GUST'S REPLECTIONS ON WEST INDIA ATFAIRS.

SIR EDWARD Cm' is " a man not ashamed to write himself a Churciunan and a West Indian planter :" and he appears to have taken a Colonial tour with his wife and little daughter, for the pur- pose of inspecting his own property, and observing the workings of Emancipation and the condition of affairs in the West Indian Colonies generally. The resnit of his experience he has embodied in the publication before us ; which vises not contain a personal narrative of travelling incidents, and is not very full of particular filets, but presents the conclusions on a variety of sub- jects to which the writer's observations have led him. And he has addressed his /Medium to the Colonial Office, because the Chief Secretary is changed so " incessantly " that it would be useless to apply to him; and Mr. STEPDEN seems not more flivourably regarded in the West, than according to Sir FRANCIS HEAD ill the North, or in any other point of the compass according to any other authority.

0 Amidst all the recent changes," writes Colonel " the t-ituation of the most active I7nder-Secretary remains always unaltered, and I mht there:1,re have selected him for my correspondent, without any :qv...liens:on of heing obliged to modify my address; but, whether justly or not. I hav found that gentleman's influence to be so unpopular in the C,Ioni,,s, and coosidered to he so ho,iile to their interests, that to address my lett::rto ltim miOt have been misconstrued by all parties; and I might eitln:r have been irreiOned to partici- pate ii his supposed views of colonial policy, or to intend satirically some re- marks in oppOsition to them."

It may be gathered from this little passage, that Colonel Sir EiCi WARD Cuss' has the moderate and guarded tone which generally characterizes men of position and responsible place. IIc has also the orderly method of making observations which military discipline frequently produces in those who are subject to it ; and he has a large-looking and well-educated mind. Though a planter, be ap- proaches the irritating and vexatious subjects with coolness, if not with absolute impartiality, and discusses them with temper. His few sketches of landscape and society are lively and striking, making the reader regret that they are so few ; and his suggestions, it' not likely in the present feebleness and incapacity of Govern- ment to be reduced to practice, are practical and worth attention. The subjects handled by Sir EDWARD, though various, are re- ducible to two heads—the present social condition and prospects of the West Indies—their government under the rule of the Colo- nial Office, with suggestions for its improvement. Into each of these we shall enter, at greater length than is usual with a publication of this kind, as we imagine the dissemination of his views is a greater object with the gallant author than the circula- tion of his work.

With regard to the indisposition of the Negroes to labour, the fall- ing-off in production, and the accelerated ratio in which this dimi- nution must proceed, Colonel Cusv confirms the general represen- tation of' the Colonial organs. It is not that the Negroes have any hostile feelings towards their late masters, or decline working out of any principle of vengeance or anger. Quite the contrary : they " have not been guilty (scarcely in a single instance) of any act even of unkindness against those who have been represented as their old oppressors. They continue to live in the most friendly intercourse ; and it' they do not work for them, it is not from any old animosity or ill-will, but because they have no inducement to work for anybody." It is only by the stimulus of enormous agricultural wages, (fifteen shillings a week, a house, and garden-ground, with medical attendance,) that the planters have been able to continue cultivation at all ; and even if they were able to afford this rate of wages—nearly double that of field- labourers in England, without regarding the difference of climate, habits, and cost of living—it is questionable whether they could continue to procure the supply of labour. The women have taken U) it notion that it is beneath them to work in the fields, and this source will probably be altogether cut off; and though the men will work for money to procure some immediate object, yet such an uncertain stimulus will furnish no regular supply. In addition to which, opinion is against field labour, and what industry there Is amongst the Blacks sets in another direction.

" The very unfortunate distinction between handicraftsmen and field- labounrs introduced into the Emancipation Bill under the whimsical terms of pr.edial and non-prAial labourers, (thc sense of which the Negroes themselves could never be made to understand,) has unfortunately operated to create a marked repugnance to field-labour, and to consider it as a degradation from alludi every enterprising spirit amongst them endeavours to free himself by re- ng to the towns; and those that remain on estates remove their children thither to the care of relatives and friends, in order that they may have an op- portunity of becomint,household servant s. (be gloat field of ambition to a Negro mind : accordingly, it is comparatively rare to find the young performing la- borious duties in the field. This is obviously a serious consideration for the future well-doing of the system, since it must alone diminish the amount of labourers in a very considerable degree at the present time, and this will ot course he more seriously perceptible in future years." The conclusion to which Sir EnwAlin finally comes is, that under the most favourable circumstances, the extent of land uow held in

cultivation will be diminished, " from the want of hands, and for lack of sufficient inducement for any great degree of :labour, to a degree that must be very seriously and very injuriously felt." He also conceives that a whole generation must pass away before the ' Negro, " in a state of freedom will attain, in his social condition, to any thing approaching the civilization of the European peasant, or will work with any thing like the constancy and steadiness that is essential to the profitable cultivation of the land."

