ABSTRACT
With the general principle of placing immigrants under strict regulations Lord Grey fully agreed: he believed it to be in their own interest. But he thought that the Trinidad Ordinance would establish nothing less than slavery, in a modified and mitigated form. The labourer's motive to work would be the fear of punishment, the motive of the slave. Could he not be located in a village rather than on an estate? At any rate he should be at liberty to choose and to change his employer, and he should be more directly supervised by the Government.2 Lord Harris was unrepentant. The ignorant African would be unable to understand these fine distinctions between being restricted to an estate and being restricted to a village, between being compelled to work for one employer and being compelled to make his choice of two or three. 'I was perfectly aware of the facility with which the term slavery might be applied to any plan of the kind; but I was contented to bear it, if I could only obtain a chance of making the immigrants men worthy of freedom, capable of supporting themselves and with some fixedness of character, not likely to become the dupes of every grogshop keeper, and the tools of every cunning knave who finds it worth while to use them ... It is very essential to prevent them from congregating together, in order to break their accustomed habits, to render it necessary for them to speak another language, and to enable them to follow the example of the other labourers on estates. Moreover they are certain of being well cared for; it is the planter's interest to do that, much more than it would be that of a Government subordinate.'3
