lest the
friends of humanity, and the advocates for the equal rights of men,
should be encouraged to agitate for the destruction of a system which,
in its general operation, has retained many of the worst features of
slavery, perpetuated many gross infringements of the social and domestic
rights of the working classes; and which, instead of working out the
benevolent intention of the imperial legislature, by aiding and
encouraging the expansion of intellect, and supplying motives for the
permanent good conduct of the apprentices, in its termination, has, I
fear, retarded the rapidity with which civilization would have advanced,
and sown the seeds of a feeling more bitter than that which slavery,
with all its abominations, had engendered.

I am, dear sirs, your very faithful servant,

EDMUND B. LYON, _Special Justice._

Extract from a communication which we received from Wm. Henry Anderson,
Esq., of Kingston, the Solicitor-General for Jamaica.

The staples of the island must be cultivated after 1840 as now, because
if not, the negroes could not obtain the comforts or luxuries, of which
they are undoubtedly very desirous, from cultivation of their grounds.
The fruits and roots necessary for the public markets are already
supplied in profusion at tolerably moderate prices: if the supply were
greatly increased, the prices could not be remunerative. There is no way
in which they can so readily as by labor for wages, _obtain money_, and
therefore I hold that there must ever be an adequate supply of labor in
the market.

The negroes are in my opinion very acute in their perceptions of right
and wrong, justice and injustice, and appreciate fully the benefits of
equitable legislation, and would unreservedly submit to it where they
felt confidence in the purity of its administration.

There is not the slightest likelihood of rebellion on the part of the
negroes after 1840, unless some unrighteous attempts be made to keep up
the helotism of the class by enactments of partial laws. _They_ could
have no interest in rebellion, they could gain nothing by it; and might
lose every thing; nor do I think they dream of such a thing. They are
ardently attached to the British government, and would be so to the
colonial government, were it to indicate by its enactments any purposes
of kindness or protection towards them. Hitherto the scope of its
legislation has been, in reference to them, almost exclusively coercive;
certainly ther