eir suffrages.
But the black does not love the mulatto, and despises the white man who
consents to be his servant. He has no grievances. He is not naturally a
politician, and if left alone with his own patch of land, will never
trouble himself to look further. But he knows what has happened in St.
Domingo. He has heard that his race is already in full possession of the
finest of all the islands. If he has any thought or any hopes about the
matter, it is that it may be with the rest of them as it has been with
St. Domingo, and if you force the power into his hands, you must expect
him to use it. Under the constitution which you would set up, whites and
blacks may be nominally equal; but from the enormous preponderance of
numbers the equality would be only in name, and such English people, at
least, as would be really of any value, would refuse to remain in a
false and intolerable position. Already the English population of
Trinidad is dwindling away under the uncertainties of their future
position. Complete the work, set up a constitution with a black prime
minister and a black legislature, and they will withdraw of themselves
before they are compelled to go. Spaniards and French might be tempted
by advantages of trade to remain in Port of Spain, as a few are still to
be found in Hayti. They, it is possible, might in time recover and
reassert their supremacy. Englishmen have the world open to them, and
will prefer lands where they can live under less degrading conditions.
In Hayti the black republic allows no white man to hold land in
freehold. The blacks elsewhere with the same opportunities will develop
the same aspirations.

Do we, or do we not, intend to retain our West Indian Islands under the
sovereignty of the Queen? If we are willing to let them go, the question
is settled. But we ought to face the alternative. There is but one form
of government under which we can retain these colonies with honour and
security to ourselves and with advantage to the negroes whom we have
placed there--the mode of government which succeeds with us so admirably
that it is the world's wonder in the _East_ Indies, a success so unique
and so extraordinary that it seems the last from which we are willing
to take example.

In Natal, where the circumstances are analogous, and where report says
that efforts are being also made to force on constitutional
independence, I remember suggesting a few years ago that the governor
should be allow