HIS COMPENSATION. 



Si 



since. I am the more confident of this, from a circum- 

 stance which occurred during my visit on the island. Some 

 of the friends of Morales brought forward a proposition to 

 advance the Speaker's salary, when a member rose and 

 with crushing effect, produced the journal of the House of 

 some previous year, in which Morales's vote was recorded 

 against the law which advanced the Speaker's salary to its 

 present figure, upon the ground that the old salary was 

 high enough. Of course the proposition met with no 

 favor. 



Had I realized what a set of shadows composed this 

 body, and how utterly destitute they were of the indepen- 

 dence and the power which give to political representation 

 all its value, I should have felt less impatience to visit it. 

 I had expected to find there, as in the United States and 

 as in England, the troubles of the people finding fit ex- 

 pression. I supposed the reports, debates and legislative 

 formula's would have revealed the activity, the tendencies, 

 the grievances, and in general the public sentiment of Ja- 

 maica ; instead of which, I found a body of men in no re- 

 spect representatives of the people, holding legislative office 

 without the vital functions of legislators. 



