The Sun.
London, England, 1839-04-10 00:00:00

were left under the management of the planters ex-
elusively, that a system of punishment might be pro-
duced which would be worse than slavery, and migl.t
lead to coercion over the labour of the negro
population. evils which were anticipated
soon occurred. The houses of correction and the gaols
were left under the management of the local Magistrates,
and no peculiar precaution was taken, but as rapidly
arose a state of things which excited the greatest
attention in this country, and called for the
interference of Parliament.—( Hear.) The apprentices
had been treated in these gaols in so cruel and
barbarous a manner—(hear, hear)—that it was
quite obvious that some of the worst and most
disgusting features of slavery were still in
existence, and in an aggravated form, inasmuch
as they were committed in the secrecy of the gaols. He
referred most unwillingly to the details of some of the
statements which had been brought forward, but it was
such an important part of the case that he could
not omit it.—( Hear, hear, hear.) On the 12th April,
1835, the Governor of Jamaica reported the case
of two female apprentices who had been flogged, and on
the 7th July he stated that rules had been passed au-
thorising the supervisor of the workhouses to flog women.
A system of cutting oil' the hair of women confined in
the houses of Correction was also adopted, and in some
cases untried prisoners were put to hard labour. In one
instance two drivers were found flogging a woman, with
the superior looking on. It was true that the superior
had been afterwards indicted and punished ; but he
merely wished to show the system that had been pur-
sued.—( Hear, hear.) On the 29th of August, 1835,
the Governor was instructed to apply to the House of
Assembly to amend the provisions of the Gaol Act, which
authorized the cutting off of the hair of women, and the

flogging of women. A message was sent by Lord Sligo.
to the House to that effect, which was referred to a

Select Committee, but no report was ever made by

that Conmittee, On the 7th of March, 1836, the
Governor referrred the House to the conviction of the

