The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1840-02-11 00:00:00

BRITISH GUIANA,

" STATEMENT OF THE ADVANTAGES TO BE
DERIVED FROM EMIGRATION TO BRITISH
GUIANA'
We have pleasure in transferring to our columns the fol-
lowing statement, which was read 'by Mr. Holmes, at the
meeting at Georgetown, Demerara, alluded to in our leading
article. It is from the pen of Mr. Carberry, of Baltimore :
" The province of British Guiana, on the continent of
South America, is a dependency of Great Britain, to which
power it was ceded by the Dutch in 1803. It is situated
about seven degrees north of the equator. The thermotheter
indicates but little variation of temperature, generally rang-
ing from 78 degrees to 84 degrees. The trade winds, which
constantly blow from the east, render the climate both salu-
brioaaand pleasant. The luxuriance of tropical-vegetation.
is too well known to require any description—but there is,
perhaps, no part of the West Indies that equals British
Guiana in the fertility of its soil, or the variety of its pro-
ductions : in either respect, it can with truth be said that it
stands unrivalled. •
" The staple productions are sugar, rum, molasses, coffee,
and cotton, besides a considerable quantity of timber, hard-
wood lumber, and shingles. Large tracts of land are occu-
pied as farms, where great numbers of cattle are annually
bred. Cocoa, indigo, tobacco, and arnotto grow with great
luxuriance ; but these have entirely given place to the more
profitable cultivation of sugar and coffee. Every variety of
tropical fruit (too numerous to detail) is found here in the
greatest profusion. and the plantain, yam, cassava, Edoe
sweet potato, and Indian corn, furnish cheap and delicious
variety of food, and amply repay the trouble and labour of
cultivation. The soil is rich and alluvial, and appears to be
inexhaustible ; nor has it ever been found necessary to use
manure in the cultivation of the lands. This country, by its
position, is exempt from the visitation of hurricanes, which
so frequently ravage and lay waste the West India Islands ;
nor are the hopes of the planter ever disappointed by the
prevalence of drought.
" British Guiana is divided into three counties, Demerary,
Estequebo, and Berbice, which contain seventeen parishes.
The chief towns are, Georgetown, in the county of Demerary,
and New Amsterdam, in Berbice. There are, likewise, nu-
merous small, villages in the country districts Georgetown
is the seat of governmect, and the principal seaport—it may
be called the capital of the province. The whole population
of the three counties can be stated with tolerable accuracy at
90,000, of which not more than 6,000 or 8,000 are white.
This calculation does not include the Indian tribes who live
in the forests, and whose numbers, I believe, have never been
correctly ascertained. The principal rivers are the Esse-
quebo, the Berbice, the Demerary, and the Pomeroon, be-
sides numberless large creeks which afford access to the in-
terior, and add to the fertility and beauty of the country they
intersect. British Guiana is bounded on the east by the Co-
rentyn river, which divides it from the Dutch colony of Suri-
nam, and on the west by the Morocco creek, or a tract of
country adjacent thereto. The banks of the Morocco are in-
habited by Indians, of Spanish origin, whose subsistence is
Eiefly derived from hunting and fishing, and the cultivation
of the cassava. The churches, and places of public worship
Nile account is from memory) considerably exceed fifty, with
numerous Sunday, infant, and day schools, for the gratuitou
diffusion and extension of moral education among the labour
ing classes. On most of the principal estates a schoolhouse
is erected, and a teacher provided, where the children of the
people who are hired on the estate are entitled to receive in-
struction free of expense. By reference to the Royal Gazette,
of the ith of May, 1839, published in Georgetown, it will be
seen that in the official estimate of the amount required to be
raised by takes for that year, one hundred and thirteen thou-
sand one hundred and seventeen dollars were voted for the
service of the Episcopalian, Presbyterian, and Roman Catho -
lic churches and chapels in British Guiana, for the year 1839.
An amount so enormous, when the limited number of the
population is considered, that this statement would have been
withheld, had not the official Gazette alluded to furnished
proof of it—nor does this include the amount of voluntary
annual contribution furnished by religious societies in Eng-
land, and the inhabitants, towards the support of various dis-
senting chapels, which receive no assistance from colonial
legislatute. On this subject it will he unnecessary to add
more, the most sceptical must be convinced, that ample pro-
vision is made for the religious instruction of all classes of
the community.
" The revenue of British Guiana is chiefly derived from a
tax on the produce raised in the colony, and duties levied on
the imports ; parish or poor rates are unknown, and the la-
bourer is exemift from every species of taxation, unless his
annual income amount to five hundred dollars. The militia
laws were abrogated, and the Colonial militia disbanded soon
after the emancipation took place, so that the poor man is
not compelled to contribute any portion of his time to the
public service, as is the case in all other West India colo-
nies. The parishes are divided into judicial districts, under
the superintendence of a stipendiary magistrate, appointed
and paid by the crown, to whom is entrusted the exclusive
jurisdiction in all matters of dispute arising between the em-
ployer and the employed. The order in council, passed at
Windsor, on the ith day of September, 1838, and published
in British Guiana, on the 30th October following, declares
in sec. 1, ch. 4, hat the stipendiary magistrate shall have
an exclusive jurisdiction for the enforcement of all contracts
of service, and for imposing all penalties for the breach or
non-performance thereof.' It is therefore evident that the
