"Annexation "of Canada is passing into a settled point with
the citizens of the United States ; and the moot question is, whether it can be effected without the simultaneous annexation of Cuba? The Southern States say not, and the Northern do not very seriously dispute the matter. For it is handled as if it were merely a question between the North and South of the Ame- rican Union, in which those remote old countries England and Spain have little voice.
While the Model Republic has fixed the eye of covetousness on Cuba, our principal West Indian Colonies exhibit a decidedly waning allegiance. Jamaica does so, and not the less because her hostile bearing becomes more measured and more specifically directed against the weak points in the Downing Street policy. The Assembly has again declared its want of confidence in the disposition of the Imperial Government to do justice, and has been dissolved by the Governor ; but it is expected that a new election will only increase the majority against the officials. No step is taken to retrieve the affection of the colonists. Even in this country, politicians have coolly discussed the proba bility that Jamaica should become an English San Domingo ; as if the Whites of the island would not most assuredly take refuge from such a fate in " annexation" ! The Parliamentary Reform which Governor Barkly has originated in British Guiana, as a means of circumventing the Opposition in the Court of Policy, can do little to heal the breach between parent country and colony. Nor will Lord Grey's offer to place Jamaica on the footing of Canada in affairs of government do much. As it has been administered in Canada, "responsible government" has resulted chiefly in shifting trouble from Downing Street to the colony, and in enabling local parties to provoke disloyal ex- asperations. The experience of Canada affords little promise that responsible government in Jamaica would neutralize "annexation." It is the letter of responsible government rather than its spirit which has been realized under the auspices of Downing Street. According to the official view, it means that the Governor must place himself in the hands of the most active local agitators. But a true responsible government would in- volve a persevering effort on the part of the Governor to recon- cile Imperial connexion with the distinct nationalitylhat mot necessarily he impressed on every important colony. However attached to English associations, any community of men, con- veyed to distant latitudes, living in scenery wholly different, feeding on diet strange to home-keeping palates, wearing a cos- tume fitted to alien climes, following occupations rising from alien agriculture, must of necessity acquire a peculiar and distinct nationality, possessing its own feelings, wants, and estimates. Whatever the ostensible form of the colonial relations, it cannot work smoothly unless it is in its nature federal ; and the effort of genuine statesmanship would be, not to force London practice on Jamaica or Montreal, Cape Town or Sydney, but to translate the language of the Metropolitan Government into the dialect pe- culiar to each province; making the action of the whole empire harmonious in spirit by varying the letter. That would be really governing each colony according to "the rvell-v,nderstood wishes of the colonists."
In the United States, the question of Annexation may be some- what modified by that of Slavery. Grasping at territory, the gigantic Union bids fair to grow into an immense empire, for- midable to the world. Our statesmen appear equally unable to gaze into that future or to prepare for it. The internal canker of the Republic is its slavery : that the leading citizens now per- ceive, and men of opposite parties, like Henry Clay and Martin Van Buren, are combining to advance the discussion profitably. God speed their efforts. If our statesmen could rightly under- stand their own opportunity and function, they might yet teach the Union, by the example of the West Indies, how the slave question is to be solved ; and thus, while earning the thanks of honest Americans, restore the affections of the West Indians to England.
