414 



TRINIDAD. 



Events will arise which shall, in all probability, place in its proper 

 light the importance of the Western Archipelago, and of Trinidad 

 in particular. It is therefore reasonable that we should adopt 

 measures, and make preparations for any favourable crisis which 

 may ensue. We evidently have no relief to expect, and therefore 

 none to seek from England; we must be prepared, on the 

 contrary, to be treated as heretofore, in the light of forlorn 

 children. But I am confident that an enlightened and energetic 

 administration may, by the adoption of measures, at once vigorous 

 and reformatory, cauterise and heal some of the loathsome 

 cankers which corrupt and consume the substance of the colony, 

 viz., vagrancy, squatting, and their consequences, together with 

 those arising from ignorance. 



Those measures must be based upon, and supported by a 

 liberal and comprehensive system of public education ; judicious 

 arrangements for the sale of Crown-lands ; and the encouragement 

 of free, as well as paid immigration, coupled with a law of deni- 

 zation. But to obtain these objects, it is necessary that the people 

 should have a voice at the council-board of the island. Trinidad 

 has been regarded for years as the colony of experiment : facia- 

 mus experimentum in anima viti. We might have hoped that the 

 Colonial office had no more experiments to try, but it is evident 

 that the privilege still exists, though now yielded into the hands 

 of the governors who are periodically sent to rule over the island. 

 I have openly, and I think impartially, exposed the defects of our 

 population ; but I cannot conclude without stating that as a whole, 

 there is not, in the West Indies, a population more peaceful and 

 more orderly than that of the colony of Trinidad. This, strangers 

 who have visited the capital town of Port-of- Spain, and the island 

 generally, have had an opportunity of observing: and I have 

 heard them express their gratification, and with it their surprise, 

 at the quiet and orderly behaviour of the population on all public 

 occasions, either in crowds, as at races, or at any seasons of 

 general festivity. No swearing, no intemperance, no tumults. I 

 may add as regards the natives of Trinidad whom the govern- 

 ment pretend to distrust that, out of 1,168 prisoners committed 

 to the royal gaol, in the year 1854, 166 only were born in the 

 island, making the proportion of native to all other offenders, as 

 1 to 8 ! " It is also very gratifying to see the emulation which 



