1832 a number of the leading slave holders and their sympathisers, however, formed themselves into an Association, designated the Colonial Church Union, for the avowed purpose of exterminating the Sectarians. The Wesleyan and Baptist Chapels in St. Ann, Trelawny, St. James and other parishes were destroyed and personal indignities were shown to many of the Pastors. At length a Royal Proclamation was issued declaring the Colonial Church Union an illegal Association and a Circular was issued by the Governor (the Earl of Mulgrave) to the custodes, informing them of his determination to deprive all who continue to adhere to the Union of all appointments held by them under the Crown. Accordingly, Colonel Hamilton Brown of the St. Ann Interior Regiment of Militia was cashiered on parade at Huntley Pasture by the Governor in person, and a number of other gentlemen were deprived of their commission as Magistrates and as Officers of Militia for their connection with the Union. This action on the part of the Governor was the death-blow of the illegal organization.

833

1834

1835

While these measures were being adopted against the Colonial Unionists, the Assembly were again repudiating the right of the Imperial Parliament to legislate for Jamaica. This was in consequence of the Earl of Mulgrave's insisting on the immediate passing of the laws indicated in Mr. Cannings Resolutions of 1823. In reply the Governor informed them that he could not listen to their denial of the right of the Imperial Parliament to legislate on the internal affairs of the colony "without asserting in the most unequivocal terms, the transcendant powers of the Imperial Parliament, regulated only by its own discretion, and limited only by such restrictions as itself might have imposed." The Assembly thereupon passed a resolution in which the announcement of the Government was declared to be "subversive of the common rights and dangerous to the lives and liberties of the colonists." They acknowledged the supremacy of the Sovereign, but "could not admit the supremacy of a portion of his Majesty's subjects in the Parent State over another portion of these subjects in Jamaica." This action on the part of the Assembly led up to the passing of the Imperial Act which declared that from and after the 1st August, 1834, all the slaves in the colonial possessions of Great Britain should be for ever free, but subject to an intermediate state of six years apprenticeship for prædials and four years for domestics. Twenty millions of pounds sterling were awarded as compensation to the slave-owners.

On the 18th October, 1833, a new Assembly met and the Emancipation Law of the Imperial Parliament was laid before them. The Assembly had now no alternative but to accept the Imperial decree; but before they separated they placed a strong protest against the act on their Journals. They declared the action of the Imperial Parliament unconstitutional, and designated it as one of spoliation, which could produce nothing but clamour, discontent and rebellion. The Earl of Mulgrave, having achieved the object of his mission, retired, and was succeeded by the Marquis of Sligo, who was appointed with the especial view of carrying out the scheme of Emancipation. He brought with him a number of Stipendiary Magistrates to administer the Act.

On the 1st August, 1834, slavery was abolished and the apprenticeship system was established. The number of apprentices in Jamaica for whom pecuniary compensation was paid by the British Government was 255,290, and the number of aged persons, children and "runaways" who were excluded from the valuation was 55,780 making a total of 311,070 emancipated bondsmen. The amount of compensation awarded was £5,583,975 sterling.

The Marquis of Sligo convened the Legislature in August, 1835, for the purpose of enabling them to pass a Police Law and other measures that had become necessary by the altered state of things in the colony; but the Bills were so modified and amended in their progress through the House as not to contain any of the essential recommendations of the Secretary of State. This was pointed out in a message from the Governor which was voted a breach of privilege and led to two prorogations. 1836 On the re-assembling of the House in May, 1836, the Governor stated that "he had been informed by an authority of more experience than his own, and to which it was his duty to submit, that the delivery of the message relative to the Bill in aid of the Abolition Act involved a breach of their privileges (although not intended)

and he had to express his regret at the occurrence." The House thereupon pro- 183 ceeded to business and soon after the close of the session the Marquis of Sligo retired from the Government. As the Assembly would not pass the required Law in aid of the Abolition Act the Imperial Parliament legislated on the subject and the Act in Aid was proclaimed in the colony.

On the 22nd May, 1838, the House of Commons, acting on a demand from the 183 British people, passed a resolution declaring "that the negro apprenticeship in the British Colonies should at once cease and determine." The Local Legislature met on the 5th June and Sir Lionel Smith, the then Governor, called their attention to the uncontrollable agitation existing in the mother country and the excitement in the colony on the apprenticeship question. “Thus pressed, the House, on the 3rd day of their sitting, read for the first time a Bill to terminate the apprenticeship on the 1st of August. After a brief adjournment it was read a second time and on the next day, a few amendments being made in Committee, a third time and was passed. It quietly ran its course through the Council and on the 16th June it received the Governor's assent."* But the Assembly protested "before God and man" against the interference of the British Parliament with the internal affairs of Jamaica, and especially against the Imperial Act to amend the Abolition Law and its proclamation in the colony. On the 1st August the apprenticeship system was abolished and absolute freedom was conferred upon the whole negro population. The emancipated people and their friends devoted three entire days to rejoicing but all the festivities terminated peaceably.

