The Sun.
London, England, 1830-02-12 00:00:00

JAMAICA.

Despatch addressed by Sir George Murray to
Lord Belmore :

" Downing-street, Oct. 8, 1829.
" iIII LORD,—I beg to call your Lordship's at-
tention to the various discussions which have taken
place between his Majesty's Government and the
Legislature of Jamaica, on the subject of the collec-
tion
and appropriation of the duties levied under the
6th Geo. IV. cap. 114. Your Lordship will not
fail to per ceive that his Majesty's Government have
been throughout these discussions most solicitous to
reconcile the due administration of the public inte-
rests which are confided to them with the views and
wishes of the Colonial Assembly. In deference to
the wishes of the Assembly, they have been willing
to take upon themselves the responsibility of sanc-
tioning the collection of the duties in a different
mariner from that which is prescribed by the Act of
Parliament. They have only required that the
salaries of the Customs' officers should be paid from
the period when the fees ceased, and should be so
secured as to place them upon the footing of inde-
pendence, without which it cannot be expected that
their offices would be duly executed. The Assembly
was invited to take the rate of the salaries into their
consideration, and to furnish his Majesty's Govern-
ment with an opinion as to their fairness. The
Committee which was appointed in consequence,
arid whose report was adopted by the Assembly, did
not find that the salaries (with some very trifling
exceptions) were more than sufficient, and this ap-
pears, indeed, to have been the previous opinion of
the Assembly when they passed an annual Act
making provision for the salaries. His Majesty's
Government could not therefore be prepared to ex-
pect that the Assembly would refuse the same sala-
ries for the year 1826 which were approved for
1827 and 1828, and they left the mode of making
the provision to the discretion of the :Assembly,
although the mode which they had adopted of rais-
ing the money for the years 1827 and 1828 =not by
any internal tax, but by a tonnage duty, was cer-
tainly not the one which his Majesty's Government
would have preferred. The money, which had
been levied by the Collector of the Customs pre-
viously to the provision being made for the salaries
of those years, was directed to be retained in his
hands only until similar provision should be made
retrospectively for 1826, and should be permanently
secured. His Majesty's Government could not
suppose that the Assembly would reject a proposal
which went no further than to apply to the period
which had been passed over, and to fix for the future
the same principle of arranging the matter in dis-
pute which the Assembly bad themselves approved
and adopted. That this proposal should have re-
sulted in the subversion of the existing arrangement,
and the renewal of the double collection was, there-
fore, unexpected; and still less could his Majesty's
Government anticipate that the Assembly would
resent the proposal, and adopt, apparently upon no
other ground, a measure of so extreme a character,
and so questionable in its prudence, as that of stop-
ping the supplies for the troops.
" These proceedings were of a nature to occasion
more inconvenience to the public service. His Ma-
jesty's Government were unwilling to consider them
in a more serious light, as evincing a disposition on
the one side which must lead to extreme measures
on both. It had not escaped his Majesty's Govern-
ment, that their successive attempts to get rid of the
several matters in dispute between the mother
country and the colony had not been met in the
spirit of conciliation in which they had been con.
ceived,and had led to no useful results. They have,
nevertheless, been desirous to persevere in the same
, course, so long as they shall be enabled to indulge
a hope that the Assembly have not attached them-
selves inflexibly to a line of policy by which all en-
deavour at compromise and conciliation must be
rendered ineffectual.

" His Majesty's Government have found it diffi-
cult to persuade themselves that the Assembly of
Jamaica will persist in opposing an insurmountable
obstacle to the desire which is entertained to afford
them adequate military protection. They have
therefore caused the necessary funds to be advanced
for continuing the troops in Jamaica during the pre-
sent year, when they have been deprived of their
supplies by the Assembly; and I enclose to your
Lordship herewith a a copy of a letter addressed to
this department by direction of the Lords Com-
missioners of the Treasury, in which you will
find set forth the terms on which their Lordships
will consent that the affair of the Customs' duties
should be adjusted for a period of seven years.
" Your Lordship will perceive that, on the con-
sent of the Assembly being given that the salaries
of the Customs' officers shall be secured for that
period, and that provision shall be made for the sala-
ries which were unprovided for in 1825, you are
authorised to instruct the collector to pay over to
the Colonial Treasury the sum which was levied by
him before the double collection ceased, and you will
consider the same principle of arrangement to be ap-
plicable to the sums which shall have been levied by
him since the double collection was resumed, the
condition being always that the salaries for the period
shall be provided for by the Assembly. If the col-
lector shall lie unable to make these payments from
monies in his hands, he must consider himself au-
thorized to draw bills upon the Receiver-General of
the Customs in London.

" But your Lordship must regard it as an essen-
tial condition of this arrangement,that the Assembly
should undertake to pay the arrears of the supplies,
as well as to renew the former provision for the
troops:

" If the Assembly, persevering in this proposal
the real desire which is felt to terminate the diffe-
rence with the colony in a friendly manner, shall
show a corresponding disposition on their part, his
Majesty's Government will have satisfaction in hear-
ing that the arrangement is concluded ; for, though
material concessions will have been made, they will
be considered as more than counterbalanced by the
re-establishment of an amicable intercourse between
the Assembly of Jamaica and the Government of