aking ducks and drakes of the resources wrung from
the inhabitants--is a degrading tyranny, which the sneers of Mr. Froude
cannot make otherwise. The dignity of manhood, on the other hand, we
are forced to admit, runs scanty chance of recognition by any being,
however masculine his name, who could perpetrate such a literary and
moral scandal as "The Bow of Ulysses." Yet the dignity of manhood
stands venerable there, and whilst the world lasts shall gain for its
possessors the right of record on the roll of [79] those whom the
worthy of the world delight to honour.

All of a piece, as regards veracity and prudence, is the further
allegation of Mr. Froude's, to the effect that there was never any
agitation for Reform in Trinidad before that which he passes under
review. It is, however, a melancholy fact, which we are ashamed to
state, that Mr. Froude has written characteristically here also, either
through crass ignorance or through deliberate malice. Any respectable,
well-informed inhabitant of Trinidad, who happened not to be an
official "bird of passage," might, on our author's honest inquiry, have
informed him that Trinidad is the land of chronic agitation for Reform.
Mr. Froude might also have been informed that, even forty-five years
ago, that is in 1843, an elective constitution, with all the electoral
districts duly marked out, was formulated and transmitted by the
leading inhabitants of Trinidad to the then Secretary of State for the
Colonies. He might also have learnt that on every occasion that any of
the shady Governors, whom he has so well depicted, manifested any
excess of his undesirable qualities, there has been a movement [80]
among the educated people in behalf of changing their country's
political condition.

We close this part of our review by reiterating our conviction that,
come what will, the Crown Colony system, as at present managed, is
doomed. Britain may, in deference to the alleged wishes of her
impalpable "Anglo-West Indians"--whose existence rests on the authority
of Mr. Froude alone--deny to Trinidad and other Colonies even the small
modicum prayed for of autonomy, but in doing so the Mother Country will
have to sternly revise her present methods of selecting and appointing
Governors. As to the subordinate lot, they will have to be worth their
salt when there is at the head of the Government a man who is truly
deserving of his.

NOTES

53. +It is not clear from the original text