MISCELLANIES. 



443 



lervile, and their own is generally 

 BO poor as to be hateful to them. 

 If they agree, uot to divide the 

 negroes, it generally happens that 

 they run into debt, and continue 

 in wretchedness; if they divide 

 them, each takes his course, and 

 adventures for himself, and in 

 a short time, they are generally 

 obliged to part with their slaves, 

 and exist in indigence. Every use- 

 ful pursuit and every comfort is 

 neglected for the sake of seeking 

 hidden treasures, which very rarely 

 are found, and which when found 

 are as rarely employed to advan- 

 tage, but rather serve to increase 

 the idleness of the owners. 



Few, very few of the numerous 

 class of miners from which the 

 above instance is selected are rich, 

 few are even comfortable; how 

 wretched then must be the state of 

 those who possess only eight or ten 

 negroes, or whose property does 

 not exceed three or four hundred 

 pounds. 



Thus situated in one of the 

 finest climates in the world, with 

 rich lands full of the finest timber, 

 abounding in rivulets and water- 

 falls in every direction, containing, 

 besides precious minerals, iron ores, 

 and almost every other useful pro- 

 duct, the inhabitants of Brazil, 

 though secured from absolute want, 

 remain in indigence. It is true, 

 the miner procures his gold by 

 great labour, but this need not 

 preclude him from improving his 

 domestic condition. Were his ho- 

 vel converted into a hous-e, his 

 slaves better fed and lodged, and 

 his family better provided for, his 

 whole aft'aiis would receive a new 

 impulse, and every part of his 

 property would become doubly pro- 

 ductive. 



Original Letter from Sir J. Stuart 

 to the Right Honourable Sir 

 David Dundas. 



Messina, Nov. 25, 1810. 



Sir, — I feel it necessary that I 

 should apologize for the freedom 

 to which I am prompted in address- 

 ing you on the subject of a news- 

 paper paragraph ; but an article 

 having appeared in the English 

 journals which have reached this 

 conntrj', stating that a French of- 

 ficer of this staff, and high in my 

 confidence, had been discovered 

 in dishonourable correspondence 

 with the enemy, it becomes a duty 

 from myself to every foreigner un- 

 der my command, to take steps 

 for your assurance that the asser- 

 tion is a fabrication as groundless 

 as it is infamous, and I am to la- 

 ment that I have not been able to 

 trace it beyond those anonymous 

 sources against whose dark and 

 dangerous attacks, neither rank, 

 probity, nor conduct, can be se- 

 cure. 



Upon the staff of this army. Sir, 

 there are many foreign gentlemen 

 who owe their selections only to 

 their talents; and I have never had 

 occasion to learn that there were 

 any British officers here who did 

 not entertain the most liberal senti- 

 ments on the justice of such im- 

 partial distributions. — If the con- 

 duct of this army at large has any 

 merit in the eyes of our country-— 

 that merit must be widely shared 

 by foreiiiuers who compose so great 

 a proportion of its members. 



When I had the honour of re- 

 cently stating further to yourself. 

 Sir, my respectful wish, that if 

 my own conduct under any late 

 circumstances of duty, should ap- 

 pear in the eye of his Majesty to 



deserve 



