Nothing could be more alien to the spirit of inquiry and enterprise which leads to practical improvement.  In an enervating climate, with a proprietary for the most part non-resident, and a peasantry generally independent of their employers, much encouragement is requisite to induce managers to encounter the labour and responsibility which attends the introduction of new systems; but, by reason of the unfortunate prepossession above described, the announcement of a belief that the planters had not exhausted the resources within their reach, had been considered a declaration of hostility towards that class.

And truly (wrote Lord Elgin himself) the onus probandi lay, and pretty heavily too, upon the propounder of the obnoxious doctrine of hope.  Was it not shown on the face of unquestioned official returns, that the exports of the island had dwindled to one-third of their former amount?  Was it not attested even in Parliament, that estates, which used to produce thousands annually, were sinking money year after year?  Was it not apparent that the labourers stood in a relation of independence towards the owners of capital and land, totally unknown to a similar class in any fully peopled country?  All these were facts and indisputable.  And again, was it not equally certain that undeserved aspersions were cast upon the planters?  Were they not held responsible for results over which they could exercise no manner of control? and was it not natural that, having been thus calumniated, they should be somewhat impatient of advice?

From the day of Lord Elgin’s arrival in the colony, he was convinced that the endeavour to work a change on public opinion in this respect, would constitute one of his first and most important duties; but he was not insensible to the difficulties with which the experiment was surrounded.  He felt that a new Governor, rash enough to assert that all was not yet accomplished which ingenuity and perseverance could achieve, might have perilled his chance of benefiting the colony.  Men would have said, and with some truth, ’he knows nothing of the matter; his information is derived from A. or B.; he is a tool in their hands; he will undo all the good which others have effected by enlisting the sympathies of England in our favour.’  He would have been deemed a party man, and become an object of suspicion and distrust.

It was soon found, however, that the new Governor was as anxious as his predecessor had been to conciliate the good will and promote the interests of all ranks of the community in a spirit of perfect fairness and moderation.  The agitation of vexed constitutional questions he earnestly deprecated as likely to interrupt the harmony happily prevailing between the several branches of the legislature, and to divert the attention of influential members of the community from the material interests of the colony to the consideration of more exciting subjects.  ’I do not underrate,’ he said, ’the importance of constitutional questions, nor am I insensible to the honour which may be acquired by their satisfactory adjustment.  In the present crisis of our fortunes, however, I am impressed with the belief that he is the best friend to Jamaica who concentrates his energies on the promotion of the moral well-being of the population, and the restoration of the economical prosperity of the island.’