216 Notes of the Month on Affairs in General. FEB. 



The appointment of Mr. Burge as agent for Jamaica, will be received 

 with great satisfaction by all who are connected with that important island, 

 and who desire to see its interests supported by ability, experience, and 

 integrity. The choice is the more remarkable, as Mr. Burge had been 

 for twelve years the King's Attorney- General, an office in which lawyers 

 at home are so seldom lucky enough to discover the means of endearing 

 themselves to their fellow-citizens. Indeed, the general result of the 

 office is, to display all the hidden blots of character, and transmit the 

 holder to posterity as a paltry slave, or a bitter and malignant abuser of 

 power. It is certainly no trivial honour to the present choice of the 

 Jamaica House of Assembly, that he tempered his office with such 

 qualities as to make the island thus take the first and the highest oppor- 

 tunity in its power, of expressing the public gratitude. 



On the Report of the Joint Committee of the Council and Assembly, 

 nominating this gentleman as the agent, an opponent was fortunately 

 started in the person of a Mr. Colville, an eminent merchant -fortu- 

 nately, we say, as it gave an opportunity for a manly and clear detail 

 of Mr. Surge's conduct in the most delicate point of his office. After 

 some discussion, the question was put, when the votes for Mr. Burge 

 were twenty-eight to eleven. In this debate, Mr. Bernard, a member 

 of high character, delivered the following handsome and fully-recog- 

 nized tribute to the late Attorney-General's conduct : 



"All," says that gentleman, " have concurred in admitting the talents and 

 acquirements, the zeal and application of Mr. Burge : but his opponents have 

 accused him of endeavouring to carry into effect the measures recommended 

 by his Majesty's ministers for the slave population, and with having advised 

 the officers of the Customs to levy duties under Acts of Parliament. He (Mr. 

 Bernard) well knew Mr. Burge, both in his public and private character; the 

 leading points of his politics were melioration of the slave population, and an 

 admission of persons of colour to political and civil rights. If the House had not 

 gone the whole length of Mr. Surge's opinions, they had at least recognized and 

 adopted most of them. The slave law of 1826, which had been again passed 

 last year, contained many enactments which were suggested by Mr. Burge. 

 The admission of the slave evidence, a measure for which Mr. Burge had 

 always strenuously contended, had been passed by the House, and the general 

 tenor of that law, and the one conferring additional privileges on persons of 

 free condition, shewed that the House went with Mr. Burge in many of his 

 opinions. As to the charge of authorising the collection of duties, the House 

 would recollect that it was the bounderi duty of Mr. Burge, as his Majesty's 

 Attorney-General, to support his Majesty's Government. Mr. Burge was 

 charged with other acts of obedience to his Majesty's Government. He (Mr. 

 Bernard) had always been taught that the faithful discharge of one trust by a 

 man, was the best reason why another should be committed to him. If Mr. 

 Burge had, as his opponents asserted, faithfully served his Majesty's Govern- 

 ment as Attorney-General, it was fair to infer that he would as faithfully serve 

 Jamaica as her agent." 



