40 TRINIDAD. 



Barbadoes, and part of the Leeward Islands viz., Dominica, 

 St. Lucia, St. Vincent, Grenada, and Tobago, Trinidad, and 

 Demerara. 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. Tobago, with its 15,000 inhabitants, has 

 the same number of superior public officers as Jamaica ; also, in 

 addition, enjoying its House of Assembly, with power to make 

 laws ; whilst Demerara and Trinidad are crown colonies. In fact, 

 things are so arranged, or rather so disordered, as to facilitate a 

 waste of as much money as possible, and the creation of as 

 untoward laws as are conceivable. The public establishment of 

 such colonies as St. Christopher, Nevis, Monserrat, Tobago, &c., 

 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 of acting in 

 other respects as legislators. 



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 with 

 those in the Bahamas or Jamaica. 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 almost naturally identical : 

 they must rise or sink, together. It has, therefore, become im- 

 peratively necessary, that these different colonies should be homo- 

 genized ; that they should be brought into mutual relation 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 difficulty and dis- 

 tress. This, however, can only be done by forming a political 

 union of the scattered colonies, with a federal colonial parliament, 

 or joint house of assembly. 



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

 am fully convinced, that the proposed change would be for the 

 advantage of the colonies, both in a financial and administrative 

 point of view. The parliament or general assembly should con- 

 sist of representatives from all the different colonies. These 

 deputies might be elected either by the local assemblies, or by a 

 board of electors holding higher elective qualifications than those 

 of the local assemblies. The members of the general assembly 

 would be entitled to a daily allowance, to be contributed by each 



