37 



COLONY. 



COLOSSIANS, EPISTLE TO THE. 



them may be fully equivalent to the expense ; and the settlement and 

 protection of a colony by the natives of one country cannot fail to 

 introduce the customs, the habits, and the wants of the country whence 

 they come, which, consequently, will be in the best position for 

 acquiring and maintaining possession of the commercial intercourse as 

 it grows; this has been remarkably the case in regard to Canada, 

 Australia, and the Cape. It is hardly possible to suppose that if they 

 had been abandoned as too costly, the commerce would have assumed 

 the vast importance which it has done. The protection of the mother 

 country also gives a sense of security to intending emigrants, and the 

 emigration is facilitated ; it affords a most beneficial outlet to a super- 

 abundant population, removing a source of weakness and expense at 

 home by the voluntary transfer of labour-power from where it has no 

 value to a spot where it is of the greatest value ; and, while it relieves 

 the mother-country from a burden, it necessarily strengthens the bond 

 of alliance, and contributes to the commercial prosperity of both parent 

 and colony. Another prospective advantage is, the friendly relations 

 that must necessarily exist from blood relationship, similarity of customs 

 and feelings, and sameness of language, when the time arrives that the 

 colony has grown powerful enough to maintain its own independence, 

 ami to assume the character of a state. Still, in every particular 

 instance, the question as to the value of a modern colony to the mother 

 country (omitting, as before mentioned, the value of the patronage to 

 those who confer places in the colonies and the value of the places to 

 those who receive them) is simply this : what advantage is this said 

 colony to the productive classes of the country, and to those who con- 

 sume the products of the colony ? a question not always easy to 

 answer ; but this is the question, the solution of which must decide 

 whether a colony ought to be maintained or not, if we look only to the 

 interests of the mother country. If we look to the interests of the 

 colony, it may be in many and certainly is in some cases, the interest 

 of the colony to remain as it now is, under the protection and sovereign 

 authority of the mother country. But again the question recurs, what 

 is the advantage to the mother country ! If some advantage cannot 

 be shown, the maintenance of a useless colony is a pure act of national 

 ' ilence towards the colony and to those few of the mother country 

 who have places in it. If our present relation with a colony such as 

 Jamaica or Canada entails any expense on the mother country, we may 

 ask whether all the commercial advantages that result from this 

 relation would not be equally secured, if only the free commercial 

 relation existed, and that of administration were to cease. In support 

 of this view, it is shown that the commerce of Great Britain with the 

 United States, now free and independent, has increased most woml. i 

 fully since the separation, and probably more rapidly than it would 

 li.ive increased under the colonial system. This being the case, a 

 similar increase might be anticipated in the trade with all those foreign 

 possessions whose trade is really of any importance. This argument, 

 to which it is difficult to reply, is met by saying that if we give up 

 those colonies that cause expenditure on the part of the mother 

 country, some of them at least would be a prize for other nations, who 

 would exclude us from the commerce of those former colonies, or 

 allow it only on unfavourable terms; or that these colonies would 

 throw themselves into the arms of foreign nations, and the same result 

 would follow. To this it is replied, that no other nation is in a con- 

 dition to take on itself the management of expensive colonies, especially 

 when not in a condition to avail themselves to the fullest extent of the 

 advantages of then- commerce; nations, like individuals, will, if let 

 1'iiy where they can buy cheapest, and sell where they can sell 

 dearest. Spain, for instance, could derive no advantage from the pos- 

 session of all Australia ; she could draw no direct revenue from it ; she 

 i not use the colonial products, except the gold, which she could 

 not buy, as she has no manufactures with which to effect the purchase. 



The colonial administration of the British colonies is an important 

 department of the general administration. At the head of it is the 

 principal colonial secretary, who is one of the principal secretaries of 

 state, assisted by two under secretaries. 



A new feature was introduced into modern European colonisation, 

 that of i*nnl colonies, which was an extension of the principle of the 

 1 i on the coast of Barbary, already mentioned. Convicts were 

 sent by England first to North America, and afterwards to Australia 

 and the Cape of Good Hope, by France to Guiana, by Portugal to the 

 coast of Angola, by the Dutch to Batavia, and Utterly by the French 

 to Cayenne and to Lambessa in Africa. They were cither employed at 

 tin' public works or hired to settlers as servants, or were established in 

 various places to cultivate a piece of land, fur which they paid rent to 

 ivemment. The policy of penal colonies bos been much din- 

 cussed. They may afford a relief at least temporary, but at a great 

 cost to the mother country, by clearing it of a number of troublesome 

 and dangerous characters, especially so long as criminal legislation and 

 the system of prison discipline continue as imperfect as they are at 

 present in most countries of Europe ; but with regard to the convicts 

 the prospect of their reformation, everything must 

 i upon the regulations enforced in the colony by the local 

 authorities. Although the system had ita advantages as regarded the 

 utry, and perhaps as regarded the convict, yet the colonies 

 as they increased in wealth and numbers, felt it to be an intolerable 

 grievance to be continually flooded with the criminal refuse of the 

 parent state. The system was opposed in the English colony at the 



Cape of Good Hope to the verge of an insurrection, but England gave 

 way to the voice of justice, and on the remonstrances also of the 

 Australian colonies, the system has been altogether abandoned, and 

 only a few criminals are now sent to Western Australia, to Bermuda, 

 and to Gibraltar, merely as to convict prisons, to be employed on 

 public works. 



