The Sun.
London, England, 1866-01-31 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

TIMM—The sorrows entailed by a single sin
were never more strikingly displayed than in the
case of negro slavery. Emancipation, which should
be the final expression of repentance and the closing
act of redress, is the only first link in a chain of in-
creasing difficulties. The Americans are already
finding this out, and it must be poor encourage-
ment to them to observe the actual condition to
which 30 years of a similar trial have brought
Jamaica. The abolition of slavery in any country
opens a new question, which, we may say without
exaggeration, has never yet been solved at all. No
experience has shown us how to conduct a popula-
tion of liberated blacks to a good social or pclitical
position. In Hayti we see the end of negro inde-
pendence; in Jamaica of negro liberty. The natural
desire of all abolitionists is to convert the slave into
a free labourer—the equal, in that respect, of a
white man. But the emancipated slave, partly
from a natural revulsion of feeling, and partly from
the ineradicable instincts of race, has no disposition
to become a labourer at all. He is incapable of ap-
preciating a condition of freedom which leaves him
under as much necessity to work as before. The
question has uniformly been argued on the assump-
tion
that as free labour cheerfully given is more pro-
ductive than forced work, the services of the blacks,
in their new capacity of freedmen, would actually
be more valuable than before, so that no derange-
ment of industrial interests wouldl follow upon eman-
cipation. This would be true enough if the negro
resembled the European in his wants or his disposi-
tion, but there is no such analogy between the two.
One volunteer is worth two pressed men, no doubt;
but the black, when he ceases to be a pressed man,
does not become a volunteer. He will work for nothing
but the necessary satisfaction of his bodily wants,
and as these wants are on the smallest possible scale
it follows that of his own free will he will hardly
work at all. We have seen the problem brought to
its practical end in Jamaica step by step. When the
slaves were first emancipated provisions were en-
acted for substituting certain organisations of labour
in the place of slavery, but the negroes rebelled
against this species of compulsion, their white patrons
applauded their conduct, and apprenticeship, in all
its successive forms, was ultimately abolished also,
as mere " slavery in disguise." From that time the
blacks were left to work or play, exactly like white
labourers, and the result was that they were good
for nothing at all. It was only by the importation
of workmen from foreign countries that the cultiva-
tion of the soil could be continued, and it was only
continued, in point of fact, to a very small extent.
With the exception of a few plantations on the sea-
shore the estates went out of cultivation altogether.
A result which in our economical discussions at home
is only speculatively contemplated as the effect of a
final rupture between capital and labour did, in
Jamaica, actually occur. Agriculture was given up
altogether. The owners or occupiers of estates actu-
ally found that a most productive soil in one of the
finest climates in the world would not repay the
cost of farming on the terms of black labour, and
they showed the reality of their conclusions in the
most practical way. They let their land go to waste,
and the property and produce of the soil were lost
together. Jamaica, at this minute, imports food for
its population, though it is rich enough and fertile
enough to support five times that population from
its own products. In America we seem to see the
first step taken in a similar career of difficulty and
misfortune. Emancipation has come, and is a reality.
Nobody, even in New England, has any suspicion
that the people of the South so much as dream of
the re-establishment of personal slavery. But the
people of the North are not content with this. An
active party among them is already clamouring for
additional securities on the negro's behalf. They
are providing, by anticipation, against " slavery in
disguise," though they cannot tell how to set
about the work. On the other hand, the officers on
the spot, who have got the blacks under their per-
sonal observation, and can discern the nature of the
emergency, are proceeding very much in the fashion
of the Jamaica Legislature in times past. The
Freedmen's Bureau—that is to say, the Board
charged especially with the protection of the negro—
has issued orders, in the case of Georgia, that the
negroes, when sufficient wages are offered, shall
make contracts for labour, and it undertakes to in-
sure the execution of these contracts, when duly
made, by compelling the blacks, if necessary, to per-
form their work. This is the apprentice system, or,
rather, it is something far more like actual slavery.
If these orders, which are to be adopted in all the
States of the South, are correctly described, the
American negro, though he can no longer be bought
and sold outright, will still be held to " involuntary
servitude." If any Southern planter by virtue of
tendering what in the eyes of a magistrate may
appear a sufficient sum of money is to be enabled to
