e, why young Englishmen
went planting to so many other countries, went even to Ceylon and
Borneo, while comparatively at their own doors, within a fortnight's
sail of Plymouth, there was this island immeasurably more fertile than
either? The explanation, I suppose, is the misgiving that the West
Indies are consigned by the tendencies of English policy to the black
population, and that a local government created by representatives of
the negro vote would make a residence there for an energetic and
self-respecting European less tolerable than in any other part of the
globe. The republic of Hayti not only excludes a white man from any
share of the administration, but forbids his acquisition or possession
of real property in any form. Far short of such extreme provisions, the
most prosperous industry might be blighted by taxation. Self-government
is a beautiful subject for oratorical declamation. If the fact
corresponded to the theory and if the possession of a vote produced the
elevating effects upon the character which are so noisily insisted upon,
it would be the welcome panacea for political and social disorder.
Unfortunately the fact does not correspond to the theory. The possession
of a vote never improved the character of any human being and never
will.

There are many islands in the West Indies, and an experiment might be
ventured without any serious risk. Let the suffrage principle be applied
in its fullness where the condition of the people seems best to promise
success. In some one of them--Dominica would do as well as any
other--let a man of ability and character with an ambition to
distinguish himself be sent to govern with a free hand. Let him choose
his own advisers, let him be untrammelled, unless he falls into fatal
and inexcusable errors, with interference from home. Let him have time
to carry out any plans which he may form, without fear of recall at the
end of the normal period. After ten or fifteen years, let the results of
the two systems be compared side by side. I imagine the objection to
such a trial would be the same which was once made in my hearing by an
Irish friend of mine, who was urging on an English statesman the
conversion of Ireland into a Crown colony. 'You dare not try it,' he
said, 'for if you did, in twenty years we would be the most prosperous
island of the two, and you would be wanting to follow our example.'

We had exhausted the neighbourhood of Roseau. After a few days Captain
C