476 TRINIDAD. 



that the British Government have abandoned their former policy 

 with regard to slave produce, the colonists are induced to believe 

 that the mother-country is determined to allow them to die a 

 lingering death, rather than to afford them support by Protection. 

 Strongly impressed with that conviction, they regard the new 

 policy of the Government as the chief, nay, the sole cause of 

 their present grievances, and they are still under the impression 

 that no remedy will alleviate their distress, but the one coupled 

 with measures of relief from the home Government. The conse- 

 quence is, that very little has been attempted in the improve- 

 ment of colonial agriculture; and whilst our eyes have been 

 widely open to the dereliction of the mother-country, they have 

 been closed, and are still blind, to our own faults and short- 

 comings. 



I readily admit that the reproaches urged by her Majesty's 

 ministers and our adversaries are, to a certain extent, justly 

 grounded ; but, however presumptuous I may appear in offering 

 an opinion in a matter so grave, I dare contend that much credit 

 is not due to our opponents at home for ascribing the sum total 

 of our misfortunes to our ignorance, and our want of industry 

 and energy. Wrong we may be in deducing our distresses from 

 a single source ; but still more faulty are those who trace the 

 same to far less powerful causes ; viz., lack of information an< 

 despondency — the latter of these being but a very natural conse- 

 quence of our present position. 



But, should it be for once admitted that ignorance and 

 supineness are the real causes of our present miserable position, 

 her Majesty's minister for the colonies could not offer any reason- 

 able objection to the adoption of a plan, which, in all probability, 

 would effectually and widely contribute as much to a diffusion ol 

 knowledge as to the general improvement of agriculture, an< 

 which must eventually advance the prosperity of the colony anc 

 the welfare of its inhabitants. 



As to the probable success of the undertaking, I may refer 

 the beneficial results already secured by individual efforts, anc 

 from the encouragements so generously afforded by your Excel- 

 lency. It is true that, on a candid examination of the practical 

 advantages hitherto obtained, we are led to confess that little 

 has, as yet, been realised ; but, when we take into consideratioi 

 that the stronghold of prejudice has been shaken, and thai 



