"Every arrival from the West Indies but strengthens our conviction, that there never will be happiness, security, or peace for the emancipated negroes, so long as the administration of the laws, and the management of the plantations, are continued in the hands of those white officials whose occupation, previous to the passing of the emancipation act, consisted in torturing and tormenting them with impunity. They cannot endure to witness the elevation to the rank of free, intelligent, and well-behaved fellow-citizens, of a class of beings whom they were accustomed to treat a myriad of times worse than they did the "beasts that perish." Having pronounced them incapable of civilization, and strangers to all the better feelings of our nature, they deem it a sort of duty to themselves to employ every artifice to neutralize or retard every measure calculated to ameliorate the moral and social condition of the negro race. Several of the colonial agents have powerful inducements to the provocation of some insurrectionary outbreak, on the part of the colored population. In the first place, such an emute would fulfil their predictions with regard to the passing the Emancipation Act, and so establish their reputation as seers; and in the next, it would lead to the sale of many of the plantations at one-sixth their real value, and so transform them from agents to principles, as they would not fail to be the purchasers. That such is their policy cannot, we think, be doubted for a moment by those who will take the trouble to peruse a letter addressed by eight Baptist missionaries, long resident in Jamaica, to Lord Glenelg, which will be found in another part of The Sun. These missionaries, we are assured, are men of irreproachable lives, of indefatigable Christian zeal, and of conversation becoming persons whose sacred office it is to preach the gospel of peace. That their representation will produce a powerful effect upon the minds of the people of this country, we feel as confident as we do that our gracious Queen will concede any boon in her royal gift, necessary to the welfare of her colored subjects."
The following are a series of letters to Mr. Sturge, published in the British Emancipator for Nov. 28, 1838. The one from a Special Justice clearly developes the principal causes of the backwardness of the laborers. The testimony of this letter to some important facts will be fully confirmed by that of the Governor of Jamaica. The evidence of extortion submitted by the missionaries is so explicit, that we beg the attention of the reader to all the details. Remember the experiment involves the claims of millions to that without which life is little better than a curse. Every thing hangs on the inquiry whether the emancipated or their former masters are chargeable with whatever there is of ruin in the "fine island" of Jamaica. Says Mr. Sturge, in laying these letters before the public, "it should be clearly understood that the fee simple of all negro houses in Jamaica is not worth £10 each on an average, and that their provision grounds have been brought into cultivation by the negroes themselves in their own time."
Extract of a letter from a Missionary:--
Savannah-la-Mar, Sept. 8, 1838.
MY DEAR SIR,--You are probably aware that the following question has been submitted by the Governor to the Attorney-General for his opinion:
(copy.)
(No. 844.) King' House, Aug. 27, 1838.
SIR,--I am desired by the Governor to request you will give your opinion for general publication. 1st. Whether in instances of notices to quit their houses and grounds, having been served upon the late apprentices, they are liable to be made to pay rent for the occupation of such house, during the three months allowed by law?
(OPINION.)
They are.