The not room to trace them in detail), are well worth a careful study; for they show us what is to be expected from a body like the Jamaica Assembly, in circumstances very closely resembling those in which it has recently been proposed to place them. The system of conciliation was to be partly abandoned; a series of specific measures was to be proposed to them for adoption, with a fair warning that, in case of refusal, those measures would be forced upon them by the supreme authority of Parliament. issue of this policy can only lead, we think, to one conclusionthat it ought never to be tried again;-a policy which, under pretence of avoiding an appeal to the transcendental powers of Parliament, escaped none of the evils of such an appeal, while it missed almost all the good; which, under pretence of forbearance and conciliation, bred nothing but controversy the most irritating, and agitation the most dangerous; which, under pretence of securing the co-operation of the Assembly in a work of great moment, urgency, and necessity, did in fact only postpone the commencement of that work for many years; which, after all, left the original evil unsurmounted and unabated ;-for the transcendental powers of Parliament had to be appealed to in the end, in circumstances much less favourable than before. We must content ourselves with a hasty review of the principal stages of the controversy. A copy of a law framed for the crown Colonies was sent to Jamaica in 1824. The Governor, having called the attention of the Assembly to it in two successive sessions, reported (22d December 1825), that there was no hope of persuading that 'House to do any thing effectual for the relief of the slaves." On the 13th of March following, he was instructed by Lord Bathurst to dissolve them. For the information of the new House, eight separate Bills were drawn up, embodying the measures proposed by the Government for their adoption. The new House replied (November 1826), that such measures, if adopted ' in that island in their present shape, would not only endanger 'their lives and properties, but would ultimately terminate in the ' ruin and destruction of the Colony.'t. They felt, however, that something must be done another flat refusal to do any thing, would be beyond the patience of Parliament. They would, therefore, do something :- sincerely actuated by that ardent desire, 'which had long distinguished the Assembly of Jamaica, to em'brace every opportunity of improving the condition of the slave 'population,' they passed an Act to alter and amend the slave * Parliamentary Papers, 1826, (2,) p. 5. Ibid., 1828, (1,) p. 60. laws of the island.' We have now to see what sort of things these gentlemen do when they can no longer persist in doing nothing. Into this new Slave Act, which (though falling far short of what was wanted, and still subject to Burke's censure-worthless, because destitute of an executory principle) did certainly contain many plausible appearances of improvements upon the old one, they introduced restraints upon the free communication of religious instruction, which would unquestionably have operated as a great hindrance every where; and might easily be abused, into a total and absolute stoppage of all those sources of instruction from which the slaves drew real benefit. But this was to be the price of their approaches-their distant and ineffectual approaches to a compliance with the wishes of Parliament. Only let the planters have the benefit of the preaching clauses, and the slaves were welcome to all the benefit they could get out of the others. This would never do: the law was disallowed. The reasons were stated by Mr Huskisson in a long despatch, very liberal of compliments for what had been done-most patient in explanations of what had been left undone,-full of regret at the course which it had been necessary to pursue—and of hope that they would speedily pass another Bill free from those insuperable objections. At the same time the Governor was reminded of the instruction which forbade him to sanction any law infringing on religious liberty, unless it had a suspending clause.* But the Assembly were not to be argued into liberality, or complimented into co-operation. They resolved that 'the disallowed law con'tained every real and substantial improvement which could be 'adopted with safety to the country and benefit to the slave; they 'could not (for the purpose of gratifying the Parliament and 'Government of Great Britain) agree to adopt measures incom'patible with the best interests of the colonies; and as the Governor was forbidden to sanction any bill on the subject of religion 'unless it had a suspending clause, and as they would never ' make a deliberate surrender of their undoubted and acknowledged rights, by deliberating in the manner prescribed, they 'would not present any Bill respecting the slave population.' This was in December 1827. Thus the 'slow and steady course' had now continued for four years; and the slave law was scarcely better, by a single clause, than it had been in 1784. A long reply to Mr Huskisson's objections, and a long rejoinder from him, consumed one season more; and then a change of Government made fresh explanations necessary. Sir George Murray, adopting the * Parliamentary Papers, 1828. † Ibid., 1828, p. 8, policy and the tone of his predecessor, pointed out the various measures to which the Government and Parliament were pledged by the resolutions of 1823; and urged them, for their own sakes, at least to pass some measure which might satisfy people that something was about to be done; for the people were impatient, and it would be impossible much longer to avoid some efficient and authoritative interference.