We now come to a matter extremely painful in itself, inasmuch as it involves a gross, flagrant, and dishonourable breach of our plighted faith. The colonies which had already suffered so much, even under the apprentice system, again became the object of fierce attack by the Liberal party in England. Every one knows how easy it is to get up a shout upon any vague pretext of humanity, and how frequently the credulity of the people of England has been imposed on by specious and designing hypocrites. With this set of men, Africa, has been for many years a pet subject of complaint. They have made the wrongs of the negro a short and profitable cut to fame and fortune, and their spurious philanthropy has never failed to engage the support of a large number of weak but well-meaning individuals, who are totally ignorant of the real objects which lie at the bottom of the agitation. Utterly regardless of the nature of the bargain so recently and solemnly made, throwing aside and trampling upon national honour with unparalleled effrontery, these men began to denounce apprenticeship in the colonies as something worse than slavery, and to demand its instant abolition. The subject of declamation was a popular one, and unfortunately it gathered strength. No one thought of the condition of the colonists, who had been already subjected to so much hardship, and to whom the continuance of apprenticeship for a certain period had been solemnly and advisedly guaranteed. The spirit of our constitution does not recognise the presence of any representation of the colonies within the walls of the Imperial Parliament: and although it is popularly, or rather ludicrously, said that Jamaica is as much a portion of the British dominions as Yorkshire, we have no hesitation in meting out to the one a measure of injustice which no Parliament and no Minister would dare to venture in the case of the other. To our shame therefore be it said, that the agitation, so subversive of good faith and of public morals, was crowned with success. Two years of the apprentice period were curtailed. A robbery to that extent—for it was nothing else—was perpetrated upon the unfortunate colonists, and on the 1st of August 1838, unqualified freedom was granted to the negro population.