VARIOUS ALTERATIONS SUGGESTED IN THE PRESENT POLICY OF THIS COLONY.
Of all the steps that could be taken for the relief of the
colony, none certainly would prove of such immediate efficacy, as
the creation of distilleries, and the imposition of so high a
duty on the importation of spirits from abroad, as would amount
to a prohibition. The advantages that would be attendant on this
measure may, perhaps, be most forcibly illustrated by a short
review of the actual loss which the colonists have sustained
during the last fifteen years, from the want of its adoption. The
spirits imported during this period may be safely estimated on an
average at the annual value of £10,000, amounting in
fifteen years to the sum of £150,000: and if we add to this
£100,000 more, which it may be calculated that the
government have expended in this interval, in the importation of
corn, flour, rice, etc. from other countries, we have a grand
total of £250,000, that would have been saved to the colony
by the erection of distilleries. The application of so large a
sum to the immediate encouragement of agriculture, would have
imparted life and vigor into the whole community, and would have
effectually prevented that increasing poverty, and the black
train of evils consequent on it, which I have already depicted.
And although from the increased demand for foreign luxuries,
which so great an addition to the colonial income would have
naturally occasioned, but a small part perhaps of this sum would
have eventually continued in general circulation, still the means
of the colonists would have at least been brought to a level with
their wants; and a sterling circulating medium would have
remained sufficient for all the purposes of domestic economy.
Under such circumstances there can be little doubt that the
active and enterprizing spirit of our countrymen would have long
since effected the establishment of an export trade, which would
have freed the colony from future embarrassment, and the mother
country from the enormous expence which she is annually forced to
incur in its support. But the continual and amazing fluctuations
which have taken place in the price of corn, have been a
death-blow to the success of every effort that has been directed
to this most important object. At least but one out of all the
numerous attempts that have been made by individuals, (for none
have been made by the government,) to raise various articles of
export, has realized the expectations of its sagacious author,
and promises to become eventually of permanent relief and
importance to the colony. But it will be more in the order of the
arrangement which I have marked out for myself, to treat of this
very important subject hereafter: I recur, therefore, to the
conclusion which I was about to draw from the foregoing premises;
that to the perfect success of every enterprize of a manual
nature, it is essential that the price of provisions in general,
but of corn in particular, should be reduced to such a point as
to afford a fair profit to the grower; and at the same time that
it should not be subject to any such extraordinary rise as to
superinduce a proportionate increase in the price of labour. To
keep the value of corn in this just mean, it is necessary that
the growth of it should be encouraged to a pitch far beyond the
sphere of the ordinary demand; and this is to be effected
generally in two ways, by augmenting the internal consumption by
artificial means, as by breweries, distilleries, etc. and by
permitting a free exportation of the surplus. But the colony is
at present unable from the smallness of its resources and its
remoteness from Europe, the great mart for the surplus corn of
other countries, to become a competitor with them in this branch
of commerce: it follows, therefore, that the constant abundance
of corn indispensable to the establishment and maintenance of an
export trade, can only be guaranteed by the enforcement of all
such measures as have a tendency to increase internal
consumption; and of these I again repeat that the erection of
distilleries, etc. is the most easy and the most efficacious.
Independent of this general reasoning, which is equally
applicable to all countries, the colony can unhappily furnish
particular grounds of argument in the unfortunate localities of
its agricultural settlements, which render the adoption of this
measure of still more imperative necessity. Allured to the banks
of the river Hawkesbury, both by the superiority of the soil, and
the facilities which the navigation of this river afforded for
the conveyance of produce to market, a circumstance of material
advantage even at this moment, but of incalculable importance at
a period, when as yet there were few or no cattle for the
purposes of land carriage, the first colonists were encouraged by
Governor Phillip to establish themselves on this low fertile
tract of country, not so much perhaps from choice as necessity.
His successors, influenced in part by the same considerations,
followed his example in directing the current of colonization
into the same channel, till in the lapse of about fifteen years
the whole of the fertile lands on the banks of this river were
completely appropriated. Thus unfortunately for the colony, its
principal agricultural establishment was formed in a situation
subject to the inundations of a river, whose waters frequently
rise seventy or eighty feet above its ordinary level.
The present governor, to his lasting honour be it mentioned,
has done all that prudence could effect with the limited means
confided to him, for the prevention of the calamities invariably
consequent on these destructive inundations. He has placed the
great mass of the colonists, who have been settled during his
administration, in districts that are not subject to flood; thus
securing to themselves and the community at large the fruits of
their industry. He has also established townships on the high
grounds, which generally at the distance of a mile or two from
the river border its low fertile banks, and has held out various
encouragements, in order to induce the settlers to remove their
houses and stacks to them. The richer class have in most
instances been alive to their own interests, and have abandoned
their ancient abodes on the verge of the river: so that the
destruction occasioned by future floods will be infinitely less
extensive. But, still, a great part of the poorer class adhere to
their ancient habitations, impelled by the double motive of
avoiding the cost of carrying their crops to these townships, and
from thence back again to the river, in order to send them to
market by the boats, which ply on it for this purpose. And to
such as have not horses and carts of their own, and would
consequently be obliged to hire them, a residence on the banks of
the river is a saving of greater magnitude than might be at first
imagined.
The greatest obstacle to the complete realization of the
governor's project, arises from the extreme poverty of the great
body of the settlers, occasioned, as I have already noticed, by
the limited and precarious market afforded for their produce. To
build a house, however small, is an undertaking in this colony as
every where else, which can only be effected with adequate means;
and if the colonists do not resort in crowds to these townships,
it is not because they are insensible to the advantages which
they would derive from a removal to these seats of security, but
because their penury chains them to their present dangerous and
miserable hovels, and compels them in spite of their better
reason to hold their lives and property on the most precarious of
all tenures, the caprice of the elements. But could the governor
succeed in this, his project to the utmost, could he induce every
settler on the banks of the Hawkesbury to remove to these
townships, he would be still far from guaranteeing the colony
from the calamitous effects of these inundations; since they are
not periodical, like the risings of the Nile, but happen at all
times, as well when the crops are in stack as when growing, when
they are in the infancy of vegetation, as when they have attained
maturity and are fit for the sickle. Some other expedient,
therefore, would still be necessary to guard against those
inundations which may happen at such disastrous periods; and
there is but one that will be found sufficient at all times and
under all circumstances. It is to encourage by artificial means,
the growth of corn so far beyond what is necessary for the bare
purposes of food, that in years of scarcity, whether arising from
flood or drought, these artificial channels of consumption may be
stopped, and the whole of the corn in the colony appropriated to
the supply of the inhabitants. And this encouragement would be
amply afforded by the establishment of distilleries; since
allowing the colony to require sixty thousand gallons of spirits
annually, twenty thousand bushels of grain would be expended in
distillation, the whole of which, when necessity required, might
be diverted from its ordinary course of consumption, and directed
to the purposes of subsistence.
These advantages, great as they must be allowed to be, are not
the only ones that would follow the erection of distilleries.
This measure would still further promote the prosperity of the
agricultural body, by creating in the market a competition with
the government for the purchase of grain, and would thus destroy
the _maximum_, that has been hitherto arbitrarily assigned
as an equivalent for their produce generally, without reference
to the state of the crops, whether they have been productive or
otherwise. The prejudicial operation of this maximum was noticed
in the Report of the Select Committee of the House of Commons
made in the year 1812, and the propriety of devising some remedy
for this evil strongly enforced; but this recommendation has
hitherto been disregarded, from the want, perhaps, of information
sufficiently precise to enable the government of this country to
attend to it.
I close the catalogue of arguments which I adduce in support
of this measure with the last and most powerful of them all, its
beneficial influence on the morality of the rising generation. I
do not so much take into calculation its probable bearing on the
existing race of colonists, the greater part of whom are and
will, perhaps, always be more or less addicted to the pernicious
habits contracted in their early days of riot and debauchery, as
on their posterity, who will necessarily soon form the majority
of this colony, and whose amelioration or reformation all
legislative measures should have principally in view. With those
the immoderate use of spirituous liquors is a long contracted
disease, which it is perhaps past the skill of legislation to
cure. It is like an old inveterate ulcer, whose roots have
penetrated into the seats of vitality, and are so intimately
interwoven with the very principles of existence, that the knife
cannot be applied to the extirpation of the one, without
occasioning the destruction of the other. But though this
gangrene can never be entirely eradicated, the experience of late
years has shewn that it may be prevented from increasing, and
even considerably reduced. Drunkenness has been observed to be
less frequent since the unlimited importation of spirits was
permitted, even among that class who were most addicted to this
vice during the long period when the importation was in a great
measure restricted, the price of liquor exorbitantly enhanced,
and the consequent difficulty of obtaining it much more
considerable. Great, therefore, as are the present facilities to
the indulgence of this propensity, they should be still further
extended, and this would be effected by internal distillation;
for although the importation of spirits from other countries has
been for many years past subject to no restriction, but the
payment of a certain duty, which would be equally levied on all
spirits made in the colony, still the expence of freight,
insurance, etc. would be avoided, the price proportionably
abated, and the means of indulgence increased in the same
ratio.
The immediate effect of this free circulation of spirits
having been so beneficial, we may easily infer what would be its
remote consequences; and it is to these, to the gradual
developement of moral perfection, that all laws which are framed
with a reference to this end, should be directed, and not to
sudden and violent reformations, which are seldom or never
attended with the desired results. It was, indeed, natural to
expect that this pernicious drug would be depreciated, in the
estimation of its consumers, in exact proportion to its
superabundance; and although the removal of all restriction to
the importation of spirits, might in its immediate beneficial
operation on the morals of the existing generation, so long
curtailed in the use of them, and so long habituated to excess,
whenever occasion offered, have been a matter of serious
speculation, before this experiment was tried, its immediate
result has far out-stripped the expectations of its most sanguine
supporters. The present influence of this measure having been so
satisfactory, there cannot be a doubt that the effect of internal
distillation on the morality of future generations will be still
more salutary and decisive. It is well known that in the
countries that are celebrated for the production of wines and
spirits, as France, Spain, Italy, etc. so great is the sobriety
of the people, that a drunken person is an object of contempt,
and a sight which is but very seldom witnessed. This sobriety,
therefore, can only be the consequence of a steady, equable
supply, which induces moderate enjoyment, without holding out any
temptation to excessive indulgence. And however strange or
unaccountable this fact may at first appear, the reason of it may
be traced to the nature of man, the same inconsistent creature in
all ages and in all countries. Intervening obstacles to
enjoyment, far from repressing his desires, serve but to
stimulate and inflame them; and so perverse and capricious is he
in his conduct, that he despises, or at best holds in but
secondary estimation, the real substantial good that is within
his grasp; while remote or unattainable objects fire his
ambition, and swell into fanciful and preposterous proportions
the treacherous illusions of a fertile imagination, which
possession alone can dissipate and reduce to their proper
standard and value. It is thus that lofty mountains seem to
connect themselves with the heavens by enveloping clouds; but
stripped of their deceptious covering, they stand reduced to
their primitive dimensions, the blue vault towers far above their
heads, and the eye sees and defines their just limits and
magnitude.
