ENGLAND
}

ENGLAND


AND C


AMERICA.


A COMPARISON OF THE SOCIAL AND POLITICAL


STATE OF BOTH NATIONS.


IN TWO VOLUMES.


VOL. L


LONDON:


RICHARD BENTLEY, NEW BURLINGTON STREET.


1833.




PREFACE.


HUNTED BY 'W. NICOL; CLEYNLAND ROW, ST. JAMES'S.


THE following pages are intended for publication
in America as well as in England. They have been
written with two objects in particular : first, to lay
before Americans a sketch .of the political condi-
tion of England, and before the English an expla-
nation of some peculiarities in the social state
of America ; secondly, to point at the means of
removing those causes which are productive of
great evils to both countries.


For the satisfactory performance of such a Work,
powers are required which the author does not
possess ; command of language, a style calculated
to engage the reader, and a name which should
give to every statement: or suggestion the weight




iv PREFACE. PREFACE. V


of authority. But, on the other hand, he has had
peculiar motives for examining the condition of
America, and is so far partly qualified to treat
upon that subject ; he believes also that he is
enabled to make Americans comprehend the state
of England, which hitherto has been described
to them only by Englishmen writing, not for
America, but for England. The English and
Americans know very little of each other's affairs.
Now, the present writer has looked at America
with English eyes, and at England with American
eyes. It was a consciousness of this advantage,
that prompted him to undertake the task of de-
-scribing to each nation the chief social peculia-
rities of the other.


Another advantage which the writer fancies
that he possesses over many Englishmen and
Americans who might have written on these sub-
jects, is the want of any patriotic prejudice in
favour of either country—of any motive for con-
cealing or perverting the truth. His opinions,
he believes, have been formed and are stated
without affection or fear. Plain-speaking must


nearly always be disagreeable to somebody ; and
in this case it will offend many, because large
classes, both in England and America, are men-
tioned without any regard for their selfish in-
terests, their mean passions, or even their honest
prejudices.


The following Notes are not to be considered
as so many discussions on distinct subjects ; but
each of them is more or less connected with all
the others. In fact, they all relate to the social
state and political economy of England and
America.


What, it may be asked, has the political eco-
nomy of England to do with that of America,
or that of America with that of England ? What
relation can there be between the political pros-
pects of the English, and the origin, progress and
prospects of slavery in America ? To such ques-
tions these Notes supply an answer. Compa-
rison is the easiest way to truth. In many cases,
the Americans and the English may have an equal
interest in the same subject, though they may




vi PREFACE.


have very different objects in view. Of this com-
mon interest with different objects, the subject
of colonization is a good example. Admitting
that the three elements of production are land,
capital and labour ; supposing that the chief
social evils of England are owing to a deficiency
of land in proportion to capital and labour, and
those of America to an excess of land in propor-
tion to capital and labour, (whatever great
advantages she may owe to a sufficiency of land)
in that case, the Americans and the English have
a common interest in understanding the art of
colonization, though the object. of the Americans
should be to have less, and that of the English to
have more, of one of the elements of wealth. So,
also, if it be for the interest of the English to buy
cheap corn of the Americans, and of the Ameri-
cans to buy cheap manufactured .goods of the
English, the two nations have a common interest
in the repeal of the English corn laws and of the
American tariff. In every subject treated of in
these Notes, the Americans and the English have
more or less a common interest.


PREFACE. vii


The statements and arguments contained in
these Notes might have been supported by refer-
ence to numerous authorities ; but, though the
writer wished, for his own sake, to adopt that
course, still he was afraid that, by doing so, he
might render his work too formal. To one
book, however, he has referred pretty often ;
Mr. Stuart's Three Years in North America ; a
production, which may be termed a storehouse of
facts concerning the United States. If Mr. Stuart
had seen fit to develope the causes of the facts
which he has collected, to give reasons for the
chief social peculiarities of America, these Notes,
or at least such of them as treat directly of the
United States, would not have been published.




CONTENTS OF VOLUME I.


NOTE I.


THE WEALTH OF ENGLAND.


First signs of wealth observed by a foreigner proofs of
wealth in London—in the country—superior enjoyments of
the English—large proportion of the English who enjoy
much wealth—immense capital invested—abundance of
capital ready to be invested—overflow of capital—causes
of the great wealth of England—combination of power—
division of capital and labour a cause of poverty—effects of
combination of productive power on the agriculture, manu-
factures and commerce, of England—some conclusions from
the principle, that production depends on the degree in
which men help each other—constant progress of wealth
and civilization in England


- page 1


NOTE II.


MISERY OF THE BELE OF THE PEOPLE.


Who are the bulk of the people—misery of the bulk of the
people a favourite topic in England—proofs of misery—what
is a pauper—factory children—Irish wages—increase of gin
shops—cheapness of English children—trade in the murder
of parish apprentices—other trades in pauper children—
climbing boys—prostitutes—cheapness of women—degrada-
tion of the common people—the common people are too
cheap to be happy
page 42




x
CONTENTS.


NOTE III.


UNEASINESS OF THE MIDDLE CLASS.


Who compose the aristocracy—particular distresses of the middle
class—uneasiness of farmers—of manufacturers—of dealers
—low profits—uneasiness of professional men—of several
classes possessing the common run of knowledge or superior
knowledge—of persons having fixed incomes, and families—
primary cause of prostitution—domestic life amongst the
English middle class


- page 80


NOTE IV.


COINCIDENCE OF OVERFLOWING NATIONAL WEALTH, WITH THE


UNEASINESS AND MISERY OF INDIVIDUALS.


Theories of the English economists — a dream of Robinson
Crusoe's island — the field of production an element of
wealth—argument with the economists—argument with the
archbishop of Dublin—America and England as to the field
of production—cases of various proportions amongst the
elements of production—peculiar case of England—as
wealth increases, many individuals are less rich—moral and
strictly political effects of the various proportions which the
field of production bears to capital and labour—peculiar
effects in the peculiar case of England page 107


NOTE V.


POLITICAL PROSPECTS OF TILE ENGLISH.


Retrospect—the constitution of 1688—its merits and defects—
maintained by corruption—populace subservient to the ruling
class —effects of knowledge—on the middle class—on the poor
—history of the late change in the constitution—new constitu-
tion obtained by the physical force—new constitution described


CONTENTS.


—not likely to last—dangers in the prospect of change—de-
mocracy, or worse, apparently inevitable—dangers of de-
mocracy—possible means of avoiding the probable evils of
change—Christian legislation—means of improving the phy-
sical condition of the bulk of the people, and of removing
the uneasiness of the middle class - - page 135


NOTE VI.


FREE TRADE IN CORN, AS A MEANS OF ENLARGING THE FIELD OF


EMPLOYMENT FOR ENGLISH CAPITAL, AND LABOUR.


Subject of this note stated—wide difference between facts in
America and the English theory of rent—American theory
of rent—various kinds and degrees of competition for the use
of land—facts—effects of a free corn-trade on the several
kinds of competition for the use of land—with cheap bread
the rental of England must be greater—gradual repeal of
the corn laws hurtful for a time to landowners and farmers,
and not useful to any class of labourers—sudden repeal of
the corn laws beneficial to all classes - page 209


NOTE VII.


CLOSE RELATION BETWEEN THE FOREIGN CORN TRADE OF ENG-


LAND AND THE FOREIGN TRADE OF CHINA.


Object of the English in a free corn trade—very cheap corn
not raised except by slaves—why so—direct trade between
English manufacturers and the producers of cheap corn must
be very limited—indirect trade for procuring cheap corn, by
means of direct trade with the Chinese empire


page 245


NOTE VIII.


MEANS OF EXTENDING FREE TRADE TO THE WHOLE COAST OF


CHINA.


Interest of the Americans in this question—Chinese restric-
tions on trade—the Chinese people more inclined to coin-




xii CONTENTS.


merce than the English or Americans— Chinese govern-
ment dislikes foreign trade on political grounds—restrictions
lead to a free trade—description of the free trade which
actually takes place in China—obstacles to the extension of
this free trade—several modes of removing those obstacles
—one mode will endanger the trade between America and
China—safest, cheapest and best mode, commercial stations
near the coast of China—to be formed, if not by English-
men, then by Americans


- -
-- page 250


NOTE IX.


SOME SOCIAL PECULIARITIES OF THE AMERICANS.


Peculiar state of religion — causes of superstition without
bigotry or fanaticism — inquisitiveness — rudeness of the
backwoodsman—bigotry in patriotism—neglect of learning


page 314


NOTE I.


THE WEALTH OF ENGLAND.


First signs of wealth observed by a foreigner—
proofs of wealth in London—in the country—
superior enjoyments of the English—large pro-
portion of the English who en joy much wealth—
immense capital invested—abundance of capital
ready to be invested—overflow of capital—causes
of the great wealth of England—combination of
power—division of capital and labour a cause of
poverty—effects of combination of productive
power on the agriculture, manufactures and
commerce, of England—some conclusions from
the principle, that production depends on the
degree in which men help each other—constant
progress of wealth and civilization in England.


AN American citizen visits the continent of Eu-
rope, and on his way home passes some time in
England. Here he finds the roads in every direc-
tion far better than any he has seen before, and
he sees more of them on a given space than in
France or America. The cross roads are kept in
far better order than those of any other country.
By the side of nearly all the great roads, he sees,
for the first time, a well kept foot-path. In many




U


2 THE WEALTH OF ENGLAND.


places, the foot-paths across fields are as dry, and
smooth, and trim, as walks in pleasure gardens.
All the carriages on the roads are stronger and
lighter, more useful and sightly, than those to
which he is accustomed ; and the vast number
of those carriages strikes him with astonishment.
The strength and beauty of the horses, the quality
and neatness of their harness, and the very whips
with which they are driven, excite his wonder.
The uncommon speed with which he travels
raises his spirits and inclines him to look favour-
ably at every thing. He exclaims,—what mag-
nificent crops ! what beautiful meadows! what
fine cattle and sheep ! what skill and care in the
mixture of wood, arable and grass lands! what
noble trees ! what regularity and neatness in the
fences ! even the ditches and gate-posts are ad-
mirable ! The mansions are palaces, the farm-
houses mansions, the merest village of cottages
has an air of peculiar comfort; whilst the number
of those mansions, farm-houses and villages, gives
to the country the appearance of a scattered
town. But then the towns : many of them are so
extensive, the houses in them are so Well built,
the shops have such a display of rich goods, the
streets are so well paved and contain so large a,
proportion of good houses ; these towns are so
full of well-dressed people, that each of them
might be taken for a city. Even the smallest
towns appear like sections of a wealthy capital ;


TH E WEALTH OF ENGLAND.
3


and the number of towns, large and small, is so
great that, together with the great number of
good houses by the road side out of town, one
seems to be travelling all clay through one street.
This, the foreigner imagines, must be the most
populous road in England ; there must be some-
thing peculiar in this part of the country which
attracts rich people. By no means. He is told
that, so long as fourteen years ago, the length of
the paved streets and turnpike roads of England
and Wales was about twenty thousand miles ;
and he soon learns that nearly all the great roads
show marks of wealth like those which he has so
much admired. He therefore supposes, that the
wealth of the country must bear a very large pro-
portion to that of the metropolis ; but on this
point he is undeceived on reaching London.
Here the crowd is so great, the objects which at-
tract his attention arc so many and so different,
that, for a while, he is bewildered and incapable
of arranging his thoughts so as to draw conclu-
sions from what he sees. At length lie begins to
observe methodically and to compare his observa-
tions with those which he has made in other great
cities. Until now he has conceived New York
or Paris to be the place in which the greatest
amount of wealth was enjoyed by a given number
of people ; but he is now convinced that the in-
habitants of London obtain a greater quantity of
things necessary, useful or agreeable, to man, than




1


THE WEALTH OF ENGLAND. 54


THE WEALTH OF ENGLAND.


the inhabitants of any other city in the world.
The quantity of flour and meat consumed, in pro-
portion to people, he finds not much greater in
London than in Paris, and even less than in New
York, where the working classes live better than
in London ; so also the proportion of looking
glasses he knows to be greater in Paris, and the
proportion of rum drank to be greater in New
York, than in London; but he cannot doubt that,
on the whole, more good things are enjoyed in
London, by a given number of people, than any
where else out of England. It is not in his power,
indeed, to compare the quantities or values of all
necessary, useful or agreeable, things enjoyed in
London, with the quantities or values of such
things used in other great cities ; but he is con-
vinced of the superior wealth of London by the
same mode of observation, which has satisfied
him that the people of New York drink more rum,
and the people of Paris own more looking glasses,
than the people of London. In London one
meets with every thing the immediate produce of
agriculture, such as meat, bread, sugar and tea,
of the very finest quality. Of manufactured
objects used in London, scarce one can be. men-
tioned which is not brought to greater perfection
than similar objects used in other capital cities,
whilst the variety of such objects is yet more
striking. The fittings and furniture of a third
rate house. in London are of a better quality than


those of a palace in France or Germany ; the doors
and windows answer their purpose better ; the
chairs are stronger, lighter and more convenient
to sit upon ; the tables, if not more useful, are far
more beautiful ; the glass is more transparent, the
knives cut better, the fastenings of all sorts, the
corkscrew and the toasting fork, are better suited
to their purpose, and composed of superior ma-
terials. In every London house, excepting those
of the poorest order, one finds many useful and
agreeable objects which are either scarce or un-
known in Paris, New York and Vienna. The
inhabitants of London pay, it has been reckoned,
about 50,0001. a year,--being the fourth of 200,0001.
which the nation pays,—for what ? for blacking
advertisements—that is, for the facility of choos-
ing between different kinds of blacking. The
number of kinds of horses used in London, though
very striking to a foreigner, is less remarkable
than the fore-thought, pains and skill required
for making each variety—the Lincolnshire dray
horse, for example, the Cleveland coach horse, the
high bred nag, the cob, and the trotting hackney
—so obviously distinct from all the others. The
variety of carriages, whether for business or
pleasure, and the fitness of each sort for its pe-
culiar purpose, whether that purpose be deter-
mined by the weather, by the fortune of him who
owns the carriage, or the business of him who
uses it,—are equally deserving of admiration.


It




THE WEALTH OP ENGLAND. 76 THE WEALTH OF ENGLAND.


At night, when other great cities are in darkness,
all London is brilliantly illuminated ; nay, the
the beautiful gas lights extend for some miles
into the country in all directions. The pave-
merits of London--but the list of examples might
be contin tied through a volume. Still, the foreigner
is less surprised at the quantity, variety and per-
fection, of useful and agreeable objects used in
London, than at the great proportion of the
people who enjoy in abundance the most perfect
of those objects. That the houses of the high
aristocracy should be large, fine and richly fur-
nished, is nothing strange ; but the houses in
many quarters which the aristocracy despise, are
as large, fine and well furnished as those of the
most aristocratic quarters. The best houses, for
instance, in Bloomsbury, Finsbury and Lambeth,
and in such villages or suburbs as Highgate,
Hornsey, Tottenham, Hackney, Peckham and
Clapham, though a lord would disdain to live in
one of them, are as large, fine and well furnished,
as those of Mayfair or of such aristocratic villages
as Roehampton and Wimbledon. The shops,
too, in many of those " low" quarters, though
stocked for the supply of persons engaged in
some industrious pursuit, are as full, and as rich,
as those of Bond street or Regent street. The
number of carriages also, kept for pleasure in
those despised quarters, greatly exceeds the
number of such carriages kept by the high aris-


tocracy in and about London. In the quantity
and quality of good things which he uses, in his
own dress and that of his family, in his table,
furniture and books, or in whatever mode of ex-
pence he may prefer, a prosperous lawyer or
merchant is not far behind the richest duke ; and
the number of rich people in London who pursue
an industrious career is very much greater than
the number of rich lords. But it would be im-
proper to measure the wealth of a society by the
enjoyments of its richest members alone. Dividing
the inhabitants of London and Paris into the
same number of ranks with respect to the con-
sumption of wealth, every London rank enjoys
more good things than its corresponding Parisian
rank. A second-rate merchant, in London, spends
at least twice as much as a second.rate Parisian
merchant ; a third-rate London advocate spends,
perhaps, three times as much as a first-rate
Parisian advocate ; a fourth-rate London attorney
spends six times as much as a second-rate Parisian
notary ; a physician in London, a surgeon, a
dentist, a tradesman of whatever description, a
servant from the butler to the scullion, a mechanic
in whatever line, a porter or a common labourer,
spends more, and in most cases a great deal more,
than one of a corresponding rank in the Parisian
scale. But this is not all. In London there are
more first-rate merchants, lawyers and tradesmen
in proportion to second-rate ones, more second-




I


8 THE WEALTH OF ENGLAND.


rate ones in proportion to third-rate ones, and so
on all down the scale. In a word, turn which
way you will, London abounds with proofs of its
enormous wealth.


Thus the foreigner is apt to fall into another
error ; to imagine that a very large proportion of
the wealth of England is collected in London.
He is undeceived again by visiting some great
provincial towns of different descriptions, such as
Bath, Liverpool and Leeds. Each of these re-
sembles a large section of the metropolis ; Bath
being like Marylebone, Leeds like manufacturing
Southwark, and Liverpool like the commercial
Tower Hamlets. In point of size and general
character Liverpool bears some resemblance to
Bordeaux or New York, and Leeds to Lyons ; but
in America there is no town like Leeds, nor,
either in America or France, any town like Bath.
England abounds with such towns as Bath—
mere pleasure towns, they may be called—such
as Leamington, Hastings, Margate, Cheltenham


• and Brighton ; with more of the same kind,
though of smaller extent, such as Tonbridge
Wells, Worthing, Harrowgate, Aberystwith,
Southend, Lowestoft, and Sidmouth. Of towns
like Leeds, while in the United States there is
not one, and in France but few, there is in Eng-
land a number without end, such as Macclesfield,
Sheffield, Nottingham, Coventry, Birmingham
and Manchester. Of towns like Liverpool,


THE WEALTH OF ENGLAND.
9


though there be several in the United States,
there are many more in the United Kingdom,
while neither in the United States nor in France
are there any towns of a mixed character like
Norwich and Glasgow. Again, neither in France
nor in the United States are there any great pro-
vincial capitals like Edinburgh and Dublin. But
after all, that for which, in respect to towns,
England is most distinguished,—even more so
than for the number and size of her pleasure
towns,—is the vast number and great size of her
smaller provincial capitals, which are neither
seaports nor the seats of manufactures ; such as
York, Canterbury, Gloucester, Exeter, Shrews-
bury, Reading, Colchester, and Bury St. Ed-
mund's. And now, further, let the wealth of any
English town whatsoever be compared with that
of a town of the same character in any other
country. With a single and no doubt very im-
portant exception, England has greatly the ad-
vantage. In the United States every labourer,
not being a slave, obtains more and better food,
more and better clothes, as well as a better lodging,
than a labourer of equal skill in England. With-
out any further exception, the inhabitants of
English provincial towns enjoy a greater quantity
and variety of good things, approach nearer to
the inhabitants of the capital in respect to the
consumption of wealth, than people of a similar
rank in the provincial towns of other countries.




10 THE WEALTH OF ENGLAND.


A merchant of Liverpool or Bristol, a manufac-
turer of Birmingham or Leeds, be he first, second
or third rate, indulges in expenses for his house,
his table, the education of his children and the
amusement of his family, which to think of, only,
would frighten a Bordeaux merchant or Lyons
manufacturer of the same rank. What a French
provincial doctor spends in a year, would not
keep an English provincial doctor in equal
practice for three months. Country attornies
in England get and spend, on the average, ten
times as much as French country attornies.
Common tradesmen in all English country towns,
bakers, butchers, cheesernongers an d linen drapers,
as well as mechanics, such as carpenters, builders
and glaziers, live much better than a similar class
of people in Paris ; they have more rooms to live
in ; their rooms are better furnished ; they, their
wives and children are better dressed ; they find
it more easy to obtain comforts and indulge
luxuries. Surely there are fifty country towns
in England, which contain a good inn, that is a
comfortable innkeeper, for one French country
town that contains a passable inn, held by a man
who does not live so expensively as the keepers
of most English alehouses. That English town
is reckoned poor in which there are not some shops
that would be considered good in the best quarter
of London ; and there are hundreds of towns in
England, in which you can purchase almost every


THE WEALTH OF ENGLAND.
11


thing that is commonly for sale in London. The
number of booksellers' shops in the provincial
towns of England, and the stocks which they
contain, present a very striking contrast with the
number and stocks of French booksellers' shops
out of Paris. In the number and quality of
horses and carriages kept for pleasure, English
country towns surpass, very far indeed, French
country towns of equal magnitude. Every town
in England, that at all bears the character of the
capital of a district., possesses a circulating li-
brary, such as would be called good in Paris or
New York ; while most of such towns, as well as
many small towns, and indeed rural parts, miles
away from any town, have the inestimable ad-
vantage of a book club. No English town con-
taining 10,000 inhabitants is without foot pave-
ments or gas lights, while many towns with less
than 6,000 inhabitants are as well paved and well
lighted as the finest quarter of London. In their
literary and scientic institutions, such towns as
Liverpool, Leeds and Birmingham appear to
surpass the metropolis, allowing for the difference
of numbers ; and in this respect they obviously
excel beyond comparison French or American
towns of like magnitude. Another proof of the
general diffusion of wealth in England, is the
large proportion of the sums invested by savings-
banks which is subscribed out of London ; thewhole
fund, amounting to about £14,000,000, and sub-




Its


12 THE WEALTH OF ENGLAND; THE WEALTH OF ENGLAND. 13


scribed by persons little above the condition of la-
bourers, being a proof of the wealth of England.
But finally the most striking proof of the wealth of
the English, all over England, is the facility with
which, in any part of England, funds are raised for
any undertaking that offers the least chance of
profit. It is to this point especially that I would
draw the attention of Americans.* Though thou-
sands of millions have been spent in rendering
England the most habitable country in the world, in
making bad land good, on fences, farm buildings,
roads, bridges, canals and docks, on the opening
of mines, the building of manufactories and ware-
houses, not to mention houses, still it appears as
if thousands of millions would be forthcoming
for similar purposes, if there were but room for
carrying such purposes into effect. Abundance
of CAPITAL invested, and ready to be invested, is
the most marked, nay the peculiar, characteristic


"The great public work in this part of the United States
in which the people are engaged, is the canal between the
Chesapeake and the Ohio rivers, that is, between George Town
and Washington on the one hand, and Pittsburgh on the
western side of the Alleghany ridge on the other. This pro-
digious work, which is now in progress, is estimated by General
Barnard at about twenty-two millions of dollars. The sum of
fifteen hundred thousand dollars subscribed by the citizens of
Washington, George Town and Alexandria, on the Potomac,
has been obtained ,from Dutch capitalists, the house of Messrs.
Crommelin of Amsterdam." Three years in North America, by
James Stuart, Esq. vol 2, page 62.—Third Edition.


of England. By guessing at what it would take
to put France, or one of the American states, into
the same condition as England, with respect to
the improvement of land, to farm buildings,
roads, bridges, canals, wharfs, docks, manufac-
tories, warehouses and machinery, &c., we may
form some idea of the degree in which the fixed
capital of the English exceeds that of the French
or Americans : and yet the French or Americans,
who have invested so small a capital in compari-
son with that invested by the English, have far
less than the English ready for investment.*
Money makes money, says the proverb ; which,
translated into the language of modern science,
means that capital creates capital. In America,
where there is so much room for the investment
of capital, because so little capital has been in-
vested, innumerable works, holding out the cer-
tainty of large profits, are projected, but for want
of capital are not begun ; while in England, where,
by reason of the vast masses of capital already
invested, there seems but little room for the pro-
fitable investment of more, millions accumulate


" The canal (at Louisville) is two miles in the length, cut
out of the solid rock, and in some places forty feet deep, and
is of sufficient width to allow the largest class of steam boats
to pass. Dry docks are to be constructed for the repairing of
steam boats. There is at present a want offends ; but the work
is so far advanced that there is no risk of its not being com-
pleted." Stuart, vol. 2, page 290.




I


14 THE WEALTH OF ENGLAND.


so rapidly that funds are never wanted for even
the most hazardous undertakings. How to ob-
tain capital is the question in America ; * what
to do with their capital is the puzzle of the
English. In this difficulty the English build
Waterloo bridges, which yield no profit, send
goods to be sold in distant countries at less than
prime cost, squander millions on South American
speculations, lay out immense sums in the pur-
chase of foreign securities, and lend money, by
tens of millions at a time, to North American
States, South American anarchies, and European
tyrants great or small. If the wealth of a society
depend on the proportion which capital bears to
numbers, then, it is clear, the English are the
richest people in the world.


What are the causes of the enormous wealth
of England ? This question has never been an-
swered to the satisfaction of Americans ; who,
descended from the English, using their lan-
guage, able to use their knowledge, paving fewer
taxes than the English, cultivating a much more
fertile soil, and as well protected, to say the least,
in the enjoyment of property, cannot perceive, in
the reasons usually given for the peculiar wealth
of England, any circumstance peculiar to the
English. This question I propose to examine
with a view to show, here, why the English are


* The state of Louisiana has lately borrowed a great sum of
the English.


THE WEALTH OF ENGLAND. 15


so much richer than the Americans; and, further
on, how the Americans might become as rich as
the English, if not richer. The question is of no
little importance to the English themselves, and
is full of the deepest interest to all new societies,
like the American States and the English colonies
in America and Australia.


All wealth being the produce of industry, it is
evident that the wealth of a society must depend
on the degree in which the productive powers of
industry are improved by that society. What are
the greatest improvements in the productive
powers of industry ; improvements, I mean, be-
yond that simple exertion of power, which in two
individuals of equal strength, working separately
in the same way, would raise equal amounts of
produce? Adam Sin has said that the great-
est improvement in the productive powers of
industry is division qf labour ; others have dwelt
on the great effects of machinery; and some again
have taken pains to show, what is self evident,
that the productive powers of industry are greatly
increased by the use of capital. Unquestionably
capital, machinery which is capital, and " divi-
sion of labour," tend to increase the quantity of
produce in proportion to the number of hands
employed ; but none of these improvements are
primary causes, as some of them, and especially
" division of labour," have been considered by
political economists ; each of them, on the con-




16 THE WEALTH OF ENGLAND.


trary, though an immediate cause, is the effect of
some antecedent cause. One cannot use capital
merely by wishing to use it, nor can a single
workman practice " division of labour," but the
use of capital and " division of labour" result
from some anterior improvement. What then is
the first improvement in the productive powers
of industry, that improvement on which others
depend ?


In the most simple operation of industry,—in
that, for example, which savages perform when
they hunt for subsistence,—two persons assisting
each other would obtain more game in a given
time than two persons hunting each by himself
without concert ; just as two greyhounds, run-
ning together, will kill more hares than four grey-
hounds running separately. The very first im-
provement, therefore, in the productive powers of
industry, seems to .


be not division, but combi-
nation, of labour. Several individuals, by com-
bining their labour, procure more food than they
want : behold the second stage of social improve-
ment ; the society has obtained a capital. The
possession of capital leads to the institution of
property : it also leads to the division of employ-
ments. Some members of the society still co-
operate in the production of food; others in
making instruments which facilitate the produc-
tion of food ; and between these two parties an
exchange takes place of their respective pro-


THE WEALTH OF ENGLAND. 17


ductions : commerce has begun ; the power of
exchanging, on which, all economists agree, de-
pends the division of employments. But now, as
food is produced with less and- less labour, the
wants of the society increase, and a still further
distribution of employments takes place : some
build houses, some make clothes and some be-
come dealers. Thus far it is plain, every step in
civilization, every improvement in the productive
powers of industry, including distribution of em-
ployments, has rested on concert or combination
amongst all the members of the society.


But., thus far, all the members of the society
are supposed to possess equal portions of capital.
Such a state•of things, if it were to last, would not
admit of much further improvement in the pro-
ductive powers of industry. No man would find
others willing to employ his capital for his ad-
vantage as well as their own, rather than their own
capital for their own exclusive advantage: no man,
consequently, would have a motive for accumulat-
ing more capital than he could use with his own
hands. This is to some extent the case in newArne-
rican settlements, where a passion for owning land
prevents the existence of a class of labourers for
hire ; and where, consequently, half the crop is
sometimes left to rot upon the ground. In the
next place, so long as the capital of the society
was equally divided amongst all, it would be im-
possible to undertake any of those works which




I


18 THE WEALTH OF ENGLAND. THE WEALTH OF ENGLAND.
19


require the employment of many hands and a
fixed capital. It would be quite impossible, for
instance, to build a ship or a bridge ; for, even if
a sufficient number of workmen to admit of that
division of employments, which takes place in
building a ship or a bridge, should possess the
right sort of capital, and a sufficient quantity of
it to enable them to wait for distant returns,
by what means could that scattered capital be
combined ? and how could the profits be divided ?
Only, it would appear, by the institution of a joint
stock company ; a contrivance for the combina-
tion of capital in particular works, which is used
only in the most advanced societies. Mankind
have adopted a much more simple contrivance
for promoting the accumulation of capital, and
the use of capital, when required, both in large
masses and in a fixed shape : they have divided
themselves into owners of capital and owners of
labour. But this division was, in fact, the result
of concert or combination. The capitals of all
being equal, one man saves because he expects
to find others willing to work for him ; other men
spend because they expect to -find some man ready
to employ them ; and ifit were not for this readiness
to co-operate, to act in concert or combination,
the division of the industrious classes into capi-
talists and labourers could not be maintained.


A baker and a tailor, who deal with each other,
are said to divide their labour : if they did so in


reality, each of them would make both the bread
and the clothes which he wanted, and there would
be no intercourse between them. Co-operating,
dealing with, depending on, each other, they
combine their labour : it is the employments
which they divide ; and, what is more, the divi-
sion of their employments results from the com-
bination of their labour. The two men divide
the whole work, which is to be performed by
their united labour for their common advantage.
The workmen of a pin factory are said to divide
their labour : if they did so in reality, each of
them would make all the parts of a pin. As it
is, each pin is the produce of many persons' united
labour ; many persons whose labour is united in
order that the work, which it is to perform, may
be easily divided amongst them. In this case,
also, division of employments is an effect of
combination of labour. In what case is a work
divided amongst many, without combining the
labour of those who are to perform the work ?


But it may be said that this is a question of
terms' merely.; that though there be a marked
difference between the work performed and the
labour which performs it, still, as either labour
is divided amongst the several parts of a work, or
the several parts of a work are divided amongst
several labourers, it is indifferent whether we say
division of work or division of labour. If so, by
what terms are we to express that minute division




20


THE WEALTH OF ENGLAND.•


of labour which takes place amongst the cottiers
of Ireland, the small farmers of France and most
free settlers in new colonies : a state of things,
under which each labourer works by himself, and
for himself only, with no larger capital than his
own hands can employ, without exchange, or
nearly so, and producing, even in the most favour-
able case,—that of the settler,—not much more
than enough for his own subsistence. If this be
a dispute about terms only, how are we to ex-
press that combination of labour on an English
farm, or a tobacco plantation in Virginia, which
enables the English workmen or American slaves
to raise so much more produce than they could
possibly consume ? The reader who may take
the trouble to find an answer to these questions,
will, I cannot help thinking, perceive, that " di-
vision of labour" is an improper term as commonly
used ; and, what is of far greater consequence,
that the use of this improper term has kept out of
sight the first great improvement in the produc-
tive powers of labour, namely, combination. of
power.


As for building a ship or making a road, so in
the manufacture of pins, it is necessary to em-
ploy a large capital. A large capital applied to
one purpose, may be said to be combined. A
minute division of capital, such as takes place
amongst the small farmers of France, the cottiers
of Ireland and most settlers in new colonies, is


THE WEALTH OF ENGLAND. 21


as unfavourable to production as the minute
division of labour practised in those cases.


Combination of capital and labour, or combi-
nation of productive power, seems to be of two
distinct sorts ; first, that general combination
which, if there were no restrictions on trade, would
render mankind one vast co-operative society ;
general combination on which depends that
general distribution of employments, or division
of work, under which some men grow tea, some
dig for metals and others build ships, some
are farmers, some manufacturers and others mer-
chants ; secondly, that particular combination, on
which depends the use of large masses of capital
and labour in particular works, and the most
beneficial division of those particular works.


Turning to the sources of the wealth of Eng-
land, her agriculture, manufactures and com-
merce, it will be seen that all these display in
the highest degree the advantages of both sorts
of combination of power.


First, as to agriculture. No part of the popu-
lation of America is exclusively agricultural,
excepting slaves and their employers who com-
bine capital and labour in particular works.
Free Americans, who cultivate the soil, follow
many other occupations. Some portion of the
furniture and tools which they use is commonly
made by themselves. They frequently build their
own houses and carry to market, at whatever




1


22 THE WEALTH OF ENGLAND.
THE WEALTH OF ENGLAND.


23


distance, the produce of their own industry. They
are spinners and weavers ; they make soap and
candles, as well as, in many cases, shoes and
clothes for their own use. In America the cul-
tivation of land is often the secondary pursuit of
a blacksmith, a miller or a shopkeeper. In France
a similar division of capital and labour takes
place amongst several employments, though not
to the same extent. The number of proprietors
of land in France is supposed to exceed 5,000,000 ;
the number of separate holdings or pieces of land
is known to be about 10,000,000. But even
supposing that, on the average, each proprietor
owns two separate pieces of land, still it does not
follow that two pieces of land are generally cul-
tivated by one person. On the contrary, whilst
the large properties are generally divided into
several distinct farms, it does not very often
happen that two or more of the smaller properties
are united under a single farmer. Consequently,
after making a liberal deduction for land which
is not cultivated, the number of farmers or cul-
tivators, not being hired labourers, probably ex-
ceeds 5,000,000. It is further estimated, that
the number of agricultural labourers, who work
for hire, amounts, with their wives and children,
to about 5,000,000. Of these, however, not above
two fifths, or 2,000,000, can be men. If the
number of farmers be 5,000,000, and of farm
servants 2,000,000, there must be 3,000,000


farmers who employ no labourers at all. Sup-
pose each of the remaining 2,000,000 farmers
to employ one labourer, the agricultural capital
and labour of France would be divided into
5,000,000 parts, of which three fifths would be
the smallest fractions into which capital and
labour can be divided, and the remaining two
fifths would consist of fractions only twice as
large as the smallest. Since, however, some
farmers employ more than one labourer, more
than 3,000,000 farmers cannot employ any la-
bourers ; and it thus appears probable, that three
fourths, at least, of the agricultural capital and
labour of France are cut up into the smallest pos-
sible fractions, into single pairs of hands, and
portions of capital such as one pair of hands can
use. Limiting the smallest fractions to three
fourths of the whole, the remaining quarter will
consist of 1,250,000 capitalists, having amongst
them 2,000,000 labourers. If 750,000 of these
capitalists employ two labourers each, 500,000
employ about one labourer each ; and for each of
them, who is supposed to employ more than two
labourers, an addition must be made to that
number, each of whom employs only one labourer.
" Il faut habiter un pays," says a modern French
writer,* "on tout le monde est proprietaire, pour


* M. de Ronald (1S26), quoted by Professor M'Culloch in
note XIX (Division of Property by Will) of his edition of
Smith's Wealth of Nations.




24 THE WEALTH OF ENGLAND.


se faire une idee juste des inconvenicns et du
malheur du morcellement infini des Miens tern-
toriaux." The mischief lies, however, in the
division, not of the land, but of the capital and
labour employed on the land.


One of the evils, resulting from the morcelle-
ment of agricultural capital and labour in France,
is that the farmers and farm-labourers of that
country, like those of the United States, not
being slave owners or slaves, do not confine them-
selves to one pursuit. In England, on the con-
trary, a farmer is, generally speaking, nothing
but a farmer, and an agricultural labourer works
no where but on the farm. The English farm
labourer is a miserable wretch, no doubt, because
he obtains but a very small share of the produce
of his labour ; but this is a question, not of dis-
tribution, but of production. In England the
agricultural class seems to have come to an un-
derstanding with the other classes to separate its
employment from those of the manufacturer and
dealer. Except in some of the wildest and worst
cultivated districts, the practice, which is so
common in France and America, of spinning wool
by those who keep flocks, is gone quite out of
fashion. Whatever manufactured object or
mechanical work is required on an English farm,
is procured at some shop in the nearest town or
performed by some mechanic who lives in the
town. The mixed produce of American or French


THE WEALTH OF ENGLAND. 25


agriculture is, for the most part, sold in the
nearest market, by those who raise it, to those
who consume it ; while in England there is, be-
tween the producers and consumers, a distinct
class of dealers, subdivided again into particular
classes, such as cattle jobbers, dealers in corn, in
hops and in wool. An English fanner seldom
deals, even with his own labourers, for any part
of the produce of his farm ; he pays for their
labour with money, which they lay out, either
directly in the nearest town, or through the me-
dium of village shopkeepers. Thus the farmer


.and his men are occupied almost exclusively with
the business of the farm.


English farming is also remarkable for a pe-
culiar refinement in the distribution of employ-
ments, according to various circumstances of
soil and climate. The county of Kent is some-
what more congenial to the growth of hops than
the neighbouring county of Sussex : the Sussex
farmer, therefore, abstains from growing hops,
even for his own use; the beer which his family
drink •is made of hops grown in Kent. There are
some districts especially fit for the growth of
natural and artificial grasses for fattening cattle ;
and the farmer of such districts is seldom a cattle
breeder, but purchases lean cattle from jobbers,
who have purchased them from farmers in dis-
tricts best suited to the breeding of cattle.
Though the inhabitants of Norwich require a




26 THE WEALTH OF ENGLAND.
THE WEALTH OF ENGLAND. 27


great deal of cheese, yet the farmers thereabouts
do not attempt to supply that demand. Their
land is less suited to dairy farming than the land
in Cheshire, from which county comes great part
of the cheese consumed in Norwich; while there are
towns again in Cheshire, which obtain the greater
part of their flour from distant spots peculiarly
suited to the growth of corn. Examples without
end might be cited of this division of agricultural
employments, which seems to be carried to a
much higher pitch in England than in any other
country. In France and the United States,
though much greater differences of climate oc-
casion a more marked separation of some agri-
cultural employments,—such as the production
of sugar in the Southern States for the use of the
Northern States, and of oil in the South for the
use of the North of France,—still a French or
American cultivator generally seeks to raise what-
ever can be raised on his own land, which he
either wants himself, or for which there is any
demand in his own neighbourhood. The division
of agricultural employments in England is all the
more remarkable, because in England the dif-
ferences of soil and climate are not very re-
inarkable.


The advantage which England derives from
confining her agriculturists to agricultural pur-
suits and, in various parts of the country, to that
particular mode of agriculture best suited to each


district, becomes manifest in the superior skill of
her farmers. The corn growers of Essex, Suffolk
and Norfolk, the hop growers of Kent and Wor-
cestershire, the sheep farmers of Sussex and
Hampshire, the dairy farmers of Gloucestershire
and Cheshire, the cattle-breeders and cyder-
growers of Devonshire and Herefordshire, the
breeders of horses in Lincolnshire and Yorkshire ;
all these, and many more which it would be
tedious to mention, apply to their several pursuits
a wonderful degree of knowledge, forethought
and calculation. It is rather a science than an
art which each of them pursues ; storing up the
facts which come to his knowledge, and from a
knowledge of those facts adopting, as a system,
that mode of proceeding from which he expects
the most beneficial results. Thinking of the
pains which an English farmer takes in draining
and manuring his fields, in the disposition of his
land for various crops, in the selection of seeds,
in the use of the best instruments, in keeping up
or improving his fruit trees, in the management of
his working cattle, in maintaining a peculiar and
perfect race of cattle or sheep, and in subdividing
the work performed by his united labourers, one
might venture to call him a philosopher; though
the term would excite ridicule in England, where
science is almost as much despised in the abstract
as in practice it is industriously cultivated.


But the superior knowledge of English farmers




28 THE WEALTH OF ENGLAND.


would be of little avail—it could not have been
acquired indeed—if their capital and labour had
been cut up into small fractional parts, as happens
generally in France and America. In agricul-
ture each farm is a particular work.


The most striking. characteristic of English
farming is the combination of capital and labour
in particular works. Even in England, those
districts in which the farms are largest, and in
which each farmer employs the largest capital
and the greatest number of labourers, are known
to produce more, in proportion to the hands em-
ployed, than those less civilized districts in which
the three elements of production, land, capital
and labour, are divided into smaller portions.
But agricultural capital and labour are more
combined in those parts of England, where the
lowest degree of combination occurs, than in
those parts of France or America (slave planta-
tions excepted) which are distinguished for the
highest degree of combination. In order to ob-
serve in the United Kingdom the bad effects of
that division of capital and labour which takes
place in France or America, one must travel to
Ireland, where, in some districts, the separate
fractions of capital and labour are almost as
numerous as the cultivators. Well-informed
Frenchmen aresatisfied that the division of capital
and labour in their country will, if it be carried
much further, reduce the agriculture of France


THE WEALTH OF ENGLAND. 29


to a cottier system, like that of some parts of
Ireland, under which the produce of industry is
scarcely more than sufficient to feed those who
work. In America, truly, the smallest fraction
of capital and labour obtains a considerable pro-
duce ; but then it should be remembered that,
in America, the chief element of production, the
land, is not divided into small pieces as in France
and Ireland, Hereafter I shall have occasion to
notice the causes and effects of the division of
capital and labour in America. Recurring to
the agriculture of England, the large farms of
that country exemplify the proverb—union is
force. The most scientific of English farmers, if
he were to apply his knowledge to the cultivation
of a single field, would not raise a much greater
produce than the most ignorant of Irish cottiers.
The great extent of his farm allows full scope for
the exercise of his superior knowledge. That of
which he has a superior knowledge, is the art of
cultivation on a large scale ; and for the practice
of this art, capital and labour in proportion to
land are indispensable. Holding a large farm,
and employing capital and labour in proportion,
he is able to wait for distant returns, to pursue
the best course of crops, to adopt improvements
which at first bear the character of experiments,
to employ many hands in one field, at one time,
in one work, and when it is required, for a con-
siderable period of time without intermission ;




I


30 THE WEALTH OF ENGLAND. THE WEALTH OF ENGLAND.
31


finally is able to make that distribution of em-
ployments amongst his labourers, which, after
combination of labour in single works, is the
greatest improvement in the productive powers of
industry. The results are obvious. By means
of drainage and manure, an immense extent of
land in England, which was once sterile, now
possesses the highest degree of fertility; and in
every part of the country, the fertility of land is
carefully preserved. In France, on the contrary,
the practice of exhausting the natural fertility of
land is general, while in America it. may be des-
cribed as almost universal.* But the grand
result of the superiority of English agriculture is,
that whilst in France about two thirds, and in
America probably three quarters, of the people
are employed in agriculture, more than two
thirds, it is believed, of the people of England,
are fed by the agricultural industry of less than
one-third. The greatness of England, notwith-
standing laws which forbid her manufacturers
to exchange the produce of their industry for
the surplus food of other countries, is incompre-
hensible to a foreigner until he observes the
excellence of her agriculture. That excellence
consists in raising from a given extent of land,
without impoverishing the land, and, with a given


.k causes of the exhaustion of land in the United States
are explained in the Note on the Origin, Progress and Pro-
spects, of Slavery in America,


number of hands, a far greater produce than re-
sults from the labour of the same number of hands,
on the same extent of soil, in any part of the world.*


Less than one third of the people being en-
gaged in agriculture, more than two thirds are
set free, as it were, to follow other pursuits. Of
these, a considerable proportion are engaged in
manufactures. The vastness of the produce of
English manufacturing industry, in proportion
to the number of hands employed, may be roughly
estimated by three separate considerations : first,
the power of tens of millions of men is obtained
from steam, which produces without consuming ;
secondly, notwithstanding a load of English re-
strictions on trade, the English are, by means of
their manufactures, the greatest commercial
people in the world ; thirdly, notwithstanding
heavy taxation and the high price of food in
England, objects of English manufacture are so
cheap as to drive out of any market, where fair


"No one will presume to say that the agriculture of
France is nearly as well improved as that of Britain—that it is
not indeed a hundred years behind ours, and yet while there
are more than two thirds of the people of France employed in
this inferior cultivation, less than one third of our people
suffice to carry on the infinitely superior system of cultivation
adopted in this country. It is in this single circumstance that
the great superiority of our domestic economy over that of the
French chiefly consists." Professor :IP Calloch's Edition of
Smith's Wealth of Nations—Note XIX. vol. 4, page 475.




32


THE WEALTH OF ENGLAND.


competition is allowed, similar objects made any
where but in England.


As in agriculture, so in manufactures, every
improvement in the productive powers of industry
may be traced to general and particular com-
bination of power, leading to general and par-
ticular division of employment.


The same complete division of employments,
which makes the English farmer nothing but a
farmer, makes all the English people who are en-
gaged in manufactures nothing but manufacturers.
Further, whilst in France and America the capital
of one man is frequently divided amongst several
different manufactures, the attention of the
English manufacturing capitalist is confined,
almost, exclusively, to a single object. Thus the
English manufacturer is, as such, a man of single
purpose, "a man with one idea." Hence that
earnest, unremitting and successful pursuit of
improvement, which is conspicuous in every
branch of English manufacture.


Another peculiarity in English manufactures
seems worthy of remark ; I allude to the con-
gregation in one place of vast numbers who are
engaged in the same branch of manufacture. Inb
some cases, no doubt, the main seat of a par-
ticular fabric is determined by natural circum-
stances, such as abundance of coal or iron, or
falling water : in other cases it appears to have
been settled by accident. In every case, how-


THE WEALTH OF ENGLAND. 33


ever, that congregation of numbers engaged in
the same pursuit, by promoting the interchange
of many persons' thoughts on one all-engrossing
subject, by exciting the inventive powers, by pre-
venting a fortunate discoverer from monopolizing
the use of his invention, and above all, by stimu-
lating competition, must have had a large share
in the progress of improvement.


The great effects of particular combination are
still more plain. For the success of some fabrics,
a high and constant temperature is required.
This could not be obtained by any one of a num-
ber of small manufacturers : it is easily obtained
by him who employs a large capital, and collects
a great many people under one roof. There is
scarcely any fabric of which the produce, in pro-
portion to the hands employed, is not greatly
augmented by the use of steam power ; but it is
of the essence of steam power to give effect to the
labour of united numbers. The general use of
steam power in England depends, therefore, on
the combination of capital and labour in parti-
cular works. The distribution amongst many
hands of the several parts of a particular work is
greatly facilitated by the congregation of many
hands under one roof. In England, accordingly,
all the most flourishing manufactures are carried
on in large factories, with large capitals, and by
a great number of hands, brought together for
the purpose of distributing amongst them the




34 THE WEALTH OF ENGLAND.


several parts of each work. Those manufactures
which are conducted by small fractions of capital
and labour, such as the silk works of Spitalfields
and the lace works of Buckinghamshire, are
rapidly perishing : that is, they are in the course
of being superseded by the use of large factories ;
those which have been mentioned, by the large
silk factories of Macclesfield and Manchester, and
by the large lace factories of Nottingham and
Tiverton. Universally, indeed, throughout all
the branches of English manufactures, as in all
of them there is an obvious tendency to improve-
ment, so in all of them one observes a tendency
to increased combination of capita] and labour in
particular works.


The commerce of England, both domestic and
foreign, exhibits like her agriculture and manu-
factures, a high degree of combination of power,
both general and particular. The whole corn,
mercial work performed by the people of England
is so admirably distributed, that one might ima-
gine it to be under the control of a single will ;
while no particular operation languishes for want
of sufficient force to carry it on. In vain might
the state of New York have projected the Erie
canal, if a supply of labour for completing it
had not been obtained from Ireland : that great
work was performed by Irishmen, and could not
have been performed with American free labour,
which, for reasons to be stated hereafter, can


THE WEALTH OF ENGLAND. 35


seldom be used in combination.* The peculiar
skill with which the English apply capital and
labour to the business of exchange, might be
proved by a thousand facts : four of the most
remarkable will suffice for this general notice.
First, while in France or America, the prices of
the same commodity are often very different at
different but not very distant places, all over
England prices are nearly always on a level :
secondly, it is estimated that the rail road be-
tween Manchester and Liverpool saves 600,0001.
a year on the cost of carriage for goods and pas-
sengers between those two towns only : thirdly,


* "The truth is," says Captain Basil Hall in a letter to Mr.
Wilmot Horton, published by the latter, " that there is no
hired labouring class, properly so called, in any part of Ame-
rica, excepting where the ground is tilled by negro slaves ; I mean
that there is no class of men who support themselves, per-
manently, by wages derived from labouring in the service of
others. There is, in fact, no labour to be had for hire, of such
a sort, at least, as to produce permanently a return greater than
the wages which such hired labourer requires. I speak now
of agricultural labour ; and I may say that it is almost an
axiom In those countries, that there is no productive labour in the


fields of a new country, except that which results from the sweat of
the proprietor's own brow. Canals and other casual public works,
and other menial service of the cities, and even the smaller
towns, must, of course, be done by hirelings ; but I must again
and again remark that it is the characteristic feature of all
kinds of labour in those countries to be for the time only,"


"The workmen employed (in making a road in New York
State) are chiefly Irish," Stuart, vol. 2, page 492.




36 THE WEALTH OF ENGLAND. THE WEALTH OF ENGLAND. 37


the best informed persons concur in supposing,
that twenty-nine thirtieths, at least, of the cur-
rency of the northern manufacturing districts
consist of bills of exchange, which, though they
circulate with much greater ease than silver or
gold, cost next to nothing : fourthly, the foreign
and domestic bills of exchange payable by bankers
in London, which often amount to some millions
in one clay, instead of being presented for pay-
ment each bill to the house on which it is drawn,
are all carried to the same spot, where a general
exchange of bills takes place amongst the several
houses ; and in this way, one clerk from each
house performs in an hour or two, and without
any money, a work which, if each bill had been
presented to the house on which it was drawn,
would have required the labour of several clerks,
from all the houses, during many hours, and the
use of some millions of money.


This brief notice of the sources of England's
wealth shows why that wealth is so great in pro-
portion to the number of people who enjoy it ;
and the more the subject shall be examined the
more plainly, I feel assured, will it appear, that,
in all countries, the produce of industry must be
in proportion to the degree in which capital and
labour are combined and employments are divided.
But it may be said that this is an idle speculation,
leading to no conclusions of practical utility ;
that, whether or not the great wealth of England


be owing to combination of power, the English
will continue to pursue that course which they
find so productive ; and that other nations will
not follow their example one day sooner in con-
sequence of perceiving the causes of their wealth.
To meet such observations, I offer the following
conclusions, derived from the principle that, as
respects the produce of industry, union is force.


1. I have said that combination of power ap-
pears to be of two distinct kinds, general and
particular, leading to two distinct kinds of divi-
sion of employments. But this distinction has
been drawn merely for the purpose of explaining
a principle not hitherto noticed. Considering
the operation of industry throughout the world as
one great work, it will be seen that all the parts
of the work, from so great a part as the growth
of tea in China, to so small a one as the making
of a pin's head in England, are productive in pro-
portion to the degree in which men help each
other. Here, then, we perceive exactly, how war
between nations, and restrictions on trade, in-
terfere with the production of wealth ; how
friendly intercourse amongst different nations, by
promoting concert or combination, on which de-
pends division of employments, acids to the general
powers of industry ; how facilities of communica-
tion amongst different countries, and in each
country, promote the increase of wealth ; how a
new road or canal enables more people to live in




38 THE WEALTH OF ENGLAND. THE WEALTH OF ENGLAND. 39


comfort ; and how millions owe all their enjoy-
ments, nay, their very existence, to the institution
of the post for letters.


2. From considering the increase of productive
power derived from combination, one perceives
how various tenures of land in different countries,
and in the same country, influence the production
of wealth. Three examples will suffice. The
poverty of French agriculture,—the large propor-
tion of the people of France who are engaged in
agriculture, leaving but a small proportion for
other pursuits,--is owing to the law of division,
which at a Frenchman's death cuts up his estate
into portions as numerous as his children. In
Ireland, again, it is the minute subdivision of
land, which causes a minute subdivision of capital
and labour, and renders the produce of agricul-
tural industry, in proportion to the hands em-
ployed, so much less than that of the same kind
of industry in England. Lastly, a history of co-
lonization would show, that all new colonies,
having a vast territory at their disposal, have
prospered or languished according as the govern-
ments by which they were founded took care, or
neglected, to dispose of the land to be colonized
with a view to combination of power amongst the
colonists. In the case of the last colony founded
by England, the greatest pains were taken to dis-
perse the colonists, to cut up their capital and
labour into the smallest fractional parts, whence


a miserable failure with all the elements of
success ; but on this subject I have to dwell at
length in another place.*


3. By ascertaining how much the productive-
ness of English industry depends on the most
artificial combination of labour and division of
employments ; by perceiving the extreme compli-
cation of the machine which produces the wealth
of England, and the close dependence of all its
parts upon each other, the English may learn the
peculiar evils which any serious political convul-
sion would inflict on them.


After exhausting the language of admiration in
a description of the actual wealth of England,
one might suppose that in this respect the Eng-
lish could make no further progress. This would
be a mistake. It would be hard to name a single
instance of the wealth of England, which does
not exhibit, at this present time, a tendency to
improvement. Though of late years the roads
of England have been reckoned the best in the
world, yet on every great road, and many cross
roads, some striking improvement is now taking
place. Though the carriage and foot pavements
of English towns have long been celebrated as
perfect, yet these are, as well in country towns as
in London, in the course of being- greatly im-
proved. The number of good houses in London,


Note XII.




40 THE WEALTH OF ENGLAND.
THE WEALTH OF ENGLAND. 41


and of people who can afford to keep a carriage,
astonishes a foreigner ; yet in every direction new
houses of this class are in the course of being built ;
and no sooner are a hundred of them finished,
than they are all occupied and each of them has
a carriage at the door. In ninety-nine out of a
hundred old streets, all over England, you will
find new houses greatly superior to those by their
side. The difference in point of utility and ap-
pearance between old houses which are pulled
down in London and those which take their
place, is, universally, almost as great as the dif-
ference between the old and new London bridges;
a difference, which is striking to the English
themselves, and is grateful even to such of them
as, hating innovation, love to talk of the wisdom
of their ancestors. But a catalogue of those ob-
jects, which exhibit the actual progress of im-
provement in England, would comprise nearly all
that is necessary, useful or agreeable, to English-
men : it would include every useful or ornamental
art, from the great arts of printing, architecture,
engineering, painting and sculpture, clown to the
lowest occupation of human industry ; besides
the whole list of sciences, from the most im-
portant, such as chemistry, medicine and govern-
ment, down to the meanest department of human
knowledge. In England, improvement is every
where. In England, advancement. from good to
better is a universal principle. "Where all this


will end, who shall venture to predict ? Sober
imaginations are confounded by observing the
very rapid progress, which wealthy and civi-
lized England is at this time making in wealth
and civilization.




42 MISERY OF THE BULK OF THE PEOPLE. 43


NOTE II.


MISERY OF THE BULK OF THE PEOPLE.


Who are the bulk of the people—misery of the
bulk of the people a favourite topic in England
—proofs of misery—what is a pauper—fac-
tory children—Irish wages—increase of gin
shops—cheapness of English children—murder
qf parish apprentices—other trades in pauper
children—climbingboys—prostitutes—cheapness
of women—degradation of the common people—
the common people are too cheap to be happy.


AMONGST our wise ancestors the bulk of the
people was slaves, as is still the case in Russia and
the southern states of North America. In modern
states, which deserve to be called civilized, a part
of the people consists of the labouring. class ; that
is, a class, whose only property is their labour,
and who live by the sale of that property to the
other classes. The proportion which the labour-
ing class bears to the other classes, is very dif-
ferent in several of the most civilized modern
states. In the northern states of the American
union, it may be doubted whether so many as a
tenth of the people would fall under the descrip-
tion of hired labourers.* In France, the morcelle-


" Although it is not a general practice for gentlemen in


anent of land has converted a very large portion
of the people into the class of proprietors of land.
Deducting from the remainder the class of
capitalists, those who live on government an-
nuities, soldiers, and indeed all who do not labour
for wages, the labouring class, properly- so called,
will not be estimated at more than a third of the
whole population. In Ireland the cottier system
takes a great majority of the people out of the
class of hired labourers, and turns them into some-
thing between capitalists and workmen. In
Spain and Portugal, if these may be called civil-
ized nations, the class of people who sell their
labour, who live by wages, seem to be very small
indeed. In some of the Italian states, hired
labourers bear a small proportion to the other
classes. On the continent of Europe, the propor-
tion of hired labourers appears to be greatest
in Holland. But in England, where the system
of large farms is established, where a great part
of the population is engaged in manufactures,
and where, in every department of industry, a
complete separation has taken place between


Mr. Verplank's situation in this part of the United States, in
which I mean to comprehend the populous parts of New York
States, Pensylvania and New England, to be thus actively em-
ployed in agricultural operations, I mean actually to work with
their farm servants, nothing is more common in the United
States, taken as a whole, than for proprietors to work in the
field at the same occupation as their servants." Stuart, Vol. 1,
page 460.




44 MISERY OF THE BULK OF THE PEOPLE. MISERY OF THE BULK OF THE PEOPLE. 45


capitalists and workmen, the labouring class
compose the bulk of the people. The bulk of the
people,—the great body of the people, the vast
majority of the people,—these are the terms, by
which English writers and speakers usually de-
scribe those whose only property is their labour.


If there be one subject in particular upon which
Englishmen love to dwell, it is the misery and
degradation of the bulk of the people. Every
year that melancholy subject forms the matter of
numerous petitions to the legislature, of many
speeches in parliament, of discussion at public
meetings in all parts of the country, of some
large volumes, of innumerable pamphlets, and
of frequent, one might say constant, remarks
in nearly all newspapers, and in all political
magazines. There are some cheap newspapers,
written expressly for the labouring class, which
treat of scarce anything else; and the political
sect called Owenites talk of nothing. else. But
the writers of these cheap newspapers, and these
sectaries, differ from writers and speakers of
the conservative or tory party only as to the way
of curing the misery of the bulk of the people.
The Standard newspaper, Blackwood's Magazine,
and the Quarterly Review, all high tory journals,
dwell on the prevalence of misery with as much
zeal as the Poor man's Guardian, and other radi-
cal publications. Mr. Owen, Mr. Carlile and Mr.
Cobbett do not appear more anxious than Mr.


Sadler and Dr. Southey to remove the misery of
the working classes. Mr. Sadler who, by the
way, has written a large book on the causes and
remedies of pauperism, lately declared in the
house of commons that the working classes in
England are white slaves. It was a tory bishop
who first called the attention of the house of lords
to the fact, that Englishmen are harnessed to
carts like cattle. Mr. Wilmot Horton, after Mr.
Sadler the most industrious writer and speaker
on the subject of pauperism, who lately delivered
a course of lectures on that subject at the London
mechanic's institution, was a member of parlia-
ment, a privy counsellor and a tory. Concerning
the misery and degradation of the bulk of the
people of England, men of every order, as well as
every party, unite and speak continually ; farmers,
parish officers, clergymen, magistrates, judges on
the bench, members on either side of both houses
of parliament, the king in his addresses to the
nation, moralists, statesmen, philosophers ; and
finally the poor creatures themselves, whose com-
plaints are loud and incessant.


Of comprehensive words, the two most fre-
quently used in English politics are distress and
pauperism. After these, of expressions applied to
the state of the poor, the most common are vice and


isery, wretchedness, sufferings, ignorance, degra-
dation, discontent, depravity, drunkenness, and the
increase of crime ; with many more of a like nature.




4G MISERY OF THE BULK OF THE PEOPLE.


The measures which have been gravely proposed
as remedies for the misery of the English working
classes amount to, at least, nineteen ; namely, a
fall of rent ; the conversion of tythes to the use of
the poor; more protection for home manufactures ;
the repeal of the corn laws ; abolition of the poor
laws ; correction of the poor laws ; poor laws for
Ireland ; spade husbandry ; home colonization ;
gardens and cows for the poor ; abolition of the
national debt ; other modes of lessening taxation ;
a more liberal expenditure by the government ;
more paper money ; emigration ; universal educa-
tion ; universal suffrage ; moral restraint, or pro-
miscuous intercourse ; and property in common,
or rather no property at all. Each of these speci-
fics is earnestly recommended by its partizans,
and as vehemently opposed by the partizans of
nearly all the others ; but on two points nearly
all parties agree. They concur in describing as
excessive the evil which it is their object to cure,
and in expressing their solemn belief that, unless
a remedy be found for it, some dreadful convulsion
must ensue. Upon the latter of these points I
shall have to remark in another place ; the former
is the proper subject of this note.


There are proofs without end of the misery of
the bulk of the English people. The late insur-
rection of the peasantry of the South of England,
and the modern practice of burning farm-produce,
are universally attributed to the misery and dis-


MISERY OF THE BULK OF THE PEOPLE. 47


content of those unfortunate beings. If the Eng-
lish had been a martial people, those forlorn men,
once roused as they were, would either have des-
troyed the classes whom they consider their op-
pressors or have perished in a servile war. White
slaves, they have been very properly called. It
was some of this class, whom a bishop described
as being harnessed to carts like cattle. In Ame-
rica, too, they harness men to carts ; but then
they treat them as valuable cattle ; give them
plenty to eat ; shelter them from the weather ;
keep them in good heart ; and bring up their
little ones in clover. English slaves are harnessed
to carts, and ill-fed, ill-clothed, ill housed, and
variously ill-treated into the bargain. American
slaves live longer than their masters, while Eng-
lish slaves die prematurely of hunger, wet, cold
and sorrow. In America the increase of slaves,
in one way only,—that is, by births, is more rapid
than the increase of free people in three ways, by
births, by the emancipation of slaves, and by im-
migration : and the proportion of slaves being
a hundred years old is 1 in 1400, while the
same proportion of whites is 1 in about 14000 ;
showing a difference of 10 to 1 in favour of the
longevity of slaves. The peasant of the South of
England suffers nearly all the evils, but enjoys
none of the advantages of slavery. He is not a
freeman, nor is he a slave ; he is a pauper. What
a pauper is, Americans may learn from the fol-




48 MISERY OF THE BULK OF THE PEOPLE. MISERY OF THE BULK OF THE PEOPLE. 49


lowing description of the " bold peasantry of
England," which I extract from one of the count-
less pamphlets on pauperism lately written by
Englishmen.


" What is that defective being, with calfiess
legs and stooping shoulders, weak in body and
mind, inert, pusillanimous, and stupid, whose
premature wrinkles and furtive glance tell of
misery and degradation ? That is an English
peasant or pauper ; for the words are synonymous.
His sire was a pauper, and his mother's milk
wanted nourishment. From infancy his food has
been bad as well as insufficient ; and he now feels
the pains of unsatisfied hunger nearly whenever
he is awake. But half-clothed, and never sup-
plied with more warmth than suffices to cook his
scanty meals, cold and wet come to him, and stay
by him, with the weather. He is married, of
course ; for to this he would have been driven by
the poor laws, even if he had been, as he never
was, sufficiently comfortable and prudent to dread
the burden of a family. But, though instinct
and the overseer have given him a wife, he has
not tasted the highest joys of husband and father.
His partner and his little ones being like himself,
often hungry, seldom warm, sometimes sick with-
out aid, and always sorrowful without hope, are
greedy, selfish, and vexing ; so, to use his own
expression, he " hates the sight of them," and
resorts to his hovel only because a hedge affords


less shelter from the wind and rain. Compelled
by parish law to support his family, which means
to join them in consuming an allowance from the
parish, he frequently conspires with his wife to
get that allowance increased, or prevent its being
diminished. This brings begging, trickery, and
quarrelling ; and ends in settled craft. Though
he have the inclination, he wants the courage to
become, like more energetic men of his class, a
poacher or smuggler on a large scale ; but he
pilfers occasionally, and teaches his children to
lie and steal. His subdued and slavish manner
towards his great neighbours shows that they
treat him with suspicion and harshness. Con-
sequently he at once dreads and hates them ; but
he will never harm them by violent means. Too
degraded to be desperate, he is only thoroughly
depraved. His miserable career will be short :
rheumatism and asthma are conducting him to
the workhouse, where he will breathe his last
without one pleasant recollection, and so make
room for another wretch who may live and die
in the same way. This is a sample of one class
of English peasants. Another class is com-
posed of men, who, though paupers to the extent
of being in part supported by the parish, were
not bred and born in extreme destitution, and
who, therefore, in so far as the moral depends on
the physical man, are qualified to become wise,
virtuous and happy. They have large muscles,




I


50 MISERY OF THE BULK OF THE PEOPLE,


an upright mien, and a quick perception. With
strength, energy, and skill, they would earn a
comfortable subsistence as labourers, if the mo-
dern fashion of paying wages out of the poor•box
did not interfere with the due course of things,
and reduce all the labourers of a parish, the old
and the young, the weak and the strong, the idle
and the industrious, to that lowest rate of wages,
or rather of weekly payment to each, which in
each case is barely sufficient for the support of
life. If there were no poor laws, or if the poor
laws were such that labour was paid in propor-
tion to the work performed, and not according to a
scale founded on the power of gastric juice under
various circumstances, these superior men would
be employed in preference to the inferior beings
described above, would earn twice as much as
the others could earn, and would have every
motive for industry, providence, and general good
conduct. As it is, their superior capacity as la-
bourers is of no advantage to them. They have
no motive for being industrious or prudent.
What they obtain between labour and the rate
is but just enough to support them miserably.
They are tempted to marry for the sake of an extra
allowance from the parish : and they would be
sunk to the lowest point of degradation but for
the energy of their minds, which they owe to their
physical strength. Courage and tenderness are
said to be allied : men of this class usually make


MISERY OF THE BULK OF THE PEOPLE, it


good husbands and affectionate parents. Iam-
pelled by want of food, clothes and warmth, for
themselves and their families, they become poa-
chers wherever game abounds, and smugglers
when opportunity serves. By poaching or smug-
gling, or both, many of them are enabled to fill
the bellies of their children, to put decent clothes
on the backs of their wives, and to keep the cot-
tage whole, with a good fire in it, from year's end
to year's end. The villains why are they not taken
up They are taken up sometimes, and are hunted
always, by those who administer rural law. In this
way they learn to consider two sets of laws,—
those for the protection of game, and those for
the protection of home manufactures,—as speci-
ally made for their injury. Be just to our unpaid
magistrates l who perform their duty even to the
shedding of man's blood, in defence of pheasants
and restrictions on trade. Thus the bolder sort
of husbandry labourers, by engaging in murder-
ous conflicts with gamekeepers and preventive
men, become accustomed to deeds of violence,
and, by living in jails, qualified for the most des-
perate courses. They also imbibe feelings of
dislike, or, rather, of bitter hatred, towards the
rural magistracy, whom they regard as oppressors
and natural enemies ; closely resembling, in this
respect, the defective class of peasants from whom
they differ in so many particulars. Between these
two descriptions of peasantry there is another,




52 MISERY OF THE BULK OF THE PEOPLE. MISERY OF THE BULK OF THE PEOPLE. 53


which partakes of the characteristics of both
classes, but in a slighter degree, except as regards
their fear and hatred of the rural aristocracy. In
the districts where paupers and game abound, it
would be difficult to find many labourers not
coming under one of these descriptions. By
courtesy, the entire body is called the bold pea-
santry of England. But is nothing clone by the
" nobility, clergy, and gentry," to conciliate the
affection of the pauper mass by whose toil all
their own wealth is produced ? Charity ! The
charity of the poor laws, which paupers have been
taught to consider a right, which operates as a
curse to the able-bodied and well-disposed, whilst
it but just enables the infirm of all ages to linger
on in pain and sorrow. Soup ! Dogs'-meat, the
paupers call it. They are very ungrateful ; but
there is a way of relieving a man's necessities
which will make him hate you ; and it is in this
way, generally, that soup is given to the poor.
Books, good little books, which teach patience
and submission to the powers that be ! With
which such paupers as obtain them usually boil
their kettles, when not deterred by fear of the
reverend donor. Of this gift the design is so
plain and offensive, that its effect is contrary to
what was intended, just as children from whom
obedience is very strictly exacted are commonly
rebels at heart. "What else? is nothing else done
by the rural rich to win the love of the rural


poor ? Speaking generally, since all rules have
exceptions, the privileged classes of our rural dis-
tricts take infinite pains to be abhorred by their
poorest neighbours. They inclose commons. They
stop footpaths. They wall in their parks. They
set spring-guns and man-traps. They spend on
the keep of high bred dogs what would support
half as many children, and yet persecute a la-
bouring man for owning one friend in his cur.
The y make rates of wages, elaborately calculating
the minimum of food that will keep together the
soul and body of a clodhopper. They breed
game in profusion for their own amusement, and
having thus tempted the poor man to knock down
a hare for his pot, they send him to the treadmill,
or the antipodes, for that inexpiable offence. They
build jails, and fill them. They make new crimes
and new punishments for the poor. They inter-
fere with the marriages of the poor, compelling
some, and forbidding others to come together.
They shut up paupers in workhouses, separating
husband and wife, in pounds by day, and wards
by night. They harness poor men to carts. They
superintend alehouses, decr y


skittles, deprecate
beer-shops, meddle with fairs, and otherwise cur-
tail the already narrow amusements of the poor.
Even in church, where some of them solemnly
preach that all are equal, they sit on cushions, in
pews, boarded, matted, and sheltered by curtains
from the wind and the vulgar gaze, whilst the




54 MISERY OF THE BULK OF THE PEOPLE. MISERY OF THE BULK OF THE PEOPLE. 55


lower order must put up with a bare bench on a
stone floor, which is good enough for them.
Every where they are ostentatious in the display
of wealth and enjoyment ; whilst in their inter-
course with the poor they are suspicious, quick
at taking offence, vindictive when displeased,
haughty, overbearing, tyrannical and wolfish ; as
it seems in the nature of man to be towards such
of his fellows as, like sheep, are without the
power to resist."


In the parishes of the north of England the
system of pauperism has not been so generally
established. This difference is commonly attri-
buted to the prevalence of manufactures in the
north. But then, the misery of the labouring
class employed in manufactures, though different
in some respects from the misery that attends the
pauper system, is equal to it in degree, if not
more obvious and deplorable. Last year a mass
of evidence was laid before parliament touching
the condition of children employed in factories,
which describes a system of torture, compared
with which the treatment of American slaves ap-
pears truly benevolent. When this evidence was
published the whole press of England repeated,
day after day, that the worst kind of slavery ex-
ists in England. Children of tender years, it was
shown, babies they would be called in America,
are shut up in factories during 12, 14 and 16
hours every week day, and there compelled to


work incessantly, or as hard, at least, as" their
slight frames will permit, and for wages which
but just satisfy their ruined appetites. The pale
cheeks, parched lips, swoln stomachs, deformed


i m bs and melancholy looks, of these little wretches
will be easily imagined. They die off with strange
rapidity ; but the places of those who perish are
instantly filled, and a frequent change of persons
makes no alteration in the scene.


To remedy this evil a law is proposed, to fix
within some limit dictated by common humanity
the number of hours during which children shall
be employed in factories. But let us suppose
that a law should be passed, of which the huma-
nity would not appear extravagant, to forbid
altogether the employment of young children in
factories. The consequence of such a law must
be, that the parents of children who had been
employed in factories would no longer be able to
support those children. No parent, no mother,
who has the means of supporting a child at home,
sends it to be worked to death in a factory : un-
less we are to suppose, what has, indeed, been
asserted by some, that the working class in the
manufacturing districts are so deeply degraded
as to sell their children's labour, or lives, delibe-
rately for the sake of gin. Not believing this
assertion, though it may be true in a few cases,
it appears to me that the only choice of the pa-
rents lies between two evils; on the one hand




n


56 MISERY OF THE BULK OF THE PEOPLE. MISERY OF THE BULK OF THE PEOPLE. 57


the factory, with its probable result, death by
disease of which the progress is hardly percep-
tible ; on the other, immediate, palpable starva-
tion at home. Such a law as I have supposed
would deprive the parents of this choice, would
compel them to suffer that evil which, since they
seek to avoid it, they appear to consider the
greater of the two. I make this remark, not to
disparage the humanity of those who would pass
laws for the mitigation of English slavery, but
for the purpose of explaining, that the misery of
these factory children results from the misery of
their parents : they are all miserable, fathers,
mothers, and children.


Though the remote causes of their misery form
the subject of endless controversy, its immediate
cause seems as plain as that two and two make
four. Their only property is their labour. They
take this property to market. They find the
market overstocked with labour : there are more
sellers than buyers. The sellers, in order to live,
undersell each other, till they reduce the market-
price of their property to what political econo-
mists call the minimum of wages,—to that sum,
namely, which will barely supply the labourer
with necessaries according to his estimate of what
is necessary. In every condition of life an Eng-
lishman's estimate of what is necessary rises
above that which is formed by people of the same
rank in most other countries. To an European


labourer clothes are necessary : to a Hindoo la-
bourer they are not. The necessary clothes of an
English labourer are better than those of a French
labourer. An English workman considers bread
necessary ; an. Irish workman is content with
potatoes. If, therefore, the English markets of
labour were confined to Englishmen, and if, above
all, pains were taken to raise still higher the
English labourer's estimate of what is necessary,
the minimum of wages in England would pro-
bably become sufficient to support all labourers
in a state of decency and comfort. But the Eng-
lish markets of labour, and especially those of
manufacturing labour are not confined to Eng-
lishmen : they are full of Irish labourers, who fly
from Ireland to escape death by famine. These,
whose estimate of necessary wages is a hovel, rags
and potatoes, by underselling the English work-
man, by consenting to work for the lowest wages
that will support life, compel the English labourer
to adopt the same course, and thus reduce the
general minimum of wages to a wretched pittance.
The Irish workman is content with his wretched-
ness ; the English workman is not. Here lies
the only difference between them. The discontent
of the English, if properly encouraged, might
soon lead to a higher minimum of wages, were it
not for the competition of the Irish. It is the
competition of Irish labour, which ruins the ma-
nufacturing population of England. In some dif-




I


58 MISERY OF THE BULK OF THE PEOPLE. AIISERY OF THE BULK OF THE PEOPLE. 59


ficult manufactures, truly, where the labour of
the barbarous and easily satisfied Irishman would
not be worth having at any price, we find a rate
of wages, high when compared with that which
always attends Irish competition. But improve-
ments in the use of steam power, rendering the
work performed by man's labour more simple arid
easy, have lately diminished, and will still further
diminish, the number of those difficult manufac-
tures ; which already must be considered as ex-
ceptions to the general rule. In English manu-
factures, the general rule is Irish wages.


English work and Irish wages! " Peter Moreau,"
says P. L. Courier in his Village Gazette—" Peter
Moreau and his wife are dead, aged twenty-five
Years. Too much work has killed them ; and
many besides. We say—work like. a negro, like
a galley slave: we ought to say—work like a free-
man." I say, work like a Lancashire weaver.
There is no such work in France or America,
even amongst slaves ; all day long, from Monday
morning till Saturday night, week after week, and
year after year, till the machine is worn out.
Talk of negroes and galley slaves : American
slaves, or convicts in New South Wales, are fat
and happy compared with very many free-born
Englishmen. By the way, it happens, not rarely
so as to be matter of wonder, but so often as to
pass unnoticed, that Englishmen commit crimes
for the purpose of becoming galley slaves in New


South Wales. They do not keep their purpose
secret ; they declare it loudly, With tears and pas-
sionate exclamations, to the magistrate who com-
mits them for trial, to the jury who try them,
and to the judge who passes sentence on them ;
and all this is published in the newspapers, but
so often that no one exclaims—Great God, am I
in merry England ! Well may judges on the
bench talk of the misery and degradation of the
people!


Of this misery and degradation, there are some
who say, the cause is gin : it may be so, but let us
see. Every one remarks the increase of gin-shops.
In all those parts of Leeds or Manchester, and of
London too, where the poorest people live, there
you find, in almost every dirty street, not one but
several fine houses, handsomely stuccoed, curi-
ously painted, ornamented with plate-glass and
polished brass ; in the windows, placards inviting
custom by such expressions as " mountain dew"
and " cream of the valley ?" inside, great barrels
of spirits gaily painted and disposed for show,
carved mahogany and more polished brass, with
men and women, smartly dressed, smiling wel-
come to all who enter. The doors of these splen-
did dens are carefully hung so as to fly open with
a touch and shut in au instant ; whether for the
convenience of those dram-drinkers who are
ashamed of their taste, or to give to the concern
an air of mystery, which pleases the ignorant,




60 MISERY OF THE BULK OF THE PEOPLE. MISERY OF THE BULK OF THE PEOPLE. 61


Messrs. Thompson and F'earon can best tell.
These gentlemen, who, being rich, are highly re-
spectable, keep the largest gin shop in England ;
in the world. It is situated (I mention this as a
guide to Americans visiting London) on Holborn
Hill near to Saffron Hill ; a quarter in which
Irish wages prevail and pawnbrokers abound.
Here gin is served by young women dressed up
like the belle limonacNre of a Paris coffee house,
and the establishment in all its parts is nearly as
tine as Verey's or the Café de Paris. There is
another great gin-shop, not much inferior to it,
a little further to the west, adjoining the gate of
Gray's Inn ; two or three close by in Chancery
Lane ; and twenty or thirty not far off. In half
an hour you may visit a hundred. What a con-
trast between the finery of the shops and the beg-
garly appearance of the customers ! Amongst
these are few really old people ; but then plenty
of the young people appear very old. Livid
cheeks, deep wrinkles, blood shot eyes, brown
teeth or white gums without teeth, skin and bone,
shaking hands, sore legs, creeping palsy, a hacking
cough, rags, filth and stench ; these are marks by
which to know the regular gin-drinker. Nine
out of ten of all, who may enter the finest gin-
shop in Manchester of a Sunday morning, will
show one or more of these marks ; counting wo-
men, boys and girls, as well as men, but not the
children, who, of course, are only beginners. In


some great towns of the north, they have low
counters and small glasses on purpose for the
small children : in London the children stand on
tiptoe to pay for half a glass of gin ; but London
will improve. As to gin-shops, London is im-
proving most rapidly, both in number and in
finery ; every week, almost every day, producing
a new gin-shop, fitted up with spring doors, plate-
glass, carved mahogany or rose wood, and po-
lished brass ; all more "elegant," as they say in
America, than the gin-shops which sprung up the
week before. But the quarter of London, in
which the greatest increase of fine gin-shops has
lately taken place, is Spitalfields and its neigh-
bourhood. I have said before, that the silk
manufacture of Spitalfields is perishing. The
most zealous enemy of gin-shops does not pre-
tend that the increase of gin-shops in Spital-
fields has ruined the Spitalfields manufacture ;
but the ruin of the Spitalfields manufacture may
have caused the increase of gin-shops in Spital-
fields. This is my humble opinion, founded on
the considerations which follow.


Generally, a man understands his own affairs
better than other people understand them for him.
The common people of London have a saying,
lately adopted but now proverbial—" To live, be
a pawnbroker or keep a gin-shop." Here the
increase of gin-shops is explained in ten words.
Pawnbrokers and keepers of gin-shops depend on





62 MISERY OF THE BULK OF THE PEOPLE.


the common people : the common people are dis-
tressed, that is, they find it hard to live : their
distress drives them, first to the pawnbroker and.
then to the gin-shop ; they pawn their goods to
purchase—what ? poison : yes, in the long mm,
but for the moment oblivion of their misery.
Misery to the common people is wealth to pawn-
brokers and keepers of gin-shops. The common
people are very miserable ; therefore the demand
for gin is verygreat ; therefore the profits of selling
gin are very high ; therefore gin-shops increase.


This conclusion is supported by some who take
pains to know the sentiments of the common
people, and who earnestly advise them to abstain
from gin ; I mean members of the Temperance
Societies, quakers for the most part, diligent in
works of benevolence, gentle, patient, persevering,
not proud, but feeling with the poor as well as
for them. These, addressing the common people
in friendly and common language, say—" Believe
us, it is a mistake to suppose that gin will keep
the cold out of your stomach. The more gin
you drink, the more will you feel cold in your
stomach. What warms you to day will not have
that effect a month hence : by and by, in order
to feel warm, you must double the quantity.
But twice the quantity, as soon as you are used.
to it, will not make you feel warm. The more
you drink, the more you must drink in order to
feel warm. At last, no quantity will warm you ;


MISERY OF THE BULK OF THE PEOPLE.
63


your stomach will be destroyed, and you will die
of drinking gin to keep the cold out of your
stomach?' This is all very true ; and it shows
how well the quakers understand those feelings
of the common people which lead to dram-drink-
ing. Cold in the stomach ! but neither the Spital-
fields weavers, nor their friends of the Temperance
Societies, suppose that cold is matter which enters
the stomach. Cold in the stomach is a figurative
expression, meaning either hunger or despair, or
both. " Sir," says a Spitalfields weaver, in reply
to his friendly adviser, " all that you say is true.
The more gin we drink, the more we want ; but
also the less we drink gin, the more we feel the
want of something else. Give us bread, meat,
beer and fire ; then we should feel warm without
gin. I am not begging : we are all ready to
work. I. work, God knows, morning, noon and
night : work, work, work ; we have plenty of that.
If we did not work we should die outright.
But what does our work bring ? work and hun-
ger, work and cold, work and sorrow. I get
about fourteen shillings a week, out of which
there's rent to pay—we can't lie in the street,—
and clothes to find, such as they are,—but we
must be covered ;—what remains for fire and
food amongst six of us, four children, their mother
and me ? Enough to starve upon, and that is all.
The children cry for bread ; they must wait :
their mother cries because they cry ; she is sick




64 MISERY OF THE BULK OF THE PEOPLE. MISERY OF THE BULK OF THE PEOPLE.
65


with crying and what not and wants some tea ;
she must want. In cold weather we all shiver
for want of fire : the children and their mother
may lie in bed to keep themselves warm ; but 1,
hungry and cold, must work on. I do work ;
and when I drink gin, it is to keep myself from
going mad. I allow it—my wife drinks gin some-
times, and the children, too; poor things, now
and then, to pacify them. If you were as poor as
we are, sir, and had to work as hard as I have,
without hope, you would be apt to learn that. gin
is bread, and meat, and fire, and hope, all in one.
Without gin, I should not have heart to work,
and we must all go to the poor-house ; or die, for
the poor-house is choke full, and the rates are not
paid.. 'We say cold in the stomach ; but we
mean hunger in the belly and despair in the
heart. Gin cures both for a time ; but it kills,
you say. Well, we can but die, with gin or with-
out ; and life such as our's, without gin, is worse
than death." Just so : those who frequent gin-
shops best know why. The gin-shops in Spital-
fields are many and magnificent because the
trade of Spitalfields is going to ruin. In other
parts of London the poverty of the common peo-
ple enriches pawnbrokers and keepers of gin-
shops. At Manchester, Bolton and Blackburn,
the cause of gin-shops is Irish wages. Verily, the
life of the bulk of the people of England is
worse than death.


In the slave-states of America, a strong, healthy,
boy or girl is worth about £50. In London, on the
gates of poor-houses,one reads—"Strong, healthy,
boys and girls, with the usual fee ; apply within."
With, not for, the usual fee : you do not pay the
fee to obtain a boy or girl ; but the parish officers
pay you for taking one. The usual fee in London
is £ 10 ; so that in America you pay five times as
much as you receive in England. To be sure,
the boys and girls in London arc neither strong
nor healthy : the notice on the workhouse gates
says that they are both, to invite customers, just
as the keepers of gin-shops placard their windows
with " mountain dew and cream of the valley."
But a little, a very little, -care and kindness
would make the English children as strong and
healthy as young negroes in America. It is not,
therefore, the difference of strength which causes
the difference of value between young people in
Kentucky and young people in London ; nor can
it be the difference of colour : on the contrary,
one might suppose that a white boy or girl would
be worth more than a black one, instead of being,
so to speak, worth X10. less than nothing.


Ah, but, says a "respectable" Englishman, the.
young Americans, who cost £50. each, are born
in slavery ; the others are free-born English
children. The bu yer of an American child can
do what he likes with it : the English children are
merely bound apprentice for a term of years, and




r


66 MISERY OF THE BULK OF THE PEOPLE. MISERY OF THE BULK OF THE PEOPLE. 67


the parish pays with each of them an apprentice
fee, as a recompense to the master for teaching
them his trade. The magistrate is a party to all
the indentures of apprenticeship ; he requires the
child's consent ; he cancels the bond if the child
is ill-treated. English children are protected by
our glorious, our inimitable, constitution, which
makes no difference between rich and poor : it is
absurd to compare English apprentices with
American slaves.—I answer : it is the whole press
of England, not I, that calls English children
white slaves ; but, not to dispute about words,
let us come to facts. In the reign of George III.
one Elizabeth Brownrigg was hanged for beating
and starving to death her parish apprentices.
About three years ago, another woman, Esther
Hibner by name, was hanged in London for
beating and starving to death a parish apprentice.
In both these cases, the constitution, the law,which
makes no difference between rich and poor, in-
terfered on behalf of a pauper girl : but when ?
not before the girl was murdered, but after.
Does the law interfere to prevent the murder of
parish apprentices ?—this is the question. The
evidence in the case of Esther Hibner proved, that
a number of girls, pauper apprentices, were em-
ployed in a workshop ; that their victuals con-
sisted of garbage, commonly called hog's wash,
and that of this they never had enough to stay
the pains of hunger ; that they were kept half


naked, half clothed in dirty rags ; that they
slept in a heap, on the floor, amidst filth and
stench ; that they suffered dreadfully from cold ;
that they were forced to work so many hours
together that they used to fall asleep while at
work ; that for failing asleep, for not working as
hard as their mistress wished, they were beaten with
sticks, with fists, dragged by the hair, dashed on to
the ground, trampled upon, and otherwise tor-
tured ; that they were found, all of them more or
less, covered with chilblains, scurvy, bruises and
wounds ; that one of them died of ill-treatment ;
and,—mark this,—that the discovery of that
murder was made in consequence of the number
of coffins which had issued from Esther Hibner's
premises and raised the curiosity of her neigh-
bours. For this murder Mrs. Hibner was hanged ;
but what did she get for all the other murders
which, referring to the number of coffins, we
have a right to believe that she committed? She
got for each 101. That is to say, whenever she
had worked, starved, beaten, dashed and trampled
a girl to death, she got another girl to treat in the
same way, with 101. for her trouble. She carried
on a trade in the murder of parish apprentices ;
and if she had conducted it with moderation, if
the profit and custom of murder had riot made
her grasping and careless, the constitution, which
protects the pcor as well as the rich, would never
have interfered with her. The law did not per-




68 MISERY OF THE BULK OF THE PEOPLE. MISERY OF THE BULK OF THE PEOPLE. 69


mit her to do what she liked with her apprentices
as Americans do with their slaves ; oh no. Those
free-born English children were merely bound
as apprentices, with their own consent, under the
eye of the magistrate, in order that they might
learn a trade and become valuable subjects. But
did the magistrate ever visit Mrs. Hibner's fac-
tory to see how she treated the free-born English
girls ? never : did the parish officers ? no : was
there any legal provision for the discovery of the
woman's trade in murder ? none. That woman
has not traded in murder during the last three
years; but why not ? because she was hanged three
years ago : but what hanged her ? the glorious
constitution or the number of coffins ? Plainly,
the number of coffins ; that is, the impunity, the
security, with which she had murdered ; the for-
lorn state of her apprentices ; the utter neglect of
them by parish officers, magistrates, laws and
constitution.


Since Mrs. Hibner was hanged the inimitable
constitution has been greatly altered, but not
with respect to parish apprentices. You still
read on the gates of London poor-houses "strong,
healthy, boys and girls, &c." ; and boys or girls
you may obtain by applying within, as many as
you please, free-born, with the usual fee. Having
been paid for taking them, and having gone
through the ceremonies of asking their consent
and signing bonds before .a magistrate, you may


make them into sausages, for anything the con-
stitution will do to prevent you. If it should be
proved that you kill even one of them, you will
be hanged ; but you may half-starve them, beat
them, torture them, anything short of killing
them, with perfect security ; and using a little cir-
cumspection, you may kill them too without
much danger. Suppose they die, who cares ? their
parents ? they are orphans, or have been aban-
doned by their parents. The parish-officers? very
likely indeed, that these, when the poor-house is
crammed with orphan and destitute children,
should make enquiries troublesome to them--
selves ; enquiries which, being troublesome to
you, might deprive them of your custom in future.
The magistrate ? he asked the child whether it
consented to be your apprentice ; the child said
" yes, your worship ;" and there his worship's duty
ends. The neighbours ? of course, if you raise
their curiosity like Esther Hibner, but not other-
wise. In order to be quite safe, I*tell you, you
must be a little circumspect. But let us suppose
that you are timid, and would drive a good trade
without the shadow of risk. In that case, half-
starve your apprentices, cuff them, kick them,
torment them till they run away from you. They
will not go back to the poor-house, because there
they would be flogged for having run away from
you : besides the poor-house is any thing but a
pleasant place. The boys will turn beggars or




4


70 MISERS" OF THE BULK OF THE PEOPLE.


thieves, and the girls prostitutes : you will have
pocketed 101. for each of them, and may get
more boys and girls on the same terms, to treat
in the same way. This trade is as safe as it is
profitable.


In England there are many charitable institu-
tions for assisting orphan and destitute children.
One of them, at the head of which I observe the
name of Lord Grosvenor, informs the public that
London contains, at all times, 15,000 orphan or
destitute children, houseless, prowling about the
streets, and supported by begging or robbing. By
dint of zeal, advertisements and public meetings,
this society has, I believe, found means to pro-
vide for 20 of these children. Of the 14,980
which remain, how many are run-away parish ap-
prentices A committee of parliament might
easily learn ; but parliament represents only the
payers of poors-rates, to whom an exposure of the
truth would not be agreeable. Great things,
however, are expected of the reformed house of
commons. Should they wish for information on
this subject, I hereby undertake to put them in
the way of learning, for certain, that one-fourth,
at least; of the boys under fourteen years of age,
who pass through the prisons of London, are run-
away parish apprentices.


The American reader must not suppose that
London is the only place in England, where free-
born boys and girls may be obtained with the


MISERY OF THE BULK OF THE PEOPLE. 71


usual fee of 101. for each. In all great towns the
parishes get rid of destitute children in this man-
ner ; and in most of them the usual fee is 101. for
each child. In rural parishes the usual fee is
from 51. to 71. ; a difference explained by the
smaller proportion which in rural parishes desti-
tute children bear to the rates, whence less
anxiety on the part of the rural overseer to get
rid of destitute children.


In all England there cannot be less than five
millions of chimneys. Suppose that on the average
each chimney is swept twice a year, and that a
fifth of the whole number are swept by machinery.
If so, something like what I am going to describe
occurs eight million times every year in England.
A chimney requires to be swept, and the master
sweep attends, with a little boy. He fastens a
blanket across the fire place to prevent any soot
from falling into the room. Now watch the
child. Trembling, he draws a black bag over his
head and shoulders ; the master grasps him by
the arm and guides him to the fire place ; he dis-
appears up the chimney. Now watch the master.
He is motionless, his head on one side, listening
attentively. Ask him a question : " hush" is the
answer, with his finger on his lips. Presently, a
low, indistinct moaning is heard in the chimney.
" William," says the master, putting his mouth to
the edge of the fire place, and speaking in a brisk
cheerful tone,—" that's right, William." Another




72 MISERY OF THE BULK OF THE PEOPLE.


moan ; and then—" I say William—brush it well
out, I say." Down comes a quantity of soot, and
the child is heard scraping the sides of the chim-
ney. Presently, silence ; and then moaning again.
"William," exclaims the master, "I say, Bill,
you've almost done ha'nt you ?" No answer ; the
child's head being, remember, in a thick bag ;
but the brush is heard once more, and the master
holds his tongue. Silence again ; and the moan
of the child returns. This time the master shouts
—" Bill, Bill, I say, Billy, how do you get on ;"
and so on till the end of the work ; whenever the
child cries, or is silent, his master shouts to him
" Billy, I say Billy, my lad." This is a mild case,
without oaths, threats or blows, Ask the master
why he tormented the half-smothered boy by
speaking to him whilst his head was in the bag
up the chimney : he will say—" for no reason
that I know of." Believing this answer to be
false, you press for another, when the master
says—" We always speak to 'em, when they're up
the chimney, for fear they should run sulky and
stick." Run sulky and stick ! droop, faint, and die
of suffocation. Examine the boy when he comes
from the chimney. If his knees and elbows are
not raw and bloody, they are covered with horn
like the knees of the mountain goat ; his face,
neck, and breast are wet with the water that flowed
from his eyes, which are red with inflammation ;
the veins of his temples arc swoln into cords ; and


MISERY OF THE BULK OF THE PEOPLE. 73


his pulse is at high fever mark. In a word, he
has been tortured.


Every climbing-boy suffers great pain every
time he mounts a chimney ; and a good half of
the climbing-boys in England are parish appren-
tices, free-born, consenting, recognized by the
constitution, engaged in learning a trade which,
as men, they could- not follow, if by chance they
should grow to be men. Of those parish appren-
tices who become thieves, a great many have first
been climbing-boys, tortured several times a clay
as long as they would bear it. This, also, with the
power to examine unwilling witnesses, might be
abundantly proved.


In England, any one who belongs to the ruling
class may be irreligious and immoral without
so much punishment as disgrace. The titled con-
cubines of royalty have been envied by numbers
of their sex, and honoured when they appeared in
public ; a lord high chancellor, who keeps the
Ring's conscience, may also keep a mistress, or
more than one, without incurring the slightest
odium ; any man of fortune may change from
prostitute to prostitute without forfeiting any of
the high respect which is paid to him as a man of
fortune : no one, in short, suffers anything by
encouraging prostitution, provided he can afford
the expense. Women, on the contrary, whose
poverty drives them to sin against religion and
morality—prostitutes for bread—are regarded




74 MISERY OF THE BULK OF THE PEOPLE.


with that sort of scorn, which a Turk expresses
when he says—" dog of a christian !" The Eng-
lish show profound respect for their devil, in com-
parison with the way in which they treat their
women of the town. For these, such epithets as
wicked, vile, nasty, such terms as slut, strumpet,
wretch, are too good : you must not mention them
at all in public, and you cannot allude to them
in a book without staining your pages. Recom-
mend that they should be treated like fellow
creatures, as in the Netherlands : if you are not
prosecuted for blasphemy, many will say that
you deserve to be hanged. In America or Holland,
if you strike a woman of this class, she will take
the law of you : in England, her evidence might
be rejected, or at all events, would not be believed.
" Gentlemen of the jury," the counsel of the ac-
cused would say, " this charge rests on the evi-
dence of a common" (meaning poor) "prostitute :
fa:ugh ! my res—pec—table" (rich) " client is
already acquitted." I do not pretend that such
a speech was ever made, but assert, admitting the
hypothesis to be absurd, that if; by chance, a re-
spectable Englishman were prosecuted for as-
saulting a woman of the town, then this would
be the way to get him acquitted. The English
constitution recognizes parish apprentices, but
not poor prostitutes. Prostitution is one thing ;
the prostitutes another. The laws and customs
of England encourage prostitution, but do not


MISERY OF THE BULK OF THE PEOPLE. 75


even protect the prostitutes. At the royal theatres,
for instance, which are managed by the king's
servants, there are grand saloons, built expressly
for the encouragement of prostitution ; but I can-
not hear of any law or regulation, like those
which subsist in France and Holland, intended
to provide for the health, the personal security,
and the decent behaviour of this unfortunate class.
The laws and customs of England conspire to
sink this class of Englishwomen into a state of
vice and misery below that which necessarily
belongs to their condition. Hence their extreme
degradation, their troopers' oaths, their love of
gin, their desperate recklessness, and the shortness
of their miserable lives.


But how, considering the very great mortality
to which they are subject, shall we account for
their vast numerical proportion to the other in-
habitants of England ? In France, and more
especially in Holland, women of the town are
frequently reformed, married, and respected in
their new condition. In England, where the
mere idea of a reclaimed prostitute, married and
respected, would shock the least fastidious, pros-
titution means speedy death. English women
of this class, or rather girls, for few of them live
to be women, die like sheep with the rot ; so fast
that soon there would be none left, if a fresh
supply were not obtained equal to the number of
deaths. But a fresh supply is always obtained.


41'




76 MISERY OF THE BULK OF THE PEOPLE. MISERY OF THE BULK OF THE PEOPLE. 77


without the least trouble : seduction easily keeps
pace with prostitution or mortality. Those who
die are, like factory children that die, instantly
succeeded by new competitors for misery and
death. One cannot prove, indeed, by statistical
tables, that the proportion of girls of the town is
greater in England than in other countries, be-
cause in England any deliberate enquiry con-
cerning this class would be considered shameful ;
nor arc statistical tables required : the fact
speaks for itself, is proved by the swarms of pros-
titutes to be met with in every town, and in
every quarter of the great towns. To prove this,
statistical tables are not more necessary than to


3establish, what no one denies, that in England
there are more splendid mansions and gin-shops
than in any other country. But. the cause ; what
is the cause of this excessive number of prosti-
tutes, notwithstanding so wonderful a rate of
mortality


One cause of this evil is, of course, an excessive
demand for prostitutes. That demand is occa-
sioned principally by a custom now prevalent
amongst the English middle classes ; the custom
of abstaining from marriage, the custom of ce-
libacy, vulgarly speaking ; of " moral restraint.,"
in the language of political economy. This
cause is explained in the next note : the other
causes, the inducements to a life of prostitution,
are explained by the following story.


Some out-of-the-way people founded a refuge
for prostitutes ; a charity of which the object was
to reclaim a small number of public women. One
day a girl applied for admission to this retreat,
saying—" I am out of work, cold, hungry, tired,
houseless, and anxious to be saved from evil
courses." She was dismissed not being qualified :
so the story goes. This story may not be true ;
but most Englishmen have laughed at it in pri-
vate. The story passes for a good joke ; and its
currency proves two things ; first, that the few
English with bowels of compassion for prostitutes
are ridiculed as eccentric ; and next, that the
English themselves consider poverty the main
inducement to a life of prostitution. In America,
where no class practises " moral restraint," the
demand for women of the town is very small,
and, such as it is, arises principally from the so-
journ of foreigners in sea-port towns ; but if that
demand were doubled by a sufficient increase of
foreign visitors, it would not be supplied ; be-
cause in America every girl can readily obtain
an honest livelihood. In America, you may travel
a thousand miles, taking the towns in your way,
and not meet a prostitute : in England, you can-
not walk a mile upon pavement without meeting
hundreds. In America, it is as difficult for house-
holders to get women-servants, as in England
for women-servants to get places. In America,
prostitution is a choice seldom made ; to Eng--




78 MISERY OF THE BULK OF THE PEOPLE. MISERY OF THE BULK OF THE PEOPLE. 79


p


lishwomcn, thousands every year, it is a dire ne-
cessity. In order to reclaim the prostitutes of
England, you must first find employment for
them, which would be the harder task of the
two ; and by when this was done, there would be
as many as before. Not vice and misery, Mr.
Malthus, but misery and vice is the order of
checks to population. Charity, virtue, happiness!
these are English words still, but the meaning of
them appears to have settled in America. I
wonder that emigration is not more the fashion,
and wish that Mrs. Trollope would write a book
on the domestic manners of the English.


In England the increase of crime is a common
subject of lamentation. About a hundred and
twenty thousand of the people, it is reckoned, are
always in jail ; besides convicts, transported to
comfort by way of punishment, and debtors look-
ing through prison bars for the means of paying
their creditors. In England the increase of fine
jails is nearly as striking as the increase of gin-
shops. The new jails, one in every county, and
in some counties several, would be thought grand
in America ; noble buildings of beautiful brick
work or handsome masonry, with imposing fronts,
bearing chains, emblematical, carved in stone.
In Lancashire the magistrates boast, that their
county jail is very like Windsor Castle, the finest
of palaces. The increase of fine lunatic asylums,
also, may be noticed here ; since it has been


lately ascertained that there are more mad pau-
pers, in proportion, than mad people of any other
class, except governesses. Poor-houses, gin-shops,
mad-houses, jails ; one almost sees them grow in
number and magnificence, with the increase of
paupers, parish apprentices, drunkenness and
crime. In England, those who compose the bulk
of the people are too cheap to be happy. If their
condition be such that it tnust be worse before
it can be better, the crisis is corning.




80
UNEASINESS OF THE MIDDLE CLASS. 81


NOTE III.


UNEASINESS OF THE MIDDLE CLASS.


Who compose the aristocracy—particular distresses
of the middle class—uneasiness of farmers—of
manufacturers—of dealers—low profits—unea-
siness of professional men—of


several classes
possessing the common run of knowledge, or su-
perior knowledge—of persons having fixed in-
comes and families—primary cause of prostitu-
tion—domestic life amongst the English middle
class.


IN America, it is a common mistake to suppose,
that the English aristocracy consists entirely of
the nobility, squires of good estate, wealthy
churchmen and highly paid public servants. The
aristocracy means the privileged class. Except
the privilege of being born to make laws, there is
none in England that money will fail to procure ;
and even that one, any man, having abundance
of money, may obtain for his unborn, first-born
son. A judge, a bishop, or a secretary of state,
does not consider the trouble of his vocation a
privilege ; his privileges consist of money, pa-
tronage, power ; the respect, the adulation, the
devotion of his inferiors. In England, with plenty


Of the first of these privileges, you have all the
others in abundance. Any Englishman, being
very rich, would find it hard, if such a whim
should take him, to avoid the respect, the adula-
tion, the devotion, of numerous parasites. Not
the man, but the wealth, is worshipped. The
man may be ignorant., stupid, selfish, dishonest,
in every way worthless ; but if he have £50,000.
a year, he will have fifty, nay, five hundred, de-
voted friends, telling him continually that he is
wise, just, generous, all over noble. Poor lords,
though of Norman descent, are very little es-
teemed, and would be quite despised, but that as
hereditary legislators they commonly obtain a
good deal of the public money. The money is
given to them avowedly for the purpose of main-
taining their dignity. On the other hand, money
will purchase the reputation of Norman descent.
Mr. Thistlethwaite, whose father wore wooden
shoes and made a million by cotton spinning ;
Mr. Thistlethwaite, who has purchased a mansion
called Thistlethwaite Hall, intends, when he ob-
tains a. peerage, to take the title of Thistlethwaite
and Vermont (his mother's name was Greenhill),
in order to make it be believed that he- descends
in the female line from the Norman lords of Ver-
mont : and this will be believed, religiously, on
account of the million of money. In short, there
is nothing that the English will not do to please
him who can dispose of a great deal of money,





82 UNEASINESS OF THE MIDDLE CLASS. UNEASINESS OF THE MIDDLE CLASS. 83


either his own or that of the public. All rich
Englishmen, therefore, belong to the aristocracy
quite as much as any duke, minister or arch-
bishop ; not excluding tradesmen, provided they
be called great, like Calvert the great brewer,
Baring the great stockjobber, Crawshay the great
iron-founder, Mellish the great butcher, and
Morrison the great draper. Still, one cannot
draw a very distinct line between the aristocracy
and the class next below them. I thought at
one time of counting amongst the aristocracy all
who are called respectable ; but respectability
has various meanings in England : with sonic it
means to keep a carriage, with others a gig. I
have it—the privileged class consists of those who,
whenever they are wronged, or would injure, can
buy law without depriving themselves of any
other costly luxury ; those, in short, who, be their
rank what . it may, have more money than they
know how to spend. Captain Basil Hall calls
them the Spending Class.


