ABSTRACT
The announcement of the appointment of Sir Charles Metcalfe to the government of the colony was not at first received with much favour by the West Indian interest. As an East Indian ruler, they were disposed to infer that he would wish to change all those constitutional modes of government upon which they set so much value. Mr. Burge, the island agent, however, smoothed the way for his reception by his constituents, and it soon became manifest that Sir Charles united in his person those qualities by which men of the most opposite feelings could be conciliated. He arrived at Port Royal, in Jamaica, on the 25th of September, 1839, and landing next day, at once assumed the government of the colony. Four days after, Sir Lionel Smith left, amid the plaudits of the emancipated peasantry, and the kindly feelings of all unblinded by prejudice.
