The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1840-06-09 00:00:00

THE AFFAIRS OF BRITISH GUIANA.

In our last we briefly detailed the proceedings in the Com>
bined Court of British Guiana in reference to the new Civil

List. We now proceed to extract from the Guiana Times a

complete exposure of the disgraceful job of which the planters

of British Guiana were the intended victims

After enume-

rating the progress made in the discussion'of the Civil List
question in the Combined Court, and expressing a wish that
the Court of Policy might retrace its steps, the Guiana
Times proceeds to review the mode in which the colony has

been treated by the Whigs and their congenial underlings.

The following are its remarks :
For some months after the termination of the apprenticeship
fallacious symptoms of prosperity blinded many, who had a
sincere anxiety to arrive at the truth. A large quantity of
money, at its lowest amount, half a million sterling a-year,
being retained in the country, and distributed, in the form of
wages, among the labourers, gave rise to many novelties in
our internal trade. Stores rose, with prodigious celerity,
and at a short distance from each other, in both town and
country : cottages started up with proportionate rapidity : it
was believed that the colony was being regenerated, and that
there would be no end to the briskness suddenly infused into
commerce. His Excellency the Governor was careful to in-
form the Secretary of State of the changes progressing under
his administration of the new order of things. The Parlia-
mentary papers contain notices of the obscurest bush-lot,
where only some temporary shelter has been put up. " The
village of Mahaica, and the hamlet Mahaicony are rapidily
increasing, and some settlements are springing up, near
AbarY." On some nameless spot, " many plots of land
have been purchased by labourers, and preparations for
building cottages are in progress :" " Frederick sburgh is
greatly increasing :" " Georgetown district: buildings being
erected in all directions." " The new appraisement of
Georgetown shows an increase in the value of buildings and
lots, in three years, since the last appraisement of 1836,
amounting to upwards of 600,000 dollars, or more than
£120,000 sterling," a fact so gratifying and considered so
important, that it went home, carefully preserved in a sepa-
rate despatch, exclusively appropriated to its announcement.
It was on the perusal of those communications, that Mr. Ste-
phens, the pious author of the documents published with the
. signature ".1. Russell," exclaimed, with hands clasped, and
eyes turned upwards towards Heaven, " Our brethren of
Africa have become shop-keepers, and petty traders, and
hucksters, and small freeholders :—a blessed change which
Providence has enabled us to accomplish."
Had Mr. Light stopped there, he might have been consi-
*sidered a harmless man, of a visionary fancy and chimerical
notions, but a benevolent and warm heart. But he had not
the discretion, or, more probably, he wanted the candour, to
separate and direct marks of prosperity, impressed on the
colony by the commencement of the free system, from the
slow, but sure and fatal symptoms of a general decline,
originating in the same memorable event. Not only must
lie represent the peasantry as placed in the way of comfort
and happiness, but he must needs describe agriculture as
flourishing, and, in a series of despatches, which never, like
others of his communications, saw the light through his in-
strumentality, but the fortuitous publication of which, at
intervals, covers him with confusion, and eradicates from the
breast of every rational colonist, all respect for him as a
ruler, and nearly all esteem as a man, must needs concoct a
mass of fabrication, the absurdity of .which has, at length,
become evident to the Secretary of State himself. The de-
crease of colonial produce, continued, he admitted, but,
" the lengthened drought of the last, and beginning of the
present quarter, would have caused diminished crops under
the most coerced system of labour." " Even supposing the
exports of sugar for the year 1839, from this colony, to reach
only 85,000 hhds., the returns in money would be larger

