152 The British West India Colonies, [FEB. 



the slaves joined them en masse, adding, by their ferocity, to the horrors 

 of the contest ;* and only those planters, " who had provided themselves 

 with a mixed cast of free labourers, retained a sufficient number to con- 

 tinue cultivation on a smaller scale." 



This letter seems, in the first instance, to have given rise to some mis- 

 apprehension as to the extent to which free labour had been applied in 

 the cultivation of sugar. But Mr. Ward has, since that period, given to 

 the public a work entitled "Mexico in 1827/' in which there is much 

 additional information regarding the present state of the Mexican sugar 

 cultivators ; and, although we have not sufficient data to enable us to 

 make an accurate comparison between the past and present state of the 

 sugar plantations in the neighbourhood of the capital, there is still suf- 

 ficient evidence to prove, that, although some remains of industry are 

 still kept up in these valleys, yet that even these Haciendos, which had 

 been ruined during the revolution, had never been rebuilt ; that in other 

 parts of the country, at Oaxaca, the Baxio, Valladolid, and Guadalaxara, 

 but more especially in the neighbourhood of Vera Cruz, where very con- 

 siderable sugar estates formerly existed every vestige of industry has 

 been destroyed ; that the export of sugar from Vera Cruz, which, in 

 1802, seems to have been to the declared value of 1,500,000 dollars, has 

 now entirely ceased ; and that even in the rich valleys of Cuernavaca, 

 and Cuentla Amilpas, the free labourers can only supply to the Mexican 

 capital an article, " coarse in appearance, and of a bad colour," at a rate 

 equal to from 53*. 9d. to 62*. 8d. the cwt v being such as our Colonies 

 now furnish at 5*. to 10*. the cwt. 



The grand question, however, in this inquiry, is, " What has been 

 the effect of emancipation upon the labouring population ?" And here, 

 as in the case of Hayti, we are not left in any doubt on the subject. Mr. 

 Ward expressly tells us, " the sound of the whip is never heard : but 

 whether freedom will have the effect (as many hold here) of raising the 

 workmen in the scale of civilization, is a question which I cannot pretend 

 to decide. It is much to be desired, certainly ; for a more debauched, 

 ignorant, and barbarous race than the present inhabitants of the sugar 

 districts, it is impossible to conceive. They seem to have engrafted all 

 the wild passions of the negro upon the cunning and suspicious character 

 of the Indian, and are noted for their ferocity, vindictiveness, and attach- 

 ment to spirituous liquors. When not at work, they are constantly drunk ; 

 and, as they have little or no sense of religious or moral duties, there is but 

 a slender chance of amendment" 



Mr. Ward's book shews abundance of other evidence that the effect of 

 premature emancipation has, so far as we can judge, been injurious, 

 rather than beneficial, to the negroes themselves. 



In the language of the parliamentary resolutions, it is only by " deter- 

 mined and persevering, but at the same time judicious and temperate, 

 measures," that we can " look forward to a progressive improvement in 

 the character of the slave population ;" " to prepare them for a parti- 

 cipation in those civil rights and privileges which are enjoyed by other 

 classes of his Majesty's subjects ;" and, " after all," to use the words of 

 Mr. Canning, " the measure will eventually make way, rather by the 

 light of reason, than by the coercion of authority." 



* ({ Their ferocity was of use in the field of battle ; but it was only by frequent examples 

 that it could be prevented from shewing itself on other occasions." Mexico in 1782, 

 p. 187. 



