THE TRdE TEMPER OF EMPIRE. 



311 



moment's consideration will suffice to show that the only source 

 from which the revenue of the Plantations could be derived 

 was the annual profit from the cultivation of the soil. Under 

 the monopoly system, as we have seen, the colonists were 

 compelled to bring the produce of this cultivation to the 

 mother country alone, where on arrival the contribution of the 

 colony was easily levied in practically the only way in which it 

 could be imposed by duties of customs. The system, however 

 it may now be condemned, had this advantage that the con- 

 tribution varied automatically with the value of the produce, 

 in other words with the capacity of the colony to bear the 

 burden. 



With the abolition of the monopoly system and the naviga- 

 tion laws, the fund which provided the mother country with 

 revenues for military and naval expenditure disappeared while 

 the mother country remained charged with the whole burden 

 of imperial defence. The policy which brought about this 

 result was based on the belief that colonies and India were 

 alike politically mischievous and commercially useless. It was 

 expressed in the phrase, attributed to Cobden, that " John Bull 

 has for the next fifty years the task set him of cleansing his 

 house of this useless stuff," — the army and navy. The next 

 fifty years brought about a complete reversal of the policy, and 

 in the meantime, the steadily increasing burden had to be 

 borne. The return of 1829 showed that a part of the burden 

 was borne by a contribution from the colonies in the form of 

 personal allowances. In 1859, a Departmental Committee was 

 appointed to inquire into the whole question of colonial con- 

 tributions to imperial defence. It reported that the colonies 

 might be said generally to have been free from all obligations 

 of contributing, either by personal service or money, towards 

 their own defence ; that the incidence of the small sums con- 

 tributed was most unequal and chiefly borne by three colonies ; 

 and they particularly condemned the system of colonial allow- 

 ances as most mischievous to our troops. This report was 

 followed by the appointment in 1861 of a Select Committee of 

 which Mr. Mills was chairman, to inquire into the defence of 

 the colonies and the distribution of the cost between the 

 Imperial Treasury and the colonial funds. It was found that 

 the distribution of troops and the allocation of charges were 

 based on no principle, and had grown up by chance modified by 

 temporary exigencies. The general result of the report of the 

 Committee was the decision of the Government that all colonies 

 must bear the burden of their military establishments. It 



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