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PUBLIC

RECORD OFFICE

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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

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unofficial votes recorded on the Government side. By "the Government side," I must be understood merely to mean a purely nominal distinction, namely, the side on which With regard to the most Government officers happened, as it chanced, to vote. expenditure of the public money, referred to by Mr. Ambrose and others, I can state that, during the last five years, not one single financial vote has been pressed through Council by the Government majority. In fact the policy and finance of the Govern- ment have commanded the confidence of the whole body of the unofficial members of Council, to a degree very closely approaching entirety.

11. To conclude this part of the subject, this petition may, I think, be ascribed to the legislative and political fertility of the past two or three years, joined to the high prosperity of the Colony, and to the extraordinary numbers and activity of the lawyers, journalists, and other educated classes who interest themselves in politics, and who chafe at the restraint and want of elasticity of the Crown Colony system, which denies them the access to public life for which they are fitted, and which they naturally covet,

It would be absurd to ascribe the petition to any aots of deliberate misrule or oppression. No doubt this Government, like most others, makes mistakes. But it cannot be seriously maintained by any reasonable person that the affairs of the Colony are not justly and liberally administered. If, as a Crown Colony, Mauritius has worn certain political chains, they have not impeded its rise to a pitch of prosperity unexampled in a small and remote island, aloof from the thoroughfares of the world, I will now consider the arguments urged in favour of the petition.

12. All arguments based upon the abstract superiority of a representative to a nominated Council may be admitted at once, but I fear they must also be dismissed, as entirely beside the purpose. No one disputes the superiority of a representative to a nominated chamber. The only question is, whether, in the circumstances of Mauri- tius, & partly representative chamber, based on the suggested franchise, is advisable. The petitioners refer to other Colonies, in which a diversity of races also exists, and to which representative, or partly representative institutions have been granted. From the Report annexed to the petition, and from the speech made by Mr. Guibert at the meeting, we gather that these references are to the Cape Colony and Natal. But the Cape Colony is a very different community to that of Mauritius. The native race there is a savage race, living for the most part on separate lands and governed by separate laws, and it is not, as here, a population labouring for white employers. The Cape Colony possesses the materials for responsible institutions, and these have been granted to it. It is not pretended by anyone that Mauritius possesses these materials. Under responsible government there is no conflict of authority, no separation of power from responsibility. But, had even the Cape Colony received a constitution such as that asked for Mauritius, what would have been the result? The Cape Colony is so different from this country, its constitution so different from that sketched out in the petition, that I see no analogy between the two cases.

13. Natal, it is true, affords a somewhat closer illustration. There are a few composite legislative council, thousand Indian immigrants in Natal, and there is a which, till lately, consisted of the same elements as the council proposed in the petition, namely, of official, nominated, and elected members. But this council was soon proved to be a failure, and it was abolished two years ago, after an unsatisfactory existence of five years.

So far as Natal is a case in point, it tells against the petition. But I submit that cases in point are idle in such a matter. If there be one question more than another which should be decided simply upon its own merits, and with reference to purely local circumstances, and not by references to other countries and other cir cumstances, I submit it is the question of a change in a political constitution. Leaving, therefore, arguments based on the abstract superiority of representative institutions, and arguments based on what has taken place elsewhere, let us come to those based on what exists in Mauritius.

14. We do not find any of these arguments till we come to the 14th paragraph of the petition, which deals with the presence of a great number of Indian immigrants " in this island." Here, indeed, we get to the kernel of the matter, to the special and predominating fact in connexion with any political proposal of this nature in Mauritius. It is stated that this fact cannot "be urged as a serious ground against the views held by your petitioners," and it is further remarked that "if ever there could be any tendency on the part of the colonial legislature to deal otherwise than fairly and "impartially by those immigrants, the very large and powerful authority with which "the Crown is already vested, and with which it will continue to be armed, will be "more than adequate to protect and defend their just rights." Nothing is added to

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this assertion, and the most important consideration involved is thus disposed of and dismissed.

any

15. The statement that the Crown would retain its present powers under the proposed council is one which cannot, I am afraid, be admitted. Such a council would involve a surrender of power by the Crown. In such a council, every important division taken during the passing of the labour law in the year 1877, would have gone against the Government, and the law could not have been passed. Such a council could at any time produce a dead-lock, and could bring its power to bear upon any question by with- holding supplies. If the Government yielded on every point on which it found itself in a minority, the public business of the island could be carried on. But if such point arose on which the Government could not yield, difficulty would ensue. The question is simple. If it be the policy of Her Majesty's Government to maintain itself here in a position in which it can on occasion direct action which, as the labour law of 1878, may run counter to the wish of the upper classes of the community, it is my duty to point out that such a policy would become impossible under the proposed council. It is true that, in labour questions, power might be exercised through the Government of India, who could always prohibit emigration. But emigration to this island from India might cease of its own accord, as it did for the whole of last year; and, in any case, this would not be a desirable, and scarcely a constitutional mode of governing the Colony. In your Lordship's despatch, allowing the increase to the Messageries Maritimes subsidy, you "reserve full liberty to desire a reconsideration of "the question hereafter, if circumstances render it expedient." It is my duty to point out that such reconsideration could not be "desired with the council described in the petition. The fact cannot be disguised that such a council simply means the transfer to the 10 nominated and the 10 elected members of much of the power now held in reserve by Her Majesty's Secretary of State for the Colonies.

16. I presume it is intended by the petitioners that the existing power to legislate for the Colony by order in council should be abandoned. That power is not exercised under the present constitution, and, whether it be abandoned or not, I do not consider that it can be looked to as a convenient remedy and resource. I do not find, either in the petition or in the report annexed to it, any further arguments in support of what is asked than those I have now dealt with.

17. There are arguments by which the petition has been opposed. My despatch, No. 441, of the 14th ultimo,forwarded a second letter addressed to the "Cernéen " newspaper by the Honourable Mr. Antelme. In that letter, Mr. Antelme draws attention to the great preponderance of the Indian population, and expresses his fear of the consequences which may ensue from the Indian vote becoming, as he believes it would, the chief political power of the island under the proposed franchise. I have no doubt that the calamity indicated by Mr. Antelme, namely, the eclipse by an Indian vote of the power of the higher classes referred to at the beginning of this despatch, would come with time. But I do not think that the very restricted franchise proposed in the petition would immediately let loose the "Asiatic spectre," as it has been called. I am convinced that the first effect of this franchise would be quite in another direc- tion, namely, to place the Government of the Colony in the hands of an oligarchy of planters, merchants, lawyers, and journalists. Indians, however, would gradually make their way to the electoral roll, and one evil would thus in time give place to another. Few would maintain that the Indians of Mauritius are in any way qualified to exercise political power. A short time ago, I desired very much to appoint an Indian to the Council of Education, in order that he might speak for the interests of his race in questions of primary instruction. After much inquiry, I was compelled to give up the idea, as I could not discover that there was one Indian among the 250,000 in the Colony who was qualified for a seat at that council. Any electoral suffrage which could be adopted in this Colony must do one of two things. It must shut out the Indian and the descendant of the old slave population, and so place the power in the hands of an oligarchy of the upper classes mentioned above, or, it must place power in the hands of an ignorant mass of people not fitted to exercise it. The latter is the view taken by Mr. Antelme, and is undoubtedly the alternative which would work most ruin to the Colony.

18. It is also clear that the presence of elected members in the midst of a council consisting otherwise of officials and nominees, would introduce an element which would give rise to new difficulties without removing old ones. The elected members would naturally consider themselves the first power; in the heat of debate the nominee members would be liable to be twitted with their position; the press would join in the

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