Maxims and Opinions of Field-Marshal His Grace the Duke of Wellington, Selected From His Writings and Speeches During a Public Life of More Than Half a CenturyWellington, Arthur Wellesley, Duke of
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Maxims and Opinions of Field-Marshal His Grace the Duke of Wellington, Selected From His Writings and Speeches During a Public Life of More Than Half a Century
Wellington, Arthur Wellesley, Duke of
Great Britain -- Politics and government -- 19th century; Wellington, Arthur Wellesley, Duke of, 1769-1852
We have sacrificed 20,000,000 l. of money to terminate slavery in the
British colonies; and we are now calling upon other nations--upon the
United States, upon Spain, upon the Brazils, and upon various powers
which possess slaves--to imitate and to follow our example; but what
have we done to secure the co-operation of those great countries in the
great object that we have in view? We have offered no inducement to
those nations to imitate our example, by the establishment of order and
good government in our West Indian colonies; for nowhere have we
properly or adequately availed ourselves of those advantages which we
have, or of those advantages which we might procure, to give security to
life and property in those islands, and to maintain peace and
tranquillity among their inhabitants. The communities in the West Indies
are all small societies; and there is not a man in any one of them, not
in Jamaica, even, which is the largest of them, who is not within the
reach of authority. The government of each of those islands is strong in
the means of exercising authority--strong in garrisons, strong in
troops, strong in a police force, and in everything necessary for the
preservation of life and property, for carrying the laws into execution,
and for affording security to every individual, even to the very lowest
of the people;--but yet, I will venture to say, since the enactment of
the law for the emancipation of the slaves, there have been and are no
societies, in the whole world, in such a state of disorganization,
disorder, and anarchy, as are those very West Indian islands of ours;
but which, if they were well managed and governed by the noble lord,
nominally at the head of the colonial department, instead of by the
different factions that resort thither to interfere with the business of
that government, ought, and are calculated, to be of the greatest
advantage to this nation. There are no societies in the world more
capable of being well governed, than those islands are, if the noble
lord opposite would only perform his duty in an independent manner, and
keep all factions at a distance, instead of allowing every faction in
this country to interfere, on all occasions, with the business of the
government in relation to those colonies. But this is not all; let your
lordships look round in all directions, and you will see the same
lamentable state of things existing. Look at Lower Canada, look at Upper
Canada, at Newfoundland--look where you will, you will see nothing but
disorder and anarchy--and resulting from what? from nothing but the
interference of factions in England; who, let your lordships recollect,
have nothing to do with those colonies. These disorders result solely
from the interference of those factions in the affairs of each of those
colonies; and till the government shall put an end to such interference,
and act altogether independently of it, it is impossible to hope for a
restoration of tranquillity.
_August 23, 1839._
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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