220 TlMEHRI, 
on the part of the colonies. It also necessarily involved 
the sacrifice of many business engagements, and was in 
other ways inconvenient, and I did not wish to be subject 
to this sacrifice and inconvenience unless I had a reason- 
able prospect of being able to do some real service to 
the colonies. I felt that a delegate should be in a 
position to speak for all the colonies, and that there 
should be a common policy and not a number of separate 
delegations possibly bidding, so to speak, against each 
other. 
I was aware, of course, that the British Guiana and 
Trinidad Legislatures had passed Resolutions under 
which I could have a6led for them ; but Barbados and 
Jamaica ; having shown an intention to proceed sepa- 
rately, I had made up my mind on the 24th 06lober to 
stand aside, so that each colony might have its own 
delegate. The strongest pressure was however, brought 
to bear upon me by West Indian friends in the United 
Kingdom, who were becoming very anxious as to the 
probable closing of sugar markets in the States if such 
arrangement were made. Lord Knutsford personally 
urged me to proceed, and on receipt of a kind and press- 
ing note from his Lordship, I finally accepted the nomi- 
nation on behalf of British Guiana, Trinidad, the Wind- 
ward and Leeward Islands. This was on Tuesday, the 
27th 06lober. On the following Saturday, the 31st, I 
embarked on board the steamship Umbrta, accompanied 
by Mr. James L. Ohlson, the Secretary of the West 
India Committee, and provided with the necessary Blue 
Books and papers. 
On Monday, the 9th November, I reported myself to 
Her Majesty's Minister at the Legation in Washington. 
