Oldalképek
PDF
ePub

thing went on till 1850. Then the noble | ney was situated, was the original settleLord the Member for London (Lord John ment, and it contained four-fifths of the Russell) brought in a Bill to grant to the population, and 12,000 out of the 22,000 Australian Colonies the power of giving electors of the colony, but that county themselves constitutions without the ne- was only represented by eight Members. cessity of again recurring to the authority The rest of the Act was conceived in the of that House; and those constitutions, same spirit, and it gave such a preponderaccording to the noble Lord's view at that ance to the pastoral districts that it was time, were to be validated by the mere quite clear from that moment that they consent of Her Majesty. At that time he would be paramount in the Legislature. had just arrived in England, and he would He would not ask the House to take these mention a fact to show how little he was statements from him upon trust, for they then actuated by any feeling against this might think he was prejudiced. The noclass. Although he was of opinion that ble Lord the Member for London said the the question, if neglected, would result in other night that he had come to fight in a repetition of the agrarian law of Rome, this House the same battle which he (Mr. yet he thought these gentlemen, many of Lowe) had fought in the colony. That them respectable through birth, education, was quite true; he had fought, and he inand character, formed an integral part of tended to fight the same battle; and would the community, and it was his theory of not the noble Lord have reproached him representation that all the elements of a with greater justice if he fought a different community ought to be represented in a battle here from that which he had fought constitution. He therefore thought they in the colony? He would refer to Westought to be represented, and he accord- garth's book on Port Phillip, which coningly made a suggestion upon the subject tained the following passages in reference to the Colonial Office when he came home, to the deliberations of the Legislature which which was the only suggestion of his that passed the Electoral Acthad ever been attended to. To him it was that those gentlemen owed the representation they now possessed in the Legislative Council. The Act of 1850 separated the district of Port Phillip from New South Wales, and it empowered the then Legislative Council of New South Wales to pass an Electoral Act for the new Council. From that point he dated the origin of the evil which had now come to full maturity, and was to be dealt with to-night. Instead of proceeding, as they should have done, upon a more liberal basis, and endeavour ing to equalise the representation of the colony, the then Council set themselves deliberately, as it appeared to him, to vitiate the representation of the colony, to exaggerate its imperfections, and to make it worse than it had previously been. He would give an instance of what had taken place. Having recommended that the squatters should have Members in the Legislative Council, he might be supposed to be some authority as to what sort of representation they ought to have. It appeared to him that the grazing interests would have been adequately represented by three Members, one each from the north, south, and west districts, but these sheepwalks were represented by eight out of the thirty-six Members of whom the Council was to be composed. The county of Cumberland, in which the city of Syd

"The electoral scheme now proposed by the Government for the two colonies was of the same unequal character as that which it was to supernearly one-fourth of the population of the colony, sede. To the city of Sydney, for example, with and perhaps a still larger share of property and intelligence, was to be allowed three representatives out of the thirty-two elective members, while representation was given to remote districts four of population. This question formed the chief or five times greater as compared with the ratio point in a long preliminary discussion, in which the Government views were advocated by about two-thirds of the Council, a more equal electoral distribution being contended for by the remainder. Some sharp party scintillations were evolved in the debate. The Liberals were charged with a disloyal Republicanism, and the squatters jocularly complimented on the convenient character of their new voters, who in the absence of human beings were supposed to be the sheep and cattle of their pastoral domains. The inequalities of the British constitution formed the fundamental argument of the majority, and the short representation of London was pleaded for that of Sydney. To give greater conclusiveness to this argument the Reform Act of 1832 was urged to have been a finality in regard to electoral change. Strange to say, this view of the case, so opposed to all British political experience, was doggedly maintained, refuted, and reasserted by long quotations and at the very time when the representatives of the speeches; and it is still more remarkable that, Crown were carrying their point in New South Wales by such an argument, the First Minister himself, as it afterwards appeared, was engaged at head-quarters in devising a further and comprehensive reform, which, it may be said, only an accident had then frustrated, and which, every one feels, will not be much longer deferred."

He was afraid that the House would to- | upon their powers, and that the question night ratify a system ten times more un- of a nominated or an elected Council was just and unequal than had ever prevailed in England. The contrast between what the noble Lord was then endeavouring to do for England and what he now wished to do for New South Wales showed the difference between the politics of a man when he was dealing with the home country and with the colonies. All Colonial Ministers, of whatever politics, as soon as they came within the influence of the Colonial Office were perfectly alike. The Legislature which created the new council before its dissolution, agreed to a petition and remonstrance, which was sent to the home Government, in which they made various representations as to the five points, and then said in a very vigorous tone:

