The Sun.
London, England, 1866-03-15 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

Trams.—lt is a singular coincidence in the history
of our Colonial Empire that while Victoria, in the
seventeenth year of its independent existence, is
undergoing a legislative crisis indicative of the highest
vitality, Jamaica is resigning into the hands of the
Home Government a Constitution some two cen-
turies old. Seldom has any political measure, never
has any measure affecting any of our colonies, been
received with such unanimous approval in both
Houses of Parliament as the Jamaica Government
Bill. The debate on the second reading in the
House of Lords on Tuesday night elicited no dif-
ference of opinion. Lord Russell, who has himself
held the seals of the Colonial Office, was followed
by two ex-Colonial Ministers, both of whom sup-
ported the bill in terms of unqualified satisfaction.
They all agreed that Jamaica distress may be traced
in great part, and Lord Taunton was disposed to
ascribe it almost entirely, to the action of the
Colonial Legislature. It must be confessed that,
whether we look to the character and conduct of
this Assembly or to the example of other West
Indian Colonies under conditions precisely similar,
this conclusion is almost inevitable. We are met
at the outset with the fact that out of some 450,000
inhabitants, including less than 14,000 whites, only
1,797 possessed the franchise, and only 1,481 voted
at the date of the last election. This is startling
enough, but if we had the means of distinguishing
the white from the black and coloured returns we
should probably arrive at an infinitely more signi-
ficant result. A House of Assembly thus elected
could not be otherwise than exclusive, but in
Jamaica its e2clusiveness was aggravated by a tradi-
tional spirit of faction. The power of originating
money votes, without the sanction of the Crown,
forinerly vested in this House, was, indeed, abo-
lished in 1854, and transferred to the Governor
with the Executive Committee. Up to that time,
however, it did possess and grossly abused that
power, and since that time it has employed its right
of appropriation in the same unscrupulous manner.
According to Lord Grey, " the whole administra-
tion of the affairs of the island was distinguished
by corruption and jobbery, and by a total absence
of judgment in adapting measures to the existing
state of society." According to Lord Russell, the
House of Assembly very much increased the debt of
the island, allowed a small minority to keep up an
incessant agitation, obstructed all useful legislation,
and succeeded in defeating the experiment of eman-
cipation. These are bard sayings, but they are
borne out, not only by the unprecedented act of
political suicide committed by the very Assembly
thus impunged, but also by a comparison of Jamaica
with the neighbouring colonies. If we refer to the
" Colonial Office List" we find Jamaica described
as " the largest and formerly the most valuable of
the British 'West Indies." Its area is more than
equal to the area of all the rest (excluding British
Guiana) put together, while its population is rather
less in proportion. In fertility it certainly ranks
among the first, and its exports used to be far in
excess of any other island. Yet, unless the process
of decay be arrested, it will soon be
distanced b y
Barbadoes, which is scarcely one-fortieth part of its
size, and contains but a third of its population.
Taking as a test of prosperity the production of
sugar, Lord Russell shows that, while it has largely
increased since the abolition of slavery in Barbadoes,
Trinidad, and Antigua, it has dwindled in Jamaica
from 1,356,000 cwt. to 471,000 cwt. Now, it so
happens that Barbadoes and Trinidad present a
marked contrast to each other in respect of the
supply of black labour. In Barbadoes there is a dense
black population which has been compelled to work
in order to subsist at all. Trinidad, with an acreage
nearly ten times as great, has a population of little
more than half, and of this population a consider-
able proportion consists of imported coolies. Still,
both have managed to flourish in spite of Emancipa-
tion and Free Trade, and Trinidad comes very near
Barbadoes in the value of its exports and imports.
Lord Grey ascribes the success of Trinidad almost
entirely to sound policy. "Trinidad, in 1846, was
in a most distressed condition. Its finances were
embarrassed, and it was with the greatest difficulty
that the Government could continue its existence.
But, by adopting sound principles of legislation, by
eschewing jobbery and corruption, Trinidad is at
this moment in an extremely prosperous condition,
and that, too, in spite of the fact that large sums of
money have been expended in public works and other
directions." Coupling such instances as this with
the discovery of a sufficient cause for the decline of
Jamaica in the notorious vices of its Legislature, it
is certainly difficult to avoid the inference that its
present depression is artificial, and the presumption
that it is curable. We must be on our guard, how-
ever, against pushing this last presumption too far.
" Cessante cause cessat et effectus" is not a maxim of
politics, and evils which grow up in the course of a
generation may take a century to eradicate. The
same peculiarity in the social condition of Jamaica
which has brought about the failure of representa-
tive institutions must seriously retard its prosperity
under any form of Government. This peculiarity
is the want of a resident proprietary body—a body
almost essential to the idea of a true colony. India
is a dependency of the British Crown, but it is not,
properly speaking, a colony, because there is but a
very small class of Englishmen, and that not the
governing class, who have made it their home. In
this sense Jamaica, at least since the epoch of eman-
cipation, has scarcely been more a colony than
India. Estates are chiefly managed through agents
and overseers sent from this country, and many of the
planters who reside on their own lands are " only
anxious," as Lord Grey says, " to make their for-
tunes and return home as speedily as possible."
Such a state of things is obviously fatal to self-
government, for the legislative power must needs
fall into the hands of a few individuals who may
have time to spare or may care to make a trade of
political life. But it is also highly detrimental to
agriculture and every other element of national wel-
fare. We know by sad experience the effects of
absenteeism in Ireland, and absenteeism must be
far more ruinous where the peasantry is composed
of negroes but lately emancipated. Such a popu-
lation specially requires the influence of a superior
class resident among them, and it is too much to
expect that they will prove capable of initiating the
means of their own improvement. Education, in
the largest sense, will be the first and most impor-
tant task of the new Government. The next will