We subjoin a list of the principal colonial possessions of the various 

 European states ; but of all the important ones accounts will be found 

 under their proper heads in the G EOO. Div. 



The colonies of England consist of British North America, British 

 West India Islands, with the Bahamas and Bermudas, and British 

 Guiana in S. America ; Sierra Leone, Cape Coast, and Cape of Good 

 Hope hi Africa ; the islands of St. Helena, Mauritius, Ceylon, Prince 

 of Wales Island, Singapore, and Malacca ; various settlements on the 

 coasts of Australia, and Tasmania, or Van Diemen's Land. The united 

 population of the whole of these colonies is estimated at 7,148,000. 

 The vast possessions of Great Britain in ludia, as we have already 

 stated, are not to be considered as colonies, though they are de- 

 pendencies ; they contain a population of 180,367,148 persons. 

 Gibraltar, Malta, and Heligoland, military stations, have a population 

 of 146,591 persons. 



France has the islands of Guadeloupe, St. Pierre, and Miguelon, 

 and French Guiana in America ; Senegal and Goree on the Coast of 

 Africa ; the island of Bourbon ; Pondichery, in the East Indies, with 

 two or three trifling dependencies ; the Marquesas islands, New Cale- 

 donia, with Tahiti and Wallis islands, under protection, in the Pacific ; 

 and the important acquisition now being colonised to a considerable 

 extent, of Algerie ; the total has a population of 3,506,218, of which 

 2,880,383 are in Algerie, the European population in January, 1857, 

 being 167,670. 



Spain has lost her vast dominions in Mexico and South America, 

 but has retained the fine islands of Cuba and Puerto Rico, and the 

 Virgin islands in America; in Asia she has the Philippine islands; 

 in Africa she has the Presidios and the Guinea islands, the old system 

 still prevails ; slave labour is employed; and the Spanish colonies are 

 now perhaps the only ones that yield a direct revenue to the mother 

 country ; though it is probable that the United States makes a greater 

 profit with them by its commerce, than Spain does by its taxation. 

 The population of the whole of the colonial possessions is estimated at 

 4,528,633. 



Portugal has lost the Brazils, but it has still numerous settlements on 

 the coast of South and East Africa, at Angola, Benguela, Loango, and 

 on the Mozambique ; but these settlements are the most degenerated of 

 all European colonies. In India the Portuguese retain J^oa ; they 

 have a factory at Macao ; and a settlement on the northern part of the 

 island of Timor. The population is estimated at 2,756,379. 



The Dutch have the islands of Curacao and St. Eustachc and 

 Surinam in Guiana. In Asia they have the great colony of Batavia 

 with its dependencies, various settlements on the coasts of Borneo, 

 Sumatra, Celebes, Timor, and the Molucca islands. The population is 

 estimated at 16,433,761. 



The Danes arc possessed of the islands of St. Cruz, St. John, and 

 St. Thomas in the West Indies ; and Christianburg, near Accra, on the 

 Guinea coast ; the population of the whole is only 37,187. 



The Swedes have the island of St. Bartholomew in the West Indies ; 

 population about 18,000. 



A society of North American philanthropists founded about 1821, 

 on the Guinea coast, east of Cape Mesurado, a colony of emancipated 

 negroes, who have been transferred thither from the United Si t c . 

 The colony is called Liberia. The total population, including natives, 

 may be about 60,000. 

 COLOPHANE. [TURPENTINE.] 

 COLOPHENE. [TURPENTINE.] 

 COLOPHOLIC ACID. [RESIN.] 

 COLOPHONY. [RESIN.] 

 COLORINE. [MADDER, Colourin;/ Matters of.] 

 COLOSSEUM. [AMPHITHEATRE.] 



COLOSSIANS, EPISTLE TO THE, a canonical epistle of the 

 New Testament, addressed by St. Paul to the Christians of Colossoo, a 

 city of Phrygia. The date generally assigned to this epistle by the 

 commentators and critics is A.D. 62. (' Tablettes C'hronologiques,' par 

 1'Abb^ Lenglet Dufresnoy, tome ii. p. 211. Dr. Adam Clarke's 'Suc- 

 cession of Sacred Literature,' vol. i. p. 8!).) Some say A.D. 03, or tho 

 9th of Nero. In the Dissertations on the Harmony of the Gospels, by 

 the Kev. Mr. Greswell (vol. ii. pp. 63-66), it is shown that the 

 Epistles to the Ephesians, to the Philippians, and to Philemon, were 

 written by St. Paul at the same time as the one to the Colossians, 

 namely, in A.I>. O>. nearly at the terminatidh of the apostle's first 

 imprisonment at Rome ; and Kpaphroditus in Philemon is considered 

 by Mr. Greswell to be the same person as Epaphras in Colossians. 

 There is a great similarity between this epistle and that to tho 

 Ephesians, the one being a commentary on the other, as Michaelis 

 observes. From the expressions in ch. i. ver. 4, 7, 9, and ch. ii. ], 

 where he says, " for as many as have not seen my face hi the flesh," it 

 is inferred by some that St. Paul himself was personally unknown to 

 the Christian* of Colossoo ; for though he travelled twice to Phrygia, 

 it appears from Acts, chs. xvi. and xviii., that he visited the northern 

 parts, while Colossa; was in the southern part. Others, especially Dr. 



