DESTINY OF JAMAICA. 



161 



She will doubtless progress, but she can never attain the 

 height of her prosperity while she remains a dependance 

 of Great Britain. 



Any colonial system of government without representa- 

 tion is essentially vicious ; the colonial system of Great 

 Britain is probably worse than any other, for she has not a 

 colony in the world which she has not exhausted, or is not 

 rapidly exhausting. 



When the colored people become the proprietors of the 

 property, and have to pay high salaries and oppressive 

 taxes, their relations to the government will be rapidly 

 changed, and they will be thrown into the position now 

 occupied by the Country party. They will clamor for low 

 salaries and probably high duties. They will get neither. 

 What lies beyond, it is scarcely worth w T hile to speculate 

 upon, for before that day Great Britain will inevitably be 

 compelled to modify her colonial policy so radically, at 

 least with respect to her West Indian possessions, as to in- 

 troduce elements into the question which cannot now be 

 conjectured. Nothing is more probable, in respect to the 

 political fate of the island, twenty years hence, than that it 

 will be one of the United States of America. 



It can probably be governed more cheaply and to more 

 profit by our people than by any other, and both nations 

 will probably discover before that period, that their mutual 

 interests may be consulted by the transfer. It is from my 



