n one tittle of risk from anything
that it pleased Mr. Froude to write or say on the subject. But,
meditating further on the question, the reflection forced itself upon
me that, beyond the mere political personages in the circle more
directly addressed by Mr. Froude's volume, there were individuals whose
influence or possible sympathy we could not afford to disregard, or to
esteem lightly. So I deemed it right and a patriotic duty to attempt
[17] the enterprise myself, in obedience to the above stated motives.

At this point I must pause to express on behalf of the entire coloured
population of the West Indies our most heartfelt acknowledgments to Mr.
C. Salmon for the luminous and effective vindication of us, in his
volume on "West Indian Confederation," against Mr. Froude's libels.
The service thus rendered by Mr. Salmon possesses a double significance
and value in my estimation. In the first place, as being the work of a
European of high position, quite independent of us (who testifies
concerning Negroes, not through having gazed at them from balconies,
decks of steamers, or the seats of moving carriages, but from actual
and long personal intercourse with them, which the internal evidence of
his book plainly proves to have been as sympathetic as it was
familiar), and, secondly, as the work of an individual entirely outside
of our race, it has been gratefully accepted by myself as an incentive
to self-help, on the same more formal and permanent lines, in a matter
so important to the status which we can justly claim as a progressive,
law-abiding, and self-respecting section of Her Majesty's liege
subjects.

[18] It behoves me now to say a few words respecting this book as a
mere literary production.

Alexander Pope, who, next to Shakespeare and perhaps Butler, was the
most copious contributor to the current stock of English maxims, says:

"True ease in writing comes from Art, not Chance,
As those move easiest who have learnt to dance."

A whole dozen years of bodily sickness and mental tribulation have not
been conducive to that regularity of practice in composition which
alone can ensure the "true ease" spoken of by the poet; and therefore
is it that my style leaves so much to be desired, and exhibits,
perhaps, still, more to be pardoned. Happily, a quarrel such as ours
with the author of "The English in the West Indies" cannot be finally
or even approximately settled on the score of superior litera