my book
as likely to bring me into some embarrassment individually, yet he is
willing to let me still act under him, and fight my own battles in that
matter as best with God's help I may, which is thoroughly fair. It
imposes, however, a great responsibility. I was not presumptuous enough
to dream of following Sheil; not that his speech is formidable, but the
impression it leaves on the House is. I meant to provoke him. A mean man
may fire at a tiger, but it requires a strong and bold one to stand his
charge; and the longer I live, the more I feel my own (intrinsically)
utter _powerlessness_ in the House of Commons. But my principle is
this--not to shrink from any such responsibility when laid upon me by a
competent person. Sheil, however, did not speak, so I am reserved and
may fulfil my own idea, please God, to-night.'

THE JAMAICA CASE

We come now to one of the memorable episodes in this vexed decade of our
political history. The sullen demon of slavery died hard. The negro
still wore about his neck galling links of the broken chain. The
transitory stage of apprenticeship was in some respects even harsher
than the bondage from which it was to bring deliverance, and the old
iniquity only worked in new ways. The pity and energy of the humane at
home drove a perplexed and sluggish government to pass an act for
dealing with the abominations of the prisons to which the unhappy blacks
were committed in Jamaica. The assembly of that island, a planter
oligarchy, resented the new law from the mother country as an invasion
of their constitutional rights, and stubbornly refused in their
exasperation, even after a local dissolution, to perform duties that
were indispensable for working the machinery of administration. The
cabinet in consequence asked parliament (April 9th) to suspend the
constitution of Jamaica for a term of five years. The tory opposition,
led by Peel with all his force, aided by the aversion of a section of
the liberals to a measure in which they detected a flavour of
dictatorship, ran the ministers (May 6th) within five votes of defeat on
a cardinal stage.

'I was amused,' says Mr. Gladstone, 'with observing yesterday the
differences of countenance and manner in the ministers whom I met on my
ride. Ellice (their friend) would not look at me at all. Charles Wood
looked but askance and with the hat over the brow. Grey shouted, "Wish
you joy!" Lord Howick gave a remarkably civil and