g success to the experiments
to be tried of cultivating the estates by free labour, lay in the timely
introduction of proper regulations. It would be vexatious if, after all,
the negroes should take to squatting, and pass their lives in indolence;
but half of the good work would have been achieved until the black was
raised to the condition of a free and laborious citizen. As matters
stood, the negroes refused to enter into contracts; the only method
for obtaining from the black population the continuous labour which was
notoriously indispensable for the cultivation of sugar, was to induce
them to enter into an agreement to work uninterruptedly for a stipulated
sum of money. So arbitrary and partial, however, was the power assigned
by the present law of contract, that the negro was reluctant to engage
on such conditions. This called for alteration; and so likewise did
the law relating to the militia, as well as the vagrancy law and the
constitution of the courts of justice. It would also be advisable to
introduce some measure of relief for the poor; but nothing could
be effected in the present discontinuance of all legislation. Mr.
Labouchere added, that the present measure, though avowedly an arbitrary
one, would, after all, only place Jamaica on the same footing with the
other crown colonies, who were administered by a governor and council.
He concluded by proposing two years and a half instead of five as the
shortest interval within which the measures in contemplation could
be prepared. Mr. Godson opposed the measure; and Mr. Charles Buller
delivered a clever speech in its support. Mr. Hume expressed his
reluctance to separate himself from the government on this question;
but he could not vote in favour of such injustice. Sir George Grey
vindicated the measure, noticing a variety of instances in which the
assembly had eluded the recommendations of government in favour of
the negroes, and referring, in proof of his assertion, to several
conservative authorities.

The house then adjourned; and the debate was opened on the following
Monday by Mr. Maclean. The bill on this night was supported by Sir
Eardley Wilmot, and Messrs. Warburton and O'Connell; and opposed by
Messrs. Grote, Gaily Knight, Goulburn, Gladstone, and Lord Stanley. The
debate was closed by Lord John Russell, who enumerated a short summary
of the arguments for the bill, and declaimed against those of his usual
supporters who were about to desert him. On