LETTERS ON THE COLONIES—No. VI.
To VISCOUNT HOWICK, UNDER-SECRETARY OF STATE FOR THE COLONIES.
7th February 1831.
MY LORD—The postponement for another month of the Ministerial proposal of Reform, by allaying the public anxiety on the subject, gives room to hope that further observations, even respecting our neglected and despised Colonies, and even at the present moment, may obtain some share of public attention. Of Lord How icx's earnest attention to the subject I have no doubt, since I learn,—what I am glad to have this opportunity of stating to the readers of the SDECTATOR,—that he is unremittingly occupied with the business of his office, and most de- sirous to pursue the best course in whatever may come under his official notice, without much regard either to party politics, or to those more important questions which, though they agitate the public mind of this country, bear but slightly and indirectly on the subject of COLONIAL ADMINISTRAT rox. I therefore proceed with my Letters on that sub- ject. The present one will be devoted to showing the applicability to South Africa and Canada of the Regulations lately issued for the future disposal of new land,—that is, for the progress of Colonization,—iu Van Diemen's Land and New South Wales.
To begin with South Africa. Perhaps there is no colony in which more fantastic tricks have been played with the principal element of co- lonization. Mr. HARR.OW'S account of the mode in which the Dutch Government used to dispose of new land to its disbanded German soldiers, is perfectly ludicrous. The Government, it seems, was, like all bad governments, afraid of its subjects. Fear and craft, the peculiar attri- butes of bad government, led it to embody the maxim, divide et impera, in a set of regulations for granting land. New settlers were forbidden to locate themselves, except at a distance of several miles from each other. This forcible dispersion of the colonists of course prevented the formation of roads ; so that, in point of fact, each settler was, all but cut off from useful intercourse with his fellow-colonists. Occasional intercourse indeed he had, for the dispersion of the colonists rendered them weaker, and laid them open to the attacks of the natives ; so that, occasionally, they were induced to assemble for the purpose, either of present defence, nr of future safety through present amusement,—the' amusement being to hunt the blacks, as wolves used to be hunted in England. Consequently, the Dutch colonists of South Africa became, under the name of Cape of Good Hope boors, the most brutal of men not called savages. The only thing apparently, that prevented them from sinking to the level of C-aires, was their possessing slaves, whereby they were enabled to preserve some combination of labour in their solitary farms and homes. The original colonists of the State of New York were Dutchmen also. Why did not they become boors and half savages like their countrymen of the Cape of Good Hope? The reasons are plain. The dense forests and more warlike savages of America prevented the early colonists from loosely spreading, or their government from dispersing them, over a great extent of country. Kept together by their fear of the Indians, by tangled woods and impassable swamps, they laboured in concert ; their production was great, and yet not greater than their wants, which were those of civilized life. They flourished exceedingly, and founded, per- haps, the most prosperous, wealthy, and civilized of modern colonies. From this comparison, your Lordship will readily gather, that the
circumstances of South Africa—that is, the open nature of the country, and the timid character of the native Africans—have been peculiarly favourable to the dispersion of the colonists. It seems so much the more expedient that the Government should dispose of new land in the manner best calculated to produce the proper degree of concentration.
The following remarks, which bear closely on this subject, were pub- lished on the 1st of July 1828, in the South African Commercial Adver- tiser. ; which journal is conducted by an Englishman of first-rate intel- ligence and ability, and intimately acquainted with the colony. They well deserve your Lordship's most earnest attention. " The white population at present is estimated at about 70,000. In .1806, it was not more than 27,000. From a variety of causes, some per- manent, Others accidental, they have been scattered over a larger space .than was consistent with mutual aid and support. This retarded the pro- gressive division of labour, and exposed the solitary settler to many -dangers and privations which did not operate beneficially on his habits of industry. Instead of trying how much produce of every kind they could raise, they were rather led to consider on how little they could possibly subsist. The limits of the settlement being perhaps too rapidly extended, rendered defence, rather than cultivation, the chief object of public attention. It is not meant that the settlers should have been crowded together. The nature of the colony rendered_ that impossible. But for some time no moderation was observed in this respect, and a great waste of capital and misapplication of labour and strength were the consequence. The increase of population, provided the boundaries be now fixed and adhered to, will gradually correct this evil, and bring both labour and a market more and more within the reach of the farmer. "If these views of the colony be near the truth, it will be worth con- sidering whether, when new settlers are to be provided for, it would not be better to select locations for them in detail as near the coast, the vil- lages, and Cape Town, as there can be found, than to set them.down 14
masses by themselves on the outskirts of the colony, or beyond its peopled limits, • In such situations they are not merely useless, but a burden to the community for many years—requiring new and expensive esta- blishments for their protection, besides wasting their own means in fruit- less undertakings, begun from mere ignorance of the real resources of the country. There appears to be abundance of unappropriated land, or at least of unoccupied, or, at all events, of uncultivated land, in most of the districts, on which many thousands of industrious people might be placed most advantageously to the old inhabitants, and with a much surer pros- pect of providing for themselves and their families all the necessaries of life, than in those remote places to which the stream of emigration is too often directed. It is true, the best places in those districts have fallen to the lot of the first settlers. But locations of the second, third, or fourth quality, as regards the soil, 4.c., near a good road or a town, may exceed in value, a thousand fold, those of the first description, which possess no such advantages."
I would especially draw your Lordship's attention to the last few lines of the above quotation, and suggest that you should apply them to the doctrines of Colonel TORRENS and Mr. WILMOT HORTON, put forth in the published "Controversy" between those gentlemen and the Colo- nization Society. I should but weaken the other statements and argu- ments of the South African writer, by dwelling on them further.
But there is one other point relating to South Africa, on which I must offer a few observations. To the shame of England be it said, SLAVERY is still maintained in South Africa. As to the West Indies, the question of emancipation is full of difficulty. But, in my humble opinion—and I have diligently studied the subject —you, Lord Howicx, or, at all events, the individual Lord GODER/CII, may, by the stroke of a pen, abolish slavery in South Africa, and without the least particle of injury to any person whatsoever. In what way ? Simply thus : —Let the new regulations for granting land in Van Diemen's Land and New South Wales be at once applied to all our South African settle- ments: add to those regulations an article, declaring that all the money obtained by the sale of land shall be employed in conveying free labour to the colony—and employed, too, so as to produce the greatest amount of emigration at the least cost ; that is to say, by giving a pas- sage cost free to young couples of both sexes in preference to other applicants.
This system of colonization, if honestly administered, must necesta- rily cause a substitution of free labour for slave labour ; a delightful change, which would take place gradually, so as to prevent any danger from suddenly breaking the chains of a slave population ; and a change, moreover, which would prove of the highest advantage to the colonial capitalist and land-owner,—inasmuch as free labour, when there is enough of it to be used in combination, is very much cheaper than slave labour ; and, all slave-owners in the colony being land-owners, they would gain more by the rapid and great increase of free population, than they could lose by the gradual extinction of the slave's value as a producing machine.
Perhaps I am wrong in saying that so great and glorious a purpoSe
might be effected by a stroke of your Lordship's, or Lord GooEumn's pen. The regulations which I propose must be guaranteed by something more than having at the bottom of them, "Colonial Office, February * 46. 1831.."
Some remarks on Canada must needs be reserved for my next letter. I have the honour to be, my Lord, Your most obedient, humble servant, P—.
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