The Sun.
London, England, 1848-06-28 00:00:00

G. BENTINCK'S CHARGES.

Earl GREY moved for the production of certain
correspondence which had taken place between the
Governors of various West Indian Colonies and the
Colonial-office, and he would take that op-
portunity of alluding to certain charges which
had been made against the authorities of
the Colonial-office in another place. It had been
stated :that he (the Colonial Secretary), in conjunc-
tion with his Hon. Friend Mr.,llawes, the Under-
Secretary for the Colonies, had conspired to
deceive a Committee to which the other House
of Parliament had referred the consideration of
the important subject of the present state of
our West Indian colonies. It had been
stated that they had deliberately conspired to keep
back papers relating to the working of the Act of
1846, with the intention of deceiving the Com-
mittee. It had been stated that while they had
carefully presented to the Committee all docu-
ments calculated to support their own view of
the question, they had deliberately withheld
every paper that militated against those views. That
was a charge so serious, an imputation so utterly dis-
graceful, that if it could be maintained not only would
he (Earl Grey) be unworthy to hold the situation
which he held under her Majesty's Go-
vernment, but it would be the duty of
their Lordships and of the other House of
Parliament to take some formal proceedings, and to
mark their sense of his gross misconduct, and of his
abuse of the confidence of the Crown.—(Hear, hear.)
To what did that charge amount ? It was that he
had wilfully endeavoured to deceive a Committee of
the other House of Parliament by garbling papers.
To his extreme astonishment he had been told
that the person who made this charge had at-
tempted to draw a distinction between a personal
imputation and an imputation against a Minister
of the Crown in his political capacity, and
had said that he made this merely as a I
political imputation. He was sure their Lordships
would agree with him that in such a case no such
distinction could be allowed.—(Cheers.) He was
surprised that one who himself looked forward to
holding office under the Crown should have
attempted to draw such a distinction.—(Loud
cheers.) If he (Earl Grey) had been guilty
of the offence which had been imputed to him, he
had been guilty of an offence far more serious than
that of an unfortunate man who, under the pressure,
perhaps, of severe distress, had been guilty of some
mere pecuniary fraud.—(Cheers.) For a Minister
of the Crown who could so conduct himself
was guilty of conduct infinitely more disgraceful than
that of a person convicted of mere pecuniary
any gentleman
fraud
at the bar of the Old Bailey.—
(Cheers.)Therefore
he hoped that it was not true that
hoping to hold office under the Crown could
have suggested such a distinction.—(Cheers.)
Such a charge as this having been made,
he hoped their Lordships would agree with him, that
it had become his imperative duty not to lose a
moment in bringing the matter under the considera-
tion of their Lordships, and in refuting such a charge
as he trusted he should refute it, in such a manner as
to defy all contradiction.—(Hear, hear.) This
charge, as he understood it, was founded upon three
dispatches. The first was a dispatch from Sir Charles
Grey, the Governor of Jamaica, dated 21st Feb. last.
It was alleged that he had wilfully kept back the
dispatch from the Committee. With respect to
the dispatch of Sir Charles Grey, he admitted
that it was one which he thought ought to
have been laid before the Committee, one which he
intended to be so laid, and which up to a recent
period he expected had been so laid. The ordinary
course which had been adopted for years at the
Colonial-office was this. Without such an arrange-
ment ft was utterly impossible that the immense mass
of business which came before the Colonial- office
could be disposed of. When a mail arrived the
dispatches were taken to the particular department of
the office to which it belonged, where the dispatch
was opened and registered, and if there was any
former correspondence on the matter, it was placed
with it, and forwarded to the permanent Under-Se-
cretary of State for the Colonies, or the Assistant
Under-Secretary, by whom they were transmitted to
the Parliamentary Under-Secretary, and after
they had been inspected by the Secretary of
State, they were sent to the Prime Minister him-
self, with any remarks which he might deem ne-
cessary. The Secretary of State gave his usually
simple
simple approval. The post bringing the dispatchn
question arrived 27th of March, which was opened by ,
the gentleman appointed for that purpose, Mr.
