In their disputes with Lord Grey, the two colonies of
Jamaica and Bri- tish Guiana are taking up positions that threaten more trouble for the Colonial Secretary, and infinitely more discredit for the Cabinet to which he belongs.
Sir Charles Grey is endeavouring to coerce the Legislative Assembly, by proroguing it until it shall submit to his dictation and waive its de- mands for retrenchment : the colonists respond to that absolutist stretch of authority by instituting a demand for "responsible governme4 " as it exists in British North America. This demand is likely to spread, not only in Jamaica, but throughout the West Indies. The position of British Guiana has special peculiarities. The Governor for the time being is carrying on the endeavour to coerce the Combined Court by adjournments; but the terms of his commission have opened a new point of attack. It reserves to the Crown the right of making laws for the colony; a right at variance with the terms on which De- merara and its appendages were ceded to England. The reservation is said to be "usual" in such commissions : it cannot properly be so in commissions addressed to the Governors of constitutional colonies, and is manifestly unsuited to Guiana. It may back the lawgiving pre- tensions of the Colonial Office, but it exposes the Cabinet to a very odious kind of assault. The mail has arrived during the recess ; but when Parliament reassembles, of course we may expect one more in that admirable series of concise practical speeches by which the Mem- ber for Leominster has heretofore defended the colonists and their inte- rests P—What a mistake! Mr. Henry Barkly is no longer Member for Leominster, but the very Governor whose conduct he would naturally have been found protesting against—the successor and continnator of Sir Henry Light, the agent of Lord Grey and Mr. Hawes ! Estimable and appreciated as a private gentleman—by qualifications and dispositions the best Governer that ever left England for Guiana—Mr. Barkly is placed in a most unsatisfactory position through the false Imperial and Colanial relations. As if to impart variety to the troubles of the West Indies, the Negroes 9f St. Lucia have risen against a tax on provision-grounds, and are in a state of rebellion. It is to be hoped that this spirit will not spreads for it would be awkward if the disaffection which 'Lord Grey keeps -rtfp among the Whites were complicated -with a servile war of the Blacks— San Domingo and New •Eirglatal in One.
