The Sun.
London, England, 1851-04-15 00:00:00

garchy in the colony ender the semblance of free insti-
tutions. Befero he proceeded, however, to state the
substenee of the petition, and call the attention of their
Lordships to its prayer, to should, with their Lordships'
permission, describe that which, no doubt, was a subject
fileoiliar to the Noble Earl, and which was at one time
familiar Pled to himself (Lord Stanley), but which he
believed not to bo so familiar to their Lordships—
namely, the nature and condition of the existing coesti•
tution of British Guiana. That constitution, he nerd not
inform them, was not formed on the model of the British
constitution. It was, on the contrary, in point of fact,
practically the same as that which obtained under the
Dutch government of the colony, and which was gua-
ranteed by this country to the inhabitants on the cession
of that colony. There were two bodies, the C curt of
Policy and the Combined Court. The members of the
Court of Policy were chosen by an Electoral College,
which was itself elected by the population of the colony,
divided into five districts, under a franchise that had
been formerly a high one, but had been recently
lowered. The Electoral College consisted of seven per•
sons; and when a vacancy occurred in the Court of Po-
licy, they (the College) selected two persons, whom they
recommended to the Court of Policy for the purpose of
choosing one of them to fill the vacancy in that coml.
The Court of Policy, this constituted, consisted of ten
members, of whom the governor and four official mem-
bers formed one-half, the casting vote resting with the
governor, who could thus practically decide every ques-
tion brought before the court. Practically speaking,
the Court of Policy was the solo legislative body of the
colony. No legislation could be carried on in the colony
except in that court. It had the whole control of the
legislation of the colony, and no legislation conid be ori-
ginated by any other body; for although there was com-
bined with that court another body for the purposes of
financial legislation and taxation, that other body could
not of itself originate any legislative measure. Those
financial representatives were six in number, and, con-
joined Policy,hh
governorf o r formed ehcal
had the ate
was
powerc
a
l
o l
ed
f
arresting all legislation by ajourning the court sine die.
to Combined oasts the
Court. Court
ofT
After that short sketch of the Legislature of Guiana,
their Lordships would be of opinion that it was not a
constitution in which the representative system largely
prevailed; and if it was their opinion that the colony
was fit for representative institutions, the remedy
lay not in a modification of the present system,
but in the alteration of the system altogether
in accordance with the prayer of the petitioners.
Ile was not aware what was the nature of the
alteration introduced in the system of the Noble Earl
in the year 1840; but he believed he was correct in say-
ing that whilst the constitution of the Court of Policy
and of the Combined Court remained unchanged, the
alteration consisted in an extension of the franchise, and
the substitution of open voting for the ballot. But
looking at the state of ignorance in which the greater
portion of the population were plunged, ho was not
aware that the mode adopted of extending the franchise,
and lowering the qualification, was the best mode of in-
troducing a resemblance to British institutions. How-
ever, great discontent existed in the colony, and several
numerous and respectable meetings were hold for the
purpose of obtaining representative institutions, and
trom those meetings petitions were presented to the
Court of Policy, demanding a free represent•,tive system.
On the 3d of April a motion was made in the Court of
Policy, recommending that the present Legislature
should cease to exist, and should be replaced by a coun-
cil and house of assembly, such as that in Barhadoes and
other West India possessions. On the 6th of May a
great meeting was held at Georgetown, at which a com•
mitten was formed for the purpose of organising a plan
for effecting the changes desired in the constitution, but
e Crown, went In consequence of no notice having been taken of their
former— yi—viz.,
a petitions,ch u h
ethehot demands
homihat theed h peopleth furthertthaehr
elective council and an elective assembly. A petition to
that effect was presented to the Court of Policy, and that
same court, which refused to notice the petition of the.
3d of April, came to a resolution on the 13th of June that
it was the opinion of the court that the legislative insti-
tutions of British Guiana were unsuited to the existing
state of society, that it was desirable they should be
abolished, and a house of assembly and legislative coun-
cil elected instead. If anything were wanting to show
what were the feelings of the colony on the matter, the
self condemnation of that body thus given supplied it.
However, on the 18th of September the Government
submitted to the court a scheme, not for the purpose of
introducing direct representation into either branch of
the Legislature, but to increase from six to ten the num-
ber of additional representatives—to add one person to
the elected members of the Court of Policy in the person
of the Mayor of Georgetown. The governor having in
pursuance of his right adjourned the court, another
meeting was held in the interval, which was vary nu-
merously attended, and from which a declaration and
petition emanated, to the effect that they were not sa-
tisfied with the modifications proposed by the governor,
and praying the establishment of representative institu-
tions upon the model of those of the other British colo-
nies. On the 30th of September a resolution, embracing
that principle, was proposed to the Court of Policy, and
that same court, which had in the first place refused to
notice the petition on the subject and in the next had
affirmed and passed a resolution to the effect of the
prayer of the petition, in the third place did not nega-
tive the resolution, but at a subsequent meeting, on the
Bth of October, got rid of it by substituting an amend-
ment, to the effect that the court, acquiescing in
the propriety of not altering the constitution of the co-
lony for the present without the full consent of all classes
of the inhabitants, would abstain from legislation on the
subject until the memorialists had explained the details
of their plan of legislative representation, and declared
what would, according to it, constitute full, free, and di-
rect popular representation. There was a Court of Po-
licy which condemned its own constitution, there was a
general assent on the part of the colony to that con-
demnation, and a general declaration that they wished
to substitute an elective chamber and house of repre-
sentatives. Nothing could be more clear and distinct
than that proposition. He did not say whether the
state was such as to furnish materials for those two
Chambers, or whether one of them should be elective,
or nominated by the Crown. But if anything were re-
quired to test the feeling of the population of the colony
at large it was shown at an election at Georgetown of the
member to fill a vacancy in the College of Electors.