There can be but one objection urged against the establishment
of colonial distilleries; that it will deprive the resident
merchants in India, from whence by far the greater proportion of
spirits is at present imported into the colony, of this branch of
commerce. The trade, however, of that country is on too extensive
a scale, to be perceptibly affected by so trifling a restriction,
which, in fact, has always existed till within the last five
years; as the importation of spirits, till that period, was
always subject to limitation, and only permitted by express
licence. But were the case otherwise, what right has one portion
of the empire to look for aggrandisement at the expense of
another? Ought the welfare and happiness of twenty thousand
persons to be sacrificed, in order to promote the views of a few
interested individuals? If it were politic in his majesty's
government to concede any superiority of privilege to any one
body of the king's subjects over another, surely a colony
composed entirely of Englishmen has reason to expect that such a
concession should be made in its favour, and not to its prejudice
in favour of a country acquired and in some measure maintained by
force, and connected with the parent country by no ties of common
origin and affinity, by no congeniality of habit, by no
similarity of religion. But the colonists neither expect nor
desire any such concessions: they seek the possession and
enjoyment of their own indubitable rights; they would not curtail
those of others: they neither want to render other colonies
tributary to their prosperity, nor to continue, as they have
hitherto been, tributary to that of others.
If, on the other hand, we take a hasty survey of the
advantages, which I trust it has been satisfactorily proved,
would be consequent on internal distillation, never, it will be
seen, was there a measure which could adduce in its support more
urgent and weighty considerations. It would afford employment,
and thus impart fresh health and vigor to the agricultural body,
debilitated by long suffering and disease; it would place the
means of the colonists on a level with their wants, and by
creating a good and sufficient medium of circulation in the place
of the present worthless currency, would give rise to other
channels of industry, and to the speedy establishment of an
export trade. It is the only possible way of insuring the colony
against the calamitous effects which have hitherto been
invariably attendant on the inundations of the river Hawkesbury;
it would lessen the injurious preponderancy of the government in
the market, by creating a great competition for the purchase of
grain, and would thus prevent the arbitrary imposition on this,
the principal production of the colonists, of a maximum that is
frequently beneath its just value, and it would improve the
morals of the present and of future generations. With these
irresistible arguments in favour of this measure, it must be
evident that the cause of justice and morality would be violated
by any further unnecessary delay in its adoption.
The next object of internal consumption, to which in my
opinion the government ought to direct the attention of the
colonists, is the growth of tobacco. The amount of the annual
importation of this article from the United States of America and
the Brazils, (the two supplying countries) cannot be estimated at
less than five thousand pounds. This would be a very material
saving to the colony in its present circumstances, and one that
might be effected with the greatest ease, and without prejudice
to any part of the empire. The only question in this instance is,
whether it be more politic that the colony should supply itself,
or be dependent on foreigners. There are no contending interests
to reconcile, no portion of his majesty's subjects in any part of
the globe, who could wish to oppose the imposition of a
prohibitory duty on the importation of this article into the
colony. And this is the only measure that would be necessary to
direct the attention of the settlers to this highly important
production, for which it has been found that the climate and soil
of the colony are peculiarly adapted. In three years at most,
after the adoption of this regulation, the colonists would raise
a sufficient quantity of tobacco for their own consumption. It
will be an after consideration for the government to take the
requisite means to promote the increased growth and exportation
of this highly important product to the mother country. The
immense advantage that she would derive from possessing in one of
her own colonies, an article of such general consumption, and for
which she is at present entirely tributary to foreign powers, is
too obvious to need illustration, and too considerable not to
attract the attention and encouragement of her legislature.
Hemp, flax, and linseed, are also productions to which the
climate and soil of the colony, and its dependent settlements at
the Derwent and Port Dalrymple are remarkably congenial, and the
growth of which might be easily promoted by wise regulations. Yet
highly valuable as are all these productions, and altogether
dependent as is this country for the amazing quantities of them,
which she consumes in her navy, her manufactures, and her
commerce, no attempt has been made since the establishment of the
colony to direct the attention of its inhabitants to their growth
and exportation. The views of the different gentlemen, who have
been successively intrusted with the government, have either
never reached so far, or else their means have been inadequate to
the accomplishment of these great ends. In embellishing the
capital, and erecting various public edifices, of which, however,
I do not mean to question the utility, their attention appears to
have been chiefly absorbed. It seems never to have come into
their contemplation that all these embellishments would have been
the natural and inevitable results of the increasing prosperity
of the community, but that they could never of themselves either
create or promote it. A flourishing agriculture, a thriving
commerce, would have equally effected all these objects; but with
this material difference, without that enormous expence to this
country with which they have been attended. The imposition of
small taxes for the promotion of public objects, is no grievance
to a people whose prosperity is the work of a wise and
considerative government. An impolitic and oppressive one cancels
alike the will to make, and the power to levy such contributions;
and imposes on itself the necessity of moderating its wants, or
of having recourse to foreign channels for their supply. In this
instance the great burden of these public undertakings has fallen
on this country, nor have they been the most inconsiderable item
in the amount of the colonial expenditure. Yet all that has been
already lavished, and all that this country may hereafter lavish
in prosecution of the same narrow and absurd system, will have
but little influence in promoting the real purposes of
colonization.
This mania for building, which has always directed the
government, has unfortunately communicated itself to the
colonists, particularly those who inhabit the various towns, and
they are at present in the condition of a man who has a large
house, but wants wherewithal to furnish and support it. Their
situation would be more enviable, if they had smaller habitations
replete with a greater degree of plenty and comfort. The
establishment of an export trade, that may enable them to procure
in sufficient abundance those foreign commodities which long
habit has rendered indispensable to civilized life, is what they
desire, and what a wise government would desire also; more
especially since the parent colony is a great manufacturing
nation, and possesses the power of supplying the commodities in
question. Millions more expended in the same improvident manner
as heretofore, will not effect this great object; and with half
the expence already incurred a politic government would have
already accomplished it. Of this assertion the labours of an
individual, who, if on the one hand he has met with some support
from the more liberal and enlightened administration of this
country, has constantly experienced, on the other, all the
opposition which the envy and malevolence of the local government
could throw in his way, furnish an indubitable proof.
This gentleman, John Mac Arthur, Esq. formerly a captain in
the New South Wales corps, which was afterwards converted into
the 102d regiment, embarked more largely from the very
commencement of the colony, in the rearing of sheep and cattle,
than any other individual. Notwithstanding the very great profits
which his extensive flocks and herds yielded him, a circumstance
that would have satisfied the ambition, and lulled to sleep the
inquiries of a less penetrating mind, he foresaw so long as
fifteen years back, what has since been realized, the crisis of
general distress and embarassment, to which the course pursued by
the local government, would eventually conduct; and on the
occasion of his being unjustly ordered to this country by the
then governor, where he soon vindicated himself from the charges
imputed to him, he convinced the ministry of the advantages that
would accrue to the nation from promoting in the colony the
growth of fine wool; and obtained from them a considerable grant
of land, and various encouragements besides, in order to enable
him to carry this highly important project into execution. Among
other indulgences, he procured an order in council permitting him
to embark on board the vessel that was to reconvey him to the
colony, four Spanish ewes and a ram, which he had purchased out
of the king's flocks. With this small beginning he undertook, and
in spite of an incessant war waged against him by malignity and
misrepresentation, the withholding in some measure of the
encouragements ordered by the liberality of his majesty's
ministry, and endless other disappointments and vexations that
would have damped any ordinary resolution, his efforts have been
crowned with the most complete success, and he has at present not
less than five thousand sheep, of which the wool from continual
crosses with Spanish tups, the progeny of the few sheep purchased
by him at the sale of the king's flocks, has become as fine as
the best imported from Saxony, and has been found to surpass it
in elasticity, a quality highly conducive to the firmness and
durability of the cloth. Many gentlemen also of the colony who
have large flocks, sensible of the folly of breeding sheep for
the mere sake of the carcases, which in consequence of the
limited population, and unlimited extent of grazing country, have
already become of inferior value, and in a short time more will
be worth little or nothing, entered some years back on this
gentleman's system; and there may, perhaps, be among all the rest
of the sheep holders, the same number of fine woolled sheep which
he alone possesses. Here then is an exportable article of immense
consequence to the colony, and of the highest political
importance to this country; an article indispensable to the
support of her staple manufacture, and for which she has hitherto
been altogether dependent on foreign nations; yet has no attempt
but the one I have just alluded to, been made, either by the
government of this country, or of the colony, to direct the
attention of the sheep-holders to its production; on the
contrary, the greatest obstacles have been thrown in the way of
this gentleman's success, obstacles which none but the most
enthusiastic spirit could have surmounted. Thanks, however, to
his invincible perseverance, the dawn of prosperity is at length
breaking on the colony. The long stormy night of suffering and
misery is drawing to a close; yet a few years, and the sun of
peace and plenty will appear on its horizon. But although this
event will in the natural course of things soon take place, its
approach may be greatly accelerated, or retarded by the wisdom or
folly of the government. The colonists, in spite of every
impediment they may have to encounter, cannot much longer remain
insensible to the advantages which _they_ possess, who have
already followed the wise example of this gentleman: _these_
they will daily behold in the enjoyment of comparative ease and
happiness, and in possession of a certain progressive income,
exposed to few or no contingencies, and dependent on no man for
its extent and duration; while on the other hand, they will find
that their own income must not only diminish every year, but also
rest for its continuance on the good pleasure of their governor,
who, if he should even possess the will, would not want the power
to enlarge it to any considerable amount, and who, should he be
their enemy, might at any time reduce it to nothing. The manifest
superiority, therefore, which the proprietors of fine woolled
possess over those of coarse woolled sheep, would alone suffice
in the end to draw the attention of all the sheep-holders in the
colony to the improvement and perfection of the wool of their
flocks. This is happily a much easier task at present than at the
period when Mr. Mac Arthur first entered on the system of
crossing. At that epoch there were few sheep in the colony, but
such as had been introduced from the East Indies, which it is
well known are entirely covered with hair. This race, so
disgusting in its appearance to Englishmen, has long since
disappeared; nor are there any sheep at present, whose wool could
be termed actually coarse: the wool of the Leicester breed is
perhaps the coarsest that could any where be found. A few years
continual crossing with Spanish tups would consequently suffice
to cover all the sheep in the colony with fine wool. Three
crosses which under a proper system would occupy about six years,
would be sufficient, if the government would employ the means at
their disposal, to accomplish this great national object. The
number of sheep in the month of November last amounted, as it has
already been seen, to 170,920; out of which, as I have just
stated, 10,000 are of the pure Spanish breed or nearly: it may
therefore be perceived what an immense exportation of this
precious article might take place in a few years, under judicious
and politic regulations.