The reasons on which Colonel CUST builds the favourable part of this conclusion seem to be, the earnest desire of the Negro for in- struction, and his aptitude to learn ; both of which are described as extraordinary. We must confess, howker, that we see small grounds for hoping that one, or any number of generations, will civilize the Blacks to the extent predicated. If, indeed, sums of money. were

laid out upon m

Negro education and the endowment of ministers, as the Colonel proposes, and the present position of affairs could be maintained, the thing is possible. But grants of money to the re- quisite extent are not likely to be made ; and can the planters wait whilst a whole generation is passing away ? Can they keep up their machinery and their establishments—can they even preserve their plantations in a state to be worth cultivation at the end of twenty or thirty years, without such an outlay of capital as few if any have the means of making ? Above all, will the British people go without sugar, coffee, /Sc. for a whole generation ? Unless a sup- ply of labour eanbe fUrnished for the West Indies, we see nothing but a prospect of ruin for the planters ; the creation of a half-savage race of Black " squatters," much more degraded in morals and habits than the slaves themselves, and perhaps subject to more cruelty from one another than the slaves generally received from their masters ; whilst all that the nation will have to show for the expenditure of its twenty millions will be a derangement of its commerce and fivances. or a necessity of resorting to foreign slave- holding comaries for Tropical commodities, with an increase in the slave-trade and an aggravation of its miseries.

And this subject of providing the colonist with a supply of labour is discussed by Sir EDWARD CCST in all its phases, but with a re- sult which does little more than show its difficulties. The Hill Coolies, he considers, will prove " a total failure," from their physi- cal inferiority and their mental character. He did not see either the " Maltese or Portuguese importations;" but, although be does not think that their health would sulthr from the climate, he believes them incapable of enduring labour in the Tropics. There remains then only the African ; and there are three possible sources of supply.

l. An immigration of liberated Creoles from Foreign Colonies, which would be glad enough to get rid of them if they could be spirited away, but which would be suspicious of an attempt of this kind lest it should be a blind for tampering with their slaves. They would also be loth to render the West Indians any assistance, because Sir EDWARD knows from his "intercourse with French, Dutch, Danish, and Spanish colonists, that they are all comm.- plating the failure of our measure with a chuckle of the deepest satisfaction." This plan, therefore, seems impracticable ; and as the foreign colonists chiefly dislike the liberated Blacks because they are a useless race, it does not appear that they would be Of much value to the British West Indians.

2. That our cruisers should carry the slaves they capture for adjudication to our own colonies, where they should be freed. "We have been the laughingstock of the nations who are still carrying on the slave-trade, for doi;:g otherwise. Of all the governments who have avowed loudly their desire to put down the traffic in skives, we alone have set to work in honesty and good titith to carry out the principle. We have cap- tured thousands, and have in almost every case carried them for adjudication to the colonies of other powers. I saw about four thousand of these poor people located at Surinam ; whtre they had, it is true, dwellings provided for them; but some very deeided means would litre been taken to turn them to some pro- fitable account, but for the presence of the British Commissary Judge there, Mr. Santo, whose vigilance and activity in inore than one instance resisted the attempt. Thousands have been carried into Cuba; which colony, as well as the Sp inish island of Porto Rico. are prospering beyond all example or compa- rison with our own, from the capital which is flowing there from Britain as well as America, in consequence of the amide supply of labourers with which various causes have combined to stock those islands."

And this plan is no doubt a proper and practicable one, if the supply would be sufficient.

3. An immigration direct from Africa carried on by Government, through the means of treaties with the native princes, resident agents, and a general system of supervision during the voyage and on arrival in the colonies. A plan no doubt feivi!de if tfieAboli- tionists would permit it, and fully capable of furnishing the requi- site desideratum—which is, a sufficient population to give the Negroes what JouNsos calls the freedom of the poor, " the freedom of working or starving." It is this due proportion Of population to employment which has caused the comparative PROSPEUITY or BARBADOS.

