INTRODUCTION. 29 



West Indies a new commercial policy was inaugurated — highly 

 favourable, I consider, to the British consumers, but no less 

 antagonistic to the agricultural interests of these dependencies. 



On the other hand, the changes effected in the social con- 

 dition of these islands required corresponding changes in their 

 general constitution, so as to bring them more closely under the 

 control of the mother country. 



As matters now stand, the British West India Islands form six 

 distinct governments, viz., the Bahamas; Jamaica; the Leeward 

 Islands, comprising Antigua, the Virgin Islands, Saint Chris- 

 topher, Nevis, Montserrat, and Dominica, as a federation ; the 

 Windward Islands, viz., Barbadoes, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent, 

 Grenada, and Tobago ; the Island of Trinidad ; and the colony 

 of British Guiana. All these colonies are independent one of the 

 other, and have their respective constitutions, varying in each ; 

 and not only does each colony differ in method of government, 

 laws, &c, but each has its Governor, or Lieutenant-Governor, and 

 a wholesale staff of public officers. The public establishments of 

 some of these colonies are evidently disproportionate to their 

 resources ; and it is morally impossible, besides, that, from their 

 scanty population, men can be selected really capable of framing 

 salutary laws, or acting in other respects as legislators. And so 

 limited are their resources that they cannot expect to command 

 the services of competent persons. 



So foreign and remote are the relations existing between the 

 different colonies that the inhabitants of Trinidad are better 

 acquainted with events in Europe, and even in China, than those 

 in Jamaica and the Bahamas. Again, so diversified and dis- 

 similar are their laws in general, and the regulations of their 

 courts of justice in particular, that a barrister of good repute in 

 Trinidad would be obliged to undergo a fresh training before 

 practising in the neighbouring colony of Grenada. And yet the 

 interests of these different islands are nearly identical. They 

 must rise or fall together. It is, therefore, highly essential that 

 these different dependencies should be homogenised, as far as 

 possible — that they should be brought into mutual relations and 

 contact, so that the least advanced may profit by the experience 

 of those that are more precocious — that their natural resources 

 should become known, and their individual wrongs be felt and 

 acknowledged as the wrongs of all : thus, and thus only, will 

 they be able to afford each other aid and support in difficulties 

 and distress. This, however, can be done only by forming a 

 political union of the scattered colonies, with a Federal Colonial 

 Assembly. 



I have come to this conclusion after mature reflection, and I 

 am fully convinced that the proposed change would be for the 



