dy abandoned, and
the rest will follow.

But the question of profits and losses is not the only one here, I
think, and after having computed the proceeds of sugar, after having
shown that in this respect English emancipation is in rule, it is
allowable to mention also another kind of result. Look at these pretty
cottages, this neat and almost elegant furniture, these gardens, this
general air of comfort and civilization; question these blacks, whose
physical appearance has become modified already under the influence of
liberty, these blacks, who decreased rapidly in numbers during the epoch
of slavery, and who have begun to increase, on the contrary, since their
affranchisement; they will tell us that they are happy. Some have become
landowners, and labor on their own account, (this is not a crime, I
imagine;) others unite to strengthen large plantations, or perhaps to
carry to the works of rich planters the canes gathered by them on their
own grounds; some are merchants, many hire themselves out as farmers.
Whatever may be the faults of some individuals, the ensemble of free
negroes has merited the testimony rendered in 1857 by the Governor of
Tobago: "I deny that our blacks of the country are of indolent habits.
So industrious a class of inhabitants does not exist in the world."

An admirable spectacle, and one which the history of mankind presents to
us too rarely, is that of a degraded population elevating itself more
and more, and placing itself on a level with those who before despised
it. Concubinage, so general in times of servitude as to give rise to
the famous axiom, "Negroes abhor marriage," is now replaced by regular
unions. In becoming free, the negroes have learned to respect
themselves: the unanimous reports of the governors mark the progress of
their habits of sobriety. Crimes have greatly diminished among them.
They are polite and well brought up, falling even into the excess of
exaggerated courtesy. They respect the aged: if an old man passes
through the streets, the children rise and cease their play.

These children are assiduously sent to schools, the support of which
depends, in a great part, upon the voluntary gifts of the negroes.
Grateful to the Gospel which has set them free, the former slaves have
become passionately attached to their pastors; their first resources are
consecrated to churches, to schools, and sometimes, also, to distant
missions, to the evangelization of that Africa which th