an when the produce had been at its greatest extent

Many of the la.boUrers; who had purchased the land on
which they erected cottages, did not abandon field-labour."
" With such data,"—the returns of stores and merchandise,
" His lordship might judge.of the prosperity of the province,
unconnected with"—those very troublesome things—" ex-
ports or imports." Nay, the people on the east coast could
not purchase Northbroke, without its being gravely asserted,
that " the rules which they had drawn up for their " com-
munity were so rigid, that none but the determinedly indus-
trious and sober would be tempted to 'obtain a settlement
among them." " There were surpluses in the colonial
treasury," capable of indefinite multiplication, and perfectly
inexhaustible : And, climax of ingenuity ! topping-stone of
the inventive art! " emancipation had not diminished the
prices of property, the best proof of the confidence in the
steady prospects of the colony :" for " Plantation Windsor
Forest, Demerara, sold for £42,000, the full value, undimi-
nished by emancipation."
For a time, the colonial Secretary of State lent a willing
ear to the flattering tale. He " had great satisfaction in re-
ceiving the conclusive proof, which th Governor's despatch
afforded, that the resources of the colony had not only not
decayed, but bad undergone a decided improvement since the
abolition of slavery and the termination of the apprentice-
ship system." But, at last, common sense, and the repre-
sentations of the colonists in their petition, as well as of the
West India merchants resident in England, seem to have
opened his lordship's eyes to the real condition of affairs. In
the despatch of the 15th of February, which no colonist that
has perused its contents, can to his dying day forget, Lord
John Russell, approaching as closely to the tone of reproof as
the courtesies of official intercourse admit, informs Governor
Light, that " the decline of produce is unquestionable :" and
" that some part of it may be owing, as lie asserts, to the
lateness of the season, but no doubt can exist as to the fact of
a remarkable falling off in the quantity of produce during the
first year of freedom." Then, alluding, we are entitled to
presume, to some secret statements of Mr. Light about in-
sufficient wages, his lordship says, "I am not 'disposed, as a
general proposition, to refer this falling off in the produce to
the want of adequate wages as its cause. Many vexatious
disputes have, no doubt, arisen :" and so forth. " But a
larger and more general cause has led to the decline of culti-
vation of sugar and coffee." And his lordship calmly and
reasonably goes on to argue, in the spirit of the letter ad-
dressed to him, some time back, by. Mr. Burnley, of Trini-
dad, that the facility of subsistence between the tropics, and
the want of a middle class of population, are obvious causes
of the decline alluded to, and not either dry seasons or low
pay. But, concludes his lordship, in so many words, with
the coolness of an experienced surgeon, anatomizing a living
subject, indifferent to the nerves, sinews, and blood-vessels,
which his knife divides, ' wages are high in Guiana and low
in Hindostan : it is a mere matter of calculation to the ca-
pitalist in whether of the two countries he ought to raise his
sugar: the sugar trade may quit Guiana for Hindostan, as
the silk trade quitted the east for France, or the woollen
trade Tuscany for England : but her Majesty will be satisfied
if Guiana flourish, hereafter, in a different sense from that in
which it has flourished hitherto, if her subjects there,
rescued from the lash of compulsory toil, become, by the
help of Providence, shopkeepers, and petty traders, and
small freeholders.' A despatch couched in language less,
capable of being misunderstood, it is impossible to imagine.
The perusal of it produced on the minds of the people of this
colony, an effect analogous to that of a thunder-clap. Yet,
no one could deny that its train of reasoning was natural to
a statesman, bound by no ties of affection or interest to any
particular portion of the British empire, but casting, without,
passion or selfishness, the destinies of its united millions.
That despatch reached governor Light on the 21st March,
by the same vessel which conveyed to him Mr. Young.
With a disingenuousness the exposure of which may call up a
a blush to his cheek, he kept it back from the public. Lord
John Russell did not consider it to be private, for he laid it
before the House of Commons. Yet, we say, his excellency
kept it back from us. Its contents did not leak out, even
through the ordinary chink—the garrulity of the people
around him. The two houses of legislature met ; speeches
were made and addresses delivered ; yet not a whisper was
breathed about that despatch. Probably, the chief justice
alone shared, with the governor and the government secre-
tary, the knowledge of its contents. The financial representa-
tives, after much earnestness of application, extorted the pe-•
rusai of several despatches ; that despatch was not amongst
them. Nevertheless, with a penetration which redounds to
their credit, they acted as if they had seen and read it from
beginning to end.* It arrived in the colony, among the par-
liamentary papers, a few hours before the division took place,
and the most moderate men. when they perused it, acknow-