"That in order, however, that Your Majesty's confidential advisers may have no excuse for the continuance of these abuses, we unhesitatingly declare that we are prepared, upon the surrender to the Colonial Legislature of the entire management of all our revenues, territorial as well as general, in which we include mines of every description, and upon the establishment of a constitution among us similar in its outline to that of Canada, to assume and provide for the whole cost of our internal Government, &c."

one upon which Her Majesty's Government would not express any wish or interfere in any way, but would leave the colonists to deal with it as they pleased. If the right hon. Gentleman had so acted the present difficulty would never have arisen. The right hon, Gentleman appeared to have entered into a kind of compact with the colony that if they would agree to a nominated Upper Chamber the Government at home would give them the land-tax. And he held that the Government had no interest in inducing the colonists to consent to a nominated Chamber. If it were right to give the colonists the land-tax, the Government ought to give it them, but it ought not to have been used as an inducement for the colony to take either the one course or the other relative to the constitution of the Upper Chamber. The right hon. Gentleman had grievously erred in taking this course, and great credit was due to the Duke of Newcastle, who, on the 18th of January, 1853, just after his accession to office, wrote a despatch undoing what the right hon. Baronet had done. The noble Duke said ;

"You inform me that a Committee of the

Those words," the establishment of a constitution among us similar in its outline to Council is engaged in the preparation of a scheme that of Canada," were the text which had for the amendment of its constitution. As such been laid hold of to fix the constitution a measure is impending, it is only necessary for upon the colonists, but he was certain that me now to inform you that, as soon as it has whatever interpretation these words would passed the Legislature of the province, and received the approval of Her Majesty, the disposibear, the right one had not been put upon tion of the waste lands, and the appropriation of them. Several gentlemen who voted for the fund arising out of their sale and managethem were in favour of an elective Upper ment, will be placed without reserve, under the Chamber, and it was not likely that so im-supervision and control of the Legislative autho portant a question as the constitution of rity in the colony. This policy would, of course, be inoperative without legislation in this country; the Council would have been settled in and it will be necessary to invite Parliament to such a manner, and without any previous empower Her Majesty to make the proposed resolution having been arrived at respect- transfer of the functions at present vested in the ing it. But the seed feel into good ground Crown. I am ignorant of the shape which the when it got into the hands of the right of the Council may eventually assume. The Legis project under the consideration of the Committee hon. Gentleman the Member for Droitwich lative Council, indeed, in the petition before ad(Sir J. Pakington). The right hon. Ba-verted to, favoured a constitution similar in its ronet snatched up the expression, and on the 15th of December, 1852, three days before the resignation of Lord Derby's Government, he wrote a despatch in which he turned it to advantage. When the right hon. Baronet had received from the Legislative Council an offer to make terms with him, a stipulation for an interchange between the Colonial Legislature and the Colonial Office, he would have acted much more judiciously if he had told them they must exercise their own discretion, subject to the limitations which had been placed

outline to that of Canada. It would be premajudgment, to pass an opinion upon the policy of ture for me, without materials for forming a totally reconstructing the frame of government recently established; but I may state that I have always thought it probable that the experience and wisdom of the Council would dictate better provisions than those which were in the first instance adopted by Parliament for securing good government in New South Wales, and promoting harmony in the connexion subsisting between Great Britain and this important province of the empire."

Thus the noble Duke set the colony free from the compact that the right hon.

[ocr errors]

of the 5th of December, 1851, but by the letter
of agreement to those terms of Sir John Paking-
ton, on the 15th of December, 1852, the House is
pledged to a constitution similar in its outline
to that of Canada.' The subsequent despatch of
his successor, the Duke of Newcastle, appears,
indeed, to admit of some latitude of discretion on
this most important subject. But your Com-
mittee are of opinion, that the offer contained in
their declaration and remonstrance necessarily
included a nominated Legislative Council in the
first instance, and from this offer, independently
of the question whether they are strictly bound
by it or not, they see no reason to depart.'
So the Committee believed they had been
set at liberty, but they did not choose to
be free. They were like the man liberated
at the storming of the Bastile, who had
been imprisoned for forty-nine years, and
who hired a man to lock him up for the
remainder of his life. It was no part of
his case that an elected Upper House was
better than a nominated one, but it was
for the colony to choose between them.
The scene of the drama was New South
Wales, which was not long ago better
known under the title of Botany Bay. The
Committee said :-

