utility of the, argument of his honourable
friend. He himself had admitted that it was in the power of the
colonists to correct the various abuses, by which the Negro population
was restrained. But, they could not do this without improving the
condition of their slaves; without making them approximate towards the
rank of citizens; without giving them some little interest in their
labour, which would occasion them to work with the energy of men. But
now the Assembly of Grenada had themselves stated, "that though the
Negroes were allowed the afternoons of only one day in every week they
would do as much work in that afternoon, when employed for their own
benefit as in the whole day, when employed in their masters' service."
Now, after, this, confession, the House might burn all his calculations
relative to the Negro population; for, if it had not yet quite reached
the desirable state which he had pointed out, this confession had
proved, that further supplies were not wanted. A Negro, if he worked for
himself, could do double work. By an improvement then in the mode of
labour, the work in the islands could be doubled. But if so, what would
become of the argument of his honourable friend? for then only half the
number of the present labourers were necessary.

He would now try this argument of expediency by other considerations.
The best informed writers on the subject had told us, that the purchase
of new Negroes was injurious to the, planters. But if this statement was
just, would not the abolition be beneficial to them? That it would, was
the opinion of Mr. Long, their own historian. "If the Slave Trade," says
he, "was prohibited for four or five years, it would enable them to
retrieve their affairs by preventing them from running into debt, either
by renting or purchasing Negroes." To this acknowledgment he would add a
fact from the evidence, which was, that a North American province, by
such a prohibition alone for a few years from being deeply plunged in
debt, had become independent, rich, and flourishing.

The next consideration was the danger, to which the islands, were
exposed from the newly imported slaves. Mr. Long, with a view of
preventing insurrections, had advised, that a duty equal to a
prohibition, might be laid on the importation of Coromantine slaves.
After noticing one insurrection, which happened through their means, he
speaks of another in the following year, in which thirty-three
Coromantines, "most o