benign and liberal institutions, I am persuaded that such a system cannot exist long, in daily contrast with the enlightened policy of new republics of the West, and under the brighter light which the diffusion of the gospel is shedding over the globe. I rejoice, therefore, in the conclusion, that the same measures,-the mitigation and gradual abolition of slavery,-which are best calculated to avert a crisis which it is impossible to contemplate without dismay, are precisely those which, it would appear from the preceding pages, are most adapted to promote the immediate interest of the planters, by diminishing the expenses, and increasing the produce of their estates.

That the removal of the monopoly which they at present enjoy, will enhance the distress of the West-India planters, it is impossible to doubt; and the distress of so numerous a body, comprising some of the most enlightened and estimable members of the community, deserves a serious and dispassionate consideration. That sympathy is unnatural, which is excited only for sufferers at a distance, and that sensibility defective, which can feel only for the slave. But it is the part of an enlightened legislator, when endeavouring to relieve one class of the community, to guard against the injustice of transferring the burden to another; and to require from those who solicit his interference, not only that they make out a strong case of distress, but that they prove that they are vigorously pursuing every means within their own power, to extricate themselves from the difficulties of their situation.

It is on these grounds, and not on any vague idea, that Parliament is pledged to support them, that the West Indians should rest their claims. Even with respect to the absolute prohibition of a trade which Parliament had encouraged, Mr. Pitt repelled the idea of the Legislature's being restrained by a reference to the past, from exercising its free discretion with regard to the future. With how much greater warmth would he have rejected such an assumption, in the case of a protecting duty, which encourages a system of cultivation unnecessarily expensive, which acts like an oppressive tax on the export of our manufactures, and which operates with a most malignant and widely extended influence on the industry, energy, and resources of our Indian Empire. He observes, "It is chiefly on the presumed ground of our being bound by a parliamentary sanction, heretofore given to the African slave-trade, that this argument against the abolition is rest

ed. Is there any one regulation of any part of our commerce, which, if this argument be valid, may not equally be objected to, on the ground of its affecting some man's patrimony, some man's property, or some man's expectations. Let it never be forgotten, that the argument I am canvassing, would be just as strong, if the possession affected were small, and the possessors humble; for on every principle of justice, the property of every single individual, or number of individuals, is as sacred as that of the great body of West Indians. It is scarcely possible to lay a duty on any one article which may not, when first imposed, be said in some way to affect the property of individuals, and even of some entire classes of the community. If the laws respecting the slave-trade imply a contract for its perpetual continuance, I will venture to say, there does not pass a year without some act equally pledging the faith of Parliament, and the perpetuating of some other branch of

commerce."

It is not then on the plea of a parliamentary pledge, but simply on the grounds of the extent of their distress, and their inability to relieve themselves, that the West-India planters should found their claims for support.

But this inability, however real, will perpetually be called in question, until they have introduced every practicable improvement into their system of cultivation. When they have relieved that system from its superfluous machinery, and have made arrangements for the gradual elevation of their slaves to the condition of free labourers, they will have prepared themselves to come before Parliament with a better case; and will have laid the foundation for such a change in the structure of colonial society, as will ultimately contribute greatly to their prosperity, and will exhibit in our West-India Islands, another happy illustration of the truth of the position, that the labour of freemen is cheaper than the labour of slaves.

APPENDIX TO M. SAY'S LETTER.

MANY of the following proofs and illustrations of the truth which I have endeavoured to establish, might probably have been introduced with propriety into the preceding letter. I was, however, unwilling to interrupt the train of reasoning, by any additions to an accumulation of testimony, already, perhaps, sufficiently extensive, and some of the succeeding remarks did not fall under my observation until the Letter was printed. I had no opportunity of seeing Mr. Ramsay's "Essay on the treatment and Conversion of African Slaves in the British Sugar Colonies," or Dr. Dickson's tract "On the Mitigation of Slavery," until the preceding pages were in the press; and I have, consequently, been enabled to introduce only a few brief remarks from these very valuable works. The latter contains so much that bears directly on the question at issue, that I am unwilling not to avail myself of it more freely; and I shall, therefore, extract from it rather copiously in this Appendix, after adducing the testimony of Burke, Franklin, and Beattie, in favour of the position I have advocated.

BURKE.

"I am the more convinced of the necessity of these indulgences, as slaves certainly cannot go through so much work as free men. The mind goes a great way in every thing, and when a man knows that his labour is for himself, and that the more he labours, the more he is to acquire; this consciousness carries him through, and supports him beneath fatigues, under which he would otherwise have sunk."-Burke on European Settlements.