carry-off any number of blacks to his estate, there
to work whether they.will or not, the " disguise"
of slavery will be very thin indeed. In Jamaica
our colonists were not even permitted to make con-
tracts for labour with black volunteers, or to bind
a negro to continuous work by the terms of an ordi—
nary apprenticeship. The patrons of the blacks
proscribed every clement of coercion except that
arising from the wants of the body—a stimulus
which, in the case before them, had no existence at
all. We may expect with some confidence that the
New Englanders will protest against this official
decree, but what is to be the alternative? Without
coercion in some form or other the negro will do no
regular. work. If he can but /gnat and sleep, and
still keep body and soul together, that will be his
course. At present he cannot quite do so, but he is
assisted for the moment by daily rations of food
doled out to him by the State. This, however,
cannot last, nor is it very probable that the
blacks will be allowed in America the peculiar
advantage which fell to their lot in Jamaica.
In that island the enfranchised negro got a direct
benefit from his own indolence. When the cultiva-
tion of the soil was given up as hopeless for want of
labour, and land was allowed to run to waste, the
negro re-entered upon the deserted plantation to
squat and vegetate. The wreck and ruin actually
told in his favour, and re-produced a" natural wil-
derness for the use of his savage nature. But we
do not think the Americans will permit the re-
enactment of such scenes in their country. They
cannot afford to lose seven fine States of the Union
as Jamaica was lost to us. These States must do
their natural duty in raising produce, paying taxes,
and maintaining an industrious population in decent
order. Jamaica told for little in our modern
system. It was not much to us that a few colonists
were ruined, or that we got our sugar from Spanish
instead of British plantations, but it is very different
with the Americans and the Southern States. A.
section of the extreme Radical party is, indeed, pre-
pared to legislate in a way which would make Vir-
ginia or Georgia as like Jamaica as possible. These
rabid politicians are ready to confiscate the estates
of their Southern fellow-citizens as a punishment
for their recent rebellion, and then to parcel out the
land in small allotments to the liberated blacks.
That would end, no doubt, in aovery accurate re-
production of the fortunes and fate of Jamaica, but
we have not the least belief that the Americans will
ever endure such a sacrifice. They will reject this
alternative, but they can do so only on condition of
embracing that from which our own colonists were
rigorously debarred. Under some system or other
they must exact involuntary labour from the negro.
Possibly, the actual necessities of life may in those
countries put that stress upon the blacks which they
escaped in Jamaica, and compel them to work for
their bread ; but it is more probable that some re-
gular organization of negro labour will be substi-
tuted for slavery in spite of the reclamations of New
England. The Government of 'Washington will
hardly consider it a desirable thing to lose the whole
use of the South for the next 30 years, and at the
end of that timeto find another disruption of society
and an outbreak of blacks as the fruits of its hu-
manity and forbearance.
POST.—Sir Henry Storks has arrived in Jamaica,
and Mr. Eyre no longer holds the responsible posi-
tion of Governor of that colony. But this is not
the only news brought to us by the mail which has
just arrived. The new Governor landed in King-
ston on the 6th inst., and our present advices are
three days later ; but although within this short
period no marked change took place in the policy of
the Colonial Government, the interval has afforded
us an opportunity of judging of the manner in
which the transfer of authority from Mr. Eyre to
Sir Henry Storks has been regarded by the people
of Jamaica. However strong may have been the
presumption of incapacity on the part of Governor
Eyre, we took occasion to point out at the time that
his successor was nominated how probable it was
that his suspension would be misunderstood by the
coloured portion of the population. We now learn
that our anticipations were not unfounded. The
arrival of Sir Henry Storks in Jamaica has been
hailed both by the white and by the negro popula-
tion as equivalent to a condemnation of the policy
of Governor Eyre. It is needless to argue that this
inference is erroneous, because, so long as it is
believed in Jamaica to be correct, the result is pre-
cisely the same as if it were so. We have more than
once freely expressed eur opinion of the conduct of
the colonial authorities, and that opinion was far
from a favourable one. At the same time, how-
ever, we suggested the advisability of waiting until
Adverse evidence should be confirmed before adopt-
ing a course which might be interpreted as an as-
sumption that it could not be contradicted. The
English papers find their way to Jamaica and are
copied into the colonial journals. It now appears
that in many instances the negroes have inter-
preted the suspension of Governor Eyre by the gloss
furnished by some of the organs of the English
press, and it is assumed that the sympathy of the