Cox, and was addressed by him to Mr.
Taylor, the chief of the department, with this
minute, " This is the report for which the
Committee have asked." At that time no perfect
copy of that report had been received, for without
the evidence it was a comparatively useless docu-
ment. It was suggested that it should be laid be-
fore the Committee the same day, and it went to Mr.
Hawes, who agreed to it. Then followed the minute
which he (Lord Grey) framed with respect to it,
the first sentence of which, with which alone he would
trouble the House, contained these words :—" This
may be laid before the Committee, but it requires
to be answered with some care." This minute was
dated March 30, showing how little time he allowed
to elapse before he directed his attention to the
subject. Having made this minute, he never
doubted but that it was laid before the Com-
mittee—(Hear)—for it was, their Lordships must be
aware, physically impossible for a Secretary of State
to look at the manner in which the orders he gave
were executed. Multitudes of returns were con-
tinually called for, and it was impossible
that the chief of the department could
inspect every paper called for; he was not
therefore in the habit of reading the papers that were
called for by the Committee, but he gave direc-
tions that all called for by it should be
supplied. He implicitly trusted to the
carrying out of his orders by the gentlemen
engaged in the department, and he believed he had
reason to place that confidence in them. But in this
instance a mistake had been committed. As the
mail was on the point of starting, and as there
was no time to send a reply in writing, he
sent a verbal one, and directed that one of the copies
should be at once sent to the Committee, stating that
he should send the remainder as soon as possible. He
received the dispatch on the 28th of March, and
having looked through and examined it, he gave
directions for the reply. There was not much delay,
for he wrote one on the 30th. The report having
been already sent to the Committee it did not seem
to him to be a very unpardonable mistake that the
dispatch had not been sent with the report. Un-
doubtedly that was in some degree a conjectural
s and be time it
explanation of the mistake, butatthes
was an explanation which was entirely correct,
must say, that not only himself but the gentlemen
of the department to which he belonged were not
liable for the unjust censure which had been cast
upon them, more especially, as the number of dis-
patches called for by the House of Commons_ and the
Committee on that subject, amounted to no less than
308—(Hear, hear)—and the number of papers on
other subjects to no less than 293; making altoge-
ther 1,630 folio pages of printed matter.—(gear,.
€
hear.) He must say, therefore, in common justice
and in common fairness to the department, that the
mistake was not a very unnatural one. (Hear,
hear.) But this he would say still, at all events,
and he did pledge his honour that it was purely
a mistake, and that he and Mr. Hawes both firmly
believed, and were under the impression that the dis-
patch had been laid before the Committee. Their
Lordships could not have the slightest ground for be-
lieving that these minutes were concocted since. Mr.
Cox,' Mr. Taylor, Mr. Eliot, Mr. Hawes, and him-
self had been charged with deceiving the House of
Commons by a deliberate act of forgery. Upon that
charge he would say no more than this—that he
could hardly say who deserved most to be despised,
that man, who not really entertaining that suspi-
cion, yet was bold enough to express it, or that man who
was so lost to all generous feeling as to be capable of
conceving it. The dispatch of Governor Light which
was received on the 24th of April was said not to
have been laid before the Committee, although a short
extract from it was communicated- to the House.
No 1,
- -e had no hesitation in saying, that it
was by his direction that that dispatch was
and
kept back,that the. extract in question
had been taken from it by his direction. He did not
think it necessary to communicate
rl that dispatch to
the Committee for reasons
.117ere.ebct padeerectlyrfectly simple
its inquiry,
plain.
Before the 24th the Committee
and it had been resolved not to lay
aenylt dispatches
before it which should subsequently received,
unless they contained matters of peculiar importance ;
but as to keeping back that dispatch, all he could say
was, that it had a very indirect and general bearing
on the subject then under inquiry by the Committee.
