THE BUSHMAN.
LIFE IN A NEW COUNTRY
BY
EDWARD WILSON LANDOR.
PREFACE.
The British Colonies now form so prominent a portion of theEmpire, that the Public will be compelled to acknowledge someinterest in their welfare, and the Government to yield someattention to their wants. It is a necessity which both theGovernment and the Public will obey with reluctance.
Too remote for sympathy, too powerless for respect, theColonies, during ages of existence, have but rarely occupied apassing thought in the mind of the Nation; as though theirinsignificance entitled them only to neglect. But the weakness ofchildhood is passing away: the Infant is fast growing into thepossession and the consciousness of strength, whilst the Parentis obliged to acknowledge the increasing usefulness of heroffspring.
The long-existing and fundamental errors of Government, underwhich the Colonies have hitherto groaned in helpless subjection,will soon become generally known and understood—and then theywill be remedied.
In the remarks which will be found scattered through this workon the subject of Colonial Government, it must be observed, thatthe system only is assailed, and not individuals. That it is thesystem and not The Men who are in fault, is sufficientlyproved by the fact that the most illustrious statesmen and thebrightest talents of the Age, have ever failed to distinguishthemselves by good works, whilst directing the fortunes of theColonies. Lord John Russell, Lord Stanley, Mr. Gladstone—all ofthem high-minded, scrupulous, and patriotic statesmen—all ofthem men of brilliant genius, extensive knowledge, and profoundthought—have all of them been but slightly appreciated asColonial rulers.
Their principal success has been in perpetuating a noxioussystem. They have all of them conscientiously believed theirfirst duty to be, in the words of Lord Stanley, to keep theColonies dependent upon the Mother Country; and occupied withthis belief, they have legislated for the Mother Country and notfor the Colonies. Vain, selfish, fear-inspired policy! that keepsthe Colonies down in the dust at the feet of the Parent State,and yet is of no value or advantage to her. To make her Coloniesuseful to England, they must be cherished in their infancy, andcarefully encouraged to put forth all the strength of theirsecret energies.
It is not whilst held in leading-strings that they can beuseful, or aught but burthensome: rear them kindly to maturity,and allow them the free exercise of their vast natural strength,and they would be to the parent country her truest and mostvaluable friends.
The colonies of the Empire are the only lasting andinalienable markets for its produce; and the first aim of thepolitical economist should be to develop to their utmost extentthe vast resources possessed by Great Britain in these her ownpeculiar fields of national wealth. But the policy displayedthroughout the history of her Colonial possessions, has ever beenthe reverse of this. It was that grasping and ungenerous policythat called forth a Washington, and cost her an empire. It isthat same miserable and low-born policy that still recoils uponherself, depriving her of vast increase of wealth and power inorder to keep the chain upon her hapless children, thoseambitious Titans whom she trembles to unbind.
And yet poor Old England considers herself an excellentparent, and moans and murmurs over the ingratitude of hertroublesome offspring! Like many other parents, she m