17 MARCH 1860, Page 11

Itttno to tilt attar.

THE WEST INDIA QUESTION.

III.

A man who lives on the bounty of others is apt to feel aggrieved when the means of his patrons do not keep pace with the liberality of their dispo- sition. Mr. Hogg is the minister of a creole congregation in the Man- chester district, Jamaica. He is Rho, unless I am much mistaken, one of the anonymous correspondents, whose valuable evidence on the West India labour question is contained in a publication to which I referred in my last letter. In his capacity as correspondent of the body which by courtesy and prescription is known as the Anti-Slavery Society, Mr. Hogg gives vent to a most creditable indignation against "the hirelings of the Press," who assert that there is a want of available field labour in the West Indies. All such assertions are, according to him, gross falsehoods, vile slanders, and unscrupulous lies. The creoles in Manchester parish get very low wages ; they are very poor, but withal very open-handed. They made a present of 251 to the widowed daughter of their late admirable mis- sionary.; they erected a marble tablet, worth 201., to the memory of their first minister ; they subscribed 101. for a piece of plate on the occasion of the centenary of the Reverend Dr. Brown of Edinburgh ; when Mr. Hogg's little boy left the island for Scotland, they begged his acceptance of two doubloons ; and, finally, they subscribed 15/. to send with Mr. Hogg's brother to Calabar. And all this in addition to their ordinary contributions for the support of the minister. These ordinary contributions amount to about 2001. a year. For some reason or other, Mr. Hogg wrote in the middle of last summer a touching letter, lamenting the utter destitution of his flock. Work was scarce, and the few who got anything to do could at mostearn from 9d. to Is. a day. Hence an amount of misery beggaring all de- scription. This letter found its way into the columns of a provincial paper, where it was duly scented out and unearthed by the enemies of the West Indies, who, taking their stand upon the Reverend Mr. Hogg, grew eloquent on the subject of the superabundance of labour, which they lamented as the one great misfortune of the West Indies. It so happened that this letter, and the comments provoked by it, met the eye of Mr. Crum Ewing of Glasgow, who, pitying the forlorn condition of the people under Mr: Hogg's guidance, mdited a letter to that gentleman. After gently chiding him for a certain inaccuracy of style, which misled the general pub- lic into the belief that the exceptional condition of the Manchester Mills was the normal condition of the colony, Mr. Ewing told Mr. Hogg that he had some sugar estates in want of labour at no great distance from Man- chester parish ; that he would give permanent employment to 60 of Mr. Hogg's proteges who should earn from la. 6d. to 2s. a day, according to their ability ; that he would also give them cottages and provision grounds, for the first year rent free, and that, over and above all this, he would give the people a dollar a head to meet the expenses of their removal. He added, that a neighbour of his would also take 60 labourers on the same terms. As the Post Office is not quite reliable, and as important letters are occa- sionally lost, Mr. Ewing caused a copy of his letter to be printed in the Scotch papers. A later mail has brought us Mr. Hogg's reply to these charitable proposals. The reverend gentleman is grieved that by any inadvertence of his the English public should have mistaken the excep-

tional condition of his peculiar locality. The arrangement proposed by Mr. Ewing is impossible, because the negro is greatly attacked to his abode, and to his neighbours and associates, and because he dislikes strangers and new companions. He loves his place of worship, be loves his religious in- structors, and would only part from them with regret. He he is also proud of his freehold, and though even more than 2a. a day were offered him for estate labour, such offer would not induce him to leave the place of his abode.

This case embodies one of the essential features of the West Indian labour question. It represents a population of small landholders,all well off in the matter of eating, drinking, and lodging, but also all hard up for a little ready money wherewithal to buy small luxuries and fee their minister. They cannot employ one another ; there are in the district few employers of labour' and there are few employers of labour because it does not pay to employ labour. Work and good wages are offered elsewhere, but the offer is not acceptable since its acceptance would involve some in- convenience.

The following extracts from the collection of letters to which I have fre- quently referred, furnish evidence which the anti-Slavery Society at least will not controvert, respecting the real cause of that dearth of labour which has been the ruin of the planting interest, and which at no distant period must work the ruin of the creole peasantry. " The great body of the people," says one of the correspondents, " are settled on their own lands, bought or hired, and therefore labour for estates but as occasion requires." Another says, " the seasons which favour the planter and make him anxious to get hands at a push, are equally favourable to the peasant who in equally anx- ious to attend to his grounds." " So valuable and necessary arc the provi- sion grounds of the negro to him, that no wages which might ever be offered to him would induce the abandonment of their cultivation.

It simply comes to this, that there arc in every one of the West India Colonies a large number of estates which have been abandoned from want of labour, and that there is also in every one of them a large proportion of fertile ground which, from want of labour, has never at any time been in cultivation. The climate obviates the necessity of many expenses which swallow up a large portion of the earnings of our working classes. There is no necessity for warm clothing or fuel. As little clothing as is compatible with common decency is enough for men, women, and children ; and abundance of wood to make the pot boil is to be had for the taking. The soil, at the coat of very little labour, produces an abundance of nourishing fruits, and every farthing a man earns as his daily wage represents, not as with us a certain amount out of which he must defray his current expenses, but the sum total of his profits. Taking the average of all the year round, an industrious labourer in Jamaica (where wages are lowest,) can with ease earn 28. a day. His weekly profits, therefore, are 12s. Ilia wife and family are no burden to him. The bounty of nature which feeds him feeds them, and if they will take work they add to his savings. At a moderate estimate, such a labourer can save 301. a year ; and, having saved this sum for one or two years, he is able to buy land, to pur- chase cattle, and to set up in the world on his own account. Even then he may find it convenient or desirable to give a day or a couple of days now and then to estate labour ; but, on the whole, his services are lost to the larger proprietor. He is no longer to be relied on. On the other hand, a lazy man (and even the Anti-Slavery Society itself will not deny that there are lazy Creoles just as there are lazy Englishmen) may be as lazy as he likes in the West Indies. Nature is not there as with us—a hard task- mistress. She gives him a hot sun all the year round, and plenty of grass and leaves to lie on, and breadfruit, and plantains in abundance. Of course, he wants a little money now and then, but a day's work will keep him going for a week. Mind I do not say that the Creoles are very lazy, but only that they have the greatest facilities for laziness, if they so are