PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
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under the direction and control of Government in respect to the discharge of their duties."
I have indicated what I believe would prove a remedy, but it has been suggested to me that the Resolution is too definite, and an honourable friend has given me notice of an Amendment, which I shall be perfectly ready to accept.
I now come to the sixth and seventh Resolutions, those, namely, which confer on the Executive Government large, unusual, and, I will freely add, arbitrary powers. It is these Resolutions, I apprehend, which will be regarded with the greatest jealousy, and which nothing but unanimous approval would justify me in pressing hastily on your notice. I grant that they are arbitrary. I grant that they can only be justified by the existence of an exceptional state of society, but such an.exceptional state is found here, and by it they are amply justified. There exists in this Island an aristocracy which is compact, united, energetic, powerful and wealthy. That it is also liberal, generous, and just, is also true; but that is not the point at issue. This aristocracy consists of some few score persons, on whom more than 300,000 are in one way or another more or less 'dependent. Do not misunderstand me; do not think I am arguing against the existence of such an aristocracy. On the contrary, I believe such an aristocracy is, in a state of society like ours, not only a necessity but a blessing; that without it the Colony could not prosper; and that even if, in spite of probability, the Colony did prosper, the labourer would be exposed to petty trickery, to meanness, and to small and vexatious oppression, from which their protection wholly
frees him.
Do not think I charge it with abuse of its powers. I maintain stoutly, and have maintained uniformly, and shall maintain constantly, my belief in the absence of abuses. I do not say there are none, but they are few, so few, as not to be worth now considering. But the fact remains not the less, and the existence of such a body, abnormal and exceptional in these days, necessitates other and abnormal securities also. I think this will be recognised by themselves. If I were addressing them collectively I would say to them: "In your hands are almost all the lands in the Colony. In your hands is almost all the wealth of the Colony. In your hands is almost all political power, for you fill a great majority of the scats of this table, and your indirect influence is more or less felt by those who fill the remainder, and, indeed, with few exceptions, by all persons in the Colony. Your favour ensures prosperity, your united enmity brings ruin. There are in Mauritius as many honour- able and independent men as elsewhere, but must there not be a half-unconscious wish on the part of every one, the most honest and independent, to please those on whose pleasure every comfort of life depends? I judge them from myself. Filling the highest station in the island, representing among you the person of the Sovereign, destined to pass at most only a few years of my life in this island, rendered by accidents of birth, of fortune, and by personal temperament, perhaps more than ordinarily independent of external support, I yet know that, feeling how your united opposition must paralyse every effort of mine for good, whilst with your concurrence and good will there is hardly any improvement which may not be effected, I would, to avoid that opposition and conciliate that concurrence do almost anything not inconsistent with honour-say almost anything not inconsistent with truth. And, if that be my case, what must be the case of those who are not temporary sojourners, but habitual residents, who are dependent, if not for daily bread, at all events for all that renders life agreeable, on your good will ? True it is that you discharge your stewardship faithfully, and with a due sense of your high responsibility. True it is you have reason to be proud of the honourable way in which you fill your great part in the affairs of the island. True it is you exercise your strength gently, and your power justly, but is it therefore certain that you will always do so? Is it the less true that your power, if exercised, is well nigh irresistible? It may be well exercised, it may be moderately used. But is it on that account right or desirable that it should be freed from strong external check or control ? Can you honestly say, with absolute confidence, that it never will be misused? You know that you cannot. Can you assure me that in your ranks there will never be found a tyrant, or a miser, a man of cruel temper or unfeeling heart ? Can you deny that such an one, if he exist, might work, almost unchecked, enormous mischief? Can you even ensure that your own sons and grandsons will act as you yourselves do, and inherit your moderation with your wealth? Can you say that their passions will not be stronger, their sense of self-control weaker than your own? Can anything but strict laws, rigidly administered, and a powerful and independent executive really check these evils, should their
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growth begin. I couple these things, strict laws and a powerful executive, together, for law alone is not sufficient. I say nothing of its being made by yourselves and administered by those amenable to your influence, those are insinuations I sweep aside; but it is easy, very easy, to keep on the safe side of a law while trampling on its spirit. The check must be not only the dead check of a written inflexible Code but a living one, and where is that living check to be found? The only check on aristocratic power must come from above or from below. It cannot come from below. The great mass of the population, alien and heathen, is wholly unfit to exercise such control, they are, moreover unrepresented here, except (and that I own is no trifle) in so far as the good will of the Members of the Board represents them. The educated public opinion of the Colony, except such as merely reflects your views and wishes, is too small to be appreciably felt. It can only come from above; from the sole power which is comparatively independent. For these exceptional powers the exceptional constitution of society is the only plea. I ask you to add to your other- wise measures that of imposing checks on yourselves. Be generous as well as just, and add this to other examples of your patriotism and good sense, to other claims have on the respect and already accumulated confidence of the public.
