ld 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 there have been no enactments of a tendency to conciliate
their good will or attachment.

The negroes are much desirous of education and religious instruction: no
one who has attended to the matter can gainsay that. Formerly marriage
was unknown amongst them; they were in fact only regarded by their
masters, and I fear by themselves too, as so many brutes for labor, and
for increase. Now they seek the benefits of the social institution of
marriage and its train of hallowed relationships: concubinage is
becoming quite disreputable; many are seeking to repair their conduct by
marriage to their former partners, and no one in any rank of life would
be hardy enough to express disapprobation of those who have done or
may do so.

WM. HENRY ANDERSON.

_Kingston, Jamaica, 24th April, 1837_.

* * * * *

The following communication is the monthly report for March, 1837, of
Major J.B. Colthurst, special justice for District A., Rural Division,
Barbadoes.

The general conduct of the apprentices since my last report has been
excellent, considering that greater demands have been made upon their
labor at this moment to save perhaps the finest crop of canes ever grown
in the island.

Upon the large estates generally the best feeling exists, because they
are in three cases out of four conducted by either the proprietors
themselves, or attorneys and managers of sense and consideration. Here
all things go on well; the people are well provided and comfortable, and
therefore the best possible understanding prevails.

The apprentices in my district _perform their work most willingly_,
whenever the immediate manager is a man of sense and humanity. If this
is not the case, the effect is soon seen, and complaints begin to be
made. Misunderstandings are usually confined to the smaller estates,
particularly in the neighborhood of Bridgetown, where the lots are very
small, and the apprentice population of a less rural description, and
more or less also corrupted by daily intercourse with the town.

The working hours most generally in use in my district are as follows:
On most estates, the apprentices work from six to nine, breakfast; from
ten to one, dinner--rest; from thre