20
THE
ENGLISH
IN
THE
WEST
INDIES
was still regarded as a stepmother, and from more than one quarter I heard a more than muttered wish that they could he ‘ taken into partnership ’ by the Americans. They were wasting away under Free Trade and the sugar bounties. The mother country gave them fine words, but words were all. If they belonged to the United States they would have the benefit of a close market in a country where there were 50,000,000 sugar drinkers. Energetic Americans would come among them and establish new industries, and would control the unmanageable negroes. From the most loyal I heard the despairing cry of the Britons, ‘ the barbarians drive us into the sea and the sea drives us back upon the barbarians.’ They could bear Free Trade which was fair all round, but not Free Trade which was made into a mockery by bounties. And it seemed that thenmasters in Downing Street answered them as the Romans answered our forefathers. ‘ We have many colonies, and we shall not miss Britain. Britain is far off, and must take care of herself. She brings us responsibility, and she brings us no revenue ; we cannot tax Italy for the sake of Britons. We have given them our arms and our civilisation. We have done enough. Let them do now what they can or please.’ Virtually this is what England says to the West Indians, or would say if despair made them actively trouble some, notwithstanding Exhibitions and expansive senti ments. The answer from Rome we can now see was the voice of dying greatness, which was no longer worthy of the place in the world which it had made for itself in the days of its strength ; but it doubtless seemed reasonable enough at the time, and indeed was the only answer which the Rome of Honorius could give. A change in the weather cut short our conversation, and drove half the company to their berths. On the fourth morning the wind chopped back to the north-west. A beam sea set in, and the ‘ Moselle’ justified my conjectures