e portion of the debt
incurred by the District, from the great number
committed to and subsisted in prison, etc.; and
they would with all respect for the liberty of the
subject, and the sincerest good will toward their
African brethren generally,--whom they would wish
to regard with every kindly feeling, venture to
suggest, for the consideration of Government,
whether any legislative check can possibly be
placed upon the rapid importation of the most
worthless of this unfortunate race, such, as the
good among themselves candidly lament, has of late
inundated this devoted section of the Province, to
the great detriment of the claims of the poor
emigrant from the mother country upon our
consideration, the great additional and almost
uncontrollable increase of crime, and the
proportionate demoralization of principle among
the inhabitants of the country.' . . . . . .

"Notwithstanding all these strenuous endeavors,
added to the most serious and impressive
admonitions to various criminals after conviction
and sentence, no apparent change for the better
occurred; for at the Quarter Sessions of last
January, the usual preponderance of negro crime
struck me so forcibly as again to draw from me, in
my charge to the Grand Jury, the following
observations: 'I am extremely sorry to be unable
to congratulate you or the country on a light
calendar, the matters to be brought before you
embracing no less than three cases of larceny, and
one of enticing soldiers to desert, besides
several arising from that ever prolific source,
assaults, etc. I cannot, however, pass the former
by altogether without once more emphatically
remarking, that it is as much to the disgrace of
the free colored settlers in our District, as it
is creditable to the rest of our population, that
the greater part of the culprits to be brought
before us are still men of color: and I lament
this the more, as I was somewhat in hopes that the
earnest admonitions that I had more than once felt
it my duty to address to that race, would have
bee