The Sun.
London, England, 1834-09-29 00:00:00

PROCLAMATION

ADDRESSED TO THE APPRENTICED LABOURERS 01
BRITISH GUIANA.

By his Excellency Major-General Sir James Carmichael
Smyth, Bart., Companion of the Most Hon. Military
Order of the Bath, Knight Commander of the Royal
Order of Hanover, Knight of the Austrian Imperial Or-
der of Maria Theresa, Knight of the Russian Imperial
Order of St. Vladimir, Lieutenant-Governor and Com-
mander-in-Chief in and over the colony of British Guiana,
Vice-Admiral and Ordinary of the same, &c.
I was in hopes that I should have been enabled to have
congratulated you upon the great change in your situations
having been effected without the manifestations, on your
parts, of any acts of a riotous or insubordinate tendency.
It would have afforded me the utmost pleasure to have been
able to have reported to his Majesty (to whose kind and
paternal feelings towards you you owe so much) that you
had commenced the performance of your diminished duties,
under the new law, with cheerfulness and content. I am
sorry to say that many of you have much disappointed me.
The conduct of such of you as I have to complain of cannot
proceed from ignorance. The new law has been explained
to you by repeated proclamations. Our respectable and
reverend ministers of religion have, moreover, taken pains
to instruct you fully upon the subject. I can, therefore,
only attribute the conduct of such of you as would oppose
the law to obstinacy, folly, and wickedness.
Since my arrival amongst you, you cannot but be sensi-
ble how much your situations have been improved. The
first thing I did was to abolish the use of the cart-whip.
With the advice and consent of the Court of Policy, the
members of which, highly to their credit, unanimously
agreed to the measure, the power of ordering punishment
was next taken from the master, and placed in the hands of
the Justice of the Peace. These measures were surely
great benefits, and ought to convince you that I am your
friend, and, as such am entitled to your confidence. Listen,
then, to what I tell you with attention, and be assured that
what I tell you is the truth.
You who are working on estates must work for your em-
ployer 7 hours per day, or 45 hours per week. If you
prefer task work, and the manager and you agree about the
quantity of task work, he and you are at liberty to make an
agreement to that effect, which must be seen and approved
by a special magistrate. You must labour the number of
hours as settled by the law, or perform such a quantum of
task work as you agree to undertake. The law is clear
and positive, and must be obeyed.
I think it necessary further to state to you, that it is as
much my duty, on the one side, to watch over the interests
of your employers, as it is, on the other, to protect you in
the full enjoyment of all those privileges the new law affords
you. Be assured that, to the best of my ability, I shall
do both. The special justices have been instructed by me
to lose no time in assembling district courts, and in bring-
ing to trial all apprenticed laourers accused of obstinately
abstaining from performing their labour of seven and a-half
hours per day, as enjoined by law. You must labour well
and steadily during 45 hours each week, or at the rate of
seven and a-half hours each working day ;or you may make
an agreement, as I have already explained, as to task work.
If you neglect this my advice and exhortation to you, and
allow yourselves to be further misled by wicked and foolish
men, you will be visited by very heavy penalties, and bring
disgrace and misery upon yourselves and families.
Given under my hand, &c., the sth day of Aug., 1834,
in the sth year of his Majesty's reign,

J. T. C. H-AMAiII;L, Act. Gov. Sec.

DEMERARA, AUG. 10.
I send this to-day, at a very eventful period, on account
of the Emancipation Bill. From the manner in which the
slaves conducted themselves on Sunday, it was anticipated
that everything would go on tranquilly, but I am sorry to
say that the reverse is the case.

By a paper which I send, you will see how unruly the
negroes are becoming, and from accounts which are hourly
received in town they are getting worse.
We are all prepared ; all my accoutrements are in good
order, my rifle clean, and a good supply of ball-cartridge.
If the worst comes to the worst, we must put them down
vi et armis. The governor has shown a great want of energy
and decision in the matter ; negroes are naturally a most
obstinate set, and when once thy get an opinion into their
heads, you cannot convince them of their error.

Some of the most unruly, on one estate, werelegged in
the presence of the whole gang, as it was though it would
produce a favourable effect upon them ; but they all fell on
their knees and begged the men to bear it patiently, as it
could not last long!

It is expected that martial law will be the effect of all
this ; if so, it will put a stop to all business, and we shall
be metamorphosed into soldiers directly ; but it is to be
hoped they will see their error, and return to their work in
time. Parties of soldiers have been sent to different parts
of the coast.