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No. 435, Jtoy 24, 1858.] TEE-IEAD E U. 7...
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NEW CALEDONIA AKD BRITISH COLO-
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- . . » — ' . - The Report Of The Bank A...
the affliction that , by giving a twelvemonths notice through MJv Speaker to the Bank of England , the nation can get rid of these acts . A more lame conclusion to a solemn investigation , from which for nearly two years much information and wise direction have been expected , has seldom fallen under our
notice . The committee avows that itha & not in-quired whether " the present laws constitute a perfect system for regulating the paper circulation of an empire , " but lias inquired whether they have secured that the variations of this currency shall be in conformity to th « laws by which a metallic currency would vary . Even this one point the committee does not elucidate ; it contents itself with asserting , contrary to the fact , " that no one contends that the object has not been obtained . " Because Bank of England notes , regulated by law , and the restricted circulation of the empire administered by other , banks , have , varied according to the gold in tie Bank of England , the committee assumes that the whole
paper circulation of the empire has varied m quantity exactly as a metallic circulation would have varied . The assumption is veiy incorrect . That the paper currency has kept on a par with gold , aud has varied in value with it , if gold have undergone . any variations in , value , is quite true ; but this is the inevitable consequence of tie nature of a promise to pay gold on demand and the power to demaud the payment at pleasure . How can a banknote be depreciated in relation to gold as long as the holder can at every instant exchange it for the gold it represents ? Depreciation is impossible as long- as the law enforces the observance of contracts and does not interfere to exonerate one party from the duty of fulfilling them . There must indeed be the means to execute this duty , and the state wiich unwisely interferes with the business of the banker and authorizes the issue of a certain amount
of bank-notes , making them a legal tender , is bound to provide the means of paying" them whenever payment is required . To accomplish this one olject , which every honest banker by his own meaus arid own exertions accomplishes , is , in . truth , the purpose of our cumbrous Bank Acts . But so uncertain ' - ' -and doubting is the committee , that it scarcely-ventures to declare on its own authority that even this purpose is achieved . "It appears , " says the committee , " that the present law ensures tlie maintenance . in the coffers of the Bank of an adequate amount of bullion , whilst the history of past years proves that such an amount had not been 'maintained . 'by the unassisted -wisdom and firmness
of the Bank Directors ; and the present Court of Directors are unanimous in desiring that they should continue to be fortified by the provisions of the present Act . " This is all the committee can say 111 favour of the present law ; and because the Bank directors have wanted wisdom formerly , and now dare not trust themselves , the mercantile community is to remain subject to Bank Acts and currency laws which have no warrant in free trade , and which the committee has taken no pains to show are beneficial to the nation aud ought to be maintained .
We have different banking laws for the metropolis and the provinces , different banking laws for 33 lgland , for Scotland , and for Ireland , and it is Utterly impossible that all caa be good laws . Paper currency is a modem invention , and , vith banking , is susceptible of continual improvement . " The country bankers , " says Mr .. Rodwcll , one of themselves , " were not at all aware of the consequences of their issues ; if they had been , such disasters would never have arisen as arose iu 1 S 25 . " They only share a universal ignorance . Man has no « priori knowledge of the consequences of his actions , and can only learn them after he has acted . If the Legislature kuew beforehand all the conscquences of what it does it . would make fewer laws
and as it cannot even yet , in common witli the banker , know all the consequences of paper currency and oi ' banking , it is more than probable that the old laws which it has prescribed for these growing parts of society are at all times injurious . On this interesting topic the inquiries of the committee have shed no light . Not one of tho complicated and difficult questions at issuo concerning the Bank Acts is cleared up by tho report ; aad elaborate inquiries continued through two sessions have issued in a most trivial result . That tho committco has compiled a reasonable though not a readable account of tho commercial convulsion of last year , wo have stated ; but of tho consequonccs of the acts regulating our currenoy aud banking the report leaves
the public as ignorant as were the bankers in 1825 of the effects of inundating the country with thei * paper .
No. 435, Jtoy 24, 1858.] Tee-Iead E U. 7...
No . 435 , Jtoy 24 , 1858 . ] TEE-IEAD E U . 711
New Caledonia Akd British Colo-
NEW CALEDONIA AKD BRITISH
COLONIZATION . Besides the movements which will be made to colonize New Caledonia from the neighbouring settlements of the United States , from " Vancouver's Island , and from this country by way of the Pacific , it is most probable that the broad region which has hitherto passed by the name of Oregon , as well as that lying east of the Rocky Mountains above the Mississippi , will he approached by emigrants making their way through the British colonies of North America . The debate in the House of
Commons on Tuesday evening gives us the satisfactory announcement that the present Cabinet is quite prepared to deal with the emigration , and its inevitable consequences . On this , the Canada side of the question , the embarrassments are not perhaps so great as on the Pacific side , where so much American jealousy and so many disagreeable relations are mingled with' the subject ; but it is essential to the proper disposition of the territory , and to the integrity of the British empire , that every impediment to the freest settlement of the country should be removed as rapidly as possible . The explanation of Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton is the most direct proof that the Government is prepared , and we are induced to suppose that the line of action which it intends to pursue will be well suited to the iuncture .
