500 Our Colonies. . [ May;- 
that despatch Mr. Huskisson’s name was subscribed ; and whatever share 
he may have had in its composition, the disgrace of having baflled and 
defeated the most rational and efficient measure that has ever yet been 
devised to effect the object of the resolutions to which the government 
stands pledged, sticks upon him. The colonists, whom years of perse- 
cution and insult have taught to know their enemies pretty well, could 
be at no loss to see from what source these notable reasons proceeded, and 
by whose hand they were drawn up. It has long been one of their sorest 
grievances (and is it not sufficient cause for disgust and irritation ?) that the 
son of “ Master Stephen,” their sworn foe—the companion and intimate 
associate of their banded enemies—has been employed as law adviser to the 
Colonial Office—that he is paid a salary of 1,500/. a year, to help, by all 
the arts of his profession, the designs which have been constantly carried 
on against them. It was impossible for them not to detect, in the style, 
the spirit, the very expressions of these “reasons,” the cry of the 
“ young Cockerell ;” while the ignorance, the absurdity, the implacable 
determination to harass and insult the colonists, which the document 
betrayed, pointed out, most distinctly, the quarter from which it came. 
The most intolerable wrong of all was, that the governor was directed to 
pass no bill on the subject of religion, without a clause suspending its 
operation until the king’s pleasure should be known. This injunction 
is framed so as to cast upon the Assembly, by implication, the reproach of 
having attempted to impede the diffusion of religious truths, and is another 
device of their enemies to raise an unjust prejudice against them. All 
that the proposed law did, was to prevent designing persons, under pre-_ 
tence of religion, from collecting money from negroes, (we have surely 
had enough of a “ Rent,”)* from holding nocturnal meetings—and to — 
restrain the mal-practices of “ignorant, superstitious, and designing 
slaves.” . The sole object of the law is, to enforce a simple regulation of 
police, which the safety of the colony, and every other state requires ; 
and this they are told they shall not do. Not pass a law to prevent the 
dissemination of “ principles subversive of the peace and good order of 
society !”—why, just as well may a man be told that if in this country 
some crop-eared Tartuffe should venture into his house, there to dis- 
tract the minds of his family and servants from their duty, he might not 
kick him into the street. 
The course which the Assembly adopted, was dignified and tem- 
perate ; but at the same time as resolute as became men who felt that 
they were struggling, not only for their individual rights, but for consti- 
tutional privileges. They appointed a committee, who drew up a reply 
to Mr. Huskisson’s despatch, in which every article of his objections— or 
rather the objections he has stultified himself by fathering, are clearly 
and satisfactorily answered. Our limits compel us unwillingly to refrain 
from going at length into this precious document and the reply toit. A 
future occasion may enable us to do so; but in the mean time, we assert, 
in defiance of contradiction, that the “reasons” are in many respects so 
puerile and foolish, as to be a disgrace to a public office in which th 
interests of the country are supposed to be managed—that they are for 
the most part composed in ignorance, real or’ affected, of the subject to’ 
* The Assembly examined witnesses as to the sums which had been wrung from the 
slaves under the pretext of religion, and ascertained, from the persons who had 
received it, that it amounted to at least seven thousand pounds per annum. 
“ Bridge’s Jamaica,” Note LVI. 
‘ 
