The Sun.
London, England, 1838-12-21 00:00:00

LONDON :
FRIDAY EVENING, DECEMBER 21, 1838.

By the arrival of the Lord Melville packet at Fal-
mouth on Wednesday from Jamaica, whence she
sailed on the 15th ult., we have received the Journals
of that island to the date of her departure inclusive.
They bring the important news that his Excellency
S►r LIONEL SMITH, finding the House of As-
sembly as intractable this year as it was
last, has been under the necessity of dissolv-
ing it on the very first day of the Session, (the
6th of Novensber,) in order to take the sense of the
Electors upon the conduct of their Representatives.
Sir LIONEL SMITH has a difficult task to perform, as
unfortunately that portion of the community by which
he is idolized, is without a voice in the Councils of the
Island. The Planters know and feel that the freedom
granted to the coloured race is yet imperfect—that the
right of a participation in the Suffrage necessarily
flows from the recognition of their social equality with
the rest of her MAJESTY'S subjects by Parliament ;
and, therefore, it is that they leave no means untried
to render the concessions of the Imperial Legislature,
and the good and benevolent intentions of the Gover-
nor, abortive. If, then, the call of the Governor
be not properly responded to by the electors of
Jamaica—and they are a too restricted, and a too self-
interested body to be greatly relied upon—it will be-
come the duty of the Imperial Parliament to re-modify
a Constitution which the freedom of the coloured race
has virtually rendered obsolete, as well as inoperative.
We subjoin the proceedings from the Jamaica Jour-
nals :
" Gentlemen of the Council,
" Mr. Speaker and Gentlemen of the House of Assembly,
" On considering the many important measures called for
by the present circumstances of the Colony, which the pre-
mature termination of your last session has left unprovided
for, I have felt myself compelled, in the paramount discharge
of my duty, to assemble you again for the despatch of public
business.
" I earnestly recommend to your attention the state in which
the country will be placed on the expiration of the laws esta-
blishing a police—regulating the collection of the public taxes
—and embracing many other objects deeply affecting the
public welfare.
" It will be my duty to lay before you various communica-
tions from her Majesty's Government, explanatory of the
grounds upon which her Majesty, in the exercise of her pre-
rogative, has been pleased to disallow certain laws of the
island, and carrying her Majesty's recommendation that pro-
vision should be made by the Colonial Legislatures for the in-
troduction of several measures of vital interest to all classes
of her Majesty's subjects in Jamaica, amongst which are in-
cluded those having for their objects—the prevention of
vagrancy—the better regulating the relative rights and duties
of masters and servants in husbandry or other kinds of handi-
craft—the determining the qualifications of electors—the regu-
lation of a militia—and the preventing the unauthorised occu-
pation of land, belonging to the crown or private individuals.
" In all these, and in every other measure calculated to
promote the true interests of the colony, you will now, as ever,
find me ready to afford my zealous co-operation."
On the return of the house his Excellency's speech was re-
ferred to a Committee, consisting of Messrs. J. Allwood,
March, Leslie, Barnett, Barclay, and Osborn.
The House adjourned for half an hour, and having again
met Mr. Allwood reported the following address, which was
read and agreed to. Messrs. Hill, Lake, and Taylor, dis-
senting.
" May it please your Excellency,
" We thank your Excellency for your Speech at the open-
ing of the Session.
" We feel, in common with your Excellency, the emergency
in which the country may be placed by the expiration of the
annual laws, and we also are well aware of the necessity which
in our present state of society exists, that laws for the preven-
tion of vagrancy—for regulating the relative rights and duties
of masters and servants—for determining the qualification of
electors—for the regulation of the Militia, and for preventing
the unauthorised occupation of lands, should be enacted, but
we are keenly alive to the fact, that our Legislative rights have
been violated : and so long as these rights continue to be in-
vaded, we feel ourselves compelled to adhere to our resolutions
of last Session."
At half-past five o'clock the House waited on his Excel-
lency, and presented the same, when he was pleased to make
the following reply :
Mr. Speaker, and Gentlemen of the House of Assembly
—lt is always my duty, and no less my inclination, to receive
every communication from you with sincere respect; but I
must express my regret at your reply to the Speech with
which I opened the present Session."
Immediately upon the above being read at the table, the pro-
vost marshal general appeared at the bar, and summoned the
house to attend in the council chamber, when his Excellency
was pleased to dissolve the House in
.the following speech :
Ba," Gentlemen of the Council,
" Mr. Speaker, and Gentlemen of the Assembly,
" It is with unfeigned regret I have to inform you that al-
though the House of Assembly have acknowledged the emer-
gency in which the country may be placed by the expiration of
the annual laws, and have expressed themselves aware of the
necessity which, in the present state of society, exists for the
enactment of laws providing for those important objects which
I pressed on your attention at the opening of this Session ;
that body still adheres to the determination which compelled
me to bring the last Session to a close.
" So little can I reconcile this determination with the true
interests of the colony, and hopeless as I am of any change
in the sentiments of the present representatives of the people,
I have reluctantly resolved on taking the sense of the consti-
tuency, and, therefore, in the exercise of the prerogative
vested in me, I do now, in her Majesty's name, dissolve this
General Assembly, and it is hereby dissolved accordingly."

In the report which appeared in The Sun yesterday
of the meeting of the Working Men's Association, two
facts were mentioned, which are, we think, especially
worthy of the attention of Ministers, and the
rich Aristocracy generally. " The people of Lon-
don, said Mr. O'CoNNoR, were apathetic be-
cause they were better off than their brethren in
the North." That is the first fact, and it is we believe
eminently true, and extends not merely to the people of
London, but to all persons who come immediately into
contact with the opulent tax and tithe devouring
Aristocracy. Their immediate tradesmen, servants,
and dependents are well off, they only grumble
and growl in the ordinary way, and therefore
the tax and tithe devouring Aristocracy, who do not
look beyond their immediate circle, know nothing of
the deep distress of the bulk of the labouring classes,
and the intense feelings of discontent and hatred which
they nourish.
A similar remark may, it is apprehended, be ex-
tended to most of the persons connected with the
Press. Newspapers are a sort of luxury. At
least they are not so indispensable as food ; and the
buyers of Newspapers are as a rule, therefore, never
in the last stage of distress. This is still more appli-
cable to the daily than to the weekly Papers ;
they are mainly supported by the opulent classes,
in a great measure even by the tithe and tax-
devouring Aristocracy ; their conductors do not
experience any thing of the sufferings of the
lower classes, and they, it is to be apprehended,
form their opinions of the whole society, from the apa-
thetic and comparatively well fed Londoner, to the
exclusion of the bulk of the starving multitudes in the
provinces. This may turn out to be a fatal mistake,
for the suffering of those multitudes, are the pa-