official control; but, besides the scientific hostility to Professor Owen, there existed among some of the partizans of Dr. Hooker hostility to Professor Owen on other grounds, for the discussion of which their Lordships' House was not a very fitting place. Dr. Hooker applied to Lord Clarendon to be sent to a Botanical Congress at St. Petersburgh as Royal Commissioner. Dr. Hooker was informed that Lord Clarendon, after communicating with the Treasury, had declined to send him to St. Petersburgh. He would ask leave to read his reply to Mr. Layard, then First Commissioner of the Board of Works, in which Dr. Hooker took Her Majesty's Government to task with an amenity of language which showed that he was not a good judge of style "I much regret this action of the Treasury, as contrasting so unfavourably with the liberal action of the Imperial Government of Russia, which sent Commissioners both to our Botanical and Horticultural Congress of 1867, and to our in dustrial exhibitions, and with the action of the foreign governments, who are now sending Commissioners to St. Petersburgh. "I cannot, further, refrain from expressing my conviction that the refusal on the part of Her Majesty's Government to recognise both the scientific and practical importance of the Congress about to assemble under the Imperial auspices at St. Petersburgh, will be regarded as evidence of something more than mere indifference to the position which science holds in this country, or mere ignorance of that attained by the eminent men who convene the Congress, and who will assemble at it, or mere disregard of international courtesy in scientific matters." That Mr. Ayrton could not justly be accused of disregarding the claims of science or of scientific men might be proved by a passage of a letter of his to Lord Granville, dated January, 1866, and laid before the House of Commons, in which he said, speaking of the reorganization of the Metropolitan Public Schools "Natural science should also be made a basis for the education of the faculties of perception, discrimination, reason, and judgment. It is easy to guard against the degenerating of such an education into the mere acquisition of information if the beginning be made with inorganic chemistry and the laws of physics, to be taught with precision, and the course ascend to the rigid investigation of physical phenomena and problems." Correspondence between the Board of Works, the Treasury, and Dr. Hooker. Parl. Paper. (L. 213.) CAPE COLONY-INTRODUCTION OF RESPONSIBLE GOVERNMENT. ADDRESS FOR PAPERS. THE MARQUESS OF SALISBURY, on rising to move an Address for Copies of petitions addressed to Her Majesty with reference to the proposed introduction of Responsible Government in the Cape Colony, said, that whether it was owing to the temperature, or from some other cause, but from the scanty attendance then present, he was afraid their Lordships felt but little interest in this matter, but he could assure them it excited the deepest interest among our fellow-subjects abroad. The noble Earl opposite (the Earl of Kimberley) desired to force on the colony of the Cape the peculiar Liberal nostrum which goes by the name of "responsible Government." He (the Marquess of Salisbury) must explain to their Lordships why there was an objection to that system-because responsible government was supposed to be the Palladium of English liberty, and it seemed to us inconceivable why there was so great an objection to it abroad. The objection was two-fold. In the first place, among the population at the Cape there were two Blacks for every White, and more than half of the Whites were Dutch and not English by their extraction. The other was a geograpical objection. The eastern portion of the colony, inhabited mainly by English, was industrious and progressive, but under responsible government it would be placed under the servitude of the Government in the west at Cape Town. The system of responsible government, which it was proposed to introduce into the colony of the Cape, although it had many advantages, yet it had one principal disadvantage in this case-that it placed the minority at the mercy of the majority; and where the majority was of one race or belonged to one district, the fate of the minority was hard indeed. He wished to call the attention of his noble Friend opposite to the manner in which his behests had been obeyed in the colony. His noble Friend said, in the spring of the present year, that he was not inclined to press against the wishes of the colonists the system of responsible government, and that he would be too glad if the responsibility were taken off his own shoulders and put upon theirs; but his noble EARL GRANVILLE: I rise to Order. The noble Marquess is not in Order when he states that any of us on this bench have treated your Lordships' House with contempt. Friend's acts furnished a different inter- | wholly unfounded. Returning, after the pretation of his words, for he had noble Earl's interruption, to the matter directed, in the strongest manner pos- now before the House, he wished to resible, that this system, which had been mark that the Legislative Council of the once rejected by the Parliament of the Cape received the same measure as this colony, should be brought before them House, though, as a purely elective body, again, and had refused an appeal to the it ought to commend itself more to the country. The state of the case was this affections of the Government. It repre-Last year the change was passed by the sented the colony as much as the House Legislative Assembly, and rejected by the of Assembly did, and there was conseLegislative Council. Probably Her Ma- quently no pretence, on the principles jesty's Government, who treated their of noble Lords opposite, for treating its Lordships' House