14 SEPTEMBER 1839, Page 9

Arsonnts from the West Indies to the beginning of August

have conic to hand this week. The newspapers supply a variety of interest- ing matter. We regret, though we cannot be surprised, to find that in several islands the agricultural prospects are still discouraging.

Beginning with JAMATC.t, we find this remark in the Jamaica _Dis- patch and Gazette of the 20th July- " The Negroes have now been in possession of full freedom for nearly a twelvemonth. They do as much or as little work as they please, and if found fault with, leave thyie employers in the lurch without a moment's warning. Their lowest scale of wages is a shilling sterling per day for the lightest labour ; so that the most worthless menial can obtain lOs. per week for less labour than he formerly performed for half a dollar. Notwithstanding all this, the pre- tended Amis des Noirs are as rabid and ranoorous as ever, and more than ever anxious for the destruction of British Colonial commerce."

From the Jamaica Ste nda rd of 27th Jul-

" We understand that the highest civil authority in a neighbouring parish has been under the necessity of thrwarding affidavits to his _Excellency the Governor, with reference to certain threats which have now become general among the labouring population of that district, that they will resist with Puree all attempts, after the lot of August, to dispossess them of their houses and grounds—m other words, that they are prepared to fight the proprietors fiir their !and! This is certainly a most comlfirtable state of things ; and espe- cially deserving our public and religious that/I:vit./nu, as recommended. in a late proclamation f Sir Lionel Smith has also been officially informed, we un- .der,tioul, that target-firing still continues to be very generally practised among th; labouring population ; of which, indeed, we gave him a pretty broad hint snot time ago. We shall now See if his Excellency will pay any more atten- tion to this coninmuieation than he appears to have done to that."

A riot among the labourers had occurred in Spring-hill parish: it was put down by the military.

The Reverend Mr. Oughton had been sentenced to a fine of 2,0001. for an inflammatory libel connected with the slave question. Another person, by name Casey, allowed judgment to go by default, and was fined 1,0001. for a similar offence.

Shocks of an earthquake had been felt at Kingston in Jamaica, and at Martinique.

The trade of the West Indies With the British North American 'Colonies now affords little if any profit to the former. The Council and Assembly of St .Christopher memorialized Lord Normanby for an Additional duty on foreign sugar, and his Lordship held a communica- tion with the Treasury on the subject ; but the following letter, ad- dressed, we presume, to Mr. Stephen or-Mr. Labouchere, and which we

find in several of the West India papers, contains a refusal of the petition—.

"Treasury Chambers, 3d April 1839.

" Sir—With reference to your letter of 8th February last, and the memorial

therein enclosed, from the Council and Assembly of the Island of St. Christo- pher, relative to the duty imposed on the importation of foreign sugar into the British North American Colonies, I have it in command from the Lords Com- missioners of her Majesty's Treasury to request you will state to the Marquis of Normanby, that may Lords have gtven every due consideration to the prayer of the memorialists; and having communicated with the Lords of the Com- mittee of Privy Council for Trade thereupon, their Lordships have now to ob- serve to Lord Normanby, that the duty imposed by the Imperial Legislature on the importation of foreign sugar into the Colonies in question, although pro- tective to a certain point to the produce of British Sugar Colonies, was never intended to be prohibitory as regarded the Importing Colonies, but only to de- termine the case in which the Northern Colony was to be entitled to look to a foreign source of supply ; and it appears to my Lords, that if this regulating duty were to be increased with reference to a pusiaility of the price of British colonial produce exceeding the limit of protection, the Importing Colony might justly complain that the prohibitory principle was brought into operation against it. " Under these circumstances, my Lords apprehend that an alteration of the duty in the manner suggested in the memorial from St. Christopher's would lead to a strong remonstrance and complaint from the British North American Colonies ; and -I am therefore to request you will further state to his Lordship, that my Lords are not prepared to recommend the adoption of any measures with a view to such alteration.

"I have, &e. G. C. PENNINGTON, Private Secretary."

The postscript to the St. George's Chronicle, a Grenada paper, con- tains a Government notice that 168 Africans, taken from a slaver by the schooner Pickle, and liberated by the Mixed Court at Havanna, were ready to be fixed as free labourers in Grenada, Dr. Coleridge appears to have been exercising his episcopal powers in British Guiana in an offensive manner-

" The measures adopted by his Lordship the Bishop of Barbados, daring his recent visit to British Gunum, do nut appear to have rendered him very popular in that portion of his diocese. his Lordship began by displacing a very worthy clergyman, (Rector of St. Swithin's,) who stood justly high in the estimation of leis arkbioners; and the reverend gentleman died a few days afterwards, as some of his friends have not hesitated to declare, of a ' broken heart.' The individual his Lordship appears desirous of substituting in his place is not at all liked by the inhabitants, who have joined in a petition to his Lordship, signed by upwards of 3,000 persons, for the appointment of a Mr. Gill."—Triaidad Standard.