THE AGITATION IN BARBADOES.

Globe, Volume VI, Issue 631, 27 June 1876, Page 3

THE AGITATION IN BARBADOES.

(Pall-Mall Gazette,) The more we learn of the conflict between her Majesty’s Governor and the Legislature of Barbadoes, the more reasons are apparent for vigilance and caution, if not alarm, on the part of the Home Government. We have a repugnance, not at all to be measured by the mere amount of danger, to a collision between races and classes in a community like Barbadoes, where the traditions of the slavery period are still powerful. The case of Jamaica showed only too clearly and painifully how easily the threats and turbulence of the blacks might provoke an explosion of panic among the whites, and how the not unnatural terrors of a small class, monopolising power and, we might almost say, property, might dictate the most ruthless measures of repression, Nothing can be imagined more shocking to the humanity of Englishmen than the issue of an abortive negro insurrection, unless it be the horror of a successful negro insurrection. These considerations must always be present in the mind of an English Minister who has to deal with the West Indian colonies, and we should suppose that their importance would be felt as paramount by every Governor sent to bear rule in the Antilles. We trust it may be proved that Governor Pope Hennessy, in his advocacy of Confederation for the Windward Islands, has remembered that the preservation of the peace, and of those dispositions among the people which conduce to it is an infinitely more valuable work than any improvement in administrative machinery. So far as we may form a judgment from the language of the Barbadian newspapers and the letters written by Barbadian residents, we are constrained to believe that the Governor, attracted by the incontestable merits of a Federal system, has stepped out of his constitutional place to enforce a policy distasteful to the majority of the Legislature, with whom he is bound to act in concert. At the same time, we are bound to admit that the scurrility and acrimony of the Barbadian press, and of many correspondents from Barbadoes, are so scandalous, that any statements offset emanating from such sources must be received with the utmost caution, while the opinions accompanying those statements may usually be rejected as worthless. Thus, in discussing Governor Hennessy’s efforts to carry

the Confederation policy, a leading newspaper of the island, not content with abusing the Governor, accusing Lord Carnarvon of ignorance, and making a gross attack on Lord Kimberley’s family, went on to declare, in answer to the “ imperial” arguments of the Colonial Office, that “ the West Indies in time of war, far from uniting for purposes of defence, would be only too happy to be captured by some foreign Power, from which they might, at any rate, receive just treatment.” We must not omit to take account of the spirit of which this language is evidence, when we endeavour to extract the truth from the accusations and assertions gathered together in the West Indian mails. Nevertheless, the meaning of the main facts can hardly be affected by the medium through which it reaches us. The Barbadian planters assert that Confederation would dangerously touch their constitutional liberties, and would probably involve them in pecuniary responsibility for the other and less prosperous colonies of the Windward group. They are very likely misled in their apprehensions, but they command a majority in the Legislature, and, as Lord Carnarvon has expressly intimated in his despatch, it rests with the Legislature alone to initiate a change so important as that establishing a federal system. Thus it may appear that the Barbadian whites are masters of the situation ; whatever the wishes of the Colonial Office, whatever the arguments of the Governor, the colonists have only to hold their hands and secure the conservation intact of the institutions for which they are so jealous. They urge, however, and Ibis is the serious part of the business, that a popular pressure upon the Legislative Body is being. organised by the partisans of Confederation, and they charge the Governor with being the chief organiser of this force, which, if once put in action, will not easily be limited to its original purpose. The Governor is accused of having courted popularity by an “ indiscriminate discharge” of prisoners from the gaols, by profuse entertainments given to the small shopkeepers and petty freeholders of the island, at which Confederation and its bearings on the condition of the “people” are discussed, and by a lavish expenditure in almsgiving and in other ways. These charges are advanced in company with the most malignant imputations. The main point, however, is that a petition in favor of Confederation is stated to be hawked about among the colored laborers and poorer tradespeople, whose signatures are obtained by the prevalence of the comfortable doctrine that Federal institutions would procure them more wages and less work. Now it is highly improbable that there is a justification for charges such as these, but they have been advanced and discussed, and the prevalence of the feelings they indicate should have made the Governor doubly careful in bis public conduct. We have already drawn attention, however, to the very ambiguous and therefore very dangerous language of the Governor’s address to the Houses of the Barbadian Legislature on the 3rd ult, in which, after asserting that Confederation would secure “ fair wages for the redundant population of the island,” he goes on to say ; “ I feel confident that no intelligent person who loves Barbadoes will take the serious responsibility of standing between his poorer countrymen and the wise policy of the British Government.” The inference here is perilously direct. The Legislature had already declared against Confederation, and it was known that the proposals of the Governor and the Colonial office had no chance of acceptance. As a mere stroke of political logic, such as a rather unscrupulous leader of Opposition might aim at a Minister, the argument of Mr Hennessy’s address was admirably cutting. But it is not the business of a Constitutional Governor to practise with these edged tools upon a Legislature that glories, with some magniloquent absurdity, in its independence.