with contempt, would decisions with less respect. The present not value very highly the decision of the Governor, Sir Henry Barkly, was sent Upper House of the colony. out with instructions to get passed a system of so-called "responsible government, ," which was really a system of making the English or Eastern Province subject to the Western. In a despatch to the noble Earl opposite the Governor expressed a sanguine hope of being able to effect this sooner or later, were he able to furnish explanations or give assurances "privately, and as from himself" on points which were sure to be started in different quarters whenever the subject was seriously discussed. Last year the scheme was rejected by the Legislative Council. Before it came on again this year a Member who had been induced to alter his opinion since his election, yet retained sufficient honour to feel that he was bound to consult his constituents before giving effect to that change by his vote, appealed to them for re-election. THE MARQUESS OF SALISBURY said, he was referring to what happened last year on a great military subject, and their Lordships well knew how their wishes were received by the Secretary of State for War. They were aware that by a violent act-by the unworthy use of a technical quibble-the deliberate decision of their Lordships' House was overridden by the action of the Government and by the executive authority of the Crown. He alluded to that matter for the purpose of showing that their Lordships' House did not at the time stand high in the affections and respect of Her Majesty's Government. EARL GRANVILLE: I must again call the noble Marquess to Order. I deny that he has any ground whatever on which he can sustain the charge against Her Majesty's Government of want of respect or affection towards your Lordships' House. THE MARQUESS OF SALISBURY said, it was a matter not of Order, but of history. He had a right to comment on the conduct of Ministers of the Crown in their dealings with that House, and to say that they had been characterized by anything but sentiments of affection or respect. Such was the interpretation which he put on their conduct during the last 12 months, and he doubted whether the verdict of history would in any degree modify that interpretation. He might appeal, moreover, to the language of the supporters of the Government in the other House, and that of the newspapers which also supported them, to show that his judgment was not His constituents, belonging to the Eastern Province, by a large majority rejected him, and returned a man pledged anew against the scheme. That circumstance alone should have warned the Government that their policy was inconsistent with the opinion of that portion of the colony, which, if ties of blood and kindred were worth anything, was entitled to special sympathy. The measure, however, passed the Lower House this year by 35 to 25, 24 of the minority being of English, and a considerable majority of its supporters of Dutch extraction. In the Council it would have been thrown out had all the Members adhered to their pledges and to their vote the previous year; but two gentlemen, for reasons with whose nature he was unacquainted, voted. against their pledges, the new system thus gaining a majority of 1. Not only was that slender majority for the second reading accepted, but every clause of the Bill was passed through Committee by the casting vote of the Chairman, whose vote in this House would be of no such avail. Moreover, the Standing Orders were suspended, and the Bill was read a third time the same night, thus showing that the Government were not slow in taking advantage of the opportunity thus acquired. Let their Lordships conceive a measure revolutionizing the Constitution of the Cape as thoroughly as our own Government was revolutionized in 1868 being thus passed by two of its pledged opponents being lured over, by the casting vote of the Chairman in Committee, and by the suspension of the Standing Orders, in order that those two men might not be induced to reconsider their policy. As might be imagined would be the case here, so there this proceeding excited the greatest scandal. He would not repeat the imputations made against the two Members, for with that he had nothing to do; but he asked the Government to consider the effect on the future of the colony, of a victory so obtained, and of a distinct refusal to appeal to the colonists before the final decision was taken. A Petition signed by all but two of the Members for the Eastern Province had been forwarded to him, the petitioners representing the most progressive part of the colony, the interests of which were likely to be neglected under the new system; and it was for the purpose of laying the case and prayer of the petitioners fairly before them that he had taken the step he had. They urged that for 18 years representative institutions had been rendered illusory by the majority commanded by the Western Province in both branches of the Legislature; that serious disadvantages and inconveniences had accrued from their distance from the seat of Government; that the Revenue contributed by the Eastern Province was £79,000 in excess of the Western, while its expenditure was £52,000 less; and that the policy of the Government in respect of the Native races bore with undue pressure on the Eastern Province. What might be expected to happen? Schleswig-Holstein was a name of terror to statesmen; but there the state of things was precisely the same as at the Cape. As long as there was Royal rule, the small German and the large Danish element lived peaceably and happily side by side; but responsible government was introduced, the result being that the minority became the slaves of the majority. The Germans were neglected and oppressed by