^4o j A M- A-' I G A. 



tinned until its attaining the fourth or htth year. Thefe politic 

 •Tratuities woold not only endear the owner to the parents, but 

 prove a conftant incitement to their care, and at the fame time 

 enable ih.em to provide better, the feveral little necefiiiries wanted 

 to keep their infants cleanly and decent. If thefe meafures fliould 

 operate, as probably they would,' to the increafc of their families, 

 the cxpence attending them would be amply repaid. 



I have obferved, in feveral accounts of our Weft-India colonies, 

 compaiifons drawn between tiie condition of the ilaves in them 

 and in the Frencli illands, very much to the difadvantage of the 

 former. It is faid, that the Negroes in the French colonies are not 

 left fo much to the planter's difcretion ; that their mafters are 

 obliged to have them inftrufted in the principles of the Chriftiau 

 religion ; that there are methods taken, at once to proted them 

 from the cruelty of their mafters, and preferve the colony from any 

 ill effeds that might arife from treating them with a lenity not 

 confiflent with their condition ; that the Code Noir, or fet of regu- 

 lations, purpofely framed for the Negroes, and eftablifhed by the 

 royal edift, as well as other ordinances relative to thefe poor crea- 

 tures, (hew a very jufl: and fcnfible mixture of humanity and ftea- 

 -dinefs ; and that thefe regulations have given the French, in their 

 colonies, a reputation for good dilcipline and clemency ; which de- 

 grades the Englifh planters, when their laws are brouglit into 

 comparifon. The Fench are thus held out as a pattern well de- 

 serving the imitation of the Britifh owners, and very properly, if 

 all thefe encomiums are founded in truth. But there is fome rea- 

 son to doubt their good eftttls ; and to believe, that, however 

 they may glow with humanity and maxims of prudence, they arc 

 not efficacioufly obeyed. Monf. Boflu, a French officer, who was 

 at Hifpaniola in 1751, gives fome right to draw fuch a conclufion ; 

 and I mufi fay, that his teftimony is of the greater weight, as the 

 French are well known to be very cautious of revealing whatever 

 can tend to diflionour their countrymen. He condemns the brutal 

 avidity of fome French planters; " who," he tells us, " force their 

 «' wretched flaves to luch hard labour, that they refufe to marry, ir» 

 •« order to avoid generating a race of beings to be enflaved to fuch 

 -*' maflers, who treat them, when old and infirm, worfethan their 



*' dogs 