It was said he had suppressed it because it contained
a passage stating that the cultivators in the island
could not compete with slave-grown sugar, under the
circumstances in which they were placed; but that fact
'was well known, and no object could be gained by sup-
pressing it. It happened that the dispatch instead of
being against his views, entertained the strongest evi-
dence in favour of them. He must observe to their
Lordships that had he had any dishonest motive in
withholding these papers he would have naturally
taken care that the papers themselves should not be
laid before the House of Commons. It would have
been safer and easier for him to have done that than
to have withheld them from the Committee, but be

I had no sinister motive whatever to induce him to
pursue that course, and therefore all the papers that
related to the West Indies were freely laid before the
House of Commons. He was told that since this
charge had been originally made against him further
charges of the same kind had been brought forward,
namely, of withholding papers and of making dis-
honest quotations from a memorial of certain planters
in the West Indies. With respect to that dishonest
quotation, it was said that he quoted a passage from
this memorial from Jamaica which was in favour of
his argument, without quoting the other parts of it.
Undoubtedly he did, and he wanted to know who of
their Lordships ever thought of quoting from papers
that which was unfavourable to their arguments.—
(Hear, hear.) The manner, however, in which he
used the passage was this—that where there was
a paragraph in a memorial complaining of the exist-
ing state of things that admitted facts which, accord-
ing to his views, went strongly to support his argu-
ment, he made use of it. :With regard to the suppres-
sion of the dispatches, it was unnecessary for him to
go into particular details as to each case, and he would
content himself by stating that every order for papers
sent from the House of Commons was observed with
the utmost promptitude and with the most perfect
scrupulous good faith ; and he defied any man who
searched the archives of the Colonial-office to find
any single important line written upon the subject,
bearing upon either view of the question, which
either had not been presented at once without being
called for, or which had been presented to the House
of Commons through the medium of addresses to the
Crown.—(Hear, hear.) He assured their Lordships
that he gave directions to the various gentle-
men engaged in the Colonial department that
the fullest and fairest information shouldco be
furnished to the Committee and the House of mh-
mons.—(Hear, hear.) Such :was the statement e
had to offer to their Lordshipsreference toto this
niake
charge; but before he concluded _
in
hereference
feelings of
a few remarks personal to himself. When When he first read
the charge he was greatly withexcitelittle
calm reflection
dispelled and indignation, but a
injure him, he had no real
dispelled that anger, and he soon. felt_ that as then
charge could in no way
cause of anger. For many years, both in this and
the other House of Parliament, he had taken an active
part in public affairs, and during that period he defied
any one to say that be had ever laid himself open to a
charge of this nature. Indeed, until recently he felt
that during that period he had earned a character
for honour and integrity, which should have pro-
tected him from such a charge as this, and he had yet
too much confidence in the justice and generosity of
his countrymen for a moment to think that they
would believe that he could ever tarnish the unsullied
honour of that name which he was proud to inherit,
and which he had received from one who was even more
distinguished than himself for strict integrity cf pur-
pose and the unswerving honesty which characterised
his conduct and proceeding as a public man.—(Cheers.)
He felt compassion instead of anger for his assailant,
who, although he had shown a desire to become one
of the governors of this country, had displayed an
ignorance and an inability, and such a total misun-
derstanding of what was necessary in a Minister,
as to make his attempts rather a matter
of pity than of anger. He thought the
House ought to mark their sense of disapprobation of
such personal attacks against public men as had been
made by the Noble Lord against him and those con-
nected with the office of which he had the honour of
being at the head.—(Hear, hear.) Such a charge
showed that one anxious to take a leading part in the
affairs of this country was so ignorant of the manner in
which those affairs ought to be carried on, as to bring
down a matter of great public policy to the miserable
ground of party personality. Although he was not
angry for himself, he had a right to say that this system
of personal attack on the motives of public servants was
one that ought to be reprobated by their Lordships and
the other House of Parliament; and this he might say
was not the only instance in which it had occurred. Two
gentlemen of unsullied character had been accused on
grounds as trivial as those upon which this charge was
founded—one of whom, Mr. Porter, had been charged
with having deliberately furnished accounts in such a
shape as to have deceived Parliament; and the other
with having fenced with a question before a Com-
mittee for the purpose, he supposed, of deceiving them.
