EXAMINATION CHAPTER XX. AS ΤΟ WEALTH. THE CAPACITY OF THE COLONIES FOR SMITH, in the passage which has been already quoted, and which cannot be too often repeated, says, "To propose that Britain should voluntarily give up all authority over her colonies, and leave them to elect their own magistrates, to enact their own laws, and to make peace and war as they might think proper, would be to propose such a measure, as never was and never will be adopted by any nation in the world. The most visionary enthusiast would scarce be capable of proposing such a measure, with any hope at least of its ever being adopted. But if it were adopted, Great Britain would not only be immediately freed from the whole annual expense of the peace establishment of the colonies, but might settle with them such treaties of commerce as would effectually secure to her a free trade, more advantageous to the great body of the people, though less so to the merchants, than the monopoly which she at present enjoys. By thus parting good friends, She has parted with the monopoly, vide supra, p. 78. the natural affection of the colonies to the mother country, which our late dissensions have well nigh extinguished, would quickly revive. It might dispose them not only to respect for whole centuries together that treaty of commerce which they had concluded with us at parting, but to favor us in war as well as in trade, and, instead of turbulent and factious subjects, to become our faithful, affectionate, and generous allies, and the same sort of parental affection on one side, and filial respect on the other, might revive between Great Britain and her colonies, which used to subsist between those of ancient Greece and the mother city from which they de scended." There seems a prospect that Smith will prove to have been too severe upon our statesmen, when he thus prophesied that to emancipate our colonies was a measure, that never was and never will be adopted," and which the most visionary enthusiast would scarce be capable of proposing," while at the same time he pointed out how very advantageous it would prove to Great Britain if carried out. Lord John Russell, in 1850, said, "I anticipate, indeed, with others that some of the colonies may so grow in population and wealth, that they may say our regio strength is sufficient to enable us to be independent of England. The link is now become onerous to The time is come when we think we can, in us. amity and alliance with England, maintain our independence." What a source of congratulation and just pride would these expressions, uttered not by "a visionary enthusiast," but by a practical and illustrious statesman, have afforded to Smith, had he lived to hear them. Perhaps we ought to be satisfied with this profession by the minister of readiness to follow the course which Smith, only one hundred years ago, pointed out, had not Lord John Russell added, at the end of the hundred years, "I do not think that that time is yet approaching,"a and were there not those among us old enough to remember some such expressions as these of Lord John Russell, used by the statesmen of Smith's day, in regard to the British colonies, now forming the United States of America. The politicians of that day also did not think "the time" of the emancipation of the states "yet approaching," and they were right; not only was it "not yet approaching," but it never did and never will approach. The sun was never to dawn of the day that would usher in emancipation of the North • These words were uttered in 1850. In 1855, the Melbourne Argus, speaking of the delay of the government in sending a constitution to Victoria, says: "It will be well that they should recollect that even with their greatest speed, it is quite within the bounds of possibility, that the concession may be too late, and that, when the act for the granting of a new constitution to the colony of Victoria arrives, the colony of Victoria may have ceased to exist!" American colonies, and see them parting from us in amity, yet bound to us by a treaty of commerce, which would make them our "faithful, affectionate, and generous allies." The glorious day of voluntary emancipation never arose in time. It was superseded by the lowering, sullen, angry day of "the declaration of independence," ushered in, as that was, by all the demons of discord; and yet, so justly had Smith speculated upon the feelings which would have actuated the North Americans had we emancipated them and made them our allies, instead of our enemies, that, after a war of many years, carried on with all the exasperation with which a war between relations usually is waged, and after a separation of nearly sixty years, which of itself might be supposed to have obliterated old relations in distinct nationality, yet, after all this, when, in the years 1849 and 1850, the political horizon of Europe showed as if the crowned heads were about to make a crusade against the freedom of mankind, in the person of Great Britain, so as, in their short-sighted policy, to extinguish for ever the aspirations which had produced the almost universal revolution of 1848, what was the attitude assumed by the United States of America! They claimed their relationship with us uninvited, and gave an unmistakable intimation to the powers of Europe that a war of the kind would have to be waged, not against Britain singlehanded, but against Britain banded together with the whole power of the States. So long as British history is read, so long will the United States cherish the remembrance of their descent, and be proud to vindicate it by rendering us every assistance, which one state can yield to another, unless, perhaps, when their own self-interest shall be opposed to ours; and they will do this, notwithstanding all the exasperation which our misrule of them produced, and so would all our other colonies do, if they were emancipated to-morrow.a • Since the text was written, the feeling of the colonies towards the mother country has been tested, by affording them an opportunity of contributing to the "Patriotic Fund," raising for the relief of the widows of soldiers and sailors killed in our war with Russia. What will be the amount contributed by private individuals in Canada remains to be seen, but the legislature of that colony, which was once in rebellion, and has been all but emancipated, has voted £20,000, out of the colonial revenue, towards the fund; and, commenting on the suggestion of a contribution towards the expenses of the war itself, one of the influential journals of the colony says: "We see no reason for that as yet, but should the struggle be unhappily prolonged, as there is great reason to fear it will, the time may come when it may be our duty to contribute, not money only, but men also not to give of our substance alone, but to shed our blood, as well; and this, we believe, should urgent necessity arise, will be cheerfully done."Vide leading article in London Times, of 12th December, 1854. Since this note was written, that colony has furnished a regiment to the infantry of Great Britain for the suppression of the Indian mutinies. |