'The contrast between the picture which is now presented to this country, and that which it exhibited when under the dominion of the 'French, affords a melancholy confirmation of what I have said. It 'was then, indeed, an "exulting and abounding" land, a land literally 'flowing with milk and honey; now, it might be affirmed, without เ extravagance, that where it is not an arid and desolate waste, it is 'flooded with the waters of bitterness, or covered with noisome and 'poisonous weeds. 'The Government, in spite of its constitutional forms, is a despotism ' of the most ignorant, corrupt, and vicious description, with a military 'establishment so enormous that, while it absorbs the largest portion ' of the revenue for its support, it dries up the very sources of natural prosperity, by depriving the fields of their necessary labourers to fill 'the town with pestilent hordes of depraved and irreclaimable idlers. 'The treasury is bankrupt, and every species of profligate and ruinous 'expedient is resorted to, for the purpose of obtaining the means of gratifying an insane passion for frivolous expenditure. A great portion of the public revenue is wasted upon the personal vanities of 'the Emperor, and his ridiculous efforts to surround himself with a splendour which he fancies to be pre-eminently imperial. It is a fact, that the same legislature which voted him several hundreds of 'thousands of francs for some absurd costume, refused an appropriation of 25,000 francs for public schools. The population, for the 'most part, is immersed in Cimmerian darkness, that can never be pierced by the few and feeble rays which emanate from the higher portions of the social system, while there is a constant fermentation ' of jealousies and antipathies between the great majority and the only ' class at all capable of guiding the destinies of the land which threaten " at every moment to shatter the political vessel in which they are so 'perilously working. As to the refining and elevating influences of 'civilised life-the influences of religion, of literature, of science, of เ art-they do not exert the least practical sway, even if they can be 'said to exist at all. The priests of the altar set the worst examples of every kind of vice, and are universally mere adventurers, disarmed 'by the Church, who alone can come here in consequence of the ' assumption by the Emperor of ecclesiastical authority which militates ' with that of the Roman pontiff. เ The press is shackled to such a degree as to prevent the least 'freedom of opinion, and people are afraid to give utterance, even in 'confidential conversation, to aught that may be tortured into the In short, the combination of evil and destructive elements is such, 'that the ultimate regeneration of the Haytians seems to me to be the 'wildest of Utopian dreams. Dismal as this picture may appear, its 'colouring is not exaggerated. It is as faithful a representation as 'I can sketch of the general aspect of this miserable country, a 'country where God has done everything to make his creature happy, and where the creature is doing everything to mar the work of 'God.' |