No country in the world is perhaps so well adapted to the
growth of fine wool as this colony. There is in its climate
alone, a peculiar congeniality for the amelioration of wool,
which has been found of itself to occasion in a few years, a very
perceptible improvement in the fleeces of the coarsest
description of sheep. Even the East India breed, entirely covered
with hair, produce without being crossed with a finer race a
progeny, the superiority of whose fleece over that of the parent
stock is visible in every remoter generation. This amazing
congeniality of climate is supported by local advantages of equal
if not greater importance. For hundreds of miles into the
interior, the country has been found to be covered with the
richest pasturage, and every where intersected with rivulets of
the finest water. A constant succession of hill and dale
diversifies the whole face of the country, which is so free from
timber, that in many places there are thousands of acres without
a tree.
The settlements at the Derwent and Port Dalrymple, though
situated in a colder climate, and therefore in all probability
not equally congenial to the growth of fine wool, afford the same
excellent pasture, and contain in every respect besides, the same
facilities for the rearing of Spanish sheep, whose fleeces it is
reasonable to expect on comparing the climate of these
settlements, with that of Saxony, would not degenerate, if the
same system which prevails in that country were followed in the
management of sheep in this.
Saxony is situated between the 50th and 51st parallels of
north latitude; and Van Diemen's Land, on the northern and
southern parts of which these two settlements are formed, between
the 41st and 43d degrees of south; so that allowing for the
superior coldness of the southern hemisphere, the whole of this
island possesses a climate more congenial to the growth of wool,
than the finest parts of a country, whose wool exceeds in value
that of Spain and Italy. The settlers, however, have not yet
opened their eyes to the advantage of having fine woolled flocks,
although they have for many years past had but a very limited
market for their mutton, and the government there, as at Port
Jackson, have made no efforts to turn their attention to this
object.
This unaccountable indifference to a matter of such vast
political importance, it is to be hoped will at length be
followed by a proper degree of attention and encouragement. Among
all the various ends proposed by our extended colonial system,
none perhaps is more intrinsically worthy the cordial undeviating
support of his majesty's government, than the one in question. In
twenty years, the extensive exportation which might be effected
under proper regulations in this single article, would alone
raise the colonists from the point of depression and misery to
which they have been reduced, to as high a pitch of affluence and
prosperity as is enjoyed by any portion of his majesty's subjects
in any quarter of the globe. Before the expiration of that
period, I am convinced that they might be enabled to ship for
this country, at least a million's worth of fine wool annually;
and for the accomplishment of this vast national object, it would
not be necessary for this country to expend one far-thing more
than is at present _wasted_ in prosecution of a system of
mere secondary importance, and having little or no bearing on the
eventual prosperity of the colony. It is only by establishing
this prosperity on a solid basis, by encouraging the growth of
exports, until they rise to a level with its imports, that it can
be converted from an unproductive and ruinous dependency into a
profitable and important appendage. Whenever it shall have
attained this point of advancement, whenever it shall have
acquired an independence in its resources, then, and not before,
will it begin to answer the real ends of all colonization, the
extension of the commerce and rescurces of the empire. Then like
some vast river of the ocean, will it pour back its majestic
stream into the bosom of its parent flood, and contribute to the
circulation and salubrity of its bounteous author.
Among the various remaining articles of export, which the
colony is capable of producing, and to which the industry of its
inhabitants might be gradually attracted, the last two that I
shall specify, are the vine and the olive. These, indeed, with
the various productions which I have already named, are capable
of such vast extension, as to be fully adequate to absorb all the
energies of the colonists for many years to come, whatever may be
the increase in their numbers. To mention, therefore, the endless
less important productions to which the climate and soil of this
colony are equally congenial, would only be to perplex their
choice, and to divert, perhaps, their industry into less
productive channels. It would be superfluous to dwell upon the
happy results that would attend the general introduction and
culture of these two productions, both with reference to them as
articles of internal consumption and exportation; since it is
well known how materially they contribute to the comfort and
affluence of the countries which are blessed with them. I shall,
therefore, only just mention that the greatest facilities have
been lately afforded for their general culture by the same
gentleman who first introduced the Spanish sheep into the colony;
and that there is only now wanting the fostering hand of the
government to occasion their further propagation.
One of the most efficacious measures that could be adopted, as
well for their general introduction, as for that of the various
other valuable productions before enumerated, would perhaps be
the establishment of a colonial plantation, in which a certain
number of the most enterprizing youths might be instructed in
their culture and preparation. This institution might, I am
convinced, be founded under a proper system without occasioning
any considerable expence. The first step to be taken would of
course be the selection of a fit allotment of ground, which ought
to be granted to trustees, according to the usual forms of law.
These should consist of a certain number of gentlemen of
consideration in the colony, who would consent to hold this
office as an honorary one, without any view to private emolument,
and for the mere sake of promoting the public weal. To place this
institution near the capital, Sydney, where the greater part of
the land is already located, and besides of a very indifferent
quality, ought not, by any means, to be attempted, not only for
these reasons, but also because the youth, whom it would be the
main object of this institution to train up to economical and
laborious pursuits, would run the risk of contracting the vicious
habits, and falling into the excesses of that town; a probability
which a removal to a proper distance from that sink of iniquity,
would effectually provide against. The most eligible situation,
perhaps, for the establishment of this highly important
institution would be some fertile spot in the cow pastures,
which, as it has been already mentioned, are injudiciously
reserved for the use of the wild cattle, notwithstanding that
they have nearly disappeared.
The only two individuals who have grants of land in this
district are Messrs. Mac Arthur and Davison; and my
recommendation that this institution should be formed in the same
district, is not more influenced by the fertility of its soil
than by the contiguity which it would in this case possess to the
former gentleman's estate; a contiguity, which would enable him
frequently to visit it, and to afford the director of it such
information as could not fail to contribute very materially to
its progress and success. It must be quite unnecessary for me to
dwell on the importance of confiding the superintendence of such
an establishment to some one, who might be duly qualified for the
discharge of the duties that would be attached to it. Perhaps the
government would act wisely, if my suggestion on this head should
be deemed worthy of attention, in selecting for this office an
intelligent person from the South of France, who has been
accustomed to the culture of the vine and the olive. These with
tobacco, hemp, and flax, are the objects to which, I am of
opinion the attention of such an institution would be most
beneficially applied. And if, as is not improbable, it should be
found impracticable to procure a person acquainted with the
culture and preparation of all these various productions, it
would not be difficult to discover among the colonists themselves
men of good character possessing the knowledge in which he might
be deficient, and who might be assigned him as assistants, but
still placed under his direction and control. The encouragement
which I consider should be held out to the director, as well as
to his subordinate agents, ought not to consist of stipulated
salaries, which might superinduce lethargy, and prevent them from
contributing their utmost to the success of the establishment,
but of a certain proportion of the clear profits of the concern,
after the deduction of all contingent expences. What I conceive
this proportion ought to be, I will hereafter specify, as also
the manner in which I would distribute the remainder. The
subjects which I propose for immediate consideration are: 1st,
The manner in which this institution might be founded; 2dly, The
number and description of the candidates to be admitted, with the
manner of their occupation; and, lastly, the nature of the
encouragement to be accorded them.
The means necessary for this undertaking must be unavoidably
supplied by the government. "The Police Fund" is so burdened with
charges of one sort or another, that I fear it would prove of
itself inadequate to the completion of this measure; although
there can be no doubt, that most of the ends to which this fund
is at present devoted are of but subordinate utility, and might
be very advantageously postponed to the object under
consideration. The erection of the different buildings that would
be immediately required for the various incipient purposes of
this institution, and the supply of its inmates with provisions
and the requisite implements of husbandry during the first
eighteen months of its establishment, after which period I
consider they would be fully able to administer in these respects
to their own wants, would be the principal expences to be
incurred. About £6000 would suffice for these objects;
while, in return, its operation would gradually extend itself to
every district, would develope and bring to maturity various
exportable commodities, which are as yet lying in embryo, and
which this country does not possess in any of her colonies; and,
in fine, would be more sensibly felt, and become more extensively
beneficial, in proportion to its own progressive march towards
perfection.
Secondly, With respect to the number of candidates to be
admitted, they ought perhaps, in the first instance, to be
limited to fifty, although they might, and indeed ought to be
subsequently increased to not fewer than two hundred. More than
those in the commencement, before a due degree of order and
economy could be introduced, would undoubtedly create confusion
and an unnecessary augmentation of expence. Fifty are as many as
I conceive could be advantageously occupied for the first two or
three years. It must, however, be obvious, that the capability of
this institution for the reception and profitable employment of a
greater number of pupils, would very materially depend on the
director, and be, in a great measure, accelerated or retarded by
his ability or incompetency for a due discharge of his
duties.
As to the description of these candidates, it would, I
consider, be proper that they should consist of young men born in
the colony, or who may have come to it with their parents; that
they should not exceed eighteen years of age, nor be under
fifteen; that they should be of docile tempers and regular
habits, which points should be ascertained previously to their
admittance; and that their parents or guardians should bind them
apprentice for the space of four years to the trustees or
directors of this establishment for the time being, during which
period they should renounce all control over them whatever.
