PROSPECTS OF TRINIDAD. 343 



decently and neatly clad, are now seen walking about with de- 

 jected countenances and patched or tattered garments, and are 

 satisfied, within the precincts of their now miserable shelters, with 

 the food their slaves would once have disdained. Their children 

 remain concealed in order not to expose to the public gaze their 

 ragged condition and emaciated faces ; discouragement harbours 

 in every heart; dejection is verging on despair; money, energy, 

 health all have been gradually wasted away for the last sixteen 

 years with no result. We are in a worse condition in 1855 than 

 we were in 1854, in 1853 things were better than in 1854, and 

 who dare assure they shall not be worse in 1856 ? Oh ! " it is 

 pitiable," indeed, " to witness a fine colony daily deteriorating; a 

 land enjoying almost every blessing under heaven, suffering from 

 a shock from which it does not rally ; but the deepest pang of all 

 to an Englishman, is to see the hearts and affections of a whole 

 population becoming alienated from the country which he loves. " 

 (Lord Harris to Earl Grey.) But what to Lord Harris was a 

 deep pang, seems to be to our present rulers a perfectly indifferent 

 matter. And yet, when we come to a comparison of the prosperity 

 of some of the foreign islands with our own miserable condition, 

 when we compare the protection extended to them by their 

 governments with the abandonment in which we are left by our 

 own, when we know our condition could be improved by a little 

 solicitude on the part of our political parent oh ! then we 

 feel that the alienation of bur affections is but the natural con- 

 sequence of the neglect, the cold indifference, manifested towards 

 the inhabitants of these colonies. In fact, on what considerations 

 are these colonies retained by Great Britain, if not for the sake of 

 ministerial patronage ? How altered is our condition of us 

 the native inhabitants of this colony ! Still, the fixed establish- 

 ment remains untouched ; nay, additions are made to the sacred 

 edifice ; the taxes are as heavy, or even heavier than formerly 

 the government as indifferent, or even more indifferent than ever. 

 And yet Trinidad possesses many natural resources, and from its 

 peculiar configuration and position can afford greater facilities for 

 working out those resources than any other West India island. 

 " Did I not see a prospect I think a better one than in any 

 other in the West Indies of getting this colony through the 

 present crisis," said Lord Harris in 1848, "I should not venture 

 to propose that advances should be made ; but looking at the 



