12
13
33
subjects from the Imperial Parliament.
It cannot be a matter of surprise (to mention only two instances), that the powerful English mercantile community envy their weak Portuguese neighbours at Macao the privilege of bringing grievances and desires directly before the national Legislature at Lisbon; nor that the French settlers in Mauritius should entertain a similar feeling with regard to their countrymen, the French settlers in the neighbouring island of Bourbon (or Reunion) which sends two Representatives to the national Legislature at Paris. Your Lordship will recollect that Adam Smith strongly advocated (Wealth of Nations, Book IV. Chap 7) the admission of Representatives from the colonies into the Imperial Parliament. The neglect of his advice was caused, warnings the loss to the British Empire in the last century of most of its American Provinces; and, if persisted in, it will probably cause the loss in the next century of Canada and of Australasia.
For