of the treaty of 1862, by which the importation of labor was regulated.[1] Notwithstanding this remonstrance the general council voted the suppression of the special inspection service and re-established a system condemned by experience, under which town syndics performed the inspection and supervision. The council at this time also discontinued the bounty which had before been allowed to cultivators of coffee.
Governor Aube, supported by a unanimous privy council, refused to execute the resolutions of the assembly, which seemed to him contrary to the policy of the government as announced in the letter of December 20, 1879. But when Admiral Clone in 1880 displaced Admiral Jauréguiberry in the Ministry of the Marine, Governor Aube lost the support of the home government in the course he had followed and was ordered to enforce the decisions taken by the general council.[2] Thus the powers of this assembly received confirmation from the highest quarters ; small wonder that it accepted this action as an admission that it would be impossible to govern the colonies peaceably without its consent, and that it would henceforth have the virtual management of the civil service. At the same time a French civilian, M. Allegre, became governor, and the policy of having admirals in that position was definitely abandoned.[3]
By a law of July 27, 1880, the criminal jury was introduced into the French Antilles; the law of June 30, 1881, guaranteed the liberty of public meetings ; and that of July 29 of the same year, extended the liberty of the press to the colonies. In its po- litical and civil rights the colored population was thus completely assimilated to the mother country and, moreover, the colonial gen- eral councils had far greater powers than the provincial assemblies in France. As.similation was the watchword of the day. On December 7, 1882, the council of Martinique, by a unanimous vote, passed the following resolution : " Considérant que la Martinique, qui est franqaise depuis plus de deu.x siecles, qui jouit, depuis 1870, des memes droits politiques que la metropole, se trouve dans les meilleures conditions possibles pour etre assimilee completement a la mère patrie. . . . Que, pour parvenir à cette assimilation tant désirée, I'assemblée locale abandonnerait sans regret tous les droits et prérogatives qu'elle tient du Sénatus-Consulte du 4 juillet 1 866, et qui sont inconnus aux conseils généraux métropolitains; Le Conseil renouvelle, en I'accentuant, le vceu qu'il a émis le 24 novembre
