by Edmund Burke
From the first voyage of Frobisher an hundred and eight years ago, to that of captain Ellis, notwithstanding so many disappointments, the rational hopes of this grand discovery have grown greater by every attempt, and seem to spring even out of our very failures. The greater swell of the tides in the inner part of the bay than near the streights, an appearance so unknown in any other inland seas, and the increase of this swell with Westerly winds, seems without any other arguments to evince the certain existence of such a passage as we have so long sought without success. But though we have hitherto failed in the original purpose for which we navigated this bay, yet such great designs even in their failures bestow a sufficient reward for whatever has been expended upon them. In 1670 the charter was granted to a company for the exclusive trade to this bay, and they have acted under it ever since with great benefit to the private men who compose the company, though comparatively with little advantage to Great Britain. It is true that their trade in beavers and other species of furs is not inconsiderable, and it is a trade in itself of the best kind; it’s object enters largely into our manufactures, and carries nothing but our manufactures from us to procure it, and thus it has the qualities of the most advantageous kinds of traffic. The company has besides pretty large returns in deer skins. It is said that the dividends of this company are prodigious; far exceeding what is gained in any of the other great trading bodies; yet their capital is small, they seem little inclined to enlarge their bottom, and appear strongly possessed with that spirit of jealousy that prevails in some degree in all knots and societies of men endued with peculiar privileges. The officers of the company have behaved to those who wintered within their jurisdiction in search of the North-West passage one of the purposes for which the company itself was originally instituted) in such a manner as to give us the truest idea of this spirit. If I had been singular in this opinion, I should have expressed my sentiments with much greater diffidence; but this abuse has been often and loudly complained of. It would appear astonishing that this trade has not hitherto been laid open, if in the perplexing multiplicity of affairs that engages our ministry, something must not necessarily pass unredressed.
The vast countries which surround this bay all abound with animals, whose fur is excellent, and some of kinds which are not yet brought into commerce; and the company is very far from any attempt to stretch this trade to it’s full extent. If the trade were laid open, it seems of necessity that three capital advantages would ensue: first, that the trade going into a number of rival hands, with a more moderate profit to individuals, it would consume a much greater quantity of our manufactures, employ more of our shipping and seamen, and of course bring home more furs, and by lowering the price of that commodity at home, increase the demand of those manufactures into which they enter at the foreign markets; it might bring home other species of furs than those we deal in at present, and thus open new channels of trade, which in commerce is a matter of great consideration. Secondly, this more general intercourse would make the country better known; it would habituate great numbers of our people to it; it would discover the most tolerable parts for a settlement; and thus, instead of a miserable fort or two, time might shew an English colony at Hudson’s Bay, which would open the fur trade yet more fully, and increase the vent of our manufactures yet further. Thirdly, this more general trade on the bay would naturally, without any new expence or trouble whatsoever, in a very short space of time discover to us the so much desired North-West passage, or shew us clearly and definitively that we ought to expect no such thing. These advantages, and even yet more considerable ones, would be derived from laying open this trade under such proper regulations, which the nature of the object would point out of itself.
No colony has been hitherto attempted at Hudson’s Bay. The company has two inconsiderable forts there. The country is every where barren; to the Northward of the bay even the hardy pine tree is seen no longer, and the cold womb of the earth is incapable of any better production than some miserable shrubs. The winter reigns with an inconceiveable rigour for near nine months of the year; the other three are violently hot, except when the North-West wind renews the memory of the winter. Every kind of European seed, which we have committed to the earth in this inhospitable climate, has hi+therto perished; but in all probability we have not tried the seed of corn from the Northern parts of Sweden and Norway; in such cases the place from whence the seed comes is of great moment. All this severity and long continuance of winter, and the barrenness of the earth, which arises from thence, is experienced, in the latitude of 51; in the temperate latitude of Cambridge. However, it is far from increasing uniformly as you go Northward. Captain James wintered in Charlton island, in latitude 51; he judged that the climate here was to be deemed utterly uninhabitable on account of the surprising hardships which he suffered; yet the company has a fort several degrees more to the Northward, where their servants make a shift to subsist tolerably. It is called Fort Nelson, and is in the latitude
All the animals of these countries are cloathed with a close, soft, warm fur. In summer there is here, as in other places, a variety in the colours of the several animals; when that is over they all assume the livery of winter, and every sort of beasts, and most of their fowls, are of the colour of the snow, every thing animate and inanimate is white. This is a surprising phenomenon. But what is yet more surprising, and what is indeed one of these striking things that draw the most inattentive to an admiration of the wisdom and goodness of Providence, is that the dogs and cats from England, that have been carried into Hudson’s bay, on the approach of winter have intirely changed their appearance, and acquired a much longer, softer, and thicker coat of hair than they had originally. As for the men of the country, Providence there, as as every where else, has given them no provision but their own art and ingenuity, and they shew a great deal in their manner of kindling fire, in cloathing themselves, and in preserving their eyes from the ill effects, of that glaring white that every where surrounds them for the greatest part of the year; in other respects they are very savage. In their shapes and faces, they do not resemble the Americans who live to the Southward; they are much more like the Laplanders and Samoeids of Europe, from whom they are probably descended. The other Americans seem to be of a Tartar original.
