s. Their lordships would naturally ask
whether the experiment had succeeded; and whether this sudden
emancipation had been wisely and politically done. He should move for
some returns which he would venture to say would prove that the
experiment had entirely succeeded. He would give their lordships some
proofs: First, property in that island had risen in value; secondly,
with a very few exceptions, and those of not greater importance than
occurred in England during harvest, there was no deficiency in the
number of laborers to be obtained when laborers were wanted; thirdly,
offences of all sorts, from capital offences downwards, had decreased;
and this appeared from returns sent by the inspector of slaves to the
governor of that colony, and by him transmitted to the proper authority
here; and, fourthly, the exports of sugar had increased: during the
three years ending 1834, the average yearly export was 165,000 cwts.,
and for the three subsequent years this average had increased to 189,000
cwts., being an increase of 21,000 cwts, or one clear seventh, produced
by free labor. Nor were the last three years productive seasons; for in
1835 there was a very severe and destructive hurricane, and in the year
1836 there was such a drought that water was obliged to be imported from
Barbados."

Of such sort, with regard to both the colonies that adopted the
principle of immediate emancipation, have been the facts--and all the
facts--up to the latest intelligence.

The rest of the colonies adopted the plan proposed by the British
government, which contrary to the wishes of the great body of British
abolitionists, made the slaves but partially free under the name of
apprentices. In this mongrel condition they were to remain, the house
servants four, and the field laborers six years. This apprenticeship was
the darling child of that expediency, which, holding the transaction
from wrong to right to be dangerous and difficult, illustrates its
wisdom by lingering on the dividing line. Therefore any mischance that
might have occurred in any part of this tardy process would have been
justly attributable to _gradualism_ and not to _immediatism_. The force
of this remark will be better seen by referring to the nature and
working of the apprenticeship as described in the book of Messrs. Thome
and Kimball. We have only room to say that the masters universally
regarded the system as a part of the compensation or bonus to the
slaveholder and