After these comes the middle or uneasy class.
Uneasiness, according to Johnson, is care, trou-
ble, perplexity. By the uneasy class, I mean
those who, not being labourers, suffer from agri-
cultural distress, manufacturing distress, com-
mercial distress, distress of the shipping interest,
and many more kinds of distress, of which the
names and descriptions have appeared over and
over again during the last fifteen years, in the


journals of parliament, in pamphlets without
number, and in all political publications, quar-
terly, monthly, weekly and daily. In English
politics, the word distress is used more frequently
than any other comprehensive word, except pau-
perism. Distress, applied to any particular class,
signifies the trouble, care, perplexity of that
class, but not that the trouble, care and perplexity
are unequal, or confined to any one set of peo-
ple ; for each distress has lasted fifteen years, and
all the distresses together make permanent general
distress. This steady national distress is attri-
buted to causes more numerous than the several
distresses of which it is composed ; to transition
from war to peace ; to the admission of foreign
corn ; to restrictions on the admission of foreign
corn ; to taxation ; to diminution of the public
expenditure ; to inadequate production ; to over-
production ; to change in the currency ; to free
trade, and restrictions on trade ; to political
economy, and the blunders of practical men ;
and, finally, to rotten boroughs. For an evil
attributed to so many causes, it was natural that
numerous methods of cure should be proposed.
Accordingly, the business of English politicians
for about fifteen years, has been to devise reme-
dies for general distress or particular distresses.
Some of these specifics will be noticed hereafter,
and especially reform of parliament, from which
the uneasy class expect the most happy results ;




'84 UNEASINESS OF THE MIDDLE CLASS.
UNEASINESS OF THE MIDDLE CLASS. 85


but here the many alleged causes, and supposed
remedies, of distress are alluded to, merely with
a view to show that the distress itself is real,
extensive, severe, not imaginary, as some of the
spending class assert, nor confined, as in former
periods, to the idle and thriftless. In fact, the
uneasy class consists of three-fourths, or rather
perhaps nine-tenths, of all who are engaged in
trades and professions, as well as all who, not
being very rich, intend that their children should
follow some industrious pursuit. The proof of
this assertion is very easy.






There are some English farmers, though but
few, so rich as to be called great ; and these do
not belong to the uneasy class. Even these,
however, complain of low profits. But if he
whose farming capital is, sa y , 30,000/., grumbles
because his annual profit is only two and a-half
per cent, or 7501., what must be the state of that
farmer whose capital is only 5,0001. ? Supposing
his profits to be equal to those of the great far-
mer, his annual income is only 1251. ; not so
much, allowing for the difference of prices, as the
income of a common labourer in America. Any
where in America, a farming capital of 5,0001.
would return a profit of fifteen per cent. ; so that
taking the common rate of farming profit in Eng-
land to be two and a-half per cent., the American
farmer possessing 5,000/. enjoys an income, equal
to that of the English farmer possessing 30,0001.


But the common rate of farming profit in Eng-
land, during the last fifteen years, has not been so
much as two and a-half per cent. : on the con-
trary, the rate of loss has been considerable.
Impossible ! cries a bigoted political economist ;
that is impossible, because if farming profits had
sunk very low, capital would have been with-
drawn from agriculture, and employed in other.
pursuits of which the profits were higher. But
what if the profits of other pursuits were not
higher ? Political economists frequently suppose
the case of low profits in a particular trade :
surely, what takes place in one trade, may take


. place in all. But be this as it may, there can be
no doubt that in England of late years, many
farmers have employed capital with a high rate of
loss. Hundreds, thousands, have lost their whole
capital, whilst all, with the exception of those
whose capitals were so large that they could save
out of very low profits, have lost more or less.
The number of farmers, it might be supposed,
has been diminished by the total or partial ruin
of so' many : not at all. A farmer was ruined ;
had the landlord any difficulty in letting his
farm ? On the contrary, the ruin of a farmer has
generally occasioned wonder at the anxiety of
other farmers to pay as high or a higher rent for
the ruinous farm. Except during a few years
before the close of the last war, the competition
for English farms was never more keen than it




86 UNEASINESS OF THE MIDDLE CLASS. UNEASINESS OF THE MIDDLE CLASS. 87


has been during the long period of agricultural
distress. There are very many farms which have
ruined two or three tenants since 1815. No one
pretends that the rent of farming land is lower,
every one knows that it is much higher, reckoned
in corn or cattle, than at any former time, except
just before the peace ; and at this time high rents
are, by some, supposed to be the cause, or at
least one cause, of agricultural distress. The dis-
tress continues without diminishing the number
of people who are distressed. As one farmer is
ruined, another takes his place ; but the change
of persons, as with children who are worked to
death in factories, makes no alteration in the
scene. I do not say, that all the farmers, or all
farmers who begin with moderate capitals, are
ruined in a few years, and succeeded by others
to be, ruined in like manner but every year sees
the ruin of many farmers of moderate capital,
whose places are instantly filled ; and all farmers,
except only those who have very large capitals,
are constantly on the verge of ruin ; in a state of
care, trouble and perplexity.


As in agriculture, so in manufactures ; with
this difference, however, that the proportion of
great capitals to moderate or small ones being
much larger in manufactures than in agriculture,
the proportion of manufacturers, who suffer trou-
ble and perplexity, is much less than amongst
farmers. There are -many manufacturers, each


of whom employs a capital of more than 100,0001.
These might be content with a low rate of profit :
they are discontented, but they are not care-
worn, troubled and perplexed, like those smaller
capitalists, to whom a low rate of profit brings
ruin, or, at least, the constant dread of ruin. The
number of manufacturers who have been ruined
since the peace, is perhaps, as great as the num-
ber of farmers who have been ruined in the same
period. But has the amount of capital employed
in manufactures decreased ? On the contrary, it
has increased rapidly and steadily ever since the
peace. Has the number of master-manufactu-
rers decreased? On the contrary, it has increased,
though in a less proportion than manufacturing
capital ; this difference being explained by the
constantly increasing proportion of large capitals
to moderate or small ones. In other words, sup-
posing the whole number of master-manufactu-
rers to have been doubled, the number of those,
each of whom employs above 100,0001., may have
been quadrupled. But how could this be, with
a constant and universal low rate of profit ?
I have endeavoured to answer that question in
the next note. Here it must be admitted, that
ever since the peace, the common rate of profit in
English manufactures has been extremely low ;
that a great deal of capital has been employed
with loss instead of profit, that many of the
owners of capital so employed have been ruined,




58 UNEASINESS OF THE MIDDLE CLASS.
UNEASINESS OF THE MIDDLE CLASS. 89


and that at this time a very low rate of profit
condemns all manufacturers of small or moderate
capital to uneasiness, trouble, and perplexity.
Great manufacturers, who possess immense ca-
pitals, must not be counted amongst the uneasy
class.


In the commerce of England since the peace,
a low rate of profit has produced the same effect
as in agriculture and manufactures. Great
merchants, merchants who employed very large
capitals, have complained of very low profits and
frequently of loss ; an immense number of mer-
chants, having only small or moderate capitals,
have been ruined; and all owners of moderate or
small capitals employed in commerce are in a
state of uneasiness. In commerce, which admits
of more speculation than manufactures or agricul-
ture, the loss of capital has caused uneasiness, and
even misery, to numbers who owned very large
capitals, and who, impelled by the low rate of
profit to seek out new channels of trade, have
employed their capitals in glutting distant mar-
kets, and been ruined by such speculations. But
has the total ruin of these great capitalists, and
of a much larger number of small capitalists, di-
minished the number of merchants or the amount
of capital employed in trade ? On the contrary,
the increase of commercial capital has kept pace
with that of manufacturing capital, and the
number of merchants with the number of manu-


facturers. Millions, tens of millions, of English
capital have been thrown away since the peace
in supplying distant markets with goods at less
than cost price, * and in other speculations, such
as working, or pretending to work, the mines of
South America ; but whenever capital was in this
way abstracted and lost, its place was imme-
diately filled ; or rather so large a waste of
capital seems not to have caused even a tempo-
rary vacuum. Where all the capital carne from,
how it was so rapidly accumulated, is a question ;
but that commercial capital has been produced
faster than it was thrown away, is a plain fact,
about which there can be no dispute. The number
of merchants, employing large, m oderate and small
capitals, is very much greater than it was fifteen
years ago ;* more business is done ; new channels
of trade have been opened and filled: yet the pro-
fits of commercial business are now so low that
only the most wealthy merchants are at ease ; all
the others are troubled, perplexed, uneasy, always
on the verge of bankruptcy.


With retail dealers, there is the same complaint
of low profits, the same uneasiness, as with far-


* In a late debate on "Distress" in the house of commons,
(1833) Mr. Grote, member for the city of London, a great
capitalist, and a very accomplished gentleman besides, referred
to the increase of names in the London Directory as a proof
that the number of traders had increased.




11


90 UNEASINESS OF THE MIDDLE CLASS.


mers, manufacturers and merchants. Until of
late years most retail trades were conducted by
persons of small or moderate capital. Of late
years, however, very large capitals have been em-
barked in several retail trades. The owners of
these large capitals act on the maxim—much
business with small profits is as good as little
business with large profits. They are satisfied,
and as each of them possesses a large capital,
they may well be satisfied, with low profits. But
nothing is better established than the tendency
of all capitals, and especially of all capitals
employed in the same business, to an equal
rate of profit. It was impossible, therefore,
that retail dealers of small capital should obtain
high profits while great capitalists engaged in the
same retail trade were satisfied with low profits.
Still, a general low rate of profit in retail trades
must not be considered as an effect of the employ-
ment of large capitals in retail trade. On the
contrary, large capitals have been employed in
retail trade, though, first, because the agricul-
tural, manufacturing, and commercial fields were
fully occupied, still, secondly, because the full-
ness of the retail field offered to the great
capitalist some advantages over the small one;
such advantages as being better able to wait
for distant returns, as being able to buy when
the market price was low and to sell when it
was high. The owners of a large capital can save


UNEASINESS OF THE MIDDLE CLASS. 91


when the owners of a small one cannot. The
owners of a large capital engaged in retail trade
have increased their capitals, notwithstanding a
low rate of profit : a low rate of profit has ruined
many retail dealers of moderate or small capital,
and at this moment condemns all such dealers to
great uneasiness. In London, and throughout
England, retail dealers of moderate or small
capital complain of dulness of trade, stagnation
of trade, and so forth. Do they buy and sell less
than formerly? on the contrary, except in special
cases, which fall out of the general rule and
might be explained by some special circum-
stances, they do more business than formerly :
the profit, not the business, is less. And further,
more of them do business : in all towns without
exception the number of retail dealers is greater
that it was at the close of the war ; and in most
towns the increase of retail dealers has kept pace
with that striking increase of houses which has
been noticed before. As in manufactures and
in wholesale trade, so in retail business, the num-
ber of persons who suffer trouble and perplexity
has greatly increased with the uneasiness oc-
casioned by a low rate of profit.


How a low rate of profit renders the middle
class uneasy, I will now try to explain.


The rate of interest is a pretty sure criterion of
the rate of profit. During the last war the rate
of interest was very high. The lenders and bor-




92 UNEASINESS OF THE MIDDLE CLASS. UNEASINESS OF THE MIDDLE CLASS.
93


rowers of money practised numerous tricks for
evading the usury laws. One trick, practised by
noblemen who borrowed large sums, was to give
the lender a seat in parliament besides legal
interest. Ever since the peace, the common rate
of interest has remained below five per cent.
Four per cent. has been a common rate for large
sums, which the borrowers were entitled to hold
for a fixed number of years. In other cases, where
the lenders exacted repayment within a short
period, three per cent., two-and-a-half per cent.,
and at times even two per cent., has been the
ordinary rate. of interest. Now let us suppose,
though merely for the sake of illustration, that
during the war the ordinary rate of profit was
twenty per cent. and that since the peace it has
been five per cent. If so, during the war, which
lasted near thirty years, the income of him who
employed a capital of 10,0001. was 2,0001. a year,
and has been, since the peace, 5001. a year ; if so,
the incomes derived from all capitals have, since
the peace, been only one quarter of what. they
were during the war. It would follow, that the
means of every man engaged in business, agricul-
tural, manufacturing, or commercial, wholesale
or retail, his means of existence, of supporting his
family, of educating and establishing.


his children,
and, above all, of contending against untb.vonr-
able accidents, such as bad seasons, changes of
fashion, and the bankruptcy of his debtors ; his


power for doing all these things, has been less by
three quarters since the common rate of profit
was five per cent., than when twenty per cent.
was the common rate of profit. The difference
may be more or less than from twenty to five
per cent. ; at all events, it is very considerable.
But with a smaller power for doing.


certain things,
as large, or a larger, power has been required. In
every branch and rank of industry, every one con-
ceives that a certain expenditure is necessary to
maintain his rank, or as he might call it, his re-
spectability. The amount of expenditure which
makes an Englishman respectable, in whatever
condition or rank, has not been much less since
the peace than during the war ; the education of
children has not been much cheaper, while the
desire to give children an expensive education
has greatly increased ; the desire or obligation to
establish children in the world is the same as be-
fore, while the difficulty of accomplishing that
object is much greater, since beginners in trade
require a much larger capital than formerly to
obtain the same income as formerly ; unfavourable
accidents happen as before, while bankruptcies
complete or partial are more frequent than ever.
All those, therefore, whose incomes are derived
from the employment of capital, except great
capitalists who can easily save out of diminished
incomes, have smaller means of meeting heavier
calls. Their existence is a continued struggle with
difficulties. How to make the two ends meet,whieh




94 UNEASINESS OF THE MIDDLE eLASS. UNEASINESS OF THE MIDDLE CLASS. 95


way to turn, how to provide for one claim with,
out neglecting another, how to escape ruin or at
least what they consider degradation, how on
earth to manage for their children ; these are the
thoughts which trouble and perplex them. The
anxious, vexed, or harrassed class, would be a
better name for them than the milder term which
I have used. These are the people who in classes,
or altogether, keep up the cries of agricultural dis-
tress, manufacturing distress, com mercial distress,
distress of trade, and national distress.


Distress is not confined to those who employ a
material capital. The learning, skill and reputa-
tion, united, of a professional man may be called his
capital. Great professional capitalists, those who
possess all at once great skill, great learning and
a high reputation, still make large incomes ; but
none of those, whose learning or skill or reputa-
tion is small, make enough to live upon. The
very high prizes of the bar and the church have
always led to a keen competition in these profes-
sions ; so that at all times there has been a large
proportion of barristers without briefs, and of
clergymen eager to obtain a miserable curacy ;
but at this time the proportion of briefless bar-
risters is greater than ever, as well as the number
of clergymen eager to be curates. And, at this
time, not only the bar and the established church
are crowded with hungry competitors, but also
every dissenting church, the attorney's branch of
law, and all the branches of the medical and slit.-


gical professions. Nay, full, overflowing, as are
all these professions, the number of young people
who hope to live by them is far greater than ever :
witness the crowds of students in the inns of
court, of young men every year admitted to
practice as attornies, of clerical students in the
universities and dissenting schools, and of students
in the schools of medicine and surgery. It seems
impossible that a third of them should ever live
by the pursuits which they intend to follow ; for
even now two thirds of the persons engaged in
those careers live by snatching the bread out of
each other's mouths. Two-thirds, therefore, at
the very least, of professional men may be reck-
oned amongst the uneasy class.


To these must be added a swarm of engineers,
architects, painters, surveyors, brokers, agents,
paid writers, keepers of schools, tutors, gover-
nesses and clerks. The occupations of some of
these classes permit the employment of a material
capital. Engineers, for example, or architects,
who employ a material capital, must be excluded
from this list ; since whatever has been said of
farmers, manufacturers and merchants, applies to
them. Such of them as employ a large capital
increase their fortunes with small profits ; such of
them as employ a small or moderate capital live in
trouble and vexation. Some few also must be
taken out of this list, who, without employing a
material capital, are distinguished for learning,




96 UNEASINESS OF THE MIDDLE CLASS.


skill and reputation, united. There are some
painters, now and then there is a paid writer, who
make large incomes ; but the great mass of these
two classes, those who supply the ordinary, one
may say the necessary, demand for pictures and
composition, are miserably poor. But was not
this always the case ? Without a doubt ; the po-
verty of painters and authors is proverbial ;
over there can be no doubt, that the aggregate of
money earned by English painters and authors
since the peace has been very much greater than
during any former period of equal length ; but
during the last fifteen years the proportion of
poor painters and authors has greatly increased ;
and never was it so great as at this moment.
Since the invention of printing and the general
spread of education, the common run of know-
ledge has always been held cheap ; but now, in
England, it is the cheapest of all commodities,
except Irish manual labour. It is not, however,
the smallness of the incomes earned by a swarm
of educated people that strikes one so much, as
the vast number of competitors for those very
small incomes ; the hungry crowd of expectants
watching to oust the beggarly crowd in posses-
session. What condition of life is more detest-
able than that of an English governess ? In
England, where poverty is a crime, governesses,
young, beautiful, well-informed, virtuous, and,
from the contradiction between their poverty and


UNEASINESS OF THE MIDDLE CLASS. 97


their intrinsic merit, peculiarly susceptible, are
generally treated as criminals ; imprisoned, set to
hard labour, cruelly mortified by the parents and
visitors, worried by the children, insulted by the
servants ; and all for what ? for butler's wages.
Yet take up any London newspaper, any day in
the year, and you shall find in it a string of ad-
vertisements for the hateful situation of gover-
ness. There is an institution in England, of
which the object is, to provide for decayed gover-
nesses, by means of a small yearly subscription
from those who are not yet worn out ; and the
title of this benefit club is the "governesses' mu-
tual assurance society." Last year, a newspaper,
which is read principally by the aristocracy, by
Captain Hall's spending class, noticing the club
in question, proposed that it should be called
" the governesses' mutual impudence society." This
blackguard joke was uttered, to please whom ? the
readers of the newspaper in which it appeared ;-
a class who employ governesses, a class to whom,
in that very newspaper, numerous advertisements
for the situation of governess are continually ad-
dressed. An eminent English physician, whose wife
had been a governess, states that, of the inmates of
mad-houses, the largest proportion consists of wo-
men who have been governesses. Yet for this
dreadful and shabbily-paid office of governess,
there are, judging from the newspapers, more ean=
didates, in proportion to places, than for any other




98 UNEASINESS OF THE MIDDLE CLASS. UNEASINESS OF THE MIDDLE CLASS. 99


disagreeable employment : not, however, that
one observes any lack of candidates for other
subordinate employments which require the
common run of knowledge, or even superior
knowledge. They talk much in England of.
superabundance of labourers, meaning, common
workmen; but these are not more redundant than
governesses, keepers of schools and clerks of every
description.


Superabundance is a relative term. Consider-
ing the superabundance of capitalists, in propor-
tion to the means of employing capital with profit,
and of professional men in proportion to the
demand for their services, there is a reason why,
of necessity, the subordinate classes should be
redundant : because the fields for the employ-
ment of capital in agriculture, manufactures and
trade, and for the employment of professional
learning and skill, being quite full, there is no
room in those fields for the progeny of the sub-
ordinate classes ; while the grown up children of
capitalists and professional men, who are either
ruined, or can but just make the two ends meet,
instead of following the careers of their fathers,
increase the competition for subordinate employ-
ments. But is there less room for the subordi-
nate classes, than there was fifteen years ago ?
Positively, no ; relatively, yes. Subordinate em-
ployments are far more numerous than they were
fifteen years ago ; but then, throughout the fifteen


years, the classes wanting subordinate employ-
ments have increased more rapidly than the
demand for their services. Suppose the field to
have been doubled, the cultivators have been
quadrupled : with a greater field than ewer, never
was there such a want of room.


Amongst the uneasy class must be included,
finally, a large body of people whose incomes are
fixed, whose means of existence are not subject
to the rate of profit or the demand for profes-
sional and subordinate services, — landowners,
sinecurists, public servants, and owners of
government stock. Great landowners, great sine-
curists, highly paid public servants, and great
stockholders, belong to the spending class, toge-
ther with great farmers, manufacturers, mer-
chants, tradesmen and lawyers. The owner of
10,000 acres of land, lord Ellenborough with a
patent income of 10,0001. a year, the lord Chan-
cellor with an income lately cut down to 14,000/.
a year, or the stockholder who receives 5,000. or
even 2,000. a year in regular half-yearly payments
at the bank, has no reason to complain of dis-
tress. Nor indeed has any one, apparently,
whose income was fixed during the war, and has
been much increased by an alteration in the
value of money. Nevertheless, many thousands
of people, enjoying fixed incomes, suffer deep
anxiety ; anxiety caused by the distress of those
classes whose incomes are not fixed: I mean




100 UNEASINESS OF THE MIDDLE CLASS.


landowners, sinecurists, public servants and fund-
owners, whose fixed incomes are not large, and
:who have children to provide for. What is to
become of the sons and the daughters ? No man
likes that his son should fall, or his daughter
marry, into a circle much inferior to his own ;
especially in England, where this sort of degra-
dation, like absolute poverty, is disgraceful, if
not criminal. Every Englishman of property,
moreover, likes that his eldest son should inherit
nearly the whole of his property. What then,
when there is property, must become of the
younger sons and the daughters ? What of all the
children, where the property is only for life ? The
father must save : good ; but the moment he
proceeds to invest his savings, he feels the low
rate of profit and interest. During the war he
could, with a little management, have obtained
ten, twelve, perhaps fifteen per cent. for his
money : now, no one pays five per cent. with good
security. He consults his banker as to the best
mode of investment. " Upon my word," says
the latter, " I cannot advise you : the funds are
so high, and so likely to fall through political
agitation, there is so much money with so much
distress and discontent, that we know not what
to do with our money. I have 100,0001. in that
drawer ; and if you will tell me of a better place
for it, I shall be very much obliged to you."* He


" In the money market, the greatest torpor and want of


UNEASINESS OF THE MIDDLE CLASS. 101


is troubled, therefore, to fix on a mode of invest-
ment, and when the choice is made, annoyed
because the interest is so low. But he cannot
save enough to prevent the degradation of his
children, without incurring degradation himself ;
without losing caste by a great diminution of
expenditure. His savings, therefore, when in-
vested in the best way, that is, in an insurance
of his life, whereby he reaps the benefit of low
profits in the shape of a low premium, are but
just sufficient to provide a maintenance for his
wife and children after his death. What are the
sons to do when grown up, if grown up? The
army ?—pay for a commission ; and then, unless
you belong to the spending class, look on promo-
tion as hopeless. In the navy, candidates for
promotion are quite as redundant as in the
army. The church ?—buy a living, or else your


enterprise prevail. There has probably never existed a period
at which so little employment for capital, at once safe and
profitable, has presented itself; and it is quite evident, that
unless some change takes place, capitalists are on the point of
being forced into some Avild and dangerous schemes, that
must be attended with ultimate loss, by the mere impatience
of letting their money lie idle. Whatever the cause of the low
rate of interest may be, reflecting men look at it with much
alarm, especially as it has now been of long continuance ; and
if some legitimate employment for capital does not soon offer,
we may expect soon to see a new influx of foreign loans and
joint-stock schemes." City Article of the Times. October 10th,
1835.


I




102 UNEASINESS OF THE MIDDLE CLASS.


son must struggle, and may struggle in vain too,
with a host of needy competitors for miserable
curacies. The law, medicine, trade ?—all full,
overflowing ; while the last, whether agricultural,
manufacturing or commercial, requires a large
capital, or it will bring uneasiness, perhaps bank-
ruptcy. A place under government ?—yes, per-
haps, if you are the parasite of a great man.
I say perhaps, because the class of parasites want-
ing places has greatly increased of late, like all
the other classes, while the number of places is
become somewhat less. At best, your son will
obtain but a small place ; all the great ones, both
at home and in the colonies, being kept for
young people of the spending class. At any rate,
the pain of being a parasite, brings you within
the uneasy class. There was a way, indeed, by
which a man of moderate or small income could
obtain places for his sons without cringing to any
one; by connecting . himselfwith a rotten borough,
as alderman, bailiff; returning officer or crier ;
but the glory of rotten boroughs has passed away;
and, if reform should go no further, only the
spending class and their parasites will obtain
places under government.


But if a man of fixed income, his income being
small or moderate, be troubled to provide for his
sons, how to provide for his daughters is a more
perplexing question. The first, no, the second
point, is to get them married ; the first point is


UNEASINESS OF THE MIDDLE CLASS. 103


to prevent them from marrying into a lower,
which commonly means a poorer, rank than that
in which they were born. The first point is gene-
rally effected during childhood, when every day,
and almost every hour of the day, something
happens to impress them with a fear of such
degradation as attaches to imprudent marriages.
The second purpose, being subject to the first,
becomes extremely difficult. If the girl had a
fortune, she would belong to captain Basil Hall's
spending class ; we suppose her to have no for-
tune except beauty, tenderness, modesty and good
sense. Who will take her as a wife, that she will
take as a husband ? She may by chance, or rather
her mother may, by dint of great toil and
management, catch one of the spending class ;
but this would be an exception to the general
rule. The general rule with the daughters of
men of small income, whether fixed or not, is
a choice between celibacy and marriage with one
of the uneasy class. Now, a great proportion of
young men in the uneasy class dread marriage,
unless there be fortune in the case, as the surest
means of increasing their embarrassment. This
is one of the most important features in the social
state of England. Amongst the middle class,
amongst all classes except the highest and the
lowest, " moral restraint" is a confirmed habit.
Hence, immorality without a parallel in any other
country. This is the cause of that exuberant




104 UNEASINESS OF THE MIDDLE CLASS.


prostitution which shocks an American. Ano-
ther effect of " moral restraint" amongst the
middle class is, that a great proportion of the
females in that class are doomed to celibacy. One
may well say doomed. Custom forbids them to
practice that sort. of " moral restraint" to which
their brothers resort without disgrace ; and cus-
tom is stronger than walls and bars. In this
case, it has more power than the strictest disci-
pline of a convent. But why do the English,
Americans, French, Dutch and Germans, regard
with horror the legal institution of celibacy ? On
account of its unnatural cruelty. Well then, in
England, a certain state of political economy,
pride or prudence, and- custom, occasion more
unnatural suffering than the villainous theocracies
of Italy and Spain. The proportion of English
women who pine in celibacy, is far greater than
that of Spanish or Italian women who languish in
convents ; and the Englishwomen suffer more
than the others, because, living in the world, they
are more in the way of temptation, more cruelly
tantalized by their intercourse with happy wives
and mothers. There is not in the world a more
deplorable sight, than a fine brood of English
girls turning into old maids one after the other ;
first reaching the bloom of beauty, full of health,
spirits and tenderness ; next striving anxiously,
aided by their mother, to become honoured and
happy wives ; then fretting, growing thin, pale,


UNEASINESS OF THE MIDDLE CLASS. 105


listless and cross ; at last, if they do not go mad
or die of consumption, seeking consolation in the
belief of an approaching millennium, or in the
single pursuit of that happiness in another world
which this world has denied to them. The pic-
ture may displease, even because it is correct.
This, Americans, you whose domestic manners
an Englishwoman holds up to the ridicule of her
countrywomen ; this is a faithful sketch from
domestic life amongst the English middle class.


The misery of the working class of English-
men, is not, perhaps, at this time much greater
in degree than at former times, or so great as the
misery of the bulk of the people in most other
countries, except America. In this respect, the
difference between the past and the present seems
to be ; first, that with the increase of population
there are more people to be miserable, not more
in proportion, but more absolutely; and secondly,
that, with the increase of knowledge, one learns
all about that misery which was formerly con-
cealed from the happy classes. But the great
uneasiness of the middle class in England, is a
new state of things ; unexplained, and at first
sight unaccountable, if one reflects on the vast
and rapidly increasing wealth of the English
nation. Competition for wages is, plainly, the
immediate cause of misery amongst the working
class ; but what occasions that severe competi-




106 UNEASINESS OF THE MIDDLE CLASS. 107


tion amongst people of capital and education,
that snatching at each others means of existence,
which renders the life of the English middle
class one struggle with difficulties ? This question
is examined in the following note.


NOTE IV.


COINCIDENCE OF OVERFLOWING NATIONAL WEALTH


WITH THE UNEASINESS AND MISERY OF INDI-


VIDUALS..


Theories of the English economists—a dream of
Robinson Crusoe's island—the field of produc-
tion an element of wealth—argument with the
economists—argument with the archbishop of
Dublin—America and England, as to the field
of production — cases of various proportions
amongst the elements of production—peculiar
case of England—as wealth increases, many indi-
viduals are less rich—moral and strictly political
effects of the various proportions which the field of
production bears to capital and labour—peculiar
e ects in the peculiar case of England.


ACCORDING to certain theories of the English
political economists, it is quite impossible that
my account of the wealth, uneasiness and misery,
of the English people should be true. Those
philosophers would say—If the capital of Eng-
land be so much greater in proportion to peo-
ple than that of other countries, wages must
be higher in England than elsewhere ;* for


* " Universally then we may affirm that, other things




108 COINCIDENCE OF OVERFLOWING NATIONAL


" wages depend on the proportion between popu-
lation and capital."* Again, if the middle class
suffered from the low profits of stock, the labour-
ing class would enjoy high wages ; and if the
labouring class suffered from low wages, the
capital of the middle class would yield high pro-
fits ; since " the profits of stock depend upon
wages, rise as wages fall, and fall as wages rise."tt.
This is called reasoning a priori, and though very
sound and profound, no doubt, to those who
understand it, is sadly puzzling to common intel-
lects. Let us try, however, to make it out.


The English people have accumulated a far
greater capital than the same number of people
ever possessed, or dreamed of possessing, since
the world began : they have so much capital that


remaining the same, if the ratio which capital and population
bear to one another remains the same, wages will remain the
same ; if the ration which capital bears to population increases,
wages will rise ; if the ratio which population bears to capital
increases, wages will fall. From this law, clearly understood,
it is easy to trace the circumstances which, in any country,
determine the condition of the great body of the people."
Mill's Elements of Political Economy, page 44, 3rd edit.


* Mill's Elements of Political Economy, Section Wages,
p. 41, 3d edit.


t Mills' Elements, Section Profits, p. 71, 3d edit.
" It must at once he seen," says Mr. Ricardo, that " pro-


fits would be high or low, exactly as wages were low or high.
* There could be no rise in the value of labour„ without


a fall of profits."


WEALTH WITH THE UNEASINESS, &C. 109


they know not what to do with it: though during
the last half century they have squandered,
wasted, utterly thrown away, more capital than
most nations possess, they still possess more
capital than they ever possessed before. Abund-
ance of capital, in proportion to people, always
produces high wages. Therefore, wages are much
higher in England than they ever were amongst
any other people, or at any previous time amongst
the English people. Aristotle would not have
quarrelled with the syllogism, and that great
logician and economist, the archbishop of Dublin,
will find no fault in it, logically speaking. But
there must be an error somewhere, since the con-
clusion is directly at variance with a known fact.
Let us try again.


1. When capital is less in proportion to people,
wages are lower ;


2. The proportion of capital to people, is far
less in America than in England ;


3. Therefore, wages are far lower in America
than in England.


The logic is still good ; but the conclusion is
again directly at variance with a known truth ;
the fact being, that wages are far higher in Ame-
rica than in England. Wherein lies the error ?
in one of the propositions, but in which of them,
my lord ? I put the question to the archbishop,
and to Mr. Mill, who, like his grace, is a great
economist and logician.




110 COINCIDENCE OF OVERFLOWING NATIONAL


Now for the question of profits ; according to
the economists.


1. When profits are high, wages are low ;
2. In America, profits are very high ;
3. Therefore, in America, wages are very low.


Again,-
1. When wages are low, profits are high ;
2. Wages are very high in America ;
3. Therefore, profits are very low in America.


Or thus,-
1. When profits are low, wages arc high ;
2, In England, profits are very low ;
3. Therefore, in England, wages are very high.


And again,-
1. When wages are low, profits are high ;
2. Wages are very low in England ;
3. Therefore, in England, profits are very high.


Deuce take the conclusion ! it always comes
wrong, which ever way one looks for it. I had
been puzzling myself to get over a difficulty in
political-economy by means of logic, when grow-
ing more and more confused, I at last had the
good luck to fall asleep. Good luck, I say, because
during my sleep I had a dream, which explained
to me why profits and wages, both together, are
so low in England and so high in America. This
was my dream :-


I was shipwrecked and cast into the sea. I
heard the shrieks of my shipmates who were
drowning, and felt the pain of having my own


WEALTH WITH THE UNEASINESS, &C. 111


head struck against a rock. My next impression
was less disagreeable. I found myself alone, but
quite well, in Robinson Crusoe's island, walking
up the green slope from the creek to the cave.
Robinson came out by his ladder to meet me, and
said with a smile—" Welcome ! countryman." For
my part, I embraced him tenderly, as an old and
very dear friend. Presently, Friday ran up to us,
and though he made me laugh by bowing very
low and kicking up his legs, backwards, one after
the other, expressing respect and joy at the same
time, still I could not help shaking hands with
him also, the4faithful creature. Robinson asked
me to take something after my voyage ; but I, not
to be behind him in politeness, seeing that he was
in a hurry to show me all his fine things, said-
" Not at present, thank you ; I should like to see
your improvements." Hereupon he led me, first
to his crops, which had a most creditable appear-
ance ; and then within the inclosure, where I ad-
mired his goats, the tools which had cost him so
much trouble, and the great store of provisions
and seeds which he had laid up. At length, we
sat down to a very respectable dinner of fish and
roasted kid ; chatting as follows during the meal.


Dreamer.—" Altogether, Mr. Crusoe, you seem
quite at your ease."


Robinson.—" Why, yes, blessed be God ! but I
have had my trials. It was a sore trial when I
was obliged to sow the seed that I would fain have




112 COINCIDENCE OF OVERFLOWING NATIONAL


eaten, and when I had no Friday to help me ;
but I have been very comfortable since I got be-
fore the world, with a good stock of seeds, tools
and goats : nay, since I lighted on Friday, I have
lived like a gentleman, quite at my ease, as you
say."


D. " You are a capitalist now, Robinson ?"
R. " Capitalist ! what is that ?"
D. " Why, seeds, tools and goats, are capital,


and as you possess these you are a capitalist.
Friday works : you direct him, and give him a
share of the produce : Friday is a labourer."


R. " A labourer! yes, he works ; a share ! he
takes what he pleases."


D. " Of course, high wages of labour, eh ; and
high profits of stock also, or you would not be so
much at your ease, Mr. Robinson Crusoe."


R. "I have forgotten some of my English.
High wages of labour, high profits of stock ! what
are they ?"


D. " In this island, high wages mean, that you
can let Friday take what he pleases without
stinting yourself; and high profits mean, that
Friday takes what he pleases without stinting
you. Friday's labour, with the aid of your seeds,
tools and goats, produces plenty for both of
you."


R. " Y es—but hark ! man Friday I friend ! down
upon your knees ! here's another earthquake I"


And sure enough it was a terrible earthquake ;


WEALTH WITH THE UNEASINESS, &c. 113


for though it hurt none of us and did not last a
minute, when We recovered ourselves and passed
from the cave, through the inclosure, and over
the outer fence, behold, every part of the island
was covered with water, except the rock which
formed the cave and about half an acre of land in
front of us. Robinson and his man knelt again,
and returned thanks to God for having preserved
our lives ; whilst I stood by, distressed to think
of what would become of them with only that
half acre of land. Crusoe's calmness and resig-
nation were quite admirable. Rising he em-
braced Friday, saying—" the Lord giveth and the
Lord taketh away ; blessed be the name of the
Lord !" Poor Friday, however, began to cry ;
and I felt disposed to keep him company, when
Robinson pointing to the inclosure said—" We
have plenty left, food for a year, seed, tools and
goats ; capital, sir, I think you called them ?"


But what," asked I, " is the use of capital
without a field to employ it on ? Your goats will
be starved, and with no more than this little bit
of land you will be unable to use half your tools,
or a quarter of your seeds."


Robinson looked rather blank at this, but said
—" We must do with less ; there will be less for
Friday and less for me, but enough, I hope, to
keep us alive."


" Low wages and low profits," said I ; " but that
is a shocking state to be in. Cannot you set


Jig




114 COINCIDENCE OF OVERFLOWING NATIONAL
• WEALTH WITH THE UNEASINESS, &C.


115 •


Friday to make, with the things that are left from
your wreck, instruments and ornaments for some
neighbouring savages, who have more food than
they know what to do with ? In that way, if
Friday were expert and industrious, you might
be better supplied than ever."


Our neighbours," answered Robinson," would
make food of us if they could."


" Oh !" said I, " I had forgotten that restriction
on trade. Well, you cannot enlarge your field of
production in that way, and it is a sad affair ;
but I know what the English political economists
would advise ; for Friday's sake, at least."


" Political economists !" exclaimed Robinson,
"who are they ?"


" They. are," I replied "a new sect, and have
set up a new god, which is called Capital, and
which they worship devoutly."


"The wicked idolaters but what would they
ad vise ?"


" Only for Friday's sake, mind, in order that
his wages might be higher, they would advise you
to increase your capital."


" What I when I have already more than Fri-
day and I shall know bow to use ?"


" Yes ; with abundance of capital, they believe,
wages are sure to be high."


"And my share, the profits I think you called
it, how is that to be made high ?"


"By diminishing your capital, so that wages


may be low ; for, say they, when wages are low,
profits are sure to be high."


Here Robinson laughed so loud that I awoke ;
saying to myself—The only way in which Robin-
son and his man could get back to high profits
and high wages, would be by getting back the
land that they have lost.


By this dream I was led to observe, that the
modern economists, in treating of the production
and distribution of wealth, have overlooked the
chief element of production ; namely, the field in
which capital and labour are employed. They
have written volumes on capital and labour, and
the effect of the various proportions which these
may bear to each other, but have scarcely noticed
the field of production ; and this but incidentally
when explaining what they conceive to be the
nature of rent. In their theory of rent, indeed,
they show, that as capital increases on a limited
field of production, it is employed with less and
less productiveness, whence the inference might be
drawn that in such a case profits must become
lower and lower ; but of this the modern econo-
mists say not a word. In fact, to have drawn
such an inference would have placed them in an
awkward position ; since in order to support
their views of the omnipotence of capital without
regard to the means of investment, they have
fallen upon Adam Smith for saying, that " the
mutual competition of capitalists naturally tends




to lower profit." Instead, therefore, of showing
the effects which arise from various proportions
between capital and the field of production, they
have taken some pains to establish that there arc
not any such effects ; that the effects which Adam
Smith supposed to arise from an increase of
capital in proportion to the field, or from a de-
crease of the field in proportion to capital, have
never existed, save in the imagination of their
great master. How far they are right or wrong,
is a question of great importance to the English.


Bring all the people out of France into England ;
would that make any difference in English profits
and wages ? None, Messrs. Mill and McCulloch
would say, provided the French should bring all
their capital with them. But what could they
do with their capital in a field which is already
quite full ? Employ it, would be the answer, in
manufactures, and so get food from other coun-
tries. Good, I reply, if there were no corn laws ;
but that means, increase the field of production,
lay hold of foreign fields, in proportion to the in-
crease of capital and people in England. Field
of production, they would say, we acknowledge
DO such term ; capital is all in all.


Well, then, suppose that only the capitalists of
France should come to England with all their
moveable property ; what effect would that have
on English profits and wages ? Wages, according
to the economists would rise ; and, through the


rise of wages, but not otherwise, profits would
fall. But in what way would this increase of
capital raise wages ? By causing, would be the
answer, a greater demand for labour. Truly, if
the new capital were invested productively, but
not otherwise ; and how should it be invested pro-
ductively, or even at all, when already the capital
of England is so great, in proportion to the means
of productive investment, that it overflows into
France* and other foreign fields of production ?
Nonsense I hear them exclaim, capital and pro-
duction arc synonymous. Let us try them again.


Suppose the sea for three hundred miles east
and west of England to be turned into excellent
land, and that every one were at liberty to take
as much of it as he could cultivate in the most
productive way, that is, with the greatest com
bination of power, according to the English
system of farming. What effect would that have
on profits and wages ? Answer not rashly ; but
think of America. Messrs. Mill and McCulloch,
answering devoutly towards the god of their
idolatry, would say—No effect at all, provided
the proportion between capital and population
remained the same. Well, gentlemen, let us sup-
pose that the proportion between capital and po-
pulation were not altered for some time; that a
great mass of capital which is now lying idle, or


* Some large iron works, and considerable manufactures of
cotton and lace, in France, are carried on with English capital.


4


116 COINCIDENCE OF OVERFLOWING NATIONAL WEALTH WITH THE UNEASINESS, &c. 117




118 COINCIDENCE OF OVERFLOVITINO NATIONAL
I WEALTH WITH THE UNEASINESS, &C. 119


about to fly abroad in the shape of foreign loans
and distant speculations, were employed in cul-
tivating the new land and turned into food, which
is capital ; would not the effect be, supposing
always that the mass of capital now idle and so
to find employment were very great indeed ; in
that case, I say, would not the effect be a great
increase of the demand for labour and a general
rise of wages ? They must answer—yes. Yes,
gentlemen, in that case the mere conversion of
one sort of capital into another sort, without any
increase of the quantity, would produce higher
wages. Let us suppose, further, that the new
land were of so good a quality that the gross pro-
duce of all capital employed on it should be suf-
ficient to replace that capital, to pay high wages,
and to leave high profits for the capitalists ; in
that case, bearing in mind that the extent of the
new land is six hundred miles square, would not
capital be withdrawn from pursuits, in which the
profits are low, and employed in cultivating this
very productive land ? and would not the effect
be a general rise of profits ? Inevitably, they
must admit. Then the case may be supposed in
which wages and profits, both together, would
rise without any increase or decrease of capital.


Supposed, yes, they might say, but you suppose
a miracle. And, you, gentlemen, do not you il-
lustrate all your doctrines, true or false, by sup-
posed cases ? But I will soon come to the prac-


tical case: meanwhile one more question with re-
gard to this miracle. Suppose that the eight
hundred millions which have been thrown away,
in creating your national debt had been saved,
had not been wasted abroad, and were lying idle
in any shape you please ; or rather, for a much
lower draft on the imagination will serve my
turn, suppose that the mass of English capital
actually either lying idle, or invested with very
low profit, were sufficient, when employed on
this new and very productive land, to create a
demand for more labourers than England could
supply without delay ; and that, consequently,
labourers, tempted by the prospect of high wages,
should immigrate from Ireland and France. In
that case ; no increase, mind, but merely a con-
version of capital is supposed ; in that case, an
enlargement of the field of production, a mere
increase in the productiveness of capital, would
have caused a change in the proportion between
capital and labour, would have made the labourers
more in proportion to capital. Here, you see, is a
cause antecedent to your great first cause, the
proportion between capital and labour : and ob-
serve, further, that the effect produced by enlarg-
ing the field of production, namely, an increase of
labourers, might have no effect at all on the rate
of wages ; or rather that wages might rise whilst
the number of labourers was increasing, pro-
vided the amount of capital lately idle, and now


I




120 COINCIDENCE OF OVERFLOWING NATIONAL


used productively, were more than sufficient to
employ the increasing body of labourers.


In America profits and wages, both, are high
without a miracle. In America the land is so good,
it returns so large a produce to capital and labour,
however unskilfully employed, that all who cul-
tivate it obtain plenty, like Robinson and his man
in the first part of my dream ; the share of the
masters being called high profits, and that of the
servants high wages. Moreover, the good land in
America is so plentiful, that no one is forced to
employ his capital or labour less productively
than in agriculture. Consequently, all the capital
employed in America yields high profits and
high wages ; the high profits and wages of agricul-
ture being spent in giving high profits and wages
to capitalists and labourers engaged in other pur-
suits. The productiveness of all capital and la-
bour .is very great, and does not decrease with the
increase of capital and labour ; because, however
rapid that increase, it is accompanied by a cor-
responding increase of the very productive field.
The continued high profits and high wages of
America, then, appear to arise from the large
proportion which, in America, the field of pro-
duction continually bears to capital and labour.


In England, on the contrary, the field of pro-
duction is limited, first by nature, and next by the
corn laws, which decree that the people of the
united kingdom shall have no bread but that-


WEALTH WITH THE UNEASINESS, &C. 121


which is grown in the united kingdom. This
limited field, moreover, is so full of capitalists,
that these, by competing with each other, reduce
profits to a very low rate ; and so full of labourers,
that these, by competing with each other, reduce
wages to a very low rate. If it were not for
this severe competition amongst capitalists, a
greater difference than actually exists between
the prices of English and American corn would
shew the vast difference between the natural fer-
tility of land in England and land in America : if
it were not for this severe competition amongst
labourers, English labour, which from the mode
in which it is employed is so much more pro-
ductive than American labour, in proportion to
the number of bands, would be better paid, in-
stead of being far worse paid than American la-
bour. In England, both classes, capitalists and
labourers, are fighting for room. Consequently,
it may be said that, in England, low profits and
low wages arc owing to the small proportion
which the field of production continually bears to
capital and labour.


But, the Archbishop of Dublin might say ; but
low profits and low wages, together, have occurred
in England before now, when the proportion of
capital and labour to the field, as you call it, was
much less than it is at present. How could that
have occurred if, as you say, profits and wages
depend on the proportion which capital and la-


4


61




hour bear to .the field of production ? Further,
the cases have often happened of low wages with
high profits, and high wages with low profits.
Such cases are at variance with your theory.


No, my lord ; nor do I say that profits and
wages depend solely on the proportion which
capital and labour bear to the field of production.
But I will try to explain my theory after the
fashion of the economists : begging such readers
as find this note dull, to pass on to the next,
where they will find some urgent reasons for
turning back to this one.


Capital pays labour, and labour uses capital.
Between these, therefore, there is an intimate re-
lation. The proportion also, which these bear to
each other, is always of some importance ; because,
whatever the produce of industry, the division of
that produce between the two classes who raise
it, is regulated by the number of labourers in
proportion to the capital employed. I say em-
ployed, because capital which cannot be employed,
which lies idle for want of employment, is as if it
did not exist. When labourers are few in pro-
portion to capital for which there is employment,
the labourer exacts a large share of the produce,
which leaves but a small share for the capitalist ;
and when capital is small in proportion to labour,
the capitalist can reserve a large share of the
produce for himself, leaving but a small share for
the labourers. So far the political economists ;


and so far both profits and wages depend on the
proportion between labour and capital. But all
this relates to nothing but the division of the pro-
duce. A far more important question remains—
what determines the amount of produce to be di-
vided ? Suppose the shares fixed at half and half :
now double the produce. Profits are doubled
and wages are doubled ; the capitalist who got
ten per cent. now gets twenty per cent. ; the la-
bourer who got two shillings a day now gets four
shillings a day. Messrs. Mill and M'Culloch
would contend that wages had not been altered ;
but your friend Mr. Senior, and you, my lord,
would say that wages had been altered in amount,
though not in share. Still, with this remark you
would rest satisfied ; and concerning the effect
on profits of doubling the produce of industry, you
would say nothing.


Now I venture to suggest, that the mere divi-
sion of produce between capitalists and labourers
is a matter of very small moment, indeed, when
compared with the amount of produce to be di-
vided ; that, whether the capitalist obtain three
quarters and the labourers one quarter, or the
labourers three quarters and the capitalist one
quarter, the grand question is, how much do the
two parties divide between them. By discussing
the question of shares only, all that we can learn
is, how one party may gain by the other party's
loss ; by discussing the question of amount, we


122 COINCIDENCE OF OVERFLOWING NATIONAL WEALTH WITH THE UNEASINESS, &C. 123




4


124 COINCIDENCE OF OVERFLOWING NATIONAL WEALTH, WITH THE UNEASINESS, &C. 125


may discover what is that state of things most
beneficial to both parties. By dwelling altogether
on the former question, we make bad blood be-
tween the two classes ; telling the capitalist that
he must suffer unless his labourers be miserable ;
assuring the labourer that his sufferings arise from
his master's prosperity : by examining the latter
question we may prove that masters and servants
have one and the same interest ; that, as there
is a state of things bad for both parties, so is there
a state of things good for both parties. And this
latter question is of vast practical importance to
the English at this present moment ; when, as I
have endeavoured to show in the succeeding note,
there is every prospect of a desperate struggle
between the two parties, who have been set against
each other by being told, that the welfare of
either party is incompatible with the welfare of
th cother.


The productiveness of industry depends upon
first, the agency of nature, that is, the natural
quality of the land from which subsistence is
derived ; secondly, upon combination of power
for distribution of employments, which, for short-
ness, may be called skill. But these two regula-
tors of production have a tendency to act in
opposite directions. When a people cultivate
land of very great natural fertility, and without
limit as to space, so that the people may increase
without resorting to inferior soils, they have no


inducement to employ their industry in the most
skilful way. On the contrary, they are strongly
impelled to cut up their capital and labour into
small distinct fractions."' America is the example,
where the produce raised by a given amount of
capital and labour, though sufficient to yield high
profits and high wages, is not equal to a fourth,
perhaps, of what the same amount of capital and
labour would produce on the same land, if em-
ployed with English skill. To proceed at once
to the other example, a produce sufficient to feed
the actual population of England, could not have
been raised in England without the greatest skill
in the application of capital and labour. As
population increased in a country naturally sterile
and of limited extent., industry was applied with
more and more skill to the cultivation of land ;
and the increase of skill counteracted the decrease
of natural productiveness when capital was ap-
plied to waste land of inferior quality, or more
capital was used on land already cultivated.


But though greater skill counteract the grow-
ing necessity of employing capital and labour
with less and less assistance from nature, still, in
the long run, the produce obtained with the
maximum of skill and the minimum of natural
fertility, will not be more than sufficient to


* See note on the origin, progress and prospects, of slavery
in America.




II


126 COINCIDENCE OF OVERFLOWING NATIONAL WEALTH WITH THE UNEASINESS, &C. 127


afford inducements for continuing the work of
production. The amounts of produce, indeed,
raised by equal capitals will be very different,
because land varies in natural fertility and in cir-
cumstances of position, such as vicinity to manure
and a market ; but, as those who cultivate land
of superior quality or position, must pay to the
owners of such land, as a premium for being
allowed to use it, all the excess of produce above
what suffices to replace capital with ordinary
profits (they must do this, because others would
do so if they would not), the whole produce to be
divided between capitalists and labourers is, not-
withstanding the greatest skill, reduced to the
minimum.


The land, therefore, from which a society
derives its food, constitutes its field of produc-
tion ; and the productiveness of capital, subject
to the temporary effect of increasing skill, depends
on the proportion which capital bears to the field
in which it is employed.


With this introduction, the four following
cases will describe all the common conditions of
society which exhibit different rates of profit and
wages.


First. The case in which capital bears a large
proportion to labour, and a small proportion to
the field of production. The United States and
some new colonies are the examples. In this
case, wages are high in share and in amount ;


profits being, though low in share, high in
amount.


Secondly. The case in which capital bears a
large proportion to labour, and also a large pro-
portion to the field of production. High wages
and low profits will be the result. This was the
case in France towards the close of the last war,
when the conscription had rendered labourers
scarce : more than once, it has been the case in
England after a pestilence.


Thirdly. The case in which capital bears a
small proportion to labour, and also a small pro-
portion to the field of production. Low wages
and high profits will be the result ; the produce
divided being great, but the labourers' share
small. This is the case of nearly all countries in
which, with superabundance of labourers, there
is plenty of room for the employment of more
capital without any decrease of productiveness.
Bengal is a good example, where wages are two
pence a day, and the rate of interest twelve per
cent.


Fourthly. The case in which capital bears a
small proportion to labour, and a great propor-
tion to the field of -production. This case gives
low profits and low wages also ; the whole pro-
duce of industry to be divided amongst the pro-
ducers being reduced to the minimum. France
may be an example of this case.


But these are common cases. The present




case of England differs from all of these, in as
much as we cannot say that English capital bears
a small proportion to English labour ; seeing that,
in consequence of the very high proportion which
English capital bears to the field of production,
great masses of capital lie idle, are invested un-
productively, that is wasted, and are exported to
other countries, not taking with them a corres-
ponding amount, or any amount, of English
labour. The same thing appears to have occurred
formerly in Genoa, Venice and Holland.


The case of England differs from all other
actual cases in a very important particular.
Political economists have described three states
of society, the progressive, the stationary and the
retrograde. They call progressive, that state of
society in which both capital and the field of pro-
duction increase as fast as population can pos-
sibly increase ; so that profits and wages, both,
being constantly high, whatever the division of
produce, the people increase as fast as possible.
They call stationary, that condition of society
in which there is no further room for the produc-
tive employment of industry, in which case, pro-
fits and wages are constantly as low as possible.
They call the retrograde state Of society, that in
which, generally from moral causes, the field of
production constantly decreases ; in which case,
not only are profits and wages constantly at the
minimum, but every year some capitalists are




reduced to the state of labourers ; and, yet the
labouring class becomes less and less numerous.
The Venetian republic, when she lost the trade
between Europe and Asia, was an example of this
case : was not Holland in political convulsions
another ?


There appears to be a fourth state of society,
which may be called stationary as to profits and
wages, but which is progressive as to the amount
of capital, the extent of the field for employing
industry, and the number of people. The field,
the capital, and the people, may increase ; yet if
the enlargement of the field be not more rapid
than the increase of capital, no alteration of pro-
fits will occur ; nor any alteration of wages,
unless the field be enlarged and capital be in-
creased, at the same time, more rapidly than
people shall increase. Though, in such a state of
society, both capitalists and labourers will increase
in number, though new means of communication
will be opened, though fresh towns will arise,
though the increase of population and of national
wealth may be striking, nevertheless the rate of
profits may still be low, the rate of wages but just
sufficient to permit an increase of labourers, the
majority of capitalists in a state of uneasiness,
and the whole body of labourers miserable and
degraded. This has been the case of England
since 1815. War ceasing, great masses of capital
were no longer wasted every year, but were accu-


K




128 COINCIDENCE OF OVERFLOWING NATIONAL WEALTH WITH THE UNEASINESS, &C. 129




4


130 COINCIDENCE OF OVERFLOWING NATIONAL


mulated in England ; new channels of invest-
ment were opened ; the number of capitalists was
visibly augmented ; signs of increasing wealth
appeared in all directions ; but as the field of
production was not enlarged so rapidly as capital
increased, more and more competition amongst
capitalists led to the lowest rate of profit, and
made the condition of the greater number worse
than that of the smaller number. So with respect
to the labouring class ; with the peace, which
removed one check to the increase of people,
came great improvements in medicine, which
removed other checks -; and the common people
increased faster than the means of employment
for increasing capital. In a word, both the
capital and the people increased faster than the
field of production was enlarged. This change of
the proportion between two of the elements of pro-
duction and the third or chief element, explains
the coincidence of enormous, nay, of rapidly
increasing national wealth, with the uneasiness
of the middle class and the misery of the bulk
of the people.


The moral and strictly political effects of the
various proportions which the field of production
bears to capital and population, must now be
briefly considered.


In the progressive state of society, capital has
a tendency to an equal distribution amongst all
the people. In America,notwithstanding high pro- .


WEALTH WITH THE UNEASINESS, &C. 131


fits, individuals seldom accumulate large fortunes.
Though the produce divided between the capi-
talist and the labourer be large, the labourer
takes so great a share, that he soon becomes a
capitalist. Under this most progressive state of
society, therefore, the increase of capital is
divided, pretty equally, amongst a number of
capitalists increasing at the same rate as the
capital ; so that whilst none are compelled to
work as servants through life, few, even of those
whose lives are unusually long, can accumulate
great masses of wealth. Moreover, in such a
state of things the independence and self-respect
of all begets a love of equality, and thus conduces
to the equal distribution of the capitalist's wealth
amongst his children ; so that an individual
seldom inherits the savings of many generations,
or even the bulk of his father's property. In this
state of things, there is no idle class, no spending
class, as Captain Hall has remarked, no adoration
of wealth, no oppression of the poor, no reason
for political discontent. This appears to be the
happiest state of society consistent with the insti-
tution of property.


In those states of society which are either retro-
grade or stationary, as well as in that peculiar
state which, though advancing in the aggregate
of wealth, gives low profits and low wages, wealth
inevitably accumulates in a few hands. 'Wages
being extremely low, the great body of the people




132 COINCIDENCE OF OVERFLOWING NATIONAL


are unable to save ; and profits being extremely
low, small capitalists consume the whole, or
nearly the whole, of what remains to them after
replacing their capital. Some, indeed, appear to
be employed in diminishing their capital. Mr.Mill
has incidentally supposed the case, in which none
but large capitalists should be able to save, or
even to live, on the profits of capital ; in which
society should consist only of labourers and great
capitalists.* These last, whose consumption is
small when compared with the returns of their
large capitals, even with very low profits, are able
to accumulate in proportion to the amount of
their wealth. In the next place, when the com-
mon rate of profit is low, the small capitalist is
apt to be ruined by fluctuations in trade, which
are the periods of harvest to the great capitalist,
who can wait to buy when the market price is low
and to sell when it is high. When too, the com-
mon rate of profits is low, great capitalists are
not always subject to the law of competition. In
some operations, such for example as the distilla-
tion of spirits, porter brewing, tanning, and the
publication of a daily newspaper heavily taxed,


* " In proportion as capital is attended with less and less
of annual return, the owners of capital have less and less
income. If the income from capital be continually diminished,
in process of time NONE BUT THE OWNERS OF LARGE MASSES OF
CAPITAL WILL DERIVE FROM IT THE MEANS OF SUBSISTENCE."


Mill's Elements of Political Economy, page 61, 3d edit.


WEALTH WITH THE UNEASINESS, &C.
133


the amount of capital required is so large, and
the time when a return may be expected so dis-
tant, that no small capitalist can undertake one
of them with a prospect of advantage. Such
operations can be conducted only by the owners
of large capitals, who thus establish monopolies
whereby they obtain profits somewhat above the
common rate. Again, when wages and profits
are low in consequence of the large proportion
which capital and people bear to the field of pro-
duction, a part of the produce of industry falls to
the owners of land, both as landlords and capi-
talists ; a class who, speaking generally, disdain
the pursuits of industry, and who in most coun-
tries have made laws for the descent of land, and
of capital fixed on land, which promote the accu-
mulation of wealth in a few hands. When, fur-
ther, low wages and low profits condemn the bulk
of the people to want, and all small capitalists to
distress or vexation, wealth obtains such inordi
nate respect and so many advantages over and.
above what wealth will purchase in any market,
that slavishness en the one hand, and pride on
the other, become habitual. And to these evils
must be added, the corruption of idleness, grasp-
ing and gambling habits, which lead to dishonesty
amongst the middle class, and savage discontent
amongst those who are without hope. Thus the
retrogarde or stationary condition, presents at the
same moment, gorgeous palaces and wretched




134
COINCIDENCE, 81.C. 135


hovels, complete idleness and incessant toil, high
mental cultivation and the most barbarous igno-
rance : it cannot but produce a general corrup-
tion of morals, nor end, sooner or later, but in
violent political convulsions.


Not only the coincidence of misery and unea-
siness with enormous wealth, but all the most
striking social peculiarities of England, may be
traced to a superabundance of capital and popu-
lation in proportion to the means of employing
capital and labour. Nay, it might perhaps be
shown, by reference to history, that the decline
and fall of empires have, in great measure, been
owing to the excess of two of the elements of
production over the third ; which disproportion
throws great part of the national wealth into the
hands of an idle class, producing an extreme
inequality of conditions, and therefore an extreme
corruption of morals, with pride, insolence and
cruelty on the side of the wealthy few, discontent
and recklessness on the part of the suffering
many ; and resulting, finally, in jealousies, divi-
sions, commotion and civil wars, which dry up
the very springs of national greatness.


NOTE V.


POLITICAL PROSPECTS OF THE ENGLISH.


Retrospect—the constitution qf 1688—its merits
and defects—maintained by corruption—popu-
lace subservient to the ruling class—effects of
knowledge—on the middle class—on the poor—
history of the late change in the constitution—
new constitution obtained by the physical force
—new constitution described—not likely to last
—dangers in the prospect of change—democracy,
or worse, apparently inevitable— dangers of
democracy—possible means of avoiding the pro-
bable evils of change—Christian legislation—
means of improving the physical condition of the
bulk of the people, and of removing the uneasi-
ness of the middle class.


IN order to take a just view of the political pros-
pects of the English, we must look back a little ;
besides observing carefully by what means was
brought about that peaceful, but very difficult,
political change, that most pregnant revolution,
which has just taken place in England.


The theory of the English government, as set-
tled by the revolution of 1688, was this :—three
powers in one power ; the king one power, the




136 POLITICAL PROSPECTS OF THE ENGLISH. POLITICAL PROSPECTS OF THE ENGLISH. 137


lords one power, and the commons one power ;
but the power of the king, of the lords, and of
the commons, is all one, co-existent and co-equal:
the king powerful, the lords powerful, and the
commons powerful ; and yet there are not three
powers but one power. And in this trinity, none
is afore or after the other, none is greater or less
than another ; but the whole three powers are
co-existent together and co-equal. Nevertheless,
though all laws must have the consent of king,
lords and commons, the king cannot originate
any laws, nor the lords any laws relating to
taxes ; while the king is the sole executor of the
laws. But the king can do no wrong ; his
ministers, alone, being responsible for his acts.
Furthermore, the king's power descends from
father to son ; as does that of the lords ; and the
king can create lords without any limit as to
number. Lastly, the commons represent the
whole nation, save the king and lords, in parlia-
ment assembled.


This is the theory of the English constitution,
as settled in 1688. The practice of that consti-
tution has been as follows.


Since no operation of government can be con-
ducted without money, the commons, who hold
the public purse, have been omnipotent. They
have possessed the power to make whatever laws
they pleased, and to compel the execution of such
laws in whatever manner they pleased. What


things they have done by the exercise of that
power, or left undone by abstaining from the'ex-
ercise of it, is quite another question, depending
on the motives by which they were actuated.
They may have chosen to agree with the king
and the lords, or occasionally to disagree with
them, to enlarge or curtail the royal functions,-to
restrict or extend popular rights ; but, whatever
may have been their inclinations, whatever their
acts, they have never wanted power to do as they
pleased.


This is the first great difference between the
theory and practice of the English constitution.
The next is, that the commons, instead of repre-
senting the whole nation, save the king and lords,
have been partly self-elected, partly nominated
by individual lords, and partly chosen by certain
bodies of the people. The rights of self-election
and of nomination were bought and sold like an
estate, and descended along with estates ; while
the open elections were so costly to the candi-
dates that none but rich men could be chosen.
The whole power, therefore, of the English go-
vernment resided in a few hundred men, who had
the inclination and the wealth to buy seats in the
house of commons, either for themselves or their
dependents. That government has been called
the oligarchy of borough mongers.


Seeing how this oligarchy was constituted, its
motives for doing certain things, and for leaving4




138 POLITICAL PROSPECTS OF THE ENGLISH. POLITICAL PROSPECTS OF THE ENGLISH. 139


other things undone, become plain enough. This
would have differed from all other oligarchies, if
the main object of its members had not been to
share amongst themselves the emoluments and
distinctions of government. Monarchy being a
costly form of government, requiring a great out-
lay to maintain the dignity of the crown, opens a
wide field of emolument : the English borough-
mongers, therefore, have always been strongly at-
tached to the monarchical form of government.
Titles of honour are amongst the distinctions en-
joyed by a governing class, and it is natural that
he who has himself delighted in a title of honour
should wish to transmit it to his posterity : the
English boroughmongers, therefore, have always
been fond of an hereditary nobility. But a mere
title, such as lord, or three-tailed bashaw or blue
buttoned mandarin, would not be much esteemed
unless there were attached to it, not only real
power, but also the appearance of power. Now,
of the English boroughmongers a good proportion
were peers, who exercised real power by means of
their dependents in the house of commons; but, as
this was, as far as possible, to be concealed from
the nation, they could not appear to exercise
power without a legislative assembly of their
own : the English borough mongers, therefore,
have always warmly approved of a noble chamber,
in which the appearance of making laws should de-
scend along with titles of honour. As wealth was


the source of each man's power in the government
of boroughmongers, each boroughmonger wished
that his wealth should go down to his posterity un-
diminished : hence the profound attachment of
English boroughmongers to entails and the law
of primogeniture. But rich men, like poor men,
have daughters and younger sons : how was the
rich boroughmonger to provide for these with-
out diminishing his wealth? Out of the public
purse, over which, either by sitting in the house
of commons, self-elected, or by means of his de-
pendents who sat there, he exercised a large share
of control. Boroughs were dear and elections
very costly : a snug borough cost near 100,0001.,
and one man has spent 100,0001. on one county
election : how were such vast sums to be re-
covered ? The public purse was always at hand.
Hence one learns why the English people, who ac-
cording to the theory of their constitution were all
represented by the house of commons, have, in
practice, been so heavily taxed by that assembly.


Oligarchy and faction are almost synonymous
terms ; first, as every oligarchy is a faction, and
next, as oligarchies have always been divided into
opposing factions. From 1688 to 1830, the whig
and tory factions of the English oligarchy ruled
by turns, one in and the other out, as the force of
either party prevailed in the house of commons.
But their struggles for emolument and distinc-
tions, instead of weakening the government,




140 POLITICAL PROSPECTS OF THE ENGLISH.


added considerably to its strength. The party
that was out commonly found fault with the
party that was in, took up national grievances
and made great professions of public virtue :
whence, as one party was always out, the nation
always imagined that a portion of the legislature
was singly devoted to the national welfare. When
the.party that was out became the most powerful
in the house of commons, and therefore got in,
the king appeared to side with that party, and
the nation rejoiced in a patriotic monarch. Now
and then, one faction was strongest in the com-
mons' house and the other in the lords' house,
whence differences between the two houses, which
gave to the lords' house an air of independence ;
an occasional appearance which assisted in holding
the nation to the constitutional faith. Such dif-
ferences, however, could never be serious or of
long duration, because the faction which ruled in
the commons could always exercise, in the
king's name, the power of creating peers. At
other times, the king disagreed with the ruling
faction and dissolved the house of commons,
when a grand election struggle took place be-
tween the two parties ; but 'whichever party
bought the greater number of votes in the new
house of commons became master of the govern-
ment, or rather the government itself; so that,
though the king occasionally exerted a will of his
own, his independence was but momentary. A


POLITICAL PROSPECTS OF THE ENGLISH. 141


dissolution of the house of commons was always
called an appeal to the nation: thus, whenever the
king exerted an independent will the nation ap-
peared to do so likewise ; thus an occasional dif-
ference between the king and the ruling faction,
by giving an air of independence to the king, and
an air of power to the people, tended to preserve
the nation's belief in the reality and beauty of the
constitution. When a petty disagreement. Oc-
curred amongst the three estates, the nation ad-
mired the beautiful balance of the constitution ,
and when such a disagreement ceased, the beauti-
ful harmony of the constitution was the thing to
be admired. By such fictions and phrases, the
real oligarchy of boroughmongers was made to
pass for an inimitable mixed government, the
envy and admiration of surrounding countries.


And in truth this counterfeit mixture of mon-
archy, aristocracy and democracy, was the best
government ever established in Europe. Though
the powers of government rested in the hands of
a few, those few owed their power to wealth, and
any one who could acquire great wealth might
help to govern. The qualification for the en-
joyment of power being wealth, it was natural
that the government should take great care of the
wealthy. Moreover, as at all times many of those
who governed had lately sprung from an inferior
class, it was natural that they should sympathise
with a class or two below them. The English




142 POLITICAL PROSPECTS or THE ENGLISH.


government, accordingly, ever since it became an
oligarchy of boroughtnongers, has provided better
than any other government of Europe for the
security of property and persons.


Security of property ! personal safety ! What
more could be asked of any government ? Not
much ; for these are the chief ends of govern-
ment. Why then were the English dissatisfied
with their glorious constitution ? why have they
lately made another of a very different character ?
These questions will be answered by stating in
what respect, chiefly, the constitution was not a
good one ; secondly, by describing the means of
its preservation ; and thirdly by showing how the
force on which it depended was gradually des-
troyed.


The old English constitution gave security to
property, with safety to persons, according to a
scale, by which the security and safety was bes-
towed in proportion to wealth. Justice was made
exceedingly dear. Thus, though there Was jus-
tice for all who could buy it, there was none for
those who could not ; and amongst those who
could pay for it, there was most for him who
could pay most. As between two persons of
equal wealth, law was justice, though dear ; as
between two persons of unequal wealth, law was
injustice. In - the attack and defence of persons
and property, law, mis-called justice, favoured
the richer party, whether he attacked another


POLITICAL PROSPECTS OP THE ENGLISH. 143


wrongfully or defended his own right ; and
was, to the same extent of course, unfavourable
to the poorer party, whether he were right or
wrong. Down the scale of wealth, there was an
active principle of wrong, and up the scale of
wealth, a defensive principle of right. He who
was at the top of the scale could injure the others,
who could not injure him ; those who were at the
bottom of the scale could not injure the others,
but might be injured by them. These were the
principles on which the old English constitution
afforded protection to persons and property.
Recollecting how much the happiness of man in
society depends on the administration of law, it
will appear that in this respect the old English
constitution was a very bad one.
That constitution bestowed upon superior wealth


many privileges, some hurtful to the majority and
in themselves odious, others odious merely as pri-
vileges bestowed upon wealth. Under that con-
stitution, the rich, alone, could obtain the higher
emoluments, distinctions and other gratifications,
of power; could receive titles of honour; could
make laws in the house of commons ; could enjoy
or give places, and receive or bestow pensions ;
could administer rural laws, after making them ;
could manage roads at the public expense, and
stop roads convenient to the public ; could build,
fill and govern, jails ; could keep game, shoot
other people's game and transport other people




144 POLITICAL PROSPECTS OF THE ENGLISH.


for shooting their game ; could be married in a
particular way, and be divorced from their wives ;
could have their children educated at a particular
place at the public expense ; could appoint re-
ligious teachers ; could fix rates of wages, saying
to the poor—" you shall marry, and you shall re-
main asunder : you who are married shall not
live together ;" with many more privileges, so far
of a like kind as to be obviously unfair. What
privilege, indeed, is free from injustice ? Which-
soever of these privileges was most hurtful to the
nation,all of them were calculated to excite hatred
towards the privileged class; and though that
curious machine, the constitution, would have been
less productive, would not have worked, perhaps,
without them, they were very proper to bring
about a revolution sooner or later.


The existence of every government of the many
by a few must depend upon some kind of force,
wherewith to secure the obedience of the many.
The most common force of government has been
a body of guards, assisted by a body of spies.
This, however, was not the force of the old Eng-
lish constitution, which out of regard to the li-
berty of the subject, having property, was always
opposed to standing armies and political police.
The force of the old English constitution was cor-
ruption ; an engine of great power, and one ad-
mirably fitted in this case to the machine that it
was employed to work. The oligarchy, which


POLITICAL PROSPECTS OF THE ENGLISH. 145


under the name of a mixed government was set
up in France eighteen years ago, has been worked
by an engine of this sort ; but not well. In ma-
terial mechanism, simplicity is a great. merit ; in
political machinery, having for object to keep
many in subjection to a few, the grand point is
complication. In the French oligarchy, there was
a sad want of entanglement ; and then the French
corruption was all of one sort, obvious to the
most careless observer. In France, political cor-
ruption was a species of force ; in England, a
genus, comprehending many species. Of that kind
of corruption which was unique in France, namely,
expenditure of public money by the government,
there was plenty in England ; but th is, great as i t ap-
pears when compared with the expenditure of other
governments, seems small when compared with
the great mass of jobs and monopolies by which
it was assisted. Small, however, as it appears in
this point of view it was mighty by the manner
of applying it. The public income of France was
divided amongst the public servants on these
two erroneous principles ; first, that every one
should work for his pay ; secondly, that all
public servants should be paid sufficiently. The
principles, on the contrary, which directed the
public expenditure of England, were, first, that
many should be paid who did not work at all ;
secondly, that those who worked least should be
paid the most, and those who worked most, the




146 POLITICAL PROSPECTS OF THE ENGLISH.


least. The churches of the two countries give a
good example of the operation of these opposite
principles. In the French church, none were idle ;
all the hard working clergy received comfortable
incomes ; and the income of a bishop was not
more than seven or eight times as much as that
of a curate. In the English church, large incomes
were given to clergymen who seldom entered a
church, and never either a pulpit or a cottage ;
the hard working clergy were kept in a state of
want ; and the income of many a bishop was
equal to the united incomes of three or four
hundred curates. Thus, in the French church,
there were no great prizes by which strong and
ambitious spirits might be attached to the estab-
lished order of things ; nor were clergymen of
moderate disposition and talents urged, either by
poverty or the hope of riches, to curry favour with
the ruling class. The strong and ambitious
spirits of the French church, accordingly, instead
of supporting the Hartwell charter, spared no
pains to overturn it, while French clergymen of
moderate disposition and talents were content to
vegetate, comfortably indifferent touching ques-
tions of government. Now turn to England :
here the most able and ambitious of the clergy,
desiring either to keep or obtain great prizes in the
church, supported the constitution with all their
might, while clergymen of moderate temper and
abilities could obtain comfortable incomes only


POLITICAL PROSPECTS OF THE ENGLISH. 147


by siding with one or other of the state factions,
and zealously supporting the constitution, to
which both factions were equally attached. The
contrast is remarkable, and helps to explain why
the charter of William III. lasted a hundred and
twenty-five years longer than the charter of Louis
XVIII. It does but help, however, towards this
explanation ; as the clergy of England did but
help to support the constitution. The two prin-
ciples of sinecures, and of much pay for little
work and much work for little pay, were adopted
in every department of the public expenditure ;
in the military and civil branches of the army
and navy, and the distribution of prize money, in
the administration of law, in public education, in
the diplomatic service, in the collection of the
revenue, in all public offices and in the manage-
ment of the colonies, not forgetting Ireland.
Thus a great body of the people were induced,
some by the desire of gain and some by the fear
of loss, to stand by the glorious constitution. If
none had been paid who did not work, and all
who worked had received moderate but sufficient
pay, those who were able and ambitious might.
have longed for a change, and the remainder
might have wanted a motive for zeal in support
of things as they were. Inequality is the soul of
political corruption.


But the corruption, depending on a judicious
outlay of public money in the way of pensions


a;




148 POLITICAL PROSPECTS OF THE ENGLISH.
POLITICAL PROSPECTS OF THE ENGLISH. 149


and places, was small when compared with that
which arose out of jobs and monopolies. This
distinction may be drawn between a job and a
monopoly, that the one is a direct, the other an
indirect, robbery of the public. Under the old
English constitution, the public was robbed
directly by several classes of jobs ; jobs in res-
pect to contracts for supplies, loans and public
works, victualling jobs, slopping jobs, scrip jobs,
building jobs, harbour, road, bridge and canal
jobs, and other jobs of the same class without
end ; the effect of each of these jobs being, that
the government paid more than would have suf-
ficed if the contracts had been submitted to open
competition ; that the difference between the
necessary and actual expenditure was so much
public plunder bestowed on friends of the glorious
constitution. Next, there were more palpable
jobs ; such as when crown lands were sold or let
for much less than their value, when the govern-
ment purchased land for more than its value,
when grants of public money were made to
reward, in name public services, in reality devo-
tion to the constitution, when public works were
undertaken, either useless or hurtful to the pub-
lic, or when commissioners were appointed to
perform certain acts, and handsomely paid for
doing nothing. All these are but a sample of
the jobbing that took place under the old Eng-
lish constitution. Now observe, if the whole of


what was stolen from the public, by means of all
these jobs had been spent honestly in the public
service, the constitution would have wanted the
zealous support of a great band of robbers,
delighted with the present and fearful of change.
Really, the old constitution is to be admired more
for its roguery than its profusion.


Next come monopolies ; and, first, monopolies
of trade, exclusive power to deal with particular
countries or in particular articles, such as, of late
years, the East India Company, the Bank of Eng-
land, the West India planter's monopoly of the
British market, and the corn monopoly of the
landlords, which is the greatest of all : secondly,
monopolies of quite another kind, such as that
of the bar, which bestows on a particular class
the privilege of pleading in the courts, and that
which almost forbids a barrister, even, to prac-
tice in certain courts unless he can afford to pay
for chambers in certain spots, where, of course,
chambers are extremely dear ; that other mono-
poly of the law by which 1,2001, must be paid as
an apprentice fee for liberty to practice in some
very important courts ;* the military monopoly
arising from the system of purchasing commis-
sions, and very many more of which a naked list
would fill several pages. The principle of mono-
poly seems to be :—gain with one hand and lose


personal property.
hecourtswhich relate to marriage and the descent of




150 POLITICAL PROSPECTS OF THE ENGLISH.


with the other ; you rob me, and I rob you.
Englishmen who gained by those monopolies in
which they had a share, lost by others in which
they had no share. But the gain was manifest,
while the loss was imperceptible : there was the
pleasure of robbing, without the pain of knowing
that you were robbed. So much for individual
feeling ; but now observe the political influence
of monopolies. Of the loss, which was hidden,
no one took note ; but the gain was felt, joyfully
felt, and attributed, with gratitude, to the inimi•
able constitution. Adding to the long list of
simple jobs and pure monopolies a multitude of
establishments, half job, half monopoly, such as
corporations enjoying exclusive privileges, hold-
ing lands, levying taxes, administering charities
and bestowing offices, one begins to understand
the power of that corruption which moved the
old English constitution. It works well ! George
Canning, used to exclaim,: countless plunderers
responded,—it works well


But corruption was not the sole support of the
borough mongers' oligarchy. Wherever there exists
only two classes, as in Russia and the slave-states
of America, the ruling class despise the slaves, and
the slaves hate their rulers. The wise ancestors of
Englishmen and Americans lived in such like
enmity towards each other, when their habita-
tions consisted only of huts and castles. But as
a middle class grows up, the highest and lowest


POLITICAL PROSPECTS OF THE ENGLISH. 151


classes generally conspire to injure those by whom
they are separated. England, ever since the revo-
lution, presents a striking instance of combination
between the aristocracy and the mob for the pur-
pose of harming the middle class. Until the late
peace, the physical force was always subservient
to the ends of the ruling class ; as when mobs
assembled to the cries of " no popery," and


church and king," when the poor delighted in
a victory over their " natural enemies," the French
jacobins. The old English constitution worked
well, as long as it was supported by the physical
force. How this support was obtained, is not a
mystery. For above a century, at least, after
1688, they who composed the physical force, the
bulk of the people, were kept in a state of pro-
found ignorance. Closely resembling working
cattle, so far as knowledge goes, they were patient
under oppression, as the horse, through ignorance
of his own strength, submits to the spur. To
obedience they added reverence. A lord or a
bishop, a rich squire or beneficed clergyman, a
rich contractor or stockjobber, residing in his
mansion, surrounded by a park, or when in
London still in a mansion, surrounded by man-
sions, seldom met the poor but on occasions .of
show or excitement, when a display of his wealth,
and of the respect paid to him by the middle
class, led the ignorant poorest class to regard him
as a demi-god. Thus elevated above the crowd,




152 POLITICAL PROSPECTS OF THE ENGLISH.


he could treat them with familiarity, and yet pre-
serve their respect, whilst airs of condescension,
from one so raised, were grateful to those so
abject. Rank and wealth, accordingly, were
higher recommendations to mob popularity than
learning and virtue. In the next place, with
regard to property, the great cause of jealousy
and contention amongst men, an -


English aris-
tocrat of the last century was supposed, by the
grossly ignorant poor, to derive his wealth from
any source but their labour ; and he did actually
divide amongst the poor a portion of the money
which he obtained from the public purse. A
general election used to cause a fall in the funds,
by the sale of stock for the purpose of bribing, in
one shape or other, all poor electors in the king-
dom. Add to this the fiction, by which a good
many poor men appeared to exert a voice in
choosing the house of commons, the drunkenness,
license and riot which the ruling class encouraged
at elections, the sham of humility and good fel-
lowship by which the candidates used to cajole
the populace ; taking all these things into account,
the only wonder is, that the poor, ignorant,
degraded, mass should ever have had a will of
their own.


We have now to see how the force on which the
constitution depended, was gradually destroyed.


It is riot so very long- since old Englishwomen
were burnt for witchcraft, to the great satisfac-


POLITICAL PROSPECTS OF THE ENGLISH. 153


tion of every body, save the old women. Why
do they no longer burn old women in England ?
Because, in the course of little more than a cen-
tury, public opinion respecting witchcraft has
undergone the greatest change. The same thing
has happened with respect to dear justice, pri-
vileges, jobs, monopolies, and the prestige of
aristocracy. To examine fully, when this change
of opinion began, and by what steps it proceeded,
would carry me too far ; but a few remarks on
the subject maynot be unacceptable to Americans.


Fifty years ago, instruction was confined to a
portion of the highest class. The middle class,
indeed, could read and write ; but their reading
did not extend beyond divinity, novels, the racing
calendar, Moore's prophetic almanack, and, now
and then, a newspaper adapted to their ignorance.
As for any interchange of ideas by means of
writing and printing, they never thought of such
a thing ; or rather, they would have thought it
presumptuous, if not unnatural, in4hem to form
ideas upon subjects of general interest. Except
when one of their narrow superstitions was
attacked, as for example, their fear of popish
supremacy, they left all public questions to the
nobility, clergy and gentry, whom alone they sup-
posed capable of understanding such matters. They
eat, drank, 'attended to their business, went to
church, horse-races and raree-shows, stared and
wondered when a great man passed, and believed




154 POLITICAL PROSPECTS OF THE ENGLISH.


that the whole public duty of man consisted in
honouring the king and loving the rest of the
royal family. Thegreat French revolution entirely
changed their character. When they saw that
men of their own class in a neighbouring coun-
try had undertaken to govern, their slothful and
slavish propensities gave way to political excite-
ment. The very horrors which succeeded the
French revolution, had an excellent effect on
them ; setting them to think, read and even write,
on public questions, and, forcing them, above all,
to look into the condition of their inferiors.
During the long war that followed, some of them
sided with the aristocracy, and some wished suc-
cess to that revolution against which the war
was directed ; but all of them took an earnest
part in public affairs. Every public question
was now discussed, by them, and for them, too,
by their superiors, who wanted their assistance.
Books, magazines, pamphlets and newspapers
came to be reckoned necessaries of life ; and the
quality of these unproved with the greater demand
for them. At length, towards the close of the
war, when a new generation had grown up, the
middle class were better instructed than the
highest class, and the charm of aristocracy was
gone. Individual Englishmen still revere the
distinction of title, still bow and cringe to any
one of superior rank, but the English, in general,
have lost all reverence for nobility in the abstract ;


POLITICAL PROSPECTS OF THE ENGLISH. 155


just as each individual, who shares in a mono-
poly, would preserve his own particular means
of robbing the public, while all, including mono-
polists, loudly condemn monopolies in general.
During the war, however, while profits were high,
while among the middle class almost every man's
condition improved year by year, a great majority
of that class sided with the government and was
opposed to any change in the constitution. But
with the peace, came low profits, all sorts of par-
ticular distresses and general distress. Thirty
or forty millions a year, instead of being squan-
dered in foreign subsidies and distant campaigns,
were accumulated at home. As the national
capital increased, the now intelligent middle
class became more numerous, in proportion to
the other classes ; but as capital was invested
with less and less profit, the state of each indi-
vidual among the middle class became more and
more uneasy. Thus every year produced a great
increase of the strength, and the discontent, of the
middle class. Touching politics, distress has two
very different effects ; straining men's attention
to their own concerns, and yet disposing them to)
wish for change in public affairs. In this case,
for a long while at least, those who composed each
distressed class, when they could think of any
thing but how to make the two ends meet at the
close of the year, attended only to such public
questions as were interesting to their own class in




156 POLITICAL PROSPECTS OF THE ENGLISH.


particular. In examining the petitions presented
to the house of commons between the battle of
Waterloo and the expulsion of Charles X., it is
curious to observe how few, of those which came
from the middle-class, asked for reform of parlia-
ment. Relief from distress was the prayer of the
greater part of those petitions ; agricultural dis-
tress, manufacturing distress, commercial distress,
and, at last, the distress of the nation. These peti-
tions were utterly neglected ; for the spending
class, represented in the house of commons, felt
no distress. In the end, the middle class, thus
insulted as well as uneasy, came to suspect that
there was some radical fault in the constitution.


A more important effect of the French revolu-
tion on the English middle class was the disposi-
tion which it produced in some of them to im-
prove the condition of the bulk of the people.
The slaves of a neighbouring country had revol-
ted, and had acted as slaves in revolt will always
act. The ferocious animals of Labruyere, " male
and female, spread over the country, black, livid,
naked, and sun-burnt, fixed to the earth which
they stirred and turned with inconceivable ob-
stinacy, having an articulate voice and showing,
when they stood upright, a human face, creeping
at night into dens, and living on black bread,
water and roots ;" these despised brutes had
proved what. Labruyere had only asserted doubt-
ingly, namely, that they were men and women.


POLITICAL PROSPECTS OF THE ENGLISH. 157


But what a kind of human beings ! Devils, they
were called, in human shape, wretches, mis-
creants, monsters. "fill then, the English had
not suspected that more, a good deal, than half
of the people were miserable and dangerous, like
starving wolves. Long before then, indeed, De-
foe had shown that the condition of the labouring
class was as bad in his time as it has ever been
since ; but who cared ? Out of evil cometh good.
The burnings, drownings and massacres, by which
the French populace proved their humanity, led to
humanity, in the other sense, amongst the English
middle class. Selfishness, being scared, was turned
into benevolence. It now became an object with
the middle class to improve the physical and moral
state of their inferiors. But by what means ?
This question was not so easily settled. After
much discussion, during which some proposed
one thing, some another thing quite different, and
some strove to prove by reference to history, that
the attempt must fail, it was agreed that Educa-
tion should be tried. The ruling class, however,
and the great amongst the clergy in particular,
set their faces against this mode of proceeding.
What ! teach the slaves that they were men ! it
was a jacobinical project. All the ploughmen
would want to be clerks and the journeymen
weavers gentlemen. Who would work, slave, for
the great, cringe to them, bow down and worship
them ? Instruct all the people, and we shall




158 POLITICAL PROSPECTS OF THE ENGLIS/L


have helps instead of servants ; teach all men to
respect themselves as men, and then what man
will be valet to another man, pull off his clothes,
and scratch his back when required ? No, no—
teach the people this, but not more ; to honour
and obey the king and all that are put in authority
under him, to submit to their governors and
spiritual pastors and masters, to order themselves
lowly and reverently to all their betters, to labour
for their own living (say nothing of ours), and
to do their duty in that state of servitude into
which it has pleased God to call them. All this
teach them, but no more, unless you would turn
the world upside down.—Such in substance was
the language held up by the ruling class (it would
be easy to quote chapter and verse for it) when some
of the middle class proposed to instruct all the
people. But they were not satisfied with point-
ing out the danger of educating the populace ;
those who sought to instruct the poor, they
charged with revolutionary principles, and put a
mark on them as jacobins and levellers. Thus
many, who wished well to the education project,
were deterred from assisting it. A few, chiefly
quakers and other sectaries, persevered, and es-
tablished a limited number of schools for poor
children on the plan suggested by Joseph Lan-
caster. The inventor of the system of Mutual
Instruction, wished that no Christians, except
Catholics, should be excluded from his schools by


POLITICAL PROSPECTS OF THE ENGLISH. 159


religious scruples ; wherefore, though he used the
bible as a school book, it was without note or com-
ment. The high church party now changed their
tone. Christian charity required that so great a
blessing as education should not be withheld from
the poor. And then the hypocrites established
schools on the Lancasterian plan, vowing that
one of themselves, a Dr. Bell, had brought the
system of mutual instruction from India. In
their schools, however, which they called national
they added note and comment to the bible ; that
is, they taught the church of England catechism,
which makes slavishness the first duty of man.
But this device of the aristocratic clergy was of
no avail. Instead of confining instruction, as
was intended, to those who should be brought up
lowly and reverently to the pastors and masters
of the tythe church, it piqued the dissenters, who
now took more pains than ever to teach reading
and writing, at least, to those whom the clergy
did not teach. In the tythe schools, after all,
more than this was not taught. The result of
all the teaching put together is, that about half,
perhaps near three quarters, of the English poor
can read, and a tenth part of them write. The
writing was of no use to them, nor the reading
either, may be, except as a step. For absolutely
nothing was done by any class of teachers to im-
prove the physical condition of the poor. No
pains were taken to assist them in turning their




160 POLITICAL PROSPECTS OF THE ENGLISH.
POLITICAL PROSPECTS OF THE ENGLISH. 161


limited knowledge, or rather their means of
knowledge, to the best account. Religious tracts
were given to them in abundance, but nothing
else. In all other respects, what they should
learn by means of reading was left to chance.
Even had it been otherwise, if the greatest pains
had been taken to put useful knowledge in their
way, how should they have profited by the boon ?
they who were condemned to incessant toil and
severe physical want. They learned, consequently,
little more than what the antijacobins had fore-
seen that they would learn, to be thoroughly dis-
contented with their lot, and to believe that their
misery was owing to bad government. This
faith may be true or erroneous : it took root
firmly in the minds of the English working class ;
and from that time forward the physical force of
the nation was at enmity with the constitution.


Having stated why and how the English be-
came disposed to alter their constitution, I pro
teed to describe the manner of the change.


The admirers of the old constitution say, that
it had a peculiar knack of adapting itself to new
circumstances: the pliability, the elasticity, of
the constitution, they call this alledged virtue.
Probably the constitution had become stiff from
age ; but at all events, it did not adapt itself to
the new opinions with respect to it, which having
sprung up with the French revolution, were
checked by the war with revolutionary France,


and have grown steadily and rapidly ever since
the battle of Waterloo. Those who managed the
constitution obstinately resisted every proposal
for altering the venerable machine. But from
the moment when a good many people thought
of changing the constitution, it no longer worked
pleasantly. Instead of only two factions strug-
gling for the management of the constitution,
which both factions revered, there arose a third
faction, bent on overturning tories, whigs, con-
stitution and all. For many years the reform
party was divided into three parties ; first, those
who attacked the constitution itself ; secondly,
those who attacked the power which worked the
constitution ; thirdly, those who attacked both the
constitution and the power. The first class, nick-
named Radicals, consisted, for the most part, of
work people in the towns and was by far the
most numerous ; the second class, called Li-
berals, was composed principally of clever men,
belonging to the ruling class and warmly at-
tached to the constitution, but who, lending an
ear to the public outcry against jobs and mono-
polies, thought that they could stretch the con-
stitution to the length of their liberal opinions
without even altering its shape; the third class,
self-called Utilitarians, comprising, when that
name was first heard, not so many perhaps as five
hundred individuals, were content to speculate, to
reason in the abstract, on all questions of govern-




162 POLITICAL PROSPECTS OF THE ENGLISH. POLITICAL PROSPECTS OF THE ENGLISH. 163


Inent, taking care, however, that their specula-
tions should be published. It would be hard to
say which of these classes of reformers was most
dangerous to the constitution. The radicals,
very numerous and always contemplating the
use of physical force, were highly dangerous ; for
though they were kept down by the physical force
of the government, many an accident might any
day have given them the advantage. It seems
well to observe here, that ever since the poor of
England were taught to read, the English have
found a standing army absolutely necessary.
The liberals were very dangerous, because, not
conscious themselves, nor suspected by others,
of intending any harm to the constitution, they
grubbed at its foundation, blind and unseen, like
moles. And the utilitarians were not less dan-
gerous ; for by exposing the fiction of three equal
powers, balance and harmony, the injustice of
dear laws, the uselessness of privileges, the
iniquity of jobs and the folly of monopolies, they
took the very best method of bringing the con-
stitution into contempt.. But whichever of these
three classes of reformers was most dangerous to
the constitution, no sooner did the whole body
of reformers acquire some importance, than there
occurred a confusion of parties amongst the ruling
class such as may never perhaps be thoroughly
understood. Old whigs now leant to toryism ;
young tories to liberalism ; along with the re,


mainder of the whigs, who happened to be out
at the time ; while some whigs declared for par-
liamentary reform, and a portion of the tories
took the title of conservatives, meaning that they
would defend the old constitution in all its parts
against all its enemies. In short, public opinion
forced a new question into the house of commons :
it was no longer which shall be in, the whigs or
the tories: but shall the constitution be altered or
shall it be preserved ? From that moment the
constitution could not work well ; it was in fact
altered, or had begun to break in pieces. Nothing
could have saved it but such a war as had saved
it before.


At length unconstitutional opinions gained a
majority of the house of commons ; and the fact
was made known when that house, on the death
of Lord Liverpool, chose that George Canning
should become prime minister. Canning, who
had been devoted to the constitution, was now a
liberal. His appointment was received with
shouts of applause by all classes of reformers,
while the conservatives groaned in fear and anger.
Still, as yet, the government had performed no
act in accordance with the new opinions of the
nation. Canning, who well understood his mission,
began by some liberal measures with respect to
foreign countries: but the conservatives were not
blind to this mode, however indirect, of attacking




164 POLITICAL PROSPECTS OF THE ENGLISH.


their beloved constitution : they fell upon Can-
ning and killed him. Then came the Goderich
ministry, mixed and liberal, like that of Canning,
but wanting an able chief to keep together its
heterogeneous materials : for want of a better,
it lasted some months, but disjointed and de-
spised ; and was then broken up, partly by the
intrigues of the conservatives and still more by
its own cowardice and stupidity. One fine
morning, the prime minister was not to be found ;
when the king, surprised no doubt at the strange
working of the constitution, -charged his friend,
Arthur Duke of Wellington, to form a ministry.
Many supposed that the constitution was saved.


By- habit, and perhaps by instinct, Wellington
was a pure conservative. He had been used to
power, he delighted in power, and valued the
constitution as it gave power to a few over the
many ; but that a mere soldier, so ignorant and
even illiterate, should have understood the nature
of that most complex machine, it is very difficult
to believe. At all events, he humoured the liberal
house of commons by taking some liberal col-
leagues, and soon struck the constitution a mortal
blow.


By that constitution, no aboriginal Irishman,
that is, catholic, could become a member of the
house of commons. A vacancy having taken
place in the representation, as it was called, of an


POLITICAL PROSPECTS OF THE ENGLISH. 165


Irish county, the aborigines of that county met,
and in defiance of the law elected a native Irish-
man. What was to be done ? Thirty years
sooner, the armed. protestants, that is colonists,
of Ireland, aided by an English army, would have
settled the question in double quick time ; and
Wellington, an Irish colonist, a soldier who had
once governed the native Irish on the spot, would
have been the man of all others to put down such
a.rebellion .by force of arms. The Irish, who as
a people, seem deficient in courage, would pro-
bably have submitted to force, as they have often
submitted before to a handful of English soldiers ;
but this time there was something to manage in
England ; a thing that never was managed by
force. Public opinion, acting on the house of
commons, had disposed that assembly, as any
corporal might see, to sympathise with the Irish
rebels. The temper of the house of commons
putting a massacre of the Irish out of question,
there remained for Wellington only a choice of
evils ; on the one side, concession to rebels and a
repeal of the law which excluded catholics from
parliament, with a certainty that that great
monopoly-job, the English church establish-
ment in Ireland, would be next destroyed ; on the
other side, resignation, loss of power, with the
certainty that some other minister would ere long
carry a catholic relief bill. Wellington decided
like a brave and ambitious man, as he is. All at




166 POLITICAL PROSPECTS OF THE ENGLISH.


once he became more popular than Canning had
ever been. Himself had declared shortly before,
that he.


must be mad to think of being prime
minister. To what special incapacity he referred.
we cannot tell : though all, save the conservatives,
agreed with him at the time, he now became, ex-
cept with the conservatives, the most humane,
the most liberal, the wisest of men. The con-
servatives had looked to him for saving the con-
stitution. When, therefore, lie led so outrageous
an attack upon it, they were ready to devour
him ; but they could not break his heart, which
is rather hard, as they, aided by him, had
broken poor Canning's, which was of a fine tex-
ture. Nay, he converted the greater part of them
to his own views by saying—Support me or resign ;
and as for the remainder, they were so few that
he thought he might safely despise them : a mis-
take as it turned out.


However, a relief bill was passed, large, com-
plete, not open to an objection from the revolu-
tionists, except as it excluded from parliament, for
one year, that popular Irishman, whom the na-
tives had elected against law. This personal
clause, being attributed to the spite of an un-
derling, a violent anti-catholic, who had sup-
ported the bill to keep his place ; mean as this
clause was, it did not detract from Wellington's
popularity. Humane, liberal, wise, when he pro-
posed the bill, he was now the greatest statesman


POLITICAL PROSPECTS OF THE ENGLISH. 167


of his age or any age ; lie had won a civic crown
more durable than his martial laurels ; his name
would go down to posterity as one of the greatest
benefactors of his country and mankind. These
are some of the terms, in which his grace was
thanked for his part in the first obvious blow
given to the old English constitution.


Revolutions are terrible, but in one point of
view seem better than great political changes
conducted without violence. After a revolution
comes peace ; after a great peaceful change comes,
very often, revolution. The leaders in great but
peaceful political changes are, commonly, unwil-
ling actors, who act from necessity, all their
opinions remaining unchanged ; who yield this,
merely to preserve that ; and who, therefore, pro-
ceed without regard to consequences ; as if the
single concession were to be a final measure,
were to have no consequences. It was just so
with those who managed the repeal of the Irish
slave-code.


A breathing time followed that act ; a pause,
during which England was governed, not by a
constitution, but by the individual duke of Wel-
lington. If his grace had not been blinded by
his flatterers, he would have seen from the popu-
larity of the once hated Canning, from his own
popularity, and above all, from the confidence
which the nation reposed in him, the resolute,
slashing reformer ; from all this, I say, he would




168 POLITICAL.PROSPECTS OF THE ENGLISH.


have perceived the absolute necessity of moving
on with the work of reform. The reformers,
giving the field marshal credit for common dis-
cernment, believed that he would move:on, and
thought it wise to let him alone ; the house
of commons appeared to have abandoned its
functions to a dictator ; some of the conservatives
merely sulked.; and some, not knowing what to
do, called out, for what ? for a reform of the
house of commons.*


Rulers and nations have often deceived each
other, but never so completely as the English
people deceived Wellington, and Wellington
deceived the English people, for some time after
the passing of the relief bill. Wellington thought
that the people were entirely satisfied with what
had been done ; and the people doubted not that
Wellington was hatching some grand plot against
the constitution. An accident suddenly opened
the eyes of both parties.


At the end of 1830, the French constitution,
which had never worked well, stopped entirely
for a few days. The French king, and the citi-
zens of Paris came to blows ; the king being


* An article in the Quarterly Review, published just before
the expulsion of Charles X., and when the question of reform
in parliament seemed to possess no interest for Englishmen.
exposed very ably some of the greatest defects of the house of
commons, as a legislative assembly.


POLITICAL PROSPECTS OF THE ENGLISH. 169


beaten, was driven away ; his cousin, after giving
some faithless promises to alter the constitution,
was appointed king ; and then the constitution
of Waterloo, slightly altered, creaked on as before.


The new French king, and the French whigs,
call this a glorious revolution ; but it did not
occupy a fortnight, and it ended in no greater
change than would have happened if the old king
had died in his bed without male issue. On the
face of it, therefore, one can see nothing that
should have produced a great sensation in Eng-
land ; still less such violent political excitement
as actually occurred. As respects England, what
new political principles were brought to light by
the Parisian " three days" ? The right of resist-
ance to tyrants ? no, for that principle was
acknowledged, nay consecrated, by the oligarchy
of boroughmongers. The right of tax payers to
vote taxes, which was the principle of the Ame-
rican revolution ? by no means. The right to be
without a government, which seems to have been
the principle of the first French revolution ? cer-_
tainly not ; for the Parisian workmen who ex-
pelled Charles X., fought in the name of the
Waterloo charter. Well, then, why after the Pari-
sian three days were the work-people of the Eng-
lish towns so deeply agitated ? Why did the
ruling class exhibit so much terror ? Why did
nineteenth-twentieths of the press demand, all of
a sudden, an immediate and effectual reform of




170 POLITICAL PROSPECTS OF THE ENGLISH.


the house of commons ? Why did Mr. Brougham
declare that he had prepared a plan of reform in
parliament ; he who had not mentioned the sub-
ject for years, except to deride the radical
reformers ? Why was he elected member for
Yorkshire ? Why was Mr. Hunt elected for Pres-
ton, spite of the house of Stanley, in their own
borough ? Why was parliament, which for years
had scarcely received a petition for reform, now
overwhelmed with such petitions ? Why did Wel-
lington utter his famous eulogy of rotten
boroughs ? Why did he, the popular dictator,
resign in dudgeon, if not in a fright ? Why did
Wellington and the conservatives make up their
quarrel ? What brought the whigs, the proud,
careless, lazy and suspected, whigs into office ?
and why did those whigs introduce a bill of
reform, which was to cut through the stem of the
constitution ? A single word answers all these
questions,—barricades'. The principle of the poor
dupes who conquered at Paris, was attachment
to a constitution, which gives all the powers of
government to less than two hundred thousand
persons out of thirty-two millions ; but then the
three clays of Paris made, and made known, this
very important discovery,—that there is a way
by which the populace of a large town may beat
the best of soldiers. Not one gentleman took
part with the populace of Paris : a general, since
a minister, and still a favourite of the new


POLITICAL PROSPECTS OF THE ENGLISH. 171


king, being asked to lead them, said,—pooh ! the
rabble, the canaille ! Such was the opinion of
military men, of all men, concerning the relative
force of mobs and household troops. All at once,
opinion as to this matter ran into the other
extreme. In England, cannon balls became as
nothing compared with pavement stones ; strap-
ping guardsmen looked like dwarfs, and the smal-
lest artizan was a giant. This new faith produced
the most general and violent agitation ever known
in England, without bloodshed. The workmen
of the towns used to shake hands when they met
in public, though they had parted not an hour
before, and expected to meet again during the
day ; and then, when one of their leaders did but
talk of workmen at Paris, tears ran down their
unwashed cheeks, and they shook hands again,
this time with an earnest grasp. The work-peo-
ple in the country, not so well informed on
foreign affairs, and more secret in their ways,
appeared gloomy and savage. All the other
classes, nobility, clergy, gentry, placeholders,
stockholders, manufacturers, merchants and
tradesmen, were disturbed by one of two extreme
sentiments ; either fear amounting to terror, or
hope equal to joy. Such of them as admired the
constitution turned pale when you mentioned
barricades, and used to skulk about with down-
cast looks, as if some great misfortune had be,
fallen them. The others, if whigs, were in high




172 POLITICAL PR OSPECTS OF THE ENGLISH.


spirits ; that is, certain of coming in ; and, if
downright enemies of the constitution, of rotten
boroughs, privileges, dear law, jobs and monopo-
lies ; these, I say, never met but with sparkling
eyes, to laugh and brag over the prospect.


