The Express.
London, England, 1848-02-02 00:00:00

THE EXPRESS, WEDNESDAIG

„o when 'mastery asenciations ars got op Is 1
lointsetesk•banks, 4t railithys, elsotrio• talsgmph
compartiesovith a view to divklerlds, this dread of
dekcidlon is .rather out of plass, Folks noel \live,
if they graze,qike the sexton's donkeys, oaths rank
growth of the grave, or pick a gpal from dndelr
tomb-stones, like the ghoule in the story.
It is aboard to be nice. Let theni adiertise by all
means, sad do it. handsomely.. We can conceive 4
very cellist-array "I:capitals on such a subject. They

might throw off with a
" REQUIESCAT IN PACE,'
and go on—" This is a wish generally expressed by
the friends of the departed, but which,in existing
grave-yard!, there is little probability of seeing
gratified. In the W. L. C., on the contrary, the
remains are certain to rest in peace, and on ex-
tremely reasonable terms," &c. &c. ; or, if they would
combine the advantage of a learned language with
the facetious attraction of a pun, they might, perhaps,
venture on
' DE MORTUIS NIL NISI BON'ENI.'
There is nothing for the dead bat carrying them
off, body and bones.' This abominable practice is
freely resorted to in the churchyards and vaults of
the metropolis. Bow much -better to secure a
quiet resting-place, by at once investing in the
W. L. C. &c. &c."
We bcig to throw out these hints to all cemetery
companies. If they advertise, let them use the arts
of the advertiser. Profanation, desecration, pooh !
The dead must be made to contribute their share to
the prosperity of the living.
But, better still than newspaper advertising would
be a van in the streets, driven, for greater effect, by a
man in a skeleton suit, or a shroud, and with death's
heads and cross-bones at the corners. This would be
certain to catch the eye, and be a pleasant and edify-
ing spectacle—a wholesome " ',lenient° ,nori" to the
thoughuess crowds who throng our thoroughfares.
They might be awakened to at least as much
thought of their latter end, as would be implied by
their at once rushing away and securing posthumous
places in the West London Cemetery.

