ation is not quite correct. In the
year 1835 a treaty was made with Spain, renewing the abolition of slave
traffic, to which she had assented in 1817 by words which her subsequent
deeds belied. At this latter date, the slave population amounted to
290,000, since which period she has proved the value of plighted faith
by introducing upwards of 100,000 slaves, which would bring the total up
to 390,000. The present slave population, I have before remarked,
amounts to 600,000, which would give as the increase by births during
nearly twenty years, 210,000. If we take into consideration the ravages
of epidemics, and the serious additional labour caused by the long
duration of the sugar harvest, we may fairly conclude, as far as
increase by birth is admitted as evidence, that the treatment of slaves
in Cuba will stand comparison with that of the slave in the United
States, especially when it is borne in mind that the addition of slave
territory in the latter has made the breeding of slaves a regular
business.

The increase of the produce of Cuba may very naturally be ascribed to
the augmentation of slave labour, and to the improvements in machinery;
but there is another cause which is very apt to be overlooked, though I
think there can be no doubt it has exercised the most powerful influence
in producing that result: I allude to the comparative monopoly of the
sugar trade, which the events of late years have thrown into her hands.

When England manumitted the 750,000 slaves in the neighbouring islands,
the natural law of reaction came into play, and the negro who had been
forced to work hard, now chose to take his ease, and his absolute
necessities were all that he cared to supply: a little labour sufficed
for that, and he consequently became in his turn almost the master. The
black population, unprepared in any way for the sudden change, became
day by day more idle and vicious, the taxes of the islands increased,
and the circulation issued by the banks decreased in an equally fearful
ratio. When sugar the produce of slave labour was admitted into England,
a short time after the emancipation, upon the same terms as the produce
of the free islands, as a natural consequence, the latter, who could
only command labour at high wages and for uncertain time, were totally
unable to compete with the cheap labour and long hours of work in Cuba;
nearly every proprietor in our West India colonies feel into deep
distress,--some became tot