A BRIEF EXPOSURE, &c.
In sending the following statement to the press, my single
object was to fill up the hiatus left in the papers
recently
presented to the House of Commons respecting the Hill
Coolies in British Guiana, in return to an address moved by
Mr. WILLIAM GLADSTONE on the 18th of February last.
It appeared to me desirable that the country should know
that a large fund of information respecting the general
treatment of the Coolies in that colony existed besides the
very partial, and, I have no hesitation in saying, because
I am personally familiar with the facts, most unfair
representations made to the Home Government on the
whole subject.
Before I visited Guiana in the early part of the year,
1839, the system of concealment was adopted with
admirable success: when, however, concealment was no
longer possible, palliation and apology were resorted to;
and
to me, were it not a source of deep sorrow that the exposure
of the hardships and sufferings of the wretched
Coolies were treated with lightness, and that an attempt
was made thereby to impose on the British public, it
would be infinitely amusing to observe the attempts of
Governor Light, to account for his own ignorance of the
facts brought to light, the studied silence of his
magistracy,
and the conduct of the parties implicated in the guilty
transactions to which reference is made. The ridiculous
attempt of his Excellency to fasten unworthy motives on
me, in the part I felt it to be my duty to take in the
affair.
I pass by as unworthy of observation. However much
it may please the planters, it cannot injure me.
A2
