consequent distress, are the great difficulty which has been experienced by the planter in obtaining steady and continuous labor, and the high rate of remuneration which they give for even the broken and indifferent work which they are able to procure." Further, it says "that slave emancipation was carried into effect without an adequate command of free labor, and the rate of wages therein has consequently been high, and the cost of production unduly enhanced." The economical principle on which emancipation was conceded was that free labor was cheaper and more efficient than slave labor. No representation was listened to that contradicted that assumption. It was clearly established to the British parliament that an act of emancipation would furnish an equal supply of more efficient laborers to the British colonies. It was not regarded as important to provide other laborers than the emancipated blacks for the work of the plantations. The British public had been taught to believe that slavery was an expensive and demoralizing relation, that impaired the energies of both the parties to the relation. No indemnity was granted to the planter for the diminution of the value of his plantation and its improvements, by the disfurnishing of it of its laboring population. During the short period of apprenticeship, (1834 to 1838,) stipendiary magistrates were sent from Great Britain to the colonies, to defend the apprentices from the oppression of the masters. The history of that period is replete with instances of vexatious interference, arising from the jealousy of the masters on the part of these magistrates. The slave master, during this period, served a very powerful apprenticeship. He was continually imbibing the lesson that the slave was the favored party, and that the interests of the master were held in subordination to his. One of the stipendiary magistrates reports "that scarce a year had elapsed before the employer understood his situation as well as he now (1846) does, and I hesitate not to say that the rights, feelings and prejudices of no laboring population in the world are more carefully respected than are those of the working population in Jamaica." The inquiry naturally suggests itself, whether the expectations of the British people were fully realized by the performances of the blacks?

One of the stipendiary magistrates presents an answer to many of the questions involved in this inquiry. He says,

"I fear that I tread on delicate ground in remarking that insufficiency of labor in a community suddenly emerging from slavery is a great misfortune to the parties themselves in whose favor it is supposed to operate, and that the 'liberty of the subject,' so valuable in an enlightened and civilized society, whose interests are nicely balanced, has here the misfortune to carry with its blessings a total 'liberty' from all moral or physical restraint. It imposes also a barrier on a line of legislation, which, though wise in intent, general in its principle, and exigent from local circumstances, may in its operation be supposed to bear on a particular class.

"The disinclination of parents to send their children to school may be traced to this. Uneducated themselves, they have no moral end in the education of their children, and they feel that they lose in a pecuniary point in being deprived of their services; whilst it is natural to infer that, on the part of others, there are more pains taken to procure labor than to encourage attendance at school.

"To the insufficiency of labor, a perpetual summer, and an early disregard of parental control, may also be ascribed those capricious and migratory habits so opposed to an increase of population. It tends also to level the distinctions of rank by the total dependence it imposes on the upper classes, and by the impunity with which it shields the misconduct of servants. If a man be offered employment, ten to one his reply is, I should like to oblige you, &c., &c.. &c. "To insufficiency of labor may also be traced the prevalence of petty thefts and other crimes in the community, for it debars the existence of any thing like public opinion. When labor is seized with such avidity, character becomes a secondary consideration. The convicted felon, who comes out of a penitentiary in health and strength, feels that he is really of more consequence than the man of integrity, who, perhaps, lacks his physical powers.

"On the commission of any great crime, too, a man will perhaps take the first horse that he sees at large, ride it till it knocks up, take another, and in twenty-four hours is at a distance of a hundred miles. He applies for employment, receives it unquestioned, and in a few days is as fully domesticated as any of the other laborers on the estate.

"Neither does shame follow the detection or punishment of crime. In illustration of this I may mention the following: A youth called on me the other day, and asked if I

wanted a servant. I said 'Yes; but I don't know you.' His reply was, 'You know me very well, sir. I am the person you sent to prison a few days ago for stealing a shirt.'

"In the suppression of crime there can be no stronger instrument than public opinion, and here, the demand for labor renders it entirely inoperative."

We make an extract from another report, which speaks for itself.

"It might be superflous," says Mr. Laidlow, stipendiary magistrate at this period, "to bear testimony to the quiet, orderly and peaceable habits of the people, to their increasing taste for the conveniencies and even luxuries of life, and their progressive advances in civilization, were it not that intelligent writers, and men of known and acknowledged humanity, such as Mr. Alison, led away no doubt by the interested misrepresentations of others, still continue to assert "that the negroes who, in a state of slavery, were comfortable and prosperous beyond any peasantry in the world, and rapidly approaching the condition of the most opulent feudal serfs of Europe, have been by the act of emancipation irretrievably consigned to a state of barbarism. These most unfounded statements, both as regards the state of the negro in slavery and his present condition, if allowed to pass uncontradicted, may have the effect of determining other nations from imitating the disinterested and generous act by which England effaced from her annals one of the greatest evils that can afflict humanity.

