ceased some years ago; and if
there was a decrease, it was only on the imported slaves. It appeared from
the privy council report, that from 1698 to 1730 the decrease was three and
a half per cent.; from 1730 to 1755 it was two and a half per cent.; from
1755 to 1768 it was lessened to one and three quarters; and from 1768 to
1788 it was not more than one per cent.: this last decrease was not greater
than could be accounted for from hurricanes and consequent famines, and
from the number of imported Africans who perished in the seasoning. The
latter was a cause of mortality, which, it was evident, would cease with
the importations. This conclusion was confirmed in part by Dr. Anderson,
who, in his testimony to the Assembly of Jamaica, affirmed, that there was
a considerable increase on the properties of the island, and particularly
in the parish in which he resided.

He would now proceed to establish his second proposition, That from
henceforth a very considerable increase might be expected. This he might
support by a close reasoning upon the preceding facts. But the testimony of
his opponents furnished him with sufficient evidence. He could show, that
wherever the slaves were treated better than ordinary, there was uniformly
an increase in their number. Look at the estates of Mr. Willock, Mr.
Ottley, Sir Ralph Payne, and others. In short, he should weary the
committee, if he were to enumerate the instances of plantations, which were
stated in the evidence to have kept up their numbers only from a little
variation in their treatment. A remedy also had been lately found for a
disorder, by which vast numbers of infants had been formerly swept away.
Mr. Long also had laid it down, that whenever the slaves should bear a
certain proportion to the produce, they might be expected to keep up their
numbers; but this proportion they now exceeded. The Assembly of Jamaica had
given it also as their opinion, "that when once the sexes should become
nearly equal in point of number, there was no reason to suppose, that the
increase of the Negros by generation would fall short of the natural
increase of the labouring poor in Great Britain." But the inequality, here
spoken of, could only exist in the case of the African Negros, of whom more
males were imported than females; and this inequality would be done away
soon after the trade should cease.

But the increase of the Negros, where their treatment was better than
ordinary, was confirme