be the settlement of the " land question," as it is
beginning to be called, and the disposal of the
2,500,000 acres now out of cultivation. The negroes
have already acquired property by degrees, and
Lord Grey expresses the opinion that even if the
Legislature had not immolated itself, political ascen-
dency must soon have passed from the white to the
black race. If it were at all probable that the num-
bers of the former could be materially reinforced
by emigration, or that West India proprietors would
ever reside personally on their estates, we might
naturally deplore this prospect. As it is, we must
be prepared to entertain it as the least hopeless solu-
tion of an almost desperate problem. As free la-
bourers the Jamaica negroes have rapidly deterio-
rated, and few will dispute Lord Grey's opinion
that they are wholly unfit for political power. It
remains to be seen whether the " magic of pro-
perty," under a paternal Administration, can turn
them into honest and industrious citizens.

DAILY NEWS. -It is not without reason that Mr.

Gregory ,proposes to-morrow to inquire whether
the House of Commons will have an opportunity of
expressing an opinion on the propriety of the seve-
rance of the national collections in the British
Museum, and the transportation of some of them to
South Kensington, before an estimate for that pur-
pose is moved. The superior attractions of South
Kensington have been seen in past sessions to draw
•with irresistible force the expenditure of public
money in that quarter, sometimes in the shape of
Treasury grants, sometimes by disbursements from
the surpluses of the Commissioners of Works, some-
times by votes in the estimates, sometimes by bill.
IBut it has also happened before now that attempts
have been made to oust the House of Commons of
its power of veto, by the assertion that Government
has already committed itself, and that the faith of
the public has been inferentially pledged. And, at
any rate, the rejection of an estimate has become
too rare and exceptional an event to make its pro-
posal a fair or fitting opportunity for taking the
opinion of the house on matter of principle. We
may, however, assume that on this occasion the bill
which Government has announced will be submitted
before any vote is asked for the purpose of carrying
out its provisions. We should feel certain that this
course would be adopted did we not remember that
a like bill was rejected by a decisive majority in
1862, and yet that in every year since that date some
step has been taken, either by the purchase of land,
or by the procuring of plans, to induce the house to
nullify its own determination, and to allow pro-
ceedings to be taken which might afterwards be
represented as forbidding it to renew its protest.
It will, however, need reasons new as well as
strong to carry Parliament in 1806 to the reversal
of its policy so emphatically expressed in 1862.
If we are to have the case presented again on
merely the same grounds which were then rejected,
a different conclusion can hardly be expected or
desired. The necessity for doing something is in-
deed stronger now. The collections have grown,
though the house room has not been enlarged. Some
of them are now, as then, of necessity kept invisible,
because there is no place where they can be shown ;
and none are exhibited in the way they ought to be.
But this undeniable fact is no argument on eitherside. All admit that we must build ; the question
is, where shall we build? In 1862 the Exhibition
Commissioners offered the bribe of land at South
Kensington at a price of only £1.0,000 per sere.

