§ MR. GRANTLEY BERKELEYsaid, he had a question to put to the hon. Gentleman the Under Secretary for the Colonies, and which he would put under three distinct heads: First, whether or not Commissioners had been appointed by Government to inquire into the state and prospects of British Guiana? Second, whether those Commissioners had made their report, and whether that report was not of a melancholy and disastrous kind as to the general condition of the colony? And, third, the report having been now for many months in the hands of the Government, and having been published in the Morning Post and others papers, why a report of so much importance had not been laid on the table of the House?
§ MR. HAWES, in answer to the first question, said several Commissioners had been appointed in British Guiana, but not by the Government, to inquire into the state and condition of the island. The Commissioners were appointed by the Combined Court, in which the Government had not a majority. They made a report of considerable length, and it was made so far back as June twelvemonth. It was printed at length in the colonial papers; and, as his hon. Friend said, was also 30 printed in the Morning Post. The report came into the hands of the Government in the early part of the year, and some time since, on its being mentioned by the hon. Baronet the Member for Droitwich (Sir J. Pakington), he (Mr. Hawes) had promised that it should be produced, and it would accordingly be laid on the table in a few days, together with other papers and correspondence relating not only to British Guiana, but to the West Indies also. After the statement that had been made by the hon. Gentleman as to the condition of British Guiana, he begged to read an extract from a despatch of the Governor that was annexed to the report, and which was dated the 25th of January, 1851:—
At the meeting of the Combined Court of 1849, a Motion was carried for the appointment of a Committee to inquire into the state and prospects of the colony.…I cannot help thinking, indeed, that the Commioners themselves, anxious as they not unnaturally were to put on record, in the strongest terms, the injurious effects on their property of the imperial policy, would somewhat have modified their conclusions had the report been written at the present moment; but, as stated in the concluding paragraph, it was drawn up so far as last June back, when the signs of improvement were not so visible as, I rejoice to say, they are now universally recognised to be.
§ MR. GRANTLEY BERKELEYwished to know whether an Act of the Combined Court was not an act of the local Government?
§ MR. HAWES, in reply, said, that no doubt the act of the Combined Court might be discussed in that House; but what he wished to explain was, that instead of this Commission being a Government Commission, appointed by the Governor, and sanctioned by the Government at home, the Commission was appointed at the wish of the Combined Court.