e up, the reverse of the old; and eventually both their general
wealth and happiness would increase.

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 everything 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.
Vincent's no accurate accoun