LITMIR.BIZ

Скачать книгу

      [Sidenote: such as Jamaica.]

      Here the local legislature was a democratic oligarchy, partly composed of landowners, but chiefly of overseers, with no permanent stake in the country. And this legislature had to be induced to pass measures for the benefit of those very blacks of whose enforced service they had been deprived, and whose paid labour they found it difficult to obtain. Add to this that, in Jamaica, a long period of contention with the mother-country had left a feeling of bitter resentment for the past, and sullen despondency as regards the future. Moreover, the balance had to be held between the Church of England on the one hand, which was in possession of all the ecclesiastical endowments, and probably of all the learning and cultivation of the island, and, on the other hand, the various sects, especially that of the Baptists, who, having fought vigorously for the Negroes in the battle of Emancipation, now held undisputed sway over their minds, and who, as was natural, found it difficult to abandon the position of demagogues and agitators.

      Lord Elgin was at once fortunate and unfortunate in coming after the most conciliatory and popular of governors, Sir C. Metcalfe. The island was in a state of peace and harmony which had been long unknown to it; but the singular affection, which Metcalfe had inspired in all classes, made them look forward with the most gloomy forebodings to the advent of his successor.

      [Sidenote: State of opinion in the island.]

      Moreover, to use Lord Elgin's own language, a tone of despondency with reference to the prospects of the owners of property had long been considered the test of a sincere regard for the welfare of Jamaica. He who had been most successful in proclaiming the depression under which the landed and trading interests laboured, had been held to be in the popular acceptation of the term the truest friend to the colony.

      Nothing could be more alien to the spirit of inquiry and enterprise which leads to practical improvement. In an enervating climate, with a proprietary for the most part non-resident, and a peasantry generally independent of their employers, much encouragement is requisite to induce managers to encounter the labour and responsibility which attends the introduction of new systems; but, by reason of the unfortunate prepossession above described, the announcement of a belief that the planters had not exhausted the resources within their reach, had been considered a declaration of hostility towards that class.

      And truly (wrote Lord Elgin himself) the onus probandi lay, and pretty heavily too, upon the propounder of the obnoxious doctrine of hope. Was it not shown on the face of unquestioned official returns, that the exports of the island had dwindled to one-third of their former amount? Was it not attested even in Parliament, that estates, which used to produce thousands annually, were sinking money year after year? Was it not apparent that the labourers stood in a relation of independence towards the owners of capital and land, totally unknown to a similar class in any fully peopled country? All these were facts and indisputable. And again, was it not equally certain that undeserved aspersions were cast upon the planters? Were they not held responsible for results over which they could exercise no manner of control? and was it not natural that, having been thus calumniated, they should be somewhat impatient of advice?

      From the day of Lord Elgin's arrival in the colony, he was convinced that the endeavour to work a change on public opinion in this respect, would constitute one of his first and most important duties; but he was not insensible to the difficulties with which the experiment was surrounded. He felt that a new Governor, rash enough to assert that all was not yet accomplished which ingenuity and perseverance could achieve, might have perilled his chance of benefiting the colony. Men would have said, and with some truth, 'he knows nothing of the matter; his information is derived from A. or B.; he is a tool in their hands; he will undo all the good which others have effected by enlisting the sympathies of England in our favour.' He would have been deemed a party man, and become an object of suspicion and distrust.

      It was soon found, however, that the new Governor was as anxious as his predecessor had been to conciliate the good will and promote the interests of all ranks of the community in a spirit of perfect fairness and moderation. The agitation of vexed constitutional questions he earnestly deprecated as likely to interrupt the harmony happily prevailing between the several branches of the legislature, and to divert the attention of influential members of the community from the material interests of the colony to the consideration of more exciting subjects. 'I do not underrate,' he said, 'the importance of constitutional questions, nor am I insensible to the honour which may be acquired by their satisfactory adjustment. In the present crisis of our fortunes, however, I am impressed with the belief that he is the best friend to Jamaica who concentrates his energies on the promotion of the moral well-being of the population, and the restoration of the economical prosperity of the island.'

      [Sidenote: Questions of finance]

      The finances of the colony were at this time in a state to require the most careful treatment. At a moment when the recent violent change in the distribution of the wealth of the community had left the proprietary body generally in a depressed condition, the Legislature had to provide for the wants of the newly emancipated population, by increasing at great cost the ecclesiastical and judicial establishments; and at the same time it was necessary that a quantity of inconvertible paper recently set afloat should be redeemed, if the currency was to be fixed on a sound basis. Under these conditions it was not easy to equalise the receipts and expenditure of the island treasury; and the difficulty was not diminished by the necessity of satisfying critics at home. Before long an occasion arose to test Lord Elgin's tact and discretion in mediating on such questions between the colony and the mother-country.

      Towards the end of 1842 a new tariff was enacted by the legislature of the island. When the Act embodying it was sent home, it was found to violate certain economical principles recently adopted in this country. An angry despatch from Downing Street informed Lord Elgin that it was disapproved, and that nothing but an apprehension of the financial embarrassments that must ensue prevented its being formally disallowed. In terms almost amounting to a reprimand, it was intimated that the adoption of such objectionable enactments might be prevented if the Governor would exercise the legitimate influence of his office in opposing them; and it was added, 'If, unfortunately, your efforts should be unsuccessful, and if any such bill should be presented for your acceptance, it is Her Majesty's pleasure and command that you withhold your assent from it.'

      Lord Elgin replied by a temperate representation, that it was but natural that traces of a policy long sanctioned by the mother-country should remain in the legislation of the colony; that the duties in question were not found injuriously to check trade, while they were needed to meet the expenditure: moreover, that the Assembly was, and always had been, extremely jealous of any interference in the matter of self-taxation: lastly, that 'while sensible that the services of a Governor must be unprofitable if he failed to acquire and exercise a legitimate moral influence in the general conduct of affairs, he was at the same time convinced that a just appreciation of the difficulties with which the legislature of the island had yet to contend, and of the sacrifices and exertions already made under the pressure of no ordinary embarrassments, was an indispensable condition to his usefulness.'

      The Home Government felt the weight of these considerations, and the correspondence closed with the revocation of the peremptory command above quoted.

      [Sidenote: Education.]

      The object which Lord Elgin had most at heart was to improve the moral and social condition of the Negroes, and to fit them, by education, for the freedom which had been thrust upon them; but, with characteristic tact and sagacity, he preferred to compass this end through the agency of the planters themselves. By encouraging the application of mechanical contrivances to agriculture, he sought to make it the interest not only of the peasants to acquire, but of the planters to give them, the education necessary for using machinery; while he lost no opportunity of impressing on the land-owning class that, if they wished to secure a constant supply of labour, they could not do so better than by creating in the labouring class the wants which belong to educated beings.

      The following extracts from private letters, written at the time to the Secretary of State, contain the freshest and best expression of his views on these and similar questions of island politics:—

      In

Скачать книгу