.

He had now proved far more than he was bound to do; for, if he could only
show that the abolition would not be ruinous, it would be enough. He could
give up, therefore, three arguments out of four, through the whole of what
he had said, and yet have enough left for his position. As to the Creoles,
they would undoubtedly increase. They differed in this entirely from the
imported slaves, who were both a burthen and a curse to themselves and
others. The measure now proposed would operate like a charm; and, besides
stopping all the miseries in Africa and the passage, would produce even
more benefit in the West Indies than legal regulations could effect.

He would now just touch upon the question of emancipation. A rash
emancipation of the slaves would be mischievous. In that unhappy situation,
to which our baneful conduct had brought ourselves and them, it would be no
justice on either side to give them liberty. They were as yet incapable of
it; but their situation might be gradually amended. They might be relieved
from every thing harsh and severe; raised from their present degraded
state; and put under the protection of the law. Till then, to talk of
emancipation was insanity. But it was the system of fresh importations,
which interfered with these principles of improvement; and it was only the
abolition which could establish them. This suggestion had its foundation in
human nature. Wherever the incentive of honour, credit, and fair profit
appeared, energy would spring up; and when these labourers should have the
natural springs of human action afforded them, they would then rise to the
natural level of human industry.

From Jamaica he would now go to the other islands. In Barbadoes the slaves
had rather increased. In St. Kitts the decrease for fourteen years had been
but three fourths per cent.; but here many of the observations would apply,
which he had used in the case of Jamaica. In Antigua many had died by a
particular calamity. But for this, the decrease would have been trifling.
In Nevis and Montserrat there was little or no disproportion of the sexes;
so that it might well be hoped, that the numbers would be kept up in these
islands. In Dominica some controversy had arisen about the calculation; but
Governor Orde had stated an increase of births above the deaths. From
Grenada and St. Vincents no accurate accounts had been delivered in answer
to the queries sent them; but they were probably not in circumstances