III the above remarks I ought to explain, that although applicable to most of the British Colonies I visited, they are least so to the island of Barbados In a high state of cultivt.t.,.n, mal amply peopled, this colony has been, upon the wade, very advantageously prep3ree for the change by many peculiarly operating eiretunstane:s-that have wcarred in the condition of the labouring 1opuh7tion, in comparison with every other colony I visited; a change, be it remarked in pasm:g-, that is, without exception, the most portentous revolu- tion that ever occurred by the magic of the law, and without blood, by which in one moment of time the entire social condition of the labouring population of a large, but, fortunately for the experiment, a widely separated and scat- tered portion of the cmptre, was changed front a condition of tutelage to a state of absolute and uncooditional self-will. The population of the island of Barbados is iu such proportion to the extent of its wants, that the relation between labour and employment attains there to its just awl amend level: there is little or no waste land to tempt the squatter ; and if a family be ejected from any estate for misconduct, there will be a difficulty for them to obtain shelter and employment elsewhere. On the score of religion also, to which I shall have presently to revert, I may as well mention in this place the absence of sectarianism to any- extent as a peculiar blessing attaching to this colony. In ' Little England,' as it is called, the parish church whitens the landscape, seated amidst its spacious churchyard, and with the parish schoolhouse its unvarying appendage. The roads (not so good as they might be) are stirring with a busy population on foot, on horseback, and in carriages. The land is one uninterrupted field of sugar-cane and Guinea corn, for there are few trees and no woods to interrupt the cultivation. The cottages are here devoted each to a single family; they are surrounded very frequently with a little garden for cassava, ginger, aloes, pepper, &c. ; in sonic cases even, (as at Clay Bill, the property. of Mr. filkame,) a pretty flowery bower decorates the door of the Negro dwelling. Molly proprietors are resident ; and there is a general advance in every thing beyond any other colony I visited. I have no apprehension, with so many advantages concurring, but that the free- labour system 1611 succeed in the colony ot Barbados."

The causes of evil arising from bad government, Colonel CUST traces to the absolute and irresponsible power of the Colonial Office, and to certain political and social causes in the Colonies themselves. " The Office " exercises a despotic rule, without the check which public opinion imposes upon the most absolule sove- reign, the actual knowledge that a despot often possesses, the national sympathies he may be supposed to have, or the interest he must take in the wellbeing of his people. Throughout the majority • of the islands, the materials for proper Representative Assemblies do not exist ; having been conquered from different nations, and no attempt made at assimilation, various languages, laws, and customs, obtain in almost every colony ; and, with all the government para- phernalia of a mighty kingdom in every petty island, each and all are destitute of weight or power with the Government at home. Here is a picture of

AN "EXCELLENCY" OF TIIE WINDWARD OR LEEWARD ISLANDS.

Nothing can be more mean and miserable than the situation of the wretched little governments under which these islands are now placed. A population not much exceeding the half of the county of Rutland, and not a hundredth part so respectable, is dignified with a scale of government that would become an independent state : a representative of Royalty, an Upper and Lower Chamber, Chief Justice and Paine Judges, Attorney and Solicitor General, Secretary, Treasurer, &c. through a host of lower dignitaries ; whose duties may all be very onerous, but might very advantageously be united with the same class of duties in the adjoining, colonies, if a system of central government were to be established. As it is, these high-sounding offices are indifferently filled and wretchedly paid. Take as an example, the situation of Lieutenant- Governor. Formerly, this was an appointment with a high salary, and filled by some veteran of military renown, or by a civilian of some distinction: it is now conferred on a subordinate officer, with a salary out of all proportion to the former grants, but still sufficient to tempt a person of inferior rank to come out from England to accept the office, flattered with the title of "Excellency" lavishly bestowed upon him, with the salvos of artillery which announce his arrival, with the high-sounding dignitaries that surround his levees, &c., lie regards his petty sovereignty with the air of a mighty lord, and enjoys his visionary "paradise" as long as the novelty is upon it; but he soon discovers that his court is composed of a few self-important attendants, and that " all is not gold that glitters." The press is, in a very short time, outrageously personal; and he can scarcely move from one room of his government-house to another, but his air, his gait, his manner, is remarked and animadverted upon. The expenses of his household in a short time surprise him : he discovers that the finances of a colonial menage are out of all proportion to the comfort of it; with a great many deficiencies, every thing is outrageously dear ; and what with the necessity of entertaining all the grandees of his court, the naval and military officers of the station, and distinguished visitors, native and foreign, who may visit his government, he discovers in a short time that he has undertaken a troublesome post, at the risk of his health, and to the loss of all the comforts which he could obtain at home, to a dead loss of income, and with little or no opportunity of extending his usefulness, or of displaying his fitness and character.

The sketch of the powers of the Colonial Office is equally good.

TIIE TRUE AtiTOCRACY OF THE WORLD.

