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pacities of the Colonial Office, or the maladministration of colonial governors,-to the interference of the British Parliament, or to the absolute exercise of the sovereign prerogative. But the liberal commercial policy proposed by Mr. Pitt, in the Shelburne administration, and by Mr. Adams on the part of the United States, was defeated by an adverse party in Great Britain, which finally led to the adoption of a counterpart to the British navigation law by the United States, and which until lately was enforced with regard to all British vessels arriving in the United States. But all the relaxations made in our navigation laws have been met with perfect reciprocity by the United States.

Now if the British colonial and coasting trade were fairly opened to American vessels, the coasting trade and fisheries of the United States would be at once thrown open to British vessels, which is so much desired by Her Majesty's subjects in Canada and New Brunswick. Why not at once take this wise and profitable course, instead of hazarding a war by the irritating and insulting presence of ships of war among the American fishermen ? The laws there provide that whatever privileges American vessels enjoy in other countries the vessels of those countries will enjoy in American ports and seas. England does not ruin Scotland, nor the latter England, although the coasting trade and fisheries are common to both; and British subjects, so far from being injured, would be greatly benefited if the coasting trade and fisheries of the British dominions and of the United States were rendered freely common to the inhabitants of both countries. We trust and believe that the present Parliament will abolish the remaining vestiges of restriction and our navigation laws.—Editor.

No. 10. THE RIGHT OF RESISTANCE.- (Page 124.)

From the end of the reign of George IV., and from 1832 down to the present time, no one has considered it dangerous that the right of resistance should be inherent in the people, and that they should exercise that power when their natural and legal rights are invaded; because it has not happened of late years to have been, nor is there the probability that

it will be exercised in opposition to the Crown; nor, while the British Constitution endures, can a ministry deprive the people of their constitutional and natural rights. When, therefore, we speak of the constitution, government, and administration of England, we include not only the Sovereign and Ministers of the day, but all our Judicial Tribunals, from the High Courts of London down to the Assizes, County Courts, Quarter and Petty Sessions, and the summary jurisdiction of Justices of the Peace. We must also include the government of Towns locally, by the Magistrates of their respective corporations. The Government also extends its executive authority to a Colonial Empire of unparalleled magnitude, and also to India, through a Cabinet Minister who is appointed to that department of public affairs. The right of resistance will hereafter become in all probability in operation obsolete; inasmuch as the government and legislation of the Empire are so far justly balanced that no one power can dangerously invade the other without subverting the Constitution. When it is said that the King or Queen of these realms can do no wrong, the expression is true, for the ministers of the Crown are made responsible to Parliament, and without a majority in the Commons, and without the confidence or sufferance of Parliament, no Cabinet can administer the government of the country. George III. maintained the second Pitt, it is true, against a majority of the House of Commons, until a sufficient number of the members of the opposition were corrupted so as to enable the minister to command a majority; but in the present time such an attempt would be utterly unsuccessful. We have mentioned in a note to the text that William IV., in 1834, abruptly dismissed his ministers. A general election followed, and the new Parliament compelled the King to take back Lord Melbourne and his colleagues, with the sole exception of the Lord Chancellor, who although one of the greatest men of the age, was from various causes inveterately hated by the King. William the Fourth hated the Reform Bill and all reformers; yet that very Lord Chancellor was, we believe, the principal Cabinet minister who may almost be said to have compelled the King to dissolve Lord Grey's first Parliament, which led the country to return a House of Commons who carried the Reform Bill, and which act the

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Lords finally dared not to reject, nor the King to refuse his royal assent.-Editor.

No. 11. THE BRITISH COLONIAL EMPIRE.-(Page 330.)

The magnitude of the British Colonial Empire in America, Africa, and Asia, constitutes one of the greatest of the Crown and Cabinet responsibilities in administering the government and laws of the whole British Empire. The circumstances under which De Lolme wrote his observations on Colonies, and those of the present time, are so greatly different as to require some illustration.