I will not here pretend to prescribe all the various modes of
occupation which it might be proper to allot them; I have already
enumerated those productions, the culture of which I conceive
might be most advantageously taught and disseminated by means of
this institution. Others, however, of equal and perhaps greater
utility, may be hereafter suggested by persons more conversant
with the situation and interests of the colony, and ought
unquestionably, if there be any such, to become identified with
those which I have specified. Whatever may be the decision of
more competent judges than myself on this subject, I may perhaps
confidently venture to recommend, that the pupils should be
divided into classes, that each of these should be instructed in
a particular sort of culture at a time; and that upon the
attainment of a thorough knowledge how to cultivate and prepare
any one article, and not before, their attention should be
directed to some other, and so on, till the expiration of their
several apprenticeships. It would be proper also to allow their
parents or guardians the selection of the occupations in which
they might wish their children or wards to be instructed, in so
far at least, as such occupations might be compatible with any of
the purposes of the institution.
And lastly, with reference to the nature and extent of the
encouragements to be accorded to the pupils, I would recommend,
in order that their energies might be stretched to the greatest
possible point of extension, that six eighths of the net annual
profits arising from their labours should be set apart, and
remain in the hands of the trustees, for their sole use and
benefit; and that on their retiring from this institution, the
accumulated amount should be equally divided among them, both to
secure their successful establishment in life, and to render the
knowledge which they may have severally acquired, of permanent
benefit to the community. I would also recommend that the
accounts both of the expenditure and profits of the institution
should be annually submitted to the trustees for their approval,
and afterwards printed and distributed among the pupils, not only
for the purpose of provoking inquiry into their accuracy, and
obtaining that rectification in case of error, which it might be
difficult to effect after the lapse of five years; but also with
a view to bring home to their understandings, and to convince
them beyond the possibility of doubt, of the benefits which they
may have derived from their past labours; a conviction that would
prove the most cordial incentive, the most powerful lever which
could be applied to their future industry and exertion. I would
lastly recommend, that the quantity of land, and indeed that the
encouragements of every kind which the government are in the
habit of granting to the ordinary class of settlers, should be
increased in a two-fold proportion to the pupils of this
institution; but as it evidently would not be expedient or
equitable that those who might habitually violate the regulations
to be made for the good government of this little community,
should receive on the one hand an equal recompence with those
whose conduct might have always been regular and exemplary, or
that they should be deprived on the other of their quota of the
emoluments that might accumulate during the period of their
apprenticeships, I would suggest, in order to mark that due
gradation which in every well regulated society must necessarily
exist in the scale of rewards to be accorded to such as may be
subordinate or refractory,--industrious, or idle; that these
latter encouragements should only be extended in this double
ratio to those who might quit the establishment with a
certificate of good conduct from the director.
With regard to the allowance to be made the gentleman to whom
the directorship might be confided, I should imagine that one
eighth of the clear profits arising from the institution, would
be a most liberal compensation for his trouble and attention, and
that the remaining eighth would be an equally handsome provision
for the whole of his assistants: one of whom would be required
for the superintendence and instruction of each of the classes
into which it might be determined that the pupils should be
divided.
Such are the principal measures which are essential to the
revival of the agricultural prosperity. I will now briefly notice
the various restrictions with which the commercial interests have
been not less injudiciously fettered, and the removal of which is
of the highest importance to the progress and welfare of the
colony. These may be divided into two heads, duties and
disabilities; and first, with reference to the duties with which
the various articles of export that the colonists possess or
procure, have been shackled by the successive governors. The
duties in question are enumerated in the following schedule, and
are levied upon the undermentioned articles, whether they are
intended for home consumption or for exportation, in which latter
case it will be seen that some few of them are even doubled.
On each ton of sandal wood £2 10 0
On each ton of pearl shells 2 10 0
On each ton of beche la mer 5 0 0
On each ton of sperm oil 2 10 0
On each ton of black whale or other oil 2 0 0
On each fur seal skin 0 0 1½
On each hair ditto 0 0 0½
On each kangaroo ditto 0 0 0½
On cedar or other timber from Shoal-haven, or any other part
of the coast or harbours of New South Wales (Newcastle excepted,
as the duties are already prescribed there) when not supplied by
government labourers, for each solid foot -010 For every twenty
spars from New Zealand or elsewhere100On timber in log or plank
from New Zealand, or elsewhere, for each solid foot 0 1 0
For each ton of coals from Newcastle for home consumption 0 2 6
Ditto if exported 0 5 0
For each thousand square feet of timber for home consumption 3 0 0
Ditto if exported 6 0 0
That all these duties should be levied on these different
articles, in as far as they may be consumed in the colony, may be
highly expedient; but that they should be equally levied on
exportation, and in two of the most material instances doubled,
is so manifestly absurd, that it must be quite superfluous to
dilate on the subject. It is a system of policy which it may be
safely asserted is unknown in any other part of the world; and
nothing but the indubitable certainly of its existence would
convince any rational person that it could ever have entered into
the contemplation of any one intrusted with the government of a
colony. These duties have had the effect which might have been
expected from them; they have in most instances amounted to
actual prohibitions. Their operation, indeed, has been found so
burdensome and oppressive, that the colonial merchants have
frequently petitioned the local government for relief; but no
attention whatever has been paid to their repeated
representations and remonstrances. Had it not been for the duties
on coals and timber, some hundred tons of these valuable natural
productions would have been exported annually to the Cape of Good
Hope and India; since the vessels which have been in the practice
of trading between those countries and the colony have always
returned in ballast; and the owners or consignees would,
therefore, have gladly shipped cargoes of timber or coals, if
they could have derived the most minute profit from the freight
of them. This observation holds good in a great measure with
respect to the various other articles which have been enumerated:
the exportation of the whole has been greatly circumscribed by
the same ridiculous and vexatious system of impost. It can hardly
be credited that the veriest sciolist in political economy could
have been guilty of such a palpable deviation from its
fundamental principles; but it is still more unaccountable, that
a succession of governors should have pertinaciously adhered to a
system of finance so absurd and monstrous.
Highly injurious, however, as are the duties which are levied
in the colony, they are not nearly so oppressive as those which
are levied in this country, on spermaceti, right whale, and
elephant oils procured in vessels built in the colony. The duties
on the importation of such oil into this country, are £24
18s. 9d. for the first sort, and £8 6s. 3d. for the two last.
If we add to these enormous duties those which are levied
by the authority of the local government, it will be perceived
that all the spermaceti oil procured by the colonial vessels
has to pay a duty of £28 8s. 9d. and all the right whale and
elephant oil a duty of £10 6s. 3d. before it can come into
competition with the oil of the same description
procured in vessels built in the united kingdom. It has, however,
been seen, that the colonists, propelled not less by that spirit
of enterprize which distinguishes Englishmen in every quarter of
the globe, than by the desire of finding profitable employment
for that large portion of unoccupied labour, of which I have
hastily pointed out the causes and march for the last fifteen
years, have frequently attempted, notwithstanding these
overwhelming prohibitions, to carry on these fisheries, but
always without success; and that the valuable fishery of right
whales which the river Derwent affords at a particular season, is
now only resorted to, in order to procure the trifling supply of
oil which is requisite for the East India market and for internal
consumption. All attempts to export oil to this country have been
for many years abandoned; since the trade could only be
maintained at a dead loss, as the ruinous experience of many of
the colonial merchants has abundantly attested. The reason why
these enormous duties were imposed on oil procured in the
colonial vessels is not generally understood here, but it is
universally known in the colony; and the knowledge has materially
tended to increase the dissatisfaction which the imposition of
such duties would of itself, to a certain extent, have naturally
excited. The act which authorizes these duties, is one of those
smuggled acts by which, to the disgrace of our legislature, the
welfare and happiness of helpless unprotected thousands have been
so frequently sacrificed on the shrine of individual avarice or
ambition. It originated in a certain great mercantile house
extensively concerned in the South Sea fisheries, and could never
have been passed, had there been a single person in either house
of parliament, at all interested in the prosperity of this
colony. This act, indeed, is such a terrible deviation, such a
monstrous exception to the usual policy of this country with
respect to the fisheries, that it carries with itself the
strongest internal evidence of its polluted origin. No such
restrictions had ever before been imposed on any of our colonies,
as will be sufficiently evident, if we compare the duties which
are levied in this country on oils procured in the vessels
belonging to the colonies in North America and the West Indies,
with those which are levied on oils procured in the vessels
fitted out from the united kingdom. These duties are as
follow:
*Train oil, the produce of fish, or creatures living in the
sea, taken and caught by the crew of a British built vessel,
wholly owned by his majesty's subjects, usually residing in Great
Britain, Ireland, or the islands of Guernsey, Jersey, Alderney,
Sark, or Man, registered and navigated according to law, and
imported in any such shipping, per ton 0 8 3¾
[* See Pope's Practical Abridgment of the Laws of
Customs and Excise, etc. etc. Title 246.]
