BROUGHAM’S INQUIRY 
wealth. Society is divided into those 
“who possess the matter, and those who 
bestow the form; into proprietors and 
labourers. ‘T'axes on rent fall on mat- 
ter: they diminish the capital value of 
the lands, houses, moneys machines, or 
ships assessed. ‘Taxes on consumeables 
fall on form: they diminish the ex- 
changeable value of the labour employ- 
ed in bestowing it, by endearing the ob- 
jects of its purchase. It would be more 
reasonable always to tax the proprietor 
than the labourer, the idle than the in- 
dustrious citizen; but the thing is im- 
possible. Whenever a season of scarcity 
comes, he would raise the rent of his 
lands, houses, money, machines, or 
ships, and thus assess much of his tax 
on the labourer in the price of matter. 
And if the labourer alone were taxed, in 
his wine, his beer, his soap, his candle, 
his tea, his sugar, his tobacco, his glass, 
his leather, &c. he again would, in sea- 
sons of demand, raise the price of his 
toil, and thus assess much of his tax on 
the proprietor inthe price of form. So 
that natural causes, not positive laws, 
regulate the proportion of burden be- 
tween proprietors and labourers. 
The third section is, for the contained 
information, the most valuable : it treats 
well of Dutch, particularly well of Spa- 
nish, colonial policy, 
After very extensive, elaborate, and 
alarming commentaries on the state of 
the slaye-system in the West Indies, 
Mr. Brougham thus states the result of 
his multifarious reflections. 
« The remarks which have been made 
upon the character and habits of the negroes, 
both in the last section, and in the former 
arts of this inquiry, seem to suggest certain 
conclusions of a very positive and definite 
hature with respect to the interna! structure 
of the slave colonies. 
«« Ji may be observed, in the first place, 
that all attempts speedily to change the state 
of society in those settlements by legislative 
enactments, ara if possible still more ridi- 
culous, and, if attended with any material 
consequences, still more dangerous than 
similar endeavours made suddenly to new- 
model communities of the ordinary texture. 
| 4 ** Jn the second place, we may remark, 
that however deficient in civilization, the 
| negroes are evidently capable of acquiring 
_ those wants and desires which are the seeds 
of industry; that they are endowed with 
powers, not only of body but of mind, suf- 
- ficient to render their improvement and high 
refinement a matter of absolute certainty 
under a proper system of management; and 
that there is yothing in their uacure peculiag 
208 
INTO COLONIAL POLICY, OLD 
or distinguishing, which renders them a 
separate class, or places them beyond the 
influence of the passions and principles com- 
mon to all the rest of mankind in certain 
stages of society. Through the whole of 
this inguiry, I have argued every question 
relating to the negroes, ypon the same gene- 
ral grounds which are used to investigate 
the history, or determine the probable fates, 
of other rude nations. All the facts with 
which we are acquainted, concur to justify 
a mode of reasoning pointed out by the clear- 
est analogies; and the greatest errors have 
been committed by politicians, both in spe- 
culation and in practical arrangements, from 
the fundamental’ and yulgar prejudice of 
considering the Africans as a peculiar race, 
to whom general views do not apply. The 
Africans, in fact, as closely yes¢mble every 
other rude people in their characters and 
habits, as in their circumstances. When 
enslaved their characters and Habits are mo- 
dified by the change of situation ; and they 
become similar to all rude tribes placed in @ 
state of bondage. When wise and liberal 
regulations mitigate the hardships of their 
Jot, a door is opened: for their gradual im- 
provement and progress in civilization, ac- 
cording to that general principle of advance- 
ment which seems to be an essential part of 
the human character, and which always 
works its effects in the most obyious man- 
ner, unless when stifled by absurd or wicked 
institutions. 
«« We may remark, in the third place, that 
the mixed breed of mulattoes in the slave 
colonies does not render the structure of tke 
society anomalous. On the contrary, these 
nen are subservient to many useful pur- 
poses. ‘They are in some respects superior 
to the negroes; as, in civilization and mental 
endowments. In bodily strength and adap~ 
tation to the circumstances of the tropical 
climate, they are almost ona level with the 
pure African breed. They are uniformly 
attached to the whites, in those colonies 
where cruel rigour on the part of the govern- 
ment has not alienated them, or their num- 
bers rendered them formidable. They form, 
together with the free negroes, an interme- 
diate class of men, conneeting the other 
two, however imperfect the link or however 
sudden the gradation may be, compared with 
those uniting principles which knit and 
mould the more curiously arranged fabrics 
of European and Asiatic society. it is en- 
tirely from the influence of manners, and of 
ositive institutions, that the people of co- 
ae have uniformly been held in a state of 
degradation, and even classed with the free 
negroes. . The existence of slavery is the 
great cause of those manners and institu- 
uons. The free mulattoes are tinged with 
a hue which is almost the characteristic of 
degradation and bondage in the eyes of West 
Indians. They are related byr Blood to the: 
vilest portion of the society; they are of the 
seme race with many who.yet obey the catty, 
Y3 