The effects of a given power may be small or
great, according to the susceptibility of the matter
on which the power acts. The discovery of
barricades could not have affected the whole
English nation so deeply, or perhaps at all, if that
nation had been contented with its political
institutions. The physical discovery of the Pari-
sians led to this great political discovery in Eng-
land ; that the nation had outgrown its laws.
What followed might have been foretold, nay as
to its main features was foretold, by careful
observers.


The rural paupers, the serfs, of England
rebelled ; and the farmers, who clown to that
time had been reckoned warm friends of the con-
stitution, notwithstanding their distress, appeared
to sympathise with the rebels. Thus about a
third of England was more or less in a state of
insurrection, without any physical means of
restoring order. Whilst fires were blazing and
mobs exacting higher wages in the country, a new
king met a new parliament ; and Wellington, the
popular dictator, the wisest of statesmen, wisely
seized that opportunity to declare solemnly in
favour of the most perfect constitution ever


POLITICAL PROSPECTS OF THE ENGLISH. 173


framed by the ingenuity of man. In one day,
all the duke's popularity was gone. The most
humane, liberal, clear-sighted of men, the greatest
statesman, the benefactor of his country and
mankind, became, all in one day, observe, hard-
hearted, narrow-minded, wooden-headed, every
thing worthless. The suddenness of Wellington's
fall in the public esteem shows the extent to
which he had deceived the nation, and they him.


While the shout of execration was at its height,
the day arrived when the king and his ministers
had engaged to dine at Guildhall with the citi-
zens of London. Wellington advised the king
not to attend the feast. As the king was very
popular at the time; and popular, be it said in
passing, because his bearing towards the populace
presented a striking contrast with the haughty
reserve of his late brother ; this being the case,
it was supposed by some, that Wellington's
advice to the king had been dictated by personal
fear. This charge, brought against one who pro-.
bably never was afraid, is not worth refuting.
Why then, make the populace believe that the
government was afraid of them ? Because the
government was afraid of the populace ; not the
ministers on account of their own persons, but
every member of the government on account of
the constitution ; terrified at the thought of bar-
ricades. Would the presence of ministers in the
city have, raised barricades ? There was great




174 POLITICAL PROSPECTS OF THE ENGLISH.


POLITICAL PROSPECTS OF THE ENGLISH. 175


risk of it, to say the least ; and if barricades had
been raised, who shall tell where the insurrec-
tion would have stopped ? Considering the in-
flamed state of the peasantry, and of the workmen.
in the towns throughout England and Scotland ;
considering, further, the extremely artificial state
of English society, the great number of people
who live from hand to mouth by pursuits not
agricultural, the influence of confidence and cre-
dit in feeding those people, and the crash that
would have followed if any thing had occurred
to disturb seriously the ordinary course of indus-
try and trade ; bearing all this in mind, we shall
conclude, that 'Wellington acted prudently in
avoiding the city feast. Still the breach of the
king's engagement with the citizens was treated
as a great popular triumph, which indeed it was ;
and Wellington, who till then had been feared as
much as hated, was now despised. I do not give
too much importance to the failure of a city feast.
In the progress of revolutions, great events seem
to hinge upon trifles. Some aldermen missed a
dinner ; but this was the first time when the
friends of the old English constitution showed
any fear of its enemies.


The dinner things were hardly removed from
Guildhall, when the house of commons objected
to the new civil list, which Wellington proposed
for the new king. Owing to the confusion of
parties which had now taken place, above fifty


conservatives voted against the duke and the con-
stitution : Quos Deus vult perdere prius dementat.
They would have voted for reform of parliament
the next day, when Mr. B ro ugharn, • moved by the
barricades of Paris, was to have brought forward
a plan for mending the constitution ; but Wel-
lington resigned, Mr. Brougham's motion fell to
the ground, and the whigs came in, giving three
great pledges to the nation. They promised,
first, to maintain peace ; which, as there was no
war, nor prospect of war, meant that they would
not get up a war to divert the nation from its pur-
pose of reform : secondly, they promised retrench-
ment, that is, to diminish the power which had
moved the constitution ; and thirdly, a full and
effectual reform of the house of commons, mean-
ing a great change in the constitution itself.


The people were overjoyed, but not disposed
to confide implicitly in the whigs, who had often
deceived the people, and who, as members of the
aristocracy,were suspected of a strong attachment
to the oligarchy of boroughmongers. The people,
therefore, formed themselves into societies for
promoting reform, and, partly by petitions, but
still more by means of the press, told ministers
what the nation understood by full "and effectual:'
Above all, they threatened openly, in so many
words, that if the whigs should offer them a mock
reform, they would take a revolution. At length,
on the memorable 1st of March, 1831, the whig


ft




176 POLITICAL PROSPECTS OF THE ENGLISH.


cabinet produced their bill, themselves alone
being aware of its contents until it was laid before
the house of commons.


An abstract of the whig bill would not describe
it so well as an account of its reception by
the three great parties which then divided the
country.


The conservatives, including those who had
quarrelled with Wellington on account of catholic
relief, were delighted with the bill : they chuckled,
and laughed, and clapped their hands. Was
there ever, said they, any thing so extravagant ?
The whigs must be mad. Thank God, they had
gone far enough. Such a bill ! revolutionary was
too good an epithet for it. So ridiculous, so pre-
posterous, a bill would not be read a first time.
The whigs must resign ; . -they had cut their own
throats ; nothing could be better.


The feeling of the moderate reformers was ex-
pressed by one of the richest men in England, a
whig, but leaning to utilitarian opinions.* He
declared in the house of commons, that the bill
took away his breath. Perhaps he was affected,
not so much by the bill itself, as by


the evidence,
which the introduction of such a bill by the
cabinet furnished, of the force of the popular will.


The decided enemies of the constitution having
carefully examined the bill, said—It is a good
first step : pass it, pass it !


* Mr. John Smith, the banker, of London..


POLITICAL PROSPECTS OF 'PHE ENGLISH. 177


In a week there were but two parties ; enemies
of the bill or anti-reformers, and friends of the
bill or reformers. The conservatives made up all
their quarrels, seeking only to throw out the bill:
the whigs and reformers forgot all their differences,
bent only on passing the bill. But, what is more
remarkable, the conservatives now called them-
selves reformers, and the reformers swore that
they were conservatives,


The house of commons, thinking with the con-
servatives that the whigs had indeed gone too
far, would not pass the bill. The press, represent-
ing the nation, stormed for a general election, and
the whigs dissolved parliament. In the general
election, the conservatives were signally defeated.
In vain did they, by pointing out that the bill
would disfranchise many poor men, try to enlist
the physical force on their side ; in vain did they
declare for reform generally, pressing their hands
on their hearts and vowing that they had never
been friendly to abuses ; in vain also did they
put forward images of revolution, confiscation
and bloodshed : it was all in vain ; they were
beaten wherever it was possible, by means of
unions, subscriptions, the king's name, brick•bats,
and a single pledge,—" the bill, the whole bill,
and nothing but the bill."


Parliament was already reformed. The new
house of commons would have passed the bill in
a month, if the Whigs had proposed such a course.




178 POLITICAL PROSPECTS OF THE ENGLISH.


In that case, probably, the lords would have
wanted courage to reject the bill, and the consti-
tution might have appeared to reform itself. But
the whigs, deliberately as it seems, managed mat-
ters so that the bill was eventually carried by
physical force. By encouraging opposition to the
bill in the commons, by carefully promoting dis-
cussion and delay, the whigs restored the habi-
tual insolence of the conservatives, who had been
subdued by the general election ; and, when
the bill found its weary way into the lords, every
body, the wh i gs alone excepted, knew that their
lordships would reject it.


There was yet a way of passing the bill con-
stitutionally ; that is, by a creation of peers.
Such a measure might even have revived a belief
in the beautiful harmony of the constitution.
But the whigs seem to have been bent on giving
importance to the physical force. Though all, who
wished the inevitable revolution to take place
without violence, implored the whigs to create
peers, they pursued their wilful way ; and the
lords rejected the bill.


If the whigs, afraid of their own bill, imagined
that its rejection by the lords would enable them
to satisfy the people with a less effectual reform,
they were soon undeceived. The reformers now
put forward images of revolution, confiscation
and bloodshed ; political unions were formed in
London and the agricultural .districts, where


POLITICAL PROSPECTS OF THE ENGLISH. 179


hitherto they had not been thought of; the expe-
diency, rather than the lawfulness, of refusing to
pay taxes, was now openly discussed at public
meetings and by the press ; and the blindest
might see, that the people were about to take the
question of reform into their own hands. The
whigs, however blind, saw this, and promised
that the bill should pass unaltered. No one
doubted that they had made up their minds to
create peers ; and the fury of the people subsided.


As the rejected bill could not be brought for-
ward again in the same session, parliament was
prorogued and re-assembled. This time, a week
might have sufficed for passing the bill in the
commons. The whigs thought fit to discuss it
all over again with the conservatives ; and this
farce, from which the people turned in disgust,
lasted near half a year. Still no peers were
created ; and at length suspicion began to fall
upon the king, who till now had been the most
popular of English monarchs.


Once more the bill was taken to the lords, who
boldly declared that they would not pass it.
Make peers! peers or a revolution! was now the
cry all over England, Scotland and Ireland. Some
whigs hurried to Windsor and advised the king
to make peers. His majesty, who, there seems
no doubt, would have said, yes, if the proposal
had been made six months earlier, was pleased, in
his royal wisdom, to say, no. The whigs, who




ISO POLITICAL PROSPECTS OF THE ENGLISH.


were never wanting in pride, resigned ; and field
marshal the duke of Wellington became once
more, in name at least, prime-minister of
England.


The conservatives, now thought to govern
England by the sword. For ten days England
was governed by newspapers and political unions.
It was not an interregnum, as some have said,
but a good strong government, orderly too, and
like that of the United States, a government
which gave immediate effect to the public will.
How the king, the lords, the new minister and
the ex-ministry settled the matter amongst them,
has never been told ; but after the political unions
and newspapers had governed vigorously for ten
days, the whigs got in again, and the lords, civilly,
humbly, in haste and without even a wry face,
passed the whole bill. In one word, the new con-
stitution of England was obtained by physical
force. The conservatives said it should be so ;
and SO it was.


I have dwelt so long on the manner of the late
change in the English constitution, because it
appears more important with a view to the.future
than the change itself. But, though the change
itself, if it were to be judged by the elections
which have taken place according to the reform
bill,. would not appear very important ; though
it would appear trifling if estimated by the paltry
reforms of abuses which have thus far resulted


POLITICAL PROSPECTS OF THE ENGLISH:- 181


from it ; still it has, to all intents and purposes,
produced a new constitution, as will be seen in
the long run. Some of those to whom the reform
bill gives the right of voting for members of
parliament, were prevented by a trick* from
exercising their franchise; others were deterred
from voting by the fear of offending their land-
lords and rich customers ; these two classes
together being so numerous, that fewer persons,
it is believed, voted at the late election than at
the last election of an unreformed parliament.
Some again, and not a few, were induced by
bribery or intimidation, to vote for conservative
candidates, while many would have voted for
better candidates, if better there had been. In
fact, the late general election took place when
the nation, fatigued with two years of violent
excitement, was in a state of exhaustion. But,
though the result of that election be a house of
commons, which does not appear to differ mate-
rially from the houses that were got together
under the old constitution, still there can be no
doubt, that a majority of its members are respon-
sible to their constituents, or that they will be
made to feel their responsibility ; whether at the
next general election or sooner, is not a very


^' By fixing so early a day for the payment of taxes already
due, such payment being one qualification for voting, that
many electors were taken by surprize and missed the right of
voting at the next general election.




182 POLITICAL PROSPECTS OF THE ENGLISH.


important question, Considering the certainty, al,-
most, of ageneral election within th ree or four years.
But, at all events, whenever the class, to which the
reform bill gives the right of voting for members
of parliament, shall choose to exert themselves,
they will direct the government of England. The
constitution is changed, howsoever little evi-
dence of the change may be furnished by the com-
position, or the acts, of the first reformed parlia-
ment. The present, then, is worth but little atten-
tion, when compared with the future. Those
who, taking the narrowest view of affairs, treat
the present as if there were neither a past nor a
future, may be pleased or dissatisfied with things
as they are ; but the prospects of the English, as
a nation, will not be discovered by discussing
present party politics. Let us, therefore, having
looked back, now look forward ; steadily, without
affection or fear, so as to form just opinions on a
subject in which are interested, not the English
alone, but also the French, the Germans, the
Poles, trampled on and scattered, every one, of
whatever country, who rejoices in the progress of
civilization, every friend of liberty in the world,
every miserable slave if he did but know it, and
all the oppressors, as they may learn too late.


The new constitution is neither an oligarchy
nor a democracy. In what then is to consist the
force of the government ?


An oligarchy may be maintained either by sol-


POLITICAL PROSPECTS OF THE ENGLISH. 183


diers or corruption. Soldiers are out of the case
in England ; for with no other force to maintain
the government, hundreds of thousands would
be required, while it is hardly doubtful that, ere
long, those who can, when they please, direct the
government, will insist on a diminution of the
army. And, as to corruption, it is easy to see;
first, that the jobs and monopolies which were
insufficient to preserve the old constitution, would,
if maintained, be entirely thrown away upon the
much greater number who can now vote for mem-
bers of parliament ; secondly, that the new
government of the uneasy class will lose no time
in cutting away jobs and monopolies. The Whig
ministry lately declared, that the government of
England should no longer be carried on by patro-
nage : they will be made to keep their word,
sooner or later.


A democracy requires neither guards nor .cor-
ruption, being supported by the affection of the
whole people. But the new constitution excludes
from legislative power a great majority of the
people, the whole body, we may say, of the work-
ing classes : it must want the force which main-
tains a democracy.


Thtis, on the most general grounds, we may
conclude, that the new constitution will not last ;
but let us come to particulars.


By the new constitution, instead of three, there
are but two orders in the state. Power has . been





184 POLITICAL PROSPECTS OP THE ENGLISH.


taken from what was the highest class, and the
mockery of power from what was the lowest
class. We must now speak only of two orders,
the higher and the lower, the rulers and the
governed.


Who formed this mongrel government ? Who
bestowed the power of legislation upon too many
for an oligarchy, too few for a democracy ? Was
it the class who now, on paper, at least, are omni-
potent ? Certainly not. Could they have extorted
the new charter, unaided by those whom it does
not acknowledge ? Certainly not. The reform
bill was carried by physical force ; and those who
compose the physical force know this, are proud
of it, boast of it, and will never forget it. Did
they approve of the bill ? As a step, yes ; but
merely as a step, declaring that they had rather
no bill than this bill, if it were to be a final mea-
sure. Universal suffrage, was, is, and will be,
the object of the working classes. Assemble a
body of them, and say—Is a pauper, an ignorant,
hungry, gloomy slave, qualified to choose who
shall make the laws No, they will answer ; but
with universal suffrage the law makers will take
care that there be no paupers: universal suffrage
we consider a security, the only security, for uni-
versal ease, instruction and content. But, good,
people, with universal suffrage, you, the working
class, who form so great a majority, would be the
only class represented in parliament ; you would


POLITICAL PROSPECTS OF THE ENGLISH. 185


make laws for the sake of your class alone, laws
not good, perhaps bad, for the other classes.—
They reply: That is the very point : your objec-
tion to universal suffrage is our objection to a
limited suffrage : the higher class, we fear, will
make laws for the sake of themselves alone, laws
not good, perhaps bad, for us. Besides, we are
told continually by the classes above us, that
what is good for them must be good for us : we
think so; and therefore, say we, let all vote for
the good of all. Are we ignorant ? instruct us :
discontented ? mend our condition : dishonest ;
you say ; give us rights and enjoyments to value.
Universal suffrage, we believe, will do all this ;
but at any rate, we, who know our strength, are
resolved to try the experiment.


Such is the feeling of the working classes.
Will the middle or uneasy class attempt to pre-
serve their monopoly of power ? Not without
great dishonesty ; for they owe their charter to
the working class, who won it for them on a
complete understanding, that it should be a step,
and nothing but a step, in reform. The physical
force, exhausted by three years of excitement,
has not yet asked for an extension of the suffrage.
Until this demand shall be made, nothing may
happen to disturb the subsisting union between
the middle and the working classes ; but when
the demand shall be made, if it be resisted, if the
petitions of the majority be met by counter peti-




186 POLITICAL PROSPECTS OF THE ENGLISH. POLITICAL PROSPECTS OF THE ENGLISH. 187


tions from the select few, then must a violent
quarrel take place between the two classes.
Traitors and knaves would be the merited terms
bestowed on the minority. But minorities, when
power is in question, are deaf to the voice of
reproach. If the new constituency should have
nothing to fear except bad names, they would
not, probably, compel their representatives to
extend the franchise ; but we shall readily per-
ceive, that the majority have a better assurance
of good faith in the minority, than the right to
call them traitors and knaves.


The rulers and the governed will no longer be
separated by an intervening class. Except in
political power, the less rich of the ruling order
are on a level with the less poor of the subject
order. None of the circumstances can exist,
which formerly placed the physical force at the
disposal of those who made the laws. A daily
and familiar intercourse must take place between
the two orders ; and whatever the inferior order
may suffer, they will attribute to the selfishness
or malice of the others. In the next place, the
property and persons of the new ruling order
are at the mercy of the new subject order. Not
that the position of the poorest class, as to the
persons and property of the other classes, is
changed, but the poorest class may now have a
motive for attacking persons and property which
were always at their mercy. .By the old consti=,


tution, power was given to individual wealth ;
by the new one, the aggregate of wealth will be
.represented. Instead of one very rich man pos-
sessing great power, fifty persons of moderate
wealth will possess some power. Now the per-
son and property of a great boroughmonger were
not endangered by any sudden anger of the poor
towards him ; but a farmer, a manufacturer, a
dealer of whatever kind almost, to whom the new
charter gives the suffrage, must live by day and
night in the midst of the excluded, and his pro-
perty must at all times be subject to attacks
from them. It is well known that the richer
class of people at Preston would have returned
the heir of the house of Stanley at the election
of 1830, rather than that very ignorant and fool-
ish demagogue Mr. Hunt, if they had not been
afraid of the populace : they were afraid that
their factories would be burned, if they should
take part against the popular candidate. In
1830, just after the three days of Paris, the higher
order at Preston had a foretaste of what the elec-
tive bodies of all such towns may expect, when-
ever the lower order shall be in state of excite-
ment. That the voters for county members
should be affected in the same way, seems proba-
ble, when one reflects that in a good part of the
south of England wages have been raised and
:kept up by means of stack burning.




188 POLITICAL PROSPECTS OF THE ENGLISH.


If it were to come to a trial of strength between
the two parties in open warfare (which God for-
bid !) the result must inevitably be favourable to
the great majority. Retrenchment, which, amongst
other things, means fewer soldiers, is one of the
great objects of the new ruling class. Besides,
the education, as some call it, of the poor has had
this good effect,—that soldiers, though taken from
the most degraded class, have now some feeling
for other people, as well as some political notions,
amongst which is a suspicion that, in time perhaps,
officers may be taken from the ranks. Already
the new parliament has declared, in opposition to
the whig cabinet, against the flogging of soldiers.
Without flogging, degraded men cannot be made
to observe military discipline ; and with the end
of floo,, ino.


therefore, must come a better selec-
tion of men for soldiers. Thus, as the moral
character of the soldiers shall improve, as they
shall learn to respect themselves, they will learn
also to respect others ; and it will become more
and more difficult to employ them in keeping
down the bulk of the people. A national guard
has been talked of for the protection of the new
ruling order ; but a national guard, from which
the hardy poor were excluded, would be, as anti-
jacobin Wyndham said of the armed shopkeepers
forty years ago, a great depository of panic.
Moreover, there is the discovery of barricades ;


POLITICAL PROSPECTS OF THE ENGLISH. 189


on which, however, I for one set less value than
most people, except as it will maintain the con-
fidence of the poorer order in their own strength.


But a trial of strength between the two orders
is highly improbable. The proceedings by which
the reform bill was carried show, that the govern-
ment of England is liable to dictation from the
physical force, whenever that force chooses to
exert itself. I say England, because the liability
in question depends on a state of political eco-
nomy, which is peculiar to England. In no
country does so large a proportion of the people
live from hand to mouth by pursuits not agricul-
tural. In America, in Ireland, in any of the
states of Europe, except Holland perhaps, a pretty
general insurrection of the poorer class might take
place, and might even last some time, without
producing very serious consequences. Supposing
it to produce a temporary stagnation, or even stop-
page, of credit and business, still most of the
people would have food at hand, while the re-
mainder, being few in proportion to the producers
of food, might be victualled without much dif-
ficulty. But in England, where the proportion
of rural population is so small, where such great
masses of the people are congregated out of the
way of obtaining food, save by the regular course
of industry, and where, by reason of the most
comprehensive combination of power and the




190 POLITICAL PROSPECTS OF THE ENGLISH.


most minute distribution of employments, the
regular course of industry depends so much upon
confidence and credit . ; there, I say, any social con-
vulsion, if it should last but a week, must produce
a-series of convulsions, one more violent than the
other. Stop, for but three days, the course of
credit, trade and industry, which feeds the popu-
lation of the great towns in England, and in three
days more that population would be frantic : it is
needless to dwell on the consequences. But how
easily, does it appear, might such a stoppage occur,
when one reflects on the sensitive nature of credit,
on the misery and discontent of the poorer order,
on their common object, and, above all, on their
just apprehension of the means by which the new
constitution was torn from the old oligarchy.
During the interregnum, as it is called, of 1831,
the walls of London, Manchester, Birmingham,
and other great towns, were placarded in these
words—" To stop the duke, go for gold." The
people, by means of their savings' banks, did go
for gold to the bank of England ; and so did help,
at least, to stop the duke. Some of his friends,
selfish mad-men, who thought their own property
in land secure at all events, and some tory under-
lings whose obscurity was a kind of protection to
them, would have braved this attack upon credit ;
but the new ruling order, whose daily bread rests
upon industry, trade and credit, to whom the


POLITICAL PROSPECTS OF THE ENGLISH. 191


right of voting is as nothing when compared with
peace and order, will never, we may believe, pro-
voke a serious disturbance.


From all these considerations, only one con-
clusion can be drawn ; namely, that the new aris-
tocracy have no existence but on paper ; that if
gratitude, and a sense of honour, should not im-
pel them to extend the suffrage, if they should be
deaf to reproach and to such reasoning as is here
presented to them, they must yield, nevertheless,
to force or fear, sooner or later.


Let us suppose the new ruling class wise in time;
that having wrested power from an oligarchy by
means of the physical force, they admit all men to
an equal share in the power of making laws. That
would be a pure democracy. In a democracy, the
laws arc made by thegreatest number. In England,
thegreatest number consists of labourers, poor, dis-
contented and ignorant. The laws of England,t hen,
would be made for the supposed advantage of the
poor. To a very poor man, whose sole property
was his labour, who by constant labour was able to
earn not more than enough to support a miserable
existence, whose only prospect was want in his
old age and a career of wretchedness for his
children ; to a man in this condition, laws, which
should cause a revolution of property, would ap-
pear the best. Generous minds, full of sympathy
for the miserable and a love of equality, may be
blind to this conclusion ; others, bigoted in at-




192 POLITICAL PROSPECTS OF THE ENGLISH.


tachment to democracy, may deny its truth,
which, however, is plain to those who think as
well as feel, and think without prejudice. Even
now, some disposition is shown, aye even by the
intelligent but uneasy class, to make laws which
would be most unjust to the owners of some
kinds of property. I allude to the proposed de-
preciation of money, which, in proportion to its
extent, would diminish the receipts of those who
are entitled to fixed payments. But if uneasiness
put such notions into the heads of the new ruling
order, what may be expected from the misery of
those who would govern under the future demo-
cracy ? The question is answered by reference
to arguments used in support of the plan for de-
preciating the value of money. "A great robbery,"
say the advocates of depreciation " was com-
mitted thirteen years ago by the vile borough-
mongers, who, by raising the value of money,
enabled all creditors to exact from their debtors
more than was due : we now propose an act of
justice, by returning to the standard in which so
many contracts were made, in which, above all,
great part of the national debt was incurred ; but
not of complete justice, since this measure will not
give back to its rightful owners that which has
been wrongfully taken from them during thirteen
years." Unquestionably, during thirteen years,
many receivers of fixed payments have obtained
more, and a great deal more, than they ever con-


POLITICAL PROSPECTS OF THE ENGLISH. 193


tracted to receive ; but during the thirteen years
man y new contracts have been made ; and if the
value of money were now restored to the old
standard, the creditors under these new contracts
would be cheated, just as debtors were cheated
before, To repair one great robbery, therefore,
another great robbery is proposed. That the
robbery which has been perpetrated was the
work of the " vile borough mongers" may be true ;
but see to what this argument leads. " Every
work of plunder performed by the vile borough-
mongers is liable to be overhauled ;" say you so ?
Then what becomes of the national debt ? Was
the capital, of which the interest is now paid by the
nation, spent for the good of the nation ? Was it
not squandered, or rather cunningly laid out, for
the preservation of boroughmongering ? Did the
nation agree to replace that capital, or to pay
thirty millions a year for ever ? When that debt,
miscalled national, was contracted, the nation had
no voice in public affairs. It follows, that the
nation is not bound to pay a debt which was in-
curred by a faction for anti-national purposes.
Nay, further, if every arrangement of the borough-
mongers is to be vitiated by proof of its injustice,
to whom belong those great estates, which have
been kept together by means of provisions out of
the public purse, for daughters and younger sons ?
To the nation, which has paid for them over and
Over again, by salaries to those amongst whom




194 POLITICAL PROSPECTS OF THE ENGLISH.


they must otherwise have been divided. Once
acknowledge the principle on which some of the
uneasy class now propose to alter the value of
money, and there would be no end of confisca-
tion. But this principle, which " men of property
and education," being uneasy, are not afraid to
assert, would be all in all with a legislature
moved by the wretched. Nor can one deny,
having regard to nothing but the truth, that
many of those, who actually compose the poorer
order in England, would gain immensely, by
sponging out the national debt, abolishing tythes,
and converting all the great estates into national
property, which should be sold piecemeal at the
rate of twenty shillings per acre. The example
of France is before us. At this time, indeed, the
poorer order in France is very miserable ; but
those who composed that order fifty years ago,
the wild animals of Labruyere, were deeply in-
debted to confiscation ; and I have spoken here
only of that portion of the English poor, who
should obtain land, debt free and tythe free, for
twenty shillings per acre.
. But now turn to the other side of the picture.
How many comfortable people must be made
wretched, by such a transfer of property as would
make some of the wretched comfortable ! The ge-
neral transfer of property from the rich to the poor,
which took place in France, may have been con-
sistent with the principle of utility, the greatest


POLITICAL PROSPECTS OF THE ENGLISH. 195


happiness of the greatest number ; but in the
present social state of England, any large measure
of confiscation would injure the majority. So
barbarous was the state of industry in France
half a century back, so many checks to produc-
tion did the state of property occasion, that a
general transfer of property, by removing those
checks and by stimulating industry, led at once
to an increase of production : property had
changed hands, but the nation was richer than
before. In England, on the contrary, where
millions of people have, one may say, been called
into existence by machinery, where capital does
so much more than labour, where production has
been carried so far, and depends so closely on the
use of large masses of capital in combination,
where the relations of industry are become so
complicated and delicate ; here any legislative
attack upon property would cause a decrease of
production. If property were rendered insecure
in England, capital, that it was possible to hoard,
would be hoarded ; capital, that was not fixed,
would be moved to other countries. That very
skilful application of capital, that most produc-
tive application of labour, which enables less than
one third of the English people to raise food for
the remainder, depends on security of property.
The great steam-power of England would be next
to annihilated, if property should become insecure.
Thus, with respect to England, confiscation is




196 POLITICAL PROSPECTS OF THE ENGLISH.


synonymous with destruction. Make a scramble
for property in England, and the best part of the
thing to be scrambled for would disappear. One
may imagine the result ; the scenes of contention
and suffering, which must end in England's ruin ;
which might make England a hunting field, or a
place fit to receive convicts from America. But
I pass on, with a hope that some other, having
words at command, may describe the prospect as
plainly as I now see it. Who is there that does
not see it, clearly or vaguely ? Why do we hear
continually in England of apprehensions for the
future, all the more serious for not being exactly
defined ? And who, that will take the trouble to
think on this subject, but acknowledges the black-
ness of the prospect ?


Still, fearful as is the prospect, great as the
danger appears, there may be a way of escape.
The danger being thoroughly understood, some
means of averting it may be discovered. The
English are not apt to despond. In knowledge,
judgement and moral courage, they surpass all
other nations, according to my humble opinion.
But this occasion will tax their best qualities to
the uttermost. In England, it is no longer a
speculation whether democracy be consistent with
high civilization. This is the experiment which
the English are about to try. Who is there that
does not wish them success ? If they should
succeed, then all the talk about the difference


POLITICAL PROSPECTS OF THE ENGLISH. 197


between old and new countries will go for nothing,
any where ; and, in time, the greatest happiness
of all will be every where secured : if they should
fail, misery and vice will be deemed the natural
lot of the greatest part of mankind ; and the
world, save as England may suffer by the experi-
ment, must go on as before. A single error may
cause the failure of this great experiment. It
becomes, therefore, the duty of every man, who
has reflected on the subject, to make known his
view of the best course of proceeding.


The misery and ignorance of the bulk of the
English people render them unfit to enjoy, or
rather fit them to abuse, a great extension of the
suffrage. If their circumstances were as easy as
those of the working class in America, they might
be better instructed than American workmen
(whose solitary mode of life is very unfavourable
to learning) and therefore better qualified to take
part in chusing the legislature. In that case,
there would be no objection to universal suf-
frage, every thing in its favour remaining as at
present.


Admitting this, two practical questions arise.
First—Is it possible, that arrangements should


be made, to render the English working class
comfortable, satisfied, and as wise, at least, as the
working class in America ?


Secondly—Is it possible, that such arrange-
ments should be made in time ? Or, in other




198 POLITICAL PROSPECTS OF THE ENGLISH.


words, may universal suffrage be postponed until
such arrangements shall have produced the de-
sired effect ; until, that is, the whole people shall
be qualified, by ease, content and knowledge, to
vote for members of parliament


Let both of these questions be answered in the
affirmative ; and it will appear that democracy
may be established in England without the least
check to civilization, without the least injury to
any, with the greatest benefit to all : decide
either of these questions in the negative, and
England becomes, first a field of battle, and then
a waste, compared with the present.


The latter of these questions, though by much
the less difficult to answer, takes precedence in
the order of time. The subject class may pre-
sently demand universal suffrage ; and they have
the means either of enforcing their demand, or
of producing that convulsion to which universal
suffrage may lead, if it should come too soon.
Resistance, then, to the demand for universal
suffrage might be the shortest and the worst way
to universal suffrage. Which is the longest, and
therefore the best, way to the end of a journey
that must, at all events, be performed either
quickly or slowly ? But, though delay, postpone-
ment, be the object, there is not a year to lose.
To hesitate about taking the long and the safe
course, would be like a decision in favour of the
short and dangerous one. This is why the means


POLITICAL PROSPECTS OF THE ENGLISH. 199


of postponing universal suffrage without serious
disturbance, deserve to be considered before
measures for rendering universal suffrage safe if
not desirable.


Admitting that a demand for universal suffrage
would be irrestible if made in earnest, there ap-
pears but one way of postponing universal suffrage ;
namely, by preventing the demand for it. Force
being out of the question, may not the bulk of
the people be persuaded to abstain from demand-
ing that, which, after a while, they might receive
as a matter of course ? Government, said lately
a young Whig nobleman when speaking of Ireland,
must be feared in order to be loved. He meant,
of course, in order to be obeyed ; and the senti-
ment was not so monstrous, considering the igno-
rance, cowardice and slavishness, of the long op-
pressed people of Ireland. But i.he English have
been " educated ;" they are a brave, though not
a martial race ; and they are bent on moving
onwards to democracy or ruin. Their govern-
ment may fear them ; but fear will not make them
submit to their government. For the first time
in Europe, the people must be guided if at all, by
persuasion and kindness. What these may effect
is now the question.


The actors in this case must be a majority of
the reformed house of commons, as soon as that
house shall truly represent property in the aggre-




200 POLITICAL PROSPECTS OF THE ENGLISH.


gate. Let us suppose the house of commons so
constituted, anxious to persuade, not force, the
poorer orders to abstain from demanding univer-
sal suffrage. In that case, what would the house
do? what would it leave undone ? what would
be its principle of action


In that case, the representatives of the richer
order would adopt this principle of action:—
Such legislation as must take place, ft parliament
had been chosen by universal sqffi-age, all the peo-
ple being ft to exercise the right of voting.
Jeremy Bentham would have called it the post-
ponement-of-universal-suffrage principle : its effi-
ciency will be seen by noticing a few of its inevi-
table consequences.


1. Some radical member proposes, that build-
ings and other objects of curiosity, the property
of the nation, should be open to the public with-
out payment. How would the house decide?
Would they let the poor visit Westminster Abbey,
St. Paul's and the Tower ? or wjull they, like
former parliaments, vote for the " vested rights"
of deans and door-keepers According to the
above principle, the decision would be in favour
of a right which has long been withheld from the
poor. If parliament had been elected by uni-
versal suffrage, all the electors being fit to chuse
representatives, a proposal to this effect would be
adopted as soon as made. Such a measure, pal-


POLITICAL PROSPECTS OF THE ENGLISH. 201


try as it might seem to " great statesmen," would
go some way in persuading the poor to abstain
from demanding universal suffrage.


2. Another radical observes, that the parks at
the west end of London are very pleasant to the
rich who live near them ; that the poor, who
crowd the east end of London, would find a park
in their neighbourhood very pleasant ; and that
it would be easy to give them one, not an atom
of enjoyment being taken from time rich. By a
parliament in which all were represented, the
proposal would be received with acclamations.
And why not a park for the smoke-dried people of
Manchester, who at present can breathe fresh
air, only by tramping up and down a dusty or
muddy road ? Joseph Hume complains of the
expense. The abolition of a few sinecures would
settle that point. If, however, public funds may
not be diverted to public purposes, if no public
money is to be spent for the comfort of any but
the rich, then let the rich pay for universal suf-
frage : you would find it a dear bargain, Mr.
Hume.


3. A third democratic conservative suggests,
that the cost of postage for letters shall be
defrayed by the government ; that the poor as
well as the rich shall send and receive letters free
of postage. What! extend to all the privilege of
franking? Yes ; and because, for one reason, you
would destroy the. privilege by extending it.. In




202 POLITICAL PROSPECTS OF THE ENGLISH. POLITICAL PROSPECTS OF THE ENGLISH. 203


America, universal suffrage promises to establish
universal freedom of postage ; and we are sup-
posing the English parliament to legislate as if it
had been elected by universal suffrage. But the
frightful expense ! the Americans are not fright-
ened at the expense ; but they have no great
army to support ; nor would the English have to
support a great army if the poorer order were
gratified by such measures as this. Moreover,
one might easily prove that a remission of taxes
equal to the cost of this measure, would be far
less advantageous to the public than this measure
however costly. But, at all events, as this mea-
sure would be approved by a parliament repre-
senting all, all being fit to be represented, so
therefore, would a parliament, chosen only by the
richer order, approve of it, having regard to the
postponement-of-universal-suffrage principle.


This principle is not new : it is eighteen hun-
dred years old at least ; meaning, do us you would
be done by. For proclaiming this principle, Christ
was crucified, Paul striped, and Sidney beheaded.
For neglecting this principle, England' was
punished by losing the affection of America, the
French nobility by the loss of their estates,
Charles Stuart and Louis Capet by the loss of
their heads. Do, one might say to those who
will soon direct the house of commons, do unto
the poorer class as you, being in their place, would
have them, in your place, do unto you. Honestly,


steadily, boldly, abjuring deceit, hesitation and
fear, follow up this generous principle of legisla-
tion ; and the poorer order will wait for universal
suffrage, though miserable for a time, still with
patience.


Supposing the reformed house of commons
compelled to adopt this effectual method of post-
poning universal suffrage, yet they might be
troubled in their course by a class of men, whose
object seems to be mischief for mischief's sake.
Troubled indeed, but not more than troubled,
not checked, still less stopped. Even the mere
annoyance would not last six months. By pas-
sing a few bills, such as a parliament elected by
universal suffrage, content and instruction, would
surely pass, the reformed parliament would
destroy that power to teaze, to create trouble and
mischief, which the feebleness and pride of a
cabinet of lords has bestowed upon two classes,
the ignorant demagogues and wild conservatives :
harmless grumblers and broken jobbers, they
would be called ; if, indeed, they were not utterly
forgotten, after one year of genuine Christian
legislation by the reformed house of commons.


The question that remains, is by far more dif-
ficult. May arrangements be made to qualify
the bulk of the English people for chusing repre-
sentatives in parliament ?


Volumes have been written to prove, that
arrangements for that purpose could not have




204 POLITICAL PROSPECTS OF THE ENGLISH.


any permanent effect ; and tons of books and
pamphlets, reckoning but one copy of each, to
suggest various measures for the cure of poverty
and ignorance. Hitherto, those who contend
that the greatest part of mankind is doomed by
nature to misery and degradation, have had the
best of the argument. It is not necessary on this
occasion to interfere between these two parties.
The question on which they dispute, must be
settled one day or other. Leaving it to be dis-
cussed in an English parliament chosen by the
whole people, the present object is to ascertain
by what means the English poorer order may be
qualified to take part in that discussion. The
present question, therefore, though more difficult
than that which has been just examined, is a
small practical question, when compared with
that great abstract question which divides the
Malthusians and their opponents : it relates only
to one generation. Truly, if a way should be
found to bestow comfort and knowledge upon one
generation of the poorer class, that might be a
step to the permanent cure of misery and vice ;
but sufficient for the day is the evil thereof : the
present difficulty is great enough, though trifling,
it may be, when compared with the other. Let
us then limit the question.


May arrangements be made to bestow comfort
and knowledge on one generation of the English
poorer class ?


POLITICAL PROSPECTS OF THE ENGLISH. 205


Yes, without doubt, says a believer in the
omnipotence of education ; increase the number
of schools for the poor, and of mechanics' institu-
tions ; send teachers into the rural districts ;
take off the taxes on knowledge ; proceed


Stop friend ; all this is supposed to have been
done with a view to the postponement of univer-
sal suffrage.


He continues : Then you suppose the poor
taught, that their own comfort depends on them-
selves, that their well-being is in their own
hands, that, by prudently keeping their numbers
under the demand for their services, they may
exact high wages,


Stop again : All this is good, may be neces-
sary, for the permanent well-being of the labour-
ing class ; but the greatest imaginable prudence,
though made universal to-morrow, would have
no effect on wages for twenty years to come.
Would you prudently get rid of children already
born? If not, you propose to teach prudence, the
highest wisdom, to a miserable race, without
leisure, over-worked, anxious and discontented ;
to make the cart drag the horse; to produce a
cause by means of its own effect. Prudence,
wisdom, is the end ; the means, high wages, lei-
sure, peace of mind and instruction. A world of
trouble has been wasted in the endeavour to
instruct the wretched. You must begin at the
beginning. Bestow ease on the working class,




206 POLITICAL PROSPECTS OF THE ENGLISH.


and then, indeed, you may teach them to dread
the return of misery. The first step is to raise
wages. " When we deliberate about the means
of introducing intellectual and moral excellence
into the minds of the principal portion of the
people, one of the first things which we are bound
to provide for, is a generous and animating diet.
The physical causes must go along with the
moral ; and nature herself forbids, that you should
make a wise and virtuous people out of a starving
one. Men must be happy themselves, before
they can rejoice in the happiness of others ; they
must have a certain vigour of mind before they
can, in the midst of habitual suffering, resist a
presented pleasure : their own lives and means
of well-being must be worth something, before
they can value, so as to respect, the life or well-
being of any other person. This or that indi-
vidual may be an extraordinary individual, and
exhibit mental excellence in the midst of wretch-
edness ; but a wretched and excellent people
never yet has been seen on the face of the earth.
Though far from fond of paradoxical expressions,
we are tempted to say that a good diet is a neces-
sary part of good education ; for in one very
important sense, it is emphatically true. In the
great body of the people, all education is impo-
tent without it." *


Art. Education, Supplement to the Encyclopaedia Britan-
nica, by James Mill, Esq.


POLITICAL PROSPECTS OF THE ENGLISH. 207


The first step is to raise wages. But how shall
wages be raised, except either by increasing the
amount of employment or by diminishing the
number of labourers ? In no other way, beyond
a doubt ; not by strikes at Manchester, nor by
Swing fires in Kent ; not by spade husbandry, nor
by paper money ; not by giving books to hungry
paupers, half-starved weavers and parish appren-
tices, nor by accumulating more capital, and
wasting it on foreign loans and far off ruinous
speculations ; but by increasing the proportion
which employment bears to labour. How to
raise immediately the proportion which employ-
ment bears to labour, and to maintain the higher
proportion for twenty years or so ; this is the
question on which, if I have taken a just view of
the political prospects of the English, depends
their existence as a wealthy and civilized nation.


Here I must refer to the note, in which I have
sought to explain the coincidence in England of
overflowing wealth with extensive uneasiness and
wide-spread misery. In order to raise wages
immediately, the field for the employment of
English capital and labour must be enlarged ;
whereby profits, and the rewards of many ser-
vices not called labour, would be raised at the
same time as the wages of labour. The whole
world is before you. Open new channels for the
most productive employment of English capital.
Let the English buy bread from every people




208 POLITICAL PROSPECTS OF THE ENGLISH. 209


that has bread to sell cheap. Make England, for
ail that is produced by steam, the workshop of the
world. If, after this, there be capital and people to
spare, imitate the ancient Greeks ; take a lesson
from the Americans, who, as their capital and po-
pulation increase, find room for both by means of
colonization. You have abundance, superabund-
ance, of capital : provide profitable employment
for it, and you will improve the condition of all
classes at once. Instead of lending your sur-
plus capital to foreign states, or wasting it in
South American mines, whereby no additional
employment is given to English labour, rather,
like the Americans, invest it in colonization ; so
that, as it flies off, it may take with it, and em-
ploy, a corresponding amount of surplus labour,
if there be any. How this might be done, and
how capital so invested, might be recovered at
pleasure, is stated elsewhere, but cannot be tho-
roughly understood by Englishmen till they shall
learn the causes of certain peculiarities in the
social condition of America. These, also, I have
endeavoured to explain in some of the following
notes. May the explanation assist to point ou;
a way, by which the English shall escape from
that corrupting and irritating state of political
economy, which seems fit to precede the dissolu-
tion of empires I


NOTE VI.


FREE TRADE IN CORN, AS A MEANS OF ENLARGING


THE FIELD OF EMPLOYMENT FOR ENGLISH


CAPITAL AND LABOUR.


Subject of this note stated—wide difference between
facts in America and the English theory of
rent—American theory of rent—various kinds
and degrees of competition for the use of land
— facts— effects of a free corn trade on the
several kinds of competition for the use of land
—with cheap bread, the rental of England must
be greater—gradual repeal of the corn laws
hurtful, for a time, to landlords and farmers ;
and not useful to any class of labourers—sudden
repeal of the corn laws beneficial to all classes.


WITH respect to the foreign corn trade of Eng-
land, there is but one point left for examination.
The risk of depending on foreigners for the staff
of life, the wisdom of protecting domestic agri-
culture, the folly of importing corn from abroad
when you can reap it on your own native soil,
the injustice of allowing foreign farmers, who
are lightly taxed, to compete in your own market
with your own farmers, who are heavily taxed ;
all these fallacies having been thoroughly exposed




210 FREE TRADE IN CORN AS A MEANS OF


by English writers ; and the mischievous influ-
ence of the corn laws in limiting the English
field of production being felt, if not understood,
by the new ruling order, no one doubts that the
reformed parliament, as soon as it shall truly
represent. the new class of voters, will establish a
free trade in corn. But an important question
remains ; whether the corn laws ought to be
repealed suddenly or 'by degrees. Now the
object of what follows is to show, and princi-
pally, by correcting an error into which English
political economists have been led by their igno-
rance of America, that the repeal of the corn
laws, if gradual, would, for a time, be injurious
to farmers and landlords, without being very
useful to any class of labourers; but if sudden,
would be beneficial to all those classes, and to
the landlords in particular.


That whatever is good for a portion of society
must. be good for all, is a general principle or
rule ; and no one denies that the repeal of the
English corn laws would be good for some classes
of Englishmen. On general grounds, therefore,
it would follow, that a free trade in corn must be
beneficial to all Englishmen. The fact ma y be
at variance With this prima fade conclusion ; but
if so, it forms an exception to the general rule;
and those who maintain the exception are bound
to prove that it exists. Yet what has been the
course pursued by the friends and enemies of the


ENLARGING THE FIELD OF EMPLOYMENT, &c. 211


English corn laws ? Both parties have taken for
granted, and have built all their arguments on
the bare assumption, that, in proportion as a free
trade in corn must be beneficial to owners of
capital and labour, it would be injurious to
owners of land. As in stating that high wages
must necessarily cause low profits, that the pros-
perity of the master depends on the misery of the
workman, so, in this case, the English economists
have taken pains to set. different classes by the
ears. The fifteenth edition of the celebrated
Catechism on the Corn Laws, which contains all
the common arguments for and against free trade
in corn, begins thus: " For whose benefit are the
corn laws 2—Manifest/II, of those who support
them, the landlords." Those laws are, no doubt,
intended for the benefit of the landlords ; but so
close a reasoner as Colonel Thompson, will admit,
that between the intention and the fact there may
be a wide-difference. He concludes his very able
work, as he begins it, by asserting that " the
landlords are kept at the public expense." It
may be so ; but where is the proof? Take it for
granted, most of the economists and landlords
would answer. I venture to say, no : on the con-
trary Inotice the bare assertion, which you would
substitute for proof, in order to show that an
argument, having for object to establish that a free
trade in corn would be good for the owners of




212 FREE TRADE IN CORN AS A MEANS OF


land as well as for the owners of capital and
labour, is not, upon the face of it, irrational.


The way in which, it is said, free trade in corn
would injure the landlords, is by a diminution of
their rents. The first step, therefore, in the
enquiry, is to ascertain the nature of rent.


This point is already settled by the English
economists. When, say they, the increase of
capital and population leads to the cultivation of
inferior land, people are willing to pay for the
use of superior land. This payment, which is
always equal to the difference between the greater
and less natural productiveness of more and less
fertile soils, constitutes rent. Other things, they
add, enter into rent, vulgarly speaking, such as
the interest which the tenant pays for the use of
the landlord's capital fixed in buildings and
improvements ; but, speaking philosophically,
rent is a payment for leave to use land of supe-
rior natural fertility, and nothing else is rent.


According to this statement, we should have
to deduct from the rental of England :-


1. The interest of hundreds of millions of
capital, fixed on the land and the property of
those who own the land :-


2. All that is paid for the superior position of
some land ; that is, the greater vicinity to manure
and a market.


3. All that is paid, over the payment for supe-


ENLARGING THE FIELD OF EMPLOYMENT, R.C. 213


perior natural fertility, for accommodation land
in the neighbourhood of towns and villages.


4. All that is paid for land used for purposes
of pleasure and amusement, such as gardens and
pleasure grounds, the tenants of which look, not
to profit, but to gratification.


5. All that is paid for the use of land as build-
ing ground.


But it may be, that all these payments under
the name of rent, amount to a great deal more
than what is paid for the superior natural fer-
tility of land. If so, rent, philosophically speak-
ing, is but a small fraction of rent in the vulgar
tongue.


The philosophical theory of rent is made to
rest, by all the English economists, on a state-
ment directly at variance with the truth; namely,
that little or no rent is ever paid in countries
where the most fertile land may be obtained for
a trifle in unlimited quantities. Before contra-
dicting this statement, it will be well to show,
by two examples out of hundreds, how emphati-
cally it is made.


" So long," says Mr. Mill, " as a part only
of the best land is required for cultivation, all
that is uncultivated yields nothing ; that is,
nothing which has any value. It naturally
therefore, remains unappropriated, and any man
may have it who undertakes to render it produc-




214
FREE TRADE IN CORN AS A MEANS OF


tine. During this time land, speaking correctly,
yields no rent."*


" On the first. settlement" says Mr. M'Culloch,
"of any country abounding in large tracts of unap-
propriated land, no rent is ever paid ; and for this
obvious reason, that no person Will pay rent for
what may be obtained in ,unlimited quantities for
nothing. Thus in New Holland, where there is
an ample supply of fertile and unappropriated
land, rent will not be heard of until the best lands
are cultivated ".-1' Again," i n New Holland, Indiana,
and Illinois, and generally in all situations in
which no rent is paid, and the best of the good
lands only are cultivated."


Statements to the like effect might be quoted
from every treatise on rent that has been pub-
lished in England.


Now the fact is, that in the town of Sydne y in
New Holland, the rent of land is nearly as high
as in London ; that a very high rent is paid for
land in Hobarts Town, Van Dieman's Land, in
Montreal, in •t he new town of York, Upper Canada,
and in every town of the United States, not ex-
cepting those which have been created within
these two years ; that in the immediate neigh-


* Elements of Political Economy. Sec. Rent, p. 31, 3d edit.•


t Professor M'Culloclf s Principles of Political Economy,
chap. Rent, p 433, 2d edit.


ENLARGING THE FIELD OF EMPLOYMENT, &e. 215


bourhood of all such towns a considerable rent is
paid for garden ground and accommodation land ;
and that in all new settlements, whether American_
or Australian, where there are but few roads, the
competition for land in the neighbourhood of a
market, or of a road which leads to a market, is
so great, that all such land, unless it be utterly
sterile, is reckoned more valuable than the most
fertile land far from a market, and either yields
rent accordingly, or enables its owner to take a
greater produce to market, which comes to the
same thing. The most ample proof of this as-
sertion will be found in every published account
of New South Wales and Upper Canada, in the
published histories of most of the United States,
and in every book of travels in America which
notices the value of land. There have been pub-
lished, in London and Edinburgh, certainly, not
less than three hundred volumes, each of which
contains evidence of the greatly superior value of
ome land in countries, -where the most fertile
land may be obtained in unlimited quantities for
next to nothing; and showing too, that in all
such cases the value of land depends, hardly at
all on superior natural fertility, but almost
entirely on greater vicinity to labour for raising
produce and to a market for disposing of it.
There are so many witnesses to this fact, whose
evidence is so much alike, that I should take from
the force of their united testimony by quoting a




216 FREE TRADE IN CORN AS A MEANS OF


part of it.* All good private libraries in England
abound in such evidence, as Mr. Mill and Mr.
M'Culloch would acknowledge after one hour's
search in books relating to " new countries." If
nature had provided markets in waste countries,
or if mankind could fly, easily carrying great
weights through the air, then, indeed, the value
of land used in producing food for market, would
depend on superior natural fertility, and where
unlimited quantities of the most fertile land
might be obtained for nothing, without flying too
far, no rent would be paid for the use of land in
producing food for market. Even in that case,
however, rent would be paid for the use of land
in various other ways, as for gardens and build-
ings. As it is, land speculators in Australia,
Canada and America, calculate that, because, in
new settlements, the difference between different
portions of land in respect to advantages of posi-
tion must necessarily be very great, therefore, in
a new settlement, the difference of value between
different portions of land must necessarily be
very great. Thus it frequently happens, that
when one of the western states of America, or
some land-jobbing company, fixes on a spot in
the wilderness as fit for a town, marks out the


* For another purpose, there is collected in the Appendix,
No. 2, a number of facts, which establish that rent, and a high
rent too, is paid in new countries, where unlimited quantities
of fertile land may be obtained for a trifle.


ENLARGING THE FIELD OF EMPLOYMENT, &c. 217


future streets by notches on the trees, and fixes a
day for selling the district in lots by auction,
hundreds of people congregate, build houses upon
wheels and make ready" for the sale by estimating
the future different values of the different lots.
Captain Basil Hall describes admirably one case of
this sort, in which twelve hundred people had as-
sembled in the forest and built seventy moveable
houses, weeks before the day of sale. The different
lots of land sold at such auctions are, generally, of
prettyequal natural fertility, bei ng equally covered
by dense forest of the same kind of trees; yet, while
still covered by the forest, they sell for very dif-
ferent prices. And this is the case, not only with
respect to town lots, but also as to lots which
it is foreseen will be, though not in the future
town, more or less distant from the future market.
In fact, the greatest trade in America, that of
land-jobbing, by which more fortunes have been
made than by any other : a trade in which three
out of four Americans engage at some period of
their lives, either singly or in companies ; this
trade, by which even a London company has lately
made immense profits in Canada, which last year
produced to the American government, the
greatest of land-jobbers, nearly 700,0001. ; this
trade of land-jobbing, of which it would seem that
the English economists have never heard, depends
principally upon the superior value which, in
countries where unlimited quantities of the most




218 FREE TRADE IN CORN AS A MEANS OF


fertile land may be obtained for a trifle, land
derives from superior position. The English
theory of rent, therefore, whether correct or
not is made to rest upon a great mistatement of
fact.


Now the American theory of rent is this. Rent
consists of a yearly payment for the use of land.
But much land, which might be turned to all the
purposes of man, yields no rent. Land, for instance,
on the south coast of New Holland,* or far west
of the Mississippi, which is still uninhabited,
yields no rent ; and never will yield a rent until
there shall be people desirous to use it. Indeed,
no one would pay for the use of land, which no
other person was desirous to use. Rent, there-
fore, arises from competition for the use of land.


Competition for the use of land is of various
kinds and of various degrees.


First, touching the kinds of competition ; these
are various, because land is used for various
purposes. In England land is used for growing
corn, for breeding and fattening cattle, for pro-
ducing milk, kitchen vegetables and fruit, for the


Though, as in the case of the sale described by Captain
Hall, a London company lately offered to the British govern-
ment 125,0001. for 500,000 acres of land on this desert coast.
The offer was made, with a view to profit by the sale, at very
enhanced prices, of land in the neighbourhood of a future
market : why the offer was refused, may be seen in the Ap-
pendix, No. 3.


ENLARGING THE FIELD OF EMPLOYMENT, &C. 219


growth of timber and other raw materials of
several manufactures, for the sites of warehouses,
factories, houses in towns, villas and mansions,
for pleasure grounds, parks and game-preserves,
besides an infinity of other purposes.


The degrees of competition vary with the
various kinds of competition. The highest degree
of competition occurs near the exchanges of such
towns as London, Liverpool and New York. In
those spots land is measured, not by the acre, but
by the yard and foot ; and yields, or is worth, a
rent which may be called enormous, compared
with the highest rent ever paid for the use of land
in producing food. No competition whatever
occurs in such spots as Dartmoor, for example, or
the tops of mountains in Wales, where soil and
climate are equally unfit for residence, for pro-
ducing food and for every other human purpose.


Such spots yield no rent ; and any one might
appropriate them, if the actual proprietors were
not induced to maintain their titles by a vague
hope of mineral discoveries, or for the vain plea-
sure of calling their own, though without the least
advantage, so much more of the earth's surface.
The lowest degree of competition occurs on these
spots, which are so distant from towns and roads
as to be unfit for any other purpose than the pro-
duction of food, and of which the produce, owing
to a bad soil or climate, or both, as well as to
distance from markets and manure, is little more




220 FREE TRADE IN CORN AS A MEANS OF


than sufficient to cover the expence of cultivation.
This lowest degree of competition may produce a
rent of some pence per acre ; while the highest
degree of competition yields a rent of some
thousand pounds per acre. Between these two
extremes, various amounts of rent are produced
by various degrees of competition.


This view of the subject will be made more
clear by reference to some facts.


L Part of Dengy Hundred in Essex consists
of land reclaimed from the sea, and uniformly
of the greatest natural fertility ; not merely pro-
ducing large crops, but, since the soil is light as
well as rich, producing them with a small outlay
of capital. Farther, between this land and the
metropolis there is easy water communication; so
that manure is easily obtained and the produce
is easily conveyed to the best market. Yet, for
this land, the average rent paid, deducting tythes,
is not more than twenty-five shillings per acre ;
while for land not more fertile, in some parts of
Warwickshire, used only for producing food, and
not nearer than the Essex farms to manure and a
market, a rent of from two to three pounds per
acre is obtained. That the produce of the Essex
land is greater even than that of the land in War-
wickshire, is shown by the higher amount paid for
composition of tythes in the former case. But
how are we to explain the difference of rent ? Of
mere theorists the most profound would be at a


ENLARGING THE FIELD OF EMPLOYMENT, &c. 221


loss to account for the lower value of the land in
Essex : it is explained by the unhealthiness of the
Essex marshes, which indisposes farmers to settle
there ; so that when the lease of a farm expires,
either no one bids against the old tenant, or no
one bids more than the old rent. Many con-
siderable fortunes, accordingly, have been made
by farmers in that part of Essex, who retained as
profit much of what they or others would have
paid for rent, if the competition for farms had
been as great in the thinly-peopled Essex marshes
as it is in the healthy and populous county of
Warwick. This circumstance, though not bear-
ing on any of the kinds of competition mentioned
above, is remarkably illustrative of the doctrine,
that different kinds and degrees of competition
arise from various causes.


2. All the land for some miles south, east and west
of Dunkirk (Downchurch) in France, consists na-
turally of downs of loose sand, blown up from a
gaining sea-shore on to a deep subsoil of sand,
without water, and as sterile as the most naked
rock. Yet in this district the rent of land is
considerably higher than in the very fertile dis-
trict which, on the opposite coast of England,
divides the Isle of Thanet from the rest of Kent.
Why ? If rent be paid because, as Mr. Mill says,
in the beginning of his chapter on rent, " land is
of different degrees of fertility," we should go on
to say, because the English land is naturally




222 FREE TRADE IN CORN AS A MEANS OF


sterile, while the French land is naturally rich.
The fact, however, is this ; at least this is the way,
in which the people about Dunkirk account for
the high rents yielded by their naturally sterile
land. Time was when the district was uninhabited,
and then, of course, no rent was paid. But a
church having been built on the barren downs,
and its patron saint, Eloi, being in great repute,
pilgrims flocked thither from all parts of France
and the Low Countries. By this means a town
was established. In time the inhabitants of the
town constructed a port ; roads were next made
from the port across the downs to the populous
highlands which had once formed the sea shore,
and afterwards canals in various directions ; the
flatness and softness of the sandy district offering
great facilities for canal-cuttin g In the end, theb.
means of communication became more abundant
in-:this district than in any other part of France,
as they are still : and the result was, that the po-
pulation of the district became very great, towns
and villages being built at a short distance from
each other ; that by means of canals, clay and
other manures were easily obtained, and being
applied to the sand rendered it more productive
than the ancient highlands of chalk ; whilst those
canals, again, afforded great facilities for taking
produce to market. In this way, the cost, of pro-
duction in the market becoming less and less by
means of art, the naturall y


sterile downs about.


ENLARGING THE FIELD OF EMPLOYMENT, &C. 223


Dunkirk, which have never been used except for
producing food, became more valuable, subject
to a higher degree of competition, than the rich
marsh lands between Sandwich and Reculver, on
which the population is scanty and of which every
acre, in comparison with any part of the French
Low Countries, is distant from market.


3. The garden grounds on the banks of the
Thames, not far from London, are worth four or
five, and in some cases ten, times as much as al-
luvial land of equal natural fertility, which is
either more distant from manure and a market,
or which, though nearer to manure and a market,
is not required to supply a demand for produce of
a perishable nature. -Thousands of like cases
might be cited.


4. Of late years, in England, many cases have
occurred, in which the construction of a bridge
between a town and mere farm land on the other
side of the river, having enabled the inhabitants
of the town to use such farm land for gardens, for
the keep of cows, for turning out horses, and other
purposes of utility or pleasure, has caused the
rent of such land to rise, with a corresponding
fall in the rent of accommodation land on the
town side of the river. In these cases a bridge,
which has nothing to do with natural fertility,
causes a higher rent in one place, and a lower
rent in another, by means of higher and lower
degree of competition for the use of land.




224 FREE TRADE IN CORN AS A MEANS OF


5. Every one at all acquainted with rural affairs
in England or Scotland must know of cases, in
which the making of a canal or a road has raised
the rent of land throughout the borders of the
new line of communication. In such cases, what
the tenant saves by a decrease in the cost of ma-
nure, and of taking produce to market, falls to
the landlord in the shape of rent : in such cases,
a higher rent may be paid with the same profit as
before, and is paid because a higher degree of
competition has taken place.


6. But how much more striking is the increase
of rent on and around some parts of the borders
of new lines of communication, which are chosen
for the sites of towns or villages. In these cases
ground rents, garden rents and accommodation
rents, are now paid for land which before yielded
rent for only the second degree, perhaps, of
natural fertility ; such higher rents being paid
because some of the highest degrees of competi-
tion have been created where only the lowest
degree existed before. The land around every
English town, which has much increased during
the last thirty years, furnishes to numbers an
example of this kind with which they must be
familiar ; a case in which, through the increase of
wealth and population, land which formerly
yielded only garden and accommodation rent
now yields building rent ; land, which formerly
yielded only a farming rent, now yields garden


ENLARGING THE FIELD OF EMPLOYMENT, &c. 225


and accommodation rent ; and land, still used
for farming, is more productive with the same
cost, or as productive with less cost, and is there-
fore worth a higher rent, in consequence of more
manure and a greater demand for farm produce
in the neighbourhood of such mere farming land.


7. On that part of the coast of the Mediter-
ranean formerly subject to the Genoese republic,
very little corn and no meat was ever produced :
on the other side of the Appennines, in Piedmont,
there are districts which produce scarce any
thing but corn and cattle ; and part of the pro-
duce of those districts is consumed in the Genoese
territory. Yet the rent of land, on the moun-
tainous coast of the Gulph of Genoa, was a few
years back, and probably still is, considerably
higher than in those very fertile districts-of Pied-
mont, from which the Genoese derive a part of
their food.' This difference of rent is easily
explained. In Piedmont., there was no competi,-
tion for the use of land, except in producing
Om and meat. The soil of Genoa being unsuited
to the production of corn and meat, the Genoese
turned their industry into the channels of manu-
factures and commerce, whereby they were ena-
bled to obtain corn and meat from foreign soils.
Obtaining corn and meat with an outlay of
capital, much less than would have been required
to raise the same produce on their own territory,
they created, by the increase of wealth and popu-


Q




226 FREE TRADE IN CORN AS A MEANS OF


lation, a demand for productions, which were
easily raised on their own soil, such as garden
vegetables, fruit, olive oil, silk and wine. Thus
land, which if it had been used for growin c, corn
or feeding cattle, would, at best, have returned
a produce not more than sufficient to replace
capital with profit, and for which, therefore, no
rent could have been paid, now yielded a rent
equal to the difference between the value of the
produce and the cost of production. In this
case, land which was sterile for one purpose,
became fertile for another. Then, as by means
of importing corn and meat, the wealth and
population of the state increased, roads were car-
ried into narrow vallies which before had been
shut against competition, and thus the land of
those vallies, which before had been worth nothing,
came to be valuable, and to yield rent accord-
ingly. Lastly, with the further increase of wealth
and population, owing entirely to the continued
cheapness of corn and meat, there occurred an
extensive demand for the use of land in many
ways besides cultivation. The inhabitants of
Genoa the Magnificent, (magnificent, because
without corn laws) required, besides houses,
warehouses and other buildings within the city
walls, country villas, pleasure gardens and orna-
mented grounds. For these, the staff of life being
cheap, they could well afford to pay without regard
to profit. Thus much land acquired a value far


ENLARGING THE FIELD OF EMPLOYMENT, &c. 227


exceeding the difference between the value and
the cost of things raised for sale. What had
occurred near the city of Genoa, took place, more
or less, at other places on the coast., where there
arose such towns as Spezia, Noli, Voltri and
Savona, and where some land, sterile for produ-
cing corn or meat, came to yield a rent for the
use of it in producing other things ; while some
land, neither more nor less fertile for any purpose
of cultivation, yielded a rent much higher than
was ever paid for the most fertile land used in
producing commodities for market. The origi-
nal cause of all, or nearly all, the rent paid in the
Genoese territory, was the importation of corn
and meat, which produced all the higher degrees
of competition for the use of land on spots where,
unless the staff of life had been imported from
foreign soils, the lowest degree of competition
could hardly have existed. How the Genoese
would stare, if Mr. Mill, explaining to them the
cause of high rent in their sterile country, were
to begin with the first sentence of his chapter on
rent " land is of different. degrees of fertility"!


From considering the above facts, it appears
that rent is produced by an infinite variety of
causes each cause, however, operating by way
of competition for the use of land ; and that
some kinds of competition are far more power-
ful, produce a much higher rent, than others.
Let us now see what, in England, are the main




228 FREE TRADE IN CORN AS A MEANS OF


circumstances that regulate the degrees of com-
petition for the use of land.


First. Superior natural fertility.
Secondly. Superior productiveness arising from


improvements, such as draining, fencing, build-
ing, &c.


Thirdly. Superior vicinity to manure, which is
the same as superior natural fertility.


Fourthly. Superior vicinity to markets, which
reduces, by so much, the cost of taking produce to
market.


Fifthly. A demand for milk, fruit and kitchen
vegetables, which will not bear long carriage.


Sixthly. A demand for pleasure gardens, plea-
sure grounds and ground for all the purposes of
building.


Superior natural fertility, alone, produces some
competition : add improvements, which are equal
to greater natural fertility, but which must be
called fixed capital, and a higher degree of com-
petition takes place : superadd vicinity to ma-
nure and to markets, when a still higher degree
of competition occurs, with a still higher rent :
produce a demand for accommodation land,
when competition takes place in the highest
degree but one : produce a demand for pleasure
gardens, pleasure grounds and building ground,
when the result is the highest degree of competi-
tion and the highest rent. How, in England, a
free trade in corn would affect these several


ENLARGING THE FIELD OF EMPLOYMENT, &C. 229


degrees of competition for the use of land, and
the aggregate rental of the country, is the prac-
tical question before us.


Let us suppose that if the English were free to
buy corn in the cheapest markets they could
anywhere find, there would no longer be any
demand at all for English corn ; wheat, barley
and oats. In this case, competition for the use
of land in growing corn would cease altogether.


If this competition should cease altogether,
bread not becoming any cheaper, the general
competition for the use of land in producing
food would be greatly reduced. But, since the
object of free trade in corn is to obtain cheap
bread, we have a right to presume that, the corn
laws repealed, bread would become much cheaper.
Let us suppose, taking the extreme case supposed
by- the landlords, when they say that a free trade
in corn would be ruinous to them, that bread
should be obtained at half its present price. In
that case, the demand for all other kinds of food
would increase with the cheapness of bread. But,
even if the demand for other kinds of food were
doubled, it does not follow, as a matter of course,
that the new demand for the produce of land
would have the same effect on competition as the
demand which had ceased. Whether or not this
would be the case, depends upon two propor-
tions ; first, the actual proportion between corn
land and land used for growing other kinds of




230 FREE TRADE IN CORN AS A MEANS OF ENLARGING THE FIELD OF EMPLOYMENT, &C. 231


food ; secondly, the proportion which the demand
for food not corn would bear to the present
demand for food not corn, if the price of bread
were reduced by half. . These are points which
might perhaps be ascertained by a diligent
government. Supposing that the new demand
for food not corn, would be equal in effect to the
present demand for corn and for food not corn, in
that case the corn laws might be repealed with-
out even a momentary decrease of demand for
the use of land in producing food ; and, at all
events, after a while, the increase of people and
wealth, owing to the cheapness of the staff of life,
would raise the demand for food not corn, up to
the present demand for all kinds of food.


How would this, either presently, or before
long, affect the various degrees of competition ?


1. Superior natural fertility would be as valua-
ble as ever. Might it not become more valuable ?
or rather, might not much land, which has now
but the fourth or third degree of fertility for the
growth of corn, become of the second or first
degree for the growth of other kinds of food ?
As the Genoese soil is not fit for the growth of
corn or meat., but is fit for the growth of wine,
silk and oil, so the soil, or rather climate, of Eng-
land, is more fit for the growth of food not corn,
than for the growth of corn. Thus cheapness of
bread extending to some land, which is inferior
for its present purpose, a superior quality for new


purposes, would rather augment than decrease
the effect of the lowest degree of competition.
Towards the increase of this effect, also, the
growth of raw materials for manufactures, such
as timber and wool, instead of the growth of
corn, a change which could not but ensue in
many cases, if the English were to buy their
corn with manufactures, would operate very
considerably.


2. Capital fixed upon land, as well as, we may
add here, the unfixed capital of the farmers,
would be as valuable as ever. Fifty years ago,
this would not have been the case ; because at
that time the -art of producing animal food by
tillage had made little progress in England ; but
at this time, every English farmer knows how to
raise meat with the plough. If a demand for ani-
mal food, milk, butter, cheese and meat, should
take the place of a demand for home-grown corn,
some farmers, no doubt, would convert a portion
of their corn land into meadow ; but, considering
the great skill of the English in growing artificial
food for cattle, and how the power of growing
such food would be increased by the greater
number of cattle kept, that is, the greater quan-
tity of manure, a large proportion of the present
corn lands would, it seems inevitable, be used
for the growth of turnips, potatoes, beetroot,
clover, tares, lucern, and such like food for cat-
tle, which can be raised only by the same sort of




232 FREE TRADE IN CORN AS A MEANS OF ENLARGING THE FIELD OF EMPLOYMENT, &C. 233


capital as is used in raising corn, and which, on.
the score of climate, would be raised with less
expense than corn.


These two are the only kinds of competition
for the use of land that would be affected by
cheapness of bread, so long as wealth and popula-
tion had not increased. But inevitably, if bread
were cheap, wealth and population would very
rapidly increase. Whatever the effect of cheap-
ness of bread on these two kinds of competition
without an increase of wealth or population, it
would manifestly be much greater after such
increase.


But now we have to consider the influence of a.
great increase of wealth and population on the
four higher degrees of competition.


Let us suppose the population and wealth of
the country to be doubled ; a supposition by no
means extravagant, after supposing that the staff
of life had been very cheap during one generation.
In this case, the extent of roads, though not
doubled, would be greatly increased. On many
of the new lines of road, as well as on those which
exist already, market towns would be built in
spots, where, at present, neither manure can be
obtained nor produce sold. In the next place, a
large proportion of the people called into exist-
ence by cheapness of bread, would reside in
towns ; so that, with double the actual popula-
tion; the town population would be much more


than doubled. In this way, land, which is now of
second or third rate quality in respect to position,
to manure and a market, would become first rate
and second rate. Thus, also, the extent of land
required for producing perishable food, such as
milk, fruit and kitchen vegetables, would be more
than twice as much as it is now. And, finally,
the demand for pleasure gardens, pleasure grounds
and for building ground, would be more than
doubled with the supposed increase of wealth and
population. 'Whatever the increase of wealth
and population year by year, all the higher
degrees of competition for land would be much
more rapidly extended.


Thus, while a free trade in corn might extend
to some land, which is of inferior quality for the
growth of corn, a superior quality for the growth
of other things, not lessening the value of any
capital fixed upon land, but rather increasing the
power of such capital by spreading a mode of cul-
tivation more suited to the soil and climate of
England ; while competition for superior natural
fertility, and the use of fixed capital, might be
rather increased than diminished, the influence
of all the higher degrees of competition would,
it seems quite plain, be extended incalculably.
The aggregate rental of the country must neces•
sarily increase to the same extent. All land-
owners, indeed, would not derive equal benefit,
in proportion to their present rentals, from such




231 PRF,E TRADE IN CORN AS A MEANS OF


an extension of the higher degrees of competition.
The greatest increase of wealth and population
would not cause any increase of competition for
land in the neighbourhood of the London ex-
change, where already the very highest degree
of competition exists and the very highest rent is
obtained ; nor, probably, would the value of any
land now used as building ground be much in-
creased by the greatest increase of wealth and
population. The effect of greater wealth and
population would be to extend to land, now
subject to one of the lower degrees, a higher
degree of competition ; but already so large a
portion of the surface of England is applicable to
those purposes which create the higher degrees
of competition, that but few landlords could miss
reaping some share of the great increase of ag-
gregate rental which, if this view of the subject
be correct, must result from a free trade in corn.
If so, bread cannot, one should think, be made
too cheap, nor be made cheap too soon, for the
landlords.


But here a consideration arises, which is of
great importance to the landlords. Two ways of
making bread cheap are proposed ; that of sud-
denly repealing all the laws which restrict the
importation of corn ; secondly, that of substitut-
ing for the present truly whimsical laws a fixed
duty on imported corn, and providing that the
duty shall decrease year by year until it cease


ENLARGING THE FIELD OF EMPLOYMENT, R.C. 235


altogether. The ground of this latter suggestion
is tenderness for the landlords, farmers and farm
labourers. Give them time, say some of the
advocates of cheap bread ; give the agriculturists
time, so that the transition from corn growing to
other kinds of production being gradual, not
even a passing injury may be suffered by any of
them. Now this gradual method of proceeding
appears to me to be the only way in which the
agriculturists may be injured by a repeal of the
corn laws ; and the only way, too, in which the
other classes could fail, for a time at least, to
reap much advantage from cheapness of bread.


First, as to the landlords. Let us suppose
that twenty years were allowed for the reduction
of bread to half its present price, and that a
twentieth part of the whole reduction should
take place in each of the twenty years. In that
case, each year would bring a fall in the price of
bread equal to one fortieth of the present price.
With so slow a decrease in the price of bread,
little or no improvement could take place in the
condition of the bulk of the people, because the
number of labourers would increase as fast as
bread became cheaper ; and thus though every
year there would be more labourers to eat bread,
nay even though all the labouring class should
eat more bread, the class of labourers generally,
who form the bulk of the people, would not be
able to purchase more animal food. The price of




236 FREE TRADE IN CORN AS A MEANS OF


bread being reduced by so slow a process as to give
time for a corresponding increase of people,
money wages would fall with the price of bread,
and the quality of labourers' food would not be
raised. In this case, the increase of demand for
animal food would not be more rapid than the
increase of population generally. But if, on the
contrary, bread were suddenly reduced to half its
present price, then, as the labouring population
could not increase suddenly, the bulk of the
people must be able to purchase a great deal
more than twice as much animal food as they
purchase now. At present, they buy very little
animal food. By giving to the bulk of the people
the power to. buy animal food, the present de-
mand for animal food might be immediately
doubled, trebled, or even quadrupled ; and thus
the transition from corn growing to the produc-
tion of other kinds of food might not have to
wait upon the increase of population. If the slow
process were adopted, a considerable decrease of
the demand for home. grown corn might take
place, before population had increased enough to
increase the demand for animal food : whereas, if
the sudden process of repeal were adopted, the
power of the- whole labouring class to buy animal
food being thus suddenly and greatly increased,
then the increase of demand for animal food would
more or less correspond with the decrease of
demand for home grown corn. In this way, the


ENLARGING THE FIELD OF EMPLOYMENT, &C. 237


transition from one kind to another kind of pro-
duction might take place without even passing
loss to the owners of land. If, then, bread is to
be made cheap, the cheaper the better and the
sooner the better for the landlords.


Secondly, as to the farmers. These, like the
landlords, might suffer from a slow process of
repeal, which should cause a decrease in the
demand for home-grown corn, without a corres-
ponding increase of demand for other things
which English farmers could raise. In fact, what
has just been said of the landlords ought rather
to have been said of the farmers, since the land-
lord could suffer only through the farmer's loss.
Supposing transition from corn growing to other
kinds of production inevitable, the thing which
the farmers have to fear is temporary stagnation.
The best way to produce a temporary stagnation
of farming business seems to be, by enabling the
bulk of the people to buy foreign corn without
enabling them to buy English milk, butter, cheese
and meat : the only way to prevent such stagna-
tion, by suddenly making bread very cheap, so
that the demand for farm produce not corn should
at once equal, if it did not exceed, the present
demand for corn and other things together.


In two points of view more, the farmers appear
to be interested in a sudden repeal of the corn
laws ; first as capitalists and secondly as holders
of leases. "A farmer," says the author of cheap




238 FREE TRADE IN CORN AS A MEANS OF


corn best for farmers,* "is as much a capitalist as
a shopkeeper or a manufacturer ; and the profits
of farming capital must be lowered by any cause
which lowers the profits of other capital. A
farmer's gain cannot be permanently greater than
that of other capitalists. He has, in common
with other capitalists, a very strong interest in
high profits." Of course lie has ; and is not one
object of free trade in Born to raise the profits of
capital generally, by enlarging the English field
of production ? If, by the purchase of bread from
other countries, the field of production should be
so much enlarged as to raise the common rate of
profit, farmers' profits could not but rise ; and the
sooner, of course, this change should take place
the better for the farmer, as for the manufacturer
and shopkeeper. Secondly, supposing the aggre-
gate value of land to be raised, partly in conse-
quence of land which was inferior for one pur-
pose becoming superior for other purposes, and
still more by the extension of all the higher
degrees of competition, many leases, which now
are only contracts, might become bonds for the
landlord, and, for the tenant, securities worth a
premium. Supposing the demand for other things


* Mr. Henry Drummond, who founded the professorship of
Political Economy at Oxford, and who, in this pamphlet, re-
cognizes the doctrine, that profits depend on the proportion
between capital and the field of production,


ENLARGING THE FIELD OF EMPLOYMENT, &c. 239


than corn to become suddenly greater than the
demand for corn and other things, and supposing,
further, a rapid increase of wealth and population,
one can imagine landlords envious of their
tenants under lease.


Thirdly, what would be the influence of cheap-
ness of bread, obtained slowly or suddenly, on
the condition of agricultural labourers ? " Oh
take pity on the poor labourers," say some land-
lords ; " if you put an end to the growth of corn
in England, you will diminish employment for
that unfortunate class, and so lower their wages."
This profession of tenderness for the pauper herd
means : Beware of increasing the poor's-rate,
which falls on us landlords. And though a good
part of the pooes-rate, levied in the corn districts
of England, be not borne by the landlords, all
that part, namely, with which the farmers pay
wages, and which must have been paid without
poor-laws, still, since paupers maintained in idle-
ness are kept by the landlords, it is true that, as
agricultural labourers were thrown out of em-
ployment, the landlords would have to keep more
people. But it does not follow, that the poor's-
rate would increase because the number of
persons to be maintained in idleness was greater.
The rate payers would have the benefit of cheap
bread, like all other classes ; except the paupers,
whose money allowance would be diminished as
bread became cheaper. Thus, even supposing a




240 FREE TRADE IN CORN AS A MEANS O} ENLARGING THE, FIELD OF EMPLOYMENT, &C. 241


great decrease of agricultural employment, in
consequence of a great decrease in the price of
bread (and one could not take place without the
other) it might be as broad for the landlords as it
was long ; not to reckon their greater means of
paying the same amount, in consequence of the
greater value conferred upon their land by ex-
tending to it higher degrees of competition. For
three reasons, however, it appears probable, nay
certain, that cheapness of bread, if it should come
suddenly, would not throw any agricultural la-
bourers out of employment ; in which case, the
difference between cheap bread and dear bread
would be so much pure gain to the payers of
poor's-rate. Because, first, as capital now used
in corn growing could be easily used in produc-
ing other kinds of food, so could corn-growing
labour be easily turned to the production of
turnips, potatoes, beatroot, clover, tares, lucern,
&c., and to the management of sheep, and cattle.
Transition, then, is not so much to be feared as
stagnation ; and the way to prevent stagnation is
to make the transition suddenly ; a new and
perhaps a greater demand for the produce of farm
labour arising at the moment when the old de-
mand should cease ; not waiting for the increase
of population. Because, secondly, if, which may
be doubtful, the various modes of cultivation
substituted for corn-growing should require fewer
hands than are now employed in agriculture,


still, all the cheap corn brought to England .must
be purchased with English labour ; and this, as it
could not increase suddenly, would bear a less pro-
portion to employment, so soon as a free trade in
corn had provided profitable investments for great
masses of capital now lying idle or about to' go
abroad. If any one should say that agricultural
labourers would not be fit for those occupations by
which cheap corn was purchased, I would ask
him, whether the wild Irish cottiers be fit for the
great quantity of manufacturing work which they
perform in England ? and would tell him further,
that during the last war between America and
England, American husbandmen found no dif-
ficulty in turning their hands to all sorts of Wailli-
facturing employments. Lastly, because the
more productive use of the national capital, with=
out reckoning any increase of it, would create a
new demand for labour in a hundred kinds of
work, for which peasants are already quite fit. ;
such as, merely for example, in building factories,
warehouses, houses and mansions, in making
wharfs, roads, canals, bridges, gardens and Plea-
sure grounds, in cultivating kitchen vegetables
and perishable fruit, in porterage and domestic
service ; which new demand could not, for some
time, be supplied by a corresponding increase of
people.


All these reasons for concluding, that cheap-
ness -of bread would rather increase than diminish




242 FREE TRADE IN CORN AS A MEANS OF


employment for agricultural labourers, are so
many reasons, likewise, why bread cannot become
too cheap, nor become cheap too suddenly, for
the good of that miserable class. It must be ac-
knowledged, however, that a class, already so
abject, would not be injured by that gradual re-
peal of the corn laws, which, lowering the demand
for English corn without for some time raising
the demand for other productions of English land,
would injure the present race of farmers and
landlords. In that case, some agricultural la-
bourers, who now work for pauper's allowance,
would receive pauper's allowance without work-
ing for it ; and the difference would fall upon the
landlords, after, in some cases, falling on tenants
under lease. Cases might occur, in which the
paupers would become the landlords by eating
the whole rent, though without any change in
their condition either for better or worse. Verily,
the more one reflects on the subject, the more
plain does it seem, that the lords of the soil are
deeply interested in making bread very cheap as
quickly as possible. But this, probably, they
will never understand ; for do not they set their
faces against rail-roads ; blind to the certainty of
profit, and thoughtful only of their pheasants°
tranquillity.


All the other classes, manufacturers, shipowners,
merchants, dealers, professional men, clerks and
workmen of every kind, whose comfort depends


ENLARGING THE FIELD OF EMPLOYMENT, &C. 243


on the rates of profit and wages, that is, on the
proportion which these classes and their capital
bear to the field of production ; these classes,
though they and their capital would increase
slowly with a gradual fall in the price of bread,
might not obtain higher profits and wages unless
the price of bread should fall more rapidly than
they and their capita] should increase. If the
field of production were enlarged by slow degrees,
capital and labour might increase at the same rate;
in which case there would be no change of pro-
portion amongst the three elements of production.
In that case, the wealth and population of Eng-
land would increase, far more rapidly, perhaps,
than since the war; there would be more capitalists
and more labourers, more factories, warehouses,
ships, roads and houses, more signs of wealth ;
but no improvement in the condition of either
capitalists or labourers. Whereas, a sudden en-
largement of the means for employing capital
with profit, 4o great an enlargement suddenly that
capital and labour should for some time bear a
lower proportion to the field of production, must
raise profits and wages both together. For the
sake, then, of the industrious classes generally,
bread cannot be made too cheap, nor be made
cheap too soon.


Referring to the preceding note, all classes,
and especially the new ruling order, have a deep
political interest in making bread very cheap all




244 FREE TRADE IN CORN, &C. 245


at once. It will be impossible to qualify the
bulk of the people for taking a part in the go-
vernment unless their wages be raised, unless they
obtain some leisure and peace of mind. Their
wages will not be raised, if they should increase
in number as fast as bread becomes cheaper. As
respects them, the object is to make the staff of
life very cheap, without a fall, if possible with a
rise, of money wages ; and this can be accom-
plished, if at all, only by a great and sudden fall
in the price of bread. For the sake of all classes
and on every account., therefore, it appears that,
rather than get rid of restrictions on the corn-
trade by a slow process, which should begin to-
morrow and end twenty years hence, the English
would do far better, if they had sufficient patience,
to leave the corn laws untouched for twenty years
and then repeal them at one blow.


NOTE VII.


CLOSE RELATION' BETWEEN THE FOREIGN CORN


TRADE OF ENGLAND AND THE FOREIGN TRADE


OF CHINA.


Object of the English in a free corn trade—very
cheap corn not raised except by slaves—why so—
direct trade between English manufacturers and
the producers of cheap corn, must he very
limited—indirect trade for procuring cheap
corn, by means qf direct trade with the Chinese
empire.


THE foreign corn trade of England and the
foreign trade of the Chinese empire appear, at
first sight, to be subjects not closely related ; but
a very brief enquiry will show the most intimate
connection between them.


A free trade in corn would be of but little ser-
vice to the English, if there were not plenty of
people in the world ready w'buy English manu-
factured goods with cheap corn. To every trade
there must be two parties : he who sells must
buy, and he who buys must sell. The English can
produce very cheap cotton and woollen goods,
and very cheap hardware ; but of what service
would it be to them to produce more of these




246
CLOSE RELATION BETWEEN THE


cheap things, without. a market in which they
could be exchanged for cheap corn ? It is very
important, therefore, with reference to the foreign
corn trade of England, to see who in the world
are the producers of the cheapest corn.


Very cheap corn is not produced any where, in
large quantities, except by the labour of slaves,
black or white, called slaves or serfs. This is a
fact so well known, that as a fact one need not
dwell on it ; but why is it that serfs in Poland and
slaves in America produce cheaper corn than
freemen anywhere ?


More than one English economist would per-
haps say, that the peculiar cheapness of slave-
grown corn is owing to the cheapness of slave-
labour ; the wages of such labour consisting only
of a bare subsistence for the labourer. But in
what country, except North America and sonic
new colonies, do the wages of free labour em-
ployed in agriculture, much exceed a bare sub-
sistence for the labourer ? Perhaps, speaking
generally, it might be shown, that slaves have
more to subsist on than free labourers employed
in agriculture, as undoubtedly farm-horses in
England, being a valuable property, are better
fed than English peasants. But, it might ',be
said, the subsistence of slaves, though more in
quantity, is less in cost, by reason of the cheap-
ness of the produce of their labour on which they
live, To say this,. however, .would be to put the


FOREIGN CORN TRADE OF ENGLAND, SCC. 217


effect for the cause. In the next place, consider-
ing the prime cost of slaves, a very important
point, their stupidity, the cost of curing them
when ill, and of maintaining them during sick-
ness, their carelessness, and the great cost of
keeping them in order, with the loss occasioned
by the total escape of some of them and the cost
of getting back some who escape ; taking all
these points into consideration, it will be seen
that the labour of slaves is dearer than that of
freemen, though the produce of their labour be
cheaper. If labour were the only element of
production, this contradiction could not occur ;
the labour being dear, the produce could not be
cheap. But land also is an element of produc-
tion. 'Wherever very cheap corn is produced,
land is very cheap ; and though in such cases
the corn be raised by slaves, its cheapness seems
attributable to the cheapness, not of the labour
which raises it, but of the land on which it is
raised. Still it will be asked, if this were the
case, why should not very cheap corn be raised
by free labourers on cheap land. Because, I
answer, where land is very cheap and all men
are free, where every one who so pleases can
easily obtain a piece of land for himself, not only
is labour very dear, as respects the labourers'
share of the produce, but the difficulty is to obtain
combined labour at any price. As the two grey-
hounds running together catch more hares than




FOREIGN CORN TRADE OF ENGLAND, &c.2.18 CLOSE It ELATION BETWEEN THE


four running separately, so the labour of slaves,
though dear compared with that of free labour-
ers in most countries, is, being combined, much
more productive, in proportion to the number of
hands employed, than the divided labour of free-
men wherever land is very cheap. This explains
why slavery and great cheapness of land have
generally existed together ; showing besides, that
the cheapness of corn raised by slaves is owing,
not to the cheapness of slave-labour, but to the
cheapness of land ; that same cheapness of land
being also the cause of slavery. I have dwelt fully
on this point in a note on the origin, progress and
prospects, of slavery in America.


Now the master of slaves and serfs would not
be apt to produce cheap corn for the English
market, if they had no prospect of being paid for
it except with English manufactured goods. A
Polish or Russian noble, or a slave owner in Vir-
ginia, if he were to exchange the produce of his
land directly with a Manchester manufacturer
for the produce of steam engines, would hardly
know what to do with his purchase. The Eng-
lish will be able to obtain a great deal of very
cheap corn, only by an indirect trade ; selling
their manufactured goods where such things are
in great request, for things which are in great
request with the producers of cheap corn ; just
as the Genoese buy corn and meat in Piedmont
with salt-fish- and hard money, which they first


obtain by means of trade with North and South
America. By what indirect, and perhaps very
complicated traffic, cheap corn would come to
England in consequence of cheap manufactured
goods going from England, the English govern-
ment need not enquire : that is a point which
may safely be left to the traders, and any med-
dling with it by the government could not but be
hurtful. But, whether there be in the world a
sufficient demand for manufactured goods to ena-
ble the English to obtain cheap corn by some
indirect trade, is a question of the greatest moment
to the whole people. Further, if there be any
foreign restriction on the foreign demand for
English manufactured goods, restrictions which
it is in the power of the English government .to
remove, interference for that purpose is a proper
office, a bounden duty of government. The nation
who, but for the existence of certain restrictions
on trade, would probably buy the greatest amount
of English manufactured goods, are the Chinese ;
and it so happens that the Chinese possess a good
deal of that commodity, which, being in great
request every where, would be readily exchanged
for cheap corn, namely, silver. Thus between the
question examined in the following note and that
of the English foreign corn trade, there is a close
and very important relation.*


* See, further, Note on the Art of Colonization.




MEANS OF EXTENDING FREE TRADE TO THE WHOLE


COAST OF CHINA.


250 MEANS OF EXTENDING FREE TRADE, &C. 251


NOTE VIII.


Interest qf the Americans in this question—Chinese
restrictions on trade—the Chinese people more
inclined to commerce than the English or Ame-
ricans — Chinese government dislikes foreign
trade on political grounds—restrictions lead to
a free trade—description of the free trade which
actually takes place in China—obstacles to the
extension of this free trade—several modes of
removing those obstacles—one mode will endan-
ger the trade between America and China—
safest, cheapest, and best mode, commercial sta-
tions near the coast of China—to be formed, if
not by Englishmen, then by Americans.


A GREAT change in the English trade with the
Chinese is about to take place. The strict mono-
poly of that trade by the holders of India stock
will presently cease. The English will soon be
free, so far as their own government is concerned,
to trade with the Chinese ; but it does not follow
that the Chinese will be free to trade with the
English. To every trade there must be two
parties ; and the advantages derived from trade


depend on combination of power, or concert, for
the distribution of employments. How are the
English to obtain cheap silver, the produce of
Chinese labour, wherewith to purchase cheap
corn, the produce of Virginian labour, if the
Chinese are not permitted to buy hardware and
cotton goods, the produce of English labour ?
The escape of the English from a certain restraint
will not of itself set the Chinese free. On the
contrary, there appears some reason to fear, that
the removal of restraints on the English may lead
to greater restraints on the Chinese ; and not
merely as respects their trade with the English,
but also in their trade with the Americans and
others. And, at any rate, the trade between Eng-
land and China could not be much enlarged
without removing the actual restrictions on that
trade, which are independent of the English, which
depend either on the Chinese government or on
the habits of the Chinese people. The nature of
those restrictions and the means of entirely re-
moving them form the subject of the following
remarks, which are addressed to the Americans
as well as to the English ;. seeing that both na-
tions are concerned in the establishment of a free
and secure trade with China, and that if the
English will not establish such a trade the Ame,
ricans may do it for them, as will be shown pre-
sently. If I were to add, that some steps had
been taken with this view by Americans, not a




252 MEANS OF EXTENDING FREE TRADE TO THE WHOLE COAST OF CHINA. 253


few of the English would be jealous of their
" transatlantic brethren." Good ! the sooner the
two nations begin to rival each other in under-
takings of this kind, the better for both of them.


Much as the English and Americans are given
to trade, in that respect they are far surpassed
by the people of China. " The propensity to
truck, barter and exchange," which Adam Smith
describes as the original cause of wealth and civi-
lization, (it is the first cause after a surplus pro-
duce has been obtained by combination of power)
is stronger and much more general in China than
in any other country. Upon this point there is
abundant evidence.* Yet the Chinese have made
less progress in the art of navigation than any
other people addicted to commerce ; and their
government exceeds all others, whether of past
or present times, in animosity to foreign trade.
Upon these main facts, the commercial disposi-
tion of the Chinese people, their ignorance of
navigation, and the dislike of their government
to foreign trade, must turn every speculation on
the present subject.


The people of China are most desirous to trade
with foreigners ; but their ignorance of navigation
prevents them from trading out of China. Their
foreign trade; therefore, is necessarily conducted


* For the information of Americans some curious evi-
dence of the industry, skill and commercial disposition, of the
Chinese people is printed in the Appendix (No. 1.)


in China, and depends on the presence of foreign
dealers and foreign ships. This point should be
carefully borne in mind. Trade with the Chinese
never has been, and for ages to come never will
he, conducted without the presence of foreign
dealers and foreign ships on the coast of China."


But the Chinese government detests or rather
dreads foreigners, and lays all sorts of restrictions
on their presence in China, confining them to a
single port and subjecting them to many insults
and injuries. If the propensity of foreigners to
trade with the Chinese, and of the Chinese to
trade with foreigners, were not stronger than the
Chinese government, there would be no foreign
trade in China. That government, however, has
not much power over its own subjects. The
men who compose it are, not Chinese, but Tartars
who conquered China about two hundred years
ago. Like the Mahornedans who conquered India,
and the English who conquered and colonized Ire-
land, they are perfectly distinct from the subject
race. The weakness of the rulers of China arises
partly from their foreign origin and partly from
the great extent of their empire. Such power as
they possess depends solely on the ignorance and
timidity of their subjects. Hence their dread of
foreigners and their apparent animosity to foreign
trade. If people could buy and sell without
personal intercourse, the Tartar government of.
China would, by all accounts, encourage foreign




254 MEANS OF EXTENDING FREE TRADE


trade for the sake of revenue. It is not the trade
which they dislike, but the traders. Nor is their
dread of foreigners surprising. "The history of
European commerce in the East is really nothing
but the history of a continued series of usurpa-
tions ; nor can any one acquainted with the sub-
ject feel surprised, that such native princes as had
the means excluded those from their territories,
whose object was, not to maintain a fair and
friendly commerce, but to extort oppressive privi-
leges and to make conquests."* But, in addition
to the fear lest foreigners should make conquests in
China, the rulers of that country, being themselves
foreigners and conquerors, dread lest their own
subjects should be led, by intercourse with
other foreigners, to think of rebellion. We have
it in evidence -that the mandarins of China, were,
like the mandarins of England, terrified at the
great French revolution. Every restriction which,
the government of China imposes on the inter-
course between its subjects and foreigners, its
acuteness and diligence in limiting that inter-
course to what is indispensable for carrying on a
very limited trade, the strict inforcement of
rules by which foreigners were prevented from
moving beyond a narrow spot set apart for their
use, and foreign women are excluded from China,
the care with which on such occasions as em-


Edinburgh Review, No. CIV.


TO THE WHOLE COAST OF CHINA. 255


bassies to Pekin foreigners have been guarded,
watched and led, as it were caged, through the
empire ; all these, and many more practices of the
same kind, may be traced to a political feeling ; to
a nervous horror of revolutionary principles. The
emperor and his mandarins are anti-jacobins ; not
stout, like George III. and his boroughmongers,
but very timid, being enervated by gluttony, ex-
cessive venery and the use of opium.


But. the feebleness and cowardice of the Chinese
government have two opposite effects upon trade ;
producing numerous legal restrictions, and en-
couraging the people to set those restrictions at
naught. Wheresoever trade is restricted there
are smugglers. On the coast of China, where
every body, opportunity serving, is a trader, all
the people are smugglers ; not excepting the
officers employed to prevent smuggling. Of the
foreign trade of China, but a small part is carried
on according to law. Moreover, the legal trade,
in which there are only seven Chinese dealers, and
which is confined to a small number of com-
modities, is a trade by which foreigners lose. The
English East India Company would have lost
more than they have gained by the legal trade, if
they had traded to the same extent without a mo-
nopoly of the British market. There will be no
legal trade in China when the company's mono-
poly of the British market shall cease. My
authority for this statement is Mr. Marjori-




256
MEANS OF EXTENDING FREE TRADE


banks, chief of the company's factory at Canton.
The following question and answer occur in his
late examination before a committee of the house
of commons :--Q. " If the tendency of the trade
in China is to get into the smuggling line, will
not the company, acting on different principles
and being from its circumstances unable to enter
into that trade, be at a disadvantage against per-
sons who have no scruples of that description ?-
A. If the question put to me contemplate then
subversion of the company, I think we should be
all smugglers in China together, and there would
be no legal trade in China." Just so : when there
shall not be any body exclusively privileged to sell
tea in England, nobody will buy tea of the seven
privileged Chinese tea dealers. The English mono-
poly supports the Chinese monopoly : put down
the one, and down goes the other. To some
extent, every witness examined by the house of
commons helps to confirm this opinion ; and
none more effectually than the servants of the
company, who seem to have overlooked that an
argument against their own privileges would be
drawn from their admission, that the Canton
monopoly depends on the monopoly in Leaden-
hall street. On other occasions the partizans of
the company have taken great pains to conceal
the importance of the illegal trade ; perceiving,
of course, that if that illegal trade, in which they.
take no direct part, should appear more import.


TO THE WHOLE COAST OF CHINA. 257


ant than the legal trade, their monopoly of the
English market and of the coast of China as an
English trading station, would be considered
doubly unjust and injurious to the English people.
With this view they have spoken in sneering
terms of the illegal trade, calling it the smug-
gling trade, and swearing that " respectable mer-
chants" would not engage in it ; the fact being,
all the while, that a large proportion of the
smuggling trade consists of the sale of opium
to the Chinese ; that the importation of opium is
strictly prohibited by the Chinese government,
" on a moral principle," as Mr. Marjoribanks
assures us ; and that the opium smuggled into
China is grown by the company in India, sold by
the company, with a full knowledge of its destina-
tion, to those who smuggle it into China, and
smuggled into China by means of licenses from
the company, without which the foreign smug-
gler could not enter the Chinese seas. So much
for the delicacy of the most " respectable mer-
chants" in matters of trade. But, in truth, those
who conduct the illegal trade of China do not
smuggle, properly speaking. They buy and sell
whatever they please, of whom and to whom they
please, without let or hindrance from the govern-
ment. The imperial edicts, which forbid the
Chinese to quit their own country for any pur-
pose, and which declare that no Chinese, save
only the seven Hong merchants of Canton, shall




258 MEANS OF EXTENDING FREE TRADE TO THE WHOLE COAST OF CHINA. 259


deal with foreigners ; these orders are all moon-
shine, mere sham, as were the English laws
against bribing at elections. The Chinese man-
darins, like the English boroughmongers, are
amongst the first to treat the law as a dead let-
ter. Thus, whilst, legally, trade is no where so
much restricted as in China, the Chinese enjoy
greater freedom of trade than any other commer-
cial people ; as will appear by the following in-
structive, and, one may add, entertaining account
of what is called the smuggling trade.


Extracts from Dobell's Residence in China.


" In defiance of an annual edict from the em-
peror, making it death to smuggle opium, the
enormous quantity of nearly 4000 chests is im-
ported every year to Macao and Whampao. * *
* * * It is a business that all the inferior
mandarins, and some of the higher ones, their
protectors, engage in ; so that opium is carried
through the streets of Macao in the most bare-
faced manner, in the open day. Large boats
armed, having from thirty to forty men, ply
between Macao and Canton when that market
offers an advantageous price.


" I have known many persons send large sums
of specie by these boats to Macao, at a moderate


rate, and never heard of an accident happening
to them in any way. All metals are prohibited
from being exported, except zinc ; there are,
however, immense quantities smuggled into the
English East India cotton ships, whenever they
wish to buy more than the portion allowed by
government."—Vol. p. 148.


" The Chinese have an extensive foreign com-
merce carried on by their own junks to Japan,
Cochin China, Siam, Tonquin, Sumatra, Java,
Borneo, Macassar, and indeed to all the Indo-
Chinese islands. The Chinese declare this trade
is the most important of any of their external
relations ;* and we may believe them when there
are said to be upwards of 40,000 tons of shipping
occupied with that and the salt trade. We know,
also, that a Chinese junk, bound to the islands,
carried a cargo of from 3 to 500,000 dollars' value
in China ware, nankeens, silks, ready-made
clothes, books, writing-paper, ironmongery, tea:,
instruments of husbandry, iron, cloth, &c.
Vol. ii. p. 175.


" Nothing can be more barefaced than the
manner in which smuggling is conducted in open
day at Whampao."—Vol. p. 132.


It is wholly contrary to law.




260 MEANS OF EXTENDING FREE TRADE


Extracts .from the Evidence delivered before the
Select Committee of the House of Commons, on
the 4ifairs of the East India Company, 4-c.
First Report.


CHARLES MARJORIBANKS, Esq., a servant of
the East India Company in their China factory
for seventeen years, the greater part of that time
resident in China.


