The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1844-03-12 00:00:00

WEST INDIES.

Papers have been received by the Forth steamer to the
following dates :—Jamaica, the 9th of February ; Barba-
does, the 4th ; Demerara, the 3rd ; and Trinidad, the Ist.
This vessel brings 1,116,000 dollars, having the Mexican
mail on board, but the principal of this sum is supposed
to be on mining account, though it is said 75,000 dollars
are consigned to the Mexican agency as remittances
towards the dividend due in April next.
The Jamaica Despatch of the latest date thus refers to
matters in that island :

" There is little alteration in the political horizon of our
island since the transmission of our mails per last packet.
Our legislative body, as well as the grand court, have re-
sumed their deliberations in Spanish Town ; and we expect
both the legislature and the executive branches of the go-
vernment will take an early opportunity of contradicting
some of the misrepresentations of the British press rela-
tive to their opinions on tho necessity of an accession of
free labourers for this colony. Bishop Spencer has been
duly installed, and the church of St. Jago de la Vega
created a cathedral. Religious instruction and general
education are progressing rapidly, and everything but the
panacea for all our evils—increased cultivation—is pro-
ceeding harmoniously. The weather is still dry and disa-
greeable, and the prevailing north breezes have caused
some sickness. We have, however, escaped the alarming
shocks of earthquake felt at Grenada, Barbadoes, and
other of the neighbouring islands."
Private investigation connected with the late robbery at
the Jamaica Bank is alluded to as tending to a discovery
of the culprit. Her Majesty's schooner Pickle had arrived
from Port Royal, with specie for the troops, and was
about to proceed to the coast of Cuba.
According to the Demerara papers, the weather, not-
withstanding its variable character, was on the whole un-
favourable for agricultural operations. At the meeting
of the British Guiana Bank a dividend of 2 per cent. for
the half year had been declared. The business of the
establishment appears to have improved under a vigorous
inquiry adopted by a competent committee called in by
the directors to satisfy the public of the stability of the
establishment. By the revised management discounts
had increased, cash credits were prudently reduced, a
considerable sum on protested bills had been recovered,
and what seems to have crowned the success of the year's
operations was the satisfactory statement that there was
not in all the accounts a single dishonoured obligation.
Mercantile affairs showed symptoms of increased confi-
dence, and though the improvement was slow, there was
every hope that the steadiness observed would not readily
again relapse into the depression from which they were
now recovering. A slight shock of an earthquake was
felt in Demerara on the 19th of January. Bank exchange
is quoted 475 dollars per £lOO at 90 days, and private
bills ruled 470 dollars per £lOO at the same date.
The Barbadoes accounts give very little interesting
news. The weather continued changeable, and few of
the overdue vessels from England had arrived. At the
latest dates appearances indicated either heavy rains or a
thunder storm.

From Trinidad, Dominica, and Antigua scarcely a fact
comes worthy of record. The arrival of the outward
mail had, indeed, supplied the conductors of the several
papers with a mass of interesting news from England, of
which they readily availed themselves. Sir H. M`Leod,
the Governor of Trinidad, had been assaulted while
riding out in his carriage, by a drunken black, who, how-
ever, apparently, was unacquainted with the party he had
abused, and hence the attendance of his Excellency to
ask redress of his grievances at the hands of the local ma-
gistrates had created much surprise among the negro
population, when they found that punishment could not
be inflicted by the Governor, even when his own person
was concerned, without an appeal first made to a court of
justice. At Martinique a severe shock of an earthquake
had been experienced, but, fortunately, no damage fol-
lowed.