mistake in yielding, although in the change of times another decade finds New Zealand in a different case, and in another mood. There is one rule, however, which never seems to vary. No colony will submit patiently to be saddled with a worn-out, sickly, or pauperised crowd, who cannot get work in our towns, or make a living by agriculture here. British colonists have not quitted home in former years, and spent their prime amid the perils and privations of the wilderness, to have their evening spoiled and the morning of their children overcast by the penury and misery our negligence has suffered to accumulate in our great towns or forlorn seaboards. It is no use arguing about the matter. The colonies have now local selfgovernment, magnetic intelligence, and a free press; and they won't be put upon in this way. If, therefore, we invite them to contribute towards the acceleration of a transfer of residence, whether urban or agricultural, it must be conditional on the artisan or husbandman giving some proof that he is worth helping. And this was the reason why the advocates of assisted emigration in a former parliament fearlessly provoked the shortsighted objection of those who penuriously pleaded that the central treasury ought not to contribute in passage money or settlement fees, for persons who might possibly manage to do without it. But there is no reason why various classes of agriculturists should not have the benefit of the contributory system. In our children's colonial house there are many mansions, and room for many small as well as large denizens; and if the system of associated emigration of neighbours and relatives from the same locality were once recognised and organised on a proper footing, there is no cause to doubt that the authorities of Manitoba or of Australia would adapt their regulations so as to accommodate, at all events by way of experiment, the sort of families who would be most willing probably to move from Ireland at the present time. The example of what has been done in the contiguous States of the Union to provide comfortable, though humble, homes for people of this description, cannot have been lost on the emulous authorities on the northern side of the border. With a paramount aim of getting the great Dominion railway completed as rapidly as possible Canada will not throw difficulties in the way, we may be sure, of replanting each side of the line with stout and active settlers, though some bring thither less ready money than others of their countrymen are able to do. Left to itself the efflux of population drifts naturally in the easiest channels, no general thought being apparently taken of consequences to the empire, immediate or essential. Of 41,296 who quitted Ireland in 1879, no less than 30,058 went to the United States; while only 8,198 sought homes in the Polynesian group, and but 2,317 in Canada. I have reason to believe that the returns for 1880 will prove still more suggestive; showing that in the past year 166,570 persons of British or Irish birth emigrated to the United States, and 60,972 to other places. What a commentary on the doctrine of leaving everything to find its own level! Our nearest and greatest sister realms beyond sea which lack population the most for every purpose, and which for every reason we should most earnestly desire to see replenished with men of our own race, are stinted and starved, while our jealous rivals in manufactures and trade absorb seventy-two per cent. of the whole.2 The ascendency of the working classes in Victoria, since the concession of universal suffrage, and their persuasion that profitable manufactures and trades of every kind can be best promoted by rigorously limiting the competition of sea-borne goods and hands, has for some years practically caused Melbourne to be omitted in the calculations of intending emigrants. The nobler policy of New South Wales has, on the other hand, adhered steadily to the principles of free trade and free competition in labour; and Sydney welcomes to her splendid and ever-growing marts the products of European and American industry, and the willing worker from every clime and realm, and of every race and creed. There are already settled in this most hospitable and happy State a considerable number of Irish by descent or birth, who assimilate well with other portions of the population, and unnoticeably contribute to that social fusion; it is the best antidote to any recurrence of the political confusion and conflict that still afflict their mother-land. The Legislature, though democratically chosen, has never shown the jealousy betrayed by her ambitious neighbour and rival in the disposal of land or the employment of skill. From time to time considerable assistance has been offered to the better class of emigrants from the old country in order to keep pace with growing wants and new developments of industry. Whether these inducements will continue to be held out, having regard to the facilities which exist for a constant immigration from China, time alone can tell. But there are younger States on the Southern Main which still need aids to colonisation, and which, if liberally and wisely dealt with by the Imperial Government, would doubtless see their advantage in accelerating the advent of new settlers from Ulster, if not from Connaught. If the atmosphere is not as humid or the weather as variable as that of Ireland, fevers, coughs, and rheumatic affections are proportionately rare; and as farms of every size, from twenty to eighty acres and upwards, are to be had in perpetuity under the excellent laws of simple transfer and sale originally devised by the late member for Cambridge, when Minister for South Australia, at less than one year's rent at home, the opportunity seems to be within our reach for settling half the perplexities of the land question in Ireland. W. M. TORRENS. 2 Emigration Returns, by Board of Trade, February 10, 1880. THE BASUTOS AND SIR BARTLE FRERE. 'The circumstances under which the Basutos became subjects of the Crown are peculiar, and impose upon Her Majesty's Government a special responsibility for their welfare.-The Earl of Kimberley. THE history of the Basutos has certainly been a sad one. As to that there will be no dispute. They had a time of rapid improvement and much prosperity, and now they are being driven back into barbarism by men who call themselves civilised. They asked for the means of developing their nation in security under the Government of the Queen, and so long as faith was kept with them they prospered. They showed a most loyal and friendly feeling towards the Queen and the Government, even during the deepest crisis of the Zulu war, and their reward is that they are being massacred by white troops, because they are said to be in rebellion' against the same Government. It is a remarkable change, and its causes are well worth considering. In the January number of this Review there is an article by the late Governor of the Cape, which sets forth the history of this simple people in terms so misleading, that I am desirous to call attention to the real facts of this sad story-a story, as I think, rarely surpassed in the gloomy annals of misrule. It is needless to refer to the obscure history of the formation of this tribe. Suffice it to say that, after many disputes with their neighbours, in 1869 they requested Sir P. Wodehouse to accept them as subjects of the Crown. He did this, he tells us (Times, December 23, 1880), after a full and free discussion with all the leading members of the tribe,' and he adds that it was distinctly agreed that they should not form part of the Cape Colony, but that British authority should be exercised over them by the Governor of the Cape in his capacity of High Commissioner.' 