Baronet his predecessor had formed. He
would now come to the elections. The
Legislative Council of New South Wales
ceased to exist, and a new one had to be
elected. It might have been supposed
that such a body would be elected with
great care aud circumspection, but it was
stated, on good authority that the subject
of an elected or nominated Upper Chamber
was never mentioned by any candidate ex-
cept one, and he was unsuccessful, The
noble Lord (Lord John Russell) would no
doubt say that the Legislative Council
was to be taken as representing the wishes
and opinions of the colony, which might be
true for the ordinary purposes of legisla-
tion; but this was an extraordinary duty
imposed upon the constituents, and no
appeal having been made to them, and no
consideration given to the subject, the
value of this assembly as a constituent
body was gone altogether. The fact was,
that at the period of this election the pub-
lic mind of the colony was very much dis-
turbed by the gold discoveries. Since
that election, too, perhaps one-third of
the present inhabitants of the colony had
"They conceive that an Upper House, framed
arrived and settled in it, who had no oppor- on this principle-the creation of hereditary titles
tunity of recording their votes at the elec--while it would be free from the objections which
tion, but who were bound by proceedings
that had taken place before their arrival.
The new Council, however, was elected,
and in May, 1853, a Committee was ap-
pointed to consider the constitution of the
colony. They presented their Report, and
their object appeared to be not to consider
what would be best for the wants of the
colony, but what would be best to subserve
the purpose of keeping the publie lands in
the few hands who now possessed them,
and who made enormous fortunes thereby.
The Committee of which the Colonial Se-
cretary and the Attorney General were
two official nominees, met to consider their
Report on the 27th of May, 1853. The
question put was :—

"Are we bound by the terms of the remonstrance and petition of 1851, to construct a Legislature composed of a nominated Upper House, and of an elective Legislative Assembly, similar to the Legislature of Canada ?"

have been urged against the House of Lords, on which they exercise, would lay the foundation of the ground of the hereditary right of legislation an aristocracy, which, from their fortune, birth, leisure, and the superior education these advantages would superinduce, would soon supply elements for the formation of an Upper House, upon the analogies of the British Constitution."

modelled, as far as circumstances will admit,

This was the language held in a colony to which transportation ceased only fifteen years ago. They went on to say—

"Such a House would be a close imitation of the elective portion of the House of Lords, which is supplied from the Irish and Scotch peerage; nor is it the least of the advantages which would arise from the creation of a titled order, that it would necessarily form one of the strongest inducements not only to respectable families to remain in this colony, but to the upper classes of the United Kingdom and other countries, who are desirous to emigrate, to choose it for their future abode."

He would ask the House whether such a Report could be supposed to represent the So that the Committee spoke as if they feelings of the emigrants the mechanics were bound by the compact with the right and labourers, and even of the tradesmen hon. Baronet (Sir. J. Pakington) and had and proprietors of the colony? He should no discretion. Then the Committee re-have thought that the sayingported as follows with regard to the constitution of the Legislative Council:

"As regards the constitution of the Legislative Council, your Committee consider that, not only by the terms of their declaration and remonstrance

"Et genus et proaves, et quæ non fecimus ipsi, "Vix ea nostra voco-"

would have been insisted upon with the utmost rigour in such a colony, many of

[blocks in formation]
[ocr errors]

66

The noble Lord the Member for London would find that in the 59th clause of the Bill this recommendation was carried out. The salaries had been increased very properly during the high prices of the gold discoveries, but these officers were pensioned off, not upon the salaries which they had been receiving up to 1851, but upon the increased salaries which they had been receiving for only one year. And be it remembered that the Committee contained two gentlemen-the Attorney General and the Colonial Secretary-who might profit by this arrangement. The Committee then decided that the salary of the Governor General should be 7,000l. per annum, and that the increased salary take effect from the passing of the Bill. Then came a "Motion made and question put, that the salary of the Colonial Secretary be 2,000l. per annum.' Nothing was said about the Colonial Secretary not voting. Then there was a Motion that 9,500l. be reserved for retiring pensions." That also was carried. It was very true that 9,500l. was not enough to pay them all, but the Act gave it to them. They must receive it somewhere, and it was a subterfuge to say they would have to submit to any abatement. The next occurrence which he had to chronicle was nearly contemporaneous with these events. It was a matter of immense importance to the colony, though probably not very interesting to the Imperial Parliament. The only relief to the system of leasing was, that the Crown had the power of reserving tracts of land for townships, over which the right of pre-emption in the squatters did not obtain. Just about this time the Executive Government of the colony, without the knowledge of the people, contrived to give these gentlemen tracts of land reserved for the pupose of making towns, the effect of which would be that these men would get possession of land, as though for pastoral purposes, with the right of buying it up at 17. an acre, the greater part of which was intended for townships, and would be retailed hereafter