Such a system was full of evil and danger ; hitherto in
this country it had been our boast, and he thought our
just one, that although party politics might run high, as
in all free countries they would do, still those conflicts
had been carried on in an honourable and manly spirit,
by fair argument and discussion; and above all, they had
been free from accusations of personal motives.—(Hear,
hear.) It had been as little usual that charges of per-
sonal dishonour and fraud and deceit should be preferred
by one public man against another, as that such prac-
tices should be committed. Above all, he thought it
was almost due that a deliberate charge of violation of
a public duty, of fraud, and falsification of documents,
should not be brought against a Minister of the Crown
unless it were intended to be the foundation of some
selemn inquiry. His Noble Friend opposite had held
the office of Colonial Secretary for some years; and it had
been his (Earl Grey's) misfortune to think it a duty
to join with those who had entered into strong oppo-
tion to the policy of his Noble Friend ; but it never
once occurred to him, in that opposition, to charge his
Noble Friend with suppressing documents or acting un-
fairly ; and yet he would say, if a perverse ingenuity
had collated passages from speeches in "Hansard," with
extracts from volumes and blue books and dispatches of
hisiNoble Friend, there would be no difficulty in making
out such charges. When there was a desire to make
such charges, and a readiness to believe them, there,was
no great difficulty in finding the materials for them.
And again, his Noble Friend himself had been in oppo-
sition as well as in office, and then it had not been his
habit to ibe particularly sparing in his criticisms on
political subjects, but he would do him the justice
to say, that he never heard from him one accusation
of the kind. He would do him the justice of
saying he had always abstained from using
the " poisoned arms of personal dishonour."
He would just mention a fact which, only a few
minutes before the House assembled, he had learnt.
Their Lordships might be aware in the other House of
Parliament it was reported that, in a discussion which
took place on this very subject, a great impression was
produced by its being asserted that his Noble Friend,
the Noble Duke on the bench behind, was the chairman
of the Jocky Club, which voted a testimonial to Lord
George Bentmck for his zeal and perseverance in de-
tecting certain frauds in connexion with that club. It
was curious enough that it so turned out that this which
had been stated as a fact so opportunely, and made so
great an impression at the time, turned out to be no fact
at all. The records of this transaction had been care-
fully examined, and it been found that not only the
Noble Duke was not in the chair, but that he was not
present on the occasion adverted to, and that he did not
attend the meeting of the stewards of the Jockey Club
on that subject until the fund had become devoted to
one ofi a charitable kind. Now that was the undeniable
fact; and how easy it would be for him to say that it was
impossible for the principal actors to be ignorant of this,
and that they took the chance of the ignorance of their
audience.—(Hear, hear.) How easy it would be for
him to insinuate that this was a falsehood; but he dis-
dained to do so. He believed that in the excitement of
the moment those who made the assertion thought it to
be true; but how much care ought they to use in
charging falsehood upon others? He believed it was
impossible, with the tone of feeling which existed in this
country, that any Minister of the Crown should be
guilty of such conduct as had been imputed to him.
Every gentleman in his own department would refuse to
assist or bear him out in any such iniquitous proceeding.
But if these accusations were to be bandied about from
one to another, if such things were to be talked of as pos-
sible to be done, then would they be believed, and one of
the greatest guards of the purity of the administration
of the affairs of this country would be destroyed. To
n apt iotri Inn enes, how How
mach much
o f
maintain the conduct of public men was of the deepest
imofthe
h moralwer
of
government strength o f our
iin
this conntr/, depended
people of t on the general belief of the
is country that the public business was fairly
and honourably conducted ! He thought we had had an
awful warning cm the other side of the Channel of the
effects of a different opinion. Was there any man that
doubted that all the calamities and bloodshed which had
ensued since February in France, all the fearful events
which had startled and alarmed the whole of Europe,
were in a great measure to be attributed to the impres-
sion—whether justly or unjustly entertained he did not
say—which certain unfortunate events and disclosures had
produced on the public mind of France, that there was
i
something corrupt in the management of the b .
pu he
affairs, and in those who conducted them?
