386 TRINIDAD. 



afforded an opportunity of becoming proprietors, on a small scale, 

 by the purchase of Crown-land, in convenient localities, they 

 would probably have become useful members of society. In case, 

 however, all other measures being taken, they should choose to per- 

 sist in their illegal practices, I then would not hesitate to recom- 

 mend hard labour, in addition to imprisonment, for repeated 

 offences. For not only is squatting an usurpation of the rights of 

 property, but it evidently tends to create in individuals a disposi- 

 tion to insubordination, and to the nurture of savage dispositions ; 

 and it may be affirmed, with certainty, that in all countries where 

 squatting prevails, squatters form a dangerous class. 



It would be a work of supererogation to offer remarks on the 

 benefits resulting from the diffusion of education. I shall therefore 

 merely remark, that it is particularly necessary in countries where 

 the great mass of the people have been kept for years under the 

 debasing system of slavery, and where, as a consequence, gross and 

 wide-spread ignorance prevails. I am aware of the opinion enter- 

 tained by many, that any encouragement held forth to the march 

 of lower-class intellect, creates in the people a spirit of false inde- 

 pendence; and that youths, who have acquired the elementary 

 branches of learning, such as reading, writing, and arithmetic, will 

 scorn the idea of labour in the cane-fields. This will be the case 

 as long as primary instruction is the privilege of a minority ; but, 

 when it becomes general, and is coupled with other administrative 

 measures, the dreaded evil will gradually disappear, and the bene- 

 ficial results be then felt ; for in lieu of the unintelligent and 

 unskilful hands we are constrained to employ, as at present, in the 

 tillage of the soil, we shall then have to deal with intelligent and 

 skilful agents. I, therefore, consider the establishment of a sound 

 system of public instruction as a paramount regenerative measure, 

 and not to be forestalled by any other that can be suggested. In 

 the year 1851 Lord Harris proposed the introduction of such a 

 system, and gave preference to that of the Irish National Board 

 of Education. Secular instruction only is afforded at these 

 schools, and the parents and guardians, with the aid of the clergy, 

 have the responsibility of providing religious teaching for the 

 children. To this plan I cannot deny the advantage of not directly 

 interfering with the religious training of the pupils ; but this is its 

 sole advantage, and one which is, in my opinion, more than 

 counterbalanced by its capital defects. It has been said that infi- 



