By this it will be understood that there is a Governor, representing the Crown, whose sanction or veto is of course given, as regards important measures, in accordance with instructions from the Colonial Office. The Governor has an Executive Committee, which tallies3 with our Cabinet. It consists at present of three members, one of whom belongs to the upper House and two to the lower. The Governor may appoint a fourth member if it so please him. These gentlemen are paid for their services, and preside over different departments, as do our Secretaries of State, &c. And there is a Most Honourable4 Privy5 Council, just as we have at home. Of this latter, the members may or may not support the Governor, seeing that they are elected for life.
The House of Lords is represented by the Legislative6 Council. This quasi-peerage is of course not hereditary7, but the members sit for life, and are nominated by the Governor. They are seventeen in number. The Legislative Council can of course put a veto on any bill.
The House of Assembly stands in the place of the House of Commons. It consists of forty-seven members, two being elected by nineteen parishes, and three each by three other parishes, those, namely, which contain the towns of Kingston, Spanish Town, and Port Royal.
In one respect this House of Commons falls short of the privileges and powers of our House at home. It cannot suggest money bills. No honourable member can make a proposition that so much a year shall be paid for such a purpose. The government did not wish to be driven to exercise the invidious power of putting repeated vetos on repeated suggestions for semi-public expenditure8; and therefore this power has been taken away. But any honourable member can bring before the House a motion to the effect that the Governor be recommended himself to propose, by one of the Executive Committee, such or such a money bill; and then if the Governor decline, the House can refuse to pass his supplies, and can play the "red devil" with his Excellency. So that it seems to come pretty nearly to the same thing.
At home in England, Crown, Lords, and Commons really seem to do very well. Some may think that the system wants a little shove this way, some the other. Reform may, or may not be, more or less needed. But on the whole we are governed honestly, liberally, and successfully; with at least a greater share of honesty, liberality, and success than has fallen to the lot of most other people. Each of the three estates enjoys the respect of the people at large, and a seat, either among the Lords or the Commons, is an object of high ambition. The system may therefore be said to be successful.
But it does not follow that because it answers in England it should answer in Jamaica; that institutions which suit the country which is perhaps in the whole world the furthest advanced in civilization, wealth, and public honesty, should suit equally well an island which is unfortunately very far from being advanced in those good qualities; whose civilization, as regards the bulk of the population, is hardly above that of savages9, whose wealth has vanished, and of whose public honesty—I will say nothing. Of that I myself will say nothing, but the Jamaicans speak of it in terms which are not flattering to their own land.
I do not think that the system does answer in Jamaica. In the first place, it must be remembered that it is carried on there in a manner very different from that exercised in our other West-Indian colonies. In Jamaica any man may vote who pays either tax or rent; but by a late law he must put in his claim to vote on a ten shilling stamp. There are in round numbers three hundred thousand blacks, seventy thousand coloured people, and fifteen thousand white; it may therefore easily be seen in what hands the power of electing must rest. Now in Barbados no coloured man votes at all. A coloured man or negro is doubtless qualified10 to vote if he own a freehold; but then, care is taken that such shall not own freeholds. In Trinidad, the legislative power is almost entirely11 in the hands of the Crown. In Guiana, which I look upon as the best governed of them all, this is very much the case.
It is not that I would begrudge12 the black man the right of voting because he is black, or that I would say that he is and must be unfit to vote, or unfit even to sit in a house of assembly; but the amalgamation13 as at present existing is bad. The objects sought after by a free and open representation of the people are not gained unless those men are as a rule returned who are most respected in the commonwealth14, so that the body of which they are the units may be respected also. This object is not achieved in Jamaica, and consequently the House of Assembly is not respected. It does not contain the men of most weight and condition in the island, and is contemptuously spoken of even in Jamaica itself, and even by its own members.
Some there are, some few, who have gotten themselves to be elected, in order that things which are already bad may not, if such can be avoided, become worse. They, no doubt, are they who best do their duty by the country in which their lot lies. But, for the most part, those who should represent Jamaica will not condescend16 to take part in the debates, nor will they solicit17 the votes of the negroes.
It would appear from these observations as though I thought that the absolute ascendency of the white man should still be maintained in Jamaica. By no means. Let him be ascendant who can—in Jamaica or elsewhere—who honestly can. I doubt whether such ascendency, the ascendency of Europeans and white Creoles, can be longer maintained in this island. It is not even now maintained; and for that reason chiefly I hold that this system of Lords and Commons is not compatible with the present genius of the place. Let coloured men fill the public offices, and enjoy the sweets of official pickings. I would by no means wish to interfere18 with any good things which fortune may be giving them in this respect. But I think there would be greater probability of their advancing in their new profession honestly and usefully, if they could be made to look more to the Colonial Office at home, and less to the native legislature.
