The Express.
London, England, 1849-09-05 00:00:00

JAMAICA.

Concerning the affairs of this island we bave re-
ceived the following letter from a correspondent not
new to our readers:
JAMAICA, Arover 7.

•
The dissolution of the House of Assembly by the
Governor and the elections are at this moment the
chief topics of interest and excitement here. En-
joying, as this body does, so inappreciable an amount
of independence of the home authorities, one is some-
what at a loss to know what its precise use is. Its
sessio- s are heir wasted in complaints, for the grounds
of which it is itself in a measure answerable, and
threats the prudence of which is very questionable.
It is p?rpetually sticking thorns in the side of the
governmene, as a sort of healing compensation for the
injuries which it inflicts upon itself by " kicking
against the pricks." Granting therefore that the
council, as at present oonstitu-ed, requires both re-
formation and extension to fit it for becoming the
sole organ of island legislation, we cannot wonder at
there being a much wider impression than the radi-
cals—who term themselves conservatives—choose to
acknowledge, that a court of policy properly consti-
tuted would, in the exercise of its legislative func-
tions, in conjunction with the governor, afford an
instance of two heads being better than three.
When certain members talk about raising the
standard of rebellion in the event of the edicts of the
Assembly being negatived, they forget that—thanks
to the selfishness of their breathers—the execution
of this valorous threat is impossible. Other countries
may, I know, be pointed at, which, although not pre-
ceding this on the scale of discovery, threw off the
yoke of the parent state by their own might, and
whose diplomatic agents are now received and re-
spected by the courts which once ruled them. But,
in addition to the combined extent of ter-
ritory and population of Jamaica being too
limited for its establishment as an independent
state, its possessors have gone the wrong way to
work to have allowed it to become so under any cir-
cumstances. Contrast the local policy pursued by
the colonists of this island with that carried out by
those of other nations who went forth on the wine
responsible errand. Se'tling with their families, they
(not we) considered the new country as that of
their adoption, their home, and final resting-place;
and in return for the prosperous advantages which
they acquired and accumulated, they left their chil-
dren as an inheritance, who loved their lend as their
native land, and gave birth to a patriotic posterity.
By degrees they founded public institutions of edu-
cation and 'octal improvement, and cultivated the
arts and manufactures which their ancestors had in-
troduced to the best extent a young peep's could, and
their cities are memorials of their taste and national
pride. They planted and fostered the internal prin-
ciples of freedom by taking an interest in developing
the natural capabilities of their country, by consoli-
dating its moral power, and by concentrating
their wealth where they had made it. The
stimulus of national enthusiasm at length
diffused itself among them • genius arose to
direct, heroes to lead, and they won their
freedom after an honourable struggle, which they
proved themselves both able and determined, at all
selfish ascrifices, to maintain. But, during the same
epoch, what hiss Jamaica doue for itself? Nothing;
and it is, consequen'ly, all but reduced to that d plo-
rable finality.
Yet time was when its proprietor. were among the
richest on earth—what has become of nearly all this
imm nes wealth ? Gone —with scarcely a wreck left be-
hind as an emblem of its ex i tit en ce, except here and there
the half-dilapidated mass of tasteless buildings which
contained the machinery essential for the manufac-
' tune of the staples whieh enjoyed a golden age so
long. As to the comparatively many modern excep•
tions to be named, and the few ancient ones, they

rather establish than disprove the rule which I am
working one.

