Litchfield enquirer., 1867-05-30
Correspondence of the \. Y Evening Post
 JAMAICA.
PRESENT CONDITION OF THE IsLASD--TEE NEW ADMINISTRATORS AND IFS WORK TEE PLANTERS
KINGsToN, Jamaica, April 20, 1

TIE PLANTERS.
 KINGSTON, Jamaica, April 20, 1867. The extraordinary interest in the fortunes of this island which WAS awakened by the tragic events of the latter part Of the veal 1865 has in great measure subsided but there is much in the history of the colony for tue past eighteen months, and in the present state of affairs here. that invites at- tention, and is worthy of comment. \ rad ical change has taken place in OUT political condition since the disturbances and terri ble bloodshed of the memorable period just alluded to. The old representative system Of government has been entirely abolished, and the island ia now ruled as a crown col, onv.
 ! We still have Legislative Council, but ! that body is i'll no way responsible to the people for its acts. Out of the nine mem bers, including the Governor, of winch it at present consists. six are government off ciais, and the three non official members are nominees of the Governor and hold their seats absolutely at the pleasure of the pow ! CT by which they Were appointed The con- sequence is that the government has every i thing it's own way The officials are bound Governor, with whom rests exclusively the [ non- official members, when they dissent from the government and disapprove of it's ] measures are compelled to content them selves with putting in written protests, which has already been done in two or three instances The non official element is, in fact, utterly powerless, and so keenly do the gentlemen composing it feel the anomaly of their position-wLich is, indeed, rather l humillating one-that rurnor says, not without foundation, l believe, that they have rendered their resignatlonsS to the 1 Governor, who has requested them as a matter of convenience to the government, to continue to hold their seats until the end of the present session, when he will re- | lieve them of their duties.
 1 So strong is the feeling among the old dominant class against the present mode of administering the af;.irs of the government that doubt very much whether the Gov ernor will succeed in finding successors to these gentlemen from among this class.
 THE PLANTERS.
 It may seem strange that the planters and their friends, after having deliberately sac rifced the old constitution, should be as order of things. But the matter is capable
 
 l has been all along averse to sharing ppliti- cal power with the emancipated people. It is notorious that the leading men of the party were for years plotting to compass the destruction of the House of Assembly, not because that body was incapable and corrupt, which it unquestionably was, but because from its liberal constitution, it opened to the blacks the avenues to politi- cal position and power. The blacks-at least such of them as were enfranchised un- der the narrow provisions of the electoral laws of the colony-shared in electing rep resentatiyes to that house, and two full blooded uegroes actually sat in 1t for some years. This did not suit either the tastes or the purposes Of the planter party, which | wanted to get the Assembly abolished and a new chamber substituted for it, from which the colorcd element should be prac- tically excluded.
 When the disturbances of October, 1865, | took place, they eagerly seized the oppor- tunity which they thought had at length presented itself of carrying out their long cherished designs. They magnifed the local outbreak at Morant Bay into wide spread conspiracy of the blacks for the ex- termination of the whites throughout the colony, and so wrought upon the fears of the majority of the poor creatures who mostly made up the membership of the House at that time, that they found no diff iculty in getting an act passed abolishing the Constitution. This was followed by another act providing for new Chamber. the members of which should not be elected by the people, but nominated by the Gov ernor for the time being
 GOVERNMENT INTERVENTION
 Public opinion, however, notwithstand- ing the panic that prevailed at that time, so decisively condemned this extraordinary measure, that it's framers were compelled to amend it by making the chamber partly nominal and partly elective but in doing this they took care to afix the property qualification, both for voting for represen- tatives and for memberships in the new body, at so high mark that the blacks, as a body would have been totally disfranchis- ed under the law, and none but men of the old ruling party would have been eligible for seats in it. With man like Eyre at the head of the government, the planters thought their plans were perfectly safe and certain of success. And so they would have been, but just at this time the British gov ernment interposed, and intimated its will lingness to take the control of the affairs of the colony into its own hands. The gov ernment had motive in this, which the planters, fortunately for the body of the people of Jamaica, did not penetrate at the time.
 The object was to relieve the colony of planter rule, which had proved an upmiti- gated curse to it, and to establish new or der of things under which justice should be secured to the emancipated class. This the planters did not see, and so they readi- ly enough agreed to annul all they had al- ready done in the way of manufacturing l new Constitution. and to give the Colonial Minister and the British Parliament carte | 6ta'ache as to the future administration of the government of the colony. Of course they did not for moment dream of what was coming. They took it for granted that in the new order of things about to be estab lished their influence, hitherto so powerful would continue to be the controlling ele- ment, and they certainly had no reason to ! apprehend that it would be otherwise, The period of these transactions was just few weeks after the outbreak The full partic- ulars of the massacre of the blacks had not yet been given to the world The Jamaica committee had not yet been formed. The o,,YoiOtnaDt If