Tattle is too much truth in the representation of
the state of Jamaica contained in the report of a com-
mittee of the House of Assembly of that colony,
which we printed on Monday. It deserves the
most serious attention of the public in the mother
country ; it establishes a etrong claim on the part of
the people of Jamaica to the immediate adoption by
the government and legislature of the mother country
of any measures really calculated to benefit the
sufferers.
Two fallacious applications of the facts stated in
this document must however be carefully guarded
against. One is, that the case of Jamaica is the miss
of the whole of the West Indies. The smaller and
more densely peopled islands have not suffered to
anything like the same extent with the three great
colonies, Jamaica, Guiana, and Trinidad—Barbados
and Antigua, in particular, have escaped with a com-
paratively slight pressure. Trinidad has, at no time,
suffered to the same extent as Guiana and Jamaica,
and has already almost, if not entirely, restored its
annual sugar crop to the same amount as before the
abolition of slavery. In legislating for the West
Indies generally, the average condition of the group
must be kept in view, not the extreme cases of cer-
tain localities which have suffered more than others.
The other fallacious application of the facts stated
by the committee of the House of Assembly is as
follows :—They state the number of estates which
have been thrown out of cultivation since the Eman-
cipation Act passed; and they contrast the quantity
of sugar and rum produced in 1832 and 1847. This
shows how much Jamaica has suffered, not from negro
emancipation, but from the bungling manner in which
emancipation was effected. But it does not show that
Jamaica will ;or ever be unable to compete with
countries where slavery prevails without the protec-
tion of differential duties ; and it does not show that
it will be unable to do so under the gradually dimi-
nishing protection of the existing Sugar Duties
Act. The committee have omitted to state that,
low though the annual produce of Jamaica
is now when compared with what it wee
before emancipation, it has been lower. Fee
some years back, the annual produce of the island has
been steadily increasing from the minimum point to I
which it fell ; and the cost of production is, in like
manner, being reduced from the maximum it has
attained. The new system of free labour is beginning
to work, and the question is, whether the prospect of
a speedy termination to all protection, and a gradual
diminution of that protection, be not required as a
stimulus to accelerate the time when it will work
perfectly satisfactorily.
One fact stated by the committee goes far to ex-
plain the cause of the enormous decrease which has
taken place in the annual amount of produce in
Jamaica since emancipation. For 41,820 slaves
employed on estates in 1832, there are in 1847 only
13,973 resident labourers. There is a little exaggera-
tion in this statement. The number of slaves in 1832
considerably exceeds the number of efficient field
labourers at that time ; the number of resident
labourers in 1847 is an under-estimate of the labourers
whose assistance can be obtained. But wo have no
hesitation in admitting that the number of efficient
and available labourers since 1832 has been
reduced from two-thirds to one-half, though we
are convinced it is again on the increase.
But this deficient supply of labour is not the
sole cause of the difficulties with which the planters
have had to contend. Before the slave trade was in-
terfered with, before the labour of slaves was regu-
lated, their profits were enormous. Even subsequently
to the suppression of the slave trade by British sub-
jects, and the limitation of the amount of labour
allowed to be extorted from British slaves, large pro-
fits continued to be made by the planters under the
protection of prohibitive duties on foreign sugars. In
the day of their prosperity the planters contracted im-
provident habits—managed their affairs in a wasteful
manner —and they persevered in the same expendi-
tare and the same carelessness, in the face of their
steadily diminishing profits, and in despite of expres-
sions of public opinion from all quarters, which
must have convinced any men of common prudence
that the approaching change of system was inevit-
I able. They continued to receive advances from the
merchants in this country on the same scale as for-
merly,
regardless of the steady decrease in the
amount of their produce and the corresponding in-
crease in the cost of production. The consequence is,
that of the comparatively few West Indian estates
which are now mortgaged to the teeth, the ,owners
are still so far at the mercy of the merchants, from
whom they receive their stores, that they cannot ba-
lance and close accounts with them, although they
know of new and trustworthy houses anxious to do
baldness with them on more reasonable terms. The
stern, sharp fever-fit which has followed emancipe,-
I=krfound weakened constitutions to straggle
it. For the undue severity of the trial the
mother-country legislators are in great measure to
blame; of the embarrassed and dilapidated state of
IWest Indian affairs, which rendered the proprietors
so ill able to encounter the trial, the fault is entirely
their own. In measuring the allowance to be made
for their sufferings, both facts mast be kept steadily
in view.
Another consideration to be taken into account is
the degree of earnestness and activity displayed by
the West Indians in their endeavours to help them-
selves. We published, on Monday last, the sugges-
tions submitted to the Colonial-office by the London
West India interest, on the subject of free-labour im-
migration from Africa. We animadverted upon the
lenity with which, instead of doggedly and per-
tinaciously following up that policy, they had rested
satisfied with suggesting it, and turned away to fol-
low after other projects. Facts dated by the com-
mittee of the Jamaica House of Assembly establish
the justice of oar remarks:—" In respect to immigra-
tion the Asiatic labourers have not been found to
answer the purposes of the counfry while, on
the other hand, the Africans have proved
eminently useful, as shown especially in St.
Thomas-in-the-Fast, where, from their numbers, the
estates on which they are located have been able to
keep their factories at work during Saturdays, and
to have their general labour better performed.' Here
is an important admission that the planters are
already actually getting more and more continuous
labour. And this admission demonstrates that had
the West India body from the beginning stuck to'
their point of getting free labourers from Africa—had'
they urged their claims upon the Colonial-office is
season and out of season—had they, instead of co-
quetting underhand now with whig and now with
tory ministers, thrown themselves upon the support
of the public, they would long ere this have 'iad an
ample and efficient supply of free labour.