shall not be denied to him, and that they may yet give their officials
to understand that they must not, shall not, shake off their
responsibilities for this unfortunate people, by flinging them back upon
themselves 'to manage their own affairs,' now that we have no further
use for them.

I was told that the keener-witted Trinidad blacks are watching as
eagerly as we do the development of the Irish problem. They see the
identity of the situation. They see that if the Radical view prevails,
and in every country the majority are to rule, Trinidad will be theirs
and the government of the English will be at an end. I, for myself, look
upon Trinidad and the West Indies generally as an opportunity for the
further extension of the influence of the English race in their special
capacity of leaders and governors of men. We cannot with honour divest
ourselves of our responsibility for the blacks, or after the eloquence
we have poured out and the self-laudation which we have allowed
ourselves for the suppression of slavery, leave them now to relapse into
a state from which slavery itself was the first step of emancipation.
Our world-wide dominion will not be of any long endurance if we consider
that we have discharged our full duty to our fellow-subjects when we
have set them free to follow their own devices. If that is to be all,
the sooner it vanishes into history the better for us and for the
world.

FOOTNOTES:

[7] A squadron did go while I was in the West Indies. I have not heard
that any advance has been made in consequence towards the settlement of
the Border.

CHAPTER IX.

Barbadoes again--Social condition of the island--Political
constitution--Effects of the sugar bounties--Dangers of general
bankruptcy--The Hall of Assembly--Sir Charles Pearson--Society in
Bridgetown--A morning drive--Church of St. John's--Sir Graham
Briggs--An old planter's palace--The Chief Justice of Barbadoes.

Again at sea, and on the way back to Barbadoes. The commodore of the
training squadron had offered me a berth to St. Vincent, but he intended
to work up under sail against the north-east trade, which had risen to
half a gale, and I preferred the security and speed of the mail boat.
Among the passengers was Miss ----, the lady whom I had seen sketching
on the way to the Blue Basin. She showed me her drawings, which were
excellent. She showed me in her mosquito-bitten arms what she had
endured to make them,