labourer bas an independent tribunal to appeal to, unin.
fluenced by local interests or partialities. The magistrates
are under- the safe control of his excellency the Governor,
by whom they can be suspended from office. For the further
anti' more effectual protection of the labouring classes, it is
declared in ch. 2, of the same order in council, that no con-
tract of service shall he of effect unless made within the co-
lony, in the presence of a stipendiary magistrate, nor for a
longer period than one year. The emigration agent in Bri-
tish Guiana is also a stipendiary magistrate. It is the duty
of this officer to furnish emigrants arriving in the colony with
every information, and to prevent any imposition being prac-
tised upon them.
" No invidious distinctions of colour exist ; equal civil and
religious liberty are enjoyed by the inhabitants and colonial
offices and dignities are indiscriminately held by white and
coloured. The coloured classes in British Guiana are
wealthy, influential, and highly respectable. Many of thetia
are magistrates, wealthy proprietors, merchants with large
establishments, and managers of estates, receiving liberal sa-
laries. The collector of customs at one of the principal
ports is a person of colour, and many others hold public si-
tuations ; it is therefore evident that colour is no obstacle to
adVancement or distinction.
" This magnificent country is as yet so thinly inhabited,
that the settlements only occupy a narrow slip of land on
the sea-coast, and the banks of the principal rivers, not
reaching further inland than eight or ten miles. A large
tract of this coast, consisting of the finest alluvial soil, which
was formerly in cotton, has been latterly abandoned,.and the
labourers removed to the more profitable cultivation of the
cane. Land in the immediate vicinity of sugar estates can
be procured on the most reasonable terms. The industrious
settler, who has purchased a location of his own, can always
find lucrative employment for his spare time. The lowest
rate of wages for field labour in British Guiana is 33k cents
for seven hours and a half, with the free occupancy of a cot-
tage, medical advice and attendance during sickness, and as
much provision-ground as the labourer is willing to culti-
vate ; but when engaged in cutting cane, or the manufacture
of sugar, higher daily rates are paid, and it is no exaggera-
tion to say, that an industrious labourer on an estate can
easily earn sixteen dollars per month. In addition to this,
all the people at work in the boiling-house are on most
estates supplied gratis with allowances of provisions and
molasses. No expense has been spared by the planters of
British Guiana in the erection of their sugar-buildings and
machinery.. Each estate is provided with a steam-engine for
grinding the cane, and the labourer is assisted in every de-
partment of his work by the skilful application of a variety
of ingenious and well-adapted machinery. Both on coffee
and sugar estates, the help of every description of persons is
in demand, so that women and children of all ages can find
equally profitable employment in proportion to their capa-
bility, while gratuitous instruction is provided fot those
willing to avail themselves of it. Payment is made in specie,
either monthly or weekly, as may be agreed on ; and so
great is the demand for labour, that no one need remain out
of employment an hour, provided he be a man of good. cha-
racter ; he will have numerous applications the moment it is
known he is seeking hire.
"There is no proprietor in British Guiana who would not
he glad to double the number of people he has at present on
his estate ; therefore, it may readily be imagined with what
ease employment is procured. The roads through every part
of the province are in order, and the facilities of communi-
cation are increased by steamboats and schooners belonging
to the different estates, which keep up a daily intercourse
through every part of the colony. Clothing and fuel, two
great taxes on the industry of the labouring classes in north-
ern climates, are comparatively light burthens in the warm
latitudes. Fuel is obtained without cost, on the plantations,
and all descriptions of British goods, particularly such as are
suited to the wants of the inhabitants, are considerably
cheaper than in the United States. Tradesmen of every
description, except coopers, can always be certain of imme-
diate employment, with high wages. The services of cooks
and house servants, are also in demand. Carpenters, black-
smiths, masons, painters, wheel-wrights, &c., can earn from
one to two dollars per day according to their industry and
skill, and if employed on estates, lodging is furnished them.
Wood cutters are much wanted, and the numerous establish-
ments on the banks of the rivers and creeks, offer profitable
employment to hundreds of families. The voyage from this
country averages about 18 days, and the number of American
vessels trading there, would always enable the emigrant to
write to or visit his friends. Steam communication is es-
tablished by mail boats, to Barbados, and to most of the
neighbouring West India Islands, including St. Thomas ;
independently of which, frequent intercourse is maintained
by means of trading schooners.
" From these very hasty and imperfect observations, it is
evident that under the free and impartial administration of
the law, a fertile and thinly inhabited country, like British
Guiana, Offers great and substantial advantages to industrious
and enterprising men, who duly appreciating the inestimable
blessings that spring from an equality of social privileges,
would seek to envy these blessings himself, and secure them
for his -Ciffip-firik: "'Let it not, however, be imagined that the'
idle, the vicious or the dissipated, are likely to meet with
success. Highly favoured as this country is by the bounti-
ful and beneficent hand of nature, no exemption will be found
from the sentence pronounced upon Adam and his posterity
—" In the sweat of the face shalt thou eat bread."

