of the things which this "champion of
Anglo-West Indians" attempts to force down the throats of his readers.
He would have us believe that Mr. Francis Damian, the Mayor of Port of
Spain, and one of the wealthiest of the native inhabitants of Trinidad,
a man who has retired from an honourable and lucrative legal practice,
and devotes his time, his talents, and his money to the service of his
native country; that Mr. Robert Guppy, the venerable and venerated
Mayor of San Fernando, with his weight of years and his sufficing
competence, and with his long record of self-denying services to the
public; that Mr. George Goodwille, one of the most successful merchants
in the Colonies; that Mr. Conrad [75] F. Stollmeyer, a gentleman
retired, in the evening of his days, on his well-earned ample means,
are open to the above sordid accusation. In short, that those and
such-like individuals who, on account of their private resources and
mental capabilities, as well as the public influence resulting
therefrom, are, by the sheer logic of circumstances, forced to be at
the head of public movements, are actuated by a craving for the few
hundred pounds a year for which there is such a scramble at Downing
Street among the future official grandees of the West Indies! But
granting that this allegation of Mr. Froude's was not as baseless as we
have shown it to be, and that the leaders of the Reform agitation were
impelled by the desire which our author seeks to discredit them with,
what then? Have they who have borne the heat and the burden of the day
in making the Colonies what they are no right to the enjoyment of the
fruits of their labours? The local knowledge, the confidence and
respect of the population, which such men enjoy, and can wield for good
or evil in the community, are these matters of small account in the
efficient government of the Colony? Our author, in [76] specifying the
immunities of his ideal Governor, who is also ours, recommends, amongst
other things, that His Excellency should be allowed to choose his own
advisers. By this Mr. Froude certainly does not mean that the advisers
so chosen must be all pure-blooded Englishmen who have rushed from the
destitution of home to batten on the cheaply obtained flesh-pots of the
Colonies.

At any rate, whatever political fate Mr. Froude may desire for the
Colonies in general, and for Trinidad in particular, it is nevertheless
unquestionable that he and the scheme that he may