The Express.
London, England, 1847-03-11 00:00:00

COLONIAL.

JAMAICA.—Tae New Govetwort's TROUBLES
.sous.—Sir Charles Grey is already in hot water ; and
that apparently without any fault of hie own. On the ith of
February, Mr. Mitchell, late costae of Kingston, declined to
preside at a meeting of the inhabitants called to address
Lieut.-Gen. Berkeley on his departure from the island, on
the ground that am he no loops. held :hat office, he had no
authority. The chair was in consequence assumed by Dr.
Spol ling ; the address duly voted, and presented and ac-
knowledged. Os the Bth of February the correspondence
was published concerning the resignation of Mr. Alitcheft.
It hes time out of mind been the practice of the negro,' in
Jamaica to celebrate Christmas by drumming& and other
commis lies rather obstreperous, and apt to lead to riots. IR
1840-1 Mr. Mitchell, as custom, attempted to suppress them
by the strong arm of the police; during the governorship
of Lord Elgin, they became, in a great measure, obsolete—
whether through the pregreasof education or police regulation
does not appear. On the 29th of December last the police,
in obedience to general instructions from Mr. Mitchell, en-
tered a private house to suppress a drumming. The inmates
resisted ; a person of the name of Reid was arrested. Two
magistrates, Mews. Lake and Smith, held him to bail.
Next morning they learned that he had again been arrested
by Mr. Mitchell's order, and by that magistrate held to bail
to be tried at the assizes, instead of being left to appear be-
fore them. They complained of this discourtesy to the
governor, who called upon the custom to explain his conduct,
The reply was a series of letters, enlarging on the enormity
of drumming., recapitulating the efforts of Mr. Mitchell to
suppress them, and attacking the personal characters of the
two justices. On the 9th of January a memorial from cer-
tain freeholders and others of the City of Kingston was
presented to the governor, complaining of Mr. Mitchell's
high-handed proceedings, and the danger of exciting a po-
pular tumult by them. The memorialists were informed,
that in consequence of a previous representation, Reid's case
was being inquired into. The memorial and reply were
communicated to the calicos, who replied by a long and ve-
hement denunciation of drumming., and personal attacks
upon
f the correspondence should be forwarded to the Colonial.
office. An intimation was sent that the request would be
complied with. Mr. Mitchell, according to his own state-
ment, then resigned the custoe-ship, and a vehement news-
paper controversy was waging on the subject at the time the
mail left. The Legis'atiore had not met again, but the tone
of the journals appears to foreshadow a collision between the
House of Assembly and the Letrialative Council about taxa-
tion.
A RAILWAY LIBRARY.—Lient•Gen. Berkeley, when
about to leave the colony to MOMS the command of the
forces in the Leeward Islands, caused 601 to be forwarded
to the Mean. Smith, of the Jamaica Railway, as an acknow-
ledgment of the great convenience it had afforded him while
discharging the dative of acting-governor. The Messrs.
Smith have appropriated the sum to the foundation of a
library for the use of the persons employed un the line; and
have resolved to call it the Berkeley Institute.
THE EMIGRANT RRIP BAROSSA, with 800 Coolies on
board for Salt River or Black River, was wrecked off Port
Moran. Mn lives lost.
DR CORDOVA'S INTELLIGINCLR states that the pros-
pects for 1847 are promising. It is expected that the mops
will in a great degree exceed those of 1848, and that there
will be a greater amount of money in circulation and a larger
consumption of imported provisions.
GUIANA.—No further steps had been taken in
the government prosecutions up to the time of the mail
being deepetched. About the beginning of February a
Coolie died under eircumsUinces which led to an inveatiga-
tion before the coroner and a jury. The inquest had not
terminated, and of course none of the evidence had
been published at the time the packet sailed. The Guiana
Times says: " An attempt is being made, we believe, to
cast upon government the odium of this unfortunate wretch's
death. If the attempt is unjust, the injustice will beat be
defeated by the publication of the whole truth. If blame is
attachable to government, it will be beet punished by ex-
posure." The same journal complains that although the
home government have resolved to place in the hands of the
local authorities the collection of what are termed imperial
duties, so sign had beep shown, either by the governor or
court of police, that the value of the gift was appreciated,
or that the subject was even under consideration. Some
very judicious remarks on its importance ate wound up by
the following observations :
Bat Waldo the pamtary aderfanss the colour,thwe are
ebbs tete lab Ye ambit be baba et the tins will be
the bet by Owe* a Reba of rebenebe wibseerwassit. we
•.o.NVtYt.wewrNls dee ihrib er bet br sem pars yet
elletewelkstbewt the hallebbriepernowbbsibeet.
11.11.1%he IllailiZgt MUM mum@ seebely la war ewe
vs be beer am please—trilime we with
the Ma et einees• Is • slept bet we an serillemid
at hens es egweseehbe bit is
of It EWOt
oh be le but ye with be sisel ssel ear ews
It Whir Vibe Balk weserweeset se knew newt es maw=
=ere Pebble tellswei ups es emelmay bpi assesdlw
IS Is bi lese et ablimee- isidt we lobe lees
etas revelerb • liberal midair lime apewleg yawls b
'a r bebefeeur ewe ebbe,• owl Oki ebbe bet we Mow or
al* %Mew, ben heit. Ppablow we dal haw the imelib.
bat deer am dell Me rid ether lip. When we bob be
low le bilis be sipped Ihe paver erthebb
Ihe ems. we *el he es repreintathes et the esegas, to
oda etptaditaue raot=aise with oat caesombiast.

