The Press.
London, England, 1853-05-14 00:00:00

THE PRESS.

proceedings are condemned in the honourable
and gentlemanly feeling that animates the
following passage from the pen of the noble
Lord :
*The commencement of the year 1774 was marked by
one of those unhappy incidents which tended so greatly to
embitter our national contest with America. Benjamin
Franklin, a man of science and of letters, luiving risen
from obscurity by his talents. was at this time Deputy
Postmaster-General under the Crown for tlw American easy
kitties, and agent in Libation ter the Assembly of Massachu•
setts. In both capacities he had become intimately con-
nected with Mr. John Temple, lately Surveyor-General of
the Customs, awl at this time one of the Commissioners
of Customs at Boston. Some letters of Hutchinson, the
tiovernor, and 'liver, the Licuteoamt-tioveroor, of 3liu4su-
elotsetts, addressed to Mr. Thomas Wluitely, Under SVITC•
tory of State, appear to have fallen into the hands of Mr.
Temple, awl to have been by him communicated to Frank-
lin. The letters were ltdarl,:o4l.ll to a private friend, but to
a private friend in °thee, and the matter of them maw of a
public nature. The violence of the Boston opplosititin was
in these letters treated with severity: doubts were expressed
whether a calmly three thousand miles from the parent
state should enjoy all the liberty of the parent state. Such
letters were sure to kindle a Name in the cottony.. Regard-
less at tome of such 11111•41.1illeat.a, and of the private chit-
railer of the letters, Franklin imitated the conduct of the
younger Vane, and transmitted the letters, under an in-
ufsettrecy, to the Speaker of the House of Assem-
bly ill Massachusetts. The secrecy which he had out kept
himself was not likely Ur lie 'observed by the toilers of a
popular assembly; the letters were divulged; it was re-
solved t") that they were designed to subvert the
constitution; awl a Iwtitimi of the Assembly to the King
praying for the rtomoval of Hutchinson and t 'liver was
voted, and transmitted to Franklin for presentation.*
And Lord Joint adds afterwards, as if he were
writing of a Sir Baldwin Walker, " It is impos-
sible to justify Franklin."
Here for the present we must pause. But
there remains in this work a great deal of
matter upon which it will be our duty to com-
ment. IVe sincerely feel grateful to the noble
Lord for the etnulour and manly frankness of
the tone with which he has written about his
party. The " Fox Club," however, will not
share t.-
-r feelings. Its members with pious
veneratioa and credulous ignorance will turn
to these pages, expecting in them the style of
an idolator of Fox. How astounded will they
be in beholding in a Russell the unconscious
icouttehttst, of their remotes !

Demerara rafter ',Viersi. Years q Preethmt. llv
Landowner. London : Bosworth.

THERE is not much novelty in this tract: it
deals with topics which the House of Commons
and the Press have made familiar to us
ttll—
with legislative blunders. colonial grievances,
the ruin of planters, the improvidence of
negroes, the retrogression towards barba-
rism of a race once thought to be making
progress in the ways of civilisation, and the
transithmal sutrerings of a province on which
the new financial system has pressed with
extraordinary severity. We knew all these
things before. It is not partieularly pleasant
to be reminded of them, especially after prae-
tieal proof has been given that they eannot
here be remedied : yet something either in the
style or matter of this author has led its to
reperuse, in his pages, details disagreeable in
themselves. and with whielt we thought our
selves already as well acquainted au; we wished
to be. The merit of the work consists in its
manifest authenticity. The " Landowner."
unlike many of his class. knows the colony
well, and writes from h W. thought the results
of his experience are often pretty much the
' ••0 as may be found in books. 'Witness his
• -eription of the etfccts produced on native
.eiety by the net of licts

Is its interesting 1.1 observe the first effeets of unroll.
o,lllllllll4fteeduit.iit'i.,9lte% 11111'1!
intrlt Its th.. tilt' tu,rtin isof the white man. A shirt
:mil µ high st. la, a pith' of 'JUN.,: (.1111.111.1 in one hand, and
net umbrella in the other. which had once been coosidereil
the clone •t e tstume OIL .t SZmility. ipiiekly received the
11144 MS addition of it VIII' of 111111 a coat :
Wain% 111111 ribbons of the ~.,-ayest hues adorned the other
set 7 hone; tutu Vt•lsil'l*.F4 of ITory kind eame into common
use rosily I. itertaiiiment 11 and IMMO% and
holds were iourebas.4l by the iiegmepi in the best parts of the
milisity. lint. as time rolled on. the freed mail fomid that
these lit‘uries new only to la• obtained lit money. ihr
IVIIIIIII 0(4.41:1 y toil 141honestindustry. He etmsidered
them dear at that Kiev. and opiietiv rsil.nusl them for oiler
anti less "Pensive Plea"llres. I:511'1146w ceased, and a
rapid renetitai el IMMO .1114.11 tt 'War& that and savage
state of life Which, hi reality. was more agreeable mid
eongenial to his nut:night nature.

