proprietary, free from debt, can be found; and that this can only be accomplished by the creation of small estates, and the discouragement of serf occupation and squatting. "It is almost impossible" (writes Mr. Mackintosh, at the time Lieutenant-Governor of St. Kitts) "to exaggerate the proportion of embarrassment which the apparently hopeless struggle to reconcile tropical profits with residence in a temperate climate has contributed to West Indian difficulties. It is impossible, I should think, but that, with our comparative amenity of climate, and many social advantages, there must be many in the mother country, with small capitals, who would gladly invest their means, at present prices, in land of such prodigious fertility as ours. Some indication of such wishes, indeed, already exists. But all intending purchasers meet, on the threshold, a great obstacle in the cumbrous and expensive system which governs the tenure and alienation of real property, and which so needlessly enhances the cost and precariousness of acquiring it. I am not sanguine that this great evil can ever be successfully grappled with by a local legislature. But if the Imperial Parliament could be induced to apply a measure on the principle of the Irish Incumbered Estates Bill, to the West Indies generally, I am deeply impressed with the conviction that it would confer, on this island at least, a very substantial benefit."*

In the foregoing remarks, we have endeavoured to engage our readers in a study of comparative politics and economics, with a view to the application of the principles developed to home use, rather than to attempt what seemed to us, indeed, a hopeless taskthe re-awakening in the public mind of a special interest in our West Indian colonies. The negroes have been eman. cipated and forgotten by men and brothers; the owners, and in many stances, the mortgagees of the plantations, have been ruined; and, with the disappearance of the West Indian interest from the House of Commons, and of black footmen from English watering-places, the whole subject has faded out of the memory of politicians. It will, very probably, not be again much thought of in England, until the

· Davy, p. 459.

in

banner of the Lone Star shall have been planted in Cuba, and the worthy chevaliers d'industrie enrolled under it shall have begun to look abroad over the Caribbean Sea. Then it may be discovered that the policy adopted towards the West Indies was not wise; that it was unwise and selfish to have restricted and monopolised the commerce of those islands; that it was unprincipled and short-sighted to have propped up colonies, enfeebled by restrictions, with such crutches as the slave trade and prohibitory protective duties; that it was rash and reckless to have struck away these crutches, without any preparation for enabling the sufferer to stand alone. Then again, it may be, British blood and treasure will be lavished in desperate efforts to hold what, when in quiet possession, was despised and neglected. Believing this to be the state of public feeling, we do not intend to step far beyond the limits we prescribed to ourselves at the outset; still, the free use we have made of Dr. Davy's work, and the deep interest its perusal has created in our own mind, forbid us to conclude, without claiming a more particular notice for it and its objects. Dr. Davy hopes- and we sincerely wish it may not be against hope in a better future for the West Indies; and he has done more than any other author within our knowledge, both to expound the reason of his faith, and to supply the information necessary to the accomplishment of its object. He has, indeed, no panacea or specific; but, taking for his starting point the incontrovertible proposition, that all prosperity must be based upon the soil, he shows, in the course of an elaborate and precise practical examination of the geology, agricultural chemistry, and meteorology of each of the colonies in the Windward and Leeward islands' military command, that their agricultural capabilities are "second to none, not even to the most productive of the foreign colonies, which, of late, with slave-labour, have become their great rivals." This portion of the book does, in fact, form a body of the institutes of West Indian agriculture calculated to render it invaluable to every intelligent cultivator in the settlements with which it deals. In re

† Ibid. p. 528.

ference to each of them, the qualities of their soils and climates are scientifically, yet plainly, described, in most instances, from personal observation, and very frequently from careful chemical analysis, to which Dr. Davy's well-known scientific ability gives peculiar value. The existing state of agriculture, with its defects, and the prospects and capabilities of improvement, is similarly handled, not indeed in a manner which will much influence the high-farming mania of the day, but with a moderation and knowledge consistent with the teachings of all experience, whether of ancient or modern times, within or without the tropics; whether as recorded by Columella and Pliny, in the balance-sheet of Mr. Mechi, or in the able and enlightened despatches of Lord Harris. Economical cultivation, frugal and careful husbandry, is the substance of the lesson taught by the practical farmer throughout, and there is no other deducible from the facts and arguments of Dr. Davy. That these are the means by which WestIndian produce can be raised and brought to market with profit, and that their attainment is the proper object of science and skill, are principles, as we conceive, irrefragably established in his pages. Without the intelligent supervision of the owner, and the care and economy therein implied, the freest outlay of capital, even when guided by scientific knowledge and mechanical skill, seems to have constantly failed; while great success has attended a simple scraping together of manure. Thus, in Trinidad, where steam-power is employed on the plantations more freely than in most of the other islands, and where capital has been lavishly expended for other purposes, we find the result, as stated by Lord Harris, to be "a dead loss of at least a million sterling. Out of 193 estates, about seventeen may be considered as having given a profit; about the same number may have held their ground, neither gaining nor losing; the rest have been kept up at the loss above mentioned. It is also necessary to take into view some of the peculiarities of these seventeen profitable estates. On examination, it is found that most of them belong to resident proprietors who have sold their sugar in the island, who have adopted few, if

