"Gentlemen of the Council, Mr. Speaker, and Gentlemen of the Assembly
I have called you together, at an unusual season, to take it to your
consideration the state of the Island under the Laws of
Apprenticeship, for the labouring population.
I need not refer you to the agitation on this subject throughout the British Empire, or to the discussions upon it in Parliament, where the honourable efforts of the ministry were barely found sufficient to preserve the original duration of the Laws, as an obligation of the National faith.
I shall lay before you some despatches on this subject."
* * * * *
"Gentlemen,
General agitation and Parliamentary interference have not, I am afraid, yet terminated.
A corresponding excitement has been long going on among the apprentices themselves, but still they have rested in sober and quiet hopes, relying on your generosity, that you will extend to them that boon which has been granted to their class in other Colonies."
* * * * *
"Gentlemen of the Council, Mr. Speaker and Gentlemen of the Assembly,