I consider that the Colonial Office, in its collective jurisdiction, (for I will not attempt to dissect the individual influence that directs and controls it,) is at the present moment, and has been for some years, the must unequivocal auto- cracy in existence. The Russian Emperor rules absolutely, without a show of constitutional authority; he can appoint and depose his Governors, increase or diminish their salaries, and enforce laws by his own unquestioned power. All this is of course done by our superior Government ; but it does not hesitate to override, at its pleasure, every constitutional influence for whilst it leaves the semblance of a will to the two estates of the several mighty rocks of the Carib- bean Sea, it is only when their freedom of legislation is discreetly moulded upon the previously ascertained will of the Colonial Office, that their laws are per- mitted to come into operation. Thus the Magistracy, the ).iilitia, the Police, and the Prison questions, are all arranged MI/owning Street, without reference to Colonial interests. The Governors are the mere creatures of its authority, of no imaginable influence but what they derive from its nomination : they are unequal to represent at home the just grievances of the colonists, because they know that if these should in any degree clash with the preconceived opinions of the Department, their situations are in immediatg_kopardy ; and they are in no position to make head against its influence by an appeal to the good sense and justice of the British people, without hazard to then individual in- terests and ruin to their professional prospects.

The remedy which Sir EDWARD suggests for this state of timings, is an assimilation, revision, and consolidation of the laws through- out the Colonies, bringing them as near as possible to the English standard. Ile would endeavour to establish time English tongue as the common language, so as to destroy the only remaining tie which seems to connect some of the colonies with foreign governments. And he would impart weight and character to the smaller islands by giving them a central government with a federal constitution, but leaving each all its present forms. "I would propose to leave the Colonial Assemblies with all their parapher- nalia. intact, excepting that I would limit their sphere of usefulness to little more than the duties of a municipal corporation for the colony to which they belong : from these Legislatures I would, however, desire that a certain number of members should be elected from every legislative body, who should together constitute a Colonial Convention, to consist of a single chamber, which should be the Superior Legislature under the Crown for all the constituent colonies. The men elected to this Convention would necessarily be the most influential of the respective colonies, and would carry with them a weight and respect. ability that does not exist in the present Legislatures. The necessity of the very ridiculous and offensive expedient existing in the Crown Colonies, by which a power is obtained for the Crown .through the introductions of official members sufficiently numerous to swamp the colonial delegates, might be avoided in this new constitution, since the members of the Convention, elected equally from the sipper chambers, who are nominated by the Crown, and the lower houses elected by popular constituencies, would he sufficient for every salutary check upon any over-prevalent influence in thus superior legislative body. Persons of the weight and credit that I should expect would be sent up as delegates from all the dependent colonies, could represent every grievance they labour under, and would be touch more equal to devise an efficient remedy than the present lawmakers of the Colonial Assemblies. " The most reasonable and practicable expedient in constitutional reforms is, to inquire into the original ot the system which you desire to imitate. The principle of our English legislation was, as i3 still apparent in the forms of our statutes, respectfully to offer advice to the Sovereign, that it may be enacted ; ' and '1)0 it enacted,' was the expressiois of the sovereign will which made it law. This old principb should be adopted for the new colonial cm- stitution. The exercise of imperial power should only be limited by being rendered amenable to the previous consent of the governed, but no legislation should be effectual excepting through the agency of the Conventions and by the sanction of the Crown; and all money grants for purposes of imperial go. vernment should he made by its authority, although the mode of collecting the imposed revenue in each colony might still be determiuml by its existing Local Legislature."

Some sensible remarks of Sir EDWARD upon the effects which a considerable diminution of' Colonial produce would have upon the public revenue, have a British as well as a West Indian interest. It is possible that this decrease in the West Indies may be made up by a greater supply from the East ; but if the produce from our own possessions should fall much below the home demand, two very disagreeable things will fldlow—a rise in the pm-ice of articles in daily request, and a deficiency in the revenue; which deficiency must be made up by fresh taxes, or the admission of foreigu slave-labour sugar at a lower rate of duty—a deathblow to the West India planter. Should this state of things arrive, the British public will then have a practical idea of the Emancipation question. As long as the evils were borne by other people, living a long way off, it was easy enough to get up meetings of pleasurable excitement to listen to censure of the planters and to urge senators to legislate upon sentiment. When the price of sugar, coffee, Szc. shall rise considerably, and the Chancellor of the Exchequer shall state the necessity of a new tax, (which, though not taking much more money from tax-payers, shall take it m a new and less palatable way,) it may not be quite so easy to stimulate the people to resist the introduction of Cuba and Brazilian sugar,* or even the establishment of what the Abolitionists will call a virtual slave. trade, under the guise of an emigration from Africa.

* At present the duty upon foreign-grown sugars is so high as to amount to a prohibition. If reduced to the level of West Indian sugar, the latter would he driven out of the market, on account of the greater advantages enjoyed by the foreign growers from their conunand of' slave labour.