500 JAMAICA. 



carried into execution, unlefsthe a6l of parliament, before cited, was 

 firft new modeled, and Negroes, more efpecially the natives of our 

 iflands, diftinguifhed fome degrees above fheep and oxen. To 

 make this improvement in the lyfiem of our colony laws, were 

 llirely not unbecoming that liberal Ipirit, which dignifies the prefent 

 age: but the reform fliould begin at home; and doubtlefs would 

 without difficulty be aflented to by parliament, if the provincial 

 aflemblies were, upon the conviftion of its utility, to facilitate their 

 concurrence, by fubftituting an equivalent lecurity to the creditor. 

 The circuity of adion and delay,- that attend recovery of mortgage 

 debts, might probably be abridged, and mortgage deeds be made as 

 negotiable in commerce, and as futnmary in their procefs, as com- 

 mon bonds; nor is there any juft reafon to be affigned, why that 

 mode of lecurity fhould not then be given for a debt of fifty pounds, 

 as well as for five hundred pounds ; in the colonies, many obflacles, 

 that prevail in the mother country, are removed at once by the office 

 where fuch contrads, and their afiignments from hand to hand, are 

 duly regiftered. So long as Negroes are leverable from the land, 

 every colony is retarded in its progrefs j for, as I have before re- 

 marked, it matters not (in a general view) how often the ownerfliip 

 of a Weft-India eftate changes hands, provided the Negroes pafs ivith 

 the land; but it is their feverance from it, which isefientially a de- 

 preciation of both, and extremely hurtful to the progrefs of induftry 

 and fettlement in thele iilands, particularly in Jamaica, where 



property 



" pundo mobilis horas 



*' Nunc prece, nunc pretio, nunc vi, nunc morte fuprema, 



« Permutat dominos, et cedit in altera jura \b]:' 



'« Shifting every hour, 



" By gift, by purchafe-, force, or fate's commands, 



«' Changes its lord, and falls toother hands," 

 To afcertain the Negroes who fhould pafs in this manner, would 

 not be difficult; fince every planter and landholder might be com- 

 pelled to deliver annually to the juftices and veftry upon oath, a lift 

 of the Negroes bond fide belonging to, and fettled upon, his refpe£l:ive 

 lauds; and where any doubt or difpute might arife, x.\\q onus probandi 



[*] Hor. lib. 11. Epift. ii, 



might 



