372
JAMAICA.
this specious proviso. It lias been, in itself, absolutely null, void, and of r o effect. The very minister who introduced and carried the Imperial Act, who inserted in it this proviso, subsequently advised the sanction of the Jamaica Abolition Bill, as " adequate and satis factory," to entitle the colonists to compensation, and to carry out the provisions of the Imperial Act ; a Bill confessedly so inadequate, and so little satisfactory, that he himself in the very act of announcing his ac ceptance of it, called upon the Assembly to remedy both its excesses and deficiencies. Each succeeding colonial minister has trodden in the same steps, and the concealment and defence of successive errors, have led to the establishment, by authority, of the new sys tem such as we have described it. At the present mo ment, the shelves cf the colonial ofiice groan under accumulated evidence, of the wrongs and sufi'erings of the negros. One provision of the Abolition Bill, the freedom of the apprentices in 1840, is yet to be fulfilled. With the experience of the past before us, what security has the nation, that this last and principal instalment in satisfaction of the twenty millions will be paid ? There can be little doubt, that the name of appren ticeship will cease at the appointed time, as did that of slavery ; but that its substance will not remain ; that coercive, penal and restrictive laws, exclusively affect ing the negros, will not be passed; and if passed, sanc tioned, and carried into full efi^ect, there is no security, unless the British public demand the effectual re dress of past grievances, and existing wrongs ; and thus discourage the attempts, which will undoubtedly be made, to perpetuate under a new form and specious designation, some system of violence and unrighteous oppression.