the Danes. Belonging to a race more powerful in other parts of the world, they would not bend meekly to the yoke thrust on them on the plea of Liberal principles. They resisted, and we know how the face of the Continent had been changed by that resistance. That was the case on a smaller area at the Cape, and the results would probably be much less, though not unimportant to the colony. A small and distinct population were to be subjected, in the name of Liberal principles and a theory of responsible government, to another and hostile race and district; but, feeling themselves to belong to a great nation, they would feel it bitterly, and would resist the servitude as far as they were able. What would happen would be that neither roads nor bridges would be made in the Eastern Province, and that all the railways would be made in the Western Province, while all political questions would be determined in accordance with the predilections of the Dutch part of the population, with the result that the Eastern Province would be involved in a Native war which it would be unable to carry on with success. When these things happened the inhabitants of the Eastern Province would ask themselves how they came about, and the reply would be that they had resulted not from their own legislation or with their own consent, but because England had placed them under a Secretary of State and a Governor who were bent upon carrying out a particular theory in reference to the colony regardless of consequences, and who had lured their representatives from the faith which they had pledged; and who, having by that means passed this measure through the Colonial Parliament by a bare majority, had, with an unwarrantable disregard of Constitutional Law, dealt with the fate of the colony at their pleasure. It could, however, scarcely be a matter of much self-denial on the part of the noble Earl to hold his hand in reference to this subject for a short time. The delay occasioned by once more submitting this question to the colony would be but slight, while much good might result from the noble Earl adopting that course before he came to a final determination with respect to this matter by preventing any bitter memories attaching to the proposed change in after years, such as had attached to the Irish Union. The noble Earl would, he felt satisfied, give him credit for desiring that his measures should not actually be just, but that they should be regarded as just by those whose interests were deeply affected by them. Under the circumstances, he could not believe that the noble Earl would persist in what might be regarded by some inhabitants of the colony as a tyrannical proceeding, by which he would force upon the English inhabitants of one of our colonies a form of government which was distasteful to them, and to which the sanction of a bare majority of the Colonial Legislature had only been obtained by the means to which he had referred. Moved that an humble Address be presented to Her Majesty for, Copies of petitions addressed to Her Majesty with reference to the proposed introduction of Responsible Government in the Cape Colony. (The Marquess of Salisbury.) "It is true that, judging from the tone of the leading colonial journals, and of letters published by the Members of the Cape Parliament in their columns, the desire for responsible government appears to be gaining ground, at any rate in the Western Province; and I should feel sanguine of being able to obtain a majority in its favour through. out the colony sooner or later were I only in a position to furnish explanations, or to give assurances privately and as from myself, on points sure to be started in different quarters, whenever the subject was seriously discussed." It was essential to observe what was his answer to the letter, and what were the nature of the assurances which he had been able to give in reference to various matters connected with the question. If the noble Marquess had read the whole of that letter, he would have found that the private assurances asked for related to a broad and distinct line of policythat of the withdrawal of the British troops from the colony. Nothing could be more natural than that Sir Henry Barkly should have asked the Secretary of State for some assurance in that matter, and he could assure the noble Marquess that the whole proceeding, so THE EARL OF KIMBERLEY re- far from being underhand, was open and marked that the noble Marquess was a fair. The Government thought that the master of strong language, and he had colonists had a right to know what they used his power in that respect to the had to expect with regard to the withutmost in reference to this question, and drawal of the troops, in order that they had bestowed every opprobrious epithet might have ample time to make their he could think of upon the policy to arrangements accordingly. For his own which he had objected. Of course, if part, he was most anxious that the coloone-tenth of what the noble Marquess nists should know at what he was aiming had charged against the Government in the matter. Sir Henry Barkly having were true, no language could be too expressed some doubt as to whether Her strong in which to reprobate their con- Majesty's Government were decidedly in duct; but if the House would permit favour of responsible government, in him, he (the Earl of Kimberley) should consequence of his having stated the in a few minutes be able to show that two sides of the question so impartially, the course which had been adopted by he had in November, 1870, sent him a the Government in this matter was en-letter containing the following paratirely free from blame. The government graph:of the Cape Colony was, undoubtedly, a very difficult matter, but that difficulty was not to be met merely by unmeasured