" Has any change taken place in the trade
within your recollection ?—Yes, very considerable
changes have taken place in the foreign trade
generally. One of the greatest changes which
has taken place, and which, in my own opinion,
will sooner or later affect the security of our
trade, is THE ENORMOUS EXTENT OF THE SMUG-
GLING TRADE NOW CARRIED ON IN CHINA, amongst
the islands in the mouth of the Canton river, to a
very great extent indeed ; so much so, that if the
Chinese government had the inclination, I do not
imagine they possess the means qf putting it down,
at least by any marine force which they have.


" Will you be good enough to state to the com-
mittee if you know in what other articles, besides
opium, the smuggling trade is carried on upon
the coast of China ?—I conceive that at present
it extends to articles, more or less, of every descrip-
tion; not on the coast of China, but among the
islands in the mouth of the Canton river."—


TO THE WHOLE COAST OF CHINA. 261


" Articles of British manufacture ? — I am not
aware of any individual instance where smuggling
of articles of British manufacture has existed ;
but I know nothing to preclude it.


" You have stated that the smuggling trade in
China has become very extensive ; has not the
increase of that smuggling trade a tendency to
injure the fair trade ?—I think it has a tendency
to do so, in as far as articles smuggled into the
country that evade duty can be sold at a profit,
when articles which pay government duties can-
not."—" Is not the opium trade in China, which
you state to exist to the extent of 13,000,000 or
14,000,000 of dollars a year, entirely an illicit
trade ? Entirely prohibited by the Chinese
government.


" Has not the Chinese government in its con-
duct towards foreigners, who have attempted to
fix themselves in their harbours, shewn itself a
shrewd government, acutely understanding its
own interests ?—I think that the Chinese arc a
highly intelligent people, remarkable for their
industry and perseverance ; but I think they are
oppressed with one of the most corrupt govern.
ments that ever weighed down the energies of a
people.


" If it should be the case, that the American or
foreign merchant has carried on a trade of this
(prohibited) description with profit, when the
Company have been carrying it on with loss,




262
1:1EANS OF EXTENDING FREE T}L


would not that prove that their trade has been,
in this article at least, better conducted than that
of the Company ?—It might not prove that it was
better conducted, for it might arise from the cir-
cumstances I have stated, of some of those goods
having been smuggled into China, having evaded
the Chinese duties."—" If the tendency of the
trade in China is to get into the smuggling line,
will not the Company, acting upon different prin-
ciples, and being from its circumstances unable
to enter into that trade, be at a. disadvantage
against persons who have no scruples of that
description ?—If the question put to me contem-
plates the subversion of the Company, I think we
should be all smugglers in China together, and
there would then be no legal trade in China.


" Would not the temptation to smuggling be
irresistible if the trade was carried on in small
vessels ?—I imagine that individuals who do not
much respect the laws of the country, will not
consent to pay duties which they can evade by
acting in opposition to those laws."—" Is the
smuggling carried on among the Chinese by what
are called outside merchants ? — This term is
applied in common to all merchants not members
of the Hong ; some of them are smugglers, some.
mere shopmen."


TO THE WHOLE COAST. OF CHINA. 263


JOHN FRANCIS DAVIES, Esq., a servant of the
East India Company in China, who travelled for
six months through the interior of the empire.


" What impression, in your opinion, would be
produced upon the Chinese generally by throw-
ing open the trade to British merchants gene-
rally P---The whole body of smugglers at Canton
would rejoice. The government would, in the
first instance, view it with jealousy, as they view
every change ; and when they came to lose their
revenue, they would view it with hostility.
They have already, in consequence of the extra-
ordinary amount of smuggling, (not only relative
to contraband articles, such as opium, but in the
case of articles that pay duty) lost so much, that
they have issued edict after edict directed against
those individuals and those nations who princi-
pally partake in this smuggling trade ; and it is
impossible to suppose that they would go on ad
infinitum in their endurance, or consent to the
conversion of the whole trade of Canton into a
smuggling intercourse.


" Can you state the probable amount of the
tonnage employed in the country trade carried on
between India and China, with reference to the
Company's tonnage ?—The report on the table
speaks to that fact : it is nearly equal, at all


It is a question of power, not of inclination.




264 MEANS OF EXTENDING FREE TRADE


events, to that of the Company. It arises, not
from there being so large a quantity of tonnage
actually employed, but from the quickness of the
returns, and from the comparative smallness of
distance, enabling one ship to make two voyages
in the year."—" Is that trade carried on without
the intervention or assistance of the Company's
servants at Canton at all ?—f1 very large portion
of it consists of smuggling trade, and therefore
must be entirely out of the Company's cognizance.


" Is there not a very considerable smuggling
trade in other articles imported into China from
Europe ?—I believe that a great deal has been
smuggled into China.


" Have the Hong merchants themselves taken
part in this smuggling trade ?—Far from it ; they
were sold, not to Hong merchants, but to outside
shopmen.


" You were understood to state that some of the
Hong merchants have been ruined by their mix-
ing with the smuggling trade ?—Not at all ; they
have been ruined by the smuggling trade. They
pay heavy duties and exactions to the govern-
ment, on account of the advantages which their
situation affords them in the monopoly of the
regular trade ; and, as the smuggling trade must
necessarily be carried on by persons who do not
pay those heavy exactions, and who in fact fre-
quently evade the regular duties, they must ne-


TO THE WHOLE COAST OF CHINA. 265


cessarily be ruined by the extension of such a
course of transactions.


" Have you any means of judging what pro-
portion of the whole imports into China consist
of the smuggling trade?—It is impossible to say
exactly how much, because the smuggling is
secret, and therefore not so open to investiga-
tion : but with regard to opium, we know that
the amount of the annual importation into China
is upwards of 10,000,000 of dollars.


" Were you at Canton in September 1828 :—
I was.


" Did you hear that a ship called the Merope
had returned to Canton after having been a
voyage as high up as to Ningpo, having made a
very profitable voyage and converted the whole
of her cargo to a very large extent into specie ?-
It must have been entirely surreptitious, if she did;
and I judge that her cargo was opium.


" Do you conceive that such a thing would be
possible ?—I should say very improbable, until
the fact spoke for itself ; from surmise, I should
say it was a thing that could not easily occur,
but that by smuggling a ship might manage to
introduce goods in that way.


" You have stated that the Chinese govern-
ment have issued many edicts against smuggling,
have those edicts been carried into force or not ?
—They certainly have, to the utmost capability qf
-qf the weak Chinese government. I would say,




266
MEANS OF EXTENDING FREE TRADE


that they have rather shewn the hostility of the
Chinese government to the system, than that
they have been very effective in suppressing it.


"Do you consider that smuggling has been
decreased by them, or the contrary ?—I should
say that the weak and ill-organized government of
China cannot follow up its edicts by a corresponding
effectiveness ; and they have probably, in a great
measure, proved unavailing."


CHARLES MARJORIBANKS, Esq.
" Has not the smuggling trade in carnlets in-


creased ?—A good many Dutch camlets have been
imported by Dutch ships ; and camlets have also
been imported on private account.


"Are the committee to understand, that al-
though the trade of opium is prohibited under
very severe penalties, yet that the quantity im-
ported, and the prices at which it is sold, are as
regularly known as any other article which,


is
authorized and regularly imported ?—it is made
no secret cif; it is generally known by the parties
who deal in it, and they communicate it. to others.
The prices cif opium are always given in the Canton
Register, a public newspaper.


" Can you inform the committee how the trade
of opium is carried on ?—When I first went to
China, the opium trade was at Macao, from
which it went to Whampoa, and is now confined
to the islands at the mouth of the river. The opium


TO THE WHOLE COAST OF CHINA. 267


smuggling boats go alongside the ships in the
open face of day, and the opium is delivered to
them on their presenting what is called an opium
order from the agent in Canton.


" Is this trade carried on within the view of
the officers of government and the men-of-war
boats of the Chinese ?--Frequently within the
view of the men-of-war boats.


"Are these boats stationed on the part of the
Chinese authorities within reach and view of this
trade ?—Not regularly stationed : they frequently
go and come there. They are constantly manceuvr-
ing about, and often report to the Canton authori-
ties that they have swept the seas of all smuggling
ships. The ships remain there just the same.


" Then, in point of fact, it may be said that the
smuggling trade in opium is carried on with the
connivance of the Chinese authorities ?—With
the connivance of the lower government authori-
ties ; I am not prepared to say of the higher au-
thorities."—" Is that the case in the smuggling
of other articles ?—Yes, it is.


" Under what privilege is silver exported ?-
The Chinese laws prohibit the exportation of any
metal ; dollars are allowed to be exported from
China, but not bullion, but it has always been ex-
ported to a large amount.


" Are not the smugglers of China a very power-
ful body ? do not they move in considerable fleets
upon the shore ?—Not in fleets ; their boats are




268 MEANS OF EXTENDING FREE TRADE


very well manned and armed."—" Do not they
set the government at defiance ?—Entirely, I should
say, when they have sea-room.


"Do you suppose that the government is ca-
pable of keeping them under ?—They possess no
marine force capable, in my opinion, of suppressing
them.


"Is the force of the smugglers upon the increase
or upon the decrease ?—The smuggling trade of
China is materially upon the increase.


"Are the transactions of the smuggling trade
carried on with as much fidelity and regularity on
the part of the Chinese as the transactions of the
regular trade?— With wonderful regularity, consi-
dering the nature of the trade ; certainly not with
the same regularity as those of the legal trade."


Mr. JOHN AI<EN, formerly master of the Inves-
tigator, and afterwards commander of the Ex,
mouth, trading between India and China.


" Is it not a fact, that they (the outside mer-
chants) bring the boats alongside, and then it is
thrown out of the ship into the boats ?—Yes :
when I sold my opium I gave an order upon the
chief officer to deliver it ; but the person to whom
I sold it takes the risk entirely in taking it from
the ship ; he pays me for it before he gets the order."
" What does he generally pay you with ?—In
dollars, or sy-cee.*


* Silver bullion, of which the exportation is prohibited.


TO THE WHOLE COAST OF CHINA. 26)


" Do you happen to know the method by which
the opium is smuggled into the country ?—They
take it from alongside in smuggling boats that
are well manned and armed, and there are a great
many rivers, branches and islands, and different
places, and they are off directly with it, and they
put all the government boat,. at defiance. I have
seen that myself. I have seen four mandarin
boats surrounding my ship when I had thirty
chests of opium to smuggle, and I was prevented
from going to sea on account of the opium, and
I sold it to the people. I went down myself and
saw the way that they smuggled it ; they stripped
the chest entirely away, and took nothing but the
opium, and put it into bags ; and we opened the
lower-deck port, and in one moment they put the
opium into the boat, and all hands were off in a
moment : we did that in a very heavy shower of
rain. There was a cry out about three minutes
afterwards, but the boat was gone like a shot."—
"Were the mandarin boats lying near ?— One
was lying a-head touching the ship, another was
lying at the stern, and another was lying upon the
opposite side."—" They were there to prevent
s uggl ing ?—Yes.


"Do you obtain greater or less price for your
opium in proportion to the degree of vigilance of
the mandarin boats P—No, I never knew any dif-
ference made on. that account.


" If the mandarin boats had not been there,,




270 MEANS OF EXTENDING FREE TRADE TO THE wuoLE COAST OF CHINA. 271


should you have obtained a larger price do
not think we should have got more ; they always
make certain of it ; and it always struck me, that
there was an understanding between the smugglers
and the mandarin boats ; there is an apparent
vigilance kept up which has no existence in nzy
opinion. I have been told so by a number of people.


" Might not other commodities, of small bulk,
be introduced into China by the same means ?-
I should think they could, very easily.


" Do you happen to know whether it is a prac-
tice with regard to any other commodities except
opium ?—Saltpetre, which is a bulky article, is
smuggled. I used to smuggle it myself; at least
I carried it there, and it was smuggled by the people
to whom I sold it.


"Is saltpetre a prohibited article in China ?-
No, you can sell it to the government if you
please ; but we cannot sell it so well to the go-
xernment. We can generally get about two dol-
lars a pecul by smuggling it.


" Is that on account of the duty paid to govern-
Inent ?—I think it is."—" Have you known of
any other article being smuggled ?—I think some-
times broad cloth is smuggled."—" By the Ame-
ricans or the English ?—By the English. I once
carried two bales of cloth, and it was smuggled,
I know, but wherefore I cannot say, because it
did not belong to um',


Second Report of Minutes of Evidence.
Mr. JOHN ARGYLE MAXWELL, who resided at


Sincapore for more than six years, and who went
several times to Canton.


" Do you know whether there is much smug-
gling. in China in the articles. of export ?—As far
as my own experience went, I found the parties
who were not Hong merchants ready to make a
bargain either way, that is, to deliver the article
as a smuggled article at Lintin, or in the usual
way at Wh ampo a.


" Have you ever known of the country ships
proceeding to Chinese ports, north of Canton, and
trading with the natives ?—I have heard of several
of those adventures.


" Can you state what the cargoes were that they
took ?—The cargoes generally consisted of opium
almost altogether ; in sonic cases they took a
little saltpetre, I believe.


" Did they find any difficulty in effecting sales
with the natives ?—I understood that they always
effected sales ; I did not hear that there were any
extraordinary difficulties.


" What were the ports they went to ?—Many
of the ports have escaped my recollection, but
I remember the port of Chingchoo, and Chusen
and the island of Formosa.


" Do you know where these ports were situated?
—Chingchoo is in the province of Fokien.




272 MEANS OF EXTENDING FREE TRADE


"What reception did you understand the na-
tives gave those adventurers ?—I believe they
gave a good reception. A Spanish gentleman,
who was a supercargo in one of the expeditions,
told me that he landed on Formosa, and walked
several miles. I recollect his mentioning par-
ticularly that he observed the remains of Fatro•
pean houses there, which he considered to have
been the remains of those that were occupied by
the former Dutch factory at Formosa.


" Do you know how long it is since that factory
was removed ?—I should think more than 100
years.


" Did you understand that the sales which were
effected at the northern ports were at a consider-
able advance above the Canton prices ?—I could
not understand that there was any great advance.
I heard the parties mention that they found the
Chinese dealers there in possession (f regular price-
currents from Canton, stating the stock on hand (f
opium, and other circumstances connected with the
market.


Captain ABEL COFFIN.
" Have you been at Sincapore and Siam ?—I


have."—" Have you found any quantity of
Chinese junks there ?—At Siam a large quantity.


" What quantity have you ever seen there at
one time ?—I should think eighty.


" Of what size ?—Some of them would carry


TO THE WHOLE COAST OF CHINA. 273


700 or 800 tons, and some others perhaps 200 or
300."—" Do these junks carry on an extensive
trade with different parts of China besides Can-
ton ?—They are principally from other parts; very
few from Canton.


"Do they import teas in any considerable
quantities into Siam ?—They do.


"Did you find any Chinese teas there ?—A
urge quantity. I should have bad no difficulty
at any time in loading one, two, or three ships of
the size that I had there."—" What quality of tea ?
—Principally black teas : Souchong and Congon
of very good quality."


Extract from a Statement delivered to the Parlia-
mentary Committee, by Mr. CRAWFURD. Third
Report.


" The Chinese junks, properly constructed, pay
no measurement duty, and no kumsha or present ;
duties, however, are paid upon goods exported
and imported, which seem, however, to differ at
the different provinces. They are highest at
Amoy, and lowest in the island of Hainan. The
Chinese traders of Siam informed me that they
carried on the fairest and easiest trade, subject
to the fewest restrictions in the ports of Ningpo
and Sianghai in Chokian, and Souchon in Ki-
annan. Great dexterity seems every where to be
exercised by the Chinese in evading the duties.
One practice, which is very. often followed, will




274 MEANS OF EXTENDING FREE TRADE


afford a good example of this. The coasting
trade of China is nearly free from all duties and
other imposts. The merchant takes advantage
of this, and intending in reality to proceed to
Siam or Cochin China, for example, clears a junk
out for the island of Hainan, and thus avoids the
payment of duties. When she returns, she will
lie four or five days off and on at the mouth of the
port, until a regular bargain be made with the
custom-house officers for the reduction of duties.
The threat held out in such cases is to proceed to
another port, and thus deprive the public officers
of their customary perquisites. I was assured of
the frequency of this practice by Chinese mer-
chants of Cochin China, as well as by several
commanders of junks at Sincapore. From the
last named persons I had another fact of some
consequence, as connected with the Chinese trade,
viz. that a good many of the junks carrying on
trade with foreign ports to the westward of China,
often proceeded on voyages to the northward in
the same season. In this manner they stated that
about twenty considerable junks, besides a great
many small ones, proceeded annually from Canton
to Souchon, one of the capitals of Kiannan, and
in wealth and commerce the rival of Canton,
where they sold about 200 chests of opium at an
advance of fifty per cent. beyond the Canton
prices. Another place where the Canton junks,
to the number of five or six, repair annually, is


TO THE WHOLE COAST OF CHINA. 275


Chinchoo, in the province of Shanton, within the
gulph of Pechely, or Yellow Sea, and as far north
as the 37th degree of latitude."


WALTER STEVENSON DAVIDSON, Esq.* a mer-
chant, a naturalized Portuguese, chief of a large
mercantile house at Macao.


" Have you any means of judging whether the
trouble attending the sale of opium is less now
since the ships were removed from Whampoa, and
stationed themselves at Lintin, outside the river ?
—I should say, that I do not believe there is much
difference in the trouble, but a vast difference in
the anxiety ; because, in the one case, they were
liable to seizure any day, in the other case they
lie in a spot where they can defend themselves
against any power that can come against them.


You mean to say, that the trade in your time,
whilst the ships lay at Whampoa, was more dif-
ficult than it is now ?—More full of anxiety ;
there was no difficulty in it : it was a very good
business.


" Did you ever know of any other articles ex-
cept opium being smuggled ?—I have heard of a
great many, but I never smuggled any other
articles myself in the import trade.


" With regard to the exports ?—In exports I
smuggled very largely of silver, because it was a
prohibited article as well as opium, and so was


* Now a banker in London.




276 MEANS OF EXTENDINO.PREE TRADE


TO THE WHOLE COAST OF CHINA. 277


tutenog I believe ; and the rule which guided me
was, that I would smuggle the articles which were
prohibited, but not those upon which a direct
duty was laid.


"What responsibility did you consider to attach
to you as an agent, selling a prohibited article
like opium ?—In a pecuniary point of view I never
considered it was a responsibility that could be
valued, nor did I ever charge, or pretend to have
a right to charge, any thing for it ; personally, of
course, every man who resides in China runs a
great risk ; the government, for instance, as I have
stated, knew full well that a ship was at Wham-
poa with a quantity of opium, that she was to my
consignment; and they might have imprisoned
me any day, and said, till you pay a 100,000
tales you shall not be released.


Did that ever happen during your residence
there ?—Never.


" Did you ever hear of its happening ?—Never;
I do not think that in the history of trade there has
been an instance of it.


" What risk do you consider you ran in smug-
gling silver ?—None whatever, beyond the seizure
of the silver, with which they are always exceed-
ing well satisfied."—" Have you known many
seizures made have known some, but very
few indeed, the parties are so exceedingly expert.


" In your time did the Chinese undertake to
put the silver on board for you :—Yes.


"What rate did you pay them for it ?—I
bought the silver of them, and they undertook to
put it on board : it was delivered on board, and I
paid them sometimes before and sometimes after
they brought me the captain's receiptf9r it.


" Then your own risk was at an end ?—Entirely,
except when I chose to step out of the way and
trusted them, which I have often done with all
those parties, both in silver and in Opium.


" Are you not aware that those custom house
boats are moored a-stern and on the quarter of
every vessel ?—Custom-house boats are ; but I am
not aware that the boats whose duty it is to seize
those parties are moored there ; they are far too
weakly manned and armed."—" Are you aware that
those boats permitted the opium to be landed ?
—Decidedly."—" Could they prevent it if they
pleased? " That does not follow ; they may not be
strong enough. I have known instances of the
Chinese opium boats overpowering allforce where it
was a very large quantity, and it was worth their
while killing and wounding men, butt generally they
do not attempt it."—" On such an occurrence hap-
pening have you ever known any notice taken of it
by the government ?—Never."


Captain CHARLES HtyrcruNsoN, a commander
in the navy, who commanded the ship called the
Bombay Castle, from Liverpool to India, and re-
mained in the latter place for five years. He went




278 MEANS OF EXTENDING FREE TRADE TO THE WHOLE COAST OF CHINA. 279


three times to Canton, three several years, from
Bombay, with cargoes of cotton and other Indian
articles.


"Supposing the Chinese were to put a stop to
the export of teas altogether, are you of opinion
that the prohibition would be effectually enforced,
so as to prevent its being sent to Sincapore ?—I
think it is extremely probable that they would be
enabled still to bring it to Sincapore, but I am
not certain.


" What do you apprehend would be the effect
in China of a total prohibition of the export of
teas :—It would be difficult to say. The Chinese
government feel themselves to be a very rotten
sort of government ; they know that the people are
ready to revolt in many of their provinces, and they
would therefore he very cautious how they gave any
cause of discontent to any part of their empire ; but
whether they are particularly afraid of that. part
of it situated near Canton, I cannot tell. There
are some of the provinces where they are much
more inclined to revolt and to resistance than in
that, particularly the province of Chingchoo.


" You are aware that tea can be exported from
other ports of China besides Canton, in Chinese
junks ?—Yes, because it is brought to Sincapore
from other parts."—" is it brought from the tea
provinces is brought by canals to the coast, and
then put on board the junk s ,w ho bring it to Sincapore.


" Are the junks that come to Sincapore with tea
loaded at Canton, or at ports nearer the growth of
the tea ?—At ports nearer the growth of the tea, I
believe ; I know they are not loaded at Canton.


" Are there any goods that are reckoned prohi-
bited goods in China exported by the country
ships ?—A large quantity in almost every ship ;
they chiefly consist of cassia and a coarser kind of
silk, upon which the duties are too heavy to be taken
in the regular way ; they are therefore bargained
for with the outside merchants, to be smuggled on
board the ship, and it is done with as great facility
as the regular trade ; the mandarins being all feed
and permitting it.


" Did you ever know of an interruption to this
irregular trade ?—None whatever; it is as easily
carried on as the regular trade.


" Is a large portion of the assorted cargoes
exported from China articles prohibited or sub-
ject to such duties that they are generally smug-
gled ?—Yes."—" And with the knowledge and
connivance of the mandarins ?—Certainly. There
is an island near Whampoa called French Island,
where those smugglers live. Goods intended to
be smuggled are sent to French Island, and you
receive notice the night before at what hour the
cargo will be brought ; the mandarins then sur-
round the ship, and wait for the smuggling boat ;
when it comes alongside they send a man in a
canoe to count the packages, that no more may




TO THE WHOLE COAST OF CHINA. 281280


MEANS OF EXTENDING FREE TRADE


be brought to the ship than they have received
their fee for. In fact, their whole government is
one system cf corruption from top to bottom.


" Do not you think that the facilities they
afford to smuggling arise from an anxious desire
to extend the foreign commerce ?—Certainly, in
the people ; not in. the government, of course.


" In the officers of the government, do you attri-
bute it to a desire to obtain a suitable remune-
ration in return for the sum of money they have
given for their offices ?--LCertainly.


" It being notorious that all those offices are
paid for ?—So I have always been told.


" Could not cotton goods be smuggled to other
ports??—There was a difficulty in smuggling at
other ports when I was in China, but some ships
with opium succeeded to a certain extent. Since
I left that country, I understand that they have
smuggled to a larger amount, and I suppose other
goods as well as opium."—" Do you think that
the smuggling Could be carried on with the same
ease at those other ports as at Canton ?—I should
think not, because at Canton it is systematized."


Third Report of Minutes qf Evidence.
JOHN STEWART, Esq. a member of the commit-


tee, who went to China seven times, in the years
1800, 1803, 1804-, 1805, 1806,1807-8, and in 1817.


" Is it your opinion that the Chinese govern-
ment would find it very difficult to put an end to


the foreign commerce with England ?—I think
they could do it ; but I am of opinion that if the
Chinese government were to put an end to that
commerce, it would produce great misery and
distress in China, particularly at Canton, where
it is carried on.


" Would the government, in your opinion, be
strong enough to accomplish the putting an end
to the trade ?—My opinion is, that an edict of
the emperor of China Might be so enforced as to
put a stop to all the regular foreign trade car-
ried on with China ; but I DO NOT THINK THAT
THE CHINESE GOVERNMENT COULD PREVENT SMUG-


GLING BEING CONTINUED FROM THE COAST OF


CHINA, EVEN IF THEY PUT A STOP TO THE REGULAR


TRADE.


"'Then you do not mean to say that you think
the Chinese government would have power to put a
final stop to the progress of the trade?—No; Ithink
that a smuggling trade would be carried on on the
coast (f China to a very considerable extent, in
spite of any act that the Chinese government might
adopt."


ROBERT RICKARDS, Esq. who resided in India
twenty-four years, being on the Bombay esta-
blishment, and had during that time good oppor-
tunities of seeing what passed in the trade be-
tween India and China.


" Are you aware of the peculiarities of the




I


282 MEANS OF EXTENDING FREE TRADE TO THE WHOLE COAST OF CHINA. 283


Chinese government with regard to trade, and
that a comparison cannot therefore be fairly made
between India and China as to any expected
increase ?—I know that the Chinese government
have imposed restrictive regulations upon the
foreign trade of their own country ; but I know
at the same time that these regulations are com-
pletely set at nought by the commercial spirit of the
people.


" If, therefore, English ships were prohibited
going to China, I conceive that supplies of tea
and other Chinese articles might just as easily be
got from Sincapore, or Java, or other ports in the
Eastern Archipelago, as they can now from China
itself. These then are the grounds of my belief
that, under all circumstances, we have the means
of controlling the trade with China, even more
effectually than the Chinese government itsql ;
for when the Chinese merchants and the mass of
the community find that they have an interest in
carrying on certain branches of trade, they will
do it, as is sufficiently manifest in their importa-
tion of opium, and export of silver, in spite of the
most severe laws that can be enacted by their own
government."


JOHN CRAWFURD, Esq., appointed parliamen-
tary agent to the inhabitants of Calcutta. He
resided in the Upper Provinces of the Bengal
Presidency for five years, in Calcutta one year, in


Penang three years, and in Java six years. One
year he went on a mission to Siam and Cochin
China. He resided in Sincapore about three
years ; afterwards was appointed commissioner
by the governor-general in the Birman Empire ;
then went as envoy from the governor-general to
the court of Ava ; after which he returned to
Calcutta, and eventually to Europe.


" Supposing an interruption to take place in
the European trade of China, are you of opinion
that a considerable quantity of tea might be
brought in Chinese vessels to Sincapore, or some
other emporium in the Eastern Archipelago ?-
I conceive so. I think it was a great point,
during the discussions respecting the former
charter of the East India Company, to establish
that fact themselves. Mr. Drummond, now lord
Strathallan, gave it distinctly in evidence, that
a very large quantity of tea might be imported
into Europe through such a channel. The evi-
dence is to be found upon the records of the
Committee of the House of Commons, 1 think in
1812. It seemed, indeed, to be a settled point,
especially in reference to the Phillipine islands
and others. I have a short entry on this subject,
taken out of a note book that I kept at Sinca-
pore ; it is dated the 22d of August, 1825, and is
the result of a conversation with the commanders
of some junks.—"fhe tea consumed in Cochin
China is brought from Tchaotchen, on the con-




284 MEANS OF EXTENDING FREE TRADE TO THE WHOLE COAST OF CHINA. 285


fines of Canton and Fokien, but in the jurisdic-
tion of the former, to Hainan, from which it
comes to Saigun and other places. It is all the
produce of Fokien. Into Saigun there are an-
nually imported about 70,000 boxes of tea, of
twenty catties each, and into Hue about 10,000
boxes. It is impossible to conjecture the quan-
tity brought into Tonquin, as a great part of it is
imported by land. The price of the ordinary
qualities at Tchaotchen and Canton is twenty-
six dollars per pecul. The same tea would be
sold at Saigun for forty dollars. My informants
state that any quantity whatever of tea may be
imported into Sineapore, which the market may
demand, from Chaotcheou, Changlim, and other
parts, either black or green. The commanders of
junks will do this in spite of any regulations to the
contrary.'"


JOHN STEWART, Esq., M. P.


" Do you think the trade could be carried on
in the neighbourhood of Canton, in any of the
islands ?—Yes ; I imagine that tea might be con-
veyed, and in all probability would be conveyed,
to the islands on the coast of China ;


• it might be
smuggled from thence, or it might be sent in Chi-
nese vessels to the islands of the Eastern Archi-
pelago, and could be exported from thence.


" Would it be sufficient to supply the wants of
this country ?—If the Chinese permitted the ex-


port of tea in their own vessels, I am decidedly
of opinion that a sufficient quantity might in
that way be exported from China to supply the
wants of all Europe.


" Do you suppose that they would do that under
such circumstances ?—I think they would ; the
Chinese are a people of great commercial enter-
prise, and I think they would be disposed to send
tea wherever they could find a sale for it with
advantage."


Captain JOHN MACKIE.


" You have resided in India several years ?-
I have for ten years"—" From what period ?-
From 1820 to the latter end of 1829.


" Did you command a ship in the China trade
—I commanded a Spanish vessel on the coast of
China.


What was this vessel engaged in ?—In the
opium trade—" She was sailing under Spanish
colours ?—She was.


What ports of China have you visited ?—I
visited the port of Amoy, and all the ports between
that and Canton.


" Were you entirely engaged in the opium
trade 2—Entirely I carried also a little salt-
petre.


" What was the name of the ship ?—The St.
Sebastian.


" Whom was she owned by 2—Spaniards."—




2.86
MEANS OF EXTENDING FREE TRADE


" Did any part of the cargo belong to British
merchants ?—Entirely British."—" Can you state
any other ports in China that you touched at
besides Amoy ?—Not any other principal ports ;
I touched at all the ports between Amoy and
Canton.


" You lay off some ports, did not you ?—I lay
off the port called the Cape of Good Hope, and
the island of Namo.


" At what distance is the Cape of Good Hope
from Canton ?—About 300 miles to the north-
east.


" Did you find good shelter for your ship ?-
Excellent ; all those harbours are as safe as the
port of Canton itself.


" Was the trade you carried on authorised by
the laws of China ?—I understood it was not au-
thorised, but it was done quite openly.


" In the same way that the opium trade is car-
ried on at Canton P—The very same.


" Have you ever experienced any difficulty in
carrying on the trade, although not formally
sanctioned by the Chinese laws ?—Never the least.


" Who were the parties with whom your trade
was carried on ?—The Chinese merchants.


" Resident at any particular points ?—Some of
them from the city of Amoy, some from Ta-ho,
and Namo, and some from inland towns.


" Have you got better prices for those articles
than could be got at Canton ?—Yes.


TO THE WHOLE COAST OF CHINA. 287


" What was the difference of the price ?—About
100 dollars upon a chest of opium, or 125, and
sometimes 150, or even higher.


" Is that (the port of the Cape of Good Hope)
near any town ?—Yes, it is within fifteen miles of
a very large city, the city of Ty.-ho.


"From the time of your arrival how long were
you detained before you disposed of the whole of
your cargo ?—Frorn fifteen to twenty days.


" Why did you make your returns in bullion
only ?—I was particularly desired by the agents
of the brig to take nothing else.


" Could you have had returns in the produce
of the country ?—I could have had returns in any
produce (1 the provinces, such as sugar, tea, cassia,
tortoiseshell, nankeens, or anything that could be
had.


" You would have had no difficulty in com-
pleting your cargo of these articles ?—Not the
least.


" In what manner is the produce of the north-
eastern provinces sent to Canton presume it
is principally sent by sea, from the number of
large junks always upon the coast.


" Have you seen teas sent by sea ?—Yes ; I
have been on board of two junks entirely loaded
with tea.


" What was the size of them ?--They could
not have been less than 200 tons.


" From whence did they come ?—They came
from Amoy, and they were bound to Canton.




288 MEANS OF EXTENDING FREE TRADE


"Did you board the junks ?—I boarded both
of them, and sent letters by them to Canton."-
" Were those letters regularly received ?—They
were received in due course.


" Do you think you could have loaded your
vessel with teas of good quality ?-1" have no doubt
I could of the very best quality. I have no doubt
I could have had any sort of Chinese produce that
I wished.


What species of woollens do you think you
could have disposed of ?—Principally long ells
and fine broad cloth ; blankets and camlets also
would have sold very well ; they are in ready
demand all along the coast of China.


" Were there any duties paid to the govern-
ment upon those cargoes ?—I never paid any
duties ; but I understood that 'upon all opium that
is taken away from the ships the inferior officers
of the government get about twenty dollars ,for
every chest ; the Chinese pay that themselves ; the
ships pay nothing.


" Did you ever pay any porn charges of any
kind ?—Never.


" Were you ever annoyed by any of the Chinese
authorities ?—No. I have been requested, as a
favour, to slqt my situation, as the principal
officer was coming ; and I have gone away and
conic again, in one or two days.


" Perhaps a legitimate trade was not your
object P—Not at all ; we were trading in prohi-
bited articles.


TO THE WHOLE COAST OF CHINA. 289


"Do you imagine that the contraband trade is
more profitable than the authorised trade ?—./
have never been in the authorised trade, and
therefore cannot state that.


" Did any other British ships under the British
flag prosecute the same trade that you did at that
time ?—Yes ; there was an English ship, the
Merope, belonging to Calcutta; the Velletta; the
Eugenia ; the Fanecena, and the Dhaule schooner.


" What were those vessels ?—All English vessels
belonging to the port of Calcutta.


" Where were they trading to ?--To Formosa,
and the port of Nimpo, which is considerably to
the north.


" Is not that in the province of Kiangnan ?—I
believe it is.


" Did those ships go to Amoy ?—One of them I
think did, but they did nothing ; they knew that
nothing could be done by the merchants ; the
Merope touched off Amoy, but did not go in,
because she could not trade in opium.


" Had you any communication with the com-
manders of those vessels ?—Frequently, although
we had different interests, all except the Merope.


" Was your interest the same as the Merope ?
—She had an agent of ours.


" Did you understand from the commanders of
those vessels, that they carried on trade as easily
as you did ?—With the same facilities ; although




290 MEANS OF EXTENDING FREE TRADE


I believe I was rather more fortunate than they
were, being engaged in the trade earlier.


" At the ports you have named, do you know
whether the import and export duties arc paid to
the government ?—I am not aware of the duties;
I never heard the duties mentioned.


" Did the Americans ever engage in this trade ?
—American vessels have gone to the coast, but I
believe on British account.


" Did the British vessels you have named visit
any ports besides those you have mentioned ?—
The Merope traded to the port of Chingchoo and
the island of Formosa.


" Did the Merope go to Nimpo and the Cape
of Good Hope ?—Yes ; she touched at every port
on the coast.


" Which do you conceive is the best station
for carrying on the trade ?—The best station I
ever found, was between the island of Namo and
the Cape of Good Hope.


" Why do you conceive that to be better ?—
Being the centre between two very large towns.


" Have you ever been off the province of Fokien?
—Yes.


" What harbour did you go into there ?—I
went into one of the ports of Chingchoo.


" What was the species of cultivation you saw
when you landed there ?—The only species of
cultivation I have seen was rice and sugar.


Is the trade, which you have described as


TO THE WHOLE COAST OF CHINA. 291


being carried on when you were there, still car-
ried on ?—It is.


" In what year was this ?—In 1823 and 1824.
Afterwards I lay as a depot-ship at Lintin."—
" How long were you altogether in China ?—
Four years and a half.


" In what year were the British ships you have
mentioned there ?—They were there in the same
year as myself ; and I left some of them lying as
depot-ships at Lintin ; they are lying there now
as depot-ships.


" Do you know of any ships having been there
last year 2—No ; I do not know of any ship ;
there was one vessel went up in 1828 when I was
there, and delivered a cargo upon the coast.


" What are the depot-ships ?—Theg are ships
that lie outside of the island of Macao, to receive
opium, or any other goods that are wished to be
deposited on board of them.


" Then you have no knowledge of any lauful
trade carried on there at all?—Not the least.


" Were the others obliged to move sometimes
as well as you ?—lres ; we moved as a favour to
the mandarins ; the mandarins come down once
or twice a year, and send a person to warn you
to shift yourselves.


" You were obliged to shift your station ?-
We were not obliged to do this, but it was to
favour them, that they might make a report that it
was all clear.




292 MEANS OF EXTENDING FREE TRA.OF,


" What number of ships do you remember
there at any one time ?---I have seen as many as
20 ships at one time.


" How many European ships ?-1. have seen 10
European ships, and a considerable number of
American ships."


If this be not free trade, what is ? Establish a
trade in corn and Manchester goods on the same
footing between England and America ; in that
case it would be quite needless to repeal the
English corn laws and American tariff. But
here we must draw a distinction of first-rate con-
sequence. The foreign trade of China, though
perfectly free in its nature, is restricted in extent.
Though free from bonds, permits and taxes, it
cannot at present be extended beyond the Bocca
Tigris, and even on that one spot it is not secure.
Upon this distinction the whole question turns.
The people of England, by paying an extravagant
price for tea, have enabled twenty-four men in
London and seven men at Canton to carry on a
trade which is called legal, but which ought to be
called the losing trade. How to increase this
trade, is not worth asking : the grand point is to
extend, not to alter, the free trade, which the
Chinese call Smug-pigeon, and which, though
of limited extent, is perfect in its kind.


What then is it that prevents the free trade
from spreadin ,ot to the whole coast. of China and


TO THE WHOLE COAST OF CHINA. 293


increasing beyond any assignable limit ? The
political fears of the Chinese government. There-
fore, says an Englishman, send another embassy
to Pekin ; instruct the ambassador to swear, like
Lord Amherst, that he has no commercial objects,
that he is sent across the world " to manifest the
regard of his Britannic majesty for his Imperial
majesty, and to improve the relations of amity
that so happily subsisted between their illustrious
parents Dien-lung and George the third" : but
this time do not trust altogether to the ambassa-
dor's skill in the art of lying ; back him with
armed ships ; order him to talk of English con-
quests in India ; tell him to frighten the man-
darins by a display of English power, and if
necessary by the use of force : this is the way to
calm the political fears of the Chinese govern-
ment. And to destroy it likewise, we may add.
No one who is acquainted with that government
can doubt, that such a mission, if given, not to
a priggish lord of the bed-chamber, but to a man
(a man, said Bonaparte, is wanted in China)
would be entirely successful ; that it would open
the whole coast of China to the presence of Eng-
lishmen and English ships. But this object
accomplished in this way, what would be the
other consequences of thus exposing the weak-
ness of the Chinese government to its own sub-
jects and to foreign nations ? Look to it Jona-
than ! John Bull would have gone to work in


115




294 MEANS OF EXTENDING FREE TRADE TO THE WHOLE COAST OF CHINA. 295


this way long ago, if the English Hong had not
been deeply interested in preserving every bar to
the extension of free trade in China. The Eng-
lish Hong is at end. Be alive, Jonathan Your
smug-pigeon with the China-man is in danger.


Even mere threats from the English govern-
ment, though couched, as no doubt they would
be, in the form of a demand for redress of griev-
ances, would, if they had for object the particular
advantage of English traders in China, be viewed
with jealousy by several governments of Europe,
and still more by the United States. Suppose,
however, that disregarding the jealousy of other
nations, the English had compelled the mandarins
to establish the trade of Englishmen in China on
a satisfactory basis, would not the Dutch, the
Russians, the French, and above all the Ameri-
cans, demand, each nation for itself, as with equal
facility they all might obtain, similar conces-
sions from the feeble mandarins ? Such demands
on the part of some, at least, of those nations,
would, it seems hardly doubtful, be the inevit-
able consequence of the successful use of force
or threats by the English government. Thus the
weakness of the government of China would be
exposed in more than one instance, to its own
subjects and to other nations. Other exposures
of the same kind could not but ensue. Foreigners
of all nations would enter China and further
expose to the people, not the weakness only, but


the iniquity also, of the government. Next, the
foreigners of each nation, having obtained some
footing in China, would, if we conjecture from
experience, seek to obtain privileges, each party
striving; to gain more than its rivals, and to injure
them as much as possible. Either the nature of
man is not always the same, or the history of
European settlements in distant countries is false,
if this would not be the case. Considering also,
that each party of foreigners in China would be
so far removed from the control of its own
government as to act almost without responsi-
bility, there is reason to expect that the rivalry
amongst those foreign adventurers would not be
confined to trade, but would extend, as soon as it
had been shown that the mandarins were unable
to resist aggression, to interference between the
people and their masters, to the excitement of
revolt and civil war, and finally to territorial
acquisition. In this way, contests must arise
between some of those parties of foreign adven-
turers ; and by degrees each party would, pro-
bably, enlist its distant government in the quar-
rel, until, at length, the miserable government
of China being dissolved, or rather dissolving as
soon as its weakness had been made conspicuous,
China would become, as Hindostan has been in
modern times, a theatre of war for foreign nations.
What has preserved China from the fate of India ?
The constancy of the mandarins in rejecting, as




296 MEANS OF EXTENDING FREE TRADE TO THE WHOLE COAST OF CHINA. 297


they would have avoided contact with the plague,
every proposal from foreigners for the establish-
ment of friendly intercourse. Time° Danaos et
donaferentes, has been the never-failing answer of
the Chinese government to offers of friendship and
advantage from other governments. In vain did
the Dutch ambassador Titzing, a fat man, crawl
upon all fours into the imperial presence, and
remaining in that posture, beat his head nine
times upon the ground ; in vain did the lords
Macartney and Amherst exhaust the arts of their
craft to wheedle the lords of China into a belief
that it was for the advantage of the great emperor
to be on terms of friendship with the illustrious
king ; in vain have been self-abasement, rich
presents, flattery, coaxing, prayers, lies and
remonstrances, when employed by the govern-
ments of Europe in order to obtain such a foot-
ing in China as might have furnished pretexts
for measures of another kind. The existence of
the government of China has been preserved by
the constancy of the mandarins in rejecting offers
of foreign friendship. The utter impracticability
of the Tartars is their only defence. Break
through that single barrier, and they must be
swept away by a flood of internal revolt and
foreign pretension.


If the existing government of foreigners were
destroyed, it must be succeeded by another
government of foreigners ; since the ignorant,


timid and slavish, people of China, being inca-
ble of governing themselves, would tacitly invite
foreigners to rule them, and would find nation
after nation eager to undertake the task. In the
end probably, the English, who command the
sea, would govern China as they govern India ;
and that the people of China would in the long
run gain incalculably by such a change, there
cannot be the least doubt. But what in the mean-
while would become of the foreign trade of
China ? And what could the people of England
gain by ruling the Chinese empire ? Not reckon-
ing the gratification of national pride as an
advantage, they would gain nothing beyond free
commercial intercourse with the Chinese people.
But they might miss this, aiming at it in this
way ; not to mention what they might lose in the
confusion arising from the jealousy of other states
and the destruction of the Chinese government.


Still, if it were impossible to counteract the
political fears of the mandarins otherwise than
by adopting measures of compulsion under the
name of diplomacy, such measures, whatever the
consequences likely to result from them, might
be thought expedient. But considering the im-
mediate evils that might arise from measures of
compulsion, and the jealousy with which they
would be viewed by the Americans at least, such
measures, however easy, however sure of ultimate




298
MEANS OF EXTENDING FREE TRADE


success, and however just when viewed with a
mercantile eye, will not be thought expedient by
the English, provided it he shown that a com-
mercial intercourse with the Chinese people, free
in its nature and without limit as to extent, may
be established without delay, permanently, at lit-
tle cost, without making a demand or even ask-
ing a favour of the trembling mandarins, and,
lastly, without exciting any national jealousy. To
show all this, is the object of what follows.


Sir Stamford Raffles founded the commercial
station of Sincapore, in the belief that the Chi-
nese free traders would readily find their way to
that port in their own ships. He was mistaken
by above twenty degrees. Near twenty years'
experience has shown that the distance between
Sincapore and the most commercial parts of the
Chinese coast is much too great for junk naviga-
tion. But Raffles, who was a man, has pointed
out the way to extend the free trade of China
without diplomacy or war ; not only without fur-
ther alarming the poor mandarins, but so that,
with the extension of free trade, their present ter-
rors should entirely subside. In order to give to
the free trade of China its utmost possible deve-
lopment, the only thing wanted is a free market-
place ; a place to which Chinese dealers could
easily resort, where foreign ships might lie undis-
turbed by wind or government, and where foreign-


TO THE WHOLE COAST OF CHINA. 299


ers might live in security ; a mere market-place,
convenient for Chinese dealers, and out of the
control of the Chinese government.


Along the whole coast of China there exist not
less than a thousand islands, some of which pos-
sess all the requisites of a trading port ; good
anchorage, shelter from all winds, and plenty of
fresh water. There are more habitable islands
near the coast of China, than along any other
coast in the world of the same extent. But now
observe another peculiarity : those islands are
not subject to the government of the main land.
Some of them are uninhabited ; some are inha-
bited by a few wretched fishermen who govern
themselves; and some by a race of pirates who
make war against the Chinese government, occa-
sionally putting a stop to the coasting trade, mur-
dering great numbers of Chinese, levying tribute
on the continent, and at times making peace
with the mandarins on very advantageous terms.
Some evidence on this point appears in a note
below.* The emperor of China claims dominion


" The Lion continued thus several days working off the
China shore, without gaining a mile. She then stood over for
Formosa, where there was less current against her ; and she
made some progress; but the turbulence of the weather was
such that she sprung both top-masts, and was obliged to re-
turn to the Ladrones, in order to be in some degree of shelter,
for the purpose of being refitted, and capable of renewing her
efforts to get forward. Several piratical vessels, filled with




300 MEANS OF EXTENDING FREE TRADE


in England, and makes his subjects believe that
he receives tribute from that country ; but in


Chinese, were hovering in this neighbourhood, and had very
lately taken several Chinese junks, and plundered the adjacent
islands. The practice of these pirates is to make slaves of
such able-bodied men as they take prisoners, to put the rest to
death, and to sink the junks, and burn the houses, after taking
out whatever they deem valuable."—Staunton's Embassy to
China, vol. ii. p. 521.


"During the time the pirates infested the coasts, numbers of
salt junks were intercepted by them, and salt rose to an extra-
vagant price. At length the Company were obliged to nego-
tiate with the admiral of the pirates, and paid a certain sum
for every vessel he furnished with a passport.


" After a while the captains and crews of the salt junks
became leagued with the pirates, and used to convey to them,
clandestinely, provisions, stores, ammunition, &c. The go-
vernment detected the connivance, and laid an embargo, of a
sudden, upon the returning salt junks. The pirate admiral,
finding his supplies cut off, invaded the country about the
inner passage leading to Macao, where he cut all the ripe rice,
and carried it off, as well as a great number of women, whom
he presented to his followers. His name was Apo-Tsy, a very
formidable robber, who had an immense fleet of junks, and
upwards of '20,000 men under his command. He at length
became so daring, that he intercepted the boats carrying car-
goes to the ships at Whampoa, and committed depredations on
land within eighteen miles of Canton. The Viceroy became
alarmed, for he had no army to oppose him, and was forced to
employ an English armed country ship to drive him out of the
river. Many naval engagements took place between the Chi-
nese war ships and the pirates ; but the latter invariably ob-
tained the victory. The Portuguese at Macao were also called
upon, or rather were told their offer would be accepted, to fit


TO THE WHOLE COAST OF CHINA. 301


fact, and in right too, his power is limited by
the water's edge of the Chinese coast. At sea the
pirates are his masters, and neither he nor his
ancestors ever conquered the islands. Those
islands, therefore, are open to be used by any
body for any purpose. If one of the Ladrones or
Pirate Isles, were turned into a market-place for
the traders of all nations, the English and Chi-
nese Hongs, were they not in extremis, might
complain that the vested rights of the pirates had


out ships against the pirates, and a sum of money would be
granted to them by the Canton government. However, very
little good resulted in the way of fighting ; but the Portuguese
rendered the Viceroy an essential service in the way of nego-
tiation, as mediators between him and the pirates. Apo-Tsy
positively refused to listen to the Viceroy's promise of an am-
nesty, should the pirates return to their allegiance, without the
Macao government becoming security for the faithful perform-
ance of the contract. The Macao government therefore, came
forward, and pledged itself to the admiral, who immediately
submitted with all his followers. He was made governor of
the province of Fokien, and his followers were all pardoned.
During their wars with the Chinese, the pirates took a fleet,
commanded by a thai•tuk, or admiral, who was uncle to the
present emperor. Apo-Tsy had some dislike to the Chinese
admiral ; and when he took him, ordered him to be beheaded.
The present emperor (Tao-Kuang,) on coming to the throne,
sent the governor of Fokien a polite message to say, that
the laws of China required blood for blood, and he therefore
sent for his head instead of his uncle's. There was no excuse
to be made, and Apo-Tsy's head was conveyed to Pekin."—


Dobell, vol. p.153.




302 MEANS OF EXTENDING FREE TRADE


been attacked ; but who else could find fault with
the conversion of one of those robbers' nests to so
excellent a use ?


Not the Chinese government, to whom the
founders of the market-place would say :—You
dread foreigners ; we keep out of your way. You
forbid us to enter your ports, Canton excepted ;
we withdraw from Canton. You tremble lest we
should sow revolutionary principles amongst your
people by residing with them ; henceforth there
shall be no intercourse between them and us, save
for the purpose of exchanging goods ; and that
intercourse shall not take place within your do-
minions. Hitherto, between you and us there
have been frequent quarrels ; but now all ground
of dispute is gone ; we demand no rights, ask no
favours. Well we know, that you cannot prevent
your people from coming to us for trade in this
our new, our own, market-place ; and sure we are
that if you could do so, you would not ; because
if you should do so, the present arrangement,
which ought to relieve you of all anxiety, must be
superseded by diplomacy, which would frighten
you extremely, and in the end, probably, realize
your worst fears. The step that we have taken
was devised expressly for your comfort : tremble
no more ; we bid you farewell for ever.


Nor could the Americans object to an English,
any more than the English could object to an
American trading station near the coast of China ;


TO THE WHOLE COAST OF CHINA. 303


provided that, in either case, the market- place
were free, that is, open to all nations on perfectly
equal terms. Why not so in an island used
merely for trade, as well as on the main land,
where, if the Chinese government permitted trade,
they would, as far as they might be able, treat
all the foreign traders alike ? The English ex-
clude the Americans from Sincapore. It so hap-
pens that Jonathan suffers little by John Bull's
meanness in this affair ; Sincapore being, I repeat,
more than twenty degrees too far south for its
intended purpose ; but Jonathan has a right to
his revenge, and may take it, overcoming evil
with good, by establishing a Sincapore in the
proper place, for the use of the English as well
as the Chinese and Americans. Concert between
two nations whose origin, language and real in-
terests are one, would be better still, and would
not be difficult, if the English ministers, instead
of being proud, lazy, selfish lords, were, like the
American ministers, active men of business, liable
to be removed for neglecting the public good.


If, however, this happy change should not
occur in time, there are islands enough on the
coast of China for all nations to chuse amongst,
who may wish to establish a market-place for
trade with the Chinese ; and for two reasons it. is
very desirable that more than one such trading
station should be established. Because, in the
first place, the more numerous such stations, the




304 MEANS OF EXTENDING FREE TRADE


more easy would be the total suppression of
piracy on the coast of China ; and secondly, be-
cause, if there were but one station, nearlyopposite
the mouth of the Canton river, such free trade as
now takes place in that river, though it would go
to that new market-place, would not be extended
to the northern maritime provinces, where the
greatest demand for foreign goods exists and
where the principal exports of China are raised.
To show how much would be saved by a direct
trade with the northern maritime provinces, and
how extensive such a trade would probably be-
come, some conclusive evidence is given below.*


* The Dutch Ambassador and his suite, on their return from
Pekin in 1796, passed through what may be considered the
richest and most populous provinces of China ; and Van der
Brawn's account of the journey abounds with information on
the state of the maritime districts in the neighbourhood of the
great Blue River, or Yang-tse Kiang, which rises in the moun-
tains of Thibet and traverses the Chinese provinces of Setchuen,
Konquang, and Kiang-nan ; and falls into the sea at no great
distance from the mouth of the Hoang-Ho or Yellow River,
the second river of China, and indeed of Asia. Van der Braam,
one of the most phlegmatic of Dutchmen, described what he
saw at the moment of seeing it, and without the least ap-
pearance of exaggeration : yet his journal, in that part of it
which relates to the temperate maritime provinces, becomes a
mere catalogue of villages, towns, cities, canals, aqueducts,
bridges, and other signs of a dense, industrious, and wealthy
population. Has the East India Company any trade with this
part of China ? No direct trade whatever, and if some little
indirect trade by means of internal carriage, still almost with-


TO THE WHOLE COAST OF CHINA. 305


One word touching the cost of establishing the
most free, and perhaps most extensive, trade in


out being conscious of it. Considering that this is the heart of
the Chinese empire, that the climate requires woollen cloths,
which are a staple production of England, and that the en-
trances of two wide rivers would afford great facilities for con-
ducting the unauthorised trade, this, beyond all comparison,
appears to be the spot where the trading disposition of the
Chinese people ought to be cultivated.


"Can you,' Mr. Marjoribanks is asked, "say whether the
demand for English woollen manufacture in China is capable
of being increased according to the increased supply ?" and he
answers—" I imagine that, if our manufactures could be in-


troduced into the northern provinces of the empire, the demand
for them would decidedly increase."—" Are there any insu-
perable obstacles to the introduction of our woollens into the
northern parts of China ? The ports of China being hermeti-
cally sealed against us for many years ?"—" What do you con-
sider the impediments to a great extension of trade ? The
limits whieh the Chinese have set to the foreign trade ; their
confining it to one remote corner of one of the southern pro-
vinces of the empire. The articles which we import into
China are carried to the northern provinces through the interior


of the country."
" The black tea imported by the East India Company is


grown and manufactured in the province of Fokien, with the
exception of about one-third of that sort called by us Bohea,
which third part is produced in the north-eastern corner of the
province of Canton. The green tea is all grown in the pro-
vinces of Kiang-nan, Kiang-si, and Che-kiang, but chiefly in
the two former."


Mr. Davies, like Mr.Marjoribanks, a servant of the Company,
and of course a friend to the monopoly, says—" the tea trade
would be more beneficial, because I conceive it would be larger,




306 MEANS OF EXTENDING FREE TRADE


the world. The reckless jobbing of those who
managed the old English constitution, has, to-
gether with the uneasiness arising from low pro-
fits, led to such a passion for retrenchment that
the new English government will probably be
denied funds for many a useful purpose. But, in
this case, no public funds are required. The har-
bour dues of Sincapore (which is little more than
a stopping place for English ships) the mere har-
bour dues of that ill-chosen and merely English
port, are sufficient to defray the expense of main-
taining it. The trade of a well-chosen market-
place on the coast of China, open to all nations


if it were near to the centre of the empire ; that very great ac-
cession to the prices of tea which arises from the long land-
carriage would be avoided, if the trade were nearer to the tea
provinces.
" With all that has been done, the facilities" (of internal car-
riage) " are in a very inferior state to what they might he. The
river which brings the tea to Canton from the frontier of the
province, where it has to cross a high mountain, is a mere
trout stream for a great portion of the way ; and foreigners of
all descriptions have been obliged to wait for months at Can-
ton, on account of there not being enough water in that river
to float the vessels that bring the teas."


On this head, more evidence of a conclusive nature might
be brought forward ; but what has been given will satisfy
most readers. Those who wish for further information on the
subject, will find it in Van der Braam's work, in the accounts
of Lord Macartney's and Lord Amherst's embassies, in Cap-
tain Hall's account of Loo Choo, and in the Parliamentary
Reports.


TO THE WHOLE COAST OF CHINA. 307


on equal terms, must produce, from moderate
harbour dues alone, more than enough to cover
the cost of establishing and preserving it ; sup-
posing the work performed in the American
fashion, with a view to utility, not in the old
English fashion, with a view to robbing the public.
Besides, referring to the preceding remarks on the
causes of the value of land, to the value of land
at Sincapore, Penang and Batavia ; a value pro-
duced mainly by the competition of Chinese set-
tlers ; and bearing in mind that as many Chinese
as could find room would settle in a free market-
place near the coast of China, it would seem that
great profits might be made by an outlay of
capital in the way proposed. The English are
puzzled to find investments for their capital. But
if their expiring' I-long, should for the present
forbid them to lay out money in this way, do not
they lend money to the Americans ? and who was
it that lately negociated a loan between English
capitalists and the state of New Orleans? it was
.Joshua Bates, himself an American, chief of
the first commercial firm in England, deeply en-
gaged in American trade, and intimately acquain-
ted with the trade of China. An Anglo-Ame-
rican Company could not, indeed, make money,
by extending free trade to the whole coast of
China, without the sanction of some government,
without a flag and a charter. Penn, who made
money even by planting a colony on the desert




308 MEANS OF EXTENDING FREE TRADE TO THE WHOLE COAST OP CHINA. 309


coast of America, had a charter from his govern-
ment, but beyond that piece of parchment no
assistance. The present English ministers would
not grant a charter for the purpose in question,
which they would dislike as a dangerous example
of cheapness, without patronage, in the manage-
ment of great public undertakings. They would
prefer a costly embassy to Pekin. Lord Amherst's
pocket money, forming part of the great sum ex-
pended on the last embassy, was 40,0001. ; more
than six times the yearly pay of his American ma-
jesty. -The English ministers, then, would spurn
at a proposal for effecting a public object with
private funds ; that is carefully, cheaply, without
patronage, as they lately refused a charter to
Some of the best men in England who wished to
employ private funds in founding a Pennsylvania
on the south coast of New Holland. But their
time is nearly up ; all the usefulness that was in
them having been got out of them. Meanwhile,
before their successors shall be named by the
new ruling order, striped bunting would do as
well as the union jack ; and an Anglo-American
Company, willing to speculate on the establish-
ment of market-places for free trade with the
Chinese, would not be rebuffed at Washington.


At Washington, NewYork, Boston, Baltimore,
or Philadelphia, what follows may be read with
interest.


Questions submitted to Mr. Aken,* with his
answers.


L -What have been your means of becoming
acquainted with the foreign trade of China?—I
commanded the ship Exmouth of 725 tons from
Calcutta, and visited China under a license from
the East India Company in 1817, and spent four
months in the Canton river. In the following
year I again visited China in the same ship, and
again spent four months in the Canton river. In
1819 I made a similar voyage. On all these
occasions the whole of a mixed cargo, worth as
much as 60,0001, was consigned to myself ; and I
had the entire disposal of it, as well as the
charge of reloading the ship, acting as captain
and supercargo.


2. What do you conceive would be the effect
on the unauthorised trade, of establishing insular
commercial stations near the coast, and in the
most favourable situations ?—The effect would
be, that the Chinese would very readily enter
into all your views of trade. Great numbers of
Chinese would settle themselves in such stations,
in order to conduct trade. They would enter


Mr. Aken resides in London. Great part of his life has
been spent at sea : there are but few coasts in the world that
he has not visited 5 and his character as a navigator is esta-
blished by the work of Captain Flinders, who appointed him
master of the Investigator discovery ship.




310 MEANS OF EXTENDING FREE TRADE


heart and soul into the spirit of a free trade,
which nothing could prevent them from establish-
ing. They have all kinds of craft along shore,
the junks being from 20 to 500 tons ; and they
would come with their vessels to the commercial
stations, bringing with them Chinese products to
be exchanged for European and other products.
The government has no power to prevent the
people from trading even in the Canton river,
and could not by any means interfere with a
trade carried on at a short distance from the
main. My opinion of establishing such stations
for trade is, that it would be most advantageous,
and would cause a very great increase of the
foreign trade of China ; but it would destroy the
trade of the Hong merchants, and of the East
India Company also, if Englishmen were not pre-
vented from trading at the stations.


3. What in your opinion are the most. proper
places for such stations ? On this point be so
good as to furnish any information that you may
think calculated to be of use.—On account of the
unskilfulness of the Chinese as sailors it would
be advisable to have more than one station, in
order to keep up a trade with a great extent of
coast. Suppose you had several stations ; I would
begin with one island, called Pulo Condom, in
latitude about 8 deg. North, almost within sight
of the coast of Cambodia ; which island was
settled by the English 130 years ago ; but they


TO THE WHOLE COAST OF CHINA. 311


were cut off by the Macassar soldiers whom they
employed. I have been close to this island and
all round it. It is inhabited by a few fishermen.
The anchorage and shelter are good ; and I was
assured by the people who came from the island
to my ship, that there was plenty of good water
there. The next situation would be one of the
Great Ladrones, or Pirate Isles, near the mouth
of the Canton river ; and the best of these islands
appear to me to be Neong-kong-oa, where there
is good anchorage for a great number of ships,
and plenty of water. This island, on the north
side of the great Lema Channel, used to be
inhabited by pirates of the most ferocious cha-
racter. The Chinese government could not pre-
vent a settlement from being formed there, nor
interfere with the settlers afterwards. Another
place for a station, at which a great trade would
soon spring up, is one of the numerous islands in
the neighbourhood of Amoy, in latitude 24 deg.
North. I have not visited this part of the coast ;
but from such charts as we have, and what I
have heard from those who have sailed further
north than Canton, I have not any doubt that
several islands, well suited for the purpose, would
be found in the neighbourhood of Amoy. The
most important place for a station is still further
north, near the mouths of the great rivers ; but
of this part of the coast I know only that it has
many islands ; as may be said of the whole coast




3 1 2 MEANS OF EXTENDING FREE TRADE TO THE WHOLE COAST OF CHINA. 313


of China, which is more studded with islands
than any other coast in the world.


" Cette Ile, (Formosa) quoique situee visa vis
la province de Fokien, et a trente lieues de la
cote, n'etait pas soumise a I'ernpire de la Chine,
qui n'a point la passion des conquetes, et qui par
une politique inhutnaine et mal entendue, aime
mieux laisser perir une partie de sa population
que d'envoyer la surabondance de ses sujets dans
des terres voisines. Ou trouva que Formose
avait cent trente ou cent quarante lieues de tour.
Ses habitans, a en juger par leurs mceurs et par
leur figure, paraissaient descendus des Tartares
de hi. partie la plus septentrionale de l'Asie.
Vraisemblablement la Coree leur avait servi de
chemin. Its vivaient, la plupart, de peche ou de
chasse et allaient presque nus. Les Hollandais,
apres avoir pris sans obstacle toutes les lumieres
que la prudence exigent, jugerent que le lieu le
plus favorable pour un etablissement etoit rine
petite file voisine de la grande. Its trouvaient
dans cette situation trois avantages considerables ;
une defense aisee, si la haine on la jalousie cher-
chaient a les troubler ; tin port forme par les
deux Iles; la facilite d avoir dans toutes les
moussons une communication sure avec la Chine.
La nouvelle colonic se fortifiait insensiblement
sans eclat, lorsqu'elle s'dlevq, tout d'un coup 4 une


prosperite qui etonna toute l'Asie. Ce flit a, la
conquete de la Chine par les Tartares qu'elle dut
ce bonheu r inespóre: ainsi les torrens engraissent
les vallons de la substance des montagnes ravagees.
Plus de cent mille Chinois, qui ne voulaient pas
se soumettre au vainqueur, se refugierent a For-
mose. Its y porterent l'activite qui leur est par-
ticuliere, la culture du riz et du sucre, et y
attirerent des vaisseaux sans nombre de leur
nation. Bientdt file devint le centre de toutes les
liaisons que Java, Siam, les Philippines, la. Chine,
le Japon, et d'autres contrees voulurent former.
EN PEU D'ANNEES ELLE SE TROUVA LE PLUS GRAND


MARCHE DE L'INDE."*


* The Abbe Raynal's Philosophical and Political History of
the Establishments and Commerce of Europeans in the two
Indies. Vol. i, p. 286. Paris Edition of Amable Costes & Co.




p 4 SOME SOCIAL PECULIARITIES, &C. 315


NOTE IX.


SOME SOCIAL PECULIARITIES OF THE AMERICANS.


Peculiar state of religion—causes of superstition
without bigotry or fanaticism—i nquisitiveness-
rudeness of the backwoodsman—bigotry in pa-
triotism—neglect qf learning.


MOST English travellers in America hurt their
credit for veracity by describing instances of the
most violent religious phrenzy. In England, many
people do not believe Mrs. Trollope's story of
the " anxious benches" : I do, not doubting either,
but satisfied, that throughout the less populous
parts of the union people often meet for the ex-
press purpose of working themselves into a state
of superstitious madness. To overrate the crazy
doings of a camp-meeting in the back woods
would be impossible. Bodies writhing, arms
swinging, legs dancing, eyes rolling ; groans,
shouts, howls and shrieks ; men knocking their
own heads against trees, and women tearing the
clothes off each other's backs ; the congregation
frantic with fear of the devil and the preacher
drunk with his own gibberish ; it is all true, and
of common occurrence. Captain Hall would say,
it arises from the want of a spending class to set


an example of decorum in public worship ; or
from the want of loyalty, to which he attributes
so many of Jonathan's peculiarities. Mrs. Trollope
would have the English believe, that superstition
in America is owing to democratic government.
Some, again, find a cause for it in the want of a
state religion ; adopting the notion of David
Hume, and supposing that " each ghostly practi-
tioner, depending for subsistence on the liberality
of individuals continually endeavours by some
novelty to excite the languid devotion of his
audience, without regard to truth, morals or
decency in the doctrines inculcated ; and that
thus every tenet is adopted that best suits the dis-
orderly affections of the human frame, customers
being drawn to each conventicle by new industry
and address in practicing on the passions and
credulity of the populace." Another set of Eng-
lishmen who, in their abstract love of democracy,
cannot bear to be told that some things in Ame-
rica might be mended ; haters of church establish-
ments, too, who therefore disagree with David
Hume ; these, when asked to account for the ex-
cesses of love feasts and camp meetings, lay all
the blame on the oppressors of those puritans who
colonized New England, concluding that the
fanaticism which arose from persecution has been
handed down to living Americans and spread
over the union by emigration from the New Eng-
land states. The doctrines of Mrs. Trollope and




316 SOME SOCIAL PECULIARITIES OF THE AMERICANS. 317


Captain Hall are not worth, the others will not
bear, examination.


Flume's argument in favour of church establish-
ment- supposes the existence of a " populace,"
liable from their profound ignorance to be de-
luded by needy speculators in religion. But
there is no populace in America;. and those con-
gregations, whether under roofs or in the forest,
which most resemble the inmates of a mad-house
are composed of people whose knowledge goes
beyond reading and writing ; shrewd, worldly-
minded, calculating, industrious, buyers and sel-
lers, and what is more, politicians represented in a
local parliament and in congress, who make the
laws which they have to obey ; laws which, mea-
sured by the rule of utility, show more practical
wisdom in the makers than the " greatest states-
men" of Europe can pretend to. On the other
hand, the spirit of puritanism is extinct in. Ame-
rica. The founders of New England, as their
hot zeal arose from persecution, so were they,
always excepting the quakers, persecutors in their
turn, more cruel than the oppressors from whom
they had fled.; and far more bigoted, since they
persecuted as they had suffered for religion's sake,
while the churchmen who had hunted them out
of England were moved by. a spirit altogether
worldly. But that bitter, that most vindictive
religious zeal, which dictated the first laws of the
New England colonies, is now unknown in Ame-


ricer: The odium theologicum did not descend to
the grand children of the puritans. Scenes have
been lately acted at Exeter Hall, in London, ex-
hibitions of furious religious bigotry, such as
it would be impossible to get up in America ;
where all sects are tolerant, and not one takes
half so much pains to make proselytes as several
sects in England. Of the many religions that
flourish in America one only, of course, can be
true ; yet is there no one sect, which zealously
declares all the others in the wrong. In things
spiritual, as there is neither favor nor persecu-
tion from the government, so bigotry and fanati-
cism, in the English sense of those words, have
perished. In order to describe the peculiar state
of religion in America one must use words not
commonly applied to the subject.


The 'Americans, speaking generally, are reli-
gious by habit, but not constantly, not mixing up
things spiritual with things temporal,not showing,
I had almost said not feeling, religious sentiments,
except when they meet for public worship. The
custom of attending public worship is almost.
universal ; and to neglect it would. be considered
indecent ; but so completely has custom taken the
place of zeal in this matter, that what form of
worship a citizen prefers is perfectly indifferent to
all- the other citizens, like the colour of his coat.
Members of the same family, even, belong to
congregations of opposite tenets without the




318 SOME SOCIAL PECULIARITIES OF THE AMERICANS. 319


slightest interruption of domestic peace. More-
over, avowed deists, who in England would be
scouted as infidels, are as much respected as the
most devout Christians, provided they belong to
a sect and congregate once a week to profess
their limited faith. Lukewarmness, indifference,
this would be called in England, and has been
called by English writers ; but some other ex-
pression must be found for it, since amongst the
most tolerant congregations in America are those
which occasionally work themselves into a state
of religious phrenzy. Sobriety in general, with
occasional fits of intoxication, seems a more cor-
rect description of spiritual matters in America.
The general sobriety is explained by a total sepa-
ration between religion and politics ; but this
does not account for the occasional drunkenness.
What is the cause of that religious phrenzy now
and then exhibited by people, whose ordinary
religious feelings are so tolerant and sober, so
much the reverse of bigotry and fanaticism ?


The terms of the question point to an answer
which explains this curious moral phenomenon.
Violent occasional excitement of the mind ap-
pears to be a physical want with those, whose
ordinary condition either does not require or
prevents much mental exertion. None take such
delight in getting drunk with spirits, as the
savage whose monotonous life keeps his mental
faculties in a state of torpor. Rum in America,


whisky in Ireland, gin at present in England,
opium in Turkey and China, and tobacco in
Spain, are substitutes for moral stimulants. But
where in the wide world shall be found any con-
siderable number of people, whose minds are not
actively employed by their common pursuits, and
who yet forego the use of extraordinary stimu-
lants? No where. The rule is universal, inclu-
ding those savages, who for want of spirits,
drugs, music, shows, romances and idols, are said
to intoxicate themselves by twirling round till
they fall. The kinds of mental stimulants which
it seems in man's nature to require, differ with
the infinite variety of men's circumstances. The
spirits of a water drinker are raised by one glass
of wine, drank without company ; while an habi-
tual wine drinker is not elated by a dozen glasses,
nor by two dozen unless there be others to drink
with him. The solitary prisoner is exhilarated by
obtaining a single companion, drunk, he knows
not why, when he returns to society ; while on
him who enjoys social intercourse every day, it
has no unusual effect. There would be no end of
examples to show that different circumstances or
states of mind produce a craving for mental sti-
mulants very different in kind and degree ; that
in this case, as in so many more, what is one
man's meat is another man's poison.


Now the dispersed inhabitants of America, and
in particular of those new settlements where love-




320 SOME SOCIAL. PECULIARITIES


feasts and camp meetings are most common, pass
a great part of their lives in solitude ; not in
absolute solitude, like that which when inflicted
as a punishment produces death or insanity, but
out of the way of social intercourse, each family
being isolated from all the others, except on rare
occasions, when they congregate in spite of dis-
tance and bad roads. The effect on the mind of
this lonely and monotonous existence, can hardly
be conceived by Englishmen generally, to whom
the stillness of the country gives fresh and plea-
sant feelings. To a lone American family, there
is nothing so delightful as one of those occasions
when many families meet for any purpose ; and
when thousands meet for a religious purpose, the
congregation, excited by a total change of scene,
by the unusual confluence of numbers, and by
the novelty of an impulse common to many, are
easily intoxicated by eloquence of which the ob-
ject is to inflame their already heated imagina-
tions. The preacher may or may not be as sin-
cere as his audience ; but in either case he is not
to be blamed for their extravagance.. Instead of
causing the phrenzy over which he presides, he
only helps to gratify a desire, the desire for some
violent mental excitement, which has resulted
from sameness and solitude. A wandering preacher
in America does not create, but only supplies, a
demand for his services ; visiting thinly peopled
districts, not with a view to delude the scattered


OF THE AMERICANS. 321


inhabitants, but because he knows that they
already long for his presence, that they are wait-
ing for a dose of superstitious terror ; and that if
he should not help them to devil-worship, they
would send for some other dealer in that, to
them, intoxicating drug.


It has been remarked, that on these occasions
of self-sought delirium, the women are wilder
than the men. And this might have been ex-
pected ; because as almost every where women
lead a more lonely and monotonous life than
men, they are more susceptible of excitement
from novelty and crowds. They are so especially
in the back settlements of America, where travel-
ling, if not dangerous, requires energy and bodily
strength, not to mention how - much time. In such
spots, men pass weeks together without exchang-
ing two ideas ; women, months, or even years,
without forming one. If the men did not attend
markets, fairs and elections, they would proba-
bly be as wild as the women at love feasts and
camp meetings. The peculiar extravagance of
the women on such occasions, helps to account
for the extravagance of both sexes ; and this view
of the subject is confirmed by reflecting that
they who compose the wildest congregations of
America, when they return home after a fit of
superstitious intoxication, are as diligent as ever
in their ordinary pursuits, more contented than
before, and, touching religion, not less tolerant




322
SOME SOCIAL PECULIARITIES


and sober, not a whit less different from English
bigots and fanatics.*


It would be a great mistake to suppose that
obstacles to social intercourse are confined to
the newest settlements. When the states were
colonies, waste land was usually given away by
their governments, often in vast tracts to per-


Flint in his Geography and History of the Western
States, after showing the utility of camp meetings, writes :-
" Nine tenths of the religious instruction of the country, is
given by people who itinerate, and who are, with very few
exceptions, notwithstanding all that has been said to the con-
trary, men of great zeal and sanctity. These earnest men,
who have .


little to expect from pecuniary support, and less
from the prescribed reverence and influence, which can only
appertain to a stated ministry, find at once that every thing
depends on the cultivation of popular talents. Zeal for the
great cause, mixed imperceptibly with a spice of earthly ambi-
tion, and the latent emulation and pride of our nature, and
other motives which unconsciously influence, more or less,
the most sincere and the most disinterested—the desire of dis-
tinction among their contemporaries and their brethren—and
a reaching struggle for the fascination of popularity, goad them
on to study all the means and arts of winning the people. Tra-
velling from month to month through dark forests, with such
ample time and range for deep thought, as they amble slowly
on horseback through their perigrinations, the men naturally
acquire a pensive and romantic turn of thought and expres-
sion, such as we think favourable to eloquence. Hence the
preaching is of a highly popular east, and its first aim is to ex-
cite thefeelings. Hence too, EXCITEMENTS, or in religious par-
lance, ' awakenings ' are common in all this region." Quoted
by Stuart, vol. 2, page 456.


OF THE AMERICANS. 323


sons who had no means of cultivating them, and
who, therefore, either left the, land in a desert
state, or disposed of it to others at so very cheap
a rate that individuals readily obtained more
land than they could possibly cultivate. In either
case, the dispersion of the people was very great ;
for either the desert, wanting roads, was a bar to
intercourse amongst the people who surrounded
it, or each settler fixed on it was, still by want
of roads, separated from all the other settlers.
But since the government of the United. States
has, generally, instead of giving away new land,
sold it by auction to the highest bidder above a
fixed minimum price, some new. states which
offered peculiar attractions, have been more
densely or rather less thinly peopled than some
of the old colonies, and far better provided with
roads, which are more easily made in proportion
as they are less wanted, that is, in proportion as
the people are less dispersed. Still, above two-
thirds of the inhabitants of America pass the
greater part of their lives in comparative lone-
liness ; in a state which, if it could be imagined
by hill squires in Wales, even they would call
unbearable solitude. It is a state of existence
not readily imagined by any Englishman, quite
incomprehensible by those who have always lived
in towns ; but the Englishman, who shall con-
ceive what it is, will be at no loss to account for
many American habits and customs, besides that




324 SOME SOCIAL PECULIARITIES OF THE AMERICANS. 325


peculiar kind of superstition which displeases
English travellers.


The officers of Captain Parry's second voyage,
after being cut off from the world for more than
two years, landed on one of the Shetland islands,
and were invited to dine with a party of the inha-
bitants. At this meeting, I have been told, ques-
tions and answers formed the whole conversation;
the voyagers, though craving for news, being
obliged to gratify the habitual inquisitiveness of
those secluded islanders. In like manner, the
curiosity of Americans is not a vulgar trick, nor,
as some will have it, a fruit of democratic govern-
ment, but a result, natural and inevitable, of a
faulty mode of colonization, in which no thought
was ever taken to keep a clue proportion between
people and land.*


The American of the backwoods has often
been described to the English as grossly igno-
rant, dirty, unsocial, delighting in rum and
tobacco, attached to nothing but his rifle, adven-
turous, restless, more than half savage. Deprived
of social enjoyments, or excitements, he has
recourse to those of savage life, and becomes (for
in this respect the Americans degenerate) unfit


* " I found them very inquisitive; far more so than any of
the New Englanders I have ever met with ; but I afterwards
learned that these people had lately come from a remote part of
the country, where, probably, there were no schools." Stuart,
vol. 2, page 345.


for society. As the evils of society, misery and.
vice produced by misery, are unknown- in Ame-
rica, as they would have been quite as well
avoided with a greater concentration of the peo-
ple ; as, indeed, the produce of American indus-
try might have been greater if the people had
been less dispersed, the semi-barbarism of Ame-
rican backwoodsmen is an unnecessary evil ; and
an evil, too, without the least countervailing ad-
vantage; but, though caused without a motive,still
it has been caused by all the governments which
have disposed of new land in America, from that of
Queen Elizabeth, which bestowed twenty-five
millions of acres upon an individual, to that of
President Jackson, which sells new land at the
very low price of five shillings per acre.


Americans are accused of presumption, conceit
and gross national vanity. Allowing for excep-
tions in the more populous parts of the union,
and especially in the great sea-port towns, the
people of America may, in this respect, be likened
to the Tartar conquerors of China, who, being
themselves barbarous, consider all but themselves
barbarians. The least civilized Americans, those
in a word who despise the old country, make up,
like the Chinese mandarins, for want of bigotry
in religion, by excessive bigotry in their patriot-
ism. Some Creoles of New South Wales visiting
England, thought London a miserable place
when compared with Sydney. The settlers of




OF THE AMERICANS. 327:326


SOME SOCIAL PECULIARITIES


-4'


New South Wales and Van Dieinen's Land, ad-
joining colonies, planted by the same people, in
the same way, and nearly at the same time,
cannot bear, if we may judge by their books and
newspapers, any comparison between the two
very similar sheep-walks, which does not represent.
one as greatly superior to the other, according to
which set of colonists may be addressed. Nearly
all colonists, it is remarked, or at least nearly all
people born in dispersed colonies, are fanatically
proud of their own wild country and love to dis-
parage the rest of the world. This narrowness
of mind, arising from ignorance, seems proper to
the barbarous conquerors of China ; but, in co-
lonies planted by the most civilized nations, it is
a degenerate sentiment, a step backwards from
civilization to barbarism, and out of the course
of nature, which seems favourable, stoppages
reckoned, to the improvement of mankind. In
such cases, the ignorance which promotes con-
ceit and mean pride, is a result of dispersion ;
the original cause of it in America being, not de-
mocracy, Captain Hall, but the low price of new
land.


But the Captain Halls of England, when they
contend that democracy produces neglect of
learning in America, make out a case which has
some show of truth. The memory of Franklin,
say they, honored in Europe, is despised in Ame-
rica, save by a few whose eccentricity goes to


prove the rule. Subject colonies produced scholars
and philosophers ; the democratic union depends
on England for literature, or rather - for a supply
of novels, the only books suited to the American
market. In all the United States, there is not an
observatory ; Copley and West could not live in
America ; Cooper and Irving publish in Europe.
Amongst nations called civilized the Americans
are the most neglectful of fine arts, science and
philosophy ; and in America the cultivation of
learning has fallen off with the progress of de-
mocracy. Therefore, in America, democracy is
unfavourable to the cultivation of learning.


This statement of facts is true ;* and the con-
clusion appears true to many in England, because
English travellers in the United States have care-
fully shut their eyes to a circumstance by which
they might have accounted for most of the social
peculiarities of America. Democracy, that is, po-


Men of science, too, and of literature, not a small body in
England, will find but few persons in the United States not
engaged in professional business, and have not, in that country,
the means of resorting to great public libraries, which they find
in England indispensable for their pursuits. They find but few


people disposed to sympathise with them in the objects which interest
them. The United States do not offer a desirable asylum for
persons of this description, even if they are in straightened cir-
cumstances. It will be much more for their happiness to con-
tract their style of living in England than to make a voyage to


America." Stuart vol. 2, page 427.




328 SOME SOCIAL PECULIARITIES OF THE AMERICANS. 329


litical equality, which lays open to all alike every
career of ambition, and makes usefulness the
standard of merit, must surely be very favour-
able to the cultivation of learning; more especially
when accompanied, as it is in the United States,
by universal ease, which bestows leisure upon all.
The Americans are the only people in the world
blessed with leisure and equality. If political
equality should be established in England, to-
gether with high profits and wages, who can
doubt that the English would advance rapidly in
every department of knowledge. Why then have
the Americans degenerated in this respect ? why
do they set a lower value on knowledge than the
colonists of Franklin's time ?


" Though," says Adam Smith " in a rude state
of society there is a good deal of variety in the
occupations of every individual, there is not a
great deal in those of the whole society. Every
man does or is capable of doing almost every
thing which any other man does or is capable of
doing. Every man has a considerable degree of
knowledge, ingenuity and invention, but scarce
any man has a great degree. The degree, how-
ever, which is commonly possessed is generally
sufficient for conducting the whole simple business
of society. In a civilized state, on the contrary,
though there is little variety in the occupations
of the greater part of individuals, there is an
almost infinite variety in those of the whole


society. These varied occupations present an
almost infinite variety of objects to the contem-
plation of those few, who, being attached to no
particular occupation themselves, have leisure
and inclination to examine the occupations of
other people. The contemplation of so great a
variety of objects necessarily exercises their minds
in endless comparisons and combinations and
renders their understandings in an extraordinary
degree both acute and comprehensive." But
rudeness and civilization are effects as well as
causes. By going further back, by substituting
dispersed for rude and concentrated for civilized,
we get nearer, at least, to the truth. In the
history of the world, there is no example of a
society at once dispersed and highly civilized ;
while there are instances without end, in the
history of colonization, of societies, which, being
civilized, became barbarous as soon as they were
dispersed over an extensive territory. That divi-
sion of each man's labour amongst several em-
ployments, which, says Adam Smith, is the im-
mediate cause of ignorance, is an effect of disper-
sion ; and dispersion interferes with the cultiva-
tion of knowledge in another way ; that is, by
obstacles to social intercourse, to the interchange
of ideas, to the exercise of the mental faculties.
By adding to this consideration one fact, the
difficulty may be solved.


The citizens of the United States are a more
z




330 SOME SOCIAL" PECULIARITIES


dispersed society than the colonists of Franklin's
time. When Jefferson wrote the declaration of
independence, the vast regions west of the Al-.
leghanies had scarcely been opened for settlement.
Washington became a soldier in contests with
the Indians on the western frontier of Virginia,
which is now the eastern frontier of states more
extensive than the dependent colonies. Even if
the increase of people had been equal to the ac-,
quisition of land, still the dispersion would have
been greater, because the interior settlements are,
by reason of their great distance from the sea,
more deficient in natural means of communica-
tion. Washington often foretold some of the
evils that would result from spreading towards
the west, unless the eastern and western states
were connected by canals and good roads. His
warning was neglected until lately, when the
eastern states became:alarmed at:the amount of
emigration to the west.. In those eastern states,
the dependent colonies that were, they talk now
of Washington's inspiration, and are most anxious
to establish means of intercourse with the western
settlements : they will find it difficult to remedy
their own error. The western wilderness was
theirs and liable to be treated in the way most
for their advantage. They thought only of grati-
fying their national vanity, by extending as much
as possible the surface of the union. Not content
with promoting emigration to the wilderness,


OF THE AMERICANS. 331


when their own population was so scanty that
they ought rather to have encouraged immigra-
tion from Europe, they sent to Europe for the
purpose of acquiring more wilderness, and in one
case actually paid hard money for an accession
of mischief.* The result is, that population has
spread, not merely as fast as it has increased, but
faster ; that there are fewer people to the square
mile than when population was about a quarter
of its present amount ; and that this smaller
number of people in proportion to land, besides
being separated from each other by greater dis-
tance, are not so well provided with the means
of social intercourse. Where there are markets,
there the people live together ; but these are few
and far between. What the Americans would
probably have been without markets, and to what
they are indebted for the existence of markets, is
shown in the following notes.


* "The acquisition by the United States in 1803, of the
territories belonging to Prance in North America, including
New Orleans, Louisiana and the Mississippi, was a most im-
portant one. The ncgociations resulted in the cession of the
French territory in North America, exceeding in extent the whole
land then belonging to the United Stales, for sixty millions of
francs." Stuart, vol. 2, p. 227.


END OF VOL. I.




ENGLAND


AND


AMERICA.


A COMPARISON OF THE SOCIAL AND POLITICAL


STATE OF BOTH NATIONS.


TUVO VOLUMES.


VOL. II.


LONDON:
t?


RICHARD BENTLEY, NEW BURLINGTON STREET.


LONDON


PRINTED BY \VILLIAM NICOL, CLEYELAND-ROW, ST. JAME S.
1833.




1111•1"--


CONTENTS OF VOLUINIE II.


NOTE X.


ORIGIN, PROGRESS AND PROSPECTS, OF SLAVERY IN AMERICA.


Declamation against slavery—history of the origin and pro-
gress of slavery in America—cause of slavery—prospects of
slavery in the British West Indios—in the United States-
possible means of abolisbing slavery in the United States


-without a servile war - pago 1


NOTE XI.


APOLOGY FOR TITE AMERICAN TARIFE.


Opinions of Englishmen respecting the tariff—moral advan-
tages of the tariff—econornical advantages of the tariff—dif-
fcrence of feeling between the southern and northern states
respecting the tariff—the tariff good, upon the whole, for
the people of America, and thcrefore a work becoming de-
mocratic government—when the tariff may be repealed with
great advantage to America page 47


NOTE XII.


TLIE ART OF COLONIZATION.


I ntroduction—nature and limits of the subject—the ends of
colonization as respects the ruother-country—the extension
of markets—relief from excessive nurnbers—enlargement of
the field for employing capital— ends of colonization


PRINTEI> BY w. NICOL, CLEVELAND-ROW, Sr. JAMES S.




T


15. CONTENTS.


respects the colony—the rneans of colonization—the dis-
posal of waste land—the removal of people—co-operation
of the mother-country—the foundation of colonies—the g-o-
vernment of colonies


- page 61


APPENDIX.


No. 1.


Proofs of the industry, skill and commercial disposition, of the
Chinese people -
page 265


No. 2.


Proofs of the rapidity with which waste latid rises in value,
wherever people congregate, in new colonies - page 287


No. 3.


Part of a correspondence between the English government and
a body of individuals desirous to found a colony - page 305


NOTE X.


ORIGIN, PROGRESS AND PROSPECTS OF SLAVERY IN
AMERICA.


Declamation against slavery history of the
origin and progress of slavery in America-
cause qf slavery—prospects of slavery in Me
British ¡'Vest Indies—in the United States-
possible means of abolishiy slavery in the
United States witliout a servile war.


" THE existente of slavery," says 1.54r. Stuart,*
" in its most hideous forra, in a country of abso-
lute in most respects, is one of those
extraordinary anomalies for which it is impossible
to account."


The writer of the declaration of American in-
dependence has also writtcn—" What an incom-
prehensible machine is man I who can endure
toil, famine, stripes, imprisonment, and death
itself, in vindication of his own liberty, and the
next moment be deaf to all those motives whose
power supported him through his trial, and inflict
on his fellow men a bondage, one hour of which
is fraught with more misery tban ages of that
which he rose in rebellion to oppose. But we must


Vol. ii. page 113.
VOL. II. 13




2 ORIGIN, PROGRESS AND PROSPECTE


wait with patience the workings of an over-
ruling Providence, and pope that that is preparing
the deliverance of these our suffering brethren.
When the mensure of their tears shall be full-
when their tears shall have involved heaven itself
in darkness—doubtless a God of justice will
awaken to their distress, and, by diffusing a light
and liberality amongst their oppressors, or, at
length, by his exterrninating thunder, manifest
bis attention to things of this world, and that they
are not left to the guidance of blind fa,tality."


" Every American," says an English writer,*—
every American who loves his country should de-
dicate bis whole life, and every faculty of his soul,
to efface the foul blot of slavery from its character.
If nations rank according to their wisdom and
their virtue, what right has the American, a
scourger and murderer of s'aves, to compare him-
self with the least and lowest of the European
nations, much more with this great and humane
country where the greatest lord dare not lay a
finger on the meanest peasant ? What is freedom
where all are not free ? where the greatest cf God's
blessings is limited, with impions caprice, to the
colorir of the body ? And these are the men who
taunt the English with their corrnpt parliament,
with their buying and selling votes. Let the world


Edinburgh Review, No. LXI. Art. " Travellers in Ame-
rica," attributed to Mr. (now Lord) Brouzbam.


OF SLAVERY IN AMERICA. 3


judge which is the most liable to censure—we,
who in the midst of our rottenness, have torn off
the manacles of slaves all over the world, or they,
who, with their idle purity, and useless perfec--
tion, have remained mute and careless whilc
groans echoed and whips clanked round the very
walls of their spotless congress. We wish well to
America—we rejoice in her prosperity—and are.
dclighted to resist the absurd impertinence with.
which the character of her people is often treated
in this country. But the cxistence of slaver y in
America, is an atrocious CriDIC, with which no
mensures can be kept—for which her situation


or is no sort of apology—which makes liberty
itself distrusted, and the boast of it disgusting."


These passages describe the feeling of English-
men generally, and of not a few Americans, with
respect to slavery in America. But when was
any great evil cured by mere declamation ? and
what but mere declamation is there in these pas-
sages ? Libe other evils, slavery in America has its
causes ; and until these be removed the evil effect
must continue. No Englishman, no American,
as far as I know, has taken the trocable to aseer-
ta.in the causes of slavery in America. Izad this
been done, it might perhaps appear, that the situ-
ation of America does affbrd some sort of apology
for the foul stain upon her character. The causes
of slavery in America will be found in a brief bis-
tory of its origin and progress ; and, these ascer-




4 ORIGIN, PROGRESS AND PROSPECTS


tained, the prospects of slavery may be examined
with some chance of a useful result.


The first European colony in America was
planted by Spaniards in the island of St. Domingo,
or, as it was originally called, Hispaniola. :The
first Spanish colonists of St. Domingo received
from the Spanish crown extensive grants of the
most fertile land. The settlers carried with them
an abundance of capital, and each settler obtained
more good land than he could possibly cultivate.
But land and capital are not the only elements of
production. In orden to produce wealth the first
colonists of St. Domingo wanted labourers. If
some of them had laid out a portion of their
capital in conveying labourers from Spain, the
other settlers, who had not so expended a portion
of their capital, would have been able to pay for
the service of such labourers more than those
could have paid, who had dirninished their capital
by conveying labourers from Spain. Those who
had not so ditninished their capital, offering
higher wages than those who would have
enjoyed what the former had expended capital
to procure. This does actually occur very often
in modem English colonies. Thus, unless all the
settlers had agreed that each should take out a
number of labourers in proportion to his capital,
none of them could have had any motive for lay-
ing out capital in that:way. Moreover, if such an
agreement had been possible, and its execution


OF SLAVERY IN AMERICA. 5


practicable, the labourers taken out by the capi-
talists, to a place where every one could obtain
plenty of good land for a trifle, would have ceased
to be labourers for hire ; they would have become
independent landowners, if not competitors with
their former masters in the market oflabour. This
also does actually occur every day in several
modem colonies. Consequently, the first Spanish
settlers in St. Domingo did not obtain labourers
from Spain. But, without labourers, their capital
must have perished, or at least must soon have
been•diminished to that small amount which each
individual could employ with bis own hands.
This has actually occurred in the last colony
founded by Englishmen—the Swan River settle-
ment—where a great mass of capital, of seeds, im-
plements and cattle, has perished for want of
labourers to use it, and where no settler has pre-
served much more capital than he can employ
with bis own hands. The first settlers in St.
Domingo remaining without labourers, their only
prospect was a solitary, wild, half-savage exist-
ence. Nay, they might have died for want. Of
the colonies planted in modem times, more have
perished than have prospered. Those settlers
might have died of want, because their own la-
bour, not being combined in any degree, but
being cut up into fractions as numerous as the
individuals, might not have produced enough (o
keep them alive. In the colonies of modem times,




6 ORIGIN, PROGRESS AND PROSPECTS OP SLAVERY IN AMERICA. 7


thousands of people have died from this cause,
and some in the last colony founded by England.
Urged by this want of labourers, the first settlers
in St. Domingo persuaded the Spanish govern ment
to include in each of its grants of land a propor-
tionate grant qf natives. The most ancient grants
of land in Hispaniola mention the number of
natives which each grantee was authorised to treat
as cattle. This was the origin of slavery in
America.


The colonists, by means of the supply of labour
thus obtained, readily acquired wealth ; for they
could now employ many hands in the same work,
at the same time, and for a long period of time
without intermission. Other Spaniards, inflamed
by the accounts which reached Spain of the suc-
cess of the first colonists, hurried to St. Domingo,
and, obtaining grants of natives as well as land,
prospered like d'ose who had gone before them.
In the course of a few years, the prosperity of


excited, as that of the United States (loes
now, the envy and admiration of Europe. But the
colonists, regardless of the falle, killed the goose
for its golden eggs : they destroyed the feeble
natives by over working them. The colony had
hardly reached a very flourishing condition when
the source of its prosperity was dried up. In this
emergeney, it occurred to the dejected settlers
that the neighbouring islands were inhabited. To
those islands SODIO of them repaired and seized


the natives, whom they sold to the planters of
St. Domingo. This was the first siave trade car-
ried on in America.


But the discovery of a supply of labour, which
seemed inexhaustible, was not ca.lculated to teacit
the colonists either caution or humanity. As they
had overworked and destroyed the natives of St.
Domingo, so they worked to death the slaves
whom they procured from other islands. It has
been said that in religious and moral England,
there are men who make a practice of buying an
old or diseased horse for the value of its skin,
and driving it without food tul it dies ; the mo-
tive assigned for such barbarity being the clear
profit obtained by the use of an animal, which
costs nothing for keep while in use, and yet
sells, when dead, for as much as it cost alivie.
Somewhat in like tnanner, the planters -of St.
Domingo found it more profitable to work slaves
to death, and replace them, than to preserve their
existence by suiting their work to their strength.
This \vholesale nmrder of stolen Indians produced
a feeling of indignation in Europe. Las Casas,
the Clarkson or Wilberforce of his time, founded
a sect of abolitionists ; a panty closely resembling
in many points the European and American abo-
litionists of the present day. They spared no
pains for the attainment of their object. By ex-
citingthe best feelings of hu man nature, by spread-
ing throughout Europe detailed accounts of the




8 ORIGIN, PROGRESS AND PROSPECTS


cruelties to which Spanish slaves were subject, by
circulating tracts, by an extensive correspondence,
by worming their way into courts and councils,
by enlisting on their side the tender but powerful
influence of women, by extraordinary watchful-
ness to seize every opportunity, and diligence in
turning it to account, and still more by their un-
alterable constancy of purpose, they at length
made an impression on the government of Spain.
But although the King of Spain listened to the
abolitionists, he was unwillingto ruin the plantees:
he consented to protect the Indians to the utmost
extent, using modern language, that was compa-
tible with the rights of property and the interests
of the slave owners : in other words, he expressed
compassion for the slaves, because this was re-
quired by public opinion, but he would do nothing
for them. The question was in this state when
the abolitionists themselves proposed, that the
planters might spare the feeble natives of America
by procuring hardy negro slaves from Africa. The
suggestion was adopted, and found to answer its
purpose. Red slavery was abolished, and black
slavcry established ; and this was the beginning of
a slave trade between Africa and America.


The first English settlers in America, obtained
from queen Elizabeth a grant of land to thc
extent of two hundred miles in every direction
from -the spot on which they inight establish
themselves. They found a country which they


OF SLAVERY IN AMERICA. 9


described as a paradise, and to which the queen,
delighted with their account of it, gave the narre
of Virginia. Instead, however, of proceeding
without delay to cultivate a very small part of
the fertile territory at their disposal, they were
ternpted by its very extent to wander up and
clown upon it ; until the capital which they had
taken with them being consumed they were
reduced to fatnine, and gladly seized an opportu-
nity of returning to England. In the following
year, another settlement was made under the same
grant and on the same spot ; but though on this
occasion the setticrs had an ample stock of seeds,
implements and cattle, with provisions for two
years, every one of thern perished ; by what means,
indeed, can only be inferred, since the skeleton
of one man was all that remained of this colony
when a third body of emigrants from England
reached thc place of settlement. In two years
this third body of emigrants had disappeared like
the second. Thus, three attempts to take advan-
tage of abundance of good " the sole cause,"
says Adam Smith, " of the prosperity of new colo-
nies," entirely failed ; attempts, too, directed by
sir Walter Raleigh, a man eminently qualified to
insure their success. Why tiloso attempts failed,
may be conjectured from what happened to the
first body of English settlers in America that
(lid not perish.


The first English colony in America that did




w


10 ortIGIN, PROGRESS AND PROSPECTS


not perish, ovas planted in Chesapeakc Bay under
a grant from king James 1., who bestowed good
land upon the settlers, not by the acre or the
mile, but by degrees of latitude, and without
limit as to longitude. In this case, a few hun-
dred persons, amply provided with capital, and,
led, too, by men of experience and conduct, ob-
tained more land of very great natural fertility
than existed in the densely peopled country that
they had abandoned. In the course of twenty
years, they were joined by nearly as many thousand
emigrants ; yet at the end of that period the
population of the colony was less than two thousand
souls. - This most uncomrnon decrease of people
was occasioned by extreme misery. Of the first
settlers, each was able to obtain as much good
land as he desired to call bis own. F•om this
great abundance of good land, nothing being
done lo counteract it, there acose two evil con-
sequences in particular. la the first place, nearly
every one became indepenclent of all the others,
working by himself in solitude, and therefore
dividing his labour amongst so many occupations,
that he could bestow but little of bis time on the
production of food, while that small portion of
his labour which was so employed produced but
little, because scarce any operation of agricul-
turre is very productive unless there be employed
in it severa! pairs of hands in combination and
constantly, in the same particular work, at the


OP SLAVERY IN AMERICA. 11


same time and for a considerable period of time
together. Secondly, as nearly every one took
possession of a great deal more land than he could
possibly cultivate, the greater part of what he pos-
sessed became, by becoming his, as a desert which
surrounded him. No roads were made, because
as nearly every settler did every thing for himself
and by himself, that combination of power which
is indispensable to the construction of a road
was out of the case. Thus each settler was sur-
roundcd, not mercly by a desert, but by a desert
which was ncxt to impassable. Further, lunch
of the capital which had been taken out, such as
cattle, seeds and implementa, perished either on
the beach or in the forest, because the owncrs of
it could not preserve that well-regulated laborar
without which it is impossible that capital should
be increased or even preserved. As every colo-
nist was isolated, so all wanted both the means
and the motive for raising any surplus produce ;
and any unfavourable accident, consequently,
such as a wet harvest time or an incursion of the
Indians, reduced rnany to want, cut off some by
fitmine, and brought the colony to the verge of
destruction. The records and traditions of
ginia leave no doubt, that the first .inhabitants
of that country suffered, du•ing a long course of
years, every conceivable hardship.


The colony was on the point of being aban-
doned, when five huncired emigrants, most of




12 ORIGIN, PROGRESS AND PROSPECTS OF SLAVERY IN AMERICA.
13


them of the labouring class, arrived from Eng-
land. He who is accustomed only to what takes
place in densely peopled countries, may imagine
that this infiux of labourers into a society, whose
only want was the want of labourers, must have.
produced the most happy results. But this was
not the case : the evil cause existed still and pro-
duced the same evil effect. The great plenty of
land led nearly all the newly arrived emigrants to
become isolated settlers ; there were more colo-
nists for a time, but not one was in a better con-
dition, or had a better prospect, in consequence of
an increase of numbers. At length, the whose
body of settlers, dispersed, and prevented from
helping each other, were unable to raise enough
food for their subsistencc. Their bright hopes
frustrated, general disappointment produced dis-
content, selfishness and a reckless disregard of
all social ties. The founders of Virginia were not
more remarkable for their great disasters than
for their atrocious crimes. They are described
as resembling hungry wild beasts ; and if we
must speak of thern as 'turnan beings, it is not
harsh to say, that they appeared to have crossed
the Atlantic for the purpose of cutting each others
throats without restraint from any law.


Such was the deplorable state of this colony
when a circumstance occurred, which, though
accidental and apparently tritling, has provcd
one of the most important events in the history


of America. A Dutch ship laden with slaves
made its appearance in Jatnes's river. Want of
provisioris had induced the captain to put in
there., and he was therefore ready to dispose of
his living cargo for a trifle. These slaves were
bought ; and this was the beginning of slavery in
the United States.


The slaves were set to work, some in raising
food, some in cultivating tobacco. For the first
time in this colony there was combination of
labour and division of employments. Tobacco,
although denounced by king James as a vile and
nauseous weed, was already prized in Europe ;
and the soil and clirnate of Virginia were pecu-
liarly suited to its growth. Those settlers, there-
fore, who by obtaining slaves were enabled to
employ many hands constantly in one work, in
preparing the ground for tobacco plan ts, in water-
ing the plants, in preventing the growth of weeds,
and in gathering, drying and packing, the leaves,
now raised a cornmodity exchangeable in the
markets of Europe. In this way, they obtained
various supplies, which they could not have ob-
tained in any other way. In this way also they
found the means of purchasing more slaves. As
the number of slaves increased, the cultivation of
tobacco was extended ; some roads were made
and solid houses were built. In the course of
a few years, the face of the colony was changed,




14 ORIGIN, PROGRESE AND PROSPECTE OF SLAVERY IN AMERICA.
15


and the tobacco planters of Virginia became noted
for their prosperity.


