BLACKS IN OFFICE. 



25 



It is the policy of the present administration, both in 

 Downing street and Spanish town, to promote intercourse in 

 every possible way, between the -different races in Jamaica, 

 and throughout the British West India Islands ; and, to 

 this end, the colored people are familiarized as rapidly as 

 possible with the political duties of the citizen — as John 

 Bull understands them. They have, certainly, a fair share 

 of the public patronage, indeed they are esteemed the 

 favorites of the government ; there are one or two black 

 regiments here constantly under pay ; they furnish nine- 

 tenths of the officers of the penitentiary, and, as I have 

 before said, almost the entire police force of the island, 

 and ultimately, I have reason to believe, it is the expecta- 

 tion of the home government, that these islands, without 

 changing their colonial relations, will be substantially 

 abandoned by the white population, and their local inter- 

 ests left to the exclusive management of the people of 

 •color. But more of this anon. 



While the entente cordiale between the whites and the 

 colored people is apparently strengthening, daily, a very 

 different state of feeling exists between the negroes or 

 Africans, and the browns. The latter shun all connection 

 by marriage with the former, and can experience no more 

 unpardonable insult, than to be classified with them in any 

 way. They generally prefer that their daughters should 

 live with a white person upon any terms, than be married to 

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