where he is to linger out his life, unknown to fame, has no history -no past glory, no present renown. What there is of note is England's? Canada is not a nation she is a colony-a tiny sphere, the satellite of a mighty star, in whose brightness she is lost. Canada has no navy, no army, no literature, no brotherhood of science. If, then, a Canadian looks for honour in any of these various fields, he must seek it as an Englishman; he must forget and desert his country, before he can be known to fame. We must not then wonder if we find every intelligent and ambitious Canadian with a feeling of bitterness in his heart — because of his own inferiority of condition. Few will own to entertaining this feeling if they be prudent, even to friends; some, indeed, contrive to hide it from themselves; nevertheless, there it is-and must be, so long as his country remains a colony. But by care the painful part of this condition may be greatly diminished, if not entirely taken away, and what little remains may be, perhaps, more than compensated by the benefits which the colony may derive from England, by whose friendly aid and honourable kindness she may be enabled to hold a higher position among nations, than she could do, were she entirely independent. The first step to take in every case, in order to reach this end, is to make the colony the manager of its own concerns; the next is to increase these concerns in variety and extent, so that they may become important, not only to the colonist, but to the nations of the earth. The plan which I am now about to lay before the reader, has these ends especially in view. I seek to frame a polity which contemplates the colony in its commencement—in its infancy and onward in its course, till it becomes an established and self-governing community; my polity then seeks to unite this self-governing state with others, having the same interests, and living under the same laws and according to the same rule of government. Thus my plan proceeds preparing for a continually increasing power and importance-providing a secure and comfortable subsistence for the humble millions who constitute the large majority of the people-and opening a career of honourable ambition for the more aspiring leaders, by whom the people will be guided, ruled, and led. 112 CHAPTER IV. WITH these remarkable examples before our eyes, there is no great difficulty in framing a plan for the effective management of our Colonial possessions. Three of the SYSTEMS above mentioned-viz., 1 That of British North America, 2 That of Australasia, 3 That of South Africa, are in themselves so vast, as to require to be separated into many distinct PROVINCES; and the separate provinces of each system may be united into one federal union. New Zealand is not so extensive as to require such separation; it ought to be one province. But as such PROVINCE it will need the organization which is required in the cases of the separate PROVINCES of the SYSTEMS above mentioned, and will, therefore, in the following statements, be so far a subject of consideration. My plan will, therefore, directly relate to the four separate portions of our Colonial possessions here named -viz.: 1 British North America. 2 Australasia. 3 South Africa. .4 New Zealand. SECTION I. GENERAL VIEW-PLAN-NOMENCLATURE-SETTLEMENT PROVINCE-SYSTEM. As I do not intend to adopt the nomenclature employed by the United States, I shall make one for my purpose, and explain the terms as I proceed. Every colony ought to go through two stages of political existence. It ought to be first in a condition similar to that of a TERRITORY, as contemplated in the system of the United States, in which condition or stage of its political existence I shall call it a SETTLEMENT. Its second stage of political existence ought to be similar to that of a STATE in the system of the United States, and in this second stage or condition I shall call it a PROVINCE. When certain PROVINCES are grouped together-united for certain federal purposes each group or federation I call a SYSTEM.* The first step with respect to the formation of a * This term is employed by modern astronomers very much in this sense with respect to groups of stars and constellations.-See Nichol's Architecture of the Heavens. I am by no means wedded to this my nomenclature. Some words were needed for the purpose I had in view: The above have been chosen not because they are the best, but because they are sufficient. If any small wit feels at all inclined to assail them, all I ask is, that he will replace them by some others, and adhere steadily to those he selects. I colony should be a survey-a survey not merely to determine the boundaries of private property, but with reference to its political existence and government. Territorial divisions are necessary for the purposes of government, and the same system of division should be adopted throughout. The first point is to determine the BOUNDARIES of the colony itself. The next is then to divide the colony-that is, the lands contained within the determined boundaries—into COUNTIES. Then the counties should be laid out into TOWNSHIPS. And lastly, the townships should be divided into PARISHES. For the purposes of deciding upon the rights of property, each parish should be divided into LOTS, and sold by authority. This would enable a perfect registration of landed property to be at once established, and thus most materially contribute to economy and justice in all judicial decisions on civil rights, resulting from or connected with the land. With respect to British North America, Australasia, and South Africa, immediate steps should be taken to determine the boundaries of the existing SETTLEMENTS and PROVINCES, which have been formed in these three systems. All the lands which lie beyond the boundaries of these SETTLEMENTS and PROVINCES I shall for the moment consider vested in the Crown, and all the unappropriated lands lying within the boundaries of these settlements and provinces as belonging to the governments respec |