The frightful condition, both physical and
moral, of the settlers, up to the time when they
obtained slaves, was almost a bar to the emigra-
tion of women. It is supposed that the propor-
tion of males to females, who emigrated to this
colony during the first thirty years of its exist-
ence, was abo ye tvventy to orle, While the colony
was in a statc of misery and disorganization, nono
of the settlers could have desired, nor could any
of them have easily procured, wives to share their
misfortunes. But when they liad acquircd the
means of comfort and order,they naturally longed
to be husbands and fathers. As that longing was
created by the combined and constant labour of
slaves, so was it gratified. The settlers offered to
the captains of English ships two hundred and
fifty pounds of prime tobacco for each young
woman of pure health and good tern per, whom the
lattcr should bring from England, harmless, and
bearing a certificate of honest manners from the
clergyman of her parish. At that time, as at
present, England abounded in young women,
bcautiful, gentle and virtuous, but without the
least prospect of happiness in marriage. The
English captains, therefore, easily fulfilled their
commissions, and finally conducted a very exten-
sive commerce in tobacco and marriageable girls.


From this curious traffic, considering the
abundante of good land in Virginia, could not
have taken place without slavery, sprung
large proportion of those illustrious Americans,.
who dared the first trial of perfect equality in
government, amongst whites.


The prosperity of Virginia led to the establish-
ment of more colonies, as well in the islands as on
the main land of America. With the inerease of
white population in America, the number. of Ame-
rican slaves increased, in some mensure by
breeding, but for the most part by importation.
from Africa. At length the horrors of the African
slave trade raised up a new set of abolitionists.
The value of slavery to the white men of America
would be proved, if by nothing else, by the great
and manifold obstacles which the abolitionists
had tú surmount before their object was even
partially effected. Their purpose was to abolish
slavery in America. With greater exertion and
difficulty than attended the establishment of some
wide-spread religions, they have accomplished no
more than the abolition of a trade in slaves be-
tWeen Africa and a part of America.


Las Casas probably knew how slavery bogan in
America. By his proposal to substitute black
Africans for red Indians, he seems to have ac-
knowledged the, difficulty, he may oven have per-
ceived the impossibility, of combining the labour
of freemen and raising a large net produce in


1




16 PROGRESE AND PROSPECTS


countries where every one may obtain more good
land tiran he can possibly cultivate. But Las
Casas had lived in America and witnessed the
operation, first of abundante of good land, and
next of slavery. The modera project of abolition
was conceived by a youth in an English univer-
sity ; and, though Clarkson visited the West
Indies, it was not till iris feelings had been in-
fiamed by contemplating from a distance the
abominations of slavery. At all events, Clarkson
and Wilberforce expected that the abolition of
the African slave trade would put an end to
slavery in America. Never was there a greater
mistake.


The American and English slave trade with
Africa was not abolished till the English in the
West India islands and the Americans on the
continent had procured an arnple stock of slaves.
Their property, neither in these nor in the progeny
of these, was affected by the abolition of the trade
with Africa. In order to keep up their stock
of slaves, in order to increase that stock indefi-
nitely, it was now required that, instead of resort-
ing to Africa for fresh supplies, they should breed
slaves at borne. But in doing this, they found no
difficulty. Thus, slavery in America., instead of
being extinguished by the abolition of the African
trade, was placed on a super foundation than
when it depended on that traffic.


It must be acknowledged, however, that the


OF SLAVERY IN AMERICA. 17


abolition of the African trade has produced some
initigation of the evils of slavery in America.
*hile that trade continued, it was often found
more profitable to work slaves to death and re-
place them, than to preserve them by suiting
their work to their strength. In order that they
should not decrease, still more in order that they
should increase, it becarne necessary to treat them
with some consideration, with just so much con-
sideration as a stock-farmer bestows upon bis
cattle. So far, the slaves of America owe to the
abolitionists a decided improvement in their con-
dition.


But this improvement has not extended over
all British America.. An important distinction
must llene be drawn bctween the islands and the
main land ; a distinction the more necessary be-
cause Englishinen generally suppose, that there
is no great difference, if any, between the state of
slavery in the United States and the state of
slavery in the West Indies. The good land of the
islands is of litnited extent, while that of the
continent has no assignable limits. The same
piece of land will not produce sugar for many
consecutive years withont a great increase of
expense ; and nearly all the good land of the
islands has been exhausted by the cultivation of
sugar. Since that land was exhausted, the growers
of sugar on the continent have liad a great ad-
vantage over the same c]ass of people in the


VOL. II.




18 ORIGIN, PROGRESS, AND PROSPECTS


islands. So great has been the advantage, that
assuredly, if the produce of the continent liad
been let into the markets of Europe on equal
terms with the produce of the islands, the
islanders would, sorne time ago, have ceased to
produce sugar. In the British islands especially,
it is obvious that the cultivation of sugar has been
preservad by rneans of a monopoly of the British
market. But as that monopoly was required by
the exhaustion of the soil of the West Indies, so
it encouraged the further exhaustion of that soil,
till the proas of sug-ar growing in the West
Indies were, reduced to that amount which, with
the monopoly, wasjust sufficient to prevent sugar-
growing from being abandoned. Consequently,
since the abolition of the African siave tradc,
the planters of the West Indies have not liad
strong motive for increasing the number of their
slaves. It was not the abolition of the African
trade, but the exhaustion of all the good land at
their disposal, which deprived them of this
motive. Between those two events there is no
connection, except parity of time. If the Afri-
can siave trade- had not been abolished, if had
continued to render unneccssary the preservation
of slaves, still the greater profit of killing and
replacing slaves. would not have counteracted the
loss of profit arising from the necessity of cul-
tivating land, which eyery year decreased in
fertility.


OF SLAVERY IN AMERICA. 19


But, with a close rnonopoly of the finest market
in the would, the planters of the British West
Indios might for ages have continued to grow
sugar with some profit, and might have retained
motive for keeping up the number of their slaves.
If they liad preserved a close monopoly of the
British market, the people of Britain would, pro-
baMy, have malle up for the continued decrease
the of insular land by continually paying
a higher price for insular sugar. Though the
produce would have been less and less, the proa
might have remained the same, in consequence of
the price becoming higher and higher. But "the
West India interest" as the island planters are
called, though they have long enjoyed very great
infiuence in the legislature of Britain, were not
permitted to flourish in this way at the expense
of the British people. During the last war, the
Eng]ish took from the Dutch their continental
settlernents in America ; and at the close of the
war they determined to keep those colonies, mak-
ing compensation to the Dutch by agreeing to pay
a vast sum to the emperor of Russia, provided
(such is the complication of European politics)
the Belgian.s and the Dutch, who haced cach other
and liad been united at the peace, should not
choose to separate. The West India interest
could easily have prevented this acquisition ; but
they were blincl to its consequences. It broke
up their monopoly of the British market. By




20 ORIGIN, PROGRESE AND PROSPECTS OF SLAVERY IN AMERICA. 21


bringing continental sugar into compctition with
insular sugar, it prevented the island planters
from raising the price of their sugar in propor-
tion to the deerease in the fertijity of their land.
This acquisition was a mortal blow to the West
India interest. Ever since it took place none
of them have made large profits, many of them
have been ruined, by the cuitivation of sugar; and
the total ruin of the wholc of them, in so far as
their West India property is concerned, seems
inevitable. These cireumstances have had a
peculiar effect on insular slavery. What with
the progressive exhaustion of insular land and the
opening of the British market to sugar produced
on land that «ras not exhausted, the island plan-
ters have, for some years past, been without a mo-
tive for keeping up the number of their slaves,
while they have had the strongest motive for
working them to death. The result is wel l known ;
a decrease of population such as if pestilente and
famine had done the work.


Turning to the United States, we find that the
abolition of the African slave trade has led to a
striking improvement in the condition of - slaves.
The increase of white population in America (lid
not increase the proportion of free labourers to
capitalists, and did not therefore diminish the
value of slaves. On the contrary, as every free-
man could readily obtain land of his own, with
that increase of whites, of freemen, persons


wanting labourers bo ye a greater proportion to
labourers, and the demand for slaves increased ac-
cordingly. As every one, not being a slave, could
obtain for a trifle more good land than he could
possibly cultivate, all capitalista felt the want of
combined labour. All those whites, consequently,
svho settled in the slave states beeame anxious to
procure slaves. The African trade being abo-
lished, th-mse who wanted slaves could obtain
them only ; .om those Arnericans who already
possessed them. This great demand for slaves,
great in proportion to the increase of whites in the
slave states, and to the increased demand in the,
other states for the produce of cornbined labour,
led to the establishment of a new trade in Ame-
rica ; the trade of breeding slaves for sale. The
extent and importance of that trade may be esti-
mated by reference to one or two facts. The black
population of the slave states has increased
much more rapidly than the white population of
those states ; and the slave population has in-
creased at a sornewhat greater ente than the free
population of the whole Union. There are two
millions of slaves, and if we reckon the average
value of a slave at 601., the capital invested in sla-
very is 120,000,0001. Taking time yearly mercase
of slaves in the United States to be at least
60,000, and the average value of a slave to be
601.; the produce in money obtained by the
breeders ofsl aves, merely for breeding, is3,600,0001.




22 PROGRESS, AND PROSPECTS OF SLAVERY IN AMERICA. 23


per annum.* These statements will suffice, with-
out further explanation, to show that the abolition
of the African slave trade has worked a great
improvernent in the condition of American siaves.


But the abolition of the African slave trade
woulcl not have had this effect, if the original
cause of slavery had not steadily continued to
operate. Considering how slavery arose, and in
what way it has progressed in America, its ori-
ginal and permanent cause seems to be super-
abundance of land in proportion to people. Other
considerations come to the support of this view
of the subject.


That superabundance of land to which the
English economists, from Adam Smith clown-
wards, attribute the prosperity of new colonies,
has never led to great prosperity without some
kind of slavery. The states of New England, in
which negro slavery was never permitted, forro
no exception to the general rule. Adam Smith,
in bis chapt.er on " the causes of the prosperity of
new colonies," tries to establish by a pretty long
argument that the wonderful prosperity of the
Greek colonies was owing to " dearness of labour,"
to " high wages," which enabled the bulk of the
people to save and to increase as rapidly as pos-


* 2001. and 3001. are common prices for a well taught and
able slave. As much as 6001. is sometimes given for a young
man of superior skill in some lines of industry. See Stvart,
vol. 2,page 195.


sible whereas the unquestionable fact is, that
all the work performed in those colonies, whether
in agriculture or manufactures, was performed
by siaves. All work in Brazil has been performed
by the labour of siaves. In New South Wales
and Van Di emen's Land, prosperous colonies,capi-
talists are supplied with slave-labour in the shape
of convicts. That they set the greatest value
on this labour, s proved by their extreme fear lest
the system of t. 'nsportation should be discon-
tinued ; although the evils which it produces are
too many to be counted, and too great to be
believed in- England. Finally, though the puri-
taus and the followers of Penn, who founded the
colonies of New England, flourished with super-
abundance of land and without negro siaves, they
did not fiourish without slavery. Though their
religious sentiments prompted them to abstain
from the purchase of negroes, so severely did
they, en that very account, feel the want of con-
stant and combine, that they were led to
carry on an extensive traffie in white raen and
children, who, kidnapped in Europe, were vir-
tually sold to those fastidious colonists, and
treated by them as siaves. But the number of
Europeans kidnapped for the purpose of sale in
those parts of America whcre negroes conld not
be sold, though considerable, in proportion to
the number of settlers tiren wanting combined
labour, was small svhen compare(' with the nuin-




24 ORIGEN, PROGRESS AND PROSPECTS


ber of Europeans, who, first decoyed to America
by the offer of a passage cost free, and the promise
of high wages, were then transferred for terms of
years to colonists who paica for their passage.
These, under the name of redemptioners, were, for
a long period, the principal servants of those colo-
nies in which slavery was forbidden by law. Even
so lately as within the last twenty years, and
especially during the last war between England
and America, which put a stop to Irish emigra-
tion, vast numbers of poor Germans were decoyed
to those states which forbid slavery, and there
sold for long terms of years to the highest bidder
by public auction. Though white, and free in
name, they were really not free to becoxne inde-
pendent landowners, and therefore it was possible
to employ their labour constantly and in combi-
nation. Lastly, even in those colonies which
never permitted negro slavery, negroes have
always been considered, what indeed, there seems
reason to conciude that they are by nature, an
inferior order of beings. A black man never was,
nor is he now, treated as a man by the white men
of New England.* There, where the rnost corn-


" The freedmen of other countries have long since dis
-appeared, having Leen amalgamated in the general mass.


.Here there can be no amalgamation. Our manumitted bonds-
men have remained already to the third and fourth generation,
a distinct, a dcgraded and a wretched race." President Nott
Union..College, New York--quoted by Mr. Stuart..


OF SLAVERY IN AMERICA. 25


píete equality subsists amongst white men, and
every white man is taught to respect himself as
well as other white men, black men are treated
as if they were horses or dogs. Thus, notwith-
stand ing su perabundance of land, black men have
always found it difficult to risa abo ye the condi-
tion of labourers for hire ; and thus such blacks
as either escaped, or were allowed to go free, from
the slave states, to settle in the other states, pro-
vided servants for the capitalists of those other
states. The large prop - -*ion of black servants in
New England has always been remarked, and it is
remarkable at this moment in Philadelphia, the
strong bold of quakerism.* In this way, the


" New people of colour in the churehes, and such of them as
are there, assemble in a comer separate from the rest of the people."
Stuart, vol. 1, pago 196.


* " it is computad that there are in Philadelphia 10,000 free
coloured people." Journal of Travels in the United States of
North Anzerica and in Lower Canada, performed in the year 1817,
by John Palmer. The number of blacks in Philadelphia is very
much grcater than in 1817. By the last Census of the Ameri-
can people it appears, that in 1831, there were in the state of
Pennsylvania 37,900 free coloured persons; in the state of New
York 44,869 ; and in Ola 37,930.


" The whole establishment (on board the < North Ame-
rica' steam-boat, New York) of kitehen servants, waitcrs and
cooks, all people of colour, on a great seale." Stuart, vol. 1,
pago 40.


" Nothing can be more disgraceful to the people of the
United States, nor more inconsistent with their professed prin-
cipies of equality, than their trcatment of free people of colour.




26 ORIGIN, PROGRESS AND PROSPECTS


slavery of sorne states has, not very indirectly,
bestowed upon other states much of the good
and some of the evil, that alise from slavery.


In another way, the states which forbid slavery
have gained by it immensely without any corres-
poncling evil. The states of America must be
viewed as one country, in which there is a consi-
derable distribution ofcmployments, and in which
exchanges take place of the different productions
raised in different parts of the Union. "The divi-
sion of labour," says Adam Smith, meaning the
distribution of employments, " is litnited by the
extent of the market." The great fishing esta-
blishments of the non-slaveholding colonies viere
set up for the purpose of supplying the slaves of
the West Maryland, Georgia
and the Carolinas, who viere employed in raising
tobacco, rice and sugar ; commodities exchange-
able in the markets of Europe ; commodities which
have never been raised on any large scale in Ame-
rica except by the combined labour of slaves. A
g reat parí of the commerce of the northern states,
of Boston, New York, Philadelphia and Balti-
more, has always consisted of a carrying trade
for the southern states ; the one work of raising
produce for the markets of Europe and con veyinig
it thither being so divided, that the produce was


They constantly subject them to indignities of cvcry kind, and
'refuse altogether to eat or drink with diem.' Stuart, vol. I,
page 507.


OF SLAVERV IN AMERICA. 27


raised by the southern and conveyed by thc north-
ern states ; a division of employments which
depended on the labour of slaves, since, if a pro-
duce had not been raised fit for distant markets,
earriers would not have been required, and since
such produce could not es have been raised by
labour, uncertain and scatterecl as free labour
ahvays is with superabundance of good land.
At the present time, which is the great market
for the surplus produce of farmers in the non-
slave holding states on the western rivers ? New
Orleans ; and how could that P.-- ,at rnarket have
existed without slavery Capitalists again,


" The following is Mr. Timothy Flint's account of a Louis-
iana plantation. " If we could lay out of the question the
intrinsic evils of the case (he liad bcen alluding to the state of
thc slaves) it would be a cheering sight, that which is pre-
sentid by a largo Louisiana plantation—the fields are as level
and regular within figures, as gardens. They sometimes con-
tain 3 or 4000 acres in one field ; and 1 have seca from a dozen


to twenty ploughs, all making their straight furrows through a
field, a mile in depth, with a regularity which, it would be sup-
posed, could he obtained only by a line." This description is
quite correct. The drills of the finest turnip fields in Norfolk,
or even on Mr. Rennie's, of Phantassies, beautiful farm in East
Lothian, are not more accurately drawn ; nor is the whole
management more admirable than the lines and the cultivation
of the cano on one of the great plantations of Louisiana."
Stuart, vol. 2,page 915.


t " He (Colonel Coleman) had come up the Appalachicola
and Chattabooche rivers, and was now on bis way to New
Orleans to buy pork and provisions for his slaves. He has




28 ORIGIN, PROGRESS AND PROSPECTS


natives of the states which forbid slavery, reside
during part of every year in the slave states, and
reap large profits by dealing in rice, sugar and
cotton, exchangeablecommodities, which, it must
be repeated, have never been raised to any extent
in America except by the labour of slavcs. A
New Englander may boast that.slavery was never
permitted in bis state, as a baker may pride bitn-
self on being, less cruel than bis neighbour the
butcher; but the dependence of the northeru
on the southern states for a market for their sur-
plus produce, for a demand for the produce of
their industry in a thousand shapes, is as close as
the dependence on each other of the baker and
the butcher who deal together. In tire division
of employtnents which has tallen place ir; America,
the far prcfcrable share, truly, has fallen to the


only got forty slaves upon bis property, but he tells me that
twenty slaves are necessarv for every 100 acres of sugar cano
land." Stuart, vol. 2, pago 155.


" One of our stopping places for wood not far abo ye the
confluente of the Mississippi and Ohio, was at Mr. Brox's farm
on the west sirle of the river. He has 700 acres of fine land,
about 100 'wad of cattle, ami an innumerable quantity of pigs.
He says he has no difficulty in selling all the produce of bis
farm ; he disposes of bis stock lo the New Orleans tutchers, who
go all over this country to make their purchases ; and there
are n-lerchants who have great depóts of grain, salteó pork and
other agricultural produce, .which they scour the country to col-
lect, and afterwards carry to New Orleans. Stuart, 2,
page 302.


OF SLAVERY IN AMERICA,


northern states ; but that division of employ-
ments did not precede, on the contrary it fol-
lowed, combination of labour in particular works
and the surplus exchangeable produce obtained
by that first ituprovement in t.he productive powers
of industry. The states, therefore, which forbid
slavery, having reaped the economical benefits of
slavery, without incurring the chief of its moral
evils, seem to be even more indebted to it than
the slave states. If thosc who forbid slavery
within their own legal jurisdiction, should also
resolve to have no intercourse or concern with
slave-owners, to do nothing for tln -, and to ex-
change nothing with them, we should see an
economical revolution in America, that would
prove better than a thousand arguments the value
of slavery in a country where every free man can
obtain plenty of good land for a triflc.


Let us now turn for a mornent to thosc new
countries in which the people have had super-
abundance of good land without slavery. Not
single one of these societies has greatly prospered :
many have perished entirely, and some remain in
a deplorable condition. From these last, two
striking exaruples may be selccted.


It would be unfair to dwell here on the rniscry,
in conjunction with superabundante of good land,
which belongs to many savage nations ; but an
allusion to such cases is not misplaced, if made
only for the purpose of explaining that the




30 ORIGIN, PROGRESS AND PROSPECTS OF SLAVERY IN AMERICA. 31


present enquiry is confined to the operation of
superabundante of good land on civilized so-
cieties, amongst whom private property is es-
tablished, who possess some knowledge of the
productive arts, and who practico to sorne extent
that division of classes and employments which,
on the principie of mutual assistance, adds to the
productive powers of industry. The most re-
markable instance, perhaps, of such a society,
having at its disposal an unlirnited quantity of
good land, is the Spanish colony of Buenos Ayres.
The vast plain which lies between the South
Atlantie and the mountains of Chili contains
hardly any sterile land. Nearly the whole of it
consists of the most fertile soil, which, though in
a state of nature, exhibits vegetation more luxu-
riant than could be produced in the greater part
of Europe by the most skilful cultivation. This
land is naturallyfit for cultivation; since through-
out the pampas there are no dense forests like
those which once covered Pennsylvania, nor any
swamps like those which still remain on the
shores of the gulph of Mexico. On a district
extending one hundred and eighty miles from the
coast,nature produces the richest crops of nothing
but thistles and clover, and on another district,
extending four hundred and fifty miles further to
the west, nothing but a profusion of grass Ivithout
a weed. The elimate of the whole plain resembles
that of Italy with this difference in its favour,


that it is not rendered unwholesome by malaria.
This, then, was the finest situation in the world,
in which to take advantage of abundante of good
lan.d. The Spaniards, who got possession of these
fertile plains, emigrated from one of the civilized
European states. according to the best in-
formation that can be obtained of a society now
more than half barbarous, this colony never pros-
pered. Capital has never obtained high profits,
nor labour high wages. On the contrary, the
colony seems to have languished throughout its
careen, and though the people have increased,. it
has been less quickly than people now mercase
in sorne of the oldest and most densely peopled
countries of Europe. During some ycars this
colony has been an independent state ; but the
people, dispersed over their vast and fertile plains,
have almost ceased to cultivate the good land at
their disposal ; they subsist principally, many of
-diem entirely, on the flesh of wild cattle ; they
have lost most of the arts of civilized life ; not a
few of them are constantly in a state of deplorable
misery ; and if they should continue, as it seems
probable that they will, to retrograde as at present,
the beautiful pampas of Buenos Ayres will soon be
fit for another experiment in colonization. Slaves,
block, red or yellow, would have cultivated those
plains, would have been kept together, would
have been mode to assist each other ; would, by
keeping together and assisting each other, have




32 ORIGIN, PROGRESS AND PROSPECTE


raised a surplus produce exchangeable in distant
markets ; would have kept their masters together
for the sake of markets ; would by combination
oflabour,have promoted division of employtnents ;
would, cattle themselves, have preserved amongst
their masters the arts and habits of civilized life.
That slavery might have done all this, seems not
more plain than that so tnuch good would have
been bought too dear if its price liad been slavery.


The last colony founded by Englishmen has
severely felt the want of slavery. On the west
coast of New Holland there is abunclance of good
land, and of land too, cleared and drained by
nature. Those who have left England to settle
there have carried out, amongst them, more than
enough capital to employ such of theta as were
of the labourin,g class. The capital taken out,
in seeds, implemcnts, cattle, sheep and horses,
cannot have been less, in money value, than
200,0001. ; and the labourers must have amounted
to a thousand at the very lowest. 1Vhat is become
of all that capital and all those labourers ? The
greater part of the capital has perished ; some few
of the labourers have died of hunger ; some, falling
into extreme want, have been glad to escape to
Van Diernen's Land, where there are slaves ; and
the remainder are independent land-owners, iso-
lated, not well Supplied with even the necessaries
of life, and as wild as Englishmen could become
in so short a time. This colony may prosper in


OF SLAVERY IN AMERICA.
33


the course of years ; but for the present it must be
considered, when compared with the expectations
of those who founded it, a decided failure. Why
this failure with all the elements of success, a fine
climate, plenty of good plenty of capital
and enough labourers ? The explanation is easy.
In this colony, there never has been a class of
labourers. Those who went out as labourers no
sooner reached the colony than they were tempted
by the superabundance of good land to become
landowners. One of the founders of the colony,
Mr. Peel, who, it is said, took out a capital of
50,0001. and three hundred persons of the labour-
ing class, men, women and children, has been
represented as left without a servant to make his
bed or fetch hico water from the river.* The
writer of the first book concerning this colony
states, that landing in Cockburn Sound with
goods taken from England, he did, with some
difficulty, procure workmen to place his goods
under a tent, but that there, for want of workmen
to remove . them, they remained till they were
spoiled, as the tent became rotten. In such a
state of things it was impossible to preserve
capital. While Mr. Peel was without servants
bis capital perished ; but ás 'soon as his capital
liad perished for want of servants, those who had


* My authority for this statement is a gentleman, lately in
England, who went to the Swan River as Mr. Peel's agent.


VOL. II.




34 ORIGIN, PROGRESS AND PROSPECTS OF SLAVERY IN AMERICA. 35


been his servants insisted on his giving them em-
ployment. Having tried a Efe of complete in-
dependence and felt the pains of hunger, they
now wanted to become labourerseágain. At one
time Mr. Peel was to be seew imploring his
servants to remain with him, at another eseaping
from their fury at his not being able to give them
work. The same thing happened in many cases.
In each case, it was owing to the facility with
which people, labourers when they reached the
colony, became independent landowners. Sorne
of these independent landowners died of hunger ;*
and at a time too when, as it happened, a large
supply of food had just reached the colony from
Van Diemen's Land. Why viere they starved ?
because where they liad settled was not known
to the governor, or even to themselves ; for,
though they could say " we are: here," they
could nottell where any one else was such was
the dispersion of these colonists in consequence
of superabundance of good land. Many of them,
both capitalists and labourers, capitalists without
capital and labourers without work, have removed
to Van Diemen's Land ; the cost of passage for
the latter being defrayed by settlers in that slave-
holding prosperous island. Some have wandered
from the original place of settlement towardl
King George's Sound, in search, say they, of


* My authority is Mr. Pecl's agent, Mr. Ehnsley.


better land. Others, men of unusual courage
and energy, remain on the 'banks of the Swan
River, knowing well that the partial ruin of this
colony is not owing to want of good land. These,
one of whose chief inducements to settling in this
colony was an undertaking from the English go-
vernment that no convicts should be sent thither,
are now begging for a supply of convict labour:
They want claves. They want labour which
shall be constant and Hable to combination in
particular works. Having this, they would raise
a net produce and have division of employinents.
Not having convict labour, they will long for
African slaves ; and would obtain them, too, if
public opinion in England did not forbid it.
Without cither convicts or slaves, they may have
herds of wild cattle, 'which supply food almost
without labour ; but they cannot have much
more. Considering the superabundance of capital
and labourers in England, the disposition of
capitalists and labourers to emigrate in search of
new fields of employment, the great natural ad-
vantages of this colony, and the faise accounts of
its prosperity now and then received in England,
we should wonder that ernigration to the Swan
River had almost ceased, if that very fact did not
show that by settling in this colony no well in,
formed man can expect to better his condition.
But the failure of this last experiment in coloni-
zation will have one good effect, if it help to teach




36 ORIGIN, PROGRESS AND PROSPECTS


the English and Americans, that the original and
permanent cause of slavery in America is super-
abundante of good land.


The prospeets of slavery in the -West Indies
and the United States may now be briefly con-
sidered ; and, the cause of slavery being ascer-
tained, with some chance of a useful result.


The slaves of the West Indies have just been
turned finto apprentices. As if on purpose that
they should still be made to work like slaves, the
planters' monopoly of the British rnarket is pre-
served. Or, perhaps, since the negroes would not
be worth a farthing apiece without the monopoly,
it is preserved as an excuse for giving cornpensa-
tion to the planters. The monopoly being worth
2,000,000/.a year, the English buy it for 20,000,000/.
let the sellers keep it, and will pay 2,000,0001. a


Miss 11artineau, the most entertaining of writers on poli-
tical economy, in order to show how a society obtains wealth,
has described the supposed case of some English people
settling in a waste country, living together, combining theír
labour and dividing their employments. It is in thís way, and
only in this way, no doubt, that wealth is ever obtained ; but
any thing like the supposed case hardly ever, perhaps •never,
existed. If Miss Martineau had plantel her settlers in an is-
land of such an extent in proportion to their nmnbers that they
should necessarily have lived together, her story would have
been perfect ; but she places them in a vast wilderness of good
land, in a situationl,vhieh, if we are to judge by ali experience,
is inconsistent with the conabinatiou of labour and the division
of employments.


OF SLAVERY IN AMERICA. 37


year as before, by way of bribing the planters to
make the apprentices work like slaves. This,
they cala reformed legislation. It will probably
be defeated by the apprentices ; but, at all events,
in however bungling or, may be, bloody a way,
slavery will soon tease throughout the British
West Indies.


If means be not soon found to abolish slavery
in the United States, gradually and peaccfully, ít
seems more than probable, that, what with the
rapid increase of American slaves, already more
than two millions, and the emancipation of eight
hundred thousand English slaves in the neigh-
bourhood of the United States, the slaves of the
continent will, at no distant day, right themselves
in the midst of Jefferson's thunder. " The Ameri-
cans" says Mr. Stuart, "conceive that the increas-
ing nutnbers of their slaves require more coercive
laws and greater severity of treatment ; and are
proceeding on this principie, every year increasing
the hardships of their almost intolerable situation,
and adding new fetters to those which are already
too heavy for thetn to wear." But what will the
Americans conceive when the fetters worn by
eight hundred thousand English slaves shall have
been broken either by act of parliament or by
those siaves themselves ? Greater harshness in
proportion to the greater danger will doubtless
be their policy. That policy, which Mr. Stuart
says, " no one unconnected with Atnerica can.




38 ORIGIN, PROCRESS ANI) PROSPECTE


wish may prove well-founded," is founded on
experience. Experience has taught all slave-
owners, that education and slavery, kindness and
slavery, cannot go on together. As the slaves of
the United States shall become more munerous,
and as the danger of their learning that they are
men shall become greater, either they must be
set free, or greater pains rnust be taken to main-
tain their ignorante, torpidity and submissive-
ness ; to bold them, mentally, in the state of
brutes. But this policy may defeat its object,
leading, sooner perhaps than might otherwise
have happened, toa great servile war. That the
slaves, once roused, would easily prove a match
for their immediate masters rnay not be doubt-
ful ; but if the force of the wholc Union were
brought against them, ten millions of whites to
two millions of blacks, they would, ahnost cer-
tainly, be conquered, and for a time subdued as
before. In either case, there would be plenty of
thunder ; in either case, the prospect is as black
as possible.


Will the Americans voluntarily set free their
slaves, not having any substitute for the combiried
and constant labour of slaves ? The answer is, that
they will not, of their own accord, destroy pro-
perty which they value at 120,000,000/. and which
is really worth that sum at market.


Is there any prospect of such a fall in the value
of slaves as might render slavery not worth pre-


OP SLAVERY IN AMERICA. 39


serving ? Of this there is not, at present, the
slightest prospect ; because the white population
wanting slaves increases as fast almost in num-
ber,as the slaves themselves, and faster in capital,
for using which slaves are wanted ; because super-
abundance of good land will continue to,make
slaves valuable, by enabling every freeman who
so picases to become an independentlandowner.


But, considering that the Americans pay
3,600,0001. a year for the increase of slave labour,
that the English pay about the same sum for
the maintenance of idle paupers, might not these
two sucos, making together 7,200,0001., be so em-
ployed in conveying to America the surplus labour
of England, that, before very long, free labOnr-
should be:substituted for s'ave labour in America?
Supposing the cost of passage from England to
America to be 101.,* the yearly expenditure of
7,200,000/. in this way would take from England
to America 720,000 labourers every year; about
twelve times as many as the yearly increase of
American slaves. In three years, the number of
labourers so taken to America would be 160,000
more than the whole number of American slaves.
In three years, then, it might be supposed, this
great amount of immigration would extinguish
slavery in America by the substitution of free


The actual cost of a pauper's passage, with more and
better food on the voyage than he obtains in England, is
about 7/.




40 ORIGIN, PROGRESS AND PROSPECTE


labour. But who would suppose this, that has
observed the effects of superabundace of good
land.* The 2,100,000 labourers taken to America
might all of them, and would most of them, cease
to be labourers for hire soon after landing in the
new country; they would become independent
landowners;


competitors with American capital-
ists in the market of labour, and buyers of slaves.
So vast an amount of immigration, therefore,
instead of dirninishing, would probably augment,
the value of American slaves, and render the abo-
lition of slavery in America still more difficult.


Still, as in America the whites are ten millions
and the blacks but two millions ; and as the
whites increase at nearly as great a rate as the
blacks ; as the twelve millions will, there can
hardly be any doubt, become twenty-four mil-
lions in the course of twenty-five years or less, is
there no prospect that land will risa in value, so
that every freeman shall no longer be able to
obtain for a trifie more good land than he can
possibly cultivate ; so that the value of slaves
shall fall ; so that the proprietors of slaves, being
most of thern proprietors of land, shall be ready
to liberate their slaves, gaining on the one hand
as much as they rnight lose on the other, or more ?
Of this there is no prospect ; for there reasons.


See extract from Captain Basil Hall's lettcr to Mr. Wilmot
Horton, in a note to Note I.


OP SLAVERY IN AMERICA. 41


First, because, however •apidly population may
increase, the quantity of land appropriated by
individuals will increase at the same cate; be-
cause, in short, the colonization of new wilderness
will go on as fast as population shall increase, so
that every freeman will still be able to obtain for
a trine, more good land than be can possibly
cultivate. Secondly, because the land east of
the Alleghany mountains has been exhausted to a
considerable extent, not merely for the growth of
sugar, as in the West Indies, but fairly worn out
by unskilful cultivation ;•* and thus, from this


A writer in the Edinburgh Review, (Professor 111‘Culloch,
I suspect) attributes the exhaustion and abandonment of land,
in the eastern states, toa want of animal manure in canse-
quence of the work of cattle being performed by men. Would
not farms in England soon be exhausted if English farmers had
no manure but what is furnished by their working cattle ? There
are many districts of Europe, such as the mountainous coasts
of Spain and Italy, not to mention great part of China, where
agricultura! work is almost entirely performed by men, and
where, notwithstanding, land is kept in the highest state of
fertility by means of animal manure. The exhaustion of land
in America is one of the evils, over and abo ye slavery, result-
ing from superabundance of good land. The single, indepen-
dent, landowner and cultivator, might not be able to live, still
less to raise any surplus produce, if he were fixed on the same
piece of land. He whose labour is already divided amongst
so many occupations, would act a foolish part in adding, to
them the occupation of fetching manare, from a great distante
perhaps, and the occupation of laying manure on his land, when
for a t rifle he can obtain of land very rich by natura more than he




42 ORIGIN, PROGRESS AND PROSPECTS


exhausted district to new land in the western
districts, emigration, both of whites and slaves,


can possibly cultivate. His labour being an isolated fraction,and
being divided again amo ngst many employments, he must depend
on nature for more than half the work. Keep him isolated, so
that none shall hclp him nor he hele any, so that he shall be
obliged to do for himself all the many things required by him ;
do this, and prevent him from moving from one piece of land
to another as the natural fertility of eacla piece ís exhausted,
and the result must be poverty, like that of the small French
cultivator or Irish cottier. " we fiad all the farmers," says


Stuart, " perfectly aware of the importante of fallow and
green crops, but gencrally of opinion that they dare not attempt
that system, on account of the high price of labour in this
country in relation to the value of land ; ne sumptus fructum
superet, according to the sound advice of Varro. The price"
[scarcity at any price] " of labour too, is the great obstacle to
all sorts of ornamental improvements, suela as the formation
of gardens and keeping them up." rol. 1, pace 254.


" Let the settler be well advised, and not acquire land which
has been already impoverished by cropping, and which has
become foul and lost the vegetable mould." Stuart, 1,
page 254.


" When you talk to them, (the farmers) of the necessity of
manuring with a view to preserve the fertility of the soil, they
almost uniformly tell you that the expense," [meaning scarcity
at whatever expense] " of labour renders it far more expe-
dient for them, as soon as their repeated cropping very much
diminishes the quantity of the grain, to lay down their land in
grass, or make a purchase of new land in the neighbourhood,
or even to sell their cleared land and proceed in quest of a new
settlentent, than to adopt a system of rotation of crops assisted by
rnanure. There is great inconvenience,according to the notions
of the British, in rernoving from one farm to another ; but they


OF SLAVERY IN AMERICA. 43


has taken place to a great amount and is still
going on rapidly ; so that in those exhausted dis-
tricts, a fall rather than a rise in the value of
land may be expected. Thirdly, because where
the moral evils of slavery exist, there whites set-
tle for one purpose only, that of gaining by the
combined labour of slaves. But the greater part
of the whites of America are content to share
from a distance the economical advantages of
slavery, without incurring its moral evils by going
to live amongst slaves. The new settler on the
Ohio can sell his honey, which may be raised.
without combined labour in that particular work,
for tobacco, which may not, without hearing the
smack of a slave-driver's whip, or the responding
cry of slaves. If the white population of America
were to be doubled every five years, instead of
five and twenty years, the population of the slave
states, where slave-owners own land, would not
become sufficiently dense to raise the value of
land and lower the value of slaves.


Superabundance of good land If we have as-
certained the cause of slavery in America, a little
declatnation on the subject may be allowed. The
make very light work of it here, and consider it to be mercly
question of finance, whether they shall remain on their improved
land, after having considerably exhausted its fertilizing power, or
acquire and remove to land of virgin soil." Stuart, vol. 1, page 258.


If he obtains land near his first farm after he has worn it out."
Stuart, vol. 2, page 359.




44 ORIGIN, PROGRESS AND PROSPECTS


white Arnericans, speaking generally, would re-
joice to get rid ofslavery. They are men with the
feelings of men ; they can feel compassion and
fear ; they do pity their miserable slaves, and they
hear the not far distant thunder, which thrcatens
to stcep hall* the Union in bloocl, and to ruin the
other half. A successful rebellion of the slaves
would more or less affect every white man in
America, by causing a total revolution in all the
markets for the produce of every kind of industry;
and this the Americans in general know full well.
Knowing this, they must also know what is the
cause of slavery. Have they ever enquired whe-
thcr it is possible to remove that most evil cause -?
They cannot alter the proportion betwcen people
and land in America ; but the proportion betwcen
people and land with a good tale to it, is within
their controul. It is not often in America that
any one uses land without a tale ; and this might
easily be prevented altogether. The title to new
'and is given by the government. The govern-
ment, therefore, or the people acting under the
government, are abie to regulate the proportion
between numbers, and acres ofappropriated land.
In the colonies of old, that proportion depended on
a thousand caprices, on the whims of an English
king, of his colonial rninister, of the minister's
clerks or parasites, on the colonial governors, t heir
clerks and parasites ; all of whom bestowed grants
of land pretty much as it pleased them ; but in


OF SLAVERY IN AMERICA. 45


the United States, which have adopted a system
nearly uniform in the disposal of new land, the
proportionbetween numbers and acres dependa on
the, price per acre which congress thinks fit to
require for all new land. The actual price is
about five shillings per acre ; and the sale of
new land at this price yields near 700,0001. a
year. That amount of revenue is employed for
the general purposes of government. : If it were
crnployed in conducting pauper emigration from
Europe, it would convey every year to the United
States 80,000 persons of the labouring class ;
more than the yearly increase of laves. If the
price for new land were raised, so as to prevent
those labourers from becoming independent land-
owners until others had followed to take their
place ; if the fund obtained by the sale of new
land should thus become greater every year, and
should always be employed in fetchinglabour from
Europe ; if by this increase in the price of new
land and this immigration of labour, the people
were less dispersed than they are, should help
eaeh other more, should produce more with the
same labour, should have a higher rate of profit
and a higher rate of wages ; if, finally, a greater
proportion of people to land in the states already
settled should raise the value of land by means of
allkinds of competition, over and abo ye compe-
tition for superior natural fertility, then might
free labour take the place of siave labour, then




4746 ORIGIN, PROGRES S AND PROSPECTE, &C.


might the owners of slaves and of land set free
their slaves without loss, then might slavery be
abolished without injury to any one, with the
greatest benefit to all. By means of some plan of
this kind, and by no other means, does it seem
possible that slavery in America should be peace-
fully and happily abolished. Those Americans
who would not prefer Jefferson's thunder, may, I
trust, think it worth their while to examine this
subject further in a subsequent note on the Art
of Colonization.


NOTE XI.


APOLOGY FOR• THE AMERICAN TARIFE.


Opinions of Englishmen respecting the tarj-
moral advantages of the tari —economical ad-
vantages of the tariff—difference of feeling
between the Southern and Northern States re-
specting the tarilf— the tarifir good, upon the
whole, for the people of America, and therefore a
work beconiing democratic government — witen
the tariff may be repealed with great advantage
to America.


THE following passage from an article in the
Times newspaper on the late dispute between
South Carolina and the United States, describes
fully the opinions which are prevalent in England
on the subject of the American tariff. "All poli-
tical writers in this country have visited with cen-
sure the present policy of the American general
government in attempting by high protecting du-
tics to force the establishment, or to encourage
the extension, of manufactures in theUnited States.
With the high price for labour that exists in the
United States, with their scanty supply of monied
capital, with their unlimited range of uncultivated
or half improved soil, it was almost a crime




48 APOLOGY FOR THE AMERICAN TARIFF.


against society to divert liman industry from the
fields and the forests to iron forges and cotton fac-
tories, Nature had pointed out the course which
they ought to pursue for perhaps half a century to
come, till the ploug-h and the spade had followed
the axe of the wood-cutter into their primeval
wildernessés of shade,' and till happy plantations
had been formed on the deserted domains of the
Indian huntsman, from the Atlantic to the Ohio,
and from the Mississippi to the Pacific. She
had directed thern to cling to the bosom of mother
earth as to the most fcrtile source ofweaith and the
most abundant reward of labour. She had told
them to remain planters, farmers, and wood-
cutters—to extend society and cultivation to new
rcgions—to practise and improve the arts of the
builder, the carpenter, and the naval architect, to
facilitate every means of internal communication
—to promote every branch of internal trade—to
encourage every variety of landed produce—but
not to waste the energies of their labour, or to
interrupt the course of their prosperity, by forcing
at borne the manufacture of articles, which
foreigners could supply •at half the price for
which they could be made in America."


Englishme.n whO lean to democratie opinions
are, most of them, if well-inforrned, advocates of
free trade. To those, the American tariff is a
very Sore subject. If let alone, they would say
nothing about it ; and as it is, they do not say


APOLOGY FOR THE AIVIERIGAN TARIFF.
.49


rnuch. But they are not let alone. The Conser-
vatives place them in this dilemma—If, say those
friends of the old commercial system, as of every
thing.


old ; íf dernocratic government be good for
a people, conducive to the benefit of all and so
forth, tiren protection of domestic industry is for
the public good, lince the American tariff ovas
established by a democracy ; not preservad, rnind,
but begun and brought to perfection, deliberately,
carefully, and in spite of arguments to the con-
frary if on the, other hand, the exclusion of fo-
reign goods be hurtful to a people, what becomes
of your government by all for the benefit of all ?
In this case, you cannot defend both, free trade
and, democracy ; which do you give up ?


The question is galling to an English liberal,
puzzles and therefore irritates him. Hang the
Americans with their tariff, one hears such a one
cornplain, their stupidityis unaccountable. Ano-
ther, admitting the stupidity, lays the blame on
those governments of Europe which have set the
Americans a bad example; as ifprecedent were an
excuse for indulging mean and malignant pas-
sions. These terms are applica,ble to the grasp-
ing, selftsh and jealous, spirit which dictated the
commercial system of Europe' ; but they are quite
inapplicable to those who established the Ame-
rican tariff ; as I will now endeavour to prove, by
shewing that a prohibitory system is, upon the


VOL. II.
E




11'


APOLOGV FOR T1-12 AMERICAN TARIFF. APOLOGY FOR THE AMERICAN TARIFF.
51


whole, useful to the people of America, and there-
fore a work becoming democratic government.


One motive, with some supporters of the Eng-
lish corn laws, is a fear lest the free importation
of cheap corn should cause a great increase of


population ; artizans, living together,
talkers, readers of newspapers, intelligent, given
to politics, unmanageable, radical ; " fierre de-
mocrats." If, say they, you sacrifice the agricul-
tura' to the rnanufacturing and commercial
interests, the glory of England will pass away ;
meaning, if you repeal the corn laws the number
of our stupid country paupers will perhaps be
less, whi le the number of knowing people, living
in towns, independent of us, will surely be greater.
No doubt ; but the free importation of cheap ma-
nufactured goods would have a contrary, a pre-
cisely opposite, effect in America ; that is, would
cause a decrease of town population and an
increase oí' rural population. If English manu-
factured goods were let into the United States
duty free, that portion of the capital and labour
of America, which is now ernployed in making
goods of that kind, would be diverted to agricul-
ture. Upan this point there can be no dispute.
Let us further admit, that the Americans might
obtain better and cheaper manufactured goods
by raising corn for the English market than by
making such goods themselves ; just as the


English rnight obtain better and cheaper corn
with steam engines than with ploughs. If so, the
.America.us lose by the tariff, speaking economi-
cally ; but now turn to the political siete of the
account.


1s it desirable that a very large proportion of
the people should consist pf husbanclrnen, such as
the English terrn clodhoppers ; earth-scratchers,*
they °light to be called in America ? Yes, without
doubt, provided this be the only way in which
every member of the society may obtain plenty ;
but in America profits and wages, both, are so high,
that if an econornical sacrifice for a political gain
be ¡nade, it is not felt. Not being felt, it is not a
sacrifice ; whole the gain is palpable. Supposing
that American industry is less procluctive than it
might be, still it produces enough ; and in order
to make it produce more than enough a great
political advantage rnust be sacrificed ; the advan-
tage of so rnuch town population as would have
consisted of mere husbandrnen if the tariff had
not excluded foreign manufactured goods.-¡r in


" fin English farmer," says Washington, writing to
Arthur Young, " ought to have a horrid idea of the state of
our agriculture, or of the nature of our soil, when he is informed
that one acre with us only produces eight or ten bushels. But
it must be kept in mine), that where land is cheap and labour
dear," [scarce] " inca are fonder of cultivating much than
cultivating well. Much ground has been scratched, and none
cultivated as it ought to be."


T " This gentleman told me that that the first child born at




52 APOLOGY FOR THE AMERICAN TARIFE.
APOLOGY FOR THE AMERICAN TARIFF.


.53
America, whatever tends to keep people together
is of inestimable advantage. Carnp meetings are
very useful as they bring people together, though
but now and tiren. The tariff, by inducing so
many people to become manufacturers, has pre-
vented so manypeople from becoming backwoods-
men ; has created and maintains so many towns,
with the roads between them ; has bestowed opon
all the people . in and near those towns the great
advantage of social intercourse ; has checked
emigration from old settlements to the western
wilderness, fixing so much population as would
otherwise have rolled on towards the Pacific.
The tariff, therefore, counteracts in some degree
the barbarising tendency of dispersion ; and for
that most useful quality is well worth solee
econornical sacrifice, if there be any.


I say, if there be any ; for the econornical
sacrifice is not so plain. Supposing that if there
were no tariff the manufacturers of America
would employ their capital and labour in agri-
culture, skilfully like the English, with sullicient
combination to obtain the greatest produce with
the least nurnber of hands ; in that case, capital
and labour being applied svith the utmost skill to


Rochestcr (New York State) after the settlement of the place,
etghteen years ago, was his son. The place only contable(' 1,000
inhabitants, and now (1S2S) about 13,000. There are cotton
works, power-looms, woollen factories, ELEVEN FLOUR MILLS,
AND SIX OR SEVEN CUURCHES." Stuart, vol. 1, page Sl.


the very fertile soil of America, corn of all kinds
would be raised so as to be sold for a lower price
tiran the lowest price for which corn was ever
sold, and in this way the Americans would obtain
from the English (the English tariff being re-
pealed) the cheapest manufactured goods. Under
that supposition the econornical loss resulting
from the tariff might be reckoned very great. But-
capital and labour would not be so applied to
the soil of America. Judging, at least, from all
experience, the capital and labour which viere
diverted from manufactures to agrie ultu re would,
because it was agriculture, because layad toas in the
case, be divided into small separate parts and
employed in the least skilful manner, trusting
for little to
to nature for much,* and


* " AH the unburnt new lands in the northern, rniddle,
southern and western states have been, and still are, uniformly
valued beyond their real worth. When the traca on the green
cnountains of Massachussetts was first setticd, the sanee luxu-
riant fertility was attributed to it, which has since characterized
Kentucky. About the same time it svas ascribed to the vallev of
Ilousatonnuc in the county of Berkshire. From diese tracts it
was transferred to the lands in New Hampshire and Vermont,
on the western sitie of the Green Mountains. From these regions.
the paradise has travelled to the western part of the state of New
York, to New Connecticut, to Upper Callada, to the countries
on the Ohio, tu the south western territory, and is now making
its progress over the Mississippi into the newly purchased
regions of Louisiana. The accounts given of all diese countries
successively was extensively trae; but the conclusions which




54 APOLOGY FOR THE AMERICAN TARIFF.


obtaining, even with that tnost generous nature;
but a small produce in proportion to the number
of hands employed ; just as, in America, capital
and labour (slaves excepted) are now employed in
agriculture. In this case, many who do now
obtain plcnty of manufactured goods, though
dear, -might not be able to obtain any at what-
ever price.


The tariff, besides, is an aet of combination ;
an agreement amongst the people for distribution
of employments. '!'hose farmers for whom the
tariff, by creating towns, has created markets*


were deducted from ilion were in great ineasure erroneous. So long
as ibis mould reinaba, the produce will regularly be great, and that
with very impufect cullivalion ; but this mould, alter a length of
time, will be dissipated ; where lands are C011tinually ploughecl it is
soon lost ; on those which are covered with grass from the
beginning, it is preserved through a considerable period. At
length, however, every appearance of its effieacy, and even of
its existente, vanishes." Dr. Dwight— quotcd by Stuart, vol. 1,
page 264.


"He" (a farmer near Springfield in Illinois) " has advan-
tagcs, too, in point of situation, being nearer to the Galena leal
mines, to which be last year sold 8,000 wooden posts at three
dollars per hundred. He liad been in Scotland but there was
no land in that country to be compared (he said) to that of his
farm. Finding him so much disposed to praise, I asked him
how he mas off for servants. His answer was marked you
llave hit the nail on the head—it is difficult to get servants
fiero, and more diflicult to get good, Stuart, vol. '2,
page 359.


APOLOGY FOR THE ,ANI ERICA N TA 55


near to their own farros, would by a repeal of the
tariff: lose those markets, and must convey their
net produce to more distara markets, ifsuch there
were, and if the cost of such longer conveyance
did not deter thern from raising food for market.
Either, then, their industry would be less produc-
tive, the cost of its produce at market being
greater ; or they would be less industrious, like
hundreds of thousands of settlers far from á
market for net produce, who loiter away one half
of their time and waste a good deal of the other
half by dividing their labour amongst severa! em-
ployments. Divis ion of employments, says Adam
Smith, meaning the reverse of division of labour,
is limited by the extent of the market ; he might
have added, and so is industry itself.* Each
manufacturer, then, and each of those farmers
who now live near toa town, becoming isolated


" The power of exchanging is the vivifying principie of in-
dustry. It stimulates agriculturists to adopt the test systenz of
cultivation, and to raise the Iargcst crops ; because it enables
them to exchange whatever portion of the produce of thcir
lands exceeds their own consumption, for other commodities
conducive to their comforts or enjoyments ; and it equally
stimulates manufacturers to improve the quantity and variety
of their goods, that they may thereby be enabled to obtain a
greater quantity of raw produce. A spirit of industry is dais
universally diffuse(' ; and that apathy and languor, which are
charaeteristic of a sude state of society, entirely disappear."
Professor ilP Cullach's Edition of Smith's Wealth of Nations. Note
19, vol. 4. page 474,




56 APOLOGY FOR THE AMERICAN TARIFF.


cultivators, without a motive for raising more
than should supply their own wants, would soon
be contented with a rocíe house, coarse food and
rough clothes as necessaries, with tobacco, rum,
a rifle and ammunition as luxuries. This does
nearly always happen to those, who impelled by a
spirit of adventure settle far away from any
market. In this way, the American dernand for
manufactured goods would be less, the wants of
so tnany people wonld decrease, and the sum
total of things useful or agreable to man enjoyed
in America would be less ; a loss econornically
speaking, or I have yet to learn the alphabet of
political economy. The loss, morally or politically
speaking, need not be mentioned again.


But, an English cconomist may ash, why should
not the Americans combine with the English
a clivision of employments between the two nations
which would be equally useful to both parties ?
Because, I answer, general combination of power,
which leads to general clivision of employrnents,
is useless, or rather irnpossible, without combina-
tion of capital and labour, and division of em-
ployments, in particular works. Exchange toany
great extent cannot take place unless two parties
raise a surplus produce, unless the produce of
both parties be great in proportion to the hands
employed ; and in America particular combina-
tion of power, with particular division of em-
ployments, will not take place so long as any


APOLOGY FOR THE AMERICAN TARIFF. 57


quantity of good land may be obtained by any
body for the low price of five shillings per acre.
Evils resulting from the very low price of waste
land tneet one at every turn in America.


With slaves, however, this particular combina-
tion of capital and labour is possible in America.
The whites of the southern states are able to raise
cheap commodities ; much, that is, in proportion
to the hands employed ; commodities which being
cheap would be exchangeable in the English
maxket. To the whites of the Southern States,
therefore, the tariff is injurious, limiting their
foreign market for the sale of corn, rice, tobacco,
cotton and lugar. This accounts for their dis-
like of the tariff. But the northern states, want-
ing- slaves, want, besides those southern markets
which slavery and the tariff combined provide for
the various products of their industry, other
markets, nearer to their own particular works ; a
dernand for the produce of much divided capital
and labour, for dear commodities which would
not bear the cost of conveyance to very distant
markets;* and this want of domestic markets is


" Potatoes, turnips, ruta-baga, peas, lucern, &c. are all to
be seen here (New York State) in sitian quantities, but not so
wcll managecl as in well-eultivated districts of Britain. The
hi•h price" [scarcity] " of labour is the great obstacle to the
management which those erops require. It is not because the
farmer does not understand 'lis business that such crops are ap-
parently not sufliciently attended to, but because he, in all cases,
calculates whether it will not be more prolitable for him to




58 APOLOGY POR THE AMERICAN TARIFE. APOLOGY FOR THE AMERICAN TARIFF. 59


to some extent supplied by the tariff. The affee-
tion of the northern states for the tariff is thus
fully explained. As in the southern states slavery,
so in the northern states the tariff, is an expe-
dient, a shift, for correcting the mischievous influ-
ence of dispersion.


Well then, it may be saicl, if the two divisions
of the union have such different interests, in con-
sequence of the difference between their respec-
tive shifts for correcting the mischievous influ-
ence of dispersion, why should they not have
separate governments, a northern and a southern
union ; one with, the other without, a tariff? For
several reasons. First, because the expedient of


remove his establishment to a new and hitherto unimpo-
verished soil, than to commence, and carry on an extensive sys-
tem of cultivation by manuring and fallow or green crops.
Such a system may be adopted in the neighbourhood of great
towns, where many green crops are easily disponed of, and where
manure can be had in large quantities and at a cheap rate ;
but it is in vain to look for its adoption generally, or to expect
to see agricultura! operations in their test style until the land
even in the most distant states and territories be occupied, so
that the farmer may no longer find it more for his interest to
begin his operations anees, on land previously uncultivated,
than to manage his farni according to the vielhod which will ren-
der it most productive." "x"» k " From what I have been
told, I suspect it will be found that, after the effect of the vege-
table matter on the surface of the !and cleared is at an end, the
average crops of all corte of grain are, according to the pre-
vailing system of management in this state, a hay or nearly a
hay, less than on similar soils in Britain:. ' Stuart, vol. 1, page 162.


the south is useful to the north, providing exten-
sive, though distant, rnarkets for the products of
northern industry ; for the manufactures, ships,
steam-boats, cattle and very many things besides,
which are produced in the states that forbid
slavery, which would not be produced if there
were no demancl for them, and for which there
would. be less demand if the southern states, hav-
ing free trade, should buy what they required in
the cheapest market they could any where find.*
Secondly, because the special expedient of the
south could not be maintainecl without assistance
from the north ; the force of the whole union
being required to preserve slavery, to keep clown
the slaves. If the southern states, urged by hatred
of the tariff, should declare thernselves indepen-•
dent, they would presently lose that power of
raising exchangeable commodities which is the
ground-work of their dislike to the tariff. Losing
their slaves, they too, like the northern states,
would want a tariff to counteract dispersion, to
preserve some combination of capital and labour,
and some division of employinents ; or, at the


." 111r. Stuart, speaking of a district in the state of Illinois,
says, " There is never any want of a market. Every thing is
hought by the merchants for New Orleans or for Galena, where
a vast number of workmen are congregated, who are employed
in the leal mines on the north-western parts of this state."
New Orleans is a great market, because of slavery ; Galena,
because of the tariff.




60
61


APOLOGY POR THE AMERICAN TARIFE.


least, to create domestic rnarkets ; a dernand for
the produce of scattered capital and labour. Give
and talle, live and let live, is a maxim every
where understood. In order to preserve their
own special expedient, slavery, the southern states
must put up with the special expedient of the
northern states, which is the tariff. Upon the
whole, therefore, the tariff appears useful to the
people of America ; and as the people of America
govern thernselves for their own good, it will not,
probably, be repealed, though it may be altered
in various ways, until the price of land shall rise
considerably through the increase of people a
century Menee, or earlier by the will of the peo-
ple, who can put what price they please opon
grants in the desert. If the price of new land
were such, that free labour should always be
obtainable for combination in farming, then, with
a greater produce from capital and labour, with
higher profits and higher wages, the Americans
would raise cheaper corn than has ever been
raised ; and, no longer wanting a tariff, might
drive with the manufacturers of England the
greatest trade ever known in the world.


NOTE XII.


THE ART OF COLONIZATION.


Introduction—nature and limits of the subject-
the ends of colonization as respects the mother-
country—the extension of markets—relief from
excessive numbers—enlargement of the field for
employing capital—ends of colonization as res-
pects the colon y—the means of colonization—the
disposal of waste land—the removal of people-
co-operation of the mother-country—the founda-
tion of colonies—the government of colonies.


INTRODUCTION.


CONSIDERING that the world has been peopled by
the removal of people from old societies to settle
in new places, and that the large portion of the
earth, which is still desert, will probably become
inhabited by the same means, but certainly by
no other means ; sceing, therefore, that the ad of
colonization is one of vast importance to man-
kind, it does appear strange that this subject
should not have been thoroughly examined by
any writer on political economy. Under the head
of Colones, we have, indeed, many treatises ; but
not one, as far as I know, in which the ends and
means of colonization have been fully described,




62 THE ART OF COLONIZATION.


or even noticed with so much as a show of method
and accuracy. Of those treatises, some are con-
fined to a mere history of the Greek colonies ;
while in others, which profess to embrace the
whole subject of colonial policy, not only is the
subject examined superficially and carelessly, but
whenever the writer appears to be in earnest, he
either dwells on points which are foreign to the
matter in hand, or rnixes the plainest misstate-
ments of fact with the grossest errors of reason-
ing. Two examples will suffice to prove this
assertion.


Professor M'Culloch, in a note appended to
Adam Smith's chapter on the " Foundation of
Colonies," after giving a list of works on colonial
policy, says, " The article Colon j , in the Supple-
ment to the Encyclopcedia Britannica, written by
Mr. Mill, is one of the ablest of the recent dis-
quisitions on the subject." A most able disquisi-
tion it is truly, on several subjects, but not on
colonization. It contains the shortest and clear-
est explanation ever given of the syrnptoms of
poverty in old countries ; some verygood reasons
why transportation is a very bad mode of punish-
ing crirninals, and some very conclusive argu-
ments against comrnercial restrictions and boun-
ties ; but of colonization, its objects and means,
Mr. Mill says next to nothing. He says, indeed,
that " colonization, with a view to the relief of
the mother country by a diminution of numbers,


THE ART OF COLONIZATION.
63


deserves profound regard ;" and then proceeds to
recommend, as " the best means of checking the
progress of population," that " the superstitions
of the nursery should be discarded," in order to
the adoption of a physical check to the procrea-
tion of children. Returning to colonization with
a view to relief from excessive numbers, he dis-
poses of the whole subject in a few Enes ; saying,
that on two condit.ions, but not otherwise, " a
body of people may be advantageously removed
from one country for the purpose of colonizing
another ;" when, first, " the land which they are
about to occupy should be capable of yielding a
greater return to their labour, than the land which
they leave ;" and, secondly, " when the expense
of removal from the mother country to the colony,
which is usually created by distante, should not
be too great." This is all. The " Conclusion" of
Mr. Mill's essay, accounts for his having been
content with uttering a pair of mere truisins on
a subject, which, he says, deserves profound
regard. Here he asserts the " tendency of colo-
nial possessions to produce or prolong bad govern-
ment," and emphatically condemns colonization
as a fruitful source of jobs, monopolies and wars.
Be it so ; but is this the only matter of bad govern-
rnent ? would there have been no wars, monopo-
lies or jobs without colonies ? is every thing bad,
including the wealth of nations, which has formed
the matter of jobs, monopolies and wars ? are we




64 THE ART OF COLONTZATION.


to regret the existente of the United States because
they were not founded without some great evils ?
has not colonization been a source of much good,
as well as of some harrn, to mankind ? may not
the evils be avoided in future, more good than
ever being obtained ? is there not in the found-
ing of new states, as in the government of old
ones, a way of proceeding better than all the
others ? If Mr. Mill had asked himself these
questions before he wrote on colonies, his essay
would probahly have deserved Mr. M'Culloch's
admiration. In that case, he would have told us
something, at least,about the United States, which
still receive from other countries, and pour forth
to reclaim the wilderness, great streams of popu-
lation ; about the influence of this gradual increase
of land, in proportion to the increase of people, in
rendering a people fit to enjoy • self-government or
democratic institutions ; about the increased en-
joyments of Europe arising frorn the discovery of
new productions in her colonies ; about tlie sti-
mulus given to European industry and skill, by
the formation of new markets ; about the rea-
sons since the time of the ancient Greeks,
at least, colonization has not been made useful
for relieving an old country from excessive num-
bers ; and, perhaps, about the best means of
reclaiming desert countries with that all impor-
tant object. As it is, his essay may be called a
treatise, and a very able one, on population,


THE ART OF COLONIZATION.
65


punishment, monopolies and patronage, with a
few careless remarks on colonization.


Adam Smith has writtcn at great length on
Colonies, but not with much more cace than Mr.
Mill ; as the reader will perceive who shall take
the trouble to examine the following statement of


the Causes y the Prosperity of New Colonies."*
"The colony of a civilized nation which takes


possession either of a waste country, or of one so
thinly inhabited that the natives easily give place
to the new settlers, advances more rapidly to
wealth and greatness than any other human
society."


This assertion does not rest on facts. Some
few new colonies have advanced very rapidly
population; but sca.rce any have advanced rapidly
to wealth and greatness ; while, as nave had oc-
casion to observe before, the greater number of
colonies have perished, or, at least, have remained
for a long while lcss prosperous and civilized
than their mother countries. Amongst bodies of
people who take possession of a waste country,
the general rule seems to be, very slow progress
towards wealth and greatness, with an exception
now and tiren. The exeeptions are not very strik-
ing. The only exceptions that strike one at all
are the United States, Upper Canada (for Lower
Canada was never a prosperous colony), and the


See Professor INI`Culloch's Edition of the PVealth of Na-
tions, vol. 2, P. 460.


VOL. II.
E




66 THE ART OF COLONIZATION.


penal settlements of the English in Australia. An
increase of population, taken by itself, proves
nothing ; since in Ireland, one of the most miser-
able countries of Europe, people have increased
of late years almost as fast as in the United States.
The progress of the United States in wealth, since
they becam. e independent, has not been nearly so
great as that of England during the same period.
No one pretends that the settlers of Upper Canada
are a. wcalthy people; and their prosperity, such as
it is, seems to be owing mainly to an amount of
itnmigration, both of capital and people, from a
rich old country, far greater than ever occurred
before in the history of colonization. As for the
penal settlements of the English in Australia,
they are societies altogether unnatural ; having
been founded, and being maintained, by the
government of England with the produce of taxes
paid by the people of England. Sorne persons,
not convicts, are established there. These the
English government supplies with s'aves free of
prime cost. The convict labourers, being forced
to work in combination, raise more produce than
they consume. But of what use would be surplus
produce without a market in which to dispose of
it ? Such a market the English government pro-
vides for the, farmers of New South Wales, by
.maintaining a civil and niilitary establishment,
which costs 300,0001. a year. The local govern-
ment buys the snrplus produce of the settlers,


THE ART OF COLONIZATION. 67


either with bilis cirawn on the English treasnry,
or with specie sent from the English mint. With
these bilis and this rnoney, the settlers obtain
various articles of comfort and luxury ; manu-
factured goods from England, vine from Spain
and France, sugar from the Isle of France, to-
bacco from Brazil, spices from the Inclian Archi-
pelago, and tea from China. The government first
supplies the settlers with labour, and then buys,
with exchangeable cominodities, the surplus pro-
duce of that labour. In this way, a great trade
has been maintained great, that is, in propor-
tion tu the people who viere there to conduct it.
That trade could not but be very profitable, so
long as the dernand of the government exceeded
the supply of the colony ; and this excess of de-
mand over supply continuad until lately. The
high profits of that trade, and the high wages also


* When the English colonial minister boasts in Parliainent
of the revenue raised by duties of customs in New South
Wales, he seems to forget, that the trade on which thosc du-
ties are levied is nothing but a certain mode of expenditure by
the Englisii government. He might as well boast of having .ezot
a revenue by taxes on the stone and wood used in building the
palace at Phnlico. A portion of the money, which the English
pay for keeping convicts at New South Wales, is nade to pass,
and not by a very indirect process, through the hands of the
custorn-house officers at Sydney : whercupon the English
colonial minister, who has ale the patronage attendant on that
distant and most costl y


jail, exclaims—Hcre's a flourishing
Colon for vou !




68 THE ART OF COLONIZATION. THE ART OF COLONIZATION. 69


which every free labourer who chose to take part
in it could obtain, have induced the colonists to
keep together ; whilst the management of that
trade called for a division of employments, such as,
1 believe, never occurred before in any colony so
lately established. The unnatural causes of the
prosperity of this colony show in a striking man-
ner, that new colonies in general are not apt
to be prosperous. The only new colonies that
have been remarkably prosperous, are those of
the ancient Greeks. Here follows Adam Smith's
statement of the causes of their prosperity.


" The colonists carry out with them a know-
ledge of agriculture and other useful arts, supe-
rior to what can grow up of its own accord in the
course of many centuries amongst savage and bar-
barous nations. They carry out with them too
the habit of subordination, some notion of the
regular government which takes place in their
own country, of the system of laws which sup-
port it, and of a regular administration ofjustice ;
and they naturally establish something of the
same kind in the new settlement. But among
savage and barbarous nations, the natural pro-
gress of law and government is still slower than
the natural progress of arts, after law and govern-
ment have been so far established as is neces-
sary for their protection. Every.colonist g-ets more
land than he can possibly cultivate. He has no
rent and scarce any takes to pay. No landlord


shares with him in its •produce, and the share of
the sovereign is commonly but a trifle. He has
every motive to render as great as possible a pro-
duce which is thus to be almost entirely bis own.
But his land is commonly so extensive that with
all bis own industry, and with all the industry of
other people whom he can get to ernploy, he can
seldom make it produce the tenth part of what it
is capable of producing. He is eager therefore
to collect labourers from all quarters, and to re-
ward them with the most liberal wages. Those
liberal wages, joined to the plenty and cheapness
of land, soon make those labourers leave him,
in order to become landlords themselves, and to
reward, with equal liberality, other labourers, who
soon leave them for the same reason that they left
their first master. The liberal reward of labour
encourages marriage. The children, during the
tender years of infancy, are well taken cure of;
and when they are grown up the value of their
labour greatly overpays their maintenance. When
arrived at maturity, the high price of labour and
the low price of land, enable them to establish
themselves in the same manner as their fathers
did before them. In other countries, rent and
profit eat up wages, and the two superior orders
of people oppress the inferior one. But in new
colonies, the interest of the two superior orders
)bliges them to treat the inferior one with more
;enerosity and humanity ; at least where that in-




70 THE ART Ok` COLONIZATION.


feriar one is not in a state of s lav e r y . Waste lands
of the greatest natural fertility are to be had for
a t'Ye. The mercase of revenue which the pro-
prietor who is also the undertaker, expects from
their improvement, constitutes bis profit ; which
in these circurnstances is coinmonly very great.
But this great profit cannot be malle without em-
ploying the labour of other people in clearing
and cultivating the land ; and the disproportion
between the great extent of the land and the
small number of people, which commonly takes
place in new colonies, inakes it difficult for him
to get this labour. He does not therefore dis-
pute about wages, but is willing to employ labour
at any price. The high wages of labour encou-
rage population. The cheapness and plentij of
good land encou ruge improvement and enable the
proprietor to pay those high wages. In those
wages consists almost the whole price of the !and:
and though they are high, considered as the
wages of labour, they are low, considered as the
price of what is so very valuable. What encou-
rages the progress of population and improve-
ment encourages that of real wealth and great-
ness. The progress of many of the Greek colo-
nies towards wealth and greatness, scouts accord-
ingly to have been very rapid. In the course
of a century or two, severa! of them appear to
have rivalled, and oven to have surpassed their
mother ci tics. Syracuse and Agrigentmu in Sicily,


THE ART OF COLONIZATION. 71


Tarentum and Locri in Italy, Ephesus and Mile-
tus in Lesser Asia, appear, by all accounts, to
have been at least equal to any of the cities of
ancient Greece."


This passage contains a curious mixture of
truth and error. It is the error that concerns us
here. With respect to the colonies of Greece,
there is nota word of truth in the whole passage.
The remarkable prosperity of those colonies is
attributed to superabundante or extreme cheap-
ness of land, and to dearness of labour or high
wages. But the emigrants from Greece did not,
most certainly, obtain great tracts of land over
which to spread at will. There is no instante of
their having advanced far from the sea shore.
Wherever they landed, they had to displace war-
like tribes who,abandoning the coast after a strug-
gle, continuad to watch the intruders and to con-
fine them within very narrow limits ; within a
short stripe of land. The first occupation of a
Greek colony seems to have been te build a for-
tress, into which the whole body of colonists
might retire when attacked. Sotne of those strong
places became very soon great towns ; but the
quantity of land required to feed the inhabitants
of one great tocan, formed, in most cases, the
whole territory of a Greek colony from the begin-.
ning to the end of its careen. Abundance and
consequent cheapness of land, therefore, was not
a cause of the prosperity of the Greek colonies.




72 THE ART OF COLONIZATION. THE ART OF COLONIZATION. 73


In the next place, dearness of labour, or high
wages, are terms which emigrants from Greece
would not have understood even. In no Greek
colony did any one ever sell his labour ; or any
one pay wages, high or low; for all the works of
those societies, the cultivatión of their small ter-
ritory, the building of their houses, the making
of their tools, clothes, furniture, roads, carriages,
and ships, and also the exchanges which took
place either within a colony, or between a colony
and other states ; all these works, so far as respects
labour, were performed exclusively by slaves.


The account, therefore, which the father of
the English economists has given of the causes of
the prosperity of those colonies whose prosperity
is the most remarkable, is obviously, nay, grossly
incorrect. From these two examples of careless
writing about colonies, by the first and the last
distinguished Englishmen who have professed to
examine the subject, it muy bé inferred that the
subject has never been carefully examined. They
are noticed, by way of apology for conducting
this enquiry with a degree of method, cave' and
fullness, which would have been pedantic or im-
pertinent if such a course liad ever been pursued
before.


NATURE AND LIMITS OF THE SUBJECT.


The word colony, is used to express very dif-
ferent ideas. A conquered nation, amongst whom


the victors do not settle, even a mere factory for
trade, has eommonly been termed a colony; as
for example the English factories in India and
the actual dominion of the English in that coun-
try. Mere stations also for rnilitary or trading
purposes, such as Malta and Heligoland, go by
the narre of colonies. In libe rnanner, the penal
settlements or distant gaols of the English are
superintended by their colonial minister, and
were called colonies even when their whole popu-
lation consisted of prisoners and keepers. rf\vo
societies more dífferent than the people of India
ruled by the servants of a London trading coin-
pany, and the convicts of New South Wales
before Englishmen not criminals began to settle
there, could not well be imagined. But the dif-
ference between the ideas often expressed by the
term colony is matehed by the caprice with which
that term is used. The settlements of the Grceks
in Sicily and Asia Minor, independent states from
the beginning, have always been temed colo-
nies : the English settlements in America were
termed colonies, though in local matters they
governed themselves from the beginning, so long
as England rnonopolized their foreign trade and
managed theír external relations ; but from the
time when England attempted to interfere with
their dornestic government and happily lost both
the monopoly of.. their foreign trade and the
management of their foreign relations, they have




74 THr, A RT OF COLONIZATION.


not been reckoned as colonies. According to
the loose way in which this terco has been used,
it is not dependence that constitutes a colony ;
nor is it the continua! immigration of people
from distant places, since in this respect the
United States surpass all other countries. In
order to express the idea of a society, which con-
tinually receives boches of people from distant
places, and sends out bodies of people tu settle
perrnanently in new places, no distinctive terrn
has yet been used. This, however, is the idea
which will be expressed whenever the terco colony
is used Itere ; the idea of a society at once immi-
grating and emigrating, such as the United States
of America and the English settlements in Canada,
South Africa and Australia.


For the existente of a colony two things are
indispensable ; first, waste land, that is, land not
yet the property of but fiable to
become so through the intervention of govern-
ment ; and secondly, the migration of people ;
the rernoval of people to settle in a new place.
Further it will be seen at once, that this migra-
tion must be of two kinds ; first, the rernoval of
people from an old to a new country ; secondly,
the rernoval of people from a settled part to a
waste part of the colony. Colonization, then, sig-
nifies the rernoval of people from an old toa new
country, and the settlernent of people on the
waste land of the new country. As in this there


THE ART OF COLONIZATION. 71.5


is more to be done than to be learned, this is an
art rather than a science. In every art, the means
to be employed ought to be regulated strictly by
the ends in view. The first point, therefore, in this
enquiry is the ends of colonization.


Two very different societies tnay have a com-
mon interest in colonization, though with objects
widely different in some respects. The English,
for exarnple, may have a deep interest in removing
people to America for the sake of relief from
excessive numbers ; while the Americans, cursed
with slavery, might gain incalculably by receiv-
ing numbers of people from England. • Fhe ends
of colonization, therefore, may be divided into
two classes ; those which belong to the old coun-
try, and those which belong to the colony. Eaeh
class of objects will be best ascertained by being
examined separately.


THE ENDS OF COLONIZATION AS RESPECTS THE
MOTHER-COUNTRY.


It may be questioned whether, in modem times
at least, any old state has founded or extended a
colony with any definite object whatever. The
states of ancient Grecce are supposed by Mr.
Mill to have sent forth bodies of emigrants de-
liberately with a view to relief from excessive
numbers ; and he has shown in a very clear and
foreible manner that the rulers of tirase states had




76 THE ART OF COLONIZATION.


a strong motive for seeking that relief in that
way, while no such motive was likely to occur to
the rulers of modern Europe.* The rulers of


sr
"A eurious phenomenon here presents itself. A redun-


dancy of population, in the states of ancient Greece, made
itsclf visible even to vulgar eyes. A redundancy of population
in modern Europe never makes itself visible to any but the
most enlightened eyes. Ask an ordinary man, ask almost any
man, if the population of this country be too great ; if tile po_
pulation of any country in Europe is, or ever was too grcat : so
far, he will tell you, ís it from being too great, that good
policy would consist in making it, if possible, still greater; and
he might quote in his own support, the authority of almost all
governments, who are commonly at pains to prevent the
emigration of their people, and to give encouragement to
marriage.


The explanation of the phenomenon is easy ; but it is also of
the highest importante. When the supply of fe:te(' is too small
for the population, the deficiency operates, in modern Europe,
in a manner different from that in which it operated in ancient
Greece. In modem Europe, the greatest portion of the food
is bought by the great body of the people. What the great
body of the people have to give for it is nothing but labour.
When the quantity of food is not suffieient for all, and when
some are in danger of not getting any, each man is induccd,
in order to secare a portion to himself, to give better tercos for
; t than any other man ; that is, more labour. In other words,
that part of the population, who have nothing to give for food
but labour, take less wages. This is the primary effect, clear,
ímmediate, eertain. lt is only requisite further to trace the
secondary or derivativc effccts.


When we say, that in the case in which the supply of food
has become too small for the population, the great body of the
people take less wages, that is less food, for their labour 3 we


THE ART OF COLONIZATION. 77


modem Europe, however, have had a motive of
affection for colonies. " Sancho Panza," says


mean that they take less than is necessary for their comfortable
subsistence ; because they would only have what is necessary
for eomfortable subsistente in the case in which the supply of
food is not too small for the whole.


The effect, then, of a disproportion between the food and the
population is, not to feed to the full measure that portion of the
population which it is sufficient to feed, and to leave the re-
dundant portion destitute ; it is to take, according to a certain
cate, a portion of bis due quantity from each individual of that
great class who have nothing to give for it but ordinary labour.


What this state of things imports is most casily seen. The
great class, who have nothing to give for food but ordinary
labour, are the great body of the people. When every indivi-
dual in the great body of the people has less than the due
quantity of food, less than would fall to bis share if the quantity
of food were not too small for the population, the state of the
great body of the people is the state of sordid, painful and de-
graded poverty. They are wretchedly fed, wretchedly clothed,
have wretched houses, and neither time nor means to keep
their loases or their persons free from disgusting impurity.
Those of them, who, either from bodily infirmities, have less
than the ordinary quantity of labour to bestow, or, from the
state of their need a greater than the ordinary quantity
of food, are condemned to starve ; either wholly, if they have
not enough to keep them alive ; or partially, if they have
enough to yield them a lingering, diseased, and, after all, .a
shortened existente.


What the ignorant and vulgar spectator sees in all this, is
not a redundant population : it is only a poor population. He
sees nobody without food who has enough to give for it. To
bis eye, therefore, it is not food which is wanting, but that
which is to be given for it. When events succeed in this




78 THE ART OF COLONIZATION.


Mr. Mill " liad a scheme for deriving advantage
from the government of an island. He would


train, and are viewed with those eyes, there never can appearto
be a redundancy of population.


Events succeeded in a different train in the states of ancient
Greece, and rendered a redundancy of population somewhat
more visible, even to vulgar and ignorant eyes.


In ancient Greece, the greatest portion of the food was not
bought by the great body of the people ; thc state of whom,
wretched or cornfortable, legislation has never yet been wise
enough much to regard. Ali manual labour, or, at least, the
far greater portion of it, was performed, not by free labourers
serving for wages, but by slaves, who werc the property of the
great men. The dericiency of food, therefore, was not dis-
tributed in the shape of general poverty and wretchedness
over the great body of the population, by reduction of wages ;
a case which affects with very slight sensations those who re-
gard themselves as in no degree hable to fall into that miser-
able situation. It was felt, first of all, by the great men, in
the greater cost of maintaining their slaves. And what is fclt
as disagreeable by the great men, is sure never to confirme
long without an effort, either wise or foolish, for the removal
of it. This law of human nature was not less faithfully ob-
served in the states of ancient Greece, for their being ealled
republics. Called republics, they in reality were aristocracies ;
and aristocracies of a very bad description. They were aris-
tocracies in which the people were cheated with an idea of
power, merely because they were abie, at certain distant
intervals, when violently exeítecl, to overpowcr the aristocracy
in some one particular point ; but they viere aristocracies, in
which there was not one efficient security to prevent the
interests of the many from being sacrificed to the interests of
the few ; they werc aristocracies, accordingly, in which the
interests of the many viere habitually sacrificed to the interests


THE ART OF COLONIZATION. 79


sell the people for slaves, and put the money into
his pocket. The Few, in some countries, find in


of the few ; meaning by the many, not the slaves merely, but
the great body of the free citizens. This was the case in all
the states of Greece, and not least in Athens. This is not seen
in reading the French and English histories of Greece. It is
not seen in reading Mitford, who has written a history of
Greece for no other purpose but that of showing, that thc
interests of the many always ought to be sacrificed to the
interests of the few ; and of abusing the people of Greece,
because, every now aud then, the many in those countries
showed, that they were by no means patient under the habi-
tual sacrifice of their interests to the interests of the few. But
it is very distinctly seen, amongst other occasions, in reading
the Grcek orators, in reading Demosthenes, for example, in
reading the Oration against Midias, the Oration on Leptines,
and others ; in which the license of the rich and powerful, and
their menas of oppressing the body of the people, are shown to
have been excessivc, and to have been exercised with a shame-
less atrocity, which the gentleness and modesty of the manners
of modem Europe, oven in the most aristocratically despotic
countries, wholly preclude.


In Greece, then, any thing which so intimately affected the
great men, as a growing cost of maintaining their slaves, would
not long remain without serious attempts to fiad a rernedy.


It was not, however, in this way alone, that a redunclant
population shewed itself in Greece. As not many of the free
citizens maintained themselvcs by manual labour, they had
but two resources more,—the land and profits of stock. Those
who lived on profits of stock, did so, comtnonly, by employing
slaves in some of the known arts and manufactures, and of
course were affected by the growing cost of maintaining their
slaves. Those who lived on the produce of a certain portion
of the land, could not but exhibit, very distinctly, the redun-




SO THE ART OF COLONIZATION.


colonies a thing which is very dear to them ; they
find, the one part of them, the precious matter
with which to influence ; the other, the precious
matter with which to be influenced ;—the one,
the precious matter with which to make political
dependents ; the other, the precious matter with
which they are ¡nade political dependents ; the
one, the precious matter by which they augment
their power ; the other the precious matter by
which they augment their riches. Both portions
of the ruling Few, therefore, find their account
in the possession of colonies. There is not one
of the colonies, but what augments the number
of places. There are governorships and judge-
ships and a long train of eteeteras ; and, aboye
all, there is not one of them but what requires
an additional number of troops and an additional
portion of navy. In every additional portion of
army and návy, besides the glory of the thing,


dancy of their numbers, when, by the multiplication of families,
portions carne to be so far subdivided, that what belonged to
each individual was insufficient for bis maintenance.


In this manner, then, it is very distinctly seen, why, to
vulgar eyes, there ncver appears, iu modem Europe, to be any
redundaney of population, any demand for relieving the country
by carrying away a portion of the people ; and why, in ancient
Greece, that redundancy malle itself to be very sensibly per-
ceived ; and created, at various times, a perfectly effident
demand for removing to dístant places a considerable portion of
the people." 4rlicle Colony, in the Suppleinent to the Encyelo-
yedia Britannica.


THE ART OF COLONIZATION. 81


there are generalships and colonelships and cap-
tainships, and lieutenantships ; and in the equip-
ping and supplying of additional portions of army
and navy, there are always gains which may be
thrown in the way of a friend.. Ali this is enough
to account for a very considerable quantity of
affection maintained towards eolonies." For the
affection of the rulers this is enough, but not
for that of the nations. The nations of modem
Europe have had a very different motive of
affection for colonies ; a sense of the benefits
derived from the discovery of new productions
and the creation of new markets. Those English-
men, for instante, who during the last century
and a half have -shouted, "Ships, Colonies and
Commerce were good political economists. If
they did not know scientifically, that all irnprove-
ments in the productive powers of industry, that
industry itself, is limited by the extent of the
market, still they felt that every new colony, or
every enlargement of an old one, increased by so
much the means of exchanging the produce of
English labour, and by so much increased the
wealth of England. Who that produces does not
feel, though he may be unable to account for it,
the advantage of having come other ready to
leal with him for the surplus produce of his
labour ? A desire for new markets has, indeed,
searcely ever been the deliberate motive for
establishing' a colony ; nor perhaps did any go-


VOL. 11.




82 THE ART OF COLONIZATION. THE ART OF COLONIZATION. 83


vernment ever establish a colony deliberately for
the sake of patronage. But, colonies having been
established, sometimes by the adventurous spirit
of individuals, sometimes by religious persecution,
the governments and nations of modem Europe
had strong motives of affection towards them ; the
governments, for the sake of patronage ; the
nations, for the sake of maAets, Dente the
anxiety of the governments of modem Europe to
retain dominion over their colonies, and their
attacks upon each other's colonies hence, too,
the Colonial System, as it is called ; the system
of trading monopolies, which took its rice in a
rnistaken desire in each nation to monopolize as
tuna as possible of that trad-e between Europe
and her colonies, which would have been more
valuable to all the nations if it had been per-
fectly free. Let us distinguish between the
existence and the dominion of a colony ; betweeri
the existence and the monopoly of a colonial
market. " There is no necessity," says Mr. Ben-
-tham, " for govcrning or possessing any island in
order that we inay sell merchandize there." But
in order to sell rnerchandize in a colony, it is ne-
cessary that the colony should exist. If Mr.
Bentham had drawn this distinction, if he had
separated the question of dominion from the ques-
tion of existence, he would not have been led, by
dwelling on the evils of colonial monopoly, to
undervalue the benefits of colonial -trade. His


disciple, Mr. Mill, likewise, if he had drawn this
distinction, would not have deprecated colonies
because they have been made improperly a
ground for jobs, monopolies and wars he might
have condemned the wars, monopolies and jobs,
of which colonies have been the matter ; but
perceiving that the real source of those evils
was, not the colonies, but the badness of Eu-
ropean governments, he would probably have
seen also, along with Adam Smith, the " natural
advantages," which Europe has derived from
her colonies, in spite of the tricks which those
governments have played with them. The uses
and abuses of colonization are very different
things. While some philosophers have con-
demned colonization on account of its abuses,
the nations of Europe, even when they prornoted
the abuses, had, one cannot say a knowledge,
but a deep sense of the usefulness. That such
" unscientific knowledge," to use ternas ernployed
by Bentham, should have been attended with
very " unartificial practice," is j ust what might
have been expected.


The objects of an old society promoting
colonization seem to be three ; first, the extension
of the market for disposing of their own surplus
produce; secondly, relief from excessive numbers ;
thirdly, an enlargernent of the field for employing
capital. Referring, however, to a previous Note
on the coincidente of overfiowing national wealth




84 THF, ART OF COLONIZATION.


with the uneasiness and misery of individuals, it
will be seen presently, that these three objects
may come under one head ; namely, an enlarge-
ment of the field for ernploying capital and
labour. But, first, each object must be considered
separatel y.


1. The extension of markets.
Why does any man ever produce of any thing


more than he can himself consume ? Solely be-
cause líe expects that some other man will take
from him that portion of the produce of his labour
which he does not want, giving him in exchange
something which he wants. From the power of
exchanging comes every improvement in the ap-
plication of labour, and every atoro of the pro-
duce of labour, beyond that rude work and that
small produce which supply the wants of savages.
It is not because an English washerwoman can-
not sit down to breakfast without tea and sugar,
that the world has been circumnavigated ; but it
is because the world has been circumnavigatcd,
that an English washerwoman requires tea and
sugar for breakfast. According to the power of
exchanging, are the desires of individuals and
societies. But every mercase of desires, or wants,
has a tendency to supply the means of gratifica-
tion. The savage hunter, enabled te exchange
bis furs for beads, is stimulated to grcater energy
and The solo gTound on which it is sup-


THE ART OF COLONIZATION. 85


posed that the blaeks of the ; Test Indies will
work for wages as soon as they shall be set, free,
is their love of finery. They will produce sugar,
it is said, in arder te buy trinkets and fine clothes.
And who ever worked hard, when was an im-
provement made in any useful art, cave through
the impulse of a passion for some kind of finery ;
for some gratification, not absolutely necessary,
to be obtained by means of exchange ? As with
individuals, so with nations. In England, the
greatest improvements have taken place conti-
nually, ever since colonization has continually
produced new desires amongst the English, and
new markets wherein te purchase the objects of
desire. With the growth of sugar and tobacco
in America, carne the more skilful growth of
corn in England. Because, ín England, sugar
was drank and tobacco smoked, corn was raised
with less labour, by fewer hands ; and more Eng-
lishmen existed to eat bread, as well as to drink
sugar and smoke tobacco. The removal of En,g-
lishmen to America, and their industry in raising
new productions nót fit for the support of life,
led, in England, to more production for the sup-
port of life. Because things not necessary had
been produced, more necessaries were produced.*


" Rich subjects malee a rich nation. As the formen Mercase,
so will the means of filling the coffers of the lattcr. Let con-
temporary nations lay it to their account that England is more
powerful ;han ever sha was, notwithstanding her debt and




86 THE ART OF COLONIZATION. THE ART OF COLONIZATION 87


If the French should know how to colonize North
Africa, they may overtake the English in the
skilful application of domestic capital and labour;
but if they do this, it will be through the impulse
arising from new markets in which to. sell the
surplus produce of their industry. It thus-appears,
that the removal of people from an old society to


tases. This knowledge shoulcl form an element in their foreign
policy. Let them assurc themselves that instcad of declining
she is advancing ; that her population increases fast ; that she
is constantly seeking new fields of enterprise in other parts of
the globe, and adding to the iMprovements that already cover
her island at new ones that promise to go fax beyond
them in magnitude : in line, that insteaci of being worn out, as
at a distance is sometimes supposed, she is going a-head with
the buoyant and vigorous effort of youth. w * * Britain still
exists ail over the world in her coIonies. These alone give
her the means of advancing her industry and opulence for ages
to come. They are portions of her territory more .valuable
than if joined to her island. The sense of distanee is destroyed
by her command of ships ; whilst that very distance serves
as the feeder of her commerce and marine. Situateci on every
continent, lying in every latitude, these, her out dominions,
make her the centre of a trade already vast and perpetuaily
augmenting,—a honre trade and a foreign trade,—for it yields
the riches of both as she controls it at her will. Thcy take
off her redundant population, jet malee her more populous ; and
are destined under the policy already commenced towards
them, and which in time she will more extensively pursue, to
expaud her empire, cornmercial, manufacturing and maritime,
to dimensions to which it would not be easy to fix
A Residence at the Court of London ; by the han. Mr. Rush, Env.
Ex. and Min. Plen. from the United States to England.


a new place;
may be of the greatest use to that


old society, even when the people removed occupy
themselves in raising objects of mere luxury, and
when the mother country has yet many stops to
make in the careen of wealth and civilization.


But now comes the more interesting case of a
society, which, stimulated by the extension of its
markets, has cultivated all that part of its ter- -
ritory which is fit for cultivation ; a society in
which the utmost skill in the application of
capital and labour to agriculture is counteracted
by the necessity of cultivating inferior land ; a
society, consequently, in which food is dear, and
in which there exist the strengest motives for int-
porting food from other countries by means of
manufactures and exchange ; a society, in short,
which requires new markets in which to purchase
the staff of life. This is, pre-eminently, the case
of England. Imagine a country, in which the
quantity of air for breathing were limited, and
were not more than suflicient to keep alive the
actual number of its inhabitants ; while of that
actual number the larger portion by much ob-
tained less than enough air ; ovas half suffocated
for want of air ; in a state bctween life and
death. Conceive farther, that in this country an
inexhaustible supply of food might be obtained
without labour, as air is every where obtained.
NOW suppose that this society shouid be able to
obtaiu air from other countries by Ineans of




88 THE ART OF COLONIZATION.


manufactures and exchange. If this ability were
allowed its free exercise, the population of that
country would go on increasing continually, all
the people being at ease, so long as the ability
should last. But if the rulers of this country,
having a property in the ni rnosphere, should for-
bid the people to get air from other countries, the
bulk of that people must remain half suffocated,
notwithstandinp-, their natural ability to obtain
plenty of the means of life. Substituting bread
for air, this is the case of England with her


corn laws. The English corn laws will be
repealed. As the present enquiry relates to
country like England but without corn laws, we
may, fc.mr the salce of more ready illustration,
speak of England as if her corn laws were re-
pealed. When that shall happen, the English
will hunt over the world in search of cheap corn.
But where will t.hey fiad any? Not in countries
situated like England ; not in any country where
land is dear. They will fiad cheap corn, only in
countries where land is cheap ; in countries where
the proportion which land bears to people is so
great as, first, to render unnecessary the cultiva-
tion of inferior land, and, secondly, to encourage
a large proportion of the people to occupy them-
selves with the growth of com. But is not this
the description of a colony, according to the
sense in which the term eolony is here used ? a
country having room for more people, with more


THE ART OF COLONIZATION.. 89


room at hand for the greatest mercase of people.
Poland is such a country ; as was England when
the bulk of Englishmen were serfs. But there
are three reasons why such a country as England
vas then, is not the most fit to provide cheap corn
for such a country as England is now : first,
because in the then barbarous and despotic state
of the English government, no dependence could,
have been placed on English industry for a
regular supply of corn : secondly, because in the
then barbarous condition of the English people,
capital and labour were not a,pplied to the growth
of corn with that skill which renders the produce
great in proportion to the hands employed :
thirdly, because the savage ancestors of the Eng-
Esti would not have cared to huy such objects
as those, with which alone the English of this
day could buy foreign corn. The market would
have been very insecure ; the corn brought to it
not very cheap ; and of that corn, whethcr cheap
or dear, but a small quantity would have been
brought to market. This is precisely the case of
Poland, where the market is fiable to be chut
by the whim of a tyrant ; where the produce of
agricultura' capital and labour, though, by means
of slavery, greater than it would be if the capital
and labour were cut up into fractions as nume-
vous as the cuitivators, is latid) less than it would
be if the sanee number of Poles should cultivate
the salce land with English skill ; and where the




90 THE ART OF COLONIZATION.


demand for English goods is by no means equal
to the supply that contri be afforded, nor likely
to become so. Whereas in a colony planteó by
Englishmen, civilized and well governed, the
highest skill in the application of capital and
labour to the growth of corn, might conspire with
great cheapness of land, to the raising of cheaper
corn than has ever yet been raised ; while so
cheap a market for the purchase of eorn would
not only be as secure as any distant market ever
was, but might be extended continually with the
progress of colonization. Why such very cheap
corn has not been raised in any English colony,
is a different question, slightly n.oticed before
and the means of raising very cheap corn in a
colony, without slavery, will be carefully exa-
minál amongst the means of colonization. Here
my object has been to show, that for such a coun-
try as England, a chief end of colonization is to
obtain secure markets for the purchase of cheap
corn ; a steady supply of bread, Hable to be in-
creased with an inereasin




demand.
The trade which the English should conduct


for obtaining cheap bread from their colonies
might be of two kinds ; direct and indirect.
Supposing that very cheap corn were raised in
Canada, the English might buy such corn with
the manufactured goods of Leeds, Manchester


See Note VIL


THE ART OF COLONIZATION. 91


and Birmingham ; this would be a direct trade.
But it might very well happen, that the Canadians
should be able to raise, not more corn than the
English should be able to buy, but more than
they should be able to buy with manufactured
goods. In other words, the demand of the Cana-
dians for English goods might be much less than
the demand of the English for Canadian corn.
But the Canadians would require many things,
besides English goods, which are not producible
in Canada : they would require tea and silver, for
instance. The English, then, might, first buy tea
and silver of the Chinese with manufactured
goods, and then buy corn of the Canadians with
tea and silver. But the demand, again, of the
Chinese for English goods might not be sufficient
to supply in this way the demand of the English
for Canadian corn. Por one thing, however, the
demand of the Chinese is very urgent and would
be without limit ; for food in every chape ; for
the means of life. Here, then, is the ground-
work of the most extensive commerce that ever
existed in the world. Supposing that cheap food
were raised in the English colonies of Australia,
which, though far from England, are near to
China, the English //light buy such food with
manufactured goods ; with that food, buy tea and
silver of the Chinese ; and with that tea and silver,
buy cheap corn of the Canadians. In this case;
combination of capital and labour for division of




92 THE ART OF COLONIZATION. THE ART OT COLONIZATION. 93


employments amongst four different nations,
would be of the greatest service to all of them ;
to the Australian colonists, the Chinese, the
Canaclian colonists, and the English. A great
number of cases like this might be reasonably
supposed. From this case, which, though sup-
posed, is very likely to occur, it will be seen that
a colony, at the antipodes even of its mother
country, might help to supply that mother coun-
try with cheap corn ; and by means of the
cheapness of land which is an attribute of colo-
nies. Both by a direct and an indirect trade,
Monjes might, according to their number and
extent, enlarge the field for employing capital
and labour in the mother country ; at home ;
without reference to the emigration of people or
the removal of capital into distant fields of
employment. The warmest imagination could
hardly exaggerate the benefits which a country
like England might derive from such enlarg-e-
ments of her domestic field of production ; could
hardly reckon at too much the new demand
for labour at honre, in building, machinery and
manufactures ; for the produce of domestic agri-
culture, corn alone excepted ; for ships ; for the
use of mercantile capital ; and for all kinds of
services not usually called labour.


But, it may be said, a country like England,
having no corn laws, might obtain all there
benefits without colonies. " The possession of


colonies," Sir Heni•y Parnell would say, " affords
no advantages which could not be obtained by
cornmercialintercourse with independent states."*
Here, again, the question of dominion is mixed
up with the question of existence. Independent
states which are the independent st.ates that
could produce very cheap corn for the English
market? The United States truly ; but the
United States are as much colonies as were the
never dependent colonies of Greece. Canada, on
the other hand, being dependent, is neither more
nor less fit than the United States to produce
cheap corn for the English market. Let us
banish altogether, for the present, the idea of
monopoly or dorninion. Of him who has done
this, I would ask, What country, in which land is
cheap, is most fit, on other accounts, to provide
the English with cheap corn ? Not Poland ;
because there property is insecure, industry un-
skilful and the people barbarous : not Buenos
Ayres, where land is cheaper than in any other
country, being obtainable in unlimited quantities
for nothing, of the richest quality, already cleared
and drained by nature ; not Buenos Ayres, be-
cause the people of this colony are barbarously
unskilful and have no desire for English goods
not Ceylon ; because, though that country be
improperly called an English colony, its inhabi-


Financial Reform, pago 2.51, 3d. edit.




tants are not anxious to obtain English goods :
nono of these, but the United States, Canada, and
the English settlements in South Africa and Aus-
tralia ; because, in all of those countries, corn
might be raised on cheap land, with English skill,
by people anxious to buy English goods. If the
English should buy cheap corn of the Canadians
with Chinese tea and silver, it litigia be by means
of selling English goods to the growers of cheap
food in Australia. If cheap corn were brought
to England, whether by the most straight and
simple, or by the inost round-about and com-
plicated traffic, the original purchase-money of
sucli corn rnust be nnanufactured goods, the pro-
duce of capital and labour cmpioyed in England ;
and it coulcl be nothing clse. Whence it follows,
inevitably, that the number or extent of the
niarkets, in whieh the English might buy very
-cheap corn, must depend upon the number or
extent of contarles raising cheap corn and recluir-
ing English goods. An English colony, whcther
dependent like Canada, or independent like the
United States, might do both : it rnight both raise
the corn and want the manufactured goods. We
may conclude then, that with a view to the great-
est tnarket for buying cheap corn, a people like
the English would plant or extend colonies ; na-
tions of Englishtnen born, and their descendants;
using the English language ; preserving English
skill and English tastes ; and, therefore, both


able and willing to purchase English goods with
cheap corn.


II. Relie f from excessive numbers.
In modem times, no old country has ever ob-


tained relief from excessive numbers by rneans
of colonization. In no case, has the number of
emigrants been sufficient to diminish, even for á
year, the ruinous competition of labourers for
employment ; much less to produce any lasting-
improvement in the condition of the bulle of the
people. More than once, however, this has been
the object, or has been called the object, of an
old state in promoting colonization. Twice since
their late war with the French, the English have
sent out bodies of people to colonies under the
rule of the English government, for the declared
purpose of checking pauperisrn at honre : first to
the Dutch colony of South Africa, and next to the
English colony of Upper Cañada. On neither of
these occasions was the object attained even in
the slightest degree. Both these attempts were
called experiments. This year, the English go-
vernment is making, to use the expression of
Lord Goderich,* another " experiment" of the
same kind, by providing the funds wherewith to
convey to South Africa a number of destitute


* in a letter addrcssed toa socicty for the relief of orphan
and destitute children.


THR ART OF COLONIZATIOIkL 9594 THE ART OF COLONIZATION.




96 TFIE ART OF COLONÍZATION.


children ; the prodigious number of twenty. Con-
sidering that the population of England is four-
teen millions, this experhnent may be j u stly called
child's play. The previous experitnent in South
Africa, and the outlay of 60,0001. in taking
English paupers to Upper Canada, at the sug-
gestion of Mr. (now Sir Robert) Wilmot Horton,
and the Ernigration Committees of the house of
cormnons, were hardly less preposterous, if we
are to believe that any benefit to the labouring
class at borne was serionsly expected from them.
To call experiments measures so futile, so ob-
viously inadequate to the end in view, is an abuse
of language ; and one calculated to be mis-
chievous ; since, if diese ehildish attempts liad
really been experiments, the signal failure of them
would have been a fact tending to establish, that
colonization with a view to relicf from excessive
numbers must necessarily fail of its object.


Two classes of men in England, classes of the
most opposite tu rn of mind, have decide(' against
colonization \vitt' this view ; and on grounds
equally unreasonablc : first, those unreasoning
men who would determine questions in political
economy by quoting scripture; secondly, men,
who possess in a high degree the faculty of reason,
but who, having made a religion for themselves,
are often under the infiuence of a kind of bigotry ;
1 mean those political economists who worship
capital. Speak of emigration to one of the former


THE ART OF COLONIZATION. 97


class, and he will exclaim,—" Dwell in the land
and verily ye shall be fed :" to one of the latter,
and he will say,---The question deserves profound
regard; but as employment for labour is in pro-
portion to capital, as emigration would cost
money and diminish capital, therefore it would
diminish employment for labour and do more
harm than good.


Whether right or wrong in their dislike of
emigration, those who swear by David, and those
who worship capital, are equally contradicted by
facts. The people do dwell in the land, but
verily they are not fcd. Though no labour be
employed save by capital, still millions upon
millions of capital are accumulated, not to cmploy
dornestic labour, but, for want of employment for
capital, éither to lie idle, or to be wasted in
distant and ruinous speculations. The quotation
from scripture may be disposed of by another :
"Llenase and multiply, and replenish the earth,
and subdue it." But those who object to emigra-
tion on the score of its expense deserve, on ac-
count of their reputation and authority, that their
argurnent shouid be carefully exarnined.
- The argurnent is stated as follows, by Mr. Mili.
" It has been often enough, and clearly enough
explained, that it is capital which gives employ-
ment to labour: we may, therefore, take it as
a postulate. A certain quantity of capital, tiren, is
necessary to give employrnent to the population,


VOL. II.




