The finances of Hayti are exceedingly low; no country can labour under greater depression in its financial state than the republic at this moment, and there does not appear the least probability of a revival. Without agriculture and commerce, I cannot see how they are to be recruited, and as those are at the lowest ebb, despair seems to me inevitable. Their application to the French government to extend the period for the payment of the debt due for the recognition of independence, is corroborative of their impoverished condition. The receipts from all their sources of income are small, and their expenditure is large, and the government is often obliged to borrow money of the merchants in anticipation of duties they may have to pay, for the purpose of meeting the exigences of the country; and this has become so very frequent of late, that they have met with some refusals, merchants entertaining much doubt as to the safety of making such advances.
The public expenditure is estimated at about five millions of dollars annually, which one would think cannot be true, when a reference is made to the produce of the country. It is certain their ways and means fall considerably short of that amount. The customs on imports and exports produce about two million two hundred thousand dollars annually, and the territorial duties on produce, duty on houses, patents, tax on markets, and other taxes of minor consideration, about the same amount; so that the total revenue of the republic does not exceed four million four hundred thousand dollars. On this I can place some reliance; for the best informed persons in the country, both natives and foreigners, state that amount to be correct, and that it is impossible that it can be greater, from the condition into which both commerce and agriculture have sunk. The government, these last two years, anticipated a large revenue from the produce of the mines of Cibao, but that scheme turned out to be a fallacious ground-work of expectation; and a great deal also was expected to be realized by sales of the government lands, but this also has failed, from landed property being considered at the present moment of very insecure tenure. These two anticipated sources of revenue display the weakness of the government, and betray their want of foresight in an amazing degree, for nothing could be more inconsistent than to calculate upon repairing the finances of the country by hidden treasures, or think of obtaining any thing from mines which, had they been known to be worth working, would never have been neglected by the Spaniards or the French. With respect to government lands, I cannot conceive how any expectation of deriving benefit from them could have been entertained, when it is so notorious that the people have not a shilling to invest in the soil; and the constitution will not permit Europeans, or white persons from any country, to hold property in their own right, were they disposed to do so.
No means therefore present themselves by which the finances of Hayti can be improved, except the cultivation of its lands in good earnest, not by partial labour, but by the most persevering industry, and by enforcing the law for culture. Nothing short of the most strenuous exertions in agriculture can save Hayti from the ruin which threatens her, or can shelter her against the storm which seems to be gathering round her. Setting aside the produce of the soil, there is no other source from which any aid to the revenue can be derived; and if that be not attended to, and an increase immediately obtained, the little commercial intercourse that remains will dwindle away, and Hayti will sink into an irrecoverable state of poverty.
Towards both the military and civil establishments they are exceedingly illiberal. They do not adequately requite either for their services, which causes them all to be open to bribes, by which the revenue becomes defrauded. The soldiers of the republic are so irregularly paid—and at times not paid at all—that they make up by plunder wherever they have an opportunity. This is therefore a mistaken principle of economy; but it is similar to every other proceeding of the government, and carries with it every mark of absurdity. To reason with them in matters of finance would have no effect, for the vanity of Boyer and his chief advisers is such, that they think they have arrived at perfection; they arrogate to that system of government which they have established the praise of being the most efficient, if not the most powerful of all the modern republics.
The same want of system and method, which is seen in every other branch of the government, pervades the financial department. The head of that department has no power; he is a mere nominal character, and is often undeservedly exposed to censure from the extraordinary conduct of the president. It is not an uncommon circumstance for the president to issue an order on the treasurer for payment to some individual who has had a demand upon government, and after having issued it, and before an application can be made for payment, a subsequent order has been given to suspend the payment of it for a time, by which injustice the treasurer is subjected to great obloquy and abuse. This is not an uncommon thing; many of the British and American merchants will bear testimony to such facts, for they have often been placed in this predicament. Many to my knowledge, who have had occasion to transmit money to Port au Prince from some of the distant ports, have paid the amount into the treasury, or some other government department at his own port, and received a check on the treasurer-general for the amount, which, when presented, has often been refused, and it has been by great difficulty, and after great delay, that the check has been paid. So little confidence can be placed in the integrity of the government, that people are no longer disposed to have faith in it.
I have, I hope, said enough to deter mercantile adventurers from falling into the trap laid for their property, by the high sounding and vaunting reports published by the eulogists of Hayti for the purpose of delusion.
CHAPTER XIII.
Haytian jurisprudence.—State of the courts.—Trial by jury.—The judges.—Justices of the peace, their corruption.—State of the church.—Account of a Missionary.—Schism in the church.—Moral and religious state of the people—shewn by their mode of living.—Description of this mode.—Habitations described.—Furniture, &c.—Education.—Its progress.—Government do not encourage it.—Remarks on the consequences of not doing so.—Qualifications of senators and communes shew the state of knowledge and education.