CO882-(3-4) — Page 563

PUBLIC

RECORD OFFICE

Reference :-

CO. 882

ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH——NOT TO

4PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

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Besides, it would be vain to declare theoretically that the official members are free to vote as they choose: there are necessities inherent in a man's position which are Official members cannot be indepen- more powerful than all the rules in the world. dent of the Government; they will always be subject to its pressure direct or indirect; nay more, if the Government were to make no attempt to bias their votes, they would still unconsciously be influenced by it; they would be constantly driven by the force of things to secret surrenders or to latent compromises with their own consciences.

As for the unofficial members, even if their number were increased, and they were appointed for life, they would still be exposed to the fundamental reproach that they represent none but themselves or certain interests, more or less circumscribed, and that they do not represent the community, inasmuch as they are not chosen by it.

Whatever may be said and whatever may be done, the constitution of the Council of Government is essentially defective: the foundation upon which it rests is such that the community is not permitted to participate in the management of its affairs. The only remedy for this state of things-a state of things to which the inhabitants of this Colony object—is a Legislative Council from which the elective element shall not be discarded.

In our days, it is almost universally admitted that societies can be legitimately and regularly governed only by laws voted, if not directly by all the members of which they are composed, at least by representatives selected by them, and that they should pay no taxes but those to which they have given their consent, through the medium of such representatives; in other words, no system of government is considered rational, practical, and just, which is not founded upon the elective principle or which excludes it.

Of course, the application of this principle has varied according to times and to nations; evidently also it has not always occupied, in the machinery of constitutions, the important place it has acquired in our days; but it tends more and more to gain ground and to predominate. In more than one country, it absorbs the whole of the public sovereignty; in others, the legislative power is not derived from it alone, but it is almost preponderating, especially in respect to questions affecting the finances of the State; in fact, it represents so great a force that there are few despotic governments that have dared to reject it altogether. In England, it pervades the whole of that noble and remarkable Constitution which so deservedly excites the admiration of the world, so that it is not surprising that it should have been implanted in most of the numerous possessions of the British Empire.

In colonies founded by Englishmen, the elective government has come into existence almost by itself. The citizens of Great Britain, who left their home to lay the foundation of distant communities under the protection of their country's flag, could not indeed claim to be absolutely free from all control on the part of the parent State; but they considered that they carried with them the right-and such right was never denied them to manage their local affairs by means of a form of government copied from that of England.

Colonies gained by conquest could not, at first, be treated so favourably. Still, by reconciling these Colonies to her rule, by attracting them to her through a generous and liberal policy, by instilling into them those notions of progress and of liberty in which her own greatness consists England undertook a work of assimilation which has yielded fruit.

After having given her unequivocal proof of fidelity, the Crown Colonies have, in their turn, demanded the same privileges as already belonged to such of her, Colonies as were free from their birth: she would have given herself the lie, had she shut her ears to those claims.

The nation, which has made so many glorious efforts to establish in its midst constitutional government, the past history of which is almost an uninterrupted series of struggles in favour of parliamentary franchises, could not have adopted a different line of conduct with regard to the colonies which had fallen into its power by the chances of war. It would have been guilty of the most hypocritical tyranny if, after having offered itself to them as a pattern, and after having inspired them, by its example and its deeds, with a taste for free institutions, it had afterwards refused to give them such institutions.

It is thus that England has endowed several Crown Colonies with elective govern- ments, of a mitigated form, it is true, in some cases, but which still give to their inhabitants an important share in the management of their affairs, and that she has always made a point of proclaiming, by the voice of her foremost Statesmen, that she is ready to grant a government of the same nature to all her Colonies, except only We are firmly con- those which are evidently incapable of governing themselves. vinced that such is the sincere policy of England.

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It has been very often said, and it is superabundantly proved, that the Mauritian community comprises none but faithful subjects of Her Majesty; that it is orderly and law-abiding; that it is peaceful and laborious, and that by its energy and its activity, it has, despite the difficulties she frequently meets with, developed the resources of this Colony to their fullest extent; that it is intelligent and enlightened, and, while we are on this subject, we may be permitted to mention that, but the other day, the Rector of our Royal College pointed out, with a certain feeling of pride, that the proportion between the students of all the other Colonies together, and those of our principal educational establishment, who had successfully passed the University examinations, is by far in favour of the latter students; it is acknowledged that Mauritius is equal in many respects, and superior in others, to Colonies which govern themselves, all this is admitted; well, if all this is true, are we not entitled to infer that, prima facie at least, Mauritius is fit to manage her own affairs?

There is a presumption in our favour, to destroy which powerful reasons must be shown.

Do those reasons exist? Of all those we know of, there are some of so vague a character that little weight can be attached to them. We will, however, endeavour to refute them all.

We are told not to forget that Indian immigration has made the position of this Colony a special one, and that a Colonial Legislature with an elective element might, in the hands of the representatives of the community, so easily degenerate into an instrument of oppression against that numerous class of labourers by which we are surrounded, that the fear, or even the bare possibility of such a danger, precludes the establishment in this Colony of any other political constitution than that by which we are now governed.

Some persons lay still more stress upon the peculiar nature of our population, which includes a nucleus of Mauritians and Europeans, but which is none the less divided into heterogenous races; this circumstance, it is urged, creates a sort of incompatibility between elective institutions and this Colony.

The first of these arguments does not impress us very much. We esteem too highly the intelligence of the men, whoever they may be, by whom England is governed, to believe they will ever meet us with such trifling objections. Even supposing the elected representatives of the community were inclined to make a tyrannical use of their powers, the Government would have only to exercise those with which it will remain vested, in order to remedy the evil.

The illustrious chief of the present Cabinet, Mr. Gladstone, when he was Secretary of State for the Colonies, in the Ministry of Sir Robert Peel, wrote on the 31st January 1846, to Lieutenant-Governor Grey, concerning the creation of a representative government for New Zealand:-"I conceive it to be an undoubted maxim that the Crown should stand in all matters between the Colonists and the natives," and further on :-"I am disposed to think the most natural and obvious mode of providing for our relations with the native tribes would be to reserve to the Crown a very large "share of authority, real as well as nominal, active, and not merely dormant, in that

department of the functions of the Colonial Government.”*

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These lines apply very well to this Colony in respect to the Indian labourers. The government is already armed, in all matters which concern them, with the authority of which Mr. Gladstone speaks, and which will always rise between them and our Legis lative Council for their protection, if it is sought to interfere with their just rights.

Besides, the contingency that is dreaded will depend very much upon the con- stitution of the Legislative Council that will be given us, and, if the Council is constituted as we are going to suggest, there will be no ground for apprehension on this score.

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Though apparently more serious, the second objection is not more conclusive than the first. The presence of divers races in a Colony is not by itself an obstacle to the creation of an elective government; it is at most a difficulty, and one which has been met with already in other Colonies, but has never been looked upon as insurmountable.

When at a time already remote from us (and the world has made vast progress since then), when in 1842 the inhabitants of the Cape Colony asked for a representativo Legislative Assembly, their request was not acceded to at once. Though supported by their Governor, Sir George Napier, they were not so successful in their appeal to

⚫.Vide Blue Book, published on the 17th June 1846, containing copies of applications from various Colonies praying for Representative Government, p. 80.

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