the House of Commons are transferred to an Assembly representing a constituency of 2000, in a community of nearly 400,000; those of the House of Lords are entrusted to a Council, appointed by the Governor, and removable at his pleasure; the prerogatives of the Crown are vested in a Governor, who has no natural influence or authority in the colony-whose name commands no reverence, whose powers are sufficient to make him obnoxious, without procuring for him either fear or respect; who represents nothing but the policy of the British Government, which, for the last fifty years, the dominant classes in Jamaica have always hated. Such is the parody on the Three Estates, which is now extant in the local constitution of Jamaica. Upon the laws passed by these powers, the Crown has a veto, and Parliament has its transcendental authority over all-an authority not confinable within definite limits, but the exercise of which is generally understood to be an awful thing, not to be resorted to except in extremity.

Now, so long as these several powers were of the same mind on all important questions, they might proceed together harmoniously enough. But it must have been obvious from the begin ning, that so soon as a difference of policy should arise between the Assembly and the Home Government, a war of legislation must follow, in which the latter must either give way or call in the aid of Parliament; and that a direct collision must then take place between the local and imperial Legislature. Accordingly we find, from the Journals of the Jamaica Assembly, that altercations between them and the Government commenced at a very early period, and were renewed from time to time; but that, the matters at issue attracting no national interest, they always succeeded in carrying their point; to their own great profit and triumph, and to the serious inconvenience of the public. But as soon as the agitation of the Slave Trade question, towards the close of the last century, roused the people of England to take a part in the quarrel, it assumed at once a different aspect; and discerning men soon saw that it could end only in one way, and the sooner the better. It soon became apparent that the prospect of inducing the Assembly to conform its policy to that of the mother country, was quite hopeless. All the arts of encouragement were tried in vain. Every step, every pretence of a step, in the right direction, was hailed with delight as a pledge of future progress; every thing was conceded which could be conceded, without abandoning the cause; nothing was insisted on which was not essential; whatever it was necessary to urge, was urged in the tenderest manner, with anxious professions of re

spect and deference-with unweariable confidence in their good intentions-with patient reasoning. But all was worse than fruitless. Every thing turned into bitterness. The whole conciliatory process served only to fill them with false ideas of their own importance; to render them more obstinate in their prejudices, more tenacious of their rights, more reckless in their actions;-to aggravate the original difference into an abiding system of hostility, which drew away the attention of the Legislature from all public objects, bred nothing but altercation, and made the hopes of a final reconciliation more distant every session. This tendency was so evident from the first, that the process ought to have been cut short long ago. The authority which, it was plain, must be resorted to at last, should have been used at once. So, the disease would not have settled into the constitution, and the civilisation of Jamaica might have commenced half a century the sooner. But distant evils, of which, though we know the magnitude, we do not feel the smart, are most easily dealt with by hoping that they will abate; and there is probably no hope which will outlive so many disappointments. Thus we have gone on for more than forty years-grieving that each successive effort to secure the cordial co-operation of the Jamaica Assembly had only exasperated their hostility, but still hoping that the next effort would be successful; and now, in 1839, we are as ready to hope as ever that a few fair words, and a locus pœnitentiæ, would really turn their hearts towards us.

Now, patience is a great virtue; but, when cultivated at other people's expense, it is apt to be abused; and hope, indulged beyond a certain point, may become criminal as well as foolish. Let us review the history of our attempts to conciliate the cooperation of the Jamaica Assembly, since the beginning of the great quarrel; with what forlorn prospects they were commenced; with what patient perseverance, under what manifold discouragements, they were renewed; in what mere failure they have all ended; and let us then ask, whether we have any right to persist in the same course still.

The temper in which a proposal to co-operate for the extinction of the Slave Trade, in 1797, would probably be entertained by the Assembly of Jamaica, might have been inferred from a variety of reports and protests which they had been putting forth during the ten years preceding. Mr Wilberforce's Bill was denounced, not merely as an invasion of their constitutional privileges, but as an act of spoliation;- an absolute breach of the 'solemn assurances held forth by repeated proclamations and 'Acts of Parliament, to supply the sugar colonies with labourers

from Africa, which must ultimately alienate the minds of his Majesty's subjects in those colonies. But when the hoping faculty is strong, protests like this only act as stimulants. And when, in 1797, the question of immediate abolition was revived, it was suggested by persons friendly to the object, that the Colonial Assemblies would be best able to bring it about. Certain preliminary measures were necessary to prepare the way ;-the condition of the slaves must be improved, and the annual decrease of their numbers checked, and then the trade would come to a natural end, to the general benefit of all. But these measures must be left to the local legislatures. The Jamaica Assembly had said, indeed, that the abolition of the trade would certainly ruin them, and that they would resist it by all constitutional means; but they only meant to protest against its being done by the Imperial Parliament:-let them be requested to do it themselves, and those who were best acquainted with their 'feelings,' undertook for them that they would cheerfully set about it. The experiment was not a very hopeful one; but, perhaps, it was worth trying for once. And so it was resolved to try it. A recommendation from the King was laid before the Jamaica Assembly, in August 1797, that they should adopt 'such measures as might appear to them best calculated gradually to diminish the necessity of the slave trade, and ultimately to lead to its final extinction. In December they sent their answer. They had already passed two Bills for the benefit of the negroes; one to increase the efficiency of the clergy, the other to prohibit the importation of Africans above twenty-five years old; they would do more as they saw occasion; but they must ' at the same time declare that they were actuated by feelings of humanity only, and not with any view to the abolition of the 'slave trade: the right of obtaining labourers from Africa, was an essential right, 'which they could never give up, nor do any thing that might render it doubtful.'

