6

' of his understanding,' says the Morning Journal of July 8th, 1865, 'makes him unfit to represent the majesty of the Crown.' 'Governor Eyre,' says the Jamaica Guardian of about the same date, 'is daily becoming more unpopular, and nothing would give greater satisfaction to persons of all classes in the country than to hear that he has been recalled. Weak, vacillating, and undignified in his conduct and character, he has lost caste 'exceedingly.' 'The newspapers received by the packet,' says the Morning Journal, 'make no mention, whatever, of the recall of Mr. Eyre, an event to which the colonists have been looking forward with intense anxiety.' It is probable that much of the irritation against him was unjust, but we are merely giving an account of the causes by which the feelings of the people were chafed, and which contributed to bring about the terrible events that ensued. It is evident that the state of Jamaica was in every way most unsatisfactory; and especially that the negroes conceived it to be impossible for them to obtain redress for their grievance, or justice in their frequent bickerings with the planters; but, nothing appears to have excited so much exasperation as the attempts made, (amongst others, by Baron Ketelholdt and Mr. Hire) to expel them from the deserted plantations, on which they had long been settled.

In fact, however, there are two sides to the picture of life among the negroes in Jamaica. It is evident that many of them are extremely idle, and that employers find, as a general rule, much difficulty in obtaining a sufficient supply of continuous labour. This is especially the case on the sugar plantations. The fact is that the sugar crop requires to be got in and manufactured into sugar with very great rapidity. During the days of slavery in our own West Indies,-and the same is true at the present time in Cuba,-eighteen or twenty hours a day of continuous labour was exacted from the negroes, every moment being of importance to secure the sugar before the canes have had time to spoil. This stress continues for many weeks, and if at that time a sufficient supply of labour is not forthcoming the value of the crop may be immensely deteriorated; and yet, without the compulsion of the whip, it is almost impossible under a tropical sun to find any human beings who will give such strenuous and steady labour as this. It is, however, a mere illusion to suppose, as many appear to do, that the West Indies have been ruined by emancipation. The statistical returns show that in the last clear year of slavery, 1833, the amount of sugar imported into the United Kingdom from the West Indies amounted to 3,655,612 cwt., while the quantity imported in 1865 from those islands amounted to 3,563,664 cwt.; so that in

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The effect of Emancipation upon the West Indies. reality the West Indies are importing into this country about as much sugar as they were before slavery was abolished. This is a most striking fact, but its whole force is not perceived unless we remember at the same time that in 1833 our colonies had no export trade whatever to any other part of the world. At the present time the West Indies export a considerable amount of sugar to America and to other countries, of which, unfortunately, we have no account. These Parliamentary returns, as to the accuracy of which there can be no question, completely overthrow the assertions that are so commonly made as to the utter idleness and uselessness of the emancipated negro. No doubt a part of this sugar crop is due to the labours of the coolies who have been imported. Last year, however, the number of these hired labourers in the West Indies was small, and the amount of their labour is not to be compared to that of the negro women who were employed upon the plantations in the days of slavery; but everyone of whom-200,000 in number-at once retired from plantation labour the moment they were set free.

The prosperity of most of the other West India islands has far outrun that of Jamaica, but we believe that the difference has been almost wholly owing to the system of misgovernment to which that island has been subjected. Even in Jamaica, however, large numbers of the negroes appear to live in a very considerable degree of comfort. We have already given a description of the settlement destroyed by Colonel Hobbs' column, which shows a state of well-being, and indeed of luxury, among the peasant freeholders in that district to which no part of the working class in England has ever yet attained.

We are told by a recent traveller in the West Indies that

In general the cottages of the negroes are either neatly thatched or shingled with pieces of hard wood. Some are built of stone or wood, but generally are plastered also on the outside and whitewashed. Many are ornamented with a portico in front to screen the sitting apartment from the sun and rain; while for the admission of light and air, as well as to add to their appearance, they exhibit either shutters or jalousies painted green, or small glass windows.

There is usually a sleeping apartment at each end, and a sitting room in the centre; the floors are in most instances terrased, although boarded ones for sleeping rooms are becoming common. Many of the latter contain good mahogany bedsteads, a washing-stand, looking-glass, and chairs. The middle apartment is usually furnished with a sideboard, displaying sundry articles of crockeryware, some decent looking chairs, and not unfrequently with a few broad sheets of the Tract Society hung round the walls, in neat frames of cedar. cooking food, and other domestic purposes, a little room or two is erected at the back of the cottage, where are also arranged various

For

conveniences for keeping domestic stock. The villages are laid out in regular order, being divided into lots, more or less intersected by roads or streets. The plots are usually in the form of an oblong square. The cottage is situated at an equal distance from each side of the allotment, and at about eight or ten feet from the public thoroughfare. The piece of ground in front is, in some instances, cultivated in the style of an European garden, displaying rose-bushes, and other flowering shrubs, among the choicer vegetable productions, while the remainder is covered with all the substantial vegetables and fruits of the country heterogeneously intermixed.'

