Bedford inquirer. [volume] (Bedford, Pa.) 1857-1884, 1865-12-15


compel the tenantry to cultivate particular
articles ana sell them to the owner at fixed
\ prices Ols0le such case we have the de-
tails, as of others which prove that the true
substitute ii,r slavery, fair wages for faIr
work, has not vet entered the island imagi-
nation The greatest grievance of all, how
i ever. is the refusal OF justice. Jamaica has
been organized en- the country gentleman
system, the owners being tue sole magis-
trateS and the owners are SAID to be unfair
towards the colored population. ltdoes not
matter much, in political point OF view,
whether this charge is true ornot. Observers
Hike DR.. Underhill, cool, shrewd man,
whose evidence is distrusted because he is
Secretary to the Baptist Mission, but who
/ is a layman and not a negrophite, think it
mas foundation, the planter even when up
1 RIGHT being swayed by a feeling Of race en-
| grained into his very heart. Successive
/ governors, too, have thought, and have
! pleaded for stipendary magistrates but the
/ Assembly Is jealous of its electors power,
and absolutely efuSes to change the system
| Whether. however, the charge is true or
| false, ii is believed to be true, and that be-
| lief Is fatal to any confidence between gov
ernors and governed The negro when in
jured viii not apply to the magistrates, and
1 when summoned accepts his sentence as a
/ white oppression, while all civil contracts
! fall hopelessly out Of gear Knowing that
/ he has TO deal with a poor employer, the
/ negro refuses to make binding contract,
and when engaged by the day, bolts unless
regularly paid. He cannot recover his wa
ges by law, and therefore can aud viii give
/ no credit; while the planter who wants him
| for only half the year isoften unable to pay
until the crop is in,-that is, until the negro
! has abandoned his own crop for the uncer
tain chance Of obtaining his employer S wa
ges. There are no county courts available,
and Che negro, finding no redress from the
civil law, believing in none from the criml-
nal law, ignorant by legislative defect, and
selfindulgent from the absence Of result to
his selfIestraint, falls back absolutely upon
the little plot which is not his, to which he
can get no lease, and which he Is not permit
ted by the conyeyancing system to buy.
When that plot fails, the world falls from
beneath his feet; and for the past two years
it has failed from drought, failed TIL the
people were in places actually without food
there is 20 poor law-till they, among the
yainest of races, leave their children with
out clothing, till In places they deliberated
whether they, like their fathers, had not
better fly to the mountains. The accidental
publication Of letter from Dr. Underhill to
Mr.. CardweH, which had so impressed the
Secretary that he forwarded it to Governor
Eyre for report, blew the discomfort into
a fame, and meetings of colored men were
held, demanding higher wages, education,
better representation, an end to immigration
and the exemption Of raw materials from
import duties. None of these demands
We're complied with; the Governor, though
admitting the badness Of the governing
class, condemned the negroes, and an un-
lucky placard was published by authority
headed .Ihe Queen Advice, and con-
tanning IN other words the answer which
Pharaoh gave to the children Of Israel
Y e are idle, We are idle This increased
the irritation to its height and some acct
dental circumstance most probably move
ment among the West Indian regiments
who are principally liberated Africans, has,
we doubt not, caused the explosion which
has led to the demand for troops 1t can
not be a very formidable one, for the ne
groes have no arms, and unless the black
soldiers have Joined it it Is difficult to see
why they alone were not strong enough to
put it down.
The first duty Of the Government, it is
clear, is to put down the insUrrection.
Whatever the evils inherent in the present
system, and they are many, the violent up
rising Of an ignorant population Is not the
remedy for them, and they must If needful
be reduced to order by the strong arm.
That DONE however, it viii become the duty
Of the Imperial Government to reorganize
the island, if necessary, by measures Of rev.
olutionary breadth The old order Of things
has broken down. The Assembly, convened
on a plan two hundred years old, is d nest of
e.hf. t,la rfl,e oil bt-
| hereditary feeling and by circumstances, dis
| qualified for the possession Of absolute pow
/ er. If they were angels, they would be dis
! qualified ty the ineradicable distrust among
! those they govern, begotten By two centu-
! ries Of misrule and being what they are,
| average Englishmen, with strong prejudices,
! declining capital, and the moral tone Of
! passed-away state Of society, are entirely
/ unable to attract the confidence Of those be-
| meath them. On the other hand, there is
no class in the country to whom their pow
er can be transferred. The mulattoes are
not educated. and encourage race hatreds of
| their own, and the negroes must be educa-
ted before they can be trusted with the fran
| ehise There is no iron necessity, as in the
! Southern State Of America, fer giving them
power IN order that they may not be tram
| pied on; for an authority exists in the island
competent to secure justice. The
talk about negro incidence is pure rubbish.
| There Is no settled race upon earth which is
indolent, the Bengalee shaving nine hours a
day, and the Neapolitan tilling his land
with as much assiduity as DutchmaB: and
| the negro is only lazy because he never reaps
the reward of labor. Ten years Of strict,
equal government, administered by a man
who can press hard, when necdful, on either
race, and who viii attend to physical inn
provement, will we believe, make the Is
land as prosperous as Ceylon, where, with
no slavery and native population which
| viii not work for wages, the eople import
European goods to the extent Of 5ound
head per annum, and the Treasury Is so
overfowing that the Colonial Office has quar-,
relied with the planters By issuing an order
that they shall pay for their own troops
Nothing short of radical change ike this
can, We are convinced, save the island which
Is full Of natural resources, from sinking f.
naly into the condition of a great tropical
pauper warren, hopelessly iusolyerit. aud re
quiring to be ganisoned with at least FIVE
| thousand men