the above direct imputation of indolence, heartlessness, and
moroseness, Mr. Froude appends the following remarks on other moral
characteristics of certain sable peasants at [203] Mandeville, Jamaica,
given on the authority of a police official, who, our author says,
described them as--

"Good-humoured, but not universally honest. They stole cattle, and
would not give evidence against each other. If brought into Court,
they held a pebble in their mouth, being under the impression that when
they were so provided, perjury did not count. Their education was only
skin-deep, and the schools which the Government provided had not
touched their characters at all."

But how could the education so provided be otherwise than futile when
the administration of its details is entirely in the hands of persons
unsympathizing with and utterly despising the Negro? But of this more
anon and elsewhere. We resume Mr. Froude's evidence respecting the
black peasantry. Our author proceeds to admit, on the same subject,
that his informant's duties (as a police official) "brought him in
contact with the unfavourable specimens." He adds:--

"I received a far pleasanter impression from a Moravian minister.... I
was particularly glad to see this gentleman, for of the Moravians [204]
every one had spoken well to me. He was not the least enthusiastic
about his poor black sheep, but he said that if they were not better
than the average English labourer, he did not think them worse. They
were called idle; they would work well enough if they had fair wages
and if the wages were paid regularly; but what could be expected when
women servants had but three shillings a week and found themselves,
when the men had but a shilling a day and the pay was kept in arrear in
order that if they came late to work, or if they came irregularly, it
may be kept back or cut down to what the employer choose to give?
Under such conditions ANY man of ANY colour would prefer to work for
himself if he had a garden, or would be idle if he had none."

Take, again, the following extract regarding the heroism of the
emigrants to the Canal:--

"I walked forward" (on the steamer bound to Jamaica), "after we had
done talking. We had five hundred of the poor creatures on their way
to the Darien pandemonium. The vessel was rolling with a heavy beam
sea. I found the whole mass of them reduced to the condition of the
pigs who used to occupy the fore decks on the Cork and