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Colonies to be Protected by the Navy.

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than L.2,000,000 of money was spent on the military defence of the rest of the colonies; and we cannot but feel convinced that these troops and that money might be much more usefully employed-indeed more usefully for the colonies themselves, because in a manner more conducive to the general welfare and security of the empire. There are four or five thousand men, for example, scattered in detachments of a few companies each in the West Indies; and yet there is not a port in the whole command which they could hold for a week against a hostile expedition. It seems to us clear, that the same number of soldiers would be far more serviceable to the empire if stationed in England; and that the cost of them spent on our fleet would contribute more effectually to the protection of the West Indies themselves, than the present arrangement."

Such is the decisive opinion of two of the commissioners appointed to inquire into the subject. The question is undoubtedly beset with difficulties which have indeed caused some difference of opinion between the three members of the commission. There is, however, one plain indisputable ground on which Great Britain ought to contribute liberally towards the defence of her colonies; and that is, that the Imperial Government has the absolute control of peace and war, and is therefore bound, on the ordinary principles of justice, to defend them against the consequences of its foreign policy. It would be to evade one of the highest of its obligations, and to ignore one of the first of its duties, were it to omit to protect its dependencies from the consequences of any war in which it might be involved. This security, to which the colonists have a moral claim, can, as we have seen, be only obtained by such a maritime preponderance as shall put even the possibility of any hostile attack altogether out of the question. The maintenance of a navy sufficiently numerous and powerful to command at all times the dominion of the seas, is therefore not only a matter of ordinary self-preservation, but a positive duty which this country owes to its colonies while they continue in a state of dependence. Regarded in this point of view, the attempt of any European power to bring British naval preponderance into question, by systematically increasing its maritime force, involves questions of the most serious international importance. The hostile mind implied in any such attempted competition cannot and ought not to be ignored. The peace and prosperity of our numerous dependencies are at stake; and however we may affect to overlook or slight dangers remotely threatening ourselves, there is an obligation which the state cannot in honour evade. There was a time when any unusual activity in the ports and arsenals of France would have been held to justify an energetic remonstrance; and the preparation of vast

armaments without any plausible pretext or legitimate aim, constitutes in itself a ground for categorical demands. It was an evil omen for England and her colonies, when her Foreign Minister recently rose in his place in the House of Commons, and, "with bated breath and whispering humbleness," said that it was natural that France should desire to possess a strong navy; and that he saw no ground for complaint on the part of Great Britain if our "ally" chose to augment his fleets in any proportion he might think fit. England once possessed ministers who would have spoken in tones of thunder, followed by swift and corresponding action, on the first indication of such a portentous naval development as that which has recently manifested itself within sixty miles of our shores.1

While protecting the colonies, as we are bound to do, from any possible consequences of a rupture with a maritime power, it is but just that the whole of their internal police, and, as far as possible, the force requisite for controlling warlike neighbours or savage or semi-civilised tribes, should be provided exclusively by themselves. The Cape of Good Hope, in consequence of its scanty population in proportion to its extent, must be a temporary exception to this rule. It admits unhappily of no doubt, that the Cape colony, which absorbs almost an army for its defence, is quite incapable of keeping in check the vast hordes of barbarians that are constantly pressing on the colonial frontier; and that without an imposing force of British troops it would probably be speedily overrun by the Kaffir race, and every vestige of civilisation effaced in a few months of exterminating warfare. With this exception, the colonies should be left to provide for their internal defences, and every effort should be used to promote the growth of their military strength and the cultivation of that martial spirit which is the characteristic of their race.

But to measure the importance of our colonies merely by the standard of finance, would be to form a very false estimate of their value. The time has long passed when these magnificent possessions were regarded chiefly as the convenient but costly appurtenances of a corrupt government, supplying the means

1 Thomson, who was as good a patriot as poet, has some noble lines in his "Britannia" on the importance of maintaining an indisputable naval preeminence:

"For, oh! it much imports you, 'tis your all,
To keep your trade entire, entire the force
And honour of your fleets; o'er that to watch,
Even with a hand severe, and jealous eye.
In intercourse be gentle, generous, just,
By wisdom polished, and of manners fair;
But on the sea be terrible, untamed,
Unconquerable still let none escape,
Who shall but aim to touch your glory there."

The Colonists to Contribute to their own Defence. 113

for rewarding political services, and buying off troublesome opposition. They are now the homes of virtuous and happy but once depressed and suffering multitudes, who fled to them as a refuge from distress, and found in the fertile regions beyond the seas a comfort and an independence they had sought in vain amidst the crowd and competition of their native land. They still present boundless fields for the employment of our redundant population. Nor can there be a doubt that the world at large has greatly benefited by the activity of British emigration. The colonists carried the arts, sciences, language, and religion of the old world to lands previously occupied only by a few miserable savages; the empire of civilisation has been immeasurably enlarged; England has been enriched by a vast variety of new products, and by a commerce which overwhelms the imagination by its immensity; and her numerous settlements have served to stimulate the inventive powers of genius, and to call forth some of the highest qualities of human nature, while they have abundantly rewarded, and will long continue to reward, the patient industry of man.

