COLONIAL-OFFICE TRICKERY.
MR. WARD has obtained a Committee of Inquiry as to the dis- posal of Waste Land in the Colonies, with a view to providing funds for Emigration from Ireland. That we have not attached too much importance to this subject, is almost proved by a new fact. An account has just been received of the sum obtained by the United States Government, from the sales of waste land, dur- ing the first quarter of this year. It amounts to nearly a million sterling, and considerably exceeds the whole Government expendi- ture of the Union during the three months. With such a fund at the disposal of our own Government for the purposes of Emi- gration, there would be no sort of difficulty in extending the English Poor-law to Ireland. Why does the more extensive waste frontier of the British Colonies produce so very much less than that of the United States? what are the means by which the proceeds of land-sales in our Colonies may be so increased as to form an ample emigration-fund for Ireland? These are the ques- tions before the Committee. In order that the subject should be as interesting to all, as it is to those who already understand it, the one thing needful is authentic information. This will now be obtained ; and we might dismiss the subject for the present, if it were not necessary to expose certain tricks of the Colonial Office in relation to this inquiry. In the first place, the underlings of the Colonial Office (for Lord GLENELG is a mere instrument in the hands of the Bum- bureaucracy) have succeeded in excluding Canada from the in- quiry. They dread an exposure of their own shameful misdoings: they may dread, too, that their official allies in Canada—the Colo- nial Bumbureaucracy which is converting that British province into one of the United States—should be made to refund the money they have obtained by jobbing with the public lands. At all events, when the gentleman with whom this inquiry originated, applied to Lord MELBOURNE for his sanction of their views, Lord Gt.xstxt.o, who was present, representing his subordinates, begged that there might be no inquiry about Canada, because it was to be feared that the Canadians would be irritated by any meddling here with what they consider their own property. We cannot give Lord GLENELo's exact words, but the impression left by them was. that inquiry concerning the waste lands of Canada might be disagreeable to the Canadian Assemblies. Now what turns out to be the fact ?—Why, that Mr. ROEBUCK, the accredited agent of the Assembly of Lower Canada, is most anxious that the inquiry should extend to that colony, which he represents here. The pretext put forth by Lord GLENELG for excluding Canada from the inquiry was—to speak plainly—a mere lie. We need not beg his Lordship's pardon for the expression; since he is utterly ignorant of every part of the subject, and only spoke a lesson with which he had been crammed by his frightened subor- dinates.
Now then for trick the second. Mr. WARD'S MOtiODIOT a Com- mittee was to have been preceded by a discussion, in which Mr. O'CONNELL and Sir ROBERT PEEL were expected to take part. The real and great importance of the subject would thus have been made known, and public attention would have been drawn to the proceedings of the Committee. But then, Mr. ROEBUCK intended to give the lie to what Lord GLENELa had said in the presence of Lord MELBOURNE, by urging that Canada should be included in the inquiry. Therefore, Mr. WARD had scarcely opened his mouth, when Sir GEORGE GREY rose and stopped the debate by assenting to the motion for a Committee, and saying that, as his " honourable friend" had attained his object, he need not occupy the time of the House with a gratuitous dis- cussion. This is a common expedient when the official aim is to stifle inquiry : agrse to a Committee" up stairs,' and trust that no more will be heard of the subject. But, in the present ease, the underlings rebelled against their master : Lord MELBOURNE, who wishes for a full inquiry, was jockeyed as well as Mr. WARD, Mr. O'Coresreer.,-and, let us add, Sir ROBERT PEEL, with a sincere expression of regret that his views on this no-party subject did not come before the House. The ditty trick has given occa- sion to loud complaint amongst very influential supporters of the present Government. Who is its author? Not Lord Gt.enet.u, who is really nobody at the Colonial Office ; not Sir GEoecis GREY, who, recently a practising Equity lawyer, has been too short a time in office to be aught but a tool in the hands of the true author of this trick-an able and adroit man, who for years past has steadily opposed all relbrm in the disposal of Colonial waste lands-who is at the head of the Colonial Office Bumbureaueracy-and who exerts in secret a power which is all the greater for its being concealed. We will not bring such a charge without naming the person accused-we mean Mr. STE- PHEN. We have often said-" Drag a Rumbureaucrat suffi- ciently before the public, and he ceases to be one;" and it shall not be our fault if Mr. STEPHEN escape all responsibility for the acts which poor Sir GEORGE GREY performs at his instigation.
Previous page
