The Express.
London, England, 1847-11-22 00:00:00

ties whisk late Wire% inemnd
nee
assinsient Is be iithtened. Bet the resident Weak
met beware et emdenniihnt this incidental room
with that wide hes m bussto to their
Mete of Deady, and yidding to s on tut
eseeant. They feel sandy the elm% eul
the crippled state of alesestell, the greet firms lath
mother country with which they have been in tan
habit of dealing. But these Inns are at the peanut
suffering from causes almost exclusively extremism
to the aretunstances of the West Indies for slut
years back. Those who only feel pressure, feel it of
aceouet of :he general embarrassment, wising mainly
out of unwise and irregular tampering with
the free operations of credit. Most of those who
have failed, have done so from adopting the unwise
policy of seeking to compensate their diminished gains
in the West Indies by plunging into extensive sum
operation( in the Mauritius end elsewhere without
increasing their capital. Had the West Indies been
in their most palmy state, such blunders must have
told perniciously upon them. The glut of stoma
which at present prevents prices from being remu-
nerative has been almost entirely owing to the.,
wild speculations. The colonists must beware of
allowing themselves to be led by their casequencee
into the erroneous belief, that the measures hitherto
advocated by the best informed among them are not
of themselves sufficient to restore prosperity to the
West Indies.

With respect to the temper of the West Indian
community, it is even more satisfactory than the in.
ditittions of returning economical health to which we
have adverted. We do not recollect any period et
which public opinion in the West Indies has been ill
so satisfactory a state as at present. There is earnest-
ness and activity united to, and regulated by, pea.
dence, and there is a resolute will to obtain r4ona
both in the commercial, legislative, and political insti-
tutions of the colonies.

With respect to commercial legislation, there is sill
an obvious hankering after a protective commercial
policy in so far as regards the concurrence of the pre-
cedents of countries employing slave labour or en.
gaged in the slave trade. This is a question which
involves important consequences, respecting us
foreign relations, of which it will not be difficult to
make our fellow-subjects in the colonies feel the force.
The other requests in which all the West Indian com-
munities appear to concur, are :—unrestricted immi-
gration of free labourers f tropical races, reduction
of the duties imposed upon their staples on their im.
portation into this country, and abolition of the navi-
gation laws.
The political movement also takes a right direc-
tion. In Jamaica, already possessed of an elective
legislature, financial reform is the great question. Ii
Trinidad, Guiana, and St. Lucia, the public voice
demands elective legislatures, such as are possessed,
by their kindred colonies. And throughout the Antilles
and Guiana a strong wish is expressed f r a federa-
tive anion of these colonies, that may enable them,
by acting in concert, to make their inters sts and
wishes more potentially known to the imperial
government.
We have remarked that tho earnestness with which
those industrial and political aims are at this moment
pursued in the West Indies is tempered with admi-
rable caution. This has been particularly evinced in
the reception which the proposal of the Jamaica
Chamber of Commerce to hold a congress of dele-
gates from the various West India colonies has met
with. The exaggerated expressions of some advo-
cates of the measure caused a majority in most of
the colonies to hold back at first ; but since these
have been, in some instances, explained away, in
others disarmed: of danger, by more judicious leaders
taking up the business, the project has been daily
gaining in favour. We have no doubt of its being
ultimately carried into effect, but we strongly object
to the idea of holding it in a foreign island.

THE new members, who are so numerous in the
present parliament, have an admirable opportunity of
proving, at the outset of their career, their sense of
the importance of their public duties and the tact and
habits of business which they bring to the performance
of them. A just appreciation of the value of time,
and a practical exemplification of the inestimable
merit of silence on proper occasions, will raise both
old and new members in the opinion of the house,
and, eventually, in that of their constituents. We
do not, of course, recommend that any class of mem-
bers should abstain from taking a due share in the
necessary debates of the session. It is against the
consumption of time, in speaking either for display or
for the purpose of enunciating general opinions of no
immediate practical application, that we would guard :
above all, it is important to avoid the temptation of
starting isolated debates on matters which are either
of secondary interest or will bear postponement. It
must be remembered, that even if parliament sits up
to Christmas Eve, there will be only from twenty to
twenty-five working days to apply to the measures
for which the two houses have been called together.
If individual members attempt to obtain a hearing for
their favourite topics in this short period, the indis-
pensable work of the government must be postponed
or left undone.

We have no wish to give ministries greater power
over the arrangements of parliamentary. business than
they possess at present. It is quite right that inde-
pendent members should have the opportunity of
forcing upon them the consideration of questions with
which they may not have volunteered to deal. Many
of the best legislative measures have originated in the
perseverance of individual members, who have
session after session urged then upon unwilling
governments. It is also right that the wishes ad
opinions of every considerable menien of the oonma-
may should find an expression Is pediment. even.
though they do not obtain legislative metion. The
multiplicity of the subjects which are brought base
parliament enables it to represent, in fact as well es
in theory, the innumerable varieties of interest and .
opinion which are distributed through the claws wise
together constitute the empire which it governs.
It is only of the present extraordinary session that
we speak, when we urge all parties to unite in allow-
ing to the government the initiative and control of
the business to be transacted in pediment. The
ministry is responsible for having. callelptdiemot
together at an mammal time; uric emehismatien et
that responsibility it I. fairly eiset topre-audigeme
for the business for which Me maimat lass dim-
mined on. If Lord Jon* Itemmt. weggrole he
se unskilful a magician ea web be mem&
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diegeneng the astaktmeiel meggerations at
delemptlie mw aged the Mit ementhemdser that a
mem asezwilleablipartriaedieLlertegigein
r &'—&—lenThr- , and not ewer Ihe
answom t mew think fit I
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give Mimi, thst gemmommt is reeminehiy as.
titled te ameghe a egetrei. We nmy bitty assets
that It will bring forward no Int those whisk
lran immediate erihnisa. lbory-
opeoubtfoo, ovary moutioa et general primi•
Ides, ever 7 gebeme ilm the ggespielive amealimeatim
et inatitutioes, is one MIA the ohlogie omeepatisem
dee legielatiare will hod tisk proper opportunities
astriroy ns alter Chrimemeg.
members have no doubt pledged theta-
s/Ito to Wog forward some matter of local
or lensed imiment on the earliest possible °cas-
sias' but be ootaley at large will easily under-
selling that the flllllll4 is not a reasonable wee-
d= be Illwbooppetion of any business, save
that wielli Wo=re wasting of parliament boo
=do boolf„ Linton; will respect a
AD Molls oftdoot to circumstances and
teumerallarieletze ; nor is the esti-
= *thin the walls of
twhilliimmaim. Till-elibit onwihie ametitueney.
who 14.* a parliwnennY
111011Wity he that ooddoir will teed
10 Solittwo Ow against them as any
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