INTRODUCTION. 15 



discouraging negro slavery in all countries where it actually existed. 

 The reverse, however, may be said to have practically ensued ; 

 for, at the very time in which the British navy was employed in 

 checking the slave trade on the coast of Africa, the British Parlia- 

 ment was passing measures which indirectly, but most effectively, 

 favoured that trade, by tendering a premium to slave produce. 

 Certainly, it is difficult to say what would have occurred had the 

 British market been closed against slave-grown sugar ; but I am 

 justified in concluding, from what has taken place, that such a 

 measure would have been the death-blow to the slave trade, both 

 in Cuba and Brazil. 



The only reasonable objection which could have been urged 

 against the adoption of such a line of policy is, that the supply of 

 sugar would have diminished in the home market, the price of the 

 article been enhanced, and the consumption checked. The 

 remedy, however, was obvious ; by lowering the duties on sugar 

 to five or six shillings, prices would have decreased in proportion, 

 and consumption would have increased in an equal ratio. It is 

 answered, this could not be done, because it would have caused 

 too great a diminution in the revenue. 



The West Indians reply, that the deficit might be easily 

 balanced by levying a light duty on cotton. " On cotton ! " exclaim 

 the Manchester men, " such a proposition is most illiberal, unwise, 

 and preposterous, for British goods must have the advantage in the 

 markets of the world ; to gain this, it is necessary that our goods 

 should be offered at lower prices than those of other nations, and 

 this can be obtained only by admitting the raw material duty free." 

 Not only, therefore, did great Britain exact, for the sake of her 

 revenue, a duty of nearly one hundred per cent, on raw sugar, but 

 that duty has been lately raised in order to aid in the expenses of the 

 late war. Can the West Indians, under such circumstances, avoid 

 the conclusion that, though the islands form an integral part of the 

 British dominions, their interests do not obtain an equal amount 

 of solicitude or regard ? 



But to what end should the colonists complain, and on what 

 grounds ? As colonists, they are dependent, and injustice can and 

 will be practised against them as long as such a line of procedure 

 may suit the interests of the British nation. Besides the above- 

 mentioned causes, however, others have been active in producing 

 the present depression. Legislation, or rather non-legislation, to 

 use a more suitable expression, has brought forth bitter fruits from 

 the act of emancipation. 



New laws were obviously necessary for a society the foundations 

 of which had been wholly upturned, and these laws ought to have 

 been based on the consideration of the occupations, customs, and 

 prejudices of the population for which they were intended ; on 

 the social institutions which had formerly existed, and the con- 