The advances made by the Anglo-Saxon race during the last hundred years, over the territories of the Western and Eastern World, are unparalleled in the history of civilization and of the acquisition of dominion. The first attempts at settlement in America were made during the latter years of Queen Elizabeth at the expense, and under the auspices, of the gallant Sir Walter Raleigh. But the first permanent settlements amid the wilderness of the Western World, were not made until 1607, at James's river, and in 1620 by the Pilgrim Fathers at Massachusetts Bay. In 1682 Penn founded with admirable wisdom the colony and capital of Pennsylvania: his name in Anglo-American history will ever occupy a most prominent distinction; second only to the name of George Washington. In America the colonists were for a long time allowed the enjoyment of a large share of self-government; they advanced in prosperity, in free institutions, wealth and happiness, until their unconstitutional oppression by the British government, and the obstinate injustice of George III., drove them into resistance, rebellion, and independence.

With respect to the democratic form of the American government, great powers are vested in the President, and even his Ministers remain in office as long as he does as chief Magistrate: for they are not dependent upon a majority either in the Senate or in the House of Representatives. When the government was instituted it would have been impossible to have invested one man with kingly

authority, or to establish a court, and an hereditary Sovereignty.

Of all men Washington had the highest claims; but he was so truly virtuous and disinterested that he soared above all the sublunary vanity of any rank above that of a good citizen; and he surrendered all his power the moment he had achieved independence for his country, and freedom for his fellow-men.

In 1759, the New England States, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, the Carolinas, and the small settlements in Georgia and in Nova Scotia, contained a population, as we have already stated, of nearly 2,000,000. The greater part of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Cape Breton, and all the Coasts, Islands, and Countries within the Gulf of and watered by the River St. Lawrence, and the Lakes of Canada, Florida, and all the vast regions west of the Alleganies, were either occupied by North American aborigines or by the subjects of France and Spain. The whole of the vast regions of Mexico were under the domination of Spain: such was the territorial occupation of North America ninety-four years ago. Since that period, the inhabitants, speaking, reading, writing, studying, legislating, and governing by the English language, have increased from about 2,000,000 to about 30,000,000, and hold dominion over all the countries from the eastern coasts of the Atlantic to the shores of the Pacific, from Hudson's Bay to the Gulf of Mexico. Amid and over those vast regions they have built magnificent cities and prosperous villages; they have connected rivers and seas by the construction of canals and railways; thrown bridges and other viaducts over deep ravines; they have built magnificent public edifices and founded admirable schools and seats of learning and sciences; their sailing vessels and their steam ships swarm on the Atlantic, Pacific, the Indian, and Chinese Oceans.

In the East the progress of Anglo-Saxon colonization has also been wonderful: for although factories were established long before by the English in various parts of Asia, it was not until about the middle of the eighteenth century that they commenced making conquests in India. Previously Bombay was given as a marriage portion by Portugal to Charles II., and England only held twenty-four square miles round Madras on the Coromandel Coast. In 1763, terri

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tories were conquered from the French, and several tracts were obtained in the Carnatic and in Bengal; but since that period-chiefly during the present century-the triumphs of the English over the Princes of India have subjected to British domination nearly all the vast regions from the Himalayas to Cape Comorin, from the Indus to the southern extremity of Malacca. During the present century, also, England has formed several colonies in Western and in Southern Africa; and the foundations of a great empire have been permanently established in Australia.

Possessing Gibraltar, Britain commands the entrance, and by Malta the centre, of the Mediterranean; while Aden affords nearly the same power with regard to the Red Sea.

The progress of the whole British Colonial Empire in the past has been wonderful; in the future, it must be remarkable in astounding events. In contemplating the future progress of the Anglo-Saxons, it is impossible not to believe that, before the end of the present century, they will constitute the governing race not only in all America, but in all India and Southern Asia, probably even in a great part of China; and that they will even, by treaty or by force, open the empire of Japan to the commerce and intercourse of mankind.

In the West Indian Islands Jamaica for a long period enjoyed a constitutional government; the other British possessions were chiefly ranked as Crown colonies, until legislative constitutions were given to them all, with the exception of Trinidad and Guiana.

The Indian empire has not as yet been considered or governed as a colony; and although controlled by the Crown, it was, until 1833, chiefly governed by a trading corporation.

Until recently, the colonies of the Cape of Good Hope and Australia have also been considered as Crown colonies. Trinidad, Guiana, Ceylon, and the Mauritius, are still Crown colonies, without legislative government.

Since 1840 all the North American colonies have enjoyed perfect self-local government; the Crown only reserving to itself the appointment of Governors, Chief Judges, and a few other officers.

The Constitutions granted to the Cape of Good Hope and the Australian Colonies are more limited, but we do not