Froudacity | Page 7

entirely
outside of our race, it has been gratefully accepted by myself as an
incentive to self-help, on the same more formal and permanent lines, in
a matter so important to the status which we can justly claim as a
progressive, law-abiding, and self-respecting section of Her Majesty's
liege subjects.
[18] It behoves me now to say a few words respecting this book as a
mere literary production.
Alexander Pope, who, next to Shakespeare and perhaps Butler, was the
most copious contributor to the current stock of English maxims, says:
"True ease in writing comes from Art, not Chance, As those move
easiest who have learnt to dance."
A whole dozen years of bodily sickness and mental tribulation have not
been conducive to that regularity of practice in composition which
alone can ensure the "true ease" spoken of by the poet; and therefore is
it that my style leaves so much to be desired, and exhibits, perhaps, still,
more to be pardoned. Happily, a quarrel such as ours with the author of
"The English in the West Indies" cannot be finally or even
approximately settled on the score of superior literary competency,
whether of aggressor or defender. I feel free to ignore whatever verdict
might be grounded on a consideration so purely artificial. There ought
to be enough, if not in these pages, at any rate in whatever else I have
heretofore published, that should prove me not so hopelessly stupid and
wanting in [19] self-respect, as would be implied by my undertaking a
contest in artistic phrase-weaving with one who, even among the
foremost of his literary countrymen, is confessedly a master in that
craft. The judges to whom I do submit our case are those Englishmen
and others whose conscience blends with their judgment, and who
determine such questions as this on their essential rightness which has
claim to the first and decisive consideration. For much that is irregular
in the arrangement and sequence of the subject-matter, some blame
fairly attaches to our assailant. The erratic manner in which lie launches
his injurious statements against the hapless Blacks, even in the course
of passages which no more led up to them than to any other section of

mankind, is a very notable feature of his anti-Negro production. As he
frequently repeats, very often with cynical aggravations, his charges
and sinister prophecies against the sable objects of his aversion, I could
see no other course open to me than to take him up on the points
whereto I demurred, exactly how, when, and where I found them.
My purpose could not be attained up without direct mention of, or
reference to, certain public [20] employés in the Colonies whose
official conduct has often been the subject of criticism in the public
press of the West Indies. Though fully aware that such criticism has on
many occasions been much more severe than my own strictures, yet, it
being possible that some special responsibility may attach to what I
here reproduce in a more permanent shape, I most cheerfully accept, in
the interests of public justice, any consequence which may result.
A remark or two concerning the publication of this rejoinder. It has
been hinted to me that the issue of it has been too long delayed to
secure for it any attention in England, owing to the fact that the West
Indies are but little known, and of less interest, to the generality of
English readers. Whilst admitting, as in duty bound, the possible
correctness of this forecast, and regretting the oft- recurring hindrances
which occasioned such frequent and, sometimes, long suspension of
my labour; and noting, too, the additional delay caused through my
unacquaintance with English publishing usages, I must,
notwithstanding, plead guilty to a lurking hope that some small fraction
of Mr. Froude's readers will yet be found, [21] whose interest in the
West Indies will be temporarily revived on behalf of this essay, owing
to its direct bearing on Mr. Froude and his statements relative to these
Islands, contained in his recent book of travels in them. This I am led to
hope will be more particularly the case when it is borne in mind that the
rejoinder has been attempted by a member of that very same race which
he has, with such eloquent recklessness of all moral considerations,
held up to public contempt and disfavour. In short, I can scarcely
permit myself to believe it possible that concern regarding a popular
author, on his being questioned by an adverse critic of however
restricted powers, can be so utterly dead within a twelvemonth as to be
incapable of rekindling. Mr. Froude's "Oceana," which had been
published long before its author voyaged to the West Indies, in order to
treat the Queen's subjects there in the same more