* Davy, p. 322.

any, improvements, and thus saved any outlay of capital, and who have exercised the strictest economy.' * In St. Christopher's, "attention to manuring constituted the basis of a fortune which exceeded any that has been acquired in the leeward islands for ages. It amounted to £80,000 or £100,000 in the funds, and four or five considerable estates. The person who accumulated this wealth had the lease of an estate contiguous to a town, where large quantities of dung were always to be met with, and were always neglected. He turned scavenger, and covered all his land with the nasty and precious heaps. In a very short time his industry and judgment were abundantly rewarded. From sixty acres of land he has often made 240 hogsheads of sugar, and from some of his caue-pieces, the scarce credible quantity of six hogsheads an acre."+

He

The measures by the aid of which Dr. Davy hopes that the vast productive capabilities of the West Indies might be worked with profit to the colonists, and with advantage to the mother-country, follow, for the most part, naturally, as inferences from premises we have laid before our readers, and are already, no doubt, obvious to their minds. He would carry out the manumission of the negroes and coloured race by education, for which he conceives they possess considerable natu ral aptitude; but which all of them, rich and poor, greatly need. would render education practical in the case of the labouring classes, by forcing them into a position of responsibility for their own support, which they do not hold while they are permitted to squat on waste lands, or, in the condition of the old Irish cottier, upon the estate on which they are employed; while they are not paid for their labour in money, but in cottages and provision-grounds, held at will. The introduction of sanitary measures he deems of great importance, and he is of opinion that their adoption would bring with it a collateral benefit, in opening a way of mental cultivation and elevation for the coloured Creoles above the rank of labourers, who would thus be induced to become medical practitioners, and who at present have no liberal profession open to them. As an auxiliary to this plan, Dr. Davy proposes that Codrington College

† Ibid. p. 452.

should be rendered available as a school of medicine.* We have already had ample evidence that Dr. Davy considers estate-management to be like marriage, "a matter of more worth than to be dealt with by attorneyship," and, upon this point, it may also have been gathered that we entirely agree with him. It cannot, however, be prudently dealt with by direct legislation, no more than can some other evil habits which it is most desirable to abolish, but with respect to which, any imaginable legislative remedy would be worse than the disease.

Upon two or three subjects of a broader character, Dr. Davy's facts press very strongly. -so strongly as to contrast remarkably with the extreme moderation of tone and language in which they are stated. The propriety of a thorough change of colonial policy in the high matters of government, defence, and revenue, is the conclusion to which Dr. Davy's premises inevitably lead, and at which every reflecting reader, who reduces the proposition to terms, must arrive. That the author has not himself done this in distinct form is, we think, to be regretted, and the more especially because it has given to some of his views the appearance of a reactionary character, which does not belong to them. It is not possible, we think, to read "The West Indies Before and Since Emancipation," without being forced to the conclusion, that a federative union should be established among these colonies, and that the numerous, independent, but powerless petty states which they now form, should be associated, as free municipalities, under a single, responsible, constitutional Government. There are at present five Governor-Generalst employed in the possessions of England in the West Indies, all perfectly independent of each other; and two of the Governments those of the Windward and Leeward Islands are again sub-divided into several dependencies under Lieutenant-Governors or Presidents, almost equally independent of each other and of their nominal chiefs. It would be simply ridiculous to attempt the

