their own time. When he does not need their services on
Saturday, they either hire themselves to other estates or work on their
own grounds.

7. Mr. H. was ready to say, both as a planter and a magistrate, that
vice and crime generally had decreased, and were still on the decrease.
Petty thefts are the principal offences. He has not had occasion to send
a single apprentice to the court of sessions for the last six months.

8. He has no difficulty in managing his people--far less than he did
when they were slaves. It is very seldom that he finds it necessary to
call in the aid of the special magistrate. Conciliatory treatment is
generally sufficient to maintain order and industry among the
apprentices.

9. He affirms that the negroes have no disposition to be revengeful. He
has never seen any thing like revenge.

10. His people are as far removed from insolence as from vindictiveness.
They have been uniformly civil.

11. His apprentices have more interest in the affairs of the estate, and
he puts more confidence in them than he ever did before.

12. He declares that the working of the apprenticeship, as also that of
entire freedom, depends entirely on the _planters_. If they act with
common humanity and reason, there is no fear but that the apprentices
will be peaceable.

Mr. Thomas is attorney for fifteen estates, on which there are upwards
of two thousand five hundred apprentices. We were informed that he had
been distinguished as a _severe disciplinarian_ under the old reign, or
in plain terms, had been a _cruel man and a hard driver_; but he was one
of those who, since emancipation, have turned about and conformed their
mode of treatment to the new system. In reply to our inquiry how the
present system was working, he said, "infinitely better (such was his
language) than slavery. I succeed better on all the estates under my
charge than I did formerly. I have far less difficulty with the people.
I have no reason to complain of their conduct. However, I think they
will do still better after 1840."

We made some inquiries of Dr. Bell concerning the results of abolition
in Demerara. He gave a decidedly flattering account of the working of
the apprenticeship system. No fears are entertained that Demerara will
be ruined after 1840. On the contrary it will be greatly benefited by
emancipation. It is now suffering from a want of laborers, and after
1840 there will be an increased emigration to that colony from the