At home, no member of the House of Commons can hold a government contract. The members of the House of Assembly in Jamaica have no such prejudicial embargo19 attached to the honour of their seats. They can hold the government contracts; and it is astonishing how many of them are in their hands.
The great point which strikes a stranger is this, that the House of Assembly is not respected in the island. Jamaicans themselves have no confidence in it. If the white men could be polled, the majority I think would prefer to be rid of it altogether, and to be governed, as Trinidad is governed, by a Governor with a council; of course with due power of reference to the Colonial Office.
Let any man fancy what England would be if the House of Commons were ludicrous in the eyes of Englishmen; if men ridiculed20 or were ashamed of all their debates. Such is the case as regards the Jamaica House of Commons.
In truth, there is not room for a machinery21 so complicated in this island. The handful of white men can no longer have it all their own way; and as for the negroes—let any warmest advocate of the "man and brother" position say whether he has come across three or four of the class who are fit to enact22 laws for their own guidance and the guidance of others.
It pains me to write words which may seem to be opposed to humanity and a wide philanthropy; but a spade is a spade, and it is worse than useless to say that it is something else.
The proof of the truth of what I say with reference to this system of Lords and Commons is to be found in the eating of the pudding. It may not perhaps be fair to adduce the prosperity of Barbados, and to compare it with the adversity of Jamaica, seeing that local circumstances were advantageous23 to Barbados at the times of emancipation24 and equalization of the sugar duties. Barbados was always able to command a plentiful25 supply of labour. But it is quite fair to compare Jamaica with Guiana or Trinidad. In both these colonies the negro was as well able to shirk his work as in Jamaica.
And in these two colonies the negro did shirk his work, just as he did in Jamaica; and does still to a great extent. The limits of these colonies are as extensive as Jamaica is, and the negro can squat26. They are as fertile as Jamaica is, and the negro can procure27 his food almost without trouble. But not the less is it a fact that the exportation of sugar from Guiana and Trinidad now exceeds the amount exported in the time of slavery, while the exportation from Jamaica is almost as nothing.
But in Trinidad and Guiana they have no House of Commons, with Mr. Speaker, three readings, motions for adjournment2, and unlimited28 powers of speech. In those colonies the governments—acting with such assistance as was necessary—have succeeded in getting foreign labour. In Jamaica they have as yet but succeeded in talking about it. In Guiana and Trinidad they make much sugar, and boast loudly of making more. In Jamaica they make but very little, and have not self-confidence enough left with them to make any boast whatsoever29.
With all the love that an Englishman should have for a popular parliamentary representation, I cannot think it adapted to a small colony, even were that colony not from circumstances so peculiarly ill fitted for it as is Jamaica. In Canada and Australia it is no doubt very well; the spirit of a fresh and energetic people struggling on into the world's eminence30 will produce men fit for debating, men who can stand on their legs without making a house of legislature ridiculous. But what could Lords and Commons do in Malta, or in Jersey31? What would they do in the Scilly Islands? What have they been doing in the Ionian Islands? And, alas32! what have they done in Jamaica?
Her roads are almost impassable, her bridges are broken down, her coffee plantations33 have gone back to bush, her sugar estates have been sold for the value of the sugar-boilers. Kingston as a town is the most deplorable that man ever visited, unless it be that Spanish Town is worse. And yet they have Lords and Commons with all but unlimited powers of making motions! It has availed them nothing, and I fear will avail them nothing.
This I know may be said, that be the Lords and Commons there for good or evil, they are to be moved neither by men nor gods. It is I imagine true, that no power known to the British empire could deprive Jamaica of her constitution. It has had some kind of a house of assembly since the time of Charles II.; nay34, I believe, since the days of Cromwell; which by successive doctoring has grown to be such a parody35, as it now is, on our home mode of doing business. How all this may now be altered and brought back to reason, perhaps no man can say. Probably it cannot be altered till some further smash shall come; but it is not on that account the less objectionable.
The House of Assembly and the Chamber36 of the Legislative Council are both situated37 in the same square with the Governor's mansion38 in Spanish Town. The desolateness39 of this place I have attempted to describe elsewhere, and yet, when I was there, Parliament was sitting! What must the place be during the nine months when Parliament does not sit? They are yellow buildings, erected40 at considerable expense, and not without some pretence41. But nevertheless, they are ugly—ugly from their colour, ugly from the heat, and ugly from a certain heaviness which seems natural to them and to the place.
