The English in the West Indies or the bow of Ulysses

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enjoys his salary. Instances of glaring impropriety like that to which I have alluded are of course rare, and among colonial governors there are men of quality so high that we would desire only to see their power equal to it. But so limited is the patronage, on the other hand, which remains to the home administration, and so heavy the pressure brought to bear upon them, that there are persons also in these situations of whom it may be said that the less they do, and the less they are enabled to do, the better for the colony over which they preside. The West Indies have been sufferers from another cause. In the absence of other use for them they have been made to serve as places where governors try their ’prentice hand and learn their business before promotion to more important situations. Whether a man has done well or done ill makes, it seems, very little difference unless he has offended pre­ judices or interests at home : once in the service he acquires a vested right to continue in it. A governor who had been suspended for conduct which is not denied to have been most improper, is replaced with the explanation that if he was not sent back to his old post it would have been neces­ sary to provide a situation for him elsewhere. Why would it ? Has a captain of a man-of-war whose ship is taken from him for misconduct an immediate claim to have another ? Unfortunate colonies ! It is not their interest which is considered under this system. But the subject is so delicate that I must say no more about it. I will re­ commend only to the attention of the British democracy, who are now the parties that in the last instance are responsible, because they are the real masters of the Em­ pire, the following apologue. In the time of the Emperor Nicholas the censors of the press seized a volume which had been published by the poet Kriloff, on the ground that it contained treasonable matter. Nicholas sent for Kriloff. The censor produced


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