THE AIISTBAL(AE. obTERNMENT BILE.
London, 4th July 1850.
Sra—Public attention has been so entirely engrossed by the exciting de- bates on Fereign Policy, that the progre.ss of the Australian Bill has of late attracted little notice ; and I think therefore it may not be altogether in- opportune to state briefly the effect of the amendments made by the Lords.
In the first place, an entirely new clause has been inserted as to the quali- fication of voters in New South Wales; the effect of which is to lower the existing amount by one half, substituting a freehold estate of the value of 100/. and a house of 101. annual value instead of 2001. and 201. respect- ively ; and to create in addition a new franchise, by extending: the right of voting to licensees under the Crown, and possessors of leasehold estates of 10/. yearly value under leases having at the time of voting not leas than three years to run. By a subsequent clause, the whole of these previsions are extended to the other Australian Colonies.
In the next place, the whole of the clauses providing for the formation of a Federal Assembly are abandoned. Lastly, in the 324 clause as it stands in the amended bill, by which powers are given to the Colonial Legislatures to amend their constitutions, the words " and generally to vary in any manner not hereinbefore authorized the con- stitution of such Legislative Councils respectively"—which would have made it lawful for the Councils to oust the nominee members and establish single elective Chambers—are struck out.
These are the main alterations which I have been able to discover. I omit all notice of various minor alterations, because they do not materially affect the bill. Now, Sir, it must strike any one who has taken any interest in the subject, that here are alterations of very great importance. I will advert briefly to each in succession.
The alteration in the franchise is, I doubt not, mainly due to the admirable speech of Mr. Lowe, in which he so forcibly depicted the evils arising from the present franchise, which has thrown so large a preponderance of politi- cal power in New South Wales into the hands of the convicts and their de- scendants, to the exclusion of the great stockholders, the most wealthy and respectable class in the colony. It would hate been difficult indeed to an- swer his demonstration of the utter folly of supposing that a Legislas tune elected on the present franchise would take the power out of the hands of their own constituents to give it to their piditical and social opponents. The only wonder is that Lord Grey did not find all this out before. One is lost in astonishment that, notwithstanding such eloquent despatch-writing, and such solemn consultation with a Committee of the Privy Council and other high functionaries, these very commonplace considerations, which would ap- pear to be the very a-b-c of the matter, should have altogether escaped ins notice until the last moment, when his bill was about to become law. But when we pass from this to the abandonment of the Federal scheme, wonder becomes almost incredulity ; and still more when we consider the peculiar circumstances under which it was abandoned. It was only on Fri- day June the 14th, that Lord Grey himself was so firmly convinced that this Federal Assembly was an indispensable institution for the Australian Colonies, that he divided the House of Lords upon it, and actually carried it through by a triumphant majority of one ; and yet, after surmounting all this opposition, like another Saturn he ruthlessly devours his own offspring, the fruit of so much anxious care and labour, just as it is at length about to attain Maturity. It would be curious to speculate upon the astonishment of Mr. Hawes at finding the scheme, which he was ordered so ob- stinately to defend in the House of Commons, abandoned by his chief in the House of Lords in the moment of victory. Or perhaps he was in the secret, and it was only a Colonial Office sham from beginning to end? The result, however, is this, that the pet scheme, the opus magnum" of Grey legislation, which the Colonial Secretary has put forward as the matured fruit of his meditations, has been withdrawn for very shame, lest it should ever by some mischance, or freak of the colonists, be carried into effect and expose the incapacity of its author. Yet this, re- member, was.the plan of which the noble Secretary actually boasted in the House of Lords the other day, that if it had been adopted in America, it might have prevented or indefinitely postponed the separation of the North American Colonies !
The other amendment, by which the Colonial Assemblies are prevented
from framing single elective Chambers' needs very little comment. The excuse put forward by Lord Grey, that he did not himself know that the words as they originally stood would authorize such a change, can scarcely be admitted., when we remember how much stress was laid upon this very permission in the House of Commons, in order to catch the stray votes of Radical Members, who hoped to see their democratic exemplar of a constitu- tion adopted in the Colonies, preparatory, I suppose, to its introduction at home. However, the alteration was promptly conceded by the Colonial Se- cretary; and it is only a pity, as he was in such a yielding mood, that he did not go a little further, and at once divide the Legislative Councils into two Chambers, in accordance with the opinion of his own Governcim, and with all British and American experience.
Let us see then, as the bill now stands, what is the result of this wonder- ful attempt at constitution-making.
The separation of Port Phillip from New South Wales ; an amended fran- chise; the introduction of Legislative Councils, on what I may call the hy- brid principle of nominees mixed with the representatives of the people, into those Australian Colonies which are not yet blessed with them; the conces- sion to these Legislatures of some control over the salaries of officials, except the Judges and Governors, and of power to • make certain amendments in their constitutions subject to the approbation of the Colonial Office,—these are the mighty results of the system of Colonial policy so magniloquently expounded to the world by the Premier at the beginning of the session. In vain do we look for any provision as to the waste lands ; in vain for any division of Imperial and Colonial powers ; in vain for any concession to the colonists of a right of addressing the Queen to remove an unworthy Gover- nor,- in vain for a Legislature modelled on the double-chamber principle, ac- cording to the pattern of Anglo-San legislatures all over the world, and in accordance with the loudly-expressed wishes of the people of New South Wales ; in vain for the slightest curtailment of that unlimited power of meddling possessed by the Colonial Office, and exercised to the annoyance of British colonists and the injury of British interests in every corner of our Colonial empire. Itmust be admitted, however, that the amendments made by the Lords, although they have done nothing to supply the omissions of the bill,— which indeed it was scarcely possible to do with such a basis to work upon,— have at least greatly reduced its powers of mischief: and this was perhaps all that could be expected by the friends of Colonial Reform, in the present state of parties, and general indifference about Colonial affairs. I only add a hope that those who advocate the cause of Colonial self-government will not relax in their efforts ; for, if the feeble defence of his measure by the Colonial Secretary in the House of Lords may be taken as a sign, there is reason to hope that the time may not be very far distant when they will be crowned with success.
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