Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 13.djvu/577

 JAMAICA 551 lative power of the assembly. The privileges of the assembly, how ever, were restored under Sir Thomas Lynch in 1 682 ; it was not until 1728 that 8000 (currency) a year was settled on the crown, and the laws and statutes of England were made equally applicable to Jamaica. This amount was afterwards commuted for 6000, used by the governor for salaries, allowances, and contingencies. In 1854 this fund was merged in the ordinary civil list. The other principal event in the general history of Jamaica was the threatened invasion in 1782 by the combined fleets of France and Spain under De Grasse. It was saved by the victory of Rodney and Hood, off Dominica, in commemoration of which event a statue of Rodney, by Bacon, was erected in Spanish Town. A great earthquake occurred in 1692, when the chief part of the town of Port Royal, built on a shelving bank of sand, slipped into the sea. In 1712 and 1722 there were dreadful hurricanes, the last causing the seat of commerce to be transferred from Port Royal to Kingston. Since then there have been a number of hurricanes, the most recent being in August 1880, when considerable damage was done to crops, provision grounds, churches, chapels, and school- houses in the eastern part of the island. Since 1800 the history of Jamaica has been, with some exceptions (such as the defeat by Admiral Duckworth in 1806 of the French squadron intended to invade Jamaica), confined to its domestic con cerns and its relations with the mother country. In 1807, when the slave trade was abolished, there were 323,827 slaves in the island. The island was very prosperous, sugar, coffee, cocoa, cotton, pimento, ginger, and indigo being pi oduced; and it was also the depot of a very lucrative transit trade between Europe and the Spanish main. The anti-slavery agitation in England, growing stronger every year, caused great excitement in the island, and there was much violence and misrepresentation on both sides of the question. The negroes revolted in 1832, under tho belief that emancipation had been granted ; many hundreds of lives were sacrificed, a large amount of property destroyed, and various atrocities were committed. This stimulated the agitation in England, and in 1833 the Emancipation Act was passed, the period of apprenticeship being ultimately reduced to four years. Of the 20,000,000 compensation, 6,161,927 was awarded to Jamaica, being about 19 a head on a slave population of 309,338. The wisdom of the manner in which the emancipation policy was carried out by England has been often questioned. During Sir Lionel Smith s administration, on the 1st of August 1838, the apprenticeship came to an end, and entire emancipation was effected by an Act of the assembly. Difficulties arising between the British Government and the assembly as to the Prisons Act, a bill was in troduced by Mr Labouchere (Lord Taunton) into the House of Commons to suspend the constitution of Jamaica, the rejection of which measure occasioned the resignation of Lord Melbourne s ministry. The dispute was afterwards compromised, and under the government of Sir Charles Metcalfe an improved state of things was brought about. Education and religious instruction and better administration of justice were subjects of attention, together with schemes of agriculture to develop the varied resources of the island. The want of cheap and continuous labour was, however, a great obstacle. The introduction of labourers from Africa was objected to in England as a renewal of the slave trade. Coolie immigration was fenced about with such expensive restrictions by the home Government that no large or comprehensive scheme was possible. The earl of Elgin continued Sir C. Mctcalfe s policy, and a railway was opened, 12 miles long, between Kingston and Spanish Town, but the prospects of the colony became exceedingly gloomy under the effects of the legislation in 1846 equalizing the duties on free and slave sugar. The advantages of slave labour in Cuba were so great that the utmost economy and skill of practical resident planters in Jamaica failed of success. Differences between the assembly, the council, and the home Government on the means of retrenching the public expenditure, created much bitterness of feeling, and most disastrous results were brought about, affecting seriously the credit of the island, by the assembly refusing to perform its functions and renew duties necessary for revenue. An outbreak of cholera added to the confusion and gloom. The result of this controversy was that the home Government offered an imperial guarantee for a loan of 500,000 and other financial assistance, conditionally on permanent provision being made for official salaries, on the initiation of all money grants by the crown, and on certain members of the legis lature being held responsible for the expenditure of the public money. Sir Henry Barkly had the task of carrying out these arrangements. In 1854 the Incumbered Estates Act was passed, under which in recent years considerable sales of property in Jamaica have taken place. During the next decade the island was tranquil, but very much depressed. Many white people, of a superior class, had left. Public business suffered by the recriminations in the assembly, and by want of economy and good management (causing annual deficits) of the public finances. But in 1865 an event occurred which opened a perfectly new chapter in Jamaica history. On October 20 Governor Eyre reported to the secretary of state (the present Lord Card well) a &quot; serious and alarming insurrection of the negro popula tion.