OUR COLONIAL EMPIRE.* Tins little book of less than two
hundred small pages—a volume of Messrs. Cassell's Monthly Library—the evident outcome and condensation of well-digested thought and study, is a most useful work on the subject with which it deals. Written in a pleasant, readable manner, with wise avoidance of dry dis- cussion, and giving only so many statistics as are really necessary, it puts before the reader, in " its comprehensive view of all the colonial offshoots of this nation," in the clearest manner, the actual condition of each colony, its material re- sources, and its social and political economy,—glancing back- wards to its small beginnings, and forward to the grand future which may, in many instances, be predicted for it. In doing this, the author, strongly impressed with the providential part which England has been and is still destined to play towards her children in every part of the globe, takes care to write in a broad and temperate spirit, that must, we think, commend itself to most minds.
The vast extent and widely differing circumstances of our foreign possessions are, of course, known in a general way to every one ; but few persons probably will rise from the perusal of. Mr. Acton's book without a stronger realisation of the greatness of our Colonies, their rapid course of advancement within the past few years, and the part which some at least of them will have to play in the policy of the future. Beginning with our foreign precursors, the author gives us a short review of the earlier kind of colonial establishments beyond the Old World, letting us see what had been done by Portuguese, Dutch, and French colonists, who created these establishments for mer- cantile profit, either to cultivate certain products which could only be grown in tropical regions, or to procure them when already raised by the population of those countries, and show- ing us what has been done in the same direction by ourselves. In speaking of the tropical-produce colonies, i.e., the West Indies, Mauritius, Ceylon, the Straits Settlements, and some portions of India and Australasia, which, collectively, are of immense importance to commerce, the questions of slave labour and coolie immigration naturally have to be treated ; and Mr. Acton is of opinion that the introduction of Indian coolies into some parts of Australia, and their permanent settlement as a land- owning peasantry, would be a desirable solution of the labour question. It appears that in Trinidad and British Guiana, many Hindoo labourers, when their term of bound residence in the colony has expired, choose to stay and settle on freeholds which they have purchased, and that they begin to form a valu- able portion of the population. In the West Indies, indeed, coolie labour is not cheaper, considering the expenses of import- ation, than that of creoles or negroes, when the latter are to be had ; but this would not be the case in Australia, and as many parts of that country are suitable for the growth of sugar, the coolies might very well cultivate it on their own account, after having worked out their indentures, and thus increase con- siderably the export of the colony.
Mr. Acton naturally treats at greater length of the larger offshoots of the British Crown,—Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa ; and while showing that the creation of robust, prosperous, self-governing colonies is a work of which
• Our Colonial Empire. By B. Acton. London: Cassell, Petter, Ga'pin, and Co-
England may be proud, he is careful to point out that the merit of their well-doing is shared by large constituents of French, Dutch, and Germans, who have helped to settle vast new coun- tries, and to remind us that these rising composite nationalities cannot be mere copies of England, but are destined to become new civilised nations, and that the magnificent fabric of our Colonial Empire is not destined to minister to our selfishness or to foster our pride, but that the far higher office of Great Britain is to protect and develope, to instruct and to assist, to cause waste lands to become productive, to civilise and ennoble the peoples, and to bestow upon them, as they become fitted to employ it, political freedom. He believes that the establish- ment of an Australian federation is but the work of time, and that at no far-off period we shall see the six provinces—four of which already enjoy the full powers of a Parliamentary Con- stitution—become a grand and stable dominion, like that of Canada, which covers a space of seventy degrees of longitude, and presents the delightful spectacle of an industrious popula- tion imbued with genuine public spirit and the active virtues of citizenship, although, considering the magnificent position of Canada, and its vast, though slow-developing, natural resources, he believes that there is in store for it a greater future than Aus- tralia can ever reach.
We admire, particularly in a book which, like the present one, is meant to be popular, the common-sense teaching which we find in it, as, for instance, in the remark that " the greatest import- ance of the British Colonies to the Mother-country does not lie in their capacity of receiving her commercial exports "—although Australasia does consume British manufactures at the rate of L4 a head for every man, woman, and child, and Canada at the rate of £1 12s. a head yearly—" but rather in their capacity of producing and supplying to her those commodities, few and simple, but of enormous quantity, which are needed to support her artificial industries, and her quickly increasing town popu-
lation " " That which is most essential to the general welfare is an unfailing supply of cheap food and the materials of industry." This being so, it is easy to demonstrate the futility of anything like reciprocity in our dealings with the Colonies. It is evident that some of them will set up a variety of manufactures, and supply their own markets as soon as they can afford to do so, utterly disregarding any claim we may set up to be their purveyors ; and more than this, they will also, if possible, push their trade wherever they can. This principle of commercial liberty must, says Mr. Acton, be acknowledged, seeing that it is for the common interest of mankind ; but in our own case, since we can never provide for our ever-increasing population, the cessation of colonial imports would simply mean utter destitution for millions of the inhabitants of our large towns, who could neither be employed nor fed, even for a few days, without supplies from distant regions. " All the money and credit in England, all the power of the Imperial Govern- ment, could not keep our people long alive, when deprived of these resources," and this fact is well known both to Americans and to colonists. The sooner our own people learn to realise this the better, as it will have the effect of making them abandon a foolish cry for that which could only, if accorded, effect their ruin. It is more pleasing to turn to Mr. Acton's hopeful sugges- tion that there is apparently nothing, except the cost of freight— and even that is susceptible of reduction—to limit the abundance and cheapness of the supplies of food which may be sent to us from our North-American, Australasian, and South-African colonies ; and that it is even possible that their increasing pro- duce of wool may very much diminish the price of ordinary clothing. With these prospects before us, let us be content to allow to others that fair-play, free action, and clear road to en- terprise which we ourselves demand, rightly believing that our interests, and those of our Colonies, are bound together by mani- fold ties, which, without mutual damage, can hardly be severed.
We have not attempted to enter into many of the questions treated of in this volume, but we have said enough to commend it to the reader, who will be able, by means of the very complete index, to turn at once to any particular point that may specially arrest his attention.
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