TRINIDAD.—" We bees bend," says the Port of
Spain Gaulle, "from more than one quarter, that the borW
orounittee, amongst other reform in the mode of sassaibig
tad collecting our island rerenne, hare it under their autionea
ennoideration to rutditute, for our present duty on aspects,
alma tax.
TauLISOISLATCEIL—The counen mot on the lot of Feb.:
" from the Port of Spain Grab • Hama of the
Prime* Warn bahr• it:
vh, Goverwelm Mow may be Orr air letweler • see eon-
atter' !^r 'r+ • sew teenaged rid= data Mar km to
be rd., bta avireseerie, dreier air err; sad
diefellleri, • Wry be le le *did ee rer-
relll64llllllllollooaid rids if the eller ef wadi
ri. in to wore Bey embere to tin dere
u 1 lm
epee le perm; eed brie peer
Set. raw raw armorer/ else lbef
ewer senri ere& fw the awl el :be
terrain of re lore er ef Saosimay
lie trot wear re Wiend eggeetetion loaf SINNIIII7III NOM

tads of date to hie meow% and now brings It beton the ODURriI.
Constituted, filename, as the board ts—and with the fact that Earl
Grey net only warmly appro.= of the governor's pin, but has m
muck intereeted hintedf la it ma to make suggestions he its improve-
meat, we may look upon the measure as curried. Whatever doubts
we may entertain, therefoce, so to its wordingln effectually—what-
ever may be our fears that it is • Irette advance of the
metal and Intellectual Waldo!, Of Trinidad—it were a
rbVtil tummy of time and wisdom for us to proffer
I advice or opinion on a measure watch is already definitively srt-
tied ; and which, whether it sucomdeor ot, *id afford lading evidence
of Lord I larris's anxiety to improve the condition, social and polities!,
of the inhabitants of Trinidad. Ills lordship hue embodier] with this
territorial gamine, his educational measure for this colony. It eppeirs
that bin lordship in now of opinion that secular instroction Is all that
can safely be undertaken by the government—that whilst the state, in
providing the means of secular instruction to the children of the
people, doe, se much ea can ba expected ef it, or an 14 in fact,
advisable, still it has • right toall upon the other two parties interested
the parent and the obtrn•—to their portion of the great duty
thus divided between them, and to amertaln br inquiry from time
to time that secular instruction and religious education are mooted.
log hand in hand. It will be men that the council bare decided that
Coolie immigration le to be proceeded with, but on a reduced male.,
and under different repalatione. The parties employing the Coolies
are to pay 21. per head towards defroing the expense of their intro-
duction into the colony, and under Earl Grey's regulations, width
have been embodied Into an ordinance, and undermine a Mat and
mond reading, such further payments are to be made on the renewal
of yearly mreemente, or the entering into agreements with Crab
partteae trill, if three sums are looked after, go far to defray a ma-
dders portion of the expense of bringing the Coolies hither.
[This seems the proper place to notice a charge of plop:-
arum brought against the Daily News by the Port of Spain
Garet... The three papers in that journal instituting a
comparison between Cuba and Trinidad were undoubtedly
in the possession of the writer of the article in the Daily
News referred to at the time he wrote ; but so also were the
annual statements published by the customs at Havannah,
the report of the Trinidad agricultural committee, Mr.
Burnley's examination before the Lommittee of the House of
Commons on the disposal of waste colonial lands in the co-
lenies in 1836, and several MS. documents. If the articles
in the Port of Spain Gazette were not noticed, neither were
the other sources whence he derived his information, simply
because to have named all
.would have been ostentatious,
and, to have named one, unjust to the others. The Daily
News has suffered too much from unacknowledged appro-
priation of its own articles to play the same game wirn an
able, judicious, and veracious contemporary : and that these
qualities are plumed by the l'ort of Spain Gazette is gladly
acknowledged.]
_ _

•
LEEWARD ISLANDS.—The news from Barba-
does itself is unimportar.t : the intelligence from Tobago
and St. Lucia is still the reverse of pacific.
TOHAOO.—Ia the House of Arsembly on Tuesday the
22nd Jan., Mr. Rooks brought up the report of the Commit-
tee appointed to draw up a reply to his Excellency's despatch
on the dissolution. The reply, as agreed to, was read. It
states that the house is proceeding with the supply and
franchise hills, but after they are disposed of it will not pro-
ceed with say other buamcss until there is a dissolution.
Mr. MCDougall thought the governor's communication was
a breach of privilege. Mr. Richardson, who came into the
house a few minutes before three, thought the governor had
acted with great courtesy towards the house.
BAHAMAS. GOVERNMENT PROSECUTION.
Great excitement has been occasioned at Grand Cay, by a
rather injudicious step of the governor. An ez-officio pro-
secution has been instituted against the editor of the Turks'
Blood Gazette, fee an alleged libel ; and the governor has
ordered that the trial shall take place at Nassau, 600 miles
distant. By the act of the sth Wm. IV., e. 34, it is enacted,
that all offences committed on Turks' Island are to be heard
and determined at Grand Cay, and by the act of 2 Vie., c 8,
this privilege is confirmed to the islanders. A clause in the
act authorises certain cases after conursencensent in the
' court at Grand Cay to be removed to Nassau, if there is
' appearance of a riot or public excitement, but it is men-
Honed that this case has not even been commenced at Grand
Cay. The distance to which the accused is obliged to travel
for trial, and the prolonged absence from his business, must
press extremely hard upon him. it is said that this is the
third or fourth case of ex-officio prosecution under the pre-
sent executive. This is not the way to reconcile the Turks'
Islanders to the systematic injustice of which they com-
plain.