The Sun.
London, England, 1839-06-05 00:00:00

EYE,/,TING

JA 3TA

MEETING OF PROPRIETORS.
A meeting of planters, merchants, and others, interested
U, tie island of Jamaica, took place yesterday at Willis's
IZ

The following is the petition to Parliament which was to
by proposed, as expressive of the feelings of the meeting
" That your petitioners are, as landowners, mort-
pgees, annuitants, and otherwise, interested in, and
connected with the- island of Jamaica, and are in-
. :orested in, and most desirous of promoting, the
zs of the great measure of emancipation. That
heard, with great satisfaction, the abandonment
ar Majesty's Government of a Bill To make
s orary provision for the Government of Jamaica.'
I 1,• 7 considered its provisions subversive of the constitu-
t:i of the island, and dangerous to its welfare, as well
a. njurious to the interests of petitioners. That it
iie the opinion of petitioners that by evincing a spirit of
conciliation towards the Assembly respecting the consti-
tulrmal rights and privileges of that body,—and abstaining
from Parliamentary legislation, the confidence of the As-
sembly would be won ; and they would be induced, when
the Governor was directed to convene them, to exercise
their legislative functions ; and in such a manner as
would best promote the welfare of all classes in the
colony, and would satisfy the just expectations of
Parliament and the people of Great Britain. That
it was with surprise and alarm that petitioners heard a
second Bill had been introduced into Parliament—entitled
A Bill for Enacting certain Laws in the Island of Ja-
maica.' That this Bill, so far from being calculated to
win the confidence of the Assembly, cannot fail to excite
the greatest dissatisfaction among all classes in the
colony :—yo the Bill enables the Governor and Council,
by disagreeing to measures proposed by the Assembly, to
suvend the functions of that body, and transfer them
tclusively to tnemselves ; that the grounds stated in
the preamble arc untenable, and subversive of the
constitution of Jamaica; that they tend to degrade the
Assembly in the estimation of all classes, and render ineffi-
7ient the exercise of its legislative functions ; that nothing
could be more calculated to offend the feelings of all classes
Jamaica than adopting as a sample of legislative inter-
erenee, the Orders in Council made for the Crown Colo-
'es, where another system of Government exists, and
where not the common law of England, but foreign laws,
are established; and petitioners therefore pray to be
ieard by Counsel against the Bill."
The meeting was called by Mr. Burge, the Agent for
island.