Public con-
fidence in public men had been destroyed in that country
before the revolution—(Hear)—and he would ask their
Lordships if it was not practically reprobated by their
Lordships, and condemned by the public, to_ introduce
r hear.) Such is
into debates of political subjects these attacks on the
characters of public men?—(Hear,
system could not go on long; if it did, the characters of
public men generally, on both sides of the House, would
be lowered and degraded. He hoped he had executed
his task in the manner in which he most earnestly
de-
sired to do, and had succeeded in avoiding the use of
those expressions or uttering any of those personalities
which he had condemned. The Noble Earl concluded
by moving for the papers, and sat down amidst loud
cheers.

Lord STANLEY said that although he could not
wonder that the Noble Earl should wish to take the
earliest opportunity of vindicating himself, he regretted
that ho should have felt the necessity of making some of
the statements that he had made, because the debate so
introduced was irregular; and in the next place, in
vindicating the character of his Noble and Hon. Friend
elsewhere, it placed him (Lord Stanley) in the position
of being the accuser of the Noble Earl and the de-
partment to which he belonged. He believed the
Noble Earl to be a.man of the highest honour and in-
tegrity, but at the same time the Noble Lord who had
been attacked by the Noble Earl was also a man of
unsullied honour.—(Hear.) He did not see why the
Noble Earl should have alluded to France, and he re-
gretted that he had done so; but he was still more
sorry that he had alluded to the pursuits of the Noble
Lord whom he had attacked. He was glad, however, to
bear testimony to the high honour of his Noble Friend,
and to say that nothing base or sordid was analogous to
the pursuits of his Noble Friend.—(Hear.) The Noble
Duke who had been alluded to was engaged in the
same pursuits, and had borne testimony to the conduct
of his Noble Friend, who, by great personal exertion
and expense,
had exposed and destroyed a disgraceful

system of fraud. Those who were engaged in
similar pursuits voted a testimonial, amounting
to between three and four thousand pounds, to
his Noble Friend, and the Noble Duke now
cited as a witness was one of the first subscribers. His
, Noble Friend, however, with his usual generosity, re-
I fused to receive one farthing of the amount, but sug-
gested that it should be applied to making a provision
for the widows and children of those who in a humbler
capacity had lost their lives in administering to the
pleasures of the turf.—(Hear, hear.) To turn, however,
from the Jockey Club—(A laugh)—he had yet to learn
why any public man, if he thought a public document
had been suppressed, should not state so, and give the
supposed
right
au
groundsd duty ofuf hisa
publicbel man to expose arse
i er.—(liea
delinquency without being charged with having been
guilty of mean personalities.—(Hear, hear.) He would
erhoe2ny It
was the
public
follow the Noble Earl through his statement. He thought
their Lordships would agree with him that there was
some ground for suspicion. The charge was that syste-
matically, during. the last year, the Colonial-office had
been in the practice of supressing documents, and per-
verting documents in their possession, thereby leading
the House to inferences which the documents themselves
would not warrant. There were two periods last year
upon which it was important that Parliament should be
in possession of the most accurate information. Those
two periods were when the subject of the West Indies
was discussed in Parliament, and also when the Com-
mittee on the subject was sitting ; and it was at those
periods that the charge was made that important docu-
ments were not given which ought to have been given.
The first was a dispatch received from Sir C. Grey on
the 27th of ,March. The Committee was then on the
point of closing their evidence. On that day the main
question between the Government and West
Indians was discussed, namely, whether the distress
was connected with the legislation of this country, or
with the apathy of the planters ? At that period
Sir C. Grey sent a report, prepared by the Assembly
of Jamaica, as to the causes of distress, and evidence
to support it, and it was accompanied by a dispatch of
Sir C. Grey, in which he stated the condition of the
colony, and the measures which he thought necessary to
remove the distress. The Committee closed their evi-
dence on the sth of April; and on that day the Under
Secretary was examined before the Committee. It had
been made the subject of' observation that no dispatch
had been received on the subject from the Governor of
Jamaica; and not only this document was not then laid
before the Committee, but that important document was
never laid before them—he meant the dispatch of Sir C.
