The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1839-12-10 00:00:00

How is the cultivation of our colonial lands to be main-
tained, and how can it be ealended, without an immigration
of labourers from some other regions
I have purposely omitted to introduce at any length some
topics for which the Colonial Office were, and still are,
deeply responsible, from an unwillingness to render my ob-
servations unacceptable by introducing matters that may no
longer admit of redress. In this number is included the case of
the currency of Berbice, which was a consequence of a most fla-
grant robbery, under the guise of a most liberal procednre.
The Colonial Office emancipated by its own authority a body
of slaves on the Government property, which was pledged
as a security for an issue of Colonial Paper that became de-
preciated the instant that the property was rendered value-
less; and moreover all claim upon the Compensation Fund
was lost by this uncalled for act : to this day no remunera-
tion has been made to the colony from any Imperial source
for this act of liberality, at the expense of the Colony of
Berbice. Again, so ignorant has the Colonial Office shown
itself at all times of Colonial Statistics, that when at the
Peace we gave away, with a free hand, lands obtained at a
costly sacrifice of British blood and British valour, little at.
tention was paid to details that, however trivial in appear-
ance, were of great importance to British interests. A value-
able district within the Surinam Border, which had been
planted by our own countrymen, whilst the colony was under
British rule ; which was comparatively near, and to wind-
ward of the Berbice river, rendering it a more natural ap-
pendage to that colony ; was recklessly given up to the
Dutch, simply because the Courantyn river had theretofore
been the boundary of the two countries. We also game up
at the same time Santa. Cruz, St. Thomas, Barts, and St.
Eustatius, all English in their interests and language, whilst
we have retained islands that cannot for many years be ren-
dered so by any exertions of ours. It is a fact, however,
that so little arc our best educated young statesmen in-
formed upon colonial geography, that a man who would
blush to be ignorant of the Helicon or the Rubicon is not
ashamed to consider Demerary as one of the nest Indian
Islands, and would deem any acquaintance with the mighty
streams of the Surinam, the Copenaame, the Courantyn, the
Berbice, the Demerary, and the Essequibo, to be rather a
vulgar accomplishment than otherwise. Again: the flaw in
the act of parliament by which slave-grown coffee can be
imported as British by having been once landed at the Cape,
or at any other colonial port, was a grievous error in com-
mercial policy, and a gross injustice upon the native growers
of that commodity. Moreover, the utter indifference of
successive governments to recommend to parliament to pro-
vide the means for encouraging Religion and Education in
the colonies, is a dereliction of duty in the parent state,
which deserves every reprobation. The most miserable
economy has of late years pervaded the government of our
colonies. I should be ashamed to record the stories current
in the naval circles of the Antilles, of the shifts to which the
Queen's ships are put to obtain the most ordinary requi-
sites for the service ; or the degree of neglect that is declared
to pervade the means of military defence. But what is to be
expected in our colonies, when national economy is carried to
such a pitch at home, that the man who contracts for a few
cats to preserve the arsenal stores at Woolwich free from ver-
min, has had their bo ird wages reduced from threepence to
two pence a week, in order to save abont sixpence to the
state? These are the consequences of yielding to a popular,
but still a low and ignorant clamour for economy ; which
may be just to a certain extent but not to that to which it
has been carried. Still, us it is rather the fashion to parade
the advancement of science, as a well-deserving government
care, I would desire to draw attention to the Botanic Garden
at St. Ann's, Trinidad, planted with great attention and
skill, under Sir Ralph Woodford, with the most valuable
productions of the tropical regions of the last, and which is
now allowed to go to waste, because of the expense of one
or two gardeners. I believe the garden at St. Vincent, which
is also valuable, is equally neglected as an establishment in
aid of science.
DUTIES OF GREAT BRITAIN TO TILE WEST INDIAN
COLONIES.

But putting on one side all that is irrelevant to the main
interests of the colonies themselves, I would desire to im-
press on the Colonial Office, that Britain ought to shew her
colonies sonic of a parent's kindness as welt as a parent's
coercion. Neglect, oppression, insult, habitual inattention
to colonial grievances; and a ready ear to every calumny,
can and must be discontinued ; for British blood is of much
the'same quality in either hemisphere, and will not always
endure persecution. Some disposition must be evinced to
aid'the colonists by acts of kindness and encouragement, in
order to stem the fearful crisis that now impend over the
West Indies. The colonies are7really most magnificent pos-
sessions, and capable of being raised into increased impor-
tance. Of Barbadoes I have already spoken. Antigua
stands next in importance and civilization ; she prepared her-
self to meet the change to free labour by great exertions ; and
although I must admit my disappointment at finding her
condition, under many advantages, to be little higher than
the average of West Indian civilization, yet I think, she may
still be enabled to struggle through the crisis, although with
some loss to her former prosperity. St. Kitts and St. Vin-
cent are next, I believe, in the scale ofcultivation and value ;
bur as I did not visit those two islands, I can give no well-
grounded opinion•of their future prospects. Grenada will,
I fear, be much deteriorated, since a great many of the ne-
groes have left the estates, and established themselves
in the mountains. British Guyana might supply an
inexhaustibly field for British capital ; yet by returns
of the produce exported from this colony during the years
1836, 1837, 1838, it will be perceived that she is gradually
sinking in her productiveness. Her soil is of unequalled
richness and of boundless extent—she commands the whole
course of four as mighty rivers as water the New World, on
whose banks, by the reports of those who have explored them
to their sources, thousands might reap riches, and whose
waters might be navigated for hundreds of miles, it popula-
tion could be planted upon them. The island of Trinidad,
with its magnificent Gulf of Paria, contains resources suffici-
ent to make it worthy to be considered as the " Eden of the
western wave ;" but, alas ! it not only wants a people, but'
those that are planted there are greatly scattered, and very
insufficiently provided with the means requisite to advance
its civilisation.
What is to be the fate of Jamaica I grieve to contemplate.
Religious dissensions have been added -to all the evils that
she shares with her sister colonies. I can only speak of
these from the report of others ; but if I am right in con-
sidering Barbadoes as likely to form the only favourable ex-
ception to the result of the free-labour system in the
West Indies, I understand that the reverse of all on which I
calculate for the prosperity of that colony obtains in the
island of Jamaica.
I observe that it is a proposition much pressed upon the
colonists in many quarters, that their attention should be di-
rected to the:culture of commodities that would require less
manual labour than the sugar-cane. Doubtless, if this
could be effected as simply as a man changes his coat and
waistcoat, there would be good sensz in the advice • but every
alteration of culture supposes the abandonment done outlay
of capital and the expenditure of another, and it is therefore
not well suited to an interest nor a state of very great present
depression, if not of actual decay and ruin. The introduc-
tion of the silk-worm has been specifically mentioned. I