Unhappily, the accounts given us of the moral condition of the negroes in Jamaica are in many respects far from gratifying. The amount of petty larceny that goes on among them is a serious drawback, not only to their own comfort, but to the prosperity of the islands. A great deal of immorality exists, and appears to have been increasing rather than diminishing; while their reverence for their spiritual teachers, and their interest in works of charity and religion, seem to have declined since the abolition of slavery. In fact, in the days of slavery the negroes naturally looked to their spiritual pastors-and above all to the Baptist missionaries-as their only friends, and often regarded them with feelings of enthusiastic gratitude and affection. It is worth noticing, that the Baptist missionaries were always objects of the bitter hatred of the planting class during the days of slavery; but now the demoralization which is said to have extended among the negroes is generally attributed to the diminished influence of those very men whose labours in days gone by were so bitterly depreciated. The Established Church, in spite of the immense annual subsidy given to it, has never had more than a very faint influence over the negroes. Had not the Baptists and Wesleyans undertaken the spiritual charge of the peasantry in the West Indies, they would have been left almost altogether to themselves, and must have sunk into depths of superstition and immorality, of which we are enabled to form some conception from the accounts that have reached us of the state of the negroes in the outlying and neglected parts of those islands.

It is unfortunate that all travellers land at Kingston, and in that seaport town come across the very vilest specimens of the negro race that can anywhere be found. There congregates the very scum of the black population. The traveller lands, and perhaps the first object he sees is a negro loitering about in a few miserable rags, and yet refusing to put his hand to any labour in order to better his condition. The traveller offers him a shilling to carry his portmanteau. The sooty gentleman'

The Social Condition of the Negro.

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thanks him, but it does not suit him' to take the job. Thinking this fellow mad, he offers the chance to another, who, after long consideration, says, he will do anything to oblige massa; he hopes the Lord will bless massa and all his family, and that massa will soon find a person to do what he wants;' but he himself is going to attend a funeral in the evening, and follow his "parted broder to de grabe.' No wonder that the fretted traveller at once concludes that all negroes are idle, impracticable rascals; and he starts with a prejudice against them which is not easily overcome, unless he has the opportunity of really studying their mode of life in the interior of the island. As regards the condition of the negroes in their own settlements, there is abundant proof that, except in years of drought, they are generally happy and thriving. Take, for instance, the testimony of the Archdeacon of Surrey in Jamaica, given in the Jamaica Blue Books, Part I. He says:

'On Sunday and other holidays the labouring class invariably appear well-dressed-and I should say expensively. On a recent occasion I appealed to them on behalf of the "Jamaica Home and Foreign Missionary Society." There were between 600 and 700 labourers and artisans in and about the church, and they contributed liberally. Their very respectable appearance-and in very many instances expensive attire, viz., the women and girls of eighteen or nineteen with crinoline, chipped straw hats, trimmed with ribbons and artificial flowers; and the men with neat jackets, and many in the ordinary dress of a gentleman of the upper class attracted the notice of Europeans who happened to be present. Raggedness is seen in the towns only; it is attributable there, not to poverty, but to laziness, and to a determination not to seek work in the rural districts.'

The Rev. David Panton, M.A., also writes:

'It cannot fail to be pleasing to the Government to know that the peasantry of the mountains of the parish of St. George are yearly becoming more wealthy. Each year more land is cleared for the cultivation of coffee, sugar, arrowroot, &c. The peasantry

here are as thriving as it is possible for any peasantry to be.'

The Archdeacon of Cornwall (Jamaica), writes that

'With the exception of the idle and wicked ones already spoken of, they are an industrious and contented people, and might, under proper and wholesome regulations, be made as good a peasantry as any in the world. I have had long experience among them, and my duties call upon me to make frequent journeys, and I consider myself competent to form a correct judgment on the subject.'

We could multiply in abundance such testimonies were it

necessary; while, on the other hand, as we have already shown, in many districts of Jamaica, there has been a considerable amount of distress, and the condition of the negro has been retrograding rather than advancing. Many causes have combined to produce this chequered result; but we fully share the opinion which has been expressed by those most intimately conversant with the island, that its greatest need has been that of a more patriotic and vigorous administration of its affairs. Deeply as we must deplore the insurrection, and the horrors by which its suppression was attended, it may be fairly hoped that ultimately much good may arise to the island from the crisis through which it has passed. The base and corrupt legislature has been got rid of. Governor Eyre, who, though not, we believe, a naturally cruel man, was weak and vain, and totally unfit for responsibility, has been removed. The selection of Sir John Peter Grant to succeed him is an augury full of hope for the future of Jamaica. Sir John's career in India has shown him to possess great ability, and he is not likely to follow Mr. Eyre's example by taking a violent partisan side in the miserable contests between the planters and the peasantry. His hand will be unfettered; he will be at liberty to inaugurate those improvements which are so grievously needed, and to cut down the innumerable abuses which have been allowed to spring up on all sides. A few years of strong administration by such a man may give a complete turn to the fortunes of the island. While many of the West Indian islands are examples of prosperity and progress, there can be no reason, in the nature of things, why Jamaica, of all islands the richest in resources and in the facilities for commercial intercourse, should lag behind. Let us trust that the terrible calamity of last autumn may prove to have been the 'blackness before the dawn' of a better and happier day.

ART. V.-Les Apôtres. Par ERNEST RENAN, Membre de l'Institut. Paris Michel Lévy, Frères. 1866.

Ir is with a feeling of no small relief that we now meet M. Renan on ground somewhat less sacred than that occupied by his first volume. The very ark of our faith was then assailed, and we felt that, while to defend it was a sacred duty, the task was one which might well give rise to a deep solemnity and even shrinking of spirit. The life and character of our Lord Jesus Christ are, in our estimation, so manifestly Divine, that it is almost presumptuous in any mere child of earth to