ledged that the colony had been led to the brink of a preci-
pice by the governor, from which the firmness of its accre-
ditted representatives alone saved it. We seem at last to
have reached the most disreputable act in the whole course of
his excellency's administration ; that he, appointed to guard
the interests of the colonists, should seek—furtively hiding
the information which he possessed, to betray the colonists
into a fatal compact, to endure for twenty-one years. But
we dismiss this part of the question, for the personal demerits
of an individual are of small moment, compared with the fate
of what ought to he a great country.
The assertion has been never denied, although reiterated,
times innumerable, that the projected civil list had its origin
in this colony. His Excellency, in the end of July, last year,
" called the attention" of the Secretary of State—that was
the expression—to the necessity of being prepared with a new
civil list, and " respectfully submitted the propriety of pro-
viding more liberally for the public officers :" he stated the
dearness of provisions, and, (for the first time, it would
seem,) the difficulty of obtaining labour, but only as regarded
menial services : alleged the community to be well disposed,
(the despatch has not as yet been published in this country,
being studiously kept back,) to admit the propriety of in-
creasing salaries : announced that, "could any boon be offered
to the colonists, he did not despair of fising the salaries at
the increased rate on the civil list :" " and begged the Minis's
ter to strengthen materially his (the Governor's) position,
by signifying to him his approval of the civil list he bad pro-
posed, or any other he might consider to be just, previously
to the meeting of the combined court." Lord John Rus-
sell's reply to all this, it was deemed not unsafe to publish.
He gave, willingly, and, we dare say, without deep considera-
tion, the required approval, insisting, however, on a pro-
vision for the pensioners : and what position did the Governor
assume then? The project, created by himself, and only
permitted by the Secretary of State, he held, in terrorern,
over the combined court, as one, the terms of which he could
not stow depart from. The Colonists are certainly, as much
indebted to the gentlemen, who move for the production of
parliamentary papers, as to any other class of Members of
the Imperial Legislature.
We said it was likely the Chief Justice had seen the
despatch of the lath of February. "If the East Indian
capitalist," says Lord John, "can compete with the Demerarii
planter, the sugar business will rise in Bengal, and the Cooly
remain at home : the plantation will be found for the labourer,
and not the labourer go to the plantation." The Chief Jus-
tise tells you, that " the English nation, which cries for cheap
postage and cheap corn, will have cheap sugar too, and that
the harvest of the West Indies will last no longer than the
next three years." The man must be blind, indeed, who
does not perceive in this the clearest indications of the ap-
proach of one of the most momentous changes in the com-
merce of the world that has ever presented itself to the con-
sideration of the political economist.
A remarkable discrepancy is observable between the senti-
itru,ohrhenoeniftploswaertroiltituti the Queen's minister and those of the Queen's re-
presentative. The former is content with another sort of
former
rilnhoaaaot
magniloquently
itoaof tqthut
ewiel
enhutinnic
yuli itrcetdependsodumrejp_
eoaerf
Les
eeward
eut
humble
ibraolgnedr
doubsweu:
produce of
hi
Toiafohpfetpir slyeeuf
rgocaarocer
an
e
of men, of easy wants and limited ambition, indolent and
pacific, " shopkeepers,
m hucksters,a
freeholders ;" the latter to the
govern-
ment, quite incomensurat.e
with
snotpeetlui
nat
ayn
scdpeieroai dealers, s
civil and sm
all
freeholders c
iensi aof
society. " Encourage religious instruction, let them partake
of the blessings of riianity " exclaims the former. " Give
me £6OOO, and set down 4:1150 for education and religion,"
i she litter's
r into the nice question, whether the phy-
y shall
iio reply.til
e
We
phy-
sical happiness of the masses in thissteoi olnyfis, necessarily,
and the
ti
bound up with the cultivation of the staples
to be possible that the retailer of smallwtpareess.
aI We admit it
grower may live as happily as the field-roan. Wi e fu'te yam-
grower
sight the misery generally incidental to the want or induce-
ments to .:ontinuous toil. But this grave question remains,
If every man whom our climate predisposes to indolence,
have, within a few years, an opportunity of leading, without
immediate inconvenience, such a life as the Secretary of State
contemplates without emotion or alarm, what will become of
this country as a producing and exporting country? Could
any cabinet expect, for twenty one
years of unproductive-
flourishing times ? It is quite incredible. The Secretary
of
ness, a rate of remuneration eqonly by that given in
list from the
its provisions : his views
of gen-
tlemanroost largely interested in
d, we are • s
of colonial society from a very different, and' we grieved
State manifestly draws his ideas of
.t the civil
emancipated labour-
New Orange Nassau been purchased by
to say, a sounder source. Already have Northbroke and

lil
* We are in error. They would not lave offered so
ral a civil list of their own.