The Express.
London, England, 1865-11-23 00:00:00

SPEECH BY THE REV. WILLIAM ARTHUR.

A Wesleyan mieeionsisy meeting was held in b.
Town-bal4 Folksiness, on Tuesday sewing, Colossi HILLY
In
the chair ; several inintsteni and returned mission-
aries (especially the Rev. Mr. Webster, of Jamaica) being
on the platform. Ooesaion was taken of ibis meet.
lag to give an official statemeet of the late proceediegs
Is Jamaica from the Wesleyan missionary point of view, the
Bev. William Arthur, WA., one ef the general secretaries
cd the Weeleyse Miesiosary, Society, having gout down tar.
especteily from Leaden for the purpose.
The Rev. Wm. lanes, referring to the arrest at Jamiaca
of the Rev. Mr. Roach, odied • Wesleyan methodist, maid
there was so sub peewee on their accords. Mr. Arthur
thee went over the acts of the tragedy at Monte' Bay,
observing of each that, however horrible, it bad its coaster-
part is European history. If the worst said of the Jamaica
semen were true, it would sot prove that they were not
equally human, as some deeded, with OurialvOO. Certainly
the mode in which the riot was suppressed did not prove
that, morally, the West Indian whites stood much higher
than the blacks. Of Mr. Gordon's execution Mr. Arthur said:
I hope Governor Eyre has evidence that he performed this
operation on the pesos, not of a mere demagogue, but of
an overt rebel, and that moreover he acted according to
law. Such evidence is needed, bed ifwhose it is not forthcoming
I suspect our beloved Queen, sceptre never yet
shattered any shade, even the frailest, which covered, is
home, hut, or castle, that priceless jewel, the rights of a
British 'abject, will let the world know that the majeety of
England's monarchhas been repessented ins fashion that shall
set pus. Sir, as to the predispoging cause of this outbreak.
Is it some aboriginal taint of aegis native I! some natural
fruit of missionary ideas? some occult operation of baptism
by immersion Gentlemen with great command of 'en-
gem* tell or issinuate this to the world, and force us to
state facts which we see slow and unaccustomed to bring
before the public. If it be true that in Jamaica
sod the
ideas,power, and induceswer, of the old planting clue nulli-
fied, the responsibility of that state of things whioh pre-
disposed to commotion is off their shoulders. What was
the canoe? It lies in two words—misery and distrust.
Many of you have heard of absentee landlords, but perhaps
set of sbsentes farmers. Is Jamaica they have a strange state
of things. Elsewhere absentee landlords are considered as
sr: evi but here the absentee is both landlord
sad farmer. Be miles somewhere in Europe, and
appoints his attorney at Kingston, who appoints an over-
seer to live on the 'stets, and this overflow appoints book.
keepers. Now as any of these ma be dismissed at any ma-
neat—the bookkeeper' by the overseer, the overseer by
the attorney, and the attorney by the landlord--each one
Is bent upon making money while he cos, and the estate so
managed is to grow sugar enough to pay labourers, book-
keeper', masers, and attorneys, and to seed home a foe
tune besides. Now, suppose this garden county of Kest
were largely owned by a number of gentlemen living in fit.
Petersburg, who had resolved to make money by geoids'
hops in Kent ; they shall each appoint a lawyer, merchant,
es shopkeeper in Rochester as attorney at 5 or 6 per
cent. en the crepe ; he shall select a brother, condo, or
(desk as manager at 1501. a year ; a bookkeeper at 701. or
801. They all know that if they can make anything
this year it is theirs ; but if they wait till
next, the mail may bring their diarnisesL Would
Kent thirty years hence be a flourishing county r
&appose the attorney and overseer bad been brought up
is the belief that paying wage* was en °dims Us, which no I
pstleman ought to be called upon to pay--a tax devised
by fanatics just for the rain of the rich and splendid—
suppose they hated English law for compelling it to be paid
--suppees the labourers often alleged that their wages
were kept back for weeks together, their time fraudulently
reckoned, terms of ape went broken, and they could sot
carry their complaint before any bench where sat mee-
t:lsta directly responsible tr, and del eadent on, the crown,
only those of the planter elase—would not the labour market
of your county drift into en odd position? and would yes
bun round and blame it on the baptists? The facts are
enough to account for misery--enough to destroy confides*,
between the people and those above them. The power of
the home government has always been exerted on the I
side of rllht, it has vetoed many intended doings; but,
alas for Jamaica, to the island authorities have been left
the powers of legislating and administering. Negroes
masters there! missionaries moendant ! education better
wedded for than at home ! The old spirit of the slavers
bee found • body to iahabit in high pleas, elms such leis-
statements would not find infleental utterance. In this
'spinout of reproach for the black we must stand by him.
Where he has done wrong let us not extenuate it ; where he
is idle, licentious, or cruel, let us call his sins by the right
name, and urge him ts repent. Bat by every pricciple
of manly Christian truth, let us face the people that say
these faults belong to his race and not others. Man for man
the Jsui des blacks will not shrink from comparison with
the whites. As to barbarous cruelty, it is for future in-
vestigation to 'hew who his most came this day to blush,
/Saxon or negro. ()nothing is plain, the experience of many
years shows that English honour and negro rights are both
mode in the keeping of authorities grown from the slave-
*wising clans. The beneficent power of the crown must at
bast provide for the poor a magistracy shove suspicion.
Ido not say, for I do noilknow, that the suspicious of us-
fairness maintained by the labourers wee* justified. Ido
say they were natural,
mad ought to be forestalled by other
appointmeets.