' he remarks, to point out any means of effectual relief:-their only rational and substantial ground of hope seems to be in a further reduction of 'the duties on sugar, coffee, and rum.' We are sorry to find him countenancing for a moment the revival of the slave-trade under the pretence of transporting slaves from one British colony to another. The old islands would, like Virginia, if that were allowed, be converted into breeding-grounds. We are surprised, too, that he should represent the black population of Jamaica as having increased more than five times as rapidly as the whites; which conveys the idea of a natural increase. In 1673, Jamaica contained 7,768 whites and 9,504 slaves. It would have been well for the island,' he remarks, had the races continued to preserve this relation to each other; but unfortunately',-the whites have increased from 7,768 to about 30,000, while the blacks have increased from 9,504 to 322,421, exclusive of persons of colour. Professor M'Culloch does not state how large a number of blacks were imported into the island during that period; he does not state, that, prior to the abolition of the slave-trade, Jamaica lost annually 7000 individuals or 2 per cent. on the slave population; nor that the total black population at this moment does not amount to one half the number imported into the island; so that, instead of any increase upon the black population, there has been a decrease of 435,000 upon 850,000 imported!* All this he does not tell us; but he affirms, that it is the immense (nu'merical) preponderance of the slave population, that renders the

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See Eclect. Rev. 3d Series, Vol. IV. p. 23. Between 1700 and 1808, Jamaica alone received from Africa, nearly 677,000 negroes.

VOL. VIII.-N.S.

BB