Such was the result of the first experiment towards securing the cordial co-operation of the Jamaica Assembly by conciliation. It might have been thought sufficient to extinguish for ever so young and so forlorn a hope. But no! Gentlemen who were acquainted with their feelings, assured the House of Commons that their meaning had been misunderstood; when they said they

* Resolution of Assembly, 8th November 1792. See Journals, x. p. 130.

+ See Debate on Mr C. R. Ellis's motion. Hansard, vol. xxxiii. p. 252. ‡ Journals, vol. x. p. 99.

would never give up the slave trade, they only meant that they would not give it up for fear of Mr Wilberforce.* So, conciliation was still to be the order of the day. What they had done was accepted as a pledge of their good intentions; for what they said they meant to do, they were liberally thanked; what they said they meant not to do, was overlooked. A year or two was allowed to pass, that the first wound might have time to heal; and then, by way of a gentle stimulant, a series of suggestions was laid before them, concerning the best means of carrying their intentions into effect. They were proposed in the most delicate manner—rather as inquiries for the information of Government, than as hints for their own guidance. But they drew forth nothing except a Report on the general state of the island, declaring that every thing which could be done for the benefit of the slaves, consistently with their reasonable services, and with the safety of the white inhabitants,' had been done already; -that on this point they alone were competent to form an opinion; that the policy of Ministers was unwise, unjust, and cruel ; that 'the being supplied with labourers from Africa, for supporting, ، improving, and extending settlements already made, and also 'for making new settlements,' was a sacred right, in the defence of which it was their duty to resort to every constitutional measure; and concluding with an intimation that, should the sent course be persevered in, they would not be able to raise the taxes from which alone their engagements with the British Government could be made good.†

pre

Here was another extinguisher. If hope could be defeated by words alone, this should have been enough. But no : they were only words-the outbreak of a natural irritation: only let them alone, and see what they would do. It was plain that nothing could be said which would not provoke hostility, but they might perhaps be moved by silence. Silence, however, did not answer. For two years they did nothing which even an agent could represent as tending to follow out the recommendations of the Government; and in the third they did worse. In 1802 they passed an Act to prevent unlicensed preaching, the intention and practical effect of which was to silence the missionaries;-to cut off all the moral and religious instruction which could really find its way to the heart of the slave. The system of saying nothing, therefore, proved the greatest failure of all: bad deeds were worse than bad words. It was next determined to try the effect of a

* Mr Sewell's speech. Parl. Hist. vol. xxxiv. p. 531.
† Journals, vol. x. p. 416.

definite recommendation, backed by the show of authority. In signifying the disallowance of the Act in question, as contrary to all principles of toleration, Lord Camden forwarded, for the information of the Assembly, the draft of a Bill which, if passed in Jamaica, would be confirmed by the Crown. If the recommendations of Government were to have any influence with them whatever, such a communication would at least be entertained with respect. But it only called forth a resolution, that the proposition was an unconstitutional interference with the appropriate functions of the House, which it was their bounden duty never to submit to.'*

This at last appears to have been decisive. When their friends in England found that seven years' conciliation had procured no measure affecting the condition of the slaves, except one to their disadvantage ;--when they found that the Slave Trade was going on with greater activity than ever, and was as far as ever from its termination; when they found that general intimations of the wishes of Parliament produced nothing but flat refusals to comply with them; that specific inquiries were treated with neglect, specific recommendations rejected as dictation— they do seem to have inferred that cordial co-operation for the suppression of the Slave Trade was not to be obtained by that process. They agreed therefore to abolish it at once.

Such was the grand result of the first series of attempts at conciliation. The trade was abolished in 1807. Why should it not have been abolished in 1792? The slave population was not worse prepared for it; the Colonial Assemblies could not have been worse disposed to co-operate; fifteen years would not have been lost; hundreds of thousands of Africans would not have been imported into the West Indies; the difference between the Jamaica Assembly and the Government would not have been fretted into a never-ending quarrel, which has now become part and parcel of its constitution.

The immediate result of the Act was, of course, a furious protest, with threats of resistance. Unless their grievances were redressed (that is, unless the Act were repealed, full compensation granted for all losses and disappointments, military protection provided at the expense of the mother country, and all pretensions to interfere with their internal government and affairs abandoned by Parliament), they could not again vote the usual provisions for the troops; and in the mean time all grants for public buildings, barracks, &c., would be suspended. All this

* Journals, vol. xi. p. 287.

+ Ibid., vol. xi. p. 600.