FRANKLIN.

"It is an ill-grounded opinion, that by the labour of slaves, America may possibly vie in cheapness of manufactures with Great Britain. The labour of slaves can never be so cheap here, as the labour of working men is in Great Britain. Any one may compute it. Reckon, then, the interest of the first purchase of a slave, the insurance or risk on his life, his clothing and diet, expenses in his

sickness, and loss of time, loss by his neglect of business, neglect which is natural to the man who is not to be benefited by his own care and diligence, expense of a driver to keep him at work, and his pilfering from time to time, (almost every slave being from the nature of slavery a thief,) and compare the whole amount with the wages of a manufacturer of iron or wool, in England, you will see that labour is much cheaper there, than it ever can be by negroes here.”—Franklin on the Peopling of Countries.

DR. BEATTIE.

"That the proprietors of West-India estates would be in any respect materially injured by employing free servants, (if these could be had,) in their several manufactures, is highly improbable, and has, indeed, been absolutely denied by those who were well informed on this subject. A clergyman of Virginia assured me, that a white man does double the work of a slave; which will not seem wonderful, if we consider that the former works for himself, and the latter for another; that by the law one is protected, the other oppressed; and that in the articles of food and clothing, relaxation and rest, the free man has innumerable advantages. It may, therefore, be presumed, that if all who serve in the colonies were free, the same work would be performed by half the number, which is now performed by the whole. The very soil becomes more fertile under the hands of free men, so says an intelligent French author, (Le Poivre,) who, after observing that the products of Cochin China are the same in kind with those of the West-Indies, but of better quality, and in greater abundance, gives for a reason, that, the former are cultivated by free men, and the latter by slaves;' and therefore, argues, that the negroes beyond the Atlantic ought to be made free.' The earth," says he, which multiplies her productions with profusion under the hands of a free-born labourer, seems to shrink into barrenness under the sweat of the slave." "

The Honourable JOSHUA STEELE.

The honourable Joshua Steele, whose communications form so valuable a part of Dr. Dickson's work, was a very intelligent gentleman, of large West-India property, who, previous to visiting his estates in Barbadoes, lived many years in London, in habits of intimacy with persons of rank and character. He was vice-president of the London Society of Arts, Manufactures, and Commerce, and was

supposed to be one of the founders of the Dublin Society. He went to Barbadoes late in life, where he was a member of the Council, and officiated some time as Chief Justice. He was also the founder of the Barbadoes Society of Arts, Manufactures, and Commerce, and President, till it had acquired some strength, when the Governor became President, and Mr. Steele Vice-president. He arrived in Barbadoes in 1780. The Society was founded in 1781, and in 1787 and 1788,"he contrived to give in the Barbadoes Gazette, (by his account of several conversations,) faithful copies of the material part of the manuscript minutes of the proceedings of the society in their committees," under the signature of Philo Xylon.

In 1790, about 10 years after his arrival in Barbadoes, he writes to Dr. Dickson, who had also been a resident in that island as private secretary to governor Hay: "Upon observing all this," (the abuses which still continued on his plantation, after his attempts to correct them in the ordinary way,) "I resolved to make a further experiment, in order to try whether I could not obtain the labour of my negroes by voluntary means, instead of the old method, by violence, and that in such a way as should be a proof against the insidious insinuations of my superintendant; when, for a small pecuniary reward over and above their usual allowances, the poorest, feeblest, and by character the most indolent negroes in the whole gang, cheerfully performed the holing of my land for canes, (generally said to be the most laborious work,) for less than a fourth part of the stated price paid to the undertakers for holing. Of this there is a pretty exact account given in Philo Xylon's eighth letter. I repeated the like experiment the following year with equal success, and on the 18th. Nov. 1789, I gave also my slaves tenements of land, and pecuniary wages, by the hour, the day, or the week, for their labour and services, nearly according to the plan described in Philo Xylon's ninth letter, and soon after dismissed my superintendant." The account to which he alludes in Philo Xylon's eighth letter, is the following: A planter offered a premium of two-pence halfpenny a day, or a pistareen per week, with the usual allowance to holers, of a dram with molasses, to any twenty five of his negroes, men and women, who would undertake to hole for caues, an acre per day, at about ninety-six and a half boles for each negro to the acre. The whole gang were ready to undertake it, but only fifty of the volunteers were accepted, and many among those who