( 275 ) 

 THE COLONIES OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE.' 



ENGLAND exists all'over the habitable globe in her colonies ; and, 

 in the words of the author (whose important national work is now 

 before us), when addressing his sovereign, and depicting the mani- 

 fold advantages of the colonies of the British empire, 



" our transmarine dominions offer to the agriculturist measureless fields 

 for pasture and tillage ; to the manufacturer an incalculable extension of 

 the home market for the disposal of his wares ; to the merchant and mari- 

 ner, vast marts for profitable traffic in every product with which nature 

 has bounteously enriched the earth ; to the capitalist an almost interminable 

 site for the profitable investment of his funds ; and to the industrious, 

 skilful, and intelligent emigrant an area of upwards of two million square 

 miles, where every species of mental ingenuity and manual labour may be 

 developed and nurtured into action, with advantage to the whole family of 

 man. England has no need to manufacture beet-root sugar (as France), 

 her West and East India possessions yield an inexhaustible profusion of 

 the cane; grain (whether wheat, barley, oats, maize, or rice) everywhere 

 abounds ; her Asiatic, American, Australian, and African possessions con- 

 tain boundless supplies of timber, corn, coal, iron, copper, gold, hemp, wax, 

 tar, tallow, &c. The finest wools are grown in her South Asian regions ; 

 cotton, opium, silk, coffee, cocoa, tobacco, saltpetre, spices, spirits, wines 

 and fruits are procurable, of every variety and to any extent, in the east 

 and in the west, in the north and in the south of the empire. On the icy 

 coast of Labrador as well as at the opposite pole, her adventurous hunters 

 and fishers pursue their gigantic game almost within sight of their protect- 

 ing flag ; and on every soil, and under every habitable clime, Britons de- 

 sirous of change, or who cannot find occupation at home, may be found im- 

 planting or extending the language, laws, and liberties of their father-land. 

 In fine, Sire, on this wondrous empire the solar orb never sets : while the 

 hardy woodsman and heroic hunter on the St. Lawrence and Ottowa are 

 shivering beneath a wintry solstice, the peaceful but no less meritorious 

 farmer and shepherd on the Kysna and Hawkesbury, are rejoicing over the 

 golden grain and fleece of the autumnal southern clime ; and every breeze 

 that blows from the arctic to the antarctic circle is wafting over the un- 

 fathomable ocean myriads, 



* Whose march is on the mountain wave, 

 Whose home is on the deep.' " 



Such are the splendid possessions which the public are now, for 

 the first time, called on to contemplate. That their worth is as yet 

 unappreciated, is owing to the ignorance so unfortunately prevalent 

 an ignorance which, we trust, is now passing away, by the production 

 of a history from which we augur much present and future benefit to 

 the nation. A few facts will explain, in the most striking manner, 

 the vast importance of the subject now under consideration. The 

 volume now on our table comprises the British possessions in Asia, 

 which, it will be perceived, from the following condensation of a 

 table prefixed to the work, have an area of upwards of half a million 



* History of the British Colonies, in 5 vols. (Vol. the 1st. Possessions in 

 Asia.) Dedicated, by special permission, to the King, by 11. Montgomery 

 Martin, Member of the Asiatic Society, &c., and author of the <* Taxation of the 

 British Empire ," &c. &c. 



