Colony [fr. colo, Lat., to cultivate], a settlement in a foreign country possessed and cultivated, either wholly or partially, by immigrants and their descendants, who have a political connection with and subordination to the mother-country whence they emigrated. In other words, it is a place peopled from some more ancient city or country.
England was not the first among European nations that planted settlements in parts beyond Europe. But by her own colonization, and by the conquests of the settlements of other nations, she was now acquired a more extensive dominion of colonies and dependencies than any other nation. The colonies of Great Britain exceed in number, extent, and value those of every other country.
In an Act of Parliament (English) passed after 1889 the expression 'colony' means by s. 18(3), of the Interpretation Act, 1889, 'any part of her Majesty's dominions, exclusive of the British Islands and of British India, and where parts of such dominions are under both a central and a local legislature, all parts under the central legislature shall, for the purposes of this definition, be deemed to be one colony.' But, by the Statute of Westminster, 1931 (22 Geo. 5, c. 4), s. 11, notwithstanding anything in the Interpretation Act, 1889, the expression 'Colony' shall not, in any Act of Parliament of the United Kingdom passed after 11th December, 1931, include a Dominion or any Province or State forming part of the Dominion.
Colonies are acquired either (1) by conquest, (2) by cession under treaty, (3) by occupancy, as Newfoundland, New South Wales, and Van Diemen's Land, or (4) by hereditary descent. By far the greater part of the colonies was acquired by conquest or cession. In the first two cases the territory retains its former laws until they are altered by the home government, i.e., the King in Council, yet subordinate to the authority of Parliament. The alterations may be general or partial, leaving the old laws still in force touching matters unprovided for. In the third case (which is strictly a plantation), the English laws, so far as they are applicable to the condition of an infant colony, are ipso facto in force in such a colony, for there can be no existing laws to contest the superiority; and besides, the occupants could not have any power to establish laws independently of the mother-country, to whom their allegiance is still due; and they also carry with them the laws of their country, which are their inalienable birthright. Such a colony is, then, not subject to legislation by the Crown, nor is a country which comes to the Crown by title of descent. Such colonies retain their own laws till changed by the act of the Imperial Parliament, to whose legislative authority every kind of colony is subject, as portions of the British dominions, and whose protection they have a right to demand, for the resistance of hostile aggression, and the peaceful possession of their territory. As a general rule an Act of Parliament must name the colony in order to bind it, but see Statute of Westminster, 1931 (22 Geo. 5, c. 4). Clark's Col. Law; Burge's Col. And For. Law. See COLONIAL LAWS.
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