t happen were emancipation to be granted
elsewhere, that those in favour of the system could always point to it
with the finger of warning. Yet with all that the friends of the slave
were undaunted; and as a beginning, in 1807, they procured the abolition
of the slave-trade as far as Great Britain and her colonies were
concerned, and then went on to get the traffic prohibited by other
nations. Denmark had led the van by declaring it unlawful as early as
1792, but little impression was made until the nation most concerned
took action.

This was a great blow to the British West Indies. The labour question
had always been of the first importance, and to put a sudden stop to the
supply meant a check to all progress. For twenty years before a great
impetus had been given to planting, which was much assisted by the
downfall of Hayti and consequent reduction of her produce to such an
extent that she no longer affected the market. Now that the planters
could get no more negroes, anything like enlargement of the acreage
under cultivation was impossible. Latterly, also, produce had diminished
in price, which made cheap labour all the more important. They had great
difficulty in making their estates pay, and when sugar fell to half its
former value a cry of "Ruin!" went forth all over the West Indies. It is
interesting to note that the panacea which they expected would save them
was free trade. At that time the British warehouses were filled with
sugar and other tropical produce, while every continental port was
closed by Napoleon, and the United States by the navigation laws. Not
only did Great Britain store the produce of her own colonies, but that
from those of the French and Dutch as well. In 1812 it was stated that
the sugar consumption of Great Britain amounted to 225,000 hogsheads,
while the production of her colonies was 150,000 in excess of this. The
Southern States had just taken up cotton cultivation, and brought the
price of that article too low for the West Indian planter, and, as if
that were not enough, coffee also fell in price to an alarming extent.

Sugar paid best, and was therefore fostered to the exclusion of the
other products; and now began the plantation system which became so
obnoxious to the anti-slavery party. Hitherto, with a full supply of
labour, the negroes did little work as compared with their
capabilities--now something like the factory system of the mother
country was introduced. The old methods