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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

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885

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these views, instructions have been given for a large reduction of the force in the Australian Colonies, and for the transfer of the barracks to the Colonial authorities, except in Van Diemen's Land, where on account of the large number of convicts, a different rule has been followed. The transfer of the charge for barracks to the Colonial Governments has ap- peared to be one of the first steps which ought to be adopted in attempting to reduce our Colonial Military Expenditure, because the charge for bar- racks and military works is a very heavy one, and is also one which it is impossible effectually to check at so great a distance as many of our Colonies are.

A copy of the despatch which has been written to

the Governor of New South Wales upon this subject Appendix, No. 1.

is appended to this paper, more fully to explain the policy on which it is founded.

The same principle which has been thus acted upon in Australia ought, I think, to be generally adopted; but there are reasons for beginning its application in Australia, and proceeding somewhat cautiously in acting upon it elsewhere. The Aus- tralian Colonies are, of all the Queen's dominions, the safest from attack from any foreign enemy; their position and the nature of the country renders it impossible that even in war any foreign enemy should do more than plunder and burn some of the seaport towns, and even this a very small amount of exertion on the part of the colonists, in erecting batteries and forming volunteer corps of artillery, would effectually guard against. In peace, there being no warlike natives (I confine these observa- tions to the Colonies in Australia excluding New Zealand), there is absolutely no danger to apprehend. Hence the amount of force required (except for purposes of police, which I do not conceive to form part of the proper duties of Her Majesty's troops) is

without may inconsiderable, and the Colonies very difficulty undertake the charge of keeping in repair the barracks which have already been built. It is also to be remembered that the Australian Colonies have not lost anything by our recent Commercial legislation. On the contrary, the effect of that legis lation has been only to relieve them from restric- tions, without depriving them of any peculiar and gauful privileges.

In other Colonies, though the same principle

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should eventually be acted upon, there are, as I have said, reasons for proceeding cautiously. In the North American Colonies the necessity of main- taining a considerable force arises almost entirely from their proximity to the United States, and from the fact that if we were unfortunately involved in a quarrel with that Republic, our Colonies would be attacked, as a means of injuring us. These Colonies also have suffered more really than any others from the changes in our Commercial policy. The old protecting duties on timber gave a wrong direction to the industry of all the North American Colonies, and the subsequent alteration of those duties, coming

at the same time with the great diminution in the demand for timber from the check to railway enter- prise, has severely affected them. But the greatest grievance is that of Canada, connected with the alter- ations in the Corn Law. By the short-sighted and unwise Act of 1843, a very large premium was given for the grinding of American corn in Canada for the British market. The consequence was, that much of the available capital of the province was laid out in making arrangements for taking advan- tage of the lucrative trade which the province was expected thus to obtain. But even before these arrangements were fully completed, and the newly- built mills brought into operation, the whole advan- tage conferred upon Canada in respect to the corn trade with this country was swept away. The con- sequence was an almost unparalleled extent of individual ruin and an extreme derangement of the Colonial finances. It is obvious that the moment when the Colony is struggling with the difficulties brought upon it by this vacillation in our Commercial policy is not that which could properly be chosen for calling upon it to submit to an entirely novel charge on account of its military expenditure. But the Colonial finances are already beginning to recover, and when they are once more in a state of prosperity, as I have no doubt they soon will be, the principle

adopted in Australia may be extended to North America. In the meantime the force in Canada, and therefore the expenditure, has been reduced, and to a certain degree the principle of requiring the Colony to provide barracks for the troops has been acted upon. The hired barrack in Montreal