SD988. William Wemyss Anderson to Edward Moulton-Barrett (father)
Published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 4, 348 (in part).
Kingston
26 Feby 1839
My dear Sir
I cannot allow the packet to go without replying to your esteemed favor of 15th January, that I may thank you for the kind interest you express respecting me and notice what concerns your own interest in reference to a department which I have until now carefully abstained from entering upon, from motives of delicacy, namely the management of your Estates. In business matters I will write you separately because these are sometimes of importance for reference.
I can easily imagine the anxiety which late accounts have produced on the minds of proprietors, not altogether without reason, but I feel sure from what I see of the correspondence of our Island agent Mr |Burge|, that the whole body of proprietors in London are frequently induced to follow mere phantoms. As an example of this I can refer to nothing more striking than the views under which they lately acted in representing Baptist and Stipendary magistrates’ influence as the two great evils which were impeding cultivation when the fact at this moment is that in the Baptist districts there is less trouble & more work than in any others. I refer now to |St Thos| [illegible word] East Portland, St. George, & Vere Parishes in which there is scarcely any Baptist influence at all (the exact amount of it can easily be ascertained from the |Secy| of the Society in London, Mr Dyer) and I request that a comparison be instituted between the account from these and Trelawney and St James where that influence may be said to be dominant: there indeed it is perfectly impossible either to check or to diminish it: and I am sure it will appear that the Estates are in vastly better condition there than elsewhere. The people are more civilised and they must work to supply the desires of the civilised man. I do not say that no just exceptions could be taken to what has been said or done by the Baptists since the 1st of August: but I am sure that had they a hearing allowed them, they could obviate nine tenths of any charges that could be maintained by good or reasonable men against them: and that in estimating the value of their influences in the permanent welfare of the country it would appear that the proprietory body is largely their debtors. There is a singular difficulty in getting at truth here: and I am not without suspicion of some individuals acting on motives professedly friendly to the absent proprietor but secretly for their own ultimate aggrandisement, and at this point a guard ought to be placed. Is it not very plain that if it shall be made to appear that the properties cannot be advantageously worked for absentees, the present race of attornies & overseers must come in as the purchasers or lessees. When I write thus I make no reference, even in my own mind as I am writing, to individuals; but it is a conviction of mine which is gathering strength, as I move in Society that such a danger is to be apprehended: and my business leads me into all varieties. With respect to Mr Knibb’s advice I have every reason to think it has been dictated by great moderation. Mr Farquharson told me a considerable time ago that he had been most useful in inducing the people in Oxford & Cambridge to settle down to work at a macaroni a day: and I was previously aware that he, Knibb, was dedicated to your interests. I think therefore you have erred in withdrawing from him your confidence. He is somewhat of a headlong impetuous fellow, but a sound hearted Christian I think. Were you aware of the violence and unreasonableness of those who oppose him you would judge differently. It is true there is something unseemly in religious teachers appearing always in the conflict betwixt masters & servants: but if you consider that the poor ignorant peasantry have had to repose in these men, that confidence which the proprietors (I admit) ought to have, but which they have taken no pains to secure, you will understand how impossible it is for them always to keep in the background, or rather not to be always forward. I have much reason to think that the object of the bulk of our managers has been to keep up a coercive system; they do not yet understand any other and that is one reason why the people have been shy of contracts for continous labour, lest the small neglects or misconducts of which they might occasionally be guilty should be visited as crimes not as civil offences. Were every thing understood I am sure the proprietors at home whose interests must now be indentified with the vies of the most humane friends of the negro, would think and act differently. A macaroni a day is not high wages surely in a thinly peopled colony like this. It would be little enough in England for a farm servant having a house & garden on the land of his master, & labour being more, much more valuable in a colony, it ought not to be grudged. The contest about wages has frequently been a very miserable affair here. I am sure the well working of any considerable Estate in unspeakably of greater importance than any difference which a clever bargain maker may think he has secured for his constituent. I trust the change you have made for Oxford & Cambridge may not be attended with less. Mr Knibb when I saw him a few days ago (I did not tell him of your letter) regretted it extremely & thought you must suffer severely. Amongst other things he said your excellent headman Edward Barrett would leave, and that there was much risk of many of the people leaving. I know nothing, of course, of the merits of Farquharsons management but one good thing about him is that he secures respectable married men as his overseers, and you know how great an object that is when we consider our obligation to do what we can for our dependents, who are part of the great moral Stewardship for which we have to answer. I do wish we had a few religious judicious men, proprietors here, deputized by the general body in London to enquire and report. It is now essential that proprietors look into matters. I am sure I have not written too freely. I feel I am at home with you already & I trust to the sympathies of a [illegible word] mind. But I must abruptly break off, assuring you how much I am, my dear Sir,
Respectfully
& very truly yours
Wm Wemyss Anderson
Address, on integral page: E. B. M. Barrett Esq / 50 Wimpole Street / Cavendish Square / London.
Docket, in the hand of Edward Moulton-Barrett: Mr Anderson / Recd April 1.
Publication: None traced.
Manuscript: Eton College Library.
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