The Sun.
London, England, 1839-04-23 00:00:00

JAMAICA.

Mr. L A BOUC HERE moved the order of the day
for the second reading of the Jamaica Government Bill.
In making this motion he proposed that the same course
should be adopted as was pursued on a similar occasion,
namely, that the Bill should be read a second time
without discussion—that after that Counsel should
be heard, and that the discussion should be
taken on the next stage of, the Bill, namely,
that upon the motion of going into Committee.
He proposed the adoption of this course upon the dis-
tinct understandinc, that no Member in assenting to the
second reading, pledged himself to the course he should
pursue in the Committee on the Bill.

Sir ROBERT PEEL said that he would offer no
objection to the course suggested by the Right Hon.
Gentleman. He had no objection to assent to the
second reading of the Bill, upon the understanding that
he did not pledge himself as to the course he should
adopt on going into Committee. He thought, however,
that as now they had arrived at seven o'clock, and as it
was uncertain to what length the arguments of Counsel
would go, it would be better that the Bill should not
be proceeded further with that night.
Mr. HUME inquired how many Counsel were to be
heard.

Sir ROBERT PEEL understood two.
Mr, HUME had been informed that there were
,hree Counsel.

Sir ROBERT PEEL—Whether two or three
Counsel were to be heard, he thought that it would be
very inconvenient to proceed further with the Bill that
night, after Counsel had concluded. He was
prepared to go even further than the sug-
gestion of the Right Hon. Gentleman ; he had no
objection to the Bill going •into Committee after the
second reading, and he would take discussion upon
some future day. He hoped that it would not be con-
sidered necessary to consider the present as a party
question, he looked upon it in a very different light.
—(Cheers.) He thought that the Imperial Parliament
ought not to assent to the repeal of present Bill, be-
cause the House of Assembly in Jamaica had chosen to
adopt the course they had done. He thought, however,
that it would be wise, considering the embarrassment
that would arise from suspending the Constitution of

Jamaica, that a resort should be made to every alterna-
tive before such an expedient was adopted ; if, however,
it was clearly shown to him that it was necessary to
proceed to such an extreme as suspending the
Constitution, he would support her Majesty's Ministers,
be thought, however, that it was desirable that another
appeal should be made by the Government to the Ac-
scmbly of Jamaica, in order to afford them an oppor-
tunity of re-considering the steps they had pursued, and
if after that the Assembly were still refractory he for
one would be willing to consent to the measure proposed
by the Right Hon. Gentleman. What he therefore
should propose was that the Bill should be read a second
time, Counsel should he heard, that the Bill should
then be committed pro forma, and the discussion taken
upon the motion that the Speaker should leave the
chair.

Mr. LABOUCHERE could assure the Right Hon.
Baronet the Member for Tamworth that the Govern.
ment had not introduced the Bill without the most se-
rious consideration, and with a feeling of deep regret
that it had become their imperative duty to pursue so
strong a step. He should have no objection to adopt
the course suggested by the Right Hon. Baronet, but
he -trusted that the adoption of the measure would not
be unnecessarily delayed, because he thought the Govern-
ment were entitlgil to have the opinion of the House as
to whether the measure they had proposed met with its
approbation or not.
Sir R. PEEL could assure the Right Hon. Gentle-
man that he had no desire whatever to postpone the
proceedings on the Bill. All that he wished was to
have an effective instead of a defective discussion.

Sir R. INGLIS moved that William Burge, Esq.,
the Agent for Jamaica, be heard upon his petition, which
was ordered.

On the motion of Mr. GODSON, Mr. Sergeant
Merewether and Mr. Reynolds were ordered to be
heard.—The Bill was then read a second time.
Mr. BURGE was then called in, and stated, that he
appeared there on behalf of the House of Assembly of
Jamaica, whose agent he was, to invoke the protection
of the House of Commons against the Bill now before
it. The punishment the Bill would inflict upon them
was no less than the forfeiture of their Constitution,
upon which their property and their liberties depended.
The Bill proposed, instead of the free Constitution of
Jamaica, a totally irresponsible and arbitrary Government.
It conferred upon the body to be created by that Bill
the power of raising a large annual revenue unchecked
and uncontrouled by the people of that colony. An
aggravation of the punishment about to be inflicted
upon them was, that they were not present to defend
themselves. The first intimation they would have of
the pretexts upon which the Bill was brought forward,
would be the infliction of the measure itself. The mag-
nitude of the interests he represented would fill him
with dismay, in attempting to come forward in their de-
fence, if he did not feel that he was addressing-a British
House of Commons, the refuge of the distressed, and
the defender of the oppressed ; and he felt confi-
dent that his appeal, feeble as it was, would
not be in vain. He hoped the representatives
. _ _

