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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

Reference

C.O. 885

ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC-

COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO

1 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

accordingly ventured to submit certain suggestions on that subject in a separate despatch which I herewith inclose.

(Private.) Sir.

I have, &c.

(Signed)

ELGIN AND KINCARDINE.

Inclosure 1 in No. 4.

Circular Despatch from the Earl of Elgin to the West India Governors.

Jamaica, King's House, April 19, 1844.

I HAVE received a despatch from Lord Stanley, marked " private," and dated 15th March, relative to the best means of enabling Her Majesty to signify, by some mark of her Royal favour, her approval of services rendered by civilians, for which there is at present no appropriate and peculiar mark of distinction.

2. It appears from this communication, a copy of which has, I understand, been forwarded to your Excellency, that Her Majesty's Government have it in contemplation to recommend some extension of the Order of the Bath, so as to enable it to be conferred in rare instances on colonists; and it is suggested that subsidiary to and connected with the proposed extension of this Order, Local Orders might be established which, being dispensed by the Crown, would be, though in a less degree, objects of local ambition. Lord Stanley is desirous to ascertain the sentiments of the Governors of Her Majesty's West Indian Colonies with respect to the probable effect of the institution of an Order similar to that of St. Michael and St. George, for the whole of the West India Colonies, possibly including Mauritius, and I am directed to communicate with your Excellency with this

view.

3. I think I shall best comply with his Lordship's instructions by confining myself in my present letter to the expression of my belief that the measure proposed by Her Majesty's Government will be productive of much advantage to the West India Colonies, and tend to strengthen their connexion with the mother-country, if it can be carried out with a due regard to the state of society within these Colonies. A comparison, instituted between the Ionian Islands and the West India Colonies on this head, would, I apprehend, suggest many points of contrast.

4. I shall be glad to learn from your Excellency whether you concur with me in the general principle, and to discuss fully and unreservedly, any observations which you may offer in respect of details.

(Private.)

My Lord,

I have, &c.

(Signed)

ELGIN AND KINCARDINE.

Inclosure 2 in No. 4.

Governor Light to the Earl of Elgin...

British Guiana, Government House, Demerara,

May 17, 1844.

I HAVE some difficulty in approaching a question of such importance as that referred to me in your Lordship's communication of the 19th April.

I had previously received from Lord Stanley copy of his despatch to your Lordship. together with a copy of the rules of the Order of St. Michael and St. George.

Rank and distinctions are the proper attributes and attendants of highly civilized society, and of little use elsewhere.

It is to be considered whether the West Indies, and particularly British Guiana, are in that condition of society; where distinctions are required, such as are to be conferred by the establishment of a Colonial Order of Knighthood.

I shall, as a preliminary step, lay before your Lordship, what is the state of society in this Colony.

The population may be classed-European, creole, white, coloured, and black. The European population, with the exception of the official and professional men, is composed of persons who leave Europe in their youth unformed us to manners and morals, and with little education, to become clerks in stores, overseers in estates, mechanics in branches of work where skill is required not possessed by the common workmen of the Colony. If they are not carried off by the climate, or by their own imprudence and intemperance, they rise to be partners in stores, managers of estates, or purchasers of

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estates on speculation. As storekeepers, the greater part are mere dependents on parent firms in Great Britain, who ship goods for sale in the Colony; a few only may be said to carry on business on their own-account.

Wealth, once the attribute of the West Indies, is with difficulty acquired; there are so many competitors for fortune, that the greatest number of the aspirants wear out their existence in this Colony, and cannot retire as in former days to sport their wealth in their native land.

Every storekeeper is a retailer of goods as well as general merchant, although since the emancipation of 1838, retail shops are multiplied in every street of the two capitals, Georgetown and New Amsterdam, in every parish and district of the country. A whole- sale merchant is scarcely to be noted, such as is known in Europe.

The creoles, white and coloured, are descendunts of Dutch or British parents, whose lot being cast here, forces them to remain; they possess little wealth or consideration, are candidates for public or private employment; whilst the greatest part of the coloured race. that are not clerks in public or private offices, are mechanics or workmen in the usual trades of the city.

The whole class, with the exception of the last, is so entirely dependent on the mother-country, that an Order of Chivalry, as a mode of connection, would probably be useless.

The Bar, till within this last three or four years, has been composed chiefly of creoles of the country or of the Islands, who have received professional education in Europe; latterly the numbers have been increased from Ireland and Scotland; three or four divide the business of the Courts.

We have numerous body of medical men, chiefly from Scotland-they are not deficient in education, and some of them have knowledge beyond that required for their calling-with such a host of druggists' and apothecaries' shops as would betoken the constant existence of disease, was it not that general articles of merchandize are there offered for sale, to eke out the profits of the professed establishment.

The black population cannot as yet have any other consideration beyond that attached to it as cultivators of the soil, whose good will depends on the treatment they receive from their employers.

Many of the late slaves are now independent proprietors of land, on which they build cottages, and to which they devote some of their labour, without withdrawing them- selves from the labour of the estates. It will be some time before such persons will raise themselves into political importance, beyond that derived from numbers, who, sure of the protection of the focal Government, are most submissive and loyal.

The officials, a class by themselves, are the Chief Justice and two Puisne Judges; the Government Secretary, with his Assistant in Georgetown and another in Berbice, the Attorney and Solicitor-General; the High Sheriff; the Sheriffs of Essequibo and Berbice; the Treasurer and his Assistant at Berbice; the Registrar of Demerara and Essequibo and his Assistants, called Sworn Clerks and Notaries Public; the Registrar of Berbice, with his Assistants; the Provost-Marshal and Under-Marshals; the Collector of Customs, with his subordinates; the Harbour-Masters of Demerara and Berbice; the Stipendiary Magis- trates, fifteen in number; the Episcopalian and Presbyterian Ministry, paid by the

Colony.

The addition to these are numerous dissenting ministers of the London Missionary Society, Wesleyan ministers, and lastly a Roman Catholic priesthood.

This being a Crown Colony, has a peculiar mode of legislation, differing widely from that of Jamaica and the Leeward and Windward Islands.

There is a Court of Policy for all legislative acts not conneeted with finance.

It consists of five official members, one of whom is the Governor, who must preside, and five Colonial members, named by a body called the College of Keizers, who on a vacancy in the Colonial section of the Court of Policy, are assembled by proclamation and sworn in before the Governor to their immediate duty; that is, to name without favour or partiality two persons qualified to sit as members of the Colonial section, one of whom is selected by the Court of Policy.

The senior of these five Colonial members vacates his seat at the termination of what is called the combined session, of which I shall speak hereafter, but is eligible for re-election, and may again be put in nomination with another person. ife has, however, the right to decline his seat, if again chosen, which often happens,

Your Lordship will observe that the tenure of office being thus limited, the Colonial * The other four officials are the Chief Justice, Attorney-General, Collector of Customs, and Government Secretary.

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