ROYAL MARRIAGE BROKEN OFF.—According to a Berlin
letter in the German Journal of Frankfort, the marriage of
the Princess of Wurtemberg with the Count of Neipperg is
not to take place. The Count, it seems, had insisted on
having the children brought up as Catholics, and had also
refused to take the title of Prince, by which he would have
lost some portion of its revenues.

FALL of A CHIMNEY.—The lofty chimney which was
erected in a field near Winlaton, in 1833, fell with a tremen-
dous crash during the storm last week. It was about 220
feet high, and unfinished. Being situated on an eminence,
it could be seen from a great distance. The arches near the
base had been taken away a day or two previous, and a strong
wind completed its downfall. It was built for the purpose of
carrying off the muriatic acid from an intended alkali manu-
factory, but was never used.—Arewcastle Jonenal.
We have the pleasure to state, that a petition numerously
signed by the inhabitants of this city, for a grant of money
for church extension, has been forwarded to our respected
representative, Sir Wnn. Follett, for presentation, and also
another from Honiton.— Western Luminary.

DOVER, FEB. s.—There has happened a very large fall of
the cliff adjoining the Shakspear of 600 feet in length, and
from 40 to 50 feet in depth from the summit, being at'the
least 400 feet in height, and at the bottom the chalk covers
at least two acres of the beach below. It has fallen on the
direct line of the railway, and much labour will be required
to move it. Unfortunately, one poor man, of the name of
Broker, is supposed to be buried under the chalk. ,
FORMATION OF THE STATIONERS' COMPANY.—It being
found in the reign of Philip and Mary that " many false,
fond books and ballads, and rhymes and other lewd treatises
in the English tongue, both heretical and seditious," were
being issued from the press, it was determined to unite the
printers into one body, the heads of which should be respon-
sible for the individual members, and the general conduct of
which could thus he more easily watched and more effectually
controlled. Letters patent were therefore passed, constitut-
ing the. Stationers' Company, the 4th day of May, 1556. The.
stationers, it would appear, were therefore a company before
this date, but this was the commencement of their existence
as a corporation. By their charter they were allowed to
make by-laws for the guidance of their members ; and no
one but a member of their society was to be allowed to prac-
tise or exercise the art or mystery of printing within the
dominions of Englaud.--Lowndea on Copyright.