Under a pure despotism, the morals of politics would make but a very short chapter. Mercy in the ruler; obedience in his officers, with, perhaps, an occasional stroke of remonstrance; and taxpaying in the people, would comprehend the whole. Among a self-governing people, who profess to take human equality for their great common principle, and the golden rule for their political vow, a long chapter of many sections is required.

The morals of politics are not too familiar anywhere. The clergy are apt to leave out its topics from their list of subjects for the pulpit. Writers on morals make that chapter as brief as if they lived under the pure despotism, supposed above. An honest newspaper, here and there, or a newspaper honest for some particular occasion, and therefore uninfluential in its temporary honesty, are the only speakers on the morals of politics. The only speakers; but not the only exhibitors. Scattered here and there, through a vast reach of ages, and expanse of communities, there may be found, to bless his race, an honest statesman.

From the first settlement of Trinidad by the Spaniards in the sixteenth century, it continued under their dominion, without any interruption, till 1676, when a French fleet got possession, and kept it for a short time; but they found it not worth retaining, and very soon took their departure. For more than a century after that period, it must have retrograded rather than advanced in prosperity, as, fifty years ago, the whole of the colonial population, including white, brown, and black, freemen and slaves, did not exceed 700 persons; while the native Indians were more than 2000. About the last-mentioned date, however, a Spaniard from Grenada visited the island, and was so struck with its importance and capabilities, both as a colony and a commercial station, that he proceeded to Europe, and prevailed upon the court of Madrid to give it a share of their attention. Many of those impolitic restrictions which were peculiar to Spain, and calculated to impede all improvements in her foreign colonies, were, at the instance of Senhor St. Laurent, removed; and a royal edict was published, inviting all strangers, who professed the Roman Catholic faith, to settle in Trinidad, where they would meet with every possible encouragement, and be protected for five years against all duns and arrestment for debt, whatever might be the liabilities they had incurred in the places from whence they came.

It is uttering no calumny against the people of Holland (I speak not of them as individuals, but as a nation), to say that they have ever been considered and proved the most cruel and severe task-masters: if we look, however, beyond the mere surface of things, we shall probably find that their conduct in this respect has arisen from qualities highly estimable and praiseworthy in themselves,—that, most persevering, industrious, and punctual in all his duties, his dealings, and private transactions in business, the Hollander has no sympathy with the idle, the indolent, or dissipated, portion of his fellow-creatures. The Dutchman's system is to compel obedience to his orders and regulations, more by the severity of his punishments, than by any marks of his kindness, or any promises of reward. He was taught in youth that the very utmost stretch of human exertion, to accomplish what he was ordered to perform, was a right or duty which he owed to his parents and superiors; and when he grew up, he felt that he had a claim to demand the same obedience from all his inferiors. Nature, therefore, had made him a very Jew in demanding the entire of his pound of flesh, and it is no difficult matter to account for the greater prevalence of Dutch feeling and Dutch practice amongst the British colonists in Guiana than in any other of our conquered possessions.

Notwithstanding the agitation that was kept up, and the excitement caused by the misrepresentations of a disappointed and now humbled opposition, the Governor has contrived, with the assistance of the many honourable and good men in the colony, to promote a thorough reform in most of the regulations that affected the commercial and financial prosperity of the province, and to place both upon a more liberal and a better foundation.

That British Guiana is perhaps the most important colony under the British crown, and will soon be the most valuable, is neither an improper nor an unwarranted assertion. With a body of labourers not more than one-fifth of the number employed in Jamaica, she was able, even in the days of the greatest depression, to raise produce nearly equal to three-fourths of all that Jamaica has ever exported. If such, then, was actually the case, during the existence of slavery, what may we not expect from the better regulated and improving arrangements of free labour? Besides, we must recollect that, in the course of the 300 and more years that the land in Jamaica has been under cultivation, the most productive soil has been greatly exhausted, and there is no new country to commence upon, whereas British Guiana may be pronounced as-almost in its virgin state.