denunciations of this or that policy. So far from forcing upon the Cape Colony the particular policy to which the noble Marquess objected, the Government had done nothing of the kind, for they had placed the question before the Cape Legislature in the most careful and deliberate manner. The noble Marquess had referred to a despatch, or rather letter, addressed to himself by Sir Henry Barkly, and had quoted extracts from it. Now, in the letter Sir Henry Barkly said "I do not precisely see the grounds for the doubts which you seem to entertain as to the views of Her Majesty's Government on the question of Colony. I pointed out to you in my letter the the form of government best adapted to the Cape evils which arise from the existing Constitution, and I distinctly stated that while either responsible government or a government resembling that of a Crown Colony would be preferable to the present whole, of opinion that the colonists would act system, Her Majesty's Government were, on the wisely in adopting the principles of responsible government." That was not forcing a policy on the colony. It was merely informing them that at the present moment they had got an unworkable Constitution. Sir Philip Wodehouse, the late Governor of the Colony, who had been as much opposed to responsible government as anybody, had stated that the existing system of government must be put an end to. The truth was that their present government was the worst possible form of government which could be devised-it being a government by the Crown, checked by a Colonial Legislature not directed by responsible Ministers. The colonists must either go forward or go back-they could not maintain the existing state of things. Either the Crown must assume the whole power of government, or else the colonists must adopt a responsible government. The most confidential despatches relating to the question had been published, and the matter had been laid before the colonists in ample time for them to have made up their minds as to which of the two systems they would prefer. The matter had been before the Colonial Legislature for the last two years. In the House of Assembly the majority in favour of the measure objected to by the noble Marquess was last year 34 to 27, and in the present year 35 to 25, in a House which consisted in all of 66 Members-that was to say, the majority in its favour was proportionately equal to a majority of 100, in the English House of Commons. It was true that the measure had been rejected last year by the other branch of the Legislature by a majority of 2; but in the present year two of its Members having changed their opinion, it was carried by a majority of 1. The noble Marquess had asked that the whole question might be remitted to the people. All he had to say to that appeal was that it must be recollected that the House of Assembly was, to all intents and purposes, a Representative House, while the Legislative Council, although to an extent representative, had an element of permanence and independence about it which the other branch of the Legislature did not possess - its Members retaining their seats for 10 years unless it were dissolved. Under these circumstances, it was absurd to say that because the measure had only been carried by a small majority in the Legislative Council, after having been carried by an overwhelming majority in the more popular Assembly, that the minority had a right to insist upon a dissolution in order to see if they could not get their views sanctioned by the colony at Не the next General Election. Indeed, had he been of opinion that the measure was as undesirable a one as he believed it to be a desirable one, he should not have felt justified, under the circumstances, in advising the Crown to veto it. The noble Marquess had spoken of the Government having carried that Bill; but if he had understood the institutions of the Cape Colony, he would have known that the Government had no power in either House of Parliament. The Members of the Government might appear in either House to propose their measures; but they could not vote, and they had no direct power, and it was, among other reasons, because the Government had no direct power that a change was desired. Under these circumstances, it was very surprising that the Bill should have met with the success it had. The noble Marquess had referred to the division between the East and the West of the colony. was aware that that was one of the most difficult parts of the whole subject. It was true that though several of the eastern Members voted for the Bill a large majority of them voted against it. In the Council eight eastern Members protested against the measure, and two sent their written opinions to the Government in favour of it. But that could be easily accounted for, for there was nothing more difficult than where there existed an extended territory and two capitals to reconcile the jealousies of the one and the other. That was an old standing grievance at the Cape Colony, and the whole question turned on the jealousy between the East and the West. The noble Marquess had talked of their forcing Liberal nostrums on that colony. The Cape colonists had not that reluctance which the noble Marquess supposed to governing their own affairs; but each section wished to have the predominance in their government; and it was impossible that both could possess that predominance. Sir Henry Barkly thought that there would be a better chance of solving that difficulty after responsible government had been introduced than there was at present. So far from believing that the difference between the East and the West would be increased by that change, it was more likely that some solution might be found for it after its adoption, and the best arrangement might be a |