slands, the last at which he called on his way back to Halifax
being Jamaica. "No doubt," he said, "the generous and noble act by
which, in the reign of his late Majesty, slavery was abolished, produced
a prejudicial change in the economy of the sugar plantations,
notwithstanding the large amount awarded to the proprietors, as the sums
so paid were for the most part immediately transferred to mortgagees,
leaving the proprietors in possession of the soil, but without the means
of paying the expense of its cultivation by free labour. This is an evil
which time has not remedied, and, of course, in the estimation of those
who are, in consequence, losers, furnishes the pretext for imputing to
the black population a degree of reluctance to labour far exceeding the
reality. Those who pay a reasonable price for work, and are punctual in
their payments, do not fail to get as many labourers as they require. I
assert this not from any vague hearsay, but from various unquestionable
and authentic documents, amongst which are the examinations taken by
Committees of the House of Assembly appointed to inquire into the causes
and difficulties alleged to exist in the cultivation of estates. Whilst
the poverty of the planters and the destitution of the labouring
population is so universal, it seems most extraordinary on inspecting
the Custom House returns to find almost every article of necessary
consumption brought from abroad paying high duties on entry; whilst the
concession of small patches of land to the negroes, whom there is no
capital to employ, would, if accorded, produce food, and in a great
measure dispense with such injurious importations. Is it reasonable to
instruct the negroes in their rights as men, and open their minds to the
humble ambition of acquiring spots of land, and then throw every
impediment possible in the way of its gratification? I perceive by the
imposts and expenses on the transfer of small properties, that a barrier
almost insurmountable is raised to their acquisition by the coloured
population. I have learnt that small lots of Crown lands are scarcely
ever disposed of, though three-fourths of these lands are still in the
hands of Government.

"It is lamentable to see the negroes in rags, lying about the streets of
Kingston; to learn that the gaols are full; the penitentiaries incapable
of containing more inmates; whilst the port is destitute of shipping,
the wharves abandoned, and the storehouses empty; whi