Concurrently with the passing of the total Emancipation Act by the Imperial Parliament they passed a Law for the better government of Prisons in the West Indies. The Assembly protested against the "infringement of the inherent rights of the Legislature of the colony," and resolved on abstaining from the "exercise of any legislative function, except such as might be necessary to preserve inviolate the faith of the island with the public creditor, until they should be left to the free exercise of their inherent rights as British subjects." The House was prorogued and subsequently dissolved. On the assembling of the new House it adhered to the previous resolution and was prorogued. Seventeen annual laws were left to expire at the end of the year, among which were acts providing for a Police and to a great extent for the public revenue.

This dead-lock in legislation having been reported to the Home Authorities a Law was passed by the Imperial Parliament, in which it was provided that in case of the refusal of the Assembly to resume the work of legislation within a given time the Governor and Council should have power to pass revenue laws and to re-enact expiring and expired laws for a limited period. Sir Charles (afterwards Lord) Metcalfe was sent to Jamaica as Governor with instructions to endeavour to effect a reconciliation between the contending parties without reference to the special enactment, but if this became impossible then to govern the colony according to the Imperial Act. Sir Charles Metcalfe met the Legislature for the first time on the 22nd October, 1839, and delivered a conciliatory speech. In their reply the Assembly justified 183 their past conduct, but receded from their previous resolution and then proceeded to business. Among the measures recommended by the Governor and passed by the Legislature was one for establishing a new judicial system under which provision was made for a Vice-Chancellor, a Chief Justice, two Assistant Judges and nine Chairmen of Quarter Sessions,-all to be legally trained. Laws were also passed for abolishing the sentence of death in all cases except such as were similarly punished in England and for legalizing marriages by dissenting Ministers. The currency was assimilated to that of the United Kingdom and a number of white Immigrants from Scotland and Ireland were introduced. Many of the decendants of the Maroons who were transported in 1796 returned to the colony and resumed their residence here. Sir Charles Metcalfe left the Island on the 21st May, 1842, 184 amidst the regrets of the inhabitants. "He had reconciled the colony with the mother country, he had reconciled all classes of Colonial society; and whilst he had won the approbation of his sovereign, he had carried with him also the hearts of

Life of the Rev. J. M. Phillippo, by Dr. Underhill.

1842 the people."* The Assembly subsequently voted the sum of £3,000 for the erection of a monument to perpetuate his memory.

Lord Elgin assumed the Government. During two years and half there was a gloom over the island in consequence of a succession of earthquakes, storms and floods;† but his Lordship ultimately distinguished his government by his efforts to improve the social condition of the colony and develop its various industrial resources. The Royal Agricultural Society and several parochial associations of a similar kind were established under his presidency and a variety of improvements in modes of cultivation, machinery, &c., were introduced through his instrumentality. Immigration from India was authorized by the Imperial Government, and the first batch of coolies arrived in 1845. New breeds of cattle were also brought to the Island. The Jamaica Railway was opened for traffic and the foundation stone of the General Penitentiary was laid. But the beneficial effects of these important improvements were soon to be displaced by despondency and retrogression. In August, 1846, the Imperial Parliament passed an Act for the gradual equalization of the sugar duties on British and Foreign productions, and the Assembly in the succeeding November declared that they were in consequence unable to continue the institutions of the colony on the present scale, or to defray the future expense of coolie immigration. Just about this time Sir Charles Edward Grey arrived as Governor. The Legisla847 ture met (according to adjournment) on the 15th February, 1847, and petitions were presented from all parts of the island praying for a reduction of the salaries of the public officers and the curtailment of the expenditure of all public institutions. Thereupon the "War of Retrenchment" began. Bill after bill embodying the Retrenchment Scheme was passed, session after session by the Assembly, but rejected by the Council. Mr. Justice Stevenson (afterwards Sir William Stevenson) protested in a letter published by the Morning Journal newspaper against the continued endeavour of the Assembly to "violate public faith and confiscate the property of public men" and he was committed to gaol for a breach of the privileges of the House. A few days after this incident (which caused the retirement of Mr. Stevenson from the Judicial Bench of the colony) the Legislature was prorogued to enable them again to deal with the Revenue Bills which were about to expire. (Continuing Bills had been rejected by the Council on account of the revenue having been appropriated to the payment of certain items of expenditure only.) On their re-assembling the rejected measures were again passed by the Assembly and sent to the Council, 1853 where they were again as summarily rejected. On the 30th April, 1853 the annual Laws for levying the import and rum duties expired and on the following day Jamaica was a free port. The "Treasury was then in utter bankruptcy and the island notes issued by the Commissioners of Accounts to meet pressing and unavoidable expenses were at a discount of from 30 to 40 per cent. The loss of the revenue arising out of the failure of the Revenue Bills amounted to £130,000.