98 THE ART OF COLONIZATION• THE ART OF COLONIZATION. 99


which any removal for the sake of colonization
may leave behind.. But to afford the expense
of that removal, so much is taken from the capital
of the country that the remainder is not sufficient
for the employment of the remaining population,
there is, in that case, a redunclancy of population,
and all the evils which it brings. For the well-
being of the remaining population, a certain
quantity of food is required, and a certain
quantity of all those other things which minister
to human happiness. But to raise this quantity
of other things, a certain quantity of capital is
indispensably necessary. If that quantity of
capital is not supplied, the food and other things
cannot be obtained."*


Though the argument stated thus hypothe-
tically, thus guarded by ifs, amounts to the state -
ment of a mere truism, still the " postulate" which
runs through the argurnent is an assumption, that
emigration would Cake away too much capital ;
so much as to leave too little for the rernaining
people. M •. Bentharn assumes this without any


" Colonization," he says t " requires an im-
mecliate expense, an actual loss of wealth, for a
future profit, for a contingent gain. The capital
which is carried away for the improvement of the
land in the colonies, had it been employed in the


* Anide Colon y. Supplement to the Eneyelopwdia Bri-
tannica.


Rationale of Reward, B. 4, chal). 14.


mother-country, would have added to its increas-
ing wealth, as well as to its population, and to the
rneans of its defence, whilst, as to the produce of
the colonies, only a small part ever reaches the
mother-country. If colonization is a folly when
employed as a means of enrichment, it is at least
an agrecable folly."


Now upon what rests this assumption ? It rests
upon two other assutnptions, one of which is true,
the other false ; first, that ipo labour is employed
save by capital ; secondly, that all capital employs
labour. If it were true that every increase of
capital necessarily gave employment to more
labour ; if it were true, as Professor M'Culloch
has said,* that " there is plainly only one way of
effectually improving the condition of the great
majority of the community or of the labouring
class, and that is by increasing the ratio of capital
to population," then it rnight be assumed that co-
lonization would, on account of its expense, do
more harm than good. But it is not true that all
capital employs labour. To say so, is to say that
which a thousand facts prove to be untrue.
Capital frequently increases without providing
any more employment for labour. That this does
actually happen in England, I have endeavoured
to show elsewhere.± It follows, that capital, for


* Introductory Discourse, in his edition of the wealth of
Nations.


fi Note IV.




i


THE ART OF COLONIZATION.
101100




THE ART OF COLONIZATION.


which therc is no employment at honre, might be
spent on emigration without diminishing employ-
ment for labour to the slightest extent. I use
the word spent instead of invested, in order to save
the trouble of explaining at length, that if capital
so employed ;:ere utterly lost, that loss of capital
peed not climinish employment for labour. No
one pretends that employment for English labour
was climinished, to the extent of a single pair of
hands, by the loans which the English latel y made •
to the republics, so called, of South America, to
the Spanish Cortes, to Don Miguel or Don Pedro ;
or by the late waste of English capital in pre-
tending to work mines in South America, or in
oluttino. distant markets with English goods, soldb b b
for less than the cost of production ; or by the
waste of English capital in founding the Swan
River settlement. Still less has employment for
English labour been diminished by late invest-
ments of English capital, in foreign countries,
which yield some return ; such as loans to the
emperors of Austria and Russia, to the kings of
Prussia, Naples, the Low Countries and France ;
purchases lately made in the securities of foreign
governtnents, amounting at one time in the French
funds alone to neár 40,000,0001. ; investments of
English capital in the iron and cotton works of
France, the Low Countries, and Germany ; and


loans to the North American States. If
all the capital removed from England in all these


ways during the last seventeen years, amounting
to some hundreds of millions, had been lost in
conducting ernigration, employment for labour in
England would not have been less than it is at
present.


A recent fact illustrates this view of the sub-
ject still more forcibly. During the last year
(1832), it is supposed, about 125,000 people, men
women and children, emigrated from Britain to
the United States, Canada and Australia. Of these
a considerable nurnber carried property with
them, varying in amount from 50001. to a, few
pounds over the cost of passage. Thc passage of
the whole of thetn must have cost, at the lowest
estimate of 51. for each person, not less than
625,0001. Supposing that they took with them a
capital of 51. each, opon the average, which scems
a very low estímate, emigration from Britain car-
ried off during the last year a capital of 1,250,0001.
ajes any one pretend that this abstraction of
capital has diminished, to the extent of a single
pair of hands, the amount of employment for
labour in Britain ? Might we not rather expect, if
England had no eorn laws, that these 125,000
emigrants, employing their capital and labour in
a vide and rich field, would create a new demand
for the produce of capital and labour employed in
Britain? Let these questions be answered care-
fully, and it will appcar that lunch of the capital
of such a country as England may be used in




102 THE ART OF COLONIZATION.


promoting emigration, without diminishing, to
say the least, the amount of employrnent for do-
mestic labour. Whether capital might be so
used with profit to the OWIleFS of it, whether, by
such a use of capital, effectual relief from exces-
sive numbers might be obtained, a requestions
which belong rathcr to the means than to the
ends of colonization. Here, my sole object is to
show how groundless is the objeetion to emigra-
tion on the score of its expense ; how futile is that
a priori reasoning, by which some ccnclude, that
the cosí of emigration would necessarily diminish,
according to its amount, the amount of employ-
ment for labour at horne. I have dwelt so long on
this objection, not with a view to recommend
emigration by means of an outlay of English
capital (for I shall endeavour to show hereafter
that it would be greatly for the advantage of colo-
pies to provide a fund for the immigration of
labour), but in order to remove a prejudice
against colonization, on the ground of the mis-
chicvous loss of capital which it might occasion
to the rnother-country ; a prejudice, which stops
him who entertains it, on the very threshold of
this subject.*


* This prejudice was once cntertained by Mr. Bentham. It
depended upon a non sequitur Nvhich had got posscssion of his
mirad. In the fourth book of the Rationale of Reward, M. Du-
mont has a chapter en t itled " Bentham and Adam Smith," where
he draws a comparison betwecn the views of political economy,


THE ART OF COLONIZATION. 103


Supposing that, whether by means of English
capital about, at all events, to fiy off to foreign


taken by the English and Scotch philosophers. " Mr. Ben•
tham," he says, " has simplified his subject, by referring every
thing to one principie ; namely Ihe limitation of production mal
trade by the linzitation of capital ; a principie which brings all his
reasonings into a very small circle, and which serves to unite
into one bundle those observations, which cannot be so easily
grasped when they are disunited." This one principie is stated
as follows in the first paragraph of Bentham's Manual cf. Poli-
tical Econonly. " No kind of productive labour of any import-
anee can be carried on Nvithout capital. From hence it follows,
that the quantity of labrar applicable to any object, is
by the quantity of capital which can be employed in it." Doubt-
less; but then the principie is, " the limitation of production
and trade by the limitation of capital"for which there is employ-
ment. The words which I have added, in italics, rnake all the
difference. It does not follow that, because labour is employed
by capital, capital always finds a field in which to employ labour.
This is the non sequitur always taken for granted by Bentham,
Ricardo, Mili, Weulloch, and others. Adam Smith, on the
contrary, saco that there were limas to the employment of
capital, and therefore besides the limit of capital, to the
employment of labour ; the limits, namely, of the field of pro-
duction, and of the market in which to dispose of surplus pro-
duce. During the summer of 1831, Mr. Bentham's attention
was called to this subject. At first he urged the objection to
colonization which has beca here examined, but finally aban-
donad it. Then, immediately, notwithstanding his great age
ami bodily infirmities, he proceeded to study the whole subject
of colonization, and evcn to write upon it at sotue length. His
written remarks upon the subject, now in my possession, show
that he lived to consider colonization, not " an agreeable folly,"




104
THE ART OF COLONIZATION. THE ART OF COLONIZATION. 105


countries, or by means of a fund raised in :the
colonies, such an arnount of labour should etni,
grate from England as considerably to diminish
the proportion which, in England, labour bears to
employment, then would the wages of labour be
higher, then would the state of the bulk of the
people be improved, then would relief be ob-
tained from excessive numbers. rftlis great end
of colonization has never beca so rnuch as seri-
ously contemplated by the ruling class in Eng--
land. On the contrary, taught by ccrtain econo-
mists to believe, that profits rise when wages fall,
and fall when wages rise, that the prosperity of
the capitalist is consistent only with the niiscry
of the labourer, the late ruling class in England
would have set their faces against any projcct of
colonization which liad seemed fit to alise wages.
Late events have produced some change of feel-
ing on this subject ; and coming events, proba-
bly, will soon produce a greater change. " What,"
says Mr. Mill, " is felt as disagreeable by the
great MC11, is sane never te> continue long without
an effort, either vise or foolish, for the retnoval
of it." The new .


ruling class of England, those
whorn late events have mace the great mere of
England, are placed in a situation which rnay
rendez excess of ntunbers hig-Itly disagreeable to


1)14 a work of the greatest utility. I am proud to add, that the
forro of the present treatise was suggested 1)y one of the wisest
and bcst of mankind.


them. Thcy may be glad to pay high wages for
the security of their property ; to prevent the
devastation of England through commotions
arising from discontent in the bulk of the people.
Even before the late change, while the fears of
the great men were urging them to bring about
that .change,. while fires were blazing and mobs
exacting higher wages in the south of England,


dread of the polit.ical evils likely to come frota
excessive numbers, induced the English govern
ment to foral a Board of Emigration, with the
avowed purpose of improving the condition of
the labouring class, by removing sorne of them
to the colonies. A more foolish, or Luther futile,
effort by great raen tú remove what they felt as
disagreeable, was, perhaps never ¡nade ; but the
effort, feeble and puerile though it were, tends to
point out that for a country situated like Eng-
land, in which the ruling and the subject orders
are no longer separated by a middle class, and in
which the subject orden, composing the bulk of
the people, are in a state of gloomy discontent
arising from excessive numbers ; that for such a
country, one chief end of colonization is to pre-
vent tumults, to keep the peace, to maintain
orden, to upholcl confidence in the security of pro-
perty, to hinder interruptions of the regular
course of industry and trade, to avert the ter-
rible evils which, in a country like England,




106 THE ART OF COLONIZATION.




THE ART OF COLONIZATION• 107


could not but follow any serious political con-
ulsi on.
For England, another end of colonization, by


.means of relief from excessive numbers, would be
relief from that portion of the poor's-rate which
maintains workmen in total or partial idleness ;
an object in which the ruling order have an ob-
vious interest.


For England again, a very useful end of colo-
nization would be to turn the fide of Irish emi-
gration from England to her colonies ; not to
inention that the owners of land in Ireland, inost
of them being foreigners by religion, might thus
be taken out of the dilemma in which they are
now placed ; that of a choice between legally
giving up a great part of their rental to the hun-
gry people, and yielding to the people's violence
the land which ovas taken by violence from their
fathers.


Finally, comprised in relief from excessive
numbers is the relief to many classes, not called
labourers or capitalists, from that excessive com-
petition for employment which renders thcm
uneasy and dissatisfied. Of the 1'25,000 persons
who quitted England last year to settle in colo-
nies, not a few viere profcssional raen ; surgeons,
clergymen, lawyers, architects, engineers, sur-
veyors, teachers and clerks : some few of diem
viere governesses. It will be seen, when we shall


come to the means of colonization, that, if colo-
nies viere properly managed, they would furnish,
according to the continuad progress in their num-
ber or extent, a continually increasing demand
for the services of all those classes.


II I. Enlargement qf the field for employ ing
capital.


This end of colonization is distinet from that
enlargement of the field for employing capital,
v hi eh would come by the creation of extensive
markets for the purchase of cheap corn with the
produce of domestic industry. It may be best
explained by reference to sorne facts. Since Eng-
land began to colonize, how many Englishmen
have quitted their country with small fortunes,
and returned with large ones, mide by means of
high profits in the colonies! In the West India
islartds, alone, millions upon millions of English
capital have been ernployed with very great
profit ; millions upon millions, which, we may
be sure, would not have been removed to the
West Indies, if théy could have been invested at
borne with equal profit. An existing London
Company has more than doubled its capital in a
few years, besides paying a handsome dividend
to the shareholders, by the purchase and sale of
waste land in Upper Canada. In 1829, the Dutch
firm of Crommelin, of Amsterdam, advanced
1,500,000 dollars to. sorne colonists in America,




108 THE ART OF COLONIZATION• THE ART COLONIZATION. 109


for the purpose of making a canal._ This money
is securely invested, and yields a higher interest or
profit, than it would have done had it remained
in Holland ; a country in which, as in England,
capital appears to increase faster than the field of
production. The loan lately made by the Lon-
don house of Baring Brothers, to the state of
Louisiana, is a secure and profitable invcstment
of English capital in the int provement of a colony.
While I write, the firm of Thomas Wilson and
Co. is negociating in London a loan of 3,500,000
dollars to the state of Alabama. One condition
of this loan, evidently devised to tempt the capi-
talists of London, is, that the lenders shall not he
paid off for thirty years. Examples without end
might be adduced of prolitable investments made
by the people of old states in new colonies ; and
made, too, without any permanent abstraction of
capital from the old country. That great masses
of English capital have been wasted in colonies, is
also true. Of such a case, the absurd proceed-
ings of the London Australian Agricultura Conz-
pan y, and the capital wasted in founding the
Swan itiver settlement, are good examples. But
those sucos wcre as well wasted in that way, as if
they had been lent to Don Miguel or Don Pedro.
To say that because English capital has been
wasted in colonies, no more capital ought to be
invested in that way, would be like saying, that
because Waterloo bridge yields no profit to those


who built it, no more bridges ought to be built.
How English capital might be seeurely invested
in colonies without loss, with certain profit ; what
would be the most secure and profitable mode of
investing English capital in colonies ; these are
questions which belong to the next division of
this subject. Here it is sufficient to have shown
by the aboye examples, that colonies may open
a riel' and wide field for ernploying that capital
of a mother country, for which there is no very
profitable cmploytnent at horne.


Ml these ends of colonization, the extension of
markets, relief in severa] ways from excessive
numbers, and new investments for capital, may
now be brought under one head ; namely, a pro-
gressive enlargemcnt, partly domestic, and partly
colonial, of the field for ernploying capital and
labour. The vast importance of this objeot, to a
country situated like England, is more fully cx-
plained in some of the foregoing notes.


THE ENDS OF COLONIZATION, AS RESPECTS THF.
COLONY.


The United States are still colonies, according
to the sense in which the word is used hese.
They receive people from old states, and senil out
a much greater number of people to settle in new
places. For promoting the immigration of capital
and people, the motive of these states seems to be
precisely opposite to that of an"old country in




110 THE ART OF COLONIZATION. THE ART OF COLONIZATION.


prornoting the emigration of capital and people.
The old country wants an enlargement of its field
for employing capital and labora . : the colonies
want more capital and labour for cultivating an
unlirnited field. By pouring capital and labour
hito England, you would augment the competi-
tion and uneasiness of capitalists, as well as the
cornpctition and misery of labourers : by pou ring
capital and labour into America, you would in-
crease the wealth and greatness of that great
colony. By pouring labour only into England,
you would not increase the capital of that coun-
try, because the increase of labour would not
find employtnent ; l)ut, as labour creates capital
before capital employs labour, and as, in America,
there is capital enough for the employment of
more labour and room for the employment of
more capital, therefore, by pouring labour only
into America, you would provide more capital
for the employment of still more labour. It fol-
lows, that colonies situated like the United
States, colonies, that is, which already possess
more capital than labour, have a greater interest
in obtaining labour than in obtaining capital
from old countries : just as a country situated
like England, has a greater interest in procuring
relief from excessive numbers than from the com-
petition of capital with capital. As the main
object of an old country in promoting emigration
is to send forth continually all that portion of the


constantly increasing labouring class for which
there is not employrnent with good wages, so the
main object of a colony in promoting the imrni-
gration of people is to obtain as much labour as
can find employmcnt with good wages. A like
difference of objects occurs with respect to new
markets, and especially to those in which corn
should be bought or sold. The object of the
colony is to buy manufactured goods with raw
produce and corn ; that of the old country to buy
raw produce and corn with manufactured goods :
the object of the colony is to obtain more labour,
wherewith to raise the means of bnying manu-
factured goods; that of the old country to obtain
cheap corn, wherewith to support more labourers
at borne. But, though two persons in different
places cannot meet without proceeding in oppo-
site directions ; though, if they intend to meet,
the object of one is to go in one direction and the
object of the other to go in an opposite direction ;
still they have a common object, that of meeting.
Just so in colonization, though the immecliate
object of an old state be to send out people, and
that of a colony to receive people, though the
colony want to sell, and the old country want to
buy, the means of life still they have a common
object, that of increasing the number and enjoy-
ments of mankind. Their comrnon object is to
give full play to the principie of population, so




112 THE ART OF COLONIZATION. THE ART OF COLONIZATION. 113


long as any habitable para of the colony remains
uninhabited.
- This community of interest recomes still more


plain, when we reflect on the object of a colony in
remoying people from the settled to the miste
parts of the colony. Here the immediate object
of the colony is the very same as that of the
mother country ; an enlargement of the general
field of production in proportion to the general
increase of capital and labour. The object of the
oíd country is, that room should be malle for
more people ; that of the colony to make room
for more people. These truisms are repeated,
because it will be useful to bear them in mirad
when oye shall come to the means of coloniza-
tion ; and because, hitherto, those who have liad
the means of colonization at their disposal would
seem never to have heard of those mere truisms.


With a view also to saving time when we shall
come to the means of colonization, it wili be
well to notice here, in a more particular way,
some of the special objects of a colony in prorno-
ting the immigration of people.


have attempted to prove elsewhere, that want
of free labour is the canse of s]avery in America ;
not the dea •ness of labour, but the want of free
labour at any price. Why do the settlers in New
South Wales, having capital, dread aboye
things that the English government should tease


to pour finto that colony a st •eam of population
utterly depraved and irreclaimable ? The criminal
code of England is more bloody than that of any
other country which has a code of laws ; but in
New South Wales, the proportion of public exe-
cutions to public executions in England is, I
believe, allowing for the difference of nurnbers, in
the ratio of 325 to 1. This is partly accounted for
when we reflect, that, of the convicts sent to New
South Wales, nine out of ten are men, brought to
that pass, rnost of them, by the violence of their
passions ; fine men to one woman ; men accus-
tomed to unbridlecl indulgente and reckless of
all social ties. The result need not be described.
Nor is it difficult to account for the attachment
of the English government to this system of
Reformation. If English convicts were punislied
by imprisomnent at home, though the English
aristocracy would have, to bestow upon their
dependants, more places, such as that ofjailer or
turnkey, they would miss the disposal of a number
of places such as gentlemen will accept. The
governor of New South Wales is a jailer ; but,
being called Your Excellency, and paid accord-
ingly, he is thankful for his place ; as thankful as
any one ever is for a place which he has obtained
by electioneering services. But how are we to
account for the attachment of the richer colouist.s
to this horrid system of transportation ? By their
want of free labour ; by d'ehr anxiety to keep


VOL. H.




114 THE ART OF COLONIZATION. THE ART OF coIoNIzATIoN. 115


that slave labour, without which each of t.hem
could use no more capital than his own hands
could employ. They say, and with perfect truth,
that if the supply of convicts were stopped the
colony would be ruined. Assuredly the colony
would be ruined, unless


•the richer settlers should
find the mearas of obtaining either free labour, or
that kind of slave labour which they have in
America.


But even with the convict system, there is a
dcficiency of labour. In Van Diemen's Land, it is
cominon to see one, two or three, thousand sheep
all in one flock, the old and the young, the strong
and the weak, all mixed together. While feeding,.
the strongest of a flock, so mixed, always take the
van, the weakest always bringing up the rear.
'i'hus a great number of the lambs or weaker
sheep are starved to death ; and, of course, the
profits of the owner of the flock are by- so much
diminished. Why is this loss incurred ? for want
of more shepherds ; of more labour. If there
were in Van Diemen's Land shepherds enough to
rnanage all the flocks in t.he best way, the increase
of produce would give higher wages to the greater
number of labourers, besides augmenting the
profits of the flock owners. The soil and ellinate
of New South Wales appear admirably suited to
the growth of tobacco, olive oil, silk and avine.
A London company has spent ra jar 300,000/. with
the intention, declared by its prospectus, of grow-


ing all these things in New South Wales. Why
has it not grown any of these things ? Because
for the growth of any of these things constant
and combined labour is required ; an element of
production wanting in New South \Vales. Con-
viet labour, though constant when compared with
such labour as is got by the occasional immigra-
tion of free workrnen, is very inconstant when
compared with the labour of negro slaves. The
convict works only so long as his term of punish-
ment lasts, and for one master only so long as
t.he governor Aleases, or the secretary of the
governor, or the superintendent of convicts, or
some member of the colonial eouncil ; any one of
whom may suddenly, and without rhyme or
reason, deprive a settler of bis convict servants.
While slave labour may be combined in quan-
tities proportioned to the capitalist's mearas of
buying slaves, convict labour can never be com-
bined in large quantities ; because, as the govern-
ment bestows this labour, if any one settler
should obtain more than his due share of con-
victs, all the others would complain of gross par-
tiality ; and because the proportion of convicts to
settlers is so small, that without gross partiality
no one settler can have more than a few pairs of
convict hands. Favoured settlers, those who find
favour with the governor and his officers, do often
obtain more than a fair share of convicts ; but, as
the favour of governors is uncertain, no motive




116 THE ART OF COLONIZATION. THE ART OF COLONMATION. 117


is furnished, even in these cases of gross par_
tiality, for the commencement of works which
require the constant employment of many hands,
at the same time, in the same place, and for a
period of consecutive years. How, says Mr.Blax.
land, a great land proprietor of New South Wales ;
how should our settlers undertake to plant vine-
yards, when years must pass before any vine
could be got ; years during which much labour
musa be employed in tending the vires ; when,
for gathering the grapes and turning them into
vine, much more labour would be required ; and
when, in this colony, the supply of labour is
always, not only small, but uncertain ?* This is
why the Australian Agricultura! company has
not raised any exchangeable produce ; save wool,
which in a country like New South Wales, na-
turally olear and dry, may be raised with very
little labour : this is why the greater part of the
300,0001. spent by that company has been utterly
wasted ; is gone to nothing.


Why has so much of the capital perished, that
was taken to the Swan River ? for want of labour
wherewith to preserve it. Why do the few settlers
that remain in that colony wish for a supply of con-
vict labour ? .because they have no free labour.


In Canada, as in t.he United States, there is a
'» 1 quote from recollection of a paper, printed by Mr.


Wilmot Elorton, con taining Minutes of a Conversation between
himsclf and Mr. Blaxland.


want of free labour for works which require the
combination of many hands and division of em-
ployments. The canals which the English govern-
ment has lately formed in Canada could not have
been fin ished, or perhaps begun, without a supply
of labour from Ireland. The great Lake Erie
canal, a work of which the public advantage, and
the profit to the undertakers, was ¡nade manifest
upon papel. long before the work was begun,
could not perhaps have been begun, most certainly
could not have been finished, without a great
supply of Irish labour. Capital from Amsterdam
and London, and labour from Ireland, have,
lately, been of infinite service to the United
States. Theirs is the most favorable case. In
all the more favorable cases, the difficulty is for
masters to get servants. In t.he less favorable
cases, such as Buenos Ayres and the Swan River,
the difficulty would be for servants to finci mas-
ters. In the worst cases, want of labour leads to
want of capital, and condemns the people to a
state of poverty and barbarism in the best cases,
the people would be more wealthy, would pro-
duce and enjoy more, if they were more numerous
in proportion to capital. All the more favorable
cases are maintained by some expedient, which
more or less counteracts the want of labour ; in
the United States by slavery and the immigra-
tion of people ; in New South Wales and Van
Dietnen's Land by the convict system ; in Canada




118 THE ART OF COLONIZATION. THE ART OF COLONIZATION. 119


by a constant immigration of labour by sea,
greater than ever took place before in the history
of colonization. If the means by which the
United States, Canada and New South Wales,
obtain labour, should be taken away, no others
being supplied, then Inust those colonies soon fall
into the miserable state of other colonies which
have never had any means of obtaining labour.


• In a word, from whatever point of view ore look
at this subject, it appears that the great want of
colonies is Labour, the original purchase-money
of all things.


THE MEANS OF COLONIZATION.


The elements of colonization, it is quite obvious,
are waste land and the rernoval of people. If
there were no waste land, no people would re-
move ; if no people would remove, waste land
trust remain in a desert state. Waste land is
cultivated by the rernoval of people, and people
are removed by means of the motive to removal
furnished by the existence of waste land. Capital
for the removal of people, and for the settlement
of people on waste land, being included in the
ideas of removal and- settlement, the means of
colonization, it follows inevitably, will resolve
themselves into the disposal of waste land for the
removal of people. A notice of some facts will
illustrate this proposition.


The moving power for founding the first English


colony in America, that did not perish, vas a
grant by James I., to the London Company, of
five degrees of waste land in Virginia. The power
of the king to dispose of waste land induced the
company to forro the project of founding a colony
the power thus obtained by the company to dis-
pose of waste land, enabled them to find people
willing to etnigrate, and capital for their removal
and settlement. Just so, in the. case of the last
colony founded by England, those who founded
the colony were induced to remove by receiving
grants of svaste land from the English governtnent.
Mr. Peel's motive for removing to the Swan
River with a capital of 50,0001.and some hundred
people, was a grant of 500,000 acres of waste
land ; and the motive with which those people
accompanied him was the pope of high wages for
cultivating waste land, or the prospect of obtaining
waste land of their own. So also, last year, when
an English company offered Lord Goderich
125,0001. for 500,000 acres of land at Spencer's
Gulph on the South coast of Australia, intending
to lay out 375,0001. more in planting a colony on
that desert spot, the motive of those projectors
was to obtain waste land. Of the 125,000 people,
who are supposed to have emigrated from Britain
last year to settle in the United States, Canada
and Australia, the greater number were induced
to remove by the prospect of obtaining waste
land, and the remainer by a prospect of benefits


1




120 THE ART OF COLONIZATION. THE ART OF COLONIZATION. 121


to result to them from the disposal of waste land
in the countries where they should settle. The
greatest emigration of people that ever took place
in the world occurs from the eastern states to the
outside of the western statcs of Atnerica ; and
here the solo object in removing is either to
obtain waste land, or to rcap benefits in sorne
other shape from the late disposal of waste latid.
It seerns needless to rnultiply such examples.


The disposal of waste 'and for the removal of
people Might be considered in two different points
of view ; first, as that element of colonization is
liable to be used by an old state ; and secondly,
as it is liable to be used by a colony. Both these
Nvays of examining the subject would load to the
sarne conclusion. For instante, ave should de-
termine the best mode of treating waste land,
either by ascertaining how the United States
might best dispose of waste land for the rernoval
of people, or how the English, with the sante
object, inight best dispose of waste land in
Canada or Australia. But considering that the
removal of people is a secondary rneans of colo-
nizador), depending on the disposal of waste land ;
seeing that it is waste land which draws people
from the settled to the waste parts of the colony,
and so makes room for the arri val of people from
an old country, and that this prime mover, or
point of attraction, exists in the colony, it will
be found Inuch. more convenient to look at the


rneans of colonization from a colonial position.
If this course had been pursued before, the
English would not have been as ignorant as they
are of the political economy of new countries.
Their economists, in treating of colonies, have
worked with no other tools than those which thev
were accustomed to use in cxplaining the pite-
nomena of an old country; have reasoned from
principies, that were une in the old country, to
facts that never existed in the colony. They
remind one of an Englishman who, having
been used to the luxury of music, carried
a grand npright piano to the Swan River, and
then, finding no body to make a cupboard for
hita, was fain to gut the musical instrutnent and
use it for holding his crockery ; or of that English
colonial minister, who, knowing that in .Europe
the seas are salt, sent water butts from England
for the use of the English fleet on a fresh water
sea in America. By looking at this subject from
a colonial position, wc shall proceed from facts to
conclusions. Whatever course it would be best
for the United States to pursue for drawing
people from England to America, would be the
best course that the English could pursue for
sending people to Canada or Australia. Having
ascertained what this best course is, it will be
easy to apply our conclusions to the foundation
of colonies; and to show how an old state might
best co-operate with a colony for giving to the




122 THE ART OF COLONIZATION. THE ART OF COLONIZATION. 123


means of colonization their greatest possible
effect.


I. The disposal of waste land.
It is not because land is uncultivated, nor even


because it is uninhabited, that it forms an ele-
ment of colonization. The greater part of Prince
Edward's Island, in the Gulph of St. Lawrence,
though neither eultivated nor inhabited,still,being
the private property of two English lords,* is not
liable to be used for the removal of people : nor,
indeed, is any land, to which no government can
give a title of possession ; since the motive for
removing to waste land is the prospect of obtain-
ing a property in the land. Considering how
much land in America, South Africa and Aus-
tralia, is open to be used by individuals without .a
title to the possession of it, it would be surprising
that so few people should ever have used land
without a title, if we did not reflect, also, on the
influence of that "charro of property," which,
says M. Dumont, "is the spur of youth and pil-
low of old age." Those Americans, who, under
the narre of squatters, use land without a title are
exceptions to the general rule. Their motives
for acting differently from people in general will
be noticed hereafter. But while, speaking ge-
nerally, people will not use land without a title,


* Melville and Westmoreland.


they will obtain a title to land without using
their property, or to more land than they can pos-
sibly use. The English company which founded
Virginia would have preferred a grant of all
America to a grant of five degrees. Lower Ca-
nada is not the only English colony in which
English lords have obtained great tracts of land,
without using, or even intending to use, their
property. An Englishman, calling himself the
Earl of Stirling, lately took much pains to make
out a property in all the land of Upper Canada.
The clergy of the political church in Upper
Canada have obtained a property in vast tracts of
land which they cannot use. General Lafayette
lately accepted from the United States 300,000
acres of waste land which he cannot or will not
use. In 1824, the Australian Agrieultural Company
and the Fan Diemen' s Land Conzpany, both of
London, obtained, the one, 1,000,000, the other,
500,000 acres of waste land, when it was im-
possible they should turn a fourth part of those
great tracts to any useful purpose. The first im-
migrants to the Swan River obtained more land
than a thousand times as many people could have
cultivated. In all these cases, and in a countless
numbcr more, so much of the chief element, of the
primary means, of colonization was annihilated.
Nay, further, in most of them, the destruction
was extended for a time to land that was not
granted : as for instance, at the Swan River,




where a bread stripe of the coast, not being used,
being almost without inhabitants and quite with-
out roads, became, when it becarne the property
of individuals, a bar to the disposal of land more
in the interior ; land which, if the coast were in-
habited and easily passable, might be disposed of
for the removal of people. For the sarne reason,
General Lafayette has been requested to sell bis
grant to people who will use it ; because, that is,
being at once desert and private property, it is a-
bar to the progress of settlement in all directions
towards its centre. This, again, is the case with'
the lands of the clergy in Canada ; and %val] a still
more absurd kind of property created in that
colony ; namely, tracts of land " reserved" by the
crown in the midst of land which has become
the property of
In this last case, the


government behaves worse than the dog in the
manger, \vilo only prevented others from using
that which he could not use himself. Besides
doing this, the government of Canada inj tires
the people who surround its reserves of land, by
interposing deserts amongst them : it is as if the
dog haca baten the cattle, besides hindering theta
from eating the hay. As flour is an element of
bread, so is waste land an element of colonization;
but as flour, which has been turned into pie-crust,
will not rnake bread, so neither is waste land,
which has become private property, an element of
colonization. It is the disposal of waste land in


a certain way, which is the prirnary means of co-
lonization ; and when theland has been disposed
of in another way, the power to dispose of it in the
right way no longer exist.s. Land, to be an ele-
ment of colonization, must not only be waste, but
it, inust be publio property, liable to be converted
into private property for the end in view. In
the art of colonization, therefore, the first rule
is of a negativo kind : it is, that govcrninents,
having power over waste land, and seeking to
promote the removal of people, should never
throw away any of that power ; should never dis-
pose of waste land except for the object in view,
for the removal of people, for the greatest pro-
gress of colonization.


This rule has never been strietly observed by
any colonizing government : it has been grossly
neglected by all such govcrnments, excepting
only the United States, which, since they becarne
entirely independent, have been more cautions
than any other colonizing government ever was
about the disposal of waste land. One or two ex-
amples of this neglect, and this caution, will assist
us in determining in what way a government
ought to dispose of waste land with a view to
colonization.


The most striking instauce of the neglect of
this rule has occurred in the Dutch colony of
South Africa. Here, we are informed by Mr.
Barrow, in the account of his travels through that


THE ART OF COLONIZATION. 125124 THE ART OF COLONIZAT1ON.




126 THF; ART OF COLONIZATION. THF, ART OF COLONIZATION. 127


colony, the colonial government, having absolute
controul over all the land in the country, disposed
of that land in the following way. They first de-
clared, that any one desirous to obtain land
should be at liberty to do so on one condition ;
natnely, that of taking a hundred times, at least,
more land than he could possibly cultivate. The
whole district to be granted was marked out in
circles, the diameter of each circle being some
miles ; and any one who undertook to live in the..
centre of one of those circles obtained a title to
all the land within the circle. What became of
the land bctween the circles is not stated ; but
all these interstices must neeessarily-have been
so many " crown reserves." The object of this
system was to separate those who should become
proprietors ; to separate them, all from each other,
by a distante equal to the diameter of the circles;
and the motive for this object was fear lest, if the
colonists were not so separated, they might, as
union is force, be strong enough to think of self-
government. This object was fully acomplished,
and the colony was effectually ruined. All the
land so granted, though scarcely inhabit.ed, still
less cultivated, ceased, by this manner of dispos-
ing of it, to be an element of colonization. That
such a disposal of the land liad no tendency to
promote the removal of people, save only that of
the few persons thus scattered over the colony,
becomes plain when we reflect, that there can be


but one motive for emigrating to a place where
all the land has become private property, namely,
the pope of obtaining high wages ; and that a few
scattered settlers were necessarily prevented, even
by their dispersion, from accumulating capital
wherewith to pay high wages to immigrant la-
bourers. If they had not obtained some slaves,
that is some combination of labour in the parti-
cular works of their farms, they would, being so
scattered and prevented from combining their
osen labour, have degenerated into the state of
those savage descenclants of Spaniards, who in-
habit the plains of Buenos Ayres. As it was, a more
ignorant and brutal luce of men than the boors
or farmers of South Africa never, perhaps, existed.
The poverty and barbarism of that country, the
unfitness of the greater part of it for the work of
colonization, are owing, not, as has been supposed
for the want of a better reason, to the badness of
its soil and climate, (for these very much resemble
those of Spain) but to the neglect by its early
governments of the first rule in the art of colo-
nization.'1


" The white population at present (1828) is estimated at
about 70,000. In 1806, it was not more than 27,000. From
a variety of causes, some permanent, others accidental, they
hace Leen scattered over a larger space than was consistent with
mutual ald and support. This retarded the progressive di-
vision of labour, and exposed the solitary settler to many
dangers and privations, which did not operate beneficially




128 THE ART OF COLONIZATION. THE ART OF COLONIZATION. 129


If the first Dutch governor of New York had
been able, he would probably have been willing,


his habits of inclustry. Instead of trying how much produce of
every kind they could raise, they were rather led to consider
on how little they could subsist. The limits of the settlement
being, perhaps too rapidly extended, rendered defence, rather
than cultivation, the chief object of public attention. It is not
meant that the settlers should have been crowded together.
The nature of the colony rendered that impossible. But for
sorne time no moderation was observed in this respect ; and a
great waste of capital, and misapplication of labour and strength,
were the consequence. The increase of population, provided
the boundaries be now fixed and adhered to, will gradually
correct this evil, and bring both labour and a market more and
more within the reach of the formen If these views of the colony
be near the truth, it will be worth considering whether, when
new settlers are to be provided for, it would not be better to
selcct locations for them in detail, as near the villages,and Cape
Town, as these can be found, ¿han to set them down in masses
by themselves on the outskirts of the colony or beyond its
peopled limits. In such situations they are not merely useless,
but a burthcn, to the community for many ycars—requiring
new and expensive establishinents for their protection, besides
wasting their own money in fruitless undertakings, begun from
mere ignorante of the resources of the country. There appears
to be abundante of unappropriated land, or at least of unoccu-
pied, or at all events, of uncultivated latid, in niost of the settled
districts, on which many thousands of industrious people might
be placed, rnost advantageously to the old ínhabitants, and
with much surer prospect of providing for themselves and
their families all the necessaries of life, than in the remate places
to which the stream of emigration is too often directed. It is true,
the best places in those districts have fallen to the lot of the
first settlers. But locations of the second, third, orfourth qua-


enough, to ruin that colony by planting each of
the first settlers in the centre of a eircle nine or
twelve miles round ; but hese, fortunately, the
warlike temper of the natives, and the extreme
denseness of the forests, tnade it impossible to
execute such a contrivance for ruining the colony.
Though, in this case, the first settlers were allowed
to appropriate much more land than they could
possibly use, still they were allowed to settle
whereabouts they pleased. In fear of the natives,
and checked by the density of the forests, they
settled not very far from each other, and were
thus enabled to hold sorne intercourse with each
other, to assist each other in some degree, to
accumulate some capital, to preserve in some
degree the arts and civilization of their mother-
country. In this case, circkunstances independ-
ent of the government, created a sort of rule for
the disposal of waste land. This case is not,
therefore, an example of attention in a govern-
ment to the first rule in the ad of colonization :
it is mentioned by way of contrast with the pre-


lity, as regards soil, 8c.c. near a good road or a town, may ex-
ceed in value, a thousandfold, those of the first description which
possess no such advantages." Extract from the South African
Conunercial Advertizer ; a Journal conducted by an Englishman
of great intelligence and ability 3 a political economist too, who,
until he saw a new country, would have commenced an expla-
nation of the English theory of rent, saying with Mr.


Land is of different degrees of fertility."
VOL. II.




130 THE ART OF COLONIZATION. THE ART OF COLONIZATION. 131


ceding case ; a contrast the more remarkable,
since the miserable colony of South Africa, and
the prosperous colony of New York, were founded
by the same industrious, skilful and thrifty
nation.


Two examples of some caution on the part of
colonial governments in disposing of waste land
may now be cited, in contrast with examples of
reckless profusion.


1. Up to the year 1822, thirty-four years after
the first settlernent in New South Wales, and
when the prdsperity of the free settlem in that
colony was a subject of great admiration in Eng-
land, the quantity of svaste land disposed of by
the government was 381,466 ecres ; less than the
one grant obtained by Mr. Peel before he left
England for the Swan River. Shortly afterwarcls,
Lord Bathurst, the English colonial minister,
living in London, and knowing as much about
New South Wales as about Japan or the MOCO,
disposed of a million of acres in a single grant.
In one day, then, twice as much land was granted
as had been granted in thirty-four years. Up to
1822, all the land in New South Wales, except
less than 400,000 acres, was liable to be disposed
of as a rneans of colonization. In 1828, when
the population of the colony was little more than
in 1822, the number of acres rendered not Hable
to be disposed of for the removal of people, was
nearly 3,000,000. That the greater part of this


land was not used by any one, appears from an
official returu, which státes that only a forty-first
part of it, or 71,523 acres, was cultivated. Allow-
ing for the very siight interference with nature,
which is termed cultivation in New South WaleS',
and for the turn of colonial governments to ex-
aggera.te the prosperity of the people ruled by
them, we may perhaps conclude, that not so
much as a forty-first part of these 3,000,000 acres
was used beneficially. If so, in 1828, more than
forty parts Óut órforty-one, of the land granted
by the government of New South Wales, had
been disposed of so as to render thein no longer
an elernent of colonization, without rendering
them useful to any other purpose. The profu-
sion of the government after 1822, arose from the
publication of Mr. Wentworth's book on New
South Wales: Mr. Wentworth informed people
in England, that landin New South Wales:was
worth soinething ; that of the 400,000 acres then
granted, thousands of acres, being near to a
market, yiélded rent ; that an estate in New
South Wales was a good thing to have, especially
if it could be got for nothing. All at once, the
colonial office in London was besieged by appli-
eants wanting land in New South Wales. What
way so easy of gratifying a friend of govern-
ment, or the friends and relatives of the friends
and members of government ? Itnmense grants,
accordingly, were made ; some, indeed, to peo-




ple who emigrated, but some to lords and mem-
bers of parliament who never thought of ernigra-
ting. In this way, the colony would have been
ruined, but for the peculiar circumstances before
alluded to, which supply the colonists with
labour, keep them together, and provide thern
with a market.


2. Between the moles of granting land on the
Canadian and American sides of the line, which
divides Upper Canada from the state of New
York, there has existed until lately a very remark-
able contrast. On the Canadian side, crown and
clergy " reserves ;" unconditional grants of vast
tracts to any one who could find favour with the
English minister or colonial governor ; grants of
smaller tracts, but still without conditions, to
disbanded soldiers, military pensioners and pan-
per immigrants ; in a word, the greatest profu-
sion on the American side, a system, nearly
fixed and uniform, one general and unvarying
rule, with few exceptions, for the granting of
land ; an act of congress, which decrees that no
waste land shall be disposed of except by a spe-
cial grant of congress, or upon payment by the
grantee to the government of a dollar and a
quarter per acre. The special grants by congress
are few and far between ; while the price put
upon all other waste land operates as a check,
almost as a bar, to the appropriation of land by
persons not able, or not willing, to use their pro-


perty. Mr. Stuart, after describing various marks
of industry and growing wealth on the American
side of the line, says " We crossed the river
* * * * The country we passed through
(on the Canadian side) was greatly over-cropped,
with little appearance of industry or exertion to
reclaim it. Whenever the stage stopped to water
the horses, the doors viere crowded with children,
offering apples and plums 'for sale ; and we saw,
for the first time on this side of the Mande, seve-
ral beggars."* The following account, of the
difference between the American and Canadian
sides of the line, in point of industry and wealth,
is given by Mr. Pickering ; a careful observer,
with strong prejudices against the Americans.
" I am once again under the jurisdiction of the
British government and laws, and therefore feel
myself no longer an alien. Though the Ameri-
cans, in general, are civil and friendly, still an
Englishman, hirnself a stranger amongst them, is
annoyed and disgusted by their vaunts of prowess
in the late puny war, and superiority over all
other na.tions ; and they assurne it as a sellevi-


* " I never observe(' land more in want of manure than this
part of Canada (near Montreal) originally of indifferent soil,
and now totally worn out by over-cropping, and in the most
wretehed state of agriculture. Yet the manure in a great ata-
ble yard, belonging to the hotel whcre we lodged, is thrown
finto the river ; and obviously little use is made of it any wbere.'
Stuart, vol. 1, p. 163.


132 THE ART OF COLONIZATION. THE ART OF COLONIZATION.
133




THE ART OF COLONIZATION. 135134 THE ART OF COLONIZATION.


dent fact, that the Americans surpass all others
in virtue; wisdorn, valour, liberty, government,
and every other excellence. Yet, much as the
Americans deserve ridicule for this foible, still
1 admire the energy and 'enterprise every where
exhibited, and regret the apathy of the British
government with regará to the improvement of
this province. A single giance clown the banks
of t.he Niagara tells on which side the most effi-
cient government has resided. On the ITnited
States side, large towns springing up the nume-
rous shipping, with piers to protect them irk.ihar-
bour ; coaches rattling along t.he road ; and trade
evidenced by waggons, carts, horses, and people
owfoot, in various directions. On the Canadian
side, although in the immediate vicinity, an older
settlement, and apparently better landa there are
only two or three stores, a.tavern or two, a natu-
ral harbour without piers, but few vessels, and
two ternporary landing places."*


To what is owing this striking difference be-
tween the prosperity of two sets of people, culti-
vating the same soil, under the same climate,
with the same degree of knowledge, and divided
only by anitnaginary line ? What has ~sed the
second emigration into the state of New York
of a large proportion of the poorer emigrants
from Britain to Upper Canada ? These questions


Emigrant's Guide Lo Canada, 1830.


will be answered presently. Meanwhile, enough
has been stated to show, that there must be some
one way better than all the others of treating
waste land for the removal of people, for the
greatest progress of colonization ; and that every
disposal of waste land in any way but the best
way diminishes by so much the power of a colo-
nizing state to proceed in the best way.


What is the best way in which to dispose of
waste land with a view to colonization ? It may
be supposed, that in some one colony, at least,
for some short time, this best way of proceeding
has been adopted, if only by accident. On the
contrary, as far as I can learn, in no one colony
of modem times, has any uniform system been
adopted even for a week : while in nearly all
colonies severa! wats of proceeding, the most
different and often contradictory, have been pur-
sued either within a short period or at the same
ti me.


The nearest approach to an uniform system is
that of the United States ; the sale of waste land by
public auction at a fixed upset price, except as to
special grants by congress. The exceptions,
however, are so import.ant as to defeat the role.
Amongst these exceptions are the grant of 300,000
acres to General Lafayette ; grants to the amount
of 6,528,000 acres to disbanded soldiers,* and


The grcat IvIilitary Bounty tract, reserved by Cong,ress




136
THE ART OF COLONIZATION.


enormous grants for the support of schools and
colleges, as well as to the undertakers of public
works, such as roads and canals. Ali these grants
so far resernble the crown and clergy reserves of
Upper Canada, that they have dirninished, ac-
cording to their extent, the field of colonization,
and injured the settlers round about those special
grants. For neither the French general, nor the
disbanded soldiers, nor the schools and colleges,
nor the undertakers of canals, attempted to cul-
tivate the land which they so obtained for nothing.
But General Lafayette may sell his land for less
than the rninimum price per acre required by con-
gress from all buyers of waste land. This the
disbanded soldiers has-e aetually done : %1 thus
counteracting svhatever may have been the
object of congress in adopting that price. In
several ways, therefore, the special grants by
congress are, not merely in exception, but in


for distribution among the soldiers of the late war, commences
in the neighbourhood of Lower Alton. It comprehends the
1101111 west comer of the state— about 170 miles long and 60
miles broad." Stuart, vol. 2, p. 336.


* Most of those lands have bcen sold by the soldiers to other
individuals, and are now owned in great quantities by gentle-
men in the eastern states. * They have been sold by
the soldiers for about 50 dollars for a quarter seetion, con-
taining 160 acres." Letter




-ont Mr. Duncan, of Fandalia.
Stuart, vol. 2, p. 396.


This is at the rato of 3l cents. per acre; while the upset
price of land sold by Congress is 125 cents; per acre.


THE ART OF COLONIZATION. 137


downwright contradiction, to the general way of
procéeding.


As soon as the French settlement in Lower
Canada, which was established by private ad-
venturers, became of sufficient irriportance to
deserve the attention of the mother-country, the'
court of Versailles proceeded to grant all the
land within reach of ernigrants, and much that
was-heyond their reach, to certain courtiers or
creatures of courtiers. Each of these grantees
obtained an immense tract, on two conditions
first, that neither he nor his descendants should
ever part with the property ; secondly, that he
should grant leases, on condition of receiving
services like those required from the holders of
l and under the worst feudal system of Europe.
In this case, court favour, iban which nothing is
much more irregular, was the means of obtaining
property in land ; or, if ave are to consider the
second condition attached to these seigneuries as
leaving them open to use by settlers, then the
means of obtaining land were as irregular and
whimsical as the feudal services required from
tenants. Upon the whole, however, it will secta
that the establishment of these absurd lordships
in the wilderness, was, after the Dutch plan in
South Africa, the best way to ruin the colony, by
means of the restrictions thereby imposed on the
useful appropriation of waste land. In the French
colony of Louisiana, on the contrary, " lands,"




138 THE ART OF COLONIZATION: THE ART OF COLONIZATION. 139


gays the Abb2-1 Raynal, "'were granted indiscri-
minately to every person who applied for them,
and in the manner in which he desired thern,"
Here, then, instead of a system, land was disposed
of acc.ording to the irregular fan cies-of indi viduals.
This might be called a, rule for the disposal of
waste land, if it were not clear that every gratifi-
cation of an individual fancy, as to the extent
and situation of grants, was calculated to prevent
the gratification of other individual fancies. The
historian of Freneh Louisiana, one of the many
colonies that has perished, goes on te, sar—" Izad
it not been for this original error, Louisiana would
not have languished for so long a time ; immense
deseas would not have separated the eolonists
from each other. Being brought near to a com-
mon centre they would have assisted each other,
and would have cnjoyed ale the advantages of a
well regulated society. Instead of a few bordes
of savages, we should have seen a rising colon,Y
which might in time have become a powerful
nation, and procured infinite advantages to
France."


In Upper Cana.da land has been granted, at the
same time, to favourites of the colonial court for
nothing; to others, for bribes paid to colonial
officers ;* to some, on condition of paying a quit


" Will you inform the Committee of the sucos that have
been paid by the Canada Company, and thcir appropriation ?


rent to the government, which quit rent was
exácted in some cases and not in others ; to some,
for nothing, because they were American royalists ;
to others, for so much money per acre, paid
openly to the government, and disposed of in
various jobs of which the note below gives an
example ; to the political clergy for nothing, as
we have seen. before ; and even to the grantor, to
the crown itself, in the preposterous shape of
crown reserves. In this eolony, too, while ale
these ways of granting land were pursued at once,
during the very period of this irregularity in


* Thirdly, 2,5661., as an annual ~pensativa, for the
period of sevcn years, to those officers of the land-granting
department in Upper Canada, who, by the adoption of the new
regulations for granting lands, are deprived of their enzoluments."
See evidence of the Right Honorable R. Wilmot Horton, M. P.
and Under Secretary of State for the Colonies, delivered before
a Select Committee of the House of Commons, on the Civil
Government of Canada, 1828. The Report of this Committee,
which seis a thick folio volume, is crowded with examples of
jobbing in the disposal of waste land.


"The surveyors reccive their compensation in land, and gc-
nerally secare the mostváluable portions. When I was in Canada,
they would sell thcir best lots for one dollar per acre; while
131. tos., the fec on one hundred acres, amount to more than
half a dollar per acre. I never met with any one person,
amongst ale those with whom I conversed on the subject, who
did not agree, that, if a settler had but a very little money, it
would be much more to his advantage to buy land than to re-
ceive it from the government.'' Letters from North America,
by Adam Hodgson. Vol. 2, p. 47.




140 THE ART OF COLONIZATION. THE ART OF COLONIZATION. 141


granting land, grants were refused with equal
irregularity because the applicant had offended
the governor ; because he asked for land in a
favourable situation reserved by the governor, in
his excellency's tnind, 1 mean, for some relative
or dependent ; because he wanted land, in a
situation which bis excellency, in his wisdom,
thought not fit for settlement, and, in his power,
resolved should continue desea ; because this
spot was intended for the site of a town, and that
for some military purpose ; because this district
had not been surveyed, or this was, in the go-
vernor's opinion, too thickly peopled ; or that re-
quired more people, and was, on that day, the
only spot in which a g,rant would be made. Such
are not all, but only a few, of the very different
and often contradictory grounds on which, at one
and the same time, waste land was granted and
withheld in this colony clown to last year.


In New South Wales and Van Diemen's Land,
colonies not fifty years old, land has been granted
and refused on all sorts of different and contra-
dictory grounds ; granted by favour, for money,
for public services, real or pretended, to English
lords and rnembers of parliarnent, because tbey
were lords and mernbers of parliament, to the
political clergy, to schools and other institutions;
granted unconditionally and with conditions ;
conditions fulfilied in some cases but much oftener
neglected ; granted on account of the applicant's


wealth, that is, because he was able to invest
capital on the land, and on account of bis po-
verty, that is, on the score of charity : refused
according to every whirn of every successive
governor, always a sailor or a soldier, as fit to
manage a grea.t work of public econoiny as Adam
Smith was fit to navigate a ship or command a
regiment. To save the reader's time, in order
that he play be able to imagine the excessive ir-
regularity with which land has been granted,
and withheld in these colonies, I shall state two
facts, out of hundreds, which tend to establish
that here, as to the disposal, of new land, the
governtnent has been regular in nothing but ir-
regularity.


1. About four years ago, General Darling being
governor of New South Wales, -the colonial
office in London, used to distribute a " regula-
tion," by which it was declared that any person
in England wishing to settle in New South Wales,
would obtain, on reaching the colony, a grant of
land extensive in proportion to the capital that
he was prepared to invest on it. On the faith of
this regulation, people used to emigrate with their
capital. One of them, with the regulation in his
hand, waits upon the governor, and begs for a
grant of land still at the disposal of government,
in the county of Cumberlánd ; as-near, that is, to
the town of Sydney as the previous disposal of
waste land would allow. Has he brought




142 THE ART OF COLONIZATION. THE ART OF COLONIZATION. 143


letter of recommendation to the governor, or the
treasurer, or the secretary, or some member of
council ? If yes, Utile letter come from a powerful
man or Toman in England, the grant is made out.
If no, then says the governor or his deputy—we
wish to promote settlements in Wellington Valley,
two hundred miles from Sydney, on the western
side of the Blue Mountains. Take a grant there,
or do without a grant : in other words, go back to
England or bury yourself and utterly waste your
capital in a distant wildernéss. What, it may be
asked, could be the governor's motive for this
cruel injustice ? a desire to spread his dominion,
to make the colony appear wide upon the map, to
be able to boast of new settlements far apart,
(this is the mera), far apart from each other !
Some of the evils of this ignorant desire are well
described in the following extract from a letter
addressed, in 1832, by General Clausel to Mar-
shal Soult. " Tont devenait facile, si on eíit suivi le
systZrne de cólonization que j'avais établi. N'ay-
ant plus t m'occuper de Constantine et d'Oran,
j'aurais porté tous mes soins, toute mon attention,
sur la ville d'Alger et les environs. Notre éta-
blissement sur ce point, aisément surveillé, eát
pris, peu á peu, et sans exigen presque aucun Erais,
une extension suffisante. A mesure que des colons
Européens seraient arrivés, on aurait gagné du
terrain ; et lorsque les besoins de la colonie
l'eusgent exige, on aurait pris une partie suffi-


sante du territoire d'Oran et de Constantine. Vou-
loir colonizer en métne temps la régence toute en-
ti¿re, vouloir mettre des garnisons sur tous les
points, avoir la prétention de tout retenir dés
aujourd'hui sous notre domination immediate,
tout cela me parait 'etre un projet chimerique
en faire meine l'essai serait de comproinettre le
succ?-,.s de notre établissement en Afrique, et en-
trainer l'état, en pure perte, dans des dépenses
ruineuses."


2. During the rule of this same governor of
New South Wales, it was proposed to make a road
between Sydney and FIunter's River, a spot where
sotne settlements had been formed, but between
which and Sydney, there was no communication
except by the sea and Hunter's River. This road
was to pass through a district, the whole of
which, though of course narer to Sydney than
the settlements on Hunter's River, remained in
the hands of government. before the go-
vernment began to make the road, two or three
applications were [nade for grants of land in this
district ; small grants of less than a hundred
acres each ; modest applications, considering that
the applicants were persons of high official rank
in the colony, and near connections of the go-
vernor to boot. The applications were success-
ful, of course. Some how or other, the new
road took the direction of these grants ; over or
by the side of which, therefore, all travellers
by land between Sydney. and Hunter's River




144 THE ART OF COLONIZATION. THE ART OF COLONIZATION. 145


necessarily passed. On each of these grants a house
was built ; a house, which, being licensed (for
they have a licensing system in New South Wales)
becarne an inn. These inns, then, were the
only places on the line of road at which travellers
could stop for rest and refreshment. Of course
such a monopoly caused thc erices of rest and re-
freshment to be very high ; gave very high pro-
fits to the inn-keepers. Other persons, desirous
to share in these high profits, now applied for
grants of land on the Ene of road. No, said the
governor, or one of these inn-keepers, you may
have land on Hunter's River or in Wellington
Valley ; but along this line of road no more
land will be granted at present. Thus the power
of the governor to grant or withhold waste latid
was used in this case, with the effect, and one can
hardly doubt for the purpose, of turning two or
three of his Excellency's favourites into highway-
men ; of enabling them to rob all travellers be-
tween Sydney and Hunter's River ; to rob thern
of somewhat less than the difference between the
the cost of going round by sea and the cost of
travelling on a straight road open to the compe-
tition of inn-keepers. It -would not be easy to
find, even in Ireland, a match for this job ; but
many to match it have taken place in New South
Wales. My authority for this statement is Mr.
Potter Macqueen, late member of parliament for
Bedfordshire ; himself the proprietor of a large
tract of land in New South ,Wales, and, as such,


an instance of the shameful irrcgularitywith which
new land has bcen disposed of in that colony.


For granting land at the Swan River Settlement,
regulations, made by Sir George Murray and
Mr. Horace Twiss, the chief and under secre-
tarjes of state for the colonies, were published in
England ; but not tila after Sir George Murray
had granted 500,000 acres to the cousin of his col-
league Sir Robert Peel. This grant to Mr. Peel
was obtained by means of a letter, which has
be-en published, from Sir Robert to Sir George.
Some member of the house of commons having
said that this transaction was a job, Sir Robert
Peel defended it ; and Mr. now Lord Brougham,
the author of a book on colonial policy, rising
after the right honourable baronet, declared, that
for the first time the right honourable baronet had
made an " unnecessary speech ;" so complete, or
rather so unnecessary, was thc vindication of his
conduct. The grant, however, to Sir Robert's
eousin, of more land than had been granted in
New South Wales during thirty-four years, and
the outcry that was raised against it, compelled
the government to give land to other people in
the same way; that is, with the most reckless pro-
fusion. Thus the only advantage obtained by
Mr. Peel over other settlers was his being allowed
to mark out his grant upon the map in England,
and to chase what he considered the very best
situation. But this, though it has proved of no


VOL. II.




1


t4 6 THE ART OF COLONIZATION. THE ART OF COLONIZATTON 147


advantage to Mr. Peel, was very injurious to
all the other settlers ; because as he had selected
his grant round about the port or landing place,
so great an extent of land in the very best situa-
tion became private property, as to rendez all the
other situations very bad in comparison. If Mr.
Peel hall leen compelled to make roads through
his grant, or had obtained only such an extent
of land as might easily have had roads made
through it by the •government, the case would
have been different. As it was, his property be-
Carne- as a desert between the -port or landing
place, and the land beyond that property. Beyond
that desert, however, it


• was declared, that all the
world should be entitled to unlimited grants, on
either one of two conditions, as the granteeshould
prefer ; either an outlay of is. 6d. per acre in con-
veying labourers to the settlement, or the invest-
ment of capital on the land at the rate of ls. 6d.
per acre. - The second of these conditions was
flatly at variante with the first. The object of
the first condition was to promote the emigration
of labourers in proportion to the land granted ;
but as those who had obtainecl land on the second
condition wanted labourers, and, not having spent
capital on the imrnigration of labourers, were able
to offer higher wages tiran those who had, the
labourers brought out by one set of capitalists
were taken from thern by another set ; and tbus
it carne to happen that no one had a motive for


obtaining land on the first condition. Cine of the
conditions made the other a nullity: just as else-
where, the profusion of one governor and the
caution of bis successor, or the, profusion of one
and the caution of bis predecessor, or the pro-
fusion and caution of the same governor either at
different times, or with respect to different parts
of the same colony at the same time, have had
opposite tendeneies ; have tended to increase,
and, as the people were increasing, to decrease,
the proportion between the inhabitants of a
colony and the land open to cultivation.


Ali these cases pretty well establish, that in no
modem colony has the best way, or indeed any
one way, of trcating waste land been pursued sys-
tematically : to these cases it would be easy to
add several hundreds of different and often con-
tradictory modes, in which the governments of
modem Europe have disposed of the chief ele-
ment of colonization.


What is the best rnode in which to dispose of
waste land with a view to colonization ? In order
to ascertain this, wc must first determine what is,
or ought to be, the immedia.te object of a colo-
nizing government in exerting its power over
waste land. The accomplishment of that imme-
diate object would be a way to ultimate ends.


Why should any government exert power over
waste land either by giving or withholding ? Why
not let individuals judge for themselves as to the




148.THE ART OF COLONIZATION. THE ART OF COLONIZATION. 149


situation and extent of new land that each
should like to call his own ? This course


has been recommended by some English econo-
mists on the ground that individuals are the
best judges of what is for their own interest, and
that 1111 unnecessary interference of government
with the affairs of is sure to do more
harin than good. 13tit in this case, the govern-
ment rnust necessarily interferc to some extent :
that is, it rnust estahlish or confirma title to the
land of which individuals had taken possession.
Or, perhaps, those English economists, who
cate the interference of govcrnment in the dis-
posal of waste land, would have each settler on
new land to be a " squatter ;" a settler svithout
any title, liable to be ousted by any other man •
who was strongcr, and who, being the best judge
of his own interest, should think it worth while
to onst the first occupier. Passing by so absurd
a conclusion from t.he principie of non-inter-
ference, let as now suppose the case, in which a
colonizing govcrnment should confine its inter-
ference to securing a property in that land of
which individuals had taken possession. In
this case, all the land, to which it was
sible that government should afterwárds give a
title, would immediately be taken possession of


Especially by Mr. Mill ; in a Letter to Mr. Wilmot Hor-
ton, not printed but industriously circulated, by the latter.


by a few individuals ; good judges of their own
interest, consulting their own advantage. But
what, in this case, would becorne of all the other
individuals, who in pursnit of their own advan-
tage, rnight be desirous to obtain some waste
land ? This question settles the point. For the
good . of all, t.he interference of govcrnment is not
less necessary to prevent a few individuals from
seizing all the wastc land of a colony, than it is
necessary to prevent robberies. As it is for the
good of all . that no one should be allowed to take
any other one's property, so it is for the good of
all that no individual should be allowed to injure
other individuals by taking more than the right
quantity of waste land. In the fo•mer case,
government enforces a compact amongst all the
members of a society ; an agreement that any
one who takes the property of another shall be
punished: so, in the latter case, the interference
of governtnent with respect to waste land is no-
thing but the enforeement of a compact amongst
all who are interested in the disposal of waste
land ; an agreement that pone shall be allowed
to injure the others, that the greatest good of all
shall be consulted. This point settled, what, for
the greatest good of all, is the immediate object
of a colonizing government in exerting its power


. over waste ¡and ? Its ultimare object being the
greatest progress of colonization, its immediate


.object is, that there should exist in the colony




150
THE ART OF COLONIZATIOYi. THE ART OF COLONIZATION. 151


those circumstances which are best calculated to
attract capital and labour, but especially labour,
from an old country. The advantage of the irnmi-
grants, though one of the ends, is also an essen-
tial means, of colonization. For the greatest
advantage of immigrants to a colony, it is neces-
sary that the colonial profits of capital, and
wages of labour, should be as high as possible.
IIigh profits, then, and especially high wages, are
the immcdiate object of a colonizing government
in exerting its power over waste land.


In order to creme and maintain a very high
rate of wages in the colony, it is necessary, first,
that the colonists should have an acople field of
production ; acople, that is, in proportion to
capital and labour ; sud] an extent of land as to
t'endez unnecessary the cult.ivation of inferior
soils, and as to permit a large proportion of the
people to be engaged in agriculture ; a field,
large from the bcginning, and continually en-
larged with the increase of capital and people.
But, in the second place, it is quite as necessary
that the field of production should 'lever be too
large ; should never be so large as to encourage
hurtful dispersion ; as to promote that cutting
up of capital and labour into small fractions,
which, in the greater number of modem colonies,
has led to poverty and barbarism, or speedy ruin.
For securing the first condition of high profits
and wages, the power of the govermnent over


waste land must be exerted actively, in bestow-
ing opon individuals titles to the possession of
land : for the second object, that power must be
exerted negatively, in refusing titles to waste
land. The action of the two exertions of power
together, may be compared to that of an elastic
belt, which, though always will always yield
to pressure from within.


But as a belt which should press more in one
place than in another, or should be more tight
at one time than at another, would be defective,
so would any system for granting and refusing
waste land be defective, which should not be
both uniform and lasting.


It is easy to grant land, and easy to refuse
applications for grants : the difficulty is to draw
a line between the active and negative exertions
of power, so as to render the proportion which
land bears to people, neither too small nor too
great for the highest profits and wages.


VVith a view, not deliberate, certainly, but
rather instinetive, to maintaining a due propor-
tion between people and land, three inethods of
proceeding have been adopted by several colonial
governments : first, that of attaching conditions
to grants of land ; secondly, that of imposing a
tax on the land granted, and in case the tax vas
not paid, seizing and selling the land for arrears
of taxes ; thirdly, that of requiring payment




152 THE ART OF COLONIZATION. THE ART OF COLONIZATION. 153


money for waste land before the grant was made
out.


In thc first mode of proceeding, the grantee
obtained his land on such conditions, for example,
as that of cultivating it, or that of paying a quit
rent ; and in either case the grant was liable to
be recalled provided the condition was not ob-
served. But grants of land have scarcely ever
been recalled because the land had not been cul-
tivated, or the quit rent had not been paid. Why
snob conditions have nearly always been a dead
letter is plain enough because the terco " culti-
vation" is so general and vague that no tribunal
could decide whether or not that condition had
been fulfilled ; while all the holders of land ob-
tained on that condition, including frequently
the members of the only tribunal to which the
question could he submitted, have 'nade common
cause to prevent the question from being raised :*


The grants at the Swan River were declared liable to be
forfeited unless they should be " cultivated to the satisfaction
of the governor ;" a gentleman deserving, en many accounts,
very great respect ; but, nevertheless, a naval captain, whose
knowledge of " cultivation" must necessarily be small, and
who, besides, owns in the colony, a hundred, perhaps a
thousand, times as ruuch land as it is possible that he should
cultivatc. Is it to be expected, that he will declare his own
land to be forfeited for want of cultivation ?


Mr. now war-minister uf England, was asked by the
Committcc of the House of Commons on the Civil Governntent


because, as to quit rents, all who obtained land
on condition of paying them, including the favo-
rites of governments, and frequently the officers
of government themselves, have made common
cause to prevent thc recaí of grants for non-pay-
Inent of quit rent. Thus, while such conditions
were sure to be neglected, the certainty of being
able to disregard them led so many people to,
acquire more property than they could possibly
use, that the grantees would not have been able,
supposing them willing, to have observed the
conditions ; would not have been able to culti-
vate so much more land than there were labour-
ers to employ, or to have paid quit rent for so
much land which yielded nothing. Judging


of Canada, whether escheats of latid had taken place under
the Gth uf Gcc-ge IV , which empowered the government to
seize and sell lands, as to which certain conditions had not
been performed. He answercd, "Nene, that 1 am aware of."
But then, he had just before informed the committee, that,
" grants had been rnost inconsidcrately ami wantonly malle, in
large rnasses, to people connected with government, te the
great detrhnent of the country and the great nuisance of the
inhabitants around ;" that land had been so granted " in largo
masses, since it was the fashion for every councillor or officer
connected with. the Government, to get a grant of from 5,00D to
20,000 acres ;" that many of " those grantees were absentees ;
and some governors of the colony." The evidente of
Ellice before this committee, and especially that part of it
which relates to the disposal of waste land, is full of instruction
for colonizing governments.




154 THE ART OF COLONIZATION. THE. ART OF COLONIZATION. 155


from these cases, and from very many more in
which conditions have been attached to grants
without an attempt to enforce them, it seems
impossible to devise any after condition, in the
nature of a promise, which would hinder people
from taking more land than they ought to take ;
which would render the belt always tight, while
always sufficiently elastic.


Secondly. Though by imposing a tax on granted
land which rewains in a desert state, and selling
the land for arrears of taxes, some check would
be put to the misappropriation of new land, still
this plan is open to the same objections as the
one just examined : the execution of the plan
would be difficult or next to impossible it is
but another mode of attaching to grants the after
condition of cultivation. In some of the United
States, truly, this plan has been successfully pur-
sued with respect to deserts of private property,
which liad become private property before the
plan of taxing and seizing was adopted. But
why was this plan devised ? Not to prevent, but
to cure, the evils of deserts interposed amongst
the settlers. Act opon this plan with respect to
ale desert land now private property, still what is
to be done with the land so seized, or recovered,
by the government? Is it to be granted again in
such a way as tú cale for a second seizure and a
third grant of the sanee loas of land ? This plan
may be good for the cure of an evil, bu t is, plainly


quite insufficient to prevent the evil. It has
been successful, as a cure, in some of the United
States, only because, since the evil arose which it
was intended to cure, another plan had been
adopted to prevent the evil as to ale new grants.


thirdly, it is obvious that a government
may put any degree of restraint en the acquisi-
tion of waste land, by rneans of conditions to be
performed before the grant is bestowed ; by
making the grant itself conditional on some
previous act by the grantee. Of this nature was
a part of the plan for granting land at the Swan
River ; that part by which he, who had paid for
the conveyance of labourers to the colony, was
entitled to waste land in proportion tú his outlay.
Not less strictly of this nature, though somewhat
more obviously, is the plan now pursued by the
United States ; that of requiring payment in
money for new grants. This appears to be the
most sure and most simple way to prevent the
itnproper acquisition of waste land. For, though
tnany expedients might be suggested for rendering
the grant conditional on the performance of some
act by the grantee, such as withholding the titie
until the land was cultivated, still in ale of these
wavs of proceeding much room would be left for
favour, for disputes and evasion, as well as for
miscalculation on the part of the grantee; not to
mention that, if time viere required for the per-
formance of the condition of title, ale new land


a




156
. THE ART OF COLON1ZATION.


must pass through a state of uncertainty as to
its ownership ; being used in some way by indi-
viduals with a view to gaining a title, and yet not
the property of individuals, but liable to be re-
stuned by the government in case the condition
of a title were not thoroughly performed• •The
great merit of the system pursued by the United
States consists in its simplicity, and the certainty
of its operation.


Still, the object of the government, or rather of
the community, would be missed, if the payment
required for waste land were not so high as to
deter individuals from taking more land than,
for the benefit of the whole society, they ought
to take. If the price were so low that great
tracts should be attainable by paying a trifle of
money, individuals, specuiating vaguely on some
distara benefit to arise from the increase of popu-
lation, would acquire great tracts without being
willing, or even able, to use thern ; would inter-
pose great deserts arnongst the settlers ; would
produce an extreme degree of dispersion, reducing
the power of capital and labour to the minimum,
and rendering out of the case both high profits
and high wages. Thus, at the Swan River,
though some guantees paid money for their land,
when they paid for the passage of emigrant la-
bonrers, still as the rae of payment was two
hundred acres for each labourer, or 1s. 6d. per
acre, they were not prevented from taking a great


THE ART OF COLONIZATION. 157


(leal more land than they could use: In this
case, the object of requiring money for land
would not have been attained, even if the system
liad been uniform ; if none had been allowed to
acquire [and save by paying money for it. So,
in the United States, where, for want of coin-
binable free-labour, slavery is, one may say,
necessity ; where restrictions on foreign trade
and bounties on honre manufactures, are, not in
opposition to, but in strict agreement with, the
first principies of political economy, being, after
slavery, the chief means by which the people are
kept together, and induced to keep each other ;
where, notwithstanding these expedients for pro-
moting combination of power, it is a general
practice to exhaust the fertility of land, trusting
to nature for nearly all, and to skill for hardly
anything ; where, though not half of the appro-
priated land be cultivatcd, the people are moving
on, leaving great gaps of desert behind them, in
search of more land to be treated in the same
way ; these, it seems evident, the price put upon
waste land is too low for the object in view. And
this conclusion is supported by particular facts.
In the newest settlements, universally, we find
much land, which is become private property
without being used in any way ; not even cleared
of the forest ; taken out of the control of the
public, and yet of no service to any individual ;
whiie all such land interpoles so much desert, or




158 THE ART OF COLONIZATION. THE ART OF COLONIZATION. 159


so many deserts, amongst the settlers, increasing
the distante by whieh they are separated, interfer-
ing with the construction of roads, and operating
as a check to social intercourse, to concert, to
exchange, and to the skilful use of capital and
labour.


On the other hand, it is equally plain that too
high a price ri3ight be requircd for waste land.
If it be for the good of -all that no waste land
should be granted without being used- benefi-
cially, it is equally for the good of all that none
shouid be withheld from individuals able and
willing to use it in the best way. In order to
make the belt clastic- as well as tight, in order
that the field of production should increase gra-
dually along with the mercase of capital and
labour, it would be necessary to require for new
land a price not more than sufficient to prevent
the improper acquisition of land ; it would be
necessary to make the price so low, that the ac-
quisition and use of new land should be one of
the rnost productive etnployinents of capital. To
make the price so high, that the acquisition and
use• of new land should not be one of the most
productive employments of capital, would be
equal to a decree that no more land should be
used in any way ; would encompass the settled
parts of the colony, not with an elastic belt, but
with "a wall of brass ;" would, as soon as capital
and labour had reached an excessive proportion


to latid, canse low profits and low wages ; would
prevent the irnmigration of people ; would inevit-
ably defeat the objects of colonization ; just as if
all the land of a colony were granted suddenly to
a few persons neither able nor willing to use it,
but willing and able to prevent others from using
it. The piden alean, a terna often rnisapplied to
sache degree between right and very wrong,.
really signifies the right degrce and nothing else
for this case, in which contrary powers are to be
exertcd, the, power of granting and the power of
withholding, the gulden mean is all in all. Sorne
remarks will be offered presently on the class of
facts, which a coionizing people would take as
their guide for ascertaining the best price of new
land.


Meanwhile, we have to dispose of two questions
hardly less important than the question,of price.


First, supposing the best price ascertained, thé
beneficia] operation of it might be checked, nay,
altogether prevented in tuvo different ways ; either
by opposing obstacles to the acquisition of land
at that price, or by granting land on other tercos.
Thus, in New South Males, where the English
government has been persuaded to adopt the plan
of selling new land instead of giving it away,*


Ever since May, 1829, the Colonial Department in London
has been urgeci, in various ways, to adopt the American
plan of selling waste land, instead of jobbing it according to




160 THE ART OF COLONIZATION. THE ART OF COLONIZATION. 161


the governor's caprice still determines where-
abouts land shall be surveyed and granted.


the English plan, Por a long while, this suggestion was
cither fiercely opposed or treated with ridicule, by persons
connected with the colonial oflice, and especially by Mr. Wilmot
Horton and Mr. Hay, one of them lately, and the other still,
Under Secretary of State for the Coloides. This suggestion,
having been pressed opon the government by a society es-
tablished for the purpose of promoting systcmatic colonization,
Mr. Wilmot Horton, jealous, it would secm, of any inter-
ference with a subject, part of which had employed his thoughts
for some years, became a member of the society, and then
broke it up by getting into the chair at a public meeting, and
zealously condemning the objects of those with whom he had
professed to unite himself. But, at the same time, he greatly
promoted the objects of the society by attacking their views,
and thus causing those views to be examined. As an example
of the assistance which he thus gave to the dispersed members
of the society, I may mention, thathe persuaded Colonel Torrens
to join him in conducting a written controversy with two of
those gentlemen, and that, in the end, Colonel Torrens became
one of the warniest advocates of the measure to which he had
objected when it was first submitted to him. Not the least
impression, however, was made upon the government while
the Duke of Wellington's administration lasted. But, soon
after the change of ministry which followed the threc days
of Paris, soon after Lord Howick succeeded Mr. Horace
Twiss as Under Secretary for the Coloides, the measure sur
gested by the Colonization Society was, in part, adopted by the
government.. Defective as is that part of a measure defective
because incomplete ; still it cannot fail to be of great service to
the colonies. Whatever the people of Canada and of the
English settlements in Australia may gain by the check which
has thus been put opon official jobbing in the disposal of waste


Though any one may wait upon the governor with
the new regulations in his hand, saying,—I want


land, they owe, not very remotely, to the workmen of Paris or
M. de Polignae. For this great improvement they are more lin-
inediately obliged to Lord lIowick to the leading members of
the Colonization Society, Mr. John Sterling, Mr. Hutt now M.P.
for Huil, and Mr. Charles Tennant, then M. P. for St. Alban's 3
and, more especially to Mr. Robert Gouger, the secretary of
the society, whose efforts to procure the adoption of its whole
plan have been unceasing for several years. The successful
issue of Mr. Gouger's long contest with the judgements of
ignorance, the insults of pride and the dclays of idleness, should
be a lesson of eneouragcment to the advocates of useful projects.
Here follows the most correct list that I have been ablc to
obtain of the members of the Colonization Society.
Woronzow Grcig, Esq. Sir Francis Burdett, Bart.
W. S. O'Brien, Esq. M. P. Clayton Brown, Esq.
R. H. Innes, Esq. T. Kavanagh, Esq. M. P.
John Hutt, Esq. James Talbot, Esq.
I. II. Thomas, Esq. Charles Tennant, Esq.
I. W. Buckle, Esq. Lucius O'Brien, Esq. M. P.
John Sterlimr, Esq. John Mill, Esq.
.Edward King, Esq. O. S. Tucker, Esq.
Robert Scott, Esq. (of New Col. Torrens.


South Wales) J. E. Bicheno, Esq.
Howard Elphinstone, Esq. R. Trench, Esq.
Saud. Humphreys, Esq. William Hutt, Esq.
Charles Buller, Esq. Rey. G. V. Sampson.
C. Ilolte Bracebridge, Esq, Lawrence Marshall, Esq.
John Young, Esq. Right Hon. R. W. Horton.
E. Barnard, Esq. John Gore, Esq.
Sir J. C. Hobliouse, Bart.M. P. Arthur Gregory, Esq.
John Gibson, Esq. Richard Heathfield, Esq.


VOL. II.




162 THE ART OF COLONIZATION. THE ART OF COLONIZATION. 163


so many .acres in such a spot : take my money,--
t he governor may reply, No ; that spot is reserved


Sir Philip Sidney.
Erskine Flumphreys, Esq.


Hyde Villiers, Esq.
T. Potter Macqueen, Esq. M.P.


John Buckle, Esq.


Colonel Talbot, M. P.
Hon. Secretary, Robert Gouger, Esq.


The views of the Society werc first published in a supple-
ment to the Spectator newspaper, and afterwards reprinted in a
pamphlet, entitled A Statement of the Principies and Objecls of a
proposed National Society for the cure and prevention of pauper-
ism by means of Systematic Colonization. Ridgway, 1830. Those
views have been further explained in the following publica-
tions.


Sketch of a proposal for colonizing Australasia ; printed and
circulated, but not sold, in 1829.


A Letter to the Right Honourable Sir George Murray on Syste-
matic Colonization, by Charles Tennant, Esq. M. P.—Ridgway,
1830. This pamphlet contains a Report of the Society, and a
Controversy between Mr. Hutt and Mr. Sterlimr, on one sirle,and
Mr. Wilmot Horton and Col. Torrens, on the other.


Letters forminár parí of a Correspondence with Nassau William
Senior, Esq., concerning Systematic Colonization, &c. by Charles
Tennant, Esq. M. P. Ridgway, 1831.


A Leiter from Sydney, the principal 102071 of Australasia, edited
by Robert Gouger. Joseph Cross, Holborn, 1829. Reprinted
frote the Morning Chronicle newspaper.


Eleven Letters in the Spectator newspaper, signed P. 1830 and
1831.


A Lecture on Colonization delivered before the Literary Associa-
tion, at the London Tczvern, on December 5, 1831 : by R. Davies
Hanson, Esq. Ridgway and Sons. 1832.


Proposal to ¡lis Majesty's Government for founding a colony 071
the South Coast of Australia. Printed and circulated, but not
sold, in 1831.


you must chuse elsewhere. Nay, until the go-
vernor have declared a spot open for settlement,
until it please him to offi?r land for sale, no one
can now obtain new land any where on any
terrns. IIere, then, is the restriction of price,
without liberty subject to that restriction. If the
price fixed on land had been the right one, suf-
ficient., that is, for the purpose of restraint, all
further restraint could not but have been hurtful ;
could not but have interfered with the cine opera-
tion of the proper price. From this example ore
rnay gather, what indeed no fact oras required to
cstablish, so obvious is the conclusion ; that, along
with the best price for oraste land, there ought to
be the most perfect liberty of appropriation at
that price. This is secured in the United States
by very simple rep;ulations.


But this secured, what if there should be ex-
ceptions to the systetn ? what if some portions of
new land should be granted on some other con-
dition than parchase, or for less money than the
general price, or for nothing ? The result is plain :


Plan of a Company to be established for founding a colony in
Southern Australia. Ridgway and Sons. 1831.


Article in the Literary Gazette. 1831.
Emigration and Colonization. A speech delivered at a general


meeting of the National Colonizatiori Society in .1 -une, 1830, by
William Hutt, Esq. M. P. Wilson, Royal Exchange, 1832.


Emigration for the Relief of Parishes„ practically considerad, by
Robert Gouger. Ridgwav and Sons, Piccadilly ; and Effingham
\Vilson, Royal Exchange. 1833.




161
THE ART OF COLONIZATTON. THE ART OF COLONIZATION. 1(35


the object sought by the best price would be de-
feated in proportion to the extent of exceptional
grants. If land were given, as in the United
States, to schools and colleges, deserts would still
be interposed amongst the settlers ; and either
this would happen, or waste land would be sold
for less than the price generally required by go-
vernment, if new land were given for nothing by
way of reward for public services. Every special
grant, besides, made for nothing or for less than
the general price, would be an act of great in-
justice towards those who had paid the general
price : unless, indeed, the government shoulcl
proclaim, before taking money from any one, that
it intended to grant land for nothing in special
cases. Such a declaration, however, by the go-
vernment, though it would be a fair warning to
individuals, and would thus prevent any injus-
tice, could not but greatly interfere with the sale
of land at the best price ; for it would amount
to saying, Beware, land buyers, of -paying to us,
the government, more than will suffice to buy
land from individuals on whom we mean to bestow
grants for nothing. Whereas, if the plan of selling
at a fixed price were the only one, if the system
were uniform, the due operation of the best price
would be perfectly secured ; no deserts would be
interposed amongst the settlers ; no one would sell
land for less than the government price ; every
buyer would make his calculations accordingly ;
ami no one would suffer the least injustice.


notwithstanding the force of all these
reasons in favour of an uniform system, a colo-,.
nial governmentwould always be stronglytempted
to make exceptional grants ; a bad colonial go-,
verntnent, by the wish to favour individuals, by
all the motives which any where lead to govern-
ment jobs ; a good colonial government, by find-
ing this the easiest way to reward public services
and to provide for public education. In both
cases, the temptation to go wrong would become
very powerful indeed after the plan of selling had
been acted on for some time ; after it had given
to waste land outside of the settled districts, or
still within thetn, a greater value than waste land
ever possessed before. Suppose the people so far
kept together, so far in a condition to help each
other, that their industry was more productive
than colonial industry has ever been ; in that
case, all their land would be subject to some of
those advantages, over and aboye superior natural
fertility, for which rent is paid ; and all the land
adjoining the settled districts would be in a state
to become very soon, with the increase of wealth
and people, subject to the higher degrees of com-
petition. Presents, therefore, of new land would
now be worth more than such presents have ever
been worth : the temptation to make such pre-
sents would be greater in proportion to their
greater value ; while that greater value of the
thing desired would whet the ingenuity of pari-




166 THE ART OF COLONIZATION.


sites and jobbers, in devising new pretexts for an
improper use of the powcr of government. In the
case of a good colonial government, even in the
case of a government strictly representing; all the
colonists, the temptation to go wrong would
become stronger with an increase in the value of
new land : it would be more easy than it ever
has been to reward public services aad provide
for public education by means of gifts of new
land. And why not, some would ask, do in the
easiest way that which ought to be done? The
question may be answered by another. Since
the easiest way to prevent a criminal from com-
mitting more crimes is to hang hirn,


-
why not


hang all criminals ? why not do in the easiest
way that which °right to be done ? Because more
harur would come to society by making the law
hateful, than would be prevented by preventing
criminals from committing; more crimes ; because
that very easy mode of hindering some from
comrnitting crimes would encourage others to
comwit crimes, by rendering conviction or even
detection impossible in ninety-nine cases out of
a hundred. Just so, in colonizador], by provi-
ding for so great a good as public education in
the easiest way, that is, by exceptional grants of
land, more harrn than good would be done to
society. But if, as may easily happen, this should
be denied by those, who are not familiar with the
evils resulting to colonies from a profuse exer-


THE ART OF COLONIZATiON.
167


cise by the government of its power over waste
land, I would remind these, that the choice cloes
not lie between knowledge and ignorance, but
between two modos of securing education : j ust
as, in jurisprudence, the choice is, not between
the prevention and non-prevention of crimes by
persons already but between two inodes
of prevention, the easiest mode, hanging, and a
troublesome mode, the reformation or confine-
ment of the criminals. If all the waste land,
without exception, were sold at the right price,
then might public education be provided for out
of the money paid for land ; or, the people being
richer, because kept more together, by means of
contributions from the public in the shape of
taxes. A moderate land tax, for example, would
take from each proprietor of land less tiran would
be bestowed upon him by an uniform system of
selling new land at the best price. If, on the
contrary, the great good of public education were
sought by means of exceptional grants, a door
would be left opera for other exccptions. 'l'hose,
for example, who think a political church very
good, would demand exceptional grants for that
purpose ; if real public services were rewarded
by exceptional grants:such grants might be nade
for pretended public services. Once allow, by
admitting a single exception, that the facility of
doing good in this way is a sufficient reason for
taking this way to do good, and pretexts would




168 TIME ART OF COLONIZATION. THE ART OF COLONIZATION. 169


never be wanting for doing harm in so easy
way ; harm of two sorts, that which migbt avise
from giving land for irnproper purposes, and t.hat
whichr must avise from counteracting the desired
effect of requiring the proper price for every
addition of territory.


The importance of complete uniformity in any
system for treating the chief element of coloniza-
tion is so great, that I am tempted, at the risk of
tiring the reader, to illustrate my viéw of the
subject by a supposed case, which will be readily
understood, even by those who have never wit-
nessed the mischievous cffects on a colony of
irregularity in granting and withholding new
land.


Suppose t.hat the English government had
found a mass of pure gold in Middlesex,•close to
the surface of the round, and weighing some
thousands of millions of pounds ; and further,
that it was an object of great moment to the peo-
ple of England to keep up the present value of
gold, neither more nor less. In that case, how
would the government, supposing it bent on the
advantage of the people, use its power over this
rich mine? Here would be a very easy way of
paying off the nacional debt ; but if this were
done in this way, more ovil would come to the
people than if their debt had been doubled. Sup-
posing, as we do, that the object was to preserve
the actual value of gold, litera would the govern-,


ment supply the people with enough gold to make
up for the orear and toar of the currency, and to
maintain, if the people and their money transac-
tions were increasing, the actual proportion be-
tween the demand and supply of gold. But in
order to issue gold enough, without issuing too
much, sotne rule must be adopted. Supposing
a good rule adopted, would it ever, in any case
be departed from ? Clearly not ; because a gene-
ral plan with exceptions would be, not a rule,
but several plans working at the same time, and
perhaps in opposite directions. The rule, to be
worth any thing for its object, must be com-
plete: that is, whatever the mode of issuing gold
adopted by way of rule, it must be strictly ob-
served, or it would be no rule at all. In such a
a case, there would not be wanting people to ask
for gold, as a reward for public services, real or
pretended, as a support for religion, as a fund for
charity or for public education. Our object, each
set of applicants would say, is so very, very im-
portant, ami the facility of accomplishing it in
this way is so very, very great, that we are enti-
tled to an exception from the general rule. But
to all of these applicants a good government
would answer : obtain gold according to the
rule ; in no other way will we issue a single
ounce, seeing that our first duty in this matter is
to maintain the value of money by strictly ob-
serving the rule. But now suppose this case




170 THE ART OF COLONIZATION. THE ART OF COLONIZATION. 171


with a careless or corrupt government. Itere, it'
any rule were adopted in appearance, the excep-
tions would be so many as to make the rule a nul-
lity. If the members of this careless or corrupt
government had sense enough to perceive, that
extreme profusion in the issue of gold must soon
l'ender the mine worthless, they would, for their
own sake, issue gold with some caution, but still
with shatneful injustice, favouring some at the
expense of others, granting at one time and re-
fusing at another, causing violent fluctuations in
the value of rnoncy, and in time ruining every
one of their richer subjects, one after the other.
If the government were very ignorant as well as
careless and corrupt., it wonld be tempted, by the
facility of doing favours and complying with
urgent requests, to issue so much gold, that the
mine would soon be worth nothing, and there
would be an end of the mischief. Colonizing
governments, being, nearly all of them, careless
and corrupt, have, most of them, liad sense
enough to perceive, that there was a degree of pro-
fusion in granting waste land which would Tender
worthless their power over this element of wealth.
Not so the government which founded the Swan
River colony. There the profusion has been so
great that waste land is not worth the trouble of
accepting it : .11 the rich mine of gold is worth


' Last vear,
a hutalred thousand acres of picked land ncar


nothing. But, allowing for some caution in
colonial governments, the evils which it is in
their power to inflict on their subjects, by the
capricious exercise of their power over waste
land, are greater than those which would be in-
flicted on the English by a very ignorant govern-
ment, having power over an immense quantity of
gold. It is the very caution of those colonizing
governments, for their own ends, which preserves
their power to do mischief. How much mischief
they have done, and may yet do, by retaining
power over waste land, and exerting that power
capriciously, may be conceived, even by the inha-
bitant of an old country, who will reflect on this
supposed case of a very rich gold mine at the dis-
posal of a careless and corrupt government, and
who will further bear in mind how tnuch the
value of land, of capital, and of labour, depends
upon the proportion between land and people.


The last condition of a good rule for the dis-
posal of waste land is permanency. One ralo at
one time, and another rule at another time, would
be nearly as bad as no rule at al!. The Swan
River settlement has not existed five years ; but
already three quite different plans have been


the Swan River was offered for sale at the rate of less than
farthing per acre ; but no buyer could be found. At the sane
time, waste land was sold by the government in New South
\Vales and Van Diemen's Latid at prives varying from live to
twenty shillings per acre.


IN l




172 THE ART OF COLONIZATION. THE ART OF COLONIZATION. 173


adoptéd in that colony for the disposal of new
land. In the description of the first plan issuecl
by the English government, it was stated, in so
many words, that another plan, which was not
described, would be adopted in a year or two :
another plan was adopted within less than two
years after the first expedition -sailed ; and thcn,
with the change of ministry in England, carne a
third plan ; all within three years. The first and
the .last plan were as different as possible. Ac-
cording to the first plan, any one might obtain
an unlimitecl quantity of land for nothing ; ac-
cording to the last, no one could obtain new land
except by paying five shillings, at least, per acre.
Unta 1831, grants were obtainable for nothing
in Van Diernen's Land, New South Wales and
Canada : this year, no land will be granted ex-
cept to purchasers : next year, the plan of gra-
tuitous grants may be revived. The last change
of system in the English colonies, was brought
about, not by an act of the legislature, but sim-
ply by means of letters frorn the English colonial
minister to the colonial governors, saving in
effect : This is the way in which you will dispose
of waste land, until I change my mirad, or you
bear from my successor. Here, says an anony-
mous papen issued frorn Downing-street on the
lst of 1571arch 18:31 ; Itere is " a summary of the
rules which it has been thoughtft to substitute
for those dated the 20th of July 1830." Here,


says another anonymous publication from Down-
íng-street; dated January 20, 1831, is "a sana-
mary of the tules which it has been thought fit to
g ay clown for regulating the sales of land in New
South Wales and Van Diernen's Land." Who
thought fit ? thought fit to make such very impor-
tant changes in the political econotny of t.hese
coloras ? The English colonial minister : but his.
successor may think fit to change back again to
the old plan, or to adopt some entirely new plan;
and whatever an ignorant, lazy, English lord
shall Alease to call " a summary of rules," to that
must the colonists submit without appeal. Allow
that the last change is good for the colonists ;
that the plan now followed is far hetter-than the
irregular and corrupt practices for which it has
been substituted ; still, what securi ty• have .the
buyers of land, according to tbe new plan, against
being cheated of their pinchase money by the
revival of old practices ? The new plan is hateful
to the colonial governments, from whom . it takes
their most valuable privilege ; the privilege of
jobbing in the disposal of waste land. It is hate-
ful likewise, to those in England, who belong to
what has been called " the red tape school of
politics," or " the Peel and Dawson crew."* At
presenta the borne minister might give bis cousin


See that elever organ of the political church and of the
tory party in England, the Standard newspaper.




174 THE ART OF COLONIZATION. THE ART OF COLONIZATION. 175


a letter of introduction to the colonial minister,
without getting for that cousin 500,000 acres of
waste land. The new plan, which was suggested
to the government by a society in London, carne
opon the colonial governments by surprise. Fiad
they been consultad about it, they would proba-
bly, assisted by a strong party in the colonial
office at borne, have induced lord Goderich to
abstain from writing d'ose letters by which the new
plan has been set on foot. As it is, human nature
will be at fault, if they do not exert themselves
to get the old practices revived ; and they will
be zealously backed by eunning allies in Down-
ing-street. The successor of lord Goderich, a
traveller in America, is not lilcely to revive the
old English jobbing plan or practices ; but he
may, if it picase him, by a stroke of bis pen ; as


-may bis successor. Whatever dependence, then,
the colonists may place on the American know-
ledge, the industry,' and, may be, the price of
1VIr. Stanley, they have no security, worth the
llame, for the continuance of the present system.
That the new plan, that any plan, should work
well, while so fiable to be changad or overturned,
is quite impossible. They manage these things
better in America. There, the disposal of waste
land is a separate department of government. The
general plan of selling has been established by
congress : when the price has been altered, it was
congress that decided on the change : congress


alone can make exceptional granas. The system
is upheld by the united legislature of all the
states, and is administered by persons chosen for
their fitness, responsible to the people, and com-
pelled, not only to publish an account of all their
proceedings, but to proceed, step by step, in the
lace of the public. Here, then, are the best securi-
des against change ; an act of the legislature with
constant publicity. The result is, that, in Ame-
rica, every huyer of waste land knows what he is
about, makes his calculations on sine grounds :
and that the government obtains by the sale of
waste land 3,000,000 dollars a year. If the con-
gress of America viere to raise the price of waste
land up to that point, which would prevent any
hurtful dispersion of the people, without causing
any hurtful dcnsity of population, and should
also cease to make exceptional gratas, then would
their rule for the disposal of waste land be quite
perfect ; of the right measure, uniform and lasting ;
operating like a belt, tight but elastic, all round
and at all times. This is the rnode of proceeding
suggested by the English Colonization Society.


In any colony where this perfect rule for treat-
ing the chief element of colonization should be
adopted, colonization would proceed, not as every
where hitherto, more or less, by the scattering of
people over a wilderness and placing them for
ages in a state between civilization and barbar-
ism, but by the extension to new places of all that




176 THE ART OF COLONIZATION. THE ART OF COLONIZATION. 177


is good in an old society ; by the removal to new
places of people, civilized, and experienced in all
the arts of production ; willin• and able to assist
each other ; excited to the niost skilful applica-
tion of capital and labour by ready markets for
disposing of surplus produce ; producing, by
means of the tnost skilful industry in the richest
field, more than colonial industry has ever pro-
duced ; obtaining the highest profits of capital
and the highest wages of labour ; offcring the
strongest attraction for the immigra.tion of capital
and people ; increasing rapidly ; enjoying the ad-
vantages of an old society without its evils ; with-
out any cal) for slavery orrestrictions on foreign
trade ; an old society in every thing save the un-
easiness of capitalists and the misery of the bulk
of the people. Colonization, as hitherto con-
ducted, may be likened to the building of a
bridge; a work, no part of which is complete
until the whole be completad : according to the
method here proposed, colonization would be like
the making of a tunnel ; a work, in the progrcss
of 'which each step must be complete before
another step can be taken.


Two objections to this system remain to be
noticed.


1. It has been said : If the price of new land
-were high enough to prevent any one from legally
acquiring more land than, for the good of the
whole society, he ought to acquire, people would


use land without a title ; the beneficia) compact
amongst the colonists, implied by an uniform and
fixed rtde for the disposal of new land, would not
be observed by all the people ; some would be-
come squatters, that is, settlers on new land with-
out a title. The answer to this ohjection places
the merits of the system in a strong point of
view.


It is a remarkab le fact, that in the history of Ame-
rican colonization, there is hut one instante of a
person having settled totally out of the reach of
markets ; the case of the celebrated Daniel Boon,
who is known, for what ? for his eccentricity.
Invariably, then, it, may be said, when people use
land without a title, they keep within reach of
some tnarket in which to obtain, by the sale of
what their own labour produces, some thing which
their own labour will not produce. They do not
intend to cut themselves off from all social inter-
course ; they use land so near to the settled dis-
tricts, that it is fiable to be taken from them as
colonization advances. In many cases, squatting
has been encouraged by a regulation, which
awarded to the holder of land without a tale,
when the land should be takcn from hiel, COM-
pensation for the improvements which he had
made upon the land. Bilt, in every case, the
squatter expects that his land will be taken from
him: nay, in most cases, he intends abandon it
as soon as he has exhausted its natural fertility.


VOL. II. N




178
THE ART OF COLON iZATION. THE ART OF COLONIZATION. 179


The object of the squatter, then, is merely to get
a few crops from a virgin soil, and then to re-
inove for the purpose of exhausting another spot
of virgin soil. But this, Americans know, and
Mr. Stuart informs the English, is a general
practice in America ; not only with squatters, but
with those who have paid for land. Why this
practice ? Because, as I have explained before,*
of the minute division of labour in America ;
because labour, so minutely divided, would not,
perhaps, even support the isolated labourer, unless
the unproductiveness of his labour were counter-
acted by the great productiveness of a virgin soil.
It is the extreme cheapness of new land which
causes this minute division of labour_ At all
events, calculates the squatter, I must work by
myself: if I must work by myself, I must, in
order to live, use and exhaust a virgin soil :
where's the use of paying for land when one's only
object is to destroy its fertility ? Here is the
squatter's motive for using land without a title.
Utile price of new land ,viere such as to keep the
people together, so that they might combine their
Jabour, it would .be for the interest of every one to
remain where he could be assisted and give assist-
anee : the motive of the squatter would entirely
tease. As it is, no one goes beyond the reach of
markets : in that case, we have a right to presume,


See Note-.X.


no one would go out of the way of all the great
advantages which belong to combination of
labour. It appears, therefore, that, by putting
sufficient price upon new land, squatting, instead
of being encouraged, would be prevented. This
will be still more clear, when we shall see with
what great rapidity colonization would advance
how very soon a squatter, if there were one, not
going out of the reach of markets, would be over
taken by society, provided the parchase money of
all new land viere ernployecl in accelerating the
progress of colonization.


2. The second objection is, that into a colony,
where new land was not. obtainable except by
parchase, neither cápitalists nor labourers would
be disposed to immigrate ; but that, On the con-
trary, from such a colony both classes would be
disposed to emigrate to other colonies not far off,
where new land was obtainable for nothing.


