The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1840-11-10 00:00:00

TUESDAY MORNING, NOVEMBER 10, 1840.

We have received our files of the Jamaica Royal
Gazette and of the Jamaica Standard to the 26th of
September, inclusive. We perceive, from an announce-
ment in the latter of these papers, that the two journals
are to be henceforth incorporated.
The papers before us fully confirm the report as to
the resumption of specie payments on the part of the
Jamaica and Planters' banks. They had already com-
menced redeeming their notes in coin, and it was ex-
pected that they would soon resume their discounts.
Such being the case there was some hope that the pre-
vailing commercial depression would speedily be re-
lieved, and that trade and commerce would soon re-
vive. Beyond the announcement of this fact there is
no news of any importance from Jamaica.

We have received our files of the Guiana Times and
of the Guiana Chronicle to the 18th September, inclu-
sive. From the former of these papers we learn that
foreign sugar was finding its way into the colonies in
such large quantities, that it became imperatively neces-
sary to make some definitive stand on behalf of the
agricultural interests of Guiana.
The " British Guiana lusurance Company " had
been fully organised. The deed of settlement had been
agreed upon, and a ballot for directors had taken place.
Nothing was wanting in order to perfect the arrange-
ments of the company but a charter, which it was con-
fidently expected the Court of Policy would immediately
grant. Great advantages will, no doubt, result from
the establishment of this company.
Messrs. Hoftede and Revers, who had been pro-
claimed not qualified to fill the office of members of the
College of Electors, have been reinstated in their places,
vial office.

al_

The Chronicle states that an experimental trial of a
steam-plough had recently taken place on the planta-
tion Endeavour. The result was considered highly
satisfactory, and it was calculated that a large annual
expense in manual labour will be saved to estates by
the general application of this machine.
The project of Mr. Reis, for the establishment of a
settlement on the Essequebo, was making considerable
progress. Numbers of persons had entered their names
as subscribers of various sums, for the purpose of pro-
moting the object contemplated ; and as soon as the
amount realised proved sufficient to erect the necessary
buildings, the projector would take measures for lo-
cating the emigrants.
We subjoin the following pungent letter from the
Guiana Times :

TO HIS EXCELLENCY HENRY LIGHT, ESQ., GOVERNOR OF
BRITISH GUIANA, &C., &C., &C.

SlR,—The rule which obtains between .the employer and
employed is, that the one selects upon some satisfactory
grounds of character and the other accepts from a feeling of
confidence in his abilities to fulfil the duties of the situation
he is promoted to—. Thus the merchant selects his clerk
—thc planter his manager—the freeholder his representative
—and the shepherd his dog.

The rule which obtained at the Colonial-office appears to
have been sympathetic in your case. When Lord Glenelg
selected an officer so completely sui generis to fill your present
situation, public opinion confirmed the justice of Sir William
Molesworth's motion for his removal from office, which the
ministry had, shortly after, to comply with. And you may
here take warning, and think it not unreasonable that the
voice of the colonists, conveyed to the throne through par-
liament may have a similar effect—for truly we have no con-
fidence in you.

Distinguished offices, such as you hold, have, in general,
been reserved for persons remarkable for talent, or as re-
treats for heroes. Thus, Sir James Carmichael Smyth, for
his services under Wellington at Waterloo ; Sir Benjamin
D'Urban, for his bravery in the Peninsula, were appointed
to govern this colony. Your claims and qualifications to
succeed them are a conundrum which I cannot solve. I

have perused volumes of state papers from the time you en—
tered the army until you retired from the service as captain
of artillery, and find no honourable mention of any Henry
Light, either militarily, diplomatically, scientifically, or
otherwise, which could, in my opinion, warrant your appoint-
ment. In literature, your single effort has proved a failure.
In the art of governing, the injuries sustained, and the ruin
impending this colony from your negligence, ignorance, and
incapacity, are too generally felt and known to require com-
ment.

Some men are horn great,
Some men acquire greatness—and
Some men have greatness thrust upon them.

If you should happen to belong to the last class, it is not
beneath you to do something in return for the honour con-
ferred on you : for instance, if nature has endowed you with
a mind not sufficiently capacious to comprehend and to dis-
charge the proper functions of your office, you may still gain
some credit by confining yourself to the cypherical limits of
your talent, and leaving those who are better able to judge
of, and qualified, (from long experience,) to enact laws for
the colony, and allow their remonstrances against the avari-
cious demands of your official sycophants, (which have been
weighed in the scale of public opinion and found wanting,) to
prevail, and let your civil list be withdrawn.

Look over your despatches, and what can you see there ?
What can be considered worthy of a governor whose reports
to his mistress the Queen should present the status quo of
the colony as correctly as the reflection of a mirror? What
have you done to assist us in procuring
immigrants ?You
have not represented, truly, the depreciation in the value of
property which has taken place since 1838 ! No, you have
Y
confined your remarks to state that the colony is flourishing,
because a great number of houses have been built in the me-
tropolis—country stores have sprung up like mushrooms,
and attorneys, anxious to pocket their commissions, have
sold estates to adventurers, b} the way, at prices ridicu-
lously extravagant, and which are entered into in the same
spirit of speculation, and contingent on the same rationality
and security as the operations of the Stock Exchange in
1825 and 1826. Without immigration they will prove
ruinous.

Sir James patronised our Local Bank, and, more than
three years ago, mooted the propriety of obtaining an influx
of labourers. When he sent his secretary to enjoy a sea voy-
age to Cuba, it was with the hope of getting labourers, and
making some recompense to the colony which paid his ex-
penses, and his salary. When you sent him to England, it
was for the purpose of adding pay to the indolence of offi-
cials—of putting the thumb-screws of oppression on the co-
lony—of taxing us beyond our means, and sending us to per-
dition.—Thanks to our representatives, (barring the Turk,)
the plan failed. As he is so fond of voyaging at the public