6 The next date is 1871, when, under Sir H. Barkly, the Basutos were annexed to the Cape Colony, but, as Sir P. Wodehouse believes, 'without consultation with the tribe.' By the Act of 1871 it was provided that the power of making, repealing, amending and altering laws and regulations for the Government of Basutoland should be vested in the Governor, and no Acts of the Cape Parliament could be extended to the Basutos, unless they were expressly named in the Acts, or unless the Governor issued a proclamation or notice to extend or apply the Act to their territory. If the Governor should do this, he must lay the laws and regulations so proclaimed before Parliament within fourteen days of its assembling. It is, I think, pretty clear that, whatever the change thus made might involve, the Basuto chiefs understood that something had happened bringing them into close relations with the Cape Colony, for in the early months of 1872 they presented a petition to Sir H. Barkly asking for representation in the Cape Parliament. The reply of the Governor is very remarkable. He reminds them that, if their request were granted, they would lose their peculiar privileges, and would be placed in a similar position to the ordinary Kaffir population.' Their own customs would be superseded by Colonial laws. Europeans would be allowed to acquire land and settle in their territory, and they would lose other privileges, as the exclusion of spirituous liquor, from their country. The next great event was the conferring of responsible Government on the Cape Colony. This has altered the position of the Basutos; for the present war would probably have been impossible under the former condition of things. But it seems clear that, however important the change may have been, it was made without any proclamation to the Basutos, who assert-and this is confirmed by M. Mabille-that they did not understand what had happened till 1879. Lord Kimberley seems to assume that this was so in his recent instructions to Sir Hercules Robinson. But, as he observes, the powers of the Governor are technically unaltered.' There is, however, a most important distinction, to which the Basutos seem to be now alive. The Governor has now to take the advice on these matters of his ministers, who are dependent for their power on the Colonial Parliament, whereas before the Act of 1872, the Governor was responsible to the Minister of the Crown, and the Parliament of England really governed Basutoland. Surely Sir P. Wodehouse may be believed when he says, 'It was by these operations and by these alone, and not by their choice, that the Basutos were cut off from the immediate protection of the Home Government.' It is of course not very easy to be positive as to what was said and done by every one concerned in affairs so complicated, and where we are speaking of men not accustomed to all the nice distinctions of government by Crown or by Colony with which we are familiar, but it seems very clear that these simple people looked to the Governor and not to the Cape Parliament, where they were not represented, and that they had a kind of guarantee from Sir H. Barkly, that if they remained satisfied with their former status, they would retain all their peculiar privileges, would keep Basutoland for the Basutos, would exclude intoxicating liquors from their people, and would otherwise be independent so long as they were loyal. Representation was refused, and they fell back, as they supposed, on the old condition of things. But the deed is done and cannot at present be undone. The Colonists have the right to make this war, and they ask at present no aid from England. The next period in the history of the Basutos is one of continued and remarkable prosperity. It would seem that no tribe in South Africa has ever made such rapid progress in all respects. This is admitted by Sir Bartle Frere, but he uses this fact as an argument in favour of disarmament, because, as he suggests, a tribe which has become so rich in cattle and horses and grain, and is at the same time armed with guns, is far more dangerous than when, though less advanced towards civilisation, they were comparatively poor. He treats them as still barbarous, though they build houses and churches and schools, for he asserts that the contest for disarmament is a contest between civilisation and 'barbarism.' Such is not the opinion of those who have lived amongst them. The French missionaries insist strongly on the progress towards peaceful habits which has been made by their converts, and by the whole tribe. It would seem natural to suppose that men who have so much to lose would be more disposed to peace than when they were so much less provided with the comforts and luxuries of life.1 But Sir Bartle seems to see a possible enemy in every black man, and the more he possesses the more dangerous he becomes in his eyes. What says Colonel Griffith, the Governor's Agent, who has so long and so ably served the Cape Government in Basutoland? Referring to the alienation of Morosi's land to which he strongly objected, he says: Instead of having as at present a contented, happy, and confiding people to deal with, we shall have the very reverse—we shall have a discontented lot, who will be always thinking and pondering over their grievances.' This letter is dated the 27th of November, 1879, and is very prophetic in its tone (C. 2569, p. 34). Sir Bartle Frere himself (C. 2569, p. 7) under date of the 2nd of March, 1880, says: "They are a very intelligent people, with many excellent special national characteristics, such as industry and frugality;' but, as he adds, they have weaknesses which he thinks characteristic of native races, inordinate vanity and a sense of self-importance.' One need not go far from Westminster to find many examples of such ' Compare the words of the Committee of the Paris Missionary Society in Paper C. 2569, p. 5:-'We can bear to the Basutos the testimony that, owing to the teaching of the Gospel, and their daily increasing taste for civilisation, they became more and more averse to everything resembling war. The very men who may now consider the disarmament as an insult and a threat, suffered their guns to rust in a corner. It would be lamentable to see a people so peacefully inclined, so promising, subjected to a treatment by which they might be led to acts which result in the shedding of blood.' |