There are few portions of this earth's surface that can afford more interest to the student of natural history, and certainly none more deserving of the attention of the geologist. Trinidad, though dignified with the title of “Queen of the Islands,” and greater in extent than the whole of our Windward islands combined, is still, comparatively speaking, a mere spot or speck in the great chart of the world. Yet in this small spot we find not a few of what may be considered the living representatives of the first inhabitants of a former world, the modified types of long-extinct races of animal and vegetable creations. We have here a beautiful illustration of what geology tells us was the condition of the surface of the whole earth, ere it was prepared for the residence of man; and we find almost every variety of material and of structure that has as yet been discovered by man in his subsequent researches throughout what Professor Buckland has so appropriately denominated “the archives of the interior of the earth.” We have the land fitted only for the support of vegetable life, or, at most, of a few animals whose forms indicate that their principal abode must be in the waters; we have the mud and slime that had been deposited at the bottom of the earliest seas, baked into hard and stratified rocks, and forming mountains of great extent, some thousand feet above the surface of the present ocean.

Notwithstanding the enormous wealth acquired by thousands, and the uninterrupted prosperity of the colonies now united as British Guiana, for a long series of years, they afford a striking proof of the utter impossibility of our being able to serve God and Mammon. It was not till the year of our redemption 1810, that a regular temple was built, in which the people could meet to worship the living God, or that any provision was made for the performance of Divine service at Georgetown. Even then, the building that was consecrated and set apart for religious worship, according to the ritual of the Church of England, had more the resemblance of a barn than a church. It was, however, named St. George's church.

I have already stated, that a large proportion of the white inhabitants of British Guiana are natives, or descendants of natives, of North Britain; yet it was not till 1819, that they bethought themselves of building a Kirk, wherein they might praise the Lord after the manner of their pious forefathers. When, however, this was resolved upon, they raised a very splendid and commodious building.

It was not till the first day of May, 1826, that an ordinance was passed for the encouragement of religious instruction, and the preservation of the pure and holy faith of the Gospel in this land; for so I consider that ordinance, which enacts, that “Whereas his Excellency the Lieutenant-Governor, and Court of Policy, have deemed it expedient to divide the united colony of Demerara and Essequibo into ten separate and distinct parishes, they are henceforward to be so divided and named accordingly.”

I would say to such of my readers as intend to visit the West Indies, “Banish from your memories all that you may have read or heard of the country, the climate, or the people; and, with a mind as little fettered as possible by any prevailing theory or preconceived opinion, begin and study them on the spot each for himself. You will find the scenery, at whatever island you may arrive, new, and very beautiful; and every spot of earth in the Carribean sea well calculated to engage the attention of any one accustomed to study or to take an interest in the various productions of animated nature.” The climate, according to the period of the year at which the traveller may arrive, will at first be felt as more or less oppressively hot; and the people, whether white, black, or brown, will receive him with a pleasing openness of manner, and an apparent kindness of heart, which, whether real or affected, is at first very engaging; and certainly, all classes, particularly the higher, are most hospitable and courteous to strangers.

Notwithstanding many annoyances from poisonous reptiles, and from stinging insects, and from the sight of crawling vermin, and ugly creeping things, the newly-arrived may (if his own temper will permit,) enjoy tolerable comfort in any one of our West India colonies; and, as a physician, I may tell him, that unless by his own imprudence he lays the foundation of serious disease, there is nothing inherent in the country, the climate, or the annoyances he may meet with, that will lead to any sudden attack of ill-health, or induce either a plague or a pestilence.

The glory of the world passeth away. One kind of worldly glory passes away, and another comes. Like a series of clouds sailing by the moon, and growing dim and dimmer as they go down the sky, are the transitory glories which are only brightened for an age by man's smile: dark vapours, which carry no light within themselves. How many such have floated across the expanse of history, and melted away! It was once a glory to have a power of life and death over a patriarchal family: and how mean does this now appear, in comparison with the power of life and death which every man has over his own intellect! It was once a glory to be feared: how much better is it now esteemed to be loved!