The Sun.
London, England, 1839-05-04 00:00:00

Sir ROBERT PEEL said he had hoped it might
have been possible to have spared the necessity for the
present discussion, and that some arrangement might
have been come to with respect to the Government of
Jamaica, without the necessity of any party conflict, or
even any very serious division of opinion as to the
course which it might have been advisable to pursue.
He had the strongest impression that it was
desirable to exhaust every alternative before proceeding
to the forfeiture of the Constitution of that important
colony, to the suspension of the system of representa-
tive Government, and to the establishment of a despotic
and arbitrary Government—(Cheers)—in the place of
that which had prevailed for 150 years. He thought
also that in the event of necessity for interference being
demonstrated by proof, too unequivocal to he doubted,
he thought it was of the utmost importance that the
measures necessary to be adopted, in consequence of the
continued refusal of the local authorities to exercise
their functions, should be adopted by as strong and as
unanimous a concurrence of public sentiment in this
country as it might be possible to obtain.—(Hear.)
It was from the joint impressions—the expediency of
postponing the application of absolute suspension till
after every other alternative had been exhausted, and
the expediency of necessarily and ultimately supporting
the measures to be adopted by the almost unani-
mous voice of Parliament—that he had ventured
to make the proposition he had done to her
Majesty's Government. It might be from a very imper-
fect acquaintance with the %Vest India Colonies, and from
the absence of any local interest in them, that he had
overrated the magnitude of the measure, and had taken
a different view of it to her Majesty's Government.
The House had heard no message delivered to them
with respect to Jamaica—(Cheers)—but they had
heard that night a message from the Crown, suggesting
the union of the Canadas. The House had heard no
message from the Throne lamenting the necessity of sus-
pending the Constitution of Jamaica, but they had heard
it proposed that the ordinary forms of the House should
be departed from, with respect to that measure, because
the notice relative to it had dropped in consequence
of the failure of a House. It was proposed, as a
matter of course, to proceed with that Bill. Now
he must confess that there were other reasons than the
mere abstract merits of the case, which had induced him
to hope that the example which had been set with respect
to the Canadas last Session, would not have been followed
in the present Parliament, with respect to Jamaica. He '
was in hopes that it would not have been considered
necessary again to call upon the House to suspend
another popular form of Government in Jamaica, but
it seemed now to be a general rule of the House to
suspend popular Constitutions. The Colony of
Jamaica had had no notice of these proceedings.
Surely it would have been better that this measure
should have been delayed, in order that the
Assembly of Jamaica might have been commn-
nicated with, and if after that communication
they had remained obstinate, then the extreme penalty
which was the object of the present call might have been
enforced. He had another and more powerful reason. After
a most careful examination of the papers which had been
laid before the House upon the subject, he declared in
perfect sincerity, that he did not consider the Govern- I