ief would follow from the abolition, but not even any
such temporary inconvenience as could be stated to be a reason for
preventing the House from agreeing to the motion before them; on the
contrary, that the abolition itself would lay the foundation for the
more solid improvement of all the various interests of those colonies.

In doing this he should apply his observations chiefly to Jamaica, which
contained more than half the slaves in the British West Indies; and if
he should succeed in proving that no material detriment could arise to
the population there, this would afford so strong a presumption with
respect to the other islands, that the House could no longer hesitate
whether they should, or should not, put a stop to this most horrid
trade.

In the twenty years ending in 1788, the annual loss of slaves in Jamaica
(that is, the excess of deaths above the births,) appeared to be one in
the hundred. In a preceding period the loss was greater; and, in a
period before that greater still; there having been a continual
gradation in the decrease through the whole time. It might fairly be
concluded, therefore, that (the average logs of the last period being
one per cent.) the loss in the former part of it would be somewhat more,
and in the latter part somewhat less, than one per cent; insomuch that
it might be fairly questioned, whether, by this time, the births and
deaths in Jamaica might not be stated as nearly equal. It was to be
added, that a peculiar calamity, which swept away fifteen thousand
slaves, had occasioned a part of the mortality in the last-mentioned
period. The probable loss, therefore, now to be expected, was very
inconsiderable indeed.

There was, however, one circumstance to be added, which the West India
gentlemen, in stating this matter, had entirely overlooked; and which
was so material, as clearly to reduce the probable diminution in the
population of Jamaica down to nothing. In all the calculations he had
referred to of the comparative number of births and deaths, all the
Negroes in the island were included. The newly imported, who died in the
seasoning, made apart; but these swelled, most materially, the number of
the deaths. Now, as these extraordinary deaths would cease, as soon as
the importation ceased, a deduction of them ought to be made from his
present calculation.

But the number of those, who thus died in the seasoning, would make up
of itself nearly the whole of that one per cent.