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those possessions depreciated; nay, how common is it to be told that England would be more pros- perous and happy without Colonies! Nor is this doctrine confined to the common herd of society; it is put forth from time to time by men who would teach us by their writings, and is occasionally heard even within the walls of Parliament, where, so often as some real or alleged act of mismanagement or extravagance in our Colonial Administration is brought forward, the occasion is used for displaying to the world how small a portion of the science of government may be possessed by men who take upon themselves one of the highest functions of society, that of making laws for its regulation.
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Colonies are mismanaged; therefore they are evils. They are a ceaseless source of expense; therefore it would be wise to rid ourselves of the encumbrance." Such has been the cry from time to time, and more or less at all times, of men who, while they put themselves forward as being com- petent to assist the Government of a nation, are unable to discern the difference between use and abuse, or to see in politics, as well as in all other branches of human concerns, everything, however useful or even necessary to happiness, may be own unwise converted into an injury by our mode of dealing ith it. It would form a very inconclusive argument against the value of colonics and foreign possessions, that under bad or defective systems of government they had always been pro- ductive of evil. It would seem to require but one moment's reflection to be convinced that Colonial Possessions must be capable of adding to the wealth, the power, and the resources of the Parent State, if the right means of making them so shall be adopted; and that if, on the contrary, they have tended to our weakness and impoverishment, those conse. quences are attributable not to anything inherent in the nature of those possessions, but to unwise legislation or unjust government."
Few will doubt that this is in the main true, and it so, an enlightened government, not the abandon. ment, of the Colonies, ought to be the policy of this country. The proof that this has been the object of the present Government is to be found in the principles laid down and the measures proposed
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and to be proposed with this view, described in Lord Grey's memorandum. And they show, moreover, that whilst crude propositions for reform are objected to, as being inconsistent with the intention
of a Colonial Empire, there is no desire to shrink from any proposition calculated to strengthen the union with, or render the government of the Crown acceptable and beneficial to the Colonies.
January 5, 1850.
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B. H.