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us we speak not of putting in and leaving out of the Liturgy, but of having leave to intermix some exhortations or prayers beside, to take off the deadness which will follow if there be nothing but the stinted forms; we would avoid both the extreme that would have no forms, and the contrary extreme that would have nothing but forms. It is a matter of far greater trouble to us that you would deny us and all ministers the liberty of using any other prayers besides the Liturgy, than that you impose these." And this is precisely the attitude of our modern Nonconformity towards Litur gies in general; not an attitude of unconditional condemnation, or of absolute repugnance, but of protest against their exclusive use We are quite willing to admit that our free prayer, unsupplemented by any liturgical service, has its peculiar disadvantages; but we could never consent to have even the most perfect Liturgy so used, as to exclude what we believe to be one of the greatest privileges and most valuable blessings of our sanctuary worship.

Cambridge.

T. C. F.

ON THE ABANDONMENT OF THE COLONIES OF GREAT BRITAIN.

BY E. B. UNDERHILL, F.R.G.S.*

THAT the colonies and dependencies of Great Britain contribute to its advantage and greatness, and are largely benefited by their connection with it, seems scarcely to admit of doubt. Yet of late the bold proposition has been made to cast them adrift, and to reduce the imperial rule of England to the circuit of the seas which surround its seat. The chief reasons alleged for this wonderful abnegation of empire are-its greater economy; that the same advantages commercial and otherwise would be enjoyed, were the colonies independent nations; and that both colonies and mother country would be safer from aggression, and less exposed to danger in a time of war.

The first point which strikes an enquirer into the value of the colonial possessions of Great Britain, is the manner of their formation. Our colonies have not been founded upon the basis of principles carefully investigated, and then carried into execution. Economists have not presided at their establishment, nor have politicians generally fostered their growth. Philosophers did not prepare the way, by their meditations on the principles of government and the wants of populations. The colonies have grownlike so much beside that is precious in the constitution of Great Britain-out of the aspirations and necessities of the people; from the strivings of conscience after liberty, the attractions of com

* Author of "The West Indies in 1860."

merce, the hope of gain, the greed for gold; or from the settlement of convicts on remote shores, exiled for their crimes from their native land.

The language of Seneca with reference to the different causes which led to the formation of the colonial Empire of Rome, is accurately descriptive of the manner in which Great Britain has spread her people in every clime :-" Alios excidia urbium suarum, hostilibus armis elapsos, in aliena, spoliatos suis, expulerunt; alios domestica seditio submovit ; alios nimia superfluentis populi frequentia, ad exonerandas vires, emisit; alios pestilentia, aut frequens terrarum hiatus, aut aliqua intoleranda, infelicis soli ejecerunt; quosdam fertilis oræ, et in majus laudatæ, fama corrupit ; alios alia causa excivit domibus suis." So, some of the colonies of Great Britain owe their existence to conquest and to success in war, the military or naval forces of the empire wresting them from the hands of other nations; some exist through the more quiet victories of human energy, seeking in other lands the necessities or luxuries which growing wealth and civilization demand; some have sprung from the cupidity of men, or the degrading hunger for gold; some from the growth of population, too straitly pent up within the borders of its original seat; and some from exiles for righteousness' sake, searching in desert places, or in untrodden wildernesses, for a home for the sanctuary of their God, and a spot on which to worship Him free from human dictation and tyranny. If there exist general laws of colonization, they have simply emerged from the chaos of actual facts, and have not been intelligently employed by the founders of colonies to guide them in their work. Such however as they are, they come to us with the stamp of experience upon them, and are rather corollaries from events than principles which economists have wrought.

We do not, however, here intend to speak of all the colonies and dependencies of Great Britain. Some are mere military stations, like Malta or Gibraltar, which owe their existence and maintenance to reasons of State, and the retention of which must be decided by other than economical reasons. Others, as on the coast of Africa, have sprung out of the national policy to put down the accursed system of slavery. These, to a certain extent, have also become trade emporia, merchants taking advantage of the protection afforded by the military or naval forces employed, to establish factories for the collection of the produce of the interior and for the sale of articles of English manufacture. Trade here becomes the handmaid of philanthropy, and by its gains helps to indemnify the nation for the cost. The colonies and dependencies included in our inquiry, are more particularly the provinces of North America, Australia, or the West Indies, occupied and peopled by emigrants from the mother country, or countries like

India, conquered by the valour of her sons, and governed for the benefit of both.

From these colonies and dependencies the mother country, Great Britain, derives both greatness and advantage, while they also, in their turn, are benefited by the connection which subsists between them.

Greatness :-There is something awe-inspiring in the fact, that the Anglican race-the five millions of Anglo-Saxons of three centuries ago, when colonization began to be a thought in the mind of the first great colonist, Sir Walter Raleigh, and then through his energy a fact-should have so largely multiplied, as not only to fill with its progeny the limited borders of its imperial home, but have sent forth its children into every clime, seated itself on every shore, gathered under its shield people of manifold origin and speech, and founded nations, some in their manhood, striving alas in bitter war for wider regions and a continental empire; others, in their youth, bidding fair to emulate the power and virtues of the parent from which they sprung. And let it be remembered that this greatness, and the consequent weight it gives Great Britain in the counsels of monarchs and the cabinets of kings, has not been an object directly sought and kept in view in the acquisitions that have been made. It has come out of unfore seen strifes, of undesired victories, from individual enterprise and the labours of beneficence. It has been the gift of that Providence, which "hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed and the bounds of their habitation." Thus, Great Britain has become the Protectress and Liberator of the oppressed. She is able to give the exile from oppression, and the slave, a peaceful home, in which intellectual, social, and religious liberty, in all their manifold issues, can be enjoyed, and to provide for the refugee from political or priestly tyranny a shelter which no despot dares to invade.