"No doubt," proceeds this magistrate, much is still wanting to contribute to the well being and prosperity of the country. The moral, industrious, and intellectual training of the young is still too much neglected, or rather is almost entirely wanting; and in no respect is the conduct of the enfrachised class to be more condemned than in their total neglect of these most important particulars. Their children are too often brought up in perfect idleness and without any attempt at instruction. Industrial schools, in which habits of labour and education are combined, and which have lately been brought under the special notice of the Legislature by his Excellency the Governor, as so admirably adapted to the peculiar wants of the country, are no where to be found, although both the Legislature and private societies have held out every encouragement to their institution. The churches, and more especially the VOL. XVI. NO. 32.

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dissenting chapels are filled to overflowing; and perhaps in no part of the world do persons in the same class of life contribute so munificently to religious purposes as the laboring classes of this colony. The bulk of the people are professing members of some christian society; but partly, I fear from the want of practical discourses, suited to the capacity of the people, the precepts of the gospel appear to have little influence on their conduct."

It must be admitted that a society in which the training of children is wholly neglected and the precepts of the Gospel disregarded, is in a fair way to be consigned to barbarism." The facts admitted by this officer go but little way towards refuting the conclusion of Mr. Alison.

Another fact apparent upon the evidence taken by the committees of the House of Commons is, that the popu, lation of the islands has not increased, and that the cause of this is attributed by the witnesses to the indisposition of the enfranchised class to pay for medical aid, and to their total neglect of their children. Mr. Gladstone, (Secretary of the colonies) writes to the Governor of Mauritius, complaining of the returns, says-" one thing is clear, namely, that a diminution in the numbers of the negro race has taken place since their emancipation. You calculate that in that interval they have decreased in numbers from 61,000 to less than 40,000; that is to say, that in about ten years they have lost one-third of their numbers."

Mr. Barkly, the present Governor of Guyana, is asked, "Do not the Creoles marry and increase? No doubt; the increase in the West Indies you would naturally expect would be larger than it is in any country in the world. The population ought to have doubled in twelve years according to Malthus' estimate, but it has not been so large as might have been expected; it is the fact, that the increase of population is not very rapid. In the first place the increase of population depends upon morality to a certain extent; I do not mean to say that they are not so moral as their neighbors, but the women of a warmer climate are not so protected as the more chaste women of the colder country. Another great thing is their inattention to the children after they are first born; they are very unwilling to lay out money upon medical attention; they have always been accustomed to have medical attendance provided them, and they seldom eall in a doctor till it is too late."

The reports, upon the whole, show that the blacks bestow more attention upon the attendance on church, and that the marriage ceremony is more frequently celebrated among them, and that the blacks willingly contribute to support ministers of religion. We can readily understand that much good may result from this. We are not disposed, however, to infer so favorably from them as the committee of the House of Commons. The improvement of the character is denoted by the daily conduct. It is shown not by one or two observances in the course of a week or a life, but by propriety in the daily business of life.

The inquiry should be, not whether the marriage relation has been legally established, but whether its obligations have been fulfilled. Improvement is shown not by attend. ing church, but by obedience to the precepts of the Gospel. The negro is a gregarious being, fond of display and curious of spectacles, and these qualities will lead him to a public place where a crowd is gathered. The conse quence afforded to him as the principal party at a marriage ceremony furnishes a sufficient motive to him to celebrate his nuptials. A number of the witnesses examined testify to the existence of great dissoluteness in the morals of the females, and to great ignorance on the part of the men of the duties imposed by the marital connection.

We turn now from this aspect of the subject to regard it from another stand point. We have seen that the proprie tors made no opposition to the consummation of the act of emancipation. They submitted to a necessity they could not overrule. They took the best means in their power to avert the consequences that it involved to their material interests. It is with reference to these that we wish to examine the evidence before us. The immediate effect of the act of emancipation was to deprive the landed proprietors of all control over those who had been accustomed to cultivate their plantations. The act of emancipation deprived the islands of none of their population. It deprived them of more than half of their industry-a witness testifying on this subject, (Mr. McCornock) says-"I wish to observe their conduct is good in every respect except the want of industry. It is industry the people want." "When you speak of the want of industry," he is further interrogated, "how are those who have adopted those idle habits. able to maintain themselves? In the first place, they have