Train oil, the produce of fish, or creatures living in the
sea, taken and caught on the banks and shores of the island of
Newfoundland and parts adjacent, wholly by his majesty's subjects
carrying on such fishery from that island, and residing therein,
and exported directly from thence in a British built ship or
vessel, registered and navigated according to law, per ton 1 4 11¼
Train oil, the produce of fish, or creatures living in the
sea, taken and caught wholly by his majesty's subjects, usually
residing in any of the Bahama or Bermudas islands, or in any
British plantation in North America, and imported in a British
built vessel, registered and navigated according to law, per
ton 3 6 6
Train oil, the produce of fish, or creatures living in the
sea, taken and caught wholly by his majesty's subjects, usually
residing in any other British plantation, territory, or
settlement, and imported in a British built vessel, registered
and navigated according to law, per ton 8 6 3
Spermaceti oil, or head matter, taken and caught by the crew
of a British built vessel, wholly owned by his majesty's
subjects, usually residing in Great Britain, Ireland, and the
islands of Guernsey, Jersey, Alderney, Sark, or Man, registered
and navigated according to law, and imported in any such vessel,
per ton 0 8 3¾
Spermaceti oil, or head matter, taken and caught on the banks
and shores of the island of Newfoundland and parts adjacent,
wholly by his majesty's subjects carrying on such fishery from
that island, and residing therein, and imported directly from
thence in a British built vessel registered and navigated
according to law, per ton 1 4 11¼
Spermaceti oil, or head matter, taken and caught wholly by his
majesty's subjects, usually residing in any of the Bahama or
Bermudas islands, or in any British plantation in North America,
and imported in a British built vessel, registered and navigated
according to law, per ton 4 19 9
Spermaceti oil, or head matter, taken and caught wholly by his
majesty's subjects, usually residing in any other British
plantation, territory, or settlement, and imported in a British
built vessel, registered and navigated according to law, per
ton 24 18 9
From the foregoing statement it will be perceived that the
duty levied on train oil, or spermaceti oil, or head-matter
procured by the inhabitants of Newfoundland, is precisely the
same, and only three times the amount of _that_ which is
levied on the same substances procured by British subjects
residing in the united kingdom; and that the duty levied on oil,
procured by British subjects residing in the Bahama, or Bermudas
islands, or in the plantations in North America, is only
_eight_ times the amount on train oil, and _twelve_
times the amount on spermaceti oil or head-matter, of _that_
which is levied on the same substances taken by British subjects
residing within the united kingdom. While on the other hand, the
duty levied on oil procured _in any other colony_; (for
mark, the contrivers of this act had sufficient cunning not to
particularize the unfortunate colony against which it was levied)
is _twenty times greater_ on train oil, and oh, _monstrous
injustice!_ upwards of _sixty times_ greater on
spermaceti oil, or head-matter, than _that_ which is levied
on similar substances taken by British subjects residing within
the limits of the united kingdom. The duty, therefore, which is
payable on train oil procured in vessels belonging to this colony
is _nearly seven times_ greater than _that_ which is
payable on the same description of oil taken in vessels belonging
to the island of Newfoundland, and _considerably more than
double that_ which is payable on it, when taken in vessels
belonging to the Bahama or Bermudas islands, or to the
plantations in North America; while the duty which is levied on
spermaceti oil, or head-matter, procured in vessels belonging to
this colony, is _five times_ the amount of _that_ which
is levied on such oil or head-matter, when taken in vessels
belonging to the Bahama, or Bermudas islands, or to the
plantations in North America; and _twenty times_ the amount
of _that_ which is levied on similar substances when taken
in vessels belonging to Newfoundland. This very unequal
proportion which the duties levied on these two sorts of oil, if
procured by the inhabitants of this colony, bear to each other
when compared with the duties which are levied on the same
substances if procured by the inhabitants of any of the foregoing
colonies or plantations, furnishes an additional proof, were any
required, of the correctness of my assertions with respect to the
origin of the act by which they were imposed. The house who were
the authors of it, could not consistently get the duty on one
description of oil raised, without at the same time admitting the
necessity for raising the duty on the other; but as they were not
interested in the right whale fishery, they were only anxious to
prevent the colonists of New South Wales from embarking in the
sperm whale fishery; and could they have accomplished this object
without running the risk of discovering the covert aim of the act
in its progress through parliament, they would have gladly
compromised this point with them, and have left the right whale
fishery open to them on the same conditions as it was before the
enactment of this bill. To have evinced, however, any such
tolerant inclination might have betrayed their design, and
accordingly the colonists were debarred from both the fisheries;
for notwithstanding that regular gradation has by no means been
adhered to in the imposition of these duties, which had been
previously observed in the scale of the duties levied in the
other colonies or plantations, they have in both instances been
more than sufficient to constitute actual prohibitions.
That any superiority of privilege whatever should have been
conceded by the legislature of this country, in the various acts
which have been passed for the encouragement of the fisheries, to
British subjects residing within the limits of the united
kingdom, is at best a manifest injustice to such of her subjects
as inhabit the colonies; but yet so long as this partiality was
confined within any reasonable bounds, it would not have excited
any considerable feeling of dissatisfaction. That there should,
however, be any gradation in the scale of duties to be levied on
any description of merchandise procured or produced in the
colonies themselves, is a system which it is impossible to
reconcile with any principle of justice or policy. Still so long
as this disproportion of impost, however unwise and unjust, did
not become so burdensome and oppressive as to confine this branch
of commerce, whatever it might be, to the privileged colony or
colonies, some palliation might be offered by its advocates for
its continuance, although the warmest of them would not be able
to attempt its vindication. But that any one colony should be
utterly excluded from privileges freely accorded to another, is
such a monstrous stretch of tyrannical partiality, that it never
could have been deliberately discussed in a free government, and
must therefore have been contrived by the secret machinations of
private avarice and corruption.
Can any reason be adduced why British subjects residing in one
colony, should be excluded from the whale fisheries more than
British subjects residing in another? Why vessels built in
Canada, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, or the Bahama islands, should
possess a privilege denied to vessels built in New Holland or Van
Diemen's Land? The whale fishery is not more contiguous to the
inhabitants of the former colonies than to those of the latter;
yet every encouragement is afforded for the carrying on of the
one, and every obstacle thrown in the way of the successful
prosecution of the other. Why such a broad line of distinction is
drawn, it is impossible to divine; since the disability which is
the consequence of it, is not only not in furtherance of any of
the ends contemplated by the navigation act,* but in diametrical
opposition to the whole of them. This will be evident if we refer
to its preamble, and to a few of its prominent provisions.
"Whereas for the increase of shipping and encouragement of the
navigation of this nation, wherein under the good providence and
protection of God, the wealth, safety, and strength of this
kingdom is so much concerned; it is enacted that no goods, or
commodities whatsoever, shall be imported into, or exported out
of any lands, islands, plantations or territories to his Majesty
belonging, or in his possession, or which may hereafter belong
unto or be in the possession of his Majesty in Asia, Africa, or
America, in any other vessels whatsoever, but in such vessels as
do truly and without fraud belong only to the people of England,
Ireland, or are of the built of and belonging to any of the said
lands, islands, plantations, or territories as the proprietors
and right owners thereof, and whereof the master and
three-fourths of the mariners at least are English, under the
penalty of the forfeiture and loss of all the goods and
commodities which shall be imported into, or exported out of any
the aforesaid places, in any other vessel, as also of the vessel
with all its tackle," etc. From this, which is the principal
clause of the act, it clearly appears that British subjects in
whatever part of the empire they may happen to reside, are
entitled to precisely the same privileges, and that vessels built
in any of her colonies are to all intents and purposes to be
deemed of British built, in the same manner and on the same terms
and conditions as if they had been built within the limits of the
united kingdom, i. e. so long as the master and three fourths of
the crew are British subjects. That this admission to a perfect
equality of privilege, was and is still the intent not only of
the navigation act, but of all the leading acts of navigation
which have been passed since, we shall be still further
satisfied, if we trace them in their whole progress to the
present hour. It will not, however, be necessary to extend our
examination either way beyond the great registry act passed in
the twenty-sixth year of the reign of his present majesty, cap.
60. "By this act very considerable alteration was made in the
whole concern of registering shipping, with a view of securing to
ships of the _built_ of this country, a preference and
superiority which they had not enjoyed so completely before. The
plan of regulation then proposed to parliament was the result of
an inquiry and deliberation of great length before the committee
of Privy Council for the Affairs of Trade and Plantations; and
that inquiry was commenced and carried on, and the measure at
length decided upon principally by the exertion and perseverance
of the late Earl of Liverpool."** What vessels are still deemed
in this careful and elaborate revision of the navigation code to
be of _British built_, may be seen from the first clause of
this act, which ordains "that no vessels _foreign built_
(except such vessels as have been, or shall hereafter be taken by
any of his Majesty's vessels of war, or by any private, or other
vessel, and condemned as lawful prize in any court of admiralty)
nor any vessel built or rebuilt upon any foreign-made keel or
bottom, in the manner heretofore practised and allowed, although
owned by British subjects, and navigated according to law, shall
be any longer entitled to any of the privileges or advantages of
a _British built ship_, or of a ship owned by British
subjects, and all the said privileges and advantages shall
hereafter be confined to _such ships only_ as are _wholly
of the built_ of Great Britain or Ireland, Guernsey, Jersey,
and the Isle of Man, or of some of the plantations, islands, or
territories in Asia, Africa, or America, which now belong, or at
the time of building such vessels did belong, or which _may
hereafter belong to_ or be in the possession of his Majesty;
provided always, that nothing hereinbefore contained shall extend
to prohibit such foreign built vessels only as before the 1st of
May, 1786, did truly and without fraud wholly belong to any of
the people of Great Britain or Ireland, Guernsey, Jersey, and the
Isle of Man, or of some of the plantations, etc. etc." Here then
we have cited the _two leading clauses_ in the _two
leading acts_ of navigation, and both prove that the objects
which this country had in view, were to create nurseries of
seamen for her navy, and to secure to her subjects, in whatever
part of her extended empire they might reside, the benefit of the
carrying trade. The imposition, therefore, of any duties on her
subjects in any of her colonies, greater than those which are
levied under similar circumstances on her subjects at home, far
from being in unison with the liberal and enlightened policy of
the navigation laws, is a broad deviation from their fundamental
principles, and the creation of an entire system of exclusion,
such as the one under consideration is, _a fortiori_, an
utter violation of their letter and spirit. That any prohibitory
duties of this sort could ever have been enacted, will appear
still more surprising, if we look a little further into the
policy which this country has pursued with respect to her other
fisheries, particularly the cod fishery on the banks of
Newfoundland, and parts adjacent. For when by the 15th Charles
II. cap. 7. she enlarged the scope of her great navigation act,
and to the two main original objects contemplated in this act,
viz. the creation of nurseries for seamen, and the securing to
her subjects the carrying trade, she superadded a third, viz.