This land was actually bought by the nation in
1863. We all remember under what Government,
yet with a positive pledge that the purpose to which
it should hereafter be devoted should be open to -
future consideration. Doubtless, if not used it can
be sold again, and the price will go so far to the
purchase of land elsewhere. So, practically, the
question is now as it was before, between land at
Kensington and land in Bloomsbury. The latter
costs £50,000 per acre, and as five acres are re-
quired, there would be a charge of £250,000, or a
difference of- £200,000 in favour of Kensington.
The friends of Kensington further allege that a
building there need not be of costly Greek archi-
t:::cture, but of cheap Brompton style—resembling,
we presume, those commodious brick mews which
were erected for the Exhibition picture galleries,
or the " boilers," which first made South Kensing-
ton art famous in the world. By this modifica-
tion another hundred thousand is put down to
the credit of Kensington. Against it, however,
there is to be set the cost of a duplicate library
of reference, and the cost of new cases and.
fittings. On the whole, it is certainly a liberal
allowance in favour of Kensington, if we say that
it offers us an economy on the • first construction of
£250,000. But the building on either side is esti-
mated to cost above £600,000. And the annual
service of the museum costs close upon £lOO,OOO
at present. So the question comes to be whether,
when we must spend such sums, the advantage
of a saving of £250,000 once for all are sufficient
to outweigh the disadvantages which we should per-
manently experience from dividing the collections,
and sending the scientific portion to a suburb ; for
no other advantage save the monetary economy that
may be alleged in favour of such a course. The
scientific collections are not suffering- from either
smoke or gas, as pictures are sometimes said to do.
Nobody has ever alleged that they will be either
better men or more conveniently reached at South
Kensington than at Bloomsbury. It is solely
pecuniary inducement that is held out for the bait
But ere we accept a proposal of economy, it is ne-
cessary to consider efficiency. These national col-
lections are kept up at great expense to be seen and
to be useful. It is admitted they will not be better
seen, nor prove more useful at Kensington than in
the heart of London, but will they be as well ?
Will it be as easy for the nation which pays for
them to examine them four miles away from their
present locality ? To say so is to say that the na-
tion is better represented by Kensington than by
London, that its heart beats at Kensington rather
than in London, that the centre to which all its i
functions converge is at Kensington rather than n
the midst of its metropolis. It is of course imp9s-
sible that the collections shall be in every point
of the metropolis, and those who do not live at
the precise point where they are situated must
necessarily spend some time, more or less, in
reaching them. But it is at least safe to assert
that a larger population is grouped round Blooms-
bury than round Kensington, and that with all
our facilities for locomotion there is, on the ave-
rage of London, a saving of an hour and a half
in going to and coming from the present instead
of the intended site. Even when all our pro-
jected railways are finished, there will still, with
waiting and stoppages, be a difference of half an
hour each way, or of an hour on the whole. But
an hour a day is, in innumerable cases, the limit of
time available to scientific pursuit. Men who de-
vote themselves solely to study may live where they
.can study most conveniently. But the men wile
desire to study are an infinite majority over those
who have unlimited time for study, and to those
whose life is spent in other avocations the loss of a
day. Yet no class is more deserving of our consi-
deration and help, for it is such a class that fortes
the real diffusers and utilisers of knowledge ; and,
indeed, it is almost wholly out of such a class that
the ranks of science are recruited. It is for their
sake, for the sake of the real students, with scanty
time, and often no affluent means, whose business
or poverty compels them to live in every different
quarter of London, but in far greater numbers in
the busy centre and east than in the leisured west, i
that we ask the retention of the means of study n
a central situation. For the sake of such as these
we do not think the House of Commons or the
nation should grudge the extra £250,000 in a single
vote which forms the sole obstacle to the mainte-
nance of the whole collections in the place we bave,
been accustomed to see them, and which is admitted
by all to be the place where the convenience of the
students of books demands that the library shall be
kept. We cannot trace the subtle distinction neces-
' sary to prove that what is best for the habits of the
bookworm is not best for the purposes of the
students in other departments of knowledge.