Ititrro in t4t Mar.
THEE WEST INDIA. QUESTION.
IV.
"It would all be well—say the familiars of New Broad Street,—if the plan- ters were but kind to the workpeople." They do not treat them cruelly, for the law does not allow it ; they must treat them with gross injustice, be- cause the Creole can apply to the courts for redress ; but they sometimes speak harshly to the people in their employ, nor do they sufficiently culti- vate the acquaintance of their inferiors. This then is the last and most ricketty of the reasons adduced by the Anti-Slavery Society in support of their two propositions—viz., that there is an abundance of available field- labour in the West Indies, and that this labour is driven from the estates by the misconduct of the landed proprietors. Now, I admit that harsh lan- guage has occasionally been used. In England, of course, no employer ever swears at, or otherwise abuses his workpeople, and hence the use of harsh language on the part of West Indian farmers must of necessity shock us to the last degree. Reared in habits of scrupulous politeness, if not instinctive delicacy, in our intercourse with the labouring classes, we condemn the conduct of tropical farmers, nor can we make any allowance for severe trials of patience and temper. The West Indians allege—and, though of course their statements are utterly unworthy of belief, it so hap- pens that in this instance, they are borne out by the evidence of the corm- pendants of the Anti-Slavery Society, from which it appears that, after the August and Christmas holidays the people, after a week spent in visiting, feasting, 84c., often take two or three weeks for their provision grounds. In other words, at the busiest and most'critical seasons in the culture of sugar crops, the minority of Creoles who still work on estates devote at least four weeks to their pleasures and to a sort of labour which an English workman is but too glad to perform after his regular day's work is over. A farmer who sees his fields deserted and his crops perishing cannot on any account be excused if he gives way to ill-temper and peevishness. It is also as- serted, that the agricultural-population in the West Indies are such strict Sabbatarians, that they terminate their week's work on Friday, even in har- vest time ; and that, if by dint of moving persuasions they are induced to exceptionally work on Saturday, they keep the balance even by abstain- ing from work on Monday. This adherence to the principle of at least two resting days out of the seven, is at times most inconvenient to the planter in his double capacity as farmer and manufacturer of sugar. No doubt, if instead of venting his vexation he were to eat it, if he were to kindly and movingly entreat his work-people, they would work six days in the week instead of five, and eight hours a day instead of six, and if the planter were but sufficiently earnest and persevering in his supplications he would occasionally prevail upon his patrons to content themselves with two or three days' holiday at Christmas and Midsummer. We all know that the most satisfactory relations between employers and employed are established on the wheedling and coaxing system, and, in spite of vulgar prejudice, experience has over and over again shown that fine words do butter parsnips. A man whom the climate, whom nature and its bounties find in all the necessaries of life, and who works on an average three full days a week for his pocket-money, is sure, if properly persuaded, to forego his pleasures and work three days more for money of which he does not feel the want and which he does not know what to do with. It is by no means an unamiable feature in the character of the Creole that he is not fond of money for money's sake ; he values the possession of coin only in so far as it. ministers to his comforts and pleasures. Like the peasantry of all other countries he loves finery, but even for finery he does not care unless he has occasion to wear and display it. His strong nature requires strong drink and he is consequently fond of rum, but he is very rarely addicted to excessive drinking. He is on the whole a sober and even a frugal man, and as such he lacks the incentive to work for the gratification of his passions. And can it really be supposed that month after month, and year after year the non- existent incentives to permanent exertion can be supplied by the entreaties and flatteries of his employer ? If the planters would cultivate the intimate acquaintance of the Creole population they might possibly get their work done for love, if not for money. But to keep up such a social intercourse, founded on mutual es- teem and cemented by friendship, is not an easy matter. Its first condi- tion is a spirit of pure elevated and disinterested philanthropy, which alas! is rarely to be met with in the West Indies, however common it may be in England. That Messrs. Gideon, Blight, and Co. stand in a fatherly and brotherly relation to the labourers and clerks in their employ,—that they devote their energies, their time and capital, not to the filthy lucre of gain, but to the prosperity and wellbeing of the affluent and contented population of workers over whom they rule,—that their ears are always open to the complaints, and their purses to the wants of their dependants, whom they meet and with whom they love to associate on a footing of perfect equality, all this is very creditable to that eminent firm. It entitles them to the gra- titude, and it rewards them with the enthusiastic devotion of the proud and happy people who are privileged to be the cooperators and friends of Messrs. .Blight. It must also be a subject of sincere rejoicing to Messrs. Overalls and Gaiters, that no arbitrary social distinctions, no question of a few thousands of pounds of contemptible cash can stand in the way of that cordial fellowship which make their house, as it were, the home of their em- ployes—which keeps a chair by their fireside and a cover on their table for every one of their young friends who may do them the pleasure of spending the evening with them and their family. I grieve to admit that the West India planters and merchants cannot in this particular respect compare with the Blights, the Overalls and the Gaiters, and with no doubt, many hun- dreds of wealthy and philanthropic employers in the 'United Kingdom. But is superior excellence to be obligatory, and are the rest of the world to be condemned because they are not quite so honest, truthful, humble, and disinterested as the most distinguished members of the Society of Friends ? And, short of that intimate association with the working man, which has not as yet become the fashion in West Indian society, it is difficult to say in what manner the planters can show their solicitude for the people on their estates. The usual run of Englishmen show their interest in "the poor" on their lands, by domiciliary visits, and by the occasional dis- tribution of tracts, coals, and blankets. A West Indian gentleman or lady who were to make it a habit to call at the houses of the Creoles, would excite strong feelings in the breasts of the objects of their visitation, but I doubt whether those feelings would be akin to friendship. The Creole is proud of his independence; he is by no means flattered by the intrusion of strangers. Gifts of coals and blankets would be singularly inappropriate in a hot cli- mate. In times of sickness, the advice of the planter would probably be asked and taken, but for the fact that, for reasons to be stated hereafter, the rural population of our West India Colonies are more readily and efficiently provided with medical assistance than the peasantry of any country or co- lony with which I am acquainted. To conciliate a half-educated and wholly matter-of-fact class of people by deeds of charity and kindness, requires above all an occasion for charity and an opening for kindness. The Creole, like Diogenes, defies the kind offices of the planter as he would those of the greatest Emperor in Christendom. All he desires is that you should stand out of the sun, if it be his pleasure to bask in the sunshine.
