86 Voice of the Country Abolition of Slavery. [\TULY, 



In conclusion, we would seriously recommend to the colonial legis- 

 latures, and to every one interested in the prosperity of the West-India 

 colonies, to use every means in their power to second the views of 

 Governments/or Improving the Condition of the Negro Population so far 

 as these views may be practicable, and not dangerous to the welfare of 

 all, standing up at the same time firmly and decisively against every 

 attempt at encroachment or interference on the part of the anti- colonists 

 and their objectionable missionaries, whose interference should be 

 promptly checked, even to the extent of deportation, the instant it ex- 

 ceeds the bounds properly assignable to their functions as ministers of 

 religion. 



The number of manumissions, principally originating in kind and be- 

 nevolent feelings, and the gradual increase of knowledge amongst all 

 classes, is the best guarantee for the abolition of slavery ; and in the 

 event of any convulsion caused in this country, from bad counsel, or 

 otherwise, the colonists cannot for an instant doubt that, from one 

 quarter or another prompt and efficient protection would, without much 

 difficulty, be obtained for them. 



THE SUGAR CANE.* 



THE author of this instructive and entertaining work very justly 

 observes, that few subjects are of greater consequence to the commerce 

 of the British empire than the sugar-trade, whether considered with 

 reference to the vast amount of capital which it employs, or the extent 

 of the public revenue which it yields. 



He observes that during the past and present centuries it has in- 

 creased in an eight-fold (he might have said almost in a twenty-fold) 

 degree, and that the class of merchants to whom it gives employment 

 is second in respectability and intelligence to none of the great mer- 

 cantile interests in this country. 



Under these circumstances a good account of the nature and proper- 

 ties of this useful plant, the saccharum officinarum of Botanists, and of 

 the best methods of manufacturing its products into sugar, a food 

 equally pleasant, nutritious, and medicinal, was a desideratum which 

 has been opportunely supplied at the very moment when the atten- 

 tion of the public had been attracted to the subject, by the present 

 parliamentary discussions on the sugar duties, and by the depressed 

 situation of our West- India interests. 



The author commences with an account of the first culture of the 

 sugar-cane, which he affirms was known, and its produce scientifically 

 manufactured by the Chinese, two thousand years before it was intro- 

 duced and enjoyed in Europe ! That sugar, chiefly in the candied form, 

 was known as an article of commerce long before the cane began to 

 be cultivated in the countries bordering on the Mediterranean; and 

 that it was not planted, even in Arabia, until about the thirteenth cen- 

 tury, having up to that period been brought from the islands of the 

 Indian Archipelago, in the kingdoms of Bengal, Siam, &c. From 



* The Nature and Properties of the Sugar- Cane, with Practical Directions for the Improve- 

 ment of its Culture and the Manufacture of its Products. Smith, Elder and Co. 1 vol. 8vo. 



