OCR Text |
Show APl>ENDlX• h nd coffee estates, to the increasing working, both on t e sugar a . f I . 1 yers I have lately been engaged m a satisfaction o t 101r emp 0 0 . . l f th islands to the windward-Tortola, St. VlSlt to scvcra o c . Cl . t her's Anti,ua, and Dominica; and I am happy to m· u1s op , o . 1 d 1 1 · th , and the neighboring 1s an s, t 1e peasantry form you t lat m esc k. 11 I may almost say, without any exception. I arc wor mg we - trust that the same good report may now be made, to a very f tl . eople of Jamaica; and that the exceptions great extent, o 1e P which still exist, may be traced to peculiar circumstances which will soon disappear and be forgotten. In the mean time, I con· sidcr it to be a duty incumbent on all pastors and teachers of the Ia b or·m g c1 a ss, wh e· ther Churchmen or. Dissenters, to impress 0 upon t ll C·t r mm· d s their moral obligatwns as cult1vators of the soil; to explain to them on what grounds, and iu what way, they are required, in the sight of the Judge of all flesh, to render to their employers, fair work for fair wages. Having thus stated fully the view which I take of the justice of the case, as it relates to the laborers, I am confident you will kindly bear with me, while I endeavor to develop what I believe to be the rule of right, as it regards the landowner, the planter, the employer. 1 make this attempt under the feelings of respect and Christian charity, and with ardent good wishes for your tem-poral, as well as spiritual welfare. . . We all know that the abolition of slavery, by the 1mpenal act of emancipation, was total, that it bestows upon the people once in bonds an absolute freedom-a perfect equality, in point of civil ri.,ht with the other subjects of the British empire. Since 0 ' ~ this act has become the law of the empire, all the Qncen's su jects are bound, on moral and Christian principle, to maintain its grand pro,isions, and to abstain from all contravension of them in practice. It cannot, I trust, be offensive on my part, to observe that this moral obligation rests, in full force, upon the planters of our West Indian colonies, not only on the general ground of subjection to the laws of the empire, but on the specific ground, RECONCJLIA.'fiON. 245 also, of their having received twent ·n· . y ml tons of pounds sterlin from the pubhc purse, as a compensatio £ 1 · g . . . • n or t 1e1r slaves. I · ust take the hbcrty of statm", 1n passing th t r . J o ' a so Iar as my httlc in~ fluence extended, I was never op11osed 1 tl l'b l o lat 1 era grant of money, and I may say tlJC same of som · · f. • 0 e mtimatc ncnds and connectwns of mmc, well known as friends t tl '· 1 .• slavery, in the British parliament. o lC auo 1tlon of Now the very essence of slavery is compulsory labor. apprehend that I can make no mistake in asser 1·m g that all attempts to compel labor, be they weak or be tl · ' 1ey strmgcnt, be they temperate, or be they violent, arc opposed to the true meaning and purpose of the act of emancipation, and to the principles of justice as they bear on the circumstances of the case. One of the methods which has been resorted to in this island, for compelling work, is the mixture of the question of tenure with that of labor; and I am confident that a little calm reflection will serve to convince any man, that such a mixture is not only at variance with the common-place rules of political economy, but also with the rule of right. lt is a system which classes uuder slavery, and is in its nature opposed to that law of Iibert in which, I trust, we all now rejoice. y Allow me to explain myself. A planter of Jamaica, at the close of the apprenticeship-the date of full freedom by lawfi~ ds himself in possession of a number of cottages and proVIsron- grounds, occupied by certain freemen, who, I suppose, in such a case: might be regarded a. tenants at will. Allowing some s~ort mterval for the almost inevitable temporary unsettlement, 1t must soon become evident that sometlting is due to the planter, in return for such tenancy.-Now, what is that something, according to universal principles which regulate the relations of landlord and tenant ? Certainly not labor-much less a personal restriction to work on a particular spot-but a fair rent - such a rent as represents the true money value of the property |