The Colonial world is still in an angry state. We
have little news from British America: Canada was for the time more tran- quil; but the Separation party seemed to gain ground, inso- much as to induce some newspaper speculator to set up a journal as its organ—the Canadian Independent.
The 'West Indies are still threatened with the ugly expedition from the United States against Cuba ; and a plan which purports to be the programme of the expedition wears an appearance of probability. In the island there is said to be a considerable party against the Spanish dominion; the expedition will consist of "sympathizers," who count on the immediate adhesion of this party ; a provisional government will be named, and the island declared an "independent republic." In short, the expeditionists will play against the Spaniards in Cuba precisely the game that was played against the Mexican Spaniards in Texas ; of course with an eye to the same final result.
While disorganization is threatened in the West, in the South it is in full action : the intelligence which we had from the Cape of Good Hope at the end of last week is more than confirmed by another batch of news this week—the Cape is in a state of uni- versal passive resistance to the Imperial Government, for the pur- pose of compelling the Governor to disobey Lord Grey's order in Council to admit convicts into the free settlements of South Africa. Thus the event vindicates the prescience of those who, like Mr. Ad- derley in Parliament, discerned.and would have averted the evil many months ago; only that the perfect unanimity which the Cape colonists have attained among themselves goes beyond all expectation. They abstain from affording assistance to the Go- vernment in the shape of credit, trading contracts, or official co- operation; they are bawled to piacethe Government under a sort of civil excommunication. The view of a great insurrectionary organization has never been presented in so complete and trans- parent an aspect before : we see it in all its parts ; and very effective it is. The amount of personal sacrifice endured in carrying out this national conspiracy must be immense : the spirit of sacrifice, of order, and organization, displays qualities -which should have made these colonists the most governable people on earth, had they been rightly governed: those qualities are displayed in rebellion, and their contumacy is proportion- ately embarrassing.
There are persons in this country who make light of the affair, because "after all, very few convicts were to be introduced, and those not of a bad sort": but the inhabitants of the Cape regard the attempts of the Colonial Office to land four kinds of convicts —Irish rebels, "reformed" lads, military offenders, and ordinary convicts—as denoting a settled purpose to invade the sanctity of the "hitherto unpolluted colony "; and that settled purpose they resist at the beginning. Others make light of it, because, they say, the Cape of Good Hope is not a very important or a profitable colony. It is possible that if this country, at the time when the Cape was ceded, had foreseen the cost and trouble, with the little colonial use to be made of the acquisition, it might have been de- clined: but the question cannot now be settled by a money account. We say nothing of duties incurred towards the settlers, because they will have little force with those political Atheists who refer every question to the balance-sheets of the ledger. It will be remembered that if the Cape—thanks to our alternate neglect and vexatious meddling—is still inconsiderable as a settlement, its social or- ganization is peculiar, being of a military kind; so that it is un- commonly provided for action. If we abandon it to "independ- ence," "annexation" or conquest will soon unite it to some other power. Since we acquired it, vast dominions belonging to us have grown up in the regions beyond, from Aden to Hongkong, from the Punjaub to Australia and New Zealand : and what would they think in "the possessions of the Honourable East In- dia Company Eastward of the Cape," if this key of the Southern Ocean were thrown away ?
