CRIES FROM THE CAPE.
TO TIIE EDITOR OF TUE SPECTATOR.
Cape of Good Hope, let June 1849.
Sm—Your paper of March 3, wherein the Colonial Office receives a hearty cas- tigation, has been very refreshing to us, the White slaves of Lord Grey. The people of England can have no conception of the insults and injustice and degra- dation which the Cape colonists have met with at the hands of his Lord- ship. I will shortly recapitulate some of his proceedings. Last year, the Legislative Council voted 16,0001. for the encouragement of immigration, with the express proviso that the certified good characters of the future settlers should be a most material feature of the arrangement. Lord Grey had the audacity to step in and say, that free emigrants should not be allowed to come here, but that we might have conviCts, whom he called "EXILEa," if we were so willing.. The whole colony instantly rejected the proposal with scorn and indignation; Sir IL. Smith, the Governer, explaining clearly in the Council Chain. her, that it was perfectly optional for us to seems convicts, and that they would not be forced upon na. Despatches were sent to Downing Street, showing the great dissatisfaction the convict proposal had .caused ; but Lord Grey had pre- motaly started a ship to Bermuda to convey 250 of his " exiles " to the Cape. A more flagrant act of dishonesty, a more cruel act of tyranny, a fouler blot on the honour of a statesman, perhaps never came to light. The colonists are furious. English dominion is viewed with such loathing by the Dutch, and such dismay by the English, that in case of war with any foreign power, I am convinced not one colonist would lift a finger to retain this dependency for Great Britain. But the colonial press will convey to you some idea of the public esteem for English rule.
In the mean time, Lord Grey and "Bouncing Ben" will be palliating this con- vict infliction, by boasting that they have granted a representative government to the Gape. The history of which is this. Many months since, a rumour was rife through the colony, that Sir Harry Smith had recommended a Representative Assembly; and when he was formally questioned on the subject, it wasdiscovered, that after consulting one of the Judges, the Attorney-General, and the Secretary to Government, he had jiirtively concocted some scheme of his own, and sent it to Lord Grey, without asking in any shape the opinion, or the advice, or the wish of any single colonist; without giving .us any voice in the matter, or even having the manliness to avow what he was about ! The colonists therefore had no op- portunity of expressing their acceptance or rejection of Sir H. Smith's scheme; which very constitutional method of "ruling the people through the people" Lord Grey must have been fully aware of. Yet his Lordship has just sent out the "skeleton frame" of the new constitution ; which Sir H. Smith tells us "is to consist of a Representative Assembly and a Legislative Council appointed by the Crown," and that the business to be imposed on the newly-cons; fluted As- sembly is to be "kept within bounds as moderate as possible, and confined to
&Ikeda of the most general importance."
ow, Sir, I leave you to judge whether Lord Grey ever hoped that this consti- tution would be accepted by us, or whether it was not offered merely that he and "Bouncing Ben" might rise in Parliament and say they had granted the Cape "the boon of a representative government."
The farce of compelling us to receive convicts, and giving us/tee institutions— the intense absurdity of elevating us to self-government, and at the same time degrading us into a penal settlement—might have shamed thcbtazen front of any public department but the Colonial; which from its mutilation of despatches, its notorious disregard of truth, its systematic treachery, and its dirty manceuvre.s, has earned the contempt and aversion of all true-hearted Englishmen. Lord Grey has an obedient servant and coadjutor in Sir H. Smith. We wanted a civil engineer to travel about the colony and superintend public works ; and we offered a salary of 1,0001. per annum. Lord Grey sends us a man sixty five years 0.f age by way of an efficient officer. Sir Harry Smith, not to be behindhand in the saute line, appoints an assistant civil engineer, on 300/. per annum, (without the sanction of or even notice to the Legislative Commit) a young man, wholly, palpably, and notoriously ignorant of the very rudiments of engineering ! But he IS the son of a member of Council! "A Legislative Council chosen by the Go- vernor" is likely to be very useful to the colonists on this principle. The jobs and abuse of patronage under our present Governor have been-tremendous; but Lord Grey confirms everything Sir 18. Smith does, on the understanding, appa- rently, that Sir H. Smith is to carry out without scruple all his Lordship's views. But to close this list of grievances—is there no noble Lord in the Upper House or Id. P. in the Lower, who, on the simple score of humanity to a persecuted co- lony, will demand the production of all the documents connected with Lord Grey's representative government for the Cape, and all the despatches, memorials, &c., from both sides on the convict question ? I do believe, a more scandalous and discreditable series of papers, on the part of the Downing Street officials, no blue book ever yet exhibited. But mutilation must be guarded against.
We have no refuge but the press of England, no hope but from the sympathy Of our fellow countrymen.
I am yours, obediently, AN ENGLISH SETTLER AT TRE CAPE.
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