XXXVII. 1838. 124. ness of the legislature, and its Oct. 30. other islands by the promulgation of an Act passed in the CHAP. Imperial Parliament in 1838, laying down new regulations for the management of prisons in the colony, and empowering Ministers to dismiss certain persons from the offices Refractorithey held in them. This Act excited an universal storm, Jamaica and the Jamaica legislature having assembled on the dis 30th October, their first act was to pass a resolution that solution. this Act was a violation of their rights as British subjects; that it should not have the force of law; and that till it was repealed they would desist from all their legislative functions, except such as might be indispensable for the public credit. This resolution was carried by 24 to 5. Upon this the Assembly was prorogued; and as it again, on 8th November, adhered to the resolution, Sir Lionel Nov. 8. Smith dissolved the angry assemblage. "No House of Assembly," said he, "can now be found which will acknowledge the authority of Queen, Lords, and Commons to enact laws for Jamaica, or that will be likely to pass just and prudent laws for a large portion of the negro population lately brought into freedom." The new Assembly met on December 18, but the first thing it did Dec. 18. was to pass a resolution adhering to the former one. Upon this it also was dissolved under circumstances of violence, which forcibly recalled the similar scenes in the Long Parliament. In a word, Jamaica, like Canada, was now on the border of insurrection; and nothing but its obvious impotence against Great Britain, and the ex-smith's treme pecuniary embarrassments of the proprietors in Despatches, the island in consequence of the contraction of the cur- Dec. 1838, rency at home, and the difficulty of getting the negroes 1838, 348to work on their estates, prevented a civil war, as in North 94-98. America, from breaking out.1 1 Sir Lionel Nov. and Ann. Reg. 351; 1839, sults of It is impossible to defend the extreme violence of the 125. language which, on some of these occasions, was used by Fatal rethe West India planters; which was the more reprehen- emancipasible that they had in reality a good cause to defend, which required no intemperance of expression for its tion. XXXVII. 1838. CHAP support. Experience has now demonstrated this in the EXPORTS AND SHIPPING FROM BRITISH WEST INDIES, AND EXPORTS -PORTER'S Progress of the Nation, 3d edit., 360, 367, and 803, 804. XXXVII. 1838. by experience the amount of agricultural produce raised CHAP. in the West Indies had sunk to less than a half of what it had been in 1828, within three years after final emancipation; and the export of British manufactures to them, the measure of their material comforts, had diminished in an alarming proportion. Nothing was awanting to complete their ruin but the removal of protecting duties, and the admission of foreign slave-grown sugar on terms approaching to equality; and this was ere long conceded to the loud demand of the same party which had insisted for immediate emancipation. The effects of this latter measure, and the lamentable impulse it has given to the foreign slave-trade in its worst and most atrocious form, will form an interesting and instructive topic in a future chapter. 126. the Minis This violent collision between the British Government and the West Indian colonies has acquired greater cele- Position of brity than would have otherwise belonged to it, from its try. having induced a conflict of parties which rendered necessary a resignation of Ministers, and occasioned the first serious shock to the Whig power, thought to be permanently secured by the Reform Bill. Since the accession of Queen Victoria, Ministers had never been able to command a majority of more than 25 or 30 on any vital question; but being cordially supported by the Sovereign, and aware that the balance of parties had now become such that a larger majority could not for a very long period be expected by either, they still retained office. Sir R. Peel, who with equal talent and judgment led the Opposition, was wisely desirous not to precipitate matters, and supported Ministers on all occasions when any motion perilous to the monarchy or existing institutions was brought forward. Thus the Government had gone on since the accession of the Queen, existing, as it were, on the sufferance of its opponents, but still retaining such a majority in the Lower House as rendered it unadvisable CHAP. for their adversaries in the mean time to dispossess them of power. XXXVII. 127. Govern ment measures sus constitution 1839. Ministers, however, felt much irritated at the pertinacious resistance of the Assembly in Jamaica to their measures relative to the West Indies; and even if they had pending the been otherwise disposed, the urban constituencies were so of Jamaica. violently excited on the subject, that it was probably impossible to delay any longer some very stringent measure of coercion. Mr Labouchere, accordingly, on 9th April 1839, brought forward the Government measure on the subject, which was nothing less than a suspension of the constitution of the island for five years, and vesting the government of it, in the mean time, in the Governor and Council, and three commissioners to be sent from England, to assist in the consideration of the topics to which their early consideration would be directed, particularly the improvement of the negroes, prison discipline, and the 1 Parl. Deb. establishment of poor-laws. This bill was opposed by Ann. Reg. the whole strength of the Opposition; and the vote on it produced a crisis which all but overturned the Administration.1 xlvi. 1243; 1839, 97 99. 128. of Ministers in support of the bill. On the part of Government, it was argued by Mr Argument Labouchere, Sir George Grey, and Lord John Russell: "Previous to the act of emancipation, the state of prison. discipline was of little importance, as all punishments were inflicted on the slaves by the domestic authority of the master, who was unwilling to lose the benefit of his services by sending him to jail. This state of things, however, ceased when slavery came to an end; and in addition to that, the existing prison regulations terminated when the apprenticeship ceased, which rendered a new prison bill a matter of necessity. Nevertheless, it is a measure which was in vain sought to be enforced by five successive applications to the colonial Assembly. In fact, from the passing of the celebrated resolutions of 1822 down to the present moment, not a single measure has been adopted in furtherance of these objects for the relief XXXVII. 1839. of the slaves, that has not been forced upon the House of CHAP. Assembly by the Imperial Parliament, with the exception of the Emancipation Bill of 1833, purchased by the noble sacrifice of this country. Three distinct occasions had arisen since that period, on which our interference had been found necessary ;-when we extended the duration of that Act for a year; when we carried the Apprenticeship Amendment Bill; when we passed the Prison Bill; and the present difference is only part of the controversy that had been so long in existence between the two legislatures with regard to the treatment of the negro population. 129. "After five years' experience of the fruitlessness of all recommendations to the House of Assembly, Ministers had Concluded. felt bound, in accordance with the spirit of the resolution of last session of Parliament, to ask for power to dismiss improper persons from offices which they had abused in the prisons, a power absolutely necessary to the due discharge of the responsibility with which Government was intrusted. The act was not sought to be forced on the colony; on the contrary, its adoption was recommended only in the most conciliatory manner. All the customary formalities were studiously observed in bringing it forward; but when submitted, it was met at once with a decided negative. In addition to this, the violent and vituperative language of the Jamaica Assembly formed no inconsiderable argument for such a temporary suspension of its functions as might give them time to recover their temper, and enable them to discharge with propriety their legislative functions. If something of this sort was not done, the authority of Great Britain over its colonies would be speedily lost, and every little island that owed its existence to the protection afforded by the Imperial Government, would not scruple to set its power at de- 98-100. fiance."1 On the other hand, it was maintained by Sir R. Peel, Lord Stanley, and Mr Gladstone: "Without pretend 1 Parl. Deb. 1263; Ann. xlvi. 247, Reg. 1839, |