that of making herself the _entrepot_ for the deposit of all
goods and commodities, whether the growth, production, or
manufacture of Europe, or of her colonies, it having been
foreseen that this alteration in her maritime code would be
prejudicial to the cod fisheries, and that it would most
materially conduce to their prosperity and extension still to
allow salt, provisions, wine, etc. to be imported _directly_
from various countries not subject to the dominion of the crown
of England into the colonies from whence these fisheries are
carried on, this enlarged act,*** after ordaining "that no
commodity of the growth, production, or manufacture of Europe
shall be imported into any land, island, plantation, colony,
territory, or place to his Majesty belonging, or which shall
hereafter belong unto, or be in the possession of his Majesty in
Asia, Africa, or America, (Tangier only excepted) but what shall
be _bona fide_ and without fraud, laden and shipped in
England, and in English built shipping, and whereof the master
and three fourths of the mariners at least are English, and which
shall be carried directly thence to the said lands, islands,
plantations, colonies, territories or places, and from no other
place whatsoever, any law or usage to the contrary
notwithstanding, under the penalty of the loss of all such
commodities of the growth, production, or manufacture of Europe,
as shall be imported into any of them from any other place by
land or by water, and if by water, of the vessel also in which
they were imported with her tackle, etc. etc." immediately
subjoins:--"Provided that it shall be lawful to ship and lade in
such ships, and so navigated as in the foregoing clause is set
down and expressed in any part of Europe, salt for the fisheries
of New England and Newfoundland, and to ship and lade in the
Madeiras wines of the growth thereof, and to ship and lade in the
Western Islands, or Azores, wines of the growth of the said
islands, and to ship and take in servants or horses in****
Scotland or Ireland, and to ship or lade in Scotland all sorts of
victual, the growth or production of Scotland, and to ship and
lade in Ireland all sorts of victual of the growth or production
of Ireland, and the same to transport into any of the said lands,
islands, plantations, colonies, territories or places." Here then
is an instance of a very material deviation from the spirit of
the navigation laws for the sole purpose of encouraging a
fishery; but who can deny its policy? The legislature in this
case had to decide whether they would extend this great national
nursery for seamen, or whether they would check its growth by
preventing the direct trade between these colonies and Europe,
Madeira, the Azores, etc. and by making herself the
_entrepot_ for the deposit and exchange of all the produce
of these fisheries on the one hand, and of the productions of
Europe, etc. etc. that were necessary for their extension on the
other. The advantages that she would have derived from such a
selfish arrangement, she wisely foresaw would be more than
counterbalanced by the concomitant detriment which her maritime
interests would have sustained from it. And hence this deviation
from one of the leading objects of her navigation laws, a
deviation which has not only been continued ever since, but even
considerably enlarged; for many other places are now included in
the direct commerce with these colonies, as will be seen by
reference to the 46 Geo. III. c. 116. which recites, "whereas by
the laws in force no commodity of the growth, production, or
manufacture of Europe, is allowed to be imported into any place
to his Majesty belonging, or which shall hereafter belong unto,
or be in the possession of his Majesty in Asia, Africa, or
America, but what shall be _bona fide_ and without fraud,
laden and shipped in Great Britain, or Ireland, except salt for
the fisheries of Nova Scotia, Newfoundland and Quebec, which may
be laden in any port of Europe, and also except any goods fit and
necessary for the fishery in the British colonies or plantations
in America, being the growth, produce, or manufacture of Great
Britain or Ireland, or of the islands of Guernsey or Jersey,
which may be shipped and laden in the said islands respectively
by any of the inhabitants thereof, and also except wines of the
growth of the Madeiras and the Western Islands, or Azores, which
may be laden at those places respectively: and whereas, it may
tend to the benefit of the British fisheries, and to the
advantage of the commerce and navigation of this country, if
permission was given for certain other articles to be shipped for
the British colonies in North America, at other places in Europe
than those hereinbefore mentioned, under certain regulations and
restrictions:" it is therefore enacted that any fruit, wine, oil,
salt, or cork, the produce of Europe, may be shipped and laden at
Malta, or Gibraltar, for exportation direct to the said
plantations in North America, on board any British _built_
vessel, owned, navigated, and registered according to law, which
shall arrive with the produce of the said fisheries taken and
cured by his majesty's subjects carrying on the said fishery from
any of the said plantations, or from Great Britain or
Ireland.
[* 12 Car. II. chap. 18.]
[** Reeves, second edition, p. 397.]
[*** 15 Charles II. cap. 7.]
[**** England, Ireland and Scotland, since united
into one kingdom.]
I have been thus copious in extracts from the navigation laws,
to prove that the great leading principles of these laws would
not only be in no wise encroached upon by allowing the
inhabitants of this colony to carry on the whale fisheries in
their own vessels, but also that the duties which were thus
clandestinely imposed on oils so procured, have been a flagrant
violation of them, and that they are a single isolated exception
to a general rule. Nor would the abolition of the duties in
question, and the consequent encouragement of these fisheries,
prove injurious to the British merchants at home, as must have
been apprehended by those who were the authors of the prohibitory
law by which these duties were enacted. Looking, indeed, at the
mere situation of the colony, it would not be unnatural to
conclude that its contiguity to the sperm whale fisheries, on the
coast of New Zealand, New Caledonia, and New Guinea, would give
its inhabitants such a decided advantage over the persons
carrying on the same fisheries from this country, that these
latter would soon be forced to abandon a ruinous competition, and
that she would consequently be deprived of the very important
benefits which she at present derives from it. The fears,
however, which are apt to arise on this view of the subject will
be immediately dissipated if it be considered, that the rope,
canvas, casks, and gear of every description, necessary for the
outfit of the colonial vessels for these fisheries, are furnished
by this country, and can never be obtained in the colony under an
advance of fifty per cent. on the prime cost; that the sperm oil
in the market is unequal to the demand for it, an assertion
proved as well by the existing bounties held out by the
legislature for the encouragement of these fisheries, as by the
enormous wages gained by the seamen employed in them; that these
bounties themselves operate as a considerable prohibition to the
colonists; and, lastly, that many years must elapse before the
colonial fishermen can be properly organized, and rendered as
expert as the English. These various disadvantages under which
the inhabitants of this colony labour, are all but one of a
permanent nature, and it is evident will always more than
counterbalance the single local superiority which they possess,
and ensure the English merchants a decided advantage in the
market;--an advantage which if it will not outstrip all
competition, will at least only just permit that salutary
opposition which is essential to the prevention of monopoly and
to the interests of the public.
It must, I should imagine, by this time be quite obvious, that
the removal of the duties in question would be in complete unison
with the spirit of the navigation laws, and with that liberal and
enlightened policy, which this country has on all other occasions
invariably observed, with respect to colonies in parallel
circumstances. In establishing, therefore, a precedent, I hope
that I have made out a case sufficiently strong to warrant the
interference of the legislature. It may not, however, be
altogether superfluous, if it be only to point out the injury
which this country has sustained from her past injustice and
impolicy, just to glance at the advantages that she would possess
in future wars from having an extensive body of seamen at her
disposal in the South Pacific Ocean. Hitherto our squadrons in
India have been entirely supplied with seamen from this country,
and the great mortality which takes place on that station
requires this supply to be constantly kept up. It is well known,
although fewer actions take place in the Indian seas than perhaps
on any other of our maritime stations, that the number of deaths
occasioned by the influence of the climate alone are
proportionally more considerable than in any other part of the
world, with the single exception, I believe, of the coast of
Africa. It becomes, therefore, a question of the greatest
importance, whether considered in a political or philanthropic
point of view, to ascertain if this lamentable expenditure of
human life might not be considerably diminished by manning our
ships of war in the Indian seas with the inhabitants of New
Holland. It is well known that our settlements in this vast
island are situated in a climate which forms a mean between the
temperature of this country and India. There is consequently
every probability, that the persons born in these colonies would
be able to support the extreme heats of India much better than
Englishmen. Be this, however, as it may, there can be no doubt of
the advantage which this country would derive from having a
valuable nursery for seamen in a situation, from which her navy
in the East might at no very remote period be so easily supplied
on all occasions of emergency. This prospect cannot fail to prove
an additional motive with the government for the abolition of
duties, which, if persevered in, will for ever stifle all
commercial enterprize, and debar not only the colonists
themselves, but the parent country also from the various
important advantages, which I should presume it is now evident
that an uncontrolled ability to prosecute these fisheries would
infallibly secure to one and the other.
With reference now to the commercial disabilities which have
been imposed on this colony: the first impediment, the removal of
which may be said to be of any material importance to its
mercantile prosperity, is the clause in the East India Company's
charter*, which provides, "that it shall not be lawful for any
vessel, the registered measurement whereof shall be less than
three hundred and fifty tons, other than such vessels as may be
employed by the East India Company as packets, to clear out from
any port in the united kingdom for any place within the limits of
the said company's charter, or be admitted to entry at any port
of the united kingdom from any place within those limits.**" When
this act was passed, the pernicious bearing of this clause on the
colony was most probably overlooked. It has been found
prejudicial in the following respects:--First, The demand for
British goods is not sufficiently extensive to absorb cargoes of
such magnitude; so that when any such have arrived, they have
generally been attended with a loss to the owners, who will
probably soon become too wise to continue such a hazardous
commerce. Those merchants, indeed, who were in the habit of
shipping cargoes in smaller vessels for the colonial market,
before the passing of this act, have already abandoned, in a
great measure, their connexion within the colony, which is at
present chiefly dependent for its supplies of British
manufactures, on the captains of the vessels employed in the
transportation of convicts. These supplies, therefore, have
naturally become unequal and precarious: sometimes being
unnecessarily superabundant and cheap, and at other times being
so extremely scarce and dear as to be entirely beyond the reach
of the great body of the consumers. Such great fluctuations are
obviously not more repugnant to the well being and comfort of the
colonists themselves than to the mercantile interests of this
country.
[* 53 Geo. 3. c. 155.]
[** The colony of New South Wales is within these
limits.]
Secondly, The tendency of this act is not less injurious to
the colonists with regard to the few articles of export which
they are enabled to produce or collect for the British market.
These indeed are only three in number, wool, hides, and seal
skins, and are at present very inconsiderable in quantity; but
the two former articles must necessarily increase every year, and
will at length become of great extent and importance. The
probable amount of the colonial exports has been already rated at
about £28,000, out of which I consider that not more than
£15,000 worth is conveyed to this country. The remainder
consists of sandal wood, beche la mer, etc. exported principally
to China. It may therefore be perceived that the whole of the
annual exports of this colony would not suffice for half the
freight of a single vessel of the size regulated by the act in
question. It happens, in consequence, that the different articles
of export which the colonists collect, frequently accumulate in
their stores for a year and a half, before it becomes worth the
while of the captain of any of the vessels which frequent the
colony, to give them ship-room; and even then they do it as a
matter of _favour_, not forgetting, however, to extort an
exorbitant return for their _kindness and condescension_.
The owners, indeed, of these vessels are so well aware of the
inability of the colony to furnish them with cargoes on freight,
that they generally manage before their departure, to contract
for freights from some of the ports in India; a precaution which
increases still more perceptibly the difficulty which the
colonists experience in sending their produce to market. It must,
therefore, be evident that they suffer a two-fold injury from
this act, both as it prevents a regular supply of the colonial
markets with British manufactures, and as it impedes the
conveyance of their exports to this country. It is to be hoped,
then, that this unnecessary and oppressive provision of the act
will be revised, and that vessels of any burden will be suffered
to trade between this country and the colony, until its increased
growth and maturity shall have rendered the revision of obsolete
efficacy.
