We are now prepared to investigate the causes of the complaints, and inquire why in numerous cases the negros have refused to work. Let us first go back to the debates Jamaica Legislature on the passage of the Emancipation bill in June, and see whether we can discover the temper in which it was passed, and the prospect of good faith in its execution. We can hardly doubt that some members, and some especially from whose speeches on that occasion we have already quoted, designed really to confer the "boon of freedom." But others spoke very differently. To understand their language we must commence with the Governor's speech at the opening of the session:--
"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."
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"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."
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