I have now finished upon my plan the survey of the English colonies in America. I flatter myself that so full an idea has not been given of them before in so narrow a compass. By this the reader will himself be enabled to judge, for it is not my design to preoccupy his judgment in these particulars, how our colonies have grown, what their vegetative principle has been, in what vigour it subsists, or what signs of corruption appear in any of them; how far we have pursued the advantages which our situation, and the nature of the country have given us; or where we have pursued them, whether we have gone to the ultimate point. He will see how far the colonies have served the trade of the mother country, and how much the mother country has done or neglected to do towards their happiness and prosperity. Certainly our colonies deserve, and would fully reward an attention of a very different kind from any that was ever yet paid to them. Even as they are circumstanced, I do not in the least hesitate to say that we derive more advantage, and of a better kind, from our colonies, than the Spaniards and Portuguese have from theirs, abounding as they are with gold and silver and precious stones; whereas in ours there is no appearance at all of such dazzling and delusive wealth. But then I conceive it might be made very clear, that had they yielded us these splendid metals in lieu of what they now produce, the effect would be far less to our advantage. Our present intercourse with them is an emulation in industry; they have nothing that does not arise from theirs, and what we receive enters into our manufactures, excites our industry, and increases our commerce; whereas gold is the measure or account, but not the means of trade. And it is found in nations as it is in the fortunes of private men, that what does not arise from labour, but is acquired by other means, is never lasting. Such acquisitions extingu
ish industry, which is alone the parent of any solid riches.
The barbarism of our ancestors could not comprehend how a nation could grow more populous by sending out a part of it’s people. We have lived to see this paradox made out by experience, but we have not sufficiently profited of this experience; since we begin, some of us at least, to think that there is a danger of dispeopling ourselves by encouraging new colonies, or increasing the old. If our colonies find, as hitherto they have constantly done, employment for a great number of hands, there is no danger but that hands will be found for the employment. That a rich, trading and manufacturing nation should be long in want of people is a most absurd supposition; for besides that the people within themselves multiply the most where the means of subsistence are most certain, it is as natural for people to flock into a busy and wealthy country, that by any accident may be thin of people, as it is for the dense air to rush into those parts where it is rarified. He must be a great stranger to this country, who does not observe in it a vast number of people, whose removal from hence, if they could be of any use elsewhere, would prove of very little detriment to the public.
I have already observed, that the trade of our colonies deserves a more particular attention than any other, not only on account of the advantages I have just mentioned, but because our attention is sure of being sufficiently rewarded. The object is in our own power; it is of a good kind; and of such extent and variety, as to employ nobly the most inventive genius in those matters. Foreign politics have something more splendid and entertaining than domestic prudence; but this latter is ever attended, though with less glaring, yet with infinitely more solid, secure, and lasting advantages. The great point of our regard in America, ought therefore to be the effectual peopling, employment, and strength of our possessions there; in a subordinate degree the management of our interests with regard to the French and Spaniards. The latter we have reason to respect, to indulge, and even perhaps to endure; and more, it is probable, may be had from them in that way, than by the violent methods which some have so warmly recommended, and still urge, tho’ we have had some experience to convince us of their insufficiency. But the nature of the French, their situation, their designs, every thing has shewn that we ought to use every method to repress them, to prevent them from extending their territories, their trade, or their influence, and above all to connive at not the least encroachment; but this in such a manner as not to strain our own strength, or turn our eyes from serving ourselves by attempts to distress them. But as we are now in the midst of a war, until that is decided, it will be impossible to say any thing satisfactory on our connections with French America, until we see what the next treaty of peace will do in the distribution of the territory of the two nations there.
CHAP. XXX. The Government of the English Colonies, and the Paper Currency.
THE settlement of our colonies was never pursued upon any regular plan; but they were formed, grew, and flourished, as accidents, the nature of the climate, or the dispositions of private men happened to operate. We ought not therefore to be surprised to find in the several constitutions and governments of our colonies, so little of any thing like uniformity. It has been said that there is scarce any form of government known; that does not prevail in some of our plantations; the variety is certainly great and vicious; but the latitude of the observation must be somewhat restrained; for some forms they are certainly strangers to. To pass over several, nothing like a pure hereditary aristocracy, has ever appeared in any of them.
