The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1840-05-19 00:00:00

BRITISH GUIANA.

(From the Guiana Chronicle.)
We believe we can now put forth the statement, without
fear of contradiction, that brighter prospects never dawned on
this province, than are now presented to the mind's eye
the of
our proprietary body. The labouring population of
colony, it is true, do not work as sedulously and regularly as
they did in the day ofeoercion ; nay, we will go farther, and
say, that they evince much laziness and fickleness in their
-:arions employments as well the labourer in the field, as the
domestic servant.
Will this indolence and unsteadiness continue ? We do
think it. DA them but behold the work which they
j; et, or indolently spin out, eagerly grasped at, and in-
dustriously performed by, the rival workman from another
1!:nd, and a different and opposite mode of action will be soon
adopted. No sooner did the American immigrants arrive in
Trinidad, than, from sheer shame, the former sluggard in the
field, became the active rival of the new comer. •
The same beneficial result may he anticipated here. We
are now in the daily receipt of numerous labourers from Bar-
bados,—and in constant expectation of the negro population
of the United States. The accession of these, independent
of their own exertions, will soon bring our peasantry to their
senses. A year and a half of transition has gone by—the new
freeman most now be taught that something more than mere
vegetation is exi,ected from him.
Under all circumstances, this country is now likely to be-
come one of the first sugar-growing colonies attached to the
British Crown. Of boundless extent and inconceivable fer-
tility,
a full supply of labour can make it what no other de-
pendency of England can become. In the other West India
possessions, not only is great labour required in the produc-
tion of the staple commodities, but even with hands they can-
not bring their produce to perfection, without the artificial
accession of manure. Here, no such auxiliary is required;
the land of this province almost spontaneously produces the
cane, and the labour of the peasant is only necessary for keep-
ing it cleanly during its growth, and cutting it down when
fit for the mill. We speak not, of course, of the drainage ;
but in this department, an improvement, likely to save much
exertion of manual labour, has been effected.
Looking then at the addition to our population—at the
great fertility of our soil—at the improvements hourly made
in machinery—we are fully borne out iu asserting, that a
great destiny awaits this splendid province.

COUNTY AND POLICE RAT ES.—By the new bill recently
introduced into the House of Commons by Lord J. Russell
and Mr. Fox Maule, " for the further amendments of the
laws relating to the relief of the poor in England," it appears
that in addition to the enormous power already vested in the
boards of guardians of unions and parishes, under the poor-
law amendment act, they are by the 2Gth section to have the
payment of " all county rates and borough rates, and all rates
made in cities, boroughs, and towns, or in liberties and fran-
ehises, in nature of county rates, and all police, rates," and
they "shall have the same powers, authorities, and reme-
dies" as overseers, " for obtaining contributions from parishes
for the relief of the poor, and all precept! and warrants of
justices for the levying. collecting, and pitying of comity rata
or other rater aforesaid.