mother country is given not to that portion of the
population which furnished the victims at Morant
Court-house, but to that which supplied Gordon
Bogle, and those who, whether rightly or wrongly,
were accused of having taken part in the outbreak.
This is very unfortunate, to say the least of it, and
we can perfectly understand the apprehensions en-
tertained by the people of Kingston lest the salu-
tary effect produced by the energetic action of the
Government may be lost, and the negro popula-
tion become imbued with the idea that henceforth ,
they can murder their white fellow-subjects with
impunity. Of this error, however, it will not be
very difficult for the present Governor to disabuse
the negroes. Sir Henry Storks is a man of consi-
derable experience, and all classes, both at home
and in the colony, may rest assured that he will
lose no time in letting the coloured population un-
derstand the true nature of the duties which he has
been specially deputed to discharge. The other
Commissioners have probably arrived at Kingston
within the past two or three days, and the Governor
will doubtless have made such arrangements as
would enable them to enter upon their appointed
task without delay. In some respects it must be
admitted that Sir Henry Storks has arrived at an
opportune moment. He is absolutely supreme. The
Legislature has disappeared, and there are none who
can, either directly or indirectly, control his autho-
rity. He has no motive for concealing any portion
of the truth ; and if, on the other hand, the negroes
are confident that facts will be elicited which will
show that they have been treated with needless
severity, they may feel equally certain that the
circumstances of the outbreak at Morant Bay
will be submitted to an investigation so rigorous
that, if the outbreak was, as has been supposed,
the commencement of a concerted rebellion,
that fact will be conclusively established,
and such measures taken as will prevent a similar
enterprise being undertaken again. The whole '
truth will • shortly be known, and both the
white and the coloured population must abide
by the result. It is a significant fact, that without
exception nearly the entire of the white population
hastened to give their support to Governor Eyre as
soon as it became known that it was the intention
of the Home Government to supersede him. This
may be variously accounted for, but it certainly
indicates a strong conviction on the part of the
colonists that in the main the Governor discharged
his duty. It is, however, urged that the antagonism
between the white and black races in Jamaica is SO
great, and the apprehensions entertained for their
own safety by the minority so serious, that this un-
hesitating approval of the conduct of Mr. Eyre is
simply evidence of the grossest selfishness. We
cannot, however, concur in the justice of this con-
clusion. Whatever may have been the disaffection.
of the negroes prior to the riot at Morant Bay
Court-house, it does not appear that the colonists
regarded them with feelings either of hostility or
fear. In England the tidings of an insurrection in
Jamaica fell like a thunderbolt. The report was •
at first disbelieved, and some who professed them-
selves well acquainted with the state of affairs in
the colony pronounced it to be false. This being
so, it seems scarcely probable that the white section
of the population of Jamaica would have changed
the opinion they entertained of . their coloured
fellow-subjects on insufficient or incomplete evi-
dence, or that they would have persisted in main-
taining their new opinion long after abundant :
opportunity had been afforded of demonstrating (if
such was the case) that it was erroneous. Whether
justly or otherwise, the colonists arrived at the same
conclusion as their Governor, that a general insur-
rection was imminent in the month of October last, .
and in the month of January they continue of the
same way of thinking. It is difficult to attribute.
this to blind panic, or to an utter disregard for a
numerous class which—whether for good or evil—,
must continue to share with them the occupation of
the island of Jamaica. Governor Eyre or his sub-
ordinates may have in some instances committed
grave mistakes, but it is not on this account that
the entire policy of the former should he assumed to j.
be both a blunder and a crime. The Home Govern- ,
ment do not assume it to be so, but unfortunately, -
in superseding Mr. Eyre, they acted in such a man-
ner as to lead the negro population to conclude
that they did so. This was, in our opinion, an
error, but the consequences have to a considerable
degree been neutralised by the unanimous ad-
hesion given to Mr. Eyre by that portion of the
colonial population which, notwithstanding its un-
equal numbers, the negroes will be compelled to
respect.

COUNTRY MARKETS.

BRISTOL—TUESDAY.
At our market to-day there was a fair attendance, but
not much business passing in wheat. Prices about the
same as last week. Grinding barley is per qr dearer. OAS
quiet. Beans and peas dull.

GA INS BOROUGII-TUBPDAY.

Rather more wheat on offer ; dry samples quite as dear,
damp lots neglected. Barley a fair show at upward rates•
Oats moved off steadily at late rates. Beans of good qua-
lity were dear, and runs unchanged.