And at coutl►anion l►ict:trc is painted ill the
following, of which the scene is a (Wilma
plantation iu grinding time; the chief actor, a

!SATURDAY,

young European manager, serving his first
apprenticeship to mosquitoes, fever, and negro
labourers, while the background must be filled
with any number of sable figures, in a state of
greasy nudity. The inexperienced youth in
charge has, of course, heard something of negro
•' strikes," but flatters himself that his gang
are an exception. His ships are loading in
the river; the canes ripe and abundant;
wages good, and work going on prosperously.
In this state of things one or two shrewd
Africans, guessing the manager's anxiety to get
his crop cut without delay, conclude to turn it
to profit. The result is thus told :

The first information which the manager receives in the
morning from his foremen is, that the people do not intend
to " turn out" unless their wages are increased, for, as
they allege, " their manna is a rich man, and they are
making plenty of sugar.•' While the tin•emeu are yet
speaking, and before time numager ha.; even time to consider
these demands, the determination nut to work is fully con-
tinned by the appearance of two or three lalsoarers !Mlle
tering alonp.,, towards their provishm grounds, and of
numerous party carrying fishing seines and nets, hurrying
to the canals and the sea-side, followed by a few sporting
men, armed with rusty fowlite,-pieces: ad, as if this was
not enough, on IL sudden a loud and fearful drumming
issues from the cottages, ►ntd groups of younger people
are seen twisting themselves into all the indelicate attitudes
of the "Joan Johnny dance," to the sound of a rude drum,
assisted by the voices of the performers. It is altogether
the coolest, most contemptuous, uud most passive resist-
ance conceivable.

Of course the managor storms and vows
vengeance ; but he has no remedy. The men
were engaged only by the day ; he has no lien
upon them except as regards the rent free
cottages and provision grounds which they
hold. Even from these he can only eject them
by due legal process ; and he knows perfectly
well that his neighbour, who is also short of
hands, will immediately take the ejected into
employ On second thoughts, therefore, he
pockets his disappointment, assumes, if he
can, an air of good-humoured indifference, and
waits patiently till they come back to him.
though every day's delay is a hundred pounds
or more out of the anticipated profits of his
employer. Exposed unceasingly to tropical
sun and rain—living nearly alone, with few
books and fewer neighbours—harassed by
such scenes as the above, and rarely released
from the monotonous routine of his duties, a
West Indian manager's life is in every sense a
hard one. The mortality among this class is
great ; and few who belong to it attain old
age.
The landed proprietors of Guiana are divisi-
ble into three classes. First come the wealthy
merchants and capitalists, about fifty or sixty
in number, non-residents, but whose capital
mainly keeps the colony afloat. These gentle-
men, having other sources of income besides
those which depend on their West Indian
estates, have held on through the worst times,
laying out largely in improvements, and trust-
ing to a future change of fortune to remune-
rate them. They are often reviled as absentees ;
but it is only justice to remember that, had not
the bulk of their property been invested in
England, it must have perished in the univer-
sal distress ; and that, so far from exhausting
the wealth of Guiana, they alone have saved
her from bankruptcy. "It is not," says our
author very justly, " their actual presence so
much as their countenance and capital which
are required by the colony."
The next class are the " industrious, hard-
working, practical men," abounding rather in
energy and experience than capital, living on
the spot. and acting as their own managers.
To them an opportunity has been offered such
us they never enjoyed before, in the abandon-
ment and sale, at nominal prices, of large
estates, which the former proprietors could no
longer work with advantage. The purehase
of such estates by such men used to be pointed
out with triumph by the Manchester school as
the sure means of regaining to Guiana her lost
prosperity. lint the experiment has not
worked well. They " had neither capital nor
credit" to profit by their purchases, and the
result may be told in one word—bankniptey :
Dilapidated buildings. swampy lands. patched and jing-
ling machinery. :00 labourers wages iu smear, all plainly
bespeak the hatill4o-nnattli system which prevails on their
properties. The plain truth is. a poor HUM hll% no business
with the sugar estate in I temenira : he might as well. on
the strength tar being able to purchase an old barn in Lan-
cashire. consider himself tptalitied to set np ns u Manche*.
ter manufacturer.