The first colony which we settled, was that of Virginia. It was governed for some time by a president and a council, appointed by the crown; but when the people were increased to a considerable body, it was not thought reasonable to leave them longer under a mode of government so averse from that which they had enjoyed at home. They were therefore empowered to elect representatives for the several counties into which this province is divided, with privileges resembling those of the representatives of the commons in England. The persons so elected form what is called the lower house of assembly. This was added to the council which still subsisted, and the members of which were, and to this day are nominated by the crown, as at the first, and they are not only nominated by the crown, but hold their seats during the king’s pleasure, as signified by his governor. They are stiled honourable, and are chosen from the persons of the best fortunes and most considerable influence in the country. They form another branch of the legislature, and are sometimes called the upper house of assembly. They answer in some measure to the house of peers in our constitution. As the lower house of assembly is the guardian of the peoples privileges; the council is appointed chiefly to preserve the prerogative of the crown, and to secure the dependence of the colony; it is the more effectually to answer these ends, that the members of the council are only appointed during pleasure.
When any bill has passed the two houses, it comes before the governor, who represents the king, and gives his assent or negative, as he thinks proper. It now acquires the force of a law, but it must be afterwards transmited to the king and council in England, where it may still receive a negative that takes away all it’s effect. The upper house of assembly not only forms a part of the legislature of the colony, but it acts as a privy council to the governor, without whose concurrence, he can do nothing of moment; it sometimes acts as a court of chancery. This is the common form of government, and the best too that is in use in the plantations. This is the manner of government in all the islands of the West-Indies; in Nova Scotia; in one province of New England, and with some restrictions in another; in New York, New Jersey, Virginia, the two Carolinas, and Georgia. This form is commonly called a royal government.
The second form in use in our settlements in America, is called a proprietary government. At our first planting that part of the world, it was not difficult for a person who had interest at court, to obtain large tracts of land, not inferior in extent to many kingdoms; and to be invested with a power very little less than regal over them; to govern by what laws, and to form what sort of constitution he pleased. A dependence upon the crown of England was shewn only by the payment of an Indian arrow, a few skins, or some other trifling acknowledgment of the same nature. We had formerly many more governments of that sort, than we have at present; in the West-Indies, the island of Barbadoes was granted to the earl of Carlisle; and we have seen a like grant made of the island of St. Lucia to the duke of Montague in this age, which after an infinite charge to that benevolent nobleman came to nothing, by a sort of tacit allowance of the French claim to it. This was in 1722, when our connection with France hindered us from exerting our rights with the necessary vigour. Carolina was formerly a government of this kind, but it was lodged in eight proprietaries. How they parted with their rights we have seen already. New Jersey was likewise a proprietary government; but this too failed like the others. The only governments in this form which remain at present, but considerably abridged of their privileges, are Pensylvania and Maryland. In the latter the constitution exactly resembles that of the royal governments; a governor, council, and assembly of the representatives of the people; but the governor is appointed by the proprietary, and approved by the crown. The customs are reserved to the crown likewise; and the officers belonging to them are independent of the government of the province. In Pensylvania the proprietary is under the same restrictions that limit the proprietary of Maryland, on the side of the crown; on the side of the people he is yet more restrained; for their legislature has but two parts, the assembly of the people, and the governor; so that the governor wanting the great influence which the council gives in other places, whenever his sentiments differ from those of the assembly he is engaged in a very unequal contest.
The third form is called a charter government; this originally prevailed in all the provinces of New England; and still remains in two of them, Connecticut and Rhode Island. By the charters to these colonies, the exorbitant power which was given in the proprietary governments to single men, was here vested,
and I apprehend much more dangerously, in the whole body of the people. It is to all purposes a mere democracy. They elect every one of their own officers, from the highest to the lowest; they displace them at pleasure; and the laws which they enact, are valid without the royal approbation. This state of unbounded freedom, I believe, contributed in some degree to make those settlements flourish, but it certainly contributed as much to render their value to their mother country far more precarious, than a better digested plan would have done that might have taken in the interests both of Great Britain and of the new settlement. The truth is, nothing of an enlarged and legislative spirit appears in the planning of our colonies; the charter governments were evidently copied from some of our corporations at home, which if they are good institutions themselves, yet are by no means fit to be imitated by a new people going into a remote country, far from the eye and hand of the supreme power. What may be an useful institution for an inferior member of some great body, and closely united to it, may be not at all proper for a new settlement, which is to form a sort of dependent commonwealth in a remote part of the world. Here the ends to be answered, are to make the new establishment as useful as possible to the trade of the mother country; to secure it’s dependence; to provide for the ease, safety, and happiness of the settlers; to protect them from their enemies, and to make an easy and effectual provision to preserve them from the tyranny and avarice of their governors, or the ill consequences of their own licentiousness; that they should not, by growing into an unbounded liberty, forget that they were subjects, or lying under a base servitude have no reason to think themselves British subjects. This is all that colonies, according to the present and best ideas of them, can or ought to be. The charter governments had nothing of this in view, and consequently provided for it but very indifferently.