The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1842-01-18 00:00:00

STATE OF BRITISH GUIANA

The state of affairs developed at the recent meeting of pro-
prietors and representatives of property in British Guiana,
to which we briefly adverted in our last, is one which is wor•
thy of the serious attention of the national legislature and the
pnblic. To the philanthropist, especially, who is interested
in the success of the great measure of negro emancipation—
in which is involved the permanent happiness of so many
millions of the human race—it is one which is calculated to
excite deep anxiety, lest, in the too great eagerness to secure
the present comforts and ease of the existing race of African
labourers in our colonies, we have struck a blow at the exist-
ence of those colonies as a profitable appanage to the British
Crown, and prepared the way for their ultimate decline, and
that of their negro population, to a condition of comparative
desolation and barbarism.

It is quite true, and, in itself, it is matter of sincere con-
gratulation, that the present state of the emancipated labour-
ers of Guiana is one of great prosperity and happiness. "In
no other country," perhaps,—as is justly remarked by the
chairman at this meeting,—do we see a day or two's work in
the field sufficient to support an able labourer, probably with
a wife and family. Such a thing is unknown elsewhere, and
to those unacquainted with the colony may appear an enigma;
but it is easily solved when it is known that this same labourer
has a house free of rent, a medical gentleman to attend him
and his family, when sick, gratis, and ground to grow his
provisions in, when well, without cost." And yet, out of
this very state of prosperity and comfort, achieved almost
without an effort on the part of the negro, springs a great
portion of the difficulty under which the Guiana planter is
buffering, and which threatens ultimately to put a stop to all
cultivation beyond that which may be required to satisfy the
mere animal wants of the labourer. From a population
situated as we have described them, it is scarcely surprising
that the amount of continuous work, necessary for the pro-
per development of the productive power of the land, cannot
be procured except at a cost which is ruinous to the interests
of the planter; and that whilst the labourer can only be
induced by very high wages to devote a mere fraction of his
time to the estate upon which he is allowed his provision-
ground and cottage, and by the owner of which he is provided
with medical attendance when sick, the exports of the colony
are produced at a ruinous loss to the planters, are rapidly
declining in amount, and must shortly cease altogether.

In illustration of the extent to which the present state of
affairs is operating to the ruin of the planter, we take the op-
portunity of quoting from the letter of a proprietor, which
was read at the meeting in Georgetown :
....

" That the present price of ltiour cannot longer be sus-
tained, take, for an example my own four estates, the Hague,
the Grocnveld, Windsor Forest, and La Grange, for the
month of July, as stated in Mr. Colin Smith's letter to me
of the 11th of August last. The sugar made that month was
63 hogsheads, which, at the rate of £2O per hogshead, will
produce £1,260
The labourers' wages for that month 4,280 dollars 963

Surplus
" Here you find, that the labourers' wages for the month,
absorbs more than three fourths of the proceeds of the
sugar made during that month.

I have not at hand the quantity made on these estates in
the months of May and June, I shall, therefore, not include
them in my present statement: but the quantity made in
January, February, March, and April, was 198 hhds., which,
at £2O, would produce £3,960
Four months' wages as above, 17,120 dollars, at 4s 6d 3,852

Surplus
" Here, again, you find the labourers' share of the sugar
made in these four months, in comparison to what is left to
the employer, to be in the proportion of 35 to 1, which, with
the offals of the sugar, that is, the rum, if rum be made, if
not, the molasses, is all that the proprietor has for upholding
buildings, machinery, and punts, &c., and furnishing coals,
oils, and all implements of husbandry, paying managers and
overseers' salaries, taxes, and all incidental charges, not to
mention the interest of, at the least, £150,000 of capital
invested in these estates."

It must be manifest to every one that such a ruinous busi-
ness, as the cultivation of the sugar cane is here shewn to he
in British Guiana, cannot to continue long; and yet
what is the utmost extent of the power to remedy it which
is left in the hands of the planters of that colony. We have
perused attentively the report of the committee deputed to
ascertain the most advisable means to be resorted to ; and
really we can sec little that is practicable in any any of them,
and that little most unequal to the extent of the evil to be
contended against. Merely internal arrangements, however
excellent, and however generally adhered to amongst the
proprietors of estates, unless of so stringent a nature as
would inevitably lead to heart-burnings and on the
part of the labouring population, cannot, we think, produce
any sensible effect upon the prosperity of the colony. On
the contrary, we are satisfied that such an effect can be pro-
duced by nothing short of the removal of giant evil itself
—the scarcity of the supply of labourers:
An immediate and extensive measure of immigration under
the direction of, and encouraged by, government is, we are
satisfied, the only measure which can save British Guiana
and others of our West India colonies from ultimate and
speedy ruin and abandonment • and we would earnestly press
this fact upon the friends of the African race, at large, and
those of the negroes of the West Indies in particular. For,
whilst to the great cause of emancipation throughout the
world the ruin of our West Indian interests would operate
as the most serious check which it could possibly sustain,
such a calamity would be little less prejudicial to the inter-
ests of the free labourers themselves in those colonies. That
those labourers are now enjoying a large portion of comfort
we have already shown ; and this happiness they owe to the
circumstance that they live under the fostering protection of
British laws and within reach of the influence of British
enterprise and capital, by the aid of which they are enabled
to procure, in exchange for their rude labour, the decencies
and luxuries of European life. But, may we ask, what
would be the position of these very labourers if aban-
doned to their own resources ? What would be the
effect upon them of the withdrawal of British capital and
skill from the cultivation of our Wrest Indian colonies?
Why—Ruin, we unhesitatingly answer ; ruin and a pro-
gressive decline towards barbarism. For we can scarcely
for a moment presume that it would be in the power of any
British government, after the cultivation of the British
West Indies shall have been given up to the negro labourers,
and the export of produce from those possessions shall have
virtually ceased, to continue upon their present efficient scale
those institutions and immunities by which they are enabled
to enjoy their existing prosperity. Already the expense of
the local legislature and government establishment presses
heavily on the colonists ; and when the abundant capital
which is now invested in colonial property shall have been
withdrawn, we have little reason to anticipate that the same
establishments for the preservation of the public peace in our
colonies, and the protection of the negro, can be permanently
kept up.

Upon the consideration of a subject of this importance we
cannot, however, enter at the conclusion of a notice like the
present; but must content ourselves just now with requesting
the earnest attention of our readers to the state of things which
we have pointed out as developed at the meeting under notice.
Our West Indian colonies, it is evident, unless some strong
remedial measure is resorted to, must sink beneath the (Pets
of the negro emancipation bill. It is of no use attempting
to conceal the fact. Even without the crushing blow which
free trade fanaticism seeks so eagerly to direct against them,
these noble possessions are fast sinking into ruin—a ruin
which will drag along with it the new-born liberties and com-
forts of the emancipated negroes themselves—those objects
of so much zealous and ardent benevolence on the part of the
British people ; and it is undoubtedly the duty now, not only
of the statesman but of the philanthropist as well, to look the
difficulty which is before them fairly in the face, and to en-
deavour calmly and dispassionately to provide for it a remedy.