The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1839-05-21 00:00:00

JAMAICA.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE LIVERPOOL STANDARD.
SIR,—I send you herewith a copy of a letter which I for-
warded by the last packet to Jamaica.
Its insertion in your columns may induce other parties
resident in England, and who have more influence in the
island than myself, to express their opinions to their friends
there on this important crisis in their affairs.
Your most obedient servant,
WILLIAM SMITH.

8, India-buildings, Liverpool,
17th May, 1839.

TO THE ELECTORS OF JAMAICA.
MY FRIENDS AND FELLOW-COUNTRYMEN,
The present packet will convey to you the result of the
debate for suspending your constitution, and the consequent
resignation of Lord Melbourne and his colleagues.
On the first announcement of the intelligence in Jamaica,
it may appear that a victory has been obtained by the Assem-
bly. What is, however the fact ? The Melbourne ministry
were beaten because they attempted to abridge popular rights.
There is no evidence of sympathy in either the debate or its
issue with the acts of the Jamaica Assembly.
Whoever may be at the head of affairs, it would seem to
follow as a consequence, that your present Governor will be
recalled, and any breachl of parliamentary punctilio, which
has prevented the Assembly from proceeding to business, will
be repaired ; but it may with equal certainty be anticipated,
that the very measures which have caused the quarrel will be
again submitted for their adoption. Whether then we call it
a victory or a reprieve, it becomes a matter of deep solicitude
to all who are interested in the welfare and happiness of Ja-
maica to consider the use which should be made of it ; and
it is with the hope of placing the subject in some of the lights
in which it may not have been hitherto viewed, that I presume
to submit the conclusions to which I have been brought my-
self, after a serious and dispassionate consideration. It is
needless to revert to the measures whereby the abolition of
slavery has been effected. They are no longer germaine to
the matter. The all important and all-pressing enquiry is—
how you can derive the greatest portion of good from the
change.
The government and people of this country, aware of the
heavy responsibility which they have incurred by the emanci-
pation of the negroes, have been Unceasing in their watchful-
ness over the acts of the Colonial Assemblies, as well as in
their recommendations of such ()Piers as to them appeared ne-
cessary to carry out the measure. This has, naturally enough,
been regarded with extreme jealousy by the colonists, upon
the ground that they are themselves the best judges of the
laws required, from their local experience and knowledge of
the people to be governed : a reason, which, however plausible,
and albeit honestly urged, is not altogether sound. If the
negroes were still slaves, the colonial legislatures would no
doubt be the most appropriate lawgivers ; but in undertaking
the difficult duties of framing the laws and institutions of a
free state, and refusing the counsels of successful experience,
are the colonists not laying themselves open to the imputa-
tion of desiring to originate what they cannot understand ?
—the error they condemn so loudly in others.
" Ce n'est que le premier pas qui route," is tritely appli-
cable to the present requirements of West India legislation.
It iS indeed difficult to take that first step, which is to crush
under its heavy and relentless tread the pride and the preju-
dices of our past existence, and to leave impressed in their
stead the unwelcome but irrevocable record—that the slave
of yesterday is the freed fellow-subject of to-day—free with
yourself to be absent or present—idle or industrious—and
free to sell his labour as dearly as he can, without making
the result to his employer any part of his calculation. I who
have lived in Jamaica can form some estimate of the difficulty
of realizing, to any useful extent, this startling revolution,
but I am sure that my liveliest imagination will fail to convey
to me the experience of those who have been subjected to
the change. But the fact is so, and it must form the basis
of future legislation.
And now that the step is taken, in what position are you
but in that of your fellow-subjects in Great Britain ? They,
like you, are surrounded by a mass whom it is at all times
difficult to manage, and where strikes for wages are unfortu-
nately of but too frequent occurrence. Indeed, in this latter
particular, I cannot too strongly remind you, that after so
total and so sudden a change in your social system, it is only
a matter of surprise and congratulation that the suspension of
labour has not been universal and long-continued. I am well
persuaded that were it possible to realize any such change,
conferring such advantages on the operatives of this county,
we might look in vain for labour in our factories, or even so-
briety or civility in our streets, so long as either a farthingre-
mained to be spent, or a superfluous article of furniture or
apparel to be pawned. Right glad am Ito find that my poor
countrymen are better minded. I always knew they were
more sober, and more docile, than the lower orders in this
kingdom ; they have now shown themselves to be less liable
to mischievous excitement. The head and front of their of-
fending has been a strike for wages. It is quite clear there
is no general or systematic refusal to work. It is simply al-
leged, that the negro values the labour which he will perform,
too highly. Nothing is more possible. What is the planter's
remedy? Certainly not in wasting his time in fruitless ne-
gociation, but in setting his wits to work to decrease his de-
pendence on manual labour. I will not incumber the ques-
tion by any inquiry as to whether the bargain for wages is not
sometimes mixed up with the totally independent one of rent,
or whether, in all cases of reported refusals of wages, the
negroes could, with certainty, have relied in receiving them,
from week to week, in ready money. These, and many simi-
lar inquiries, are highly important, however, to be advisedly
answered, before any just estimate can be formed, even by
yourselves, of the working of the system of free labour.
But I shall be told I am leaving out "of consideration the
many disadvantages to which the planter is subjected in a
conflict with his labourers, from which the English employer
is exempt. You will urge the difference of climate, and fer-
tility of soil, as favouring the natural indolence of the negro.
His few actual wants and their ready supply, and the conse-
quent impossibility of securing continuous labour for the car-
rying on of the estates. These are serious difficulties ;—but
are there no counterbalancing benefits to be found in the
blessing of a fine climate and a fertile soil, which will give
" seed to the sower, and bread to the eater," without that
unceasing care which is so indispensable and heavy a tax to
the farmer in a less favoured clime ? ls it no comfort to be
exempt from the pain of witnessing the wretchedness and
poverty which are the unfailing consequences of a severe
winter or a bad harvest in England ? or, to take a lower view,
is there no advantage in being exempt from the heavy im-
posts of poor-rates, and the more frequent, but no less im-
•perative, calls on our benevolence, which owe their origin to
these and similar causes ? I admit that, in Jamaica, continu-
ous labour must be precarious. The rain, and the dew, and
the sunshine, which are all in turn necessary for your har-
vests, are likewise precarious, but your ingenuity is exerted
to counteract the failure of your seasons. It is equally within
your power to render the supply of labour more certain ; by
raising the moral standard of the people—by fostering that
germ which already exists in their desire for instruction—by
the enactment of mild and equal laws which will teach the
negro to respect himself—by the consequent and progressive
creation of artificial wants—by placing in his hand, and im-
pressing in his heart, the doctrines of that book, which will
make him wise for time and for eternity ; and, above all, for
his encouragement in well-doing—by permitting him to see in
you, who have enjoyed larger privileges and better opprtuni-
ties, that " love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, good-
ness, faith, meekness, temperance," which are the bright
fruition of our common Christianity. It may be said—
" Educate the people, and they will cease to till the soil."
This is a mere assertion, refuted by the experience of every
civilised nation. Assuming, however, that none would be
tempted to work as labourers, who could secure small patches
of land for their independent maintenance, the only result
would be, a comparatively inactive, but by no means useless,
body of settlers, among whom the minor products of the
country would be cultivated. But it is needless to follow
out imaginary cases, while this one fact is indisputable :
In your present peculiar position you cannot stand still.
Your peasantry must be converted by the means, and to the
ends, which I have named, or they must float with the down-
ward stream, and relapse to the habits and vices of savage
life. I need not ask in which alternative your prosperity is
to be found.
But to place the matter in a more tangible form :—Has
the assumption been proved, that the impoverishment of the
planter is to be attributed entirely to the unreasonable de-
mands of the negro ? Has the calculation been divested of
every other incumbrance ? Has the expenditure in every
other department been as rigorously scrutinized ? Has
every agency which spares mere personal trouble been lopped
off ? Has the land been renovated by manure and Other
appliances which would make it more fruitful ? and have
these been obtained on the most economical and reasonable
plan ? Has machinery been brought to act in the econo-
mizing of manual labour ? In the personal establishment of
the proprietor, are there no superfluities which trench upon
the capital necessary to maintain the estate in full efficiency?
and is there due personal superintendence and judicious ap-
plication of that labour, for which he has to pay so dearly ?
These are all points of vital importance to the question at
issue, and it will behove the Jamaica planter to scrutinize
them most strictly on another account. The time is not far
distant when, among the extended and complicated interests
of the empire, those duties which give him the monopoly of
the home market for his sugar and coffee must be reduced,
and he will be obliged to apply himself, in sober seriousness,
to the task of decreasing the cost of production, as his only
chance of maintaining competition.
Upon this subject I will, however, refrain from enlarging,
because it deserves more attention and ability than I can
bring to it, and there is danger of its being mixed up with
the totally distinct question of civil legislation.
With these, and other considerations which I will leave to
your own judgments to supply, I think it may fairly be asked
whether the government and people of this country, or even
the emancipated negroes, are responsible for a majority of
the evils to which you think yourselves exposed? Have you,
in short, been placed by them in a worse position than your
fellow-subjects in Britain ? liable to the trials and difficulties
which are inseparable from the management of your affairs,
but enjoying the same opportunities of cultivating your
prosperity on a sounder system; and yet what but the con-
viction—the settled and proved conviction—that the govern-
ment of this country is your implacable enemy, and the sole
cause of your sufferings, can warrant the continuance of that
system of unfruitful negociation with the representative of
your sovereign, which has marked your legislative career for
the last five years ? You surely do not mean to deny that
you are an integral part of the British empire ?—that your
prosperity is included in the range of ministerial responsi-
bilities ?—that it is the bounden duty of the government to
interfere on behalf of any portion of your population, and to
support every reasonable claim ?—and moreover, that it is
the peculiar duty of your governor to see that such proposals
as are suggested by those from whom he holds his appoint-
ment, are carried into effect? lam not adverting to the
manner in which this duty should be performed—for in this
there are and have been causes of complaint—l am simply
asserting a principle, which (unless you are prepared to fore-
go the sympathy of every friend of good government) will be
universally and distinctly acknowledged.
Your bitterest opponents wst Omit, that you have done