which the colonists had shown, into granting the repeal of that act which had been the immediate cause of the rebellion. If the North American colonists had, from the beginning, been ruled by governors sent out from England, to rule either by their own arbitrary will, or assisted by an executive council, composed of officials also sent from the mother country, if they had never known greater liberty than was afforded by this mode of government, modified as it was by the possibility of appeal to the imperial parliament when the grievance was general and not individual, -the rebellion of America would not perhaps have occurred till fifty years after the time at which it broke out. It was the legislative councils and assemblies popularly elected that had done the mischief in America, by the opportunity they afforded to the colonists of expressing their opinions to each other and of forming measures for giving effect to their opinions. With a knowledge that the law allowed a power of legislating for colonies acquired by conquest to be in the crown, as part of the prerogative, only until the crown had given a new constitution to them, but not after, and that that power could be exercised only in subordination to the imperial parliament, but that the law altogether denied a power of legislation over colonies voluntarily settled 256 ADMINISTRATION OF BRITISH COLONIES. by English subjects to exist in the crown, and at the very utmost allowed it to reside in the imperial parliament, exposed even there, in its exercise, to many serious anomalies and inconsistencies, as has been attempted to be shown in these pages, and with the rough and sad experience in the American rebellion of the consequences of the denial by a group of powerful colonies of a right of legislation, to be either in the crown or in the imperial parliament, what has been the system of British colonial government since the conclusion of the American rebellion? This question shall now be considered. • Vide supra, p. 190, et seq. CHAPTER XI. HOW THE SUPREME LEGISLATIVE POWER OF THE IMPERIAL PARLIAMENT HAS WORKED IN THE ADMINISTRATION OF OUR COLONIES. In considering the question with which the preceding chapter concluded, it will be convenient to separate the colonies, which we already had previous to and at the date of the declaration of American independence, from those which we acquired or settled subsequent to that date, for the purpose of more clearly discerning how the powers of colonial government and legislation have been wielded since that event. The colonies which we possessed at the date of the declaration of American independence, at least those worth mentioning, were our West Indian islands, and our North American colonies of Canada, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, and Prince Edward's Island. All of our West Indian colonies had received charters from the crown, giving them legislative councils and assemblies with the exception of St. • Our administration of the colonies which now form the United States may be gathered partially from what has been said above, p. 43. S Lucia and Trinidad, which two colonies, according to what law does not appear, were governed by orders in council. The North American colonies, also, were administered by governors, exercising legislative powers with the advice and consent of legislative councils and assemblies. It is no doubt true that some, both of our West Indian and of our North American colonies, had been acquired by conquest, and that others of them had been formed by voluntary settlement; but it is not necessary to distinguish them in these respects for the purpose of ascertaining whether the power of legislating for them resided in the crown or in the imperial parliament, because, on the authority of the decision in Campbell v. Hall, it may be asserted that, after the crown had given them a constitution by governor, legislative council, and assembly, the crown had parted with, and could not resume, the power of legislation. In considering, therefore, our government of these different colonies, it must be apparent that our North American colonies, which now form the United States, were not the only colonies which possessed vents for the expression of public opinion, since all of these other colonies, with the insignificant exception of St. Lucia and Trinidad, possessed legislative councils and assemblies, equally with the United States. It was to be expected, therefore, that, with the same means of resistance and combination at the command of the colonists, the same causes operating in our remaining colonies that had operated in the United States, would in time produce the same effects. The remaining colonies possessed forms of government, based upon the same recognition of the right of the colonists to enjoy all the rights and liberties of free-born Englishmen, as had been admitted into the local governments of the North American colonies, and it was only to be expected that the colonists would adopt every means open to them to obtain the full enjoyment of these rights. A cursory notice of the past history of the administration of one or two of our West Indian and North American colonies will show that this is the course which things have taken, and that our government of them, far from being in harmony, has shown a constant conflict between the colonies and the home government, though backed by the sovereign and supreme legislative power of the imperial parliament. Upon this subject the world possesses information, in the work of no less an authority than Earl Grey, many years colonial minister, which, in this respect at least, is beyond cavil. Earl Grey gives a short summary of the later government of the colonies generally, and begins with that of the West India islands. |