Every effort made by Sir Charles Grey to reconcile the differences between the Council and the Assembly utterly failed; and at length the disagreement became one of a personal character between the executive and the Assembly. Sir Charles Grey was charged by the Assembly with unduly influencing and supporting the Council, which was then almost entirely composed of office holders, in their opposition to a reduction of the salaries of themselves and the other officials of the island, and with invasion of the rights and privileges of the Assembly with regard to the raising and appropriating of public moneys. His Excellency in reply informed the House that the "pleasure, or the pain, or the indifference, with which he heard remarks upon his public conduct depended mainly upon the estimation in which he held those by whom they were made." This infuriated the opposition and the following resolution was on the 20th May, 1853, agreed to by a majority of ten. "That in consequence of the rejection of the Revenue Bills by the second Branch of the Legislature during the last session, and the recklessness and utter disregard of the interests of the colony thereby displayed, and this House having failed in their endeavours made at the opening of the present session to obtain any assurance that the honorable the Board of Council will make any concession, however reasonable,

*Key's Life of Lord Metcalfe

† See Handbook or 1882, pages 124 and 125. Gardner's History of Jamaica.

the House feels that it cannot, with any confidence, continue to legislate measures 1853 for the benefit of its constituents, and in self respect and in vindication of the rights of the people, it declines to do any business with the honourable Board of Council." On the passing of this resolution the House adjourned and the "deadlock" continued. The whole question was in the meantime brought under the consideration of the Imperial Government, and the period of Sir Charles Grey's administration having, fortunately for the Colonial Secretary, about then expired, Sir Henry Barkly was commissioned as Governor of Jamaica. "Sir Henry had been a sugar planter in Demerara, and had been sent to that colony to settle the Retrenchment Question there, and had done so to the satisfaction of all parties. The Retrenchment Party therefore saw in him a sympathiser and a deliverer and he was heartily welcomed by them, and, indeed, by the entire community. The members of Assembly transformed their Legislative Hall into a Ball Room and subscribed liberally to a magnificent entertainment to Sir Henry and Lady Barkly."*

Sir Henry Barkly called the Legislature together for a new session at the earliest opportunity after his arrival, and in his opening speech he fully expressed himself on the questions at issue. "What Jamaica stands pre-eminently in need of at the present stage of her political progress," said His Excellency, "is a strong Executive Administration, consisting of upright and intelligent men, chosen from among her own citizens, to devote themselves to the exclusive study of her condition-charged with the sole responsibility, in all matters of finance, and serving as an acknowledged medium of communication between the Representative of the Crown, the Council and the House of Assembly." The recommendation was adopted and the Act for the better government of the Island was passed, under which the Governor was authorized to appoint an Executive Committee to consist of no more than four members of the Legislature. In consideration of the adoption of this measure and the provision of a permanent revenue of £25,000 per annum, to be appropriated in payment of the salaries of the Judges, the Executive Committee, the Receiver-General and several other public officers, the Imperial Government guaranteed a loan of £500,000 at 4 per cent. to pay off the debts of the colony. At the same time the Legislative Council was deprived of its functions as a Privy Council and the number was increased to seventeen members. A new Privy Council was formed consisting of sixteen members. Sir Henry Barkly was sworn in as Captain-General and Governor-in-Chief under the new Constitution and the first Executive Committee was appointed; these were Mr. (afterwards Sir) Bryan Edwards in the Legislative Council and Mr. Edward Jordon and Mr. Henry Westmoreland in the Assembly.

While these political questions were agitating the country, considerable alarm was created by rumours of an approaching rebellion of the negroes. "The ground-work of the whole matter" was declared to be "the belief of the peasantry that the United States of America were likely to take possession of the island and to reduce them (the negroes) to slavery." "This belief, it was supposed, had originated from the mention which had been made in some of the American papers of the distressed state of the island, and the good which would result from its annexation, with Cuba, to the United States; and what the planters had said “on the subject of relief from Great Britain, as well as other persons-some, very influential." The Governor made arrangements to have a sufficient force available if any disturbance should occur in the districts where it was apprehended, and issued a Proclamation to quiet the minds of the peasantry by assuring them that there was no danger that any attempt would again be made to reduce them to slavery. These measures were successful and all cause for alarm soon passed away.

