PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
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suggested very high qualifications in order precisely to guard against the alleged danger. It is certain that those who will be the future electors must possess such qualifications as the Secretary of State and this Council will determine in their wisdom after full consideration, and that such qualifications will only be lowered gradually and cautiously with the gradual spread of political education, as experience will prove to be just and wise to all classes.
Against the fear that political struggles in the midst of an heterogeneous population will degenerate into questions of caste, we have among others the conclusive experience of the Cape of Good Hope.
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On the 20th December 1841, Governor Sir George Napier supported a petition from the Cape of Good Hope praying that the administration of that Colony be committed to a Governor, an Executive Council, a Legislative Assembly composed entirely of representatives elected by the people.-Lord Stanley, the father of the present Secretary of State for the Colonies, replied to that petition in a remarkable Despatch, dated 15th April 1842. This is how Lord Stanley describes the condition of the Cape population at that time :-"The law, no doubt, especially since the abolition of slavery, places all the Queen's subjects, in all the possessions of the Crown, on a footing of perfect civil equality, yet in many of them it has been found to be a task of almost insuperable difficulty to reconcile the principles of free institutions with this legal equality between different races. Now it cannot be denied that at the Cape "of Good Hope, more than in almost any other possession of the British Crown, the "elements of which such society is composed are heterogeneous, dissimilar, and separated from each other by distinctions almost indelible."--"The old Dutch "settlers and the descendants, between whom and the English there probably subsist many mutual jealousies, and but few domestic and even commercial connections. The free aborigines of the Colony form a third body, who are manifestly much depressed in the general scale of society. To them are to be added a large number of Fingoes " and the inhabitants of the eastern districts. Finally, there is a body of many "thousand emancipated negroes." Here is a state of society worse than whatever existed in Mauritius, though this Colony offered some analogies with it 40 years ago, but which was absolutely and completely different from what has now existed here for more than thirty years. Lord Stanley, however, did not meet the petition with a decided negative; he invited Governor Napier to consider how he could obviate objections and meet difficulties in carrying out the views of the petitioners and his years afterwards Lord Grey resumed the consideration of a representative Five form of Government at the Cape of Good Hope. He wrote to Governor Sir Henry Pottinger on the 2nd November 1846: "Her Majesty's Government entertains the "strongest prepossessions in favour of that system of Colonial polity, and will be prompt to avail themselves of any opportunity of extending it to the British settle- "ments in South Africa."-" Since the date of Lord Stanley's Despatch, a difficulty which then existed in a comparatively slight degree has, I fear, been much enhanced. I refer to the exasperation of the hostile feelings towards each other, of the different races by which this part of Africa is inhabited, not only by the contest now in progress, but also by the immigration of the Boers and their recent attacks on the "tribes to the north-eastward of the Colony. Without anticipating the views which you may form in communicating with the Colonists best qualified to afford you their "aid, I for the present confine myself to the statement that on a question of this nature some difficulties may be wisely encountered and some apparent risks well incurred, in "reliance of the resources which every civilised society, especially every society of "British birth or origin, will always discover within themselves for obviating the danger "incident to measures resting on any broad and solid principle of truth and justice. On "such a basis I am convinced rests the policy of entrusting the remote dependencies of a metropolitan state with the largest power of self-government in whatever relates to shall, therefore, not be unwilling or afraid to act on their internal and local affairs.
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that policy, even though I could not distinctly perceive how some conflicting interests could be adjusted under it, or how perfect arrangements could be made for the pre- vention of injustice to some members or classes of the Colonial society. Of course, however, to whatever extent those inconveniences can be avoided by previous inquiry and foresight, it is our duty to avoid them, and I shall rely on your aid in the dis- "charge of that duty, in reference to any representative government which it "found expedient to establish in the Colony of the Cape of Good Hope."
