troduction of _freedom, had been accomplished_!! No person was
found possessed of sufficient energy to speak of navigation
companies in Jamaica's brightest days of slavery; but now that ruin
stares every one in the face--now that we have no longer the power
to treat out peasantry as we please, they have taken it into their
heads to establish so excellent an undertaking. Railroads were not
dreamt of until _darling_ slavery had (_in a great measure_)
departed, and now, when we thought of throwing up our estates, and
flying from the _dangers of emancipation_, the best projects are
being set on foot, and what is _worst_, are likely to _succeed_!
This is the way that our Jamaica folks, no doubt, reason with
themselves. But the reasons for the delay which have taken place in
the establishment of all these valuable undertakings, are too
evident to require elucidation. We behold the _Despatch_ and
_Chronicle_, asserting the ruin of our island; the overthrow of all
order and society; and with the knowledge of all this, they speak of
the profits likely to result from steam navigation, banking
establishments, and railroads! What in the name of conscience, can
be the use of steam-vessels when Jamaica's ruin is so fast
approaching? What are the planters and merchants to ship in steamers
when the apprentices will not work, and there is nothing doing? How
is the bank expected to advance money to the planters, when their
total destruction has been accomplished by the abolition of slavery?
What, in the name of reason, can be the use of railroads, when
commerce and agriculture have been nipped in the bud, by that
_baneful weed, Freedom_? Let the unjust panderers of discord, the
haters of liberty, answer. Let them consider what has all this time
retarded the development of Jamaica's resources, and they will find
that it was _slavery_; yes, it was its very name which prevented the
idea of undertakings such as are being brought about. Had it not
been for the introduction of freedom in our land; had the cruel
monster, Slavery, not partially disappeared, when would we have seen
banks, steamers, or railroads? No man thought of hazarding his
capital in the days of slavery, but now that a new era has burst
upon us, a complete change has taken possession of the hearts of all
just men, and they think of improvin