We cannot decide this point by reference to
facts ; because in no colony has that price ever
been required for new land, which, together with
perfect liberty of appropriation, would insure
the greatest productiveness of industry, or, in
other words, the highest profits and wages. But
there are some facts which tend to show, that the
attractive power of a colony would be increased
by putting a sufticient price upon all new land.
Why have so many English and Irish labourers,
who liad emigrated to Canada, removed from




180 THE ART OF COLONIZATION.
THE ART OF COLONIZATION. 181


Canada to the United States ? from a colony where
land was cheaper to one where it was dearer.
The only rational answer is, because etnployment
was more regular, with higher wages, where the
people were in some degree kept together than
where they were carefully dispersed. Why is
not the Swan River colony, where, under a fine
climate, land is so very cheap ; why is not this a
favourite colony with English etnigrants, both
capitalists and labourers ? Why have so many
people, both labourers and capitalists, emigrated
from the Swan River to colonies where land was
dearer ? Why does it happen, when a large traca
of new land is bought by an American company,
and resold by tiren: in lots with great profit, that
to this spot people fiock, both capitalists and la-
bourers, and here congregate for the advantages
which come from mutual assistance. In this last
case, as to a great tract of country, the cornpany
Cake the place of government, and will not part
with any land except at a higher price than that
which they have paid to the government. In all
these cases, people are attraeted from a worse to a
better proportion between land and people ; from
lower to higher profits and wages. That it should
be so, is consistent with the principies of human
nature and political economy. True it is, that
people now and then go from a better to a worse
proportion between land and people ; as when
citizens of the United States etnigrate to Canada


but these are exceptions to the general rulo ; just
as those who ruin their fortunes and destroy their
health by excessive debauchery, do that which is
contrary to their ONVI1 interest, and therefore con-
trary to a law of political econorny and human
nature. The case of those capitalists, who emi-
grate from an old country, led on by the hopo of
acquiring wealth by obtaining for little or nothing
bnmense traets of wilderness, alises from pro-
found ignorance. If this case support the ob-
jection under review, then, when a child is
poisoned by mistaking night-shade berries for
red currants, it goes to prove that children have
no sentiment of self-preservation. These men
act like the colonial minister of England, who
sent butts for holding fresh water, to ships that
were floating on a fresh water sea. Judging of
a desea country by what they see in one thickly
peopled, they dream of domains and millions till
they awake, having lost their all. But the people
of a colony, in which there existed the advantages
of a proper degree of concentration, could not be
ignorant of those advantages : and the existente,
for the first time, of those great advantages would
surely become known both in other colonies and
in the mother-country. Such a colony, then,
would be highly attractive. How much more
attractive, both to capitalists and labourers, tiran
colonies have ever been, will be seen in the fui-
lowing section of this treatise ; where it is ex-




182 THE ART OF COLONIZATION.


plained, that if all the purchase-money of waste
land were properly disposed of, capitalists in the
colony would always be supplied with labour,
and every labourer reaching the colony might
surely become not only a landowner, but, some
thing more grateful to one of his class, a master
of other labourers. The first colony in which
labour was plentiful, though dear, and in which
labourers might be sure to become masters as
well as landowners ; the first colony in which
there was the good without the evil of an old
society, would probably attract people, both
capitalists and labourers, from colonies in which,
along with the good, there was all the evil, of a
new society,


II. The removal of people.
In a colony where new land was supplied in


proportion to the wants of a people increasing
rapidly' in wealth and numbers; where the pro-
duce*


of industry was so great as to give high
profits and high wages. where, consequently, all
should possess the means of removal, and where,
anoreover, the land newly become the property of
individuals-shoulcl mercase very rapidly in value,
by very soon becoming subject to the higher
kinds of competition which produce rent . ; in
such a colony, there would be motives in plenty
for the removal of people from .the settled to the
waste paras of the colony. Co!onization would




THE ART OF COLONIZATION. 183


go on of itself, through the increase people by•
births in the colony. But more quickly than in
proportion to such increase, colonization could
not go on, unless means were found to remove
people from some old country. For the imtni-
gration of people from an old country, the induce-
ment, we have seen alrcady, would be high profits,
and especially high wages. Thosc who would
come in search of high profits may be supposed to
possess the means of coming. But those who
would most desire to come in search of high
wages, are the poorest of the poor in old countries;
so poor as to be unable to move from one part to
another part of their own country ; people who
live from hand to mond), never having any pro-
perty save their own thews and sinews. This,
however, is the class of people whose immigration
into a colony it would be most useful to promote ;
a class who, as labourers should become capital-
ists and landowners, would fill their place in the
market of labour ; beeoming themselves, in time,
capitalists and landowners, and having their place
filled, in turn, by immigrants of the same class.
These, however strong their inducement to emi-
gration, cannot move without assistance. Ifthey
are to move at all, the cost of the-ir passage rnust
be defrayed, or at least advanced, by some body:
It might be greatly for the advantage of the old
country to defray the cost of their passage ; but.
Mere we are considering only the means which a




184 THE ART OF COLON1ZATION. THE ART OF COLONIZAT1ON, 185


colony possesses of prornoting immigration with-
out the aid of an old country. The question
then is,—How may a colony advantageously pay
for the irnmigration of labour ? that is, build a
bridge, as it were, toll-free, for the passage of
poor labourers from an old country to the colony


Reflecting on the urgent want of labour that
occurs in all colonies which prosper, we rnay be
cure, that great pains have been taken by peoplc
in colonies to devise some mearas of obtaining a
regular supply of labour from old countries. The
supplies of labour obtained by kidnapping in the
oid English colonies of America, by the late im-
migration of poor Germans into the United
States ; poor Germans, who, ignorant of the laves
arad of the language of America, were Hable to be
heid in a state of bondage ; and by the trans-
portation system in New South Wales and Van
Diemen's Land ; all there supplies of labour de-
pended on a kind of slavery. Every scheme of
the sort, that did not establish a kind of slavery,
has failed the moment it was tried. On the prin-
cipie of the redemptioner system, that of payrnent
by a capitalist for the poor immigrant's passage,
re-pa.yment being obtained by the immigrant's la-
bour, many schemes have been tried, and have
failed, in Canada, New South Wales, Van Die-
men's Land and South Africa ; not to mention
the Swan River. And yet nothing can be more
plain than that the capitalists of a colony and the


labourers of an old country would find it for
their mutual advantage to act on this principie.
About the advance by the capitalist there is no
sort of difficulty ; so much greater would be to
him the value of the poor immigrant's labour for a
few years, even at high wages, than the cost of
the irmnigramt's passage. Nor is there any diffi-
culty in finding poor labourers nay eager,
to engage with colonial capitalists for a certain
terco of service in the colony. The difficulty lies
in this ; that without some kind of slavery, the
capitalist has no security for repayment of bis
outlay ; that the labourer, as soon as he reaches
the colony, laughs at bis engagement ; that what
the capitalist brings to the colony in the shape of
labour, ceases to be labour the moment it reaches
the colony ; or, at all events, is never labour over
which he who paid for it has any control. Du-
ring the last fifteen years, some thousands of poor
labourers, to speak within compass, have been
conveyed from England to English colonies at
the expense of colonial capitalists, and under en-
gagement to work for those who had paid for
their passage. " There is no instance on record,"
says M'Arthur, the greatest capitalist of New
South Wales, " where settlers have been able to
prevent their indented servants, hired in England
from becoming dissatisfied, and then leaving them
alter their arrival." At the Swan River, the first
settlers had hardl y landed before the governor




186
THF, ART OF COLONIZATION.


was required to punish indented labourers for re-
fusing to work for those who had brought them
from England. In Canada, universally, labou ring
servants taken from England and Ireland by
capitalists, under engagement to repay with la-
bour the cost of their passage, have quitted those
to whom they were bound, to work for others,
who, not having laid out money in that way,
could afrord to pay higher wages than those who
had. If it had been possible to enforce, such con-
tracts, what Canadian would have written
‘‘ Place us on an equal footing with New South
Wales, by giving us a share in those benefits.
which must, more or less, accrae from convict
labour ?".1 In vain have severe laws been passed
to enforce the observanee of such contracts by
the labourer, and to prevent sueh irnmigrants
from being empioyed except by those who had
paid for their immigration. It has been all so
thoroughly in vain, that the diffieuity, not to say
impossibility, of conducting immigration in this
way, seerns to be established.


To meet this difficulty, an ingenious writer in
the Quarterly Reviezot has prohosed to create a
colonial fund for the immigration of labour, by
means of a tax on wages. Thus the poor labourer


Suggestions on the propriety of re•introducing British
Convict Labour into British North America. By a Canadian,
1824.


t -Presume(' to be 111r. Powiett Serope.


THE ART OF COLONIZATION. 187


brought te the colony would repay the cost of
bis passage by a deduction from his wages ; and
the fund so raised would be employed in bringing
more labourers, who, in their turn, would repay
the cost of their passage, and provide a fund for
the immigration of other labourers. The prin-
cipie of this suggestion is excellent ; but is the
execution of it more practicable tiran the enforce-
rrient of contracts for service, which are based on
the same principie ? Unlcss the price of new land
were raised up to the piden mean, there would
be scarce any hired labour to tax ; scarce any
wages from which 'te rnake a deduction. But
supposing the peor irnmigrants should, during a
certain period, work for high wages, how is the
tax-gatherer to distinguish workmen, whose pas-
sage had been paid .for-them,-from those who had
paid for their own passage, or from those bern in
the colony ? If very severe laws llave failed to
bold immigrant labourers to their engagements,
what law could be devised that would induce
them te remain subject to a deduction from their
wages ? In a word, the scheme appears to be
impracticable.


This súbeme rnay have been suggestcd to its
author by the proposal of the Colonization So-
ciety*. Their proposal was, That, no waste land


* The number of the Quarterly Reuiew, in which this seheme
was proposed, appeared not long after the publication of A


Letter from Sydney ; in which the impossibility of holding ap-




188 THE ART OF COLONIZATION. THE ART OF COLONIZATION. 189


being disposed of by the government except by
public sale at a fixed upset price, all the purchase-
money should be employed in bringing poor la-
bourers to the colony. As labourers brought to
the colony in this way would in time, ninety-nine
out of a hundred of them, purchase land with
savings from their wages ; and as this deduction
from their wages would be employed to bring
more labourers, who, in their turn, would save
money and buy land, the proposal of the Society
play be said to be founded on the same principie
as the suggestion of the Quarterlq Review ;
namely, the repayment by the immigrant's labour
of the cost of his passage. But over that sugges-
tion thc proposal of the Society has sorne great
advantages, which 'will bccome manifest as we
examine the plan more closely.


1. This plan would be very easily carried into
effect. The experience of the United States shows,
that it is very easy to raise a fund by the sale of
waste land. Not to reckon how much larger the
fund raised in that way by thc United States
would be, if the price of new land were brought up
to the golden mean, and if no exceptional grantS
were made, the Americans do actually raise by
the sale of waste land near £700,000. a year.
What could be more easy than for the United
States to spend this income in fetching labour to
prenticed labourers to thcir engagements was explained at
length.


America ? We have only to suppose that Con-
gress should chuse to do this, and we suppose the
plan of the English Colonizatiort Society carried
into effect without any sort of difficulty.*


* The most simple method of laying out the Immigration
fund would, probably, be the formation of a Board of hurni-
gration, instructed to make open contracts with ship•owners
for the passage of labourers from Europe to America ; to the
amount in each year of the immigration fund obtained in the
previous year; and at a certain rate for each labourer landed
in good health at the port named in the contract. 'When the
English government first sent convicto to New South \Vales,
they used to contract with shipowners for the passage of con-
victs, at the rate of so much per head for the number embarked.
As the captain was to feed the convicto during their voyage, it
was for bis interest that they should be siekly, or that they
should die. Under these contracts, accordingly, half, and
sometimes two-thirds, of the inmates of a convict ship used to
die during the voyage. The punishment of transportation
was, in at least half the cases, the punishment of death. It
was not till this murderous system had been pursued for some
years, that the English government discovered the faulty na-
ture of those contracts. At present, the rate of mortality on
board convict ships is said to be lower than the rate of mor-
tality amongst the English nobility. How was this change
brought about ? Simply by contracting, instead of for the
number embarked, for the number landed in the colony. As the
captain or ship owner is now paid only for those who reach
their destination, it is greatly for • his interest to keep all the
passengers in good health. Contracts under which the ship-
owner was paid only for those who were landed in good health,
the state of each passenger's health being ascertained by me-
dical officers in the colony, would be a better security for the
well being of the immigrants during their passage, than all




190
THE ART OF COLONIZATION. THE ART OF COLONIZATION. 191


2. Pursuing this case, for the salce of more
ready illustration, the disposal of this fund in this
way would bring to the United. States in the first
year (reckoning the cost of each immigrant's pas-
sage to be 7.,) .100,000 labourers. But, as the
income, which the United States obtain by the
sale of waste land, has been steadily increasing
for years, along with the increase of people by
•births and immigration, so would that fund in-
orease anuda more rapidly, if each year's incorne
were employed in bringing to the United States
people who must othersvise have remained at
honre. The added labour of 100,000 persons in
one year would provide the means of purchasing
land to rneet the wants oía population so growing
in nurnbers ; would provide a fund for the next
year's immigration, corresponding with the ad-
ditional demand for labour arising from the in-
crease of capital, and of land the property of
individuals. According to the extent of land


would be the increase of demand for labour
wherewith to cultivate the new land ; and ac-
cording to the extent of land soid, would be the
amount of the fund for procuring fresh labour.
Supposing a fund for immigration to be got in
sorne other way than by the sale of new land ; as,
for example, by a tax in the old country, or by a
tax on wages in the colony, there would be no
those uilnute enaetments which the English , 'parliametit has
'nade .fop,the regulation of ernigrant ships.


measure for suiting the supply of labour to the
detnand. Too munir immigrant labour rnight be
introduced at one time, and too little at another.
If the supply were not in some way regulated by
the demand, all kinds of evils would ensue. Un-
less the supply were regular, unless those who
should become landowners were replaced
diately by new comers, the salve obstaeles would
exist, that exist now, to the commencement of
works which require the constant ernployment of
many hands ; and thus, when a great supply of
labourers should arrive, employment for them
might be wanting. Gluts of labour, arising from
uncertain immigration, do frequently happen in
Canada and the State of New York. The cause
of these gluts ís explained by Mr. Teárant ina
letter to Mr. Senior. He says—" 1 have con-
versed upon this point with capitalists both .of
Quebec and New York ; and 1 have often heard
them explain the circumstance in this way. Not-
withstanding; (say they) our having capital
wherewith to employ labour, we have found such
immigra.tions of labour a great ovil ; because
felt that it would. be impossible to-retain such
labour if we had hired it. Our capital was..ready
for many operations which require a considerable
period of time for their cOmpletion ; but we could
not begin such operations with labour which, we
knew,_would soon leave us. If we had been sure
of retaining the labour of such emigrants,. we




192 THE ART OF COLONIZATION. THE ART OF COLONIZA'fION. 193


should have been glad to have engaged it at once,
and for a high price : and we should have en-
gaged it, even though we had been sure it would
leave us, provided we had been sure of a fresh sup-
ply whenever we might need it.' " " From these
and other facts," says Mr. Tennant, " it may be
safely inferred, that the cause of the gluts of la-
bour in Canada and New York might be removed
by rendering the supply constant and regular ;
thus permitting a much greater supply in the
course of ten years, without distress, than has ever
yet taken place in a similar perioci with distress."
Now, by the plan of the Colonization Society, the
supply of labour must be constant and regular :
because, first, as no labourer would be able to
procure land until he had worked for money, all
irmnigrant labourers, working for a time for wa-
ges and in combination, would produce capital
for the employment of more labourers ; secondly,
because every labourer who left off working for
wages and became a landowner, would, by pur-
chasing land, provide a fund for bringing fresh
labour to the colony.


Still, it may be said, this rule for avoiding at
all times any glut of labour would be obtained,
even if the fund for itmnigration were raised
by the old country, provided no land were granted
save upon payment of the proper price ; because,
in that case, all labourers would be employed for
a time in creating capital for the employment of


more labourers, and thus the demand for fresh
labour in any given year would always be equal
to the supply of immigrant labour in the previous
year. Agreed ; but here there would be no rule
for a sufficient supply of labour : the evil of too
great a supply would be avoided, but not the evil
of too small. a supply ; because nothing would
show plainly to what extent the demand for labour
had increased. Nothing, at least, would show
this half so distinctly as the amount of land sold.
We might, indeed, regulate the supply of labour
by the amount of land sold, even if the labour
were brought by a fund raised out of the colony
that is, the old country might spend, on the emi-
gration of labour to the colony in one year, a
sum precisely equal to the sum raiséd in the pre-
vious year by the sale of colonial land. But the
object of so measuring one fund by the other
would be secured, as a mattcr of course, if the
whole fund obtained by the sales of land were
spcnt in procuring labour. One of the greatest
merits of this plan, therefore, seetns to consist in
its self-regulating action.


3. We have seen already,that itwould be greatly
for the advantage of a colony to put one price
upon all new land without exception, if merely
with a view to the increase of the first element of
wealth, land, in due proportion to the increase of
the other elements, capital and labour; that by
requirihg - this price, as a rule for the supply of


VOL. II.


o




194 THE ART OF COLONIZATION. THE ART OF COLONIZATION. 195


new land, the colonists, being sufficiently kept
together, would raise more produce, would get
higher profits and wages, would have more phy-
sical enjoyrnents, to say nothing of their escape
froin the moral evils of great dispersion ; and
that, consequently, it would be well to put the
best price upon all new land, even though the
money so raised should not be employed in any
useful way. Under the supposition of the money
being wasted, the buyer of land would pay for
justice and uniforrnity in the disposal of land,
and for a free choice as to the situation and extent
of bis grant ; he would pay also for the assurance
that no other could obtain land by favour, with-
out payment, for the certainty of not being under-
sold by landowners who had obtained their pro-
perty for nothing ; be would pay for all the
advantages of' that system, of which his indivi-
dual payment was a part. But if the money were
not wasted, he would pay, besides, though paying
no more, for whatever useful purpose the money
might serve. If the money wcre spent in pro-
curing labour, he would pay, not merely for his
title to the land bought, but also for justice and
uniforrnity in the disposal of new land, for a free
choice, for the value conferred upon all land by a
due concentration of the people, for a system
which must hinder ruinous fluctuations in the
value of land ; and further, he would pay for
labour wherewith to cultivate his land, for mar-


kets in which to sell the produce of that labour,
for population, which must render the whole of
his land subject to one or more of those higher
kinds of competition which lead to the payment
of rent. Nominally, he would receive for his out-
lay—land, or the title to hold and sell land : in
reality, he would obtain the land for nothing ;
paying for a great number of other things, with-
out any of which bis land might be worthless ;
along with all of which, it must, no sooner than
it was bought, be worth more than he had paid
for it. This paradox may be explained away in
a motnent. Mr. Peel, required to invest ls. 6d.
per acre on his grant of 500,000 acres, appeared
to pay 37,5001. for that tract of land. But be
made the investment, which was to secure his
title, in taking labourers to the settlement. Whe-
ther the government had bestowed the land on
the condition that the grantee should spend
37,0001. in conveying labourers to the settlement,
or had sold the grant for 37,0001., spending the
money in that way, would have been perfectly
indifferent : in either case, the grantee would
have paid, not for land, but for labour ; he would
have received the land for nothing, but subject to
the condition of buying, so much labour where-
with to cultivate it. The average cost of clearing
waste land in Canada and the northern parts of
the United States, is about 41. per acre. No land,




196
THE ART OF COLONIZATION. THE ART OF COLONIZATION. 197


it is plain, ought to be granted to remain un-
cleared. Now suppose that the government should
require 41. per acre for such land, using the
rnoney tú clear the land : in this case, for what
would the grantee pay ? not for the land, but for
having it cleared. So in the case before us, the
grantee would pay for the means of cultivating
his land, and for the value which that disposal of
his purchase money rnust bestow upon his land,
rather than for the land itself.


4. It follows that, in justice to all the buyers of
land, in order that the supply of labour should
correspond exactly with the quantity of land
granted, in order to give to all of the grantees
the greatest return for their purchase money, it
would be necessary to employ the whole of the
fund, obtained by sales of land, in fetchinglabour
to the colony. If any part of that fund were'em-
ployed in any other way, neither would there be
a rule for suiting the supply of labour to •the
demand, nor would the purchasers of land receive
as much as possible for their money. The neces-
sity, in order to make the system perfect, of
avoiding any exceptional disposal of this money,
is as clear as the necessity of refusing exceptional
grants for the salce of a good rule by which to
grant and withhold land. This will be still more
clear, when we shall look at the circutnstances
which would guille the government in fixing on


the best price for land ; a consideration reserved
till now, for the reason that will appear in the
next paragraph.


5. According to the value of the thing pur-
chased, ought to be the purchase-money. The land
bought would be more, much more, valuable, if
the purchase-money were employcd in adding to
the colonial population, than if it were used for
any other purpose whatever. By how much more
valuable we cannot determine exactly ; but this
is quite plain, that for land, of which all the pur-
citase money was devoted to the increase of colo-
nial population, a higher price miglit properly be
required than for land, of which the purchase-
money was wasted, or was used in any way less
calculated, than the use of it as an immigration
fund, to increase the value of land. Thus, in
America, those who last year paid 700,0001. for
new land, rnight, with greater advantage to them-
selves, have paid twice the amount, or 1,400,0001.
for the same extent of land, if the larger sum liad
been ernployed in . adding 200,000 sotas to the
population of the United States. Thus the
Canada Company, which has paid, or engaged to
pay, to the English government 304,0001; for
waste land in Upper Canada, might have paid
twice as much for the same land with greater
profit, if all their purchase money had been em-
ployed in adding to the population of the colony;*


* The money hitherto paid by this Company has been dis-




198 THE ART OF COLONIZATION.


THE ART OF COLONIZATION. 199


and if no land had been granted to other people
save for money, and all the money so obtained
had been employed in the same way. Let us
pose that by this ernployment of the purchase
money of new land, the cost of clearing land
were reduced frorn 41. to 21. per acre ; without
any fall of wages, merely from the greater facility
of ernploying many hands in combination. In
this case, whichl would be better for the Ameri-
can settler, to pay 4/. 5s. per acre for his land
when cleared, that is 5s. for the title and 4l. for
the clearing ; or to pay 2/. 10s. for the land when
cleared, that is 10s. instead of 5s. for the title,
and 2/. instead of 4/. for the clearing ? Like
illustrations of the advantage which the buyer
would derive from paying more, if his purchase
money were used in the way proposed, will occur
to every one. This, then, is a most important con-
sideration, with a view to deterinining the best
price for new land. SoMe others appear scarcely
less important.


To olear the land of wood, a certain amount of
labour per acre is required. The purchase-money
of the land, then, ought to be sulficient to pro-
vide such an addition to the labouring popula-
tion as would enable the proprietor to clear his


posed of in various jobs for some account of which, see the
evidence of Mr. Wilmot Horton, who helped to dispose of the
money, before the Committee of the House of Commons on
the Civil Government of Canada.


land, without causing a deficiency of labour in
any other part of the colony : it ought to be suf-
ficient to provide a fresh supply of labour, corres-
ponding with the new demand which the acqui:-
sition of so much new land had produced.


If the waste land were already clear of wood,
and naturally in a state fit for cultivation, as
throughout the plains of Buenos Ayres, the prai ries
of North America and great part of Australia;
the cost of clearing would be saved : the land
would be worth more, by the cost of clearing,
than land which required to be cleared. The
produce of any given amount of capital and
labour on the olear latid would be greater, or
would be got sooner, than the produce of the same
amount of capital and labour employed on thickly
wooded land. It would appear, therefore, that
for land clear by nature, a higher price might
properly be required than for thickly wooded
land ; a price higher by the cost of clearing. On
the same ground, we shall conclude that a higher
price might be required for land naturally rich
than for land naturally poor : and if all the land
in each colony were of the same quality, this
consideration might be a guide towards aseen-
taining the best price for each colony. But the
land of all countries is more or less of different
qualities ; and yet it is hand to learn with any
precision, concerning waste land, which pads
will prove, on being cultivated, more or less fer-




200 THE ART OF COLONIZATION. THE ART OF COLONIZATION. 201


tile. If this distinction could be made with prej-
eision, then might there be two or more prices
for land in the same colony, without any depar-
ture from the role of uniformity ; just as gold of
different degrees of fineness might, under one
standard, be made to pass for clifferent values.
But unible to rnake this distinction, how would
the government require for ella different portion
of land its proper price? how avoid requiring too
little for the rich land, or too much for the poor
land ? The following is one way, suggested by the
practice of the United States, by.which, it appears
to me, this object might he accomplished. Take
the richer land as the guide ; ascertain what would
be the best price if all the land were of the same
quality as the richer portions ; and let this be the
lowest upset price at which any land should be
sold. Then open the land to buyers. The first
buyers in any district would neglect the poorer
land, would select the richer lots ; which, being
put up to auction at the rninimum price, would
fetch whatever competition should determine.
Very soon, however, if the upset price of these
richer lots had been high enough, the poorer lots,
which liad been neglected, would acquire from
circumstances of position, from the neighbonr-
hood of roads and markets, from competition for
the use of land on other aceounts than on account
of superior natural fertility, a value equal to that
of the richer iots when they belonged to the


desert. By then, buyers would apply for those
poorer lots at the minimurn price ; and they
would be put up to auction, fetching the upset
price or whatever competition might determine.


In all cases there would be, though a general,
still ati unerring guide, by which to avoid re-
qUiring too high a price ; namely, the rates of
profit and wages in the colony. If these should
be falling, and it should be seen that the fall
arose from the competition of capital with capital
and of labourers with labourers, then might the
government see that the price required was too
high. If on the contrary, it were seen that the
fall arose from the less productiveness of capital
and 'abolir, in consequence of less skill in the
application of capital and labour, in consequence
of the weakness arising from greater dispersion,
then it would be plain that the price of new land
was not high enough. The most ignorant go-
vernment could hardly fail to distinguish between
these two mischievous alterat.ions in the propor-
tion amongst the elements of production; between
these two opposite causes of a fall in the rates of
profits and wages.


Though it appear difficult to say which would
be worse, so excessively high a price as should
inflict on the colony the evils of an old country,
or so excessively low a price as, along with per-
fect liberty of appropriation at that very low
price, would scatter the people so as to render




:11


202 THE ART OF COLONIZATION.


them poor and barbarous ; although there be
little room to chuse between there two ways of
stopping colonization, still on one ground it
would appear better to make the upset price too
low rather than too high. If it were made too
high, it could not be reduced without injustice
to those who had paid the highest price ; but if it
were too low, it might be raised, not only without
injustice to previous buyers, but with great advan-
tage to them. If the price were too high and
were gradually lowered clown to the golden
mean, there would be mischievous fluctuations
in the value of land : if the price, being too low,
were gradually. raised up to the golden mean,
there would be a constant increase, but no fine-
tuation, in the value of land. An important rule,
therefore, for getting at the best price, is to begin
with a price obviously too low ; taking tare,
however, that it be not so low as to defeat all the
objects with which any price is required.*


* The English government makes five shillings per acre
the upset price of waste land in New South Wales and Van
Diemen's Land. With perfect liberty of appropriation at this
price, it may be doubtcd whether the new plan, instead of
chccking, will not rather promote, the appropriation of more
latid than is good for the whole society. In those colonies,
the caution of the local governments in the disposal of new
latid, if that may be termed caution which liad a corrupt ob-
ject ; the exertion of their power in withholding new land, so
that they might exert their power in granting new latid with


THE ART OF COLONIZATION. 203


6. When the fund for removing people is pro-
vided by the rnother-country, the difference be-
tween the cost of a short and a long passage
naturally directs the stream of emigration to the
colonies which are nearest ; but if an immigra-
tion fund were provided by the sale of colonial
land at the proper price, colonies at a great
distance from their mother-country would be as
well supplied with labour as those which were
less distant. In that case, the only effect of the
difference between the cost of a short and a long
passage, would be a difference, not in the manner,
but in the rapidity, of colonization. For instante,
supposing the cost of passage from England to
Canada to be 71., and from England to Australia
to be 171., and that the price of new land in both
colonies were 11. per acre, the sale of 100 acres in
Canada would provide for the passage of 14 imrni-
grants, while the sale of 100 acres in Australia
would provide for the passage of all but 6 immi-
grants. A different proportion, then, between
land and people would exist in there two colonies.
But if the price of U. per acre, with 71. for the
cost of passage, should give the right proportion


advantage to their favourites, has operated as a restriction un
the appropriation of new land. This restriction is removed by
the plan of selling at a fix.ed price to all who apply ; and,
though this plan will put an end to injustice, it will, if the
price be too low, cause a worse, instead of a better, propor-
tion between latid and people.




204 THE ART OF COLONIZATION. THE ART OF COLONIZATION. 205


between land and people, then it would be clear
that, with 171. for the cost of passage, U. per
acre vas too low a price for new land. In order
that there should be, in the two colonies, one
proportion between land and people, it would be
necessary either to reduce the price of new land
in Canada, so that for each 100 acres sold there
should be only 6 immigrants, or to raise the price
of new land in Australia, so that there should be
14 immigrants for each 100 acres sold. We are
to presume, that in both cases the price of land
would be such as to maintain a due proportion
between land and people. If so, though the price
of land would be higher in the more distant
colony, that colony would be as well supplied
with labour as the nearer colony, as well supplied,
that is, in proportion to the demand for labour ;
colonization would go on as well as in the nearer
colony ; and the only difference would be, as the
result of greater distance and greater cost of
passage, that the waste land of the distant colony
would not be bought and cultivated quite so
Tápidly as that of the nearer colony.


This difference, however, would not be inevita-
ble in all cases. Cases might happen, in which
colonization should proceed as rapidly in the
more distant colony as in the nearer one. This
would happen if, the land of the two colonies
being of equal natural fertility, that of the nearer
colony were thickly wooded and that of the


more distant colony were already fit for cultiva-
tion ; as is actually the case with respect to
Canada and Australia. If waste land were sold
at the proper price in both colonies, a higher
price being required for the land which, being
clear of timber, was more valuable, then what
the more distant colony should save, in con-
sequence of her land being clear by nature,
would go to swell her irnmigration fund. The
difference might be so great as that the more
distant colony should have a greater immigration
fund, and a stronger power of attraction, than
the nearer colony.


7. Another part of the proposal of the Coloni-
zation Society remains to be examined. Sup-
posing the money obtained by the sale of land to
be spent on immigration, this fund ought, clearly,
to be spent in the most economical way ; in the
way, by which the good to be obtained by that
outlay should be as great as possible. If the
object were to procure, at the least cost, the
greatest amount of labour for itntnediate employ-
ment, it would appear, at first sight, that the
immigrants brought lo the colony ought to be,
all of them, males in the prime of life. But it is
only at first sight that this can appear ; because on
reflection it will be seen, that two men having to
perform each for himself all the offices that women
usually perform for men ; to cook his own vic-
tuals, to mend bis own clothes, to make his own




206 THE ART OF COLONIZATION. THF, ART OF COLONIZATION. 207


bed, to play the woman's part at home as well as
the man's part in the field or workshop ; it will
be seen, I say, that two men, each of whom should
be obliged so to divide his labour between house-
hold cares and the work of production, would
produce less than one man giving the whole of
his time, attention and labour, to the work of
production. If the two men should combine their
labour and divide their employments, one occu-
pying himself solely with household cares for
both, and the other solely with earning wages for
both, then might the produce of their united
labour be as great as that of one married man ;
but in no case could it be more. In new colonies,
men have often made this unnatural arrange-
ment ; because all modern colonies, at least, have
been founded by a number of men greatly


ex-
ceeding the number of women who accompanied
them. We need not stop to look at the moral
evils of this excess of males. Economically
speaking, it-seems quite plain, the poor immi-
grants brought to a colony by the purchase
money of waste land, ought to be men and
women equal numbers ; and if married, so
much the better.


If they were old people their labour would be
of little value to the colony ; not only because
it would soon be at an end ; but also because they
would be weak, and because they would not
readily turn their hands to new employments, to


employrnents very often quite different from those
in which they had worked from their childhood
to old age. In order that the poor immigrants
brought to a colony should be as valuable as
possible, they ought to be young people, whose
powers of labour would last as long as possible,
and who would readily turn their hands to new
kinds of work.


But would there be any objection to a mixture
of children ? To this there would be four objec-
tions. First, if the children were the offspring
of grown up immigrants, it would follow that
the latter were not of the best age ; that if old
enough to have children, they were too old to
come under the description of the ?nos/ valuable
labourers. Secondly, children are less fit than
old people, even, to undergo, the confinement and
other troubles of a long sea voyage.* Thirdly,


* To be convinced of this, let any one visit a ship full of
emigrants, in the Thames or the Mersey, bound to Canada.
He will find those who are parents, troubled and anxious, fear-
ful of accidents to their children, restless, starting at every
noise ; if paupers, glad to see their little unes stuffing themselves
with the ship's rations, dainties to them, poor little wretches,
who have plenty to eat for the first time in their lives ; if
paupers, looking back without affcction, and with hopo to the
future, but, being parents, with apprehension lest in the distant
and unknown land of promise, the children should suffer more
than they have endured at borne. He will see the children, if
paupers, delighted at meal times, smiling with greasy lips, their
eyes sparkling over the butcher's meat, but, at other times,




208 THE ART OF COLONIZATION. THE ART OF COLONIZATION. 209


when children first reach a colony, they necessarily
incumber somebody. Fourthly, they cannot for
some time be of any use as labourers : they can-
not produce capital wherewith to at.tract and
employ other labourers. To whatever extent,
then, the colonial fund should be employed in
bringing children, instead of grown up people,
the value received by the colony for its outlay
would be less than need be. By bringing none
but young grown up persons, the maximum of
value would be obtained for any giren outlay.


But this is not all. The greatest quantity of
labour would be obtained more easily than a less
quantity. The natural time of marriage is a time
of change, when two persons, just united for life,
must, nearly always, seek a new home. The na-
tural time of marriage too is one, when the mind
is most disposed to hope, to ambition, to under-


sick of the confinement, tired of having nothing to do, wanting
a play-place, always in the way, driven from pillar to post, fret-
ful, quarrelsorne, thoroughly unhappy, and exposed to serious
accidents. Those emigrants, on the contrary, who are neither
parents nor children, young men and women without any in-
cumbrance ; these he will fiad quite at their case, enjoying the
luxury of idleness, pleased with the novelty of their situation,
in a state of pleasurable excitement, building castles in the air,
glorying in the prospect of independence, thanking God that
they are still without children, and, if he knows how to make
them speak out, delighted to talk of the new country, in whicl,
as the),


have heard, children, instead of being a burthen, are the
greatest of b]essings.


takings which require decision and energy of pur-
pose. Marriage produces greater anxiety for the
future, and a very strong desire to be better off
in the would for the salce of expected offspring. Of
what class are composed those numerous streams
of emigrants, which flow continually from the
eastern to the outside of the western states of
America, by channels longer and rougher than the
sea-way from England to the eastern states ? Not
of single men, nor of old people, nor of middle-
aged parents dragging children along with them,
but, for the most part, of young couples, just
married, seeking a new home, fondly assisting
and encoiiraging each other, strong in healt.h and
spirits ; not driven from their birth-place by fear
of want, but attracted to a new place, by the love
of independence, by a sentiment of ambition, and
most of all perhaps, by anxiety for the welfare of
children to come. This, then, is the class of peo-
ple, that would be most easily attracted to a
colony by high wages, and still better prospects.
Others would be willing to come if, the old
country co-operating with the colony, all in the
old country were well informed of the advan-
tages of emigration : but these would be the most
willing ; these would be, not merely willing, but
anxious to come.


Of however, there might not exist in an
.old country a sufficient number- to meet the colo-
nial demand for labour. For example, if the


VOL. II.




210 .THE ART OF COLONIZATION. THE ART OF COLONIZATION. 211


United States should propose to lay out 1,400,0001.
a year in bringing young couples from Ireland,
this would produce a demand for 100,000 young
Irish couples ; but in Ireland there are not so
many as 100,000 couples of the same age. There
are not, perhaps, in Ireland more than 60,000
grown up young couples who were bora in the
same year. As the constant emigration of áll, or
may-be of half, the couples, who every year reach
the age of puberty, must very soon depopulate
any country, we may be sure that a portion only
of this class would ever be disponed to ernigrate.
Whenever a number sufficient to meet the colo-
nial demand for labour should not be disponed to
emigrate, it would be right to offer a passage cost
free to couples older by one, two or three years,
but always giving a preference to those who had
most lately reached the age of puberty. Indeed,
as to those of the best possible age, we can only
say that it would be right to give them a pre-
ference.


Supposing all the people brought to the colony
with the parchase-money of waste land to be
young men and women, in equal numbers, let us
see what the effect would be on the colonial po-
pulation. At the, end of twenty years after the
foundation of Virginia, the number of colonists
was about 1800 ; though, during the twenty years,
near 20,000 persons had reached the settlement.
This rapid decrease of population was, as I have


endeavoured to show elsewhere,* owing chiefly to
the misery of the colonists ; but it was partly
owing, also, to this ; that of the 20,000 immi-
grants a very small proportion only consisted of
females. So that, even if the colony had pros-
pered from the beginning, the number of colonists
would probably have been less at the end of
twenty years than the number of immigrants
during that period. The settlement of New
South Wales has so far prosperad from the begin-
ning, that no one has ever found it difficult to
maintain a family : yet the population of the co-
lony is nothing like as great as the number of
immigrants. But why ? simply because, of those
persons, by far the greater number were men, and
that, of the women, who composed the smaller
number, tnany were past the age of child-bearing.
Had those persons consisted of men and women
in equal proportions, but of a middle age, the
population of the colony might not have been
much greater than it is ; but if they had consisted
entirely of young couples, who had just reached
the age of puberty, the population of the colony
would have advanced with surprising rapidity.
Reckoning the number of inmigraras in each
year at 2,000, there seem to be grounds for be-
lieving+ that, if all these had been young couples


See Note X.
t Amongst these &rounds are the very healthy climate of


New South Wales, and the great feeundity of women in that




212 THE ART OF COLONIZATION. THE ART OF COLONIZATION. 213


just arrived at the age of puberty, the population
of the colony would by this time have amounted
to nearly 500,000, instead of its actual amount,
less than 50,000 ; that the progress of population
and we may add, of colonization, would have
been ten times as great as it has been, with the
same outlay for bringing people to the colony.
At present too, the proportion of young people in
New South Wales is rather under than over the
usual cate; whereas, in the supposed case, the
proportion of young people would have been very
much greater than it has ever been in any human
society. According, of course, to this great pro-
portion of young people would have been the
prospect of future increase. If all the people who
have removed from Europe to America had been
young eouples, just arrived at the age of puberty,
slavery in North America must long since have
died a natural death : no part of North America,
no part of South America,-* perhaps, would have
been opon for colonization. Considering what
must, almost inevitably, have happened in this-


country. Mr. Cunningham states that in the settlement of
Bathurst Plains, a new colony, west of the Blue Mountains, only
one natural death occurred in tweive years.


* As it is, there are some reasons for expecting that South
America, where the greatest pains have been taken to disperse
the people, and render them as barbarous as the Indians, will be
colonized over again by emigrants from the north, who, kept
together by the density of the natural forest, have preservad
the power of civilization.


case, it seems hand to ovcrraté the advantages
within reach of the United States, by means of
colonizing their waste territory in the way
proposed.


In any colony, the immediate cfrect of selecting
young couples for immigration would be to dimi-
nish very much the ordinary cost of adding to the
population of the colony. The passage of young-
couples would not cost more than that of any
other class, or of all classes mixed ; but, along
with the young couples, the colony would obtain,
at the ordinary cost, the greatest possible germ
of future increase. The settlers in New South
'Vales who, in the course of a few years, have
made that colony to swarm with sheep, did not
import lambs or old sheep ; still less (lid they
import a large proportion of rams. They have
imported altogether a very small number of sheep,
compared with the vast number now in the co-
lony. Thcir object was the production in the
colony of the greatest number of sheep by the
importation of the least number, or, in other
words, at the least cost ; and this object they ac-
complished by selecting for importation those
aniinals, which, on account of their sex and age,
were fit to produce the greatest number of young
in the shortest time. If a like selection were
made of the persons to be brought to a colony
with the purchase-money of waste land, the land
bought, it is evident, would become as valuable




214 THE ART OF COLONIZATION. THE ART OF COLONIZATION. 215


as it could ever beeome, inuch more quickly tha.n
if the immigrants should be a mixture of persons
of all ages. In the formen case, not only would
the immigrants be, all of them, of the most valu-
able class as labourers, but they would be of a
class fit to produce the most rapid increase of
people in the colony ; to create as soon as pos-
sible in places now desert a demand for food, for
the raw materials of manufactures, for aceommo-
dation land and for building ground. The buyer
of new therefore,I,vould have his purchase-
money laid out for him in the way best of all cal-
culated to be of service to bina. It would be well
to consider this, in seeking to determine the pro-
per price for new land, of which the purchase-
money was to be- thus laid out for the greatest
advantage of the purehaser.


It must be seen, further, that if the immigra-
tion t'uncí were laid out in this way, the progres-
sive increase of that fund, by means of the in-
crease of people wanting land, would be much
more rapid than if the immigrants brought to the
colony were of all ages mixed. By adopting, this
mode of immigration, all the means of coloniza-
tion would be used with their greatest possible
e ffe c t.*


* By the importunity of some membcrs of the Colonization
Society, the English government was induced to adopt this prin-
cipie of colonization. While their Board of Emigration was
sitting in Downing Street, a mere mime for want of funds,


The moral advantages of such a selection of
immigrants would not be few. Each female would


they were persuaded to devote the money obtained by the sale
of waste land in New South \Vales and Van Diemen's Land to
the sending of poor females to those colonies. It was high
time to do something towards correcting the disproportion be-
tween the sexes which exists in those colonies. Several ship
loads of poor females have, in this way, been provided with a
passage to the penal settlements. But with what result ? The
number of female immigrants is not, by any means, sufficieut
to cause an equal proportion between the sexes. So long as
the proportion shall remain unequal, all females, not protected
by a higher station, must be subject to a kind of persecution
which one need not describe. It is enough to say, that the
government, sending so few, has sent a certain number of
women from England to becorne prostitutes in Australia.
While the government was sending these women, it sent, side
by sitie with these women, though not in the same ships, a
greater number of men; as if determined to miss the object
with Nvhich the women were sent. At first, the colonial office
declared in print, that the passage of the women was to be
paid for with the money obtained by selling waste land. This
was acknowledging a new and important principie. Whether
alarmed at finding themselves connected with something new
and important, something not common-place, something out of
the routine of office ; or whether they discovered that the
fund to be obtained by selling waste land would be very hancly
for their own private purposes ; with what motive I know not;
but by a new regulation of the colonial office, it is declared
that the cost of sending women to the penal settlements will
be defrayed out of the colonial revenue. Thus the fund obtained
by the sale of waste 'and has been carried to the governor's
ttecount ; and the principie of using that fund for hringing
labour to the colony has been abandonad. Mr. Wilmot Hor-




216 THE ART
COLONIZATION. THE ART OF COLONIZATION. 217


have a special protector from the moment of her
departure from home. No man would have any
excuse for dissolute habas. All t.hc evils, which
have so aten sprung from a disproportion be-
tween the seres, would be avoided. Every pair
of immigrants would have the strongest motives
for industry, steadiness and thrift. In a colony
thus peopled, there would scarcely ever be any
single men or single women : nearly the whole
population would consist of married men and
:Nomen, boys and girls, and children. For many
years, the proportion of children to grown up
people would be greater than was ever known
since Shetn, Ham and Japhet were surrounded
by their little ones. The colony would be an
iuunense nursery, and, all being at case without
being scattered, would offer the finest opportu-


ton used to contend, that whatever " the crown" might obtain
by the sale of waste land was the property of " the crown ;"
and that touching the disposal of it, no one liad any business
to enquire, any more than about the disposal of secret service
money voted by parliament. The change has taken place
since Lord Howick, who in parliament thought fit to acknow-
ledge the services of the Colonization Society, gavie up the
" Australian department" of the colonial office to bis colleague
Mr. Hay; once the colleague of Mr. Horton, and always, if
I am not greatly mistaken, one of that party, whom the
Standard newspaper calls " the Peel and Dawson crew." If
Mr. Hay be the author of this change, bis motives for bring-
ing ít about may, perhaps, be discovered in a correspondence
printed in the Appendix, No. 3.


nity that ever occurred, to see what may be done
for socicty by universal education. That must
be a narrow breast in which the last considera-
tion does not raise some generous emotion.


This is the way in which the Colonization So-
eiety proposed that the purchase money of waste
land should be employed. The sum of the mea-
su res suggested by them, having regard to the
objects and means of the colonies alone, is : The
sale of all waste land by public auction ata fixed
upset price, with the most perfect liberty of appro-
priation at that price : and the employment of the
whole of the fund so obtained in bringing people
to the colony ; a preferente being always given
to young cou pies who have just reached the age of
puberty. How the mother-country, the country,
that is, from which the immigrants should come,
might usefully co-operate with the colony, retnains
to be considerad.


CO-OPERATION OF THE MOTHER-COUNTRY.


The subject has been thus divided for two rea-
sons ; first because, as observad already, it was
more convenient to take . a colonial view of means
which exist in the colony ; secondly, in orden to
show clearly, without any long explanation, that
under a good system of colonization, by what-
ever government administered, people would be
drawn to the colony, not driven from the mother-
country. By examining the subject in this way,




218 THE ART OF COLONIZATION.- THE ART OF COLONIZATION. 219


any one may see distinctly, that the advantage of
those who shall remove from the mother-country
is a necessary condition of emigration ; that emi-
gration to any considerable extent could not take
place without benefit to the emigrants. This,
however, is not the general impression in Eng-
land. A different impression has been made on
the English vulgar, high and low. Never having
heard of emigration, save, according to Mr. Wil-
mot Horton's views, as a means of relief from the
pressure of the poor's-rate, they have supposed
that, whether or not the object were attained, the
poor ernigrants rnust be chiven away for the good
of those who should remain behind, instead of
being drawn away for their own good. This im-
pression, which renders the word emigration dis-
tasteful to the English, seems to have been caused
by three circumstances in particular.


First. By various attempts to raise in the
mother-country a fund for pauper emigration, not
the good of the emigrants, but that of the subscri-
bers to the fund, was made prominent. Thus,
when the government advanced 60,0001. for
sending some poor people to Canada, it was sup-
posed that the government wished to get rid of
those people, not for their sake, but for the sake
of those to whom the people were a burthen. So
also, when Lord Howick brought a bill into par-
liament for cnabling parishes to raise an emigra-
tion fund by 111Ortgaging their poor's-cate, the


advantage, not of the paupers, but of the rate-
payers, was supposed to be bis object. II the
money employed in the first case had been pro-
vided under the name of a grant to Upper Canada,
for supplying that colony with labour, the Eng--
list) government would have appeared to consult,
not its own advantage but that of the colony ;
and the advantage of the poor emigrants, the.
certainty of their obtaining high wages, would
have been set in a prominent light : the low and
high vulgar would have seen that labour was
wanted in the colony : and thus it would have
appeared, not that the emigrants were driven
from borne, but that they were invited to another
place. As it was, the simple truth, that when, in
the natural progress of colonization, people quit
their birth-place, they must necessarily be in-
vited by the prospect of advantage to thernselves ;
this evident truth was kept out of view ; and in
its room an impression was made that the poor
emigrants might suffer by their removal.


Second y. Undcr the experimenta in pauper
emigration made by the English governrnent,
poor ernigrants have suifered by their removal.
To say nothing of what happened to the poor
people whom the English government sent to
South Africa, the poor people whom they sent to
Canada suffered great privations and hardships.
They consisted of families, men, women and
swarms of ehildren ; and, what is more important,




220 THE ART OF COLONIZATION. THE ART OF COLONIZATION. 221


instead of being allowed to proceed in a natural
course, that is, to remain in the settled parts of
the colony, working for wagcs, getting assistance
when required from their ernployers and neigh-
bours, and learning by degrees how to settle in
the forest ; instead of this, thcy were planted at
once beyond the settled parts of the colony, in
the midst of the forest, far apart from ea.ch other,
without experience, assistance or advice ; and
even without houses in which to shelter their
families. Those English paupers, becoming sud-
denly colonial landlords, not hardened to the
climate, placed on new land where ague generally
prevails, not accustomed to use the hatchet, which
is the first tool used by a settler ; thus placed,
libe fish out of water, they suffcred from heat,
cold and wet, from sickness, from wounds, and
finally from a sentirnent of despair. Not a few
of the children died. The misery which these
pool people suffered, though great pains were
taken to conceal it by the author of the experi-
ment, becarne known in England ; and thus a
well-founded prejudice was created against emi-
gration ; well-founded, that is, as against this
sort of emigration.* But along with a dislike to


The absurdity of Mr. Wilmot Horton's seherne for locating
English paupers in the fbrests of Canada was exposed by the
Colonization Society ; and in the emigration bill which Lord
Howiek soon afterwards brought luto parliament, the natural


this sort of emigration, there arose, as might
have Leen expectcd, a dislike to all emigration.


Thirdly. The English government goes out of
its way to strengthen in the common people their
natural sense of the evils of emigration. As it is
painful to quit for ever the country of one's birth
and one's affections, so is emigration necessarily
attended with some evil ; but this evil, it is plain,
will never he incurred voluntarily, that is, if there
be no sort of interference by government, with-
out so much good as turns the scale in favour of
emigration. The balance of the account must
necessarily be in favour of the voluntary emigrara.
But what says the English governtnent? While
Lord Howick was vainly begging the house of
commons to pass bis emigration bill, iinploring
tbem to mend the condition of the peasantry in
the south of England, to prevent another insur-
rection of that class by enabling SOITle of thern to
rernove to the colonies ; at this very time, the
judges at Winchester and elsewhere, addressed
language to the following effect to peasants con-
victed of rioting for better wages : —Unhappy
men I your crime is enormous, and your punish-
ment must begTeat. The sentence of the law is,
that you be transportad beyond seas for the term
of your natural lives. You are going to a far


mode of pauper emigration was adopted ; that of allowing
poor labourcrs to be attracted by the high wages of the colony.




222 THE ART OF COLONIZATION. THE ART OF COLONIZATION. 223


country ; to a country so far off, that neither
will you ever hear of those whom you love best,
nor svill they ever hear of you. Though the lace
cloes not permit me to pass on some of you the
sentence of transportation for life, still 1 can
assure such of you, that you will never be afile
to return. You may Nave heard from wicked
men like yourselvcs, that it is a fine country ; and
you may expect to do well there. But oh, un-
happy prisoners ! you will suffer all the pain of
being for ever banished from the country of your
birth and your affections. May God, in bis
merey, give you fortitude to bear so dreadful a
punishment, which however is no more than your
atrocious crime deserves.--llereupon, some of
the prisoners, single mera who had, indeed, heard
that New South Wales is a very fine country, and
that they could hardly fail to do ‘vell there ; these
put their tongues hito their cheeks, and set the
judge at defiance. But the wives and children
of the others shed tears, shrieked or fainted ;
and all through those rural districts there was
weeping and lamentation. These are the dis-
tricts in which, especially, it was intended. that
Lord Howiek's bill should be of use ; districts in
which, amongst the class who were to be per-
suade, to emigrate, a strong impression had been
made, that emigration is the greatest punishment
next to death. Are we, then, to be surprized
that the English generally should look upon


every attempt by their government to p•omote
emigration as an attempt to hurt the emigrants ?
So long as criminals shall be punished by trans-
portation, there must necessarily exist in England
a strong prej trence against any interferente by the
government for promoting emigration.


But why should the government of an old
country ever undertake to promote emigration
from-that country, when all the ends, which an
old country seeks in colonization, may be reached
by promoting inunigration to her colonies ?
Whether the colony be dependent or independent,
all that the government of the mother-country
has to do at home for promoting colonization, is
to take care that the poorer class at borne be well
inforrned of the advantages of going to a colony ;
taking care also that the necessary ovil of going
from home be not made to appear greater than
it is, tlirough forcing people to emigrate by
way of punishment. It would be very easy, in-
deed, supposing either that there was co-operatiori
between the old country and the colony, or that
both were under the sarne government, to kcep
the poorer class in the old country well infor-
med of the advantages of going to a colony. The
great emigration from England which took place
last year, was caused mainly by the publication of
letters from poor emigrants to their friends in
England.* But in order that such letters should


Thousands, probably, were indueed to emigrate by reading




224 THE ART OF COLONIZATION. THE ART OF COLONIZATION. 225


be published, it is necessary that they should be
writ.ten and received. Why not, in orden to pro-
¡note the receipt of sudh letters among the poorer
class in the mother-country, allow pool. emigrants,
du ring sorne years after their arrival in the colony,
to send letters by the post, but free of postage, to
the friends whom they liad left behind ; just as, in
many countries, soldiers are allowed this privilege?
'ro such an arrangement there appears no obstacle
that tnight not be got over with verylittle trouble.*
In this way, not only would the necessary evil of
going to a colony be diminished; that is, the emi-
grantsl,vould depart with the pleasant assurance
of being able to communicate with their friends
at borne ; but the poorer class in the mother-
country would always hear the truth as to the
prospects of emigrants ; and not only the truth,
but truth in svhich they would not suspect any
falsehood. The statements as to the high wages
obtainable in the English colonies lately published
by a board of emigration sitting in Downing


one publication of this sort ; a collection of letters from poor
emigrants, printed and circulated by one of the best friends of
the English poor, and we may add of the rich, Mr. Poulett
Scrope.


An officer at the colonial port might gire to each poor
immigrant a certificate, which should authorise post•masters
throughout the colony to frank letters for the mother-country
that were brought to a post-office by the bearer of the cer-
tificate.


Street, though perfect.ly trae, llave not been re-
ceived with implicit faith by the harassed and
therefore- suspicious class to whom they were
a.ddressed ; nor would any statements made by
the government ever obtain so much credit as
letters frotn the emigrants thetnselves. In this
way, moreover, the attracti ve power of the colony
would be ¡nade apparent to the high vulgar of
the mother-country ; and those preachers would
be silenced, whose text is, " Dwell in the land
and verily ye shall be fed.".


WTith respect to the mother- country, two points
remain to be examine(' ; first, the effect of the
proposed selection of emigrants in producing
relief from excessive numbers ; secondly, the
means by which the overfiowing capital ofan old
country might find secare and profitable em-
ployment through this system of colonization.


First—If it be true that 125,000 persons emi-
grated from Great Britain and Ireland last year,
still this abstraction of people has not cause(' the
Ieast perceptible relief from excessive numbers.
That great body of emigrants consisted of a
mixture of all classes ; masters and servants, old
and young. The poorest class was componed, in
great rneasure of families, men, wornen and
children, for whom a passage was provided by
their parishes, with a view to get rid of them.
By the removal of the children, nothing was taken
from the present market of English labour ; nor


VOL. 11.




226 THE ART OF COLONIZATION. THE ART OF COLONIZATION. 227


indeed by the removal of any but workmen. Of
these last, the number removed were too small
for any effect on wages. The only effect of their
removal was to make room for others quite ready-
to take their place. But if this great body of
emigrants had consisted entirely of workmen and
their wives, it seems probable that considerable
relief would have been obtained from excessive
numbers ; that more room would have been
made than could have been immediately filled by
other workmen. The conscription in France,
during the late war, did not, perhaps, carry off
so many workmen, year by year, in proportion to
the then population of France, as the proportion
which 60,000 bears to 24,000,000: yet it cer-
tainly had the effect of keeping the supply of
labour so much within the dernand, that the con-
dition of the labouring class in France was, during
the war, very comfortable compared with what
it has been since the peace. Une of the causes
of Napoleon's great popularity was the easy state
of the labouring class in France during his reign :
one of the causes of the late revolution in France
was the uneasy state of the working class who
effected that revolution : and the miserable state
of that class, in the greater part of France at this
time, leaves but small pope that the revolution
which they effected will be of any service to them.
In France, the working people now say, com-
monly :—Oh! if we could get back Napoleon we


should soon be better off.—Without knowing it,
they want so much war as should again cause the
fields to be tilled by women. If, for every young
man carried off by Napoleon's wars, a young wo-
man also had been carried off, though the imme-
diate effect on the state of the working class would
have been the same, the conscription would have
had a more lasting effect on the condition of the.
working class. Millions, perhaps, who have been
born in France since 1814, would not have been
born there ; and thus, though many would have
lived, who have been born to die since 1814, if
not of hunger, of disease produced by all sorts of
privations, still the good effect of the conscrip-
tion inight have lasted till now. These consi-
derations will direct us to a right estimate of the
influence, which a proper selection of emigrants
would have on the population of a country like
England.


It has been reekoned,* that in England the
number of marriages which take place in a year
is in the proportion of 1 to about 134 souls. As-
suming this calculation to be right, and the po-
pulation of England to be 14,000,000, the yearly
number of marriages in England is 104,4771.
Whatever would be the effect on population of


* See Professor M'Culloch's Note on Population, in bis
edition of the Wealth of Nations, which is full of valuable in-
formation on this subject.




221 THE ART OF COLONIZATION. THE ART or COLONIZATION. 2»9


preventing all the marriages, would be the effect
of removing all -svho were about to marry. The
removal, therefore, of about 209,000 persons every
year for a few years would very soon depopulate
England. But this effect would occur through
the removal of a much smailer nurnber. It would
occur by the yearly removal of all who in each
year should reach the age of puberty. How
many persons in England every year reach the
age of puberty has never bcen calculated. But
it is reckoned, that the yearly births are, to the
whole population, in the proportion of 1 to about
31. Taking the yearly births, then, to be
451,61231, or for round nurnbers 450,000, and
assuming that not aboye one third of these, or
150,()00, reach the age of puberty, it appears,
that England tnight soon be depopulated by the
yearly abstraction, for solee years, of a number of
persons not rnuch greater than the number who
did actually etnigrate last year. Supposing the
emigration of each of these persons to cost 71.;
the cost of entirely depopulating England would
be a yearly outlay, for sorne years, of 1,050,0001. ;
very little more by the year than a seventh part
of the English poor's-rate ; not much more than
the supposed cost of emigration from Great Bri-
tain and Ireland during the last year. But there-
is a way by which, with a still stnaller yearly
outlay, England might be depopulated : by taking
away every year a number of young couples suf-


fteient to reduce the whole number in after years ;
so that the number of young couples would, in
time, be reduced to 'one. Supposing that this
might be effected, though not so quickly as if all
were removed, by rernoving every year half of
the young couples - who had in that year réached
the age of puberty, filen might England be de-
popniated by the yearly removal for some years
of 75,000 persons, ata yearly cost of 525,0001.
The question, however, is, not how might Eng-
land be depopulated, but what is the smallest
proportion of young couples, whose yearly re-
moval would prevent any hurtful increase of the
population of a country like England ; would put
the bulle of the people at case; enabling all to
marre when nature should prompt them to mar-
riage ; preventing the death of many through
want ; ami giving full. effect to the principie of
population.


Still this question is not of much, perhaps it is
not of any, practica! importante. By the pro-
posed selection of emigrants, all that could be
done would be done, towards procuring relief from
excessive nmnbers ; and in no event could too
many people be removed ; because when relief
from excessive numbers was obtained, emigration
would stop, until the prospect of misery from
excessive numbers should again render the evil
of quitting honre less than that of retnaining at




230
THE ART OF COLONIZATION.




THE ART OF COLONIZATION. 231


110


By the proposed selection of emigrants, more-
over, as the greatest quantity of relief from ex-
cessive numbers would be cornprised in the
removal of the least number of people, the maxi-
mum of goocl from emigration would be obtained,
not only with the minimurn of cost, but what is
far more important, with the minimutn of painful
feelings. All that old people and young children
suffer more than other people from a long voyage
would be avoided. 'fhose only would remove,
who were already on the move to a new honre :
those only, to whom, on account of their youth
and animal spirits, separation from birth-place
would be least painful ; those only, who had just
formed the dearest connection, and one not to be
severed, but to be made happy, by their removal.
And this, the least degree of painful feeling, would
be suffered by the smallest possible number of
people.


To make this selection, no interferente would
be required from the government of an old
country. Supposing the attractive power of the
colony applied to the immigration of young
couples, tiren ship-owners and others, who had
contracted with the colonial government for
bringing young couples to the colony,would make
known in the mother-country, that they were
ready to convey to the colony, free of cost, persons
of that description, but not of any other descrip-
tion. Suppose that a young single man should


apply for a passage ; he would be told that for the
passage of a single man t.here was no fund, but
that t.here was a fund for the passage of a married
man and bis wife ; that whenever he should picase
to return with a young wife, they might both go
to the colony cost free. Can it be doubt.ful that
he would soon return with a young wife ? The
experiment has been thus far tried ; that when,
last year, the South Australian Land Company
received applications for a passage to New Hol-
land, from young single men out of work, and
answered, " Yes, if you get married, and for your
wife also," the common reply was," So much the
bctter ;" with a snap of the fingers, a laugh, or
swimming oyes, that spoke more than the words.*
In order that this selection should be made with-
out any difficulty, all that would be required from
the government of an old country is, that it should
be so good as to do nothing ; that it should have
sense enough to abstain from meddling with the
attractive power of the colony.


Secondly—There are two ways in which this
system of colonization seems calculated to give
secare and profitable employment to the over-
fiowing capital of a mother-country.


* Whoever persuaded Lord Goderich to depart from bis cn-
gnetnent with this company, little knows how lunch batel-
disappointmcnt he occasioncd. 13ut what are the hopes of
paupers to secrctarics of state ?




223 THE ART OF COLONIZATION.


In the first place, it is clear that, to whatever
extcnt this system was pursued, the colonies
would be more extensive; that under this system,
they would be extended as rapidly as possible ;
and that as every new colony, or increase of an
old one, woulcl be the extension of an old society
to a new place ; as the colonists would produce
more with the same number of hands than co-
lonists have ever produced, and would retain the
habits and wants of their mother-country ; so
would this mode of colonizat ion very rapidly in-
crease the markets in which the inother-country
might buy raen produce and cheap corn with
manufactured goods. One end of colonization
being to enlarge the field for employing capital
and labour within the mother-country, that great
object would be obtained most easily and most
quiekly by these means of colonization.


But, in the next place, in orden that this most
useful proeess should begin as soon as possible,
colonies already established, might require some
assistance, not from the government, but from
the capitalists of the mother-country. Suppose
that the Amcricans, having resolved to dispose of
their fund, obtained by the sale of waste land, in
bringing labour to the United States, should, with
a view to the extinetion of slavery, with a view
to obtaining immediately a sutficient snpply of
free labour, be willing to anticipate that fund ?
to borrow money on that security ? Could


THE ART OF COLONIZATION.
233


better security for overflowing English capital be
readily imagined ? In this way, capital which is
now lying idle in England, or is about to fly off,
taking no labour with it, would fly off, indeed,
but only for a time, and would take with it, or
draw after it, a corresponding amount of surplus
labour. We have only to suppose, farther; that
in Canada, South Africa and Australia, the Ame-
rican plan of selling land had been adopt.ed with
improvements ; we have only to supposé, in short,
that the legislature of England had attcncled to
this subject, and we suppose the opening of these
more great fields for the secare and profitable
einployinent of English capital in the work of
colonization.


The enlargement of the field, however, need
not stop here. Wliile a portion of the capital
of the motlier-country was employed in antici-
pation of the sales of waste land, other portions
would be employed in the purchase of waste land.
Immense capitals, belonging to people in the
castern states of America, are constantly employed
in the purchase of new land on the western fron-
tier, and invariably, I believe, with proa to the
capitalists. The proa of such purchases would
be much more certain, and would be obtained
much sooner, in a colony where no new land was
obtainable save by purchase, and where all the
purchase-money of new land was employed in
bringing selected labourers to the colony. How




234 THE ART OF COLONIZATION.


great and rapid might be the profit of such un-
dertakings, may be partly conceived from the
success of the Ganada Companw, of whose pro-
ceedings a brief summary appears below.*. This
company bought land of the government, with-
out any assurance that land would not be given
for nothing to othcr people; and the money
which they have paid to the government has been
wasted ; all of it in sorne way, most of it in
sharneful jobs. Nearly all the great and success-
ful purchases of waste land in the


-United States,
are conducted by companies residing in the eas-
tern towns• This kind of investment seems
peculiarly suite(' to companies. The whole ope-
ration consists of paying and receiving money;
paying a small sum, waiting, and then receiving
a large surn. The time for waiting would be very
short, if all the money paid viere ernployed in
adding to the colonial population, according to
a fixed rule, and so that the greatest amount of


'1 Nominal capital, 1,000,0002.
Capital actually invested, 151,5551.
Dividend of 4 per cent. per annum, rcgularly paid.


Assets of the company (December 1802) : lst. Bilis given by
purchasers of their land, bearing interest at 6 per cent., with
payment by instalments effectually secured, 113,0251. 2nd.
Land paid for by the company, but not yet sold, including the
tocan lots of Guelph and Goderich, 460,000 acres cstimated at
15s. per acre, or 345,0001. 3d. Land remaining to be paid
for, 1,659,000 acres, at the 1-ate of 2s. 10d. per acre, estimated
to sell for 15s, per acre or 1,243,5001.


THE ART OF COLONIZATION.
235


population was added at the least cost. It would
be difficult for eornpanies to make any serious
blunder : scarce any thing would be left to the
neglect of agents ; for there would be scarce any-
thing to do : and, lastly, a company by the em-
ployrnent of a large capital might take so much
land, in one lot, or block, as would insure the
formation of a tocan on their property ; not by
them, but by others for their good. Becoming
the proprietors of a large extent of land, there
would necessarily occur upon sorne parts of their
property those kinds of competition for the use
of land, over and aboye competidora for land of
superior natural fertility, which leal to the pay-
ment of rent : every sale by them would add to
the value of land adjoining that which had been
sold ; and the whole business of selling might be
conducted by one or two agents of common in-
telligence. To show how great and how sure
would be the profit of such investments, under
the proposed system of colonization, I have col-
lected a nutnber of facts, which establish that,
even noca, wherever people congregate, new land
invariably rises in value soon after it becomes
private property.* All surplus capital invested
in this way would, of course, take off with it a
corresponding amount of surplus labour. Every
investment of this kind would tend, in proportion


* See Appendix., No. 2.




236
THE ART OF COLONIZATION.


1:0 its amount, to ditninish in the mother-country
the competition of capital with capital, and of
labour with labour.


Llosv this system of eolonization would tend to
enlarge the field of employment for those classes,
who are not called either capitalists or labourers,
is very evident• As all the elnigrant labóurers
would retain the habits and wants of their mother-
country, so would they, having plenty in the
colony, cI'eate a denland for the services of those
classes whose only property is their knowledge ;
and the progressi ve increase of this demand would
keep pace, exactly, with the very rapid progress
of colonization. Colonies that were brisk mar-
kets for the sale of goods tnanufactured in themother-country, must neeessarily afford employ-
ment to persons, having the connnon run of
knowledge, or superior k nowledge, who should
emigrate from the mother-country. Touching
this point, it is only necessary to repeat, that a
colony, founded or extended in the way proposed,
would be the extension of an old society to
new place, with all the good, but without the
evils, which belong especially to old countries.


This exposition of the views of the Colonizationáociety, tnay be properly conclucled by a quota-
tion from d'eir own statement of their principies
and objects.


" To conelude: We have purposely abstained


THE ART OF COLONIZATION.
237


froin dwelling °Ti the irnprovement which this
system of colonization might effeet in the moral
condition of the poorer classes in Britain, or on
the wonderful rapidity with which, by calling
millions and hundreds of millions into existente,
it might people the descrt regions of the globe.
Such speeulations, however grateful, are unsuitéd
to frie prevent occasion. Wc have confines] our-
selves to statements and arguments which may
be submitted to the test of rational inquiry. Any
man, inquiring with a single desire to find the
truth, may readily convince himself, whether or
not the proposed selection of emigrants would
prevent all undesirable increase of people in the
mother-country, and, at the sa,me time, cause the
greatest possible increase of people in the colo-
nies ; whether or not the proposed concentration
of the colonists would tend to their wealth and
civiiization ; would fu rnish the greatest amount
of employment for labour, and the greatest fund
for conveying labour to the market. These are
questions in the science of public economy which
must be speedily decided. If they should be
decided in the affirmative, it must inevitably fol-
low, that the measure in question, being well
administered, would save the greater part of the
poor's-rate of England, and prevent in Ireland,
the greater ovil of pauperism without poor laws ;
that it would occasion a gyeat and constant in-




238 THE ART OF COLONIZATION.


crease of the demand for British manufactures ;
that it woulcl extinguiste slavery in South Africa,
by the substitution of free labour ; and that it
would enable the more extensive British colonies
to defray the entice cost of their own government
and protection. Moreover, if the principies of
the suggested measure be sound, the measure may
be adopted, not only upon any scale, that is, by
degrees, so as to render its adoption perfectly
easy,—but also without harm to any, and with
benefit to all ; without the least injury to a single
person, and with definable and manifest advan-
tage, to the poor, both those who should remove
and those who should remain; to the landlords, far-
mers, manufacturers, merchants and shipowners
of Britain ; to the colonists of every class, but
more especially to the landowners and merchants ;
and finally to both the domestic and the colonial
governments. We be.. the reader to observe that


b •


these conclusions are stated hypothetically. The
accuracy of the conclusions depends on the truth
of the principies, which it is our wish rather to
submit for examination than to assert with con-
fidence. But if those conclusions should turn
out to he foundecl on reason and truth, it will be
acknowledged, that objects more important wcre
never sought by more simple means."


THE ART OF COLONIZATION. 239


THE FOUNDATION OF COLONIES.


After so full a notice of the other parts of the
subject, this part of it may be disposed of in few
words.


If the purchase of waste land in a colony already
established were a profitable mode of employing
capital, so would be the purchase of the first grant
in a new colony. Nay, as the first purchasers of
land in a new colony woulcl naturally select the
spot on which the first town, or the capital of the
colony, the seat of government and the centre of
trade, was likely to be forined, their land must
necessarily, if the colony prospere(' at all, soon
become extremely valuable. Their purchase-
money would provide the colony with labour of
the most valuable kind, and in due proportion to
the land granted. Here, there would be no mo-
tive for anticipating by a loan the sales of waste
land ; because, in this case, there would never be
any hurtful disproportion between land and
people. The certainty of obtaining labour in
the new colony would be the strongest induce-
ment to the emigration of capitalists, ambitious
to take part in laying the foundation of an empire.
Thus would all the elements of wealth be brought
together, with no further trouble to the govern-
ment of the mother-country than what should be
required for establishing in the colony a fixed and
uniform system in the disposal of wastc land. It




240. THE ART OF COLONIZAT/ON. THE ART OF COLONIZATION. 241


was the hopo of being able to persuade the
English government to establish such a system
for the south coast of Australia, that lately in-
duced a body of Englishmen* to project the
foundation of a colony in that desert part of the
world. A body of capitalists, sure of a rapid in-
crease in the value of land, if all land were sold
and all the purchase-money ernployed in pro-
curing labour, was ready to buy a part of that
wilderness ; another bod y of capitalists, depending
on a constant supply of labour, was ready to em-
bark for that desert ; the most numerous, wcalthy
and estimable body of Englishmen that ever pro-
posed to found a colony: and labourers in abund-
ante were anxious to accompany them, expecting
to have their passage paid for with the purchase-
money of the desert land. In order to carry this.
project into effect, nothing more was required
than some engagement from the English govern-
ment, that the proponed system for the disposal
of waste land should be firmly cstablished in the
intended colony ; some, law, or something like a
la‘v, to prevent a colonial governor, and the clerks
in Downing Street, from meddling with the dis-
posal of waste land in this colony. The best
security- for this object would have been an act of


* See in the Appendix (No. 3.) a list of the Provisional Com-
matee of the South Australian Land Company, with the signa-
tures to a Memorial addressed to Viscount Goderieh.


parliament ; but those who intended to found the
colony required no more than a charter from the
king ; a something to bind the compact into
which those individuals were desirous to enter.
This piece of parchment was applied for, promised,
and ultimately refused ; on what grounds applied
for, how promised, and how cruelly refused, rnay
be seen by a correspondence between the govern-
ment and those who intended to found the colony.
Part of this correspondence is printed in the Ap-
pendix. To those who are curious about the
motives, which may induce the government of an
old country to prevent the foundation of colonies,
as well as to those who would ascertain the
motives with which, under a good system of
colonization, individuals -would found colonies,
scarcely assisted by their government, the cor-
respondence in question wili prove highly in-
structive.


The old .English colonies in Arnerica, now the
eastern states of the Union, were not founded by
any government. They were founded by indi-
viduals, not even aided by any government, save
as the cornpact, into which each of those bodies of
individuals entered, was bound by a charter from
the crown of England. At that time, it had not
been discovered that the disposal of waste land
in a colony may furnish rnatter for favour and
jobs : at that time, probably, a charter to prevent
favour and jobbing in the disposal of waste land


VOL. II.




242 THE ART OF COLONIZATION. THE ART OF COLONIZATION. 243


would not have been refused by the government
of England. But, at that time, also, none of the
great advantages of a fixed and uniforrn system
in the disposal of waste land were understood by
any one. The evils of profusion and irregularity
have been made apparent by the good resulting
from some degree of caution and regularity.
What is a new state formed in the western deserts
of America, if it be not a new colony ? Yet how
marked is the contrast between the irnrnediate
prosperity of one of those new colonics, and the
early misery of one of those which were pla.nted
on the eastern coast of America I To whatever
extent we may suppose that the prosperity of the
newest colonies alises from caution and regularity
in the disposal of waste land, so far shall we at-
tribute the early misery of the oldest colonies to
profusion and irregularity. If some degree of
caution and regularity in the disposal of waste,
land insure the immediate prosperity of a new
colony, it seetns olear, that the prosperity of a new
colony would be much greater, and much more
rapid, under the proposed system of selling al/
new land and converting all the purchase-money
into the most productive labour. An old country,
then, by applying this system to desert countries
at her disposal, may create stronger motives than
ever yet existed for the foundation of colonies by
bodies of individuals. This subject well descrves
the attention of the English, who have more desert


land at their disposal than any other nation, not
excepting the North Arnericans. and «rho, more
than any other nation, require that their field of
production should be enlarged.*


THE GOVERNMENT OF COLONIES.


The advocate of systematic colonization, ad-
dressing the corruptgovernment of an old country,
and actuated by that short-sighted policy which
attends onlyto immediate objects, and has no faith
in the power of truth, would say : Proceed in such
a way that your colonies may be richer than colo-
nies have ever been, more taxable, better worth
governing. But the corrupt government of an old
country would not be cajoled by this sort of lan-
guage : it would see, what must be plain to every
one, that, if colonies were so rnany extensions of
an old society, they would never submit to be


Mr. Stuart, one of the soberest and most moderate of
writers, supposes that the United States will obtain by the sale
of waste land, ever under the present detective system, "some
thousand niillions of dollars." The national debt of England
arnounts to between three and four thousand millions of dollars.
With Canada, South Africa, Eastern, Western aml Southern
Australia, New Zealand, (a country admirab]y fit for coloniza-
tion) part of the north-west coast of America, Ceylon, (which
in many rcspects is quite fit for colonization) Madagascar
perhaps, some desert islands in the Pacific, and great tracts of
desert land in India under a fine climate; with all these fields of
colonization open to then), the English, surely, might so enlargc
their field of production as to laugh at their national debt.




244 TI1E ART OF COLONIZATION. THE ART OF COLONIZATION. 245


governed from a distance. Truly, if the colonists
were kept together by a good system for the dis-
posal of waste land, they would be richer than
colonists have ever been, better able to pay taxes,
better worth keeping in subjection : but, so like-
wise, would they be more intelligent, and, as
union is force, very tnuch stronger. The scattered,
poor and ignorant inhabitants of South Africa
could not but submit patiently to the oppression,
the sportive injustice and fantastic cruelty, of an
English lord sent across the would to do with them
as he pleased. They were incapable of governing
themselves, and therefore quite unable to resist a
foreign tyrant. With the capacity for self-govern-
ment comes the power to exercise it. A people
entirely fit to manage themselves, will never long
submit to be tnanaged by others, much less tú be
managed by an authority residing at a great dis-
tance from them. " Government from a distance"
says Bentham, " is often mischievous to the people
submitted to it. Government is almost always,
as respects them, in a state either of jealousy or
indifference. They are either neglected or pil-
laged ; they are made places of banishment for the
vilest part of society, or places to be pillaged by
minions and favourites, whom it is desirable sud-
denly to enrich. The sovereign at two thousand
leagues' distance from bis subjects, can be ac-
quainted neither with their wants, their interests,
their manners, nor their character. The most


legitimate and weighty complaints weakened by
reason of distance, stripped of every thing that
might excite sensibility, of every thing which
might soften or subdue the pride of power, are
delivered, without defence, into the cabinet of the
prince, to the most insidious interpretations, to
the most unfaithful representations. The colonists
are still too happy if their demand of justice is
not construed into a mime, and if their most tito-
derate remonstrances are not punished as acts of
rebellion. In a word, little is cared for their
affection, nothing is feared from their resenttnent,
and their despair is contemned." 11 But why is
their anger despised ? Because it is not dangerous ;
because they are helpless ; because they are, what
is called, new societies. Let colonies be old
societies in new places, and they will have the
power to chuse between self-government and
government from a distance. That they would
chuse to govern themselves cannot be doubted by
any one, who is at all acquainted with the evils of
being governed from a distance.


Bentham well describes how difficult it is for
subject colonies to obtain any redress of grie-
vances ; but he says little of the grievances of
which such colonies must necessarily have to com-
plain. If one were it would be a hard case when
the physician resided thousands of miles off, and
months must elapse before one could hear from


Rationale of Reward, 13. 4, chap. 14.




246 TIIE ART OF COLONIZATION. THE ART OF COLONIZATION. 247


him by return of post ; but the degree of hard-
ship would greatly depend on the nature of the
disease. It is not very easy for people, who have
never been governed from a distance, to under-
stand the nature of the evils - which are thus in-
flicted on dependent colonies. Every governrncnt
must be supported by sorne kind of force. The
distant government seldom maintains in the
colony- an armed force sufficient to preserve its
authority. Sorne other means, then, must be
adopted to make the colonists obey laws which
are enacted by persons at a distante, knowing
little of the colony and caring less for it ; laws
too, administered by strangers, not fixed in the
colony, nor in any degree responsible to the sub-
ject people. The way in which this object is
commonly attained, is by dividing the colonists ;
by getting up hostile factions amongst them ; by
allowing, some of them to share with the strangers
in all kinds of jobs and monopolies. In order
that the strangers may pillage the colony, sorne
of the colonists' are allowed to pillage it. In all
the more extensive colonies which are governed
from Downing Street, London, there . is a strong
party of colonists attached to the government,
and amongst the worst enemies of the colonial
people. The machinery Nvhereby misgovernment
thus supports itsclf, is generally, a council in the
colony, componed partly of strangers, partly of
colonists, all named by the governor ; by which


mockery of a legislative assembly, the people of
the mother-country, when by chance they think
of the colonies, are led to suppose that the colonies
are pretty well governed ; while, in truth the
governor's council is a most efficient means of
misgovernment, since it enables his cxcellency to
perforen, or to authorize, acts of oppression, which
he would never have dared to do, or authorize,
on his own single responsibility. If a governor
of New South Wales should ever be called to
account for acts of cruel oppression in that
colony, those acts would be defended on the
ground that they were approved by the council,
an assembly consisting partly of settlers, having
an interest in comm.on with the whole body of
colonists. That would be the defence ; whereas the
truth is, that the colonial membcrs of the p;over-
nor's council in New South Wales have been deeply
interested in that misgovernment of which they
shared the profits, in the chape of contracts, un-
due supplies of convict labour and immense grants
of land. In Upper Canada, says Mr. Ellice,* "it
veas the fashion for every councillor to get a grant
of from 5,000 to 20,000 acres, to the great detri-
ment of the country and the great nuisance of the
inhabitants around." This is only a sample of the
numerous ways, in which some of the inhabitants
of subject colonies are bribed to lend their assist-
ance in hurting the other inhabitants ; to lend


1' Now English rninister at war.




248 THE ART OF COLONIZATION. THE ART OF COLONIZATION. 249


their narres to the strangers, so that the acts of
those strangers may be glossed over with the
semblante of being approved by the colonists ;
to lend their voices, and in case of need, their
arms, to the strangers, so that to the force of the
strangers there may be added that of a strong
colonial faction. Hence more pillage than would
have satisfied the strangers ; hence the rnost bitter
feuds arnongst the colonists themselves; hence,
more or less, the peculiar evils, which Ireland
has suffered by being governed from a distance
through the instrumentality of a strong domestic
faction. The evil of having to obey laws made
at a distance would be great, but less than the
evils inflicted in order to procure obediente to
laws so made. The government of colonies from
a distance involves both kinds of evil.


So rnuch evil would never long be borne by a
colony which had been founded, or which was ex-
tended, in the way Itere proposed. The colony
being fit, would be able to govern itself. It must
be confessed, therefore, that the ruling class of an
old country, looking only to immediate and self-
ish ends, has an interest in preventing systentatic
colonization : a double interest; first, as for every
colony fit to govern itself there would be less room
for colonies liable to be governed from a distan ce ;
secondly, as the example of systernatic coloniza-
tion and colonial self-government in one place,
might leal to the systematic extension, and then


to the self-government, of colonies, which were
founded, and have hitherto been extended, with-
out any regard to the ends and means of colo-
nization. Here, perhaps, we may discover why,
last year, the English government prevented the
foundation of a colony- which, in local matters,
was to have governed itself as soon as the popu-
lation should amount to 50,000 souls.


In this respect, the English have reason to be
proud of the wisdom of their ancestors. All the
early colonies of the English were allowed to
govern themselves from the beginning ; with this
single exception, that the mother-country re-
served to herself a monopoly of the foreign trade
of the colony. In every case, the colonial laws
were made by an assernbly of colonists, elected
by the colonists ; and in some cases those laws
were executed by officers, including the governor,
who were appointed by the colonists. The
charters, in a word, under which bodies of Eng-
lishmen planted colonies in America, laid the
foundation of democracy in that part of the
would. At that time, the English ruling class liad
not discovered how to profit by the exercise of
dominion over distant colonies. No sooner, how-
ever, did the English take possession of colonies,
which had been founded by other nations with-
out any provision for local self-government, than
the aristocracy of England founcl out the advan-
tage of holding colonies in subjection. This ad-




250 THE ART OF COLONIZATION. THE ART OF COLONIZATION . 251


vantage became still more clear when the English
government had made a settlement in New Hol-
land ; had established a jail there ; a society,
which, of course, could not be allowed to govern
itself.


As to that colony, the system of transporta-
tion is a good excuse for withholding from thc
free settlers the advantage of self-government,
and will be maintained on that account, as well
as on account of its great expense, until the new
ruling class of England shall please to exert their
authority. Well-informed as the English aristo-
cracy now are of the many advantages to thern-
selves attendant on holding colonies in subjec-
tion, they will always be ready with excuses for
not reverting to the system of colonial self-
government. They seek to deny, that the system
of governing colonies from Downing Street is a
modem innovation.*


English colonies which govern them-
selves in local matters, are distinguished by thc
name of chartered colonies, while the others are
called crown colonies. The crown colonies, such
as New South Wales, Van Diemen's Land, and
South Africa, bcing governed in local matters
from Downing Street, London, and affording a
vast leal of patronage to the noblemen and gen-
tlemen who live in that street, are most sincerely
preferred by tire English government. But, not-


See Correspondence in Appendix, No. 3.


withstanding this partial affection for crown colo-
nies, it is a fact, 1 believe, that never, till last
year, did the English governrnent refuse to bestow
a charter of incorporation and local self-govern-
ment upon individuals ready to found a colony
at their own expense : it is a fact, also, that the
only colony, founded by Englishmen without such
a charter, is the miserable Swan River settlement,
the last colony founded by Englishmen.


The chartered colonies of England, governing
themselves from the beginning in local matters,
have usually defrayed the whole cost of their
local government : the cost, on the contrary, of
governing the crown colonies has generally fallen
opon England. Here are two reasons against
crown colonies : first, the expense whieh they
occasion to the country whose rulers hold them
in subjection ; secondly, the absence of any motive
in the government of the colony for letting the
colonists be rich enough to bear taxation.


The difference between the cost of governing
crown and chartered colonies is very much in
favour of the lat.ter. " All the different civil
establishments in North America," says Adam
Smith, " exclusive of idiaryland and North Caro-
lina, of which no exact account has been got, did
not, before the commencement of the present dis-
turbances, cost the inhabitants aboye 64,0001. a
year ; an ever memorable example at how small
an expense three millions of people may not only




252 THE ART OF COLONIZATION. THE ART OF COLONIZATION. 253


be governed, but well governed." The yearly cost
of governing fifty thousand people in New South
Wales was lately about 234,0001., the salaries of
officers alone, being 53,4681. ; an ever memorable
example at how great an expense a colony play be,
not only governed, but very iil governed.'1 The
crown colony of the Swan River, with about
fifteen hundred inhabitants, already costs England
near 70001. a year : the local government of the
chartered colony, which it was proposed to founcl
at Spencer's Gulph, was to have cost, not England,
but the inhabitants, 50001. a year, and no more,
until the population should reach 50,000 souls.
Chartered colonies, those which conduct and pay
for their owñ local government, are sure to be
very moderate 'in their public expenses ; while
the expense of governing colonies from a distance
is sure to be as great as the people of the ruling


* Specimen of the Salaries in New South Wales.
Govcrnor
- £4,200


Colonial Treasurer 1,000
Colonial Secretary and Registrar


- 2,000
His compensation for loss of Pension 750
Naval Officer


- 2,585
Chief Justice 2,000
Assistant Judge 1,300
Dato - - 1,500
Attorney-General 1,400
Sheriff and Provost Marshal 1,000
Arclideacon
- 2,000


Surveyor-General 1,000


country, who find the money, will allow. Thecheap-
ness of local self-government is sure to present
a striking contrast with the dearness -of govern-
ment from a distance ; a contrast painful to those
who profit by governing colonies from a distance.


Of two other reasons in favour of local seZ»
government, one is obvious ; the. other requires
sonne explanation. First, a body of colonists who
should manage their own affairs, in their own way
for thcir own advantage, would be sure to manage
better than any foreign government, whether on
the spot or at a distance : the local government,
unless very iii constituted, would have the deepest
interest in the prosperity of the colony. But,
secondly, the forro and substance of the local
government would very much depend upon the
character of the first settlers. Magna viYüm
mater ! exclaims Adam Smith, when he gives
to England the credit of having furnished the
men fit to establish empires in America. But
would those superior men have quitted England
for that purpose, without a prospect of self-
government ? would such a man as William Perin
have CrOlsed the Atlantic, knowing that, when
in America, he should be subject to a minister
like llorace Twiss,* residing in England ? The


This gentleman, Americans ought to be told, is an English
barrister, practising in the courts of chancery and bankruptcy.
The Duke of Wellington malle him under secretary of state for




254 THE ART OF COLONIZATION. THE. ART OF COLONIZATION. 255


greater number, it is true, of the founders of
the United States fled from persecutiOn ; but
some of them did not; and all of them may be
supposed to have been moved, in part, by a
sentiment of ambition. The founders of a colony,
which is to be governed by the colonists, are sure
to enjoy a greater degree of consideration and
importante amongst their companions, than they
could reasonably have hoped to attain in the
oid society. By the mere act of removing, they
become legislat.ors and statesmen ; the legislators
and statesrnen of a new country too, created, as
it were, by themselves. In the charters, under
which the old English colonies in America were
plantee], we find recited the ríanles of the men
who projected and accomplished those great un-
dertaking-s. It was thus, that men of a superior
order were induced to run the risk of failure in
those enterprizes ; men who, by their energy,
judgment, patienee and resolution, were especially
qualified to make those enterprizes succeed. As
a .


colony fit to manage its own affairs would not
subrnit to have them managed from a distante,
so a colony allowed to manage its own affairs,
would attract men fit to manage them. In the
Swan River colony, which was founded by a
minister, scarce any provision has been made for


the colonies : he was concerned in the foundation of the Swan
River settlement ; and spoke, first, against the reform bill
the House of Commons.


good government: in the plan of an intended
colony at Spencerss Gulph, a plan formed by
individuals, provision was carefully made for
legislation, for the administration of justice, for
the support of religion,* for the education of all
classes, and for the defence of the colony. This
difference is explained by the difference between
a crown colony and a chartered one. In the
lattcr case, the charter of ineorporation and self-
, vro ernment attracted to the undertaking men of
a superior order ; men knowing what they were
about, having definite objects and a clear con-


* The provision for the support of religion, suggestcd by
persons of a very religious turn of mirad, who intended to set-
tle in the colony, was an article in the proponed charter, which
declared that in this colony there should be no political
church. This provision led a number of Dissenters to join the
body of intended colonists. The dissenters began to raise a
subscription amongst themselves and their friends for building
a church, in which their mode of worship was to be followed 3
when the inembers of the church of England, who intended to
emigratc, immediately began to raise a subscription for esta-
blishing their mode of worship in the colony. The present
bishop of London, be it said to his honour, having been con-
sulted about the church-of-England subscription, found no
fault with the provision against a political church, but en-
gaged to assist the intended settlers of his persuasion in raising
money for a church of their own. Of course, however, both
these incipient subscriptions fell to the ground, when Lord
Goderich refused to grant the charter which his lordship had
proniised a vear before. See Correspondence in Appendix,
No. 3.




256 THF ART OF COLONIZATION. THE ART OF COLONIZATION. 257


ceptión of the means for accomplishing them.
Would such men have gone to a crown colony ?
The answer is, that they would not ; for, when
Lord Goderich wanted these men to go to the
Swan River, they answered, that nothing would
induce them to settle " in a colony, where there
is no security -for the inestimable advantage of
local self.government."


But, though it should be allowed, that new
colonies founded by charter of incorporation and
local self-government would put the mother-coun-
try to no expense for their internal government,
still an objection to new colonies, which rests on
the necessity protecting them from foreign
violente, retnains untouched. That necessity
would certainly exist in every case where the
colony was unable to defend itself. But colo-
nies, which governed themselves, have commonly
been able to deferid themselves. The colonies of
Greece were able, not only to defend themselves,
but to assist their parent states in resisting foreign
violente. The chartered colonies of North Ame-
rica were able to defend themselves against their
mother-country, when she had the folly to attack
their local independence. Dependence teaches
colonies to lean upon their mother-country : inde-
pendence from the beginning teaches them to
provide for . self-defence ; not to mention that a
colony, which monagos its own affairs, has more,
infinitely more, to defend than a colony whose


affairs are sharnefully managed from a distance.
Thus, while at the Swan River no provision what-
ever has been made for self defence, it was pro-
posed by those who intended to found a colony
at Spencer's Gulph, that the whole body of set-
tiers should be formed into a militia ; and as the
sum of 125,0001. offered to the government for
the first grant of land would have conveyed to
the settlement about 4,000 young couples, this
colony would have had from the beginning an
artned force of 4,000 men ; a greater force, per-
haps, than was ever maintained by any mother-
country in any new colony. In that case, too,
not only would colonization have proceeded with
unexampled rapidity, but the colonists, insteacl
of being enfeebled by dispersion, would always
have beca strong in proportion to their numbers.
Accustorned to the use of arms, chusing their
own leaders, defending the work of their own
hands,which is the foreign government that would
have thought it worth while to attack them ? A
subject colony may not be harined, may be bene-
fited, by a change of masters. Subject colonies,
accordingly have, over and over again, submitted
to foreigners ; but when did a colony, that flou-
rished at all, and was independent from the be-
ginning, yield up the main cause of its prosperity,
its precious independence ? Judging from post
-facts, we may conelude, that if the art of coloni-
zation were skilfully pursued, if colonies were


VOL. II.




258 THE ART OF COLONIZATION. THE ART OF COLONIZATION. 259


independent, and were founded or extended so as
to be, not new societies, but old societies in new
places, the defence of them from foreign violente
would not require any o utlay by the mother-coun-
try. Nay more, says Adam Smith, " they rnight
be disposed to favour their mother-country in
war as well as in trade ; and, instead of turbulent
and factious subjects, to become her most faith-
ful, affectionate and generous allies ; with the
same parental affection on the one side, and the
same filial respect on the other, which used to
subsist between the colonies of ancient Greece
and the mother-city from which they descended."


Passing by the exploded notion, that an old
country is interested in preserving a monopoly of
the trade with her colonies, we have still to en-
quire, whether it be advantageous to colonies to
enjoy privileges in the market of their mother-
country.


Supposing that the monopoly of the English
sugar-market enjoyed by the planters of the
West Indios takes out of the pockets of the Eng-
lish, and puts into the pockets of the planters,
2,000,0001. a year, this would seem to be a case
in which colonists gain by the sort of monopoly
in question. In like manner, the Canadians ap-
pear to gain what the English lose, by the Cana-
dian monopoly of the English timber trade. Nay,
in the forrner case, the very existente of the colo-
nists seems to depend on their monopoly of the


English sugar-rnarket ; for every one allows that,
if the English were permitted to buy sugar in the
cheapest market they could any whcre fincl, there
would soon be an end to the growth of sugar in
the West Indies. But has not this monopoly, on
which the existente of the colonists now depends,
been the cause of that unnatural state of things,
under which the monopoly is of such vast im-
portance to the colonists ? If the West Indians
had never possessed any privilege in the rnarket
of England, it seems probable that, warned by the
decrease of their profits, arising from the exhaus-
tion of their land, they would have diverted their
capital from the growth of sugar to sobre other
employment: they might even, from the moment
when sugar grown on virgin soils carne into cotn-
petition with their sugar, have seen that it was
for their advantage to set free their slaves, so as
to convert these human cattle into competitors
for the use of land. One must say, perhaps ; be-
cause it ís doubtful whether slaves, very nume-
rous in proportion to their masters of a different
colour, can ever be set free without a period of
anarchy. But, however this may be, what have
the West Indies become with the monopoly
They have become, with, and by means of, the
monopoly, societies so monstronsly unnatural as
to depend for their very existente on the patience
of a distant people, who do not love them, in sub-
mitting to pay 2,000,0001. to kcep their heads




260 THE ART OF COLONIZATION. THE ART OF COLONIZATION. 261


aboye water. In like manner, though we should
acknowledge that the Canadians gain what the
English lose by the difference between the price
or quality of Canadian timber and Baltie tirnber
in the English market, still the Canadian mono-
poly produces in Canada an unnatural state of
things ; artifieially turning to the lamber trade
more capital than would naturaily be employed
in it, and exposing the Canadians to be ruined
by so proper an act on the part of the English
government as that of letting the English people
buy tirnber of whom they piense. If colonies
gain for a time by monopolizing sorne trade in
the market of their mother-country, their condi-
tion is unnatural and dangerous in proportion to
their gains. Such a monopoly, if its continuance
depended altogether on the colonists themselves,
might perhaps be defended, as the American
tariff may be defended, on the score of its ten-
dency to promote combination of labour and
division of employments amongst the colonists ;
but the continuance of sacha monopoly must
always depend upon the good pleasure of the
mother-country. For every colony, therefore,
such monopolies are bad ; and bad j ast in pro-
portion as they seem good. For colonies, founded
or extended so that the colonists should com-
bine labour and divide employrnents, not only
atnongst themselves, but with the people of their
mother-country ; for colonies that should natu-


rally raise exchangeable commodities, such mono-
polies or privileges would not even appear to be
good. In the intended colony at Spencer's Gulph,
accordingly, it was proponed that trade, both of
import and of export, should be entirely free. Port
Lincoln was to have been a port without a cus-
tom-house. Is this whv Lord Goderich, the
eloquent advoeate of free-trade, willed that it
should remain without ships ?


For it must be confessed, that colonial mono-
polies of trade in the mother-country are of very
great use, indeed, for holding dependent colonies
in subjection. A dependent colony, brought
into an unnatural and dangerous state by such a
monopoly, dares not to offend the rulers of its
mother-country. The colonists of South Africa
with their vine monopoly, of Canada with their
tirnber monopoly, and of the «Test Indies with
their sugar monopoly, are t'ar more subservient
to Downing Street, than they would be if the peo-
ple of England were free to buy vine, timber and
sugar, in the cheapest markets they conid any
where find. In this way, the people of England
pay magnificently to enable their rulers to profit
in another way by the dependence of colonies.
It would be much cheaper for the people of Eng-
land, and quite as profitable to the English aris-
toeracy, if, the colonies being left to themselves,
a surn equal to the actual cost of holding and
tnisgoverning them, were placed at the disposal




262 THE ART OF COLONIZATION.


of the Englísh cábinet, under,the honest name of
a fund for Corruption. Thus would all the cost
of the monopolies be entirely saved, without any
decrease of ministerial patronage. But then, it
inay be said, the corruption would be toa plain
to be borne. Doubtless ; and here is sean one
" piiblic inconvenienee" that might have avisen
from the establishment of a colonial port without
a custoin-house ; the inconvenience of an ex-
ample, which, if generally followed, would have
tallen from the English aristocracy one of their
chief instruments for holding, harassing and
depressing colonial possessions.


See Correspondence in the Appendix, No. 3.


APPENDIX.


No. 1.


PROOFS OF THE INDUSTRY, SIMA. AND COMMERCIAL DISPOSITION,


O F THE CHINESE PEOPLE.


No. 2.


PROOFS OF THE RAPIDITY WITH WHICH WASTE LAND RISES IN


VALUE, ~REVER PEOPLE CONGREGATE, IN NEW COLONTES•


No. 3.


THE E N D.


PART OF A CORRESPONDENCE BETWEEN THE ENGLISH GOVERN.•


IIENT AND A BODY OF INDIVIDUALS VIISHING TO FOUND A


COLONY.




265


APPENDIX.


No. I.


PROOFS OF TIIE INDUSTRY, SKILL AND COMMERCIAL DIS-


POSITION OF THE CHINESE PEOPLE.


SIR GEORGE STAUNTON, in his account of Lord Macart-
ney's embassy thus describes the Chinese emigrants at
Batavia.


" Great numbers of Chinese come constantly to Ba-
tavia with exactly the same views that attract the natives
of Holland to it—the desire of accumulating wealth in a
foreign land. Both generally belonged to the humbler
classes of life, and viere bred in similar habits of industry
in their own country ; but the different circumstances that
attend them after their arrival in Batavia, put an end to
any further resemblance betl,reen them. The Chinese
have, there, no way of getting forward but by a con-
tinuance of their formen exertions in a place where they
are more liberally rewarded, and by a strict economy in
the preservation of their gains. They have no chance of
advancing by favour ; nor are public offices opon to their
ambition : but they apply to every industrious occupation,
and obtain whatcver carc and labour can accomplish.
They become, in town, retailers, clerks, and agents : in
the country they are farmers, and the principal cultivators
of the sugar-cane. They do, at length, acquire fortunes,
which they value by the time and labour required to earn
them. .So gradual an acquisition makes no change in




266 APPENDIX, NO. I.


their disposition or mode of life. Their industry is not
diminished, nor their health impaired.


" The Chinese are said to be now as numerous as ever
again in and about Batavia ; for however imminent the
danger to which the Dutch alledge that they are exposed
by the intended former insurrection of this people, and
however cruel and unjustifiable the Chinese consider the
conduct of.the Dutch towards them at that time, the oc-
casion they have for each other has brought them again
together ; and ít is acknowledged by the latter that the
settlement could scarcely exist without the industry and
ingenuity of the formen"


In Mr. BARROW'S voyage to Cochin China, the follow-
ing passagcs occur :—


" The -next description of inhabitants of Batavia, who
in number and opulence exceeds the former, is the
Chinese. These people, as appears by their records,
first obtained a settlement in Java about the year 1412.
As intruders, but not conquerors, it is probable that they
have at all times been subject to harsh and oppressive
treatment ; but the restrictions and extortiolls under
which they at present (1793) labour, seem as unnecessary
and impolitic as they are unjust. That they should con-
sent to the Mahomedans, Malays, and Javanese exercising
their devotions in the saíne temple, which they built at
their own expense, and consecrated to the god of their
own worship, is by no means an unfavourable feáture in
their character ; but on the part uf the Dutch who en-
force the mensure, it is one of the greatest irisults that
could well be offered. The Chinese hospital or infirmary,
which was erected by voluntary contributions from their
own community, and is supportecl by legacies arísing from
theatrical exhibítions and fire-works, and by a small tax
on marriages, funerals, and the celebration of public


APPENDIX, NO. 1. 267


festivals, is equally opon for the benefit and reception of
those who have not contributed towards the establish-
ment, and who do not belong to the society. Jnto thís
admirable institution are indiscriminately admitted the
infirm and the aged, the friendless and the indigent, of
all nations. Towards the support of those ínstitutions,
the temple and the infirmary, their contributions are
voluntary; but exclusive of diese, their industry is severely
taxed by the Dutch government. Every religious festival
and public ceremony, every popular amusement, as well
as every branch of individual industry, are subject to
taxation. They are even obliged to pay for a license to
wear their hair in a long plaited tau', according to the
custom of their country ; for permission to bring their
greens to market, and to sell their produce and manufac-
tures in the streets. Yet to the industry and exertions
of those people are the Dutch wholly indebtcd for the
means of existing with any tolerable degree of comfort
in Batavia. Every species of vegetable for the table is
raised by them in all seasons of the year, and at times
when the most indefatigable attention and labour are
required. They are masons, carpenters, blacksmiths,
painters, upholsterers, tailors, and shoe-makers. Thcy
are employed in the arts of sugar-refining,
pottery, lime-burning, and every other trade and prófes-
sion that are indispensably necessary for nzalcing Me state
of society tolcrably comfortable. They are,
moreover, the contractors for supplying the various de-
mands of the civil, military, and marine establishments in
the settlement ; they are the collectors of the cates, the
customs, and the tares ; and, in short, are Me monopo-
lizers of the interior commerce of Me island ; and with
the Malays, carry on the principal part of the coasting
trade.


" The influence which would naturally follow from the




268 APPENDIX, NO. I. APPENDIX, NO. I.
269


management of concerns so important and so extensive,
could not long be regarded by a weak and luxurious go-
vernment without jealousy. Those arts which thc Eu-
ropeans have usually followed with success in establishing
themselves in foreign countries, and which the Dutch
have not been backward in carefully studying and effec-
tually carrying into practice, with regará to the natives
of Java, could not be applied with the least hope of suc-
cess to the Chinese settlers. These people had no so-
vereign to dethrone, by opposing to him the clames of a
usurpes; nor did the separate interests of any petty chief
allow them, by exciting jealousy, to put in execution the
old adage of divide et impera, divide and command.
WTith as little hope of success could the masters of the
island venture to seduce an industrious and abstemious
people from their temperate habits by the temptation of
foreign luxuries ; and their general disposition to sobriety
held out no encouragement for the importation of spirit-
uous liquors and intoxicating drugs. For, though thc
Chinese who are in circumstances to afford it, make use
of opium to excess, yet this is a luxury in which the
common people of this nation rarely think of indulging.
The Dutch, therefore, who are weak in point ofnumbers,
had recourse to a more decisive and speedy measure for
getting rid of a redundancy of population, which had
begun to create suspicion and alarm : they put them to
the sword.


" This extraordinary affair took place on the 9th of
October ; the whole of the lOth was a day of plunder ;
and on the 11 th they began to remove out of the streets
the dead bodies, the interment of which occupied them
eight days. The number said to have perished, accord-
ing to the Dutch account, amounts to more than twclve
thousand souls. Ilaving thus eompleted one of the most
inhuman, and apparently causeless transactions that eve


disgraced a civilized people, they had the audacity to
proclaim a public thanksgiving to the God of Merey for
their happy deliverance from thc hands of the heathen.
While the Dutch, in their public records, endeavour to
justify this atrocious act on the plea of necessity, they
make the following memorable observation:—‘ It is re-
markable that this people, notwithstanding their great
numbers, offered not the least resistance, but suifered
themselves to be led like sheep to the slaughter For
my own part, when i refiect on the timid character of
the Chinese, their want of conficlence in each other, and
their strong aversion to the shedding of human blood:
and when I compare their situation in Batavia to that of
the Hottentot in the colony of the Cape of Good Hope,
where every little irregularity is magnified into a plot
against the government, I cannot forbear giving a de-
cided opinion that these people viere innocently murdered.
The consequences to the Dutch proved much more
serious than at first they seemed to have been aovare of.
The terrified Chinese, who escaped the massacre, fied
into the interior of the island; a scarcity of rice and every
kind of vegetables, succeedeO; and the apprehensions of
a famine induced them to offer terms to the fugitives and
to entreat their retan)."


SIR STAMFORD RAEELES, in his history of Java, writes
s follows:
"Resides the natives, whose number, circumstances,


and character I have slightly mentioned, there is in Java,
a rapidly increasing race of foreígners, who have cmi-
grated from the different surrounding countries. The
most numerous and important class of these ís the
Chinese, who already (1815) do not fall short of a hun-
dred thousand ; and who, with a system of free trade,
and free cultivation, would soon accumulate ten-fold, by





270 APPENDIX, NO. I.


natural mercase within the island and gradual accessions
of new settlers from honre. They reside prineipally in
the great capitals of Batavia, Semárang, and Surabáya,
but they are to be found in all the smaller capitals, and
scatt.ered over raost parts of the country. A great pro-
portion of them are descended from families, who have
been many generations on the island;—additions are
gradually makíng te their numbers. They arrive at Ba-
tavia from China te the amount of a thousand or more
annually, in Chinese junks, carrying there, four, and five
hundred each, without money or resources ; but by dint
of their industry soon acquire coinparative opulence.
.There are no women in Jasa, wbo come directly from
China, but as the Chinese often marry the daughters of
their countrynien by Javan women, there results a numer-
ous mixed race which is oftcn scarcely distinguishable
from the nativo Chinese."


Mr. FINLAXSON, in his account of the Mission to Siam
and Hué, in 1822, speaks as follows of the Chinese emi-
grants at Penang and Sincapore.


