y. We expected to meet with the proprietor, but the
manager informed us that pressing business at court had called him to
St. John's on the preceding day. The testimony of the manager concerning
the dry weather, the consequent failure in the crop, the industry of the
laborers, and so forth, was similar to that which we had heard before.
He remarked that he had not been able to introduce job-work among his
people. It was a new thing with them, and they did not understand it. He
had lately made a proposal to give the gang four dollars per acre for
holding a certain field. They asked a little time to consider upon so
novel a proposition. He gave them half a day, and at the end of that
time asked them what their conclusion was. One, acting as spokesman for
the rest, said, "We rada hab de shilling wages." That was _certain_; the
job might yield them more, and it might fall short--quite a common sense
transaction!

At the pressing request of Mr. Armstrong we spent a day with him at
Fitch's Creek. Mr. A. received us with the most cordial hospitality,
remarking that he was glad to have another opportunity to state some
things which he regarded as obstacles to the complete success of the
experiment in Antigua. One was the entire want of concert among the
planters. There was no disposition to meet and compare views respecting
different modes of agriculture, treatment of laborers, and employment of
machinery. Another evil was, allowing people to live on the estates who
took no part in the regular labor of cultivation. Some planters had
adapted the foolish policy of encouraging such persons to remain on the
estates, in order that they might have help at hand in cases of
emergency. Mr. A. strongly condemned this policy. It withheld laborers
from the estates which needed them; it was calculated to make the
regular field hands discontented, and it offered a direct encouragement
to the negroes to follow irregular modes of living. A third obstacle to
the successful operation of free labor, was the absence of the most
influential proprietors. The consequences of absenteeism were very
serious. The proprietors were of all men the most deeply interested in
the soil; and no attorneys, agents, or managers, whom they could employ,
would feel an equal interest in it, nor make the same efforts to secure
the prosperous workings of the new system.

In the year 1833, when the abolition excitement was at its height in
England, and the people were t