[ 60 ] QJAN. 



MISMANAGEMENT OF THE COLONIES JAMAICA, &C.* 



IT would seem to be a very proper conclusion, that the government 

 of a country which stands pre-eminent as a colonial power would, at all 

 times, be anxious to maintain that pre-eminence by just and wise 

 colonial laws and regulations, not founded upon theory, but practically 

 adapted to the actual wants of each particular colony, so that the colonists 

 might feel satisfied that their enterprise and industry were fostered and 

 protected by the parent state, and that they might assuredly calculate 

 upon ultimately enjoying the fruits of their labours. 



A strong feeling of this kind undoubtedly existed at the peace of 1815 ; 

 and, accordingly, when Great Britain thought proper to retain many of 

 the conquests made during the war, extensive capital was directed 

 towards their cultivation, and, at the same time, the people of the old 

 colonies naturally enough expected that their priority of settlement, and 

 long tried attachment to the mother country, would entitle them to addi- 

 tional indulgence, or, at least, that their local experience would not be 

 derided, nor their just privileges be borne down and contemned. 



Unfortunately, however, a policy the reverse of what might have been 

 expected has been adopted ; and the consequences are visible in the 

 decrease of capital and decay of industry in the old colonies, accompanied 

 by irritation, dissatisfaction, and discontent in all ; and it is evident that, 

 unless a very different policy be speedily adopted, the entire ruin of 

 our West India possessions, or their " emancipation" from the control 

 of the mother country, must be the inevitable consequence. In either 

 case we shall, in the downfal of our naval supremacy, the decay of our 

 manufactures, and in great financial difficulties, find ample cause to 

 regret the unhappy consequences of our mistaken policy. 



To enter fully into a discussion of colonial grievances would occupy 

 more space than we can at present devote to the subject. We gave a 

 general view of it in our Number for February, and have occasionally 

 since then adverted to particular points of the case. 



Our readers are aware of the opposition which the legislature of 

 Jamaica have repeatedly experienced in establishing a law to regulate 

 and ameliorate the condition of the slave population of that island. 

 Anxious to comply with the spirit of the regulations of parliament of 

 1823, they have repeatedly made enactments approximating as nearly 

 to the complete fulfilment of the wishes of the government at home, 

 as they considered consistent with the safety of their persons and pro- 

 perty ; but as they found it absolutely necessary to check the dangerous 

 and deteriorating machinations of the Wesley an s and other sectaries, to 

 whose domination they do not choose to submit, their humane regula- 

 tions have been rejected at home ; and, in violation of legislative rights, 

 conferred by express act of parliament, his Majesty's representatives 

 have been ordered not to sanction the passing of any bill, unless it be 

 framed in direct compliance with the dictum of ministers at home ! 



We need only instance, in proof of this, the disallowance of the Act 

 passed by the Assembly of Jamaica in 1826, which had met the express 

 approbation of his Grace the Duke of Manchester, Governor of the 

 Island ; and which conferred on the slave population many privileges 

 to which they were not previously entitled by law : and the recent Act, 

 viz. that passed in December 1829, which, in the words of the Earl of 

 Belmore, the present Governor, who approved of it, was upon the whole 

 more favour able to the Slave than that of 1826 ; also peremptorily rejected 

 at" home ! 



This Act, amongst a multiplicity of other humane regulations, provides 



; Parliamentary Paper. Sess. 1030. 