of a few individuals, of comparatively little weight
in the colony, would pot influence the decision
of that House. In order that they might be fully
aware of the injury the Bill would inflict it was right
to put them in possession of the Constitution which
the people of Jamaica had hitherto enjoyed—of its
origin, and the respect it bad been accustomed to re-
ceive from the Government in England. The Go-
vernment of Jamaica consisted of the Sovereign of
England represented by his Governor there—of a
Council of 12 nominated by the Crown and suspend-
ible by the Governor. They constituted' a legislative
as well as an executive body, and in addition to these
two branches there was a House of Assembly consisting
of 45 members elected by the freeholders. For the set-
tlement of the Colony in 1655 down to the time of the
proclamation of Charles the Second the Colony was go-
verned by the Council of 12, and after the proclama-
tion which conferred upon the people of Jamaica a re-
presentative assembly, and all the rights and privileges
of British subjects, Lcrd Windsor was sent out as Go-
vernor. From that period down to 1674 the assemblies
were regularly convened, and the House appeared to
have consisted of 32 representatives. The ministry of
Charles the Second attempted to introduce Poyning's
law into the Colony, enforced by Lord Carlisle's com-
mission, but these laws were rejected one by one by the
House of Assembly of Jamaica, and the plan was ulti-
mately abandoned after a severe struggle. After the
injustice towards America, which met with such retribu-
tion, in 1778, the then Parliament passed an Act, which
provided, that no tax of any kind should be placed on
any Colony, except through the Houses of Assembly.
That Act extended to the islands of the West Indies.
He might be told that the Bill suspended the Constitution
for five years ; but if the people of Jamaica lost it for
only one hour, they would be the sufferers, because the
laws made by the new Council would exist for ever,
unless the Governor and Council agreed with the new
House of Assembly ; and he would prove that, the
people of Jamaica were worse treated by the Bill
than were the people of Canada when they were in open
rebellion.' He complained that the people of Ja-
maica had been treated with the utmost contempt by the
Government, as they were yet unaware of the intention
, to deprive them of their Constitutiou, nor did he, the
Agent of the Colony, receive any notice of the Bill
then before the House, until the Cabinet had decided
upon it, and within a few hours of the time when it
was submitted to the House. What was the act for
which this heavy punishment was to be inflicted ? The
House would expect that Jamaica had committed some
gross outrage inconsistent with its allegiance to the So-
vereign—that the House of Assembly had com-
mitted some crime similar to that which Canada
committed, and which therefore called for a similar
punishment. For the act in respect of which this
punishment was to be inflicted, he begged to refer to the
preamble of the Bill. The preamble cf the Bill recited
that the Jamaica House of Assembly had passed reso-
lutions, that unless certain conditions were complied
with they would abstain from all legislation, except for
the purpose of providing for the public supplies. That
was the offence, and the only offence, for which this Bill
of pains and penalties, if he might so call it, was to be
passed. Mr. Burke, Wyndham, and others had
stated it was unjust and dangerous to disturb a Colo-
nial Legislature in the control and management of the
Colony. The House of Commons had on more than
one occasion recognised the principle for which he was
contending, namely, the right of a Colony to internal le-
gislature. The internal regulation of the Colony was
opposed by Mr. Wilberforce in 1815, when he
brought in a Bill for the registration of slaves.
On the 31st of October, 1816, a communication was

made to the House of Assembly, by the Duke of Man

chester, for establishing a regulation office in Jamaica,
in conformity with the views of Mr. Wilberforce and
the Parliament. He knew of no instance since the
18th Geo. 111., c. 12, of internal legislation with re-
spect to persons and subjects exclusively in the Colony ;
and even prior to that Act, the two or three instances
which might seem to import internal legislation, rested
on principles and grounds peculiar to themselves, and
left untouched the proposition that the Legislation of the
Imperial Parli•kment had not extended to persons or sub-
jects, if those persons or subjects had been whollycolonial.
It was absurd to attempt to enact an uniform system of
prison discipline through all the West Indian Islands.
Was this not a very harsh, and a very unfair return
to the Jamaica Legislature for their relinquishment of
two years of their apprenticeship rights—part of the
remuneration offered them by the Imperial Parliament
for the emancipation of the negroes ? He begged the
House to recollect that neither the Assemblies nor in-
habitants of the colonies were parties to what was
called the West India Papers or Despatches which
were ex parte statements, emanating from the Governor, I