The difficulties which have to be met in opening that splendid territory for British colonization are of various kinds . Its position is peculiar . It lies between the sterile and uninhabitable lands which border the extreme north , of the American continent , the dense woods which block up the pathway for emigration from . British North America , the settlement of New Caledonia , and the American States . The gold fields , which are the great attractions for the new colony on the Pacific coast , lie to the back of the territory for which our Ministers are
providing- a local Government ; and unquestionably they will constitute a similar attraction for settlers from the other side—that is , from the Hudson ' s Bay Company , from Canada , Nova Scotia , and New Brunswick . The territory which is more immediatel y in . question lies in the midst of the American continent towards the north ; it is well wooded—too densely wooded in some parts ; fertile , even in the open prairies ; and well watered with rivers flowing in various directions . The climate is somewhat more extreme than we are
accustomed to experience in this country— -colder in winter , but much warmer in summer , and calculated to try the constitution ; but upon the whole healthy , bracing , and ripening . It is most certain that the territory will be thickly peopled some day , and the practical question now is , whether it sluill be gradually peopled from the colonies bordering on the Pacific , largely intermingled with Americans , or more promptly settled by emigrants from this country , principally finding their way to the part through North American colonies .
Ihe difficulties in respect of inaccesibility are increased by certain technical difficulties of law . The Hudson's Bay Company is established under a charter granted by Charles II ., the validity of which is under some doubt with regard both to Charles ' s powers of conveying lands then in possession of the French , and the amount of territory actually conveyed . The colony of Canada has also set up some not very defined claim to the territories which arc contiguous with it towards the west . The effect of these claims hitherto has been rather to deter
settlement , The Hudson ' s Bay Company , indeed , more than twenty years ago , established a settlement on the lied Kiver , which has prospered to a certain extent ; for it is self-support ing nncl capable of self-defence . But founded by Ilio Hudson ' s Bay Company , it is peopled far less by Irish , English , or Scotch , than by a very diilcrent class , who cannot be regarded as forming good colonists , though they arc brave , skilful woodsmen , bold riders , aud practised in the use of firearms . . 01 " the S 00 O settlers , says Sir William Evre , not more than one niuuicr are British settlers- j the rest consist of half-breeds—the descendants of the employe * of the Hudson ' s Bay Company , or the British colonists tliat have wandered so fur wos-t , and have intermarried with the indigenous Indian tribes . Now , generally speaking , the character of tlio hulf-brccd docs not fit him to perform tlie
man , or sportsman , or possibly trader , than agriculturist or special constable . The Red River , therefore , is scarcely successful as a British colony . It was remarked by Mr . Lowe in the debate , that Canada possesses' abundance of unoccupied land , which might be filled up before we treach upon the possessions of the Hudson ' s Bay Company ; but this is a very false view of the subject . Ihe spread of settlement throughout tb , e North . American colonies , and indeed throughout all considerable territories occupied by the British race , lias been noted for the spontaneous character of its
move' duties of a British colonist ; he is crave , sharpwitted , and eager in the pursuit of his own interest 5 "but he is seldom so frank either as the Englishman or Indian . He has a constitution which lies between tlie energy of the British and the indolence of the red man .. He would make a better
militiament . The bodies of emigrants pursue the veins of fine land , the tracks of streams , the course of valleys ; they obey almost the direction of the sun and wind , rather than map themselves down by any predetermined arrangement , as French colonists might do . The country thus sketched out in the skeleton by the living people is afterwards filled up at leisure as the settlements spread laterally . Even now there are many portions of the States of the American Union—large tracts in Pennsylvania , for example
—whicli are still wild and unoccupied ; while that energetic people is establishing agriculture and law in great communities to the west of the Rocky Mountains . If colonization is to-be resumed in British North America , at a rate in any degree parallel to that which has been going ouunbrokenly in the territories allotted to the United States * there must be precisely the same perfect freedom of choice , the same unrestrained variety of direction , the same electric shooting , as it were \ of the crystallization of settlement that we witness to the
south of the British boundary ; and there can be little doubt that the absence of that freedom has turned the direction of immense numbers who have left our shores far more than any-peculiar liking to the form of government . The degree of induterence shown for this part of America hitherto is no measure of the value which it might possess in the eyes of the emigrant if the British Government were simply to throw it open , to reawaken the dormant energies of the Emigration-office , to diffuse information On the subject , to guide the emigrant , and to give him the security of British laws for life ,
property , and freely pursued'industry . - ' The whole question is now under consideration , but we infer from the language of Sir Edward Lytton that he is on the proper track . The rights of the Hudson ' s Bay Company are about to be examined by the Law Officers of the Crown , 'with a view to determine what they are , and then to render justice to the corporation . We may anticipate that the territory ot the Company -will be . better denned than it is now ; that tlie " essential rights under the charter will be affirmed , . with the right of trading supremacy ¦ in the Company ' s owa district not within the bounds of colonization . At the same
time , we anticipate-that the claim of the Company over the settlements available for settlement will be negatived , its licence for exclusive trading which will expire next year , being no longer renewed for the parts opened to settlement . The colonizing . of the territory had been offered by the late Colonial Secretary , Mr . liabouchere , to Canada , should that colony think fit to accept the responsibility , moral as well as financial ; but the Colonial Secretary avows his belief that Canada will not avail herself of the offer . Jn that case , it will be incuinbcnt upon the present Colonial Secretary and Iii 3 colleagues to provide for the local government of the territory ; and if we may still further anticipate , we are inclined to expect that tho arrangement which the Ministers will submit to
Parliament next session will result in turning towards that part of British North America no small portion of , the emigration , which has of lato years been checked in its flow towards Australia , and has been so unnaturally limited to tho Slutes . In this event , the promised measures would have a very considerable cilect in reawakening the departmental energies of our Government under Sir Edward Lytton's administration , in imparting new energy to tUc shipping business , in calling out what may be called the purveying department of tho British colonies over which the emigration must pass , and in giving ft . new value to all the neighbouring lands of those colonies , the Hudson ' s liuy Coinpuny included ; with tho further
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), July 24, 1858, page 15, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_24071858/page/15/
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