MAY 14, 1853

We believe this to be strictly true—and so
it will be, until the one great reform of sugar-
making be accomplished—the separation of
cane-growing from the manufacture. and the
establishment of central mills. But here prac-
tical difficulties intervene, the solution of
which we must leave to the " Landowner" anti
the blue-books. Last and lowest in the social
gradation comes the emancipated slave, who
sometimes holds land individually. though
more often in joint tenancy with others. Hero
is his portrait at fall length, and not a shade
blacker than the original :
The black proprietor of a joint-stoek estate never w,,rks
with his own hauls, although not u► acquainte. with
manual labour, for who ever saw a white gentlemal n w ith
a shovel or a hoe? He is well aware that property tuts
its privileges as well as its duties ; au t. as he reads tin an,
the former eousists in wearing a high stock flea close-
fitting trousers tightly strapped over au •• extra-sized"
fancy cloth hoot, in loading a life of porpetimi semi.
intoxication, and galloping about the country tat a half-
starved pony. The duties of his station are to pilfer from
his neighbour on every occasion, to three his ageil parents
to labour on his land for a mere pittance, and, when too
feeble any longer to work, to allow them to perish from
neglect. .k visit to one of these negro properties is a
melancholy sight. There stands the once elegant man-
sion-litalse, now filst decaying, and from which a plank or
a post is torn whenever simnel; the gardens are gone, and
the orchards cut down for firewood; the doors and Van-
ilows of the boiling-house swing on broken hinges; and
the wild fig-tree, with its long air roots, grows vigorously
on the crumbling brickwork ; everything denotes desola-
tion; and the visitor turns away with a sigh, r.s he behohis
a lien! of swine rooting beneath the ehunp of tamAriml
and palm trees, which mirk the burial-place of the former
owners.
" twins lime tam Nitta novalia, • ttijer' haboblt?
Harbarus has si getes?
queis eons: vimas sgms."
Vitton., I.

The end of these estates is quickly accomplished : the
sea breaks in, and out, through the ill-kept sluices unit •
neglected sea-dams, until an equinoctial spring-tide, rough
and high, overwhelms the laud, destroying every vestige of
cultivation. Disputes ensue, a land surveyor is called in
to divide the property. and allot to each shareholder a
separate and individual portion; and the Legislature is
petitioned to puss an act eamis-lling the several ownem
to keep up the dams 111111 drainage, for their mutual
benefit.
The one hope of the colony rests on Coolie
immigration. which has succeeded better than
even the authors of it anticipated. Large sums
have been made by the immigrants, and each
man who returns with his savings encourages
others to go out. The Liteknoir, which left for
India in August, 1851, took back 250 coolies.
with earnings amounting to an aggregate of
4,0001. Docile, industrious, and deficient hi
no quality of a labourer, save physical strength.
these natives of the East seem likely to replace
the African races hi the position which the latter
have so long occupied, as cultivators, under
the English planter, of a tropical soil.

Fifth Annual Report qf du. Poor Law Boa of .
1852. London : Eyre and Spottiswoode.
Amos° the innumerable yearly reports which
feed the statistical appetite of the public. none
is read with a more mingled sensation of pride
and pain than that which records the history
of pauperism and its cure. Pain—that in time
of national prosperity, with an overflowing
treasury, boundless trade, external pence, and
a contented people, there should still remain
a class, varying in number from one twentieth
to one twenty-fifth of the whole population of
England and Wales. who suffer the penalties
of imprisonment without crime, and the pri-
vations of extreme poverty amidst abundant
wealth. Pride—that for the relief of this
class, the existence of which, in an old, a
crowded, and a commercial country. seems to
our present ideas inevitable, legislative wis-
dom should have provided resources, insuffi-
cient, indeed. as all such must be for the pre-
vention of suffering, but tending at once to
alleviate its pressure and to circumscribe its
extent. The English poor law. compared with
an ideal standard of perfection. is full of
faults : compared with the practice of any
other nation. it is an institution in which we
may glory. The well working of this law is
attested briefly but sufficiently by the statis-
tical returns issued every year. Those of
1852 are now before the public, and a brief
abstract of tllcm may not he unacceptable :
The total sum expended in Eng-
land and Wales for the main-
tenance of paupers was, in 1K) l X 4.962,70.1
157)2, 4,97,655
Showing a decrease of X67),019.