in which they were entirely ignorant, and to which
they had no power of replying. The Despatches
of Lord Sligo contained many misrepresentations
calculated to prejudice the people ef Jamaica unjustly :
the opinion of this country more particularly with re-
gard to workhouse punishments. On the 4th of March,
1837, Sir Lionel Smith expressed his satisfaction at the
conduct of the House of Assembly in strong terms ;
and in October following he !aid before them Lord Gle-
nelg's dispatch relative to the Prison Act. The Prison
Act of Jamaica referred to in that dispatch did not re-
late, as had been supposed, exclusively to apprentices.
Referring to the report of Captain Pringle on the state
of the Jamaica prisons, he contended that in the first
place, that Report stated that the prisons wanted rather
active officers than less severe discipline, and that the
suggestions of the Captain were adopted without the
communication between the Governor and the House
of Assembly that was naturally expected, and also
without that, previous comparison and deliberation
The
which the author himself had recommended.
next proceeding that took place was a communica-
tion of Lord Glenelg's, on the 13th of August, which
arrived in the Colonies in September. When that
communication arrived, it was to have been expected
that Sir Lionel Smith would have convened a Special
Session, but he did no such thing ; he met the House of
Assembly without the slightest allusion to the measure,
which he must have been told was likely to be regarded
in a very serious point of view. He (Mr. B.) had been
told that it was not usual for Governors to make any
such intimations in their speeches. A very different
course, however, bad been adopted by the Duke or
Manchester, and the Journals of the House Of AP
sembly showed that the usage was to make
such matters the subject of a special message'
Sir Lionel Smith had called together the House of
Assembly of Jamaica, for the 18th December. On the
3d, fifteen days previously, he must have seen in a
public Newspaper of the Colony, the report of be
ceedings in the Barbadoes House of Assembly, end
should taken a lesson from the conciliatory course
pursued by Sir Evan M'Gregor in the smaller Colony
of Barbadoes. The suspension of the franchise of fbi
House of Assembly. by Sir Lionel Smith, was one
of
the most direct attempts that could be made to
trample on the liberties of the people of Jatnicet
He contended that Sir Lionnel Smith had not dealt
fairly with the House of Assembly. He had alf°
made an incorrect statement with respect to the white
population of Jamaica, which he had stated at %°°"n'
whereas the white population at Kingston algae,
amounted to five thousand---a similar mistake
occurred in regard to the amount of the e"
loured population. He would also call the
attention of the House to another statement, It
gated with a view to disparage the Assembly. It "4,1
been stated that 300,000 persons would be prevente
from acquiring the franchise for fifteen months, is,herees:
they could acquire it in twelve months. The Colo'
lonists did not fear to give the black pleural:
the election franchise ; they were perfeat
willingly to give it them, but Sir Lill
Smith should have stated how many
those 300,000 persons were possessed of tat
electoral qualification. What that qualification cagil:
to be Lord Gleneig had himself laid down. It was el;
dent that this Bill was part of a scheme for carrying °I
the government of the Colonies, not in the Colonies'
a system pursued for years past, and which had
the effect of showing that the executive of the Coletil
was a mere instrument in the hands of the Colonial Office'This was not the way of governing the Colonies in theili.
more prosperous days, and had contributed essentia
to bring them into their present unpleasant state ;
he stated this, not on the authority of such an buns
individual as himself, for a Noble Earl, who must
one time have possessed the confidence of the Govern-i.
merit, since they had appointed him Goeertad
General of the North American Provinces, :,,t
expressed himself to precisely the same eac:',l,
The Government ought to furnish the Governor vor"
their views so as to enable him to become a party,
is
carrying these laws into effect, but nothing of the I'l%
was done, and the result of such policy was that tese
greatest evils existed, and he could funds!' the Heu_e,
with numberless instances of those evils if time would allow
The salaried councillors proposed by the all to be ale;
pointed would be sent out to Jamaica to raise ta!ei,
from the island for the payment of their own salary ie
which they would have to appoint themselves.
thanked the House for the attention with which they bad
heard him ; but he could not conclude without ape?
to their justice to protect the rights of the colonistaier
Jamaica from violation ; he begged them to coons,
the tremendous responsibility they would incur by Pent,
ing this Bill at such a momentous crisis as the Preso
when such a great change had recently taken Placeor
the social state of that island, and what would be the ethe
sequence if the first Act after the giving freedom
bto
de-
negro, should be one degrading the white popciat°n 'rend
priving them of their legislative functions on the ground
that they would not be exercised with justice? This
destroy every chance of conciliating and uniting the re
rious classes of the population—nothing could be tcuin
mischievous or more calculated to place the Colon); o 0
jeopardy and defeat the great measure of emanciPate
than this. lie stated this as the result of personal esPe'
rience of the character of the negro population. If the.P.;
sembly had acted rashly, he trusted that the 0,1;
would consider the provocation they had reeeifca:";
what they deemed a violation of their rights and PrIT.
leges, in the vindication of which' they had taken care
his.l;
that her Majesty's Government should suffer no Prei•
dice. He trusted he had showed the House that !Tr
Bill was totally uncalled for, and that they woul vitit
hold their assent from it. The Learned Counsel tu!
withdrew.r. r
It being now twelve o'clock, on the motion of
BROTHERTON, the further hearing of Call nsel
adjourned till to-morrow. the
Lord WORSLEY brought up the Report cf
Committee on the Great Western Railway Eat°
Bill.
The other Orders of the Day were then disl)°% ite
and the House adjourned at Twenty minutes past A
o'Clock.