The last disability of serious detriment to the colonists, is
that their vessels cannot navigate the seas within the limits of
the East India Company's charter. I say _cannot_; because,
although since the late renewal of their charter vessels built in
this colony are, I should apprehend, entitled to all the
privileges of other British built vessels, so long as they are
navigated according to law, it has not yet attained sufficient
strength to be enabled to build vessels of the burden of three
hundred and fifty tons; and if it even possessed this ability,
such vessels could only convey the produce of the countries in
the Eastern seas, to which the free trade has lately been opened,
to certain ports in the united kingdom. The colonists, therefore,
are virtually precluded from trading in their own vessels within
these limits; a restriction highly injurious to them, and of no
benefit whatever to the company. Till within these few years the
vessels built at the Cape of Good Hope were subject to a similar
restraint; but its useless and oppressive tendency became so
glaring, and the restraint itself so obnoxious to the people who
were suffering under it, that it was at length removed by an
Order in Council, dated 24th September, 1814, which was made by
virtue of an act passed so long back as the 49th* year of the
reign of his present Majesty. By the 57th Geo. 3. c. 95. this
settlement was expressly included, for all the purposes of the
act, within the limits of the East India Company's charter. The
same reasons that sufficed for granting this privilege in the one
instance, are at least equally conclusive in the other; and it is
to be hoped, that the legislature will soon release the colony of
New South Wales also from so grievous and unnecessary a
restraint. Indeed no new act for this purpose is necessary; for
the 57th Geo. 3. c. 1. after reciting, "whereas it is expedient
under the present circumstances, that the trade and commerce to
and from all islands, colonies, or places, and the territories
and dependencies thereof to his Majesty belonging, or in his
possession in Africa or Asia, to the eastward of the Cape of Good
Hope, excepting only the possessions of the East India Company,
should be regulated for a certain time in such manner as shall
seem proper to his Majesty in Council, notwithstanding the
special provisions of any act or acts of parliament, that may be
construed to affect the same," enacts, "that it shall be lawful
for his Majesty in Council, by any order to be issued from time
to time, to give such directions, and make such regulations
touching the trade and commerce to and from the said islands,
colonies, or places, and the territories and dependencies
thereof, as to his Majesty in Council shall appear most expedient
and salutary; any thing contained in any act of parliament now in
force relating to his Majesty's colonies and plantations, or any
other law or custom to the contrary in any wise notwithstanding."
It may, therefore, be perceived that the disability in question
might be removed by a simple Order in Council. Whenever his
Majesty's government shall have freed the colonists from this
useless and cruel prohibition, the following branches of commerce
would then be opened to them: First, they would be enabled to
transport in their own vessels their coals, timber, spars, flour,
meat, etc. to the Cape of Good Hope, the Isle of France,
Calcutta, and many other places in the Indian seas, in all of
which markets more or less extensive exist for these and various
other productions which the colony might furnish; Secondly, they
would be enabled to carry directly to Canton the sandal wood,
beche la mer, dried seal skins, and in fact all the numerous
productions which the surrounding seas and islands afford for the
China market, and return freighted with cargoes of tea, silks,
nankeens, etc. all of which commodities are in great demand in
the colony, and are at present altogether furnished by East India
or American merchants, to the great detriment and dissatisfaction
of the colonial. And, lastly, they would be enabled in a short
time, from the great increase of capital which these important
privileges would of themselves occasion, as well as attract from
other countries to open the fur trade with the north-west coast
of America, and dispose of the cargoes procured in China; a trade
which has hitherto been** exclusively carried on by the Americans
and Russians, although the colonists possess a local superiority
for the prosecution of this valuable branch of commerce, which
would ensure them at least a successful competition with the
subjects of those two nations.
[* Cap. 17.]
[** Many attempts have been made by the legislature
to encourage British subjects to carry on this commerce from the
ports of the united kingdom, but they have in a great measure
failed in this object: see Convention with the King of Spain, 33
Geo, 3. c. 52. Indeed, during the period of the Company's
exclusive trade with China, it can only be successfully
undertaken by persons residing within the limits of their
charter.]
Such are the principal alterations in the policy of this
colony which appear most essential to its progress and welfare.
All these indeed, and many other privileges, which, though of
only secondary consideration, would tend like a constant
concurrence of small rivulets to swell and enlarge the stream of
colonial prosperity, would be the natural consequences of a free
representative government. If I have, therefore, gradually
ascended from effect to cause, after the manner of experimental
philosophy, I have chosen this mode of elucidation, not because
it was the only one which offered for the illustration of my
subject, but because I consider the inferences to be drawn from
it more satisfactory than those to which the opposite mode of
reasoning (that of descending from generals to particulars)
conducts; because it would be as easy that the abolition of the
various grievances which have been enumerated should be coeval
with the creation of the free constitution, by which such
abolition would be eventually accomplished; and lastly, because
the additional tedious delay which would otherwise intervene
between the establishment of a colonial legislature, the
representation of grievances by which it would be followed, and
their consequent removal,--a process that would occupy two years,
might be thus avoided; or in other words, the same period of
unnecessary endurance and misery spared to the ill fated
inhabitants of this colony. In recommending, however, that the
government of this country should authorize the immediate
adoption of the measures which I have proposed, I do not mean to
imply that such authorization alone would be productive of the
important results in contemplation. However extensively
beneficial in their present and remote effects the privileges
thus conferred might prove, they would nevertheless be
unsatisfactory and incomplete, so long as they were unaccompanied
with a government competent and willing to watch over and secure
their continuance. While it should be in the power of any
individual to suspend or annul them, what guarantee, in fact,
would exist for their permanence and durability? What solid basis
on which the capital and industry, which they might be calculated
to elicit, could repose in security?
The confidence, indeed, which an impartial governor might
inspire, would most probably, as often as the colony might be
blessed with a chief of this description, give a momentary
impulse to the activity of the colonists, and create a temporary
prosperity among them; but the shortness of his administration
will always interrupt the completion of his projects, and the
caprice, imbecillity, or injustice of some one or other of his
successors, like the blast of the sirocco, wither up the tender
shoots of prosperity, which a consistent and protecting
government would have nurtured and brought to maturity. The
experience of the past has sufficiently evinced the little
dependence which is to be placed on the degree of countenance and
protection which the system of one governor, however beneficial
the prosecution of it might prove, is likely to meet with from
_his successor_. It is, indeed, in the nature of man, to
prefer his own projects to those of any other: there is a degree
of pleasure in striking off from the beaten path, and rambling in
the untrodden wilds of speculation and experiment, which is alone
sufficient, without the help of bad motives, to account for the
diversity of policy, by which the administrations of the various
governors have been contra-distinguished. This inherent principle
of our nature, so averse to the realization of every beneficial
design, which is not capable of immediate development, ought
evidently to be counteracted and not encouraged, as it is at
present, to the utmost point to which an uncontrolled and
ridiculous caprice may choose to indulge it. The existing system
of government is, in fact, a woof of inconsistency, from which no
great harmonious tissue can proceed. A gentleman is appointed to
this important situation: on his arrival in the colony he finds
no council, no house of assembly, not even a colonial secretary
to assist him: a stranger, and naturally unacquainted with its
interests, he is necessarily obliged to have recourse to some
person or other for advice: to avoid the appearance of ignorance,
which however he cannot but possess, he will not most probably
apply to the gentleman whom he supersedes; and he again, from a
principle of delicacy, will not be forward in offering his advice
unsolicited: those who had been the assistants, and perhaps able
assistants of the latter, will keep aloof, as much out of respect
to the gentleman whom they had last served, as from that fear of
obtrusion, that feeling of diffidence, which is inherent in
persons of real merit and probity; so that it is ten to one but
he falls into the hands of the faction who had been the enemies
of his predecessor, only perhaps because he had too much honour
and integrity to promote their selfish views, at the expence of
the public weal. Scarcely, therefore, will this gentleman have
quitted the colony, before the whole of the superstructure which
he had been rearing will have been pulled down, and another of a
different description commenced in its stead. Such has almost
invariably been, and such will continue to be the conduct of the
actual government; nothing judicious or permanent can ever be
expected to proceed from it. How then, it may be asked, can
prosperity be expected to flow from sources so precarious and
inconstant? Are they calculated to supply that regular equal
stream of security and confidence which has been found essential
to the progress of improvement? But were the existing system of
government essentially conservative in its nature, instead of
being virtually destructive, it would still prove inadequate and
inefficient. The circumstances and wants of this colony will vary
every year, and consequently require either such partial
modifications or entire alterations of policy as may be suited to
each progressive stage of advancement. Its government, therefore,
ought to be so constituted, as not only to possess the power of
revising old laws, but also of framing new ones. It ought, in
fact, to involve in itself a creative as well as a conservative
faculty; a faculty which might enable it to accommodate its
measures to every change of situation, and provide an instant
remedy for every unforeseen and prejudicial contingency. Nothing
short of this will suffice to inspire that confidence which alone
can be productive of permanent prosperity. The government of an
individual, however respectable he may be, will always engender
distrust and cramp exertion. Man is distinguished from the rest
of the creation by his circumspection and providence. There must
exist a moral probability of reaping before he will venture to
sow. This cautious calculating disposition too, is most
predominant in those who are in the most easy circumstances:
where the liability to incur loss is greatest, the spirit of
enterprize is generally most restrained. But this class, which
contains the great capitalists of all countries, are precisely
those whose means, if they could be _enticed_ into activity,
would be productive of the most beneficial results. No soil is so
barren, no climate so forbidding, as not to present facilities
more or less favourable for the absorption of capital, and the
extension of industry. Wherever the tide of improvement is at its
height, and a reflux ensues, it is to the impolicy of the
government, and not to the sterility of the country, that this
retrogradation is to be attributed. Prosperity and happiness
belong to no climate, they are indigenous to no soil: they have
been known to fly the allurements of the fertile vale, and to
nestle on the top of the barren mountain: the plains of Latium
could not secure their stay, yet have they freely alit on the
snow-capt summits of Helvetia: they have been the faithful
companions of freedom in all her wanderings and persecutions:
they have never graced the triumphs of injustice and
oppression.