VOL. XXXIII. NO. LXV.

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ART. V.-1. Poems and Essays. By the late WILLIAM CALDWELL ROSCOE. Edited, with a Prefatory Memoir, by his Brother-in-law, RICHARD HOLT HUTTON. Two vols. 1860. 2. Io in Egypt, and other Poems. By RICHARD GARNETT. 1859.

3. Lucile. By OWEN MEREDITH. 1860.

4. Blanche Lisle, and other Poems. By CECIL HOME. 1860. 5. Poems. By THOMAS ASHE. 1859.

DURING the last year or two a considerable number of volumes of poetry have appeared, some of which have perhaps as good a claim to our notice as some in the above list; and nearly all of them indicate a decided improvement of tone and intention as compared with the class which was most abundantly issued some seven years ago. There is much less straining after effect,-the effect strained after being as worthless as the power to produce it was usually inefficient. The fundamental poetical rule, "Look in thy heart, and write," has been much more commonly adhered to; and the consequence is, that a good deal of the most recent poetry, if it does not exhibit any extraordinary ability, is at least not a nuisance; if it does not give its authors a right to abiding stations in the halls of fame, it at least, as a rule, does no discredit to their intelligence and feelings as men and

women.

We have already noticed and given emphatic praise to the late Mr W. C. Roscoe's powers as a dramatist, though we, in common with the rest of the world, were ignorant, at the time we reviewed the tragedy of "Violenzia," of the name of the author. Had this work-by much the most important piece in the two volumes just published by Mr Hutton-not been noticed by us before, we should have endeavoured to devote a separate article to this collection, which, with Mr Hutton's charmingly written biography of his brother-in-law at the beginning, constitutes one of the most graceful and readable of the season's contributions to literature. In all that Mr Roscoe has written there is a sound knowledge of, and hearty sympathy with humanity, which is oftener pretended to than really possessed by poets whom the world has pronounced much greater. Of all poetic qualities, the most essential, yet, strange to say, the most rare, are these. They are the very foundation of poetry, without which, whatever proud and painted superstructure is raised, and for the present applauded, no work can abide the patient test of time. On this truth we have over and over again insisted in this Review, and in the light of it we have

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ventured at times to give opinions upon the value of poetic works which were strongly at variance with the popular faith of the moment, but which even a very few years have already, in some instances, done much to establish. Judging what Mr Roscoe has written by this truth, we do not hesitate to declare our impression, that if he has not won an abiding place among English poets, it is entirely because he did not see fit to give himself with the necessary abandon to the cultivation of his fully sufficient powers. The peculiar circumstances and moral conditions of the time render the production of thoroughly good poetry so extremely difficult; they demand so commanding and tender an intellect to see through the prosaic fallacies of society, and its flippant cynicisms, without despising it; a philosophy at once so subtle and so real,-so courageously, nay more, unconcernedly opposed to fashionable dogmas; so clear a vision of truths which men have ceased to see clearly, or have never learned so to see, and withal so patient a devotion to the completeness of verbal expression, in a time which endeavours to make up for its substantial deficiencies by demanding an unprecedented beauty of surface, that a man, who feels the power, must, in settling with himself and his conscience whether he has the right to make himself a poet, consider whether he is justified in abandoning all other kinds of success. Mr Roscoe appears to have weighed the matter thoughtfully, and answered it conscientiously in the negative; and there is something very touching in the sonnet printed at the end of "Violenzia,” in which he conveys this conclusion:

The bubble of the silver-springing waves,
Castalian music, and that flattering sound,

Low rustling of the loved Apollian leaves,

With which my youthful hair was to be crown'd,
Grow dimmer in my ears, while Beauty grieves
Over her votary, less frequent found,

And, not untouch'd by storms, my life-boat heaves
Through the splash'd ocean-waters, outward bound.

And as the leaning mariner, his hand

Clasp'd on his oar, strives trembling to reclaim
Some loved, lost echo from the fleeting strand,

So lean I back to the poetic land;

And in my heart a sound, a voice, a name,

Hangs, as above the lamp hangs the expiring flame.

Referring our readers to our recent article on the "Modern Dramatists" for fuller proof of our assertion of Mr Roscoe's high natural powers, we must content ourselves in this place with a passage or two from the minor poems, now for the first time published by Mr Hutton. We have plenty of poets who can

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