The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1836-09-13 00:00:00

COLONIAL INTELLIGENCE

Two arrivals at this port, from Demerara, bring advices from
that colony to the 7th ult. .
The establishment of a joint-stock banking company for
British Guiana had been a good deal canvassed throughout the
colony, and its announcement had been received with attention
and favour. During the joint-stock mania which prevailed in
England a few months back one or two similar schemes had
been set on foot. An embryo undertaking of this nature had
originated in London, and- another of a similar kind was an-
nounced in Liverpool. Neither of these speculations, however,
was favourably received in Demerara, and they have, probably,
ere this, ceased to exist, like many other bubble schemes of that
period. But the joint-stock bank in question, originating in
the colony, confined to the residents of the colony, and depend-
ing for support on the shareholders, seems likely, if carried into
effect—and there appears to be little doubt that it will be carried
into effect—to answer the purpose of all parties connected with
it. It appears passing strange that British Guiana, the second
colony in importance of our West India possessions, should up
to this moment exist without a private or a public bank of any
description.
The capital stock of the new undertaking is to consist of
£300,000 sterling, in 6,000 shares of £5O each; one-sixth of the
shares to be .reserved for the use of persons in Great Britain
interested in the success of British Guiana. A. charter of in-
corporation is to be applied for, limiting the responsibility of the
shareholders to the amount of their respective shares, authoris-
ing the snaking of by-laws, enabling the company to sue and be
sued by its managers, making the shares a personal estate, ap-
pointing forms for registering and enrolling them, and making
leg a bank commission of one per cent., in addition to interest.
For some months past the labouring population of Demerara
has been considerably strengthened by various importations of
picked labourers from the neighbouring islands. This sy-stem
still continues to be pursued by the Guiana planters with the
best success. A fresh supply had arrived from Antigua, and a
vessel from Barbadoes with a similar cargo was momentarily
expected. The West Indian, published at Barbadoes, states,
that 15,000 or 20,000 more can be spared from that island,
"provided they are taken away in families."
Mr. Bent had arrived at Demerara, to act in the capacity of
chief justice, for which his long and intimate-acquaintance with
the habits and dispositions of the negro population is said to
admirably qualify him. The Demerara papers are filled, as
usual, with the details of refractory apprenticed labourers, who,
through the neglect and indifference of the legal functionaries
of the colony, are permitted to escape without punishment, a
state of things which the acknowledged ability and zeal of the
new chief justice are expected entirely to amend.
The Guiana Chronicle, the organ of the planters, is exceed-
ingly wrath with the conduct of some of the sectarian preachers,
who, from a mistaken zeal, or on enthusiast fanaticism, fill the
nd
apprenticed labourersof ttheir
e murwith
evrise. w s
Afternd sentiments
describing
inn! sc
tt oh ethe interest
the evils which have been thus produced, the Chronicle adds:
Many and grievous are the calamities that some of these
reverend gentry have to answer. Uneducated beings for the
most part, they come out here in swarms annually, reeking
with all the cant and snuffle of Alderinanbury. Fixed upon
low stipends, they instantly look then how to eke out their
scanty means by playing upon the gullibility or stirring up the
discontented passions of the negroes; and in this scheme of
raising the needful they are generally very speedily fortunate,
or,
for scarce a month elapses when the
.quondam cobler, or tailor,
or (for we have one of that dignified calling in this com-
amongst these reverends,) suddenly emerging into the
So and So, diking about his ' flock' with all the die-
nit}.,f a beneficed clergyman of the church. Now, is religion
o
k they the advantaee •
mnoreu%-n.
the object of these fellows ? See spiritual
l of their deluded hearers. No; they flock to these
or tempera ,
shwas to wring from the ignorance and
that sustenance which honest industry at home, at their original
would have Kocurea fur them, but a hich"they
%hvieimrebtloeolazy
• lis crying out lustily for the introduction of
trial by jury into the colony.
At present, according to the
callings,to seek."
The same journal
two magistrates, officiate in that capacity.
Dutch law of Guiana, three assessors, the presiding judge, and

A gentleman residing in the vicinity of this town (Derby),
nearly two years ago gave directions to the keeper of his lodge
gates, to offer employment to every able-bodied man who soli-
cited alms, at 2s a-day and a pint of ale. During the time that
has since elapsed, this offer has been made to 150 beggars of
this description ; out of that large number only one accepted
the offer, and he was employed in the garden ; he did not stop
above three or four days. One of these idle *seals, on being
expostulated with, said he had rather beg thar work—it was a
letter trade ; that was a poor street in which he could not get
3d, and ha could go through twenty in a day.—Derby
Reporter.