formation of a responsible ministry in connexion with each of these little legislatures; but we have the successful experiment in Canada to encourage the adoption of such a course, if the executive be connected with an Assembly sufficiently numerous and authoritative as the representative of a large community. It is very plain, that the perpetual intermeddling of the Colonial Office with the details of colonial government, has been productive of great evil, and of no good, in the West Indies as elsewhere. If it were only for sake of a change, it would be advis. able to make trial of another system. The proposal has the support of the maxim, Fiat experimentum in corpore vili; it would be difficult to devise any scheme that could bring these colonies lower than the combined exertions of philanthropists and monopolists, protectionists and free-traders, negligent proprietors and active agents, have brought them. On the other hand, there are facilities in the way of the establishment of a federative union among the islands; and, as far as we can see, few or no obstacles opposed to it. Steam communication exists, and could readily, and we suppose profitably, be extended and rendered more perfect. The expense of the government would be lessened both in the executive and judicial branches. One Governor-General, with his accessories, would be substituted for five; one or two superior courts of justice might perform circuits, and one penal establishment would suffice for the whole union. Any obstacle that would be raised by an invasion of local interests might be evaded, by leaving the existing local legislatures untouched, by supplementing the present system with a general federal Assembly, and by not substituting centralisation for localisation. main difference from the condition of affairs as it now is, would, in principle, be a transfer of the power vexatiously wielded in Downing-street, to a West Indian executive, controlled by a West Indian Commons; and a restriction of the authority of the Colonial Office

The

The

to matters of Imperial concernment. Were such a frame of government conceded, the liabilities properly belonging to it should, of course, be accepted with it. The combined colonists should provide for their own civil and military expenditure, being permitted to do so in the manner most advantageous to themselves. employment of officers and men of the regular army in the West Indies, Dr. Davy shows to be in a high degree injurious. The mortality among such troops is very great, and the circumstances in which they are placed are very unfavourable to discipline and military morality. On the other hand, the number of deaths in the black regiments do not exceed those among British troops at home; and they have been found, upon many trying occa sions, trustworthy and efficient.

To

these, then, increased in strength, "either alone, or in conjunction with a native militia, composed of men of colour," Dr. Davy would entrust the defence of the West Indies; and he would ensure their fidelity by officering them from among the sons of planters, and by opening to the blacks a way of promotion similar to that available to the native troops in India.

That the fiscal dealings of England with the West Indian colonies were wrong from the beginning is not, we believe, doubted either by protectionists or free-traders; that to reverse wrong is not to do right, is, we think, proved by Dr. Davy's facts. English Governments have not, how

ever,

The

confined the errors of their policy to so simple a blunder. They have almost systematically halted between two opinions. They have abolished protection, without establishing free-trade; emancipated slaves, and encouraged slavery; abrogated differential duties in favour of the foreign planter, and maintained them in injurious action upon the colonists. The way out of this slough of misgovernment is, indeed, not easy to find. That ad valorem duties, discouraging the production of refined sugar on the plantations, are opposed to all sound principle and highly injurious in practice, is a self-evident proposition; that they should be retained, is, we would say, manifestly impossible, were it not that a fiscal absurdity is not possible merely, but of common Occurrence. But the

colonists seem to be strongly of opinion that, while such differential duties should be removed, others, discriminating between free-labour and slavelabour sugars, should be maintained. That the partial removal of these duties (to be completed in the present year) has been a crushing blow to the colonial interest, the facts of Dr. Davy's book demonstrate; and he inclines to the opinion that justice to the planters, and the cause of the abolition of the slave trade, require that they should still be continued. The question is one of extreme difficulty, involving a consideration of our relations with the United States, no less than those with Spain and the Brazils, and affecting commerce in the important article of cotton as well as sugar. We do not, therefore, propose to enter into its discussion at the close of an article already protracted bcyond ordinary limits. We will only venture deferentially to express our opinion that the perils of advance seem to us to be less than the perils of retreat. The advantage that would be gained for the West Indies by maintaining differential duties in favour of free labour, would be merely a postponement of the evil day. a protraction of the agency of ruin, and also, in all probability, a procrastination of the process of reconstruction. We doubt, too, whether a crusade against foreign slave-dealing is the proper mission of England, and we entertain no doubt that the cause of humanity to the African would have been forwarded more effectually had no armed intervention for the suppression of the foreign slave trade ever been engaged in. In whatever mode this particular question may be decided upon, we trust we have done enough to evince our hearty concurrence in Dr. Davy's concluding aspiration, that some way may be hit upon whereby the connexion between these important and most interesting colonies and the mother country may be preserved unbroken-each beneficial to the otherthe one not enacting the part of a harsh step-mother, but of a kind, considerate parent; nor the other that of burthensome spendthrifts, but of industrious, dutiful, and loving children; out of leading-strings, indeed, self-supporting and self-controlling; but not the less bound to the old home by the ties of rational affection and honest pride.