1830.] Fate of the Colonies. 423 



making good their charges against him, this stickit writer's clerk, this 

 " worm and maggot of the law," was reinstated in his office, and sent 

 back in a manner which cannot be considered otherwise than insulting 

 to the community which had expelled him ! What have been the conse- 

 quences ? General Blackwell, a worthy and highly-respected officer, is 

 said to have felt himself deeply insulted by this extraordinary proceed- 

 ing : the acting chief-justice, the speaker of the assembly, and every 

 member of council, resigned the magistrates refused to act with him, 

 and the consequences have been general dissatisfaction, much confusion, 

 no courts for the recovery of debts, or to carry on the legal business of 

 the colony; and attempts have been made, since his return, to sow 

 discontent amongst the slave population ! " I have often/' said Mr. 

 Keith Douglas, " urged this case on my right-honourable friend, and I 

 am sorry to find there are other West India colonies in no better circum- 

 stances \" We would fain hope that this mode of treating the colonial 

 authorities will not be persisted in ; and that the proceedings, during 

 next session of Parliament, will tend to re-establish that confidence 

 which ought always to be continued between Great Britain and her 

 dependencies. We are not yet, however, disposed, like the writer of 

 the pamphlet before us, to recommend to the colonists to throw off all 

 dependence upon the wisdom and good intentions of the British Govern- 

 ment, more especially as we have a monarch on the throne who is, per- 

 haps, better acquainted with colonial affairs than any one of his ministers ; 

 and there is now also a disposition evinced to inquire into the depressed 

 colonial property, with a view to affording relief to the suffering 

 colonists. 



We are ready to admit that had there been greater union of effort amongst 

 the West Indians at home and abroad, their affairs might now have been 

 in a better condition. " What stand/' says Mr. Alexander, " have the 

 West Indians, as a body, made against any one of the insidious measures 

 of the last ten years? On what occasion have we seen a dozen, or even 

 half that number, cordially and resolutely united against the minister on 

 any question where your interest and the interest of the colonies 

 generally has been at stake ? When the society of Aldermanbury-street 

 send a member to the House of Commons, they invariably select a 

 person who is sure to support them in all their schemes, at all hazards. 

 He may be ministerial on other questions. He may exercise his own 

 discretion where the views of the society are not compromised ; but in 

 all questions injurious to you and identified with their projects, the 

 member is invariably found at his post, reading falsehoods from his 

 brief, slandering you per order, voting against you, and holding you up 

 to obloquy and reproach, according to his letter of instructions ;" and he 

 recommends that six delegates should be selected and sent to this 

 country to oppose the Anti-colonists. We, however, cannot believe 

 that the steady loyalty evinced by the West Indians, under every pro- 

 vocation, and the great importance of these valuable possessions to the 

 welfare of the mother country, will ever be overlooked by the sober- 

 minded majority of the British nation. Whenever that shall unhappily 

 be the case, we may look for the near approach of great public cala- 

 mities, and it will then be in the western world, and not here, that the 

 exertions of delegates will be required, for the protection of that property 

 which the disappointed sectarians have devoted to destruction. 