In the year 1850 Asiatic Cholera had made its appearance, for the first time, in 1850 Jamaica. It first occurred in Port Royal and afterwards severely scourged nearly every parish in the island. The mortality was estimated at 32,000 persons or about one in 13 of the population at the time. A second visitation of the disease occurred three years later but its ravages and duration were not so great as was the case in 1850. The first session of the Legislature under the new constitution was devoted to the passing of laws for effecting financial reforms and restoring public credit; but there was still an empty Treasury and heavy arrears were outstanding. For five years the

• Political Life of C. H. Jackson.

Letter of Archdeacon Williams to Bishop Spencer,

1853 Receiver-General was unable to pay in full all claims against the Treasury and the cry for retrenchment still prevailed. This was effected in the second session under the new constitution, when the judicial, clergy and other establishments were reduced on equitable terms and the holders of abolished offices were placed on the pensions list, which was then created. Sir Henry Barkly having effected these objects was transferred, on promotion, to Victoria and Mr. (afterwards Sir) C. H. Darling was appointed Governor.

1862

Governor Darling after "a careful consideration of the relative bearing of the several clauses of the Act for the better Government of the Island," informed the Executive Committee that he had arrived at the conclusion that "it was the intention of the Legislature to establish in Jamaica the main principle, at least, upon which Responsible Governments in other colonies rests, namely, that in all important questions, which are of a purely domestic nature, the colony should be governed according to the well understood views and wishes of the constituencies (assumed to be the people) as expressed by their representatives in the Legislature."* Messrs. Jordon, Hosack, and Price, the then members of the Executive Committee, contended that "the theory of the government established by the Acts for the better government of this island made the Governor for the time being alone responsible for the Acts of the Government;" and that "Responsible Government, which was what the Governor sought to establish, was unsuited to the country." Mr. Darling differed from the members of the Committee and they submitted their resignations. Messrs. R.W. Smith, George Solomon and the Baron Von Ketelhodt were thereupon appointed to office on the principle of ministerial responsibility. Mr. Solomon on entering on his duties as Financial Minister presented a statement to the Assembly shewing a deficit in the Treasury of £58,060 18s. 3d., and obtaining a law providing for the issue, if necessary, of £20,000 of Treasury bonds to meet immediate claims. Soon after Governor Darling left the island on leave and Mr. Edward John Eyre was appointed Lieutenant-Governor.

of

The Assembly met in November, 1862, and the intensity of former political struggles soon manifested itself in opposition to the Executive Committee. Early in the following year it became necessary to dissolve the House and on the meeting of the new Assembly Mr. Westmoreland moved an address to the Lieutenant-Governor, declaring "that having regard to the mal-administration of the financial affairs of the colony, the continuance in office of His Excellency's present constitutional Advisers is incompatible with the due progress of the public business and the welfare of the island." The address was passed by a majority of one and Mr. Smith and his colleagues resigned. Messrs. Jordon, Westmoreland and Phillips (the latter being subsequently replaced by Mr. Price) were appointed their successors. This did not secure political tranquillity and it was not long before the LieutenantGovernor and the Assembly came into direct collision and the Assembly (or rather thirteen members of that body acting as a quorum) "declined to proceed to any further business with His Excellency." This determination was the result of Mr. Eyre's having instructed the Attorney General "to adopt proceedings by way habeas corpus, to impeach the right of the Assembly to imprison persons for contempt." Mr. Ewart, the Agent-General of Immigration, had been imprisoned by the House for declining to reply to certain questions concerning his office, which had been submitted to him by a Committee of the Assembly, on the ground that the information he possessed was "privileged." Just about this time Mr. Darling was transferred to Victoria and Mr. Eyre appointed Governor-in-Chief-the Secretary of State (The Duke of Newcastle) having promoted him in testimony of his approval of the course he had adopted in the recent conflict with the Assembly. Whilst these political questions were agitating the country" a drought had desolated the provision grounds and deprived the peasantry of their usual food. American war and increased taxation on imports had also made costly the supply of breadstuffs."+ Agitators availed themselves of these calamities to excite the public mind. A public meeting was held in Kingston under the presidency of Mr. George William Gordon, at which a resolution was passed "calling upon all the decendants of Africa, in every parish throughout the island, to form themselves into Societies † Dr. Underhill on Jamalca.

* Jamaica Parliamentary Debates 1860-61.

The