The Sun.
London, England, 1853-11-19 00:00:00

"It is my gratifying duty, however, to announce to
you that I am empowered to hold out prospects of far
more extended relief to the productive industry of Ja-
maica than could arise from any possible reduction of
official salaries, in the shape of a guarantee by the Im-
perial Parliament of the entire island debt, not already
so secured. The benefits of such a guarantee would not
be confined to a mere temporary alleviation of the enor-
mous annual burden which that debt entails, since the
reduction of the charge for interest would be so large as
to enable you, out of a portion of the saving, to provide
for the gradual liquidation of the principal at no very
remote period. Nor could her Majesty's Ministers, I
am confident, hesitate to propose to Parliament, pro-
vided only the mode of regulating the revenue and ex-
penditure of Jamaica be assimilated to that which has
so long maintained the financial credit of Great Britain
at the highest pitch, to advance further loans to an ex-
tent sufficient for the introduction of a continuous stream
of immigrants, to supply the void in the labour market
created by the sad ravages of cholera and smallpox, and
to aid in developing the vast natural resources of this
beautiful island more rapidly and effectually than its
present limited population permits.
" The details of pecuniary operations of such magni-
tude will, of course, require deliberate consideration,
and I shall be ready, at the proper time, to enunciate to
you what further information I possess of the views of
Government as to the securities required.
"Meanwhile I may briefly state that the generous
proposals to which I have alluded, sanctioned as they
have been with surprising unanimity by the leading
statesmen in both Houses of Parliament, are founded
upon no design of fettering in the slightest degree that
legislative independence which for nearly two centuries
the people of Jamaica have so proudly cherished—are
coupled with no conditions derogatory to the first repre-
sentative constitutions that ever existed—but emanate
solely from the sincere sympathy felt by the British
nation at large for the misfortunes of one of its most
ancient and important colonies.
"It is in a similar spirit that you are urged by all
parties at home no longer to delay the introduction of such
political reforms as the experience of the mother country
has demonstrated to be most conducive to efficient and
economical government, and best calculated to avert the
recurrence of ruinous struggles between the various
powers of the State. I well know with how much
jealousy suggestious'of this sort must naturally be re-
ceived by the large class who, looking back to the effort
which it cost the earlier colonists to erect the great bul-
wark of civil and religious liberty in this island, have
learnt to regard the peculiar institution which sprang
subsequently thereout as the acme of human wisdom.

" Such feelings are worthy of every respect, but I
must in all courtesy remind those who entertain them
that no form of government was ever yet so perfect as
not to require, in the lapse of ages, to be modified in
accordance with the varying interest and progressive
requirements of society. Witness the British constitu-
tion itself—the great model for the colonial dependencies
of the empire—which has undergone so many successive
reformations for those ends within a comparatively re-
cent period.

" Here, on the contrary, a social revolution, unparal-
leled in extent and completeness in the annals of history,
has taken place during the last quarter of a century,
with scarcely any deviation from the previous motion
of public business. What Jamaica stands pre-eminently
in need of at the present stage of her political progress
is a strong executive Administration, consisting of up-
right and intelligent men chosen from among her own
citizens, to devote themselves to the exclusive study of.

her condition, charged with the sole responsibility of all
matters of finance, and serving as an acknowledged
medium of communication between the representation
of the Crown, the Council, and the House of Assembly.
"In this way the harmonious co-operation of the
several branches of the Legislature would be secured in
any question of importance, and the theory of represen-
tative government be carried to its only legitimate con-
clusion. The improvements effected under such a system
in a governor's position would be that the whole course
of his policy would be disclosed to and freely canvassed
by the colonists ; that there would be as little risk of
collision between himself and either house as between
the Sovereign and Parliament ; and that the time wasted
in discussing bills to which it is wholly out of his power
to assent would be saved, and in many cases the irritat-
ing use of the veto avoided.
" The bearing of the proposed change upon the re-
lations between the Council and Assembly would be no
less advantageous, especially as there could no longer be
the slightest objection on the part of the Crown to
render the former in every respect as it has long virtu-
ally been in practice, or so add to it a larger number of
landed proprietors, so as to identify it as closely as pos-
sible with the views of those permanently interested in
the colony. But the most beneficial result of all would
be the opportunities afforded for the gradual introduc-
tion of well-considered and wholesome reforms into
every department of the public service, and for legisla-
tion of a more com phn
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"I have dwelt, perhaps, longer than I need have done
on the first simple step toward the cause of the political
disorders to which Jamaica is so peculiarly subject, espe-
cially as I may have to address you again by message in
reference to the particulars of the plan. That plan may
not prove a panacea for all the ills that afflict the colony,
but at any rate, it is no untested theory of government,
no new-angled experiment in constitution, making that_
is proposed as the basis of the guarantee to be given
the mother country for your debt, but a consistent b.
fol-
lowing out of the principles of the British constitution,
through the introduction of provisions which can a
render the working of the representative system in any

country harmonioi-is and effective.
" Mr. Speaker, and Gentlemen of the Assembly,—lt
only remains that should I request you, in her Majesty's
name, to grant the supplies requisite to meet the out-
standing obligations of the Treasury, and to uphold the
public establishments during the ensuing year upon an

adequate scale.
" It is unnecessary for one to tell you of the ruinous
amount of the claims which, from the non-passing of
the usual revenue acts, are daily accumulating against the
Island Treasury, or of the misery and distress thereby
inflicted on all classes of the community ; nor need
I remind you of the even greater evils which must result
from the expiration of the rum duties, and from the
parish vestries being left without authority to raise