What have we to show in place of the noble
buildioge, built by the Spaniards, which we de-
stroyed ?
Look at Kingston, the capital. Its athlete are
like the-sandy bed of a dry river, and by that
same token it is only within about twelve
months that the inhabitants, through the medium
of a company, have been properly supplied with
water. Barring an unfinished prison, two or
three economical looking churches, and a few cold
complexioned conventicler, it possesses tot a single
building which does not strike one as absolutely
mean ; and although there are many good houses of
comparatively recent date in the suburbs, the
town itself is little better than a collection of sheds,
presenting just such an appearance as we may sup.
pow those temporary abodes did when erected fur the
longest sojourn during the 40 years' wandering in
the desert. The situation of thz town is beeutitully
picturesque, and, as you approach the harbour, the
perfume of the orange, and other sweet odours, come
wafted on the breeze with a most delicious greeting.
You land—and, oh. what a charge ! Your nostrils
are assailed by smells " aperiently " compounded of
the dissecting room and dirty clothes bag ! No won-
der, for, in addition to a few more unsavoury collec-
tanea, the streets of this scent per scent capital are
literally mended with the products of the dung-heap.
Go into the country, and there you will find
those who represent the proprietors living in
boxes, and the labourers in baskets. Few evidently
had an ides of making this country their home, or of
founding homes therein for their children. Acre
after acre was cut down, planted solely with produce
for exportation, exhausted (superficially), and aban-
doned. The consequent* of which is, that many once
valuable properties have become a wilderness of bush,
and extensive tracts of enclosed land are thrown up
as unprofitable ; their owners either, from ignorance,
despised • more enlightened system of cultivation,
or, from rapacity, grudged the required means.
In as much, then, as the money made here was but, in
few instances, saved, inasmuch as none of it went
for the purpose of beau:ifl iog cities, bat little of it in
an adorned domestic architecture; and that there are
no traces of it in bereficial institutions, which hand
down the names of their founders and contributors
with reverence, gratitude, and honour, through the
young whom they provided education for, the sick
tor whose bodily ills they furnished care and shelter,
the aged, the infirm, and broken-hearted from mis-
fortune, for whom they raised a refuge and a home—
what has become of it ? But hold. I hare heard of
one who devoted the greater part of the wealth
which, by talented toil, he had earned, to the
neglected wants of this island. Peace to the soul of
the charitable Dickenson, whose kind-hearted object
has been frustrated by his injunctions remaining un-
fulfilled, since hie most munificent bequest, mwilated
and depreciated, seems wrapt in a final sleep, like the
good man who gave it, and doomed to a like gradual
decay.
But where, I ask again, did the collected re-
sources of this productive land go to ? English
watering-places, its metropolis, and the continental
cities had their due share, but the portion assigned to
the Wend itself was exactly limited to the extent
required for the generation of exported profits. The
entire policy pursued in this island—social, commer-
cial, and fiscal—was calculated to drain its wealth.
There being no opportunity of edocsting children
here, they were sent to enjoy this advantage at a
costly rate in Europe, and the fathers habitually
fal-
lowed, to spend a profitable retirement, accord-
ing to the significant term, "at home." A
few hundreds returned out of the ;tens of
thusande remitted for the payment of salaries
is of little consideration. All supplies, every thing
used outside the body and consumed within it, were
imported, with the exception of such as had no profit
attached to their production, and in fact the case is
still the same, with this important difference, that in
former days the money expended for this purpose at
all events benefited the mother coantry, the supplies
being chiefly obtained from thence, while now-
a-days the British Lion's share is clawed by
the American Eagle. A very good rea-
son is assigned for this however, namely,
that the articles in question are cluafcr. Why then
do we not allow England the privilege of using the
same argument in favour of Brazil sugar ? " Because
• principle is deserted." It is not only esteemed to
be a penny-wise and pound-foolish policy (where we
are sellers, that is) to profit the stranger instead of
friends, for the sake of a nominal saving; but a great
principle is avowed to be also violated in the com-
plained of instance, since the very pe :pie who paid
so dearly, and made their colonists pay more dearly
still, for the sake of emancipating the negro, and who
are yearly sacrificing so much life and treasure in
their crusade against slave traffic, by thus giving a
preference to the produce of slave labour, are actually
countenancing, encouraging, and rewarding those
who practice that which they denounce. Certainly
it is a puzzle to understand how a workman in bonds
can farm a legitimate element of free trade, and I
quite agree with this argument so forcibly advanced
on all occasions by our public writers and
speakers, so much so that I am at a loss to account
for the inconsistency and blindness of these declaimers
in not seeing that we are ourselves doing precisely
the same thing, for not only do we patronise the pro-
ductions of a strange land to the deprivation of the
parent state and its dependencies, but the great pro-
portion thereof must be the result of slave labour, since
slavery, is as much a "domestic institution" in some of
the states from whence we are supplied, as it is in Cuba
and Brasil. It may be said that the case differs, since
we have no such produce of our own to protect. We
have the declared " principle" to protect, at all events;
and, if we have not productions likewise, we ought
to have, and might have, if the enterprise of this
islind had been properly directed through channels
for the supply of home consumption, as well as these
precarious ones which have been blockaded and
dried up by permit.ed competition and the demseded
changes in legislative regulations; and had not a
false system of low import duties contributed to pre-
vent the natural development of its industry, as well
u to derange its financial equilibrium—subjects
which I reserve for further consideration in my next
communication. FATHOM.