superior of Trclawney Workhouse for punishing a
woman with the cat; and on the 9th of April to the
case of a negro woman, Louisa, who died on the tread-
mill of Morant Bay Workhouse from ill treatment.
On the 11th June Lord Glenelg in his dispatch referred
to a system of fastening women who refused to work, by
by ligatures to the tread-mill, the result of which was that
one had died ; and also to the fact, that of 11 deaths in
the workhouse of Morant Bay, from January 18:33,
three were confessedly occasioned by being fastened to
the tread-mill, and the deaths of the other eight were
in consequence of the severe treatment received by the
prisoners. Other dispatches confirmed these state-
ments of cruel treatment, and on the Ist August, 1836,
Lord Sligo used the remarkable words," I again say
advisedly that the remedy must come from home."
On the Ist of July, 1837, Lord Glenelg had
stated that unless some improvement should take
place in the management of these workhouses,
it would become necessary that the stipendiary
Magistrates should abstain from committing ap-
prentices to them. About this time a Select
Committee of this House had been appointed
for the purpose of taking into consideration
the whole of the system of Negro Apprenticeship in the
West Indies. The recommendations of the Report of
that Committee had been transmitted by Lord Glenelg
to the Governor, who in consequence had laid those re-
commendations before the House of Assembly on the
27th October, 1837, urging them to make sotnealteration
in the Gaol Act ; that recommendationhad been referred
to a Special Committee ; no further notice had, up to the
present moment, been taken cf it. On the 15th of
November, 1837, Lord Glenelg had, in a despatch,
again called the attention of the Governor to the neces-
sity of further application being made to the House of
Assembly, for the amendment of the Gaol Act. On
the 28th of November, 1837, the Governor sent a
message to the House of Assembly, urging this subject
on their consideration. This message was referred to
the same Committee, and met with the same fate as the
former one. On the Ist of February, 1838, Lord
Glenelg referred to the case of Williams, which was
now well known, as evidence of the absolute necessity
of some measures being adopted to carry into effect the
recommendations of the Committee of the house of
Commons as to an efficent control over these gaols and
workhouses. But the subsequent applications of the
Governor to the I-louse of Assembly, grounded upon
this recommendation of Lord Glenelg, did not prove
more effectual than the preceding ones had done. A
Bill had been introduced into the House of Commons
for an amendment of the Emancipation Act. A contro-
versy had been for some time going on between the
Assembly and the Colonial-office on various subjects,
particularly with regard to the regulation of gaols, and
the Government had resolved to come to the House of
Commons for authority. The regulations, however,
were intended to apply exclusively to the system of ap-
prenticeship. At that time a great excitement had
been created as to the working of the apprenticeship ;
and a cry went through the country for its repeal. lie
(Mr. Labouchere) was glad that cry bad not been ac-
ceded to. But the House of Commons while determin-
ing to adhere to the contract with the planters, had
passed the following resolution :—" That this House
declares its opinion that no means should be untried
which may tend to secure to the negro population of the
British Colonies, the full enjoyment of those privileges
which they were entitled to under the Act for the
Abolition of Slavery and the Act to amend the 'same,
and that the anxious attention of the House will be
directed to the state of the negro population, when the
expiration of the term of apprenticeship shall have en-
titled them to perfect freedom." The House of As-
sembly, however, denied the right of the Imperial Par-
liament to interfere at all with the internal affairs of the
Colony. It was in July 1813, that the report of Captain
Pringle on the whole subject of the West Indies, was
transmitted to the Government. The House ought to
recollect the position in which the Government was
then placed, and he should confine his observations ex-
clusively to Jamaica. He had already stated that the
most shocking abuses had taken place, in the gaols and
in the houses of correction in Jamaica ; that five dis-
tinct applications had been made to the House of Assem-
bly to correct these abuses, and that five distinct times had
the House evaded the duty of correcting them.—( Hear,
hear.) The consequence of the abolition of the appren-
ticeship system would be, that inasmuch as by the pre-
vious Act protection was afforded to the labourer, all
that protection which was provided for him as
an apprentice would cease, the moment he be-
came free, and there would be no defence against his
being committed to prison wherever he might be found,
under a Vagrant Act by any Magistrate. The Govern-
ment had bad abundance of experience of the proceed-
ings of the House of Assembly not to be anxious to
guard against this ; accordingly the West India Prison
Bill was introduced, and passed both Houses of Parlia-
ment. The attention of those in the West India in-
terests was abundantly called to this Bill in both
Houses, and no opposition was offered to it, except that
Mr. Burge, the Colonial Agenthere, sent a protest against
it to the Colonial Office. It was after the passing of this
Act, that open collision took place between the House
of Assembly and the Imperial Parliament, and he would
ask whether there was any rational probability to be
entertained that a House of Assembly which had acted
upon the principles, and shown such a spirit as this
House of Assembly had, could continue to make such
laws and regulations as would be useful and judicious for
the govet nment of the community of Jamaica. He
would read a few passages from a protest drawn up by
the House of Assembly upon the occasion of the second
interference of the Imperial Parliament, for the purpose
of asking whether an Assembly capable of using such
language in a deliberate manner, was very likely to be
able to pass wise and wholesome laws. At the expiration
of fifteen months the emancipated slaves would be en-
titled to a choice in the representation, and the
qualification there was so low that almost all
would be entitled to the franchise ; and he could
not conceive a worse state of things than that the
present House of Assembly should be allowed to go on
for fifteen months, and then, at the expiration of that time,
a complete and sudden revolution should take place. He
confessed he could not view, without alarm, the bulk of
the population at that time returning to the House of
Assembly, as in great probability thty might, persons
actuated by all the passions by which they themselves
were swayed. He, therefore, could see no means of
conducting the Emancipation Act to a favourable end,
but by the appointment of some body calculated to
make good wholesome laws for the government of the
population. No one could be of opinion that the state
of Jamaica ought to be left as it now was. Upon
a general review of the whole case the Go-
vernment had come to the conclusion that it
would be perfectly wise and politic to suspend
the present Constitution of Jamaica for a limited pe-
riod, and to provide for that in the appointment of a
Governor and Council. He would abstain from enter-
ing into the details of that appointment until after the
Bill was before the House ; but still there were two
points upon which he would say a word. The first was
as to the period of time during which it was proposed
the suspension should take place. It was proposed that
it should last for five years, by the expiration of which
time it was hoped opportunity sufficient could be af-
forded for making those laws which were absolutely ne-
cessary for the altered state of the population. The
next thing was, that it was the intention of Govern-
ment to aid to the Council of Jamaica a cer-
tain number of persons—probably three—to be
sent from this country as Special Councillors, and
be could not help thinking that such an union
of Councillors would have a great tendency to
the formation of wise and prudent laws. This was the
outline of the Bill he intended to bring in, and without
further observation he begged leave to move for leave
to bring in the Bill.
Mr. GOULI3VItN said the Hon. Gentleman had
so indistinctly shadowed forth the nature of the Bill,
that he (Mr. Goulburn) would not then discuss at large
so important a question, Before doing so he would
prefer to see the measure, and to have time to consider
all its details, so that he might be prepared to say whe-
ther, in his opinion, it would provide a proper remedy
for the evil which existed. Ile wished, however,7to
reserve to himself the perfect right of' discussing the