150 The British West India Colonies, [FEB. 



effect of those already adopted, they are represented as contumacious, 

 although they are merely desirous of acting with proper caution. 



The colonist, who is the principal instrument for carrying new regu- 

 lations into effect, has responsibilities to discharge, and motives to awaken 

 his caution, much greater than can guide persons who offer recommen- 

 dations from hence to be applied to a sphere not under their immediate 

 observation. 



If this great work of emancipation is to be accomplished, it can only 

 be reared up by time, and with great patience. The native superstition 

 of the imported African forms an almost insurmountable barrier to much 

 being effected with him. But the Creole population now rising up, are 

 a different and superior race, and the diminished influence of African 

 superstitions upon them, by the greater mixture of European opinions, 

 offers much more encouraging prospects of their rapid improvement. 

 Mr. Coleridge says, " In setting about the conversion of more than 

 800,000 black slaves into free citizens, we must act sensibly and dis- 

 creetly ; especially we must begin with the beginning, for IT is NOT 



A MATTER OF DECREE, EDICT, OR ACT OF PARLIAMENT; there is no 



hocus pocits in the thing, there are no presto movements. 



" It is a mighty work ; yet mighty as it is, it must be effected, if at 

 all, in the order and by the rules which reason and experience have 

 proved to be alone effectual. If we attempt to reverse the order, or to 

 alter the mode, we shall not only fail ourselves, but make it impossible 

 that any should succeed." 



Many persons zealous for immediate emancipation quiet the scruples 

 they might otherwise feel in recommending this hazardous experiment, 

 by making the vague proposition, that compensation should be paid to 

 the planter in the event of his property being injured or destroyed by 

 the consequences of such a measure. 



This notion of compensation has always appeared to us a proposition 

 of the most wild and ill-considered description. It supposes, in the 

 first place, that legislation is to proceed on the chance of creating wide, 

 and extensive danger, and, consequently, large claims of indemnity. 

 But it has not the foresight to embrace any objects of eventual benefit, 

 by which the nation, in the event of mischief resulting, may be remune- 

 rated for undertaking such obligations. 



Just measures of sound legislation are guided by caution and fore- 

 sight j and when the period of emancipation does arrive, it will owe its 

 etablishment to the silent operation of improvement in the habits of 

 the negro population ; and we sincerely believe all practical means are 

 now in progress to generate that improvement. Instead, however, of fol- 

 lowing this topic any further, we shall employ our time more usefully 

 in adverting to the effects of premature emancipation in Hayti and 

 Mexico. 



The papers transmitted to the Foreign Office, by Mr. Consul General 

 Mackenzie, relative to Hayti, presented to parliament in 1828 (printed 

 in 1829), afford ample proof of the total failure of the most strenuous 

 efforts to promote labour of any kind among the prematurely-liberated 

 Africans in that once flourishing colony. 



It appears that, during the seven years prior to 1801, "labour had 

 been almost entirely abandoned, and the country reduced to a waste." 

 " By the laws then passed, all the cultivators were attached to the plan- 