The house itself in which the forty-seven members sit is comfortable enough, and not badly adapted for its purposes. The Speaker sits at one end all in full fig42, with a clerk at the table below; opposite to him, two-thirds down the room, a low bar, about four feet high, runs across it. As far as this the public are always admitted; and when any subject of special interest is under discussion twelve or fifteen persons may be seen there assembled. Then there is a side room opening from the house, into which members take their friends. Indeed it is, I believe, generally open to any one wearing a decent coat. There is the Bellamy of the establishment, in which honourable members take such refreshment43 as the warmth of the debate may render necessary. Their tastes seemed to me to be simple, and to addict44 themselves chiefly to rum and water.
I was throwing away my cigar as I entered the precincts of the house. "Oh, you can smoke," said my friend to me; "only, when you stand at the doorway45, don't let the Speaker's eye catch the light; but it won't much matter." So I walked on, and stood at the side door, smoking my cigar indeed, but conscious that I was desecrating46 the place.
I saw five or six coloured gentlemen in the house, and two negroes—sitting in the house as members. As far as the two latter men were concerned, I could not but be gratified to see them in the fair enjoyment47 of the objects of a fair ambition. Had they not by efforts of their own made themselves greatly superior to others of their race, they would not have been there. I say this, fearing that it may be thought that I begrudge a black man such a position. I begrudge the black men nothing that they can honestly lay hands on; but I think that we shall benefit neither them nor ourselves by attempting with a false philanthropy to make them out to be other than they are.
The subject under debate was a railway bill. The railway system is not very extended in the island; but there is a railway, and the talk was of prolonging it. Indeed, the house I believe had on some previous occasion decided48 that it should be prolonged, and the present fight was as to some particular detail. What that detail was I did not learn, for the business being performed was a continual series of motions for adjournment carried on by a victorious49 minority of three.
It was clear that the conquered majority of—say thirty—was very angry. For some reason, appertaining probably to the tactics of the house, these thirty were exceedingly anxious to have some special point carried and put out of the way that night, but the three were inexorable. Two of the three spoke15 continually, and ended every speech with a motion for adjournment.
And then there was a disagreement among the thirty. Some declared all this to be "bosh," proposed to leave the house without any adjournment, play whist, and let the three victors enjoy their barren triumph. Others, made of sterner stuff, would not thus give way. One after another they made impetuous little speeches, then two at a time, and at last three. They thumped50 the table, and called each other pretty names, walked about furiously, and devoted51 the three victors to the infernal gods.
And then one of the black gentlemen arose, and made a calm, deliberate little oration52. The words he spoke were about the wisest which were spoken that night, and yet they were not very wise. He offered to the house a few platitudes53 on the general benefit of railways, which would have applied54 to any railway under the sun, saying that eggs and fowls55 would be taken to market; and then he sat down. On his behalf I must declare that there were no other words of such wisdom spoken that night. But this relief lasted only for three minutes.
After a while two members coming to the door declared that it was becoming unbearable56, and carried me away to play whist. "My place is close by," said one, "and if the row becomes hot we shall hear it. It is dreadful to stay there with such an object, and with the certainty of missing one's object after all." As I was inclined to agree with him, I went away and played whist.
But soon a storm of voices reached our ears round the card-table. "They are hard at it now," said one honourable member. "That's So-and-So, by the screech57." The yell might have been heard at Kingston, and no doubt was.
"By heavens they are at it," said another. "Ha, ha, ha! A nice house of assembly, isn't it?"
"Will they pitch into one another?" I asked, thinking of scenes of which I had read of in another country; and thinking also, I must confess, that an absolute bodily scrimmage on the floor of the house might be worth seeing.
"They don't often do that," said my friend. "They trust chiefly to their voices; but there's no knowing."
The temptation was too much for me, so I threw down my cards and rushed back to the Assembly. When I arrived the louder portion of the noise was being made by one gentleman who was walking round and round the chamber, swearing in a loud voice that he would resign the very moment the Speaker was seated in the chair; for at that time the house was in committee. The louder portion of the noise, I say, for two other honourable members were speaking, and the rest were discussing the matter in small parties.
"Shameful58, abominable59, scandalous, rascally60!" shouted the angry gentleman over and over again, as he paced round and round the chamber. "I'll not sit in such a house; no man should sit in such a house. By G——, I'll resign as soon as I see the Speaker in that chair. Sir, come and have a drink of rum and water."
In his angry wanderings his steps had brought him to the door at which I was standing61, and these last words were addressed to me. "Come and have a drink of rum and water," and he seized me with a hospitable62 violence by the arm. I did not dare to deny so angry a legislator, and I drank the rum and water. Then I returned to my cards.
It may be said that nearly the same thing does sometimes occur in our own House of Commons—always omitting the threats of resignation and the drink. With us at home a small minority may impede63 the business of the house by adjournments, and members sometimes become loud and angry. But in Jamaica the storm raged in so small a teapot! The railway extension was to be but for a mile or two, and I fear would hardly benefit more than the eggs and fowls for which the dark gentleman pleaded.
