and justice, whose anger is it we have to fear? Is it that of Spain?

Our policy, with regard to King Ferdinand's government, seemed to be made up, when our late Minister of Foreign Affairs addressed to the Spanish envoy in London his memorable answer of the 25th of March, 1825. From that moment, we were prepared to expect no other than acts of insincerity and contrarieties from the ruler of Spain. In this, I am led to think, we were not mistaken. In upholding the Portuguese Charter, we cannot, however, fear the resentment of France, since, after the public and repeated declarations she has put forth, she cannot now step forward as the champion of the Spanish Apostolicals; nor dare she undertake an open war against institutions, as legitimate as her own. She would never take so awful a responsibility on her shoulders. When England, in 1824, interposed her trident between America and Europe; when she boldly avowed her new policy, and silenced the cries of those who would still gladly have deluged the New World with blood and desolation, in order to restore the dominion of Spain, war was not the result. On the contrary, Europe was reconciled to the measure, and most of the powers soon followed our example. Ill-will was, no doubt, felt somewhere; yet no one, except Spain, ventured to contest our right, and she did not dare to resent the measure in any other way than remonstrance. The parties, then offended, are the very same who now endeavor to put down the Portuguese Charter, partly out of hostility to us. Yet, is it their anger we are afraid again to brave?

The dawn of freedom in Portugal is, my Lord, most auspicious; and it would be a singular circumstance, if such an event were not interesting to that nation, in which alone the spirit of real liberty is supposed to dwell. When the friend of humanity, in whose heart education has engraved the horror of injustice and a solicitude for the happiness of mankind, casts his eyes over the crimsoned pages of that portion of Spanish history, which comprehends Ferdinand's reign of terror, from the year 1814, with only a short interval, up to the present time, he must shudder at the idea of the Apostolicals gaining an ascendancy in Portugal. They are now, however, again marshalling all their strength, and preparing to act, nay, even before the future Regent returns to Lisbon. All possible plots and machinations will be resorted to; yet we have only to second the benevolent wishes of King Peter IV., and in a firm and manly way throw the weight of our influence and good offices into the opposite scale, and the

triumph is secure. One single act of enlightened policy will place the Charter beyond danger, when Portugal will be at peace and prosper. She will then, and then only, recover from her past misfortunes. Under a wise administration, she still possesses all the elements necessary to constitute an efficient and powerful kingdom. She has still dependencies enough proportioned to her size. The Azores and other Islands, as well as her Eastern Colonies, properly administered, offer inexhaustible resources to her commerce and navigation. These, and many other dormant ones which she possesses within herself, would be gradually developed, if she has only the aid of liberal institutions. All, my Lord, will be lost if the Charter is overthrown: nay, I will venture to add, if vengeance and monachism triumph in the Peninsula ; if the Imperial power is shook in Brazil; or, if Bolivar is lost to Colombia, the destinies of those three interesting portions of the globe will stand still for the next twenty years.

BRIEF REFLECTIONS

AND

SUGGESTIONS

REGARDING SEVERAL SUBJECTS INTIMATELY CONNECTED WITH

THE POWER AND PROSPERITY

OF THE

BRITISH EMPIRE.

IN TWO PARTS.-PART II.

[Concluded from No. LV.]

LONDON:-1827.

CHAP. VI.

Colonies-Policy of endowing them with governments in an infant state which will be suitable to them in adult independence-Exemplified in the relative conditions of the North American and West India coloniesExpensive and impolitic mode of governing the latter-Changes suggested -Benefits arising from a gradual equalisation of rights among the population there-Justice and policy of admitting colonies to elect generally their own civil officers-Improper description of individuals frequently sent out to fill these situations-Hatred engendered against the mother-country in consequence-Necessity of furnishing codes of instructions to governors -Advantages resulting from exposés of the annual improvements and finances of respective colonies, and of having the salaries of governors paid from the colonial revenue-Benefits of encouraging European colonisation in India-Instruction and christianising of the natives, and qualifying them for offices there equally with Europeans.

IN the settling of colonies, their governments ought to be modelled after the shape such will naturally assume when the respective countries to which they are adapted arrive at a state of maturity, because the period ought always to be looked forward to when colonies will as naturally throw off the control of the mother country, as a child will that of its parent; and therefore institutions ought to be adapted to it, in its state of infancy, VOL. XXVIII. NO. LVI.

Pam.

Y

which, with but little alteration, will be equally applicable in its manhood, saving it thus from those revolutionary struggles which must eventually ensue in every country where the governments are not modelled to suit the peculiar situation and habits of the people.

If the country colonised is diminutive in extent, or is likely to continue always thinly peopled and poor, then the nearer its government approaches the true republican form, the more suitable will it be both to its present and its future wants, because such is the mode of government it will naturally assume, both as being the cheapest and the most likely to endure from the poverty of the country, keeping all classes on that footing of equality, in respect to wealth and influence, which serves as the best check to the aspiring views of ambitious men towards despotic power. If, however, the country is destined to be populous, powerful, and rich, then its institutions ought to be modelled so as to adapt its government to that of a limited constitutional monarchy, to prevent those struggles eventually ensuing between the various influential individuals and the various hostile political parties in the state, for the highly-prized (and probably profitable) honor of ruling over it, and between those of property and those of no property, which would eventually end in some bold and ambitious individual raising himself to arbitrary power during such factious contentions. Canada and (probably) Australia may be classed under the latter descriptions of countries, to whose political state constitutional monarchism will eventually be the best adapted; while almost all our other colonies are either too insignificant in extent of territory (like our West India islands), or their territory is too barren (like the Cape) for the support of a wealthy and crowded population, to make any other form of government than the republican suitable to their particular state. In such colonies, therefore, a monied and a landed aristocracy will naturally in process of time spring up; and the mode of government instituted ought to be such as will rather facilitate than hinder the consummation of this natural course of things; fashioning thus the institutions founded to meet present wants, with a view to answer also future exigences exigences which will naturally result in a coun try so circumstanced, and in a society so constituted. Thus all those possessing a certain amount of landed property in colonies such as these, might constitute in course of time the privileged class from which the county council could alone elect members to serve as members of his Majesty's colonial council; the governor having at the same time the power of adding to this body by members appointed for life as at present, and having also the power delegated to him of conferring honors of knighthood: so

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