by the yard for streets and squares. He mentioned that because it singularly occurred just at the moment when the predominance of that class in the Council seemed perfectly well established. He would say nothing about the debate upon the Bill, which seemed to meet the approbation of the noble Lord (Lord J. Russell), except that it would have been better if the Council had thought less of Burke, Cicero, Plato, and Montesquieu, and more of the interests of the country for which they were legislating. The Bill did not pass at once. The Council adjourned for five or six months, to obtain the opinion of the colony. The colony did express their opinion. There was an enormous number of petitions on one side, and a very small number on the other. The majority of the petitioners concurred in urging objections on four grounds first, that the electoral districts were not equal; second, that the Bill was not to be altered unless two-thirds of the House agreed; third, as to pensions; and, fourth, as to the nominative Upper House. There was great unanimity at most of the public meetings, and there were no public meetings the other way. No effect was produced. The petitions were utterly disregarded, and the Legislature passed the Bill. The noble Lord said, when the Legislature deserved the people's confidence there was no occasion for petitions. What occasion, then, had people to go to public meetings? But meetings were held all over the colony, and ended in the same result. Surely, if a public meeting were deliberately advertised and held, the resolutions adopted went forth as the opinion of the district, and he would undertake to say that in almost every town and district meetings were held, and the opinion, without exception, went one way, the minority being very small. But the Council, which was said to represent the feelings of the colonists, did not in the least modify these views. They carried them out exactly as though no public meetings had been held. The Bill was sent home; but since that another effort had been made. A gentleman moved in the Legislative Council this Resolution, the first of a series

"That the Bill was passed in opposition to the wishes of a large majority of the colonists, who desire, as the basis of local government, a representative system, and a just distribution of the

electoral power."

In a full House three Gentlemen spoke in favour of that Resolution, and no one

been submitted for consideration in accordance with the forms prescribed by law. I may further remark, that were the opinion of a new Council decidedly adverse to the measure which has been so submitted, and which may possibly have received the sanction of Parliament, that contenearnestly desire to avoid, would become almost tion with the Imperial Parliament, which you so inevitable."

spoke against it. Although those Gentle-modifying the course of action of Her Majesty's men spoke with great temper and great Government in relation to a measure which has force of argument, no reply was offered, and the Council went to a division, which was ten in favour of the Resolution and twenty-four against it. But so much had opinion changed that a majority of the elected Members were in favour of the Resolution. Then they petitioned the Imperial Parliament. He had himself presented several petitions, setting forth in the clearest and most unanswerable manner the grievance of this constitution. Several elections had taken place since. They had all been determined in favour of an elective Council, with a single exception. A Gentleman, a large squatter, who represented a district, was going away, and not feeling quite confident that the district, if left to itself, would elect a successor with equally strong predilections in favour of the Bill, adopted the ingenious device of placing his resignation in the good and safe hands of a Friend, with orders not to send it in until an approved person presented himself. That was the way the election of a supporter of the Bill was secured in one instance, but a more unconstitutional act, to say the least of it, could not be imagined. It was useless to say the people should have done more. They had held meetings, they had petitioned their Legislature, and they had petitioned Parliament. Finding the Bill put off another year, they petitioned Parliament again. They returned gentlemen who were in favour of an elective Council. They did more. In the extremity of their despair, although perfectly well aware how ill the elective system represented the people of New South Wales, they went to the new Governor, Sir William Denison, and asked him to dissolve the Council, that the colonists might have an opportunity of expressing their opinions upon the question of a nominative or elective Council. The answer of Sir William Denison showed that the feeling of the colony was in favour of an elective, and not of a nominative Council. Sir William Denison refused their request, and he did not mean to reflect upon him for that, or to say that he was not right in doing so. In the answer of Sir William Denison was this passage

[ocr errors][merged small]

The Governor refused, first, because it was too late; and, secondly, lest Parliament should have sanctioned the Act, and the Council be placed in a position of antagonism with Parliament. If the Council had really represented the colonists, and the Act had not been the Act of a small clique acting against the feeling of the colony, would not the answer of the Government have been that which the noble Lord gave?" The Council represents the feeling of the colony. What is the use of appealing from Cæsar to Cæsar?" The Governor did not say that, and bad as was the elective system, infamously framed to purposely prevent the popular voice being heard, he really believed, if by any possibility they could ascertain the popular opinion on this measure, it would be rejected, and an elective substituted for a nominative Council. He observed that a large deputation had waited on the noble Lord the Secretary of State for the Colonies, composed of gentlemen of whom he wished to speak with the utmost respect. All their names were known to him. They were large holders of waste lands, which was the very question in debate. He remembered that a member of the Council said to one of those gentlemen, whose name he would not mention, "You hold 3,000,000 of acres of the public land." The gentleman replied, that if he would refer to his licence he would find he had not so much. Upon which the other retorted, "I said you hold,' I never said you paid for them.' He would remind the noble Lord that every person who held a large portion of the public land was deeply interested in having a nominative Council, because it was essential to his interest to have some body not amenable to popular influence, which would not change when the revolu tion came, as it inevitably would come, upon this question of waste lands. All writers upon the colony had pointed out that people went from thence to America because the lands were confiscated for the benefit of a few large graziers. The feeling was so strong upon the subject that he spoke

[ocr errors]
« ElőzőTovább »