J830.] C 137 : 



THE BRITISH WEST INDIA COLONIES, AS THEY WERE, 

 AND AS THEY AEE. 



THE present situation of the British West India Colonies, and the 

 important consequences involved in the line of policy that may be 

 adopted towards them by the Government at home, render it necessary 

 that we should approach the subject with extreme caution ; and that we 

 should consider the measures acquired for the amelioration of the slave 

 population, with that moderation and serious attention which its import- 

 ance demands. 



Disregarding equally the irritable feeling created on one side by those 

 persons who contend for an uncontrolled freedom of trade, and the 

 impracticable schemes and abstract inapplicable reasonings of the violent 

 abolitionists, we propose to give a general view of the present state of 

 our West India possessions, noticing the causes which appear to have 

 led to their depreciated condition, and stating concisely the remedies 

 that have been proposed to avert the ruinous consequences which it is 

 alleged must overtake them, if they are left unaided to struggle with 

 existing difficulties. 



In the course of this investigation we shall have to advert, in particular, 

 to the general tenor of the policy under which our Colonies were reared 

 -p to the necessity of keeping up a protective system against foreign 

 competitors and of maintaining the colonial intercourse in such a manner, 

 as to inspire confidence between the colonist and the government of the 

 mother country. We shall notice the measures recommended by govern- 

 ment for the amelioration and ultimate emancipation of the labouring 

 population, and the impediments which are experienced in carrying these 

 recommendations into immediate effect. 



In taking a short view of this difficult but very important subject, 

 we must take care not to place ourselves amongst the number of those 

 theorists who would at once proceed to legislate for our West India 

 Colonies, as if they had merely to deal with a country entirely new, and 

 totally disencumbered of antecedent claims and obligations : we must 

 look at these possessions as they actually exist at the present day : we 

 must not recommend to do evil, that good may come ; but, taking a fair 

 view of measures encouraged and sanctioned by former legislatures, and 

 of existing claims and property created by law, we must consider what 

 is best to be done under present circumstances, and advocate the adop- 

 tion of that course which seems most consonant to a due regard for exist- 

 ing rights, and most reconcilable to the dictates of justice and huma-t 

 nity. 



It has of late years been too much the custom in this country with a 

 numerous class of the community, whose knowledge-ef the Colonies has 

 chiefly been derived from the ex parte statements made at anti-slavery 

 meetings, or from the violent publications with which, in our day, we 

 have been so largely favoured, to consider these possessions as something 

 foreign or anti-national, instead of looking at them in the manner in 

 which they ought fairly to be viewed namely, as a part and parcel of 

 the British empire, and in the actual possession of British subjects, whose 

 interests, habits, and feelings ought to bind them by the strongest ties 

 to the mother country. 



From the earliest period of their occupation, it has been the study and 

 endeavour of our leading statesmen to protect them from foreign aggres- 



M.M. New Series. VOL. IX. No. 50. T . .. 