" We had not proceeded far (at Penang) before a more
interesting and more gratifying scene was expanded te
our observation. Industry, active, useful, manly and in-
dependent, seemed here to have found a congenial soil
and fostering care. The indolent air of the Asiatic was
thrown aside. Every one laboured to produce some use-
ful object, and every countenancc teeming with animation,
seemed, as it were, directed to a set tasé. With the air,
they had lost even the slender frame of the Asiatic ; and.
the limbs, and muscularity, and symmetry were thosc of
another and more energetic race. These were Chinese,
a people highly valuable as settlers, by reason of their
industrious and regular habits, who had established on
this spot the mechanical arta, on a scale which. might


APPENDIX, NO. I. °~1


oven vie with that of the European artists, but which we
look for in vain in any other part of India. It was a
pleasing and gratifying spectacle — so much are we in
India accustomed to the opposite—to see a numerous,
very muscular, and apparently hardy yace of people,
labouring with a degree of energy and acuteness, which
gavie to their physical character a peculiar stamp, and
placed them in a highly favourable point of view, when
compared with the habits of the nation around them.
Their manner of using their instruments, so different from
the puerile style of Indian artists, had in it much of the
dexterity of the Europeans : while their conditiori bespoke
them•a fiourishing and wealthy tribe. All the principal
shops, all important and useful employments, and almost
all the commeree of ¿he was in their hands. Under
the patronage of the British government they soon ac-
quire riches ; they meet with entire protection of property
and person, and are cherished by the government, which,
in return, derives benefits from their industry, and from
the commercial and profitable speculations in which they
usually engage.


" 'Fue neatness, the industry, and the ingenuity dis-
played in plantations of this sort (at Sincapore) afford a
very gratifying spectacle, and attest the great progress
which the Chinese nation has malle in agricultura science.
The Chinese may be considered as the solo cultivators of
the soil.


" The most promínent feature in the character of the
Chinese emigrant, is industry : the best and highest en-
dowinent which he has attained.- He is mechanically
uniform and steady in the pursuit of what he conceives
to be his immediate and personal interest, in the prose-
cution of which he exerts a degree of ingenuity and of
bodily labour and exertion, which leave all the Asiatics




t


272 APPENDIX, NO. I.


at a distante. He labours with a strong arm, and is
capable great and continued exertion. He is not
satisfied to bestow the quantity of labour necessary for
the mere gratification of bis immediate wants, Profusion
and indulgente claim a share of the produce of his toils.
Next in the catalogue of his virtues may be reckoned
general sobriety, honesty, a quiet, orderly conduct, obe-
dience to the laws of the country in which he resides ;
and, as is affirmed, a strong and 'Inalterable sense of the
important duties which parental affection inculcates.


311
" It must be confessed, however, that the Chinese are


in a political point of view, at least, by far the most use-
ful class of people to be found in the Indian seas or
Archipelago. Their robust frames, their industrious
habits, and their moderate conduct place them beyond
compeation. Tliey furnish the best artizans, the most
usqful labourers, and the most extensive traders. Their
commercial speculations are often extensivo, and often of
the nzost adventurous nature."


Mr. DOBELL, who resided in China for several years,
and whose lately published account of that country
abounds with valuable information, says-


" The reader must excuse this digression on the sub-
ject of the Chinese foreign commerce, as many have
asserted China to be a country wholly agricultural and
manufacturing, whilc real experience proves the con-
trary. After giving this imperfect account of it, which
might have been extended to a volume, and given more
in detail, no one think, believe that the Chinese
are locked up at borne. It may, indeed, be safely
asserted, that they are one of the most commercial
nations of the globe.5


The aboye descriptions of the Chinese people are
" Residence in China, vol. 2, page 159.


APPENDIX, NO I. 273


confirmed by several witnesses before the Select Com-
matee on the Affairs of the East India Company ; from
whose evidente the following statements are extracted.


Captain CHARLES HUTCHINSON, a commander in the
navy, who commanded the Bombay Castle, from Liver-
pool, and went to India ; and remained there five years.


" As you were three times at Canton engaged in those
transactions of commerce, what should you say, from
your opportunities of observing the character and habas
of the people of China, as to their disposition with res-
pect to intercourse with othcr countries and carrying on
trade generally ?—They leave a very great avidity lo
trade with every body they are permitted to trade with.
The merchants of China are extremely eager to trade
with every one that comes into the country ; more so Man
any people I have seca.


" Do you mean to say that they are a speculative, tra-
ding, enterprising country ?—Very muele so; beyond any
other I have seca.


" Should you think it is a just distinction, speaking of
the Chinese nation, to say that the people are speculative,
and much disposed to foreign trade, although the go-
vernment is professedly adverse to communication with
foreigners ?—Yes, certainly ; the government may be said
to be so far adverse to trade, that it is jealous of you, know-
ing what you have done in India, and it is apprehensive
of your intrusion ; but so long as they may be secure
that nothing else would be attempted, they are as desi-
rous of carrying on the trade as the people themselves.


" Did you happen to hear whether the British manu-
factures found their way into the interior of China, or
whether'they were confined to the districts adjacent to
Canton ?—They find .their way into the interior, so far
as the carriage of them




allow without rendering
VOL. II.




274 APPENDIX, NO. 1. 4PPENDIX, NO. I. 9,75


them too dear. They are very desirous of obtaining
them, I understand, in all parts of China, particularly in
many northe•n distriets, whe•e they requi •e the woollens
for warm elothing.


" Do you think that if there were an open trade the
Chinese would consume British cotton manufactures to
any great extent ?---The Chinese admitting them only at
orle port, of course the consumption could not be ex-
tended so far as if they were admitted at other po•ts,
but as far as they could be carried with advantage, the
Chinese would be glad to buy them and use them."


Mr. CHARLES EVERETT, a commission merchant, who
was engaged for eleven years, since the year 1818, in
purchasing goods for the China market, on account of
American merchants.


" llave you any doubt, from the experience you have
liad, that if the existing restrictions were removed, the
trade to China in British manufactures might be mate-


increased ?—I have no doubt the trade might be
increased to a considerable extent by proper manage-
ment, if the restrictions were removed."


JOSHUA BATES, Esq., an American ; agent for an
American house connected with the East india trade ;
then partner of the firm of J. Bates and John Baring,
and lastly, partner of the house of Baring, Brothers and
Co. ; both of which houses liad the management of the
business of an American house particularly connected
with the China trade.


"1.7ou have expressed an opinion, that in the event of
the China trade being th •o-wn open, it would probably
centre in this country ; would that arise from cheaper
purchases of tea, or from cheaper supplies in this coun-
try, or from cheaper shipping being engaged, or from


what other cause ?—There would be a great export of
manufactures to those regions, and of course something
would be wanted for returns. They would bring back
teas, and every descríption of produce they could find in
those countries ; and not only would they bring back such,
but perhaps increase them by the very act of carrying
manufactures, as many of the inhabitants of those coun-
tries, who have hitherto not laboured at all, seeing such
beautiful things brought out from this country, would
be desirous of possessing them, and proceed to labour to.
get something to buy them with ; and this course of
trade would bring, perhaps, more tea here than is
wanted; and the price being reduced, it would either be
bought for smuggling finto the continent, or for export-
ing to those places to which it would go legally.


" Do you consider the trade in China susceptible of
any great increased stimulus ?—I see nothing to prevent
it inereasing very much."


Mr. JOHN DEANS, a resident in the Eastern Archi-
pelago for twenty years.


" What is their (the Chinese people) character as tra-
ders, speaking generally ?—They are ',leen, enterprising
t •aders, extremely expe


•t in their dealings, and unde•-
stand the nature of the trade of those countries in which
they are settled, perhaps better tiran any other people.


" Have they information that enables them to carry on
their commercial transaetions with advantage ?-17/ey
seem lo have very accurate information, and receive it
very quiehly loo.


" What is their character as merchants, with reference
to the punctuality of their dealin,e:s and the mode of
transacting business ?—Those who have obtained a itigh
reputation are extremen/ tenacions it, and they are
very panana! in all their dealings,




276 APPENDIX, NO. I.


APPENDIX, NO. 277


" Do they appear to possess more or Iess of the cha-
racteristics which are requisite for the business of a mer-
chant than the natives of other oriental countries ?—/
do not think they are exceeded by the natives of any
country as a commercial people.


" Do you include European countries?-1 . do.
" Is it difficult to transact business with them?—Not


the least ; I have never liad any difficulty with the
Chinese.


"Have you, in point of fact, transacted much business
with them?—I have, very extensive business.


" Will you state what that business was imported
largely British manufactures to Java, and the medium of
communication with the natives was generally through the
Chinese, who purchased from me in whole cases or bales,
and retailed to natives, giving me their simple notes of
hand for payment, and being always punctual in meeting
those demands.


" Have you any reason to form ami opinion whether
the toste for European manufactures which exists
amongst the Chinese inhabitants of Java, is peculiar to
them, or whether it extends also to the inhabitants of the
empire cannot exactly state this ; the settlers
are Chinese ; their habits are the same in the Archipe-
lago as in their native country, I believe, and they readily
adopt our manufactures in preferente to their own, when
titose are cheaper and better. When 1 first went to Java,
in 1811, they were almost exclusively clothed in Chinese
manufactures, and 1 witnessed a revolution, ?dila almost
clothed them in European manufactures, during the time
1 was there.


" Have you reason to know in what light the Euro-
pean imports into China are considered by the Chinese
people, or whether they could easily be dispensed with
by them ?—I know that the imports to China are of far


.more importante to that empire than perhaps the tea is
to this country, great as it is considered.


" Can you state to the committee any instante of time
cliscovery of a new article, or the extension of the pro-
duction of an old one, which has added to the value of
the imports into China ?—I can state one, perhaps not of
great importante, but it would shew that there are many
others with respcct to which the same thing might be
done. The large glasses or rummers which are used in
their houses for burning a light before their gods, oppo-
site their front door ; I noticed them on one occasion as
being (nade of imperfect China-glass. I asked the Chi-
nese if they would have any objection to British manu-
facture, if the same patterns were preserved, and they
;ave me patterns of them, which I brought honre, and
had manufactured at Birmingham. 1 took them out, and
had them Bold for a considerable price, and they have
since continued to be supplied from di erent places to a
great extent.


Mr. JOHN ARGYLE MAXWELL.


" Supposing the trade in tea to be thrown open, do
you conceive that tea might be imported imito Sincapore
of a quality fit for the European market, and in sufficient
quantity ?—I have no ground for speaking positively on
that subject : but severa' of the Chinese there have fre-
quently offered to contract with me for the supply of
black teas from Fokien.


ROBERT R1cKARDs, Esq.


" Have you have liad any communication or informa-
tion enabling you to form ami opinion of the anxiety of the
Chinese to extend their trade believe that the Chi-
nese are a perfectly commercial people. Wherever the
Chinese have been established in Sincapore, in Java,




218 APPENDIX, NO.


Borneo, and in the other eastern Islands where they are
settled in great numbers, they are found to be the prin-
cipal traders, and the most industrious pcople in the
country. I thcrefore take the Chinese, generally speak-
ing, to be a perfectly commercial people, and exceedingly
anxious to extend their commercial dealings, in spite of
any restrictive regulations that may be imposed upon
them by the Chinese government.


"I-lave you had any specific examples brought to your
notice of the desire on the part of the Chinese, in other
ports than Canton, to open a communication with English
merchants ?—Yes. I have in my possession an extract
of a letter from an European merchant who had visited
China, to his friend and correspondent in Calcutta. It is
dated Canton, 19th September, 1823 ; and the extract is
as follows :


" The Manilla people only are allowed liberty te
trade with Amoy, which would have been granted to us
could we have waited. A mandarin followed us severa
miles from the port of Amoy, to entreat our return, which
however our plans would not admit of. W Te experienced
civil treatment, even from the mandarins ofrank, and the
complaisance of the inhabitants generally formed an
agreeable contrast to the haughty demeanour of the
lowest here (Canton.) The single circumstance of fo-
reigners not being denied women (as they are most
rigidly here, Cantor° speaks volumes. No foreigner is
allowed to remain after the departure of bis ship. As
far as ;ve could learn, no charge similar to measurement-
duty is levied on foreign ships. The government re-
venue is derived from an export-duty, which the foreigner
pays on bis export cargo ; but this duty appears to be
not fixed : and I suspect the injudieiousness of the man-
darins in increasing it beyond bounds, is the cause of the
discontinuance of the trade by the Manilla people. It is


APPENDIX, NO. r. 279


probable that, with a view to bring it back, the mandarins
would now be more reasonable. They seem to say, that
the Hong Merchants of Amoy are pretty much in the
bankrupt situation of those here (Cantos:.) They in-
quired rnuch the rnost for the articles from the eastern
isles imported in their junks ; and also for rice, for which
they rely mainly on Formosa; but we could forra no idea
of tlie price to be obtained for them. The erices of the
European articles we saw in the shops were not so much
aboye the Canton ratos as was to be expected. I am very
keen for an adventure to Amoy, for the purpose of open-
ing new channels for opium in that quarter, the chief mart
of its consumption ; but it is too weighty a concern for us
to undertake singly ; and I have contented myself with
writing to Manilla for information, and with souncling our
friends there on the subject. As you have already ad-
ventured in a Chinese bottorn, you will, I pope, give a lift
to our plans also. The foreign trade in junks is not con-
traband in China, since the accession of the present
family (about 1660). It is connived at by the government,
and 1 believe, even licensed at Amoy. I do not see
why a junk could not load goods at Amoy or elsewhere,
as if for a foreign port, Batavia, &c.) and after-
wards trans-ship them to a foreign vessel waiting in the
neighbourhood.' "


JOHN CRAWFuRD, Esq.


" From your intercourse with those Chinese, do you
conceive them to be an intelligent, active and commercial
people?—Emínently so. They are a very industrious
people in every way ; they are a business-like people ;
their manners more resemble Europeans in that part of
their character than they do those of Asiatic nations.


" In industry and intelligence do you conceive them to
be superior to other Asiatic nations ?—For all useful and




280 APPENDIX, NO. I. APPENDIX, NO. I. 281


practical purposes I think they are. There are perhaps
a few points in which they are inferior to one or tNvo
other Asiatic nations, but those points are of very little
moment."


JOHN STEWART, Esq. a Member of the Committee.


" Will you state what opinion you have formed of
them as a commercial people, or an anti-commercial
people?—From the intercourse nave liad with the Chi--
nese at Canton, I certainly consider them a people of
very great commercial enterprise, although I believe the
policy of the Chinese is against extending the foreign
commerce of the country."


Captain JOIIN MACKIE.
" Are you of opinion that the Chinese in the places


you visited are anxious for the extension of commerce ?-
I should conceive that they were, because I have atways
found the aúnese inclined to ¿uy any thing that was
at all useful, qf any description.


" You conceive them to be any thing but an anti-
commercial people ?—I should consider them to be quite
otherwise.


JOHN FRANCIS DAVIES, Esq.


" The Chinese, if left by their rulers to themselves,
woulcl perhaps be the most industrious people in the
world."


MR. CRAWFURD'S STATEMENT.


(Ertracted from the Third. Report of the Select Committee osa the
Afairs of the East India Company.)


" Have you prepared a statement for the information
of the Committee upon the subject of the Chinese emi-
grations ?-4 have.


" Will you have the goodness to read it ?"
( The witness then read the same, as follows : )


" A VIEW of the Emigrations of the Chinese to the
various countries adjacent to China.


" The emigrations of the Chinese take place from the
same provinces, which conduct the foreign trade ; viz.
Canton, Fokien, Chekien, and Kiannan. Emigrations
from the tsvo latter, however, are not frequent, and seem
to be confined to Tonquin and the Phillippine islands.
The emigrants direct their course to every country in the
neighbourhood of China, where there is any probability of
finding employment and protection ; in some countries,
however, they are exeluded or restrained, from political
motives, and in others, distance or want of room affords
them no cncouragement to settle. Like the European
nations, they are exeluded altogether from settling in
Japan, on political grounds; the go yernment of Cochin
China also affords them no great encouragement, from the
same reason, and the Dutch and Spanish governments of
Java and the Phillippines have always looked upon them
with a considerable share of suspicion. Distante, but
aboye all, the existente of a dense and comparatively in-
dustrious population, excludes them from the British do-
miníons in Hindostan, where we find only a few shoe-
makers and other artisans, and these confined to Calcutta,
Madras, and Bombay. A few, I understand, have lately
proceeded to the Mauritius.


" Every emigrant who leaves China does so with the
intention of returning to it, although comparatively few
are able to accomplish this object. The expense of emi-
gration to the countrics to which the Chinese usually re-
sort, amounts to but a mere trifle. The passage-money
in a Chinese junk from Canton to Sincapore is but six
Spanish dollars ; and from Fokien but nine. Even these




282 APPENDIX, NO. I. APPENDTX, NO. 5, 283


slender sums, however, are conunonly paid from the fruits
of the emigrant's labour on his arrival, and are seldom
paid in advance. The emigrants, I think, are invariably
of the labouring classes, and . their whole equipment for
the voyage in ordinary cases consists of little else than
the coat on their backs, a bundle of old clothes, and a
dirty mat and pillow to sleep on. Thev no sooner land
than their condition is prodigiously improved; they meet
their countrymen, and probably their friends or relatíves;
they fiad immediate employment in a congenial climate,
and in countries where the wages of labour are perhaps
three times as high as in China, and the neeessaries of
life perhaps by onc-half cheaper.


" The Chinese are not only intellectually, but physi-
cally superior to the nations and tribes among whorn they
settle. A Chinese is at least two inches taller than a
-Siamese, and by three inches taller than a Cochin Chinese,
a Malay, or a Javanese ; and his frame is proportionably
strong and well built. Their superiority in personal skill,
dexterity, and ingenuity are still greater. AH this is
evinced in a very satisfactory manner, by the simple cri-
terios of the comparative rates of wages of the different
classes of inhabitants or sojourners at any given place
where they all meet. At Sincapore, for example, the
wages of ordinary labour for the different classes of la-
bourers are as follow : A Chinese, eight dollars a month ;
a native of the Coromandel coast, six dollars ; and a
Malay, four ; making the work of the Chinese by one-
third better than that of the first, and by 100 per cent.
better than that of the second. When skill and dexterity
are implied, the difference is of course wider ; a Chinese
house-carpenter will earn twelve dollars a month, while
an Indian will earn no more than seven ; and a Malayan
thatcher or wood-cutter, for among this class there are
no carpenters, but five.


"The different classes of Chinese settlers not only live
apart, and keep clistinct from the settlers of other nations,
but also from each other, There is a very wide differ-
ence between the character, habits, and manners of the
Chinese settlers, according to the parts of China from
which they proceed. The natives of Fokien have a elaim
to a higher tone eharacter atan any (.f the rest. Among
the emigrants from the province of Canton there are
three classes ; vis. those froin the tocan of Canton and its
neighbourhood ; the nativés of Macao and other islands in
the river ; and the natives of some mountainous districts
of the same province. The first of these, besides being
addicted to mercantile pursuits, are the best artizans, and
are much disposed to ente).- finto mining speculations. It
is they who are chiefly engaged in working the silver
mines of Tonquin, the gold mines of Borneo, and the
Malay península, and the tin mines of the latter country
and of Banca. The Chinese of Macao and the other is-
lands are held in very little repute amongst the rest of
their countrymen; but the third class, who are numer-
ous, are the lowest in rank. Their most frequent em-
ployment is that of fishermen and mariners ; and it ís
from among their ranks that the European shipping,
when in want, have occasionally received hands to assist
in their navigation. Of all the Chinese these are the
most noisy and unruly. There is still another class of
Chinese, the settlers in the Birlan dominions, who
differ very remarkably from all that I have just enu-
merated. With the exception of a small number of emi-
grants from the province of Canton, who find their way
to Ava by sea, they are all from the province of Yunan;
and in point of industry and intelligence seemed, as far
as I could judge, much superior to the colonists from
Canton and Fokien, From all these again, the mixed
races are to be distinguished by their superior know-


gh,




284 APPENDIX, NO. I.


ledge of the language, manners and customs of the
countries in which they reside, and by some inferiority in
industry and enterprise. It is from this class that Euro-
pean merchants are supplied with brokers, money-
counters, &c. and they are seldom to be seen in the con-
dition of day-labourers or artisans. The Chinese settlers,
of whatever class, engate with much eagerness in agri-
cultural employments, seldom, however, when they can
avoid it, as mere day-labourers. They conduct almost
exclusively the cultivation and manufacture of the catechu
or terra japonica in the Straits of Malacca, the pepper
cultivation of Siam, and the culture of the cave and manu-
facture of sugar in Java, Siam, and the Phillipines, Dif-
fering materially from each other in manners, habits, and
almost always in language or dialect, and entertaining
towards each other provincial prejudices and antipathies ;
broils and quarrels, sometimes even attended with blood-
shed, frequently break out among them. These are oc-
casionally subjects of embarrassment in the European
settlements, the authorities of which have never, I am
persuaded, any thing to apprehend from their combina-
tion or resistance ; and I may add, that of all the Asiatic
settlers in our eastern settlements, the Chinese are most
obedicnt to the laws, and notwithstanding the superior
amount of their property, and even of their numbers,
afford the least employment to the courts ofjustice.


" The Chinese population settlecl in the various
countries adjacent to China, may be roughly estimated
as follows-


The Phillipine islands
- 13,000


Borneo
- 120,000


Java - 45,000
The Dutch settlement of Rhio, Straits


of Malacca — - - 18,000


APPENDIX, NOS I. 285


Sincapore - 6,200
Malacca - - 2,000
Penang - - 8,500
Malayan Peninsula - 40,000
Siam - 440,000
Cochin China - - 14,000
Tonquin - - 25,000


Total - 734,700


" The population mentioned here is of a peculiar des-
cription, consisting, for the most part, of adult males, and
of very few women or children, a circumstance easily ex-
plained. The laws of which, prohibit emigration
in general, are a dead letter, as far as the men are con-
cerned, but it is imperativa with respect to women and
children, or perhaps, more strictly, the manners and feel-
ings of the people themselves prevent the latter from
quitting the country. I have never seen or heard of a
female amongst the emigrants, and never saw a Chinese
woman, except at Hué, the capital of Cochin China,
where two or three were pointed out to me as objects of
curiosity, who had been kidnapped and brought there
when children. The emigrants, however, without scruple,
forro connexions with the females of the country, and the
descendants of these repeatedly intermarrying with
Chinese, are in time not to be distinguished from the
genuine Chinese, either in features or complexion. In all
the countries where the Chinese have been established,
there exists a considerable creole population of this des-
cription, such as Java, Siam, Cochin China, and the
Phillipines. But in countries where they have been only
recently established, the disproport.ion of the sexos is im-
mense. Thus, out of the 6,200 Chinese inhabitants of


1




286 APPENDIX, NO. I. 287


Sincapore, the number of female is about 360, and even
of these the greater part are Chinese only by name. The
extent of the annual emigrations from China may be
judged from the fact, that the number which arrived at
Sincapore in 1825, amounted to aboye 3,500, and in 1826
to upwards of 5,500. The annual number of emigrants
which arrived in Siam, was rated to me, when I was in
that country, at 7,000. A single junk has been known to
bring 1,200 passengers ; indeed, I have myself seen one
bring 900 to Sincapore. The number who return to
China is considerable, but very small indeed in compari-
son to the arrivals. Even of these the greater number
come back again; and 1 have known men of property,
who have visited China, and returned with titles."


No. II.


PROOFS OF THE RAPIDITY WITH WHICII WASTE LAND RISES


IN VALUE, WHEREVER. PEOPLE CONGREGATE, IN NEW


COLONIES.


MR. STUART.


" The population of Troy has increased from 3,000 in
1810, to 12,000 in 1830. Property is very valuable. A
tenement 65 feet by 25 feet, was pointed out to me as
having been lately sold for 4,000 dollars."


" Mr. Sloat has lately sold 200 acres of wood land,
(near Newbury on the Hudson) which he bought from
the States in 1801 for 50 cents the acre, at an immense
advance."


" Colonel Colman gives a very favourable account of
Florida, wherc the soil is good by the river siete. He
hímself has purchased 900 acres on the banks of the
Appalachicola, all of excellent land, for which he paid
9,000 dollars."


(On the Mississippi about 300 miles from New Orleans)
" we had excellent butter-milk at one of our slopping
places for wood, occupied by a tenant, who pays 4 dol-
lars an acre of yearly rent for a few acres of ground."


" In many places on the banks of the Ohio, a great deal
of fine alluvial land, which, I was informed sold for 10 or
12 dollars per acre."


" Urge fortunes have been mute (at Rochester which
in 1818 contained 1,000 inhabitants, and in 1828, 13,000)
by the purchase and sale of building lots."


A million of acres, which are rapidly increasing in
value."




288 APPENDIX, NO. II. APPENDIX, NO. II. 289


" The appropriation of land for schools, many of which
have become very valuable."


" Real property of allkinds at New York brings great
prices. The cite of a house, at the comer of two cen-
tral streets, 29 feet in one street and 130 in the other,
was lately sold for 38,100 dollars."


" To those who would purchase land with a view to
pro" I would rather recommend the banks of the Hud-
son, within 30 or 50 miles of New York, where the
farmers have succeeded in establishing steam boats, to
carry their produce daily to the city."


" It may, however, be worth while to mention that
plenty of improved land is to be liad in the neighbour-
hood of Cincinnati, varying in price according to its
distance from the town."


" In fact the extent of country, which the United
States have acquired since the treaty of 1783, far exceeds
three hundred millions of acres in the very heart of their
territory, besides the boundless regions to the north and
north-west. A great proportion of this prodigious extent
of land remains with the general government, and must
in the course of years produce to the United States some




thous.and of dollars."1'
TIIE REVEREND J. FIDLER,




Author Observations on the United States and
Canada.


" The value of land in Canada is increasing regularly
and rapidly. For instante, Youngc Street was first set-
tled thirty-seven years ago. At that time land on it was
given to any one who applied. A few years after land
was worth from 50 to 100 dollars. A lot of about 200


• Say one thousand millions of pounds sterling ; or more, by a
fourth, tila» the Euglish national debt.


acres ís now worth from 1,0007. to 2,0007. on many parts
of Yonuge Street. In the bcautiful township of Oro,
lately settled, land a short time ago was 1 dollar per
acre: it is now worth from 4 to 5, and increases in value
from half a dollar to a dollar every year. On the Huron
tract, it is now selling at from 1 to 2 dollars. Emigration
is setting in that way ; and the probable consequence
will be that land there, in two or three years, will be dou-
ble that sum. Land has generally been found to double
itself every three or four years."


" In the towns of Kingston, Brockville, &c. land is
almost as high as in many parts of England ; whilst at a
small distante from these towns it can be purchased,
usually good, at 2 or 3 dollars. In York Town, an acre
is sometimes worth 1,0001. or 1,2001. A little remove from
this, uncleared land is worth 6 or 8 dollars ; and a few
miles further off, not perhaps aboye 2 dollars. If rail-
roads be formed, plans of which have been laid before the
legislature, and acts passed to legalize them, the land now
selling at 2 dollars, would soon be worth 101."


Communicated by Mr. Cattermole of York, Upper
Canada, and published iu an Account y the South
Aust •alian Land Company.
" When the town of York was founded, much of the


contiguous land was given away to favourites, who ex-
pected that the increase of population by natural means,
and by immigration, would give it value. They have not
been disappointed. A person named Elmsley possessed
some of this land, and when King's College was founded
the sito (about 5 acres) was purchased by government of


Elmsley for 1,2001. Fifteen years previously, this
land would not have sold for 2 dollars per acre."


" Mr. John Masson, a timan, living in King Street,
York, took in 1830, a lease for 21 years, of a piece of


VOL. II. U




290 APPENDIX, NO. II. APPENDIX, NO. II. 291


land in York, measuring:23 feet in front by 80 feet Jeep,
at a ground rent of 171. 10s. currency, per annum; and
on 40 feet being added to the depth, the ground rent was
raised to 221. per annum. Fifteen years before this land
would not have soló for more than 3 or 4 dollars per
acre."


" Mr. Francis Collins, editor of the Canadian Free-
man, purchased by public auction in July 1831, a quarter
of an acre of waste land in York for 6001. currency."


" Mr. M'Cullum soló in Juay 1831 a village lot,
situated on Dundas Street, nineteen miles from York, at
the rato of 3001. per acre of currency."


" In the last seventeen years, the land within fourteen
miles of the Erie canal, has risen from 25 cents (quarter
of a dallar) to 16 dollars."


Mit. PICKERING (late of Fenny Stratford),
Author of the Emigrant's Guide to Canada, 1830.
" Been to ask the price of land to rent (near Baltimore,


U. S.) One lot of 50 acres, only half cleared, 4 miles
from town, 18 shillings per acre per annum : another of
rich meadow land, several miles off near the river, I was
asked 12 dollars or 21. 14s. per acre rent."


" Building lots of land (in York) within the last year
or two have visen in value very fast, on account of the
seat of government being decided to remain here for come
years to come."


"Niagara to Queen's town, and indeed round the head
of the lake to Dundas, Ancaster and Hamilton, a fine
country, genial air, healthy, well watered and settled:
land is from 30 shillings to 4/. 16s. per acre."


" Farms sell here (on the banks of the Detroit river)
from 45 shillings to 3/. 10s. per acre : a house and some
buildings included."


MR. WENTWORTH (of New South Wales),
Author of an Account of Australasia. 1823.


" The price of land, it is almost needless to observe, is
entirely regulated by its situation and quality. In the
towns, it is as various as in thc country ; nor is there
any place in which thc variation in value is so great as in
the town of Sydney itself. There it 'unges from 501. an
acre to 1,0001."


" With respect to the value of what is termed forest
land, when in a state of nature and not possessing any
advantageous locality, it may generally be taken thus
In the county of Cumberiand," (the county in which Syd-
ney is placed) " 15 shillings per acre ; in the county of
Camden, including the district of Illawarra or Five Is-
lands" (farther from market) " 10 shillings per acre ;. on
the banks of the Coal River" (still farther from market)
" 5 shillings per acre : in parts more remote, 2 shillings
and 6 pence per acre."


" In 'he course of thirty years the tract of land in
question (the banks of the Hawkesbury), taking the un-
improved land as our criterion, has evidently visen to
this enormous price from having Been of no value what-
ever ; or, in other words, each acre of land has increased
in value, during the interval which has elapsed since the
foundation of the colony, at the rate of 3 shillings and 21d.
per annum ; and that too, under the most impolitic
and oppressive system (of government) to which any
colony perhaps was ever subjected."


Mr. BOITCHER (of New South Wales),
Communicated to 111r. Robert Gouger.


" In the year 1831151r. Wentworth sold near two acres
of land situated in the main street, and near the King's




1292 APPENDIX, NO. II. APPENDIX, NO. 11. 293
Wharf Custom-house, Sydney, for 7,800/., the whole of
which, ten years previously, might have been bought
for 3507."


" In 1828 Mr. Unwins bought 6 acres of land on the
Surrey Hills, about 1 infle from Sydney, for 6501.; and
in 1830 the same land veas resold for 1,8007."


" In 1829 Mr. Bettington purchased a píete of land
situated at Cockle Bay, Sydney, comprising a frontage
of about 150 feet, and a depth of about 200 feet, adaptcd
for a wharf, &c. for 6091. This land in 1831 would have
realized, exclusive of the buildings, about 2,0001."


" In 1830 Mr. Simeon Lord received from the local
government 6,0001. as an arbitration award for about
2 acres of land situated near Government House, Syd-
ney. He would gladly have sold it ten years previously
for 2501. or 3007."


" Early in 1828 Madame Rens bought at auction a
piece of ground in the main street of Sydney, on the
sitc of the old Orphan School, comprising a frontage of
150 feet and depth of 80 feet, for 1,200/. ; and in 1829
sold half of the same plot to Mr. Horton James for
1,800/.


" In the latter end of 1827 Messrs. Cooper and Levey
purchased from Captain Piper for 25,0001. the estate of
Point Piper, situated 4 miles from Sydney town. This
estate consisted of 500 acres of land, having an exten-
sive frontage to part of Sydney Harbour, with a large
house, pleasure grounds, &c. It would now readily fetch
150,0007., if divide(' into allotments of 2 or 3 acres each
(for villas) and sold by auction at a moderate credit."


" Building allotments in Sydney town, in a fair situa-
tion, comprising a frontage of 60 feet and a depth of
80 feet, could be readily purchased in 1825 for from 701.
to 1501. In 1830 they usually brought at auction from
6001. to 1,5001., according to their situation."


" On the Parramatta road, at from 2 to 5 miles from
Sydney, land, having a frontage tu the road, could be
purchased in 1825 for 5/. to 127. per acre : it now fetches
from 30/. to 1501. per acre."


On the South Head road, at from 1 to 3 miles from
Sydney, similar land could have been bought for 31. tu
101. per acre : it now fetches from 301. to 1007. per
acre."


"In the township of Maitland, Hunter's River (70 miles
from Sydney) uncleared land could be readily purchased
for . 11. or 2/. per acre in 1825: it is now worth from 51.
to 1007. per acre, according to situation."


" Land having a frontage to the main road, in Mait-
land, and not far from the court-house, is now sold for
building on at from 301. to 150/. per acre, which in 1825
would not have produced from 31. to 51. per acre."


" In 1827 Mr. John Smith purchased a small farm of
60 acres from Mr. Allen, situated near the town of
Maitland, Hunter's River, for 250/. This farm has a
frontage to the main road of about 10 acres; and these
10 acres would now sell for 1,2001., or 1201. ella."


From Mit. CURR'S Account of Van Diemen's Land. 1824.
" The value of uncultivated land in the colony varíes


inuch according to situation and quality. Until of late,
grants of land were sold and exchanged very currently,
without being actually located by the settler (buyer):
and the price varíes from 10 to 20 shillings per acre."


The rent of houses in Hobarts Town is very high.
A cottage consisting of four to six rooms, lets for 601.,
70/. and 80/. per annum: a house of two floors contain-
ing eight or ten rooms, for 120/. to 1501. per annum :
and if in an advantageous situation, 2007. will be given
for it."




294 APPENDIX, NO. II. APPENDIX, NO. 295


" Farros are very frequently rented in Van Diemen's
Land."


" Other persons are induced to make unequal ex-
changes : giving their uncultivated lands for smaller


farms in more poptious situations."


CAPTAIN SUTHERLAND,


Communicated to the ,S'outh Australian Land Company.


" Captain Sutherland, twelve years ago, received from
Governor Macquarie a grant of 1,000 acres within 4 miles
of Launceston in Van Diemen's Land. He has expended
upon it no money whatever, in roads, buildings or other
improvements. Being obliged, however, to stock it, he
expended 200/. in horned cattle and sheep, and put
tuero upon it. It is now worth 2/. per acre ; the value
being given by the increase of population in the neigli-
bourhood."


" Captain Barclay received at the same time with
Captain Sutherland a free grant of 4,000 acres of land,
about 7 miles from Launceston. He has expended in
building and improvements about 4,0001.; and he has let
on lease for 10 years at 1000/. a year."


Practical Notes malle during a Tour in Canada in 1831,
by ADAM FERGUSSON, of


" Much has been said of the rapid advances which the
Upper Province is making, and of the rising value of pro-
perty there. 1 was told of a case which occurred about
tliirt.y years ago, where a lieutenant in the army, being
£50. in arrear to a Montreal merchant, insisted, along
with his promissory note, on handing over a lot of land
assigned to him somewhere in the then Western Wilder-
ness , a security which the poor merchant regarded as


mueh upon a par with the subaltern's note, who was about
to leave Canada to join bis regiment. The allotment
consisted of 1,250 acres upon the lake Ontario, of which
seven hundred were sold last year for seven hundred
pounds, and .five hundred and lifty acres of the bcst qua-
lity reserved. Such are the changes which time effects,
without the aid of any other agent, and such cases, I was
assured, are by no means Tare." (Page 69.)


" Emigrants, unable or unwilling to purchase, will llave
little difficulty in providing themselves with a farm to
rent, either for money or on shares, which means half
the clear produce as rent. I was told by a gentleman of
a fricad of his, who was very comfortably settled in this
way near York, upon a farm of 200 acres. Eighty acres
are cleared, the remainder in wood pasture. He pays
only 251. of rent, and clears 200/. per annum, besides
keeping his family.


" To show how land is advancing in value, this farm, a
few years ago, might have been purchased for 200/., but
is of course worth a great deal more now." (page 275.)


" In the afternoon we reached Brandtford, a pretty
considerable village belonging to the Indians, a tract of
land in this quarter having been reserved for their behalf.
It is managed by governnient, who account for rents and
sales to the chiéfs. There had been a sale of village lots
this day, and for the -first time I saw the Indians as-
sembled in any numbers. The lots sold for 251., one-
fourth of an acre, which is an immense price in Canada,
and argues an expectation of Brandtford continuing to
prosper." (pago 286.)


" The first farm which 1 visited was in the immediate
vicinity of Albany, forming parí of the princely estate of
M. Van Ransalaer. It containecl 600 acres of fine mellow
loam along the banks of the river, divided finto fields
by rail-feraces, which cost hese 6d. for .sixteen feet,




296 APPENDIX, NO. II.


including boards, halls and work ; four rails and about
five feet high.


" The farm was let some years ago at 2,000 dollars, or
4501., which, in America, seems to be a very high rent ;
but it must be recollected that its situation is particularly
favourable from its Glose contact with the thriving eity
óf Albany." (page 293.)


In the year 1817, Mr. Robert Gourlay* circulated
through Canada a number of queries, for the purpose of
ascertaining facts relative to the state of that colony,
amongst which the following question was submitted.—
" THE PRICE OF WILD LAND AT THE FIRST SETTLEMENT OF
THE TOWNSHIP ; ITS PROGRESSIVE RISE AND PRESENT PRICE ;


ALSO OF LAND SO FAR CLEARED ; STATING CIRCUMSTANCES


AS TO IIUILDINGS, PROPORTION CLEARED, OR PECULIARITY,


IF ANY, OF LOCAL SITUATION ; REFERRING IN EVERY IN-


STANCE TO ACTUAL SALES ?"


This question was answered by committees formed
from among the resident owners in various townships.
The answers follow


TOWNSHIP OF SANDWICH, IN THE WESTERN DISTRICT,
Settlement commenced in 1750, and contains at present


(1817) about 1,000 souls.
" The price of wild land about 20 years ago was 1,s. 3d.


to 2s. 6d. per acre, and its progrcssive rise about 2s. 6d.
for every five years. The present price of land is from
10s. to 15s. except in particular situations, such as lie on
the straight. No lands have been rccently sold in the
township ; the settlement has been long at a stand. Im-
proved farms on the borden of the straight, with a corn-


See Gourlay's: l-listorical Account. uf Upper Canada, Vol. 1,
page 269, et seg.


APPENDIX, NO. II. 297


mon farm house, barn, and out-houses, orchard, and about
50 acres within fence, would rate from 2/. 10s. to 61. 5s.
per acre, and more, according to the situation and value
of the improvements."


TOWNSHIP OF WALDEN IN THE WESTERN DISTRICT,


Settlement commenced in 1781; present population 675
persons.


" At first settlement, the price of land was from ls. to
33. per acre ; the present price is 25s. per -acre ; some
land partly cleared has been lately sold at 40s. per acre.


TOWNSHIP OF RALEIGH, WESTERN DISTRICT,


Settlement commenced in 1792; present population
273 persons.


" At the commencement of the settlement, lots of 200
acres situatecf on the banks of the Thamcs, were sold at
251. In 1804 they sold for 1311. 5s, The same lands
are now sellíng for 2501. without improvements. Back
lands of the best quality may be fairly cstimated at one-
third of these prices."


TOWNSHIPS OF DOVER, EAST AND WEST CHATHAM, CAMDEN,


OXFORD, HOWARD, AND HARWICII, ON THE RI VER


THAMES.


Settlement commenced in 1794; inhabited Itouses 133.
" Some farms in good local situations, with tolerable


builclings and orchards thercon, well cultivated, con-
taining 200 acres of land, sold for 6901. The average
price of lands from tlie first settlement of these town-
ships, was from 2s. 6d. to 20s. per acre."




298 APPENDIX, NO. II. APPENDIX, NO. II. 299


TOWNSHIPS OF DORCHESTER, DELAWARE, AND WESTMIN-


STER ON THE RIVER, TIIAMES.


" The flats on the Thames have always sold high, and
are now worth 31. per acre."


TOWNSHIP OF OXFORD, IN THE LONDON DISTRICT.


" A two hundred acre lot, with thirty acres cultivated
land, a log house and frame barn 30 by 40 feet, is
worth 5001."


TOWNSHIP OF WINDHAM, IN TIIE LONDON DISTRICT.


" At our first settlement, wild land sold for 5s. per
acre; at present the, wild land in the unsettled parts of
the township will sell for 10s. per acre ; but there is wild
land in the settlemcnt that cannot be bought for 1/. 5s.
per acre ; and some improved farms are held at 31. 15s.
per acre, where there is not abo ye 60 acres improved;
but there have been actual sales of farms from 11. 5s. to
3/. per acre, according to the improvement made in
them."


TOWNSHIP OF CHARLOTTEVILLE, IN THE LONDON DISTRICT.


" About the first settlement of the township, land sold
for 5s. per acre, but will now average about 1/. A farm
of 200 acres of land, with a log-house and barn, with 50
acres cleared and fenced, and a small orchard of bearing
trees, might be purchased for about 7001. and occasion-
ally less."


TOWNSHIP OF NORWICH, IN THE LONDON DISTRICT.


A few families arrived in 1808, but very little progress
was made till 1811.


" About 6s. 3d. was at our commencement the price
of land, and has progressively risen .in value to 13s. per


acre ; one sale lately made of an improvement, 100 acres,
35 cleared, frame barn, log-house, good fence, price 3751."


TOWNSHIPS OF WEST FLAMBORO' AND BEVERLY,


GORE DISTRICT.


" Wild lands at first settling, sold for 101. per 200
acres ; and now sell from 10s. to 11. 101. and 2/. per
acre. Cleared land sells from 21. to 121. 10s. per acre,
according to its situation and advantages."


TOWNSHIP OF ANCASTER, IN THE GORE DISTRICT.


" Wild lands at the first settling of this township sold
at 6/. 5s. per lot of 200 acres ; now sell from 12s. 6d. to
11. 10s. and 51. per acre. Cleared lands sell from 21. 10s.
to 121. 10.s. per acre, according to its situation and
advantages.


TOWNSHIP OF BARTON IN THE GORE DISTRICT.


" In 1792, land sold at ls. 3d. per acre ; in 1800, 5s.; in
1806, 153.; in 1810, U. 108.; in 1817, about 2/.10s. On
an average about 51. per acre, for an improved farm of
200 acres, with small farms, or log-house and barn, and
other out-houses. Improved farms have sold from 61. 5s.
to 71. 10s. per acre."


TOWNSHIP OF SALTFLEET IN THE GORE DISTRICT.


" The price of new land in this township, at the first
settlement thereof, rated so low as to make it no object
with many. A lot of 100 acres might be purchased for
51. to 61. 58., and largo quantities were actually bought
and sold at these prices : it has gradually rose from that
time to the year 1812, sanee which time it seems stationary
for want of purchasers. But the average price of wild
land may be rated at 1/. 5s. per acre. A farm of about
300 acres of land, one thircl cleared, and a comfortable




300 APPENDIX, NO. II.


APPENDIX, NO. II. 301


house and good barn, with a bearing orchard of 011C or
tuyo hundred apple trees, the whole premises being in
good repair, may be purchased from 1,0001. to 1,500/. ac-
cording to situation. A farm nearly answering to this
description was actually sold for the highest sum here
mentioned,"


TOWNSHIP OF HUMBERSTON, NIAGARA DISTRICT.


"At the first settlement, when much land was held on
location tickets, lots of 200 acres could be bought for
twenty dollars. The price has gradually increased, and
of late years sales have been efrected at 2l dollars per
acre."


TOWNSHIP OF WILLOUGHBY, IN THE NIAGARA DISTRICT,


Surveycd and laid out by arder of government in 1787.
"A farm of 200 acres, one half under cultivation, with


tolerable farm buildings and orchard, now sells for 625/.
to 700/. Manis, however, upon the Niagara or Chip-
pewa rivers, will sell much higher, according to their
situation."


TOWNSHIP OF GRANTHAM, IN THE NIAGARA DISTRICT.


" Farms of 200 acres, situate on the znost public roads, of
a good quality, confortable house, good barn, orchard, &c.
from 100 to 150 acres improved, Will sell for 61. to 71. 103.
per acre. Farras of 100 acres, small house and barn,
60 acres improved, will sell from 51. to 61. per acre.
Lands in the village of St. Catharine, (the only one in
township) in 1809-10 and 11, sold for 6/. 5s. per acre,
now sell from 301. to 200/. for building lots."


TOWNSHIP OF PELHAM, NIAGARA DISTRICT.


'' When the settlement of this township commenced,


wild land was selling at 61. 10s. for 100 acres ; in the
year 1800, at 10s. per acre ; the present price is 40s. per
acre."


TOWNSHIP OF CROWLAND, NIAGARA DISTRICT.


"A farm of 100 acres, nearly contiguous to milis, with
about 40 acres cleared, and very neat buildings, was sold
for 3121. 108."


TOWNSHIP OF IIALDIMAND, NEWCASTLE DISTRICT,


Settlement commeneed in 1797.
"At the first settlement of the township, lands were


worth 5s. per acre ; at the present time, in good situations,
15s. and in ordinary situations, 108. per acre."


TOWNSHIP OF KINGSTON, MIDLAND DISTRICT,


Settlement commeneed in 1783 ; population, including the
town of Kingston, 2,850.


" Few or no actual parchases of land were made by
the original settlers, as their situation entitled them to
grants from . govermnent


Farros of 200
acres, with perhaps 60 or 80 acres cleared, with a house
and barn, and within a range of 10 miles of the town,
may be worth from 2/. to 51. per acre."


" At the first settlement, many persons sold their 200
acre lots for the value of a few shillings ; twelve years ago,,
land a few miles from Kingston, sold for 2s. 6d. per acre;
and lately, in the same situations, from 30s. to 40s.; but
the fire-wood alone will soon be worth as much as that
per acre."


TOWNSHIP OF EARNEST TOWN, INCLUDING AMIIERST ISLAND,


MIDLAND DISTRICT.


" At the first settlement the value of wild lands was
merelv nominal. They ]lave progressively risen, and




302 APPENDIx, NO. II. APPENDIX, NO. 11. 303


their present price may be computad at 1/. 58. per acre.
The average price of 100 acres of land, one half ím-
proved, with tolerable buildings thereon, may be valued
at 31. per acre."


TOWNSHIP OF ADOLPHUS TOWN, MIDLAND DISTRICT.


" At the first settlement of this township, land could
be purchased at 18. per acre. E rose gradually to 5s.,
108., 15s., 20s.. &c. At this moment there is no land in
the township could be procure(' for less than 4/. per
acre, and it is believed few would sell at that price."


TOWNSIIIP OF SOPIIIASBERG, MIDLAND DISTRICT.


"At the first settlement, land was about 18. per acre ;
there is little wild land for sale here ; best sales mace
from three to five dollars per acre."


TOWNSIIIP OF LANSDOWN, JOIINSTOWN DISTRICT,


Settlentent commeneed in 1788.


"Price of land, at the first settlement, ít was sold
at 51. for 200 acres, and has gradually risen in value to
one clollar per acre, at a distance from the settlement ;
but on the road or river it may be valued at three dollars
per acre, and that without any improvement ; in the
centre of the town from three to.six dollars per acre."


TOWNSIIIP OF CIIARLOTTENBURGH, EASTERN DISTRICT,


Settlement comnzeneed in 1784.


"The price of wild 'and, for the first period, say six
years oís the settlement, was from 18. to 5s. per acre; and
at present, is from 20s. to 308. the acre. A lot of 200
acres, with 30 acres cleared, under good cultivation, with
a farm-house and barn with sheds, &c. is worth from
3001. to 6401.


Travels in America in the years 1794, 1795, and 1796, by
the Duke off Rocheibueault Liancourt.


Vol. 1. pa. 6. Land in this neíghbourhood (Phila-
delphia), is worth 80 dollars per acre, 6 years ago it was
only worth 42.


Vol. 1. pa. 77. General Haud bought 5 years ago the
estate on which he resides, 2 miles from the town, for 25
dollars per acre ; and has lately refusecl 100 dollars which
were offered him. The price of land has risen in the
same proportion throughout America, as land in the cul-
tivated parts.


Vol. 1. pa. 98. The price of ground shares in the town
of Harrisburg (founded 8 years before) is from 150 to 200
dollars per acre, the land in the surrounding country is
from 32 to 48 dollars per acre.


Vol. 1. pa. 195. The inhabitants only scttled liere
(Painted-post, State of New York) four years ago. The
soil is good, especially near the town, where from 15 to
18 dollars is the price for an acre.


Vol. 1. pa. 261. - Metcalf, 3 years ago, purchased
his estate for 18. per acre : of the thousand acres he
then bought, he has airead),


sold 500 and upwards, at
from 1 to :3 dollars per acre, and some have fetched 25
dollars. The profits which are mace by speculations
in land, all over America, and especially in this neigh-
bourhood (Genesser) are great beyond calculation.


Vol. 2. pa. 10. W. Shorten bought his estate here
(Oswego), 3 years ago, at M. per acre, and can now sell
it for 12s.: only 10 acres are cleared.


Vol. 2. pa. 39. The land here (Schuylerton) which in
1785 cost a few penco per acre, and 3 years ago not
more than 5 dollars, is now sold not merely in the vicinity
of the town, but also 15 miles beyond it, for 19 or 20
dollars per acre.




304 APPENDIX, NO. II.
305


vI


Vol. 3. pa. 242. The settlement of the country between
Harper's Ferry and Coosooky Mountains, is just begin-
ning. Land fetches from 7 to 8 dollars the acre.


Vol. 4. pa. 161. Belvidere consists of about 20 houses,
but the number ofinhabitants is annually inereasing, and
the neighbourhood is populous. The Lands in the neigh-
bourhood are sold at from 40 to 48 dollars the acre. The
townlots, which are a quarter of an acre, being at present
from 100 to 125 dollars.


No. III.


PART A
` OF A CORRESPONDENCE BETWEEN THE ENGLISH GO-


VERNMENT AND A BODY OF INDIVIDUALS DESIROUS TO
FOUND A COLONY.


PROVISIONAL COMEITTEE


Of the South ilustraban Land Company.
W. Wolryche Whitmore, Esq. M. P. Chairman.


George Fife Angas, Esq. W. A. Mackinnon, Esq. M. P.
Dominio Browne, Esq. M. P. J. A. S. Maekenzie, Esq. M. P.
H. L. Bulwer, Esq. M. P. Samuel Milis Esq.
Walter F. Campbell, Esq. M. P. John Melville, Esq.
Henry Drummond, Esq. Sir R. Musgrave, Bart, M. P.
Captain Gowan. Richard Norman, Esq.
Richard Heathfielcl, Esq. J. E. Strickland, Esq.
Samuel Hoare, Esq. Colonel Torrens, M. P.
William Hutt, Esq. George Traill, Esq.M. P.
J. Jephson, Esq, M. P. R. Throckmorton,Esq. M.P.
C. Show Lefevre, Esq. M. P. Sir II.Williamson, Bort. M. P.
Lord Lumley, M. P.


cs During the late session of Parliamcnt, Mr. Hutt,
one of the members for Hull, requested Lord Howick to
agree to a motion for a return of the 2v/tole of this cor-
respondence. His lordship said that he should oppose
the motion; on account of the expense of printing. On
the sanee account, I can give here only a part of the cor-
respondence : but this part of it ís enough to show the
animus on both sides ; and it leaves the government with
the last word.


VOL. II.




306 APPENDIX, NO. III. APPENDIX, NO. III. 807


Copy of cc Letter fronz Mr. W. Hay, Under-Secre-
tary qf State for the Colonies, to Mr. Wolryche Whit-
more, M. P, for Bridgénorth.


Downing Street, 30th May, 1832.


Lord Goderich has received the note which
you addressed to him on the 28th instant, with its en-
closure, containing " a Proposal for founding a British
Colony in South Australia, between the degrees of longi-
tude 132 and 141, both inclusive, to extend northward to
latitude 20, inclusive, and to include Kangaroo Island
and the other islands on the south coast under a Boyal
Charter ;" and I am directed to acquaint you that after
having given to the subject his best consideration, he has'
come to the determination of withholding the sanction of
bis Majesty's Government to the undertaking.(1)


Indopendently of the objections which he should feel
himself called on to make to several of the propositions
which are brought forward, as well from their novelty, as
from the difficulty which he foresees in regard to their
practical operation, he cannot but consider that great
public inconvenience would arise from the circumstance


(1) It would appear by the tcrms of this paragraph,:as
if Lord Goderich liad decided the question in two days,
between the 28th, the date of Whitmore's letter, and
the 30th, the date of Mr. Hay's. Let us do his lordship


j ustice : the subject liad been before him for a whole year,
as will be seen furtber on ; but why should Mr. Hay
omit all notice of this faca, and write as if Lord Goclerich
hacl never heard of the subject tul the 28th of May,
1832?


of a new colony being placed so near to the penal settle-
ments at Sydney and in Van Diemen's Land, as that
proposed.


I have the honor to be, Sir,
Your most obedient scrvant


(Signed)
R. W. HAY.


W. W..Wh¿tmore, Esq. M. P. 8s.c. &c.


Copy of a MEMORIAL addressecl lo Viscount Goderich,
flis Majesty's Principal Secretar)


of State for the
Colonies ; in answer to the aboye.


Office of the South Australían Land Company,
8, Regent Street, June 4, 1832.


Tlie undersigned, being members' of a Provisional Com-
mittee formed for the purpose of founding a colony on
the South coast of Australia, persons desirous to settle in
the proposed colony, and others taking a deep interest in
the matter, have perused, with surprise and sorrow, a
letter addressed by Mr. Hay to Mr. Whitmore, dated
May 30 ; whcrein it is stated, that " Lord Goderich has
come to the determination of withholding the sanction of
His Majesty's govcrnment from their undertaking :" and
they now take the liberty of submitting to Viscount G o-
derich a statement of the grounds, on which they are led
to hopo and trust, that bis lordship will be pleased to re-
consider his decision in this matter ; confident that, when
all the circumstances of the case shall be examined, Vis-
count Goderich will not persist in his present deter-
mination.


I. That. the proposal submitted to Viscount Goderich
by Mr. Whitmore, as chairman of the Provisional Coni-
míttee, on the 23th is not a new proposal, but
teas submitted to Viscount Goderich in lintel) greater




308 APPENDIX, NO. III. APPENDIX, NO. ni. 309
detail, and in a printed form,(2) during the autumn of
last year ; when a deputation consisting of Colonel Tor-
rens, Mr. Bacon, Mr. Gouger and Mr. Graham, waited
upan Viscount Goderich for the purpose of ascertaining
bis lordship's opinion of that proposal. That the mem-
bers of the deputation were so well pleased with the
opinion which Viscount Goderich expressed of their
undertaking, that they thought it needless to ask for any
written reply to their proposal, but advised the persons
whom they represented to proceed with the underta-
king, by submitting the intencled charter to the law offi-
cers of the crown, and raising the necessary capital.


II. That a notice of the proposed colony having ap-
peared in a newspaper, in which it was statcd that bis
Majesty's government liad given their unqualified sanc-
tion to the undertaking, Viscount Howick, under-secre-
tary of state for the colonies, then superintending the
Australian department,(3) addressed to Mr. Bacon a
memorandum in the following words.


Colonial Office, 13th Oct. 1831.


"I was surprized to see in the Spectator newspaper of
yesterday, an assertion that the government liad giren
its sanction to the plan for the establishment of a char-
tered colony in Australia. This statement is not strictly
correct. It is a mistake to suppose that any official
sanction has been giren to the plan. The only approba-


(2) Proposal to His Majesty's Government for found-
ing a Colon?' on the Southern Coast of Australia. 1831.


(3) The Australian department was soon afterwards
taken from Lord Howick and given to Mr. Hay.


tion which has been expressed, was conveyed by myself(4)
verbally to Major Bacon ; and in the conversation I had
with him, I distinctly informed him that I was authorized
to promise nothing ; and that I merely expressed my
own opinion, being ignorant of that which Lord Gode-
rich might entertain,(5) as I did not consider the scheme
sufficiently maturcd for his decision.


" The substance of what I said in this un-official man-
ner was this, that I mysclf thought very favourably of
the project ; and that doing so, I was anxious that it
should be laid before Lord Goderich in suCh a shapc as
to be most likely to meet with his approbation.(6) For
this purpose, I advised the modification in the original
project, with respect to the number of inhabitants who
should be considered sufficient for the introduction of a
representative government, and with respect to the nomi-
nation. of the governor, which have since been made.(7)


(4) This is not strictly correct. The deputation liad
had a long interview with Lord Goderich, whom they
found reading their printed proposal, and who suggested
two alterations in it, which were immediately adopted.
What Lord Goderich said of the plan at that interview,
and how far he spoke officially, will be


. seen further on.
(5) Just so ; but Lord Goderich had very distinctly


expressed his own opinion, unknown to Lord Howick ;
and the notice in the Spectator referred, not to the opi-
nion of the under-secretary, but to that of his chief.


(6) It had been already, unknown to Lord Howick,
laid before Lord Goderich, in the shape of a printed
pamphlet of 31 pages.


(7) Both these alterations viere also suggested by Lord
Goderich, to the deputation which waited on his lord-
ship ; and it was these suggcstions by the principal
secretary of state, which, amongst other things, lcd the




310 APPENDIx, NO. TM APPENDIX, NO. 311


further suggested that the draft of the charter, which
it was desired to obtain, should be prepared and sub-
mitted to the attorney general ; (8) and I stated- that if
this draft, approved by him'and accompanied by a respect-
able list of subscribers, were brought under the consi-
deration of Lord Goderich, and if it should be clearly •
made to appear that the government would be put to no
expense, I had little doubt that Lord Goderich would
reconiMend that the charter should be issued.(9) With
respect to the difficulty that was stated to exist about
obtaining subscriptions without having received the sanc-
tion of Government to the scheme, I said that, in my
opinion, what would be the fairest for all parties would
be, that the draft of the charter should be submitted . to
Lord .Goderich, with a list of subscriptions conditional
upon the sanction of the Government being granted ;
and that, upon the draft being approved by Lord Gode-
rich, the sum subscribed for should be actually paid up,
or at least a certain proportion, befiire the charter should
actually issue ; 'that thus the subscribers would run no
risk of being drawn in to contribute tci an unsanctioned
project, and the Government would equally avoid


danger of giving their countenance toa s- cheme which
there were not funds to support.


(Signed)


H."


III. That the document recited abo ye was considered
as - confirmatory of thc opinion of tlie undertaking .expres-
sed by Viscount Goderich to the deputation which had
waited on bis lordship, and as intendcd only to pro-
vide that the conditions, on which the sanction of his
i\'Iajesty's government had been required, should be
strictly fulfilléd before such sanction should be ófficially
expressed.


IV. That on thc 16th of April last, a deputation, headed
by Mr. Whitmore, waited upon Viscount Goderich for
the purpose of ascertaining whether his lordship con-
tinued to entertain a favorable opinion of the enter-
prise ; and that the inipression left on the minds of' the
deputation by Lord Goderich's reception of them was,
that his lordship continued to entertain a favorable
ópinion of the project generally, though there might be
points of detail requiring modificátion.


V. That the parties interested in the undertaking far-
ther held several conversations with Viscount Howick,
and other gentlemen of the Colonial Department, and
especially with Mr. Stephcn, the counsel of that depart-
ment, whereby they were led to believe that His Majes-
ty's government viewed their undertaking, not merely
with approbation, but with a very vvarm interest.(10.)


VI. That in conscquence of the belief arising from


(10) Thus far Mr. Hay liad not been concerned with
this affair.


deputation to conclude that he approved of their
enterprise.


(8) Lord Goderich, himsclf, had made the very same
suaaeStion




(9) This caution and modesty were very becoming in
a young nobleman new to office ; but Lord Goderich, an
experienced statesman, had already spoken for himself
in decisive tercos ; one of the grounds on which he
thought so well of the plan being that, upon the facc of
it, the government was not to be put to the expense of a
single sbilling for any, purpose whatever.




312 APPENDIX, NO. III. APPENDIX, NO. III. 313


.3


Viscount Goderich's reception of the deputations aboye,
mentioned, from Viscount Howick's memorandum, and
from the conversations just alluded to, the parties inte-
rested in the undertaking have been constantly occupied,
for great part of a ycar, in measures, having for object
the fulfilment of conditions which they conceíved to be
required by his Majesty's government ; such as circula-
ting pamphlets, with a view to bring the subject before
the public, raising the necessary capital, procuring evi-
dente as to the soil and climate of the south coast of
Australia, preparing a draft of the proposed charter, and
forming thc company under whose auspices thc proposed
colony was to be founded.


VII. That their progress in these measures was
greatly retarded, and on two occasions entirely sus-
pended, by the votes of the House of Lords on the re-
form bill ; but that by dint of the constant labour of a con-
siderable number of persons, the whole ofwhose time has
been devoted to this object, they had, as they imagined,
overcome every difficulty ; and that the late communica-
tion from Mr. Whitmore to Viscount Goderich, whcreby
the original proposal (11) was briefiy repeated, was made
for the purpose of informing his lordship of their success,
(12) and of obtaining that official sanction to their enter-
prise without which it was impossible that they should
adopt any final step.


(11) With the alterations that Lord Goderich liad
suggested.


(12) After this, Mr. Hay's mention of the proposal as
if it had been entirely new, seems unaccountable. Was
it a joke ? or, as the proposal was indeed ncw to Mr. Hay,
did he speak sincerely enough, meaning himself when he
said " Lord Goderich"?


VIII. That, though the want of an official expression
of the sanction of his Majesty's government necessarily
prevented them from opening shares to the public, still
that, of thc 500,0001. which it is proposed to raise, the
persons who intendcd to settic ín the colony, proposed to
subscribe 100,0001. ; and that many of them, in order to
carry this their purpose into effect, as well as to provide
themselves with capital for use in the colony, have dis-
posed of real and other property in this country to a
considerable amount ; that several of them have aban-
donad trades and professions in which they were engaged ;
have purchased outfits and other goods for exportation
to the colony ; and will be subject to a very serious loss
of property (not to mention the loss of their time) in case
the hope on which they have acted should, at the eleventh
hour, be frustrated by his Majesty's government.


IX. That persons, who do not propose settling in the
colony, have intimated their intention of subscribing
100,0001. of the capital.


X. That, with reference to Mr. Hay's lctter to Mr.
Whitmore of the 30th ultimo., it must be acknowledged
that the proposal submitted to Viscount Goderich is dis-
tinguished by some novelty ; since never before did a
body of capitalists offer to any government so large a sum
as 125,0001. for 500,000 acres of land, completely waste
and in a country absolutely desert.


XI. That in two other respects the plan is distin-
guished by novelty : in the first place, as it promises a
continually increasing fund for the purpose of pauper-
emigration ; and secondly, as it provides, though but in
one case, against the evils which, in all the colonies of




314 APPENDIX, NO. III.
APPENDIX, NO. III.
315


modem times,'have resulted from the want of any fixed
or -rational system in the disposal of waste land. (13)


XII. That in other respects, the proposal submitted to
his Majesty's government, instead of being distinguished
by novelty, is founded on precedent ; the English go-
vernment having invariably, it is believed, except in the
case of the late Swan River colony, aclopted the principie
of self-government in the formation of colonies. That
in the case of every colony, properly so called, founded
by this country, the home government gane its sanction
to that compact amongst the first settlers, which led to
the foundation of the colony ; a compact of which the
essence was, that thc colonists should govern themselves
in local matters, and provide for the expenses oflocal self-
govcrnment. (14)


XIII. That although no public announcement has yet
been given of the intention of the proposed company to
convey poor settlers to Australia, a mere rumour of that
intention has led poor persons (nearly all of them without


(13) These gentlemen may have known how to found
a colony ; but it is evident that they did not know how to
(leal with a corrupt ola government. Their ndiveté in
dwelling on two points, which would have rendered im-
possible all jobbing with new land, or with the purchase-
money of it, is almost laughable.


(11) ITere, again, the simplicity of Mr. Whitmore and
his coadjutors is almost amusing. Governments love
precedent, when it makes in their fávour : in this case,
it could not but be offensive to notice those precedente, of
which the memory is held in dislike at the English co-
lonial office ; and to notice them, too, for the - purpose of
getting the best of the argument with a minister.


emplo-yment; and many of them in á state of great
tion) who, together with their families amount to upward s
of six thousand, to apply for the


-benefit which the mere
sanction of his Majesty's government would enable the
company to bestow on them. (15)


XIV. That the proposed undcrtaking is not open to
the objection against the establishment of colonies, which
is held by many enfightened persons ; viz. an objection to
the expense which colonies often occasion to the mother-
country, and to the great aniount of patronage which they
place at the disposal of a minister at home: since, in the
present case, it is provided that all the public expenses
attendant on the colony should be borne by the colonists
themselves, and that the officers, so to be paid for admi-
nistering the government of the colony, should not, the
governor excepted, be appointed by the secretary of
state. (16)


XV. That, with reference to Mr. Hay's letter to Mr.
Whitmore of the 30th ultimo, in which it is stated that
"great public inconvenience would avise from the cir-
cumstance of a new colony being placed so in= to the
penal settlements of Sydney and Van Diemen's Land,"


(15) One of diese, having been told that the govern-
ment liad changed its mind and that the scheme was at
an end, said : What! the reform government? Yes, was
thc answer, even the reform government !


(16) Worse and worse. What else could they expect
but to be treated as they were ? Why did they not
rather dwell on their confidence in the secretary of state,
as shown in their having given up to hin, at Lis own
suggestion, the appointinent of the governor ?




i


316 APPENDIX, NO. Hl.


it is acknowledged that the proposed colony would pre-
sent a rcmarkable contrast with the penal settlements of
Australia ; a contrast of all that is good in colonization
with all that is bad ; local self-government, instead of
arbitrary rule ; a rational and fixed system in the dis-
posal of waste land (one of the elements of colonization),
instead of a system which, though based on the plan
devised by the projectors of the proposed colony,(17) is
rendered almost nugatory by previous want of system,
and is dependent for its duration on the pleasure of the
secretary of state for the time being ; a society concen-
trated by that rational system in the disposal of waste
land, and enabled to employ their capital and labour with
the greatest advantage, instead of a society dispersed by
the profusion of the government in granting waste land,
and so preventcd from raising commodities which requise
combination of capital and labour ; a moral society, or at
least a society placed under circumstances the most
favorable to morality, instead of a society pre-eminently
vicious, in which the most disgusting depravity prevails,
and in which such vices are becoming national habits.
The contrast, would, no doubt, llave been most striking.
But the undersigned are at a loss to see in what way the
establishment of so much good by the sirle of so much
ovil could be productive of " public inconvenience." On
the contrary, they submit to Viscount Goderich, that the
want of a costless, concentrated and civilized colony in
Australia, furnishes a very strong reason why the honre
governtnent, not being called on to incur any,


expense or
to create any patronage,(18) should enable the under-


(17) The plan of the Colonization Society, just then
adopted by the government, as to New South Wales and
Van Diemen's Land.


(18) there again : always touching the sore place.


APPENDIX, NO. 317


signed to establish such a settlement in that part of the
would : so that there may be one British colony at least,
in a favorable climate, to which persons of all classes
may resort, without incurring political, social or moral
degradation.


XVI. That the only " public inconvenience" which
the undersigned can imagine to be alleged as likely to
result from the establishment of a self-governed colony
in Australia, is, that the settlers in the penal colonies,
not being convicts, would thereby be led to ask of the
honre government the advantage . of self-government in
local matters. But in answer to this supposed allega-
tion, the undersigned venturo to remark, that already
the free settlers of the penal colonies earnestly beg for,
and are bent on obtaining, the advantage in question;
that, for any thing that has been stated to the contrary,
they are entitled to this advantage ; and that they might
enjoy it without hindrance to the penal system. If, how-
ever, it were clear that the establishment of a self-
governed colony asear to the penal colonies, would create
a demand for self-government amongst the settlers. of
those penal colonies ; and if it were farther proved that
self-government in local matters is incompatible with the
penal system, still the undersigned would take the liberty
of reminding Viscount Goderich, that the whole system
of penal transportation is condemned by some jurists
and polit:icians, as being not less costly than ineffectual
as a punishment ; and that in all probability, and in
accordance too with the views of the present govern-
ment, that system of pretended punishment and colonial
depravity will not much longer be followed. Conse-
quently, it appears to the undersigned, that, if the objec-
tion which they presume to be alleged by Mr. Hay's
letter to Mr. Whitmore were not removed, it would




318 APPENDIX, NO, HI. APPENDIX, NO. III.. 319


amount on the part of his Majesty's government to a
decision, That, because some public inconveniente might
by possibility arise, and, if at ale, for but a short time,
by.contrasting the best with the worst mode of
zation in Australia, therefore, nona but the worst system
should be adopted in any part of that vast region.


That the vicinity of the proposed colony to the penal
settlements is calculated to remove an objection, which
was stated by Viscount Goderich to the deputation
headed by Mr. Whitmore on the 16th of April ; namely,
that the establishment of a colony at such a distance
from the penal colonies might be injürious, brextend-
ing the line to be protected in case of war. But, if the
lattcr objection should be urged, the undersigned would
observe that since the formation of the Swan River
colony, the whole of the south coast of Australia ought
to be defended in case of ovar; and that the establish-
ment of a colony in the centre of that coast, midway
between Van Diemen's Lance and the Swan River, would
greatly facilitate such defence.


XVII. That if the aboye considcrations should not
remove Viscount Goderich's objection to the new colony,
which is founded on the possibility of public inconve-
nience, the undersigned would further point out to bis
lordship, that a British settlement, not penal,(19) ami
one to which it appears inevitable that the advantage of
self-government in local matters will be accorded as soon
as the: settlers are sufileiently numerons, already cxists in
Australia; namcly, the Swan River colony, which ex-
tcnds to King George's Sound.


XVIII. Finally the undersigned submit to Viscount


(19) But costly, they did well not to add:


Goderich, that when a number of persons are disposed
to incur the risks and hardships of planting a colony in
a desert country, the social arrangements under which
they shall exist are, and have always been considered
by the British government, matters in which the settlers
alone are deeply interested, and of which they are the
best judges ; that, in the present case, the intended set-
tlers llave formcd a plan of colonization, which, if it suc-
ceed, must inevitably be productiva of great advantage,
not merely to themselves, but to this nation at large, by
opening a great field for the employment of our surplus
labour and capital; and that, in order to carry into effect
this purpose of unqualified good, the utmost extent of
their request to his Majesty's government is, that it will
exercise one of the functions for which governments
exist, by binding, under a charter from the crown, the
compact into which those individuals are desirous to
enter.


(Signed)
W. W. Whitmore, (M. P.)
Robert Torrens, (M. P.)
J. E. Strickland.
Richard Heathfielcl.
W. A. Mackinnon, (M. P.)
J. A. Stewart Mackenzie, (NI. P.)
Wm. Gowan, Upper Baker Street.
J. Melville, Upper Harley Street.
F. Place, Charing Cross.
William IIutt, 54, Conduit Street.
Thomas Hoskyns, (M. P.)
Thomas Rudge, Hereford.
Robert Gouger, Castle Street, Falcon Square.
Benjamin Hanson, Bruton Street.
D. Elston, Bridge House, Limehouse.
Robert Price, (M. P.)




1




320 APPENDIX, NO. I1T. APPENDIX, NO. HL
321


-Henry Drummond, Charing Cross.
Samuel Hoare, Lombard Street.
C, Lushington, Edgeware.
G. Long, Tanfield Court, Temple.
Samuel 20, Russell Square.
L. Thomas, Cheapside.
A. Bacon, North Bank.
R. Sadlier, Fulham,
D. Munro, Kensington.
D. Wakefielcl, Gray's
G. A. Angas, Jeffrey Square, St. Mary Axe.
G. S. Tucker, Birchin Lane.
G. J. Graham, Gray's Inn.
R. Phillips, (M. P.) Portland Place.
George Vardon, Charles Street, Westminster.
H. L. Bulwer, (M. P.) Albany.
Samuel Brookes, Islington.
R. D. Hanson, Hackney.
Richard Borrow, Stepney.
William Borrow, ditto.
William Currie.
John Cobden, Canterbury.
J. Rhodes, Bankside.
J. Evans.
G. Morrison, Soho Square.
E. C. Richards, George Yard, Lombard Street.
D. Browne, (M. P.)
Charles Hanson, Hackney.
John Cunnold.
R. Throckmorton, (111. P.)
R. Heathfield, Jun. Lincoln's Inn.
H. Surman, Lincoln's Inn.
W. H. Surman, Lincoln's Inn.
Erskine Humphreys, Lincoln's
J. H. Rice, North Bank, Regent's Park.


J. Harding.
M. Racster.
Alex. M'Math.
Andrew Smith, Birchin Lane.
Joshua Storrs.
F. B. Robinson.
W. Hanson, Hackney.
Joshua Brookes.
George Drury.
John Bowes, 54, Conduit Street.
G. S. Rutherford, Welbeck Street.
G. C. Hawkins, Regent Street.
J. S. Lumley, (M. P.) Park Street.


To the aboye Memorial, no answer was returnedi.
Two interviews, however, took place between Lord Go-
derich and deputations from the society.


At the first of these meetings, Lord Goderich urged
severa' new objections to the undertaking. The Letter,
accordingly, of which a copy follows, was addressed to
his lordship by Mr. Strickland, who, during Mr. Whit-
more's absence from town, acted as chairman of the Pro-
visional Committee.


South Australian ',and Company's Committee Room,
8, Regent Street, June 18, 1832.


MY LORD,


As chairman of a meeting of the South Australian
Land Company, held this day, I have the honour to ad-
dress your lordship on the subject which was discussed
between your lordship and a deputation from that com-
mittee on Friday last. (20)


(20) At this meeting there were present, besides the
VOL. II.


Y


1




322 APPENDIX, NO. III.


Before noticing the objections to the proposed colony
which were urged by your lordship on that occasion,
I would venture once more to remind your lordship, that
the proposal now before you is by no means a new one
but that it was submitted to you so long as nearly twelve
months ago. This assertion will be borne out by the
following relation of facts.


Early in the month of June last year, Mr. Gouger,
in consequence of a conversation with Viscount Howick,
delivercd to his lordship a paper entitled Proposal for
establishing a new colony in South Australia. .0n the
11th of the sanee month, Viscount Howick addressed
a letter to Mr. Gouger, of which I have the lionour to


Provisional Committee, a considerable number of the


gentlemen who had macee arrangements for scttling in
the proposed colony. They were in a state of anxious
excitement, such as can be imagined by him only, who
knows after how painful a struggle people, having strong
ties at honre, make up thcir minds to emigrate ; and how
eárnestly, when they have come to that decision, they
think, to the exclusion of ale othcr thoughts, upon their
prospects of happiness in the new country. It was a
scene for Wilkie to have painted : the mínister seated,
cross-legged, with an air of official gravity and impor-
tance ; the under-secretary standing behind a high desk,
a sort of apology for not being seated in the presence of
bis chief; the petitioners watching every expression of
the great man's face ; their own faces lighted up when
he uttercd a word that seemed favourablc to them, and
pulled lengthwise when he spoke of objections ; the little-
great man suggesting objections from behind the high
desk, and when the would-be setticrs stared as if they
Avould eat him, looking clown steadily upon a bundle of
papers tied with red tape.


APPENDIX, NO. IIT, 323


iinclose a copy
• marked A, and by which Mr. Gouger was


directed to renew the proposal in a difFerent forro. Con-
sequently, another proposal was drawn up, printed, and
forwarded to Viscount Howick, who submitted the same
to your lordship; and your lordship was pleased to ap-
point a time when you would receive a deputation from
the persons interested in forming the intended colony,
for the purpose of giving them some answer to the pro-
posal in question. The deputation, which consisted of
Colonel Torrens, Mr. Bacon, Mr. Graham and Mi..
Gouger, waited on your lordship, and read a paper con-
taining the heacis of the printed proposal, which, how-
ever, they found in your lordship's hands, and of which
y.ou were pleased to say, that you liad read it With Inueli
interest, and that its subject matter was of so much im-
portance as to deserve your immediate and scrious at-
tention.


• Ore objcction (21) your lordship mide to the
•proposal ; viz., to the proposed appointinent of the go-
vernor by the company. (22) In ale other respects it ap-
peared to the deputation, not mcrely that your lordship
.assented ,to the proposal generally, hut that you felt
considerable interest in the undertaking, which, if suc-
cessful, was calculated to effect so much good. So


(21) This is a mistake : tl/ere were two objections; one
to the appointinent of the governor by the colonists ; the
.other to the number of people (5,000 malo adults) who,
it was proposed, should have a legislative assembly.
Both points were conceded: Lord Goderich was to ap-
point tele governor ; and for 5,000 Ingle adults, 10,000
was substituted by Lord Goderich's desire:


(22) The appointirient of the governor ovas vested in
the colonists by the eharters of Massachusetts Bay, Con-
necticut, Rhode Virginia, Pcnnsyivania, and
Maryland,




324 APPENDIX, NO. HI. APPENDIX, NO. ni. 325


satisfied were the deputation with your lordship's feeling
on the subject, that, upon subsequent consultation
amongst the parties interested, they recommended that
your lordship should not be asked for any written answer
to the proposal ; on the ground that such a request would
be ungracious to your lordship, as savouring of a sus-
picion, which was most distant from the thoughts of the
deputation, that your lordship's favourable reception of
them might not have been sincere. (23)


Within a few days of the interview in question, Mr.
Bacon, who happened to be at the Colonial Office on
other business, was called aside by Viscount Howick
(who at that time, it should be remembered, con-
ducted the Australian department) when a conversation


(23) There can be no doubt that Lord Goclerich's
favourable reception of these gentlemen was perfectly
sincere. But it may be doubted whether, at that time,
he had looked to the consequences which might result
from the example of a very cheap colony in Australia.
One who is well acquainted with the English government,
having been told of the success of this deputation, said-
" They do not understand your plan : as soon as they
understand it they will oppose it. If you want the sanc-
tion of the government, you must put a good deal of
patronage into your plan : this plan is too cheap, altoge-
ther too good, ever to be liked by our government. In-
stead of 5,0001. a year for governing the colony, say
20,0001. a year; and give all the appointments to the
colonial office. If you do this, you will get the charter
without trouble : if you hold to the present plan, you will
never get a charter, except by appealing to the house of
commons ; and not then until therc shall have been two
or three elections uncler the reform bill."


occurred of which a minute in writing was immediately
made by Mr. Bacon, and communicated to the persons
with whom he was acting. Of that papen I have the
honour to inclose a copy, marked B. The ncxt com-
munication between the colonial office and the intended
colonists was made by ‘Viscount Howick's memoran-
dum, dated October 31, 1831, which was copied into
the memorial presented to your Lordship on the 4th
instant.


Aftcr this long, and I fear, tiresome recital, your lord-
ship will, I trust, acknowleclge, that I am correct in re-
presenting the proposal before your lordship as by no
means a new one, but as one which was formally sub-
mitted to you, in a complete shape, last year, and which
did then obtain your serious attention. If this liad not been
the conviction of the intended colonists, or if they liad ima-
gined that your lordship liad entertained any one serious
objection to their project, instead of occupying themselves,
as they have done, with other measures for carrying the
project hito effect, they would either have sought to
convince your lordship that any objections held by you
were ungrounded, or would have requested your lordship
to suggest alterations in their place, calculated to make it
entirely agreeable to you. Indeed, on the two points,
which did occur to your lordship as objectionable, viz.
the appointment of the governor by the company, and the
amount of population which should be entitled to local
self-government, they immediately altered their plan to
meet your lordship's views ; and all their subsequent
publications have contained those alterations.


Your lordship therefore, be able to appreciate the
great disappointment which they have suffered at finding
that now, when they have laboured for a year to fulfil the
conditions on which they had every reason to be confi-
dent that a charter would be given to them, numerous


[r.




326 APPEND/X, No. 111. APPENDIX, NO. 111. 327


and grave objections. have :been for the firlt .tiine men-
tioned ; objeetions which, liad they occurred last year,
would either have been removed, or svould have sa.ved the
troubie, the loss of tinte, the loss of property, and the pain
of frustrated hopes, whieh must ensue unless they be 1101,V
removed.


li proceed to notice the objections which viere stated
by your lordship on Friday last, or at the interview on the
16th of April last.


First in importance is that which supposes, that a
number of intelligent raen should have wildly neglected
to ascertain •hether the spot, on which they desire to
settle and pass the remainder of their lives, be sufil-
eiently fertile for the purposes of colonization. On this
head, i have to remark that your lordship never so much
as hinted at any doubt concerning the fertility of the soil,
until such a doubt was expressed by Ivir. Whitmore on
the 16th of April last ; that the doubt which had oc-
curred to Mr. Whitmore has been entirely removed, as
is shewn by a resolution of the provisional connnittee (24)


(24) " At a meeting of the Provisional Committee,
21st May, 1832; present


W. Wolryche Whitmore, Esq. in the chair.
Colonel Torrens, M. P. G. Fife Antas, Esq.
"William Hutt, Esq. J. Jephson, Esq. M. P.
Samuel Milis, Esq. John Melville, Esq.


After considering the Evidente contained in the printed
pamphlet, entitled—Evidente relating to the so U, efimate,
and productions of the South Coast of Australia; hear-
ing the evidence of Dr. Itutherford and Mr. Riley ; read-
ing that of Mr. Mearing ; reading ,S.'saluey Gazette,
wherein is set {bah tire contract prives of meat and bread


passed unanimously on the 21st of May last (of which
have the honour to inclose a copy marked C); that this
is a point which, if bis Majesty's goVernment had been
about to found the colony, they ouglit to have ascertained
from the beginning ; but that, whereas, in point of fact,
the eolony, if founded, will be altogether (according to
ancient and most successful practice) . the work of indi-
viduals, not his.Majesty's government, but the individuals
coneerned are deeply interested in the question : that the
individuals coneerned have examined this question with
the deepest anxiety, and have arrive(' at the conclusion,
that they run no risk of meeting with a soil not lit for
colonization : that, oven if such risk existed, it would
involve no greater possible ovil than the disappoint-
ment of those sinee the vicinity of the site
of the proposed settlement to the settlements of New
South Wales and Van Diemen's Land, where food ,is
not merely plentiful but superabundant, puts out of ques-
tion the privations which have occurred to the founders
of many new colonies ; the proposed settlement being, as
relates to food, nota new' colony but new settlement
an old colony over supplied with food; (15) and, finally,


in Sydney, viz. beef Id. per lb., mutton 11d. per lb. and
bread lid. per lb. ; also reading extracts from Captain
Sturt's Journal : it was resolved unanimously—That the
evidence this day submitted to the Committee, in respect
of the soil, climate and productions of Kangaroo Island,
and the shores of the Itilurray River, and Lake Alexan-
drina, is sufficient to warrant the formation of a eolony on
those Lands with all possible dispatch."


(25) With animal food, which is become a drug in New
South Wales and Van Diemen's-Land, as it•is in Buenos
Ayres.




398 APPENDIX, NO. APPENDIX, NO. 329


that the objection urged by your lordship would, if main-
tained, be an objection to the foundation of a colony
any where ; since it would be hard to obtain a body
of evidente as to the soil of any desert country so
favourable as that of which I have the honour to in-
close a copy marked D. (26) Of the capacity of any
desert soil for colonization there must always exist a
doubt until the experiment be made but to say that
the existence of such a doubt furnishes a reason for not
making the experiment, appears directly contrary to
reason. (27)


And here I venture to request your lordship's parti-
ticular attention to a point which has been made promi-
nent in every step taken by the projectors of the colony ;
which appears in the proposal submitted to your lordship
last year, in the published plan of the company, and in
the prospectus lately submitted to your lordship ; viz.
that the first outlay of the company is to be by way of
experiment, the sum to be employed not to exceed 51. on
each share of the capital subscribed, or, in the whole,
50,0001. In confirmation of this statement, I venture to
quote the following passage from the published plan of
the company. " The plan pursued by it will be to send
out in the first instance a small expedition, for the pur-
pose of examining whether thc Bite proposed for the new
colony offer the advantages which have been supposed
to attach to it. This may be done at a moderate expense.
If the result shoulcl be favourable, the agents of thc


(26) This is a printed pamphlet.
(27.) If for a doubt as to the soil, we read a doubt as


to the conveniente ofself-government and extreme cheap-
ness of government, this objection, coming from the colo-
nial mMister, will seem rational enough.


company will select for the first settlement the spot which
scems to them the most suitable." Thus your lordship
will see, that the doubt, which must exist in every case
as to the fertility of the soil of a desert country, has not
been lost sight of in the present instance, but has led to
arrangements which render the first intended expedition
nothing more than a sufficient experiment.


Ncvcrtheless, as those who have the deepest interest
in the experiment trust and believe that it will prove suc-
cessful, so were thcy bound to provide for its success.
The case of failure is provided for by the vicinity of other
settlements superabounding in land, in food, and in de-
mand for labour. The case of success is provided for by
the proposed charter ; in order that if a colony be
founded, it may not be left without any social regulations ;
in order that if a settlement be plantel on the shores of
Spencer's Gulph, the settlers paying for the land, those
first settlers may not be ruincd by subsequent gifts of
land to others who may follow them ; in order, briefly,
that if the first settlement succeed as to the question of
soil, it may not prove a miserable failure in all other
respects.


The next objection urged by your lordship was, the
the evils that might arise from the resort to the new
colony of run-away convicts from the penal settlements.
Now, the fact is, that Kangaroo Island has been for many
years, and is at this time, a place of refuge for run-away
convicts ; that in that island such persons have formed a
society remarkable for existing without any social ties,
and for the prevalence of the most horricl crimes ; that
convicts in the penal settlements are thus invited to es-
cape, no power existing to prevent them from inhabiting
the south coast of Australia ; and that if a settlement
were formed on that coast, instead of any evil so to be
caused, an effectual stop would be put to the ovil which




330 APPENDIX, NO. III. APPENDIX, NO.
in, 331


already exists. (28) In illustration of the state . of the
people who are settled on Kangaroo Island, I venture
to mention the following fact, which is stated by Dr.
Barnes, a gentleman of great respz.,,ctability now rcsident
in London.


Dr. Barnes, being in New Zealand, met with an Eng-
lishman who some years before, liad, in a fit of maclness,
attempted to clestroy himself. ;lis lower jaw was shot
away in the attempt. R.ecovering his senses, ashamed of
what he had done and of his frightful appearance, he
sought to hide himself from the sigla of civilized men,
and to pass the remainder of his life in a state of savage
excitement. With this view he selected as a place of re-
fuge Kangaroo Island, where he could obtain the society
of men more degraded than himself. It should be fur-
ther remarked, that the savage scttlers of Kangaroo Is-
land seise nativo women from the main land, whom they
treat as slaves, and by whom they llave children ; so that
there is every prospect, unless some counter measure be
adopted, of the existente of a hand of dangerous pirates
in the spot, which it is now proposed to convert intó a
civilized colony.


The third objection, which appeared to weigh with
your lordship, was the apparent want of any motive for
.founding a new settlement in Australia, when three set-
tlements are alreacly established there. In answer to this
objection, if it may be so termed, I am requested to refer


(28) Acting upon this lesson, the government has, I
am told, ordered a crown settlement to be made on this
coast, where it v.-as proposed to found a chartered co-
lony. If it be so, and they should now be asked to
enable individuals to found colony there, without ex-
pense to the mother-country, the reform government may
say—Oh dear no: the country is already settled.


your lordship to the signatures appended to our memo-
rial of the 4th instant, • and to say, 'that many of the
gentlemen who signad that document intend to settle
in the proposed colony ; but that no consideration would
induce them to settle in New South Wales, where, such
is the state of society, there are, allowing for the difference
of population, 325 public executions for 1 in England
and where, moreover, nameless crimes prevail, and are
becoming, as in Turkey, national habits. Those gentle-
men also request me to say, that the accounts which
they have received of the Swan River Settlement, of the
ruin and misery which llave befallen the more wcalthy
emigrants to that colony, render it impossible that they
should settle in a colony where, by the profusion of the
government in granting land, the people are dispersed
and pauperized ; and where there is no security for the
inestimable advantage of local self-government.


Finally, your lordship was pleased to dwell on the re-
sponsibility which his Majesty's government might incur,
by giving its sanction to the proposed undertaking. To
this objection there would be no answer, if his Majesty's
government liad originated the undertaking, or were
cancel upon to take active measures for promoting and
conducting it. But the fact is, that, as in the case of our
oldest and most successful colonies, as in the case, it is
believed, of every colony founded by Englishmen, the
Swan River colony only excepted, the undertaking
originates with, and is to be wholly conducted by, certain
inclividuals deeply interested in every step that they may
take, fully conversant with the subject, and influenced by
the strongest sense of responsibility ; which body of in-
dividuals ask no more of bis Majesty's government than
that it will enable them to carry bao effect their own
purpose, by their own means, and on their own res-
ponsibility. For the partial failure of the Swan River




1


332 APPENDIX, NO. TU.


Settlement, the government who foundecl the settlement
without any provision for success, is no doubt responsible;
but the Plymouth Company and William Penn, not the
governments of the time, were responsible for the success
of the colonies of Virginia and Pennsylvania. And it
may be said further, recurring to principies which have
often been eloquently advocated by your lordship, that
the two last named colonies fiourished so greatly, because,
not a distant government, but the individuals most deeply
concerned, were responsible for every act performed. It
is true that, in the present case, the individuals concerned
can perforen no act without a charter from the crown ;
but your lordship will allow me to observe, that the
crown is empowered to grant charters for the express
purpose of enabling bodies of men to act in concert in
matters which invoive no ovil to the public. Conse-
quently, it appears to me, and in saying so I speak the
expressed opinion of many of my coadjutors, that unless
there be upon the face of the proposed undertaking
some prospect of evil, such as it is the business of go-
vernment to prevent, lis Majesty's government could not
incur any responsibility, by merely enabling a number of
men to act in concert, for the accomplishment of their
own purposes, by their own means, and, I repeat, on
their own responsibility.


But I venture humbly to suggest to your lordship,
that the responsibility of frustrating so great and good
an object, by refusing so small a boon, is one deserving
consideration.


Rcferring to what fell from your lordship as to the
propriety of submitting so important a question to bis
Majesty's ministers, I have to state, that, except on the
score of delay and suspense, which are most distressing
to many of the persons interested in this question, we
should be gratified to learn that your lordship hacl laid


APPENDIX, NO. HI. 333


the question before the cabinet ; confident that the more
our plan shall be examined, the more will it be thought
worthy of support by an enlightened and liberal adminis-
tration. (29.)


In conclusion, I am instructed to say, that 1 there be
any modification of the plan, which would render it more
agreeable to your lordship, the parties concerned will
readily adopt the same, unless it would interfere with the
main principies of their scheme : but they are unable to
suggest any alteration, because no part of the plan has
been adopted by them without much enquiry and refiec-
tion ; nor could any part of it, ín their sincere opinion, be
changed without an alteration for the worse.


I have the honour to be, My Lord,
With the highest respect,


Your lordship's most obedient humble servant
(Signed) J. E. STRICKLAND.


To the Right Honourable Lord Viscount Goderich,
His Majesty's Principal Secretary of State for the Colonies.


&c. &c. &c.


To the aboye letter no answer was returned ; but Lord
Goderich intimated lis wish, that any further discussion
should be carried on verbally. At the interview, when
the objections were made to which the aboye letter was
intended as an answer, Mr. hay was present, and sug-
gested most of the objections. An interview now took
place, at which Mr. Hay was not present, between Lord
Goderich and a deputation from the committee. Ou this
occasion (of which a particular account has been pre-


(29) Like the hungry workman, who liad. set lis heart
on getting fat in the new colony, these gentlemen seem to
have placed too mueh dependence on a reform govern-
ment.




C) C)00,)A1'PENDIX, NO. III.APPENI)IX, NO. III.


scrved); Lord Goderich suggestcd so ple alteratións ín
the plan, and these being agreed to by the deputation,
appeared to abandon all his objections. His manner was
courteous, and he appeared to feel for the many families
then waiting in the most painful suspense for his decision.
He desired that a draft of the proposed charter, with the
altcrations then proposed and agreed to, might be for-
warded to him without delay ; and the deputation reporte('
to their constituents that, as far as they could judge from
bis lordship's manner and language, the charter would
be speedily grantecl. On the 9th of July, accordingly, a
draft of the proposed charter was delivered at the colo-
nial office, together with a letter from Colones Torrens,
to Lord Goderich. To this letter, the following curious
answer was returned by Mr. Hay.


Downing Street, 17th July, 1832.
SIR,


I am directed by Lord Goderich to acknowledge the
receipt of your letter dated the 9th instant, inclosing the
draft of a charter for the incorporation of the South
Australian Land Company, and to acquaint you for the
information of the gentlemen of the Provisional Com-
matee, that bis Lordship has bestowed the most careful
attention upon the various provisions of that instrument.
As the transniission of the proposed charter affbrds the
first occasion which has presented itself during the dis-
cussions on this subject, for taking a clear and compre-
hensivo view of the plan of the company in all its bear-
Ings,(30) Lord Goderich has entere(' on the enquiry with
a full conviction, that nothing which has hitherto occurred


(30) The great conveniente of making this mistake
may be some excuse for having aliado so great a one. -


can be supposed by the parties more immediately con-
cerned to preclude Lbs Majesty's Government from their
free and unfettered discretion on the general principies
and the particular details of the schetne.(31) Whatever
deliberations may have intervened between the original
suggestion of the measurc and the delivery at this office
of the draft of a charter, they have taken place upon
the assumption, that the proposal, when drawn out in
its ultimate form, would be foral(' compatible with the
fundamental principies, to which it is the duty of the
King's Government to adhere in every grant which they
may advise his Majesty to pass linden the Great Seal;
and it is of course obvious that this condition must at all
times have bcen distinctiy unclerstood.(32.)


On examining the draft which you have transmitted,
Lord Goderich finds that in many important particulars
it goes far beyond the proposition as he originally un-
derstood it to be conceived;(33) that it would virtually


(31) That translating these fine gilt-paper terms
into plain English, all which liad gone before was to be
counted for nothing. This, certainly, vías not " sup-
posed by the parties Dore immediately concerned."
From the tone of the government, alter Mr. Htty becan2é
its organ, ene should be led to suppose, that these peti-
tioners, instead of asking for a piece of parehment, liad
been requesting Mr. Hay and Lord Godcrich to emigraté
along with them.


(32) Of course : but it was also undcrstood that, when
Lord Goderich cxpressed his approval of the fundamen-
tal principies, &c., he knew what they were, and really
meant what he said.


(33) " Bcyond ;" in which direction? towards liberal-
ism or toryism ? The draft of a charter embodied the




336 APPENDIX, NO, HI. APPENDIX, NO 337


transfer to this company the sovereignty (34) of a vast
unexplored territory equal in extent to one of the most
considerable kíngdoms of Europe ; (35) that it would
encroach on the limits of the existing colonies of New
South Wales and Western Australia ; (36) that it is pro-
posed to throw opon the settlement to foreigners as
well as to British subjects, in such a manner as at once
to place them upon a complete equality ;(37) that the
objects of the corporation are defined with such latitude
of expression as to exclude no conceivable employment


less liberal provisions as to the governor and the legis-
lative assembly, which Lord Goderich liad suggested.


(3•) It liad always been proposed that the company
should govern the colony until the settlers were nume-
rous enough to govern themselves.


(35) This is a mistake. The only creatures, over which
sovereignty could be transferred, are a few savages and
a great many kangaroos and ernues. It is trae, that the
space, within which all waste land was to be sold, and
the colonists were to govern themselves in local matters
as soon as there should be colonists, was very largo.
But the charter mentioned exactly the same space as the
original proposal,


(36) This is a mistake those colonies have no defined
limits. The nearest part of the outside of the proposed
colony to any settlement in Australia would have been
sople hundreds of miles from any settlement.


(37) I am not aovare that" foreigners" were ever men-
tioned either in viriting or verbally by any one connected
with the colony; but it was certainly provided in the charter,
that all the poor people taken to the colony with the
purchase-money of waste land should be British subjects.


of their capital ;(38) that the actual investment of that
capital, or any part of it even, is not necessarily to pre-
cede the issuing of the charter ; (39) that the charter
would invest the company with a power of legislation and
would even enable them to delegate to others the exer-
cise of that trust, without taking the very least security
against the possible abuse of so high an authority ;(40)
that the company would enjoy the right of erectíng
courts, and of appointing and removing judges and other
offieers ;(41) that they claim the power of raising and


(38) What the Company should do . with its capital
was stated distinctly. Would Mr. Hay have liad the
charter recite all the things which the company should
not, do with its capital.


(39) The Committee liad been imploring Lord Goderich
to promise, only to promise, the charter officially, in order
that subseriptions for the capital might be received. Lord
Goderich liad been told, too, that the intended settlers
were ready to subscribe 100,0001. of that capital, and that
they liad disposed of real and other property with that
view.


(40) In this respect, the draft of a charter was a copy
from the charters, under which Companies founded colo-
nies in Amcrica. At one of the interviews with Lord
Goderich, his lordship liad been requested to examine
those charters, copies of which probably exist in the
colonial office. A printed copy of them was in the hands
of the committee.


(41) Of course, if the company were to govern for a
time, like the London Company, and the Plymouth Com-
pany, and William Penn, and even the Company which
founded a colony at Sierra Leone, it was, during that
time, to have the authority necessary for governing.


VOL. II.




338 APPENDIX, NO. III. APPENDIX, NO. III. 339


commanding the militia ; that they would exclude the
king from the exercise of that power of imposing (lidies
of customs which Parliament has entrusted to him
throughout the Eastern colonies ;(42) that a freedom of
trade is claiined, to which the navigation and trade acts,
as they now stand, are opposed;(13) that all the powers
of the company, extensive as they are, and involving
in their practical effect the sovereign dominion of the
whole territory, are ultimately to be transferred to a
popular assembly, (44) which would be to ereet in the
British monarchy a government purely republican ; (15)
and that the company would be the receivers of
largo sucos of public money (46) for the due application


(42) Not the king, but the clerks in Downing Street,
who legislate for New South Wales and the Swan Rivcr.
Every- provision, however, as to trade, was subjcct to
existing laws ; and of course a charter could not affect an
act of parliament. That very power which parliament
has given to the king, bis Majesty was requested to
exercise in Chis case.


(43) A great mistake. This charter could r,..ot have
applied to any ports, save those of the colony ; and even
there, could not have interfered with any act of par-
liament.


(44) Of course ; since one ehief object of the plan was,
according to ancient and approved practice, to establish
local self-government in the colony.


(45) If the company should revive their project, they
would do well to put a House of Lords into it ; with a
Baron Blackswan, a Viscount Kangaroo, a Marquis of
Morrumbidgee and a Bishop of Ornithoryncus.


(46) Only for repayment of their private money, with
which they proposed to defray all the cost of government


of which they do not propone to give any secu-
rity. (47)


Other objections might be stated to the plan proposed
in Chis draft; but for the present Lord Goderich forbears
to enter on any discussion of them. His lordship deems it
sufficient to have pointed out those which I have already
referred to ; and directs me to say that, if the various de-
partments ofgovernment which must be consulted should
concur in a scheme involving such extensive consequences,
as wouid follow from the adoption of that which ís pro-
posed, (48) they could not legally carry it into effect
without the express sanction of Parliament ; (49) but bis
Majesty's Government could not recommend to Parlia-
ment a measure so entirely subversive, in one part of His
Majesty's dominions (50) of those royal prerogatives,
which, for the common benefit of all bis subjects, it is
His Majesty's duty to maintain. (51)


I am, Sir,
your obedient humble servant,


Colonel Torren, M. P. (Signed) R. W. HAY.


and defence until the colony should be able to repay
them.


(47) The application of the money was clearl:v defined:
it was to be applied in repayment to the company of their
advances for the governmene and defence of the colony.


(48) The admission is worth notice, that the plan was
calculated to accomplish the objects of those who formed it.


(19) Very many English colones have been founded
by charter : not one, it is believed, by act of parliament.


(50) A complete desert, save as to the run-away con-
victs, over whom, certainly, his Majesty exercises no
dominion.


(51) Fudge




f


340 APPENDIX, NO. 111.


Extract from, the Morning Chronicle of September
237-d, 1832.


" We invite attention to a letter of Mr. Gouger upon
the subject of the South Australian Land Company,
which will be found in another column. 'Opon the merits
of the proposed company we shall abstain from remarking
at largo now ; as, it seems, a pamphlet is to be published,
containing the whole of the correspondence with Govern-
ment upon the subject, accompanied by a sketch of the
original plan. It is, however, clear that any proposi-
tion supported by such men as formed the Provisional
Committee, and of which the object was to provide a place
of refuge for six thousand poor persons, ought not to
have been rejected by the Colonial Office without very
good reasons. No one will say that the committee was
not sufficiently influential, and high in character, to sup-
port any wise measure they chose to connnence neither
are they men from whom we should be lcd to expect any
other than a practical and attainable project.


"From the fact of difficulties occurring only after the
Australian coloides were placed under the controul of Mr.
Hay, the Tory under-secretary of state-for the coloides,
it may be inferred that the plan was opposed by Mr. Hay,
and was therefore abancloned. %Ve have more than once
hacl occasion to reprobate the practice of the present
ministry, in keeping about them men whose principies are
diametrically at variante with their own. A Tory of prin-
cipie and honou • will naturally object to measures founded
upon liberal principies : an unprincipled Tory will lose
no opportunity to serve his panty, by bringing /zis oppo-
nents in politic,s• finto disrepllie ; although he may, at the
same time, be eating the bread of liberal employers.


APPENDIX, NO. 11i. 341


Both classes, therefore, should be avoided equally. Mr.
Hay is a Tory. Educated in the school of Lord Melville,
he has been the constant attendant of all succeeding
ministers. If it should turn out that a spice ofliberalism,
in the shape of self-governmcnt, appeared in the plan of
the company or colony, we have no doubt the ministers
will have to thank their Tory under-secretary for any
odium or unpopularity they may experience from the
rejection of the measure in question."


ERRATA.—VOL. II.


P. 44,1. 22—for under the—read, upon their.
Note P. 234, 1. 4—for 1802---read, 1832.