COLONIAL MAGAZINE AND Foreign Miscellany. EDITED BY P. L. SIMMONDS, ESQ., FELLOW OF THE STATISTICAL SOCIETY OF LONDON, HONORARY AND CORRESPONDING MEMBER OF THE STATISTICAL AND GEOGRAPHICAL THE LITERARY ASSOCIATION OF BARBADOS; THE POLY- TECHNIC ASSOCIATION OF ANTIGUA; THE ROYAL "The Chart of our Colonies is a Chart of the World in outline; for we sweep LONDON: SIMMONDS AND WARD, FOREIGN AND COLONIAL OFFICE, PREFACE. FOUR months ago, in the Preface to our tenth volume, we expressed the hope that attention, and especially that of the Government, might, ere long, be more prominently directed to the value and importance of our Colonies. That desire has been partially realised; and although we may not attribute it to any humble exertions of our own in the cause, which has rather been forced upon the consideration of the Government by the prevalent distress; still, if it result in any beneficial measures, our end will have been gained. We thoroughly agree in the following remarks of our able coadjutor The Times :-"If there is to be any emigration at all, let it be of every sort and class. Let the high-born emigrate as well as the low-born. Let Colonisation be what it pretends to be; let it be what it was when the Spaniards colonised Mexico and Cuba, and the French Canada-the establishment of a nucleus, round which a body politic may hereafter develop itself. Do not turn the ignorant, the vicious, the helpless adrift to found estates and direct legislatures. Do not intrust the infancy of the country, destined perhaps to become independent and wealthy, to the caprices of the unlearned and the audacity of the unprincipled. See that the foundations of your remotest settlements be laid in the humanities of learning, integrity, and wisdom. And that this may be brought about-a consummation devoutly desired by the present age, and essential to the happiness of future ages-see that the constitution of the Colonies be formed so as to encourage the patriotism, stimulate the energies, and reward the attainments of those who devote their lives to them.' In a despatch from Lord Grey dated April 1, addressed to the Governor General of Canada, the following admission is at last wrung from the Secretary of State-" The Government shares in the strong desire which has been expressed to promote the adoption of some well-considered and systematic plan of Colonisation in British America, believing that this would be attended with great benefit both to the Colonies and to the Mother-country." But while the Colonial-office is counting the cost, considering and debating upon what may be the best plan of Colonisation-while it is corresponding with the different Provinces and inditing very learned despatches, the poor are perishing for lack of food and shelter, and the mercantile world and middle classes are being ruined by reckless speculation with all the attendant evils consequent upon the recent frequent and |