* A few years before, this prospect might have alarmed them. But what did they care for such a threat now, when they had been braving it for the last five years with impunity? The disallowed Bill was brought in again, and passed the House in precisely the same words as before, with the difference only of dates; and the Governor, of course, refused his assent. Still, no symptoms of coercion. A new Governor was going out, and perhaps he would find a new people. But Lord Belmore himself could not prevent a third Act from passing, containing the same obnoxious clauses, only more rigorous than before; and Sir George Murray had no choice but to disallow it. Still, however, as if each successive Secretary of State felt bound to reject as irrelevant all the experience of his predecessors, he persevered in hoping that, on reconsideration, the Assembly would abandon their present course ;‡ and, when pressed in the House of Commons to say what he meant to do, he seemed to think this quite enough. The resolutions of 1823 were, in his opinion, suffi'cient warrant for him’—to do what? To come down to Parliament for powers to carry them into execution ? No--'to con'tinue urging these ameliorating measures as rapidly as they 'could be urged.'S In other words, the course of temperate 'but authoritative admonition' had been pursued for seven years without intermission; nothing had been gained by it, except accumulated proofs of its fruitlessness; therefore, it might still go on. At length, however, this wretched hope was cheered with a brief gleam of encouragement-a lightening before death. In February 1831, a law was actually passed (without the inadmissible clauses), by which the Ministers were at length able to say that, upon the whole, the existing slave code would be improved. It was accepted, as usual, with many compliments and thanks; and the many defects which made it utterly inadequate to its professed purposes, were, as usual, patiently pointed out;-of * Parliamentary Papers, 1829, pp. 5-9. Sir J. Keane's Despatch. Parliamentary Papers, p. 10. course, with the usual result. The Assembly declined to hazard any further changes in a law so recently passed.* There was now no further colour for prolonging the experiment. It was clear that Parliament must either recede from its determination, or prepare to enforce it by some other means; and it was resolved to try whether the co-operation which could not be conceded to reason, to entreaty, or to menaces, might not, after all, be had for money. A new law was framed for the Crown Colonies, embodying all the measures of amelioration which were then thought requisite, and relief from certain fiscal burdens was promised to all the legislative colonies which should adopt them. The strength of the principle so often avowed by the Assembly of Jamaica, and never for a moment receded from-not to endure dictation in whatever form it might come-was now to be fairly tested: and it stood the test bravely. The proposition was met by a direct refusal to entertain any proposition for the further amelioration of the slave population, which did • not emanate from themselves.' This determination was communicated by the Governor on the 8th of March 1832, with an intimation that nothing could be gained by a dissolution. Thus, in the ninth year of its progress, the 'slow and steady course of temperate but authoritative admonition,' which had been growing slower and steadier every year, at last stood quite still; and the hope of ending the difference without a quarrel was finally extinguished. Surely not too soon! But all its fruits were not yet gathered. Had it led to nothing more than a nine years' postponement of the commencement of a work most urgent and necessary, that fact would have been enough to condemn it. But this was not all. The long vexation of these questions had fretted the Planters into wild and impotent fury. During 1831, Jamaica swarmed with parochial meetings, where language was used, and resolutions were adopted, which filled the slaves with such terror and suspicion-such vague surmises of evil meditated against them by their masters, and of good unjustly withheld that the next year they rose up in open insurrection. We might almost stop here, and leave Sir Robert Peel and his locus pœnitentiæ to be judged by the very example to which he had the simplicity, or the hardiness, to appeal. A course of treatment is tried for the cure of an enormous and admitted evil; for eight years it produces nothing but barren controversy, and in the ninth a rebellion-the evil remaining all the while unmitigated. Is this a course of treatment to be tried again? But Parliamentary Papers, 1832, p. 19. we must still go on; for another experiment upon the gentler sensibilities of this Assembly was still in store;-another result of experience was to be laid up for our guidance. For a few years, indeed, it appeared that the last lesson had not been taught in vain. Conciliation was abandoned. Committees of both Houses of Parliament were appointed to enquire into the question; and their report was speedily followed by the Act for the total abolition of slavery throughout the British dominions. The Jamaica Assembly were induced to co-operate in this work, by a clause declaring the compensation money payable only on that condition;-effectual co-operation the condition, Government the judge. Among the innumerable inducements which had been held out with the same view for the last forty years, this, it will be seen, was the first which answered its purpose. A prudent statesman would have been the more careful to keep it in reserve till the work was done. But in this there seemed something ungracious, as implying suspicion; and something impolitic, as tending to check the growth of that friendly feeling which can never thrive under the consciousness of distrust. There were many instances on record (especially in works of fiction) in which a generous nature had won the entire confidence of another heart, by suddenly bestowing all his own; or escaped a fight by simply throwing away his weapon; or changed an inveterate enemy into an eternal friend, by putting himself entirely in his power; and Lord Stanley resolved to try a similar experiment upon the Jamaica Assembly. By paying the money before all the work was done, he could at once give them a clear proof that he did really confide in the fairness of their intentions; and an excellent opportunity for showing that his confidence was not misplaced. This was the last experiment. The particulars we need not detail here, as they may be found in a former Number of this Journal;* but we must briefly notice the result. Out of this very display of unnecessary and misplaced confidence, there grew the necessity for three separate acts of super-legislation; three separate violations of the constitution of Jamaica within the space of three years; and finally, the precipitate, if not premature, breaking up of the whole system. To conciliate the Assembly, Lord Stanley had shut his eyes to many serious defects in their first Abolition Act; and trusted to them for the removal of the rest. In gratitude to Lord Stanley, the Assembly consented to adopt many of his suggestions for one year; but after that they were inexorable. They presented a third Bill more objectionable than Edinburgh Review, No. 134, p. 488. |