The Earl of Harewood took the chair.
Mr. BURGE entered into a long statement of the com-
munications which he had with the Government. He
said he had repeatedly represented to the Govern-
ment that their best course would be frankly, and in
a spirit of conciliation, to abandon all idea of legis-
lation upon the subject, and to call upon the Governor
to invite the Assembly to meet and resume their legislative
functions. He had especially urged this in a conference
with Lord Melbourne and Lord Normanby, but
they were immovable, and were firmly resolved to
persist in some Legislative measure. The effect
of 'Mr. Labouchere's Bill was to give the Governor
and Council the power of making, or reviving, or re-
enacting any laws which might not previously have been
made, revived, or re-enacted by the Assembly, with refer-
e .ce to the hiring of servants, or the vagrancy regulations, &c.
The effect of the clause would be to enable the Governor
and Council to legislate without the intervention of
the House of Assembly on any matter connected
with vagrants, contracts for labour, or illegal occu-
pation of land ; for if the Council persisted in urging
amendments to any measure brought forward by the
Assembly on these subjects, in which the Assembly
could not concur, or if the Governor, acting perhaps
under instructions, were to refuse his assent to any Bill
es regulating these matters, which bad passed the As-
eembly and Council, it would not become law, and he
vs euld thus acquire the right of legislating. Lord
Nortnatiby had been Governor of Jamaica, and must have
known that no House of Assembly could proceed to the
eeecution of its functions under the coercion of such a
Bill as the present. Power was also to be given to
the Governor to revive temporary acts. The meet-
iieg must be aware that the House of Assembly
possessed the exclusive power of voting money Bills,
We only granted for a year. These were amongst
ants which would expire, and the Governor might
revive these annual Money Bills, so that if the Assembly
should think any of the annual taxes not fit to be re-
vived or continued, the Governor and Council might revive
them under this clause, which in fact gave the Governor and
Council the command of the public purse of the island. The
clause transferred to the Governor the power of levying taxes,
sad if he understood that this was one great ground of ob-
jection to the former Bill, it was impossible but the
meeting mnst feel the same objection to the present one.
In fact, it was even more objectionable than the former
measure, because that stated, in language not to be mis-
understood, that it was intended to suspend the func-
tions of one branch of the Legislature, while this
Bill does the same thing, but makes use of language
calculated to impose. The fact was the Government never
intended that the Assembly should resume their le-
gislative functions. They pretended to leave them a
locus penitentic, whereas they left them none in
reality, and this Bill was merely a pretext whereon
to found a measure in the next Session to swamp
the Assembly altogether; their intrigues had occasioned
the adoption by the Assembly of the resolutions of
lea, and now they wished to make Parliament
participate in their dirty work of driving the Assembly
to extremities. Lord Normanby had said that, in his
opinion, when the Emancipation Act passed there ought
to have been no Legislative Assemblies, and this Bill was
brought forward to enable him to adopt that principle. He
believed that every one who knew the colony agreed with him
in opinion that if this form of Goverment should be established
the fate of that colony would be scaled. Several gentle-
inen, with whom he had conversed, and who had been
long resident in Jamaica, entirely corroborated his view
of the effect's likely to be produced by the measure.
It would be equally fatal to all classes of the commu-
nity. 'When the petition was first brought forward,
the Government told those connected with Jamaica that
the Bill was necessary to protect them from the prepon-
derance of the Negro population in consequence of the
Emancipation, and on this ground the Central Emanci-
pation Society, with Mr. Sturge at their head, had actu-
ally determined to oppose the Bill. But when he (Mr.
Burge) at the bar of the House of Commons had, in the
name of the Assembly, disclaimed all fears on that
head the Government changed their course and Old the
measure was necessary to protect the negro population
from the bad legislation of the whites. The Bill
had been begun in fraud, and had been continued in
deceit up to the present moment. In the former
Bill, and in the debate upon it, the absolute necessity
of the Prisons Bill was insisted upon most strongly.
Surely if it was so absolutely necessary then, it was as much
so now ; yet there was not one word in the new Bill about
it —(Hear, hear.) That was not the proper time to go
generally into the Orders in Council ; he would only say that
,ey might do very well for the Crown Colonies where the
ii inciples of the English law had never been introduced,
',here the trial by jury had never been established. Yet
Hwy were to be told that they were protecting the negro
ovulation, when they were putting the trial of causes in
tee power of a single magistrate, from whose decision
there was no appeal—to be told they were protecting the
eegro when they took from him the right of trial by jury.
It was monstrous. He would only further say of them
that in the Orders' n Council there was as much to be
found for the welfare and benefit of the negro, as there
ees judgment in the manner in which they were brought
:aril. He ti ()slid not for a moment allow it to be said
the people of Jamaica wished to have bad legislation
:ley wanted good legislation—they wished legislation
which would be perfectly consistent with the political and
civil freedom which all classes enjoyed, and which would
test harmonize with all the relations of one to another, and
which would maintain and secure the prosperity and secu-
iit of the island. That, he was sure, was the feeling in
• hat room, and lie was certain that it was the feeling of the
eeeple of Jamaica. He begged to call their attention to
the date of the Orders—suppose the Bill were to receive
the Royal Assent at the earliest possible moment—suppose,
which he firmly believed would never be the case,
the Bill were to pass with all celerity through both Houses
of Parliament, it could not bo sent out to Jamaica before
the Ist of August, it would not arrive there till the 15th
of September. The Assembly was prorogued, and it
would he at least fourteen days before it could meet, and
then they would have two days in which to re-enact all
those laws—only two days, because on the Ist of October
the Governor and Council commenced their functions.
Sir Lionel Smith had made a most unfair use of the state
of the law as he represented it, that the planters were
rejoivd that the 35th Charles 11. was unrepealed, because
wider it they would have power to flog freemen from
parish to parish.—( Oh, oh.) Now he had been fourteen
years the Attorney-General of Jamaica, and he would say
that not one prosecution or punishment ever took place
under that law, and he fully believed that it was not now
in force.---( Hear, hear.) Yet this was the law it was re-
presented the planters were glad was unrepealed. It
was impossible for the Assembly of Jamaica, consistently
with their duty to their constituents, to pass those laws
under the coercion of this Bill, It was neither more nor
less than a Bill for transferring the whole of the legisla-
tion for Jamaica into the hands of the Home Government
through the Governor and Council.—( Cheers.) He had
felt it his duty to call upon them to discuss the merits of
the Bi,ll--it was, in his opinion, as bad as the other one,
and he hoped, nay, he was sure, they would petition
against it.
Earl ST. VINCENT said his eyes were first opened to the
traitorous policy of the Colonial Office by the conduct of
the Government upon the Prisons Bills. He then thought
it was intended as a trap for catching the House of Assem-
bly, to induce them to take a course which would form a
semblance of a justification for harsh and stringent conduct
upon the part of the Government—(Cheers)—and no-
thing that had occurred since had induced him to forego
that opinion. He would, in his place in Parliament, give
the 11111 all the opposition in his power.---( Cheers.) Ile
moved the adoption of the petition.

Sir ALEXANVER GRANT seconded the resolu-
tion. He thought there could be no hesitation among that
body who opposed the former Bill in Parliament to giro
the present Bill their most strenuous opposition. The
_
object of the present Bill was the same as that of the
I former Bill, to do away with the Legislative Assembly. Lord
J. Russell had stated that it was necessary to do away with
th. Assembly, and in order that justice might be done to the
"gr°e3; and in that spirit of calumny which had been so
ranch encouraged by certain parties, his Lordship ex-
' claimed, " For one, Sir, I deeply lament that that mag-
nificent boon of compensation was distributed before the
r object we had in view, that of doing justice to
the negro, was actually carried into effect." Lord
Normanby had stated he was of opinion the
superseding of the Assembly should have been part of the
Bill for the Abolition of Slavery, as, without that, justice
could not be done to the negro. Tho Government ought
to introduce measures to protect both masters and negroes,
but it appeared that the latter were the main objects of
their cen,iieration. He ( Sir A. G. )hoped that proper mea-
sures would be adopted by tke Legislature with reference _