house that from the agitation at home, and the corresponding agitation which at the present moment prevailed here, it was physically impossible to carry one the apprenticeship with advantage to masters and labourers.  He would take leave to remark, that the apprenticeship was working very well—­in some of the parishes had worked extremely well.  Where this was not the case, it was attributable to the improper conduct of the Special Justices.  He did not mean to reflect upon them all; there were some honorable exceptions, but he would say that a great deal of the ill-feeling which had arisen in the country between the masters and their apprentices, was to be traced to the injudicious advice and conduct of the special Justices.”

Such were the sentiments of by far the majority of those who spoke in the Assembly.  Such, doubtless, were the sentiments of more than nine-tenths of the persons invested with the management of estates in Jamaica.  What, then if we had heard that nine-tenths of the emancipated had refused to be employed?  Could that have been counted a failure of the experiment?  Was there any reason to believe that the planters would not resort to every species of oppression compatible with a system of wages?

Before proceeding to the question of wages, however, we invite the reader to scan the temper and disposition of the parties of the other part, viz., the laboring population.  Let us observe more carefully how they behaved at the important period of

TRANSITION

Two of the sturdiest advocates of slavery, the Jamaica Standard and the Cornwall Courier, speak as follows:—­

The Standard says—­“On Tuesday evening, (July 31), the Wesleyan, and we believe, Baptist Chapels, (St. James’) were opened for service—­the former being tastefully decorated with branches of the palm, sage, and other trees, with a variety of appropriate devices, having a portrait of her Majesty in the center, and a crown above.  When we visited the Chapel, about 10 o’clock, it was completely full, but not crowded, the generality of the audience well dressed; and all evidently of the better class of the colored and negro population.  Shortly after, we understand, a very excellent and modern sermon, in all political points, was delivered by the Rev. Mr. Kerr, the highly respected pastor.  The congregation was dismissed shortly after 12 o’clock; at which hour the church bell commenced its solemn peal, and a few noisy spirits welcomed in the morning of Freedom with loud cheers, and planted a huge branch, which they termed the “Tree of Liberty,” in the center of the two roads crossing the market square.”

Again the Standard observes, “The long, and somewhat anxiously expected jubilee of Emancipation has arrived, and now nearly passed over, with a remarkable degree of quiet and circumspection.  Of St. James’s of course, we speak more particularly,—­St. James’s, hitherto the most reviled, and most unwarrantably calumniated parish, of all the parishes in this unfortunate and distracted colony!”