The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1835-10-09 00:00:00

COMMENTARY

ON THE SPEECH OF THE MARQUIS OF SLIGO,
ON OPENING THE HOUSE OF ASSEMBLY, By
A GENTLEMAN JUST RETURNED FROM JA-
MAICA.

"Efficiency of the Police?"

The speech was delivered on the 4th August. On the 15th of
July, the apprentices (about 150 in number) on one property
in the parish of St. David's, behaved so badly as to require the
interposition of the police. Three police stations are in the
immediate neighbourhood of this property, namely, those for
the parishes of St. David's, St. Thomas in the East, and Port
Royal. Notwithstanding which, an express had to be sent to
the Marquis of Sligo for a military force, and two companies of
King's troops were forthwith ordered from head-quarters to the
disturbed estate ! This is only one of many instances of the
"Ifficiency" of the police.

That a police force has become necessary in consequence of
the emancipation act, is as obvious as is the notorious fact that
crime has since become frightfully on the increase.
It is well known that the major-general of police° is no more
fit for that situation than an opera dancer; and it is the vile
system of patronage which has been adopted in the minor ap-
pointments that renders the whole thing disgusting, eminently
useless, and expensive.

"Undisturbed tranquillity."

Look at the burnings on Belvidere estate, in St. Thomas in
the East—the condemnation and subsequent pardon of the
guilty men—the outrages in St. George's, Trelawney, and St:
James's—and, lastly, the fact above alluded to in St. David's,
and say, is 'it not monstrous in any nobleman to address any
assembly of men possessed of common sense, with these facts
before their eyes, and tell them of the "undisturbed tranquil-
lity" of the islands in which they reside? It is an insult to the
understanding, and a violation of troth.

With respect to the "error" in the statement of the crop of
1835, as compared with the average of the last five years, that
is a matter of figures, accessible to all; but how such a mis-
statement could have found its way into the speech of the
" King of Jamaica" remains to be explained.
One word about the cutting of canes and taking off the crop.
The writer was in the parish of St. James about four months
ago; he spent some little time on "Bogue" estate with the
proprietor, Mr. George Cragg, a gentleman remarkable for his
industry, honesty, and retiring habits.
The writer was shown 30 acres of canes, which had been
planted at very considerable expense by Mr. C., rotting in the
ground for want of labourers to take them off, while his own
apprentices not only refused to work their own time for hire,
but occupied that which still nominally belongs to the pro-
prietors in idleness and dissoluteness.

Three times had the magistrate been sept fnr; hot each time
he made bad worse, by exciting the apprentices against their
masters. _ _

Mr. C. is not a man of large fortune, and ho was Very deeply
affected when he extended his baud over his ruined property.
He had written to the governor—but promised the writer to
petition him again—merely giving a detail of the above facts.
The magistrate then on that parish was afterwards removed.
Nothing has done a greater injury to the beneficial welkin!: of
the new system, both as regards master and apprentices, then
many of the acts of the present governor. He has destroyed in
the bud that mutual feeling of confidence so essential as much to
the happiness of the one as the interest of the other.

* Ramsay, n hanger on of the government house, holclinz
three other official situations-- a lawyer, moreoveri without
blisiness: