ode, its provisions were
constantly and glaringly violated.

In 1840, a writer, who had personal knowledge of the affairs of Cuba,
declared that slavery in Cuba was more destructive to human life, more
pernicious to society, degrading to the slave and debasing to the
master, more fatal to health and happiness than in any other
slave-holding country on the face of the habitable globe.

It was in Cuba that the slaves were subjected to the coarsest fare and
the most exhausting and unremitting toil. A portion of their number was
even absolutely destroyed every year by the slow torture of overwork and
insufficient sleep and rest.

In 1792 the slave population of the island was estimated at eighty-four
thousand; in 1817, one hundred and seventy-nine thousand; in 1827, two
hundred and eighty-six thousand; in 1843, four hundred and thirty-six
thousand; in 1867, three hundred and seventy-nine thousand, five hundred
and twenty-three, and in 1873, five hundred thousand, or about one-third
of the entire population.

In 1870, two years after the beginning of the war, in which the colored
people, both free and slaves, took a prominent part, the Spanish
legislature passed an act, providing that every slave who had then
passed, or should thereafter pass, the age of sixty should be at once
free, and that all yet unborn children of slaves should also be free.
The latter, however, were to be maintained at the expense of the
proprietors up to their eighteenth year, and during that time to be kept
as apprentices at such work as was suitable to their age. Slavery was
absolutely abolished in Cuba in 1886. Spain was therefore the last
civilized country to cling to this vestige of barbarism, and she
probably would not have abandoned it then had she not been impelled to
by force and her self-interest.

After the treaty of El Zanjon, it was supposed by the Cubans, and
rightly too, had they been dealing with an honorable opponent and not a
trickster, that the condition of Cuba would be greatly improved.

The treaty, in the first place, guaranteed Cuba representation in the
Cortes in Madrid. This was kept to the letter, but the spirit was
abominably lacking.

The Peninsulars, that is, the Spaniards in Cuba, obtained complete
control of the polls, and, by unparalleled frauds, always managed to
elect a majority of the deputies. The deputies, purporting to come from
Cuba, might just as well have been appointed by the Spanish crown.

In other