Among the direct advantages which have accrued to Great Britain, by the formation of the Colonies and the acquisition of dependencies, the opening a field for emigration is among the chief. During the last seventy years, as is well known, the popu lation of these islands has rapidly increased. Cultivation has extended its area, and commerce and manufactures have supplied large sections of the people with employment. Still, there has been left a surplus, some five millions in number, which has found an outlet for its energies in governing the conquered nations of the East, or in planting civilization in remote and unoccupied regions, or in countries, which, if inhabited, were only trodden by a few wandering savages. It is difficult to estimate the value of this outflow of our redundant population on the government and administration of the laws of the mother country.

Diminishing employment and declining rates of wages, through the increase of laborers beyond what agriculture or manufacturers could naturally absorb, must have led to discontent, to political results and radical changes in the constitution, which can only be imagined. Happily, the alterations that have taken place, have been beneficial to personal liberty and to social advancement; but with a large unemployed or hungry proletarian population, the nation might have been hurried into the anarchy of a lawless democracy, or caught in the strangling gripe of a relentless despotism. As it is, the growth of the population, checked by a natural emigration, has allowed a steady progress to be inaugurated in State affairs, at once bringing our laws into harmony with the first principles of social and political science, and securing order and caution in the changes that have been made. Not less advantageous has been the improvement of the lower classes, from the gradual rise of wages and the increase of employment. It is obvious that the increase which has taken place in the population, if it had not been partially provided for by emigration to the Colonies, must have borne with constantly growing pressure on the labour fund of the country, thereby diminishing the share of each worker. The Colonies have opened a wide field for the absorption of our surplus laborers, and also assisted by their demand for home manufactures in supporting those left behind. Thus employment has been abundant, and the remuneration of the laborer constantly advancing with the growth of our colonial possessions. The comforts of all classes have been multiplied, and the home population enriched. And more than this, it cannot be doubted that while the increase of the population has been stimulated, emigration has contributed to the improvement of the moral and social condition of the remaining mass. The easier attainment of the means of subsistence has led to earlier marriages, a circumstance conducive both to morality and social happiness; while, by a kind of reflex action, the Colonies have become still more essential to the well-being of the mother country owing to the increase of births over the waste occasioned in human life by disease and death.

One more advantage may be named in this connection, and that is the profitable employment of a portion of the capital of the mother country in the foundation and growth of its Colonies. The profits of the vast commerce of Great Britain undoubtedly tend to an accumulation of capital, which cannot, without difficulty, find advantageous investment. There is a steady decline in the rates or in other words in the profits of capital; and although the loss of capital by its transference in the hands of emigrants into new regions, must lessen the amount retained in the mother country, that loss is but temporary in its nature, for it is found in no long period to return to the mother country in the shape of new articles of consumption, or in profitable trade.

of interest,

It is, however, objected, that the Colonies and dependencies of Great Britain cost sums for their protection and government which exceed any return they make; and that, therefore, it were cheaper to rid ourselves of the burden, and to run the risk of retaining them, when independent, as our customers, and as open fields for emigration. Doubtless, the military service of the Colonies is costly; and there is none of them, except India,—and how splendid an exception!—which repays from its revenue the cost of government and protection. It is long since England sought from its possessions either a tribute, or the repayment of the sums expended in maintaining the connection. If, however, we closely examine the objection, we shall find, that at the present time the whole cost of the Colonies to the mother country, omitting the military stations, is covered by about two millions sterling. Beyond doubt the trade of some of them, as New Zealand and the Cape Colony, does not give a profit equal to the expenditure. Some of the unpaying Colonies are, however, in their infancy, and cannot in fairness be brought into the argument. But taking the whole of our colonial possessions together, always excepting India, the export and import trade of Great Britain with them is certainly not less than £80,000,000 per annum. It is incredible that this enormous trade does not afford a far larger profit to this country than the £2,000,000 the Colonies cost to maintain them. As a mere question of pecuniary advantage, the Colonies pay five times over the outlay which their government and military security require.

With regard to India, it is notorious, that it not only pays all its own government and military expenses, but also, in the shape of annuities and retiring pensions, remits from three to five millions sterling to this country every year. It has been computed. that if the rebels in 1857 had driven their foreign masters clear out of the country, it would still have been profitable to have re-conquered it at a cost to the English nation of two hundred millions sterling.

Not a little unfairness has been shewn to Canada by comparing her with England, and the extent of our trade with her to that of the United States. It seems to be forgotten that Canada is as yet in her youth, and that she cannot offer to emigrants the advantage which her neighbours can do. Her climate is more inclement, and her soil less fertile. She must, in the nature of things, be far longer in arriving at a state of prosperity. Still, in her measure, she has of late years afforded to Great Britain a fair proportion of the advantages which a colony can give; and it is more than probable, that if the civil war leaves the United States in that exhausted and heavily taxed condition which appears too certam. Canada will become a more favorite field for emigrants, and rapidly acquire the position which may render her independence safe.

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