INTRODUCTION. 55 



mination of throwing these possessions on their own resources in 

 fact, of abandoning them ; and not only have the troops been 

 withdrawn from the smaller islands, but all articles belonging to 

 the commissariat and ordnance departments have been sold off, 

 and barracks and fortifications given up to the Colonial Govern- 

 ments. It is said, however, that some vessel or vessels of war 

 will occasionally appear in the offing ; and, in case of necessity 

 that is to say, after the evil may have been done will offer the 

 protection of crew and cannon. This is, to all intents and pur- 

 poses, the perfection of the system of " laissez-faire " and "laissez- 

 aller" But the expedition to the Crimea has already shown what 

 may be the result of that system of negligence and non-interven- 

 tion ; and yet England and the United States are, perhaps, the 

 only countries where such a system could have withstood failure ; 

 and the reason is, that the people in those states are accustomed to 

 self-government, and least of any other nations require the direct 

 interference of executive authority in the order and management 

 of public affairs. But, as regards these colonies, it is still more 

 incongruous than in Great Britain, for this reason that here, 

 public opinion is disregarded and slighted, and cannot exercise 

 any check -it is the laissez-aller system, as far as the interests of the 

 colonists are concerned, and the laissez-faire, as regards the public 

 employes. Now, what to us will be the result of such a policy ? 

 And what are the prospects of these islands under the system 

 adopted and persevered in for the last seventeen, but more particu- 

 larly for the last ten years ? These are questions to which no 

 answer can be given under present circumstances especially as 

 " storms may come at sea, and crises on the land " whilst our pro- 

 spects are very greatly, if not wholly, dependent on the contin- 

 gencies of the future. I do not, however, abandon the hope, the 

 rational hope, that there are some elements of prosperity stored 

 up in the womb of the future for these islands of the West ; and, 

 in the following considerations, I shall not treat of their interests 

 as dissimilar and divided far less as antagonistic but follow the 

 course prescribed by nature herself, who regardless of their 



Eture allotment to various powers has, once and for ever, linked 

 em together as so many members of one common family. 

 The prospects of any country depend, mainly, on its internal 

 sources, its geographical position, and means of communication, 

 and, finally, upon the character of its inhabitants. The West 

 India islands being, generally, small in size, their inland commu- 

 nication is neither distant nor extensive ; but, as they are rugged, 

 and in many places mountainous, even that intercourse is often 

 difficult. I have already mentioned their capabilities as agri- 

 cultural countries, and given a sufficient estimate of the character 

 of their inhabitants. I shall only add, that by the natural agency 

 of social intercourse and commercial communication, the character 



