The Sun.
London, England, 1833-02-01 00:00:00

SPIRIT of THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

The accounts yesterday received from Ja-
maica, that the Governor, Lord Mulgrave, had
dissolved the House of Assembly of that island,
and his Lordship's speech on that occasion, will
excite some interest, but very little surprise.
Though his Excellency was personally popular
on his first appearance in the colony, his under-
stood instructions were from the beginning
viewed by the colonists with suspicion and aver-
sion. Even his first address to the Colonial
Parliament (as they style themselves) was re-
plied to in a manner which compelled him to
assert disagreeable truths—to support contested
rights or to repel presumptuous claims,—and
the legislative honey-moon was scarcely passed
without an open rupture. Since the busine's of
the session began, the same refractory spirit has
been manifested in every shape and in every
shade of faction and annoyance. The House,
consisting of some twenty or thirty planters
(for they seldom divide more), have on va-
rious pretexts refused, or on no pretext at all
have delayed, to take into consideration any
of those measures for the improvement of the
condition of their slaves which have been recom-
mended by the British Parliament and the British
Crown. They even seemed to act on the prin-
ciple which they advanced in their reply to the
speech of the Governor, and which his Lordship
so promptly and energetically contradicted, that
in legislating for the colony they are perfectly
independent of the Government of the mother
country. They have refused to pay the salary
of the Chief Justice who has lately anis ed in
the island—a refusal, we believe, hitherto with-
out precedent, and deemed indecent and impo-
litic by their own organs, one of whom says,
with a constitutional purity worthy of the Colo-
nial Legislature—" It would have been more
prudent on the part of Members to have ren-
dered the Chief Justice altogether independent
of the influence of the Colonial-office, and to
have secured to themselves a power over him."
Having been accustomed of late to administer
oaths to witnesses on examination before them,

his Excellency sent them a message, pointing
out the inconsistency of the practice with the
nature of their functions and the practice of the
House of Commons in England, and request-
ing to learn by what law or immemorial custom
they exercised that privilege. The message was
received with dissatisfaction, and answered with
something like reproaches. In short, this Co-
lonial Parliament seemed rather to sit for the
purpose of defying the executive power of the
mother country, than for the loyal and orderly
despatch of public business,—rather as an anta-
gonist club, or a rival lodge to the Council,
than a harmonious member of a united Legisla-
ture. The immediate cause of the rupture be-

tween them and the Governor, and of the conse•

quent di,solution of the Assembly, was a disa-
greement between them and the Council on a
point apparently of very trifling importance. The
Council sent them a bill which originated in their
House, or rather at their board, authorizing
vestries to take probate of deeds as well as
magistrates. The appearance of this bill excited
as high a ferment among the representatives of.
the Jamaica planters as the money bills, founded
on the estimates of the year, would do in the
British House of Commons, if carried in the
first instance from the Lords to their bar by
Masters in Chancery, instead of being presented,
in the first instance, to the representatives of
the people. The Speaker of the Assembly
told the Clerk of the Council, " that with
every respect for the Council, he was bound
to decline receiving the Bill." " The mes-
sage," he added, " I am ready to take, but
the bill I cannot receive without violating the
rights and privileges of this House." On the fol-
lowing day the Speaker had scarcely taken the chair
when " the Provost-Marshal-General appeared

at the bar, and commanded the attendarice o
the Assembly in the Council Chamber, where
his Excellency gave his assent to a money-bill,
and dissolved the legislative body. It is plain,
both from the protest of the Assembly and from
the admissions of the Governor, that this pri-
vilege of the Council (of originating bills) has
seldom been exercised, and has, of late, been
entirely discontinued ; no instance is said to have
occurred since 1701, during an interval of 130
years, though the abstract right was asserted in
1753. There is even at first some plausibility
in the objections of the Assembly, as the Mem-
bers of the Council are elected by the Crown,
and most of them removeable at its pleasure.
They are not, therefore, an independent body,
like a House of Peers, which can originate
every measure but a money-bill. In fact, they
are the Council of the Governor, and must
generally carry into execution the will of the
Government. But, whatever may be said upon
that point, it is admitted that their present claim
to originate bills has not, fbr more than a century,
been advanced, except in one solitary instance.
What, then, could be the object of his Lord-
ship in dissolving the House of Assembly for
contesting such an unusual privilege on so
trifling an occasion, and upon no point con-
nected with the public service ? The Jamaica
papers give us no hints on this subject, and the
Governor has not in his speech explained his
motives ; but an attentive consideration of the
present state of parties in the island, and of the
late conduct of the Legislative Assembly, will
lead us to the discovery. In his opening ad-
dress, his Excellency recommended to the
House of Assembly the immediate consideration
of measures connected with the improvement of
their slave code. They have since done nothing
to forward that object, and were likely to do no-
thing. No single member could probably be
found in the whole body hardy or humane
enough to originate any attempt at fulfilling the
expressed desires of the British Government,
and thus even the option or the odium of re-
jecting plans of amelioration became as impos •
Bible as their adoption ; in fact, the colonial
spirit has so thoroughly imbued the Assembly,
that it was vain to expect any counteracting
principle from within, and as the Governor
himself could not originate any bills, the Le-
gislative machine must have stopped its motion
by • a kind of contumacious inertness, more
difficult to be dealt with or overcome than
positive resistance. Hence, most probably, his
Lordship's desire to have the privilege of the
Council to originate bills established, in order
that the House of Assembly might be at any
rate compelled to pronounce a judgment upon
them,—hence the experiment was tried with a
measure which was liable in itself to no strong
objections,—and hence, having failed, he was
obliged, in policy and consistency, to dissolve
The right claimed b
the refractory body.y
the Jamaica Council seems, on constitutional
grounds, to be well-founded, and liable to no
abuse. At home Ministers can propose to
either House of Parliament indiscriminately,
with the exception of money-bills, measures
which have received the sanction of the