Winter in the West Indies described in Familiar Letters to Henry Clay, of Kentucky

Page 102

168 JAMAICA. .1 of no magistrates at all, and Between the t1vo evt s . stanced the latter appears to magistrates thus ctrcum ' . ' us to be the greater. The same remark applies in a considerable degree to the ht.g h er grad e of "attornev· s," and we appre·. th . would more serve the purpose of bend that no mg . . good or d er .a n d t I ..a nn'I uillity in the colony of J. ammra, than t I1 e set tl em ent of a magistracy w. holly mdepen-dent o f a 11 part t'e s on the island, .a nd p.a td by the. Home G overnmen t . The present sttpemhary. mag.t strate. s, wt.t 1 1 many o f whom we· had the opportumty ol makmg our acquat·n t·.:t nce' 'a ppe'a red to us to be already, .t o a great extent, answering this purpos~. Many_ of the pecu 1.t ar 1cL 1 nctions which they exerctsed dun• ng the apprenticeship have now ceased, a~d they are t.n gene­ral actino- in the simple capacity of local magtstratcs. That th~y are (with little exception,)_ invalua~le de­fenders of the rights of the peasantry, m all the Islands which we have visited, we arc bouml honestly to testify; nor have we ever observed in any of thei~, an indisposition to promote the fair interests of the planter. They have now large experience of t~e moral and civil condition of the communities in whic~ they act. To remove them from the-ir posts, would, m our opinion be little short of a death blow to the peace and libe' rty of the colonies. We venture W·i t h grea t deference to express our d ect' d e d .J·U d gmen t that th.e tr original number ought to be filled up, and their oflice, as local justices of the peace, rendered fully effic~cwus, and permanent. T hese remark s are m ade wtthout any feeling of ill-will or prejudice against the plante~ and their agents, locaI 1. ze d m. J arnm·c.a . We entcrtmn JAM AlVA. 169 warm feelings of regard and friendshitJ to1vard . ' smmy of these persons; from all of them, whom we saw or visited, we met with unvarying kindness and civilit . W . I l' . y e give t 1em crcc It, 111 general, for honorable in-tentions. But we know the effect on the minds of men, of the circumstances in which they are placed, and have watched the silent inflnence of local bias. It is a .trne though trite remark, that u When self the wavering balance shakes, 'Tis seldom right adjusted;" and hence it obviously follows-! am sure the plant­ers of .Jamaica will admit it-that in him who holds the scales of justice, self ought to have no interest whatsoever in the questions to be decided. We were glad to compare notes with Sir Charles Metcalfe. Like ourselves, he had just returned from a tour of inspection, in other parts of the island. It was therefore a great satisfaction to us, to find that he had imbibed the same convictions as we had, re­specting the impropriety of mixing up the questions of rent and wages, and of all other attempts to com­pel the labor of free men; that he rejoiced, as much as ourselves, in the rapid ·increase of villages of indepen­dent negro settlt>rs; and that he fully concurred with us, a_s to the most efficacious modes of ensuring the contmnous labor of the people on the estates of their former masters. These are the regular weekly pay­ment of wages in cash, the system of job or piece work, the letting or selling of tenements and plots of ground to the people, within the properties of the planters, and lastly, moral and religious instruction.