Grey—although the Committee sat till the 29 th of May—
although they continued their sittings until that time.—
(Hear, hear.) And if the question before them was
whether a duty of 20s. on foreign and 10.. on British
sugar should be imposed; and that question was lost in
the Committee by a single vote—(hear, hear)—what
effect in that nicely-balanced Committee would
have been produced, he might ask, if' it had been known
that the recommendation of the governor precisely
agreed with that proposition?—(Hear, bear.) He did
not believe that document was purposely withheld; he
had no doubt it was intended to be communicated to the
Committee both by the Noble Earl and the Under-Se-
cretary; and knowing the course of business in the Co.
lonial-office. he had no doubt whatever that such was the
case.—(Hear, hear,) On the sth of April the Hon.
Gentleman the Under-Secretary for the Colonies was
called before the Committee, and gave the following
evidence. He is asked—" There is no account of the
state of the island, and in the other cases?" The answer
is, " That is generally comprised in the annual report
called the blue book. The fact is, that we have not re-
ceived it." " Does not the governor write dispatches
to the Colonial-office on the subject of the state of the
island, besides that one particular paper, in the course
of the year ?" " Yes, certainly; but I am not aware of
any dispatches from him of any importance which have
been withheld from this Committee."—(Hear, hear,"
from the Ministerial benches.) He went on to say, in
reply to other questions—" We have received from other
colonies very considerable details as to the state of those
colonies, and as to the prospects of agriculture ; but from
Jamaica I can find nothing of the kind. Until very re-
cently I think there has been no such general dispatch
received. That dispatch is now printing for this Com-
mittee. I ought to add, that the governor has been in
the island a very short time." Now, considering the
character of that dispatch, he could not understand that
the Hon. Gentleman, instead of answering vaguely that a
" dispatch was received," did not say at once, " within a
few days an important document has been received which
will furnish the fullest information to the Committee on
the subject."—(Hear, hear.) He could not understand
how the Hon. Gentleman, five or six days after the dis-
patch had been received. could have led the Committee
to believe that it was not of au important character, and
would not tend to facilitate the investigation of the Cora-
mittee.—(Hear, hear.) But there was another part of
the case which tended to throw great suspicion on the
whole of these transactions. Meetings of the Committee
were held on the sth, 9tb, 14th, 22d, and 29th of May,
six or seven weeks after the receipt of the dispatch. On
the Bth of May a motion was made in the House of Com-
mons for an Address to the Crown for the production of
the latest dispatches from the West Indies. Now, unless
the business of the Colonial-office was conducted in a
more lax manner than when he was connected with that
department, it was morally impossible, not that the
Noble Earl himself but that his subordinates in office,
when they were collecting the further dispatches to be
submitted to Parliament, should not have perceived that
this important dispatch, which was intended to be sent,
had not been communicated; and he conceived it equally
impossible that on the discovery of such an omission
instant steps were not taken to repair the error,
and to furnish the document to the Committee before
they came to a decision, and not after.—(Hear.) Though
he gave entire credit, after the speech of the Noble Earl
to the statement that they had not withheld this docu-
ment designedly from the Committee, its having been
withheld formed a reasonable ground of suspicion ; and
the fact that it was not communicated during the long
interval in which the blunder must have been discovered
afforded a strong presumption that the Government were
unwilling to have the document placed in the hands of
the Committee before they came to a decision.—(Hear.
