410 TRINIDAD. 



is safe, when the money for meeting the demands of the salaried 

 officials has been secured: on occasion it is even remitted to 

 England as a security. 



Again, public situations are here considered as the patrimony 

 of a few influential persons, who dispose of them as provisions 

 made for their relations, or rewards to their proteges ; and, in 

 order to cultivate a good understanding, and insure a safer 

 monopoly, there exists between these lordlings of patronage a 

 sort of reciprocity treaty, a tacit family compact. Appointments 

 are made even to the most responsible situations irrespective 

 of qualifications, and where qualifications do exist, irrespective of 

 claims. Functions are often accumulated in the shape of plu- 

 ralities, so that the same individual, simply because he already 

 occupies one position, is considered as entitled to fill another, and 

 that sometimes of a totally opposite bearing and character. As a 

 consequence, lack-door and under-hand influence may be traced 

 in nearly all the appointments made. The governor of a crown 

 colony, being vested with almost unlimited power, can do much 

 good, if he is disinterested, if he is desirous of consulting the 

 wants of the colony he is called to govern, and capable of forming 

 an opinion on the subject ; if, on the contrary, he proves self- 

 conceited, stubborn, and at the same time, vacillating and 

 enamoured of change, he will become the oppressor, in lieu of 

 being the protector of the community over which his authority 

 extends. What his predecessor has done, he will undo as far as 

 possible; the very agents the former has appointed, he will 

 distrust. Captain Elliot has not found one of the 40 wardens 

 selected by Lord Harris, capable of filling the well paid situations 

 created by himself, under the Amended Territorial Ordinance. 

 Again, what opinion can a governor form of the requirements of 

 a colony, after six or even twelve months therein? He must 

 borrow his opinion from a few ; and in case those few are pos- 

 sessed of a little aristocratic morgue, they will always give their 

 decision against the profanum vulgus. They will oppose every 

 change that would tend to limit their power or influence. This 

 is natural ; but what I consider anomalous is, that British 

 ministers invariably adopt the conclusions of a few inte- 

 rested individuals, transmitted through the governor, as their 

 organ, against the prayers of a whole community ; and those 

 conclusions they adopt, probably with a view to avoid the annoy- 



