1830.] as they were, and as they are. 153 



Having taken the foregoing extensive survey of the circumstances that 

 affect our West India possessions, our mind is filled with strong impres- 

 sions of the many difficulties and dangers by which they are sur- 

 rounded ! 



It appears to us that the measures best calculated for operating, gene- 

 rally, in a beneficial manner, would be, to make, on the grounds stated, 

 an immediate reduction of the duty on sugar and rum, so as to increase 

 the consumption of both, and to enable the latter to cope more effectually 

 with smuggled foreign liquors. In the second place, that the most 

 urgent appeal ought to be made to France to wipe away the stigma 

 of continuing the slave trade in her own colonies, contrary to public 

 avowal, and of allowing others to carry it on under her flag. If this 

 abolition of the foreign slave trade were fairly accomplished, we should 

 relieve our Colonies from some of the weight of unfair competi- 

 tion, to which they are exposed in raising their produce, and then, 

 but not till then, be able to lay the foundation, so long looked for- 

 ward to, for the civilization of Africa, and for ridding ourselves of the 

 useless expenditure at Sierra Leone, and of the mixed commissions which 

 have cost us, with sums paid to Spain and Portugal for abolishing the 

 slave trade, according to papers submitted to the Finance Committee, 

 about 7>000,000/., and now create an expenditure of upwards of 

 340,000/. per annum. And, thirdly, by the institution of a minute 

 inquiry into the actual state of the labouring population, and of society 

 in general, in our West India Colonies, that there may no longer be any 

 misunderstanding on that subject in this country a measure which 

 ought to have preceded every other in 1823, when the government first 

 took the question of amelioration into their own hands. 



This proceeding is now more urgently required for the sake of Govern- 

 ment itself, that it may, by directing the inquiry, stand forth in that situ- 

 ation of responsibility in the management of the interests of those distant 

 parts of the empire, that the duties of office impose on them. It appears to 

 us, that of late years the Government has hardly considered it had any 

 responsibility imposed on it in the management of questions in Parlia- 

 ment affecting the state of society in the West Indies. All such matters 

 have been left to the exaggerated and 'angry discussions of pseudo- 

 philanthropists and Colonists ; and the minds of the people of this 

 country have been without any safe guide in regard to them. 



Because there is a state of society different from that existing here, and 

 of difficult management in the distant parts of our empire, it is surely no 

 reason why its interests should be deprived of the watchful care of the 

 Government. We believe the manner in which these possessions have 

 been treated in this respect, has impressed widely the feelings of inse- 

 curity of property ; but the crisis of danger is now so great, that we 

 cannot doubt that the deliberations of his Majesty's Government will be 

 steadily employed to investigate and remove, as far as they can, the evils 

 under which our West India Colonists have, for so long a period, been 

 compelled to labour. 



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



