, 1875-04-17
THE BARBADOS REPORTER ON
FEDERATION.

4SS 49, J Va EaAT SGN
Indies is daily becoming an object of
enhanced interest to parties engaged in
discussing the condition and prospects Of
our local forms of government, apparent
ly, with special reference to their ultimate
Capitalization under some form or other.
We mean to say, in plain language, that
there are unmlStakab,e intimations Of q
desire existing in certain quarters, for an
extension throughout the West Indies of
the principle which was inaugurated, four
yeas ago, in the Government of the Lee
ward Islands, and which yet remains on
trial. Whether this ill-concealrd portent
is the Legitimate product of authoritative
intimations, or merely an empirical han
kerlng after novelty and -SeusationaliSm,
must rema n to be proved with the lapse
OF time. Suffice it, for present purposes,
that the idea really exists, and it is the
.wisea policy to grappIe with and expose
it, at the outset, in its earliest phases
without awaiting until it assumes larger
and more portentous dimensions. Without
engaging in'ahy unnecessary exordium, or
bush-beatlng we refer to the propagation of
the principlesiuvoIved in the dogma of Fede-
ration. The subject indeed, has been so
thoroughly sjtted aud discussed by the
press, here and elsewhere that it has been
almost worn threadbare. We do not
profess to adduce any novelty in the way
of argument connected with it nor is it
necessary to reiterate the sterrotyprd,
staplr arguments, on this occasion. But
to be forewarned is to be forearmed. 1t is
simply the incumbent duty OF journalism
to be on the qui ere for every advent and
phase which the subject may assume, and
to keep public attention on the alert,
whether it appears in the garb Of a spirit
of health or a goblin damn'd. Ever since
the appointment of the political Coryph"us
of the LeeWard Islands to the Attorney
Generalship of Barbados, the leading repre-
sentatives Of the press in that cOnstella-
ton have evinced a more than pat rnal
solicitude for the prospects and welfare
of our local and political Institutions
The situation forcibly reminds us of the
rich man in the parable, who retain
ed a few drops of the milk of human kind
ness, even in He'll, and evinced an anxious
desire to warn his brethren away from the
same horrible pit into which his own foot
steps had been miserabIy lnveigIed. The
Dominica press. in particular is remarka-
bly, vehement in its dtnunciation of the
whole scheme, as something even worse
than a failure, and in deprecating the ex-
tension of a series of experiments to US
which are alleged to have been productive
of such disastrous results to themselves.
The following extract is clipped from
the Moatserrat Chronicle, in reference to an
assumed scheme of change with which
our new Attorney General is said to be
authoritatively entrusted =
1t is stated that Mr.. Semper'S political
programme is a Federation of the entire
West Indies, including the colony of
. British Guiana, with a West Indian Par
= lament consisting exclusively objective
: members to be returned from the several
Islands according to their population.
- Whether such a scheme is possible, and
. If possible, whether it would be of any
practical advantage, is a question that
: win probably be decided by the success
.or failure of the Leeward Islands Confed-
'.eTation. Certainly, at present Federation
sffIas been a miserable and expensive sham
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