My friend Mr. Fidget tells me plainly he cannot see the good of my argu- ment. He does not contradict me, but he asks, rather querelously, why I waste your space and my time and the readers by a disquisition on the pe- culiar and anomalous condition of the West Indian peasantry. The exist- ence of the evil being granted, would it not be better, would it not be more reasonable and practical to devise a remedy ? Cannot the West India farmers rid themselves of their fatal leaning towards the cultivation of sugar ? Must they needs cling to a branch of industry in which they are worsted by the competition of slaveholding countries ? Does not Jamaica present a splendid field for stock-farming ? Do not all the West Indies rear astounding crops of arrowroot ? Are they not made by nature for the suc- cessful cultivation of cotton ? Mr. Fidget forgets that a supply of steady reliable labour is the one great condition to the success of all agricultural operations, and that the same causes which for years past have interfered with the prosperity of our sugar estates, would equally prevent the success of any attempt that may be made to cultivate other crops. Even if we could
turn the islands and the main land of Guiana into grazing farms, our stock farmers would still want trusty herdsmen. Dr. Davy tells. an
anecdote of five head of cattle, whose acquaintance he made at Jamaica, and which were under the joint guardianship of two grown men and a boy. This anecdote, which has long been a stock topic for the placid jokes of the Anti-Slavery Society, has lately again been produced by Mr. it. Noel, who quotes it in support of his views on the abundance and cheapness of labour in Jamaica. Five head .of cattle, and three people to look after them I Either the Jamaica oxen kind must be very savage and unruly, or the Jamaica herdsmen must be very lazy and unreliable, or the Jamaica cattle-owners must be mad. And as even the greatest enemies of the white man in the West Indies have not yet dared to call for a commission of lunacy—as, on the contrary, those enemies are fond of describing the planter as quick- witted, greedy and exacting, I fear that the fault must lie with the cattle, or with those deputed to take care of them. In either case, the story of the five oxen is by no means encouraging for the supporters of the theory of stock farming.
As for the remedy which shall arrest the decline and prevent the fall of the West Indies, I need not devise it. Mine is the humbler task of advocating it against the misrepresentations of as unscrupulous a set of men as ever combined to bring about the ruin of any country. With a genial climate and a teeming soil, the West Indies are underpopulated ; and, look where we may, we shall find that every country, no matter how richly endowed by nature, is poor and barbarous unless it have a proportionate number of inhabitants to develop its resources. In the overwrought and unnatural condition of slavery the small population of each colony was confined to certain dis- tricts, and though each colony as a:whole was underpopulated, the districts actually occupied and cultivated had their full complement of inhabitants. The blow which shivered the bonds of the negro broke also the bounds which confined the population of certain localities ; and, while no important change has taken place in the number of the inhabitants of each colony, those inhabitants have from year to year spread over a wider area. Hence the almost desertion of towns which at one time were thickly inhabited, the abandonment of estates which by artificial means were made the centres of an industrious population, and hence numbersof villages, small farina, and settle- ments in remote and formerly almost untrodden places. The West Indies stand now on the same footing with the Canadas, the Cape, Natal, the Australias, and New Zealand. They point to their natural advantages and ask for po- pulation. And like most of our other emigration colonies, the settlers are anxious, as far as their means will allow, to aid the influx of labour. The Canadas and one of the New Zealand settlements offer free grants of land ; the other colonies, each under its on regulations, devote annually a large sum to the importation of eligible emigrants. In all of them the same remedy is applied to the same necessities. It is quite true that in a number of years and by the natural increase of population, these colonies would in the end obtain that complement of inhabitants, which makes life pleasant and safe, which admits of the development of industry, and of the growth of those social institutions which form the distinguishing mark of a civilized com- munity. But it is wise and in every war profitable to devote some portion of the Colonial revenue to the purpose ot outstripping the natural course of events and to enable the paupers of overcrowded countries to transfer their strong arms and their empty pockets and stomachs, to regions abounding in food and work. Every pauper who is thus transplanted becomes not only a raiser of raw produce, but also a consumer of industrial produce, and as such consumer he indirectly gives labour and labour wages to those he left behind. Our Australian trade, which gives employment to many thousands who work in factories, in counting-houses and in ships, furnishes a strik- ing example of the multifarious benefits which accrue from the peopling, by artificial means, of a large and wealthy country. Emigration from an over-populated, immigration into an under-populated country is the sove- reign remedy for the evils of either ; and all the West Indies want, all they desire, all their most zealous advocates ask for them, is the liberty to supply at their own expense, those elements of strength and prosperity, the absence of which has caused them to languish for many years. If the supply of labour be stinted or withheld, the West Indians of every hue, white, brown, and black, must of necessity become more and more poor and helpless; they mud cease to be producers and consequently they must cease to be consumers, and the Slave States of Spain and America will have obtained a final and lasting triumph over their free labour competitors.
Orro WEsitsmax.
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