l
find out precisely how the "_great experiment_" has worked. They
will find,

1. The _safety_ of abolition demonstrated--its safety in the worst
possible case.

2. That the colonies are prospering in their _agriculture_.

3. That the planters conferred freedom because they were _obliged to_ by
public opinion abroad.

4. That freedom, even thus unwillingly conferred, was accepted as a
precious boon by the slaves--they were grateful to God, and ready to
work for their masters for fair pay.

5. That the mass of the planters have endeavoured, from the first, to
get work out of the free laborers for as small wages as possible.

6. That many of the attorneys and managers have refused fair wages and
practiced extortion, _to depreciate the price of property_, that they
might profit thereby.

7. That all the indisposition to labor which has yet been exhibited is
fully accounted for by these causes.

8. That in spite of all, the abolition is working well for the _honest_
of all parties.

* * * * *

WEST INDIA EMANCIPATION, IN 1838.

The immediate abolitionists hold that the change from slavery to freedom
cannot be too sudden. They say that the first step in raising the slave
from his degradation should be that of making him a proper subject of
law, by putting him in possession of himself. This position they rest on
the ground both of justice and expediency, which indeed they believe to
be inseparable. With exceptions too trifling to affect the question,
they believe the laborer who feels no stimulus but that of wages and no
restraint but that of law, is the most _profitable_, not only to himself
and society at large, but to any employer other than a brutal tyrant.
The benefit of this role they claim for every man and woman living
within this republic, till on fair trial the proper tribunal shall have
judged them unworthy of it. They deny both the justice and expediency of
permitting any degree of ignorance or debasement to work the forfeiture
of self-ownership, and pronounce slavery continued for such a cause the
worst of all, inasmuch as it is the _robbery of the poor because he
is poor_.

What light was thrown upon this doctrine by the process of abolition in
the British West Indies from the 1st of August 1834 to the 1st of June
1837, may be seen in the work of Messrs. Thome and Kimball entitled,
"Emancipation in the West Indies." That light continues to shine.
Bermuda and Antigu