I have now hastily sketched the principal incidents which have
characterized the march of this colony during the last fifteen
years. If I have neglected representing its more early efforts;
if I have excluded from view the amazing difficulties and
privations with which its immediate founders had to contend; if,
in fine, I have altogether omitted in the picture the numerous
interesting events that took place during the first fifteen years
of its establishment, I have been induced to all these omissions
by a conviction, that the existing system of government, if not
the most eligible that could have been devised, was at least
unproductive of those glaring ill consequences, with which it has
subsequently been attended. A singleness of design and a unity of
action, could not be deviated from during the period of its
infancy by the most ignorant and inexpert bungler in political
science. There was a broad path open to its government, which it
could not possibly mistake. The colony as yet entirely dependent
on external supplies, always precarious from their very nature,
but rendered still more so by a tedious, and at that time almost
unexplored navigation, would unavoidably turn its whole attention
to the single object of raising food, and emancipating itself as
soon as possible, from so uncertain and dangerous a dependence.
The principle of fear would have sufficed to propel the colonists
to a spontaneous application of their strength to the realization
of this end, independent of any directing power whatever. It was,
therefore, only on the attainment of this most important point,
that the impolicy of the present form of government became a
matter of speculation, and subsequently, that it has been
demonstrated by its practical result,--the wretched situation to
which it has reduced a colony, that might be made, as I have
satisfactorily established, one of the most useful and
flourishing appendages of the empire. It is at the epoch when the
produce of the colonists began to exceed the demand, and when
their industry, instead of being encouraged and directed into new
channels of profitable occupation, was not only left to its own
blind unguided impulse, but also placed under the most impolitic
and oppressive restrictions, that I have taken up the pencil, and
made a rapid but faithful delineation of the deplorable
consequences that have been attendant on a concatenation of
injudicious and absurd disabilities, which, though not altogether
imposed by its immediate government, would have been easily
removed by the more weighty influence of a combined
representative legislature. I have therefore throughout the whole
of this essay, considered the present government not only
responsible for its own impolitic conduct, but also for the
existence of those grievances which have been created by a higher
authority, and of which it has wanted the will or the power to
procure the repeal. I have commenced by glancing at some of the
most striking events that ancient history affords, to prove that
the prosperity of nations has kept pace with the degree of
freedom enjoyed by their citizens, and that their decadence and
eventual overthrow have been invariably occasioned by a selfish
and overwhelming despotism. Descending to more modern times, and
adverting to the condition of existing nations, I have shewn that
the unparalleled power and affluence of our own country, which I
have selected out of them by way of exemplification, are solely
to be attributed to the superior freedom of her laws, which have
engendered her a freer, more virtuous, and more warlike race of
people. From these striking illustrations, this steady
coincidence of cause and effect, deduced from the records of the
greatest among ancient and modern empires, I have concluded that
every community which has not a free government, is devoid of
that security of person and property which has been found to be
the chief stimulus to individual exertion, and the only basis on
which the social edifice can repose in a solid and durable
tranquillity. That the system of government adopted in the colony
of New South Wales does not rest on this foundation stone of
private right and public prosperity, I have proved from the
detestable tyranny and consequent arrest of a governor, whose
conduct anterior to his being intrusted with this important
charge, it will have been seen, was such as might have led
without any extraordinary powers of discrimination to a
prediction of the catastrophe that befel him. The atrocities
perpetrated by this monster, and the events to which they gave
rise, are sufficient to convince the most incredulous, that the
colonists have no guarantee for the undisturbed enjoyment of
their rights and liberties, but the impartiality and good
pleasure of their governor; and that they have no resource but in
rebellion against the unprincipled attacks and unjustifiable
inroads of arbitrary power. So radically defective, indeed, is
the government to which they are subjected in its very
constitution, that it not only holds out, in the uncontrolled
authority which it vests in the hands of an individual, the
strongest temptations for the exercise of tyranny to those who
may habitually possess an overbearing and despotic temperament,
but has also a manifest tendency, as history amply attests, to
vitiate the heart, and to produce a spirit of injustice and
oppression in those who may have been antecedently distinguished
by a well regulated and humane disposition. While it is thus, on
the one hand, calculated to beget the most monstrous atrocities
within the sphere of its jurisdiction, I have shewn that it has
not, on the other, been invested by the power to whom it owes its
origin and existence with the ability to perform any extended
good; and that while it involves in its essence all the elements
of destruction, it possesses no one principle of vitality. Of
this assertion the administration of Governor Macquarie, who if
you may judge from the length of time during which he has held
this high office, would appear to possess a greater portion of
the confidence of his Majesty's ministers, than any of his
predecessors, furnishes an indubitable proof: for relieved as the
mind of the reader will have been from the undivided indignation,
disgust, and abhorrence, which the excesses committed in the
foregoing government cannot fail to excite, by a review of the
prudence and moderation by which his career has been
contra-distinguished, he will nevertheless have beheld the
colony, from the want of privileges, of which this gentleman has
not possessed sufficient influence to procure the authorization,
sinking in spite of his upholding hand, from a comparative state
of affluence and comfort, to the lowest depth of poverty and
endurance. He will have seen the colonists checked in their
agricultural pursuits, rushing promiscuously into every avenue of
internal industry that lay open to them, and afterwards
constructing vessels, and not only exploring every known shore
within the limits of their territory, in search of sandal wood,
but even discovering unknown islands abounding with seals. He
will have viewed them exhausting these temporary sources of
relief, and attempting, but obliged to desist by the weight of
impolitic imposts, both internal and external, from those
inexhaustible fountains of wealth, the valuable whale fisheries
that exist in the adjacent seas. He will have beheld them from
inability to purchase the more costly commodities of other
countries, making the most astonishing exertions in manufactures,
and thus impelled by necessity to the adoption of a system not
more averse to the interests of the parent country than to their
own; and which under a well regulated government, would have been
one of the last effects of maturity and civilization. He will
have witnessed, notwithstanding these vigorous and unnatural
efforts, numbers of them bending every day beneath the pressure
of embarrassment, and at length stripped of their lands, and
deprived of their freedom, by a set of rapacious and unprincipled
dealers, who are gradually rendering themselves masters of the
persons and property of the agriculturists; the greater part of
whom, if the present system continue a few years longer, will be
virtually reduced to a state of bondage, and condemned to
minister to the ease and enjoyments of the worthless and the
vile. He will have seen that, while the poorer settlers have
already in general fallen victims to the unjust and impolitic
disabilities with which they are beset, the circle of distress
has extended itself from these, the _central body_ of the
community, to its _circumference;_ and that the imports have
so constantly preponderated in the balance over the united weight
of the income and exports, that the whole wealth of the colony
has been continually flowing into foreign countries, for the
payment of the necessary commodities furnished by them, leaving
no money in circulation for the important purposes of domestic
economy, and compelling the colonists by a general, constrained,
and tacit convention, to tolerate, as a substitute for a
legitimate circulating medium, a currency possessed of no
intrinsic value whatever. He will have beheld this rapid torrent
of distress forcibly driving back the tide of population, both by
the difficulties which it throws in the way of rearing up a
family, and by the numerous bodies of freed convicts, whom it
propels to a return to their native country, the greater part of
whom, more from necessity than choice, are led to a resumption of
their ancient habits, in order to procure a subsistence, and
either impose on the government the expense of retransporting
them to this colony, or end their career of iniquity by falling
victims to the vengeance of the laws which they had so often
violated. He will have seen during these continual and violent
concussions, by which the whole social edifice has been shaken to
the foundation, that the expenditure of the colony has been in a
state of the most rapid increase, and that the existing system of
government is incompatible with its diminution. He will, in fine,
have been satisfied that the immorality and vice which it was the
main object of the legislature to repress and extirpate, are
making the most alarming progress and extension.
Looking a little beyond these, the actual results of the
present order of things, he will find that it is affording the
most efficacious assistance and encouragement to the perfection
of the manufacturing system, already in a state of considerable
advancement, and that a few years more will so greatly
circumscribe the means of the colonists, that the majority of
them will be entirely excluded from the use of foreign
commodities, and compelled to content themselves with the homely
products of their own ingenuity; and that thus not only one of
the great ends of colonization, the creation of a market for the
consumption of the manufactures of the parent country, will be
defeated by her own impolitic conduct, but also a spirit of
animosity will be engendered by the recollection of the
privations and sufferings encountered by the colonists in their
tedious and painful march to this unnatural independence in their
resources; a spirit which will be handed down from father to son,
acquiring in its descent fresh force, and settling at length into
an hereditary hatred, which it will no longer be in the power of
the government to extinguish, and which will propel them,
whenever an opportunity offers, to renounce the control of such
unwise and unfeeling masters. Passing from this gloomy picture of
vexatious tyranny and unmerited suffering, he will proceed to the
more grateful contemplation of the remedies that are proposed as
a cure for the present evils, and as a preventive against the
future tremendous eruption with which the existing system, a
mountainous agglomeration of impolicy and barbarity, is so
fatally pregnant. He will be satisfied that the application of
the restoratives prescribed, will both reintegrate the
agricultural body, now in the last stage of debility and
consumption, and impart fresh life and vigour into the
commercial, which is equally impaired; and that while the parent
country will by these means restore the tone and energies of the
colony, she will be contributing in the most effectual manner to
her own strength and greatness. He will be persuaded that all
these most desirable ends will inevitably follow the
establishment of a free representative government; and that
however salutary the adoption of the measures proposed might be,
unaccompanied with that internal power of legislation from which
they would have eventually proceeded, they would of themselves be
utterly inadequate to effect a perfect and permanent cure for the
existing evils; and that nothing short of a local legislature,
properly constituted, can on the one hand either inspire into
capitalists that confidence which is essential to the free
unimpeded extension of industry, or be competent on the other, to
provide an instant relief for those growing wants, which spring
out of the progress of advancement, and are contingent on those
changes of circumstances and situation, to which incipient
communities are so peculiarly liable. He will, in fine, be
convinced even to demonstration, that the erection of a free
government in the colony of New South Wales would be a panacea
for all its sufferings; that it is the only measure which can
ease this country of the enormous burden which it will otherwise
entail on her, and save the unspent millions that will be
ingulphed, _uselessly_ ingulphed, in the devouring vortex of
the present system; and that the creation of an export trade of
raw materials, and the consequent extended consumption of her
manufactures which the proposed change of government would
superinduce, is the only way in which she can ever repay herself
for the immense expence that she has lavished on this colony, as
well during the period of its really helpless infancy, as during
the still longer interval of its restrained growth and fictitious
imbecillity.