Froude's book of travels in the West
Indies became known and generally accessible to readers in those
Colonies.
My perusal of it in Grenada about the period above mentioned
disclosed, thinly draped with rhetorical flowers, the dark outlines
of a scheme to thwart political aspiration in the Antilles. That
project is sought to be realized by deterring the home authorities
from granting an elective local legislature, however restricted in
character, to any of the Colonies not yet enjoying such an advantage.
An argument based on the composition of the inhabitants of those
Colonies is confidently relied upon to confirm the inexorable mood of
Downing Street.
[6] Over-large and ever-increasing,--so runs the argument,--the
African element in the population of the West Indies is, from its
past history and its actual tendencies, a standing menace to the
continuance of civilization and religion. An immediate catastrophe,
social, political, and moral, would most assuredly be brought about
by the granting of full elective rights to dependencies thus
inhabited. Enlightened statesmanship should at once perceive the
immense benefit that would ultimately result from such refusal of the
franchise.
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