One of the candidates was chairman of the meetings
which had been held in favour of the establishment of
representative institutions ; the other belonged to the
party who took the opposite view ; and out of the 14S
electors of Georgetown 124 voted in favour of the
champion of representative institutions, and 24 in
favour of the advocate of the constitution as modified
by the Noble Lord opposite. Having laid before
their Lordships the facts of the case, he bad only to
say that the petitioners earnestly pressed on their Lord-
ships' House the spirit of discontent which the present
arbitrary system generated in the colony; they also
complained that, considering the present state of the
colony, the high price of the necessaries of life enhanced
the cost of living in a way which was severely felt by all
who were not in the receipt of Government pay, while
the pressure of taxation was not diminished; and it was
felt as an especial grievance by them that whilst their
own produce was subject to most onerous competition
with others, and gave inadequate remuneration for their
labour, they were obliged, for the purpose of maintaining
the high rate of salaries of the official servants of the
Crown, to pay a heavy amount of taxation. He said
nothing with respect to the specific proposition of the
petitioners. He had not the specific knowledge of the
colony which would enable him to say whether it
was proper or not to establish representative institu-
tions such as they prayed for; but if the colony was
in a state of advancing enlightenment—if there were a
considerable number of intelligent and educated men
amongst the inhabitants who desired a representative
system—they were bound to attend to their wishes,
not hastily, injudiciously, or incautiously, bat to ap-
proximate as soon as they could their constitution to a
true representative system, not by any tinkering of a
kind contrary to the spirit of the British institutions, but
by introducing the principle of direct representation, re-
gard being had to laying the foundation of the popular
branch of the Legislature under such safeguards as might
be deemed necessary. Her Majesty's Government were
bound, in deference to the united freedom of the colo-
nists, to grant, under such modifications and restrictions
as they might think fit to impose, the principle of a
direct representative Legislature, so as to enable them to
exercise such control over their financial affairs and legis-
lation generally as was conceded to every colony as soon
as its condition was fit to take the management of its
own affairs. Without further observation, then, he com-
mended the petition to the attention of the Noble Earl
opposite, in order that he might see fit to substitute for
the old Dutch system which prevailed in the colony
something more like British institutions.

Earl GREY entirely conceded that the British colonies
.should be allowed to enter upon the enjoyment of institu-
tioes founded upon the model of those of this country, or
as soon as they were fit for them. But he could not
admit that the present petition expressed the general
opinion of all the colonists. On looking over the signa-
tures the Noble Lord would notice an absence of a large
proportion of the signatures of persons of weight i . n the
colony. He had before him some papers which were
laid before the other House in answer to an address,
amongst which was a dispatch from the governor, where-
in, speaking of a memorial addressed to the Court o
resthou. I dupobi
le
a repre-
sentative
wide Policy, which contained nearly the same signatures as
the petition just presented by the. Noble Lord,. he stated
that that memorial failed to convince. him of the conso-
nance and concurrence of the inhabitants of the colony
yet agreed among themselves
generally in its prayer, for of the signatures 1,100 were the
marks of the London missionary congregations. He (Earl
Grey ) ha had
governmentalways held a
t a thatll,
basis; but so far were the parties in this case from
agreeing upon that point, that though repeatedly asked
what was the franchise they . would have ; . and it was
very well known to all acquainted with.
.Gulana that the
to do so, they had never it ought otnhgehrte. to s
present petition emanated from a coalition of two sepa-
rate parties, one of which wanted the extreme of de-
mocratic institutions, the other the re-establishment of
the former state of things, which gave the power to a
small oligarchy, who represented the absent proprietors.
Up to 1849 some six or seven persons possessed almost
all the political power of the colony. At the present
time, looking at the population of British Guiana, he
doubted the expediency of throwing power into the
hands of the population, consisting of 130,000 souls, of
which not snore than 1,000 was of European descent, the
greater portion being persons who wore formerly slaves,and
Africans recently landed from captured slavers, of coolies
from the East Indies, or Portuguese from Madeira; and so
ignorant were they that they were obliged to affix their
marks to their signatures. Besides, owing to the high
rate of wages and q
the low value of land, persons of little
education very rapidl'e
acquired property; therefore, if
they adopted a pecuniary qualification it would throw
powerinto the hands of a very ignorant body of people,
and he did no think it expedient to make the franchise
such as would produce that result. On the other hand,