, unflinching resolution to
adhere to the principles of the constitution, and to maintain the just
and necessary powers of the crown, would do much towards supplying the
want of local information. But it would be performing more than can be
reasonably expected from human sagacity, if any man, or set of men,
should always decide in an unexceptionable manner on subjects that have
their origin thousands of miles from the seat of the Imperial
Government, where they reside, and of which they have no personal
knowledge whatever; and therefore wrong may be often done to
individuals, or a false view taken of some important political question,
that in the end may throw a whole community into difficulty and
dissension, not from the absence of the most anxious desire to do right,
but from an imperfect knowledge of facts upon which to form an
opinion.'"

This is all very true. There is nothing so difficult as to legislate
for a colony from home. The very best theory is useless; it requires
that you should be on the spot, and adapt your measures to the
circumstances and the growing wants of the country. I may add that it
is wrong for the Home Government to consider the government given to the
colony as permanent. All that the mother-country can do is to give it
one which, in theory, appears best adapted to secure the true freedom
and happiness of the people; but leaving that form of government to be
occasionally modified, so as to meet the changes which the colony may
require, and to conform with its wants and its rising interests: all of
which being unforeseen could not be provided for by the prescience of
man. The governor, therefore, of a colony should be invested with more
discretionary power.

The constant removal of the governor from the colony is also much to be
deprecated. On his first arrival, he can only have formed theoretical
views, which, in all probability, he will have to discard in a few
months. He finds himself surrounded by people in office, interested in
their own peculiar policy, and viewing things through their own medium.
In all colonies you will usually find an oligarchy, cemented by mutual
interest and family connection, and so bound up together as to become
formidable if opposed to the Government. Into the hands of these people
a governor must, to a certain degree, fall; and must remain in them
until he has had time to see clearly and to judge for himself. But by
the time that he has just disenth