INTRODUCTION. 19 



snatched from the fetters of slavery to be delivered to the even 

 more grievous thraldom of their own ignorant and improvident 

 habits. Certainly, the planters contemplated a benefit to them- 

 selves. And what was that benefit? That the emancipated 

 should continue to labour according to God's divine commands 

 to labour for their own advantage, by maintaining the agricultural 

 prosperity of the country of which they were resident inhabitants ; 

 to labour, consequently, for the general prosperity of the country 

 with whose progress or decline their own well-being or misery 

 is inseparably interwoven. In relation to this subject, I may 

 quote, perhaps, the following remarkable confession contained in 

 the " London Economist" of Feb. 3, 1855. In a review of the 

 trade of France in 1854 it is stated, "In colonial sugar imported 

 there has been an increase of 17,000 tons as against last year ; and 

 the production of the colonies now equals the quantity produced 

 before the emancipation : the fortunate result of the establishment 

 of order, improvements in the manufacture, and the general intro- 

 duction into the colonies of Coolies." It is, therefore, a fact that 

 less than six years after emancipation was suddenly forced on 

 the French colonies, the quantity of sugar exported equalled 

 the quantity exported during the period of slavery. It is also a 

 fact, that more than sixteen years after emancipation has been 

 peaceably established in the British colonies, the average quantity 

 of sugar exported is still beneath the quantity produced under the 

 system of coerced labour. No one is ignorant of the revolutionary 

 effervescence which for more than twelve months agitated Guada- 

 loupe and Martinique, whilst in the British islands it was a mere 

 ebullition of excited feelings. To account for results so different, 

 in countries otherwise placed by nature in an almost identical 

 position, we must look to some extraneous influence. I have 

 endeavoured to discover and point out the causes which have had 

 such a marked influence on the unfortunate results of emancipation 

 in the British West India colonies ; on the other hand, the 

 "Economist" traces the fortunate results of the same act in the 

 French colonies to the " establishment of order, improvements in 

 manufacture, and the general introduction of Coolies." I dare 

 say we have, since emancipation, introduced more improvements 

 in manufacture than the French colonists have done ; the number of 

 Coolies introduced into Martinique is not proportionately equal to 

 that imported into Demerara and Trinidad. The " fortunate result," 

 therefore, must be owing to the "establishment of order" of 

 order in the measures adopted by the mother country of order 

 in every branch of the administration in the government of the 

 smallest commune in the regulation of the relations of all classes. 

 I must add, that under the influence of such measures, all seem 

 to be contented and industrious ; well-regulated and well- conduc- 

 ted schools are everywhere established, and religious instruction is 