&quot; In this despatch the letter written by Dr Underbill, the secretary to the Baptist Society, was referred to as causing public meetings to be held, and giving rise to excitement. Dr Underbill subsequently asserted that it was through Governor Eyre his letter became public. The letter referred to the distress among the population, to alleged unjust taxation, to the alleged refusal of just tribunals, to the denial of political rights to the emancipated negroes. The despatches of Governor Eyre caused much discussion and excite ment in England, and under date of 30th December 1865 a royal commission was issued to inquire into the disturbances. The com missioners Sir Henry Storks (sent out as governor), Mr Russell Gurney, and Mr J. B. Maule began their work on January 23, 1866, and sat for fifty-one days. They reported on the 9th April that the disturbances in St Thomas in the east had their immediate origin in a planned resistance to lawful authority, arising from the desire to obtain land free of rent, want of confidence in tribunals, feel ings of hostility towards political and personal opponents, while not a few contemplated the death or expulsion of the white inhabi tants. Had more than a momentary success been obtained, the ultimate overthrow of the insurgents would have been attended with a still more fearful loss of life and property. The commissioners attributed the speedy termination of the outbreak to the skill, promptitude, and vigour of Governor Eyre in the early stnges ; they viewed the military and naval operations as prompt and judicious; but they thought martial law was continued too long, and that the punishments inflicted were excessive. The commissioners expressed an opinion that the conduct of Gordon, a member of the assembly, whose trial by court martial and execution caused great contro versy in England, had been such as to convince both friends and enemies of his being a party to the rising, yet they could not see any sufficient proof either of his complicity in the outbreak at Morant Bay, or of his having been a party to a general conspiracy. The case was warmly taken up in England by the Jamaica committee under the leadership of Mr J. S. Mill. A charge was made against Mi- Eyre, resulting in an elaborate exposition of martial law by Chief Justice Cockburn, and the stoppage of the prosecution by the grand jury ignoring the bill. On the 20th December 1866 the assembly passed an Act rendering it lawful for the Queen to create and consti tute a Government for the island ; the same was passed by the council on the 22d, and on the 23d it received the governor s consent. Thus the constitution which had existed for two hundred years was swept away. It was composed at the time of a governor, a privy council, a legislative council, an assembly of forty-seven elected mem bers, and a paid body called the executive committee, who were practi cally responsible ministers of the crown, holding office at the gover nor s pleasure. The present constitution is that of an ordinary crown colony. It was established by an imperial Act, and an order in council, dated 9th April 1866, and subsequent orders. There is only one chamber, called a legislative council. In 1880 this consisted of the governor as president, eight officials, (viz., colonial secretary, senior military officer, attorney general, director of roads, col lector general, auditor general, assistant colonial secretary, and crown solicitor), and eight non-officials, nominated by the crown, all councillors holding office at the royal will and pleasure. No proposal is admitted or debate allowed on any matter affecting revenue, unless introduced by the governor or by his direction. Sir J. P. Grant was governor from 1866 to 1874, and reforms and changes were vigorously effected. The revenue was better collected. Irrigation and other public works were begun. But the sugar industry has continued in a state of great depression, though Sir A. Musgrave, who was appointed governor in 1877, reported in 1880 that the public debt had been reduced from 719,000 to 485,000 (excluding loans for special purposes), that there had been no in crease of taxation since 1867, that savings banks deposits had increased from 58,913 in 1868 to 207,000 in 1879 (the Govern ment paying interest at 4 per cent.), and that the industrious negroes, especially those with small holdings, growing provisions, coffee, cocoa, or possessing small sugar mills, were fairly prosperous. These results are attributed by officials to the change from repre sentative to crown government, although the latter has been much criticized as too arbitrary, and tending to a narrow officialism. The number of parishes for purposes of local government has been reduced from twenty-two to fourteen. Each parish has its own hospitals, almshouscs, &c., managed by its municipal board, the chairman of whom is the oustos, nominated by the governor. The members are appointed by the custos, subject to the governor s approval. Each parish also has a road board. The judicial estab lishment consists of the chancellor (the governor), a vice-chancellor and chief justice, two puisne judges of the supreme court, attorney general, crown solicitor, &c. ; there are seven district courts, somewhat on the model of county courts in England, the judges being barristers sent out from England. There are also four stipendiary magistrates, and a police magistrate for Kingston. The constabulary was placed on its present footing in 1867, and is modelled on the eystem of the Irish (semi-military) constabulary. Parochial medical officers paid by Govmiment attend the parochial institutions, constabulary, and immigrants. These officers arc