you
But turning from my imaginary audience, let us examine the two propositions which come under this head. It will, I think, hardly be contended for a moment that the first is in itself unreasonable. As the law now stands, a man may be convicted of habitual ill-treatment, of starving, beating, or imprisoning his labourers. He would doubtless be punished, and severely punished, if he was found out, but, however punished, he might, even if the engagements of all his men were cancelled, at once send in a requisition for fresh hands, and that requisition must be forwarded to India, without any discretion. This is hard and unjust to a labourer engaging there without knowledge of that to which he is exposing himself. Impose what restraints and checks you like upon it, but some discretionary power of this nature should certainly be vested-in some Department of the Government.
The second, no doubt, is more questionable, and is one to which I attach no very great importance. Yet there are cases where it would be very useful, where though no legal offence has been proved, there is no doubt that a legal offence has been committed. I will give an illustration of my meaning. Suppose a case of gross abuse. In this case two estates may be concerned, the offence in both cases identical; on one, the offence may be legally proved, and the contracts of all the complainants cancelled; on the other, although the circumstances be precisely similar, the legal evidence of guilt may be removed just in time, and so, although there may be no doubt on the mind of any human being that the labourers on that estate had been subjected to precisely the same treatment as on the other, no conviction will be obtained, and consequently not one of them obtain the cancellation of his contract.
It is to meet such cases as these that such a power is desirable.
But it will be said, these powers if granted may be abused. No doubt they may; there is nothing which can be used which may not be abused, and when you have effectually secured against possible abuses, you leave a profitless, powerless residuum. It is a great law that the more powerful any agency is for good, it will be yet more powerful if used for evil. So there is some truth in this doubt, but it is highly improbable. In those days of constant communication, of jealous watchfulness of authority, of dislike of all arbitrary power, any Governor must very well know that any stretch of power on his part would lead to his recall. At all events, it is far less likely that there should be any abuse on the part of one so closely watched than on the part of some one of the few hundred proprietors among whose number the misdeeds of one or two may be hidden and unknown, whilst all the Governor's proceedings are subjected to keen scrutiny and the fullest light of day.
But, as I have said before, there is no pressing need for the immediate introduction of these alterations, and, if one single Member of the Board objects, or even hesitates as to their adoption, I shall not at present press their acceptance.
And here I might close were it not that perhaps I should devote a few words to a matter of comparatively small importance,-my own course with regard to this matter. I, of course, cannot but feel a strong interest in the welfare of this Island, and the thick thronging thousands who dwelt in it committed to my care. The hope of assisting to effect some good in it is the only thing which lightens the burden of a distasteful and often well nigh intolerable duty. To improve its sanitary condition, equalize its taxation, reduce its unproductive expenditure, remove all blots from its immigration laws, these are my objects. I am not a sentimentalist. I know fully the faults, the weakness, and the vives of the Indian. They are such as too often to repeli
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