good work he had
loyally begun. Every one of the above temporary administrators was a
right good man for a post in which brain power and moral back-bone are
essential qualifications. But the Fates so willed it that Trinidad
should never enjoy the permanent governance of either. In view of the
above facts; in view also of the lessons taught the inhabitants of
Trinidad so frequently, so cruelly, what wonder is there that, failing
of faith in a probability, which stands one against four, of their
getting another worthy ruler when Governor Robinson shall have left
them, they should seek to make hay while the sun shines, by providing
against the contingency of such Governors as they know from bitter
experience that Downing Street would place over their destinies, should
the considerations detailed by Mr. Froude or any other equally [73]
unworthy counsellor supervene? That the leading minds of Trinidad
should believe in an elective legislature is a logical consequence of
the teachings of the past, when the Colony was under the manipulation
of the sort of Governors above mentioned as immediately succeeding Sir
Arthur Gordon.

This brings us to the motives, the sordid motives, which Mr. Froude,
oblivious of the responsibility of his high literary status, has
permitted himself gratuitously, and we may add scandalously, to impute
to the heads of the Reform movement in Trinidad. It was perfectly
competent that our author should decline, as he did decline, to have
anything to do, even as a spectator, at a meeting with the object of
which he had no sympathy. But our opinion is equally decided that Mr.
Froude has transgressed the bounds of decent political antagonism, nay,
even of common sense, when he presumes to state that it was not for any
other object than the large salaries of the Crown appointments, which
they covet for themselves, that the Reform leaders are contending.
This is not criticism: it is slander. To make culpatory statements
against others, [74] without ability to prove them, is, to say the
least, hazardous; but to make accusations to formulate which the
accuser is forced, not only to ignore facts, but actually to deny them,
is, to our mind, nothing short of rank defamation.

Mr. Froude is not likely to impress the world (of the West Indies, at
any rate) with the transparently silly, if not intentionally malicious,
ravings which he has indulged in on the subject of Trinidad and its
politics. Here are some