hear.) And it added to that suspicion when they found
that the same thing occurred with regard to documents
from other colonies. There :was a dispatch from the
Governor of Demerara, which inclosed several docu-
ments relative to the distress of the colony, and declar-
ing that it was impossible for the planters to compete
with slave labour. But one, and only one, of those do-
cuments was sent to the Committee, and that a statement
of a stipendiary magistrate charging the planters with
gross apathy and negligence.—(Hear, hear.) It was
strange that this should have been the only document
sent to the Committee, and at a time, too, when they
were about coming to a decision, and when it might
have some influence on that decision. He believed that
the Hon. Gentleman the Under Secretary expressed his
regret that the dispatch was not communicated, and that
in his opinion it ought to be communicated. But the
Noble Earl took upon himself the entire responsibility of
not communicating, and said that he was right in with-
holding it. He would now go to a third dispatch of the
4th of September, and another of the 18th, from Lord
Harris, the governor of Trinidad. At the commence-
ment of the session the Hon. Member for Montrose
moved for the production of papers connected with
the West Indies, and particularly with regard to
Trinidad ; and it was singular that till the discussion on
his Noble Friend's motion had begun and been nearly
brought to a close those dispatches, which would have
been material in the discussion, had not been placed in
the hands of Members. This might have been a case
of inadvertence or pardonable omission; but when he
read the language of Lord Harris he thought the
House would be of opinion that those dispatches ought
to have been laid before the Committee. The dispatch
of the 18th of September was received the 9.2 d of Oc-
tober, 1847, and Lord Harris says in it—" The distress
is excessive, it is increasing daily; there is an unprece
dented stagnation of business; the present crop will be
abandoned from the want of the means to pay for the
necessary labour; the chief cause of this is that the
prices received for sugar this year will not repay the
cost of production." He then expresses his conviction
that the colony would relapse into a state of barbarism
if more than ordinary relief was not afforded.—(Hear,
hear.) Another dispatch was received in September
from Sir C. Grey, the Governor of Jamaica, in which he
says—" I think it my duty to mention that the low prices
of sugar in London, without any corresponding reduction
of the duties, threaten with ruin many plantations." This
document and the document from Trinidad were in the
hands of Government in October, and yet it was not laid
before Parliament till the 28th of March. With this
dispatch from Jamaica in the possession of the Govern.
ment, he was surprised at the conduct of an honourable,
high-minded, and sincere man—one who would be the
last in the world to disguise, conceal, or palliate any
fact whatever—he alluded to the Right Hon. Gentleman
the President of the Board of Trade—with regard to a
question put to him by Mr. Goulburn, respecting the
receipt of dispatches from Jamaica. That Right Hon.
Gentleman said that no dispatch had been received
giving any general account of the state of Jamaica, but
if any such document should be received it would be
communicated by the Secretary of State for the Colonies.
Here, therefore, was another point which afforded ground
for strong suspicion with regard to the motives of Go-
vernment in putting by these documents. The Noble
Earl opposite would forgive him if he used a homely
simile in illustration of the position of the Colonial-office.
The
.. Noble Earl said that if he were guilty of the charges
m
placedwould the at niorbearcru criminal
thei ns
Old
than an ny
wretch Bailey.
He hoped, therefore, that the Noble Lordwouldnot
con-
sider it offensive if he went to the same locality for his
illustration. Suppose
of their Lordshi,
badt the Noble Earl, or himself; or any,
been charged with passing coun-
terfeit money—as it was possible that any of them might
pass a bad half-crown—no human being would suspect
the Noble Earl, or himself, 'or any of their Lordships, of
wilfully committing such an act; but if it turned out
that, after having passed one bad half-crown, the same
individual proceeded to pass half a dozen other bad half-
crowns, and that a dozen more were found in his pocket,
that would very much alter the appearance of the whole
transaction, and that which at first had but the
appear-
ance of guilt, would be a conclusive proof of the guilty
knowledge.—(Hear and laughter.) What he had hereto-
fore said applied only to the Colonial-office--what he was
now about to say had a personal application to the Noble
Earl. OR the 7th Feb. he (Lord Stanley) felt it to be his
duty to call the attention of the House to the state of the
West Indies, and he stated that the persons whose peti-
tion he was then preseeting attributed their distress to
British legislation, and particularly to the Act of 1846.
In reply to his statement the Noble Earl said that even
admitting the distress to be true, it was not to be attri-
buted to the Act of 1846, but to other causes, amongst
which ho particularly specified the wasteful and extra-
vagant management of the plantations and the preva-
lence of absenteeism. The Noble Lord adverted to a
document which he then held in his hand, which he
justly styled "an able and admirable dispatch " from