76 THE CHINESE SUGAR CANE. 
THE “AFRICAN APPRENTICE” SYSTEM. 
There is another problem presented for solution to 
the world, through the Government of the Emperor 
Napoleon, and subsequently by the British Parlia- 
ment, in which, it seems.to me, the sorgho and imphee 
‘are destined to have an important influence. “This 
proposition, when calmly examined, turns out to be 
nothing more or less than a project for developing the 
resources of the French West Indian Colonies, by the 
immediate introduction of large bodies of negro laborers, 
to be engaged on terms similar to those under which 
the coolies of China are now, and have for some time, 
been transported in very considerable numbers to the 
colonial territories of Great Britain.” The cause for 
this remarkable proposition, which in reality amounts 
to a revival of the African slave trade, under a white- 
washed exterior, is found in the greatly augmented 
demand for sugars; and the simple problem has been 
forced upon the world: in what way can a sufficient 
staff of producers be most speedily thrown upon the soil 
of the great sugar-growing countries? Now, if it can be 
demonstrated that by cultivating the imphee and the 
sorgho, the sugar fields can be so widened as to embrace 
the countries throughout the whole Temperate Zone, 
of course supply at once runs parallel with demand, 
and the present alarming scarcity gives way to plenteous 
abundance. Although it is warmly urged by sugar 
planters, that free labor cannot compete with slave labor 
in sugar growing, yet this assertion must be received cum 
grano salis, for whilst tropical climates may raise sugar 
to the exclusion of more northern ones, when prices 
