The Colony’s Constitution. 
35 
where it naturally becomes quite a different drink, for during the course 
of the journey it not only loses its aroma but also its colour. 
118. In contrast with this huge quantity of Imports, Export is lim- 
ited solely to sugar, coffee, rum, syrup and an inconsiderable amount of 
cacao. The former very extensive export of cotton has sunk to nil since 
Emancipation, because the material obtained by free men cannot com- 
pete with that won by slave labour. Were the conditions of Guiana to 
stand on the same footing with those of the Slave-States of America as 
regards amount and cheapness of labour, an area of cultivation would 
then present itself right here along a stretch of some 280 miles of coast- 
line— from the mouth of the Gorentyn to that of the Orinoco — where all 
kinds of cotton shrub could be grown with the most magnificent results. 
119. But in spite of goods and manufactured products being for the 
most part imported from Europe and North America, there is no lack 
whatever of mechanics and artificers: these are almost generally Euro- 
peans though the mulattoes who particularly show plenty of skill and 
adroitness in these branches, frequently get the better of them at pres- 
ent. As regards trades demanding greater handiness and manual dexterity 
the negroes develop far less talent: they work mostly as masons, carpen- 
ters, smiths, and coopers, yet without being able to achieve — so far as 
durability and neatness of work are concerned — what one might reason- 
ably demand in view of their enormous charges. The tailoring and siioe- 
making trades are generally found in the hands of the mulattoes and the 
French, who have drawn here from their settlements in the Islands. The 
journeyman tailor also in Guiana can always be picked out amongst 
thousands by his clothes: he is likewise the coxcomb, the faultless fop. 
120. In connection with sanitary police, it is indeed a wicked shame 
thalt everybody may trade in physic as he pleases, the result of which is 
that the saddest accidents unfortunately often take place. Such an one 
happened a few days after our arrival when a woman asked for quinine 
for her sick children and received strychnine: the little ones naturally 
died under the most ghastly sufferings. 
121. The Governor and Government Executive manage the civic ad- 
ministration on the lines followed at the time when the Colony was taken 
over on the part of Great Britain. The highest Executive or Colonial 
Parliament consists of the Governor, the Chief Justice, the Solicitor 
General, the Royal Tax-gatherer, the Government State-Secretary and 
an equal number of unpaid individuals who are chosen from among the 
Colonists by the College of Electors. 
122. The College of Electors is composed of seven members appoint- 
ed from among the inhabitants for life: the Government Secretary keeps 
the votes sent him, and the sealed canister in which they are contained 
may only be opened in the presence of the Governor and of at least two 
other members of the Government. Formerly the owners of 25 slaves 
could only be voters: at the present time any one avIio pays £5 in cus- 
toms duty has the right to vote. 
123. When a vacancy occurs, the College of Electors names two can- 
didates from whom the Government appoints one as Ilia member and 
publishes his name in the Gazette. The unpaid or Colonial members of 
the Legislature serve three years and retire in rotation. One or more 
annually give up their seats, but can be re-elected. The Governor, as 
