CHAPTER V. 



Political Representation in Jamaica—Impotence of the Legislature 

 — Executive influence — The Council— Deliberations of the 

 Assembly — Political Parties — Public Salaries — Memorial 

 against the Council. 



I have stated that the local legislature of this island has 

 neither the independence nor the power necessary to make 

 it, to any extent, representative of the people. A few facts 

 will show the truth of what I say, and will go far to ex- 

 plain the decrepit condition of this colony, to those who 

 appreciate the dependance of good government upon full 

 and fair representation. 



Jamaica is divided up into twenty-two parishes, as they 

 are called, each of which sends two, and Kingston, Span- 

 ishtown and Port Royal, one additional delegate to the 

 assembly, making the aggregate forty-seven, when the 

 house is full. Every member, before taking his seat, is 

 required to swear that he and his wife together, if he have 

 a wife, are in the receipt of a clear income of nine hundred 

 dollars a year, from real estate, or that they own real 

 estate worth nine thousand dollars, or real and personal 