In heading this chapter I have spoken of the government, and it may be objected to me that in writing it I have written only of the legislature, and not at all of the mode of governing. But in truth the mode of government depends entirely on the mode of legislature.
As regards the Governor himself and his ministers, I do not doubt that they do their best; but I think that their best might be much better if their hands were not so closely tied by this teapot system of Queen, Lords, and Commons.
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1
paraphernalia
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| n.装备；随身用品 | |
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adjournment
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| 休会； 延期； 休会期； 休庭期 | |
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tallies
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| n.账( tally的名词复数 )；符合；（计数的）签；标签v.计算，清点( tally的第三人称单数 )；加标签（或标记）于；（使）符合；（使）吻合 | |
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honourable
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| adj.可敬的；荣誉的，光荣的 | |
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privy
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| adj.私用的；隐密的 | |
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legislative
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| n.立法机构，立法权；adj.立法的，有立法权的 | |
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hereditary
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| adj.遗传的，遗传性的，可继承的，世袭的 | |
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expenditure
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| n.(时间、劳力、金钱等)支出；使用，消耗 | |
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savages
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| 未开化的人，野蛮人( savage的名词复数 ) | |
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qualified
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| adj.合格的，有资格的，胜任的，有限制的 | |
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entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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begrudge
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| vt.吝啬，羡慕 | |
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amalgamation
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| n.合并，重组；；汞齐化 | |
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commonwealth
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| n.共和国，联邦，共同体 | |
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spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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condescend
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| v.俯就，屈尊；堕落，丢丑 | |
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solicit
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| vi.勾引；乞求；vt.请求，乞求；招揽(生意) | |
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interfere
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| v.(in)干涉，干预；(with)妨碍，打扰 | |
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embargo
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| n.禁运（令）；vt.对...实行禁运，禁止（通商） | |
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ridiculed
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| v.嘲笑，嘲弄，奚落( ridicule的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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machinery
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| n.(总称)机械，机器；机构 | |
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enact
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| vt.制定(法律)；上演，扮演 | |
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advantageous
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| adj.有利的；有帮助的 | |
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emancipation
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| n.（从束缚、支配下）解放 | |
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plentiful
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| adj.富裕的，丰富的 | |
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squat
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| v.蹲坐，蹲下；n.蹲下；adj.矮胖的，粗矮的 | |
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procure
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| vt.获得，取得，促成；vi.拉皮条 | |
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unlimited
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| adj.无限的，不受控制的，无条件的 | |
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whatsoever
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eminence
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| n.卓越，显赫；高地，高处；名家 | |
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jersey
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alas
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| int.唉(表示悲伤、忧愁、恐惧等) | |
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plantations
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| n.种植园，大农场( plantation的名词复数 ) | |
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nay
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parody
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| n.打油诗文，诙谐的改编诗文，拙劣的模仿；v.拙劣模仿，作模仿诗文 | |
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chamber
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| n.房间，寝室；会议厅；议院；会所 | |
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situated
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| adj.坐落在...的，处于某种境地的 | |
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mansion
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| n.大厦，大楼；宅第 | |
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desolateness
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| 孤独 | |
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ERECTED
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pretence
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fig
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refreshment
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| n.恢复，精神爽快，提神之事物；（复数）refreshments:点心，茶点 | |
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addict
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| v.使沉溺；使上瘾；n.沉溺于不良嗜好的人 | |
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doorway
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| n.门口，(喻)入门；门路，途径 | |
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desecrating
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| 毁坏或亵渎( desecrate的现在分词 ) | |
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enjoyment
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decided
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| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
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victorious
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| adj.胜利的，得胜的 | |
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thumped
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| v.重击， （指心脏）急速跳动( thump的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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devoted
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| adj.忠诚的，忠实的，热心的，献身于...的 | |
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oration
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platitudes
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| n.平常的话，老生常谈，陈词滥调( platitude的名词复数 )；滥套子 | |
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applied
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| adj.应用的；v.应用，适用 | |
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fowls
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| 鸟( fowl的名词复数 )； 禽肉； 既不是这； 非驴非马 | |
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unbearable
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| adj.不能容忍的；忍受不住的 | |
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screech
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| n./v.尖叫；(发出)刺耳的声音 | |
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shameful
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| adj.可耻的，不道德的 | |
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abominable
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| adj.可厌的，令人憎恶的 | |
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rascally
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| adj. 无赖的，恶棍的 adv. 无赖地，卑鄙地 | |
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standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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hospitable
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| adj.好客的；宽容的；有利的，适宜的 | |
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63
impede
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| v.妨碍，阻碍，阻止 | |
参考例句： |
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