FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   484   485   486   487   488   489   490   491   492   493   494   495   496   497   498   499   500   501   502   503   504   505   506   507   508  
509   510   511   512   513   514   515   516   517   518   519   520   521   522   523   524   525   526   527   528   529   530   531   532   533   >>   >|  
t, that we must be paid for it_, otherwise we will NOT ANSWER FOR ANY CHANGE, FOR ANY EVILS WHICH ARE LIKELY TO ENSUE. Why did the government force such an obnoxious bill upon us? They had in substance done this, they refused to annul the apprenticeship themselves, it is true, but said, we will place them in a situation that will compel them to do it themselves. He must say that the Government had acted _cowardly and unjustly_, they had in substance deprived them of the further two years' services of their apprentices, agreeably to the compact entered into, upon a pretext that we had not kept faith with them, and now tell us they will give us no compensation. He hoped the allusion to it in the address would be retained." We beg the patient attention of the reader to still more of these extracts. The present state of things in Jamaica renders them very important. It is indispensable to a correct judgment of the results of the experiment to understand in what temper it was entered upon by the parties. Nothing can show this more clearly or authoritatively than the quotations we are making. We find another little torrent of eloquence from the same Mr. Hamilton Brown above quoted. He and several other gentlemen rose to reply to the statements of Richard Hill, a friend of freedom, and Secretary of the Special Magistracy. Mr. Brown--"Mr. Chairman, I am on my legs, Sir. I say that we have to thank the Special Justices, and the _private instructions_ which they have acted upon, _for all the evils that have occurred in the country_. Had they taken _the law_ for their guide, had they acted upon that, Sir, and not upon their private instructions, _every thing would have gone on splendidly_, and we should have done well. But they had _destroyed the negroes with their instructions_, they had _given them bad advice_, and _encouraged them in disobedience to their masters_. I say it, Sir, in the face of this committee--I would say it on my death-bed tomorrow, that if the Stipendiary Magistrates had _done their duty_ all would have gone on well, _and I told his Excellency that he might then have slept on a bed of roses_." Here was one of the abolishers of the apprenticeship who held that more flogging would have made it work more "splendidly." Mr. Hugh Fraser Leslie, who the February before had, in his place in the Assembly, denominated the anti-slavery delegates assembled in London, as "a set of crawling wretches;" "the scum and r
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   484   485   486   487   488   489   490   491   492   493   494   495   496   497   498   499   500   501   502   503   504   505   506   507   508  
509   510   511   512   513   514   515   516   517   518   519   520   521   522   523   524   525   526   527   528   529   530   531   532   533   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

instructions

 

splendidly

 

Special

 

private

 

entered

 

apprenticeship

 
substance
 
occurred
 

advice

 

country


destroyed

 
ANSWER
 

negroes

 

Justices

 
friend
 

freedom

 

Secretary

 
Richard
 

statements

 

Magistracy


Chairman

 

CHANGE

 

encouraged

 
LIKELY
 

committee

 
February
 

Assembly

 

denominated

 

Leslie

 

Fraser


slavery

 

crawling

 

wretches

 

delegates

 

assembled

 

London

 

flogging

 

Stipendiary

 

Magistrates

 

tomorrow


masters
 

gentlemen

 

Excellency

 

abolishers

 

disobedience

 

quoted

 

compensation

 

allusion

 

address

 

attention