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This, gentlemen, is a Despatch worthy of the son of the Prime Minister under whom the Reform Bill of 1832 was passed. This Despatch had to be acted upon by Governor
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H. G. Smith. Fully concurring with the views of Lord Grey, the Governor directed his Attorney-General to frame a memorandum on the subject, as a base for the con- sideration of all the points which the question embraced, and he referred the Secretary of State's Despatch and the Attorney-General's memorandum to the members of his Executive Council, to the Chief Justice, and to the two puiane judges for their consideration and opinion. Fortunately for the Cape Colony all those learned and experienced men were worthy of the occasion. They all agreed on the main point that a representative form of government was desired, and that some apparent risks might well be incurred to secure its undoubted advantages. The liberal constitution of Canada was taken as a model, and, in spite of the alarms and the dissents of the timid who there as here gave expression to their objections, the Cape Colony obtained at first a Legislative Council nominated by the Crown for life and a house of Assembly freely elected by the people. Here are the Blue Books containing the able papers relating to that great change, and if our opponents will take the trouble to study them they will see how ungrounded their fears and objections are.
This liberal constitution has affected neither the material prosperity nor the internal peace of the Cape of Good Hope, and I am at a loss to realise the weight of the extraordinary argument that the security of our persons and our material prosperity are due to our despotic Government. Have not the Australian Colonies and the United States equally prospered under their very liberal or democratic constitutions? Is it not a constitutional dogma that the political liberty of Great Britain has con- tributed more than anything else to its moral and material greatness?
If it be objected that at the Cape there is no Indian population, I point to the instance of Natal and several of the West Indian Colonies. At Natal there were in
the year 1881, 28,483 whites, 367,540 natives, and 20,196 coolies, which latter number has since been increasing by Indian immigration at the rate of 4,000 a year.
If Mauritius after the abolition of slavery had some of the drawbacks existing at that time at the Cape, though in a much minor degree, these have long since dis- appeared here.
Mauritian society has undergone a great transformation and considerable intellectual and social improvements. Prejudices arising from difference of colour or origin have disappeared in public life and business relations. The district of Port Louis, which is inhabited by one-fifth of the total population of the island, has since 1850 uninterruptedly possessed an elected municipality of 18 members. Thirty-three annual elections of its councillors have been made without a shadow of disturbance, or of evil passions. The blessing of education is spreading every year through the several classes. The Royal College, now containing nearly six hundreri boys, has long been wide open to children of all colour and origin who freely avail themselves of its teaching. Thousands of people belonging to all the districts travel daily together in our railways, mixing friendly in business and other intercourse. And with all those glaring proofs that the peaceful, busy, and industrious people of Mauritius are, under proper qualifications of course, as fit as those of any other civilised country, to exercise the elective franchise, our few opponents shrink from fear "that political "struggles in the midst of our heterogeneous population" would degenerate into ques- tions of caste and religion.
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How can our opponents explain that our municipal elections have not so degenerated? Are not their fears purely imaginary with regard to a population so truly described by the Lieutenant-Governor in the following words? (paragraph 2 of his Despatch), "It will be seen that the meeting in which the petition was considered was numerous, influential, "and orderly, and that the speeches delivered were moderate. I have before remarked on the temperate and reasonable manner in which this movement has been conducted. "It must be allowed that its promoters with a considerable body of their followers have “shown themselves well fitted to take part in public affairs; and 'should doubt or objection exist to the proposed change it will certainly not be grounded upon any apprehension that the 'planters, landholders, members of the learned professions, and “'merchants,' by whom the petition is supported, are deficient in political capacity. If it were a question only of those classes, or if those who have now come forward "stood at the head of an ordinary population from which they themselves had sprung, "and the wants and wishes of which they might be supposed to interpret, Mauritius, "I have no hesitation in saying, would long ago have emerged from the condition of a Crown Colony." Is it admissible that the exercise of the elective franchise by those 3,329 petitioners and of many others fully as educated, as wise and as orderly as them- selves, would degenerate into questions of caste and religion. The honourable gentle- men opposite (Messrs. Stein and Fraser) say that the petitioners do not form the
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